Content warning: body horror*, anxiety attack, verbal abuse
* Read the author's note in Chapter 30 for more information
Also, as a forewarning, RRFF will go back on hiatus after Chapter 33 "A Cryptic Demise" :') I tried to reach an ambitious writing goal (finish all remaining Act 2 chapters) before the start of this month. But unfortunately, I didn't reach the goal, and I realized that I REALLY need to take my time with editing the last Act 2 chapters. Anyways, I just wanted to let you know in advance about the hiatus. Thank you for understanding.
Anyways, I hope you enjoy the chapter!
Time whispered, "Reverse", and his breath shifted the entire world.
The world tugged him into the air as a golden glow surrounded him. The platform rumbled as the dismantled redstone golem blinked to life and stood up, inhaling a reverse roar. From the golem, the dust particles rose and reformed into a spanning dust cloud, consuming the orange-lit lava pool that surrounded the area.
The illagers unfroze from their trance and marched backwards into the growing dust cloud. Now the world was a blur of tan and dust and golden specks as Time continued to ascend.
Memory had to shield his eyes from the dimming dust and blinding gold. Although the dust particles were swarming back, it felt like the cloud was actually growing and trying to shove him back.
Memory unshielded himself to glare at Time, knowing he was trying to leave him behind. His body felt as out of control as sand. It hurt to take a step forward, to even lift a foot up. Memory bared his teeth and eventually grabbed Time's ankle before he could rise higher.
He tried to hold on despite how sweat-soaked his glove had become. Time took a moment to glare at him and stomp his hand off. After the dust cloud vanished, the redstone golem flailed around, its damage being undone. The illagers walked backwards to the platforms edges, launched themselves into the sky, and safely landed on the cliff they came from.
Time spread his arms out and a dark, crescent-shaped rift formed above him.
Every muscle in Memory gave a jolt. No!
He suddenly shot his arms up. His arms heated up as a golden light engulfed them.
The crescent-shaped rift wobbled. Time gasped and gawked at Memory. "H-How – "
Memory bared his teeth. When he spread out his hands, the rift expanded with them.
"You're not leaving me behind."
Memory gave a furious cry and brought his hands together.
Not like before!
The rift shrieked and crashed onto the platform, consuming both Time and Memory.
The rift opened to a familiar world of lava and darkness, which twisted around Memory as he was forced back into place. When he noticed the black shulker box to his left, he knew they were back at the same island before Memory ran off to distract Time.
"Hhhh," Time grunted, the world shaking with his weakening body. He had to drag his head up as he waved his hands again. With a piercing thunder, the five chained clocks and its accompanying thunder cloud teleported above him.
The clocks spun in reverse. The void was suddenly alive with wind. It swirled around Time and the golden specks that surrounded him, the grass and leaves forced to be tugged with it.
Memory stiffened as he felt Time freeze him, but not enough to freeze his consciousness. He caught sight of the wind knocking over the black shulker box, tumbling out its shadow stone content.
The rest of the world is moving forward, he realized. Time barely has enough energy, so he's only reversing me, himself, and Sabre back in time.
One of the clocks above snapped out of its chains and met Time below. It morphed into a screen that showed Sabre, floating in a dark brown space.
Time snapped his gaze and his hand at the screen. Sabre began to flail around and spaz out.
Memory grunted, focusing on both Time and the screen. He had to wait. Once Sabre was reversed in time and returned back to the server he was banned from, Memory would be free to move and strike Time down.
Time panted. His arms shriveled up. The sleeves of his trench coat limped off, revealing the wrinkles that now carved his frail, elderly arms. When Time gasped, his arms regrew their youth and muscle. Time grunted and willed his powers to keep going. He kept aging forward and backwards, his exhales turning him old and his inhales reverting him.
The screen suddenly blinked, replacing the brown nothingness with the familiar Memory Dimension. Sabre had been returned.
Time flicked his wrinkled hand, wheezing in a breath. On the screen, Sabre walked around backwards until a white rectangle appeared. Sabre approached it and dragged information across it.
Time was trying to reverse Sabre far enough to reverse the banning process.
That's enough! Memory wanted to roar out. He struggled to unfreeze himself, but it only seemed like the touch of a non-Steve would break him out.
Sabre continued to drag information across the screen.
Then he paused. Sabre moved forward in time, redoing the banning process.
Memory fell face-first into the grass, and Time collapsed with him. Memory looked up with a deathly glare and teleported behind Time, who was unconscious but reverted back to his normal physical state.
"Finally." Memory reached down to grab Time, but then the clock machine above beamed light at them. Memory hissed and stumbled back. The light beam dragged Time off the ground and to the center of the machine. All the clocks clicked in unison and the entire machine blinked away. The dark storm cloud dissolved, and the star flowers dominated the sky again.
"Damn it!" Memory hissed. But he knew that Time retreated back to the Time Dimension, and couldn't return until he was fully rested.
At least he won't be an obstacle anymore.
Memory teleported back to the island with the obsidian platform. He saw Sabre on the platform, finishing the banning process that Time barely undid. Sabre was still grayscale, oozing Galaxy goop from his head. Once he finished banning himself, he stood still again.
A few white flowers were scattered across the island. Memory inspected them and noticed their dim glows, wondering where in the world they came from.
Then he remembered that the damage he and Time did in those other worlds was undone, but everything else in the Memory Dimension continued moving forward in time. The angy mob of fans still chased Illusion and that wasn't reversed. Alex must had defeated the mob, forcing them to revert back to their flower form.
Memory tensed. Wait, where was Alex? Besides Sabre and himself, the only other entities on this island were the same passive Sky People who didn't chase after Illusion, still vibing in one corner of the island. But wasn't Alex supposed to be here? Wasn't she supposed to arrive at the island and lament how she was too late to save Sabre?
Alex wasn't reversed in time, Memory reminded himself. But he still had no idea where she was. He vaguely remembered something about Alex intervening in that sword fight and how Time sent her on a special mission to...
Memory couldn't figure it out. But his heart raced faster. Alex could come back who knows when. And Sabre was just right there. With no Time or Alex to stop him, he could finally get this done.
Memory despawned the vibing entities and rushed towards Sabre. He took the red flower crown out of his inventory. "Second try."
He just had to put on the flowers, deliver the memories back to Void, and then order Sabre to leave the server so that Void could take over. And it better stay like that.
Memory carefully placed the crown on Sabre, sending a silent command. The flowers flickered and reduced into buds. Sabre flinched a bit as the green leaves melted into the player's scalp.
Memory suddenly couldn't breathe. His entire body became a fleeting heartbeat. The end was so close. So close, that the words immediately spilled out of him. "Sabre, get ready to Disconnect."
For the final time...
Sabre summoned the "Disconnect" button and hovered his hand over it.
Memory gulped, his heart becoming lighter despite how heavy it also felt. He withdrew the three glitching flowers – all three memories that helped him craft this entire plan – and gave them to the Sabre abomination. "...So you can know it was me who saved you...G-goodbye – "
A sudden burst of energy exploded from Sabre.
"AHH!" Memory was knocked off the platform and tumbled through the grass. He wobbled up and gawked at Sabre, who hovered above the platform. The one exposed golden eye was furrowed in concentration. The flower crown was glitching between two forms: its melted fused form and its solid form.
"What?!" Memory teleported onto the platform and raced towards Sabre. But before he could reach him, Sabre flew to the platform edge farthest from Memory. Sabre stumbled from his landing and fell forward. His grayscale chicken onesie and the rest of his appearance melted away, revealing a completely different person, his azure white hair shielding his faced from view.
Memory gasped, "Illusion?!"
Illusion got up and pushed his hair out of his face. He snatched the crown off his head while looking at Memory. "...Thanks for the crown."
Memory gaped. "Wait, that's all you have to say?!"
The younger Steve leapt into the air. He stretched his free hand out with a "stop" gesture as he hovered over above his cousin. "Now, Memory, please hear me out –"
"What?!" Memory marched towards him, unsure if he should be furious or horrified. "No! You can't just brush off what just happened! I-I nearly put Void's memories into you! Are you alright?!"
"We can talk about that later! I need to show you something –"
"Are you serious?!" Memory scolded. "I can't believe you did that! If-if I knew you were disguised as Sabre, I would had never given you that crown! How could you endanger yourself?!"
Illusion scowled. "You're a hypocrite. Why don't you first explain why it's ok for you to put yourself in danger?"
Memory stepped back. He scanned Illusion from top to bottom to confirm if it was really him, and if his words were for real.
Memory balled his hands into fists and muttered a curse. He couldn't believe he had been so foolish, just handing Void's memories right to Illusion. He didn't even sense Illusion's presence. He must had disguised his family aura when he shapeshifted into the Shadow Stone-Sabre-Galaxy abomination.
Memory shot his hand at the crown and concentrated. The crown turned into solid red, warped its shape, and grew in size.
Illusion quickly waved a hand over the crown. "Noooo, no no no." A pink glaze encapsulated the red shape, which shrank and reverted back to the crown.
Memory gave a frustrated sigh. "Where did you put Sabre?"
"I accept your apology for unleashing Sabre's fans on me," Illusion added saltily.
Memory twitched his eye. "...I'm...I'm sorry. I'm sorry I can't word it into anything that sounds genuine, but can I really word my apology after doing something so bizarre to you?"
"It was bizarre," Illusion said, still salty. "Seriously, that has to be the wildest off-screen thing that I have ever experienced. Even wilder than when you taught me all the forbidden words off-screen."
What's "off-screen?" He keeps using that word but never telling me what it means, Memory wondered before he shoved that thought away. "I'm done humoring you and your extreme ideas. Where is Sabre?"
"Classified."
Memory gave an irritated sigh, but he had a good idea of where Sabre was. Illusion probably put Sabre somewhere, to a place where Memory couldn't access or mind control him. But where was that place? Sabre couldn't be in a pocket dimension if Illusion no longer had Alex's powers.
"Can you please just forget about Sabre for two seconds and just listen to what I have to say?!" Illusion pleaded.
Memory didn't actually hear that. He was facing Illusion, but the mask concealed that he was busy focusing on the starry sky. Behind his back, he spread his hand out. If he couldn't summon Void, he could summon other entities, like the angy mob. They would be the easiest way to force Illusion to hand the crown over. He tried to connect to their energy, but the only connection he got was a faint one. The entities of Sabre's fans were still recovering from Alex and couldn't be summoned.
He grumbled again before briefly looking back at Illusion. "So, you have Void's memories. What will you do next?"
Illusion circled around Memory as he inspected the flower crown. "Well, there's a ton of things I can do with this. I can cover it with a permanent illusion to get rid of Void and his memories once and for all. I could create a twisted version of these memories. Or maybe I can put an illusion on you and mind control you into destroying your father's own memories. Even without Alex's powers, it would be easy to do those things. But...I can't. I can't bring myself to do them so..." Illusion lowered the flower crown. "...I don't know what I'm gonna do."
Memory glimpsed at where the arrow injury was treated on Illusion's leg. He saw the bandages and his heart felt heavy. He briefly looked down in shame. "I...don't know what to do either."
But he still had to get that flower crown. Even though Illusion was preventing him from summoning Void and the Sky People were too exhausted to be summoned, he still had plenty of hostile entities who could snatch the crown. He could summon a Yellow Steve entity to quickly steal it, have a Time Steve entity immobilize him, or get a villain Steve to teleport him into a prison and get rid of his inventory. But...he couldn't imprison Illusion. After all those times Illusion had sympathized him instead of mock him for his claustrophobia, he couldn't bring himself to do it. Just the thought of Illusion being confined by redstone or behind bars made him feel sick.
Illusion eventually landed, still holding on the flower crown. "Time told this to me, and I'll be saying it to you now: it's not too late to change your mind about this."
Memory's mask concealed his dumbfounded expression as he cleared his throat. "No matter what you suggest...I just...can't. I have to finish this mission for him."
Illusion sighed. "I know this mission matters so much to you, but have you really wondered about it? Why does his approval mean so much to you? I hope you know that Void's words don't defy your self-worth." Illusion's multicolored eyes suddenly wavered with a teary glaze. "You...already mean so much to me."
Memory flinched, his face suddenly warm.
Illusion brought out the flower crown, but still kept himself a swipe-distance away from Memory. "You know how I feel about you, but are you sure you really know what Void feels about you?" He looked down at the crown. "While I was wearing this, I used my analytical powers and I looked through every memory Void has."
Memory gasped. "How could you..."
"So you do have some moral code. You don't want to hurt your family."
Of course I don't...The mental image of attacking Illusion still gave him dread, as if the act had already happened and the guilt was real.
"You and I both know that you can't take or manipulate Void's memories, at least when he has his powers," Illusion continued. "But since he's in Galaxy's mind and theoretically powerless, you were able to take them. But you never thought about viewing them because it felt wrong to you." Illusion looked back up, a pained, pitiful expression in his multicolored eyes. "Please, Memory, let me do what I'm best at: help you make sense of this all. Just look at the memories. There's something you really have to see from Void's memories."
Memory tensed. "I refuse."
"I'll only give you the crown if you look at his memories!"
Memory eyed him suspiciously. "If you want me to see those memories, you'd have to give me that crown anyways. You mean to tell me that you went through all that trouble to trick me to handing you that crown...only for you to give it back to me in the end?"
Illusion stepped back awkwardly, suddenly flustered. "Uuummmm..."
Memory chuckled. Illusion was amusingly dumb at times, but he was touched that Illusion had so much faith in him. "Still struggle to plan ahead, huh? How can you be so sure that I won't run off with that crown instead of actually view those memories? And I thought you had trust issues."
Illusion stuttered in embarrassment. "Well, yeah...I do trust you! I-I got used to working in a team because of you. You did this to me!"
Memory scoffed. "That was my evil plan all along. Now you can't unhealthily stretch yourself thin anymore or take on unrealistic missions by yourself."
Illusion tried to pout, but his multi-colored eyes betrayed that he loved that joke.
Memory cleared his throat. "Well, at least we both agree that family is important, and that neither of us want Void back in this world."
Illusion eyed him suspiciously.
Memory took in a careful breath before continuing. "You can make a copy of the memories, correct?"
"I analyzed all of his memories. Of course I can easily duplicate them."
"How about you create a copy of Void's memories to give to Sabre? That way, Void can be freed and out of this world, and I won't forget about him. And since my mind will be in one piece and this world will be freed from Void...we can spend the rest of our lives together..."
The last part made Illusion perk up. There was some joy and wonder in those multicolored eyes that matched Memory's own hopes. But Illusion shook his head and gave a stern expression. "Listen, I know we both want to trust each other and get what we want, but after everything you've done, you just can't act like you can negotiate or barter a fair compromise, as if universes are just coins."
Memory paused, unable to say anything in response to that.
Something faintly buzzed. Illusion jolted when he realized that the crown he was holding was glitching like crazy. He jumped back and held the crown as far away from him as possible. The crown gave a fire-like cackle as cyan stars burst out of the blood-red flowers.
Memory glared at Illusion. "You said you couldn't bring yourself to manipulate the crown."
Illusion shot a terrified look. "I-I'm not doing this, I swear! I want it to do nothing!" He brushed his hand over it. Its pink glaze became stronger, but more cyan stars sparked out, cracking the illusion. "Hey, quit it, you stupid flowers! Ah!" The flower flared red, and Illusion cried out and dropped it like a burning coal. Memory jumped back with sudden nervousness and confusion.
Illusion ran behind him. "G-get back!"
"What did you do?!" Memory panicked with him.
"I just said I don't know!"
The crown continued to send out cackling sparks. It jumped around like the rumbling cover of a steaming teapot. Although it was going it loops, the crown was slowly edging towards the non-platform side of the island.
Memory gasped. "It's trying to get back to its owner!"
If it was trying to get back to Galaxy Steve, then that meant he and Sabre were not that far away.
Memory snatched the crown. Illusion screamed at him to drop it. The glitches felt like fiery thorns, but Memory gulped down his yelp of pain and sensed the flowers' energy and where it was heading. Soon, his eyes traced a gut feeling and faced the grassy open space of the island. He leapt of the platform and tucked the flower crown into his inventory, but the glitches still pained him. He withdrew some cobblestone and a stick to craft a lever. He targeted the right block, placed down the lever, and flicked it.
A muffled click sounded and the grassy area split into two, revealing a 5x5 chamber of cobblestone below.
Inside the chamber was the Shadow-Galaxy-Sabre abomination. The real one.
Sabre just walked into a wall, which knocked him back. Sabre continued to wobble and trip around as if he forgot how to use his body. He regained his balance and wafted his hand forward, spawning the "Disconnect" button. He hurled forward with a reached out hand, but missed the "Disconnect" button and ran into the wall again. The button despawned as soon as he fell back.
Illusion ran up and joined Memory at the edge of the chamber. He gave a nervous gulp when Memory glared at him. "Is this also not intentional?"
"Ok, the flower crown, I don't know what's going on with it, I promise! But..." Illusion looked at Sabre shamefully. "...Yes...this is my doing."
"While we were talking, you've been secretly trying to ban Sabre from the server..." Illusion must had been using his illusion powers to overpower Memory's mind control on Sabre. It must had been a tough process since he could barely control Sabre's movement.
Illusion glared back at him. "Hey, you're being hypocritical if you're being upset at me for distracting you! You did the same thing with Time!"
Memory jumped back. "You knew that I distracted Time to drain him of his powers. Let me guess, you read my mind for that?"
Illusion gasped and all of his saltiness evaporated.
Memory laughed to cover how betrayed he felt. "You want to ban Sabre again to prevent me from finishing my mission, knowing that the only way to bring Sabre back is to wait for Time to rest enough to undo it all again. Well, unfortunately, that won't work!"
Memory dropped down and landed into the chamber with a fierce thud. He marched towards Sabre, but Illusion leapt between them and opened his arms up, creating a pink dome that protected him and Sabre.
Memory fumed, but his eyes immediately locked on Illusion's injured leg. But the burning and glitching crown thundered in his inventory, demanding that he must get to Sabre no matter the costs.
Illusion turned around, concentrating all of his attention on Sabre. He must be struggling to multitask between keeping this dome up and getting Sabre to leave the server before Memory reaches him.
Memory muttered and spread his hand out, summoning for a certain button from this dimension.
Illusion perked up as he commanded Sabre to get up again and summon the "Disconnect" button. "Come on, come on." Step by step, Sabre trudged towards the button without a stumble.
Memory tensed as he sent out energy and send it into the dimension. He heard lava gush and then a rectangular entity hovered above the chamber.
The minimize button.
"Now!" Illusion and Memory said at the same time.
The minimize button dropped down and broke through the chamber, hovering in front of the "Disconnect" button.
Sabre pressed the minimize button and vanished.
Illusion flinched. "What the?!"
The last of the pink dome disintegrated. Memory charged forward, pushed Illusion out of the way and roared, "STAY HERE!" and slammed the minimize button.
The Memory Dimension faded away and Memory returned to the carpeted office. The hologram of the Shadow-Galaxy-Sabre abomination stood next to the desk, where the real Sabre was still entranced at his computer.
Memory withdrew the flower crown. A frantic, sinister smile crawled beneath his mask. Finally. Finallyfinallyfinallyfinally.
He pounced at Sabre and slammed the flower crown on him. The crown seethed with a glow and the leaves immediately melted into Sabre's skull.
The real life Sabre suddenly shrieked. Still sitting in his chair, he kicked himself away from the desk and squeezed his head.
"HE'S BACK! HE'S – " Memory collapsed on his knees. His eyes swelled up with tears as his memories with Void were slowly vanishing. He tried to stabilize his voice, but his entire body and voice felt hijacked, only allowing him to hack out maddened laughs.
"S-Sabre – " His voice cut itself off to give a half-bawl/half-laugh. He forced himself to look at the man in front of him, the only man he could recognize. "Sabre, disconnect and – !"
"NO!"
Memory whirled around. Through his blurry vision, he spotted the familiar blue and pink colors. "Illusion?!"
The hologram of Illusion rushed forward and send a pink wave of energy at the glitching grayscale entity. The abomination was knocked back. He glitched and suddenly, dozens of pink flowers spawned around him.
The pink flowers swarmed towards Memory and knocked him back. He panicked as numbing glitches surrounded his head, but then reason and sense filled his mind and the pink flowers vanished. He shook his head and gasped, all the pain in his mind gone.
Memory pushed himself to a sitting position. His face turned cold when he saw a hologram of Illusion and...whatever was left of Sabre. Sabre trembled, glitching between the appearances of his shadow self, Void, and Galaxy.
Memory gasped. He recognized Void. Illusion copied Void's memories and gave the copies to me. I can remember him even after I restored his memories.
Sabre knelt down and Illusion marched closer, hovering his hand at Sabre as his unbound hair swayed with power. His eyes flared pink and cyan. Pink holographic chains sprouted from the floor and clamped around the Sabre amalgamation. The amalgamation snarled and emitted black energy as he tried to destroy the chains, but more chains sprouted to replace the destroyed ones.
"Can you just please stay dead?!" Illusion snapped.
Sabre broke into hysterical laughter as Void's face bulged out and consumed the player's face. "You can't stop me!" Sabre's and Void's voice said in sinister harmony. "A-a child who doesn't know what's he doing can't stop me!"
Illusion snarled. "I said, stay dead!" He flicked his hand and a ring of pink aura danced around it. It launched a pink puzzle piece at Sabre. The player screeched as Void's face shrunk back into oblivion, returning the player's terrified expression.
The player cackled as Void's face bulged out in a different area of Sabre's head. "Your efforts are cute. But all you're doing is wasting time. You'll accomplish nothing from this."
Illusion flinched with a sudden cry. His entire body glitched.
Memory paled. "Illusion!"
"Oh?" The Void entity's interest peaked. "So you're dealing with a fight inside your head as well? In different circumstances, I would sympathize. But I'll find it satisfying to see someone else be torn apart from the inside this time!"
Illusion arched his back and hissed. His entire body distorted for a moment. But to Memory, that moment was a hellish eternity.
"ILLUSION!" Memory teleported right behind Illusion and grabbed him.
"W-what?! Let me go!" The glitching Illusion thrashed, while still trying to shoot pink puzzle pieces at Void.
Void grunted and recovered from the puzzle piece that was shot at him. He flinched when his red eyes locked on Memory. Suddenly, every segment of Memory's heart surged with shock.
Void gawked for a moment before sneering. "Memory..."
Illusion gave another pained cry. Memory shook his head madly and blocked out Void. He tried to create a mental image of the Memory Dimension, but his vision suddenly turned pink. He panicked and tried to teleport himself and Illusion back home, but the office refused to fade away.
Sabre turned darker as the onesie morphed into a gray hoodie. Void cackled sinisterly, chanting, "Memory, Memory!" The flower crown steamed as its leaves morphed into green goop.
"Let me go!" Illusion shouted as he tried to control the pink puzzle pieces and chains.
"I'm taking you back to our world!" Memory pleaded. "We'll be safe there since Galaxy Steve won't exist in our world anymore!"
"And let Void return?! No way!"
"JUST LET IT HAPPEN!"
"WE CAN'T LEAVE!" Illusion gave a burst of pink magic and two new chains launched from the ground. They grabbed Illusion's ankles, pulled him out of Memory's grip, and firmly planted him on the ground. Illusion resumed his battle stance and launched more puzzle pieces at the abomination. When the pieces hit, the abomination howled and some parts of the gray hoodie disappeared.
Memory tried to lift up Illusion, but the chains kept Illusion's feet on the ground. "WHY?! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!" Memory's eyes swelled with tears as he begged. He could barely speak from the gulps of panicked breaths. "PLEASE, STOP THIS AND COME BACK HOME! LET THIS HAPPEN!"
"NEVER! I HAVE TO SAVE GALAXY AND SABRE! SAVE THIS W-WORLD! WORLD!" Illusion screamed and glitched again.
Memory yelped when the glitches shocked him and he was forced to release Illusion.
Illusion restablilized. Sweat beaded his face like a ready army and he seemed weaker than before, yet he kept his shaky arms raised to command the pink aura against the abomination. Distant thunder rolled and it seemed like Illusion's very core was threatening to burst out of his chest.
Memory paled at the weak, terrified sight of Illusion. He also glimpsed at the amalgamation that was becoming more like Void, despite all the pink puzzle pieces being pelted at him and the chains holding him down. Memory's heart became as acidic as his stomach. Energy and exhaustion became irrelevant as the only thing that spiked through his body was dread of what would happen if Illusion pushed himself even more. Was he close to creating a black hole from all the pressure?
Memory lost feelings to his legs, frozen in conflict. Suddenly, all of these repressed feelings of conflict and guilt were released. These feelings that he thought would disappear once his plan was complete, were actually demanding him to acknowledge them.
Yelling at him to do something.
He looked at the amalgamation again. The darkness of Void's complexion had hijacked even more of Sabre's face and half of the chicken onesie had transformed into the hoodie. The red flowers had become blobby buds, sinking into the green goopy rope around the entity's head.
Memory glimpsed at Illusion, who was on the brink of tears. The young Steve fell to his knees, trying to bear his face with a snarl instead of a sniff. His hands glitched.
Do something.
Do something!
Memory shut his eyes tight. He gave a huff as he spread a hand out, generating an arrow of light. He firmly grasped the arrow and opened his eyes with a new calculated glare.
He focused on the space around him...
...Then he teleported behind Void and stabbed the arrow into his head.
Void and Sabre yowled together. Memory bared his teeth and kept himself planted on the ground as he fiddled the arrow around. He pushed the arrow into the hood and underneath the goopy flower crown. With the arrow's glowing tip secured between the entity and the flower crown, Memory pushed down on the lower half of the arrow. He was using the glowing arrow like a lever. He was gonna pry the already embedded crown off of the entity's scalp.
"W-WHAT?!" The abomination shrieked in pain. He whirled his head around, but Memory moved the arrow-lever and himself with the head, not losing his grip and refusing to let go.
The abomination panicked and clung to the flower crown's sides. The back of the crown was already peeling off. The strands of merged skin and goop stretched and stretched until some finally snapped. But as the crown was lifted more, more goopy strands of fused skin and plant revealed themselves.
The amalgamation panicked. "No! No! Stop it! Who's doing this?!"
Memory grimaced but forced the emotion down. He quickly darted his gaze to Illusion. The younger Steve got up and gawked at Memory. He had stopped glitching, and that filled Memory with glee.
"Keep holding him back!" Memory ordered.
Illusion shook away his dumbfounded look and gave a determined nod. He commanded new pink chains to grab Void's hands and yank them off his head. Without Void trying to push the crown down, Memory was able to peel off the crown faster.
"No! I won't lose to a mere child!" Void snapped and broke out of the chains, but Illusion spawned more to replace them. Being more Void than Sabre, the abomination now had access to Void's destructive power, that Void nearly only had to shake the chains a few times to break free. Illusion worked hard to replace them, but he was panicking.
"You can do it!" Memory cheered. "I believe in you!"
Illusion nervously nodded and eventually was able to flick more chains with less stress.
Memory peeled off the back half of the flower crown. He gave a signal to Illusion, then he and his cousin circled around Void. Now in front of Void, Memory stabbed the arrow into him again to pry off the front half. Illusion quickly spawned a pink puzzle piece to hold the back half of the crown in the air and prevent it from remerging to the head. Then Illusion continued adding more chains to Void's arms.
"Ah!" Void snarled at the enemy in front of him but gawked when he realized that it was Memory.
Memory looked away with a grimace.
Void snarled, "You...You...you little indecisive fool! How could you?! I thought you wouldn't be dumb enough to make the wrong decision and side with that child! You promised me that – "
"SHUT THE HELL UP!" Illusion slammed Void's head with a larger puzzle piece.
Memory's vision blurred with tears. He tried not to see that warped face of his father and focus instead on the flower crown. That was how he realized something awful. The goopy crown only had five red speckles left. Almost all of the flowers were gone. Even if the crown was successfully removed, almost all of Void's memory were already implanted into the entity, meaning he could still take over Galaxy and Sabre...
Memory glanced desperately at Illusion. "Can you cover his memories with an illusion?!"
"That's what I've been doing all this time!" Illusion snapped.
"I'd appreciate it if you can do it again!"
"I will! Just give me a moment and – " Illusion clamped his mouth in sudden concentration when Void freed his entire left arm from the chains. Illusion had to summon more chains to trap the arm again.
Memory silently cursed. Since Void was powerful again, he was immune to Memory's erasing powers and he couldn't retake those memories. He knew that if he focused on distracting Void, it would give Illusion enough time to cover the memories with an illusion, but how could he reprimand his father? The fact that he was even hesitating made him feel worse, when he knew every indecisive second meant Void's return was closer. If only he could freeze time and –
Memory perked up and dropped the arrow.
"What are you doing?!" Illusion cried as Void broke his left arm free again.
"I have an idea!" Memory stepped back and generated in each hand a small arrow of light.
The mental image of the Memory Dimension was crystal clear. Along with the image of the old tree and the clock-shape pool, which thundered to life. Refusing to let that mental image die, Memory brought the two small arrows to his mask. The arrows suddenly turn golden. The two arrows met their fletchings at the center of his mask and merged into one. One of the arrows shortened in length, while the other arrow began to spin around.
Memory brought his hand out and shouted, "Reverse!"
Void suddenly froze from trying to break his right arm free. Then he thrashed around, breaking free from all of his chains, but could do nothing but spit out things in reverse.
"Woah!" Illusion jumped back as the last of the chains broke. He looked at Memory, and his jaw dropped as he gave the most awestruck stare ever.
"Pry the crown off with your hands!" Memory quickly commanded. The golden arrows of his holographic clock mask whirled around faster. Through the gold flickers, he channeled more energy at the thrashing Void and watched as the green goopy crown reformed its red speckles.
Illusion shook his head and realized what he was supposed to do. Holograms of pink puzzle pieces formed near the ground and Illusion used them as a stepping stool to become slightly taller than Void. He covered his hand with a pink holographic glove and wrinkled his face with disgust as he grabbed the freed half of the crown. "Looks like this is your turn to have a glow up!"
The red blobs sprouted back into more detailed, formed flowers. The process of Void regaining his memories was being reversed. Memory felt all of these emotions lift off his chest and he allowed a laugh of disbelief, and Illusion laughed with him. And the enemy could do nothing but spaz out in reverse.
As the green goop formed back into leaves, a splitting headache pierced through Memory. "AH!" He cringed and he saw his arrows freeze in front of his eyes. His original spiral mask suddenly felt damp with a nosebleed pressed against it. But he hissed out, "Reverse!" and straightened up, refusing to lose his focus.
The abomination's outfit morphed back into a chicken onesie. His expression morphed between cocky and terrified until Void's face sunk into the grayscale flesh and didn't reemerge.
Just a few more seconds and...
The flower crown reverted back to its original state and unfused from the amalgamation's scalp.
"Freeze!"
The entity, who had fully reverted back to the grayscale Galaxy Sabre, froze in place. Illusion yanked off the flower crown. "Finally!"
Memory perked up. His transformed mask hid the widest grin he had ever made.
Illusion replaced his victorious expression with a wrathful one as he summoned two large puzzle pieces that were twice the size of his entire body.
Memory flinched. He was so focused on actually making this thing work, that he didn't wonder what would happen to this amalgamation afterwards. "Wait, what are you – ?!'
Illusion brought his hands together with a clap. The pink puzzle pieces charged at the amalgamation and squeezed him. The amalgamation screeched and glowed pink, becoming indistinguishable from the puzzle pieces. He and the pieces melted together into one dense shape. The shape bled purple as corrupted particles seeped through its pores.
There was a flash of light and boom!
Word count: 6338