Stranded in Paradise; Welcome Home [An II Au]

Something Old, Something New

"Alright, just have to attach this last part and..."

Ca-chunk...

Click!

"Okay! All done! How does it feel?"

Nickel looked down at his new prosthetic, taking a moment to extend and retract it to make sure it stayed on right. "Feels like my leg..." Nickel said, "Almost like I have my old one back. Feels much better than walking on a stick, to be honest."

"Well, that's good! Just let me know if you need anything else for your leg, ok?" Test Tube said as she set away some of her tools back into its box. "So...what are we gonna do about this whole Mephone situation, huh?" The gray coin asked while Test Tube put her toolbox away. The beaker wasn't quite sure how to respond at first. But then she sucked in a breath.

"Well...with Mephone back, it does give us a chance to recover everyone we lost on the island! But...we really don't know when or if Mephone is ever going to recover...whatever happened to him, whatever Cobs did to him, it must have emotionally scarred him pretty bad..." Test Tube said.

"Yeah...I'll say. Did you see how terrible he looked? Didn't know some corn guy was able to do so much damage.." Nickel sighed.

"But...Mephone's absence got me thinking...have Mepad and Toilet really never come back since we've been gone? They could've handled the situation better if at least...SOMEONE was here."

"...It's been two months, right? Two months...and they hadn't returned all that time. Guess they're all just dropping like flies, aren't they?"

Test Tube sighed and approached Nickel again. "...There's alot of stuff going on right now that matters more than the show. Us just getting back from the island, Mephone getting back from Mecloud, and...Silver's breakdown. But maybe when everyone is mentally well again, we can go and look for them. I can promise you that things will get better. Hopefully."

"...Guess that means Cobs is responsible for us getting stranded in the first place, huh?"

Test Tube was about to answer before the door to her lab opened, revealing Fan in the hallway. In his hand was Cabby's cornflower blue file. "Hey, Test Tube?" He called out to her, prompting her to whip her head around in surprise. "Oh, uhh...hey...Fan..." She said upon seeing Cabby's file in his hands, her face slowly turning into one of solemn.

"Thought I'd...give this back to you. Since you're back and all, I figured I...couldn't hold onto this anymore." Fan said as he passed the file over to her.

"Hold on, that's Cabby's last file, right? Where'd you get it from?" Nickel asked from the sidelines.

"...Cabby gave it to me before she died. She said it'd be safer with me." Test Tube replied, "I gave it to Fan cause I didn't think I'd be coming back so soon. I just...figured it'd be safer with him. Did you get a chance to read it?"