Disclaimer: I do not own anything.
Aughhhhhhh, my motivation has slowed down a lot in a week. I must keep focused on writing. I must!
Natsumi ate for a while, refueling her strength before Tamama finally put her to bed in one of his unused rooms.
"Good night, Natchi. I'm glad you're back," he said to her.
"I'm... glad I'm back, too," Natsumi responded after a few moments of silence. Sure, her brother was an evil dictator, but at least she was back now to make up for all the lost time she had to make up for. She gave Tamama a hug before yawning and slipping into bed.
You'd think someone who slept for eleven years wouldn't want to sleep anymore. But I'm sure she just needs to refuel her strength, Tamama decided.
The resistance was strong, but it only barely got by. He was glad he had found Natsumi, because she could be a very powerful asset to have.
Tamama yawned, too. It had been a long day, and he headed off to his bedroom. He hoped he dreamed of cake, of sugary treats and good things, and that Natsumi had filled his head with happiness instead of visions of Keroro dying.
He didn't want any nightmares.
But nightmares from his past was what he got.
To Tamama's surprise, in his vivid flashback-like dreams, he didn't dream of Keroro's death. No, instead he dreamed of something much worse.
That woman, and the start of her relationship with his sergeant.
"Uncle, would you like to... m-maybe go out?" She finally took the initiative one day and just asked forwardly while he was working on some Gundam models. With Natsumi in her coma, it had been a bit hard for everyone to recover the cheerful atmosphere again. But Mois clearly hadn't understood that Natsumi had almost died.
Tamama hissed at Mois's honesty and just jumping into it and finally confessing.
Reject her, Mr. Sergeant! Reject her once and for all! Tamama yelled inside his head. But Keroro did not reject her. The nightmare, and reality, did not go that way.
"Um... sure, I don't see why not." Keroro shrugged nonchalantly and went back to playing with his Gundam model.
"YES! Really, Uncle? I'm so happy! That's great!" Mois beamed and jumped up and down. Keroro looked at her, furrowing his brow, as if confused about what she was so happy about. "You're going to love it, I'll try to make you so happy. I'm so happy that you want to."
"Ummm, yeah, I mean, why wouldn't I want to?" Keroro looked at her, confused.
Mois giggled like she was filled with joy at Keroro's words. And Tamama's heart broke.
That's right... They started dating after that, Tamama recalled. And their sickening couple relationship just drove a sword into his heart everyday after.
The whole platoon knew about it. They saw the couple-like activities that Mois and Keroro did. At first Giroro and Kululu had tried teasing Keroro a little bit about his relationship, but he easily brushed off the teasing.
The first time they kissed as a couple was in front of the whole invasion meeting. Mois beamed at Keroro, leaned down, and kissed him squarely on the lips.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Tamama screamed out loud.
"Wh-what...?" Keroro asked, clearly confused at Mois's sudden desire to kiss.
"I love you, Uncle. I'm so glad we're dating," she told him, giving him another kiss because she didn't feel the first one was quite enough. Keroro's eyes remained open in embarrassment and shock.
"Nice job, Keroro!" Giroro clapped, congratulating his friend.
"Get a room, you two. I don't want to see this gross stuff. Bleh. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu wasn't nearly as congratulatory, and distanced his gaze from the lovefest.
"You two make quiet the cute couple!" Dororo also clapped for Keroro.
"C-couple...?" Keroro looked at Mois and then looked away.
"There's the embarrassment we were looking for! Time to get back at you for the years of teasing you put me through!" Giroro was ready for this. He was quite ready.
Keroro got teased a lot about his lovey-dovey relationship with Angol Mois.
After the kiss, Keroro acted quite distant from Mois, awkward even. It brought Tamama great joy.
Maybe she had some sort of mouth fungus and was really gross! I can imagine that woman being like that! Tamama thought to himself. However, Mois still talked constantly about how in love she was with Keroro.
It was something Tamama wanted to drop her off a tall building for. SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!
Then, one day, Tamama saw Keroro and Dororo talking, alone, about Mois. Tamama hid away from the two of them and listened.
"What do I do, Dororo? I really have no idea what to do about Mois!" Keroro told him.
"You care for her, right?" Dororo asked.
"Well, I mean, yeah." Keroro was not very specific.
"Then you should tell her. And do not put it off. It is of the utmost importance that you tell her, after all." Dororo put his hand on Keroro's shoulder.
"B-but... It's so embarrassing... I don't know if I can... What if she doesn't like me afterward?" he asked.
"She won't stop liking you. I think you don't know enough about her to judge this. She'll accept you, no matter what," Dororo advised. "But you need to tell her. Procrastinating on this is only going to bring you hardships."
"F-fine... I'll figure out the right time to tell her. I mean, I have to make this perfect after all..." Keroro agreed.
Tamama, being the jealous thing he was in the background, completely thought this conversation could only mean one thing. Oh my God! He's going to propose to her! This is awful!
He had to end this.
He went to the only person who could help him, the only person who had the emotional capacity to break up people with no guilt that he had ruined their happiness.
"Please help me, they're going to get married! Mr. Sergeant's going to propose to that awful awful woman, and you and I both know that she'll say yes!" Tamama begged Kululu on his hands and knees to help ruin the two of their lives.
Kululu spun around in his chair. "You serious? Captain's going to propose to Mois? Ku, ku, ku. Well, that's a bit quick." He thought for a moment, silence filling the air between him and Tamama. "What's this have to do with me though? I don't care. I don't care about Mois's relationship with Captain at all. As long as she does her work, I'm not concerned."
Tamama could hear just a little bit of bitterness in his voice. "I'll pay you if you help me break them up," he offered.
"Well. You should have mentioned money was involved from the very beginning. Ku, ku, ku." Kululu quickly changed his tone. "Deal," he agreed.
The plan was that Kululu would shoot them both with a gun to believe almost any rumor that was spread about the other one, so that Tamama and Kululu could say whatever terrible thing they wanted about Keroro to Mois and to Keroro about Mois. However, Kululu never made the gun and never shot them.
"What the heck? Why didn't you ever go through with the plan?" Tamama asked angrily after realizing Keroro wasn't believing anything he said.
"I... I changed my mind," Kululu admitted. "It wouldn't have worked out, anyway. And I was too lazy to do it."
"You went back on your deal!" Tamama accussed.
"Obviously. I'm a jerk. Ku, ku, ku," Kululu laughed. "But really, Tamama... Why'd you come to me? We both know that I would have gone back on this plan and wouldn't have done it."
What... Why? Tamama wondered. And then he realized that the plan required going up to the subject and talking to them. Probably even making eye contact. Kululu couldn't do that with Mois.
"Anyway. This doesn't have anything to do with me. It has to do with your weird love triangle," Kululu pointed out. "And the Captain and Mois seem happy enough. If you really want to ruin their happiness for your selfish love, then you probably don't really love him."
"How could you say that? Of course I love Mr. Sergeant!" Tamama cried. "I just... He won't be happy with that woman... And I want to be happy with him, too."
"Disgusting. I can't be bothered to be dragged down into this train wreck. Either you stop bothering them, or realize that you're not doing it for him, you're doing it for your own selfishness," Kululu scolded. "I'll laugh at you from afar, but I can't aid you in this. I mean, I have a life that's not nearly as pathetic."
Tamama cried, and finally left after Kululu's cruel onslaught of words.
He didn't attempt to break up Mois and Keroro after that. Not like it would have mattered if he did, though, because the next day they were all called for war.
In the war, Tamama didn't know if he'd die or not, but he kept close to Keroro, knowing that if they survived he'd have to return Keroro to Mois again soon.
He couldn't keep his promise to himself not to be selfish, though. He attempted to seduce Keroro into bed several times.
I really am selfish, Tamama realized. Keroro never seemed to take him up on his offer, or even understand that Tamama was trying to seduce him.
"Private... Can I ask something of you?" Keroro finally asked on the last day Tamama would ever see him alive and well. Tamama nodded, happily.
Keroro handed him a letter. "If something happens and I don't make it... can you give this to the person this letter's addressed to? Please? I trust you."
Tamama nodded. He was glad Keroro trusted him with something so important.
He didn't look at who it was addressed to until he and the rest of the platoon were in orbit, far away from Keroro.
Tamama cried and cried, but finally opened Keroro's letter, desperate to see what Keroro's final words were.
The name that Tamama hated with a passion was on the top of the letter. Angol Mois.
"Why? Why were you thinking of her in your final moments?" Tamama cried.
He read the letter to himself, hoping it would be something terrible, something to make him feel better. "Dear Mois... I'm sorry. I'm sorry about everything." That was all there was on the letter. Just a heartfelt apology.
Tamama cried.
"I'll save you next time, Mr. Sergeant. In another life, you won't die."
Tamama woke up, sweating. The memories of the past were always hard for him. But... had he done a few things wrong? Had Kululu been right all along that he had been selfish and should have let Keroro live happily with the person he loved, instead of tormenting Mois everyday?
It was harder now to know if what he had done and all the hatred he felt for Mois was wrong, because she was an evil dictator that he had sworn to take down at whatever cost. But at the same time, he knew that part of the reason he had started this revolution was at least because he hated her so much.
He wanted to blame her for Keroro's death, for taking Keroro away from him. But should he have instead been thankful for the little moments of happiness that she had given Keroro?
We both love him in our own way... And have been driven by his memory even years after his death, Tamama thought to himself.
"Hey... Tamama?" Natsumi knocked on his door, having heard his wheezing and screams from his nightmare. "Are you okay?"
"Y-yeah... I was just dreaming about Mr. Sergeant again," Tamama nodded, trying to be honest.
"I'm sorry... I know you loved him a lot." Natsumi sat down on Tamama's bed with him, helping him calm down. "Can I ask you something before we both go to bed again?"
Tamama nodded.
"What happened to the rest of the platoon?" she asked. She hadn't seen any of the other frogs hanging around Tamama.
"We all went our separate ways once we got to Pekopon again," Tamama told her. "We split up. I went to stay with Momocchi, but left soon after Fukki became a dictator. I saw the warning signs."
Natsumi nodded. She have him a hug. He had lived a hard life. She hoped someday his spirit could be eased from his troubles.
While Tamama recovered from his nightmares, yet another soul slept dreaming of the same days he did.
Angol Mois slept haunted by the nightmares of the past, of Keroro's death.
We were so happy... Everything was going perfectly... She recalled as she slept. She remembered the happiness they had shared together.
The memories before Keroro had died were perhaps her best memories, although dreaming of them were very rare.
Things were going perfectly... That was until those Nekorians stole him from me.
She had heard Keroro was still on Keron from his platoon, but nobody knew if he was alive or searching for a way home, until Fuyuki had gotten the pictures in the mail.
"Mois... I need to talk to you," he told her, alone. "It's about... the Sarge..." Fuyuki handed her an envelope, his face a pale green.
Mois opened it.
Dear Angolian,
We captured this Keronian during our raid of Keron. He claimed to be your boyfriend. We did not believe him, but prodded his memories nonetheless with some of our technology.
We believe, after seeing some of his memories involving you, that you will enjoy these pictures. Mois flipped to the photos she was sent of Keroro.
Terror was going through his eyes, scars were all over his body, pus and blood covered his body from torn skin. And those were the best of the pictures Fuyuki and she saw.
They had photographed truly inhumane pictures of Keroro being tortured. Fuyuki was shaking. He didn't seem to have the willpower to be able to see these.
"P-please... save him," he begged her. She noticed the envelope had already been open. It was likely he had seen the pictures and it had taken him quite a while to stop throwing up to give them to her.
"I...I won't let Uncle be hurt this way. I'll save him," she promised to Fuyuki.
She was an Angolian. Her people were in a treaty with the Nekoians. She just needed to negotiate for them to let her free Keroro.
You'll be home safe and sound soon, she promised, flying off immediately.
"Please... free Uncle. Give him to me," Mois begged the aliens.
"Why?" the cats asked. "Why would you want him? And anyway, our alliance doesn't say we need to give the Angolians anything like one of our war trophies."
"I'll do anything! Please! Just return him to me!" she begged.
"Anything, huh? Well... you can't rewrite our treaty. You're not the Angolian ruler,yet, after all. But... if you were the ruler, we might be able to rewrite things, make it so we could give you the Keronian as your trophy, start a better alliance where we were the Angolians' closest ally." The Nekoian grinned, laughing at their scheming ways.
"But...I'm not the ruler of Angol. It'll take billions of years for me to become the ruler," she insisted.
"Through natural causes. But if you kill the other Angols, then you'll be the ruler by default. So... that's the only way to rewrite the contract."
"B-but..." She stepped back. She couldn't kill the other Angols! At the same time, she had made a promise to Fuyuki and she couldn't just abandon the love of her life. "I'll... I'll do it. Please... keep him safe until then. And then we'll renegotiate the contract."
She left to go to Angol.
She came back immediately, the blood still on her body.
"Let's negotiate the contract. I am the leader," she told them coldly. She was now the King of Terror.
Uncle... I'll do anything for you. Because long ago you told me that you need me. And as long as you need me I have a purpose in this world and can be loved by someone. Mois was excited to embrace Keroro again.
"All right. So you'll be our primary ally and we give you the Keronian named Keroro, correct?" they asked.
She nodded. The cats quickly brought a cardboard box.
"Wh-where's Uncle?" she asked.
"We've brought him," they said. "He's in the box. You wanted the trophy, after all."
Hesitantly and gently she walked over to the box and opened it to see her Uncle. "U-Uncle?"
Cold, lifeless eyes stared back at her. Keroro's dead body had been given to her as a present. Scars were still all over him from the foul tortures he had probably had to live through.
He had probably died slowly and painfully.
"AHHHH!" she screamed, jumping back.
"What's wrong?" the cat alien asked. "We killed him just for you!"
"I didn't want him dead!" she complained. "I wanted him alive!"
"But... that doesn't make any sense... When we caught him and looked at his memories, he seemed like an awful, horrible boyfriend. He constantly made you work for him, exploited you, and dismissed your feelings. He was cruel to you. So we punished him for you."
"He loved me!" Mois insisted. That's why he accepted me dating him...
The cats looked at each other. "We looked at his feelings and we can assure you, he never felt love for you. He cared for you, true. But we would say it was closer to how a person cares for their favorite doll. It's not a real thing, you use it when it's convenient to you. You were his doll. So we punished him."
Mois shook her head, over and over again. She backed into the wall, terrified of what she was hearing. Keroro... He couldn't have been dead! He cared about her! She... She meant something to him.
No... I knew this was true all along. I knew he didn't really love me, and didn't want to risk hurting our relationship because he didn't know if I'd help him shop for Gundam or do his chores... I knew he was exploiting me and saw me as a doll all along, I knew he didn't love me... He never initiated any kisses with me and when I kissed him he seemed shocked and awkward. But... I was happy nonetheless because he was spending time with me. It was everything I had dreamed and more. Uncle was all mine and I selfishly wanted to hoard him for myself.
Angol Mois sobbed into her hands.
I'm lonely... I want Uncle back. I don't even care if I'm a doll. Her sadness quickly turned to anger, though, as she whipped out her Lucifer Spear.
"You took Uncle away from me," she told them. "And now you'll pay the price."
"But... we have a treaty...!" they insisted.
"Treaty's gone now. Thanks to you, I am the ruler of Angol." She hit the ground of the planet as the cats screamed. After a few hits it was over, and there was only a hunk of rock left floating in space where she remained. She had made sure to let there be some space of the planet still alive. After all, she needed to retrieve Keroro's body.
One cat still remained, slowly dying from the space air. "You killed us... our entire proud species!" he accused, the atmosphere withering his body away.
"Yes. Yes I did," she told him. She grabbed the box carefully.
The cat frowned. Suddenly, a green light enveloped Mois that the cat had shot at her. "You were unaware that I am a mage."
"Wh-what are you doing?" she asked.
"Cursing you with my dying breath. It'll be a strong curse, one that you deserve. You destroyed us out of your loneliness when we took him from you, so you will be cursed to be lonely forever. You will not be able to make a single friend in your lifetime, because anyone who feels friendship for you will immediately die. Hahaha!" he cursed. "The only relationships you'll probably be able to form are ones based on your exploitation. Like a master-slave relationship, just like you had with him - " Mois quickly struck the cat with her spear, getting him to shut up.
Still... she was terrified. She was lonely enough as she was. And she had heard of the Nekoians magic. It was nothing to laugh at. She was doomed.
"I brought Uncle back... I'm sorry, I wasn't able to save him," she apologized to Fuyuki, handing him the box. The crushing loneliness, her realizations, they all gave her no hope in the world.
Fuyuki and her both cried over the dead body of Keroro. They quickly told everyone else about the death, but Fuyuki and Mois both left out the grimy disgusting details of the torture they had seen.
Everybody mourned.
Fuyuki mourned for a week before he approached Mois. He sat down next to the girl who no longer had any hope in her eyes.
"I'm going to fix this," he told her.
"How?" she asked.
"I'm an occult researcher. I'm sure I can find some sort of supernatural way to bring Keroro back. I won't let him just stay dead. But... I want your help. We can bring him back together, Mois! Imagine, the two people who cared about the Sarge the most... We would be unstoppable!" Fuyuki tried to smile, the optimistic innocent sort of smile he used to have. It almost came off as slightly deranged, though, the dangerous sort of hope.
Mois got out of her chair and jumped back. She could see the signs of what was happening. Fuyuki and her would work together to bring back Keroro, but Fuyuki would become her friend! He was like that, he was nice. He didn't deserve to die because of her curse.
"I can't, Fuyuki. I don't want you to be hurt," she told him. "I want to save, Uncle, but we can't work together."
Fuyuki grabbed her hand before she left. "Tell me why. Explain what happened that caused all this, Mois. I need to know all the details involving Keroro's death. All of them. Don't skimp on them."
Mois agreed, but only because she knew Fuyuki deserved the information about his friend.
After their talk, Fuyuki thought for a moment.
"So you see... I can't ever have any friends," she told him.
"But I need you by my side to make our dream a reality." He rubbed his chin thinking. "So then...I won't be your friend."
"What will you be, then?" she asked curiously.
"You told me about how Keroro felt for you. How he treated you. Being so broken over not being needed and being lonely wouldn't benefit my plans very well, anyway," he explained. "So how about while you wait for Keroro, you become my doll instead? If you're fine with it. That way I won't die, and it'll be more like a master-servant relationship than a friendly one."
Mois looked up at Fuyuki, who was standing and smiling. She felt like a light of hope was shining down on her.
She didn't want to be lonely. And she did want to be needed. No... she needed to be needed and useful to someone. Being someone's doll might benefit her quite well.
"All right. Let's bring back Uncle," she agreed.
"No matter what the cost." He shook her hand.
They were the two who had seen the photos that had forever been burned into their mind. They could not escape. But together they would make things right.
Mois awoke from her reminiscing. The only memories that seemed to not make her sad were the ones involving Fuyuki.
Things have changed a lot since then between us, she remembered. I was like a servant to him in the beginning, only doing things for Fuyuki's will. But now I am more like an equal, ruling this planet by his side.
Perhaps it was because she had become more cold-hearted. She was the one who did most of the actual enforcing around here.
Fuyuki had run into a few problems with her new thirst for killing in cold blood, though. She enjoyed it way more than necessary. The more I kill in cold blood, bathing in the blood of others, the more I can feel the way Uncle does when he comes back. The Keroro they kept managing to resurrect was always much crueler... And he always thirsted for blood, searching for the perfect soul to sustain him.
She just wanted to understand what Keroro was going through and what he felt like.
I may be Fuyuki's doll for now, but once Uncle is back, I'm leaving. After all, I am his first. And then I will rule my half of the universe how I want, as the King of terror, she thought to herself.
She couldn't wait for Keroro's return.
Still, the terror at her nightmare caused her to breathe more shallow, and she cuddled up next to her bed mate for warmth.
"Mois? Did something wake you up?" Kululu asked, yawning when she woke him up. "Or is there something you want~?" He gave her a seductive smirk.
She sighed. They had already done that today!
"No. I just had a nightmare." She hugged Kululu closer. "I was thinking about Uncle."
Kululu stroked her hair to comfort her, running his fingers through it gently. "I know," he told her in a soft and quiet voice. "I know."
She didn't know why it sounded like he was in pain. She was the one with the nightmare, not him.
As she snuggled up more to Kululu, he slowly went back to sleep.
I am Fuyuki's doll. He filled the slot in my life when Uncle was gone of needing me. But... Kululu offered himself up to fill a very different slot in my life. One that Fuyuki could never fill.
I believe the term is "lover" but we of course use a very different word.
That's right... I may be Fuyuki's slave, but Kululu will be my slave. She snuggled up closer. She had two people in her life to replace the lost one, but still... something seemed very wrong about it.
She still knew that she wanted her Uncle back.
Please review