Everything Harmony: Church Balls (A The Lemon Twigs Fanfiction)

III. Ember Days

(( Header created by yours truly. Major story beats made possible by sillywizard! Thanks a bunch! ))

"......Evil Brian?" I stared blankly at the brothers.

The moment I woke up today, I was definitely not expecting to be told that I'm being sold to my favourite band, would actually be getting along with them, and then have the moment ripped away by an ""Evil Brian"".

Brian looked like he was going to say something, but Michael quickly overtook his sentence. "Evil Brian."

"Yeah, look, we can explain everyth--" Brian started but got interrupted again.

"Evil Brian," Michael repeated himself.

"I know we sound crazy right now," Brian disregarded Michael's interruptions, "but we can explain everything."

"What the fuck."

"Really, we can explain."

I couldn't deny I felt a little curious. A lot curious, actually. How can you just drop something like that, out of the blue?

–

The Twigs sat me down with worried looks on their faces, whilst trying to reassure me. They nervously laughed. "Okay, um, we were an experiment."

"An experiment?" I echoed incredulously, my arms crossed.

Brian twiddled his hair between his index finger and his thumb. "Todd created us to bring back whimsical rock music -- Todd Rundgren. In the fear of the death of power pop, he made us."

"That is insane."

"You say that as if we don't know it is."

"Fair enough...?"

"We were created in a lab, basically. But there was a third. He's now known by the name Evil Brian."

"Now, that's a bit harsh though, isn't it....?"

Michael shrugged. "I don't know, he's pretty evil. He stole Shane, after all" :(

"I don't know, that's not exactly an unforgivable crime that deems him evil forever, is it? I loved the little Shane but is Evil Brian pure evil?"

The room went quiet. I started feeling really bad about blurting that out without hearing more.

"Oh my god, did he do something else horrible?"

Brian looked down at the ground in hesitation. "We grew up alongside him. We gave him all the love we could, but it was never enough for him. Something must have gone wrong in the cloning machine. He just innately..." Brian cut his own sentence short. "Some people are just not reciprocal of the love they were given."

"What is that supposed to mean? Evil Brian couldn't be fixed?"

"In a way."

"We tried," Michael relayed. He heaved a quiet sigh. "We didn't want him to be just a-- just a failed clone."

"But he was?"

Brian nodded with a pained look.

"Do we get that Shane plush back?" I asked to take his mind off.

"He can't be far," Reza agreed.

My eyes searched for the brothers' in concern. "Is he dangerous?"

"He is Evil Brian."

"I don't think that's a concrete answer?"

Michael patted Brian's shoulder as if to tell him he's okay. "You're right, but it's painful."

I nodded, understanding that it must have been hard to grieve someone who was still there - grieving the fact that their twin brother, albeit a clone, was basically lost. A lost cause. That must have been really, really hard for them. Did Danny and Reza even know about the clones? Did they know about Evil Brian already? I can imagine they did, but it's all so odd and new to me now. Like the song title New To Me.

"So we're going to get Shane? Evil Brian could ne anywhere at this point, right?"

"We're going to save Shane!" Michael shouted as he shoved his hand into his pocket.

"What are you doing?"

Michael pulled his phone out and started furiously tapping. "I'm calling the man! Calling Todd right now!"

"Todd Rundgren?!"

"Exactly!"

This had got to be the most elaborate, surreal dream I have ever had. The problem being that this was genuinely all happening. At least I think so. I really don't know anymore. I feel like I've been questioning everything from moment one. Maybe I should give up, give in, and just accept that this is my life now.

"He said he will be here in a few minutes."

"Good, but how are we going to find Evil Brian from inside a car?" 

–

Minutes passed, and a car parked up outside. That must be Todd's.

We made our way inside and parked our buns on the back seats. "Good evening, guys. And the little lady, you must be Yn. I'll be your designated driver tonight."

"Ohh, thank you so much!" I grinned. I was made to feel special all day already.

"I'll also be your designated driver to school tomorrow."

"No way!"

"Yes way," he chuckled.

" ᵍᵒ ᵗᵒ ˢᶜʰᵒᵒˡ " Michael whispered, yet again. He knows he's a funny son of a gun.

"And we're off," Todd said as he hammered the pedal.

"You can ask Todd something, anything," Danny told me, "is there something you'd like to know about him?"

"Hmmh, I'm all ears," Todd assured me.

"Oh, well I'm curious what it was like, with Meat Loaf."

"Nuh-uh. We are not talking about that. I will not be answering any Meat Loaf questions. Ask me something else instead."

"Oh!" 

I guess "ask me anything" is not to be taken fully literal.

"It's okay, it's okay. Um, I heard you kind of... created The Lemon Twigs?"

"Uh-huh."

"You're kind of their dad?"

Todd looked back to meet my gaze, "uhh-huh. Correct, kind of. In every other way the kids' dad is Ronnie."

"Eyes on the road, EYES ON THE ROAD," Brian panicked.

Todd's eyes widened and his instincts had him stepping on the brakes, barely hitting a greyed human figure with long, gangly hair, and eyes glowing red like a blaring siren.

"OH MY GOD," I yelled.

That must be Evil Brian. But what in the hell was he doing in the middle of the road?!