(IMPORTANT UPDATE) vanished (airy x reader)

side chapter 1

i really didnt want to have to make this author's note because i try to just leave people be to do whatever they want but i need to make it clear that i do not and will never welcome proshippers to this community. i cant stop you from reading or interacting with me aside from a respectful "please dont", but i'm making it known here that i'm generally not okay with it.

i have trauma from proshippers and the like and am not comfortable interacting with them or being interacted with, but i recognize that i can't stop you from reading my stuff anyways. i see some of my readers supporting that content here and elsewhere and frankly i'm a little disappointed. you know who you are. thanks for reading this fic.

also, since liam will probably show up to airy's location in later chapters, i miiiight make this a liam x reader as well as an airy x reader? i haven't decided yet. it won't really be in a love triangle way but i'll figure out how to make it work. if you're reading this author's note i wish to ask for your input on the matter

The contestants all sat in stunned silence as Airy's scream rang out across the plane, accompanied by a sickening crack.

Liam was mute, mouth dry from nerves. What had happened? Was this going to delay the elimination? Would he even get home at all?

Amelia, who was sitting next to him, gave his hand a tight squeeze. Her face was pale. She was as worried as he was.

What none of them were expecting was another voice to come to his aid.

"Airy?!" The voice yelled, voice echoing and tinny, a much lower quality than their host. They seemed to be further away. Airy's response was too quiet to hear. "Oh my gosh...oh gosh...wh-what happened to you?!"

Liam was at a loss. Who the hell was that? Someone else who was here to torture them? Had they also been kidnapped? Or were they a willing accomplice in Airy's schemes?

The voices grew quieter, reduced to murmurs as the pair of footsteps padded further away. The contestants were left alone.

Circle was the first one to break the silence. "...What...was that?"

"I...I don't know!" Amelia was growing steadily more freaked out. Liam shifted a little closer to her, still too shocked to speak. "Where did Airy go?"

"The elimination." Liam mumbled. He was staring blankly at the ground. His voice was brittle.

Everyone stopped and stared at him.

Liam's mind had become a fog, twisting and turning and tunneling into the only thing he could think about. The elimination.

He couldn't go home. He can't leave without Airy.

"Liam..." Amelia's voice sounded far away. He barely registered as she placed a hand on his arm.

The backpack was off in a world of his own, in a dizzying miasma created by the harsh buzz of the artificial sun, unable to comprehend what was happening. He'd throw up if he had anything to do so with.

"There was someone else there." Charlotte broke in. Her voice was flat. "Someone else was with him."

"That person could be in danger! I— we have to help them!" Amelia's voice was full of an urgent conviction.

"And how do you propose we do that? We can't even leave this place, much less even see who's out there!" Charlotte retorted pointedly.

Liam turned the possibilities over in his head. Someone else was here.

Someone who could be just like them.

Maybe they'd also been kidnapped. Or maybe they were like Airy, a megalomaniac god with no concern for their subjects.

Or maybe they still held some humanity, the ability to be reasoned with.

They didn't sound like Airy, no, their voice was alive with empathy and concern. Empathy for his and the other contestants' captor. Liam didn't stop to consider that they perhaps didn't realize the full extent of what was going on.

Something inside him flipped like a switch, the inner scared animal of his mind clawing its way to the surface, purging the world into stark black and white thinking.

Someone who cared for Airy, but not them. Not him. Someone who was unaware of the damage being caused, or perhaps willfully ignorant.

Thinking about it made his blood boil.