#Ghoul is not what Party meant when they told Kobra to make friends but they can’t get rid of him now

[redfish-blu]

Kobra Kid and Fun Ghoul childhood friend-isms

[robinrunsfiction]

an idea that's been bouncing around my head like the dvd screensaver: fun ghoul x reader, enemies to lovers. reader is taken in by party after she helps him and kobra against a drac ambush. Tension between her and fun bc he thinks shes into party or just him being him? She goes out on a run and doesn't come back for longer than usual-> they think she's dead, he starts wearing her choker she left behind. but surprise she's alive, just barely, and its just super fluffy at the end.

I Don't Believe In Luck

Pairing: Fun Ghoul x Female Reader

Rating: General

Word Count: ~1950

Requested By: Anon

Author's Note: I hope this is sufficiently fluffy for you anon. As always, (YKN) is your Killjoy name.

Fun Ghoul looked on with annoyance as (YKN) and Party laughed together across the diner. (YKN) was always hanging around Party ever since he brought her back to the diner a few weeks back and Fun couldn't stand it.

Party and Kobra had been on a regular supply run out to Zone 4 when the Trans Am started having problems, but while trying to fix it, the Venom Brothers were ambushed by a carload of Dracs. The way Kobra tells it, (YKN) arrived seemingly out of nowhere and picked off more than her share of Dracs and saved them from getting dusted. In exchange for saving their lives, Party made her a member of their gang since she wasn't running with any other crew. 

Fun knew that as the de facto leader of the Fabulous Killjoys, Party had the right to bring anyone into their fold, but it didn't change the fact that it bugged him. Having a girl changed the whole dynamic of the gang and he was pretty certain her presence was a distraction and someone could end up getting hurt. Or at the very least he knew she was distracting him.

(YKN) must have noticed him staring as she glanced over at him. He rolled his eyes and went outside despite the sun beating down, baking the hard, dry desert. He grumbled the whole way back to the shed behind the diner. It wasn’t fair. He couldn’t put his finger on what exactly, but something about it all just wasn't fair.

~

After a few more days of awkwardly ending conversations when the other would walk into the room, and going out of their way to avoid each other, to Fun's relief he heard her leaving on her bike. He sighed, now things were back to normal for a few hours.

But then (YKN) didn't come back. As the sun moved across the sky, a tension headache started building in the back of Fun's head and he hated it. He hated it almost as much as not knowing where (YKN) had gone to. It was nearly sunset when Fun couldn't take it any longer.

“Where has (YKN) been?” Fun asked when he found Party in the kitchen.

“I dunno, maybe she decided she didn't stay here anymore," Party replied pointedly.

"What does that mean?" Fun retorted.

"I thought you'd be glad she's gone," Party answered. "You never made her feel welcome."

Fun was stunned. “Why does it matter how I make her feel? She's your girl, don't you care where she is? She could get dusted and you wouldn’t even know where to find her mask to take back to the mailbox!”

“What the hell do you mean my girl? Me and (YKN) are just friends! We’ve never even hooked up, I’m not into her like that.”

“Really?” Fun's tone was much softer.

“Yea. Again, I don’t know why you're suddenly so worried about her, but she can hold her own. And if not, well… not much we can do now,” Party said as he pushed past Fun Ghoul.

Fun shook his head and went into the back room and started pacing. Something wasn't right, he could tell. He glanced over at her cot, that’s when he noticed something near her pillow. He rushed over and picked up her choker, the one he’d never seen her take off.

“Fuck,” he muttered as he ran his fingers along the necklace. He wrapped the cord around his neck, tying it securely. He couldn’t decide what to do; go look for her and hope she’s alive and just over being at the diner with them, or more specifically him and his shitty behavior, or if he should just accept that she was gone, either alive or dead.

Fun groaned as his headache started to worsen, laying down on his own cot to try to relieve the tension. He closed his eyes for a moment and by the time he opened them, sunlight was coming in the small window and the others were asleep in their cots. Except (YKN).

"I gotta find her," he muttered to himself before getting out of bed. He snatched the keys to the Trans Am from Party's coat pocket and set out.

He wasn’t sure where he was going because he didn’t know where she went. As his eyes searched the road from behind his aviators, he decided that there was no point sticking to the main roads, someone else would have found her by then and word would have gone out that she’d been dusted. He remembered overhearing her telling Kobra there was a road off Route Guano that she loved driving down and she had recommended he check it out some time.

He turned off the main drag and onto the side road, hoping it was the right one. As he drove he thought he spotted something reflecting the morning sunlight back at him. He floored it and quickly recognized her bike on its side in the dirt just off the side of the road. On the other side of the road was a white car that the Dracs always rode around in.

“Fuck,” he groaned as he pulled up and scrambled out. All around were the corpses of dead Dracs. Party was right, she could hold her own. He started to look around for (YKN), she had to be around there somewhere he reasoned. 

“(YKN)?!” He shouted, when he spotted running her laying in the sand under a small outcropping of rocks. His heart started hammering in his ears as soon as he spotted her. “Fuck, please be ok, please be ok."

“Fun?” She mumbled, raising her head, her voice barely above a hoarse whisper. "What the hell are you doing here?"

“I came to find you, are you hurt? What happened?” He asked quickly, looking her over.

“I got caught off guard and surrounded by Dracs. I held my own but that one got me while my back was turned,” she said pointing to the corpse on the ground in the distance. “He shot me in the leg, and I can’t walk on it, so I’ve been hiding out here, just kinda waiting to die.”

“You're not gonna die out here, I'm gonna bring you home," he said, helping her to sit up.

“What do you care? I thought you'd be glad I was gone."

"I'm not fucking heartless (YKN)," Fun replied, looking a little hurt.

(YKN)'s brows furrowed as she looked at Fun, his hands still on her, sitting closer to her than he ever had before. Then she spotted it. She reached up and ran her fingers along the necklace that hung around Fun's throat. "You found my lucky necklace."

"I don't believe in luck," he mumbled as he tried to hide the shiver her fingers grazing his skin gave him.

"Where was it?" She asked as he helped her to her feet.

"On your cot."

"Oh, must have fallen off."

"That's how I knew you hadn't intended to leave for good."

(YKN) tried not to smirk as he helped her to the Trans Am. "Party let you take the car out? That's surprising."

“I didn’t ask him. Not to be a snitch, but the other guys were gonna let you go.”

“Damn. I mean I told Party I wasn’t sure if I wanted to stick around, but…” she trailed off.

“But what?” Fun asked as he started the car.

“But that was because I didn’t think I was totally welcome at the diner.”

A pang of guilt ran through Fun and he winced. “Because of me.”

“Yea,” she said while looking out the window.

The ride was silent, but Fun Ghoul’s mind wasn’t. He got it now, he understood what it was about (YKN) that bugged him so much. He liked her, he liked her a lot, because she was a total badass, and so pretty and he had no chance in hell with her because Party met her before he did and who would ever pick him over Party?

They pulled up in front of the diner and before (YKN) could even get her door open, Fun was rushing to the passenger side to help her out. “Easy does it. Let’s get you inside and rehydrated and fed.”

(YKN) nodded as Fun slipped a tattooed arm around her waist as she wrapped the other over his shoulders.

“(YKN)? Fun?!” Jet asked in shock as the pair walked into the diner. 

“What the hell happened?” Kobra asked, jumping up to help get her in a booth.

“I was on a ride, but I got ambushed. Sound familiar?” (YKN) laughed lightly. “I was just waiting around to die when my hero here came and saved me.”

“(YKN)! I thought you left!” Party exclaimed as he walked back into the front of the diner just as Fun was bringing her a drink.

“Nope, just left for dead apparently,” she said, shooting him a look.

Party glanced from her to Fun. “Sorry, I thought you didn’t wanna be here.”

“Who would wanna give up being a Fabulous Killjoy?” she asked, glancing back at Fun.

He couldn’t be sure, but he felt like there was something to the look she gave him just then. More than just appreciation for getting her home. Or maybe it was just wishful thinking.

~

Later that day (YKN) was back on her cot, recovering and Frank was hovering outside the door. He wanted to go in and talk to her but he didn't have any reason to. Then an idea popped into his head.

"Hey (YKN), I meant to give you this back," he said, taking off her choker and holding it out to her.

(YKN) shook her head. "You said you don't believe in luck, but I think it was luck that helped you find me today. Keep it, find some more luck."

Fun hesitated for a moment. (YKN) had to know that you don't just exchange jewelry with anyone in the Zones, it was a significant gesture. He nodded and put the choker back on.

"It looks good on you," she said and when he looked up, she was smiling at him.

A smile tugged at his lip as well when he was struck with an idea. He pulled off one of the beaded bracelets around his wrist and offered it to her. "Only seems fair."

She looked from the bracelet to his face and back to the bracelet in his hand. She took it from him and her fingers lingering on his hand before slipping it on. "Thank you. For everything, especially coming to look for me. I never thought you of all people would."

"I could never leave you for dead," he said. "And sorry for being an asshole to you for so long. I…" he trailed off.

"You what?"

"I really like you. I was jealous and being an immature jerk about it."

(YKN) smiled. "I told you that necklace would bring you luck."

"Why?"

(YKN) sighed. "I like you too Fun. I was thinking about leaving not because you were an ass, that I can handle, but because someone I like being an ass to me, that hurt."

"I'm sorry," Fun apologized again and (YKN) couldn't stand the sight of him feeling so ashamed.

She reached back up and tugged on his hand, pulling him down to her level. "Try your luck again," she breathed, their faces inches apart.

It only took a second for Fun to close the small distance between them, kissing her hard. She smiled into the kiss as she ran her hands through his long hair. When they pulled back Fun rested his forehead against hers. "Ok, maybe I do believe in luck after all."

[jetstairs]

Killjoy Headcanons - Backstories

(Just a heads up: warning for mention of suicide. It's a very brief mention and doesn't go into any detail at all but here's a warning just in caseies)

Okay, to start off, when they all met, Party and Jet were 13, Kobra 12, and Ghoul 11 so, they baybies

Jet:

- Baby Jet was born in the city but smuggled out into the desert at a real young age, like 5 or smth

- The people who got him out were murdered in front of him within the day and he ended up running and wandering to a neutral town still in his bloodied BL/ind Children's Wear™

- Was taken in by a couple where the guy looked like off brand Brian May

- His name was Red Special

- Am I saying Queen existed in The Zones?

- Perhaps.

- A few days later a Drac patrol came looking for Jet, and Red and his wife dirtied him up and made him look like just another dust baby so he wouldn't get recognised as easily. It worked and Jet Star Will Remember That.

- Jet and Red would look up at the stars at night and make up stories about the shapes they saw. It helped Baby Jet calm down a lot and it started his love of space

- His adoptive parents would call him things like Star Baby and he kept the Star part for his name later on

- He would draw a lot and ended up making his star logo when he was just an baby (He drew a lot when he was older too, whenever he had the time, and was actually a really good artist)

- Eventually Jet started to get restless and Red suggested that instead of him wandering the Zones, he go work for Tommy for his band of child runners so he'd at least explore with a set destination

- Besides, Tommy couldn't say no. Red had a favour from Tommy. No one knew why

- Jet met Pony and Dr. D that way

- Tommy liked Jet but he stood up for Pony too much (who TCM didn't and still doesn't like) so before he was Jet Star, he was Cup Noodle as per the Tommy Chow Mein naming conventions

- He ended up learning how to be a mechanic during this time

- Payment for one of Tommy's jobs was an old acoustic that Tommy didn't want. Red taught him how to play but he eventually started to learn on his own

- He found an old abandoned trans am and ended up managing to push it to the diner somehow where he'd work on it

- Was 12 when he told Red and his mom that he was gonna go out on his own and ended up calling the diner his home

Ghoul:

- Ghoul grew up p much alone in the shady part of The Lobby, greasy orphan rat baby

- Probably also friends with actual rats in the streets

- Learned that being loud and fighty is the only way to stay alive

- Somehow got caught in the crossfire in a gang fight, wrong place wrong time. He got sent off for re-education because BL/ind didn't believe he wasn't a part of it

- Was just. Out of it dead inside for a while until he started coming back to himself faster than they would have liked

- He started freaking out because he didn't know where he was at all and wound up getting more aggressive than he was before

- Tried to kill himself to avoid going through any more BLI Brand Torture Torture™ but got caught and ended up getting re-educated a second time

- Started thrashing before it started and got his face gashed open on some instruments, getting his Glasgow smile

- Took even longer to come back out of it the second time but still came back faster than most do after a re-education

- (Sometimes he would lose himself, just go blank because Re-Education Fucks Up Your Head)

- ((Meant he would end up drifting along, lost like a ghost, which is where he got his name))

- He managed to escape and went to cause fucking Hell in the City which included torching a Drac car and fighting four Dracs in it on his own aged 3 barely 11

- He strung that motherfucker on fire!

- FIRE!!

- He's got a deathwish now

- He never lost the deathwish

Party and Kobra:

- Party and Kobra are related to the director, she's their aunt, meant they were high class in Batt City

- They lived in the main BL/ind building and at night they'd sneak out of their rooms to the prison cells to talk to the imprisoned 'Joys inside who'd tell them about life outside The Battery and what BLI did

- They saw Ghoul in one of the cells and Kobra ended up seeing his second re-education where he sliced open his cheek. Meant they ended up getting re-educated themself to forget the trauma (and to try and rewire their brain to get rid of their autism too) ((same thing would've happened to Jet if he hasn't gotten out before they could properly screen him for it))

- That's what gave Party the initiative to try and escape

- Party and Kobra snuck out to get hair dye from a backstreet Killjoy store. Kobra kept watch while Party went in there and they got ganged up on by a group of teens who decided they were gonna do some not so savoury shit to them because they're "an entitled brat who needed to be shown the reality of the world."

- (They also called them a snake, because of their link to BLI who'd betrayed everyone in terms of what they promised to do for the citizens, so they took it and owned it for their own and that's how they got the name Kobra Kid)

- Party heard that shit starting to go down from the alleyway so it barely lasted any time at all. That was the first day he'd ever killed.

- Party decided that that night was the night they'd run

- They knew to run to Lemon Drop and Apple Fizz to get them out of there and on the way they ran into Ghoul and brought him with them.

- Kobra and Lemon talked for a good long while. She helped them calm down and get into a good enough mental place for the time being so they could get out of the city. They owe her their life and they're still good friends to this day

- Once they got out and were hidden in a little shack, Ghoul found out they were upper class, got angry and went outie 5000

- He came back like three days later and apologised and they set off into the desert

- After a while they noticed they were being followed and started to freak out and they found the diner where Jet jumped them, screaming in Zonelang and no one knew what anyone was saying, Jet tried harder to kill them when he realised they were from Batt City, it was a mess, Ghoul nearly died

- They eventually started to trust each other after they saved Jet’s life at some point and their friendship only grew from there

(( big thankies to @peepeepoison for helping me get this written into a coherent format ily ))

[backup-skelenyxx]

Teaser

Something was wrong.

Before we even went inside, I knew there was something wrong. We all did.

As we parked in front of the graffiti covered diner that was once the Killjoy Headquarters and our home, I felt all the previous moments' happiness and excitement of returning leech from my body. Despite the hot California midday sun, I felt as though the temperature had dropped to below freezing. The blood beneath my skin ran cold as we stared at the old building that once held so much fun.

The first sign was that the front door, paint peeling and faded, was wide open and partially unhinged. The door was never left open. Not in our time there. A few of the windows were shattered, the glass shards still strewn on the ground reflected the sun. There were no cars other than ours.

And worst of all, it was silent. It was dead. No life to be heard.

We filed out of our car without saying a word. The only sound was the crunch of the dry ground beneath our shoes.

We fell into old habits, following our unsaid orders and agreements. Party lead, followed by Kobra and Jet, then Ghoul and me in a compressed V formation. I pulled my ray gun, the cold metal that had once felt so familiar and comforting now felt foreign and unnerving. I glanced at Ghoul beside me and noticed that he too looked uncomfortable. We were out of practice. And out here in the Zones, that was a dangerous thing.

Party entered the diner first and we followed suit, guns pulled and senses alert. There was no doubt that something had happened here, but what dangers that might have lied inside we didn't know.

The inside looked even worse than the outside. Chairs were toppled and strewn everywhere. Glass littered the floor and crunched beneath our feet. The dust could've been an inch thick. The old radio that once sat at the old bar was on the floor, pieces scattered and a burnt hole in the main piece, a bullet hole. The radio had been shot by a ray gun.

There had been a fight here. And the outcome hadn't been good.

"What happened here?" I asked in a hushed voice.

"I don't know," Party replied, running his hand through his currently white hair. It was weird seeing him in his rebel gear with that white hair of his. "But it wasn't good. It looks as though no one has been here in a long time."

No shit, Sherlock, I thought sarcastically. I almost said it out loud, but thought better. Now was not the time for being a smart ass.

"We need to check the back. If Dr. D or Show Pony are still alive, then there has to be clues to where they might be at." If they were alive. Party looked back at us, waiting for our agreement. We each nodded our heads and we headed through the door that led to the back hallway.

The hallway wasn't in a much better condition than the front. The graffiti that we had painted had been scribbled out with black paint, making it nearly unreadable. The dust was just as thick on the floor as it had been in the other room.

As we passed the rooms that we had once slept in, we individually branched off to clear each room. Ghoul went first, and I was second. The room I was in used to belong to Party. Just as in the hallway, the drawings he had done on the wall had been crossed and scribbled out by black paint. The pictures that he once kept in here were absent. His bed and sheets had been overturned and strewn across the floor. It looked as though someone had been looking for something. And they had gone to extensive lengths to find it. There was only one person, one thing, that could do this.

Korse.

There had been no doubt in my mind that this was Korse's doing, but seeing the havoc wreaked on this place, and the hatred it seemed to convey, only enforced my belief. If I ever saw that bastard again, I would kill him with my bare hands.

I stepped outside the room into the hall. Kobra stepped out of the room opposite me and one look at his face told me all I needed to know. It was just as bad in there.

At that moment, I couldn't wait anymore. I had to know. Time seemed to slow as I ran to the door at the end of the hall. Each step closer to the door filled me with dread. What lie beyond that door couldn't be any better than out here. But I had to know. I had to confirm my suspicions. And I wouldn't wait any longer.

I could hear someone calling me, telling me to stop, but I didn't. I didn't hesitate as I reached the door and pushed it open. What I saw crushed my hopes of anything being okay.

Dr. D's room was in worse shape than any of the others I had been in. Papers were ripped and strewn across the floor, dusty and faded. The desk that he worked at had been ripped apart and the broadcasting equipment was destroyed. All the pictures and maps that had once covered the walls were gone. The American Flag with the black spider that used to hang over his desk was torn and trampled on. But in the corner of the room sat the worst thing. The thing that burned my last shred of hope.

In the corner of the abandoned room sat an over turned wheelchair that I recognized all too well. It was Dr. D's.

Our friends were gone. I collapsed to the ground, the dread weighing me down. They were gone. They were dead. And if Dr. D, who was basically the leader of the Killjoys, was gone, then what happened to the rest of the Killjoys? I knew the answer couldn't be good. We had been gone too long. The Killjoys would be lost without Dr. D and without us on top of it, God knows how many were left.

I was pretty sure I was crying, but I couldn't be sure anymore. The sadness was too familiar because of the events of the past couple years. My mind automatically numbed the pain. But I knew it was there. It always was. And whenever I lowered my walls, it came crashing into me, forcing me to put them back up.

Someone knelt beside and pulled me into a hug. I cried into their shoulder and recognized the familiar scent of Fun Ghoul. I didn't care that I wasn't supposed to cry. In the old days, I never let myself cry over a loss. Loss happened daily in the old days and you couldn't let it get to you. I never used to. But this was different and it was too personal. Dr. D and Show Pony were our closest friends out here in the Zones. We'd known them since before Korse and Battery City and the Killjoys. They'd helped us after the Fires of 2012 and after the accident. And we had abandoned them. We never came back. And now they were gone.

Guilt washed over me as I realized it was my fault. The guys had no control over what had happened the past couple years. That was Korse's doing. But I did. That night at the fire when Korse came, I could've done something to stop him from doing what he had to the guys. I could've refused to be taken away. I could've come back and been here to help. But I didn't. It was my fault.

"We should've been here," I heard Kobra say. I pulled away and looked at the guys who were standing around the destroyed room.

"Shoulda, woulda, coulda, didn't. We weren't here. And now they're gone," Party said as he leaned against the wall and slid down it, tilting his head back and staring at the ceiling.

"They could still be alive," Jet added, trying to cheer us up. "It's possible they got away. There's no bodies or blood. They might still be out there."

Ghoul shook his head. "And where could they have gone? This was the safe house. This was the only place Korse didn't know about."

I wiped the remaining tears from my cheeks and voiced my thoughts. "It's my fault. I should've done something that night-" I was cut off my Ghoul.

"Stop it, Star. Don't you even do that to yourself. It is no your fault. It's no one's fault. This is Korse's doing. That's what he wants, for us to feel guilty. You couldn't have done anything." He placed his hand over mine in comfort. "Star, please, don't blame yourself."

I nodded, but his words had no effect on me. I still felt incredibly guilty. I stood up and made my way to the door.

"Where are you going?" Kobra asked.

"I'm going to see if I can recover anything from my old room." That was at least partially true.

I made my way down the hall, fighting back the tears that still threatened to spill. My room looked like the others. Dusty, walls covered in black paint, and the torn remainders of pictures littering the floor. I sat on the overturned bed and thought through everything. Anything that could give us a hint as to where the rest of the Killjoys were or where Dr. D and Show Pony might be if they were still alive. I doubted they were, but I still tried to keep hope. I tried to keep my old notion of "the glass is half full."

I sat there for a long time, but time meant nothing to me. I was too lost in my thoughts to notice the dropping sun or the change of temperature. It was the sound of a chirping bird outside that drug me back to reality. As I came back to my senses, I took in the room I was in.

That's when I noticed it. A sole picture, unharmed, lying in the corner of the room. I walked over to it and picked it up. It was dusty and faded, but I knew the picture perfectly. The picture was of me, the guys, Dr. D and Show Pony. Ghoul was on Party's back, I was standing on top of Kobra and Jet who had dogpiled on the floor, Show Pony was doing a sort of pirouette on his skates and Dr. D looked as though he'd lost all hope on our sanity. We were all laughing and having fun. It was the days when we were carefree, when despite the constant loss and danger, we were happy.

I flipped over the picture to look at the date. But what I found there was not a date. It was a note. A note that gave me the hope that I desperately needed.

[skelenyxx]

Teaser ~ It’s Death or Victory

Something was wrong.

Before we even went inside, I knew there was something wrong. We all did.

As we parked in front of the graffiti covered diner that was once the Killjoy Headquarters and our home, I felt all the previous moments' happiness and excitement of returning leech from my body. Despite the hot California midday sun, I felt as though the temperature had dropped to below freezing. The blood beneath my skin ran cold as we stared at the old building that once held so much fun.

The first sign was that the front door, paint peeling and faded, was wide open and partially unhinged. The door was never left open. Not in our time there. A few of the windows were shattered, the glass shards still strewn on the ground reflected the sun. There were no cars other than ours.

And worst of all, it was silent. It was dead. No life to be heard.

We filed out of our car without saying a word. The only sound was the crunch of the dry ground beneath our shoes.

We fell into old habits, following our unsaid orders and agreements. Party lead, followed by Kobra and Jet, then Ghoul and me in a compressed V formation. I pulled my ray gun, the cold metal that had once felt so familiar and comforting now felt foreign and unnerving. I glanced at Ghoul beside me and noticed that he too looked uncomfortable. We were out of practice. And out here in the Zones, that was a dangerous thing.

Party entered the diner first and we followed suit, guns pulled and senses alert. There was no doubt that something had happened here, but what dangers that might have lied inside we didn't know.

The inside looked even worse than the outside. Chairs were toppled and strewn everywhere. Glass littered the floor and crunched beneath our feet. The dust could've been an inch thick. The old radio that once sat at the old bar was on the floor, pieces scattered and a burnt hole in the main piece, a bullet hole. The radio had been shot by a ray gun.

There had been a fight here. And the outcome hadn't been good.

"What happened here?" I asked in a hushed voice.

"I don't know," Party replied, running his hand through his currently white hair. It was weird seeing him in his rebel gear with that white hair of his. "But it wasn't good. It looks as though no one has been here in a long time."

No shit, Sherlock, I thought sarcastically. I almost said it out loud, but thought better. Now was not the time for being a smart ass.

"We need to check the back. If Dr. D or Show Pony are still alive, then there has to be clues to where they might be at." If they were alive. Party looked back at us, waiting for our agreement. We each nodded our heads and we headed through the door that led to the back hallway.

The hallway wasn't in a much better condition than the front. The graffiti that we had painted had been scribbled out with black paint, making it nearly unreadable. The dust was just as thick on the floor as it had been in the other room.

As we passed the rooms that we had once slept in, we individually branched off to clear each room. Ghoul went first, and I was second. The room I was in used to belong to Party. Just as in the hallway, the drawings he had done on the wall had been crossed and scribbled out by black paint. The pictures that he once kept in here were absent. His bed and sheets had been overturned and strewn across the floor. It looked as though someone had been looking for something. And they had gone to extensive lengths to find it. There was only one person, one thing, that could do this.

Korse.

There had been no doubt in my mind that this was Korse's doing, but seeing the havoc wreaked on this place, and the hatred it seemed to convey, only enforced my belief. If I ever saw that bastard again, I would kill him with my bare hands.

I stepped outside the room into the hall. Kobra stepped out of the room opposite me and one look at his face told me all I needed to know. It was just as bad in there.

At that moment, I couldn't wait anymore. I had to know. Time seemed to slow as I ran to the door at the end of the hall. Each step closer to the door filled me with dread. What lie beyond that door couldn't be any better than out here. But I had to know. I had to confirm my suspicions. And I wouldn't wait any longer.

I could hear someone calling me, telling me to stop, but I didn't. I didn't hesitate as I reached the door and pushed it open. What I saw crushed my hopes of anything being okay.

Dr. D's room was in worse shape than any of the others I had been in. Papers were ripped and strewn across the floor, dusty and faded. The desk that he worked at had been ripped apart and the broadcasting equipment was destroyed. All the pictures and maps that had once covered the walls were gone. The American Flag with the black spider that used to hang over his desk was torn and trampled on. But in the corner of the room sat the worst thing. The thing that burned my last shred of hope.

In the corner of the abandoned room sat an over turned wheelchair that I recognized all too well. It was Dr. D's.

Our friends were gone. I collapsed to the ground, the dread weighing me down. They were gone. They were dead. And if Dr. D, who was basically the leader of the Killjoys, was gone, then what happened to the rest of the Killjoys? I knew the answer couldn't be good. We had been gone too long. The Killjoys would be lost without Dr. D and without us on top of it, God knows how many were left.

I was pretty sure I was crying, but I couldn't be sure anymore. The sadness was too familiar because of the events of the past couple years. My mind automatically numbed the pain. But I knew it was there. It always was. And whenever I lowered my walls, it came crashing into me, forcing me to put them back up.

Someone knelt beside and pulled me into a hug. I cried into their shoulder and recognized the familiar scent of Fun Ghoul. I didn't care that I wasn't supposed to cry. In the old days, I never let myself cry over a loss. Loss happened daily in the old days and you couldn't let it get to you. I never used to. But this was different and it was too personal. Dr. D and Show Pony were our closest friends out here in the Zones. We'd known them since before Korse and Battery City and the Killjoys. They'd helped us after the Fires of 2012 and after the accident. And we had abandoned them. We never came back. And now they were gone.

Guilt washed over me as I realized it was my fault. The guys had no control over what had happened the past couple years. That was Korse's doing. But I did. That night at the fire when Korse came, I could've done something to stop him from doing what he had to the guys. I could've refused to be taken away. I could've come back and been here to help. But I didn't. It was my fault.

"We should've been here," I heard Kobra say. I pulled away and looked at the guys who were standing around the destroyed room.

"Shoulda, woulda, coulda, didn't. We weren't here. And now they're gone," Party said as he leaned against the wall and slid down it, tilting his head back and staring at the ceiling.

"They could still be alive," Jet added, trying to cheer us up. "It's possible they got away. There's no bodies or blood. They might still be out there."

Ghoul shook his head. "And where could they have gone? This was the safe house. This was the only place Korse didn't know about."

I wiped the remaining tears from my cheeks and voiced my thoughts. "It's my fault. I should've done something that night-" I was cut off my Ghoul.

"Stop it, Star. Don't you even do that to yourself. It is no your fault. It's no one's fault. This is Korse's doing. That's what he wants, for us to feel guilty. You couldn't have done anything." He placed his hand over mine in comfort. "Star, please, don't blame yourself."

I nodded, but his words had no effect on me. I still felt incredibly guilty. I stood up and made my way to the door.

"Where are you going?" Kobra asked.

"I'm going to see if I can recover anything from my old room." That was at least partially true.

I made my way down the hall, fighting back the tears that still threatened to spill. My room looked like the others. Dusty, walls covered in black paint, and the torn remainders of pictures littering the floor. I sat on the overturned bed and thought through everything. Anything that could give us a hint as to where the rest of the Killjoys were or where Dr. D and Show Pony might be if they were still alive. I doubted they were, but I still tried to keep hope. I tried to keep my old notion of "the glass is half full."

I sat there for a long time, but time meant nothing to me. I was too lost in my thoughts to notice the dropping sun or the change of temperature. It was the sound of a chirping bird outside that drug me back to reality. As I came back to my senses, I took in the room I was in.

That's when I noticed it. A sole picture, unharmed, lying in the corner of the room. I walked over to it and picked it up. It was dusty and faded, but I knew the picture perfectly. The picture was of me, the guys, Dr. D and Show Pony. Ghoul was on Party's back, I was standing on top of Kobra and Jet who had dogpiled on the floor, Show Pony was doing a sort of pirouette on his skates and Dr. D looked as though he'd lost all hope on our sanity. We were all laughing and having fun. It was the days when we were carefree, when despite the constant loss and danger, we were happy.

I flipped over the picture to look at the date. But what I found there was not a date. It was a note. A note that gave me the hope that I desperately needed.

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