Fluff chapter to kick off Arc 2, you already knooooww :3

By the way, I've put a post in my  announcements page that I'm taking suggestions for villain names for Green Steve! Soon enough, he's not just going to be the supplier :)

If you want to join in, just type your suggestion on the post! I'll pick my favorite next week and let you guys know what it is.

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[Sabre's POV]

We've just gotten back to our cave after the whole 'Burning of the Kingdom' thing, and needless to say, the weight of our actions is kicking in like an angry horse breaking down a door.

Time sits down on his bed, looking reasonably nervous. Dark leans against the wall, trying to look composed, but his expression of panic betrays him. Rainbow is lost in thought after sitting down on one of the cushions in front of our cooking pot. I've sat down on my bunk, a thousand thoughts racing through my mind. Eventually, after what feels like hours of silence, Dark breaks through the piercing stillness.

"Sooo..." Dark says, anxiety in his voice. "Anyone else having an internal crisis?"

"Yes." The other three of us answer, and that gets a smile out of everyone.

"I'm already a world-known outlaw again." Dark says, putting his hands over his face. "And I just came back to life, like, a month ago."

"Me too, bud. Me too." Rainbow sighs, laying down despite the cold stone.

"I've kinda been one before, but I wasn't really conscious during it." I add, chuckling a little bit to try and ease the tension.

"I've never been one at all, so I'm clueless over here." Time says. "I've been a freaking goody-two-shoes all my life. I just went against everything I've ever known."

"Also same." Rainbow says from the floor.

"Hey, at least nobody followed us." Dark says.

"We were weaving through the forest like bunnies being chased by a fox." I say.

"Speaking of which, I dunno about you guys, but I'm tired as all heck." Time says. "We should probably just go to bed, it's late anyway. Might even calm our nerves a bit."

"Yeah, sounds like a good idea." Rainbow says, getting up from the floor.

"Ditto, all this is probably just late-night worry." I add. "We'll be a-okay in the morning, and we can have some downtime."

"Thank goodness Green is visiting again soon..." Dark says. "After all that, I feel like we seriously just need another person to talk to."

"Mood." Time says, already hidden in his blanket.

Rainbow and Dark head to the ladder so they can reach their beds, and Rainbow moves my body so I'm comfortable and ready to sleep. They reach their beds, and as always, Dark turns off the lights.

"G'night, everybody." I say.

"'Night." My friends respond.

It's not long before I drift off, pushing my fear aside. Everything's going to be fine in the morning, we're all just tired and stressed out after actually carrying out our plan... right?

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...

I'm surrounded by a sea of voices, never sure where they're coming from, like they're moving around me.

"You monster! You destroyed them all!"

W-What...? No, I-I didn't, that wasn't...

"You never belonged here, everyone just tolerates you."

I know I didn't, but I-I helped everyone... isn't that something?

"It's your fault! He never would've died if it wasn't for you!"

...I... I know... but I'm trying my best to fix it now...

Suddenly, everything quiets down. I don't know why. I'm then transported to what looks like a forest. Wait... no, not any forest... this is the forest we live in.

I'm taken by surprise when a scream echoes throughout the pitch-black, tree-filled sky. I don't want to believe it, but it sounded like Rainbow. I hurriedly run towards where the scream came from, and I realize I'm heading towards the cave.

I soon reach the cave, and I notice that the tree base next to it is on fire. The river is turned black with ashes, all of the fish floating to the surface, and... there's someone on the riverbed?

I step closer, and realize in horror that the person laying there on the riverbed is Green Steve.

I run over, screaming out Green's name. When I get to him, I see that there's an iron sword lodged in his side, the wound spilling out crimson blood that flows into the blackened river. He looks like he just got out of a fight with a bunch of bears, too. I attempt to cover the sword wound, but as I try to pick up Green so I can help him, I see his face and know that he's already dead. His eyes are grey and glassed over, and he's not breathing.

Before I can do anything else, I'm suddenly pulled away from him from behind by something I couldn't see, and when I regain myself and look back, Green's body is no longer there. I don't have time to try and figure out what just happened before another scream cuts through the smoldering air, coming from the cave. I look towards what I know as home, and I'm terrified to see that the small crack in the cliff we use for a door has been seemingly blown open, a gaping hole in its place.

I rush towards the cave, and I'm petrified by what I see.

Rainbow, Dark, and Time are all dead on the floor, slashed to pieces and covered in blood. Crystal shards are scattered everywhere. Everything we had built together is broken and torn apart.

I stand there, frozen in place, tears uncontrollably streaming from my eyes. Yet, I don't make a sound. A thousand things are crowding my mind, but shock is all I feel. I don't even move. I've... I've just lost everyone and everything I had left.

I'm snapped out of it when I hear someone behind me. I quickly turn around, only to be stabbed into my chest by a familiar spear. My tear-filled eyes focus on a white figure I know very well... but he looks corrupted. Darkness creates lines and splotches his ivory armor and crawls over half of his face, his normally pale orange eyes now completely turned black.

This strange form of Light suddenly pulls his spear from my chest, but I somehow stay standing. I place my right arm over the stab wound, still in shock. Blood covers my forest green sleeve. I glance upward for a moment, seeing the silver spear being aimed right at my head, and-

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My eyes snap open and I sit up, adrenaline coursing through my veins, my panic enough to make me move on my own.

At that same moment, my friends in the same room all do the same and almost scream, but stop themselves. We all look at each other, worried, before we realize that it was all just a dream.

"You guys too, huh?" Time says, sighing.

"Yeah..." Rainbow says.

"Stupid nightmares..." Dark mumbles.

"Same here, Dark." I say.

Rainbow and Dark climb down from their bunks, and Time gets up and walks over to me. He grabs my hand and gets me standing, and everyone goes over to the wall that the beds are near, and we all sit against the wall. We each still have our individual blankets, using them so we don't really have to touch the cold stone walls and floor.

"So... anyone wanna talk about it?" Rainbow asks.

"Eh, sure." Time says. "Mine was about what happened with Elemental. That kind of thing just doesn't really leave..."

"What happened?" Dark says.

"It was more like a bad memory. It was a day when Elemental was angry with me about Origin-knows-what and he snapped at me, and threw one of the flowerpots I had at me. Then he started yelling for a reason I don't know. In the dream, everything was distorted, and I could barely recognize his face. He looked more like a monster..." Time explains, shuddering at that last part.

"Who knew he'd turn out to be such a jerk?" I say. "I swear, if I could move on my own, I would've whooped him up and down those hallways back at the Citadel."

That makes everyone laugh a little, easing some of the tension in the room.

"Thanks, Sabre." Time says. "I'm sure we'll both get to return the favor soon enough. What about you, what was your nightmare about?"

"Getting found." I answer. "I was in the forest, and heard screaming, so I rushed back to the cave to find everyone dead and some weird corrupted person snuck up behind me and I got stabbed."

"Ouch, dude. Dying in a dream is always the worst. But hey, it wasn't real, and we're all perfectly okay. You have nothing to worry about." Rainbow says. "That just happened with me, too. I was dreaming about when I was shattered... Got put into a machine and it felt like I was being crushed."

"Yikes. You alright?" I ask.

"Yeah, just some bad dream. I'm good." Rainbow says.

Time then turns to Dark, who's been quiet for a little bit.

"And you, Dark?" Time asks. "What was yours?"

"The bee man himself." Dark sighs, and both me and Rainbow start laughing.

"You picked up on that nickname we gave him?!" I say, Rainbow keeping himself from falling over using my shoulder.

"Heh, yeah." Dark smiles. "I didn't admit it at the time, for obvious reasons, but I thought it was pretty fricken funny."

Time chuckles, and Dark now looks kinda proud of himself. Rainbow and I eventually calm down, and we go back to the conversation.

"Okay, okay." Rainbow says. "Anyway, what happened in your dream?"

Dark shifts in place, now looking a little nervous.

"I don't really want to talk about it..." He mumbles.

"That's okay, buddy." I say. "We're not gonna push it."

"Yeah, if you don't want to talk about it, we understand." Time says. "It's completely fine. Whether or not you want to share is entirely your choice."

"And if or when you do want to talk about it..." Rainbow adds. "We'll be right here to listen."

Dark brightens up, and smiles at the three of us.

"Thanks guys." He grins.

"No problem, Dark." I say.

We end up all just hanging out together to wind down, right there on the floor. Later on, Time picks up one of his books, and uses our Crystal connection to let us basically read along with him. We all have a lot of fun, listening to the ambience of the outside as Time flips through the pages of the story; Crickets, the wind rustling through the grass and the tree leaves, the river's quiet running past the smooth rocks on the riverbed, and it even started raining at one point. This is one of the amazing things about hiding out in the middle of the forest... you can't help but feel at peace if you just listen to what's right outside.

Eventually, I notice that Rainbow and Dark had fallen asleep, and it's not long before I follow suit.

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[Green Steve's POV]

Everyone in the village knows what happened to the Rainbow Kingdom already, we could hear the lightning from where we were in the woods.

I was just doing my normal route of delivering stuff to them when it started. Everyone soon ran into their homes, worried that whatever was doing that was coming for them... but I know the Vengeful would never do that. As I was leaving the Village, I saw the Green Village Leader giving me a knowing look. I... I can only hope it was a good thing.

I'm now back at home, sitting on my bed. I'm trying to calm myself down, because I'm worried about my friends. Not only the ones in the village, but the Vengeful themselves too. People might come for Sabre and the others, now that they're all known to be alive, not to mention the threat of the Darkness. My village might be used to... I dunno, bait them or something.

I'm pulled from my thoughts by a knock at the door. I get up and answer, and see that the Green Village Leader is there.

"Oh, hello!" I say. "Wasn't expecting anyone to come over, it's quite late. Is everything alright?"

"Yes, everything's fine. I just wanted to talk to you." The Village Leader says.

That's totally not anxiety-inducing. I let him in, and we both sit down at the table near the window. I'm nervously trying to get myself to calm down again. I don't even notice in my spaced-out panic that I've been avoiding looking at the Village Leader, until he gets my attention.

"Green Steve, calm down. Look at me." The Village Leader says.

I snap out of it and turn my attention back to the Village Leader. He gives me a reassuring smile.

"Green, I know about your connections with the Vengeful." He says, and I can't hide my shock.

"You... you do?" I say, fear rising inside of me.

"Yes. It's not exactly that hard to notice when you disappear." The Village Leader says. "You may live away from the village, but we all know you the same way you know us, and the sudden changes in your days these past few weeks were easily recognized."

I stay silent for a moment.

"...Don't you hate me?" I ask, and the Village Leader looks at me with a bit of confusion.

"No, of course not! Why would any of us hate you?" He says.

"I'm essentially a traitor to our people, Leader." I say. "I've been working with undead rogues, and helped them with their revenge on the Citadel. Not to mention who exactly the people in their group are..."

"Green, do you really think that your views on the Vengeful aren't shared?" The Village Leader says. "The village is rooting for them, as a matter of fact. Everyone didn't run into their houses out of fear of them, we did that because we were worried that people from the now destroyed Kingdom would come here."

"R-Really?" I say, relieved.

"Yes, you're not alone in any of this, Green." The Village Leader says. "In fact... you're not the only one that's been giving the Kingdom problems."

"Wait, what?" I ask. "You guys have been..."

"Yeeahhh..." The Leader says, chuckling a little. "Remember how the Colorless Guard outposts near our village kept getting sabotaged and vandalized?"

"No way, that was all of you?!" I exclaim, smiling.

"It was Yellow's idea." The Leader says. "And the people loved it, because the Guard would never get off our backs. Patrols would keep stopping people going in and out and asking what they were doing after the Darkness was revealed to be out again. We were all pretty upset about it, because we've been handling ourselves just fine since building our village. Why keep such an eye on us then?"

"I seriously questioned their methods sometimes." I giggle. "Like, I've told you about how many Guards would appear near my house, right? At first I thought they were onto me, but then it just got annoying."

"And now with the Vengeful disbanding the Kingdom, the Colorless Guard won't really go anywhere near us now, and we can practically do whatever we like!" The Leader says. "The villagers have always wanted to be able to have parties to celebrate milestones for the village, but we never did because we were worried it'd be too loud. Now we definitely can!"

We both laugh, and the stay silent for a moment. I break the silence when I realize something.

"Hey, Leader? Speaking of the Vengeful..." I say.

"What is it?" The Leader asks.

"How has everyone reacted to... Dark Steve being there?" I ask, worried for my reformed new friend. He's actually really nice and a good person, he's just haunted by his own terrible past.

"There's nothing to worry about." The Leader says. "Everyone understands that Dark is a changed person now, even the Yellow Steves living in the village. He was a lost soul that didn't really have a sense of what to do or what was okay. He was just as miserable as everyone else was while under the reign of Nightmare. In the end, he decided to make a choice to do the right thing, despite it costing his life. He deserves a second chance just as much as everyone else."

I smile, grateful for the village's kindness. I'm so glad that Dark can live his new life without worry of his old one haunting his every choice.

"Thank you, Leader." I say.

"Hey, it's just basic compassion. There's really no need to thank me." The Leader says. "By the way... can the village meet the Vengeful sometime? It doesn't have to be soon of course, but everyone admires them for their bravery to stand up to the Leaders, and we all support their efforts of their revenge."

"I'm sure they'd love that, I'll ask them about it next time I see them." I smile.

We talk for a little while longer, and I even show the Village Leader my Vengeful insignia patch, which shows I'm a member. Needless to say, he was pretty excited by that. He even said he was proud of me...

It gets late, and the Leader has to go and teleport back to the village. It's dangerous at night, after all. I wave to him as he leaves, and happily start cleaning up the house a little, just as I always do before I go to bed. I'm so excited to tell my Vengeful friends the good news!

...You know, I might even visit early, now that I think about it.