Before I get into the long-awaited next part of the Runaway AU, I just wanted to say thank you for supporting my little stories as I write them down here. I honestly kind of find it hard to believe I'm at the 100th chapter of this book, and it all started when I was bored one morning before school and wanted to write down some ideas I had that I knew I wouldn't use myself. I'm so happy that you've all enjoyed them, and that I've helped people write their own stories using my ideas. You have no idea how much it means to me that you guys like my work, and that you all let me get this far with my ideas.

Again, thank you all so, so much. I hope I bring as much happiness to you as you've been bringing happiness to me whenever you read my little stories.

Now, without further ado... Here is the second part of the Runaway AU! Set in the middle of the Chromatics' fighting against the second coming of Darkness, along with the reality-bending Demon Steves, Sabre are Time are enjoying their peaceful lives in the Mystic Forest...

—————————————————————————————————————

[Sabre's POV]

"Sabre!" I hear my friend's voice call out to me, sounding happy.

I look up from my book I was reading as I was walking down the path back to the house, after collecting mushrooms from the nearby cave they grow in. The small squirrel-like animal that was walking behind me bumps into my leg when I stop.

"Oh, sorry little buddy! Are you okay?" I say softly to the little fluffball.

It smooths out its pastel golden fur, then looks up at me and gives me a few chittering noises in response. The little creature then jumps onto my leg and clutches the fabric of my jeans, still looking up at me with its bright, almost emerald green eyes. I chuckle quietly at its antics.

"Good, don't want you getting hurt, you sweet thing." I say, giving a smile at the golden fluffball.

My attention is then turned back to Time, as he approaches me from down the path. He has one of the shimmering, iridescent-and-lilac lynx creatures riding on his shoulders.

"Ah, Sabre. There you are." Time says, stopping in front of me. "I was wondering where you were."

"Oh, just gathering some of the mushrooms from the cave while reading." I reply.

"Heh, got lost in your own little world again, hm?" Time giggles, ruffling my hair.

"Hey!" I say, playfully pushing his arm away while laughing as well. "You shush, don't act like you don't do the same. Now c'mon, I need to get these mushrooms back to the house, and I'm pretty sure you were doing some foraging of your own."

"Oh, you will not believe how many magnolia blooms I found." Time says, as we begin to walk down the path together. "It's amazing how quickly they grow, those trees."

"Where I come from, they were actually becoming invasive to a lot of places because of that." I say. "So everyone could grab as much as they wanted. I've never tried cooking with the flowers until recently, but boy am I glad I did."

"Oh yeah, those cookies you made with them? Absolutely phenomenal." Time says.

"You're still better at cooking, though." I say.

Time and I talk as we go back to our house together, excited for what we could make with all of the stuff we found. The house we built together is made of oak wood for the walls, and spruce wood for things like the roof and accents (turns out, the trees here are actually different, something is just making the leaves all rainbow-colored). There's many windows in both the first and second floor, two of them being window seats, one for me and one for Time. Those lead to our individual rooms, each decorated with random odds and ends we've both found and the creatures of this forest have brought to us.

Many vines grow around the house, mostly covering the roof, with lots of flowers sprouting from them. Along with those are many trees other than the colorful ones, like wisteria, cherry blossom, willow trees, and some various fruit and berry trees. Some of the flowers that grow around here I recognize from ones from my world, like daffodils, daises, multiple colors of roses, lilies, petunias, violets, bluebells, and a lot more. Time was excited to learn all about them when he first got here.

As we both enter the house, our little creature friends running off into the forest before we do, Time and I set down each of our baskets on the counter to go through. We show each other what we've collected.

While I had been gathering various mushrooms, Time had gathered wild fruits, the magnolia he mentioned earlier, lots of wild vegetables, a few sweet berries, and some spices like ginger and mint.

"Wow, you're sure more productive than I am." I say as we put away all of the things we found in the kitchen.

"Heh, a lot of the animals helped me." Time says, as he tosses a sweet berry to a bird that regularly seems to be in here. "It's funny, how they're so comfortable around us and treat us so nicely."

"Yeah, but hey, I'm not complaining." I say. "It's nice having them around."

Just as we finish putting everything away, we hear lightning outside, and know who it is. Time and I happily go back outside to greet our friend.

"Hello, you two." Origin greets us as we exit the house.

"Hi again, Origin." I say, Time and I stopping in front of him.

"Nice to see you again." Time adds. "What brings you here?"

"Oh, just wanted to see how you were doing." Origin smiles. "I hope what happened last week didn't cause you too much trouble."

"Oh, that storm?" I say, as the three of us walk over to where we usually are while talking with each other. "Nah, it all turned out okay. It added some more water to the rivers, and helped with the crops actually. The only thing that was really bad about it is the lightning striking that one part of the roof."

"So then we got a lightning rod after." Time says. "Luckily that strike didn't cause a fire, but we don't want to risk it, so we got the materials together."

"Well, I'm glad it all turned out alright." Origin says.

We get to our little meeting spot next to the river, with a little table and three garden chairs around it. Lots of these bright aqua-blue flowers grow everywhere, and some of the creatures are gathering around; Birds, more of the pastel-golden squirrels, a few cat-like ones, two that are similar to dogs, and a few of the deer creatures.

Origin, Time, and I sit around the table and catch up with one another. I've noticed that on his visits, Origin never talks about himself much. I understand if where he's from or something is a bit of a touchy subject, like how I am about where I'm from, but him always just avoiding it and never once saying something about himself other than his name is... peculiar. Time and I have gotten to know him, sure, and he's a great friend. It's just a little strange...

Eventually, it starts to rain again. Time and I quickly duck under a few trees with Origin close behind.

"Woah, that came out of nowhere." Time says.

"Yeah, and it's been raining a lot too." I add. "Is this what this world's rainy season looks like or something?"

"No, that's not supposed to be here for a few more months..." Origin says. "Strange."

Suddenly, lightning starts to strike from far off. It's not attack lightning, it's just natural lightning. All of the animals hurriedly run away to their burrows, dens, or whatever they live in. I flinch every time another bolt strikes the earth, piercing the sky with a loud crack. I still love the rain, as I've always had, but the time I've spent in this world has caused a few... new fears.

"We should get back to the house." Time says.

"Yeah, we should." I agree, yet again flinching as a bolt strikes nearer to the forest. "Origin, will you be okay?"

"Yes I will, I'll just teleport." Origin says. "You can go ahead and run along; I can come back tomorrow."

"Okay, seeya later then!" I say, waving as Time and I quickly make a break for it.

We hear Origin teleport behind us, as we keep running through the already muddy ground. We reach the house again soon enough, and rush inside. Only when we take a glance at each other do we realize how soaked we are.

"Man, we were only out there for a few seconds, and we're completely drenched!" I say, laughing a little.

"These storms have been getting harder and harder recently..." Time says. "Maybe it just rains more often here?"

"Maybe." I say, then start walking towards upstairs to my room despite leaving a few puddles. "I'm gonna go change, don't want to sit around in wet clothes."

"Same here." Time says, heading to his room downstairs in the nearby hall. "We can just mop up the puddles once we're dry."

I make my way to my room, then over to my wardrobe as I listen to the rain pattering against my window. The window seat has a few books sitting there, while the shadows of the raindrops run down across the cushion, mimicking the actual drops on the window. As I find some dry clothes, more lighting outside slightly scares me again.

I quickly change into the warm, dry clothes I found. That's much better. I throw my damp clothes into a basket next to the wardrobe, and pick up a towel I had on one of the wardrobe's shelves before heading back downstairs to clean up the mess I left.

I find Time down there already, using his own towel on the puddles on the floor. I set down my towel over the puddles in front of the stairs and start mopping them up, being careful not to slip. We finish cleaning soon enough, and set the now-soaked towels in another basket where we put things like raincoats and other shared items.

"Looks like the wind is picking up now..." Time says, looking out the window. "Hopefully all of the animals will be alright."

"I'm sure they will, they've been holding up pretty well during the last few storms." I reply.

Suddenly, Time yelps and steps back.

"What happened?" I ask.

"I-It was just a leaf that landed on the window..." Time says, calming down. "Came right at my face and scared me. I'm fine."

...We both have our fears from our pasts, but we can put that behind us now. We're safe just where we are, and nobody from our old lives can get to us.

I walk over to where Time is in front of the window, and he looks at me.

"It's alright, Time." I say. "Let's just hope this storm will pass soon."

We then hear some more lightning, but this is... different. It's not natural lightning, this is as if someone was teleporting.

"What the..." Time mumbles.

"Did Origin come back for something?" I wonder aloud. I then walk over to the door, putting my boots back on. "I'll check that out, be right-"

"Wait." Time interrupts, walking over.

He then grabs a clean raincoat and hat from the coat rack nearby, and hands them to me.

"Coat. Hat. Put them on before you go out there." Time says. "And please... be careful."

"I will, Time. Don't worry." I smile as I button up the raincoat.

I step outside, struggling to shut the front door because of the wind. Once I do, I start heading in the direction I heard the lightning come from.

The winds are strong, and the rain makes it a little hard to see, but I manage as I walk through the rainy forest underneath the leaves of the colorful trees. As I go, I realize I'm starting to get to the edge of the forest... odd.

I'm just about to start deciding if I should go back or not, when I hear some of the dog-like creatures growling at something up ahead. Carefully, I walk forward and peek out from behind a few trees as I go.

I hear a quiet, slightly scared voice as I get closer.

"Woah, woah- Uhm, nice dogs- I'm not trying to intrude or anything..."

That... That voice sounds familiar. A familiar voice of a friend... is it really him?

I step closer, now right behind a tree where the dog creatures are. They're growling at a figure in a deep brown cloak, as he tries to back away slowly.

"Please don't hurt me..." The figure says, holding up their hands. "I was just trying to hide..."

I walk out from behind the tree, bewildered.

"...M?" I call out.

The figure in the cloak looks up as the two dogs stop growling and look at me. I see my close friend's red face as his hood slips a little.

"S-Sabre...?"

—————————————————————————————————————

[Origin's POV]

I teleport back to my dimension, escaping the harsh rain from the Mystic Forest.

It's strange... this kind of rain outside of the rainy seasons only happen when there's a large surge of power in the area, like during a battle between two powerful entities. I should check if someone's been getting too close to-

"You can't keep hiding them from the world forever, Origin."

I quickly turn around, seeing an all-too-familiar purple, distorted, spirit-like form behind me. Turning to face him, I sigh.

"Just leave them alone, Curse." I say. "Let them have their tranquility."

"But it's true; What's happening in the world outside the Forest can't stay away for much longer." The Curse continues. "You can't help Sabre and the Master of Time run from their problems forever. Something is going to drag them out of that fantasy... and soon."

"No, something won't. Not on my watch." I reply. "I'm not letting any harm come to them. Not anymore. The three-sided war between the Chromatics, the Shadow, and the World Below will not reach them. They don't even know about it."

"Oh, but they do now." The Curse smiles sinisterly. "Such a thing cannot be unheard of for long."

"What?!" I exclaim, quickly turning back to the viewing window in front of me, and I set it to take a look inside Sabre and Time's home.

There, in the living room with them, is the Red Steve that Sabre has dubbed 'M'. He's soaked from the rain and covered in a blanket, holding a mug filled with tea. Sabre and Time sit in nearby chairs, talking with him.

"We don't know what's been going on with everyone else, we haven't left this forest since we entered it." Sabre says.

"Well, it's gotten bad... really bad." M replies. "There's a war going on, with the people of the now-destroyed Rainbow Kingdom, the Darkness, and reality-shifting beings from a place called the World Below battling for control over this world."

"Wait, the Rainbow Kingdom is destroyed? The Darkness is back?! What on earth happened?" Time asks.

"I don't know exactly, I was hiding in the Red Kingdom a lot after Sabre left, and only went out when I needed to... help a friend." M continues. "That's actually what I was doing out in the forest, my friend got hurt while trying to do something with machines, and... I was trying to find something to help. He's okay, just covered in burns."

"I'm so sorry, M..." Sabre says. "I think we can help with your friend's situation, Time and I have actually been using different herbs while we've been living here for stuff. There's one that helps a lot with burns."

"Yeah, let me go find it. One second." Time says, getting up.

"Really? Thank you..." M smiles.

"No problem, think of it as a 'thank you' for helping out back with the Corrected Sun and stuff." Sabre says.

Sabre and M stay silent for a moment, as Time looks through their storages for the herbs.

"Hey Sabre...?" M says. "I just want you to know, I'm not trying to get you two to come back with any of this. I completely understand why you left, and if you don't want to, you shouldn't be swept up in the Chromatics' affairs again. I just... it's getting scary out there."

"It's okay, I get it." Sabre says. "Just be careful once you go back home, okay? Those 'Demon Steve' guys sound pretty dangerous."

"Hey, I got the herbs." Time says, walking back into the room holding a small bag. He hands the bag to M. "Put these in boiling water, and use a rag to apply it, kind of like ice water treatment. It might sting a little for your friend, but he should be fine."

"Thanks, Time." M says.

...I shut the viewing window, unsure of what to do. Sabre and Time know now... they might try to help M, and neither of them are fighters anymore, that changed a long while ago... what do I do now...

"I told you, Origin." The Curse says behind me. "The clock's ticking; Sooner or later, they'll be back into the fray again. The only things that's unsure is if their experiences with your creations will be better than the last... or worse."

"You stay out of this, Curse." I say. "You know full well you are not welcome here, and you've stayed long enough. Leave."

"Very well, but don't say I didn't warn you..." The Curse says. "You can't prevent this any longer..."

The Curse disappears, and I'm left alone once again.

...I hate to admit it, but he's right. I can't hide them from the world forever. Either they start helping in the war, leaving the forest and keep its location secret... or one of the three sides find it by accident and come knocking on their door. And none of them will be polite visits...

I just hope that Sabre and Time can be left alone... only for a little while longer...

—————————————————————————————————————

Aaand there it is! Part 2 of the Runaway AU! I would like to announce that this AU has been claimed while I was finishing up writing, by scarlet_witch100! Excited to see what you write buddy, especially with this new lore drop :3