The story continues
as you have chosen to save Randy.
However, keep in mind that
there will always be consequences.

×---×---×---×

"You're more pathetic and dumb than you look." I smile to myself, "It's the o̶̬̥͙̱̓͛̀ñ̴̨̤́̑ͅͅl̵̢̯͇̓̈́̋̽y̸̨̋ͅ thing you've proven to me ever since I got here."

Randy finally stands on his feet then stares at me straight in the eye with ease. A deep purple bruise shows on his cheek while a trail of crimson b̴̩͋̋͗l̵̦̝͔̂̀͝͝o̷̯̙͍͋̓̄̏o̸͔̓͐̋d̸̨͈̬͝ drips down from his nose that he now wipes off with the back of his hand.

I expected a strong comeback since he usually fights like that but all he did is just stand there along with an unwavering blank stare which I'm getting sick of. I lounge forward again but this time I aimed for his stomach which he winced and fell on all fours. I kicked him down to the ground and he slid a few feet away from me.

Then, he tries to get up ȁ̴͕̆̌g̴̺̟̅â̸̢̦̼ͅì̶͍̤ņ̸̯̬̀̇͐̊.

- - - -

(E/c) eyes shot open and they instantly scan their surroundings: it's dark, there's four walls, and it feels as though I'm laying down on something soft. I take a couple of deep breaths before I realize that I'm safely tucked in the comforts of my room- inside Randy's house.

It was all just a terrible nightmare.

A smile forms on my lips as I look over at my cartoon-ish hands while taking in that the nightmare is over and it never happened. However, I'm still stuck to this reality. My real reality would have been great, but this will have to do for now. I close my eyes and take my time breathing in and out as I've realized this is the most relaxed I've ever been.

Even the voices in my head seem to be quiet as of this moment.

Naturally, I would start to feel uneasy when I'm left alone in silence but, this silence feels different in a good way that I want to just stay here for awhile.

When I'm finally content about how calm the atmosphere is, I open my eyes only to see some of the moonlight shining through my window. I easily get off my bed and walk over to feel the cool breeze and let the moonlight glaze over my skin.

My (e/c) eyes gaze out the window and freely wanders the empty and darkened streets. It's just any normal night as few cicadas make their soft lullabies echo through the sleeping suburbs. As I look down momentarily, every trace of relief flees from my face and turns to confusion as I notice my shirt is full of blood stains.

The confusion changes to panic when I lift my whole shirt just enough to find my stomach is wrapped in worn out bandages, also stained with blood.

Is this my blood?

My hands starts to shake as I briefly feel the bandage with only my fingertips to see if I'm hallucinating or not, but a yelp escapes from my mouth as it appears to be real.

As I was about to scream for my life, I immediately stop myself because I see something move from the corner of my eye. A glimpse of a silhouette suddenly passed by and as I stay frozen, not daring to look behind, his growing shadow on the wall infront of me keeps on rising.

I watch in terror as my own shadow is swallowed by whoever or whatever it is behind my trembling body.

"If you're going to scream, just go on with it already." An unfamilair male voice fills the room, clearly irritated of how I'm reacting to this situation.

My (e/c) that were once filled with fear instantly turns to confusion once again as I quickly turn to see who it was. I take the opportunity to take in every detail of the mysterious stranger.

Dark hair adorned his porcelain face and made his gleaming, jade eyes stand out. That's the only thing I could see as a mask is wrapped around his nose and down to his neck which seems like his own version of the ninja suit which is decorated with glowing, peculiar yet familiar crimson and olive symbols makes him a lot more intimidating, although the mystery of what his whole face looks like fills me with such curiosity.

Like lightning strike, the symbols in his suit now sinks in,"You're... the Nomicon! But how is this-" I breathlessly say, still processing the tall figure's appearance.

"You." The Nomicon answers quite instantly and cuts me off mid sentence, "When you were stanked, you accidentally touched the book, and then turned me into this difficult form."

"I was stanked?" I repeat Nomicon's words as if to understand what it means but this just made me ask more questions to the human book.

"Are you real?"

"Yes."

"Is this real?"

"Yes."

"Can I hug you?" This question slips out of my mouth as I can't help but fangirl in front of him, neglecting the fact that I had bandages around my stomach.

"Yes." Nomicon automatically answers then blinks as he pauses for awhile, not processing what he just heard, "What?"

Avoiding awkwardness, I just asked a different yet complicated question, "Did... did I die?"

"Yes," Nomicon sighs. I'm guessing he's tired from my unpredictable train of thought, "though I'd rather explain it to the both of you, that is to say with the Ninja." He walks towards the door but pauses once more when he heard yet another question from me.

"The Ninja?" I try to act surprised as if I haven't learned this secret for two seasons, "Randy's the Ninja?"

Nomicon turns to face me with annoyed eyes that gleams dangerously in the darkened room, "Drop the act already, (Y/n)."

Yikes. Guess all that time in drama club is wasted.

"I.. don't know what you mean." I stifle a laugh, but it came out nervous and awkward. In response to this, Nomicon needs only to rise a brow to make me understand that this isn't working and it'll only end terribly if I don't confess.

I sigh in defeat as I would never win against an ancient book of ninja secrets, "What gave it away?"

"I hope you do not mind but, I went through some of your memories when you were asleep. Since you fully know what will be the consequences if you do spread this secret, I entrust you to keep it hidden as you have kept your own alien secret." He said gently as if I needed to understand word for word, which is true since I can't still process that I'm talking to the Nomicon.

Without another complain or question, I answer him after a fearful gulp upon remembering that he could easily mind wipe me, "Yes, I do."

"Good. Now, come with me." Nomicon nods, relieved as he didn't hear another question. He quietly opens my bedroom door and silently walks over to Randy's while I tried to keep up with him from behind.

Once the human book knocked thrice, the door flew open as a frantic Randy appears, "What happened?! Did something-"

Upon seeing me from behind, he stops, "Oh, you're awake."

"Yes, I am." I answer with a nod, "Though I think I'd prefer to stay asleep than hear the truth about what happened."

Randy makes way for the two of us to come in, and once we were all inside, he closes it gently and locks it. I take a seat on his comfy couch, not trying to look around and marvel at his weirdly, clean room because this isn't the right time for it. Instead of taking a free spot on the other end of the couch, Nomicon just leaned on a wall opposite of me, now playing with what seems to be a smokebomb; tossing it up and down with one of his hands.

"So, I guess you know that I'm the Ninja." Randy says quite blatantly yet I could feel shame behind his voice as he avoids eye contact. Not knowing whether to comfort him or not, I answered with another yes.

"Well, how do you feel about it?" He asked, quite embarressed and I know exactly why: the first time I came here, the Ninja was always popping up randomly to sort of keep me company or to cheer me up. He even had the courage to give me a short tour of Norrisville. I guess he felt safe all this time knowing that I don't know who's behind the mask.

I was about to say how an honor it is, but a quick cough from Nomicon made his curiosity stop, "Oh right, I guess another time then."

Randy takes a seat on his desk, below his incredibly high framed bed, "Look, I'm not even sure about the truth about what happened."

"How come?"

Randy tells me the unfortunate events that had happened after I was engulfed by the stank: my glitching form, my thirst for revenge, innocent people being glitched frozen, and last but not the least, how I came close to killing him. I became horrifyingly tensed as if two walls were squeazing me with tremendous pressure; not knowing how to handle these terrible information that has come to light.

"Then, I followed you to the Mcfist tower and for some reason, I can't really remember what happened after that. It's all blank; but I think we fought each other."

A question stirs inside of my mind, "You don't remember? Then how come I'm normal again?"

The purple haired boy casts his gaze on my worn out shoes, "By the time I opened my eyes again, I was still at the Mcfist tower but everything was back to normal. The sky wasn't dark anymore and the glitching people went on with their lives. No one seems to remember the incident; not even Howard. It's like someone pressed a restart button."

His answer was way off.

I was going to point out that he didn't technically answer my question when suddenly, Randy sighs and looks straight at my (e/c) eyes with sapphire ones glistening with sadness, "But, as I look around the Mcfist tower yesterday, I saw you unconscious on the floor along with my ninja sword.. stabbed through your chest, surrounded by a pool of blood; your blood."

He pauses for awhile before continuing, "And what's worse is that, I think I did it."

My face shows complete panic. This entire show is spiralling down because me and my actions. At the moment I see Randy's shaking hands, I immediately swore to myself to keep everything in order and no more messing with the plot; no matter how tempting it is.

"I somehow killed you and-and the green smoke was forced to came out of you. I saved everyone but I almost took your life in the process. I'm so sorry, (Y/n). I was supposed to save you! I mean, it's literally my honkin job! I can't do anything right." He pauses to take a deep breath almost like he was going to release something he has been containing all this time, "You were right all this time. I'm not a honkin hero; I'm just a wannabe. You must be disappointed after knowing that I'm the loser who's behind the mask, right?"

No.

No, I'm not.

I wanted to say- no, shout it in front of his face. I want to desperately explain that this is all my fault. I'm the one who came and changed everything. I'm the one that should be full of guilt, not him. I'm the one who should be suffering the concequences but instead, it all fell on Randy's shoulders; and from his shaking body, I could tell it's crushing him alive.

But I counldn't confess everything.

What I did instead is to shamefully avoid eye contact as I set my gaze on one of the walls of this room; as a barrier of awkward silence now settles in.

"No, that's not true at all."

A third voice in the room grabs both of our attention: Nomicon, who still held one smokebomb in his hand but no longer playing with it. My thoughts of self blame suddenly ceased as he continues, "I forced myself to turn into this form to heal and defend Randy from (Y/n). I fail to see the reason but to my surprise, as I step foot towards her, she had already driven that sword into herself and the green smoke had to forcefully retreat and disappear. So, the two of you were now injured. Of course, I healed the Ninja first and as I was about to heal (Y/n) next, I turned into a book."

Randy quickly asks a question as I process that what I had just did was commit suicide, "But what about destroying something they hold most dear? Could something be a someone?"

That can't be possibly true, right?

"But the item or the person couldn't be me? I know I don't really love myself that much." I countered while this time, Randy's surprised to hear this, "It should be an item or in this case, the person who's involved."

Nomicon only locks eyes with me along with a savy stare, "Oh but, someone was involved and you did destroy someone you love, at least that's what you thought when you were stanked."

I repeated Nomicon's words as I only stared back to Randy whose sapphire eyes never failed to make me blush, "Destroyed someone I loved?"

Before I realized that I was already confessing my love for the confused teen, the whole room suddenly bursts with bright white flash and smoke. Panic raced through my veins as I instantly assumed that it's an ambush from Mcfist which made me freeze on spot. I heard a window open followed by a loud thud on the carpeted floor which then made me thought of his minions: the nasty roboapes. I start to breathe heavily and quite loudly as I thought that they're here to capture me once again and drag me to that horrible white cell.

I drop to my knees then clutched my head with my hands as I suddenly saw and felt flashes of Viceroy mercilessly experimenting on me. My ignored and desperate pleads that eventually turned to frantic screams rang inside my ears. I shut my eyes tightly as to stop myself from crying and bury my own screams deep down into my throat. My shaking hands dig deeper into my scalp, not caring for new scars to appear as I expect and wait for only the worse to happen.

Suddenly, my greatest fear became real as I felt someone grab a hold of me, which only causes me to vigorously push them away as I burst into unbearable sobs, "LET GO OF ME! I DON'T WANT TO GO BACK!"

I could hear Viceroy's voice echoing inside this room, calling my name with a vicious smile.

"STOP!" I yelled back, prying his hands off me as I backed up and hit against the wall. I called and shouted for the Ninja, and when I heard nothing, desperation consumed me and his name slips out my mouth, "RANDY!"

Without any warning, I'm suddenly engulfed in a warm hug with their hands slightly shaking yet firmly gripping my back. I could feel another heartbeat, thumping against my chest and beating just as fast as mine. I pause for awhile, but still kept my eyes shut as the sounds caused by the trauma finally fled away as it is now replaced by the cicadas outside the peaceful night, and a voice that belongs to someone I still loved, "I'm here, (Y/n). I'm here, and they're never going to take you again. I got you, okay?"

My eyes shot open with confusion as I heard Randy's shaking voice. Why was his voice scared like mine?

Of course I didn't ask him that, but what I did is hug him back tighter and bury my face further into his chest, quietly thankful for his warm gesture of comfort. He speaks with a soft voice but it still vibrated with panic, "The smoke was only Nomicon, he must have accidentally dropped the smokebomb he was playing with."

I didn't say anything back. Well, I couldn't say anything even if I wanted to anyway because I'm still currently trying to calm myself down and process that what I've just experienced wasn't real: Mcfist, Viceroy, and the roboapes aren't here.

A couple of minutes have passed, and my breakdown now settles; though I'm not quite sure if I'm going to have a peaceful rest tonight. Grabbing both of my arms, Randy gently lifts me off the floor as I tried to stand with my legs. Once I could stand on my own, he takes a step back and saddly, releases his grip on me.

"I'm sorry you had to see that," I apologized as I tried muster a smile while I wipe the tears off my face. My gaze didn't waver from the carpeted floor as I couldn't bear to see his reaction right now. I just brokedown right in front of someone I had a crush on for years, this has got to be the most embarrassing situation I've had with him, "You can forget about it if you like."

I turn away and head for the door as I rub my elbows to comfort myself. But just when I was about to turn the doorknob, Randy asks a question that made my heart spike and my eyes widen with surprise.

"Crying is nothing to be ashamed of, (Y/n)," he tells with nothing but sincere that made fresh tears form in my eyes, "And if it helps you sleep tonight or put your mind at ease, you can stay with me for tonight."

"Me? S-sleep with you?" I turn, showing how flustered I am with his choice of words.

"Huh? What? No, no, no, no!" He nods his head sideward repeatedly while his hands frantically flail around, "What I meant was that you can sleep at my couch but if you don't want to, that's okay too because you can sleep at my bed and I could sleep at my couch! It doesn't necessarily mean 'together' though but, it could be an option if you want, I just... want to make you feel safe is all." Randy ends his explanation with a flustered face while I just stand in front of him, trying to process this situation. "But then again, if you're not comfortable or think that the situation is awkward, you can absolutely say no. It's not like I'm forcing you to stay either, I swear. It's up to you." 

He stays quiet, awaiting for my answer. It would be rude to decline his request and I know for myself that I would not last being alone in my room tonight; but the question is, what will I choose?

A.) You sleep on the couch while Randy sleeps on the bed or visevera. You pull yourself together and don't take advantage of the situation. You view things from his perspective and put his feelings first, thinking that this is all wrong timing for you to fangirl. You'd rather have this when everything is normal between the two of you guys. A surprise in the middle of the night might be waiting.

B.) You sleep beside him. Though it maybe your lifelong dream, he might have awkward thoughts here and there as he thinks this is a bit extreme. He only goes along with it just for your sake of feeling safe. A surprise in the morning might be waiting.

C.) Ask what Randy wants. An unexpected turn of events will happen in this route. A sure suprise will be waiting.

×---×---×---×

Choose wisely, and if you can, I'd like to see your reason as to why you had chosen the letter. 

Thank you for voting and reading.

Also, I changed Nomicon's appearance. Hope you guys don't mind.

Fun fact: Jhonen Vasquez, creator of Invader Zim, did all the character design in RC9GN.