Professor Pikalus

"Alright, back it up! Come on! Keep going, keep goingggg- STOP! Perfect!" I grinned as the truck halted in just the right place. The driver of the white truck poked their head out the window and gave a thumbs up. "Thank you!" I called over before quickly opening it up and gazed at what came in.

Crates upon crates stacked the interior of the truck, all with different labels on them. A while back, I ordered a huge shipment of supplies, chemicals, and basically everything I needed. For so long, I waited but now I could finally go on with experiments I had been waiting on for months! Finally, everything was ready.

Then my phone rang.

I paused before quickly digging it out and checking the name, but couldn't help but feel surprised at who it was. "Tanith?" I said when I answered it.

"Ayyyyyyy! My man! Prof Pic! Pickles! I'm... I'm gonna need to work on the nicknames but heyyyy! What's good?"

"Aren't you in the hospital?" I let out a small laugh. I didn't know what was up with her today, but she seemed to be in a weirdly good mood.

"Yep! I've had a wild day today too! I woke up at five AM, ate a crapload of jello, then I listened to a bunch of songs that I had never heard of and watched about 5 hours of cat videos, took a four hour nap and woke up again. Life is amazing! The internet has so many cat videos!" The hybrid exclaimed from the other line.

I snickered again, sitting down on the ledge of the truck and leaned against my own arm, planted down on the floor of it. "So, why'd you call? Unless you have some videos to recommend, I doubt you just called to chat."

Her tongue clicked. "Oh yeah! Almost forgot! I need you to do me a favor! I can't get out of here because, one, my mind isn't perf right now so... Yeah. And two, I already tried to leave but as soon as I pulled out the IV and took off the heart monitor, they caught me trying to get out the window."

I rolled my eyes. "If you're asking me to break you out, I'm going to have to take a hard pass."

"No, no!" She said quickly. "Something else! I can't get out but I need you to go check on the Code-sters."

I blinked. "Why? What's up with Cody?"

"He's feeling all the bad juju! I'm getting a ton of bad vibes and crap and so I need you to go check up on him! I can't help right now, so I thought to myself, "Hey, Professor won't mind much!" so I came to you! Think you can do it?"

I opened my mouth to agree, but the newly shipped equipment caught my eye, causing me to hesitate. "No one else can do it?"

"Nope! Unless.... Nah, he doesn't like Cody and I doubt he'd even make it to the palace in the first plac so you're up! Go get 'em tiger!"

The line cut off and I sighed, giving one last look at the crates before whipping around and marching towards a jet. The palace was a little ways away, which meant it was time for a little flying.

Carefully landing the flying machine, I managed not to damage anything before slipping out of the seat and onto the ground. I strolled up the marble steps, past the many other citizens of Atlantis, but found many of the guards were outside. Rasmus paced back and forth just outside the throne room, muttering to himself and his eyes glancing inside every once in awhile. He didn't notice me until I was right next to him.

"Uhhh, what's going on? Aren't these guards suppose to be inside?" Rasmus nodded gravely, peeking inside one last time before facing me.

"It's Cody. He wanted a little alone time in the throne room so we thought it best to give it to him. None of us are sure what's going on with him, but it just happened. I tried to talk to him, but it didn't work... I don't know what to do..."

Rasmus averted his gaze to the city below. I could tell his mind was starting to wander. I took in a long breath, and decided to make my own choice. I plunged into castle.

The throne room was dead quiet. It was so strange to hear it like this, but it was almost like nothing was in here. Except, there was. Cody sat on his throne, but not triumphantly or even with any pride at all. He was slouched down, almost curled up in a ball, and his eyes were closed. Cody held his spear in a tight grip in his dominate hand. I couldn't tell what he was thinking, but his expression looked grim.

I cleared my throat, causing his eyes to flicker open and stare.

"Hey bud." I greeted with a quick smile as I rushed over to his side and sat down a few feet away from him. "What's going on with you?"

Cody didn't say a word. This chilled me to my very bone.

"You know, Rasmus is kinda getting freaked out out there. Mind telling me what's going on with you?"

"Would he have done a better job?"

Cody didn't say who he was talking about, but he didn't have to. I just knew. My body froze up, but Cody started to say more.

"You know, I like to play this game in my head. Every time I make a mistake, I think about if he would have made the same, or if he would have done better and right whatever wrong I made. If we switched places, would Atlantis be better off? With me gone and him here? Would he have ever been captured? Would he have escaped sooner, maybe even with Ariel? Would he have gone to war?" Finally, his eyes met mine.

"Would Joe have killed him? If I was gone and he was here, and he went to war and did everything I did, then saw my spear in his room, would Joe have killed KrakenKid?"

The room was filled with a silence that I couldn't explain. I couldn't answer, but desperately wanted to. I wanted to say everything on my mind, but couldn't. My throat dried up, even in the depths of the ocean.

"The worse part is, I can't say I would do a better job. I think he would have had the compassion to spare him. He wouldn't have succumbed to rage. He was crazy," Cody's grip on his spear intensified, as if it was the last thing he could hold onto in his life. "But he wasn't a killer. Atlantis needs him, not me."

Finally, I had enough. I could speak again. "That's enough!" I said sternly, catching him off guard. "Stop thinking like that! Are you out of your freaking mind? Look what you've done for this city! It's prospered and grown! Look what you've done for the people! You've fought for them, and almost died for them and most of all, you've killed for them Cody. Not everyone can say that. You've got so many people who care about you, and I'm one of them." I smiled softly.

Cody smiled a bit, but then tears started to flow down his cheeks. "I-I know you're right but- ARG!" He buried his face in his flippers, groaning in frustration. "It hurts man! It hurts so badly to know he's gone! I don't know when he's coming back- if he's coming back even! I mean, he hasn't communicated in weeks and if he hasn't stopped exploring now, I doubt he ever will! It..."

Cody slowly wiped away the ever growing number of tears on his face. "It was so much easier you know? To share the burden. To have two kings. Being a king is so hard, you have to worry about your kingdom and people, all decisions suddenly affect everyone and you start to think about everyone, even the bad guys. KrakenKid is bad and all, but I... There's a part of me that wants to save him! That still considers him an Atlantean. He still lives here after all! I know that he has a good side to him, but I don't know how to bring it out. And I know if I just try and do it like I would for anyone else, he'd probably try and kill me and I'd doom Atlantis. I can't just not fight back either, I have to defend Atlantis, but at the same time, I just want to end this feud. All of this is on me all the time! It's so confusing! And..."

Cody paused for a long moment. "And I have to do it alone."

"Well that's almost as stupid as your last statement about not being a good enough king." I scoffed, making the King's eyebrows raise. "You aren't alone, you have us. I can help, Tanith can help, Rasmus can help, PebbleTeen, Guppy, and if you're lucky, maybe the Sneaky Sisters will come! You have so much support! In fact," A smile crept on my face. "I think I get your problem... You have one kinda similar to Tanith."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you need help though you have trouble saying it. You try to take on a heavy burden alone, even though you don't have to. You are so blind to see how many people's support you have. If you fall, we'll be there to pick you right back up again but you can't see it. See what I mean?"

For the first time in a while, Cody laughed. "I... I guess you're right..." He sat up and waited before standing. "Thanks Professor. I guess I needed to hear that from somebody, and oddly enough, I think I needed to hear it from you."

I just grinned. "It was nothing really. Just slapping some sense back in you. You're lucky I didn't have to literary do it because believe me, I would have."

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A little short, but I got what I needed to put so, here it is! I had the inspiration to do this chapter so it got done pretty quickly.

Also, I noticed that it's almost been one year since Joe left so this chapter was pretty much on point when it came to timing. I had to throw feels in the mix when it came to something like this, so enjoy!

Ohhhhh boy. The next chapters going to be FUN to say the least ;)
I've been waiting to do a thing for so long, and FINALLY I will be able to. Hehe....

Anyways, I hope you liked this! Be sure to comment! I'll see you in the next chapter!

--JustAnAtlantisWriter