This AU takes place long after the loop reset, where somewhere along in history the Steves had been wiped out, humans arising and taking their place in the Realm. At the point the story starts, everything is modern-day and the Steves have been entirely forgotten, save for old records by archaeologists and historians. Nobody really talks about them if they do know.

The sudden disappearance of the Steves was caused by the First Curse, who had been slowly recovering his power and pulling himself back together, and had lashed out as soon as he regained a semblance of consciousness. This resulted in the Steves being bound to a curse that took the form of a book, each soul of every Steve being bound to a page. All of them were reduced to spirits inhabiting said book, never able to go very far from it. The only thing they still had to their names were their own individual pages, which the soul bound to it could control what was pictured or written on it at will.

Origin himself could never have foreseen what the Curse would do, and wasn't able to stop him. Once the First Curse returned to dormancy after using up the energy he had to curse the Realm, Origin spoke to his creations and told them that there would be a way to fix this. They'd have to wait a very, very long time, but he promised them that their Savior would return to them and set them free, although he would return in a different yet still familiar form.

The cursed book being placed inside a temple, the Steves had no choice but to wait until the day Origin promised them would come. So, they waited. And waited. As the decades went by, they didn't know this, but the temple became covered by the landscape changing around it. As the humans took over the Realm, the land the temple was under was built on, then abandoned, then forgotten.

Present day, a large town stands nearby the forgotten temple. It's a generic town, with schools, businesses both big and small, housing ranging from apartments and suburbs to big neighborhoods and even a few houses that are practically mansions, and anything else found in towns like it. Sabre lives in this town, attending one of the schools.

What sets this town apart from most are the stories and legends of a forgotten humanoid race, coming from the town being near most of the archaeological sites and ruins. Now barely a memory, the people usually use the stories of these humanoids as warnings to stay away from certain places. It's usually just to keep people out, but there's one place that everyone is told to stay away from for seemingly no reason;

A forest at the edge of the town.

It's not private property or anything. Nobody owns it, nobody ever truly has. But it is a forest shrouded in superstition and paranoia, tales told of anyone going in having something bad happen to them. Nobody had entered the forest in decades, but still the townsfolk were wary of it. While the open grassy field next to it was frequently visited by people and their families, no one dares step foot into the woods.

It was like any other day when Sabre was taking the field as a shortcut to get home after school. Sunny, warm, fluffy clouds in the sky, and a slight breeze in the air, he carried his backpack with him as he made his way towards the street that always leads him home. However, he quickly noticed something different in the corner of his eye.

He saw an unidentifiable figure dart through the trees at the edge of the forest. Quickly turning his head, he sees the being standing there, facing him, just a little further into the trees. It was almost as if it was waiting for him. Sabre looked around to see if anyone else was seeing it, but realized that today, the field was mysteriously empty.

As he turned back to the being, as soon as he made eye contact, he felt a sort of pull. A feeling that he should follow this figure to wherever it wanted to lead him, a feeling that was all too... familiar.

So, he followed. He followed the being into the forest, through the trees towering above them and around trees fallen long ago, covered in moss, until the being disappeared into a crevice in the stone side of a cliff. It was almost like a rift in dimensions, giving off a feeling of unfamiliarity and otherworldliness. However, Sabre was more curious about it than afraid. Seeing that the crevice was too small for him to go through with his backpack on, he leaves it next to the opening and crawls inside.

The last thing he expected to see after he once he got through the long tunnel was a large, expanse room of sorts, jagged edges and sharp rocks that had crumbled from the cave wall suddenly nowhere in sight, instead aged marble and stone brick neatly covering the walls. A multitude of glowing crystals grew from the ceiling, spotlighting the center of the room in colorful beams of light; an ancient-looking structure similar to a lectern with a book bound in leather placed upon it, red cloth binding it shut and a magenta-purple jewel framed in gold in the center of the cover. The lectern was surrounded by a circle of letters on the floor etched in the stone, in a language unfamiliar to Sabre.

Sabre walked towards the center of the room, curiously admiring the book. The gemstone glittered in the prismatic light, almost seeming like it was shining. Once he stopped in front of the pedestal, Sabre just looked at the book for a few more minutes until finally picking it up, feeling the worn leather and red cloth. Tracing the edges of the gem with his finger, he could see his reflection in it.

Before he could admire it any longer, however, the cavern suddenly began to shake. Sabre quickly lost his footing and fell to the floor, and seconds later the area surrounded by the odd glyphs collapses, taking Sabre down with it.

As he reaches the ground, he hits his head on one of the crumbled pieces of rock, knocking him unconscious. The book falls out of his hands and onto the floor next to him. A few minutes passes, and the gemstone on the book glows for a moment, as a few colorful spirits appear from thin air. One of each color of the rainbow.

They show concern for Sabre, worrying if he's alright as the green one floats closer and observes, noticing a few injuries such as a gash on his head from the rock, deep scratches from landing on the rough floor, and his arm definitely being broken from landing on it. The spirit takes a moment to mysteriously heal the worst injury, his arm, but as he finishes the orange spirit shouts in excitement.

The spirit had gotten a good look at his face, and recognized Sabre. He looked younger than how they all remembered him, but there was no doubt it was him. Quickly bringing attention to this, the spirit gets the others to look as well, and they all confirm the same.

Their Savior has returned in a different, but still familiar form.

With all of the Steves now excited, they start trying to figure out a way to get Sabre out of the ruins, as he clearly still needed help that they couldn't give. After a few minutes, they find his phone in his pocket, and (despite not knowing how it works) they manage to turn on the phone's SOS signal. Help arrives pretty fast, since Sabre was in the forest everybody avoids and all, and the Steves disappear as people get Sabre out of the collapsed room and to the hospital. 

When Sabre wakes up, he's visited by family and friends that were worried about him. Despite taking such a fall, he felt completely fine. The gashes and scratches barely hurt. Doctors noticed the healed damage to his arm, but figured it was just a hairline fracture from the fall and told him to let someone know if it starts hurting. Sabre is released from the hospital soon after.

Once he's back home, relaxing in his room, Sabre decides to check if anything in his backpack was broken or stolen while he was in the ruin. It had been found next to the cliff by the people that responded to the call, and given to one of his friends, who gave it back to Sabre in the hospital.

When Sabre opens his backpack however, he finds the strange book that was in the ruins among his school items. He was told that nobody found a book where he was, so he thought it was destroyed from the collapse.

Confused, he takes it out and examines it for a while, until the gemstone starts to glow once again. Sabre drops the book and scoots back, not knowing what it's about to do, when the glowing suddenly stops.

He stares at the book for a few moments, wondering what just happened, but quickly looks up when he hears a voice above him call his name.

Floating in the air above him is a transparent form of a colorful figure, mostly orange with bits of six other colors in lines and streaks around him. A dark scar covers his torso, even going over the simple clothing he wears. His expression is one of hope, recognition, and joy.

It's Rainbow.

—————————————————————————————————————

Here's some more information about the AU :>

- All of the good Steves are there, their souls bound to the book. That includes ones that were killed off, like Rainbow and Elemental. There is one soul that isn't there though, and Sabre has to find him in order to defeat the First Curse again before he wrecks this new world: Time Steve. His soul is somewhere in the world, but it's disconnected from everyone else because of how he disappeared after the loop. Once he's found, he'll join everyone else in the book.

- Sabre doesn't remember anything about his life during RQ, having been reborn into this modern world. He'll slowly get these memories back through interacting with the Steves, his strange dreams (soon to be mentioned), and using abilities he can borrow from the Steves. Sometimes they'll just randomly come back to him, like he's talking with one of them and he randomly says something he always used to say (ex: calling people 'Chief').

- Sabre has always had dreams of a strange being, it looks like him but at the same time is very different. He sees it interacting with strange people he can't quite see the faces of, hears their voices and thinks they're familiar but can't remember whose voices they are because they're distorted. He sees the figure that looks like him talking to a powerful being with blue eyes, and soon after becoming a sort of similarly powerful entity. This is Sabre seeing distorted memories of his time in RQ, and his time being with Origin at the beginning of the loop. He's never understood them and always brushed them off as weird dreams, never telling anyone about them. However, as he talks with the bound Steves and helps them, the dreams slowly start making sense.

- As Sabre regains his memories, there's a lot of potential for moments between characters. He can remember his favorite moments with some of his friends and be so happy to remember that, or he could eventually remember the hurtful events that happened to them, giving the Steves involved a chance to apologize for their actions.

- The Steves can lend power to Sabre through making an item appear from their page, said item appearing as a charm or clip, or just anything easily worn. Sabre can have more than one charm at a time, but needs to actually learn how to use the abilities that come with them.

- The World Beyond and Middle World have collided and turned into a place the Steves call Oblivion. They can teleport Sabre there (or just teleport him anywhere in general) anytime they want, and in Oblivion they appear like normal.

- The Steves have to be careful not to be seen by other humans, as they are visible to them whenever they're visible to Sabre.

- Gerald is here too, he's a random pig that's followed Sabre around since he was little. He's not allowed inside Sabre's house, but that changes when most of the Steves recognize Gerald. They're confused as to how he's there, but don't question it.

- As the Curse slowly regains power, he could send out some of his creations (or even humans he persuaded to his side) to stop Sabre from stopping him.

- Sabre can mentally speak to the Steves whenever he wants, but he won't hear them all at once. They have to be the ones to make a connection between them and Sabre, so thankfully he won't be kept up by their conversations while he's trying to sleep.

- Sabre is much more timid and quiet than his usual self, mostly because he doesn't remember being the outgoing, always smiling warrior he used to be. That, and he's a high school junior-

- Sabre has a necklace that he found when he was a kid, and he's always worn it since. The Steves know what it really is, but don't tell him because they're worried they'll break him if they tell him everything too soon.

- He wears a blindfold because one of his eyes has a 'deformity', it's oddly colored a bright blue with a yellowish-white pupil, with a strangely colored patch of skin around that eye. He's been bullied about it before, so he just covers it up.

I was going to describe his design, but I made a Gacha of it cuz I was bored :b

Good job if you know what skin it's based on :3

And now, situations!

——

Rainbow: (appearing in Sabre's room) Sabre? Buddy??

Sabre: Who are you-?!

Rainbow: ... (starts crying)

—

(The first time Sabre gets teleported to Oblivion)

Blue Leader: (as they finish teleporting in) Okay, so-

Sabre: (confused and scared and probably very disoriented) AAAAAAA-

Indigo Leader: ...Perhaps we should have warned him first.

B. Leader: Probably.

—

(Light and Sabre talking to each other)

Sabre: (Says something he used to say or something related to his life in RQ out of the blue)

Light: !!

Sabre: Why'd I say that-?

—

(Sabre talking about the pig that hang out around him)

Sabre: -And yeah, I don't know why he's there but he's followed me around as long as I can remember.

Rainbow: ...Can I see him?

Sabre: Uh, sure I guess.

(As soon as they go outside and see Gerald sitting there)

Rainbow: Gerald! It's you!

Sabre: ...what.

—

Sabre: (Living a normal life in a nice town)

Plot, about to drag him into the ruins: Did you forget you're the narrative's favorite?

—

(Showing the Steve modern tech)

Sabre: This is a microwave.

(A few Steves raise their hands)

Sabre: No, you can't put sticks in it. It's not a 'furnace', it's for food only. Putting stuff like that in would make it explode.

(They put their hands down)

—

Have fun :D