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Just how long he, Porky, had been sitting that Absolutely Safe Capsule at this point was irrelevant to him. To him, there were other things he considered more important that were on his mind. Like, for instance, just how angry he was at boy named Lucas. Well, he was angry at a good number of people, but it was Lucas he was feeling rather hostile towards at the current moment.
His capsule had been perched on a lone cliff. It was so high up, he was able to see for miles all around him. he could see forests, rocky cliffs, lakes, the ocean, and of course, the tiny village of Tazmily, which had been reborn anew when Lucas had pulled the final needle. At the moment, the sky was painted orange, gold, and pink with the remainders of a spectacular sunset. The only thing he wasn’t able to see from his prime spot was people. Not that he really cared anyway: as far as he was concerned, they were all foolish and weak in his eyes...but especially that Lucas.
Lucas...the boy in which his family he had torn to pieces. The boy who had seemed like such an unlikely candidate to rise up against him. The boy whom he had never expected to look at him with such hatred in his eyes….but beside that, Lucas was a weakling in his eyes. The way he weeped about everything, the way he mourned every animal he had killed on his journey, and the regret he clearly felt about having to face off against his own twin, who Porky had turned into his personal robot servant.
God, how he hated that Lucas.
He thought back to earlier, to an event that had happened fairly recently. Lucas had hiked all this way to try and talk to him. The moment he had opened his mouth, Porky knew just what he had come for. The conversation ended with Lucas walking off, trying hard not to cry, with Porky yelling insults mingled with coughs as he went. Yeah, it had gone swimmingly...not.
He didn’t want anyone to tell him what to do, what he should have done instead, or just anything at all. He would rather just be alone forever. Forever and ever. Just sitting in his Capsule and be safe from whatever life threw at him.
Well, if he had just that one person with him, it probably wouldn’t be so bad….
“Porky? What on Earth…?”
That voice was familiar. It was one he hadn’t heard for years. In curiosity, he looked up just in time to see the the figure of someone he had known oh so long ago materialize in front of his capsule. First, it was just his feet, but ever so slowly, the rest of his body, from his blue and yellow T-shirt, to his battered backpack, to his mop of black hair covered up with that beloved red and blue baseball cap. On his face, his once cheerful and good natured grin had been replaced with a look of intense dislike and repulsion as he stared at the pitiful figure that was Porky.
It was Ness. The very Ness he had been desiring to see so badly all this time.
“N-Ness..!” Porky coughed, trying to sit up the best he could in the cramped space. “It’s been so long…”
“Yes it has,” Ness agreed in a solemn tone, his figure fading in and out. It seemed that he was no longer the solid form that Porky had known. “It’s been so long, I’ve left the mortal world. However, it appears you are unable to…”
“I-I...uh…” Porky stammered.
“Porky…” Ness said, his voice becoming lower and more threatening. “Don’t play dumb. Don’t think I saw it all, saw what you did.”
These words silenced the former Pig King. He had hoped that maybe Ness would see the results what he had caused, but this reaction wasn’t the one he was expecting. Nor were the results the ones he wanted.
“All the pain, suffering, corruption….” Ness continued on, his face filled with an intense look of anger. “You destroyed families, kidnapped people, corrupted a simple village, tampered with nature, then tried to destroy it all...just because you were bored?”
“Ness, I can explain, I swear-” Porky began in a weak voice.
“No, you can’t” Ness cut him off. “You know this is all your fault. How can anyone be so selfish, greedy, so evil and corrupted? You make me sick just looking at you!”
The last few words caused Porky to flinch. He had heard Lucas and his pals call him that before, not to mention many others, but it hurt much worse when it came from Ness’s lips.
“You had the potential, you were smart...but just look at you now.”
Porky knew he was talking about his worn down body, his grey hairs, his wrinkled face, all the results of traveling through various dimensions for so long.
“You made all the wrong choices, and look where it got you!” Ness snapped, gesturing at the capsule that contained his former friend.
Porky didn’t know what to say now. Ness’s words had shocked him to silence. Never before had such words gotten to him in that way. He was actually feeling...guilty.
“Porky, I pity you.” Ness said suddenly, in a tone that was kinder to Porky’s ears. “What did you think would come out of this? What were you aiming for?”
“I...I…” Porky stammered once more, “I just wanted us to be friends….”
It was Ness’s turn to be silenced. He stared at Porky once more, his face contorting into a messy expression mix of shock, repulsion, and a few more that Porky couldn’t tell what they even were.
“Did you really think you would win my friendship by doing all this?” Ness growled, his voice bitter. “Just what kind of person AM I to you Porky? I’m not someone who thinks it’s funny to see destruction and tragedy like this!”
“I thought you would be impressed…” Porky mumbled in a meek little voice. He hoped that if he played timid, Ness would give in and go back to feeling pity for him. Ness, however, didn’t care for his play act.
“Well I wasn’t.” Ness replied, folding his arms across his chest, his stance adamant. “What you did to Lucas and everyone else was unforgivable, and you should be ashamed.”
Porky shut his eyes tight, trying to shut Ness out, but Ness’s presence was too strong in his anger and disappointment.
“Porky….” Ness continued, turning away from Porky to look at the reborn world before them, “You deserved what you got, but once again, I pity you. And since you’re stuck here forever, you had better think about all this good and hard. Because there’s no way you can go back and change things when you’re stuck like this. Do you understand?”
Porky glared at Ness with a sullen look written across his wrinkled face. No way was he going to give into those feelings of guilt, ever.
“For me Porky?” Ness pleaded, looking him in the eye. “You did all this to impress me and you won’t even do this one small favor?”
Beaten by Ness’s pleading, Porky slowly nodded.
“Well then,” Ness said, looking over the landscape of the island once again. They had been talking for so long, neither of them had noticed that the sky had turned a rich black and was glittered with thousands of tiny stars. “I should be going now...and just so you know, I probably won’t be back.”
“But why?” Porky asked, confused.
“Because I don’t exist in this world and don’t belong here.” Ness replied, adjusting his backpack’s strap. “And neither do you.”
Porky leaned back in the capsule and pouted. In his greedy heart, he knew Ness was right, but he didn’t want to admit it out loud.
“Porky, you know it’s true, don’t act like that.” Ness told him. “That’s the reason you were shut inside that capsule with no way out.”
“Andonuts didn’t tell me I couldn’t get out-”
“Well, that’s not the point.” Ness replied, shrugging, his back still to the capsule that separated them.“You choose to go in there. But besides that, I will be off now. And like I said, I will not be coming back.”
“Ness, don’t leave me…” Porky pleaded, “Stay with me, please…”
“I can’t even if I wanted too Porky, I’m dead, if that hasn’t already sunk in.” Ness’s body fizzled in and out, like a hologram, as he said this shocking remark. “I need to go back to where I exist now, back to where everyone else I have known all my life has gone by now.”
“Does this mean I’m the only one left now?” Porky asked, a note of shock and disbelief in his voice. Had time really gone by that quickly? And just how much exactly?
“It seems so.” Ness sadly replied. He looked around at the beautiful surroundings one more time as he continued. “I’m sad to leave, but I must…”
“Ness no!” Porky gasped once again, his pleads starting to sound more desperate, mingled with coughs.
“I will watch over you Porky.” Ness replied, his figure starting to become translucent in the light of the stars. “Remember that...as long as you are in that capsule, I will be watching you…”
“Ness….please…” Porky gulped, his lips trembling. “Don’t leave me, I…”
Porky wasn’t able to finish his sentence. Ness was fading too fast and didn’t seem to have heard him. Before long, he was gone in a rush of air, whispering one last string of words.
“Goodbye Porky…”
Porky stared in disbelief as he watched his friend vanish. He couldn’t believe that he had come back to see him. But what he also couldn’t believe was what he had to say. How dare he call him out on what he had done? Weren’t friends supposed to have your back and take your side in everything? Weren’t friends supposed to always agree and be nice to each other? Wasn’t that was being friends was about?
“Or is that why we stopped being friends…” Porky whispered, reaching into his pocket. From its depths, he pulled out a treasure he had secretly managed to take back from Lucas and his friends before he was shut into the capsule: the Yo Yo Ness had owned so long ago and had taken such pride in.
“My friend’s yo yo…” Porky murmured. For a short period of time, he sat there, clutching the treasure in his hands. Then, all of a sudden, the Absolutely Safe Capsule shook with his sobs, the area around where he was sitting soaked with his tears. He cried and cried for what seemed like ages, even to him, when time usually passed in the blink of an eye. He cried because he only just realized what he had lost and what he could have done instead in his life that would have prevented this terrible outcome.
For even the most evil child who had ever graced the planet Earth could have his regrets.