A multiverse in ruins

Chapter 71:Chipped and Protected

Nightmare's POV a few days later

Everything settled down again, at least it seemed to. The protection scaled back. My friends calmed down. Kyle became just a friend again, though was still protective.

But those incidents seemed to set something off with others. I went for a run once and when returning to the dorms, Eric jogged over and gave me a kiss on the cheek. I look at him in shock, my face burning and stopping in my tracks. He smiles.

"What was that about?"I ask

"Operation Double L!"He says, then jogs away

Leaving me just as confused.

Then a few days later I was going to meet up with Blue and Dust, Martin came around a corner and did the exact same thing. When I asked for an explanation, he fled after saying the same thing Eric did.

What the heck is going on? What is Operation Double L?

I told Catra about it and she giggles, saying they are probably just competing to get me before someone else does.

"We're going to be seniors when we go back to school. They don't know where you're going after that."She says

We look at each other, realizing what she just said.

"Man, we really have settled here, huh? Are we ever going to get out of here?"She chuckles

"Why leave? This place is so peaceful and great. Plus we all agreed that our worlds are broken wrecks of chaos. The multiverses are colliding and yet this place seems untouched. Safe from the universes outside. Why leave a safe place to go back into danger?"Toph asks, bringing up some good points

"We have people we care about still in those worlds."Catra says

I nod.

"Speaking of which, isn't someone coming to find you, Nightmare?"Catra asks, referring to Killer

"Yes....."I say

"Heard anything new yet?"She asks

"He hasn't called.....Nobody has....."I say

They shrug it off.

Classes started back up days later. Everything fell back into routine. I got different classes of course than last year, even potions or invention classes added to the school. I didn't take part in those, neither me or the school wanting to risk anything with what may go wrong in those with me.

I tried to call Killer or anyone but nobody outside this world would pick up. I was glad to be with Fallacy, Encre, Dust and Blue though. I didn't feel alone in this world knowing that others from my multiverse were here. Plus I made friends with the other people stuck here.

But not all the seniors were the nicest. Especially not the people with invention classes. They would often just use devices they found littering the sidewalks or stuff like that. And they'd bully other kids or pick targets into being their test subjects or whatever. What freaked me out the most was that Cukeme was one of those people. And that caused my friends to be unsettled as well. They did what they could to keep me safe but of course couldn't always be with me.

One day I was staying later than usual to finish a test and once I was done, I was walking through the halls. I was reaching the nearest staircase, which was down a poorly lit hallway of the fashion wing. I started walking down it, checking to ensure I was safe. I thought it was all clear but suddenly I got shoved into one of the classrooms. I see Cukeme holding me.

"Cukeme? What are you-?"I begin

"I found this weird chip. I analyzed it and it is a mind chip of some sort. It was supposed to make some Catra person obey them but now I changed that and I thought maybe you could give it a go.~"He says