"This is not good. I warned Edd about the dangers of going into someone else's subconscious! He and Ed only have 1 hour until we pull them out. Not only that, but it seems their minds are fading away. If Eddy stays in this state for much longer, he might never come back."

Eddy was still suffering at the hands--or, voices, of his parents. He was being compared to his brother in every way and scolded for not being as good as him. Normally things like this wouldn't bother Eddy very much, but he realized it was all true.
"I guess I deserve this after betraying Ed and Double-D like that." He said to himself as he was confined within his brother's shadow. He thought about them and how he would probably never see their faces again.
"It was my fault they even got into this mess. Now they're probably suffering as well."
After a while, Eddy suddenly sat up.
"Ed! Double-D!! I gotta help them, I just gotta!" He said. Courage was rushing into his body as the memories of his friends were flashing through his mind. He tried to run out of the auditorium but it was locked. Even though he got over his pain, he was still trapped. Eddy then turned to the silhouette of his brother.
"Hey! Look, I'm not as good as you but I need to save my friends!" Eddy shouted. The massive figure turned its head and looked at Eddy.
"And you're my friend too, bro! You taught me everything you knew about scamming and women! Are you really just going to sit there and let Mom and Dad chew me out like this?"
The voices of Eddy's parents suddenly stopped. The rest of the lights in the room turned on and Eddy could see his brother standing in front of him. The man smiled and then faded away without a word. Eddy heard a faint click; he opened the now-unlocked door and ran out of the school.

Meanwhile, Edd was suffering in his own private hell. He was in the body of his five-year-old self inside of a burning building. His head was burnt and deformed and the other kids in the cul-de-sac were laughing at him. The only thing worse than the laughter was the bloodcurdling screams of Edd's parents, who were suffering in the blaze. Edd was sprawled on the floor, broken down into tears.
"Double-D! DOUBLE-DEEEE!!!!"
Through all of the laughter and screaming, Edd heard someone call out his nickname.

Eddy was outside of a burning house. Knowing Edd was in there, Eddy tried to find a way in. The door was locked and the handle was red hot. The windows were all broken but the edges were still lined with sharp pieces of glass. All Eddy could do was call out and hope Edd would reach him.
"Double-D! DOUBLE-DEEEE!!!!" He shouted.
"Listen, you can get out of this nightmare! You made your mistake, but it's over and in the past now! You just have to let it go!" Eddy had never heard himself speak that kind of wisdom before, but he wasn't concerned. All he could do was hope that Edd heard him.

"You just have to let it go!"

As Edd heard that, memories of his parents started flooding through his head.
"Mother. Father. I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do now." Edd gathered his strength and ran to the door. He unlocked it and turned the handle; ignoring the pain it caused his hand. Edd opened the door and jumped out of the house. As he looked back, the house started to collapse. The flames eventually snuffed themselves out and left behind piles of burnt wood and ash. Edd slowly walked over the ruins, carefully avoiding spots that were still red hot. The kids had disappeared, but Edd spotted his parents trapped beneath a burnt support beam. He rushed over and knelt down in front of them. They were burnt and bruised and on the verge of dying. Their faces were tattered and deformed, but Edd didn't care. They were his parents, and he loved them. Edd's father took out a single sticky note while his mother took out a pen. Using the last of their strength, they helped the other write something on the note and put it in Edd's trembling hand.


Dear Eddward,
We love you so very much. Please be a good boy in the future.
Edd took the note and held it to his heart. He had forgotten that his parents had forgiven him for what he'd done. He looked at his parents, who gave their son one last smile before fading away with the rest of the house. Edd, with his face soaking with tears, stood up in his preteen body and turned around to see Eddy behind him.
"......Hey." was all Eddy said.
"You were the one calling my name, weren't you?" Edd questioned. Eddy simply nodded, and much to his surprise Edd reached out and hugged the small kid.
"Thank you, Eddy."
"N-no problem, Double-D." Eddy replied, not used to this kind of affection from Edd.
"....ED!" Eddy shouted as he pushed Edd away.
"We need to help Ed out! Come on!"

Love,
Mother and Father.


Ed, meanwhile, was still suffering at the enlarged hands of his 50-foot kid sister.
"ED! TAKE MY DOLLIES UP TO MY ROOM!!" She boomed as she dropped a large teddy bear on top of him. Ed was used to his sister ordering him around, but her beatings were merciless and his mother watched Ed's every move with fierce and angry eyes. The boy, with his superhuman strength, picked the stuffed bear up and started walking over towards the house.
" FASTER!!" Sarah screamed as she pounded the doll--and Ed--into the ground.

Edd and Eddy rushed towards Ed's house, the giant little girl in plain view. Edd caught something out of the corner of his eye. He turned around to see Painajainen a few feet away from the duo. Edd noticed that the boy had a large crack going through his body and clothes as if he was made of stone. Before Edd could react though, the pale boy disappeared into thin air.
"Edd, come on!" Eddy shouted. The boys got there just in time to see Sarah pounding a giant stuffed animal into the ground, with Ed supposedly under it. The boys tried to get closer but Sarah saw them and swatted them away.
"ED! Stop letting Sarah push you around!" Eddy called. Edd tried to yell also but his voice didn't seem to reach.

"ED! Stop letting Sarah push you around!" Ed heard from under the giant teddy bear.
"You're the big brother! You should be telling on HER for the things she did to you!" Ed got out from the bear and thought about what the voice--which Ed couldn't quite figure out who it belonged to--said.
"I'm the older brother, so why do I have to be afraid of my little sister? Why can't Sarah do things herself for once? What would happen if I wasn't there to do Sarah's bidding?" These out-of-character-istic thoughts raced through Ed's head as Sarah prepared to smash him into the ground. She threw her fist hard and it headed straight for Ed. All Eddy and Edd could do was watch as Sarah was about to piledrive the boy into the ground. But to everyone's surprise, Ed caught it. He grabbed Sarah's enlarged knuckle and with his strength he threw it back, making the girl stumble backward a little.
"Baby sister is a baby no more! Stop telling me what to do Sarah!" Ed shouted. Sarah looked at the boy with a confused face, and the Eds noticed she shrunk a little.
"You always tell me what to do and threaten to tell Mom on me if you don't get your way! I am sick of it!" With each word the giantess shrank more and more.
"One day I'm not going to help you and Mom's not gonna be around so you're going to have to do things yourself! And that day is today!" With those final words, Sarah had shrunk back down to her half-pint size and started crying. Ed was about to go over there to comfort her, but Eddy and Edd went up and stopped him. Sarah eventually stopped crying and started walking back into the house. Ed looked at the front door to see his mother looking at him. But instead of the scolding face she had earlier, she smiled at Ed and gave him a wink before closing the door.
Ed had finally stood up to Sarah and got her to stop treating him like a slave. Well, inside Eddy's subconscious that is. He turned to his friends and hugged them.
"Ok Ed, you can let go now" Edd choked as Ed released the boys from his death grip. They had finally overcome their trials and ordeals and were all together again.
Suddenly, Painajainen appeared in front of them. His hands were trembling and there were large cracks all over his body, yet his face was still disturbingly emotionless.
"How......how do you just get rid of pain that has been with you for almost all of your life......I don't understand...." His voice was blank as usual but Edd could hear a bit of confusion in it.
"We got rid of our pain by helping each other out, that's what!" Eddy blurted out.
"Eddy's right. We were able to get out of our pain by assisting one another, because that's what friends do!" After Edd said the last few words, more cracks started appearing on Jainen's body and a dark aura was starting to emanate from them.
"True friends can help each other do anything! No matter what you do, Jainen, you won't be able to tear us apart!"
After that sentence, the aura that was seeping from the cracks started blasting out of them and the boy shattered into darkness. The place started trembling and houses started falling down. Cracks started forming in the sky and soon it broke apart, revealing blackness behind it. The three boys huddled together and avoided the large chunks of apparently rock that were falling. Suddenly, Edd and Ed started to turn transparent.
"Guys, what's happening?"
"Oh no, has it really been three days alrea-" Before Edd could finish, he and Ed disappeared, and Eddy was all alone again.