Lost: Forgotten
Clockwerk gently settled down between the oasis pool and the Divine Cavern as Coco and the others scrambled out to see what had happened. He gently set Sly and Carmelita down before flapping over to perch on the cave entrance, where the sunlight would not reflect off his feathers into the others' eyes. Folding his wings, he waited calmly for the questions he knew would come.
Eventually, as he knew it would be, the one he feared to answer was the first to speak up. Coco looked up at him with sad eyes. "D...Deik-Beck?" she asked sorrowfully. "What...how?"
"I was always Deik-Beck," Clockwerk responded softly. "Or...Deik-Beck was always me. Then again...neither of those answers is entirely accurate. It is...difficult to explain, and complicated."
"Try," Sly stated firmly, moving protectively up to Coco's side.
Clockwerk nodded. He hadn't expected his assistance here to earn him any good will...or certainly not enough to balance his sins against Sly. "When you bested me long ago, despite my rage I accepted my defeat. I set out to conquer the Coopers...and was conquered by them. I would always be part of your legend...and that was enough. Then, when Nayla used my body to become Clock-La and Bentley woke me with his message...I realized it was not enough. Others sought to end your legend, and dared use my works to do so. I could not allow that.
"As Clock-La sank into the abyss, I broke off from her in a much smaller form. I made my decision that I would shadow you, and ensure that your legend would never die. Towards that end, I shaped an image and a persona that would be expected." He turned to Coco. "I thought that Deik-Beck was merely a thought construct, a mask I used to infiltrate your group to ensure you never failed...but in your tender, loving care, I discovered that it was far more than that. It was...a part of myself long forgotten. The young owl I once was, who had hope...who believed in love. An echo of it, perhaps...but enough that with your love and care, I...remembered what it was like. To love, and be loved. To want what was best for another...for their sake. To...believe in others. To be willing...to die for others." He turned to Sly. "When I offered to be cannibalized to repair the van and time machine in the prehistoric age, it came from both of us. And then you told me...that I was a Cooper."
Clockwerk lowered his head, his eyes closing. (1)"Revenge is the prime ingredient in the fountain of youth, this I've long known. Driven by revenge, I came back again and again, endlessly seeking the death of your family. For untold centuries, a steady diet of hate has kept me alive...yet it is a bitter draught and feast that I have supped on, a pale anodyne for what I lost long ago. It is a potion I can no longer stomach...not when I now remember what that power was originally for. I have...twisted it, and I am not worthy of it. I am beyond forgiveness, and all I can do now...is accept your hatred, fully justified, and the loneliness I deserve."
He waited in silence, certain that soon would come the imprecations, the hate, being cast out...or worse, the silence as they turned their backs on him. He knew he deserved all that and more, and would accept whatever they brought him. It was his coming punishment for his sins...and he would accept whatever they declared, even if they demanded his destruction. He was ready.
What he had not expected, and was not ready for...was the feeling of soft limbs wrapping around one of his metal legs. Opening his eyes, he stared down at Coco as she gave him a tight hug. "C...Coco?"
"So it was real," she murmured softly as she held as much of him as she could tight. "You thought you were faking...but our bond was real. That's what you were saying, right?"
Clockwerk stared down at her in disbelief. "Y...yes," he managed to say at last. "It was real. But...all I've done, to you and your family..."
"As bad as Neyla was, she turned even worse when she became Clock-La," Coco said softly. "The Hate Chip...it twisted her soul, and that wasn't even an hour under its effects. If you'd been using its power to survive for untold centuries...how twisted had you become?"
"Using it was my choice," Clockwerk spoke firmly. "The actions I took in those centuries were my choice. I will not claim innocence on grounds of insanity. The insanity was one of my own making-"
"I'm not saying the sins just wash away," Coco interrupted. "Nothing can truly fix that. But...when not under its influence, you chose love. You chose hope. You chose...to be good. Deep down inside, you're a good person. You just made a lot of bad choices...and a good friend doesn't turn their back on someone just because of bad choices, especially not when that someone is family."
Clockwerk's eyes widened. "But-"
"You are a Cooper!" Coco insisted firmly. "Dad said it, and it's true! You're one of us! You messed up big in the past...but you've been working hard to make things right, to make it better...and I'm not going to turn my back on you now! You...you're still Deik-Beck to me, and you're good!"
Clockwerk stared down at Coco in shock, his golden optics twisting rapidly back and forth as though quivering. At long last...he broke. Closing his optics, he wrapped the tips of his wings gently around Coco in a loving embrace, discovering in that shared warmth a magic far more powerful than revenge, and far more eternal than hatred.
Forgiveness.
"I'm so sorry..." he whispered, knowing only the absence of tear ducts in his bio-metal form kept Coco from drowning in the flood of tears that would otherwise have come. "I'm so...so sorry..."
(1) Thanks for this speech, RazDelacroix. I knew I had to use it...with some modifications.
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...So what now?
The scorpion is dead.
The owl is forgiven, and loved.
The River of Time should be flowing unobstructed.
But the scorpion killed the first of the raccoon legacy.
The snake-goddess is the River's guardian, not its corrector.
So I ask again, what now?
...you managed to somewhat redeem Clockwetk. Bravo, sir, bravo.
This started playing in my head about halfway through this chapter.
8853983
We need to see a
mangod about a feather and a pair of scales. After all, we wouldn't want the fallen Cooper soul to be judged prematurely, would we?8853983
50 bits says that Sly and Carmelita stay in the past to fix this.
8853983
Um... mistaken identity? Time travel retrieval of the original in such a way that it still looks like he died? Certainly not Sly staying in Egypt, that would prevent the Coopers from aiding in the PWNY finale!
8854020
8854028
8854029
I like that people are coming up with theories about what will happen next in response to me trying to sound all mystical.
Must have missed these through all of the manly tears that were shed in writing this chapter.
*Ahem*
Short, but touching chapter.
I think Cavern should be capitalized in "Divine Cavern"
down
over
Coco uses Family Ties! It was super effective!
and a comment i made much earlier truly stands shown up...*gets a fork and knife going off to hunt down and eat said comment*
THE FEELS
What you did in the past may lead to assumptions of your character, however it will never force how you are capable of acting in the future
...*HNNGH*i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/000/044/032/heart-attack.jpg Too! Much! Sappy! Cute-! -Ness! *Bluh* encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTmzyp6x58VgUAdWZIA4zdj5Yd1h2LIEq_j-n6nIazcsFDdyDurFw
Nope, too sweet a moment to pun.
Tatsurou you glorious ba... Huh, that's odd. It's clear outside, and the ceiling doesn't leak... so why is my cheek damp?
8853983
Equestria arch?
8854326
Looks like you have been another victim of the onion cutting ninjas.
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But... I set up defenses... Argh, those orange pirates are getting fired!
The feel is real.
After the return...
Twilight: "So, about the giant metal owl..."
Sly: "Um... Former mortal enemy redeemed through the power of love and friendship?"
Twilight: "Oh, you're going to fit in perfectly here."
Yeah, this is one part I'm gonna have to argue. I mean, I don't mean to sound rude or anything, but the other bad guys getting redeemed I can buy, Clockwerk on the other hand, not a chance.
His entire character is based around him being driven by pure hatred for the Coopers and him being as close to pure evil as possible. Dude's suposed to be a souless machine, only interested in killing the Coopers, something that it's heavily implied he was very successful in doing over the centuries. I mean it's never been outright confirmed but it's implied by the pictures that Clockwerk has probably killed more than his fair share of ancestors.
Heck even in Sly 2, Sly felt it was foolish for him to believe he could every truely put an end to the kind of hatred that Clockwerk had inside him, and that was his main appeal.
Sorry, I'm not trying to sound like a nitpicker or anything, but Clockwerk is my favorite Sly villain and him being so easily redeemed, just feels a little hollow.
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I would say it's more putting the final nail in the coffin of Clockwerk's death, and the birth of Deik-Beck complete. Tats has made it very clear that the two sides are the exact opposites of each other in how the view the world. I can see Clockwerk willingly help the coopers to keep his own legacy upheld through their's safe, while Deik-Beck was free from hate so clung to love, showing they are very much a yin-yang of personalities, and while taking up the name Clockwerk again it's clear that is more because of the form then the personality. That said I agree Clockwerk should never truly be redemed as that would ruin his character but I can accept a "new" Clockwerk forged from his opposite half Deik-Beck that is supposed to be good
*sniff*
Excuse me for a minute. My allergies are acting up.
Wheeew... interesting, and damn! What a chapter, what a chapter.
Nicely done!
8854302
...... the a impossable just happened huh
did not see that coming
wow um
Daawwwwww. Now Clockwerk needs to shrink down to small size and he'll be able to get better hugs.
And now, to preserve a stable time line, Sly either needs to steal his Ancestor's soul back to life or become his own Great Great Great Great Grandfather. (Not sure how many greats exactly)
8854302
Agreed there.
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8853983
Well, my thought:
Coco might forgive him...but can SLY?
8855321 For Coco's sake he'll at least think about it.
During that sweet moment of Coco hugging Clockwerk, someone in the other room started playing old rock songs.
“I’m on the hunt. I’m. Af-ter you~! —— and I’m hungry~ like the- wolf~!”
Clockwerk then reach down and ate Coco whole, flipping off Sly with his feathers.
So is Coco gonna pull some strings in the Underworld to get the dead Coopers back oooorrrr what.
8855649
Dude not cool so not cool