Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Okay guys, time to pack it up!”

A chorus of groans came from the children. Aubrey began putting away the beach toys, while Kel tugged on Mari’s arm.

“Come on Mari, we haven’t been here that long! Please can we stay more? Pleasepleasepleaseplease?” He looked at her with puppy dog eyes, but Mari had long since inoculated herself against the technique – Hero’s charm could barely shake her now, and Kel wasn’t half the charmer Hero was. She tussled Kel’s hair.

“Sorry Kel. We’ve been here all day, and I want to get home before it gets too dark out. Besides” she pointed to Sunny “if we wait too much longer, Sunny’s going to take root.”

"WAIT THAT CAN HAPPEN?!” Kel cried out. Mari grinned and gently nudged him in the direction of her sand-bound brother.

A few moments later Kel arrived at the car with a sand-encrusted Sunny. “Oh no. You two are not getting in the car like that, mom would kill me. The beach has showers for a reason, go wash the sand off.”

“But Mari, those showers are cold!” Kel whined.

“Should have thought of that before you buried my brother in sand.” Mari smiled.

Hero poked his head around the corner of the car. “If I recall, you were the one who suggested doing that, Mari.”

“Silence! The beachmaster will have no more of your insubordination!” Mari commanded, keeping an imperious voice and expression for a full five seconds before breaking down into laughter. Kel huffed as Sunny led him back to the showers.

Aubrey poked her head out the window. “This was so fun! Thanks Mari!”

Mari laughed. “Don’t thank me, Hero’s the one who came up with the idea!”

“Thanks Hero!” Aubrey yelled as she latched her arms around his.

“Mari’s being too modest. She organized everything, and she’s the one who drove us here.”

Aubrey turned back to Mari. “Thanks for driving us! You’re so cool and mature, Mari.”

Mari shoved Aubrey’s head playfully. “Oh, are you calling me old?”

“Yeah! I wanna be just like you when I’m old!” Aubrey stuck her tongue out.

Hero wrapped his arm around Mari. “You know, I gotta say. For an ‘old lady’ you still look pretty good.”

Mari gazed back at him. “You’re not too bad yourself, handsome. Or should I say, what’s cooking, good looking?”

The couple’s laughter was interrupted when Sunny and Kel returned from the showers. They marched into the car and were on their way home.

Thus far, the ride home was calming, if not boring. The evening sun shone through the windows onto the exhausted children. Sunny was snuggled into the middle of the back row, his head lolled to the side, resting on Aubrey’s shoulder. Mari smiled at the sight in the mirror, she’d definitely bring this up later. She saw a light up ahead weaving across the road. Mari frowned. For a moment, she considered pulling over, but shook the thought from her mind. The light might be a mirage, and if it wasn’t, the highway was wide and empty.

Mari soon found she had made a mistake. A terrible mistake. The car ahead was coming at breakneck speed and following no discernable pattern in its drift. The last thing she heard was Hero screaming her name, and the last thing she saw was a wall of steel and glass coming towards her.

Her world went white.

Mari’s vision swam as she awoke. The world was filled with beeps and whirrs, machine noises of an unconscionable volume. Her entire body screamed in agony, but she tried to sit up.

She failed.

Her failure had, however, attracted the attention of a man in a surgical outfit. Where was she?

“Lay down miss. You need to rest right now.”

She wanted to protest, wanted to say that she needed to see everyone, assure them she was alright.

But she couldn’t.

Her eyes closed, and she sunk into a black, dreamless sleep.

Her parents were there when she woke the second time. Her mother cried and hugged her, her father bore a downcast expression she had never seen on him before. Her throat burned, but she forced out the words. “Where am I? What happened?”

“There… there was an accident.” Her father grimaced.

Mari gasped. “Oh god… is… is everyone alright?” Her mother’s sobs became wails at the question. A deep pit formed in Mari’s stomach. Her father looked away.

“No… they… you’re the only one who made it.”

No.

No.

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

“Tha-that’s a funny joke dad. Where are they really? I… I bet they’re in the hall waiting to surprise me, r-right?”

A desperate, and, Mari knew, ultimately false hope filled her voice. “I-I’m sorry.” He turned away again. Mari thought she could hear him crying. He never cried.

She broke. She sat in silence as the doctors told her the diagnoses. Broken bones, broken ribs, damage in the left arm… none of it mattered. She didn’t say anything when the doctor informed her that her left eye had been too damaged to fix. She didn’t say anything when she looked in the mirror to see the eyepatch that now covered half her face. She didn’t say anything when they told her she was lucky to be alive.

‘Lucky to be alive’. She wanted to scream at that. To laugh at the ridiculousness of it. To yell in the face of the doctors, the nurses and god himself, to question how she could possibly be ‘lucky’ when everyone who mattered to her had been ripped away in an instant.

She wanted to scream.

But she didn’t. She couldn’t. It was not until she got home and saw her room- saw Sunny’s bed lying empty – that she screamed. She screamed and cried and wailed. She cried until every tear was gone, screamed until her voice went out. Finally, in what was to become a recurring event, she cried herself to sleep.

Everything was shit. Mari knew everything was shit. And worse, she knew that it was her fault that everything was shit.

Her parents had tried to assure her that the accident was not her fault, but she didn’t believe them. She was the one her friends had trusted to drive them. She was the one who promised to keep them safe. She was the one who decided not to pull over, and she was the one who killed them. Not the drunk driver who had also lost his life in the crash, she was the one who had failed them. And even in their last moments, they had cared for her- Hero shielding her with his body was likely the only reason she was still alive.

What a waste.

Basil’s grandmother had been wrecked by the accident. At the funeral, she looked like she had aged twenty years since Mari had last seen her. She died a few weeks later. The doctors said she simply… gave up.

Aubrey’s parents hadn’t taken it much better. At first, it seemed the tragedy might bring the estranged couple closer, and it did. But it also drove her mother deeper into her addiction, and her father followed suit. A year after the funeral, both were found dead of overdoses. A dead rabbit was aslo found in the home, though only Mari knew to mourn for him.

And Hero and Kel’s parents… they simply broke. They went through the motions of living, but on the rare occasions that Mari saw them, the light was completely gone from their eyes. Both of their children, buried. And it was all her fault.

Mari and Sunny’s parents handled things better. Not well, and certainly not healthily, but better. Their business trips grew more and more frequent, to the point that Mari was marking the days they were actually present rather than the days they were gone. Not that she blamed them, she wouldn’t want to share a house with someone who had killed her son either. Plus, Mari was fairly positive that the only reason their marriage was still ongoing was because they only saw each other a few times a year, and neither could be bothered to ask for a divorce.

As for Mari herself… she tried to persist. She threw herself into school in the hopes of distracting herself, but her heart just couldn’t handle it. Soon her grades were slipping, her college prospects dimming, her work sitting undone on her desk.

Fine.

Who cared?

What was the point of any of it anyway?

She didn’t see anyone anymore. Better not to make friends that she would then hurt. If any old acquaintances came by, she hid beneath her covers. She didn’t talk to anyone. Not to Daphne and Bowen when they brought her bread, fresh from the oven. Not to Brandi when she and Bebe tried to get her out of bed. Not to her old tutors Karen and Sean when they came to offer help.

Soon, they stopped coming.

Good.

She didn’t deserve their help.

Mari fell into a routine. Wake up, go to school, pay almost no attention in class, get barely passing grades, come home, feed Mewo, eat, sleep, repeat. Graduation removed one of the few solid things in her life and sent her floundering for a replacement. College was out of the question, even if her grades hadn’t been so abysmal by the end. She tried, she did. But as soon as she opened an application, her mind would flash back to her and Hero planning for the future.

Like they had done that day on the beach.

She would remember Hero talking to her about his plans, asking her to apply to the same schools as him. Planning out a future he would never get.

All because of her.

At her mother’s suggestion, Mari tried looking for work. There were plenty of part time jobs around Far Away, and the drudgery kept her mind occupied for a few hours, which was honestly more important to her than the money. Because when her mind wasn’t occupied, it would wander invariably back to them.

To the ones she had killed.

Then, she found it. A few days after what would have been Sunny’s sixteenth birthday, she was rifling through her desk for a pen when her fingers brushed against a strange envelope. It was addressed to Aubrey, in Sunny’s handwriting.

She didn’t have the heart to read it.

From then on, Mari’s situation deteriorated. She would see her friends’ shadows in the corner of her vision, hear their voices in whispers in the silence. Each word, each hallucination brought the same message; “you killed us”.

After months of this torture, she couldn’t take it anymore. On a bright summer morning, she prepared. She had one last tutoring session with Joy, where she surprised her by giving her Mewo. She’d be happier with a loving family than in an empty house. She took what felt like the longest shower in her life. She doubted that a killer like her would be allowed to see good people like Hero, but if there was a chance, she wanted to look her best for him. She looked through her closet and found the white dress she’d bought for her recital.

Her recital with Sunny. The recital that would never happen.

Finally, she wrote a note. It was a simple one, written to her parents and to Kel and Hero’s parents and even to Basil’s parents. It was just a formality, she knew that she could never get their forgiveness for what she had done, but maybe balancing the scales a bit could help them find peace.

She approached the tree. It was a tree full of memories. She and Hero had played under that tree. It was Sunny’s favorite tree, his place of solitude and peace with branches in just the right positions to climb high, but not too high to be scary. It was the tree that had sprained Kel’s ankle when he decided to play Tarzan. Its branches had been too weak to support the treehouse, but they would be strong enough for a murderer and a rope.

Mari stepped off the toybox, and the world went white.

Her throat was burning when she woke up. The fact that she woke up at all was a testament to her monumental list of failures. She could kill everyone that mattered to her, but when she tried to make things right she couldn’t do it. Evidently she had been wrong about the strength of the tree’s branches. She felt her neck, and failed to find the rope. It must have slipped off. She turned around to look for it, and froze.

The tree was gone. All that remained was a grass covered stump.

She shook her head. That made no sense. Her hallucinations were getting worse. She needed to get inside, to ground herself.

The house was filled with boxes that she had no memory of. Her memory of most days was foggy, had she done all this beforehand? Spring cleaning for her parents as one last act before offing herself? As she wandered aimlessly through the cardboard towers, her attention was grabbed by a knock on the door.

Who could that be? The only people who knocked on her door were deliverymen, and she was fairly sure she hadn’t ordered anything, had she? She sighed and opened the door.

Standing before her was a tall, tan young man. A man with a face that was burned into her memories, a smile she could never bring herself to forget.

She stared at him, at the boy who was supposed to be dead. He stared back. When the door opened, his expression was one of happiness and excitement. Now it was a mask of confusion and sadness. They stared at each other for what felt like ages. Finally, they spoke, at nearly the same time.

“Kel?”

“Mari?”

Chapter Text

Kel’s inner voice was screaming in panic. Four things that he had never expected to happen just occurred in quick succession. To wit:

1.  He got Sunny to open his door.
2. The person who opened the door wasn’t Sunny.
3. This person bore a very, very strong resemblance to Mari.
4. This person seemed to be just as frightened and disoriented as he was, if not more so.

The name came out almost instinctively. “Mari?”

Mentally, Kel berated himself. Of course it wasn’t Mari, that would be ridiculous. Whoever the woman was, the name seemed to shock her. She fell backwards, crawling away from him but keeping her eyes locked with his until her back hit the stairs. She gripped her knees and curled into a ball. Kel could hear the woman hyperventilating. He had a lot of questions, this person was far too young to be Sunny’s mother, but who else would be home with him? Was she a burglar? No, why would a burglar open the door while they were robbing a place. Maybe she was the person who had bought the house? No, Sunny hadn’t moved out yet.

Kel shook his head. It didn’t matter who she was or why she was there, the issue was that there was a woman in the middle of a panic attack right in front of him, and he needed to help her. He felt strange walking into Sunny’s house without being invited in, but what else was he supposed to do?

He knelt down next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Hey, hey. It’s not as scary as you think. Just… try to calm down and focus, ok?”

It was an old calming technique he’d learned from Hero, who’d learned it from… Mari. Why did his mind keep going back to her today?

Mari felt the hand on her shoulder. Her hallucinations touching her, that was new. Then again, she’d never imagined what her friends would have been like if they’d been allowed to grow up before, so today was just full of new experiences.

“Hey, hey. It’s not as scary as you think. Just… try to calm down and focus, ok?”

Those words. Those were her words. It was what she said to Sunny when the power went out, or he scraped his knee, or when she had to leave him to go to school. She tried to slow her breathing. She raised her face to the voice. Yes, there was no mistaking it. This was Kel.

“Kel?” she whispered, as though saying his name would make him disappear. “How…?”

As she said his name, tears gathered in the corner of his eyes. “Is… is it really… is it really you Mari?” Before she could answer, or even ponder what the question implied, his arms encircled her body. He was crying. Soon she was crying too.

She couldn’t tell how long it lasted. Her mind raced. Was this real? It felt real. “I… I never thought I’d see you again!” she cried into Kel’s shoulder.

Kel released her from his python grip and grasped her shoulders. “I never thought I’d see you again either! After… after everything that happened, how are you here? And what happened to you?” he asked as his eyes settled on her eyepatch. She touched the patch gingerly.

“Ah. Of course, you wouldn’t remember that… it happened after…”

“After what?” Kel quirked his eyebrow.

“After you died.” Mari whispered.

Kel frowned. “What are you talking about? I… you were the one who… who died.”

Mari was about to question what Kel meant, when an idea popped into her head. She leapt to her feet and ran up the stairs, ignoring the pain in her knee. She swung the door open. Her bed was gone, but his bed was back. Her heart caught in her throat s she approached it. A small lump lay in the center of the bed, rising and falling in a rhythmic fashion. Nervously, Mari pulled back the covers.

There he was. Her best friend. Her baby brother. Her sunshine.

The tears that had ceased in the middle of her hug with Kel returned tenfold. She picked up his sleeping form and cradled him in her arms. She heard footsteps behind her, then Kel’s voice calling out “Sunny!” with his typical enthusiasm. The next thing she knew the three of them were brought together in one of Kel’s trademark group hugs.

Sunny groaned. Gradually his eyes opened. “Ugh… hi Mari…” he muttered. He wriggled away from her embrace enough to free his arms and rubbed his eyes. “Why is Kel in my room?” he turned to the tan intruder.

Kel gaped. “Wait, Mari is here, and I’m the one you have questions about?!”

“Mari’s my sister… she’s supposed to be here…”

“I… ugh, fine. I wanted to see you, alright? You’re moving away so soon, and I just wanted to hang out one last time before you left. You know, for old times’ sake? And now I find you’re here with Mari too, so we can all hang out!”

Sunny nodded “Okay.”

“Umm… well, I uh… I didn’t think I’d actually get this far. I didn’t really have a plan for what to do.” Kel rubbed his head. “Oh, I know! Why don’t we go down to the plaza! We can visit Hobbeez!” Kel snapped his fingers. Sunny nodded again. “How about it Mari, want to come?” Kel gave her a smile, but she could see the nervousness in the corner of his mouth.

She nodded and stood up, releasing Sunny from her grip, but keeping hold of his hand. “But first” she said, turning to Kel “I think we need to figure some things out.”

Chapter Text

Mari paced back and forth in the bedroom, while Kel sat in the corner of the room. Sunny was sitting on his bed, staring at the two of them. Now that Mari had a better view, she couldn’t help but notice how different he looked from Kel- that was to say, while Kel seemed to have aged four years, Sunny looked almost the same as he had the day on the beach. Almost. His body was thinner and bonier, but he still looked like a pre-teen. Mari wondered why that was- another question to add to today’s ever-growing pile. Hopefully she would get at least some answers now.

“Alright. You said I had died?”

Kel gulped. “Ye-yeah. You were- you died four years ago. I’m not sure why Sunny doesn’t remember it. Or you for that matter.”

Mari shook her head. “Do… do you know how it happened?” she asked.

Kel looked away for a moment. “Ah- sorry. I didn’t mean to pry…” Mari apologized.

It was Kel’s turn to shake his head. “No, I… it’s okay. It was a… a suicide. You hung yourself from the tree in the backyard.”

Kel’s face was turned away, but Mari could tell his eyes were tearing up. She got up and sat down next to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. “Kel, I… I did hang myself from that tree… but I did it today.”

“What?”

“And… I remember you and Sunny being dead.”

Kel gulped. “H-how?”

“I... you all... died. All of you, you, Sunny, Basil, Aubrey… even Hero. We were coming back from the beach… there was an accident. I lived, but the rest of you… didn’t.”

“Wait, but… but that clearly didn’t happen, I’m sitting right here! I think I would remember if I had died!” Kel interjected. Then, a sudden sense of clarity filled his eyes. He pounded his fist into his palm. “Wait a minute, I get it! You’re from an alternate dimension! Like in Capt Spaceboy issue #453, Among Unfamiliar Stars!”

Mari looked at him blankly. Kel sighed. “Okay, so in it, Captain Spaceboy goes through a wormhole and ends up in another timeline. Everything happened like he remembered it until one day when it didn’t, and then he had to figure out what was different, and why his father Captain Pinkbeard was still alive, leading to them having a touching reunion before he was forced to return to his home timeline. But then in issue #478, Friends in all the Right Spaces, they return to that timeline and recruit Captain Pinkbeard to help them fight off-“

Mari raised her hand, cutting off Kel’s comic book rant. She smiled, she had missed his enthusiasm, and tried to parse the implications of what he was saying. An alternate timeline? Was such a thing possible? Considering the evidence she had at hand, it seemed like the only possible explanation, but the idea was just so outlandish.

Yet why else were Kel and Sunny here, talking to her, hugging her?

And what had she done to deserve such a cosmic boon? She had killed them.

Oh god, they were still dead. They might be alive here, but in back in her own timeline, they were still dead and buried.

“Wait, you’re not evil, are you?”

Kel’s inanity was just what Mari needed to snap back to reality. She laughed. “Why would you ask something like that, Kel?”

Kel shrugged. “Well, the ones with eyepatches are always evil. In issue #324, No Eye in Time, Spaceboy fights an evil version of himself from another timeline, and every member of his crew wore an eyepatch!”

Mari raised her left arm and placed her right over her heart. “Kelsey Rodriguez, you have my word that I am not evil.”

“Hmmm…” Kel looked at her, his expression one of distrust. But just as soon as the frown appeared, it vanished, replaced by his usual smile. “Okay! Well, welcome back Mari!” he grabbed her shoulders and pulled her and Sunny to the floor in a group hug. “I don’t know how you got here, but I am so you did!”

“You don’t deserve this. Murderer.” Kel’s voice flashed through Mari’s head. She shook her head, trying to clear the delusion. She knew the voice came from her own mind – Kel would never utter such a phrase. But she didn’t necessarily disagree with it either. What right did she have to be with the ones she had killed?

She stamped down the feeling. Who was she to argue with the universe? She would need to figure everything out later, but for now, she would play along. And something else bothered her. The suicide. This world was everything she had wanted for the past four years – so why would her counterpart here leave it? She could feel there was more to the story here. Something was missing. Mari had a strange feeling that the missing piece here was going to be very important.

The street seemed much the same as the one Mari had left behind. The exception was the Rodriguez’s house. Mari remembered it being a decrepit, rundown mess, untouched by any form of maintenance for four years. Seeing it shining with a bright coat of paint, a freshly mowed lawn and an energetic dog in the yard was something of shock.

Kel must have noticed Mari stopping to stare at his home. “Yeah, the old house hasn’t changed much. But hey, sometimes you just stick with what works, right?” Mari nodded.

“H-hey. How are your parents doing?” she asked.

Kel shrugged. “They’re fine, but mom’s going on one of her cleaning sprees. Hero gets home tomorrow, so she’s trying to get every single piece of dust and dirt off the floors, it’s crazy!”

Hero.

It hadn’t hit her until now.

If Kel and Sunny were here, Hero would be too.

She would get to see Hero.

Her heart began to race. She slapped her cheeks and shook her head to calm herself. She needed to be realistic. This wasn’t her Hero. Would he even want to see her?

Kel tugged her arm. “Hey, are you alright?” Mari swallowed and nodded. “Okay, good. Because if we spend any more time here, I think Sunny’s going to just wander off out of town.” Kel pointed to Sunny’s outline, which had already reached the end of the block. Mari and Kel ran up to him.

A thought occurred to Mari as they reached her brother. “Kel, you said you hadn’t seen Sunny in a while. When was the last time you were together?”

Kel grimaced. “About… four years ago. After you… after you died, Sunny shut himself off. I think this is the first time he’s left the house since then.” Mari grit her teeth. A rush of anger flared through her. How dare her counterpart leave Sunny alone to deal with all of this! Why would this timeline’s Mari do something so selfish?

Well, she was here now. Perhaps that was the reason, to fix the mistakes the other Mari had left when she killed herself. She couldn’t fix her mistakes where she came from, but perhaps she could do something to help here.

Chapter Text

Sunny hadn’t been to Hobbeez in four years. He wasn’t sure why – it was, after all, one of his favorite places. Something to do with Mari? Maybe it had to do with what Kel was talking about earlier – something involving Mari being dead.

But that made no sense. Mari was right here with him, holding his hand like she did when he was young. So why was Kel talking about her dying four years ago? Maybe it was one of Kel’s dumb jokes. Kel wasn’t very good at jokes, but Sunny had never had the heart to tell him.

Sunny’s concerns about Kel and Mari’s apparent ongoing prank were pushed from his mind as the plaza came into view. He picked up his pace, anticipating the cornucopia of new comics, toys and games he had missed.

Today was going to be a good day.

Mari hadn’t been in Hobbeez for four years – without Sunny or her friends, she didn’t have a reason to. As she walked through the door, memories flooded back. Coming here every Sunday with Hero to spend her hard-earned allowance on the week’s new comic. Arguing with him over the merits of Sweetheart vs Spaceboy. Bringing Sunny there for the first time, and seeing his eyes go wide at the colorful selection of merchandise.

Hobbeez seemed almost exactly as she remembered it. The bells above the door jangled to announce their presence, and Kel turned to face his friends. “So… uh… I was thinking that maybe we could get a present for Hero while we were here. Since he’s coming back tomorrow and everything.”

Sunny nodded. “Split up” he said.

“Ah, that way we can cover more ground! Good thinking, I’ve missed your advice Sunny!”

Mari wanted to interject that the store was only twenty feet wide, and thus didn’t have much ‘ground’ to cover at all, but before she could say anything, Sunny and Kel had run to opposite sides of the building. Sunny went towards the video game section while Kel made his way to the comics. Mari shrugged and decided to take a look at the CDs.

Mari hadn’t exactly been keeping up with new music, so she didn’t recognize any of the CDs, but from the covers they seemed mostly to consist of imported J-pop and novelty albums. Unless this timeline’s Hero had drastically different taste than her own, the CD table was probably a bust. She decided to see if Sunny had found anything. He was staring intently at a game sitting in the ‘new releases’ area.

“Oh, what’s this? You find something, Sunny?” Mari picked up the case. SPROUT EATER III: REVENGE OF THE MOLES popped off the cover in bright lettering. The name was familiar, calling up memories of the arcade game at Gino’s and the hours they had spent trying to beat the high score of Gino himself. Something nostalgic like that could be a fine gift, Mari thought. She looked down to find more information, her eyes catching on the rating in the corner. M for mature.

“Extreme violence, gore, substance abuse… sexual themes?! I… I don’t think this is a good choice for Hero, Sunny. Or you, for that matter” Sunny tilted his head as Mari placed the game back on the stand. Sunny looked a bit hurt, but quickly recovered as something in the corner seemed to catch his eye. He walked over to the book section while Mari scanned the room for Kel. She gave a small laugh when she spotted him with his nose buried deep in an issue of Spaceboy.

Kel was so engrossed by the comic that he didn’t hear Mari approach. He didn’t seem to notice her presence until she placed a hand on his shoulder, causing him to jump. “You find anything for Hero, Kel?”

“Ah! Oh, sorry… I kinda got distracted” Kel mumbled.

“Mm. Yeah, I can see that. Why don’t we go rejoin Sunny, see if he’s found anything yet?” Reluctantly, Kel put the comic back on the shelf and left to find his friend.

Mari was going to follow Kel when her eye caught on a comic Kel’s rummaging had dislodged from the shelves. Out of a sense of curiosity, she picked it up and began to skim. The series, Mutantheart: Alone in the World was apparently some sort of Sweetheart spinoff starring the eponymous Mutantheart as a goopier version of the fictional idol. In it, Mutantheart tried to find her purpose in life, and to determine where she fit in with the characters who knew Sweetheart.

Mari soon lost herself in the story. She couldn’t tell how much time had passed between opening the comic and being dragged out of it by Kel’s interruption.

“Hey Mari? Sunny’s been staring at that poster for the past five minutes, and I don’t know what to do about that.” Mari replaced the comic in the rack and followed Kel. Her brother was indeed staring at a poster, a promotional material for some horror or monster film.

“Sunny? Sunny?” she called out to him. After a few moments he blinked and seemed to finally recognize her presence.

“Oh. Hi Mari.”

“Hi” Mari gave him an uneasy smile. She knew Sunny loved getting lost in his own little world, but this display seemed far more excessive than the daydreams she was familiar with. “Lost in a daydream?”

Sunny shook his head. “Nope. Fighting.”

“Fighting? Fighting what?” Kel asked with growing concern in his voice. Sunny simply pointed at the poster as an explanation.

“I… see…” Kel said, despite the fact that he clearly didn’t. Trying to change the subject, he snapped his fingers. “Oh yeah, did you find anything for Hero, Sunny?” Sunny shook his head. “Dang. No good gifts here… Hmm… wait. I have an idea!” Kel’s face brightened as he turned to Mari.

“Okay, so Hero’s really missed you for the past four years, right? So, what if we get a big box and have you sit in it, and then when he opens it you can say that you’re his present!”

Mari was speechless. Had her counterpart in this timeline had that sort of relationship with Hero? That was definitely a step above what she’d had before… everything.

“I-I don’t think that’s a good idea, Kel… you might give him a heart attack.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right… but that might be good practice for his medical courses… eh, probably not worth it.”

Medical courses? So, this Hero was following through with his parents’ plan of becoming a doctor after all. Would her Hero have done the same? What would he have been able to accomplish if not for her?

Sunny stepped between Kel and Mari, freeing her from her existential introspection. He grabbed a book from the shelf and displayed it to his friends. Kel inspected the cover. “Papa Chip’s Chip Off the Old Block Cookbook? Hey, I remember Hero used to have one of those! I think you got it for him, Mari!” Mari smiled. She could remember Hero’s face on his twelfth birthday when he unwrapped her present, and she could remember the taste of the cookies he had made with the book the next day.

“How’d you remember that?” Kel placed his hand on Sunny’s shoulder.

Sunny shrugged. “Hero likes to cook. Cookbooks are good for that.”

Two sentences. That was the most Mari had heard Sunny say since he woke up. Another concerning aspect of this reality. It was not like Sunny had been the most talkative child, but he did prefer to communicate with words rather than grunts and gestures. Not anymore, it seemed.

Kel turned the book over in his hands. “TWENTY DOLLARS?! This is daylight robbery!” He reached into his pockets and returned emptyhanded. “Err… I think I forgot my wallet at home…” Mari sighed. Kel was as forgetful as always, it seemed. Or was he devious? She’d had trouble pinning him down sometimes. She reached for her wallet, before realizing it wasn’t with her. She was still wearing the recital dress, which lacked pockets, and her purse was in another timeline. “Aw man, it’s the perfect gift and everything! Why is the universe so cruel?” Kel bemoaned when she shared the news of her missing funds.

They were about to return the book and leave when Sunny grabbed it. “I’ll pay” he said as he pulled out his wallet.

“Hey, thanks Sunny! I’ll pay you back, I promise!” Kel grinned.

Paying for Hero’s gift took far longer than Mari had expected, mostly thanks to Sunny insisting on purchasing a ‘vintage’ pet rock toy and using it against everyone in the store before leaving. Mari breathed in the fresh air as they exited the shop.

“So Sunny, what do you want to do next?” Kel asked. Sunny shrugged. “Ooh, what about Gino’s? I bet you haven’t had that in a while!”

“Kel, you left your wallet at home. Don’t you think asking Sunny to pay for pizza immediately after he bought you Hero’s gift is a bit… unfair?”

“Yeah, I guess…” Kel looked crestfallen. “Hey Sunny, where did you want to go?”

Sunny thought for a minute, then said “Park.”

Without a further word, Sunny turned and began walking in the direction of the park, as if it was Kel and Mari’s job to keep pace with him. Mari sighed. The little brother she remembered had been so thoughtful, but he seemed to have legitimately forgotten how to interact with people. Kel had said he’d spent almost four years locked in his – their house. It made sense that Sunny of all people had been broken by her suicide, but then why did it seem like he didn’t even remember it? She couldn’t shake the sinister feeling that there was more to the story here. She tamped down the negativity. Maybe it was selfish, but right now she just wanted to enjoy a walk in the park with her friends.

Chapter Text

Kel felt like pinching himself. Today was like a dream. Not only had he gotten Sunny out of his house, but somehow, someway, Mari was there too. He didn’t know how it happened, or why. Maybe the universe was finally granting him the wish he’d made on his thirteenth birthday. It was about time, he mused. The universe certainly owed him some good fortune for once.

The park wasn’t exactly bustling – nowhere in Faraway could really claim that adjective – but there were a fair number of people there. There were also a fair number of cats, which seemed to be of more immediate interest to Sunny. Kel was about to follow his friend, when the group’s attention was caught by the sounds of a nearby altercation.

A blonde boy was on his knees near a teenage girl – Kim, if Kel’s memory was correct. “Please, just ask her for me! You know she won’t talk to me!” the boy pleaded.

The voice was familiar. Kel grabbed Sunny’s shoulder. “Is that… Basil?” he gestured to the blond boy. Mari and Sunny looked closer at him. He was a bit a taller than either remembered, lankier too. He looked even more skittish than he had been as a twelve-year-old. But there was no mistaking the flower in his hair – they knew of only one kid in Faraway who had that fashion accessory.

“Kel, when was the last time you spent time with Basil?” Mari asked.

“Oh… um… after you died, I didn’t really… see any of the old gang. I see them at school but… that’s it.” Kel seemed both saddened by the reality of his distance with his old friends, and terrified at Mari’s reaction. Mari was angry, but not at Kel. This was yet another thing to add to the pile of mistakes this timeline’s Mari had left behind when she died.

When she killed herself.

Mari was really starting to resent the version of herself from this timeline.

“Well” she huffed “now’s as good a time as any to mend old friendships.”

Kel nodded. “Umm, maybe you and Sunny should stay back for now though. Looks like Basil’s under enough stress as it is right now.”

Mari agreed, impressed by the emotional maturity Kel was demonstrating. Kel approached his old friend. “Hey Basil! Is that you?” Basil and Kim turned to the interloper.

“K-Kel?” Basil stuttered.

“Hey, it’s good to see you old buddy!” Kel knelt down and wrapped his arm around Basil’s shoulder “What’s going on here? Looks like you’re having some trouble!”

“He was just leaving” Kim sneered.

Basil glared back. “N-no. I-I won’t leave until you tell h-her to give me back the album!”

“Looks like she’s coming over here now. Why don’t you tell her yourself.” Kim retorted.

A teenager on a bike came riding up from behind the trees, several other teenagers on scooters following behind her. “Basil. How many times do I have to tell you to leave me alone?! When will you get it through your thick, freak skull that I don’t want to see you anymore?!”

“P-please Aubrey! I j-just want the photo album back!”

Mari felt as though the world had frozen. This was Aubrey? No, Aubrey was a sweet girl who wore dresses and skirts and liked bunny rabbits. Not a pink-haired, bomber jacket wearing street punk with… was that a nail bat? Even her eyes were different, covered by bright blue contacts. It was too much for Mari to take in at once. She needed time to process this.

“Wait, you took Basil’s photo album? Aubrey, why would you do that?” Kel looked to her in genuine shock.

“S-shut up! I don’t have to explain myself to you! What, you think we can just pick up where we left off four years ago?”

“Yes” Kel stated bluntly. He gestured to Sunny to come forward. “Look, I even got Sunny out of his house! We can go back how things used to be!”

Aubrey’s eyes narrowed. “Sunny… heh, it really is you. How’d it feel to be in a bubble for four years? Must have been nice.”

Basil’s eyes widened. “O-oh… h-hi Sunny…”

Aubrey turned her back to Kel. “Maybe if it was four years earlier, Kel… but things have changed. I’ve changed, you’ve changed, Basil’s changed” Aubrey spat out Basil’s name like it was a curse. “Just leave. I don’t want to see you here again. Any of you.”

Basil stepped forward. “N-no. I-I want my photo album back. P-please Aubrey, it’s important to me!”

“It’s important to me too! It’s all I have left of her!” Aubrey yelled as she spun to face him. Mari saw tears in her eyes.

“Aubrey, it’s all any of us have left…” Kel’s positive attitude was quickly dimming in the face of confrontation.

“P-please Aubrey! I-it belongs t-to all of us!” Basil took another step towards her.

Aubrey looked down. “You didn’t care about her like I did. None of you did!”

“W-what?” Basil stammered.

“I said leave!” Aubrey shouted, shoving Basil.

Basil fell to the ground, looking up at Aubrey in fear and pain. Sunny ran to his fallen friend. It was all too much for Mari, she had to do something. She couldn’t stand in the background pretending not to be a part of this anymore. She ran to Basil’s side.

Basil was, to put it lightly, having a bad day. This in and of itself was nothing new – in fact it had been the status quo for the past four years of his life. Ever since… that day.

But today seemed especially bad. His grandmother’s cough was worsening and she barely ate anything. Polly had been on the phone with the doctors in the early hours of the morning. She wouldn’t tell him why – she always treated him like a child.

He had been hoping he could get his photo album back at some point. Hoping he could see it one last time… he was making his own plans. Once his grandmother left, he would follow her, and he wanted to leave the album to Sunny. He wanted Sunny to have at least one positive thing from their friendship.

Seeing Aubrey and her gang at the park had been a shock, but not an unwelcome one. He had steeled his courage and confronted Aubrey’s friend, trying to enlist her help. It had gone… poorly. Matters got worse when Aubrey got involved herself, hurling insults and threats at him, and even shoving him into the dirt. It was okay though, he deserved it.

But now, now he was seeing a vision of Sunny helping him up from the dust. Not only that but Mari was there too, which was how he knew the day was going to go from bad to worse. Briefly, he noticed that Mari had an eyepatch. That was new, must be another reminder of that terrible unblinking eye he had seen when he looked back that day.

Then she spoke. “Are you okay Basil?”

It was too much. He couldn’t be there. He ran off. The lake. Yes, the lake was a safe space, he would be okay there.

Aubrey pointed her bat at Mari. “You” she sneered “Who the hell are you? How do you know Basil?”

Kel was mad. He’d wanted to ease them into the entire situation with Mari, but his calm was gone now. “Oh? What, you don’t recognize her? You were just talking about how much she meant to you!”

Realization flashed in Aubrey’s eyes, an understanding of the athlete's implication. “Holy shit Kel. This… this is a new low for you.”

Mari stood up, brushing dirt from her dress. “Please, Aubrey, hear us out” she pleaded.

Aubrey’s frown deepened. “You sound like her…” she snarled. Aubrey approached Mari, looking over the older girl. “You look like her…” Completing her inspection, she faced Mari and looked her in the eye. “Why?” she asked.

“I don’t understand the ques-“

Aubrey’s fist landed straight in Mari’s gut. She doubled over while Aubrey leered down. “Why are you doing this!?” Aubrey yelled. “Is Kel paying you? Is this an insurance scam? Or are you some sicko who gets off on impersonating dead girls?!”

Kel raised his hands. “Aubrey, please… this isn’t you!”

Aubrey turned to him and shouted “You don’t know what’s me! You don’t know anything about me! Not you, not Basil, not Sunny and especially not HER!” she pointed once again at Mari. Mari caught her breath, dragged herself to her feet and spoke.

“I know you, Aubrey. I know your full name is Aubergine Williams Chen. I know you couldn’t sleep without Mr Plantegg until you were eleven because you were afraid of the dark. I know that your first crush was Hero. I know that when you told me about it, you were afraid I’d hate you because of it. And I know… I know that even if we’re not blood related, you’re my little sister. And no matter how many times you hit me, that won’t change!”

Aubrey gaped. The bat clattered to the ground. “You… I… no…” she stammered. Gripping her forehead, she ran off. If Mari remembered the park layout correctly, Aubrey was running off to the old hideout at the lake. The same place Basil had retreated.

She had a bad feeling about this.

Chapter Text

“Okay Aubrey, we’re alone now. What did you want to talk about?” Mari slid the glass door shut.

Aubrey twiddled her thumbs nervously. “Um… well, it’s about a guy…”

“Ooh, has Aubrey got a little crush?” Mari teased “tell me all about it! Who’s the lucky guy?”

“Umm…” Aubrey fidgeted in her seat.

“Oh, do you want me to guess? Is it Kel?”

“WHAT?! NO! Kel’s gross!” Aubrey shoved Mari.

“Okay, okay. But seriously, I can’t give you advice if you don’t tell me anything” Mari chuckled.

“Oh, yeah… promise you won’t be mad…”

Mari leaned down and cupped Aubrey’s face. “Aubrey, I could never be mad at you.”

Aubrey blushed and looked away from her friend. “Umm… it’s… Hero.”

“Oh.” Mari thought for a moment. “Well, it makes sense. He is pretty great, after all” she smirked. “Sadly, he’s taken. Sorry.”

Aubrey wiped her tears as she ran through the branches. It felt like a thousand voices crowded her head, some hopeful, some fearful, but most were simply enraged. What was going on? Why did she know about the conversation? No one else had been present for it. Just her and… Mari. Was it possible? No, there had to be some other explanation. Someone else must have heard it. Someone who liked to sneak around unseen, or who she could spill her heart to without worry.

Someone she saw sitting on the pier ahead.

“You” she muttered. Basil was gripping his head, paying no attention to her. “Hey, I’m talking to you, freak!” she yelled. That seemed to startle him. “A-Aubrey?” “What the hell did you do?”

Basil got to his feet and raised his hands. “I-I’m as confused as y-you are…” “Bull. Shit. You expect me to believe that it’s a coincidence that Kel, Sunny and someone who looks like Mari show up on the same day you ask me for the album?!”

“Okay. That could have gone better” Kel watched as Aubrey disappeared into the tree line.

“Sorry. I… I just couldn’t sit there and let them go at each other like that.” Mari sighed.

“Hey! Where do you think you’re going?!” Sunny had walked past Kel and Mari, but found his path blocked by Kim.

“I’m going after them.” Sunny simply pointed to the treeline.

Kim pushed up her glasses. “Hmph. Fine. But if you try anything funny there I’ll throw you in the lake myself.”

Sunny pointed to the forest. “Following them.”

“Yeah” Kel nodded “that’s probably a good idea. I think we probably owe those two an explanation.”

“Why? First you deface her memories and now this?! You’re sick!” Each statement was punctuated by Aubrey shoving Basil’s chest, pushing him further and further along the dock. He felt his feet teetering on the edge. He closed his eyes and waited for the next push to deliver him to the water. He knew he deserved this, that this was justice.

But the final push never came. He felt Aubrey grabbing the collar of his shirt and lifting him, and he heard crying. Crying?

“I-y-you were my first friend! Why’d you do it?!” she sobbed. “Why did you make me hate you?!”

“J-just d-drop me in the l-lake, it’s what I d-deserve!” Basil murmured.

“AUBREY! BASIL!” Kel’s voice resounded through the clearing. He, Sunny, Mari and Kim ran out of the woods. “What are you doing?” Kel cried out. He saw Aubrey lifting Basil by his collar and holding him at the edge of the lake, looking for all the world ready to push him in. He turned to Kim. “Basil can’t swim. She knows Basil can’t swim… she wouldn’t…”

Kim grimaced. “I don’t… I don’t know. I’ve never seen her this bad before.” She called out “Aubrey, come on, I know you hate Basil, but this is too much! You don’t want to do this!”

Her pleas snapped Aubrey from her rage. She looked down to see where she was, what she’d been about to do.

“I-I didn’t… I wasn’t… I… ohmygod…” she released Basil’s shirt and fell to her knees, gripping her forehead. Basil teetered on the edge of the pier. He braced himself for what was coming, only to find his fall halted. He peaked open his eyes to see Sunny holding his arm in a death grip. His friend pulled him forward, resulting in the two boys falling into a pile on the dock. While Kel went to sort them out, Mari and Kim checked on Aubrey.

“Aubrey?” Mari asked softly.

“Go away..” Aubrey sniffed “you… you can’t… you’re not…”

“It’s okay. You’re okay, it’s alright. I… I know this is hard to accept, and I know you have questions, but know that I’m here now… I’m here and you’re okay.”

The tears Aubrey had been holding back burst forth. “MARI!” she cried into her shirt.

Mari drew Aubrey closer. “It’s okay. It’s okay.” Mari turned to Kim. “Hey, do you… do you think you could give us a moment? I think we need to… talk about some things.”

Kim was dumbstruck. She’d never seen Aubrey cry like this in front of anyone else. And what was that name she kept saying, Mari? She’d heard about Mari. But Mari was dead, wasn’t she?

Kim didn’t have the blood sugar level to deal with this sort of thing right now. She nodded. “Y-yeah… I’ll… I’ll go back to the others. Let them know she’s alright…” Kim knelt next to Aubrey. “You have my number, if these nerds do anything, and I mean anything to upset you, say the word and I’ll be there.”

“Thanks, Kim” Aubrey’s voice was small and meek, a tone Kim hadn’t heard her use, well, ever. She turned and walked away.

Basil took in the scene around him as Kel helped him to his feet. Aubrey was on the ground sobbing, Kim looked sad, angry and worried as she strode to the forest, and Sunny’s expression was as blank as it had been since he’d first seen him today. Basil was alive. That was good, he thought. After all, he didn’t want to leave before his grandmother did. He couldn’t leave her with the thought that she had failed her grandchild.

Then he saw her. Mari. The girl who was dead, the girl he had hung. The girl who seemed to be interacting with everyone else quite well for a hallucination. If she wasn’t a hallucination, then that meant…

“M-Mari i-is back? Mari is-is h-here?” Basil looked like a deer in the headlights. Mari walked over to him. “I-I… I n-need to go… I-I can’t b-be here…” he stammered.

“Basil, please. I just want to talk.” Mari tried to calm the boy.

“NO! Y-You’re n-not s-supposed to be here! I-I’m n-not sup-supposed to be here! N-Not after w-what I d-did!” Basil squirmed, breaking free of Sunny’s grip and dashing for the forest. Mari stood in his way, either a hallucination or some vengeful specter. What she was didn’t matter, Basil just needed to leave. He pushed her away, into the water.

A strange sense of déjà vu came over Mari as she felt her knee buckle. Pain shot through her leg and her balance went out. In an instant, she went from standing on the pier to falling. She saw panic in Sunny’s widening eyes, then felt the dark lake water envelope her.

Chapter Text

Mari had never been an especially avid swimmer. She had always preferred the playground to the pool and the sand to the sea. Then the softball accident happened, and any physical exertion became a chore. Then, the day at the beach. The day she had killed her friends. She hadn’t been swimming since that day, and now that she was sinking through the lake, she could see that that hadprobably been the right call.

Everywhere she looked she saw reminders of that day. In her blurry vision, the shapes shifted around her. Twigs and leaves became steel and glass, branches became mangled limbs, and the silent swirl of lake water became terrible, terrifying screams. She panicked. Somewhere in her mind, Mari knew that she needed to swim upwards, but her body wouldn’t respond. Her throat tightened and her nostrils burned. She had assuaged Sunny’s nightmares enough that she knew what was happening. She knew what this was.

She was drowning.

As soon as he heard the splash, Basil stopped in his tracks. No. He hadn’t… There was no way…

But he had. He had pushed her. He had pushed Mari. He felt SOMETHING behind him whisper in his ear. “You did this. Was killing her once not enough? Was it not enough to defile her corpse, defile her memory?”

“I’m sorry! I’m s-sorry!” Basil wailed.

Aubrey looked up at him. “WHY?! Why would you do that?!” Her face was a mess of tears, but he could feel the hatred behind her gaze. Hatred he deserved.

“I… I… I can’t b-be here!” He ran off.

Aubrey began to cry once more. Kel put a hand on her shoulder, drawing Sunny closer to him with his free arm. “Don’t worry. She’ll be fine, this is Mari we’re talking about after all. She’ll pop back up at any second!”

What felt like an eternity passed. Mari didn’t resurface.

Wordlessly, Sunny ducked out of Kel’s hold and dove into the water. Kel felt a wriggling sensation in the back of his mind, an attempt to recall past memories. Something about the lake, Mari and Sunny. Something about this scene that seemed so familiar.

Then, it clicked.

“Fuck.”

Aubrey looked up at him. “Sunny doesn’t know how to swim” Kel elaborated.

Mari was clutching her head beneath the waves. Her brain was screaming for her to kick up, that the surface was right there. But her limbs didn’t obey. Her eyes were locked onto a fallen tree trunk that was shifting into the broken and bloody corpse of Hero.

In the recesses of her mind, she heard the splash above her. She saw a shape sinking above her, far too quickly to be an accident. A shape that was familiar, and small, and fragile.

The shape of her brother. Her brother who was afraid of water. Her brother who’d had a near-death experience at this very lake.

Her brother who couldn’t swim.

Mari remembered that day. She remembered Hero and Kel coaxing Sunny onto the statue, seeing him fall, seeing Hero and Kel wait for Sunny to resurface. She remembered tossing her book aside and diving into the water to grab him. She remembered pulling him from the lake and crying into his shoulder. She remembered berating Hero and Kel for convincing her brother to do that, and taking Sunny home early that day. She remembered how she had promised Sunny that she would never let anything happen to him again.

And we both know how well that worked out” the insidious voice reminded her.

But she wouldn’t fail now. She had only just gotten him back, there was no way she would let the lake take him this time. Her body’s screams for self-preservation had gone unheeded, but seeing her brother in danger overrode everything. She kicked furiously, ignoring the pain that shot through her knee as she did so. Sunny was sinking fast. She needed to swim down and grab him before he faded from view. She reached out her hand, and with his last bit of strength he grabbed it.

Her lungs were on fire, every cell of her being was screaming out for air. Mari kicked herself for wasting so much time down there. She could only pray that they would make it to the surface. She could see the sunlight. Her vision was narrowing, she was almost out of time. She burst through the lake’s surface and welcomed Kel and Aubrey’s hands pulling her and Sunny from the water. She sprawled out on pier as she felt the air rush into her lungs. She turned her head to see Sunny doing the same.

“Why did you jump in?” she asked.

“Someone… needed… to save you…” he panted between breaths.

“I’m sorry that you needed to do that Sunny. I-“ she bit her lip “I failed you.”

“It’s… okay.” Sunny sighed.

“No it isn’t!” Aubrey growled. “I can’t believe that Basil would do this. I mean I know he’s a freak, but this is something else!”

Hearing Aubrey speak of her friend like that broke Mari’s heart. “I’m sure he… he didn’t mean anything.”

Aubrey glared back at her. Her expression softened a tiny bit, but no more than that. “I don’t care. He pushed you! You could have drowned!”

“You almost drowned Basil not five minutes ago.”

The voice came from Kel.

“What the hell is wrong with you Aubrey? Why do you hate Basil so much?!” Mari had seen Kel upset before. When the newest Spaceboy comic sold out before he could get a copy. When his ‘flawless strategy’ for Pet Rock clashes backfired. When Hero vetoed the purchase of Orange Joe.

She’d seen him upset then, but this was new. This was worse. This was not a childish, joking ‘grr, I’m mad at you’. This was actual anger, righteous in its cause and terrible in its fury. She thought to the one time she’d seen Hero like this, when her crutches had been stolen on her first day back to school. The fury she’d seen from Hero that day had frightened her, and if Kel was capable of anything similar, well, the results wouldn’t be pretty.

Mari got to her feet and put a hand on her friends' shoulders. “Kel, Aubrey, it’s alright. No one was hurt. I’m alright, Sunny’s alright, and Basil’s alright. Everything is going to be okay.” She thought she saw Sunny’s body shudder at the words, but dismissed it as cold from the lake water that clung to his skin. She helped him to his feet. “First things first, we need to get out of these wet clothes. Then, I think we all owe each other some explanations.”

As she returned to Sunny’s – to their house, Mari was taken aback at the SOLD sign in the front yard. She knew that Kel had mentioned Sunny was moving away, but it hadn’t fully sunk in until now. She shook her head. More questions for later.

As Sunny swung open the door, Mari realized that she had a problem. She had been dead for four years in this world – it was unlikely that her parents had held onto her clothes for that long, and she had grown a bit since her mid-teens anyway. As she pondered a solution to this, Sunny removed his shirt, giving Mari her first good look at her brother’s body.

It was not an uplifting sight. He was unhealthily skinny and unhealthily pale, she could see the sunken ribs and potbelly that screamed malnourishment. His back was covered in bed sores. Most concerning of all, she could see scars on his arms and stomach. She couldn’t stop herself, and before she knew it she was embracing him. She felt his hair stand on end, shocked from her cold embrace. “Sorry” she murmured. “I just… I needed to let you know you’re not alone. Not anymore.”

Sunny nodded and gave a weak thanks before returning to the task at hand. Mari began digging through boxes, searching for something wearable. Eventually she found a box of her mother’s clothes. Mari felt a wave of awkwardness as she opened the box. She knew they were close enough in size that it would work, but the idea of wearing her mother’s clothes, especially without her permission was… uncomfortable. “Sorry mom, but I need these” she said. Her mother would understand, once she got over the shock of her daughter returning from four years of death.

Soon after, Mari, Sunny, Kel and Aubrey sat in a circle on the floor, in silence. Nobody wanted to be the first to speak. Eventually, Aubrey bit the bullet. “So” she turned to Mari “why did you do it?”

Chapter Text

“So” Aubrey asked, her lip quivering “why did you do it?”

Mari took a deep breath. “I… didn’t. I didn’t commit suicide four years ago.” She raised her hand to stop the barrage of questions she knew was coming from Aubrey. “I should probably say that… well, I remember things… differently. I didn’t die four years ago.”

“Wha- but, you… I don’t understand…”

Mari sighed. “I experienced the last four years differently than you did.”

“What, you mean… like in heaven?” Aubrey asked.

“No I was… I was on earth. I was alive. But you weren’t. None of you were.”

“What do you mean we weren’t there?” Aubrey’s confusion was growing, as was her concern.

A thought flashed through Mari’s head. “If you tell them the truth, they will never forgive you.” She didn’t want that. She needed to be with them, to see them all. That was selfish though, why should she force them to spend time with a murderer? But they were all so happy to see her. The voice returned. “They wouldn’t be happy if they knew what you’d done.”

That was probably true. She couldn’t let them be unhappy like that. After all, she was here to fix the mistakes of her counterpart in this reality.

If it served to help everyone, what was the harm in a lie?

“Okay, do you remember when we went to the beach?” All three members of her audience nodded in recognition. “Well, the way that I remember that day is that when we were coming home… there was an accident. You… all of you died that day… I made it out mostly intact…” she pointed to the eyepatch.

“Oh my god.” Aubrey’s mouth was agape. Though Kel had heard the story before, he found himself wincing at its retelling. “So” Aubrey managed to regain some of her composure “what happened afterwards? And how are you here?”

“After you all… after the accident, it was just too much for me. I kept going for four years, but I wasn’t really living, just surviving. I… it just felt wrong for me to have a future that you all didn’t.”

“Because I was the one who stole it from you” hissed the voice.

“Mari…” Aubrey seemed on the verge of tears once again.

Mari held up her hand. “I… I don’t think that I’m ‘your’ Mari.”

“I’m worse” came the voice “I killed you all.”

“I’m better” another voice crept into her mind, haughty and full of venom “I didn’t leave you all alone when you needed me.”

Kel spoke up. “We think she’s from an alternate timeline.”

Aubrey blinked. “Like… like in Sweetheart vs Perfectheart?”

“Yeah, like that! Err… I assume… not that I’ve ever seen it…” Aubrey’s eyes narrowed, but she dropped the line of inquiry. There were more important things to focus on. She turned back to Mari.

“Well… well I don’t care! I don’t care if you’re from here or an alternate timeline or a parallel dimension or whatever! You’re Mari, and that’s enough for me!” She squeezed Mari’s arm.

“Aah, a little too tight there Aubrey.”

“Oh god, sorry!” Aubrey’s grip loosened in an instant.

“So… what did you mean when you ‘kept going for four years’? What happened after four years?”

Mari looked away. She didn’t want to force them to relive the mistake her counterpart had made, but they needed to hear it. She had already told Kel, after all, and it would be better for Aubrey to hear it from her directly. “I… I hung myself. I couldn’t go any further, not without all of you.”

“Not with the guilt of murder on my soul.”

“I… I hung myself. I couldn’t go any further, not without all of you.”

Sunny couldn’t tell why, but as soon as Mari finished speaking, a wave of dread settled over him. Mari would never commit suicide. Mari wouldn’t leave him alone like that, right? Yet she was talking about it, and Kel was talking about it and now even Aubrey was talking about it, and Basil said that he’d done something and-

ENOUGH

He remembered. Mari… Mari had died. Mari had killed herself. But now she was back. She was different but she was back. She was here. Everything was going to be okay.

Mari had traveled here from another world, like something from one of his games. There was a mystery here, and he could help solve it.

A world where he had died… Mari must have been so sad. Sunny remembered something else, he remembered how sad he had been after Mari had died. How he wanted nothing more than to feel her embrace again.

“You were alone. You don’t like to be alone.” Sunny scooched himself closer to Mari and wrapped his arms around her free arm.

“I missed you all so much.” Mari fought back tears of her own. She shook her head. She had questions she wanted answered. “But enough about me… I want to know what happened to all of you. I’ve missed four years, so fill me in.”

Kel turned to Aubrey. His anger had subsided, but not disappeared. “Why don’t you start, Aubrey? Tell us why you seem to hate Basil now. We used to be friends, what happened?”

Aubrey sighed. “You really think he’s blameless don’t you. Fine. After Mari- after the funeral, Sunny disappeared into his house and you were spending all of your time with Hero or making new friends. I tried to spend time with Basil, went to his house after school to play like we used to. I wanted to see the photo album… to see everyone again. He didn’t want to, though. When he went to the bathroom, I looked in the album on my own… and…”

Aubrey grimaced. “I… Basil had defaced the album. He had taken every photograph with you in it and covered them in black marker! Like he was trying to erase you! Trying to pretend you hadn’t been there. I couldn’t take it, I yelled at him when he got back. He just stood there, not explaining himself, not saying anything! So I ran out with the album.”

Aubrey looked to Mari. The older girl could see the tears in her eyes. “Those photos – they were all I had left! I… I couldn’t bear the idea of them being damaged. I didn’t speak to Basil after that if I could help it. We would just go out of our ways to avoid each other. Eventually, I got new friends, ones that wouldn’t destroy my old memories.”

“And that’s my story. I… I know I didn’t handle it like I should have, but… well, what was I supposed to do?” Aubrey sniffed “Everyone had left me, and then Basil… Basil tried destroy what I had left.”

Mari drew Aubrey closer. Before today, she had thought her big sister instinct was gone after four years of atrophy. But helping her friends was a role she slipped back into with relative ease. “Aubrey” she spoke in a soothing tone “what you did was wrong, but… I understand why you did it.” She turned to Kel, seeing his expression had softened a bit after hearing Aubrey’s tale. “Kel” she asked “what about you and Hero?” she almost choked at the end. Did she really want to know? Kel had said that Hero had missed her, but he wasn’t always the most… reliable… source of information when it came to that sort of thing.

No, she decided, she had to know. Kel looked down, evidently uncomfortable with the subject himself. “Well, Hero… Hero took everything… poorly.”

"How poorly?” Sunny asked. Part of Mari wanted to berate him for asking an insensitive question like that, but another part was just happy he was participating in the conversation at all.

“He basically spent the next year in bed” Kel sighed “he wouldn’t leave unless it was to use the bathroom. He just sort of… existed, I guess.” Mari cringed at the reminder of what her life had been like in the first few months after the accident.

Kel continued. “He wouldn’t talk to me, but I heard crying almost every night. I… I spent most of my time trying to help him, making sure he didn’t follow what Mari- what she did.”

“Hero wouldn’t-“ Mari started to speak, but Kel cut her off.

“Do you know that for sure? Because we all thought you wouldn’t either. We never thought you would leave us!” His tone dropped quickly from a sharp barb to tearful remorse, as he joined Sunny and Aubrey in their embrace of Mari. “Sorry. I… I was just so scared. But I was scared to show I was scared, because the last thing Hero needed was to have to take care of me!” he sobbed into her shoulder. Soon, everyone was crying together.

It took some time, but eventually the tears dried enough for the conversation to continue. “I didn’t mean to leave you alone, Aubrey” Kel looked at his old friend “I… I just felt like if I was around people, I’d just get in the way.”

Aubrey nodded and sniffled. “I’m sorry guys, I was… I was wrong. I thought that you didn’t care about Mari or me, that you had abandoned me. I guess I knew on some level that you were all processing things in your own way, but I didn’t think about that. I just wanted someone to blame.”

Mari squeezed her friends. “Alright, do we feel better now?” she asked.

Kel and Aubrey nodded. “I’m still mad at Basil, but… I want to hear his side of the story now.”

Mari looked to Kel. “Ah, you said earlier that Hero was taking medical courses in college now? I take it things got better then?”

Kel looked away sheepishly. “Um, yeah, I guess. About a year after… everything… I must have touched a nerve. I finally got Hero out of bed, so that was good! But unfortunately, it was mostly so that he could yell at me. He… he said some pretty harsh things. I think. I blocked most of it out, to be honest.”

Kel still had a terrible poker face. Mari knew he was lying, but didn’t press the issue. She was shocked herself. Hero would never, ever raise his voice to his baby brother, let alone unleash his full anger. But no, that wasn’t true, was it? She couldn’t say Hero would never do that because he had. She had killed herself and Hero had lost a year of his life and done something unthinkable. Another failure of this world’s Mari.

Aubrey’s jaw was open. Evidently, she had the same disbelief as Mari. Sunny stretched out his arm to pat Kel’s shoulder. “I’m sorry you went through that” he murmured. Kel looked up at his friend. A bit of light crept back into his expression.

“Thanks, Sunny. After a while, my parents came in to make sure we were alright. Well, they came in to make sure Hero was alright, they didn’t really talk to me.”

That was more believable. Mr and Mrs Rodriguez loved both of their children, but it was obvious who the chief recipient of their affection and attention was.

“After a little while, Hero came back and gave me a big hug. He was crying and apologizing all night. The next morning, he got out of bed. He even woke up before me and made breakfast and everything! He really threw himself into his studies after that and caught up. He even graduated at the top of his class!”

Mari remembered another question she’d had. “Sunny, is it true you’re moving?”

He nodded. Mari was about to ask why when she stopped herself. No parent would want to live in the house where their child had committed suicide. And Sunny certainly wasn’t thriving in Faraway. Maybe a new start in a new place would do him good. “When do you leave?” she asked.

Sunny thought for a moment, then held up three fingers. “Three days” he mumbled.

“Including today?” she asked. He nodded again.

Three days. Well, two-and-a-half days now. Two-and-a-half days to find out everything her alternate self had ruined and two-and-a-half days to fix it.

It was a tall order, but she could do it.

She had to.

She couldn’t fail them again.

Chapter Text

Polly had never seen Basil moving so quickly. She barely had time to register his entrance into the house before his door slammed shut. She could hear the boy hyperventilating and crying from the other side. She sighed and went to his room. She’d known Basil and his grandmother for almost two years now, but in that time he’d never opened up to her. Not that that meant she would stop trying.

“Hey Basil” she rapped on his door. There was no response. “What happened, buddy? Did you talk to your old friend like you were planning to? You wanted to get your photo album back, right?”

She took the continued sobs as indication that Basil’s attempt had failed. She slid down and sat with her back against the door. “Oh, Basil. I’m sorry.”

Basil’s grandmother had told her the basics of Basil’s situation when she started the job. How the suicide of his best friend’s big sister had torn apart his only support group, and how his old friends had abandoned him.

“You know, when I was in high-school, I got into a fight with one of my oldest friends. I’d known her since we were little kids. I don’t even remember what the fight was about, but we wouldn’t talk to each other for an entire year. It wasn’t until after graduation that we reconnected. Our friendship was never quite the same, but… well, things got better. I had another friend though… the relationship there never mended.”

“I guess what I’m trying to say, Basil, is that… I know a little about what you’re going through. I know that teenage friendships are screwed up at the best of times. Whatever happened between you and your old friend group, you’re not at fault, and you aren’t alone. Millions of kids have gone through stuff like this. I’m so proud that you’re trying to reconnect with them, though. And so is your grandma.”

Polly stayed at the door until the crying quieted. She was about to get up when she heard Basil’s voice. “What happened to your other friend?” he asked. Polly groaned at the memory. “She… she got it into her head that the best way to be part of the ‘popular kids’ was to bully people relentlessly. One of her victims even…” she stopped herself before saying “committed suicide”. The last thing Basil needed right now was a trigger like that. “So… yeah. I never forgave her for her part in that.

“O-oh. I’m sorry” Basil whispered. “Hey, Polly?” he asked. She turned to the door. “Yeah, Basil?” “Do… do you believe in miracles? You know, th-things with no explanation?”

“I’ll be honest, I… I don’t know. I think sometimes things we can’t explain happen for good or for bad, and all we can do is adapt to the best of our abilities. I think… I think that we should use them if they happen, but we shouldn’t live our lives waiting for one, you know?”

There was a moment of silence, then she heard Basil get to his feet. “Thanks, Ms Polly.”

Polly smiled. Normally, she’d remind him he didn’t need to be so formal, but he’d had a hard day. “No problem, Basil. Do you want to come out now?” “No, I think I j-just need to be alone in here.”

Polly got up from the floor. “Whatever you need, take your time. I’m here if you need to talk.”

Within his room, Basil lay on his bed. He looked around at the plants crowding his small living space. He stared at the Lilly of the Valley on the windowsill, if only to avoid having to look at the garden sheers below them. His gaze always seemed to come back to them.            

Kim stared at her phone screen. She’d been glancing at it off and on since she’d left Aubrey. She was still berating herself for that. Even if Aubrey had asked her to give her space, she should have fought her on that, should have stayed by her side. She was pretty sure that Kel was too much of a nerd to try anything, and the others there looked too weak to give Aubrey any trouble, but still. It wasn’t a good feeling to realize she had left her best friend crying in the arms of a stranger.

“You okay Kim?” her brother’s voice called her out of her thoughts. She shook her head. “Yeah, just… just worried about Aubs.” “Do you want to go find her?” “Hmm… yeah, maybe- hold on, I got a text.”

Aubrey: Hey. Sorry for freaking out earlier.

Kim: Is everything okay? Do you need me to come beat someone up? I will not hesitate to beat people up if you need me to.

Aubrey: Thanks, but I’m good. I just need some time to process stuff. I’ll try to explain more later.

Kim clicked her phone off, satisfied that her friend was alright. “So, what happened back there at the lake anyway? You said that person pretending to be Mari was legit?” Vance asked. “I don’t know about legit, but… well, she convinced Aubrey, and Aubrey knew her way better than we ever did. So I don’t know if it was someone pretending, or a ghost, or a zombie or a time traveler, or something else, but… well, Aubrey was in a really bad place.”

Vance raised his eyebrow. “How bad?” “She was about to toss that Basil nerd into the lake. Apparently, he can’t swim.” “Shit.”

“Yeah, it was… intense. Then she started crying, but the woman calmed her down and asked me to leave. Aubrey said she’d let me know if anything happened, but…”

Vance put a hand on his sister’s shoulder. “We can do this another time if you want. Your head seems kinda out of it.” “No, I’m okay” Kim affirmed. “If you’re sure. I hear Ms Candice has taken up jogging, so we’ll need to run fast.”

Chapter Text

“So, there’s Kim, she’s the best. She was with you guys at the lake. And there’s her brother Vance. And Charlie, Mikhael and Angel. They’re all super nice” Aubrey gushed. She’d been telling her old friend group about her new friends. The initial awkwardness of the topic had quickly been overridden by her desire to tell Mari everything that had happened in the past four years. “I know that maybe you guys got a bad vibe from them today, what with… everything, but I think you’d like them.” Mari smiled sweetly. “I’m so glad you found other friends, Aubrey. I’d love to meet them some time.”

The group made their way down the street to Aubrey’s house. It was not a route they took often, now that Mari thought about it. As far as she knew, Kel and Sunny had never been to Aubrey’s house, and Mari herself had only been a handful of times – mostly after the crash. As they walked, Aubrey and Kel had continued to bring Sunny and Mari up to speed on what had happened since the incident.

The news that his parents had had another child was certainly a shock, and Mari had to keep reminding herself that the Rodriguezs here hadn’t been broken by tragedy. If she hadn’t killed Kel and Hero that day, would Sally have been born in her world as well? Most likely. Mari shook her head. It was no use thinking about such things.

“Okay, we’re here.” Aubrey stopped in front of a run-down house. Garbage was piled up around it, mostly consisting of empty beer bottles. “Wait, this is your house?” Kel exclaimed. “Kel!” Mari reprimanded her friend. “Sorry. I just… wow.” Aubrey looked down. “Yeah. Uh, why don’t you all wait out here, and, uh, I’ll go grab the album.” Aubrey opened the door, passed through and closed in one swift motion, as though trying to keep the others from seeing beyond the portal. She wasn’t fast enough to keep a puff of air from escaping. Mari caught the reek of something rotten and the unmistakable sting of alcohol. She frowned. She had a pretty good idea of what was going on in Aubrey’s house, and she didn’t like it.

Several minutes passed with the group standing about in awkward silence. “Maybe we should go in and make sure she’s alright?” Mari suggested. Kel shrugged. “What could happen to her? It’s her home, after all.” “Kel, I smelled alcohol when Aubrey opened the door. Whatever’s going on in there, it isn’t good.”

Kel’s eyes widened in realization. “Oh. OH. Yeah, we should probably make sure she’s okay.” He grabbed Sunny and began heading to the back of the house. “Where are you going?” Mari asked. “We’re gonna try to find a way inside!” Kel called in response. Mari sighed and turned the doorknob. It opened. Sunny looked a bit disappointed at the ease with which they had gained entry to Aubrey’s house, but he stayed silent.

The house was much like Mari remembered it after Aubrey’s death. That was to say, it was a complete mess. Beer bottles were piled high across the floor, which looked like it hadn’t been swept or mopped in months – perhaps years. Dirty dishes were piled in the sink, and trashbags were piled in the hallway. A lone figure sat on the couch watching the flickering television set. Mari could guess their identity.

Aubrey’s mother didn’t say anything to them as they entered, nor did she react when Kel kicked away an empty bottle to clang on the nearby wall. She didn’t even move when Sunny began to approach her directly. Mari stopped him before he tried to tap her shoulder for attention. While it was unlikely that the woman posed a danger to them, after her scare at the lake earlier that day Mari wasn’t going to take any chances with her brother’s safety.

“Alright, now where would Aubrey be?” Kel asked out loud. Aubrey’s mother grunted, but made no other response. Sunny motioned for his friends to join him in the hall and pointed to a ladder at the end of the hallway. “So you think she’s up there?” Mari asked. Sunny shrugged. “Just got a feeling.”

Sunny’s intuition turned out to be correct. The ladder led to a small room, within which was Aubrey. She turned around at the sound of the trap door opening. “Huh? Hey! What are you doing in… my… room?” any anger Aubrey may have had at Kel and Sunny entering her room was quickly snuffed out by the appearance of Mari behind them. “Oh. I guess you saw everything, huh?”

Mari wrapped her arms around the younger girl. Kel looked down. “I didn’t… I didn’t realize. Is this why you never invited us to play at your house?” Aubrey nodded. “That was part of it. Things got even worse after dad left.” Mari stroked Aubrey’s hair. “I’m so sorry Aubrey.”

Aubrey looked up at her. “What… what happened to my family after the accident in your world?” Mari shuddered. “Your parents were heartbroken. They switched from beer to pills, and overdosed together. I’m… I’m sorry. I couldn’t do anything to save them.

” Aubrey wiped a tear from her eye and let out of sad laugh. “Heh. That’s just like them. They would be the types to only show affection once I didn’t have a use for it, wouldn’t they?” Her eyes shifted to the rabbit hutch in the corner. She didn’t ask directly, but Mari knew where her train of thought was going. “Bun-Bun didn’t make it either. I’m sorry.” Aubrey stepped away from Mari and over to the hutch. She opened the door and withdrew Bun-Bun, holding him close to her chest.

“The photo album is on the desk. And the photos are on the corkboard.” As Sunny and Kel went to inspect them, Aubrey continued petting her rabbit. “Basil went over the ones with you in them in black marker. I… I couldn’t let him do that to your memory. I spent so much time cleaning them, I didn’t want him to just ruin them again!” Mari put a hand on her shoulder. “I understand where you’re coming from Aubrey, but… this album belongs to all of us, and especially to Basil. I’m sure he was just processing his grief in his own way.”

“But what if he just scribbles you out again?”

“Then we can clean them again. But I think we should talk to him first, okay?”

Aubrey sniffed and nodded. “Okay. I’ll give him another chance, I guess.” Mari smiled. “That’s the spirit! Now, let’s get the album back together, we’ve got a friendship to mend.”

Aubrey shifted on her feet uncomfortably. She’d never been good at apologies, and this one was long overdue. She looked back to her friends. Mari and Kel smiled at her, and Sunny gave a thumbs up. She took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

She was expecting Basil, or perhaps his grandmother, to open the door, but the person who answered was someone she’d never seen before. A young woman, perhaps a few years older than Mari and Hero, stood at the entrance to Basil’s house. At least, Aubrey thought it was Basil’s house.

“H-Hello. I, um… is this Basil’s house?” she stammered out. “Oh, are you Basil’s friends?” the woman answered. She held her hand out. “I’m Polly. I’m the caretaker for Basil and his grandmother.” “Uh, Aubrey” Aubrey answered as she took Polly’s outstretched hand. Polly turned around “I’ll go tell Basil you’re here.”

“Basil? Are you okay in there?” Polly asked as she rapped on his door. “Yeah Ms Polly” Basil’s soft voice barely made it through his door. “Some of your friends are here to see you. One of them says her name is Aubrey, does that ring a bell?”

Alarm bells went off in Basil’s head. Aubrey was here? With other people? Probably her gang. She’d gotten tired of his whining about the photo album and was here to make his life miserable. Or worse, what if Mari was with her, here to take her vengeance? If they hurt him, that was understandable, but what if they hurt Polly, or, god forbid, grandmother? His breathing grew rapid and heavy. “I-I’m not r-ready to see them. C-can you tell them to go home today?” he gulped. There was a moment of silence. When Polly responded, her voice was a mix of empathy and disappointment. “Alright, Basil. I understand. I’ll tell them you don’t feel up to seeing anyone today.”

Polly returned to the door. “I’m sorry. Basil says he doesn’t feel well enough to see anyone.” “Oh” Aubrey’s face fell. She certainly understood Basil’s reluctance, especially after what she had almost done at the lake. “I understand. Can… can you just tell him that I want to talk, you know, sometime? And that… I’m sorry.” Polly smiled. “Of course. I’m glad Basil has people looking out for him.”

The door closed and locked with an audible CLICK. Aubrey looked furious. “I… he didn’t want to see me. GAH! What the hell?!”. She picked up a stone and pulled her arm back as though throwing it high enough would eliminate the source of her problems. But before she could release the throw, her arms slumped and her expression turned downcast.

“God, this is all my fault. I can’t believe I let things get this bad between us” she muttered.

“Everyone makes mistakes sometimes, Aubrey. At least you can still go fix things with your friend. Not everyone has that chance” Mari grasped Aubrey’s clenched fists. Aubrey looked at her with a quizzical expression. “What do you mean by that?”

Mari shook her head. “Nothing. It’s not important. Just… Basil probably needs some time to figure things out. Some friendships take a long time to heal, but I believe in both of you, I believe you’ll be able to overcome this.”

“You really think I can do it?”

“Of course I do. You’re the strongest girl I know, Aubrey. I know that you can fix things between you and Basil, and I’ll be with you every step of the way to make sure you can do it!”

“It’s the least I can do after the me who lived here killed herself and ruined it all” the voice hissed in her mind.

Chapter Text

“So… now what?” Kel asked. They were seated by the fountain at Faraway Plaza, having come there after failing to see Basil. No one seemed to have an answer for Kel. They sat in silence for a few moments before Sunny piped up. “I’d like to see the photos.”

Kel snapped his fingers. “That’s a great idea, Sunny! We can make sure they’re all still there, and stroll down memory lane at the same time!”

They debated for a few minutes where to go for the photo viewing. The plaza was too crowded and impersonal. Kel’s house was out of the question, a fact Mari was thankful for. Aubrey’s house was likewise unavailable, though for different reasons. There was discussion of going to Sunny and Mari’s house, but the lighting there wasn’t very good. In the end, they decided to brave the park and visit the lake again. While their experiences at the lake that day had been less than positive, the site held enough good memories for everyone to balance it all out. Soon enough, the four of them gathered around an abandoned picnic blanket (“just like old times”, Kel had proclaimed, shaking with excitement when he spotted it).

Aubrey pulled out the album and handed it to Mari. The older girl took it gently, as though she were handling a precious historical artifact. In her mind, it might as well be one. The last time she’d seen it in her world was on the beach, when Basil had loaded the book with photographs of their fun outing. Their last outing. The album had been destroyed in the crash, the photos scattered to the wind. Most of them had ended up beneath the tires of the emergency vehicles that were called to the wreck, and the rest were taken by nature. It was something Mari regretted often. If she’d had some mementos of her friends, maybe she would have been able to move on.

Mari shook her head free of such thoughts. It wouldn’t help anyone to dwell on the past. She had people to help.

She lay the album on the floor and opened it gingerly. She smiled seeing the first picture. “Hey Sunny” Kel put his arm around his friend “you remember this? Getting that violin?”

Mari remembered. She remembered how happy Sunny had been to get the present, and how eager he had been to play music alongside her. She remembered the recital, how she’d initially planned to play it solo, only to change her mind when Sunny begged to be included. Sunny had had a strict schedule for practicing, but he always seemed to enjoy it. It was a shame that he’d never gotten a chance to perform.

“I remember that violin” she whispered “did you get to play it at your recital?”

The room went quiet. Kel and Aubrey looked away from her. Something was wrong here. “What’s the matter?” she asked. Aubrey answered meekly. “You… you killed yourself on the day of the recital. They found you hanging from the tree in your recital dress.”

Mari felt like she was going to be sick. The recital. She would have given anything to play it with him. Her counterpart here had gotten that chance and thrown it away, ruining the lives of everyone around her in the process. This timeline’s version of Mari had hurt so many people.

As if sensing Mari’s distress, Kel pointed to a photograph on the next page. “H-hey, look at this one! Think I could still pull off that many party hats? Ooh, or maybe even more?” Sunny looked at his friend and nodded. “See? Sunny gets it!” Kel laughed, and Mari swore she saw a flicker of a smile on Sunny’s face.

Sunny turned the page and Mari felt her face flush. She was staring at the picture of her and Hero cuddled together on Basil’s couch. She remembered that moment. Both she and Hero, so tired from preparing Basil’s party. The couch, so inviting. But only enough room for one person to lie there. Each insisting the other take it, until Hero, so awkward and sweet, proposed that they share. In many ways, it had been the moment their friendship had become something more.

What’s more, the photo was identical to the one she remembered from her world. It seemed that, at least before the crash, the two timelines had been identical.

Memories continued to flow back as they continued through the album. The next set of pictures came from the weekend in March when everyone had spent the night at the Suzuki house. Kel had discovered the lake that weekend. Mari remembered him practically dragging the group of friends through the woods in the early hours of the morning, looking for the lake he’d heard about in hushed whispers. She remembered Sunny comforting and reassuring Kel when he began to despair that the lake may not exist. She remembered their excitement when they finally stumbled upon it, seeing the long-forgotten statue pierce the sky and the sun dance off the surface of the water. She remembered shuffling the children upstairs to collapse into the pile of Sunny’s stuffed animals. She’d snapped a picture of it before leaving to be alone with Hero. She remembered their first real kiss, curled together on the couch while their younger friends and siblings snoozed upstairs.

The next page contained a photograph of Mari carrying Sunny home from school. She felt a pang in her chest. The day she’d started high school and had to leave home earlier and stay later had been difficult for Sunny. Even though they went to the same building, they would rarely see each other. And while some days Sunny would go home with Kel, Aubrey and Basil, on this particular day he had waited for her in the library. Sunny had been so tired that he’d fallen asleep halfway through the bus ride. She remembered how proud she’d been of Sunny, and how happy she felt protecting him.

Mari smiled at the memory, then shuddered at the thought of Sunny spending four years alone, without his sister to help him. She couldn't imagine how painful everything had been for her brother.

The following set of pictures showed the day she had taught her friends how to make flower crowns. It was funny. When she had been doing it, she’d been upset about the minor imperfections and flaws in the crowns she made. But now she looked at the crown and saw no such imperfections, simply a beautiful object to be shared between friends.

Aubrey perked up a bit at the next page. She pointed to a picture of her younger self winking at the camera. “Mari” she asked “do you remember this day? What we promised each other?”

Mari wracked her brain trying to remember what promise she had made to Aubrey. Then it hit her. “We… I promised that we would dye our hair together, didn’t I?”

Aubrey nodded. “Yeah… you did. You were going to dye your hair purple and I was going to dye mine pink. But before we could do it, you… you…” Aubrey started to tear up. Mari embraced her friend and drew her closer. “It’s okay Aubrey. I’m here now.”

“And I won’t leave you like the failure did.”

Aubrey managed to calm herself and wiped her eyes. “So… that’s why you dyed your hair, huh?” Mari asked. Aubrey nodded. “I… I wanted to honor your memory.” She blushed, and turned her face away from Mari. “Why?” she asked “do… do you think it looks bad?”

Mari shook her head and smiled softly. “No Aubrey. I think it looks great. I’m sorry I didn’t keep my end of the promise.”

“Well, maybe we can fix that” Aubrey mused. Mari’s smile grew larger. “I’d like that.”

Then they turned the page. She recognized these photographs, or at least the place they’d been taken. These were the snapshots of the last moments of normality she’d had. The last pictures of her friends. It hurt her heart to see them laughing and playing at the beach like that, knowing what would come next. Mari looked away. No, the crash hadn’t happened in this timeline. But even without the crash, the Mari of this world had still managed to ruin everything. She didn’t want to look beyond that page, to see the still images of childhood joy and fun that she had ripped away from her friends.

“Mari? What’s wrong?” Kel asked. Sunny pointed to the photo album. “The beach” Aubrey gasped in realization. She shut the album and went to Mari’s side. “It’s okay, Mari” she said. “We’re here with you” Kel added. “We’ll help you” Sunny finished their impromptu mantra and Mari felt the three pairs of arms let go of her. She took a deep breath and calmed down.

“Sorry” she muttered. “I just… I don’t think I can handle those photos right now. Or the ones after.”

“I can’t bear to see the happiness I stole from you all.”

Aubrey pushed the album over to Sunny. “That’s alright” she said “it’s not a big deal. But it was fun to see those old pictures. Kel, Sunny… I’m sorry I was acting like an idiot asshole these past four years. I guess I’d forgotten how much you guys meant to me.”

Kel looked to the pink-haired girl. “It’s okay. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you when you needed me. Either of you.” Kel looked to Sunny as he finished his apology. Sunny put a hand on Kel’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. I’m alright” he said. Mari frowned at that. Sunny clearly wasn’t alright, but she didn’t want to interrupt his time with his friends. As Sunny lifted his hand from Kel, the taller boy glanced up at the setting sun, then down to his phone. His eyes went wide.

“Oh shit! I was supposed to be home two hours ago! Mom’s gonna kill me…” Kel scrambled to his feet. “I’m sorry guys, I’ve got to go. Hopefully telling her I was with Sunny and Aubrey can lessen her temper. And don’t worry Mari, I’ll keep you secret! We want to surprise Hero, after all!”

Before anyone could say anything, Kel was bounding through the woods and quickly disappeared from view.

The three remaining friends sat together for a few moments, simply enjoying each other’s company and the orange light reflecting from the lake. Eventually, the silence was broken when three stomachs growled, almost in unison. Aubrey laughed and turned to her friends. “So, Sunny. Mari. When was the last time you two had Gino’s?”

Chapter Text

Gino’s was as delicious as Mari remembered. Aubrey had insisted on paying for the three of them. “Think of it as me paying you back for all the times you made me food” she said with a wink.

After their meal, the three walked around Faraway until the sun had set completely. Sunny made a point of chasing after every cat that passed by them. They arrived home as the streetlights were starting to flicker on. Mari turned the knob and let Sunny enter first, then went in herself. She soon noticed that Aubrey was staying outside. A thought popped into her mind, a recollection of the state of Aubrey’s house.

“Aubrey” Mari gestured to the open door “would you like to stay the night?”

Aubrey’s eyes went wide. “R-really? You mean it?”

“Well, as long as Sunny is okay with it. Are you okay with it, Sunny?” Mari looked to her brother. Sunny gave a thumbs up. “Guess that settles it” Mari laughed “You’re spending the night here, with us.” Aubrey ran and embraced her. “Thank you” the younger girl whispered as she squeezed her long-lost friend.

They scoured the house for blankets and pillows. Though they had to break open a few of the boxes, they finally found enough linens to make acceptable beds for the two girls. The boxes that covered Sunny’s room were moved out to make room for the new occupants. Mari read the list of chores on Sunny’s desk, and made a mental note to help him with them later. Before she could broach the topic though, Sunny had already fallen asleep, seemingly out before his head even hit the pillow. Aubrey followed soon after, leaving Mari alone with her thoughts in a dark room.

If she was being honest with herself, Mari was terrified of falling asleep. She was half sure she would wake up back in her own empty house, or perhaps not wake up at all. What if this was just her brain processing her last moments, some sick joke by the cosmos?

It was on those thoughts that Mari fell into an uneasy and fitful sleep.

Mari was on a road, an endless highway stretching onwards to all horizons. She shuddered. She knew this dream, and she knew what was coming. She hated it. Five figures faced her. Their forms were familiar, but their bodies appeared to be made of shadow, and the only features they possessed were eyes that shone like the beams of headlights. Just like they always did.

The tallest figure spoke. As it did, its body contorted, bending in impossible angles and breaking itself. Just like it always did.

“You let us die” It said. “You killed us, and now you forget us.”

One of the smaller figures spoke, its body contorting in different, but no less deadly, positions “You’re forgetting us. You’re replacing us. Why? What did we do to you?”

Mari closed her eye and covered her ears. It made no difference, the voices tunneled directly into her brain. Just like they always did.

“Are you going to hurt them too? Are you going to forget them too?” the smallest figure asked.

“Please! I didn’t- I don’t want to forget! I don’t want to replace you! I just- I just want to be with everyone again!” Mari cried out. Her pleas went unanswered.

Just like they always did.

“You are a failure” a new voice hissed from behind her. It was her voice, but different. Raspier. With trepidation, Mari turned around. She stood before a colossal, shadowy tree. From its lowest branches hung a body. Her body. “N-no” Mari sputtered “I… I’m not…”

"You’re lying” the body hissed. “You’re as much a failure as I am. You killed your friends, and I killed myself. You and me, we ruin everything. You’ll ruin this too.”

“No” Mari tried to stand firm, but her shaking body betrayed her fear. “I’m going to fix the problems you caused” she spat. “You’re the failure here, not-“

Mari’s speech was cut off by the burning heat of the shadow figures’ headlights searing into her flesh. The shadows continued their march towards her, each step accompanied by the contortion of their bodies and the cracking of bones.

Just like they always were. And just like always, each sickening snap became a word that pierced her flesh and cut straight to her psyche.

“Killer”

“Failure”

“Murderer”

“Liar”

“Worthless”

“Useless”

Mari gripped her head and turned away from the lights, finding herself face-to-face with her own corpse. A single, unblinking eye stared at her from behind disheveled hair. The same eye she had lost four years ago. Its stare seemed to cut away everything, the light, the figures, the tree. Mari tried to scream, but the eye cut away her voice. She tried to run, but it cut away her legs. She tried to close her eyes, but it cut away her eyelids. She tried to do anything, but it cut away her.

Mari woke with a start. Aubrey stood over her with a concerned look in her face, while Sunny had turned his head to stare from his bed. “It’s okay, Mari. It’s okay. You’re okay, you’re safe” Aubrey reassured her friend. Once Mari’s breathing had returned to normal, Aubrey stood up. She moved her makeshift bed to border Mari’s, then stripped of Sunny’s covers. Ignoring Sunny’s protestations, Aubrey lay his covers on the ground to make a third bed on the other side of Mari’s.

Her work complete, Aubrey stood above it and gestured to her friends. “Now” she said “we can both be next to you.”

Mari let out a small snort. “I thought I was supposed to be the one helping you two with nightmares. But thanks Aubrey. This means a lot. And thank you Sunny.”

Sunny climbed down from his bed onto the pillows on the floor. He scooted himself over to the edge of his and Mari’s beds and curled up next to her. Mari smiled as she nodded off to sleep flanked by her friend and her brother. This time, no dreams came.

Chapter Text

Mari woke early. She needed a moment to remember everything that had happened yesterday. Looking down to see the sleeping form of Sunny curled up like a cat confirmed that no, she hadn’t been dreaming.

Cats… she hadn’t had a chance to think about it yesterday, but where was Mewo in this timeline? She had lost track of all her questions with everything that had happened. She would need to follow up with everyone later.

She climbed out of bed, careful not to wake Sunny. There was a note on the door in what she assumed was now Aubrey’s handwriting.

“Went to go feed Bun-Bun, be back soon.”

Mari pulled out some of her mother’s clothes from one of the boxes, changed, then headed down the stairs and into the kitchen. Breakfast time. She’d been cooking for herself for years, but the meals had never been anything but low effort nutrition, enough to keep her alive, but that was about it. She was excited to be cooking for someone else again. Sunny seemed so thin, he could probably use a big breakfast.

Quickly, however, Mari ran into problems. One big problem, to be precise. Namely, the house didn’t have any food. At all. The fridge, the cupboard, the pantry… they were all bare. Mari pinched the bridge of her nose. How long had this been happening? Were her parents really that irresponsible in this reality?

She returned to the bedroom and grabbed Sunny’s wallet from his desk. She’d pay him back for this later… somehow. Right now, she needed to get groceries. Othermart would be open, and as long as she avoided the bakery she would probably be okay. Not that she didn’t want to bring Sunny fresh bread to start the day, but she didn’t have the time nor energy to explain to Daphne and Bowen why their deceased neighbor and classmate was walking around again.

She hadn’t gotten far when she ran into Kel. Perhaps it was more accurate to say that Kel ran into her. He barreled into her and placed her in a bear hug. “Mari! You’re still here!” Mari returned Kel’s embrace. “Yeah Kel, I’m still here.”

Kel let out a sigh of relief. “I was… I was really worried that yesterday was a dream.” Mari nodded. “Yeah, me too.”

“So, what are you doing out so early? Where’s Sunny?”

Mari explained the food situation at the house. Kel frowned. “You need food? Come inside, we have plenty of food!”

“No, I couldn’t” Mari protested. This was partially true. She didn’t want to impose on Kel’s kindness. But she also didn’t want to see Kel’s parents. She had too many nightmares about their weeping faces already.

Omori clenched the knife in his palm. Sweetheart stood above him, with a gloating smile on her face. She pointed her scepter at the monochromatic boy and opened her mouth.

“OHOHOhoho… oh, what’s the point. How many times have we done this, anyway?” The pink haired tyrant sat on the stage. Omori stared at her blankly. “Go ahead and search the castle, your friend isn’t in here. And I think we both know that you’ve got better things to do, don’t we?”

This was wrong. This was all wrong. Sweetheart wasn’t supposed to know about the loop. Sweetheart wasn’t supposed to be a voice of reason. She was only ever supposed to be an obstacle. Yet here she was, giving him advice? Why?

“Come on Omori! Let’s go explore the castle!” Mari pulled him by the arm into the looming pink fortress. Another thing wrong. Mari wasn’t supposed to leave the picnic blanket. The picnic blankets were safe, the castle wasn’t. The castle had swords, and dungeons, and rooms filled with bears. The castle had poisonous chefs and vengeful knights and stairs and-

ENOUGH.

Omori took a deep breath. He could make this work.

Omori could not make this work. Mari seemed to have taken his role as leader of the group, running them to and fro throughout the structure. And yet, Omori felt at peace with this. Normally he’d be upset and worried about such things, but today he was just comforted by the presence of his sister. They were exploring together, fighting together. It was perfect. Omori idly wondered why they didn’t work together like these all the time.

As Sweetheart had said, there wasn’t any trace of Basil in Sweetheart’s castle. Nevertheless, the group pressed on. Omori noticed that his friends seemed to be far more focused on saving Basil than they normally were. He kept trying to find a moment to bring it up, but couldn’t find the right words.

Eventually, the group came upon a large, pink spiral staircase. They ascended, assuming it would lead to the next level of the castle. After several hours of climbing, with no change in the scenery, Omori began to panic, but with his sister’s support, managed to keep moving forward. Finally, after what seemed like days, Omori saw sunlight ahead. He could see the silhouette of a familiar figure – Basil!

Omori ran up the remaining stairs and approached his friend. As he ran, his foot caught in the staircase. He felt his body reel back. The figure turned around, revealing itself to be composed of shadow – the stranger. Stranger looked at Omori as the latter tumbled down the stairs. He could hear Stranger’s voice. “You’ve come a long way” it said, “but you still have a long way to go yet.”

Omori awoke in Whitespace. He tried to process what had just happened. Mari had joined him, they hadn’t found Basil… but they had found a staircase. He fell. Everything still seemed off, but it was of no consequence. Omori knew what needed to be done.

As the knife entered his stomach, Omori could only think that he hoped he could adventure with his sister again tomorrow.

“Alright then, there’s breakfast. Who’s getting a good breakfast because they’re the best bunny in the world? It’s you!” Aubrey tweaked Bun-Bun’s nose. She smiled. She’d been smiling since she woke up and saw Mari and Sunny were still there. Confirmation that yesterday hadn’t been a dream. Somehow, Mari had come back. She had her big sister back.

Aubrey hummed to herself as she slid down the ladder and went out the front door. Not even the sight of her mother asleep on the couch, again, could put a damper on her mood. She swung open her front door and stepped outside. She had scarcely walked ten steps from her house when she heard a voice behind her.

"You’re looking cheerful this morning” Kim called out. Aubrey felt the hair on her neck stand on end. “Gah! Kim! You almost gave me a heart attack!” she turned to talk with her friend.

“Good” Kim crossed her arms “now you know how I was feeling all night. I let you off easy yesterday, but now I want an actual explanation for… everything” Kim made a wide gesture.

Aubrey sighed. “She’s back, Kim.”

Kim looked bewildered. Aubrey continued. “I don’t know how, but… well, I guess she comes from some alternate dimension or something. But she’s here now. She’s back, Kim.”

“Shit…” Kim stared at her friend. Aubrey was wearing the widest smile she’d seen on the girl in months. “You sure she’s the real thing?”

Aubrey nodded. “The things she knows… the way she speaks. There’s no mistaking it. It’s her.”

Aubrey looked down. “And… I’ve realized I was pretty shitty to my old friends. So… I’m going to try and patch things up with them.”

“Alright then. Can’t wait to meet ‘em” Kim fell into lock step with Aubrey.

“Kim, you don’t need to worry. These are my old friends.”

“Yeah, and I’m your friend too. And I deserve to know that you’re alright, especially after everything that happened yesterday. So you owe me a proper introduction, got it?”

Aubrey smiled and sighed. “Yeah… I got it.” She held her fist out to Kim. Kim met Aubrey’s fist with her own and grinned.

“What would you do without me, Aubs?” she snorted.

“Probably eat a lot less candy, for one thing.”

Mari should have known better than to try to avoid Kel’s hospitality. He practically dragged her inside and brought her to kitchen, where he opened the fridge and began pulling out eggs, milk and other ingredients. “Don’t worry about staying quiet, by the way” Kel spoke through a mouthful of toast. “My parents had to take Sally to the doctor. Probably nothing serious though.” Mari let out a sigh of relief, which was cut short when Kel turned to her and spoke again. “Mari… what happened to my parents in your world?”

Ah.

There it was, the question she’d been dreading. After the crash, the Rodriguez household could barely be called a family. They were simply two grief-stricken people living together. Mari wasn’t even sure if living was the right word. Perhaps it was better to say that they survived together. But they didn’t live. There were no more parties, no more over-the-top holiday plans and decorations, no more blasting Mexican radio at 3 in the afternoon every Saturday. The house became still and silent.

Mari tried to talk to them, she really did. The Rodriguezs had essentially been her second family for years – Mrs Rodriguez loved to tease her and Hero that someday they would be her actual family. But the loving parents she had known died with their children. Every time Mari would try to talk to them, try to apologize, she would see their faces. Their eyes were empty, their tears were cried out, and their smiles had long since vanished. They had nothing left, and it was all because of her.

She couldn’t tell Kel how seeing his parents had filled her with guilt every time. But her friend deserved to know what his family went through without him.

Mari sighed. “Well, you know how you were talking about Hero’s reaction to my death yesterday?” she asked “How you said that he just sort of existed?” Kel nodded, his expression growing darker at the memory. “Well, that was a bit like how your parents reacted to everything.”

“Yeah, it makes sense they would get like that because of Hero…” Kel muttered. Mari drew Kel in for a hug, fighting the tears in her own eyes. “Kel, they loved both of you. They were broken because both of you were gone. I heard your mother wailing your name enough to know that they were just as broken by your death as Hero’s.”

Kel took a deep breath and stepped back. His smile returned. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right, of course they would be upset about both of us. I don’t know what was going through my head there, sorry!” he turned back to the fridge. Mari had a pretty good idea what had been going through his head and why, but breakfast preparation seemed like a poor setting to delve into his discontent with his home life, especially with how well Kel seemed to avoid the subject. Kel pulled a few more jars from the fridge and cabinet, placed them on the counter and stepped back with a wave of his hand.

“Voila! Your ingredients, chef” Kel bowed deeply and let out a snort of laughter. Hearing Kel laugh made the earlier moments’ negativity begin to fade from Mari’s mind. She inspected the ingredients. The usual breakfast suspects were there – milk, eggs, cheese and bacon. But what was she supposed to do with chorizo, churros or black beans? It had been four years since she and Hero had cooked together, and she’d only ever used those ingredients with him.

Hero wasn’t here right now, but she did have the next best thing.

“Kel, how would you like to help me in the kitchen?”

Kel rubbed his head. “Eh, are you sure that’s what you want? I mean, Hero and mom taught me a few things, but…” he trailed off as he gestured to the plain toast he was eating. Mari tapped his shoulder. “Come on Kel, I don’t remember how to use half these ingredients!”

“And I don’t want to be alone right now, either.”          

Sunny woke to the silence of an empty house. This was not all that unusual for him. What was unusual was waking up on the floor next to two blankets. He began to panic. Was last night a dream? Where was everyone? Had they abandoned him?

He saw the notes on the door, one from Aubrey and one from Mari. So, they had only left to run errands. That was good. That was fine. Sunny sat back on his bed. Without its blankets, it was hard to fall back to sleep, so he just lay there. He thought about putting the blankets on the floor back on the bed, but dismissed the idea. Even though his bed was so comfortable, he felt like he was more well rested from last night on the floor than he had been in a long time.

But now, he was realizing that just lying on his bed was boring. He got up and walked around the room. There was his computer, but blackjack wasn’t all that fun without friends. His chore list sat unfinished on the desk, but Sunny really didn’t want to start the morning with chores. That left one option. Kel would know what to do.

Chapter Text

“Alright. I’ll handle the churros, you take care of the eggs.” Kel began preheating the oven while Mari measured out ingredients. As Mari turned to open the refrigerator, she saw Sunny standing in the front hall. She nudged Kel, who’s eyes went wide.

“Sunny!” he grinned “how did you get into my house?” Sunny gestured to the door that Kel had left wide open. “Oh… oops” was the only response Kel could give. Mari frowned. Entering uninvited, even if the door was open and it was a house he’d been to hundreds of times, wasn’t something she ever thought Sunny would do. Mari gestured for Sunny to join them in the kitchen. “Wanna help your big sister out?” she asked. Sunny nodded. He pulled a knife out of his pocket and approached the counter.

“WHA-Where did you get that! Why do you have that?!” Mari nearly shrieked when she saw her little brother pull out a knife. She grabbed it from his hand. It was a steak knife from their kitchen. She took a deep breath. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to freak out like that. But seriously, why do you have this knife?”

“I wanted to help you…” Sunny murmured. Mari was unconvinced. She knelt down to be face to face with him. “Sunny” she wrapped her arms around him “I’m happy for you to help me, but you don’t need to bring a knife to do it. Please, tell me if you ever think about hurting yourself, alright? I can’t… I can’t lose you too.”

“Okay. I’m sorry Mari” Sunny returned her embrace. “It’s okay Sunny” she stroked his head, like she had done so many times when he was just a baby. “I’m not mad at you. I just want to know that you’re safe.”

“I’m safe” he affirmed. Smiling, Mari stood up and handed Sunny one of the kitchen knives, pointing to a pile of chorizo on the counter. “Alright then, my little knife wielder. How about you dice the sausages for me?” Sunny nodded. Mari turned to Kel. “Make sure he doesn’t do anything with the knife, alright?” Kel gave an exaggerated salute and went to help Sunny with his task.

About ten minutes later, two sets of footsteps came from the front hall. Mari began to panic at the thought of the Rodriguezs returning home early. However, her fears were eased when she heard Aubrey’s voice.

“Yo Kel, the door was open, so I just walked in. You seen Sunny?” “We’re all in here!” Kel called back to her.

Aubrey entered the kitchen and Mari recognized the owner of the second set of footsteps as the girl from the lake. “You’re Kim, right?”

“Uh, yeah. You’re… you’re Mari, right?” Kim stuck her hand out. Mari took it. “The tall one over there is Kel and the pale short one is Sunny” Aubrey gestured in the boys’ direction. “What are you doing over there, anyway?”

“Breakfast” Sunny and Kel answered in unison. “Why don’t you two help?” Mari smiled.

Cooking went quickly with five sets of hands, though Mari did most of the work. All the while, Kim made conversation. She was almost aggressive, as though she were interrogating a captured spy, especially when talking to Kel. On the few occasions where Mari got a word in edgewise, Kim told her about how she had met Aubrey and how they met the rest of their clique. Though clique wasn’t the term Kim or Aubrey used, as the two girls insisted on referring to their friend group as ‘the hooligans’. Despite the worrying name, Mari was assured that their activities were essentially harmless.

“Oh man, I don’t think I’ve had breakfast that good in years!” Aubrey leaned back in her chair. Mari had to agree. She was sure if they went back over the process, there were dozens of mistakes, but the fact that she had been able to cook with her friends overrode them.

“Maybe that cooking thing is genetic after all!” Kel grinned. “Uh, all you did was throw some churros in the oven and translate your mom’s recipe cards” Aubrey responded “Sunny and Mari did the actual work.”

Kel put his hand to his chest in mock outrage. “Hey! I’ll have you know that supervising Sunny was a very important task! Right Sunny?”

Sunny nodded.

“See? Sunny agrees with me. He thinks I’m a great cook.”

“I still think you two are nerds” Kim pointed at Kel and Sunny. “But Aubrey vouches for you, and I guess you seem alright.”

“Umm… thanks?” Kel replied.

“You’re welcome.”

“And you… you’re pretty cool. I see where Aubrey got it from” she pointed to Mari. “I’ve gotta run, I promised dad I’d help with his home renovation projects today. See ya’!”

“Kim” Mari called out to the younger girl. Kim paused her reach towards the doorknob. She turned around and met Mari’s gaze. “It was lovely to meet you. And thank you for being there for Aubrey when we weren’t.”

“Oh, uh… yeah. No problem.” Kim blushed as she fumbled with the door. She ran out as soon as it was open. A moment later, Kel’s phone buzzed. His grin grew even wider when he read the message.

“Guys! I just got a text from Hero, he’s says he’ll be here in half an hour!”

Aubrey’s grin grew to match Kel’s. She nudged Mari with her elbow. “Hey, you here that? Hero’s gonna be here soon!” “Heh, yeah. I… I heard it” Mari looked off to the distance. Dozens of thoughts filled her head. She was going to see Hero again! But did she deserve it? She had killed her Hero, after all. What if this Hero didn’t want her, since she wasn’t ‘his’ Mari? What if-

“Hey, calm down.”

Aubrey’s voice snapped Mari back to reality. “Huh?”

“I said calm down. You’re zoning out like you’re thinking about something, and you only used to do that when you were stressed. So calm down and tell me what’s on your mind.” Aubrey sat back down. “I think she’s stressed about Hero” Sunny said. Aubrey raised an eyebrow. “What, why? The guy’s been head over heels for you since middle school!”

Mari sighed. “It’s… It’s just been so long. So much has happened, for both of us.” Kel put a hand on Mari’s shoulder. “Hey, don’t worry. Hero is still the same Hero you remember, and you’re still Mari. He’s going to be so excited to see you!”

Mari let out a soft chuckle. “Heh. Thanks Kel.”

“Don’t mention it. Now, I know you said no yesterday, but there’s still time to get that box…”

“Kel, I’m not doing that, for several reasons.”

“Okay, that’s fair.”

Aubrey looked between her friends in bewilderment. “Uh, what box?”  Sunny shook his head, “Kel’s idea.” “Ah.” Aubrey nodded in understanding. “So, a dumb one, then?” Kel huffed. “Okay fine. You guys don’t like the box idea. How about instead you three just wait in our room to surprise Hero?”

Sunny and Aubrey looked at each other. Sunny nodded and Aubrey shrugged. “Sounds fine, I guess” she said.

Hero was tired. College was exhausting, but there was more to it than that. Three years since his argument with Kel, and four years since… that night. He’d thrown himself into his pre-med courses, hoping in some way to make up for all the pain he’d caused. Constantly trying to be someone that Kel and Mari could be proud of… it was tiring work.

But that was behind him. It was the summer, and for the next three months he could enjoy being home. He was looking forward to reconnecting with his little brother and getting to finally be a presence in his little sister’s life. Hero smiled as he remembered the voicemail he’d gotten from Kel that morning.

“Hey bro! I hope you’re doing well! Can’t wait to see you later today. Alright, so I know you said not to do anything special for your return, buuuuuuut I couldn’t help myself. I think mom’s enthusiasm just got to me. Anyway, I got some surprises for you! See ya soon hermano!”

Kel’s positivity after everything he’d gone through was truly admirable. Sometimes, Hero envied his younger brother.

As Hero pulled into the driveway, he couldn’t help but note the absence of his parents’ car. A sense of unease came over him. The tiny inner voice that spoke unceasingly in his mind, that taunted him with whispers of “failure”. The one that could never be silenced, only drowned out temporarily.

He approached his front steps with trepidation. He had scarcely rung the doorbell before it burst open. The sight of Kel’s smile put him at ease. He couldn’t stay mad at that smile, not since… well, better not to think about it.

“Hero! You’re here early! Aww, Mom and Dad are going to be disappointed, they wanted to be the ones to welcome you home!” Kel chuckled. “What happened?” Hero inquired. Kel shrugged. “Sally woke them up in the middle of the night and wouldn’t stop crying. They took her to the doctors. They say she’ll be fine, but they need to keep her there for a few hours.”

Kel punched his brother’s arm. “But hey, that just means we get to spend more time together. Here you go, sorpresa numero uno!” Kel handed Hero a large rectangle wrapped in bright pastel paper.

Hero took the gift. “Kel, you shouldn’t have. I told you, I didn’t need you to do anything special.” Kel sighed. “Yeah, I know. But come on, it’s your first summer home from college! And I figured you might want a break from your textbooks.”

Hero unwrapped the rectangle. He stared at the cover beneath the wrapping, and an anthropomorphic stove stared back. He remembered this book.

“Papa Chip’s Chip Off the Old Block Cookbook! Thanks Mari!”

“You’re welcome! I know, you can thank me by making lots of yummy food!”

That had been a good birthday, back when he thought his future could be happy.

“Oh wow, Kel, this is fantastic! This was what got me into cooking to begin with, I can’t believe you remembered!”

Kel rubbed his neck. “Well, it wasn’t only me… Sunny was the one who picked it out.” Hero was taken aback. “Sunny? You got Sunny to leave the house? That’s great!” “Yeah, he’s actually upstairs now. He wants to say hi to you! Oh, and Aubrey too!”

“Aubrey? Man, did you get the whole gang back together just for me?” Hero raised an eyebrow. “Heh, you have no idea” Kel chuckled nervously. “So” Hero tussled Kel’s hair. “Is that what you meant when you said you had surprises?” “That was one of them, yes. There… there’s another surprise up there too. I… need you to promise you’ll stay calm when you see it.”

Kel’s tone took on a serious edge that Hero hadn’t heard since their argument. “Kel, whatever you did, I’ll forgive you” Hero reassured his brother. Kel raised his palms. “What?! No! No, no. It’s just… well, you’ll see.” He led his brother up the stairs.

Three figures were milling about the brothers’ room. Hero immediately recognized Sunny. His brother’s best friend had barely changed over the past four years – the realization made Hero uneasy. He could assume the pink haired girl was Aubrey. She hadn’t kept in touch with him or Kel since Mari… since Mari. But Hero heard enough secondhand gossip from Kel to know a bit about Aubrey’s escapades. Then there was a third person, a woman, probably around his age. Hero hoped Kel wasn’t trying to set him up on a blind date, he got enough of that from his roommates at college.

Wait.

No.

It couldn’t be.

That was impossible.

Mari turned to Hero and spoke sheepishly. “H-hey. What’s cooking… good looking?”

Chapter Text

Hero’s bag thudded to the floor. He ran to Mari. “Mari… are you… are you really here?”

“I – “ Mari could barely get a single syllable out before she was wrapped in the tightest embrace she’d ever felt. Her initial shock quickly turned to comfort as she returned Hero’s embrace. She nuzzled her face into Hero’s shoulder, feeling his warmth. The moment seemed to last for hours, until Hero pulled back and locked eyes with her. She felt a rush of embarrassment at her marred face. “You’re back. You’re here” tears welled in Hero’s eyes. “How?”

“I’m not… I’m not exactly ‘back’” Mari sighed. Hero’s face went pale and Mari raised her hand “I mean, I am here to stay, I think. But… I’m not the same Mari you knew. I didn’t kill myself four years ago.”

“I don’t… what?” Hero bore a puzzled expression. Kel put a hand on his older brother’s shoulder. “It’s like in Spaceboy. She’s from another dimension! Er… we think, anyway.”

“Kel, Spaceboy is a work of fiction. There’s no such thing as ‘alternate dimensions’.” Hero was unsure even as he spoke. He had seen Mari’s corpse, been to her funeral, felt her loss every day – yet here she was, sitting on his bed as though nothing had happened. Well, almost nothing, anyway. He had questions about the eyepatch, but everything else was secondary to the fact that Mari was here.

 “No, he’s right… I think. I experienced the last four years differently. Do you remember the day we went to the beach?”

Hero nodded. He had many fond memories of that day, having fun with his friends, swimming in the surf, and of course, lying on top of Mari. But he noticed that Mari’s expression was a grim one. She continued. “The way that it happened for me… there was a car crash on the way home. You all died. I lost my eye, but everyone else…” she choked up. Hero spoke while Mari steeled her nerves. “So then, you just woke up here?” Hero asked. Mari looked away sheepishly. “Well, I… I tried to kill myself. I spent four years alone, I didn’t have anyone! I tried to move on, but I couldn’t. I… I just couldn’t take being alone anymore!”

 “I couldn’t take the guilt.”

As Mari began to cry, Hero embraced her once again. “Oh, Mari… you lost all of us? I’m so, so sorry. But we’re here. You’re here. It’s okay.”

Hero’s heart was racing. Mari was back. Mari, the girl he’d loved, the girl he’d mourned, was back. She was here, in his arms. For the first time in a long time, Hero began to feel hope in his chest. He began to cry alongside Mari.

When the tears ceased, the conversation continued. “Mari, in your world, were we…” Hero blushed and trailed off, leaving the unfinished question hanging in the air. Mari knew what Hero wanted to ask. She nodded, blushing a bit herself. “Yeah. Everything before that day happened as you remember it, I think.”

“So, you remember when we first met?”

Mari nodded. “We were eight. I had just moved here. You and Kel came to play with the new kids. Right?”

Hero nodded. “Okay” Mari responded “now it’s my turn.  You remember our first date?”

“Of course. We went to go see that Sweetheart movie. You kept talking about it all week” Hero grinned. “And… do you remember our first kiss?”

Mari nuzzled her head into Hero’s shoulder. “Yeah” she said longingly “it was the day we found the lake. It was a week after my birthday. Do… do you remember what you told me that day?”

Hero cupped Mari’s chin and lifted her face to meet his eyes. She had missed those eyes. “I love you” Hero repeated the words he had spoken on Mari’s birthday. He’d said them to her, and only her. At the time, it felt like a promise of everlasting true love.

“And how did you repay him? With the death of his friends, his brother and himself.”

Hero leaned in closer as he spoke, his lips drawing nearer to hers. But before they could meet, Hero pulled himself back. “I’m sorry” Hero looked away from everyone “I don’t deserve this.” Mari gave Hero a quizzical look, to which Hero responded with a grim expression. “When you died – when you killed yourself… I felt like a useless piece of shit. You were suffering, and I didn’t even know it. And I was supposed to be your boyfriend, I was supposed to be there to support you when times got rough. I might as well have killed you myself for all the good I did.”

“Look” Mari sighed “I don’t know what happened here that made my other self… do that. But I wouldn’t. I won’t. I promise, I won’t leave you again.” Mari turned to her other friends. “Any of you.”

She turned back to Hero. “Like I said, I don’t know why my other self did what she did, but I promise that whatever the reason, our relationship wasn’t to blame, alright?”

Tears welled in Hero’s eyes. Those were words he had wanted to hear every fay for the past four years. “I… I want to believe you, but you don’t know what happened between us.” Now it was Mari’s turn to hold Hero. “Hero… I… I could never be mad at you, never hate you, never think you were so insignificant as to leave you alone like that. You aren’t useless Hero, and you didn’t kill me. You’re actually the reason I’m here – it’s because of you that I survived the crash.”

A sudden thought occurred to Mari. Her counterpart here and this version of Hero had been given several more months together than she’d had. She felt a pang of jealousy in her chest.

“She had so much more than you, yet she threw it all away.”

Hero looked at Mari. She was different, to be sure. She’d grown a bit taller, almost matching him in height, and the rings beneath her good eye betrayed her insomnia. Her skin was pale. Not as pale as Sunny’s, but definitely paler than was probably healthy. Her face itself had a bit of a gauntness to it, rather than the round cheeks she’d had as a teenager. A simple black patch covered half her face, and her hair was unkempt and wild.

She was beautiful.

As this thought passed through his mind, another followed soon after. “This isn’t your Mari” the voice whispered “this is another Mari. ‘Your’ Mari is still dead and buried.”

Hero shuddered. As much as he hated to admit it, the voice was right. He still failed ‘his’ Mari. He didn’t deserve this second chance. He pushed the thoughts aside. He would need to deal with them eventually, but today he had seen a miracle. He just wanted to be with his brother, his friends and the woman he loved. He had been mourning for far too long. Didn’t he deserve to be happy for a while?

Chapter Text

“So… what happens now?” Hero asked, though if he was to be honest, he wasn’t even sure what he was asking about.

“Do you mean, with us?” Mari asked, her eyes still watery. Hero didn’t quite know how to respond. Was that what he meant? And what answer did he even want? That they would just pick up their relationship where it had left off? As much as he longed for that, they had been through so much apart from one another, how could they just go back to what they’d had before? Not to mention, the wriggling thought in the back of his mind, hissing that he didn’t deserve this, that ‘his’ Mari still lay beneath the ground.

Every other part of him wanted to hold Mari tight and never let go, yet this small sliver of doubt seemed to have infested his thoughts. Perhaps he simply needed more time to adjust, he thought. Yes, that was probably it. He was still in shock about everything, he just needed time to process this.

“Um, Hero?” Mari’s voice brought him back to reality.

Right. He’d been in the middle of a conversation. A conversation with Mari.

“Well…” he shook his head “we do need to talk about that at some point. But right now, I don’t care about where we go from here, just that we do it together.”

Kel made a soft gagging noise, at which point Aubrey leveled a death glare at the young athlete. He smiled apologetically. “Well, we still need to fix things with Basil” he shrugged.

“What do you mean? What’s going on with Basil?” Hero inquired. Aubrey looked away from him. He thought he could see a hint of shame on her face as it turned to the wall. Kel sighed and began to explain what had happened to Aubrey. How she had felt abandoned, how Basil had defaced the photos, the incident at the lake and Aubrey’s failed attempt at apology.

“I see… that sounds like a difficult situation” Hero said as Kel finished. “Yeah. I’m sorry” Aubrey sighed “I just don’t know what to do.”

“Our reunion isn’t complete until Basil’s here too!” Kel pounded his fist into his palm. “I think Basil’s just overwhelmed by seeing Mari, which… yeah, that’s fair. Maybe you can talk to him?” Kel looked to his brother. “You were always the one making peace between me and Aubrey back in the day after all.”

“I can give it a try I suppose” Hero shrugged. “Maybe if I can bring something as a gift, some sort of peace offering to show I’m not mad at him.” He thought for a moment, then snapped his fingers. “Cookies.”

“Cookies?” Aubrey tilted her head.

Hero nodded. “Cookies, from me and Mari. Like we used to make for all of you. Maybe we can get him to think about the good old days.” He turned to Mari. “Now, I’ll need your help of course.”

Mari rubbed the back of her neck. “Err, it’s been a long time since I baked anything like that…” “It’s been a long time for me as well” Hero shrugged “but I think between the two of us, we can figure it out.”

“Alright, then we’ll just take Sunny around the town again. See what he wants to do.” Aubrey nodded. “Aww, but I wanted to help Hero bake” Kel whined. Aubrey shot him a glare. “Kel, I think it’s best to give them some time together, without us.” Kel’s eyes went wide. “Oh, I get it! Yeah, ok, you two have fun!” he called as he dashed out the door, dragging Sunny behind him. Aubrey called out a similar farewell as she ran to catch up with the athlete.

The late morning sunlight streamed through Basil’s windows and onto the stirring form of the young man. As he got dressed, he played back the previous day’s events in his mind. Anyway he looked at it, they were impossible. Mari was dead. He knew she was dead, he had been the one to… Mari was dead. Yet he saw her walking yesterday, saw her talking. He felt the solidness of her body when… when he pushed her. It felt too real to be a dream, yet too surreal to be anything but. His past was catching up to him. Basil gulped. He could feel his time drawing near.

Basil looked around the room. His eyes fell on the white egret orchid in the corner. In his terror yesterday, he had forgotten it was about time to place another flower at Mari’s grave. It was the least he could do. Perhaps, if he was lucky, the flower would fix whatever addled state his mind was in that had forced him to see his greatest fear come to life.

Slowly, nervously, he opened his door. He saw Polly in the kitchen, presumably making breakfast for his grandmother. She turned as she heard him walk past.

“Oh, good morning Basil!” she said with a cheerful smile. “Are you feeling any better today?”

“Oh, uh, y-yeah. Thanks for asking” Basil lied.

“So, where are you headed this early in the morning?”

“I… I wanted to go by the church. I f-forgot to give Mari her flowers yesterday…”

Polly nodded in understanding. She was just happy he was out of his room. She hoped this ritual might bring him some peace, she was growing more worried about him by the day. 

"So… an eyepatch, huh?” Hero attempted to fill the awkward silence.

“Yeah. What about it?” Mari asked with trepidation. “Do you… not like it?” As she ran a hand over the patch, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

Hero’s cheeks turned a red to match her own. “N-no, that’s not it!” he stammered. “It’s just that I read in my premed class that most people opt for a prosthetic eye after an accident like that.”

What was Mari supposed to say? That she felt she deserved to lose the eye after killing her friends? That living with the patch was her punishment? Her acknowledgment that nothing would ever go back to normal? To tell him any of those things would be to admit that she was the one responsible for their counterparts’ deaths. She couldn’t do that, not yet. Not before she had fixed everything.

“Oh… uh, I just… never got around to it, heh” she muttered. “I’m sorry…” Hero put his cooking implements down and looked at her. “What are you apologizing for?” he asked.

“I just… I know this isn’t how you remember me…”

Hero embraced her. “Mari. I don’t care how you look, alright? I… you being back is all I’ll ever need. So don’t apologize, alright?”

Mari forced back tears and reciprocated Hero’s hug. “Thank you, Hero.”

“It’s no problem. But, uh, Mari… you’re getting baking powder over my shirt.”

Mari smiled. It was a familiar complaint they’d made of each other whenever they cooked together. “Oh yeah? Well, you’re getting flour in my hair, so I guess we’re even now.”

Kel may have been the one to drag Sunny outside, but once they had stepped into the sunlight, Sunny had taken the lead. With Kel and Aubrey in tow, Sunny set off to reacquaint himself with his neighborhood.

The three friends stopped in their tracks. A young boy was lying on the ground, clasping his gut. Crimson stained his shirt, his hands and the grass around him. “ANGEL!” Aubrey ran to her friend.

“Oh… hey boss…” Angel’s voice was weak. “I’m sorry about this… You should run…”

“Run from what? Who did this to you?!” Aubrey demanded.

As if in answer, another voice came from a figure a few houses down.

“ANGEL! You little shit, I know you’re out there! What did you do with my red paint?!”

In an instant, Aubrey’s fear turned to exasperation. A young woman left the house the voice had come from and made her way to Angel. When she saw the scene that had unfolded on the grass, she stopped and planted her face in her palms. “Dammit Angel… Why would you even do this?”

“I… uh… I thought it’d be a funny prank…”

“Yeah, real funny. Alright, go over to Fix-It and get me a new can. And no spending your money on cards, or next time that red won’t be paint.”

Angel ran off with fear in his eyes. The woman let out a sigh and turned to the three teenagers. “Oh, hey Aubrey. Sorry about that.” Aubrey shook her head. “Eh, no problem Michaela.”

The woman – Michaela – smiled. “Who are your new friends?” she asked. Aubrey introduced Kel and Sunny, and Michaela invited the trio inside. Perhaps it was more accurate to say that she forced the trio inside, and sat them down on a couch in front of an easel, upon which lay a half-finished sketch.

“So, what do you think of this?” the young artist asked. “Looks good, like usual” Aubrey shrugged. “I, uh… I don’t know much about art” Kel rubbed the back of his head “but I agree, it looks good.”

“You sure? I just feel like something off about it…” Michaela put her hands on her hips as she surveyed the canvas.

“It looks a little stiff.”

Everyone looked at Sunny. Those were the first words he’d said since the three of them had left the house. Michaela squinted back at her drawing, then nodded. “Yeah… yeah, you’re right. Yes… it’s all coming to me now! INSPIRATION HAS STRIKETH!”

She grabbed a pen and began furiously editing the sketch. After a few moments, she turned and presented the new picture. “VOILA! Ah, that looks so much better!”

Kel and Aubrey stared at the sheet, trying to find any tangible difference. The effort was ultimately futile, but the two deferred to Sunny’s opinion that the piece had, in fact, improved.

As the trio left Michaela and Angel’s house, Kel stretched his arm around Sunny’s shoulder. “Nice job back there Sunny!” he grinned. Aubrey grinned as well. “Yeah, I think getting actual feedback made Michaela pretty happy. I guess all that time drawing really paid off, huh?”

“Oh yeah, I forgot about all those drawing you used to do! Do you still make them?” Kel inquired. Sunny shook his head. “Haven’t made any in a while.”

“What do you mean by ‘a while’?”

Sunny thought for a moment. “Since Mari died.”

Kel’s face fell. “Oh. Sorry for bringing it up… So then, what have you been doing the past four years?”

Sunny paused. What had he been doing for the past four years? How was he to explain that he’d been essentially asleep for the past four years? That he’d been dreaming of going on adventures with his friends and characters from his childhood?

He looked down. “Homeschool. Cleaning. Lots of sleeping.” In truth, the three activities had taken most of his time since Mari’s death.

“Really?” Kel looked to him with concern “that’s all you’ve been doing?” Sunny nodded. Kel pulled him and Aubrey into a group hug. “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to help you Sunny” Kel cried “I promise we’ll have so much fun the next couple of days that it’ll make up for the past four years!”

Sunny felt warmth inside his chest. He’d missed his friends so much. Why had he stayed inside, anyway? He couldn’t remember the reason, only that he’d been away from everyone for far too long. Maybe he would remember someday, but right now he was just happy to be with everyone.

Chapter Text

Ding!

The oven timer went off and the door opened, releasing a cloud of sweet and hot air into the kitchen. Mari took a deep breath, it was a smell she hadn’t experienced in a long time.

“They look great” she said. Hero shot her a charming smile. “Well, they’re made with love, after all.”

“Heh, yeah…” it was a phrase Mari had told him whenever he complimented her cooking. It felt strange to hear it coming from the other direction, but it was a good kind of strange.

"Made with love.”

The phrase cycled through her head as she joined Hero on the couch, waiting for the cookies to cool. He reached his arm out around her shoulder.

“Hey, so… what’s college like?”

“It’s hard work, but it’s fun sometimes. What about you? How was college treating you?”

“I… I never went to college…” Mari sighed. “My grades kind of… cratered after you all died. And then I guess I just didn’t have any motivation.”

“Oh.” Hero bit his lip. “O-oh, but don’t let me stop you! Tell me more about it what it’s like for you!” Mari stammered, desperate to fill the awkward silence.

“Well, I’ve made some friends there, I guess. And the classes are interesting.”

“You said you were in pre-med?”

“Yeah” Hero had a sad look in his eyes. “I… I want to save people. I couldn’t save you, but maybe I could save others.”

“Do you enjoy it?” Mari asked. She remembered how Hero had dreamed of being a chef. Hero sighed. “I… it’s fulfilling. It’s important work.”

“But do you enjoy it?”

“I mean… I guess?”

Another question came into Mari’s mind. One she’d had in her mind since the morning.

“Did… did you ever meet anyone else?”

Hero shook his head sadly “I didn’t want to betray your memory like that.” Mari scooched herself closer to him. “Hero, I think… I think I would have wanted you to move on. But, to tell you the truth, I’m… I’m kind of glad you didn’t. Does that make me selfish?”

A small, wistful smile came over Hero’s face. “Maybe” he said “but after everything we’ve been through… maybe we deserve to be a little selfish?”

A similar smile graced Mari’s lips. “Yeah, maybe… I’m just surprised, is all. I would have thought you’d have girls lining up to get to you.” Mari sighed. “Lucky me, heh.”

Hero looked away from her. “I… I couldn’t bring myself to try to meet anyone like that… I’d let you die, I’d failed you. I didn’t deserve anything like that.”

Mari brushed her hand against Hero’s face. “Hero… I told you before, whatever happened, it wasn’t your fault.”

Hero let out a soft, humorless chuckle. “Yeah. But even if that’s true, I didn’t know until today. Besides, nobody could ever compare to you.” Mari turned Hero to face her and gave him a concerned look. “Hero… what do you mean?”

“Mari, you’re kind, funny, smart, witty, brave, beautiful, talented and patient. You’re perfect, and like I said, nobody could compare to you.”

Mari grimaced inwardly. It seemed Hero had been raising her up on a pedestal since her counterpart had died. She had used to love when Hero called her perfect like this, but now the word sounded hollow, like a slap in the face.

"Perfect – you don’t deserve that word. And the other you certainly doesn’t deserve it either” the voice hissed from Mari’s mind.

“Hero… I’m not that great. I’m certainly not perfect.” Hero shook his head. “No, Mari, you are. You’re the only one of us who is.”

Mari gave a bitter laugh. “Hero, if I was perfect, why did I kill myself? Why did I hurt everyone so badly?”

Hero fell silent as he turned away from her. “H-hero?”

“Don’t talk about her like that…” he spat through gritted teeth “you don’t know what she went through – none of us do!”

Mari could see she had touched a nerve. “S-sorry.” The word was bitter and insincere on Mari’s tongue. She had caused so much pain, both in her world and this one, and here Hero was, defending her. She wanted to make Hero understand, to see that it wasn’t his fault, that she was the one in the wrong. More than that, she wanted Hero to remember that she was human, not a perfect goddess.

“Me too” Hero sighed. “I didn’t mean to snap like that.”

“…Maybe… maybe we should talk about something else?” Mari suggested. “You could tell me more about your friends at college?”

A soft smile returned to Hero’s face. “Yeah. I’d like that.”

Sunny led his friends down the street, their arms laden with trash bags. An old woman was running a recycling station at the park, and Sunny had taken a quick interest in helping clean the town – or perhaps he was just after the spending money. Whatever the reason, he’d taken off for Aubrey’s house, and much to her chagrin, began shoveling trash from her yard into a trash bag. When the yard was clean, the trio returned to the park and divided their reward money between themselves.

“Hey… thanks. For helping clean without, you know, saying anything.” Aubrey glanced away while she addressed Kel and Sunny.

“No problem!” Kel smiled. He put a hand on Aubrey’s shoulder. “Hey” his expression shifted to a serious one “if you need… if you need help, just… let me know, alright?”

“Oh. Yeah. Sure.” Aubrey shrugged. “Hey, where’d Sunny go?”

Kel turned his head and saw a blank space where Sunny had been standing just a moment ago. “Oh no, not again…” Kel sighed. “He’s done this before?” Aubrey asked. “Yeah, he’s been running off without saying where he’s going.”

“Of course he has” Aubrey pinched the bridge of her nose.

Kel scanned the park for Sunny, finally spotting him by the bench. He was standing next to a girl with messy hair, hard at doing something in the book on her lap, though Kel couldn’t make it out from the distance. It seemed she hadn’t noticed Sunny staring over her shoulder, and Kel thought that if he hurried, he might be able to keep it that way. He skirted the edge of the forest, but before he could usher Sunny away from the person minding their own business, he wanted to see what had enthralled Sunny so.

As it turned out, the girl was working in a sketchbook, recreating in minute detail the playground scenes unfolding before her. Kel couldn’t help himself. “Oh, wow! That’s amazing! Did you draw that?!”

The girl let out a yelp and her hair stood on end. She closed the sketchbook and turned swiftly to Kel and Sunny.

“Oh, gosh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bother you!” Kel held up his hands in an apologetic manner. “O-oh, it’s no problem… I’m just practicing.”

“That’s what you call practicing?! It looks so real!” Kel exclaimed. “Don’t you think so, Sunny?” Sunny nodded. “See, Sunny agrees with me. I bet you could sell that for money. Heck, I’d buy it from you right now!”

The girl let out a nervous chuckle. “T-thanks. I appreciate it, but this isn’t for sale. It’s for my portfolio… I’m trying to get into art school next year…”

“Ah, there you are! What are you two doing over here!” Aubrey called out as she came up behind her friends. She looked at the girl with the sketchbook, a twinkle of recognition in her eye. “Oh, you’re Mincy, right? You have class with Charlie?”

“Oh, yeah!” Mincy smiled “You’re, uh… you’re Aubrey, right?”

Aubrey nodded. “Yeah, and these two nerds are Kel and Sunny. I hope they weren’t bothering you too much.”

Mincy shook her head. “Oh, it’s no problem. In fact, it’s nice to hear people complimenting my drawings. I don’t hear it too often. Sometimes it’s hard to find motivation.”

“Well, me and Sunny think it looks fantastic! And Sunny knows a thing or two about art!” Kel grinned. “O-oh. I don’t think I’ve seen you around Sunny. Are you in the art club?” Mincy asked. Sunny shook his head. “Sunny’s homeschooled…” Kel rubbed his neck.

Sunny stared intently at Mincy’s sketchbook. “Ah, I get it” Kel said before turning to address Mincy “Sunny hasn’t done drawing in a while. I think he misses it.”

Mincy closed the book and held it in an outstretched hand. “Well, do you want to use mine for a bit?”

“Are you sure?” Aubrey asked. Mincy shrugged “I have a lot of empty pages here, it’s not a problem. I need to give my hand a bit of a rest anyway.”

“Here you go” Mincy handed Sunny her sketchbook and supplies. Sunny grabbed them and began to work. Aubrey walked off, milling about the park, while Kel made conversation with Mincy.

“How’d you learn to draw like that, anyway?” Kel asked. “Oh, you know” Mincy chuckled “just practice. Lots and lots of practice.”

“Ah, like basketball” Kel nodded. “Er, I guess?” Mincy shrugged “Oh, are you on the team? I see you playing on the court here sometimes.”

“I’m not on the team yet, but I’m trying!” Kel grinned. Mincy grinned back. “Ok Kel, if you keep trying to make the team, I’ll keep trying with my art!”

“Deal!” Kel exclaimed as he stuck his hand out. Mincy took it and laughed. “Thanks. I needed a motivator like that.”

After some time, Sunny closed the sketchbook and returned it to its owner. Kel and Aubrey looked over her shoulder expectantly. Slowly, Mincy opened to the page Sunny had drawn on.

Sunny’s audience was stunned into silence by what they saw. Rows of nooses, bleeding cats, broken lightbulbs, inky black creatures with a single eye… the imagery was bizarrely surreal when it wasn’t outright terrifying.

“O-oh, um… th-these are interesting, Sunny” Mincy stammered. “Y-yeah” Kel gulped. “Are these because of…” Aubrey trailed off. Sunny nodded his head.

“What are they talking about?” Mincy asked Kel. Kel bit his lip. “Well… do you remember Mari Suzuki?”

Mincy thought for a moment, then nodded slowly. “Yeah, I think so… I mean, I didn’t know her that well, since she was a few years ahead of me. But she was the pianist, right? The one who com-”

“Yeah” Kel interjected “Sunny is her little brother.”

“Oh. Oh god, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to dredge up anything!”

“It’s okay” Sunny mumbled.

Kel’s phone vibrated. “Hey, Hero says the cookies are done! Let’s get back home!”

As the trio headed home, Mincy called out to them. “Hey, let me know if you ever need to borrow my sketchbook again! And thanks for the motivation!”

“Anytime!” Kel turned back and waved at the artist.

Aubrey walked in silence as they returned to the Rodriguez household. The images Sunny had drawn… were those how he had seen the world since Mari died? She had thought that Sunny had forgotten his sister, but it was plain to see that wasn’t the case. That she’d ever thought that was ridiculous. Of course he was broken by Mari’s suicide more than anyone, she was his sister. Aubrey remembered the bright and fun pictures Sunny had drawn for her and the others years ago. She missed that side of Sunny. She wasn’t sure what she could do, though. She didn’t have the kind, caring demeanor of Mari, or the problem solving of Hero. She didn’t even have the endless positivity of Kel. But she was stubborn. She wouldn’t stop until she could make everything okay again. For everybody.

Chapter Text

(Here's a sketch I did of older Mari in an attempt to recreate the game's art style)

For the second time in as many days, Aubrey stood before Basil’s house. What had once been her second home was now a foreboding fortress, a reminder of everything she had done to Basil, to Kel, to Sunny and to herself. She knew she needed to face Basil, needed to find a way to make things right with her old friend. She felt like a coward, hiding behind Kel, but she knew that if Basil saw her before she could explain things, he might very well panic and retreat inside. If hiding was what she had to do to have a chance fix this, then she would hide.

She steeled herself as Hero approached the door. He knocked, once, twice. A moment passed, then another. Before a third could go by, the door creaked opened. Aubrey’s face fell. Once again, it was not Basil but Polly who answered.

“Good morning, can I help- oh, you’re Basil’s friends! I’m sorry, but he’s not home right now.” “Oh. Well, do you know where he is?” Hero inquired. Polly nodded. “He went to the church – to the graveyard specifically. He’s been leaving flowers for Mari.”

Mari cringed at the mention of her other self. But at least they had a lead on Basil’s whereabouts. They thanked Polly and headed for the church.

The church was quiet and empty when they arrived, only a few parishioners praying in scattered pews and the pastor writing notes for the next sermon. Of the few souls within, only the pastor seemed to take notice of them, giving Aubrey a knowing nod as she approached the back door. The cool air-conditioned interior of the church gave way to the mild summer heat, reflected on rows of gravestones. Hero stopped in his tracks shortly outside the door.

“Are you alright?” Mari asked him. He shook his head. “Sorry, it’s just… I haven’t been here since… well, your funeral. I-I tried. I really did, but… I just couldn’t handle it.”

Mari squeezed his hand. “Hero” she said “it’s alright. I understand what you were going through. I… I went through something similar in my world, remember?”

It was true. The day she had buried her brother had been the last time Mari had set foot inside a church. She didn’t have the right to see the friends she had killed. But they weren’t gone here. The five gravestones that had been seared into her memory were absent from this universe. She breathed a sigh of relief, though she knew the fear had been irrational to begin with.

Sunny scanned the graveyard. Aside from an old man, they were the only ones there. There was no sign of Basil. But something in the upper corner of the cemetery caught his eye, a familiar white flower draped over a tombstone. He walked over to it, and froze when he got close enough to read it.

“Sunny? What’s wrong?” Mari ran over to her brother. Like her younger sibling, she too was left speechless and motionless by the tombstone. By her tombstone.

Mari Suzuki

1990-2006

Our Dearest Mari

The sun shone brighter when she was here

Had Mari been thinking clearly moments ago, she would have realized this was inevitable. What had she thought Polly meant by ‘leaving flowers for Mari’? But she’d been so preoccupied with the idea of reuniting her friends and fixing her other self’s mistakes that she hadn’t thought about the gravestone. She hadn’t been prepared to come face to face with proof of her own death. A dozen voices filled her head at once. Some lamented that her friends had lost this world’s version of her. Others lamented the death of her friends in her own world. Some spoke in pity of the dead girl, while still more spouted vitriol at Mari’s counterpart. It was all she could do to stand upright at the mental barrage.

From the corner of her eye, she saw Sunny shivering, and the tumult within her mind was swept away by concern for her little brother. She grabbed him and held him close. “It’s okay Sunny… it’s okay…” she repeated, both for him and for herself.

Once Sunny had stopped shivering, and once Mari allowed herself to release him from her grip, Aubrey approached and placed a hand on Mari’s shoulder. “Are you alright? We… we can leave if you need” she said. Mari shook her head. “No, that’s alright. We don’t… you don’t need to leave on my account.”

Aubrey nodded in return and approached the grave. She knelt down before it. “Hey, Mari. It’s me. Again.”

Aubrey took a deep breath, and continued. “I know I come by a lot… I hope I’m not getting annoying or anything… Anyway, you can probably see everything that’s going on here up in heaven, can’t you? I know this doesn’t change any of the pain of the past four years, and it doesn’t change how much of an ass I’ve been to everyone… but I think it can make things better. I don’t know why it happened, but… well, I want to believe this miracle was your doing I guess. Thanks. Thank you so much. I still miss you…” Aubrey fell silent and placed her forehead on the cool stone of the marker for a moment. Then, she raised her head to the sky and stood up. She turned to her friends and nodded.

Kel stepped forward. “I… uh, I kinda want to say something to Mari as well…” he looked directly at the grave as he spoke, indicating clearly which Mari he was referring to. “Hi Mari, it-it’s been a while. I guess I’ve just been busy with… well, with life I guess. You always said that if I stayed positive, things would turn out for the best, and I’ve been trying to do that. And, uh, things are finally starting to get better! So, uh, yeah… I guess that’s about it…” Kel trailed off, and returned to his friends.

Hero sighed. “I guess I should say something, huh?”

“Only if you want to” Kel shrugged.

Hero knelt before the stone. “H-hey, Mari… I, uh, I’m sorry that I haven’t visited before this… I’m sorry I didn’t see the pain you were in. I-I’m sorry I didn’t keep everyone together like should have. I… oh god. I’m such a failure. I couldn’t save you. I couldn’t help anyone. And now you’re back, but you’re still gone. You’re still gone, and that’s not going to change. I’m sorry. I… oh. Oh god. I can’t…

“I’m sorry, I just-“ he stammered. “I failed you” he turned to avoid looking at the stone. “I failed you, and you – the you that was here – is still dead. And I’m here, trying to be happy with you.”

He felt a pair of arms wrap around him. A familiar warmth filled the embrace.

“It’s okay. It’s not as scary as you think” Mari whispered. “I’m sorry” he cried softly. “It’s okay. I already told you, whatever happened, it wasn’t your fault. And like you said earlier… we deserve to be a little selfish.”

Hero took a deep breath. He turned to reciprocate Mari’s embrace. As they separated, he wiped his eyes and looked to his friends. “Sorry you had to see that…” he murmured. “It’s alright” Sunny said flatly. Aubrey rubbed her neck. “Sunny and Mari are right. For what it’s worth, I never blamed you either.” Kel shrugged. “You already know how I feel about it.”

Hero turned from their gazes. “T-thanks. I promise, I’ll do better. I’ll be there for everyone.”

He only hoped he could keep his promise this time.

Chapter Text

“God, you’d think it wouldn’t be so hard to find the only guy in town who wears a flower clip” Aubrey growled. They’d searched the graveyard, church, and surrounding neighborhood, yet turned up no sign of the elusive gardener.

Then, Sunny stopped in his tracks. He ran off in the direction of Basil’s house. Mari and Aubrey ran after him.

“I-is that normal for him now?” Hero asked. Kel shrugged, and the two brothers went off after their friends as well.

About a block out, Sunny had stopped again, at the edge of the curb. He pointed to a figure in the distance, familiar mop of blond hair and the slightest pink accent.

“Basil! Good job Sunny!” Aubrey grinned and prepared to run.

“Wait” Mari held up a hand. “We don’t want to go all at once. We might overwhelm him. We need to be gentle.”

Hero shook his head “Mari, he’s a teenage boy. Not some skittish wild animal.”

“Eh, given what happened yesterday… I think Mari’s probably right” Kel shrugged.

“So, who should go first? It can’t be me, he’s still afraid of me” Aubrey grimaced.

All eyes turned to Hero.

"Okay… I mean, I’m flattered, but… why me?” the young man asked.

“Well, you were always the one solving our fights when we were kids” Aubrey said.

“Yeah” Kel grinned “you were like our meditator!”

“…do you mean mediator?” Hero asked his brother. Kel nodded. “Okay, if that’s what you all think is best…”

Basil walked slowly, taking in the sounds of Faraway. Despite its small-town nature, it was never really silent, especially this late in the summer. Birds chirped, insects buzzed, children played, the wind whistled through the grass. The sounds of normality helped to ground him, granting respite from his increasingly panicked existence.

Once upon a time, such an afternoon would have been prime photograph material for Basil. But he hadn’t touched his camera much since that day. He didn’t have many memories he wanted to keep. It didn’t matter all that much though. He wasn’t planning to be around much longer. Polly might be a little sad, but he knew she didn’t really care about him. She’d been hired to take care of his grandmother. He was just an added responsibility dragging her down. Forcing her to display an affectionate façade. Even if she was genuine, if she knew what he had done, she wouldn’t want anything to do with him.

Not that he blamed her.

He felt tears start to well in his eyes. “Damnit” he muttered as he rubbed them dry. He always cried when he thought about his old friends. Thought about how much he had lost.

“Basil?”

The voice was calm and confident. It was a familiar voice from years past, another reminder of Basil’s lost innocence. Basil turned slowly to face the voice, unsure if he was truly hearing it or if it was another guilt-induced hallucination.

“H-Hero?”

“Oh, it is you!” Hero grinned “It’s good to see you again Basil. It’s been too long.”

Basil nodded nervously. “Ye-yeah…”

Hero closed the gap between the two. As he drew closer, he noticed the subtler signs his old friend was throwing out. Every twitch and shift the meek boy made seemed to be indicate his desire to flee this encounter. Hero knew he couldn’t allow that. Mari was counting on him, after all.

Gently, Hero put a reassuring arm on Basil’s shoulder. “This is great, I was actually looking for you!” he grinned.

“Y-you were?” Basil glanced around.

“Yeah. Kel told me that you’d been having some… trouble recently. And, well… I was hoping I could help out, like old times, you know? After all, we’re friends.”

“Are we?” Basil spat. Then, almost immediately, his face turned pale as he realized what he had just said. “N-no, that’s not what I mean! I-I’m not saying you’re a bad friend!” he stammered.

“No, it’s alright” Hero sighed. “I… I know I kind of left you all in the lurch after…everything four years ago. And I know that that was a mistake. Please. Let me try and make things right, at least a little bit.”

“None of it was your fault” Basil wanted to say. “It’s my fault, and the only way I can make things right is by dying.”

But he stayed silent and just nodded. Hero pulled a bag from his pocket and handed it to him. Even after four years, Basil hadn’t forgotten the smell of Hero’s chocolate chip cookies.

“Thank you” he muttered meekly.

“Don’t worry about it!” Hero flashed his grin again. “Now please, tell me what’s bothering you.”

Basil looked away from his old friend. “It… it’s nothing.”

Hero sighed once more. “Alright. Can you at least walk with me a bit? Kel wanted to say hi too, for old time’s sake.” Basil thought for a moment, then nodded slowly.

Hero walked Basil down the block, filling the silence between the two with small talk. He told the younger boy about his experiences at college, and what he was studying. Basil seemed to be half-listening. They stopped at the street, and Hero waved to someone on the other side. A tall, tan young man bounded across the asphalt. “Hey Basil! How’s it going!” Kel called out.

“O-oh… hi Kel. I’m alright… I guess” Basil lied. Luckily, neither of the Rodriguez brothers seemed to catch onto him.

“Hey, I’m really sorry about what happened yesterday, man. I… I should have stopped Aubrey sooner. I should have helped you get your album back. And most of all, I should just have been there for you.”

Basil was taken aback. He had expected his old friend to chastise him for his breakdown at the lake. But Kel genuinely seemed to think he was the one at fault, not Basil. Had it been anyone else, Basil might have thought they were trying to lull him into a false sense of security, but he didn’t think Kel was devious enough to do that. Or smart enough, for that matter.

“It-its okay. T-thanks, Kel.”

“I’ve actually been talking to Aubrey though” Kel continued, ignoring Basil, or perhaps simply not hearing the meek boy. “She feels really bad about yesterday, and she wants to talk to you.”

Basil’s eyes went wide.

“Don’t worry, Basil. We’re going to come with you” Hero reassured him. “We won’t let anything bad happen. Everything’s going to be okay.”

Basil gulped. Hero waved to the group across the street. As a pink figure swished towards them, Basil closed his eyes in anticipation for a retributive blow from Aubrey. A moment passed, and no strike came. Gingerly, Basil opened his eyes. He saw Aubrey holding his photo album out to him. She stared at the ground, averting her gaze from him.

“I’M REALLY SORRY ABOUT EVERYTHING, HERE’S YOUR PHOTO ALBUM, PLEASE FORGIVE ME!”

Basil was stunned to silence. This couldn’t be real, right? It had to be a ploy, a trap of some kind. Aubrey just wanted him to let his guard down so she could clobber him with the bat. What other explanation could there be for her sudden change in behavior? Basil looked back to Hero, who grinned confidently.

No, there was no way Hero would let that happen, right? Hero was a good person, and what’s more, he was studying to be a doctor. And doctors weren’t allowed to hurt people, right?

Unless… he knew the truth.

Basil gulped and turned around. Hero gently put his hands on the boy’s shoulders and turned him back to Aubrey.

Hero didn’t know the truth, did he? No, if they knew the truth, this wouldn’t be so gentle and calm. So then, he must have convinced Aubrey to give him another chance, somehow. Basil had no idea how or why Aubrey would want to talk to him again, but he didn’t want to disappoint Hero.

And if it turned out that this was a trap, he couldn’t say he didn’t deserve it.

Basil took the album.

No attack came.

“A-Aubrey…”

“I’m sorry I was such a shitty person!” she cried out, still focusing intently on the ground.

“I-it’s okay Aubrey.”

“No, it’s not! The way I acted… you were my friend, and I made life miserable for you these past four years!” Aubrey took a deep breath, straightened her posture, closer her eyes, and stretched out her arms. “Now, hit me!”

“What?” Basil, Hero and Kel all blinked in surprise.

“I said, hit me! I was terrible to you, so I deserve this!”

“It… it’s okay… I… I forgive you, A-Aubrey.”

“B-Basil…” Aubrey finally looked at her old friend. Tears welled in her eyes. “I… I promise, I’ll make this all up to you…” To Basil’s surprise, the pink-haired girl drew him into a tight hug. Tears flowed from her face, and it was all he could do to keep from crying too. He had missed his friends more than he had realized. Then, Basil felt another pair of arms, then a fourth. Evidently, Kel had decided this needed to be a group hug. Then, a two more people joined the pile.

Basil wiped his eyes dry and looked at the newcomers. “Sunny!” he exclaimed, seeing his best friend. “I… I thought I’d imagined seeing you yesterday!” Sunny shook his head. “I’m r-really glad to see you!” Basil said. Sunny nodded and pointed to the final person to join the group hug. Basil turned to look, and his blood froze.

It was Mari.

The girl he’d hung.

What was going on? He’d left the flowers, he’d taken his medication, he’d slept as well as he could… why was he seeing her now? Was it possible that yesterday hadn’t been a hallucination? But then, why would Mari be so happy to see him after what he’d done. He gulped. He needed to confirm this. Maybe it was just someone who looked like her. Or maybe he’d finally cracked. Whatever the reality, he would accept it.

“Ah- M-Mari?” Basil gasped. His heart pounded in his chest. Her eyes widened when she heard him call to her. She drew him closer to her, letting go of Hero and Sunny to do so.

“I missed you so much, Basil” she said. Her voice was as soothing as he remembered it.

Then, yesterday hadn’t been a dream or a hallucination? But if Mari was really back, why was she happy to see him? She should be furious with him. But here she was, embracing him Like nothing had happened.

He couldn’t hold back any longer. He buried his face in Mari’s shirt, tears streaming down his cheeks. Gently, Mari patted his back. “It’s okay Basil… calm down… it’s not as scary as you think…”

Basil cried for the next few minutes. Everyone else simply stood there, holding him and giving their friend support. As his tears finally began to cease, she looked down on the young boy. “So” Mari mused “I’m guessing you have some questions.”

“And that’s about everything we’ve figured out” Kel concluded. Basil stared at his friends and blinked slowly.

“So… you’re not… you’re not the same Mari?”

“I’m afraid not…” Mari grimaced. “But… well, I have the same memories, up until the day at the beach.”

Inside himself, Basil was ecstatic. Mari was back, and she didn’t remember anything. This was a chance for a fresh start. After four years, he could finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Then, voices spoke in his mind.

“Will you hang this one too?”

“You’re still guilty.”

“SOMETHING will always try to take away your happiness.”

Basil shook his head. The voices were right. Part of him wanted to confess everything, to let them all hate him. But he knew that if he confessed, they would hate Sunny too, for the actions of SOMETHING. He would never be able to explain the truth of that night. He would keep the secret safe, and make sure that SOMETHING never got a chance to hurt Mari again.

Chapter Text

Basil’s house was as Mari remembered it. The smell of flowers and fresh dirt mixed together in the slightly-too-warm air, filling the sunlit rooms with a nostalgic and comforting fragrance. Even Basil, still visibly stressed and on-edge, seemed to calm a bit as he led his friends inside. Polly walked out from Basil’s grandmother’s room, and as she took in the scene around her, her solemn expression shifted to one of joy. “Ah” she called out “I see you found Basil!”

Basil looked to his friends sheepishly. “S-sorry for causing trouble…”

“Hey, we already said not to worry about that kind of stuff, right?” Kel waved off the apology.

“Oh, right… sorry for apologizing too m-much.”

“I just said- ah, forget it.”

“So, I guess you guys have met Polly, then? S-she’s helping take care of grandmother. Um, and she’s r-really nice!” Basil stammered, desperate to change the conversation.

“O-oh. Is… is granny alright?” Aubrey asked meekly. Basil’s grandmother had shown her far more kindness in life than any of her own family members ever had. Even during the worst of her feud with Basil, Aubrey had never wished ill on his grandmother. The thought of something happening to the sweet old woman made Aubrey’s heart sink, weighed down by the guilt that gnawed at her from within.

Polly gave a soft smile that didn’t reach all the way to her eyes. “She’s… she’s going through a rough patch right now.”

Something about the caretaker’s tone made Aubrey doubt it was as simple as a ‘rough patch’.

The mood in the room turned somber as an awkward silence filled it. Seeking a new topic, Mari knelt down to Basil – he was still so small – and pointed to the flower pots that lined the room.

“It looks like you’ve got some new flowers since I was last here, Basil. Do you think you could tell me about them?” Slowly, Basil nodded. As he led Mari to a pot of white orchids on the windowsill, he launched into an explanation of their meaning in the language of flowers. The symbolism didn’t escape Mari’s attention.

“My thoughts will follow you into your dreams” she scoffed internally. “They wouldn’t need to follow like that if you didn’t kill yourself.”

She said none of this. Her conversation with Hero earlier had shown Mari that she needed to be very careful bringing up her counterpart to her friends. Instead, she just kept asking questions, hoping to coax the smallest of smiles out of Basil. She hadn’t seen him smile since she had met him again, an oddity given how cheerful she remembered him being. Despite her efforts, Basil’s expression remained nervous.

While Basil continued his impromptu botany lesson, Polly was introduced to the rest of his friends. Sunny, a taciturn, cliff-faced boy, even more silent than Basil, it seemed. Kel, energetic and optimistic. Hero, a young man with kind eyes that kept flitting to the woman talking to Basil. Polly smiled. She knew that look.

Then there was Aubrey. Polly had mixed feelings about her. She knew that Aubrey had been a cause of suffering for Basil, and she didn’t like the idea of her in the house with the boy. But in the end, it wasn’t her decision. And Basil, bless his heart, seemed more than willing to forgive her.

 “So, uh, ms Polly… Is there anything we can do for you?” Hero asked.

Polly laughed. “Just Polly is fine. You don’t need to be so formal, I’m only a few years older than you. And right now I can’t think of anything that would be better than you spending time with Basil.”            

Soon, everyone was gathered around the table. At its center sat Basil’s long-lost photo album, finally back after four years. “C-can we look at it?” Basil asked of no one in particular.

“Of course” Hero grinned “it’s your album, after all.”

Basil gulped and nodded. Gently, he opened the book.

Basil was mostly silent as they flipped through the pages, but Mari saw the tension he’d been carrying in his shoulders soften a bit as their trip through memory lane continued. Hero, on the other hand, was more than happy to chime in with his own memories and thoughts of the pictures. When they reached the images of Basil’s birthday, Hero wrapped his arm around Mari’s waist and drew her closer.

As the journey through the album approached the trip to the beach, Mari steeled herself mentally. Aubrey looked to see her friend grimacing, and recalled how Mari had reacted to the photographs yesterday. How she had been unable to look at those beyond when their timelines diverged. “Are you sure you’re okay Mari? You don’t have to see this” she asked. Mari shook her head.

“Oh, uh… yeah. I’m sure. I’m fine. I… I want to find out what happened differently.”

"Are you sure?”

“UH, well…” Mari sighed and looked down. “Maybe… we could skip the beach itself?”

Aubrey nodded and turned the page. Mari had to stifle a giggle. Sunny was sitting inside a large box with Mewo beside him. She had to focus on Sunny’s behavior, lest she remind herself why her world’s Sunny had never gotten this birthday.

On the following page, she was greeted by a picture of herself holding a stag beetle. She sported a wide grin, while Hero covered his face in disgust.

“Look at her. Smiling there. Do you think she knows what she will do? Has she already made up her mind? How selfish. How disgusting.”

The thought ran through Mari’s head before fading out, unsaid. The page turned once more.

“Huh, one of the photos is missing.” Kel turned to Aubrey.

“That one? That one was always missing, as far as I know” Aubrey shrugged. “I think it had something to do with the old treehouse, but I have no idea where it is.”

The treehouse?

The name meant little to Mari beyond a few memories. Everyone standing around the large piece of paper to plan out what they wanted. Hero having to explain to Kel how his ideas fit into neither their budget, nor the laws of physics. Her and Hero working together to convince their parents. Hero and his father nailing in the first set of boards while she waited below with refreshments. Hero devolving into a blushing, stammering mess when she used her ‘what’s cooking’ line in front of his father.

The bare planks of the treehouse floor, left to rot in the elements.

After the crash, the treehouse was abandoned. It was a reminder of everyone Mari had lost. A promise of safety and joy that she could never fulfill. She couldn’t even say for certain if any of the boards were still there, or if they had all crumbled away.

But here, in this world, the treehouse had been completed, because everyone had been alive. Everyone had been happy.

At least before her counterpart here had ruined it all. It seemed that ruining things was a constant for Mari's in different timelines.

“Hey, I got an idea! Let’s go check on the treehouse!” Kel exclaimed. “This might be our only chance since Sunny’s moving so soon!”

“Y-you’re moving?” Basil stuttered. Sunny nodded. “In two days” he muttered. “O-oh… that… that’s really s-soon” Basil looked dejected.

“Hey, it’s not so bad” Kel slapped Basil’s back “You’ll still have us, and we’ll all keep in touch, right Sunny?” Again, Sunny nodded. Basil halfheartedly returned the gesture.

"Soooo, treehouse?” Kel asked. “Yeah” Hero grinned “that sounds nice”.

Basil paused before the Suzuki residence, staring intently at the small plastic sign in the yard. “Oh, w-wow. I guess y-you really are m-moving… it hadn’t s-sunken in yet”. Sunny nodded sadly.

“And I guess you’ll be going with him, huh?” Aubrey asked Mari.

Mari paused. She hadn’t really considered what she would do after the three days were up. It would definitely be an awkward conversation with her parents. After all, what were they supposed to do when their daughter came back from the dead? But there was no question about where she needed to be. Sunny needed her. She couldn’t leave him alone. Not like this world’s version of her had.

“Yeah, I guess I will. But we’ll stay in touch.”

“Hey, hey! It’s not time to think about sad stuff like that! We’ve got a treehouse to find!” Kel put his arms around Aubrey and Mari’s shoulders and grinned.

\They continued on around the back of the house. The backyard was much better kept here than in Mari’s original timeline – her parents must have been trying to ensure that the house would sell. There was another big difference – the tree, or rather, the lack of a tree in the backyard. Mari stared at the stump that had greeted her when she first arrived in this world. Soon, she noticed that everyone else was staring at the stump as well. Suddenly, she recalled why.

“This is where…”

“Yeah.” Hero was holding back tears.

“…who found me?” Mari had a sinking feeling in her stomach as she asked the question.

“…Sunny.”

Mari grabbed her brother and drew him into a tight embrace. “Sunny, I… I’m so sorry” she whispered. She was livid. If her counterpart had chosen this spot, then she would have known that Sunny would be the one to find her. Which meant she hadn’t cared, or worse, she had wanted him to be the one to find her.

It was all Mari could do to keep herself from cursing out the dead girl in front of all her friends.

That damned fool.

Chapter Text

Once everyone had finally managed to avert their eyes from the stump, it was just a short walk to the treehouse. It was built back from the house a bit, in the only tree sturdy enough to hold it. Four years of exposure to the elements had stripped away the paint and decorations, but the structure itself remained.

“Okay, we need to make sure it’s still sa-“

“LAST ONE UP’S A ROTTEN EGG!” Kel yelled out, interrupting his brother’s safety lecture. He clambered up the ladder two rungs at a time. No one followed him, despite his challenge.

“Well, that’s one way to test if it’s safe or not” Hero grumbled.

“COME ON GUYS! IT’S BORING UP HERE ALONE!” Kel called down.

After the tree house proved sturdy enough to withstand Kel, the rest of the group went up to join him.

As Aubrey reached the top of the ladder, a small purple figure poked out of the window. “Hi Aubergine!” it called in a high pitched, slurred voice that sounded suspiciously like Kel’s.

Aubrey’s eyes went wide. “Is… is that- Kel, if you get one scratch on that thing I am never going to forgive you!” she nearly leapt the rest of the distance to the treehouse door, where she grabbed the plushie from Kel’s grasp and cradled it in her arms.

“So” she whispered “this is where I left you… Heh. You’re so dirty. Don’t worry, I’ll get you nice and clean soon.”

“Ahem” Kel cleared his throat loudly.

Aubrey sighed. “Thank you for finding Mr Plantegg, Kel.”

Mari chuckled, and Aubrey’s face flushed red. “Wh-what’s so funny?!” “It’s nothing” Mari replied with a smile. In truth, she was just happy that some of Aubrey’s childhood had survived everything. The girl had been forced to grow up too fast, even before this world’s Mari had left them. Seeing her fussing over the doll in the same manner as her twelve-year-old self was a heartening sight.

Mari took in the rest of the treehouse. Leaves littered the floor, four years of uncleaned autumn detritus crinkling beneath their feet. What wasn’t covered in leaves was under a thick layer of dust. Aside from these signifiers of decay, the room was like a time capsule. Her old softball bat stood propped against the wall. It hadn’t gotten much use since her injury, but she’d kept it to remember the good times, and in the hope that Sunny or one of their other friends might take up the sport. Her mind flashed back to Aubrey’s bat. Had she been carrying that to remember her too? It seemed that, in some twisted way, her hope had been granted.

On the wall nearby was a calendar, opened to October 2006.  A bright red circle near the end promised a recital, a duet between piano and violin. Beneath the calendar’s yellowing pages was a Sweetheart mask, the remains of a Halloween costume that had gone as unrealized as her and Sunny’s recital, likely for the same reason as well. An unfinished card game lay on the table in the center of the room.

Finally, Mari’s gaze settled on a familiar metallic shape in the corner. “I-is that a toaster?”

“Oh, that’s where I left it!” Kel exclaimed. Mari blinked. Aubrey sighed. “Oh god, yeah. I remember that. What was you reasoning again?”

“We could get to have toast whenever we wanted!” Kel beamed.

“Not a bad idea” Aubrey shrugged. “But you forgot about the little fact of ‘we don’t have electricity in this tree house’.”

“Aubrey” Kel placed his hand on his friend’s shoulder “a true genius never lets little things like ‘not having electricity’ get in his way.”

Everyone’s reminiscence was interrupted by the sounds of heavy breathing emanating from the far corner of the room. As she tuned to the source of the noise, it wasn’t hard to figure out why it was happening. Hero stood frozen before an enormous cobweb in the corner, playing host to spider that was just as oversized.

Four years ago, Mari would have laughed herself silly at this sight. Even now, it was hard to keep a straight face. Beneath all the suave charm that Hero gave off was a loveable dork who needed his little brother and girlfriend to keep the spiders away. She was glad to see that side of him was still there. In fact, the treehouse seemed to be bringing out the long-forgotten qualities of everyone there, herself included. Perhaps there was something magical about the place, or maybe it was simply the power of nostalgia. Even Basil seemed a bit less tightly wound here.

Back to the matter at hand, Hero had gone unresponsive, and while the rest of the group might have found it humorous, Hero was obviously distressed. Mari reached up, cupping her hands around the spider, and deposited the arachnid outside the nearest window.

Kel clapped a hand on Hero’s shoulder. “See bro, the spider is gone. Everything’s good now.” Hero breathed a deep sigh of relief as the pallor left his face. “Thanks, guys.”

“What were you doing over here anyway?” his brother inquired. At that, Hero grinned and waved a thin piece of photo paper.

“Woah! You found it? Let me see!” Kel tried to grab the photograph. Hero held it just out of his brother’s reach. “Hey, careful” he reminded his younger sibling.

“Oh, right. Sorry.” Kel grinned sheepishly.

Everyone else crowded around the young man to see the missing piece of Basil’s album. Despite being left to the elements for years, the photo was in remarkably good condition. Though faded, the colors still showed, and the image was crisp and clear as the broad smiles of Aubrey and Kel’s twelve-year-old selves stared back at the group.

“We look… looked so happy” Aubrey sighed.

“We were so happy” Kel added.

“All but one of us” Mari thought. Once again, she was seeing the smile of the other Mari, and once again, it was all she could do to keep her comments to herself.

“I… I can’t help but feel sad when I see this now” Hero admitted. “Knowing what was coming, I mean.”

“T-they’re sad now, but… m-maybe we should be h-happy they happened at all?”

Everyone turned to Basil. It was the first time he’d really spoken since leaving his house.

“Oh. S-sorry.” The young boy seemed to shrink in on himself.

Hero looked away from his friend. “I… I know that. I know we should focus on the positives like that, but it just… why are we allowed to be happy when she’s not here? Why were we allowed to be happy when she was suffering? I just… I just wish we knew why it happened. Why she did it.”

“Well then, maybe we can figure it out.”

Now it was everyone’s turn to stare at Mari.

Aubrey opened her mouth to object “But, there was no note, no journal, nothing she left-“

“But, she is- was me. Maybe a few months older, but still me. I… I know it’s asking a lot of you guys, but maybe if we go over everything we remember, I can fill in the missing perspective, you know? Help piece together why I- why she might have done this.”

“Mari, you don’t have to do that” Hero said.

Mari shook her head. “I don’t have to, but I want to. I… I feel like I was brought here for a reason. I think that helping you all move past this and recover, I think that’s what I’m here to do.”

Hero grabbed her hand. “Mari, you just being here, being alive… that’s enough for me.”

Aubrey wrapped her arms around Mari. “It’s enough for me too.” Kel and Sunny echoed the sentiments.

Mari wiped a tear from her eye. “I… thanks. But I still want to do this. If we know why she did what she did, I think we can put everyone’s minds at ease.”

Kel looked downwards. “B-but what if we find out something worse? What if it turns out it was completely our fault?” It didn’t escape Mari’s notice that Hero seemed to flinch when Kel suggested he might have been to blame.

Mari grabbed Kel’s face and tilted it upwards, then looked her friend straight in the eye. “Kel. It wasn’t. Even knowing nothing about the suicide, I know that it wasn’t the fault of anyone here. I would never, ever do that because of you guys. Okay?”

There was silence in the treehouse. After a moment, Kel nodded. “Yeah. Okay. I trust you, Mari.”

“I… I suppose it might help put our minds at ease…” Hero murmured.

“Alright then gang, let’s solve this mystery!” Mari clapped her hands and forced a smile. Her inner thoughts taunted her. “Quite the promise you’ve made. How do you know the truth won’t hurt them more?” Mari pushed thought back. She hoped they would be able to determine the truth of what had occurred four years ago. However, if they couldn’t, she knew what needed to happen. She was here to put her friends’ minds at ease, and if that meant she had to lie to bring them peace, then she would do just that.

Chapter Text

Hero moved to place the photo into Basil’s album when something caught his eye. “Wait a minute… there’s something written on the back here…” Hero turned the photo over. Scrawled in marker were the words: Don’t forget, it’s in the toybox.

“The… toybox? What the hell does that mean? And who wrote this?” Aubrey asked.

“Toybox…” Mari muttered. Visions of her last few moments in her original timeline filled her head.

“You okay?” Hero asked. Mari shook her head. “It’s nothing. Just that the term brings back… unpleasant memories.”

Hero grimaced and nodded in agreement. “I know what you mean. I think the last time any of us saw a toybox was the day you- the other you – died.”

“Well what do you know?” Mari thought “I guess broken minds think alike. But I’m not like her. I’m not going to abandon them.”

“Oh. S-sorry. I didn’t mean to remind you of that” was all she actually said.

“Hey, where are you going?” Kel called to Sunny. The latter had begun walking towards the exit of the treehouse. Sunny pointed to the photograph in Hero’s hand. “Clue” he said.

“Clue?” Kel raised an eyebrow, then realization seemed to dawn on him. “Oh! Yeah, maybe this message is some sort of clue!”

“So you’re saying that if we find the toybox, we might find out why the other me killed herself?” Mari asked “Well, I suppose it’s worth a shot.”

“Would Sunny even still have it? I mean, after everything that happened, would your parents keep it around?” Aubrey asked. Mari shrugged. “All we can do is look. It’s the only lead we’ve got, after all.”

“It’s so… crowded” Hero muttered as he stared into the living room. His eyes scanned over the towers of cardboard. “So, we have to check each room and each box? That’s going to take a while.”

“We could split up, and each of us could take a different part of the house” Aubrey suggested.

Hero thought for a moment. “Not a bad idea” he nodded.

Aubrey grinned and grasped Mari’s arm. “Okay, I call dibs on searching with Mari!”

“Hey, no fair! You can’t call dibs on something like that!” Kel objected. Aubrey pointed an accusing finger at her old friend. “You were the first person to find her, and you spent the morning with her.” Aubrey turned to point at Hero next. “And you got to spend several hours with her alone while I was making sure Sunny-“

Kel coughed. Aubrey rolled her eyes. “Okay, while Kel and I were making sure Sunny didn’t go off and join a feral cat pack or something, and she’s moving out tomorrow! My point is, I haven’t gotten any one-on-one time with Mari, so now it’s my turn.”

“Uh, aren’t you forgetting someone there?” Mari cocked her head towards Basil. “H-huh?” the gardener startled. “O-oh, I’m okay. Aubrey can go with M-mari.”

"So, it’s settled then!” Aubrey’s grin widened.

"I guess it is" Mari gave her a small smile of her own in return.

Aubrey and Mari had taken the second floor of the house as their search area. They’d started in Sunny’s room. After a few unfruitful minutes, Mari heard Aubrey’s voice coming from behind her.

“Hey, Mari… can I ask you something? About you and Hero… how did you know?”

“Know what?” Mari set down the box she was rummaging through and turned to face her friend.

“Know that you were… ya’ know… a thing?”

So that was it. Aubrey was looking for advice from her big sister once again. “You’d better not be asking how you can steal Hero away from me” she grinned.

“What?! No, it’s not like that at all!” Aubrey chuckled.

Good. The tension was broken. Mari sighed wistfully. “The more time we spent together, the more things I learned I liked about him. How he would hum when he baked. How he would greet me with the biggest smile even when he felt sick. How he would always make time to listen to others. How whenever we spent time together, it made me feel safe and warm inside. Being with him was like… like being next to a warm fireplace in the middle of winter.”

Mari shook her head. “God, listen to me rambling on like this. It probably sounds like gibberish.”

“No, I get it. I mean, it does sound kinda like gibberish, but maybe that’s what love is. Gibberish that makes you feel warm, and safe, and comforted.”

“That was very poetic of you, Aubrey.”

“I guess Honors English was good for something” Aubrey huffed.

“Oh, you’re in an honors course? That’s great!”

“Hey, why’d you say it like it was a surprise?”

Mari shrugged. “I guess you just… you don’t really give off that vibe, you know?”

“Yeah, well studying’s probably my only ticket out of that shithole I call a house” Aubrey grit her teeth. “But that’s not the point. I think I understand what you were saying about you and Hero. Thanks.”

“No problem” Mari smiled “But why were you asking, anyway? You got another crush?”

“No! I don’t have a crush on her!” Aubrey sputtered.

"Her? Mari asked. Aubrey's eyes went wide. She turned her face from Mari, but the older girl could see just enough to tell that her cheeks matched her hair.

“Aubrey, that’s fantastic!”

The younger girl turned slowly, nervously. “Really?”

Mari clasped her hands together. “Of course! You’re being true to yourself, and I think that’s amazing. I’m so proud of you, Aubrey.”

The girls embraced. When they let go, Aubrey pushed away a strand of hair. “I… I haven’t told anyone else yet. I’m not sure I’m ready.” Mari nodded “I get it. I won’t tell anyone.”

A moment of silence passed. “So, is it Kim?” Mari asked. Aubrey nodded. “I think I feel the same way about her that you did about Hero. She makes me feel like I’m coming home from a cold night. To a real home, not the one I’m in now. I… I think I’m going to tell her that. Thank you, Mari.”

Mari patted her friend’s shoulder. “No problem. That’s what I’m here for, after all.”

The two returned to their search, overturning every box and throwing open every door on the second floor. Their efforts yielded piles of dolls and plushies, stacks of old picture books, and the remains of a kite, but there was no sign of any toybox. Aubrey sighed as she sat down. “Well, I guess it’s not up here.”

Mari grunted in agreement, her eye drawn to one of the books in the pile. She drew it out and felt her heart sink as she scanned the cover. Duets for Piano and Violin. The recital, the event that had been derailed by tragedy in both timelines. She would have given anything to perform it, to just hear it one more time. Idly, she wondered if she and Sunny might be able to try it again, once everything had been sorted and figured out. Then she remembered that it had been four years since she had touched a piano, and it seemed like the same amount of time since Sunny had touched the violin. She doubted they would be able to do it now.

She was snapped out of her thoughts by a loud whooping coming from downstairs.

Mari and Aubrey ran down the stairs to find Kel and Hero standing triumphantly before the closet door. “Guess what we found?” the younger Rodrgiuez brother grinned.

“Seriously?” Aubrey asked incredulously.

“Yeah!” Kel called into the kitchen “Hey! Basil! Sunny! We found it!” Sunny walked though the door, with Basil following behind, seeming to try to shrink in on himself. “Y-you did?” Basil asked nervously. Kel sighed. “Why does everyone doubt me today? Yeah, it’s in here” Kel pointed to the closet.

“Where?” Sunny cocked his head.

“The… the closet?” Kel raised an eyebrow.

“What closet?”

“The closet! This closet!” Kel’s voice grew increasingly worried.

“Sunny, this isn’t the time for jokes” Aubrey chided.

“Let me try something” Hero gently grabbed Sunny and guided him to the door, placing his hands on the doorknob. As his skin touched the metal, Sunny’s eyes widened for a moment, before his face returned to its usual cliff-like expression.

“Oh right, that closet.”

“Good one Sunny… heh… heh…” Kel rubbed the back of his head and laughed unconvincingly.

“You’re already there, why don’t you do the honors Sunny?” Mari suggested. Sunny nodded and opened the door. Inside, the coat closet had been stripped of its usual denizens, leaving the space far larger and eerier than Mari remembered. However, her interest was entirely focused on the toybox in the far end of the closet. She didn’t see Basil’s nervous shivering, nor how Sunny’s eyes widened once more.

Kel carried the chest out with ease. Even for a toybox, it seemed light for its size – or perhaps empty. Mari hoped it wasn’t the latter. She wanted answers.

However, another roadblock stood before the group.

“It’s locked” Hero sighed as he jiggled the handle.

“I could bash it open” Aubrey suggested. Mari put a hand on her shoulder. “Maybe we should try to find the key first? We don’t want to damage anything inside after all.”

“Aw, now we need to find a key somewhere in everything in this house? That’s going to take forever!” Kel whined.

In the corner of her eye, Mari noticed Sunny fidgeting with something in his pockets. “Hey Sunny” she smiled “what do you have there?”

Sunny shook his head silently.

“Come on Sunny, show me what you have” Mari’s smile faltered a bit.

Once again, he shook his head in silence.

Mari huffed in annoyance.

“Sunny. Give it to me.” Mari’s voice took on a steely edge, a tone she hadn’t used in years. Sunny’s eyes widened. He averted his gaze and put his hand into hers, dropping a small metallic object. It was a brass key, inlaid with the logo of a half-remembered toy store from Mari’s youth.

Almost immediately, a wave of guilt hit her. She grabbed Sunny and held him tight. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you like that.”

Somewhere in her mind, Mari knew this was far from the first time she had snapped at her little brother. All families have their quarrels, after all. But four years of mourning had wiped away any negatives the siblings’ relationship had from her mind. She shouldn’t be surprised that the same had happened to Sunny.

She kept one hand on her brother’s shoulder and handed the key to Hero. She heard the unmistakable click of a lock popping open, and the creak of brass hinges against wood. Then, she heard Sunny hyperventilating. Her heart sank a bit more. Had she really scared him that much?

Mari turned back to her friends gathered around the chest, following Sunny’s line of sight. She gasped. Her eye rested on Hero. Or more specifically, it rested on the object that Hero was holding.

The object was dirty, mangled and cracked, but it was nonetheless unmistakable.

It was the remains of Sunny’s violin.

Chapter Text

Sunny wasn’t sure what he had been expecting from the old toy box, but it certainly wasn’t the mangled remnants of his old instrument. It was a sad sight – large chunks of the violin had been separated completely from the main body, while other portions held on, connected only by the flimsy strings.

"Sunny, is… is this…” Hero’s voice trailed off. “Is this your violin?” Aubrey asked, finishing her older friend’s thought.

“Sunny” Hero asked “when did this happen? And how?”

“Sunny” Kel swallowed “did you break this?”

Sunny wanted nothing more than to explain the violin to his friends. Unfortunately, he was as in the dark as the rest of the group. All he knew was that the more he looked at it, the greater the feeling of dread in the back of his mind grew. The worst part was that he didn’t know why the sight of a broken violin was threatening to send him into a panic attack. Sunny was scared of many things – heights, spiders and drowning to name a few. The way he felt when those phobias trapped him at the top of the stairs or the shore of the lake was how was feeling now. Like shadowy tendrils were tightening their grip on his mind. But that made no sense. He wasn’t afraid of the violin.

Was he?

Basil’s heart was racing. He knew he had to do something. It wasn’t Sunny’s fault that the violin had broken. Of course it wasn’t. There was no way that Sunny would be so callous with something his friends had worked so hard to get him. It must have been the work of the same thing that had pushed Mari. But there was no way to explain that. There was only one way to alleviate everyone’s suspicions.

“I did it.”

Four-and-a-half pairs of eyes turned to stare at him.

“I-I was with Sunny after the- after it h-happened. I w-wanted to help him, so I put away the violin. B-but my hands must have been trembling from everything and i-it fell. There was so much going on, I guess I k-kinda forgot to tell anyone about it.”

Basil waited with bated breath, hoping everyone would buy his lie. Hero gently placed the violin back in the chest and approached Basil. For a moment, the younger boy seemed to flinch away from his friend, but he relaxed when Hero placed a hand on his shoulder. “I’m so, so sorry Basil. I… I should have been there to take care of you guys.”

Basil sighed. He’d gotten suspicion off of Sunny, but now he was just reinforcing Hero’s guilt. “It’s o-okay. I understand w-why you did it.”

“B-but… I abandoned all of you. I sealed myself away for a year while everything fell apart.”

“Hero. It’s alright.”

Everyone turned to look at Kel. The athlete wore a solemn expression on his face, a sharp contrast to his near constant smile. He sighed. “I mean, yeah, you probably could have handled it all better, but you were fifteen and you- you were hurting like the rest of us. If anything, the ones that really failed us were our parents, they should have been there for us more throughout everything.”

“Come on. Mom and dad weren’t that bad…”

“Yes, they were” Kel interrupted his older sibling. “While you were in bed, mom and dad tried to push all of their expectations onto me. Like I was somehow better equipped to deal with everything because I hadn’t been dating Mari. I was twelve! I lost all of my friends that day too!” Kel’s face flushed red. “I had to keep up a positive attitude because I didn't want you getting even more depressed, but mom and dad saw it as me not caring!”

Hero’s face fell with each word. “Kel” he asked meekly “why did you never tell me this?”

“Because, dummy, you’re my older brother! You aren’t my parent or my therapist! Why should I burden you with this stuff!”

Hero’s expression stiffened. He looked his brother straight in the eyes. “Kel. You are never a burden.”

“That’s not what you said that night.”

“Y-you know I didn’t mean anything I said that night!”

“Ugh” Kel sighed “yeah, I know. But that doesn’t change the fact that it happened.”

“Kel, I promise that it will never happen again. I promise you, I'm not going to get angry at you again.”

“I don’t need those kinds of promises!” Kel growled. “I don’t need you to walk on eggshells around me! You don’t need to be the perfect older brother! Did you ever think of that? That sometimes you don’t need to be perfect at everything?”

Kel took a deep breath and wiped his eyes. “I- fuck, man. I just want everyone to be happy again.”

Hero stared at his younger brother. Tears welled in his eyes. “I- I had no idea you felt this way, Kel.”

“You idiot… I just told you I wanted everyone to be happy, and here you are crying” Kel chuckled bitterly. “I… I never wanted you to blame yourself for any of this, man.”

Hero shook his head. “No, I mean… I always kind of noticed how mom and dad put all of their attention and expectations on me. But I… I kind of thought it was best for you. If all of their expectations were on me, I figured you’d have the freedom to do whatever you wanted. I guess… I guess neither of us really ended up liking our position.”

“Look, I… I’ll stop taking things so seriously and walking on eggshells around you, and I’ll talk to mom and dad about all of this stuff, but I want you to be honest with me too. You don’t need to treat me like I’m made of glass either. I’m not going to blow up because you mentioned something unpleasant, after all.” Hero held his arms out to his brother. Kel stared for a moment, then nodded and returned the embrace.

“Are you… alright?” Aubrey asked Kel once the brothers had separated again.

“Not really. At least, not yet.” Kel shook his head. “But, I think… this is a good start.”

Chapter Text

The oil sizzled in the pan, the crackling pops of the evaporating liquid filling the room. The sound calmed Hero. The friend group had elected to return to Basil’s house. Polly, for her part, had been all too happy to host them, especially once Hero volunteered to cook. He took a deep breath in, savoring the smell of onions caramelizing in the heat.

“Penny for your thoughts?”

Mari’s voice broke through Hero’s culinary induced trance. “My thoughts?” he grinned halfheartedly “which ones? I’ve got a lot today.”

He certainly did. After all, it wasn’t every day that you were reunited with someone who had been dead for four years. True, she may not have been the exact same person, but, well… she was Mari. She was Mari and she was back.

Of course, it also wasn’t every day that your younger brother forced you to sit down and unpack the four years of emotional baggage between you.

“Hmm… How just the one at the top of your head?” Mari hummed.

Everything Kel had said. That was how he had been feeling for four years? Or perhaps even longer? Hero had always tried to be the perfect older brother, to give Kel the support he needed, but he never really considered how much he was filling in as Kel’s parental figure at times. His parents… they weren’t neglectful. They loved Kel, in their own way. But looking back, Hero could clearly see how the pressure they put on him but not his brother could be a form of favoritism. He knew that as soon as he could, he would need to talk to his parents about their relationship with their younger son. He had no idea how he would do that. Inside his head, he kept going over how he could start the conversation, but nothing seemed to fit. Of course, there were other things from today that he would need to tell his parents too.

“Oh, you know” Hero smiled “just trying to decide how to tell my parents that my girlfriend returned from beyond the grave. And how to tell them what Kel told me back at your house.”

Mari sidled closer to him. “Well, for the latter, I think you should remember to include Kel when you talk to them. He doesn’t need you to fight his battles, just to help him.”

"And the former?”

“We’ll… we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it…” Mari sighed. A moment later, her eye widened. “Oh god, parents. What am I going to say to my parents?”

Hero inhaled sharply.

“H-hero? What is it? Did something happen to my parents?”

“They… they split up. Divorced, I think. Your dad left town and hasn’t been back since.”

“H-he what?!”

Mari’s grip tightened around the utensils she was holding, her knuckles whitening with the tension. The news was a bitter pill to swallow, though like every other consequence of her counterpart’s suicide, it made sense. Mari had known for years that her parents’ marriage was not exactly the most stable union. By the time she was eleven, she was hearing them argue almost every week. By the time she was thirteen, it was almost every other day. How many times had she hurried Sunny up to their bedroom so he wouldn’t witness their tirades? Too many.

But divorce? She’d always thought they were too stubborn for that. Too focused on presenting themselves as the ‘perfect family’ to do something so unseemly. Even in her original timeline, they were still married on paper, though in practice, the family was almost never together. So why? Why had they stayed together in her world, but finalized their separation in this one?

Mari wracked her brain for a moment before it hit her. It was her.

She had known for a long time that she and Hero were in similar situations compared to their siblings. The elder siblings were subjected to both praise and expectations, while their younger brothers languished in their shadows. But surely her father wouldn’t be so cruel as to abandon his son when his daughter took her own life? When the family was at its lowest point?

Then again, he had always wanted a ‘perfect family’. A daughter who committed suicide and a son who locked himself away in grief… that wasn’t what a ‘perfect family’ was. Another dream shattered through the foolish actions of a Mari. Two timelines, and in both of them, her family was broken. And all because of her.

Suddenly, she felt a light touch on her shoulders, and Hero’s soothing voice in her ear. “You okay?”

“Yeah” she sighed, letting go of her utensils and turning to embrace Hero. “I just… I just wasn’t expecting to hear that, I suppose.”

“Mari, it wasn’t your fault. Your dad was… well, he was always kind of a bastard, right?”

Mari had to stifle a chuckle. Her father had never really liked Hero-and vice-versa- especially after they were openly dating. She’d always held out hope that eventually, the two of them would learn to get along, but clearly that was not meant to be.

“Yeah” Mari agreed. “I guess you’re right.”

“Dad isn’t important” she thought “he isn’t here right now. Focus on your friends, those are the problems you can fix. The problems you need to fix.”

Mari began to turn back to the vegetables awaiting preparation, but Hero spun her back around. “Wait” he said. He gently cupped her chin, raising her face to his, and soon the two met in a kiss. It felt natural, like returning to an old home after being away for a long time.

By the time they let go, they were both beet red. “S-sorry” Hero rubbed the back of his neck.

“Oh, no, I… I just wasn’t expecting something like that, is all” Mari glanced towards the floor.

“Mari, I… whatever happened with your father, whatever happens with our parents… I’m here for you. I’m here with you. I… I love you.”

“I love you too Hero. And… thank you… for everything.”

She leaned up and kissed him again.

Despite the distractions, dinner prep went smoothly. By the time the sun started to go down, everyone was crowded around the table. 

“Oh wow” Polly beamed “Kel wasn’t kidding about you being a great chef, Hero!”

“It was nothing” Hero smiled.

“You call this nothing? Mari, you’d better watch out or I might have to steal your man.”

“I- what?” Mari gaped.

Polly laughed “don’t worry, I’m only joking.”

“Polly’s right though” Aubrey swallowed “this is so good! Man, I didn’t realize how much I’d missed your cooking, Hero.”

“Oh? Well, I’m home for most of the summer. If you want, maybe I can teach you.”

“Really? That would be great!” Aubrey’s eyes sparkled in joy.

Once the meal was finished, Polly excused herself to tend to Basil’s grandmother, while Kel and Aubrey handled the clean-up with surprisingly little arguing. Soon after, everyone was gathered in the living room. A familiar board game sat in the room’s center, while an old spaceboy movie played on the TV. Mari’s thoughts, however, were elsewhere. She sat comfortably on the floor; Hero’s arm wrapped around her shoulder. She took a deep breath and let herself drink in the scene. No matter what happened, right now, everyone was happy. Everyone was having a good time.

“Hey Mari, I’ll trade you two clams for your fruit juice.”

Mari, only half-paying attention to the game, shrugged and nudged the card towards Kel.

“Wha- Mari! Now Kel’s gonna win!” Aubrey complained.

“It was inevitable when playing with such a master of strategy!” Kel grinned. The athlete reached for the final token he needed to complete his highway, only for Sunny to hold up a card from his hand.

“Mr. Jawsum?! What?!”

“Ha! Now Sunny gets to take two of your highway pieces! Looks like you aren’t such a master of strategy anymore!” Aubrey taunted.

Kel glowered at Aubrey. Aubrey snarled back, then both of them collapsed into laughter.

“Hey Basil? Do you still have your old camera?” Hero asked.

“Oh, y-yeah. Why?”

“I was thinking that maybe we could add a few new snapshots to your photo album” the older boy mused.

“Y-yeah! That sounds great!” Basil got up and ran to his room. As he searched for the camera, a breeze blew his door shut, and the lightbulbs in his ceiling lamp flickered. For a brief instant, he saw the tendrils of SOMETHING snake out of the blackness and tighten around his chest.

“You lied today. Liar. Murderer. Killer. Desecrator. Do you think you’re smart enough to trick them? They’ll figure it out soon, and then they will all just hate you more.”

Basil began hyperventilating.

“Sunny already barely acknowledges you. He’s leaving soon. You’ll be all alone. Grandmother will leave, Polly will leave, your friends will leave…”

No, this couldn’t be happening. Everything was falling apart!

“…But you’ll still have me. You’ll always have me… behind you…”

Basil cried out, then the door swung open. Light flooded the room, and he felt the tendrils disperse. His friends gathered around him. “Are you okay?!” Aubrey exclaimed. Hero patted him down to check for injuries.

“We heard you cry out and came running! Man, your door is tough to open!” Kel massaged his shoulder.

They were all worried about him. Of course they were. They still thought he was innocent.

“I… I’m okay. Just g-got a bit scared when the lights went out.”

The group returned to the living room. By the time the second movie had finished, they had gone through three rounds of settling, building and trading. Hero yawned and looked at the clock.

“Oh, wow. It’s getting pretty late.”

“Tired” Sunny nodded in agreement.

Everyone helped bringing in blankets and setting up makeshift beds in Basil’s living room. Soon, an array of quilts and pillows emanated from around the couch. Everyone stood back to see their handiwork.

“So… who gets the couch?” Kel inquired.

“Well, it’s Basil’s house” Mari pointed out.

“Oh, it’s okay! Y-you can take it, Mari! The f-floor might be bad for your knee.”

“Go on” Hero nudged her towards the couch. “You deserve it.”

“I feel like we’ve had this exact conversation before, Hero” Mari smiled, then sighed. “Does anyone else want the couch?”

There were no answers. Mari sighed again. Everyone was being so sweet to her, but she couldn’t help but feel it was because they were still putting her on the pedestal they had raised her too after her death. It was something she wanted to talk to them about, but she didn’t know how. Regardless, an hour to midnight was not the time to bring up such topics. Mari relented and lay down on the couch – which she had to admit, was still as comfortable as it had been four years ago.

Hero was halfway asleep when he felt something moving next to him. He opened one eye to see Mari snuggling next to him under the covers.

“What are you doing here?” he whispered.

“The couch was lonely” Mari mumbled, shifting closer to him, nuzzling her head in the crook of his neck.

For the first time in many years, Hero fell asleep with a true smile on his face.

Chapter Text

The neighbors’ room was empty. The usually noisy and colorful room was silent and drab. The last time it had been empty like this was in the previous cycle, shortly before he discovered-

Wait. What had he discovered that had reset the loop? He couldn’t remember. All he could recall were blurry flashes of gray and black, and… red.

 “No. Stop it.”

Yes, that was right. He didn’t need to focus on that right now. What he needed to do was find his friends. If they weren’t in the neighbors’ room, maybe they were at the playground?

No luck. The playground was deserted, as was the vast forest, otherworld and pyrefly. It seemed that Omori was truly alone. He lay down on the abandoned picnic blanket and stared up at the purple sky. He missed his friends. It was strange. Being alone in white space had never bothered him, so why was the loneliness getting to him now?

"Oh, hey there Omori! Cliff faced as usual; I see!”

Mari’s smug smile filled his vision, his older sister looking down on him with bemusement. Where had she come from? He had been entirely alone up until this point. Not to mention, she looked, different. Paler, like him, rather than the purple hue that surrounded his friends. Omori supposed that made sense. They were siblings after all.

“Are you all alone out here?”

Omori nodded.

“Do you know where everyone else is?”

Omori shook his head.

“Ah. Okay. Well, let’s try to find them. Follow me, I have something to show you.”

The water lapped at the shore. Omori stared up at his sister, eyes wide. She knew he was afraid of water. Why had she brought him here? As if sensing his apprehension, Mari knelt down. “Hey. It’s okay. Take a deep breath and calm down. It isn’t as scary as you think.”

Omori took his sister’s advice. He stepped into the surf, bobbing in the water. Mari entered after him, pointing to a ghostly pier in the distance. “We need to go there” she said. Omori nodded.

The water was… strange. No matter how far Omori swam from shore, he didn’t feel his limbs tiring at all. It was as though floating on the surface of the water was his natural state. He pressed onwards, ignoring the shadowy figures darting in and out of the fog, until he reached the boardwalk. Climbing atop the wooden structure, Omori couldn’t help but notice that his clothes were bone dry.

Odd.

He shook the thought from his head and held a hand out to help Mari onto the boardwalk. “What a little gentleman!” his sister giggled. Like her brother, Mari displayed no sign that she had been in the water, though if she thought that an important detail, she kept it to herself.

The siblings walked on through the fog. “Omori… you’ve overcome so many fears. You’re starting to remember everything too. I know it’s scary, but I want you to know that I’m proud of you. Okay?”

Omori nodded and started to run into the mist. “Hey, wait! You know I can’t keep up with you when you run like that! If you keep running, I’m going to get mad!”

Of course. Of course he knew that Mari’s injury kept her from running as fast as she used to.

Wait, when had Mari been injured? Omori couldn’t remember this topic coming up any time before now. She was his sister, if she had been injured, he would know, right? And yet, as certain as he was that this had never been a topic of conversation before, he was equally certain that it was what had happened. Omori slank back to Mari, who pulled him into a hug as soon as she could see him. “Ah! Don’t run off like that. I’m sorry I yelled, I just… I just got scared.”

Again, Omori nodded. The siblings continued on, this time at a slower pace.

“I really am proud of everything you’ve accomplished, little brother, but there’s still one big thing left for you to do. You might not know it now, but you will soon enough.”

Mari sighed. “Maybe… maybe it was selfish for me to do this. To show up here. But I just… I just wanted to see you again. You have her now, so I know you won’t be alone, but still, it… I’m not going to lie, it still stings. Not to be there myself.”

Omori didn’t know what she was talking about. Who did he ‘have’? And why was it selfish for her to be here? Most concerningly, what did she mean when she said she wasn’t there herself?

“Still, though. She’s much better than someone stuck on a picnic blanket forever, right? Oh, sorry. You might not understand what I’m saying right now. But you will - one of you, anyway.”

They reached the end of the pier. The wooden boardwalk dropped off sharply into the churning water below. Ahead of the siblings was an enormous whirlpool, its currents dragging everything down into the depths.

“Okay Omori. You know what you need to do, right?”

Omori gulped.

Mari ruffled his hair. “Omori… you’re going to see some things down there that you aren’t going to like. But just remember, I love you, so, so much. No matter what you see, no matter how scary or sad it is, keep that in mind. Okay?”

He nodded and began to pull on Mari’s arm. She shook her head and laughed wistfully. “Sorry Omori. I wish I could go with you, but you’ve got to do this one on your own. Besides, I have another visit I have to make tonight.”

Omori shivered. Mari sat down on the dock to be closer to his height. “Take as long as you need, little brother.”

Omori took a deep breath. He calmed down. He focused. With a running leap, he cannonballed into the water, landing right in the center of the whirlpool. As he sank beneath the waves, he heard Mari speak one last time.

“Good job. I’m so proud of you, Sunny.”

As Omori sank, the light from above dimmed, and the water changed colors. First to a deep blue, then a dark green, then finally to an inky black. He instinctively held his breath until it felt like he was about to pass out, still seemingly a long way from the bottom. He gave in, opened his mouth, and was surprised to find himself breathing normally.

Then, he heard voices.

“Your memories are not free. To gain a memory, another must be shrouded.”

“With time, what is important will change.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Humans are bounded creatures. Your limits are what define you.”

“What if it’s up to you? What if it’s only up to you? Carry on dreamer, you’re the only one who can.”

“I love you, Sunny.”

“The universe is full of questions that you will never answer. Yet... there are also ones that only you can answer.”

“It is selfish to dream for so long when there are those who are expecting you.”

“I’m sorry.”

“An unhallowed burden has been placed upon you. You have the power to change the future.”

“You are not my son.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m-“

The voices stopped as a massive shape came into view, two enormous eyes staring from the blackness of the deep.

“Whale, whale, whale… what have we here?” a voice boomed throughout the abyss. “Do you remember me, dreamer?”

Omori shook his head.

“Aw, really? We’ve been through this so many times. I thought you would at least remember your old pal Humphrey!”

“Once upon a time, there was a whale named Humphrey, who was very hungry!”

Omori remembered. Humphrey was from a book that Mari had read him – to Sunny - every night when he was little. It was his favorite. No matter how many times she read it to him, he clamored for more.

“Humphrey.”

“Oh-ho? So you’re speaking now? That’s certainly new. Well, follow me.”

Humphrey began rising from the deep. Omori grabbed the leviathan’s tail, letting the great beast pull him to the surface. As they ascended, Humphrey continued to speak.

“So, I hear that things out there are changing? And I don’t just mean out there in headspace. You’ve been in that nice little bubble for quite a while, haven’t you? I mean, I know I’ve played my role more times than I can count. But maybe it’s time to try something new.”

They breached the surface of the water in far less time than it had taken Omori to sink down. The monochrome boy looked around. He was in a water-filled cavern. Standing before him, he could see the Stranger and the Big Yellow Cat. Humphrey nudged him to shore. “Go on, off you go! Lots of things for you to do!”

Omori stumbled forward. “So, you’re finally here, dreamer” the Stranger said.

 “Where?”

Omori’s voice seemed to take the Stranger and the Big Yellow Cat both by surprise. There was a moment of stunned silence before the Stranger answered Omori’s question.

“This is where the answers lie, dreamer. This is the entrance to black space.”

“Is that… like white space?”

Stranger shook his head. “No. Quite the opposite, in fact. White space insulates. It is the ultimate detachment from reality. Black space is everything white space fears. Everything you wanted to get away from.”

“Do you still want to find out the truth?” the Big Yellow Cat asked. Slowly, Omori nodded.

“Then partake of the fruit, and let your journey continue.”

Red liquid ran up the coral branch behind the Stranger, coalescing into a bright, crimson sphere that reflected Omori’s face. Omori looked at it uneasily.

“I have to…”

“You have to eat it. There are… other ways into black space, but those are closed off now. Things are… changing.”

Omori gulped. He plucked the fruit, closed his eyes, and bit into it.

Darkness swallowed him.

Chapter Text

Mari looked around. She was at the beach. The last place where her life had been normal. The last place her friends had ever been. It was not an unfamiliar sight in her nightmares. Sometimes the sand would swallow her up. Other times the sea would drag her friends away from her while she could do nothing but tread water. When her subconscious was feeling particularly direct, the car would simply run over them, leaving her staring at a bloody skid on the sand.

But tonight, it felt different. Calm, for lack of a better word.

“Sunny loves this memory” a voice came from behind her. Mari turned, then froze. She was staring at herself. It was not a perfect replica of her current state, but rather the spitting image of herself four years prior – young, happy and full of hope. Unaware of the horrors she would bring upon her friends and family. No eyepatch marred her face, no circles beneath her eyes betrayed insomnia. Aside from her monochrome complexion, she looked all the world like a typical teenage girl.

“You’re me, aren’t you? The me from this timeline, I mean.”

Her doppelganger nodded.

Mari liked to think of herself as a reasonable person. Throughout her life, she could count on one hand the number of times she had been truly angry.

The anger she felt now was unlike any she’d felt before. It filled her body, boiled her blood. She strode across the sands and punched the doppelganger square in the face, sanding her sprawling across the beach.

“How dare you?” Mari spat. The double got up and smoothed out her dress.

“Do you know what I wished for, every day for the past four years? What I wanted more than anything every single god damned day?” she shouted.

“I just wanted my friends back. I wanted my family back. I wanted not to be the one who killed them. I wanted what you had. What you threw away! You had everything I dreamed of, and you left it all!”

“You hurt everyone. You ruined everything! Hero spent a year in bed! Sunny didn’t leave the house for four years! Everything fell apart because you killed yourself. Why? Why did you do it? What was worth leaving everyone behind?”

“I hate you.”

Mari spat the words with conviction. She had never meant anything more in her entire life.

“It… it wasn’t like that.”

Mari froze.

“Wh-what do you mean?”

The doppelganger shook her head. “I’m sorry” she whispered, “but I can’t say more.”

“Why not?”

The doppelganger shook her head again. “I can’t say that either.”

“Well, isn’t that convenient.” Mari crossed her arms, making no attempt to disguise the disdain in her voice.

"It’s actually quite inconvenient.”

The doppelganger chuckled a bit at her own joke. Mari clenched her hand into a fist. “I’m this close to hitting you again. Let’s just get it over with already.”

“Get what over with?” the black and white specter cocked her head. Mari sighed. She was going to make her spell it out, wasn’t she?

“You know. You tell me about how everything is my fault, bring out the desecrated corpses of my friends and family, leave me alone to scream as the blackness closes in, clawing at my psyche with yet another night of guilt induced nightmares.”

The doppelganger’s expression turned serious again. She grabbed Mari’s hands in her own – slightly smaller, but smooth and warm. “I’m not here for any of that. I… I just wanted to talk. I… I need to talk to you. I… ugh, this is so much harder than I thought it would be! Um, I guess I wanted to tell you that there’s more going on here than you realize. You had the right thought earlier, but finding the truth might not be easy. I think… I think something bad might happen first.”

Mari’s breath caught in her throat. “What’s going to happen?” She wouldn’t let anything happen to the people she cared about, not if she could help it. Not again.

The doppelganger shook her head. “I don’t know.”

“Because this is a dream?”

“Maybe. Or maybe I’m the spirit of this world’s Mari projecting into your unconscious mind to talk to you.”

“That seems unlikely.”

“And waking up in another timeline doesn’t?”

Mari paused. “Okay, fine. I’ll grant you that point” she smiled ever so slightly.

The doppelganger smiled too.

“Hey, Mari?” the specter said “can… can you promise me something?”

Mari was silent.

“Can you just… can you just promise me that you’ll look after them? They… they all need you.”

“I- I’ll try.”

The doppelganger shook her head. “No, I don’t want you to try. I want you to promise me that you will do this. And I promise… this will be the only thing I ever ask of you. Look after them. Even if it’s scary or sad or hard.”

“I don’t know if I can promise that. I’m not you, not the girl they knew.”

“You don’t need to shoulder everyone’s burdens or do everything perfectly. I’m just asking you to look out for them all.”

Mari took a deep breath. When she spoke again, she spoke with confidence “Yes. I will look after them.”

The doppelganger smiled. “Thank you. I have to say… I’m a bit jealous. You have this second chance now. A miracle. I… just… please don’t make the mistakes I did.”

The specter’s body began to fade.

“Wait, what’s going on?” Mari asked.

“I can’t stay here any longer. I… it was selfish of me to come in the first place. I just… I just couldn’t help myself.”

“I have so many other questions!” Mari shouted.

“I know. I’m sorry. Just remember. It isn’t as scary as you think.” The double’s skin was almost transparent now.

“Goodbye… Mari…” the specter faded away to nothing. Mari fell to her knees. She still felt anger towards her counterpart in this universe, but now there was more. A tinge of sadness at the life of the life of a young girl cut far too short. A sadness at lives left empty by her passing. Whatever had happened that day four years ago, it wasn’t as simple and cold-hearted as Mari had feared. It was a tragedy for everyone – even this world’s Mari.

But dwelling too much on past tragedies wouldn’t help anyone. After all, Mari had made a promise.

“Goodbye, Mari” she whispered.

Chapter Text

Omori did not care for black space. It was violent, scary and confusing. Ideally, Omori mused ruefully, the number of times a boy should see his best friend explode into watermelon chunks was zero. Add to that the spiders, the monstrosities, SOMETHING and… well, the less said about the Mewo room, the better, but Omori wasn’t sure how much more of this he could take.

Fortunately, he had a goal, something to strive towards. He clutched the parcel of photographs to his chest as he ducked through the doorway, stumbling back into the twisted counterpart of the familiar white space. He sat down and laid out the first photograph he had discovered. It was a blurry picture of a wall. Omori wondered why anyone would bother to take such a photo, let alone keep it hidden.

The second photograph was far more understandable, and far more disturbing. A violin, smashed to pieces on the floor. Omori felt a phantom pain in his hands. He placed the third photograph, two familiar silhouettes standing at the top of the stairs, seemingly arguing. Omori couldn’t remember any time he and his sister had argued, so this must have been Sunny. Omori shuddered as he reached for the fourth photo, a premonition of something terrible filling his mind.

The feeling turned out to be correct. The next photograph depicted one of those familiar silhouettes tumbling down the stairs. It was a disturbing image – Omori would never hurt Mari like that. And Sunny wouldn’t either, right? They were just playing, that had to be it. Surely the next photograph would be the two of them hugging it out at the bottom the stairs.

With a sense of growing dread, Omori laid out the remaining pictures. The story they told was not a pretty one. If this was the truth then… then Sunny – then he had killed Mari. He and Basil had… had…

No.

No.

NO.

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO.

This was the hidden truth? This was what lurked at the heart of blackspace? No, this couldn’t be it. And yet, Omori knew somewhere that it was. There was a sense of twisted familiarity with the photos. He remembered now, he had seen these photos countless times, and each time the loop of headspace had reset shortly after.

That was it. That was all he had to do. He could reset. He could wipe the slate clean. He could start anew and save Sunny from his trauma. No one would need to know the truth. Everything was going to be-

Sunny’s eyes flew open to the wail of sirens.

Hero hated sirens. Sirens were loud, they forced you to stay in reality. Sirens were unceasing, continuing long after they served any purpose other than to broadcast that a tragedy had occurred. Sirens meant death. There had been sirens the day his grandfather passed away, sirens the day his neighbors got robbed. There had been sirens on the day that life as he had known it ended. The wail of sirens breaking the crisp autumn air, flooding the cool orange sunset with harsh artificial light, drawing Hero and his family to the Suzuki residence. To the sight that would haunt him forever. Hero knew that associating sirens with the tragedy was a simple psychological tic of his. He didn’t blame them, not on any real level. But nevertheless, the connection was there. Hero hated sirens. So when he awoke to hear sirens in Far Away for the first time in four years, his blood ran cold.

“H-Hero? What’s going on?” Mari asked groggily.

“Is everyone alright?” Kel shouted. The sirens grew louder. Red and blue light streamed through the front windows of Basil’s house. A figure rushed to the front door – Polly. Hero grabbed the caretaker’s shoulder. Her expression was grim.

“It’s… it’s Basil’s grandmother. She took a turn for the worse.”

“I-is grandma g-going to be alright?” Basil asked meekly.

Polly’s expression softened. “Oh, Basil. She- I… I don’t know. I’m sorry.” Basil stood in stunned silence as Polly drew the boy into an embrace – first tentative and unsure, then tight and motherly. Nobody else said anything.

The silence continued as the paramedics wheeled Basil’s grandmother into the ambulance. It remained unbroken as the sirens faded off into the distance. Basil sat on the couch choking back tears. His friends surrounded him, offer reassurances and moral support, but truth be told, he wasn’t really listening. He was hanging on the edge of lucidity until a squeeze from Kel brought him back to reality.

“Everything is going to be okay, Basil. We’re all here for you” his surprisingly emotionally mature friend promised.

“Right. We won’t abandon each other again” Aubrey joined the hug.

“No matter what” Hero clarified and joined in as well, followed by Mari, Polly and finally Sunny. Basil cried.

It had been years, but Basil remembered what group hugs felt like. They were full of warmth and compassion. They were better than sitting next to a fireplace in the middle of winter, they were better than grandmother’s hot cocoa. Yet as he sat at the center of his friends’ embrace, Basil couldn’t help but shiver. The warmth he remembered from his childhood was gone – or at least it was hidden from him. Of course it was, how could he feel his friends’ warmth when he had snuffed it out for four years? How could he feel their compassion when he hadn’t shown any himself?

Now his grandmother lay in the hospital and his friends were trying to comfort him after everything he had done, everything he had caused? No, he couldn’t allow himself to enjoy this. Any moment now they would find out the truth of what had really happened four years ago. Then they would abandon him – and that was the best possible outcome. If his grandmother heard what he had done, the stress alone could kill her. Polly would kick him out of the house. Sunny would move on and move away and probably never talk to him again. Everyone else would want to take their vengeance, definitely against him and maybe even against Sunny as well.

He couldn’t allow that. He knew what he needed to do. He’d been planning it for months. It would hurt them for a while, but once the truth came out, his friends wouldn’t miss him anymore.

With tears streaming down his face, he pushed through the cramped hug and made a break for his room. He ignored everyone’s questions and pleas for him to explain what he was doing. His lock clicked shut and he took a deep breath.

There they were. The garden sheers. In the low moonlight, the dirt caked onto its blades looked like something else – something much worse. His eyes rose to the windowsill, where a lily of the valley sat lonely in its pot. Basil thought for a moment, then grabbed a pen. He needed to explain everything for once he was gone, but no one would believe him if he wrote the truth, about how SOMETHING had made Sunny push his sister. Far better then, to take all responsibility. He scrawled a quick note in his gardening journal. They would find it eventually. As he wrote, the banging on his door grew in intensity.

“Basil?” Mari asked “Basil, what’s going on in there?”

“Hey! Open up! We’re worried about you!” Aubrey snarled.

“Please, Basil. We only want to help you!” Kel implored.

“He locked it” Hero sighed.

“W-what do you think he’s doing in there?” Aubrey asked meekly.

“I don’t know, but I don’t like this” Polly shook her head. “He’s always been fragile, and now he has to face the possibility that his main support system might be gone soon.”

“You don’t think he’d-“ Mari trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence.

Polly shook her head again. “I don’t know.”

Aubrey sniffled. “When… when we were at the lake… I heard him tell me to drop him. He… he said that he deserved it. Th-this is all my fault. I must have put the idea in his head somehow. Oh god…”

Kel put his hands on Aubrey’s shoulders. “Aubs, listen to me” he looked her directly in the eyes. “I don’t know if this is your fault or not, but right now we need to move before it’s too late. We need to get that door open, and I’ll need your help for that. Think you can do that?”

Aubrey wiped her eyes, took a deep breath, and nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I can do it.”

Kel and Aubrey backed up as far as the hallway would allow, then on Kel’s mark they began to run at Basil’s door with their shoulders forward. The two teenagers crashed into the door. It shook and creaked. “Again” Kel shouted.

This time, the door flew open, a handful of loose splinters raining across the floor. What they saw within caused them to stop in their tracks. Basil stood at the opposite end of the room. Moonlight streamed in through his window, glinting off the pair of gardening sheers the boy had pressed against his stomach.

“B-Basil?” Aubrey squeaked.

Basil froze. Just a moment before he had been so sure, but now he was having second thoughts.

“Basil, please” Kel pleaded. “We all care about you.”

“I know it doesn’t seem like it, but things will get better” Mari offered. “Please, let us help you. Don’t make the same mistake I did.”

“I-I… I…” Basil stammered and lowered the sheers slightly.

“Please, Basil” Hero said “I… I can’t see another friend do that to themselves.”

“M-mari…” Basil murmured.

“Please, she wouldn’t want this. I don’t want this” Mari held her arms open and took a step towards Basil. The young gardener’s head shot up, as did his blades.

“S-Stay back!” Basil shouted. “I… none of you know anything! J-just let me do-“

Basil’s shout was cut off by a small pale blur crashing into him. Sunny, moving faster than he ever had in his life, had dashed past his friends and collided with Basil. Basil stumbled backwards, reaching his hand out. He grabbed the hem of Sunny’s shirt, pulling the teetering boy down with him as they fell together into Basil’s gardening shelf. The air was filled with the sounds of rustling leaves, cracking pottery, and blood-curdling screams.

Hero was the first one to regain his composure. He rushed forward and surveyed the damage. Seeing Sunny and Basil, he almost froze up again.

“No” he thought “Not this time.”

“Aubrey, Kel, get some pressure on those wounds. Polly, call 9-1-1. Mari, I need a towel and rubbing alcohol. If you can’t find any, just get as much soapy water as you can carry.”

Everyone stared.

 “NOW! GO!” Hero shouted, more forcefully than he’d meant to. It worked though, shocking his friends into action. Hero helped Kel and Aubrey separate the boys from the dirt, pottery and root systems. He shuddered as he sat them upright. His heart raced as he took pulses – they were alive, thank god – but not waking up. Beneath his breath, Hero prayed for a miracle.

Chapter Text

Sunny awoke in a familiar white void. He was lying on his back, staring up at the black lightbulb. His mind traced the spider web cracks that covered the bulb’s surface. Something inside was roiling like a storm-tossed sea. Sunny stared harder, trying to make out a meaning to the chaos within the bulb, only to be rewarded with a sharp stinging sensation in his forehead. He put his hands up to grab head and it was then that he realized he was carrying a folder. It took only a moment for him to remember what was inside. The pictures. The truth.

Then, Sunny heard a voice behind him.

“So. I suppose this means you remember everything now?”

Sunny turned slowly, nervously, to face Omori. He nodded .

“Then why?” his doppelganger asked “why did you go out of your way to save Basil? Why help him if you remember everything he did to your sister?!”

“Because… because he’s still my friend. And even if he wasn’t, he was hurting. I didn’t want to see anyone hurt like that again.”

Omori sighed. “Alright, fine. Good job then, you saved Basil. Now let me take those photos and put them somewhere safe.”

Sunny began to hand the folder to Omori, then hesitated.

“No.”

“What possible use could you have for these accursed things?”

“I… I want to remember. I need to remember. We all do.”

Omori gawked at his creator slack jawed. “You. You want to remember how you killed Mari? You want everyone to know that you killed Mari? You’re insane!”

Sunny stopped for a moment, seemingly paused in thought. Omori drew out a knife while red hands manifested behind him. He began approaching Sunny.

“Hero loved her, and you killed her.”

“Kel loved her, and you killed her.”

“Aubrey loved her, and you kill-“

“I KNOW!” Sunny shouted, startling both of them. “I know that everyone loved her. I loved her! She was my sister, and I loved her and I killed her! Is that what you were building up to? Because I know! And they deserve to know too!”

Omori took a small step back as he raised an eyebrow. The red hands began to fade. “What are you saying?”

Sunny sighed. “I’m saying that they all deserve to know the truth.”

“Why do they deserve it?”

“Because” Sunny answered “I… I’ve seen them now. I’ve seen how they dealt with everything. How they all blame themselves. I… I never meant for any of that to happen. They need to know the truth, especially Mari. She needs to know what happened to her counterpart here. And the rest deserve to have a clear conscience.”

“They’ll all hate you for it” Omori lowered the knife ever so slightly.

“I know. I… I’m alright with that.”

“I’m you, Sunny. I can tell when you’re lying.”

Sunny sighed. “Alright, okay, yeah. I… I’m going to miss them. But… this isn’t about me. I’ll be gone soon, and they all need closure. They need to be able to move on with their lives without living in a false past. I… I need to move on too.”

“Move on? You want to move on?” Omori scoffed. “You think that you can just move on after what you did? What would Mari say?”

“She-“ Sunny hadn’t thought about that. He was silent. He remembered Mari’s words from his childhood.

“Don’t worry Sunny! Whatever happens, your big sis is here to protect you!”

“I have the best brother in the world! Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise!”

“When you fell into the lake, I was so scared. But I promise, I’ll never let something like that happen again, okay?”

He remembered what she’d said since she reappeared in his life.

“I’m sorry you needed to do that.”

“I needed you to know that you’re not alone. Not anymore.”

“I can’t lose you too… I’m not mad, I just want to know that you’re safe.”

“She would want me to move on” Sunny said with confidence. “Mari was always looking out for me, and she hate seeing me get hurt. I’ve been hurting for four years now. I don’t think I’ll ever really stop hurting. But I… I can do other things too. I need to live my life. I need to tell the truth. It’s the only way I’ll get better.”

Omori stared at Sunny in silence for a long while. “You’re sure this is what you want? You can’t go back on this you know. If you do this, I can’t protect you out there.”

“I know” Sunny nodded.

“That’s the whole reason I’m here, you know? To protect you.”

“I can’t keep protecting myself from everything. If I do, I’ll end up spending the rest of my life dreaming. I… I can’t do that. Not to myself. Not to everyone else. I promised them I’d get better. Even if they hate me after this, I want- no, I will keep my promise to them.”

“What if you can’t come back after this? What if you can’t come back to whitespace?”

Sunny looked around. “Whitespace is nice. Headspace is nice too. But I can’t keep living in dreams. I need to live in reality. Even the ugly parts of it.”

“I see. So, you’re determined. Alright then.” Omori dropped his knife. The red hands faded away. “Smash that lightbulb then, and we’ll be done here.”

Sunny approached the bulb. It seemed to hang far lower than it ever had before. He unscrewed it from its place. He took another look at Omori, then threw the bulb on the ground with all his might.

Instantly, a black substance began to fill the infinite room, rising steadily. Omori stared at the ceiling. Sunny drew him into an embrace, which Omori reciprocated after his initial shock subsided. The darkness was up to their elbows now. Sunny felt Omori’s body grow lighter, like it was dissolving, or fading away somehow. Now the darkness reached his shoulders. He felt his arms squeeze around himself, no one else there to fill the embrace. The darkness reached his eyes, and the world was black. 

Sunny’s head throbbed as he awoke. The first things he noticed were the sheer whiteness of his surroundings, and the black shape in the center of his vision. He had a moment of panic, but his fears subsided as his vision began to clear.

He was in a hospital, surrounded by sterilized white walls. And the black figure was-

“SUNNY!” Mari cried as she pulled her brother into an embrace. Tears streamed down her face and onto his hospital gown.

“I was- I was so worried! I… oh, Sunny, I’m so glad you’re awake now!”

By the time she released her younger brother, Sunny had long since lost track of how long the embrace lasted.

“How are you feeling?” Mari asked. Sunny shrugged, then winced as pain shot through his shoulder.

“Sore” he said “and my face feels kind of numb.”

Mari grimaced. “Yeah… about that… well, what’s the last thing you remember?”

Sunny thought for a moment. “Basil was… he had sheers.”

Mari nodded. “You tackled him headlong into a shelf full of gardening equipment. You saved his life, but the stuff there fell on you, and his sheers were in the scuffle, and… well…”

She sighed. “They couldn’t save your right eye. I’m so sorry, Sunny.”

Sunny thought for a moment. “Twins” he said. “What?” Mari asked.

Sunny pointed to Mari’s eyepatch, and then to his. “We’re like twins now.”

There he was. The humorous, optimistic and surprisingly insightful little brother she had missed for years.

Mari’s train of thought was interrupted by the sound of hospital doors flying open. “Sunny?” a panicked, familiar voice called out. “Sunny, I hear there was an accident? What happened? Please, let me he-“

The voice fell silent as the speaker took in the hospital room. Weakly, Mari raised her hand. “H-hi… mom…”

Chapter Text

“H-hi… mom…”

Hana Suzuki scanned over Mari, her eyes wide in shock. Mari hoped that despite the eyepatch and four years of change, her mother would still recognize her. After the events of last night, she wasn’t sure she could handle any other outcome.

“Mari?”

Her mother’s voice was cautious and soft, as though anything louder would cause her daughter to vanish in a puff of smoke.

“Y-yeah. It… It’s me, mom. I know that it’s hard to believe, but-”

Mari was cut off by her mother wrapping her in a tight embrace. Mari could hear her crying.

“I’m so sorry, little jasmine flower.”

Little jasmine flower. A diminutive, literal translation of her name, and a nickname she hadn’t heard in well over a decade. The dam burst, and tears flowed from her eye.

“I’m sorry mom.”

“No, Mari. Don’t apologize. I… I don’t know why you… I’m so sorry.”

Her mother ran a hand down Mari’s cheek. “Oh, little jasmine flower. I – how are you here? And Nikko, what happened to your eye?”

Nikko. It was the Japanese word for ‘sunshine’, and like ‘little jasmine flower’, not something either sibling had heard in years. It was comforting to hear these childhood nicknames though. Still, she owed her mother an explanation. They both did. Mari took a deep breath.

“Well, it starts about four years ago. Do... do you remember the day you let me borrow your car and drive Sunny and all of our friends to the beach?”

“And when I came too, I was in the backyard, but it wasn’t the backyard I’d left. I went inside and heard knocking on the door, then I opened it and Kel was there, and well, that was when I knew something was going on.”

Hana had sat slack jawed and teary eyed for the past ten minutes, as Mari recounted her version of the past four years. She remained silent as Mari trailed off.

“M-Mom? Is… is everything-“

“I can’t believe you did this.”

Mari winced. Her mother’s tone was a scolding one, a tone she had always done her best to avoid having to hear.

“You… you wanted to put another version of me through the same thing I had to go through?”

Mari hung her head in shame. She had never truly thought about what her parents would think of her suicide in her original timeline. Was there still a corpse of her swinging on the tree, waiting for one of them to discover it? Or had she been whisked away body and soul, vanished without a trace from her home? Either way, it was another tragedy to heap onto her mother and father after so many others. She’d been mad at this universe’s Mari for committing suicide, but hadn’t she done the same thing?

“I… I was lost. I didn’t have anyone. You and dad were never around, and… everyone else was gone. I… I didn’t have anyone, mom. I’m… I’m so sorry. I just didn’t know what to do.”

Her mother stroked her hand. “Little jasmine flower… you went through so much. I… I can’t be too mad at you. After you… after we found the other… I can’t lie, I thought about the same thing. Had it not been for Sunny, I might not have been able to continue.”

Sunny’s good eye widened, and his typically static mouth wavered into a slight frown. He spread his arms around his mother, and she returned the embrace as best as she could while still holding tightly to Mari.

“But Mari, you have me. I’m your mother. I lost you once because I didn’t know you were hurting, so please, if you ever, ever feel like this again, please. Let me help you. You are my daughter. I cannot lose you again.”

“I… don’t worry, mom. I… I’m here to stay. Promise” Mari smiled weakly, then burst into tears again.

Hana turned to her son. “Nikko. What happened to you? You… you didn’t try to hurt yourself too, did you?”

Sunny’s expression darkened and he stayed silent.

“Oh, oh no. That’s not what happened!” Mari interjected. “It was Basil.”

“Basil? Sweet little Basil did this to Sunny?”

“No.”

Sunny shifted himself up in his hospital bed. “Basil was… he was going to hurt himself.” Hana’s hand flew to her mouth. “I… I didn’t know what to do…” Sunny continued “I ran at him and there was a loud crash and… and then I woke up here.”

“He was trying to use gardening shears” Mari added.

“You’ve both been through so much” Hana cried. “But don’t worry. Mommy is here now. Everything is going to be okay. Just rest now. The apartment isn’t going anywhere.”

“I want to see them” Sunny said.

“You mean our friends? They’re with Basil right now.”

"I need to see them all” Sunny began lifting himself out of the bed.

“Sunny! You need to stay in bed right now, you aren’t fully healed!” Mari ran to him. As she grabbed her little brother’s shoulders, he gave her a look unlike any she’d seen from him before. It was a gaze filled with determination.

“Nikko… are you sure?” their mother asked.

Sunny nodded.

“Well, I haven’t seen you this determined in four years” she gave a soft smile. “Let’s get you to your friends.”

Kel, Aubrey and Hero stood around Basil’s hospital room in silence, the only noise the ever-present ticking of the wall clock.

“Anything?” Kel asked. Hero looked to the unconscious boy in the hospital bed, and shook his head sadly.

“I… we should probably go back and check on Sunny soon” Aubrey grumbled. “I feel so helpless just standing here going between their rooms, watching them sleep. I… I should have done something!”

“Aubrey” Hero rested a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “You did great last night. You helped me stabilize everyone. You helped us get to Basil in the first place.”

“Yeah” Kel chimed in. “If it weren’t for you, I don’t think we would have gotten the door open in time.”

“You guys mean it?” Aubrey wiped a tear from her eye. Hero and Kel nodded.

“K-Kel?” a weak voice asked from behind the three. They spun to see Basil blinking at his bandaged arm. “Wha- what happened?”

“Umm… what’s the last thing you remember?” Kel asked nervously.

Basil scratched his head. “I remember… I remember being with you all at home… grandma… I remember grandma… being taken away. Locking myself in my room… and I… oh…” the young man’s face went white as a sheet. “I… I tried…”

“It’s okay” Hero soothed, handing Basil a tissue to wipe his tears away.

“I… I didn’t hurt Sunny, did I?”

Aubrey, Kel and Hero exchanged worried glances. “Oh god” Basil covered his face “I’m… I’m…”

“Hey, no, don’t think like that!” Aubrey pulled his head upwards. “Sunny got hurt by tackling you into a shelf full of gardening equipment. You didn’t do anything to him.”

“Yes I did” Basil cried “he was only in that situation in the first place because of me!”

“I’m sure Sunny will forgive y-“ Hero was cut off by the creak of the hospital room door. A familiar figure stepped through.

“Sunny!” Kel exclaimed.

“Careful, Kel. He’s still recovering” Hero held his brother back from tackling Sunny into a bear hug. It was then he noticed the other two people with Sunny. “Oh, Mari! Hi! And, um, I’m so sorry for letting this happen Ms Suzuki!”

“Nonsense” Hana said. “From what I hear, it’s because of your quick thinking nothing worse happened. And it’s good to see you all again.”

“Sunny, are you sure you should be here?” Aubrey asked. “You were looking really bad last time we were in your room.”

“Come on Sunny” Hero gently tried to turn the young man around. “Let’s get you back in bed.”

To everyone’s surprise, Sunny resisted Hero, and turned to face everyone gathered in Basil’s small room. He took a deep breath, and looked them straight in the eyes.

“I have to tell you something.”

Chapter Text

“I have to tell you something.”

Everyone stared at Sunny. He gulped, and continued.

“It… it’s about Mari. She… I’m the reason she’s dead.”

“Sunny!” Hana exclaimed. “Don’t say that! None of us knew how much she was hurting! It isn’t anyone’s fault!”

Sunny shook his head. “No, she… I… I k- I killed her.”

“Th-that’s impossible” Kel said. “She hung herself!”

“Please” Sunny asked, his face bearing a pleading expression “let me say this. I need to say this.”

“It was the day of the recital” the boy continued, his voice raspy “we… we were practicing. We had been practicing all day. My hands… my hands were hurting. I couldn’t get it right. Mari kept… she kept telling me I needed to do better. I was… I was doing as best as I could. I never… never wanted to do a recital in the f-first place.”

“Wait, you didn’t? But you seemed so happy playing violin!” Mari couldn’t help herself.

Sunny shook his head again. “I… I was happy to be spending time with you, sis. You were so… so busy. But playing the violin b-became a chore and you all had such high expectations. I… I couldn’t do it, but I didn’t want you to be disappointed if I told you that. So I kept playing.”

“Oh, Sunny. I’m so, so sorry. I would never be disappointed if you st-“ Mari cut herself off. There was no need to lie here. Looking past the tragedy and cathartic reunion, Mari from four years ago absolutely would have been disappointed had Sunny dropped the recital. Instead, she asked another question.

“You were that afraid of me?” she asked softly.

She could almost feel her heart break when Sunny nodded in affirmation.

“But… what does any of this have to do with what Mari did that day?” Kel interrupted.

“I thought that, maybe, if the violin wasn’t here, y-you wouldn’t make me do the recital” Sunny looked at his feet. Mari thought she could see where this was going, and she didn’t like it.

“I threw the violin down the stairs. That was why it broke.”

She’d expected that, but it didn’t make the revelation any less painful.

“Mari, she… she heard the crash. She came out to see it, then ran up the stairs and started yelling at me.”

That was quite believable, Mari thought. Mari always tried to stay calm, especially when dealing with her little brother, but even just hearing the story second-hand four years later stung - she couldn’t imagine how it would have felt in the moment. But she still didn’t see a throughline between Sunny’s actions that day and her counterpart’s death. Surely she hadn’t been so self-centered to kill herself over a failed recital, right?

“She yelled at me. I just wanted to be somewhere else. I was scared, I’d never… I’d never seen Mari angry like that before. I wanted to leave, to run away, but she grabbed me. And then I… I… I…”

“I pushed her.”

Everyone was silent.

“I pushed her” Sunny repeated. “I pushed her, I pushed her, I pushed her!” by the fourth repetition, he was almost screaming, tears in his eyes.

“Calm down, Nikko” Hana put a hand on her son’s shoulders and cooed reassurances. “Just be calm, and tell us what happened next.”

“S-she fell. She fell down the stairs and l-landed on the violin. I went down, I thought maybe she was hurt but… she wasn’t breathing.”

“Wait, that can’t be right… Mari… she didn’t die that way!” Aubrey interrupted. “If she fell down the stairs like that, then why did we find her hanging on the tree in your backyard!”

“Aubrey’s right” Hero frowned. “I know what I saw that day. I will never unsee it.”

“I… me and Basil, we… we hung her b-body.”

Hero frowned. “If this is a joke, Sunny, it’s in extremely poor taste.”

“It’s not a joke… I… I wish it was…”

“Is… is this true?” Aubrey turned to Basil. “Did you… did you do that?”    

“W-we did” Basil stammered “b-but it wasn’t Sunny’s fault! He wasn’t the one that pushed her! I saw it all, it was SOMETHING behind him! A-and I… I knew nobody w-would believe me, and Sunny would get in trouble and go to jail, and, and, and…” Basil took a deep breath. “And I got the rope, and I tied the noose, and we hung Mari’s body from the tree. B-but it wasn’t Sunny’s fault! It was SOME-“

“No, Basil” Sunny cut his accomplice off. “It was my fault. I… it’s time to face the truth. We all need to face it. There wasn’t anything behind me that day. I pushed… I killed Mari. I did it. I… I killed her” he started crying again.

The room was filled with shouts. Everyone arguing. Demanding an explanation from Sunny or begging him to reveal it as a poorly timed joke. Yelling at him for what he did or trying to calm the others. All the while, Mari was silent, processing what she had heard.

She couldn’t take this anymore. Her entire view of this timeline had been uprooted with a few short sentences. The Mari from this timeline hadn’t committed suicide. She hadn’t left her brother and her friends alone, she hadn’t abandoned them or failed them. The voice in her head returned, an unwelcome hissing whisper in her ear.

“They had the perfect sister, the perfect friend, the perfect partner, and she was taken from them. Now all they have is you. A failure. A murderer.”

Sunny had killed his sister, and she had killed her brother. There was only one thing Mari could do. She laughed at the sheer farcical tragedy of it all.

“Mari? What’s going on? Are you… are you alright?”  Hero put an arm around her shoulder.

“Sure, I’m fine!” Mari laughed “I just found out this timeline is just as fucked up as mine!”

“Wh-what do you mean?” her mother asked, her face pale.

Mari stopped laughing. There was nothing for it. She couldn’t keep this secret any longer.

“In my world, I… I killed all of you.”

The silence was so stark you could hear a pin drop. Mari took a deep breath and continued.

“That… that accident I told you all about? The one where you all died? It… it was my fault. I was the one driving. I was the one that didn’t pull over. I was the one that promised to get you home safe! Instead, you all died on that damned highway!” she broke down in tears.

“Mari… that… that was an accident” Aubrey whimpered.

“No more than what Sunny described. Hell, mine is worse. Sunny only killed one person! I killed five!”

“You didn-“ Kel started to protest.

“You didn’t have to see all of your parents at your funerals. You didn’t have to tell them that their children, the children you had promised to keep safe, were dead and never coming back! You didn’t have to feel their glares as what remained of their children were lowered into the ground!” Mari’s eye was filled with tears.

“And now… now I’m here. I’m in this world where you’re all alive and I’m not, and I find it’s because I hung myself here, so I think maybe I’m not the only fucked up version of myself. But no, she wasn’t fucked up like me. She was still the role model, she did what I couldn’t and kept you all safe before she died. I let you all die and kept living! Fuck, I tried to take her place here! Who the hell am I to deserve this! I’m… I’m just a failure. A murderer. I… I…” Mari’s words became lost in her sobs.

Then, she felt a pair of arms wrap around her. Small, frail, but familiar.

“You’re not a failure. You’re my big sister. You mean everything.” Sunny said.

Then another pair of arms came.  

 “You… you’re my big sister, even if we’re not related by blood. And nothing is ever going to change that! Not even this!”

“You’re my daughter, and you and Sunny are the greatest gifts I ever received.”

“You’re the woman I love, and without you I was completely lost.”

Mari’s sobs continued. “I… I don’t deserve this… I… I…”

“Nobody deserves to be this sad” Kel said, helping Basil out of his bed and into the group hug.

“Please, let us help you. We… we all have a lot to talk about, but… we can get through this together” Hero assured her.

“Mari” Sunny asked softly “do… do you forgive me? For what I did to you here?”

Mari’s sobs began to slow. The question shook her. She wanted to forgive Sunny, but could she? What right did she have to take the place of this world’s Mari and deliver judgement in her name? She looked at her brother and remembered the words from her dream.

“Can you just… can you just promise me that you’ll look after them? They… they all need you.”

“I want you to promise me that you will do this. And I promise… this will be the only thing I ever ask of you. Look after them. Even if it’s scary or sad or hard.”

“You have this second chance now. A miracle. I… just… please don’t make the mistakes I did.”

They needed her. They all needed her. Especially Sunny. He wasn’t a cold-blooded killer; he wasn’t an irredeemable Cain. He was a scared child who had fucked up in one moment and ruined everything. She could certainly relate, and if she could relate, she could forgive.

“I… I forgive you Sunny. Maybe it isn’t my place. I mean, I’m not the Mari it happened to. But, well, if I was… I would want you to forgive yourself. I wouldn’t want you to let it ruin everything. I would want you to find peace and move on. I-“

“Then I forgive you, too” Sunny said, squeezing her tight.

“I also forgive you!” Kel said.

“So do I” Hero added.

“A-and me! I forgive you too!” Aubrey stammered.

“I… I would forgive you… if you would accept it…” Basil murmured.

Those were the words Mari had wanted to hear for four years. They wouldn’t fix everything immediately, of course. Everyone in the room was damaged and suffering. But it was a start. Now it was time to keep her promise to this world’s Mari.

“If you all forgive me… do you all forgive Sunny too? And Basil?” she asked as the group hug disbanded.

The question landed to an awkward silence. For a few moments, Mari feared she had ruined everything again.

“Yes.”

All eyes were on Aubrey. It seemed that nobody had expected the girl who just two days ago had been a ball of rage and vengeance to be the first to speak, at least not with that answer. The pink haired girl sighed.

“I… I know what it’s like. The other day at the lake, with Basil, I… if you and Kim hadn’t found us, I… I would have dropped him in. It would have been worse, because I know he can’t swim, but I didn’t care! I just wanted him to go away, and I wasn’t thinking! I… I got really, really lucky that you guys got there when you did. I don’t want to think about what might have happened otherwise. And… even though nothing happened, I don’t think I will forgive myself for a long time, so I guess I know a little bit about how you’re both feeling. And, if that… if that had happened… I wouldn’t know what to do.”

Aubrey turned to Basil. “I kept thinking the other night about what I would have done if you had been drowning in front of me, and I… I know I wouldn’t have been able to save you or call for help. My brain was already shutting down then. Like, looking back on it, those would have been the right options, but I wasn’t thinking. So, Basil, I understand why you… why you did that to protect Sunny. So yes, Basil, Sunny, I forgive you.”

The silence returned.

“I think I can forgive you too” Kel said.

“If… if I ever hurt someone I loved, I… I don’t think I could live with that guilt. After… after Mari died, I would have nightmares where I came home from school, and Hero was hanging from our bedroom ceiling, or he’d slit his wrists in the bathtub, or swallowed an entire bottle of pills, or, or, or-”

“Kel…” Hero put his hands on his younger brother’s shoulders. Kel took a deep breath before continuing.

“If I lost Hero for any reason, especially if it was my fault, I would want him to forgive me. I would want you all to forgive me. I… I’m definitely mad that you kept this secret for so long, but I’m glad that it’s finally in the open now. And… I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you sooner. And as for Basil, well, I don’t know what I would do in that situation, especially if I was twelve. What you did was, super, super fucked up, but… I can’t say I would have acted any better. I forgive you both!”

Sunny looked to Hana. “M-Mom?”

“Sunny… you are my son. Nothing will change that. Nothing will stop me from caring for you, from protecting you. I was so worried these last four years, I didn’t… I didn’t know you were carrying all of this inside you. I just wish you had told me sooner, so that I could have helped. I… I’ve been a terrible mother.”

Sunny shook his head and embraced her. “No, you… you’re doing your best!”

“Thank you, Nikko.” Hana smiled softly.

She looked at the young gardener. “Basil, I know you wanted to protect my son, the same as I. It might… it might take me a while to forgive you fully, but… I can see you’ve been carrying so much pain too. I can’t say I forgive you yet, but… I will work on it.”

Basil nodded. It was the best answer he could hope for.

Hero felt everyone staring at him. He sighed. “I was close to Mari. She was… is the woman I love.”

Mari blushed at Hero’s unashamed declaration.

“When Mari died… when I thought she had killed herself, I… I was destroyed inside. I spent a year letting guilt eat at my soul. I did things, I said things that I can never take back. I suppose if anyone here was going to hold a grudge, it would be me.”

Sunny’s fearful expression did not escape his older friend’s notice.

“But, I… I can’t. I look inside myself and I don’t have any rage left. If… if something like that happened to me, and it was Kel’s fault, I would want him to forgive himself. If something like that happened and Kel was the one that died, I… I wouldn’t know what to do. I know how much things can change in an instant, and how no matter how much you wish they can’t go back. No amount of apologies can undo something. I don’t think things will ever be the way they were, but… we can try to find a new normal together, okay?” Hero smiled, and held a hand out to Sunny. Sunny took it tentatively, then Hero swept him into a hug. “You’re like my second little brother, Sunny. I promised Mari I would look out for you, and I failed to do that these past four years, but… I can start now if you would like.”

Sunny nodded in agreement, tears streaming from his good eye.

“Basil, I… I don’t know what was going through your head that day, but… I wish you had trusted us. Your life… you haven’t had it easy, if that was your first response to an emergency. I…” Hero sighed again. “Look, I can get some good therapist recommendations for you. If you promise to go to one, I’ll do my best to forgive you. Alright?”

Basil looked at his friend in disbelief. Slowly, he nodded, and Hero pulled him into a hug as well. Then he felt Mari’s arms wrap around him and Sunny, then Kel joined in, then Aubrey and Hana, until they were all collapsed into one large mass of embraces and tears. The truth was out. It hurt. It hurt for everyone. But now, Mari thought, the healing could begin.

It was morning, time for a new day.

And each day, she thought, was a miracle.

Chapter Text

“And, yeah” Kel sighed “that… that about covers it, I guess?”

Polly and the Rodriguez parents sat slack jawed around the latter’s kitchen table. Sally, meanwhile, was busy climbing all over her new favorite person. She’d taken a quick liking to ‘big sis Auby’, and despite Aubrey’s toughened persona, Kel could tell she was smitten as well.

“This is… this is unbelievable…” Elena Rodriguez murmured.

“I know it sounds ridiculous, but I promise, it’s true!” Mari interjected. Elena looked the young woman in the eye.

“I believe you, chica. If I couldn’t recognize the girl who spent half her childhood in my house, what kind of parent would I be?”

Polly stared at Basil. His parents had decided to keep her on as his caretaker, but they couldn’t even be bothered to come home for their mother’s funeral. Basil’s support network at the moment was incredibly fragile. Mari hoped Polly wouldn’t abandon him, but to hear news like this would certainly test their relationship.

“I’ll be honest, I have a hard time believing it too” the caretaker sighed.

Basil nodded. “I understand if you want nothing to do with me, ms Polly.”

“Basil, look at me. How long have I known you?”

“…three years now…”

“And in those three years, I’ve come to know that you are compassionate, perceptive and empathetic. You wouldn’t hurt people on purpose. I am so, so sorry you got put in the position you did. I wish you had told all of this sooner. I wish I could have helped you sooner.”

Basil began crying. “Do you… do you mean it?”

Polly nodded and hugged the young gardener. “I mean it. We’ll get through this. Just promise me no more shears and no more secrets, alright?”

Basil nodded.

“So, what happens now?” Aubrey asked trying to wrangle Sally off her shoulder.

“Well, tomorrow we leave for the apartment” Hana said.

“Wait, what?! That’s still happening?!” Kel cried. “But we just got you guys back! You can’t leave us again!”

“I know it’s hard, especially with… well, everything” Hana gestured around the room “but this deal has been finalized for months now. There’s nothing I can do.”

“We’ll keep in touch” Sunny said.

“You better! Otherwise I’ll have to come down to… uh… where was it you were moving to?”

“Nearby City” Hana laughed.

“…Wait… Nearby city? As in, the same Nearby city that’s a half-hour bus ride away?”

Hana nodded.

“You jerk!” Aubrey threw one of Sally’s plushies at Sunny. Mari smirked as the toy made a soft thud in the center of her brother’s face. “You made it sound like you were moving across the country!”

“…In my defense, I didn’t know…”

Hana frowned. “Sunny, I told you multiple times that this was happening.”

Sunny’s expression matched his mother’s. “I… I must not have remembered. I wasn’t… I wasn’t really myself much these past four years.”

Hana’s expression softened and she drew her son into an embrace.

"There, there. I’m sorry to bring up the memory.”

“What about Mari?” Hero asked. “As far as the legal system is concerned, she died four years ago.”

“I’ve already set up with a lawyer about that” Hana said. “It’s obviously not the same, but Mari wouldn’t be the first person to be ‘accidentally’ marked as legally dead.”

“Then I guess… I guess I figure out what I want to do with my life” Mari added. “For so long I was just surviving day to day, and now for the first time in years I have to think about tomorrow.”

Hero put his hand on hers. “Don’t worry” he smiled “whatever happens, we’ll face it together.”

Mari smiled at her boyfriend. She still couldn’t believe she was allowed to have this, no matter how much Hero reassured her. Then, she turned to the Rodriguez parents.

“And I… I want to say I’m sorry… for letting Hero and Kel die where I came from…”

“Oh, chica. Don’t apologize. From what I hear, it wasn’t your fault. You did everything you could.” Elena looked at her the same way she’d looked at an adolescent Mari crying on the grass over Hero skinning his knee.

“If… if something like that had happened to us, I know that we wouldn’t blame you. You’re like family to us. We know you would never mean to hurt anyone here.” Pedro Rodriguez reassured her.

“And Kel” the Rodriguez matriarch turned to her middle child. “I’m so proud of you for keeping your positivity. For never giving up on Hero, or on Sunny. I… I don’t think I say that enough. I… I’m going to try to say it more often.”

“Mom?” Kel asked uncertainly.

“Yes, chico. I know it might not seem like it, but remember that we love you.” Elena brought Kel into a hug. The athlete flashed his brother an accusatory stare, while Hero put on his best ‘who, me?’ face.       

Before Kel could make his accusations public, the brothers were interrupted by a loud click and bright flash.

“O-oh, sorry” Basil mumbled. “I just thought that would be a good one for the new album.”

“Oh, that reminds me!” Polly said. She pulled out a green photo album. “I managed to save these during the scuffle.”

Basil opened the album. They were all there. A bit worse for wear, like everything else in his room had been after the fight, but all present and accounted for. He closed the book and held it tight to his chest. “Th-thank you! Thank you so much Polly!”

“It was no trouble at all” Polly smiled “Now, go on and make more memories.”

It was a request that Basil knew he would have no trouble obeying.

Chapter Text

Hero scanned the crowd of the Nearby mall complex. He felt butterflies in his stomach, but the good sort of butterfly. As much as any bug could be considered good, he supposed. No, not the time to think about that. He needed to find Mari. Where was-

He felt a pair of arms wrap around him. Ah, there she was.

“Hey there, handsome.”

He turned around. Mari had sent him photos, but he hadn’t been fully prepared for the sight that greeted him.

“You’re, uh… you’re looking very… purple?” Hero squeaked. Mari snickered, brushing a lock of purple hair from her bangs.

“Thanks! You’re looking very… blue?”

Hero grinned. “I missed you.”

“I missed you too” Mari replied.

The couple walked around the shopping center, stopping to compare it to the Faraway plaza at points. Mari maintained that her new hometown was just as nice as Faraway had been, but Hero was adamant that the small town charm of the plaza couldn’t be beaten by the options and modernity of the city. As they walked, Hero could feel stares on them, or more likely, on Mari. It wasn’t everyday you saw a girl with purple hair and an eyepatch, after all.

“Hey, are you a pirate?!”

Mari and Hero looked down to see a young girl staring at them wide eyed. A woman, presumably her mother, was hurrying over.

“Uh…” Hero didn’t know how to respond. Mari sighed.

“Susan! You can’t just go ask people questions like that!” her mother picked the girl up and turned to the young couple. “I’m so sorry.” Mari assured her that it wasn’t a problem, but she was silent as the mother and daughter disappeared back into the crowd.

“Something on your mind?” Hero asked.

“Does… does it bother you that I keep the eyepatch? I mean, it’s weird, right?”

Hero was taken aback. “Well, it’s not really my place to say, right? Does it bother you?”

Mari shook her head. “For a long time, I was wearing it because I thought I had to atone for something – I mean, sometimes I still think that. Like, I don’t deserve to go unscarred after everything that happened.”

Hero opened his mouth to protest, but Mari brought up a hand. “But now there’s more. It reminds me of where I came from, and everything we went through. I… I feel weird without it, to be honest. But… it’s kind of embarrassing. Not many people walking around with eyepatches these days.”

Hero hugged Mari’s shoulders. “If it makes you feel comfortable, then you should keep wearing it. It’s your body after all. And I would never be embarrassed being around you.”

He leaned closer and whispered in her ear “besides, I kind of like it on you.”

“What?!” Mari’s face flushed red.

“Maybe I’ve got a thing for pirates” Hero laughed. “And it fits you. After all, you’ve got a great booty.”

Mari stared silently, going through a range of emotions until she broke down laughing. “You know… I don’t think I realized how much I missed your stupid jokes, Hero.”

Hero grinned. “I missed telling the- wait, you think they’re stupid? But you used to laugh at them!”

“Yeah, at how stupid they were!”

“Fine, maybe you can pay for your own dinner tonight.”

“Aww, don’t be like that!” Mari kissed Hero’s cheek. “There, that make up for it?”

“I suppose” Hero sighed dramatically. “We should get going, by the way. Otherwise, we’ll miss our reservation.

“So, uh, why’d you choose this place anyway?” Mari asked as she looked around the restaurant. “N-not that I mind! It’s really nice!”

“Well, I remembered I promised you that someday we’d go out to one of the fancy restaurants in Nearby. I thought I’d better keep that promise, even though…”

Mari grabbed Hero’s hands and stared into his eyes. “Even though it’s four years late?”

“Yeah” Hero choked.

“It wasn’t your fault, Hero. It… it wasn’t anyone’s fault.”

“I know that, but… well, four years of blaming myself isn’t going to vanish overnight.”

“I get that” Mari sighed “I still keep blaming myself for the accident and waking up thinking how I don’t deserve any of this.”

“Deserved or not, I’m glad you’re here. How has everything been going, anyway?”

Mari groaned. “So boring! Doing high school work is the worst! At least I’ll have my GED soon. Then I just need to figure out what to do with the rest of my life.”

“I know the pain of that part.” Hero chuckled. “Any thoughts?

“No idea” Mari shrugged. “Back before… well, everything, my parents were pressuring me to go into law, but now… well, dad’s out of the picture and mom just wants me to be happy.”

“That’s good, right?”

“Yeah, I guess. I mean, I wish she wouldn’t look at me like I might disappear in light breeze or fuss over me like I was still a child.”

“It makes sense, considering what she went through.”

“…Yeah. I suppose. But, uh, back to what I was saying… well, have you decided on what you’ll do?”

Hero shook his head. “I don’t know. I mean… I’d love to go into cooking, but on the other hand, I do like the idea of becoming a doctor and helping people.”

“Yeah, I get tha-“ Mari was cut off by the arrival of the waiter with menus. Her eye widened at the prices. “Hero” she whispered loudly “are you sure we’re in the right place?”

“Look, this is our first official date in four years. I wanted it to be special.” Hero scanned the menu. “But, um… I didn’t realize it was… this… pricey…”

“Aw, Hero. I’m just happy we can even do this at all, I didn’t need you to go this far!” Mari thought for a moment. “There’s a great noodle truck not too far from here” she whispered “want to ditch and head there?”

Hero looked at Mari’s smile, then back to the menu. “Noodles” he muttered. “Yeah. Noodles sound good."

“Wow, this is amazing!” Hero gushed between bites.

“I know, right?! Sunny is actually the one who found this place!”

“Oh? How’s he been doing, anyway?”

“It’s been… tough. His homeschooling means he isn’t technically behind in any classes, but it was definitely a tough transition. Part of me wishes I could be there, but I don’t think having a nineteen year old high school drop out by his side would do him any favors. Me and mom definitely aren’t going to let him stay inside again though! I made him promise to leave the apartment at least once every weekend. He still misses everyone, but I’m trying to get him to find other friends too.”

The couple kept talking as the steam from the noodles surrounded them. Mari told Hero about the youth softball team she was coaching and the after-school art club Sunny had signed up for. Hero talked about his time at college, about how Kel had made the school basketball team, how Sally had essentially become the mascot of Aubrey’s ‘gang’, and how Basil now held down a part time job at Fixit. Eventually, Hero slurped up the last of his ramen and held the container up, examining the food truck logo on the side. Mari noticed a slight gleam in his eyes.

“Mari, you know how in the restaurant we were talking about not knowing what to do with our lives?”

“Yeah?” Mari asked tentatively.

“Do you remember that plan we used to talk about when we were kids?”

“You mean that time you tried to learn about Japanese culture to impress my dad but instead just came off as really weird and weeby?”

Hero’s face fell. “I… was hoping you wouldn’t remember that to be honest. No, I’m talking about the food truck idea!”

The memory came to Mari like a light switch had been flicked on. “Oh shit! Yeah, we were going to open a food truck together after college, weren’t we? We had a whole presentation about it for our parents and everything! What happened to that, anyway?”

“I think we just… we were too worried about our parents’ reactions to try it. And then…”

Mari wrapped her hand around Hero’s. “Hey, it’s alright. I’m here. And I agree, this plan deserves a second look.”

“Yeah” Hero smiled. “And, even if it doesn’t end up being what we do… whatever the future holds…”

“We’ll face it together” Mari finished as she grabbed Hero’s collar and pulled him into a kiss.

Chapter Text

From an ethereal vantage point, the spirit that had once been Mari watched the hospital room collapse into the world’s most trauma-filled cuddle pile. She gave a soft smile. It was over. Sunny had told the truth. Basil had told the truth. Her counterpart had told the truth as well. They had even been forgiven, both by each other, and by their friends. It would take some time for them to forgive themselves, but everyone was finally on the right path. It seemed like everything was finally going to be okay.

“QUITE SELFLESS” a voice appeared behind Mari. “NOT MANY WOULD DO WHAT YOU HAVE DONE. GIVING UP YOUR PLACE IN YOUR TIMELINE FOR SOMEONE FROM ANOTHER.”

“Yeah, well… they needed a living Mari, and she… she was only barely living in her home timeline anyway.”

“YOU KNOW YOU WON’T GET TO SEE THEM WHERE YOU’RE GOING, RIGHT? AT LEAST, NOT FOR A LONG TIME, IF EVERYTHING GOES TO PLAN.”

“Yeah… I know. But… well… it’s a chance for me. I know I’ll miss them, but… if what you say is true, I won’t be the only Mari without a Hero.”

“ARE YOU READY?”

“…no. But if I stay any longer, I might start having second thoughts.”

“THEN, WHEN YOU ARE READY, WALK THROUGH THE DOOR BEHIND YOU.”

Mari took one last look at her friends, her family. “I promise” she whispered “I’ll make a life worth living.”

She stepped through the door.

For the first time in four years, Mari heard the whistle of wind through leaves. For the first time in four years, she felt the hot dirt baked under a summer sun. For the first time in four years, she stared up at the old tree. She sighed. She picked up the noose that was laying on the ground next to her. “I definitely won’t be needing this anytime soon” she said to herself. She picked herself up off the ground and dusted off her dress. She could see the message machine inside blinking with several missed calls.

“Well… I have a lot of explaining to do, don’t I?”

For the first time in four years, Mari felt alive.

Chapter Text

It was cold and dark when Mari woke up. “Ugh” she whined “Hero, can you go check the furnace?”

Hero was silent. Mari turned over to poke her boyfriend, only to be greeted by an empty bed. Her eye snapped open and she scrambled out of bed. She glanced at her nightstand, and her heart sank to her stomach. The photo adorning it was of her in front of mount Fuji, alone, with the fakest of smiles on her face.

“Hero?” her voice shook “Mewo?”

Neither her lover nor her cat responded. A bead of sweat dripped down Mari’s forehead as she flung open the bedroom door and ran to the apartment kitchen. It was dark and empty, just as the bedroom had been. She opened the kitchen cabinet. There was no paprika, chili powder, cinnamon or any of the other spices Hero loved to experiment with. Mari glanced around the room. Everything familiar was gone. The cat bed, the worn out beanbag chair, the framed newspaper clipping celebrating their food truck’s opening – all vanished.

Mari ran back to the bedroom to grab her phone. She turned it on. All the contacts were gone. She dialed Hero’s number – she’d memorized it quickly – only to be met by a message telling her it was disconnected. Mari put her face in her hands, only to find them covered in a red, sticky substance.

Blood.

She screamed.

Mari woke with a start. A light flicked on. “Mari?” Hero asked groggily “What’s wrong?”

Mari hugged him tight and didn’t let go. “Ah” Hero sighed “that dream again?” Mari nodded wordlessly. She reverted to the behavior of a scared child on these nights – Hero would have found it adorable if he wasn’t so concerned for her. He held her close and stroked her hair.

“I guess it was your turn for a nightmare, huh?”

Even after three years of therapy, neither Hero nor Mari was fully ‘healed’. They doubted they ever would be. But the nightmares and panic attacks were lessening every year. It was progress, though that was small comfort when such events did occur.

“You… you were gone…” Mari sniffed. “I was… I was all alone again.”

“I’m here, babe” Hero said. He didn’t use the pet name often, so Mari knew he meant it. “I’m here, and I won’t leave you. Ever.”

Eventually, Mari had calmed down enough to let go of her living body pillow. Hero took the opportunity to get out of bed and head to the kitchen. Mari could hear the kettle boiling. She glanced at the nightstand and breathed a sigh of relief. The picture in the frame was now the one she was familiar with – her and her beloved doing the corniest couples’ pose imaginable in front of the famous Japanese peak. She snickered at the memory.

Soon, Hero returned, a steaming mug of herbal nighttime tea in one hand, a round cat cradled in the other. He passed both to Mari. “Thanks” she said bashfully “I… I can’t believe that happened.”

“Hey” Hero put a hand on her shoulder “it’s alright. Remember what the therapist said. PTSD like yours won’t go away all at once.”

“I know” Mari grumbled “but… well… I was doing so well…”

“You’re still doing so well. This is a minor incident. Nothing to be ashamed of.”

“…Thanks for putting up with me” Mari buried her face in Mewo’s fur.

“Mari” Hero stroked her face “I don’t put up with you. I love you. Besides, you aren’t the only one that gets nightmares, remember?”

Mewo mewed, as if in agreement. Mari nodded.

“Hey” Hero said as Mari finished the teacup and lay back down “are you going to be alright for tomorrow? If it’s going to be to much we can cancel and stay home.”

“No” Mari said “it’ll be good to see everyone. I… I think it will really help, actually.”

“Good” Hero chuckled “because if we canceled, I don’t think any wall on earth would stop mom’s chancla.”

“Scary thought” Mari shuddered in agreement.

“And now that nightmare doesn’t seem so bad, does it?”

“I guess not. Thanks, Hero. I can always count on you.”

“Good night, mi corazon. I love you.”

“I love you more” Mari giggled.

“It’s not a contest” Hero smirked as he flicked off the lights.

“But if it was… I’d be winning” Mari kissed her boyfriend’s cheek, and soon the darkness of peaceful sleep overtook them both.

“Ugh. It’s so cold” Mari shivered

“It’s December, what did you expect?” Hero chuckled as he brushed snow off of Mari’s hat. “Alright. Are you ready to see everyone?”

“Yeah” Mari nodded “it’ll be nice to catch up in person.” She paused. “Wow. It just hit me; this is the first Christmas party since the kids started college.”

“Yeah. We’re old now. Over the hill.”

“Relics of the past” Mari chuckled.

“’Relics’ makes us sound like we’re done with everything” Hero sighed “I prefer… vintage. Classic. Old, but cool.”

“Of course you do, you nerd.”

“Your nerd.”

“And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Mari opened the door and relished the blast of warm air that hit. The heat and smell of the house made it clear that the oven had been running all day, possibly longer.

“Ah, Henry, Mari! It’s so good to see you!” Elena Rodriguez greeted the couple with an enormous, motherly hug.

“It’s good to see you too, mom” Hero grunted. Elena shuffled Hero and Mari into the dining room, where they were immediately bombarded with questions and greetings.

“Hero! Mari! How was your trip here?”

“How was Japan?”

“What’s new?”

“How’s life in the city?”

“When are you moving back to Far Away?”

“How’s the food truck?”

Hero held up a hand to quiet the racket. “It’s great to see everyone” he grinned “our trip was fine. Japan was amazing. Living in the city is exciting. I don’t know when we’ll move back to Far Away – maybe if a cheap house opens up here.”

“And as for the food truck, Roselily is doing excellent business!” Mari beamed with pride.

“A few more years like this, and we should be able to afford an actual brick-and-mortar place” Hero grinned.

“Oh, and there’s other news too…” Mari pulled off her thick gloves. All eyes were drawn to the thin silver band around her ring finger as she proudly displayed her hand to the table.

Aubrey shrieked.

“Ow! Aubs, did you have to do that right in my ear?” Kim winced.

Aubrey grabbed her girlfriend by the shoulders and stared into her eyes. “You don’t understand Kim. Heromari has been my OTP since I was ten. And now it’s happening!”

“Heromari?” Hero arched an eyebrow.

“Your celebrity power couple name. Duh.”

“But… we aren’t a celebrity power couple.”

“You were to me” Aubrey blushed “when… when I was a kid… you were the two I always looked up to. The people I wanted to be like. I… I still kind of do now, I guess.”

“Aww” Mari hugged the pink-haired girl. “My honorary lil’ sister is still a soft little bunny rabbit under all that punk wardrobe!”

Aubrey struggled playfully against her friend. “Hey, I’m plenty tough!”

“Tough enough to put the eggplant plush in storage?” Kim rolled her eyes.

“NO! MR PLANTEGG STAYS WITH ME FOREVER!”

Everyone around the table laughed. A light flashed. “Another keeper for the scrapbook!” Basil smiled. Mincy, meanwhile, was sketching the scene in her artbook.

“Ooh, another Mincy masterpiece!” Kel peeked over the artist’s shoulder.

“This one isn’t for sale either, Kel” Mincy said, not even looking up from her sketching.

“Aw, not even for the cost of… my love?”

Everyone stared at Kel.

“What was that about?!” Aubrey exclaimed.

“Kel” Mincy groaned “did you forget to tell everyone we were dating?”

“I… uh… shit, did I?” the athlete pondered.

“You’re lucky you’re so endearing” Mincy chuckled as she poked Kel’s nose with her pencil.

“I FUCKING CALLED IT!” Basil exclaimed.

“Feliz Navidad everyone!” Pedro Rodriguez boomed “holiday drinks for all!”

“Ooh, do we finally get to try the famous Rodriguez eggnog?” Kim’s eyes sparkled. The Rodriguez parents looked at each other and laughed.

“Not ‘til you’re 21, chica” Elena chided.

“Betrayal” Kim pouted at Aubrey. “Why’d I even come here?”

“Because you love me and wanted to spend time with me?” Aubrey asked.

“Hmm…”

“Well, maybe this will take the sting off” Pedro chuckled and placed mugs of hot chocolate in front of the nineteen-year-olds. “Freshly blended, with a hint of cinnamon and cayenne.”

Kim sipped slowly. She looked up at Pedro. “Will you adopt me?”

Pedro laughed again. “Sorry, we have our hands full with Sally.”

The Rodriguez patriarch turned to Hero and Mari. “A round of Rodr-eggnog for the young couple?”

“I’ll have one” Hero winced at the portmanteau “and Mari, did you-“

“I’ll try one, yeah.”

“Are you sure?” Hero raised his eyebrow.

“Yeah” Mari nodded “I can’t… I can’t letting that one moment dictate my life. Besides, it’s not like I’ll be driving anywhere tonight, right?”

“You’re braver than I am, Mari. I don’t even want to look at an alcohol bottle after everything mom put me through” Aubrey proclaimed.

“Is… is she doing any better?” Basil asked.

Aubrey grimaced. “I mean… a little bit. She’s almost got her two month chip, but… well, I’ll believe it when it happens. I try not to think about her.”

“You shouldn’t” Kim shook her head “you don’t owe her anything.”

“Hey” Mari clapped her hands “let’s change the subject! How’s everyone’s college going?”

“YOU’RE DOING WHAT?!” Kel exclaimed.

“Fencing. Saber. Foil too, but not as much.” Sunny shrugged.

“Are you alright!?” Basil rushed to Sunny and examined his arms for injury.

“Yeah. I’m good at it.”

“Well” Mari pursed her lips and sipped the eggnog “that’s… surprising. But I’m really proud of you! What made you decide to do fencing, anyway?”

“…It’s stupid.”

“I’m sure it isn’t.”

“… I wanted to be able to tell people that I had been studying the blade while they were partying” Sunny stared at the ground.

“…okay, yeah… that is pretty stupid” Mari smirked.

“Well, while you were studying the blade, I was studying the books” Aubrey boasted “you’re all looking at a dean’s list student!”

“That’s great, Aubrey!” Hero gave her a high-five.

“What about you, Kel? What are you doing?” Basil asked.

“Don’t laugh” Kel grinned “but… I’m thinking of doing a psych degree.”

Hero whistled. “That’s a big commitment. You sure you’re up for that?”

“Kel” Elena cooed “we don’t need you to prove yourself like this.”

“No” Kel shook his head “I’m not doing this for you guys, I’m doing it because… well, because I want to. I like helping people. And I might not be the smartest person out there, but… well, I’m good at listening, and I’m good at reading people, and… well, long story short, I took psychology 101 for fun, and kind of got hooked on the idea?”

“That’s great!” Hero grabbed his younger brother and brought him in for a hug. “I’m so, so proud of you, Kel.”

“Well” Hero turned to his parents “looks like you’ll get a doctor in the family after all.”

“We’re just glad you’re happy” Pedro grinned.

“How about you, Basil? Any ideas on the future?”

“None, really” the photographer shook his head.

“Maybe something with flowers?” Sunny asked.

“Sunny’s right, I always pictured you going into botany or environmental studies or something like that” Aubrey mused.   

“Well, I don’t want to be known as the ‘flower boy’ all my life” Basil laughed “I mean, I like them well enough, but… I’m just exploring my options now. Polly’s been a big help convincing me to go out of comfort zone.”

“Hey, yeah, where is she anyway?” Mari mused.

“Oh, she’s with Charlene’s family on vacation. Her new job is caring for Charlene’s mom, remember?”

“Oh right, the woman with the yellow bun!”

“She wishes everyone a merry Christmas and happy new year, though.”

As if on cue, Mari’s phone buzzed. She switched open the video call feature. “Hi mom!” she smiled.

“Ah, happy holidays, everyone!” Hana’s smile matched her daughter’s. “Obasan and Ojiisan say hi! They miss you already!”

“We were just there a month ago” Hero chuckled.

“Anyway, what’s ne-“

“HERO AND MARI ARE GETTING MARRIED!” Aubrey shouted, interrupting Hana’s question.

“…Oh, are they now?” a familiar smug expression spread across Hana’s features. “I wonder when that could have happened?"

“You knew?” Kel asked “who else knew?”

Elena and Pedro whistled nonchalantly.

“Wait, Sunny didn’t tell you?” Hana asked.

“YOU KNEW?” Aubrey grabbed Sunny’s collar “YOU KNEW AND YOU DIDN’T TELL US?!”

“I didn’t want to spoil the surprise” Sunny muttered.

The evening sun was setting now. Phone calls with relatives were over, and dinner ticked ever closer to completion in the oven.

“What was it like?” Kim asked, nursing her second mug of hot chocolate.

“Hm?” Mari tilted her head.

“You know, the proposal! Give us deets!” Aubrey yelled.

“Well, it was the early morning. Sunrise on Mount Fuji” Hero smiled.

“Wait, you’ve been hiding this since November?!” Kel shouted.

“Yeah. Worth the surprise, right?” Mari grinned.

“I mean… I guess” Basil muttered. “But Sunny, why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because you gossip.”

“What, no I – okay, actually that’s fair.”

“Can I get back to the story now?” Hero sighed playfully “it was a beautiful sunrise on Mount Fuji…”

“Come on Mari, we’re almost there!”

“I just… wish we could have done this… later…” Mari huffed.

“Heh, you know we couldn’t! Trust me, this will be worth it!” Hero grinned.

A grand tour of Japan had been something both Hero and Mari had wanted since a very young age, and this year was the first the had the financial and academic freedom to do it. Mari’s grandparents were all too happy to fly them over for her grandfather’s birthday and then leave the two to their own devices.

“I don’t understand how you’re so chipper every morning” Mari grunted.

“Well, I get to wake up next to you” Hero grinned. Mari rolled her eye.

“Weren’t you up late the other night? What were you talking with ojiisan about anyway?”

“Oh, you know. This and that. You can learn a lot of interesting things from old people!”

Mari was about to respond back with some teasing remark or another, when they crested the trail and stared out at lake Motosu.

“Wow” was all Mari could say.

“This is the second most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen” Hero nodded.

“…And now I’m in awe that you would try such a cliché line” Mari laughed. “Well, that is one of the things I love about you.”

The couple sighed, set down their bags and sat to enjoy the view. After a while, they both got to their feet.

“Hero, I-“

“Mari, I-“

They both spoke at the same time.

“No, go ahead, Hero.”

“Alright. Mari, I… I want to share more moments like this with you. I want to share as many moments as I can with you, both good and bad! When I lost you, I lost myself, and even after four years it still hurt. Getting you back… it was nothing short of a miracle. The day I saw you in our house was one of the best days of my life. I can say with certainty, that the sun truly shines brighter with you here. I… I want to grab you and never let go. I guess what I’m trying to say is…” Hero closed his eyes and got to one knee “Mari Suzuki. Will you marry me?”

Mari laughed. Hero squeezed one of his eyes open. She was kneeling right next to him. “This… this is a bit awkward” she said. Hero noticed the box in her hand. “Looks like you beat me to it” she smiled.

“Then… is that a yes?”

“Hmm…” Mari made a show of pondering “can you answer my proposal first?”

Hero smiled. “Yes, Mari Suzuki. I will marry you.”

“Then, Henry ‘Hero’ Rodriguez, I will marry you as well.”

Mari leapt into Hero’s arms and the two tumbled into the snow together. “Yours forever?” Hero asked.

“Yours for always” Mari kissed him.

“…and, yeah, that’s basically how it went down” Hero was grinning from ear to ear.

“I guess we both proposed to each other, didn’t we?” Mari rested her head on her fiancé’s shoulder. “I’m still a little surprised you finally got up the courage.”

“Courage had nothing to do with it” Hero said “I was just waiting for the right moment.”

“So if I had just proposed to you out of the blue, your answer would have been...”

“Yes, of course.”

“Malewife” Sunny interrupted with a deadpan expression.

“Oh my god, you’re so right!” Aubrey howled. “They’re malewife and girlboss!”

“Hey!” Mari countered “that’s my malewife you’re talking about!”

Once again, the table collapsed into laughter.

Dinner had been eaten, followed by far too much desert all around. The sky was dark, and the twinkle of electric lights illuminated the neighborhood. Pedro passed out a final round of drinks – champagne for the adults, sparkling cider for everyone else.

“A toast” he boomed “to the happy couple!”

“To good friends, and good health!” Kel added.

“To a brighter future!” Aubrey chimed in.

“To the miracle that brought us all back together!” Hero said. Everyone nodded and raised their glass.

“TO MIRACLES!”

The End