Author's Note- Well here we are again, luckily we are getting to the end of things so you all can stop suffering with my relentless hiatuses!

The word panic, couldn't even begin to describe the way I felt.

It was more like a combination of hysteria, melancholy and anguish.

They were right there.

I leaped from where I once slept peacefully and once again found myself screaming my brothers names in full desperation.

"LEO! RAPH! MIKEY!"

I ran around the lair, now empty and abandoned again, wildly searching for any kind of life

"No! NO!" I cried, "Come back, come back PLEASE!"

I fell to my knees, for some reason I suddenly felt so weak I couldn't even stand.

"Come back, come back." I continued, this time pleading to the floor, as salty tears deepened their well-formed path down my face.

They couldn't be gone, they couldn't.

Even if they were never real, I choose them. I choose to believe that they were there, why were they now gone?

I curled into a ball, the only source of comfort I knew for sure was real, and tried as hard as I could to hear their voices again.

I closed my eyes and I could envision the couch right in front of me, with my brothers all curled up against my sleeping form. I opened my eyes to see nothing.

I screamed.

"My son." a voice came from behind me that shocked me out of my skin.

I whirled around to see my father, completed concealed within his robe slowly approach me.

"Where are they!" I demanded. "What did you do to them?" I screamed.

He stopped and remained silent for a moment.

"Did to who my son?"

I gritted my teeth together so hard they cracked. I hissed at them, "My brothers, where are they? You said if I kept pretending they were alive I could be with them again, but they're gone! Why? Why can't I see them!?"

He pulled the hood off his head to reveal his human face.

My heart stopped and I immediately started to scramble backwards.

"You do not have brothers Daniel, there is only us now." he said calmly, and started once again to approach me.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw something shine beneath his robes, "How would you like to have some dinner? We can discuss the science fair."

"No." I said, my voice shaking, "No, no, get away from me! I killed you! You're not really here!"

I tried to get to my feet to run but a harsh hand on my shoulder stopped me from doing so. Before I could scream my father seized my face and turned it so I would be facing him, his nails breaking into my skin and drawing blood.

"Insolent boy!" he screamed, "I will teach you respect!"

He then slapped me so that I fell to the floor, fighting to keep consciousness.

"You're not real, you're not real." I panted to myself, trying to slow my heart beat down.

"Real!? Nothing is real to you boy! I used to think you had potential. I thought you were the one son I had who could make something of himself!" He cried.

I once again tried to crawl away when he kicked me to the wall. I screamed in pain, but he wasn't finished.

Before I knew it, he was on top of me, punching and kicking me as hard as he could. Somehow delivering me some of the worst pain I had felt in my life.

I was way beyond the strength to defend myself, and soon was just consumed by pain. Everything I knew, everything I could remember, imagine, it was all pain. Pain from the torture of my past, pain for the loss of my future, and most of all, pain from the despair of my present.

I was so ready.

I was so ready for him to just kill me. To let go of everything and once again be with my brothers. There was nothing keeping me bound to this world anymore, why did I have to keep suffering in it?

Eventually I could no longer feel the brutal punches delivered towards my body anymore. And soon all the pain started to numb. I closed my eyes and started to drift into the wonderful, comforting darkness in front of me.

A sharp cut brought reinvigorating pain back to me, and my fathers snarling face greeted me as soon as I regained consciousness.

"No." he hissed, "You do not get an easy way out, you do not get to escape!"

"Why?" I whimpered, my voice so weak I wasn't even sure the words came out, "Why did you kill them? How could you kill your own family?"

I saw him pause, and for a second a look of almost sadness overcame him.

"It should have been you." he whispered, then gave me a look full of hate, "It should have been you who was lost that night, not her. You were the ones I could stand to loose, but not...her."

"If only she could see you now," I growled through great effort, "She would hate you!" I yelled, "Almost as much as I do!"

He slammed my body to the ground and once again started kicking it mercilessly. This time the darkness came much quicker.

I don't know what woke me up. It wasn't the pain. At this point I knew I had felt so much of it that it no longer had any impact on me.

I found myself just numb, numb of any emotion or feeling that came across me.

The lair was once again empty. My father, brothers and any source of life once again lost from it.

I forced myself up and leaned on the wall behind me. It felt as if I were standing on nothing. I would have felt that my legs were chopped off if I didn't see them beneath me. Apparently the numbness was physical as well.

I pathetically attempted to take a step forward and ended up collapsing on the floor once again.

This time I didn't get up again.

That rat bastard was right about one thing, dying would have been the easy way out, and he wouldn't even grant me that. I used to think I was the only one my father spared because I was somehow his favorite. Now I knew it was because he hated me the most.

I turned on my back and closed my eyes.

"Okay, okay" I whispered, "I'm ready, I'm ready to be with you."

I slowed my breathing best I could and relaxed my body.

Until that point the dampness of the sewers kept me shivering from the cold, but now I felt a weird warmth start to overcome my body.

It was comforting, almost like...a hug.

My eyes snapped open and I turned my head to see Michael lying there next to me, his arms tightly wrapped around me.

My jaw dropped in shock, it was Michael, not Mikey that lay next to me, squeezing me gently.

"Michael." I hoarsely gaped.

"Shhh." he said, "Its almost over Danny, just a few more minutes."

I scanned his body, blood was once again pouring from the chest our father had punctured.

"You're, you're hurt."I whispered.

Michael shook his head, "I don't feel it anymore D."

I felt someone take my hand next to me.

I turned to see Leon and Ralph, peacefully smiling next to me. They too sustained their wounds from father.

I started to say something to them but Leon squeezed my hand harder.

"We're so proud of you." he said, "You've been so strong."

I felt my lip quiver and a few tears leaked from my eyes, "I've never been strong," I whispered, "I was too weak to save you, I was too weak to even die with you."

"That's not true." Ralph spoke up,"You were strong enough to try and live without us."

"And you did so well bro," Michael added, "You were even starting to move on."

"But I couldn't!" I persisted, "I couldn't move on! I couldn't get over the fact that you weren't in my life anymore. I could never get over it."

"Danny you were never supposed to get over it!" Leon persisted, "But you lived with it. Now give yourself some credit, that took some strength.

"Yeah bro," Ralph smiled, "Against everything you're still here, you're still fighting."

"I'm so tired." I whimpered pathetically "And I'm so sick of fighting."

My heart throbbed as Leon and Ralph sighed, but Michael put his hand on my shoulder.

"Its okay bro, we couldn't expect you to keep fighting forever. If you're ready to rest, we understand." he said, and I could detect the sincerity in his voice.

Leon gently rubbed my arm, "He's right Danny, if you're ready, close your eyes and go to sleep."

Ralph sadly smiled, "We'll be waiting for ya bro. And ya know, it'd be pretty nice being all together again."

I gave him a small smile and closed my eyes.

"You guys were the best." I whispered and swallowed hard, "Too bad no one else will ever know that... too bad you couldn't live the lives you deserved to have."

"Its okay," Michael whispered, "We're happy with ones we got."

I sniffled and gently stroked his face. Such optimism shouldn't be forgotten. Such love shouldn't be wasted.

Even though they were gone, the things that made them great weren't. Not yet.

And I still had a chance to save them.

"I'm gonna keep fighting Michael."

His eyes widened.

"i'm gonna keep fighting, for you, Leon Ralph. I'll make sure you're never forgotten. I'll make sure you didn't die for nothing."

Michael smiled, "Dude, it doesn't matter what we died for, but what we lived for that matters. And if we gave you strength to keep going, I would sure as hell wouldn't call nothing."

I smiled and gave a short laugh, "You're such a sap Michael, you always were."

I turned to lightly punch him, but once again he was gone.

When I came to, when I really came to, I found myself once again too weak to stand. Instead I pulled myself into a slow crawl and made my way to the main lines of the sewers.

I didn't know how long I wandered around the sewers on my hands and knees, but eventually I did come across the ladder leading up to the surface world.

Using pretty much the rest of the strength I had in me, I hoisted myself into an almost blinding light and fell upon the simmering hot concrete beneath me.

I laid there, breathing hard and trying to get a grip on myself again when I heard voices and footsteps running over to me.

"Hey kid! You okay?"

"He doesn't look so good.

"Where did he come from?"

"Someone call an ambulance!"

The voices all combined together in a whirlwind as I found myself lost to the conscious world once again.