A long time ago, before Snatcher started to specialize into tormenting people and found out how to get free labor from lost souls, he had once wanted to have a child.

The ghost, back in the small room under his tree, was pretending to read a book while he scratched his head with his ghostly claws and thought about the past. He had been trying to take away Hatkid from his head, but some thoughts about his human life were back to haunt him again.

Back when he was alive, still engaged to Vanessa, both of them had planned to have a child after Vanessa’s coronation and once their new kingdom was settled in. It would be the start of a new family, a new home, and he would make sure his child would not have to go through anything of what he had to go through in his own childhood.

But what did even having a child mean for The Prince himself? It was not just the deep desire inside him to have a family, it was also that chance to receive unconditional love he so deeply longed.

The Prince’s human life had been tough. After his parents died when he was very little, he struggled to keep going day by day. Born a commoner, he was left in an orphanage but still had to work on and on to stay afloat due to its precarious conditions. He had been in several orphanages until he entered adulthood, and those were experiences he didn’t like to remember.

Even with all the hardships, he worked a lot, and studied a lot, and then ended up being a remarkable young man. He was ready to confront the world, and nothing would stand in his way.

When The King died and the Queen had fallen ill, an announcement had been made. There were complications to choose the next Prince that would accompany the daughter of the Queen for them to reign over after the reign of the current Queen ended. Most Kingdoms were far away from the own nation of Subcon, and the very few candidates born in the aristocracy and Princes from other lands had rejected to take Vanessa’s hand for some mysterious reason nobody knew about, they just kept rejecting her one after the other, and none of the relationships seemed to work.

The Kingdom of Subcon had chosen to make a call to his inhabitants, and request men who considered themselves worthy to present themselves as candidates, the chosen one would become the Princess' new fiance.

It had been a long week, after days and days waiting for his turn to come between hundreds and hundred of candidates, he finally had the chance to present himself. The Princess, charmed by his appearance, eloquence and endearing personality, had chosen him between all the men who had gone that day, and thus, he had become the new Prince to rule Subcon..

It wasn’t that simple, though. The Prince still lacked a lot of the education that was necessary for a King to rule, so the advisors and different members of the council had decided to send him to finish his studies.

That didn’t stop him from seeing Vanessa, though. Every time he came to visit, they would go out and talk with each other non stop, and like a fool, he fell in love. Despite being a bit eccentric, The Prince hadn’t noticed anything alarming in Vanessa, maybe he could call her… passionate? Vanessa, on the other hand, day by day became more possessive of her Prince.

The Prince was in love with her, her beautiful golden hair, her charming smile and her soothing voice. Even when Vanessa was a justifiably odd person, he forgave every shortcoming she caused him because he was in love, but also saw in his engagement a way to help him fix part of the things that had hurted him in his past, with Vanessa, he would become a King, and he would become a father. As a child he had seen hundreds of injustices and bad things in the Kingdom, and he wanted to change it for good, he wanted to really give it his all, and be the best King that the nation had ever seen.

But what did it mean for him to have a child at all? It was clear, The Prince had strong values and morals, he didn’t want only for the Kingdom to change, but he wanted to make sure that his child would have the same strong ethic he had learned to have in the course of his life.

He wanted to leave a legacy, to change the Kingdom and leave a good heir he could be proud of, but he also wanted to have a family.

For so long he looked for someone who would take care of him again, someone who would love him, someone he could count on and that would never leave from his side. He wanted to have a child not only looking to get unconditional love, but to give it as well. It was that chance to create a life, to have that someone and take care of them. He wanted to be able to hold them and tell them everything would be okay, that things would get better if they were sad, to teach them through the right path if they had questions or doubts, and give someone he could share and laugh his happiness with, give someone else a chance to exist! Because no matter how many hardships he had to go through, the truth was that life was beautiful! Because the sweet sweet taste of bacon would always calm down his sorrows! Fried eggs would make him anticipate the next day that would come, and homemade cookies would show him that it was worth it to work from sunrise to sunset as long as he could have a bite!

The Prince didn’t want to be just a leader, he wanted to be a figure, he wanted to be someone that person they could trust with, in every sense of the word, and for that, he didn’t want to just become a King, he wanted to become a father as well.

Was that selfish? Was that all so wrong? That the reason he wanted to have a child was that he wanted to mold a life to what he thought was fair, to get unconditional love and to give a meaning to his life?

Was it human biology? Or a mere instinct?

Perhaps it was, but he didn’t care, he wanted to have a home, he wanted to have a family, and for him, being with Vanessa was just the beginning of that beautiful thing he wanted to construct.

Sadly, everything had fallen apart. It wasn’t even his fault anyway. He might have tried to make the shopkeeper laugh, he wanted to see her smile, but that was just because he was happy, he was finally feeling comfortable with himself and his life. If Vanessa had destroyed their relationship together just because of a small compliment he had made to another woman, was their relationship even worth it? Was it worth the banned bacon, the strange behavior and the tantrums she had made when he had to spend more time with his tutor?

No, it wasn’t, and the fact that he had died had just broken him entirely, taking away his hope, his morals and aspirations, the aspirations of a man who had lived in sorrow, but had once seen a silver lining in his future.

Now, he was just an empty shell.

“Boss?” A Subcondite interrupted his train of thought. “Are you alright boss? You are making a funny face.”

Snatcher noticed he was covering his face with his hands, trying not to cry. Dammit! Even when he wasn’t a human anymore, there were those times that he still acted as such, it surely had to be some sort of reflex he was used to, that’s how his soul had been formed.

“Get the hell away from here!” Snatcher turned around to them. “Go to work or I will transfer your body into something you will hate!”

The Subcondite shrugged and continued on with his day, leaving Snatcher alone once again.

The ghost looked above to the sky, watching the small wooden ship floating from far away. “Some of us don’t really have that much luck, kiddo.” He muttered, and continued reading one of his favorite books, “How to kill kids.”

***

“I had the gold in the Roach world and yet I was unhappy. I learned that gold tarnishes and turns dull, but with a mind filled with gold is safe from tarnish, and can hold limitless wealth.

You have a heart of gold, Hatkid.

I have evolved. Sorry we didn’t get to meet. - R. King.”

“It has been a long journey. Watching you all grow up into adults was a pleasure. But soon this story must end. Life moves on and new moments await you.

We will meet again, someday. I look forward to that day.

Farewell. - R. King.”

Hatkid finished reading the two letters that had been addressed to her, and sat down on the floor of the attic. She had been looking for notes scattered around the ship, starting with one that she had found in her own bedroom. Some of the notes told her to go from place to place, at the end she had found under the staircase of the attic a small roach along with a miniature castle, a wheel of cheese, a trophy, a candle, and a cookie. All made of Gold.

She had to dig up inside the staircase, and now the wooden planks seemed to be ruined, and the gold objects were just scattered around the floor.

She sighed. What could she even make of all that? A roach king had been following her along on her ship, but at the end he turned into gold before she could even meet him at all?

What a story.

If anything, at least it seemed that R. King had been looking out for her more than Tim had. At least, she wished she could have known more about him. He said she had a heart of gold.

That made her smile.

Perhaps, R. King could have been his mentor! Or his guardian! Hatkid could even get to learn into the ways of his people and she could have been a princess!

Oh, wait, scratch that, she would have to become a Roach for that, she would have to become… Roach Kid?

“Pfft! Hahaha!” She laughed over the thought of imagining herself as a roach. It seemed as if it couldn't be helped.

It just seemed as if she would have to get used to a life without parents after all.

Maybe she could just stay there, lying down in the attic, without having to get up, or move at all for that matter. She would probably just fall asleep and wake up who knew when. Maybe she could just go back to sleep there once she woke up, after all, there wasn’t anything to do anymore, no purpose, no objective, no parents. She could just go to sleep, without having to think about anything…

“Hello there, kiddo!” An annoying ghostly voice rose up from the shadows, making her open eyes when she was finally getting asleep.

The girl pouted, what did he even want from her now?

“Hello kiddo, am I interrupting something right now? I just wanted to see how you were doing and…” Snatcher unfolded the map. “Remind you that we still have some contracts to finish!” He cackled.

Hatkid took the map and without standing up glanced over it.

“Blegh.” She threw it to the floor without actually deciding what she would try next. What was the point anyway? She was just doing some challenges to keep herself occupied while she heard back from Tim.

“Well, kiddo?” Snatcher insisted.

Hatkid just turned on her side and rested her head in the palms of her hands, closing her eyes and waiting to fall asleep. Snatcher could be his BFF but she was just not in the mood anymore.

“Kiddo?” He asked again, but didn’t get any reply.

Had she just… given up?

If Hatkid had given up on doing the Deathwishes, that meant there would be no chances to get her soul back again for revenge. But if she had given up, maybe she also had given up in going down to earth, so she would not be back to bother him or his minions again!

Oh well, sometimes you win some and you lose some. If the brat wasn’t going to fight anymore, perhaps it was time for him to leave.

The ghost turned around ready to leave the attic, when a memory passed through his mind.

***

“Listen here boy. I have no time to listen to your troubles or teach you anything about what you want to learn, everybody has their own problems to deal with and frankly, you are too ugly for your own good!” A man at the orphanage yelled at him, he was one of the caretakers.

Snatcher was starting to go through the absolute horror of his first excruciating metamorphosis, the puberty, and now had turned into a monster covered in acne and his voice was acting goofy, so he was being made fun of at school and spent most of his time alone. Due to all the changes that he had gone through in his life since his parent’s death, he had not been able to concentrate in classes and was failing a lot of subjects as well.

At some point he had stopped going to school and spent most of the time in his bed without moving at all, just waiting for his existence to finally fade away.

At least his parents would have listened.

***

Snatcher kept smiling on the outside after leaving Hatkid, but realized a tear had escaped his hollow yellow eyes.

A ghost tear?

Was that really a ghost tear? He was almost… crying?

Ridiculous! It seemed boredom had gotten into him. So it was better if he quickly went into getting some entertainment!

“Oh, so you don’t want to fight again, do you?” He turned again in the direction of the girl. “Well, that’s such a shame! And to think I had made a brand new magical badge for the occasion!”

Hatkid didn’t move from her spot.

“Uhm.” He faked a cough. “This brand new badge! It allows its wearer to go through mirror dimensions!”

Hatkid turned around to him, with a curious expression.

“That’s right! With this badge, its wearer will be able to explore the world in a new way she had never seen before! The mysteries of the universe will all be unveiled to the one who obtains it!”

Hatkid finally stood up and walked slowly towards him, she took the map and finally looked at the contract and then back to Snatcher.

“I can guarantee its quality kiddo, and to get it, you just know what you have to do!”

“Gimme!” The girl exclaimed and put on her hat again, took her umbrella and jumped straight into the portal Snatcher had opened into the dimension.

“That’s right kid, you go there and try your best, but it is not going to be easy!” Snatcher smiled to himself.

The challenge? He made her go through the hell that had been the time rift she had to fix into the deep sea, but this time with a time limit and more hazardous paths. Going through burns, huge falls, squid attacks, and even punches from cats and owl afterimages trapped in the rift. She almost ended up dying for good this time, but kept looking forward to trying that new badge.

Which just made it all more disappointed when the badge just turned out to mirror her field of view.

“Hahaha, get it! Mirror dimension?” Because now everything you see is now mirrored! Mirrored!” Snatcher couldn’t stop laughing, his voice even seemed to break by what seemed to be him gasping for air for his non-existent lungs. “And to think you just kept struggling over and over to get it! You should have seen yourself!” He continued while hitting the floor of the ship with his fists over his own laughter.

“Hhmph!” Hatkid pouted, she activated back the timeline sync, and suddenly, a bunch of Hatkids apparead back, and started to hit Snatcher with their umbrellas.

“Boop!” “Peck!” “Boop!” “Peck!” “Down with the mafia!”

“Stop it! Stop that kid! Ugh, alright! I’m leaving! But don’t forget that we still have contracts to finish!” Snatcher stood up and vanished into thin air.

Hatkid looked around at the alternative versions of herself, who seemed to be having some sort of chatter on their own.

“Boop!” “Yay!” “Peck!” “Hohoho!” “So fun!” “Peck!” “Yay!”

Ha. That would show Snatcher to not mess with her.That had been a well done team work.

She smiled at the thought of Snatcher having to deal with lots of versions of her and laughed at her own malice, the timeline sync had been a good idea after all, or so it seemed, until had to start running from a version of her with a bat that seemed like she was about to hit her.

She ran trying to find the pin in her hair to disable the sync, but ended up running up into a wall.

***

“Is Cat lady sure that this will work?”

“Yes, I am sure, you just make sure to bring those rockets along with me and as many men as you have if we really want to win.”

“Mafia doesn’t like to go to haunted forests, haunted forests scare Mafia!”

“Well, I don’t care. You made a deal with me, and we are going to go through it or things are going to get ugly before you know it!” The Empress grabbed the Mafia goon by his tie and threatened him with her claws, at which the Mafia goon closed his eyes and tried to cover his face.

“Mafia will help! But Mafia only will not go and get little girl with the Hat, little girl with the Hat is too scary for Mafia!”

“You can go and look for that girl with the supposed Mustache you want to find, I don’t care! But the girl with the Hat is all mine for once I get my claws on her!” The Empress dropped the goon to the floor, and pointed towards a man with a red buttoned vest, a brown cap with a pair of goggles and a pair of thick gloves.

“You! We are leaving here in the morning! Is everything set up already?”

“Oh, my lady, yes, it is! I just finished doing the final preparations! I would say we even have some free time available!”

“Free time? For what?!” The Empress asked.

“For the monthly Mafia Bingo Night of course! We prepared lots of great things for this one and even one of my inventions was selected as one of the prizes!”

“Stop fooling around, and show me what you have finished until now!” She pushed him over with her claws, tearing up part of his shirt and making him get hit with one of the chairs inside the Mafia Quarters that were below the Mafia Bar.

“Right, right, just let me go and–”

“Thor? Is it time for me to come out yet?” The Mafia Boss was heard from beyond the door.

“Oh, yes sir! I think you can come out now.” Thor replied.

“What the–” The Empress turned around towards the door, when she saw some sort of golden robot entering the room, its steps were heavy and his movements were clunky, but it seemed to be fast enough and every step he made left a mark on the floor, as if it was a heavy tank moving in two legs, it looked just like the old Mafia Boss before he had lost his body in his fight against Hatkid.

The Mafia goons in the room smiled happily at the robot entering the room, some of them even clapped to his entrance.

“I have to say Thor, you really did yourself on this one! With this body, I will be unstoppable!”

“What are you even supposed to be?” The Empress looked at him weirded out. “Are you the leader?”

“I am the person who is going to take us to victory! And yes, I am the leader around here, but now I have a different name, because now I will be called… Mecha Boss!”