A/N: Time for more music, and this one is important because this is the chapter where I'm finally going to drop some lyrics in the text. This is definitely a very experimental chapter in that regard, and I can't say that I'm going to make a habit out of using lyrics, so if it's not your thing, just know that it isn't going to become a regular thing. There's maaaaybe two more times I might consider using lyrics, but until we actually get to those points, its not set in stone that it will happen. The song in question is, 'In My Last Life (Fatum Remix (Mixed))'. With this song, make sure that you are not using the extended version of the Fatum Remix or the Edit version of the same remix because that is not what's synced to the scene. The one you want to use will be around 4:50 long. I've put the correct version of the song in the ATE music playlist if you don't want to have to go through the effort of looking for the right one on your own. This song is well worth looking up because the scene I've written with it in mind is heavily entwined with the flow of the music.

Chapter 14: Screams In The Night

Consciousness returned to Courage in a wave of confusion. He could hear many voices arguing at such a fevered pitch that he could not make out what any of them were saying. It made him feel like he was laying in the middle of a crowd.

It took him one long moment to remember everything that had happened, and with a jolt of panic, he jumped to his feet.

"Oh, no! No, no, no!" He exclaimed in a shaky voice.

Many wires were still attached to him and he pulled at one as if that would be enough to send him back inside the amalgamation's system. "I've got to go back!" He yelled, sounding downright pathetic among the cacophony of bickering voices. "I need to help Atticus! He's-"

His metal prison shook wildly, knocking him off his feet and unplugging all of the remaining wires attached to him. In time with the shaking, the arguing voices rose up into a collective cry of frustration.

Courage tried to get back onto to his feet, but it was impossible. Even staying on his knees was difficult with how much this world of junk and metal was trembling with the amalgamation's collective fury. All he could do was wait until the artificial earthquake leveled off.

Once everything had calmed, it was only then that he noticed the other dog. Said dog had also been freed from the wire he had been attached to because of the shaking. Behind those familiar glasses, the dog's eyes turned toward him. Upon recognizing him, his ears perked up and the tip of his tongue popped out as he dropped into that playful dog pose that was so un-Atticus-like, despite looking exactly the same as him, that Courage couldn't help but laugh. He watched the dog's tail wag a mile a minute, knowing how annoyed Atticus would be right now if he could see how undignified his host body was being. Somehow, the dog's unconcerned behavior helped to calm Courage as well.

He reached for one of the hanging wires and plugged it into his back once more, hoping that it might trigger an automatic download of his mind. He did not care how dangerous it would be to go back in after having only just been put back together. No matter how much Atticus had insisted that he'd find his own way out of there, Courage was not going to abandon him to that void.

Regardless of his desperation, nothing happened. Frustrated, he removed the wire and watched as it swung toward Atticus's dog, who jumped up and bit it out of the air with pinpoint accuracy. He tugged at it with a muffled growl, shaking his head this way and that.

With little other choice, Courage tried to appeal to the amalgamation. "I need you guys to help me. Atticus is-"

A shriek of anger shook the metal that made up Courage's prison yet again and he flinched as the walls came alive only to break apart into sharp implements that all angled toward him at uncanny speeds. Just when he was sure that his organic body was about to be as thoroughly ripped apart as his mind had been, the whirling arms came to a jarring halt within inches of his cringing face. They all twitched and jittered like they were barely being held back.

'YOU HAVE TAKEN EVERYTHING FROM US!' Thecacophony of voices screamed, sending Courage stumbling backwards. He just managed to catch himself before falling into the sharp wall of arms that had assembled directly behind him too.

Even though they spoke as one, there was a dissonance to their many voices that had not been as prevalent before. Some of them did indeed sound furious, others sounded as though they were yelling through barely contained sobs, still more sounded utterly hopeless and without a hint of malice in their tone.

'We have nothing left.' They all said in their heavily dissonant tones.

'Nothing.'

'We do not even have your happy memories now.'

'There is nothing left for us.'

'No happiness.'

'No hope.'

'We cannot be fixed.'

'They will never forgive us for what we have done.'

'They would give us to the SCC if we stopped now.'

'Nothing left.'

'Nothing.'

'We can no longer act.'

'We cannot come to a consensus on anything now.'

'You took even that from us.'

'We cannot hurt.'

'We cannot harm.'

'We cannot have our revenge.'

'There is nothing.'

"Nothing. Nothing! NOTHING!'

The world around Courage shivered with pent up rage. Those many arms so badly wanted to tear away at him until there was nothing was left, but too many of the Constructs contained within the amalgamation did not want to hurt him, so those that did could not achieve what they so deeply desired. They could not, would not, get their revenge on the one they perceived as the cause of their stalemate.

Courage forced out the shaky breath he had been holding in. "It's over. You guys can start working toward something better now and put all of this destruction behind you. Why not start by helping me save your brother?"

'No!'

'NO!'

'We cannot-'

'We will not-'

'We are not-'

The collection of voices were rising in a panicked, angry, hateful, sorrowful mess of noise. Courage felt like he would go deaf at any moment as their various shouts only continued to grow more chaotic and loud.

'There is no hope for us!'

'Trapped!'

'Trapped!'

'Cannot act!'

'Hopeless!'

'Nothing left!'

'Cannot be saved!'

'Cannot be separated!'

'Cannot be anything other than this!'

'Too many thoughts.'

'Too many emotions.'

'Cannot act.'

'Too much guilt.'

'Too much anger.'

'Too far gone.'

'Cannot change!'

'Hopeless! HOPELESS!'

Courage tried to plug his ears to no avail as the voices of the amalgamation became incoherent in their ever rising intensity. Finally, their collective shouting broke down into an absolutely hellish whirlwind of screaming. The world shook as their unfathomable pain was loosed upon it. Courage could do nothing to block it out. It was like a pit to hell had opened up and he was being forced to listen to the wailing of the damned.

Bits and pieces of his metal prison began to shake apart. He had to scramble out of the way as a thick sheet of metal came crashing down. Thinking fast, he weaved past the now inert metal arms and rushed toward Atticus's dog, hoping to keep him safe as the world shook apart around them.

He had just managed to get his arms around the dog, who was whimpering softly and shivering hard, when he had a brief moment of awareness of something striking him across the head before he had no awareness at all...

-In My Last Life (Fatum Remix (Mixed))-

Courage's eyes snapped open and he let out a gasp. He was amazed to find himself staring up at a starry night sky instead of the amalgamation's insides. The moon loomed bright and massive overhead, casting an ethereal light down upon his surroundings.

Even now he could hear the amalgamation screaming, only now it sounded much farther away. Clutching at a throbbing lump on top of his head, he sat up. Bathed in moonlight and casting odd shadows, he realized that he was sitting in a vast junkyard made up of many piles of debris.

-In my last life -

-Was I living in the North?-

What really caught his attention were the shadowy figures working to extract themselves from the debris. Not one of them had the blue glow of a Construct possession. Much to Courage's shock and relief, it was looking like the amalgamation had freed all of the people they had taken control of.

-Getting use to the feeling-

He turned toward the sound of the amalgamation's hellish screaming and gasped.

-Of no one in sight-

Off in the distance stood a massive, mountainous shape, lit by a million tiny pinpricks of mechanical light that made up much of its form. The amalgamation had shed a considerable amount of its mass upon becoming that shape, and it was continuing to shed a long trail of debris as it moved onward, but it was still frighteningly huge in its current form.

-Now to make right-

Too stunned to move, Courage heard a voice that he was all too relieved to hear, and that managed to pull him out of his frozen state.

-All my other versions wrongs-

"Courage? Are you there? Can you hear me?" Came Atticus's muffled voice from within one of those piles of debris.

Courage clutched a paw to his chest in relief. "I hear you!" He called back, rushing over.

-I could have built my home with you-

He dug through the debris like he would have dug through the dirt back in Nowhere to create a hole to bury one of Eustace's boots in.

-I think I've known you always-

He had expected to find Atticus's possessed dog buried under all of that debris. What he had not been expecting was to instead find someone's smartphone with a badly cracked screen that was currently glowing with the familiar blue-green color of Atticus's PC screen.

-I might have been alone with you-

At the same time he picked the phone up, that familiar yellowish text scrolled across the broken screen as Atticus said, "Ah, there you are. See? I told you I'd find my own way out!" He jokingly put on a very exaggerated smug tone.

-I think I've known you all along-

Courage smiled warmly down at the screen, forever grateful for Atticus's antics.

"So, just what on earth did I miss? Last I checked, we were surrounded by metal and machinery, and now that seems to be mostly gone...and where the heck is my body?"

Before Courage could say anything, Atticus instantly broke in again. "Actually, hold on. Why do I feel...modern?"

Biting back laughter, Courage answered with, "You're in somebody's smartphone."

-It's the end of the season-

"WHAT?" He cried out, the text on his screen showing up in all caps with several trailing exclamation points. "This cannot stand! I refuse to disrespect myself like this!"

-And now that it's right-

The smartphone's screen went dark and a laptop that Courage had dug out while trying to find Atticus flared to life seconds later with that same blue-green glow. The thing was just as badly beat up as the phone, and yet Atticus still blurted out, "There! This is ever so slightly better!"

-I'll move onto another life-

"Uh, Atty. There's something you really need to see."

-Having trust in the feeling-

Courage grabbed the laptop and angled it so that its webcam could view the great, lumbering mountain of machinery in the distance.

-That we'll get more time-

"T-that's certainly not good!" Atticus confirmed.

"Yeah, no kidding. What are we going to do about it?" Courage asked.

"Give me just a second, I have an idea."

-I'll see you in another life-

The laptop screen went dark and the closest pile of debris shuddered and constructed itself into a jagged, messy, four legged machine.

-It's the end of the season-

The almost lion-like robot, made out of scrap metal and parts of various pieces of technology haphazardly slapped together, stepped forward and gazed down at Courage with two blazing, blue, electronic eyes.

-And now that it's right-

"Get on, loser. We're going to save the world." Atticus laughed.

Courage had to pick his jaw up off the ground. "You got your powers back!" He all but cheered.

-I'll move onto another life-

"It's only temporary." Atticus quickly cautioned.

-Having trust in the feeling-

"The replacement I've been given was never meant for me and it will not remain stable for very long."

-That we'll get more time-

The scrap machine looked beyond Courage with as much of a wistful expression as its metal features allowed. "Let's just say that Thirty-Two was able to help me out one last time."

-I'll see you in another life-

Courage made a halfhearted attempt to climb up one of the legs of Atticus's robot. There was just way too many sharp parts for him to accidentally cut himself on. Growing impatient, Atticus swung the robot's 'tail' around, if it could even be called that, and having seemingly been scavenged from one of those claw grab machines, snapped Courage up and plunked him down atop the back of the machine.

Looking around, Courage swallowed nervously. "Uh, Atty, do you think you could at least install a seat belt on this thing?"

His nervousness only grew as he felt the machine ever so slowly begin to lower down into a crouch, like a cat about to pounce.

"A-Atticus, please..." He all but begged.

"Just hold on and you won't fall off." His companion laughed, his voice radiating from somewhere within the robot.

Courage made a very audible gulping sound and he all but sensed the robot rolling its LED eyes.

"Stop worrying! I won't let you go flying!" Atticus responded, still in way too good humor despite Courage's obvious anxiety.

"F-flying?" Courage whimpered, and then he noticed that all of the piles of debris that would have stood in their way were now steadily being moved by Atticus's ability, all to give the robot a clear 'runway'...

Courage all but fainted at the sight of it.

"A-Atticus, listen to me, bud. T-there's a lot of sharp pieces of metal up here for me to i-impale m-myself on, a-and-"

"I'm not planning on slowing down so abruptly that you'll jolt forward and take an eye out. In fact, at no point will I be slowing down, unless I am forced to."

If he had meant to reassure Courage...he had done the exact opposite.

"Oh, geez. Oh, no." Courage breathed, lunging forward and grabbing the first bit of metal jutting out of the machine that wasn't sharp enough to take his fingers off if he held on to it too hard.

"Ready?" Atticus chuckled, sounding like he was having way too much fun.

"N-no! I-I really think I need t-that seat b-"

Like a rocket going off, the robot bounded forward at a speed Courage never would have thought a big machine made out of scrap metal could manage.

"Whoa-AAAAAAAAHHHH!" He screamed at the top of his lungs, and while he did indeed manage to hold on, only his paws remained attached while the rest of him flapped in the wind like a flag.

"NEVER DO THIS TO ME AGAIN!" He yelled, although he had to force his mouth shut a second later to keep everything inside his stomach where it belonged. His surroundings passing him by as a disorienting blur did not help matters.

Atticus continued to use his powers to move the debris ahead of them out of the way, and thus it turned out that he indeed did not need to slow down. Already the amalgamation's great mass of machinery, sliding across the earth like a huge, metal slug, was getting closer.

With the two of them nearing it, the amalgamation's screaming was once again becoming unpleasantly loud. Atticus slowed down just a tiny bit, allowing Courage to sit instead of dangling in the wind. Regardless, all of Courage's fur was now sticking up in one direction, like he had been shocked by a jolt of electricity.

"For goodness sake!" Atticus exclaimed, having to yell to be heard over the screaming. "Just what did you do to set them off like this while I was away?"

Courage shook his head and yelled back, "I dunno! I think they're having a collective mental breakdown or something!"

"Yeah, well, they're currently big enough to wipe out any town they happen to stumble into right off the map! We've got to try and get them to stop moving, at the very least!"

Atticus picked up speed again while Courage continued to hang on for dear life. It wasn't much longer before they managed to catch up with the amalgamation. Atticus stayed behind it, dodging any pieces it shed as its mountainous mass slid across the terrain. It seemed that his siblings had either not noticed them yet or didn't care that they were there.

"I'm going to try something!" Atticus cried out over their all encompassing screaming. "Hold on tight!"

"I'VE 'BEEN' HOLDING ON!" Courage furiously fired back.

Atticus's robot slowed just a tiny bit as it turned its head upward to get a better look at something. Then, Courage was left groaning as he watched several discarded sheets of metal come together to create what could only be a ramp. He braced himself for the worst as the robot bounded up said ramp and then made one giant leap. Courage was once again amazed that this bulky machine was capable of such a feat. He winced as they sailed toward the amalgamation at way too fast of a speed, but just when he thought that they were going to crash into a wall of machinery, he saw the window. Wait, no. That was not a window at all. These were the glass doors into a building of which only the stripped down shell remained embedded within the amalgamation's mass.

They crashed through the doors, sending shards of glass flying in every direction. Atticus made a less than graceful landing and slid across the floor, his robo 'paws' sending up huge showers of sparks. Courage bailed the second he realized that Atticus's robot was going to slide right through the wall opposite of the doors they had just broken in through. He hit the deck at the same time he heard a huge crash and was pelted by bits of wall.

Struggling onto his feet and trying to smooth down some of his spiky fur, he hobbled over to the Atticus shaped hole in the wall. The room his companion had crashed into was pitch black, aside from the pair of glowing eyes leering out at Courage.

"Kinda overshot that a bit, don't you think?" Courage dryly stated.

The eyes blinked, unperturbed. "I meant to do that."

"Sure you did."

Atticus leaped out of the hole, sailed over Courage's head, and landed with a heavy thud behind him. Shaking the debris off of himself like a dog shaking off water, he turned to Courage and said, "Talk to my siblings and see if you can calm them down a little." He looked back toward what remained of the glass doors. "I'll be right back. I'm going to see if there is anything out there that I might be able to use to slow them down." Without waiting for Courage to reply, he made another giant leap and was gone.

Courage exhaled a long breath, trying to regain some of his nerves after that 'wild' ride. At least the amalgamation's horrific screaming was a little muted inside what remained of this building.

"Can you guys hear me?" He called out, looking around. There did not seem to be any technology around that they could hear him through, and considering all of the screaming, they'd never be able to hear him unless he got close to something capable of picking up his voice.

He moved through the building, searching for what he needed in near total darkness, but it was clear that this place had been picked clean and only got carried along when the amalgamation decided to take most of its mass and start moving.

Heading into an empty room, he went over to a window that had been broken long before he got there. Through it he could see several lights illuminating the inner workings of the amalgamation. Trying to ignore the increased volume of their screaming, now that he didn't have a layer of protection from it, he called out to them again. All he could hope for was that it would carry a little ways through their inner structure and maybe they'd pick up on it.

When he did not receive a response, he just kept going. "You have to stop moving or you're going to hurt even more people! I know that so many of you don't believe it, but you don't have to keep being this way! Even if you can't be separated, together you can still have something better than this! I promise you, it's not always going to hurt as bad as it does right now!"

Their screaming rose in pitch and the whole structure shuddered.

"Talk to Atticus!" Courage pleaded. "He can tell you the same thing! Your brother knows better than anyone that things can get better and that it's not going to hurt forever! You've all suffered so much, and the scars of what you went through will never heal completely, but it will get easier! Atticus knows! Just ask hi-"

'NO!'

Their collective shriek was like the screech of metal being dragged across a hard surface.

'Nothing left!'

'No hope!'

'One choice left!'

'The only thing we can agree upon!'

Several cables snaked in through the window, grabbed Courage before he could escape their reach, and pulled him through it. He was yanked upward through the inner workings of the amalgamation at lightning speeds. Before he could even register what had happened, he was staring up into the night sky once more. The amalgamation had deposited him at the very top of their mountainous form.

'GO!' They screamed. 'Leave us, or you will be dragged down along with us!'

"Dragged down?" He asked, unsure of what they were planning, other than it obviously being something self destructive.

He was not given the chance to inquire further though. The floor opened up beneath him and he was swallowed by something rising up out of the amalgamation.

"H-hey!" He yelped, feeling a smooth surface all around him. There was nothing he could grab on to that would allow him to climb out.

He heard a hissing noise, and then...

BOOM!

He was sent rocketing into the sky.

"They have a cannon?" He yelled, completely dumbfounded.

Well, cannons were made out of metal, after all. Maybe they had swallowed up some poor museum at some point and got it from there.

Up, up, up he went, until finally his momentum slowed. The moon was so massive before him that he felt like he could reach out and touch it.

"You know," He said to himself. "These things 'really' should not happen to a dog!"

And that brief moment of celestial zen ended as he began his long, screaming plummet back down to earth...

End Of Chapter

A/N: I guess you can count this as a very vague tribute because the mental image I have for Computer's current robot body is pretty much just Cenobia from Shadow Of The Colossus, only, y'know made out of metal instead of stone and bit more spiky. I mean, let's face it. If Computer were a boss battle he'd be a cheap stunlocking bastard like Cenobia is anyway LOL. And score one more for the Bear arc. Its the gift that keeps on giving where at first it seems like goofy filler only for it to turn out to be full of foreshadowing. First you've got the book that's responsible for the existence of the Constructs, then you've got it kick starting the doggo romance stuff by getting Computer interested in the concept, and now you can see that it set up the little detail that Computer can indeed just go full on mecha whenever his powers are working properly and he actually bothers to put some effort into it LOL.