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Dave ruffled her mane. "If your dad approaches you for his thing and doesn't treat you like a fucking person, tear him a new one for me." He took a careful, steadying breath. "Goodbye, kid. I'm proud of you."

Dave blinked. "Yeah, wasn't planning on it." Stronger? "...Thanks." Dave sighed too, stepping closer and wrapping a paw around her. "Me too, kitten."

"Mozzarella sticks are okay," Mia said, tilting her head. "I like meat better, though. Maybe you can buy mozzarella sticks and get me something else. Like hotdogs." Dave chuckled. "Yeah. Maybe the two of you can have food while you talk about backup plans." Was Flesh... crying? Jesus. Shadow's...

A good dad? ...Sure. Let's go with that. Rocky winked hugely at Shadow and what the fuck had happened between those two when he wasn't looking. Even then... for some reason he didn't even understand, he raised a paw in a goodbye to Nate, too, before turning around. And there was Ionys and...

Dave hovered along the sidelines with Mia in vague discomfort. There wasn't really much point in big fucking goodbyes, was there? This was all about to be over. "I'm going to miss them," came a whisper. Of course Shadow chose to appear here. Of course. "You're kind of literally not," Dave...

On the last day, Dave took Mia for some hotdogs. Just like old times. Mia squinted at the toppings and picked an inscrutable selection as usual. He wasn't really hungry but ordered one with everything anyway. "So, uh," he began after they'd had a couple of bites in silence, sitting at the...

Chapter 32! In which we suffer through the fic's last junior trainers, Mark gets to celebrate his birthday a bit, and we see Spirit in action in all her pretty broken glory. Chapter 32: The Birthday Party “Chaletwo,” Mark muttered as the three kids walked back towards Stormy Town after...

Dave raised an eyebrow. What, the notion of telling Jean about her imaginary lion sister? Hard to imagine that being deeply important, but sure. He glanced at Shadow. The last of his shields was shimmering out of existence. He was back to looking like his usual timid self, but at least he...

My kids. They deserve a life. I'll do anything it takes for them. I'll keep them safe. They're all I live for. I don't care. Jean. That's what I'm going back to at home. Dave stepped back, closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The buzzing in his brain began to calm, slowly. Jean...

Dave bared his teeth and lunged in for a Crunch. "Anything," he snarled, heart racing. "I'll do anything it takes for them, I don't care. I'll keep them safe." Yeah, look how that fucking went last time. A tendril of shadows snaked its way around his lungs. "They're all I live for."

Yet you still fight. Radiance burst bright and golden from his chest, and Fugu's attack shattered a barrier. "Yeah. Yeah, I still fight, because they deserve a life." He glanced off to where Shadow was, under a pair of shields. For once, the other Mightyena didn't look quite so pathetic and...

And there it was, Fugu pulling out her sword again. Shadow actually smiled a little as he stepped aside. Adrenaline pumped through Dave's veins as she charged, and he charged too, Shadows curling around his feet. "My kids," he began with a heaving snarl as he tackled her. "Every day I'm trying...

Dave's gaze snapped back to Fugu, his heart thumping. Goddamn it, the one moment he forgot to not look at him. "No. No, he didn't say anything. He's just sort of staring at me. Does that half the time." In his peripheral vision, Shadow's eyes were still fixed intently on him. The knot in Dave's...

"I mean, no, not really." Dave exhaled, looking away, and then realized that had been completely ambiguous and he'd have to clarify what he'd meant. I came to pay you back for the fucking fight. That's all. A breath. "As in, the state of the world, no, plenty of people sure seem to manage to...

Dave raised an eyebrow. "Well, my world is full of humans and it's sure not a paradise, so definitely leaning away from there being something special about us." So instead, what, everyone was just so fucked up by distortions that an average-ass human who's not affected could just pull them away...

Dave blinked. "Huh." It was hard to picture a world like Cibus just regressing into a postapocalyptic wasteland. How long ago was all this again? He knew better than to ask Fugu her age. "And then, what, the Omen Heroes just fixed everything?"

Was she calling him old? He couldn't even really protest, now that he was somehow in his fucking forties. God. "What, so Cibus was some kind of lawless hell within living memory? What happened?"

"Thank you!" Shadow said, attempting an awkward wave as he crouched down to see after him. "You're a nice Shadow too."

Oh, Lord, she was going to try to make him talk about feelings anyway. Dave sighed, sitting down on his haunches. "Cibus is the kind of universe my universe's cartoons take place in. Friendly authority figures all the way up, everyone gets along, tangible forces of hope and goodness and love...

"I mean, sure. People are hoping we'll retain something we learned here on a subconscious level, or whatever. Which is all well and good, but not exactly helpful when the problem is less the forgetting and more just what you're going back to to begin with." Off to the side, Shadow looked slowly...