Content warning: anxiety attack/mental breakdown, overwhelmed senses

Time returned to Galaxy's bedroom. He had a cheerful smile, but it seemed forced. He took out a white potion from his inventory. "The potion is ready, Memory. Once you drink it, all the Shadow Stone in your system will disappear in a few minutes! Then you're ready to save Illusion!"

Memory couldn't help but laugh. "Save? I've never had a mission before where 'save' was the best word to describe it."

Time handed him the potion. "Well, you are going to save someone who matters so much to me."

Memory fixed his gaze on the potion, its chill biting his gloved hands. He was evil, and he was about to drink a potion that would eradicate the evil qualities of the Shadow Stone. He felt like he was in foreign territory, yet he felt a bit of pride. He helped Time make this potion.

And it wasn't the first time they had done extraordinary stuff together. He remembered when they accidentally threw a potion of slumber at Elemental, and how they had to work together to carry him to bed. He remembered when he was super nervous about a presentation, and Time offered to present it with him. He remembered when Time offered to play truth-or-dare with him and help to build his home.

Memory then realized that Time had always cared about him. Time was never selfish. He made up that lie to make sense of the world Void navigated him through and to blame someone for what happened to Elemental.

"Thank you," Memory said, still looking at the potion. "I mean it. You've done so much for me, now and back then. I've taken you for granted, haven't I?"

Time smiled. "I know we didn't have the best past. I just hope that's left in the past and we can move forward together."

Memory turned the potion in his hands. "Can we do this more often?"

"Brewing potions? Sure!"

Memory couldn't believe he missed generations of what could had been a fantastic friendship. "Heh, maybe when I ran away, I should had just banished myself into the timeline to reunite with you. We would have had plenty of time to spend together."

Time shuddered. "It would had been nice to have some company in a place like that." He cleared his throat and restored his cheerful expression. "You know, I was angry at you when we fought, but in hindsight, our battle out of our world was the most fun I've had in years!"

Memory blinked dumbfoundedly. "What battle?"

Alex gawked at him. "You know, the battle! I was there! There were a bunch of illagers and – "

Time bonked Memory's head. "Sorry! This will make it easier to understand!"

"Ah!" Memory protested. Suddenly, events from an alternative timeline flashed through his eyes. He saw the peaceful island with animals, the spaceship and the astronaut with a monstrous fanged gut, and the illager army and the redstone-powered titan. "…OH, that battle. I suppose that was a bit fun."

Time laughed, resting his hands behind his head. "Yeah! It was fun to ride that redstone golem and pretend to be in a mecha."

"Mecha?" Memory repeated.

Alex raised an eyebrow. "Oh, like the comics?"

Time gasped. "Yes! You know what they are?!"

Alex looked fondly at Galaxy, brushing hair out of her sleeping friend's face. "Galaxy and I took a trip to this huge library dimension that had comic books, and we read of bunch of comics where heroes controlled big robots."

"Yeah, that's the mecha genre. I think those comics are called manga."

"Those words sound familiar. Galaxy really liked those comics. We had a fun time reading those books and doing the voices for each character. Galaxy said I was really good at voicing all the female and kid characters."

"Galaxy must had liked those mangas so much, because one day in Galaxy's mind, a stack of mangas just spawned in the imagination section of his head. I read a bunch of them with Illusion. I actually enjoyed them more than Illusion did." Time puffed his chest out with pride. "Because of that, I made it my life's dreams to one day man a mecha! I'm so glad I achieved that and can move onto achieving my next dream!"

"And what's your next life's dream?" Memory asked.

"…I want to man a mecha, but this time, I want, like, three of my friends to have their own mechas and be a team of heroes. And when we need to fight a bigger enemy, we just combine all of our machines into one super big, cool mecha."

Time had officially lost Memory.

Alex whispered to Memory, "It's a reoccurring gimmick in those comics. Imagine it like Steve fusion, but with machines."

Time looked off to the distance with a longing smile, stars of joy in his eyes. "I just want to be in a functional team of heroes for once, that could also man one strong mecha who can save the world in the most epic way possible."

"Wouldn't Steve fusion suffice?" Memory asked. "Why do you want to add mechas into the mix?"

Time was about to answer, until he gasped in pain. He painfully grabbed the glitching zinnia out of his inventory and dropped it to the floor. "Ah! What's happening to it?!"

Memory dove towards it and waved a hand over it. The zinnia unraveled into a bundle of tinier red flowers. Some flowers in the bundle were white and glitching. "Oh, those white glitching ones are Reality's memories. The memories he made outside of the server. Memories made outside of this server glitch for some reason."

Time sat next to Memory and the glitching flowers. "Oh, that was Illusion after he absorbed Galaxy, right? What was he trying to accomplish with that? And what's a server?"

Memory and Alex exchanged looks, silently debating on who should take on the challenge of explaining this.

"Umm, remember how we fought in those bizarre worlds?" Memory began. "Basically, those worlds are in the same level as our world, and above all those worlds is a bigger, more complex world where people like Sabre – actually, just look at this memory." He searched and plucked out a flower that held the memory of Illusion revealing the truth about the server.

Time backed away, horrified. "I don't want to look at his memories! That's an invasion of his privacy!"

"Looking at his memory is the only way to understand, kinda."

"Yeeeaaaah," Alex sheepishly added. "Just look at it. We won't tell anyone."

Time narrowed his eyes at the flower. He reluctantly took it and looked at the memory it held. "…Ok, you're right." He returned the flower to Memory with a bewildered expression. "It is hard to understand. Wow, is Sabre really like that?"

Oh, if you only knew. Learning that Sabre had an account that made him immune to my powers was the tip of the iceberg, Memory wanted to say, but he kept silent.

Alex said, "I feel bad for Illusion. I know he returned to the server really upset, but there were so many things happening that I didn't think about seeing if he was ok."

Time sighed. "I've been there for him his entire life. I tried to lead him to a bright path, but I wasn't the right mentor to prepare him for whatever he was forced to face."

Memory dipped his head. "That makes three of us who messed up. I'm just glad I was there for him to comfort him when he returned. That was the first time I've ever seen him so…vulnerable. It was crazy that I had to ensure him that he was still alive."

Time shuddered. "Did leaving the server really scare him that much?"

Alex looked confused. "We all went outside of the world thanks to Memory, so I'm not sure what exactly terrified Reality."

"We didn't see what he saw," Memory defended. "With the Memory Dimension, we were able to skip going through the Menu, and that was what terrified Reality. I've only seen it through Sabre's perspective and through Reality's stories."

"What's so scary about the Menu?"

"I'm not sure. Maybe it makes you unable to see or move once you enter it. The Menu nearly killed Reality, and Reality said that it was luck that he survived."

"What?!" Time gasped.

Memory nodded. "His exact words. He kept saying how he could barely move and it was only luck that made him move last minute, and he felt…" He leaned back, pondering more carefully. "He said that the luck felt like…a familiar force."

"How familiar?" Time asked.

"Like there was someone talking to him?"

The three exchanged glances, in silent, mutual agreement that they were all clueless. They had experienced the outside world. They had seen other people, some were able to interact with them, and others didn't notice them. But how could someone be in a Menu, if that place was apparently so dangerous to live in?

"Umm, Memory?" Alex asked, shifting her weight from one foot to another. "You're the bad guy out of all three of us, so you're probably the most comfortable with this idea: what if we look into Reality's memories to see what he saw?"

Memory chewed on those words. He wondered if it was worth it to see the memory. Was it right to see what traumatized his friend just for curiosity's sake? He remembered how reluctant Reality was to answer questions about what he saw. It would be terrible to look at his memories without his permission.

Time also seemed to be debating about it too, nervously staring at the glitching flower. "As immoral as it is, I want to learn more. I want to make sense of this situation, so I can be there for him in the future and help him make sense of his own life."

Memory sighed. "…I want to know who or what saved Illusion and brought him back home to us."

Memory teleported all three of them back to the Memory Dimension. Alex and Time stepped back as Memory commanded the flower to transform. The flower turned into a white silhouette of Reality before glitching and transforming into a flat 5x8 panel in the sky. The panel was dark.

"Finally!" The panel played Reality's triumphant voice. "Where am I? What is going on? I can't see anything. I can't move. Wait?" The panel revealed a dirt wall with text and images and gray buttons in front of it. "Is this the Menu I've learned about?"

Memory, Time, and Alex attentively watched the panel. They watched Reality note all of his observations. Soon, a white arrow hovered into the scene.

"What's that?" Alex whispered.

"A cursor," Memory answered, knowing from his studies about Sabre's memories. "It's how Sabre navigates the Menu." But Reality had the account now. Was Reality controlling that cursor with his mind?

"What is this?" Reality mumbled. "Another server? Hypixel? The number…37,164. Is that how many people are on it?"

That's more than the initial 35,000 people who saw Sabre's videos, Memory thought with a grimace.

Reality let out a stressed out exhale. "This isn't anything like I expected!"

The three watched Reality explored the Menu. They saw him go to single player and create a new world (Alex was especially shocked to see how quickly he made a new, natural world). They saw Reality conflicted about clicking the "Quit Game" button. Memory now considered himself lucky that the "Quit Game" button didn't kill him during his mission. He couldn't bear the thought of what would had happened if Reality hit that button.

Every now and then, the view glitched as Reality let out cries of agony. "I can't hold myself together!" Memory felt sick with him.

"Oh, Reality…" Time mumbled, bouncing on his heels nervously. "My poor brother…"

Reality returned to the menu and joined the server called Hypixel. Immediately, so many players of different colors, genders, races, and species swarmed him. Reality yelped and backed away. Some of the players eyed the nametag above Reality's head. "Oh my god, Sabre?! I'm such a huge fan! Rainbow's my favorite character!" "Can I get a screenshot with you, Sabre?" "What's with the goofy skin?"

Reality hyperventilated. Upon realizing that he could easily navigate out of the swarming crowd (players had the creepy ability to walk through each other), he dashed away, his view blurry with newly formed tears.

Those people must watch Sabre's videos. Memory's heart ached. 35,096 views. No, 100,000 views. Memory was so afraid of these people who watched them, and it turned out Reality met them in a different server. It was absurd, knowing that Reality and Memory were both terrified of the same group.

And he begged me to stop worrying about them. Suddenly, Illusion begging him to not erase the memories of the Sky People had much more weight, and it pained Memory to not realize it sooner.

Reality's view glitched more and more in Hypixel. What was even more mind-blowing than the number of players was the structures he was observing. They were enormous! It would take an army of Steves to construct this. The detail and size. Even the rumored building skills of the mythical Orange Steves couldn't compete to this!

"I can't! I can't! I don't – " Reality glitched again. "Sabre was right! I thought I understood enough. But I can't handle this! I can't handle wor- worlds!"

Even though they all knew he got back safely, all the three spectators anxiously watched, fearing the demise of this helpless, afraid explorer.

"I NEED TO GO BACK!" Reality fidgeted through the Menu, trying to return to the Steve Saga as his view glitched even more and more.

The cursor was trying to reach the text that said "Steve Saga" but then the view glitched again. The cursor froze in place.

"I-I CAN'T MOVE!" Reality panicked before exploding into cries of agony. The view glitched more and bits of black pieces started to piece through the Menu, partially blinding him. "I CAN'T FEEL ANYTHING."

Time cried out loud. "What's happening?!"

Memory held his breath. He made it back home. He made it back home, he reminded himself, shocked that he even had to. He'll come back to me. He said that luck would come in and save him…

Thunder roared from the panel. Reality's view was restored into a minimal glitchy effect. Reality's breathing calmed down. "W-what?"

Thunder again, but how could thunder exist in this skyless world?

"I'll help you." A deep voice whispered.

"W-who are you?! Get away from me! No one told me you would hear voices in this Menu!"

"Now's not the time for questions."

…Wait a minute. Memory's jaw dropped. I know that voice!

Reality's view was completely restored. "I…I can move again! I feel a lot better."

"Now's the time for you to return home. Go now. Seize the second chance that I never got in life."

Reality tried to nod his head, but his movement was still limited. "Th-thank you!" He eagerly clicked on the "Steve Saga" text. The panel glitched again and blacked out. It transformed back into a white flower.

"WHAT?!" Memory immediately locked eyes with Time, who had the same astonished expression he had.

Time's eyes were so wide that his silver monocle lost balance and fell. "Did you hear that?!" He cried. Memory nodded in stunned silence.

Alex seemed dazed in her attempt to join the conversation. "Wait, what are you guys talking about?!"

"That voice!" Time continued. "Memory, you don't think – "

Memory shook his head madly. "But that's impossible. He died! You and I both sensed him dying!"

"I know! But what if it really is him?!"

"WHO?!" Alex butted in.

Time scooped up the glitching flower. "I want to confirm what I just saw. I want to go into the timeline to get a bigger picture." He extended his hand to his friends. "Are any of you willing to come with me?"

Memory gulped. "I need answers. I'll come."

Alex sighed. "I guess I'll come, though I have no idea what you guys are looking for."

Time clenched the flower and lightning circled them. A flash of white.

Four walls and a ceiling of dirt (which were desaturated, as this was a flashback) surrounded Memory, Time, and Alex. They stood on an invisible floor.

Was there really four walls and a ceiling? Memory couldn't tell where the walls ended or met. This entire area lacked a sense of depth or perspective. He was too confused to feel claustrophobic.

"I CAN'T FEEL ANYTHING."

Memory turned to the sound of the voice. It was Reality. This time, he saw his body. He was standing stiffly upright, with only his face and mouth moving. He was looking up, presumably at the Menu only he – the account-holder – was able to see. He was glitching, slowly breaking into pieces.

Reality screamed again as he got torn apart more. Then there was a flash as thunder roared. His body was put back together, though he still glitched. Reality gave a perplexed, frightened expression. "W-what?"

Thunder again, and a ghostly, transparent entity formed behind him. "I'll help you."

Reality tensed up. His head fidgeted in a failed attempt to look around. "W-who are you?! Get away from me! No one told me you would hear voices in this menu!"

"Now's not the time for questions." The entity rested his hands – one red like lava and the other blue like ice – on Reality's shoulder. The hands glowed. Reality's body stopped glitching and relaxed a bit. "I…I can move again! I feel a lot better." Reality smiled, tearing up in relief.

"Now's the time for you to return home," the ghostly entity said, in his characteristically cryptic, but encouraging, way of words. "Go now. Seize the second chance that I never got in life."

A flash of light, and they all returned to the Memory Dimension.

Memory didn't register the ground and fell back. He let out rapid gasps, replaying that moment over and over again as tears streamed down. "El…Elemental…"

"He's alive…" Time whispered. The Steve trembled and tackled Alex with a hug, swinging her around in a circle. He kept crying, each shout louder and happier than the last. "He's alive! HE'S ALIVE! HE'S ALIVE! HE'S ALIVE!"

Alex giggled, happy but still confused. "Wait, was that Elemental? He's not dead!?"

"I can't believe it!" Memory got up, the tears still streaming.

"He's ALIVE!" Time charged at Memory to lock him into a hug and spin him. Memory yelped but hugged him back. He didn't know it was possible to express this much happiness until now.

Time's silver eyes flooded with tears. "I thought I lost him forever. He's been trapped in the Menu all along!"

"And he saved Reality!" Memory exclaimed once Time set him down. Reality was right. It WAS his family that saved him from the Menu!

"How did he even get there?!" Alex asked. "I think he teleported to another dimension to escape the explosion, but that dimension turned out to be the Menu. There is a way for Steves to leave the server without an account after all."

Time tensed, desperately looking at Alex for answers. "Is there a way to bring Steves back into the server without an account? We need to find out."

Bring Steves back? Memory summoned a glitching white forget-me-not and peered into it. It was Sabre's memories of leaving the server, rejoining the server, and merging with Galaxy. He also remembered the white fires surrounding his dimension.

He looked back at Time and Alex, red eyes gleaming with determination. "I know how we can bring Elemental back."

Time whirled around to him with wide eyes. "WHAT?!"

Memory gave a firm nod, eyes gleaming more. "I know how we can bring him back. I want to save him."

Word count: 3312

With this chapter, RRFF is back on hiatus.

Thank you guys so much for reading these chapters. I hope to bring RRFF back before the year ends, so I'll try to provide a status update around late November or early December (see my Wattpad and DeviantArt for the update).

I'll try to post in Memory's Meme Hour once a week during the hiatus!

Anyways, thank you guys again for reading! ;0; Take care and stay safe.