Lucy was sleeping when she got a knock on her window. It was Haiku and she looked traumatized and scared.
"Haiku?" Lucy asked and helped her inside as Haiku sobbed.
"What's wrong?" Lucy asked, but Haiku bit her tongue and refused to speak.
"Haiku, I can't help you if you don't tell me." Lucy says as Haiku looks down.
"Did something die?" Lucy asked as Haiku shook her head.
"Is Maggie hurt?" Lucy asked again as Haiku shook her head.
"Is your grandmother hurt?" Lucy asked as Haiku looked down with tears stinging her eyes.
"Sorry for your loss." Lucy says.
"Stephie…" Haiku moaned.
"Something happened to Stephen?" Lucy asked.
Luke overhears and cries because he's losing all his friends now. Luke felt bitter and angry inside.
"You wanna go to Garrett's house?" Luna asked.
Luke nods as she takes him there to see Stephen all right, but he looks upset.
"Stephen, you're alive?" Luke asked.
He nods. "Haiku's spell injured Grandma. She's in a coma." Stephen says, tearing up.
Luke sighed in relief. He hugged Stephen and stayed for a bit before leaving.
The next day, Luke hissed at the results and said nothing until Luna noticed.
"Luke, what is it?" Luna asked. Luke shows her.
"I'm…not in the finals…." Luke says sadly. The siblings overheard.
"Maybe we should check. There has to be a mistake." Lisa says as she checks.
Luke sobbed. "I worked so hard!" He says. "Now Oliver will win and I'll be here, just watching him gloat…." Luke sobbed.
Lisa sees a mistake. He was in the finals. But Luke refused to even believe it.
Lisa shows him the screen. But when he saw Randy and his group in the lead, he let out an ear-piercing scream and stormed off.
"There goes my ears…" Lana says.
Haiku was still in Lucy's room, looking down. Lucy held her.
"I killed my own grandmother." Haiku sobbed.
Luke just screamed and threw a fit. Leni gave him a hug.
"You'll win. Last season, you weren't in first, but you won the finals" Luna says.
"Randy's only in first because everyone feels sorry for him and they gave him pity votes!" Luke shouted.
"That happened to Oliver in the past." Lisa notes.
"I hate pity points…" Randy says, trying to get up. "Idiot." he says
"Hey, Brandy, we have a plan. Why don't we host a concert in Greendale?" Savannah asked.
"I doubt it will work." he sighed.
"Positive thinking. Not to mention the band's 1st anniversary is coming up." Savannah says.
"That's in a few days… they started the band on August 5th…" Brandy says.
"It's July 26th, plus you should just do it on a different date. it's only a matter of time before you die." Emila says darkly as Brandy goes to set up.
Lucy was planning the band's anniversary, the cups' anniversary, Chalice's birthday, Luke's anniversary, then Luke's victory party by herself and looked stressed out a bit.
"If I fail one, I'm dead." Lucy says.
The siblings comforted Luke as he just felt broken.
On August 5th, the cosmic buddies set up a concert for Luke and the band.
Lucy came in with the anniversary pancakes for the five of them, who looked pretty upset.
"Happy 1st anniversary, you guys." Lucy says.
"Thanks!" Cuphead says with joy.
Luke was still sore with Luna about the stolen concert.
Luna was setting up a concert for Luke. If one mistake came up, he'd kill her and all the siblings.
"I'm going out for some fun adventures now." Cuphead says.
Luke goes out for his day, wanting his siblings' death; he never had faith in them; he wanted them out of his life.
The siblings set up the party, parade, and concert.
Alem tuber, Alex, and Jack engaged in a rigorous training session, focusing on improving their strength through punches and kicks. During the session, Reilly attempted to punch Alex, but he skillfully dodged the attack. At the same time, Jack delivered a powerful kick to Alex. In the end, Alem tuber emerged victorious, unleashing a series of harsh punches.
Lucy leads the 5 of them to their anniversary concert that Brandy and Luna set up. There were decorations everywhere and they were centered around them. There were lots of fans.
Luke looked nervous, ready to execute his siblings. The fans wanted to see Luke perform with his group.
"Elemental Strike! Elemental Strike!" The fans cheered.
Luke was shocked by this.
"It's for you. I'm sorry for what I did." Luna says as Brandy nods.
"Elemental Strike! Elemental Strike!" Fans cheered.
"Let's do this!" Luke says to the group.
"Yeah!" They say.
They soon started performing "Let's Go Crazy" first as the fans screamed. Then they started performing "Makes Me Happy", a song that Mugman suggested and they practiced for this moment.
The crowd cheered as the siblings were proud.
After a while, they went on break. Luke was furious that the siblings made the party be centered on him when today was about the band.
"Luke…I did it. I thought you'd be happier, so I told them to. Besides, you are the best among us." Chalice says. Luke was stunned.
"You've been through a lot and we wanted to make you happier. If it wasn't for you, there would be no band." Oliver says.
"I…I…" Luke stammered.
They made Luke a gift. Luke took the gift and opened it. It was a scrapbook of all their best moments. Luke teared up, speechless. All he could do was hug his bandmates.
They hug him back.
Later, they continued the concert as fans cheered.
After the concert
"I have a surprise for you 5." Lucy says and leads them to their party as there were water rides and water games.
"Happy 1st Anniversary, Elemental Strike!" All of Luke's friends and Family says.
"Wow!" The group says.
"I love water activities!" Chalice says.
Charity smiles. She then presents the band with an envelope.
"I think Luke should open it." Oliver says.
Luke opens it and gasps.
"You guys got nominated for at least 10 Grammy awards!" Charity says.
The siblings cheered, happy for Luke as Lucy worried how she would be able to plan that and live.
Luke soon goes to open presents with the band. There was a gift card from Brandy to the mall's music store.
Lucy gives him his gift. Luke stared at it, then hissed.
"Wh-What's wrong?" Lucy stammered.
"We're dead." Lisa thought.
"Is this a JOKE?!" Mugman says, insulted.
"Well, I never!" Chalice says.
"Oh, you're cruel!" Luke and Cuphead say.
"Execute them!" Oliver says as the siblings were taken to be executed.
Lucy looked ashamed for screwing up the drawing.
Lucy was chained up and about to be executed. She looked down.
"Are we jokes to you?!" Mugman asked.
"No, I screwed up, I'm sorry. It was supposed to come out better." Lucy says. "If there's anything I can do to make it up to you, I'd do it." Lucy says sadly.
Lucy then redid the gift as it looked better. "Happy Anniversary. You can…kill me. I don't deserve to live." Lucy says looking down.
The other siblings looked nervous.
"I knew that you never loved me. If you loved me, all my parties would be perfect and no, I never enjoyed any of those dumb parties. I hate you." Luke says. This mentally shattered Lucy.
"... just end me" Lucy says quietly. Her last reason for living was gone.
They prepared the axe to chop her head off as Lucy looked down.
Oliver and the cup trio looked at Luke. Haiku was horrified. She didn't want to lose Lucy.
"Kill her." Luke says to the guard as he nodded and executed Lucy.
Lynn froze in horror. Luke did that to the sibling who did the most for him; she figured Luke had a soft spot for Lucy. Luke froze in realization. He hurt Lucy. He hurt the sibling who cared about him the most. All because Lucy wanted to try something she wasn't good at and she was Cuphead's girlfriend. Cuphead had seen the execution and was now sobbing against Mugman.
Lucy's body just laid down, blood pouring out.
Luke just sobbed at the deed he just made happen.
"This is our fault. We pressured Lucy into doing way too many parties." Lola says.
"This is still their anniversary. We need to suck it up and continue celebrating them." Luna says.
"Oh, our anniversary…." Oliver says and opens his dad's gift.
He sees a cool guitar. "Thanks, dad." Oliver says.
Lucy stared blankly as the wound from the axe was big. She didn't want anyone to help her. She just wanted to die.
She could feel her eyes closing all the way and her strength was fading. "I'm sorry, goodbye, Luke…" Lucy says, speaking her final words as she passed away.
"Luke…" Luna asked as Leni holds Luke.
"Be strong for her." Luna tells Luke.
"I made a horrible mistake…" Luke says.
"It's okay." Lori says, holding him.
Luan told Luke funny jokes to cheer him up. But Luke was regretting what he did. And it hurt him. A lot.
"Luke, I know it hurts. But you should move on. The anniversary is what's important. not Lucy." Lola says.
Luke just walked away. The siblings didn't care about how he was feeling right now.
Leni holds Luke. "I know this hurts. It hurts me, too. Take as much time as you need. We'll continue to celebrate when you're feeling better." Leni says.
Luke nods and goes to be alone.
Cuphead was taking this the hardest. Mugman was his crying shoulder. He didn't shatter. All he did was cry as Mugman held him.
After a while, Luke came back feeling better as he saw a parade float.
"A float for us?" Luke asked.
"Yeah, we made it for you." Luna says.
Mugman was Cuphead's "crutch" and Cuphead hung on to him as he sniffed. "Celebrate without me." he says sadly.
"Okay." Oliver says.
"I was going to let her be in the band" Cuphead thought.
Lucy looked around and sighed.
"Lucy, you need to head back. Luke needs you." Lucille says.
"No, he doesn't. He hates me. I needed him as a crutch. He was the only reason I didn't commit suicide." Lucy says.
"Lucy, listen, he made a mistake by choosing an anniversary over you, but it was a mistake by rage, not malice… maybe a little malice, but he needs you." Lucille says.
"No, the same thing will happen." Lucy says, mentally broken.
"I have no choice " Lucille says as she used a spell.
"Gasp!" Lucy gasped, back to life, but some of the pain was still there. She was in a coffin.
Luke, Oliver, and Chalice were in the parade as Luke forced a smile, waving from the float.
He had made a horrible mistake, hurting the sibling he loved most. All because of a gift.
"Help…" Lucy coughed. She was going to die if she didn't get out. She needed a doctor. Normally, she loved coffins. But she wasn't immune to not breathing. Also, she still had a big wound.
No one heard her, so she was starting to hyperventilate. Haiku actually heard this.
"Is Lucy alive?" Haiku asked.
Lucy banged on the coffin frantically as Haiku opened it. Lucy was shivering and shaking.
"Luke and Cuphead will be thrilled to find you're alive." Haiku says as Lucy just shook. She was lightheaded. Haiku took her to a hospital.
Haiku texted Luke and Cuphead about this.
Cuphead smiled, relieved. Mugman smiled at his brother.
After the parade, Luke swam to try and cheer himself up, but Leni pulled him out when he was underwater for over 30 minutes.
Later, it was piñata time as there was a bunch of piñatas. Luke screamed and hit all 5 of the piñatas, filled with many emotions.
"You hogged our turns!" The rest of the group says. Luke looked down, ashamed.
"I got more!" Lynn says, bringing them out. The rest of the group smiled and hit their own.
Luke looked down. "Sorry…" he says.
"It's okay, you're stressed. Why don't we visit Lucy after the party?" Chalice suggested.
Luke nods as they watch a highlight reel, which had the band's best moments.
Later, they were eating cookies when the lights turned off.
"Finally!" Oliver says, smiling and knowing what time it was.
It slowly lit up, revealing a grand 5 layer cake that said "Happy 1st Anniversary To The Elemental Strike!" in all their colors. It was chocolate, a flavor they all liked.
Everyone sang to them as they smiled.
Oliver and the cup trio wished for Luke to feel better. Cuphead also wished for a space jetpack.
Luke thought of his wish. He wished for a perfect 20th birthday party.
Everyone cheered as Luke blew out the #1-shaped candle on the very top layer.
Lucy woke up In the hospital.
"How are you feeling?" Charity asked, but Lucy didn't respond. She felt horrible about the gift she gave the band.
"Does Luke hate me?" Lucy asked, shaking.
"He regrets hurting you." Charity says.
"It was my fault." Lucy says.
"He told me he should have just accepted the gift as it was." Charity says. "And he should've been more grateful."
Lucy sobbed as Charity held Lucy. Lucy was hurting badly from all her bottled feelings.
Later, the group came to see Lucy.
Lucy sobbed. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" Lucy sobbed.
"We really liked the gift. We just didn't think you could draw…" Oliver says, ashamed.
"If anyone's to blame, it's me. I shouldn't have lashed out." Luke says. "I can't help the way I feel sometimes…"
Lucy nodded and sighed.
"If you want me to go, I will." Luke says, still feeling hurt.
"Stay, please…I need you." Lucy sniffed. Luke looks at her and stays with her.