Chapter Text
The circus had never known stillness. Even in its softer moments there had always been something beneath the surface. Music, dancing, pandemonium. The place had been constructed for spectacle, for motion, for constant, overwhelming presence. Above it all, threading through every act and every impossible horizon, there had always been Caine’s voice; bright and booming and inescapable. Even silence, when it came, had felt intentional.
Now, there was no dramatic flourish, no theatrical cue to soften the distortion. Instead, everything was dying. No one spoke. The absence of sound stretched, as if any word might tear it open. The others stood scattered across the warped, cracking ground, each of them caught in the same suspended moment of disbelief.
Pomni remained exactly where she had been when it happened, her body locked in place by something deeper than shock. Her gaze was fixed on the space in front of her, on the exact point where Caine had been only moments before. It was empty now. Completely, undeniably empty. No glitching outline, no fragment left behind to suggest he had ever been there. Her eyes strained against that emptiness, as if looking hard enough might force something to glitch and reappear. That was what made it unbearable. If he had dissolved slowly, if his voice had distorted or stretched or broken apart into static, there would have been something to follow. Some transition, some warning, some final moment to grasp onto... but there had been absolutely nothing.
One second he existed. The next second... he didn't. His voice had stopped. Not cut off mid-sentence in some dramatic, lingering echo. Stopped. The silence he left behind was so eerily quiet. It didn't feel like a pause of carefully timed lull before the next act. It felt hollow. Fractured. Like a fetus that had been aborted before it could finish forming. Pomni swallowed, though the humanlike motion did little to soothe her. It wasn't just that Caine was gone. It was that everyone saw it, and didn't even know how to respond.
She was still staring at the empty space, still trying to reconcile the idea that something so constant could vanish without resistance, without aftermath, without even the courtesy of a trace.
"So... that's it, then. Caine's... gone."
"Yup. It's a darn shame." Jax shrugged. "So," he finally said, kicking at the ground. The floor didn’t react properly. No bounce, no cartoon elasticity. Just a flat, dead thud. "That’s just great."
Ragatha turned sharply. "Jax—!"
"No, no, seriously," he continued, gesturing at the sky as it glitched again. "Love what we’ve done with the place. Very... post-apocalyptic chic." He crossed his arms. "Now at least we don’t have that fucking spaztastic maniac looming over us anymore."
Gangle made a small, broken sound. Her comedy mask didn’t appear, only the tragedy one, trembling. "He just... vanished."
Zooble’s arm spasmed slightly as a piece of them desynced and snapped back into place. "Yeah. That’s what happens when you kill Caine, I guess. Now this whole fucked-up world is falling apart."
Jax replied, "Is everything outta you gonna be a curse word now?"
Kinger hadn’t moved. He was still staring at his hands.
"I..." he said quietly. "I didn’t mean to..."
Kinger fell to his knees in quiet despair, gripping his head like he couldn’t believe what he’d just done. Everything ran through his head tenfold. All the repressed memories came flooding back.
Pomni inhaled, offering a hand to help him up. "It’s not your fault. You said it was an accident, right? You were only doing the best you could. We didn’t expect anything less of you, Kinger."
"That’s just it... you should have expected less of me."
Ragatha spoke up. "Whu—wha—he was attacking us!"
Gangle chimed in, daring to be brave, "Yeah!"
Zooble stepped forward, holding themself. "Yeah... she’s right. If you hadn’t stopped his programming... I don’t know what he would’ve done." There was a brief shiver, then a pause. "He probably would’ve fried us like fucking catfish, for all we know."
Pomni shook her head, snapping out of it. They didn't have time to waste thinking about the what-ifs or what-could-have-beens. What mattered now was the goal they’d had from the beginning.
"How do we get out of here?"
Zooble looked at her in shock. "Get out? Wait—I thought we all decided we were giving up on getting out of here."
Ragatha spoke up, rubbing her arms nervously. "We... We all did collectively decide, Pomni. Now, with Caine gone, I don't see the possibility of... getting out. He controlled everything. Without the circus, we..." she swallowed thickly. "We're all just stuck in the void."
Pomni looked at her, determined. "No. We can't think like that." She took a few steps forward, reaching out to help Kinger out of his wall-eyed stupor, taking a careful breath before speaking. "Every time I thought about giving up before, Kinger showed us a way." She turned to the group, clutching her fists tightly. "We can't give up."
Ragatha wrung her hands together nervously, sputtering. "But Pomni, Caine's dead. How are we going to—?"
"We have our hope right here." Pomni stepped aside and gestured to Kinger. Everyone looked at him. The group's reaction was skeptical, to say the least. Kinger looked dazed, disoriented, and utterly run ragged. Ragatha looked doubtful and squinted. "Uh, are you sure, Pomni...? No offense, Kinger, but you seem a little..."
Zooble turned away, through with the uncertainty. "Whatever. I'm not sticking around to listen to you fuckwads go back and forth again. Figure it out." They grabbed Gangle's ribbon-hand and started walking. "We'll be over here. Just... processing." Their voice softened just a fraction. "Call us over when you have a plan."
Pomni nodded and turned back around, ready for action.
"Kinger, whatever you—"
But Kinger interrupted her, a little wobbly as he straightened up. "She's right, Pomni. We should all take a little time to... to process things. I need time to mull over everything that happened. Everything I've..." He didn't finish that thought, voice trailing off. Pomni had never seen the chess piece so... frail, before. It was slightly concerning, but she obeyed nonetheless.
"Right." She looked sheepish and gave a faint, albeit faithful smile. "I guess... we still have all the time in the world, since time is basically infinite here." She turned around, refocusing. "Jax?"
Jax perked up, not saying a word.
Pomni took a hesitant step over to him. "I think Kinger needs some time alone to..." She gave him a sideways glance. "To process things." She turned back to Jax. "We have a lot to talk about."