The Stories He Has to Tell | SabreTober Prompts | Hosted by IcyWillowSong

~| Day 15: Ash |~

Series: Rainbow Quest

AU: Phoenix (Basically Sabre is a phoenix boi. Phoenixes are rare in the Steve Realm and have many legends told of them, but nobody's really ever seen one. Das it)

Context: After it looked like he had killed him, Nightmare didn't expect Sabre to come to his lair alive and well... and extremely ticked off. Nightmare soon learns why the legends say not to anger a Phoenix. Also, Dark didn't pretend to be Orange Steve because he took one look at Phoenix Angbre and went 'Nope, I choose life'.

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[Sabre's POV]

The flames around me flicker as they eat away at the structure of Nightmare's base, banners and other things quickly reduced to nothing but cinders and brittle, charred material while the stone walls and floors become darkened.

The carpet underneath my feet burns away as I walk over it, my smoldering tail feathers and tips of my wings making contact with the ground behind me. My destination; The prison.

Darkness creatures flee as soon as they see me, although most are caught in the fires. They screech loudly as they join the piles of ashes, then silence cuts through the air like a knife in mere seconds.

I see a grand-looking door one way, and another hall the other. I realize that there's voices coming from behind the door, one of them being Orange Steve's voice. I dash over to it, my fury fueling the flames around me.

I kick down the door, a large burn mark appearing where I struck it. Inside the room is a large machine, with a giant glass cylinder as the centerpiece of it. Inside of that is Orange, bound to the inside of the machine with a combination of chains and some kind of power. He looks surprised as he sees what I really am.

The Darkness in the room scatters, but the fireballs I throw hit them before they make it out. The familiar smell of burnt flesh halfway fills the room as I calm down a little and run over to Orange.

"Sabre, what- you-" Orange stutters as I reach him, bewildered. "You died- But you're a-?"

"Phoenix, yeah. I know. I'm sorry I didn't tell you, but you can probably guess why." I say, putting my hand to the glass. "I'm going to get you and everyone else out of here, just hang on."

Fire forms around my hand, and I feel the glass heat up. It doesn't bother me when the molten glass starts to fall on my hand, as I make a bigger hole in the wall of the machine. Soon enough, it's big enough for someone to step through. As the strange power that was holding him flickers and disappears (likely because of the machine being compromised), I go inside the machine and reach Orange.

"I'm really glad to see you, but you've got a heck of a lot of explaining to do." Orange says.

"I know, I know." I chuckle. "I'm gonna get these shackles off, okay? Don't move, so it'll be easier to make sure I don't burn you."

"Wait what-?"

I grab the shackles around Orange Steve's wrists, and they also begin to heat up. I stop when they're just hot enough to pry off. Orange quickly pulls them off, and they clatter to the floor as they cool back down midair.

"Thanks." Orange smiles.

"No problem, now let's get everyone else. You know where they are?" I ask.

"Yeah, the room next to the door to this one." Orange replies.

I grab his hand and we rush off, out of the machine and the room. We hurriedly turn into the hallway next to what used to be the door. Orange keeps up by my side as the flames from my wingtips and tail feathers still follow behind me as they drag in the carpet.

"Wait! Nightmare is probably in there!" Orange exclaims as we approach an open room.

"Then it gives me the chance to have a 'talk' with him." I say, already getting angrier again at the thought of what he did.

As soon as we enter the prison, I see the Orange Steves locked in a cell at the center of the room, Nightmare turning around to face me in front of it. He looks both angry and fearful. The Orange Steves look at me in awe.

"You're supposed to be dead! How are you here?!" Nightmare exclaims.

Orange Steve steps to the side as I walk forward, more fire trailing my steps.

"Isn't it already obvious, Nightmare?" I ask, staring the crazed king down.

Nightmare starts to step back as I get closer, and stops when I do. I'm now halfway to the cage keeping my friends, Nightmare right in front of the door.

"Didn't you find it strange when I just turned to ashes after you killed me?" I say. "Judging by how often you've likely done that to people, surely you didn't just think that was normal. That, or you did turn out to be the idiot I believed you to be."

Nightmare grits his teeth, but realizes he has nowhere to run. The flames from the rest of the lair finally reach this room, smoke starting to roll in like fog. The Steves inside the barred cell quickly cover their faces as not to breathe in the smoke, with Orange doing the same. It doesn't bother me, though.

Nightmare realizes he's cornered by me and the fire that's spread everywhere inside the lair. He looks around frantically before staring back at me.

"You're not getting away with this, Sabre! I will get you back for everything you've destroyed here!" Nightmare yells.

"Hm, funny. The only thing left that needs to burn right now is you. Shame if that happened, right?" I reply, ignoring him.

Nightmare's expression changes to fear, and he quickly teleports away. I calm myself down again, the flames beginning to die, as Orange rushes next to me as we break open the jail cell keeping everyone hostage.

"Sabre, what on earth...?" The Orange Leader says, still surprised.

"I'll explain later, right now you all need to get to safety." I say.

Everyone follows behind me as I kill the flames in front of us as we leave the lair, and we finally get out of that terrible place.

Now to deal with the other problem... oh boy.