Total Recall

Proper story's supposed to start at the beginning. This one, it ain't so proper as all that. It starts a little earlier.

Now, I know what y'all are thinkin'. That's crazy. And believe me, I'da thought the same thing as you, once.

That was before I met the Kid.

The Kid, he can't sleep. Dreams keep wakin' him up. He tosses and turns, faces popping in and out of his mind. An old man, with a name he can't quite remember. Two Ura, which was strange… the Kid didn't remember seein' much in the way of Ura up on the Rippling Walls. An army, trying to bring him down. But why? A log, three times his height. And heavy, so heavy…

The Kid wakes up with a start, beads of sweat on his forehead. The night sky shines over him, and the ground stretches out in front of him as far as his eyes can see.

And for some reason, this perfectly normal scene… well, it strikes him as not quite normal. Somethin' feels different, deep down in the Kid's bones.

He rolls over and pushes himself out of bed, shaking his head and tryin' ta clear it. He looks down and sees a big canvas sack resting by his bed. Strange; that wasn't there when he went to sleep, was it? The Kid kneels down and opens it up, surprised to see an arsenal full of weapons in there. How had that happened, he wonders.

And then somethin' catches his eye. A scrap of paper, sitting on top of the weapons. The Kid takes it and unfolds it, reading the words that were written in his own hand.

Remember what happened. Find Nacie, and get her out of here. If the Restoration didn't work, detonate the cores.

Suddenly the memories slam back into the Kid like the business end of his Cael Hammer, and he staggers around like a man who's had too much black rye. Everything's clear as crystal. The Kid holsters his pair of Dueling Pistols and runs off towards the Sole Regret, hoping he'll find who he's lookin' for.

He stops just short of the door, his heart pounding. Looking over, he sees an empty spot of grass where he'd found that barrette of hers, once upon a time. A wave of relief washes over him, and the Kid don't even take time to wonder how many times he'd picked up that little memento.

How many times he'd felt his heart break, just a little. Over and over and over again.

He opens the door to the saloon, and the Kid's never been happier to hear someone singin' off-key in his life. There they all are, like nothing bad's gonna come crashing down on their heads in a few hours. Kid wants to warn them all, but he knows it won't do no good. He's gotta pick his fight this time, and he knows just where to go.

Nacie's sittin' at the bar, talking to ol' Rondy. Kid walks up to her and sits down, trying not to be nervous. She looks over at him, her barrette twinklin' in her dark brown hair as it catches the lamplight.

She's never looked so beautiful, the Kid thinks to himself. Oh, he's got it bad all right.

"I was wondering if you'd show up," she says, smiling at him. "Get too boring out on the Walls?"

The Kid feels his tongue knottin' up, until a scar on his shoulder acts up and knocks him back to his senses. A scar from an Ura repeater, he remembers.

"Nacie," he says, looking square into her bright blue eyes. "I need you to stay with me. Just for tonight."

Well, that came out sounding a bit more forward than the Kid was expectin'. He feels his cheeks heating up as Nacie raises an eyebrow.

"Stay with you?" she asks, mildly surprised. Rondy inches off down towards Percy the Snitch, all too eager to give the young 'uns some alone time.

The Kid tries not to choke with embarrassment. He just barely pulls it off.

"Not… not like that," he recovers, strugglin' to keep his eyes on hers. "Something bad is going to happen, Nacie. Something awful. I need you to be safe, and the only way you'll be safe is by coming with me."

She knows the Kid don't know how ta lie, and her face gets good and concerned.

"What's going to happen?"

"I…"

The Kid tries, he really does. But sometimes, ain't no words can describe a thing. The Calamity, it was a thing just like that. The Kid looks at her, his eyes desperate.

"Please," he says. "You just have to trust me."

And in that moment, trust him she does.

"Okay," she replies. "Let's go."

They walk out of the Sole Regret, and the Kid reaches down to take Nacie's hand in his own. He just needs to feel it, warm and alive.

"I missed you," he says at last, his eyes facin' forward.

"What d'you mean?" Nacie asks, giving his hand a light squeeze. It's the most talkative she's ever seen the Kid, and he's acting mighty strange.

"You'll see," he answers. "You'll see."

They make it back to the Rippling Walls just fine, even though the Kid keeps expectin' to see a Squirt pop out of the ground any second.

He lays back down on his cot, breathing a big sigh of relief. Nacie sees the weapons scattered on the floor, and her eyes go wide.

"Where did you get those?" she gasps, but the Kid's already halfway to his dreams. Nacie looks over and sees he's still holding her hand, sleepin' soundly. His arm's got a nasty scar on it, one she can't remember seeing before. Nacie pulls her hand away gently and reaches down, picking up the note. She reads it, coming away even more confused than before.

The Kid stirs in his sleep, and Nacie wonders what he's dreamin' about. She picks up an extra bedroll and spreads it out on the ground, drifting off to sleep.

It's a few hours later when they wake up, jolted back to the world of the living by the rumblin' of the Calamity.

Thing is, ain't much still living in Caelondia anymore. The Calamity don't know what the word 'mercy' means.

The Kid panics for a moment when he can't see Nacie, but she sits up in her bedroll and his heart starts beatin' again.

She's alive.

Well, how about that. Looks like it worked after all. Not bad, Kid.

He gets to his feet in a flash, pulling his Breaker's Bow and his Brusher's Pike out of the canvas sack. He hands the pistols to Nacie, and slings the rest of his arsenal onto his back.

"Here," he says to her as he hands over the weapons. "Just in case. Your dad teach you how to use these?"

"A little, yeah," Nacie forces out, confused and more than a little afraid. "What happened? Why're we floating?"

Good question, girl. Ain't every day you wake up to find yourself floatin' on a rock in the sky.

Good thing the Kid's done a little bit of cheatin', then.

"The Calamity," the Kid says as he begins to run, leaving Nacie to catch up. But she's light on her feet, and does just fine. "We gotta get to the Bastion."

They get back to the Sole Regret, squashing a couple'a Squirts and one angry Gasfella along the way. The Kid's already shootin' arrows before the Squirts pop out of the ground, just like he was waitin' for 'em. Sure enough, he clears the whole place out before he or the girl get so much as a scratch.

He buries one last farewell shot in the ashes of ol' Rondy, before walking over to the window. The Kid takes Nacie by the hand, and her eyes go wide again.

"You're not thinking what I think you're thinking," she says, "are you?"

The Kid just nods.

"No," she protests. "We can't… we'll die!"

The Sole Regret buckles and groans, the timbers almost tellin' the two of them to go.

"It's not that far a fall," the Kid tells her. "We'll be fine."

He steps up onto the sill, and Nacie follows after a moment's hesitation. He takes her hand again, and they jump.

The landing in the Wharf District is a rough one, but they don't take any hits that can't be mended easy by some Tonic. Some Gasfellas get in their way, and Nacie squeezes off a few rounds in their direction. The bullets come flying faster and harder than anything she can remember from back when her daddy showed her how to work a pair o' pistols, and she looks at the Kid in awe.

"What did you do to these?" she asks, and the Kid allows himself a smirk.

"Long story," he says. "I'll tell you later."

Turrets react to the commotion, and the Kid drops into a roll to avoid a blast. He pulls his Fang Repeater out of the bag and lets two quick full bursts go; the bones hunt down the turrets and Gasfellas alike with lightning speed, fillin' the air with an eerie silence.

Really, it just ain't even fair.

A little further and they find the Core to the Wharf District.

"As soon as I grab this," he tells Nacie, "we'll have to run."

He takes the Core, and they're racing down the path 'fore the ground even starts to shake under their feet. The Kid stashes his Repeater and takes his Bow out again, knowin' he won't have time ta stand still. Nacie holds her own and does her old man proud, tearing through the walkway's security like nothing.

Not too long before the Kid sees the Skyway glowing in the distance, and he pushes to keep on running. He grabs Nacie's hand as he moves onto it, prayin' to the whole Pantheon that his grip is strong enough to pull her along.

The Kid's head feels light as he pulls himself back together, feeling the soft ground of the Bastion under him.

He made it, all right. Just like I knew he would.

But that don't put the Kid at ease; not by a long shot. After all, he ain't worried about himself. He's done this all before.

He rolls over, prepared for the worst. But before he can even push himself to his feet, he sees her face over his own, blocking out the sun.

"Are you okay?" she asks him, soundin' worried indeed.

Silly question. The Kid's never felt better in his life.

Nacie helps him to his feet, then wraps him in a mighty hug.

"Thank you," I hear her whisper. Her voice trembles, just a little. "Everyone else is gone," she says, "aren't they?"

"Not everyone," the Kid answers. His mind's wandering, no doubt, to the friends he's known in lifetimes before this one. Zulf, and Zia. "But everyone we know, yeah."

Nacie's quiet then, and I can feel the wheels turning in her head. She's a smart girl, and she puts most'a the pieces together real quick.

"This happened before," she says, putting her hands on the Kid's shoulders and keeping him at arm's length, "didn't it? It makes no sense… but how else did you know what would happen, when no one else did? It was like you could see the future."

"Yeah," the Kid tells her, his voice heavy. "That's part of the long story I told you about. But things're gonna be different now," he says, looking over her shoulder and square at me. "We're doing it right this time."

I nod; I ain't inclined to disagree with that. Not since Plan A didn't quite pan out like I'd been hoping, it seems.

Nacie shifts one of her hands to the Kid's cheek, gently moving his eyes back to her.

"You lost me before," she says, cutting right to the heart of it all. "Right? That's why you came back for me."

The Kid just nods, moving his own hand to run his fingers over the crystal barrette in her hair.

"Couldn't lose you again," he says simply, at last. "It hurt too much."

Nacie goes quiet, and I know the look in her eyes without even seein' it. She's trying to accept that everyone's gone. She knows what the Kid felt the first time around, 'cause she's feeling it right now. Her grip tightens on his shoulders, and she starts to tremble.

The Kid takes her back into a hug, whispering something soft in her ear.

I can't hear it, but I got a pretty good idea of what he's sayin' anyway.

"I'm here. It'll be all right."

She nods, and relaxes just a bit. The Kid opens his eyes for a moment to look at me again; we don't need to say a word.

We know what's comin' next, all right. But we also know something even more important: how to change it. How to really fix it up, and do it right this time.

Startin' with Zulf, and that journal.

I shake myself out of my thoughts just in time to see somethin' special: Nacie's walking away from the Kid with the ghost of a smile on her face. And judging by the downright goofy look on his face, I'd wager the Kid just got a thank-you kiss from his sweetheart.

When he's done reeling, he smiles as wide as I've ever seen him smile.

Well, if we're gonna be changing things for the better this time, then that's a mighty fine place to start.

Good on you, Kid.

…

…

A/N: Just finished playing "Bastion" for the first time a few days ago, then tore through a New Game Plus. It was amazing. Had to write this up; I hope you enjoyed it! Writing in Rucks' voice is just way too much fun.