#cassie's dad: i'm sorry you burned what now?

[theballadofmars]

What if Michael encounters Cassie's dad in the Pizzaplex while they're both looking for their kids (Michael and Jeremy are here for Gregory and Vanessa) and it's a bit uncomfortable because last time they spoke to each other they were sixteen and killed Evan by accident.

[akuworld777]

The newspaper

Tim had told Kon all about the cloning incident, so a year later Tim hadn't really thought about it but now Kon was in his Wayne office wondering, why because Bruce refused to take over the company again unless that Tim would finish his education, but getting back to the point , Kon was there with a book in his hand, a book very very similar to Tim's diary, the diary he started after his dad's death, the diary in which he planned the murderer's death. of his father, even if in the end he did not kill him, diary where all the cloning data is, where each documented attempt is, where…. Where Tim goes crazy and Kon has the diary…

I had thought that he had hidden it, Tim had hidden it with all the cloning things, with the capsule, the generator, the data, the DNA. Tim had hidden it and if he had told Kon the address when he confessed to him about how he had tried it. clone in case he wants to go see, or destroy it, Tm's actually not sure why he told him that, hell he's not sure why he didn't burn everything to the ground, Probably because he was thinking of trying again, after all He only stopped because Cassie intervened and Bruce disappeared, he wasn't dead, Tim had brought him back and he wasn't dead, he wasn't crazy.

Actually Tim had thought that Kon would destroy everything and if he didn't he wouldn't find the diary, but he did and now he's probably here to tell him what an idiot he was, how disgusting he is for trying to clone his best friend 99 times, for that matter. How he kissed Cassie just to feel it, how he planned to use his DNA if the 100th attempt didn't work, trapping him with a baby, it didn't matter that at that moment Kon was dead, that there was actually no one to catch, god Tim It really was disgusting, wasn't it?

Too caught up in his head he didn't notice the intense look Kon was giving him, though his thoughts were cut off by a laugh, “I can't believe it, Cassie told me you were sick when me and Bart died but, I can't believe it.” I said that you kissed her to feel me” probably because he didn't know, Tim thought, although the thought didn't last long as he focused on what Kon was saying. "And although I knew about cloning, I didn't really expect you to have tried so hard, Tim, you were actually going to make a baby with our DNA, as if it were a husband who died and you were the mother who decided to keep the child to remember her dead loved one, it's very soap opera-like”

Tim felt like those words were digging into his conscience. Kon was saying it as if it were something absurd, he didn't seem malicious or angry, but his words felt wrong, it felt like he was making fun of what Tim had gone through, of his feelings. of his unrequited love, as if everything he did was nothing more than a bad joke, as if his mourning was worthless.

Kon seemed to realize the state Tim was in because he stopped laughing, examining him as if he were seeing him with his x-ray vision, examining him thoroughly. Unlike Bruce, Tim didn't mind being used, he felt seen in the way his parents never saw him.

Kon obviously realized something, because Tim felt the tkl pull him closer and suddenly he was trapped in the muscular, tanned arms of a Kryptonian, Tim felt himself melting in the embrace as Kon's ever-present warmth sank into him. his bones, relieving phantom pains that Tim had not even realized were there, it was like returning home, to his home, a home that seemed to have been missing for a while, he could not contain the sigh of satisfaction, but he did not regret leaving it. He left especially because Kon hugged him tighter and surrounded them both with his tactile telekinesis.

"I'm sorry, I didn't express myself well," Kon's voice sounded right next to his ear. that someone could do so much for me, could have fallen so low, could have I've suffered my loss enough to try everything." Tim felt a chill as Kon spoke, while that voice tickled his ear, but he also felt conflicted, a conflict between telling him that it wasn't that big of a deal and telling him that anyone would have done it, Cassie is proof she went and joined a cult because of his death, that he deserved that recognition, that he deserved people to worry about him, but he bit his tongue and let Kon continue instead of interrupting to express how incredible it was. It was Kon and how much it affected everyone that he was not there, how much it affected him.

“I don't want to say that what you did wasn't fucked up, damn it's actually kind of funny I'm a clone and you decided that to bring me back you were going to clone me instead of going to Constantie and making some deal with a god or demon.” Tim continued listening to Kon but made a mental note to dabble in necromancy since Kon seemed open to that and get more blackmail on Constantine, hell next time he would throw Kon's body in a lazarus pit or just jump in a building, before being without him again. As if Kon read his mind, Tim felt a tug on his hair which Kon had been stroking earlier and saw the disapproving look the super gave him.

"I'm sorry… I don't know what happened to me, you were gone, so many people were gone." Tim buried his face in Kon's shoulder. "I was just thinking about bringing you back, about bringing at least a part of you back." lap" Kon sighed “I'm not asking you to apologize Tim, I actually thought you were going to be much worse, it doesn't mean I approve of this but if I had come back to life and you had managed to have another me, I wouldn't have been angry… if you had achieved the “Baby, I wouldn’t be mad either…” The silence after that was louder than if this had been a shouting match, Tim once again confirmed that bats are not made for feelings… or maybe the trauma was simply preventing him from being good at feelings, or something. Maybe it was negligence.

Kon clarified the guarantee and spoke again, “Actually, it had been a year since all this and I probably should have talked to you since I read the entire diary, but I kept putting it off because I didn't know how to tell you this… I didn't know how. explain my feelings and I didn't know if I had really understood yours correctly, the hell I chose this moment because Cassie threatened to destroy the diary if I didn't talk to you and…and I thought that now that a year has passed, it probably won't affect you that much…" The pause felt like a shock so Kon wasted no time in continuing quickly.

“Probably what you feel for me is already gone and I thought if that's how I can deal with rejection… I can deal with that, I'm used to not having much luck in romance and this is Rob, he wouldn't make fun of me or nothing, our relationship could continue….” Kon's voice became lower and lower as if he felt unsure of continuing, but Tim couldn't pay much attention to that, because Kon had just confessed to him, to Tim Drake, he had just confessed and he was actually thinking. that Tim would reject him, he thought that Tim would have gotten bored of him because it had been a year, just a year and Tim wanted to hit him because Tim had been feeling something for him since they were only 4 in young Justice and Kon thought that one year he would to be enough to make Tim forget about his feelings, to make Tim reject him.

Kon had arrived with the damn diary where Tim poured his soul, his sorrow, his pain, his mourning, his love and he had tried to take it with humor as he always did with serious topics trying not to get hurt, the trauma appeared in many forms and everyone They had a way of dealing with him, Kon had always used humor, kind of like Dick. He probably planned to pretend that everything was a joke if Tim rejected him, but Tim would never reject him so he took a deep breath and separated from the hug, the TKL let go easily but at the same time seemed to want to keep him there, Kon looked at him sadly, he seemed resigned and Tim couldn't allow that.

"I still like you… If you hadn't come back in the middle of my search for Bruce, I probably would have done the baby plan after bringing Bruce back, put my DNA and yours in a capsule and spent months hiding creating fake IDs, buying a house, getting a fake job, in some random country and I would have raised the baby there.” It may not be the most poetic or emotional declaration of love, hell in reality he hadn't even said that he loved him or that he liked him but Tim was a vigilante, above all he was a bat and practically Tim's entire life had revolved around heroes and That Tim is confessing to Kon what is basically that he was going to retire from being a vigilante with a test tube baby of the two, was very significant.

“I liked you from the beginning of Young Justice, I may not have loved you that early but I liked you, and after breaking up with Steph I realized that I wasn't that interested in her, because the breakup didn't hurt me that much. Instead I was more focused on the fact that we were going out the next day and that I had nothing to wear, damn Steph helped me choose what to wear because she had also realized it long before me", "you are, nice handsome, you smile seems to light up the day, your hugs are like scorching the home, I can feel the heat, the comfort, the affection, you are like a respite from the pain, the memories are the discomfort, you never judge anything, damn it, I tried to clone you 99 times and you keep saying that you don't blame me for it, even knowing that you had a lot of problems regarding your identity due to cloning, you always support everyone, you always seem to know everything, you never push me or anyone to do things I don't want to do, Hell, when my parents weren't at Christmas or when Bruce and I were arguing, you were the angriest, you always defended me, you gave fucking Jason Todd a threat for trying to kill me, you…" Tim could have spent hours talking about everything good about Kon if he had the time he would even show you his power point and his graph of over 100 reasons why Kon was a unique, admirable person and anyone who said otherwise was obviously a villain, but he couldn't since warm lips that felt like the sun on the morning of a spring day rested on his lips, effectively silencing him.

Tim had priorities and preferred to indulge in the kiss than in his talk about why Kon is the best person in the world, sue him, if Superboy kissed them they surely wouldn't be able to think, much less continue with a speech.

The kiss was perfect, not in the traditional way after all, Tim. And him still didn't know what the other liked and it was a little awkward for it being the first kiss they shared, but the feelings were there, every movement of lip to lip, They told praises of love and professed devotion, each touch was warm and moved the heart of the other, it was a promise, a prophecy fulfilled, a river that overflowed as the minutes passed and the feelings of each one were transmitted in the kiss.

The only thing that brought them out of their concentration was the noise of a pile of leaves falling to the floor. They quickly separated. Tim had thought that Kon had dropped the newspaper but unfortunately they were not so lucky. His assistant Katerin, the substitute since Tam was sick, had just seen 18-year-old Tim Drake, CEO of Wayne Enterprises, kissing Superboy… Tim would have to pay her so much to keep quiet.

[queensilber]

Supernatural: Nevermore

Review time! I actually finished reading this a while ago and just didn't get around to posting the review, but here you go!

.

Summary:

Sam and Dean go to New York to help a friend of Ash with a ghost problem. Said friend is a rocker with a music collection that Dean totally freaks over (further down in this review I have a songlist of the mentioned music, too) and they get to stay at that guy's place while taking care of the problem. There is also a murder spree based on the works of Edgar Allen Poe going on in the area and the boys are solving two cases parallelly.

My experience:

I loved this. It was so fun, the vibe was great, i had a great time! This is actually the first book in the series and I should have read it before witchs canyon, but it doesnt matter too much.

Also, the book starts on a 12th of november, wich is my birthday, so thats cool.

Music list:

Okay, so, because of the plot with the Band, there is a LOT of music in this. I‘m now just and only gonna list the things Dean either has on tape or said that he loves it. Some are songs, some are Bands and some are albums, its listed chronologically after appearance rather than what it is… (sorry)

Deep purple „smoke on the water“

Metallica

Led Zeppelin "Whole lotta love"

Van Morrison "Caravan"

Jethro Tull "For a thousand Mothers"

"Cocaine"

"Ramblin' man"

"Rock on"

"Freebird"

Queensrÿche "Operation Mindcrime"

Dark side of the moon

the Animals

House of the holy

Dressed to Kill

The who "by Numbers"

"Thick as a brick"

"in-a-gadda-di-vida"

the Big Pink

Great so let's continue,

Quotes and Random Facts

"Then again, Sam sometimes thought he didn't have the same attachment to his late girlfriend Jessica that Dean had to the Impala"

"In fact, Sam's skills at lying - both in therms of pretending to be someone else and also misleading people as to the true nature of his life and of the world itself - had been one of the things that attracted him to the law" < in reference to why he studied law at Stanford.

"Squirming in the passenger seat, Sam thought, 'I swear to god, if he starts petting the Dashboard again, I'm walking to New York" < in reference to Dean and the impala

there is also a reference to Sherlock Holmes and my post-it to that was like "Superwholock?" so yea, do with that as you will.

Sam and Jess once went to San Fransisco and did all cute tourist stuff there.

"Cassie was a Subscriber" < Dean telling Sam why he know stuff about animal magazines. he is referring to Cassie Robinson.

"He loved his brother more than anything in the world" < Dean about Sam

Dean had nightmares about people burning on ceilings like his mom did and those people were: Mary, Jessica, Cassie, Sarah, Ellen, Jo and Sam.

"Sam (...), he'd drunk hot sulfur once, by accident during a job, and he wasn't eager to repeat the experience."

"'I assume you took so long 'cause you were hitting on the bartender' he grinned. 'He didn't strike me as your type.'" < Sam about Dean, referring to the male bartender. Deans answer: "Funny boy."

"Dean looked over at his brother. Now he had on his instant face. Dean hated the insistent face, because Sam only used it when he was arguing with him. As opposed to when he argued with Dad. That was always the angry face"

Sam likes Gin and Tonic. Dean is appalled by that.

"Sam looked at Dean. Without any sign or facial indication, Sam knew that his brother agreed they should check upstairs next"

Dean just takes random pictures of Sam sleeping

John actually signed all the paperwork Sam needed to go to Stanford for the first year and Sam got them to declare him independent for the next years. Dean is in absolute shock over that and so am I. that conversation is too long for me to put in all in here, but damn it made me cry.

"'my life is seriously screwed up', he thought with amusement" <Dean, obviously.

"When he was a kid, about eleven years old, he used to go looking for cars that had 'no Radio in car' signs on them. He'd take a removable radio, of a type that was very popular at the time, and throw it as hard as he could at the car window with a note wrapped around it that read 'Now you have one'" < I love Dean so much

Dean hates rubber gloves

"'I just love Mexican Standoffs,' Dean thought"

Sooo that's about all I got for you about this book, can highly recommend it, it was better than Witches canyon, even though I liked that one too very much.

I will link the next one, once I'm done with it!

<First , Next>

[bisheepart]

Various Incorrect Quotes

Because I'm having too much fun with these

Gregory: I'm the kind of person who likes to think things through.

Cassie: Since when? I once saw you eat a marshmallow that was still on fire.

-------

Michael: Why do you two look so mad?

Simon (Freddy Mask Bully): Sit down and we'll tell you.

Michael: *sits down*

James (Chica Mask Bully): This bench is freshly painted.

-------

*Cassidy, Evan, Gregory and Cassie being friends*

Evan: I should probably get home.

Cassidy: Nope, we've already got plans to get Canadians to kidnap you so we can adopt you as our brother.

Evan:... Canadians?

Gregory: It worked with Cassie!

Cassie, deadpan: Run, it's how I got stuck with these two.

*Context: Inside Joke between me, my boyfriend, and his family about Canadian Kidnappers*

-------

Gregory: Freddy took the wheels out of my heelies because they were "unsafe." Now I have to walk down the halls like a common wench, and I am livid!

-------

Charlie/Puppet, to Cassidy and Evan/Golden Duo.: You know what true strength is? Forgiving a person who isn't even sorry.

Golden Duo: We'd rather be springlocked.

-------

Evan: Just once, I'd like to get out of bed without going through the seven stages of grief.

Sammy: What are the extra two?

Evan: Denial 2 and astral projection.

-------

Cassidy, to the MC: Alright, listen up you idiots.

Cassidy, to Evan: Not you Evan. You're an angel and we're glad you're here.

-------

Cassie: So, you're my first real friend?

Gregory: It would seem so.

Cassie: Wow....

Cassie:... I've never been so afraid of a friend before.

-------

Gregory:... What are you doing?

Cassie, putting blue glitter eyeshadow from a children's Cinderella makeup kit on Vanessa's eyelids while she sleeps:... Makeup practice.

Gregory:... Can I help?

Cassie: Yes

-------

Jeremy: Good responses for getting stabbed with a knife?

Gabriel: Rude

Fritz: That's fair

Susie; Not again

Cassidy: Are you going to want this back or can I have it?

-------

*Alive AU*

Teen Elizabeth, to Evan: Do you think dad is going to notice I dyed my hair?

Teen Evan, looking at the bathroom completely covered in hair dye:... Probably.

-------

Evan: People ask me how I got Cassidy to be friends with me. I didn't, they just picked me up like a kitten and I've been stuck with them ever since. Not that I mind.

-------

*Alive AU*

Charlie: What's an understudy?

Jessica: It's like a backup actor. So if you get sick or something, they take your place in the play.

Elizabeth: Yeah, or if you go missing, or get hit by a bus!

-------

Mark (Bonnie Mask): Did you know that you could use a crayon as a candle? In an emergency, one will burn for thirty minutes.

Simon (Freddy mask): How long does it burn if it isn't an emergency?

Michael: What does a crayon even consider an emergency?

James (Chica Mask): I think being on fire is what a crayon would consider an emergency.

Michael: Everyone considers that an emergency!

-------

Susie: The floor is lava!

Cassidy:*helps Evan onto the counter*

Fritz:*kicks Jeremy off the sofa*

Charlie:*laying face down on the floor*

Gabriel:... Are you okay?

Charlie: No.

-------

Fritz: So, did everyone learn their lesson?

Susie: No

Jeremy: I did not.

Cassidy: I may have forgotten one.

Gabriel: Also no.

Fritz: Oh good, neither did I!

Charlie: *long suffering sigh*

-------

Cassie: Bye Roxy! Bye Gregory! Bye Freddy! Bye Vanessa! Bye Roxy!

Gregory: You said "Bye Roxy" twice.

Cassie: I like Roxy.

-------

Gregory: Arson? Oh, you mean Crime Brulee.

Cassie: no, no we mean arson.

Michael, possessing Glam Freddy: Crime Brulee.

-------

Elizabeth: We have fun! Right Evan?

Evan: I've never been more stressed out in my entire life.

-------

William: One day, we're going to look back on this and laugh!

Henry: I promise, every time I think of this moment, I'm going to come to your house and punch you in the face.

[elm-writes-stories]

Cuphead: Isle of Memories (Rewrite)

*Hey guys! I'm back with the new episode! To let you all know, this is going to be a long chapter/episode. I'm so sorry in advance for this. There's a lot of juicy stuff in the episode though, I promise. Anyway, this is published on October 11, 2023. If you guys enjoy the episode, don't be afraid to heart it, reblog, and comment! They would be greatly appreciated! Enjoy!*

Episode Eight: A Devil in a Red Dress

“BECAUSE I LOVE YOU!!!”

Cassidy woke up with a jolt. The familiar voice screamed in her mind. It seemed to be in pain and in grief. She couldn’t remember how she ended up in a lone cell. She was in the dark, alone. Just as she should be…right? She bit her lips and started to sob, tears streaming down her red furry cheeks. Her heart hurt when she remembered the voice who told her that he loved her. Now she could remember every single detail of the fight. She was choking Natalie…she might have killed Canteen…she was fighting with Mugman. No, no, no…she remembered now.

She sobbed into her hands, burying her face. Maybe she deserved to be surrounded by darkness. Maybe she deserved to die along with her kind. She was a demon. A burden. She became what others see her as her whole life. A monster.

Cassidy looked up to see the silver door of her cell, crying her eyes out. She felt something tingle under her red fur. The feline glanced down and noticed her veins glowing blue. That was weird. Tremaine didn’t look like that. There was something else that happened. Did…something electrocuted her?

She heard an evil chuckle as she looked up to find The Devil peeking through the window of the door.

“You know, Cassi, if it weren’t for the fact that you’re valuable, I would’ve killed you instantly for failing me to not kill any of your ex-friends,” Devil stated with a grin. “What’s holding you back from killing your little ex-friends, hm? Is it because you still care about them even though they could care less about you?”

Cassidy gritted her teeth. “You’re lying.”

“Oh? I’m lying?” Devil stated. “Let me ask you something. How could you care about a world that doesn’t give a damn about you? It’s not like anyone is going to miss you. No one in this world will ever miss a piece of burden such as yourself.”

“D-Dad and Jerry would—”

“Your ‘dads’ only took you in because they feel nothing but pity for you. You pathetic thing. Your ‘friends’ only pretend to be your friends because they’re afraid of you. You saw Natalie’s memories. She laughed and mocked you. She pushed you around and dragged you everywhere, even though there are places that could’ve killed you. Everyone thinks you’re a burden. Do you really think that everyone else will not see you that way? Think again, Cassidy. Think again.”

Cassidy tried to fight the tears, but she felt more anger than sadness. “Mugman doesn’t see me that way!”

“Yes he does—”

“No, he doesn’t! He loves me! He says so himself! You can’t keep lying to me like this—!” Cassidy felt the burn in her veins all the sudden, causing her to scream in pain.

“He never loves you! No one loves you! Why can’t you accept that?!” Devil yelled demonically.

“Mugman loves me!”

“No, he doesn’t!”

“Dad loves me!”

“Ha! You know that’s a lie—!”

“Jerry loves me!”

“Oh, get over it, will you?! I’m telling you! They are only pretending to love you—”

“Mugman loves me!”

“Shut up!”

“Dad and Jerry love me! And I refuse to believe anything else other than that!” Cassidy growled, a sudden burst of electricity zapped at the door. It almost got the Devil, which shocked both Cassidy and Devil.

Cassidy looked at her paws in confusion as to how she did that.

Devil gritted his teeth in anger. “Well, if you won’t accept the truth I’ve given you, then I guess I have use force!” The Devil teleported into her cell and snatched her chest, pulling her soul out of her body. For a moment, she felt her body going limped. It was a painful process but she felt she was ripped out of her body. She looked down and saw her own body, laying on the ground in the red silky dress. The Devil took her away from her cell with teleportation, just to put her soul in the special soul vault where she will never get out.

~.~

Mugman snapped his eyes open and sat up abruptly in the late evening, his vision blue for a moment until it faded instantly. He breathed heavily with tears streaming down his porcelain cheeks. He saw it all. He saw the Devil taking Cassidy’s soul without remorse and hesitation. It had to be a bad dream, right?

“Mugman?” Cuphead’s voice piped up.

Mugman turned to see Cuphead, Chalice, Canteen, and Natalie looking at him with concern.

“Are you okay?” Chalice asked softly.

Mugman broke down into tears, which got Cuphead to rush over and hug his brother.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay, buddy. It’s okay. It’s probably a bad dream,” Cuphead soothed his brother.

Mugman cried into Cuphead’s chest, gripping his shoulders.

Chalice frowned to show sympathy along with Canteen and Natalie. However, the three kids notice Mugman growing angrier than normal.

“Uh, Mugman?” Canteen uttered.

Mugman pulled out of his brother’s hold and stormed out of the bedroom, his brows drawn together and his veins glowing blue.

“Mugsy?” Cuphead questioned while following his brother. “Hey, are you okay?”

Mugman extended his wings when he was about to approach the exit of the base. Cuphead zoomed in front of his brother. “Whoa, whoa, what are you doing?”

“Move, Cuphead. I gotta go—”

When Mugman tried to walk past him, Cuphead blocked the way.

“Where?”

“Just move—”

“Mugman, please talk to me.”

“Just let me go—”

“No! No way! I don’t want to lose you, Mugman.”

“You won’t—”

“I already almost lost you twice. I can’t lose you again. Please, Mugman, tell me what’s going on. Maybe I can help.”

“Since when are you helpful?” Mugman snarled, causing Cuphead to wince at the question. Mugman gasped to realize what he said and shook his head. “Nevermind, stupid question. I gotta go—”

“Why do you always gotta go?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Lately, you’ve been trying to do things on your own that can get you hurt or killed. Usually, you would get onto me about that! The first time you went out by yourself to save Cassidy, we weren’t able to save Cassi—” Cuphead widened his eyes when he noticed his brother tearing up. “Wait, does this have something to do with Cassidy?”

“Cuphead, please—”

“Answer the question.”

Mugman hugged himself, tearing up.

Cuphead waited patiently for his brother to answer.

Mugman looked up at his brother. “The Devil…he…he…” He collapsed on his knees, his wings withdrawn in his back as he was sobbing.

Cuphead kneeled down and rubbed his brother’s shoulder. This time, Chalice joined in and placed her hand on Mugman’s other shoulder.

“Hey, you ain’t gotta explain it if you can’t,” Chalice said while hugging Mugman from the side.

Porkrind approached the scene while rubbing his eye. “What’s the commotion? It’s in the middle of the night.”

Dice entered the entryway with a pot of coffee. “I was wondering what the sobbing sound.”

Porkrind arched a brow at the former gambler. “Why are you drinking coffee in the middle of the night? You know it’s gonna keep you up at night, right?”

“It’s kind of why I drink it.”

Porkrind shook his head with a sigh and shifted his gaze back at the kids. “You kids should head back to bed—”

“I-I can’t,” Mugman sobbed, hugging himself tighter.

“Why not?” Porkrind asked.

“Please, I don’t want to go back to sleep,” Mugman whimpered.

Dice looked at his half-empty coffee pot and held it over to Mugman. “Wanna take a drink?”

“What? Don’t give him that,” Porkrind scolded Dice.

“Why not? He obviously gets nightmares,” Dice replied with a deadpan stare.

Jerry entered the scene with a groan. “Guys, it’s in the middle of the night—can’t we all go back to sleep and worry in the morning?”

Mugman shook his head and stood up. “I can’t…I gotta go—”

“Go…where?” Dice asked.

Cuphead blocked the entrance. “No! You’re not going down to the Underworld again by yourself.”

“Oh yeah, that’s a dumb idea,” Dice responded while throwing the pot of coffee aside. “You guys just came out of there and you were in a coma for a couple of days while Canteen here got injured.”

Porkrind frowned when thinking about his kid. “Well, now we know where the entrance to the Devil’s lair is, we just need to update the map.”

“Yeah, and then we need to make a cure for Cassidy and make a thought-out plan to rescue her. Then we’ll be swell,” Dice responded with a bright grin.

“Now that’s an idea I can get behind,” Chalice encouraged. “There’s someone in jail who can help us make the cure. He’s able to help last time.”

“You’re not saying who I think you’re saying,” Porkrind growled with his arms crossed.

“He’s changed—”

Porkrind shook his head at Chalice’s comment. “Eh-eh, he doesn’t change in the span of overnight. Seems a little suspicious.”

“You do realize that he’s been in jail for a couple of weeks, right?” Chalice responded.

“Oh no, not him,” Cuphead groaned.

“Hey, he’s able to help your brother last time with the cure. I’m sure he’ll be up for it to help Cassi.”

Mugman relaxed a bit once he realized that everyone had already thought of a way to get Cassidy out of Hell. He frowned and took deep breaths.

“Great, we got a plan. Now, let’s get some sleep and do this in the morning,” Jerry determined.

“We don’t have much time,” Mugman uttered.

“What do you mean?” King Dice questioned. “She’s most likely just sticking with Big D while Big D rubs his hands evilly and thinking of a world-ending plan. I think we got a little time for sleep—”

“No, Devil already took her soul!” Mugman cried, collapsing on his knees.

“What?” Porkrind growled.

“I-I saw it…I saw the Devil taking her soul and putting her soul in the special soul-vault,” Mugman whimpered.

“Hey, that’s where I was when he took my soul,” Cuphead recalled.

“Are you sure that it wasn’t just a dream?” Jerry asked in fear.

Mugman’s lips wobbled. “I can’t even tell what’s real or a dream anymore.”

Porkrind clenched his jaw to keep himself from crying and huffed. He walked over by Mugman and pulled him up by his feet.

“C’mon, let’s go,” Porkrind determined.

“What?” Mugman uttered in surprise.

“Whoa, whoa, do we even have a foolproof plan to get into Hell?” Dice questioned the pig.

“Yeah, I got a plan. We’re gonna get that maniac out of jail and have him make a cure for Cassi. Then, we’re going down to Hell, rescue Cassi, and kill the Devil,” Porkrind responded with a growl as he was ready to head out of the door.

Dice raised his finger nervously. “Eh, technically, you can’t kill the Devil.”

“Then I guess I oughta knock him out cold,”Porkrind stated with a cold stare before leaving the base.

Dice and Jerry exchanged looks of confusion.

“We should catch up to him before he gets himself hurt,” Jerry responded.

“Yeah,” Dice agreed.

Both Dice and Jerry exited the base to catch up to Porkrind.

Chalice placed her hand on Mugman’s shoulder with a soft smile. “Don’t worry, we’ll get Cassidy out of this.”

“Yeah, and the Devil will pay for it,” Cuphead reassured his brother.

Mugman wiped the tears away with a small smile. “Okay.”

Natalie clenched her fists and pumped them up with a determined smile. “Now, let’s go kick some demon butt and rescue Cassi!”

Canteen nodded his head in agreement.

The six kids exited the base and hurried to catch up with the three adults.

~.~

 Chef Saltbaker sat alone in his cell with a bored look on his face. His head was resting on his hand while sitting on the creaky bed. The police had shut down the prison since Tremaine had infected half of the population of the town. Now, they barricaded the premises of the prison, not letting any infectees into the prison.

Saltbaker couldn’t do community service, which part of him was glad. But he was still banned from the kitchens and his sentence has been extended since he was in the kitchen to make the cure for Mugman. A little sacrifice won’t hurt…right? Well, if it weren’t for the fact that the sentencing went from five years to ten years, maybe he wouldn’t feel like he was tortured by boredom and Tabitha’s constant complaints of the prison’s condition.

He heard a clink sound from the bars and looked up to see the bug cop standing there with a baton.

“You got yourselves visitors,” the cop responded while referring to Porkrind, Dice, Jerry, Chalice, Cuphead, Mugman, Canteen, and Natalie approaching the cell.

“Ah, you still allow visitors. It makes being here less boring I suppose,” Saltbaker replied cheekily to the bug cop.

The cop rolled his eyes and turned to the others. “Ya got fifteen minutes.” He walked away from the group.

Porkrind instantly turned to the chef. “So, I heard you can make a cure for Tremaine.”

Saltbaker arched a brow and stood up from his bed, walking over to the bars dividing him and the group. “Well…yeah. That’s what extended my sentencing period.”

“Sorry,” Chalice uttered.

“Nah, don’t worry about it. Is Mugman…?” Saltbaker noticed Mugman standing there without having Tremaine inside of him. “Oh good, it cured him.”

“Well, we’re going to need your help curing someone else,” Chalice uttered with a nervous smile.

Saltbaker tilted his head and looked at Canteen. “It’s not him, is it?”

“No…actually…it’s Cassi,” Mugman responded.

“That piece of burden?” Tabitha snarled.

“Mom, stop calling her that,” Natalie argued.

“Well, she is. No one remembers her fondly—”

Dice flicked one of his cards at her to keep Tabitha’s mouth shut.

“Ah, Cassidy. I remembered her fondly,” Saltbaker interrupted while looking at the scratch mark on his finger that appeared to be from a cat. “She’s probably the only one besides you kids who appreciates my cooking.”

“Yeah, and you’re gonna make a cure for her,” Porkrind growled with his arms crossed.

Saltbaker arched a brow. “Wait, how did she get Tremaine inside of her—?”

“The less you know, the better,” Porkrind snarled at the chef.

The chef sighed. “I would make the cure for her, but I’m trapped in this cell. If you have some genius plan to get me out and back into the kitchen, that would be swell—”

Chalice pulled out the key to his cell with a mischievous grin.

Saltbaker smirked back. “Oh, you’re good. But you’re also gonna need a distraction—”

They heard an explosion, drawing the bug cops’ attentions as they ran outside.

Cuphead and Canteen smirked and fist-bumped each other.

“You little gremlins,” Saltbaker responded with a chuckle.

Chalice unlocked the cell door, letting Saltbaker walk out of his cell. Saltbaker was guided out of the prison with Tabitha looking onward with jealousy written on her face.

Tabitha ripped the card out of her mouth and threw it aside. “You’re willing to let a maniac out of his own cell rather than your own mother, Natalie?”

Cuphead glared at Tabitha over his shoulder and wrapped his arm around Natalie. “Don’t listen to her. She ain’t worth listenin’ to.”

Natalie frowned and snuggled close to Cuphead, who blushed a little.

“You and your sister are disappointments!” Tabitha called angrily. “That’s why your father left you both! If it weren’t for me, you both wouldn’t even get to this far! Your father doesn’t care about you!”

Natalie became fed up and whirled around with a glare at her mother, yanking herself out of Cuphead’s arm. “Call me a disappointment! I don’t care! But don’t you dare talk about Aurora like that! You’re supposed to be our mom!”

She started to tear up. “You’re supposed to protect us! But you don’t protect us! You’re the one who doesn’t care about us! You care about our status, our beauty, and your profit! You can call me a disappointment all you want, but you have no right to talk about Aurora the way you do! Aurora is not and will never be like you and me!”

She wiped her tears away, calming down a bit more. “I will stop trying to be like you, because I’m not you. I’m me. I’m Natalie Ruth. And I refuse to be anything else other than that.”

With that said, Natalie walked away and held Cuphead’s hand without hesitation. Cuphead blushed to the point where his face was completely red and the liquid in his head boiled. She was blushing too as he was holding her hand softly, caressing his thumb over her knuckles.

Natalie turned to look at Cuphead, who stared at her with sparkling eyes.

“You’re so beautiful…” Cuphead uttered before blinking and snapping out of his trance. “I mean…uh-hehe…let’s, um, focus on gettin’ Cassi out of hell.”

Natalie blushed and nodded her head.

They hurried out of the prison, following the group back to base while the cops were distracted by putting the fire out.

~.~

Porkrind, Dice, and Jerry snuck Saltbaker into the Howling Aces base with the kids behind them.

“Looks like everyone is still asleep,” Dice whispered to the others.

“Good, let’s get to work,” Saltbaker said while coming into the kitchen of the base. He looked through the ingredients and found honey and milk in the fridge, however, there was a small amount of milk left and more honey left behind. Saltbaker glanced over at Chalice with a frown on his face. He searched through the cabinets and found the med-kit and took out a syringe. He turned to the others, noticing them staring at him intently.

“Why do you need a syringe?” Jerry questioned the chef.

“Oh, it’s in the ingredients. To make the cure, you need to mix honey, milk, and the blood of the Calix Animi member,” Saltbaker responded.

“What if you’re lying about the ingredients like last time?” Porkrind asked with skepticism in his tone.

“Believe me, if I were lying about the ingredients, I wouldn’t even include the blood in the ingredients,” Saltbaker responded.

“I told him it was one of the ingredients when he made the cure last time,” Chalice added.

Porkrind arched a brow. “Oh, uh, okay. Wait, how did you know the ingredients?”

“Quadratus told us,” Cuphead replied with a bright smile.

“Quadratus?” Jerry questioned and glanced at Dice.

Dice shrugged his shoulders.

Saltbaker got out an empty bowl and started pouring all the milk and using as much as honey as he could. He looked at Chalice and then at the others until an idea struck him. “Say…Is that the member of the Calix Animi?”

The group looked behind them.

“Where?” Cuphead asked excitedly.

Canteen looked back and noticed Chalice extending her arm while Saltbaker was using the syringe to draw blood out of Chalice’s arm that wasn’t bandaged. He squirted the blood into the bowl from the syringe and bandaged Chalice’s other arm after he put down the syringe. Canteen gave the chef a deadpan stare while watching it unfold. When the group turned around to look at him, Saltbaker started mixing Chalice’s blood with milk and honey.

“There’s no one behind us,” Jerry replied with a deadpan stare.

“Oh, really? I thought I saw someone,” Saltbaker said while beads of sweat form on the side of his head.

Canteen clenched his teeth while Saltbaker continued to mix the ingredients until the bright blue glow exploded suddenly.

“Good gravy!” Saltbaker shouted, causing everyone to gasp.

“SHHH!!!” Porkrind, Dice, Jerry, and the kids shushed Saltbaker.

They suddenly heard footsteps running to the kitchen.

O’Fera appeared from the side door. “Did someone get hurt?”

She froze when she noticed Chef Saltbaker in her kitchen in his black and white striped pajamas, mixing unknown ingredients in the bowl that was glowing blue. She looked to see Chalice scratching the bandage on her other arm nervously and then back up at Saltbaker. She noticed a bloody syringe on the counter next to the bowl.

Saltbaker moved his eyes at the bloody syringe and then back at the sergeant. “It’s not what it looks like—”

“You used a child for your own sick cooking experiments?” O’Fera growled at Saltbaker, ready to attack him.

“No, it’s not like that,” Chalice responded quickly to diffuse the situation. “He’s makin’ the cure for Tremaine.”

“Yeah,” Cuphead added.

O’Fera calmed down a bit. “And he’s the only who can make it, because—”

“He’s an expert on making magical foods,” Chalice explained.

“Oh, like that Wondertart incident he almost cooked up one time?” O’Fera questioned while giving the chef a withering glare.

Saltbaker laughed nervously. “It was only one time.”

“And you went to jail for it,” she snarled.

“Right…” Saltbaker responded. “But hey, I’ve changed now.”

“Really?” O’Fera replied. “I’ll know it when I see it.”

The chef rolled his eyes with a groan.

The familiar brown rat popped out from the top of Mugman’s porcelain head. “Vill vu all chust sdop schouding for fiffe zeconds? Vu’re ruining mein peauty sleep.”

“Hey! What are you still doing in Mugman’s head?!” Cuphead shouted at Werner angrily.

Werner laid his chin on the edge of Mugman’s porcelain head. “It’s nice und cosy up here.”

“Werner, get out of his head,” O’Fera demanded tiredly.

“Nein!” Werner said while ducking back into Mugman’s head.

Mugman rubbed his arm with a nervous laugh at the others.

O’Fera rolled her eyes at the rat and looked at the chef. “Alright, first off, who are you making the cure for? Because it doesn’t look like this can be given to multiple people.”

“It’s for Cassidy,” Porkrind responded with his arms crossed.

O’Fera’s brow quirked up. “And you let Saltbaker out in the middle of the night because—?”

“The Devil has her soul in the soul vault,” Mugman explained.

O’Fera squinted in confusion. “How?”

Werner popped out his head out of Mugman’s head again. “Does the liquid in your head glow plue veneffer vu haffe ein ‘fizion’?”

“Uh…I don’t know,” Mugman answered.

“Hmm, schtrange,” Werner responded while climbing out of Mugman’s head and landed on his shoulder. He sat down and pondered for a moment, his clothes soaked from being in the liquid in Mugman’s cup head. “How often do vu get fizions?”

“Uh…every night,” Mugman answered.

Werner nodded his head in understanding. “Okay. Vo’s Cazi?”

“Uh…my girlfriend,” the mug responded.

“Ah, vu are romandically infolffed I zee. I honestly neffer zee vu vith any girl. Glad I vas broffen vrong,” Werner replied with a smirk.

“Alright, can we get back to the subject at hand?” O’Fera interrupted. “Look, it’s in the middle of the night and—”

“Please, Sergeant,” Mugman begged. “If we don’t save Cassi now, who knows what the Devil is going to do to her sooner than later. I know that it’s risky and you probably don’t think it’s safe, but please…I—” he clenched his teeth to withhold the tears. “—I want to help her in any way I can. Please, let me help her.”

O’Fera frowned at the sight of Mugman almost ready to break down in tears with a little whine. With a sigh, she crossed her arms loosely. “You’re not going down there…”

Mugman frowned and looked away.

“…Without reinforcements,” she finished with a small soft smile.

Mugman perked his head up with his eyes widened. Everyone else smiled at Sergeant O’Fera, who drew her brows in determination.

“We know the entrance to Hell here, right?” O’Fera asked the others.

“Yep,” Dice responded.

“Right where you picked us up last time,” Chalice replied.

O’Fera nodded her head in understanding. “I got a plan on how we can get in.”

~.~

Throughout the isle, there were more and more infectees eating the remaining food in the shops until they eat from the trashcans. The silhouette of a long plane flew over them, catching some of their attention. Up in the night sky, the plane flew in the shape of a dachshund with windows on each side of the plane. It had a face of a dachshund with long ears and a bow used as a propeller. Within the long plane, Mugman looked out of the window to find the volcano they were circling around to enter into Hell.

Mugman felt a hand on his shoulder and looked over to find Cuphead rubbing his shoulder.

“You ready?” Cuphead asked his brother.

Mugman drew his brows together in determination and nodded his head.

Werner popped out from Mugman’s head. “Alright! Let’s get ready! Ve’re apout to chump into Hell!”

Mugman and Cuphead looked to see Brineybeard, Ribby, and Croaks aboard on the plane along with Bulldog and the pups known as the Yankee Yippers. Porkrind took his hammer out while Jerry loaded his guns. Dice practiced his card magic for combat. Saltbaker held onto the cure in the syringe, leaning against the wall.

Natalie rubbed her arm nervously while Chalice patted her back to reassure her that everything will be alright. However, Chalice noticed Canteen sitting in the shadows, rubbing his bandaged arm. She went over to him and sat next to him.

“Ya ready to get Cassidy?” Chalice asked with a bright smile.

Canteen faked a grin and nodded a bit. “Yeah, a little. Although. I think I should stay back with the Howling Aces.”

“Why?” Chalice questioned.

“I, um, not a good fighter…” Canteen uttered sadly. “I think it’s best if you guys go without me. That way I won’t weigh you down.”

Chalice frowned with a brow arched.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be safe,” Canteen reassured Chalice.

“Okay, if you say so,” Chalice responded sadly.

Canteen frowned when she got up and walk away, not knowing he was approached by Bulldog and Charlie Left-legs.

O’Fera was driving the plane with Murray sitting next to her. “Prepare for landing.”

Everyone nodded their heads in understanding.

The plane landed on all four paws on the edge of the volcano. Everyone got out of the plane with Bulldog setting up the crane and platform while Charlie strung up his webs so that it could hold the platform and connected to crane.

“Bulldog, Charlie, and Canteen, stay here and wait till I signal you guys to pull us up,” O’Fera stated. She looked at the others. “Brineybeard, Ribby, Croaks, Saltbaker, and Werner, go with the kids. Porkrind, Dice, Jerry, and Murray, you’re coming with me to get Cassidy’s soul.

The group nodded their heads in agreement. O’Fera hopped onto the platform, signaling Porkrind, Dice, Murray, and Jerry to come with her.

They stepped onto the platform and Charlie lowered the platform into the volcano. The group was lowered into the volcano.

Dice glanced at O’Fera with a brow quirked up. “Do you know how to get souls out of the soul vault without trading your soul?”

“Do you?” O’Fera questioned.

“Yeah…”

“Then that’s one reason why you’re coming with us,” O’Fera responded. “Do you know where we can free Cassi’s soul?”

Dice cracked his knuckles. “Yep. I know this place from the back of my hand.”

Once the platform landed on the ground into the underworld, Dice stepped off of it, leading his group through Hell to get to the library.

It was the kids’ turn along with Brineybeard, Saltbaker, Ribby, and Croaks. As they were getting onto the platform, Chalice looked back at Canteen with a frown. Canteen softly smiled at her in reassurance that he will be alright up here with Charlie and Bulldog. He waved at her for good luck as the platform was being lowered by Charlie.

Saltbaker noticed this exchange between Chalice and Canteen and placed a hand on her shoulder with a soothing rub. The lower they went, the more determined the kids became to rescue their friend.

~.~

Dice led O’Fera, Murray, Porkrind, and Jerry through the hallways of Hell.

“We’re almost there,” Dice informed the group.

They snuck towards the library while Dice went towards the door and checked to see if the coast was clear. His eyes widened when he saw a couple of imps cleaning the library. Dice hid behind the door and looked at the others, shaking his head.

O’Fera, Porkrind, Murray, and Jerry peeked inside to find the imps dusting the shelves. Jerry took out a smoke bomb from his jacket, but was stopped by Murray.

“I got this one,” Murray whispered to them and snuck into the library.

The others watched intently while Murray was sneaking up to the imps.

Murray placed his heads on their heads, controlling their memories that would paralyze them. The imps fell onto the ground, trembling from the powers.

“Okay, the coast is clear,” Murray whispered to the others.

O’Fera came in while looking at Murray both impressed and shocked. “How did you do that?”

Murray rubbed the back of his head. “I’ll explain it once we’re done here.”

O’Fera smirked at him with her arms crossed.

Dice climbed up to the shelves where all the soul contracts used to be, only noticing one in the C-section. They all could assume that it might be Cassidy’s contract. Dice brought the contract out and looked to see that there was no signature but there was a sentence written in bronze.

“A deal was made by the handshake.”

No wonder Cassidy didn’t sign her name. She shook hands with the Devil.

Dice climbed back down to the others, not realizing another small contract fell out of the one he was holding.

Porkrind picked it up and opened it up to see that it had his own signature and Jerry’s.

Jerry peeked over his shoulder and gasped.

“We’ve never made any deals with him,” Porkrind growled.

“Look, he forged our signatures to give up Cassidy’s soul,” Jerry pointed out.

“Are you kidding me?” Porkrind growled.

Dice looked around the library. “Guys, we need to make this quick.”

Murray and O’Fera witnessed Porkrind putting the contract on the ground and Dice getting another upside down cross from the wall. He flipped it over, letting it glow bright in his hand.

Dice dropped the cross onto Cassidy’s contract, burning it. The bright glow took over in a shape of a cross and disappeared without a trace.

“Whoa,” Dice uttered in shock. “We did it.”

“We need to find Cassidy,” Jerry determined, opening the door and rushing out.

“Jerry, wait!” Porkrind called while chasing after him. Dice followed after them.

O’Fera and Murray hurried after the guys and followed them towards the soul vault where they froze instantly in shock. They saw a faded glow from a figure holding Cassidy’s soul.

“Hey!” Porkrind shouted before the glowing figure disappeared with Cassidy’s soul in his arms.

“What’s that?!” Jerry shouted in panic.

“It’s not the Devil at least,” Dice responded nervously.

“Come on! We got to find her!” Porkrind replied in panic.

Everyone rushed through the soul vault, looking for Cassidy’s soul.

~.~

“Are you sure you know where you’re going?” Ribby questioned Mugman as they were walking through the hallways towards the dungeons.

Mugman nodded his head.

Werner popped out of Mugman’s ceramic head with a withering glare at Ribby. “Hey, don’t gueszion zee mug. He knovs vere he’s koing!”

“Hey, since when did you start believing in Mugsy?” Cuphead questioned the rat.

“Zince he’s schowed his bovers,” Werner answered plainly.

“I got powers too,” Cuphead responded.

“Ha! Zee only zuberpover vu kot vas peing Hannoying,” Werner said while laughing at the cup.

Cuphead growled, his eyes turned flaming red as his fists started to become aflame.

Werner stopped laughing and looked at Cuphead in fear. He ducked his head into Mugman’s ceramic head.

Brineybeard patted Cuphead’s shoulder. “Why don’t we calm down? Who knows wha’ could lurkin’ around here?”

“The pirate is right,” Saltbaker said while holding the syringe close. “The demons might be nearby and your glowing fists might draw their attention to us.”

Chalice sighed while rubbing her hands. “Oh, I hope Canteen is doing okay up there. He ain’t the same as he was ever since we tried to get Cassidy out of here the first time.”

“Really? He seemed to be the same to me,” Saltbaker responded.

“I don’t know. He ain’t as talkative as he used to be,” Chalice responded.

“Yeah, I did notice that,” Natalie replied.

“Might have to check on him once we get back,” Chalice responded.

“Guys, we’re here,” Mugman alerted the group.

Croaks and Ribby ran ahead of them.

“Guys, wait!” Saltbaker alerted them.

“Cassi!” Ribby called.

“Cassi!” Croaks joined, searching within the cells until they found the silver door.

Ribby looked through the window along with Croaks.

“Oh no, Cassi!” Ribby shouted.

“Hang on!” Croaks growled in determination and used his shoulder to bash the silver door.

“Whoa, whoa, hey, you’re making too much noise,” Saltbaker whispered to the frogs harshly.

Cuphead touched the silver door, having it melt in his hands to reveal Cassidy’s soulless body laying against the wall.

Mugman gasped and ran towards her, sliding on his knees beside her. “C-Cassi?” He moved her black bangs out of her face to see her fully. He tried to hold in the tears when he was seeing her like this.

“Hurry,” Chalice ordered.

Saltbaker rushed towards her until he noticed her opening her eyes, red with white slit pupils. With a gasp, Saltbaker grabbed Mugman by the handle. Mugman screeched and zapped Saltbaker, electrocuting him.

“Ow! I’m trying to save your life!” Saltbaker shouted at Mugman, his veins glowing blue.

Mugman breathed heavily with Werner popping out of his head with sparks around his body.

“Ow, that really hurts,” Werner groaned in pain, losing his German accent.

They heard Cassidy laughing evilly, causing everyone to widen their eyes in fear.

“Zat’s your girlfriend?” Werner questioned.

Mugman nodded his head with a sigh of admiration. “Yeah…”

Werner gave the mug teen a deadpan stare. “Ve’re zubozed to pe afraid of your girlfriend, not Hadmiring her.”

The walls fell away from them as if they had been tricked to think they were in the dungeons. But they were in the grand throne room, surrounded by imps and demons. The Devil was sitting at the throne, his veins glowing orange.

“Well, well, look who shows up for a little rescue mission,” The Devil stated while using his fingers to control Cassidy’s body.

“Hey! Leave her alone!” Ribby shouted.

“Yeah!” Croaks added.

Before they could charge at the Devil for controlling Cassidy like a puppet, the imps came forward with their weapons.

Ribby and Croaks clenched their fists, ready to fight.

Brineybeard took out his sword and stood in front of Natalie to defend her.

Cuphead clenched his fists, the red flames glowing.

Chalice turned into a ghost with a determined look on her face.

The blue sparks came out of Mugman’s body, his glare set on the Devil.

Werner ducked back into Mugman’s head and then coming back up with a mini-gun aimed at the imps around them.

“Ooh, I’m so scared,” Devil mocked them. “I have enough patience as it is. I have been waiting for this moment when I can finally kill you all. Now…let’s get the party started, shall we?”

The imps charged towards the others.

Ribby and Croaks yelled out their battle-cry and threw punches at the imps, knocking down every single one of them coming at them.

Brineybeard slashed through the demons with his sword while Werner was firing his mini gun at the imps from Mugman’s head.

Cassidy threw a fireball at Natalie, but it was intercepted by Cuphead. Cuphead threw the fireball back at Cassidy with his wings spread out. Cassidy grabbed the fireball and held it for a brief while.

Mugman zoomed towards Devil, causing Werner to fall back into the mug’s head. He did not hesitate to throw punches at the Devil, letting the sparks fly out of his hands to electrocute the Devil.

The Devil took a hit, his body convulsing a bit until he managed to control himself and smacking Mugman in the face with the back of his pitchfork. He raised his hands up to control Cassidy’s body, turning her around to aim the fireball at Mugman. Before she could throw it, Chalice jumped into her body as a ghost and possessed her, yanking the aim to Devil instead. The fireball was thrown at the Devil, hitting his body.

Cassidy had blue eyes instead of red, indicating that Chalice was possessing her temporary.

“Hurry, Saltbaker! I don’t know how much longer I can hold her!” Chalice shouted with Cassidy’s voice.

Saltbaker nodded his head and rushed towards Cassidy.

Devil noticed Saltbaker running towards Cassidy with the cure in his hand. The demon growled and used his telepathic powers to shove Saltbaker away from Cassidy, sending him flying towards Ribby and Croaks. He took back Cassidy’s body under his possession, shoving Chalice out of Cassidy’s body.

Saltbaker shrieked and crashed against the frogs, knocking them back away from the imps.

Brineybeard gasped and hurried to defend the others by slashing at the incoming imps attacking them. “Are you guys okay?”

“Never better,” Saltbaker groaned.

Mugman drew his brows together and charged towards Devil, tackling him off the throne.

Cuphead was about help, but the imps were piling up on him. He threw his fists at them to get them away from him. Natalie noticed this while breathing heavily in fear. She looked to see Chalice being shoved out of Cassidy’s body, reverting her back to her physical form. Chalice groaned in pain and looked up to Cassidy forming fireballs in her paws.

Before Cassidy would throw a fire ball at Chalice, a mini cannonball crashed between her and Chalice. It blew up before they both could question what it was.

Chalice gasped and looked to the side to see Canteen holding a pistol. He jumped between Cassidy and Chalice with a glare at her, earning Chalice’s bright smile.

“If you want to hurt her, you’re going to have to get through me,” Canteen growled, his gun aimed at her.

Cuphead noticed Canteen standing between Cassidy and Chalice while Bulldog and Charlie entered the scene with Esther tagging along with them.

Bulldog took out his M60 machine gun and fired the bullets at the imps, backing them away from Cuphead and Brineybeard.

Charlie threw bombs in his webs at the imps while Esther fired her shotgun at the imps attacking Brineybeard.

Mugman punched the Devil continuously and sent sparks onto the Devil’s body until someone familiar knocked him away from the Devil. Mugman groaned in pain and looked up. His breathing stopped and his mind went blank. He could only stare in horror to see a familiar tiger standing over him, his stomach opened and an orange glow in his veins.

Devil stood back up with a condescending smirk. “You remember Hunter, don’t you?”

Mugman had tears trickling down to his face, watching Hunter approaching him closer. When Hunter leaned down to meet Mugman’s eye-level, a smirk came to his face.

“It’s nice to see you again, little animal,” Hunter snarled.

Werner popped out of Mugman’s head. “Hey, vo are vu calling little animal?!” Angrily, Werner hopped onto Hunter’s forehead, slamming his fists between the tiger’s eyes with a battle-cry.

Before Devil could step in to help Hunter, a wooden hammer slammed into his face and knocked him back. Devil growled in pain and looked to see Porkrind gripping the hammer with a pissed-off look on his face. The Devil laughed and more arms were pulled from his sides to scare the pig.

Jerry came into the scene and used the other arms out of his trench-coat to pull out his pistols. “Two can play that game.”

Before Devil could attack both Jerry and Porkrind, two cards blocked his eyes. Devil screamed and ripped them off, realizing Dice was right beside him and holding his pitchfork to aim it at Devil.

“Don’t make me use this,” Dice growled.

O’Fera and Murray jumped into the scene, helping Cuphead and Charlie with the imps with O’Fera firing her gun and Murray jumping into the imps’ memories and torturing them with it. Bulldog joined O’Fera, firing at the imps.

O’Fera looked at Bulldog. “Wait, who’s at the edge?!”

“Djimmi, Cagney, Hilda, and Bowlboy! Don’t worry, they’ll lift us up once we let them know!” Bulldog shouted in determination.

Natalie was the only one not fighting the imps. She didn’t know what to do until she noticed Cassidy ready to fire another fireball at Canteen. Chalice got up and gripped Canteen’s bandage shoulder with a glare at possessed Cassidy.

Natalie had to think of something to do. She noticed the Devil controlling her despite being attacked by Porkrind, Jerry, and Dice while Mugman couldn’t move an inch from noticing Hunter and Werner attacking Hunter. Natalie wondered if she could get Cassidy away from the Devil. That’s when an idea struck her. She took off her pink high-heels and threw one of them at Cassidy’s head. Cassidy got hit in the head by the shoes and looked at Natalie.

“Come get me!” Natalie shouted and ran off.

Cassidy grinned evilly and chased after Natalie.

Chalice and Canteen gasped in shock and chased after Cassidy.

Saltbaker noticed this and decided to hurry after the other kids.

Natalie lured Cassidy through the halls of Hell, hoping to get her friend further enough away from the Devil for him to lose control of her. However, Natalie hit a dead end and gasped in fear. She turned to find Cassidy creeping closer to her, a fireball ready in her paw until she crossed an invisible line. Her veins no longer glowed orange and she slumped forward, her fur pale as if she had no soul within her.

Natalie smiled in relief and noticed Chalice and Canteen approaching them. Chalice widened her eyes and noticed Saltbaker rushing besides Cassidy, injecting the cure into her body. Cassidy vomited out Tremaine, but she was still slumped forward.

“Come on, let’s get out of here!” Saltbaker shouted to the kids while picking Cassidy up in his arms.

The kids nodded their heads in agreement and hurried back to the others.

~.~

Mugman watched Werner slamming his tiny fists against Hunter’s forehead before Hunter thrusted Werner against the wall.

“Ow!” Werner yelped.

Hunter turned back to Mugman, who breathed heavily in fear. “You know, I should be thanking you for killing me. I can come back more powerful thanks to you.”

Cuphead noticed Hunter approaching his brother, his brows drawn together. He zoomed towards the tiger and punched him square in the face. “You get away from my brudda! If you ever come near him again, I’ll kill you myself! Ya hear me?!”

As Cuphead was saying this, his body started to burn up in pure anger and vengeance while growing more orange phoenix feathers in his body.

Mugman widened his eyes in shock to see his brother defending him.

Cuphead turned to his brother. “You okay, Mugsy?”

Mugman noticed Hunter forming a fireball. “CUPHEAD, LOOK OUT!!!”

Cuphead turned too late as Hunter shot a fireball at the cup, knocking him back away from his brother.

“CUPHEAD!” Mugman cried, breathing heavily. He looked back at Hunter, who laughed.

“Now, your annoying brother won’t interfere,” Hunter growled at Mugman.

Mugman gritted his teeth in anger and stood up with blue tears streaming down on his face. “Don’t you call him that. Only I get to call him that!”

With that said, the sparks grew larger around Mugman’s body. Mugman’s blue feathers glowed around his torso and his eyes glowed blue, charging towards the tiger and punching his face while electrocuting him.

“You don’t come near me, my brother, my dad, Elder Kettle, and Cassidy ever again! I won’t let you use me to hurt my family again!” Mugman cried, slamming his fists against the tiger’s face before finally shoving him back against the wall.

Dice, Jerry, Porkrind, and Devil noticed before Porkrind landed the last punch at Devil.

Dice dropped the pitchfork when he noticed Saltbaker running out of the hallway with Cassidy in his arms and Chalice, Canteen, and Natalie following him.

“Guys! We got her! Let’s go!” Saltbaker shouted.

Mugman switched his gaze over to find Cassidy’s soulless body in Saltbaker’s arms. He dashed towards Cuphead to pick him up and then to Cassidy, picking her off of Saltbaker’s arms.

“What the—?” Saltbaker uttered with a confused look.

“We got to go! More are coming!” Esther pointed at more imps coming towards them.

O’Fera led the group consisting of Bulldog, Murray, Dice, Porkrind, Jerry, Charlie, and Esther towards Saltbaker and his group.

Brineybeard, Ribby, and Croaks joined the others and ran towards the exit as fast as they could.

Werner rushed behind them, climbing up on one of Brineybeard’s wooden peg legs and onto the pirate’s broad shoulder.

Devil growled. “You don’t just get to run away!” He looked at his imps. “AFTER THEM!”

The imps chased the others through the hallways, following Mugman towards the exit. Mugman flew up through the volcano exit while the others jumped onto the platform.

“PULL US UP!!” Bulldog shouted as the platform was being pulled up immediately by Cagney, Djimmi, and Hilda.

Bowlboy stood and watched in shock while the others were being pulled up. “Hurry!”

Everyone hurried to dissemble the crane and get onto the plane. O’Fera controlled the plane to take off and get away from the entrance of Hell for good.

~.~

 Elder Kettle waited at the Howling Aces’ base with Sally, Aurora, and Philip along with the Root Pack, the Moonshine Mob, the Casino gang, and the Yankee Yippers.

“Are they gonna make it?” Ollie asked with a trembling voice.

“I hope so,” Elder Kettle responded.

They heard someone approaching the front door, looking up in fear and anticipation until the door opened to reveal Mugman carrying both Cassidy and Cuphead in his arms.

Mugman had blue feathers glowing as he carried them inside of the base towards the others.

“Oh dear,” Sally uttered in shock.

“Are they dead?” Ollie questioned tearfully.

Mugman collapsed on his knees, holding them tightly. The tears started to trickle down on Mugman’s cheeks.

A couple of tears landed on Cuphead’s cracked face, instantly shocking him and waking him up.

Cuphead snapped his eyes awake with a gasp. “Whoa! What the—?” He realized he was in Mugman’s arms and crawled out of it. “Mugsy—” he looked to notice Cassidy laying in his arms without her soul. “Oh…”

“I’m sorry,” Mugman uttered to Cuphead.

“For what?”

“For not being a good brother. For not being good enough to protect you,” Mugman responded.

“Hey, you ain’t a bad brother. And you’ve always protected me. It’s me who doesn’t protect you enough,” Cuphead said sadly.

Ollie started to sob.

“Ollie, no,” Sal warned the onion.

Mugman held Cassidy closely as the others hurried inside of the base.

“We’re back!” Djimmi announced before noticing Mugman holding soulless Cassidy. The genie turned to Porkrind and Jerry to see their sad looks. “What happened with Cassidy’s soul?”

“Some glowing figure took her soul,” Dice responded. “We don’t know what it was, but—”

“The Most High,” Mugman gasped when the adults mentioned the glowing figure. He held her tighter until he broke down in tears. “Why? Why did you take her from me?”

Porkrind frowned and tried to hold in his tears. Jerry placed a hand on Porkrind’s shoulder, comforting him.

Everyone gathered around dead Cassidy as Ollie begin to cry to see someone dead. Ollie’s stench caused the others to start sniffling.

~.~

Cassidy woke up to a bright glowing light carrying her out of Hell.

Part of her didn’t know who the figure under the glowing light was, but once she was out of Hell and into a brighter place, she almost understood who it was.

The Most High carried her soul towards the golden gates as the gates opened for him to walk through. “You’ve been through a lot, haven’t you?”

Cassidy frowned and snuggled close to Most High’s chest. She nodded her head. “I’m sorry…I wasn’t thinking clearly and I’m…I shouldn’t have made deals with the Devil.”

“That’s true. You shouldn’t have. But I see why you did. You didn’t think you’re loved. Didn’t you know that it’s a lie that was created for a long time?” The Most High asked her.

“It didn’t feel like a lie. It felt like it was truth.”

The Most High set Cassidy down on her feet. “Well, I like you to meet someone who will tell you otherwise.” The Most High gestured Cassidy to look forward.

Cassidy looked forward to find a grassy field with various of multi-color flowers. Up ahead, she could see two red felines running to her. They were adults and…she instantly recognized them.

“Mom? Dad?”

Jack and Shayna slid on their knees and hugged their daughter with cries of joy.

“My precious baby!” Shayna whimpered into her daughter’s shoulders.

Jack kissed the top of Cassidy’s head. “We love you so much, sweetheart. More than anything in this world.”

“Really?” Cassidy asked, her voice cracked.

“Of course,” Shayna, Cassidy’s mother, replied while wiping the tears away from her daughter’s face. “Look at you. You’re all grown up.”

Cassidy started to sob while snuggling her parents. “Why did you guys leave me?”

“Oh, baby,” Jack choked back tears.

Shayna wiped her own tears away. “I left you with Po to keep you safe from the Night Stalkers. It was only to keep you safe, honey. If I can come back for you, I would’ve…but…life had other plans.”

Cassidy blinked her eyes. “Po? You mean…?”

“Yeah, your adopted dad,” Shayna answered.

Cassidy tilted her head. “How come he never told me anything about you guys?”

Shayna frowned and looked to the side.

Cassidy glanced to the side and saw a cloud playing a memory of Porkrind collapsing on his knees in the snow.

“Shay?” Porkrind uttered on his knees.

Shayna looked back at Cassidy. “He tends to bottle things up. I wish he wouldn’t. It would catch up to him at the end. Maybe you can help me through that the same way he helped you through your childhood.”

Cassidy watched more memories of Porkrind defending her from bullies along with Jerry. She widened her eyes to find Jerry jumping into the lake when Cassidy was thrown into it by her bullies and Porkrind punching the teacher for calling Cassidy a burden. She also noticed the memories where she was dancing with Porkrind to practice her date with Mugman. She saw that she was dancing with Jerry when she wanted to go to Natalie’s birthday party. She saw Dice playing cards with her, Jerry, and Porkrind with Dice shutting Tabitha up so that they could play cards together without Tabitha making a comment.

She saw Mugman complimenting her when reading beside her one time and calling her an angel. She also saw Chalice and Cuphead prioritizing what Cassidy desires for her birthday along with Canteen defending her when Natalie tried to make suggestions that would go her way.

She also saw Ribby and Croaks being happy whenever she came around to visit them along with Cagney, Hilda, and Goopy Le Grande. Even there were memories of Djimmi the Great giggling at Cassidy’s antics as a kitten.

Most of all, she saw Natalie not being a good friend to her by walking all over and getting Cassidy to do things she wants. However, she also saw that Natalie was the one who rescued Cassidy out of the tree trunk and would defend Cassidy whenever someone made a snide remark at Cassidy.

Cassidy started to cry when she saw everyone surrounding her soulless body and crying. Mugman holding her and sobbing into her chest. Ribby and Croaks were crying into each other’s shoulders to see Cassidy like this while Porkrind was trying to hold in his tears until he finally collapsed on his knees, sobbing. Jerry hugged Porkrind from the side, joined in by Dice placing a hand on Porkrind’s shoulder. Cuphead whimpered a bit from the onion stench while Murray and Elder Kettle hugged him. Natalie sobbed to see her friend like this along with Aurora. Chalice and Canteen comforted Natalie and Aurora, trying to hold in their tears as well.

“They love me,” Cassidy uttered.

“Yes, they do,” The Most High replied.

“I’m…I’m not a burden to them,” Cassidy added.

“You never were, Cassidy,” The Most High said. “And you never will be to me. You are loved by me and everyone who you call family. Don’t ever forget that, okay?”

“It’s going to be easy for me to forget,” Cassidy responded.

“Then I will remind you along with the others of how much loved you are,” The Most High replied.

Shayna and Jack stood beside her.

The Most High looked at Cassidy. “You can stay or you can go. It’s your choice.”

Cassidy looked at the memories in tears. She looked up at her real parents, who were smiling at them. Then she noticed the cups, who were smiling at her too.

Cassidy wiped her tears away. “I want to go back to them.”

The Most High nodded his head. “Then you shall go back to them.”

“Can we hug our daughter before she leaves?” Jack requested.

The Most High nodded his head. “Of course.”

Jack and Shayna pulled Cassidy into a hug for one last time as all three of them purred.

“Will I see you guys again?” Cassidy asked her parents.

“Of course, you will,” Jack responded.

Shayna kissed her daughter’s forehead and looked into her daughter’s eyes. “Po and Jerry did such a good job raising such a beautiful girl like you.”

“They sure did,” Jack agreed.

Cassidy sniffled and wiped her tears away.

“Don’t be angry at Po,” Shay reminded Cassidy. “He bottled a lot of things up, but he shows more emotion when you’re around. Can you tell him that I’m proud of him for me?”

“Yeah, of course,” Cassidy replied while wiping the tears away.

“Thank you,” Shayna responded while her parents let Cassidy go.

The Most High extended his hand out for Cassidy. “Are you ready?”

Cassidy nodded her head and grabbed his hand. “Yeah.”

“Good,” The Most High said as he guided her into the memory where everyone was surrounding her at the Howling Aces base.

~.~

 The cries faded from Ollie with the stench fading from the air. However, half of the group were still sobbing like Natalie and Aurora. Both of the girls were comforted by Brineybeard holding them close like they were his own daughters.

Cassidy’s soul watched them still gathered around and looked to see Djimmi sighing.

“We gotta bury her,” Djimmi responded.

“No,” Mugman whimpered. “Give me five more minutes with her.”

O’Fera frowned and looked away, wiping the remaining tears away.

Cassidy’s soul shook her head and entered back into her body without anyone being aware. However, Werner noticed color coming back to Cassidy’s body.

Mugman noticed Cassidy’s felt warmer than expected. Before he could question the sudden warmness, he heard purring. He gasped and looked at her, noticing her fluttering her eyes open to wake up.

Everyone gasped at the sight with both in happiness and shock.

Cassidy glanced up and the first person she saw was Mugman. “Mugsy…?”

“Angel…?” Mugman uttered in tears. He buried his head against her forehead, sobbing.

She caressed his face, crying along with him.

“I thought I lost you,” Mugman uttered.

She rubbed her face against his, purring louder than before. “I love you too.”

He held her tighter, his wings extended to wrap around her.

She gasped in shock. “Whoa, you got wings?!”

Mugman giggled and placed her on the floor, letting her sit up and looking at his wings. “Yeah. You missed a lot.”

“Wow,” she responded with a blush.

“Yeah.”

She looked to see Porkrind, who was now tearing up. “Dad?”

Porkrind immediately rushed up to her and picked her up, cradling her in his arms. “I miss you so much!”

“I miss you too, Dad,” Cassidy responded.

Jerry approached beside Porkrind.

“Jerry!” Cassidy cried while leaping into Jerry’s arms.

Jerry hugged her with all of his sick arms. “Oh, Cassi, you’re alive!”

Ribby and Croaks ran towards Cassidy. “CASSI!” They picked her up from Jerry’s arms and hugged the red feline.

“We misses ya,” Ribby whimpered.

“The Devil will pay for what he did to you!” Croaks responded out of vengeance.

“Guys, guys, I’m okay,” Cassidy reassured the frog brothers. “I miss you both too.”

Cagney swept Cassidy off of Ribby and Croaks’ arms and spun her around. “It’s been such a long time since I’ve seen you!”

“Oh, we got so much catching up to do,” Hilda replied excitedly.

“Where’s Goopy?” Cassidy asked Hilda and Cagney.

“Uh…no idea,” Cagney responded.

“CASSI!”

Cassidy was suddenly tackled out of Cagney’s hold by Cuphead. Cuphead twirled around and hugged. “You’re back! You’re back! You’re back!”

“Careful, Cuphead, you’re going to crush her bones!” Mugman hurried to Cuphead to make sure he wouldn’t hurt Cassidy.

Chalice and Canteen approached Cassidy.

“It’s good to have you back, Cassi,” Chalice replied warmly and hugged her.

“It’s good to be back—” Cassidy noticed Canteen’s bandaged arm. “Did I—?”

“Not intentionally,” Canteen answered. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”

Cassidy noticed Aurora running up to her.

“Cassi!!” Aurora shouted with joy.

Cassidy picked Aurora up and spun her around in a hug. “Aw, Rori!”

She looked up at Natalie, who gave her a frown. She rubbed her arm and gave a deep sigh.

“Cassi…”

Cassidy put Aurora down and listened to Natalie intently.

Natalie sighed heavily and looked into the feline’s eyes. “I’m sorry.”

Cassidy’s gaze softened.

“I’m sorry that I called you a burden…I’m sorry that I pressured to do things that I only want…I-I’m sorry for being a terrible friend. I will understand if you don’t forgive me. I wasn’t the friend you deserved. I was caught up in being like Mom that I was pushing you away. But I won’t try to be her. I want to be a better friend to you. You deserve to have a better friend than how I treated you back then and—”

Cassidy hugged Natalie, interrupting her speech. “I forgive you.”

Natalie clenched her jaw and hugged her back, crying into her shoulder.

Brineybeard smiled proudly at Natalie.

Cassidy and Natalie broke away while Mugman approached beside Cassidy and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

Cuphead approached beside Natalie and held her hand with a soft proud smile at her. They both blushed at each other, but they still held hands.

Chalice and Canteen stood side by side as Chalice glanced at Canteen and smirked at him.

“Hey, Hughes,” Chalice called.

“Hm?” Canteen questioned.

“You are a hero today,” she responded. “Do you know what heroes get when they save damsels in distress?”

“Uh…I have think about all the stories I read and—”

Chalice kissed his cheek with a blush on her face. “They get a kiss on the cheek, silly.”

Canteen blushed madly. “Oh…”

“I’m trying to say thank you for saving me.”

“Right, right,” Canteen answered with his face becoming more red.

Cassidy looked up at Porkrind, who smiled at her. She pulled out of Mugman’s hold and climbed up on her father’s shoulder. She rubbed her head against his. “Thank you, Dad, for everything.”

Porkrind smiled softly and hugged her.

“And Dad?”

“Hm?”

“Mom is proud of you.”

Porkrind widened his eye in shock. “Huh?”

“Um…I saw her up in Heaven and she wanted me to tell you how proud she is for you and how you raised me.”

Porkrind softened his gaze while slightly freaked out. “You’ve seen your parents?”

Cassidy nodded her head.

“I’m sorry I haven’t told you about them—”

“It’s okay. I understand,” she said. “Maybe you can tell me more about them someday.”

Porkrind smiled and nodded. “Sounds like a good idea.”

Cassidy climbed back down from her father and went to her friends, cuddling her boyfriend.

Porkrind smiled softly and watched his daughter talking with her group of friends.

Djimmi floated next to Porkrind. “She’s a miracle, isn’t she?”

The one-eyed pig nodded his head in agreement. “Yeah, she really is.”

To Be Continued...

A/N: I'm so sorry for the long chapter, but I really hope that you enjoy it nevertheless. Please leave hearts and comments. Reblogs are appreciated. &lt;3

[twomindsbrokenheart]

Roxy couldn't have slept even if she'd wanted to. A steadily building frustration burned in her chest. She'd always been the type of person who wanted to solve problems as quickly as possible -- after all, she was a racer. She wanted things to be taken care of fast. And this slow slog of days becoming weeks, with no end in sight and nothing that could make Cassie feel better, made her feel like someone had slashed her tires and left her to spin out.

Even as Cassie rested, Roxy's frustration came to a head. She made fast, rather hasty decision to stop beating around the bush, and working silently, she sent a message directly to Gregory. It wasn't tactful, but it was at least honest.

I don't know if you're going to read this. You might see my name, decide I'm allied with "the enemy" and delete it immediately. But I'm reaching out to you as both your friend and as someone who knows more about what Cassie's going through than you do.

I don't know how you're feeling right now. Maybe you're just as confused and conflicted and upset. But I'm telling you right here, right now that Cassie has been a mess for weeks, pretty much since Ruin was installed. That conversation with you was her only hope of salvaging things. She just wanted to know the truth. And I'm not going to harp on what you did and said -- your dad has probably done enough of that with you, right? What I am going to say is that if you care about Cassie at all, you need to man up and apologize. I mean a real apology, Gregory. Maybe I don't know you as well as some people, but I just can't believe that you don't feel bad about what you did and said.

Cassie's ready to give up on you if you keep ignoring her. She keeps sticking her neck out and things keep going badly for her. Now it's your turn. If you apologize to her, there's even a chance that she may want to be friends again. It's pretty clear that she can't get you off her mind. She feels like she's lost a lot by losing you. Even if things are never the same again, this whole feud is eating her up, and she's told me straight up that she just wants it to be over.

Yes, you have your own problems. Yes, this whole situation has sucked for you, too. But can you do the right thing and say you're sorry? I don't think that's too much to ask.

Cassie said nothing as he handed her off, too embarrassed, miserable, and drained...

At least he'd taken the initiative to explain for her.

[whateverthedragonswant]

Big Sky: 3x03 Thoughts

I think this is my favorite episode of this season so far. I feel like we're starting to settle into the swing of things Big Sky style a little:

Luke is so full of crap, he killed Paige

glad to see Pedro is up and running, I was starting to worry about him

here we go with the Beau/Jenny push - like Elwood said, slow burn...right

Cassie picking the door lock - God, I love her & thank God Walt didn't hurt her

Loved seeing Denise ready to hike, she's too funny

Emily is so annoying - I'm sorry but she really is. I get that she's catching onto that something is not right with Avery or Luke but damn girl, your dad is a sheriff, if you're that worried then call him, instead of going all "I'm going to find out" and please stop tipping off the bad guys! I do see a full Liam Neeson situation happening in the near future the way this girl is going, she literally has done every thing on the don't list when in a dangerous situation - she is not the person you want to get stuck hiding next to, you'll be in trouble before you can tell her to shut it

Loving the actor that plays Walt (the way he immediately lowered his eyes when Sunny appears in his yard like he is submitting to her and doesn't want to challenge her, brilliant). I felt a bit bad for him when Sunny slaps him and then tells him that he's a disappointment. I now do wonder if it was him 20 years ago or if he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, especially now that Sunny told him he knows that it doesn't matter that he didn't do anything (and I'm not going to lie, something felt the tiniest bit off about Cormac and the way he interacted with Emily, then picked up her knife and kept it to himself, very weird)

More Beau and Denise interaction, loved it! Pumpkin enchiladas, that's a new one. Makes me want to try that now.

I would not want to cross Sunny

I had a feeling that Jenny's mom was using her

Beau and Jenny nailed the UC scene - they make a good team, I will say that

I am even more convinced that Beau lost his brother due to something shady/on the job/related to a cartel, now that he said that to Ivan

It was nice to see Cassie concerned for Jenny and I won't lie, I was kind of hoping for a scene where Cassie checks in on her, but hopefully we'll get that next episode because guaranteed, now that Gigi is linked to Tonya, that won't be the last we'll see of Gigi

Jenny is going to be even more gung ho about putting Tonya in jail now

and last but not least, that Beau and Cassie scene!!!! LOVED it, it was only for two minutes but daaaamn, I literally was going during the scene:

I just love their chemistry and the way they play off of each other. And the way Denise said "Well, sweet and salty *throat clearing* never fails" and then Cassie says "Did she just call me salty?" which Beau doesn't confirm or deny but changes the subject to what she's wearing. And the tight close-ups. The way Kylie plays the scene. Cassie kindly telling Beau not to worry, gives him advice, and says even more kindly "You don't need to go back up there." (I just hope this doesn't become a contention point between them later on should Emily be in danger, though tbf Emily works herself into danger faster than you can say the word) These two have just got me like

They have SO MUCH potential!!!! Just saying. Elwood, come on man, make it happen.

[captainjanegay]

Where I’m Meant to Be | Stucky | Meet-Cute, Slow Burn, Friends to Lovers, Kid Fic, No powers AU | Chapters 3/? | 12k words | Ao3

Summary: Bucky is a single dad coming back from a work trip with a very bored, very whiney 7-year-old girl. A mysterious stranger with a kind heart and a notebook full of doodles comes to the rescue.

A/N: I was pondering whether I should leave the dance recital for later or just go with it and I decided that I had no idea how else could this third chapter go, so here it is! I hope you'll like it and as always I wanted to thank you so so much for all the love and kind words :') They all make my heart melt and make me actually excited (even though still anxious) about posting next chapters :') Thank you so much to everyone who has read, commented, liked or reblogged this fic, it means the world to me ♥

I was worried this one is going to be shorter but I've added some last minute Natasha content because who doesn't love Natasha content? I certainly do. Enjoy and see you all next time ♥

.

Chapter 3 

(4.4k words)

Bucky is nervous. It feels almost as if he is the one who’s going to dance in front of all those people in less than an hour. Although he thinks it would be less anxiety-inducing than watching Alex's performance. It’s not like he doesn’t believe in her. If there’s one thing that Bucky is sure of, it’s that his daughter is talented and brilliant and that she’s going to be amazing. He just knows how important it is to her, so he wants everything to go perfectly. Which is why in the last two minutes he has sent at least four messages to Clint to make sure he won't be late. 

Each time Clint told him to fuck off and not be a dick. There’s still over thirty minutes left before the recital starts and objectively Bucky knows Clint would never miss something that’s so important to Alex. It doesn’t stop him from worrying, though.

With a sigh, he slides his phone into his back pocket and looks around the lobby. Not that many people are around yet and Bucky is not that surprised. Besides the parents, there are rarely any other people coming to those things. Sometimes not even all the parents do. Alex probably has the biggest support group even on the smallest events. And Bucky doesn’t even need to drag anyone forcefully. They’re just lucky enough to have plenty of supportive friends in their life and thinking about it makes Bucky really emotional sometimes.

The door opens and Bucky’s eyes skip that way automatically. The man that walks in is tall and blond-haired, dressed in an old-school brown leather jacket and a scarf wrapped haphazardly around his neck. He hovers by the door for a few moments and looks a bit lost, scanning the lobby.

“Steve?” Bucky says and the man’s head turns towards him quickly.

When Steve's eyes land on Bucky, a big smile blooms on his face.

“Bucky, hi!” Steve says, walking over to him.

“You came.” Bucky points out with a smile. Steve made it clear on a few occasions that he will, but actually seeing him here is still a bit of a surprise.

“Of course. Didn’t want to let Alex down. Or you, but mostly her,” the sincerity in his voice warms Bucky’s heart. Steve rubs at his neck in a nervous gesture and reaches to his messenger bag. “I’ve actually— You’ve said how important to her it was so I— I’ve made a little something for her, I hope that’s OK?”

Surprised, Bucky looks down and sees that Steve is holding an open folder. Inside, there’s a drawing made with coloured pencils and when Bucky sees it his breath catches.

It shows Alexandra in full ballerina gear, with a big fluffy tutu and a little tiara on her head. There’s a huge smile on her face and her eyes are sparkling in the spotlights. She’s caught mid-pirouette. Even though it’s just a drawing, it’s so dynamic Bucky half expects her to start twirling across the page. Around her there is a confetti of musical notes and roses being thrown her way, some of them scattered on the stage in front of her. It’s so beautiful Bucky’s fingers twitch forward to touch the drawing but he quickly catches himself.

“God, Steve—” he starts but he has no idea what to say next.

“I just— I don’t know, I wanted to have a little gift for her? The dancers are given flowers after their performances, but I— I don’t know, I can just—,” Steve mumbles.

When Bucky finally tears his eyes away from the drawing, he notices that Steve has an honest to God blush on his cheeks and he’s still rubbing his neck in that nervous gesture. A sudden urge to wrap this amazing, kind man in a hug overwhelms Bucky. He manages to stop himself. Instead, he puts his hand on Steve’s bicep and squeezes lightly.

“It’s beautiful. I can’t even— My god, it’s amazing. Alex will go crazy when she sees it. I bet she’s gonna make me hang it somewhere,” Bucky lets out a chuckle. “And I’ll gladly do that, it’s really wonderful.”

A shy smile appears on Steve’s face as he closes the folder and carefully tucks it into his bag. “It’s nothing, just a little drawing.”

“Maybe for you but she’s gonna be over the moon. And I can’t believe that you really came and did this drawing and— You’re amazing, Steve.”

The blush on Steve’s cheeks only deepens. He looks down, refusing to look into Bucky’s eyes and he opens his mouth to say something.

But before he gets the chance, there’s some commotion on the other side of the lobby. When Bucky looks that way, he sees Clint and Scott arguing about something, the former holding a phone in front of his face. Walking calmly behind them are Hope and Cassie, both with similar tired yet fond expressions on their faces.

“Hi guys, you’ve made it!” Bucky greets them with a smile.

“We did! Clint kept rushing us cause apparently you’ve been bugging him for the last hour not to be late,” Hope says giving Bucky an one-armed hug. 

“I—,” Bucky stutters. “It wasn’t an hour. Besides I wouldn’t if I knew he was picking you up.”

“Of course it was an hour and of course you would, Barnes. Don’t lie and pretend you're not a crazy person,” Clint says, looking up from the phone. 

Clint’s eyes skip from Bucky to Steve, who moved half a step back and is watching the commotion with a polite smile on his face. When Clint looks back at Bucky, he wiggles his eyebrows with an awful smile. 

Bucky never wanted to smack him so badly. 

“You won’t introduce us?” Clint asks.

Sending him one last hateful look, Bucky glances at Steve, giving him an apologetic smile.

“Sorry. Here’s Scott, his fiancee Hope and his daughter Cassie. And this idiot is Clint, sorry about him. Guys, this is Steve, a… friend, we’ve met recently.”

“It’s nice to meet you all,” Steve says with a smile.

“Wait, what Steve? How is James making friends, I didn’t know he could do that?” comes a voice from Clint’s phone, making Bucky groan.

“We’re just as surprised, Nat.”

Clint turns his phone around, showing the screen with Natasha’s slightly glitchy face on it. She quickly scans the new surroundings and her eyebrows shoot up when she notices Steve.

“Oh hello,” she greets with a signature Natasha smile, kind but slightly wolfish and possibly intimidating to strangers. "I'm Natasha."

“Um.” Steve sends a confused glance Bucky’s way, but says. “Nice to meet you too, Natasha. I’m Steve, the new friend. Apparently that's an achievement for Bucky.”

If Bucky felt sympathetic for Steve for being ambushed by his friends, he’s not anymore. Instead, he groans again and ignores the small smirk that Steve sends him and Natasha’s “I like this one!”.

“Can you all just shut up and proceed to the hall, please?” Bucky gestures towards the door across the room. “Since we’re all here already and the show is going to start soon we can as well take our seats already.”

When they don't move, Bucky ushers them forward, waving his arms as if they were a flock of chickens. Sometimes it feels like they are. Eventually, they do move and Bucky sends a small smile towards Steve who hangs back waiting for him.

"So, um—," Steve starts, looking at the small group in front of them before glancing back at Bucky. "Your wife couldn't come?"

Steve's voice is conversational so he seems surprised when Bucky halts to a stop.

"I'm—” Bucky furrows his brows in confusion. "I don't have a wife."

"Oh." Steve looks both confused and embarrassed now. "I'm sorry, I didn't— I just assumed, since Alex mentioned her mum a lot and— sorry."

"Oh no, Bucky's single," Scott says, apparently hearing the little exchange.

"And desperately ready to mingle," Clint prompts helpfully, throwing a grin over his shoulder.

It feels like Bucky has been doing nothing but groaning in distress during the past few minutes. "I'm not desperate—"

"I'm the mum!" comes Natasha's chipper voice from Clint's video call and he kindly turns the phone around. "Not the wife, though. James's too insufferable as anything but a friend. And likes men too much for that."

"Tasha, for fuck's sake," Bucky says loudly, getting a dirty look from some random mum who overhears him.

He pointedly doesn't look at Steve throughout this whole exchange. Why do his friends hate him so much? He doesn't deserve to be treated like this.

"Can we just—" Bucky takes a deep breath, pinching the bridge of his nose, "not talk about this and to the performance, please. It's starting soon."

It's Hope who stops this madness and decides not to ignore Bucky's obvious discomfort. With a smile directed at both Steve and Bucky, she takes Scott by his elbow and turns him around, pushing Clint slightly towards the hall. They don't object. Bucky has never been more grateful for her.

It's not until a few minutes later when they are all seated in the hall, surrounded by the quiet murmur of different conversations before the show, when Steve leans closer from his seat next to Bucky's.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable," Steve says quietly.

Bucky chances a look at him. The lightning is dim but the distance between them is small enough for Bucky to make out the dark blush dusting Steve's cheeks.

"It's not your fault my friends are idiots," Bucky jokes to lighten the mood. "Should've worn ya' before I've invited you."

Steve laughs at that. "Still, though. Shouldn't have just assumed things."

"It was a perfectly normal assumption to make." Bucky points out. "Really, don't stress about it. It's all good."

For a moment, Steve doesn't look convinced but eventually he nods and smiles. Bucky reciprocates the gesture. For a moment they just look at each other but their attention is soon drawn towards the front of the room. Some more lights above the stage appear when the owner of the studio walks in with a smile, asking everyone to take a seat. Her introductions are pretty standard and she keeps them short. Soon enough, the main show begins.

It’s really entertaining, even considering the fact that the age of the performers varies between 4 and 12 years old. They’re dancing in many configurations, the smallest dancers mostly in big groups and Bucky smiles the whole time, watching their — sometimes still clumsy but oh so cheery — dancing. Two of the oldest kids perform an amazing pas de deux to the music from Sleeping Beauty. They dance to a lot of contemporary music and loads of Disney songs, to Steve’s great delight. Bucky only shakes his head with a disbelieving smile when he hears Steve singing along to A Whole New World under his breath. Feeling Bucky’s eyes on him, Steve only shrugs and laughs quietly.

Alex is in two group dances and she has her own solo performance. She’s brilliant in all of them. And it’s not just Bucky’s biased opinions, because the hall erupts in loud applause when she finishes her solo with a bow and a huge smile on her face. Watching the concentration on her face, mixed with the absolute joy of dancing makes Bucky teary-eyed and by the end of her last performance he doesn’t even try to stop the tears. All the pride he feels, threatens to tear him apart. He would be the proudest even if she sucked but the fact that she manages to awe everyone in the room makes it all so much better.

After the recital is over, some of the guests leave to wait in the lobby but Bucky and his friends stick around in the hall, moving closer to the stage. Soon enough, Alex bolts from backstage, still in her dress and everything and launches herself into Bucky’s arms.

“You were incredible, my love!" Bucky says, hugging her tight and kissing the side of her face. “I’m so proud of you! You made me cry real tears, you were so beautiful.”

“Thanks, papa,” Alex laughs, leaning away a bit to look at him, her eyes sparkling with joy.

Soon enough, she gets whipped away from Bucky’s embrace by Clint who starts spinning her around the room, both of them shrieking loudly. They earn some disapproving looks by doing that, but they couldn’t care less. Bucky only watches them with a fond smile, laughing and getting emotional again when Alexandra notices the huge bouquet they’ve bought just for her. She talks briefly with Natasha - the video conference was on during the whole performance so even though Nat couldn’t be here in person, she could still watch the whole thing. Natasha apologises for not being there but promises to make it to the next recital that is supposed to happen around New Year’s Eve and she points out how proud she is every two words.

Bucky lets everybody congratulate his little girl and shower her with the love she deserves. He’ll have plenty of time to do that at home. So he takes a step back and stands next to Steve.

Steve, who waits politely, probably not wanting to interrupt as he just watches it all with a smile on his face. But when Alex’s eyes finally land on him, matching big smiles bloom on both of their faces.

“Steve! You came!” Alex exclaims, bouncing closer to where Steve and Bucky are standing.

“Of course I did,” Steve says and he crouches to be on Alex’s eye level. “You were incredible! Thank you so much for inviting me, it was so worth it. And I have a little gift for you.”

Hearing that, Alex starts bouncing on the balls of her feet in excitement and she watches as Steve retrieves the drawing. The moment her eyes land on it, she lets out a small gasp. Just like Bucky did before, she moves her hand as if she wants to touch it but stops, afraid to ruin it. When she looks up at Steve, her eyes seem a little watery.

“It’s for me?” she asks and when Steve nods, she carefully takes it from his hands. “I love it! Thank you so much, Steve!”

With that, she wraps her small arms around Steve’s neck. The movement catches Steve off guard, almost enough to make him lose his balance and Bucky laughs at the surprised look Steve sends him.

“You’re so welcome, Alexandra,” Steve says eventually, rubbing her back. “I’m happy you like it. Thank you again for inviting me.”

“Papa, look!” Alex yells, moving away from Steve and proudly showing Bucky the drawing. “It’s me!”

“It is!” Bucky agrees, hugging her close one more time. “It's my wonderful little ballerina!"

***

After the performance, they all decide to go to a restaurant for a celebratory dinner. Steve tries to flee but both Clint and Hope — which comes out as a bit of surprise to Bucky — nag him to join them. He sends a look at Bucky, probably hoping Bucky's gonna back him up.

He doesn't. Instead, both he and Alex send Steve their best puppy dog eyes saying that they'll love if Steve came along. Steve is not able to resist such power.

Bucky's not sure why he insists so hard on Steve coming with them, not really knowing what to expect. It turns out he had nothing to worry about. Steve fits right in with their little group. The evening is very nice and they all feel comfortable in each other's company. Bucky's a bit afraid at the beginning, when Clint starts asking some pretty nosy questions and is being his horrible self. Everyone except Steve has gotten used to it and they know that Clint is the best friend one can have but for some reason, he sometimes hides it quite well. But Steve doesn’t seem to be judging or getting annoyed in any way. Quite the opposite. It also turns out that under all of Steve’s gold-heartedness hides a little asshole with witty comebacks and good-natured jabs at whoever tries to mess with him. He can totally keep up with whatever Clint’s up to at any given moment.

It's enough to say that Clint absolutely loves it.

They don’t stay at the restaurant for too long. They can’t since Alex is tired after all of today’s excitement. She tries very hard to hide it, though. Fortunately for her, Bucky knows her better and he saves her from crossing the line between happy and miserably exhausted. No matter how nice the evening is going so far, they should go. So for the sake of Alex’s pride, Bucky says he’s getting tired and the two of them are probably going to head home. It's not even a lie. Considering he's only 29 and it's not even 10 p.m. it's kind of sad that he really does feel a bit sleepy. Alex tries to protest but it’s weak, which only proves Bucky’s assessment of her energy levels was correct. Of course, everyone else jumps to their feet almost immediately. They exchange hugs and thank-you’s and more congratulations for Alexandra and finally some goodbye’s as they all go in different directions. 

The short walk home wakes Alex up a bit. And because it's still her big night, Bucky lets her stay up for a little longer than usually when they finally get home. They cuddle on the couch and watch How to Train Your Dragon together, while sharing a bowl of ice cream. Of course their private little celebrations can’t start until the drawing from Steve is safely put away in Alex's room with promises that Bucky will hang it tomorrow.

About halfway through the movie Alex drifts off to sleep, curled safely on Bucky's lap. He takes a few extra minutes stroking her hair, trying not to think too much about how big she's getting or that soon she won't be so happy about cuddling with her papa anymore. Eventually, Bucky picks her up gently and carries her to her room. He finishes the movie and gets himself an extra scoop of ice cream before he heads to bed.

The next morning Alex almost drags him out of bed, rushes him through breakfast and almost pushes him out of the door. All that because he promised they're gonna shop for things they need to put the portrait from Steve on the wall. Bucky is not even mad. It is a gorgeous piece of art and he's really happy that Alex is so thrilled with it.

A few hours, some drilling and vacuuming tons of dust later, he snaps a picture of the drawing hanging proudly on the wall above the chest of drawers in Alex's bed. He attaches it to a message.

To: Steve Guess who got bullied into an IKEA trip at 10 in the morning on a Saturday just to buy a frame? Saturday, 12:30 A.M.

From: Steve Sorry? :) Saturday, 12:31 A.M.

From: Steve I'm honoured she likes it so much, though. Saturday, 12:32 A.M.

To: Steve I bet you're not sorry at all, you jump out of buildings for fun, you can't be trusted. Saturday, 12:37 A.M.

From: Steve I did NOT jump out of a building, stop saying that! And what happened to "you're amazing, Steve"? Saturday, 12:40 A.M.

To: Steve ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Saturday, 12:41 A.M.

***

After all the emotions from yesterday, Saturday passes in a nice yet uneventful way. Alex falls asleep on her feet at barely half past seven, but it’s no surprise that the tiredness has finally caught up to her. She doesn’t even try to argue when Bucky suggests she should head to bed earlier. After tucking her in, he lays down on the couch for a second, promising himself that he’ll do the dishes before heading to bed. Suddenly, it’s past 10 P.M. and he’s mindlessly watching some late-night reruns of Say Yes to The Dress. He’s not even surprised at this turn of events.

The noise his phone makes blasts in the quiet of the living room, making Bucky jump. He’s in such a rush to turn off the ringing that he drops the phone on his face, accidentally answering the incoming video call.

“Hi, dimwit. Did you just drop your phone on your face again?” He hears Natasha’s amused voice.

“I’ve never dropped a phone on my face in my life, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Bucky answers as he rubs his aching nose that has taken most of the impact.

Natasha only rolls her eyes at that. “My girl already asleep?”

“Yeah, went to bed before 8 p.m. and i bet she’ll sleep in tomorrow. She was positively exhausted today.”

“I’m not even surprised. She deserves some rest though, she was so brilliant last night,” Natasha says with a sad smile. “I hate that I couldn’t be there.”

“Don’t do this to yourself, Tasha. She understands,” Bucky tries to convince her. “Besides you’re gonna be here for Christmas, right?”

Natasha is not reassured. She thinks she hides it well enough for Bucky not to notice, but he’s known her for too long. She sighs but then answers with a small smile. “Yeah, I will be home for most of December. I’ll need to go to Cali for a bit, as always, but I should be back for Christmas.”

“That’s great,” Bucky smiles. “We miss you here and you’ll be just in time to see Alex in the Nutcracker, you know that one’s even more important to her.”

“Can’t wait. She’s gonna outmatch me sooner than I’ve expected.”

“She will and I don’t even feel sorry for you. She’s just so incredible. Like with your skills and my brains and also my good looks she’s destined for great things. I feel kind of bad for other kids,” Bucky chuckles but he only half-jokes.

In response he gets a raised eyebrow from Natasha. “I think you’ve meant my skills, my brains and my good looks and your—,” she waves her hand towards him dismissively. “I mean, I’m sure there’s something, we’ll figure it out at some point. Maybe it’s your love for Say Yes to the Dress, who knows.

“I’m—,” Bucky tries to defend himself but the grin on Natasha’s face tells him it’s a lost fight. He didn’t expect Natasha to recognise the background noise of his TV but then — it’s Natasha, so he should have. “You’re so full of shit, Romanoff.”

“I’m not. You are though,” Natasha says and when Bucky sends her a questioning look, she explains with a cheeky smirk. “I can’t believe you haven’t told me you’ve found yourself a new, smoking hot friend!”

“You know what, I don’t have to put up with this, I’m gonna go to bed,” Bucky sighs, but he makes no move to actually hang up.

Natasha only laughs triumphantly. “Oh my, why are you so defensive all of sudden? I didn’t say anything bad, did I?”

“You’re something bad in general, so I’m always prepared. Why are you all so obsessed with Steve? I have to put up with Clint already, so please, leave me alone.”

“We just care about you! And since you’ve been stuck with just us for ages, we’re excited there’s someone new, kind and handsome in your life!” the grin on her face makes Bucky groan out loud. “He seems nice and I hope you’ll be able to get to know him better. In a lot of ways.”

“See? This is exactly what I meant. I can’t believe I’ve been friends with you for so long.”

Another laugh escapes her mouth but her eyes soften when she looks back at him a moment later. “Really, though. You can’t be alone your whole life. And don’t bullshit me saying that you have Alex, you know that’s not my point. You’re just a huge softie who needs someone to make heart eyes at, it’s basically in your blood.”

Bucky chuckles in disbelief, not sure how this conversation got to this point. “What are you even talking about? I’ve known Steve for way too little for you to say all this. I’ve seen him in person twice. Twice, Natasha.”

“I’m not saying it has to be Steve, I know you’ve just met him. It was just a side note, completely unrelated to Steve. If anyone’s making a connection here, it’s you. So maybe you should think about that.” Natasha looks at him pointedly and when Bucky tries to chime in, she doesn’t let him. “Also on a completely unrelated note, Steve seems like a good guy, if you think about dating. And if you think about casual, he’s also smoking hot.”

“You’ve already mentioned that,” Bucky points out. “And you’ve only seen him via video chat.”

“Well, he is and it was clear even through Clint’s shitty camera.”

It’s hard to disagree with that. Even though Natasha is insane and he is not going to date anyone in the near future, let alone Steve whom he barely knows. He can objectively agree that Steve is unfairly attractive, though.

“Before you go all defensive and mean again — I just want you to be happy, James,” Natasha says. “And maybe having around someone who’s not Clint would be good for you.”

Bucky shakes his head with a chuckle. “You might have a point. But dating is not really on my priority list and I don’t think it’s a good time to change that now.”

“Ugh, whatever,” Natasha groans. “I really hope it won’t turn out that our daughter actually inherited your brains, because you’re an idiot.” She takes a deep sigh and changes the topic. “But let’s get to the important things now — is it just me or the dresses he shows this Caroline chick are getting uglier and uglier?”

“Oh God, I know, right? I don’t think I can handle another one of those monstrosities.”

taglist: @steverrogers​ @till-the-end-of-the-line-punk​ (@ anyone else - let me know if you want to be tagged ♥

[iphoenixrising]

For 700 Followers!

Hi babe.

That is terribly angsty and now I’m intrigued.

(Just a note for babe not familiar with No Home for Dead Birds or Fracture: I write a scene in which Tim literally has a gun to head. This is not lighthearted angst, please be warned if you read this.)

**

At one time, his colors had been red, gold, and green.

At one time, he’d been part of something bigger, something important. A legacy.

At one time, he’d been able to fly without being afraid of falling.

Being Robin had been the epitome. Even with all the terrible things he’d endured, all the injuries, all the catastrophes, all the insane megalomaniacal baddies breathing down his neck, he wouldn’t have traded the tunic for anything in the world.

(Dick had known it, had known how painful it was for Tim give it up once his Dad found out.)

He would have died with the R on his chest and never had a single regret.

Realistically, he couldn’t have been Robin forever, and he’d known that someday he would have to give it up and either move on with his life as a regular person, or take on another name, another mask, to keep fighting the good fight.

He hadn’t expected Dick would take it without a thank-you or fuck you to mark the end. That hadn’t been in the plan.

But it’s fine because Dick was the first and Robin had been his anyway, right?

Right.

Wrong.

Staring down the .45 in hand, the gun his father hadn’t had the chance to use to save his own life, Tim Drake wonders how it all came down to this.

(Last one left standing. Of fucking course.)

How it had all come out so badly, how he could barely step foot back in Gotham, how he had to avoid the Manor, the Carriage House, his own family home. How he couldn’t pick up the phone or answer texts coming from his former team. How he could barely keep himself the fuck together now that Bruce was back. How his hands would start to shake when the Manor phone number popped up (Alfred). How his mind’s eye would go back to Dick at the Big Computer in the Batsuit, telling him they were still equals. How he would imagine what would happen if he hadn’t caught himself when that zip line was cut. How he would sit in his safe house, off the Bat radar, and mourn the times when he was actually–

(happy)

–part of a family.

The pictures from an old Vans shoebox, the ones he’d taken back when he’d had the run of Gotham, following Batman and Robin (Jason), are burning in the kitchen sink. He watches Nightwing’s blurry face melt away and pretends there aren’t tears in his eyes.

The old memorabilia from Haley’s Circus is in a storage unit outside the city, along with a box that has his last Robin suit.

The lawyer has strict instructions to deliver the key and a letter to his former adopted father, Bruce Wayne, upon news of his death so anything incriminating can be properly disposed.

(They wouldn’t need any of it anyway. They could just shred all of it and wash their hands of him. The Robin that never should have been.)

A map with all his safe houses would be send to Conner Kent, along with a letter of apology.

His favorite nerd shirts would go to Ives.

The sundries in his Perch would be for Steph, and the penthouse itself would go to Babs in case things in the theatre went sideways.

Bart would get a zip drive with all their old shenanigans on video, the only copies left once his systems uploaded relevant data to Titan’s Tower and his electronic footprint would be–

gone.

The box with the Red Robin costume he wore was already sealed and addressed to Jason Todd. The note on top was short and sweet: You were right. It never should have been me after all.

He’d already arranged for his share in Wayne Enterprises to be returned to Bruce Wayne immediately, handing him his family’s company back without any strings attached.

Months ago, he’d returned The Red Bird to the Cave when he was sure no one would be around to catch him. The implication that Robin would need the car one day right there in the fact he’d brought it back because honestly, it was never really his in the first place.

Alfred would get his pick of antiques from Drake Manor, and the house itself would be given to the city to be used as a halfway home for runaway teens. He’d made sure the funding would be there to run it for a few years. The donation was made in his mother’s name.

The hilt molds to his palm, the barrel glinting bright in the night. To his credit, his hands aren’t shaky when he slides the clip home and pulls the slide back to put one in the chamber.

(The team had been working fine without him for a while now. Even if they did need someone, there was another Robin to join the roster and keep them moving forward.)

An abrupt light in the darkness, his phone screen lighting up with a missed call notification.

Missed call: Dick the OG

Ironic since the last time he’d come this far, it had been him calling out to the last person he thought could pull him back.

(Not this time. He has a new little brother, a new Robin.)

Slowly, without putting down the .45, he presses the ignore when the phone starts buzzing against with another incoming call. He thumbs the button on the side to turn the phone completely off without listening to the voicemail.

The clip makes a difference, but the absurdity of it, of the last time he did this, was when his future self was a murdering, gun-toting Batman, and the only way he could see to stop it was to stop himself.

The press of the barrel is familiar, and not in that soothing kind of way.

He blinks, just blinks, and his face is wet, which is really stupid because no one is going to miss him any damn way.

His chest gets tight when he fingers the trigger guard, giving himself the time he needs to do it right. In the final moments, he inanely thinks about the time he was huddled against Dick, right after he'd almost tried cloning his dead best friends in an insane attempt to bring them back. It's really the last time he remembers being held, being warm, feeling like he still fucking mattered. It was Dick holding him tight with restraining, breathing against the top of his head, fingers buried in his hair.

It's when he could be weak while still in the mask, babbling to Dick about how he can't do this, he can't lose them all. He was crying then, too, when he told Dick about his mom and dad leaving, leaving, always fucking leaving. About how he got used to seeing their backs more than their faces. How he was left standing on his own for too damn long to just let it keep happening. He couldn't keep losing them, couldn't keep seeing people walk away, how it fucking breaks him.

And in the here and now, his chest hitches, eyes fluttering, hand tightening down because he'd said...and Dick had...

"But I'm here, Timmy. I'm always going to be your big brother!"

It had been the last time he'd been surrounded by the famed octopus hold.

(It was the last time for a lot of things.)

He laughed, smothered in Dick shoulder, something further away from a sob. "Then I guess you'll at least never leave me, right?"

"You will never be able to get rid of me. C'mon. We're going the hell home and having a movie day. Screw the Lazarus Pit, Robin. It's time for some R and R."

Dick had half-carried him to the waiting Batplane and talked him down out of trying to use the Pit for his own gain ever again.

The first knuckle rests on the smooth curve, a six-pound trigger.

(In the end, they all leave.)

(Not again.)

Conner's terrible mohawk and leather jacket.

Bart racing Wally at a hotdog eating competition.

Cassie running full tilt to throw herself at him when he'd come to Titan's Tower to ask them for help when Ra's was going to kill everyone Batman ever loved.

Raven nuzzling Gar out of plain sight so no one would think she was totally gone for him.

Jason coming to the Tower, alive good God, and the Robin he used to be super-imposed to be his hero and enemy in the same ghostly figure.

Bruce putting a hand on his shoulder on a ride back to the Cave, chasing the dawn, the Good work, tonight tired but sincere, and his whole body lights up.

His mother looking at peace in her coffin, a lily in her folded hands.

His eyes close on the out-of-the-way safe house, the plain beige walls, stripped and soulless. He keeps the team in his mind, the times he was happy.

Now.

Instead of a resounding boom followed by his grey matter splattering his personality, intelligence, imagination, him all over–

the wall to the safe house caves in under a super punch.

Conner is white as a sheet on the other side, brick and mortar crumbling under his hands. "No! Tim. Tim. Put. The. Gun. Down."

His mouth is dry and his brain pan full of nothing but pain and disappointment.

(But you brought it all on yourself, didn't you? The Robin nobody wanted. The son nobody asked for.)

He isn't numb enough to be calm, cool, and collected. "All...all you have to do–" a hitch in his breathing "–is walk away."

The meta floats in a little closer, hovering over the flooring instead of outside. His hands stretch out, gaze focused and intense.

"Can't do that, buddy. Looks like I should have been more of an asshole after all the League of Assassins shenanigans. Sorry, my bad."

Kon knows he's in trouble when Tim Drake doesn't laugh.

"Tim," he goes to serious in about two point five seconds because the hand holding that shiny automatic tightens enough for him to hear the screws in the hilt strain, "Tim. It's me here, okay? It's just you and me, just like it's always been. We’re besties, whether you're Robin or Red Robin or Tim fucking Drake because that guy is so damn cool." He inches closer, wondering if he's fast enough, wondering if he can really get to Tim in time–

Like the former Robin can read his mind, those violet-blue eye give him a blink.

"I’ve always wondered if you really are faster than a speeding bullet."

“No!”

(...as it turns out, he isn’t.)

[caranfindel]

Recap/review 14.18: “Absence”

THEN: I am a Winchester! Which means I do awful and wonderful things! Like saving Sam (Saaaaaammmm!!!) and torturing Nick and doing Something Bad to Mary! And possibly losing my soul! Whoopsie!

NOW: Sam and Dean are just getting back to the bunker after the events of the previous episode. I assume they've given Donatello a ride home (which, as we've established, is x hours away), but maybe they stuck him in a cab like they did with Claire that one time. Maybe they found a car for him back at the abandoned warehouse. Sam drops his bag on the map table and they both start calling for Jack and Mary, but aren't too terribly concerned about them not being there. "They probably just stopped for a bite on the way back," Dean hypothesizes, when they settle in the library with a couple of beers. Um. Jack zapped them to Nick's cabin, didn't he? So what is on the "way back?" Are they going to zap to a McDonald's first? What is important is that Sam is still wearing that orange plaid shirt. And they're both pretty unperturbed, even for them, about what just happened.

Here's to another miraculous Sam Winchester survival. Gotta say, man, if Jack hadn't have healed you... you know, lately, it feels like we'd be up the creek without that kid. I mean, first he takes care of Michael, and then Nick...

I know, and he even got the blood out of my new orange plaid shirt, which means I can keep wearing it for this entire episode.

Yeah, I been meaning to talk to you about that. You've been adding a lot of orange to your wardrobe lately.

Just this shirt and that one jacket.

It's more orange than anyone needs. Sure, it fits you great, but so does that red and black plaid. Why don't you wear that shirt some more? Or that solid black shirt you have?

Sorry, but you know I'm a Texas fan. You're just going to have to put up with the orange.

At least I think that's how the conversation went. I could be remembering wrong.

I'm just saying. It's a lot of orange.

The point is, Dean appreciates Jack and recognizes everything he's done for them. Dean pulls out his phone to call her and they hear a buzzing, which is her phone, on the map table, right to Sam's bag. Sam, I know you're recently back from the dead (or near-dead) but it does seem like you would have noticed the phone there. (Also, how close is the library to war room? This makes it look like the map table is practically in the library.) Her keys are next to her her phone, and it's not until this very moment that I realize they didn't know she and Jack zapped to the cabin - they must have thought she and Jack drove there. Because obviously they didn't have a lot of conversation about it. Even though they had a long drive back and it does seem like Sam would have called his mother and asked how their end went.

Anyway. They're perturbed now. Sam tries to call Jack and we see him, staring, ignoring Sam's call.

Title card! (ha ha, I forgot we were still in the Now.)

The guys are making phone calls to all their contacts, and Sam reports Rowena has a spell that might be able to track Jack down. Oh, I love that Sam calls Rowena for help. LOVE IT. Dean gets a call from Cas and gives him the scoop. "Were they together?" Cas asks. “Alone?" Cas looks more Cassy than usual, and then tells Dean about the snake. "I don't think Jack is well, Dean," he says. Dean hangs up on him, which seems kind of rude, but neither he nor Sam act like the snake story is particularly significant. Then Sam gets the brilliant idea to track Jack's phone. (Sidebar: Should Cas be able to use his angelic powers to locate Mary and/or Jack? Discuss.)

Sam fires up the phone tracking website and expositions that they should be able to track him as long as his phone has power. (Listen, guys. You need Find My Friends. Best parent app EVER. It locates him in Nepal, but then he immediately appears in Peru. "Jack's flying," Sam says.

Eventually Jack tires of Paris and Lima and Madagascar and and flops to the ground back at the Cabin of Death, next to Nick's stolen truck. He pulls out his phone, revealing a low battery (so much for that plan, Sam) and several missed calls and messages from the rest of TFW 2.0. He has some flashbacks to happier times with Mary, and then in the background we notice someone standing on the porch of the cabin. They're wearing jeans, and their face is hidden in the darkness, and I'm open to the possibility that Jack actually zapped Mary somewhere instead of killing her (and according to the 14.17 poll, some of you are also open to this), so for a second I think it's going to be Mary standing there. But no.

On the TV:

Nick?

Hmm. Guess again. Hello, son.

At my house:

OH FUCK.

?

Sorry. I'm just really tired of him.

So, after Jack left to do more important things (Saaaaaaammmmmm!!!!), Lucifer made it back into the world? I mean, this is awful, but it would mean Lucifer is the Big Bad instead of Nick, so... not ALL awful? But it's not Lucifer either - "I'm your subconscious, or whatever," he says. Oh god, it's Hallucifer. Jack has his own version of Hallucifer, JUST LIKE HIS PRIMARY DAD. He's here to help, allegedly, though he doesn't seem all that helpful. "Buddy, you killed Mary Winchester. You cannot come back from that, and you know it." Well. I guess she's officially dead, then. Or is she? Where's the body? I mean, Hallucifer is just Jack's subconscious. So if Jack thinks he killed Mary, so does Hallucifer. That doesn't make it so. Jack tells Hallucifer that it was an accident, and he's all, sure, tell Sam and Dean that, I'm sure they'll understand. (It's funny because it's not true!)

Cut to the Winchesters, driving through the night. Sam expositions that Cas will meet them at the cabin (how do any of them even know where this cabin is?) and speculates that maybe Lucifer is behind whatever happened, not Jack. And maybe Jack thought he was being kind when he killed the snake. Because Sam is grasping for anything that exonerates his son (sob!). But Dean's not accepting it and doesn't want to talk about it. Then Sam's laptop or tablet or whatever he's using beeps with notification that Jack's signal has been lost. Uh oh. (So I guess that's how they found the cabin?) Oooh, yes, we actually get confirmation that it's in Longton "KA" (which doesn't exist and I suspect is supposed to be KS, SERIOUSLY, GUYS).

Longton KANSAS is 4.5 hours from Lebanon. In case anyone but me is curious.

When they get to the cabin, there's no sign of Jack or Mary or Hallucifer. Just the stolen truck. Sam goes inside and Dean looks outside and oh, who's going to be the one to find the body? First I'm sure it's going to be Sam, because there's a lumpy pile of blankets on the bed, but it must just be blankets, and Sam doesn't even look under them. He does find a body, but it's Nick, not Mary. And then I'm sure it's going to be Dean, because he comes across something disturbing outside and ignores Sam's calls. But what he found is... well, it's hard to see what it is in the dark. Apparently it's a blast zone. A big one.

Cas is sitting in his truck somewhere, having his own warm and fuzzy Mary flashback where she eats a candy bar after a hunt without washing her hands and refuses to let Cas heal her because she's still a little bit afraid of him. He tells her that, no matter what other things there are to deal with, Sam and Dean are glad she's here. "Finally they don't have to be so alone." Wow, that's a dumb thing to say. Mary agrees with me and says "Castiel, they were never alone. And if they were, me being here wouldn't fix that, since I'm always off doing other things." That's how I remember it, anyway. Reverie over, Cas gets out of the truck to face the music - he's at the Cabin of Death.

Inside, Sam is covering Nick's body. He and Dean have some concerned conversation about whether Nick deserved whatever Jack did to him and conclude that Jack must have made it as painful as possible or otherwise killed him in some inappropriate way. And there are very good, valid reasons for them to come to this conclusion. I mean, I can't think of them right now, after watching the episode twice and ruminating for several hours, but I'm sure something will come to me very soon. Let me just go check my Tumblr feed again. I bet they're there.

(Seriously. Nick looks like he was burned out by an angel. That's all.)

They're surprised when Cas walks in, because they didn't hear his giant truck or see his headlights in the dark Cabin of Death. They tell him they haven't found anything except the blast site that looks like something "angelic, but bigger." Dean theorizes that it could have been Lucifer, but Sam points out that Jack said he took care of Lucifer, and I'm not sure why they've reversed their positions. Because in the car, Sam was the one who thought it might have been Lucifer. Script mix-up? Someone brought Jensen the wrong pages? Anyway. Dean says "If he did something to her, if she is... then you're dead to me." Pointing as Cas, because Cas knew something was wrong with Jack. Well, that hardly seems fair. When he first told you the snake story, Dean, you didn't think it meant anything at all. But NOW, all of a sudden, it was some ironclad harbinger of doom?

"I was scared. I believed in Jack for so long. I believed that he was good. I knew that he would be good for the world. He was good for us. My faith in him, it never wavered, and then I saw what he did. It wasn't malice, it wasn't evil, it was like Jack saw a problem and he solved it, with that snake. What he did wasn't bad. It was the absence of good, and I saw that in him. But we were a family and I didn't want to lose that..."

And I'm going to stop here, because this is the most important part of Cas's speech. This is the core issue. Jack's not bad, he just might not be good either. He thought he was doing the right thing. And he's family. Is any of this familiar, Dean? Any of it at all? Cas also says that he wanted to "fix it" on his own, so he left and didn't tell anyone. Neither brother asks how he thought he was going to fix it, but I guess they'll get the story of the failed faux Samulet someday. Right now we just have Sam looking sad and guilty and Dean looking angry and guilty but mostly angry.

Sam's phone rings - it's Rowena. She says she was unable to scry Jack because "his energy is too unstable; it's like looking at the sun." And as for Mary? "I don't know what happened, or where she is, but I can tell you with certainty - Mary Winchester is no longer on this earth." At this point, I'm still ready to accept that she's been zapped to a different dimension. I mean, there's no body. But TFW accepts it as her being dead, and Dean starts throwing furniture and Sam is despondent and flinchy (and hoo boy, I love that combination.)

So what do we do?

What do we always do when we lose one of our own?

Bad things. Very bad things. He declares "we fight to bring them back." And they will call on Rowena, because "she's got the Book of the Damned; she's resurrected herself more times than we can count." (Not to quibble, but we've only seen her resurrected twice. You yourself have been resurrected more times than that, Dean.) He orders Cas to go to Heaven and find Mary, and orders Sam to tell Rowena they're on their way. Mmmm, angry bossy Dean. I like that combination too.

Another thing I like about this scene is that it's one of those times when Sam turns into the little brother. When he looks at Dean and asks "what do we do," because that's how this works.

So much to like.

We go to Rowena's place, and if you're wondering where she lives and how far it is from the Cabin of Death, you're not alone. She's working away on her spell, though it sounds like she says cumin so maybe it's actually a chili recipe, when someone bangs on her door. "That was fast," she says. But when she answers the door... oh god, it's Jack, and for the first time in this episode I actually feel some concern. DO NOT HURT HER, JACK. (Rowena, I apologize for not appreciating you when you first arrived on the scene. I adore you now and you must remain.)

She pretends she doesn't know what happened, asking if he's well and telling him 2/3 of his dads are looking for him. He admits he accidentally killed Mary by just thinking it for a second and oh, imagine how horrible that would be, if the awful things that popped into your mind for one second actually came to pass. Or maybe I have more intrusive thoughts than y'all do. Anyway. "I need to undo it," he says. "You need to help me undo it." She explains that the magic she normally uses has to be in place before you die, so he suggest the book (I adore the way she says book) and she tells him about the spell. It requires "enormous power" but simple ingredients that could probably be found in the bunker.

Someone bangs on the door again - it's Dean. Jack accuses her of stalling, but they only talked for like 90 seconds, so, okay. She asks him to talk to his "kin," but he grabs her arm. Sam kicks the door in (with hair in his face and yes it is hot) but it's too late - Jack has zapped her out.

Sadly, I have not found a gif yet, so this will have to do.

Cut to Cas at the Stairway to Heaven, calling for Naomi. No one responds.

Jack and Rowena appear in the bunker, and he pulls her along, but happens to notice some gouges in the floor. And now we get another flashback. Mary is trying to teach him how to handle a knife, and he keeps dropping it on the floor. She's all sweet and supportive and blah blah blah, and Jack says Dean will kill him for gouging the floor when they get him back, so this must be during the Michael!Dean period. Mary pulls the table over to cover the damaged floor, but who is that in the background? It's bearded Sam! Oh, long lost Beard of Despair! How I've missed you! (Is it fake? Is it real? Was this a deleted scene? Or did they plan for what was coming, and film this before he shaved it off? Does Jared just grow a beard that quickly? I DO NOT CARE.)

He feels bad for not being there for Jack while he was busy looking for Dean, and then he apologizes for complaining to her. But she's relieved not to be the only one with "parental guilt." Because they went through so much without her, and then things were "complicated" when she got back. "I'm just saying, parenting is always a struggle. You always feel like you're failing, but then you look at them, and somehow, they're amazing. Somehow, they're literally the bravest, kindest, most heroic men on the planet." Well, this is true. Very true. And I'm glad she's giving Sam the praise and validation he SO deserves but come on, Mary. What do you know about parenting? You did it for four years. When did you feel like you were failing six-month-old Sam?

YES, MARY, I WANT TO TOUCH IT TOO

Fade to Sam. Interesting that Jack's warm fuzzy flashback turned into Sam's. (It's because Sam is his primary dad! It is known!) They're still at Rowena's, and Dean is still ranting about Cas not telling them about the snake. EVEN THOUGH DEAN DIDN'T CARE ABOUT THE SNAKE WHEN CAS FIRST TOLD HIM.

Cas, Cas should have told us. As soon as he saw Jack going Dahmer on his stupid snake, he should have told us.

Dean, it wasn't just Cas. We knew Jack was dangerous. We always knew. Long before he killed Michael. You more than anyone. I mean, from the very beginning you knew. But, you know, we fell for him, because he had a good heart and a good soul. And then, he didn't. And that's on me, too, by the way. I mean, I'm the one that made the call to bring him back. He didn't ask for that. I decided for him. And you warned me.

Oooh. Sam. No. Because:

1) Dean didn't KNOW from the very beginning. He was, in fact, WRONG at the very beginning, when he thought Jack was evil. Jack was not evil, and you insisted on giving him a chance, and YOU WERE RIGHT. Jack becoming "evil" in the future (and he's not even EVIL, he's just naive and untrained and too powerful for his own good) wasn't anything Dean predicted.

b) Dean didn't exactly fight very hard to stop Sam from bringing Jack back. Seems like most of his concern was that it wouldn't work, not that it was a bad idea in and of itself.

Then Sam says "You know, after Maggie and the other hunters died, I just left. I just dumped Jack on Cas and left." Well, I'm not a big fan of "Maggie and the other hunters" (reminds me too much of "Sting and the Police" and I don't know why Maggie - or Sting - were so damn special that they deserved to be singled out as the only ones in the group with a name), but I also don't have any memory of Sam leaving after Michael killed the other hunters. And when he did, he wanted to take Jack, but Dean wouldn't let him. But Sam says he knew something was going to happen and he's wallowing in guilt. Dean admits that he also knew there was a risk, because of what Donatello told him about not being sure. Well, thank Chuck for that. I'm glad Dean's not letting Sam shoulder all the blame for something that wasn't his fault.

Angry Dean and sad Sam, two things I adore.

Back at the bunker, Rowena is gathering her cumin and other ingredients. Jack's getting impatient, and she tells him that she could have fought him, but she didn't. "Because you want the same thing the boys want. That I want." This is a beautiful, beautiful moment, with Rowena wanting what "the boys" want, but it's interrupted by Hallucifer, who doesn't even know why Jack is doing any of this. "To ease your guilt? But you don't have guilt any more, do you, Jack? Admit it. You don't feel anything any more." Well. Everything Hallucifer says comes from Jack's head, so what do we think about this? Does Jack really not feel anything any more? I disagree. If he didn't feel anything, if he didn't want Mary back, if he didn't care about forgiveness, why would he even bother? So I think our boy does feel something. Rowena is disturbed by Jack talking to his hallucination, but she carries on and finishes the spell. They have everything they need except the body. Oh.

Stairway to Heaven. Cas isn't going anywhere until Naomi talks to him. Someone finally shows up, but it's Duma.

Where's Naomi?

Well, I'd tell you it's none of your business, but you already know it's none of your business. Naomi just gets paid more than I do, and we've already got all the regular guest stars in this episode, so we had to cut some corners.

At least that's how I remember it. She tells him Mary is at peace in "a special Heaven" and "is complete" and he should just let her be.

Jack takes Rowena to the Cabin of Death, but Mary's body isn't there. He thinks she should be able to complete the spell anyway, but she says she can't. He wants to do it himself, but she says he's in no shape, and "disposition affects execution." She tells him that whatever he brings back won't be Mary, and refuses to help him and OH I'M CONCERNED FOR HER AND HE REACHES OUT AND PUSHES HER and she just ends up being shoved back into her apartment. WHEW. She calls Sam and tells him what Jack is doing, and that it won't work because there's no body, and Jack has snapped and they need to stop him." Necromancy is a delicate art, unpredictable under ideal circumstances. In his state, I fear your boy will bring back something terrible." WELL, THAT'S ENCOURAGING. (Also, Rowena is hilarious in this scene.)

Jack sits in the corpse-less blast zone and performs the ritual and a huge swirling purple cloud appears overhead and I'm thinking, is this our out? Is Jack going to summon something awful, something that can be the Big Bad so he doesn't have to? Please? He notices the Impala nearby, and uses his powers to stop it in its tracks. Luckily it's just right outside the cabin. Sam and Dean run toward him, and we see him looking down at whatever he has summoned, but he doesn't look happy about it. Neither do the Winchesters. "It didn't work," he says, before zapping out.

Oh, the thing he brought back is Mary. Well, Mary's corpse, apparently. Dean holds her and finds her still dead, and he's sad and we get his flashback, which is just Mary leaning on him, asleep in the car, and then Sam comes and holds Dean as he holds Mary and everybody's sad, we're all sad, so terribly terribly sad and we get a crane shot and it's a very lovely scene but I can't help thinking um, correct me if I'm wrong, but we do have that missing piece now, right?

Jack ends up at some industrial kind of place, where Hallucifer tells him there's no going back. "Cas, Sam, Dean, they're never going to trust you again. And you know what that means. You can never trust THEM." And oh, this is Jack's head telling him that. Poor baby.

Bunker. Sam has his box of treasures and he's looking at the few remaining family photos. He looks up, full of hope, when Cas comes in. But Cas tells him Mary is in Heaven and at peace. Dean shows up in time to hear this, and asks if he's just going to take Duma's word for it, because she's a known liar and also might possibly be that dude from The Empty. He says no, he actually saw Mary's Heaven, and we see her door with the dates 1954-1983 and 2016-2019 on it, which of course begs the question of what Sam and Dean's doors are going to look like.

He says he saw her with John (way to bury the lede, Cas), and they're full of joy. But was it really John? Haven't we established that most people are in their own individual Heavens, and if she has a John, it's just an avatar? I mean, John's name wasn't on the door. And I expect Dean, at least, to insist they try to bring her back anyway. But Sam says Rowena told him that what Jack brought back was just an empty replica, "incapable of holding life." (I mean, I feel like that sometimes.) "So what are we supposed to do now?" he asks. And again, Sam is looking to Dean to lead them through this, and yet he's got to know what they SHOULD do. He's got to be thinking of Mary, safe and happy in Heaven, and of ripping someone (anyone, no one in particular, right Sam?) away from that and forcing them to continue on Earth just because you can't be without them. He's got to be thinking of that.

"What we always do," Dean says. And the last time he said that, in this very episode, it meant we do something awful, we throw our own lives away or make some horrible bargain or damn the world in order to bring her back. But this time, it just means that we give her a hunter's funeral. And Sam doesn't look like he was ready for that after all.

So Mary gets a very dramatic pyre, and a montage? Did anyone else get a montage? Ellen, Jo, Bobby, Kevin, Crowley? JOHN? ANYONE? A FREAKING MONTAGE? NO. Grrr. Cas tries to get closer to Dean and Sam puts out a hand and stops him. Also, Sam burns a photo of her and I don't know why.

And finally, we cut to the library table where Sam and Dean carved their initials and we see they are joined by a M.W. Um. What about John? Didn't he get to carve his intials? (NO. Those are only for people who get a montage.)

Also, now that I'm going back to get screencaps, it doesn't look like her intials were there at the beginning of the episode. So she didn't carve them, one of the guys did. And not Dad's? Cold, boys.

You know, last week, like, five or ten minutes before the end of the episode, I thought if Jack hadn't cemented his place in Dean's heart already, he's certainly there now. Because he saved Sam. No matter what else Jack did or is doing or will do, he saved Sam. And I want someone to point that out. I want Sam to say "no, I'm not ready to give up on him, and you realize the only reason I'm here to argue with you is because Jack saved me, right? And if he is soulless, he lost it by saving our asses, right?" (Is this because I watched "Clip Show" a couple of days ago and watched Sam frantically try to soothe Sarah as she died from Crowley's handiwork, and I want Jack to get the same kind of second chance that Crowley got? Maybe.) Now, I realize killing Mary is more awful than anything Crowley (or any other enemy-turned-frenemy) has done to them. But it was an accident. And HE SAVED SAM'S LIFE. Come on. That counts for something.

(Sidebar: We also learned, in that scene back in season 8, that Crowley's mother was a witch. {blows a big wet kiss to the Continuity Fairy})

So, how do I feel about Mary being gone? Here's the deal. This show, at its heart, is about two (or three) men who have a giant bleeding Mary Winchester-sized hole in their lives. Filling that hole does not make for good television. And the Show tried to make her interesting and edgy by playing against what we thought we knew about her (she can't cook! she can't stay away from hunting! she sleeps with both Arthur Ketch and New Bobby!), it tried to make her both a source of conflict and a source of comfort, and ultimately (as far as I'm concerned) it just failed. She was so much more effective as that siren song of the impossible apple pie life. I said earlier and I'll repeat it here... the fact that they had to retcon all of these warm fuzzy flashbacks, instead of using actual clips, just shows how shallow these relationships were. There wasn't anything real to fall back on. And the way they spend these two episodes trying to make us care? It had the opposite effect on me. I'm glad to be shed of her.

But maybe that's just me. Maybe absence will make the heart grow fonder. We shall see. Come on and tell me what you think, and remember, no spoilers in the comments, please!