Probably not a good sign that it took a worldwide pandemic for me to figure out how to write this part, but here goes. I'm back, baby!
(Disclaimer - see chapter 1.)
Chapter 13:
I'll Do the Remembering
"Emmet," he whispered, in a voice that echoed through the entire Think Tank. My head whipped around.
"What?"
"You didn't let me finish earlier. Because I died," Vitruvius said, hovering in midair in front of me. "But I wanted to tell you that the reason I made up the prophecy was because I knew whoever found the Piece could become the Special. The only thing anyone needs to be special is to believe that you can be. I know that sounds like a cat poster, but it's true. Look at what you did when you believed you were the Special. You just need to believe it some more."
I looked around to see everyone else watching with wide eyes.
"But according to Lord Business, I've already been special," I said. "I'm a Master Builder - or at least, I was. I specifically had what made me special taken away. Now I'm just like everyone else."
"Emmet, you are still special - just in a new way," Vitruvius said. "You want to be special again? In the way that you were before? You gotta figure out how to be special now, and I promise you'll get there. Just remember that the world depends on it."
And he was gone. I tried to think. What could I do to get the battery out of the room, to keep my friends from dying?
I looked out the window - and it came to me.
I rocked back and forth, as quickly as I could, with as much force as I could muster. "Emmet!" Lucy called from the side.
"I have a plan!" I said, knocking the pedestal down. My feet hit the ground, and I started running to the hole in the window where the Piece had been thrown down. If I could get to the Piece, maybe there would be a chance of saving the world.
"What are you…"
The battery and pedestal were hanging out the window. I turned to look at Lucy - she deserved to be the Special for a bit, so I gave her the same words I had received when I became it.
"Now it's your turn to be the hero," I said. "See ya later, alligator."
The words felt familiar in my mouth, and I knew why. With that filling my heart, I jumped.
When I could see again, I was lying on a fuzzy-feeling ground, unable to move. I looked over to see - my city?
A large-looking creature descended near where I was and picked me up - I still couldn't move -
"Hi, Emmet," it said.
"Hi?" I tried to say, but no sound came out of my mouth. It was like when you have a dream and you want to say something, but you physically can't.
A loud, booming noise was getting closer and closer, and another figure, even bigger than this kid, came down - The Man Upstairs, in person.
"What are you doing?" he said, turning to the poor kid, who still had me clutched in his fingertips. "I know it's hard to understand, but this is Dad's stuff, okay? It isn't a toy."
"It is, though," the kid said.
"Not the way I use it," the Man said. "We're going to play a little game. It's called, 'Let's Put Everything Back The Way You Found It.'"
He opened up a drawer to reveal an entire package of Kragles, ready for the freezing.
The kid's eyes widened. He grabbed the Piece of Resistance from the floor and stuck it in my hand.
"It's up to you now." He looked at a cat poster on the wall that said "Believe."
"I know it sounds like a cat poster, but it's true," he said, almost sounding like Vitruvius. He found a tube that had been decorated as a portal and dropped me through it.
Suddenly, the tube became a tunnel, like the ones I'd travelled through between lands, between Bricksburg and Middle Zealand and the Old West.
And suddenly, a memory popped into my mind - one I hadn't remembered even happening.
"This Kragle is important," Vitruvius said. "In every world, there is something that could destroy it if it fell into the wrong hands. We must protect it from people who want it for the wrong reasons."
"Aye, aye, captain," I said.
"Excuse me?" Metalbeard said next to me, shorter than I remember. "Don't call him the captain. I'm the captain."
"Fine," I said.
Metalbeard turned to Vitruvius. "This is a brave mission. I'm declaring you an honorary captain."
"Thank you, Metalbeard," Vitruvius said. I noticed his eyes weren't glowing. They were just normal eyes.
I turned to see Lucy, standing next to me, holding my hand. "We're up for the job."
"Me, too," someone else said. I turned to see President Business. "I can't be here protecting it, but I can make sure the public never gets its hands on it."
"Sounds good, buddy," Vitruvius said. "Now let's do this!"
There were other memories. Lots of guarding, lots of building. Lots of holding hands with Lucy.
And then there was one that stood out.
A laser - headed directly towards Lucy - she panicked, froze as if she'd been glued in place by the Kragle - I jumped - blackness -
And then I was in my mind, like I had been in Vitruvius's office in the Old West. Vitruvius and Lucy were there, too, wandering around.
It was fuller that I remember - ideas flourishing every which way I looked.
Lucy looked somber, close to tears, as Vitruvius picked up a staff and waved it. Suddenly, the bricks around me disappeared into nothingness, leveling off into a barren landscape.
"Leave one," Lucy said. "So there's a chance."
Vitruvius nodded, waved his staff again. Suddenly, one idea reformed and floated into my consciousness - the double-decker couch.
"I'm truly sorry," Vitruvius said. "This is literally the only way."
"I can't believe Business left," Lucy said. "He didn't agree with saving this poor boy, and so he decides to break away, thinks he needs the Kragle more than us?"
"I have a plan," Vitruvius said. "I always do."
"You need to make better ones," Lucy said, her voice breaking. "Otherwise -"
And then she broke down, collapsing into Vitruvius's arms. I looked away, almost ashamed to be peering in on such a personal memory.
"Let us hope that when we need him again, he'll be back," Vitruvius said. "And hopefully just as Special as he was before."
When the memories faded, I landed in the construction site in Bricksburg, exactly where I had been before all of this, when I first saw Lucy.
And suddenly, I saw a loose piece on the ground. And another. Plans started forming in my head. Instructions were writing themselves.
I scurried around the yard, finally finding myself inside a huge robot - that I had built myself.
I was a Master Builder once more.
Thanks for waiting so long! I promise I'll finish this up before long. I know this was short, but it explains a lot about where the story came from in my mind.
Feel free to review, but please no negative reviews or cursing. (And please, NOTHING POLITICAL!) Thanks!