Frankie slept peacefully in bed, re-adjusting himself in his sleep and hunkering down for the long haul. At least… he would have were it not for the not too out of the ordinary ordeal of waking up in the middle of the night. As he did so, his eyes widened in surprise as he realized he had a visitor with him.
"Mythra?!" He sharply whispered.
"H-hey Frankie…" Mythra whimpered softly as she held Jimmy as close as she could to her chest. Her body swayed side to side nervously as she shyly looked away.
"You scared me half to death! What are you doing here?" He demanded. Mythra said nothing, only sharply winced and turned away as she very noticeably began to shake. More aware of what was happening, Frankie calmed down and softened his expression. He got out of bed and walked over to her slowly, repeating what he asked her before, albeit much much more grounded.
"W-what are you doing here…?"
Mythra whipped her head toward him and shot open her tear filled eyes to look at his worried expression for a bit before she swiftly hugged him so very tightly. Frankie was surprised at first but managed to calm himself down just a bit after and hug her back carefully.
"Mythra… Mythra, what happened…?"
"I-it was nothing! N-nothing at all! I just… wanted to make sure you were okay y-you b-big s-stupid Dummy…" Mythra tightened her hug around him and began to shiver uncontrollably. This did nothing but make Frankie's concerns grow larger.
"Mythra! Mythra! It's okay! I'm here… I'm right here…"
Mythra sniffed sharply and sighed heavily at Frankie's comment.
"Hey, come on, let's get cozy, alright?" Frankie took Mythra by the shoulder and led her into bed, both sitting upright and the covers pulled just under their torsos, side by side as close as could be. Mythra was still sniffing and tearing up as Frankie placed a hand on her head, patting it ever so lightly. Already, Mythra's breathing slowed down considerably as her face lightened up just a tad, instinctively leaning her head on Frankie's shoulder.
"Feeling a tiny bit better, Mythra?" He asked.
"A tiny bit…" She responded.
"But nowhere near enough to feel accomplished, huh?"
"M-mm-Hmm…" Mythra began tearing up again.
"Oh… oh Mythra…" Frankie wrapped her into a tight hug.
"Damn dreams again… they show up and go away in the blink of an eye… it's like someone out there really has it in for me and doesn't want me or Pyra to just be SATISFIED at any point in our lives!"
Mythra cried harder and clung to Frankie as tight as she could, just shivering in frustration in confusion even when she was wrapped up in his embrace.
"And… I take it you can't tell me what happened…?"
"What do you think…? Asshole…"
Frankie turned away and looked down at himself in pondering. Mythra was initially worried and softened her expression.
"Frankie, I… I didn't mean it, I'm just-"
"Mythra, I'm just thinking."
"O-oh… okay…" Mythra looked down at herself in turn and sighed. "I had friends back then, Frankie… imagine seeing some old friends after so long… reconnecting and rediscovering with each other… and the minute you turn your back on them, you just completely forget they exist… that's what's especially hard on me, personally… my world and role? That's fine, I guess… a couple of chuckles here and there if we're lucky... not any relations… it's a sick joke… and I'm right with Pyra… I wanna hold on to some nice memories for once…"
"Mythra… I… I'm sorry…"
"Don't be, Dummy… at least I can be confident in being a bit… you know… scared… with someone else…"
Frankie chuckled lightly to himself as he lifted his head up.
"You know, I've had similar chats with my mom about lots of things… money… emotions… romantic preferences… and whenever she stopped talking, I'd get concerned all the same…"
Mythra looked up at him with misty eyes before scoffing and turning away.
"There you go with your stupid little anecdotes… you say a lot of things but how are we supposed to know you're telling the truth? Don't give us hope that we finally have someone in our lives who…" Mythra took a deep breath and sobbed quietly to herself before continuing, "Who gets us so easily…"
Frankie frowned. Mythra wasn't in the wrong for assuming any of that right off the bat, but he did have to admit everything lining up in the way it did seemed too perfect for them. And how could he prove himself? Nobody likes documenting and taking pictures of the worst times of their lives…
"Why aren't you saying anything…?" Mythra sternly asked, perking up Frankie's attention.
"Well… y-you heard what Kaito told you… you believe both him and I on our word… don't you?" He asked back.
Now Mythra was stunned silent. She didn't have a response to that answer. Saying no would only make things worse… but saying yes wouldn't be a COMPLETE lie, even so… she couldn't help but worry with what she didn't have a chance to see. She sighed once again and placed her head on his shoulder tiredly.
"Don't mind me… I just… have a lot of stuff on my mind…" She said.
"Clearly…" Frankie added.
The two stayed in silence with each other for a bit as Mythra breathed in and out more and more steadily. She didn't want to admit it but… Frankie just being there for her to just exist and rant to helped a lot… even if she wasn't ready to say absolutely everything running through her head. She didn't need a repeat of the week prior.
"Um… Frankie…?" Mythra murmured, wrapping her arms gently around his own.
"Y-yeah, Mythra…?" Frankie asked a bit nervously, not necessarily minding what Mythra was doing, but nevertheless surprised.
"Don't take this the wrong way but… can I stay here with you tonight…?"
Frankie opened his mouth to protest, more awake now than he was with Pyra when they were first getting to know each other, but that wouldn't be fair to Mythra, and leaving her to just deal with her problems by herself would just be awful… hypocritical of him to do even… Putting on his best smile, Frankie nodded lightly.
"Sure, Mythra…"
"…Thanks Big Guy…" Mythra smiled weakly back as she pulled the covers over herself, their backs to each other. "Don't worry, I'll try not to get creeped out by any of your wacky dreams in the middle of the night…!"
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!" Frankie asked back.
"Night, Dummy~" Mythra teasingly shot back as she closed her eyes and placed her hands over Jimmy once again. Frankie sighed in exasperation, which quickly turned to fondness. He still felt awkward about all of this… but it was the absolute least he could do after… everything…
—————————————————————————
Mythra suddenly woke herself up in a hurry. Shooting her eyes open, she was greeted with a bright light, green grass, and small buildings.
"H-hello? Is anyone here?!" She called. "Pyra…? Frankie…? Kaito…? Miko?!" Her breathing began to quicken as she looked around frantically, which was exactly when she was greeted by yet another strange anomaly… the sound of laughing and screaming children.
Like a misty fog rolling in on a cold rainy night, apparitions of tiny people blurred into her vision, as did more features of the place she found herself in. A sandbox with a jungle gym and swing, where most of the kids had spent their time, tall trees spread out a decent bit, a soccer goal- not like she could've discerned that herself, and the kids themselves. All lolloping around in frantic romps of youthful rapture. It was a pleasant sight to be sure… but why she was looking at all of this was still a mystery…
Then she saw him.
A little boy, all on his own, up against the wall of what looked to be his classroom reading a rather large book, something about Pokémon from what she could see from the distance. His big brown eyes and fair complexion just beneath a curly mop of pitch black hair gave her an immediate clue of who exactly she was looking at.
"…Frankie…?" She asked herself as she walked cautiously over to him, worried she might intimidate him. To her surprise though, he didn't even budge. The only movement that came from him was that of flipping the page of his book.
Still unsure, Mythra came to his side and crouched down to get a better view at what he was reading. There were certainly lots of pictures, but only an occasional peppering of text to accompany the illustrations. What she could make out from them didn't form a story in the slightest. She did have to admit that the book was still very pretty, all things considered. She looked over at young Frankie again, his brow furrowed in deep concentration as he took mental notes of whatever it was he was planning. Mythra smiled fondly at him as she shook his head.
"Once a Dummy, always a Dummy…" She said to herself.
"Are you still reading that thing?" A young female voice called out.
Mythra turned to face the voice, which belonged to none other than Irma, albeit much younger than when she met her. She scowled and scoffed in disgust as she watched her draw nearer. Frankie's brow furrowed in worry as he just brought the book closer to his face to ignore her.
"When are you gonna get your head outta the clouds with all this useless crap? You oughta be studying long and hard just like we do!" She announced, looming over him.
"Uh, Irma… I'm pretty sure Frankie's grades are higher than yours…" A lanky boy piped out suddenly.
"Don't tell me what I don't need to know, Ari!" She barked back at him.
'What a bunch of little brats…' Mythra thought to herself as she leered over the situation, powerless to stop it herself, far too similar to the shared vision she had with Nia so many years ago.
"Come on, Frank, we're your pals, ain't we? So buck up and put that shit in the garbage!" Irma called once again.
"Y-you aren't supposed to say bad words…" Frankie eeked out so very slightly.
"Hey, Ass Ketchup, you're not my dad, so shut up and listen to me, will ya?"
Frankie continued burying himself deeper into his book, with Mythra just looking on in shock and anger, over the nerve of these children who haven't even reached double digits. Even now, Frankie stood well over them in terms of height, so Mythra was left wondering why he didn't just do something… and as if on cue…
"H-hey!" Frankie hollered as Ari snatched his book from his hands and handed it to Irma.
"Pokemon… now what's that gonna do for you in your life, huh, Frank? It's not important, it sucks dirty thumbs, and none of it is REAL!" Irma swung the book towards a muddy puddle, where it landed with a harsh splash. The pages all soaked up the filth and muck it had landed in, leaving Frankie shocked alongside Mythra.
He said nothing for a good half a minute just as Irma walked up to him, patting him on the back.
"Ah, come on, Frank, your parents'll buy you a new one, it's all in good fun, trust me!" Ari chuckled snidely by her side as the two younger kids walked away confidently. "And now that we got your attention, let's go and see how high we can all swing!"
Frankie leapt out of his horrified state and ran directly towards Irma, arms outstretched in fury, palms open in upsetness, growling and rushing like a wild pig, Irma turned around at the sound and widened her eyes in fear as Frankie grabbed her shoulders and tossed her with all his night into the same muddy puddle she had thrown her book in, face-first. Mythra felt her heart skip a beat as she looked at Irma's disheveled person, dirty and humiliated, she sat up and looked at her muddy self before darting her eyes back up to Frankie and Ari, the latter of whom looked up at him in surprise; the former, however, was still incredibly heated. His teeth were bared, his fingers splayed out, and his chest going up and down in time with his heavy breathing.
Mythra had recognized this kind of behavior immediately. From Frankie's fearful reluctance to say anything, to Irma's vocabulary as well as the sheer level of frustration Frankie threw into his force, this kind of thing had been going on for quite a while. She couldn't even imagine the Frankie she knew doing something so suddenly violent.
"Frankie…?!" An older female voice called. It was his teacher. Upon seeing the sight in front of her, of a shocked Ari, an absolutely furious Frankie, and a downtrodden Irma, that gave her enough insight on what she needed to do.
Mythra stepped back a bit, overlooking the situation herself. She knew all too well that kids are very very different from adults, but the thought of Frankie being like this at all shocked her. Even with Kaito telling her himself, seeing it play out before her very eyes was something else entirely.
Then, just like that, the entirety of the scene went black. Mythra jumped in surprise as she looked around in concern. The further she ventured into this fragment of the past, the more concerned she became. She felt her heartbeat quicken as she backed away slowly into the void… and that was when she collided with another body. With a yelp and a swipe, Mythra jumped around and saw none other than…
"Wha… PYRA?!" She screeched.
"Mythra! Thank goodness! I can't even begin to describe how happy I am to see you!" Pyra answered back.
"What do you mean?! What is all this?"
"I don't know! I figured you'd have an answer!"
"W-well… I had a bad dream so I went to Frankie and… kinda fell asleep with him so… here I am…"
Pyra put a hand to her chin in response as she tilted her head in thought.
"I see… that explains most of it…"
"A dream about… you know… way back when…"
Pyra was silent now.
"Did you have something similar?" Mythra asked. Pyra hung her head low and nodded slowly. Mythra sighed in response and looked up. "You and Frankie had a shared dream, huh?"
"Is that what's happening right now, you think?"
"Maybe…" Mythra sighed heavily again. "God, I hate being a Blade…" she muttered under her breath.
"Just a worthless piece of baggage that only gets in the way of the people we want to protect…?"
"In a world where everyone is so obsessed with upholding a legacy of some kind. No real chance to connect to anyone, need help constantly like a pair of stupid children, and overly emotional to the point of self destruction because NOBODY SEES US!!!!" Mythra threw her arms down wildly in frustration as she stomped her feet.
Pyra was just about to reach over and comfort her when muffled voices could be heard.
"You cannot compare a book to a human life!"
"Don't give me that crap! We'll have a talk with him about putting his hands on a girl, later! How long has this been going on, do you know?!"
"Tell me, sir… you're a father aren't you? What would you do if your child was being physically bullied? I take it a simple 'just ignore them' isn't going to cut it, is it?"
"Well, ma'am, we have a strict no bullying rule on this campus-"
"And yet the victim is being punished because he had the gall to stand up for himself?"
Pyra and Mythra looked around frantically as the voices became clearer and clearer, eventually forming into hazy but visible visions right before their eyes- a continuation of the previous conversation was now shown before them visually as well as verbally. There they saw a large and imposing dark skinned man sitting next to a small and rotund light skinned woman. The man bore many physical similarities to Frankie, even the shape of his hair was similar, albeit he was much bigger, darker, and hairier, while the woman, calm but stern as she was, glared at this other, unrelated lanky man with a pair of all too familiar bright eyes. These were Frankie's parents, no doubt about it. And there they saw Frankie himself, sitting in between them, holding his arms over his head as his face was flushed red from what looked like minutes upon minutes of crying, and his body language gave the impression of someone who was just waiting to be reprimanded harshly one way or another.
Pyra and Mythra exchanged sorry glances with each other just as another vision flushed behind them.
"But there's nothing wrong with him!"
"Mr. Gousmán, this is nothing to be worked up over, your son is no different from the other kids at school, just a little… touchy… but I do believe we have something that may help with the meltdowns."
Meltdowns? Multiple? Pyra and Mythra looked intently at an odd little bottle the doctor Frankie's parents were speaking with gave them, while Frankie himself was wandering around the room playing with the toys the office had supplied him with, only just barely paying attention.
"So… how do you feel?" Frankie's mother asked, clearly at a later point in time. The calm and pleased smile on Frankie's face was a nice sight to see after seeing him so downtrodden before, but then the vision skipped further ahead to Frankie screaming in the middle of class due to a dispute over one of his classmates, a young boy just like him.
Frankie picked up the desk and threw it towards the boy, who backed up just in time for him to avoid being hit. Pyra and Mythra felt their hearts jump in concern, and in that very moment, a whole myriad of visions appeared before them, illuminating the once black void where they were standing.
Frankie, at an older age charging other kids who were clearly having a field day with picking on him over… something, it was difficult to discern totally with all the whispers and shouting that flooded the room. Pyra and Mythra clung to each other in worry as they each frantically looked around to see what may have been coming next; Frankie getting into fights as a teenager, on the verge of tears as a young child over so much yelling and screaming and laughing at him, or times where he's alone as a young adult wanting to pull his hair out amongst tears as he wore a worried and confused expression on his face, which was when the words of his mother began to echo out most of all.
"People think you're a grown man now, if you put your hands on anyone, you're going to suffer the consequences on your own!"
"You can't keep acting up like this, Mijo, you're going to get yourself in trouble!"
"If your dad was here, he would be pissed. Off…!"
"Mijo, please, talk to me, it's what I'm here for!"
"Nobody knows you better than I do, I love you…"
Joining in the chorus of emotions was Frankie's own voice, worried, lost, lonely, concerned…
"noyoudontnoyoudontnoyoudontnoyoudont no you don't… NO YOU DON'T!"
And finally… everything was capped off with one last final image of a front view of his mother with a big smile on her face and tears in her eyes.
"I'm proud of you Mijo…!"
Then… silence… darkness once again… the only thing Pyra and Mythra heard after the cacophonous symphony of noise was Frankie's own voice, once again.
"…Mama…?"
—————————————————————————
Mythra woke up in a jolt and immediately turned to Frankie at her side. He was cradling himself tightly and doing his best to fight back tears as he shook uncontrollably.
"Frankie…? Big Guy?!" Mythra called as she reached out to touch him.
"I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm trying… I'm really really trying……….!" He kept repeating in his sleep as he shook more and more.
Mythra didn't know what to do, all she could was overlook his body in concern as she breathed just as heavily as he did, her own chest sinking with worry and confusion.
Then there was a knock at the door.
"Mythra! Mythra, open up, please!"
It was Pyra. Without wasting a single second, Mythra leapt out of bed and rushed over to the door, unlocking it and revealing Pyra's equally worried self on the other side.
"Where is he?!" She demanded. Mythra turned her head to face him and that's when Pyra's heart sank. She had grown used to Frankie over worrying about quite a few things, but seeing him like this… in utter turmoil… she decided enough was enough. "Mythra, come on. Me on one side, you on the other!"
"W-what? Pyra, what are you-?!"
"Move it, come on!" She snapped back. Mythra jumped in shock, she had never in her life heard or seen Pyra act so demandingly, but she couldn't let her surprise linger on for long, she had a plan and needed to act on it quickly.
Pyra crawled onto the bed on Frankie's right side, while Mythra crawled to his left. Pyra took a deep breath and sighed deeply before slowly, and gently, lowering herself down to his level… and resting her head gently on his chest. Mythra blushed furiously as she figured out exactly what Pyra wanted her to do. Pyra knew this and looked up at her with pleading eyes. Frankie had hardly calmed down whatsoever, both of them needed to be there. Mythra knew that as well as she did… so she mimicked her actions, and hugged him so very gently from the back. And just like that… he slowly… but surely… calmed down and stopped shaking. He was still crying… but his heartbeat was returning to normal. He then fluttered his eyes open sadly only to see Pyra looking up at him in worry.
"P-Pyra…?" He asked in choked up confusion.
"Over here…" Mythra said suddenly, getting Frankie to turn his head to see her equally worried face as she held onto him in concern.
"Mythra…" Frankie tightly shut his eyes and wiggled himself upright, giving Pyra and Mythra enough time to react and sit up similarly, giving Frankie just enough space to move around relatively freely. He took a deep breath and moaned as he rubbed his eyes.
"Frankie… what happened…?" Pyra asked.
"We saw a whole lot of things back there… not a whole lot of them were good, you know…" Mythra pointed out.
"O-oh… is that what happened…? Sorry…" He said.
"Oh, Frankie, no… please don't apologize…" Pyra assured as she placed a hand on his arm.
"And why not? You got front row tickets to the story of my life and now you get to see what happens behind closed doors, I just… I'm sorry I'm not… who you need me to be…" Frankie responded with a sniff.
"Oh, enough of that crap, seriously!" Mythra called, directing Frankie and Pyra's attention to her angry face. "Tell me, Frankie, who do you think we need you to be? Like Addam? The guy we barely remember from a bazillion years ago?"
"Oh, Mythra, come on, listen to yourself! I don't know what impact Addam had on your life, but it was a big one! And from the sound of it, your last Driver went above and beyond even that! What kind of memories are those to let go? So where does that put me? With a legacy to step up to and can never fulfill because I'm just a stupid whiny baby who can't let go of the past when you can so easily?!"
"Frankie, you know that isn't fair-" Pyra was about to continue further just until Mythra cut in.
"IT WORKS BOTH WAYS, DUMMY!" Mythra shouted. There was silence now as Mythra breathed heavily in an effort to calm herself down. She sniffed heavily as she hung her head low. "You don't need to be anyone for us, Frankie… we can take care of ourselves you know… just trust us for once in your life for crying out loud…"
"Mythra… I…" Frankie was quickly interrupted by Pyra.
"Frankie, please… listen to her…" She pleaded.
"We… we like hanging out with you because… you're you… plain and simple… that's all we need you to be, Dummy… as a matter of fact… it makes us… or at least it makes me feel better about myself…" Mythra wiped a tear away as she continued looking down.
"Mythra… come on now… you're over exaggerating…" He said.
"No… no, I'm not, Frankie, I'm really not, I…" Mythra sighed once again and laid her head on the wall behind his bed. "You should know well enough by now how big of a mess I used to be… Hell, how big of a mess I am now… you had the chance to grow and learn past all of that and look at where you are now…"
"Alone, scared, and pathetic…?" Frankie asked. Pyra chuckled sadly from just behind him.
"How do you think we felt…?" She asked.
"We still don't know why any of this is happening or what it even means but… knowing that you're at least… ya know… aware of these feelings makes things a little easier… and getting to actually talk about them makes things a lot easier! And… that's why we're doing what we're doing now…"
"Mythra…"
"This world with which we live in now… it's something we had a part in shaping… but we never had a choice in the matter… of course, we wanted a life worth living for everyone but… what good would that do us? With how… alone, scared, and pathetic we used to be…" Pyra added.
"W-what do you mean?" Frankie asked.
"Oh, you stupid Dummy, do we have to spell it out for you? We. Did not. Like ourselves back then. Does that sound familiar to you?"
"I…I guess…"
"Okay. Now. Imagine yourself being dropped somewhere you didn't want to be, surrounded in a world full of people and ideals you didn't understand, nor could you ever understand, nor did you even have a choice in understanding, all you knew is that you had a big huge role you needed to fill but you didn't know how to fill it, and even if you thought you finally could, you still felt a big part of you missing. Does that sound friendly at all?"
"N-no…" Frankie spoke softly as Pyra leaned back onto the wall.
"And the whole time you're there you just… worry about if you're just keeping everyone down because you have your own needs you want to fulfill but if you come out and say it, you're afraid everyone might hate you and…" Frankie offered to finish off where Pyra trailed off.
"And then you just go off into a constant never ending spiral of worry because you don't know who you can talk to no matter how close you are to them because the words are just so difficult to explain and you're afraid of what they might tell you so you just suck it up and…"
"Cry yourself to sleep…?" Mythra finally finished.
"…Maybe…" Frankie admitted as he curled up into himself. "Kaito's been the exception but… just the exception…" Mythra sighed while Pyra looked on over sorrowfully.
"You're unbelievable sometimes, you know that? You remind the both of us so much of ourselves and yet we just feel so… comfy around you… it's the opposite of how we feel about ourselves…" Mythra said. "And… I'm sorry for being so… wary with you…" Frankie looked at Mythra solemnly, understanding her insecurity far too well. He sighed once more before speaking up again.
"Well… I guess now that the cat's out of the bag I can say that… the feeling is mutual…"
"And that's all we could ever ask for." Pyra said with a smile. Frankie looked over to her in surprise just before flipping attention to Mythra, who have a weak smile of her own.
"All of this is our way of saying… we're here for you, too, Frankie… just as much as Kaito and Miko are."
"And if you ever need to talk, we're right here. Because WE understand, okay?"
Frankie took a deep breath and shut his eyes as he hung his own head low before letting out a soft but honest "okay" himself.
"So… anything to talk about, Big Guy?" Mythra asked with a smile.
"Well… I mean…"
"Is it too sensitive to ask how things were with your parents?" Pyra asked.
"No, no… my mom would scare me and get me mad all the time and there were times I just wanted to walk away and blow it off like it was nothing because nag nag nag was all I heard but… I loved her, you know…? She's where my business mode comes from, after all… why I still have this house and a steady job and everything… though I guess that's what's driving me crazy…"
"Burning too many candles at too many ends… yeah… I get that…" Pyra sympathized.
"We only added to those troubles didn't we?" Mythra asked.
"Oh, Mythra… no… you shouldn't give yourself too much credit I just… can't help but worry…"
Mythra's eyes widened in understanding shock. She blinked a few times as if she was really seeing who Frankie was for the first time… someone all too similar to her in too many ways to count, proving herself right. She chuckled and turned upwards fondly.
"Mm Hmm…" She said with an understanding smile.
"She was only looking out for me, I know she was… Just… wish I could've… understood her more… then there was my dad… he had passed when I was still in high school, and sure he was intimidating as all hell… but he had the biggest heart, the loudest laugh, and he loved all of us so… so much…"
"Heh… sounds a little like you." Mythra pointed out.
"H-h-hey now, I…"
"Mythra, it's Frankie's time to talk, we can save the comments for after the meeting, okay?" Pyra asked gently.
"No promises." Mythra joked.
Frankie chuckled lightly while Pyra rolled her eyes fondly. And Frankie continued telling Pyra and Mythra about his parents, about the times he had gone through his own periods of anxious attacks and just how awful school really was with dealing with bullies… it was all so… cathartic… and sure enough, after a while of nothing but venting, they all fell asleep together, side by side in that very same bed, where Mythra came to be comforted by Frankie, all three were now comforted by each other.
