Navy wasn't sure how to feel about Fern. King's high school buddy was an interesting person to decipher.

A really interesting one.

A rustle from behind him.

Jumping a mile, he turned to attack them, and internally groaned.

"Fuck. Not you."

"I hate this as much as you."

Bullshit, Agent Sunny."

Sunny didn't really know what she was expecting while she stalked Purple, but one of them was not Navy, who had put them in that exact situation...for whatever reason.

"You forget I'm not your slave anymore, Navy," She spat, glaring at the man who had used her to attack her best friend. "So you can drop the professional act. Besides, your currently being used as a husk for your son, who is a child. Also, your powerless."

"I know. Don't remind me. The little bastard sucked out my magic."

"Well, you kind of deserved it."

"Fuck you."

"Hey. I can easily send my best friend after you. They've probably got a plan by now, and are hunting your ass down."

"Sure they are."

"Don't even try that dumb "King doesn't give a shit about Purple" shit. You know damn well King cares about Purple more than you people do. From my knowledge, King gave up his life for that child. So don't even try it."

"I doubt they're going to free him from the hypnosis your best friend's brother put on him."

"Trust me. They know what they're doing. Your going to lose to them, probably harder than you lost to your son." She smirked at him, earning a snarl from her former master.

"I think I like it when you didn't talk back."

Sunny climbed down from the rafters. "Sure you did. I'm sure your entire army did. But too bad! You don't have that anymore! Isn't that just depressing."

Something snatched her leg, and Navy flinched.

"When the fuck did I have that technology?!"

Forgetting that Sunny was the enemy, he jumped down to get a better glance at what had grabbed her.

"What the..."

"It's one of Amber's pieces of work!" Sunny shouted, gesturing to the orange stick in front of them.

Navy growled. "Oh, fuck."

Amber gave him a smirk. "Fernando, go after the prince."

Sunny and Navy glanced at each other.

"HEY! THAT'S MY SON! IT'S MY JOB TO GO AFTER HIM!"

"YOU LEAVE PURPLE ALONE!" Sunny shouted, reaching for her knife. She sliced the tendril she had been caught in, flipping back onto the ground.

"Navy, did you have any knowledge of this?!"

"I think she was using them as weapons during the fights outside while I fought you guys, but I've never seen these before! I haven't even thought about using these as weapons!"

"Well, maybe think about stopping it?!"

"How?!"

"Right. Purple took your magic. Nevermind, I got this!"

Navy stared at her. "Your a child." He deadpanned.

"And so is Purple, and how many times has he kicked your ass single-handed?"

"Nevermind."

Sunny clutched her knife in her hand. "Alright, bitch. Let's do this."

It was probably suicide for Purple to leave the library, but he had powers! What's the worse that could happen to him?!

Stepping out into the eerily empty hallway, Purple looked into the desolate space, watching for anything that could pose a threat to him.

An energy ball rested in his palm.

"Okay. Let's do this."

Walking into the hallway, Purple started heading in the direction of his old room, thinking about retracing his steps back to the forest to Sunny's camp.

If he were lucky, he could get back there and find the others. Like last time.

Upon escaping the castle, the kids collapsed onto the forest floor in relief.

"Happy to be free, Purple?" Blue asked.

"I could've escaped when I had the chance, but until I learned Sunny has a refugee camp, I had nowhere to go until there was some way for us to open a portal."

"Speaking of which, let's get to the refugee camp now so we can rendezvous with Willow at the half-way point between the camp and the kingdom and get this war going." Sunny said.

"Why would we start a war?" Blue asked.

"He makes a good point." Yellow added.

"It'll distract Navy's army and leave them all unprotected, and give us a chance to kill those three off because they won't have anyone to protect them," Purple explained. "So as long as things go in our favor, I'll be able to hopefully kill those three off and we won't have to worry about anyone anymore."

"For now. Until suddenly, they resurrect themselves from the afterlife." Yellow deadpanned.

"I doubt they're that smart." Sunny said.

"Don't tempt them. It could be possible." Purple replied.

By the time they had returned, it was nearing sunrise, but Sunny didn't care. One of her advisors approached her.

"General Sunny, you've returned." They said.

"Woah, your a general now?" Purple asked.

"Yes," She said, before turning back to the stick. "Awake all the soldiers, and send them to the halfway point between here and the Rose Castle. Willow is going to meet us there and take over as the army commander, and lead us to war. The war begins now."

Sunny paced around her tent, trying to figure out how the events of the past few days had drastically steered away from the plans she had made in her head.

All they were supposed to do was beat Navy's army in a battle, escape the Great Above, and figure out a way to keep them out of their world.

Needless to say, she was not expecting two extras to arrive.

"Okay, so here's what we'll do," Sunny explained, staring at the three stowaway teenagers that she had with her. "We're going to win this war, find the others, and then escape with King and the others."

"And Navy?" Yellow asked.

"We leave them behind," Sunny said. "Dead or alive, they stay here."

"Got it."

"How could the others get in, though?" Blue asked.

"Willow could still be in the castle," Purple explained. "She might be able to get them here, one way or another."

"Purple makes a point. They figured out how to get into the base last time, given we were being shot at after screaming at each other, but we still got in, so they could get into the Great Above themselves."

"You sound so unworried about your friends." Sunny noted.

"We're not stupid. All of us are smart in our own way, so we should be able to get past these guys in no time."

Sunny was not expecting an attack on the camp.

One minute, everything was calm. And the next, Night Shade had discovered them and was attacking everyone who was not fighting in the war.

"Shit! How the hell did he find us?!"

"When I found out your friends had escaped the castle and Purple had escaped the day prior!"

Sunny's heart dropped. "Well, this is great! The others are around here somewhere, but high chance we'll never see them again because Night Shade's gonna kill us!"

"Oh, relax!" Yellow said. "He won't kill us!"

Yellow clearly did not understand the severity of the situation they were in.

"Yellow. This guy has killed us before. He will do it again." Blue said.

Yellow flinched, remembering what happened last time.

"Come on! We've gotta make a boat or something!" Green exclaimed.

"How?! We don't have enough blocks!" Blue shouted back.

"And the thunderstorm took a lot out of the staff, I doubt it's gonna do much." Yellow added.

"So we're screwed?" Red deadpanned.

"Essentially."

Green was cut off by a large energy blast from above, followed by numerous screams.

Nobody had to think twice about what that meant.

Night Shade had followed them.

"Fuck."

"Then how are we going to get across the ocean to the base to rescue Purple and the others?!" King asked.

A faint cackle came from above them. "Oh, that's an easy answer."

A blast of energy surrounded them, followed by a gust of cold air.

"You won't be able to."

The world around Yellow felt cold and stiff. After the energy blast, his entire body was covered in Grey spots that rapidly grew in size and spread across his body.

"Leave...my friends...alone." He gasped out, staring at the others suffering similar fates.

He could only think about how Gold and the other's final moments were.

"Oh, don't worry. Your friends are fine. Oh, and look on the bright side! You'll remaining alive friends will have a front row seat to your demise!"

Yellow could feel King's reaction. Purple would be forced to watch them all die.

Second and Dark would, too.

Their three remaining friends would have to watch the only people left in their lives die before them.

God knows how Purple would take that.

"Purple's lost his entire family..." King snapped with what remaining strength he had. "Don't make him watch the deaths of the only people he has left..."

"Oh, but then where's the fun in that?!" Night Shade smirked."

Yellow couldn't take anymore. He left the cold feeling wash over him before it all went black.

"I'm sorry we couldn't stop him, Purple."

"Yellow, look out!" Purple screamed, sending Yellow flashing back into reality.

A blast from behind then was sent flying above, hitting Night Shade directly.

"Jesus Christ."

"Holy shit."

"What the hell was that about?!" Blue screamed, glancing beyond him to see what had happened.

"Blue!"

"Yellow!"

Both sticks glanced at the forest opening, and the sticks standing in it.

"King?" Purple muttered.

"Purple?"

"Okay. Just retrace your steps, find your friends, stop Navy. That's all you've gotta do-"

A blast of energy.

"Fuck!" Purple jumped into the rafters, barely being missed by the beam.

Numerous voices then filled the space.

"What was that?!"

"That was Fern! He was attacking someone!"

"Shit!"

"Wait, was that-"

"Purple!"

"He's attacking Purple!"

Purple climbed up into the highest rafters, avoiding any other attacks by staying out of sight.

Voices filled the area below him, and he watching the action unfold.

Fern was attacking them. Shit.

Fern launched an energy beam at King and Green, countered by Chosen and Dark. Dark was flung backwards, landing on the ground, clutching his arm.

Fern started laughing.

Purple flinched.

"Oh, fuck."