Heeeyyyyyyy TvT'

I know- it's been a while- I got distracted and demotivated- I finally got hiatus to frick off tho-

Hopefully I actually update frequently now?? Idk I fixate on things too much QwQ

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[Sabre's POV]

Taking a right on the path that leads to Green's house, he's leading us to the village that actually accepts us.

It's- still weird to think about. I mean, we just unintentionally brought the end of a kingdom and became public enemy #1, and... I guess there's a lot more Steves that aren't as closed-minded as the rest than I thought. A whole village... it sounds too good to be true, but Green keeps telling us all about the village he lives near and often goes to for trades. It actually sounds pretty nice.

Green put his hood up a while ago, probably not wanting to be recognized, which is understandable. And smart, too. If, I dunno, one of the rogue groups around saw him with us, he might be a target. Apparently these rogues have a gang mentality.

The path slowly gets more and more refined, until we can see the rooftops of a few taller houses peeking above trees in the distance. Green glances around, checking it's safe, then takes his hood off. He takes a sigh of relief as he looks up towards the rooftops.

"Here we are." Green says, beaming. "Now we're safe; the rogues never come close to the village."

"I don't look scary, do I? I-I don't want to scare anyone- Are you sure there's no hard feelings about... you know?" Dark asks. He's been getting more and more nervous as we got closer to our destination.

"I'm sure you'll be fine, Dark." Time says calmly. "I trust Green's judgement of the people here. There's likely nothing to worry about."

"Uhm... okay." Dark mumbles.

"It's okay Dark, the villagers are probably really nice!" Rainbow smiles.

"Yeah, you'll be fine buddy." I say, trying but failing again to manage a smile. Stupid paralysis. "And even if things start to go south, which won't happen, we'll leave if we need to."

"Thanks guys." Dark says, giving a nervous smile.

Green puts a hand on Dark's shoulder with a smile, reassuring him. Dark finally looks a little more at ease as we approach what seems to be the village entrance.

There's a lot of people on either sides of the pathway winding through the village, talking excitedly to each other, all seemingly trying to stay out of the way for three people in particular: a Green Steve, a Yellow Steve, and a Violet Steve. They have black metal amulets with red gems, all three carved with a strange symbol. Maybe a symbol of authority here?

"Here come the Village Leaders." Green whispers to us as they see us, and start to walk down the path. "Heads up, they can be a little weird sometimes. They're just like that."

The three Village Leaders stop in front of us, all smiling and already spouting greetings. Green has a big smile as he starts introducing us.

"Leaders, this is the Vengeful, though I'm sure you already know them." Green says.

Time, Dark, and Rainbow all wave a little, while Rainbow is able to make me have a little smile on my face. The Village Leaders return the gesture.

"It's lovely to meet you all." The Violet Village Leader says.

"Yes, everyone's been so excited for your visit!" The Yellow Village Leader continues.

"It's wonderful to be here, Leaders." Time says, extending a hand. The Violet Village Leader does the same and shakes his hand.

"Nice to meet you!" Rainbow grinned, shaking the Green Village Leader's hand.

"Nice to meet you too, Anti-Hero." The Green Village Leader chuckles.

"Ooo, 'Anti-Hero'. I like that." Rainbow says telepathically to me.

"It is a seriously cool title." I reply.

I notice Dark looks a bit scared when the Yellow Village Leader approaches him, but instead of anything bad that Dark probably expects, the Village Leader smiles and extends his hand to him. Dark looks surprised for a moment, then shakes his hand.

"I do not mind what happened in the past, because the truth is, we were all a victim of Nightmare's rule. You were just trying to survive." The Yellow Village Leader says, empathy in his eyes. "You are very welcome here, friend."

"T-Thank you, sir." Dark says, looking relieved.

Then, the Village Leaders turn to me. Knowing I can't really do anything, I use the new crystal necklace I was given recently to 'speak'.

"Hey, nice to meet you all. Thank you for letting us visit, we very much appreciate it." I say, the connection projecting through the small crystal. The Leaders look surprised for a moment. "I'd also give a handshake, but uh... not exactly capable in the autonomy department."

That gets a bit of a laugh out of everyone, getting rid of the looming awkwardness stemming from my... mobility issue. Glad the joke made everyone a little more at ease about it.

"We understand, no worries." The Green Village Leader says. "Why don't you follow us to the village square? You can meet more of the village, and we can show you around on the way."

"That'd be nice, thank you." Time says.

"Yeah. Sounds fun." Rainbow agrees.

"Great!" The Yellow Village Leader says, clasping his hands together. "Come with us, then."

The Leaders turn and starts to walk back into the village, the people around us quickly becoming even more excited as their whispers between each other became louder, and some would occasionally glance at us. We all follow, Rainbow helping me along.

"Our little village is enchanting, I'm sure you'll love it." The Violet Village Leader says excitedly. "Everyone is very kind, and we've done our best to make everything beautiful for today!"

I have to say, the Violet Village Leader is right. As we go through the village, I can tell that all of the villagers put a lot of effort into preparation for our visit. There's flowers planted everywhere, all following the path and gradienting into each other to make a cycling rainbow. The lampposts around have colorful streamers wrapped around them, and some have small banners hung with a crystal shaped design embroidered on them.

"Wow, everything is so nice..." Dark says, communicating through our individual crystals.

"Right? I feel kinda bad that so much effort was out into this just for a small visit." Rainbow says.

"Maybe they just wanted to impress us?" Time replies. "I mean, it seems like they think pretty highly of us... I dunno why though, we haven't done much yet."

"I'm kinda overwhelmed by all this, it's still really nice of them though." I add. "Nobody ever went so above and beyond for me and Rainbow back with the other Chromatics, so maybe it's just a difference between the... cultures? Would it count as culture?"

"I dunno, maybe. Like Green said, the village has been established since about a month before the Rainbow Kingdom was, so maybe since they're further from the base civilizations they've already established their own ways of life." Time says.

"Maybe." Rainbow says. "Either way, it's really nice of them! We should come up with an idea for something like a thank-you gift."

"Ooh, we should. Maybe when we get to the village square, we can look around to see if there's something they need." Time says. "Like if the village needs something repaired or wants to build a new structure, we could help with materials or putting it together."

"Or maybe we could get them some of the flowers from the forest to plant." Dark adds. "The flowers here are nice, but a lot of the same you see everywhere. The flowers near the cave are all new, and really pretty in my opinion. Plus, there's not really any hanging flowers around. The ones from the forest would give them a lot more decorating options, and we'd be giving them something unique."

"That's a really good idea, Dark!" I say. "Good point too, you don't really see any notable kinds of plants anywhere. Mostly just either tulips, poppies, dandelions, and some kind of flower bush. The forest's flowers would be a nice change."

Dark seems proud of the idea, as he should be. It really was a great one. We go back to looking around the village, occasionally smiling or waving at a villager that says 'hello'.

Soon, we start to hear music and a lot of people. The Village Leaders get more excited as they lead us towards the source of the noise.

"We're here, friends." The Green Village Leader says.

"Sorry, we forgot to mention that we set up a bit of a small party while Forager here went to get you!" The Yellow Village Leader says, giving an apologetic smile. "Hope we didn't catch you too off-guard."

"Party?" Rainbow says, surprised.

"'Forager'?" Time asks, looking at Green.

"That's my nickname here, since I go into the forest a lot to find materials and supplies." Green says, looking a bit embarrassed. He then looks forward, towards the village square. "And, uh..."

The Village Leaders move out of the way to show us the party, and we're met with the sight of something that looks like it should be part of a festival. 'Small party', huh?

Yeah, nope.

There's a lot of people around, all sorts of colors, the Village Leaders having already branched off to talk to a few of them. I can tell this used to be a market and small park kind of thing, but the market stalls have become food and drink stands with drinks being passed out and food still being prepared, while the garden areas have some tables with food set out and a few activity things. Steamers and banners hung up everywhere. In the center of the square, there's been a symbol that looks shockingly close to ours drawn in various colors of chalk or something. The music is coming from a small makeshift stage with a few people playing instruments. Kids are running around with bubble wands, filling the air with bubbles.

We were all caught very off-guard, even Green.

"This... was not here when I left." Green says after some silence, looking shocked. "I wasn't even gone that long, how did they- What??"

"Dude, this looks awesome." Rainbow says, looking around at everything.

"So... Many... People..." Dark says quietly, starting to look nervous again. Time places a hand on his shoulder, which calms him down a little bit, but not much. Understandable.

"Well... this is a nice surprise." Time adds, an astonished look on his face. "Dark, remember you don't have to push yourself too much if you don't really want to socialize."

"Might as well go ahead and join in, right?" I say, still a bit nervous, but I don't want to be rude. They set all this up, just for us? This is wild.

"Yeah, c'mon Sabre!" Rainbow says, grabbing my hand. I follow close by as he leads, and we zigzag our way through the party.

Soon enough, Time, Green, and Dark aren't at the entrance anymore, having already found something to do. I see glimpses of them every now and then, but it's not long before me and Rainbow are swept up in another part of the party. One minute we're playing a game, the next Rainbow found something cool to look at, the next I see something cool, and the next people are talking to us. It's a total whirlwind, but it's still fun.

Before I know it, the sun is starting to set. Have we really spent all day here? I glance around and notice that people are starting to gather at tables and picnic blankets everywhere, the food being prepared earlier being close to ready.

With the crowd thinning, I'm able to see where the rest of the Vengeful are. Dark is in a corner near the stage, talking to two Yellow Steves and holding a drink. He still looks a bit nervous, but is much more relaxed than earlier. He's even smiling.

Time is switching between talking to a small group of random people and talking to a few of the people that were preparing the food that are on break. He's holding a cup of steaming liquid, probably tea knowing him. He's really invested in what he's talking about with them.

Green, on the other hand, isn't having as nearly as a calm time as the rest of us. He's surrounded by people of the village, being bombarded with questions. He doesn't seem uncomfortable though, he's smiling and happily explaining things. People are probably so excited about him because he's one of the village, and he was hiding being part of the Vengeful for a bit. He's wearing the scarf we gave him now, and he takes the end of the scarf and shows the villagers surrounding him his Vengeful insignia patch, which excites the crowd. One villager grins and points at the chalk design in the center of the square, nodding, probably noticing how close they got to replicating the insignia.

Soon, the smell of fresh-cooked food fills the air, and we hear a bell being rung. Someone shouts that food is ready, and the rest of the people that haven't picked out spots to sit down yet either go to a booth to wait in line or look for somewhere to sit.

Rainbow starts to lead me to where all of the people searching for a free spot are going, but then we hear one of the Village Leaders call our names. Rainbow and I turn our heads to see that the Yellow and Violet Village Leaders had saved us a table, and Time, Green, and Dark have already sat down with them.

"Oh, cool! They saved us a spot!" Rainbow says excitedly, helping me switch directions.

"That's really nice of them." I say, managing to smile on my own.

We get to the table and sit down, everyone else greeting us. After a minute of small talk, the two Village Leaders speak up a bit more.

"So, are you all enjoying the party?" The Yellow Village Leader asks. "Again, sorry if all of this caught the five of you by surprise. We wanted to surprise Forager as well, as he's also part of the Vengeful."

"Oh, that's so nice of you!" Green smiles. "Yeah, I've been having fun. By the way, how'd you get the insignia almost exactly for the chalk art in the square? It's almost exactly the same, super accurate."

"Oh, well, must have been a lucky guess!" The Violet Village Leader replies, smiling, although I notice him and the Yellow Leader glance at each other for a split second. Weird.

"One heck of a lucky guess, then. Amazing job on the party." Time says. "We're very honored, you really didn't have to go such the extra mile."

"Yeah, the party is awesome!" Rainbow adds. "We've been having so much fun."

"Oh it's no problem, really." The Violet Village Leader says. "We just wanted to make you all feel welcome, and what's better than a party?"

"Mission accomplished then, I'm feeling a lot better about the uh... 'people' thing." Dark says. "Everyone is really nice, you guys must do a great job of leading the village. I heard a few villagers say so."

"Why, thank you, we put a lot of effort into what we do and do our best to keep the peace." The Yellow Village Leader says. "We have some help when things get tough sometimes, but I'm glad that everyone's doing so well together."

"You really are doing a good job." I add. "I'm gonna be honest, when I first heard of a village made up of multiple kinds of Chromatics, I was worried it was going to be like the Rainbow Kingdom... but, I'm glad I was wrong."

"We completely understand why you'd be worried, considering what you've gone through." The Yellow Village Leader says, smiling at me. "I'm glad that our village is comfortable to you."

"I'll be right back, since the lines have gone down a bit I'm going to grab some food." Dark says, getting up. "Does anyone else want stew? That's what I'm getting."

"Oh, I was going to get some myself. I could go with you." The Violet Village Leader says.

"It's okay, I'll just get it for you while getting mine." Dark smiles. "It's the least I could do."

Dark goes over to a booth, and we go back to talking.

"By the way, I'm just wondering, is the Green Village Leader sitting somewhere else or...?" I ask, noticing he's still not here.

"Oh, he just went to get something from his house. He'll be here soon." The Yellow Village Leader replies.

Dark then comes back to the table, quicker than expected. He hands the Violet Village Leader a bowl of stew and sets the other in front of himself as he sits down.

"I didn't even have to wait in line, they saw me approaching and just- let me go in front." Dark says. "I feel kinda bad, that booth was popular and there was a lot of people..."

"Oh, it's alright Dark, they don't mind. They just wanted to help you, since they look up to you." The Yellow Village Leader explains. Dark looks a bit flustered at that.

We continue talking, one of us occasionally going to one of the booths to get some food. Eventually, we see the Green Village Leader approaching the table.

"Hello! Sorry I'm late, I got caught up in something on the way back." He says, taking a seat.

"That's alright, it's understandable with this huge party." Time says.

The Green Village Leader then smiles, and holds up a small package.

"I had prepared a gift for all of you before you got here." The Village Leader explains. "I hope you all like it."

He sets the package down on the table, towards us. While Time and Dark carefully open it, I have to get Rainbow to pay attention, because he was too focused on his nachos to notice that the Green Village Leader arrived. Goofball.

When the paper wrapping is unraveled, there's five ornate, gold bracelets, one matching with each of us. All of them are patterned with prismatic gems, but for each different bracelet the gems between the colorful ones fitting each member of the Vengeful. I have a dark green, Rainbow has orange, Time has silver, Dark has a combination of orange and yellow, and Green has a lime color. On every bracelet, there's a dark red gem with a design in black metal around it at the center of it. The red gem and black metal closely resemble the amulets of the Village Leaders. We pick up our corresponding bracelets and admire them.

"Woah..." Rainbow gasps.

"These are beautiful..." Time says, in awe.

"Are- Are you sure we can have these?" I ask. "They seem valuable-"

"Of course you can! We made them for you." The Violet Village Leader smiles.

"It's no problem for us, if that's what you're worried about." The Yellow Village Leader adds.

"Leaders, I- I don't know what to say." Green says, smiling gratefully. "Thank you so much."

"You're welcome, Forager." The Green Village Leader says.

The rest of the Vengeful and I (with Rainbow's help) put on our bracelet gifts. They glitter in the evening light. We're about to continue conversation, but are interrupted by a familiar sound of a whistling screech in the sky, followed by a 'boom', and a colorful glow fills the air. We look up to see fireworks being launched, as the night sky begins to cover the land and make the stars visible.

"Oh, seems they've started the fireworks, wonderful!" The Yellow Village Leader says. "I was just about to ask them to, but looks like they were a step ahead."

"Fireworks-?" Dark says, then watches as more go up into the sky. He looks amazed by the sight of the sparkling rockets. Has he never seen fireworks before?

But still- Fireworks? At a party meant for us? They're treating us like we've won a war or something, but we haven't really done anything special.

"Your visit and recent triumph over the Kingdom is something to celebrate," The Green Village Leader says, as if he knows what I was thinking. "So we decided to have a little show at the end of the night."

"I-I don't know how to take this, we haven't really done that much..." Rainbow says.

"Oh, nonsense!" The Violet Village Leader says, watching the lightshow. "You have done a lot already, all of you. You deserve something nice after all you've fought through."

We watch the fireworks for a long while. It almost feels surreal, being surrounded by people who have gathered here for us, who have put all of this together, just for us. It doesn't feel real, but it is.

Eventually, it becomes late. People are packing up their things and going home, leaving the cleanup for tomorrow. My friends and I are still talking with the Village Leaders as we start to prepare to leave.

"We need to be careful on our ways back home, since nighttime isn't the safest, so we're all going to head back to our houses." Green says, checking his satchel.

"Yeah, we need to head out soon if we want to get home before midnight." I say. "Thank you so much for letting us visit, and the party. We had a lot of fun."

"Actually, since it'll be difficult for all of you to get home, why don't you all stay the night in the village?" The Green Leader asks. "We have a spare house you could all use!"

"Oh- It's alright, really." Time says, giving a small smile. "We don't want to overstay our welcome, and besides, you've done so much for us already."

"It's perfectly fine, we don't mind!" The Yellow Village Leader says with a wide grin. "It'd be quite the honor!"

"Are you sure...?" Dark asks. "We'll be fine on the way back, it's just a little harder to navigate. We don't want to give you any more trouble."

"Yeah, what they said, we don't want to be a burden to you." Rainbow says.

"It's no problem, really!" The Green Village Leader says, seeming a bit more excited than usual. He has the same wide grin as the Yellow Village Leader. "We'd love it if you stayed the night!"

The Village Leaders are all looking at us with wide, almost unsettling smiles, waiting for an answer. I glance at the other Vengeful, feeling a bit uncomfortable.

"They're being a bit pushy about it..." I say telepathically.

"Should we just stay? It seems like they really want us to." Dark says.

"Well... maybe we should? There is the Darkness, and the Village Leaders are being... insistent."

"I don't really want to cause any trouble for them, so... maybe?" Rainbow replies.

"I mean, if you guys will, I will." I say.

"Mm... okay." Dark says, sounding a bit nervous.

The rest of us glance at Green, and he shrugs. We look back to the Village Leaders, and they're still standing there with those wide grins. Have they been like that the whole time?

"Well... alright." I say. "If it's no trouble for you, then we'll stay the night. We'll have to head home in the morning, though."

"Perfect! Come with us, you'll love it." The Violet Village Leader says, as he and the other Village Leaders turn and start to lead us through the village again.

We follow them through the rest of the village, and start to come to a more forested area of it. They take us down the cobbled road that tapers into a dirt path the further we go from the rest of the village, and we reach a large, two-story house on a lakeside surrounded by forest. There's flowers and bushes in the front gardens next to the door, and the path to the house has another path that branches off, leading to a dock on the lake. We're amazed by the sight of the beautiful area.

"Are you- absolutely sure we can stay the night here?" Rainbow asks. "This house looks really nice."

"Of course, we don't mind!" The Green Village Leader says, still smiling. "Go ahead and head inside, we're going to go to our homes. There's three bedrooms in the house, two have two beds in each room on either side while one has a single bed. If you need us for any reason during the night, just go to one of our houses and knock. We'll always answer."

Before we can say anything, the Village Leaders are already going back to the village. We just stare in stupidified silence for a moment.

"Well, that was... interesting." I say.

"Like I said, they can be a bit odd sometimes, but they have good intentions." Green says, a bit nervously. "Plus, it's late, they're probably tired after today and a little frazzled."

"Let's go inside, I guess." Dark says. "I'm still kinda feeling creeped out."

"Fair enough." Green replies.

We walk down the path and into the house. It's as beautiful and intricate as the outside, even furnished and everything. We look around for a bit.

"The Village Leaders are really generous..." Rainbow says. "I mean, the house is completely ready to live in."

"They were still kind of unsettling earlier..." Time says. "I mean, I appreciate it, it's just... the way they were acting earlier was... y'know."

"Yeah, I agree, I was getting kind of uncomfortable." I say. "It kinda reminded me of this one scary story from my world, called 'Midsommar'-"

"Sabre, we're about to go to bed, none of your world's horror stories." Time says. "We want to actually be able to sleep tonight."

"Alright, alright, that's fair." I say, chuckling.

"Dude, seriously. That one about the stupid clown with the balloon you told last story night was terrifying." Rainbow says, laughing.

"Nope, do not remind me of that, I'm going upstairs." Dark says, walking away.

The rest of us follow, laughing, and we get to the second story. Smaller than the first, and the hall leads to three bedrooms. Like the Village Leaders said, two of the bedrooms are for two people, while one bedroom is for one.

"So, who gets the solo room?" Dark asks.

"I have to stick with Sabre, so neither of us." Rainbow says.

"Alright, pick a number between 1 and 10." I say.

"Pft, what are we, children?" Green laughs.

"Yes, let's settle this like adults." Time says, smiling.

Time, Dark, and Green proceeded to have a rock-paper-scissors tournament against each other.

Green won, so he got the solo room in the middle. Time and Dark went to the left, and Rainbow and I took the right. We closed the doors behind us, Rainbow and I looking around for a moment before picking who got which bed.

Having actual beds after living in a cave for so long is weird, but not unwelcome. As Rainbow turns off the lamp, I glance out the window and see a nice view of the front yard.

"G'night, Sabre." Rainbow says as gets comfortable. "Seeya tomorrow morning."

"Night, Rainbow." I reply.

Soon, we're both drifting off, listening to the sounds of wind rustling the trees and the calm lake outside.

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(Heads up, it's about to get scary. Skip ahead to the next set of lines if you get uncomfortable/scared easily.)

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"You can't escape that easily."

Not this. Not again.

Another encounter. I'm running from him again, in a blank, pitch dark abyss. It's all too familiar.

I'm suddenly shoved by something in front of me, and I fall onto the floor. Wasn't he far behind me? Wasn't everything, all that he did, all now so distantly in the past? What is he doing here?

I quickly get up, backing away, seeing that there's... nothing. Nobody's in front of me. I don't hear him in the distance behind me anymore, either. Where'd he go?

"I'm not anywhere in there, Sabre."

I hear him.

"You can't see me because we have the same eyes, the same view. I'm part of you, remember? We're one and the same."

"No, I-! I'm nothing like you!" I scream into the oblivion. "We're not the same, not at all! You- You don't have any control over me! Not anymore!"

"Oh, but I do, Sabre."

I get up, angry, tired of him still haunting me.

"No, the Darkness I once had is gone! We split off a long time ago! You have your own body now, why can't you leave me alone?! There's no point in this!"

"As usual, you don't understand."

I suddenly can't move. I can only look around as my entire body goes numb. Paralyzed. I'm forced to look forwards.

Shadow suddenly appears out of the abyss, as if stepping out from a spot of shade. His usual cocky grin is plastered on his face, although he looks different now. He has a different outfit from before, even wearing a crown, and he has scars on one side of his head. Scars that match... my injury. A piercing red eye contrasts my grey one.

"You see, Darkness by itself can't create a complete body on its own." He says, starting to walk in a circle around me, like a wolf cornering its prey. "I may have changed that for the simpler, mindless soldiers, but nothing of the Darkness' creation is truly 'complete'. It's still going to need some kind of host, a template, in order to have a complete form. Even for me, it's still true."

Shadow stops in front of me for a moment, holding up his hand. He stares at it.

"And even though incomplete forms can do some... fascinating things..."

At that moment, his raised hand quickly turns black, and starts to warp and distort. In seconds, what was his hand has turned into a mess of small black tendrils, wriggling and stretching as if reaching for something. They suddenly contort again, coming together. His normal skin tone returns, and his hand is back, balled into a fist.

"Having a complete form grants a being of Darkness their true, intended power." Shadow continues. "Surely, now you understand why I'd need you still."

I try to say something, yell at him, retort, talk back, anything. But nothing works. I can't move at all. Shadow looks at me out of the corner of his eye, and his malicious grin stretches wider. He turns to face me again and steps forward.

"And with you in such a state, once I can draw all of your little friends away, it'll be so easy to gain control again. You won't be able to do anything to stop me. You can't fight like before."

Shadow reaches to the side of me and pulls on something, bringing into view a prismatic bunch of strings that weren't there before. My arm moves when the strings pull.

"Besides, you're already back on your strings; you're just currently under the command of someone else. And once he's out of the way, I'm going to have my puppet back."

Shadow drops the strings, and my arm goes limp at my side. He turns, starting to walk back into the abyss, when he suddenly stops. He turns his head a little.

"By the way, I'd watch my back if I were you." Shadow says, an unsettling, unnaturally wide smile crawling across his face.

In a flash, he's back in front of me, black claws replacing his hands. One hand is on my shoulder, piercing my skin. His smile is almost splitting his face, sharp teeth lining it. The white of his eye has turned dark, only a dot of blood red staring into my soul. Drips of Darkness fall from his eyes and mouth.

"You never know what's watching from the shadows."

Everything suddenly melts away, all I see becoming dark. Can I even see? Or have I somehow gone blind, too?

I sit in silence, waiting in the abyss for a while, as I feel like I'm falling. Anxiety takes hold, as falling is now extremely... unpleasant for me. It brings back the memory of how this happened to me. How I died. How I became utterly useless on my own.

It seems like an eternity falling, feeling the air rush by me, but I can't see anything. There's nothing around me.

...

.  .  .

.    .    .

"...ꉓꂦꂵꍟ ꓄ꂦ ꂵꍟ. ꀤ ꉓꍏꈤ ꃅꍟ꒒ꉣ ꌩꂦꀎ."

What-?

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I wake up with a jolt, only able to move for a split second before I'm numb again.

I'm inside the house in the village, laying in bed. I was sleeping. It was just a dream. He's not really here. There's nothing here. I...

...I'm still paralyzed. Reality crashes down on the small bit of hope I had, knowing that I'm not suddenly able to move again like I was in the dream. I can't even sit up on my own accord, so I can try to find some way to calm myself down. I'm frozen in place, as if made of stone.

...

Before I know it, I'm beginning to cry. I soon hear Rainbow stir from across the room and get up.

"Sabre?" He asks. "Are you okay? What happened?"

He walks to my side of the room and helps me sit up. Rainbow hugs me for a little while as I quietly sob.

"...Was it another nightmare?" Rainbow asks.

"...Yeah. A bad one." I reply.

"Shadow?"

"Yep."

"He needs to leave you alone for once in his life." Rainbow says, sounding angry.

"He was nagging me about my paralysis this time." I start. "He was talking about how I'm useless like this, how I wouldn't be able to do anything against him, how I'm just a puppet-"

"Hey, hey, it's okay. None of that is true." Rainbow says, interrupting as I start to cry harder. "He's not going to get to you. Not here, not ever. Me and the rest of the guys will make sure of it."

Rainbow hugs me a bit tighter.

"He's never going to hurt you again. I promise, I'm going to stick by you this time." He reassures me. "And your paralysis... we're going to figure out something soon. Really soon. You'll be able to be yourself again."

Rainbow and I stay there for a while, him comforting me as the moonlight streamed through the window, my cries the only sound in the quiet night.

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[3rd Person POV]

The Green Village Leader walked carefully down the underground walkway. Dew dripped from stalactites onto the rock below, threatening to cause someone to slip. Still, the Village Leader stepped through further into the cave.

At the bottom of the chasm, he reached an ancient stone room. It had long ago crumbled into the small space it is now, but the centerpiece of the scene was still there:

A set of bright, crimson red armor, suspended in the air by impossibly strong chains.

Careful not to get too close, the Green Village Leader stood before the hung armor.

"They're here, Unnamed. Just as you said." The Village Leader told the metal figure eagerly.

A voice echoed from the armor's helmet.

"𝔙𝔢𝔯𝔶 𝔤𝔬𝔬𝔡. 𝔜𝔬𝔲'𝔳𝔢 𝔡𝔬𝔫𝔢 𝔴𝔢𝔩𝔩." The voice said.

"Are you sure they're going to stay?" The Green Leader asked. "They all seem like they want to stay where their homes are. They enjoy the village, of course, they just seem to prefer their own homes, and it'll be so sudden..."

"𝔗𝔥𝔢𝔶 𝔴𝔦𝔩𝔩, 𝔡𝔬𝔫'𝔱 𝔶𝔬𝔲 𝔴𝔬𝔯𝔯𝔶." It answered. "𝔍𝔲𝔰𝔱 𝔴𝔞𝔦𝔱. 𝔗𝔥𝔢𝔶'𝔯𝔢 𝔤𝔬𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔱𝔬 𝔰𝔱𝔞𝔶 𝔴𝔦𝔱𝔥 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔳𝔦𝔩𝔩𝔞𝔤𝔢 𝔰𝔬𝔬𝔫 𝔢𝔫𝔬𝔲𝔤𝔥."

"Of course, Great Unnamed. I trust in you." The Green Leader answers. "What about the Catalyst's paralysis? It's going to be a problem soon, based off what you've told me and the others. Surely, there's some way to fix it, correct?"

"ℑ 𝔥𝔞𝔳𝔢 𝔞 𝔭𝔩𝔞𝔫 𝔣𝔬𝔯 𝔱𝔥𝔞𝔱. ℑ𝔱 𝔴𝔦𝔩𝔩 𝔰𝔱𝔞𝔯𝔱 𝔰𝔬𝔬𝔫."

"Of course, Unnamed. May I ask, is there anything I need to assist with for this plan? You have not told any of us what it requires yet."

"ℑ𝔫 𝔡𝔲𝔢 𝔱𝔦𝔪𝔢, 𝔏𝔢𝔞𝔡𝔢𝔯, ℑ 𝔴𝔦𝔩𝔩 𝔱𝔢𝔩𝔩 𝔶𝔬𝔲. 𝔍𝔲𝔰𝔱 𝔨𝔫𝔬𝔴 𝔣𝔬𝔯 𝔫𝔬𝔴 𝔱𝔥𝔞𝔱 𝔶𝔬𝔲 𝔫𝔢𝔢𝔡 𝔱𝔬 𝔭𝔯𝔢𝔭𝔞𝔯𝔢 𝔣𝔬𝔯 𝔰𝔬𝔪𝔢 𝔪𝔬𝔯𝔢 𝔤𝔲𝔢𝔰𝔱𝔰 𝔴𝔦𝔱𝔥𝔦𝔫 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔴𝔢𝔢𝔨, 𝔟𝔲𝔱 𝔡𝔬 𝔦𝔱 𝔡𝔦𝔰𝔠𝔯𝔢𝔢𝔱𝔩𝔶."

"𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔙𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔣𝔲𝔩 𝔞𝔯𝔢 𝔤𝔬𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔱𝔬 𝔥𝔞𝔳𝔢 𝔰𝔬𝔪𝔢 𝔫𝔢𝔴 𝔞𝔯𝔯𝔦𝔳𝔞𝔩𝔰 𝔰𝔬𝔬𝔫."