Definition: The unsettling awareness of your own heartbeat.

AU: Mesmeric Leader

Context: Even while sleeping, Sabre starts noticing that something is wrong. Especially with his arm.

Warning: Same heads up as when I described his arm last time it was mentioned, no real gore (except this time there's a really tiny bit of blood) and it looks/probably is painful. Also, in this one Sabre is feeling pain, but everything looks fine to him-? I feel like there should be a warning of that but I don't think "Suffering" is quite the right word to use XD

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[3rd Person POV]

Sabre still lay on his back in the field, watching the sky. The atmosphere and environment was still peaceful, everything still tranquil.

Time had left a while ago, saying he'd come back soon. So now, Sabre just relaxed in the grass and enjoyed the sunshine and outdoors.

However, something had been disturbing the peacefulness he felt. For a while, his right arm feeling staticky and like it had fallen asleep escalated into a kind of dull soreness. He tried to ignore it, thinking it'd go away eventually. But as the hours passed, it slowly became less dull and more intense. At this point, it was as if his arm was covered in a large bruise, and pressure was constantly being applied to it.

Sabre, having enough of it, sat up, rolled up his sleeve, and looked at his arm. Although he couldn't see anything wrong with it, no injury or even any mark to show he had just laid on it wrong or something, it still ached. Ached like he had accidentally slammed a door on it.

He decided to see if putting pressure on it would help, pulling his arm close and trying to curl himself around it, but he quickly jolted back to a normal sitting position when that attempt only made the pain spike. For a moment it dulled slightly, but then the feeling of pain climbed back up and soon matched what the sudden spike felt like. It felt like his arm had been electrocuted, the feeling seeming to crackle through it.

Thinking of something else, he got up from the ground and walked over to the river that was previously behind him, it on the opposite side of the tree he was laying under. He knelt down at the riverbank, watching the water flow serenely downstream, the occasional small fish swimming by.

Sabre lowered his arm into the water, it soothingly cold to the touch. Now hopeful, he rolled up his sleeve further and lay on his side, fully submerging his arm into the river. The crisp, cool water provided some numbing relief.

But it didn't last.

As the numbing faded, the pain only grew stronger. It grew and grew, until Sabre admitted to himself that it wasn't working and pulled his arm out of the river. Sitting up again, he looked once more at his arm. It was still just fine. No paling, no injury to be seen, no anything. It just looked... normal.

So then why did it hurt so much?

It felt throbbing now. A throbbing pain that wouldn't quit or fade, no relief from it to be found so far. And now, it hurt to move it. Pulling his arm close, Sabre for up from the riverbank and tried to go back to his spot in the grass, hoping to just... wait it out.

But as he walked, he quickly collapsed to the ground and the pain spiked again. This time, the progression wasn't slow. It was instant, debilitating pain that sent him to the floor.

He crumpled in the grass, shaded by the tree as he cradled his aching arm. Wincing as it continued to throb, it seeming to pulse with his heart and with each beat it grew worse. It felt hot, but when he touched his arm with his good hand it still felt normal.

Was he going insane?

Sabre kept himself from screaming as it spiked again. It was as if he could feel his bones, radiating white hot pain into the rest of his arm.

Where is Time?

Time...

...He was hurt, wasn't he? But when he was here earlier, he seemed okay...

That was him, right? It had to be. Who else could it be.

Sabre held back another scream.

What's wrong with his arm? ...There was something wrong with it. But what was it? Wasn't he worried about it? ...He was angry about it. Why was he angry?

The sounds of his environment faded out as a ringing filled his ears. His breathing grew heavy, remembering he had to breathe while he was busy focusing on his arm, but it was so difficult to focus.

...Wasn't his arm... darker? Why would it be-

Darker.

Darkness.

When did his infection suddenly go away? Did someone take care of Shadow and his new power and he somehow... didn't notice? Where has Dark Steve been? Did the Sword still exist?

Sabre no longer felt the peaceful and calm atmosphere around him. All he could feel was the ground against him as he writhed, trying to get it to stop. He no longer heard the birds or the river or the wind in the leaves, it replaced by faint ringing overshadowed by the sound of his own heartbeat. It pulsed and he felt it every time, his eyes filling with tears and the veins in his arm throbbing and the soreness of his bones getting worse and the piercing, agonizing pain getting more and more intense every time it pulsed. He felt warm, as if the torturous throbbing was setting his veins on fire, and every beat of his heart made everything more and more severe as the seconds ticked by.

He finally gave up and screamed, but he couldn't hear his own voice. Only the drum of his heartbeat as he lay there in the dirt.

Stop this.

...hurts.

Why are you fighting this dream? Isn't this what you want?

it... hurts.

What are you even doing?

It hurts.

What?

It hurts.

You shouldn't be in any-

It hurts.

What are you-

IT HURTS.

MAKE IT STOP.

...please, make it stop.

Sabre continued to lay there, writhing as he shut his eyes. His arm shivered like he was freezing, as it lay outstretched in the grass. He didn't stop the tears as they rolled down his face.

All he wanted was for it to stop.

...Please, be quiet.

And everything went dark.

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He observed his strange prisoner, once again inside the room he was held in. Stuck in place by that odd... "tree".

His arm was now completely obscured by the red vines digging into it, the fabric of his sleeve ripped off his sweater and bunched in a pile on the ground, torn to pieces and discarded. Sweat beaded on his brow as his face contorted in pain. He shuddered constantly, groaning and wincing in his sleep. A small trickle of a crimson liquid dripped down the sides of the vines. Where it was coming from, he didn't know. It could be either the vines or him.

The being stared at the vines, wondering what to do. If he was in pain, the control won't be as effective. No, he still won't wake up without his say so, but he'll start remembering, and then start trying to get out. Seems like he already has gotten some locked memories back, based off the check-in he just did.

But how would he solve this...?

He was in a cave. There was no medicine or salves or anything, especially not any kind of medical equipment-

...Medical equipment. In the place of his new form's creation.

He remembered seeing it, even in his dazed and agonized state. He even remembers some of it being used on him, the one that made him like this doing so as he didn't want to see him suffer. That was one of the last things he remembers before being turned into... this.

He got up and left the room, already making a plan on what to do and how to get in. He'd grab the things he needed, then get back out easier than he came in. Likely through teleporting.

Looks like he's going to pay an old friend a visit.