Dreamcrash

Twenty Six: Dark

"Hey there kid. Welcome to my lonely home. I'm so glad you could join me here."

"Ugh... where even am I?"

"I wish I could explain, but even I'm not sure and I live here. It's unimportant though. You don't need to know where you are. All you need to know is I'm here. And I'm going to protect you."

"From what? Why do I need protection? I can defend myself. I've fought against the destroyers and Three's new helper before, and won. I can protect myself."

"You only beat Blackout with my help."

"His name if Blackout? That's... wait, your help? But I didn't... Oh no. Oh no oh no oh no. You're him. No. I'm not staying. I'm leaving. Get me out of here."

"Are you sure? Things would be so much easier. Just join me."

"No. I'm not listening. I'm leaving. Goodbye. I'm waking up."

"Come on. It will be so much better to stay."

"I'm not staying, I'm leaving, I'm getting up, I'm-"

------

I slowly open my eyes. Everything is spinning and I faintly hear voices over the sound of my Soul pounding.

"Is he... yet?"

"I.... so."

I don't recognize the voices at first, but they seem... familiar.

"Hey. His... are open."

"Oh thank the Creators."

The voices start to focus as I try to sit up.

"No. Stay." I find myself looking into bright red eyes. They seem determined and comforting. "You need rest."

"You had us scared, Night." Another voice, from a small figure that I guessed is by my head.

"He up?" Said a third voice, this one more harsh.

"Yes."

"Then we can go."

"Not until I know he'll survive."

A moment of silence.

"I'm staying too."

"Fine. I'm headed back to the Art Dome, meet you there."

Art Dome? Now that I think about it, that harsh voice sounded like Pen. Which means the two others are Patch and Seed.

"W..wha.. what hap..happened?" I force out. It takes so much of my energy, yet all it's just a whisper.

"I don't know. You fell to the ground and had some sort of mental breakdown. Your bones were cracking and your eyelights were flashing teal. It looked like... You were about to..." The voice I now recognize as Patch trails off. I get what he's saying. "Seed and I tried to help. As of right now, I'm trying to Codewrite you to contain it. After all, with Thread and Three we can't have a third destroyer running around."

My vision clears and I look at Patch. He's concentrated on me, red eyes almost seeming to glow. I can feel his aura of pure determination, and it makes me smile. Seed is by my head, watching Patch with a concerned look, and I get why. Patch seems to be taking up a lot of energy. We stay quiet until Patch looks exhausted.

"Patch, are you sure you can handle this? You seem to be taking up a lot of energy," Seed asks nervously.

"Don't worry," Patch responds in a confident tone. "Second time. I know exactly what to fix."

"Oh." Seed smiles. "That's great. If you don't mind me asking, what happened first?"

"The codeblock wasn't strong enough, and... well, it was really messy."