"You two stay here." Sabre closed the door behind him, silently hoping neither of them would do any dumb, life-threatening things that would make Sabre feel feelings, like they so obviously loved to do.
Sabre glanced around wearily for the source of the explosion. In the distance, trees were burning, explosion after explosion further destroying the forest. In the sky, a dark figure threw fireballs down. Sabre groaned. Did this guy ever take a break from being a world class petty jerk?
"Hey!!" Sabre shouted to Dark Steve. The Steve smirked up in the air and flew down to Sabre's level, floating a few feet above him.
"Well well well. I've found you." Dark grinned. Sabre really hadn't yet gotten used to Steves speaking to him. Hearing Rainbow utter words from time to time made him almost happy, but it was creepy when Dark did it.
"Yeah," Sabre glared. "Why can't you just leave us alone? And what's with the deforestation, man? What's the point?"
Dark shrugged. "It's ugly. And the roots trip me lots. Gross."
"So you're petty."
"I am NOT petty." Dark crossed his arms. He looked pretty pissed, and petty. It probably wouldn't be wise to push this, but Sabre was pissed too.
"You're incredibly petty. You're chasing Rainbow and Light for no reason!!"
"They suck!! I'm totally justified!"
Sabre set his jaw and turned away. "Leave them alone. They aren't strong enough to fight you, anyway."
"That's the point." Dark grinned. And then a fireball zoomed past Sabre.
Sabre's skin burned from the close proximity. He nearly tripped onto the ground, but regained his footing as Dark flew towards Rainbow's house, firing anywhere and everywhere. Sabre didn't waste any time running after him.
"Hey!! Leave them alone!!" Sabre wasn't anywhere close to catching up. Dark was only a hundred or so blocks away from the house; in just a few seconds, those explosions would hit the house. "Seriously, man!! They didn't do anything! Please!!" Sabre found himself nearly begging. If Dark heard him at all, he ignored him.
A fireball struck Rainbow's beautiful garden, burning the flowers seconds before the ground broke beneath it. Another fireball hit the ground at the doorstep of the rainbow colored house, throwing the door off its hinges and sending it flying into the house. Sabre's heart seemed to beat faster.
There was a merciless flurry of fireballs sent onto the house, and Sabre stopped in his tracks, watching, horrified. He was frozen in place; he felt the cold of the cave again, the helplessness, the inability to do anything.
Light and Rainbow were in there.
He told them to stay.
This was his fault. If- if he just told them to run, maybe-
"You done sulking?" Dark's voice came from above him, giving him a rude awakening back to the world. The house was absolutely demolished, barely anything left aside from burning wool and planks. Sabre looked up at Dark, glaring.
"Ah, welcome back." Dark gave him a thin smile, landing on the ground. He walked forward to Sabre, grabbing his shoulders. "Hurts, doesn't it? Destroys you from the inside, huh?"
Sabre shook Dark off him and punched him in the face. Dark almost fell to the ground before flying up a bit, clutching his face with a wild grin. "Aw, I didn't think you had it in you!"
"You're a monster." Sabre glared.
"Yes I am!" Dark stretched out in the air, mockingly relaxing midair. "Glad you put that together."
Dark yawned triumphantly, like he won everything. "I'd like to thank you, chicken man. Rainbow's been on my hit-list for a while, and you even made me an extra morsel! So kind of you."
"Leave me alone." Sabre fell to the ground, barely aware of the sound of fire crackling.
Dark shrugged. "Well, I have no reason to kill you. You're powerless without your little friends, huh? Unfortunately for you, you can't 'machine' me to death." Dark chuckled to himself, sticking his tongue out. Sabre ignored it.
"Well, I suppose I'll leave you. I have a very busy schedule, after all." Dark smirked and flew off, vanishing into the air.
Sabre sat there indefinitely, unaware of what to feel or how to feel it. The earth felt like it could swallow him up, and Sabre wouldn't care. The sound of the fire eating away at what was left mocked him. His chest ached, and whatever his heart was feeling, his brain didn't understand.
His fingernails dug into the cold dirt. He contemplated for a second getting up and searching the wreckage- no, that'd make it worse. So much worse. With the intensity of the damage, there was no possibility of anything being salvageable. Or anyone.
Then there was a hand on his shoulder. "Go away, Dark." Sabre muttered. He shrugged the hand off, but it returned, practically grabbing him this time.
"What could you possibly want?!" Sabre turned around, ready to throw another punch, only to be met with Rainbow's face, and Light next to him. Sabre nearly had a heart attack. He was dreaming, right? God, what was this whole thing, if not a weird dream?
Rainbow nudged Light a little, whispering something to him. Light grinned and ran up to embrace Sabre like he'd been waiting to do so for a while. Sabre didn't even know how to return the hug; he sat there, unable to process this.
Slowly, Sabre did reach around to pat Light on the back, then leaned into the hug. "Fuck." He choked out. Were those tears in his eyes? He'd never know—they disappeared into the fabric of his blindfold far too fast for Sabre to register them.
When he looked up, he saw Rainbow frowning at him disapprovingly. Sabre wondered what he had done wrong for a second before he realized he had swore. "Ah. Sorry..." he mumbled.
"How-? I saw the house go down. You guys were in there. How?" Sabre asked demandingly. Light looked at him like a confused puppy. Rainbow didn't answer for a bit before caving.
"We left." He whispered, saying very little and offering a lot up to imagination. Sabre assumed that would be the best explanation he'd get. "It was his idea." Rainbow added softly, pointing at Light.
Light pulled away from the hug to lean in towards Rainbow's ear, whispering something in a language Sabre didn't understand. Rainbow responded back in the same strange language, frowning a little with a raised eyebrow. Light nodded insistently and Rainbow sighed.
Rainbow stepped forward, looking a bit sheepish. "Light says...Light says he wants to get stronger." Rainbow mumbled, his voice nothing above a whisper. He still wasn't comfortable with speaking to Sabre much, which he respected. If anything, he was thankful enough to hear that voice at all, or just see his face.
"We can do that." Sabre said, his voice a little strained.
If he was honest, he already had thoughts in his head, spinning around like a hamster wheel. His mind was always on autopilot, always thinking of combinations and codes and ideas, things he could bring into the world through a silly little machine. He already had enough ideas, but none of them were too agreeable, and he knew that 'machines' were already an automatic no for Rainbow.
Still, Dark Steve had to be defeated. The two Steves could never live peacefully if he was constantly about. Heck, Sabre couldn't live peacefully—even if Dark showed no real desire to hurt him physically, the idea of losing Rainbow and Light...that hurt him in ways a punch to the gut just couldn't.
"I have an idea, actually," Sabre whispered. "Don't think either of you will be a fan, though."
Chapter 9 - an Almost Death
Start from the beginning
