(Chapter Twenty Six: A helping hand)

Grooves was alone in his dressing room, sitting down facing the mirror. He glared at himself while thinking; trying to find a rather difficult answer. The production of his new movie was announced 'on hold' while they sort the situation at hand.

Of course, nobody outside the studio knew that Julia had a major meltdown and ran to who knows where. Without a trace of a clue no doubt. Not sure how she managed that, but it doesn't surprise him.

"Perhaps the darlin just need to cool off for a bit.." he mused to himself.

A knock at his door grabbed his attention. He turned around in his chair and looked at an owl that opened the door slightly. A quick look around and then nudged their head in a way of saying 'time to go' and the old DJ understood. He'll finally get to see some sort of light in this darkness.

He waited for the owl to leave before he got up himself and made his way towards his rival's side of the studio. The Conductor had been absent this entire time, but he had his reasons. The only time when he reached out to Grooves was when the storage room was set ablaze. That old bird had been undercover, researching about the odd being that Grooves decided to hire the moment he heard wind of it.

It was like playing the detective in his western movie. Minus the western part.

The penguin reached the old owl's room and knocked on the door, heavy footsteps were heard on the other side and eventually was greeted with the grumpy face the Conductor always had when he saw him.

"Ey, bout time ya got here." The Conductor opened the door wider for DJ Grooves to enter. There was a moment of silence as the penguin looked around. Cameras that were salvaged, tapes, two kinds of television sets. Everything was all wired up and a few videos were still playing. "ya pecked up, lad."

"Look, Conductor darlin, I hand no idea things would spiral out of control like this." Grooves said, watched the Conductor move back over to his work.

"Ay, and what part of 'monster on me train' meant to yer?" Conductor glanced back at him "the lass was fightin them, and the peckneck lost. Probably holdin a grudge no doubt."

"That was so long ago though!" DJ walked up to the tv, watching a few recordings that seemed uneventful.

"Lad, people don't just change in a week!" He yelled

"You did, darlin." Grooves retorted

The old owl sputtered, looking at him with an angry face "that was because of the timepieces ya peck!" He pointed at the tv.

In a dark corner of the storage room, you could see a small ghostly figure speeding off away from somewhere. Shortly after, a clear shot of the monster that had been given rights to roam the place was chasing after it "that thing wants ta do this! That's how it is!"

The Conductor turned to Grooves completely "This video was dated before we even met the hat lass, before I lost award forty-two." He crossed his arms and snarled "this Doppler lad has been here before. Huntin it seems."

Grooves was at a loss, looking at the screen before him. The little ghost was being protected by a larger one, a parent it seems. Grooves remove his glasses as he watched the figure fight off the doppelgänger, only in the end to succumb to a gruesome end. The larger ghost was devoured and ceased to exist.

"Long time ago, before you and I had taken ownership of the studio.. there were two human actors; an old lad and a little lassie." The Conductor strolled over to some old files he had found "they were wonderful actors fer 'slice of life' related films, but.." the owl tugged down his hat before removing it completely "there was an accident; stage lights came down on em, neither survived."

The old penguin looked at the files and read a little more, turned out there was a group of birds that managed to chase away, almost like banished the doppelgänger from returning to the studio after they found out a few other cast members had gone missing... but everything else was either smudge up and unreadable or it was falling apart.

"...And I let that thing back in..." DJ grooves let out a pained sigh, shameful even "I didn't know... honestly."

"And I believe ya, ya stupid peck neck." The Conductor placed his hat back on his head as he watched Grooves place his glasses back on "Have yer noticed any staff members missin yet? It'd be best we don't let the studio panic; we should deal with this ourselves."

It was their studio now; their home and the cast members were their families. Nobody messes with family.

"Conductor, darlin, you sure we can fight this thing on our own?" Grooves looked at him, a little unsure about what he might be thinking for a plan.

"We got bombs, knives, what more could we possibly use? We nae have magical powers like the tall lass, but it's somethin." The Conductor looked at him, counting his feathered fingers, "nothin we don't have that won't cause us more damage than normal."

"If we want the studio to still be standing, our best bet would be to find our runaway magical dear." Grooves crossed his flippers "not sure if Melody and Bonnie are up to the challenge... they seem to be on its side."

"Ey, then we just tell 'em." The Conductor said, but then thought about it "nae, wait- if any kind of information got out, we'd lose our surprise attack..."

"Search party, then?" Grooves asked.

Looking at his old rival, The Conductor nodded with a stern frown.

Julia, who was still a mess, hair untied and still in her movie costume, stumbled around. The far, deep clearing, hand on her head as she dealt with the pain threatening to crack her skull open. When the pain finally subsided, she leaned against a tree, sliding down. Stray mushrooms were the only luminous in the darkness that the moon couldn't touch.

Jumbled thoughts and mumbles could only be heard by Julia, and her alone. She knew she was overreacting, but the feeling of dread that she could kill someone at any given time frightened her. She wasn't able to keep in control of herself no matter how hard she tried.

Should she go back? Should she stay away forever and just become apart of the forest? Perhaps this is what she gets for wanting things in life?

No, she got here because she worked for it. She suffered for her place in this world, she fought hard just to try and stay.

But what does the world want? It's fighting back. Like if she was a virus threatening its will to live.

Gripping her head in her hands, Julia clenched her teeth together in frustration. In truth though, being alone wouldn't be so bad. It wasn't the first time and honestly, she was used to it.

"Julia?" The sudden voice scared her; who was it? Who found her!? Her head snapped to the side, both eyes in view for the small figure to see; before her was a boy who seemed to be panicking.

"Sorry! Sorry!" The familiar boy raised his hands.

Julia squinted her eyes at him, "Tie...?" She said, almost not believing he was here. Let alone, actually talking.

He awkwardly waved "...Hiya."

Gasping in pain, her hand reached for her eye, it was back that head-splitting pain. She just wants it to go away. Once it did, she asked a question; "Tie, are you really... why are you here?" She looked up at him, keeping it in mind to stay away. She didn't want to hurt him too.

"I-I can travel dimensions now. With my new neckwear." A sudden pause because he spoke up again quickly "but this is a dreamscape version of me right now." He blurted, he seemed nervous. Honestly, Julia would be as well if she saw what she looked like right now "A-anyway! What are you doing here... all alone?"

She took a moment before answering "...Staying away from people." Without missing a beat, she looked at the boy "a lot has happened. Too much of me is out of control..." She gripped her shoulders and curling in on herself a little more "and I'm... I'm scared of what's happening. I thought that, that things would be better, now with so much behind me."

She closed her eyes for a moment and took a breath "but it just... keeps getting screwed up. And it always feels like it's my fault somehow."

Silence flooded the area now, no one made a noise as they both looked away from one another. Julia wished that they could have finally met in better circumstances.

Still looking away, Julia, just below a whisper "Is MoonJumper with you?" Maybe if he came back things would seem better again. Just that tiny bit of hope.

"MoonJumper? ...No." he looked at her admittedly, "He left before I got the hang of traveling." He shifted, "Time is a bit unstable between our dimensions, so... he might be late."

Julia seemed to deflate, "oh..." was all she could say.

A single moment passed before the different dimensional child spoke up, "Julia. I want to help you." He looked at her, earnest about what he said. He cared, Julia could see this.

However, her thinking made her deny the kind sentiment of his.

"You can't help me with this." She shook her head, try to fight these thoughts way, of course, she needs help, let him help! "It's what I've become. I can't change it. I've hurt people... and I can hurt a lot more." She gripped onto herself, trying to stop herself from losing to much control.

"it's better if I'm just... alone."

"That's not true!" Tie shouted, denying her way of thought. "You think that accepting that will help you cope with it, but it won't!" He looked at her, know this all too well "It just becomes a lead weight on your heart that hurts more and more every day you say that is all you are!"

"And what's the other option...?" Julia demanded, trying to calmly speak as anger flared up in her "go back... and have everybody afraid of what I'll do next?" She stood up slowly and looked at him, her voice rising with her "to constantly be fearful of hurting others? To be helpless as people I care about to get taken, or worse, killed!?" Green energy flowed around her, but neither moved.

"And be unable to cope with that to the point I do something I'll always regret!?" The outburst caused a tree behind Tie to collapse and crash down to the ground.

She ignored the pain she felt, and the child in front of her didn't even flinch.

Her chest constricted it's self as she spoke, shaking her head whispering "I couldn't bear that..." huffing and trying to avoid another situation. The pain was more noticeable now. "So it's better if I do things alone."

It was quiet, the two didn't move as the other thought to themselves.

"I understand it." Was all he said.

The boy looked up at her, "I understand what it's like... to be scared that all you do is hurt everybody around you." Julia noticed the boy's face seemed to waver a bit "That all you do is make things worse for everybody else."

Julia continued to listen, her mind seemed to go fuzzy for a moment "that for everybody else's sake, you're better off being alone... or dead"

Tie took a deep breath, seemingly deciding on what to say next "back on my homeworld... I was different from everybody else. I was cautious, whilst everybody else was happy." Julia looked down at him, curious "that cautiousness turned into fear, and that fear turned into sadness and anger." The boy was doing his best to hold it together "everybody who came in contact with me... became unhappy. Something nobody there wanted."

When Julia was little, she never frowned when she was truly said, even though her pain she smiled. She played by herself while others talked about things behind her back. She was blissfully unaware of the world.

But Tie? He was aware, he saw and heard everything. He did his best to fit in. She had it easier due to her dense personality, and him seeing her like this must have brought up so much pain for Tie. Julia frowned at herself, but those other thoughts finally went away.

"I 'hurt' everybody I touched. I was called a misery, nobody wanted to even know me." Tie struggled with himself "the worst part is that they were right to do so. I was the oddity." The boy's face heated up and he held back tears "but even during all that... I truly didn't want to hurt anybody."

"I didn't want anybody else to feel sad, to feel how I felt. So I ran away. I hid, alone, and tried to bury these emotions. But the more I was alone, the more it hurt, the more I hated myself." Seeing the boy look so upset made her feel sympathy for him. Just to reach out and hug him... "I felt like I was a lost cause. That all I would ever do is poison everybody else. I... I wanted to kill myself so nobody else would feel like me."

He sniffled, as he wiped away stray tears "but then, one day, I just had a feeling. This... idea that somewhere out there... was a woman named Julia." He gazed off at that "who did amazing things and managed to overcome a lot of obstacles, to fight for a place in this world."

The way he looked up at her reminded her of how she looked up at MoonJumper... that hope, that candle in the dark. "And that thought was all it took to help me keep going. Not heal, but keep going." The boy walked up to her, "Julia. Everybody hated me back then. But you... you have a lot of people who care about and love you. I know that for sure."

"Being alone forever isn't the answer, and it's going to take a while to love yourself... I'm not there yet... but they'll want to help you." He placed a hand to his chest, sincerity "and so do I. No matter how bad things get with you." He smiled weakly at Julia, eyes slightly red from the tears...

"Because I'll always want to be your friend."

Julia looked down at him for a moment and crouched down so that they were eye level. "You're a really good kid." The woman choked back her emotions, trying to not lose it again. "I wish we could have met sooner."

Tie nodded "... yeah."

Suddenly, a portal opened up under him, making the boy gasp from surprise.

"Tie!" Julia grabbed onto him quickly by the hand.

"I'm out of time!" He cried and the gravity became stronger.

He had to go, she'll be alright "I can guess! But I wanted to say thanks." She smiled at him, deep down she didn't want to see him go like everyone else.

"That's alright." He nodded, the called back "hey, if you ever need my help, I'll come and help, okay?"

"Same here." Julia nodded back.

The woman slowly let him go, watching as her friend vanished behind the portal.

Things where quiet now, but she turned her attention to the clearing where her stuff laid folded. she was under the impression that her hat was calling her as the moonlight shown down on it.

"It's going to be okay..." she told herself. "I just need a little more help."

A thank you to OPFan37 with the original dialogs between Julia and Tie; I added some of my own flair to it. Not much but, I decided to do things at the last minute...

I'm getting ready for things to pick up a little with the next chapter that was originally going to be in here but realized it would have dragged on a little too long then how I wanted it to be. This chapter was a nice filler and a little more info about the history with Button and Doppler.