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“Can you keep another secret?”
“Oh, sure, One!”
“Okay, follow me!” One says, holding back a giggle.
One cannot believe she is about to give this secret away, but Three has seemed genuine so far. Trustworthy. She walks past the yoylelite and toward the cliff edge. A narrow precipice wraps around the mountain. One sinks her back into the rock face; it’s a little less nerve-wracking after the fiftieth time. She points her feet in opposite directions from each other, shimmying along the edge. Three’s hands tremble as they clench the rock, knuckles turning white. She copies One’s movements, heart beating out her chest. She feels it deflate in relief as the two turn another corner, onto large stable ground.
A small cave inlet opens before them. It’s empty and dark. One redirects Three’s attention back to the edge. Three had been so focused on the daredevil walk and deathly chasm below that she didn’t notice the view. A tiny speck in the distance constitutes the Equation Playground, surrounded by swaths of lush green forest. Every so often she can hear birds chirp. A bit to the side, a powerful river snakes through a silver sleek canyon, with sheer cliffsides that almost reflect the dainty stars. But they will fade soon, as the sun is about to rise. One sits on the edge, legs dangling over the edge. Three joins her.
“Wow, One,” says Three while releasing a massively held breath. “When did you—how did you find this? I love it!”
“Lots of exploring,” she answers. She keeps her legs hanging as she lays her back onto the rocky floor. “Just look at the stars with me,” she says. “Or hide in the cave behind us if you’re too scared.”
“No way!” Three scoops up some dirt with her powers and splats it onto One’s face. One spits out the dirt covering her mouth and telekinetically wipes away the rest. They laugh, sending echoes through the canyon.
“Watch with me a little longer?”
One nestles closer into Three when she asks. Three thinks about it, but her mind begins to turn. One has been with Three all this time; she could not have been exploring. So she must come to the mountain often and discovered this a while ago. That hurt Three to think about. One shouldn’t have to retreat here, all alone, all the time. That leads to her answer.
“Always, One.”
16 years later...
One isn’t exactly thrilled to revisit the moon’s musty interior so soon, but business has to be conducted.
“Helloooo, Four!”
“What?” Four squeaks, catapulting himself out of his sleeping position and looking around. He raises his arm to aim his palm at One, who’s floating near the top, but he stops halfway, knowing nothing would happen.
“Morning, sleepyhead! I’m gonna need you to stay awake for the time being.”
“One! Let me out!”
She laughs. “You’re going to have to make a better case than that.”
“Where are the rest? Where’s X? Can’t we work something out?” He flails his arms up and down, almost like he’s trying to fly up to One.
“Oh, now you want to talk this out? Well that’s just too bad.” She focuses on Four, dread seeping through his body. She inches closer and closer, eyes lit ablaze with murder, mouth twisted with wrath.
“Stop, One!” He shuts his eyes and cowers in the rocks. “Forgive me, please!” He covers his face in a pitiful attempt at protection. “Can you at least bring X here?” he begs.
Four feels One’s presence freeze. He peeks at her with one eye. She’s not getting closer, and a glimmer of hope sparks inside him. She’s smiling.
“Nope!”
Pop.
“Three?” One asks, putting on her gentlest voice.
Three’s eyes—plural—peel open.
She feels her value. She sees with both eyes again. And her first sight, after they finish fluttering and adjusting to the light, is One.
“H-huh? You?”
What does she mean, “‘you?’”
“Yes, silly, it’s me! One! Your friend! Notice anything, hmm, different?”
The new sensations are overwhelming. The days inside Four’s head had blended together, morphing with the weeks and months and years into a surreal, torturous temporal psychosis. The monotony, previously molded onto Three like petrified wood, has shattered in much the same way as her initial death. Her blanket lies on the ground by her feet, forgotten.
“What did—did you—where is this?” Three looks at the bookshelves, the table, the soft chairs, the TV screen—anything but One.
“Oh, this? This is my own little realm. I figured you wanted out of that dirty old cell.” One shuffles side-to-side in a bizarre way, trying to keep herself in Three’s direct line of vision. “This isn’t important. What’s important is that you’re all fixed. Good. As. New. Just like I promised. And I have an even better place for you, once you’re reacquainted with, well, y’know.” She sighs. “It’s really good to see you again.”
“Oh, um, thanks. For, um, fixing all this.” Three gestures around her two eyes and feigns a grin. One smiles back, and it seems too wide. “Is there—are the othe—”
“How are you feeling?”
Three cannot answer. She’s got no basis for comparison.
“Threeee...”
Three feels like walls are caving in. She expects the bookshelves to start sliding inward to entomb her.
“Hey, this’ll cheer you up.”
Pop.
A cool, fresh breeze washes over Three. Her hand grabs onto the yoylelite for stability.
“Remember this?” One asks.
She looks around. It’s... the mountain? And rain? How long since she felt the touch of nature’s blood? Lightning strikes in the distance, thunderous distress calling out to her. How long since she heard the force of nature’s wrath?
“Aw, rain?” One conjures up a 2763-feet wide umbrella which suspends itself above the mountain summit in the sky. It’s transparent, to keep things illuminated.
A handful of dirt suddenly splatters on Three’s arm. She follows the trajectory—One. She’s got an inviting smile and is controlling a few more balls of soil which float in the air.
The shape of the mountain, the meteorite, the geography of the biomes that stretch until the horizon—something’s not right. Three looks out to the horizon, ignoring the invitation to play. It just looks plain wrong.
“Is this home?” she asks.
“The Equation Playground? Yeah. It is.” One answers, her smile faltering somewhat.
“So, where’s—what about—um—where are the others?” she asks.
“Three, you don’t really think they would be eager to see me again, do you?”
“I just wanna talk to them. If we talk, I could—we could—I’m sure they’d like to see me again. Didn’t you have to find Four in order to save me?”
“Yes! And, well, I don’t know where he is now, so, let’s continue playing!”
Three looks down at the ground. “How about X? And Five, and—”
“Stop.”
“I just wanna see my friends aga—”
“STOP! They—” One picks up Three with her power, “—are not—” and pulls her closer, “—our friends!”
Three shrinks in fear but forces her eyes open to keep track of One.
“They trapped me in that hellhole for fourteen years! And not once did anyone check up on me—I was all alone! Completely utterly alone—”
“And you think I don’t know what that’s like as well?” Three interrupts, her old self reigniting. Her voice strains due the pain in her arm that One is twisting a little too hard.
One yanks Three even closer, up to her face. “I didn’t fucking say that! I got you out of there. Just like I promised myself, like I promised you, after th—I fixed this! I fixed you, I fixed everyone—”
“Well not everything is about you!”
Thunder cracks.
The umbrella snaps in two, letting the rain pour inside their play area. Three is relinquished from One’s powerful grasp, falling into the dirt, on her knees. She keeps her focus on One, whose face has adopted a horrified look.
“I want to see my other friends too,” Three whimpers.
“B-but...” One plasters on a nervous smile “We can play together again. Just us. We can be together, be a duo.” She seals her eyes to block the tears. “Away from everyone who hurt and abandoned me.” A horrible scowl grows on her face. “I thought you’d be a bit more grateful that I saved you!”
Is she?
Both are soaked from the rain. Mud has formed, pooling around Three’s knees. She squeezes her painful arm.
“What happened to the One I knew—the one I called friend? You’re not that One—”
Lightning strikes again, and its powerful flash, sweeping through the land, accompanies a brutal switch on One’s expression. Her mouth hangs wide open, and her face falls.
“—not anymore,” Three finishes.
She hauls herself up and runs down the trail, back to the Equation Playground, to find her friends. A voice rings behind her.
“Three, wait! Three, stop! Please! I’m sorry. Three! Come back!”
She ignores the pleas and gallops across the bridge, weaving among the trees, and hopping from lily pad to lily pad. One follows.
“Three!” she shrieks, desperation growing. “Stop! Y-you won’t find them,” she finally admits, voice cracking and dying out.
Three stops in her tracks, almost tripping on herself. She’s at the edge of the forest. Fifteen’s cabin would be coming up soon. But, she turns around.
“What?” she asks One.
“They’re locked away. Forever.”
“What? Did, did you—”
“Yes! They deserved it, Three! They all did! They put me in that godforsaken moon, and they’re guilty, all of them! They’re not coming back.”
Three’s face contorts and freezes, landing on an expression of shock and disgust. She resumes her chase, and One doesn’t pursue.
Oh. Oh no. Oh my goodness, no. Not again.
Her first and only friend has irreversibly abandoned her.
She teleports back to the yoylelite. A single look around at the play site shows the sorry state it is in. Sorrow takes over One’s face. Her eyes droop, tears finally falling from the corners as she lets herself cry. She leans against the meteorite and plops down onto the floor. She lets the rain pour over her.
Three is at the Equation Playground. Everything is glitching, phasing in and out of existence.
“One,” she mutters to herself. “What did you do?”
Back on the mountain, One senses a voice and answers the call.
“This is a replacement world.”
Three flips around to see One, having teleported back to Three.
“It’s big, so there are some... issues. Nothing’s exactly right.”
“What did you do to the original playground?” Three’s voice breaks.
“Six is there. Forever solving for his value.” One does not meet Three’s gaze.
“Look around, One. Look at me. Look at yourself. You expected me to be grateful for this?”
One can’t bear to look up from the ground.
“And the others?” Three demands.
“Three, I... I’m sorry. I—”
“Where are the other numbers?!” Three snaps.
One slams her eyes shut.
She’s face down in the grass a second later, mud splattered all over her. She lifts her body up and around to take a look at Three. Her fist is still clenched, but she loosens it.
One squirms. “Why can’t we just be friends again?”
“I tried to be your friend.”
“Why couldn’t we—why can’t we have this power to ourselves? Like a duo?”
“I’m sorry I shared our secret, One. I want to forgive you, but I can’t.”
One curls up in her knees. More tears roll down her face as shame and guilt overcomes her. Three watches longingly. And then, One was gone.
An empty patch of smashed grass and dirt lies before Three. “One?” she calls out. Again: “One?!” But only the echo answers.
She lets out an hour-long held breath.
Well, goodbye old friend.
Three kicks some rocks as she strolls away from the facsimile playground. A big tree catches her attention—one that’s not glitchy—where she can take cover from the rain. Before reaching it, the ground trembles. Rips travel through the air. She feels reality stretch, bringing her with it. A deafening roar consumes her ears. Her vision blurs and turns blindingly white. She screams as every sensation in her body is tearing her apart until—
Pop.
Three’s back where she was, a few steps ago. The sun is shining. She’s dry, all the mud exterminated. The minus flowers and times flowers are blooming. The omega swing set rustles in a gentle breeze. The sandbox waits, empty and inviting.
It’s exactly as she remembers. And there, in front of her:
“Six!”
“Three?!” Six yells out upon seeing her. “You’re... okay! And back to normal!”
“And you’re, uh, not trapped! I thought One trapped you—here!”
“She did. And now everything’s restored, it seems?”
Pop.
“Four!” yell Six and Three.
“Three?! Six!”
Pop.
“X!” Four and X run and jump into each other’s arms.
Then came Nine, Eight, Five, and Seven. Then Ten, and Fifteen, and Fourteen. Zero and Two were the last.
“What is going on?” Two says, massaging their head and realizing all their limbs have returned to normal.
“Woah, hey guys!” Nine says. “...How’d I get here? Wait, where is she?!”
“Did—did One—I think One did all this?” Three posits.
“You saw One? Oh no, is she still loose?” Four panics.
“I saw her a moment ago. She made some weird simulation of this place, and we, uh... Then she teleported away. A few seconds later, here we are.”
“Your eye, your value—it’s been restored!” X cheers.
The rest follow suit. Two, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Fourteen, and Fifteen. Celebrating and reuniting. When they finally calm down, Seven says, “Wait, this place isn’t some elaborate trick, is it?”
No one has an answer. They look around awkwardly, too reluctant to admit it, when Five interrupts them.
“Look, my power’s back!” they say, transforming a flower into a milkshake.
The other integers watch, fearful and suspicious. They decide to start small. Nine concentrates on his shattered board. The fragments merge, the cracks disappear, and all its color and splendor are restored.
“Rad!”
“It can’t be. She had just put me into some nightmarish hellscape,” Seven retorts.
Then Four says, “But if everyone’s powers are back now, it’s enough to stop her!”
The other numbers agree.
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” says Seven. “I’m going to check the meteorite.”
They watch Seven walk out of sight, until a great gust of wind plows through, and the integers remaining are nearly swept off their feet.
“No way! She really did give it all back!” Two says, flying through the air at 2763 kilometers per hour. “Cheers everyone! I’ve got a cake to put at stake.” Two zooms into the sky and vanishes, leaving a dissipating green wake.
Before any of them can process that, Four disappears from the Equation Playground. The others stare dumbfounded at the empty air until he returns a second later. “It seems like we’re in the right place, around the right star.”
As the numbers begin to accept the return of their old home, Three withdraws herself. She takes a long look at her friends, mingling and playing once again. She weakly smiles, but it fades away easily.
Three marches through the forest and braves the bridge, heading up the mountain to the yoylelite. She savors every sight and smell along the way, glad to have her two eyes back. She had taken this route with One before, but it feels especially vibrant now. Her heart pangs a little when she remembers One.
The meteor is dulled and gray, its old spots blended and weathered away. Seven peeks out behind the meteorite. He shakes his head and shrugs, then teleports away. Three looks around the barren clearing. Where she and One had stargazed all those years ago.
She goes behind the yoylelite to shimmy along the edge of the mountain, in the special way that One had taught, so as to not fall.
Once across, she sits. She could wait here all day until the stars come out, until the morning sun rises.
I did keep this secret, One. Did you know that?
She gets back up and looks inside the cave inlet. She conjures up a flaming torch. At the back wall, the rock is the same dusty forgettable gray, except for some striking, deep-green wounds, where scraggly mossy letters light up: sorry.
Below, lying on the floor, is Three’s notebook and pencil.