"Come on!"
"Green, we've gotten miles away from the castle. Unless we're being tailed, we're fine."
"No! We need to go back! Purple's still there!"
"I hate saying this as much as we hate thinking about it, but someone's controlling Purple. We go back, and whoever's got Purple being used as a puppet will use him and fucking kill us!"
"King, you can just say that!"
"I don't want to, but it's true. I hate saying it as much as we hate thinking about it, but there's no way we're going to get Purple back without at least one death."
"He's overthrown the whole kingdom. If we thought Navy was bad, a brainwashed Purple can only mean something worse!"
"How?!"
"We've seen the damage people can do under the influence of brainwashing. We've all seen it, and if my memory is not mistaken, some of us have been through it. One wrong move, and nobody gets out of this realm alive."
"Your under the impression that THERE IS a way out of this realm!" Green shouted.
"There could be a way out!" Chosen shouted. "If Willow was able to open a way in on her own, there is a way for us to make a way out!"
"Sure there is!"
"I'm stating facts! We all saw Willow opening the portal to the Great Above. If we just figure out she did that, we might be able to find a way out!"
Second and the others ended up waiting another couple of hours once most of them regrouped, since Green and Yellow's groups still hadn't arrived by the time the vast majority had returned to the Nether.
Most of them were bored out of their minds, sitting in small groups and talking about what they'd do once everything had died back down to normal, but Second wandered around the castle throne room, pacing around the groups like a madman.
"You don't see us pacing like psychopaths in a mental asylum." Sapphire commented.
"Are your best friends missing?" Second snapped.
"Yes. But my point still stands."
"Shut up."
"I'm sure they'll get here soon," King reassured. "It might be a little harder to get the Ravager on our side, and Green didn't exactly bring reinforcements besides Purple last time."
"We're here!" Green chimed, walking into the thrown room with the others.
"Who the fuck are, like, half of those guys?" Copper asked, staring at the other three sticks.
Scarlet hesitated, half expecting the reaction she would get. "Mocha's friends."
Sapphire, Gold, and Copper jumped up, staring at the three behind Scarlet with anger.
"Hey, hey! Chill out, you guys!" Green shouted.
"Why should we?! Those assholes bullied Purple!" Gold shouted.
"They almost killed Sunny when we were kids!" Sapphire added.
"Not to mention Green almost ripped Mocha's nose off with a roller skate." Copper finished.
"To be fair, the fucker deserved it." Green justified.
"Yeah, and then we're all being questioned because you assaulted someone." Second deadpanned.
"It would've been justifiable."
"Moving forward!" Scarlet shouted. "They want to help us rescue Purple."
Various protests from the group.
"What?!"
"Absolutely not!"
"Why in hell would they want to help the person they made fun of for no apparent reason?!"
"They're gonna backstab us. I'm calling it."
"Hey, HEY!" Scarlet screamed, silencing the uproar. "They're not gonna backstab us, and they're very aware they fucked up when it comes to Purple. Just let them help, and they'll prove that they're sorry. Okay?"
Copper gave the trio behind his friend one last stare before sighing aggressively. "Fine. They can help. But one slip-up that favors the enemies, and they're dead."
"Deal."
Another couple of hours went by, and Blue and Yellow still hadn't arrived.
"Where the fuck are they?! It's been almost four hours since most of us regrouped, and the ravager is not that stubborn!"
"We're working with the guy who murdered his family in front of him," Second said. "There's a number of reasons why they've gone MIA."
"Fair point."
"Uhm, Sec? Portal." Red pointed behind him.
"What? Portal? Where?"
Something made a loud explosion sound behind him, and everyone jumped.
"Jesus Christ!"
"The hell?!" Gold shouted.
A green stick figure stood in front on the other side.
"Willow?!"
"She's alive?!"
"Holy shit."
"Well, that's one less problem we have to deal with!" Green exclaimed.
"Willow, where are the others?" Red asked.
She said nothing.
"Willow!"
Another stick figure entered their vision.
"Who's she?" Gold asked.
"Why does she look like King?"
The others glanced at King.
"The fuck you guys looking at me for? I don't know her."
"Then who is she?"
"Does it matter?!" Sapphire shouted. "Willow's alive, and the others could be too! We've gotta get in there!"
"Sapphire's right. The longer we stand here and argue, the lesser chance the others have for survival."
"As long as they didn't die during the entire attack in the first place." Chosen whispered to himself, the memory flashing by.
"Chosen, you have to remember I was brainwashed for half of that. Navy and the others were under the influenced that Purple disguised himself as me and I got brainwashed."
Willow jumped back into the vents as soon as she heard Sunny and the others escape the castle. She had intended to find Purple and get out with them, but she had to take Amber with.
Amber looked as if she had a connection to King and Gold, and said she did, so taking her with meant figuring out if she was actually related to either one of them, or Night Shade had told her to say so to throw them off.
Maybe Purple was right. She was definitely giving signs that Purple's theory had been correct.
"Your not King."
"King? How do you know him?" He asked.
"My husband..."
Willow and Purple both stared at her in shock.
"Your King's...wife?" Willow asked.
"Yeah?"
Purple stared at her. "Then...you should know Gold, right? Your son?"
The woman blinked.
"Gold?"
Another blink.
Willow stared at her for another moment. "Okay...do you know your name?"
"Amber."
Willow and Purple shared at each other again. Amber seemed to be giving them some of the most robotic, programmed responses that had come out of someone Willow knew.
It was very weird, to say the least.
Amber blinked at them again, analyzing the duo's faces.
Willow turned to Purple. "Run."
"Why?!"
"She must think we're threats. Your probably right, Purp. She might've been brainwashed by Navy into attacking us. And if she's related to King and knows how close the two of you are, she's going to want to get rid of you. She'll think your competition, and if we're going to defeat these guys, God are we gonna need you!"
"Nice to know my talents are appreciated in dire situations," Purple grumbled, jumping up into the rafters. "Where to?"
Willow was already gone.
"God, are we gonna need Purple if I'm proven wrong." She muttered to herself.
Something suddenly exploded behind her, and before she knew it, the floor below her was collapsing.
She screamed, falling into the capsule Amber originally was in.
"Got him." A voice said.
Willow looked around her, wondering what the hell just happened.
A blue stick figure standing above her told her what happened.
"Your a smart kid, Purple. But I'm sure you don't really think impersonating Agent Fernando's little sister was going to get you out alive."
"I'm not Purple, you brainless bastard!"
"Nice try, kid."
Something smacked her upside the head, and everything went black.
"And you have no recollection of what happened?"
"Nope. I fell into Amber's capsule, got knocked out, was appearantly brainwashed or whatever, and suddenly there was a whole ass war and Purple was attempting to kill us."
"We've got to figure out what caused you to get brainwashed." Dark said.
"And stop Navy from doing something stupid that causes more deaths than advantages in our favor." Second added.
"And rescue Purple," Chosen continued. "...However the fuck we do that."
"If it's a simple brainwash, like how he's been brainwashed in the past, we could just try an old technique that's worked before." King suggested.
"Yeah, but you saw the look in his eyes. We all did. This is something different. We've just got to figure out how."
"And we will."
"...Somehow."
They were not aware of the small girl who was watching from afar.