Chapter 13 - Finale

The elevator finally stopped at its destination. It felt as if the doors would never open, but once they did – Daichi was hesitant to walk through them. But with no where else to go, he went through them.

Another small foyer. There was no elevator on the opposite side like there had been on the previous floors. Just two barren grey walls. To his left was one final set of doors, and there wasn't an electronic screen beside it. If he hadn't seen what was waiting for his friends on the other floors, he wouldn't have any expectation about what was coming.

He waited outside the door for a few minutes, grasping the monkey net's handle in his hand. He was hoping for any noise or indication of anyone else near to him. Silence.

He accepted the reality of what he was in for, and walked through the automatic doors.

He could hear his own footsteps as he walked through the seemingly never ending hallway. In his mind, he was going over everything he wanted to say and repeating it to himself.

When he finally made it to the end of the hallway, he was amazed. Instead of a stadium like the other times, he seemed to be in a circular room made almost completely by windows. He was on the only platform, which seemed to be outlined by a strange pattern.

On the other side of the platform was a figure that was around the same height as him. With white fur and indigo tips, a familiar burgundy scarf and red trousers tucked into black leather boots – it was clear who this was. Now with the addition of two long blue baton-like weapons. Daichi didn't seem to hear his cousin try to call the ape "cute" through his communicator watch.

Flying around, partially above the stage, was Specter in his iconic chair. But he wasn't the one Daichi was focused on.

The young boy took a few steps further onto the platform, before stopping again.

"Phantom, or whatever you like to be called," He started, a sense of pity in every word. "I...I know you don't want to do this! You're not evil!"

The other boy simply stared at him, his expression not wavering.

"This is what I want to do."

"No it's not! Yuki wouldn't be friends with someone who is truely evil, she knows better than that!"

"I'm not evil, I am the next ruler of ape kind – leading their domination over humans."

Despite his face not showing any signs of physically changing from its neutral state – there seemed to be an underlying negative atmosphere to each word he said. The feeling made his face appear in two ways, even if it never changed.

While to most it came off as someone who was too determined to be convinced otherwise, to some others – he looked as if he was putting up a front. That he really didn't want to do it, but forced himself to anyway. And that was the person Daichi saw.

"Please, we can go home and things would be great! We could all be friends!"

"I would never be friends with humans."

Daichi's grip on the monkey net got tighter, and he moved it in front of him to hold it in both his hands.

"If talking won't help, I'll have to show you how good things will be!"

With that, he started running across the platform and towards the mainly white haired boy. But in an instant, the other boy was moved out of the way without even breaking a sweat. As Daichi stopped running in confusion, he saw what had whisked Phantom away.

The strange pattern that outlined the stage was a conveyor belt. And before he could hit into the back wall, the skinner boy jumped off it and back on the main platform.

Within a blink of an eye, the boy ran behind Daichi and was close enough to look right over his shoulder. Instead, he swung his arm and hit the back of the human boy's back with the shining baton.

Daichi fell to the floor and landed on his side as he winced. He gripped the monkey net in his right hand and opened his eyes. The other boy was looking at him with the same plain face that he had before. Judging.

But as he looked the expected victor, he noticed something. The frail boy wasn't completely over him, but he wasn't standing over nothing. Whether he realized it or not, he was standing over Daichi's legs. By his expression, it seemed as if he had no idea of the circumstance.

Thinking fast, Daichi gripped his other hand on the ground and kicked both his legs out on both sides. Phantom's eyes widened as he fell towards the floor. But before that could happen, the human pushed his upper body up and tried to swing the net.

When he did hit the ground, his head was within the strings and his entire being lit up. The two light batons fell with an echoing clinking noise. The boy almost jumped up entirely onto his feet, but he stumbled a bit.

"I'm done with you." Specter spoke.

The boy had completely forgotten about the other monkey at that point, and his view snapped to look at him. He was holding a remote with a large red button on it, and before Daichi could say anything, the albino ape pressed it.

A red light engulfed the entire room, along with a high pitched siren. Occasionally, the words "self destruct" would flash on the windows surrounding the room. As he looked around the room once again, he moved the net into both his hands.

His gaze moved back to the mastermind as his chair floated more into the platform.

"No, no…" He started to speak quietly.

"What? Upset that you couldn't change anything?"

"No…I'm sick of this!"

The boy's eyes seemed to a mixed expression of anger, frustration and determination.

"This ends now, we shouldn't be fighting! It barely solves anything!"

As he shouted, he started running uncharacteristically fast towards the adult in the chair, who was smirking judgingly. What the adult didn't expect, however, was the boy crouching and then jumping high enough to land on the throne's seat cushion.

The boy threw the net behind his head and as he threw it over him, he closed his eyes. He didn't mean to scream, but he just couldn't help himself.

"Getchu!"

When he opened his eyes, the ape had a mixture of shock and full blown anger on his face. But just like previously with his own son, his body was covered in a blue light before disappearing entirely.

However, the alarm didn't stop ringing and the red hue didn't lift. It wasn't long until he could hear rumbling coming from the lower levels. He was stuck in the facility as it was exploding! He could only look around, whilst taking it all in.

"Daich…we ca…reach y….find anoth….out…"

A voice tried to call out to him, but it the signal was distrupted and cut off every few seconds. He could only make the faint message that he had to find his own way out. He couldn't be teleported out normally.

His head zipped from side to side, trying to find anything. But there was nothing. He looked down at the chair and on its sides, but there was nothing. His insides were screeching. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of the monkey net – and his mind started connecting the dots.

He lifted it up and looked at it – as if remembering every single time he had used it up to that point. As the sounds of destruction started to increase in volume all around him, he did the only thing he could think of.

He put his head through the silver ring and saw how his view was partially obscured by the blue strings. Suddenly, an aqua haze filled his gaze as it covered his body – causing him to teleport like those he caught before him.

The net fell to the ground with a quiet clink, and within seconds, it was torn to pieces by explosions that filled the space that had once been a massive station.

When Daichi reappeared in the paradise room, he fell back-first onto the sandy beach. After lifting and shaking his head, he looked around. Every monkey that his family and friends has fought was there, the only real injury being to the couple – to had bandages around their heads.

Augustus was nowhere to be seen, and the only indication of where he went were the two sets of footprints leading to the exit – one smaller and the other larger. Pipo monkeys seemed to create a crowd around those who were teleported back.

A few of them, like the long teenager-esc monkey seemed to be looking down at something along with a few of the aqua and pink pants pipo monkeys. But the boy couldn't actually see what, or who, they were looking at.

Nor was that his primary focus as he stood up on both of his feet. He turned to look the other way with a bittersweet smile on his face. But in that moment, his mouth dropped and he was almost convinced that he was dreaming.

"D-dad?"

Only a few meters in front of him, were his own parents. No one could miss the iconic fire red and yellow hair of his father and the flowing brown hair of his mother. And blissfully unaware of any danger from the situation, Yuki was happily swinging her arm whilst holding her mother's hand tightly.

After getting over the initial shock of seeing them, Daichi ran over to them as fast as he could. He practically jumped into Kakeru's arms, all with tears in his eyes. When he actually started to cry properly, he went over and hugged Haruka.

It was clear that some sort of reassuring conversation was going on, but everyone on the monkeys' side were more focused on their own developments.

The frail boy who had been lying on his side, passed out, on a nearby hammock had suddenly sat up. He didn't speak a word, nor did he fix his hair which was partially covering both his eyes. He stared blankly towards the family reunion.

Despite the people's pleads for him to lay back down and go to sleep, he continued getting up. Even when he almost collapsed upon actually standing on his two feet, he wasn't deterred. He stumbled his way all the way to the empty middle between the two groups, where he stood up straight.

Hearing the steps, Daichi turned around whilst wiping the last of his tears from his eyes. What he saw was the boy, who couldn't of been much younger or older than him. The same expression, but now disheveled and filled with disappointment.

He did the only thing he knew how to. Daichi ran over to Phantom and hugged him. This wasn't what the weaker boy expected, judging by the fact his arms stayed out in front of him instead of hugging back and his eyes were opened wide.

"I'm sorry. I knew you weren't bad." The human boy whispered.

Releasing his arms and taking a step back, he laughed at the awkward face left by the other boy – who quickly let his arms fall to his side. His expression stayed the same, shocked and confused. Had he never been hugged before, Daichi thought to himself. But it wasn't the time to only be thinking.

"Is…is your name Phantom? I don't want to get it wrong and I'm not sure…"

The other boy was just even more confused.

"Uh…yes. My name is Phantom…"

For the first time in the entire time Daichi knew the other boy, he seemed to break his signature look. His mouth became a slight smile. The human knew what he had to do, and lifted his hand up in front of him.

"Can we agree never to do that again?"

Phantom look at the boy's hand, and glanced behind the boy – where the little girl had walked up behind him. He glanced at his side of the group, before turning back and grabbing the human's hand.

"Agreed."

They shook on it. While Phantom let his hand fall to his side, Daichi instead turned his open hand into a fist and lifted it up – and left it there. The monkey just looked at him confused.

"Um…what are you doing?"

"It's a fist bump! We bump our fists to show that we're friends!"

"Fist…bump?"

The frail boy lifted his hand into a fist and left it in almost the same place Daichi did. Realizing that he wasn't catching on, the human boy took the priority and bumped his fist into the monkey's. He had a cheeky yet friendly smile on his face, while the other boy was left with an awkward smile.

"Now that that's done," The human started again. "I can introduce you to everyone else!"

With that, Daichi started to jog back towards the entrance – little sister in tow. He turned to look back at the other boy, which caused him to try his best to jog after them. Yuki giggled as she ran ahead of them both, as her older brother waited for the other boy to catch up.

It was only when the trio of children had already gone pass the human couple, that another person came from the larger group. Specter had started to stomp over to the two adults, looking furious.

"You might have won again, but next time-"

"Specter, that's all in the past. Things have gotten so much for both humans and apes, that old monkey park doesn't even exist anymore!" Kakeru interrupted, before starting to walk forward.

Haruka turned and looked at Specter, but instead of a judging look – it was somewhat understanding.

"You wouldn't want to take these moment away from him, would you?" She asked softly, turning her head to face the trio.

Specter looked over. His own child was smiling and laughing, whilst he spun around as he held the littlest human's hands. He seemed so happy, he hadn't smiled in a long time. The father was dumbfounded, and couldn't say a word.

"You should still have a few more years with him." The mother started again, and looked back at Specter.

"You're all the family he has – and he's going to need you. I know you're able to do it."

She turned around and started to walk away, following her husband. The albino monkey was lost for words. What the hell was that meant to mean? He looked at his group, but they all seemed more interested in their own things.

The pipo monkeys were messing around and talking with each other, and the Freaky Monkey Five talked amongst themselves and Paru. They weren't supporting him or his cause to continue taking over the world.

For the first time, were the humans right about something?

Not wanting to see Phantom regain his sad demeanor, Specter went over to the hammock he had been resting on and lied on it. Thinking over a lot of things, as he usually did.

By the time the children reached the entrance to the main house, he was already fast asleep. He wouldn't even get to see how everyone would react to suddenly being friends with those that were trying to kill them within the last thirty minutes.

Nor would he get to see his son's introduction to human technology and making his own human friends.

Yet strangely, he knew things could only get better – from a family perspective.