Idiot.

"I know."

Stupid.

"SHUT UP!" Snatcher growled, speeding through the trees. It had nearly been an hour in his search for the kid once he realized she was missing. He didn't recall seeing her once he woke up, but then again he hadn't really checked his surroundings that much when he regained consciousness. Time travel wasn't as easy as the kid made it to be.

"The one time when I need you the most. The one time when I need your help, and it's all thanks to time travel." Snatcher growled, making a daring leap to the next tree. He didn't exactly know where he was going at this point. Searching for the kid was top priority, but he didn't know where to start looking for her.

Subcon was a massive place. Almost as big as the desert on the outskirts of the forest. Was it a desert at this point in time? He never did leave Subcon in his—FOCUS SNATCHER! FOCUS! Finding the kid comes first! With her help they could go back to their timeline before anything major happened to this one. He wasn't an expert with time, but he did manage to grasp the concept of the butterfly effect well enough.

"Come on kid, where are you?" He hung himself upside down like a bat, checking under bushes and upturned roots that would be big enough for a kid to climb in. Only for no sign of the kid to his disappointment. "You would be so much easier to find if I had some of my minions with me." He grumbled, going back up the tree to continue his search elsewhere.

"With all this tree climbing, you would think the kid would find me first." Snatcher mused as he went through the tree tops. "I mean, with that hat of hers, she could find me before I find her. That would be a twist of—" He froze.

No she couldn't.

Her hat was back on her ship. Back in the present. Back on her desk by her bed while she was stricken with the pecking 25 day illness. Too sick to move or leave her bed. With a spiking fever and in pain.

There was no possible way for her to find him. Much less even move on her own.

"Blast It!" He screamed, digging his claws in his mane and tugged. "WHY, of ALL things to HAPPEN, did THIS have to HAPPEN?!" He growled, shaking with rage. "I'll NEVER find her at this rate! I can't navigate my OWN forest! NOTHING looks familiar to me! I can't just keep hopping tree to tree and expect something to show up!"

With the last outburst, he sighed tiredly. "All this running around." He groaned, leaning against the tree heavily. "'S making me tired." A yawn went out his mouth. Snatcher was lightly surprised. His body felt heavy and worn out. Which was surprising since he had never felt this tired before.

"Peck." His wounds. His body was taking all his energy trying to heal them. Looking around searching for the kid was draining him much faster than he would like. "At this rate I'll never find her…" His eyes felt heavy. "A quick nap. Yes. A nap will get me energized again…" He mumbled, coiling around the tree's top, getting comfortable in the thick branches that supported him.

The world soon became darkness as he closed his eyes and let sleep take over.

"Kid, what are you doing?" The small girl standing before him had some sort of object in her hands. She walked about, stopping a few times with the object pointing to the sky and waited before it gave a ping sort of noise and went back to walking around.

"Star mapping." Snatcher looked at her in confusion. "My ship has a navigation system that follows star patterns that sets a course for it to travel. It remembers where planets are based on star alignment."

"Your ship hasn't forgotten where your planet is has it?"

"No silly!" Hat Kid laughed. "I'm updating this planet's constellation in the system. That way, when I go home, I can always come back for a visit!"

"I don't know if that's a good thing or not."

She stuck out her tongue. "Well too bad! It's in the system and you can't do a thing about it!"

Snatcher smirked. The kid was taking too much after him."And expect more pestering visits from you? Not on my watch." He made a grab for the object but to her credit, the kid was always ready to jump out of reach. She blew a raspberry as she switched to her Sprint Hat and took off on her scooter. "You can't escape me in my own forest kid! This is MY domain!"

"We'll see about that!" Hat Kid shouted over her shoulder, driving deeper into the woods. Snatcher grinned, diving into the shadows. It was like a game of cat and mouse between them, only with a more spooky twist to it. As Snatcher gave chase to the speeding kid, he would pop out at random times in front of her, giving the poor girl a small scare and trying to take a swipe at her.

She always managed to dodge at the last second and speed away on her scooter. How she managed to not run into things as he chased her was a complete mystery to him. He was sure that scaring her would make her crash into something by now but she somehow evaded running into things. "You can't run away forever kid!"

"Watch me!" Snatcher couldn't help but smile at her retort. Admittedly, he could out speed her and teleport around without limitations, but where would the fun be at? It was more fun to let her think she could get away from him. The thought of her surprised face once he caught her wouldn't be as rewarding as the real thing.

As fun as this might be, it's time to put an end to this little game of ours.He thought, teleporting far ahead of the kid and hid behind a large tree. The roaring engine of the little scooter was fast approaching the tree he hid behind and Snatcher prepared himself to leap out and nab the kid.

Once he was sure she was close enough, he leapt out looking as menacing as possible. "FOO—!" He started to shout, but stopped short when he noticed there was a large lacking sign of the kid and her scooter. He looked around. There was no way he could have missed the kid! Her scooter was too loud to sneak past him!

"Kid? Where'd you go?" There was no sign of the small alien anywhere in his line of sight. "Kid, this game is getting old. Come out already!" No reply. Snatcher started to frown. This surly was one of her elaborate pranks.

"Ooh, I get it. We're playing scare the Snatcher huh? Well too bad for you that I don't feel like playing this game kid." He placed two fingers in his mouth, blowing out a whistle that was loud enough for everyone in the forest to hear. He smiled, waiting for the arrival of his loyal minions to start popping up…

Only none of them did.

Snatcher frowned. It didn't take this long for his minions to show up. They may not be powerful as he was, but they did have a few perks to being ghosts. "You lot better not be in on this!" He growled. "If you don't show up in the next ten seconds, this entire forest goes up in flames!"

He waited.

Nothing.

"…" His frown deepened. This was not normal. "Is anyone there? Kid? Anyone?" No one replied to his calls. "Guys? Kid? Anyone?!" Worry pooled deep within him. Someone had to show up soon. It just wasn't natural for anyone to ignore him unless…

Unless something was horribly wrong.

Dread came upon him and he shot up into the sky. The high view gave him a clear vantage point of his whole forest, so it was easier to spot anything that looked even remotely out of place. He gazed around, looking for any signs of his minions or the kid but couldn't see anyone. Not even a simple Dweller.

"What's going on?!" Panic took over. He couldn't sense anyone in his forest. Dead or living. "HEY! IS ANYONE OUT THERE?! MINIONS?! DWELLERS?! KID?!" He called out, hoping someone would respond.

"SNATCHER!"

His head perked up. "Kid?"

"SNATCHER HELP!" He whirled around, looking for the direction the kid's voice was coming from. "HELP!"

"KID WHERE ARE YOU?!" He looked about frantically. He couldn't pinpoint where her voice was coming from, all previous thoughts of thinking it was a prank gone as the sheer franticness in her yelling put a new line of worry in his mind. "KID! KID!"

"HELP ME! HELP ME!"

"KID WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"SNATCHER PLEASE HELP!"

"WHERE ARE YOU?!"

A shrilling scream echoed into the night sky. Her screams. Terror over took the Snatcher. "KIIIIIID!" He shot back down into his forest, racing about through the trees, searching for the child. "KID! KID!" He called out hoping she would respond. "KID WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"SNATCHER!"

He spun around. "KI—!" A solid punch hit him square on the right of his head, decking him on the cheek and causing him to fall out of the tree he was in and land on the ground.

Wait…

Tree…

Snatcher gasped as his senses slammed down on him. His wounds were alight with pain from the sudden fall. Groaning as he sat up, he looked up at the tree he was just in, shooting a dark glare at it. To his great surprise something stared down at him as well.

Something very familiar.

"A Dweller?!" Snatcher exclaimed in surprise. Indeed, it was a Dweller. A pale colored Dweller with a crying mask on its face.

Wait.

If there was a Dweller here, then that must mean! Snatcher looked around, but to his disappointment, the forest was still green. Still alive.

Still in the past.

"Of course. Shouldn't have gotten my hopes up." Snatcher grumbled as he got up. "Wait a minute." He squinted at the Dweller as it floated down to him. "You're that same Dweller. The one at the fight."

It slowly bowed its head.

A silent agreement and acknowledgement.

"Well, aren't I just lucky? Guess you got dragged along when that Time Piece smashed." Snatcher smiled for once, glad to see he wasn't the only dead thing around here. "Though, I don't know how much of a help you can be at the moment." He pondered, opening one hand for the Dweller to hover over. "You can't really do anything other than float about. And you can't really talk. I can't make a contract to give you a body since all my power has gone to fixing the damage." He looked down at himself.

The wounds were still just as bad as there were, though he wasn't bleeding ghost blood anymore. "Don't know how much help you'll be. Unless you happen to know where the kid is."

The Dweller nodded its head.

"… Wait… you know where the kid is?" Snatcher couldn't believe his luck. The Dweller nodded again, hovering off to a distance before stopping and looking back at him.

Silently asking him to follow.

"Alright, alright. Hang on." Snatcher grunted, slowly floating after the Dweller as it lead the way. It felt silly and sluggish to follow the Dweller like this besides teleporting around, but if it meant that he would find the kid and get out of this crazy timeline, then he would swallow his pride. For now.

It was taking much longer than he would like as several times he had to stop and rest a bit. The Dweller paused each time he stopped, waiting for him to get enough energy to move again. "Pecking corpse." He cursed, leaning against a tree for the twentieth time. "We wouldn't be in this situation if it wasn't for him." He lightly touched his wounds.

The Dweller silently said nothing as they continued their path. Snatcher wasn't sure if he preferred the silence. Dewllers were mute beings. They had been since they died. Having any sort of conversation with them was out of the question. Though, it would have been nice if they could talk. The things they could tell him. Not having to guess what they were trying to communicate.

At least they can't tell others what they've seen. Snatcher thought. I don't want anyone seeing me like this. Weak. Powerless. It would be a bad image to show to the minions.

The Dweller ducked under a bush. Snatcher floated closer to the ground, lifting the bush's branches up and smiled in relief. "Kid."

At last, he had found her. She looked scuffed and her hair was a mess, but her chest was moving. That was all he needed to know that she was alive. The Dweller stared back at him, its head resting on the kid's stomach while its body was wrapped around her protectively. "Heh. Guess you have some use after all." Snatcher chuckled, reaching inside the bush and pulled Hat Kid out and into his arms.

She made some small noises as he moved her, but she stayed unconscious, limp in his arms. "Of all the times you pick to get some rest." Snatcher laughed hollowly, hugging her close to him. At least she was still alive. That was the good news. But now came the problem of what to do next.

"Now what to do." He pondered, brushing some bangs out of Hat Kid's face. The Dweller hovered next to his head, staring at him and the alien child. "Can't call on anyone to help us. Can't use my powers. What a predicament we're in, huh kid?" He frowned a bit, placing his hand on her forehead. "Peck! You're fever has gone up!" He hissed, feeling the heat radiating off her.

"Peeck! You're still sick!" Snatcher smacked himself. How could he forgotten that the kid was still effected by the 25 day illness?! Now he had a sick child do deal with along with trying to get back to the present! "Peck, peck, peck, peck, PECK!" He growled. This made thing worse. He didn't know what to do with a sick child! He couldn't remember the ingredients needed for the cure!

"THIS IS A FINE MESS I'M IN!" He roared, scaring a few birds and the Dweller. He sighed tiredly, rubbing his face. "I seriously do not have the energy for this…" He looked down at the child. "I really wish things would go my way for once. Maybe then we wouldn't be in this mess."

If things went his way, he would be home, ruling his kingdom. Eating souls. Making contracts. Having free labor.

Never falling for Vanessa.

Never meeting the kid.

"Fruitless wishing." He sighed, hugging the small being close to him. She mumbled something incoherent, snuggling against him. "Still not a bed kid." Snatcher chuckled despite the situation they were in. "Though finding shelter for tonight wouldn't be a bad idea right now." He hummed, looking about. If his memory served him right… "Come on."

He started heading off in what he hoped was the right direction. The Dweller followed after him with no objections.

"Here we are." Snatcher smiled, finding a big cave that fit his size comfortably. "This should work for now." He nodded in satisfactory, though his satisfaction didn't stay long as the kid let out a weak cough. She had been shivering for a while, cuddling up to Snatcher for warmth that he could not produce. "Oh kiddo." He sighed sadly.

He glanced out the cave's entrance. Sticks littered the ground, just enough for a small fire. But did he have enough power to make a fire? He didn't know. Better to try though. The cave wasn't very warm.

Grabbing enough sticks and arranging them in the center of the cave, Snatcher focused as much energy as he could into a single hand, willing for a spark or a tiny flame to emerge. Nothing was happening, and still continued to do nothing as minutes went by.

"Come on, come on." Snatcher groaned, trying to force his powers to obey him. "Come on." Still nothing came, and Snatcher gave up with a defeated sigh. "This isn't working…" He frowned deeply. He didn't have the power to do anything. He was weak and alone. There was nothing he could do.

Then the kid starting coughing.

"Kid?!" Snatcher jumped in surprise, holding the child close as she let loose a series of harsh coughs. She was shivering harder now, whimpering in pain. Snatcher actually felt scared, fearing that she might die right there and now. He looked at the pile of wood again, this time putting on a determined face, and pointed at it with a talon.

"Come on." He mumbled, trying to focus his energy in one spot. "Come on." His eyes narrowed, willing his magic to work. "Come on." He growled, his face scrunching as he tried his hardest to get his powers to listen to him. Energy buzzed in his arm, sparking at his fingertips but not enough, it just wasn't enough. "Come on!" He pushed harder, drawing on all his will for this to work, and it would work if he just had a small push.

He tried thinking of his minions and his home. All his law books stored away that were unattended with no one to read them. Of trespassers entering his forest. Of dangers that could happen without him there guarding his kingdom.

Of a certain corpse smiling wickedly with his strings wrapped around the small girl as she cried for help. Tears streaming down her face as the threads tightened, cutting the blood circulation in her limbs. Her face turning into a shade of blue from lack of air getting to her lungs—

An angry yell bounced off the cave's walls as a jolt of lighting sprang out of Snatcher's finger, hitting the pile of sticks dead on. He panted heavily, feeling the drain of energy weigh him down. Though, he was quite proud of himself as a small fire came to life.

He crept closer to the growing flame, curling around it with the kid at a safe distance so she wouldn't burn but still received its warmth. "guess i… still got… some juice left in… me…" He panted, smiling to himself as he made himself comfortable. "we'll… figure… something… out… in the… morning…" He brushed his fingers across Hat Kid's face lightly.

She still gave no reply, but her shivering had gone down. He chuckled lightly, gazing at the fire. Just as drowsiness was beginning to set in, the Dweller came into view. "Oh, right. Forgot about you." It tilted its head. "Look, since you don't need sleep, how about you make yourself useful? You can keep a lookout outside and keep watch for anyone that might come here. You know, like a guard or something."

The Dweller nodded, floating out the cave.

Satisfied to know that no one could sneak up on them, Snatcher curled closer around the fire, settling himself for the night. "Sleep tight kid." He mumbled, drifting off once again that night.