Wonderer's Wish World 2: Evolutionary Rebirth

Garbage Island

Day 23

Time: 6:30

Location: Death-Tastin Desert

"Ben! Ben!!"

It took a minute of frantic yelling and running, but finally, the figure of Darius' old and dear friend turned. Darius watched as his face lit up, his eyes going wide in shock and disbelief before a giant smile grew on his face.

"Darius!"

Unlike Darius, who slipped and stumbled on the sand in the effort to get to his friend, Ben flew over the sand, swift and quick like he was born here. Like he belonged here. In a quarter of the time Darius had taken to make it a sixth of the way to Ben, Ben got to Darius, meeting him with open arms. They jumped, and Ben knocked Darius to the ground with the force of his hug.

"Darius! Darius, you're alright!" Ben was yelling, holding him tight. Darius held him back just as hard. He felt tears bead in the corners of eyes, and a lump formed in his throat. While Ben sobbed and cried out in celebration, he couldn't say a thing, just lay in the sand with Ben on top of him and hug him, tightly. "You're alive, you're alright, you're... you're here."

Suddenly, Ben drew back. His smile had slid off his face. "Darius... what are you doing here? What are... we doing here? What is this place?"

Darius sucked in a harsh breath. Just like that, the nice moment was over. Gone, like it never existed. He sat up, pushing Ben away in the process. He hadn't meant to, of course, but he wasn't sure if he could look Ben in the eyes as he explained.

"I..." he started, his voice raspy, barely a whisper. Dimly, he was aware Molly, Misfortune and Greg behind him, and then Ben's new companions behind him. None of them said anything, just stared in shock, unknowing what to say. Darius knew what they were feeling. He could imagine what he would feel if Greg found his brother Wirt, finally, or if Molly saw Scratch again. There's the joy of someone finding their loved one. Then the confusion. Then the horror, because, if they're here, then where was everyone else?

It was hell not knowing.

"I don't know," Darius finally said, swallowing thickly. "Not a lot, anyway. And, before you ask... all I know is that Brooklyn's here, too. In Nightlight City somewhere. And she needs our help."

Ben's jaw dropped open, and Darius saw fear in his eyes before it suddenly hardened, his jaw locking and his face determined. He got to his feet, resolution in every movement. His shoes were strange, and seemed to sit on the sand instead of falling into it, like snowshoes for snow. Ben held out a hand to Darius.

"Then we need to go get here," he decided. Darius looked up to him, wide eyed, before feeling a stab of panic. Ben, in his dream, held the same expression, the one that told Darius and everyone around them that nothing was getting in between Ben and his friends. It had once been comforting. Now, from what he saw in his dream, Darius saw it as a threat as well.

Still, Darius reached out, gripping Ben's red tinged hand as Ben hoisted him up, giving him a smile as he patted Darius on the back. Darius blinked at him. Ben was trying to hide it, for some reason, but behind the tough exterior Ben was fronting, there was intense relief. Darius felt the same way, but twinged with worry as well.

Was his dream real?

Was the Ben inside his house a fake as well?

Was this Ben a fake?

Was... any of this real?

"Is that a CAR?!" someone suddenly shouted, jarring Darius out of his thought. He looked around frantically before his eyes finally fell on a little girl, younger than him, probably, but older than Greg, with blue(?) hair tapping on her tiptoes, pointing at the vehicle. It looked like she was realized to finally see it.