Snatcher had always found teleportation to be one of the easiest ways of moving around his forest. It had been one of his many powers as a ghost, though he had had to eat a few dozen souls before he could use it; however, teleporting as a human, using the kid's alien technology, was very much different. First, it wasn't as "fast" as his own method, since he had the time to feel his body moving very quickly in an empty space, yet without the usual draft caused by the movement. Second… it was an extremely awful sensation, contrary to his own teleportation technique.
As soon as the transportation ended, his body violently hit the floor, leaving him lying down on something soft, eyes shut. His mind was hazy from the sudden shock while a wave of pain engulfed him. Why did he have to suffer so much? Hadn't he had enough already? With his injured hand and legs, it was-
The spirit stopped thinking immediately as a horrible thought came to his mind: he couldn't feel his legs anymore!
-"Snatcher!" The child's voice broke the silence and helped him to clear his fuzzy consciousness. Alarmed by his lack of sensations in his lower half, the shade slowly opened his eyes. A groan left his lips; he felt like someone was hammering his brain, again and again and again. His vision was blurry and the room was dark, yet he could still perceive the brat's silhouette next to him.
-"Snatcher, are you okay?" she asked again, in a much more anxious tone. Her loud voice intensified his headache and he raised his right hand to silence her.
-"Yeah, yeah, shut up, I'm still alive..." He managed to keep an "unfortunately" to himself, even if it would have been pretty funny to say, considering his own situation. However, his entire body froze as he caught sight of his hand. It was purple… Just like his old one, the one he used to have when he was dead.
Ignoring the sharp pain, he straightened up and took a better look at himself: he was no longer in his old human body! He lowered his head; no wonder he couldn't feel his legs anymore! He didn't have any at the moment! Just the old purple tail, like usual.
The spirit couldn't help but laugh at the thought: as if things had been usual lately! But, finally, he was back in his old spectral form.
-"Oh, thank God," he said, both groaning and sighing at the same time, more than relieved.
He tried to float again, moving his tail at the same time but stopped immediately when he felt something unpleasant. It… hurt.
"What the…?" he thought, confused. He tried to move his tail again, only to wince when the pain increased from the movement. Ghosts weren't supposed to feel pain! Yet, here he was, clenching his spectral teeth. What was happening? Next to him, the kid was watching him silently, probably oblivious to what was going on in his mind. But then, his vision cleared up.
They were in the child's spaceship, in the main room more precisely. The room was dark, only illuminated by a single screen. Now that he had regained his spectral body, he could see things perfectly, even in a poorly lit room. The ghost examined his surroundings: the floor was covered in shards, all coming from broken screens. When he first came into her spaceship (back when he made her sign the death wish contracts), he had always seen them on, showing things in a language he couldn't understand. Now, they were all broken, except for one of them, which was the only thing preventing the room from being pitch-black. But the screens weren't the only damaged things. Most of the glass balls on the mezzanine were shattered as well, and the green ladder had fallen to the floor. The doors were off, not displaying the usual lit drawings. The instrument panel was damaged, too, and one of its pipes had detached from it, hanging on the side from where it was supposed to fit. All the indicator lights were off, just like the panel in itself, more generally. A burnt smell emanated from it, a clear indicator of it malfunctioning.
And regarding what was outside of the spaceship… it was only a pure black void, nothing like the space he had been able to see through the windowpane before. There were no more stars, no more visible planets… Just nothing. Snatcher couldn't help but feel intimidated by it.
-"Hey, kid," he started, still looking around them, "you threw a party here or what?"
The child snorted, while her face softened, leaving most of her worry behind:
-"Pff, no," she replied with a small laugh, before continuing with a more serious tone. "Well, it's because of the Time Rift. This one is much more powerful than the usual ones, and it's a little too powerful for my ship."
The ghost turned to the girl, staring at her with a perplexed look:
-"What do you mean 'it's too powerful'?"
-"Well…" Her eyes fell to the ground as a wince appeared on her face. It was enough to tell Snatcher that whatever she was going to say wouldn't be good for both of them.
-"Remember when I told you someone had used a Time Piece to create this pocket dimension? Well, it's not supposed to happen. There have been theories about that, back on my home planet, but no one had ever actually managed to create anything like this. My ship isn't made for that kind of situation." She pointed to the broken control panel and continued. "I was in space when it happened. I was able to enter the Void before the Rift closed itself, but not without breaking things in the process."
It was a little too complicated for the spirit to understand. While he could learn and recite entire law books, this was a bit too abstract for him. He had been stuck for years in his forest, far from any technologies other than what he had seen from his victims. It was no wonder he had trouble understanding what she was saying, even though he could grasp the main ideas most of the time.
-"So…" he replied, gesturing to the window, "The Void? That's where we are?"
-"Yeah. It's a little hard to explain, but…" She was about to continue but interrupted herself as she seemed to realize something. "Wait, what about your hand?"
The ghost simply laughed at her:
-"Kiddo, I'm a ghost again. Spirits can't be hurt," he said, omitting an "only in very specific situations".
-"Are you sure?" The ghost didn't get the time to answer as she came closer and took his left hand in hers to examine it. In any other situation, Snatcher would have smacked her hands away, telling her that she must be dense to insist that much; however, as soon as the child touched his hand, a pained cry escaped his ghostly lips:
-"Ouch! Ouch, ouch!" The brat lifted her head to look at him, surprised by his reaction. But the shade was even more shocked than she was.
Ghosts weren't supposed to feel pain. And that's when Snatcher realized that he had been able to feel the softness of the floor, to smell the burnt scent of the damaged control panel. He shouldn't have been able to. Dead people lost their senses of smell and touch. So, if he was back in his old body, why did he still feel them? Why did he feel pain in his non-existent legs and in his spectral hand? This didn't make any sense!
-"I thought ghosts didn't feel pain?" retorted the little girl with a cheeky smile.
-"Oh shut up, will you!" He took his hand back, inspecting it. Just like his human hand, there were red stripes, and his purple skin was bluer than usual. The shade had never seen anything like that, in both his life and afterlife. This wasn't good. Spirits weren't supposed to be affected by such injuries. Was his spectral body still linked to his human one? He couldn't see any other explanation, yet it didn't make much sense either. Why would his bodies be linked to each other? The ghost had no idea what to think at this point. Time travel had never been something he was good at and it was much worse when it came to space-related subjects.
-"For starters, why am I back in my old body? Aren't we still in the Time Rift?" he asked, frowning in confusion.
-"It's…" She grimaced, trying to look for words. "Let's take care of your hand first, I'll explain after that."
Snatcher scoffed at her :
-"Take care of my hand? Kid, I'm dead. What exactly do you want to cure?" His tone must have been a little too sarcastic to the hat-wearing brat, as she pressed his hand back into hers, causing the shade to freeze instantly, clenching his teeth not to let any sound come out. He glared at her, though it did little to intimidate her, as she just smiled innocently.
-"You brat…" he grumbled, before giving up, too tired of everything to fight back. "Okay, fine, let's take care of a hand that shouldn't need it!"
The kid smiled at him even more and let go of his left hand.
-"Great! Come with me to the kitchen!"
The ghost lowered his eyes to the broken ladder beside them. How was she going to get up there if there was nothing to-
He didn't get the time to finish that thought as the kid gathered speed and rushed forward. She jumped on the wall and caught the ledge of the mezzanine as if it was nothing. Right, she could do that. How could he have forgotten about her weird abilities? She sure was a strange kid, though he supposed he prefered that rather than a crying and useless one.
The little girl turned back to him, gesturing him to follow her:
-"What are you waiting for?"
The ghost simply rolled his eyes and let his body leave the ground, floating higher and higher. The pain intensified in the meantime, but he did his best to ignore it, let alone show it at all. He had had enough of people pitying him like the dumb prince he used to be. It didn't take him very long to join the kid on top of the mezzanine. She then opened the kitchen door and shifted on the side to let him enter. The room was dark and it was even messier than the last time he had been there. Usually, plates lied around, barely cleaned up. The sink was always full of dishes and the fridge wasn't even properly closed! But now… plates were shattered on the floor, the contents of all the kitchen cupboards were splattered everywhere, the paintings had all fallen to the floor, and the fridge was completely open. All the lights in the room were off, and the shade could see the broken glass of lamps on the floor. His own face was the only source of light in this pitch-black room.
-"I know you have a problem with cleaning, kiddo,"Snatcher remarked, "but it really seems like a hurricane hit your spaceship."
-"You're not very far from the truth, honestly," Hat Kid replied, smiling sheepishly. "When my ship entered the Void, it was pretty… intense. It shook everything up."
-"Again with that 'Void' thingy?"
-"I'll explain, I promise! Just…" She took his injured hand again, though much more gently than before. "Come here."
The hat-wearing brat led him to a wooden crate, one that was in the same place the last time he could remember. She let go of his hand once again, and ran to the sink, trying to open the tap. However, she facepalmed when no water came out of it.
-"Ugh, of course, no power, no water!" Her frustration made Snatcher smile; seeing that was the best thing happening in his day so far. Though, said frustration didn't linger long on her face, as she seemed to have an illumination. She clapped her hands together and started to look for something in the cupboards, throwing behind her whatever didn't correspond to what she was searching for. The ghost almost got hit, but quickly avoided the object that was thrown at him. He was about to complain about that but he was cut short as the kid brandished something proudly.
-"Ah-ha!"
It was a bottle of water. The ghost's confusion increased even more.
-"Uh… You know I don't need to drink or eat in that form, right?" he questionned, wondering if the child had gone even stupider in the last few minutes passed in his company. She ignored him and picked up something that was lying in one of the corners of the room: a saucepan. The proud look on her face intensified and she smiled even more as she fiercely put the pan on the crate. The shade was just staring at her, trying to understand what she was trying to do, in vain.
It was only when the girl filled the saucepan with water that she facepalmed herself once again, this time with both hands, groaning lengthily.
-"What now?" Snatcher couldn't help but feel more and more annoyed with the present situation. He crossed his arms, careful not to touch the injured part of his left hand.
The girl lowered her hands, looking at him with eyes suddenly full of inspiration.
-"Wait, do you still have your powers by any chance?" she asked.
-"Uh…" That was a very good question, one which he didn't know the answer yet. "What for?"
The little girl pointed to the saucepan filled with water.
-"If we want to cure your frostbite, or at least make it less painful for you, we have to put your hand in warm water. But since my spaceship has not much power left, I can't heat up the water. So… I was wondering if you could do that with your powers?"
That… did make sense. Or, at least it did in that extreme nonsense that was their whole situation. He shrugged; he could still try. Though, he couldn't help but feel a bit anxious; he could feel and smell things, even though he shouldn't be. What if he still didn't have his powers? He could float around like before, yes, but that didn't mean anything. At this point, it was hard to be surprised.
-"I guess?" he answered, unsure.
The kid took the saucepan and held it up for him to place his uninjured hand underneath. The shade closed his eyes and tried to produce a little flame. It was one of the easiest things he could do usually, so if he couldn't do that now… that meant he would truly be defenceless. He tried to focus as much as possible, searching for any source of power still left inside of him. Just when he was about to think there was none left, he felt something. There were still some traces inside. He felt his hand heating up and he reopened his eyes. The room was now illuminated by a purple flame, right between his hand and the saucepan. The kid was staring at it with admiration, before lifting her eyes to meet his.
-"You still have them!" the girl cried out. "That's amazing!"
The spirit scoffed, looking elsewhere. He wasn't used to be flattered, and he could feel a mix of unease and pride developing inside of him.
-"Pff, you find that amazing? Wait until we fight again, then you'll be impressed."
The little girl giggled, and soon, silence fell between them. A few minutes passed, during which the kid dipped the tip of her fingers in the water to check the temperature. After a while, she nodded and put the saucepan back on the crate, careful not to spill anything.
-"It shouldn't be too warm. Put your hand inside, I'll get paper and pencils in the meantime."
Paper and pencils? What for? As if it was the time for colouring! The hat-wearing kid seemed to see his confusion, however, and added:
-"It'll make things easier to understand. I mean, I could explain what's happening in details if you want, but it's going to be pretty complicated."
The ghost rolled his eyes, more than exasperated. Well, she was right; all that time travel stuff was too abstract for him to understand, so he supposed that her idea wasn't as stupid as he first thought.
-"Yeah, okay. Go fetch for your colouring book or whatever."
The girl then left the room, not before promising to be back as soon as she found them. The shade wondered if she would be able to find them, considering there was no light in the ship, except for that screen in the main room. He supposed there had to be some power left to charge it, but then again, it was something he wasn't familiar with.
Now left alone with his thoughts, he let his mind wander as his eyes examined the room once again. Even when it was less… messy, he couldn't help but wonder how the child had managed to survive until now. Every time he had come to her spaceship, he had always thought that if he wasn't the one to kill her, she would die on her own by her negligence; however, the kid was still very much alive at the moment. Snatcher guessed that she probably had more than one trick up her sleeve. He really hoped that it would be the same for the situation they were in, because they surely needed it. At least, the ghost was back in his spectral form, which made him feel much, much better. In his human body, everything was so foreign, so weird. Now, even if he still felt sensations, he felt much more comfortable. Another good thing was that he still didn't feel his "afterlife coldness". After his death, he had always felt cold. When people died, they kept feeling things related to the way they perished, and Snatcher was no exception. Though, at the moment, he felt nothing like that in particular, which was quite a relief. It only reminded him of that moment, spent alone for days, months, years, he didn't know.
He shook his head. There was no use in thinking about it now. He tried to focus on the warmness around his left hand. At least that was pleasant. He closed his eyes, letting his consciousness rest for a while. It was the first time in days that he could truly rest, and he would be lying if he said that it didn't feel good. He really needed this.
It continued for a few minutes and then he heard quick footsteps coming in his direction. Snatcher reopened his tired eyes. Well, on the bright side, he did get at least one chance to rest, which was still something.
The door opened abruptly, as the child ran into the room, joining Snatcher as fast as she came in. She was holding something in her arms and put it down violently next to the saucepan, making the crate shake by the sudden shock.
-"Now we can talk!" she said, out of breath, probably because she rushed to come back. She spread out what she had just brought: coloured pencils and white sheets of paper. She then picked something up from the floor, handing it to Snatcher: candles. He lit them up and the kid placed them next to the sheets
Snatcher let out a sarcastic laugh once everything was set up.
-"Well, finally. So, this 'Void' thing you keep talking about, what is it?" he asked, leaning against the crate, as the brat took a light blue pencil in her hand. She put the nib down and started to draw, forming a circle on the surface.
-"This is where we are," she said, writing something in the centre of the circle, in a language Snatcher was unable to read.
-"You know I can't read what you just wrote, right?" It took several seconds before the kid frowned, realizing her own mistake. She then handed him her pencil.
-"I can't write in your language. I can only speak it. Write the translation underneath, it says 'Time Rift'."
Snatcher stared at the pencil for a while, frowning as well before a scoff left his lips.
-"Kid, I'm left-handed," he retorted in a mocking laugh, nodding to his hand underwater as he spoke. The kid closed her eyes and took a deep breath, now frustrated again. The ghost grinned at her, enjoying her distress. However, his fun ended when the kid handed the pencil back to him, insisting:
-"Well, try and become right-handed for a few minutes, because I really can't write as you do."
Both glared at each other, as a dominance fight started again between them. Unfortunately, Snatcher was still too tired to resist, and eventually took the pencil in his right hand. The object felt foreign in his hand as he tried to find a good posture.
-"One day, I will kill you," he promised, mumbling in a low tone.
-"I know, I know, you're my BFF too," she simply answered, completely unaffected by his threatening promise.
The shade put his wrist down on the crate and tried to write what she had just told him, right under what she wrote earlier. The nib shook a bit too much as he did so, since the action as more than weird to him. He still managed to form the words and handed the pencil back to his contractor, not without showing his discontentment, which was fully ignored.
They repeated this process for a few minutes. The kid added a purple circle, which she labelled "Master Timeline", and wrote "Void" between the two circles. She then linked the two circles by two arrows, one yellow and one red, and added a crude drawing of a Time Piece next to them.
-"There!" said the little girl triumphantly.
The spirit only looked at the drawing with a frown on his face. He didn't understand a single thing in this diagram.
-"So… do you mind telling me what I'm looking at, exactly?" the shade requested, irate.
-"Do you mind being patient for once?" she retorted, more and more annoyed with him.
She sighed and placed the tip on her pink pencil in the "Master Timeline" circle and started to explain, in a much more serious tone:
-"This is where we were when it happened. It's the world as we know it, or at least the main reality we were in."
-"Wait, there are other realities?" asked the ghost in bewilderment.
-"It's a whole new subject, but yeah. It's not important for our situation, though. What matters is that someone used a Time Piece to create a new dimension," she continued, passing the pencil over the yellow arrow several times. "This dimension took the form of a Time Rift, the one you were teleported in. And the reason you're back as a ghost now is because we're not inside of it anymore. Following everything so far?"
The shade nodded, doing his best to understand what she was saying. He had to admit that the drawing did help him to grasp the explanations.
The hat-wearing girl spoke again, this time pointing the "Void" with the nib of the pencil:
-"Now, you have to imagine that those two dimensions, ours and this one, are parallel to each other. And you have this 'gap' between them, as if they were two different things, far, very far from each other. Okay?"
-"And that space in the middle is the 'Void'"?
-"Yep. It's like very big and very small at the same time. The laws of physics don't apply there, so you could make several steps and have moved forward by a mile, just like you could walk for hours for nothing. It's very different than what we're used to in our own dimension. But it's only theories, as the Void would kill anyone spending more than one second inside without protection."
Snatcher squinted. This was a bit too abstract for him, though he supposed that it wasn't too important at the moment.
-"The Void is the empty space between all Time Rifts and all realities. Usually, my ship uses… warps in the Void to enter Time Rifts, because it's way less risky that way. As I said, the laws of physics don't apply there, and my ship isn't made to resist those distortions very long, especially when they're too different from our laws. So it's better to find passages that are similar to our own reality, so my ship can handle the trip safely. But…" she gestured to the room with a sad look on her face. "As it was an emergency, I had to enter the Void as fast as possible. As you can see, it wasn't without consequences."
-"Wouldn't it have been better to wait for those 'warps' you told me about? I mean, if just entering this void-y place caused so many problems for your spaceship…"
-"Well…" Her eyes fell to the floor as she continued. "That would have been the smartest choice, yes. But time isn't consistent between all dimensions. One second can correspond to a year in another reality, and… we kind of have a countdown problem, too."
The spirit felt his fear coming back to life, as he saw the child avoiding his eyes, with a worried expression painted on her features.
-"What do you mean by 'countdown'?" he asked, already afraid of the answer.
The brat remained silent for a few seconds as if she was trying to gather the courage to speak again. Eventually, she pointed out the "Time Rift" circle once again.
-"There are two kinds of Time Rifts. Most of them are stable and don't cause too many problems. Others, not so much. This one is part of the unstable ones. And…"
-"And?"
She was definitely uncomfortable, and Snatcher's insistent question surely didn't help. But, when she found the courage to talk again, Snatcher felt his non-existent heart stop beating and sink into his chest:
-"All unstable Time Rifts are bound to implode after a few days, at least in best-case scenarios. This one is no exception. We have four to five days until the Time Rift collapses, taking everything inside it in the process. The thing is… I can't fix my ship fast enough. There's too much damage, and even if we're not killed by the Rift collapsing, the oxygen reserves of the ship won't hold very long after that. Though I guess it's more my problem than yours, since that… you're already dead, you know."
Snatcher's body froze as he tried to process everything, one fact after the other. A feeling of dread settled over him as he slowly realized what the kid was saying.
-"You mean… That we're stuck here no matter what?" he asked quietly, not wanting to believe that everything was vain from the start. It couldn't be!
And all that because his ex wanted to live in the past again?! She had just doomed all of them!
He was interrupted in his train of thoughts as the kid replied to his question:
-"There is another way out of here."
Those words were enough to catch the ghost's interest right away, as he straightened up immediately:
-"What is it?"
If he had thought the kid was uncomfortable before, now it was very much different. She didn't seem to know what to do with herself, as she hunched her shoulders, looking everywhere but where Snatcher was. She knew something and it was bad. Even the stupidest person in the world could see that. But what could be worse than either dying with a whole dimension or remain alone in a spaceship with a little girl's corpse for eternity? Though, the latter would be very appealing in any other situation.
-"What. Is. It?" he pressed, looming over a small body in a way he hoped threatening, even though he knew better.
She took a deep breath and replied quietly:
-"We have to find the Time Piece used to create this dimension. It's the only way to reverse everything. That's why I was searching for time anomalies in the first place; since it's not supposed to be here, anomalies tend to appear near it."
The ghost felt like this solution was nothing compared to what she had just told him before. That was all they had to do? Piece of cake! However, the look on her face told him there was much to this story than just finding the Time Piece. And, after thinking about it a little, he quickly understood why she was making such a face.
-"Oh God. It's in there, isn't it?" he asked with a groan.
The child nodded silently, understanding instantly that he was talking about Subcon Manor.
-"I knew it!" He hit the crate with his fist, pure rage engulfing him entirely: "It's her, I knew it could only be her!"
He clenched his spectral teeth, wanting nothing more than to kill something at the moment. He felt the water heating up around his hand, only to realize he was the one warming it up in the first place. Reluctantly, the spirit tried to calm himself; he didn't want to burn his own hand since it would probably be affected by it in his physical state. His own magic wouldn't burn him, but boiling water would.
The hat-wearing brat shook her head.
-"I don't think Vanessa is the one who used the Time Piece," she affirmed, yet in an unsure tone, probably more because she feared Snatcher's reaction to her claims.
Said reaction came almost instantly:
-"Are you kidding me?! Of course she did! She's the only person who could want to use it!"
-"No, what I mean is… I don't think she even has the knowledge to use it to create a whole dimension. No one on my planet did, and yet we do know how Time Pieces work."
The shade stopped moving. A feeling of anxiousness settled over him, as he started to understand what his contractor was implying. He stared at her, both bewildered and confused, as he rephrased her assumptions:
-"So you think… someone else is behind all of this?" he questioned, gesturing to everything around them. The little girl shook her head once again, and continued, in the most serious tone the ghost had heard coming from her:
-"I do think she is involved… but I also think she's not the mastermind in what's happening."