The morning Sabre came back, he found Light standing outside of the house talking with Time.

He had noticed a few Guards were stationed nearby, too, so he figured that something happened. Sabre went to join his two friends, and as soon as they noticed him, Light and Time greeted him with slight looks of concern. Blobs surrounded the area, as usual, but they look a little nervous.

"Good morning, Sabre." Light sighs. "Don't know about you, but the creatures had an... eventful night."

"Oh boy, what'd they do?" Sabre asks, knowing their antics. "Did one of them set something on fire again or something?"

"Well, there was... something, alright." Time says nervously. "Sabre, have the creatures had any history of being... violent?"

"Only if something provoked them, why?"

Time and Light exchange looks, before turning back to Sabre.

"A Bandit tried to break into the house last night while you were away, and he ran into the creatures." Light explains. "We don't know why or really how they did, but the creatures ended up mauling him. He's severely injured, but the medic at the Headquarters patched him up and he's currently with the rest of the arrested Bandits. We were hoping you could explain why the creatures acted so... brutally, because now some people are wondering if they're safe to be around."

Sabre gives Light a disbelieving look, and picks up a blob that ran up and started squeaking at him. He pets the blob as he talks.

"Dude, I've told all of you, the little guys might be incredibly friendly but they're still wild animals. If something threatens them or their home, they're going to attack it. Simple." He says. "If it was literally any other animal and somebody started threatening it, would you really be all that surprised when it goes nuts?"

"...I admit, not even I took that warning seriously." Light says. "They're just so... passive. No one expected something like that from them."

"Eh, doesn't surprise me. They've taken down stuff a lot bigger than them before."

"They have?" Time asks.

"Yep. Plenty of things." Sabre says. "Wolves, ocelots, silverfish, spiders, cave spiders, anything that attacked them would be dealt with pretty fast." Sabre replies, smiling nonchalantly. "With anything bigger than those, I'd usually have to help them, but once they took down a cougar that had been stalking the area around them for a while."

"...Wow."

"Okay, but how do you know that they won't do that to anyone else?" Light asks. "A few villagers are getting a bit worried."

"Oh, they have absolutely nothing to worry about. The creatures only attack stuff that are a direct threat to them, their babies that are too little to fight, or me." Sabre continues. "And they recognize threats too. None of them will actually attack the villagers or anyone else as long as they don't do something stupid to them, they understand that you guys are safe to be around and can be trusted. The only time they really would wouldn't actually be attacking, just playfighting. They attacked the Bandit because they recognize how the Bandits look from the base raid they joined in on, and since they literally kidnapped me... they weren't gonna be so nice."

Sabre holds up the blob he's been petting and gives it headpats.

"Any time other than that, they're just total sweethearts!" Sabre smiles, then he looks to the group of blobs that had gathered around. "Right, you guys?"

As Sabre says that, the blobs all try their best to look cute. A few blobs nuzzle against Light, one jumping up and nestling in his hair while another hops up to his shoulder and snuggles his face, and he stops another one from flying onto his head and just holds it. The majority of the blobs do puppy dog eyes. One mlems. A few nuzzle against Sabre, one giving him a very pretty flower.

Light sighs and gives the blobs that had climbed on him back to Sabre, and carefully steps back a little to get the other blobs off.

"I'll... relay the message to everyone else." He says. "Just- Please keep them in line from now on, okay? At least until this dies down."

"Alright, fair enough." Sabre shrugs. "I'll seeya around."

Light makes his way out of the village, soon out of sight. As the blobs go back to playing, Time approaches Sabre.

"What is it, Time?" Sabre asks.

"Well... I'm wondering about the creatures now." Time replies. "Some of the things you mentioned about them, I've never heard of. They've fought before? And... there's baby ones?"

"Yep and yep. Cool right?" Sabre smiles. "Though, any of them that are too young stay at the hideout-"

"Hideout? What do you mean?"

"Remember the place where you, Light, and Green first found me with them two months ago? That's an outer part of it, it functioned kind of as a little border. That cave you followed me to was the entrance to the whole thing."

"So... that place was actually a lot bigger?"

"Yeah! The hideout is actually huge. It also houses the rest of the creatures that preferred to stay there or visit the village occasionally."

"Wait, 'the rest'? There's more?"

Sabre motions to the large group of blobs that's gathered around.

"Dude, this is only a fraction of them. There's thousands."

"...Do you know exactly how many there are?"

"Yeah, but I'm not saying 'cause you'll freak out."

"...Alright then."

The two are quiet for a moment, until Sabre has an idea.

"How about I show you the hideout?" Sabre asks. "I could explain all the stuff you're wondering about."

"Wait, really?" Time replies, surprised. "Won't I be intruding-?"

"Nah, you're trustworthy. The creatures all feel safe around you, so there's nothing to worry about." Sabre smiles. "Just don't tell anyone else, okay?"

"Of course I won't tell anyone." Time says.

Sabre gives him a look.

"You know that includes the Leaders, right?" He says jokingly. Time lightly shoves his shoulder.

"Oh shush, that was two years ago. Besides, it didn't go wrong and got you unbanished." Time rolls his eyes. "Now, are you going to show me this hideout or not?"

"Alright, alright." Sabre chuckles. "Follow me."

He starts walking in the direction of the forest, the blobs excitedly running ahead. Time follows behind him, and they walk into the forest together, heading towards the same hidden path where this all began.

—————————————————————————————————————

Pushing past the hanging vines covering the opening, Sabre leads Time into a very familiar area.

"I would stay near the borders during shorter visits so I could get back home faster." Sabre says as they walk through the whimsical clearing. "The main area is a little ways past here."

The blobs had already gone through, and just like before, Time heard a vast chorus of squeaks and chirps somewhere nearby. As they make their way through a thicket of strangely colorful trees and bushes, with numerous flowers that Time has never seen before, the path opens up to something extraordinarily incredible.

Small flowers covered the area in sparsely placed patches. Hills have been made into nests, the dirt carved into pathway ramps leading to the top, holes in the sides of the hill filled with makeshift fabrics and hay making little nooks for blobs to sleep in. A few trees had many tiny hammocks tied to their branches, blobs climbing up the tree in order to reach them. The walls of the expanse area stretched further into the clearing, far enough that Time couldn't see the end from where he was. Nests were also on the walls, placed on little protruding stones like tiny cliff faces. The roof of the hidden paradise was made up of dense tree canopies fitting together like puzzle pieces, making a watertight shelter that kept out the rain yet still had sunshine coming through the thin leaves, tinting the area with the same strange colors of them.

A garden was visible on the left side of the hideout, with various berry bushes and small fruit trees. The berry bushes are large and bear many bunches of small fruit, however the trees are only a bit older than saplings and still just have flowers on their branches. Blobs are there, picking berries and taking them to small baskets, which groups of other blobs work together to bring them somewhere else once the baskets are filled.

To the right, there's piles of hoards. All organized by type, from random shiny metal things to precious gems. Some blobs grab stuff from the piles for materials, and hop away to make things. Some other blobs come by and drop off things they found into the pile they belong.

If Time could understand them, he could hear the vast amount of blobs talking about him. The ones that stayed were surprised and a little wary, given how no other person had come into the hideout before, but heard about how kind he was to Sabre from both Sabre himself and the other blobs that followed Sabre into the world. They knew he could be trusted.

The blobs that followed Sabre were excited to be back home, already looking around and playing. Many head to the flowers dotted around, one sitting down and making flower crowns, another curling up in a soft patch of daisies, and another eats a dandelion. A few blobs head to their nests and nooks, either curling up in their old homes or digging around for something. The blobs that were digging around soon hop back out, carrying their own tiny hoards of trinkets and random things, checking on them and comparing finds. One blob just hops around and squeaks happily while another hops to a corner and sits down. One starts dancing. Another blobs goes over to a freshly watered part of the garden and starts forming mud, flower, and grass into the shape of a cake.

A blob runs up a few trees to find a higher place to start flying. Another blob climbs on vines. One blob starts helping a few others clean up a mess a few kid blobs made. A more intimidating blob watches over the hideout. One blob grabs some mushrooms, then dashes to play with a few other blobs.

Time watches as a large amount of the blobs quickly make their way across the hideout, heading forwards.

"What are they all so excited to see?" Time asks.

Sabre smiles and follows the blobs, motioning for Time to follow as well.

"They want to check on the flower field." Sabre replies. "You want to see it, right? It's this way."

The number of flowers poking up from the grass increases as they get closer to an opening in the back of the hideout. It's a wall made of tree trunks that make a doorway in the middle, flowering vines growing up and down the wall. Some of the vines hang down, making a curtain that acts like a door.

Past the wall, a vast field of pristine white flowers stretches over a fairly large area. It's like a plains inside the hideout, even with a few trees dotted around. Some flowers are standing tall, reaching towards the beams of sunlight coming through, their petals either open in a star-like shape or closed tightly like a bud. The rest of the flowers are leaning down at various heights. They range from only slightly bending with their buds barely changed from the closed flowers, to the buds just barely off the ground in a greatly swelled size. Some of the larger buds move ever so slightly. Time can't help but notice a few of the open flowers starting to wilt.

"It's... beautiful." Time says, amazed. "What are these flowers? I've never seen them before."

"These flowers are very special. In all these years, I've never really given them a proper name, though." Sabre says, walking to a small cleared area with a tree. "This is how the creatures are born."

"What?? How? That should not be possible." Time asks, following him as Sabre sits down. Time sits down next to him, careful not to disturb any of the plants.

"Don't know how, but they come from these flowers." Sabre begins. "They just pop up wherever the creatures are, mostly the place they think is safest for them, aka where they live. The flowers grow, and once they grow enough, they close their flowers and one of the creatures starts growing inside. That's why so many of them are bending down, the creatures inside are almost ready to be born."

"...Huh." Time mumbles, looking at a nearby flower closer. "That's amazing."

"It is! And once the little creature is born, the flower they came from withers to make room for a new flower or an entirely new plant. The withered flower disappears into the soil and gives it more nutrients for others to grow. If just the flower withers and the plant it came from grows a new flower, that's going to be the creature's little sibling. If the entire plant withers, it's an entirely new creature unrelated to the last one. If one of 'em wants a sibling but their flower is already gone, they can take one of the small seeds here..."

Sabre brings Time's attention to an open flower in front of them, and points at the small little seeds attached to the filament of the flower in place of the anther.

"They can add a tiny bit of their blood to it and plant it to grow a sibling flower."

"Pretty sure flower seeds aren't supposed to come from that part of the flower."

"Yeah, well, these flowers are weird." Sabre laughs.

"Heh, yeah. And these flowers don't need parent creatures in order to grow?" Time asks.

"Nope! Although the creatures can be parents if they want to." Sabre smiles. "All they need is to do a similar process to making a sibling flower, except they also need a special kind of crystal that also grows where they are, but the crystal takes a lot longer than the flowers to form. The flowers can show up after a week, for example, but the crystals need at least a month. Anyway, the creature carves a spot in the little crystal for the prepared seed, and then plants it. If it's only one creature preparing the flower, the resulting one will basically be a small clone with slight differences, like having a different color than the parent. But if it's two, then the resulting baby creature will have DNA from both parents, and will be a combination of the two also with slight differences individual to them."

"That's cool. How long do they take to grow?"

"About ten months, if there's no deformity with the flower or..."

Sabre is quiet for a second.

"...Issues."

"What do you mean by that?" Time asks, a little worried.

"Well... on top of anything else that could happen to the flowers, like them being attacked, picked at, something tries to eat it, something crushes it, pretty much anything else that could hurt a normal flower can hurt it, and..." Sabre says. "They can get sick."

"Sick? Has that happened here?"

"...Yeah." Sabre replies quietly, looking to the side. "It's happened a few times outside this world, but... it's happened most often here."

Time notices Sabre looking at a section of the flower field that's had a curtain of vines with white flowers covering it. He had seen a few blobs go in there earlier, as well. Time waits for a minute, then comfortingly places a hand on Sabre's shoulder.

"Are you okay with telling me what happened...?" He asks.

Sabre looks back at him, and takes a deep breath.

"...Yeah." He replies. "It was... it was the Darkness that made them sick. The creatures were immune, just like I was. The flowers... not so much. Before Void took over, it'd only be one or two flowers at a time that would be corrupted. The Darkness slowed down their growth by a lot, and made the flowers take longer to bloom and let the baby creatures be born. There was... even a chance that the flowers would just die. A small chance, but it happened a few times."

Sabre looks back to the curtained area of the field.

"And then, when Void took over and I was... y'know... the Darkness found them. It corrupted a big patch of the flowers, and while the creatures were able to get them away... it wasn't safe anymore. They had to abandon the hideout and temporarily find a new one. So many flowers were left behind because they were in a hurry... and the were a lot of lost ones later on. Creatures that were born here while this place was abandoned, and left on their own. The others found most of them, and I was able to help find them once I was back, but... there's still some out there somewhere. And almost none of the corrupted flowers bloomed during that time. I eventually got them to come back to this hideout, and everything was going okay for a while. We were caring for the corrupted flowers and new ones that grew when they came back, and some of them watched over the flowers in the old hideout to make sure the babies from there weren't lost. Everything was finally normal again here."

Sabre then stares at the ground.

"...And then Shadow decided to try to make a point and attacked the place. More flowers got corrupted, and some were even corrupted for a second time. That made them worse." Sabre continues. "And instead of just corrupting the flowers, Shadow... hurt them. He almost killed a few. Some of the creatures warned me and I was able to make him back off, but... the damage was done. Because of how bad it was... some creatures have had to wait years for their little ones."

The two are quiet for a while.

"I'm... so sorry that happened, Sabre." Time says. "None of those little creatures deserved that."

"There's nothing to apologize for Time, it wasn't you that did it." Sabre says, giving a slight smile. "The people responsible are already gone. Now all that's left is to wait for them to heal."

Sabre is quiet for a while, then scoots forward near one of the bending flowers.

"Hey, wanna see something cool?" He asks with a wide grin.

"Sure?" Time answers, curious.

Sabre turns to the flower, and brushes his finger against the bud, making a quiet cooing sound. As soon as he pulls his hand back, a tiny squeak comes from inside, and the bud swings a little in his direction.

"Awwww..." Time says quietly.

"Yep, they react to stuff when they're almost ready." Sabre says, sitting back up. "A lot of the younger ones like to see which react to their voices. It gets them excited."

Sabre then points to a small opening off to the side, on the opposite end of the field. Various color flowers adorn the vines, and a chorus of squeaks echo from inside.

"Over there is the nursery. That's where the newborns and babies get taken to so they're cared for. Once they're kids, they're assigned an older creature to help care for them until they're adults, unless they have parents or siblings old enough to do it." He explains. "There's actually quite a handful of creatures that work in the nursery."

"That's so cute." Time replies, seeing a caretaker blob lead a young blob kid back inside. "Hey, Sabre?"

"Yeah?"

"I've been wondering, does their species have a name? Everyone's just been calling them creatures."

"Well... you might think it's a little stupid."

"No I won't, I promise."

"I've called them blobs ever since I was a kid. And the babies are called bloblets."

"Oh my word, that's adorable."

"Heh, I know."

Just then, a few flowers ahead of them rustle. They both look up as a very small colorful blob stumbles through, happily squeaking and looking up at them with clumsy movements. Right behind her, six blobs emerge from the foliage. They try to catch the little bloblet, but she dodges out of the way laughing. However, a seventh suddenly pops up and finally catches her. All of the blobs look up at Sabre and squeak.

"Well, hey there guys! We were just talking about you." Sabre laughs. "Aureliana went out exploring again, huh? Took six of you and a volunteer to catch her, heh."

The six blobs that were chasing her nod with tired, but still happy looks.

"Actually, can I...?" Sabre asks, extending his hand towards the blob holding the little baby. They nod, and Sabre is now holding her. "Thanks. You guys can go back to the nursery, I'll bring her back soon."

The blobs hop away, and Sabre shows Time the excited little bloblet.

"Oh my goodness, she's barely bigger than your finger." Time gasps. "So tiny..."

"Yeah, the babies are really small. They grow pretty fast once they get older, though." Sabre smiles.

Sabre lets Time look at the bloblet for a while, until he gets an idea.

"You wanna hold her?"

"What?"

"You can hold her if you want." Sabre says, laughing a little. "I don't mind."

Time hesitates for a second as he carefully holds his hands out, and Sabre gives him Aureliana. Time just stares for a little bit as the tiny blob smiles and keeps squeaking at him.

"...Dude, are you crying-"

"Wh- No- No I'm not-"

—————————————————————————————————————

Hey just a warning for this next bit, some spiders get rekt violently

—————————————————————————————————————

Meanwhile, the blobs have gathered nearby, watching over the flowers as Sabre and Time talk.

The blobs that visited Sabre return, and go back to their jobs taking care of the bloblets. The others resume catching up with the blobs that stayed behind in the hideout, telling them about what had happened out in the village and everything that's gone on. Some show off their new powers, amazing the other blobs. Some show off a few new objects and tiny treasures that they've collected outside the area of the hideout.

It's just blobs playing, working, talking, and relaxing together, just like how they used to. A calm, quiet chatter echoes throughout the hideout.

The quiet is broken by muffled sounds of hissing, coming from beyond the shrubbery walls of the nursery.

All blobs near the flower field freeze, their conversations and actions stopping as soon as they notice the noise. A few tougher blobs slowly move towards the source, and pull back a few bushes to see what they're dealing with.

Cave spiders. They've always seen the blobs as easy prey.

Oh, how wrong they are.

Careful not to alert the venomous spiders, the blobs quietly move towards the bushes while the caretaker blobs move the young ones away from the area.

Weapons are drawn.

Powers are active.

The blobs sneak up on the spiders, crouching through the grass, and make themselves known by slowly standing up. All of the spiders freeze as the two species stare each other down.

A spider hisses. A blob chitters.

A spider in the front takes one step forward, and seals their fate.

Weapons, rocks, sharpened objects, and more fly through the air as the blobs begin their attack. Many of the blobs latch onto the spiders, stabbing, biting, gouging, tearing, punching, burning, snapping, anything they can do to damage the spiders.

Some have more creative ways of getting the job done, like using flight and gravity to their advantage, or causing friendly fire among the spiders by riding one, but one way or another all of the cave spiders are dead and ripped to pieces.

Sabre then comes through the foliage, a blob having alerted him to the situation before joining the fray. He looks at the carnage, and sighs.

"These dang spiders again, man..." He says under his breath, the looks at the blobs. "Just clean up after yourselves, okay? You've already terrified Time once, let's not have it happen again."

The blobs squeak, nod, or give tiny salutes, and Sabre smiles and goes back into the hideout. Then, they begin to clean up their little bout of carnage.

That's seven points for blobs, zero for cave spiders. They never learn.

—————————————————————————————————————

An expanse room is dimly lit by torches on the walls and lanterns hanging above, five lavish, tall seats circled around a blackstone table. Four cloaked figures are already seated, waiting on the fifth.

A large door opens, and Xanadu enters, followed by a familiar face. Xanadu takes his seat at his chair, and the Violet Bandit stands timidly beside him.

"General Xanadu. Glad you finally showed up." A figure with a gruff voice wearing a deep currant-colored cloak says sarcastically. "What took you so long?"

"Pitch, quiet. You don't get to criticize here." A different figure says, his cloak a dark, deep purple velvet, and the room echoes with his animated voice. He's wearing fancy, laced gloves that are a cold grey. "You were late as well, and besiiiides, Xanadu has a reason."

"Oh, back off, Kuro! You're only defending him because-"

"Enough, both of you." Another figure in a dark prussian cloak says, clearly tired of the other two's bickering. His voice is collected and wise. "If you don't stop arguing every five seconds, you'll both be suspended from speaking during this meeting."

"Fine."

"Alright, General Raven."

The room is quiet for a moment.

"Xanadu, who's the kid?" The fifth figure in an umber colored cloak with a deep voice asks.

"Oh, the Cadet here is a recent addition that shows much promise. I brought him along with me to... acclimate him to our ways." Xanadu answers with a grin. "Nothing to worry about, General Noir."

Noir stares at the Violet Bandit for a moment. The Bandit couldn't tell if he was judging him or just getting a better look at him.

"Shall we start the meeting now?" Raven asks, sounding exasperated.

The five Generals then begin talking about concerning events, like a lot of their Bandits being arrested by the Guard, but mostly about the recent base raid.

"I still have no information on what happened." Xanadu explains, frustrated. "It happened while I was leaving for this meeting, so I didn't see it myself, and when I sent two scouts back to base once I received a carrier crow's letter from a guard there, one returned and said the base disappeared with no survivors, and the other didn't come back. He either must have been caught by the Guard or was killed."

"Actually, I've received word that the Guard arrested one of our members late last night." Raven says, looking at a paper. "He was trying to break into the Catalyst's house, presumably to attack him, but Catalyst was not there. He was met with those... creatures as soon as he broke in, and was badly mauled. That was probably your scout."

"Yikes. How could those cute little things do that?" Kuro questions.

"You think any of us know? Not like we have one of them to study." Pitch snaps at him.

"Pitch. Stop that." Raven glares at him. Pitch grumbles and slouches in his chair.

"If we took some of those creatures, they'd be pretty powerful assets since they can attack someone like that..." Noir says.

Xanadu laughs sarcastically.

"I think Cadet can tell you how attempting that would go." He says, pointing to the Violet Bandit.

The Generals look at the Violet Bandit, who shakes his head with a panicked look.

"Catalyst would somehow know what you're doing and come defend the creatures." Xanadu continues. "And as it turns out, they'd do the same for him. So we can't just take one without the other showing up to protect them."

"Or, we could make them stand down instead." Raven says. "If we can't take the creatures and get rid of Catalyst, we'll devastate something important to them to make them leave our syndicate members be."

"And how do you plan to do that?" Noir asks.

"Spies, of course! Or just one. One of my best, naturally." Kuro says with an excited, wicked smile. "I've already sent him to the village Catalyst resides in. He should arrive later today. If you receive letters from someone codenamed Umbra, that's him."

"You and your theatrics..." Pitch mumbles.

"Well sor-ry if my 'theatrics' are better than your brutes." Kuro replies, glaring at Pitch. "Pure strength can only get you so far, sometimes you need a little strategy, and why not add some flair while I'm at it?"

"It brings too much attention and is frankly a huge mess to clean up! And of course you just have to make it known across the Realm if it succeeds, just like with the smaller rival syndicate a few of your spies took down earlier last-"

"That operation went beautifully and deserved to be known! It also gave other rival syndicates a warning to back off, I made an example out of-"

Raven suddenly slams his hands on the table, standing up out of his chair.

"WOULD BOTH OF YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTHS?!" He yells, his outburst echoing throughout the room and making the Violet Bandit flinch. "IF YOU'RE GOING TO CONTINUE TO BICKER LIKE CHILDREN, YOU CAN LEAVE, OR YOU CAN STOP BEING AT EACH OTHER'S THROATS FOR ONCE AND ACTUALLY ACT LIKE GENERALS!"

The two fall silent, and reluctantly sit properly in their seats. Raven gives them each a look before composing himself and sitting back down.

"Now, are there any more questions about Operation Reprisal?" He asks, annoyed.

The rest of the Generals shake their heads.

"Good. Then that's all of the concerning matters for this meeting, and I'll be taking my leave." Raven says, getting up again and walking out.

After a minute, Pitch and Kuro also leave. Noir turns to Xanadu.

"They've been getting on each other's nerves a lot recently. More than usual, I mean." Noir says, lazily sitting back now that Raven is gone. "And it's been driving Raven up the wall. Pretty sure the mass arrests and the raid scared them."

"No, they're more formidable than that. A simple loss of a base wouldn't faze those two, especially." Xanadu replies. "Did one of them receive a blessing the other did not?"

"The Ascended One gave Kuro the power necessary to gift ascension to others, even though Pitch has been here longer."

"There it is."

As Xanadu and Noir talk, the Violet Bandit remains silently standing next to the throne-like seat. The atmosphere, the whispers of the other syndicate members he heard, the artifacts on display, what was mentioned during the meeting... it all put him on edge.

This isn't what he signed up for. This isn't just 'making his way in the world' like he was promised when he was taken in. This isn't just the occasional cart robbery or mugging like he had been doing since he joined during the Age of Darkness. He had heard of the Generals in passing conversation, and knew they were where he was getting orders from, but this was nothing like what he expected.

This was... different. So very, very different.

And it all felt so wrong.

—————————————————————————————————————

The Leaders were gathered in the Professor's lab, all having received more sensitive information on the things recovered during the recent Bandit Syndicate raid.

The Professor was sorting through some documents in a file cabinet next to his computer, finding the right section to put away a copy of a report on some of the potion compounds he uncovered in the Bandit notes. M had gone to help a volunteer in the lab find a certain room, since the Professor was busy.

While waiting, the Leaders had gotten to talking about recent events, which led to talking about their friend Sabre. He had been involved in every major event for a while, after all.

"Apparently, he almost got to a week without doing anything stupid again." The Orange Leader laughs, remembering what Light had told him about the other day.

"What'd he do to break the streak this time?" The Yellow Leader asks, smiling.

"He decided it'd be funny to prank Light by putting a little white bunny in his office. The thing was adorable and was perfectly okay, it was just hanging out in there. It was really friendly too, one of the Guards ending up adopting it as a pet once Light was done scolding Sabre."

"That's hilarious. Bet Light didn't think so, though." The Blue Leader says.

"What's funnier is that Sabre decided to make his escape by jumping out the window." The Orange Leader replies, trying his best not to burst out laughing.

"Again?" The Violet Leader says.

"Yep, again."

"He's just going to snap one of his legs doing that one of these days, I swear..." The Green Leader sighs. "Sometimes I wonder if stuff like that is normal for humans."

"Wait, 'human'?" The Professor asks, looking up from his search and turning to the Leaders.

"Uh... yes, that's what I said." The Green Leader says, concerned. The other Leaders have the same look.

The Professor suddenly starts laughing.

"He is in no way human. Definitely isn't." Professor Red says, regaining his composure.

M then walks into the room.

"Professor, what are you laughing at?" He asks.

"These chuckleheads still think Sabre's a human." The Professor snorts.

"Professor Red is spouting nonsense, there's no way-" The Indigo Leader says, but M cuts him off.

"Actually, Sabre really isn't human. We figured that out years ago." M says, confused. "You still thought he was?"

The other Leaders are silent for a moment.

"...What." The Orange Leader says abruptly.

"Orange Leader, you've known Sabre the longest out of everyone here, did nothing about him seem odd for a human?" M asks.

"I thought that Sabre was just odd, I didn't think anything was strange enough to believe he wasn't human!"

"Well clearly, you haven't kept up with the records of the different species that our ancestors made contact with." Professor Red says. "Tons of things point out that Sabre isn't human."

"Like what? We didn't notice anything like that." The Green Leader asks.

"For one thing, just a single bolt of lightning would have a large chance to flat-out kill a human." Professor Red starts. "Humans can't handle that much electricity, even if it's passive. Sabre can. Two, his weird little way with animals. Humans can't understand animals like that."

"Wait, he can understand them-?" The Violet Leader says.

"Did absolutely none of you realize he can understand animals?? Nobody can just casually hang out with bears and giant eagles without being able to understand them, how else did you think he could?"

"Our guess was it was an aura thing-"

"Incorrect!" The Professor says, then continues. "Three, humans aren't nearly as capable of being as strong or fast as he is. Especially when he's ticked off. Yikes. Four, Sabre can channel and borrow power perfectly fine. Human biology makes it impossible for them to do that. Five, Sabre can understand, but more importantly speak Standard Galactic. Once again, human biology makes that impossible. Sure, they could learn to read it, but it's impossible for them to speak it because of their vocal cords and voice boxes not being built to make some of the sounds necessary."

"I think you all get the point now." M says, stopping the Professor from going on a rant. "Do all of your people think Sabre's human as well?"

The other Leaders nod.

"Then you might want to tell them he isn't, it's lucky that we haven't had an incident where that misunderstanding would cause harm to him." M continues. "Speaking of your people, it's probably about time to head back to your kingdoms. This took longer than we thought it would."

Noticing the time, the other Leaders agree and soon return to their individual kingdoms. After they leave, M quietly talks to the Professor.

"You didn't tell them about what we discovered a year ago, right?"

"Of course not."

"Alright, good."

—————————————————————————————————————

Sabre and Time return to the village, noticing a bit of a commotion in the village square.

While Time goes into the house to prep some lunch, Sabre gets curious and decides to investigate. The blobs follow behind him.

There's a cart filled with luggage, and two Steves are being greeted by villagers and the two Village Leaders. One is an Orange Steve with fluffy hair wearing a tangerine colored cardigan with a flower pattern, deep brown shorts that end just above his kneecaps, copper glasses with circular-framed lenses, ginger colored slip-on shoes, and a small vermillion backpack. The other is a Blue Steve wearing a sky colored jacket with clouds on it over a pastel blue shirt, dark blue pants, grey boots, silver earrings, and a cerulean beret with teal accents.

The villagers begin to return to what they were doing, and Sabre approaches just as the Village Leaders finish talking to the newcomers.

"Oh, hello Sabre! You're just in time to meet the new arrivals!" The Violet Village Leader smiles.

"I didn't know new people were moving in." Sabre says, then turns to the two new Steves. "Nice to meet you two. My name's Sabre."

"I know, pretty much everyone knows who you are around here." The Orange Steve says, laughing nervously. "I'm Shi, I'm moving here from a village outside of the main kingdoms' borders."

"And I'm Celadon." The Blue Steve says, shaking Sabre's hand. "People usually call me Cela for short. I'm coming from a settlement in one of the newly explored parts of the Realm. It's nice to meet you too."

"Thanks. I hope you guys like it here, this area's really nice." Sabre smiles at them. "Hopefully the creatures don't bother you too much while you're getting settled, they've been a bit rowdy lately."

"I'm sure we'll be fine. Little guys are adorable, by the way." Celadon says, watching as the blobs look curiously at him and Shi. "Maybe soon they'll be nice little friends."

"Awww, cutest little neighbors ever!" Shi says excitedly, holding out his hand to one in hopes of petting them.

"Oh, they're a little shy around new people. It might take about a day for them to let you touch them." Sabre tells him.

"Oh, sorry-"

"Nah, it's okay, you didn't know."

A Green Steve runs up to the Yellow Village Leader and tells him something, before running off again.

"Shi, Celadon, your houses are ready for you to move into." The Yellow Village Leader smiles. "Follow us, there will be a place to set your cart while you put all of your things away."

Celadon and Shi say their goodbyes to Sabre, and follow the Village Leaders as they walk, the two new arrivals pulling their cart behind them.

...You get a bad feeling as they walk past you. But you can't tell from who.

—————————————————————————————————————

This is the next major story event decided by you guys. Buckle up while I explain, cause it's about to get nuts.

One of the two new arrivals in the village is the spy the Bandits sent to carry out Operation Reprisal, which is retaliation against Sabre and you guys for ruining their plans in hopes of getting you to stop.

I'm not saying what, but what the spy will do to his target is devastating to the blobs.

Your plan is to figure out who the spy is before it's too late, or at least fast enough to stop some of the damage. In the next few chapters (especially the one after this one), I'll be dropping hints as to who it is through things he does, things he has on him or in his house, and little moments you probably weren't supposed to see/hear. In fact, I've already dropped a few hints in this chapter. But don't jump to conclusions as soon as you see something suspicious, because the innocent other newcomer will be doing things that will accidentally be incriminating himself at first glance. You have to look a littler closer in order to figure out the real culprit.

You're also not allowed to tell Sabre about your suspicions until you believe you know who it is. The blobs don't want to drag him into their investigation, because he's been in enough trouble as is and you don't want to get him into more trouble.

You have 4 chapters to determine who the spy is, the fifth chapter after that being when he carries out his plan. Look carefully. Think it through. Discuss with others. Find out who it is before he hurts what's close to you.

Here are your events for next chapter:

—

Event 1:

Sabre's talking with Shi while he helps Time with gardening, and Time is talking to Celadon. Which conversation do you eavesdrop on?

Shi

✨15/15✨

Celadon

13/15

—

Event 2:

Later in the day, Shi and Celadon are both out in the market looking for things to purchase for their new homes, and will be gone for a while. Whose house do you sneak into, how do you sneak into their houses, and where do you investigate? Remember that you're not breaking in, that'd draw too much attention.

—

Event 3:

Sabre's brought Jerry the possum in the house again. While Time is telling Sabre to stop bringing Jerry in the house, how do you greet Jerry? :>

—

Event 4:

Sabre and Time have gone out to the night market, since they've both been waiting for some of the stuff that's sold there.

...

Who the frick is breaking in now- Oh, they're just in the backyard. Seems they stumbled over the fence.

Well, we can't maul somebody again, especially in case if it's just some villager that bought a few too many special beverages during the night market. Too soon and too much trouble.

So, how do you scare them out of the backyard? No attacking them.

—

6755 words bois, let's gooooo

See you next chapter :3

Oh yeah also here's a meme about Time holding the baby blob lol