TW: Suicide mention

When Snake left the bar, he didn't know where he was going or how he would get there; he just knew he had to be somewhere else, anywhere he could get away from prying eyes. Everywhere he looked he felt eyes, eyes following him and it made his heart beat so fast and his lungs ache so bad he couldn't breathe.

"Snake? Snake, is that you?"

He didn't even notice that he was in the abandoned Super Savings until he looked down at his hands, cut up and bloody from the broken window he must've climbed in through. He looked around at the abandoned grocery store he gave nearly six years of his life to, the shelves now bare and the bright blue, pink, and green decorations either torn down or vandalized.

"Snake man, come on, it's me. Pick up."

Snake continued to walk through the broken glass and discarded trash on the floor, ignoring the voices that were yelling at him through his wristwatch. When he got a glimpse of his reflection in the windows, he realized that the glasses Mojo had given him must've fallen off at some point on his way there. The man looking back at him had his green skin, long black hair, and big nose. But there was something… off. He hadn't even realized how little he had been eating or sleeping as of late until he saw the deep bags underneath his eyes, and how frail his frame had gotten.

He came to a stop when he passed by his old register. Looking at it, out of use for what must've been months now, he felt tears well up in his eyes. He hopped over toward the other side, and slid down to the floor and hugged his knees to his chest, wishing the floor would open up and swallow him whole.

Kevin Moore. Jessica Newman. The Mayor of Townsville. Three people, three people are dead now, because of him. He was a murderer, and now he'd never be anything else.

"Snake!" he heard his sister's voice again. "Snake, please answer us and tell us what's going on."

"Yeah man, what the hell?!" Ace's voice cut in. "We've been screaming for you for like thirty minutes and you've been leavin' us hangin' like a bunch of chumps."

"A-Acce?" Snake stuttered out, looking at the green gangster. "Ivy? H-How are youss- Did Mojo letsss you go?"

"Mojo is dead, man," Ace said, with a hint of pride in his voice. "So whatever bullshit he sent you to do that's got you so upset you can cut it out and come back to his hideout."

"Mojo isss dead?!" Snake exclaimed.

"Yeah, you can thank me later. But right now, just focus on gettin' your ass over here so we can talk about our next move-"

"When? How?!"

"I don't know man, just a little bit ago?" Ace said. "He was actin' all crazy and shit so I, y'know," Ace pretended to shoot himself in the head.

The tears that Snake wiped away came back into full force. It started out as a few sniffles, and before he knew it he was full on sobbing. Through his blurry vision, he could see Ace and Ivy look at him bewildered.

"Uh, Snake?"

"It wasss all for nothing," he said, hysterical laughter coming through in between sobs. "They're all deadsss, and it wasss for nothingsss."

"Snake," Ace asked. "What the hell are you talkin' about? Who's dead?"

At this, Snake just cried harder. Ace and Ivy exchanged a worried look before turning back to him.

"Tell us where you are," Ivy said. "We'll come get you."

"It doesssn't matter nowsss," he shook his head. "Nothing mattersss anymore."

Ace took off his sunglasses, squinting at Snake. He widened his eyes. "Are you at that piece of shit store we used to work at? What the hell are you doing there?"

Snake didn't answer, barely being able to hear the two over his own sobs. Ace sighed.

"Looks like we're not gonna get anythin' else out of him," he told Ivy. "Come on, I know where he's at."

The screen on his wristwatch turned dark, leaving Snake to weep into his knees.

"What do you think happened?" Ivy asked Ace as they headed towards the now shut down Super Savings, with Billy trailing behind. Ace had insisted they go the long way, through the woods to avoid detection, and thankfully she didn't put up much of a fight.

"I don't know," Ace said. "All I know is that it was somethin' bad to get him all worked up like that. I've seen Snake in some rough states, but I haven't seen him this bad since you and your folks left him on the streets."

At this, her expression turned guilty. "I never wanted to leave him behind," she said. "I tried to get my father to go back for him, but he wouldn't hear of it. When he makes up his mind, no one can talk him out of it."

"Yeah yeah, I'm sure you were completely innocent and a perfect sister," Ace said. "I bet you were so upset to go on all those family trips and fancy parties and leave your kid brother behind and hide him like a dirty secret. Your folks make you do that too?"

"Can we not do this now?" Ivy snapped. "I was only sixteen. What else was I supposed to do?"

"Snake was only twelve."

She glared at him. "Weren't you the one who talked him into leaving in the first place?" she asked. "If you would've just let him be, none of this would've ever happened. Snake would've never started stealing and sneaking around, he never would've ran away, he would've never gotten involved with a supervillain and we wouldn't be hunting him down in the midst of an emotional breakdown."

"Snake made his own damn choices," Ace retorted. "Not everyone is a spoiled brat who listens to whatever their daddy tells them to do."

As they made their way out of the woods, they heard the sound of sirens as five cop cars in a row raced down the road below.

"Shit!" Ace hissed, grabbing Billy and Ivy's hands, pulling them back behind the nearest tree. As they went in the opposite direction, Ace peered around toward the direction they were heading.

"What the hell was that?" he asked. "That must've been every single cop in town-"

He froze when he noticed that there was smoke coming from the sky. He looked toward the source and saw City Hall, tiny and distant from this position, but still clear enough that he could see it was in ruins. His sunglasses nearly fell off his face as he put two and two together.

"Oh my god," he whispered.

When he heard the sound of footsteps on broken glass coming toward him, Snake flinched, sure that the cops must've figured it all out by now and were here to take him to the deepest depths of Townsville Prison and lock him up for the rest of his natural life.

"Snake!" He heard a familiar voice call out for him. "Snake!"

His head snapped up. "A-Acce?"

Multiple sets of footsteps to head straight toward him. When they found him behind the registers, Ace, Ivy, and Billy looked on in shock. For a moment he wondered why Ace and Ivy were covered in blood, and then he remembered. Mojo.

"Snake," Ace headed straight towards him, kneeling down to his level. "Billy, go watch for the cops. If any of them try to get anywhere near here, stop them."

"You got it boss!" Billy said, leaving to do as Ace commanded.

Ace turned toward Snake and whispered, "Snake man, you got to listen to me. We got to go, and we got to go now. We need to grab Arturo and cross the border, before anyone sees us. Now pull yourself together and get up-"

Snake looked at him with watery eyes. "You know?"

"Know? Know what?" Ivy spoke up. She walked over towards the pair, eyes narrowed in confusion. "Snake, what happened?"

He looked at his sister, his body so heavy with anxiety he might as well have been made of stone.

"I-" he stuttered. His mouth felt so dry he couldn't speak. "I thought I wasss sssaving yousss. Javier told me-"

"Snake," her voice cautious. She knelt down beside him and Ace. "What did you do?"

A fresh wave of tears leaked from his eyes. In a quiet whisper, he said. "CCCity… City Hall and the Mayor…. Mojo wanted him gonesss and toldsss me unlesss I got ridsss of him…"

Ivy stared at him, the look of horror on her face growing.

"You killed the Mayor?!"

"I didn't meansss to!" he cried. "Javier toldsss me he'd call before anything happened and nobodysss would get hurt-"

"Oh my god," Ivy said, covering her mouth in horror with a shaky hand.

"Hey, hey man, look at me," Ace shook him. "It don't matter anymore. We got to leave before the cops find us."

Snake looked over at his horrified sister, tears starting to form in her eyes. "Ivy, you gotsss to believe me. I-I didn't want any of thisss-"

She shook her head, tears falling down her cheeks. "I just spent the last couple days, locked in a cage not knowing if I was going to live or die," she said, her voice slowly rising. "I watched a man get a chunk of his neck bitten out by a deranged chimp, and then watched that one," she gestured toward Ace. "Shoot him in the head. I can still see the splatters of brain matter whenever I close my eyes."

Snake looked at the anger on his sister's face and instantly knew that this was it; she was going to hate him forever.

Desperately, he pulled her into a hug as tight as he could, and sobbed into her white satin blouse. "I'm sssorry," he sobbed. "I'm ssso sssorry."

He felt her stiffen at his touch for a moment, before tentatively wrapping her arms around him. Her body started to shake with her own tears.

"I didn't meansss-"

"I know."

He looked up from her shirt, looking at the tear stains he left behind, embarrassed. "I ruined your ssshirt."

Ivy looked down, and laughed through her tears. "It was ruined anyway," she wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, and brushed the hair out of his face. They exchanged a look, and Snake took a deep breath.

"I'm ssscared, Ivy," he whispered. "I don't know whatsss to do."

Ivy grabbed him by the shoulder, giving him a sad look.

"You do whatever you think is right. I can't make the choice for you," she said softly. "If you want to run, I won't stop you. I won't say anything to the police. But I guess the real question is, can you live with yourself if you do?"

"I…" he shook his head, the tears starting to fall again. "I don't know."

She shook her head sadly. "I won't lie to you and say it will be easy. But if you turn yourself in," she grabbed his hand, squeezing it tight. "I'll stand by your side the entire time. I'll tell everyone what happened, and that you were trying to save me and your friends. I'll tell them how you were the sweetest," she choked on a sob. "The best little brother anyone could ask for. And you know, Mom and I are talking again. Not much, but…" she trailed off. "She used to be a paralegal before she got married. Maybe there's someone she's still in contact with that we could call. I could ask, anyway."

"As nice as that would be of ya, I don't think you get it," Ace spoke up. He was leaning against the wall a few feet away, watching the siblings with an unreadable expression.

"If Snake here confesses, he won't just be facin' a few months in the slammer, or even a few years. We're talkin' decades of hard time here, and that's best case scenario. With his record, he'll be locked up for the rest of his life, if they don't decide to cut the bullshit and hit him with the death penalty," he shook his head. "If you really want your brother dead, you might as well take my gun and put a bullet through his brain now. It would be kinder than lettin' him hand himself over to the cops."

Ivy looked over at him and glared. "And you'd certainly know a lot about that, wouldn't you?"

"I'm just bein' honest," he said, walking towards the pair. "If he turns himself in, he can kiss his life goodbye."

Snake looked between the two. He knew, deep down, that Ace was right; if he stayed, his life was over. But when he tried to picture his life in Mexico, hopping from place to place, constantly looking over his shoulder, seeing those three faces every night before going to sleep for the rest of his life-

"Accce," he said. He pulled himself off the floor, feeling his legs wobble beneath him and his hands shake. "I-I think… I think I'm going to go with Ivy."

"Excuse me?" Ace said, taking off his sunglasses to get a better look at him. He walked over, until he was inches away. "You can't be serious. You're actually considering this?"

"What would I do in Mexico?" he said sadly. "I doubtsss Macho would letsss me stay with him and hisss family. Not after thisss. Arturo's gonna want to be with hisss parentsss and sssisters. So it would jussst be me and yousss, maybe Billy? You sssaid it yourssself; you don'tsss wantsss to look over your ssshoulder for the resst of your life. You'd ssstart to resssent me within a few monthsss, and then…" he forced a sob back down. "And then you'd leave."

"Leave?" Ace asked incredulously. "Snake, that's the stupidest thing I ever heard. Yeah, I didn't want to go before, but things are different now. We don't have to worry about Mojo no more, and if the cops catch us…" he shook his head, and put his hands on his shoulders.

"You're not thinkin' clearly. I know you; whenever you get into a tight spot like this you freak out. I know you're feeling all guilty and shit right now, but throwin' your life away ain't gonna make anything better. It ain't gonna bring those people back."

Snake began to cry again. "I know."

"Hey. Hey! Listen to me man. Please," Ace pleaded. When Snake met his eyes, he saw that they were hard and intense.

"You got to come with me and the boys. We'll figure this out once we're as far away from Townsville as possible. You can do all the cryin' and self pityin' you want then, but right now, you need to listen to me."

"But-"

Ace pulled him into a kiss, right in front of Ivy and Billy and the universe itself. Yet this time, it only made him angry.

"Ace, no!" he pushed him away. "I-I can't do thisss anymore! Any of it. The gang, running, usss," he sighed.

"I love you, Ace. But I can't bring you and the guysss down with me. I have to faccce thisss."

At first, Ace looked at him, shocked for a moment. Then he stiffened, and his hands balled up into fists.

"So, this is it then? You'd rather listen to that bitch of a sister of yours who doesn't know shit about nothin' and spend the rest of your life in prison than be with me?"

"Don't call my sssister a bitch," he protested quietly.

"Oh yeah? Then what should I call her good for nothin' ass while she waited until she was well and grown before deciding that your parents are dicks? If it wasn't for me, you'd have been left to starve to death on the streets," he snorted.

"You know what? Do what you want. I don't give a shit anymore. You've never been nothin' but a burden to me anyway, constantly whinin' and cryin' and bitchin' about everything. It's no wonder why your own family don't want nothin' to do with ya."

"That's enough," Ivy spoke up, standing beside Snake.

"Shut up, no one asked you."

"Leave her alonesss, Accce," Snake put himself in between them. Ace looked back and forth between the pair, shaking his head.

"I should've left your ass behind when I had the chance, but I guess late is better than never," he stormed over toward the door.

"We're goin' Billy. Come on."

Snake saw Billy looking back at him, confused and sad. "What about Snake, Boss?"

"Snake can go fuck himself for I care," he snapped. Billy once again looked back at him, and jumped when Ace called for him again.

"Billy! Now!"

With one more sad look, Billy followed Ace and left. Once they were gone, Snake felt his knees start to buckle, and he fell to the floor once again.

"I can't believe you Papi," Arturo said. He stood as tall as he could manage, and glared at his father. "I'm not a baby, I'm twenty years old! You can't just tell me what I can and can't do."

"I'm looking out for your best interests, Mijo," his father said softly. "You may be an adult, but you're still my son. I'm always going to want to protect you."

"Who's protecting Ace and Snake?" he asked. "We're a family. I should be out there with them."

"Your family is me, your mother, and sisters," his father snapped. "And while I trust your judgment, that doesn't mean it's okay to go battle a supervillain on a whim, especially one like Mojo. Now," his father walked over towards the kitchen and pulled out a deck of cards.

"I found this just the other day. Do you want to play Ocho Loco like old times?"

"No!" Arturo snapped. "If I'm stuck here, then leave me to just let me worry about my friends in peace," he looked around, wishing he had his own room to retreat to, and sighed. Staying in this little box day in and day out was starting to wear him down.

He took a seat on the couch, and tried to watch TV and keep his mind off of everything. He heard his father move to come sit beside him, and immediately he moved to the opposite side, as far away as he could.

"Ace is going to hate me after this," he muttered.

His father snorted. "He'll hate me, but I doubt he'll hate you. And if he does get mad at you for not risking your life," he shrugged. "Well, then he wasn't that much of a friend in the first place."

Arturo shook his head. "You don't get it, Papi. You just don't get it."

His father looked as if he was about to say something, but stopped when the show they were watching was interrupted with a broadcast. On the screen, a middle aged man in a black suit appeared in front of City Hall, which looked like someone had blown a hole out of it.

"Earlier today, two bombs went off in City Hall, both concentrated in the mayor's office," he said. "The investigation is still ongoing, but according to reports, there have been three reported deaths, along with several injuries. Among the confirmed dead are the mayor of Townsville, Jessica Newman, twenty-six year old mother of two, and Kevin Moore, father of four. Authorities are currently going through any remaining security footage to see if there are any clues on who the culprit could be."

"Ay dios mío," he turned toward his son, eyes wide. "You see? You see what I told you?!" he yelled, pointing toward the screen. "These games your friends are playing, they're deadly!"

"You… you don't know if they had anything to do with that!" Arturo stuttered, looking back at the screen. He looked on in shock at what was left of the famous building that he had walked by and vandalized more times then he could count.

"Well if they didn't have anything to do with it, it would be one hell of a coincidence," his father said. "And if it wasn't them, then it was Mojo; no one else could've pulled something like that. Either way, we need to get the hell out of here," his father stood up and immediately started to grab anything that belonged to him or Arturo.

"Mijo, go grab some food from the kitchen, as much as you can carry. See if you can find a bag."

Arturo looked at his father in confusion. "Papi, what are you doing?"

"We're leaving," he said. "We're going home to your Mami and sisters. I wanted to have more time to plan this out, but there's no time. Either we're going to get wrapped up in whatever the hell happened today or Mojo is planning something big that we shouldn't stick around to see." When Arturo didn't get up from his spot, his father looked toward him again.

"Now Mijo, vamonos."

Arturo stared at his father in bewilderment. "Papi…"

"In other news," Arturo heard from behind him. He looked back at the TV. "Sixteen year old Isaac Davis, former line cook at local restaurant Si Senorita and a suspect in the poisoning of the Powerpuff Girls, was found dead earlier this morning by his sister, hanging from his bedroom ceiling. After receiving additional evidence, the police believe he had no involvement in the incident…"

Arturo turned around, and felt his heart stop when a picture of his old friend Isaac, happy and smiling with his mother and sister appeared on the screen, his blonde hair and blue eyes shining in the sun. Next to him, his younger sister didn't look like she had even reached her teens yet. She must've been even younger than Rosalita.

"Si Senorita?" His father asked. "That's where you worked, isn't it? Did you know him?"

Arturo looked back at his father, a rush of anxiety hitting him. "I… we talked, a couple times."

His father shook his head. "This town is horrible. Who could drive a young kid to do such a thing?"

Arturo felt like he was about to be sick. "I-I don't know."

His father patted him on the shoulder. "I'm sorry Mijo, I know this has been a lot to take in. But I hope you realize this is just all the more reason we should be leaving. Now go on, go to the kitchen and grab anything you need."

As his father continued to pack, Arturo felt frozen in place. He looked back at the TV, Isaac's smiling face still on the screen.

"Are you sure about this?"

Snake turned to look at his sister, her hair and clothes still disheveled from everything that had happened within the last few days.

Together, they were standing within walking distance of the Townsville Police Station. Snake had been there many, many times in the past, and even though it's been years his stomach still tightened at the very sight of it.

"Yeah, I'm sure," he said. "Either way, there'sss no going back now."

His sister gave him a sad smile, one that he thought wouldn't be out of place on the family member sending off their loved one to their execution.

"You're making the right decision," she said. "I meant what I said before. I'll be by your side the entire time."

Snake knew he wouldn't be able to say anything without crying again, so he just nodded.

"Accce will never forgive me for this."

"It's okay," she whispered, pulling him in a hug. "It's not up to him to forgive you."

"Yeah, I guesss not," he sighed. He took another look at the police station, and felt his breath catch in his throat. Has it always looked this intimidating?

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ivy reach out her hand in offering, and trying to keep his own from shaking, he took it.

Together, the siblings walked towards the station, hand in hand.

PPGGuy06: You will have to wait and see ;)

Anon: Thanks! Yeah, I try to take little details from canon and incorporate it into the story as much as possible. Mojo's backstory was one of my favorite parts to write

Surfer: Yeah... a lot happened lol

GGGFan: Thanks! Yep, Ace can definitely get a bit violent when something (or someone) is threatening his loved ones, or his relationship with them. And yeah, poor Mojo.

Thanks to everyone reading along! I know this chapter was a rough one, but all I can ask is that you bear with me. We still have quite a bit to go before the end, and things are going to get worse before they get better.