Content warning: injury/blood, mention of physical abuse, implied emotional abuse, and a medical/recovery-related scene*

*Medical treatment accuracy is also botched for the sake of story, depending on Minecraft/anime logic more than real logic.

And let me say this loud and clear: if you ever receive an arrow injury, don't pull it out or walk it off. Go to the freaking ER.

The channel does not exist.

Corrupted seeped and crawled on Sabre's monitor, causing glitches to scatter across the now blank profile. With all those videos gone, the only thing breaking the profile's emptiness was the blue silhouette for an icon and that simple text.

The channel does not exist.

Memory gaped at the screen that showed Sabre's corrupted computer. Then he laughed. He cackled as the icy chain wrapped around his heart released and vanished. I did it.

It was over. He and Sabre were forgotten. He slipped off his mask and pulled down his balaclava. He basked in the glory of victory and raked his hands through his messy hair. He had a sense that, for once in his life, everything was going to be fine. That he had nothing else to worry about.

"I-I did it! I actually did it!" He laughed more, each shout of joy becoming more hysterical. It was only now he realized how silly and awestruck he felt. Truth be told, he actually didn't expect to win. He had lied to himself, knowing that the lies would fuel his way to victory like how the memory rage fueled Sabre's self-hatred. For a moment, he wondered if this was all a dream.

"I can't believe you..." A voice broke the wondering.

Memory turned to the voice, and his victorious smile fell. Oh no...

Illusion heaved a painful breath and clung onto the arrow wound on his calf. His hand glowed pink and casted a rainbow enchantment on the wound, making the blood spill slower. "Do you realize what you've just done?!" He snarled as he struggled to stand up, but only managed to get up on his one good leg. "You've gone too far. You've – "

The Memory Dimension shook, a sickly, omnipresent roar in the air. Memory and Illusion both screamed and dropped to the ground. Without any trees nearby, all they could do was cling to the grass and shield their heads.

The stars flickered to the quaking rhythms. When the earthquake and roars ceased, the lava-bordered horizon began to glow white. Like an impossible sunrise, white light crawled from the horizon, bleeding up towards the sky.

Memory cringed and blindly searched his inventory, while Illusion curled into a ball as if the light's radiation could burn. Memory found his tinted eyeglasses and shoved them to his face, but the light still overwhelmed him.

The light crawled upwards and outshined the blue stars, which faded away as if engulfed by fog. The white light seemed to consume the other colors of the dimension, as the orange lava and green trees morphed into white shapes with intense, dark shadows.

When the white sunrise reached halfway across the sky, it glitched. It started morphing and concaving, flailing and flickering like a wildfire.

The fire in the sky dimmed, allowing the islands farthest from the horizon to shed their white covers. But the damage had been done, as the islands revealed their new mangled shapes and depleted colors. The trees had been stripped of their green leaves. Their protruding, bony limbs now carried clusters of white, glitching flowers. More white flowers sprouted, causing the branches to sag under the growing weight. The grass had disappeared, replaced with pale hardened soil. Beginning from the branches, dark vines slithered from the flowers, down the tree trunks, and through the now barren grounds.

Some flowers combusted into white flames, joining the fire-like sunrise to make the dimension brighter.

Illusion uncurled himself and scanned the area. "Oh god, how many memories did you steal?! They're – " He flinched. He grabbed his hair, multicolored eyes suddenly filled with conflict. "Rainbow Town? Rainbow Town, Rainbow Town, Rainbow Town. Wait...no – " He shut his eyes tight. "Rainbow Steve literally did nothing wrong. He has a name tag now," he rambled. "No! I can't believe it's gone! I remember, I remember."

Memory, still trying to process the surroundings, gave Illusion a worried expression. "What's happening to you?"

"Well, that was something!" Illusion suddenly exclaimed, still not opening his eyes. His mouth quivered, unsure if he should be giving a cheesy grin or a snarl of confusion. "No...Light Steve is gone...is there a chance of him returning? Someone needs to tell Sabre...tell Lucas...tell Rainbow Steve." He shrunk back with a sudden cringe. "I have a theory...I have a theory that Galaxy and Void are..." His voice became muffled.

Memory crawled towards his younger cousin. "Illusion?"

"MEMES! UWU!" Illusion launched up, startling Memory. His multicolored eyes were as wide as bloated pufferfish before he grimaced and collapsed. His chest heaved as he pressed a trembling hand against his arrow wound. "I'm terrified...These villains are monsters..."

Memory's heart sank as the remnants of his victorious glee vanished. Illusion was suffering, all because he brought these tsunamis of memories upon him. Illusion had to make sense of the transforming dimension by analyzing the situation, only to be consumed by the millions of newly stolen memories. Was it all against his will? How many memories did he analyze? Was he more confused than ever with the sudden surge of emotions and perspectives, making him less grounded in the present?

"Illusion, hold still." Memory raised a hand and commanded the surge of memories to go away. A raw thunder and he collapsed with a pained gasp.

The memories were refusing to go away. Memory flicked his hand. He sensed that a few glitching memories were desummoned, but he couldn't desummon all of these new memories at once. They were too much.

Illusion looked up, his multi-colored eyes had cleared, but they were glowing with spite. "This is the outcome of what you've just did. Are you satisfied?"

Satisfied? Memory stepped back and glanced at the surroundings, really looking at them this time. He slowly spun around, having to take moments at a time to confirm the fire-like ring surrounding the dimension, the wild islands, and the glitching flowers. Oh under the Six Bright Eyes...what the hell happened to my home? Not even the lava sea was enough to identify this transformed hellscape as the Memory Dimension. He used to know every inch and story of this place. But now, he felt uncertain in this alien land.

"Save them, Sabre."

Memory spun to the sound of the foreign voice, only to be greeted by the endless white fire in the sky. Three more voices chimed in, but he couldn't spot anyone.

Memory realized that the sky fire wasn't cackling.

It was screaming. It was as if the fire held hostage a trapped, terrified civilization. Memory focused on the fire's cackles, finally making out what those screams consisted of.

"OH MY GOD, NO!" "RAINBOW STEVE, NO!" "GALAXY STEVE IS A MOOD." "WHEN WILL TIME STEVE COME BACK." "NOT THE RAINBOW TOWN." "NO, I CAN'T BELIEVE IT ENDED." "SAVE THEM, SABRE." "I'M SO HAPPY THE STEVE SAGA IS BACK."

Memory paled, realizing what all these screams had in common. They were all voicing their opinions about Sabre's destroyed videos.

And the worst part was that he didn't even command these memories to speak.

He shrunk back but knew that he couldn't escape this flaming hellscape.

He knew among these voices were people talking about him. About all the times he failed to defeat Sabre. How he fell victim to two traps. Just moments ago, he had been petrified by the thought of these people. But now, with these memories and thoughts trapped in the Memory Dimension, his fear was just as strong as before. Well, his fear was accompanied by a new question...

What have they said about me?

Memory's face lost all its warmth. These voices tormented him, yet they intrigued him with the answers to the questions that drove him mad in the first place. This was his chance to confirm his fears and suspicions. Maybe, he should...

No! He clamped his ears and shuddered. After all the hell he went through to get to this moment, why would he look at what these people said about him? Yet his curiosity was intensifying. Why didn't I destroy these memories the moment they arrived? If I destroyed them immediately, Illusion wouldn't be suffering. I didn't need them to gloat about my victory.

What could I had done differently? What could I had done differently?

Are you satisfied?, the question resurfaced.

Memory scanned the hellish landscape again. He let out an exhausted, gloomy breath.

No, this wasn't what he wanted. He just wanted to feel at peace and rid another world's memories of him. He didn't want this.

Another world...

Dread sank in his stomach. This fire was only the first part of his plan, and he secretly didn't expect to get to this point. He barely thought of the plan's next phase as a result. But now that he had miraculously succeeded, he must finally process what comes next and the true costs of this mission.

Memory returned his gaze to Illusion, who was arched on the ground like a turtle, his face veiled by his messy hair. The young Steve let out another hiss of pain as he glazed his wound with another pink illusion. His other hand pressed against his head, a pink glow seeping out of his blue mass of hair. His breath seethed as he shuddered. A sudden pink spark and Illusion screamed out, "SABRE, YOU IDIOT, USE A STICKY NOTE TO REMIND YOURSELF ABOUT MEMORY STEVE."

Guilt consumed Memory's heart again. He knew he should say something. To apologize. To give Illusion whatever closure he needed as the villain behind his current suffering. But how could he ever apologize for all this?

He cleared his throat. "Illusion, please, focus on me."

Illusion looked up, still baring his teeth. Red veins throbbed in his multicolored eyes.

Memory knelt down next to him. "Let me treat your injury."

Illusion gave no response.

Memory dipped his head, his voice becoming more pleading. "Please, let me help you." Please let me give you my one last act of kindness.

Illusion gave another sharp inhale and looked at the ground reluctantly. Eventually, he nodded.

Gently grabbing Illusion, Memory teleported himself and his injured cousin. The island blinked away. Replacing their surroundings was the bright blue pool, the aging tree with clock hand branches, and the rain suspended in the air. The screaming fire of white memories was still ablaze in the horizon, now framed by golden sand and a maze of hedges instead of lava.

"I can't wait. I can't handle it," Illusion whined, his eyes beginning to water.

Memory placed Illusion by the Tree. Illusion rested against the trunk and dried his eyes. As he fell silent, probably counting the Tree's ticking beats in his head, he seemed more at ease, but his expression was still sick and pained from that arrow wound. Memory snapped his fingers and a white shulker box with a red cross spawned next to him, and he snatched a few medical supplies from it.

He inspected the injury. He grimaced at how the arrow stabbed through Illusion's leg and the still rushing blood. He panicked while he cleaned up the blood and applied pressure. Oh Colors, oh Colors, what do I do? He wasn't foolish enough to yank the arrow. Could the Tree remove it by reversing the injury? No, reversing the injury would be as painful as being wounded in the first place.

What kind of unprepared fool am I? He crafted arrows made of wood and flint for his mission, but he didn't refresh his knowledge on treating arrow wounds. All his life, he was trained to hurt others, not heal them, and this arrow wound was a horrid reminder of how much of Illusion's suffering he had caused. Time Steve would had handled this better. I'm no healer – Wait, that's it! I need a healer.

Memory wiped the sweat of his face before facing Illusion. "I'll be summoning a few entities to help us. It'll get noisy, but there's no need to be alarmed. Is that alright?"

Illusion managed to nod.

Memory raised his hand and two blue flowers descended to the island. One of the blue flowers morphed into a Green Steve with a white coat. Memory whispered a command as he tugged his hand back. The Green Steve medic gasped and rushed to Illusion. "What in the world happened to you?!" Memory had used memory rage to allow the medic's sense of urgency to take over the entity. Hopefully that would draw out all the medical knowledge this medic had.

But just in case... As the Green Steve medic entity inspected Illusion's arrow wound, Memory grabbed his head and hissed as he tugged a gray flower from his head.

Illusion gasped. "What are you – ah!" He tensed as the medic gently lifted his leg up and set it on a big, elevated root.

Memory unsnagged the gray flower memory from his hair. He faced the second blue flower and commanded it to morph. The blue flower flared and grew into a silhouette of a Steve, crouching down and bawling. The light faded, revealing that the entity was an Elder Blue Steve with a long coat and orchid jewelry. "IT WAS SET UP. IT WAS ALL SET UP!" The Elder bawled as Memory carefully approached him, gray flower in hand.

The Blue Steve shot his face up, revealing his horrid eyes. One was as dark as a kraken's blood, while the other flared neon blue. "HE COULD HAVE HAD A BETTER LIFE, BUT HE WAS SET UP. WHY DID YOU DO THIS?!"

Memory quickly set the gray flower underneath the Elder, who trembled as he struggled to breathe. A tear trickled down his pure blue eye and eventually dropped on the gray flower. He shot a look of pity at the Elder before desummoning the entity.

He returned to the Tree and sat next to Illusion, who gave a confused and pained expression. "I'm sorry that this is all confusing. But that Elder's tear should have powered this flower." He handed Illusion the gray flower. "And since it's my memory, it has the family's energy and should help heal you."

Illusion held the flower with his shaky arms. "But if I use this flower to heal myself, will the memory go away?"

Memory waved a dismissive hand. "It's a memory of something stupid. Probably a nerve-racking ordeal of me asking for more napkins at a restaurant. I won't miss it."

Illusion sighed and brought the flower to his chest. He absorbed the flower. He looked more relax, but worry was still clear on his face.

The medic entity was busy, using magic to painlessly remove the arrow and apply potions of strength (obtained from the white box) on the wound when necessary. Memory noticed that Illusion kept staring at the wound, looking almost ready to faint.

Memory sighed. "...when I was a child and practicing with my teleportation powers, I accidentally teleported to a frail branch of a tree."

Illusion turned to him with a raised eyebrow.

"I fell and broke my arm. Since I was spending time with your brothers, they found me when I cried and took me to a Green Steve village, the closest place to get help." He tensed. His hands covered his face, pushing his tinted glasses up and out of the way.

"Are you ok?" Illusion asked through his pained voice.

You shouldn't be asking that question. You're the one who's injured. Memory had to fight down the tremors as he forced himself to continue. "When we arrived at the medic's house, I...I just...broke down. I was so scared." No, he was scared the moment his cousins had teleported him to the village. Around his family, he didn't think twice about his red eyes, dark clothes, and the galaxy-like freckles. But around Green Steves, those characteristics were an obvious sign that he didn't belong. Memory was little back then, and he still clearly remembered the adult Green Steves towering over him as they crowded around, their green eyes full of curiosity and judgment. He remembered how he hid between the safety of his older cousins, shielding his red eyes and freckles with his good arm.

When they had finally arrived at the medic's house, that was when Memory's nervousness erupted into a breakdown.

"I-I didn't want the medic to see me," Memory managed to explain. The medic had to examine his arm, set the broken bone back in place, and put Memory in a machine to mend the arm. And every year, the thought of stepping into a machine gave Memory more dread...

But the worst thing Memory feared was that the medic would find the bruises during the examination. The new bruise Void gave him two days ago. The old, faded bruise from a month ago. That fear had come true, and Memory couldn't hide between the shelter of his cousins or with the long sleeves. The medic kept asking and asking questions, and Memory panicked. He couldn't confess all of the mistakes he had made that gave him these bruises. He couldn't expose Void and how much of a burden he was to his own father.

"Why are you telling me this?" Illusion asked.

Memory snapped back to the present. "Your brothers helped me by distracting me from my fears." He smiled faintly as he grabbed two multicolored potions from the shulker box. "Elemental showed me one of his latest inventions: a map that can peer into any dimension, like a pocket-sized In-Between. Time performed some quick science experiments with potions." Memory held the two potions far away from him and Illusion as he dripped one of the potions into the other. The other potion suddenly changed colors and, poof!, a colorful firework burst out of the potion. Illusion flinched, but seemed awestruck.

Memory set the potions down. "Thanks to them, I wasn't as scared as before. The medic healed my arm with no troubles. After that – "

"Did you erase the medic's memories of your visit when Time and Elemental weren't looking?" Illusion interrupted.

Memory quickly looked away. "...Yes." It was only after calming down from all the panic when he realized he could erase the medic's memories. That was all before he lost control of his powers, after all. "But after that, your brothers took me to the village's bakery, where they bought me dessert." It was the kindest thing they had done for him that day.

Memory looked at Illusion's leg, noticing that the medic miraculously removed the arrow. The medic opened a potion of healing and poured it on the arrow wound. The inflammation and infection faded away and the wound closed up.

Memory and Illusion watched together as the medic cleaned up the lost blood and patched up the closed wound with a bandage.

Memory dipped his head down as a dark gaze clouded his expression. This act of kindness was over. "A moment of pain, an eternity of chaos."

Illusion looked at him. "What?"

"A moment of pain, an eternity of chaos," Memory repeated, his voice heavier. "Illusion...I want to be there for you. I want to invite you to the safety of my dimension. I want to be there to listen if you need to vent. I want to help you not lose your path and do the right thing. I want you to feel safe and happy." He forced himself to look up. "But I can't be here for you during this moment of pain...for I'll be the one who'll cause it."

"It's about Galaxy Steve, isn't it?"

"Yes. When I hurt your father, you will be hurt too. No matter how many times I apologize, I will never be able to forgive myself for that. The only thing I can offer is a moment of pain. Only a moment. A promise that once I rid of Galaxy Steve, all your connections to him will cease. You'll be free."

Illusion looked down, a dark expression cast on his face.

Memory cleared his throat. "But even after you're free, and Sabre, Void, and Galaxy are no longer a concern for this world, you'll have to deal with new chaos...without me."

"What are you talking about?! What's going to happen next?"

"...To bring back Void, I must restore his memories, which will teach him how to break free from Galaxy's mind. And since I have those memories in my possession, I will forget about my own father when I restore his memories..."

Illusion gulped. "Because of all your drawbacks..."

Memory nodded. "So...please don't find me once I finish this mission. I don't know what'll happen to me when I forget about the most important person in my life. Will I become like Elemental...or someone worse? I just...don't want you to see the person I'll turn into once I forget my father and find myself in a confusing world where I don't know what's the meaning of life anymore..."

Illusion straightened his back. "Well, you don't have to find out what'll happen. It's not too late to change your mind."

"To abandon Void?" Memory scanned the horizon, reminding himself again of how close he was to accomplishing this mission. "I...I can't."

"Yes you can. Like how you treated my injury, you can just stop this whole thing! Why are you willing to break your own mind for Void? Especially when you have no idea how it'll go!"

Memory looked back, suddenly nervous. "He needs me. And I need him. Bringing him back is what Void wants from me."

"Yeah, but what do you gain from this? What do you want from Void?"

The golden panels stacked on each other, its columns stretching infinitely, surrounding this dark space as a compensation for walls. Its columns like the bars of a prison cell.

22-year-old Memory buried his head into his hands. He felt sick, wishing that this chair could hide him from the glaring panels. He was finally an adult and his life was just about to begin, and the panels were mocking how he already messed it up. Thousands of moments, thousands of opportunities, wasted away.

Especially that panel in front of the chair.

The panel flickered again. Memory lifted his head up, his teary eyes locked on the screen again. The flickering was distorting what the panel foresaw. The only thing he could make out was the silhouette of the destroyed, barren mountain.

The panel's flickering diminished, exposing who was on top of the mountain.

A tall figure, alone. Sitting on the mountain, head lowered in grief of the future, much like Memory now.

Is this the rest of my life? He wondered. Always mourning? Always regretting my mistakes?

Footsteps. Memory quickly flicked the panel back to where it belong, and teleported out of the chair. He straightened his posture and turned to the source of the sound. Void had arrived. Memory froze, not even allowing himself to breathe.

Void stared at him for a moment. He groaned, "Look, what's done is done. Just get over it." He slumped into his chair and began inspecting the many panels.

Just get over it... Memory nervously glimpsed at where that panel had returned to its place. He prayed that Void wouldn't see that panel again. That he would never see Memory's pathetic future of always being burdened by mistakes, never able to get over them...

"What do you gain from this?" Illusion repeated.

Memory sighed. "To be honest, I never saw this mission as gaining anything. More like...paying a long overdue debt. The best case scenario is that...he'll finally say he's proud to have me as his son."

Illusion narrowed his eyes. It seemed like he wanted to say something, but the goodness in him was causing him to hold back. "Please...don't go." Illusion quickly ducked his head. He rubbed his temples, his kneading fingers glowing pink. "Pl-please don't leave me..."

Memory looked back at Illusion's healed leg and desummoned the medic who had finished the task. He turned away to conceal the tears forming. He already accepted that Illusion would suffer for a moment, but he felt horrible that he had to break Illusion's heart by saying goodbye.

So instead, he swallowed his compassion and established the mental barriers. The barriers he set up long ago when Void ordered him to erase Time and Elemental's memories...

Thunder struck. The Tree shuddered as it grew two new roots that locked their grip on Illusion's hand. "Wait, what are you –?!" Illusion stiffened as the roots began to seep gold light. The light was dim, like a shy beast hesitating to leave its cave. The Tree's frail branches seem to sink in equal reluctance.

"Do it," Memory whispered to the Tree, his voice more apathetic that it had ever been. "Freeze him in time."

Illusion flinched. "What?! No, you can't do this!" He squirmed, waves of pink light flashing out of his bound hands. It easily overcame the golden dimmed light.

"Freeze him in time, you old tree!" Memory snapped. He slammed his hand against the Tree's trunk and sent a surge of power into it.

"I-I can't move!" Illusion panicked as the golden glows overtook his pink magic and began to crawl up to his arms.

Memory's stomach felt sick. "I'm sorry...the next stage of my plan will give incredible distress to your father. I hope you can escape the pain by being frozen in time during my mission."

"STOP IT! Please! Don't go back to him! DON'T SACRIFICE YOUR ENTIRE MIND JUST FOR HIM!"

Memory tensed, his red eyes suddenly flaring with determination. "Don't waste your energy on pleading. He is coming. You cannot stop it."

"Wait, please – " The golden glow engulfed Illusion, making him freeze mid-thrash.

Memory grimaced. He nudged Illusion slightly and set his arms down so he could rest on the tree. He brushed Illusion's loose hair out of his face. "The end is near, but at least this world will be given mercy. Just for you." Finally, he dropped an item in Illusion's open palm. It was a green, arrow-shaped pin. He wrapped Illusion's hand around the pin. "If you can hear me...please don't find me after this is all done."

He took of his tinted glasses and gave Illusion a tight hug. The hug felt like an eternity, each tremor in Memory's arms counting down the moments that felt like years. The years he badly wished he could had spent with Illusion instead. "Goodbye...I'll miss you..."

Memory stepped away from the Tree and slipped on his balaclava and mask. He rolled his shoulders back and crossed over the glowing pond and back to the main island. After a few more steps, he got a trace of Galaxy's energy somewhere in the Memory Dimension.

It was time to bring back Void Steve.

Word count: 4459