Chapter Text
Finn stepped in first like it was just another routine drop. Because for everyone else, it was.
Behind him, the team followed in their usual rhythm: loose, familiar, Oddly normal for people who spent their time surviving places with monsters that didn’t want them there.
Rodger checked something off instinct, humming under his breath like the results were always going to be good news anyway.
Boxten bounced slightly on his heels. Looking at his fists. “Alright, alright—Safe run, safe run. N-no stress!”
Scraps gave him a side glance. “That’s how we die...”
“D-DONT SAY THAT!” Boxten replied instantly.
Goob laughed, stretching his arms. “Its okay boxten ! We’ve had worse!"
Finn smirked slightly. “Yeah, we’ve been in deeper water than this.”
Boxten groaned. “Finn, please don’t start with the fish stuff again..."
Finn tilted his head. “What? I’m just trying to scale expectations.”
That got an actual laugh out of Goob, Scrap joined him.
Rodger didn’t look up. “Let’s focus.”
The elevator shook once. Then dropped, they were ready.
The run started like most of them did—fast, structured, almost hopeful. Machines first. Movement second. Grab some candies here and there... Finn took point without it being said out loud. That was just how it worked.
And then they saw him.
Glisten. Twisted, but Glisten.
Most twisted encounters followed a pattern: aggression, noise, escalation. Immediate threat response. No hesitation.
Glisten did not follow that pattern.
At first, he appeared at the edge of a hallway like something deciding whether the hallway was worth existing in. His posture was wrong. It was off, like his body was remembering how it used to move but couldn’t fully commit to it.
He saw them. And he didn’t charge.
Boxten froze. “Uh… i-is he not gonna be moving..?”
Scraps tightened her grip. “That’s- worse.”
Rodger stepped back slightly. “...That’s not standard behavior.”
Finn didn’t move. Instead, he raised a hand slightly, like greeting an old coworker who definitely shouldn’t be here.
“Hey,” Finn called out casually. “You look a little… hooked today.”
Boxten made a choking sound. “FINN!”
“What?” Finn shrugged. “Trying to break the ice.”
Glisten twitched. Not violently, Not yet.
Just a small shift in attention-like Finn’s voice had been tagged incorrectly in whatever remained of him.
That was enough. A sound escaped Glisten.
Low. Controlled. Wrongly patient.
Then he moved.
Fast.
“Okay- NOT FRIENDLY MODE!” Goob shouted.
The optimism snapped instantly into motion. They scattered into practiced positions, dodging through corridors with the ease of people who had done this too many times to panic properly.
Scraps fired off a warning. “Left hallway blocked!”
“On it!” Boxten called back.
Rodger adjusted direction immediately. “Machine route’s still open—move!”
Finn ran backward for a second, still watching Glisten.
The twisted form was aggressive now-fully aligned with what he was supposed to be: fast, reactive, dangerous. Every movement aimed to close distance, cut off escape, erase mistakes.
But Finn kept talking anyway.
“C’mon,” he said under his breath. “Don’t get all salty on me now!”
Boxten nearly slipped. “STOP TALKING TO- TO THIS- IT!"
“I’m multitasking!”
Scraps yelled, “That is NOT multitasking!”
Glisten struck a wall instead of Finn at the last second, forcing debris across the corridor. It wasn’t hesitation—it was correction. Like something in him had recalculated wrong. That made Finn’s expression change slightly.
They pushed through machines quickly after that. Too quickly.
The kind of pace that usually meant something was about to go wrong—but optimism was still holding the group together.
Boxten even smiled a bit “Okay, okay, NO PANIC we’re actually doing good today!”
Rodger nodded once. “Efficiency is above average.”
Scraps muttered, “well, That’s how it gets you.”
Goob grinned. “Let it get us, then!”
Finn glanced back once.
Glisten was still there.Still following.
Still wrong but not escalating further than necessary.
That was the detail no one else seemed to fully register.
He should have been escalating.
But he wasn’t.
The final machine clicked into place. A quiet confirmation echoed through the floor.
“Done!” Rodger said.
Boxten practically cheered. “Finally!”
Scraps exhaled slowly "Phew that was a harsh floor..."
Goob was already moving. “Elevator’s up ahead, let’s go!”
Finn hesitated half a second longer than the others. Glisten was closer now, Watching again.
Not attacking immediately. Still wrong.
Finn muttered, “...Something’s off with him…”
Scraps snapped, “Everything is off with him!”
“Yeah,” Finn agreed. “But this feels… undercooked.”
Boxten groaned. “Finn, please stop this and lets get to the elevator!”
Finn smirked faintly. “Sorry. I’ll scale it back.”
They reached the elevator almost at the same time. The doors were already open, waiting patiently.
Goob stepped in first. “Finally!”
Boxten followed quickly. “I vote we never talk about this floor again.”
Rodger stepped in next. “mhm, Agreed.”
Scraps hesitated, looking behind her. “-Finn?”
Finn was still outside. Watching down the corridor.
Glisten was still there, closer than before. Still not fully enraged like he should have been at this distance, at this moment, at this escape.
That was the problem.
“Finn!” Boxten called. “W-We’re going!”
Scraps shouted sharper, “Now!”
Goob leaned forward. “It’s too late if he reaches-”
“Finn!” Rodger barked.
Finn finally moved.
He stepped toward the elevator-
But his eyes stayed on Glisten.
Like he was trying to solve something mid-collapse.
“Just one more second…” Finn muttered.
Boxten’s voice cracked slightly. “That’s how people DIE!”
Scraps grabbed the frame of the elevator. “GET IN!"
Rodger stepped forward, sharp and urgent. “You’re out of window- move!”
And then, Goob moved.
Not thinking. Not hesitating. Just instinct. His arms shot forward, stretching fast, elastic, trying to reach past the threshold of the elevator toward Finn like he could pull him back into safety.
“FINN-!”
Finn turned at the last second.
For a fraction of a moment, their distance didn’t feel real. Goob’s arms wrapped forward:
Almost there..
ALMOST!
The elevator doors slammed down with brutal finality,Goob’s arms hitting the closing edge.
There was a sharp, ugly impact—metal against force, a sound that didn’t belong in something alive. The elevator jolted as the doors forced his reach back on itself.
“Goob!” Boxten shouted.
Goob recoiled instantly, yanking his arms back with a startled gasp, stumbling into the elevator wall.
Scraps grabbed him by instinct. “Little bro, are you okay?!”
“I-I’m fine,” Goob said quickly, shaking his arms out, but his expression was tight. “He didn’t make it…”
Silence dropped hard, the elevator moved. And... Finn was gone.
Boxten spoke first, quieter now. “He… didn’t make it. O-oh my god.”
Scraps didn’t answer immediately.
Rodger exhaled slowly.
Goob stared at his hands. “I almost—”
“You almost got pulled out too !,” Scraps cut in, sharper than usual. Not angry. Just shaken. “Don’t ever do that again!”
Goob didn’t respond.
Boxten whispered, “Finn wouldn’t have—”
“Finn chose wrong timing,” Rodger said, but it didn’t sound like blame. Just fact. “...I'll talk to Dandy about it.”
Silence settled again. Too heavy.
The team was gone.
The sound of their voices faded into something distant and unreachable.
And outside the corridor, Finn was still there.
Standing still slightly from the timing of the shutdown, he steadied himself with a slow breath, eyes locked forward.
On the other side of the hall, Twisted Glisten stood perfectly still.
No movement forward, No immediate attack.
...Just watching?
Finn exhaled once, forcing a small, uneven laugh. “Okay…” he muttered. “That was almost a clean exit.”
Glisten didn’t respond,
But his head tilted slightly at the sound of Finn’s voice,slow, precise, like he was testing whether it matched something stored incorrectly in memory.
Finn took a cautious step back toward the corridor edge.
“You’re not usually this patient,” he said, trying to keep his tone light. “Did the wall hitted you way too hard or something?”
A pause. Then Glisten moved one step forward. Just enough to break the stillness.
Finn’s posture shifted immediately, alert now, but not panicked. “Yeah,” Finn continued, almost like he was talking through a problem instead of a threat. “That’s more like it.”
Another step from Glisten. Closer now.
Still not the full collapse into rage that twisted forms normally showed. Like something inside him was running two instructions at once.
Finn tilted his head slightly.
“You remember me..?” he said more quietly this time.
That made Glisten stop. A short, subtle twitch ran through his posture, like the statement had triggered something that didn’t fully resolve. His voice came out lower this time.
“…I do.”
Finn blinked once. That wasn’t what he expected.
Behind that single response, something unstable shifted. Recognition wasn’t supposed to stabilize behavior like this. It was supposed to make it worse. Sharper. More immediate.
But Glisten didn’t rush. Instead, his hand lifted slightly- then lowered again, like the impulse had been interrupted mid-execution.
Finn noticed. “…That’s new,” he said carefully. Finn took another small step back.
Glisten mirrored it.
Not aggressively, Just matching their distance. Like he was trying to maintain a rule he didn’t understand but refused to break.
Finn let out a short breath, half laugh, half disbelief. “So what,” he muttered, “we doing a stare-off now?”
Glisten didn’t answer.
But his body tightened slightly at the sound of Finn’s voice. Then, very quietly:
“..Don’t leave. Please.”
Finn froze. That wasn’t command. It wasn’t rage. It wasn’t even fully coherent aggression !
The corridor had started to feel smaller.
Not physically, but in the way darkness always did down here. Behind Finn, the elevator doors were long shut.
The only light left was the spill from the broken hallway fixtures ahead—thin, unstable brightness pooling in uneven patches across the floor.
Everything else was dark enough that shapes stopped being certain.
Finn swallowed once. Then he looked back. Twisted Glisten was closer. Not attacking. Just… there.
Finn exhaled slowly. “Yeah. Okay. Personal space is a myth here, got it.”
Glisten didn’t respond, but his posture shifted. Another step.
Finn didn’t move away this time. Close enough that Finn could see the subtle wrongness in Glisten’s movements up close, the hesitation between intent and action, like something was constantly recalculating and never fully committing.
Finn lifted his hand slightly.
Glisten tensed immediately. A sharp reaction instinctive, defensive.
Finn paused mid-motion. “Gee. Okay,” he said softly. “Not that fast.”
He lowered his hand halfway. The tension didn’t disappear, but it stopped escalating.
A long second passed. Then, carefully, Finn tried again. Slower this time.
Just offering his hand into the space between them. Glisten flinched.
Finn stopped instantly. “Yeah-yeah, okay. Sorry.”
Another pause.
Then Glisten hesitated. That hesitation lasted longer than it should have. Finn didn’t push.
Just waited.
And after a moment, Glisten lifted his hand.
Then their hands met. Slowly.
Finn exhaled slowly through his nose, almost like he didn’t realize he’d been holding his breath.
“…Okay,” he murmured. “So you can still do that.”
Glisten didn’t respond. But he didn’t let go either.
Finn looked at their joined hands for a moment, thinking, not just reacting now.
Finn’s expression shifted.
Less uncertainty.
More intent.
“…Alright,” he said slowly. “I’ve got an idea.”
Glisten tilted his head slightly, still holding his hand.
Finn exhaled, almost amused despite everything.
“Okay,” he said, like he was already sorting the chaos into something manageable. “So. New plan ! We get to the elevator. We go back up to Gardenview.”
Then he added, a little more serious: “And when we get there… you, YOU stay hidden.”
Glisten tilted his head slightly at that.
Not confused, but processing.
Finn continued quickly, keeping the tone light so it didn’t turn into something heavier.
“Like. Very hidden,” he clarified. “Not ‘standing behind me awkwardly hoping no one notices you.’ More like… completely out of sight until I figure out how to explain you without everyone instantly panicking-.”
He gave a small, helpless smile.
“Because they will panic. A lot. Immediately.”
Glisten didn’t react outwardly, but his grip tightened slightly.
Finn noticed and nodded once. “Yeah,” he said. “I’m still with you. Just… strategically with you.”
That seemed to settle something.
Finn stood there with Glisten still beside him, their hands still connected in a way that had stopped feeling like an accident and started feeling like a decision.
Finn glanced down the empty hallway where the elevator had been moments ago.
Gone now. Gone, but not unreachable.
He let out a small breath, almost a laugh under his voice.
“Alright,” he said, more to himself than anything else. “This is gonna take a while.”
Glisten tilted his head slightly at that. Finn didn’t look worried. He shifted his grip slightly, still holding on.
“No rush,” Finn added lightly, like they were waiting for something normal. “We just… wait for the elevator to cycle back up.”
A pause.
“And in the meantime, we don’t get spotted.”
Glisten didn’t respond verbally. But his position adjusted, more intentional, as if “not being spotted” was now part of the same rule as staying with Finn.
Finn noticed and nodded once.
“Yeah,” he said. “Exactly like that.”
The silence that followed wasn’t tense anymore. It was just time passing.
Finn leaned slightly back against the wall, still facing forward.
“Gardenview’s gonna be loud when I get back,” he said casually. “Like… really loud.”
He glanced sideways at Glisten.
“And you’re gonna be my extremely complicated explanation problem.”
Then he added, brighter again: “But we’ll figure it out.”
Glisten didn’t need reassurance. Just stayed there.
Finn exhaled again, then looked back toward the empty space where the elevator would return. And they waited. for the elevator to come back.