Starting over

"Mom, is this the day? The day I get to see him again?" asked a child excitedly

"Yes, I believe it is!" said the mother, there was happiness in her voice, but the child could sense a twinge of sadness.

"Go out there and make me proud, son! I know you will." said the father

"Mom, Dad, I know we'll see eachother again, and sooner or later, he'll be here too!" said the child, his father was silent, smiling at the ground, and his hat obstructing his eyes,  which were full of tears of joy.

"Oh, before you go, tell him I said hi, Claus." said the mother, and the child was jogging towards a benevolent light.

Lucas was awoken to the sound of a faraway cry of pain. It came from the same direction of where he landed. He felt drawn to it, like to a moth to a flame. He had to satisfy his curiosity.

"Could it be?" thought Lucas. He pinched himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming. With each second he got more and more excited. If he didn't want to wake up Fluttershy, he felt like squealing with happiness, even if the chance was slim that someone he knew was there.

Almost robotically, Lucas put his worn sneakers on, and walked out the door. Lucas started with a slow, easy walk, and later progressed to a full-on sprint, he just had an instinct that he couldn't explain, it encouraged him to keep moving towards the sunflower patch. Nothing was going to stop him from seeing what was there.

Claus was feeling estatic, and he ran at full speed towards the gateway between the afterlife and wherever his little brother was. Claus expected to run through the portal and that would be it, but as he ran through the portal, he felt no solid ground beneath him, he looked down at the ground and saw he was several feet above it, his landing was less than graceful. He smiled as a feeling of irony sank in as he saw his surroundings: a sunflower field.

"It must be some kind of sign. Maybe a good omen?" he shrugged. Claus heard footsteps behind him, he turned around. It was all there, the blonde hair, the beady eyes, it fit perfectly like a puzzle. It was Lucas. When they locked eyes, words could not describe how happy they were, they ran at eachother preparing for a brotherly hug. Tears of joy ran down their faces.

"What'd I tell you, little bro, I knew we would see each other again!" said Claus joyfully

"Claus..." said Lucas, too choked up to talk

"Did you see Mom? What about Dad?" Lucas asked

"I did Lucas. It was beautiful." said Claus honestly. Minutes passed as they embraced eachother. Claus broke the silence.

"Hey Lucas, how about a sparring match? For old time's sake." said Claus, putting up a playful boxing stance. He didn't seem to acknowledge the events that took place only a few days ago.

"What? Claus! We haven't had a true meeting since..." Lucas didn't want to mention the dreadful events that took place in New Pork City. He could feel his temper rising.

"Cmon, Lucas, it's only play-fighting. It's not like it's to the death." Claus didn't seem to acknowledge what happened only a few days ago.

"Claus." said Lucas, changing the subject

"I have to ask you something. How are you... alive?" he asked

"Lucas, honestly, who cares? Last time I checked, you were as dead as was a few days ago. Plus, we're both still alive and well, why question it?" countered Claus

Lucas sighed. "You haven't changed a bit, Claus." Lucas then noticed Claus was backing away a bit, he looked behind him, to make sure he wasn't missing anything. Claus stared down Lucas while circling him with a smirk on his face. It made Lucas feel slightly uneasy. Lucas blinked for a second, and Claus was charging at him, his fist raised. Lucas braced himself for the impact.

Lucas closed his eyes, waiting for the punch. But when he looked, Claus barely missed, his fist was inches away from his stomach. Lucas let out a sigh of relief.

"Psyche!" Claus took advantage of Lucas's momentary confusion and uppercutted him, Lucas was knocked upward like a volleyball on the first serve. Claus tackled him, throwing sunflowers in his face to no end.

"Claus, stop!" Lucas's lips were quivering, and he shielded his body with his arms.

"Alright, jeez, don't cry about it." Claus stood up and turned around. Big mistake.

"PK Freeze α!" cried Lucas, and Claus was frozen up to his knees. Claus had a genuinely impressed look on his face. Lucas bolted at Claus, and when they were in close range, Lucas jumped and kicked Claus square in the stomach. Claus stumbled backwards and fell down with a "thump", breaking the ice.

"Alright then, I can take cheap shots too, Lucas!" said Claus, and a pair of mechanical wings sprouted from his jacket, and he zipped upwards. Lucas was surprised that Claus still had the cybernetic enhancements the pigmask army had applied to him.

Lucas felt frozen in place when Claus zoomed at him, Lucas blocked his body with his arms for protection, but Claus flew straight past him. Lucas looked behind him, Claus was hovering at ground-level. Claus put his arms in front of him, as if he was preparing to grab something.

Suddenly, Lucas felt his arms being seized. Claus had locked him into a full-nelson. Then, Lucas felt his body rise, he could no longer feel the ground below him, he flailed his arms trying to grab a sunflower to hang on to, but his efforts were futile as he and Claus were slowly ascending.

"Claus, I'm scared of heights! Cut it out!" yelped Lucas, struggling to get out of his grip

"Heights? I wouldn't worry about that." said Claus, and the next thing he knew, they were taking a dive towards the ground. Lucas closed his eyes, bracing for the impact. But when he opened them, he was flat on the ground, still in Claus's grip, but unharmed. He let out a sigh of relief.

Then, Lucas heard the sound of ignition. Almost immediately, Claus began to fly low at insane speeds (for someone carrying a body), dragging Lucas along. Lucas's face was covered in dirt, sunflower petals, and a few bugs instantaneously. Claus's flight path consisted of anything but a straight line.

Claus ended his zany combo by dropping Lucas into a mud puddle with just enough precision and timing to ensure that he would slide like a penguin on ice, Lucas slid with half the grace and twice the speed. Lucas wiped the mud off of his face as he staggered to stand up, Claus stood patiently waiting for him to get up.

Lucas, on the other hand, had lost his patience with Claus, and was determined to stop the fight before it got any worse. His solution? Beat the crap out of Claus, of course! Lucas snarled as he sprinted at Claus. He threw a rage-filled fist at Claus, who just barely dodged it. Claus used this as an opening to grab his arm, and twist it until he screamed.

"Say uncle!" said Claus fiercely

"No!" screamed Lucas

"Say it!"

"No! No! No! NO!" With each "No" Lucas punched Claus in the stomach in an attempt to make him release him. It worked. Claus pushed him away, and coughed up a bit of blood.

"Fine! You want a serious fight and I'll give you one! You asked for this!" Once again, Claus grabbed hold of Lucas's arm, but this time, he didn't twist it. He lifted him up a few inches off the ground and let out an intense battle cry.

Then, out of the clear skies, a swift bolt of lightning struck Lucas. He let out a scream mixed with fear,anger, and shock. A lightning bolt of that strength would knock a normal human unconscious, but thankfully, Lucas is by no means a normal human, that is not to say he wasn't heavily injured at that point. Claus was surprised he was still standing up.

"Still conscious? Lemme fix that." said Claus nonchalantly. Lucas watched in horror as he saw what Claus was doing, he was preparing the single strongest PSI skill in the book: PK Love. He couldn't tell what stage it was, but he knew for sure that he had to intercept it somehow without killing himself or Claus, as well as preserving the nature around them.

"Claus! What are you doing?" asked Lucas, getting desperate

"Lucas, don't worry about it, it's not to the death, remember?" Claus continued to concentrate as a purple aura surrounded him. Lucas tried to read Claus's mind through telepathy, thankfully he was only planning on using PK Love β, though Lucas still had to stop it, otherwise the fight was only going to get worse. Running out of ideas, Lucas reluctantly began to charge up PK Love himself.

"Lucas, ya ready? I know you've gotten stronger, maybe even stronger than I am. Somewhere in there, I see a fighting spirit struggling to get out! I can see potential in there, I know it! I'm doing this for you, not me, Lucas." said Claus, Lucas covered his ears to ignore his words.

"Claus, we could stop right here! This is pointless!" yelled Lucas, Claus was too focused to hear what he said. The ground began to shake and sunflowers appeared to evaporate into thin air as Lucas and Claus were slowly pushing the limits of their psychic ability.

"PK Love... Beta!" Cried two voices. From a distance, two pinkish beams of light clashed together, creating a supernatural spectacle. Lucas and Claus seemed to be synchronized, almost as if one was looking into a mirror.

As the beams clashed, neither of them had an advantage. Sometimes one beam would overpower the other, only to be pushed back with a sudden burst of energy. If he wanted to "win" Lucas had to crank it up a notch.

"PK Love Gamma!" Without warning, Lucas forced back Claus's PK Love. Lucas was about to end the struggle until Claus countered with PK Love Gamma, once again balancing the beams. Lucas yelled in frustration.

"This is it! No more holding back! Make me proud Lucas, come at me with everything you've got!PK Love Omega!" bellowed Claus. Lucas took his deadly offer and let go of any hesitation. Both Lucas and Claus were slowly losing control of their PSI as their struggle was coming to an end.

But in the heat of the battle, Lucas could see sparks coming from the middle of the clashing beams as they both progressively pushed their limits. As he stared closer, the sparks were turning into small explosions, Claus didn't seem to notice.

Finally, Lucas heard something that sounded like a grenade going off, and then he couldn't see Claus anymore. He could only see a white light, moving towards him, Lucas tried to run, but he only got pulled in, like a magnet to metal. The explosion felt like several needles going into his body at once. He closed his eyes, to avoid being blinded. When he opened them, he was standing or rather kneeling, in a crater that stretched to a great distance. Lucas then saw Claus, lying flat on the ground, he nearly had a heart attack, wondering if Claus had once again died. Thankfully, Lucas could see Claus limping over to Lucas. He ran over to him.

"Claus, are you okay?" asked Lucas urgently

"Me? Heh, I'll be fine. Nothing a little R&R won't fix." said Claus without much care, Lucas was grateful to see that Claus wasn't gravely injured, he was in bad shape, but not on the verge of death.

"Stop!" cried a voice from afar. Lucas and Claus looked above the crater to see Fluttershy, who was most likely in a hurry to get there, as she was panting quite a bit.

"...Care informing me, Lucas?" said Claus, who was confused at the fact that a pegasus had just spoken to him.

"It's complicated.." said Lucas, and when he looked behind him, Claus was already flying away, he waved, and Lucas waved back.

"L-Lucas, who was that?" asked Fluttershy, who was very eager for an answer. After a long moment of thought, Lucas answered.

"My brother." he said quietly

"Never mind that, you're injured! Mommy's gonna make it better, okay?" said Fluttershy, who had already put Lucas on her back and was rushing back to the cottage.