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Gerard was prepared to get hit, he knows he’s been through this before.
Many, many times before.
He tore up the paper forced into his hand and threw the crumbled pieces into the crowd. He couldn’t help but smirk at The Clerk’s pissed off expression.
“Go ahead,” he encouraged The Clerk, “fucking hit me.”
He braced himself as The Clerk raised his hand, only to be stopped by his little brother’s hand grabbing The Clerk’s wrist.
Both him and The Clerk looked at his brother in disbelief as Mikey practically shoved his hand away, staring him down.
“Keep your hands off my brother,” he sneered.
The Clerk stared at him, stunned for a second before grabbing Mikey’s shoulders and slamming his knee into Mikey’s groin.
Mikey cried out and fell to his knees. Gerard’s mouth dropped and he stood frozen to the spot as he watched his little brother attempt to crawl away from The Clerk.
Gerard looked over Mikey, who was trying to stand up, as The Clerk walked off the stage.
Gerard wasn’t allowed to touch him but he still tried his best to be comforting, keeping a hand near Mikey’s back as he tried to ask him if he was okay.
But Mikey just walked away without saying a word.
Gerard watched him, his arm outstretched towards his brother as a laugh track echoed across the stage. He wanted to run after him, get him away from here before they could hurt him anymore.
But he couldn’t, he had a show to perform and if he tried to run for his brother, they would punish him or Mikey. Gerard didn’t want to risk more harm being brought down on his brother. So he turned away with his head hung low. Ray stood nearby watching Mikey, trying to see if he was okay as well.
He continued on with the show but he was slowly breaking down. They have beaten him down, tortured him, forced him to perform in what he was pretty sure, from his research, a time loop.
He held it together despite all of that, as much as it killed him. But seeing his little brother get hurt was the last straw and he was slowly losing his mind.
He laughed manically at one point during his performance of Sleep. Just at the fact that it took until only just now for him to fucking lose his mind, after everything he has been through.
They tore him apart, forced him to perform the same goddamn show multiple times, killed him again and again and again.
But the moment they laid a hand on his little brother was the breaking point that made him want to finally scream, “enough!”
Before the next song, he eyed the jacket he took off before Sleep. Once again, he knew what was going to happen next.
The Clerk will come out, tell him to wear the jacket. He’ll refuse until The Clerk stops taking no as an answer. He remembers during the last show, he was wrestled to the ground and physically forced to put it back on.
He glanced at Mikey as he was tuning his bass guitar. He couldn’t risk Mikey or any of his friends stepping in to help him, they won’t hesitate to hurt them in any way that could mentally destroy Gerard completely. Even if none of them stepped in to help Gerard, The Clerk or The Grand Immortal Dictator could decide to punish his friends and brother if he continues to disobey.
He looked back at the jacket and forced himself to put it back on, willingly.
He held back tears as he forced himself to bow down to the very thing he kept trying to fight against. He bowed down to the people that have literally killed him, physically and mentally.
The Clerk walked out and Gerard showed off his jacket that was now on him with a fake smile, hoping The Clerk will be satisfied and hopefully go away. Instead The Clerk grabbed his arms, shaking him, yelling, “it’s really good!”
He played along, grabbing his arms and screaming, “it’s really good!” In agreement as they shook each other, huge fake smiles on their faces.
The rest of the show went by in a blur for Gerard, he just wanted it to be done, he couldn’t take any more of this.
They got to the finale where Gerard is, you guessed it, fully aware about what’s going to happen to him next.
The fucking Clown comes out, dances a bit, then stabs him in the heart. He then dies and he becomes nothing more than a bloody heap on the floor until he is forced back together on the MOAT.
He sees the Clown as it approaches him, following Gerard’s movements then moves around the stage, dancing.
Gerard was prepared for it, for the knife to pierce his heart and he bleeds out as he crawls on the floor to hit the switch that ends the whole thing.
He sees the Clown come up to him, holding the knife and he begins to sing his last words. But instead of the Clown raising the knife once he is beside Gerard, he gives Gerard a cruel, blood chilling smile and his eyes say he knows something Gerard doesn’t for the first time.
Gerard stops singing and looks at him, confused. The Clown quickly turns away and runs straight towards Mikey, who is completely unaware of what’s about to happen to him.
“NO!” Gerard screams so loud, his lungs burn and his throat aches.
Gerard raced towards his little brother, trying to get to him first to protect him from the crazed clown that should be stabbing Gerard, not Mikey.
The knife plunges into Mikey’s heart and Mikey freezes then he lets out a heart wrenching cry as the Clown ripped the knife out of Mikey’s heart. Gerard makes it to him just as he begins to fall on the ground and catches him. Gerard holds him up as he awkwardly tries to get his bass off of him.
“Mikey?” He frantically says. Once he gets the bass guitar off and shoved out of the way, he cups his brother’s face in his hands. Mikey’s eyes are closed and he’s gasped for breath. Blood began to spill out of his mouth, staining his lips and teeth.
“Mikey? You’re okay, it’s okay. I’m here, I’m right here, I got you. Nobody is going to hurt you while I’m here.”
Gerard carefully moved his brother until he was laying horizontal in his lap and cradled in his arms. He doesn’t give a damn about the rules anymore. Let them torture him in the worst ways possible, break his mind until he can’t even think anymore.
His baby brother could be dying and there was no way in hell Gerard was just going to let that happen.
Gerard didn’t even bother to pay attention to his friends having bags thrown over their heads and being dragged away by DRAAG workers. His mind was scrambling to figure out how to help Mikey, how to keep him alive.
All he could bring himself to care about was Mikey Way.
But if he had paid attention, he would have noticed the two soldiers and a few DRAAG workers coming towards him and grabbing Gerard by his arms, forcing Gerard to let go of Mikey.
“No! Please, don’t take him!” Gerard screamed as the soldiers held him down by his arms and the workers held down his legs. Gerard felt dread overtake his senses as he realized they were retraining him.
Gerard glanced over at his brother and to his own disbelief, he was still alive. Mikey was twitching and coughing up blood. Mikey’s face twisted into a grimace as pain ran through his chest and he spat more blood out of his mouth.
The Clown was now walking around Mikey’s body with a sick enjoyment in his eyes, like a predator circling around its wounded prey.
“Stay away from him!” Gerard screamed and the Clown doesn’t even acknowledge him.
Instead, he bent down and dragged Mikey onto the center of the stage so the audience can see him and Gerard felt like he was going to throw up as he realized what the Clown and the men holding him down were doing.
Mikey coughed up more blood as he was moved around and he looked around, terrified and lost.
“Gerard?” He was able to choke out and Gerard’s heart fucking shattered hearing it.
“MIKEY! I'M RIGHT HERE! LOOK AT ME!” Gerard screamed as loud as he can, hoping Mikey could hear him and know he is nearby.
But the music had begun to play and Mikey can’t hear him over the instruments and the laugh track that plays.
The Clown roughly grabbed Mikey’s chin and stuck his finger in the blood pooling in his mouth to paint a bloody smile on his face.
Mikey tried to tell him to stop but he could only let out a soft whine. The Clown then grabbed his jaw once more and began moving it up and down like Mikey was singing along.
“Well they encourage your complete cooperation,” the song on the loud speakers began, “send you roses when they think you need to smile.”
Mikey didn’t have the strength to move his head away from the clown’s hands and could only widen his eyes in horror at what was happening.
Gerard tried to fight against the soldiers and the workers holding him down. Tears began to fall down Gerard’s face as he was forced to watch his baby brother’s dying body be treated like a puppet for entertainment.
“Let him go!” Gerard pleaded but his words fell on deaf ears, “please, just leave him alone!”
Gerard could do nothing but watch as Mikey slowly died. His last moments being of that goddamn clown manhandling his body. Moving his mouth, roughly shaking his head, and waving his arms in the air, all while Mikey is bleeding out and the clown had that wide, disturbing smile on his face the whole time, like he was having the time of his life.
His big brother was nowhere in sight and the last thing he saw was the horrified faces of the audience watching him bleed out and slowly die.
Just as Mikey took his last breath and his eyes went unfocused, the Clown’s creepy smile disappeared. He looked down at Mikey like he was something vile and disgusting then threw him aside like a broken toy.
Gerard’s whole world stopped when he realized Mikey wasn’t breathing anymore then let out a bloodcurdling scream when the Clown just tossed Mikey aside like he was nothing, like he wasn’t someone important.
The soldiers and workers finally let Gerard go and he quickly crawled to his brother’s body. He pulled his brother against him and fell limp against him like his body just gave out on him. The clown continued to sing and dance as Gerard sobbed over Mikey’s corpse.
“I’m sorry, Mikey, I’m so sorry,” he whispered in Mikey’s chest, tears mixing with his brother’s blood that began to spill on the stage floor.
Gerard let out a sob and clutched Mikey close against him. Pain, guilt, and shock overwhelmed Gerard’s mind and he let out a pained wail that was muffled by Mikey’s chest. The music was louder than Gerard’s suffering.
Gerard then flinched as a sudden explosion went off and quickly lifted himself up and leaned over Mikey, using his body to shield his brother from the bits of debris and blood falling on them.
Once it was calm and quiet, Gerard turned around and looked. The Clown was dead, the top half of his body was gone and his intestines splayed out of what was left of his lower half. Blood was spattered on the floor, walls and ceiling. It was a horrifying sight but for Gerard, he felt relief seeing it.
His brother’s killer was dead.
Gerard looked back down at Mikey. His once bright brown eyes were dull and still wide open with fear. Gerard choked back a sob as he shakily raised a hand up and closed his little brother’s eyes.
Gerard pressed a soft kiss on Mikey’s forehead, the goodbye he couldn’t give him in time, and carefully laid down against Mikey’s side, wrapping an arm around Mikey’s waist.
Gerard didn’t care about anything anymore. He didn’t care if DRAGG came out and tortured him until he couldn’t see, hear, walk or eat properly anymore.
He didn’t care what happened to him now.
But he had a small hope that they would just kill him right then and there and let him die with his brother.
But of course, Gerard never gets what he asks for.
The DRAAG workers and the two soldiers from before tried to pull Mikey away from him but Gerard tightened his hold, refusing to let him go.
Gerard was then grabbed by the arms and legs once more and forcefully pulled away from Mikey. Gerard tried kicking and pushing the soldiers and workers away but they held him down and someone quickly pressed a wet rag against Gerard’s face.
Gerard tried to move his head away but they had a hold of him and the chloroform was making Gerard weak and lose consciousness.
Gerard tried to look for Mikey, looking at him one last time. Even if Mikey was just a bloody corpse on the ground, this could be the last time he ever sees his little brother.
But all he can see is the black suits and the DRAAG symbol on the workers.
He let out a weak cry as his eyes closed against his will and everything went dark and quiet.