BEEP! BEEP!

Dark groaned, pulling the blanket over his head and snuggling closer to Chosen.

"Five more minutes..."

BEEP! BEEP!

Chosen pulled himself up, shaking Dark's shoulders. "Come on, buddy. Your SOS thing is going off.

Dark tightened his grip around Chosen's waist. "My what...?" It then settled into his brain. "OH FUCK THE SOS SIGNAL!"

Scrambling off of the couch, Dark crashed into his desk to turn it on. "Hello?!"

"About damn time."

"Sorry, sorry! I was trying to sleep, thank you, Gold!"

Gold sighed. "Well, I need you guys to get over here. We have a...little problem."

"Little? Buddy, nothing is ever a little problem anymor-"

"A bunch of portals opened and one swallowed Purple."

Dark blinked.

"A portal did WHAT."

"Gold, he couldn't have been that loud."

"Yes. He was. Did you NOT hear him!?"

Scarlet stared at her friend for a little bit longer. "No. I didn't."

"Because your deaf."

"Oh, fuck you!"

A fireball blasted through the alleyway from next to them a couple seconds later, and Dark ran out following it.

"Took you long enough." Copper grumbled.

"Well, sorry! You know how hard it is to get Second awake this early?!"

"It's barely even sundown. Calm down."

"Fuck you."

"Arguing aside," Green said. "What the hell happened."

"So, we were all chilling at the house, until all these random portals started opening. We run into Purple, run into King afterwards, and then Sapphire was almost killed before..."

"The portal decided to eat Purple."

Chosen stared at Blue. "The portal did what now?"

"WELL THAT'S WHAT GOLD SAID!"

"Question: Why did we run into King and Purple separately?"

"Green!"

"It's a valid question!"

"King and Purple decided to try and kill each other." Copper said, earning glares from his younger friends. "What?! That's what happened!"

"No it wasn't!" Scarlet snapped.

"Green, before you try and kill him," Gold said, predicting Green's movements before Yellow and Blue even had chances to hold him back. "One, they didn't try and kill each other. Two, neither one of them are at fault. Three, don't make any sudden movements. King will probably win."

Green glared back at Gold, but didn't try and attack.

"Now that we're all on the same page...more or less," Sapphire said. "What are we supposed to do now?"

"Figure out where he went?" Dark asked.

"I mean, fair, but how would we do that?"

Scarlet thought for a moment. "Didn't Purple say something about the whole...Ocean base issue?"

"The one from.."

"After he got his powers," King finished for him. "Copper and Purple made the theory that the portals were to a dimension where he, Dark, and Second weren't able to stop Orchid in time."

"So he's basically gone backwards in time?"

"Kind of, only time traveled to an alternate reality where everything went to shit."

Green blinked at him. "Well, how do we get him out?!"

"Not sure. Unless we suddenly get our hands on portal opening equipment."

"Only one who has that is the remnants in The Great Above, which we've also lost access to unless Amethyst can figure something out."

"Maybe an old base has clues?"

"Like where?" Chosen asked

"Navy's lab."

Everyone turned to look at Dark.

"Navy's what?"

"You remember when me and Purple where kidnapped and presumed dead for about...seven weeks?"

Chosen flinched at the memory, but nodded. "Yeah?"

"That's where we were."

"Do you remember where it is?" Second asked.

"I might. In the meantime, there should be a backup somewhere, that's not the base in the ocean."

"Maybe the sky dome? Where he took Purple the first or second time?"

"That's our plan B. You guys," Dark pointed to Chosen and the five kids behind him. "Will check out the sky dome. The rest of us will check out the lab, mainly since I'm the only one left here that remembered where it was!"

"Fuck you."

"Shut up, Cho. Now, onward!"

"This was to prevent me from murdering King, and I'm fucking calling that. Dark, when I get you-!"

"Green. I swear to Becker, if you talk about murdering King one more goddamn time, I'm gonna make Purple murder you." Second snapped.

"But-"

"Gold literally said neither of them were at fault, now shut the hell up!"

The two friends glared at each other before returning to the group.

"Okay. Does anyone remember where anything is?"

"Aside from when Purple decided to break open a cage with just raw strength before we rescued them, not really."

"Dude, what the hell are you doing?!" Purple screamed over the ray's loud buzzing.

"Taking over Stick City, which and your dumb friends prevented me from doing last time!" Navy yelled.

"You almost destroyed half the goddamn city! Of course we would stop you!" Dark snapped.

"Well, someone was too weak to stop me in the first place, so it's not my fault!" Navy said playfully. Purple smirked.

"I wasn't weak," He said, slamming into the cage and breaking the door open. "You were just to judgmental to see my full potential."

Navy stumbled back in shock.

"Wha-wha-how did you-?" He spluttered.

"It's called accepting your kid for who they are, not who you perceive them to be," Purple said. "Letting them decide their future instead of choosing a path you want them to follow. Not pressuring them into what you want and asking them what they want," With each statement, Purple edged closer to the ray, grabbing a rod from the ground and aiming for the beam of light blasting from it. "And most importantly, doing what King was able to do."

"And what's that?" Navy said sarcastically.

"Not leaving them in the dust because they're following what they want and not what YOU want!" Purple declared, jamming the rod into the blast point as the sky returned to it's sky blue color.

King and the others watched the sky turn from a dark purple color to a lighter purple, before transitioning back to it's beautiful sky blue.

"What happened?!" Gold asked.

"Was it Navy?" Green suggested.

"Couldn't be. He's too hell-bent on power to just stop...whatever turned the sky purple."

King and Chosen shared a glance.

"Purple."

"YOU SON OF A BITCH, WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?!" Navy screamed in anger as Purple freed Dark from his cage.

"Stopping your stupid plan!" Dark snapped, a smirk crossing his face.

Navy stepped forward to grab Purple's arm. "Oh, you'll regret this, you little son of a-"

"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM PURPLE!"

All three stick snapped their heads up before Navy was blasted away from the two smaller sticks and tossed into a wall.

Dark stared in awe as Chosen, Yellow, and King ran inside through the newly formed hole in the wall as the others trickled inside.

"Chosen!"

"King!"

"Fuck."

"We could always try there first!" Yellow suggested. "Maybe there's something there!"

"Besides ruins and maybe a half destroyed machine, I highly doubt it." Red muttered.

"Red, be optimistic."

"Purple's in another fucking reality, and you want me to be optimistic?!"

"Fair, but we could rescue him! Just believe!"

"No."

Purple groaned in pain, noticing the darkness that coated his vision.

He blinked a few more times, trying to adjust himself to his surroundings, and began to notice some old things that belonged to his father.

"Hey-what the?!"

"I see your awake as well."

The familiar voice cut into his thoughts like a razor blade.

"Dark?"

"In the flesh and blood."

Dark shined a flashlight at the duo, allowing Purple to see what Dark had definitely gone through. He was covered in healing cuts and scratches, probably from when he was blasted through the sky dome during one of the final fights with Navy.

"What happened?!"

"Navy kidnapped us after the explosion that "took your life". He's keeping us in his basement." Dark explained.

"Man, King and Chosen must think we're dead." Purple mumbled to himself.

"Everyone thinks we're dead," Dark corrected. "And the minutes we get out of here, we're gonna find the others, and I'm bringing you back to King."

"Then I guess I'm getting you back to Chosen." Purple muttered snarkily.

Dark opened a window that led outside. "Deal."

"Deal."

And with that, they climbed out of the basement and escaped into the night, one thing on their minds.

Get to King and Chosen. Get to safety.

But most importantly, get home.

"Huh. Thought there'd be more in here."

They'd found the lab, which was covered in moss, vines, trees, and God knows what else the forest had trapped it in, but it was essentially destroyed.

"I highly doubt any of this works still." Copper muttered, brushing a hand over some of Navy's controls.

Gold pressed a button, before blinking at the bright lights. "OW!"

"Never-fucking-mind."

King pressed another button, revealing working security cameras.

"Holy shit, how do these still work?"

"Not sure. Maybe someone else has been keeping these specifically up and running?"

"But how? The only people we know would have access to these are Navy, Orchid, Fern, Night Shade, Amber, and maybe you and Purple if you'd hacked into them." King said.

"Which begs the question." Dark answered to him.

"What happened to Amber after the battle?"

Willow and Sunny had not been expecting to be ambushed by fucking Amber.

Sunny was sure that Amber had escaped while she still had a chance, but she was fucking dead wrong.

The same tendrils from the last time burst from the corridors in front of them, snatching Willow up within seconds. Sunny caught a glance of the orange stick on top, smirking down at them.

Amber.

Sunny shook Amber out of her head and returned her attention to the task at hand.

"Willow!"

Sunny pulled out her knife, jumping up to slice her friend free. Willow's vines burst from her palms, smacking the creature in the face.

"Nice work!"

"Learned from the best!" Willow shot back.

Sunny gave her a smile. "Okay, Amber, time for you to get your ass kicked."

Amber smirked from her spot on top of the creature. "Well, let's see how this plays out!"

Sunny lunged forwards, knife gripped tightly in her hand.

...and then Amber woke up.

She'd lost most of what had happened back there after that, but she didn't want to remember.

She'd knew it either end in a horrific outcome for herself, or the opponents.

And if had been herself.

"Welcome back to the real world."

Amber blinked. Who the havens?

"Who in haven are you?"

"Let's just say, an old friend of your son," The figure said, taking another step towards her.

"Gold?"

"Exactly who."

Amber stared at the figure. "And what exactly do you want?"

"Well..." The figure glanced over at the security cameras, the only thing lighting up the room. "I need your help in taking care of a couple...parasites."