Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Alright, you guys ready?" Joy rubbed his hands together, excited.

"I don’t think this is going to work." Sadness shook his head.

"Oh, come on. This plan is foolproof."

"Ay, Alegría, that's what you said about the other 95 times, and they've all failed." Disgust remarked.

"Trust me. No one can say no to a celebrity. Here we go!" Joy began driving the console.

Héctor stepped up to the monitor, disguised as Frida Kahlo. "Yes, it is I. Frida Kahlo. Shall we skip the scanner? I'm on so many ofrendas, it'll just overwhelm your blinky thingy..."

The monitor scanned him, but an "X" appeared on the screen, and a buzzer went off.

"Well, shoot. Looks like no one put up your photo, Frida..." The Departure agent said.

"Quick, lose the disguise!" Fear cried.

Héctor peeled off his unibrow and threw off his dress. "Okay, when I said I was Frida... just now? That... that was a lie. And I apologize for doing that."

"No photo on an ofrenda, no crossing the bridge." The agent reminded him.

"You know what, I'm just gonna zip right over, you won't even know I'm gone."

"Run for it!" Fear shouted, taking the controls.

Héctor bolted for the bridge. A security guard blocked the gate. Héctor split himself in two and slid past the guard, half going over, half under.

"Ha, ha! They're not gonna stop us this time!" Anger cheered.

Héctor reached the bridge at a sprint but began to sink right into the petals.

"Oh no! Not again!" Fear cried. "We gotta get across! We have to see her!"

The guards came to the bridge and casually pulled Héctor back toward the Land of the Dead.

"Can't you let us cross just once, you stupid flower bridge!" Anger shouted, shaking his fist.

"Well, that went well." Disgust rolled his eyes.

"I knew it wasn't going to work. We'll never get to cross over." Sadness whined. "This was our last chance."

Joy sadly walked away while the other emotions took over the console. He glanced at the wall of multicolored memory orbs and sighed. Héctor barely had any happy memories since he died. Joy then looked out the window at the Islands of Personality. They were still connected to their light lines, but had lost most of their color. A side effect of being forgotten.

Music Island was one of Joy's favorites. He remembered when Héctor first learned to play guitar as a child. Music was his way of expressing his feelings. He had such a passion for it that soon he began writing songs, and then music eventually became his career.

Another favorite was Goofball Island. With his gangly body, large ears, and nose, Héctor wasn't traditionally attractive, but he had a knack for acting goofy and silly in life. He loved making Coco and Imelda laugh, no matter how annoyed she got. Oftentimes, he even wore a dress to make Coco stop crying.

Joy used to love Friendship Island. It was created from a Core Memory of the first time Héctor became best friends with Ernesto. But now, since Héctor was angry at him for stealing the songs, the two hadn't spoken in decades, and so the island was on the brink of collapse.

Then there was Family Island. In life, Héctor loved Imelda and Coco more than anything. For decades, he felt a deep sense of shame and regretted leaving them. He had tried many times to talk to Imelda after her death, but she always turned him away. At least he had his surrogate family in Shantytown.

Surprisingly, Compassion Island was the only island that retained its color. Being a very emotional person, Héctor could never stand to see anyone upset. He's always gentle with children and even cares for strangers. Anytime he's watched one of his Shantytown family members face the final death, Héctor always did his best to comfort them before they faded away.

Chapter Text

"...disturbing the peace, fleeing an officer, falsifying a unibrow..." The corrections officer read off his clipboard.

"That's illegal?" Héctor asked, detaching his head and dumping petals out of it.

"VERY illegal. You need to clean up your act, amigo."

Héctor screwed his head back on. "'Amigo'? Oh, that's-that's so nice to hear you say that, because... I have just had a really hard Día de Muertos and I could really use an amigo right now." He detached his hands and they acted like holding shoulders. "And amigos... they help their amigos." He reattached his hands. "Listen, you get me across that bridge tonight, and I'll make it worth your while."

"Hey, look, there's a de la Cruz poster." Joy pointed to the wall. "He must be a fan. We can use that to our advantage."

"Oh! You like de la Cruz? He and I go way back! I can get you front-row seats to his Sunrise Spectacular show!" The corrections officer groaned and pulled away. Fear jumped at the console and pressed several buttons. "I-I-I'll get you backstage, you can meet him! You just gotta let me cross that bridge!"

"I should lock you up for the rest of the holiday... But my shift's almost up, and I wanna visit my living family... so I'm letting you off with a warning."

"Thanks a lot!" Anger pressed a button, making Héctor snatch the paper.

"Can I at least get my costume back?"

"Uh, no."

Anger banged his fist on the console. Héctor stormed out of the room in a huff, crumpling the warning ticket. "Some amigo." Anger grumbled. "Won't even do us a favor."

"Hey. Hey! You really know de la Cruz?" Miguel asked, catching up with him.

"Who's askin'?" Anger questioned. Their eyes widened as they noticed the boy.

"Ahh! It's a living kid!" Fear cried. "The living aren't supposed to be here!"

"Shhh!" Miguel pulled Héctor into a phone booth to hide. "Yeah, I'm alive. And if I wanna get back to the Land of the Living, I need de la Cruz's blessing."

"That's weirdly specific."

"He's my great-great-grandfather."

"Wait, what?" Joy looked completely shocked. "This kid is related to Ernesto?"

"I didn't even know he had any descendants." Fear added.

"Not surprised. He always was such a womanizer." Disgust rolled his eyes. The others nodded in agreement.

Joy suddenly thought of something. "Wait a minute." He ran to the back wall and grabbed a lightbulb. "I got an idea!" He announced and clicked it into the console.

Héctor's face lit up. He grabbed Miguel's hoodie, excited. "Yes! You're going back to the Land of the Living!"

"You know what? Maybe this isn't such a good..."

"Don't let him get away!" Fear shouted.

"No!" Héctor snapped his fingers, stopping him as they exited the phone booth. "Niño, niño, niño! I-I can help you, you can help me. We can help each other. But most importantly, you can help me! I'm Héctor." He extended his hand.

"Uh... that's nice!" Miguel grabbed Héctor by the wrist and dragged him to the exit.

"Ah! The kid took our arm!" Fear cried. "Quick, before he runs off!" He started pressing buttons that controlled the other parts.

Héctor's hand snapped its fingers to get Miguel's attention. Miguel realized it was no longer attached to Héctor's body. The arm signaled backward to Héctor who was several feet behind, running down the entrance stairs.

"Esperame chamaco!"

Miguel threw the arm back to Héctor and they disappeared into the crowd.