Board Thread:Off-Topic Discussion/@comment-29637681-20170514033014/@comment-29637681-20170617162310

Here's my take on the story:

The minimalist message is carved onto Shadow's gravestone:

my friend yellow jacket...

go to hell.

That's all. No death note, no "Goodbye, cruel world!", no essay, no speech. Just "go to hell."

"No...Why did my father have to die...What did Yellow Jacket have to do with this...Why must my life fall apart...Next thing I know Ela and Rey will be killed by the Outlaws..."

"I will tell you what happened, little one. One day...Shadow was knocked into a coma. The animalistic abomination we know as Grim slapped him, breaking his bones, and he sent Shadow's own army after him. One day, an autumn day, Shadow recovered, at the cost of gaining amnesia. He forgot about me, that he had children, that you existed. He felt that life had no meaning. He became suicidal...And recalled that the evil forces had put him into slumber, where he floated aimlessly in the void, riding with the lost souls of the night.

"He joined the Rebels with what little strength he had left. Shadow was a brilliant fighter. One day, however, he was seen helping Colt the Kentrosaurus and Sobek to kill Exedra's gang of Rebels. He and Sobek escaped, never to be seen for quite a while, as Colt was brutally slaughtered at the hands of Exedra, Lucious, and Stalagmite. This witch you call Adder...and his goth girlfriend...They reported to Yellow Jacket about the incident.

"Yellow Jacket was shocked, seeing that one of his strongest commanders had massacred one of his own kind. Not long after this happened, the war came. Ancile died. Hope died. Your mother and aunts and uncles died. Shadow didn't know what to do; his family and life were crumbling at the seams around him.

"He joined the Outlaws...He became a well-known commander. One day, at the Battle of the Granite Quarry, Shadow was defeated in combat by Major Batterhull. Batterhull carried Shadow's unconscious body to Yellow Jacket, who interrogated him about betraying the Rebels. After this, he died. Yellow Jacket drove his fist through Shadow's brain, and hatred through the Outlaws, and ripped joy from the world. I have never looked at Yellow Jacket the same since.

"This is why I joined the Outlaws. I did not believe in the Perfect World. I did not believe in the Future. All I wanted was revenge and wrath...All I wanted was blood...I did not think about how you were alive...I got in an argument with your uncle Rey. Rey forced me out of his family, and he protected you from the Outlaws. He robbed you of your childhood, locking you up inside that one cave, sculpting you into this disgrace, filled to the brim with anger at nothing and never bothering to socialize."

She stopped speaking and looked up. Sobek was staring ahead, recalling the entire tale. It was true. All of it. He had assisted Colt in killing Exedra's friends, he did watch Shadow get defeated by Major Batterhull, he could hear Shadow being killed by Yellow Jacket.

Meleoron's eye twitches and he eats another bug. Johnny and Hammerhead shake their heads in disgrace. Randall stares in disbelief, Stalagmite stands his ground and gets defensive, Exedra does not react, Cinder starts crying, and Adder snarls, hoots, and hisses, preparing to kill Wraak if necessary.

(Skip to after Bolona leaves. Wow, after all that buildup, Bolona just leaving was pretty anticlimactic.)

All of the Rebels stare at Wraak. Adder gets up close and jabs a finger at Wraak. "You...you...you...you...YOU...YOU ABSOLUTE FOOL! How could you possibly let your aunt reveal your grandfather's backstory!? If you weren't in the same Rebel division as me, or if I hadn't depended on you for survival, or if I hadn't been friends with you at all, I would have killed you right now! You want that!? YOU WANT ME TO ALIT YOUR THROAT THE SAME WAY I DID YOUR FRIEND AXE THE JURAVENATOR!? YOU WANT ME TO KILL YOU AND MALE SURE YOUR SOUL NEVER FINDS A BODY TO INHABIT!? YOU WANT ME TO STITCH YOUR MOUTH AND THROAT CLOSED SO YOU CAN NEVER TALK AGAIN!?"