Hahaha this one's sad, also character death warning

Series: Rainbow Quest

AU: Tethered Souls x Doubled Crystal (Sabre and Rainbow are bound to each other, and when they both eventually die they meet up in a pocket space in the multiverse and move on to the next universe. I'll explain the other AU soon)

Context: In a universe where Rainbow survived Void, Sabre was corrupted while Rainbow was recovering. Many months later, everyone notices Sabre is fighting the control and make a plan to try and save him.

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[Rainbow Steve's POV]

Darkness covers the battlefield as we all try to keep Shadow in one place.

He keeps slipping away just before we reach him, either flying or running to get some distance. We need to keep him still so Light and I can uncorrupt him and get Sabre back.

Shadow dodges another strike from Light's spear, and flies upward. I run up next to Light, seething, as we've been doing this for way too long.

"It's too late, already!" Shadow cackles from above us. "You can't get him back, Sabre is lost to the Darkness!"

"That's what you think, you burnt-looking chicken!" I yell as I dodge a fireball. Light does the same.

Light runs back up to me after I've taken cover behind a rock. We see our friends fighting some Darkness grunts in front of us. They're taking care of them so we can focus on Shadow.

"We need to think of something that'll weaken him enough." Light says, gripping his spear as fireballs shoot past us. "Anything, just something that'll get him out of the sky and stuck on the ground. You have any ideas?"

"Uhhhmm..." I mumble as I scan the area around us.

I suddenly spy a bag full of potions near us. They must've been dropped by someone amidst the fight. I quickly grab the strap of the bag and pull it towards us, opening the bag up and picking up one of the potions once it's close enough. I read the label on the bottle.

"Weakness potions! These might work!" I exclaim.

"What are those gonna do?" Light asks.

"Sabre told me a long time ago that his people aren't nearly as resistant to potion effects as we are." I explain. "If he was hit with one of them, he'd get the full effect rather than if we were hit with one, different people have different levels of resistance against them. Shadow Sabre probably still has that same weakness, since he's just Darkness controlling Sabre's body. And since these are Weakness III..."

"They're going to have one heck of an effect on him." Light smiles, catching onto my idea. "You're a dang genius, Rainbow."

"No problem, buddy." I smile back. I then hand him half of the potions that were in the bag. "Now let's bombard this jerk."

Light and I quickly rush out from behind the rock, readying to throw the potions.

"There you are!" Shadow says, seeing us running closer to him and about to throw a fireball.

"Catch, doofus!" I yell, throwing a potion the same time as Light.

The potion bottles break as soon as they touch Shadow, spilling their contents all over him.

"What was- Hgk!" Shadow yells, the effect taking hold just as he speaks.

Shadow quickly descends from the sky, as Light and I keep throwing the potions at him. Even when he's on the ground, we don't stop until we've thrown all of the potions. Running up to Shadow, Light and I ready our own powers as Shadow looks up at us with a scowl while he's on his hands and knees.

"Y-You can't get a-away with this!" Shadow says, shakily.

"We already did, and we want our friend back." I retort, just as I use my power along with Light's.

Lightning strikes down on Shadow, and we hear a distorted screech echo in the air. The Darkness in the area suddenly starts to retreat, to the happy surprise of all our allies. Once the lightning ends, there on the ground is the familiar and welcome form of...

"Sabre!" I exclaim, quickly kneeling down and hugging him. Light grasps my shoulder and smiles at Sabre.

"R-Rainbow...?" Sabre says quietly, the potions still affecting him. "Did... did we win...?"

"We did, buddy..." I say, tears of joy streaming down my face. "We did..."

Light and I help Sabre up off the ground, me supporting him. As soon as he's visible, the people around us cheer as they see Sabre. We see a few familiar faces in the crowd, too... Yellow, the Violet Leader, Happy, Funny... we're all finally back.

We've just started walking towards everyone when something loud booms in the distance behind us.

The three of us turn around, and we see just as Void teleports away as a giant cloud of flames and smoke starts to grow. Everyone starts to run as it crawls towards us, the sky darkening and the ground starting to shake.

"H-He set off the bombs..." Sabre mutters, scared.

Light and I run while supporting Sabre, trying to get out of range of the explosion. Trees fall and hills crumble as the shaking gets worse. We stumble a little as we reach the forest, running to escape.

Suddenly, a mass of trees fall around us. On instinct, Sabre and I push Light in front of us just before they crash down.

Sabre and I are now trapped under the fallen trees, them making a tent shape around us. However, my leg is pinned under a log, and Sabre can barely sit up. We hear Light run towards us, and we see his face poke through a hole in front of us between some of the trees.

"Rainbow! Sabre!" He calls out. "I- Don't worry, I'll get you out, just-"

"Light, just go! It's too late, the explosion's going to reach us soon!" I answer, holding Sabre up.

"I can't leave you two behind! We just got you back!" Light says, and tears start to form in his eyes. "I-I just can't!"

"But you have to, or you'll die too!" I yell. "Just GO!"

Silence forms between us as we hear the rumble of the explosion draw closer. We're all crying, knowing what has to be done. Sabre looks up at me with tears leaking from his blindfold, then looks at Light.

"I-It's okay, Light..." Sabre says with a hoarse voice. "It's okay. Y-You need to go... before t-the blast g-gets you t-too..."

"I can't... I can't lose you both again..." Light sobs.

"You won't lose us, buddy..." I say through the tears. "We'll see you again soon, Shy."

Light looks up at us as Sabre and I give him a remorseful smile. After a moment of shock, Light lets out one last sob.

"I-I'll always m-miss you both, Orange Steve... Sabre..." He says.

Light teleports away.

...

I start to smell the ash from the burning area behind us, and I pull Sabre into a hug, him weakly returning it.

"Until we meet again soon, Sabre..." I say.

"Until w-we meet again s-soon, Rainbow..." Sabre replies.

We squeeze each other tighter as we feel the explosion reach us.

All I feel for a split second is almost unbearable burning, but it quickly passes as I feel everything melt away in a bright, white glow... including Sabre's arms wrapped around me and mine wrapped around him.

For a second, I feel nothing.

Then, I'm laying on stone, my body smaller than I last remember it being. I open my eyes to the blurry sight of a ceiling of a familiar cave, and I sit up, seeing my new entirely orange body. I'm... a kid.

I hear a voice come from the doorway of the room as my vision clears.

"What the..." A younger Orange Leader says as he peers into the room at me, his gaze occasionally glancing to the Crystal.

I look back at him, then notice another kid standing behind him, holding his leg.

Another Orange Steve kid, with a shyer expression. He seems scared, but also the slightest hint of curiosity crosses his face. I give a small smile.

"I told you we'd see each other again soon." I think to myself, recognizing him.

I then notice that I feel my hand grasping something, while also having something holding it. I look to my side, and look at what's causing it just as another familiar figure sits up, another kid to be exact.

I recognize his blindfold immediately, except it's a dark orange rather than black, with an orange crystal in the center of it. His brown hair has streaks of bright tangerine in it. Rather than a forest green tunic, he's wearing a lighter orange one with rust-colored pants. His skin color remains the same, yet I notice he has a matching diamond-shaped mark on his face like the one I've had as long as I can remember, except his is on the opposite cheek.

He looks at me with the same surprised expression I have for a moment, then we both smile at each other happily. We grip our hands tighter together.

Looks like we get to meet again sooner than we thought.