Small Ant, Big Heart

My alternate End to A Bug's Life. Not pretty, but it came to me while watching the movie and I just rolled with the idea.
Characters and situations belong, respectively, to Disney and Pixar, not me. Thank You. Inspired by another "Hopper wins"
fic in this category, thought up while I was watching the movie. --

Hopper leapt in front of Flik, startling him and reeling him backward.

"H-Hopper!"

The grasshopper snarled at him. "You think it's OVER??" He yelled, backing Flik into a corner. Flik raised his arms to his face defensively.

"N-no, no, please, Hopper." He begged.

From behind the rock, Atta watched the scene in horror.

"Please," she whispered, "Whatever you have planned, please, Flik, do it now."

Hopper lurched forward, grasping Flik's neck tight, and began to strangle him fiercely.

"I'll get more grasshoppers and be back next season, but you won't!" He seethed.

Flik gasped for air, struggling to remove Hopper's powerful grip, but to no avail. Even though it was well into night, Flik's vision began to blur and become more and more dark by the second. He felt suddenly lightheaded, as his nemesis glared down at him, bloodthirsty and vengeful. Slowly a tear escaped Flik's eye and trickled down his cheek.

'No,' Flik thought to himself, closing his eyes tight, 'I can't die, not now...I swore I'd save you, Atta...The colony.
all of you who believed in me...so...dark...no! Atta, I...I love...you..."

Slowly Flik's eyelids fluttered, until he stopped moving altogether.Atta gave a strangled cry, which caught Hopper's attention. Atta leapt out from behind the rock and, with tears stinging her eyes, attacked Hopper, who dropped Flik's lifeless body.

"Damn you!" She screamed, her voice echoing across the hills.

But before either could land their first blow, a distinctive chirp diverted their attention to the nest behind Hopper, where a very large bird landed and eyed the insects hungrily. Atta jumped out of the way just in time as the bird struck down and caught Hopper in its beak, carrying him off kicking and screaming to where her hungry babies cheeped inmatiently and dropped him into their awaiting beaks.

In the distance, the Queen and her council (Thorney, the Old Ant, Dr. Flora and Mr. Soil) were shouting for Atta and Flik, as were the Circus Bugs.

Rain continued to pour down mercilessly, as Atta ran to Flik's lifeless body. Gently she picked him up and began to sob uncontrollably.

"Flik! Please, no! Flik, please, open your eyes!" She continued to sob, clutching his lifeless body close to her own. "Oh, if only we had listened to you, Flik...You'd still be here, and Hopper would be gone. Oh, Flik, I'm so sorry I doubted you. Please, please forgive me." She hung her head and cried softly.

The bushes nearby rustled slightly, as Francis, Dr. Flora, Thorney and Slim appeared, stopping cold in their tracks when they found Atta and Flik, gasping in disbelief.

"Oh no..." Thorney whispered. Dr. Flora started to weep softly, and he comforted her, as Slim stood in place, sobbing openly. Francis knelt by the princess' side and comforted her, as the Queen's voice ehcoed in the distance. Francis looked up.

"Over...over here, Your Majesty." Francis shouted, barely able to keep his voice together. A moment later they were joined by The Queen, Dot, Rosie and Mr. Soil, who were equally shocked. Dot tried to peek her head through the crowd, but Rosie gently picked her up and carried her away from the grim scene without a word. Francis saluted Flik solumnly, saying a silent prayer, as they all joined in.

One Year Later

Dot poked her head out of the tunnel, and saw her sister sitting on top of a hill, where the Offering Stone used to be.
In its place the Ants and Circus Bugs had built a statue of Flik to honor his memory and brave heroism in saviing the colony from the tyranny of Hopper's malice.

"Hey, you okay sis?" She smiled weakly at the elder ant. Atta smiled and hugged Dot close.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Just...sad." Dot pulled away and met her sister's eyes.

"I know it's hard...he's been gone a whole year now. But you hafta remember, he freed us from Hopper, and-"

Atta laughed. "Yeah, I know all that. But knowing what he did, and how we took him for granted...just makes me so..."
She sighed, and stared off into the distance again. Dot looked down over the hill, where Thorney lead a group pf harvesters picking grain. Not the old-fashioned way, but the way Flik had inspired, his invention.

"Dot?" Atta looked at her sister tearfully.

"Yeah?"

She hesitated a moment. "Do...do you think I'm doing as good a job as Mom was? As Queen, I mean."

Dot laughed. "Of course, you dork. Why would I think otherwise." Atta laughed with her, then frowned.

"I miss her."

"yeah, me too. Can't believe she left us so soon after Flik did. Kind of a double blow, dontcha think?"

Atta slowly nodded. "Yeah, but ya gotta move on. That's what Francis told us."

Dot slowly nodded. They said they'd come back around this way with their circus sometime next month, didn't they?" her face looked hopeful, and Atta smiled gently at her, nodding.

"Your majesties, lunch is ready." Mr. Soil called from the top of the anthill. The girls stood up and wandered toward their home, until Dot stopped for a second. Atta looked behind her at Dot, curiously.

"Dot?"

The smaller Ant grabbed a rock from the ground and placed it beneath Flik's statue, then ran back to Atta's awaiting arms.
The two embraced, looking back at the statue sadly one last time before disappearing into the ant hill, where they knew they were safe from oppression, because of Flik.

FIN

A.N. Awwww wasn't that just sad and sweet? Hope you like, please respond if ya did, I'd love to hear feedback. Peace.