Y'all know the 'Scape & Run: Parasites' mod? Because that's what this AU is based around >:)

(Btw heads up this AU is very heavy on gore and has some mentions of a potentially triggering topic- if you're sensitive to it or just don't like gore and serious stuff, you might wanna just wait for the next one-)

A few years after the loop, everything in the Realm is going surprisingly well. After the initial chaos of introductions the Red Kingdom back into society and the 'incident' with the wraiths, the world seemed to calm down and run smoothly. Even Time was able to return to his normal life, but when he did come back from wherever he was, there was no sign of Sabre with him and he couldn't remember what had happened after he went through the portal. Nevertheless, they moved on.

One day, while working on a project prototype to try and see if there's other worlds somewhere, Professor Red has an experiment go a little bit haywire. After a lot of electricity and a few minor explosions from his computer, the Professor sees that it's actually locked onto something... or rather, locked onto a signal somewhere. His experiment was successful... however, something was wrong. He asks the Assistant to try and figure out what the signal was, while he ran some scans on the new world.

The Professor starts to scroll through information about the world he found, curious of it's odd-seeming state. Something in the world looked as if it had almost entirely covered it, and while it did seem to spread like a disease, the scans clearly showed it being an organism somehow. A few minutes later, the Assistant notifies the Professor that the signal is a life signal of someone already in his files, along with a very similar other life signal. Both were near exactly alike to the biological construction of the Steves.

Searching his files, the Assistant is able to identify the familiar signal as none other than Sabre himself.

Professor Red quickly calls the Leaders, Light, and Time over, excitedly showing them that he was able to find Sabre. As he begins to show them some of the world's info, however, he gets to the bad news. As the Professor explained the odd observation of the 'disease', the others in the room started to worry for their old friend. Despite it being so long, what happened with the Darkness still occasionally haunted them, and they were concerned something similar was happening to Sabre.

They would quickly realize how wrong they were.

A portal was constructed a week or so later, with lots of powerful or important figures of the Realm around. Of course, most of the people other than the Leaders, Light, Time, and the Professor were Colorless Guards. It was decided they would be there as a precaution, because of the strange diagnostic of the worlds state. Other than the Guards, a few people of the village Time and Sabre stayed in were gathered to see if the savior was coming home.

The portal opens, and at first, the world seems normal. However, the longer the Steves observe the plains biome on the other side, the more things seem... off. It's completely abandoned there, the grass starting to lose its bright hue and die, and the entire area just having a sense of something sinister remaining unseen to them. However, there was no present danger at the moment, so people stepped closer to the portal.

Everyone, the Professor mostly, observed the changes in environment on the other world. It was mostly the same, however as previously mentioned there were no signs of life anywhere. Not even any animals were visible. Without even a bird passing through the sky, the other world was eerily empty.

Although, it was very clear that people at least used to live there, as the portal they were looking through seemed to connect to one already in the world. The Steves could see a large quartz frame framing the other side of the portal, and aged, crumbling pillars were scattered symmetrically on matching quartz flooring that was soon covered by overgrown grass the further it expanded.

Suddenly, everything starts to shake violently, as if there was an earthquake. Scrambling to keep their balance and attempt to back away from the portal, the Steves don't notice something approaching from the other side until it's too late.

A long tendril made up of assimilated flesh and bone bursts through the portal and sweeps across as far as it can reach, grabbing anyone that was too close. Because they were so anxious about Sabre's potential state and therefore closest to the portal, the people that ended up being grabbed were Time, Green Steve, Light, a pair of familiar Guards (later revealed to be Happy Orange Steve and LC), the Leaders, the Professor, and the Assistant. There wasn't a chance to try and pull them away from the portal before the tendril dragged them inside.

As soon as they were across, the tendril let go of the group and seemingly disappeared. Everyone tries to rush back to the portal, but as soon as they get close a cage-like gate closes over the quartz-framed portal. An electronic sign that was previously unseen above the portal lights up with just the word 'Quarantine' glowing in red. Panicked, the group tries to force the gate open, but it's no use. They're trapped in the other world.

As the group keeps trying to force the gate, the Assistant quickly informs the Professor that even across worlds, he was still connected to the computers in the lab. Professor Red orders the Assistant to make that connection the Assistant's only connection to any outside resources, as he needs to focus as much of his system's ability on staying connected to their world (this is important later).

Suddenly, petrifying screeches and roars are heard, and the group turns to face where they came from. To their horror, there's a multitude of grotesque creatures running towards them, none of them seeming quite 'alive'. Some had the same assimilated look of the tendril that dragged them through, while others looked more evolved and complete. Completely alien to the Steves, yet the creatures had just a little resemblance to animals that made them comprehensible as beings.

The groups starts to run, terrified of the creatures coming after them. As they rush into a nearby forest, they hear a person yelling at them.

Glancing as they run, they see a normal-looking figure hurriedly waving to get their attention from a small tree. They couldn't see their face, as they had the hood of a red-and-black jacket over their head. Noticing that they see them, the figure quickly tells the Steves to follow them, as they know a place to hide. Then, they start to run through the trees.

With no other choice, the Steves oblige. The mysterious person leads them to the small entrance of a cave, just looking like a crack in the cliffside, and dashes inside. The group follows, and the figure pushes them against the wall of the surprisingly expanse cave, and motions for them to not make a sound. They all stay frozen in place, holding their breath as the creatures rush past the entrance without a clue that they're inside. As soon as they can't hear the screeches and thundering footsteps, the group takes a breath.

The figure walks past them and to the back of the cave, grabbing onto some carved indents in the wall and starting to climb.

"Come on." They say. "We're not safe yet; I'll tell you what's going on as soon as we get to the hideout."

Still without another choice and wanting answers, the Steves follow. Climbing up the indents, the ceiling above them opened up into a vertical tunnel. They soon reach the top, a wall of lava at the end of a small hallway. The group is confused for a moment, until the mystery person takes a piece of the wall off, revealing the hidden lever behind the removable slate. They pull the lever, and the lava opens up like a curtain to reveal an iron door.

"Go ahead. I'm right behind you." The unknown figure says.

"How do we know this isn't a trap?" Light asks.

"Because if I wanted you dead I would've left you with the parasites, now go through." The figure replies.

The Steves oblige, and the figure quickly follows behind them after pulling the lever again and putting the slate back in place, slipping between the lava as it closes in and going through the door.

The Steves look around at the base behind the iron doors, surprised. The walls, ceiling, and floors are made of some kind of reinforced metal, like nothing they've ever seen. The hideout is decorated with a few worn carpets and sparsely placed odds and ends, but nothing else. There's more hallways and other rooms made of similar metal to the main area visible further into the place. A large desk against the wall covered in maps and materials is the main part of the room, but there is an empty space right in front of the desk's chair where only a small handheld radio sits.

The figure walks past the group, and pulls the chair from the desk, sitting down. The Steves notice there's a lot of hastily wrapped and slightly bloodied bandages on one of their arms.

"Pretty sure you guys have a lot of questions, so go ahead and ask." They say.

"Uh, yeah, no duh." The Professor says. "First off, what in all that's holy were those- things? Did you call them 'parasites'?"

"Yep, the parasites. They're the reason there's nobody else here." The figure answers. "They took over everything two years ago. They're not like normal parasites, they're... mutants. I dunno if they escaped from a lab or something, but they appeared. It all went to crap so fast, we couldn't stop them. All of those things out there that were chasing you used to be either people or animals. Maybe even a mix of both, now."

"So... an infection of these things spread, corrupted everything, and... now this world is just this?" The Indigo Leader says. "Is it just you here?"

"Correct, and as far as I know, the only people left are me and my friend." The figure says, turning to their little radio on the desk. "Although, we got separated a little before the first year ended... you haven't seen anyone else around, have you?"

"No, we were just dragged through that portal when those things started chasing us." The Green Leader answers. "We're looking for someone too."

"Either this is one heck of a coincidence or you're lying," The figure says. "Because the only way you'd be looking for someone here is if you... knew my friend..."

The figure, realization in their voice, pauses. They then turn back to the group.

"Are you guys, by chance... the 'Steves'?" They ask.

The group, shocked, is silent for a moment.

"Wh- How do you know who we are?" The Yellow Leader says. "Who even are you?"

The figure stands up and takes off his hood, revealing his blonde hair and bright blue eyes, a faded scar over one of them.

"My name is Lucas." He says. "Sabre told us a lot about you."

"You know Sabre?!" Time exclaims, quickly going to the front of the group.

"Yeah, he's my best friend. When he got back from your world, he came back home." Lucas explains. "He told us all about you guys. And guessing by your appearance, you must be Time Steve. He said a lot about you."

"Do you know where Sabre is now?" Green Steve asks, peering from the back of the group. "If we can figure out what's going on with the portal, we can likely get you both out of here."

"Sabre is... in a lot worse of a situation than us." Lucas says, sorrow crossing his face. "It's gonna be difficult to get to him. And dangerous. If any of us want to help him, we're gonna have to work together. But, because of the situations all of us are in..."

Lucas glances at all of the Steves in front of him.

"...I don't think any of us have a choice."

So it begins.

Here's more plot points that are mostly things explained to the Steves by Lucas:

- The portal closed on them only after they went through is because the portal's security system was on quarantine mode and detected them, but couldn't detect the parasites, and couldn't tell that they just came through from the other side rather than walking up to it. The parasite tendril that grabbed them actually disintegrated after dragging them through, the parasites being unable to handle interuniversal portal travel.

- The group needs to find the portal's two system override keys in order to unlock the portal and leave the world, and can't just use one because the system absolutely needs both keys in order for the override to work. If they did try to just use one, nothing would happen.

- The person that started this all was a scientist, trying to cure a disease he had, but instead ended up infecting himself with the modified parasite and going insane. He created more parasites, only listening to the hive's demand for infection and slowly losing himself. Lucas was hesitant to tell the Steves this for a reason soon explained.

- There's no other people on the planet, Sabre and Lucas being the only two life signs the Professor's computer found. This is because any infected person was soon assimilated into the parasites. This explanation makes a looot more sense of you look at the mod (In my experience, YouTube is the best place to look for it because it has a lot of mod reviews about it).

- Sabre and Lucas were with each other when the parasites first took over, as previously mentioned, but there was also a third person with them. Having found the same hiding place from the parasites as them when crap hit the fan, this person just called himself Zero. Sabre and Lucas took him along with them, as there was no one else and they couldn't really just leave Zero to die. They slowly became friends as they survived the parasites, making their way through the world to try to find somewhere safe. Eventually, they find an abandoned lab that still had electricity, meaning the lockdown system still worked. Months passed, and they built up a fortress from that lab, becoming somewhat of a trio as they went along.

However, one night as Sabre and Lucas were just going along their usual routines, Zero showed his true colors. He drugged the other two and took them to the experimental wing of the lab, which was previously blocked off because it had low-level parasites inside. Zero was in truth the scientist that created the parasites, his alias 'Zero' meaning 'Patient Zero'. The lab they had found was actually his lab. Zero ended up taking the two portal override keys (which he had hidden from Sabre and Lucas this entire time) and sewing each inside of the duo's left arms. He was going to do more, but Sabre and Lucas quickly woke up and escaped the lab, parasites chasing after them.

They tried to stay near each other, but were soon separated when they were trying to run through a cave mineshaft and an explosive parasite knocked Sabre off the platform Lucas was on and into a deeper part of the mine. Lucas was forced to keep running, unable to follow Sabre.

- Sabre is trapped inside an area of the world that the parasites have claimed as their hive's main base, parasite colonies dotted everywhere and high-level parasites as far as the eye can see. The only reason he has been able to hide from them is because he found a different abandoned lab right in the middle of it all, which was more like an underground research bunker. Luckily for him, it was centered around botany, so he didn't have to worry about having a food source and could just grow crops. The parasites above him, however... let's just say his insomnia got worse because of what he was able to hear.

- The Assistant still being connected to the Professor's lab computers is important because he can send messages through them and still communicate with their world, even able to sometimes have video calls if they're lucky. This is how the Steves trapped in the parasite-infested world tell everyone back home what's going on and update them about what they're doing.

- The radio Lucas has is connected to another radio that Sabre has, and every night they talk to each other as both a way to know the other is alright and to stay sane. This is how Lucas knows where Sabre is, and how Sabre finds out that the Steves found his world.

- This is more of an after-story/epilogue thing, but once the Steves bring Sabre and Lucas to the Steve world and shut down the portal for good, these two have gained an intense fear of bugs. Because of the parasites' resemblance to bugs in their early stages, these two will have a panic attack if they so much as think they see a bug. And lord help whoever's near them if they see a spider on the ground, because they're gonna get used as a platform in order to reach the ceiling. On an unrelated note, they don't really go outside much anymore either. At least, for a while, until Time decides to drag them to therapy. Also for epilogue stuff there could be a lot of comfort moments between them, because ✨shared trauma✨ and they need something quiet to do so they don't wake Time up at 2 AM because they've both become insomniacs.

Soooo ye. Lots of potential for the whole AU :>

Have fun finding very gory ways to traumatize the OG duo >:3