[3rd Person POV]

The night was stormy, lightning striking every few minutes, lighting up the Hub for a split second before everything goes dark again.

Orange and Sabre had gone into the house a long while before it arrived, wanting to stay safe, as storms are not only scary for humans but the robot Steves as well. While Sabre was only scared of the noise from the wind and thunder, it reminding him of fear-filled nights in his old world, Orange worried about being struck by natural lightning causing him to short-circuit. Eventually though, both of their fears subsided and they rested inside the house.

However... the storm soon became a cloak for a frightful foe.

Timing his lightning to match with the natural strikes of the storm, Nightmare discreetly entered the Hub unnoticed. Watching the skies to avoid being struck, he carefully made his way along the stone pathways to what he was there for:

The Crystal pedestals, all empty, with each pillar's colorful wool marking which Crystal should go where.

Nightmare was not fooled by the trick of the vacant item frames. He knew that the two had already gathered the Orange Crystal, having heard from passing travelers and rumors in the Kingdom. It must be hidden somewhere.

He carefully examined and scanned the nearby areas, despite the challenge of the pouring rain and earth-shaking lightning. Nightmare scoured the Hub for any sign of something suspicious, knowing how clever an Orange Steve  an be with hiding things. They represent creativity after all, of course one would find an unorthodox spot to hide something so precious.

Suddenly, lightning struck a power box in the Hub, right next to the gazebo. It made all of the fairy lights flicker for a minute, then all the bulbs blew out. However, that minute was all he needed, as he had noticed something.

An outline of a rectangle was visible in the stone brick next to the pedestals, the area inside it a small bit lower than the rest of the bricks. There were some scratches around the edges of it, clearly from something being dragged, although the trail ends abruptly right at the lines.

Bingo. He had found his hiding place.

Nightmare quickly starts looking for some sort of button, first checking the pedestals themselves for a hidden lever, but didn't find anything. He then brushes his steel hand around the edge of the rectangular outline, and finds a much smaller brick slightly raised above the rest.

Pushing down on it makes a 'click' noise, followed by the ground starting to shake. Nightmare gets up and grins madly at the sight of what was previously just an outline starting to open into a passageway.

However, just as a small crack is opened, lightning strikes another power box. A closer one this time. A brief, bright spark flashes as the wiring inside is destroyed, and Nightmare covers his eyes out of reflex.

Instantaneously, the false floor stops moving and stays where it is. When Nightmare looks back at the passage, he scowls and curses under his breath. So close, yet so far from achieving what he desires.

Nightmare thinks for a moment, and as lightning strikes followed by rumbling thunder once again, he gets an idea. Holding out his hand, a small red spark emits from it, which seconds later turns into a blaze of fire contained in his palm. The rain has no effect on it.

Raising his hand in the air, Nightmare smirks as he waits for his veiling cue.

Lightning strikes.

A blast sounds, hidden by the roaring thunder.

—————————————————————————————————————

[Sabre's POV]

I suddenly woke up to Orange shaking me awake, panicked.

"Sabre, wake up!" Orange says. "It's bad!"

"Wha- What?! I'm awake! What happened?!" I say, sitting up. "What's going on?!"

"The Orange Crystal is gone!" Orange says, then looks out to the window.

I look to see what he's looking at, and outside, the Crystal storage area is broken. Orange had finished it a while after we got the Orange Crystal and kept it hidden in the underground part, using the part above the secret room as a decoy. Somehow, though, the stone stairs are cracked and the floor that hid the staircase is broken apart. There's scorch marks around the new hole.

"I didn't think much of it when I heard lightning during the storm last night, but it looks like someone broke in and destroyed the vault." Orange sighs. "And now the Crystal is just gone..."

"I bet it was Nightmare!" I say, angry, standing up on the bed. "Think about it; He knows we're collecting the Crystals, and he's the only real enemy we have right now! Also, he's a power-hungry tyrant! He'd totally steal a Crystal just to be even more of a greedy jerk!"

"Hm, you might be right..." Orange says. "But we shouldn't jump to conclusions either. It might have been someone else, too. We should only check, just in case. Let's not start a war with someone a lot more powerful than us."

"I guess you're right..." I say as Orange turns back to me and picks me up. "So, does that mean we're going to the Yellow Kingdom?"

"Looks like we have to." Orange says. "If Nightmare tries to use a Crystal that's not of his color, it's going to end badly."

"Like, how badly?" I ask. "Do we need to rush to get it back, or can we get some help?"

Orange has a scared look on his face for a second, then avoids eye contact.

"Very badly. We need to get it back as soon as possible." He says.

"Well what are we waiting for then?!" I exclaim, jumping out of my bed. "We need to go get the Crystal back!"

I start running down the stairs, with Orange following after me. Gerald looks at us with his usual bothered expression as we run out the door towards the portals.

Orange scoops me up and starts to carry me like always when we go through a portal, being careful not to slip on the soaked stone. However, before we can even reach the Yellow portal, something's already coming through. Orange stops in his tracks, holding me protectively, while I quickly pull my pocketknife out of my hoodie pocket.

"What the- Were you carrying that knife while you were sleeping?!" Orange worriedly asks as lightning continues to erupt from the portal.

"Hey, I got paranoid after the Rainbow Red incident! This is how I defend myself from intruders!" I retort, keeping my eye on the portal.

We hear someone step out of the portal, and immediately Orange looks back at it again while I point my knife at whoever's there.

We both calm down as soon as we see who it is, though.

"Yellow? What are you doing here?" Orange asks, relaxing and moving from a defensive stance to standing normally. I put my knife away as he does.

Yellow approaches us, looking a bit panicked. He also has a new dent on his arm.

"I saw Nightmare this morning, and he-" Yellow starts, but notices the broken secret staircase behind us. "Oh... looks like you already know about the Orange Crystal."

"We were actually just about to go through the portal to see if Nightmare really did steal it, but you just confirmed it for us." I say.

"Yeah, what Sabre said." Orange nods. "Again, what are you doing here? I don't want to risk Nightmare finding out you visit us, especially with how harsh he is on your people... Wait, what happened to your arm?"

"I'll be fine, Orange. Don't worry." Yellow says. "My nickname from the other scouts was 'Whirlwind' for a reason, he probably hasn't even noticed I'm gone, especially with all of the other people in the kingdom."

"What's the dent then-"

"N-Nothing important!"

Yellow calms down a bit and glances at the portal.

"Anyway, I came here because I wanted to help you guys." He explains. "The Yellow Kingdom has started a sort of lockdown on Nightmare's orders, he says it's for safety but I'm pretty sure it's just so we can't tell anyone what's going on. Thing is, I saw him entering the castle with the Orange Crystal early this morning. And it just so happens that I know a secret entrance to the castle... sort of."

"Uh... sort of?" Orange asks, skeptical.

"It's not really that much of an entrance, just- Do you want to get in and get the Crystal back or not?" Yellow says.

"Of course we do!" I say. "Thanks for helping us out, buddy."

"It's the least I could do after everything you've done to help me and others." Yellow smiles. "Now c'mon, we need to hurry. I have no idea what'll happen if Nightmare uses a Crystal that's not the yellow one, but-"

"Bad. It'll be bad." Orange says quickly. "Lead the way."

Yellow nods, and starts running to the portal. Orange tries to keep up with him, still carrying me, and the three of us (Well, Yellow is way ahead of us) enter the portal to get to the Yellow Kingdom.

—————————————————————————————————————

We end up in a wide, open field, with not even a tree in sight.

Orange balances himself as he lands on the ground, holding me close. As soon as he's steady, he lifts me onto his shoulders and motions for me to hang onto him. I guess because we don't have the backpack right now.

Yellow is standing in front of us, looking at something. He's also trying to pull down his sleeve a bit to hide the dent.

"Here we are, the strongest Yellow Kingdom." Yellow Steve says.

"Where?" I ask. "I don't see anything."

"Same here." Orange adds.

"Turn around, you goobers." Yellow giggles.

Orange turns around, and we both see what Yellow was looking at.

The kingdom is huge, much bigger than anything I've ever seen here. Walls surround the area, the rooftops of houses and upper areas of towers peeking above them. Two statues of Yellow Steves, each holding a sword, seem to be guarding the tall wooden gate at the front. We can see some Yellow Steves in armor standing on top of the walls, looking down at the gate's front. High above everything else, in the center of the kingdom, is a big castle with golden accents and spires. Circling around the walls is a moat, a pretty narrow one, but still. Trees are dotted around the walls a little. It looks like a fairytale.

"Wooaaahhhhhh..." I say, staring at the kingdom. "This is awesome!"

"I agreed this is much cooler than anything I've seen." Orange nods. "Is that actually gold-? Wonder how they made all those patterns in the stone walls..."

"It is pretty cool. This is where I spent the first few years of my life, actually. In human terms, you could say I 'grew up' here." Yellow says, smiling. He then sighs and looks upset. "That is, before Nightmare ruined everything... after he took over, I ran away and stayed with the other kingdom."

Orange turns back to Yellow, and places a hand in his shoulder.

"Hey, we're gonna get everything back to how it's supposed to. We promise." He assures him, giving a gentle smile.

"Yeah! And then you can come back here and it can be home again!" I grin.

"First, though, we have to get the Orange Crystal back." Orange says, turning to face the kingdom again. "So, what's the plan?"

"Well, no way in heck are we gonna be able to get through the front gate." Yellow starts. "Like I said before, Nightmare put the place on lockdown, so nobody's getting in or out. And if the guards see Sabre with you, they're on orders to capture him and anyone with him."

"Wait, how'd you get out then?" I ask.

"I'm getting to that." Yellow says.

Yellow then points to the moat, and moves his hand to point to the hill that almost hides the moat when it meets it.

"See that hill over there, with the big hole in it?" He asks.

"Yep." Orange and I both answer.

"The moat leads to a secluded spot that has an opening, which pretty much acts like a secret passage directly into and out of the castle." Yellow says. "Going through there should take you right inside, although you'll need to disguise yourself Orange."

"What? Why?" Orange asks.

Yellow then takes out his bag and holds up some gold armor.

"Only guards are permitted in the castle right now, no civilians." Yellow explains, handing Orange the armor. "I have a set of armor too. When we put them on, we'll look like guards and will be able to sneak around the castle to where Nightmare is probably keeping the Crystal."

"But... won't people notice that I'm a completely different color?" Orange asks.

"And can't you guys identify each other by scanning?" I add.

"The helmet will cover your face enough to where people won't notice." Yellow says. "And it'll also cover you enough to where it'll confuse people's scanners and they'll identify you as yellow. The only way someone would notice is if they were looking reaaalllyyyy close."

"Wait, you guys are really high-tech robots, but wearing enough of a different color will confuse you?" I say. "That's kinda dumb."

Yellow and Orange shrug.

"I guess our scanners weren't built to be that accurate when scanning each other, cause that's the only time they get confused." Yellow says. "And yeah, it is kinda dumb. But it works, so I'm not really gonna complain."

"Fair enough."

"Wait, what about Sabre?" Orange asks. "We can't just walk around with him in plain sight, and if we try to pretend we're guards that found him, it'll both be suspicious and we'd probably be ordered to bring him to Nightmare."

Yellow then looks through his bag again, and pulls out another bag (hehe, bag-ception) that was folded to fit inside.

"I brought this, so you can hide Sabre like you usually do." Yellow says.

"You really thought of everything, huh?" Orange says as he takes the empty bag and unfolds it. It looks more official than a normal backpack, it even has a yellow symbol that matches the flags hung on the kingdom walls.

"I really didn't want to mess this up." Yellow says. "Plus, I was already raiding the guards' storage supply, so I figured I'd inconvenience them as much as I could."

That last part makes me laugh. I can see Orange holding back a chuckle too.

Orange opens the backpack and holds it with one hand, using his other hand to help me into it. Once I'm inside, he and Yellow quickly run to the previously mentioned secluded spot next to the wall. They stop, and Orange puts down the backpack while he and Yellow get their armor. I'm just sitting inside the backpack as I wait. Seems like the metal-ified grass here isn't as long, sharp, and pokey as the stuff in the woods, which is a really good thing.

"I'm surprised we stayed out of the guards' sight this whole time." I say as Orange and Yellow finish up with putting on the gold armor. "I mean, it's a wide, empty field. It'd be hard not to notice something."

"Eh, it's a pretty good defense strategy." Orange says, adjusting his helmet. "If they get attacked by Darkness, it can't really hide anywhere."

"That, and they use it to teach the newly activated Yellows how to run without crashing into stuff." Yellow says.

"You guys crash into stuff when you run?"

"Hey, it's really hard to tell when you're about to crash into something when you run as fast as we do. Especially when you're first learning."

"Is that how you got that dent? You crashed while getting out?" I ask.

"Uh... no, it was... something else." Yellow says, looking nervous as he puts his helmet on.

Orange and I stay silent for a moment, guessing he doesn't really want to talk about it. I really hope it was just something dumb and he's embarrassed about it, and nobody did that to him... I'd rather it be that than someone hitting him. At least then it'd just be a funny story to tell later when this is all over.

"So, shall we head inside?" Yellow says, breaking the silence and turning towards the entryway.

"Yeah, let's go." Orange agrees, picking up the backpack as I re-situate myself.

Orange closes the bag after I make sure I'm all the way hidden inside. I feel as he puts the backpack on, and hear the clanking noise as he and Yellow walk through the entrance, the sounds of their footsteps changing from the steel grass to solid stone.

I stay completely silent while inside the bag, not wanting to blow our cover. Instead, I listen to the sounds of Orange's internal systems to keep me calm, and sometimes listen to what's outside.

The first time I listened to the outside, I heard a lot of voices, which probably means we're inside the kingdom walls right next to the town protected by them. The next few times it was silent, with only the occasional creak of shifting metal, couldn't tell it it was armor or someone moving.

After a long while of that silence, everything sounded more echoey and I couldn't hear anything from the town anymore. I keep hearing some hushed voices as they whisper about something, but whoever's talking shuts up as we pass by. We must be inside the castle.

After I wait some more, all of the noises stop. I can only hear Orange and Yellow walking through halls. I feel uneasy, but it must mean we're getting close.

Eventually, they both stop. Orange takes off the backpack and opens it, and when he lifts me out and puts me on his shoulders again, I see we're in a hallway that leads to a large, open room. We stand outside of the room, keeping inside the hallway.

"This is the entryway to the Nightmare's throne room." Yellow whispers. "I saw him take the Crystal in there. If Nightmare enters the room, quickly jump down to the catwalks below the main platforms in there. I'll stay out here to be your emergency exit, just in case."

"Okay, thanks buddy." Orange says, while making sure I'm holding onto him. "Be safe, okay?"

Yellow nods, and we quickly split up, with Yellow stepping into a nearby room, and Orange and I entering the throne room of the Nightmare King.

The room is dimly lit, with lanterns symmetrically lining the walls and ceiling, their lights not reaching so far. The pathway Orange is walking on looks like it's floating at first, but it's probably held up with the supports Yellow mentioned. Orange starts to walk up the inclined path, when we both suddenly see something that makes us panic.

Nightmare is there, sitting on a throne, tending to his exposed wires and hole-covered metal skin. An assistant is helping him, although he looks terrified. Seems like Nightmare made a bad choice by stealing the Crystal during that storm, because he's soaked and his exposed wires are sparking, with the rusted holes around his steel body looking worse. He looks really ticked off.

Orange reacts quickly and dives for the edge of the walkway, gripping the side tightly and swinging onto a set of catwalks below. They're probably how people do maintenance on the platforms. Neither Nightmare or his assistant saw us, and I very quietly let out a tense breath I didn't know I was holding. Then, I notice that Nightmare and his assistant are talking.

Orange and I stay completely still, listening in on what Nightmare is saying.

"Blasted storms..." Nightmare mumbles as we hear a loud spark, which is immediately followed by him saying a bunch of words I don't know.

"Sire, it's been advised for generations not to go out during thunderstorms-" His assistant timidly starts, but is cut off.

"Did I ask you?!" Nightmare bellows.

"N-No, sire..." His assistant quietly says, his voice shaking.

We hear Nightmare get up, and listen to his footsteps go towards one of the exits on the sides of the room. His assistant quickly steps back and stays near the throne.

"I'm going to the repairmen nearby, and you will stay here and keep watch over the Crystal. Do I make myself clear?" Nightmare says, sounding angry.

"Yes, s-sire." His assistant responds.

"Good. There better not be anything wrong with it when I get back, and I mean not even a single small scratch on it, because I'm going to need it to deal with that escapee." Nightmare says, then walks away mumbling. "How'd he even get out of there..."

We wait for a while, then Orange turns to me.

"Sabre, we need to get the Crystal back before Nightmare returns." Orange whispers, looking panicked.

"Well, no duh, that Yellow Steve you helped a while ago is-" I say, but Orange interrupts me.

"I know! But the thing is, that's not really the Crystal."

Silence.

"...What." I whisper.

"It's a fake. I swapped it out." Orange explains. "The Orange Leader warned me that a presence with Darkness attached to it was hanging around the Hub's entry points, so I gave it to him to protect it while he used it to fix some damage in the village. Meanwhile, I made a fake Crystal that works normally as long as an Orange Steve uses it, but if another color does..."

"What?! What'll happen?!" I whisper-yell.

"It'll explode." Orange says quickly.

"...How big of an explosion are we talking?"

"Uh... wipe-out-this-whole-kingdom big."

"WHAT."

Suddenly, a piece from Orange's armor falls off, making a loud noise on the catwalk floor. It rolls for a second, before falling off into the dark abyss below us. Nightmare's assistant above us definitely heard it.

"Who's there?! Show yourself!" He shouts, his voice still a bit shaky.

I hear Orange say one of those words I don't understand under his breath.