Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It’s been a few days since Marker and Fanny took Tree out of the Goiky Canal by chopping him down. He finally had his limbs back and could freely move wherever he pleased and participate in challenges. Right now, Two was still counting the votes and Death Pact Again wasn’t up for elimination, which meant they could spend the evening like they wanted to. And he knew exactly how he wanted to spend his time.

While wandering around at a hurried step to find a specific person, he was holding a flyer about an ambulant fair that promised food and a huge variety of products to buy. And the best part, it was tonight!. This was great news, fantastic news even. But he couldn’t find him and this bugged him. and the little light wasn’t helping.

“Hey,” A calm voice suddenly sounded from behind. “Is everything okay?”

It was Black Hole. Right on time, the one he was looking for. The remaining sunlight made its way towards his umber skin, reflecting his sweet smile. This, and the sunset behind were a huge combo Tree didn’t know if he could take.

“Oh, there you are! Yeah, uhm, I wanted to give you this.” He quickly handed the flyer to Black Hole. Maybe too quickly.

He stared nervously at Black Hole, who was carefully reading the whole paper. On the meantime, Tree’s heart was pounding at all speed and his palms felt clammy

“So…?” Tree tried speaking up. “What do you think?”

“Sounds like a safe way to have fun, am I right?” Black Hole sheepishly chuckled. “But, is it us two alone?”

“Uh- well, we can invite the rest of us Death Pact Again if you want,” he offered, receiving a slow nod as a reply. He felt a wave of frustration once those words came out of his mouth.

It’s not like he didn’t get along with the rest of the team, Marker and Fanny. Actually, they all talked and discussed the previous events, and started getting along pretty well ever since. However, he was honestly hoping for a two-only hangout where they could spend the time along with a snack.

Welp. Looks like that’s not happening tonight.

“Alright, see you there then,” was all Tree managed to pull out. He usually was confident when around Black Hole, without these complications. Then why was he struggling this much right now? Whatever, he was sure he could pull himself together at night.

⋆.˚✮Black Hole✮˚.⋆

It was almost at night, and Black Hole was near the location the flyer signed. The cold night with dim lights was ambiented by the joyful music that played in the distance. He checked on his phone, it was 10:30.
After peering around to check if his friends were around, he zipped on his black puffer jacket and let the white lapel cover his neck to warm himself up.

He felt how someone dug a finger on his ribcage before a loud “Boo!” was heard. It was Fanny, along with Marker and Tree, the three of them wearing the leather jackets from their teams, which Two made themselves once the show started.

“Ow! I get it, you’re all here,” Black Hole huffed.

“Yes we are!” Marker crowed.

“Now, where do we start? Got any ideas?”

“I heard there was a plant exhibition,” Tree replied to the vortex. “Maybe we can try checking that first? And we can see if there’s anything else on the way there.”

“Sounds like we have to walk long distances. I hate that idea!” Fanny barked.

“You can not go if you don’t want to. But maybe Tree’s right,” Black Hole objected. “We have all night-”

“Not really, silly!” Marker refuted in a wacky way.

“Yeah, that’s a problem,” Tree conceded. “These folks leave at midnight. But still, who says we can’t have fun until there, eh?”

“Then let’s go!” Marker shouted, running all the way towards the fair. It wasn’t only huge, but also large and all spreaded in a sinuous line, with enough space to form a path people could follow. Fanny followed him, and so did everyone else.

No matter the distance, the music played everywhere, as the loudness of people talking and tasty food being displayed would fill over the whole atmosphere, probably in excess. However, there was no longer any difference between music and people once they entered, which overwhelmed Black Hole to the point he had to blatantly cover his ears with both hands. He was also making a huge effort trying to contain his whole power and not accidentally pull people on his event horizon, which distraught him even more. And to make things worse, at some point he didn’t see where his friends were anymore and all he could do was follow the crowd.

Supposedly, they were going to a plant exhibition, but he didn’t see any plants, if there ever were plants in there. He stopped near a food truck with Mexican food at the realization he completely lost sight of his team and was all alone. Easy, he could just float and go find them. What would be actually difficult is truly finding them while a shade roof covered his vision. Perfect.

He was getting cold, so he put his hands on the pockets from his jacket. But no sooner was he doing so that he felt a weight pushing him and some arms wrapping around his body, almost making him trip and fall.

“Got him!” Marker exclaimed.

It wasn’t only him. It was also Tree, being the latter who got the firmest grip, and it was probably him who risked the vortex into falling in the first place.

“Black Hole! Where did you go!? We’ve been looking for you everywhere!” Fanny snarled with hints of concern.

“Well, I was wondering the same thing. You guys need to slow down, at least a little,” Black Hole objected once his friends let go. He still didn’t process the fact Tree literally hung himself onto his body once they found him.

“We can all learn from our mistakes!” Marker tried calming the waters between the two. “In the meantime, Tree can hold you so you don’t get lost anymore! Right, Tree??”

“I-... umm, I guess I can!” Tree nervously formulated, as Fanny instantly joined the two in an awkwardly loosen grip that gave Black Hole butterflies. He didn’t want to make Tree feel uncomfortable, so he tried not remarking it much.

Now, Tree was holding Black Hole’s arm, so he wouldn’t get lost anymore; while Fanny and Marker would take the lead and try degustations or participate in pesky Kermesse games like “hit the balloon and win a prize”. For some reason, the noise was bearable now and Black Hole could actually tell what was people and what was music.

“Look! We won a dinosaur!” Marker bragged, showing what looked like a whole body-size t-rex plushie. “This one’s for you!” And he handed it to Tree. “And Fanny’s getting us more!”

“Please don’t spend my money on this, guys…” Tree whined.

“Just one more, Tree!” Fanny clarified while shooting a dart to a small balloon.

“Looks like there are many prizes,” Black Hole analized, peering at the amount of plushies of all sizes and forms hanging on the tent.

“Yeah…” Tree said with uneasiness.

“You two can keep going if you want,” Fanny offered. She surely had a good aim, since she was being handed another plushie, this time with a leaf shape. She whispered something to Marker, who quickly ran towards them.

“Marker, I told you to NOT give them another one!!” She attempted scolding with no avail.

“This one’s for Black Hole!” Marker said with a grin, handing the plush to him and leaving after that before the singularity could thank him.

“Let’s go, shall we?” Tree proposed, heading him to keep going, and Black Hole nodded.

Then, Tree told Marker to tell Fanny that they were leaving to keep exploring the fair while they could.

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

After stopping by a bunch of stands for taking pictures and talking about life while wandering around, they noticed the end of the line was near the a-two-sment park, which made sense; and so was the plant exhibition, which they already forgot at this point. It was one of the largest attractions yet, with what seemed a whole transparent greenhouse for different plants and flowers.

Black Hole noticed how Tree’s eyes widened in amazement at the sight of it alone, so he couldn’t imagine how the latter would react once inside. However, there was a small or not-so-small issue only the former realized once Tree approached it.

“Maybe I should stay outside,” Black Hole sentenced in defeat, letting Tree completely lose his grasp on him.

“Why that?” Tree asked, confusion clearly taking over him.

“Well, I can, y’know, suck this whole place up if I’m not careful…”

“Come on! Well, what if I help?”

“Help?” Black Hole inquired.

“I don’t know, maybe holding you like before helps. It'll surely work, since you already made it until now!”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” Tree replied calmly.

Black Hole breathed out, looking at Tree and then at the structure.

“Alright.” Black Hole nodded. “Let’s do this.”

“Thank you…”

In case Black Hole needed it, this time Tree grasped his arm tighter when entering, and neither of them could believe what they were witnessing: a lot of plants, trees and flowers from different sizes, forms and colors they have never seen before; or at least Black Hole didn’t. Because, as long as Tree was amazed with this priceless scenario, he wasn’t exactly a newbie in the plant's topic; he could perfectly differentiate one from another.

And the cherry from the dessert was Tree’s reaction to it all: his eyes shining at the sole sight, jabbering over each species and how he acted like a happy little child at this place, as if he felt at home. All Black Hole could do was chuckle and laugh at his best friend’s behavior; he never saw him this ecstatic, since he often was collected and calm with his feelings.

“I’m glad they get to raise awareness over these!” Tree faintly blurted. “Look! That one’s very interesting too!” He added, pointing at a large yet young tree with pink flowers.

Then, he took Black Hole with him to give the tree a closer look. It was clearly bigger than them with tons of flowers that gave the illusion of a thick foliage, and it reminded him of the time Tree was stuck in the canal. His stomach turned at the thought alone of how he was responsible for his death and never took action into actually helping him get out of that watery hell once he could.

“Hey,” Tree’s soothing voice brushed his thoughts away. “Are you okay?”

Did he seriously stay like this for that long?

Chapter Text

Black Hole woke up when the sun rays made their way timidly into lightening the game grounds. He sat on the floor and stretched himself a little before heading to the hotel and greet his teammates through Tree's window, since he was often the first awake and the only room from his friends with one. He flew towards there as always and tried calling him out, but he got no response. Scared of entering, he called him louder. Nothing.

He forgot to put on his hearing aids, so hoping Tree actually called back and Black Hole didn’t hear him, he put them on and tried again.

Nothing.

He knew Two would start the challenge shortly, so he needed to look over anywhere he thought Tree could be.

Maybe try with the Jungle? They’ve been there in order to take care of a funny plant once, so maybe he could be there. Unluckily, although it was full of many big and small healthy trees, there was no sign of Tree.

What about the Goiky Canal? Maybe he was there again. He feared that one, but the more he postpossed it trying to find him in the jungle, the more that thought disturbed him. So he decided to put his fear aside and do it for him. In case he was there, he now knew what to do.

Regardless, he looked everywhere around the watery surface, but Tree wasn’t there. On one hand it was a relief, he wasn’t stuck there, but it meant he still had to keep looking. But where could he search now? Perhaps wandering around the world could be the solution to cover locations no one arrived before; there was a chance Two already started the contest and disqualified him for not appearing, which already happened with Tree. And it left him with a sour taste.

With that in mind, he assumed he had no time to lose and made the journey to places like tundras, desserts, even the Yoyle realms with their so cursed Yoyle berries. But there still was no damn trace of Tree in there. What if he was dead and he lost this whole time? He could try reviving him and ask if his theory about the challenge was right, so he quickly flew there and spelt his name on the Recovery Center, wanting for him to come out of it.

But nothing happened.

If one got tired by flying, Black Hole was more than that. He was exhausted at this point and he still had no idea where either Tree or his team could be. He was thinking of this when he saw Fanny and Marker come over from out of the hotel, they were puffed out.

“Black Hole!” Marker said after arriving. He stopped to take his breath back and continued. “Have you seen Tree?”

“We can’t find him anywhere!” Fanny added.

Black Hole shook his head. “I thought he was with you guys.”

“Why don’t we ask Two?” Marker proposed, getting dubious stares from the two.

“That didn’t work last time-”

A robust and healthy figure with a clean suit interrupted their talk. It was Two, with their recognizable British accent and their wacky manners.

“Howdy, Death Pact Again!” They greeted joyfully. “How is it going?”

“Where’s Tree!?” Fanny demanded.

Two tilted their head. “Tree? Oh, he got sick last minute and had to intervene. Speaking of which, I need to make an announcement related to it and the course of the game.”

“Wha-? But where is h-!” Before Black Hole could finish his sentence, Two disappeared in front of their eyes.

“Come on!” Fanny exclaimed, frustrated.

A feeling of defeat started building up within them. Getting “sick last minute” didn’t make sense, he was gone the whole morning! Maybe Two was right, and it did take them this whole time to stabilize him. None of them knew, much less did Black Hole. At least they figured out he wasn’t dead, or kidnapped, or trapped in the form of a giant tree in the middle of the canal. He was only sick, and knowing it was something they could help with relieved the singularity.

“What if he dies?” Marker said worried.

“Tree’s a healthy guy. It surely was something like a cold.” Fanny finished.

How could a special announcement have to do anything with Tree getting sick? Black Hole thought.

Suddenly, the four found themselves near the hotel, with Two in the middle of the circle formed by the six teams. Everyone was talking, all of them carefree, and there was a chance the other five teams were already there before them.

“Everyone!” Two clapped twice, taking the whole cast’s attention. “I need to make a special announcement!”

“Alright! Book replied. “What is it?”

“Today I found out Tree got sick.”

“That’s good for me. I was already fed up with that hideous beast,” Golf Ball taunted.

Black Hole’s face boiled as he pressed his fists. Did she seriously refer to Tree, his best friend, with such a name? Twice now? That was inconsiderate, to say the least. He wasn’t gone for any reason, he was sick! And still she thought it would be funny to say her thoughts out loud.

“Well I don’t think so, Golf Ball,” Two corrected. “Because of that as the main reason, the show will have to go on an indefinite hiatus.”

The scandal shortly after that was huge. Everyone was mad, since temporary disqualification was an unused option. Some watered down slurs, along with an inevitable frustration were quickly heard around the terrain, since limitless power was something no one wanted to leave on a stand-by. Still, Two didn’t seem stirred up by this, which was weird, but highly appreciated by Black Hole.

“This isn’t the only motive I’m taking this measure,” Two stressed out. “There are many personal reasons why I decided to talk this with y’all. I thought you’d be understanding!”

“Don’t worry, Two,” Gaty consoled. “Not like we’ll hate you or anything.”

“Well, that’s a relief!” They chuckled. Now they had to finish their announcement. “That’s all, I guess. You can freely enjoy your spare time without challenges interrupting you!” They tried joking.

After that, everyone hurried in going anywhere else, leaving an atmosphere of disappointment wherever there was a group of contestants together. Well, except for Death Pact Again.

It surely was a huge measure to freeze the course of the show only for one contestant, no matter who that was. But if Two said it was also by personal stuff going on in their life, probably no one could complain about this. However, there was still an enigma between the team about Tree’s location, and this frustrated the vortex even more.

He looked around and noticed Gaty was sitting on a wooden bench near where the announcement happened with Two, who was writing down something in a notebook right next to her. Maybe everyone did have their own struggles at the end of the day. He didn’t know Two had a therapist, much less it was Gaty.

Whatever. He had more important things to focus on.

“Fanny!” Marker called out with a smile on his face. “Wanna play toss the dirt with me?”

“I hate playing to toss the dirt!” Fanny said angrily.

“What about you, Black Hole?”

“I- I'm not really in the mood for playing.”

“Oh, don’t worry, it’s okay!” Marker assured happily, and started making a gap on the ground with both hands. Eventually the hole was bigger, and Fanny had already left at that point. As for Black Hole? He was still floating next to Marker’s gap and glancing at the algebralien. All he could think of was asking Two where Tree was. This was the only moment where he would know where Two was, but interrupting would be disrespectful. Maybe waiting was the best he could do right now.

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

The wind was getting colder, and the sun was setting and darkening the sky, but there was no signal of Two and Gaty finishing soon. There surely were a bunch of personal things to be approached, huh.

The windows from the hotel started lightening as the time passed by, and he looked up to see some stars timidly showing up above him. He didn’t remember life out there, neither wanted to. He was alright like this, he had friends and a home. And more than that, he had Tree, his dearest friend… or the love of his life, he didn’t know anymore. What mattered was, as far as he knew, everyone in his group was content with each other.

He saw both Gaty and Two leave the bench, as the latter approached him.

“Black Hole!” Two said. “You seem a bit, how do I say it, off. Is there anything you wanna talk about?”

“Yeah, actually,” Black Hole acknowledged. “I need to ask you a few things about Tree.”

“Gladly! I’m all ears. Wanna go anywhere warmer? I’m freezing here!” They snickered.

“Sure.”

After that, Two guided him to the inside of the hotel right next to Robot Flower’s “Stuff for Yourself”.

“So, what did you wanna talk about?” Two inquired, resting their back on the counter.

“Uh- yeah. How long is that going to last?”

“Sorry I can’t give you a definite date. But you can go visit him if you want to!” They offered.

Black Hole’s eyes widened. “Woah, really?”

“Yep! He’s in a temporary quarantine structure I built nearby just for him! To guarantee he’s alright.”

“Can’t you- Please show me where that is?”

“Of course, silly!”

They snapped their fingers and suddenly spawned next to a building in the middle of yellow grasslands¹. It wasn’t that close to the hotel as Two said, but Black Hole didn’t mind. He knew where Tree was and what was best, they could be together!

Black Hole couldn’t be happier, and stuttering was all he could do at this point. “How great! This will be amazing news for the rest of the-”

“Woah, woah, Slow down! You can’t tell the others yet!”

“Wha-...? Why not?”

“This is confidential news I’m only telling you because, well, apparently you’re the only one that cares about him.” After that they snickered.

“Come on, we had our ups and downs. But we all care about each other,” Black Hole corrected.

“As you say! I’m just saying, you’re the one that seems to care about him the most. Which reminds me, a little birdie told me he really wanted to see you!”

His eyebrows raised at the news. Did Tree really say that?

“Really?” That’s- That’s good to know!”

“And it gets better! What if you go see him right now? It’d be a great surprise!”

“Uht- I guess I-”

“You guess…?”

He felt a knot in his stomach and there was a foolish smile that didn’t leave. He wasn’t the most expressive when it came to emotions, but this could be taken as an exception. He giggled, slightly covering both cheeks with his hands.

“Come on!” Two snickered. “I need to get in either way, so I guess going together won’t hurt anyone, am I right?”

Quickly, Two opened the door and both entered. Inside was Tree, pacing around and still not being alluded to by the two that entered, not until Two loudly made themselves known.

“Oh, hey!” Tree’s eyes lit when noticing the vortex and waved comically at him.

“Hey,” he waved back.

“We’re here to check on your vitals, Treeyee! Don’t worry, we won’t take long,” Two informed, putting a thermometer in Tree’s mouth. They instructed Tree to press two fingers on his wrist and count.

Even though they were inside and sheltered from the outdoors, it still was chilly for Black Hole. He peered around, it was all full of grayish tones and a tile floor. At his left was a greenish desk with paper tape written, on all of the three drawers. He heard Two instructing the botanist to take deep breaths while checking on the thermometer. Based on their reactions, everything was coming quite alright, so he sighed in relief.

“Done!” Two proclaimed, patting Tree’s head. “You can get with Black Hole-” they pointed at the singularity- “If you want, but just for a little. I have to ensure the environment and climatize it, y’know.”

“Oh, it’s alright,” Tree dismissed.

“I’ll tell you when it's time to leave anyway, if that’s okay!” Two finished before snapping their fingers again and disappearing.

Shortly after, Black Hole hung himself over Tree’s body in a bear hug, almost making him crush the wall.

“Easy there, buddy! I missed you too!” Tree huffed, hugging him back.

Maybe it lasted more than it should have, but both enjoyed feeling each other’s warmth again.

“What in hell happened to you?” Black Hole asked.

“Apparently I got a serious disease. I started feeling off and Two kept me here ever since,” Tree explained. “Which sounds weird, since I should take sun to recover. But whatever. Don’t worry though, I’m feeling fine now.”

Black Hole smiled at him. “Well, that’s good to know.”

Before Black Hole could react Tree was stroking some hair out of his face and laid something on his braided half up. This led him to realize Tree got more attentive over him these few days, and flustered him a little. He shakily took his hand there, taking out what the evergreen gave him. A red flower? It looked like a rose, but it was more open.

“A rose?” Black Hole chuckled. “Thank you!”

“Not really. It’s a gardenia!” Treed cooed, correcting him and chuckling.² “Just a little gift for you, so you don't miss me when I’m not there."

“That-, That sounds nice!”

A raspy noise came from some old speakers, telling Tree to dismiss his teammate and go to sleep, so both greeted each other with another short hug and Black Hole left quickly after.

The door creaked when closing, leaving Tree alone again.

Chapter Text

Since the day Black Hole started visiting Tree, he noticed both felt better and more open with each other: Tree felt secure when talking about his life here and how Two would try to take care of him, while Black Hole could easily tell him about life outside. The vortex made sure to check on the botanist often, either on physical or mental health; and trying to be someone he could rely on. Still, they couldn’t hang out very often, since Two told them it was a contagious disease and they were trying to take care of the contestants, even if the show wasn’t on the run for now.

Today wasn’t different. They were talking about weather when a slightly saturated bell ring indicated it was no longer time for visits, so Black Hole left after dismissing him.
Some days passed like this, and many times Tree would usually ask about the rest of the team visiting him as well.

After getting out of Tree’s place, he headed to the hotel, where Two would often spend their time. He found them at the ground floor chatting happily with the debuters as usual, so he approached them and tried taking the word without interrupting.

“Hey, Two?” Black Hole called out.

“Oh hey!” Two greeted him, waving at him. "How can I help?”

“Well, Tree and I really wanted to know if you could let him see Marker and Fanny as well,” He petitioned, tilting his head slightly.

“I already told you, I- I can’t let much people in, more than I’m already doing” Two reminded him. “Not even I know what Tree has, so I can’t come to an approximate conclusion on this matter yet.”

Black Hole let out a notoriously disappointed sigh, but after that, he tried not revealing much more emotion.

“It’s okay.”

“Thanks for understanding!” Two said carelessly, yet with hints of relief, before getting back into their conversation.

He no longer had anything else to do here, so leaving the hotel was the only thing he could do anymore. This scenario repeated over and over, even more than he could ever remember. No matter how much he tried to compromise and get Two’s trust into letting the team in, nothing would even get a chance. He understood it was viral, but he still couldn’t stand the fact that sometimes both Gaty and Two would enter together without any protection; but they would not accept the idea of the team entering, not even with the most meticulous protection.

Wandering around the hotel and thinking about how to tell the news to Tree, he saw Fanny and Marker in the distance, sitting in the trunk of a huge yellowish tree. If Tree was there, he would know the species of it. But nothing would happen now, since he wasn’t there. And it upset him.

This has to be a joke, Black Hole though. And if it really was a joke then he didn’t find the punchline, if there even was one. Nothing made sense to the singularity these days. But he was still trying. Trying for his teammates.

Trying for Tree.

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

Much later, at night, Black Hole thought it would be a good idea to wander around when everyone was sleeping. Maybe being alone without the bustle from his quirky environment and these people he once was competing against days ago, would help him fix what he was feeling and have a better willingness to live tomorrow.

He passed near the hotel, glimpsing at the windows. Some had these cold lights that would light them, and some others were dark. After that, he approached the tree where his friends were in the midday. It had the initials of many contestants, and was an example of a common feeling of unity, even if from different teams. He noticed the initials of Marker and Fanny, and even from himself, all written by the latter; but not Tree’s. Well, knowing he wasn’t a huge fan of marking or damaging nature, it made perfect sense.

The tree was far away from everything, even from the enclosure where Tree was. But even there, he saw Two enter. And what was worse, they were accompanied. Whatever he saw had blue in it, so he assumed it was Four. But, why would Four care about Tree in the first place? And, going with Two? That was weird on a whole new level.

Yep, that was it for today.

He had this feeling to leave, and he needed it now. But, he still had to know what this was all about, so lying nearby the tree, he tried faking to be sleeping. Unluckily for him, those people took so long to get out that when they did, Black Hole was already asleep, without taking that doubt away from his mind.

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

There was a lot of noise the next day, and it abruptly woke him up. Oh yeah, he forgot there were more people that wanted to joyfully spend time in the tree as if nothing bad was happening, while he was focusing on life-or-death stuff. And he wished he had forgotten for longer, because now it was making his blood boil.

He didn’t really see who they were, but he didn’t care enough to check. Instead, he hurried in leaving, hoping he could dissipate the growing irritation inside of himself.

Looks like his walk from last night was all for nothing.

He noticed the sun was already high up, which meant he was asleep the whole morning, and probably a good part of the afternoon. Ugh, great.

Once far away from everyone, the singularity spent the rest of the day in the back of the hotel, hoping no one close to him would need to interact with him, and if it happened, his only hope was he could answer with short answers. He rested his back on the wall, having a bitter feeling of ridiculousness by behaving like this only because of something he saw and was told hours ago. But hey, he could get better later, whenever this crap would end.

“Black Hole!”

The first thing Black Hole thought when hearing footsteps in the grass and Marker’s voice, was that the whole universe decided to be against him today. Running away or giving excuses to not talk wasn’t polite, and much less to such a ray of sunshine like Marker, so he had to go with the flow.

“What’s up?” He greeted, with nothing but uneasiness.

“Oh, it’s alright. Have you seen Fanny?” Marker asked.

Black Hole shook his head negatively, averting to face the other. But even with that, he felt how his whole body was being pierced by Marker’s concerned gaze.

“Is everything okay?” Marker inquired, putting himself in front of the vortex.

“N-yeah. Yeah, it’s alrigh-”

Marker got closer to Black Hole, probably more than usual. Definitely more than usual. “Doesn’t look like it! Wanna play Toss the dir-”

“Oh, uh, not really.”

“Aw! Don’t worry though, it’s a-okay! Can we see Tree now?”

And he had to mention that. Yep, checks out.

Black Hole grunted at the mere hearing of the idea and crossed his arms.

“No, Two told us to not even think about it.”

“But Tree wants to see us!” Marker whined, raising his arms.

“Apparently they don’t care about Tree’s emotional life,” Black Hole spat.

As long as he tried to avoid facing Marker, he knew this wasn’t exactly going to work.
After a short moment of silence, Black Hole glanced at how Marker sat on the ground, digging a small hole in the ground and then doodling different figures with his fingers: in the middle of the drawing was one like himself, with his purple-pattern shirt. Then appeared one like Tree, after that one similar to Black Hole at the back of it all and a frowny Fanny being the last drawn, and the most similar to the portrayed figure.

It made him realize how laid-back he became from his team and from life in general, and the fact Marker still wanted to hang out with him besides his awful behavior drenched his eyes with tears, which he quickly dried before Marker could see him.
After taking a few deep breaths, he kneeled next to Marker and asked him who these people were, to end up starting a warm conversation about the group and events from today. The latter then drew two lines on each cheek for both Tree and Black Hole, and the vortex asked why.

He said both would act funny when being around each other, and Black Hole chuckled.

“I hate taxes!” Fanny was heard shouting, walking towards the two.

“Evade them, then!” Marker concluded, carefree.

“Wha-”

“Look who’s back!” Fanny joked, interrupting Black Hole. She sat in front of the two, the doodle in the middle. “What even happened to you? No one really knew what to answer.”

“Don’t mind him,” Marker objected. “It’s hard to explain.”

“Thank you, but It’s okay,” Black Hole replied to him, then turning to Fanny. “I started visiting Tree lately, that's all.”

He now sat curled into a ball, both knees on his chest, observing how quickly the conversation derived between his other team members. This was alright for him, as long as he didn’t get called out, he could use that juicy time to increase his mood without draining any other people.

He took his gaze to the yellow grasslands being moved by a considerably cold wind, and saw a green figure approaching them at all speed. Not to say they were coming from somewhere near Tree’s booth, which was already bad. But what was oddly relieving is, they didn’t look worried or sad; on the contrary, they had a wide smile on their face, probably a little disturbing.

Once Two arrived, they asked the whole group to accompany them, since they needed to talk about important business of Tree with them.

“Y’know, we could have stood there,” Fanny told them, while all were going near the huge tree. Black Hole was behind them all, looking at the floor while following the crew.

Once far enough from any people, Two took some courage to finally speak up.

“Listen, folks. As far as I know, Black Hole alone would go visit Tree in order to make him company, am I right?” They started, receiving nods from everyone.

“So can we visit him now?” Marker inquired hopefully getting what they all yearned for.”

“On the contrary. He might no longer be able to receive visits.”

“What!?” The three exclaimed in unison, rage taking over them but only Marker being able to control it.

“Yeah, that’s… pretty much it.”

“But why?” Marker whined.

“He’s worse than ever, and he looks like a mess!” Two lambasted. “And the disease isn’t going well either and it makes him look worse. So yeah, I’m taking this measure to speed the- speed the process of healing.”

“Does he look that bad? We can go see him either way!” Fanny opposed.

“Absolutely not!” Two commanded. “But don’t worry, I found out that he can get a lot better with the help of sunlight! No need to thank me.”

Black Hole didn’t hear whatever Two had to say after that, because it was ridiculous, to say the least. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing from someone who supposedly was taking care of Tree. Talking crap of someone behind their back is already repugnant behavior, and more so if it's someone one’s taking care of. And the fact it was Tree who they were talking about sent Black Hole over the edge. He had tons of questions more than answers. Were Two always this dumb, that they didn’t notice that maybe having daylight would be good for someone like Tree? How in the world did they not notice? He literally gets sick when lacking daylight! Why were they doing these things that did all but actually help Tree!?

“Oh, so now you notice that, Two?” Black Hole demanded, stepping forward and daringly facing Two.

“Well I’m sorry for not knowing everything at once all the time, Celestial Entity!” Two spat with a tone that got quickly overtaken by mockery. Then, they talked to the team as a whole. “It’s what I had to do!”

That’s it.

“What you had to do!? What makes you think whatever this crap is, is what you have to do!?” Black Hole raised his voice, quickly getting closer to them.

While Black Hole kept furiously spitting his whole mind to Two, both fanny and Marker tried holding back the singularity with all their might, stopping him from pouncing over them or something worse.

“Do you think it’s funny that Tree is locked in that cage like a lab rat!? And that you let him see the sunlight just now!? You’re not even doing what you say you do and you’re isolating him from his friends with no reason! What kind of psychopath are you, Two!? You know what I think of this!? That you’re making this up on purpose!”

“Black Hole, calm down!” Fanny shrieked putting herself in front of both parts. “You’re mad and clearly not on your senses! Two wouldn’t do something like that on purpose!” Then she locked her gaze into the former host. “RIGHT, TWO!?”

“What kind of question is that? O-of course I mean well!” Two excused themselves.

“You better be telling the truth,” Black Hole started warning. “Because if I EVER find out you’re responsible of this crap on whatever position, I will make sure that you regret it once I put my hands on you.”

After that and without no further ado, he huffed and left the talk with nothing else to say. He wasn’t going to take this for longer, at least not until he stopped this desire of taking off his madness on people.

He flew to the huge yellow tree and stood near where he woke up this morning and tried thinking a way to calm himself down, but nothing came to his mind. And this frustrated him more.

He heard two voices too far away. He recognized them of course, those were his friends. But they looked a lot closer than what he heard. Not a huge problem, hopefully.

They stopped to get back some air before talking to him. All Black Bole did was stare at them, gritting his teeth in clear annoyance.

“Hey buddy, sorry we didn’t defend you there,” Fanny started.

“It’s okay. It wasn’t your fault, really,” Black Hole hoarsely replied, not looking at them but at the floor.

“We can go visit Tree if we’re sneaky enough,” Marker added.

Black Hole chuckled sadly, hoping to do no more than that. “Yeah, you guys surely can.”

“Maybe you can take a break from today while we go talk to him,” Fanny proposed.

“We’ll tell him you say hi!” Marker said with an ear-to-ear smile and raising his arms happily.

“Oh, thanks,” Black Hole giggled, his mood potentialy improving.

“I don’t know where you’re sleeping tonight or if we’ll see each other later, but goodbye!” The purple-clothed greeted him with a hug before dashing with Fanny at the same speed towards Tree’s place.

He couldn’t believe his mood improved this much only by talking to them.

He decided he was going to sleep further from the tree this time, just in case.

He had struggles, of course he had. But he had people to rely on today, and would have them tomorrow.

Oh, wasn’t he the luckiest one in this world.

Chapter Text

“Now that we’re all together, we can finally start the prototype for the next episode!” Two exclaimed after snapping their fingers and bringing everyone near the hotel. Their eyes were either on Death P.A.C.T Again or on Marker and Fanny the whole time, which made Black Hole worry.

They got closer to his team, and more than anything, closer to Tree. And as they did, all he hoped was the evergreen didn’t know about the events from the day before.

“I wanna try this cool idea now that I've decided Tree can play!-” They commented, rubbing their hand on Tree’s hair at the point the host’s hand was deep in it- “And if it works, we’ll upload it to Youtube!”

“What did you-” the botanist stuttered, checking on his thick, loose hair and gave up when not finding anything.- “Whatever.”

“The next challenge is going to be scavenger hunting!” Two announced, going back to their original spot. “I put over different biomes some elements that will be handed to you right now!”

As they continued giving out a proper explanation, all the teams one by one received a sheet of paper with six elements: a boombox, a diamond sword, a blue-covered book, a camera, a shooting star and a toy crown. They also handed three walkie talkies to each team.

“Uhh Two? What are the walkie talkies for?” Book asked, a little puzzled.

“Good question! In case any team decides to split, each group will stay communicated! And about the third walkie talkie? Well, it’s to communicate with me! Y’know, in case something bad happens!” Two explained. “The last two teams to come to me with all of the items listed will be up for elimination. Go!”

After Two said these words, everyone hurried to the Goiky Canal. Well, everyone except for Death P.A.C.T Again. They checked better on the list to determine their next move.

“Okay, we need a strategy and we need it fast!” Fanny acknowledged.

“I don’t have any ideas,” Tree blurted out.

“Well I think this is easy,” Black Hole argumented, “There’s only four of us and six items. If we-, if we split into two groups and each searches three things, it- it will be better for us and we’ll finish quickly.”

“Good thinking!” Tree congrated the vortex, thumbs up.

“Oh- uhh thanks, but it’s the easiest thing, reall-”

“I wanna go with Black Hole!” Marker interrupted.

“Which leaves me going with Tree,” Fanny concluded. “We can go for the first column of things and you can go for the second one. We have no time to lose, let’s go!”

While Fanny and Tree headed to the jungle, Black Hole was trying to figure out how to keep Marker close in the sky, since they had to look over the shooting star, and would probably make good use of flying at long distances.

“You suck, don’t you?”

“Not now, Marker, I’m trying to think.”

“I meant you can use your gravitational pull to take us there!” Marker proposed, gesturing the idea with both hands.

“I mean… I can try.”

Then, Black Hole put both hands around Marker and flew a little to see if it worked. Yep, it worked. And Marker didn’t die by it. Awesome.

Once that was settled, the two went up quickly passing by the different layers of the atmosphere. In a matter of seconds they went up the first two layers of the atmosphere. But there still was something wrong.

“I still don’t know how we’re gonna catch a shooting star like the one from the picture, if they’re actually disintegrating meteors,” Black Hole confessed when they arrived at the mesosphere. “They don’t even look like stars.”

“Don’t worry, I got this alright,” Marker assured. They saw a shooting star incoming, so Marker kept explaining. “We can snatch one, just like this!”

And after saying that, the star came to his arms and he grasped it. “See? And this one does look like the one from the picture.”

“That’s good to know,” Black Hole breathlessly chuckled. “I guess we can tick that one down and go with either the crown or the camera.”

In a matter of seconds, they hurriedly went down to the ground and Marker turned on both walkie talkies. They noticed green spheric robots flying around the sky, and how they curiously approached the duo.

“We got the shooting star!” Marker proclaimed out loud and closely to the device.

“Could you talk louder? I couldn’t hear you,” Tree spit with sarcasm.

“I hate loud noises!” Fanny said with a high tone.

“How are you guys going?” Black Hole asked the other duo.

⋆.˚✮Tree✮˚.⋆

“It’s fine, I guess. Over,” Tree replied while holding the walkie talkie with one hand and checking on a bush with the other.

They were in the jungle they once competed in a previous challenge, and Fanny was searching for one of the items assigned to them, or anything that could be helpful for the team.

“Are you sure you can do it, Tree? You don’t seem focused enough,” Fanny objected, going next to him.

“I’m fine,” Tree stressed out. “My head just feels funny.”

“Oh, in that case, things that happen. It will leave eventually,” She replied while going back to whatever she was doing besides getting on others’ business.

⋆.˚✮Black Hole✮˚.⋆

Whatever happened behind the walkie talkie got opaqued by the shrilling beeps those bots emitted when any of the team talked. Hopefully it wasn’t that important.

“Did he say anything?” Black Hole queried.

“Just that they’re fine!” Marker clarified.

As they got closer to the ground, Black Hole noticed more of these bots appeared and intruded on them more each second. Not only was it disturbing, it was also annoying.

“What are even those for?” Black Hole thought out loud, really not aiming for an answer.

“They’re probably here to check on our health and to make sure we’re not cheating,” Marker assumed. “But we can ask Two!”

Then he got close to the walkie talkie they shared with Two.

“Hey Two!” He called out. “What are these flying things for?”

“Good question!” The well-known voice resonated through the walkie talkie. “Well, erm, as you just said, these flying bots are for ensuring everyone’s well being and- and that they’re not cheating! Over.”

“See? We can trust them!” Marker assured.

Was Black Hole the only one that noticed the sequence? He couldn’t be. He was sure there was something wrong with what both heard. There had to be something wrong. There had to be.

“Something else is going on,” Black Hole condemned.

“What are you talking about?” Marker inquired with ingenuity.

“Since when did you have Two’s walkie talkie on?” the vortex demanded.

“Since we got the shooting star…?”

They were doomed.

Black Hole let out an anguish groan. Luckily they were already on ground, but he didn’t let go of Marker yet. Now was the worst time to do that and all his body felt it.

“Do you realize what’s going on, Marker?” He demanded, getting a negative sign.

“Okay…” he managed to repress a shaky sigh before continuing. “There’s a huge chance Two lied in what use the bots have.”

“They wouldn’t!” Marker cried out.

“Just think about it! They said ‘like you said’ and literally repeated the same thing you had said! They were lying, and that was not the reason why they are here.”

A shooting sound was heard and a laser nearly hit them shortly after, followed by more lasers towards them.

“RUN!” Marker shouted.

⋆.˚✮Tree✮˚.⋆

“This is ridiculous!” Fanny complained. “We’ve been here for more than we should have, because of your whims!”

“Shhh! I told you I felt something!” Tree retorted. After that, he took out a blue book, right like the one from the list. “See?”

“Whatever. That means we have four items left.”

“So close yet so far…”

“Let’s go already,” Fanny requested.

They ran through the jungle looking for a way out. It was cozy and welcoming, but they didn’t have any time to lose.

They went back to the yellow grasslands and Tree thought it would be a good idea to look over whatever greenish bush could be found.

“I hate this idea!” Fanny proclaimed.

“Do you have any better ideas?” Tree sassed out while digging both hands on the bush. There was nothing in this one, so he tried the same thing on another nearby bush. Nothing.

“Let me see,” Fanny harshly said, pushing Tree away from a third bush and started searching by herself. As weird as it sounded, they actually found something!

“Erm, what’s this?” Tree asked for himself while manipulating the brown device. It had two little legs and the speakers worked as eyes.

“I think this is the boombox we’re looking for!” Fanny celebrated, ticking it out from the list. “We’re half-way through!”

“We’re doing pretty fast,” Tree bragged. Still, they couldn’t give themselves the luxury of losing time, and much less now.

They tried looking over bushes, but no sooner they were doing this than both Black Hole and Marker were flying towards their direction with small, green spheric robots that were shooting lasers from their lenses.

“RUN!” Marker shrieked, pointing at the jungle.

⋆.˚✮Black Hole✮˚.⋆

They weren’t going to make it if everyone ran together, so Black Hole let Marker on the ground and told him to guide them wherever everyone would be safe and not harmed. In the meantime, Black Hole could kill some time for his team.

The bots tried to vainly shoot at him, clearly with no avail.

“So that’s where you wanna go, huh? We can play that way if you guys want,” Black Hole chuckled under his breath.

The closer these annoying creatures got to the vortex, the more doomed they were, since Black Hole himself would make sure to suck them using the gravitational force that mostly came from his arms and chest. Those weren’t that harmful, they were clumsy at best and Black Hole didn’t have a bad time dealing with them. However, the more he killed, the more bots came to annoy him and interfere with his vision, which was important.

Maybe letting them fall if they dared getting closer would be a good idea at this point, since he still had to get back to his friends, he thought. He flew the fastest he could to the jungle trying to avoid the filthy spheres, but it was difficult keeping in mind the whole biome could get sucked if he wasn’t careful. How was this so easy when they had to take care of the Funny Plant? Oh, yeah, he had the bracelet. Well, he didn’t have one, so it was up to him to figure it out.

He didn’t remember when, but at some point he started feeling an itchy heat at some points on his arms or back, which concerned him. He wasn’t supposed to feel, or he doesn’t remember having any negative feelings in those areas. He then noticed the same areas were constantly aimed by the bots. Is this pain?

He got tired of them and increased his pull, bringing all the robots in his singularity. It felt well somehow, probably because the itchy sensation on his skin ceased. On another hand, it got replaced by a warm body clinging on him. It was Marker, who came along with Tree and Fanny.

“The team’s together again,” Tree managed to pull out after taking some air. They surely came from a large distance to be in this state.

“We got two out of our three things!” Fanny crowed, holding their list.

“We only got one,” Marker added.

“It’s ok- Look out!”

Fanny’s warning got interrupted by one of the annoying things that came out from behind a tree and started shooting lasers aimlessly, some nearly hitting the team.

Panicked, Black Hole grasped it, crashed it on the floor and sucked it up, making sure it didn’t make any more problems.

“Sorry I didn’t stop it sooner,” Black Hole lamented, but Tree quickly went next to him to tell him it wasn’t his fault, and that at least he tried.

Even though no other harm was in sight, the tension was still felt. At least it was a good thing it wasn’t between the teammates anymore. He still had to stay alert though, and make sure the bond between each other still stood firm. Well, it wasn’t a problem now, so all he had to do was try and make sure his team was safe.

“Do we go for the last three things or…?” Tree tried saying out loud, aiming for a suggestion.

“Marker! Try communicating with Two!” Fanny commanded.

“On it!” Marker obeyed. He tried talking on the walkie talkie, louder and louder each time to try and get an answer.

Oddly –in an ironic way–, there was no reply from the other side. Not even a “I’m busy, sorry.” Nothing to cover their messed up creation and how they attacked him and his team.

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

The tension inside himself was growing, straining every part of his strong yet tired body. Not only on himself, but on the entire team as well, he noticed it on their worried faces while discussing if either keep on doing the challenge; and in their way of talking, trying to hide what’s there for everyone to see. He wasn’t close to them when Tree asked for a place he said was good for taking everyone’s nerves away for now. Everyone reluctantly obeyed and followed the botanist’s as-if floating step.

It wasn’t far, but it was a very nice place with various flowers, fluffy grass and especially, a good sight to the stars and a river in the distance.

Both Fanny and Marker dragged the singularity to follow them, clearly leaving Tree behind. Not like he followed them, though. That was weird.

“This is awesome!” Marker said in awe, along with other compliments coming from him.

The three admired the great amount of shining stars in this blanket of blue sky. Well, this starry background was familiar for Black Hole, but not along with a meadow below them that was divided by a river or with stains of grass, flowers and trees. It reminded him so much of Tree, and he sighed at the mere thought of it.

Speaking of Tree, why wasn’t he here admiring the blissful scenario as well? Maybe because he already saw this thousands of times. But he still wanted to see him enjoying this; maybe looking at it with different eyes would make this better than it already was.

He left the two when he heard them talk to each other enough to not notice, and went back to the inside of the forest. There was Tree, not difficult to find, sitting in a mossy trunk… or stone? He didn’t know, but it wasn’t comfy for sure.

“Hey,” Black Hole softly called him out. “Why are you here all alone?”

“I like to be alone sometimes, y’know,” Tree said, making sure only he and Black Hole heard.

“I get it… I just thought, maybe you’d like to come over, or…” And he stopped talking, maybe it was already too obvious or he wasn’t going right to the point-

“Yeah, I get it,” Tree cooed.

After that, there was a little wind that would make the fallen leaves rustle, being that and the muffled sound of the other two talking lively, the only thing they heard. None of them was really looking at each other, nor wanting to take the word after that.

“Sorry if it’s t- if it’s uncomfortable, but did anything else happen to you today?” Black Hole stammered, sitting on the floor next to Tree.

“No, but… I feel odd,” Tree blurted out. “I- Ever since I got locked up, I feel like I’m not… Me…”

He stood quiet, looking at this puzzled Black Hole. And spoke again.

“Like, no, I know I’m me,” Tree faltered. “But it doesn’t feel like me, it doesn’t-, it doesn’t feel like it’s me who’s using my own body-... I don’t know, and I don’t really want to talk about it much.”

“Sure,” Black Hole conceded. He got up and patted Tree’s hair, about to go with Marker and Fanny until the botanist calling him stopped his way.

“Could you stay with me, at least for a minute?” Tree requested shyly, luckily getting a nod as an answer. He was shrinking himself a little since it was getting cold.

He made a space for Black Hole in the trunk so both could sit together, their bodies pressing a little due to how small the space to sit was.
After a few minutes of peaceful silence, Tree yawned, stretching his body a little bit and hunched himself after. He rested his face on both hands for support.

“Sleepy?” Black chuckled for himself. He would lie if he thought it wasn’t pretty or endearing.

Tree snickered and gave him a side eye after nodding. He would also be lying if he said he wasn’t sleepy.

What was a muffled talk became louder laughs, yells and chatter. What were any of them expecting? It was Marker and Fanny, which meant loudness was a bare minimum. And badly, they were getting closer.

“Guys, guys!” Marker tried cheerfully getting their attention. “You don’t know what Fanny just told me!”

“It was a joke!” Fanny refuted irritated. She fixed his eye on the two men sitting and she talked more seriously, though not less irritated. “We still need to figure out what we’re gonna do with the challenge. What do you think?”

“Making sure we’re all safe is more important than the challenge to me,” Black Hole opined. “However, a lot of time has passed since the challenge started, and considering the case we lost, we’ll have to go back eventually."

“If that was the case, Two would have come for us alrea- oh-” Tree facepalmed- “Nevermind.”

“What if we stay here for tonight and go back tomorrow? We’ll have a lot of time to discuss all what happened today once we arrive,” Fanny offered.

“Sounds good to me!” Marker approved, thumbs up.

“Yeah, w- we can do that,” Black Hole agreed.

Tree just nodded. It was decided.

“Welp.” Fanny sat on the ground, resting her back on a tree.

Marker only laid back on the floor right there, and so did Black Hole as near from everyone as he could, resting his head on both hands and laying on his belly. On the other hand, Tree did sleep near the whole team, but laid closer to the vortex than anywhere with his consent, but still keeping a moderate distance; the botanist could get sucked by accident and Black Hole would feel guilty all his life.

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

Now at midnight, the wind got stronger and colder, waking Black Hole up. He saw everyone sleep peacefully, but Tree wasn’t there again. He got up to check nearby, making the least noise he could. And there was Tree, sitting on the same stone again. His head was low and he was staring at the floor. He looked doleful, and nothing got his attention.

“Tree?” Black Hole whispered, getting closer to his friend. “Is everything okay?”

He didn’t even raise his head to check. “Yeah,” Tree replied with a rough voice. “Just woke up…”

“Need anything?”

“No, don’t worry.”

He didn’t sound like usual. On the contrary, he sounded hushed and there was no way Black Hole could read him to tell what was going on.

“Just… go back to sleep, I'll be fine…”

He didn’t know what Tree’s currently deep voice had, but it was making him feel sleepy and weirdly comfortable. His whole body started feeling fuzzy, so he nodded and fumbled back to his sleeping spot, hoping Tree would go to sleep soon and whatever woke him up was harmless.

Chapter Text

When Black Hole woke up, he glimpsed Fanny signaling him to get up and go with the team, so he obeyed, rubbing his eyes and followed them. He barely remembered anything from last night, but there was a lingering feeling that it was something important. A bad dream? Probably that was it.

He fixed his eyes on Tree, who was happily skipping through the lead, and remembered what it was: he was awake at midnight. Maybe it would be good to ask him what happened ever since, because that didn’t come to his mind yet.

“Hey, Tree?”

“Mh?”

“Did you sleep well after, y’know…?”

“Ah, yes,” Tree replied. “Yes, I did. Thanks for asking!”

“Sure, no problem.”

The crust of the leaves when stepping on them could be heard wherever they stepped on. The air was humid as hell, and it wasn’t cold by any means.
When they two stopped talking, Fanny and Marker started discussing how they could get oriented and find a way out if they didn’t have a map.

“I hate being lost!” Fanny said angry and with a frown.

“Does anyone have a clue of where we are?” Marker whined with clear anxiety coming from him.

“I know!” Tree proclaimed smugly. “Follow me!”

“I’d say it’s stupid, but it makes sense. You know of nature,” Fanny thought out loud.

Everyone kept following Tree’s steps and tried with struggle to do so closely. He wasn’t far, but he wasn’t exactly close to them; he was at the lead, if that made sense. Besides, Tree’s pace was oddly fast to be him. Of course, everyone wanted to get out of the jungle, but it was like he was fit, which was odd. Maybe he had a lot of energy today? Probably that was it.

A few hours passed like this, everyone was merrily talking like nothing happened to them yesterday, while Black Hole willingly put an eye on the surroundings to protect his team from any harm. It was already enough for him to see them enjoying the day to day altogether.

After a while, both Fanny and Marker asked Tree if they could stop at least for a few seconds, since they were getting tired.

“Ughh, fiine,” Tree groaned, both hands on his hips and rolling his eyes. “But we’ll have to hurry when we get back on track.”

“It’s not fair!” Marker complained.

“Come on, give them a break,” Black Hole pleaded with a firm frown. “We’ll get out of here soon, there’s no need to hurry them that much.”

“Whatever you say, I guess,” Tree grunted before leaving them with a bitter taste.

“Geez, what’s wrong with him?” Fanny grumbled once he left, before looking at the vortex. “Did something happen between you two?”

“Not that I know,” he commented, a little concerned. “Last night he said he wanted some time alone, but I don’t know if something happened today.”

“We can ask him when the break finishes.” Marker laid on the floor while letting out an exhausted sigh. Everyone agreed and sat on the floor with him, keeping the silence the most they could.

The birds were peacefully chirping from the top of the trees, and mild rays of sun would soothe the cold from the wind, helping them all relax and regain energy.
Black Hole peered around, taking every single detail he could while it lasted. He didn’t want this moment to end, but since TPOT was back, they had to leave.

After a while, a faint humming sound filled the atmosphere. Black Hole recognized it was Tree, who was wandering around the forest far from them. His voice was mesmerizing, making him feel sleepy. It was the same feeling he had last night, so he tried to brush it off thinking of anything else. It was actually difficult and no matter how much he tried, it kept lingering in the back of his mind.

Maybe walking around and being physically active would help? There was nothing to lose, so he stood up telling his friends that he was going for a walk before leaving and temporarily interning himself into the depths of the jungle.

Everything was so calm and crowded with plants and trees, making him feel like he could successfully get lost and never be found. Especially when the sun was gradually leaving and its light wasn’t strong enough to do more than only lighten some spots, being the trees with thick leaves at fault.

Speaking of trees, he saw Tree spinning in circles around a tree with a huge trunk. It was weird to see him with such childish behavior, but it still was… endearing? Yeah, that could be it. He was priceless to Black Hole and seeing him happy for once today made him happy, even if there were things wrong with today.

“Oh, hi!” Tree waved when noticing who was observing him. “Were you looking for me?”

“Not really. Just went on a walk and found you,” Black Hole clarified, chuckling while doing so. “But, what are you doing?”

“Got a little bored. But now that you’re here, maybe we can talk!” The botanist replied with simplicity and headed closer to his company. He sat on the grass and patted a spot next to him.

The vortex sat, and something important came to his mind there. Well, besides the fact that Tree started acting strangely since last night and how he was the first to notice it, but the last to call it out.

“So… Do you, by any means, remember what you were going to tell me the night we went to the fair?”

“Uhh, no, not really…? I don’t remember saying that,” Tree opposed.

That light switch flicked inside Black Hole’s head. He realized there definitely was something wrong with Tree today, and for the sake of the relationship with both each other and the rest of the team, they had to discuss it.

“...Is everything okay?” Black Hole inquired, with a serious tone.

Tree’s eyes widened in disbelief for a few seconds, before taking his composure back. “Oh, uhh yeah. Why?”

“Well-” the vortex gulped- “I noticed-, well, all of us noticed some- some strange behaviors on you. First of all, last night you were… strange-”

“You must be inventing things,” Tree objected. “I slept like never last night!”

“Don’t you remember? You were awake sitting on a stone. I asked you if everything was okay and you told me to go to sleep.”

“Uhh… no? I’m sure that didn’t happen at all.”

“It did!” Black Hole grumbled. “First that. And what the hell happened to you just now? You acted so mad when literally everyone asked for a break!”

“It-! Well, I actually have no objection to that one,” Tree conceded. “But really, I’m totally fine. There’s no need for your ego to take over,” he spat.

Oh.

Was that really what he thought? He was doing his best, pulling a toll on trying to make things better by himself without bothering others, and it was just… egocentrism?

“Uht-...! Egocentric…? How is- you really mean it?”

“Right now, yes.”

He noticed a huge change in Black Hole. He stopped looking directly at Tree and he slightly frowned, so he tried making his tone a lot more gentle, still going on with his words. “Because I’m telling you I’m fine and you keep contradicting me.”

“That’s what you don’t get. It’s the whole team who saw it, not only me!” A long sigh escaped his throat. “Please-... If you don’t want to tell me just… let me know. But I’m sure something’s going on and if I’m right, just tell someon-”

“Hey, hey. I’m okay!” Tree assured softly, letting his hand slowly trace Black Hole’s cheek.

It was a huge step and one up to debate, given the context they were in. However, the way Tree thumbed the other’s cheek made him dizzy and stopped him from saying anything else. As he leaned further into the touch, there was a disconcerting feeling inside of him: he didn’t know if this was genuine or if this whole day was letting him see Tree’s true colors. It was difficult to decide, since the mere touch from the botanist got him weak at the knees.

“Don’t worry,” Tree cooed. “I’ll apologize to them when we go back.”

Black Hole hummed, gazing at Tree’s hand. “Are you sure?”

“Of course! By the way, we can go back now. I’m sure they’re wondering where we’re at now…”

⋆.˚✮Fanny✮˚.⋆

She was seeing Marker tossing some dirt when their other two friends timidly came back together. She gave Tree an usual scowl and stared daggers at him.

“Hey Marker! I think a certain Someone has to give us an apology,” She stated in a scornful way, facing Marker but still staring at the botanist.

“Really?” Marker questioned a little puzzled. “Oh, right! Yeah, he really has to.”

“And I’m going to accomplish your wish,” Tree conceded, both hands behind his back. “I’m sorry for talking roughly to you today. I wasn’t having a good day today so I lost my temper and… well, things,” he nervously chuckled.

“Sure,” Fanny accepted, unsure. “Try not losing your temper like that next time,” Fanny demanded, getting up. “Let’s go now. We have no time to lose.”

“Yeah, don’t do it again. But sure, apology accepted!” Marker granted, following Fanny.

“Let’s go then,” Black Hole proposed, following them.

“But can’t you like, take us and float there?” Tree suggested.

Everyone turned to him. The best idea was in front of them and didn’t use it.

“Oh! Uhh, sure. Let’s go.”

Black Hole asked the three to get close to him, he’d regulate his gravitational pull with both hands and take them to the distance needed. This wasn’t the first time he did this, he had to do this in order to save Tree’s inmobible body when the undead people tried harming him at the Goiky Canal by pulling a huge stash to protect him.

He went up and the first thing he saw was the sun starting to set and how far they were from the game realm. They were so far away that the huge hotel they all knew looked like a small, insignificant house. Everyone also noticed something none of them would have realized if Tree didn’t give this idea.

“We were going on the opposite side this whole time!?” Marker whined.

“I hate this!” Fanny yelled.

“Don’t worry guys, we can go all the way a lot faster now that this big boy here is taking us,” Tree added, patting Black Hole’s shoulder.

The compliment encouraged him, to the point all the vortex managed to do was chuckle and thank him for the understanding before winging his way towards the yellowish grassy fields.

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

Dim stars were taking more strength as the sun was almost set, and the chilly wind made its way to keep cold whatever it touched. Luckily, Death P.A.C.T Again was already close to its destination. Black Hole laid gently everyone down once they arrived and shook his arms shortly after to relax them. Everyone thanked him warmly for doing the effort, especially Fanny and Marker. Tree was thankful too, but really hesitant, mostly on his movements.

The sweet scent of hot fudge and pancakes took over before they could do anything else.

“Does anyone else smell that?” Marker asked.

“It comes from the hotel! Let’s go!” Fanny commanded triumphantly.

⋆.˚✮Black Hole✮˚.⋆

Both went to the hotel, leaving Tree and Black Hole alone.

He noticed Tree blink a few times before gazing at the hotel, and then at Black Hole. He looked disconcerted.

“Are we here already?”

“Yep. We’re home,” Black Hole reassured.

“Oh… But it passed so fast!”

“It’s something normal, don’t worry too much.”

“But…!”

“What?”

“I can… barely remember anything,” Tree let out a disappointed sigh.

“Maybe we can ask Two-” Black Hole hawked. “No, not Two. Anyone that knows of these things, maybe."

“Yeah. Hey, wanna go to the hotel? Maybe we can grab whatever they’re doing there.”

“Sure!”

Both dashed there running like kids to the hotel. The warm lights from the windows let them see how Gaty was hosting a pancake night, serving them with all kinds of sauces and spectacular presentations.

“Oh, hey guys!” Bell approached them. “Tree! Long time no see!”

Tree waved at her; she was with Grassy and sharing the same dish. She offered to get them some pancakes, which was not declined. However, the two weren’t allowed to enter due to Black Hole’s gravitational pull being an obvious harm for everyone inside.

After a few minutes, a good amount of pancakes with hot fudge at the top served on two plates, was handed to Tree, along with two forks and two small cups of hot chocolate.

“Are you sure you don’t mind eating outside?” Black Hole inquired to the evergreen, who was looking for a good seat on the outside.

“Nah.”

When sitting behind the hotel, where the wind hit them the least, he noticed how the Tree from the jungle was a lot bolder than this one. He was more hesitant and collected right now, even more sheepish, fidgeting with his fork a little while eating a sugar-free version of the original recipe.

“Hey,” Tree said in a low tone, to call his attention.

He got a hum from Black Hole, letting him go on.

“I’m not sure how to word this out, but… back at the forest, I had the weird feeling I told you about before and I don’t remember anything,” Tree confessed, trying to not look at Black Hole. He breathed out before continuing. “Did I do anything odd? Like, to you or to anyone.”

Should he tell Tree about the way he held Black Hole's cheek out of a sudden?

“Not much," Black Hole tried informing. "You were really child-like and energetic, but there was an argument because they wanted a break and you complained. It’s okay though, since you and I talked about it, then you apologized and I’m sure they accepted it.”

“Oh, forests…” Tree lamented. “I’m so sorry.”

“Hey, no worries,” Black Hole affirmed. “Maybe we can, take a time to, talk about it? Only if you want, of course. But it can be good to know what to do if it happens again or-”

“Yeah, I get it.” Tree sighed. “I guess we can give it a try.”

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

A few hours passed after that talk, the pancake night was over now and everyone went to their rooms to sleep. Black Hole was now lying near the hotel at his usual spot from the grassfields. He tried to check on all the things Tree told him about the weird feeling he had these days, so he wouldn’t forget.

Based on what Tree said, it all started when Two locked him in the quarantine structure, he started having times where he felt like he was seeing his body from another perspective, or like some actions of his were made by someone else against his will. Assuming it was a dissociative disorder –which was something Two told him when he opened up with them about this–, all he could do was rely with no avail on different grounding methods and pills kindly provided by Gaty, who went once with them.

Each time this happened, his mind also would go blank, all at once. As a consequence, it took a lot of him to explain something not even he remembered; but afterwards, he would have a nauseous feeling. He also said he felt at fault for having these struggles and for involving Black Hole at whatever happened in these tedious lapses.

This wasn’t the best time for confessing, Black Hole thought. First, he had to help Tree at this vulnerable point of his life, try to resolve whatever happened at the scavenger hunt yesterday, and get to an actually effective solution about Tree with Two. Why did they have such notoriously different sides? He wasn’t focused enough to try and actually wander on it, so he only sighed, closing his eyes.

“After we get over this…” Black Hole promised to himself before falling asleep

Chapter Text

⋆.˚✮Fanny✮˚.⋆

“RUN!!” Fanny shrieked at Marker while getting out of the hotel.

“But where!?” Marker wailed.

“Just run!!”

They headed outside as fast as they could. How did they get from an attempt of dialogue with their host, to literally run away from them because being near them became a potential danger? Well, it had an explanation that excused them. Not Two, of course, but the other two.

Flashback~‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

It was a bright morning at the hotel and the three members of DPA were having breakfast at the table. After finishing a serious talk about this quarantine thing where Tree opened up about it, Fanny was complaining about how loud Marker had snored all night. Someone knocked on the door. Marker checked on the peephole and gasped in shock.

“Who is it?” Fanny demanded.

“It’s Two! And they look mad!” Marker announced.

After telling Tree to stay on the table, Fanny got up and opened the door. Marker was right, they did look bad, with their arms crossed close to their chest and staring daggers at the two. However, they still had the “I’m happy and I’m fine” facade, keeping a plastic smile put.

“What do you want?” Fanny barked shortly after opening.

“Oh, there you are!” Two greeted them in a happy attitude that felt faker than anything going on. “I really need to talk with you folks.”

“And so do us, as a team. We can talk outside,” Marker proposed, taking a more active position by purposely blocking the entrance.

“Just, go call Black Hole and all of us will be all ears,” Fanny ordered.

“Uhh, well, actually, I only need to talk with one of the members,” they informed, trying to cross Marker’s barrier.

It would have been easy if Fanny didn’t block the space left, so Two had no longer access to the door. They stepped back in confusion.

“Uhh, hello? I need to enter-”

“No, you don’t!” Fanny contradicted. “How do you expect us to trust you, when it was you who harmed us with green robots at the scavenger hunt in the first place!?”

“Yeah! And Tree’s not having a good time with none of this either!” Marker added, hands on his waist. “So the answer is No!”

“Do you guys know who you are talking to!?” Two gritted their teeth.

A weird green glow was coming from their hands as they spoke, and Fanny was the first to notice.

Usually, Two wasn’t the one who would add weight to their name and force a contestant to do something they didn’t want –besides the challenges–. Actually, they never did. So it was strange to see their host take this posture. No matter who they were, If they wanted to enter, a serious talk was needed first.

“Yeah, but why did you do all these things?” Marker demanded with a brittle voice.

“You jailed Tree for no reason, didn’t allow us to see him, made green orbs to stalk and attack us, and affected Tree for the worse!” Fanny stressed out.

“Don’t self-project, you two! You can’t see the good the quarantine is for his disease!” Two objected. “You just don’t want to see it because you don’t like it-”

“Don’t think we’re dumb, he just told us today!” Fanny snapped. “And what he said about this crap of experience has more weight than whatever you, Two, have to say!”

“That’s it. Since all you did was put inconvenients in my way, I’m taking Tree with me and I’m taking him the hard way!” They exclaimed, harshly pushing the duo and making them fall before entering the apartment.

There he was. Their prey, standing next to the table with widened eyes at the situation.

“T-Two? What’s this all about?” Tree faltered in a demanding tone. “What’s so ‘important’ about this?”

“Oh, math. I thought ignorance had limits, but you prove me wrong all the time,” Two taunted. “I won’t reveal it to you at the light of the day! Instead, I’m going to take you with me.”

Before Tree could react, Two quickly approached him and hit the side of his head with a firm strike, making him limply fall on the floor.

“What the- How dare you!?” Fanny bellowed. “I hate this!”

She was under overwhelming pressure. She needed someone to take charge of this, that had the same or more power than Two. Maybe Black Hole could help, and she knew right where he was. But they both had to take a risky move that did not accept any margin of error. A move that put them on the line but would save Tree’s live and theirs if it went right.

“RUN!!” Fanny commanded.

She yanked the sleeve of Marker’s t-shirt in her direction before the duo ran away from their apartment.

“Yeah, you better run or else you’ll be next!” Two threatened.

Back to present~‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

Okay, maybe it was an escalated discussion instead of an attempt at dialogue. But hey, she said all the truths needed.

They rushed out of the hotel, calling out Black Hole’s name in the process.

“We need to go somewhere crowded, so Two won’t find us!” Fanny thought out loud.

However, it was strangely empty. No contestant to ask for help or any place to hide. And, to make things worse, a figure with a green glow was coming out of the hotel, soaring at a disconcerting speed and in different directions. Where could Black Hole be right now?

Was this all planned to happen today?

But how? And why?

“There he is!” Marker said, pointing at the vortex. He was next to the large, yellowish tree and wasn’t looking at them, clearly not hearing them either.

⋆.˚✮Black Hole✮˚.⋆

He was peering at the tree when he heard some desperate yelling from Fanny coming from behind him, and all he saw was his friends falling over against the grass in front of him, once they arrived.

“Guys? What’s going on?” He inquired, puzzled from head to toes.

Marker kneeled to him, panting loudly. “Please help us! Two knocked Tree down and now they’re chasing us!” He begged.

“And I hate the idea of an algebralien chasing us!” Fanny said angrily.

“But where are they?” The vortex demanded.

He told them to go behind him, and he squinted at the hotel and its surroundings. But there was nothing related to Two. Neither a green sphere, nor anything two-related was in sight for Black Hole.

He got told they were flying around, so it shocked him when they suddenly popped up in front of the group with an unnerving smile.

“Here I am!” Two proclaimed loudly.

Black Hole stepped back, hands extended, trying to shield the rest of his team.

“Two!? What’s this all about?” The vortex demanded.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about! I was having a chat with my friends and-”

“Don’t act dumb! I asked you a simple thing: don’t. Harm. Tree. And look at what you’ve done. Not only you knocked him, but now you wanted to do the same with them!”

“And?” Two asked with indifference, a trait no one ever saw on them.

He knew damn well the bitter taste of betrayal in any form it came, either inside the game or with people getting against his motives, or with people using his ideals to put him in struggle, or making his loved ones suffer under his hands; and he could go on. Not even the fingers from his hands would be enough to count them all.

“What do you mean ‘and’!? Give me a reason, an actual reason to harm Tree. To harm my-... My team! I dare you.”

“Nah, I just go with the flow. What are you gonna do about it, eh?”

Each and every remorseless action Two took reminded him of Pillow, how eager she was to make trouble for her own amusement, and how similar to her Two became out of a sudden. It boiled his blood.

“I’m sick of this, Two,” Black Hole protested in a harsh tone. “I thought you meant well when taking care of Tree. Looks like I got you wrong.”

“Well, yeah you did,” they admitted. However, they didn’t look or act regretful. On the contrary, all they did was take a small, thumbtack shaped gadget and pressed it on his left arm.

⋆.˚✮Fanny✮˚.⋆

The only one that could help them was now struggling on the floor. He was repressing some whimpers trying to take the gadget out of him.

“What was that for!?” Fanny shouted, now putting herself in front of her team while Marker kneeled next to the hurting vortex.

“Just gonna say a word: electricity! Now, gotta make my precious time worth it, shall I?”

In quick, swift movements, they wrapped Marker with their power using one hand, and pushed Fanny to the floor with the other. She felt her wrists being put together with handcuffs behind her back.

“I hate being pushed!” Fanny yelled out.

She saw how Two brough with their power to Tree’s unconscious body. He didn’t look potentially hurt, but him and Marker being in the hands of this traitor wasn’t the best thing ever either.

They showed the trapped duo to her in a mocking way before flying away out of her sight.

She then took her eye to her teammate. She couldn’t believe they lost them to Black Hole. Well, to both of them

⋆.˚✮Black Hole✮˚.⋆

It was too much. He didn’t have time to absorb the stinging electric shock when another came and made him scream. His trembling body couldn’t take it. He tried probing over his arm, but the device was nowhere to be found.

“Did you seriously let them escape!?” Fanny berated. “It was only a pin and you overreacted!”

“You think I'm staying on purpose!?” Black Hole cried out with a raspy voice.

Doleful groans and hushed breaths begging for relief were the only thing he could let out. Fanny tried taking the thumbtack with the hands on her back. However, she missed and brushed the spike with her finger.

“OW! I HATE THIS!” She yelped, trying with all her might to get her hand out of the spike.

Once the electricity let her go, she couldn’t take her other hand out of the wound, trying to cover it.

“Okay, you weren’t exaggerating,” She admitted. “But how does it affect you, if you’re a black hole?”

“Pleas- nghh- t-take it out!” he begged with the few strength he had left.

“Okay, okay!”

She got on her back again, carefully probing with both hands. It was a difficult task, Black Hole was writhing in agony and the chances of being in the same situation as him increased every second the device wasn’t out of his system.

“Got it!” Fanny announced and plucked the tormenting device out of his hoodie.

“Thanks…” Black Hole managed to whisper.

His strained body was now trying to relax at the sudden relief, absorbing the last remains of electricity into his singularity to never be felt again. How messed up was that thing, that even Black Hole felt such pain inside of him?
Who would create such torture?

“No worries. Now, could you help me with these-” Fanny signaled her cuffed hands- “when you feel better?” She requested, sitting on the floor next to him.

He nodded as a response, closing his eyes and letting the silent surrounding calm him down. His breath was steady and his body was gaining energy once again. At least it was enough to eventually sit up and pant after it, ready to help Fanny.

“Feeling better?” Fanny queried with a rarely empathetic smile.

He nodded again, along with a faint “yeah”. Then, Fanny showed him the handcuffs, which got quickly opened by the vortex. In seconds, her hands were free.

“Awesome!” Fanny thanked him. “Now, let’s go find them!”

He couldn’t even get up, and she was demanding him to get up and start a search where he was the transport?

…Well, he could at least give it a try.

“Hol’ up…” He requested.

“Oh, right. Sorry.”

Black Hole tried to slowly get up, despite how much his body ached from the previous shocks. Small attempts to propel himself up with both legs were all worth it and enough to actually stand up. His body was still worn out and both his legs and hands were still quivering. But he did it. He managed to get up.

“Ookay… I think I got it,” Black Hole thought for himself. “Maybe It'll take a little longer to fly, but I’m alright for now.”

Fanny nodded, pressing her lips. Waiting a little wouldn’t hurt them. Besides, she owed something to his teammate.

“You weren’t wrong, Two was behind this."

"We can't sentence that yet. We still don't know the cure to Tree's disease."

"Yes we do. They reckoned it right before we could get out of the hotel."

Black hole huffed in resignment. Even though he saw it coming, he still couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Alright, let's go. We don't know how long will pass until Two puts their hands in our fellow team members. Do we even know where to start?”

"The last thing I saw, they went behind the hotel and further."

"Alright..." Black Hole sighed, making an effort in pulling Fanny close to himself the best he could. "Tree and Marker, here we come..."

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

⋆.˚✮Fanny✮˚.⋆

It was a warm evening. The sun was going down and there were no clouds in sight, letting all the sun to gently stroke whatever it touched.

While Fanny and Black Hole were on the search flying above the jungle, the latter sighed. She was spinning slowly around him, observing her surroundings with sharp eyes.

“Is something wrong?” Fanny asked, taking her gaze to Black Hole. He looked so down even Fanny herself noticed.

“I don’t feel alright,” Black Hole tried opening up.

“We’ll take a break when we find a plain surface, so you can rest your body,” She offered.

Since Black Hole nodded, she assumed that was the issue and kept her seek for the powerful entity that captured their friends.

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

The next day, they went back from the hotel to the outside of the game ground, to search for their friends. Black Hole was feeling physically a lot better after sleeping, so he could help Fanny to look over as well, and not only flying.

However, there still was a lingering feeling that was always keeping on at him, no matter how much time passed. What was happening to Tree and Marker every second they weren’t found?

Today, they decided to go by the freezing tundras. It was cloudy all around and some snow particles would follow Black Hole, giving him a short-lasting yet astonishing ring of snowflakes.

Fanny signaled Black Hole to land her, and he obeyed.

“I think w-we should give up,” Fanny complained, shivering and rubbing her arms to gain some temperature.

“Wha- No! They’re our friends, we can’t give up on them!” Black Hole tried persuading.

“We’ve b-been here all day, we can come back tomorrow!” Fanny objected. “There’s no longer where we can look over in here. We covered the whole place.”

“Oh, fine,” He conceded, taking her with her gravitational pull once again and flying away.

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

“Counting today, it’s three days looking over for Tree and Marker,” Fanny said.

They were sitting on the floor. In the middle of them was a scribble of the different biomes, the ones they covered were ticked down.

“What about the Goiky Canal?” Black Hole proposed, pointing at the deformed lines that represented the canal.

“I hate that idea! I don’t think anyone would put a hiding place under the sea!”

“Well-” Black Hole grunted- “I don’t know anymore...”

Staring at the drawing, the two were thinking of an alternative way to get to wherever their destination was. There had to be a hint that pointed out where Two might have taken their friends. But, where?

“Hey, Fanny?” Black tried getting her attention.

“Not now, I’m thinking,” She harshly interrupted. And right on time, she got an idea. “Let’s go to the desert!”

“Wh- fine.”

“Got any better ideas!?” She sassed out.

“N- no, no. It’s okay. Let’s go already.”

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

Now in the desert, the boiling temperatures were overpowering anything that dared living here. Looking over here had to be as fast as possible, or else someone could faint here.

After looking over the most territory they could, the sun was already setting. Both left the desert and headed towards a part of the ground that still had both green grass and trees. At the request of Fanny, Black Hole put her down on the ground. He wished these minutes where she needed to step on the ground weren’t that long, or else they would take more to find them.

But, what would they do when they find Marker and Tree? He realized they didn’t have a plan for whatever they could face. None of them. Neither Fanny or himself knew how they would resolve whatever the heck they would find.

Would they find anything at all?

What if it was too late?

“Fanny?”

“What?”

“Do we have a plan? For, y’know, any of this. For when w- we, we find them-”

“I hate having to resolve things I don’t know!” Fanny said upset. “We don’t need a plan, we can improvise when we actually have an idea of what we’re going to find.”

“W-What do you mean? That we don’t need a plan!? B- How do you think we’ll make it through then, huh!?” Black Hole blundered, raising his arms high.

“Well, there’s something called ‘Improvising’, you dumbhead!” she barked.

“And how can I be sure that’s gonna work!?” Black Hole demanded, rushing and stuttering a lot. “None of us has a single idea of why Two did this or who else is behind this, or- we don’t know what we’re going to find- if- if there’s anything at all!”

“Hey-”

“I don’t know why this is happening, I don’t know how much we can let pass until something bad happens to Marker- or- or T-tree- I-I got NOTHING. What if something already- no! N-no, we got nothing at all! And all I tried to save you all was all vain-!”

“Black Hole are you even listening to yourself!?” Fanny snapped.

He stared at her perplexed, genuinely worried about all the things he blurted out just now. Fanny couldn’t believe how his calmest friend broke like that only because she said they could improvise. It was too little to collapse over. There had to be something else that was frustrating him inside, and made itself known only now. Maybe he did try to let it out, but she didn’t read the signs until now, when it was too late.

Without a clear idea of how to approach him, she took a deep breath and started.

“Listen. We don’t have a plan, but I’ll make sure we figure it out beforehand, don’t worry about it.”

“That’s not-”

“Secondly,” she interrupted his whiny, breathy attempt at objection. “From now on, you’re going to take a break from leadership because it’s been clearly affecting you for the worse.”

Black Hole’s quivering breath was becoming steadier and he was agreeing to all the things, good for Fanny. It meant she was going the right way, using her words well. Even if the tone of her voice was the usual grumpy one.

“But it was my fault,” Black Hole objected, his voice hushed. “It’s the least I can do to correct myself from doing things worse today."

“I mean, yeah, we asked you for it. But come on! Everyone does something wrong at least once in their lives! Marker will be alright if he has company. And more if it’s Tree,” she tried convincing.

Black Hole nodded, even if he didn’t look quite convinced. He was looking at the floor more than at Fanny, his eyes were half-lidded and a small, doleful smile adorned his mournful face.

Fanny laid a hand on her shoulder to catch his attention. “It’s about Tree, isn’t it?” She queried.

It wasn’t the most delicate of touches, but a faint gasp was heard from Black Hole, along with a slight flinch. He quickly took his gaze to his shoulder, and then to Fanny, giving her a nod as a response, lips pressed.

“Well, if it helps you, he’s quite a healthy guy. And a strong one. Whatever Two puts in front of him, he’s gonna take it, and you know that more than I do,” She tried pulling out, eyes locked on this vulnerable vortex.

Fanny thought it wasn’t possible for him to break any more. She was wrong.

A choked sob he tried covering with both hands came out, tears trailing down his cheeks which he was quick to dry. Fanny opened both arms inviting Black Hole into a hug, and he accepted, locking himself in what felt like an eternal blessing from heaven. He grasped Fanny’s hoodie like his life depended on it, burying his face into the crook of her neck and shaking a little from the sobs and whimpers that came from him.

She wasn’t the most fond of physical contact, but she tried to not get stiff and to be a good support for his fellow teammate for whatever long it took. Still, after a few minutes in the same position, Black Hole finally let go. His breath was a lot steadier, even more than before, and he was drying the remains of tears from his eyes.

“Better?” She teased with a raspy snicker. She got a nod from him.

“Do we leave or…?”

“Maybe a walk can be good for you, am I right?”

“Maybe, I don’t know,” Black Hole chuckled.

Fanny was starting to wander to guide him, but immediately she tripped with an obstacle and almost fell.

“I hate weird obstacles!” Fanny shouted in a mix of embarrassment and rage and tried kicking it in the ignorant thought it was a rock or a weak root. However, it sounded like metal at the hit of her feet. “Ow?! I hate it!”

“Hold up, what’s that?” Black Hole thought out loud, puzzled.

Giving it a better look, It looked like a dark green handle. Nothing that could ever be close to be whatever Fanny thought. The two quickly kneeled on the mix of dirt and sand and tried taking everything that was above the handle, out of it, and what came after startled them.

It was a huge metal, circular door that had a green, bright number two painted over it. Bingo.

“This is what we’ve been looking for!” Fanny acclaimed. She lost no time and opened the door, revealing a deep hole with wide metal ladders within it. “Ready to see our friends back?”

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” He conceded, getting inside first. Just in case.

Whatever came next still made him anxious. But now he thought and was sure he could take it.

Chapter Text

⋆.˚✮Tree✮˚.⋆

He woke up on the floor of a gray room. There was a metal door that blocked their way out. He sat up and laid his hand on the side of his head, where he felt a pounding pain. Why was he here? He didn’t remember. But he had to look around and get out.

“Tree!” Marker exclaimed in a mix of happiness and worry. He hurried and hugged the botanist tightly.

“What is this place?” Tree demanded with a doleful tone, completely worked on the pain from the strike.

“Two kidnaped us!”

“Yeah, I know that for a fact. But I asked what this place is, not what happened,” Tree stressed out.

“Uhh… Apparently this is One’s super secret base. And Two works for whoever One is.”

“Eugh,” Tree huffed, laying on the floor again.

This was ridiculous. The chances of him and Marker being kidnapped by the host of the game they were part of and enclosing them like prisoners were absolutely below decimals. And here he was, not only all of these fitting, but being also kidnapped by a stranger who apparently was above Two and was called One. Great.

Marker got up. He was fidgeting a lot with his fingers. He was nervous. Tree could swear he never saw Marker this moved up, and as a friend, maybe the least he could do was help him calm down.

“Listen, Marker. I don’t know what this is all about, but we’ll get through this together,” was all that came out of him. “Say, did something happen when I was unconscious?”

“Well, something did in fact happen… Promise you won’t get mad at me!”

“Can’t you tell me firs-”

“Promise!” Marker commanded with a wail.

“Fine,” Tree groaned. “I promise I won’t get mad at you.”

Marker took a deep breath. The seriousness he was managing was something Tree didn’t see before in him. It freaked him out.

“When they locked us here… O-one told me your disease was formed because there was a ‘great innovation’ they were investigating, because it-” Marker gulped- “It was an open door to explore mind control!”

Tree felt the air leave his lungs. His eyes widened and he felt a knot in his stomach. All this time, all this suffering…

The pills, the restless nights of guilt and whatever emotion made him feel pathetic. All to find out it was a monster taking his mental health like a fun game by controlling his mind against his will.

How, was the real question. His treehouse was gone ever since TPOT 7, whatever wanted to enter his head had no longer a way!

He stayed quiet with lost, wide eyes, not responding to anything happening around him. His words got stuck down his throat. He couldn’t react to anything. He just couldn’t. He didn’t want to. He wasn’t going to.

“I know it sounds bad. But, we got each other. Like you just said!” Marker recalled, getting a sad chuckle as a response. “I’ll help with whatever I can!” He announced, hugging the botanist sideways and corresponding with it.

As they were in it, a tall figure with a long blue cloak and a short, messy half up bun entered abruptly, making the metal door creak behind them. It was One, the one Marker told him about. The one behind this hell.

“Hey guys!” One greeted them. Besides their disturbing reputation and outfit, their voice was quite childish and playful. Odd.

“Well well well, look who just woke up!” They taunted. “Our experimentation subject!”

“I am not-”

“Yes you are! From now on, you’ll be my experimentation subject. How fun!” And they made quick claps of joy.

One looked so happy to be who hosted this cruelty. Tree was sure algebraliens like Two or Four had limitless power. Why would One want this then? This wasn’t power. This was an abuse. Tree imagined they were using people like puppets to play for a bit and then throw them in the trash. One was a monster.

One is a monster.

“What about me?” Marker demanded, fidgeting a lot more with his fingers.

“Oh, I don’t know. Uhh, we can, ehh, use you to check if we did the job well on the Subject!”

“I have a name, y’know?” Tree grumbled.

“Nope! From now on your name will be Subject 27,” One announced, staring daggers at Tree. Then, they took their gaze to Marker. “And yours will be Subject 63.”

“What? No! My name’s Marker!” he lamented.

“Not anymore. The experimentation shall start shortly,” One finished, leaving and closing the door harshly.

After they left, the anticipation of whatever was going to happen to him and Marker crept all over his body. Right now was a good time for Black Hole and Fanny to come take them, Tree thought.

But none of them were coming any time soon.

A few minutes passed where Marker would start different conversations that would end with Tree losing the thread of it or not replying at all.

The door opened up, letting in three people with white to gray clothes enter and approach Tree. All had badges with the name “Zero” written on them, and two took the time to make Tree get up and cuff him.

“Wha- what’s going on?” Tree demanded.

“Don’t worry, 27. As long as you don’t resist, you will not be harmed,” one of the Zeros replied while securing the handcuffs. After that, they guided Tree out of the imprisonment and closed the door behind them, leaving Marker alone.

Taking him through a large, wide corridor with the same colors as their jail, two Zeros opened a door from an experimentation room, while the other left. Tree saw a few chairs, a medical bed and different furniture holding blood tests or other substances. There was also One, waiting for him next to Two.

Eugh.

While One seemed to be focused and on earth, Two’s gaze was lost and locked into nothing, as if distracted or daydreaming.

“Hello, Subject 27,” One greeted. “Since this is your first day, I’ll assume we’ll have to instruct you in how this works.”

“Whatever,” Tree replied.

“Don’t ‘whatever’ me!” One ordered. Then, as if their mood completely changed, they patted at a spot on the bed with a disturbing simple smile, staring at Tree.

One of the Zeros impelled Tree closer to the bed, and he obeyed, sitting on the edge of it. Once there, he started swinging his feet, adrift and under the control of this weirdo that was planning on using him and Marker as subject tests. And because the bed was a little tall for him.

“Okay, 27! I want you to look directly at this pendulum I’m holding riiiight here!” One requested merrily, holding a moving pendulum.

It was swinging back and forth, passing from right to left and vice versa with smooth movements. But Tree had other things in mind.

“Why should I?” He demanded, looking at everything except for the pendulum.

One didn’t waste time, slapping Tree in the cheek with a clear expression of annoyance in their face. They definitely had to check on how fast their emotions changed.

“Because I’m telling you to!” One replied. “If I told you to do anything else, you’d have to submit to me!”

The place One slapped started to feel warm. “I can still choose to not obey you, am I right?” Tree defiantly objected, already feeling the irritation rush through him and take over his voice.

“Fine! If you wanted to go the hard way, you could have just said so!” The caped one yelled, then talking to Two in an irritated tone. “Two! Tell me you put the right device on him, tell me you did!”

“Indeed! All for you to manage him the best!” Two agreed, handing One a small rectangular device with a keyboard in it of the same size.

That was it.

Tree felt his heartbeat pounding all over his body, a knot upsetting his stomach. He was going to faint any time soon. Was it One’s keyboard? Or was it his own body? He tried to focus on his shaky breath, but the crave for a way out kept taking over him. He didn’t want to get the same feeling over again. There was no one to tell him if he messed up these times. There was no one there to-

A sudden piercing pain got all over Tree’s head, making a groan escape his lips and taking him to grasp his head firmly. He didn’t want this. He wanted whatever crap this was to stop. There was something he could do to make the pain stop. To stop the guilt. To stop the abuse. To stop the impotence. Tree was internally begging on hands and knees to whatever celestial entity existed to make this suffering leave his mind and body, and get out of here.

“So, you think this device, along with Subject 27, are gonna help us find a common way to control people’s minds?” One revised, glancing at the device in their hand and then at Two.

He was repressing his wails the most he could. Tree was not going to break like this. At least not in front of them, either of them.

“Why yes it will!” Two confirmed. “This makes the control a lot smoother and easier from the controller’s side! As for the controlled one… Maybe we should debat-”

“Nah, that’s fine.”

Well, I’m not, everything inside Tree shouted. Well, except for Tree himself.

“We must improve though,” Two corrected. “We can find a more efficient method if you want-”

“Don’t worry much. I’ll take charge of that,” One interrupted, staring daggers at this struggling botanist, who was now bent and gripping his head. “We’ve already lost enough time with Subject 27’s whine. We need to get started.”

⋆.˚✮Marker✮˚.⋆

Sitting on the hard floor, Marker was drawing with the dust from the place. It was pretty dirty and not taken care of, and an uncomfortable cold was always there. He was drawing different doodles of himself, Tree, Fanny and Black Hole. The rest of the team was there of course, but it was mostly them four. They all were at his right happily on their own, and he added two more people on his left: Stapy and Foldy. His first friends on BFB.

When he got to add details to them two, the door opened and one of the Zeros’ shoved Tree inside, making him fall hard on the floor.

“T- Are you okay?” Marker asked with concern.

There was no reply. The door behind him closed, and an odd silence replaced the noise it caused. Faint, muffled talk would still resonate from behind this hell, but nothing else would replace the tension.

“I’m… fine now,” Tree mumbled.

Finally and after a while, Tree sat up. His once well-styled hair was now frizzy and covering his face, which he mindlessly took out with a quivering hand to see his surroundings better. “Oh, It’s you.”

“Yeah... What happened to your eye though?”

Oops

He didn’t want Marker to see his bruised eye. The purplish stain would cover around his left eye, mostly below.

“What did they do to you?” Marker demanded, letting his hand fall on Tree’s shoulder.

Tree hissed when he felt the hand lay on Marker, flinching away from him.

“There too?” Marker inquired full of pity.

“I’m perfectly fine, Sub- eh, Marker. It will pass and we’ll get out.”

“Fine…”

“You just try to focus on being well,” Tree requested. “That’s the least you can do right now. They can’t-” he panted- “They can’t take that from us.”

“What about our names?”

“We’re still us, no matter how hard they try,” Tree replied. “We can call each other how they want when they’re around. Y’know, to avoid punishment.”

“Yeah,” Marker conceded.

After their talk was over, two speakers made scratchy noises before a voice roughly spoke up.

“It’s time to sleep!” The voice announced. It sounded upset, just like One. “Tomorrow, we’ll get to announce the routine and what will happen to you two, but for now, your food will be delivered. Eat it according to the names in the bags!”

There was a question lingering inside the botanist: could they hear from the inside of the room? They were doomed if either Two, the Zeros’ or One themselves heard any part of their conversation.

⋆.˚✮Tree✮˚.⋆

Marker started shivering after a few minutes. Well, it was getting cold, it made sense to Tree. But… something was wrong. He didn’t act like this before leaving, and the wide but nearly flat climatizer started spreading cold air from the roof just now.
His cheeks and nose had a concerning coat of pink hues, and he wasn’t very active when Tree arrived. There had to be an explanation to that.

“Hey, Marker, are you okay?” Tree inquired. Marker shook his head in a negative way as a response.

“I’m not feeling alright!” Marker confirmed, sniffling a little.

“Let me see…”

Tree tried laying his hand on Marker’s forehead, behind his thick layer of bangs, and found out he was right. Marker was warm.

“Yeah, buddy. You got a fever.”

Both saw how two bags came from a trapdoor and fell on the floor. Tree crawled to where the bags fell and opened them; they had things in common: there were small bottles with water and a cereal bar. But one of them had bread, while the other had sweet cookies and apple juice in a cardbox.

“Pertinent,” Tree said under his breath, to himself.

“What is it?” Marker asked with curiosity.

“Take a look.” Tree went back to Marker and handed him the bag with the sweetest vivers.

While Tree was sitting on the floor next to him, Marker peered at the bag trying to see if there was any extra note, and all he noticed was the name Tree written with black marker. The bag with the least sugary food was at Marker’s name.

“Can I eat your sweet things?” Marker requested, ignoring the names from the bags and One’s previous request.

“Uhh, sure…”

With the consent given, Marker quickly took a cookie and bit half of it. He was hungry, so the remaining half quickly disappeared in his mouth. He hastily took another cookie and munched it many times before swallowing it all.

“Hungry, huh?” Tree chuckled with certain amusement and irony. He still got a genuine nod as a response.

“Well, we can save these for tomorrow,” The botanist foretold. “We don’t know for how long we’re going to have food, unfortunately.”

Marker obeyed and put the bags down. He laid himself on the floor after that, curled on a ball and ready to sleep. It’s too cold, Tree thought. Marker was struggling with a fever and the floor wasn't the best place to sleep in either. There had to be something he could do so at least both would sleep well, since he started getting chills as well.

The climatizer was freezing the room by the second, and so were the ones inside of it. Tree looked around, but found nothing. Even if they dismantled the bags to make a sort of blanket they could use, they needed many bags and something to put everything together, which wasn’t on their reach now or anytime soon.

Tree huddled up on the floor, shrinking himself the most he could to gain heat. After closing his eyes ready to call it a day, he felt the weight of someone clinging to him as if life depended on it. He saw how it was Marker, craving for something to stay warm, so he wrapped both arms around his shivering friend. It was the least he could do right now, really. Maybe both could do better tomorrow and reclaim some things.

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

Some loud and abrupt hits into the metal door were the first thing Tree heard ever since he tried to have a decent amount of sleep with no avail until now. It didn’t only startle him, but it also woke Marker up, the last thing he wanted to happen.

“Five more minutes!” Marker tried negotiating with a groggy voice.

“Please get ready to present to One,” a voice requested from behind the door. Then, they heard the door being unlocked and opened by two Zeros.

Those probably were the same Zeros from the first day, or another pair that looked exactly like them. Neither Tree or Marker could tell.
While they were being taken out of the room, Tree was wondering what occurrence from One he would spend the day with, and why Marker was being taken with him.

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

“Alright!” One started once the Zeros presented the two prisoners into the same experimentation room. “As I told you, today I’ll hand you the routine.”

Tree sighed, trying to distract himself with anything except for One’s nonsense. He couldn’t stand their shrilling tone and their overjoyed manners towards this all, it sickened him beyond belief. However, he was deep down worried about what would happen to Marker if he or the botanist did something considered wrong. What was considered wrong at this place anyways? Maybe disobeying One? That was something he could try testing and at least have an idea on how they could handle things while staying.

“And if you behave you can take a shower today!” One finalized. They then patted a spot on the bed for Tree to sit on, while the Zeros offered a padded chair for Marker.

“What’s this for?” Marker asked with dread, sitting anyway.

Tree got forced to sit on the medical bed once again. This time, however, no nagging pain invaded his head. But still, one of the Zeros left after he sat.

“A test. A sweet one to observe, by the way,” One acknowledged, answering Marker’s question.

The Zero that left came back with two needles and a few tubes, some had liquids of different colors and some were empty.

“Want to know how the test works?” One asked, holding a fake empathetic smile.

The Zero extended Tree’s arm and rolled the bell sleeve that covered his arm, leaving his forearm exposed.

“First things first: blood extraction!” One announced, observing how Tree’s forearm was being cleaned with an alcohol drenched cotton.

Then, the Zero took the needle and advised Tree to take a deep breath before the blood could be extracted. They seemed careful with Tree’s well being, if only One could be the same. After that, they injected the needle into his forearm and took a few seconds before drawing the blood into the syringe.

“After the blood is taken, a good cocktail of sugars and stimulants is always good!” One began to narrate after the Zero attached cotton to the pricked skin, concluding the blood extraction.

“But that will harm Tree!” Marker warned. He tried getting up but another Zero restrained him and kept him sitting.

“It’s me who marks the rules here,” One replied. “This is for the greater good!”

One themselves offered to inject the stimulants into Tree’s arm. They roughly took the neck of his shirt and lowered it to the shoulder, so they could easily inject the shot on his upper arm. Digging the syringe, they injected all of the oily colorful liquid into Tree’s body, which took a while to inject all of it.

It was a struggle for Tree to take the stimulant without groaning from the pain, but it finally got all inside. Not like he wanted to have it, but he preferred this before being beaten up or having to take more stimulants.

“Wanna know what these are for, Subject 63?” One offered, letting the rest of the job to the two Zeros.

Marker shook his head in a negative response, which was willingly ignored by the algebralien.

“Well, these help with mind control! Won’t tell you the composition, or you might steal my workers’ job!” One jested. “But as a hint, they make him highly responsive to directions sent telekinetically, the main goal. Watch and learn.”

⋆.˚✮Marker✮˚.⋆

Marker saw how Tree’s arm got raised and put back down. Based on what One implied, it wasn’t Tree who was doing it, but One themselves. This controlled Tree got up, walked a few steps towards Marker and went back to his seat. His gaze was disoriented all the time, and stood the same all the time.

“Why are you doing this?” Marker pleaded.

“None of your concern,” One simply replied. “Now, this is the part where me and my team find ourselves struggling, either to control him or to reflect our advances into our other subjects…”

“Mind hurrying, Boss? We need to get to the final part,” One of the Zeros hurried.

“So, I conclude taking the cost it takes to break his willpower or to improvise and do what I feel like,” One winded up. They undressed their cloak and handed it to the Zeros. “Now, take subject 63 somewhere safe but still close to here. Subject 27 tends to run out of place and I don’t want to risk subject 63’s physical health.”

Both Zeros nodded, cuffed Marker and took him out of the experimentation room. From the corner of his eye, Marker saw Tree start glaring at everything in confusion and alarm, probably gaining his consciousness back.

“Marker?” Tree said under his breath.

The door closed behind him with a metallic slam. Marker got taken away from that horrendous place, and he was thankful they did. But, what would happen to Tree? Why was he left alone with One? Why would they take Marker away? Was something bad going to happen to him?

His worst thoughts came true. While they were passing through the corridor that took to his prison, screams and pleads penetrated from outside the room and banged inside Marker’s head.

“No! They’re hurting him!” Marker exclaimed, trying to oppose the zeros’ way.

“Tell me something I don’t know,” a Zero spat with sharp sarcasm, holding the cuffs tight and shoving him to go forward.

Ever since Tree and Marker arrived here, the latter could recognize his jail damn well: from the so-called Experimentation room, a long corridor would take him to his jail. And they took a lot to finally get there, probably on purpose.

“Now,” The Zero began. “Just wait, and your food will be delivered. We expect you to eat it all, or the same thing that happened to Subject 27 will happen to you, while he will have it worse.”

“What? No!”

Nothing Marker could say would make its way into the workers, since they pushed him inside and quickly closed the door. He could still hear Tree’s distress break through the walls. All he could do was hope Tree wasn’t that harmed, so he could fix it.

⋆.˚✮Black Hole✮˚.⋆

After a long time of descending the ladders, Black Hole finally felt the floor. He told Fanny, who was at a moderate distance from him, that the floor was near, and she celebrated. Both finally got onto the floor, and the lights from the place turned on. Fanny put herself in the front, inspecting the room that worked like a large exposing area. It showed some tank containers made out of glass, exhibiting many people on each of them, along with identificatory plaques. Some had their names and world of origin, some didn’t; but all of them had a comparative chart where the improvings “before and after Subject 27”

Based on what the plaques informed, Subject 27 came for the good of their tests and came to right all the wrongs that were going on with their previous discoveries. A plaque said that Subject 27 had a direct relation with the botanic kind, which helped with another botanic test. A second plaque said Subject 27 wasn’t physically active, so he got submitted to different physical procedures to enhance his physical power and weaken his willpower, to study him better. A third Plaque said Subject 27 had enough space to insert the device to make mind control easier on his head, which helped finding out the head was the best place to put it. Another plaque said Subject 27 came along with what got named Subject 63, which is “only a child-coded guy with a white and purple t-shirt and an extravagant purple hat”.

That one. That last plaque. It snapped something inside Black Hole. A realization that sunk his stomach. Subject 63 was Marker… Tree was Subject 27. They changed their names. Their identities got repressed to some dumb code names and awful experimentations. It made Black Hole ache. His friends were brought under these monsters, and he couldn’t do anything to avoid it.

“You okay man?” Fanny asked, turning around to see his friend. She knew Black Hole wasn’t a man of words, but he didn’t utter a word ever since Fanny went down.

All Black Hole managed to do was give her an attempt of a confident nod. And it passed.

“Finally, an exit door!” Fanny exclaimed, quite frustrated, but relieved. She pointed at the door and pulled from the sleeve of Black Hole’s sweatshirt so he could follow her.

“Do we have a map, or…?”

“Nope! We’ll follow the flow, and see if we find anything,” Fanny replied.

As he had no say in such a crucial way, Black Hole wasn’t sure how to feel. On one hand, he trusted Fanny. She proved to be focused, sharp and with her feet on earth. But on the other side, not getting to lead right now, when his team was at risk, when the love of his life was at risk, was something that frightened him. A knot in his stomach lingered all the trip at the mere thought of losing what he loved the most. A thousand scenarios went back and forth in his head, and it exhausted him. He wanted to help. He wanted to prove himself that he was useful besides the dumb emotions flooding him. He wanted to help.

Yet he couldn’t. And that wasn’t changing for now.

⋆.˚✮Gaty✮˚.⋆

“Let go of me! There’s a misunderstanding” Gaty ordered, while Two pushed her inside a grayish green prison all alone. “Ow!? Two! What’s this for!?”

“You’ll find out sooner or later, dear,” Two foretold. A sardonic tone and manner invaded Two in every way possible.

Two left the door open, watching how Gaty, with no avail, tried getting up with their handcuffs still restraining her hands.

“Why are you doing this?” Gaty demanded, now facing Two. “What kind of crap did you get yourself into, Two?”

“Well, a kind of crap that gives me a better life than hosting a dumb show,” Two provoked.

“This is not you!” Gaty rebuked. “You never told me you worked for someone called One on kidnapping people, or any of this! I would have never joined your show if I knew it was all gonna end like this..."

Her whole world was crumbling in a thousand pieces. She got brought here for a reason she wasn’t informed about, and ended up handcuffed and jailed by someone who she thought was her soulmate. Now, she was face to face with them, after being imprisoned by them.

“But, I’ll tell you something,” she continued. “I sure hope you know that I’ll still love you. I hate your actions, and th-that you hid all of this for so long, but know that I’ll be here if you change your mind and want to-” She sniffled a little- “to be who you were before…”

Her eyes were burning with tears she didn’t want to let out, and her voice was becoming hoarse from the sobs she was trying to hide.

“That Two I could spend time with. That T-two, I could share my problems with, while they trusted me theirs. That Two that wasn’t inside this mafia or whatever.”

Two’s face grimaced. They held their head in their hand and tried looking at Gaty once again. But One, who appeared out of a sudden, took their attention.

“What’s going on?” One interrupted. They laid a hand on Two’s shoulder, and the latter’s doleful expression disappeared. “Stop losing time. You already jailed her. My mission, remember that, our mission is more important than her. Let her be, you’ll get through this.”

One closed the door and left her unable to see the world behind that door. But she still could hear, and heard Two’s footsteps drift away from her.

Despair flooded her. She wasn’t the one to be bent and broken by someone, but… this time it hurt. And a lot. This wasn’t the Two she met.

It hurt to see their relationship fall down by the one she trusted the most. What happened inside Two, that she didn’t notice?

Were they always like this?

Was someone even going to notice if she gave herself the permission to cry this loss, at least for a little?

She let herself take out the sobs and wails out of her body, the tears gushing out from her eyes. Her labored breaths and the whimpers that came from the air taken, filled the room.

She wanted Two back, her Two. The Two she loved, if they ever left and got replaced by the Two that kidnapped her.

…But she wasn’t sure if that would ever happen, not even in her best dream.

Chapter Text

⋆.˚✮Gaty✮˚.⋆

After a few minutes Gaty took to calm herself down, she shed her remaining tears in a numb movement. A long time had passed since Two prisoned her, and her breathing was a lot steadier than when she first got locked. All she had to do now was to escape this place, since she didn’t know One’s motives enough to confront them. What she knew is, she was kidnapped, and Two was a traitor.

She shook her head, trying to brush away any thought related to Two, she had no time for self-pity, no matter how much she wanted to. Her handcuffs were gone somehow, like they vanished when she was crying. Odd, but helpful. Gaty got up with no problem, and peered around to see what she had: the cell was large and square-shaped, with greenish bricks and a metal door.

She was doing this when she heard a voice from the right. It was loud, but overjoyed, and sounded like Marker. Loud footsteps from right to left and more thrilled voices came after, happy to see each other again and relieved to be all safe and together. They all sounded familiar, Gaty was sure all of them were from TPOT. She could try calling them and asking them to help her out of here.

She heard a raspy annoyed voice claim that they had to keep searching for someone. She thought she heard her say it was… Tree? Were they here to rescue people? This was her last chance to get out alive.

⋆.˚✮Marker✮˚.⋆

“I thought I lost you forever!” Marker cried out. He was squeezing out Fanny and Black Hole in a tight hug.

Fanny pulled away from the hug roughly. “I hate excessive body temperature!” She yelped.

“Not to be rude, but Fanny’s right,” Black Hole agreed. “Your body is too- too warm.”

Fanny didn’t take longer in putting her hand on Marker’s forehead. It felt cold to Marker.

“Maybe he ran too much,” Fanny suggested. “Let’s hope it’s not a big deal.”

“Tree said it’s a fever,” Marker chirped, his words slightly slurred.

“I hate fevers! We can't waste time though, we need to find Tree!”

“Agreed,” both Marker and Black Hole said in unison.

Before Black Hole could take his friends with him, a crashing sound resonated from one of the thousands of doors spreaded through the large corridor.

“Guys! Death P.A.C.T Again, is that you?”

A voice called out from one of the jails. It was hard to believe there were more people than them. They headed closer to it to hear the voice better. It was Gaty. What was she doing here? As far as Marker knew, she and Two were close to each other, so it was strange to see her locked here.

“Gaty?” Marker inquired.

“Yes, it’s me, Gaty. Please, take me out of here!”

“We need to find Tree first,” Black Hole was heard whispering.

“Sorry, Gaty,” Fanny lamented. “We need to find Tree-”

“Tree? I think I know where he is. I’ll tell you if you take me out,” She offered.

“How can we know you’re not set as a trap for us?” Black Hole required, disturbed and wary.

“Please… You can let me adrift if you want, I only need you to take me out of this,” Gaty begged. “Or- or, I can help you with whatever you need. Wait, I know!”

As Gaty kept blabbering offerings from behind the door, Marker turned around to check out on his friends. While Fanny looked unbothered, Black Hole was nervously fidgeting with the neck of his black turtleneck below his gray sweatshirt. What were their thoughts on this?

“We can divide,” Fanny suggested. “Black Hole, you can go search Tree while me and Marker get Gaty out. She doesn’t seem harmful.”

“Sorry for overhearing, but last time I saw him, he was next door in my right,” Gaty provided.

At that moment, Black Hole gazed at Fanny and nodded; next door to the right shouldn’t be difficult with his power. As the vortex left to deal with the assigned room, Marker and Fanny still had to figure their way inside that prison.

“Now,” Fanny said for herself, loud enough for Marker to hear. “How do we break this?”

“Pushing and kicking works, right?” Marker tried thinking, besides his slurred, drowsy manner.

“I hate unlocking people out of rooms!” Fanny declared, both fists pressed tight.

“Not like I chose to be here anyway,” Gaty uttered in discomfort.

“Whatever,” she finished.

Then, Fanny punched the middle of the door with a strenght no one saw in her. However, it barely made a dent on it. And now her hand ached.

“There has to be a way to break the door by the hinges,” Gaty mentioned. “Or we can unlock the door with a paperclip! That can be easier…”

“I hate it!”

“Do you have a paperclip, Fanny?” Marker asked, squatting to check on the lock.

“No, you?”

“I once did, but now it’s gone.”

“Wait, guys, I got a hair clip,” Gaty said with excitement. “Do you think you can give it a use?”

“Probably, yeah. Try passing it from below the door!” Marker requested. He took his eye on the lower part of the door, but there was no empty space to pass the clip from it.

“Uhh, guys, bad news. It won’t-... pass,” Gaty stated.

“Oh no!”

“I hate narrow spaces! Then that means you, Gaty, have to unlock the door!”

“What? Argh, fine!”

“I’ll check if you’re doing it well!” Marker declared.

He then kneeled, eyes on the inside of the lock, putting the most effort he could to give Gaty the proper indications and bypass the door. Fanny, in the meantime, was putting her attention on the doors at the ends of the corridors. None of them entirely knew what they were dealing with.

“Say, Marker,” Fanny tried starting a conversation after checking no one was coming anytime soon. “How was your time here? We’ve been looking for you and Tree for three days.”

“Woah, three? I thought it was still the same day!”

“Well, no. No it wasn’t.”

“It really is valuable information what you asked him, Fanny,” Gaty complimented.

“Well, I ask him because I care about him,” Fanny grumbled. “Please continue.”

“Well, It’s been… awful,” Marker formulated. “Tree and I got treated very wrong, and-” he dried a forming tear- “Mostly Tree. But I, ehh, I made a plan so both could escape. It was going well, but Tree got caught! And now I’m all alone.“

“Tree might not be so close then,” Fanny muttered. “But at least it’s us three together. And Gaty.”

“That makes four,” Gaty chuckled.

“You’re right!” Marker giggled, then letting a sigh escape his chest. “The good part is you’re almost out!”

“Awesome!” Gaty celebrated, and she continued maneuvering with the hairclip.

“Gotta go check how Black Hole’s doing,” Fanny announced. She saw him enter with no difficulty, but he didn’t get out ever since.

⋆.˚✮Black Hole✮˚.⋆

He sucked up the door along with some bricks. Pretty indiscreet, people could say, but at least the door was open and he saw a body was resting on the floor. And what’s better, it was Tree! But… in a very bad state and whimpering faintly.

“Oh, universe!” Black Hole gasped in sorrow. “Tree, what happened to you?”

He was trembling on the floor. His ripped clothes were stained with old blood, wounds and scars of different sizes coming out from the holes in the clothings. His hair looked frizzy and messy, as if previously pulled from it, and some bruises could be seen on his now skinny body.

Black hole raced and kneeled next to this fragile Tree. Who once was a graceful botanist was now damaged ruthlessly. The mix of feelings rushed back and forth inside the vortex. He wasn’t going to let this pass, Two was going to pay dearly for this.

When Tree’s eyes focused on Black Hole, a dim smile curled his dry, damaged lips.

“B-black, Hole?” he stuttered, his voice all croaky and weak.

“I’m here, don’t worry,” the vortex assured. “We came for you and Marker, and we’re going home. We’re all here. I’m here with you. I’m not gonna leave you…”

Feeble sobs escaped Tree’s sore throat as he covered his face.

“Shh, it’s okay. It’s okay…” Black Hole whispered, gently stroking Tree’s features to comfort him in any way he could.

Black Hole wanted to cry too. It hurt him to see Tree like this. He wanted to hold Tree close and make his sorrows leave for once. He wanted to do anything better than just trying to solace him with empty words that didn’t heal his body. But it was the least he could do, until they got anything to treat him.

“I hate waiting!” Fanny’s voice resonated from outside the room. “Did you find any- wait, is that Tree!?”

Black Hole nodded, not really taking his gaze away from Tree. He heard Fanny stomp until being close to them, hands on her waist.

“What kind of monster messed this up with him?” Fanny said brusquely.

“There’s no time,” Black Hole spoke above her. “We have to go now. The earlier we leave, the better we’ll be able to treat him.”

“Right, let’s go. Can you carry him?” Fanny requested, getting a nod as a response.

⋆.˚✮Fanny✮˚.⋆

Fanny got out of the room, peering around the corridor to make sure it was safe to stay for longer. There, she saw Gaty and Marker get out of their jail at the same time.

“Check what we got!” Marker announced, raising high a white huge first-aid kit.

“We found it going around the corridor!” Gaty explained, getting with Fanny. “We can need this for later.”

“No, not later. Tree’s hurt,” Fanny refuted.

“Oh no. Then now it is,” Gaty corrected herself, entering the huge hole made in the space where the door was meant to be. She saw Tree in an awful state, all beaten up and trying to sit up with the help of Black Hole.

“Black Hole! We got backing!” Fanny said in a mix of relief and triumph.

Black Hole stood and moved aside, letting Gaty approach Tree. She sat in front of him and opened the first aid after that. It had a few things she knew how to use well altogether, like a thermometer, gauze, bandaids, scissors, aspirin, ibuprofen, two small water bottles, sterile wipes, discartable gloves and hypoallergenic tape. They also found other things like instant cold compress, elasticised crepe bandages and a weird pack named “emergency space blanket."

“How do we use all of these?” Fanny asked, a little puzzled.

“Well, it’ll be better if we don’t. The least we use, the more we’ll have in the long run.”

“I meant if we actually knew how, but whatever,” Fanny shrugged off.

“Oh, I guess I know something. But for the rest… I’ll have to improvise,” she admitted, then started talking to Tree. “Tell me if it hurts, okay?”

Gaty put herself to work. She took the sterile wipes and with Tree’s consent, she pressured gently on the wounds that were easily seen. Some got fixed with only bandaids, but others had to be cleaned deeper and be covered by gauzes.

“Make sure to heal everything,” Fanny requested, observing how Gaty would cover a bare, badly harmed arm with bandages before sliding the sleeve of his beige t-shirt back to its place.

“Is there something that hurts and we can’t see?” Gaty asked gently. “Like, headache or such.”

“...sugar,” Tree mumbled.

“Want sugar?” Gaty tried to interpret.

“N-no! I-” he groaned- “…They gave me sugar. I pretty much can’t have sugar within me, so…”

“Oh…”

Fanny briefly took a look behind herself and found Black Hole next to her, who was surveying at Gaty’s movements over Tree. To Fanny, she was doing a good job based on the context given, but she didn’t know if Black Hole thought the same. It made sense he wanted the best for Tree, since he was close to Tree all the time and it got more evident ever since Tree got whatever condition was disturbing him. He always showed a pathetic yet noble closeness and devotion to him, overreacting when he wasn’t there-

Wait, did Black Hole… like Tree?

It made sense. However, this wasn’t the best time to develop feelings for someone. So, taking his mind off Tree might be the best.

“Hey bud, what if you go check on Marker?” Fanny offered. “He said he had a fever. Take this.” And she handed him one of the water bottles and the ibuprofen tablet. She got a nod from Black Hole, and he left to take care of Marker.

“Wait, there’s water there,” Gaty acknowledged, pointing at a slightly bigger bottle with translucent and turbid water across their spot.

Since It was almost empty, Fanny took it and didn’t bother herself by drinking it instead, even after Tree’s futile warnings of not doing it. Luckily, the awful taste made her regret her life choices at the point she spat the excessively salty liquid.

“Pffft! What is this!?” She yelped in utter disgust.

“Uhh, I don’t know, I thought it was water,” Gaty admitted.

“I hate salty water!” Fanny shouted, harshly throwing the bottle to the other side of the cell, right next to Marker and Black Hole. Luckily, the bottle got sucked up by the latter.

“Wait, didn’t you guys have any other liquid?” Gaty demanded to Tree, getting a negative response.

“So, you mean to tell us that was the only drink you had these days?” Fanny scolded, getting a nod as an answer. “Ugh, I can’t believe it.”

“It’s a good time to take something that’s not as salty, am I right?” Gaty jested, offering Tree the other bottle.

Regardless, Tree didn’t take it. On the contrary, he just stared at it with lost eyes and shook his head in a negative response.

“Come on!” Fanny groaned. “It’s for your well being!” She tried persuading with a less rough tone.

No matter how they tried, he gave them the same response, a negative one.

“It’s not like the one they gave you here!” Gaty explained. “It’s actual water, not salt water. It’s good for you.”

Fanny remembered the time they had to make Two a plate. Tree was acting exactly like now: slurrish talk, lost eyes, groggy movements and not reacting properly. That day, the solution was to take the chocolate balls and the dream berry out of his head. But now? As far as she knew, Tree didn’t have his treehouse anymore. But contrarresting the sugar could help.

“What about the sugar they gave you? Isn’t the water good for taking it out?” Fanny inquired.

“Uhh… yeah, but-”

“Then drink it already!” Fanny directed

“If you won’t drink it we’ll tell Black Hole to tell you to drink it,” Gaty warned.

“That’s ridiculous,” Tree blurted out.

“Then drink it.”

“No.”

“Okay, suit yourself,” Fanny condemned. “Black Hole!”

Fanny saw Marker signaling Black Hole to the new trio, so the latter floated to them with a mix of confusion and apology. He tucked his hands in his pockets to warm them at least a little.

“What’s the matter?”

“Tree doesn’t want to drink water! We’ve been telling him that it’s good for him and he still doesn’t want to!” Fanny accused.

“Come on, Tree. You didn’t drink anything good for three days. You have to take some liquid.”

“But…! Ugh, fine!” Tree grunted.

“Well, that was easier than I thought,” Gaty admitted.

Tree stared in disgust at the water bottle, his hand trembling slightly when holding it. He gave a pleading gaze to the whole group, leaving the bottle on the floor, untouched.

“But it hurts,” Tree complained. “I-... Everything I, I swallow h-hurts,” he confessed, his voice all wobbly and sore.

“It’ll be temporary pain, Tree. If you don’t drink the water, the pain will keep going and you’ll feel even worse,” Gaty negotiated. “Maybe, you’d like to drink it uhh alone?”

Black Hole shook his head in a negative way. “It’s too risk- nevermind.”

The girls menacing him with their stares made him stop his argument all of a sudden.

“Fine. Let’s go.” Black Hole commanded, drifting away to the outside of the cell.

“Who said you could go back to leadership?” Fanny hollered sassy, yet following the vortex’s step. Gaty and Marker did the same thing.

“Wait-!” a cough cut in Tree. “B-black Hole, could you stay…?”

“Oh, sure, no problem,” Black Hole took on. “You guys go on. We’ll be back in a bit. Take care.”

Everyone nodded and left the cell.

⋆.˚✮Tree✮˚.⋆

The vortex sat knees on his chest and next to Tree, letting the cold of the wall crawl over his back. He gave the botanist a compassionate glance before taking the bottle back and offering it to Tree.

“Thanks,” Tree mumbled.

He peeked the mouth of the bottle before giving it a small dubious sip. He kept the water in his mouth for a few seconds before slowly swallowing it, and squeezed his eyes shut when he did.

“Slow and easy, Tree. It’s the only way out,” Black Hole spoke to him in a quiet tone. He was unsure if that was also aimed for himself, but got a nod from his best friend.

Black Hole’s encouragement and Tree’s thirst pushed the latter to keep sipping the bottle, bit by bit. The water was cold, which added to the coldness of the room made him shiver and huddle up. Tree even let himself be side hugged by Black Hole, feeling the softness of his hoodie.

“Feeling better?”

“No-” Tree coughed. “Not really.”

“It’ll pay off later, I promise.”

Tree nodded and snuggled himself closer to Black Hole, but not looking directly at the vortex nonetheless.

“We’re back,” Fanny said when peeping from the gap Black Hole made. “Did he drink anything?”

“Almost half a bottle,” Black Hole made known.

“Good. Let’s go and see if he drinks something on the way.”

Marker called Fanny, so she left them alone again. Black Hole got up and extended his hand to the botanist.

“Oh, uhh, I can’t… pretty much walk properly. Should have told you guys before…”

“Did they do something to your legs?”

“Sort of. It feels the same to the rest of my body though,” Tree revealed, bringing his knees close to himself.

Black Hole kneeled in front of him, swiftly pulling up the sleeve of Tree’s silk pants. “Okay, let’s see…”

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

Black Hole found a way to take Tree from a point to another without the latter taking a step: piggyback carry. None of them thought of it, but it was the most effective way for Tree to not use his swollen legs and feet, a problem which Black Hole didn’t notice until the botanist let him see and took charge of by covering them with bandages.

“Oh, guys, there you are!” Marker said merrily, waving serenely at them. “Why is Tree on your back?”

“Long story,” Black Hole ended the conversation. “We have to keep going.”

“Yeah, but do you guys even have a clue of where the hell we are!?” Gaty demanded in what sounded like an outburst.

To Black Hole, standing stiffly and throwing fits of anger was the only thing she knew how to do right now. Even so, it didn’t take long for Marker to make a silly yet detailed explanation to why they should call him Map Marker because he was the only one that memorized entirely the way from the cells until the exit. Brownie points for him, he briefly thought.

“That door is where One and Two would take us,” Marker pointed at a yellowish door in front of where they were standing. Then, he pointed to another door that was in the opposite way, but far away.

“Wait, who’s On-”

“And that has to be the exit!” Marker interrupted Black Hole.

“Let’s give it a try,” Fanny spoke up unsure, putting herself into the front and signaling everyone to follow her before scooting towards the door.

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

After a long and tiring walk through different corridors, frightening rooms and endless “I spy with my little eye” games that Marker hosted, they found themselves in what appeared to be a vast hall with ladders and doors that led to different locations. In front of them was their yearned exit.

“Is this-? No way!” Fanny exclaimed in thrill. “We’re getting out of here!”

Black Hole sighed relieved while Marker couldn't stop jumping and rocking Fanny back and forth. Gaty raised her fists high, and all of this celebration made Tree, who was sleeping until now, wake up suddenly and totally disoriented.

“Tree! We’re going home!” Fanny proclaimed.

“Well, define home,” a voice came from behind the group.

It was One, engulfed with rage and derision, and wearing a taunting ear-to-ear smile. And they had company: Two, with the same looks.

“We’re not gonna take this. We’re leaving this motherfucking place and you will NOT stop us!” Fanny snarled.

"And how, exactly?," One taunted. "All you are is a gullible boy with a hat, two noisy girls, a pathetic alien and his even more pathetic plant friend. All of you are pathetic with all the letters!”

Black Hole felt how Tree’s body started trembling and his breathing was becoming shakier every second One raised their voice. He snuggled Black Hole tight, as if life depended on it.

“Why do you want freedom anyway?” One continued. “It's a burden and creates conflicts! You should know, Black Hole!"

"Wait, how do you know my na-"

"I'm sure that many times, you wished all your friends thought just like you. That they understood you! This is what I'm doing this for! So people don't have to dive into disagreements. Everyone will think the same!"

"I hate it!"

"Sometimes it's frustrating." He stopped to look at Fanny, who gave him an encouraging smile. "But there are times where people change for the good... like my team."

"Well, who said they would think like you?" One mocked. "I'd rather die. That's why I'm gonna make EVERYONE be at my command!"

"Quit this nonsense, One. It's not going to work," Gaty retorted.

"What are you gonna do, huh?" Two sneered at her.

"Well, I'd love to tell it to the Two I know, but since I'm not talking to them, maybe it would be more polite of you to stay shut while we're debating with whatever your boss is." Gaty spat, rage leaking from every word she uttered.

Marker and Fanny cheered her sharp reply. As for One? They couldn’t be more mad, as if their clenched teeth didn’t send signals of anger in them.

“That”s it! I will NOT let this pass from a simple- th- Argh! You’ll pay for this!”

They snapped their fingers and in a matter of seconds, all of the group except for Black Hole had disappeared in front of his eyes.

Gaty, Marker, Fanny…

Tree.

Universe, he couldn’t let this happen.

“No! What did you do to them!?” Black Hole hollered. He stepped closer to One at a moderate distance to not suck them up and kill them both, but oh how much he wanted to.

“They’re somewhere in this whole guard,” One avowed. “Don’t worry, all of them will be safe once you follow our task. Or, well-” they chuckled- “if you do follow it at all.”

Black Hole tilted his head to the negotiation.

“...Go ahead.”

“You’ll have to try and win my pal Two here,” they explained, patting Two’s shoulder. “If you’re able to immobilize them for more than five seconds, I’ll let you and your friends go. But, if you don’t, there’ll be consequences for all of you. Just sayin’.”

“I could just go and look for them and-”

“No you can’t. It’s the deal I’m offering you if you want to save them. If not, I will kill them all in a blink and you could be witnessing everything, unable to do anything to protect them. You’d be a failure. A freak of nature. A mess. As you’ve always been ever since you came to earth”

The words digged down inside Black Hole’s head. He couldn’t let that happen to them. And much less because of him.

“F-fine, I- I’ll do it,” was all he reluctantly pulled out.

“It’s a deal! You’ll be thankful, trust me. Now Two, follow us,” they commanded to the prime algebralien.

He couldn’t believe he was doing this. The anxiety was rushing by quick waves inside him. He wanted to cry, to shout, to run, to hit them. To do everything and nothing at the same time. His breath was getting shallow every second that passed next to them. His body was tense, fists clenched, but unable to do anything. If he reacted, he could lose his friends, and everyone would have to deal with the consequences of One and Two’s deranged actions. Everyone. Everyone would suffer.

Everyone depended on him. Their lives.

His friends, his team, everyone.

⋆.˚✮Marker✮˚.⋆

When One snapped their fingers, they appeared inside a small capsule, and from what they saw, its control panel was on the outside. Dark gray walls conformed the room and another capsule, a big one, filled the middle. It was bigger than the one they all were inside and had a small tv hanging on one of the corners. There also was a small door that they didn’t know what it led to.

“Is everyone okay?” Gaty asked.

She peered at her company, everyone appeared to be fine. Fanny started punching the glass tirelessly, her fists were getting red from all the hitting.

Gaty sighed before checking on the botanist’s health. “Calm down, Fanny, geez.”

“I’m calmed!” She shouted, hitting the glass once again. “Whatever. This thing is unbreakable.”

“Say, Gaty,” Marker started, sitting criss-cross on the floor. “Are you and Two a thing?”

“Well-” she huffed, letting go of Tree- “I don’t think we are anymore. Once we finish this I’ll break up with them.”

“No! Can’t you talk it out?” Marker begged.

“I don’t think you understand the depth of the situation, Marker,” Gaty replied, upset. “This is not a ‘talk out’ problem. Here, their real colors were revealed. Have you ever felt how someone acted so differently to what you’re used to seeing, all of a sudden?”

“Uhh, yeah.” Marker pointed at Tree, who was now backwards from them and with his arms crossed close to him.

“What Marker means,” Fanny clarified, “is we had to go through that with him.”

“He was really different from usual, and we found out it was because of this mind control thing,” Marker concluded. “Maybe this is what’s happening to Two. They’re acting so differently from usual, so mean and careless!”

“I scolded them for this behavior when they locked me in my cell,” Gaty recalled. “I think something hit inside them when I did, but it got brushed away when that… What was their name, One? When they talked to them.”

“They’re definitely mind controlled,” Tree foretold. “A headache happens when you try to take control of your own body. That has to be it.”

Gaty took both hands to her mouth. “No… No way-!”

The door opened. It was an elevator; One, Two and Black Hole were inside. One guided them to the interior of the big capsule, and the Blue one disappeared from their sight.

One’s mischievous figure appeared on the tv. “Okay folks, I’ll remind you of the rules!” they announced. “The main objective is to keep the other for more than five seconds on the floor, I’ll count to make it fair. Pushing, shoving, kicking and a fair use of powers are not only allowed but widely recommended.”

“Wait! Black Hole! You don’t have to fight! Two is being mind controlled too!” Marker tried alerting while hitting the glass with both hands.

“Two, If Black Hole wins they can leave. But if you win, which is most likely gonna happen, you will make him kill his own people. Got it?”

“Hey! That wasn’t part of the deal.”

“Why does he keep going?” Marker cried out.

“Black holes aren’t known for their sense of hearing,” Tree recalled. He started inspecting the place and started grabbling over the internal part of the control panel. “We need to find another way to get his attention.”

“I make the rules, okay?” One corrected to the vortex.

All of their attempts to catch the vortex’s attention went vain. Shouting, hitting the glass, the panel, nothing worked. They had to get out if they really wanted to make an effect.

“What surprises me is how Two doesn’t hear anything either,” Gaty thought out loud.

“Maybe the glass itself blocks noise,” Tree figured.

“I hate these glasses!” Fanny barked.

“What are the chances of Black Hole winning the fight anyways?” Marker asked.

“That won’t happen,” Gaty cut out, kicking the panel. “We’ll figure out something.”

“But if we let them fight and Black Hole wins, we can leave and then it will be easier for us to help Two! Marker explained.

“Let’s focus on getting out of here first,” Tree groaned, panting a little.

Two beeps played on the speakers of the tv before One spoke. “Go!”

Chapter Text

⋆.˚✮Two✮˚.⋆

Two blinked a few times and their gaze took them to a raging Black Hole that was staring at them menacingly. They were in a big glass capsule with a dark gray platform that separated them from the room floor, both at opposite corners. This place was unknown to them, so they turned around looking for answers and saw Tree, Fanny, Marker and Gaty. Wait, maybe she could help-

Black Hole pounced on them and seized them to the glass wall, raising them high from close to their neck.

“Ack!” Two yelped. “Black Hole, what’s wrong with you!? Put me down, please!”

“Oh, now you’re begging for mercy?” Black Hole taunted. “After all the things you did!?”

“I- I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“Don’t play dumb, Two,” Black Hole gritted his teeth. “You think you can harm my friends and have your way with it?”

“H-harm your friends? I would never do that!” Two opposed in desperate gasps.

Black Hole’s grip on Two’s neck tightened, blocking their breath.

“You made up a disease that locked Tree in a weird quarantine place. You didn’t let us see him. Don’t you know how much that hurt me!?"

His tone started rising harshly and everything inside of him was overwhelmed with rage. A rage that showed up with burning tears that he didn’t shed and clenched teeth.

“Then, you sent little robots to harm me and my team, you knocked out Tree and tortured him with Marker! How does this not sound like hurting them to you!? How deranged are you, Two!?”

⋆.˚✮Black Hole✮˚.⋆

A kick right in the chest from Two stopped him. He fell with a thud trying to get some air and saw Two landing on the floor, as their desperation turned into scornful laughter.

One started counting. “One, two- nevermind, Black Hole got up to attack Two,” they chuckled.

Both opponents having a good stamina was counted on, and quickly got shown on their wrestling, which started faltering as the seconds passed.

⋆.˚✮Tree✮˚.⋆

His whole body ached and his heartbeat pulsing on his head bothered him, but this didn’t stop Tree from helping his friends break the glass that separated them from the rest of the room. After a few more useless smacks he panted and let his hands over the glass to hold his weight. He caugh sight of the fight and saw Black Hole wrestling against Two.

All the things Black Hole just said shocked Tree, and he wondered how he was so strong. Well, he depicted a black hole, and they were often strong and cold-blooded. But he was… the opposite. As far as he was physically strong, he also was caring over his team and loyal to his core beliefs.

After mindlessly going over and over these good attributes he saw on Black Hole, he found himself smiling when he came back to reality. He was sure he liked him, but never recalled thinking of a way of telling him.

Or maybe he did. Oh, yeah, he did! At the fair, he asked Black Hole to remind him to tell him something important; he didn’t tell him that it was a romantic confession, or else it would spoil the mood. But his opportunity got shattered when Two “diagnosed” him.

And it got worse since he got knocked down.

He stood still, all the memories flooding back again. Every hit he got, every single moment he prayed for mercy. The embarrassment, the pain. The torment. His hands tingled, as if he had an urge to do something with them. And he did, going back to smacking the glass with more strength than ever.

⋆.˚✮Black Hole✮˚.⋆

Black Hole pushed Two with his remaining strength and used his traction force to keep them on the floor, but somehow Two didn’t get affected. On the contrary, they clasped Black Hole’s right hand and bit it with all their might, earning a yelp from the vortex. This distracted him, so Two wrapped him with their power and slammed him ruthlessly on the glass walls and hard concrete ceiling.

After seconds that felt eternal, Two threw Black Hole on the floor, who was panting and grunting from such beating.

“Hey One!” Two called out with pure confidence. “Do I have to be above the opponent for you to start counting?” They were sweating a little, but with their hands on their waist in a signal of triumph.

“Uhh yeah, we can do that,” One confirmed through the tv.

“Excellent! In that case, I already got this in the bag,” they proclaimed.

They squatted in front of Black Hole, staring at him with what felt like plastic pity. The hell were they doing, taking their time?

Once he recovered enough to put up a fight, he kneeled as fast as he could and used something never seen before on him: black hole winds. Such an amount of energy at huge speeds would be enough to break the glass and even kill Two in an instant. And take his friends out of this place.

He felt the energy spread around him in dense clouds of gas of every color. He quickly aimed it all at his enemy. Or at least that’s what he aimed, because not only it didn’t even touch Two, but all the energy reversed back to Black Hole, impacting on his body instead of being sucked up. A constant shock-like pain took over his body, which dragged him back onto the floor, his vision all slurred.

“Aww, look at him,” Two provoked, crouching in front of him. They lifted Black Hole’s chin in a swift movement. “Couldn't you win a dumb battle? Now because of that, you’re going to lose everything you love…”

⋆.˚✮Tree✮˚.⋆

“No!” Tree cried out, hitting the glass with his remaining strength. “What are they doing!?”

“I hate this!” Fanny bellowed. She kicked the section between the glass and the panel and heard a crack. “Finally! Everyone! I found a weak spot!”

“Uhh, guys? Could you please hurry?” Tree requested nervously. “They’re saying tons of stuff to Black Hole and are about to start counting the five seconds.”

“You think we’re holding back on purpose!?” Fanny groaned. “Why don’t you do something!?”

As she rebuked the botanist, the cracking on the glass got louder and more visible until it finally fell in thousands of pieces along with a loud, shrilling noise. A siren blared in the whole room and two Zeros arrived from the elevator, each with an electric shocker. Fanny jumped over the panel, ready to put up a fight, with Marker behind her.

“Gaty you BETTER know what to do!” Fanny demanded while wrestling with a Zero.

“What!? Why me!?”

She dug her nails in the hand where the Zero was holding the shocker and used the device to knock them out. “You’re their girlfriend! I only came for Tree and Marker!”

“Ugh, fine!”

Tree too got out of the capsule and saw how Marker bit the arm of the remaining zero before Fanny shocked them until they were struggling on the floor. Now they had two electric shockers with them. Great.

⋆.˚✮Black Hole✮˚.⋆

Something was happening outside and at some point Two turned around to see the mess the others were making, so they hurried in leaving. However, Black Hole took the chance to tackle them and pinned them on the floor, their chest feeling the impact first.

“Oh, no. That’s not how we’re gonna play,” Black Hole stung, wrapping his right arm around Two’s neck.

As far as he knew, his friends ran to the elevator and closed the door before getting caught. One appeared out of a sudden in front of Two and Black Hole.

“Look what you’ve done!” One shrieked. “Whatever.”

They snapped and both them and Two were outside with Black Hole. He was sure they were saying something to him while Two called the elevator, but he wasn’t sure what. He didn’t care enough to check, he extended both arms and felt himself increasing his size. He did this before in his nightmare, he could do it again.

The capsule started feeling small and small as he gained power and strength. Both One and Two stared in horror as he just sucked up the whole enclosure. And right in time, the door opened as if welcoming them inside the empty elevator and promising to take them somewhere away from this growing monster.

They entered and before Black Hole could shrink himself, the door closed mockingly right in his face.

“No!” He lamented. Now he had to wait for it to come back.

After calling the elevator, he crossed his arms. Where did his friends run to? Did they escape on time? The questions rushed in his head and he hoped there was a positive answer to them all.

The door opened opportunely and he wasted no time in entering. The appliance started moving up after the door closed with a sizzle. His whole body ached, plus the bite Two gave him was getting visible blood marks and felt warm. Well, all of him felt the temperature increase where he got hurt. Still, there wasn’t much more he could do besides waiting for the elevator to arrive.

Luckily, the time taken wasn’t that much and in a few seconds the elevator stopped. He rolled up his sleeves before the door could open, and what saw relieved him. Both One and Two were on the floor, unconscious and over his way. In front of this scenario was Gaty, with the first-aid kit being clasped firmly on her hand and as disoriented as the vortex.

“Where’s everyone else?” Black Hole demanded, dodging the bodies of the prime algebraliens.

“They’re hiding. I told them to run away while I’d hit One with the kit. Apparently Fanny was right and it worked to knock out Two too.”

“... Huh?”

“Two was mind controlled this whole time,” Gaty told him with a doleful tone. “That explains their strange behavior and why they were allied to this freak.” She chuckled.

Oops

What a shocking thing to find out, that it was never Two’s fault.

“Can we go find the rest of the group, please?” Black Hole requested, clearly awkward. He was trying to avert Gaty’s eye, and scanning the hall was working as an excuse.

“Oh, right, sorry.”

The tension could be cut with a knife. Gaty guided Black Hole to a huge pillar, not too far away from the scenario. They were huddled up together and Marker was holding Tree in his arms.

⋆.˚✮Marker✮˚.⋆

“Black Hole!” Marker uttered happily before hugging him. The rest of his team did the same and Gaty stepped away, maybe to give them some privacy.

Some seconds passed, the team was altogether once again, as it was meant to be. They were all safe. Finally.

“Uhh, guys…?” Gaty called them out, intertwining her hands together. They looked at her and Fanny raised an eyebrow. “Mostly Tree. I’m- I’m sorry for involving myself in this, I didn’t… I didn’t know anything. Y’know, the pills, and-”

Tree nodded. “It’s good,” he assured. “At the end of the day, you didn’t mean-”

Marker let go of the hug. “Quick! We gotta go back to Two and see if we can bring them back to themselves!” He directed, taking Gaty by her arm.

“I hate this!” Fanny declared, yet following his teammate.

At the end, everyone followed them. Gaty kneeled next to Two, unsure on what to do or expect.

“Are they dead?” Marker whispered to Fanny. She slapped him in the nape.

“Can’t you see they’re breathing!?” she muttered, gritting her teeth to not be heard.

Gaty got closer to them. “Two? Are you-?”

“Ow!” Two yelped while sitting up. They were holding their head firmly. “Wh- where am I!? What is this place?”

“Two! You’re back!” Marker cheered up. Gaty sighed relieved, hugging them tight.

“Huh? ‘Back’, you say? Wha- what are you talking about, I’m so confused…”

Gaty patted their back when breaking the hug. “Don’t worry, Two,” she comforted them. “We’ll explain to you once we can find a way to end whatever One has in mind.”

“One? What-? Ho- hold up. Did One do something?”

“We’re at One’s basement, Two!” Fanny let them know in her grumpy manner, her hands on her hips, “We came over to rescue everyone!”

“Wait- there were more people here?” Two asked perplexed. “What did they do?”

“I’m sure you got tons of questions, but we’ll answer them when we get out of this pigsty,” Gaty said while getting up and cleaning her clothes. “Now, where’s One?”

Marker looked over where One was. They were gone! And so was someone else. He felt uneasy and cried out an alert. “Where’s Black Hole?”

Tree followed Marker’s gaze and found the empty space where One was. Then he inspected to see everyone and find out what Marker was pointing. “Marker’s right. Both are gone!”

“I hate unexpected problems!” Fanny groaned. “We gotta find them!”

This time Marker and Tree led the search. Calling Black Hole’s name while entering rooms and practically running through corridors was the only solution they could think of at the moment. Even Two, who was genuinely lost and didn’t know a thing about the previous events, was trying to help any way they could.

Everyone stopped in front of a door with the inscription “office 2” in it, worn out by the sudden complication.

“If only someone remembered any place from whatever this is, maybe they could snap and take us easier over here,” Fanny implied.

“Sorry, but I don’t.” Two shrugged, expressing their regret. “I can’t recall anything. All I remember is playing with One on the see-saw, and then I had Black Hole strangling me!” And they made strangling motions in the air, proving their point.

“There has to be a better-”

“Let go of me, you dork!” a voice shrieked from far away, interrupting Tree. It was One. The voice came from behind one of the walls.

⋆.˚✮Black Hole✮˚.⋆

“Argh! You stupid void! Do you know who I am!?” One denigrated. Black Hole was gripping them tight, unable to move.

He put them inside a huge glass cylinder and closed the cover firmly. The vortex witnessed how One would desperately try to break the glass: punches, kicks, buttings, and still nothing worked. It better didn’t work, because Black Hole made sure the glass was like the one from the capsule he fighted in with Two. He wasn’t sure what it had, but it came with a remote controller that had a few levers, which he pulled down almost instantly when he locked One up.

Loud footsteps and people calling out his name took his attention.

“Black Hole! There you are!” Fanny chuckled, still with stern looks. “Wait, did you just lock One in there?”

All of them were panting. Well, except for Fanny.

“Doesn’t it… look like it?” He said with irony.

“Yeah, but- y’know what, nevermind.”

“What are you gonna do with them?” Marker asked.

“Isn’t it obvious? We have to kill them,” Fanny requested. “They deserve it.”

“But can’t Two like- reduce One to an- an atomic entity?” Black Hole tried negotiating, holding the tube below his arm.

“Even if Two reduced them to a subatomic unity, there’s still a chance this scenario repeats over and over,” Gaty objected. “We have to think of something more effective.”

“Well, what if we call the police?” Tree suggested, oddly despondent. “There has to be someone around that takes charge of delinquents. If we can contact them and make sure they will lock One in a place they won’t do anything, we’ll be safe.”

“I thought you guys worked like a police,” Gaty confessed with a surprise that quickly turned into sarcasm.

“I hate people making fun of my team!”

“Okay sorry. But that actually sounds like a good idea, Tree,” Gaty recognized.

“I hate to break the moment,” Fanny cut out, “But what if we leave first? I hate this place too!”

“Yeah, let’s go. Stay still,” Black Hole commanded.

This way, Black Hole took everyone around his accretion disk, except for One’s capsule, which he had a tight grasp on. However, unlike the rest of the group that was spinning in circles around Black Hole, Tree hurried in hanging on the vortex’s back with all his strenght.

“Woah! Didn’t know you could do this!” Gaty praised his ability while passing above Black Hole. All he did was chuckle, and raise them high into the air, continuously making holes to the top of the floors in the process.

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

Black Hole made a huge gap to the roof and went up once again along with his friends. This time, they realized this was the last layer of metal that he had to suck up because the bright light of the sunny day dazzled them all. He laid them on the green, grown grass and saw how relieved and overjoyed they all were for getting out.

An invisible weight left his chest in a second when he saw them celebrating and hugging each other. Even Two was hugging Gaty and apologizing with her for any unexpected behavior; even though he wasn’t sure of what they were exactly talking about, it was easy to tell. They looked at Black Hole and their face reflected a fright they tried to hide, before both them and Gaty approached him with cautious steps.

“H-hi, buddy!” was all Two said trying to put a confident façade, waving at him.

“Maybe it’s good for you if you hear what they want to tell you,” Gaty advised while nudging Two. Then, she gave a step behind them, to let the host speak.

Black Hole nodded slowly. Maybe it was in an understanding way, or it was to let them start. He wasn’t sure, but from finding his team and ahead, nothing was going like he planned, so what could he lose now if Two wanted to take the word?

Two swallowed, averting Black Holes deep, fulminating gaze. “I’m sorry. I- I’m so, so sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you… or anyone you love! N- I’m not sure if you’ll accept it, but I want you to know that I was not in control of all the things I did.”

After a long nerve-wracking silence that made Two’s apology echo deeper in his head, none of them noticed how all the group was focused on them. Each step either of them took was being observed, but that didn’t stop Two from wanting to continue, no matter how dope they looked or could be viewed in the future.

“I want you to know that I’m truly, truly sorry for all the things I did- I- that happened, y’know, the- the fight we had, you were trying to protect your team, your friends. I-…” they let out a long sigh. “If I can do, something to fix our host-contestant relationship, I’ll do it. I promise I will. We don’t have to be best friends if you don’t want to, I just want to make sure you’re feeling okay while competing, and…”

“It’s okay,” Black Hole assured them with a knowing smile. “Gaty cleared that stuff for me, there’s no need to apologize. I still appreciate it though… As long as you can make sure it doesn’t happen again, I'll be okay.”

Two hurried to stretch their arm to Black Hole, which got held in a firm yet grateful handshake.

“I promise I’ll do my best to ensure your wish,” Two sheepishly guaranteed. This earned a nod from the vortex. They left the handshake, and got a lot more confident. “Now, I think I know a place we can put One, here at the Equation Playground!”

Equation… playground? Was that an actual place?

“...Okay.”

“We can call my so dear friends Four and X. I’m sure they’ll be glad to help!”

It was a matter of minutes that Four and X appeared, and with cooperation from everyone –except for Tree, for obvious and not-so obvious reasons he didn’t specify–, built a secure jail without opening the tube One was in, to ensure the effectiveness of the jail and make their time worth it.

“This should be it!” X proclaimed in a jovial way, both arms raised lightly.

Gaty nodded. “Thank you, guys.”

“I knew we could trust you!” Two said, relieved. They waved to the two, which quickly disappeared in front of them.

“So, that’s it?” Black Hole inquired.

“Yeah, I still can’t believe it,” Tree mumbled, mostly to himself.

“It appears so!” Two responded, about to snap their fingers. "Now, let's go back to the hotel, shall we?”

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

The hotel and its surroundings were as busy as always. Some contestants were running around happily, others were talking while walking calmly and some others were peacefully sitting in the yellow grasslands. It was peaceful in general, so when Two, Gaty and all the Death P.A.C.T Again remaining members appeared in scene so suddenly, everyone noticed and rushed towards them. Questions, complaints and concerned pleas over where they were flooded at high speed in a matter of seconds.

Too many people, Black Hole thought. He tried to keep on track and answer all the things he could, but he noticed the questions were directed mostly to Two and Tree. On one hand it was a relief he only had to listen to the host answer the most they could, but as far as he saw, Tree barely uttered a word. He didn’t make a move since they arrived, which was odd. How did all these noisy people not earn a reaction from him?

When he saw how people stopped jabbering to Tree, Black Hole lowered down to the floor and at Tree’s height to see what was going. His whole face was covered with both hands, suppressing sobs. He was crying. Not a type of cry begging for help like when he got killed. No, it was the kind of crying when people were sad, or when they couldn't take something strong any longer. The kind of crying that could move even the hardest of hearts. And since Black Hole didn’t have the hardest of hearts of course, the sight pierced him.

“Guys, cool it! He’s not doing well,” Black Hole ordered. He put himself in between everyone and Tree, as to at least make them step away.

“I hate intrusive people, get away from him!” Fanny snarled at the realization, putting herself and Marker in front of the botanist. “Black Hole, take him to the hotel!”

“On it,” he obeyed.

In no time he held Tree close to him and fled at all speed to the door of the hotel.

“Hold up, I can’t…”

He had to take Tree inside, but both had to enter. And Black Hole could only think of one way to do so.

“Listen, stay here, I’ll tell Two to get us there. I won’t be able to do it myself.”

“But… No…!”

“Okay, we can go together if that’s better for you,” Black Hole offered, earning a nod from Tree. “Alright, let’s go then. I can carry you on my back so you don’t get uncomfortable.”

“Sure…”

⋆.˚✮Two✮˚.⋆

“But hold up, what happened?” They heard how Price Tag asked in between the noise of the rest of the cast.

“It’s hard to explain and I will, if you folks give me some space!” They exclaimed, extending their hands in a t-pose. “I still need to figure things out, but at least I can say that-” they saw Black Hole approach them with Tree grasping the back of his hoodie- “What’s the matter guys? You look worried.”

“Yeah, we need to get inside of the hotel because Tree’s not feeling well, but I can’t take him. Can you snap your fingers and take us there?”

“Oh. Oh, of course! Stand- stand still.”

Two snapped their fingers and their friends disappeared almost in an instant. Everyone gasped at the action, even Fanny and Marker, who were trying to distract the people that were previously talking to Tree.

“Wait! I didn’t hear anything. What happened to Tree? Where did they go?” Marker asked Fanny.

“To the hotel, I suppose. We should go too.” she replied. Then she looked at Two.” Two! Can you take it with these people? We’re going with Tree and Black Hole.”

“Sure. You guys go, I don’t mind.”

After that, they saw Fanny run to the hotel as fast as she could, with Marker following her step closely.

They hoped Tree was okay.

Chapter Text

⋆.˚✮Tree✮˚.⋆

Suddenly, they saw their background change radically and become the insides of their hotel room. Believe it or not, both the newbies and the contestants slept together in the hotel, and then the contestants would stay outside until it was midnight and everyone went back to sleep. This time, however, they needed to enter before the established schedule for a greater good.

Black Hole guided Tree to a nearby couch from the living room and got his feeble body to sit in there. His nose was running a little from the crying, so Black Hole brought him a roll of paper towel.

“Thank you,” Tree said, giving it a good use.

His whole body stood quiet, craving for something he didn’t know what it was. Black Hole didn’t need to make such a fuss about something that could have probably been fixed any other way. Sure, getting away from the people was a good move, but he didn’t think he needed this. He didn’t deserve it. Why was Black Hole being so attentive?

The sound of a knife chopping cut out his thoughts. Apparently he’s been staring at the wall for a while now and didn’t notice Black Hole brough just chopped fruit for them only. He saw how Black Hole laid the plate with fruit gently on the table that was in front of Tree.

“There we go,” Black Hole declared, sitting on the floor, on the opposite side as Tree’s.

“You didn’t have to,” Tree chided with guilt, sitting straight as to not look like the wet and scrawny noodle he was when jailed. Come on, this wasn’t the time to be weak with dull memories.

“Of course I did. I- It’s the least I can do to make you feel better. Do you think you need anything else?”

“Not that I… know. But I’m okay, don’t worry.”

The thing is, he was not okay, he was hungry, trying to recover from an emotional breakdown and was sure he had a fever, But what could he do? Speak up and look like a baby bird asking its mum for food? He couldn’t take that risk, not in front of a guy like Black Hole.

“We’ll see that,” he opposed teasingly before getting up and laying the back of his hand on Tree’s forehead, behind his sweat-damp hair. “Mmm… Let’s see what the thermometer says.”

He quickly got up and headed to another room. Oh well, Tree was alone once again.

He glimpsed at the fruit: pears and plums cut in crook slices, along with some strawberries and raspberries gracefully filling the plate. Maybe taking one wouldn’t get Black Hole mad, right?

He took a small raspberry, but before he could take it to his mouth, he saw Black Hole get out of the room so he hurriedly left the fruit where he saw it. Luckily, Black Hole wasn’t paying attention, but shaking a traditional thermometer; the nervous grin Tree was giving him must have given him a hint. He gave Tree a confused glare and pointed to the fruit.

“You can take some if you want,” he told the botanist. “That’s what they are for.”

“Oh, okay then.”

Tree took the raspberry he picked before and let Black Hole put the thermometer on his arm.

The vortex sat in front of the table, on the floor.. He took a slice of the pear and gave it a small bite, then another and another until the treat was entirely eaten. Tree observed how Black Hole mindlessly ate fruit and insisted Tree to eat every now and then. It lit his heart to see him being like this. Well, it always made him feel better when he was around; but this time it was different. This time it was Black Hole, Black Hole, caring for him.

Maybe it would be good to eat another raspberry.

“So,” Black Hole started, getting a few strawberries and digging them in his mouth one by one. “How are you… feeling? If you wanna tell me, of course.”

“I don’t know,” Tree complained, letting his body sink into the couch. “Everything feels… numb? But it’s too much at the same time…”

As he talked, his voice quivered and he would huddle himself up as the cold took over him. His eyes started shining with tears, which he tried to dry to not concern Black Hole. Unluckily, all his attempts failed and Black Hole was already sitting next to him to hug him sideways.

“Maybe, we don’t need to talk about that right now.” Black Hole finally proposed, earning a nod from the other.

As the minutes passed, Tree snuggled into Black Hole. He wasn’t sure how to act anymore in front of him, or how he would react. Either way, the warmness of Black Hole’s body and Tree’s own tiredness kept him glued to his company, hopefully for a good amount of time.

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

“Hey, Black Hole? I- I’m happy you took the time to do this, but maybe you could go enjoy the day now?” He requested, leaning away from the vortex. “I mean, I don’t think you’d like to spend all the day with a sack of dead weig-”

“Don’t you dare say that about yourself!” Black Hole interrupted abruptly, laying his index finger on Tree’s dry lips. “That’s not how I see it.”

“But-”

“No. You are not dead weight. You’re the most important thing to me- uhh-... to me- um- and-and the whole team. The team is not the team without you.”

“Well, that may have been before I got stuck in the canal or before this happened. I’m not the same, Black Hole.”

“And I know that. But you’re here, you’re safe, with all of us. Look how far we’ve come. Look how far you have come. You’re the strongest Death P.A.C.T member I’ve ever known.”

Tree let out a doleful chuckle. “You wouldn’t say that if you saw me there. I wasn’t as strong as… as you say I am.”

“It doesn’t matter, you did what you could at the moment. And that’s already enough,” Black Hole assured. “Besides, I’ll be with you the time I have to, and if I have to give everything of myself, I will.”

A brittle giggle passed Tree’s throat, as he tried drying some forming tears to gain time. “You little rascal. You wanna break me, don’t you?”

“No no, I- sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Tree declared, getting a nod from the other.

As far as he felt relieved to take away the doubt if Black Hole saw him as dead weight, he seriously regretted leaning away from his embrace. That was his once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get a physically meaningful thing like a cuddle from Black Hole, and it was wasted. He wasn’t sure if it was okay to ask for another one or how he was going to look if he did.

As he was analyzing the possibilities, something passed in his mind: he was dirty as hell. A scrawny and unpresentable guy with old blood, dust and sweat wasn’t the best thing to cuddle; so if he wanted another one, a change had to be taken respecting his looks.

“Hey, umm, do you mind if I take a shower?” Tree requested. “I think I’d feel more comfortable if I got myself clean.”

“Sure, no need to ask. Just wait, here, I’ll help you get everything.”

“But you don’t have to-”

“Yes I do.”

Before Tree could oppose anything else, Black Hole already got up and decidedly went to Tree’s designed room inside the apartment, noticing something being sprayed. It took him a while to guess what the vortex was trying to do, but he saw him get into the bathroom with some of Tree’s warmest clothes. Then, the noise of the water falling into the tub replaced the silence, and Black Hole got out of the bathroom right after.

“I’m not sure how you like the water, but… yeah,” he commented, his arms crossed behind his back. “I found there are some bandages too, so you could use those to, y’know, cover the wounds."

Tree shook his head in amusement at Black Hole and got up from his seat. “And what are you gonna do in the meantime while I’m gone?” he asked while going to the bathroom and stopping on the doorframe.

“Mmm.” Black Hole took both hands to his pockets. “Maybe tell Fanny and Marker to come over, or, I don’t know.”

“Checks out. Be right back then.”

He finally entered the bathroom and closed the door. Besides the fact it was already warm from the steam of the water, some other things caught his eye: not only he found some aromatic candles on the bathtub, but also his clothes were perfumed with a sweet vanilla scent and perfectly folded in the towel bar.

How much Black Hole worried for him.

Oh, he loved Black Hole.

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

⋆.˚✮Black Hole✮˚.⋆

About an hour later, the vortex heard the door from the bathroom creak before completely opening and letting see Tree covered in a big beige sweater, along with brown polar pants and a red coat finishing the cozy look. He looked resolved and a lot more confident on his body, even though the consequences of his time under One’s claws still were reflected in the way the clothes evidenced how thin his body was, or in his tired and half-lidded gaze. And, Black Hole didn’t know how to fix those.

Tree’s hair was drenched in water, some droplets would even fall and sparge the floor. Still, he didn’t worry much, but instead made sure to leave the bathroom the same way it first was, slowly but surely. He wasn’t sure if it was best for Tree to leave him alone or intervene; he already took too many choices for him in the past and didn’t want to weigh down their relationship again.

A rough thud snapped him back to reality and the first thing he saw was Tree on the floor, trying to suppress any noise and holding both knees tight.

“Tree! Oh gosh, Are you okay? I shouldn’t have let you do that. How dumb of me, I’m truly sorry-”

“D-don’t worry, I-, I just fell,” Tree tried calming the other, who kept blithering clearly distraught despite the botanist’s attempts.

In no time, Tree was already back on the couch with Black Hole trying to think of a way to ease the discomfort in the affected zone. Tree, on the other hand, was observing Black Hole’s worried demeanor

“Hey, uhh, it’s okay, yeah? It’s not a big deal, it’ll pass,” Tree commented.

“Yeah, I know. But I shouldn’t have let you do that! I don’t know what I was thinking-”

“Black Hole, the world won’t shatter because I fell,” Tree cooed. “I- “ He was going to say something else, but stumbled into his words so he hesitantly rested his hand on Black Hole’s cheek. “These things can happen. Maybe I shouldn’t have, but-” he chuckled- “that’s another thing.”

Tree’s tender hand on his cheek made him melt like the first time. Odd move coming from Tree, like last time, but hey, who was he to say no? Much more this time, where Tree himself was willingly doing it instead.

Tree licked his lip a little and his mind turned into a disaster, kissing him was tempting. Black Hole could only stay still and hold Tree’s hand on his own. He was as unsure as he thought Tree was, even though every single movement Tree took was full of confidence compared to Black Hole’s. He looked down, trying to act cool when his mind was becoming a mush.

“Hey, hello! Earth to Black Hole?” Tree chuckled, using the hand he had on his cheek to get his attention. “Do you mind if I ask you a small favor?”

“Oh, n-not at all,” he replied, his tone higher than usual. He felt a little embarrassed by it and hoped Tree didn’t point it out.

“Could you help me do my hair? I promise it’ll be the last thing I ask you to do for m-”

“Say no more,” Black Hole declared, getting up.

However, shortly after getting up, he hesitantly surveyed around with his hands hovering in the air, disoriented. He then took his eye back to Tree.

“What do you do your hair with?” He inquired, puzzled.

“You won’t believe it, but I kinda actually let it air dry," Tree admitted. "But I don’t think that’ll be good for me right now, so maybe a hair drier will do.”

Black Hole nodded. He entered the bathroom and started searching for a hair drier. Drawers and doors were the first things he opened but it was to no avail, until one of the last drawers gave him what he was looking for and a hair brush

“Got it,” Black Hole announced, approaching Tree while showing the device in hand.

Unluckily, no electrical outlet was close to them, so they had to move. Black Hole offered Tree a chair from the kitchen so he could plug the hair drier to an outlet above the counter of the kitchen.

“Okay, there we go,” Black Hole sighed once he plugged the device with a slight struggle.

A loud noise came from the hair drier as it quickly started spreading hot air. He put it directly in front of Tree’s face, which caused him to close his eyes at the sudden wind flow. After that, he began to dry Tree’s thick hair while soothingly combing his hair with the hair brush. The brush quivered a little in his hand and his movements went slowly so as to not pull any tangle.

“Tell me if it hurts, okay?”

“Yeah, you’re doing fine,” Tree cooed.

The hot wind covering the botanist’s hair and the gentle movement of the hairbrush turned into a comforting combo to both of them. Black Hole could see how relaxed and at peace the other looked, and he swore Tree could fall asleep right there if they did this for any longer.

“Hey, Black Hole?” Tree called him with a sleepy tone. He got a hum as a response, so he continued. “What took you so long to find us? How… how did you find me?”

“Well, Fanny and I did what we could to find you. We searched nonstop for three days, until we found a green trapdoor that took us to a weird room,” Black Hole explained, drying Tree’s hair in zigzag movements. “From there, we kept exploring and found Marker, and then Gaty. And then I found you next to Gaty’s cell.”

“Was it really that hard?” Tree lamented. “I… I could have lasted for longer, and maybe I wouldn’t have been that beaten up, or I could have gained some time, or if you guys didn’t take that long, or if I wasn’t competing on tpot at all! Maybe none of this would have happened if I stood in the Locker of losers in the first-”

“Tree, no! “Black Hole sternly interrupted. “Listen, neither you, or me, or any of us was responsible for the things that happened, but One only. Of course, we could have done better, but it was the best we could at the moment.”

“But-!”

“Don’t put such weight on yourself, it’s not worth it and you’ll hurt yourself… That’s the last thing I want you to do.”

Tree let out a sigh at the top of his lungs. “Okay, if you say so…”

⋆.˚✮Tree✮˚.⋆

After that, the hair drier was the only thing filling the cold silence. He didn’t remember Black Hole using this tone after their… P.A.C.T incident, and even if his objection made sense and surely had no ill intent, it still left him with a tingling, bittersweet feeling. The last thing he wanted was to complicate his relationship with Black Hole; he was the only thing that made Tree want to grasp life with all his might, so making the vortex suffer wasn’t something he would want to be part of. How could he be so dumb and stubborn to question Black Hole, when he was trying the same way as Tree was?

Pathetic.

Black Hole turned off the hair drier and gave Tree’s hair some light strokes with his hand, concluding the task. He went in front of Tree to fix the overall look and lowered himself at the height of Tree’s eyes.

“Hey, sorry if I was too harsh,” he mumbled, clearly remorseful.

“Don’t worry, we’re good,” Tree assured.

Their short silence got cut by someone knocking the door.

Tree turned around. “Who is it?” He asked out loud, to be heard from the other side.

“It’s me, Fanny. I’m with Marker. Can we come in?”

Both looked at each other for a few seconds and Tree nodded.

“Sure, come on in,” Black Hole accepted.

⋆.˚✮Black Hole✮˚.⋆

He noticed Tree stand up nervously, trying to act confident and fixing his look the most he could before they opened the door.

“Tree!” Marker exclaimed overjoyed. He pounced to hug the botanist, but Black Hole made him back away. “Oh, sorry. Can I?” and he extended his arms, signaling a hug. Since Tree nodded, he squeezed him again.

Fanny nudged Marker to make him let go of Tree. Once he begrudgingly did, she finally took the courage to ask. “How are you doing now? You look a lot better than before.”

“It’s fine, I guess,” Tree sighed, this time with a smile on his face.

A smile. A small gesture. Small and calm, yet genuine. It melted Black Hole’s heart, and it made him smile as well.

“It’s getting cold, so we came here to spend time with you folks. And guess what, we got things to do together!” Marker proclaimed, taking out of his pockets wrinkled papers, pencils, markers, scissors and glue.

“It was Marker’s idea actually,” Fanny stated, rolling her eyes. “I don’t want to be part of this.”

“We’ll see!” Marker giggled and took everyone to the table from the kitchen.

Regardless of how opposed she was to participating, Fanny was the first to sit at the head of the table that was closer to the hall. Black Hole sat on the opposite side to her, while Tree and Marker sat on the other seats. However, the botanist drew himself the closest he could to Black Hole.

Marker laid everything on the table and started drawing without any notice, which disoriented the rest of the team.

“So, do we start now?” Fanny grumpily demanded. After a mindless nod from Marker, she took a blue pencil, stared at it for a few seconds and made a vertical line with it. Unfortunately, she was making so much pressure that its tip broke and fell from the pencil, mockingly laying on the paper. “I hate this!”

“Maybe a marker helps,” Marker advised not even looking at her, but focused entirely on his work.

Cuts of papers and pencils quickly became part of Marker’s eccentric and complex drawing. Black Hole stared in wonder at his arduous efforts, and then at his own drawing: a purplish and starry but plain sky that reminded him of his place of origin. Well, he could definitely use some advice from Marker.

“Heh, nice job,” Tree complimented in a low tone, resting his face on his hand.

He’s been peeping at Black Hole’s drawing for a while, while the botanist’s sheet was as empty as it could be. Not a single line or dot, but it wasn’t like Tree seemed interested in the activity anyway. On the contrary, all he did was watch how Black Hole pathetically tried doing something to engage with the team.

“Don’t feel like drawing?” Black Hole chuckled, pretty sure everyone heard him. Still, Tree shook his head negatively and used his sheet to copy what he wanted to say: ‘I’m not that good, but even Fanny did something, so I have to, too. I don’t have any ideas either way.’

“You don’t have to if you don't want to. But, if you want ideas, you could, I don’t know, draw us…?”

Tree only nodded and took a rubber to erase the text. Then he took a black pencil and fidgeted with it for a long while, unsure over his first move. A circle in the middle was the first thing he drew, and he strived to add body and details. It started taking the form of himself, but had a healthier and happier figure than the current Tree. On the sides appeared the rest of the team one by one: Marker, Fanny and Black Hole, being the latter the one he tried putting most effort on. Tried, because the four looked like a doodle from a toddler and there was no apparent difference on them from Black Hole.

After some long minutes, he took a green pencil and started adding grass flooring, and the green markers came next to help with the texture of the ground. As Black Hole observed Tree’s swift strokes with the supplies, he wondered how he got so good at drawing backgrounds, maybe it was a thing all botanical contestants were good at. Still, something about the drawing made it special and endearing to the vortex, maybe it was because Tree himself was trying it, the one he missed for so long. The one he loved.

“I hate drawing!” Fanny groaned, slamming the pencil and leaving the table. “These supplies are awful!”

“Just deal with it,” Tree spat irritatedly. “We’re all struggling with our drawings.”

“Why don’t you deal with-”

“Guys, stop it,” Black Hole ordered, putting himself in the middle of the two. “That’s not gonna do anything, let’s just go back to drawing.”

“Phew!” Marker huffed, still focused on his artwork “Just in time!”

He then showed them a drawing of everyone in a more stylish way than anyone else could have, playing toss the dirt with Marker. The ground looked pretty similar to reality, as the faces and the sunny sky could easily reflect a happy environment.

“How is everyone so happy by tossing dirt, if none of us even enjoy such activity!?” Fanny dared. “This is a surreal portrayal of reality, and I hate it!”

The heated argument got quickly cooled down by Marker’s easygoing explanation, where he cleared up that it wasn’t meant to portray reality in such a complete way, but he was just inspired by his favorite activity and his current team; and as far as she felt disgusted by the poorly made up state, she just nodded effortlessly and concluded the task by going to her bedroom and closing the door.

“What did you guys do?” Marker inquired.

“Just space, nothing interesting,” Black Hole replied, shyly showing the drawing to him.

“And you, Tree?”

“You tell me,” he declared, showing Marker the funny attempts of humans he did.

Marker then took a red pencil and wrote “100/100” on the corners and handed it back to Tree. “I think you just don’t like the activity,” he asserted. “We can call it a day for today.”

“Yeah, that would be good,” Tree agreed, getting up from his seat. “Can’t wait to actually enjoy the outsid-”

“Everyone! The sun is setting” The speakers from the corridors of the hotel resonated with Two’s voice. “From now on until a few days pass, the schedule to be outside will be modified. Nobody, and I mean nobody, can be outside the hotel at this hour, everyone has to come back. That’s all, take care folks!”

⋆.˚✮Tree✮˚.⋆

This took him by surprise, it was barely setting and Two was sending everyone to the hotel already? Every time he thought this couldn’t get worse for him, the entire universe and whatever entity was above proved him wrong. A loud groan escaped his throat as he took both hands to his face. The only moment he could have at peace or control was taken away from him. His body started getting hotter than before so he took out the coat. Much better.

He wasn’t sure how the others would take it if he went for a walk alone, so it maybe and only maybe it was better this way; as to not make more trouble around himself. He saw Marker still drawing with a smile plastered on his face, and asked himself what went wrong with him. All these things happening to him only was a relief, since Marker barely got half of the treatment Tree got. But why him? Why was life so ruthless with him? He was sure he didn’t deserve it, but a voice lingering inside of him screamed this was what he got for being like this, a jerk. If he wasn’t so full of himself, if they didn’t struggle so much with him, if he reacted faster when Two entered. If he didn’t rebel that much…

None of this would have ever happened to him if he wasn’t a hideous monster in the first place.

The stinging pain coming from his wounds and the way his knees weakened with those thoughts made him sit back on his chair. To distract himself, he watched Marker fill Black Hole’s drawing with astronauts and a rocket without noticing Tree bending and breaking this easily to his own thoughts..

Marker took his eye away from the drawing and smiled dolefully at the botanist.

“So, how are you doing after all of this…?”

“Not the best, not gonna lie,” Tree confessed, taking a hand to his head and resting his elbow on the table. He noticed Black Hole knock on Fanny's room door and hurriedly entered, so once the door got closed he took a deep breath and continued. “But I don’t want to be a burden to Black Hole, he’s doing a lot for me and I really appreciate it. But, I don't want him to exert himself because of me, or any of us.”

Marker scooted closer to Tree, being next to him. “You can tell him how you feel if you want to, you guys tell each other everything!” Marker offered an option.

“You don’t say everything, Marker.”

“But why not this, at least? Isn’t it gonna hurt him more if he finds out something worse happened to you because he didn’t know?”

“I- That won't happen, I’ll make sure of it.”

Marker could only shrug at his stubbornness. “Anyway, I’m sure he doesn’t see you as a burden.”

“But he’ll get tired of me at some point if he keeps spending all his time with me.”

“But he’s choosing to! Don’t you get it? Black Hole’s willing to help you and make you happy, despite everything! He’s doing this because he wants us to be well!”

The words hammered inside his head. He didn’t want to hear it anymore, because he would never understand why someone like Black Hole ever wanted to help someone like him. He let out a choked whine and covered his eyes with both hands, feeling how Marker quickly hug him. The way he squeezed Tree made it harder to breathe and he blamed himself for crying like this in front of Marker, but maybe he needed someone that was there with him to hold him. Still, it was Marker who was hugging him, so he tried making his breath become steadier, to not make him invest time on him.

“We’re out, Tree!” He said while leaning away from the hug. “No one’s hurt anymore, can you believe it?”

“No, not really.”

Tree dried some tears rolling by his cheeks, letting the realization fill him with relief. They’re at the hotel, no one is hurting him or Marker anymore and they all will live peacefully until tpot ends and beyond.

“Feeling better?” Marker asked, patting Tree’s head and rubbing one of his eyes.

"Yeah, thank you.”

“Awesome!”

Both steadily sighed, with Tree feeling more relieved than before. From one of the windows of the kitchen, they saw the sun was now half set and the sky got darker as increasing hues of blue and stars sprinkled over it. It was a nice moment to notice the calm environment.

“Do you think Fanny would like to have a sleepover tonight?” Marker queried.

“I’m not sure,” Tree replied with a deadpan tone. “You can ask her, she might say yes.”

As if called, Fanny got out of her room with Black Hole laughing behind her.

⋆.˚✮Black Hole✮˚.⋆

“Come on man! I told you not to laugh!” Fanny barked, trying to hold her laughter too.

“Guys! What’s going on?” Marker requested with a grin.

“Apparently I said something funny and the dumbass of Black Hole can’t stop laughing,” Fanny explained while staring daggers at the vortex.

“Well, at least he laughs,” Marker snickered under his breath.

“Ooohh, did you hear him? He called you serious and boring!” Fanny mocked, this time being her who bursted into laughter.

Black Hole shook his head with an amused smile and waited for her to calm down. “Okay, fine, whatever,” he dismissed. “What should we have for dinner?”

“We can get anything we want because we’re having a sleepover tonight!” Marker avowed.

“A sleepover, you say?” The vortex chuckled.

Marker’s eagerness and energy would almost always make him feel better. He appeared to be constantly happy, or at least that's what he saw when competing together. He deserved this, to be safe like everyone on his team.

“Yeah, he wants to make a sleepover. It would be better if all the team was there, y’know,” Tree suggested, looking directly at Black Hole.

“Yay! Black Hole joins!” Marker cheered.

“Wait- no-”

“Come on!” Tree huffed in frustration. “It’s not the same without you!”

“I hate being told things that end up not happening,” Fanny grumbled.

The pressure couldn’t be worse on him. How could he reject Tree himself asking him to stay? He knew the consequences of the whole hotel being absorbed by accident would be all his fault, but everyone was still demanding him to stay all night.

“I- uhh- But where will I sleep?”

“On Tree’s room, duh!” Fanny spat. “You two always are so buddy-buddy, you should get along just fine. We don’t have more beds or blankets, tho. So it’s either the floor or Tree’s bed.”

The idea alone startled him and gave him butterflies in a way he never experienced before. Out of all the solutions he thought they could come up with, that wasn’t one of them. He looked at Tree, looking for answers or any gesture that could hint him how he was feeling about this; but he found nothing but a tingling awkwardness that cramped him. And now, all he wanted was the ground to swallow him.

“Uh-” he loudly gulped- “w-well, if he doesn’t mind, that’s- that’s m- okay for me.”

“Tree, you better agree on this,” Fanny ordered, staring daggers at the botanist. All he could do was nod oddly while covering his mouth with one of his hands. “Yeah, he’s definitely okay with tha-”

“Nice time for snacks, isn’t it?” Tree said while getting up abruptly.

Tree looked dizzy for a few seconds but tried to brush it off by asking everyone what they wanted, that he'd get it for them. However, both Marker and Black Hole made him sit back on the chair, gaining a complaint from him.

“Wasn’t it Fanny’s turn to cook?” Marker recalled.

Usually, the team would sort the tasks per week, and based on that system, it was Fanny’s turn to deal with the dinner today.

“All of us skipped at least one of our tasks with this One and Two and Tree situation,” Fanny opposed. “It’s not fair to pretend you didn’t skip your responsibility and leave all the job to me, now that we’re back! So if I prepare dinner today as if nothing happened, you will help me with the dishes!”

“Sounds fair to me,” Marker shrugged.

“Yeah, not like it's a big deal,” Black Hole agreed.

All Tree did was sigh.

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

Some hours passed after they put hands on work. Fanny shouting, Marker laughing, the bubbly noise of water in the cooking pot and the sizzling of the pork chop on the griddle pan filled the apartment with comfort and warmth. Black Hole was sitting on the table when he heard Marker laugh and Fanny scolded him over something like to “not be so loud because Tree was sleeping”, which was something he didn’t notice until just now. It was a good thing, Tree needed to rest, but there was a chance he wasn’t part of the sleepover, and when they had to go to sleep, he would definitely have to crawl up to the bed next to-

“Black Hole!” Fanny roughly called him. “Why don’t you come and try this meat? It’s hot, so be careful.”

She took a knife and a fork, cut a slice and offered it attached on the cutlery to Black Hole, who eagerly gave it a bite. Fanny was right, it was hot indeed. He hurriedly took a water bottle, poured some on a cup and drank it all.

“Told you,” Fanny grumbled, but with a smile on her face. “How does it taste?”

Black Hole only nodded and raised his thumbs up, trying to chew the pork that burned inside his mouth.

“Hey, could you wake Tree up?” Fanny requested. “The food is ready, we just have to serve it.”

“Sure,” Black Hole obeyed.

He skipped on tip-toes towards Tree’s room. The door was half-closed, so he opened it and saw the one he was looking for. As Fanny said, he was sleeping comfortably, huddled up and gently covered with soft and fluffy yet discombined blankets, along with a bunch of pillows. It was a shame Tree had to leave his slumber; he looked precious and comfy like this, even if blowsy and sleepy.

Still, he lightly patted where he thought was Tree’s shoulder and woke him up. After that, Tree rubbed his eye in a groggy movement and stretched himself a little.

“Hmm, is it morning already?” He mumbled.

“No, it’s still today and dinner’s ready,” Black Hole informed, earning a grunt as a response.

Instead of getting up, Tree huddled up more to the blankets and covered his own body with them like a child, at the mumble of “five more minutes”.

“Come on Tree, we gotta eat,” Black Hole insisted in slight amusement. “You’re gonna like what we made.”

“Fiiiineee,” Tree grumbled.

⋆.˚✮Tree✮˚.⋆

This time, he sat up, but stopped when leaving the blankets aside. The coldness made him shiver and regret leaving the bed in the first place. Why did he have to get up and eat? Sleeping for two consecutive days or more sounded like a better idea for him, and it would be better with company. Sadly for him, he wasn’t sure if the ‘company’ wouldn’t like the idea of him sleeping for what Tree saw as reasonable time.

“Let’s go,” Tree muttered with a hint of frustration after finally standing up and heading to the door.

When leaving the door behind Black Hole, there was something that didn’t leave his head.

He wanted to be alone.

He never felt like this before, at least not in such intensity. He was alone most of the time in the canal, but he didn’t want to. He knew what it was to be alone, and not a single moment he found himself wanting to be so or with people he didn’t know, unless the challenges said so.

But right now, he wanted to be. No, he needed to.

He sat on the table on the same seat as before, ignoring the chattering that came from Fanny and Marker. Their happy talk and the idea of having to take this for longer was driving him crazy. He could even swear he saw Black Hole side-eyeing him with worry when serving the food. Great, the last thing he needed. On the good side, he had something to eat without the need of chewing it, but instead, he only stared at the food reluctantly. Eating was not an option, but drinking his glass of water to pretend nothing’s going on could actually work.

He was about to pick the glass when he thought he saw it become the salty water from there, and it took a lot of him to not shatter the glass on the wall. His hands trembled as he tried to hide them, to not avail. Leaving became more urgent with time. Everything was turning too loud. Everyone mocked him. He wanted to leave. They were doing this on purpose. He wanted to-

He visibly flinched when feeling a pat on the shoulder, and his stomach dropped when noticing it was Black Hole. He begged for his life he didn’t ask him if he was ‘okay’, but it was a dumb request. It would happen anyway, now or later. His doleful gaze killed Tree, and the idea of Black Hole suffering for him made it worse.

Tree could feel his eyes filling with tears, but he was quick enough to cover them by many ways, like looking aside, making an effort to drink the water that took him to this state in the first place, or casually rubbing his eyes to make sure no tear glowed in any form. Apparently everyone was so absorbed in themselves that no one really appeared to notice. He could be safe for now.

“Hey Tree, you didn’t even touch the food. Are you okay?” Fanny cornered. She sounded uneasy, and it was the worst time for her to be.

“Hm? Ah yes, I’m- I’m fine. Just, not really hungry, that’s all,” Tree lied, trying to not look at her.

She only nodded. “Uh-huh…”

Her response didn’t appear condescendent, much less convinced. Apparently, even Marker finished his food a while ago now, which didn’t help his argument be solid. Luckily for him though, the topic of the conversation quickly changed to who was going to wash the dishes, with Fanny yelling at Marker for telling her to do it. Geez, was she always this loud? He couldn’t tell, but he felt relieved when seeing Black Hole get involved to stop Fanny from getting in a fight with his own teammate; he could sneak away from them and finally have his moment of peace in the warmth of his bed.

Getting up from the table, he made sure they all were distracted and went on tip-toes towards his room, wondering how much time would pass until they noticed he was gone. Unluckily, Fanny shouted his name before he could enter the room. Tree only groaned when hearing some stomping in his direction coming from her. She yanked him by the sweater and pulled him oddly close, as if she wanted him to see her mad face.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Fanny demanded.

“You didn’t eat a thing!” Marker complained behind her.

“I already said I’m not hungry,” Tree retorted in a low voice, one close to cracking.

Tree noted something weirder than Fanny’s arbitrary and out-of-character invasion of his personal space: Black Hole wasn’t even there. He was sure he flew away, since the wind entered louder inside the apartment from an open window. It tensed him, to say the least; but he didn’t know if he preferred him to be there or not.

He hesitantly tried taking Fanny’s hands out of him, but her grip got stronger. Luckily, for him, this time he was able to make some distance between his face and Fanny’s. He could see the concern starting to form in Fanny, as her sharp gaze became a doleful one.

Right what he needed.

“Maybe we just need some rest,” she concluded. “Make sure to tell us what happened when you get better.”

She let go of him before hurrying into her room and closing the door, being the slam was the last thing they heard from her. He shared glances with Marker, he looked disappointed and he couldn’t take those eyes from him right now.

Tears filled Tree’s eyes and he rushed to his room without giving any further explanation. After closing the door, he laid his pathetic body on the bed and covered himself the most he could to muffle any noise. He shouldn’t have done that, any of that. He didn’t really know what was the right thing to do there, but he knew whatever performance he pulled out in the last few minutes just wasn’t. Why was this so difficult? Everything overwhelmed him and he couldn’t take it. He embarrassed himself and hurt the ones he loved the most, and he felt dumb for it. And the worst part? They would have to talk about this in the morning. He wouldn’t mind if the blankets asphyxiated him, so he didn’t have to make a script and pick what to say and what not to.

The idea of permanently disappearing made him feel worse, and this time some loud sobs escaped his throat and he couldn’t control them, no matter how much he tried. He felt miserable, and he knew it was all his fault. He knew it wasn’t a big deal and he was fussing over nothing. His crying became hoarse and strained; it was vain to keep it all inside if it didn’t work or didn’t relieve his pain.

Some minutes passed like this, until Tree heard movement at the door of his room. He wiped his tears with doubtful movements and big efforts as he tried to control his breath. He could swear the noise was Black Hole.

⋆.˚✮Black Hole✮˚.⋆

Having a talk with Two that interrupted having dinner with his team because the host said it was “an emergency”, wasn’t a thing Black Hole wanted to deal with. Unluckily, they said it was about that algebralien, so he had to go over to the ground floor of the hotel and listen to whatever they had to say. Luckily, it was a false alarm of something that could have turned into a disaster, so he floated back to his apartment through the window he used to leave.

He entered back to the apartment, and could only see Marker, pacing back and forth around the table. He wouldn’t have been concerned if he didn’t notice how stressed and worried he looked.

“Marker? What happened?”

“No, what happened to You!?” Marker demanded, clearly upset. “You didn’t even explain why you were getting out! Then Tree tried to leave, Fanny got mad and now he’s crying!”

“Oh universe,” was all Black Hole could utter. “But how?”

He could feel a knot forming on his stomach when hearing those words from his teammate. If Fanny got involved and was mad it meant problem, if Tree was the one Fanny got mad at, it meant more problem. If Marker was worried, it was serious, and if it was this serious, Black Hole had to intervene. He wasn’t used to being the pacifier, as Marker took this place with their P.A.C.T crisis. Everything could go wrong, he had to be cautious with his words.

He noted Marker was observing him with glossy eyes, and the vortex felt bad for him, so he lowered himself at Marker’s height and tried to pull out any motivational thing he could.

“Listen, we’re gonna solve this, okay? I’m not sure what’s going on, but we´ll get to the point of this,” Black Hole promised. The only thing that assured him that Marker trusted him was a hopeful nod and a smile with pressed lips.

He took a deep breath and let out a shaky sigh, before rolling up his sleeves and guessing that talking to Fanny first would be a good option. With huge steps, he found himself staring at the door of Fanny’s room before knocking it twice.

“Go away!” She shouted determinedly from the other side. “I hate you!”

“You don’t even know who’s behind and you’re already cussing?” Black Hole cornered with a stern tone.

“Ah, it’s you. Whatever.”

“So can I come in?”

“I guess…?”

Before entering he gave Marker a thumb up and an attempt of a confident gesture, which was the opposite to how he was feeling. He opened the door and entered before closing it securely. There she was, her phone in hand, resting on the back of her bed while muttering some nonsense.

“Listen, Fanny, we need to talk. Mind if I sit here?” And he patted the foot of the mattress.

“I actually do, you could suck up the bed. There's a seat there-” she pointed at a chair with some clothes on the back of it- ”use that instead.”

“Fine…”

“What do you want?” She grumbled, her eyes glued on the damn phone.

“Marker told me about what happened in the dinner, Mind explaining that?”

Fanny visibly rolled her eyes before leaving her phone on her side. “If you wanted to know so bad, why’d you leave then?”

“Two was calling me for an emergency that could’ve put us all at risk. But that happened before any of this,” Black Hole replied. “What I wanted to know is what happened between you two.”

“Why tho?” She sassed.

“We need to stick together and be capable of resolving these conflicts. After all this thing we went through, we’re supposed to be more united than ever-”

“And guess what,” Fanny interrupted, “Tree just did the exact opposite!”

Her words hammered inside Black Hole. Was it really that bad?

“But what did he even do?”

“He literally didn’t touch the food-”

“Yeah, I saw that.”

“Then he took advantage of me and Marker being distracted with the dishes, he lied to us telling us he was fine, and tried to go to his room without telling us what in the world was going on!”

“...That’s it?”

“ ‘That’s it’?! Doesn’t it stir you up?!

“I thought you two had a fight or something,” Black Hole admitted. “You guys can talk it out.”

He wasn’t sure if what he said was right, since Fanny didn’t try and reply or talk back. She only took a glimpse back to her phone with bleak eyes and back to him, sitting in a better position.

“I’m… not sure if I want to have a word with him right now,” she declared, staring at the door. Her voice was a lot lower than before.

“Why not?”

“Well, there’s a high chance I may have crossed the line with him,” she confessed, scratching the back of her neck. It sounded genuine and coincided with what Marker said, but it was still bad.

“What did you even do to him?” Black Hole demanded with disapproval.

“Nothing much! I only took him by the sweater so he couldn't escape!” She explained, signaling taking someone by the collar of a sweater.

Since he didn’t know how everything happened in the first place, he wasn’t sure if the word ‘escape’ was good for the context. This didn’t stop him from listening to her part on this.

“And then Tree left crying?” He queried in utter concern. “I’m trying to follow the story.”

“I didn’t care enough to check, but I’m sure he would have if I decided to stand there any longer,” Fanny stated.

“And nothing else happened with you two after that?”

Fanny shook her head in a negative response, letting Black Hole process the information.

“He barely talks to anyone that’s not you, maybe you should go and ask him what’s wrong with him,” She suggested.

“Yeah.” Black Hole sighed. “Let's give him some time, though.”

“But he has to speak up at some point,” Fanny disagreed.

“That’s something we’ll see later. Now we have to make sure they’re comfortable here. He and Marker have a lot to process, so I’m not sure if confrontation helps right now,” he tried explaining.

“Tsk, whatever.”

Black Hole shook his head and got up from the chair, about to open the door and leave the room. Before getting out, he turned around to see her. “I’m gonna go talk to him now. Make sure to make peace at some point today. Maybe tomorrow, but if it’s today, it’ll be better for all of us.”

“Eugh, fine.”

“Thank you…”

And he got out. After closing the door, he scrubbed his face with both hands and tried to suppress a tired sigh. Half of the work was already done, now he had to see what was hurting Tree that took him to this point. It tore him apart to have to deal with a sad Tree, even if it was expectable; they just got out of a place of torture, and all the consequences would come in. Even if he didn’t exactly know what kind of treatment he got exposed to, he wanted to help him and make all the pain go away, as far as Tree wanted to; he didn’t want to push Tree out of his limits either.

He saw Marker walk to him and take him to the table. He motioned the vortex to sit down, as Marker made something to drink.

“Maybe you too need a break.”

“Marker, no…”

“Don’t worry, I wanted something too,” he commented.

After some minutes that passed quietly, Marker got him a lemonade and a handful of dirt for himself. Where did he get it from? It was unknown. Luckily for Black Hole, Marker didn’t utter a word and ate the dirt in peace and silence… Well, the most peace and silence one can get with the constant noise of dirt being munched next to them.

He wasn’t even halfway from finishing the juice when he noticed Marker already finished his portion of dirt and emitted a “Yummy!”. Then, he got up from the table without saying anything else and rushed to his room.

He was flabbergasted at his simpleness, how he was taking everything that happened and was happening right now. Maybe he was doing something else to take this well? He wasn’t sure, but he was glad Marker was feeling okay, or at least appeared to be so.

He gave another sip to his lemonade before concluding he could stay for a little longer. Marker was right, he did need a little break if he wanted to help Tree.

Chapter Text

⋆.˚✮Black Hole✮˚.⋆

He put the cup in the sink before stepping over Tree’s room.

Once in front of it, he took a deep breath before knocking the door with three paced knocks. Waiting for a response, he looked around the appartment, the chairs, the lightning from the ceiling, the now closed window that exposed the game parameters, the grassy field swayed by an apparently calm wind; everything filled Black Hole with a mix of wonder and uneasiness. He didn’t want to know what would happen if this wasn’t resolved and Two felt like resuming the contest. This gave him the boost he needed, and after hearing nothing from the other side, to open the door

He was startled when seeing Tree quickly sit up on the bed when the vortex opened the door. Tree’s tousled hair contrasted his baggy and puffy eyes, along with his wrinkled clothing. Both stared at each other, Black Hole in pity and Tree in pure shame.

“What do you want?” Tree requested roughly while trying to tidy his hair.

Instead of replying, Black Hole first closed the door behind him and stepped closer to Tree. This time he did sit on the foot of the bed, but Tree dragged himself away until his back was practically compressed between the back of the bed and the corner of the wall.

“Tree, we need to talk,” Black Hole disclosed.

Tree covering his face was making it difficult to concentrate. And it didn’t help either that he looked like he was on the verge of tears; bitter tears, by the way. And the inevitable happened: Tree couldn’t hold it for longer and began to shed all the tears he tried holding back, sobbing disconsolately and hiding his face from the other the most he could.

“Oh Tree, Tree,” Black Hole lamented.. “What happened?”

Of course, nothing came from the botanist besides a worsening, feeble bleat and despaired sobs. He looked broken. And it tore Black Hole’s heart into pieces. He wanted to hug Tree, but he didn’t want to do something he didn’t consent to. He was supposed to be his best friend, he should know how to react! All of this was washing Black Hole with guilt and he could not stand there while doing nothing about it.

“Hey… C’mere,” he whispered, offering Tree a hug that got accepted by clinging onto him.

Black Hole shifted on his seat so he could hold Tree comfortable, as the latter snuggled down in the embrace. Tree’s body quivered while gripping the other’s sweatshirt with all his might, his body warm from all the blankets.

As the minutes passed, his breathing went from uneven sobs to steadier gasps, until he no longer trembled, but still kept himself close to the vortex nonetheless. As Black Hole lulled Tree by rocking from left to right in the hug, he would stroke the latter’s hair and murmur reassuring words every so often. He wasn’t sure why, since he still owed a talk with Tree. Maybe it was because he didn’t bear seeing him suffer, no matter who started this argument.

The silence grew tensioning with the minutes, as both separated from the embrace. Tree rubbed his right eye, wiping away any remaining tear and looking down to not face Black Hole’s unusually stern expression.

“Feeling better?” Black Hole queried, fidgeting with both of his hands. He earned a nod from Tree, so he continued. “Listen, firstly I want to say sorry for leaving early. Two called me for an emergency about… them, so I had to go. Luckily it was a false alarm, so don’t worry about that, okay?”

Tree nodded with more vehemence this time, which led Black Hole to continue what he had to say.

“Okay, with that settled, there’s something else, we have to discuss, okay? Marker told me about the argument that happened between you and Fanny. Mind explaining what happened?”

Tree visibly raised both eyebrows in a shocked way.

“Argument? No, we didn’t have an argument,” he opposed insecurely, tucking some hair behind his ear. “She did get mad, though…”

“Well, would you…mind elaborating?” Black Hole requested.

As Tree explained the whole situation from his side, Black Hole couldn’t help but notice the way Tree’s eyes glowed due to the previous tears. Or the lack of gesticulation in Tree’s face or hands. All of him seemed dull or lifeless, but it didn’t make him any less pretty to Black Hole.

Based on what Tree told him, he wanted to be alone to try to process everything and feel better. He said he thought sleeping would help, but then Black Hole called him for dinner, and everything overwhelmed him because he wasn’t in a nice mood in the first place and he already had to talk with the team; but he never meant to offend anyone.

“Then why wouldn’t you eat? You and Marker barely ate anything these days!”

“It’s… complicated.”

After that, the two shared an uncomfortable moment of silence where Tree looked down all the time and tried to pull words out of his mouth, to no avail. Tree wasn’t developing an eating disorder, was he? Black Hole begged for his life his best friend, who nervously rubbed his hands from his thighs to his knees, had a good explanation for this.

“Well, you’ll see,” Tree tried to explain, nearly stuttering, “It- I-... I hate to say this, but… One… I- I mean, I, had a bad time with the food there, y’know? It could have anything and I was risking myself when eating.”

“And you were scared it’d be as it was there?” Black Hole supposed, unsure.

After getting a nod from Tree as a response, the vortex shook his head in a mourning manner. “Tree, no…!”

“I know, pretty dumb,” Tree conceded with a hint of bitterness. “But, let me guess: ‘but we’re here now’?”

“Mm-hmm. And nothing like that will ever happen to you nor Marker again. None of you deserves to be hurt like that. Not dumb at all though.”

“You promise?” Tree demanded.

“I promise. You’ve been through a lot, it’s the least I can do.”

As if it pulled a trigger, Tree pulled Black Hole in a tight hug, which got reciprocated. Two souls, perfectly locked together, and pouring their hearts into a warm and welcoming embrace. He didn’t realize how much he missed Tree until now. The latter’s suffering hurt him and he wanted to see the other’s bright smile with all his heart and strength. He would never understand entirely what Tree went through, but he wanted to help him with the afterwards of this and help him heal.

Tree’s stomach growling reminded them what tied them in the hug in the first place.

“You know you should eat something, right?” Black Hole inquired, earning a groan.

“Do I really have to?”

“Yes, Tree you have to. But we can make something light if you want.”

Tree hummed in frustration and begrudgingly leaned away from the hug.

“Fine.”

“What about some scrambled eggs?” Black Hole suggested.

“Yeah, that would be nice,” Tree mumbled melancholically.

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

Now in the kitchen, Black Hole noticed Marker left, and assumed he was in his room. He turned on the stove and put some oil in a pan, laying it on the stove after that. Then, he mindlessly took a bowl and a fork, ready to prepare the meal. He noticed Tree was standing next to the fridge, unusually unsure and keeping an eye on Black Hole’s movements.

“Need anything?” Black Hole asked.

Tree shook his head in a negative way. “I just thought, maybe I could help a bit.”

“Sure!” Black Hole chirped with a smile at the unusual proposal, coming from Tree. “Mind passing me the eggs?”

Tree nodded and opened the fridge with a slight struggle. Once open, he noticed a plate with the food he left and a note that said “Eat it“ attached on the plate. He also found the eggs at the upper shelf from its door, and took two with a hand.

“How many do you need?” Tree queried.

“Maybe two.”

“‘kay…”

When taking the eggs, he felt Tree’s hand graze against his, and it almost made him weak at the knees. It took him some time to put himself together and crack the eggs into the bowl. While mixing them, he saw Tree stare at the fridge, more specifically at Fanny’s note. Black Hole was sure it was Fanny who wrote the note, given the awful writing she has.

“Do you think I should, eat it?” Tree asked, seeking advice. He took out the plate so Black Hole could see it better.

“If you want to, yeah,” he replied. “I think it would be good if you eat anything besides eggs.”

Black Hole poured the mix on the pan, hearing it sizzle loudly. After some seconds, he pulled a rubber spatula across the bottom of the pan, giving it form.

The noise of a chair being moved and an audible, distressed sigh from Tree made Black Hole assume the botanist sat. It relieved him. In the meantime, he continued with this midnight meal, scraping the bottom of the pan to avoid the eggs from drying out. It was taking a cooked appearance and swayed softly when moved with the spatula. It was ready.

He took the pan and the spatula, and headed to Tree. After serving the food in a gawky way, he left everything on the sink and picked a fork from the counter. Lastly, he gave it to Tree and sat in front of him with a sigh.

“Tell me if you need anything,” Black Hole commented.

“Yeah, it’s okay.”

It was a relief to see Tree finally eating something solid besides fruit. Maybe it would be good for him if he could incorporate more fulfilling meals from these days and on.

Staring at his own hands on the table, Black Hole saw how the bite “Two” gave him got reddish and annoyed him this whole time, with a pulsing pain that made his whole hand hot. He didn’t cover that yet, but luckily, the apartment had a first aid kit he could use for it. He was sure the winds caused an impact on him as well. Maybe he could do that later.

“So… is it good?”

“Yeah,” Tree mumbled. His eyes were focused on the table, but noticed the marks in Black Hole’s hand. “Does that hurt?”

“Not much. But don’t worry, I’ll handle that later.”

“Why not now? I don’t have to do much to cover it, let me help.”

“Tree, n-”

“Come on! It’s the least I can do for you at this point.”

“But you don’t have to… whatever, not like you’ll stop anyways…”

Tree took Black Hole’s hand into the faucet and opened it, letting the cold water pour into the bite. It felt relieving, and it was better with Tree soothingly thumbing the marks with droplets of blood. He would stay like this for hours, but unfortunately, it only took him a few minutes until he dragged the vortex to the first aid, not letting go of his hand. Once there, he took a gauze pad and laid it gently on the bite.

“There we go,” Tree said in a low tone. “Let’s go to sleep, shall we-”

A loud slam interrupted his suggestion, and before he could continue they saw Fanny storming towards them.

“What now?” Tree demanded as the peace in the kitchen turned into utter annoyance.

“As much as I HATE to say this, I just want to let you know that…”

Fany’s fluent yet grumpy words refrained suddenly. She pressed her lips together before letting out what she actually wanted to say.

⋆.˚✮Tree✮˚.⋆

“I’m sorry.”

Fanny’s regretful words resonated in the room.

“... Sorry for?”

“Yelling at you at the wrong time, demanding answers at the wrong time too, you name it,” Fanny declared with remorse. “You should have at least told us what you were gonna do though. It would have relieved all of us from the tension of not knowing.”

“Yeah, maybe-”

Fanny pulled him in a tight hug that left him standing stiffly. Too tight, it didn’t let him breathe, too close. But this time, in a good way, as to redeem the last time they were close. After some seconds of not reacting, he hugged her back and patted her back a few times, letting himself know he was safe and home.

Thankfully for both of them, Fanny leaned away.

“How’d you like the meal?” She inquired, playfully nudging the botanist.

“Pretty good, coming from someone like you,” Tree jested, getting a rougher nudge. “Ow!”

“I hate when I try to be kind and people play jokes!” Fanny grumbled. Now that was a relief.

Things were resolved, at least with her. Now he had to see how he would patch things with Marker, as he saw the worst from this misunderstanding. He assumed he was in his room, so he didn’t bother in interrupting Fanny’s way to her room only to ask her where he was. He could go talk to him right now and let Black Hole sleep. But, he still had something important to tell him.

“Do you mind if I go talk with Marker now? I need to apologize to him too, but you can go to my room if you want.”

“Sure,” Black Hole nodded.

⋆.˚✮Black Hole✮˚.⋆

He headed towards Tree’s room and opened the door. He was doomed to this, was he?

After entering, he left the door half open and stood still, hesitant on any more he could take. He could suck up everything, or kill Tree in an instant, or say something uncomfortable. He never thought he could sleep next to Tree. Ever. So, being caught with no tools or anything prepared wasn’t on his plans. Could he sit on the floor for now? Should he lay on the bed and sleep? Should he sleep, or wait for Tree? What if he stood next to the bed? Or maybe check on the room to kill time? Yeah, maybe he should do that.

He looked around; many hanging plants decorated the already green and brown room, and when he tried to touch them, he found out they were artificial. The similarity to natural leaves surprised Black Hole, and he kept inspecting his best friend’s room. It was oddly comforting and cozy. Well, it was Tree, anywhere with him was comforting. And more if it was his room, where he could feel Tree’s presence. He was sure the well-maintained temperature in the room helped with the atmosphere, warm and welcoming.