Pix glanced sideways at Gem. "So... are you sure you made enough-"

"We made enough potions, Pix." The butterfly hybrid said in a tone that was almost jokingly irritated, although Pix knew she meant it in a reassuring way- she was probably just stressed.

The brunette nodded quietly, chewing his lip with a somewhat nervous expression. "Just checking."

All the non-infected emperors had gathered in Stratos, which was, obviously, right next to Chromia, which was where the Sculk Alliance had taken refuge after the destruction of Shelby's mangrove forest (an impulsive decision which Pix still felt awful about and would apologise for a million times over when Shelby was back to normal).

Sausage and Gem had spent about a month making multiple of the 'curing' potions, as they had been dubbed by Lizzie (who had made a habit of being nosy at important times), and the emperors (well, Sausage) had come up with a plan that Pix's friend had vaguely outlined via the elegant phrasing of, "...we just throw potions at them till they go back to normal?"

Needless to say, Pix was incredibly worried about the outcome of this attempt, but at this point, what else could they do?

Gem paused for a moment before sighing as she glanced away. "Oh- looks like FWhip's back!" The emperors had decided to send someone to go look around Chromia to make sure every member of the Sculk Alliance was there, and FWhip had volunteered. "Hopefully they didn't notice him. Or all of the other emperors flying into Stratos." The green eyed hybrid added in a mumble that was the only thing betraying her unease.

Gem waved at Pix awkwardly before running off to where FWhip had landed and was chattering enthusiastically to Joel and Jimmy.

Pix stared after her for a moment, briefly wondering what the outcome of their attempt at salvation would be, before turning around an excited noise that was somewhat reminiscent of a squeak. "Why hello there, handsome boyfriend of mine."

The brunette turned around quickly, huffing out a small laugh as Oli approached him. The bard had become much more confident in the past couple of months, and had begun to (hopefully) blame himself less for what the pair had begun to refer to ominously as 'the incident'.

"Oli." Pix yawned slightly, planting a kiss on the shorter man's cheek and smiling.

"Are you excited?" The blonde man asked brightly. "We're gonna be like- awesome heroes! And save everyone! I know Gem's calling it a joint effort- my god has she taken charge during all this- but really it's us saving everyone." Oli added in a mocking whisper, grinning.

"Oh, definitely. And uh... I'm not sure about excited exactly, but I'm really hoping it works. Which is as close to excited as you're gonna get." The archaeologist went on to say in a huff, although he wasn't really annoyed.

"It is gonna work and you should be excited about it!" Oli exclaimed, leaning against his taller companion and laughing. "I mean, it worked with FWhip, so why wouldn't it work with the others?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's- a goblin thing! Goblins are weird! Maybe it's a... side effect of supposedly having ears big enough to glide with- although his ears aren't that big, so I don't know how he came up with that." Pix added wryly.

"I'm sure it'll be fine! You're thinking about it too much. Have faith in Gem, I'm sure she's planned this out properly." Oli said in a more quiet, reassuring tone, before adding with a snort of laughter, "I'm sure she needed to plan it out properly after Sausage's horrendous attempt at forming a plan."

"Ah, true. Why do you always have to be right, damnit?"

Oli smiled. "It's a character trait. I am the main character, after all- don't you dare shove me, loser-"

——

Pix reached out a hand to cover FWhip's mouth as the goblin tried to say something. "Dude. Shut up." He whispered, rolling his eyes as his curly haired companion glared fiercely.

The pair were hiding behind one of the buildings in Chromia, end rods and potions in hand, as Gem, Jimmy and Lizzie attempted to peacefully confront the Sculk Alliance while Katherine and Oli snuck around to try and throw potions at them. In the likely event of this failing, the other uninfected emperors were there for backup (Joel and Sausage were hiding someplace else).

The archaeologist squinted vaguely at the centre of the empire as his friends attempted to converse with the infected, attempting to make out what they were saying.

He could faintly hear FWhip tapping his fingers on the wall of the building next to them with impatient mumbles, but he payed the emperor of Gobland no attention as he watched Oli and Katherine attempting to sneak up behind the group, the leader of Glimmergrove doing so with a noticeably higher amount of grace than Pix's boyfriend.

One moment there was regular conversations (if slightly tense), and the next there was the sound of glass shattering and the clouds of particles associated with potions were filling the air.

Pix could vaguely hear the outraged shouting and shrieking of the Sculk Alliance, the most notable of which being a rather impressive string of curses from Joey, before the area grew silent (with the exception of FWhip's irritated- if slightly worried- mumblings, of course- those continued nonetheless).

Then there was confused mumbling and laughter as the smoke cleared, and Pix let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding as his gaze landed on Shelby.

Her eyes were returned back to their normal yellowy colour, the sculk vines normally coiled around her feet and arms were shrinking away from her and they were noticeably more shrivelled than before, and his friend was staring at her hands with a bewildered (if slightly relieved expression), and the confused expression was quickly replaced by a smile as Katherine pulled Shelby and Joey into a hug.

Of course, they still had to get rid of all the sculk, but for now, everything was just as it should be.

Everyone was fine.

Shjasjkskskwk sorry for like a month between updates, I wasn't sure how to start this chapter

Anyways woo update! Really weird to think that this is like the second to last chapter of Isychia, but I do have another Olix fic in the works, so do not worry ;)

Hope you enjoyed this chapter, everyone is cured now :]]]

And Oli is doing better :D so honestly just all round wins for everyone

No more angst I promise- (maybe like brief mentions to angsty events, but the last chapter is gonna be fluff I prOmiSe)

In other news, I think this is the second quickest I've finished a book (it's not done yet but if I get my act together it will be soon)- like 5 months? Ish?

I never proofread anything so sorry if there's any errors

Comments and votes are appreciated <3 :]