Onward (Ian X Reader)

Ian pushed away the hatch, his smile dropping when he came face to face with his school.

New Mushroom Town High School.

He looked to the side to see the school mascot smiling at him.

Barley and [Y/n] came up behind him, their smiles also dropping as they saw the school.

Ian climbed out, coming to the middle of the road.

He looked around, seeing that he was indeed back in town.

A bus honked at him and Barley rushed over, pulling him, [Y/n] and Will to the side of the road.

“We're back home?” [Y/n] asked confused, still looking around.

“No, that doesn't make sense. We took the Path of Peril. We followed the ravens, we went to the end of the water...……” Barley started rambling, also a bit confused.

“Unless the X meant stay away from the water.” He said, pulling out the clover from his pocket, looking at the drawing.

“Or it could be, like, a campfire? It's okay. We can figure this out.”

“Figure out what? We're back where we started.” Ian said.

“I mean, it has to be here. There was a gauntlet. I mean, unless that gauntlet was for, coincidentally, some different quest. That's a possibility.”

“What?”

“No, no, no. This has to be where the Phoenix Gem is. I followed my gut.” Barley said, turning away from the two.

“Oh, no.” Ian said, making Barley turn to him.

“What?”

“The gem is in the mountain. The mountain we could have been to hours ago if we just...…If we just stayed on the expressway.”

“No, the expressway is too obvious. You can never take the obvious...…”

“If I hadn't listened to you! Okay? I can't believe this. You act like you know what you're doing, but you don't have a clue………”

“Ian, don’t say that.” [Y/n] said, coming between the two, but Ian ignored her.

“…….and that's because you are a screwup.”

“Ian!”

“And now you've screwed up my chance to have the one thing I never had!”

Ian shook his head and then grabbed his Dad walking away.

“Where are you going?” Barley asked.

“To spend what little time we have left with Dad.” Ian replied, shoving the staff into Barley’s arms, before walking away.

“Ian, wait!” [Y/n] said, trying to plead with him.

“We can still find the Phoenix Gem. We just have to keep looking. Ian! Ian!” Barley called out, but Ian ignored him.

Ian brought his Dad to the edge of a cliff, overlooking the sun as it was going down.

Will stretched his legs forward, trying to feel for Barley.

“No, Dad. He's not here.”
Will then turned feeling for [Y/n], and Ian sighed.

“She's not here either.”

Ian sat down, as Will sat beside him, both of them watching it sun as it slowly went down.

Barley tried looking around.