Tom had a look of pure shock on his face as he listened to Tord's offer.
"Are you insane?! What do you take me for?!" Tom shouted.
"Thomas please calm down," Tord sighed.
"Calm down?! You burst into MY personal paradise, then start making offers that-" Tord walked over to Tom, gently grabbing his shoulders. Tom looked up at Tord, surprised by the gesture.
"Please Tom, you can't tell me you haven't noticed," Tord pleaded.
"Noticed what?"
"You've felt weird since you were rescued haven't you?" Tord asked. Weird...? That was one way to describe it. Tom had felt many things since being rescued. Guilt, paranoia, and a bizarre sense of longing. Wait, did Tord feel conflicted too?
"And how exactly would this help either of us?" Tom asked quietly. The employee kept writing what she was hearing. This was great! She could make a book about this! So long as no one steals the idea from her first like all of her other past ideas. Maybe change a few bits here and there though? She looked down at what she had written so far. She could edit the deal to make a little more sense, I mean it was pretty cheesy. Tord had invited Tom to come back to red base with him, this time not as a prisoner, but as a guest. A couple of days, that's all he wanted. If they couldn't sort out their emotions by then, Tord would let Tom go. He wouldn't even go after him.
"We can finally sort our feelings out," Tord begged.
"Shut up commie! I don't want to go anywhere with you! This stupid feud already got an innocent girl killed!" Tom cried.
"Innocent girl? You mean the seamstress? She isn't dead Thomas."
"W-What?"
"I mean... She nearly did, but our medic got to her in time. Besides, what do you mean 'this stupid feud'? Our feud had nothing to do with what happened to the seamstress! She was just in the way at the wrong time!"
"Oh my god! Do you even hear yourself right now?! You're a monster! Why would I ever even consider staying with you?!" Tom glared daggers at Tord, baring his teeth like a feral animal. Tord's out of character sympathetic look remained as he lifted his non-robotic hand to touch Tom's cheek.
"Tom, please-" Tom furiously smacked Tord's hand.
"No! You're crazy! Maniacal! You already tried to kill me and our, wait no, MY friends! Stay away from me you monster!" Tom's eyes began to sting, but he was too blinded by anger to think too hard about it. He angrily stormed away, disappearing downstairs into the darkness. Tord stood there in defeat. His heart ached with sorrow. However, as his brain caught up to his heart, his sorrow shifted into that of pure anger. He quickly turned to the employee, his gruesome expression causing her to freeze in place. He stomped up to her and yanked the notepad from her.
"You will leave this place and forget everything you saw here, understand?" Tord snarled through gritted teeth. The employee nodded hastily, her eyes wide with fear, and ran out of the building as fast as she could. Tom had begun marching back to the apartments. He froze at a sudden realization. What if Tord was following him? He didn't want to lead him back to Edd and Matt on accident. He took a quick look around, his eyes gravitating towards the thin alleyways that weaved through each building like gentle strings of silk. Maybe he could lose him by taking a detour? Well, hopefully it would work, he was already immersed in the claustrophobic confines of the alleys. Tom had begun to get some flashbacks to his nightmares. Alleyways seemed to be a reoccurring theme. God he wished he could just remember what had happened. He had completely zoned out into his own thoughts. This was good for a certain norwegian man who had of course been following him. Tord wasn't stupid, and he knew Tom wasn't either. He figured Tom would try avoiding him at all costs, so the alleyways were a pretty safe bet. This wasn't Tord's first time following someone, he was careful and would always hide whenever Tom seemed even the slightest bit suspicious. He was cautious, even if Tom wasn't paying attention to his surroundings. Tord began noticing graffiti on the walls of the alley... Brightly colored graffiti. In fact it almost seemed to have been painted recently. Tord, out of curiosity, poked at the graffiti, his thoughts being confirmed as he saw that he had smudged the paint. Tord looked away from the graffiti, watching as Tom rounded a corner.
"Hey! Let me go!" He heard shortly afterwards. Tord ran around the corner, just in time to see a large group of people. Half of them were still mindlessly spraying graffiti on the walls, while the other were heckling Tom. They pushed him over, his head hitting the concrete and effectively knocking him unconscious. Tord growled and charged towards the group. He punched the tallest guy straight across the face with his robotic arm, knocking him down in one blow. The few people who were still painting immediately dropped their spray cans, running off further down the alley.
"Hm, cowards, would anyone else like to take their chances?" Tord smirked. The remaining members of the group gathered around Tord, slowly closing in on him. This should be fun. One of the larger guys swung his fist at Tord. He grabbed his fist and broke his wrist with one twist of his robotic arm. Losing his arm had been a turning point for Tord. It made close combat easier for him, that's for sure. The man, now with a brand new broken wrist, fell onto his knees, crying out in pain. Tord kicked the man, forcing him down on the pavement. He reached down, gripping onto the man's ankle and snapping it, effectively getting another scream from the man. It had been awhile since Tord had hurt someone this badly. He had gotten so used to having the ripper do all the hurting for him, he had forgotten how good it felt. The others seemed to back off slightly, their faces growing pale at their comrades horrifying screams. "Look, I'm a fair man, I'll ask once more, anyone else want to take their chances?" Tord's expression turned almost inhuman. The group quickly ran in the other direction, dragging their unconscious friend along with them.
"G-Guys! Wait!" The man Tord had just nearly demolished squeaked as he tried to drag himself away. Tord was of course tempted to finish him off, but for now he had more important issues to deal with, helping Tom. Tord bent down next to the unconscious brunette. He carefully lifted his head to make sure his head wasn't split open. Fortunately, Tord couldn't find any damage that wasn't already there to begin with. There would defintely be a lump there later though. Tord wrapped his arms around Tom, picking Tom up bridal style. The least he could do was take him back to his apartment and silently hope Edd and Matt wouldn't see them. Despite what Tom probably thought, Tord already knew where him and the others lived now. Sometimes he even sent soldiers to do some reconnaissance near their apartment. Needless to say, he had memorized the way. Tord began walking towards the apartment, silently trying to repress the memories of when he had to do this to get child Tom from the abandoned building to red base. Thankfully they weren't too far from the apartment complex, so Tord got there rather quickly. He snuck up the stairs and decided to tread lightly past Matt and Edd's rooms. He gripped the door handle on Tom's door, feeling his heart drop as it refused to open. He shifted Tom in his arms so that he could search Tom's pockets for keys, but no luck. Perhaps he dropped them in the alley? Could those thugs have taken them? No matter, either way it would be a pain to look for them. Tord sighed and walked back down the stairs with Tom. He was started to get tired. It wasn't that Tom was heavy by any means, this was just incredibly tedious. Tord looked down the hazy road. There was only one real place he could bring Tord bring Tom now. The only place that was safe anyways. Red base.

Bujeezus I didn't realize how quickly time had passed! It's been what? Three months? Something like that. Anyways, sorry about all that. This chapter probably wouldn't exist if it wasn't for Blue_Lightbulbs she might as well have written the chapter. So ya'll can thank her for that. This story is still a work in progress and so is it's author, so please be patient, and know that I'm sorry. Here, consolation fan art.

These first two are from hippy_happy_kms and heck I love their art style. It kinda gives me a Gorillaz vibe for some reason? Idk but it's cool! I've tried drawing Tord with a cigar in his mouth before and have failed multiple times. So good job!

Both of these are from Zombie Peanut Butter (PB) on Amino. I do not know their wattpad username, so my apologies for that. Either way, I very much appreciate the drawings of Jack and David. :3

This bunny boi Jack was sent by Kinga on Amino, also known as the wonderful medimedic here. His art has always been friggin incredible! He also has a youtube channel (medic) if you want to check that out. This bean deserves more appreciation.

This artistic representation of that time the medic knocked Tom out with an umbrella is from CommieZilla and I can't look at this without giggling on the inside each time. Well done! ^-^

Next up, a little baby Tom drawn by ScreamingHamilton Sorry if it looks like I cropped it a bunch. I made sure not to crop any of the art itself! Just the black space around it so your hardwork was more visible. Thank you so much for sending it btw.

They made a drawing of Jack and David, and a drawing of my persona without her Tv head that was just so good I had to show it. Thank you RubyxDaMurp for both of these wonderful artistic creations! I love them a lot!

We have everyone's favorite scene between these two expertly drawn by Pearl_POTATO and it looks great! I can always appreciate a cute art style. For real just look at the cute little Tom. Poor scared bean.

These were both sent to me via Amino by Random Artist. I do not know their wattpad user, sorry. Anyways, can I just say how much I loved how you drew the Seamstress? I don't know why, but that is just the perfect expression for her.

This drawing, also sent to me via Amino, was made by Sarcastic_Kat. Don't know their wattpad user either... Ugh. Anyways, my friend who created Eleanor CelestialExplosion got incredibly excited when she saw that Eleanor was finally included in a fan art lol. Thank you for that.

These were both carefully created by winter0626 and I love them both. And hush about being a bad drawer or I will send a ripper your way.

This Jack was drawn by SwIrish who changed their user so it took me some searching to properly credit them. Anyways, I just love this so much. Just the fact that he's probably dealing with a "client" and just nonchalantly saying hi to David... This just seems like a scenario I can totally see happening.

This child Tom was made by TheFujoShiin and heckeroni is it cool. I've tried drawing oversized jackets on people, but I always mess it up, this is just plain impressive in my eyes. Good use of color too!

Here we have Jack in his natural environment, playing his infamous cazoo, drawn by Scoutykat ! They come up with alot of hilarious Javid scenarios, and one of my favorites is that Jack is basically the cazoo kid. Lol.

Last but not least, we have this drawing done by Kawaiiwolf06 and it is plain fantastic. I told myself I wouldn't use that word for anything except one specific thing, but screw it, this is fantastic and no other word will do. Fantastic. Now, real talk, I know half of you are probably pissed at me, and I deserve every bit of hate you want to throw at me. I will gladly take any angry or insulting comments because it's what I deserve, and I'm fine with that. Once again, this story is NOT over. So please don't ask if this is the last chapter, that's all I ask. Surprisingly, despite me being the most irresponsible human being on the planet, I have somehow gained 800 followers and 326k reads on this book. I don't know how that happened, but it did, and I'm super grateful. Thank you all so so so so very much for reading.