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Clear as day, the sky shined with its bright blue iridescence. Two was still “out of commission” in the hotel, and by the rumors that have spread, they’ve locked themselves in their room and haven’t spoken since the universal collapse. Many contestants were formulating theories as to what could’ve happened, but nobody could figure out what the deal was. Sure, the event was mortifying, but they out of all people should’ve been the quickest to recover- especially with the go-lucky attitude they usually bore.
Tree stood in the soft grass plains, feeling the slight breeze sift through his leaves and rustle a few dead ones out of his collective. With the sun beating down on the lands, the once lightheaded feeling he had faded away as his leaves turned sunlight into tangible sustenance. This was a normal behavior, and he walked amidst the grass while letting his cells do their part.
Black Hole had been floating idly by the persistent crack in the sky for over three days now, and Tree always wondered how long it would take for him to give up and lose interest. Occasionally, he’d hear a faint grunt of strength and he’d look up– seeing him shake and force the crack closed a little closer each time. Something worried him, however, and he couldn’t shake the concern about the celestial object’s well being. Sure, he was “the strongest object in the universe”, but after Four had shrunken him down to a manageable size, Tree figured that Black Hole still wasn’t used to feeling so weak.
Despite the potential disadvantages Black Hole had, Tree still found him determined and willing to protect his friends, no matter how hard it would be.
Tree kept his eyes on the black hole as he wandered over to a perfect patch of grass beneath the crack. He inspected the ground and found a suitable place to sit down, comfortably “planting” himself into the earth below. Tree didn’t make too much noise because he didn’t want to distract BH from his task.
So many strange things had been occurring lately, or at least in Tree’s mind. He’s noticed only embarrassingly recently that several contestants had gone missing– and that the missing posters still faded and worn on the sides of the hotel had been up for several months at this point. What was happening to their world? If Two’s suddenly distressed, and they haven’t even noticed that their own contestants are missing, then what on Earth could be going on?
“Oh- Tree!” Black Hole finally noticed Tree’s presence.
“Heya, Black Hole.”
For the first time in a while, the abyss seemed to take a break from trying to fix the world, and floated down softly next to Tree. He had a fleeting thought that Black Hole was relieved to have a valid distraction– who would need validation to take a break from something that isn’t mandatory?
“Sorry I haven’t been… around much. Fixing this crack is… tough– I wish it could go away Instantly.” He admitted to Tree.
“Don’t worry, you’ve been trying your best. It’s good that you’re doing better than… most of us here anyways.” Tree sighed, thinking of their miserable host and the other contestants in distress.
Tree also thought about Pencil and Pen, and Fanny’s hatred towards CloudYAY after the timeline damage caused by them.
Honestly, it made something in Tree boil a bit under his bark whenever he thought of what new, possibly destructive thing CloudYAY could do next challenge.
“How’s… Two doing by-the-way? Do you know?” BH asked him.
“Not good apparently…” Tree scratched the back of his leaves, ruffling them and folding some in the process.
“Oh…” He said with a sadness Tree had never heard come of him before.
“But- at least the others are letting them rest. They deserve it the most out of all of us.”
Black Hole remained silent. Tree looked up, and saw his accretion disc spinning contentedly around him.
“Black Hole?”
The void seemed to jump and refocus back on Tree, regardless of having no face.
“Y-yeah? Sorry, I zoned out.”
Tree’s eyebrows furrowed, disappointed yet concerned for how much the entity was avoiding his own health.
“Astro,” Tree used his personal nickname for him, “when’s the last time you’ve gotten sleep? Or rested?–”
“This crack– it’s more important than any rest I could get. I won’t let you guys get put in danger again.”
“But Black Hole, you have to stop and take a break at some point– nobody can keep doing that forever, you of all people should know this.”
The cosmic object stirred in place, visibly contemplating something while hesitating to float back up to the rip in the sky. Tree wished he could put a hand on Black Hole to soothe him, but unfortunately that would lead to far worse accidents than what he’s currently struggling to handle.
“At least… talk for a bit. The crack can wait– you can fix it back up in no time.” He suggested, gesturing with his hands.
The black hole sighed and hovered just barely above the ground, being careful not to pull the grass too hard.
The quietness between them was oddly comforting. The stress of everything lately had really started to offhandedly affect Tree’s mental approach to everything– including sometimes contemplating whether or not their “death prevention” morals were still beneficial or not.
He noticed how BH used his gravitational force to move Tree’s leaves intentionally– it was no question that it was on purpose, as none of the grass beneath him was getting pulled.
Tree had always ached to feel what Black Hole’s… skin? Touch? Felt like. Though, obviously, his hand along with the rest of his body would get whisked away into the nothingness, and compacted into an infinitely small point in oblivion. Some strange part of the concept appealed to his curiosity, but as the common saying goes, it would kill him to try it.
“I know what you’re doing, Astro.” Tree spoke in a quiet voice.
He stared into the abyss and it stared back at him. Why did he, of all the contestants here, have to suffer so much? Why did Black Hole care so much, but the others didn’t?
Tree couldn’t deny the longing empathy he felt for him, considering their plan to prevent death had been going on since the beginning. He always had this inextinguishable passion to protect everyone, even if he was made for world-ending destruction. It fascinated Tree, being able to witness how even the most deadly of people can be part of a good cause.
“Sorry– I just…” He ceased the gravitational play and suddenly the air felt still again. Tree was somewhat guilty for acknowledging the entity’s actions, but it was too late now.
Tree sighed, staring up into the Ether. The crack in the sky still looked the same as before when Black Hole had left it only mere minutes ago. How long did it take for it to fracture open incrementally? It seemed to happen at random, but he wasn’t sure. Maybe a smart scientist like Golf Ball or Tennis Ball could figure it out eventually.
Black Hole flinched when he raised his hand, “caressing” the abyss from a safe distance. Tree still ached to touch him, but the fear of dying was too strong to be reckless. The fear of giving him another loss was too overpowering to be selfless.
“It’s okay, I didn’t mind, really.” He chuckled a little through his words and leaned forward, placing his arms on his knees.
“I don’t want to get too close, so… this is the best I have for physical contact with anybody else…” He said.
The pull returned and his leaves wobbled a bit with the force. It felt similar to that of a nice breeze, but without the chill– the waving, ruffling sensation but minus the feeling of air passing through each gap.
They stayed silent for a while, with BH’s force wavering occasionally but staying relatively consistent.
“How long can you keep doing this?” Tree asked, curious.
“I don’t know, really… but I’ve been practicing my ability to grab things closer to me.”
Tree nodded, clearly seeing how precise his gravity was at that moment.
“Can you… grab the flowers without sucking them up?” Tree asked with interest in his voice.
Black Hole floated up a bit, halting the gentle pull on Tree, and tugged at the ground. With a very quiet rip, a few flowers and strands of grass were plucked out of the ground and orbited around his event horizon. Tree got a feeling of comfort sift through him seeing the plants be handled with care by such a dangerous entity. Though, he sincerely didn’t want to think of BH as a “dangerous” anything.
They flew through the air gracefully, and Tree hesitantly reached out a hand to grab one. BH flinched away and seemed to be staring at Tree with concern.
“Uh– don’t get too close–”
Tree’s hand returned back to his side.
“Right, sorry.”
BH lowered to the ground again and released the plants from his gravitational field. They fell among the other grass and small plants carpeting the field.
Tree delicately smoothed out a petal of a nearby flower and inspected it, being careful not to damage its structure at all. He was particularly wary of harming flowers, as they felt so pure and pretty– to hurt them was to hurt nature. To kill, to cause injury and ailment, was to harm a defenseless organism. He never really was able to explain this deep-seated feeling to anybody other than Grassy, but even then, Grassy still didn’t understand Tree the way he wanted him to.
The sound of hurried footsteps on grass caught Tree’s attention, and as he looked over, he saw Fanny sprinting over to him– and Black Hole, presumably.
“Oh, hi Fanny–” Black Hole greeted, before getting cut off abruptly.
“I HAVE IMPORTANT NEWS TO SHARE WITH BOTH OF YOU!” She exclaimed in her usual half-yelling voice, but this time it seemed more serious.
What could Fanny have to say? Tree’s heard from the others that she was in the hotel, and she’s been gone for several days- what could she have been doing in there?
“What? What is it?”
“There is a culprit on the loose! And they’re the reason that so many of us are missing! We suspect that you and Black Hole may be the next ones that they target, so it’s best that you two are on high alert.”
“Oh dear. I can’t bear to witness anything more… haven’t we had enough action these last few months?” Tree protested.
“Well, whoever they are, I don’t think they’d be able to take me… I mean, seeing as how I’m a literal death-eater of the world… it’d be kind of hard to contain me.”
Fanny shook her head and seemed to get more urgent with her warnings.
“No, this is a powerful being! We believe they are of Two’s kind, and they represent the integer One. They often steal contestants unnoticed and in private places, and we need to prevent this from happening.”
Black Hole was worried suddenly, anxiously shifting the gravity around himself and fidgeting with the grass. He also warily looked up at the sky, seeing the crack and remembering how his main focus was to fix that rip, no matter what it took.
“Uh, I… have to go back to doing something.” He paused, taking a quick look at Fanny. “Tree, I’m sorry– I have to go… we can talk later.”
“Black Hole!” Fanny asserted once again.
He stopped flying up and waited for her to say something.
“Stay aware. Don’t let them take you. If you notice anyone in danger, try to stop One from taking them, too.”
The silence was a little too quiet, and Black Hole realized that Tree hadn’t spoken in a while.
“Tree, that means you too!” She leaned towards Tree, but quickly recoiled with a mix of what looked like fear and horror on her face.
A particularly strong breeze wafted through the air, and with an extra push, a cardboard cutout replacement of what used to be Tree fell over in the grass with a quiet thud.
It laid there motionlessly, shifting in the wind slightly.
“TREE– TREE?” Fanny panicked, disbelief overtaking her expression.
Black Hole’s world collapsed as the tiny pieces began to fall into place in his head as he processed what just happened. Tree was gone– but there’s no way, he was just there! It’s not like he was that ignorant of his surroundings… Was he?
But the crack in the sky needed to be mended, and he needed to save everyone. How could he save anyone if his friends– and fellow tree-mates, were disappearing right in front of him? It was like a paradox, and he was in the dead, revolving center of it. Save and protect, but also destroy and kill when necessary. However, in order to destroy and kill, you must save and protect so that you have something to destroy and kill– it made his horizon hurt just thinking about it.
Fanny kneeled to the ground and angrily grunted, kicking the floor and muttering something under her breath.
Black Hole wished he could help in a way, but nothing he did probably comforted anyways.
“I’m… gonna go back up to deal with the crack.” He said, and began to fly away into the sky to return to his mind-numbing duties.
“Black Hole, wait.” Fanny said.
He hovered and listened, waiting for her to say something.
“Promise me at least one thing: Please stay safe.” She pleaded, looking up at him with hurting, meaningful eyes.
He could sense the sheer emotion behind that face– Tree was gone, Gaty was gone, Pin was gone, Lightning was gone, Basketball was gone, Pie was gone, Remote was gone, Robot Flower was gone…
Black Hole, Fanny, and Marker were the only ones left. So in that moment, he understood how desperate Fanny was. He understood that she didn’t want him to stay in because of the competition alone, but she wanted him to stay in because this was a real, scary situation outside of the game show itself. Beyond Two’s now failing, happy attitude, there is a real living danger out there that could seriously harm people.
It took a few moments to finally find the right words for her, but he managed to get a grasp on a few:
“I will… Don’t worry, Fanny.”
She closed her eyes, staring at the ground once more, and nodded before taking off towards the hotel again while still continuing to mutter something.
It felt eerily quiet now, like someone was watching him. Uneased, he scanned the pale forest near the edge of the fields, and watched amidst the trees for something unusual- something that looked like a One of sorts.
And strangely enough, all Black Hole saw in the vast canopy was a small pair of oval-shaped footprints engraved in the dirt by a bush, with not a single trace left behind.