AU: Phantasmal Friends

Context: When someone tries to cause harm to Sabre, the ghostly Sky People obviously aren't very happy. Now if someone were to try to kill him...

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[3rd Person POV]

Sabre stood in a staredown with the Nightmare King himself, the entirety of the Orange Village in danger.

Orange Steve hid a few houses down from them, while the rest of the Village was all huddled together in front of the Leader's house, Dark Steve and a few Darkness keeping them in line. The Orange Leader watched as Sabre conversed with Nightmare.

He couldn't let them get hurt. He just couldn't, they had treated him so nicely and were as friendly to the Sky People as they were to them. But what Nightmare was asking for was impossible; The only probable reason he's immune to the Darkness' corruption was because he was half-dead. And it's not like Nightmare could recreate what had happened to him, even if he had somehow found enough willing souls to each carry a piece of his.

Sabre took a deep breath, preparing himself for anything.

"I'm sorry Nightmare, but what you're asking for is something I can't give." He replies, the twisted king's expression quickly turning to anger. "Not even I really know how my immunity really works, and even if I'm guessing correctly, it can't just be... given. I have no control over it at all."

Nightmare just grits his teeth for a moment, giving Sabre a death stare. He finally responds after a minute.

"Then you no longer have any use to me." He says in a low, furious voice.

Before anyone could react, Nightmare raises a hand, and Sabre recognizes what he's about to do. However, he doesn't move.

"Farewell, Sabre."

Nightmare calls lightning down upon him in the blink of an eye, grinning. Sabre didn't scream as he felt the jolt through his body, or even speak. He simply fell to the ground as the electricity dissipated, the Orange Steves watching in horror.

"Sabre!"

Orange Steve suddenly runs out from his hiding spot, but two Darkness block his path. He stops, staring at the spot where his friend had fallen. Sabre lay still.

"How foolish, to oppose me..." The Nightmare King mumbles, then turns to Dark. "Gather the hostages, then-"

He stops mid-sentence as a crack seems to echo in the air.

Turning around, Nightmare looks for anything that could have caused the noise, until his eyes fall on Sabre's body. It's still not moving, but... wasn't his hand different before?

Seconds later, another crack sounds as Sabre's body twitches. Then again. And one more time, faster than before.

His arm moves and braces against the stone pathway, the other doing the same as Sabre picks himself up off the ground and stands, then turns to Nightmare. Nightmare is frozen in shock, not expecting the enemy he thought was dead to just... get back up. Dark looks scared as well, having backed away from the Orange Steves.

Then, Sabre simply smiles at Nightmare.

"See, something I should have mentioned before you did that..." He says with a soft chuckle.

He raises his hand to his blindfold and pulls it down a little, revealing cloudy, unsettlingly light blue eyes.

"It's a bit hard to die when your soul's already in pieces."

As soon as he finishes speaking, a sudden chill runs through the air. Dark shudders, while Nightmare looks around. Sabre continues to smile.

"And, I have a lot more friends than you think." He says. "I think it's about time you meet them."

As if on cue, transparent, ghastly hands and arms erupt from the ground, appearing to claw themselves out of the earth. The sky seems to darken, the air only getting colder as the seconds tick by.

Thousands of ghostly figures rise up from the ground, all staring at Nightmare. A few crowd around Sabre and the Orange Steves, making the Darkness back away from them. Orange Steve gets a ghost on each side of him, protecting him from any possible danger.

As the phantom people stare, they start to howl and screech at Nightmare, who looks much less confident in his abilities now. One last time, he looks Sabre in his seemingly dead eyes, and Sabre smiles a little wider.

"Guys?" Sabre calls out to the ghosts. "Have fun."

A number of loud screeches erupt through the air as the apparitions all converge on the false king.