Through the Looking Glass: Chapter 4-B
Fourth Dream
Banjo was still sobbing quietly when he felt himself standing in the cold air of what he assumed to be Rouge's room.
The bear felt a hand on his shoulder, and when he opened his eyes he found himself looking right into the now very familiar aqua eyes of Rouge.
"Banjo?" she asked worriedly. "Are you... Did something happen?"
The bear nodded, not one to hide things from anybody he considered a friend.
"It's not fair..." he said softly. "It's just not fair..."
"What?" asked the bat, putting another hand on his shoulder as he spoke. "What happened?"
The honey bear sighed softly before looking at Rouge. "I found something out about Tooty's fate today..."
The mention of Banjo's sister's name suddenly brought Rouge's own agenda to mind, but she decided that comforting Banjo was much more important. After all, something in her hated to see the honey bear cry, especially since he seemed like the kind that would take a lot to upset him.
"You did?" she asked. "What?"
He shook his head sadly. "Oh, Rouge, it was terrible!" he said, still hugging his arms to his chest. "They said they found a shirt in a... whatever... and... they think she was... Oh..."
"Killed?" asked Rouge, leaning in close.
"Worse," replied the bear. "She was... oh..." Banjo had to take a few deep breaths as he tried to regain his composure in front of the bat. When she tapped her hand on his shoulder encouragingly, he saw a sincerity in her eyes that had evaded him even when she was being completely honest with him. "She was... raped..."
The bat reeled back slightly, hand covering her mouth in shock.
"Oh, Banjo, that's horrible!" she exclaimed. "That... I don't know what to say..."
"I really, really hope she's still alive, Rouge," said Banjo sadly as a new batch of tears worked its way down his cheeks. "I... I don't know what I would do if I found out she was raped and then killed all those years ago... I... I wouldn't be able to take it..."
Rouge opened her mouth to reply when she suddenly noticed that Banjo had been hugging something to his chest the entire time. Looking down, Banjo also realized that he had been hugging something to him. When he pulled his arms away, he found he was holding the family portrait of himself, Kazooie, and Tooty that he had cried himself to sleep while holding.
"Wha...?" he asked. "I took my family por--?"
Before he could complete the sentence, though, Rouge tore the portrait away from Banjo's hands, looking at the image. Banjo and a red breegull that the bat assumed to be Kazooie were both standing there, giving peace signs to the camera with Banjo wearing a blue backpack in which Kazooie was perched. But it was the person who was sitting next to him that caught her attention. She was blonde, with two pigtails and a red shirt that looked uncannily similar to the one her charge wore, sans the bright yellow star that was prominent on the shirt. The complexion was far too familiar for the bat, and so her topaz eyes widened in shock.
"Rouge?" asked Banjo.
Slowly, Rouge turned around, looking half at the honey bear and half at his family portrait. The bear could have sworn he saw the slightest fraction of a smile on her lips.
"Banjo..." she said. "I think..."
"What?" asked the bear, leaning in closer in wonder.
"I... Wait, why am I saying think?" she asked, getting more confident. "I know it! I knew there was something!"
"What is it, Rouge?" asked the honey bear.
"You two look exactly the same!" she exclaimed. "Of course! How come I didn't notice it sooner?"
"Rouge?" pressed the bear, very confused by what his friend was saying.
Rouge walked straight to Banjo, standing directly in front of him.
"Banjo... Tooty... Your sister... She's alive!"
The bear gave Rouge a very surprised look. "I swear, she's alive!" cried Rouge. "The teen I rescued two days ago? She looked exactly like an older version of this girl in the portrait! And... She looks so much like you! Her hair, her eyes, even her grown-up body looks like it does in this portrait! Banjo, your sister's alive, and she's safe! I--"
Before the bat could continue, she suddenly felt herself get pulled into what was possibly one of the tightest hugs she had ever recieved in her life. The bear hugged her so hard she actually found her struggling for breath.
"Rouge... Oh my God..." he panted, breathlessly. "Rouge... I can't... Are you sure?"
The former G.U.N. agent pushed against Banjo, trying to get across that she needed air. When Banjo loosened his hold on her, she breathed in sharply, the air slightly hurting her lungs.
"I've worked for the government for years," replied the bat. "I'm a specialist at connecting dots. And plus, bats have that kind of intuitio-oon--!"
Banjo's tight hug cut her off as he hugged her even harder than before.
"Banjo... need... air..." Rouge was barely able to manage what with the tight bear hug she was in.
The bear loosened his hold appropriately, and when he did the bat was able to hear him crying softly. However, when he let her down, she saw something as far removed from the sorrowful bear that had greeted her. His eyes shone a brilliant sapphire in the flourescent light, but when she saw the smile on Banjo's face she knew that the reason for his tears were now very different from what they were before.
"Rouge..." he said breathlessly. "You've got no idea how happy that makes me..."
This comment made the bat smile herself as she held on to Banjo's hands. "Rouge..." he said softly. "Thank you... I don't... I can't..."
Rouge brought a gloved hand over to the bear's cheek, and with a few swift motions of her fingers she dried his tears that were matting his dark brown fur. "You don't need to," she said softly. "I just... well... I..."
Both of them were rendered speechless, and then they simply looked into each other's eyes. Suddenly they threw their heads back and laughed heartily about everyhing they had talked about that night. The bear suddenly noticed he was close to the desk, and so he sat on it, hs hand on his diaphram as he laughed heartily.
"I can't believe we'd be so speechless," panted Rouge as she leaned against her knees for support.
Banjo laughe as well, but then he suddenly stopped abruptly when he looked at the portrait in Rouge's hands. He took on a more serious facial expression as he looked at the portrait, and then he rubbed his chin.
"Wait a minute..." he said. "How did I get that in here?"
Rouge suddenly stopped laughing as well, looking to the portrait.
"Hm..." she said, rubbing her own chin as she noticed this. "Maybe you took it with you when you went to bed because you were touching it?"
"But that doesn't make sense!" replied the bear. "If that's true, then my bedsheets and my pillow should be here!"
Rouge thought about this before nodding. "I'll have to look into that..." she said. "In the meantime... I think I'll go ahead and take this portrait if you don't mind."
"What?" asked Banjo suddenly, his brown fur standing on end as he spoke. "Why? And how do you know you can take it?"
"Well, you brought it in, I'll bet one of us can take it out," she said with a shrug as he held the picture in her hand. "I'll bet it'll be sent here through the Chaos Emeralds..."
Rouge paused in her speech, an idea suddenly forming in her head. It was an idea so simple, and yet she knew the ramifications would be so grand even Robotnik could not fathom how great they were. The bear simply looked at her as her eyes lit up in some kind of strange epiphany.
"Wait," she said suddenly, pointing at Banjo. "Maybe... Maybe I can take Tooty to you in our dreams and then transfer her to you then? And if it all works... you can bring her back..."
Banjo felt goosebumps crawling all over his skin as he heard this, and he was suddenly so happy that he could not help but tackle Rogue to the ground. The bat squirmed, but when Banjo looked up at her with a great amount of joy in his eyes she stopped.
"Oh, please!" cried Banjo. "I just want to see my sister again, even if it's only for one night! Please try something!"
Rouge, feeling a strange swell in her heart, simply wrapped her own arms around Banjo's body and feeling the taut muscle underneath the brown fur. She simply smiled after seeing how happy this news made Banjo, so she nodded.
"I'll try something," she said. "If this portrait winds up with me when I wake up, then I'll definitely try. That's assuming I can get her memory back, though."
Banjo's eyes lost some of their joyful lustre as he heard this, and suddenly he looked at her with a very concerned look on his face.
"Oh, no..." he said. "Don't tell me she lost her memory..."
"Don't worry," replied the bat reassuringly as she hugged the bear closer to her body. "I'm sure that when she sees this portrait she'll remember who you are. And if not, well, maybe a visit to you would do something."
Banjo nodded in understanding before getting back on his feet. As Rouge stood up, she suddenly felt the bear take her hands in his, the brightest smile she had ever seen on anybody's face shining on his teeth right at that moment. She would have jerked away by instinct, but the fact that his lovely blue eyes were awash in happiness caused her to fight this instinct.
"Thank you so much..." he said. "You have no idea how much this all means to me..."
To this, Rouge was essentially left speechless for a good amount of time. She opened her mouth, a reply hanging on her lips, but she abruptly closed it when she felt that the reply would never match up to what Banjo had been telling her essentially the entire dream. She frowned slightly, and when she felt the bear's gaze look at her with worry, she simply shook her head and replied in the simplest manner she could think of.
"You're welcome, Banjo," she said softly.
The both of them found that neither of them were really willing to let go of each other's hands, and as they looked intently into each other's eyes, both of them felt the strangest swelling in their hearts. However, right as Rouge felt her heartbeat rise, she simply blushed, and looked away, their hands parting as the bear did the same thing.
When the honey bear woke up that morning, the first thing he did was to look into his hands.
And just as Rouge had predicted, his family picture was no longer in his hands. To make sure it had dissapeared, he looked under the covers, on the floor, and under the bed all while keeping as quiet as he could. He looked out of the window, his eyes hazing over dreamily as he thought of everything Rouge had done and how he finally knew the ultimate fate of his sister.
"Hey, Banjo!" came Kazooie's shrill voice from the kitchen. "Wake up already!"
The bear did a double take upon realizing that the sun had risen by then. It was here that he realized that he had overslept.
He quickly jumped out of the bed, but before he dashed straight for the door he saw the Chaos Emerald on his night table, glinting in the morning sun.
Slowly, Banjo picked the jewel up, his eyes closing as he held it against him, the grey emerald contrasting sharply with his fur as he inhaled deeply. Somehow, he could feel Rouge through the emerald, and this made him feel much better than he usually did when he woke up.
He pocketed the emerald and stepped into the kitchen, a smile on his face as he thought of the events of the night before.