...And King has to watch his kid plummet to the ground.
It's as if his entire body is frozen in place. Like he's watching a tape play over and over again...a tape, a memory...whatever it is, he can't move.
And the tape involves watching Purple plummet almost four hundred feet to his death.
He can't move, run to catch him. He can't speak, or scream for someone to do something because his kid is about to die.
No.
He just stands there.
And has to watch his kid die.
Purple feels something, or someone, grab his arm.
He doesn't know who, or what, but his counterpart is unconscious and both of them were plummeting towards certain death.
He's grateful when Victim's mechanism gently sets them back on the ground.
His King snaps out of autopilot seeing him land on the ground, mostly unharmed. The alternate King grabs onto his Purple, who is still unconscious.
Purple doesn't really know what is going on around him.
He's there...but he isn't.
He's dazed and confused, and wondering what the hell just happened.
The alternate Purple was returned to normal, the Monolith tipped forward, and he fell-
Oh.
That's what happened.
He only snaps out of it when King's hands grab his shoulders.
"Purple!"
Purple looks up at King, frantically checking him over.
"Hey, Purple! Are you..."
Purple finally snaps out of it and tackles King into a tight hug.
"King!"
King recovers from the shock to return the embrace.
"You're okay, kid. You're okay..."
Purple hugs him tighter. "I missed you.."
King takes one of Purple's hands in his own, squeezing it tight. "You're not the only one, sweetheart. I'm so glad your alright."
Purple smiles, returning the squeeze.
King grabs Purple from Victim's grasp, gently setting him on the ground.
"Purple! Purple, wake up! Come on, love, wake up!"
Why isn't he waking up?!
He was just fine earlier!
What the hell happened?!
Purple's hand tightens around his own.
"Purple...?"
Please wake up.
Purple's eyes blink open for a brief second.
"Purple?"
"...King..?"
King smiles. "Hey, kid."
Purple doesn't know how he does it, but Victim finds a way to get all of the creatures detained and taken care of, and somehow reopens a portal to the alternate dimension.
Victim also assesses any injuries sustained during the entire battle. For Purple, it's not entirely problematic: a couple of bruises and scrapes from his battle with the meat snake and the battle inside the Monolith, including being thrown through a building, and a minor head injury for being thrown into a wall from the battle with the Harvester.
Not good, but holy hell, it could have been about fifty times worse.
"Hey, you got through the event alive!" King said, his arm around Purple's shoulders as they walked home.
"Uh huh."
"I'm just saying, you got through the entire ordeal alive, and got back to your dimension safe."
"Very aware of that."
King held him closer. "And your home."
Purple returned the smile. "Yeah...home."
And as Purple walked home with King, telling him about all of the crazy adventures he'd had in the other dimension, he remained blissfully unaware of the man watching them from his upstairs apartment window, his mind already formulating a plan.
I should probably mention here with how I set up the ending that this will lead into Made To Ruin.
The order of the fanfictions I have right now(They're all under the series Adventures In Stick City on AO3), this is the series in order:
1. To Heaven And Back
2. Shards of Silver
3. Thanatophobia
4. Made To Ruin
5. You Rewrote The Game(this was a Hamilton crossover)
6. Perfect Prime Target
I have two other fanfictions lined up for this series, which will be posted in the future.