The Nothingness.

A cold, unforgiving place. The whispers never stopped; only became dull or fervent at random intervals. There was no color, no furniture or landmarks of any sort, no boundaries, and no life. One could say that there was no noise either, if you didn't count the constant mutterings from beyond who-knows-where.

This was where the Batter had found himself in.

The place itself wasn't too bad, that is unless of course, one was to be forced to stay there for longer than ten minutes. It was the simple solidarity that drove one insane. There was not a single soul in sight, and the Batter thought it strange that he'd found no one after all the impurities he'd taken care of were to end up in the Nothingness. Nevertheless, the Batter still found himself wanting to speak with someone. To at least hear something other than the whispering. To have something to concentrate on, other than his holy mission.

He thought he'd be able to rest in peace, knowing he made the right choice. He had to pull the switch. It was absolutely necessary. At least… that was what he was told to do… right?

The Batter began to question his decisions, as there was nothing else to do in the Nothingness, other than to swing at imaginary foes (for he still retained his trusty bat), and for all he knew, he still had an eternity left as prisoner of the Nothingness. He tried to recall all of his encounters in his mission, but he found himself forgetting at first trivial details- i.e. how much a certain item cost- and then missing chunks out of conversations and sometimes whole events.

The Batter knew it would only be a matter of time until he became something akin to a brainless zombie and longed for what he came to call his salvation. If he were able to forget his gruesome past, then he wouldn't have to shoulder the weight of the guilt upon his shoulders anymore.

Sometimes he fought to hold on, wanting to believe he would get out one day. Other times, he would find himself curled up on the ephemeral black floor and patiently wait for his time to come. The Batter no longer had any idea how long he'd been in that place. He had tried to keep track of time at first, notching tally marks on his bat with a small pen he had found in his back pocket. It worked for awhile, until his random bouts of nightmare-filled sleep started to confuse him. They seemed they could last for a measly five minutes, or they sometimes felt like they lasted for weeks. By then, he had given up on marking his bat. He had begun to doodle on it instead, and that was a fun way to pass the time, until the ink ran out. The Batter had become frustrated and had thrown the pen down as he resumed his aimless wandering in the murky space. He would sometimes find himself back at the pen, and it had become a landmark of sorts.

The Batter had come across this slightly cracked pen for the 807th time now (for he kept track) when he heard a faint noise. At first he thought it was another whispered voice, rising above the others as it demanded to be heard. Maybe they would praise the Batter again. He usually felt a bit disgusted that someone would praise him for 'killing them'. The Batter had purified them, not killed them. There was an obvious difference between the two.

Lately though, he had begun to involuntarily perk up when this happened. It was nice to hear someone talk about him, to him. It was nice to be acknowledged for once.

"See? My suspicions of his renewed life are coming true! I have a special potion here that will speed up the process! I just have to-" A voice from far above the Batter was heard, but interrupted by a shuffling sound.

"That's catnip isn't it?"

A pause.

"I will not judge you in any way, mon petit chat, do not worry. But I do not think catnip will work on him, for he is not of your kind," a different voice patiently explained.

This was strange, the Batter thought, those voices seem familiar…

Before the Batter had any time to think on this matter, a loud purr boomed above, then deformed into a hiss after another rustling sound was heard.

"Do you really want him to come back to the image of you in this desperate state? Surely you want to keep your appearance intact, right?"

"Valerie is gone because of him! Do you think I care what he sees me as?!" An unruly growl was let out and silence followed after. The silence lasted for so long, the Batter had almost thought he had imagined the whole thing and was about to continue walking when he heard someone speak up. It was the one with the strange accent, that he couldn't quite name..

"You can have it back if you-"

"No, no. It's quite all right. Forgive me for losing my composure… Oh my, did I scratch you? Here, take this," A shuffling noise.

"I didn't know you carried around medical supplies. You certainly didn't get it from me, did you?"

"No, I carried them around for Valerie… as brother cats, we often played with each other and at times we got a bit… carried away, shall we say?"

Valerie. There was that name again. The Batter seemed to recognize it from somewhere… he did remember a cat… with rather sharp-looking teeth…

He was beginning to feel… ah, what would be the word for it? Nostalgic? No, not quite. Perhaps remorse? Regret? That word seemed to fit… but why? He knew Valerie was a cat.. who had eaten a bird? But why was that detail important? He assumed all cats normally ate birds from time to time.. But this bird was different..

Japhet! That was right! The bird's name was Japhet! The one he had…

Oh right… The Batter was finally able to remember some things. It was coming back to him, in small waves. The guardians and the innocent Elsen. The spectres.

He had never forgotten Hugo or Vader, but more details were becoming clearer. He remembered what he did to them, and why. The guilt he had harbored now vanished as he recalled his anger, his anguish. With a renewed sense of hurt, he fell limply to the ground and squeezed his eyes shut, refusing to let any moisture form.

He didn't know how long he stayed like that, but when he opened his eyes, he was surprised to see something other than the complete darkness. His eyes were assaulted by the gaudiest of yellows, which caused him to pull his cap down further and groan in annoyance.

After a bit of some rapid blinking, he started to observe his surroundings. He found that he was lying down, on what he assumed to be a bed. After tumbling out of it, he looked around in the small room and found that the whole interior was different shades of yellow. There were small windows outside and when he walked over to them, he found that it seemed to be a nice day. It was light outside, and the waves of plastic rolled gently over one another.

The world was exactly how he remembered it… but wait.. he thought he purified all the zones… didn't he? If he had forgotten one, then maybe that was why he was always uneasy in the Nothingness? The Batter was lost in thought so he didn't hear when a certain cat walked in until said cat mewed to get his attention.

"Why hello there, we were beginning to wonder if you would really come back. I proposed handing you off to the secretaries as a peace offering, but Zacharie reasoned that scum like you wouldn't hold them off for long," This comment hurt the Batter more than it should have, since he had forgotten to put his defenses up. He could always lower them while he tried to talk to the Nothingness. They never said anything negative about him. It was easy to build up his self-esteem when the whispering praised him for his 'good deeds'.

In an instant, he quickly remembered himself and corrected his stance into his usual stiff pose, but not before he could catch a small wince. This did not go unnoticed, and the Judge smirked at the sight. He quickly shook the expression off and gave a more sincere smile. Well, it was more of the usual toothy grin he wore during the game, but it was close, right?

"Ah, but no matter! You are here! I must attend to some… business first. Please wait here until Zacharie comes back," The Judge gracefully walked out, tail swishing from side to side. He most likely meant to close the door all the way, but it was left just a crack open.

The Batter was suddenly overwhelmed with questions as his memories came flooding back to him. Were the other zone still purified? Were there any Elsen left? He now remembered why this zone in particular wasn't purified, since there were no beings that inhabited this place. It was a safe haven of sorts. Still, he couldn't help but doubt if it really was safe.

And above all else, why was he back? He wasn't complaining, mind you. He didn't much like the Nothingness anyways…

Though the whispers seemed nicer… The Batter found that he was actually missing them. Even if they were a bit.. irritating at times.. they would always be there. The only constant in his life. They stayed by his side when not even his wife did. No one else did that…

Except for maybe… a certain masked merchant.

All of a sudden, he had a strong urge to go see him. Check to make sure if he was okay. He didn't really owe him that much, he felt, but.. he had a strange feeling in his chest, like something was trying to claw its way out. It reminded him too much of his first days with Vader, when they were just teenagers.

The Batter didn't like it. It reminded him too much of all the good memories. Of how it had seemed like it would last.

It hurt.

So to distract himself, he looked around the room and hoped to find a book, or maybe some sort of equipment to play with, but no such luck. The quaint room only contained a messy bed, a desk of sorts with paper and pens strewn haphazardly across it, and a nightstand. After checking through the papers and opening the drawers on the stand, he grew restless as he was not able to find a single thing.

He sat back down on the bed, presumably to wait on Zacharie. He both hoped and dreaded his arrival, for he had more thinking to do. He just wasn't sure if he wanted to deal with it as of now…

Suddenly, a thought crossed his mind. What if I'm on a sort of time limit here? Perhaps this was his one chance to make things right again..? Maybe the whispers had decided to intervene for once? It this was the case, the Batter was extremely grateful to them. For who else could have brought him back? The Nothingness is an abyss from where others usually cannot be pulled back.

Anyways, he was losing precious time! He waited mere seconds more before he huffed impatiently and walked over to gray door and stood in the path of the ray of light that spilled from the crack. He hesitantly raised his hand to the doorknob, not quite knowing what to expect. He gave a shaky exhale and pushed the door open.

He entered a larger room, with the familiar floating cubes in the middle. He recalled when he did that particular puzzle, back in the very beginning. He smiled softly at the sight, reveling in more innocent memories before catching himself and schooling his face back into his stoic expression.

The Batter didn't remember much of the layout of… well pretty much any Zone. What he did remember was that Zone 0 was especially small, so he figured he wouldn't have much trouble finding his way around, right?

Turns out the Batter was wrong. He went in circles many times before he found the stairs to the small basement. He breathed out a sigh of relief as he knew he made some progress. Before entering, he caught a whiff of the familiar smell he associated with Burnts after they were purified. They sometimes left an oddly smoky scent.

Strange.. there also seems to be a bit of a sweeter smell.. like sugar..

Sugar… That's right! The Batter had met a strange enemy who had called him a 'scary ducky'. Honestly, he found her to be slightly annoying. Her care-free attitude pissed him, to put it frankly. He wondered how he was able to put up with Zacharie's behavior either… Ah, that's right, he was supposed to be searching for that merchant. How stupid of him to lose focus like that! He decided he needed to hurry up and took a step towards the door.

The Batter took another step but stopped abruptly when he heard a sob emanate from beyond the door. It was a bit muffled, but full of agony. Quiet, yet extremely intense. He hesitated, but he tentatively pulled the door open.

Inside was the mounds of sugar he remembered from last time, but he saw a figure crouched in the piles. The stench of decay was stronger in here. The figure didn't seem to notice the Batter, so he took another step forward, hoping to get a better glimpse at the unknown person. The figure stayed hunched over, back to him. It seemed female, perhaps a frail male. The Batter wasn't sure, but it seemed to be holding something in its arms. It was also shaking, badly enough that he could see the tremors from feet away. The Batter was not one who felt much pity, but he felt something twist in his gut when he heard the wrecked wails it was emitting.

The Batter decided to put an end to this. "H-hello?" He inwardly cursed himself for making such a pathetic voice, but it did its job to grab the attention of the figure.

It jumped at my words and scrambled around in the sugar to lift something to his face and turn around. The Batter stared back at a familiar mask. It was what he called 'the frog one'.

Zacharie.

"B-Batter?!"

AN: I know I should be working on my other works, but I just had to write this one down ouo This one will only be a few chapters, and I mean it this time! Urgh, this was supposed to be all cutesy and shiz but I just started typing and somehow it devolved into this depressing thing... Not sure if that's a good thing..