[Orange Steve's POV]

I try to ignore the sore pain in my chest as I walk up the school's main pathway, wishing I didn't have to come in today. But most of the week has already been canceled, and even though next week is the last week of the year, the school still wants us to have as much time to prep for finals as possible. At least it's Friday.

As I'm internally telling myself to pretend it's not there, Funny suddenly runs up to me with the rest of my friends walking behind him.

"Dude!" He practically yells in my ear.

"Wha-"

I'm interrupted when he backhands my chest, knocking the wind out of me. I stop and just stand there for a moment, while the rest of the group catches up to me and Funny.

"Oh crap, you okay?" Funny asks. "I didn't hit you too hard, did I?"

"Uh, Orange? A wimp slap like that doesn't usually faze you." Jade says, ignoring Funny glaring at him for a second. "You good?"

"Yeah, I just- I did something stupid yesterday and I'm still feeling it." I groan, standing up straight. "I'm good."

"You sure?" LC asks. "You look like you just ran a five-mile."

"Yes, I'm sure. Quit worrying about me." I say, smiling.

I then look over at Funny. As soon as he notices I'm staring at him, I jokingly punch him in the shoulder. However, it looks like I accidentally hit harder than I meant to.

"YEOW- OKAY, CHILL!" Funny exclaims, rubbing his opposite hand over the spot I punched him. "Man, that hurt. Did I really hit you that hard?"

"Whoops, sorry dude." I say.

"Nah, it's fine. I did the same thing first." He chuckles.

"Have any of you seen Sienna yet?" Happy asks the group.

"Nope." I say.

"Uh- Why?" Dark replies.

"Ohhh yeah, he is messed. Up." Funny says. "Happy and I saw him while we were out getting our dad lunch since he was busy running his store."

"What happened to him?" Jade asks. "You're making it sound dramatic."

"Hard not to when his jaw was wired shut!"

We all say a variation of 'what', and Happy starts explaining.

"Yeah, apparently the dislocation thing was pretty bad. He was stuck drinking some sort of blended food with a straw, and he looked miserable." Happy starts. "And his face- Man! He looked like he got hit by a truck! Y'know you gave him a black eye, Orange?"

"Eye for an eye." I laugh.

"That's what I said!" Funny exclaims.

"Hey Loud, you're being surprisingly quiet about this. Something up?" Jade asks Loud, who's been glancing around the whole time.

"You guys are seriously still talking about Sienna when there's a murderer and an undead person walking around?!" Loud says, looking nervous. "Either of them could be walking around town right now! Heck, maybe they're in the school! What if the killer can control the undead and starts the zombie apocalypse right here?!"

"Dude, this isn't s-some cheap zombie flick. We'll be fine." Shy says, rolling his eyes. "Pretty sure i-it'd be obvious if the rogue soul was around."

"Yeah, the few Blue Steves in the area would probably be able to sense him." Nerdy adds. "And there's no such thing as actual necromancy, you've just been playing too many wizard games."

"You don't know that for sure!" Loud says as we enter the school.

"Well, it'd still be pretty obvious." Dark says.

I just stay silent the entire time they debate that. I don't want to talk about the uh- situation with that. I might accidentally make myself look guilty. Which I kind of am, but I just don't want anybody knowing about that- but what if they find out-

No. Stop thinking like that, Orange. I just need to act natural and everything will be fine. Just pretend everything's all good and normal. Just-

"Orange, what do you think?" Happy asks me.

"Huh-?"

"Head out of the clouds, man. You think the rogue soul is somewhere here?"

"Well- Probably not." I answer. "I mean, someone who just came back from the dead would probably freak out and try to hide somewhere else, right?"

"Like a fugitive? Nah, he's probably hiding in the woods." Funny says. "Can't be found if nobody has contact with him."

"I still think he's hiding in plain sight." Loud huffs.

"Or maybe the rogue soul didn't actually go back to his real body, and possessed somebody else's." LC says with a scary grin.

We all visibly cringe at the thought of that.

"Dude, quit trying to scare us. That's not funny." Dark sighs.

"Y-Yeah, just the idea of that is- eugh! Don't even wanna think about it!" Shy shudders, while Jade has a look of horror next to him.

"I'm just saying! Maybe the rogue soul and the murder are sort of unrelated and the soul just took advantage of the free body!"

"Stop. Just stop." Happy facepalms.

They continue to bicker about the rogue soul, and it all kind of fades into the background. However, after about a minute something feels... off. It's my eye, it's like it sort of... itches? But not?

I quickly excuse myself to stop at the bathroom. Luckily, when I step inside, it's empty. Everybody must be too busy talking about the soul.

I walk up to the mirror, and just look at myself for a second. Jeez, LC was right. I look exhausted. Guess that's what happens when you-

OH SHOOT MY EYES ARE GLOWING.

I glance away for one second, and when I look back my eyes have started to glow a bright orange. I panic, which makes them glow brighter.

After a few seconds of quickly pacing around I turn back to the mirror and focus. Calm down. Think. Panicking is just making it worse, so I just need to chill out for a second...

I nervously stare at the mirror as I take deep breaths, hoping this works. Otherwise I am very much screwed.

Thankfully, the glowing starts to dim, then stops. I take a sigh of relief as I step back.

...Aaaaand I have crushed the sides of the sink. Great.

Why does acting natural have to suddenly be so difficult?

—————————————————————————————————————

This school day has absolutely not gone as planned.

After the incident with the bathroom sink, I proceeded to crush three doorknobs and act like it wasn't me, break half of my pencils while trying to write, tried to flip a coin and got it stuck in the ceiling tile, bent a stair railing, snapped a corner of a desk off, and dented a hallway wall when I ran into it.

And the day's only halfway over.

Sitting with my friends at lunch, they're still going on about the murder and the soul. I guess that's fair, it's pretty shocking it would happen, but it just gives me anxiety.

I was absentmindedly eating my little bag of chips when Shy tapped my shoulder. I look at him, and he's holding up a bottle of soda.

"H-Hey, can you open this? I c-can't get a good enough grip on the cap, I-It's really stubborn." He says quietly, not wanting to interrupt everyone else's conversation.

"Yeah, I've gotcha." I say, taking the bottle.

I almost spill the soda everywhere from how easy it was to open it. Luckily, it was just a few drops. I hand the soda and the cap back to Shy.

"Wh- H-How'd you open it so e-easily?" Shy says, glancing between me and the bottle.

"Dunno. Maybe you just loosened it." I reply, knowing darn well why. It's been happening all day.

"Hey Orange, can you get mine too?" LC asks across from me, handing me a sports drink.

I nod, and do the same. Except this time... I spill it all over me. Crud.

"Shoot- Sorry man. I'll buy you a new one." I say, quickly standing up and putting the kinda crushed plastic bottle down as the rest of my friends start to laugh a bit. Dark hands me some napkins.

"It's fine, I can get myself another one. Just go clean up." LC replies, laughing.

"Good thing it was just your shirt, other you would've looked like you-" Funny starts, but Happy flicks his ear before he finishes. "Ow! What?!"

"What are you, five?"

"Still older than you, that's what."

"By two minutes!"

"Two minutes too slow!"

"I'll show you slow-!"

Jade starts telling off the twins as they start to shove each other, and I leave just as Happy pulls Funny's hood over his head. Last I saw, Shy, Nerdy, and Dark were scooting away a little, while Loud and LC egg on one twin each.

Since the bathroom next to the cafeteria is crowded, I opt to go to the next closest one in the main hallway. It's a bit more of a walk, but it's better than a bunch of other guys using a stall as a mini fighting ring. And probably cleaner, too.

Just like earlier, it's empty. I grab a few paper towel from the dispenser while I throw away the soggy napkins, and start to wipe off my shirt.

Just as I finish drying up as much as I can, I get that weird feeling in my eyes again. Glancing up to the mirror, I watch as they brighten again.

"No no no no no..." I mumble, walking closer to the mirror and focusing again.

It stops faster than last time, thankfully. However, when I look down I see there's a bunch of cobblestone formed on the sink where my hands were touching it. I quickly let go, the splotches of rock stopping from growing as soon as I do, but now there's moss growing on them...

...I'm just gonna... leave. I'm not dealing with this.

Making my way back to the cafeteria, I pass by Ember in the hallway. He's a little bruised from our scuffle last time we saw each other, and he's definitely still mad about it. Ember glares at me as soon as he sees me. I, of course, glare at him right back, but when I do he suddenly looks scared and starts walking faster, soon past me.

...Weird.

When I get back to my friends, LC's already got a new drink and must've gotten somebody else to open it. Jade is still mediating between the twins. Everyone else is still laughing at the twins' antics.

At least everything feels normal around them.

—————————————————————————————————————

I finally get home, glad that it's already the weekend.

Gerald, like always, runs up to me and starting oinking at me for carrots. I laugh at his impatience and crouch down to pet him.

"Everything's still the same with you, huh?" I chuckle, scratching Gerald behind the ears. He snorts and runs into the kitchen.

I set my bag down once I get up, and as I'm following Gerald I glance at the couch. Sabre's still there, out like a light. Dad was worried about him waking up while we were gone and freaking out this morning, but judging from how tangled the blanket he has is now, nothing's changed. That means he's been sleeping since he did whatever he did to save me the other day...

My concern is cut short by Gerald headbutting my leg. I look down and see his grumpy little face staring up at me.

"Alright, alright. I'll get your carrots. Chill." I tell him.

Gerald follows me to the fridge, and excitedly jumps around while I pick a few of the yellow carrots out of the bag. He takes the weirdly colored veggies and trots over to his little bed beside the fridge, already munching on them.

I walk back into the living room and kick off my shoes, sitting down on the couch. Today has been stressful enough, not even counting how I'm still hurting from the incident, and I'm gonna have to deal with everybody focusing on the situation with the 'rogue soul' for about... two weeks, judging by how other big incidents have passed by. Neat.

I was looking around for the TV remote when I heard Sabre mumble something.

Freezing for a moment, I look at him. He's moving around a little.

"...Sabre?" I say, getting up and moving to stand by him.

He lifts his head a little bit, still mumbling quietly.

"Sabre? You okay?" I ask, shaking him a bit.

Sabre suddenly sits up, panicked. The damp cloth that Red had put on his head to cool him down slides off and plops on the floor.

"O-Orange?!" He exclaims, although doesn't yell. "You- Where-?!"

He sways a bit as he hangs onto the back of the couch for support. I stop him from falling off, and he looks at me, starting to calm down.

"Sabre, it's okay. I'm right here." I reassure him. "You saved me- somehow. You're back home."

He glances around for a second, his panicked breathing slowing down as he recognizes his surroundings. Sabre then looks at me again.

"You... you're okay...?" Sabre says, starting to get quiet again.

"Yeah, mostly. What did you-"

"And... Gold..."

"Gold ran off after he shot me. Dunno where exactly, but he's probably back at his house now. Far from here. Sabre-"

"M'kay..."

He starts to fall back on the couch.

"Wait Sabre don't-" I start.

Too late, he's laid back down and already passed out. Shoot. There goes my chance of getting answers.

I sigh, and remember the cloth on the floor. I pick it up and walk back to the kitchen, this time going to the sink. I make sure it's on cold water, dampen the cloth again, wring it out, and walk back to the living room and put it back on Sabre's head. He's still sick, and probably needs all the help he can get without risking using our medicines on him. Red told me that this morning.

I return to my spot on the couch and sit down again, this time successfully finding the remote. Turning on the TV, I also take out my phone and scroll through a few news articles.

Everybody's freaking out over the 'rogue soul', including outside Prismir. Some scammers are already making headlines claiming to be it, there's a bunch of different interviews with everybody involved, there's a few statements from Prismir's Leaders (Mostly Saffron), there's a few videos of conspiracy theorists claiming it's aliens or something else crazy, and everything else is people wondering what the heck is going on.

Apparently there's already been teams of people trying to identify anything at the scene a few blocks away-

"Orange? You home?" Red calls out as the front door opens.

"Yep." I answer, shutting off my phone. "Hey dad."

Red smiles when he sees me. He puts his work bag next to my backpack and sits down next to me on the couch.

"Slow day today. I think everyone's paranoid." He says.

"Hard not to be in this kind of situation." I sigh.

"Fair enough..."

We're silent for a little bit.

As Red goes to say something, there's a knock on the door. I pause the TV and quickly get up, covering Sabre with a throw blanket hanging on the back of the couch.

"Just a moment!" Red calls out. He motions for me to sit back down, so I do.

Red opens the door, and there's a cop standing there with two more behind him.

Their pristine, white uniforms are decorated with silver badges. The one in front is a lieutenant, while the two behind him are normal officers. They all have stern looks.

"Oh- Good evening, sirs." Red greets them. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"Yes. You know of the investigation going on in the nearby forest, correct?" The lieutenant asks.

"Of course I do." Red answers as I lean to the side a little to get a better look at the cops.

"Well, during a search of the area, we found this." The lieutenant says, as one of the officers hands him something.

He holds it up, and it's Red's now destroyed favorite birdfeeder.

"After some asking around and fingerprint identification, we've come to the conclusion that it may belong to you. Does it?"

"Yes, actually, but I have no idea what it was doing there." Red answers, taking the wrecked bunch of metal and plastic. "It went missing the other day, and my son found a hole in the fence near where it was. I just thought that some animal wandered off with it."

"That's the theory, since a few raccoons were crowding it when we found it, but just had to make sure." The lieutenant says. "If you don't mind me asking, where were you and your son the night the incident happened?"

"I was at an overnight meeting, I only got back yesterday morning. My son was meeting with his friends, and then came home. I have security camera footage to prove either, if you need it."

"No need-"

Everybody is startled by a familiar annoying voice yelling from across the street.

"YOU'RE IN FOR IT NOW, BLOOD-SKIN! THEY'RE GONNA GIVE YOU WHAT YOU DESERVE!"

Darrel.

"Excuse me for a moment-" Red says quickly while turning to yell back at Darrel. "KNOCK IT OFF, DARREL. THAT'S NOTHING LIKE WHAT THIS IS ABOUT."

"Does he do this often-?" The lieutenant asks Red.

"Very."

"Hey, isn't that the guy I arrested for trespassing on this property three months ago?" One of the officers says. "I knew this street was familiar."

"Officer Amber?" Red asks.

"Yes, sir. Glad to see you're doing okay, mister-"

"YOU KEEP THAT COCKY ATTITUDE NOW, BUT WHEN YOU GET WHAT'S COMING YOU'LL BE SORRY!" Darrel interrupts.

"Oh my- SIR, IF YOU CONTINUE THIS, WE CAN AND WILL ARREST YOU FOR INTERFERENCE OF THE LAW." The lieutenant shouts at him.

I guess Darrel shut up and went back inside his house, because after a minute the cops turn back to dad.

"I'm so sorry about that, Lieutenant. Darrel's a bit of trouble, as you can probably tell." Red says.

"It's alright. Crazy neighbors, we get it." The lieutenant says. "Surprised you know police ranks, people usually assume I'm a detective."

"Eh, used to work a security job. It was part of the requirement." Red smiles.

"Anyway, I was going to ask you if you had anyone that could confirm your statement."

"Oh yes, just ask any of my brothers, I asked them to check on the house while Crystal was with his friends. Here, I have their numbers." Red says, handing the officers a piece of paper. "And my son, you could ask any of his friends' families. Mr. Ino, Mr. Leroy, Mr. Clementine, Doctor Fern, Leader Saffron-"

"Hold on, your son is friends with Leader Saffron's kid?"

"Yes, have you met Shy? Such a sweet kid, really. Just a little nervous around people is all."

"I have, he watched my nephew for the summer last year. He's gonna do great once his father needs to pass the title."

"He really will. Is there anything else you need me for?"

"No sir, that'll be all. Have a good night."

"You too."

Red shuts the door once the cops start to walk away, and as soon as it's closed he takes a deep breath and wipes sweat off his forehead.

"Aaand that's how you talk to the cops, kiddo." He says as he walks back to the couch.

"Did you actually ask any of your brothers to check on the house the other day-?" I ask.

"Of course not, but I know they'd confirm my alibi for me. Did the same for them." Red says as he takes out his phone and starts texting Uncle Sharp.

"...Dad, you do realize that you just told me that you've lied to the cops for your friends, right?"

Red freezes.

"..."

"...Red-"

"Story for another time, buddy." Red says, putting his phone away. "Now, um... you were gonna ask me something?"

We just awkwardly stare for a moment. After a minute, I sigh and stare at the floor.

"Dad... what if they find out who the soul is?" I ask. "What are they gonna do to me...? I... I shouldn't be alive right now. And them finding out it was me would also mean them finding out about Sabre-"

Red hugs me tight, interrupting me. As he nestles my head on his shoulder, I return the hug and carefully hold him the same, starting to cry. He runs a hand through my hair for a little bit before responding.

"...They're not going to. And if somehow, by some rotten luck they do, I will never let them take you away from me. I promise you."

Red hugs me a little tighter.

"They won't take you..."

He holds on for a long time before he lets go. When he does, I wipe the tears from my face and look up at him. His face... he looks sad. After a minute he brightens up a little and puts a hand on my shoulder.

"Hey, remember what I've always told you to do when you're scared about something, right?" He smiles slightly.

Red reaches for my crystal pendant, and holds the beautiful stone in front of me. I take it from his hand.

"You hold that crystal close to you, and don't let go."

"You've been telling me that since I was little..." I say, smiling a bit. "How come?"

He's quiet for a moment, and avoids eye contact. Eventually, he just stares at the floor with his hands folded in his lap.

"...Because... your father told me to tell you that."

—————————————————————————————————————

[3rd Person POV]

Sharp walked down the hall towards the dining room, as he read a text from his brother.

"Hey Beef, heads up." He calls out as he enters the room. "Some cops might come by soon to ask us some stuff and we need to cover for-"

"Hello, Sharp."

"Hey Sharp."

Two familiar voices greet him.

Sharp looks up to see Spark and Garnet sitting at the table with Beef, who was clearly grinning under the veil.

"Hey, Sharp." His hoarse voice carried across the room. "Sorry, forgot to tell ya we got some visitors."

"Spark, Boss!" Sharp smiles as he quickly walks over and hugs the two guests.

"How many times do I have to tell all of you, you don't have to call me 'Boss' anymore." Garnet chuckles. "You haven't worked with me in years!"

"Buddy, we've called you 'Boss' waaaayyyy before we worked with you." Sharp says with a joking smirk. "No point in stopping then, and definitely not now."

"Yeah, can't deny it now." Spark smiles.

"Also, I'm still salty about having to be in care before you old man, so deal with it." Beef laughs.

"Touché, hive hands."

"Hey, Goggles put that dummy over that beehive-"

"What are you both doing here?" Sharp asks. "Usually you give a heads up before dropping in. Also, Spark, you've been taking your medications right-?"

"Yes, yes, you already nag me about it over text." Spark rolls his eyes, but still smiles. "Don't worry."

"Well... it's about what happened the other night in Sunset Shores." Garnet says, his mood shifting.

His serious expression changes the tone of everyone in the room.

"What is it? Have you gotten new information from Heavensend?" Sharp asks, his expression now stone-cold instead of the usual welcoming grin.

"Yes. Despite the Middle World's chaos during it and how he's been detached since... then, he's got some news."

"Spies of him were found snooping where they shouldn't have. He's after the Runaway."