Chapter 2: Family Reunion

“Mom.”

Claus was the first to react, scrambling to stand up while some unknown force kept Lucas frozen in place. His legs buckled almost immediately, fatigued from spending an hour completely lifeless. The boy came crashing down and the air was filled with a symphony of metal parts screeching as they slid past one another.

“Mom. Mom. Mom!”

He reached out, tears springing to his eyes, and Hinawa took his hand.

“There, there, Claus,” she murmured. She sat down beside him and cradled his head in her arms. “I’m here.”

“I- I- I- I-” Claus choked back a sob as he struggled to get his words out. “I-I need you…”

Hinawa stroked his hair, just like she’d done when he was small and had fallen while playing outside. “It’s okay, sweetheart. You can cry.”

Claus tried to frown at that, but the sniffles were too strong. “N-not crying…”

Shocked, Lucas just stood where he was and watched the scene unfold. His mother was right there in the flesh, just out of arm’s reach. He half expected her to turn to smoke if he tried to touch her, just like her ghost when she’d appeared in his dream.

“Well, then you can continue ‘not crying’,” Hinawa said, a small smile appearing on her face. “And I’ll be here for you.” She looked up at Lucas. “I’m here for you too.”

Lucas shivered. That look on her face… She was smiling but there was something else there. Something far away, something tired and worried. He saw it written on her heart; a heart only just now readjusting to the ability to beat.

“Lucas?” she said, starting to frown. “Come over here.”

“Lucas!” she’d screamed, that day three years ago when the forest was burning around them and a bloodthirsty Drago had its sights on him. “Get away from there!”

He felt a chill run down his spine, cold and dreadful like his body hitting the river when his mother had pushed him out of the way of the Mecha Drago’s attack. He saw it, before his head went under – he saw what the beast had done to her. Saw it again every once in a while in his worst nightmares.

But here she was, not a single scratch on her, and she wasn’t pushing him away this time.

“Mom,” he whispered, breaking out of his trance. Without a further thought he sprinted as quickly as he could into her arms.

“Aaaa, Lucas!” she yelped, playfully, as the impact made her topple over. Claus yelped too, and for a moment they were a messy pile of limbs in the grass. Then Hinawa blinked, and started laughing as if this were just another day when they would chase each other around on the lawn.

That sound filled Lucas with joy. Right then, he knew that pulling the Needle had been worth it.

“My, you’ve gotten so strong!” Hinawa said, and ruffled Lucas’s hair.

He blushed, but didn’t resist. “I-I had to fight a lot of bad guys, and a lot of mean chimeras. I got pretty good at swinging a stick around.”

“I know.” She sat up, and pulled both of her boys upright too. “I’ve been watching over you two, every day. And I’m so proud of you both.”

Lucas’s lip wobbled at that, and he hugged her tight. Claus, however, drew back a little, his expression falling into a scowl.

Distantly, Lucas noticed a barking sound getting closer. Before any of them could turn their heads, Boney had bounded over and jumped into the pile, wagging his tail and gleefully licking Hinawa in the face.

“Woof woof!” he barked. “(I am so happy to see you again!)”

“Boney!” she said. “The best dog in the world! Thank you for doing such a good job protecting Lucas on his quest! Who’s a good boy?”

“(Meeeeee!)” Boney practically sang, despite Hinawa not being able to understand him the way the twins could.

She pulled the dog close and stroked his fur, humming a little melody as she did. It reminded Lucas of the day Flint had brought Boney home, when the dog was still just a puppy. The sound of humming had brought Lucas and Claus out of their room, and they stared in wonder at Mom rushing around making a wicker basket into a dog bed; at Dad standing there, sopping wet from the rain, with that mysterious smile he always had; and then at the new addition to their home. It wasn’t long before they couldn’t even imagine life without Boney. It would have been just like losing any other member of the family.

Lucas watched, and was overcome with a feeling of hope. Hinawa was alive again. Claus was no longer missing. Their family was whole, for the first time since Porky arrived on the Nowhere Islands. They could finally be happy.

“Claus?” Hinawa asked, breaking into Lucas’s thoughts. “What’s wrong?”

Claus, still frowning, had begun to edge away from the pile. “Forget it,” he mumbled.

Hinawa stopped petting Boney, and put her hands on her hips. “Claus,” she repeated, in that watch out young man kind of way. “Tell me what’s going on.”

Claus flinched at that. He turned to Hinawa with his back ramrod straight, and raised his arm to his forehead in a strange kind of salute. The look on his face was positively horrified at what he was doing, as if he wasn’t doing it voluntarily.

“This is what’s going on,” he said in a low voice. “How can you say you’re proud of me? I’ve spent the last three years as a military commander for the bad guys. I haven’t done anything to be proud of.”

“Oh, sweetheart,” Hinawa replied. She pulled Claus close again; rubbed the back of his head. “That isn’t who you are. You aren’t Porky’s robot. You’re my son.”

Slowly, Claus’s arm fell to his side and hung limp. “But I’ve been bad. It’s my fault Porky almost won. I hurt my own brother… I don’t deserve to be here.”

“Yes you do!” Lucas half-shouted, without really intending to. His fingers were trembling; he tried to calm himself by putting his hands under his arms. “You never hurt me; that was all Porky! He’s to blame for everything. And you- you broke out of his control! I can’t even imagine how hard that must’ve been!”

Claus sniffed, and rubbed his nose on Hinawa’s shoulder. “I couldn’t let Porky keep hurting everyone; not once I remembered who I was.”

“You see?” Lucas said. “Even after three years apart, you’re still my big brother, always looking after me when I get in trouble. That must be why the Dark Dragon decided to bring you back to life – because it knew you had goodness in your heart after all.”

Grinning, Claus sniffed again, and untangled himself from his mother’s arms. His eyes glimmered with tears that hadn’t yet fallen. “When you put it like that, I guess it makes sense.”

“Not to change the subject, but what is this Dark Dragon you two keep talking about?” Hinawa asked.

“Oh, Mom, it’s so cool!” Lucas said, a note of excitement in his voice. “There was this massive dragon, I’m talking HUUUGE, sleeping under the ground, and it was my responsibility to wake it up before, uh, before Porky’s army did.” He saw Claus shrink a little again, but the latter gave his brother a thumbs up to reassure him that he was alright. “Anyway, waking up the Dark Dragon caused the end of the world, but since my heart was pure, it used its magic to create a new world where everything was better!”

Hinawa’s eyes grew wide. “My goodness. That must’ve been some dragon, if it could do all that.”

“You don’t know the half of it.” Lucas jumped up and made wide sweeping gestures with his arms. “I couldn’t even see where it ended. And it had more magic than I’ve ever felt in my life. Like, no person could ever be that powerful. Which makes sense, since it was able to create a new world AND bring you two back from the dead.”

“I’m not so sure about that.”

Lucas, Claus and Hinawa all looked up at the sound of a new voice. Kumatora was standing a few feet away, her arms crossed and a dour look on her face. A moment later, Duster appeared behind her, panting. He leaned on her for support despite Kumatora being quite a bit shorter than him.

“Oh, Kumatora! Duster!” Lucas said, smiling. “There you are! You have to meet Mom! She and Claus are alive again!”

“I can see that,” Kumatora said, and her face did not mirror Lucas’s. She marched over to the three of them – but walked right past Hinawa, who had stuck her hand out to greet the girl. Instead, she stood over Lucas, peering at him from different angles and occasionally sniffing his head.

“Lucas?” Claus asked. “What’s going on? Is your friend alright?”

Lucas shrugged. “She does stuff like this sometimes. It’s pretty cool.”

Kumatora frowned at that, but still didn’t speak up.

“Hey,” Duster said, approaching the group. He took Hinawa’s hand and shook it. “Nice to meet you. I’m Duster. I’ve been traveling with Lucas for a while. He’s really some kid.”

“Thank you,” Hinawa replied, not quite able to keep her eyes on Duster when there was someone nearby acting bizarrely to her child. “It’s nice to meet you two.”

Duster scratched his head. “Sorry about Kumatora. She thinks -”

“I don’t think,” Kumatora cut in. Lucas suppressed a giggle at that, for which she shot him a glare. “I don’t think. I know. The Dark Dragon didn’t bring the two of you back to life.”

“Uh, then who did?” Claus asked.

“It, um, would seem that Lucas did,” Duster replied.

Lucas stared back and forth between Duster and Kumatora. “What do you mean? I can’t do that kind of magic. The strongest healing spell I have just revives someone from being knocked out. To actually bring someone’s soul back into their body after it departs… The Dragon had to have done it.”

“Nope, you did it,” Kumatora said flatly. “I saw you do it. Right before Claus started moving again, you were exerting extreme amounts of PSI. Just standing there made my head throb – I thought I was going to pass out. Plus you were floating way off the ground and glowing like the freaking sun! Not even my moms ever did anything like that.”

Lucas took a step back. “But… that doesn’t make any sense. I’m not that strong.”

“You burned my hand,” Duster said. “I touched your shoulder after you started glowing and it seared a layer of skin off.”

“What?” Lucas gasped. “Oh no, I’m so sorry Duster! Let- let me heal it for you!”

“I already healed it,” Kumatora said, forcing her way between them. “Cool it with the magic for a minute, until we have this whole thing figured out.”

Lucas felt like he’d been slapped in the face. He took another step away from them; held his hands close to his chest to try to restrain the deep thudding of his heart that had started up again. There was a buzzing sound in his ear – he couldn’t tell if it was his friends talking or if it was coming from within him, like it was something that was desperately trying to get out.

“Why are you acting so suspicious?” Duster whispered. “It’s not like he meant to hurt me.”

“I know that!” Kumatora hissed back. “But he’s doing magic without even trying to. That could be dangerous. I’ve seen people get burned out before.”

It felt different, Lucas realized. He used to fit in his body, but suddenly that space inside of him felt so huge that he could spend a million years searching and never find the bottom. That reservoir of PSI he drew on whenever he used his magic – it was everywhere now. There was so much magic inside of him that he felt like he was drowning in it.

“Maybe Lucas did bring us back to life,” Hinawa said. “He’s always had a lot of untapped potential. Would that be such a bad thing?”

Claus sighed, and it sounded like nails on a chalkboard. “I- I don’t know. I don’t know.”

Lucas couldn’t remember when that had happened. His memory was murky, almost like it wasn’t his own. As he sifted through it he had the distinct feeling of being some horrible creature, slithering and twisting through cracks in someone else’s mind. He wondered if it was possible that somewhere deep inside him, he did have the power to raise people from the dead.

“No, no!” Lucas shouted, interrupting the chatter around him. “It had to have been the Dragon that did this! It- it told me it saw all of our suffering and that it would use its power to fix things.” He gulped as he took in the unsure looks on everyone’s faces. “I- I just know it’s true. That’s why it created a new world for us – and that’s why it brought Claus and Hinawa back to life!”

Wisps of steam floated up from the corners of his eyes. He shut them and took a deep breath in… and out. He knew there was no point in getting so worked up over this, but it hurt not to have his friends and family believe him. He’d gotten enough of that from the villagers when Fassad had started handing out Happy Boxes.

Lucas took another slow breath in… out… and then straightened up. There was a presence, far off from the rest of the group. He opened his eyes and sure enough there was a figure out near the horizon, seemingly making its way toward them.

The confusion must have been visible on his face because the rest of the group turned around to face the figure too. As it got closer, Lucas began to make out the outline of a cowboy hat, and the telltale lilting motion of a limp. The figure’s shadow grew long against the setting sun, reaching out to touch them.

Hinawa reached back.

“Flint,” she breathed, and started running at the figure. “Flint!”

Flint halted mid-step. “My sweet,” he said, shock written all over his face. He caught Hinawa in his arms and spun her around. “Oh, how I’ve missed you! I don’t think I’ll ever let go.”

“You better not,” Hinawa said, laughing, and kissed him hard on the lips. “Nothing will come between us.”

“Dad! Dad!” Claus shouted, rushing over to the two of them. The force of his half-robotic body almost knocked his parents over, but Claus seemed to have recovered a bit from earlier, and managed to catch them before they did. “I don’t know if you recognize me with all of the robot parts, but it’s me, Claus. I missed you so much!”

“Of course I recognize you,” Flint said. He tried to lift the boy into his arms and immediately gave up because he was a lot heavier now, and instead settled for a hug. “I don’t believe it. How can you two be here? Did I die in that apocalypse after all?”

“No, honey,” Hinawa said. “We’re back from the dead. Lucas did it – or a giant, magical dragon did it. We’re not sure.”

“A giant magical dragon?” Flint raised an eyebrow. “You don’t mean the Dark Dragon?”

“Yeah,” Lucas said, from a few feet away. He kept his eyes low to avoid making contact. “You were there when I pulled the Needle. We woke it up and it created the new world.”

He paused, and then murmured, “Hi Dad.”

There was an awkward silence, in which Hinawa and Claus exchanged confused glances. Kumatora and Duster moved to stand beside Lucas, and he remembered that night on Tanetane Island when the three of them bathed in the hot spring together and talked about the hallucinations that they’d seen. They were pointedly not touching him this time, but he appreciated the support nonetheless.

Finally, Flint spoke up. “Lucas, remember when I said we needed to make the Dark Dragon our new friend? I’m thinking it didn’t work.”

Lucas did a double take. “Huh? But… the new world. Look at it. Everything’s better now, right?”

Flint shook his head. “Not from what I’ve seen. Come here.”

He beckoned them in the direction he’d come from, and started walking. Hinawa and Claus followed him immediately. Lucas, Kumatora and Duster all looked at each other for a minute. Then Duster shrugged and started walking too, after which Kumatora, Lucas, and Boney trailed.

The sun continued to lower in the sky as they walked. While Flint, Hinawa and Claus seemed to have a lot to say to one another, few words were exchanged by the group in the back. Lucas still felt a bit betrayed by the friends he’d journeyed with for so long, but now an edge of fear had set in thanks to what Flint had said. He wondered if his friends would forgive him if he was the one who was wrong.

After what seemed like an eternity of walking, Flint came upon a ridge. Lucas and the others had spotted it from afar, but it wasn’t until they were close that they could truly see the carnage that lay past it. The land dropped off dramatically from that point, opening into a massive pit, from which plumes of colorful smoke billowed. On the other side, they could see some more land, but it was much more beaten up than the grass they were standing on; buildings toppled over, bits of helicopters spread amongst still-burning flames, and little pink, unmoving spots that looked awfully like Pigmask uniforms.

“You all vanished when the Needle got pulled,” Flint said solemnly, “but I saw what happened when the Dark Dragon woke up. There was a huge earthquake and then everything broke apart. Flames shot out of the ground. The entire city went flying into the distance. It’s a miracle I even survived it. A big rock fell on my leg but other than that I’m fine.”

Lucas heard his words, but was barely able to take them in. All he could do was stare at that floating island in the distance; stare and hear the psychic cries of the people who’d been injured in the apocalypse. He felt his heartbeat, resonating loud and heavy in his chest as he pieced together what it all meant.

“There is no new world,” he whispered, and everyone turned to look at him. “The Dark Dragon didn’t fix anything.”