Chapter Text
The girl was getting pretty tired of the claps. running around the zones, she was constantly chased by BLI and their stupid little troops, and the very tiring cycle of run-fight-win-hide was getting on her last nerve. This one was the exact same as all the last ones, every single clap beginning to feel the same after 3 long years. Every damn drac looked the same, shooting the same, splattering and decaying on the desert sand in the same way. All clad in white, masked, and gloved, acting as no more than moving targets to her.
This batch seemed to follow the pattern. Seemed to - but not completely, the whole group was the exact same except one. They all acted the way she’d come to expect by now, except one. This one… it didn’t move like the rest of them. Didn’t shoot like them, didn’t have the same weird march as them, and it was also significantly shorter than the rest of them. It was… familiar.
Too familiar.
And then she figured it out. When its glove slipped, revealing the beautifully tattooed hand she knew so well, she had to hold back tears. It can’t be… can it? Her beloved Ghoul, alive but drac’d, stood before her. He was real, real and alive, and just that fact was enough to awake something in her she didn’t have in so long - hope.
While she kept knocking down the rest of the dracs around her, one thought became sharp and clear in her mind - she could get him back, she had to. And if she could get Ghoulie back, she could get all of them back - and she will, or she’ll die trying.
The girl moved towards him, trying to shoot him someplace that won’t kill him, maiming him low in his left leg with her blaster. For the first time ever, she felt bad for hurting a drac, but she had to shove that guilt back down where it came from to get this right. Her hand held Ghoul’s, twisting it back behind his back and getting him to his knees, and with her other hand she swiftly removed the mask from his head.
Ghoul’s beautiful face, a face she thought she’ll never see again, was finally revealed. He looked confused at first, but when he locked eyes with her his expression changed. It was like a mix of surprise, love, joy and relief battled for which will show on his face. She couldn’t believe it. It really was her Ghoul.
“Hi Ghoulie… it’s been a while” she whispers to him, unable to stop the tears from flowing free. Both of them are still in slight shock, but when The girl falls to her knees to hug him, Ghoul hugs her back strongly, squeezing her tight just like he did when she was a kid.
He’s crying too at this point, shocked at how grown up she seems, and Ghoul can’t help but feel proud for how the fab four have raised her. The girl is strong and capable, and she has grown to be a mix of all her parents - she shoots like Jet, quips like Party, fights like Kobra, and smiles like Ghoul.
They stay like that for a while, hugging each other and crying, almost unable to process the situation. The two of them, alive and themselves, just taking in the other and their presence among the corpses of dracs.
When they slowly pull off, Ghoul can’t help but cup The girl’s face and tell her how proud he is. “Look at you! you’ve grown so much… Motorbaby, I’m so proud of you. I knew Jet could teach you to shoot, and you fight… You fight like Kobes. You’re so much like Party now too… They’d be proud of you, so so proud.” He kissed her forehead, trying to give her all the love he could, to make up for lost time.
“Where’s… where’s Jet, honey? She should be here with you, he got you out, didn’t he?” Ghoul asks, puzzled at the absence of the most protective parent The girl had. After all, Jet promised they’d get her out, and the last thing Ghoul remembers is exactly that - Jet taking the girl and running to the Am.
He catches his mistake immediately, seeing the mix of sorrow and shock on The girl’s face. Her tears stream faster now, hot and almost angry as she collects herself enough to give her dad an answer. “No she… she didn’t make it” The girl feels herself almost break down sobbing, but takes a deep breath and continues. “They got… they gunned him down just when Dr. D and Show Pony came. Dr. D told me not to look but…” the sobs get the better of her, and she collapses back onto Ghoul, crying but trying desperately not to.
She was left alone. He left her alone. Ghoul could only hope The girl could forgive him for that. He didn’t mean to die and get drac’d, but it happened, and she was left with no one but Dr. D and his crew - and they were great, but the fabulous killjoys were her family. Ghoul held The girl close, letting her cry and sob against him until she could speak again. He held her close to his heart, letting her hear his heartbeat and wrapping her in his safe arms, just until she needed to pull out again. She tapped his shoulder, their non-verbal sign from when she was a kid, and he let her go.
Slowly, the realisation that the rest of the killjoys are still out there, and could be saved like he was, finally dawns on Ghoul. “The others… have you found them yet? Do you think we can bring them back too?” he asks once the shock wears off, swiping his tattooed thumbs over The girl’s cheeks to wipe the slow flow of tears.
She nods a no. “You’re the first. I didn’t even think you guys were alive.. I-” she chokes a sob, “I thought you all died. Ghoulie, I thought I’ll never see you again, even standing here and talking to you, I still can’t believe you’re really here”. He pulls her back in, squeezing her tight and carding his long fingers through her hair, like he used to do when she got upset as a kid. The girl let herself melt into Ghoul’s touch once again, remembering how he and Jet would hug her and tell her everything will be alright, consoling her and letting her cry all the anger and frustration out. She missed him so much.
“I’ll never leave you again. I’ll be here, making up for all the time we lost, I swear on the Witch you’ll never be alone again. And we’ll find them - we’ll save them all, ok? If you could get me, we can get Jet and Party and Kobra back. We can do this, right Motorbaby?”. The use of her old nickname made The girl hug him even closer, finally letting herself believe he is here. Ghoul, her Ghoulie , was holding her and consoling her again. It was real, real as daylight, and some part of the hole in her heart began patching up.
One down, three more killjoys to go.