Pyro Unmasked Chapter 6, a team fortress 2 fanfic

Well, that was a long week.

The Long-Awaited Return of

===Pyro Unmasked===

===Chapter 6===

"Nice Work, Engy! Knew you had an American in there somewhere!"

Engineer tried to chuckle, but could only wheeze as the air escaped him. Soldier didn't know his own strength sometimes, and his friendly pat on the back nearly sent Engy to the floor.

The BLU base at Gravel Pit was in full-on party mode after their triumph over the REDs, finally ending their week-long losing streak. Engineer was by far the center of attention after he single-handedly captured the final point. The mercs were constantly hounding him, begging to get their questions answered and their praise heard. Engineer was a little lost in the moment, boastfully recounting with every detail his triumph over the RED's defense. He did, however, have the common sense to not mention where his sudden surge of bravery had originated.

"Whoa, Hardhat! Never knew you had it in ya! I mean, That was AWESOME! Nowhere NEAR the level of awesome I was dishing, but when you consider it's you, it's AWESOME."

"Fine job, Truckie! That'll show those scaredy little piss-drinking wankers!"

"Was tha' even YOU up there, lad? even I cannae stand up to a Pyro like that without flinchin' at least a wee bit! Speakin o' Pyro, where is the wee devil? I've nae seen him since the battle ended..."

Everyone looked around the room, and saw that their firebug was missing. Scout quickly volunteered to go look, but Engy, his smile faltering a bit, stopped him.

"Don't worry, Ah know where he is. Ah'll go see what's up."

Engineer was a bit worried at this point, not only for Pyro, but for himself. After all, their resident pyromaniacal lunatic had just suffered some sort of emotional trauma, and that could be dangerous for anybody. When he got to the respawn, he had to force himself to go close enough to open the door, but he did. And to his surprise, Pyro was still there, in the back corner, in the fetal position, shuddering like he had been before. That did little to calm Engy's nerves, so it took even more effort to muster anything but a whisper.

"P-Pyro?" he called, noticeably shaking. No response.

He swallowed hard and called again, this time louder, "Pyro?" All he got this time was a pathetic sob.

Feeling a bit safer, Engy walked right up to him and kneeled down. "Pyro, what's wrong?

Pyro took notice, and tried to catch his breath, tears still streaming down his face. Without even moving, he managed one single, shaky, barely audible breath of a whisper.

"I-Is this real?"

Engy was just more confused at this. "What? Is what real?"

"This..." Pyro choked up, not wanting to give the horrifying memories substance in sound, and he exploded into tears again. "Th- This world...," he forced through the choking crying fit.

"What do you mean, this world?"

Pyro was gagging, trying as hard as possible to stop crying long enough to get a coherent sentence through. It was no good, and he gave up and just continued to lay there, an emotional wreck.

Engy could do nothing to help, so he just sat, waiting out the crying.

"You... You p-put the mas-" Pyro was just strangling himself now, hacking his lungs out, before forcing out, "You put the mask on. You saw..."

Engy was starting to understand, but Pyro had regained the composure to continue anyway. "That... That world... is all I have ever known. Is- Is it- Is my world- f-f-fake?"

Pyro burst into an even stronger wave of tears at the thought, and he gave up trying to speak through it. He was just overwhelmed by all the guilt he was feeling, all the agony of having caused nothing but pain unending to everyone he thought he held dear, everyone he thought was a friend... His very existence was horrifying to himself, and he couldn't handle it. He didn't want to go on like this. He needed to find a way out. For the sake of everyone and everything he loved, this had to end.

But he had no resolve. He had no motivation. He had no will to do so much as move. Pain was all he could comprehend. And he had no idea what to do about it.

===End Of Chapter===

So I've decided to try my hand at writing something original. However, I discovered I'm terrible at it (Which has a lot to do with how brief I write), so I've decided to return here to get more writing practice in. In the year I've been gone, some life has happened, so my depressing scenes might become a bit more realistic. And also, I promise that even though I am bi absolutely no shipping will occur here. TF2's characters are far from attractive anyways.

And as always, sorry I was gone, but this time no promises on keeping this updated. Even though I have ideas on where this is going, I don't have the best track record there. So.