I hope you enjoy this chapter! A lot goes down today folks eheheheh >:]
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Sabre looks at M, "I think I misheard you, did you say the crystal DISAPPEARED?!"
"I.. no, you heard me right. I know where it went though?" M is panicking, not knowing how to feel about.. this. He looks down to his green and blue hands again, laughing nervously.
"Well, where is it then? We need the crystal—"
"Alright, Sabre look!" He takes his hood off, and puts his hands in front of his face. "I don't know what I'm going to do, Sabre! What do I do?!" He starts pacing. "The leaders are not gonna be happy with this, especially with how the last Hero turned out!"
Sabre stands there, staring at M, speechless. "M.. what exactly just happened?" M ignores him, and keeps pacing back and forth. Sabre steps forward and blocks M's path. "You need to calm down." He pulls M into an embrace, holding him tight. "I need to know what happened, buddy."
M calms down a bit, hugging Sabre back gently. "I-It glowed and then," he takes a deep breath, "and then it just started emitting strong energy and then the lightning and then it disappeared and then my hands turned blue and green and—"
Sabre cuts him off. "It's gonna be alright, M."
Shadow is standing off to the side, not knowing what to do in the moment. "This.. was unexpected." He said, deciding to stay out of the way though, that sick feeling he keeps having returns.
Sabre looks over to Shadow, seeing a conflicted look on his face. He ignores it for now, deeming M more important in the moment. "S-Sabre what are we gonna—"
There's a knock on the door, and then it opens. M quickly pulls his hood up, thankfully before whoever walked in saw him. Light Steve walks in, as do the rest of the leaders. M pushes away from Sabre reluctantly, "What's wrong?"
Light Steve looks him dead in the eyes, somehow. "We heard lightning, are you guys okay?" The leaders walk into the crystal room, and M panics even more.
The two cloaked figures walk in behind them, and they instantly run up to M. "Are you alright, my apprentice?!" Cherry asks, not concerned over the title at the moment, and hugs M.
"I-I'm fine, you can let go of me—" The Professor grabs one of M's hands, and gasps. M jerks it away, and hides both of his hands. "I- uhm-"
Cherry lets go of M, "Professor?"
The Professor grabs M's hand again, holding it out and pushing the sleeve up. "I KNEW IT!"
Cherry stares at M'a hand, confused beyond belief. "What.."
The other leaders audibly gasp, Violet holding is hands to his mouth. Orange holds himself up by the door, but he's also confused.
Sabre steps in front of M. "It wasn't intentional, I swear—"
Light Steve shakes his head. "What.. happened..?" He asks, though it sounds strained. He's in denial.
"Okay listen- I wanted to separate the crystals and give them back to the leaders, but I gave it to M so he could hold it while I made a machine or something to do it and- and then this happened.." Sabre explains, pulling M into another hug. He gladly accepts, and lets Sabre take his hood off as well. The leaders are shocked, that much is obvious. Orange Leader pushes himself away from the door, while Violet Leader removes his hands from his mouth.
Yellow takes a step forward. "As.. as long as you don't end up like the last one, him, I won't have a problem with you."
M looks over to him. "Thank you.."
The Yellow Leader gasps, and M looks at Sabre. Then Sabre noticed. M's eyes were now red, yellow, and dark green. Not that one of his eyes is one color, no, both of his eyes are a mix of the three. Sabre wonders what that means. The other leaders agree with Yellow, unable to really see M's face at the moment. Sabre looks back to the leaders, "What do we do about.. this? It's not like we can just.. hide him, can we?"
M pulls away from Sabre, and faces the leaders. "If you want to hide me, I've been hiding my whole life, nothing will change." He says, looking down. He grips his sleeve and pulls it back down, still shaking a little bit. "I didn't mean for this to happen, I don't even know why it did."
'You are the new Hero.'
'You were chosen..'
M jerks his head up and looks around. Sabre puts a hand on M's shoulder, "Whether we hide him or not, he can still help us. Until we figure out how to.. remove the crystals without hurting him, he'll be our crystal. If he's sane enough." M looks at Sabre, seeing a stern look. Sabre didn't hear that, did he? He's always been kind of terrifying, though, especially you not being able to see his eyes. Sabre looks at him as well, and smiles softly. He lowers his voice, "It's alright, M."
M nods, "I agree.. i-if you want to hide me that fine, but I can still help." He looks towards the leaders, and smiles nervously. Never in his whole life would he have thought he'd become the Hero.
Violet Leader takes a deep breath, and lets it out. "It's not my choice to hide you, but if and when you do help, everyone will know anyways. I'm fine with this, as long as you don't turn out the same as the other two." He says, looking around to the other leaders. They all nod, or say they agree.
Cherry sighs, a brings a hand to his face. "I'm.. I did not expect this, but if you do help, I agree with the Violet Leader, they will know anyways. I think it's best you reveal.. this as soon as you can." He puts a hand on M's shoulder. "This means you won't be home in a while, doesn't it?"
M nods. "I guess so.." He looks down. "Leader, what are you gonna do? If I'm like this.."
Cherry is about to respond, but Light Steve speaks first. "Leader? What do you mean, 'leader'?" He asks, crossing his arms.
Cherry pats M's head, "Don't worry about that right now, Keeper of Light. Let's go back to the meeting room." Light Steve nods, ignoring the name Cherry used, and ushers everyone out. Sabre is the last out, closing the door behind him once again. They all walk back upstairs into the meeting room.
Everyone sits down, or stands, while Sabre remembers something. "I don't know if everyone was brought back—"
He's cut of once again by lightning, and Time Steve appears in the middle of the room. At the same time, Green Leader walks up the stairs. "I heard lightning twice now, what—" Time Steve then falls over, either exhausted or hurt. The Green Leader hands something to Orange, and rushes to Time's side. "Dear Origin, what happened to him?!"
M runs over to him as well, "I think it was Elemental, he was the last person with him!" Green Leader looks at him, but ignores the fact he's now the Hero. Time Steve needs help.
"Somebody take him to my quarters, I'll get my best healers!" He runs down the stairs, leaving everyone else panicking.
M, or Rainbow Steve, picks Time up. "Let's go." He carries Time Steve downstairs, and there are now Colorless Guards roaming around. They don't seem to notice him though, or care. M carries Time Steve to Green Leader's quarters, with Sabre and the other leaders behind him. The Green Leader is already waiting for them, with a few other Green Steves, and they take Time Steve from him.
Green Leader walks inside, "We'll make sure he's alright, I promise." He then closes the door, leaving the other leaders, Sabre, M, Cherry, and the Professor standing outside.
Shadow is there as well, and he's feeling that sick feeling. It hasn't gone away, but he's not mentioned it to Sabre.
Violet Leader lays a hand on M's shoulder. "Would you like me to call a kingdom wide meeting, to reveal you?" He asks, smiling a bit. "We can wait if you'd like, though."
M thinks for a moment. He's now very worried, for Time, and that stress would not be good in a public setting. "I.. can we wait a little bit?"
Violet Leader nods, "Of course. Let us go back into the meeting room, we have more privacy there."
They all walk back up to the meeting room, and Cherry suddenly feels weird. The leaders sit back down in their chairs, minus Green of course. Cherry then looks to Sabre, "May I speak with you, alone? Sabre?"
Sabre nods slowly, "Uh.. yeah. Sure?" The two of them go back down the stairs, and walk out to stand on the balcony. "What is it?"
(Quick note, I know it's not a balcony, I just don't know what to call it- if anyone knows please lemme know lmao)
The Red Leader sighs, looking over the edge, staring down at the kingdom. "My apprentice, M, or.. Rainbow Steve now. He.. look, we knew The First and Second Heroes."
"What?!"
"Listen, I knew The Second Hero personally, and we didn't really talk all that much. He didn't like me, I could tell. We didn't really get along.. I'm assuming he thought I was trying to steal his friends or something. Anyways.. I knew Void, before he became Void." He looks at Sabre for a moment. "Did you meet The Second Hero? Or.. the projection we sent to The World Beyond?"
Sabre thinks for a moment. "I met.. yeah. I did, but there was this.. really old looking Red Steve there too, he said he knew The First Hero—"
"Are you being serious? If.. if that's true, then he did make it to The World Beyond.." The Red Leader, now Cherry, looks back down to the kingdom.
"So.. you mean to tell me I met two people, the same person, but one of them was fake?" Sabre asks, curious at this point.
"I assume so, yes." Cherry turns around, hearing footsteps. "Professor, Rainbow Steve."
Rainbow Steve walks to the edge of the balcony next to them. "You know you don't need to call me that, right? I'm still me.."
Professor Red takes out his fish again, and without taking his hood off, he puts it on his head.
"Professor, why do you do that—"
"Science."
"Okay, I'm just gonna ignore you now man." Sabre shakes his head, and looks back at Cherry. "Can you uh, explain what you meant by that? Cherry?"
"I'm never going to get used to that name.. but yes. The Professor could explain it better, if I'm being honest. I wasn't there when he made the.. clone." Cherry looks at Professor Red, "Explain it to him, please."
Professor Red takes the fish off of his head, and puts it away. He sighs, "I.. after he defeated Seer— er.. Void, the leaders wanted their crystals back. Because.. well.. they were important. For good reason." He looks down, as tears threaten to fall down his face.
"Why.. uhm, why were they so important?" Sabre asks, as Shadow walks up behind the Professor. He still feels sick.
"Well.. the most powerful of that chromatic created—" He shakes his head, "no, became the crystals. They were.. are very important to us."
Sabre ignores Shadow, and looks away from the Professor. "Oh.."
"Anyways.. because of that, he, The Second Hero, he had to separate himself from the crystals. He uh.. didn't think he'd make it to The World Beyond, so we made a clone.. of sorts. To send there, if anyone needed him." The Professor walks up next to Sabre, and leans over the blocks on the edge. "Good thing we did, you spoke to him apparently."
Cherry hums, "He might have made it there, according to what Sabre is saying."
This makes the Professor snap his head back up. "Really..?"
"Yeah."
Sabre looks down, "I.. understand why the other leaders are upset, with M. He.. well, The First Hero was a Blue Steve, and the last was Orange. The Second Hero was a Red Steve.."
Rainbow Steve looks at Sabre. "What are you getting at?"
"The only Hero that was said to not have fallen to the Darkness- or.. just to evil in general, was a Red Steve. I know this is per individual but I think it makes sense—"
"I agree," Cherry says. "My apprentice, you are just like The Second Hero."
Professor Red nods, "He always wanted to explore outside the kingdom instead of staying there all his life. He did. He saved so many steves way before he even knew the Hero was a thing. Way before.. the Demon Steve war."
Sabre snaps his head around to face the Professor. "Hold up, there was an entire war-?!"
"Yes, there was. There were many.. casualties. Way too many.. but we sort of won. We had an era of peace for quite some time." The Professor states, looking down at his hands. "Of course that was until Seer- Void.. made that prophecy."
"Until I came into this world." Sabre says, looking back out towards the kingdom. The sun is about to set.
"It wasn't your fault, Sabre.." Rainbow Steve puts a hand on his shoulder. "Everyone was fooled. Even us."
"Especially us." The Red Leader corrects him. "I should have known.. but he would have found a way out of the void eventually."
Sabre agrees, "I'm glad I could be here.. you know?"
Rainbow Steve nods, "Now.. you wanna tell us about that even stronger sword you supposedly absorbed before you came into this world?"
"WELL-"
~Time Skip~
Sabre, Rainbow Steve, and the Red Steves walk into the Green Leader's quarters. "He should be waking up soon, he was quite beaten up.."
Sabre nods, "Last we saw him he was with Elemental.. and he was mad. Is he gonna be alright?"
"Yes, he should recover from this rather quickly." Green Leader says. The other Green Steves had already left, leaving the five of them alone. Well.. technically six, but Shadow isn't feeling the greatest, and he's not visible, so he doesn't count. He's sitting outside the door.
Sabre sighs, sitting in a chair next to the bed Time Steve is laying on. "Let's hope he does.."
Rainbow Steve stands next to Sabre with a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sure he will, it's alright."
Sabre lays his head on the bed. "Yeah.."
Green Leader walks to the door. "Let me know when he wakes up, if he does while you're here. I'm going to talk with the other leaders." He opens the door, walks out, and closes it behind him.
They sit there for a couple of hours, talking quietly. Sabre doesn't move from his place, though he does sit up after a while. That position is not good on your back. Shadow had come into the room and is now sitting against the wall, in the corner. M, or Rainbow Steve, was now sitting by the door. Cherry and the Professor were sitting in chairs across the room from Sabre.
Sabre lays his head back on the bed, worried that his friend won't wake up. The second he did so, Time Steve had groaned, starting to wake up. Sabre stands up, almost in tears. The amount of pain he must have been in was beyond him. He had burn marks, bruises, cuts, scratches, and the Green Leader even said he had coughed up water. Sabre was past being mad at Elemental, he knew he had done something. He was furious, but Time Steve was of importance right now.
Time Steve sits up quickly, and holds his hands to his face. "Ow.." He leans back down, and removes his hands. "Sabre..?"
Sabre smiles, letting out a small laugh. He's relieved to say the least. He sits back down, "You feeling alright? You kinda passed out earlier.."
Time Steve groans. "I'm.. feeling much better. How long was I out?"
"Few hours. We were worried you wouldn't wake up." Rainbow Steve says, standing up and walking back over next to Sabre. Time Steve looks up at him, and freezes. He almost thinks that the Orange Steve had come back to life, but he notices the color in his eyes and calms down. It couldn't be the same one. His eyes were red, weren't they?
"Who.. who are you?" He starts coughing a bit as he sits up once more. Sabre places a hand on his back.
"I'm.. well, I'm M. It's.. a story for another time." He says.
Time Steve laughs a bit. "Ahah.. time."
M smiles, "Should I go and get the Green Leader, then?" He looks at Sabre.
Sabre nods, looking at him. "Yeah, he asked us to tell him when he woke up."
M walks over to the door. "I'll be back shortly." He says, opening the door and walking out. The door doesn't close completely as he leaves, but it's close enough to be considered closed.
Sabre looks back at Time. "It was Elemental, wasn't it?" Time Steve nods at this. "How did you.. get here, then?"
"Well.." He starts coughing again.
"Don't worry about telling me right now, we can talk about it later, okay? We should make sure you're alright first." Sabre moved his hand, and gestures Time to lay back down. "Maybe just lay down, you are still hurt. Not being a chromatic means the Green Steves' healing doesn't work as well."
Time Steve lays back down, despite not wanting to. "Yeah.."
M returns with the Green Leader shortly. The Green Leader walks over to Time Steve. "How are you feeling, comrade?"
Time Steve brings a hand to his forehead. "Not the best, but better than I was." He responds.
While they converse, M gestures Sabre to come with him. Curious, he follows M back up to the balcony.
(It's still not a balcony but whatever-)
"You alright, M?" Sabre asks, leaning on the blocks in place to keep him from falling over the edge. "You look a bit conflicted man."
"It's hot out here, and this cloak is not helping." He says, "I'm taking it off."
"That's all you wanted to talk about?"
M shakes his head. "No, not all. I.. sort of knew The Second Hero as well. I just.. wasn't as social back then as I am now, I guess. Being forced into isolation changes people, depending on who they are, in different ways."
Sabre nods. "Yeah, that's absolutely true."
"I don't know much about him, but I do know what his name was."
"He had an actual name?"
"Yeah, his name was Colle."
"You mean like the fuel?"
"No, that was short, his name was Collector, but everyone called him Colle."
"Oh that actually makes sense."
M pats him on the shoulder and teleports away, leaving Sabre even more confused.
M had teleported to his house, to drop off the cloak. He walks inside, and Assistant Steve is standing next to the carpet. The carpet I turned over. "Oh heyyyyyyy Assistant-"
"Red Apprentice?"
"Ahah- heyyyy buddy" M closes the door behind him. "What are you doing in my house?"
"The entire kingdom has gone missing."
"Oh that, uhm- well they're not gonna be back for a little while.. the leader and the Professor are safe though, that's good right?" He moves toward his chest, taking his cloak off.
"Why have you become more colorful?"
"Touched the crystal and it made me absorb it." He looks down at himself, seeing there is more red on him than there should be. "Well that's just great, it's gonna be extremely obvious now." He puts the cloak in the chest and closes it.
Assistant Steve moves the carpet back, covering the hole in the floor. "You have not come back for food, have you?"
"Nope, sorry. I mean you can come with me if you want, but I'd assume you want to protect the kingdom."
"You are correct."
M walks back to the door, "Well I'll be off then, I can't leave them alone." He says, opening the door. "Don't stay in my house, that's creepy."
"Goodbye, Red Apprentice."
M walks outside. "Yup. Goodbye, Assistant. I'll tell Professor Red you broke into my house, he'll be proud."
Assistant Steve then puts a fish on his head.
"Not the fish thing too.." He shakes his head. "I'm off, see you later."
Assistant Steve walks outside as well, closing the door behind him. He runs into the forest, probably towards the kingdom.
M teleports back to where he left Sabre. He's still there, but now the Professor and Cherry are as well. "Oh heyyyy-"
"M, where did you go?!" Sabre looks at him, "Oh you- oh wow." Sabre takes a good look at him. M tilts his head in confusion.
He looks completely different, but exactly the same. He looks like the Hero, yes, but his eyes are now mixed swirls of dark green, yellow, and red. His clothes are rainbow, yes, but there are many small details. Little symbols, all of them are red. He even has wings, somehow. Sabre assumes they're for flying, as the last Rainbow Steve had them as well. Though his were orange and yellow, and pretty small, M's were much larger. They were red with a golden color instead. They were feathered as well, not skinned. The last Hero's wings were much like a bat's, while M's were more like a parrot's. The feathers at the top were yellow and dark green. Sabre still doesn't understand those colors.
"Yeah I know, I look weird, get over it." M says, crossing his arms. "Oh yeah! Speaking of weird, Professor, Assistant Steve broke into my house and then proceeded to wait for me there, for who knows how long. He even got a fish—"
At the mention of a fish, the Professor pulls out three fish. He balances one on his head while holding the other two in each of his hands.
"Of course.." M shakes his head. "Anyways, what do we do now? Actually, maybe we should see if Time is alright."
Sabre agrees. "If he's feeling any better, maybe he can explain what exactly happened. Then we can explain you." He says, and smiles.
"Yeah, come on."
The two of them walk back down to the Green Leader's quarters. Cherry and the Professor walk up to the meeting room instead. As they enter, Light Steve greets them.
Sabre knocks on the door, and Green Leader opens it. "Ah, I was wondering when you'd be back. Time Steve is feeling much better, it may have only been a few minutes but he says he sped up the process. I doubt that's good on him but he says it's fine.." He lets them in.
Time Steve is sitting on the edge of the bed, his legs hanging off of it. "May I ask what happened to him?" Time Steve asks, looking at Rainbow Steve.
Sabre walks over to him, "After we know what happened to you. Think you can talk about it?" He asks, sitting back down in the chair.
"Uhm.. yeah, I can." He shifts uncomfortably, sighing. "Elemental was very upset with me, he even went to the extent of hurting me, as you can see. He tried locking me up as well. I had knocked him out, and somehow teleported away. I'm not sure exactly how, but I'm glad I did. If I hadn't, who knows what would have happened."
Sabre puts one of his hands over Time's. "He's gonna try and find you, but you're safe here. Okay? I ain't letting him hurt you any more than he has."
Time Steve smiles, "Thank you, Sabre. Now.. explain him, please?" He looks at M.
Sabre laughs nervously. "I wanted to separate the original crystals from the rainbow crystal so I handed it to M so I could make a machine, and it kind of fused with him on contact—"
"Oh."
"Yeahh.. that happened."
"Those things erased my memories of him, right?"
"Pretty sure they had, yes."
"You've found a way to repel them, it seems."
"How can you tell?"
"I'm starting to remember him."
"Well that checks out I guess." Sabre looks over to the Green Leader. "You think he'll be able to leave here soon?"
"He seems fine to me so far, but I'd like him to stay a little while so I can be sure."
Sabre then remembers it was now morning. They'd been up all night. "Would you like him to stay here specifically, or what?"
"Preferably, yes. For now."
"Alright then. Is it alright if we stay or do you want us to go?" Sabre asks, looking over to Shadow. He's acting weird, not taunting him at all. He'll have to ask about that later.
"That's your choice, if you'd like to stay then stay. I'll be going to Violet Leader's quarters, bye." He opens the door and leaves the room quickly, leaving the three of them alone. He hadn't closed the door, and Shadow had walked out.
Sabre stands up. "I'm gonna go outside or something, I'll be back in a bit." They bid their goodbyes for now, and Sabre follows Shadow. He had walked outside, to Sabre's house. Shadow turns around, seemingly wanting Sabre to open the door for him. He's unable to interact with things, unfortunately. Sabre opens the door and Shadow bolts inside. "What was that for?!" Sabre asks, walking inside and closing the door behind him.
"Don't worry about it." Shadow runs up the stairs and sits on Sabre's bed, contemplating his life.
Sabre rolls his eyes and follows him. "What are you doing?"
"I'm.. not feeling well. I have this sudden urge to help you, and I hate it." He says, laying down now.
Sabre sits on the bed next to him. "That's bad, you must be really sick." He jokes, looking at Shadow. "Are you serious? What, me absorbing the sword made you a good guy?"
Shadow just raises his arms over his face.
"Wait.. if I absorbed the sword, and now I control it completely, then.. holy cheezus you are serious."
Shadow looks up at him. "I.. didn't know how to feel about this, but I might be able to deal with it." He smiles a genuine smile, and Sabre smiles back.
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And that's chapter four! I made it a bit longer, so I hope you enjoyed! Chapter five won't be out for a bit, most likely. I'll be trying to have it out as soon as possible though!
As always, if you catch any spelling or grammar mistakes, let me know!
~Voilaxy Out~