Earthbound is the property of Nintendo. No money is being made in the production of this fanfic. However, I won't hold it against you if you wanna give me cash... :-D
 

"ME start explaining? I'm not the one that decided it'd be a good idea to run off half-cocked looking for somebody who disappeared over a year ago!" I shouted angrily. I wasn't about to take this sort of crap from a kid five years younger than me.

"Well MAYBE if I had somebody who'd actually tell me what the heck happened to my older brother, I wouldn't HAVE to look for him myself!" Picky shouted back, just as incensed.

"And what makes you so dang sure I know anything about him?" I snapped.

"Ness, I'm not stupid. That letter to you wasn't just a friendly greeting and a photograph, I could tell from the look on your face. Well, that and the fact that you wouldn't even let me have a look at it! You obviously know SOMETHING!"

"What does it matter, anyway? I found you, let's go home." I began heading back towards the cave entrance.

"No way, Ness. I'm not going home until I find out what happened to Pokey!" He stamped his foot.

I turned and approached him, towering. "Picky, I've got your mother on my butt telling me that I've been a bad influence. Well, this time I'm going to be a good influence, and I'm taking you home, even if I have to drag you all the way back to Onett," I stated, very firmly.

He looked me in the eye. "Are you going to tell me what happened to Pokey, then?"

I stuttered. "Wh-what... that is, I ..."

"I told you, Ness, I'm not going home 'till I find out if Pokey's dead or not. If you tell me right now, I'll go with you. So?" He looked at me expectantly.

I tried to look him in the eye. I knew that, technically, I was stronger than him, yet for some reason those inquiring, impatient eyes were too much for me to bear. I looked away.

Picky snorted. "I thought not. I'm going now, Ness." He began to pass me.

I grabbed his arm. We struggled for a few seconds. Eventually, Picky kicked me hard in the shin and began running.

I shouted after him. "Picky, come on! You really think these visions are going to tell you where he is?! They're just incidents from the past!"

He slowed, stopped. Then he turned to look at me. "You've seen them."

I blinked. "Well yeah, I was following you on rumors. But what's a bunch of memories going to help you with?" I asked.

He walked towards me very deliberately. "Ness, what's the real reason you went all the way through this cave? You could've just stayed in Saturn Valley, you know, and caught me on the way in," he said.

I faltered. "Um, but at least this way I would've... actually, um..."

"You've been following the visions too, haven't you? You weren't just looking for me anymore," he deduced. "You saw one at Giant Step, and you had to see more of them for yourself."

"That's not true!" I shouted lamely. "The whole point was to find you! Really!"

"Then that means you don't want to see the next visions? You really just wanna call it quits here?" he asked.

I opened my mouth to say yes, but something, whether in my mind or in my heart, caused me to hesitate.

Picky shook his head. "You hypocrite. Here you are, ready to drag me off before I'm finished, and you'll probably just dash off to the next visions place the second I'm back home. I just don't believe you, Ness!" he growled.

I hung my head. Somehow, the kid had backed me into a corner. I sat down against the cave wall and sat, knees to chest.

He sat down next to me. We didn't speak for awhile. Finally, he looked at me again.

"Ness... what exactly have you been seeing at these places?"

I stared at the other wall. "I dunno... old childhood memories. How we met and all that stuff. I hadn't even thought of it in years," I replied.

Picky stared at me. "That's weird. All I've seen is quick glimpses of Pokey before the visions faded. You sound like you've seen very long visions, though," he stated.

I blinked, and looked at him. "Really?"

He nodded. "Maybe this has something to do with all that weird stuff the bug was telling us a year ago?" he asked.

I turned away. "Maybe."

Again, silence. "Then maybe I'm not supposed to be the one to see the visions," he said, simply. "Maybe Pokey's trying to tell you something instead."

I looked at him, startled. "ME? Why?"

He shrugged. "I dunno. You'd know better than I would, Ness," he replied, somewhat bitterly.

My hand briefly patted the pocket with the two crystals. I caught myself and pulled it away. We sat in silence for awhile longer.

Finally, it was me who spoke again. "You'll run off again even if I dragged you back home myself, wouldn't you?"

Picky nodded, very assertively.

I sighed. "You're right, Picky. Maybe I did start out just to find you. But now that you've told me this, I feel sort of obliged to find out what these visions are trying to tell me. So maybe..."

I stopped. This was probably a really stupid idea, but...

"... maybe I should just stick with you for awhile. Besides, I know where these kind of places are better than you do," I finished.

He looked at me hopefully. "You mean it?"

I looked towards him and nodded. "Yeah."

Unexpectedly, Picky plowed into me and gave me a massive hug, knocking me off balance. "Wow, Ness, you're the best! Thanks!"

I smiled grimly. "Are you sure you really want to find out all this stuff, though? You may not like what you find out," I asked.

Picky stood and looked me again in the eyes. "I don't care, Ness. If I don't find out I'll go nuts, and since you're in no hurry to tell me... Well, you understand, don't you Ness?"

"... yeah. Yeah, I guess I do," I said.

He crossed his arms and nodded. "Right. Well, let's go then! We've gotta find out what all these visions mean!" he declared.

I stood up. "Hang on a moment, I wanna see something first," I said.

"Huh?" He looked at me, confused. I didn't say anything, but rather headed back towards the Milky Well. Once outside, I angled my head a bit, just to see...

There. A few steps away, the sparkle of a crystal could be seen. I stooped down and picked it up, adding it to the growing collection in my pocket.

Picky looked at the crystal as I put it away. "What's that?"

"I'm not sure, but I get the feeling it's important," I replied.

"Oh, okay. If you say so."

We began to leave, with Picky walking close behind.

"So what's up with those things in Saturn Valley, anyway?"

Let's review, shall we?

We were back in Threed. By the time we'd gotten back to Saturn Valley in an area I could safely teleport, it was getting late and both Picky and I agreed that the prudent move would be to find a hotel and get some sleep.

Except, of course, it wasn't that easy. Well, for me anyway. In fact, rather than sleeping, I was getting treated to a heavy barrage of self-beratement.

Okay, so let's see here -- you run out looking for Picky despite his mother's wishes. Along the way you start seeing visions of old memories dealing with the world's biggest jerk, Pokey. Yet for some braindead reason, you decide it's a good idea to start looking for the visions yourself. Then you actually FIND Picky, and what do you do? You take him with you. WELL DONE, Ness.

I sighed. Picky had definitely made things harder. The sad fact of the matter was, Picky WOULD just keep running out until he found Pokey. I knew this, because it was exactly what I would do in Picky's shoes.

I knew that if I would just tell him what had happened to Pokey, it would be the end of the matter. Thing was, though, I couldn't tell him. Which sucked, because coming from me it would probably hurt a lot less when he found out the truth. In fact chances were, even if I DID tell him the truth, he wouldn't believe me and would just keep going anyway.

So obviously I had to go with him, right? Somebody had to make sure he didn't hurt himself.

Is that it, Ness? Is that really it? Is it him... or is it you?

I groaned at the thought. I hadn't intended it to work out like this. The revelation that I was the one who was receiving the most detailed visions, however, disturbed me greatly. Up to that point, I'd assumed that what I'd seen was what everybody had seen -- which, upon retrospect, probably should've disturbed me MORE and not less, since it was revealing some very deep secrets about my 'friendship' with Pokey.

But when I heard Picky tell me that all he'd seen were brief glimpses, it brought a whole new dimension to things. Suddenly it was no longer Picky at the center of all this: it was me.

And that, I felt, was far more disturbing than anything.

What the heck do you want, you fat freak? What are you trying to tell me? If you're trying to make me feel sorry for you, forget it man. You blew it, not me. You sided with Giygas. I have no sympathy for you, man.

I should just turn away. Stop right now, give Picky back to his folks, then toss those crystals into a lake and never think of them again. Nobody misses Pokey, after all.

Except Picky, it seems.

And the only response I had to that was simply, "Crap."
 

Author's Notes:

Etc., etc. Figure it out yourself.