Masked (A Hat In Time)

Suspicions, Worries

Ah, man. Poor prince.

Guess we'll see what happens to him next week. First, we have Jaide lore.

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Jaide moved easily to the side, dodging Moon's attack. She clutched Levi's body closer to her, her eyes flaring. Yellow-green sparks gathered at the tips of her fingers.

Hattie knew she had to act fast. She couldn't just let them attack each other! So she drew her umbrella and jumped between them, holding her hands out to separate them. The tiny Dweller joined her.

Both ghosts hesitated. She looked back and forth between them, prepared to fight back if any of them made another move. Moonjumper looked conflicted, though an angry light was still in his eyes. Jaide paused, but slowly the sparks faded, and she loosened up a little.

"What are you doing?" Moon asked. Hat Kid fully turned toward him, gripping her umbrella tighter. "Move out of the way!" he snapped. His hands were shaking.

"Listen," Hattie said as gently as she could manage. "I know you're frustrated. I am too- I want Jaide back as much as you do!" Both she and Moon gave Jaide a pointed look. She didn't react.

Hat Kid felt a twinge of dread. She forced herself to look back at Moon. "Why would you attack the woman you love?" she asked.

Moonjumper stiffened, the anger on his face replaced with shock. He blinked a few times, staring speechlessly at Hattie. Then his gaze flickered here and there, looking anywhere but at her as he tried to gather his thoughts. Gotcha, Hat Kid thought somewhat smugly.

A moment later, Moonjumper's expression soured again. "Shut up," he grumbled.

Hat Kid frowned at him. She quickly double-jumped so she was high enough to reach his head and bonked him between his horns with her umbrella.

He immediately drew back with a yelp of pain. His eyes were wide and full of confusion and hurt. "What was that for!?" he exclaimed.

"That was for being a stinky mean peck neck!" Hat Kid told him, landing neatly on the ground. She pointed the tip of her umbrella at him. "Forget Jaide- why are you acting weird!?"

Again, Moonjumper fell silent and stared. Hat Kid could practically see the wheels turning in his head, trying to puzzle out what just happened. A range of emotions fell across his face: confusion, then realization, then shame. He lowered his gaze. "I-I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me." He hugged himself self-consciously and raised a hand to readjust his monocle.

Hat Kid put her umbrella away after a quick check to make sure that Jaide wasn't going to attack anyone anytime soon. "I forgive you," she said. Then she pointed at Jaide. "Now apologize to Jaide."

Moon hesitated. His face grew warm, and he blushed a shade of darker blue. He couldn't meet Jaide's eyes, but he mumbled an apology. "I-I'm so sorry I attacked you, Jaide. I-if you could please acknowledge me, I'd appreciate that."

Jaide gazed listlessly at him before turning away. Moon's face fell.

Hat Kid stepped over to Moonjumper, glad that she'd managed to stop any conflict. She reached up and gently took his hand. He flinched and gave her a surprised look. "We'll get her back," she told him confidently. "I know we will."

He hesitated, then smiled. "I hope so too."

She frowned at him. "Try again. Say you know we'll get her back."

Moonjumper looked uncomfortable. "But-"

"Say it!"

"I-I can't!" Moon exclaimed. "There are too many possibilities, especially with-" He sharply cut himself off, shooting a glance at Jaide. He lowered his voice. "I...I think I have a suspicion of what is causing Jaide to act so weirdly."

Hattie's eyes widened. Why didn't he say something sooner?! "What is it?" she asked intently.

Moonjumper paused, considering it. Every second he didn't tell her was excruciating.

Finally, he lifted a hand and tapped the side of his head. "You see my mask?" he asked.

Hat Kid nodded. Moonjumper lowered his head. "It's not like Jaide's," he told her. "It's become a part of my head. I can't remove it as much as I can remove my face."

He turned his gaze to watch Jaide solemnly. She had set Levi down on the ground, her hands gently glowing yellow-green as she worked at the soil to try and dig a grave. "Jaide's mask isn't a part of her," Moon explained. "You can take it off."

Again, Hat Kid nodded. The Outlander had exploited that when they fought Jaide. It was her one weakness, right? Take away the mask, and you take away her power. Hat Kid's heart broke as she remembered what happened the moment the Outlander took the mask away. She remembered Jaide's hands covering her blue, tear-filled eyes.

But aren't her eyes green?

Hattie felt disgusted with herself as she remembered the pain of the Outlander's betrayal. His cruel smile through the mask that Jaide once wore. The malevolent glow of his pale yellow eyes.

But his eyes are white...

This couldn't be a coincidence.

"Jaide's mask affects her in odd ways," Moonjumper said. "All ghosts are affected in one way or another..." he lowered his head. "No one's meant to have an afterlife. We're only anomalies, and we must suffer for that. Dwellers can no longer think or feel things like you and I can. Snatcher has to survive off of souls, and he's only a shadow of what he used to be. My very soul is corrupted, and sometimes I can't control my actions." A shameful shadow passed between Moon's eyes. "And Jaide...there's something in her mask."

Something in her mask? "What do you mean?" Hat Kid asked, intrigued and confused.

He lifted his gaze and met her eyes. "She has to wear the mask," Moon murmured. "Otherwise, she can't speak...and probably worse. But a normal mask wouldn't allow her to speak and give her such powerful magic, no." Moonjumper hesitated, fiddling with the chains on his wrists. "This is only a theory, a-and it's probably incorrect, but I believe that there is some sort of...entity or spirit that resides in Jaide's mask."

Moon tilted his head, considering it. "Something much more powerful than any of us. I'm not sure what it could be...and again, it's only a theory."

Hat Kid turned back to look at Jaide, who was gently lowering Levi's body into his grave. Hattie frowned and puzzled over it.

She wasn't exactly sure what Moon meant by "a spirit resides in Jaide's mask", but she could surely guess. Was the spirit awake? Was it going to possess Jaide? Could it even hurt her?

Then again, Moon's idea was just a guess. It might not be true. No other options had been presented, though.

Hat Kid really hoped that Moon was wrong. Because it scared her to think, What if he's right?

Suddenly, both Jaide and Moonjumper's heads snapped up, and they looked in the direction of Subcon. Hat Kid gave them both bewildered looks. "What is it?" she asked.

"Something's wrong," Moon said. "There's another presence there..."

Without a word, Jaide abandoned her work and vanished. Hat Kid gasped before realizing she had teleported.

"Come on," Moonjumper said, holding his hand out to Hattie. "Come with me." He didn't take his eyes off the forest in the distance. "This presence is more powerful than anything I've ever known. I fear that someone may be in danger."

Hat Kid took his hand without hesitation. And they too disappeared from Halcyon, leaving only the Dweller with ice-blue eyes behind.