Against the Clock

Chapter 8 | Paranoia

I had just been reading for a while, occasionally being checked on by the Professor, when I hear a familiar knock at the door.

"Hello?" I say.

Time opens the door, smiling. I'm happy to see him.

"Hey buddy, what's up?" Time asks.

"Nothing much." I answer, as he walks over and sits next to me. "Nothing's really happened today, surprisingly."

"Well, it's been the complete opposite outside the lab." Time says, then he looks at me with a slightly worried expression. "You alright?"

"Mostly, yeah." I say. "Why?"

"...Nothing. Just... thought I noticed something."

Time stays silent for a moment, then brightens back up and goes back to what he was about to say.

"Anyway... You should've seen how much panic was happening at the Green Kingdom. Absolute chaos over there."

"Oh, boy. What happened?"

"Well, the Professor asked me to let them know about the situation with your symptoms and for them to be on standby as he figures out what might work." Time begins to explain. "I had never seen the place so hectic, even during that tsunami. When I got there, everyone was running around carrying bottles of something or other, and constantly trying to get out of each other's way. I'm pretty sure I saw someone get hit with a door as it was opening."

"Ouch." I say. "How was the Green Leader taking things?"

"Just as panicked as everyone else. He was checking on how people were doing at different stations, and then he saw me and came over and I told him the update. His face when I got to the part about you coughing up blood... jeez."

"Yeah, hearing about that happening to someone is always pretty horrifying."

"Mhm. And there was also another meeting today."

"Anything happen there?"

"Yeah, I went so I could update M and the Professor on the other Kingdoms since they're busy here. Most of it was the Leaders updating the others on how their parts of the plan are going while visibly trying not to panic. The Blue Leader especially looked worried about something."

Ah. Right. I might die, and that... thing about the deal I made in order to save the Orange Village all that time ago. He knows. Because he's the one that offered the deal.

"...Why do you have a look like you know what that's about?" Time asks.

Shoot. Play dumb, Sabre.

"Uh... whaaat, nooo... no I don't, what gives you that idea?" I say.

Time just looks at me.

"Sabre, you are a terrible liar." Time replies. "What's going on?"

"Okay, okay." I say, bracing myself for the verbal bomb I'm about to drop. "Try not to freak out... too much."

"...Okay?" Time says.

"So, if I die because of this virus..." I begin. "It won't be the first time I've died."

Time just looks at me, and starts to say something, but I stop him.

"Before you say anything, let me finish explaining, please."

Time worriedly complies.

"A while ago, like around when I first got here," I say. "The Orange Village got into trouble with someone called Nightmare Steve. He had all of them hostage to try and lure out me and Rainbow, who was still just an Orange Steve then. I made a plan and confronted Nightmare alone, and tried to make a deal. He wanted me to come with him for something, I didn't know what, but that's what he wanted. I said that I'll go with him if he made all the Darkness he had there leave and he would let the Orange Steves go... and it looked like he took the deal. He had me follow him to a little way's away from where we were, and... he destroyed me. He summoned a ton of lighting on me, and I didn't even know I had died until a Blue Steve came up to me in the World Beyond."