It was an ordinary day in the library at Megaville Academy. Blossom was picking out some books when she noticed Dexter there as well. He seemed to pull a book like it was a switch before the entire shelf slid away to reveal a staircase, which he went down after making sure nobody was looking.
Blossom, having hidden from Dexter's sight, made her way over to the shelf after it closed and looked for the book Dexter used as a switch, finding and pulling it as the shelf swung open again.
"A secret passage. Dexter never told me about this." She looked down to see the stairs led to darkness. "I wonder where this leads to."
As she flew in, Blossom didn't see someone following her: With a bubble surrounding him and muting his movements, Buki was right behind her. He knew this wasn't right, but after the monster attack, the boy wagered to take no chances if his friends were involved.
"Whooaah! A secret laboratory!"Both young teens thought in amazement; Buki's concentration breaking the bubbly
"BUKI?!" Blossom shouted in shock. "How long have you?! Which…?!"
"Whole time. Calm-Calm fruit; basically mutes either me or whoever I touch." Buki explained, his attention then going elsewhere; a large computer…which he ignored in favor of something else: "Holy cow! A limited edition action figure of Infraggable Krunk!"
"Now why wouldn't Dexter tell us about..." Blossom then looked up and covered her mouth in shock. "OH MY G...!"
"What? What is it?!" Buki asked worriedly before his eyes laid on what Blossom was seeing. "Oh...holy crap..."
It was a girl with long blonde hair and lifeless blue eyes. Upon closer inspection, it seemed she was made for machinery like some kind of cyborg Frankenstein project. But the most concerning detail was that there was blood on her.
"B...Bubbles?!" Blossom gasped out before looking closer. "No...it's not Bubbles. Who is she?!"
"You shouldn't be here."
Blossom and Buki spun around to see Dexter standing behind them.
"Dexter! I..."
"Out!" Dexter snapped as he shoved them both out of the laboratory before closing the hidden passageway behind them.
"Sheesh, what was up with him?" Buki asked.
Blossom frowned. There was one boy at school she had made friends with who could explain this.
KAI
"Okay...so you guys got inside his secret lab and then you saw this...girl?" Otto Osworth, a friend of Blossom's, asked after being told everything.
"Yeah, and then he got mad and booted us out." Blossom noted in a worried tone, Buki nodding in agreement. "Just who was that, Otto?"
"That was just an android. A robot, an exact replica of his older sister." Otto explained.
"Dexter has a sister?!" Buki asked in surprise. "Why didn't he ever tell us?"
Otto frowned. "She...she died."
Blossom gasped as she immediately got up, getting close to Otto with worry written all over her face.
"H-How could this happen?! When?! Where?! Who?!"
"Yeah, you know Dexter better than the rest of us," Buki said. "What can you tell us?"
Otto looked away. "I guess you both deserve to know..."
"We do?" Blossom asked.
Otto held up his wrist and began working with a high-tech watch.
"I'll explain on the way... I just hope you're ready for this."
"What are you doing?" Buki asked as he looked over the watch.
"We're going on a little trip...to the past," Otto explained.
"You mean time traveling?" Blossom asked.
"Yep!"
As Otto finished typing in the coordinates, a sphere of chronotrons surrounded the three youths as they began traveling back in time.
"You're a time traveler?!" Blossom exclaimed in amazement.
"Uh...yeah...I guess now was the best time to tell you that." Otto grinned sheepishly.
"This school is awesome..." Buki muttered to himself.
As the trio flew through space-time, Otto explained that he was a member of a group called Time Squad; consisting of himself, a robot named 'Larry' (real name the Lawerance 3000) and a grizzled, macho Time-Cop named Beauregard "Buck" Tuddrussel. According to Blossom, Otto helped them ensure history stayed in one piece and happened 'correctly' as apparently, it was a LOT whackier than the textbooks described.
Something about that knowledge of time travel apparently being so easy and time history and time themselves being so apparently finickey both intrigued and worried Buki.
'…Don't tell me I have a time travel power?!' He had asked himself inwardly. No visions came, but for reason he now knew he should expect something like that…
Soon, the three arrived in a larger, more expansive laboratory.
"Is this the past?" Buki asked.
"I've activated the time cloak so we'll be invisible to anything in the area, that way nobody can see us. Welcome to Dexter's Laboratory."
"DEEDEE!" Came a younger Dexter's voice.
The trio turned to see Dexter running around, trying to stop a blonde girl in a pink ballerina outfit, giggling as ran around,
"Ooooh! What does THIS button do?"
"DON'T PRESS THAT!"
ZAP!
"….Button." past Dexter, now an orangutan, grumbed.
Despite it all, Blossom, Buki and Dexter couldn't help but laugh at the chaos
"GET OUT OF MY LABORATORY!" pastDexter screamed
"That's his sister?" Blossom asked with a sweatdrop.
"Uh-huh," Otto affirmed, coughing into his fist.
"No offense, but she seems to be on the opposite scale of the intelligence department compared to her brother." Buki said.
"You're not wrong, Bucky." Otto said. "You're not wrong,"
"Its Buki."
If Otto heard he didn't respond, as a series of memories played for the trio to see.
One time, Deedee ate gigantification cookies and Dexter tried to stop her in a Mech suit. Which a later memory showed his whole family got to pilot alongside him with once. Then there was a time when Deedee was pretending to be Dexter's pet monkey…for some reason. Then a memory of her being turned into a pony.
'…Sunset-nee must NEVER know.' Buki vowed.
Then came the memory they'd just seen of them turning into various animals.
There was also the classic 'what's that on your shirt' gag, a memory of Dexter speaking nothing but French for some reason, them fighting over a turtle that Deedee thought was a bird
Then there were the memories of Dexter 'saving' Deedee from aliens (they seemed desperate to get rid of her) and then what seemed like a girly unicorn show that HATED tomboys, and then Deedee doing the same for Dexter from an alien prison…which the memory then revealed she'd sent him too…
As they watched the chaos unfold, Blossom and Buki couldn't help but notice that the Dexter from the past was so much different from the Dexter they knew.
"Dexter was always working on new ideas and inventions, with his sister always there to wreck them, always wreaking havoc and mayhem. You might say they were an inseparable pair, however." Otto said. "Dexter, being the typical man of science that he was, often considered his free-spirited sister to be the biggest obstacle in his pursuit of scientific discovery, or, to make a long story shorter, they had a normal sibling rivalry like any brother and sister."
"For some reason, it kinda makes me wish I had an older sibling..." Buki muttered.
"But you do, Buki. You have Twilight, Sunset, the Eds, even Crydius!" Blossom pointed out.
"Well, yeah, and I love them but...I mean like a biological sibling."
It was then Otto brought them to a point in the past where Dexter and Deedee seemed to be meditating together in a forest.
"What are they doing?" Blossom asked.
"In times of doubt, and when he was caged up in the lab for too long, Dexter would seek out his sister's help for guidance and enlightenment. With her knowledge of the outside world, Deedee continually taught Dexter the... 'Way of the Deedee' or whatever you call it."
"Huh, so she was actually smarter than she looked...good to know," Buki noted.
The trio began listening in to a conversation the two siblings were having, Deedee having an uncharacteristically serious look on her face.
"Dexter...before we proceed, I need you to promise me something."
"What?"
"If something should ever happen to me, promise you won't ever use your knowledge of science for my sake."
"What on earth are you talking about?"
"Listen...with all your scientific works, like time traveling and stuff...you have to understand that man was not meant to interfere with the laws of nature. Every event has a purpose and every cause has a reason. If it's my time, then it's my time..."
Dexter frowned. "Deedee, you're starting to creep me out. I'm not sure I understand what you're saying..."
Deedee just placed her hands on Dexter's shoulders.
"In time, Dexter, you will. But for now, I want you to promise me this. Okay?"
"Oh, alright...whatever. I promise." Dexter grumbled.
"Otto, I don't think I like where this is going..." Blossom said worriedly.
"Hey! You wanted to know the truth." Otto pointed out.
"I guess..."
Buki bit his lip. "I've got a bad feeling..."
The trio moved forward again, now finding themselves back in Dexter's Laboratory...which was in disrepair as if a big fight was currently going on.
"What the heck is this?!"
Suddenly, an evil laugh was heard as they saw Dexter facing off against a boy with similar expressive blue-lensed glasses like him and with a black bowl cut hairdo.
"This time I will finally destroy your laboratory, Dexter. I will not leave this night until I have finally incinerated all of your inventions and prove to the world that I, Mandark, am the greatest scientific genius of all!"
"Bring it on, Mandark!" Dexter spat back.
"JACKBOTS ATTACK!"
As the battle between the two geniuses waged, Buki, Blossom, and Otto could only watch the action unfold.
"That is Mandark, Dexter's archrival and nemesis. They have both been at it for a long time now trying to prove which of them is the greater genius." Otto explained. "Mandark has long wanted to destroy Dexter's Laboratory and this I believe is his final assault. Dexter on the other hand is making his last stand."
"Come on, Dexter...kick this jerk's butt!" Buki silently cheered on.
Deedee had come down, more than likely to cause mischief in Dexter's lab as usual...only to see the utter chaos that was going on.
"Dexter? Dexter, where are you?"
"Is that all you got?!" Dexter snapped at Mandark, having taken down many of his Jackbots with his various tools.
However, Deedee quickly noticed that one Jackbot had snuck up behind Dexter and was ready to shoot him down.
"DEXTER! LOOK OUT!"
Dexter turned around to see the plasma blast coming for him but wouldn't be able to make it out of the way in time...and that was when Deedee threw herself in front of it, the beam piercing through her abdomen.
"DEEDEE!" Dexter screamed, the blood splattering against his white lab coat.
Blossom let out a silent scream of her own, covering her mouth as tears already welled up in her eyes. As for Buki, his eyes widened but he made no reaction, his entire body going rigid. Mandark's eyes widened in horror as well, backing away slowly.
"No...what have I….What have YOU done, Dexter...?!" He turned and fled. "JACKBOTS! RETREAT!"
"Deedee, hold on! Please hold on!" Dexter begged as he held Deedee's hand as she bled out on the floor. "Computer! I need Medicbots now! COMPUTER!"
However, Dexter's computer, which had been one of his closest companions, was badly damaged. Sure she could be repaired...but Deedee couldn't. Already, the light in her eyes once filled with boundless optimism and innocence...had dimmed, tears still leaking out.
"Deedee, you stupid sister..." Dexter whimpered, covering his own tear-stained face before hugging his older sister's body close.
Blossom, now unable to hold back her own tears, turned and hugged Buki, who numbly returned the embrace as he stared at the tragedy before him. Otto also had a saddened look on his face, but one of acceptance, no doubt having seen this moment before himself before.
"Dexter never told his parents about his secret laboratory, but after what happened to Deedee he knew he had to tell them one way or another." The time traveler said before showing Deedee's funeral. "Fortunately for Dexter, his parents are very loving and understanding, and they too, share his grief. Now knowing they have lost their only daughter, they can only give as much love and comfort as possible to their now one and only child."
"And he used to think having a sister was bad enough, but losing her was much worse," Blossom whispered before turning to Otto. "You could have saved her, Otto. Why didn't you? You told us that as a time traveler, it was your duty to enforce the past in order to protect our future!"
"I protect the world's future, Blossom. This is Dexter we're talking about." Otto pointed out. "I'm sorry, but it's not my place to interfere with personal matters. Besides, you and I both know Deedee would never allow it."
"That's true..." Buki said, recalling what Deedee said to Dexter earlier. "Still...it's just not fair. We have the power to change things for the better and yet here, we're powerless."
Otto nodded. "Nothing is fair...and things have never been the same without Deedee."
The trio now saw Deedee curled up in his lab, which had since been repaired but he was still grieving, whispering his sister's name over and over...suddenly, he picked himself up, a furious look on his tear-stained face.
"NO! I will never allow this! I am Dexter, Boy Genius! With the power of science I can do anything I want, even bring my sister back to life! If Victor Frankenstein can do it, so can I!"
Blossom, frightened at just how deranged Dexter looked, hugged onto Buki, who held her close as he glared.
"Dexter, you idiot...! She told you she didn't want this!"
Otto then showed them Dexter working on the android they saw in the hidden library laboratory. He had collected real human organs given to him by willing donors and spent countless sleepless nights trying to make the android as human as possible while also being indestructible.
"How could he hope to bring Deedee back by creating this...THING?" Blossom asked worriedly. "This is insane! What about the promise he made to Deedee?"
Sure enough, the android suddenly began speaking. At first, it was echoing in the room, seemingly coming from nowhere...but then Dexter saw the android itself talking to him.
"Dexter...Dexter...You promised...You promised..."
"Go away! GO AWAY!" Dexter cried, trying to shun the voices before stopping. "No! No! Don't go away! Deedee, come back! Do not go! Do not leave me again!"
Unable to handle it, Dexter ran out of his laboratory, tears running down his face as he blindly came to the cemetery where his sister had been laid to rest...only to find Mandark there, mourning.
"What's Mandark doing there?" Buki asked.
"Mandark actually was in love with Deedee and her loss due to his own Jackbots caused him to fall into a state of guilt and depression," Otto explained.
In that moment, Dexter's sorrow was replaced with white-hot anger as he forced Mandark to turn and face him before forcefully grabbing him by the collar, his eyes burning with hatred.
"YOU! How dare you come here!" He snarled. "You could have taken away my laboratory, all of my inventions. BUT NO! YOU HAD TO TAKE AWAY MY SISTER! You're not my rival anymore, you hear me?! You know what you are?!"
Dexter then took out the scalpel he had been using with his work on the android earlier and had it poised to stab Mandark straight in the throat. His nemesis didn't even try to resist, believing this was his due punishment for killing the girl he loved.
"YOU'RE A MURDERER."
"Dexter, you idiot!" Buki shouted, stretching out his arm to stop Dexter...only for the three to find themselves back in the present. "GODDAMMIT!"
Blossom and Buki had now learned the dark truth their friend had been hiding...but now, they honestly wished they hadn't.
Knightmare Lord A/N:
Ah, Deedee's death scene...that moment in the comic never stops being tragic.
Sorry this chapter took so long, we've been holed up with all our other projects as well. But I managed to make time for this one.
Anything on your end, Mrotrax?
Mrotrax A/N:
A darker chapter…and one that took a while because I wanted to choose a good mix of Dexter and Dee Dee's best and worst moments.
Also added a little bit of Mandark DENYING his involvement in Deedee's death; with the intent of blaming Dexter.
Looking very forward to what happens next, thank you all for reading and supporting our work(s).
Until we meet again? Stay warm, safe and happy! And tell those you love how you feel; leave nothing unsaid.
