AU: Phantasmal Friends

Context: Remember when Sabre and Orange were busted by two Yellow Guards, and they pretended to threaten Yellow Steve's safety? This is already a bad idea, but it's an especially stupid one here.

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[Sabre's POV]

Howling and shrieks filled the air in an instant, multitudes of transparent, floating bodies positioning themselves protectively around me and Orange.

Orange takes a small step back as they quiet down, staring at the intruding guards, taken by surprise by my friends' sudden presence. But I knew this was coming; None of them take very kindly to our friends being threatened. And neither do I.

The Yellow Steves had stumbled back and tripped in their shock, now sitting in the ground. They looked up at the mass of spirits with horror in their eyes, as the spirits stared with hostility in theirs. There's a good bout of silence as the ghosts hiss slightly.

"Now look what you did." I sigh. "It'll take ages to calm them down."

"Not literally right-?" Orange whispers beside me.

"No, not literally. But it'll still be a while."

I look down at the two Yellows, shaking with fear. I don't hide how angry I am about their threat.

"Now, what was that you said about our friend's safety?" I ask.

"W-We were bluffing! We just didn't know how to convince you to come with us!" One of them shouts.

"So, you're liars."

A few of the spirits around us growl and move forward. However, I reach out and push them back, able to interact with their incorporeal bodies. They all have pieces of my soul, after all. I speak to them in a low, stern voice.

"Hey, hey now. I can take care of it." I tell them. I can feel their fiery anger towards the Yellow Steves in front of us. "Let's not have an incident. However..."

I turn back to the guards and lean down a little, standing over them.

"There will be an incident if anything happens to that Yellow Steve. So you two go and tell Nightmare-"

"We're not with the Nightmare King!"

I stop.

Standing up straight, I tilt my head to the side a little. The spirits go quiet.

"You're not...?"

"N-n-n-no! We're not! We're with- someone else!" The guard replies. "Th- The rightful king. He wants to see you, but we've only figured out how to contact you two today. W-w-we don't mean any harm-"

"Prove it."

"W-What-?"

"Prove you're not with Nightmare."

He just stares for a moment, then with shaky hands, the guard pulls some kind of emblem out of his pocket. It's clearly a kingdom emblem, accented in gold, but it's very different from the one Nightmare Steve uses. I remember seeing this one on some old banners in a crate when we snuck into the castle.

I look back at the guards for a moment, then sigh. Pushing the ghosts back (much to their annoyance), I motion for them to get up. They do.

"For future reference guys, if you want to establish a peaceful connection, don't threaten people's friends to get them to follow you." I say. "It's extremely stupid, gives a horrible first impression, they likely wouldn't know you're bluffing, and-"

One of the spirits lunges, stopping just in front of the guards. They almost fall over again. I grab the back of the phantom's shirt and pull them backwards, giving them a look for a moment.

"You don't know how they'll react, and what they might do in response to it." I finish my sentence. "Seriously, if I didn't have as much control over these guys as I do, you would've been dead ten minutes ago. So think before you act."

The guards nod.

"So, where is this rightful king of yours?"

"J-Just follow us back through the portal... sir."

"Wait, we're believing them?" Orange asks.

"They're legit. I've seen that emblem before." I answer. "You were awfully quiet."

"I was scared."

"Fair enough."

The Yellow guards go back to the portal, and we follow behind them. They look behind us for a moment and see all of the spirits following as well.

"Uh- the ghosts are coming with you-?" One of them asks.

"Of course, they go wherever I go. Always have. Just don't do anything else stupid and you'll be fine."

"...Y-Yes sir."

They go through the portal, and we do the same.