Unrecognizable

~Chapter Thirty-Two~

Earlier that day

Sage's POV-

For once, Sage felt amazing. He had woken up to a certain cat murdering him, and the two had had an actual, civil conversation. Sage apologized. Citrus apologized. No hard feelings. Void came to let Sage know that he was just finishing up the sword... which was now a shovel for some reason. But whatever, he didn't really care. Maybe it was always a shovel. 

The faux-Hermit nonchalantly poked his head into the open door to the secret room. "Hello, Void! How are you faring?" Such fancy language. 

"Great. Come here, though, watch out, the floor is lava," Void explained. After stepping in and letting the door lock behind him with a resounding click, Sage glanced down, to realize that the floor, was, in fact, lava. Bubbling lava in place of the floor. Hm. Interesting design choice. Putting on his fire-resistant boots, Sage walked over the lava to Void, who was waiting patiently at the table. "Viola. The shovel is complete! But there's just one more thing I need to check."

"Yes?" The word practically fell out of Sage's mouth. "Whatever do you need?" So fancy. The duplicate sat down in the other chair, propping his head up with his hands on the table. To his surprise and mild confusion, Void jabbed a finger at the communicator secured around Sage's wrist.

As Sage subconsciously placed a hand over it, Void explained, "I need to see that for a moment, please." Huh. That's not suspicious at all. Seemed like a perfectly normal request to him. Sage carefully removed the communicator and handed it to Void.  Wow, he felt naked without that. It was his most powerful piece of armor, after all. It was the so-

But he did not get to finish that thought, as, suddenly, a shovel was suddenly pressing quite firmly at his throat. "Hk-!" What was Void doing? "Void-!" He could hardly get a word out. He was just so caught off guard. "What are you-"

"What do you think?" The admin's voice was cold, devoid of any hesitation. "You've done your part."  The shovel pressed harder, forcing Sage to lean back in his chair to avoid Void drawing blood. 

"B-but that'll kill me!" Without the communicator, Sage was at high risk of dying forever. Going back... there. "Why?"

There was no response, but Void didn't make any sudden, jarring movement. But he did press a bit harder with the shovel. Sage leaned back farther and thud. The duplicate went crashing to the ground. With a whimper, he squinted shut his eyes. He was defenseless now. His worst nightmares were coming true.

Wait... nightmares...?

"Sage." The voice of Void rang out from above him, and the admin poked his face into Sage's field of vision. "Sage." What? "Sa-"

As he drowsily blinked open his eyes, the first thing that came in focus was Void standing off to the side, wearing a less-than-amused expression. "Nightmare? First time?" To Sage's nod, the admin added, "They suck." And that was that. There was something off about Void. He seemed a bit... out of it. But definitely real this time, there was no mistaking that. "It's well past sunrise; maybe try sleeping in a bed next time, instead of the couch," he finished with a raise of the eyebrow. He looked so self-absorbed. It was stupid. 

Sage rolled his eyes. "Says the man who refused to sleep for three days." Proceeding to block out whatever retort Void gave, Sage stood up and stretched. He had been thinking a lot while he was waiting for sleep to take him, and had decided that, despite Void's reservations, he needed to talk to Mumbo. Again. Oh, how he hated talking to him. It just made him feel so guilty. And Mumbo was so rude back to him; it nearly made the faux-Hermit feel justified in his actions. Nearly. "Anyway, do you need anything?" Hopefully, it wasn't too clear that Sage was trying to shoo Void away. After all, he didn't want the admin to know that he was directly going against his orders.