ᴀꜰᴛᴇʀʟɪꜰᴇ - ᴀɴ ᴇᴘɪᴄ ꜱᴍᴘ ꜰɪᴄ

IV

Schlatt and Charlie stood, frozen in place. Swagger stared at the two.

"Swagger.." Schlatt replied. "Can you," he paused, trying to collect his thoughts. "Can you see us?"

Swagger nodded slowly. He began towards the two slowly, picking up pace as he stumbled towards them. "Where..where have you been? I-I've been looking everywhere for you and I couldn't fucking find you so I thought you were dead but you're not and you're-" Swagger stopped as his hand phased through Schlatt in an attempt to grab his husband. "Here..?"

"Swags...we're dead," Schlatt said. Swagger looked wildly to Charlie as if Charlie would give some hint that this was a dumb prank, a trick of the light, something. But Charlie bit his lip and nodded, refusing to make eye contact.

"No- no you're here! You're here right now I can see you-"

"We're dead Swagger!" Schlatt said a but more forcefully. He stepped forward, walking towards the man and then right through him. "We're dead," he said softly, his back now to the man he loved.

Swagger fell to his knees. Disbelief flooded him and a desperate look touched his face. "But, but if I can see you now, it means there's hope right?! The machine is working and I can bring you back right?!"

Charlie turned his attention to the scene. Schlatt wasn't looking at him. He couldn't. How could he stand to see his husband so desperate, so broken.

Swagger was staring at the machine. A hope - no, a sense of desperation placed on his face. "It can work.." he turned his attention to Charlie at last. Charlie was expecting anger, rage, screaming. But there was nothing. Just a desperate look and a hope for confirmation.

"Swagger..I don't think you can bring us back. What happened back there, what I caused, you can't fix that. This is dangerous. You can't keep going like this.." Charlie said, finally speaking up.

"But..but He put me back here! He that I needed to be here for a reason! And..and if I need to be here then this has to work! He's the reason I'm stuck here! So this has to work! I can't let Him win!" Swagger shouted, slamming his fists onto the ground. The air grew silent. Everything around them became silent.

Schlatt disappeared around the machine and  flipped a switch. The platform they'd all been on whirred to life and began rising. Schlatt came back around and went to shake Swagger, it seemed, and then remembered he couldn't touch the man, however badly he wanted to. Charlie kicked up a stick and tossed it to the man so he could at tap his husband with that instead.

Charlie watched the bittersweet scene. Lovers reunited, but still separate. Still so drastically far apart although just beside each other. Existing in two different states of being yet in the same world. It was poetically tragic. 'Bullshit' Schlatt would've insisted. Charlie couldn't help but think of the insults Schlatt would spew at him for the poetic train of thought he'd been on.

Swagger staggered to his feet and gently gripped the end of the stick opposite to Schlatt. It was sort of like holding hands. But a crippling guilt gripped onto Charlie and refused to let go of him. They'd been torn apart because of him. He made this happen. And he still had no clue where any of his other friends were.

The three of them began on their way back to the remnants of Bungerberg. Swagger put out the torches as they went. Schlatt was filling Swagger in on what has happened to him and Charlie while they've been gone. Swagger filled him in on what's happened. They reminisced. They talked.

And Charlie trailed behind them. Wondering.

The three of them got to the remains. Charlie made his way to the old tree-house area while Schlatt and Swagger made their way to Swaggers temporary campsite. A lot of the area had been cleaned up. Swagger was probably trying to restore the place. That made Charlie smile.

Charlie cleared a spot in the rubble for him to lay down and drifted off into sleep.

When he opened his eyes it was all dark. Pitch black. 

"Schlatt? Swagger?" Charlie called out. He stood up and looked around. There was no response. Just an echo. "Ted?"

Still no response. "Eddy? Gus?"

Nothing.

"Minx? Ethan? Anyone?'

An echo of his voice. Charlie frowned. He began walking in the seemingly endless void of an area. 

"Charlie Slimecicle." A voice boomed. The voice was outside. It was inside. It was in Charlie's head, it was coming from all around. It was faraway, and close up. Too quiet and too loud. It echoed through the endless blackness.

"Yes?" Charlie called out in response. "That's me! I'm Charlie!"

"Charlie Slimecicle," the voice repeated. "Co creator of the Pal-Cove."

The void around Charlie crumbled away and he was in the Pal-Cove. He was rooted in the center of the large cave, not able to move from the spot he'd been stuck in. in his peripherals, he could see the vague outline of a man. It was unclear. Focusing too long at it made Charlie's head hurt. Instead, Charlie stared at Ted, sleeping soundly.

"Charlie Slimecicle, destroyer of Bungerberg," it continued one. The landscape shifted and swirled around Charlie and he shut his eyes, the changing scenes making him feel sick. When he felt the world stop turning, he opened his eyes to the rubble of his former home from the center of it. From just above that crater created by the initial blast.

"Creator and destroyer, Charlie Slimecicle."

Charlie's face hardened as he stared at the burned place. At everyone screaming and struggling. The scene then shifted to the machine. The platform lowering as Swagger flipped the switch.

"You want to help them. You want to bring them back together, Charlie Slimecicle," the voice whispered, the strange voice sending chills down his spine. Charlie nodded. "What if I showed you how?"

Charlie stood frozen as he watched Swagger toil away at the machine, replacing bits and trying to fix it up. Over and over. Days and nights spent here at this machine desperately trying to get it working. So much time wasted, all because of him. "How do I know I can trust you?" Charlie replied hesitantly.

"You don't. That option is all your own, Charlie Slimecicle."

Charlie awoke with a jolt. He sat up to see Swagger sitting over him. It was still dark out. Swagger looked concern. "I thought I heard him over here..." Swagger said awkwardly. He stepped back a few paces and let his arms fall limply to his side.

Charlie rose to his feet slowly and raised a hand to tangle in his hair. "I can fix your machine and bring Schlatt back," Charlie told Swagger. Swagger stared at Charlie wide eyed. A startled laugh tumbled from Swagger's lips.

"That's not a funny joke, Charlie..." he said, looking at Charlie, a wildly hopeful look in his eyes.

"I'm serious. Give me a few days and I can...I can fix this mess, Swagger. I promise you," Charlie said. A determined look was set on his face. Swagger looked back at his sleeping husband and then back at Charlie.

"I know you have no reason to believe me and this is a stupidly wild claim, but-"

"I trust you," Swagger said.

Charlie smiled warmly at him. "I promise I'll bring him back to you," Charlie said. Swagger nodded. With a final, hard look at Charlie, he made his way back to Schlatt.

...

Oh em gee. Next chapter is gonna be the last one, are you ready?