[Sabre's POV]

"Hey, wait! I remember you!" I say to Yellow Steve. "I saw you run by me back at the village yesterday!"

Orange looks confused, while Yellow smiles at me.

"Hey, ya did see me!" Yellow says. "By the way, you really held your own back there. I've never seen something besides my own people go so fast! And when you led those Darkness into running themselves into debris? Priceless!"

"Heh, thanks!" I say, letting go of Orange's leg.

"Wait... what?" Orange says confusedly.

"He's what I saw go past me yesterday, before the lightning started!" I explain to Orange. "He saved us!"

"Hey, you helped little buddy." Yellow says. "If you didn't lead the Darkness away, I wouldn't have had a clear shot."

"Oh!" Orange says. "Okay, thanks then! Sorry for uh... threatening you."

"Eh, it's fine. You were just trying to protect this little guy." Yellow says. "Who are you two?"

"I'm Sabre!" I say.

"I'm Orange Steve." Orange says.

"Okay seriously though." Yellow says, pointing at me. "Where the heck did a human come from?"

Orange picks me up and lets me sit on his shoulder. So... this is what it feels like to be tall.

"Me and one of my friends just found him." Orange says. "No clue where he came from either."

"Oh, okay then." Yellow replies.

"Anyway..." Orange says. "What are you doing with two of my village's people in a glass dome?"

"Oh! Okay, I know it looks bad, but I was trying to help them." Yellow says. "It's not too late to save them, so I was trying to find something that could cure them."

"Cure them?" I ask, confused.

"I, uh..." Yellow says. "I realized I didn't think that far about actually curing them after I got them in there. So, I've been trying to find something."

"Well, thanks for helping anyway." Orange smiles.

"Hey, you just said you're from the same village, right?" Yellow asks Orange. "You have any ideas about fixing this?"

Orange thinks for a minute, then starts walking over to the dome.

"Actually, I think I do." Orange says.

He then takes me off his shoulder and sets me down next to what looks like an entrance to inside the glass structure.

"Wait here, okay buddy?" Orange says to me. "It's a little dangerous for you."

"Okay... be careful, Orange." I say.

Yellow runs over to a lever and flips it, and the entrance to the dome opens up. Orange quickly heads inside, as the two infected start slowly shuffling towards him. Yellow closes the door. Suddenly, as Orange runs in a circle around the two, lightning strikes the infected.

"Woah! What's happening?!" I say.

"I dunno, but it's working!" Yellow answers.

Soon, Orange backs up as the lightning stops. Standing there is the two Orange Steves, completely okay! They look a little confused, but there's no Darkness left on them. I notice that one has glasses, while the other has a few small nets attached to his belt. Orange waves at me and Yellow, and Yellow opens the entrance to the dome again. I run inside, excited.

"Orange, that was awesome!" I say, as Orange Steve picks me up again. "What was that?!"

"Ehm..." Orange says, looking back at the other Orange Steves. "Don't worry about it."

"What... what happened?" One of the other Orange Steves says.

"You two got infected about a day ago." Orange says. "The Yellow Steve up there was able to get you two in here to keep you safe, and Sabre and I found him while he was trying to look for a way to help you. I was able to get rid of the Darkness, and... now you're back."

"Oh jeez, that's... huh." The other Orange Steve says. "Thank you so much, pal!"

"Ah, Yellow helped a lot. No problem, though." Orange says.

"The rest of the village is gonna be happy to see you guys again!" I say, and the two Orange Steves smile at me.

"Heh, yeah! I'm ready to go home!" The first one says.

"Oh shoot, I promised Miner that I'd go with him on his next trip..." The other mumbles.

Orange and I lead the two Orange Steves out of the glass dome, and we all wave at Yellow as we leave.

"Thanks so much, buddy!" I say.

"Yeah, we owe you one." Orange adds.

"No problem, was nice meeting you!" Yellow says, waving back.

Orange takes us all over to a clearing in the forest, and quickly teleports the four of us back to the village.

—————————————————————————————————————

When we get to the village, everyone looks over at us as we enter. The Leader is there, and he walks up to us.

"Hey Leader, we found the missing two." Orange smiles.

"I see that, great to see you all safe!" The Leader says. "What happened?"

"There was a Yellow Steve, and he got these two into a safe place while they were infected, and we found him trying to help them out! Orange was able to cure them of Darkness once we got there!" I say.

"He was nice." Orange says.

"Oh, is that what the dome was for?" Happy says in the background.

"A Yellow Steve...?" The Leader says. "Well, good to see that our neighbors are still doing well despite their-"

Suddenly, an Orange Steve holding a pickaxe tackles one of the rescued Orange Steves.

"FISHER!" The Orange Steve says, as the rescued one hugs him back.

"Hey, Miner!" The rescued one, who is apparently called Fisher, says. "Sorry I wasn't able to keep my promise, heh..."

"Wha- Who cares about the promise, ya goof?" Miner Orange Steve says. "You're home and safe!"

"I'm here, too." The Orange Steve with glasses says.

Then, another Orange Steve pulls the one with glasses into a hug.

"It's the neeerd!" The Orange Steve yells.

"Hi, Loud." The Orange Steve with glasses laughs.

The village separates into different groups, all talking with one another. Heck, I'm even included in a group with Shy, Happy, and Funny! Orange went to go talk to the Leader about something, though...

—————————————————————————————————————

[Orange Steve's POV]

"Okay, but don't use it for anything else like this, alright?" The Leader tells me. "We can't risk it being known you have it."

"I know, I know." I sigh. "Hey, there's actually something else I wanted to talk about."

"Hm? What?" The Leader asks.

"Sabre." I say. "I'm starting to wonder if I'm doing a good job helping him... he's getting himself in a lot of trouble recently... I'm worried that he's going to run into something out here and get hurt."

"I'm sure you're doing great, and he's just getting excited about learning of this world and getting used to not having to fight for his life every second." The Leader says. "I mean, think about it; Before you took him in, he was living in scrap piles and abandoned places, living off whatever small things he could find. I think he just still has a little bit of that mindset. Also, the best way humans learn is letting them act on their own and letting them deal with their own consequences... although giving him a little help is also good. Anyway, just let him explore his options and watch over him as he makes his choices."

"Does 'dealing with his own consequences' include him immobilizing himself from eating almost half his own weight in food?" I say, and the Leader obviously keeps himself from laughing.

"He... he's done that?" The Leader says, smiling.

"Twice, so far." I say. "At least it was easier to keep him under control."

"Well, uh..." The Leader says, composing himself. "I think that would be included, yes. Just... make sure he doesn't get himself sick."

"Heh, I will. Thanks, Leader." I smile.

"You're welcome, Orange Steve." The Leader says. "It's getting late... sunset is almost here. You should get Sabre back home before the creatures start roaming about."

"Haven't they been avoiding us recently?" I ask.

"Well, yes, but better to be safe than sorry." The Leader says. "Especially now that you're caring for a human."

"Eh... you're right." I say. "I'll head back. I'll try to see you tomorrow."

"Be seeing you, friend." The Leader says as I walk off.

As I walk toward where Sabre is, I see he's playing with Happy, Funny, and Shy. Heh, Happy keeps calling him a 'little squish'. That's hilarious.

...Why do I feel like Sabre is going to do something stupid when we get home?

—————————————————————————————————————

[Sabre's POV]

Orange has already teleported us back to the Hub, and I'm running inside, knowing what I can do to get back at him.

"Sabre, slow down!" Orange calls after me.

"Heheh, no!" I say, running into the house already.

I turn to go into the storage room, run inside, and close the door so it's not obvious I went in here... even though Orange is probably gonna guess I'm hiding here anyway. Meh, easier for me to prank him.

I run over to the corner and use my little trick for climbing up walls, using my limbs for support while my back faces the meeting point of the two sets of planks. I'm able to get to the ceiling before Orange opens the door.

"Alright, where are you?" Orange sighs. "I don't want you to keep sneaking in here."

Wait, I could totally sneak in here and grab whatever I want and as much as I want while Orange isn't looking... Hey, stay focused, me!

Orange looks up, and I giggle. He jumps back, probably caught off-guard by my ability to climb.

"What the-?!" Orange says.

"Gimme food." I say, still giggling.

Orange just looks at me and carefully brings me down from my spot on the wall.

"How'd you even get up there?" Orange asks, bewildered.

"I climbed. I did that a lot in my old world to scare raiders." I say.

"...Do you actually want food, or were you saying that to be a gremlin?" Orange asks.

"I will always want food." I say.

Orange looks at me for a minute, then sighs and puts me down.

"Fine, I guess it's late anyway..." Orange says.

I excitedly wait while Orange cooks two potatoes and sets out an apple. Minutes later, we're on the couch again as I finish, Gerald laying down beside us on the floor.

"Hey, maybe you should teach me to cook so I can make myself food while you're gone." I say.

"Oh, definitely not yet." Orange laughs. "I don't trust you with that skill right now."

"What? Whyyyy?" I ask, putting the apple core next to the potato scraps on the table.

"Because I'm pretty sure you'd make too much for yourself every time." Orange says, looking at me. "You have terrible self control when it comes to food, you've displayed that enough."

"Pft, I do not." I say, leaning back into the cushions.

"You've literally immobilized yourself twice." Orange giggles.

"...Maybe, but only twice!" I say.

Orange laughs again, then picks me up.

"Alright, it's 10:30. You're going to bed now." Orange says.

"Aw, what?!" I say as Orange heads upstairs. "That's earlier than normal! And I'm not tired!"

"You say that every night, but you fall asleep within five minutes of me putting you in bed." Orange chuckles.

Orange turns off the lights as he leaves after I get comfy, like every night, and I just let myself fall asleep because I know Orange will keep sending me back to bed if I try to get up.

...Man, I still really want food...

—————————————————————————————————————

...Hm?

I see a white room and two figures standing over me, one normal and one really tall... am I dreaming again?

My vision clears, and I see it's Alaric holding me while I'm tiny again, Origin standing next to him. Origin is holding his hand out to tiny me, who is playing with it as little kids do.

"Hard to believe he's 2 now..." Alaric mumbles.

"I take that the first part of his treatment went well?" Origin says.

"Oh, very well." Alaric says. "The surgeons were able to put in the attachment to his heart that will help it work better, and add the bioreactor to power that."

"So... he really is more like me, now?" Origin asks.

"Yes, and he's going to keep getting better while we're using the research on Project Steel... although, there's been a few bugs with the bioreactor, since they had to connect it to his stomach." Alaric says.

Suddenly, the lady in the business suit from before walks in.

"Sir, there's more members of the press outside." She says. "It's already getting bad, the police had to drag one away because they broke the glass door."

"Ugh, darn paparazzi..." Alaric mumbles. "Can't they just leave me and my son alone for once?"

"Hard for them to do that when the world's leading robotics scientist is curing his son's mysterious illness by turning him into the first cyborg." The lady sighs. "How is some of the stuff they do even legal..."

"Please get security to make them go away. I can't risk anyone bringing harmful bacteria into this sterilized facility after my son just went through his surgery." Alaric says.

"Yes sir, right away." The lady says.

"Thank you, Miss Fern." Alaric says.

"The 'press'... the people with cameras outside?" Origin asks Alaric. "Aren't those the people you called-"

"Origin, you weren't supposed to hear that word. Didn't I tell you to erase it from your memory?" Alaric sighs.

"Oh, sorry crea- Alaric." Origin says.

"It's alright." Alaric says. "I shouldn't have lost my temper in front of you like that."

"Well..." Origin says. "One of them did rush past the guards and break a few test tubes while trying to bother you."

"That guy was so lucky those were empty." Alaric chuckles. "Otherwise, he would've had to go to the hospital immediately, as those were supposed to be used for that experiment involving acids."

They both laugh, and everything fades out to white.

—————————————————————————————————————

I jolt up, confused by what I just went through.

Another weird dream... what the heck was that one going on about? What's a 'bioreactor'? What's 'paparazzi'? Or 'sterilized'? Or... 'legal'?

I look around the room and see that it's still dark. I then look out to the balcony, and see that Orange is happily playing with a few pigs while checking on the crop garden we made. Heh, one just knocked him over-

Wait. Orange is outside, and busy with stuff, so he's not paying attention to the house...

I can sneak down to the storage room! Heh, can't stop me now, can ya?

I carefully tiptoe down the stairs and make my way to the door of the storage room. Slowly opening the door, I watch out whenever it makes a 'creak' noise, but nothing ever happens. I finally get in and quietly close the door behind me, silently celebrating my little victory.

Now... what do I want first? I walk past the various chests, and pick a few things out as I go. Apples, carrots, even a few loaves of bread...

I freeze when I hear the door open, and slowly look to my left as I'm digging through another chest full of food. It's... Gerald? How'd he open the door? We just stare at each other for a minute.

"Dude..." I whisper. "Please, don't be a snitch. I, uh... I'll owe you one?"

Gerald just stares for a minute, then nods(?) and trots away. O-kayyy... I guess I'm clear then.

I quickly grab the rest of what I want and silently rush back up to my room, making sure to leave everything as I found it. Once I'm back in my room, I happily munch on what I collected.

Hehe... I'm a lil food thief. Orange can't stop me from getting as much as I want to have if he doesn't know I'm taking it!

Eventually, I finish eating the haul I brought in, and stash the scraps under my bed so I can throw them into the composter later. As I drift off, I smile at myself, proud that my plan worked.

Ha... robot may have one, but now the little vacuum has it's own point to the scoreboard.