Disclaimer: I do not own anything in this chapter except for the OC at the end. Everything else is the property of their respective owners.
"For the last time stand still, I'm trying to hear what she is saying!" Grim said, annoyed at the young man squirming next him.
"Well Grim, I for one don't really like pep rallies like this." Kenny replied, looking down at the crowd in the streets before them. "Does the neighborhood watch really have to be so…Nazi like?" he said as the people stood in straight lines, listening to a speech from a golden-haired girl talking at a makeshift podium.
"If Mandy catches us not at attention we will be dead." The skeleton replied, listening to the pre-teen with forced interest.
"Oh sorry. Here I thought that I was talking to the Grim Reaper…" Kenny said, rolling his eyes with a smile. "Honestly, she has you wrapped around her finger. How the heck did you go from death incarnate to a bony puppet of a little suburban girl?"
Grim merely sighed.
"A long story involving a limbo contest and a rabid hamster in a party hat."
Kenny sniggered. "Sounds interesting, you have got to tell me that later…"
"You two! Pay attention!" A shout came out from a purple haired girl.
"Sorry Miss Membrane!" Kenny apologized, standing up straight. Grim shook his head.
-Limbo-
The years passed by and both watched as Mandy grew. Going from the creepy girl in youth to a fine young woman, she became quite successful. However, ever since Mandy took up assassination in addition to her mayor duties, Grim was almost always swamped with work. Kenny, feeling sorry for him, began to organize his workload. He took it upon himself to recruit some reaped people from other realms and making them assistant reapers, allowing them to stay on Earth for a while longer in exchange for taking the burden of most reapings.
Unlike Grim and his old fashioned scythe, all these new reapers had to do was touch the soon to die person to reap their souls. He also worked with some fat man named Hermes to create a bureaucracy by having them organize along the types of death and geographical area. All he had to do was send out folders with the names of people to be reaped and the others would take care of them. Now Grim just took care of very important reaps that he would not trust to anybody. But even with his freed up schedule, Grim didn't have the time or the will power to accept one last duty…
"Come on Grim! Muster up some courage and propose to her already!"
Kenny watched as Grim paced the room, staring at the small box in his hand. He shook his head, wondering if the skeleton had any brave bone in his body. The skeletal man looked at him in question.
"What about you? I thought you wanted to go and find your friends and family?"
He shrugged.
"As you have told me long ago, I can go anytime. You however have waited years for her to be in her prime. It is now or never. You know as well as I do that an unreaped soul after their sand runs out will rot and wither away. Clockwork and Father Time are both pissed that you've tricked Baby New Year into refilling Mandy's hourglass and now that you have no access to it!"
Kenny walked up to the reaper and stopped his pacing, grabbing the box from him and opening it to reveal a silver skull shaped ring.
"You must either reap her now or marry her!" he cried, waving the ring box. "Even Billy would probably be able to see your feelings for her! It is better to have her darkness powered through immortality than to be fed by the withering husk of a soul!"
Kenny repressed a shudder. Sometimes he would take up reaping to relieve his occasional boredom, but once he had the misfortune of meeting a person whose soul was not reaped and still escaped the gravelings attempts to kill him. The man became insane as his soul rotted, destroying things this way and that until he finally was stopped by a combined effort of himself and Grim. Shaking his head at the memory, he looked up.
"Do you really want Mandy to fall to that fate? She already is dangerous enough with an intact soul! What should happen if we allowed hers to rot and make her lose her mind? Listen up, take my appearance, go up to the surface and propose to her! If she doesn't accept, reap her! Otherwise I will do it myself!" Kenny said, grabbing the scythe leaning against the wall.
Facing the blade towards Grim, he directed its powers and watched as a rubber suit in his likeness formed around the reaper. The hair stuck up in a bit of a strange way but he shrugged, knowing that the supernatural didn't always behave the way you would want it. Bending down to pick up the ring box, he dusted it off and handed it to the disguised Grim.
"Come on now! Go and ask her to marry you!"
"But what if she declines?" Grim asked, still unsure.
"Did you not hear me? Reap her than! Are you not the Grim Reaper?"
Grim glanced down at the box in his hand and nodded before pocketing it.
"You're right. I will ask her. If not, I will drag her soul down if she wants it or not!"
With a grin, Kenny snapped his fingers. Thanks to the time he spent with Grim, he had learned that not being bound to any single realm, he had the ability to open gateways to others, though he still needed Grim's scythe for other things. He cocked his head in a bit of pride as a portal to Megaville City Hall opened up. Thanking Kenny, his mirror image nodded and stepped through the portal.
"Good Luck Grim…"
-Limbo-
"So what is this thing?" Kenny asked, handing over the blade to the ghost of time.
Lately Kenny had begun to notice particular things about himself. In addition to his ability to open gateways, he found his memory sharper and his senses heightened. He even felt a bit stronger. Finally, after finding himself in a fight a few days ago, he found he could call upon a strangely shaped sword to defend himself. Now here he was, asking Clockwork for answers.
Clockwork examined the object closely, running his hand along it.
"I haven't seen one of these in eons, and that's saying something for a being of time…" he muttered, shifting from his child form to an adult. "Setsuna was even begging me last time to grant her one to replace her own Garnet Rod." Giving the object a light squeeze, it quickly disappeared in a flash of light and found itself in Kenny's hand. Chuckling, the ghost glided over to the shocked blond.
"That right there is a great and powerful tool, one that can both bring forth hope and chaos depending on who wields it, though Grim doesn't like them very much." He said, watching as Kenny examined it in interest. "As you are the last person of your realm, it has decided to grant you this as a reminder of your new task."
Kenny looked up at the now old ghost.
"My new task?"
"As a guardian of the realms that you now travel. No longer are you protected by the safety of your home, so as a parting gift to her sole survivor, your world gave you something to ensure that others will not meet the same fate."
Kenny looked down again at the blade, thinking quietly.
"So why does it look like a…"
Clockwork waved him down, looking at a letter that was passed to him. Folding it up, he looked back at Kenny.
"I believe that will be enough for now, it seems that Grim wants to speak with you."
Kenny gulped.
-Limbo-
"…are you aware that Mandy is with child?" Grim said, deceptively calm as he watched the man across the desk.
Kenny shifted uncomfortably in his seat, trying not to look in the eyes sockets of a certain skeletal being.
"…really? I never knew that…" he muttered, still not facing the reaper.
Grim shook his head and eyed his scythe lying next to him. Being as old as he was, he was quite keen on when a person was lying, mortal or not. Turning his head back to the blond, he glared at him.
"Don't try my patience boy. Tell me now. Did you sleep with my wife or not?" He growled, grabbing the scythe and aiming it at the man.
Kenny stood up, summoning up his own weapon.
"And if I did? It's not like as if you can satisfy her yourself." He said, taking up a defensive position.
Grim eyed the weapon before him and lowered his scythe slightly.
"So you have received that eh? Listen here, I have had enough babysitting going on now. That blade of yours will bring nothing but trouble to this realm. You unfortunately must leave at once!"
Grim turned to the side and slashed his scythe. Kenny staggered back a bit as another gateway appeared. Unlike the stone archway that brought him to Megaville all those years ago, this door was a futuristic steel door. Lowering his guard, Kenny could feel that it was familiar somehow, but couldn't remember. With a quick wave of a bony hand, the door opened with a hiss, and through it Kenny could see…
"San Francisco? Why are you sending me there?"
Grim looked at him carefully.
"To protect everyone here, you must not stay any longer. I will convince Mandy to somehow keep the child and I will raise it as my own, but unfortunately I cannot allow visitation rights."
"WHAT? Why can't I see my own kid?" Kenny shouted, turning his blade against the reaper.
"That thing you hold in your hand is a weapon created to fight in the war…" Grim stated, swatting the object away with his scythe. "It will act as a beacon to others and bring the war to Megaville. This is supposed to be a sanctuary and I can't allow such a thing to exist here!"
Grabbing him roughly by the collar of his parka, Grim shoved Kenny through the doorway.
"I had already manipulated the locals into thinking you have been there all your life, though I still left some things blank so you can fill in some details. But heed my warning and do not return to Megaville. I will occasionally come to visit, so just keep an eye out. On the bright side…" Grim said as the doors closed between them. "You can actually use this chance to find your loved ones. You haven't been doing that lately."
The doors hissed shut and vanished, leaving the blond stranded in the middle of a large campus complex. Snapping his fingers, the man was horrified as the portal refused to open to Megaville. Kenny growled and pulled on his hair, glaring at the spot that the gateway had been.
-Limbo-
Sitting down on a bench, he watched the clouds as they slowly moved across the sky. He didn't know for how long he sat there until he saw a blue flag fluttering from a flagpole nearby. Sitting up suddenly, he quickly realized why the door was familiar and where he was.
"Excuse me? Are you lost?"
Kenny jumped and turned around to see a young black haired man in a light grey uniform, watching him in interest.
"You here as a cadet as well?" The boy asked, indicating the uniform that Kenny never noticed he had on.
"Orientation is about to start in the hall. But you should fix your hair a bit." The cadet said, handing him a small mirror that he pulled out from a pocket.
Kenny looked down at his reflection. The face that shown back at him was a bit younger, maybe even his late teens early twenties. 'Grim really thought of everything…' he thought, brushing his hair slightly and giving the mirror back to the younger man, though considering his new appearance, a man of the same age.
Both walked to a large auditorium as more cadets began filing in. Kenny watched as the group took their seats.
"My name is Kagami, Aka'ula Kagami." The teen next to him said, extending his hand.
Thinking of the name he occasionally used as a reaper, Kenny grasped it and shook it briskly.
"Fintan Ambrosio…"
Author's Note: Grim's accent is too tough for me to write out, so pretend he has one. On another note: HAHAHA! Spoiler alert for those who are reading my other story! Now I have given you some pieces of a very big puzzle. It is up to you guys to start solving it, but don't shout out your answers until the stories are complete! (PM me instead if you think youve got it) It should be somewhat easy at first, but will get tougher as time moves on! Read and Review!