Me: Are you guys happy I'm back?! Ooh, I just got an idea that you might enjoy. It's related to Romen evil grin so anyways, I've been sick for like a week and have hay fever (It's now spring! But the story's in winter!) I'll try to continue with the Christmas spirit even though it's not with me, I'll just sing Christmas songs while writing lol.

Me:Ready to sing your song Maplers?

Romen: I'll say we are!

Sam: Yea let's sing it now!

Me: Okay Romen?

Romen: Okay

Me: Okay Sam?

Sam: Okay

Me: Okay Zeeth?... Zeeth?

Zeeth: (Beating up squirrel) Wewt this kicks a mushroom's butt!

Me:ZEEEEEEEETH!!

Disclaimer:Sry for that long conversation, I don't own Maple Story.


Romen was running around trying to get his hands to not sweat. Linda was cheering him on from the side lines.

"Come on, Romen! Fight on fight on!" She chanted. Determined, he got a somewhat awkward grip on his Stinger. He looked at his fighting position. It was off from what he normally had, but the scratches from being dragged early hadn't healed yet so he couldn't quite get into a comfortable position. The green eye was heading his way, and he plunged his Stinger at it. The green eye whipped his tail at Romen, which he blocked with his Stinger.

"Romen, get a grip," Linda saw Romen's bad stance, "Literally!!"

He tried to fix his stance, to no avail. He couldn't properly jump at the creatures if he took his normal stance, but he was straining his arms too much. He was a sitting duck! The green eye charged at Romen once again, but he held strong and didn't budge. At the last second he dove the Stringer straight down into the green eye. He swiftly picked up the black marble and ran to a horned mushroom.

'This is going to take a while...' Romen inwardly groaned. He found running wildly and slashing put less strain on his hands, but more on his feet. Once his feet had finally tired out, he felt like jelly.

'Aggh!' Romen mentally slapped himself, 'Am I really this weak!?'

A horny mushroom suddenly charged at Romen, and snapping out of his daze, Romen went back to his strange defensive stance. The horny mushroom's attack was too strong and Romen twisted his wrist. He ran to a safe spot and gently held his hand. Whipping the tears on the back of his good hand, he then fell flat on his back exhausted.

"Romen look out!" He heard Linda shout. He raised his head towards the sky and saw a shadow falling right above him. Paralyzed with fear he didn't move. The figure landed right above Romen with a blade landing right next to Romen's face.

"A-a-a..." Romen muttered, eyes wide with fear. "he... hee... HELP!!"

Linda rushed to Romen's aid and tried to knock over the armor clad figure. She failed to knock over the person with their heavy armor. Romen got a better look at him and saw that he was wearing an all to familiar outfit.

"Z-Zeeth t-this isn't f-f-funny..." Romen was still pale and fear still in his eyes. The figure merely took Romen's bandanna and sliced it to bits. Regaining his common sense, Romen darted by Linda's side. He looked intently at the shadow's face.

"Hey! You're not Zeeth," Romen squinted harder, "You look more like uh... umm..."

"Fred? George?" The figure took off his warrior helmet, "Big Brother?"

Romen felt his jaws drop, his brother had changed his well... Everything! Instead of the same sleek black hair, and bandit outfit. He had slightly spiked red hair and Zeeth's armor!

"What'd you do to your hair?!" Romen said, pointing wildly at his head.

"Dyed it," He said running his hand through his hair, "Being related and compared to you really... Sucks." He spat the last part. Romen took a step back, quite hurt.

"Well SORRY!" Romen said putting his hands on his hips, "Just because my hair is messy, and black, and don't carry a brush with me and comb my hair every ten minutes, doesn't mean we're not related! We still have the same face... Dummy..." Romen muttered the last part. (They only a year apart and look quite similar. Romen's brother is just taller.)

Romen's brother pulled out a comb and started brushing his hair, "True, that's why you've got to go." He stopped combing his hair and snapped the comb right in his hand. "And when I say got to go, then you've got to go." He let the comb rubble fall to the floor.

"Right sure I do. What did I do, and why do you need to get "rid" of me"

His brother pulled out another comb and resumed brushing, "Not much really, you're really annoying, and I hate that, but you know guilds. What 'cha gonna do? Archimond doesn't like a member with a bad family tree."

"Archimond!?" Romen immediately stopped joking around, "What are you doing with them?" Romen questioned while glaring at him.


Flash back (never done one of these before)

"Big Bro! How did you do that, it was amazing!" Romen gawked at the monsters that laid dead before him.

"These little things? Iron hogs are nothing compared to my strength." He smiled with a thumbs-up. They just smiled at each other for awhile until they were called back for supper. Thing began to change after a few months...

"How can you leave now?! We need you to help raise money!" Their father slammed his fist on the table and got up. Romen's brother slammed his fist on the table equally as hard if not harder.

"H-hey come on now, you're going to break the table!" Romen said sheepishly trying to lighten the situation. His mom hushed him.

"I'm going and you're going to have to accept it, Old man!" His brother yelled, "I've spent fourteen years, my entire life so far, helping getting your damn money just so you can go prance around showing off some stupid set of stars!"

"Watch your mouth, Young man!" Their father fiercely glared at him, "The stars are for family protection! We're just barely half way done, you can't leave just because you're going to become a stronger bandit. Stop this non-sense, you don't need to be a chief bandit! When are you going to realize your mistakes and put down your silly knife!?"

"BULLSHI" He yelled and grabbed his dagger, "You think this is a knife? You think this is a steak knife?! You think this is a mistake?! Realize your own mistake first! You just want those starts because you're Weak! Mobs, money, errands, I took care of them all. All because you're no good, you're weak! Assassins are WEAK!"

"You're just a kid! You don't know what power is, what strength is! All I see is a kid playing hero!"

"I ain't playing anymore, Old man" He sheathed his dagger, "Look at you! Pathetic, throwing pieces of metal to defend yourself! A true hero goes head to head in combat, strong and proud! Look around you! Do you know why you can't become stronger, do you know why you aren't any stronger?! It's because you care too much! Caring is a weakness! In the real world, you have to be strong to survive! You've been living in this little village and have gained absolutely no power! I'M SICK OF IT, ALL OF IT! I'm not caring for anybody but me!" He marched out the door.

"You've been hanging around that kid again haven't you!?" The father felt blood rush to his head, "This is all because of Gale isn't it?! Isn't it!!"

"There's nothing wrong with Gale! He's a strong hermit, unlike you! He may be an assassin, but he's proven he can be strong even so! He's a leader! Be caring and you'll be like his washed up sister! Cecilia was such a promising cleric. It's too bad..." He smirked as he walked out the door. Romen ran after him to where the iron hogs were.

"You're not really going are you?" Romen began tearing, "Are you...?"

"Romen, you show to much affection! Stop caring! Shun all emotions, listen to Gale and you'll be strong. Listen to Gale and you'll be able to defeat these Iron hogs just like me!"

"You're not weak if you care! If our parents didn't care you wouldn't be here!" Romen said tears flowing from his eyes.

"Stop it! Stop!" He shouted in disgust of his brother's emotions, "Prove to me that caring doesn't make you weak! Prove it now!!" He then abruptly shoved Romen into a ditch with Iron hogs. Romen reached to his brother as he fell, hoping to be saved, but was heart broken when he saw his brother walk away as he continued to fall deeper and deeper to the enraged hogs below.

End Flash back


"What am I doing with Archimond? What a dumb question! Getting stronger of course, just like I said I would! Sorry I didn't see your "strength" while you were with the Iron hogs, but I'm here now so tell me all about how strong you were with your caring. Of course if you didn't care and did as you pleased you could've trained more and could have been a little more prepared. I'm sure it all worked out fine though! So do tell..." His brother sat down with a smirk. Romen held a strong gaze on his brother, but his left arm was trembling. He stopped it with his other arm, Linda grabbed his shoulder in concern. He shook his head fixed his gaze back to his brother.

"Everything turned out.. fine..." Romen choked on the sentence a bit, "Now what did you do with Zeeth?" His brother didn't believe Romen's words, but still answered his question.

"That warrior blue hair you mean? He's fine, he's probably going to have a headache."

"Did you hurt him?" Linda asked concerned.

"He's fine I said! Stop being so concerned, it's annoying." He got up and started jumping away. "Don't worry little brother, I'll be back. It's too emotional here for me right now, but I'll be back." A shiver went down Linda and Romen's spine.

"A-anyways let's go find the others." Linda suggested, Romen gave a small nod, still clutching his left arm. Linda noticed this, but decided not to ask about it.


"Agggh, my head..." Zeeth grabbed his head to stop the throbbing, but didn't attempt to get up. "Neroge, Neroge you there?" Zeeth put a hand over his head to block the blinding light.

"Yea I'm here, how you feeling?"

"I'm hungry..."

"I gave you or tired to give you some seafood soup while you were out."

"Neroge, everything hurts, and... and... I see the light! It's blinding me!" Zeeth couldn't see a thing from this blinding light beating down on him. Neroge looked to where Zeeth was looking and looked back down at Zeeth quite annoyed.

"That's the sun you idiot..."

Me: It's short, I'm sorry. I wanted to post this up as soon as I got the info that I wanted to get in.