It had been a total of four days since Sabre had managed to trap Rainbow Steve. Four strange, strange days. At first, the Steve was playful and confused, as Sabre assumed was its default when powerless. After he began his experiments, however, it had begun to get more scared, nervous. And weird. Very weird. Of course, that wasn't of his concern. He had a machine up on the surface with Rainbow Steve's name on it, and it wasn't his job to feel bad. This was the same Steve that trapped and tried to kill him, Sabre reminded himself. It wasn't some charity case he could feel bad for.
Sabre eyed the Yellow Steve he had extracted from Rainbow Steve. It was still locked into the machine, and Sabre wasn't planning on letting it go any time soon. Not until he had extracted more from Rainbow Steve and learned more about the Steves. But if he was going to extract Rainbow Steve further, he needed to actually bring it to the surface. Which would be a little exhausting, and Sabre was already tired. For some reason, he had trouble sleeping the other night.
Sabre let out a slow sigh as he made his way down to the trap. If this research was going to get anywhere, he had to actually work for it. Even if he was tired. He absentmindedly put on his armor to lesson the blow from the lava, and stepped forward.
The lava lit his nerves on fire, the pain shocking him awake, but what he saw shocked him more. He just stood there and breathed in the sight. Signs saying nothing but 'help.' littered the trap. He didn't place those, right? No, no, he would be aware of placing that many signs all saying the same thing. And Rainbow Steve couldn't place signs down. Could he? What happened?
Across the room, Rainbow Steve sat on its dirt mound, body shaking. Sabre took out his iron sword, holding it in front of him as he stepped forward carefully. He didn't get too close; he had assumed before that the Steve was powerless in this trap, but was that assumption wrong from the start? The thing was trembling, arms wrapped around its body as its head shook wildly. Sabre felt an unfamiliar pang somewhere in his chest.
He noticed the redstone surrounding the trap, connecting to the machine. Sabre reached down to sever the connection, but when he looked up, Rainbow Steve was gone. Sabre immediately got to his feet, looking around desperately.
"Where'd it go?!" Sabre glanced around the trap. There was no way it could have escaped the lava, right? It was weakened by lava, right?? When he looked back, he nearly had a heart attack. It was back. But its body was still spasming and shaking, and it seemed to be...clipping out of reality, almost.
Without thinking, Sabre grabbed its arm, hoping to maybe keep it grounded here. It looked up at him, iron sword in hand, and immediately scrambled backwards, shaking its head violently. This was not what Sabre expected would happen today.
"Okay, I'm turning it off." Sabre muttered, severing the connection as fast as he could. Rainbow Steve relaxed, if only slightly. Sabre needed to get Rainbow Steve to the machine. But in this state? Would it do any good to force the Steve into another machine? He didn't know what to do.
Sabre attempted to step closer towards Rainbow Steve, but the moment he did, lightning struck this space in front of him. He retracted backwards quickly. "Okay, okay!!" He breathed out. What was he supposed to do?
Maybe if Sabre locked him back into a machine, it would at least calm him down. Stop him from supposedly glitching out of reality. He placed down a lapis block, tapping it lightly to get its attention. Rainbow Steve was still shaking, harder now, but began walking forward slowly. At least he wasn't denying the lapis.
Sabre cautiously led it out of the trap, scared to do really anything. What could set it off? What was too far? Lightning struck the Steve again as its powers slowly returned. That wasn't good. An all-powerful and corrupted Steve on the loose? Sabre had to get it in the machine fast.
He threw the last lapis block onto the machine pedestal, and Rainbow Steve hesitantly walked forward to grab it. Sabre quickly locked it in. Before he could even breathe out a sigh of relief, an abundance of lightning struck the pedestal and made his ears pop, and Sabre backed away. This was way worse than what he'd seen in the past. The lightning eventually dissipated, and Sabre fell to the ground, breathing heavily.
That took way too much work and worry for being that simple. He looked up at Rainbow Steve, face wet with tears and looking ahead unconsciously. A face that looked too human to be the subject of silly experiments.
Sabre didn't let those thoughts get to him. Looking human or not, he was a monster who wanted nothing more than to hurt Sabre. He didn't let himself think of empathy or karma or the fact that maybe, just maybe, Rainbow Steve was never hostile, just confused and scared, and it was all Sabre's fault. Thoughts like that weren't allowed to cross his mind. Much too dark.
He sat up slowly with a sigh. He'd try something new the next day. That was what he came here to do, after all.
