A/N: Well, hello there, my peeps. Not much to say since I'm getting so few reviews now. But I want to thank AppleSpongeCake again for keeping up the reviews. Though they're not as substantial as I'd like, I do appreciate them. I also appreciate the favorites and follows I'd been receiving, but, like I said, nothing here fuels me more than actually seeing words that you enjoy it and discussions and stuff. But yeah. Still worried about everyone, but break is drawing near for most of you, so, maybe the dearth in the reviews will reverse itself. Aaaand, as it turns out, I did have a lot to say. Heh.
But, without further ado, here's Chapter Twenty-Eight. I hope you enjoy it, and I especially hope you enjoy that I released it, like, one in the morning. XD

A Triangle in the Stars
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Dealing with a Traitor

The Henchmaniacs and Bill kept marching along the path, scanning the path, the cliffs above them, and the building in front of them a few yards away. But they didn't seem to be getting any closer to the Zodiac Temple. If anything, it seemed to be getting farther. It was strange. They could still see it looming in the distance, but it seemed to be taunting them. There was something about the Temple, anyway. It seemed sentient, even as it was breaking apart piece by piece, year by year.

Bill grew increasingly exasperated at this, but kept going along with the rest of them. They had to get in there and save Steven. They had to. The boy... he realized what he was about to think and his eye widened, cutting it off immediately. Apparently, he was still conflicted.

Pyronica started running. "Come on, guys, faster!" before that, though, there was a psychic message sent back.

They all nodded, ignoring the feel of the message, and started running as well. The Temple didn't seem to get any closer still. Bill was wondering why that was. Could it be that there was a traitor in their midst? was that why it wasn't letting them pass? he stopped all of a sudden, frowning. Kryptos, Hectorgon and Teeth stopped as well, eyebrow raised, and Xanthar and 8-Ball almost ran smack into them. It would have created a nasty domino effect. Pyronica stopped too to look back at them, "This isn't working. I think there's some kind of curse on the Temple, perhaps. We need to get in there some other way."

"Like maybe another teleportation?" Kryptos suggested, lips pursed.

Hectorgon finally spoke, in a slightly thick French accent, "Ah, yes. That seems like a good idea..."

Nobody seemed surprised. He wasn't that much of a talker anyway. Bill nodded, "Okay, let's try and do that!"

Pyronica chuckled. This was perfect. That pesky Keyhole would stop interfering with her plans... after he was left behind! and, also, if everyone forgot about him, which was likely—out of sight, out of mind. Bill glanced at her, but paid it no mind ultimately, and hooked arms with Teeth as well as Hectorgon. The red hexagon prepared the spell this time, as everyone else linked together. Pyronica was linked in as well. She waited impatiently, tapping her foot. And suddenly...

"Wait for me!" yelled a squeaky, familiar voice—the last thing that she wanted to hear right now. Keyhole soon appeared into view, bounding down the way they came towards them, panting. She mentally cursed.

And they indeed waited for him. Bill frowned, looking his way, "Where were you?"

Kryptos knew, frowning softly, but still kept a zipped lip.

Keyhole panted, "I got lost, I'm sorry—"

"No, you're not," Pyronica glared at him, causing him to fall silent.

The demon's eye narrowed. He growled a little, "Okay, what's going on here? explain quickly."

His tone was threatening. It held an implicit "or else". The first "or else" was obvious, what with Steven being held hostage by his adopted brother and the fact they were running out of time. The second one... well, he'd be the one to certainly deliver.

Kryptos's gaze alternated between the flame demon and the blue demon. He too wanted answers now. Hectorgon, morphing a free hand into existence, scratched at his mustache. Xanthar and 8-Ball and Teeth merely watched, rather nervous.

"He was the one who kept dropping rocks on us!" Pyronica said, unlinking from everyone and pointing at him.

"I-I..." he didn't agree or disagree, shaking too much to answer.

"Why...?" that tone grew even more deadly, as he glared at Keyhole. The rest who were unaware gasped,—Xanthar grumbled—not having expected this. Kryptos frowned, shaking himself with disapproval.

Keyhole began, "W-well it was an acci—"

"LIAR! you were trying to kill us!" Pyronica stomped her foot, rumbling the entire place. The Temple crumbled further, and this may have sped up the process by a year or two. Other than that, nothing happened. The Cluster Demons near the Temple jumped a bit, and looked around, twisted eyebrows raised. Pacifier felt this too, and frowned. She knew what it was. Bill and his friends. But she didn't follow her order. She simply pretended it was seismic activity and nothing more.

Bill's eye flashed a deep crimson. He unlinked from Hectorgon and Teeth, getting up in Keyhole's face practically, "H..how dare you? you... I trusted you! and you've made us lose so much time!"

The pure demons who were Bill's friends watched, far too terrified to intervene. They knew his wrath well. Keyhole shuddered, staring at Bill with terrified eyes, "I... I..."

There went his plans. Gone, just like that. He berated himself. How could he honestly have thought that he would kill Bill like this? he, a far weaker demon, end the life of the all-seeing eye of mischief? it was unthinkable.

"He needs to be punished for his actions!" Pyronica yelled, pointing at him, furious.

"You're right! Steven could be dead right now!" he shouted. Even now almost all his actions were driven by Steven. Steven, Steven, Steven. The little half-human. He scoffed at this, growling, and red flames enveloped his hands as he continued ferociously glaring at Keyhole, "How would you like to meet the same fate, TRAITOR?!"

Wide eyes were pretty much everyone's expression, except of course for the ones who had no eyes. Keyhole started running away from them. Pyronica immediately broke out into a run after him, catching up to him in seconds and grabbing him, holding up by his head. She brought him back triumphantly. "I must ask—why did you try to crush us? for yourself, or for Gabriel?" she glared at the squirming blue demon who was too utterly terrified to speak.

"It doesn't matter... you'll die either way..." Bill lowly, darkly stated, those flames getting higher and hotter each second as he prepared to unleash them. He fully intended to burn and shatter Keyhole, just like Steven's possible, supposed fate. But then something made him falter in his resolve. Would Steven want this?

It zinged across his mind suddenly, and his eye widened slowly. The answer would obviously be a no, considering the kid's track record.

But... why?

No puppet strings ever held him down. Why now?

He growled, furrowing his brow and holding up his hands now, the fire turning into an inferno. The monsters and demons behind him gasped, and Teeth did his best to turn away even though he was linked. He didn't want to watch. Kryptos, as well, for he closed his eye, and grew an arm and covered Xanthar's face at the large monster's rumbling request. The rest, however, kept staring, silent and wide-eyed.

Keyhole closed his eyes, trying not to cry. "I-I'll make up for it! I'll d-do whatever y-you want, p-please!" Keyhole pleaded, finally, really not wanting to die.

"It's too late for you, Keyhole. You should have thought about that before you tried to kill us," Pyronica hissed in his ear, glaring at him intensely, holding him up and away from her like a target for Bill to fire at.

Bill narrowed his eye, and then wordlessly threw the inferno at Keyhole. But... it missed with a swerve, hitting something else, which then overheated and imploded into several pieces, behind Pyronica and the blue monster. This wasn't something any of them expected, for they all broke out into surprised murmurs. Keyhole, especially. His mouth was wide open. The demon, ultimately, couldn't bring himself to do it, but his expression was still deadly and dark.

Pyronica frowned. "Hey, uh, Bill? you missed," she said, raising an eyebrow.

"I know..!" he almost yelled at her. He once again hated these feelings, whatever they were, and felt himself getting even angrier. Luckily for Keyhole, Bill was acting on his second thoughts, driven by Steven's influence. But he still hated it. And he'd never tell them that, so he just continued with, "He's not worth the trouble. We're wasting more time with this anyway. Let's get a move on."

He didn't even wait for her reply, hooking back up with Teeth and Hectorgon, still wearing that dangerous expression. The other monsters stopped murmuring, and Hectorgon once again prepared the spell. He'd lost it due to the shock. Keyhole was still utterly surprised, unable to utter a single word. Pyronica glared at him and spun around, then threw him as far as she could, him yelling all the way. Then she ran up after them. The one demon, 8-Ball, with a hand free grabbed her arm. The red hexagon clicked his tongue and they all started glowing. Bill was really hoping this worked. Maybe now that the traitor was gone, they probably wouldn't need to do this. But this would be much faster, and they'd already wasted so much time. Pyronica, bracing for this, closed her eye. And they all disappeared once more, and the teleportation took a little effort, but eventually, they made it, onto the roof of the Zodiac Temple. Bill let go and looked around, and then stared at the floor of said roof. It looked not much better than the building itself. But surprisingly it held their weight. He had to remember that the Gems built this place, so of course it'd be stronger than the average building, even when falling apart. He wiped the sweat off his forehead, and Hectorgon and Kryptos did the same thing, relieved that it worked.

Pacifier was making her way up to the roof, thinking it'd be a better place to keep an eye on things. She heard noises up there soon enough, and this made her rush up the stairs...

A/N: And here's Chapter Twenty-Eight. Took a surprising turn, didn't it? Ace had Pyronica and Keyhole. I'm the rest of them, including Hectorgon this time. I hope you enjoyed it. Please leave lengthy reviews. They'd make my day. Truly. Next chapter, the conclusion to this arc, will come next week or this coming Saturday. Be prepared~
Also, there's a reference or two in this chapter. I wonder if you can spot them. If you do, you get a cookie. Or two. So, yeah. I'll hopefully see ya then if you're not leaving any reviews, which I highly recommend. X3