Sabre was filled with anxiety since he had woken up that morning, and despite his new friends' comforting words, he was still trembling like a leaf in the wind.

Inside the lab, within the room with the giant computer and the machine on opposite sides, the Professor is doing some last-minute checks on both the machine and Sabre. M and the Red Leader are standing nearby, talking to Sabre as he sits on a table with an IV in his arm.

"You're gonna be fine, I promise." M says, sitting on a chair next to the table. "The Professor has done plenty of these before, back when shadows first became a problem."

"I'm still nervous..." Sabre says quietly.

"Nothing to worry about, Sabre!" The Professor says with a grin. "The chance of anything going wrong is slim, and even if something does, I've prepared for every possible scenario! After this, your shadow will be a nuisance no longer."

"If I had my own form again, I'd show you a 'nuisance' you-"

"Shut."

Sabre quickly silences Shadow again. He's been getting better at that over the days since he figured out how.

"Are you alright, Sabre?" The Red Leader asks, noticing his silence.

"He started talking again." Sabre replies. "I had to make him shut up."

"Speaking of that, you figured that out remarkably fast." The Professor adds, checking on the machine one last time.

"I did?"

"Yes! Usually it took a few tries for the Red Steves that had dealt with shadows back then, but you figured it out first try, based off what you told me. It's amazing!"

"Oh, uh, thanks."

The Professor fiddled with the machine for a few more seconds, then picks up a remote with multiple buttons. He then walks over to Sabre and takes out the IV.

"Alright, everything's set, and you've gotten enough of the dosage of the potion. Are you ready?" He asks.

"A-As I could be." Sabre replies, smiling nervously.

"Good, go ahead and step into the machine. Carmine, Amaris, I'm gonna need you to back up. Like, stand next to the computer or something, just be on the other half of the room."

The Red Leader and M oblige, and Sabre walks over to the machine and steps into the holding area of the machine. Standing in the center, he looks up at the Professor.

"Remember that the lightning is normal and if it feels painful in any way, and I mean the slightest bit, you let me know. Also, once I lock you in I need you to test that the holding mechanism is working correctly." Professor Red says, starting up the machine. "It's been a while since I've had to separate a shadow and we can't have any problems now."

"Alright, uh..." Sabre says. "What's the remote for?"

"Oh, most of these are just my failsafes that I mentioned. Like I said, I've prepared for anything this parasite might pull. The rest are controls for the machine."

"Okay..."

The Professor pulls a lever, and the piston-like parts of the machine move towards Sabre. An energy radiates from the plates on the pistons' surfaces, and Sabre feels his body go rigid as small flecks of redstone become visible in the air around him. The Professor steps back.

"Alright, can you still move or is it working properly?" He asks.

Sabre tries to lift his arm and step sideways a bit, but both attempts at mobility fail.

"Nope, it's working." He answers.

"Good! Now I'll be just over here." The Professor Says, now standing near the center of the room.  "This should be quick."

The Professor pushes a button on the remote, and the machine starts to radiate a low hum. Sabre feels the hum within his bones, it strong and starting to get louder. The humming reaches its peak, and a rod on the top of the machine starts to spark with electricity.

"Ready, Sabre?" The Professor asks.

Sabre nods, already starting to feel Shadow fight against the hold, but it's useless. He feels Shadow starting to panic. His voice starts to break past the silence.

"Sabre, plea... this is... mistake!" Shadow's voice crackles. "You... eed me... survive! Stop the... end... madness!"

Sabre only gives a single response to his cries.

"You have always been nothing but a parasitic drone, ruining me because the Darkness tells you to. I never needed you. You needed me."

Sabre blocks out Shadow's voice as he looks up at the Professor, one more time.

"Brace yourself." The Professor says, his hand hover over another button. "It's going to pull back."

Sabre closes his eyes as the Professor hits the button, the sound of lightning already registering in his ears.

The bright flashes of energy circle around him and the machine, as its humming turns into a roar. Sabre can feel Shadow's energy bring pried off his soul, as his shrieks start to become faded. It's surprisingly painless.

A few more seconds pass, and Shadow is almost pulled away, when Sabre suddenly feels as if something is digging into his heart.

He starts to scream.

The Red Leader and M quickly try to run up to the machine to help, but the Professor stops them. He pushes a button, which makes a blue energy appear from the machine, and it starts absorbing into Sabre.

The digging feeling stops, and just as suddenly, Sabre can no longer hear or feel Shadow.

After a minute passes, the lightning stops. The machine has returned to humming. Sabre shakily keeps standing as the holding mechanism starts loosening its grip on him, his ears ringing.

He feels as if he's out of his own body at the moment, the Professor, M, and the Red Leader's voices sounding hazy and distant as they rush to him.

A memory begins to surface.

—————————————————————————————————————

Two people stand on a balcony, looking out over a safe place filled with portals. One is colorful, while the other is strangely dull in this bright world.

The colorful one turns to him.

"Hey... Sabre?" He asks.

"Yeah Rainbow?"

"You never told me what the place you came from is like. You said stuff about how your world worked and some things that were different, but... what was your home like?"

"...That's... not a happy story, Rainbow."

"Oh, sorry..."

"It'd okay, you didn't know."

A moment of silence passes.

"...Do you still want to hear it?"

"Of course, if you're okay with telling me. If listening helps, I want to help you."

He sighs and stares at his folded hands.

"It... wasn't really a home at all." He starts. "It was a training ground."

"A training ground? Why?"

"My people were at war with each other. I don't know over what, I was never told. Probably something stupid like land or somebody insulted somebody, knowing my world's past wars. I was being trained to be one of their... warriors."

"Yikes... well, that explains how you already know how to fight. Didn't you have a home before that? You know, where you grew up? A family?"

...

He couldn't bear to tell him the truth. He was too innocent, even younger than he was.

"Yeah, I did. I was forced to join their army because there were too many casualties."

"But you're only a year older than me! You're still just a kid!"

"Not in their eyes."

His colorful friend looked at him with worried concern as he stared to the horizon.

"To them, I was just a more easily trainable soldier."

—————————————————————————————————————

He snapped back into the present, noticing that he was now sat on the ground, the three crouched in front of him.

"Sabre? Are you back with us?" M asks, a hand on his shoulder.

"M...?" Sabre muttered.

M, the Professor, and the Red Leader all took a relieved breath. M starts helping Sabre to stand up.

"You had us all worried for a bit. Are you alright?" The Red Leader asks. "Does it still hurt?"

"No, I-I'm okay..." Sabre responds. "What happened?"

"Your shadow tried to forcefully fuse with your soul at the last moment, but I had a failsafe that basically knocked it off your soul entirely." The Professor explains. "It's successfully been removed from you. You were in shock for a few minutes."

"He... he's gone?" Sabre asks.

The Professor smiles, and walks over to a different side of the machine, more towards the back of it.

"Indeed! The shadow you had is no longer part of you." He says, reaching into a compartment. "It is now..."

The Professor pulls out a capsule made of reinforced glass with a metal to; and bottom to it. A black goop is inside, and it has small red eyes. It screeches furiously, muffled by the glass.

"Merely a tiny angry slime in a tube." Professor Red smiles, trying not to laugh at Shadow.

Sabre, on the other hand, immediately starts laughing uncontrollably. M giggles at Shadow's attempts to break the glass by slamming his non-solid face into it. The Red Leader keeps his composure, but can't help but smile a little. The Professor walks over as Sabre calms down.

"Hey, they always hate when you flick the glass. Wanna try?" Professor Red grins, holding up the capsule.

He lets Sabre and M mess with Shadow for a bit, before taking a smaller remote out of his pocket and pressing a button.

"Alright, it has to go with the others now." He says. "It'll be interesting to study this one. I wonder how different this shadow is from ones that come from a Steve?"

"Others?" Sabre asks.

"Yes, others. The Professor has kept all other shadows he's removed from people securely locked away in a deeper part of the lab." The Red Leader explains. "They've been there for years. Thanks to his studies on them, we're more prepared for any Darkness that stumbles across our kingdom."

"Wow."

"Yes, the Assistant will take this one down to the chamber with the rest of them." The Professor says.

"You have an assistant?" Sabre asks, surprised. "I haven't seen him around before."

"Weelll..."

A robot then enters the room from upstairs, moving in wheels, carefully descending the staircase to the lower area where the Professor is.

"Yes, Professor?" The robot asks, stopping in front of him.

"Ah, Assistant! Good timing, take this to the Darkness containment room please." The Professor says, handing the robot the capsule, with Shadow still having a fit inside. "Oh, right! Sabre, that sword is Darkness as well, right?"

As the Professor turns to Sabre, he sees Sabre's bewildered expression.

"Ah, right, we should have told you about that..." M says, chuckling. "Professor Red has made some amazing devices, including a few robots. This is his best one, called Assistant Steve. He's just called 'Assistant' for short. And heads up, he has an attitude."

"Have your people not made robots?" The Professor asks.

"No, they have, just- nothing as advanced as this." Sabre replies, snapping out of it. "The robots they made had trouble learning to stand and pick things up, but you basically made a person!"

"I am very proud of his AI. Coded him myself!" The Professor says, smiling. He turns to the Assistant. "Assistant, why don't you say hi?"

"Hello, moron." The Assistant says to Sabre.

"Assistant, don't be rude." The Professor says, facepalming. "Sorry Sabre, I don't know where he learned this demeanor from, and I've never been able to get him to be less disrespectful."

If the Professor looked to his left, he would've seen the look the Red Leader gave him.

"It's alright, this is still really cool." Sabre says. "How were you able to code balance? Did you run a deep reinforcement learning program or is it a gyroscopic system?"

"You know robotics and coding?!" The Professor says, surprised.

"Yes, I studied them for fun in my old world! I've made a few machines during my time here using that knowledge, but they weren't as well put together as any of yours because they were made in a rush as a solution to some kind of enemy."

"Wh- Like a holding mechanism or power suppression?!"

"I've used both in one machine before! I learned how because I found a few books on machinery while visiting a library once."

"You combined them in one- and you had only just learned about it! That's amazing! What else have you made?"

"Well, back in my old world there were these small flying machines we called 'drones', and I wanted to see how fast I could make one..."

As Sabre and the Professor continue talking about machinery and robotics, M and the Red Leader stand back and let them talk.

"I think there's another one now." M whispers to his dad, laughing.

"Let's hope he's better at keeping Goggles in check than we are." The Red Leader whispers back, sighing.

—————————————————————————————————————

Sabre, M, and the Red Leader walked through town on their way back to the castle. The Red Leader walked ahead of them, Sabre and M conversing while they let themselves fall behind a little.

"So, how are you feeling?" M asks. "You don't have to deal with that parasite anymore."

"I'm feeling great. It's nice not having him constantly hovering over everything I do." Sabre replies, smiling. "I can do what I like to without him trying to break me down or pressure me into doing something I don't want to."

He glances down, the spot on his belt where a scabbard once hung now empty. The Sword was left behind at the lab, now being stored somewhere along with Shadow.

"I'm finally free."

"And I'm glad you are." M smiles. "Hey, what kind of cake do you like?"

"Huh?"

"I'm gonna ask the castle cook to bake a cake to celebrate." M smiles. "What kind do you like?"

"M, you don't have to-" Sabre starts, but M gives him a look.

A moment of quiet passes between them as they walk through the town, people going through the streets talking and having fun. Rose petals still fell from the trees, fluttering in the air as they made their way to the ground. Some would land on cafe umbrellas or fence posts, staying there until something disturbed them. Children nearby would gather the rose petals in piles and toss them in the air like confetti.

"...Chocolate with strawberries." Sabre mumbles after a little bit.

"Alright." M smiles.

Sabre didn't know why, maybe it was the extra amount of roses in the air than usual, or everyone else being happy around him. Maybe it was the excitement of telling the Professor about the technology his world had still lingering. Maybe it was the joy of finally being rid of the Darkness completely. Maybe it was the hope of a real, fresh new start. But...

Everything seemed brighter.