A/N: Seeing as this wasn't meant for the public, I didn't write a lot of this. Assume time passes, and Night's teleportation abilities are still out of wack. The Protectors create a room for Night, and despite his best efforts, he begins to feel like Solar Works is his home. He learns what kindness is like; he learns gentleness and love and joy.

Star and the other Protectors spend all their free time with him, trying to get him to warm up to the idea that this could be where he stays. Every time they try to convince him to stay even after his powers return, though, he brushes them off and tells them he has no choice but to return as soon as his powers heal.

Star is getting flirtier. Night is having a harder time telling him all the reasons he can't stay.

Until, one day, he is reminded of why he was so scared to stay in the first place...

⁠—

My room has become a hotspot for Protectors to come socialize. They're very touchy-feely⁠—always brushing my hair out of my eyes, putting their arms around my shoulder, hugging me. I'm not sure if this is what they're always like or if they're going over the top in my presence, but I'm not entirely mad about it.

I think I kind of like it.

I like to sit at my desk and read. I'm reading a tragic romance novel when someone puts their arms on my shoulders and rests their head on mine.

"That's a terrible book," Star informs me, "so you should stop reading while you're ahead. Both the characters die."

"Yeah, I got that from the title, Sherlock," I tease. "Why would you read a book called They Both Die At The End if you don't expect them to both die at the end?"

He frees one of his hands from my shoulder to mess with my hair. "Hm, well, maybe it's not my fault that I want a happy ending in my stories. Is that too much to ask?"

"Probably," I admit.

"Shut up, you two," scolds Tornado. "How am I supposed to be scared by a horror film if y'all are flirting in the corner? Kills the haunted mood."

Tilt turns off the TV, taking with it the eerie background music and melodramatic screams that have been a constant presence in my life for the last hour or so. I almost thank him, but I decide it's not worth it to irk 'Nado.

"Hey!" they protest.

"It was a terrible movie anyway," Tilt says. "Get better movie taste if you're going to watch it in a common space."

"Technically this isn't a common space," I say under my breath. Star flicks me, and I laugh.

I don't know why I like that they're here so often. Maybe it's just nice having people around. Pluto is pretty barren, and the only moving things aside from Troy and me are machines⁠—androids at most.

Maybe the Protectors have sensed that I was lonely on Pluto. Maybe that's why they're surrounding me now with noise and warmth and life.

Star is still messing with my hair, and it feels so nice that I might fall asleep. I let my eyes flutter shut and let him move me how he wants. I think he likes that because he plants a kiss on the top of my head, never stopping the slow twirling of some of the longer hair on the top of my head.

"Do you still plan on leaving?" he asks me.

My heart drops. "Yes. I don't have a choice, Star."

He kisses my head again. "You could stay here. Stay with us. We would love to have you."

"I know," I whisper, and my heart is thumping in my chest. "He's too powerful. He'll find a way to take me back by force if I don't volunteer myself. He'll come after me."

Another kiss, like he's trying to quell my worries with them. "We'll defend you."

"It would risk too many lives. I'm not selfish enough to put everyone in danger for my sake." I swivel in my chair and look up at him before he can plant another kiss. "It's okay, Star. I've dealt with him for this long. I'll survive."

"You shouldn't have to," says Ibis from across the room, and I realize he's been listening this whole time. "You're a child, and he shouldn't be treating you like that. If you like it better here, stay and let us deal with the rest."

An alarm screams throughout the hotel, and I startle.

"Fire?" I ask.

"No," Star says. "Intruder."

My blood runs cold.

Fuck. I thought I had more time.

"Shit," I say. "I'm so sorry, I didn't think he'd attack so soon. Fuck, fuck, fuck." I stumble out of my chair to grab my things, but then I realize all my clothes, all my books and games and stress relievers⁠—they were all from the Protectors. The only thing I have of my own to bring back home is my single pair of tattered clothes from my first night. "Fuck." I don't own any of this. When I go back to Pluto, I'll have nothing to remember this was real.

The other Protectors are suiting up⁠—they keep their gear in their backpacks which never leave their side⁠—and distributing weapons. Ibis, though, gathers me into his arms and pulls me close.

"Do you like it better here than there?" he asks.

"Ibis⁠—"

"Answer the question, Night."

"Obviously yes!" I shout, exasperated. "But⁠—"

"Then let us deal with the rest," he says. "I know you don't think Troy can be beat, but there's a lot of us, and we're not afraid of defending you."

"You don't understand how powerful he is," I say, but he's already grabbing weapons out of his backpack.

Ringman is wrestling with the doorknob, but it seems locked or something. He curses at it. "What the hell?"

Tilt throws himself against the door, putting all his weight behind it, but the door doesn't budge. They're locked in here with me.

They don't give up on the door. I watch each of them try their hardest to break out, but the lock mechanism is made of inanis to prevent break-ins, and no one can make the iron door budge at all.

Groundhog tries tunneling, but the emergency protocol for the building involves activating an inanis defense on every floor, and it drains all of them.

Yuan is grim. "He's got us shut down. We can't do anything to fight him until he's here to collect Night."

"It'll be too late by then," growls Star. "We need to get to him on our terms."

"I know that, Star!" she seethes. "But we don't have a choice. We're trapped here until someone lets us out from the outside. We only have as long as it takes for him to figure out what room we're in."

"Fuck," I say. "I'm so sorry, I should've given myself up earlier and it wouldn't have gotten so bad."

They tell me not to talk like that, but I'm ashamed at my own stupidity. I thought I wasn't selfish enough to do this to others, to force them to deal with Troy's fury even though it's not their problem. This is my problem to figure out alone, and I'm sorry that I ever stayed here at all. I put people in danger, and now we're all at the mercy of a madman.

The chaos outside my door eventually fades to relative calm, aside from the blaring alarm. Eventually, that shuts off, too.

The other Protectors have spent the time strategizing. They're going to hide in the closets and bathroom until Troy is in the middle of the room, then attack suddenly so they can take him off guard. They're going to put me behind the bed, out of the way enough that Troy will hopefully already be handled by the time he even knows I'm here.

I can't believe they're actually planning on defending me like this. It's one thing to promise protection and quite another to put your own life on the line for it. I thought when it came to it, they'd give me up. I thought...

There are footsteps in the hall. Slow and methodical. I stand from my desk, beginning to panic. "He's here."

The Protectors run to their positions, gathering evidence that they were here on their way. I crouch behind the bed and pray that this isn't going to get anyone killed.

Three slow knocks at the door.

Knock.

Knock.

Knock.

My breaths are coming in uneven and shallow. He's going to kill me for being gone so long. I should've put up more of a fight, then maybe the Protectors would've found a way to send me back to Pluto or something.

"Nightingale," comes his taunting, sing-song voice. "I know you're in there, you coward. If you come out now, you'll save yourself a beating or two."

I shiver.

I should go with him. I should be brave and face it.

I'm about to stand when Troy breaks open the door. "Too late. Little rabbit on the run, where are you? You're going to wish you were dead by the time I'm done with⁠—"

He took one too many steps into the room, and the closets burst open. Troy swivels to defend himself against Yuan's sword when Ibis comes from behind with a knife and handcuffs. Troy grabs Yuan's arm, stealing her balance, and shoves her toward Ibis, who is forced to lower his knife to avoid stabbing her. Tilt rams into Troy from the side, but then Troy is fiddling with a button on his watch, and I shut my eyes tight against whatever comes next.

He must make himself bigger or stronger or something because the Protectors are having a difficult time fighting him off, even though he's outnumbered. Another beep from his watch and I hear Dust cry out in pain.

I can't let them do this for me. I can't let someone else take the fall for me.

I stand up and cry, "Stop!"

"Get down, Night," Blaze seethes, and she's injured, and Star is too busy healing an unconscious Groundhog to help her.

"Ah, ah, ah," Troy says, clicking his tongue. "I knew the fucker was around here somewhere. Greyson, were you going to let them fight your battles for you? How shameful."

"Leave them alone," I plead. "You didn't come for them, anyway."

"Hold them back," he orders.

An icy stone settles at the bottom of my stomach, but I do what he says, sending out black tendrils of smoke to restrain the Protectors, despite their frustrated protests. Tilt curses at me, and Ibis is trying to speak gently to me, and I know I have to block all of them out if I want to get through this.

Troy, now no longer being attacked by so many people at once, takes his time approaching me. I try backing away, but I don't have anywhere to go.

Fuck, he's going to kill me. He picks up one of the Protectors' knives and I blanche.

He leaps suddenly, shoving me into the wall and shoving the knife at my throat. I claw at him, trying desperately to escape, but he's too strong. He gets my arms pinned quickly, and there's nothing left for me to do but take whatever punishment he deals.

"Let us go, Night," Ringman orders me, and his voice is scared and desperate. "Let us help."

"Did you really fucking think they were going to keep you around?" Troy asks me. "How stupid are you, really?"

I don't answer. I don't free the Protectors, either.

"They were being nice to you while they waited for me to attack so that you would give me up, and then they were going to arrest you while you no longer had someone strong to protect you," Troy tells me. "I found the plan on their desk."

"You're lying," I say, and it comes out afraid. I try again, more confident: "You're lying."

He uses the tip of the knife to draw blood from my cheek. "They don't want you, Night. I can't believe you were stupid enough to fall for it for so long. Why would they genuinely want a piece of shit like you around? You couldn't even let them go through with their plan before giving in to me again." He laughs at me, spit landing on my chin. "What an idiot."

"Night," Ibis says, and his voice is so gentle, "let us go. We can help; you don't have to deal with this alone."

"If I go with you, you won't hurt them?" I ask. I won't meet his eyes or any of the Protectors'. Instead, I focus on the spot between Troy's eyebrows, where his anger comes to a point.

"I'll hurt them," he laughs, "but if you deny me, I'll fucking tear them to shreds and kill them. If you're okay with seeing your friends get brutally murdered, feel free to struggle. If not, then you're going to do exactly as I say when I let you go, and you're never going to try to escape again. Do you understand?"

He releases my hands, and I stumble.

"You didn't come for them," I plea, "and they only fought you because I told them to." Ringman starts to protest, so I use my shadows to cover his mouth and choke out his words. I didn't tell them to fight Troy, I know, but he's going to hurt me anyway, and I may be able to convince him to leave them untouched.

"It's not about what they did, Greyson," Troy says, and his smile is genuine and gleeful. "It's about what you did. I've made it clear you're not to run." He turns to inspect the Protectors as if they're items on the shelf of the grocery store. "Now, they are going to show you what happens when you disobey."

"I won't run again," I promise. "I'll stay on Pluto for the rest of my life. You've proven your point, you don't have to hurt anyone."

He slowly approaches Star, who struggles against my shadows, but it's futile. My heart is beating in my throat.

"Ah," Troy says as he inspects his knife, only a few inches away from Star, "but I am going to have so much fun hurting them anyway."

He raises the knife, and I see red.

As he brings his arm down to cut Star, I jerk Star out of the way with my shadows, pulling him behind me, to safety. He's breathing heavily, as afraid as I am of Troy.

Troy turns to face me again, achingly slowly. "Oh?"

"I already promised to go with you," I say again, and I'm drenched in sweat.

"Try that again, and you won't survive the next beating," he says. I shudder because he's telling the truth, I won't survive. He'll kill me, but Luna, I can't let him hurt innocent people⁠—

He turns to Ibis next, twirling his knife.

Ibis stares at the knife for a moment, and then he tests the binds around his wrists. Strong. My shadows have always been stronger than what they can fight.

"Night," he says, "you have to trust that we're strong enough to deal with him. You have to let us go."

Troy levels his knife at Ibis's throat, or tries to, and I'm already pulling Ibis out of the way. When Ibis is safely behind me, Troy laughs.

"Why do you care about them?" he asks me. "They don't care about you."

I don't answer. I can't.

"They really did plan on taking you prisoner, Night, after they had me arrested. They don't care about either of us." He turns again, and his expression is soft and kind and caring. He takes a step toward me, and my instincts scream at me to run.

"I can show you what I found," he says. "I can prove they wanted to make you their prisoner."

"They said I could leave as soon as my teleportation was working again," I argue. "I wasn't trapped."

"You think it was going to stay that way forever?" He presses a button on his watch, and the cameras from the Protector meeting room project into the room, filling my bedroom with tables and pens and blueprints.

And the one right in front of me is a plan of attack, in case Troy tried to take me back. In case I refused to stay.

They were going to trap me with inanis, use handcuffs and get me locked somewhere. Arrows in red pen show the attack.

'Use force if necessary⁠—do not let Night return to Pluto.' It's written there clearly. It's not ambiguous. The Protectors had lied to me.

"Fuck," I whisper. "I thought..." There's a lump in my throat. "They told me..."

"They lied to you," Troy tells me softly. "It's okay. It's not your fault; they're monsters."

"We just wanted to protect you from him," Blaze tells me, and she's desperate. "You're being abused, and it's not okay⁠—We can find you another family if you don't want to stay here, but we can't let you go back into his hands."

"You said I could leave when I'm healthy again," I growl, suddenly furious that I was so stupid. "You said I wasn't a prisoner here. But I was, wasn't I? Is that why Star never left my side? He was making sure I never escaped?"

"No⁠—I was staying near you because I like being near you," Star says. "I like you."

"You're lying." I can't get enough air. "You're all lying to me."

Troy's hand pulls my chin up, forcing me to look at him. "You can't trust them, Night. I'm the one who has never lied to you. Help me punish them, and I'll make it worth your while."

Fuck. He's going to kill me, I know he is. But is it better to be a prisoner here? I don't have any good options.

Troy's fingers dig into my shoulder. "You don't want to make me mad, Night. If you're smart, you'll let me have my way with them. I can leave them alive, if you like...or we can kill them all for lying to you. What would you prefer?"

I try turning my head away from him to get myself under control. He grips my chin harder and stops me.

Tears well up in my eyes, and I try blinking them away before he notices, but I'm too late. He lets go of my chin and slaps me⁠—hard⁠—and then lets go of me entirely. I sink to the ground, too weak to remain standing without support.

"Men don't cry," he snarls.

He picks up his knife again, and I struggle to keep track of what he's doing while also trying to get myself under control. I'm trying to pay attention to so many things at once that my grip on the shadows loosens, and Star's light pushes through.

A beam hits Troy in the back of the head, sending him sprawling before he even knows that Star is free. He groans and tries to sit up, but Star hits him again with another beam of light, and this time when Troy falls, he doesn't get back up.

A sob escapes my throat. Star approaches Troy slowly, trying to gauge whether he's really unconscious⁠—or worse. When Troy still doesn't move, Star kneels down to take his pulse. "Alive, but unconscious."

Then Star turns to me. I try to teleport, but I flicker again, and I scream in pain. Two realities, two locations, and my cells are splitting between them⁠—

I fall back into Solar Works, into Star's arms.

"I'm sorry," he says. "I'm so sorry."

There's no point in struggling, I don't think. If I fight, they'll still arrest me, and anyway, I don't have anywhere to run to. I don't have a home to go to, and I can't even go back to Pluto. Even if I found a place to stay, what would I eat? How would I survive by myself?

Star doesn't put inanis handcuffs on me, though. He's just holding me and apologizing.

I must've let go of the other Protectors when my teleportation glitched because they're now swarming Troy, restraining him and removing his weapons. Maybe it's just not my turn yet, then. Maybe they're still getting to me.

But when Troy has been taken away and they turn to me instead, they don't threaten me or try to tie me up. I hold on tight to Star because I'm afraid I'll flicker again, and he's keeping me grounded. My tears soak the shoulder of his cotton T shirt.

"Night," Ibis whispers, "we are so sorry that we lied to you. We're not going to take you prisoner, and you can leave now if you want. We will not stop you."

A sob escapes my throat. "I don't have anywhere to go. I⁠—" I clutch Star's shirt. "Fuck. I'm a prisoner if I stay here, I get beat to hell when I'm on Pluto, and I don't have another fucking place to go⁠—"

"You're not a prisoner," Ibis says. "You're not a prisoner. We're so sorry. We weren't going to keep you here⁠ if you didn't want it⁠—we would've settled for finding a family to adopt you. God, we just didn't want him to be able to hurt you anymore."

A/N: This is where I stopped writing this scene. Essentially, you can assume it ends with Night learning to understand why the Protectors were willing to use force to keep him from returning to someone as violent as Troy.

He gets his happy ending--even if he doesn't see it in these moments.