The End of Yardale

Deeper Secrets

Brimmy walked off and sat by his computers to find time on his own to think. Formulating a plan to kill of Mr. Havisham and Mr. Cotswolds was vital, and he'd have to plan carefully without interruption. His hopes of thinking independently, though, were quickly diminished as Leslie quietly appeared behind him.

"Are you planning for our next invasion?"

Brimmy nodded. "I need time to think." He had viewed Leslie as a friend since she'd become trustworthy, but he didn't think he needed a friend at this time. Other people's opinions tended to distract him.

Not processing Brimmy's hint to go away, Leslie didn't move. Instead she looked away and, despite being a robot who wasn't built with the intent of having complex emotions, appeared sad.

Brimmy spun around in his chair and asked, "Is something wrong?"

"Don't you feel like we could be happier?" Leslie wondered. "With all these invasions it just feels like... we're sacrificing ourselves towards a lost cause."

"It's not a lost cause. We're going to succeed, we just need to be careful with how we plan." said Brimmy.

"Any of us could get killed. I don't want that." Leslie responded, still staring off into space.

Brimmy shook his head. "We won't. I can't promise it, but we'll do everything we can to prevent another death. I'm sure of it."

Without responding, Leslie sighed. She was tired. Not tired physically- she didn't experience exhaustion as a robot- but she was tired of everything that had happened to herself and the people she now could care about. She was tired of not knowing what would happen next.

"What do you think Damien and Pip are working on right now?" asked Brimmy in an attempt to lighten the mood. "They should be here helping us plan."

"We should go find them." Leslie replied, completely relieving her emotions from seconds ago. "I know the way to Damien's mothers' house."

"Let's go then. I can think about possible plans on the way." Brimmy realized. The two got up and made their way out, but not without catching the attention of Dogpoo.

"Hey, where are you guys going?"

"We're finding Damien and Pip!" Leslie answered excitedly. "Wanna come?"

"Sure!" said Dogpoo.

Brimmy groaned knowing that the journey to Damien's home wouldn't be a silent one where he could think. He initially felt disappointment at his inability to plan in peace, but he later realized that traveling with his two good friends couldn't be too horrible.

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"WE'RE RELATED TO HER?"

"Damien, I didn't know you'd met Lori. She was very secretive about her identity." Maria said in response to Damien's odd surprise.

"I literally just talked to her! Why didn't she say anything?"

Josh rolled his eyes. "You really glossed over the 'secretive' part, didn't you?"

"Shut up." responded Damien.

Maria looked up in even more surprise. "How did you talk to her? She's been dead for quite some time."

"Oh." Damien shrugged. "She appeared as a ghost."

Pip whipped his head around after being silent for the majority of the ongoing conversation. "You can talk to ghosts?"

Damien nodded.

"You could've spoken to Pocket this whole time and you said nothing about it?"

"I did talk to Pocket."

"And-" Pip paused, almost in anger, "you didn't tell me?"

Damien stopped for a moment, realizing his mistake. "Well- I WOULD'VE- but-"

"How many secrets do you fucking have, Damien?" Josh interjected.

"Pocket was my best friend! Why would you keep his ability to communicate with us a secret? Are you insane?" Pip questioned.

"No- well, yes, but- no-" said Damien in attempts to recollect himself. "I didn't want you to be jealous or something!"

"Well you've certainly made the circumstance worse by refraining from telling me!" claimed Pip.

Damien then looked down at the ground and mumbled, "I'm sorry."

Pip sighed. "It's alright. I might just- go outside for a moment to get some air." Pip walked towards the door, but before he could exit, three people that he hadn't expected walked in through the entrance.

"Hi Pip!" Leslie immediately said upon entering. "We need you and Damien back at Dogpoo and Brimmy's house to plan another invasion."

"Invasion?" Katherine wondered, concerned. "Damien, who are these people?"

"Oh, they're some friends. Guess I have to go. Bye Moms!" said Damien, rushing to leave.

"Hold on." Maria said, stopping her son. "You can't just leave that suddenly. I want to talk to these people."

Damien huffed, but Leslie, Dogpoo, and Brimmy didn't mind making some introductions. Leslie, going first, said, "I'm Leslie! I used to be your sister's daughter!"

"Oh." began Maria, not wanting to question how Leslie knew Lori was her sister. "I didn't know my sister ever had a daughter. I only knew she had two sons before she stopped talking to me."

"Lori had sons?" Damien asked.

"We learned this a while ago, get with the program." Dogpoo replied. Then turning over to Maria, he said, "I'm Dogpoo. Don't think too hard about the name."

"It's- uhm- very nice to meet you. Y'know- you kind of look familiar. You two both do." Maria said, looking at both Brimmy and Dogpoo.

"That's odd." said Brimmy. "My name's Brimmy. Don't think too hard about that one, either. We mainly came here to find Damien and Pip, but could we hear more about Lori Meyers's sons?"

"Well, some time after they were born they were stolen. I don't know where they went, but since then my sister hasn't reached out to me. I only recently found out she was dead."

Dogpoo then added, "We were able to learn that the two sons were replaced by Leslie in order to eventually develop her into an intelligent weapon. Maybe your sister had to cut off communication for her own safety."

"That's possible." Maria replied. "I just wish I could speak to her again. I'm sure we could all learn so much."

Damien suddenly spoke up, he and Leslie appearing to be looking at something- or someone- that no one else could see, "I think we can speak to her."