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Sarge went through flashes of all his memories up to that point. He wasn’t sure what it all meant, but he felt entranced by seeing every moment of his life. He saw the very moment he became a werewolf, the time he and Xenon first met, his first time meeting Chomby… and then he saw the moment Chomby died.

“I love you, Sarge.” He heard Chomby say.

“I love you, too, Chomby.” Sarge lifted a hand to Chomby’s cheek… and Chomby vanished.

Wait. That wasn’t how it happened. The tone was certainly different than what he could remember. But try as he might, he couldn’t seem to remember exactly how it played out before.

Suddenly, Sarge’s eyes opened up. He was expecting to see the mountain around him, or even some sort of hospital room… but he wasn’t in either of those. He was in his mindscape. The area was darkened, looking almost like how it had been when he neglected it months ago. The sky flickered every so often.

Sarge still felt confused. Usually, he had to actively imagine the mindscape for it to even exist. Yet, here it was… and he wasn’t even thinking about it.

Sarge continued to scan his surroundings. Like always, the mindscape was a vast array of green, teal, and blue coloration. With the flickering lights, it was harder to see as far as he usually could, but he managed to see something on the edge of the darkness. It was the familiar shape of Chomby. The soundbyte’s ears were bent downward and his posture was slouched down. He was holding his hands above his belly, twiddling his fingers together.

Sarge walked over to him and cleared his throat. The soundbyte perked up immediately and jolted his head toward Sarge. His eyes showed a hint of surprise.

“Heya, Chomby… what’s going on? How’s our mindscape up?” Sarge asked.

“I… I’m not as good at holding it open. You were a lot better at that than me.” Chomby slowly got to his feet. “Sorry, Sarge.”

“Oh, well it isn’t a big deal. I could just-” Sarge closed his eyes and imagined the mindscape in a brighter, friendlier state. When he opened his eyes, the world brightened to match his vision. “There. No harm, no foul.”

“Are you… mad at me?” Chomby asked. He continued to twiddle his fingers together but now avoided looking Sarge in the eye.

“Why would I be mad? I don’t expect you to know how to keep this place up.” Sarge rested a hand against his hip and scratched his head. “Oddly enough, though, I can’t actually feel my body outside of this place. Does that mean you’re in control?”

“Yeah.” Chomby nodded. “Xenon’s taking us to the hospital. You were bleeding out….” Chomby’s voice cracked. He sounded like he was on the verge of crying. “I told him to put me on you. I figured, if I took over, the wound would be gone long enough to get you somewhere safe.”

“Smart thinking.” Sarge said. He wasn’t exactly sure how to continue the thought, so he decided to change the subject. “How did you guys find me?”

“Corporal Lunar told us the location. Said we could go check up on you… but when the car stopped working, Xenon knew it was an EMP. Thought it’d be safe enough to go, since the EMP already went off… so he zipped up and I climbed the mountain.”

“What about Unit_00? Is it still…”

“Destroyed. At least, we think it was. Xenon said he’ll talk with Corporal Lunar and the mainframe to investigate the building some more… find any remnants of Unit_00.”

“Oh.” Sarge looked down at the ground. “Everyone in there is dead.”

“I know. I want to know how you managed to survive, but…” Chomby’s eyes began to well with tears. “I’m just so scared right now. That sonic scream I did… it was almost impossible to keep up.”

“Not at your full strength?” Sarge nodded. “Yeah, I know. But you did it long enough. I’m proud of you-”

“I MEANT that I couldn’t bear to see you hurting so much. You were in so much agony.” Chomby’s body shook. He cupped his head in his hands. “If Xenon didn’t tell me what that ‘tissues in a knot’ code meant, I wouldn’t have done it. Even then, I barely could!”

Sarge was unsure of what to say. He wanted to assure Chomby that he was okay, but he honestly didn’t know. He couldn’t feel any pain right now, but that was a part of letting Chomby take over. Since his mind was drawing a blank, Sarge instead walked forward and wrapped his arms around Chomby. Chomby lowered his head to rest it on Sarge’s shoulder.

“I couldn’t… I just couldn’t.” Chomby began to sob. He grasped around Sarge. “I couldn’t see you die! Especially because of me!”

“But I’m not dead,” Sarge said. “I don’t know if I’ll survive once you take the jacket off, but if we can do it in a hospital setting, then our survival chances increase drastically.”

“I was planning on doffing myself once you woke up, but I’m too afraid to pull the zipper down.” Chomby hugged around Sarge more tightly. “I can’t lose you! I just can’t! Please, don’t die, Sarge!”

“I suppose that isn’t really my choice, is it?” Sarge asked. “Though, if you want my honest opinion, I’m doubtful I will.” It was true. Though, Sarge didn’t know what would happen, he knew his body was rather resilient, even without his regenerative abilities. He was just surprised he survived the Sonic Scream.

Chomby didn’t say anything. He merely sobbed. As he continued, his body slowly sank to the ground. Sarge lowered himself to help Guide Chomby down safely. Once the soundbyte was sitting on the floor, Sarge patted Chomby’s back. “I’m sorry for making you do something so traumatic, Chomby. It was all I could think of at that moment.”

“I-it worked, I guess.” Chomby sniffled. “Xenon told me what you were planning, and that song you made for me only sealed the deal. You were fully planning on dying.”

“Yeah. I couldn’t let anyone else suffer just to protect me. It wasn’t right.” Sarge sat himself down and leaned against Chomby. “But, if I did die there, I at least got to see you in real life… just once. That moment made me the happiest person in the world.”

“Even if it involved being stabbed in the stomach by a metal rod thingy?”

“Even then.” Sarge scooted himself closer to Chomby and wrapped his arm around the soundbyte. “I suppose you could say that we’re even, then? You sacrificed yourself to save me, I sacrificed myself to save you… though, to be fair, you did most of the work.” Sarge groaned. “I just talked Unit_00’s ear off…. That’s all I can do.”

“It was what we needed, though.” Chomby wiped his eyes. “You somehow got that robot to actually contemplate regret. What possessed you to say all that? You had a kinda creepy smile on your face.”

“Knowing I was going to die, I guess? Morality seemed a bit twisted in that moment.” Sarge tried to think back on his actions. “It was like… I knew that I finally had the upper hand on an entity that had been terrorizing me for over a year.”

“Do you think you could have talked it out of destroying all life?”

“Dunno. I really don’t. That would have been the ideal situation, but it had already killed so many people… so many lives lost because of its weird directive.” Sarge shuddered. “I wish I could have saved them. All they were doing was trying to protect me, but they all died.”

“Kinda a scary thought.” Chomby nodded. “I suppose, if it wasn’t for the EMP, then Unit_00 wouldn’t have made it far.”

“Oh yeah. Where DID the EMP come from that time? I couldn’t see it on Unit_00 at all, but it affected Starfish. Starfish held on to me to protect me until its entire system fried.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Sarge. I wanna talk about that later, when you’re ready, but there was a black box thing I destroyed when I broke the eye. A metal ball dropped out. Kinda looked like the same one that Unit_01 used on me that first time. I imagined that’s what it was.”

“Oh, right. That thing.” Sarge shuddered again. “I guess it also would find corpses or something and carry them around.” He thought back to the single hesitation he heard in its steps. “I heard it hesitate. It must have grabbed someone’s body in the hall. Maybe to examine?”

“You really had to deal with all that?” Chomby asked. “Jeez, Sarge… I’m so glad you’re still alive!”

“Same.” Sarge felt himself laugh. He knew it was because his mind was trying to block out all the frightening imagery he had seen last night. “I need therapy.”

Chomby chuckled. His mood was starting to improve. “Yeah, but I suppose, before we can get therapy, we still have a few things we need to address.”

“What’s that?” Sarge asked.

“When I unzip at the hospital… and IF you survive, people will inevitably find out that you and I are the same person.” Chomby said. “We’ve tried so hard to keep that secret for so long. What are we going to do if people find out?”

“Ask them to not tell the secret, maybe?” Sarge shrugged. “Honestly, at this point, if people find out… then they find out. If Unit_00 is actually gone, then I think that merits a bit of a ‘surprise’.”

“That leads me to the next thing.”

Sarge lifted a brow and looked at Chomby.

“We need a vacation.”

Sarge took a deep breath and exhaled. “Yeah. Yeeeeah. We really do. I still have those two back-to-back concerts I promised you.”

“And that entire day of buffets for you,” Chomby teased. “It’ll be nice to relax again.” His ears suddenly perked up and he looked away from Sarge. “Oh, we’re here.”

“At the hospital?”

“Yeah.”

Chomby allowed Sarge to see through his eyes. Sarge could see that Chomby was currently laying down on a gurney. He was surrounded by what appeared to be two nurses and a doctor. Sarge recognized the doctor as the one that helped him on his last visit. He hadn’t caught their name before. They were being transported to what Sarge could only assume was the trauma center. Once they barrelled through a set of double doors, Sarge saw Xenon’s human disguise. He was in the middle of talking to one of the nurses. When he saw the gurney pass, he started following it.

“I’m not seeing any external bleeding on the patient,” said the doctor. “Are you sure they’re actually bleeding?”

“Yes!” Xenon said. “It’s a bit of a complicated scenario, but they’re currently wearing a costume that’s preventing them from bleeding. Once they take it off, the bleeding will start. That’s what they told me.”

Xenon looked down at Chomby and rested one of his hands on Chomby’s. “You’re gonna be okay, ‘Sarge’. When we get into the operating room, take off the costume, okay?”

Chomby nodded.

Sarge shook his vision away and returned to the mindscape. “So, what’s the plan?”

Chomby looked back to Sarge. “I suppose… I gotta unzip.” The fear in his voice returned. “It’s going to be crazy if I do…. We don’t know if you’ll be okay or not. What if you-”

Sarge placed a finger on Chomby’s snout. Once the soundbyte quieted down, he smiled. “Then we’ll find out together.”

Chomby looked down at his chest. He lifted a hand and placed it where the zipper would be. “Y-yeah. I suppose you’re right. We will.”

“And no matter what, Chomby, I love you.” Sarge said.

“And I love you, too.” Chomby tensed his hand on the zipper. He looked back at Sarge, and his lips curled upward.

For the second time in Chomby’s life, he managed to smile.

~~~~~

This is the final chapter of the story. Thank you sincerely, everyone, for reading. I never thought when I wrote that first chapter that I would have a full story. I didn't think this would all turn out as it has, but all the comments you all gave me inspired me to continue doing this until the end. I will say, I may have another part.... Book 2, I suppose? That'll be for the future, though. I dunno how long it'd be, but I have more ideas I want to write. I do hope you'll all come along with me on that ride, too.

Overall, I appreciate you all. Thank you for letting me do what I love to do. Thank you all for your support. <3

~~~~~

Sarge/Chomby/Story (C)  pikminpedia Me