Chapter 16; Vertigo
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Nearbye City
{Bargaining for Grief}
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Nearbye City had always been a busy place all around...but there were some places where the hustle and bustle of everyday life seemed less abundant, This was where ROWAN would spend his free time when he wasn't being told what to do by the doctors or keeping guard over Sunny's containment. These times were used to vent his anger and constant frustration by smashing random objects, but today he had someone new sitting across from him at a ruined table across from him...a unimpressed and emotionless OMORI.
"Come to challenge me again? the beaten always do." ROWAN spat, his hand hovering over his shovel's handle sitting at his side, though his posture seemed more relaxed then he let on, feet kicked up on the table and leaning back in his seat...he was ready to lash out at any given moment.
OMORI sighed and gripped his knife a little harder under the table, this negotiation was very frustrating for the both of them when neither wanted to do this. "I came to bargain with you, we have your friend...FLOWER."
"I know you do, I heard you cornered him like a wild animal and locked him away somewhere in your twisted little hideout in Faraway...give one good reason why I shouldn't go to there and burn down every building to the ground until I find where you're keeping him?"
"That wouldn't be in D.R.E.A.M.'s interest, destroying the town is the last thing they want I wanted to give him back peacefully to avoid that outcome."
"Don't try to fool me, you want something from me don't you?!" ROWAN hissed, he hated it when OMORI was right, made him feel lesser to him, like a joke...even back then, OMORI always found ways to annoy him and get on his nerves, back then...it was all in good fun, but that was a time long since soured by betrayal and hatred.
A time they could never have ever again...
OMORI cleared his throat and continued. "In exchange for FLOWER...you tell me where D.R.E.A.M. is hiding in here in Nearbye so Sunny can be safely returned."
ROWAN chuckled to himself and gave the Monochrome boy a toothy sneer. "Ha! really you think I'll tell you of all people? You're the one who wanted him to kill himself a while ago you hypocrite!" he kicked his legs off the table to lean in closer to OMORI'S face. "I'm protecting him now...protecting him from you."
OMORI blinked, momentarily surprised, how much did he know about what had happened between Sunny and his battle all those months ago...it was true he was going to make Sunny sleep forever when he gained control, probably a knife to the chest in the real world or a plunge off of the hospital building they were in. But despite his nearly godlike powers inside of his throne room inside RED SPACE, the one place where he was at his strongest, he still failed...and it seemed by some chance that he was still alive to consider the ramifications of his actions...he was no god, not by a long shot...and it seemed he was no longer Sunny's guardian. He had banished ROWAN for trying to endanger The Dreamer's life long ago...but now that he'd had time to reflect on his own actions...
ROWAN was right...he was a hypocrite...
"This is going nowhere, I'm leaving to look for FLOWER myself." ROWAN said and stalked off into the shadows of the alleyway...
"I see...it's not too late ROWAN...you can still redeem yourself." OMORI said sadly.
The tall goth sighed and gave him a doubtful expression for a split second before defaulting to his usual scowl. "You're nowhere near redemption yourself, you backstabbing monster, keep away from Sunny or else..." ROWAN warned and vanished into the shadows leaving OMORI by himself again...
1"...He hated being alone...
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Faraway Hospital
{From the Ashes}
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"I'm so, so, sorry Mrs. Rodriguez...but not only will your son will never be able to walk ever again." a doctor said grimly. "But he may not have long to live either."
The grim prognosis was enough to make Kel's mom burst into tears and buried her face into her husbands shirt. Hero stood nearby with KEL and HERO looking over Kel laying in the hospital bed. As soon as they had reached the hospital, he had already been put on intensive care given his leg's terrible condition from the shrapnel and wood embedded in his leg and chest. The doctors had removed all of the debris inside of him but the fracturing of bones in several places and shredded muscles in his legs was so beyond repair that they had considered amputating the limb to ease Kel's pain. If the news wasn't heartbreaking enough, Mrs. Suzuki had succumbed to her wounds earlier in the morning and had passed away, leaving Sunny without any family left...that was if Sunny ever made it out...They were so close to finding him and with one fell swoop from D.R.E.A.M.
...That window of opportunity had just closed in their faces...
After Hero and his family had arrived, Aubrey had already gone home to recover, but Hero had spoken with her in private beforehand and she had told him the real reason why she was going home...watching it all fall apart again, almost getting herself and Kel killed...and losing Mrs. Suzuki...she wanted to stop, she was giving up altogether, and what hit her the most was that she felt guilty for what happened to Kel, felt it was her fault that he was now crippled for life...she had wanted to go see Mrs. Suzuki and when she saw Sunny again a part of her was overjoyed to see him alright even if she knew it was a fake...
...and now her best friend had paid the price for her naïvety...she was stupid, so stupid...
...
Kel coughed and looked over at Hero with a weak smile "Hey, heard about the honeymoon, great job bro...I knew could do it." he chuckled weakly and went to sleep, he was still alive but resting.
Hero wanted to smile that was Kel, always positive no matter what. The glue that held everyone together through thick or thin...and now he was broken and will never be able to run or play like he used to ever again. He knelt silently by his brother's side and gripped the bed sheets letting the tears fall on, leaving the two dream friends to stand around in uncertain of how to act.
"What's the matter? can't we just heal him up? HERO use your COOK skill!" KEL demanded.
"No..."
"What do you mean? w-we can fix him! we just have to-
"No I...I can't!" HERO said, this time a little louder, KEL jumped back in surprise. He looked over at the two real world brothers with a growing sadness in his heart that not even the blue outline around him showed how he truly felt. "The damage is too severe...I could try to heal him, but I've never done it on a such a serious injury like that."
[HERO became MISERABLE]
"I don't...so he can't walk again? ever?" KEL said quietly as his positivity began to crack and he realized just how dire the situation was. KEL ran over to his real world self's side and took out a few pieces of candy in his mouth "C'mon wake up! you'll be okay...your gonna pull through, just hold on!" KEL exclaimed with a shaky smile, but it wasn't working no matter how much candy he shoved in...
"KEL! stop! that won't work! give him some space..." HERO reprimanded and pulled his brother away, but KEL was putting up a big fight as he was dragged back.
"No! please! I-I can do it! just let me try please! I can help...I-I l-let me help...just...just...wake up...please..."
The young boy could no longer deny reality and broke down, wailing loudly into his brother's striped shirt.
KEL and HERO watched on in silence as Hero mourned his brother... he held his own brother tightly in his arms and soon he felt himself crying too...
2...it was all he could do...
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Faraway Park
{Scattered to the wind}
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Aubrey sat on top a table overlooking the gathering of her group, today was to be the last that they would spend together as a gang. Everyone seemed to have taken the news somewhat well except for Kim, her closest friend. "Aubrey, are you sure you want to do this? after everything? you just want the Hooligans to split?"
"After nearly getting killed by a bomb looking like my childhood friend? yeah you heard me, I'm gonna stop. But...we'll keep in touch I...I need to take a break for a bit..." Aubrey said, she didn't want to do this either but she had to cut ties with everyone...even Basil, she had told him the same news earlier and he had retreated to the bathroom afterwards. It utterly destroyed her to hear him break down and cry behind that locked door, but it was the only way to keep everyone she cared about safe. "...We're still gonna friends...I just don't want to lose anyone else to those lunatics, they have access to explosives and that shovel wielding psychopath, it's too dangerous, Sunny's mom is dead because of them."
"What?! so the news about that explosion at the apartment complex..." Mikhael said in a uncharacteristically serious tone.
"We were there when it happened...Sunny or whatever that was, was a bomb, Kel he...he took a pretty bad hit and he's been hospitalized, I-I've never should have made him come with me."
"Could we have the dream friends heal him?"
she shook her head. "The damage was too extensive, it's permanent, I don't think any amount of healing will give him back his ability to walk...he may not have long to live either." The news of Kel's loss shook everyone to their core, Kel...the energetic athletic boy who was so beloved by all, even if he was annoying and loud...he was still their friend and hearing about him possibly dying had them extremely worried.
"Oh god...you're not kidding." Vance said
Aubrey sighed and looked down in shame. "I'm sorry it was should have been me instead."
"Aubs! don't say that!" Kim gasped, but Aubrey remained firm on her statement. "It should have been me! We know Kel, he's a dumbass any other day sure, but he didn't deserve to be crippled for life!"
"You couldn't have known! The Aubrey I know would never give up! never!" Kim spat back and pointed at her.
As the two argued back and forth the rest of the Hooligans watched on in discomfort at the heated argument unfurling. AUBREY sat nearby in between Vance and Angel, so far she had remained silent...what could she do except watch it fall apart? nothing she could say or do to change her real world self's mind, she'd always just gone with whatever Aubrey had wanted to do...but how could she? here she was letting it all fall apart...she couldn't let that happen...
[AUBREY became FURIOUS]
Immediately she got up and ran off towards Basil's house, ignoring the calls from everyone as she ran as fast as she could...hot tears streaming down her face, the only thing on her mind was to find some way and get them together again...
3...to watch the one's they cared about fall apart after everything they'd been through and not being able to do anything was unbearable...
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D.R.E.A.M. HQ
{Consequences of Progression}
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"You...monster...how could you? they we're just children!" Shwartz shouted angrily and pointed a finger at his colleague.
Dr. Yen crossed her arms in a uncaring manner and scoffed. "Children who got in the way, so I did what was necessary...they would have found out where we are and the only solution in that was to eliminate them for good!" she argued back.
Dr. Shawartz and Yen had been arguing for the past hour or so about the bombing. Shwartz had been appalled by Yen Su's apathy towards the loss of so many lives
"You blew up a apartment complex...to kill two children you call an act of terrorism a way of covering up our tracks?!"
Yen chuckled and brought her hands up to her chin. "Wilhem, you are no stranger to extreme acts of violence, you of all people should know that sometimes the extremes are only way to keep things under control like your late wife and daughter, Noria and Helgi-
Yen was instantly slammed against the wall by the enraged doctor. "Do. not. speak. of. them...you...gemeiner abscheulicher Wicht!" Dr Shwartz spat furiously as he tightened his grip on her. Dr. Yen hissed and struggled to free herself. "Call me that again and I'll have you locked behind bars where you belong!" she snapped back at him.
Dr. Ray immediately stepped in and shoved them both back with raised hands before things could get ugly. "Guys! please! settle down for a moment we need to focus! The bombing incident is terrible, but Yen's right, we need to get back to work." Shwartz did a double take and gawked at Dr. Ray. "Simmons...how can you side with her? after what she did?" he shook his head and breathed out in exasperation. "I'm not...I really really don't approve of her extreme actions either, but we can't fall apart now after we've come so close to our goal, or else all those people...their sacrifices will be for nothing."
Wilhelm released Yen and angrily walked towards the exit. Feelings of betrayal welling inside him...Simmons noticed and followed behind. "Wilhelm, where are you going?"
"I need some time alone...I will be back soon..."
Dr. Ray watched sadly as Shwartz departed and turned back to, he understood that even as a therapist he didn't always have the answer to every question his patents asked like if they were going to be alright or did I really do the right thing?...hard questions like those kept him up at night, and especially now since he was now the one asking himself these questions... but as a therapist he understood that Shwartz just needed some space, he just prayed that his old friend didn't do anything drastic in his current mental state...
Yen was already hard at work as if nothing had happened, preparing the virtual simulation for another go. "If he's going to let his emotions get the better of him we should just cut him off entirely, improve our work flow considerably."
Who was this woman? this rude, uncaring woman who lived amongst them as engineer and inventor of the Dream extractor, EMOTION amplifiers, suppressors and many many other gadgets they used on a regular basis? Dr. Margrove Yen Su...the woman who offered her services to the two in exchange for using the Bunker for a private lab space, former prison interrogator and military scientist who used her access to secret government property to smuggle prototype dream projection technology into Shwartz's bunker home and using the technology to bring Sunny's dreams to life...Simmons wanted to relive his childhood, Wilhelm wanted to use the machine for a noble cause and yet Yen had never told them what she wanted with the dreams...was it for science? or some cruel amusement of playing god without the consequences? She was cruel she was sadistic, she...
he didn't know what she was anymore.
Simmons ignored her and got back to his studies, he wanted to tell her how wrong she was...
4...but what could he do about it anyways?
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Basil's House
{One day left}
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Basil sat on his bed with a dejected look...in his hands was a crumpled wet letter from his parents reading;
Hello Basil! my beloved son...
We may have not been able to keep in touch as much as we'd like, the postal system here is absolutely dreadful...but we finally have some news regarding recent events! we finally have enough room to have you come and live with us in Hawaii! It's absolutely gorgeous here! it's sunny all the time and there's so many tropical plants, we know how much you love your plants, and you can take pictures of all the beautiful landmarks with us in our new condo! isn't it exciting? you can make new friends and start a new garden plus your father has taken up surfing and wants to teach you how...I know you have friends here that you care about and miss deeply, you can still send letters and pictures over to them. We just want what's best for you Basil, and after hearing about all that nasty business in Faraway and Nearbye with the terrorist attack and the strange things going on we decided to move you away from all that as soon as we could, we'll be here tomorrow to pick you up after we fly in, Polly has been relieved of her duties and has been given a hefty sum for taking such good care of you...pack your bags and be ready in the morning...
Love, Mommy and Daddy, we'll see you soon Flower Blossom...
"New friend? I noticed that you are upset...what's wrong?" FLOWER asked and took a seat next to him on the bed.
"I-I just got word from my parents...they're coming tomorrow to pick me up..." Basil muttered.
"That's nice! you have a family! you should be happy to see them again." he said cheerfully.
"They...they want to move in with them on the other side of the world... they basically told me that my friends were putting me in too much danger and they want me to live with them from now on. Polly has already been relieved of her caretaking duties and I don't know how I'm going to explain this to Aubrey and my dream self."
"Sound like they care about you..."
"They haven't spoken to me since I was five! If they cared they would have understood what I was going through when everyone left me!" he pounded his fist against the table. "And now that Sunny's in danger I...I don't know what to do..." he whispered and buried his face in his hands.
FLOWER blinked and looked down for a moment. "Sunny...I know him...he's you're friend?"
"My best friend..."
FLOWER pondered the two words in his mind. "Best...friend...I remember having a best friend once, looked just like Sunny's black and white friend."
"You mean OMORI? what happened to your friend?"
"Oh Yes, had a very similar name, was much taller and had the same clothes too! but he is...gone...lost forever in the abyss...I was with him when we fell...watched him...turn into nothing...and then into SOMETHING...he is no longer my friend...because he is not himself anymore...I was so so, lost before I found ROWAN."
"Oh...I'm so sorry FLOWER...that really must have hurt to lose someone you care about."
"The doctors...they told me he couldn't be brought back no matter what they tried...it makes me SAD...but I try not to be because he wouldn't want me to be SAD! he's want me to be HAPPY!" he said cheerfully..."Ah and I'm sorry about the whole mind control thing, I don't know how to control it yet, I only discovered I had those powers a few days ago."
Basil looked at Flower with a sympathetic look, FLOWER only wanted to do the right thing but ended up in the crossfire, in a way he, STRANGER, BASIL, FLOWER and even ROWAN, were all similar to each other in more than one...loss...misunderstanding...and a strong sense of wanting to protect what they cared about. be it himself with Sunny, or FLOWER with ROWAN, they were technically the same person as five different people...it was baffling to know that he was so diverse...
diverse in their suffering as well...
Basil scooted over to the other him and wrapped him in a hig "FLOWER...if I can find a way to stay just a bit longer...I-I promise I'll get you back to ROWAN." he said.
FLOWER placed a hand on the Flower boy's shoulder and gave him a weary smile. "Friend, thank you...I...feel like I need to share something personal that I've never shared with anyone else before now." he got himself comfortable and cleared his throat "Please stay and listen...I don't think I'll ever get to tell anyone this ever again."
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Sunny lay in the blank chamber, his eyes staring blankly up a black lightbulb and the endless ceiling it hung from. The events of Mari's death still playing out over and over in his head…it was too much, he couldn't handle it he couldn't-
"A pale boy rose from the floor, older, taller, everything that the Dreamer thought a teenager should be like, the vessel looked at it's hands for the first time and breathed in, it focused on a simple shape and a white mat appeared on the ground underneath him. Pleased with it's progress it focused again, this time on a more complex item, a laptop popped into existence and turned on for the first time, more objects like a tissue box, a knife, and a sketchbook complete with colored pencils would fill this white space. And the Dreamer was pleased with his vessel's progress, but the vessel was missing something, a name. Remembering the piano that his sister used to play he recalled a single set of words across the front that stood out to him, OMORI...
OMORIBOY, that would be it's name...
OMORI as was the name of the piano…and BOY, because that was what he was, fitting for someone like him.
As OMORIBOY, he would live in this fantasy realm of pure silence and eventually create the door to NEIGHBOR'S ROOM and his friends as he remembered them. Though it was not meant to last…
The memories of what happened on the day of recital would reemerge and threaten to consume the land. The vessel, not accustomed to the trauma of the truth, succumbed to the guilt leaving the Dreamer no choice but to reset NEIGHBOR'S ROOM. After many mouths of building a bigger vaster world that would be dubbed HEADSPACE, Sunny would create a new vessel that would be stronger, dubbing it as just OMORI,
the old vessel would be left behind in BLACKSPACE the next reset that inevitably occurred and was forgotten, lost and abandoned this vessel had no sentience to call it's own but only long after it had been twisted into SOMETHING unrecognizable. OMORIBOY, the first vessel, would feel no animosity towards his replacement as he was no more, but rather indifference towards anything…just as The Dreamer, Sunny thought a teenager should be."
FLOWER sighed, the painful memories bringing tears to his eyes, but he fought them back and continued with his second story...
A long time passed down in BLACK SPACE, more and more began to show up, from discarded places to other people from the new world above, that was when I met ROWAN. At first he wanted nothing to do with me but after spending some time together, he became comfortable enough to tell me that he was being punished for trying to do the right thing he started to warm up to me.
We became good friends in that dark world we called home, he would protect me from the dark monsters and I would keep him company and help him wherever I could, we started a whole thing where any lost people from above we'd protect them as long as we could until we could find a way out...they never did find a way out though...always falling to the monsters no matter how hard we tried to protect them...it hurt ROWAN more than anything to not fast or strong or smart enough to save them. But I was his little light, telling him to never stop trying when he was feeling down...best friends that made life a bit more bearable for each other...
We did also ask the surface folk what the world above was like before they fell, HEADSPACE had really changed in the time we had been down here. Eventually things went downhill when we came across a green haired boy who called himself BASIL in a church on a hill. When OMORI walked through those church doors and took BASIL back to HEADSPACE...
it broke ROWAN, for so long he had been hoping to return to his friends and find forgiveness, and seeing him be replaced shattered that hope into pieces…he…he wouldn't talk to me after that and he started to pick fights with the monsters and the people we found instead of saving them to vent his anger.
There is a particular trait about BLACK SPACE that not even OMORI knows about, that EMOTIONS accelerate the corrupting effects on people. I watched him degrade until he was nothing but a small dark puddle on the floor…I was lost without my friends, watching them fade before my eyes...I wandered by myself until I too eventually turned…
When D.R.E.A.M. restored us I wanted to ask them so badly if they could restore OMORIBOY too, but I knew they wouldn't, not even try to...
I would ask them the question later but...
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5...it's not like they'd listen to him...
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FARAWAY PARK
{Only our Solution}
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The dream friends and STRANGER sat around Mari's picnic blanket in silence as a light rain fell. They had recounted the sorrowful stories of the tragedies that had occurred that day, each one lowering their morale further and further...
"Basil's what? but...but they can't do that!" AUBREY exclaimed
"His parents are coming to pick him up tomorrow and take him away to a place called Hawaii." BASIL explained
"But what about you and STANGER?"
"I don't think he's told them about us, we won't be coming with him." STRANGER sighed.
STRANGER continued "Kel has been crippled for life and hasn't long in the world of the living, Hero has been staying with him to cope and he doesn't look like he handling it well, Aubrey has given up entirely, now Basil's moving away...we've lost."
KEL had remained silent thus far and grit his teeth in pent up frustration and sadness. "It's not fair...It's not fair! It's not!...it's...(sniff) it's not fair..." KEL buried his face in his hands and wept again, while HERO held him in his arms to comfort him...
"What about you OMORI? did you have any luck finding D.R.E.A.M.? surely you've got to have some sort of good news..." MARI called out to her little brother, hopeful for something positive.
"No..."
"OMORI? is it true what ROWAN said? how you hurt BASIL in BLACK SPACE?" AUBREY spoke, bringing up a uncomfortable subject from a few days ago that needed to be addressed.
"...Yes...it's true..." he responded and continued to look down at the ground
"W-why? what did he ever do to you?" HERO gave him a incredulous look.
OMORI sighed and calmed himself. "He came too close to revealing the Truth about Mari's death, I had to silence him...multiple times." he finally confessed,
"So the master of lies finally reveals his darkest secret, I knew you would crack eventually, show them who you really are." a voice taunted from nearby.
"OMORI...the god of HEADSPACE...OMORI...friend of all...OMORI...murderer of his best friend."
Everyone turned to see him leaning against a tree, his red eyes glowing from under the shade. "ROWAN? what are you doing here?" STRANGER wondered.
"I came here for my friend...but it looks like you've all lost yours, ironic how the tables have turned." he spat and turned to leave.
"Please ROWAN, I-I know OMORI has done horrible things to you, we don't want to fight you." BASIL begged.
"Shut. up. you're not my concern today...none of you are. Just stay out of my way or I'll put you down like I promised I would at SNOW-."
MARI stood up looking very upset and got in between him and the group, going right up to his face. "That's enough! You stop right now! you're being horrible and we've already been having a bad day! how would you like it if someone was being mean to you for no reason?" she shouted.
ROWAN recoiled in shock...seeing MARI again made him recoil in fear, more specifically what he saw what others couldn't...those dead eyes, rotting skin...a walking corpse that he couldn't bear to look at again. He said nothing and with a terrified expression, ran off in the other direction away from them leaving the group both upset and confused. "MARI?" HERO tried to comfort her but she turned on a heel and sat back down on her spot on the blanket before he could.
"I don't know...not anymore..." she said quietly and tucked her legs a little closer to herself, she felt guilty, she hadn't meant to raise her voice like that but ROWAN was being such a horrible person that she had to act on her feelings. MARI happened to look over at her little brother who while expressionless, seemed slightly shaken despite his calm demeanor, OMORI never liked hearing her being angry, even at others.
"ROWAN! wait! KEL suddenly shouted and took off after him.
"KEL! don't! at least wait for us!" AUBREY exclaimed and followed close behind. Soon HERO and BASIL joined in leaving only MARI and STRANGER to sit by themselves in the rain...
"Why didn't you tell me?" she said quietly to STRANGER once they were alone.
When he didn't respond she asked again, this time a bit louder "Why didn't you tell me earlier what my brother did to BASIL!?"
"It wasn't the time or place to..."
"I-I'm his sister! he never told about all that in BLACK SPACE...killing BASIL over and over for what? why?"
"He said himself...trying to keep the Truth a secret...If I told you all the Truth...it would break us completely...and make something else..." he responded cryptically.
That was true, it couldn't be any simpler than that...MARI and the others, while they knew her real world self was gone, the exact nature of her death was still unknown. And if they found out about the Incident...what would happen? well...the consequences he'd seen firsthand of other versions of the Dream friends in BLACK SPACE learning the Truth were so unspeakably horrifying that even the hardened STRANGER found it unsettling...
But for now, he let MARI ponder those words...everyone was having a terrible day, and the mission could wait...
6...not when they were only concerned about themselves to see the bigger picture..." STRANGER said plainly to himself and closed his eyes, feeling the rain run down his hair.
Tomorrow is just another day...
Everything is going to be okay
Good god this chapter took forever to make, after the whole honeymoon thing things took a much more depressing turn, as the gang begins to fall apart, Kel has lost his leg, Hero has been utterly broken by the news, Aubrey realizes how dangerous the situation has become and has given up out of the trauma from the bomb attack, and Basil is going to be taken away from Faraway this is a disaster...a truly grim turn of events that not even the villains are unaffected by...
Is this the end?