"S-Snowball, look.. can we talk?" Lightning rubbed the back of his head wearily, his eyes directed over to the rest of the group to make sure none of them were listening. Fanny seemed to be glaring at the fire they set up while she sat close enough to endure its warmth, while Match and Pencil gossiped with each other and mildly laughed, trying to keep up their mood even after Ruby and Flower died. Book was sleeping, her body leaned against a log as the fires glow lit up her body, revealing her mild marks in its light.

"Excuse me?" Snowball had been half paying attention, turning over to Lightning. He had been thinking about something else, so was confused on what Lightning wanted and didn't really have much of a good guess. He crossed his arms "Uh..suree?"

Lightning kept looking back at the group nervously, before turning his attention back to Snowball. He fiddled with his hands, floating downwards mildly so that they were closer and Snowball would be able to hear him better. "I.. I know now is like, a super bad time to say this but.. uh, " he looked visibly nervous .. seeing him so worked up made Snowball feel the same because what was he going to say??? The area was mildly brightened by the fire they made but Lightning was his own source of glow, so he was easy to see regardless.

"I..I don't knoww! I.. just, " he held his arms, looking down at the ground. "Ughn..this is really difficult for me to say." Lightning mumbled, avoiding eye contact.

"It'suh, fine. Go ahead."

Lightning glanced back over to him weakly, peering over at the other object and trying to gather the courage for what he wanted to say.. "..It's just... I didn't wanna like.. tell you yet. But uh... I might never get the chance to.. because of all of this."

"O-Oh?" Snowball un-crossed his arms.

"I..I .. I feel something for you. Like- uh, I.. I feel closer to you than I should.. Uh, jeez, this is really awkward.." he groaned, clearly feeling embarrassed from telling him that. He was unsure on how his friend would react, anxiety growing in him as he waited for his reaction. "D-Do you get me?" He hopefully asked.

"Wait, really?" Snowball caught on, kind of startled at the information. Wait, Lightning LIKED him? In a .. different way? He wasn't sure how to react, or what to say. "I-..I mean-" he felt awkward, he hadn't seen this coming at all. He had never got that impression from him.

"G-Guys-" Fanny suddenly interrupted them, breaking into their conversation and cutting Snowball off. "W-We need to go! NOW! That stupid team Free Food is here!! Didn't you see what they did to half of Death Pact?!" She hissed, glaring up both of their faces for a reaction. Lightning flinched, tensing up and letting his arms fall to his sides "W-Wait what?? R-Right now? Right here-?"

The three jumped as Book screamed, turning over to where the sound came from. Pencil was yelling and putting up a fight against Marker, trying to push him into the fire. He yelled, falling backwards right by the fire as Pencil stumbled and knocked him down with her weight. She stamped on his head and made his cap come off, kicking it into the flames that roared ever so closely to him, it was surprising he hadn't begun to melt. She went to attack him further but was swiftly swooped up by Fries, who held her in both hands and swung her around to a rock, whacking her to death on it.

"PENCIL!!!" Match screamed and covered her mouth, tears forming in her eyes. Book was horrified, Fanny stepping backwards. "L.. Lightning, do something!!" She yelled at him, him nodding quickly "S-Sorry!-"

He was devastated at the sight of Pencil being whacked to death, flying over and trying to zap Fries. He made his way to the other object and did his magic, looking away from Pencil. Fries started to get electrocuted, dropping Pencil in the process while he yelled from the pain. Match fell to Pencils side on her knees, but she was dead.. she felt herself begin to cry, covering her face.

"M-Match! Come on!" Book put her hand on her shoulder, trying to urge her to come. Bell suddenly swooped in and swung her body right into Book to knock her back, her yelping in surprise and then groaning in pain as she skidded across the forest floor.

Fanny growled and ran over, attempting to find some way to help in the chaos. Lightning stopped zapping Fries, about to go help up Match but was roughly grabbed by Marker. He yelled and zapped him in response, Marker hissing in pain and letting go. "You!-"

He roughly grabbed Lightnings hands and yanked him forward with great strength, shoving both of his hands in the fire and forcing him to burn himself. He screamed in agony as a horrid sensation spread along his hands and yanked himself away in a quick reaction to the pain, bumping into Fries.

Snowball hesitated and watched the scene, looking around to his left and then his right.. Fries looked like he was about to kill Match but, he wasn't sure what to do. He felt selfish but..he didn't want to face that, or Lightning. He quickly turned around, rushing off into the opposite direction and leaving them before they could notice he was gone.

The sounds of commotion faded out as he jogged away from them.. was this the right thing to do?-

-"Ughh, I have absolutely NO idea what I'm going to do! Tennisball said he's going to try and figure out a way to create some sort of loophole around these bands but.. ughhhh!-" Basketball ranted and broke Snowball away from his thoughts, closing up her door and pacing into the room, dropping down a box of items down onto her bed. The metal objects inside clinked together upon impact, it sounded like it had been heavy.

Snowball rubbed his eyes, before catching on.. right, she had been instructed to make bands for everyone that would keep them in the base. It sucked honestly.. it was cold of Two. She had told Snowball about it last night, and he had been thinking about it over the course of the morning.. his thoughts kind of drifted though. "How are you uh, holding up?" He politely asked, trailing away from the window which he had been looking out of, making his way over to her instead.

She groaned, plotting herself onto her bed and leaning back with her gaze directed at the ceiling through squinted eyes. "I don't knoww.. Tennisball told me he should be dome designing it soon.. I don't.. know how to feel about the fact that I have to be the one who makes these.." She weakly looked over to Snowball, obviously tired from all this stress. "It's gonna be really difficult if we wanna leave this place.. you know that, right?"

"Duh." He crossed his arms, leaving against the bedpost with a frown, her not in view of him because of where he was facing. "Kind of surprised I'm still here and haven't been caught yet. It's uh, getting a little stressful being cramped up in this room every day, though."

"I-I know, I'm sorry Snowball.. " she apologised, sitting up and exhaling. She felt herself look at the ground.. what was she going to do? She hoped that Tennisball would have some sort of plan or way to go around this because.. she didn't want to pass up on that opportunity to go to Golfballs lab. "I wanna get out of here soon.. I do. It's just.. I don't wanna leave a few certain friends here, you know?"

He nodded, understanding. It felt hypocritical for him to understand her, though. "Y-Yeah, uh.. I get you. Robot Flower, huh?"

"Mhm.." She admitted, rubbing her eyes groggily. She did not seem her best .. Snowball pitied her, mainly because he knew that she had the sweetest heart and she genuinely did not want to make these bands.. they could leave before they were made, but Basketball said she was too afraid that Two would take it out on everyone else. Plus, Robot Flower was still a problem.

Cutting into their conversation, there was a knock at her door. Basketball perked up, someone speaking from the other side. "Hey, Basketball. It's me.." adressed Tennisball, before walking in. He usually did that before heading inside because he knew Snowball was there and didn't want to startle them. For all they know it could be Balloony or something.

"H-Hey! I made the blueprints and everything-" he informed, having a piece of paper clenched tightly in his mouth as he nudged the door shut, making his way over to her bed and setting it down beside her. She looked over, Snowball mildly turning to see also. "I-I had a few ideas but, I-I tried to come up with something as harmless as possible..-and uh, hopefully easy to disarm if you know what you're doing. But, uh, it's hard c-cuz Two is gonna inspect them and all.." he rambled, pointing out to her the little bits he was talking about in the blueprint. Snowballs expression didn't change but Basketballs did; she smiled weakly and went to pick it up for herself "Thank you TB.. hopefully we can get these over and done with.."

"Y-Yeah,.." he agreed, his eyes drifting off to the side. "B-But! I found a way that we can come around this! I-I think you'll be happy.." he tried to cheer things up, shyly smiling and pushing his glasses up his face as he proceeded to look back at her. Basketball flinched and dropped the blueprints accidentally, but didn't pick them up as her focus was now directed on TB. "H-Huh? Wait, really??" She seemed a lot more energetic than she did earlier.

"Uh huh! All we have to do is make TWO of those band uh, disable-thingys. That way we can give one to Two, and then use our own to escape. We can't make more just in case they get found but.. how does.. i-it sound?" He sounded more nervous the longer he spoke, unsure of her reaction. She felt herself fill with happiness, jumping off the bed in joy, exhilarated. "Oh, TB! You're a genius!! Why didn't I think of that?? Thank you thank you!!" She leaned into him in a hug gesture, nuzzling him. He awkwardly laughed and embarrassedly blushed, scuffing his feet. "A-Ahh ..i-its okayyy.."

"Huh.. you're right.." Snowball moved from the bedpost and uncrossed his arms. "You could just make a spare.. what are you gonna do with it after we uh, leave though?" he wondered aloud.

"N-Not sure.." Tennisball admitted, Basketball parting from him. "I-It seems like a waste to destroy it.. but might be a risk keeping it in the base.. I-Ill have to figure something out.." he understood, supposing so. Basketball was excited, squealing "Ohh, this is great! I was really worried we wouldn't be able to figure something out.. you're a lifesaver, Tennisball.." she relaxed by sitting back on the bed with a long sigh, closing her eyes in relief.

Snowball slowly smirked. "Huh, guess you are a nerd." He mocked Tennisball, who took no notice of his insult. "U-Uh.. so.. now I have to give the blueprints to Two.." he pointed out.

"I-It's fine. We can do it later.. " she reassured, gesturing to him to sit down as she rubbed her eyes with her knee. "We don't wanna rush too much.. and, anyways, it'll probably take me just under two days to make it. Uh, maybe three if I have to make another disarm device.."

"I-I'll help you with that, no worries.." Tennisball smiled politely, going to sit down next to her tiredly. Snowball found it hard to join into the conversation since it wasn't really.. his sort of thing. He glanced off to the left awkwardly "Did you see that it's snowing outside again.." he commented blankly.

Basketball nodded, yawning "Y-Yyyeah, I did, I hope that the others outside will be okay.. hopefully it won't get too bad.."

Tennisballs focus drifted off as the pair's conversation converted to the weather. He glanced at the floorboards on the ground, thinking deeply about everything that had happened the last few days. He was still shocked that the group managed to save the prisoners. Basketball and Snowball agreed that the prisoners had probably gone back to the lab if they had been saved by those who were in the lab itself. That gave more of a reason to go there.. seeing the prisoners would be nice.

Tennisball was still wrapping his head around Golfball though. She was ..apart of the group that ran away into the forest after helping the prisoners escape. He already knew she was in that group because Basketball had told him but.. still. He was obviously overjoyed she was alive but.. he wondered how she felt about him. He missed her of course but, she had always been kind of cold to him, especially after Two arrived and Tennisball was kind of leaning towards them over Four. She didn't talk to him as much and they began to drift, eventually the war started and he didn't see her again after that. Did she hate him? Did she think he was insane?

Tb had no idea that she had been told by MULTIPLE objects that he was alive. By Fries, Naily, Liy, but she had just refused to believe it. When he saw her running with the prisoners that was the first time he had seen her since.. well, a long time. He wondered if she was doing alright.. physically but also mentally.

"Tennisball?" The sound of his name being spoken broke him out of thought, his body jolting in surprise. "A-Ah, sorry, I was thinking of something .." he excused shyly, kind of embarrassed now. She gave a sympathetic smile, it was weak. "It's okay!.."

Snowball glanced off. They had both been wondering lately if Basketball should tell Tennisball the bad news : that.. Four was dead. She hadn't said anything about it yet, but it was on her mind all the time. Not only that, but the fact Donut had Fours powers. Snowball said it was okay and TB should be fine, but she was nervous about how this would impact him.

"T-Tennisball.. I need to talk about something important.." She confessed out of nowhere, looking away to avoid eye contact. This shocked him, and made him grow nervous immediately "H-Huh..?.. Uh, .." the mood lowered fast. 

"I-Its okay! It's not, like, terrible." She supposed, looking back at him and giving him a reassuring smile to secure he point. He did not look reassured at all though, in fact he seemed indefinitely worried over the fact she was about to admit something important. "Uh..okay.." he complied, but still wasn't sure.

"Look, uh.. there's something I should have said a while ago.. ha, it just.. never came up." She bit her lip, watching as he seemed both interested but afraid for her answer, which she did not blame him for. "Uh, so, you know Donut, right?" 

"Uh, yes, Basketball. I know Donut."

"Well.." she inhaled, closing her eyes. "Heeeehasfourspowers." She quickly blurted, hesitating for a moment before peeking one eye open to see his expression, weary. He seemed to be trying to understand what she said since it been kind of hard to decipher.. before it clicked. He seemed to look visibly more afraid now hearing this sudden news "..Wh..What? Did .. I hear that right?" He tried to laugh it off, swallowing "You're uh, j-joking or something, right?" he hoped. His throat felt dry.

He seemed scared more than anything, which was arguably worse than being anxious. She tried to assure him, noticing how badly he was reacting. "I-Its not a bad thing! H-Hes like, hiding it from Two! Snowball saw him use his powers-" she explained, watching as he grew paranoid too. "I-..Is that true? So he's not gonna like, hurt us? Wh-what if he was the one to kill Four..?"

"N-No, I doubt that. " she responded, even if it was a possibility she doubted that Donut would do something like that. He seemed to be taking it in.. wow, he did NOT expect that. He still didn't believe it fully, "S-Seriously?" He asked again.

"Yeah.." she spoke slowly.

It didn't make sense.. "H..How come he hasn't revived anyone or.. done anything with the powers?" he wondered, clearly puzzled.

"M..Maybe they're hard to use?" She tried to justify.. Tennisball seemed to take that, it was a possibility they were hard to control..  its not like Tennisball would know that, or anyone else. "Wh..wait, so how did.. he even get them?" Tennisball asked another question, deciding to tempoarily rule out the possibility of Donut being responsible for Fours death. "Uhhhhh...." She glanced off wearily to Snowball, who wasn't looking at either them. She turned her attention back to Tennisball, weakly sighing. "He's..uh.."

She closed her eyes.. "He's..dead .." .

"Oh.." Tennisball looked off to the side.. "Oh...uh,.I-I...I kind of expected that. It's just, different hearing it as the truth. " he admitted, lowering his voice weakly. Four was dead, huh? That made sense but .. he was still struggling to get over the whole Donut thing. That was just so bizarre to him, was he really in possession of that kind of power? He had hidden it damn well, because Tennisball hadn't suspected a thing. "Have.. you known this for a while?"

"...Yeaahh.." she confessed awkwardly, but he clearly didn't mind or take it personally "That's fine. I'm glad you told me now.. though. I-I just, don't know what to do with this information..does Donut know you know?"

"Nuh uh, he has no idea.." she groaned, hating how awkward that made things. Snowball decided to cut in, catching both their attention "Only Gelatin knows. I-I think, don't quote me on that. He might have told someone else, I dunno, I'm not Donut."

"It's likely.." Tennisball said slowly. She perked up , looking to him with awe "Y-You think so? Who would he tell?"

"I-I don't knoww? Maybe Barfbag? But I don't think he would be able to hide that for THAT long without more than just Gelatin knowing. I mean, he doesn't know we know.. what if someone else knows but, we don't know who?"

"Ughh, stop saying the word know..." Snowball whined, holding his head by the sides. Basketball contemplated Tennisballs point "Ah, yeah.. wait, that's right. You might be right, TB. Jeez.. I-I hadn't even thought of that. Someone else might know .. " she trailed off..

"I-I might be wrong, though.." he quickly added, not wanting to be blamed for something if he was incorrect about his statement. She nodded slowly "N-Nono, I get you. I do think you're..probably right though.." she repeated, looking over to him slowly.

"It.. could be anyone."

---

Loser hummed confidently, his hands behind his back while he paced the halls with a large egotistical smile planted on his face, his focus and attention directed in front of himself as he walked with good posture. He seemed to be in a good mood.. a weirdly better mood than usual.. weird. Well, that's because he had a plan. He was on his way to Two's office, the only sound in the halls being his walking and the sound of his humming echoing against the walls.

He had been thinking about what to do with the situation regarding Tree. It stumped him because he couldn't say TOO much. He knew Barfbag wanted to keep the Fries stuff away from Two, so Loser had decided to snitch on Tree without making the stuff about Fries obvious. I mean, as far as Two was aware, Loser had no idea what Fries was doing, right? He had just known what Tree had done..

He was going to tell Two that Tree helped assist Blackhole in the whole process. They were friends, so it wasn't exactly unbelievable. He knew Tree had helped, the moment Tree suggested that Front Row go to the electrical room to check out for an intruder, it was obvious he knew exactly how the plan was supposed to go. I mean, he couldn't make Fries pay, but he could make Tree pay, and that was the next best thing. It would be annoying if Tree thought he could get away with being secretive too, so it would basically be a lesson that he couldn't even if he tried.

Loser trailed over to Twos office, peering inside and standing on his tiptoes to take a peek inside. The door was mildly ajar.. neither Donut or Coiny were present. Well, this would be simpler than he thought. His smile tugged at the corners of his lips and he pushed open the door suddenly, marching inside with pride. Two was taken by surprise, jumping and causing their pen skid across their paper  while writing mid-sentence, causing a harsh line of ink to be drawn. They glared at Loser, slamming down their pen passive aggressively. "Yes??" They snapped, agitated at his unexpected arrival. They hated when objects didn't bother to knock.

"I have some information for you I think you'll quite enjoy~" Loser chimed, trailing over to Twos desk slowly and putting his hands on it, leaning forward in a charismatic manner. "I have some rather compelling information about the prisoners escaping. You see.. I'm aware of some extra help.. " he spoke carefully to draw in Twos attention. 

"What?" They almost choked on their words, sitting up at their desk in immediate interest. Loser couldn't help but smirk at the fact Two was so willing to hear. "What are you talking about?? You mean someone from MY side helped?" They repeated Loser's statement, clearly in disbelief. Loser nodded slowly, moving his hands behind his back neatly. "Mm, yes, that's correct. Turns out they knew the plan the whole time.. they were in on the whole thing. Shocking, right?"

Loser jumped as Two slammed their hands on the desk and caused it to shake, the pens that were in a small pot on the left rattling as they did. "Who." Two demanded threateningly, gritting their teeth and offering Loser no personal space as they had their face close to his, clenching their fists on the desk. Loser noticed, but maintained eye contact. "Will I get anything in return?"

"Excuse you?" Two was baffled at Losers audacity, in awe that he would even attempt to get something out of this. Loser shrugged his shoulders, tilting his body lightly as his gaze drifted elsewhere "Yesss well, I mean.. what I'm planning to tell you will change a lot. Do I not get a reward for my discovery?" 

Two raised an eyebrow, "Do you think this is a game?" They lowly shot, Loser unphased as he watched Two stand up, observing them with lidded eyes as they towered over the small object like a building. "Not at all. I just expect to be benefited by you, if I benefit you too.." Loser spoke calmly, trying to be fair. Two growled at his stupid words, not wanting to have to makw any deals but.. Loser was reliable and strong. They needed him on their side. "Fine. You'll be benefited. However, I'm not telling you how. You'll realise soon, though." Two agreed reluctantly.

"You expect me to believe that?" Loser scoffed. Two glared, growing more frustrated the more Loser argued. "You'll just have to. Unless you don't want to take the fucking offer." Two harshly spat. Twos accent made it hard for Loser to feel threatened by their swearing.

Loser pondered the offer.. however. This was annoying. He expected something to be given to him more up front.. he didn't like surprises, it meant he had no idea what he was getting in return for this. Buuut, Tree needed to pay either way, and its not like \loser was doing this because he wanted something from Two anyways. "Hm, fine, I accept."

Two impatiently waited for Loser to finally say what was so important. Losers smile grew once again, looking up at the ceiling in thought. "You see, when Front Row went up to the electrical room, they were planned to be there, so they could be trapped. Do you know who suggested Front Row go up there?"

"Uh.. no? I forgot. " Two shrugged passively "Why would I remember something like that??" it seemed unimportant.

Loser rolled his eyes, before clearing his throat. "OBVIOUSLY, someone purposely made us go up there because they knew what Blackhole was planning. Someone who wanted to help him.. someone who thought they could get away. But I caught on as soon as they suggested that.." he lowly laughed.

"Why didn't you say anything at the time??"

"Because.." Loser quickly fabricated a lie, glaring back at Two. "If I said it there and then, how would I know if it was actually true or not? I could have been wrong, then looked like a fool. But it looks like I was right.."

Two thought about this.. it sounded pretty accurate. Was someone really working with Blackhole? Who?? "Well then, who knew?" Two questioned, impatience in their voice.

"...Tree." Loser finally revealed, looking across at Two with a sadistic face. "HE helped. HE was the one who got us up there, he knew exactly what would happen. He thought he would get away but, he didn't... well, right now he still thinks he has.. "

Two was not impressed..Tree? They tried to recall Tree saying that.. he knew Tree had said something on that day, he didn't doubt that it was what Loser claimed. I mean, it made logical sense, him and Blackhole had been friends. So he prepared for this? He intended this? "Well, I never!" The more they thought about it the angrier they got. "Did he seriously think I wouldn't find out EVENTUALLY?? He's STUPID for staying here after doing something like THAT!!" Two roared, their fists clenching.

"I know, right?" Loser grinned wildly, enjoying this. "What are you going to do about it?"

"-Do about what..?"

Unexpectedly, Donut had entered the room, not thinking Loser would be there.. he heard Two talking to someone but hadn't been sure who it was. What was he doing here? He never got good vibes from him at all, so to see him here talking to Two casually was definitely not good news. Loser swiftly turned on his heel, making a face at Donut. "Oh, go away Donut. We are TALKING alone." Loser dismissed.

"Hey! Who do you think you are?" Donut yelled back. Loser twitched, uncrossing his arms. "Why don't YOU mind your own-"

"Enough." Two shushed Loser, who growled and looked away. Donut was confused, looking at the both of them wearily.. he wanted to know what it was about.. was it Fries? Or Donut something? No.. Two would have made a bigger deal about it. Though.. before he entered the room Two did seem kind of mad. Donut went to speak up, walking, forward before Two put up their hand to signal him to stop. "I just want t-"

"It's fine, Donut. Just go. We are handling a situation here.." Two ordered, kind of frustrated as they waved their hand in a shoo motion to Donut, wanting him to leave. They needed to figure out what to do about Tree.. it was interesting he thought that he could do that with no consequences.

Donut was hurt, and kind of annoyed, but decided to follow Twos command anyways.. he didn't want to make Two mad, that would definitely be a bad idea.. but he genuinely wanted to know. No, he NEEDED to know. Either way, he didn't have much of a choice.. but why did this involve Loser?. "Hmg.." Donut turned to leave the pair, thinking about what had just happened. If it was something Two didn't want Donut to know, it was obviously important.

And that's what scared him.

---