Dododex

ARK: Survival Evolved & Ascended Companion

The Arks: Over Heaven

Valentine's Special: Time Paradox

Original Post Date: Feb 12, 2024

Note: Story starts in Wyvern, Aerial ABC backwards filter and has a Prologue. Last chapter in Gasbags, next chapter in Fjordhawk. This chapter is a soft-canon Valentine’s Special that does not have relevance to the plot. It also contains spoilers to the story “The Terrible Demise of Tortuga” by SunnyFox57. It is highly recommended to read this story before reading the Valentine’s Special. It can be found in the All filter in alphabetical order and starts in Allosaurus.

~

“What’s wrong?” Ben asked as he leaned against the wall of his hut. Sunny had a troubled look on her face, her eyes squinted and her head hung in shame. Her bright orange hair seemed duller than usual.

“Ben, do you ever regret not finishing your story?” she questioned as she looked up with remorse.

Ben paused, then put his fists in his pockets. More vines continued to ensnare his limbs as he struggled to find the right answer.

“Yes. And no, at the same time,” Ben answered honestly, “I never really told you why I stopped working on my story, did I?”

“No. You never did,” Sunny replied, her eyes darting around the area. The others were still asleep. But Sunny knew that Ben hated revealing his secrets to people he didn’t trust. People like Samuel could make way with that information and use it against him, to either emotionally bribe Ben or get him on his side. Ben took his hands out of his pockets again and clasped them together, trying to feel some sort of semblance. Some sort of semblance to affection.

“I never finished my story because I-”

SWOOSH!

The air around them began to crackle, and suddenly the world around them began to corrupt. A chilling bellow echoed throughout their ears, as Ben and Sunny fell through time and space itself.

“Okay… I didn’t expect to be interrupted by THIS!” Ben shouted as he felt his words distort and replay all at once. The two of them looked around to see four figures falling with them. Samuel, Aurora, Neddy, and Ruby. But as Ben squinted his eyes, in the distance he could see a fifth. It was a girl with long, black, glittery hair.

“Who is that??” Sunny screamed.

SWOOSH!

In an instant, everything seemed to return to normal. A chilly wind brushed past their cheeks. They were in some small city that had stone paths and had buildings of the old days. It was the dark of night, and Ben felt a tight feeling on his body. He looked down to see himself in a black tuxedo with a red tie. Sunny was wearing an orange, modern dress that was the color of the sun.

“Where in the world are we?” Ben asked as he looked around, “And why do we have these uncomfortable suits on? What is going on here?!”

Before Ben continued to speak, he reached for his pocket, and let out a sigh of relief as he felt the soft touch of the hibiscus flower in his tuxedo pocket. He pulled it out a little and now it stuck out, like how a gentleman would wear it.

There were a few burning lights, but they could barely see whatsoever. The streets were barren, and it looked like a ghost town if they’d ever seen one.

“I don’t know, but something about this place looks familiar,” Sunny murmured as her head darted around the place, “Let’s look around. I saw the four recruits get transported with us. Maybe they’re somewhere around the area.”

The two began to wander the city, until eventually they spotted a woman marching toward them. The two stopped in their tracks, and as Sunny took a good look at her, her face washed with white.

“No, it can’t be,” Sunny whispered.

“What are you two doing out here? You two should be at the mayors’ manor!” the woman shouted at the two. As she marched up to them, Ben noticed she was carrying a rifle on her back, and had a dagger on her belt. She had a walkie-talkie too. She had long, blonde hair that was hanging in a braid down her back and stern, green eyes. She also wore a black uniform that blended in with the shadows of the night.

“Hello?? Can you not understand me or WHAT?!” she barked. She reached for her dagger, but Sunny raised her hand out with desperation.

“Wait! Please, we were going to go to the manor!” Sunny cried out, “But we’re new here and we don’t even know where it is… We’ve been walking around for ages but still haven’t found it. We’re new here, please forgive us. We’d never go disobeying the mayors’ verdict.”

The lady squinted her eyes at them, but eventually turned around and ushered them to follow her.

“Ugh. You must be from that crazy family with the ugly necklaces. Fine, you’re off the hook this time. Come with me. I’ll show you the manor, you’re lucky you ran into me and not the Executioner.”

“Lucky indeed,” Ben muttered as he followed along. Sunny walked closely behind, and Ben looked at Sunny as if she were crazy.

“Sunny, what are we doing in your story?!” Ben whisper-shouted, “What kind of madness have you put us through-”

“Look, I never asked to be put here in Tortuga, it’s not like I even have the power to make portals to fictional realms,” Sunny responded sarcastically, “We were brought here against our own will. For some reason, although I don’t know why.”

“So what are we even supposed to do now? Sure, this is better than stressing out on that island, but we can’t just stay here in this damned city! Who knows how time will pass, for all we know all our friends back in the Book Club are dead-”

“Don’t stress it, Ben,” Sunny assured Ben hastily, “Our survival matters most. We’ll figure a way out of here. Besides, we’ll know the day the British come. So if we do have to wait THAT long to get out of here, then we’ll go to the sewers before everyone else. We’ll be safe.”

“And what about the recruits?” Ben asked.

“They’ll be fine. Remember we have to worry about ourselves before anyone else.”

“Alright then,” Ben said as he adjusted his collar, “I guess we have a ball to attend.”

~

“Wahhhh, wew wew wew wew,” Neddy snored. He twisted and turned, until he noticed that he felt a large, scaly snout on his legs. He blinked his eyes, looked back, and his eyeballs nearly popped out the sockets at the sight. Even without his glasses, he saw a Sarcosuchus sleeping peacefully atop his legs.

“Uh oh-”

“Neddy, OMG thank goodness you’re awake, I thought you were done for!” a voice whispered. Neddy looked up to see a girl wearing an elegant red dress adorned with gems with her hands placed on her mouth.

“Uhhh, Ruby??” Neddy guessed. Ruby smiled.

“Yeah, yeah it’s me,” Ruby smirked as she leaned against a doorway.

“Are you going to help me out?” Neddy asked, “I think I’m trapped beneath the snout of a very very dangerous, possibly hungry man-eater. I’d prefer to get out of here as soon as possible!”

“Of course, of course,” Ruby whispered back. She tippy-toed over to Neddy’s legs, crouched down, and gently lifted the beast’s snout off Neddy’s legs. He wiggled away, and Ruby laid its snout onto the floor.

“Whew, thanks for that Ruby,” Neddy thanked Ruby, “Now should we get out of here?”

“Yes, I think we should.”

The two quickly creeped out the doorway and into a dining room. The walls were made of glass panes and they could see out into a gentle man-made river. They were in a boathouse.

“Hey this house is pretty nice,” Neddy commented as he blinked rapidly.

“It’s dark, huh? It’s even a little hard for me to see,” Ruby realized, “I want to make a torch, or anything really but for some reason, I can’t fathom the idea of even making one.”

“What do you mean? You can make anything!”

“Neddy, I don’t know what was happening to us in our sleep, but when I woke up I saw we were traveling through this weird void. I saw four other people falling too. Aurora, Samuel, Ben, and the girl with orange hair.”

“So we’re not alone in this. But where else could they be?”

“I don’t know, but we’re going to have to find out. Maybe we can find some people, they’ll know if they saw any emo girls and emo boys and orange-haired girls and, well, you get the point,” Ruby declared with closed eyes.

So with that plan set, the two headed out the presumably front door, and noticed a large gathering of people walking toward a large manor. They were all wearing formal attire.

“Hey, I think they’re going somewhere,” Neddy pointed at them, “I guess we should follow them.”

There were a few lamp posts that followed the stone paths, and Ruby noticed that Neddy was wearing a white dress shirt and black bowtie. He was also wearing black dress pants. Neat.

“I don’t know if you look like a gentleman or a nerd,” Ruby said as she looked Neddy up and down. Then she grinned, “I guess you look more like the former.”

“HA HA,” Neddy laughed boisterously, “Wait, really?”

“Yeah dude, you look snazzy!” Ruby said while slugging his shoulder playfully.

The two continued to laugh the night away. Even with this crazy situation going on, it wasn’t that bad if the two were together in it. It would never be that bad.

Yeah, it was pretty nice, actually.

~

“I guess everyone’s having a fun time on the dance floor, huh?” Samuel scoffed as he looked at everyone slow dancing on the stone floor. He was wearing a black polo shirt with black jeans. Aurora took a sip of grape juice out of a glass as she looked on at the participants with jealousy.

“Yeah, yeah they are,” Aurora spat. She was wearing a black dress that had white speckles of light pouring out of it. Aurora nodded her head toward a couple who looked pretty young. They looked no older than middle schoolers, and they were bouncing together left and right. Clearly, they had no experience dancing.

“Just look at this sappy garbage, what is this, Valentine’s Day?” Aurora asked with squinted eyes, “Hilarious.”

“Okay emo girl with the moody no-romance sort of thing,” Samuel chuckled as he stared at a couple who was slowly dancing meticulously, almost perfectly. One wore an aquamarine dress, while the other a fancy tuxedo. Samuel didn’t know why, but seeing these two dancing like that made him feel like he wanted something more.

“Okay so I guess last night didn’t happen then, huh?” Aurora sneered while shooting a death glare at Samuel.

“What am I even supposed to say to that sort of thing?!” Samuel asked with his arms in the air, “When you make a move like that! I mean come on, we’re on some island that wants us to die at any moment, you think I can handle that sort of information?”

Aurora sighed, turning her head away with a glare.

“Whatever… We can’t even worry about that now, we’re here in another place and we don’t know how dangerous. For now let’s just wait it out. We’ll see if some person comes in saying it was all just some massive prank.”

A few more minutes of waiting, and eventually a boy came strolling in the manor as if it were his home. It was hard to describe him for sure, but all Samuel knew for sure was that he looked like a massive douchebag.

The boy, despite being at least a few inches shorter than the two of them, began to walk the perimeter of the dance floor, carefully inspecting all of the girls, until eventually he reached Samuel and Aurora.

“Oh my, you are quite a lovely lady!” the boy gasped as his eyes met Aurora’s. Aurora raised an eyebrow at him.

“Why I’ve never had the pleasure to meet you, stranger,” the scumbag cooed, “What is such a pretty lady like you doing alone on the sidelines? You should be dancing with someone like me, Mike.”

Aurora burst into laughter, leaving Mike a little flabbergasted. Samuel couldn’t help but snort too. The whole situation was so funny to the both of them.

“Are you serious?” Aurora asked.

“Y-Yes, I am serious! I am the one who owns this manor that you step your feet in at this moment, and I am the one who runs this town! I could have you executed for your insolence!” the scumbag, Mike, shouted into her face.

“Oh come on, why would I dance with you? You look no older than a freshie!” Aurora giggled with a devilish smile.

“What is that supposed to even mean?!”

“Doesn’t matter,” Aurora grinned, as she slyly grabbed onto Samuel’s arms. Samuel groaned to himself as he realized he’d have to play along now, “I’m already taken for the night, right Sammy Wammy?”

“Yep, that’s right,” Samuel quickly lied. He then added with remarkable cleverness, “Sorry lil bro. I guess you lucked out tonight… Better luck next time, am I right? Don’t worry, there’s plenty of fish in the sea.”

Aurora giggled, and she led the two away to the dance floor, leaving the mayor to fume with anger, humiliated by two strangers who weren’t even citizens of the town.

“Heh heh, that was pretty funny,” Aurora laughed as they walked near the center of the dance floor.

“Yeah, yeah it was,” Samuel replied, “But did you REALLY have to give me a pet name like THAT?!”

~

“Dude, look, look at that guy over there!” Ben said while pointing at a smug looking individual who was wearing a white suit. He had a terribly trimmed goatee and dirt brown hair that kneaded into curly knots.

“Dude, I think that’s Michael,” Sunny whispered back, not wanting to alert the attention of the peacekeeper.

“That’s hilarious. You never said what he looked like, he’s even uglier in person!” Ben snickered as he walked along the stone path. He looked ahead to see that the peacekeeper had her back turned on them. Ben looked at Michael, and then back at Sunny, and then tilted his head.

“I have a good idea. Let’s follow this guy.”

“What are you planning?”

“Nothing nothing this is going to be so funny, we’re just going to mess with him that’s all,” Ben whispered.

“Really, Ben? Is now the time for practical jokes?” Sunny whispered with unamusement.

“Come on, nothing could go wrong, I’ve always hated that creepazoid. I wanna at least have a little fun here, you know? This is crazy, how you can just interact with your own characters! Come on, haven’t you wanted to sock that creepazoid at least once??”

Sunny sighed, then began to storm toward Michael.

“Alright, fine. Let’s do this.”

“Woo hoo! Now, I have like, the perfect idea for what we’re going to do to him. It’s gonna be hilarious.”

The two snuck past the peacekeeper and started to slowly follow Michael. At first, Ben thought that maybe it wasn’t a good idea to mess with Michael. If the course of the timeline changed at any moment, who knew what sort of trouble could occur?

But, considering they had gotten here under strange circumstances, Ben decided that now wasn’t the time to be going over the logistics of their current situation.

By now, the two were following closely behind Michael, watching as he approached the manor closer and closer.

“Okay, so the plan is we… Give him a little gift,” Ben said, as he bent forward to pick up a clump of dirt. Sunny grinned in approval, and picked up a wad of dirt as well.

“Okay, GOT IT,” Sunny replied with a devious smile.

The two walked toward Michael, and as soon as they did, they both tripped over air and landed the dirt on Michael’s suit and hair respectively.

“What in tarnation-” Michael’s ears began to burst with steam, as he clenched his fists and turned around with an enraged expression on his face.

Ben opened his mouth in fake surprise, and Sunny covered her mouth with a gasp.

“OMG, we are like, so sorry, for that inconvenience!” Ben apologized sarcastically.

“I know, right?” Sunny added on, “And like, we know you have a date to go to, with, Emma. Oh wait, sorry, she’d never get with the likes of you. She’s with another boy who’s better than you!”

The two burst into laughter, and Michael gritted his teeth and grabbed Ben’s collar and raised his fist in the air.

“Oh you are SO getting it now! How do you even know about that?!” Michael shouted as spit flew out of his mouth and onto Ben’s flower.

As soon as THAT happened, Ben boiled up in rage.

“Dude, NOT COOL, dude,” Ben replied with a sneer. He leaned his head back and then bashed it into Michael’s face! Michael let out a cry of pain, and then dropped Ben to the ground. He held his nose in pain as blood spilled out of his nostrils and onto his lip.

Ben quickly got up, looked at Sunny, and she nodded back in affirmation.

“RUN!” they both yelled as they made a dash for the manor.

As the two attempted to flee from the mayor though, Michael glared and reached for a walkie-talkie. He pressed a button and began to speak into it.

“I want ALL the peacekeepers AND the Executioner to leave their posts and go to the manor, now! Two people just assaulted me and I want them hanged!”

“What’s their description?” a voice crackled from the other side.

“One’s a girl wearing an orange dress and the other is a boy that has a flower sticking out of his breast pocket, they’ll stick out like sore thumbs!”

“Okay, sir, we’re on it right now,” the Executioner replied with a soft chuckle, “Ahh, looks like I’ll have someone to kill, finally.”

~

“This sure is an extravagant lookin’ place,” Neddy said as they looked around the place. The two had followed the large family into a manor, and there seemed to be a dance taking place. Lovers danced and twirled within each others’ arms and some classical music was playing in the background.

“Hey, look, it’s Samuel and Aurora! And they’re dancing!” Ruby gasped in shock. Samuel and Aurora were slow dancing, and Aurora was holding his hand and they looked like true lovers.

“Oooooh,” Neddy giggled, “If only I had a camera to save this.”

The two approached Aurora and Samuel, and as they did they began to laugh. The two turned to them with a peculiar look.

“Neddy? Ruby?” Samuel asked politely.

“Ha ha, you two should look at yourselves! You two look like you’re in loooove,” Ruby teased the two of them. Neddy and Ruby laughed, and Samuel’s face dropped in annoyance.

“We’re only dancing because some scumbag was trying to get with Aurora, so now we have to keep this game up or he’ll see right through us,” Samuel explained. Aurora hesitantly nodded along.

“Yeah, yeah that’s right,” Aurora said, “We hate each other's guts. I’d never be seen with the likes of Samuel.”

“Well we just caught you!” Neddy blurted.

The two laughed again, and Samuel shook his head in disapproval.

“Whatever, just go ahead and dance together or something,” Samuel said.

“You know what? That’s what we should do,” Ruby said. She turned to Neddy, and pointed a finger at him.

“Dance off!”

Ruby began to pull out a few crazy moves, twirling around like a ballerina and letting her hair flow around like crazy. After she was finished, Neddy did a dance of his own. He kicked the floor, began to move his arms back and forth, and finally to finish it off he moonwalked all over.

“Okay, okay you know your stuff!” Ruby shouted back, “But you can’t surpass this move!”

Ruby instantly dropped to the floor and began to do the worm, and somehow, she jumped back onto her feet, spun around, and all while on HER HEELS.

Neddy’s mouth opened in shock, and by now a crowd had started to form. Murmurs of excitement echoed throughout the manor’s halls, and even Mike the scumbag was watching in curiosity.

“Oh yeah? Well guess what?”

“What?”

“Chicken butt!”

“Gosh damn it Neddy!”

Neddy got on his head and began to break dance! Everyone gasped and began to cheer loudly, pumping their fists in the air as Ruby could only look around and watch in terror. She was losing the dance battle!

“NO! I can’t lose now!” Ruby thought with a glare, “We’ve only just started! Well too bad for Neddy that he used his last trump card too early. I already have something better than his little break dancing up my sleeve!”

~

“Those two look like they’re having fun,” Emma told Andrew as they held hands while watching, “Who do you have your bets on?”

“I definitely think the nerdy one is winning,” Andrew replied with a grin.

Suddenly, the manor doors burst open, and Ben and Sunny rushed through the ballroom in a panic.

“WATCH OUTTTT!” Ben screamed as he dived into the crowd. Everyone let out gasps as the two weaved their way through the crowd, trying to get lost by the peacekeepers who were chasing them.

A few peacekeepers entered the ballroom with their rifles out and pointed at the crowd. Everyone screamed and began to disperse.

“Darn it! We need to find a hiding place!” Sunny yelled.

“You think we can follow the crowd?”

“We can’t, they’ll notice me easily. We need to find a hiding place,” Sunny said. She sighed as she continued to run for her life, “Perhaps we shouldn’t have messed with the mayor.”

“Whatever. Doesn’t matter. We both know this place better than the mayors themselves, right?”

“Right,” Sunny replied as they made a bolt for an emergency exit.

But as soon as they approached the door, it burst open and a giant man wielding an axe walked in.

“Tsk tsk, look who we have here,” the Executioner laughed as he stomped their way toward the two. The two heard rifles being readied, and a woman shouted out to the two of them.

“Freeze! Hands in the air, both of you!”

The two stopped right in their tracks, and slowly raised their hands in the air.

“Welp,” Ben said, “We’re screwed.”

“Well, well, well,” the voice of the creepazoid slithered into their ears. Michael walked in front of the two writers with his hands clasped behind his back and a pleased smile on his face.

“Looks like I finally caught you two. You must be crazy if you think you can just humiliate me like that and be let go with no punishment,” Michael sneered, “You will be EXECUTED! Guards, have them arrested and taken to the town square!”

Michael turned to the woman peacekeeper, Helen, the one who had originally escorted Ben and Sunny to the manor.

“You, round up all the citizens and have them watch this execution. That will send a message. A message that all who dare rebel or oppose me shall face the same fate as these dimwits. I’ll be waiting in the town square…”

Michael let out an evil laugh, and he walked away, the authors’ fates sealed.

~

Neddy was getting really worried for Ben and the orange-haired girl.

One minute he was having a dance battle with Ruby (which he very clearly won), and the next, men and women carrying guns barged in chasing the two down. Neddy didn’t stick around to find out why they were there, but it was pretty obvious what was going on. The two were being arrested.

And now, Neddy and his allies were being brought to the town square, for some unknown reason by the woman with the gun.

“Something’s wrong, I can feel it,” Aurora said as she looked around worriedly.

“You can’t feel anything wrong,” Samuel butted in, “That’s not how it works.”

“You should feel something wrong,” someone said. They turned around to see an interesting looking fellow with aging hair and an aging body facing them.

“What do you mean by that, old man?” Neddy asked.

“They only round up the citizens for one thing,” the man explained, “A hanging. A hanging for the most serious crimes, like murder or worse.”

“But Ben and Sunny aren’t even evil! They’re normal people who barely just graduated,” Ruby protested.

“Yeah, well ever since that rat Michael and his brothers came into power following their parents’ passing, I could anticipate things going downhill. He’s probably on an ego trip, using his power to execute those he despises.”

“Who the heck is that-” Neddy was cut off by the man.

“Listen,” the man said, crouching down to look them in the eye, “I know you four don’t belong here. I would’ve known if there were more people coming to Tortuga. Once they find out you aren’t one of us they’ll kill you too. You need to escape as fast as you can.”

“We can’t do that,” Samuel said, “We need Ben and the orange-haired girl for… reasons. We can’t abandon them now. I figured, those two know more about this place than any of us. Why else would they get in trouble so easily?”

The man sighed, then began to retreat into the crowd.

“Whatever you say, but don’t say I didn’t warn you…”

Samuel nodded toward Ruby and Neddy.

“You two should find a hiding place. Those people with the guns will probably all be here at once, no one will patrol the streets. If all of us get caught then that won’t be good, me and Aurora will stay behind and find a way to get those two out of their situation.”

Neddy opened his mouth to protest, but Ruby stopped him.

“We can’t argue about it now. Let’s just listen and leave, we can go to that boat house, I don’t think the ones with guns want to investigate a house with a freakin’ crocodile in it!”

Wordlessly, the two quickly fled the scene, leaving Samuel and Aurora to sort the problem out on their own.

~

A half hour later, two familiar friends were being forced onto the plank. Ben and Sunny. They both wore fancy suits and dresses. Their hands were bound behind their back, and Ben’s left eye was swollen, as if someone had socked him right in the face.

“That’s them,” Samuel said, looking at the two.

“So what’s the plan?” Aurora asked.

“We need to prevent that plank from dropping at all costs,” Samuel revealed his master plan, “I see two levers on the sides there. Those are probably to release the planks they are standing upon. An armed individual at each lever. We can sneak up on them and take them out easily.”

Aurora’s eyes scanned the area, and she saw three other guards in the area, along with a man holding a giant axe.

“What about those ones? They’ll shoot us-”

“We’ll shoot them first,” Samuel said, “We can use the stages as cover. And besides I highly doubt they’d want to risk shooting their own men.”

“Okay, let’s do this then,” Aurora replied while clenching her fist. Samuel decided that he would take the left (where Ben was), and Aurora would take the right (where Sunny was).

The two snuck their way through the crowd, not wanting to be seen by any of the armed ones. As they did, the two guards who were manning the levers tied nooses around the two “criminals”. Sunny had a gloomy look on her face while Ben looked pretty… happy.

“Well do you two have any last words?” Michael asked with a grin, “I’ll let the boy go first.”

“Oh, me?” Ben asked with a raised eyebrow. He could feel his heart hammering against his chest. Out of all the places he wanted to die, he didn’t want to die here. He didn’t want to die to some creepazoid. What a humiliating way to go!

“Well, I guess this is it, huh?” Ben said, looking on at the crowd, “You probably don’t even know who I am or care about who I am… But whatever. At least I’ll die for a good cause, heh. I’m sure this will appease the… Executioner's bloodlust. I know he’s been aching for a kill for a while now. Hopefully that will prevent… some people’s deaths.”

The Executioner gasped.

“What?! How did he know?!” he asked in horror.

“And, of course, we can’t forget about that creepazoid Michael. Heh. You guys should’ve seen the look on that guy’s face when we pelted him with dirt! It was HILARIOUS! Ahh, what a twig.”

A snort echoed from the crowd, and Michael looked FURIOUS.

“I heard that!” Michael shouted, “You know what? Just kill him, NOW!”

The peacekeeper reached for the lever…

~

“WAIT!” Sunny shouted, “Don’t, don’t do it yet. Please. Can you at least let me say my last words?”

The peacekeeper looked at Sunny, sighed, then dropped her hand. Michael chuckled in amusement, crossing his arms slyly.

“Alright. I’ll entertain you.”

Sunny closed her eyes, and then opened them again.

“Emma! I know you’re out there somewhere,” Sunny called out. There were murmurs of confusion.

“Do you know her?” Andrew asked as he held onto Emma’s hand. Emma shook her head.

“No, but, I feel like…” Emma continued with squinted eyes, “I feel like I’ve known her forever.”

“Emma…” Sunny shouted with a smile, “I just wanted to let you know, I’m proud of you. I couldn’t have gotten to where I was without you. So, thank you. Keep going out with someone you truly love, kay? And keep an eye out for your parents, okay? They’re going to need it.”

Aragorn, Emma’s father, shuffled uncomfortably at the sight.

“This just feels… wrong, it feels like my daughter is being hanged herself,” Aragorn muttered to Arianna. Arianna put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“And Ben?” Sunny said while looking at him, “You don’t need to tell me the answer to my question anymore.”

“I already know the answer.”

“Okay, finally,” Michael sneered, “No idea why you know so much about Emma, but that won’t matter now. Cause you’re about to DIE!”

By now, Samuel and Aurora had already reached the guards. Just a grab and they’d be instantly dealt with. But as Samuel reached his hands out for the peacemaker’s neck, he spotted a familiar girl in the crowd. A very very familiar girl. A girl with glittery, long black hair that fell to her chest and a worried expression that stuck out compared to the rest of the disorganized crowd.

“Nova?” Samuel asked as his eyes widened with surprise.

CREAK!

The plank that was carrying Ben dropped, and Ben plummeted to his demise. His body hung loose in the noose, and people let out gasps of shock. Not because Ben had perished, but because-

Sunny’s plank hadn’t dropped yet.

Aurora had her hands on the peacemaker’s neck, quickly strangling him to death and snatching the rifle away from his hands. She pointed the rifle at the guards and began shooting away.

“What the- WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS-” Michael couldn’t finish his words as he was finished off too, and his body collapsed to the ground, dead. Aragorn had a worried look on his face, and suddenly he turned as white as his old brother.

“Wait a minute. That girl… That girl isn’t supposed to be here!” Aragorn shouted as he pointed at her, “That girl… That girl is FICTION! I know her fate! She is supposed to be-”

BOOM!

“What is going on?!” Samuel asked as the world began to tear apart. Buildings began to crumble, and tears in the sky suddenly began to open. Hundreds of thousands of creatures and humans alike began to pour in, and Samuel’s vision felt like it was frying.

“I can’t see anything…” Samuel said as darkness consumed the world, “Something happened.”

“The world’s collapsing!” Sunny announced as she looked around worriedly. Aurora, through all the chaos, clambered onto the stage and freed Sunny from her constraints.

“It’s probably from the fact that too many things that were never supposed to happen in the timeline occurred all at once!” Sunny realized. The three regrouped. They had no time to react, however, as their vision was filled with lines and lines of dialogue, words, thoughts, EVERYTHING.

“What- is- going- on?”

And in an instant, it all ended.

~

“What’s wrong?” Ben asked as he leaned against the wall of his hut. Sunny had a troubled look on her face, her eyes squinted and her head hung in shame. Her bright orange hair seemed duller than usual.

“Ben, do you ever regret not finishing your story?” she questioned as she looked up with remorse.

Ben paused, then put his fists in his pockets. More vines continued to ensnare his limbs as he struggled to find the right answer.

“Yes. And no, at the same time,” Ben answered honestly, “I never really told you why I stopped working on my story, did I?”

“No. You never did,” Sunny replied, her eyes darting around the area. The others were still asleep. But Sunny knew that Ben hated revealing his secrets to people he didn’t trust. People like Samuel could make way with that information and use it against him, to either emotionally bribe Ben or get him on his side. Ben took his hands out of his pockets again and clasped them together, trying to feel some sort of semblance. Some sort of semblance to affection.

“I never finished my story because I… I didn’t have the heart to… hurt my characters any longer,” Ben replied, “They suffered through a lot. Too much, actually. All for the sake of love. So I stopped it.”

Ben felt a chill down his spine, but he ignored it. Just the wind, probably.

“And besides,” Ben continued, “I no longer had a muse.”

“I understand how that feels,” Sunny replied, “I felt the same way when I killed… You know who off.”

“I know. You know I hated Michael for that, right?” Ben said with a soft laugh. Sunny laughed back. Ben sighed, and he scratched the back of his head.

“Well, I applaud you for your work. You finished The Terrible Demise of Tortuga, and I couldn’t even finish my story. I’ll always respect ya for that. You have a writer’s courage, I don’t.”

“Don’t say that about yourself,” Sunny said, “I’m sure your story could have been phenomenal.”

Just then, someone exited the thatch hut. Samuel.

“Morning, you two,” Samuel said.

“Morning,” Ben replied, “Freshen up and get ready. Grab your weapons and supplies, we’ll be going out as soon as Skyler gives the word.”

“Yeah yeah whatever,” Samuel replied as he walked off.

Although Sunny felt like something else should have happened, nothing did. It was nothing.

“Probably just my imagination,” Sunny thought. She blasted herself with a wave of warmth using her implant attribute, all while she waited for the rest of the camp to wake up.