Things Fall Apart

Kobra had been back for a while when the sun rose over the Wasteland again.
Cola kept his eyes shut, pretending to sleep. He didn't want this to be happening. He didn't want to know.
He hoped that, maybe, if he kept his eyes shut long enough, he would never wake up, and this would have been all but a bad dream, and things would be just right. And Kobra would still be There.
He knew too well how this would end.
He could feel the weight of his heart when he eventually opened his eyes to an empty bed.
He got up before it started to get suspiciously late.
And he faked anger and incomprehension when they broke it out to him.
Because of course Kobra had been with him all night long. He would have known.
Nobody ever suspected Kobra anyways. Nobody ever noticed him.
Maybe being the Silence wasn't such a bad thing, sometimes.
Cola didn't know whether his lover thought he knew. Whether he cared.
There was no guilt in his empty eyes when he looked at him.
Cola didn't know if Kobra knew he didn't know whether he was or he wasn't.
Maybe Kobra had been, before, but wasn't anymore since he was Kobra.
Cola had been too. And he wondered whether he still was, now.
All Cola wanted to know was his name.
He knew that it was all their fault, really, that Kobra had turned out to be everything they had taught him.
So he kept it a secret.
Because Cola loved. Because he thought maybe Kobra wasn't. Because his heart ached. Because he still shivered in the summertime.
He knew how they would call him.
A Traitor.

About The Girl, they were all sad, of course, but Poison had got it worse.
Except he wasn't sad, this time. Just angry, terribly angry. And that anger shook him up like a giant earthquake under his skin. And his eyes were wide. And his breath was powerful. And his heart was loud.
"It's Korse. Of course it's Korse. That bald devil has always made our lives a living hell. I won't let her die. Not this time. I lost Bunny, and I lost Bandit to him already. I can't afford to lose her too. She's all I care about in this ugly world."
There was a bitter taste in Kobra's mouth, but none else noticed.
"Get ready for the fight of your lives, boys. We're getting her back. This is suicide. We won't get out of here alive this time. Who's with me?"
"I am." Ghoul chuckled, playing around with his laser gun "You know, I always am baby. Always there."
"You're all I have." Jet Star said "And I know that's cheesy, but you're my family. And, damn, do I know I'd do anything for you. I'd follow you anywhere. And I will. We'll get her back, Poison. Because, in the end, the Good Guys always win."
But who were the Good Guys he did not say.
And Cola knew there were no Good Guys.
And Kobra knew they didn't always win.
But they all loved the Girl, and they all were determined to get her back.
And even though Doctor D thought this was Madness, he didn't try to stop them, not this time.
But nobody ever asked about Kobra.
The Fabulous Killjoys would drive straight into Battery City, fight and get her back, while Show Pony, Doctor Death Defying and Cherri Cola backed them up, picked her up and drove away.
Without the Fabulous Killjoys.
Kobra was the only one to think they wouldn't die.
What Kobra thought what Kobra thought.
He thought the BL/ind wouldn't kill them. Of course they wouldn't. He had given them the girl.
He thought the BL/ind weren't so bad after all. And maybe they could live with it.
He thought they were all just going back home, where they belonged. For he was terribly Homesick.
He was tired of running around the Wasteland. He wanted to settle down. Have a Home again. He wanted to be Mikey. He wanted to be let out of the bone cage his brother had locked him in. He wanted to breathe. He wanted to love and be loved back. All he ever wanted was a Life.

They all felt the thrill and excitement before Something Big. Just like before Christmas. Except they were in a place where it never snowed, Christmas had been dead and gone for a while now, and it was a War this time.
"This is War." Doctor D. said on the Radio.
"Our own flesh and blood and most dangerous weapon was stolen from us today, and we intend to get Her back, at any price. Don't stand in our way.
The Fabulous Killjoys and this very Radio will move all the way from the Wasteland to Bat City.
Party Poison's here with me, and he's not happy."
"This is a personal call to Korse." Poison said "You can take my wife, you can take my child, you can rip off my heart and break down my bones, but you'll never have my soul.
We're getting the Girl back, Korse. You ain't gonna stop us. We're together till the end." Poison said, smiling boldly with his Poison red smile "We're The Fabulous Killjoys. Party Poison, Fun Ghoul, Jet Star and Kobra Kid. Killjoys never die."
"Killjoys never die." Fun Ghoul repeated, nodding.
"Killjoys never die." Jet Star said.
And Kobra Kid wished he could say it back. He would have meant it.
But he couldn't. He couldn't anymore.
He was out of breath.
"To all of you here, shut tight in your black and white houses, it's still not too late!" Doctor D. continued "There isn't a right time nor a right way to wake up and fight back.
Art is the Weapon.
Your Imagination is the Ammunition.
Stay Dirty and Stay Dangerous.
Create and Destroy as you see fit.
This is Doctor Death Defying. I'm out."

It was beautiful, Jet Star thought, how Imminent Death had united all of them all over again in the blink of an eye. Even more than before.
They had a common goal now. And that thrill-of-before-Christmas-except-it-wasn't-Christmas-this-time pumped through their veins. As though the four of them were but one giant heart.
And Poison hand's ruffled through Kobra's hair.
His brother had never asked for this.
Maybe he was sorry.
He didn't know. Of course he didn't.
And Kobra. How Kobra craved to be heard, now.
He didn't want to be the Silence anymore.
He had ripped away his Silence coat from over his bones and he was standing there, naked, with breath on the verge of his tongue, his bird heart breaking the bars of his rib cage.
But no, his lungs were still burning away, and how wide did he open his mouth to scream, but he didn't make a sound.
And how much his eyes supplicated "Let me live. Let me live.".
But no. Poison was still Poison.
Kobra's skin was still crackling, and Poison's ran his cold fingers over the void under, laughing at his own temerity.
Kobra knew there was Something Bigger. He knew there was Something More. He had seen it, a while ago. And he had slowly been waking up from his lethargy, led by It, through his own mind, leading everything to destruction. Because it was the point of It All, wasn't it? The Fall Apart.
And he knew he knew he knew but he just couldn't help it. And how much did he crave to tell Poison because he knew he could have before but didn't want to and now that he wanted to he couldn't anymore. The Trash Lords, that was all for them wasn't it? They watched and said nothing, yet they led, yet they led. Yet they shut him up.
They went to sleep early that night, the four Fabulous Killjoys. It was their last night in the Radio House, yet, it didn't feel any different.
Everything was still the same. Everything was still.
And how Poison held his brother in his arms once again. Kobra's heart ached. He knew this probably meant his plan had worked. Poison's heart ached. He knew his little brother wouldn't be alive tomorrow even though he never asked for anything. But Kobra asked for Everything. And nobody ever answered.
And it was all Kobra's fault really, that they were all going to die. But that, Poison did not know.
He asked for it. Kobra knew. Kobra's lungs overflowed. Kobra's tongue was swollen with words. But his voice had been locked away for so long now. And how his eyes pleaded his brother's in the dark.
Set me free. Set me free. Set me free.
And how Poison wished he did.
But Poison had lost the key.
He remembered a time when he would have known how. But Poison was only Party Poison now. Had he ever been somebody else?
Had Kobra ever been somebody else? Had he ever been something else than Silence?
Yet, somehow, something felt terribly wrong in their clothes that were all the wrong sizes and in the colours that they bought and in their mismatched names that only kids could have come up with.
They had only been kids, once, hadn't they?
Something was terribly Wrong.
Something was terribly misfit.
And surely Party Poison wasn't his name, was it?
But then what was it?
Whatsmyname? Whatsmyname?
And, in the dark of the Wasteland, Poison's heart ached.
And Ghoul's heart ached.
And Jet Star's heart ached.
And Kobra's heart ached.
And Cola's heart ached too.
And there were things everybody had forgotten but only Cola knew.
And only Cola knew.
And Cola, well Cola cried. But it was in the night, so nobody saw, so nobody knew, so it didn't count, so he should have stopped.
And why did he do that for? Things were just fine, before. Why did he do that for?
Cola's heart was bigger than his chest and his bones too old for his body.
And how many times did he hold his lover's face in his hands repeating until he lost sense of the words:
"I will love you. I will love you. I will love you. I will love you."
He knew it by heart but he still never could close his eyes.
But it was too late. It was too late wasn't it? Everything was too late and the Wasteland wasn't a place where love could grow. And it was bitter, and it was sore, and it was dead. It had been dead for a while now.
And maybe in another life, on another world, but no, no, there was only There and Now, wasn't there?
How wrong was he, then. But only Kobra knew because Kobra saw but kept it a secret until the end and the end was near now and he could see It through the cracks.
And, that night, Cola went out in the Wasteland once again. Once again, he could cry, because nobody saw, so nobody knew, so it didn't count, did it? So he should have stopped. But he didn’t.
If he closed his eyes, he could see Him, as vivid as summertime, and his heart was suffocating, thinking of how His features would blur and eventually fade away.
He would have loved him. He would have loved him.
He would have loved him until China and Africa meet. Until the sun burnt the ocean dry. Until their breath went thin and their bones went soft. He would have loved him until their hearts melted away and their skins withered. He would have loved him until snow fell down in the Desert. He would have loved him. He would have loved him.

Notes

I'm the master of cheesy *sigh*