When he came to Kenny was lying on the couch, hood down, gauze messily wrapped around his upper lip, and Stan was sitting on the floor across from him. So he didn't die after all. He usually liked it when that happened, dying fucking sucked, but now he was wishing he would die so that Stan would forget what he saw, and he could continue to pretend everything was fine. Of course the universe couldn't let him have that. It was ironic really, the secret that he actually wanted people to know, no one remembered or believed, but the one time he had a secret that he actually wanted to keep? Of course that was the one that had been exposed almost immediately. God he loved his life so much.

"Oh, good, you're awake." Stan said while simultaneously shoving a glass of water and a bag of some kind of food in Kenny's hands. "Here, eat this. It should make you feel better." Kenny checked the bag and saw that it was beef jerky. Something to get his iron levels back up after losing so much blood. Good thinking Stan.

"Thanks." Kenny mumbled before doing what he was told. Stan was right, it did make him feel a little better. As soon as he was finished Kenny pulled his hood back up. He was more comfortable with it up even at the best of times, and this certainly wasn't one of those. Besides, he didn't want Stan to get a closer look at the abnormality of his face than he had to, even though he knew in the back of his mind that he had probably seen it all by now.

"You ok?" Stan asked. Kenny nodded.

"I'll be fine," he said.

"That's not entirely what I'm asking." Stan said. Kenny sighed.

"Then no, not really," he admitted. Stan gave a more empathetic look and he took Kenny's hand.

"Kenny, listen, I know you have secrets. You always have, and I respect that. And I'm not quite sure what I saw in there. But you can't keep hurting yourself like this and pretending everything is fine! I care about you Ken. I love you, and I can't stand to see you torturing yourself like this! Please promise me you won't do this again." he said. Kenny was shocked. That was what Stan was upset about? Not the creepy tentacles? He didn't know what to say. A pit of guilt had also started to form in his stomach. He hated making his friends worry about him. He knows that he'll end up ok no matter what happens to him, but his friends do not. It always felt like he was lying to them, even when he tried to tell them the truth. Like he was causing them pain for no real reason.

"I don't know if I can promise that Stan." Kenny admitted.

"Why not? What's going on Kenny? What the hell is happening to you? Why are you hurting yourself like this?" Stan started to tear up, which made Kenny start to tear up too.

"It's….it's not a big deal." He weakly protested.

"That's bullshit! You're cutting off limbs Kenny!"

"Limbs that shouldn't be there!" Kenny snapped. "What kind of person has tentacles Stan?! No one! It's not human! I'm not human!" Kenny's breath caught in his throat. He had never admitted that to anyone, not even himself. But he knew it was true. "Oh my god…..I'm not human. I can't be. Not completely. I don't think I ever was." He admitted, tears sliding down his face. Stan was taken aback. He didn't know what to say. His first instinct was to deny it, tell Kenny that of course he was human. But he found that he just couldn't do that. Kenny was making sense, normal people don't grow tentacles. It was a distinct possibility that he really wasn't human. To his surprise, Stan found that he wasn't as bothered by this as he probably should be. So his friend might not be human, so what? He'd seen plenty of stranger things in South Park, including plenty of non-humans. And it's not like Kenny lied about it throughout their entire childhood, he genuinely didn't know. He'd only been lying for a few weeks at most, and that was because he was freaking out. He was more concerned with Kenny's reaction to the news than his own. If he wasn't human and he really didn't know that until now, then he understood why he would be upset. That was a hell of a thing to find out.

"Why don't you start from the beginning? Tell me what's going on and why you think that." Kenny nodded and wiped away some of his tears.

"Stan I….I always knew there was something wrong with me."

"I wouldn't say wrong with you." Stan cut in. Kenny was skeptical. Stan had no idea what he was, what he could do. Messing with the rules regarding life and death was pretty fucking wrong in Kenny's opinion.

"Fine, I always knew that I was different, that better?" Kenny asked. Stan nodded and gestured for him to continue. "At first I thought I was just cursed, but then a few weeks ago I started growing these….these freaky ass tentacles! I tried so hard to make them go away, but nothing worked. So I started cutting them off, and even that didn't work because they would just grow back. So I kept doing it. I just want them gone, Stan. Most people get facial hair when they go through puberty, I get tentacles! Because that's just my fucking luck! I don't know what's happening to me. My body's changing and not in the way it's supposed to. I thought I could hide it but I can't. Now everyone's gonna know what an inhuman freak I am! I just don't feel like myself anymore, and I don't know how to fix it!" Stan was speechless. He came here intent on helping Kenny but now he had no idea how. This situation was so out of left field that he didn't know where to start. Mysterious tentacles, not being human, strange transformations, how could he fix any of that? Not to mention this mysterious curse that Kenny had mentioned. He noticed that Kenny never mentioned what his curse was, but he'd deal with that later. Right now he just had to make sure that Kenny stopped cutting those tentacles off. Somehow. He couldn't let Kenny keep hurting himself like that. He could've died if he hadn't shown up.

"So, you're saying that these things just started growing a few weeks ago, and that makes you think that you're not human?" Stan clarified. Well, that and the curse. Kenny thought, At least, if it even is a curse. Like he told Stan, at first he thought he was just a cursed human, but if he wasn't a human, what did that mean for his immortality? Kenny didn't feel like explaining all this to Stan at the moment, much less trying to get him to believe him, so he just nodded.

"And you decided to cut off the inhuman part of yourself?" Stan asked.

"Pretty much." Kenny confirmed. "God, when you put it like that it sounds so fucking stupid."

"It's not stupid." Stan told him. "A little desperate maybe, but not stupid." Kenny gave a quick flicker of a smile at Stan's brutal honesty,which Stan noticed even though his hood was up and his mouth was covered. Years of being friends with Kenny meant that he could read what little he showed of his face perfectly, and his eyes got that crinkle they had whenever he smiled. Maybe he was helping after all. Maybe just being there was helping. He'd never seen Kenny this upset before, and he hated seeing him like that. He'd do just about anything to get him to smile again. Stan got up and sat on the couch next to Kenny, taking his hand again in an attempt to comfort him. He noticed the webbing in between his fingers and was a little startled, which made Kenny look down at the ground in shame. Shit! Stan thought. He didn't mean to make him feel bad. He gave Kenny's hand a squeeze to reassure him.

"Hey, I don't care if you're not human dude. A lot of people we know aren't human. Like Towlie, he's not human. Neither is Mr. Hankey, or Bradley. We still like them, and I still like you too." Relief spread through Kenny's body. Stan didn't care. He wasn't freaking out, he wasn't running. At least one of his friendships would remain intact. Hopefully Kyle would have a similar reaction. (Cause let's be honest, once Stan knew something, Kyle would know it soon and vice versa.) That helped, but it didn't erase all of his concerns.

"But I care! I don't even know what I am anymore! I don't even know who I am anymore."

"I do. You're Kenny." Stan told him. "You're the guy who knew all the sexual innendo's years before the rest of us. The guy who's always down to try any crazy thing we come up with. The guy who never studies and yet somehow still gets good grades. The guy who cares so much about the people around him and the town he grew up in that he dressed up like a superhero in order to help people. The one who would do anything to protect the people he loves, even putting himself in the line of fire to save them." Kenny nodded, that was true. In fact, he'd done more than put himself in the line of fire, he'd actually died for them. "You're a magic champion, a superhero, a princess. You're a great big brother, and an amazing friend. Human or not, none of that has changed." Kenny blushed and tears welled up in his eyes. He knew that the guys cared about him, but they had a very jokey friendship where they teased each other a lot. It was all in good fun, but it did mean that earnest compliments like this were pretty rare. But goddamn did he need one right now.

"Do you really mean that?" Kenny asked.

"Of course dude." Stan reassured him. "I always thought you were like, the coolest kid in South Park. A few tentacles don't change that. And, as for what you are, we'll figure it out. We always do, don't we? But no matter what you are, you're still Kenny, you're still my friend. That'll never change." Kenny was overcome with emotion and gave Stan a hug, which Stan gladly accepted.

"Thank you Stan." Kenny said.

"You're welcome." Stan replied. "Now can you please promise me that you won't hurt yourself anymore?" Kenny hesitated a bit before answering.

"I just…I really hate these tentacles Stan." Kenny admitted. "They're squirmy and gross and I can feel them…"

"Well, we can try other ways to get rid of them." Stan offered. "Maybe Dr. Mephesto can fix it?"

"I don't really want four asses either." Kenny said. Stan laughed.

"Fair enough." He admitted. "But there has to be a better way than DIY surgery. You could cause an infection, or lose a lot of blood. Kenny, you could die from this!" Wouldn't be the first time. Kenny thought, but Stan wasn't done. "I don't want you to die Ken, I don't know what I'd do if I lost you." I do. Kenny thought. I know very well what you'd do. Which reminded him, he still had to apologize for what he said yesterday.

"Ok, I promise I won't cut the tentacles off anymore." Kenny said. "And Stan, about what I said yesterday…..Stan?" Kenny asked. Stan didn't look like he was paying attention anymore, he was just staring into space with a thousand yard stare, a haunted look in his eyes. Unbeknownst to Kenny, when Stan had said that he didn't want Kenny to die he'd unconsciously triggered a long buried memory. He was sitting in Mr. Mackey's office back in elementary school. Mr. Mackey was saying that Kenny was in the hospital, that he was likely going to die soon. Stan was crying, denying it all, saying that Kenny couldn't die. Where did that come from? He certainly didn't want to imagine something like this, and it seemed too detailed to be imagined. But it couldn't possibly be real. Kenny was here, Kenny was fine, he wasn't dead. (Well, maybe not exactly fine, but still. )Another memory resurfaced. They were in Cartman's basement, playing their superhero game. Kenny was ranting about something, what was it? "I die all the time, and you assholes never remember!" "Remember this time! Try and fucking remember!" Gunshot to the head. Kenny on the floor, bleeding profusely. "Oh my god, they killed Kenny!" "You bastards!" More memories resurfaced, Kenny getting stabbed, Kenny getting shot, Kenny getting crushed, decapitated, choked, burned. All with that constant refrain, "oh my god, they killed Kenny!" ringing in his ears. What was this? What was going on? Why was he imagining his friend getting killed in horrific ways? Or was this not imagined? Was Kenny telling the truth as Mysterion? Could he really not die?

"Kenny? I know this is going to sound crazy, and maybe it is, maybe I'm just going nuts, but….have you ever….died before?" Kenny's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. How? How did Stan know? How did he figure it out? He thought it was impossible! Stan saw this reaction and shook his head. "I'm sorry, I don't know why I asked that, I was being crazy, I…"

"No!" Kenny shouted, grabbing Stan's arm. He wasn't about to let Stan talk himself out of this, not when he's this close to finally getting what he always wanted. "You're not crazy, it's true! I have died before, many times!" Now Stan's jaw dropped. Despite everything, he wasn't actually expecting a yes.

"What?!"

"I die all the time! Do you actually remember something?" Kenny asked. Stan didn't answer, he just stared at him, flabbergasted.

"What?...But….are you fucking with me right now?" he asked, even though he knew he wasn't. If he was Cartman, yes, but Kenny? Especially when he was as emotional as he was now? No way. But he just couldn't process it. Couldn't fathom living in a world where Kenny died as often as he had.

"Dude, how could I be fucking with you when you're the one who brought it up?!" Kenny pointed out. That was a good point. He couldn't be fucking with him, he couldn't put ideas in his head, couldn't put those memories there. (Holy shit, those were memories!) But that meant…..Stan put a hand up to his mouth and started to tear up. Kenny was telling the truth all those years ago. He really did die all the time and come back somehow. And what Kenny said earlier, about not being there for him, he was right about that too. He wasn't sure if he had been talking about how he didn't show up at the hospital or when he brushed him off when he tried to tell him his secret, or both. Either one was a shitty thing for a friend to do. Stan had been right all those years ago, he really was Kenny's worst friend.

Tears fell from Stan's eyes and he swept Kenny into a hug, holding him as tight as he could, like he'd pass away again if he let him go. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." Stan repeated, trying in vain to apologize for everything. Every death, every time he scoffed when Kenny brought it up, every time he wasn't there for him when he should've been. Kenny burst into tears. Stan believed him, Stan knew. Somehow, some way, someone finally knew. Both boys stayed like that for a while, sobbing into each other's arms, with Stan occasionally muttering apologies. Kenny's hood had come off at some point, but neither minded, and Stan used the opportunity to start stroking Kenny's hair. He was trying to be the supportive best friend but Stan was actually starting to get scared for Kenny at this point. The tentacles were one thing, but dying and coming back to life?! How was that even possible?! He died so often, did the changes to his body mean he was getting worse? What if he didn't come back one day?! He couldn't lose Kenny, not for good. He didn't even want to lose him for a day, though he knew that he had, and would have to again. He hated the idea of one of his best friends being horribly killed every few weeks, and he especially hated that he had been blind to it this whole time.

"I'm so sorry I didn't believe you before." Stan told him.

"That's ok." Kenny said. "But why do you believe me now? Did you remember something?"

"Kenny…. I think I remember everything."

"Everything?!" Kenny shouted, breaking the hug. "How?!"

"I don't know. It's like all these memories that I didn't even know I was missing came rushing back." Kenny pondered this. Stan was the only person who had seen his tentacles, maybe that had something to do with it? That was the only possible reason he could think of, nothing else had changed.

"And you really remember everything?!"

"I…. I think so? I wouldn't know if I forgot something."

"You remember when Saddam Hussein zapped me with his laser eyes?"

"Yes!" Stan shouted. "That was the Christmas we were in Canada, right?"

"Yes!" Kenny shouted excitedly. "What about when I died then came back as a zombie?"

"Yes! Kyle had to saw you in half!" Stan grimaced at the memory. That was grisly. Kenny nodded enthusiastically. He didn't care about the chainsawing. His soul wasn't in his body at the time, so he didn't feel a thing. If Kyle wanted to go hog wild in killing him, well, that would be the time to do it. Though if Kyle ended up remembering too then he was totally going to tease him about it because damn, who knew the boy had it in him?

"What about when I was eaten by that giant reptile-bird thing?"

"Yes, I remember that too!" Stan said. Kenny beamed and excitedly wrapped Stan in another hug. Thank god. He felt like he was going crazy, remembering things that everyone else insisted didn't happen. Thank fucking god someone else finally remembered it too. Stan stiffened in the hug, he didn't feel like he deserved it. Even if he didn't remember, he should've believed Kenny a lot earlier than this. Like, the first time he tried to tell them earlier. Kenny said that it was ok, but it really wasn't. And there was also the thing that he was going to bring up next. "And there's another death I remember, one that I really think we need to talk about." Kenny's face fell and he let go of the hug. Ah, so they were gonna talk about that huh? Well, he was the one who brought it up yesterday, time to reap what he had sown.

"I think I know the one you're talking about. Muscular dystrophy?" Kenny asked. Stan nodded.

"Ken, I'm really sorry I never went to visit you in the hospital back then. I didn't mean it, I…"

"No, I'm sorry. I never should've used that against you yesterday. You were just trying to help, and you were just a kid when that happened. But I was angry and upset and I said things I didn't mean. I never should've done that."

"No, I deserved it. That was a really shitty thing I did to you." Stan said. "And I never apologized or gave you an explanation because I couldn't remember it!"

"That's not your fault! That's just how the stupid curse works! No one can ever remember when I die!"

"That just makes it worse!" Stan shouted. "I didn't think you would come back, I didn't think I would ever see you again, and I still didn't show up." He said. He felt horrible about what he did, or more accurately didn't do. Kenny needed him and he let him down in the worst way possible. Even if he could come back from it, he still died. He died and he wasn't there. How could Kenny bear to look at him after that? Why was he still his friend? How could he act like everything was normal after a betrayal like that? "Kenny, now that I remember I need you to know that I didn't show up not because I didn't care about you, but because it was so hard to see you like that. I couldn't stand to make small talk and pretend that everything was fine while you were wasting away. By the time I got the courage to come see you it was too late, you were gone. But Kyle was right, however hard it was for me, it was a lot harder for you. I should've just sucked it up and gone to see you. I felt so guilty about it for months until you came back and I forgot. It might not make things better, what I did was terrible, but I just really need you to know that."

Kenny was silent for a moment. He thought that he had gotten over that a long time ago, but a burden that he didn't know he was still carrying lifted from his mind. He had hoped that it was something like that, and Stan had certainly proved that he had cared in the years since, including showing up right now to check on him. But hearing it directly from him felt different. Ever since that day there was always this nagging feeling that he had, that when the going got tough Stan would just bail, and not just Stan, but everyone else too. That he wanted, that everyone wanted, the fun, daredevil party animal Kenny. Not the sad Kenny who dies a lot. But that wasn't true. Stan had proved it. He showed up here today, trying to help even though he had asked him not too. He didn't flinch away from the tentacles, he didn't care that he might not be human, he hugged him and apologized when he found out about his immortality. Kenny had been wrong, Stan did care. He cared so much that he wasn't able to watch him die, he just handled the situation wrong.

"Thanks Stan. That actually really helps to hear." Kenny told him. "But I already forgave you years ago. We were just dumb kids when that happened. Losing a friend at that age is a lot, losing a friend at any age is a lot. I can't blame you for not handling it well. It's not like you knew I could come back. I don't know what I would do if the situation was reversed, if you were the one dying, not me. I don't even want to think about the possibility of losing you. I love you man." This time it was Kenny who reached out and squeezed Stan's hand in reassurance. Stan gave a small, genuine smile. God, he didn't deserve Kenny. How did he get to be so kind? So forgiving? So good? Even after everything he's dealt with? Stan still didn't believe that he deserved forgiveness, but he took it anyway. He took it because he didn't want to make Kenny reassure him when it should be the other way around. He took it because he couldn't lose Kenny again now that he knew how close he came to it happening. He took it because he had gotten a second chance (well, more like a hundredth chance.) to make it up to him and by god he was going to do it. He didn't know how much Kenny meant to him until he knew how often he lost him.

"I love you too dude." Stan told him, pulling Kenny into another hug, which he gladly reciprocated. Yeah this whole immortality thing was going to take him a bit to wrap his head around, but it's definitely not the strangest thing Stan's ever heard of, not by a long shot. He and his friends just attracted weirdness, and if Kenny was a part of the South Park craziness, well, They'd deal with it, just like they always did.

All of a sudden Kyle burst through the door, interrupting the moment. "Kenny! Are you ok?! Stan texted me saying he found you passed out in a pool of blood!" He shouted. Then his brain finally caught up with him and he started to take in the scene. Stan and Kenny were hugging, which was good. He was glad they made up. Both of their eyes were bloodshot and they had tear stains on their cheeks. Kenny's hood was down and half of his lip was covered in bloody gauze, while the other half was covered in ... .were those tentacles?! "What the hell?" He asked. Kenny groaned and placed his head in his hands. Really? Twice in one day? Well, guess he was telling Kyle now too. He heard Stan laughing in the background.

"Stan!" He admonished.

"Sorry dude, but you should see your face." Stan said. He didn't mean to laugh, but Kenny's reaction was pretty funny. He'd help him out with explaining things to Kyle to make up for it. Stan's laugh was contagious and soon Kenny was chuckling along.

"This is your fault, you know." Kenny said, but there was no malice in his tone. He was gonna tell Kyle anyway since Stan knew. Might as well get it over with.

"I know, sorry I forgot I texted Kyle." Stan explained.

"Can someone please tell me what the fuck is going on?" Kyle piped up. Kenny turned towards him, letting him get a full look at his face and said,

"So….You might want to sit down for this one."