Okay I'm definitely straying a crap ton from canon stuff when I'm talking about lore and backstory stuff in this AU, as you can probably tell from Sabre's dream sequences, but just wanted to let you guys know that I'm making this prophecy a bunch different from the actual series. Cool? Cool.

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[Sabre's POV]

I open my eyes once the bright light fades, and I see we're in a forest.

Orange sets me down and I look around, a little confused. Orange said that he was taking me to a friend, right? Where is he?

"Whoops, looks like I teleported us a little too far from where I intended." Orange says. "Come on, it's this way."

Orange leads me out of the forest, and we reach a clearing with a really tall tower with a purple roof.

"Woah! That's one huge tower!" I say.

"Uh... yeah." Orange says. "And, um, we have to get to the top of it."

"...Oh boy." I say, noticing the really long trail of stairs wrapping around the outside of the tower.

"Come on, we gotta go." Orange says, and I notice he looks scared which is fair.

I walk behind him as he goes out of the forest and towards the field the tower is, however I quickly start lagging behind. Orange notices and walks back over to me, picking me up.

"Huh, you're going slower than usual." Orange says. "What's with you being so sluggish today?"

I stay silent, not wanting to out myself.

"...Were you still asleep when I got to the Hub to bring you here? Is that why?" Orange asks. Okay, this one isn't so bad.

"Uh... yes." I answer. Orange sighs and ruffles my hair.

"Well, at least you're actually resting rather than refusing to." Orange says.

At this point, we realized that we both have problems with long sets of stairs. For me, I'm so small compared to everything that I have to literally climb up the stairs in order to get to the top. And I mean I have to jump up, grab onto the next stair, and pull myself up onto it just to repeat the same thing over and over. For Orange, he's terrified of heights, and these stairs don't exactly have railings. He's going to be too scared while hugging the wall to help me climb up.

"This is one of the reasons it takes me so long to get to my friend..." Orange says, setting me down, as he nervously walks up to the start of the staircase. "High place, and everything..."

"Yeah, I get it." I say. "This is probably going to take me a while, too."

We both slowly start making our way up. I climb, Orange inches along the wall. It feels like hours since we first started climbing, but it's probably only been 30 minutes. Orange looks back at me when we're a little bit of the way up, about as high as a large tree. No surprise for me, I'm lagging behind Orange, who's also taking forever to get up the stairs.

"Wow, I'm terrified over here, and you're still going slower." Orange chuckles nervously.

He stops for a second, letting me catch up to him. I lay down on the stair next to him when I get there, trying to catch my breath so I can keep climbing.

"It's not... my fault... the stairs are... a little over... half my size..." I say between breaths.

"You climb trees all the time, this shouldn't be a problem." Orange says.

"Climbing a tree... is nowhere near as hard... as climbing up... a huge set of stairs." I say, rolling over and getting myself to sit up. "Besides, you're a robot... you don't get tired. I do."

"Well, the faster you go, the faster we get this over with." Orange says.

"You're going slow too, you're inching along the wall." I say, getting up and starting to climb again.

"Shush." Orange quickly answers.

We then go back to climbing up the stairs. We go for a lot longer this time, but eventually I have to stop, getting too tired to keep climbing. I just sit there about halfway up, and Orange notices. He comes back down to me quickly... well, quicker than how he's been getting up the stairs, anyway. It still takes a bit.

"Sabre? You alright?" Orange asks.

"I want to pass out." I say.

Orange picks me up, and carefully places me on his shoulder. I'm kind of wrapping my arms around his neck so I don't fall off... good thing robots don't need to breathe.

"Y'know, maybe I should let you climb things more often so you tire yourself out like this." Orange giggles. "It would help with your 'refusing to sleep' problem. Besides, you could probably use the exercise too, so you don't become extra squishy."

"Shut." Is all I say, too worn out to make an actual sentence. Orange just laughs and keeps slowly moving along the tower's wall as he goes up the stairs.

Later, I notice that we're getting really close to the clouds! It's weird seeing them up close, but also really pretty. They still look like fluffy clumps of cotton, heh. It's also getting colder as we get higher up... I notice little piles of snow on the stairs, and the stone walls have some frost on them. I can see my own breath now, in the cold air.

"Sabre, you're shaking. What's wrong?" Orange says, still inching along the wall.

"I-It's cold up h-here." I reply. "I-I'm okay, though."

"Oh, right! You have to deal with temperature changes!" Orange exclaims, taking me off his shoulder and holding me close to him to shield me from the frigid winds up here. "I'm sorry, I forgot!"

"I-It's okay!" I say, curling up so I can try to stay warm. "E-Everyone makes m-mistakes, now we j-just know for n-next time we have t-to do something like t-this."

Orange suddenly stops inching along the wall and starts going up the stairs normally. Maybe he got worried so he's going faster? We both stay silent for a little bit as he goes up.

"Hey O-Orange?" I say.

"Yeah?" He answers.

"I-If you can teleport, why d-didn't you teleport u-us to the top o-of the tower?"

Orange stays silent for a solid minute.

"Well, now I feel kinda stupid." Orange says.

"Y-You're not s-stupid, Orange!" I say. "H-Humans do stuff l-like that too, w-we just don't t-teleport."

Orange giggles, and we go back to silence for a while. Suddenly, Orange breaks the silence.

"Wait, can't humans get sick from being too cold?" He asks.

"Well, y-yeah, but I-I think I'll-"

My answer is cut off as Orange quickly starts running up the stairs. Man, this dude can be fast when he wants to be! We soon reach the top of the tower, and Orange sets me down once we're inside the walls.

"There. Now you're out of the cold." Orange smiles.

"T-That was a-awesome, dude." I say.

Orange then looks around, and sees a piece of paper tacked to the wall. He picks it up and reads it.

"Shoot, we were late and he had to go back to his world." Orange says.

"Wait, world?" I say, confused.

"Yeah. My friend is an Indigo Steve, and they live in the Middle World." Orange explains. "That's where they usually all are. They watch over it, kinda. It's a place that's between the Overworld (this world) and another one, the World Beyond. They make sure nobody with bad intentions gets to the World Beyond."

"That's cool." I say. "What's the World Beyond, though?"

"Basically, it's a spirit world for Steves that pass on." Orange says. "Anyway, we can still talk to him, but uh... that involves going to the Middle World."

Orange then looks down at the hole in the center of the room, and I look down too. There's a portal at the bottom, I think.

"Wait, so even though we climbed all the way up here, we have to just jump down anyway?!" I exclaim. "Why couldn't they had made the portal entrance at ground level?!"

"I dunno, I hate it too..." Orange says.

"Well, I guess we're jumping down then." I say.

"Uh, yeah, just... Um..." Orange stutters. "Just- give me a minute."

I stand there as Orange tries to convince himself to jump down. Then, I get an idea... this is for tricking me with food, hehe.

"Hey Orange, if I just fell down there, you'd go after me right?" I ask.

"Of course I would, what kind of question is that?" Orange replies.

"Well, then..." I then make it look like I slipped off the edge and start falling down. "OH NOOOOoooooo-"

"SABRE!" I hear Orange scream, and then he suddenly appears next to me as I fall.

Orange grabs onto me as we both reach the portal, and I shut my eyes from the bright light surrounding us.

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I feel is land, and I... what in the frick am I seeing.

The ground looks like water, but there's something in between the water and us, so invisible ground? The sky is just a white abyss? There's halves of beds floating around? And other things? What are the glowing blocks? What's going on here?!

"Okay, we made it!" Orange says, smiling. "Indigo should know we're here soon."

"What... is happening?" I say, trying to make sense of what's around me.

"Oh, yeah, forgot to mention that this place is kinda weird. Everything floats." Orange says. "In fact, I'm pretty sure the Indigo Steves' houses are on floating islands in here."

"...What?" I say, now just even more confused.

We then hear a voice behind us.

"Hey Orange, you're pretty late."

We turn around, and I see a robot that's a deep purple color. Orange smiles and goes up to this new person.

"Hey, Indigo!" Orange says. "Yeah, sorry about that. You already know about the heights thing, and going up the tower was more than one problem for Sabre, for completely different reasons."

"I see." Indigo says, looking at me, as I am very obviously still cold and exhausted as Orange carries me.

"Orange told me that you wanted to talk to me?" I say, and Indigo smiles.

"Yes, that's why I asked him to bring you here." Indigo says. "Hang on, I have to bring up something."

Indigo turns away from us and summons lightning next to him. Suddenly, a little bulletin-board-like things appears, with a very familiar chart tacked onto it.

"Hey, I remember that!" I say. "That same picture was in the temple!"

"Seems like Orange already showed you some things." Indigo chuckles.

Why is he talking to me like I'm a kid? Well, I guess I look like one to them... man, I hate being small. Wait, am I a kid? I don't actually know my age... probably not, because I've heard talk of a 'new decade' coming up before in my old world, and that means ten years.

"Have you heard the prophecy?" Indigo asks.

"Only bits of it..." I reply. "I just know that there's a Hero of some sort, and somehow I'm involved with helping him."

"We weren't able to get that far before... something happened." Orange says, looking a little down while saying the last part.

"That's alright, I asked you to be here so I can teach you the entire thing." Indigo says.

Indigo Steve turns to the chart, and points out all the colors to me and what they mean, and the Darkness. I've heard all that before, so I just pay enough attention to where I look like I'm listening, then he starts on something completely new.

"In the time of the First Hero, the prophecy was discovered. No one had thought much of it, due to its seemingly impossible predictions, but then it started coming true. It had predicted the coming of Darkness, the appearance of the Crystals, the rise and fall of the Second Hero created shortly after the First, and the sealing of the Darkness." Indigo starts. "Now the next part of the prophecy in line to happen is the appearance of a human in our world, titled as The Catalyst, and arriving to help create the Third Hero and fight the Darkness alongside him. While biological beings are considered weaker physically, their advantage is their power of mind, and a human has the most of that power. Incorruptible by the ways of Darkness, the prophesied human known as The Catalyst is said to use this power to defeat the Darkness in a way we can't."

Indigo then turns to me.

"I've been told that you arrived here through a portal, correct?" He asks.

"Yeah, I was. The one guarded by Orange Steve's friend." I say.

"Well, that pretty much confirms everyone's suspicions of you being part of the prophecy." Indigo says, smiling. "There is no other way for a human to be able to be here, in this world, so you appearing through that portal means that you are The Catalyst."

Indigo then takes on a grim expression, and I'm kind of worried. Why is he worried about something? I quickly get my answer.

"Sabre, I however must warn you..." Indigo says. "Because humans do not exist here, you are also considered many things other than The Catalyst. Steves have been calling you, the prophesied human, many other things over the years... A special component to control, a key to victory in any war, a potential mutant, and so much more. Once enough people know about you, there's going to be a lot of Steves that will try to hunt you down and capture you."

"What? Why?" I ask. "I know humans aren't exactly here naturally anymore, but why would people hunt me down?"

"Because superstitions and theories always block reason." Indigo says. "There are people that want to experiment on you, to see what made it so you can be here or how you're different, and people that want to capture you to keep you for themselves for the sake of power or their own terrible reasons. These dangerous and unhinged Steves do not care about your health or emotions, they only want you for power. And not just the power of a human, but think of how many other people want to protect you purely because you are the last human we know of that's living. Someone could hold you hostage to have control of the world, even, not including the people that will want you because you're the Catalyst."

"Is that why everyone's been talking about protecting me?" I ask.

"It is." Indigo says. "No one wants you to fall into the wrong hands. You are much more important than you believe."

I think about that for a minute. People will try to take me away? Besides me being human and the Catalyst, I don't even want to imagine any other reasons why...

"This is why I advise that you stay around people that can protect you, and not be alone in a place that's unfamiliar to you." Indigo says. "As long as you're somewhere safe or with someone trustworthy, you should be okay."

"Alright..." I say. So this is why Orange is so defensive of me...

"That's all I needed to tell you, you can both go on home." Indigo smiles.

"Thanks Indigo, and sorry again for making you wait on us." Orange says.

"It's alright Orange, I don't mind." Indigo replies. "Stay safe, you two."

"Same to you, buddy." Orange says.

Lightning surrounds us as I wave goodbye to Indigo. I feel my surroundings shift again as we teleport.

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[Orange Steve's POV]

It's been about an hour since we got back from talking with Indigo.

Sabre had sat down on the couch with me a little after we got back, and fell asleep pretty quickly. Seriously, maybe I should let him tire himself out more by running around the Hub. It'd solve more than one problem. Besides, the Hub is completely safe, it's not like anything can break in. Sabre is almost guaranteed to be safe here...

Right. Indigo's warning. As much as I hate to think about it, he's right, there's a lot of twisted people out there that would literally kill to have Sabre for themselves... no matter what crazy reason they come up with. That guy that the Yellow Steves seem to be so worried about might be one of them, if he's already scaring them. I just hope that I can teach Sabre enough to defend himself soon, before so many people hear about him.

...I keep wondering how Sabre's life was before he met us. I already know it was pretty terrible, considering what he's told me already, but it seems like Sabre tends to act more like a human child than his actual age group. Maybe he wasn't exposed enough to all the different things humans need to learn growing up... that's what caught my interest in that book a while ago, it said that such behavior can happen due to that.

While I can't help but think of questions about Sabre's past... I can tell he doesn't really want to talk about it that much. All I want him to think about right now is that he's safe, he has friends, and he doesn't have to worry about himself surviving another day anymore. He doesn't deserve any more torment in his life.

...I just hope I can protect him enough so that can come true.