Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Good night, everybody!" Yakko's enthusiastic hand shook over the expectant heads of fans in front of them, waiting for his precious signature or a few words from him and his brothers.

"It's three-thirty in the afternoon, Yakko," Dot's little enthusiasm and boring voice, highlighted the fact that, even though it was relatively early, for them it felt like an eternity.

"I know, but it was a joke I couldn't waste." Even tiredness couldn't steal the smile from the major of Warners. "These people say things that can get misunderstood all the time. It's so much fun, it's starting to get boring."

"You said Good night to you all every half hour. It even seems like it's a way of telling you how long we've been sitting here" This add-on from Wakko surprised Yakko because it was true, he seemed to know him better than he thought.

"Uuuh... or maybe you use it as a way to count the passage of time until lunchtime." Okay, they both knew each other very well.

A few applause pulled them out of their conversation. The head of the Animaniacs booth reacted to the waste of time, he did not want to encourage the impatience of fans. However, he was also playing with a flammable material that had not been untied; and this was the Warner's patience to stay still in one place for a long time. The time of rest was at four o'clock, so they only had to last half an hour longer in front of the fans.

Many of them were former fans who had been children in the 1990s who, thanks to the reboot, had been able to share the series with their children, and who they were not parents, had simply regressed to the happy moments of their childhood. The point is, many of the young children approaching the Warner's table wore costumes from one of the brothers; finding very well-achieved costumes of Yakko, Wakko and Dot, although the latter two were the most repeated. Funny was the fact that they could confuse them with the real ones.

This provoked a sense of tenderness and inner laughter within Yakko; the versions of his brothers walking around and laughing was what enjoyed the event the most.

Dot, for her part, celebrated every costume referred to herself, clapping and asking that they smile as beautifully as they could, fostering the charisma that a Dot should have. And even if she didn't say it out loud, she was pretty sure she was still the prettiest, of course.

Wakko, mean his part, was a little looser and unhooked to match fans compared to his brothers. He was always excited when someone approached in a Wakko costume and threatened to teach him his "eating skills." Many food challenges came to light, but surely the most prominent was that of the boy who swallowed Wakko's autograph handed him over, which made Warner laugh in the middle; he recognized talent when he saw it and highlighted that he had been the most creative until now. Anyway, Yakko stopped the show before any child ended up intoxicated, choked or vomiting.

They were done at 4:00 in the afternoon and it was time for the long-awaited break. The few people in the remaining rows were warned of the recess and they could return later, who while waiting for the night round, could approach the ground floor where he was in a food hall.

Wakko may have become a black, blue and red ray that would have ended there, unless Yakko's long animated arm stopped him in time, putting him next to Dot.

"Wait in there, lil bro" Once he had them in front he took them to a sector farther away from the children in disguise as many kept crossing between their legs; was like standing in a sea of little devils Warners.

"On a bad day, this would be my worst nightmare." Yakko said, seeing these children, as if increasing the number of Wakko's and Dot's in the world was a bad thing, that bothered the real ones.

"The difference is that probably these children if they are good." He concluded with malice and curiosity to see if his brothers' eyebrows could lower more than they were and look more upset. He laughed when he saw that he did.

"Hey, we behave!" Wakko claimed.

"Yeah, we sat down for as long as this autograph signing lasted" Dot added, joining forces.

"And that's a good thing! If they had been running around I'm not sure I can tell them between all these little cosplayers" The eldest saw a little around, slightly worried about how true the latter was. He trusted his abilities as an older brother and how much he knew his brothers, he could distinguish them from miles away, but among all this present audience he had his doubts; beginning to debate whether he should let two Warners run freely all over the had to think of a strategy.

"All right, you two won't walk away from me for the rest of the event."

Right, maybe that wasn't the best idea.

"You know? It's funny because you think we're really going to listen to you." Dot's inexpressiveness only showed how little she cared to follow his brother's orders. "I've been waiting for the break for hours to go get something to eat and stretch my legs a little bit."

"Dot, you're so small that sitting your feet don't touch the ground. What are you talking about?"

"You can't hold us because you're scared of a couple of little future furrys!" Completely ignored what he said about his size; I'd hit him later.

Wakko on his side laughed a little bit of the little argument they were having, but remembered that he was upset with the eldest so he quickly regained his annoying countenance and directed him towards him.

"You guys don't understand. I can't lose sight of them among all these people!" His authoritarian countenance did not seem to have an effect on his younger siblings. With every decade that passed, it seemed less re-inspected his surroundings and was greeted by the bright yellow color of a row of nearby balloons decorating a table.

"I've got it!" He removed two balloons and handed them out, each in the tail of his brothers.

"Wh-what are you doing!?" Dot was the first to protest.

"Perfect! Now even if they split up, I'll be able to tell them apart from the crowd."

"This is embarrassing!"

"This is the trick that desperate parents use, you know, those who don't trust their own parental abilities." Wakko said, dangerously close to the truth. "Also, it will not work."

"Why do you say that?" Yakko refuted.

"The balloon is taking Dot." He pointed to his sister being dragged into the air by the globe, separating her further and further from the ground while also moving away from the insults that she was prompting Yakko to put her through this shame in front of so many people. The eldest ran after her to get her down and maybe, with some luck, she wouldn't take a punch in her face.

He had no luck.

They finally came to an agreement. After all, they lived in democracy.

They would separate, but at 6:00 pm they had to be in the same place where they had separated, at the Animaniacs stand located on the second floor.

Yakko initially preferred to not do this, but the reality is that the rows of the buffet and the time it took to wait for meals used to be tediously long compared to the speed at which Wakko devoured them. Dot, for his part, was one of those who preferred to momentarily turn away from his brothers to go explore on his own; buying nonsense that would draw his attention, many of them, girls' things. Yakko, on the other hand, enjoyed walking around the other tables at the booth and talking to artists, vendors, screwing up security or even having a casual conversation with other well-known figures invited to the event like them. Together they had fun, but the reality is that they also had interests that differed from the rest and the time alone is healthy.

The only condition was to arrive on time to reunited and that Wakko and Dot had to wait at the set point holding yellow balloons so that Yakko could distinguish them from the crowd; just in case. The minors believed their brother was exaggerating more than the bill.

Honestly, after the information gathered in his brain in the reboot had become a little more paranoid about their well-being, saying that the world had become a much more sinister place with children, or perhaps now the terrible news was easily accessible. The trouble of knowing too much.

Yakko had given them a two-hour margin to go for a walk, eat and have fun; honestly there was no problem with that, the real problem was that there were so many people waiting for the same things as them. They could not transit normally and could not approach any store without being disturbed; they even knew that some of the children in disguise were impersonating them. This was not the way they hoped to spend their two hours of rest, so Dot and Wakko took out their VIP cards from special guests for easier and faster access, but there were always problems. In the end, they weren't helpful.

XXXXXXXX

"I'm telling you, I'm the real Wakko Warner! Don't you see this card around my neck!?"

"Nice fake card. Did you do it with your crayons, kid?" The man in the taco stand stood firm in his posture; I wasn't going to tolerate another little liar.

"Oh, yeah? Could a child do this?" He had reached his limit, now he laughs at fury. He reached a giant deck in his pocket space so he could stamp it against him, when suddenly something stopped him in the middle of the tug, he saw that it was Dot.

"What do you think you're doing!?" She ripped the mallet out of his brother's hands and kept it in his own pocket space. "Do you want Yakko to punish us?" She asked "Or worse... prove that we are unreliable and give you the reason." The latter seemed to calm the boy's inner fire.

"You don't understand! This place is so full that I can't get close to any position, they keep bothering me and everyone thinks I'm a kid in disguise like this idiot!" He pointed to his temporary enemy, the taco salesman, biting his index finger to replicate the well-known Italian gesture of revenge.

"Enough." The youngest silenced the whining and took him away, keeping his arm around his neck so that he could speak cautiously. "I understand you, the same thing happens to me. I thought it would be easier but the truth is no." She felt the bad mood grow inside it and could notice that the same thing was happening with Wakko; besides that he shouldn't spend much time without eating any food. With this in mind he took his hand and forced them to leave the place. They were on the run!

"What are you doing!? We can't leave the convention! Yakko would kill us!" The youngest slowed down a few feet later and turned, taking it by the shoulders.

"Listen. There's nothing we can do inside that bowl... giant of...humans. Ew!" She had tried not to be rude, but she couldn't. "You haven't eaten in hours, that's not good for your hypoglycemia, is it?" Wakko nodded, his tongue dangling and drooling with hunger. "Me neither. So, I thought we can just... get away and eat somewhere away from here. You and me! What are you saying?"

"Yakko is going to get angry"

"Yakko gave us two hours off... an hour and a half." Rectified when saw the watch. "And he didn't say anything about not leaving the building, he just said he was at the re-meeting point at six o'clock carrying two stupid yellow balloons."

The little Warner often shared the same talent for finding legal gaps in things just as her older brother did. Wakko on the other hand was an experienced professional in breaking the rules, so he was much more aware of the consequences of being discovered, if they were discovered. In any case, failure of the plan could blame Dot as the master mind, but if it were a success, it would be a secret between brothers.

"Deal? Hopefully we'll be here at six." Dot offered the hand.

"Deal!" A quick handshake closed the agreement and they ran streets down in search not only of food, but also for an eager sense of freedom.

XXXXXXX

The Warner's largest and most confident man honored that presentation, he didn't suspect at all that his brothers had left the building and that they were now somewhere remotely close by sharing some food; food they did not get in the midst of the human disaster; Yakko instead knew how to adapt.

Over time people dispersed to mechanical games, events, stage, the booth tables of other figures, to artists, singers, writing contests and costumes until they reached the third and last floor, where various workshops were held. It was as if they wanted to take advantage of every corner of the building, without considering the ability of regulatory people.

It was to be expected that the main entrance is surrounded by strategically placed food stalls so that people would be captivated not only by the smell, but also by being the first thing they see upon entering. The problem was that most people were concentrated in this sector while, in the north wing, there were the rooms responsible for the electricity and operation of each sector of the building; room he needed for his seniority.

Sooner anytime later, many of these details would correspond in part to the formula of the disaster.

Yakko had spent almost the last two hours in relative tranquility, strolling here and there, talking to those next to him in some row of food, after all, waiting did not turn out to be more trouble for him compared to his younger brothers. What if it was strange from his point of view was not to have crossed paths with any of them at all that time. He assumed Dot would be higher floors; so perhaps Wakko would be close to this food sector.

Unconsciously he sought black ears with a red cap from the crowd; just to remember why he had stopped doing it in the first place, many of the children here had those characteristics. He thought this was a good thing because the show was succeeding and he wouldn't have to worry about money in a long time, after all, the second season was being recorded and they hadn't lost the magic of liking people despite criticism.

He liked the feeling of calm and joy that fan love brought her (when they weren't crazy and had to run for their lives) and felt better when he remembered that some of the people interested in his show were very beautiful young women who literally died to meet him and his siblings. Although well, of course, this last point learned to leave it a little less evident over the years as many of the subjects that had been comedy-based on his previous show would now be questionable at the very least.

He was distracted, even surprised by the time he had spent thinking about these trivia while drinking an iced tea he hated, because he wanted from the beginning a cold cappuccino he didn't get. Suddenly, the iPhone alarm started ringing, dialing 5:55 p.m. Soon had to meet his brothers on the second floor to begin a round of interviews with some of the media present.

He walked up the escalators and patiently wait to reach the destination as he gave a quick view of the panorama; everything seemed calm within the normality of an event of this magnitude. Screams, laughs and bustle mixed with the mechanical sounds of games and music, accompanied by the sound of cutlery rubbing the dishes of nearby restaurants.

He was going to give another sip to the cappuccino replacement he held in his hand when the escalators braked abruptly, causing everyone to hold on to each other or the railing, wondering what was going on. Soon this initial little surprise only increased when the lights throughout the building began flashing, returning for a few moments until finally, they left completely. Darkness.

The sound of machines, games and so on had stopped, only confused or frightened voices predominated. Was the light gone all over the place? That could happen, Yakko thought. They only had to wait for the backup engines to turn on and-

"FIRE, FIRE!"

A desperate man screaming that silenced all other voices; all the attention was now on him and on the group of people who followed him behind, running around. Many of those present seemed disbeliever at the warnings, saw no fire approaching, there was not even a smell of smoke.

The darkness enveloped them almost completely and gradually everyone's eyes there began to get used to the darkness, some using the lanterns on their cell phones to focus on the one who announced the fire, demanding an explanation.

"The building's electric room overheated! It's in complete flames! They must leave before they-

FKOOOOM!

The most thunderous explosion he had ever heard was present and pushed away from the road any person or object on his way, throwing many vulnerable people metres away from where they were.

Yakko first felt the blow of the shockwave that caused him to fall four steps down with other people, one on top of the other on a mound of pain and confusion, his drink had fallen with him, but he did not regret it, had other things to worry about. The explosion not only almost bursts his eardrums, but was accompanied by the feeling of not being able to hear anything, a silence that became a very annoying beep inside his head; feeling dazed.

He tried to stand up and focused his energy on trying to distinguish something between darkness while recovering from the unexpected impact, it looked like an explosion; felt like one. He carefully lowered the remaining steps that returned him to the ground floor and noticed a change in lighting, something lit up from afar with an orange hue.

Soon his eyes as well as his ears began to function again and he saw the horror.

One of the rooms closed to the public had just exploded, the electric room, taking one of the walls that held the fire contained in there, allowing it to make its way over everything else, taking with it cables that made short circuits, exploding over their heads, burning the containment cables of many lights, ornaments and lamps that fell from several meters high.

It was like a dreadful monster that you can see how to be fast approaching you, destroying everything in its path.

This situation sparked absolute panic, but in Yakko awoke a kind of inner strength that only acted by two people, repeating their names on their heads in the form of a loop.

Dot! Wakko!

Chapter Text

Things had climbed very fast in just a matter of minutes, almost lasting a song between the time he climbed that ladder up to this point, desperately climbing for it, Yakko had jumped over all the people who were now desperately looking to get down and run towards the exit; certainly he was much closer to that exit, but he HAD to go to where his brothers were and get them out immediately from there. It was like trying to swim against the current.

"WAKKO! DOT!" He called them as he went down steps up. A fight between the feeling of escaping to survive, against him of protecting him feeling like an older brother. "SIBS!" He had reached the top, but he couldn't see them, the disaster from collective panic was too much.

He finally arrived at the Animaniacs stand, where his brothers were supposed to be waiting for him. He desperately searched for yellow balloons, but there was nothing in sight, only adults and children escaping in all directions. He couldn't find them, all that was left was screaming.

"Dot! Wakko! Here I am!" He announced, hoping that being the highest, they would see him. He checked below the tables of all stands, throwing tablecloths to the ground in the hope that they might be hiding under the table, as they used to at major events. Kept calling them; he could feel his throat breaking as the desperation grew not to find them anywhere, as well as because of the dense environment that was beginning to form in the air; it was like a fog, but it was smoke. He had to hurry.

Yakko quickly began to list in his mind the possible places, events, flats and options where two mischievous, outrageous and destructive beings such as Wakko and Dot could be found. They could be anywhere!

He allowed himself to be naive and think that perhaps they were both waiting for him outside; after all, they were not wonders of punctuality or obeying, so it was possible that they both escaped when they heard the explosion or saw the fire approach.

Although it could also be that they have decided, for once in their lives, to listen to him and to be still on this damn floor waiting for him to escape together; that was also a probability.

Another much more sinister probability was that they would have been near the electric room at the time of the explosion and were injured, or have not survived the impact.

He shake his head hard, moving those nefarious thoughts away from his mind; couldn't afford to panic when needed to find them. His legs had never stopped running. He ran around the whole floor, bumping into some of the people who were there; many of them descended from the third floor to run towards the exit. Some did not understand how he was still running there in the opposite direction screaming, when he should be busy saving his life; others understood it perfectly because they also ensured the safety of a loved one there.

The minutes passed and he began to notice the first signs of suffocation, it became increasingly difficult to keep running, keep screaming or even see in the middle of the smoke. The air was running out fast and the little could inhale was an increasingly dense smoke that made it cough, running didn't help either.

He realized that his bare legs began to hurt from running on a ground that gradually warmed because of the burning flames that grew below; the ground would collapse sooner or later; while the top floor would be a closed chamber of black smoke. It is well known that smoke usually climbs to the highest places before contaminating an entire room. Yakko was in the middle of two terrible options, running in circles, looking for some clue from his brothers. He asked heaven for them, for he could not raise his voice much more.

It was then that he was lucky and heard small steps running up the stairs. He could only make use of his ear and his little vision, the smoke made his eyes burn. Two kids running.

"Dot? Wakko?" He sharpened his already battered ear and came to distinguish the word stairs coming from the mouth of one of them, accompanied by somewhat clumsy steps. He ran towards them, waiting with every hair of all his fur for them.

Once nearby he distinguished two small figures that were extremely similar to his brothers and, moreover, carrying a yellow balloon that appeared to be attached to Wakko's wrist. He didn't need any more signal than that, found them.

"SIBLINGS! DOT, WAKKO! OVER HERE!" He yelled at them by raising his hand, but they didn't seem to listen and he had not been able to raise his voice much either. That effort had cost him coughing.

Unfortunately, what separated him from his siblings was the huge line, similar to a river of very distressed people who wanted to descend down the stairs; even if the three brothers were screaming to communicate they could not, the scandal was too much around them. The eldest wanted to stretch out his arms with his toon ability to reach them, but he couldn't get there, people kept crossing paths. He looked for a better path, surrounding the crowd, but then noticed a change of direction from people. Were they coming up?

Yakko came to take a look and understood what was going on, the metal on the stairs had become extremely hot and now the flames went up the railing, step by step; closing the escape route. He turned to other stairs, but these were made of glass and it was one of the first materials to give in to the heat, it was destroyed. The elevator of course was not an option, without power was practically useless and dangerous.

There was no way out possible.

He returned to Wakko and Dot, even though there was a human barrier between the three. It was barely visible thanks to the blackout and smoke in the air, but he caught a view of how the little ones tried to get into the flow of people and escape downstairs, but they found only kicks, punches and footsteps on their bodies; they were small, so it meant a problem for others to be able to see them. Besides, if they had tried to come down, they would have come face to face with the fire. Still, trying to get them to take blows.

Yakko could only see the scene from the other side in horror and despair, he wanted to nail his sharp teeth in whoever set foot on his siblings, but he would be wasting time and energy on that. The world was falling apart on them and he was just watching them suffer from afar while running out of clean air to breathe.

Dot began to kneel slowly, as if she were drowning and was followed by Wakko, almost as if copying the same posture, putting his hands on the smaller one to start moving it when it fell to the ground and stopped moving.

"NO! DOTTIE!"

He didn't have time to think in a better way, he simply threw himself over the crowd as a rock star would with his audience and let himself be dragged, almost in shock, to the other side. He was surprised that even now that he had them nearby and could touch them, he could see absolutely nothing; the fire was absolute and he didn't forgive, could feel the heat of the almost molten metal and the burning cracks of the ground opening beneath his feet, but still saw nothing but a black stage. Be guided only by horrible sensations. He stayed with less time, but at least now he had his siblings, who had just been knocked unconscious by shortness of air.

He lifted them off the ground carefully, cradled them in his arms for a brief moment of relief; then using his right arm to carry Dot like a baby and with the remaining arm held Wakko. He just wanted to hug them, hold their faces close to rub their noses fondly and never let them go again; but reality didn't give him a second. He had to devise a plan to get to the entrance without getting too burned, but protecting his sibs in the process.

Usually he was the one who found quick escape routes in danger situations, but he was already very tired, had expired a lot of energy looking for them and felt the pads on his paws burn as much on the floor as if they were attached to the ground... or it was simply the panic that wouldn't let him move.

The sudden sound of a balloon exploding near him was the trigger that put him on alert again, separating his feet from the ground thanks to the small jump he gave from the scare. This was enough to bring him back, as if he suddenly knew what to do.

He went back a few meters and lined up with the stairs now on fire. He took a breath of toxic air and was filled with absolute determination. It was now or never.

He ran that distance and once he reached the first step of that electric ladder he used his toon skills to make a big leap, once in the air he hugged his brothers as close as he could to him and formed a protective sphere with his body, turning all the consistency of his body into a kind of rubber that bounced when he touched the burning ground of the ground floor , being ejected directly to the exit.

Once he escaped from that sweltering prison, fell unconscious a few feet from the main entrance, couldn't remember if he had felt relief as he left; many parts of his body were compromised by the jump, and his tired lungs.

XXXXXXX

Yakko felt lying on his back on a warm, very rigid surface was asphalt.

He could not open his eyes immediately, his ears were the first to react to what was going on around him. The distant cries reminded him that something very bad had just happened, the sound of the sirens of the fire truck reminded him of the cause; fire. Gradually he awoke from his rest; becoming aware of everything that had happened little by little, feeling how he awoke every sore part of his body, alerting him to his poor condition. He moved his fingers as he opened his eyes slowly, as if proving that all motor skills in him were still working, and then he felt it.

His hands were empty.

"...!" He wanted to pronounce the names of his siblings, but his throat was battered, so he had to strive to speak. His mouth was dry. "Dot..." He sat down suddenly, desperately moving his hand on the ground in search of his sister. "Wakko!" He turned in the opposite direction and did the same, this time with more despair, coming to want to dig into the concrete. "WHERE ARE YOU!?" He started screaming as he stood again in the unstable way, turning on himself a couple of times with a somewhat cloudy sight. He didn't know how long he'd passed out, but had to put things in place. When his vision improved, he could see them.

They were a few yards from him; wanted to run, but soon fell to the ground, crawling the remaining stretch towards them; once there he lifted them up to hug them. They were safe, they were out of that hellhole, he had taken them out of there.

"All right, we're out... It's over." He said, laughing a little between his teeth. Relieved. "You guys are fine, you're fine..." He repeated over and over again, as if it were more of a reassuring phrase for himself rather than for them. Yakko felt like he could breathe again. Both little ones were beginning to complain and sob a little against their chests, surely they would be dazed and sore. If they were not killed by the suffocating smoke in that safe place, that embrace would do it; separated them and closely inspected their faces to verify that they were well.

They weren't.

Those were children in full-body costumes.

They weren't his siblings.

He was petrified. It was as if he had been frozen in time and his breath had been taken away, as if his blood had simply frozen. He was wrong. The fear he had been rising throughout the event ended up being realized in the cruellest way possible, almost as a joke.

"You-you don't... they're not... t-them, no..." He murmured almost inaudibly, as if struggling to move or breathe again. I was processing him so slowly that it scared him. "If you are not...then... them... are in..." He turned his head in slow motion towards the huge building in front of him which was now much more consumed by the flames than before. It looked like the entrance to hell.

It was atrocious heat in the place, but it still felt as if a bucket of ice water had been thrown at it.

His siblings were still in there.

"... no..." He shook his head, his eyes still nailed to the incendiary structure in front of him, leaving on the ground the stunned children he had so protected, dissenting from them since, anyway, someone would take care of them and they were alive. They both kept fainting anyway.

However, the fact that they are alive implies that a terrible coincidence had been forming between him and these children, a misunderstanding, a confusion; of the worst I had ever experienced. The shock of knowing that he had abandoned his brothers inside that tower of fire was something he couldn't deal with.

Yakko never liked mistakes, he was a little terrified; even caused him nightmares from time to time. He could make a mistake in the lyrics of a song, he could forget some country in his song from the countries of the world or make a mistake on the recording set. But getting the wrong kids was something that was totally off limits, it froze his heart to be so stupid.

"No... nonono... it can't be..." He took his hands to his head just thinking about it, stretching out his own fur to imagine that they would now be dead because of him. His legs were shaking so bad.

Their fear of making mistakes, along with their fear of losing them had come together, had come true. He couldn't even tell them apart! What kind of brother doesn't distinguish his own siblings? How could he be wrong like that?! He knew his fur, his weight, his voices, his scent, the exact shape of everything that makes them up. How come he didn't notice any of this?! Not only was he the worst brother in the world, he was his killer.

He doesn't know what thought was more destructive, but couldn't waste time choosing one, he had to do something, whatever, fast and now.

He ran to the entrance, but one of the firefighters at the site held him with one arm, trying to hold him as strongly as he could.

"What are you doing?! You can't come in! Go away!" The fireman said.

"MY SIBLINGS ARE IN THERE! I HAVE TO GET THEM OUT!" Yakko fought against man, increasing his strength as his hatred of the human who prevented him from entering increased. "MOVE!" Warned, showing his fangs like a furious animal. The man ignored his request; Yakko bit him in response.

He entered as he could to that place with the idea of continuing to search for Wakko and Dot, debris by debris; it was evident that his mind was not working properly; was rather guided by despair. He was running deeper and deeper, with more heat; but in the middle of his career he stumbled upon something that caused him to fall to the ground; as he turned he saw that it was a calcinating leg. He walked away utterly frightened between dragging and drowning, it didn't take him two seconds to get back on his feet, getting the picture that would be the engine of his future nightmares from now on.

The ground that was once white and bright, was now covered with burning bodies. Among the lost lives were many children who resembled their siblings. He caught a look at a little Dot being consumed by flames and a few feet from it, a Wakko under a huge roof lamp that had fallen on it, crushing it.

Yakko rubbed his eyes to dissipate the heat and also try to erase the scene in front of him, he did not want to see it; but as hard as he rubbed he could not remove the images of the cornea, they had been engraved on fire in his mind. They were too horrible, he couldn't face this scenario, he just couldn't. To think that one of them could be his true siblings clouded his judgment, he couldn't think, he couldn't act, he couldn't speak. He was standing in the flames feeling a fear inside him growing up that he had never experienced, a growing panic attack that was ending all his emotional and mental faculties.

The Warner had emotional breakdowns before, moments of anguish; but nothing compared to seeing small versions of your dead baby brothers on the floor. His heart suffered a tachycardia so strong that he felt it explode inside his chest, even his lungs required more air to hyperventilate, but it was something he couldn't give them; began to feel dizzy and moved erratically around the place, very close to danger covering his face with his hands. He's losing it.

"Argh!" Put his hand to his head in front of a pain reaction. One of the flames had reached her right ear and consumed her completely, almost as if she had melted it in a matter of seconds. "What...?" He passed his hand through the sore sector and noticed that he had lost his ear, also seeing the ink remains on his white glove, the smell was particularly strong, it was the smell of ink burning.

Start wondered if that was the smell he should start tracking. The deceased by his side were only considering that he was not looking for living children, but should look for bodies, or even worse, signs of ink burned on the ground that could make sense of his search.

Would this be the smell of a toon dying from fire? Were his little brothers really just this? Burnt ink?

Yakko felt the first tears form before the idea, but he quickly removed them because they were unexpectedly very hot, it hurts. He couldn't cope with that kind of scenario.

It was so much pain to think about this possibility that he was simply considering surrendering, letting himself be consumed by the flames. It would be at least a kind thing on his part not to leave a horrible charred body behind it that causes nightmares for some rescuer or policeman. It would just disappear like ink evaporating in the air. How bad could that be? How long would he have to wait for it to happen? He could feel the closeness of the flames near his fur; maybe if I waited a little longer there; end all the blame; feeling better.

A jolt of shoulders pulled Yakko out of his thoughts, but still failed to return at all, his mind still tried to ramble. He could hear someone saying things he don't understand. felt that he had lost all ability to feel or listen. He had only made the decision to die there and found it very rude for someone to come and interrupt him.

It was a rescue firefighter inside a special suit that did not hesitate and took it by the arm to pull it out, noticing the ink running between his fingers of the suit, but still pulling it down a safe path that led to the exit. It was only halfway that young Warner managed to get out of his trance to make some protests, began as whispers, but soon turned into screams and pulls, blows and insults, but none of that worked; all that remained was to beg.

"Nono, please... please wait!" His poor feet were trying to brake while dragging him out. "My... my siblings..." He tried to say with a lump in his throat. "They... t-them... they need me" He wasn't sure about that, he didn't know anything about the little ones. Chances are they were dead because of their incompetence; that thought took away his strength to get rid of the rescuer's grip. "I can't leave them...I can't, I don't want to... I let me...go with them" He begged in the midst of tears, almost like a request that he let him die there in peace.

The rescuer couldn't hear much of what the toon was demanding, he could only notice that he looked desperate, didn't seem to want to leave, but despite the struggle he decided to ignore his cries; his priority was to get him out of there alive. However, for Yakko, get out of there without his living siblings meant that he had to finally accept that Dot and Wakko would be dead and that he had lost valuable minutes saving two strangers because he had confused them, he had made a mistake.

He was now out of the building once more and again, alone. The only difference was that this time he was consent enough to feel the weight of the world, the solar system and all the galaxies of the universe falling on his shoulders; it was literal.

He blinked a couple of times to ease the burning in his eyes because of the fire and tears, he needed them to be able to see in the crowd. Seeing so many people outside made a dim light of hope shine in him to see them out.

They weren't.

He fell on his knees and palms of his hands, hurting them in the process. Some very small black drops rolled over his head from where his ear used to be and fell to the ground. His full body trembled with his eyes nailed to the dark concrete in front of him, thinking how fragile the composition of a toon turned out to be. A single flame had been lacking to destroy his ear, and would probably have spread over the rest of his head unless he covered the fire with his hand quickly.

Could that happen to his siblings too? Was it that easy to get rid of them in the end?

He could feel the trauma of fire forming inside his brain, something he had not previously feared; now he was terrified. In the future he wouldn't let Wakko or Dot use the kitchen knowing how dangerous it was.

"..." He looked up as in an attempt to understand himself and his inability to face reality. There wouldbe no "future" or next time. He had lost them forever and the punishment was to live with the guilt.

There was no more life from here for him.

No more Animaniacs.

Chapter Text

"Do you feel better, Wakko?" Little Dot asked as she retouched her fur's makeup, waiting for her older brother to finish eating.

"Yes!" Nodded with his tongue dangling, happy.

Both brothers had entered a pizzeria renowned for offering many flavors; though what motivated them to enter was the scent that gave off the site. Hungry stomachs boosted their noses.

Dot had enjoyed his own pizza alone and now only expected Wakko to finish the last two remaining pizzas of the fifteen he had initially ordered. Within that time span they took the opportunity to have a casual conversation, only between the two of them; something that didn't happen often. They had touched on various topics and even ceded the day with nonsense that was not discussed in everyday life. It was fun and felt even nostalgic for both brothers.

It might sound a little cruel, but they were satisfied with their escape. Leaving the event center without telling Yakko was the fundamental piece of the plan. They could have met him to tell him, to call him on the phone, to send him a message, that is, they could send even smoke signals if they wanted to, but that was never the intention. They wanted to leave voluntarily without Yakko knowing because if they had told him or asked, they knew that the eldest would have said no; they could not leave and that it would be dangerous, that they had no need to go to eat somewhere else, that they should stay close to him all the time.

To tell you the truth, they were a little annoyed at Yakko's overprotective attitude toward them; they weren't sure that so much information he had collected in his brain after eating that tablet, or what kind of information it was; but the thing is, it had made it a constant nerve ball.

One thing is the Yakko that people watched on television; but they knew the real Yakko, who cares about his siblings and who is the head of the herd, the leader of the group, as close to the father figure as they could both have. And as always happens, there are times when you just want to take a break from the parents; in this case, from the older brother.

They felt they weren't doing anything wrong, technically their deception didn't hurt anyone. They would go to lunch with the freedom that Yakko offered them; he would think that all this time they were at the event and would return at 6:00 pm to meet him where they had agreed. They enjoyed their little walk and the other one didn't suffer. Eyes that don't see, heart that doesn't feel.

Little did they know what was brewing there, the nightmare his brother was dealing with right now, the lives they were missing for every minute they spent in that big-city pizzeria. There was certainly a lot of noise on the streets, which you could find in any trade in that place, but it was especially outrageous.

It was 6:10 p.m. when Wakko ended the remaining pizzas, wanting to say something, but having to wait for a fire truck to pass in front of the pizzeria in order to talk.

"Would it be wrong if we go for ice cream?" He asked, almost without giving food time to reach his stomach.

"Wakko" Dot's gaze was unexpressed, changing to tired. "How do you eat so much?"

"How do you make to be so cute?"

"...touché"

They shared a few little accomplice laughs that were soon silenced again by the sound of other fire sirens, they could hear them even from somewhere not far away. In any case, Wakko's mass burp distracted them from that and now a fight began about taking care of manners again, knowing that it made no sense since, as always, Wakko had been written that way, it was his essence.

Dot checked the time on her phone, confident. She freaked out when she noticed it had been several minutes since 6:00 p.m. Yakko was going to kill them! All the fur of his body hedgehog at such a discovery, she could not believe that they had neglected time so much, but then, in the midst of the feeling of panic, she realized something. Yakko hadn't called them?

She checked his message and call box, empty. There were no missed calls from Yakko.

Something was wrong.

She knew his older brother; he would have called them both a minute after he hadn't found them. Wakko, for his part, seemed to have had the same kind of reaction when he saw the time on his phone; was one of those who used to be late for everything, even to react. Their bestized hairs were evident and they both knew the cause, but before the youngest Warners' managed to expose their bewilderment, a group of young men among girls and boys pushed the glass door of the place hard; not only can they break it, but they also almost hit Dot. Wakko held his sister by the shoulders to prevent her from falling while nailing as a stake a furious look at the youth.

"THE CONVENTION CENTER IS ON FIRE!" The first boy to enter shouted, feeling the urgency of other people's reaction.

"What!?" Wakko's angry face suddenly softened, going from annoyance to doubt.

"What are you talking about?" Dot followed, just as incredulous of the unlikely of that, but beginning to be spassed by chance.

"The Convention Center!" A girl answered "Something exploded, that's what they say, no... I don't know very well. But it's on fire! The whole place is on fire!"

People inside the site looked at each other in silence, still keeping their suspicions.

"Didn't you hear the firefighters?!" The boy became impatient with everyone present, pointing directly into the street. He was right, the detail of the fire trucks partly corroborated his story. Enough for everyone to start getting out of their seats.

Both brothers looked each other, detecting fear in each other's eyes as an almost telepathic language. They rotated at the same time on the wall clock, marking 6:15 pm.

Not only weren't they there. Yakko, if he was and worse, it had been fifteen minutes and he hadn't communicated with them, so something happened to him.

They pushed the group of teenagers to pass and did the same to anyone who crossed their path. They had ten streets to run down to reach, which they cursed mentally as every street they ran by felt like a mile, they felt the classic feeling in stressful situations of never reaching the destination, where until time seemed to pass more slowly.

Both were dialing Yakko's number as they ran in the direction of the convention center, increasing the growing panic in them as they saw that he was not answering his calls, little did they know that his brother's phone had fallen at the time of the explosion and that every call would take them to the mailbox.

The huge ball of black smoke grew in the sky, it could be seen from afar, but it was about the remaining five streets that began to notice the crowding of people around, some running to the place as they did, with the difference that the brothers had much more urgency.

Once there, they had to go through the team of firefighters, police, ambulances and security that kept everyone out of danger; they couldn't enter under any circumstances, but it's nothing they couldn't solve with a deck and a run through the parking lot; nothing and no one was going to stop them or stop them from meeting with their brother.

When they found time to catch their breath and sure they had been clueless, they noticed how dark everything was under this black and gray sky; it was as if the whole place had been covered under a black umbrella that threatened to unleash the most terrible storm upon them. Even some burnt black particles floated in the air next to small orange sparks that soon lost their light. It almost looked like a black snow gently falling on the shoulders and heads of all the people screaming in horror.

Wakko felt the urge to take Dot's hand hard, which caught the child's attention, seeing him as a stranger, but without taking his hand away.

The next one on the Warners' line couldn't take his eyes off the second floor of the building, now with the windows broken, seeing only intense flames come out there; he was sure there was no soul that survived while in that place.

Not even a toon.

His grabbing grew stronger and trembed over his sister's hand. As if he suddenly felt the fear of losing her, something might happen to her. To think that Yakko probably wasn't safe or even alive paralyzed his heart, strained his nerves. He could not let anything happen with Dot, the feeling of big brother protecting the little one took hold of him and he understood now better than ever what Yakko often felt about them, but in his case it was twice as much.

Knowing Yakko, he was sure that if he had been there at the time of the accident, he wouldn't have stopped until he found them. How far would he have gone? How long would he have waited for them?

"We weren't here when it happened..." said Wakko at last, slowly lowering his head and sticking his eyes on the ground, feeling the guilt. "Yakko could have looked for us and we weren't here."

Dot understood what he meant. He could have wasted time looking for them, he could have spent the last moments of his life running and shouting their names when they were so calm eating pizza. He could have died because of his irresponsibility, she knew his older brother wouldn't leave the place if he wasn't with them by his side.

Or it could be that they were just letting themselves be consumed by fear and weren't thinking clearly.

"Come on." Dot nerves were the first to calm down and take the initiative, pulling Wakko's hand as she entered among the people. After all, the parking lot was not far from the main entrance.

They decided to look for signs of Yakko in the crowd, even risking seeing people with very serious injuries who only aroused their fear of finding him in that state or worse, among the deceased. They without shouting their name as much as possible, as loud as their lungs allow; to the point where the meaning of the name lost meaning.

This was like the effect that happens on the brain when you repeat the same word so many times that it starts to distort and completely loses its meaning; the same was the same with his quest; over time seemed to have no point, they could not find him anywhere. They began to despair and their calls soon minged with weeping and tiredness.

They came back on their steps, the number of people had dissipated and maybe they could see something new, new clues to follow, and so they did, they saw it.

"YAKKO!" Both brothers yelled at the same time, running towards him almost in need.

Sitting silently with his hands between his legs, he seemed to look at the top of the building or perhaps the sky, but his eyes looked empty; was the look of someone who had lost everything in the fire. Incredibly heavy tears came down all over his face non-stop, his fur was soaked. In fact, his condition was deplorable; anyone could say that he was one of the many victims who had seen the horrors of that tragedy, that he had fought melee with the flames and that, despite having survived, the fire had taken his soul completely. He seemed to be in a state of silent shock.

But despite all this, there it was.

He had lost notion of how long he was in that posture, he only remembered sloping on the ground after being rescued and weeping, crying a lot, desperately as long as he could dump all his horrible thoughts and sadness in tears to feel better; but it wasn't. He didn't feel any better. There came a point where I didn't even feel any more anguish or pain. those were stages that had already passed in the last half hour. He simply did not remember at what point he assumed the idea that he was alone and that he had lost his brothers.

They had ripped out his heart and life, there was no engine inside him. He breathed out of sheer inertia.

The only thing that brought him back into the real world were calls he had recognized and that caused him to turn slowly, almost afraid to misunderstand everything he heard again; that's what made him wrong in the first place. But this time it was different, he was able to perfectly distinguish Wakko by running on all fours towards him to gain more speed, followed by Dot.

It was like a dream. Was he hallucinating? Were they real? Weren't they kids in disguise? It felt real.

He felt legitimately real when, when he stood up, they both stamped themselves on his legs in a hug that almost threw him to the ground. Little Warners sobbed heavily and seemed to want to crawl through the Yakko's trousers to reach his chest, his face, whatever; hugging only his legs was not enough. The need to be close to Yakko hurt.

"Yakko... hic... Yakko, Yakko..." Dot drowned in his own words, did not know what else to do to feel him closer to her after experiencing this scare. Wakko was in the same state as her, but was the first to make much more accurate eye contact. He pulled the major's arm so he could bend down to his height so he could hug him by the neck.

That close contact they had showed wordlessly everything their brother had been through. The smell of burnt hair and ink, sweat, smoke, soot and Yakko's own particular aroma was permeated under his nose; the latter was almost reassuring for both; but this mixture of sensations showed that Yakko had suffered greatly; still had some scorched-haired locks and was shaking. Never before has Yakko been in such a deplorable physical and mental state, it hurt only to see him and the fact that he didn't say a word, he was terrified.

"What happened to your ear?" Wakko asked, delicately passing his hand through his brother's lost ear, noticing the ink on his glove, which alerted him. "Are you all right?" His tone was protective, as if the papers were reversed.

"..." Yakko silently cradled both between his legs as he sat down, needed him. He saw them with disbelief and pain for long seconds in silence. He passed his hands through their faces and stroked them carefully, analyzing them closely. "... you're fine." He finally said by laying his head as confirmation and noticing how there were no traces of smoke, burns, blows, fire, ink or burnt clothing, nothing. They were in perfect condition, they were just scared.

Much larger, heavier tears began to form under his eyes; he previously felt that he had run out of emotions, but that approaching cry helped him completely break and let himself be carried away by the wave of happiness and relief that invaded him. It really was them.

He was overflowing with emotions that infected his brothers who began to cry next to him as his hands awkwardly passed through his eyes, in an attempt to make him feel better and dry his tears. They still didn't know if he was crying because he felt some physical pain or was just relieved to see them, they didn't know how bad their condition was, but at least she looked happy.

"You'are so cute... both..." Yakko murmured a drowned cry. Seeing his faces up close, even seeing them cry seemed to him the most beautiful sight he had ever seen; felt that he should tell them before clinging to him in a hug; that hug that he hadn't been able to reciprocte before because of the shock. He would sing from back to front to seek comfort as he held them like two little babies crying beside him. "Thank you so much... thank you, thank you, thank you..." It was repeated aloud, looking at the completely dark sky that hovered over them.

He wasn't sure what to believe, he didn't have very strong beliefs, but whatever he acted that day, he had returned him to his brothers without a single scratch.

He handed out kisses over their heads after thanking heaven; kissed his cheeks and even his ears with a crushing affection. Wakko and Dot always felt loved by Yakko, but now more than ever they felt that brotherly love. Several minutes passed in silence hugged until Yakko was able to calm down enough to be able to give an explanation.

"I looked everywhere for you guys..." He said, holding their faces and passing their fingers stained with black ink and soot through the eyes of their brethren, wanting to dry their tears; though that gesture stained their fur and now they looked like pandas. "I... I took two children dressed like you out of the fire." He confessed, feeling terrible. "I couldn't recognize my own little siblings" He stroked their heads as he spoke, as if seeking his forgiveness. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..."

"It's all right, shh" Dot calmed him down before he started to get distressed again. "We're fine." She wasn't sure to confessed that they hadn't been there when the disaster broke out, as she didn't know what reaction can have. She didn't want to upset him anymore.

"You're a hero! You saved two kids, Yakko." Wakko said, seeking to distract him from guilt.

"But I did it thinking it was you." He hastened to say, highlighting the fact that he is not sure he would do that for anyone; just for them and because he got confused. What's more, I hadn't thought about those kids until now.

"But they are alive because of you, no matter the reasons." Dot followed.

"The end justifies the means; or so they say" Wakko added.

"That phrase has nothing to do with this" The child looked at him, squinting at the dubiousness of implementing that phrase in this context.

"He's my brother and I tell him what I want to make him feel better"

Yakko let out a slight laugh between his teeth. Laughing, something he thought he'd never do again. He hugged them again, signaling that they would leave the conflict behind and focus on this moment they were sharing. They reciprocated.

Sooner or later, Yakko's body began notifying him of all the sectors that had been damaged. The adrenaline along with the nerves had dropped and now he could afford to begin to feel the consequences of his actions, they were painful. The pads on his paws were burned so it hurt to walk, his ear consumed by fire was the most painful thing; the rest were muscle aches mixed with bruises spread over his knees, head, arms and back, a product of the jump he had executed before. In conclusion, his whole body was sore as hell and worsened every minute.

He managed to stand with the help of his brothers, whom he now held hands, seeing the incendiary disaster in front of them now as a setting of others. They weren't terrified anymore, because they were together. However, they remained silent in front of the place for a few minutes, assimilating not only the terrible tragedy that had just happened, but also paying their respects to all the people who had not left there alive, including those now fighting in nearby hospitals. They knew that over the next few days all the newspapers and news channels would be talking about this tragedy.

Both Wakko and Dot could feel as Yakko squeezed his hands tightly, both for wanting to keep them there with him, as well as remembering the horror he had experienced, and the terrible things he had done. Push and beat some people as they entered the stairs, biting a firefighter, the people he had crushed to reach his fake brothers.

The feeling of wanting to destroy anyone who stands between him and his brothers. He noticed how he had lost some of his humanity that day, to tell him in some way as he was not technically human; but at least he was aware of his true nature, the things he was able to do at critical times. Again, part of his innocence went away, and he wasn't the only one who had noticed, Wakko and Dot also saw something die inside him, and they felt his fear.

He sighed heavily, feeling the sulfur flavor in his mouth still.

"Come on, sibs" he finally said, taking small, slow steps dragged towards the exit. He just wanted to get out of there and never come back; even if the place fell apart it preferred not to be even close to the property.

"Do you need anything, Yakko?" Dot asked. Thinking maybe she should call a doctor.

"Yes, I need two things. First, heal my wounds..." He said by raising a finger. "Second... I need you to tell me if my theory that they were away from here eating pizza is correct."

Both slowed down, destabilizing Yakko a little. There was his answer.

"Ho-how did..." Dot couldn't believe it. "How is it that...how...did you know that?"

"The smell of pizza, the fact that they do not have a scratch." He started talking more animatedly. "You can hear well, so I deduce that the explosion didn't hurt your ears, so you'd be away from here when it happened. And the only pizzeria that offers the amount of pizza Wakko eats is ten blocks from here. That explains why they don't know what happened and why they were late."

Silence was present long enough for it to become uncomfortable.

"Soooo..." Wakko was the first to speak. "You almost died, you suffer a mental breakdown, you can't walk, your brain is roasted, your lungs are full of ash..."

"And he lost an ear" Dot added.

"AND STILL... can you draw all those conclusions in your head? How?"

It took him a while to respond, even if it doesn't seem, to recount all these assumptions of probable events and scenarios were more of a relief to him. He's never been so glad he's been disobeyed. He really began to think that, if they had listened to him, the scenario would have been very different. Disobeying him had saved their lives.

Wakko and Dot knew that too. Yakko might be upset because they broke the rules, but he might also be happy that they're both not dead; they knew the strongest would be the latter so they weren't afraid to confirm their assumptions because they knew they wouldn't be in trouble, after this, he wouldn't have enough energy to yell at them or punish them.

He knew this would be a future weapon and card up his brothers' sleeve in future power fights when they want to skip some rules again. Thinking about it hurt more than the wounds, as well as the guilt of his mistake too.

"Heh... I guess in the end, if I know my siblings very well. Right?" He finally smiled.

This nefarious day had taken all his latent fears and brought him to the extreme, on the edge of the abyss. Wrong, not finding his little siblings, not recognizing them, losing them, watching them die, not being able to help them, everything. He had experienced each of the sensations too strongly, they had been feelings of hopelessness, panic, fear, anger, anguish and despair very marked in his heart, it ached. And that final smile proved it; the middle brother knew it was a smile with sad tints.

Yakko told a lie, for now he was unsure of his abilities as a guardian; of all the emotions he had felt, there was only guilt left. And while his deductions proved chillingly accurate, he knew it wouldn't be easy to return to the normal, quiet days leading up to this event.

Something had broken inside him that day.