Chapter Text
“Has Kinger been Santa every year?” Pomni asked with a laugh as she held onto the blanket she had gotten for her present. It was created by her secret Santa, who Caine had asked everyone to still keep secret even after the gifts were opened, but she had her suspicions as to who could have made it for her.
“Yeah, he thinks the beard and mustache look good on him,” Ragatha answered, joining in the laugh. She held tight to a horse plush that was obviously made by Gangle with the anime inspiration that made the face style. The two were walking towards their rooms now that the festivities were done for the day, passing the familiar faces printed on the door.
Pomni looked past her ragdoll friend as the faces on the doors started to remind her of who had passed. They weren’t fully gone, she knew that. Without her consent her mind flashed back to when she had tried to save Jax. He was still in there, even if he was struggling with a lot. But he wasn’t himself anymore, either. She’d visit him daily in his tent. Well, the tent that had been turned into something of an aquarium for all of those who’ve abstracted. She still thought it was funny how she could still tell him apart from the others, though the rest all looked the same to her. She figured it was similar to how Kinger would always find Queenie so quickly.
But she did still miss him as the playful purple rabbit that would get on everyone’s nerves and pulled her out of her shell.
“You okay?” Ragatha asked, pulling Pomni from her thoughts as the two stopped in the hallway.
“Sorry, yeah,” Pomni said, playing with the top pompom on her chest as she gave the older girl a glance. She looked down the hallway, her eyes first going to Jax’s crossed out face on his door. “Just…”
“I miss him too,” Ragatha admitted in a hushed voice.
“We’re doing what we can for him,” Pomni said, more to remind herself than the girl beside her. “And the rest.” Pomni’s eyes traveled from Jax’s door, going past Ragatha’s and an empty room, before noticing the X that had always crossed out Scratch was gone. Letting out a confused sound, she left Ragatha’s side and stepped over to the door.
“Pomni?” Ragatha asked, following behind.
Pomni double checked Jax’s door, the cross through his smiling face still there, and the same with the other jester-looking character she had recently learned went by Bizco here in the circus, that was on the other side of Scratch’s room. Stopping in front of the door still in question, she reached up a hand as if to feel for where the cross had been.
“What?” Ragatha asked no one as she noticed the same Pomni had.
“We need to find Caine,” Pomni said, taking her hand back. She quickly turned around, going back the way they had come, and hurried back to the common area.
“I thought he promised no more secrets,” Ragatha mumbled, keeping pace with her friend.
In half the time the two made it back to what was left of the Christmas party. The lights were almost turned off, something they had recently started to do to signify night time inside the circus and to help keep the light level low. They passed the large tree still glowing as it sat behind the living area. Pomni led Ragatha to Zooble’s bar, knowing Caine liked to try their creations and they had mentioned something about experimenting with a new flavor.
“I thought you two were heading to bed,” Zooble said as the two stepped up to the bar Caine was sitting at. “Kinger and Gangle just went to visit them.”
“I’ll go down and join them,” Ragatha said, repositioning her grip on her horse plush. She gave a look to Pomni and added, “Do a head count.”
Pomni nodded her head, hoping the cross being gone didn’t mean for the worst but understanding what Ragatha was saying.
“Do a head count?” Caine echoed, turning to watch Ragatha head towards the tent inside the tent as Pomni took the stool next to him.
Placing the blanket on her lap, Pomni said, “Caine, Scratch’s door doesn’t have its X anymore.”
Caine froze visibly before slowly turning back to her.
“Huh?” Zooble let out, confusion visible on their triangle face. “How? I thought those were permanent.” They looked at Pomni before turning their eyes to follow her line of sight and eye their old ringmaster. “Caine,” Zooble growled.
“I, may have, tinkered with his mind files back when I was in the void,” Caine said slowly, as if thinking through every word he said carefully.
“Caine, didn’t you do enough to him already?” Zooble exclaimed.
“What did you do?” Pomni asked, struggling to keep her voice steady as she found her hands gripping tight to the blanket.
Caine looked down at the drink in front of him, wrapping his hands around it, before admitting, “I wanted to fix all of my past mistakes. While I was in the void I found the folder with everyone’s corrupted mind files. He was the first mistake I made, so I had thought if I could fix him, then maybe I could fix all of the rest.”
“You’d think we’d all learned not to mess with anyone’s code,” Zooble interjected.
Caine looked up, catching Pomni’s eye a moment before shaking his head. “But I never finished the diagnostic I was running on him. For the first time in years, I found an internet connection. That’s where I was able to find out how…” Caine’s voice fell away as he looked back down at his drink.
“Our other selves were doing?” Pomni finished for him, relaxing her grip on her blanket as she noticed he still struggled to acknowledge out loud that they were all copies.
Caine closed his mouth, covering his eyes, and nodded his head. He raised his head back to her and added, “But I haven’t touched his code –or anyone else’s- since then. I promise.”
Pomni studied his heterochromatic eyes a moment before admitting to herself she believed him. She let out a breath she didn’t realize she had been holding before nodding her head. “Okay, than what would cause his X to disappear?”
“Could whatever you were doing back then have actually worked?” Zooble asked, their eyes wide.
“Have you tried his room?” Caine asked.
“The door’d be locked,” Pomni pointed out.
Caine gave her a look she couldn’t read before saying, “With how close you and Jax got?”
“Huh?”
“He was conjuring all those keys!?” Zooble exclaimed in realization.
“Yeah, I figured you knew that,” Caine stated.
Pomni held her hands palm up in her lap and closed her eyes, picturing the door to Scratch’s room. Creating things that went with other objects was still something she was learning so she was surprised when a metal key fell into her hands, getting her to open her eyes and check that’s what she really felt in her gloved hand.
“One has escaped,” Ragatha said, getting Pomni to turn and see her leading Kinger and Gangle to the bar. All three held worrying looks as they came up behind Caine and Pomni.
“There’s only twelve down there,” Gangle added.
“Oh, uh, Caine,” Kinger started, holding out a glitching hand.
“Touched Queenie again?” Caine asked, snapping his fingers to fix the model.
“It wasn’t his fault,” Gangle offered. “We were checking some of the hiding holes and I tripped into him. Queenie had been following and tried to catch him.”
“Come on,” Pomni said, dropping off of the stool and repositioning the blanket still in her arms. “Let’s go check on his room.”
“I’ll go back downstairs and keep an eye on the rest,” Kinger said, already turning around to go back to the blue tent inside their home.
Pomni opened her mouth, having first thought having Kinger with them if they did find what was left of Scratch would have been better, but remembered the hall lights were bright. Ever since the idea with the bucket, Kinger found he didn’t want to go into the light for too long and didn’t care to be wearing the bucket over his head. She closed her mouth and nodded her head at his retreating form before turning to lead the other four towards the bedroom hall. They walked in silence as Pomni found herself checking the other door signs for any other changes. A ping of disappointment found its way in her chest at passing the red mark on Jax’s door again. She stopped in front of Scratch’s door and checked the key in hand, trying to prepare herself for whatever might be behind the door. It could be empty and Scratch was roaming around the circus, or his abstracted self could be inside.
“Maybe I should open the door,” Caine volunteered, holding his hand out for the key. “I still can create walls faster than you can if he is inside.”
Pomni nodded her head, handing him the key and swapping spots with him. She watched as he gave a look up at the others before putting the key in the door. It turned and let out a soft click, unlocking easily.
Caine held a hand on the door knob for a moment before reaching up with his other hand to give the wood a rap with his knuckles. “Scratch, I’m respecting your privacy by knocking but asserting my authority as ringmaster by coming in anyway!” Caine called out in warning. He turned the knob and pushed the door in, careful to keep himself still in the hallway.
At first Pomni thought the room was empty. The walls were a type of wood paneling, making her first thought be of something created in the 70s. The color pallet of the 70s continued to the orange bed spread, yellow carpet, and wooden desk that held a beige monitor and keyboard.
“Caine, look out!” Ragatha called out, the only warning Pomni had as a yellow dog jumped at them. It grasped hold of Caine’s arm with its teeth, pulling the ringmaster into the room with a growl.
“I thought you said you were quick with making walls!” Zooble said, grabbing hold of Caine’s free arm to prevent him from being dragged into the room with the dog that clearly had it out for the AI.
“I wasn’t expecting him to be like this,” Caine tried, panic only just evident in his voice as Gangle wrapped her arms around Zooble to help pull him against the yellow dog.
Trying to think quickly as the yellow dog made Caine its chew toy, Pomni thought back to something she remembered from a nature documentary. She let the blanket in her arms unfold as she stepped forwards and covered the dog’s head. Almost instantly the dog released Caine’s arm, sending him and the couple falling into the hallway.
“Caine, are you alright?” Ragatha asked, moving towards the three on the ground.
“Not to worry,” Caine said, snapping his fingers to fix his own model as the arm that had been in the dog’s mouth was glitching.
Pomni took a step closer to her new blanket, careful of the dog underneath. She could make out its breathing as it slowed down and got less ragged. She knelt down, reaching out a hand to lay on the bundle, only to freeze as a white hand gripped the edge of the blanket.
“Huh, how’d I…” a male voice started as the lump under the blanket started to sit up.
“Scratch?” Pomni asked.
“How’d I get out of the cellar?” Scratch asked, pulling another hand out of the blanket to find an edge. He managed to get the blanket up so he could look out, letting Pomni see the yellow dog better only for him to squint at the light and start growling.
“The light!” Pomni realized as she noticed his eyes turning colors. She reached over and pulled the blanket back over his head, hoping the darkness was still the answer. Glancing over her shoulder at the four she ordered, “Turn the lights down! He’s still affected by it.”
Pomni turned back to Scratch and asked, “Scratch, can you hear me?”
The growling faded away under the blanket as the lights in the hallway and room he was still sitting in the doorway of fell to a low level. Pomni watched the blanket lump in silence a moment before asking again, “Scratch?”
“Ugh, what’s going on?” Scratch asked, a gloved hand raising under the blanket to grab hold of his head.
“What do you last remember?” Pomni asked.
A moan escaped the blanket before he said, “Seventeen years of the void.” The hand dropped from his head as the lump that was his head slowly shook.
“Might be why he’s still sensitive to the light,” Caine said, stepping up to stand beside the two.
“Caine, what did you do to me this time?” Scratch growled, his blanket covered head turning to the ringmaster.
“He did just bring you back to life,” Zooble pointed out.
“Back to life?” Scratch echoed, moving the blanket again to look over the five. He paused a moment with his hand holding the blanket over his head, as if testing the light, before letting it fall to his neck.
“You abstracted,” Ragatha tried to offer.
“I tried to fix the problem in your code,” Caine admitted, turning his head down to avoid looking at Scratch. From where Pomni sat, she thought she could make out tears forming in the AI’s mouth. “It corrupted your mind files.”
“We’re still in ’98, right?” Scratch asked, looking up at Caine.
“It’s 2017,” Gangle offered.
“Running Windows 98 4.40.2222A,” Caine relayed, blinking away anything and looking back up at his programmer.
“Oh,” Gangle mumbled.
“Why didn’t you use the copy of the Emergency Repair Disk? I know I made sure you had it.”
“The, uh, the folder exists,” Caine offered, his nervousness getting Pomni to look back at him. “There was never anything in it.”
Scratch looked at him for a moment before putting a hand to his face. “Wormo, you idiot.” He dropped the hand and looked over the rest watching him. “I’m sorry, I don’t even know any of you or how you could’ve gotten here. C&A can’t still using 98.”
“Oh right,” Pomni realized before giving him all of their names. “As for how we all got here, well, maybe it’s best if Kinger explains that. He’s done more research on it all.”
“Okay, so how many people are here?” Scratch asked.
“Technically 18,” Ragatha offered, slowly.
“Technically?”
“Scratch, you abstracted when Caine did what he did,” Pomni tried to explain.
“Abstracted?”
“Maybe it’s just easier to show him,” Zooble offered.
Pomni looked up at them and nodded her head in agreement. “Yeah, you’re probably right.” Turning back to Scratch, she pushed herself up to her feet and held out a hand. “Come on, there’s been some changes to the circus since you were last here.”
Scratch took her hand, a curious look on his face fitting the look of being the labrador it seemed like his model was based off of.
Pomni found herself leading everyone towards the blue tent, giving a glance at Scratch every once in a while. He had her blanket wrapped over his shoulders, trailing a bit behind him as he kept pace beside her. He didn’t ask any questions, but she could tell he was looking around intensely. The six of them walked down the stairs and Pomni instantly caught site of Kinger standing by the glass looking up at Queenie, who stared blankly back at him.
“Kinger?”
The old man turned at the sound of his name, surprise evident in his eyes. “Scratch? How are you…” Kinger’s voice fell away. He gave Queenie a glance before leaving her to join the group at the entry way of the viewing platform. His eyes passed over Pomni to look at Caine, a fearful hope replacing the surprise. “There’s a way to bring them back?”
“We still don’t know what he did,” Zooble pointed out. “Or how stable he is.”
Pomni gave a glance at Scratch to see he wasn’t fully listening, his eyes glued upwards as an abstracted form passed over the glass keeping them safe. She watched him as he slowly walked passed her to the glass wall, putting a hand on the glass as an abstraction came close.
“Bizco,” Scratch mumbled.
“Did he even know?” Kinger asked, stepping over to stand beside his old college.
“You know I couldn’t keep anything from him,” Scratch admitted. “He told me I was stupid for not telling the rest of you, but there needed to be other people- other minds- here as well. I never considered what might happen to those whose files would break down.” Scratch lowered his hands, pulling it under the blanket his other hand was holding together at his neck. He looked up at Kinger with furled brows and asked, “How was I like this? All I remember was being stuck in a void.”
Kinger turned to look at Pomni, getting Scratch to look at her as well with the silent passing of the conversation.
“The best we’ve figured is after you abstract, you lose motor control,” Pomni tried. “I, uh, I tried to save someone after… he abstracted and he seemed to have no control over his body but his mind was still all there. He was stuck in a black void, too.”
“But if you managed to come back,” Ragatha said, hope in her voice as she looked at the abstracted on the other side of the glass, “then there’s a chance, right?”
“I’d like to run some tests,” Caine said before quickly turning to look at Kinger. “With your help, if you could?”
“If you don’t mind me going through that,” Kinger said, looking down at Scratch.
“Rather you than your wife,” Scratch said with a smile.