One (A SPM AU BASED ON LN2)

The Afterwards

I wasn't successful though. Instead of finding One in a better place... I found her. 

The girl with the flowing hair. The girl that One had loved oh so much. The Runaway Girl, or RG for short, as he called her. 

Turned out she did have a name. It was Timpani. Quite a unique, beautiful name, really. Very memorable. One would have liked it.

Of course, at first, I hadn't recognized her since we had both grown up since then, but soon enough I could put the pieces together. Her hair, her kindness, she was the spitting image of the runaway girl One dreamed of running away with.

However, by the time I did figure it out, it was already too late. I had already fallen in love with her. Did I feel horrible? Yes. I did. I felt like a monster, taking the girl of his dreams. 

But... she could make me smile again, just like One used to.

He was gone, and I was lonely and in love. I told myself that it was okay and that he would want her to be happy with someone. I told myself that this is what he would have wanted. I convinced myself that if he wanted anyone to be with her, it would have been me. I convinced myself that I was doing this FOR him.

He'd be happy that we were happy, right? The One I knew only ever wanted happiness for others. He wasn't selfish. He'd love that I was able to find someone who could make me smile again. Right?

So, for a while, I allowed myself to be happy again. I allowed myself to be with her. I never had a wilted white flower to give her, but I gave her everything else I had. I gave her all my love. And for a while, things were okay.

Until my father took her too.

That was when I finally saw him as he truly was. That's when I truly felt hatred in a way I had never felt before. Because first he convinced me to let One go, and now he'd taken her too?! Was the world really that cruel?! Taking the only lights in my life away? Was that really what life was? Just pain and sorrow?

That night he took her away... something inside me snapped. Not just for her, but for One too. Something snapped that should have snapped long ago.

I suppose it's true what they say. You either die a hero, as One and Timpani did... or you live long enough to become the villain. 

All heroes die. But villains? Villains survive. 

So... I first destroyed the tribe, leaving them forever. Leaving the city forever, traveling back to the woods in search of Timpani. Back then I still had hope. I traveled to those woods, an adult now, so with no fear for the hunters. 

That's when I found a simple bat ensnared in a little cage that hung from a tree.

I remembered back to my time in the woods with One. I remembered him mentioning how someday he was going to go back here and free all the trapped animals. It was one of the many things he had promised to do but never did.

I knew that he wanted to be the one to free everything, but since he wasn't here, someone had to finish his work and fulfill the promises he made, right?

So... I did as he said, and met Nastasia.

Not long after, I gave up on my search for Timpani.  She wasn't out there, and searching was just filling me with false hope. I was so tired of false hope.

I realized that One was right. The world did need to change. And since he was gone, it looked like I was the only one left to do it. 

Only, I wouldn't bring back the sun. There was no sun to bring back. The world was beyond hope. It was beyond saving.

I instead planned to destroy it all. There was nothing left in it worth saving anyway. One was gone and Timpani was gone. Nothing else mattered.  

But first... before I could take on One's role and fix everything, I had to fix something else. 

It felt wrong to change the world like this, without him by my side. There was a hole in my life where he should have been, and it needed to be filled. 

So... I went back to the mainland, and saved the girl from the factory, as One had promised, introducing Mimi to the team. Then, though the Lab had been long abandoned since the tribe had gone extinct, I searched the world for that one bully, finding him at a destroyed military base after all his troops had been killed, leaving him alone. That was O'Chunks. 

Those two, along with the Nastasia, were there with me not only to serve as loyal minions, but they were my attempt to make me feel whole again. They were a way for me to keep One's spirit living on.

But... the hole One left empty still wasn't full. I still didn't feel complete without him there. 

And it never did fill until Dimentio showed up at our doorstep.

Dimentio... quite a strange fellow, if I do say so myself. He was the only one on our team who I didn't save. The only person that One never promised to save. In fact, I had no idea where Dimentio even came from. He just... showed up one day, asking to join me and my cause. I, of course, initially turned him down, but requested him back because... he gave me an almost familiar feeling. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but something inside me wanted him around. 

It was only after he joined us that I finally felt... full again. And it was only then that I stopped thinking of One every day. It was like... I was finally able to move on.

I recall Mimi asking about One once. She asked me if I was the blue boy who was his best friend. I, of course, nodded not seeing any reason to lie. However, when she asked if he would be coming back I simply told her that he was gone and to never speak of it again.

I didn't have the heart to tell her that it was my fault. 

She of course was devastated. She tried having hope, saying that maybe someday he could return, but I was quick to shut that possibility down.

The others never spoke of him either, thankfully. Nastasia had never actually met him, so I never brought him up to her. And while O'Chunks had a single encounter with him, he most likely had forgotten.

And Dimentio of course, never asked, as he never knew One either. 

And just like that, One, my first friend, my hero, and the first person to show me kindness... he became irrelevant.

And he was forgotten.