[Sabre's POV]

"What do we do?" I whisper to Orange.

"Uh... I don't know." He whispers back. "Maybe we should try to talk to him?"

"Maybe, he seems scared of Nightmare too. Maybe we could convince him to give us the Crystal if we tell him about-"

"I-I can hear you!" The assistant calls out. "This is your final warning, show yourself!"

Orange and I look at each other, and he shrugs. He climbs up the supports of the walkway and onto it, taking off his helmet once he's up. The assistant looks shocked.

"It's... you." He says quietly.

"Listen, we don't want any trouble." Orange says, holding his free hand up to show he doesn't have a weapon. "We just need the Crystal."

"I-I... I'm sorry, I can't give it to you." The assistant says, glancing behind him.

"We understand why, but have a good reason why we need to get the Crystal back, we swear." I add.

"I know, you need it so you can collect the rest of them and create the Hero." The assistant sighs. "I know of the prophecy."

"That's, uh... not why we need it." Orange says nervously. The assistant gives a confused look.

"Then... why do you?" He asks.

"Well, uh... the thing is..."

"That's not really the Crystal." I say. "It's a fake."

Orange shoots me a look as the assistant starts to look scared.

"W-What do you mean it's a fake?" He asks. "How could that possibly be a fake?"

"I, uh... I noticed that darkness' presence was hanging around the Crystal, so I put it somewhere with a friend and made a fake one just in case there was actually danger. Aaand turns out, there was." Orange explains. "It'll work just like the real thing as long as an Orange Steve uses it, but if Nightmare tries to..."

Orange trails off, avoiding eye contact with the increasingly worried Yellow Steve.

"What? It'll what if Nightmare tries to use it?" The assistant asks, sounding panicked.

"It'll, um... explode."

"WHAT?!"

"Please don't yell you'll attract the guards." I say quickly.

The assistant, still panicked, shuts his mouth and looks conflicted for a second. Then, he starts pacing back and forth and mumbling to himself.

"Great, just great, either I have to tell him that he was tricked and he'll probably take it out on me or he uses it and the room explodes. Perfect. Oh Origin, I'm gonna die."

"Actually, the explosion's apparently gonna be big enough to crater the whole kingdom." I blurt out.

"Sabre!" Orange scolds me while the assistant looks like he's stuck in a feedback loop. It's usually funny to watch that happen to AI, but not in this situation.

Orange walks up to the assistant and gets his attention, which makes him snap out of it and turn towards him.

"Look, I can probably switch it again with another fake before he comes back. Where'd Nightmare go?" Orange asks.

"You can't, he's gonna notice..." The assistant says. "He just went to the repairmen in the opposite wing of the castle, and then he's gonna go get a prisoner so he could-"

We all freeze when we hear footsteps approaching and listen. I hear Nightmare talking with somebody, and start to freak out. Orange does too.

"Hide!" The assistant whispers.

He doesn't have to tell us twice, and Orange quickly runs back to the walkway and swings below it, hanging onto the supports again. He basically hugs the support beam he's hanging onto with one arm and makes sure I stay on his shoulder with the other. I have my arms wrapped around his neck to make sure I don't fall off. I can't see the bottom to this pit, and I don't want to find out if there even is a bottom.

I listen in to the conversation happening above us.

"I'll give you one last chance, how did you and those other two escape my facility?" Nightmare asks someone. "Especially the human."

"I've told you, I'm not going to tell you anything." A familiar voice says. "Y-You're nothing but a murderous liar pretending to be king."

"That's the Yellow Steve we helped escape from that lab..." Orange whispers.

"Hm. Fine then. Still loyal to Helios, I presume?" Nightmare continues, his voice growing colder. "You should know he's not coming back to save any of you. I made sure of that."

"Your reign of terror will end eventually. Don't get cocky." The Yellow Steve says, sounding angry but scared at the same time.

I hear Nightmare yell, then the sound of metal chasing, and something being dragged. Their voices get closer, the Yellow Steve struggling while Nightmare continues to yell at him.

"Let me show you what happens to traitors, and those who don't keep their mouths shut!" Nightmare's voice echoes around the room.

The dragging suddenly stops, and in a second we see the Yellow Steve starting to plummet down the pit right in front of us.

Orange quickly reaches out and grabs his arm, the Yellow Steve hanging on and colliding with a lower support as he swings forward a little bit. The noise doesn't seem to bother Nightmare much, as I hear him start to walk away. The Yellow Steve is about to say something as Orange pulls him up, when I put a finger to my lips in a 'shush' gesture. The Yellow Steve gets the message and stays quiet as Orange helps him balance himself on the supports like him.

We stay completely still as we hear Nightmare walking above us again, heading towards the assistant.

"What're you looking like your circuits just shorted out for?" Nightmare says with an annoyed tone.

"N-Nothing, sir." The assistant says. "Just, um-"

"Doesn't matter. The repairmen were out of their shops so I'm going to go find them. Keep watching the Crystal."

"Yes sir."

I listen as Nightmare's heavy footsteps fade away, and after waiting a minute, Orange climbs back up with the Yellow Steve in tow. The assistant looks relieved.

"Oh, thank goodness, I thought you were killed..." The assistant says, smiling slightly at the Yellow Steve.

"Thanks to them, I wasn't." The Yellow Steve replies.

Orange Steve starts walking up to the fake Crystal, already with another duplicate in his hand.

"Alright, this one will just shock anyone that uses it. I'll take the explosive one and dispose of it." He says as he switches them out.

"W-Wait, explosive?" The Yellow Steve asks.

"Long story." I say. "We'll tell you once this is all over."

"Hold on, where's he supposed to go?" The assistant asks, motioning to the Yellow Steve. "Sure, Nightmare thinks he's dead, but if he sees him again he'll just kill him for real. And there's not another kingdom anywhere around."

The Yellow Steve looks sad, and Orange and I think for a moment.

"I can help with that." A familiar voice whispers behind us.

We turn around, and our chestplate-wearing Yellow Steve friend is standing in the doorway. He's smiling, but I can tell he's stressed out. Fair enough.

"Yellow? What are you doing here?" Orange asks. "I thought you were gonna stand outside?"

"Well uh, some actual guards came in and realized I wasn't one of them, sooo..." Yellow glances behind him. "I kinda temporarily shut them down. We don't have much time, so hurry up and get the Crystal."

I hang on as Orange quickly turns around and switches out the fake Crystals. The other two Yellow Steves start to look panicked.

"Wait- you what?!" The assistant exclaims. "How am I supposed to-!"

"Y-You said you could help me...?" The imprisoned Yellow Steve timidly asks him.

Yellow places a hand on the Yellow Steve's shoulder as Orange turns around, with the explosive Crystal in hand.

"There's a rebellion camp far out in the Brass Woods. That's where I went when Nightmare found me out." Yellow explains to him. "You were right; Helios is still alive. And he has a safe place for you to go."

"Wait hold on, Nightmare-" I start to ask, but I'm interrupted by shouts coming from outside the room.

"Crap. Outta time." Yellow says.

"What about him?" Orange asks, pointing to the assistant.

"Shut me down too." The assistant says. "Better than letting Nightmare think I just let you get away."

"Are you sure?" Yellow asks. "It might-"

"It might hurt, I know. Just do it."

Yellow hesitates for a second, then quickly grabs the back of the assistant's head and lets out an electrical shock of some kind from his hand. The assistant's eyes go dark and he starts to fall, but Yellow catches him and gently sets him down. He then rushes to the prisoner Yellow Steve and grabs his arm, the other Yellow Steve doing the same.

"You two get back to the Hub." Yellow says. "I'll get this one to safety."

"Hold on, you need to expla-" Orange starts, but Yellow interrupts him.

"I'll explain everything later! Just go!" Yellow shouts, and lighting starts to strike around him and the other Yellow Steve.

Orange quickly grabs me off his back and holds me in his arms, protecting me from the lightning as he starts to teleport too, while guards rush into the room.

—————————————————————————————————————

The lightning dies down as Orange and I teleport back to the Hub.

I squirm out of Orange's grip and stick the landing on the stone brick floor, him panicking a little bit as I do.

"What the heck just happened?!" I exclaim, looking up at Orange.

"No idea, but Yellow has a lot of explaining to do when we see him again." Orange sighs. "Did Nightmare really get him? Is that why he had that dent?"

"Probably! The dude's a jerk!" I say, crossing my arms.

"Maybe we should take a little bit to calm down after all that." Orange says, picking me up again and walking over to the house. "...And I need to figure out how to get rid of this fake Crystal."

"Maybe you could put it in the above ground container and it could trick Rainbow Red if he tries to steal it."

"Hah! That's actually a good idea."

...

"Hey Orange?"

"Yeah?"

"What were those words you said when we got caught by the assistant?"

"..."

"Orange?"

"...I'm not telling you right now."

"Oh c'mon!"