Woolfster's eyes snapped open and he jolted upright from where he had been laying down. Everything was dark. 'Where am I..?' he thought. He looked down to see that his hands were almost completely see-through, and were filled in with white. Small sparkles of a much clearer white stood within the strange coloring.

Woolf stared for a long moment before looking back up. Then he slowly stood, ears pinned to his head as he cautiously began to walk forward, his hands stuck out in front of himself as he tried to find a wall in this troll of a room he stood in. Or, well, that he thought he stood in.

After a good 15 meters or so, he still hadn't felt his hands brush any walls. 'What the heck..?'

"This isn't funny!" Woolf called. His voice echoed back in response, making him cringe a bit as his ears tucked impossibly closer to his skull. "Hello? Guys?" Still no response. 'Where are they?.. What even is this place?'

(/==^o^==\)

Socks awoke in an unfamiliar cave. He could hear arguing in another room, but was still half asleep, and couldn't make out the words. He blinked a couple times, then tried to yawn... But he couldn't.

A gag covered Socks' mouth, and when he tried to get up, Socks also realized he'd been tied to a stalagmite. His back ached terribly, and his arm was a bit sore, but the sickly-sweet taste of a healing potion was stuck to his tongue. The hushed shouts coming from the other cave were a bit more clear now, but Socks still wasn't paying attention to them.

Instead, he struggled, trying to break the ropes that tied his wrists together, but it wasn't working. Bags had been put around Socks' hands as well, preventing him from simply grabbing the knot and undoing the ropes that way.

Eventually, Socks just gave up, finally deciding to listen in on the conversation.

"You gotta let him go. He didn't do anythin' wrong; You did."

"I'm not the one who murdered two people over being called suspicious. Someone's been playing too much among us."

"And who shot the cow?" Silence fell after that statement. It had been said in a British accent... but Laff was L4FF now. How could he be talking like back when he'd been human, voice smooth instead of echo-y?

"We don't need to talk about that. Right now what we need to do is hide."

"No. What you needs to do is tell me what the hell happened to me!"

"Don't worry about it. Something probably malfunctioned. You'll be fine."

"What do you mean 'malfunctioned'! What malfunctioned? What dids you do?"

"I didn't do anything, and it's not my fault you can't remember!" Socks let out a small, muffled sigh of annoyance at the arguing. And it was clear that it was Laff in the other cave. Socks couldn't tell who the other person was.

Then Socks realized the yelling had stopped. 'Uh-oh,' he thought. A few ticks later two people entered the room— a very tense, but human Laff, and... Dino? Socks' eyes locked onto Dino with confusion. Dino hadn't shown up at all in the square cavern, making everyone think that L4FF (or is he just Laff, now?) had killed him at some point in time, either before Tbh's court case, or after.

Dino had an irritated look scrawled upon his scrunched up snout that spoke the silent words of 'Why won't you just shut up and listen'. Socks gave him a pleading look, but Dino just shook his head.

"I'm not going to deal with this right now," he huffed out after a moment. Then he turned on his heel and walked back out of the cave, his scaly tail following him out. That left Socks with Laff. They stared each other in the eyes for a long, heavy moment. The tension was palpable.

Then Laff spoke up, probably realizing Socks wasn't going to say something first, since he couldn't. "I'm sorry... I didn't want any of this to happen," Laff whispered, eyes dropping down towards the floor in guilt. Socks put on a hard glare. Sorry? He'd attacked and starved all of his friends! How could someone do that without thinking 'Oh, this seems a bit wrong. Maybe since I care about these people, I shouldn't do this kind of thing to them.'

"But here, I can helps you a bit," Laff quickly added, suddenly shuffling towards Socks. Socks shrank backward into the speleothem behind him out of fear, the rocky surface clawing at his already hurting back in a painful way, but Laff just walked past. Suddenly the ropes were undone, and the bags were gone. Socks bolted up from where he'd been sitting to make a break for it, but Laff grabbed his arm in an iron fist. Literally.

Socks' eyes widened for a moment, and he froze. The surprise was quickly swept away, though, as he snapped his head around to glare at Laff, using his free hand to pull the gag off as he tried to jerk himself out of Laff's hold. "Yeah, really great help, traitor—" Socks' eyes met Laff's. A look of desperation was spread over the gasman's face... His human face. Socks looked down at Laff's arm, which had metal spreading up it, like fake ice would in a store window when Christmas season arrived.

"What—" Socks started to say, confusion creasing his brow, but Laff cut him off as he yanked Socks towards him. Only his arm had moved. The rest of Laff was trying to pull away from Socks. "Help me Socks! Don't let me go back! I don't wanna go back!" He clutched at his hair, eyes going glassy as he stared at where their arms were connected. Socks ripped his arm out of Laff's hold, tumbling over but quickly picking himself up to fearfully dash out of the cave. Almost immediately he was met by a fork, and quickly he decided to turn left. 'Because no one ever treated me right! Haha... Not the time Socks,' he thought. A sad smile curved his lips.

It quickly became hard to see in the dim light, and after a small bit of running— no clanking of metal footsteps was heard but Socks was not taking his chances— he ran into a purple hooded lizard.

Dino jerked around to stare, stutters leaving his slightly agape jaw as he stumbled over his own tail. "What the— how did you—" Socks pushed past Dino and kept running, turning in the directions he thought were the right way— not that he really knew where he was going. After about twenty minutes of the endless maze, dead ends and being chased by Dino— who continuously threatened death— Socks saw fire light flickering outside of a small crack in a wall. 'Yes!' Socks thought, squirming through the small gap and escaping out into the open cavern.

After a moment, he slowed and turned around to see that Dino had stopped and was now simply watching from the entrance of the tunnels. 'I can't believe he kidnapped me!' Socks thought, heart giving an ache almost as bad as his back, but then he turned and continued to dash off into the cavern, ready to find his friends. His true friends, who he knew wouldn't betray him.

(/==^o^==\)

Dino snorted irritably, but it didn't really matter that Socks had gotten away. The truth was going to get out sooner or later. He watched Socks run until he couldn't see the orange space suit anymore, then turned and slipped back into his tunnels. But instead of following them back to where Laff probably was, he took a different route.

A couple minutes passed before Dino reached another room. Inside, dull blue eyes looked up to meet his, pain swimming through them. At least his other prisoner hadn't escaped— his other piece of leverage. "Hey, Joocie," Dino said. Joocie shut his eyes and curled into himself as best he could, clearly not wanting to speak with him.

See, unlike Socks, Joocie had been chained to the floor, and now sat there, a look of great depression strewn across what Dino could see of his face. His coloring was duller than it had been when he was first brought in here, and Joocie seemed dehydrated, which was ironic, since his head was literally a glass of juice with two eyes and a mouth stuck on it.

Dino shook his head and sighed, nose scrunching up. "You don't know the torture Laff saved you from... That he couldn't for everyone else. Be grateful," Dino snapped at him. Joocie just shut his eyes even tighter. Dino sighed again. 'Why can't things just go right for once?'

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

{CHAPTER NOTES}

Summary: We get to see Woolf waking up in Ghosted Nowhere and just how confused he was. Socks wakes up in an unfamiliar cave and finds out Dino is still alive and is somehow associated with Laff. Laff unties Socks from where Dino had tied him down after Dino leaves the room before he is taken over by L4FF— not that Socks understands this— and Socks runs, eventually finding his way out of the tunnel system and back into the cavern. Dino watches him leave before paying Joocie a visit. (Word Count: 1459)

[NEW NOTE]: I'm realizing now that I used a couple characters' perspectives a more noticeable amount than others, so I'll try to work on evening that out. Not much more to say on this one!

(Old Note): Hey, I'm back! Alright, so I don't mean to keep using Dino's perspective, but he's just a very convenient, informational character, so if I'm boring you with his continuous perspective, I'm sorry, but at least this time it was short. Anyways. Chapter summary: Woolf- Woolf is snapped into ghosted nowhere (This is taking place back in time, immediately after he got shot by Laff), and is confused by the darkness. Socks- (back forward in the current time of the AU) Socks wakes up and finds himself tied up. He can hear two people arguing, and when he lets out a sigh that was a little too loud, Dino and Laff walk in. Not wanting to deal with the explaining, Dino leaves. Laff unties Socks, only to be taken over by L4FF. Socks doesn't understand this and runs. Dino- Dino watches Socks leave, then goes off to another area of the tunnels to say hello to his other prisoner. Okay, that was a lot. Hope you enjoyed this chapter! (Word Count: 1139)