(OLD) World to Ashes (book one) - OK K.O.!

Chapter Thirteen - A Small Memory

K.O. fell into the base right behind Potato and this caused her to immediately lock it. K.O. sat up off the ground, breathing heavily and forcing himself not to cry. He couldn't believe that Colewort was dead all because of him. It was his idea to follow the map, and it was his fault Colewort got killed.

Memories started flooding his mind as he remembered lots of other heroes being killed in front of him. Brandon, A Real Magic Skeleton, Drupe, and lots of other heroes around him at the time. He wheezed and started coughing, still trying his best to force back the tears threatening to spill out.

Potato walked up to him and tried her best to comfort him. K.O. just looked up and her and gave she gave him a big hug, trying to help him feel better. His grip on her tightened as he kept on having memories of how mostly everyone in the plaza had died in front of him.

The worst one was the memory of Mr. Gar and how K.O. was so shocked when he was killed. He never expected a level 11 hero to actually get killed like that, especially by a level -7.

He couldn't force his tears back any longer, and he just burst into tears while still hugging Potato. He didn't stop himself, he didn't want to anymore. He just wanted this aching feeling in his chest to go away, he wanted it to all stop.

"I want to go home," K.O. cried. "I just want to go home. I want to see mommy again, I want everything to be back to normal. I want Enid and Rad to be at the bodega and Mr. Gar as our boss. I want Boxman to send his bots normally so we can beat them up like normal. I just want this all to be a terrible dream that I'll wake up from one day."

His voice was starting to break as he spoke. Hearing all of this really hurt Potato more than anything, she's never seen someone so broken before. She knew that even though everyone was suffering, K.O. had it worse, and she was realizing that now that Colewort was dead.

His heart was already broken before, and over time it barley even had the smallest pieces out back together, though now it was right back from where he started. In a thousand pieces, and maybe even more now that what was once fixed was in a worse condition.

Potato honestly didn't know how to feel about this. She was really hurt, but she couldn't really cry. It's like everything that has happened made her numb to the point where she can't even cry anymore. She couldn't express how bad she felt about leaving Colewort, but no matter what happened, she couldn't show any kind of emotion anymore.

The two stood there in the base for a while, simply hugging, when K.O. finally decided to check out what was set out for them. He found three small cat beds that were in a decent condition with a water bottle and bag of chips next to each of them.

He walked up to them and Potato followed. "...Man, this anonymous hero must be serious about this," K.O. said. "It's a shame that we're not continuing tomorrow night."

"Wait, what?" Potato asked, confused. "You're not saying we should stop, are you?"

"No, not at all. We've come too far to stop and go back now, and I don't even know if I can go back there anymore with Colewort gone," K.O. said, gripping his other arm and looking toward the side. "I just don't feel like continuing tomorrow, I really need a break."

"It makes sense," Potato said, walking around. "We won't have much to do, but maybe I can find something that was set out for us to do."

While Potato walked around looking for something, K.O. pulled off the hackpack and opened up Colewort's profile. He looked down sadly as he changed his current status from alive to deceased.

K.O. really couldn't understand this. Out of all people, why did Colewort get killed? K.O. really wished it was himself that got killed so he wouldn't deal with any of this grief anymore.

He really wanted to pull off some of his bandages and use a small blade to start harming himself, but something stopped him. He remembered the small nickname that was given to the team by Colewort not that long ago, and remembering that made him stop.

"What on Earth am I doing?" He asked, placing his hand on his head. "Why am I wanting to do this again? Colewort wouldn't have wanted this. He wanted us to be the Small Survivors, that's what we're going to be."

Little did he know, the two already were the Small Survivors. They managed to survive everything that life had thrown at them, after all.

And knowing this, a small smile crossed K.O.'s face, making him feel just a bit better.

(A/N) Now this chapter is much better than the last and it definitely makes up for the rushed chapter yesterday

Honestly I can't help but feel really bad for K.O., I mean he's such a sad smol child who needs millions of hugs. He deserves to get stuck in another OK K.O.! universe and feel loved again xD

Anyway, that's really all I need to say for this chapter. Please vote and comment if you enjoyed, and I'll see you in the next one! ^.^