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It was the middle of the night, when Pomni slowly peeked out into the hall, and crept out of her room. She casually checked on everyone else's doors as she sneaked through the hallway, making sure everyone was still asleep. Ragatha definitely was, Pomni could hear her talking in her sleep like usual. Gangle and Zooble's doors were closed. Kinger...
"Why are we sneaking?"
"Ahh!" Pomni jumped and karate chopped the air, "Damn it! Caine!"
"Sorry," Caine whispered, "Why are we sneaking? Doesn't everyone know what we're doing?"
"I," Pomni said, "I don't know, that's a good point actually."
"Do humans just feel the need to be secretive at night?" Caine asked.
"Yeah," Pomni answered, "actually."
"Fascinating," Caine said, "Well let's not waste any time."
The two of them made their way down to the aquarium. The glowing light of abstracted eyes lit up the hallway in a hypnotic glow. As Pomni reached the bottom of the stairs, she saw Kinger sitting on a bench, staring at one of the abstracted figures.
"Oh!" Kinger said, "Hi Pomni!"
"Midnight soiree with Queenie?" Pomni asked.
"Every night!" Kinger smiled, "You going inside of Jax again?"'
"Maybe," Pomni said, "Don't... phrase it like that? But, yeah..."
"Well don't let me stop you," Kinger said, "If it works, then maybe one day..."
He looked back at Queenie, and her abstracted eyes lifted into a loving smile. Pomni smiled back at both of them, and then walked over to the other wall of glass. There, a trio of abstracted squids circled each other in a dance until they noticed Pomni. Quickly, two of them swam over, and each placed a tentacle on the glass. Pomni placed her hand in line with one of their tendrils, and smiled.
"There you are, Jax," She said.
"I can locate them by their mind files," Caine said, "but how can you always tell?"
"Jax is the smallest," she answered, never breaking eye contact with Jax, "And she has more pink and blue eyes than yellow ones."
"Their eyes change colors," Caine replied.
"They do," Pomni said, "But when Jax sees me..."
Jax's eyes glowed a distinct pink and blue pattern as a gentle hum- a deep bassy pur- vibrated the glass. Caine tilted his head at Jax curiously, and separated his teeth to get a really good look.
"Sorry Ribbit," Pomni said, "I'm going to borrow Jax again. If it doesn't work, I'll bring her back."
The abstracted squid of Ribbit cooed, and swam away.
"You really have a way with them," Caine mused, "Before you came here, I had no idea what to even do about them. Now, they look... happy. Or, what do you call it? Content."
"Let's do this," Pomni said.
"Right," said Caine, and with a snap of his fingers the three of them vanished from the Aquarium.
They appeared mid-air inside the pillow fort. Pomni landed on her feet like she had done this a hundred times before. Jax came falling down like a behemoth, but before crashing into the ground, she curled into a ball, and her tentacles shrank down into four nubby legs. Her whole form shrank into roughly the size of a minivan. She was a lot smoother than she used to be, with barely any edges glitching out.
"You've gotten a lot smaller," Pomni told her.
"Her mind files are a lot less fragmented," Caine told her, "I still can't repair them without damaging her memory, though."
"And if you do that," Pomni said, "She'll just abstract again."
"So you're just going to keep diving in head first?" Caine asked.
"What else can we do?" Pomni asked, "It seems to be working."
"I could teleport you inside her mind," Caine suggested.
"And how would you get me out again?"
Caine pondered this predicament, "You know if I don't pull you away in time..."
"Do you trust me, Caine?" Pomni asked.
"None of you have ever asked me to trust you before," Caine answered.
Pomni reached out her hand and placed it on Jax's towering face. This time it didn't hurt as much; it barely hurt at all. She felt their minds sort of click together, and she smiled.
"This time," Pomni said, "No matter what happens. Don't pull me away."
"What?" Caine said, "I can't do that."
"You can," Pomni said, "I have faith in you. You won't let me abstract."
"Pomni," Caine said, "If I can't pull you away..."
"This is trust Caine," Pomni said, "I'm trusting you."
"That is deeply manipulative," Caine said, "But you're the expert."
Pomni and Jax both closed their eyes, and the borders between their two digital bodies began to blur.
Pomni opened her eyes, and she was back inside the hallway of Jax's mindscape; a place she had become increasingly familiar with. This time all of the unlocked doors were open, and standing across the hall was a very feral wide-eyed version of Jax, hunched over and dragging their arms on the floor.
"We're not gonna let you do this, Pomni!" he said mockingly. Then, he immediately charged at Pomni on all fours, and pounced; foaming at the mouth... passing right through Pomni.
"This is getting pathetic," Pomni said, "You can't even touch me anymore."
"Oh come on!" said feral Jax, "Just a nibble..."
"Are you feral Jax or horny Jax?" Pomni asked, mockingly.
"He's an annoying touch starved asshole!" yelled a voice, "Just ignore him!"
The door at the end of the hall swung open, and feral Jax hissed at the light on the other side before fading into mist. Pomni rolled her eyes, and stepped through the door. It was a gentle float down to the bottom layer, where once there was only a sad Jax and an empty lamp post. The lamp post was long gone. After the flashbang incident, this entire layer had collapsed, and Jax's consciousness had been scrambled by panic and anxiety. It had taken Pomni several attempts to find her again, and drag her back this far into sanity. Now, this dark void was a little brighter, and there was a set of therapy couches where the lamp post used to be.
"Your roommates are weird," Pomni said.
"Yeah," Jax said, "I've been trying to evict them, but they just won't leave!"
"Shut up!" a voice yelled.
"Fuck you!" yelled Jax.
"I'm glad to see you're doing better," Pomni said, "It's still kind of dreary in here though."
"Well I am essentially dead," Jax said.
"You can't talk to dead people," Pomni told her.
"You just won't give up will you?" Jax asked.
"I want you to try something," Pomni said.
"Here we go!" Answered Jax.
"It'll work this time!" Pomni said, "You have no idea how good you look out there!"
"I," Jax stammered, "Hey!"
"No quips?" Pomni asked.
"You're talking to the most vulnerable me, here!" Jax argued.
"Bashfulness is a good look on you," Pomni teased.
"I hate you," Jax said, "What do you want?"
"I want you to try to make a cube," Pomni said.
"What?"
"Caine can't mess with our minds," Pomni said, "But Caine's not the only one with powers, remember?"
"Pom Pom," Jax said, "Those powers don't work in here. You've tried."
"I've tried," Pomni said, "It's your head!"
"It's not gonna work," Jax said.
"Jax," Pomni said, "You've done a lot of soul searching in here right?"
"Well mostly you," Jax said.
"We've had a lot of breakthroughs," Pomni said, "You're not repressing yourself anymore, you've begged me to forgive you about fifty times."
"Okay rude," Jax said, "But yeah..."
"You made me cuddle you," Pomni said, "Inside your head."
"This is getting personal," Jax said.
"We're in your head, jackass!" Pomni said, "... because your name is Jax not because.."
"Yeah, no," Jax said, "you're good. Leave!"
"If I leave," Pomni said, "I'm coming back with Gangle and Zooble, and making you work things out with them in here."
"Okay!" Jax yelled, now completely pink in the face, "Fine! I'll make a fucking box!"
She held out her hand, and closed her eyes. Pomni could see her straining herself, trying to force it.
"Relax," Pomni said, "Visualize, and focus."
"I'm telling you it's not gonna," Jax opened her eyes, "Oh shit it worked..."
In front of her was a glowing static box.
"Why's it look like that?" Jax asked.
Pomni was looking behind her, where the couches had also turned into static. Slowly, the box, and the couches started to float away, and the world rumbled.
"Ow!" Jax said, "I felt something... this is weird..."
"We," Pomni hesitated, "We did it!"
"Did what exactly?" Jax asked, "How does this help me... leave? There aren't exactly doors here... Do I manifest a door?"
"No! Don't make a-"
Jax made a door.
The entire world around them started to rumble.
"Jaaaax," Pomni said, "you shouldn't have done that!"
"Well why not?"
"Because you can't step outside of yourself," Pomni said.
"This is no time for metaphors!"
"It's not a metaphor!" Pomni yelled.
The rumbling turned into an earthquake, and shattered pieces of void came crumbling down around them.
"Listen," Pomni said, "Listen to me very closely I think we only have one chance at this. It's still you. The abstraction is still you, it's your body. You abstracted because you lost who you were, right? It's like going crazy, your head gets all jumbled, so you get all jumbled up."
"I was there for that," Jax said, "yeah."
"Stop trying to be cute for ten seconds and listen to me!"
"You think I'm-"
"Shut up! It's your body, so make it your body! Your mind isn't jumbled up anymore, you know who you are! So focus on that. Focus on your identity, your real identity, and hold onto it as tightly as you can!"
"On the real me?" Jax asked.
"The real you," Pomni said, "Not the version of you you show people, not the one you think you are, the real genuine you!"
Jax sighed, "Okay I think I got it... You should leave."
"I'm not leaving without you!" Pomni said.
Suddenly a hole opened up beneath Pomni's feet, and before she could do anything she started to fall through. Jax grabbed her, and pulled her back to solid ground.
"It's my mind right?" Jax said, "So if you're here what happens to you?"
"Okay," Pomni said nervously, "I think I should leave."
"I don't know what you've gotten me into, Pom Pom," Jax said, "But this is more painful than dying! I think I might need some help."
"Wait," Pomni said, "How do I-"
"When you get out there," Jax said, "Don't let go of me! I'll do the thing in there, you... Oh this sounds so lame!"
"Does it really matter at this point?"
"Right," Jax said, "You grab onto my heart, or my soul, or whatever you wanna call it, my... we're digital! My core. You grab onto that thing and you don't let it break. If you're holding me together out there, and I'm pulling myself together in here..."
"Right," Pomni said, "I get it! Caine! Any time!"
Pomni closed her eyes, and when she opened them again she was standing in front of Jax, with her hand inside of her abstracted form. The abstraction began to vibrate and fragment, and the eyes began to glow. Pomni could feel her body starting to glitch, but she had felt it; this glowing ball of energy in front of her hand. She grabbed onto it as tightly as she could, and her entire body lit up with an electric shock.
"Pomni!" Caine yelled.
"Not yet!" Pomni said.
"Caine," came Zooble's voice, "You need to stop her!"
"Hold on!" Pomni shouted, "Just a little more!"
"Pomni?" muttered Ragatha.
Caine glanced back and forth nervously.
"Caine!" Zooble yelled, "If you don't stop her I'll do it myse-"
"I am NOT letting her go!" Pomni screamed, tears streaming from her eyes.
She was on fire, her entire body felt like it was going to burn up and evaporate, but she held on. Zooble, Ragatha, and Caine watched on in horror as Pomni and Jax became shrouded in darknes. Jax's abstracted body swelled up to three times its size, consuming Pomni with it.
"Pomni!" yelled Ragatha.
Then, the inky mass of glowing eyes began to shrink. It shrank down, slowly releasing its grasp on Pomni and starting to take shape. Pomni, shaking from the pain, held on as the mass of abstraction formed itself into a body. She only got a glimpse of Jax's face, and glowing abstracted eyes, before a great flash burst over them, and they both fell to the ground.
"Oh my god!" Ragatha said.
"Caine," Zooble scolded softly, mournfully, "Why did you let her do this?"
"She," Caine said, "Asked me to trust her..."
Pomni woke up in a pile of pillows and blankets, somewhere inside of the pillow fort. She couldn't quite remember what happened, only that she was holding onto Jax, and then... She looked at her hand. It wasn't glitching, in fact it looked completely normal. Caine must have healed her, and left here here, but what about Jax? She looked around, and didn't see a giant abstraction anywhere. Maybe they had put her back in the aquarium. Maybe she was okay. Or maybe...
"Ough!" someone moaned from another pile of blankets, "My head..."
Next to Pomni, a peculiar purple bunny girl sat up, cloaked in blankets. She looked like Jax, except she had a head of long black hair that resembled the look of abstraction. She reached up and held her head.
"My head!" She said, "And my... hair? And my hips? Oh my god look at these hips!"
Pomni stared in amazement, "... Jax?"
"Pomni?" Jax answered.
"JAX!!" Pomni jumped into her arms, and the two of them fell to the ground in a warm embrace.
"It worked?" Jax asked.
"It worked!" Pomni cheered.
"Oh my god!" Jax said, "It worked! I'm real! I'm... me..."
Jax's eyes shrank, and welled up with tears.
"I'm me," Jax said.
Pomni smiled, and wiped Jax's tears from her face, "Yeah girl. You're you."
"I," Jax said, "That means... That means Ribbit... Oh my god!"
"Ribbit's next," Pomni said, "I promise."
"Pomni?" Came Ragatha's voice, "I heard laughing, and crying. Are you... Is Jax... We're all out here worried about you actually."
Pomni helped Jax wipe away her tears, and smiled.
"Are you ready to introduce yourself?" she asked.
"I," Jax hesitated, "I look like this, though..."
"I don't think anyone minds," Pomni said, standing up and holding out her hand. Hesitantly, Jax took it.
Pomni stepped out of the pillow fort first, and looked at everyone gathered around waiting. All of them had anxious faces, including the one still in the tent. With a wink to Jax, she turned to the group.
"Everyone," Pomni said, "I'd like you to meet my friend... I think you might have heard of her..."
"Her?" Asked Ragatha.
From the corner of the entryway, a timid purple rabbit peeked out her head, and stepped nervously behind Pomni.
"Oh!" said Ragatha, "My... Well that certainly explains... a lot of things actually."
"Sorry," said Pomni, "But it wasn't my secret to tell."
"I," Jax muttered, "Umm..."
"Are you sure that's Jax?" Asked Zooble, "She doesn't seem like a raging asshole to me."
"Hey!" Jax pouted.
"There she is!" Zooble teased.
"Fuck off!" Jax stammered, "Just because I'm a girl now doesn't mean I need... your..."
Suddenly Jax felt all of the eyes in the room on her, and everything started to feel warm. They were looking at her, not him, her. She started to tremble. Pomni grabbed her hand to stop her from retreating.
"Shouldn't you all... hate me?" She asked.
"Oh Jax!" Kinger said, "Why would we hate you?"
Gangle and Zooble looked at each other. Ragatha looked at the floor.
"I," Jax stammered, "Because of the things I said... and did."
"Are you," Zooble asked, "Trying to apologize?"
"I don't know," Jax said, "I mean... yeah, I guess I am."
"You," Ragatha said, "Guess?"
Jax gulped, and Pomni squeezed her hand.
"I'm not used to people being nice to me," She said, "And so the people that were... scared me. And somewhere along the way, I stopped thinking of you guys as people. Because... Because I couldn't bare to think of the friends I lost as people. And I am so sorry for the way I-"
As Jax spoke, Ragatha balled up her fists, and began to walk towards her and Pomni. When she reached them, Jax's words stopped in her throat they stood eye to eye. Ragatha's eyes were sullen, her body tense. Before Pomni could stop her, Ragatha raised her arms, and Jax yelped... and then froze, with Ragatha's arms wrapped tightly around her, her face buried in her shoulder.
"I'm just happy to have my friend back," Ragatha said, "After all this time."
Jax stood perfectly still, unsure how to process any of this. She wanted to run, to push Ragatha off of her run as fast as she could in any direction, but there somewhere in her chest was this warmth that she had never felt before. Something about all of this felt real, and she didn't know what to do with that feeling.
"Maybe we should ease off a bit with the hugging," Pomni suggested, but it was too late.
There, in front of everyone, as hard as she tried to fight it, Jax held onto Ragatha and sobbed.