What Hurt's The Most:

By: Taralynn Wakelin

The rain fell heavily, so heavy at time's you couldn't even see your hand in front of your face. He ignored the rain falling into his eyes as he ran after the man in front of him; he had already lost him once and didn't want to do it again. Lightning lit up the night sky and in that minute, he saw the familiar figure of his younger brother running towards him from his right. Soon they were running side by side again as they closed in on the man they were chasing, they knew the rest of their team were closing in on their co-ordinate's and so they concentrated on catching up to the man and confronting him. They made it into a clearing; they stood back to back, as they tried to find the man who had disappeared once again. Every noise made them turn ready for a fight, but they found nothing finally they let down their guard and his younger brother wiped a hand through his short, brown hair as he looked around them before he spoke.

"Where is he? We were right behind him!"

"I don't know? He's here somewhere I can feel it!" He answered looking into the worried brown eyes of his brother. "Keep your eye's open Chris he's here somewhere!" As those word's left his lip's lightning flashed again and he saw the man charging out of the wood's straight at them, it happened so fast that he had no time to warn his brother, before the man connected with them. He took the majority of the blow, all three fell to the ground, he slid across the wet ground stopping when he hit a tree, dazed he rolled onto his side trying to catch his breath and regain his senses. He couldn't hear anything and it scared him, he called out to his brother as he slowly got to his feet, he got no answer. As he walked back to the middle, of the clearing, he couldn't see his brother, or the man anywhere and he became worried. He called to his brother, but continued to get no answer, until he heard a noise above him and looked up smiling as he found him.

"Hey bro! Thought I'd get a bird's eye view and see if I can see where he took off to!"

"Good idea! Any luck?" He asked as he wiped the rain out of his blue eyes, before he ran his hands through his short blond hair. "He couldn't have gotten far!"

"Martin, you okay? You hit that tree back there pretty hard!"

"A little sore, but nothing broken!" He answered.

"Aw! How sweet!" A voice spoke from a few branches above them. "Should I come back later? I wouldn't want to ruin your touching brother moment!" The man mocked.

"It's over! Give up now!"

"Oooh, I'm so scared! Did you practice that speech in the mirror?"

"Enough stalling! You're finished!" He said smiling.

"No, I'm having too much fun! Farewell Kratt brothers!" The man said smiling as he began to climb higher up into the tree, just as they could hear the team getting closer in their flying ship the Tortuga. He watched as his younger brother who was already in the tree began climbing higher after him, he quickly climbed into the tree and began chasing after them. As he climbed, he could hear the two men above him, but couldn't see them suddenly lightning lit up the sky and he could see that his brother had reached the man and they were on the same large branch at the top. He went to call out to them when thunder ripped through the sky, he instinctively covered his ear's, when suddenly lightning flashed again hitting the tree branch the two men were on causing the branch to break sending them crashing to the ground. He screamed his brother's name as he watched helplessly as his brother fell to the ground, he quickly began climbing down. Once on the ground he saw the rest of the team racing from the ship towards them, he reached his brother's unmoving body first, and checked to see if he was breathing. He suddenly couldn't breathe as he felt no pulse, he began crying as he held his brother's limp body tightly to him as he rocked speaking gently to him as he did, begging him to open his eye's and not leave him alone.

"Chris please open your eyes! You can't die and leave me here all alone! Please!?"

"Martin what happened?" Aviva asked upset as they knelt by them.

"He fell from a tree!" He answered between his tears as he held Chris to him. "Aviva…you need to help Chris! You…you can't let him die!" Martin begged her as he held Chris' body out to her as she quickly scanned him, she hung her head sadly.

"Martin…I'm…" Aviva began, but Martin cut her off angrily through his tears.

"Don't finish that sentence! Just fix my brother Aviva! I need him to be alright!"

"Martin…it's too late, he's gone." Koki added gently as she touched his shoulder.

"NO! He's not dead! He can't leave me alone!" Martin said as he brought Chris closer to him, buried his face in his shoulder, and sobbed. The others hung their head's as their tears mixed with the rain, Martin clung to Chris' body refusing to let the other's touch Chris or him.

A Week Later:

The sun rose in the sky, he had been up most of the night and sat in the kitchen watching the sunrise a cup of coffee growing cold in his hands. He was exhausted physically, mentally, and emotionally! After his brother died, he withdrew into himself, he shut everyone out, he had lost his best friend his other half and nothing could bring him back. The other's were as heartbroken, but they could never understand what he was going through, the guilt he carried he was the older brother it was his responsibility to keep Chris safe and he failed him…it was his fault his little brother was dead! The day's after his death went by in a blur for him, he knew the team had made the funeral arrangements for him and that it was today, but couldn't remember anything else. He put his cup back on the table and headed upstairs to get ready, he had just finished getting dressed when the doorbell rang; he took a deep breath and headed downstairs to answer it.

"Hi, Martin!" Aviva spoke when he opened the door. "How you holding up?"

"Where are Koki, and Jimmy?" He asked avoiding the question.

"They went ahead to the church to make sure everything was ready."

"I…I guess we should go too?" Martin said sadly, as he grabbed his keys off the table and joined Aviva on the porch before he locked his door and they headed to her car she spoke.

"Martin, I just…"

"Save it Aviva okay? I don't need to hear 'I'm sorry' anymore!" Martin said sadly, she nodded, but said nothing else as they got into the car and drove in silence to the church. Once there Martin was surprised to see the many people there to remember his brother, and he smiled a little knowing how loved Chris had been, he waited for Aviva before they went into the church and met up with Koki, and Jimmy. Seeing him they both hugged him, he returned the hug tensely, then he began to walk to his seat when he stopped seeing the many pictures of Chris and himself, and felt his heart ache to see his face. He felt like he couldn't breathe so he began to walk towards the doors, people tried to stop him to give him their condolence's, but he excused himself and went outside. Once outside he walked across the parking lot to where bushes lined the sidewalk and threw up. After he was done he felt a gentle hand on his back, he was handed a napkin and wiped his mouth, before turning to find his sad, and worried friend's, Koki spoke gently to him.

"Here Martin I have some water!" She said as she handed him the paper cup.

"Thanks Koki." Martin said as he took the water and drank some.

"We're sorry about the pictures MK; we just wanted everyone to see…"

"It's fine Jimmy really!" Martin spoke quickly cutting him off. "I…I guess we better get back inside!" Martin said as he sighed shakily.

"You ready to back?" Aviva asked gently.

"No, I'll never be ready to say goodbye to Chris, but I guess I don't have a choice!"

The funeral had been beautiful, Martin hadn't heard anything the other mourner's, and priest said he had starred at Chris' casket reliving happy memories with him growing up. At the end of the funeral, Aviva brought him out of his memories, to let him know they were moving onto the graveyard, he stood and without speaking, followed her out to her car. At the cemetery the priest spoke again, Martin's eye's never left the casket as it was lowered into the ground; he closed his eyes as his tear's fell. After the service was over Martin stood starring into the grave, he hadn't moved since the service ended and the team were worried. They joined him at the grave, he didn't acknowledge them as they stood together in their shared grief, Aviva put her hand on his shoulder, but he pulled away.

"I'm going to walk home!"

"From here? Martin, I'll drive you ho…"

"I said I'll walk! I need to clear my head anyway!" Martin said as he turned and walked away without looking back.

That night Martin sat on his back deck looking at pictures of Chris, and him and as he looked at the ones of them with the team Martin felt lost, how was he supposed to go on without his little brother? They were a team, and without Chris, they weren't the Wild Kratt's! He made his mind up with no hesitation to quit the team, he couldn't rescue animal's without his brother by his side, and he hoped the team understood and even if they didn't he was done! The next morning he went to where the Tortuga sat waiting and went inside where he was greeted by Jimmy who noticed the boxes in Martin's hand.

"Hey Martin, what's with the boxes?"

"They're for our stuff! I'm packing up our room!" Martin said as he walked away.

"Your room? Why?" Jimmy asked upset.

"It's done Jimmy…I'm done!" Martin said as he began putting their thing's into the boxes, his back to him. "I'm sorry!"

"Martin, can't we at least talk about it please? Aviva and Koki will be back in…"

"There's nothing to talk about!"

"What's going on?" Koki asked as she and Aviva returned.

"Martin's packing up their room! He just quit the team!" Jimmy said upset.

"Is that true MK?" Aviva asked shocked.

"Yeah, I'm done guy's I'm sorry!"

"How can you just quit? What about the team? What about the animal's?" Koki asked.

"Easy! Look, I can't do this anymore…not without Chris!" Martin said getting angry.

"Would Chris want you to just give up and quit?" Aviva asked upset.

"Leave him out of this!" Martin said as he continued packing.

"Martin I thought we were a team…I thought we were friend's?" Jimmy asked.

"Why can't you just accept it and move on!? Chris is gone! He isn't coming back, it's over…we're over!" Martin yelled turning to face his three hurt friend's. "I've got packing to do!" He said as he shut the door, before he sat on his bed and sighed shakily as he felt the tear's fall silently.

Later that night he lay on his couch starring at the ceiling thinking of the fight with the team, he couldn't get the images of their hurt faces out of his head and grew angry. He had lost his brother, why couldn't they understand what he was going through? He sat up and went to go upstairs when the doorbell rang, he sighed as he answered the door.

"What are you doing here?" He demanded seeing his three, former friend's.

"We…we came to talk to you!" Aviva answered.

"There's nothing to talk about! I told you I was done, why can't you leave me alone?"

"We're your friend's Martin!" Koki added. "We lost him too and…"

"He was my brother! You three have no idea what I lost that night!" Martin yelled cutting her off. "I'm not going to change my mind, and you need to accept in and leave me the hell alone!" Martin said slamming the door, he then slid down it and just cried wishing Chris was still with him.

One Year Later:

After his fight with the team, Martin tried to move on with his life…a life without his brother. To truly move on Martin had no contact with the team; he ignored their phone calls, and letter's, when they came to his house he pretended he wasn't home. Soon they stopped trying and he felt more alone than ever, but he was still angry with them for not understanding how he felt. Despite what happened he still loved animal's and decided to take a job at a University that had wanted both brother's for a while now. He went and spoke with the Dean and was hired that day to teach animal studies, he faked his happiness as he shook the Dean's hand and thanked him before leaving. Time passed as it always does and Martin slowly began to function, month's later he found himself slowly adjusting to life without Chris.

The team also tried to move on after their fight with Martin, but it was hard they missed both brother's. For days after the fight, the team would call him, and write him letters, but Martin would ignore them. When they didn't get an answer that way they went to his house to see him, but they got the same response and he pretended he wasn't home. They continued to keep an eye on the animals around the world as a way of staying connected to the brother's. Life was hard without their friend's, but knew they had to move on there was nothing they could do to change Martin's mind, everything had changed since Chris died. One day a year later Koki was doing a scan of the animal's like she did every morning, she wasn't expecting anything to be different, but this time the computer began to beep alerting her to a problem. She quickly called Jimmy and Aviva and they joined her at the screen, she pushed some buttons and they were shown where the problem was.

"Animal's are disappearing in the African Savannah!" Koki announced.

"Who's taking them? Why now?" Jimmy asked all of them confused.

"I don't know, but we need to tell Martin! He's the only one who can save them!"

"Aviva that's not going to happen, you know that! He gave up after…you know what!"

"I know JZ, but when he hears that animal's are disappearing he'll want to help!"

"I don't know Aviva? He made it clear he was finished with saving animals!"

"Well, we can't just sit back and let animal's keep disappearing! We need to at least try!"

"This is a bad…" Koki was cut off by someone knocking on the Tortuga's front door.

"I'll get it!" Aviva said as she hurried to the door. "Can I help you?" She asked.

"Oh, wow! It's really the Tortuga…I found it!" The young man said smiling.

"Is there something we can do for you?" Aviva asked as Jimmy and Koki joined them.

"Right, sorry! My name is Ben Wright!"

"I'm Aviva, and this is Koki, and Jimmy! What can we do for you Ben?"

"I know about the animal's disappearing in the Savannah, and I want to help!"

"How do you know about the animals?" Koki asked.

"May I come in and I'll explain everything?"

"Of course, come on in!" Aviva said leading the way into the Tortuga.

"Wow! It's even cooler than he described!" Ben said as they sat down.

"He? He who?" Jimmy asked confused.

"Oh, right sorry! See, two year's ago I met Chris at a lecture he and his brother were giving. I wanted to meet both brother's, they're of kind like my role model's…anyway I waited until it was over, but was disappointed when Martin became too sick to continue the lecture and had to leave."

"Oh, yeah I remember that! Martin caught the flu, but wanted to do the lecture anyway, even though we tried to get him to stay home. He ended up coming back early and spent the next week in bed!" Koki said smiling as they remembered.

"I did meet and talk to Chris; he was so nice and spent a half hour with me before he needed to go check on Martin. I was studying to become a marine biologist when I met him and he gave me some advice and told me that once I finished school to look them up and I could join the brother's on an actual rescue mission! I graduated two day's ago, and found out you were in town, so here I' am!" Ben said smiling.

"Ben…umm…there's something we need to tell you?" Jimmy said sadly.

"What is it?"

"It's about Chris…I'm sorry, but he umm…he died over a year ago!" Aviva said sadly.

"I know!"

"You…you do?" Koki asked confused.

"Yeah, I heard about his death and was even at the funeral! I didn't know the brother's personally, other than that brief meeting with Chris, so I just stayed in the background."

"How did you learn about the animals?" Koki asked.

"Oh, I kind of…maybe hacked into your system three day's ago! I'm sorry, I just wanted to see where you guy's were and I came across the alert this morning."

"Ben, you can't just hack into our system anytime you want!" Aviva said upset.

"I know and I'm sorry! I'm here because I want to help Martin save the animal's, you know as a way of carrying on Chris' legacy! What do you say?" Ben asked excitedly.

"Ben…it's not that easy!" Jimmy said gently.

"What? Why not? I'm trained, and I…wait, where's Martin?" Ben asked worried.

"That's what we're trying to tell you!" Aviva said.

"Wait…he's not dea…"

"No, he's alive!" Jimmy added quickly.

"Good! You had me worried! Where is he then?"

"Ben, after Chris died Martin took it really hard! He quit the team, and gave up rescuing animals! He work's at the University now, we haven't seen, or spoken to him since a couple of days after the funeral." Aviva answered sadly.

"Does he know about the animals?" Ben asked.

"No, not yet…we were just talking about telling him before you arrived." Koki said.

"He'll change his mind once he find's out about the missing animals!"

"How can you be so sure Ben?"

"He's a Kratt, that's how I know!" Ben said smiling.

TBC…