Authors note: This one shot will be filled with angst to the highest degree. You have been warned.

Brown ran away as fast as he could, the chill of the late day air stung his throat as he ran. Copper and Umber were safe for now, so now he had to run to try and save himself, not that it would matter. There was no way that he could outrun the figures that chased him now, not that it stopped him from trying. They may be faster then him, but on occasion he would manage to find a hiding spot to duck into without them seeing, managing to escape. But most of the time he wasn't so lucky.

Always the same. Always a home that was never truly safe. A home that never truly felt like home. People who never truly loved you, even though they were supposed to from the moment you were born. The same thing going through Brown's head every single time.

Yet again he asked himself the same question that he always asked himself when this happened. Why do our parents hate us so much? But Brown already knew the answer. He had tried to believe that his parents were just using tough love, but he learned in a rather harsh way that they had only been born to be used as slaves. Brown, being the oldest by about five years, had managed to learn this early enough, while also having gone through enough to know that he needed to protect his siblings at all costs.

Brown loved his siblings more than anything. They meant the world to him and he would do anything to keep them safe. Anything to make sure that they would get away from this cruel place that they call home.

He could easily get out of this kind of trouble simply by letting either Copper or Umber get caught instead of him. But Brown would never do that in a million years, even if it would cost him his life. Each of his siblings only got caught once, both times he hadn't been there to protect them until just at the last moment. They were only ever to be punished for two reasons. One was if they did something that was believed to be wrong and two if their parents had drank enough alcohol to decide that they wanted to beat them for no real reason.

Copper had once had to carry something too heavy for him to carry on his own, Brown couldn't remember what it was, but Copper had dropped it and it broke. It must have had a lot of value to it by how angry their parents were. Brown came home to see his parents seconds away from pressing a red hot branding to Copper's face. Brown had stopped it and managed to hide Copper before anything else could happen to him, but Brown had paid the price. A scar was left on his upper thigh from where they pressed the brand onto him instead.

Umber had it even worse. Their parents had a friend over who was just as awful as they were. They had sent Brown to go get something from the store and they themselves went to the liquor store, knowing that Brown wouldn't be able to get alcohol for them since he was underage, or at least he thought that they had left. Copper, Umber and their parent's friend stayed at home.

Brown got back to find that his parents were allowing their friend to touch Umber in places that were private and had just started shoving his fingers in her hole, moments away from raping her. Seeing red, Brown had picked up the nearest object and had whacked him with it to get him away from Umber before picking her up and running to hide her before anything else could happen. Once again Brown paid the price. Not only did his parents beat him until he could barely sum up the mental will to move his battered body, but they allowed their friend to rape him instead.

At the very least Brown never saw his parents friend ever again. They must have decided that they weren't gonna have him deal with the same issues again. Or maybe he just didn't want to get whacked again. Either way, it was the only good outcome from that mess.

This time there would be major trouble. Brown had finally managed to get the one thing that they needed more than anything. A way out while sticking together. They had wanted to leave while also avoiding the foster system. Brown, Copper and Umber were just starting to pack up to leave when their parents came home and found out what they were doing.

Brown had only just barely managed to hide Copper and Umber without his parents knowing where exactly they were, but now that meant that he would get the beating of a lifetime instead of them. Brown had only just managed to jump out of the window and get safely off the roof before his parents caught him, but now he had to run through the woods to get away.

Brown ran as fast as he possibly could, jumping over and swerving around and away from any obstacles that he came across. There were a few hiding spots that he passed by, but he couldn't use them since they were hiding spots he had used before where he had been found, so he just kept on running. The crunch of the leaves, the wind blowing, twigs snapping, fast footsteps, heavy breathing, all of it was all that Brown could hear.

His body started to scream in protest at how fast and long he was running for, but he didn't even slow down. And then he saw it. A hiding spot where even if his parents saw him go in then they couldn't possibly reach him. It was a small cave. Too small for someone full grown to get into, but it was small enough for Brown to get into.

He ran just a little bit faster to get to it. His heart was racing, his breathing fast, he was almost there when he suddenly felt a hand catch his arm and cause him to stop so abruptly that he fell backwards. They had caught him, and right before he had reached safety.

"You little brat! You really think that we'll let you just leave?! We have been nice for far too long! It's about time that you learned your place!" His mother screamed at him. They both took one of his arms each and dragged him back to home. The entire way back they remained silent. Silence was never a good thing when they were angry.

Once they got home they dragged him into the basement. Another thing that was never good when his parents were angry. The basement was mostly empty, if you didn't count a handful devices used for torture while few other items had other purposes. The basement had floor and walls, a smell of dust clung to the air. He was brought to the very middle of the basement before his father pinned him abruptly to the ground while his mother took the rope that was hanging from the wall.

While he was pinned his mother tied his arms and legs together, making sure to tie it tight enough that it would hurt. Once she was done then his face stopped holding Brown down. If he was tied up and in the basement then that only meant one thing. Torture.

His father picked up a cloth and roughly grabbed Brown's head and tied it to gag him with it. The moment that his father took his hands away he felt a sharp blade into his back right shoulder, making him let out a muffled scream. He had been so focused on what his father was doing that he didn't notice that his mother had grabbed a knife to stab him with. The stab was deep, but only deep enough to leave a scar, which by now Brown knew how to recognize how deep the blade would have to go to do the worst damage, which was a terrible thing to have learned.

Brown felt the knife start to cut along his skin, leaving what would definitely be lines of scars. It took a moment before he realized that she was writing something in his own flesh. He prayed to the animators that she wasn't writing her own name, because that would mean that his parents were about to torture so horribly that he might die from it.

He just wished that he could have just managed to get out of this hell with Copper and Umber before they had gotten back home, because then this torture wouldn't be happening. Then they would be on their way to a better place. Then they wouldn't be hiding away, wondering what was happening to him.

It was at that moment that he realized that his father had turned the furnace on, and that meant only one thing. They were going to heat up a branding until it was red hot and press it onto him, or if it was a knife then cut his skin with it.

Brown didn't have time to dwell on that, because now his parents were starting to cut him with cuts that were deep enough to leave a scar. He bit down on the cloth that gagged him, refusing to scream. His pain tolerance had risen thanks to all the torture and beatings, but that didn't mean that it wasn't still very painful.

Brown's mind started to get too hazy for any clear thoughts to form, the blades that cut him stinging. While he didn't process it, Brown could see two different metal shafts in the furnace, but even if he could think clearly then he wouldn't have had a clue as to why there were two brands, although one looked more like an ice pick that was an inch thick.

Although he got his answer after half an hour, or maybe it was five minutes? He couldn't keep track of time anymore. His father picked up the handle or the metal that looked like an ice pick. The end of the shaft was sharp, at least it looked like it was supposed to be sharp, but it was more dull now, if it ever was sharper then it was now.

His father walked up to him while his mother held him down. Brown thought that they were going to brand him with a mark of a reminder not to try to run away. He couldn't have been more wrong.

He felt the hot, sharp metal start to be driven into his knee at an angle so that it would go into his thigh. This was worse than anything that they had done before, and this time, Brown screamed in pain. Steam rose from his knee where his blood had been boiled, the agony he was in beyond what he had ever felt before.

Tears started to stream down his face. The pain was too much, even after everything that he's been through. But he was grateful that Copper and Umber wouldn't have to go through this. As he rushed them to their hiding place then he had told them that if he didn't return in twenty minutes to take their things and go into the woods and if he wasn't at the rendezvous spot by late dawn the next morning then they should assume that he isn't going and to just save themselves.

While Brown knew that they would be scared then if they knew the full extent of what his parents do to him when he stops his siblings from getting hurt by them, or when he himself gets into trouble, then they would have tried to save him. But he knew that it would be a lost cause. They would most certainly end up getting punished themselves.

He barely even noticed his father pulling the ice pick looking metal back out of his knee. The hot metal had forced the blood to clot, so if any blood dripped from the wound then there was so little that Brown didn't even notice. Neither of his parents made a move to pick up another blade and instead his father tossed the metal shaft aside and helped his mother drag him to the far corner of the basement.

Brown calmed at this, believing that the torture was finally over. Believing that he could just lay in the corner and sleep until he felt well enough to try and make another escape. Once again, he couldn't have been more wrong.

His mother took the rope that tied his hands together and undid the knot, redoing it again, but this time so that his left arm was tied to his side and his rig arm was free. He knew better than to fight back though. At this point that would just piss his parents off and make them continue on in torturing him.

His mother put his arm up on the small wooden table that laying that corner of the room so that his arm rested completely flat on the table. Brown's arm was held firmly still, keeping him from moving it by his mother. He could hear his father walk to another part of the room and pick something up. He assumed it was something else to add to his torture, but he couldn't predict what exactly it was.

Once again, he got his answer when a very sharp piece of metal, most likely an axe, came down hard almost on his shoulder, chopping his right arm clean off. For a just a single moment Brown just remained still and silent, too shocked by what had just been done to respond. But after what felt like an eternity, but was likely only a few seconds, he started to scream, both from the pain and the horror at what had been done to him.

Blood was pouring from the wound, enough that was going to lead to Brown bleeding out if the bleeding wasn't stopped. But then he felt something hot where his arm used to be, as hot as the burning ice pick like tool that had been stuck in his knee. He screamed at the pain, streaming rising from the stump.

When the hot feeling left he turned to see that his father had taken the branding out of the fire, which had been used to press onto his wound to clot the blood. A genius strategy to keep Brown alive while also getting rid of any need to go to a hospital.

Without warning his father swiftly tossed the branding aside, picked him up and threw him to the middle of the room. Brown landed with a thud, dazed and hurt by the landing. "You will be staying in here until you learn your lesson you brat! And your bratty siblings will be getting as much as we have given to you!" His father hissed as both his parents stomped back up the stairs and slammed the door shut before locking it.

Brown didn't move, not that he could move if he even tried. He felt weaker than he ever had before. His body hurt, his heart hurt, everything just hurt. If it weren't for his siblings then Brown would have killed himself a long time ago. He stuck around because his siblings needed him, and they didn't deserve to live the life of suffering that they had.

But now he knew that his siblings would go on without him. They had tried before to see if they could protect him, but he made sure that they would never do that again. He made it very clear that it was hopeless trying to protect him. There was no point in more than one of them getting hurt. Brown made them promise that they would never do that ever again, even if it meant that he would die. He had them to make this promise in such a way where he deceived them into believing that his punishments weren't so harsh as they thought.

Pain. That's all that Brown felt. Pain from the torture that he had endured. Pain from what his parents had done and that he had to leave his siblings to go off on their own. Pain from having to live a life of suffering while carrying the weight for two other lives. Pain from everything in his life. The only thing that hadn't brought him pain was his siblings, at least not directly.

He loved Copper and Umber more than anything. They had no idea how much he had been through to shield them from the trauma, from the abuse, from the torture. Tears streamed down Brown's face as he thought of how they would react once they learned about what happened to him today. They would be so devastated, and this time there was no way for Brown to hide what had happened to him.

Brown started to feel faint, feeling blackness slip up on him. At first he thought that he was losing consciousness. But that was until he realized that he was starting to feel... cold. If that didn't tell him that he wasn't just losing consciousness then what did was that the blackness didn't feel painful, it felt inviting. As if to say that the pain would soon be over... forever.

Brown wanted to fight it, he really did, but he didn't have any fight left in him. Copper and Umber were safe and sound, he knew that because he would have heard one or both of them screaming by now if his parents had managed to find them. Brown had managed to have a plan set and written down, leaving it with them in case something happened to him. They would be alright.

Besides, it wouldn't really be much of a life anymore with all the injuries that had been inflicted on him. His right hand was his dominant hand, but now he would never be able to use it again. He would likely never be able to walk properly ever again thanks to the hot metal ice pick like device that had been driven into his leg.

Brown felt the blackness creep over him, the dark and cold feeling as inviting as ever, and he submitted to it. His final thoughts of how he finally managed to get Copper and Umber out of this hell.

Brown awoke to find himself trapped inside a room that looked exactly the same as the basement he had been in, with the only difference being that there was nothing at all in this room, not even the furnace.

Brown sat up, confused as to why nothing was there. Then the memories started to flood back. As he looked at himself he suddenly became even more confused than ever. He was completely unharmed, no wound on his knee, both his arms were still there, but most importantly of all that there were no scars to speak of on his entire body.

It was like someone had gone back in time and stopped his parents from ever laying a hand on him. That's when he noticed one noticeable difference to the room that told him that he was not in the same place. There was a door where the stairs should be.

Brown tried to open the door, but it wouldn't budge. It was stuck, locked. He decided to wait it out, hoping that someone, anyone, would find him, and hopefully before he starved to death. Little did he know that one of the most powerful beings that he would ever meet would be one of those to find him.

This life that he lived. It's so depressing. I am truly great full that he gets a second chance. I know he will miss his siblings, who wouldn't with the bond that they shared? But I know that they are safe. They did indeed manage to escape.

They returned a few years later, when they were old enough to realize that Brown most likely was still trapped and to go in and save him. Both parents had accidentally gotten themselves killed when Copper and Umber returned with weapons to defend themselves if necessary, and neither death was their fault.

They were devastated to find Brown's body in the basement. Due to the air flow in the basement his body had been mummified, so they could tell that it was his body right away. They could see their mother's name carved into his back and an anthropologist determined that time of death was the very same day that they had ran away.

Copper and Umber lived wonderful lives otherwise and they mourned for their brother who had protected them through it all. Brown had carried the weight for them, and he paid the ultimate price.

I wish that I could tell them that their brother is living a new life in a reincarnation of himself. I wish that I could tell Brown that his siblings are doing just fine. But I can't tell them. Not yet. Someday I will be able to tell them without something bad happening as the outcome of speaking up. But for now I must live with the knowledge that both Brown and his siblings are living far better lives now.

Reliable old Brown. I will always have respect for you. For everything that you've done in this life and the previous one. Always know that you will have me, The Pure One, there to shed light on your life. To give you light so that you may be able to smile more, smile a genuine smile. One day you will know.