Rainbow rushes back over to Dark holding bandages and materials for a splint. I manage to turn my head to face them, watching as Rainbow starts wrapping the bandages on Dark's injured arm, being careful not to bump his twisted-up leg.

"What happened?" Rainbow asks.

"I-I don't know..." Dark answers. "I just woke up on the ground, somehow alive again. I couldn't hear the well of voices from the rest of the Darkness anymore-" Rainbow finishes up wrapping his arm, then goes to work on the splint for his leg.

"The Darkness?" Rainbow interrupts, confused. "Sabre got rid of the Darkness a while ago. How was it there?"

Dark Steve also looks confused for a moment, then answers. "If Sabre got rid of it, then it's back. I don't know how, but I'm pretty sure I have a guess."

"Hold on a sec, this is gonna hurt." Rainbow pauses Dark's explanation. "Brace yourself."

As Rainbow straightens out Dark's leg so the splint can hold it in proper place, Dark lurches forward, trying not to scream. He starts crying.

"Sorry, buddy." Rainbow apologizes. He's never liked seeing his friends hurt.

"I-it's okay. Good lord..." Dark says, wiping away his tears, the pain seemingly passing.

Dark starts looking around the room, and notices my condition. He stares for a moment.

"What in the Realm happened to Sabre?!" He yells. Rainbow picks him up and walks him over to the cushion opposite of me.

"Long story, I'll try to shorten it for you." Rainbow sighs. He sits on the floor between us.

Rainbow tells Dark everything. My murder attempt, him stealing the Crystal to save me, us getting myself out of the grave, our escape into the woods, my paralysis, his newfound powers. As he finishes, Dark leans back, processing everything.

"...Holy crap." He says, shocked to find out what's happened while he was destroyed. "And... he's part of the Crystal now too?"

"I guess." Rainbow says. "Speaking of the crystallization thing, I might have to do that to you to reconstruct your leg. Part of the bone is just missing." So, it is broken. Dark looks worried a moment. "Don't worry, you're not gonna be nearly as bad as Sabre- no offense, bud."

"None taken." I say.

Dark sighs. "Okay..."

"Can you tell us how you think the Darkness is back?" Rainbow asks.

"Sure," Dark answers. "I only put a few pieces together, cause I was only there a few seconds before I got attacked."

Dark clasps his hands together, trying to remember the details from his moments of panic.

"I woke up on the ground, Darkness receding from around me." He begins. "A bunch of figures were surrounding me, as if they didn't know what I was. They were all whispering things like, 'He has color', 'There's something there', and 'Not hollow'. I sat up, and they all backed away a little. I was so confused..." Dark wraps his arms around himself, as if he didn't want to continue, out of fear. "Suddenly, I heard someone shout 'Move,' at the figures, and a few of the ones surrounding me parted to let someone through. I couldn't believe what I was seeing..." Dark shudders at the thought of this being.

"Who was it?" Rainbow asks him, putting a hand on his uninjured arm. Dark looks at him, then continues.

"There was a person there, not just Darkness, but it was radiating off him. At first, I couldn't tell what he was, as I didn't recognize him." Dark glances at me for some reason. "But then... I looked up to see his face, and I froze. He pointed a sword he had at me. It looked to be made of shadows..."

No. He couldn't be talking about... him. Could he...?

"Dark." Rainbow says. "Who was it?"

Dark has a thousand-yard stare in his eyes. He answered slowly.

"He... he looked exactly like Sabre... but as if he was infected with the Darkness."

"SHADOW?!" I scream, falling backward in a rush of fear. How was he here?! He was sealed away in the Hub along with that stupid sword! Rainbow catches me before I hit the ground, pulling me back up into a sitting position. I'm no longer in control of my body again. He tries talking to me, but I can't hear him. Shadow is back, and he's coming for me, isn't he? I won't be able to do anything once he finds me. Rainbow snaps me back into reality.

"Holy, crap, Sabre! You scared me there!" Rainbow says, mystified by my knowledge of the phantom, and worried for me. "You know that guy or something?"

"Know him?! I hate him!" I say, in my head again. "After you died, Void found a way to infect me, and that's who I became. He did terrible things, and everyone blamed me for them once I broke out of his control, while he got away scot-free." I feel tears running down my face from remembering what Shadow did to ruin me. Dark manages to scoot over to where I am, and gives me a hug.

"I don't know what you're saying to Rainbow right now," he says, "But I know from your reaction that's he hurt you too."

Rainbow looks over to Dark. "Did he... did he do that to you?" Dark scoots back to where he was.

"Yeah, he commanded the Darkness to kill me once he realized something was off about me. I don't even know what's changed in order for me to be disconnected from the hive mind..."

"His eyes." I say. Rainbow looks back towards me.

"What?" He says.

"His eyes changed color, look."

Rainbow takes a closer look at Dark. "Oh yeah, you're right, they did change..." Rainbow mumbles.

"What?" Dark says, unable to hear our conversation.

"Your eyes changed color. One's yellow and one's orange." Rainbow grabs a piece of glass so Dark could see for himself. "Look."

Dark takes the glass pane, and peers at his reflection. He takes on a look of surprise, and slowly moves his hand up to his face.

"I... I have color." He says, then he quickly smiles, joy overtaking the shock. "I have color!"

"Heck yeah, you do!" Rainbow smiles back. I manage to give a small grin.

"Welcome to the group, buddy." I say, knowing he can't actually hear me. I know Rainbow will convey the message somehow.

—————————————————————————————————————

[Light's POV]

When the sun started to rise, the Guards and I headed deeper into the forest. The trail was still going, in fact, it was getting more visible. As the trees started getting closer together, there were more scratches and shards than before. We were close, I know it. A few minutes of walking later, we see lights somewhere in the forest, contrasting the early morning shadows covering everything before the sun was up. I signal the Guards to stay quiet.

"Someone's up ahead." I whisper. "Remember, don't confront them. We're just here to see who our culprits are and find out where they're hiding."

We carefully sneak our way over to some bushes that are near where the lights are, about twenty feet away from them. It's only when we're in our hiding place that I notice that the lights are oddly blue lanterns. Strange.

It takes a while for anyone to be heard coming over, but eventually it happens. A person in an embroidered dark grey cloak walks over, two more less regal-looking cloaked figures behind him.

"Did you succeed in killing him?" The first figure asks. One of the other figures says something unintelligible, and the first figure sighs.

"He really got away?" He says, annoyance in his voice. "Did you at least injure him further so he won't cause any problems?"

An other figure says something unintelligible again, and the first figure smiles.

"Good, he'll most likely succumb to his wounds in the forest, he has no idea how to survive out here."

Why does his voice sound vaguely familiar? I try to ignore the uneasy feeling as the regal cloaked figure continues.

"Has anyone found out about us?" The two figures shake their heads. "Perfect. At this rate, the Tower will be completed within the week."

What tower? What is this guy planning? I then notice a scabbard on the figure's back as he turns his back to our hiding place. I guess one of the figures said something he didn't like.

"What do you mean, they were killed by lightning strikes while chasing him?!" The figure snaps. "There's no one out this far! Who could've been there to do such a thing?!" The two figures seem to explain something. "Whatever. That double-colored freak is out of our way, and that's all that matters."

'Double-colored freak'? Who in the world could he be talking about? I snap back to the scene when the figure pulls his sword out of the scabbard on his back. No way...

"Prepare the armies once you're finished with the Tower." The figure says, pulling his hood down. "Once we take the main Kingdom by surprise, there will be nothing stopping us from taking over."

The figure turns to look at something, and I see his face. My blood runs cold. He's just as horrifying as last I saw him, during the Age of Darkness, except now he has jagged scars on his head.

Shadow Sabre has returned, leading the Darkness.

—————————————————————————————————————

We're all outside, helping Dark adjust to his new bone replacement. It's now afternoon, and Dark has healed rapidly since this morning, because of the new crystals that have formed. I'm sitting on a rock next to the river, watching Rainbow help him keep his balance.

"Careful, buddy. Don't put too much pressure on it yet." He says, holding Dark upright. They start to step forward.

"I-I think I'm doing it!" Dark says, excitedly.

"Great! Keep going!"

He's been catching on with the whole 'crystallization' thing. At first, he wouldn't stop poking the new crystals that bunched up where his injury used to be, and freaked out a little when he discovered a tiny one on the back of his head. Once we calmed him down, he realized the one on his head was so he could hear me, as he noticed I could speak to him now. We're working on getting him used to walking with his new crystal bone.

"You're doing great, Dark!" I say to him. He looks at me and smiles.

After a while of that, the two take a break and sit next to me by the river.

"Thanks for taking a chance on me, guys." Dark says. "I don't know what I would've done if I hadn't stumbled in here."

"Aw, it's no problem, buddy!" Rainbow says. "We're just happy to have a new friend here!"

"We're runaways too, after all." I join in. Dark laughs.

"A trio of runaways. Who would've thought that'd be us?"

"I sure didn't, heh." Rainbow says, picking up a stick. He lights up for a second. "Hey, we're also a trio of zombies!" We laugh.

I join in the pun. "C'mon man, again with the zombie jokes? You gotta have something else in your brains!"

Rainbow smiles and does finger guns. "Eyyyy!" Dark giggles.

"Hey, that brain saved me from grave danger!"

We're all laughing so hard our sides hurt. Game on.

"We're all really knocking each other undead!" Rainbow falls over laughing.

We stay laughing for a while, then finally take a breath. Rainbow sits back up from laying in the dirt. For a while, we just admire our surroundings. Dark leans back against a tree.

"Man, day one of being alive again and I'm already dead tired."

Rainbow stifles a giggle between words. "You mean undead."

"Dang it, you two!" And we're laughing again.

We keep cracking jokes for hours. Pretty sure even the fish got tired of our cackling. Eventually, we stop, noticing the sun's setting colors painting the sky.

"We should head back inside before nighttime." Rainbow says, getting up from the rock he was sitting on. He helps me up, and the three of us head to the cave. Rainbow and I hear a growl behind us, and we turn around to see Dark looking embarrassed.

"Uh... s-sorry, that was me..."

Rainbow giggles. "It's okay, I guess 'cause of all the excitement today, we forgot to grab some food. C'mon."

Back inside, Rainbow is seeing what we have, while Dark and I are sitting at the middle of the cave. We've made Dark his own things, like a cushion to match the other two, and a hammock has been fastened to the ceiling for him.

"Alright, sooo..." Rainbow says. "We have cake, roast fish, and berries. Who votes on having what? I vote cake."

"We didn't get to have it this morning, so I vote cake too."

Dark looks curious. "I've never actually had cake before..."

Rainbow looks at him, surprised. "Cake it is, then. You're gonna love it."

Rainbow sits down at his spot, holding three slices of cake, and hands one to each of us. Dark just looks at his slice for a second, then hesitantly tries it. His face immediately lights up.

"Oh my goooosh..."

Rainbow smiles at him and just says, "Right?"

After finishing, we're discussing what to to about the current situation.

"No one else has found Shadow yet, I'm pretty sure." Dark says. "I don't really know, I'm not connected to the hive mind anymore."

Rainbow looks worried. "What are we gonna do if he finds us?"

"Well, we're all kind of part of the one thing that cures Darkness now."

Dark looks at me, confused. "We are?"

Rainbow facepalms. "Oh yeah, duh! The Crystal!"

"Ohhhh."

"I don't think he'll really be able to infect us."

Rainbow takes out a map he made of our cave and surrounding area, and takes out his charcoal pen.

"So, trap and battle plans?"

Me and Dark say at the same time, "Absolutely."

We plan out a fake floor trap in front of the river, a swinging hazard trap with the vines to the front of the cave, and a rolling logs trap to the left of the cave and list the materials we're going to need before we get tired.

"So, we'll get all the materials we need tomorrow then?" Rainbow asks, stifling a yawn.

"Mhm..." I'm already half asleep at this point.

Rainbow turns to Dark, as he didn't answer. "Dark, did you- Dark?"

He's falling asleep with his face in his hand. Rainbow taps his shoulder, and he bolts upright.

"Wh-what? Huh?"

"Did you hear me? I said we're going to gather the trap materials tomorrow."

"We really need to start going to bed at a normal hour." Having a bad sleep schedule is starting to get to us.

"Hard to do when we don't know what time it is." Rainbow says, standing up.

Dark gets up too. "I think we all just used a bit too much energy today."

"I guess you're right." I say, Rainbow puppeteering me to my feet. "Between you running for your life, Rainbow's use of lightning and crystallizing you, and my little freakout back there, that sounds like the best explanation."

Rainbow and Dark climb into their respective beds up top, while I shifted into my bottom bunk. Being closest to the lantern, Dark turns off the string of lights above us.

"'Night, guys." He says.

"G'night." Rainbow returns.

"'Night, you two."

Once again, at the wave of Rainbow's hand, I'm out cold.

—————————————————————————————————————

I didn't know what was happening, but I was surrounded by blue fire and a black sky. The ground below me was constantly shifting and changing, as if it were living. I was running in the forest like I was when I escaped my grave, but this time someone was chasing me. I dodged a sword that flew by my head, and made a sharp turn left. As I was running, I heard the person behind me speak.

"You can't run forever, Sabre. Either they find you, or I do. It's going to happen sooner or later."

Why did it sound like me? I kept running. Eventually, I found the place me and Rainbow hid and ran inside, but I was met with a cliff below me instead of a cave. I stopped just before I slid off the edge. What do I do? At that moment, I felt someone push me off. I tried to see who it was as I fell, but I was met with a blank face. At the place I thought the ground would be, I was instead plunged deep into a cold, dark body of water. Trying to swim up, I felt hands dragging me into the depths. Trying to fight them was useless. As I was taken further into the water, I started hearing voices. No, not voices.

Screams.

Screams of so many people, either begging not to be killed or just screaming in pure terror. I covered my ears, trying to drown them out the same way I was being drowned. I close my eyes, and the screaming suddenly stops. I open them again to see the temple where it all began, and where it all ended. Void was there, about to pull the lever connected to the machine Rainbow was in. I tried to run to stop him, but was stuck in place by something. I look down to see that  crystals were climb up my body, encasing it. I tried to fight it, break them off, anything, but I couldn't do it. The crystal only started encasing me faster. The last thing I saw before I was completely covered was Void's wicked smile as he pulled the lever. Unable to see anything, I felt as if I was back in that abyss, floating in an empty space. Someone, that same person that was chasing me, spoke.

"It's only a matter of time, Sabre."

I tried to move, but I couldn't. Suddenly, I heard another voice.

"Sabre! Sabre, come on!"

Rainbow?

"SABRE!"

Next thing I knew, I was being shaken awake. I'm on the ground in front of the bunk beds, back in the cave. Rainbow is lifting my head off the ground, Dark by his side. Tears are running down my face.

"Sabre! Oh, thank goodness!" Rainbow says, sitting me upright. "Y-you were talking in your sleep, a-and you fell off the bed..."

"You started yelling." Dark said, worry crossing his face. "Were you having a nightmare?"

I'm able to nod. Looks like the adrenaline hasn't worn off quite yet. Dark looks at me solemnly.

"...Was it Shadow?"

I nod again. I'm pretty sure that's who the person chasing me was. I look over to Rainbow, and he looks furious.

"I swear, I'm gonna kill him." He says, looking at the ground. I try speaking while I'm still able to move.

"Y-you and... m-me... b-both." I manage. Rainbow lifts me onto the edge of my bed.

"Don't push yourself, Sabre. That nightmare was already a lot."

Dark stands and goes to turn on the lights, while Rainbow picks up my blanket and wraps it around my shoulders. He looks me in the eye for a moment, then starts crying and gives me a hug.

"You scared us so bad, buddy..."

I try to return the hug, but the adrenaline has worn off and I can't move anymore. The lights turn on, and Dark climbs back down and leans against the wall next to us.

"You... wanna talk about it?"

"Not really..."

"Okay."

Dark silently walks over and joins the hug. We stay like that for a while. Then, Rainbow sits up and wipes his face.

"You know I'm gonna be here for you this time, right?" He says, holding back more tears.

"Me, too." Dark says, also letting go.

"...Yeah. Thanks for that, guys."

We go back to bed in silence. Dark turns off the lights again, and I notice that this time he's watching me for some reason. Probably to make sure I'm alright. As Rainbow waves his hand, I hear a mental conversation between them that I'm sure I wasn't supposed to eavesdrop on.

"Are you gonna make sure he falls asleep okay?"

"Yeah. That nightmare he had must've been really traumatic."

"...Maybe you should hang back with him tomorrow while I gather trap materials. After all, I'm pretty sure he pushed himself a little far just now, and you're still healing anyway. Are you okay with that?"

"Sure. Just be careful while you're out there, okay? I don't want either of you getting attacked like I did, and being alone out there could easily make you a target."

"I will. 'Night, Dark."

"'Night, Rainbow."

As I drift off again, I feel bad about what just happened. They shouldn't have to worry about me so much, and Rainbow's already done a lot for me. He shouldn't feel like he has to go alone because he's worried about me. If it wasn't for this stupid paralysis, there would be a whole lot less problems right now. I'm starting to feel like I'm being dead weight in the group.

Heh, I guess I mean undead.