Perfection.

by 4X3LL3X

Summary:

Some of the twisteds are changing. More violent, more angry, more cunning.

And very, very hungry.

Notes:

Perfection, but with a few changes. Hopefully, a more coherent fanfic this time hehe :)

I hope you guys enjoy this better than the last one. And i would LOVE to hear your theories because sometimes its better than my own ideas LOL. Some NTs have changes. CF12 will stay the same. Light will be a bit different, but the toon he is will stay the same (i hope yall have worked it out already)

Chapter 1: The beginning.

Another run. Endless runs, over and over, repeated until each toon was tired. Main runs, fast runs, stealth runs- it was just overly repetitive with no end goal in sight. No reason to fight, no reason to extract- absolutely nothing. Each toon was left to wallow in their own misery. Some had tried to find other ways to let out their anger- fighting, rotting in bed, and overeating. Each toon had their own vice, and it was ruining them.

Another main run. With, of course, Cosmo tagging along. Ever since he had gotten his hands on that thinking cap and distracted for an entire floor while Sprout was collecting tapes for Pebble, Vee had been a little more lenient about letting him in. Picking up meds was a waste for them, but if they had a toon to convert that into heals- that’s what they really needed. Pebble seemed to enjoy the new addition to their team, and Sprout seemed much more motivated to actually do things on each floor- though Vee and Shelly thought that was just so he could look cooler in front of the toon.

Cosmo was enjoying these runs. A little bit of excitement in their otherwise repetitive and boring new lives, but he knew that would wear off soon. All of the other toons found it boring, after all, and even Pebble seemed to find it getting a little repetitive, which was shocking, because he usually loved it. But everything was the same, everything was getting boring, and it seemed like Cosmo was the only one actually having any sort of fun.

“I’m quite surprised we haven’t gotten a main yet.” Vee mumbled, crossing her arm as she leaned against one of the walls, seeming quite unimpressed with how this run was going so far. Not that she was complaining about it being easier because of the lack of mains- mostly just because it was boring. “Usually we’d have about five Sprouts by now, hm?”

“Maybe they're just not feeling it today?” Shelly shrugged, there was no way she was going to complain about it! She jumped a bit on her feet, watching the lift slowly creak open, “Let’s get this done and get back now, yeah? One last floor and we’ll go back up. Maybe have a little bit of dinner?”

“You saying that you're expecting me to do it?” Sprout gave her a small grin, and Shelly quickly shook her head in response, even though both of them knew it was true, “It’s a good way to relax. You’ll help me, right Cosmo?”

“Of course!”

“Right. Then let’s get in and out, ey?”

All of the other toons nodded, before parting ways as the lift doors opened. It opened out to Astro’s room, and both Astro and Cosmo couldn’t help but gush. No toon could deny the amount of enjoyment they got from the room. The cool lights and the small solar system installations and the fact even the shelves looked damn futuristic meant it was quite the favourite among all of the other toons. Each of the toons split off into smaller groups. Shelly and Vee ran (well, Vee walked watching Shelly eagerly run) to do a large portion of machines in a corner, Astro and Pebble went to round up the the twisteds, while Sprout and Cosmo went to find items, hopefully heals and other items so Sprout could grind tapes and be ready just in case everyone started getting hit all of a sudden for no reason.

“No heals again.” Cosmo sighed, clearly not too happy about it. For the last, what, fifteen floors there hadn’t been a single medkit or bandage. Even Dandy didn’t have one, giving them a confused shrug, but he was probably just teasing them as Cosmo kept complaining about the lack of heals, “You got any look of anything good.”

“Nope. Just stealth and skillcheck. Want one?”

“Sprout, what the hell?”

“I’m pulling your leg.”

Both of the toons quickly used their veemotes, before moving onto different machines. Sprout gave him a small wink, and Cosmo rolled his eyes dramatically, turning back to his new machine. His fingers danced over the wheel, now much more comfortable with the thing, especially with the thinking cap equipped, and Sprout watched him for a moment, before turning back to his own machine.

“What are you playing now?” Sprout hummed, noticing the way that Cosmo was fiddling with his fingers. Cosmo thought for a moment, before shrugging.

“Random notes. Nothing great.” Cosmo gave him a small grin before going back to doing the machine, not paying much attention at all. “What are you gonna cook for us all tonight then? I hope it's not another chocolate cake.”

“I promise it won’t be! No, no. Some actual food this time. I’ll have to make about six different meals for all the toons, but that’s not that big of a deal. You’ll help me, yeah?”

“Well, with the amount you’ve got to do, it’ll be rude not to.”

Sprout flashed him another smile, before they went back to doing the machines in silence. Not much to say to each other, after all. They often spent almost all of their time together, so Cosmo and Sprout enjoyed the silence, the comfortable emptiness that was one awkward, but wasn’t as much so anymore. Sprout finished first, waiting a few moments for Cosmo, before he also finished is, following after Sprout as they moved onto the next pair.

“Pretty quick work, right?” Shelly and Vee were also around the centre, and she gave Cosmo a few exciting words of encouragement before going back to her machine, humming and moving back and forth happily. “Ah, I can’t wait to get back to the hub! Reuniting with Tisha, hanging out with the other toons… Maybe I’m a little too excited to get out of here.”

“I don’t blame you.” Vee mumbled, using her microphone again to highlight the twisteds. The first time, only Astro and Pebble paid attention to where the twisteds were, but this time, all of the toons realised there was actually only one twisted on this floor. “That’s strange. Usually we have about four or five by now. Are the twisteds getting sloppy or have we just been speeding through this too quickly?”

“Maybe they're sleeping.” Cosmo said thoughtfully, tapping his face with his right hand again, before glancing back at them, “Or maybe their dissolving? Or maybe…”

“We get it, dude.” Sprout nudged his shoulder.

They noticed Astro and Pebble running over to them, both of them looking just as confused and a little annoyed. Pebble barked at them, running around in a small circle in an attempt to get them to follow. When none of the toons moved, all staying rooted in their own spots, Pebble started to claw at Cosmo’s legs, tugging at the bottom of his jumper and trying to get him to follow along. Cosmo let out an annoyed sigh, before kneeling down in front of him, rubbing his face gently, but Pebble gave him another bark, his teeth gripping into Cosmo’s sleeve and trying to pull him along.

“What is it, little guy? Come on, Pebs, we’re trying to do machines…” Cosmo sighed, before standing up and following him. Rather than leading him to the twisteds, he led Cosmo to the lift, then sat, as if expecting Cosmo to do the same. Expecting him to hide at the lift and to not do anything, as if he knew something that Cosmo didn’t. “Sorry, little guy. But I want to help my team! I can’t do much of that if I’m just sitting here and giving you attention, can I?”

Cosmo glanced up at Astro, who had followed them. The crescent seemed just as confused as he did, kneeling down to try and get Pebble to calm down, holding out a hand for Cosmo to grab so they could do machines together. Pebble wasn’t having it though, going so far as to start growling at Astro. Yes, growling, which Pebble had never ever done before. Growling. Astro frowned at him, and Pebble whined, following the pair along. Not wanting to put too much distance between him and Cosmo.

“Sorry, Cosmo. I don’t know what’s wrong with him.” Astro had only one hand peeking out of his blanket, which was still holding onto Cosmo’s hand. The rest of his blanket was still wrapped tightly around himself, and he didn’t quite look Cosmo in the eyes. “I think he’s just a bit tense because he’s bored. Let’s keep moving, yeah? I think there’s a few machines over where that twisted is…”

“I don’t understand- Pebble isn’t distracting? Are you sure we’ll be okay.”

“Mhm. I’m sure.” Astro’s hand tightened on Cosmo’s. His fingers gently rubbed against the other toon’s knuckles, “It’s asleep.”

“Asleep?”

“Yes…”

“But twisteds can’t sleep? I thought- isn’t this a solid fact? I mean, it’s one of the only things that Dandy actually told us. Only the passives do that, but that looks like twisted Pebble, not like a passive.”

“I don’t really understand either, to be honest. Let’s just get this done.”

Both of them stepped into the smaller side room. It was by the broken lift, to the left, a very small room with quite a few machines in there. Certainly abnormal, but the two toons exchanged a very gentle smile, as if trying to reassure each other that it would be okay. Twisteds couldn’t change. They were always the same. From the doorway, Pebble stood watch, his ears flattened and tail raised, low growls coming out of his mouth every time the twisted moved.

Shelly, Sprout and Vee finally came around the corner, as there were only three machines left- so Sprout jumped onto the final one as Shelly walked with Vee back to the lift. Pebble refused to leave his position, so Shelly just smiled at Vee, the pair walking along so Vee didn’t get caught out and hit when it really wasn’t necessary.

“I can’t believe this.” Cosmo mumbled, and Pebble quickly barked at him. Cosmo frowned, looking down at him, trying to get him down from scraping at his leg, “Stop it, boy. I best ask Dandy what’s going on with you…” With each word, Pebble barked, as if trying to speak over him, trying to drown out every sound he made. “Pebble! Bad boy. Come on.”

“He looks really worried…” Astro mumbled, pulling away from his machine and turning around, “Maybe he’s in heat or something?”

“He’s a rock, Astro.” Sprout chuckled, but it wasn’t a strange idea. After all, the toons mostly had human behaviours, so he certainly wouldn’t doubt the idea that Pebble had animal behaviours. “Let’s just get this floor done and get back. Hopefully, this time Dandy will give us answers.”

A shuffle.

A shuffle.

Another shuffle.

Twisted Pebble.

Slowly, it opened its eyes. The four toons froze, pressing themselves tightly against the machines. At first, the twisted didn’t quite move, as if adjusting to what was going on around them. Pebble barked, trying to pull him away, but the twisted just stood there, straightening up and glancing around.

Nothing, at first. It completely ignored Pebble’s bark. First, it looked at Astro. It still didn’t move, looking uninterested. Then, at Sprout, and still didn’t move, uninterested. Pebble didn’t interest it either, but when it fully turned around and saw Cosmo, something snapped. Slowly, his jaw widened, revealing a disgusting set of teeth. Ichor dribbled out, falling into puddles on the floor.

Rows upon rows of teeth. Each sharper than the last. Pointed. Harsh. Ready to rip rather than eat. Some of the toons had sharper teeth, of course, but never, nothing ever like that. Ichor continued to drip onto the ground, more like thick gloops rather than small dribbles like saliva, and he took a single step forward. It was bigger, with a massive tail that could sweep you straight off your feet in a single swipe. And the tongue was even worse, swiping along its teeth as if it had seen a tasty meal. A tasty meal- Cosmo. Pebble barked again, its voice horse from the fact it was still on cooldown, but twisted Pebble ignored it, taking a single step. Cosmo stumbled back as the twisted leaned forward, their faces almost pressed together. A shuddery and shaky sigh came out of Cosmo’s mouth, and he looked terrified. The other toons started to panic, and Sprout, in a moment of desperate stupidity, ran forward and just pulled on the twisted’s tail. It spun around. It growled. And Cosmo took off running.

Pebble barked, trying to run after him. Twisted Pebble turned back, and started running at a speed faster than they had ever seen before. Cosmo screamed, continuing to run in circles around the centre, eating all of his speed sweets in an attempt to try and get away. Vee and Shelly saw, and were incredibly confused, starting to bang loudly on the lift door, hoping that Dandy would answer and open it for them.

Cosmo continued to run. The only reason he hadn’t been caught and ripped into tiny little bits was because he kept turning sharp corners, and because Pebble kept getting under the twisted’s feet to try and get it to trip over. Each time, the twisted slowed, before going back to running at high speeds.

Cosmo’s stamina was getting low. Astro tried to run over to use his ability, but Pebble got stuck under his legs, knocking them both over as Cosmo fell on a random sweet that had been left behind.

Cosmo skidded to the floor. Carpet burns. Pain. All he could do was turn around.

Agony.

Absolute and genuine agony.

The twisted had caught up. It had opened its jaw too much to be an actual, full, real twisted. To be normal. To be right. Cosmo was shaking, his trembling arms shooting up to try and cover his face, panting and barely even able to think nor breathe right. Genuine terror as he rolled onto his stomach, covering his head to make sure it didn’t get ripped straight off. He kicked his legs a bit as Pebble started running over, but it was too late.

A blood curdling scream. Teeth sunk straight into Cosmo’s leg. It sunk in. It stayed. It gripped. It tightened. It pulled. Pastry came away very easily, but taking a chunk out of Cosmo’s skin was bound to fucking hurt. He continued to lay there, wheezing and sobbing as the adrenaline was the only thing keeping him alive at the moment. Ichor pooled onto the carpet around where they were, seeping onto the floor. A massive chunk was missing. And now, now all he could do was lay there, shaking, gasping as his tears hit the floor.

The twisted let out a happy woof, sitting back on its heels. And it ate. Cosmo refused to look, refused to pull back and refused to even focus on anything that wasn’t the floor or darkness when he closed his eyes. But he could hear it. Hear the squishing, the slurping, and the eventual consuming of his skin.

“Cosmo!”

Cosmo didn’t move. Footsteps quickly ran over, and grabbed him, scooping him up before going back to running. Cosmo continued to cover his face with his hands, trying not to vomit everywhere from the pain, burying his face in the chest of whoever had saved him. All he could do was stay there, wanting for this to be over with. Footsteps hit the floor, and Cosmo could feel the light of the lift pressing against his face, reassuring him that safety was coming.

A small mewl was ripped from the back of his throat. Hands tightened on him as they got onto the lift, the door slamming shut behind them. Cosmo pulled his face back, looking at all the concerned toons. Then, he looked up, seeing Dandy was the one who had grabbed him. Concern was written all over his face as he sank to the floor, propping Cosmo’s back against the wall, looking at the wound.

It hurt. So bad. Cosmo threw his head back, covering his mouth as tears streamed quickly down his face. He jerked, from the pure agony, watching Dandy pull a medkit out of his inventory and use it to wrap up the wound. Cosmo’s hands trembled as he panted, he shook, he tried to draw in breath but was unable to fully endure what was happening. Sprout kneeled beside him, pulling him in, and Cosmo gripped onto his shirt, wheezing into his chest.

“Astro. Put him to sleep.” Dandy snapped, his voice rough and harsh, not giving Astro much of a choice as to what they could do. Astro quickly kneeled and nodded, taking Cosmo onto his own grip, pulling him nervously onto his lap. A moment, and he pulled Cosmo beneath his blanket, humming very gently to him. Cosmo got woozy. Cosmo leaned his head back. And he was out. “Wait. Don’t send us up. Leaving this alone for too long will fuck it up.”

He pulled back the bandages, pulling some tweezers out of his pocket.

“Didn’t you just wrap it up?” Vee asked, kneeling beside him, looking at the wound. “I don’t mean to question you here, but…”

“I didn’t want him to see it.” Dandy mumbled, gently plucking one of the teeth from the wound, which had gotten lodged in the wound. As if it was an attempt to try and mark him, to track an follow him everywhere he went, “Fuck… I didn’t think he’d get hurt. I can’t believe all of you had to witness that thing.”

“Are you going to tell us what’s going on?” This time, Sprout snapped, unable to help him himself, “Look, he’s hurt. He’s bleeding everywhere because you haven’t told us. What the fuck was that thing? It was sleeping. It ignored stealth! Pebble barked and it ignored him, and it completely looked past both me and Astro! How are- why? Why Cosmo? Dandy, come on.”

“Fine, fine.” Dandy pulled back, seeing the ichor all over his hands, before quickly patching it up with new bandages from the medkit, “Okay. Okay.”

He glanced back at them all.

“It’s about Cosmo. The twisted Cosmo. Have you ever wondered why there wasn’t one? Well… the rest were exterminated. One was eaten by several of the twisteds. Split up. Well, I think so. Last time I checked him, he was being ripped apart, and he was recorded as dead. Another Cosmo was eaten by a rogue twisted Glisten. And… I killed the other two.”

Dandy couldn’t believe he had let this get this far. He had assumed there was no twisted Cosmos left, which meant that the twisteds should’ve had no way to know what Cosmo tasted like. And no way to get addicted to the taste. And no way to know it would… help them. By eating him. By consuming him.

“For the twisteds, eating Cosmo’s skin boosts them. Makes them mutate and grow and makes them even stronger. I assumed it would be fine because there was no Cosmos left, but clearly, there must be. I don’t know what they’ll be like. But they will be different. And we need to find them, record what’s going on, and find that fucking Cosmo.”

Shelly frowned, sitting on Dandy’s other side and rubbing his back. He had kept it from them. Not because of any evil intentions or him wanting to feel smarter than them all, but because he thought they didn’t need to know. That this small little bit of information wouldn’t be important to them. But, clearly, it was. And Dandy was cursing himself for not saying anything and letting him get fucking hurt when he didn’t deserve it. Slowly, Dandy reached out, gently holding onto Cosmo’s hand, bringing it towards his mouth to make sure he had some sort of pulse.

“I thought it would be fine. All of the Cosmos are dead. I made sure. I thought I made sure! I… I’ve really fucked it all up.” Dandy’s voice was low, as it set in for all of the other toons (excluding Cosmo, who was still fast asleep) what he had done.

“You killed them?” Astro mumbled. “Two of them?”

“Just them. They were weak. I couldn’t risk it. I made it quick, I did. I did the right thing. You just don’t understand! That Pebble wasn’t an exception, it was the rule. There will be more, and the rest will be worse. I know it.” Dandy continued to stare at Cosmo, before glancing down at the wound again. “It’ll get worse if we don’t solve this quickly.”

“Is that why Pebble was acting so weird?” Astro asked curiously, noticing Pebble repeatedly nudging at Cosmo’s other leg, trying to wake him up.

“Yeah. I told him about them being potentially down there. Such a good boy.” Dandy said softly, rubbing Pebble’s face, cooing to him, “I don’t blame Cosmo for not listening though. He must’ve just assumed Pebble was trying to scrounge for attention. I know he does that often.”

Dandy sighed, standing up and playing with the lift’s control system to send them back up. “Don’t tell any of the other toons. They’ll just get scared. I’m just going to tell them they can’t do anymore runs for the time being because you guys got stuck down there and I had to implement a new safety feature. Whatever you do, don’t let them see Cosmo.”

“Why? Shouldn’t we just be honest?” Shelly didn’t sound all too convinced herself, but she wanted to think about the others, “What harm could come from telling them…?”

“They’ll freak, Shelly. And if they freak, they’ll get scared and everything will be messed up. I don’t usually agree with Dandy, but imagine how they’ll react to this all. Not happening.” Vee stood up, watching the lift doors open. It was quite late in the afternoon, so most of the toons were probably either in their rooms or in the living room. “Let’s get him to Sprout’s room. None of the toons will come in.”

Astro stood up, holding Cosmo under his blanket, shuffling awkwardly towards the main hub. There were a few close calls with some of the other toons wandering around, but they got to Sprout’s room, with Astro gently laying the still-asleep Cosmo onto the bed. He shuffled, wincing in his sleep as he laid on his stomach, gripping onto one of the pillows and rubbing his face against it.

“Why don’t you all go and cook dinner for the toons? Pebble with help. Astro, stay with me.” Dandy gave them a small nod to make sure they knew it would be okay. Sprout hesitated, gently rubbing Cosmo’s cheek before pulling back, leaving Dandy and Astro with the sleeping Cosmo.

“This isn’t good at all,” Dandy mumbled under his breath as soon as they had left, “I have no clue how long he’ll be in pain for. Either he’ll be fine the second he wakes up, or in genuine agony for weeks. What are we supposed to do?”

“Ah, you’re asking me?” Astro mumbled, swallowing thickly, “I don’t know. Let’s just make sure he’s okay, then we can start mapping out the other twisteds…”

“My, my? What’s happening here?” Both of the toons froze, glancing quickly at the door. Glisten, of course, hsd walked in, shutting the door behind him with his hips, “Goodness gracious, what hell has he just crawled out of? I don’t think I’ve ever seen an injury so bad.”

“Glisten…”

“Your first mistake was thinking you could hide something from me. Now, would either of you like to explain what’s going on? I don’t appreciate being lied to. And… hm? He has three hearts. Shouldn’t that have healed by now?”

“I didn’t notice that…” Astro glanced at Dandy for some sort of explanation, but the flower just shrugged awkwardly.

“I don’t know why. Ugh, this means we have to tell you, doesn’t it?” Out of any of the toons, Dandy was glad Glisten was the one who had found out. That mirror had a way of always finding secrets out anyway, an ability much like Dandy’s, but he kept them to himself once he found out. At least he wouldn’t go spreading it like some of the other toons would. “It’s complicated.”

“My dear, I have all of the time in the world.” Glisten pushed both of the other toons gently out of the way, climbing onto the bed and pulling Cosmo against him. For a long, silent and tense moment, he held onto the pastry, as if feeling for something, “He’s having a nightmare.”

“H-He is? How? That makes no sense… Usually I’d sense it…” Astro stammered, closing his eye for a moment before shaking his head, “Are you sure? Nightmares always show up for me…”

Dandy kneeled down beside them, pressing his hand on Cosmo’s head. Although fear wasn’t pressed all over his face it usually was when he was having a nightmare, his eyes were squeezed shut, breathless and he was shaking like crazy.

“Seems like something doesn’t want you seeing it.” Dandy frowned, unsure of what this even was. He was torn. Waking him up would leave him in agony, but who knew what he was witnessing in his dreams. He panicked, of course. Quickly, Dandy pulled something out of his pocket, a small syringe, “I inject this when I’m in pain from the… growths. It’ll help him too, even if it makes him act a little off. Can one of you wake him up?”

“One second…” Astro gently shook him a bit, humming a different, but just as soft tune, “Cosmo? Cosmo, wake up…”

The second he opened his eyes, Dandy pushed the syringe into the wound, watching it bloom a lighter colour. Then, he glanced up at Cosmo, who seemed shaken and confused.

“What did you see?”

“He… mgnhhh… spoke to me.”

“Who?”

“Astro. But… scary…”

Chapter 2: Vee

Summary:

Another NT.

She is not fuelled by her own hunger, but by the hunger of others. Something is telling Dandy that she’s not the ringleader of everything here.

But which one of the NTs is?

Dandy needs more clues. More information. And they will get it any way possible.

“We need to use you as bait.” Dandy had told him, looking down at Cosmo with a sympathetic smile. Sympathetic, yes. Even though his words didn’t reflect what he had just said. “We’ll make sure you’re okay, but the thing is, we need you to draw them out. There’s no way they’ll come out now if you're not here. Especially now they know you exist.”

Dangerous, but necessary.

These new, much dangerous twisteds wanted to eat. Clearly, whatever twisted Cosmo that had been feeding them had cut them off, and now they were losing control over themselves. Driven by a desperation to consume, there was no way any of them would listen to reason or be rational. In fact, Dandy predicted they would act much like twisted Pebble did, only fuelled by hunger and being more animal than toon. NTs, he decided they should be called, and the other toons didn’t have any complaints about it, other than Glisten mumbling that it was ‘silly’.

That wound wasn’t just so the NT of Pebble could eat. After a few hours, Cosmo began to smell. Not in a bad way. But it was like his natural smell of chocolate and ichor had been tripled, to the point you could smell it from a few meters away. It was so bad it took all of the toons by surprise, and it certainly wasn’t a bad smell, but it was sickening to them. Dandy had explained that it was because of their ichor composition- that the amount they had inside of them didn’t accept the smell, in a way, instead rejecting it. Whereas the twisteds, who had more ichor, found the smell almost enticing, a promise of strength within it.

“We’ll make sure they don’t hurt you. But if you don’t come down with us, they won’t come out. And we don’t know what will happen.” Dandy sounded confused. Even a little bit scared. Because he had no idea what was going on. No idea of what to do. Where to go from here. So all he could do now was ask for the help of the other toons. “I’m hoping he was the most violent, and the rest will be more conscious. Cosmo… How does that idea sound?”

All of the toons turned to look at Cosmo. Dandy, Vee, Shelly, Astro, Glisten and finally Sprout. Pebble was curled up at his feet, unwilling to leave him alone, as if he was worried an NT would come out of nowhere and start messing things up even more. A small moment, and Cosmo looked down at his legs. Now, he was wearing thick joggers from Sprout, trying to cover the smell and the bandages covering his leg. It didn’t hurt as much anymore, only a dull throbbing pain after all of the painkillers he had been given the night it happened. His left hand gently ran along Pebble’s back, and he swallowed thickly, before glancing up.

“Okay.”

“Cosmo, you don’t have to.” Astro tried to be very gentle, holding out his hand for Cosmo to hold. In a way to try and reassure him that they wouldn’t be mad. “This must be very terrifying. We’d understand if you don’t want to risk being hurt anymore. It’s alright.”

“No, I want to. We have to do something. I want to help. And if this is the way I can… then I want to make sure we can fix things. Pebble’s more animal than toon. It would make sense for his twisted, I mean, NT to act like that too…”

“You’re much braver than I, Cosmo.” Glisten commented. His words rang with genuinity, and he glanced away, not quite catching Cosmo’s eyes. Then, he glanced at the other toons, “I am assuming you want to keep this between us. I won’t say anything. After all, I barely even understand, so I doubt they will, hm?”

“That would be great, Glisten.” Vee gave him a small nod, her hands tapping the table repeatedly, “Could you look after Pebble? We just can’t take him down there.”

“Of course I can. Trust me, animals love me.” Glisten flashed her a bright smile, and Vee returned it. He understood that him going down there too wouldn’t be a good idea, because it was just another person who could potentially get hurt. “Just make sure you tell me how it goes after, yeah? I don’t want to worry about you all!”

Sprout glanced at Cosmo, who was sitting beside him. A small sigh, and he wrapped his arms around the smaller toon, pulling him in for a hug. Cosmo swallowed thick, clearly nervous, before pulling him in back, nuzzling his face into the strawberry’s chest. Sprout’s snout rubbed against Cosmo’s pastry, and he hummed against it, making Cosmo giggle gently.

“Give it two hours, then we’ll go. Put baggy clothes on, change the bandages, and get your trinkets. I have a feeling we're going to face something we won’t forget.” With a low voice, Dandy whispered to them all, before standing and leaving the table, with Pebble quickly jumping up and following him out. None of the toons said anything else, splitting ways and all going to get ready, with Dandy going to inform the other toons that they were going to go on a run to fix the lift and the machines.

And until they fixed it, none of the other toons could go on runs.

Dandy didn’t want them seeing anything, after all.

Sprout watched them leave silently, before glancing back at Cosmo, who had laid his head onto the table gently. No words were said between them. Nothing that Sprout actually could say to the pastry would make any of this better. All he could do was gently rub his back, an attempt to make him feel better about what was about to happen. Cosmo just shuddered. He hoped that Pebble didn’t come back. Hopefully the other toons would be more understanding. More anything.

More conscious. More alive.

Because Cosmo, even if he didn’t want to admit it, was terrified.

 

Floor three.

They had barely gotten anywhere. Barely even descended.

There were only six toons this time. Cosmo, Sprout, Dandy, Astro, Shelly and Vee. They had left Pebble back at the hub with Glisten. He didn’t understand what was going on, he didn’t quite get it, and he even had been whimpering in his sleep last night. The poor pet rock probably blamed himself for Cosmo getting hurt, convinced that he should’ve done something to prevent what had happened. So this time, Dandy would be the one distracting.

His five star stealth was far from an issue. Every single twisted knew who he was, and ignored all of the other toons to follow him. Which was certainly for the best at the moment, because all of them had their roles. They had decided Sprout should keep Cosmo company just in case another NT came out of nowhere so they could make sure he wasn’t on his own.

This floor was weird. There were no sounds of twisteds or anything. No groaning or shuffling or walking or running. It just didn’t sound right, as if something was there but was hiding from them. Vee used her ability, and found that nothing was highlighted. Nothing at all. But there was no absolute way that they could have an empty floor. Passive floors, yes. Even a floor with only one twisted a few times.

But never, ever zero.

“I don’t think this is a good sign. But let’s just keep an eye out. Sprout, can you go and grind tapes for us? Just in case.” Dandy’s voice was cautious but confident, and Sprout quickly nodded. The toons all went their separate ways, and Cosmo walked towards the broken lift in the rainbow room, stretching his hands a bit as he approached a machine.

Cosmo was limping, but other than that, he could move pretty fine. Not as fast as before, but still quite fast, especially when full of adrenaline. He stood before one of the machines, glancing up at it, his hands gently holding onto the wheel.

A green light. And there were five machines on this floor, with only four on the checklist.

“Oh…” Cosmo pulled back quickly, before noticing the wheel surge forward, as if trying to convince him to touch it. A small chuckle, and Cosmo put his hands on his hips, shaking his head a bit. “There’s no way I’m touching that. Who knows what’ll happen? The wheel will turn into some sort of grinder or something…”

“Aww! That would’ve been a great idea!” A monitor shot out from the machine in front of him. It was connected by some thin wires, and had a pixelated face on the screen, almost like Vee’s, but not quite. Slightly different. Brighter eyes. A bigger grin. Freckles and an overall kinder look on her face. “Well, well! The real Cosmo, front and centre. Goodness gracious, I thought we’d never quite meet you!”

“Hello…” Cosmo stepped back, but two arms shot out from the machine, tugging it back in. Not violent or harsh- gentle, softly rubbing his arms, the monitor continuing to grin at him. A moment, and she realised that this NT wasn’t aggressive, and didn’t seem interested in eating him. A small shudder, and he glanced up, “Are you not hungry…?”

“Oh, aren’t you a cutie pie? Look at me, sweetheart. Where would I be able to eat? I’m made up of wires and pipes. As delicious as you look, sadly, I can’t take a bite.” The monitor tilted its head a bit, and Cosmo noticed the bow tie beneath it. A white colour. Then, he glanced back up again, unsure of what to do. “Ah, looks like someone is a little paranoid. Need not fret. I’m not here to hurt you or anything! I can’t do that anyway. The worst thing I can do to you is give you a little zap, and that’s quite boring.”

“That’s reassuring to hear.” Awkwardly, Cosmo laughed, glancing back to see if he could see any of the other toons. All were probably doing machines, so Cosmo turned back to the NT of Vee, deciding that maybe engaging in conversation wouldn’t be too bad. Arms gripping his own moved down slowly, before gripping his hands.

Soft humming and buzzing noises, and Cosmo gave her a very small smile.

“I see MF010 did quite a number on you.” Vee said, looking down. The bandages had leaked, and now there was a small patch on Cosmo’s joggers where the ichor and chocolate icing had leaked through. Cosmo winced, a small frown on his face, before looking up at Vee again. “My apologies, my dear Cosmo. Some of us got a little… frustrated at being deprived for so long.”

“Deprived?”

“From your meat.”

“Ah, right… I’m assuming that MF010 is… Pebble? The really twisted one?”

“Yes, sweetheart. We all have our own special names. That’s his. Hm… I’m surprised you’re being so nice to me. Has he not gotten to you yet? Filled your mind with thoughts on how you’re supposed to feel? Because he’s already done that to one of our food sources. I would hate for you to be next, sweetheart. You’re so much more exciting than our Cosmo. He’s a little bit… hm… strange. But you. You have so much potential!”

“Food sources? Is that all you see me as?”

“No. Of course not. But that’s what we need for you to be. After being deprived for so long, we get a little bit… violent. And hungry. Really hungry. I don’t want my friends to be hungry anymore, Cosmo.” The arms reached out again, gripping him harder. Tightly. Squeezing, even. A small whirr and a hum as the light turned white, as if she had sent a message off to somewhere. “I may not need to eat. But my friends do. Come on Cosmo. Don’t be like him. You have to help us. Isn’t that what you’re good for?”

Of course Cosmo started panicking. First, he attempted to jerk his body away, attempting to yank back to put some distance between them, but when that didn’t work, he tried to kick the bottom of the machine, hoping it would catch her off guard. Then, knowing he didn’t have any other option, he tried to let out a loud scream, but one of the hands clamped over his mouth.

Breath shaking, he attempted to get away.

Glass shattered as he was slammed into it, and he let out the smallest whine of pain. One of the glass pieces slid straight into his wrist, and he yanked back as quickly as he could, punching that damn monitor around the face. More glass cracked, and the monitor moved back slightly, a glass across the glass.

She hissed a low, “You dare ruin my face?”

Cosmo looked around, panicking. One of the hands was still gripping onto his face, squeezing, as if trying to make it burst straight open. In a moment of quick thinking, he ripped the nearby fire extinguisher off the wall, then he slammed it straight across the monitor’s face. It cracked everywhere, glass shattering on the floor, as she let out an inhuman screech before pulling away. The monitor and arms shrank back into the machine as Cosmo stood there silently, gripping onto the extinguisher tightly, before stepping back.

Left on the floor was a small hard drive. Unsure of what he should do with it, Cosmo quickly snatched it up and tucked it into his jumper. After all, he didn’t want the other toons to panic even more than they already were, and he knew that maybe it would be important later.

Hearing footsteps, Cosmo snapped up, an innocent look plastered over his face.

“Wow.” Dandy mumbled, as he had made his way across the map, telling the other toons to wait, “Sorry I didn’t- I couldn’t hear you. But… That was good. Really good.” He stepped forward, seeing how Cosmo was shaking like crazy, and placed a gentle hand on his arm. “I’m sorry, Cosmo. I shouldn’t have left you.”

“Huh? What? No, no, I’m not mad or anything!” Cosmo said quickly, shaking his hands as a sign of peace and dropping the fire extinguisher straight onto the floor, “I panicked. I should’ve kept playing along, now we can’t catch any piece of her. She grabbed me and slammed me into the machine. To feed her friends.”

“It’s fine. Trust me, we can use this.” Dandy said quickly, rubbing Cosmo’s shoulder, “I’m going to disassemble this and we can see what let her spread into it. Don’t worry. I think you using that was fucking brilliant. I certainly would’ve panicked if I was in your position.”

“Thanks, Dandy.” Cosmo gave him a small smile as they both turned back to the machine, with Dandy leaning down before it, pulling a screwdriver out of his pocket. “Look, it’s the endless pocket. What have you got in there today?”

Dandy gave him a gentle smile. The reference wasn’t teasing, but it was more Cosmo trying to feel normal again, as he rubbed his arms, plucking out some glass pieces that had gotten stuck within. Steps behind them, and Sprout had quickly turned the corner, completely ignoring the broken machine and Dandy kneeling before it.

They couldn’t leave Cosmo alone.

“Are you okay?” Sprout asked quickly, pulling him forward, checking all over his body. “What happened? We heard the smashing of glass but didn’t… Who was it? What happened?”

“Calm down.” Cosmo said very gently, rubbing his hand, only really glancing down quietly as he felt his jumper be pulled up. Shards of glass were stuck in his pastry, drawing ichor and chocolate icing, which dribbled along his side. “I’m okay. It was Vee. She only started getting aggressive when I refused to, well… hand myself over as a ‘food source’. Don’t worry. It didn’t hurt too bad.”

“Good. Good. I won’t leave you alone again. I thought they couldn’t spawn before floor five…” Sprout was unsure of what to do, wanting to hug him so, so badly, but also not wanting to in case he pushed the glass in and hurt Cosmo even more. “Let’s get back up, and you should tell us all about it…”

“It’s okay, Sprout. It doesn’t hurt.”

“Not at all?”

“Nope.”

 

Removing glass was no easy feat. Pastry was absorbent and soft, after all, and Dandy wanted to make sure as much of it was removed before it got stuck. At the moment, Cosmo was laid on Dandy’s bed, staring up at the ceiling, which was covered in drawings and paintings of flowers. Feeling the tweezers press into his skin and slowly remove the glass was a weird feeling, but it didn’t hurt much at all. Rather, it was almost ticklish.

“You don’t mind if I feel around, right? Some of the glass might have been absorbed already…” Dandy’s voice was gentle as he watched Cosmo awkwardly wriggle off his jumper and drop it on the floor. “I’ll need to see what’s in that glass as well… maybe more tracking?” Dandy was worried. It was evident in his tone as he laid his hands flat on Cosmo’s stomach, swallowing thickly, before glancing back at Sprout. “Uhm… You wanna help?”

“Just let me do it.” Sprout glanced down at Cosmo’s pastry, before gently rubbing his hands along it. As he did so, he didn’t quite look in Cosmo’s eyes, seeming more embarrassed than anything, trying to feel for any sharp points. Most of the shards had been removed, and honestly, Sprout was surprised that had healed so damn quickly while the wound on his leg was still a massive hold. Not just that, but Sprout was surprised it had gotten so sharp it was able to go straight through his jumper and into his skin. His hands slid over the scars along his chest, beneath his pectorals, before his eyes snapping up again, “Sorry. Got distracted.”

“It’s okay.” Mumbled Cosmo gently, glancing down before looking up at him again, “Better to be safe than sorry, hm? After all, I don't want any glass being lodged in there, right?”

“Right, exactly…”

“If you two are going to flirt, please don’t do it right in front of me.” Dandy said flatly, seeming a little unimpressed before glancing back down, focusing on pulling out each shard. “Almost… done. I think that’s it. I’ll analyse it.”

“Thanks, Dandy.”

Dandy turned away, picking up the small glass shards and pulling them over to the large desk in his room. He had used to microscope there a few times, looking at how the ichor was forming in the twisteds, but now, he had a different use for it. Now, these shards of glass seemed difficult, made up from ichor beneath.

“Interesting. It looks like they all have their special little abilities.”

“What are we going to do now? Keep pushing? Or…”

“I think we should look for that Cosmo. Because he’ll have more answers. And taking him out of the picture means that hopefully they’ll calm down. Or get worse. I don’t know. We just need to find that slippery fucker.”

Chapter 3: Spotted

Summary:

CF12 isn’t good at hiding. Now, the toons know exactly the path he’s taking. Dandy’s excited, but there’s one main question- how has he survived so long alone?

Notes:

CF12 is back, kinda. Almost there.

“Why don’t you just use the cameras?” Glisten asked curiously, watching Dandy hunch over his desk, not seeming to fully understand what the flower was doing. He was sitting at a chair right beside the flower’s, leaning against the desk, making notes of everything that Dandy told him to- such as the glass composition being weird or it being sharp on purpose or other things that Dandy thought was important. While he and Pebble had previously had quite the fun time together, it seemed like whatever happened on the floors certainly was not as fun.

Dandy had told him what was going on. Apparently, looking for this Cosmo had been terrible. After all, slipping through undetected by such a large amount of NTs had to be a hard feat. Or, maybe, he was being helped by something. Or someone. Because, as much as Dandy adored Cosmo, there was no way he, especially a twisted of himself, would be able to properly evade capture so far. And, not just that- Dandy was assuming that the Cosmo that was alive was CF12, who he had assumed had been pulled apart by the twisteds was actually alive.

“Somehow, he’s slipped past all of them. Someone, whoever is currently helping him, has some sort of knowledge about the cameras that makes it impossible.” Dandy knew that one of the twisteds was doing it, but the worst bit about it was that he didn’t know which one it was. All he knew was that it wasn’t a main, Rodger, Razzle or Dazzle because either they were mains and so would have been drawn to the scent, and the other three toons were passive enough that they couldn’t help him properly anyway. “And there was so many twisteds down there, we have no idea which one is doing it. Which means that we could have any twisted helping him. And do you understand how difficult that will be?”

Glisten looked at him flatly. While Glisten was a much, much less patient toon, that meant he also wanted to get things over with quickly, so he was going to improvise. Seeing that famous grin Glisten had flashed at him, Dandy caved immediately, the pair swapping seats so Glisten could take control of the computer. It was one of the only functional ones in the entire centre, and was connected directly to the projector that flashed straight onto his wall.

“There’s no way anyone can slip through. Not for that long. Even a toon as brilliant as me can make mistakes, Dandy. There will always be something.” Glisten started to look at all of the footage, as if waiting for something.

“Found anything yet?”

“Damn, give me a minute…”

Several minutes of silence went past. Ten minutes.

“I appreciate you trying to help me, Glisten.” Dandy’s voice was gentle as he glanced up from the microscope, making a few notes on this piece of glass, before moving onto the next piece, He glanced at the toon beside him, chuckled, before going back to staring at each shard. Yes, it was boring, but he was waiting for something to jump out at him.

A pause.

“There.”

“What?”

“Right there. Astro’s room. Camera 14. Pointed at the staff only door.”

“Your fucking joking me.”

“No, he’s there. That’s a Cosmo.”

Both of them looked up, as Dandy reached over and projected the findings of the camera onto the projector. The footage was from three days ago, but he was certainly still alive if the NTs were still acting like that. It was a small, shaky and grainey clip, as the cameras had been slowly wearing down, but that was him. That was a Cosmo. A twisted Cosmo.

CF12.

He was thin. Shaking. And alone. Whoever he had been with must’ve gone somehow. Separated, maybe. Because him being caught on camera was huge. They could track where he was going, what routes he was taking, everything. And now they knew what he looked like. It was completely undeniable that it was CF12. Long black frosting that was matted and messy, wide doe eyes that were deep, midnight black, slightly longer arms with clawed tips at the end of his fingers and the stars dotted absolutely everywhere on his body. On his face, on his arms and legs. Cosmo had them too, but CF12’s stars were absolutely everywhere. And his clothes were ripped, clawed at. Massive chunks were missing from his pastry, and he seemed to stumble into the staff only room. Not because he was hurt, but because he was weak. Massively weak.

“Fuck, Glisten, this is- I can’t believe I missed this!” Dandy’s eyes widened with excitement, as he couldn’t believe that they finally had some sort of picture. The fact that the weakest out of all the failures was still alive was absolutely insane, but that made their job so much easier. Not to mention the fact he was alone too, looking confused and unsure of where he was actually supposed to be going. “You don’t understand what this means.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Why’s it such a big deal?” Glisten asked curiously, tilting his head a bit. He zoomed into the image, so Dandy could make some more notes. “I’m surprised at how weak he looks though. Nothing like our Cosmo… that pastry can throw a damn swing.”

“I know where every single staircase leads to. There’s several sets. He can clearly only get through those sets of doors, which means he could only follow those internal tunnels. Which means, if we can get in those doors, we’ve essentially nabbed him.” Dandy was bubbling with excitement, nudging Glisten out of the way with his own chair so he could get access to the computer, looking through the files. “If we all split up, we can easily catch him. One toon on every floor, and we’ve got him trapped. And he wouldn’t dare go onto the floors- he’s been hiding out in the stairwells for who knows how long!”

“Uhm, okay. I have one main question- why? What compels you to meet this Cosmo so bad?”

“He knows everything I need to know. All about the NTs, about how violent they are, about how they're still alive- everything. And he’s the only other Cosmo alive. He’s been giving them his pastry, which caused them to mutate. It protects both us, and him. Do you see my vision now?”

Dandy turned to look at Glisten, holding onto his shoulders. His eyes shone with excitement at the idea of learning even more information. Adrenaline pumped through his body at just the idea of knowing exactly what was going on. Excitement, nothing short of genuine excitement that he hadn’t felt in ages now. Something new. A new challenge. Something difficult, and he was excited to do it! Maybe he was completely and utterly strange for it, but those twisteds were child play to him. Unaware, basic, able to even see you behind a damn box.

Now this was different.

The only annoying thing about it was that Dandy couldn’t do it alone. Each of the NTs were clearly refusing to come out unless Cosmo was there, and seemed to only actually come out when he was vulnerable or alone. Pebble and Vee… and Dandy had no clue about the others. But neither had been aggressive until Cosmo had actively done something. Pebble snapped when Cosmo had started moving, and Vee when he started refusing and actively going against her.

Dandy had no clue which NT was controlling them all. And he was determined to find out who it was. All he knew was that it wasn’t Pebble or Vee.

Glisten found this almost amusing, watching him act like that.

“Well, what do we do?”

“Stupid question, Glisten. We have to go looking for him, of course! Tomorrow, or…!”

“Dear, aren’t you forgetting someone? Have you asked Cosmo how he’s doing? After all, this is the second time he’s been targeted by one of those nasty twisteds. If I was him, I would be a little more hesitant about getting down there again. It seems like he gets hurt every single time.”

“I spoke to him. Before I left. He said he’s okay, but he just needs some sort of weapon to defend himself. I’m sure we can find him something…”

“Dandy.”

“Yes?

“Are you sure he wasn’t lying to make you feel better? I mean, I’m aware Cosmo is perfectly aware of expressing his own emotions, but he may be a little less into this idea than you think. And leaving him alone down there is a horrible idea! Every time you seem to leave him, he gets hurt. You need to have some sort of plan in place for that.”

“Why don’t you come with us then?”

“What, me? Seriously?”

“Yeah! Think about it. You can help him. I’m sure he’d listen to you more than me anyway. Sprout has to be back up or pick up items in case someone gets hurt, I’m distracting, and Shelly and Vee have to do machines. You being there could make it go way faster!”

“Who will look after Pebble, then?”

“I have an idea…”

 

Dandy stood outside of one of the roon’s bedrooms, holding Pebble in his arms. Glisten was a little confused as they went down to the floor with his and some of the other toon’s rooms in them. Who here was actually that trustworthy? Brightney, maybe, but she would certainly have some sort of moral objection to what they were doing. And there was no way none of the toons were going to ask questions. They already were, so this would just make everything ten times worse. Glisten watched from a slight distance as Dandy walked up to… Shrimpo’s door.

A few knocks, and the door flew open. Shrimpo had been training, with loud music behind him, looking annoyed, before his face softened just the slightest amount upon seeing the flower at the door. He straightened, and looked down at Pebble, who was in Dandy’s hands.

“I need a favour.” Dandy muttered, and Shrimpo leaned against the door, crossing his arms.

“No questions asked?”

“Yeah. Don’t let the other toons know. Please.”

“Right, right. What is it, then? If it’s something fucking annoying I ain’t doing it. There’s no way in hell I’m sneaking into the other toon’s rooms again to steal their shit. Almost got my ass caught last time, you know that.”

“Yes, I know. I know. And we’ve talked about it, right?”

“Right…”

“That’s not what I need this time anyway. I just need you to look after Pebble until we get back from a run. It’s me, Cosmo, Glisten, Sprout, Shelly, Vee and Astro. If they ask, tell them that he’s hurt or something. I dunno. Sprained a damn ankle, I don’t care. Just cover for us.”

“Alright.” Shrimpo moved away from the wall, noticing Glisten watching, but he said nothing of it. Rather, he held out his arms, allowing Pebble to jump into them and start licking his face eagerly. The shrimp just sighed, nodded, then turned around, slamming the door shut again. Only a few seconds later the music started up again, this time, with Pebble’s excited barking along with the tune.

Glisten approached, giving Dandy a confused look, “No questions asked? I’m going to ignore what he said about stealing things from the other toons and focus on the fact that you two are so damn close. I mean, it makes sense. Neither of you really like anyone, hm?”

“That’s not true.” Dandy started walking back down the hallway, “If I didn’t like you, I wouldn’t have trusted you with something so important.”

“You only told me because you knew I’d find out anyway. Let me guess, you wanted to cut out the middleman, because you know I won’t actually tell anyone?”

“Okay, that’s exactly why, you got me. I mean, if I didn’t like you, you wouldn’t be coming down with us. Now’s your time to impress me.”

“I don’t need to impress you.”

“And why is that?”

“Because we both know I already have.”

Chapter 4: Affiliation

Summary:

These NTs are so much more complex than they first thought. Because not all of them are aggressive.

Some of them are working for someone else.

Notes:

You know its one of my works if the skates are mentioned. But seriously? CF12 is back, and I promise he’ll be more fleshed out this time, and I’ll try and think of a name because CF12 just isn’t very creative lol. I hope what I’m setting up makes sense, because I’ve had some great ideas for these NTs I can’t wait to implement

To clarify, blot will be mentioned and play a role, just not any of the event toons. :)

Seven toons.

And one twisted to catch.

They had all met up outside of the lift, standing there as Dandy explained what they were doing. A few rules- Cosmo shouldn’t be left alone at all, because overwise he’d probably get jumped for the third damn day in a row. Not even if they thought it was safe, not even if there was no twisteds around, not even for him to walk around a corner. That was it. No leaving him alone. Even if CF12 was running and being able to catch him would mean leaving Cosmo. Because, as Dandy insisted, Cosmo was more important than that twisted.

Dandy handed them all small keycards. This would be how they would get in and out of the staff doors. Each of the toons got one. Luckily, they were the easiest to obtain due to them only needing low clearance, which meant Dandy had a few copies. The higher clearance cards were much more difficult to obtain, with level five only having about four copies, and Dandy didn’t have a single one. But, CF12 wasn’t down there, he was in the level one stairwells, which made their job much easier.

“We’ll go through this methodically.” Dandy said quickly, nodding at them. Though, excitement seeped into his tone, finally getting that rush of something new. “Don’t let him get away. Who knows who he’s working for.”

“It’s probably not the NTs though. They kept talking about being hungry. They wouldn’t be hungry if he’s actively supplying them. So he’s working for someone, but not the majority of them.” Vee muttered, holding the keycard and slipping it in one of the pockets of her suit. “Let’s get him and get out. From what you showed us, he looks weak enough. There’s no way he’ll be able to put up a proper fight.”

Shelly thought for a moment, tapping her cheek, “I feel kinda bad. What do you think they’ve been doing to him? I mean, all the holes had like… different forms. Some looked like they were from claws, some from teeth- I couldn’t imagine experiencing all that.”

“The most concerning thing is that he hasn’t healed.” Sprout mumbled, glancing down at Cosmo and gently rubbing his lower back, speaking directly to Cosmo this time, “We all know you heal really quick, so either one of his main, uhm, malfunctions is that he can’t heal, or something's going really wrong down there.”

Cosmo just shrugged, turning away as they all entered the lift. Honestly, he really wasn’t quite over what had happened yesterday, but he hadn’t said anything to any of the other toons. In fact, meeting that NT of Vee had been even more terrifying than meeting Pebble, even though he didn’t quite know why. Maybe it was because he was seeing one of his closest friends act completely differently, but either way, he kept it to himself. The other toons were so set in what they were doing, Cosmo didn’t want to interfere with it all. Even if he started shaking when the lift started to descend.

“In and out.” Sprout whispered gently in Cosmo’s ear, rubbing his shoulder. Recently, Cosmo had noticed the strawberry was constantly touching him, and he knew why. He was scared of losing him. Absolutely terrified that, on one of these runs, one of the twisteds would rip him apart. Hearts were irrelevant now, as these NTs did so much damage without even taking a heart. Three hearts gone, and you would respawn, but Cosmo quickly realised this was real damage. Damage that didn’t heal instantly. “It’ll be okay. I swear.”

“Okay.” Cosmo said gently back, swallowing thickly, but not quite looking him in the eyes. “I believe you. Just… don’t leave, okay?”

“Of course.”

Another thing Cosmo hadn’t told the toons was that he wasn’t unarmed. Right before they had all left, when Cosmo was walking from the hub to the lobby, Yatta had caught up to him. A guilty look was plastered all over her face as she admitted that she had been climbing through the vent system, as she did literally always, and she had accidentally eavesdropped on Glisten and Dandy’s conversation. Worried, she had explained she didn’t mean to, and given him something to take down with him- her bat. So, now in Cosmo’s inventory was a wooden bat that he knew was going to pack a punch. It made him feel a little safer, though he knew when he told Dandy that another toon was aware of what was going on, he wouldn’t be very happy about it. Yatta had probably told someone by now, but they’d deal with that issue when they got to it.

“I have so many questions to ask.” Dandy mumbled to himself as the lift doors creaked upon in front of them. It led them out to one of the rainbow rooms, and the toons all followed Dandy to one of the staff only doors. With a small beeb as Dandy pressed one of the keycards against it, it opened, allowing them all to go inside. “I’ll try and find the lights. The rest of you go in pairs. Watch your step.”

Dandy walked off into the darkness, leaving the six toons to adjust to the new surroundings. Dusty and creaky staircases that led only down, with each floor holding tunnels to who knows where. In this place, an NT could jump out of nowhere, and so, of course, each of the toons paired up. That way, they could cover more ground, and had at least one other toon in case something jumped out of the dark. Really, it felt like the plot of a bad horror movie, but it had to be done.

“Ah… This is no good.” Astro mumbled gently. At least he, Dandy and Vee had more of a light radius, while Cosmo, Sprout, Shelly and Glisten were a little confused. One of Astro’s stars pulled at Glisten’s sleeve, trying to tug him along. “How about we check out this floor? Those stairs don’t look very stable.”

“I guess there’s only one way for the rest of us to go, then.” Cosmo nodded at the staircase, trying to sound more confident than he actually was. “We’ll go down one floor, and Shelly and Vee, are you alright with going down two?” He glanced back at the other two toons, who seemed mostly unbothered at the idea.

“Trust me, we’ll be fine!” Shelly nodded quickly, pulling back one of her sleeves and flexing to show off her muscles, “One punch and they're gone. We’ll let you know if we find anyone.” She held onto Vee’s hand, pulling her towards the stairs as they descended.

It was clear no one had repaired these stairwells in a very long time. Dust wasn’t even half of it, with spiders and small bugs everywhere, the floorboards creaking under each of the toons as they walked. Not to mention it was somehow darker than a blackout, with no small machine lights to guide their path. Nothing. Cosmo and Sprout stood at the top of the staircase, making eye contact before starting to descend together. They had no clue how Shelly and Vee had walked down these things with so much confidence- it felt like the wood was somehow bending beneath them, and Sprout’s grip on Cosmo’s hand tightened just that slightest amount to show his brave face wasn’t all that genuine either.

“It’s okay.” Cosmo turned to look at him, squeezing his hand back. “We’re going to be okay. You know, these have to follow safety regulations…”

“Those regulations are, what, ten years old?”

“Right… Look, if Shelly and Vee can do it, so can we. We have work to do! Let’s go get that twisted.”

The pair started their descent. Floor two, and they started looking around. Tunnels ran off to who knows where, with one leading to a massive set of iron doors with a level five clearance keycard needed. Both of them wondered what was behind the door, but they kept walking. Instead walked down the left most tunnel, especially as they had both heard some footsteps down that way. Sprout glanced down at Cosmo, who didn’t quite look at him, instead continuing to pull him ahead.

“You heard that too?” Sprout mumbled, and Cosmo nodded. For about two straight minutes, they were walking, cutting corners and never quite getting anywhere. Now, they had no clue where they had even come from! Both leaned against the wall, and Cosmo glanced at the vents, seeing a blue light coming from it for a split second, before quickly flashing away again.

They weren’t alone.

But it was gone as quickly as it came, and the pair kept walking. The lights finally flickered on, and now the pair could actually see each other. It made the hallway feel much calmer, even if both of them were a bit tense.

“You’re doing that thing again with your fingers.” Sprout mumbled absentmindedly, “Let me guess. Gardenview theme tune?”

“Yeah…” Cosmo sighed. Every time he was nervous, he started moving his fingers like he was playing the guitar again. While it was a pretty big sore spot for him, even after all of the time that had passed, he still strummed his fingers either way. A nervous habit, like rubbing his face and clinging onto Sprout. He glanced up at Sprout, “I can’t wait for this to be over with. But I have the feeling it’s not all that… straightforward?”

“What makes you think that?” Sprout gave him a curious glance, and Cosmo was quiet for a second.

“It’s Vee. She got me really shaken up,” Cosmo admitted after a long pause, “The lucidity. She was aware of what she was doing. Actually conscious and choosing to… and, it’s not just that. She seemed genuinely concerned about her friends. About… them being hungry, even if she didn’t need to eat.”

“That’s not something you need to worry about.” Sprout felt worried for Cosmo, especially with how much it had freaked him, “We’ll fix it, okay? We just need more information. We can’t go in blind… and we can’t let the other toons go down until we know everything.”

“I know, I know.”

Cosmo paused.

“Do you hear that? Down the hall?”

“Huh? Sorry, hear what?”

“That!”

A scream.

Cosmo didn’t know what had gone through him. Adrenaline pumped through his body as he reached down, pressing a small button on the back of each of his shoes that made the skates pop out. He knew it had been a good idea to put them on, especially as there was a pretty high chance of some damn NT coming out of nowhere and jumping him.

“Cosmo? Slow down!”

Sprout called out to him, but Cosmo was already off. The screaming had rang through his ears and he just… snapped. In that split second, he turned the corner, seeing who he assumed to be CF12 on the floor, trying to shield his face from an NT. Yatta.

And she was terrifying. Long tails that snapped out to hold him down, teeth consisting of all different types of sweets that could give her a massive advantage over them. Everything was just… larger, especially her paws, with long claws that looked like they could rip anything straight in half. That wasn’t the only change, with blue and white stripes, harder skin and a look of genuine hunger in her eyes. The look of anger, the look of rage, and the look of murder. There was no consciousness behind that, not now, as her tails curled around CF12’s neck. He gasped, squirming, kicking and trying to rip her off him, but she wouldn’t quite move.

Then, the most disgusting part.

Her stomach opened, with sweets spilling out. It revealed layers of even sharper teeth, ready to either consume him whole or store him so the other NTs could get a piece. Inside, it looked like flesh, actual flesh, holding all of her organs and absolutely everything. Cosmo really didn’t need to see that, but he didn’t even think about it as he skated towards her.

“Cosmo, wait!”

Cosmo didn’t listen. Even with his worse movement speed, these skates made him much faster than Sprout. Really, he should use them more often.

The NT of Yatta spun around, only screeching as he approached. Cosmo, in a split second, took the bat out of his inventory, holding it close as she quickly let go of CF12, who crumpled to the floor with a weak whine. Cosmo saw red. He skated towards her, and slammed the bat violently against her face, with ichor and sweets bursting out of the back and staining the wall and floor behind them. She fell back, collapsing onto the floor as all of the sweets and ichor moved straight back into her body, slowly reforming. But Cosmo wasn’t yet done, swinging again and smacking it straight against her stomach, the paper mache bursting, before curling back in again, fuelled by the ichor.

“Oh, you…!” She could speak, her words disgustingly jumbled up, as if she only knew basic phrases that had been repeated back at her. “You- mess- you, THING!”

She scrambled to her feet, looming over him, one of her massive paws reached out to scrape him straight along the face, until a jet of ichor shot out, pulling it back and dragging her down onto the floor. Another loud screech as ichor slowly dripped out of the nearby vent, forming into a humanoid shape, a familiar magnifying glass and a goopy frame.

Sprout had finally caught up, grabbing Cosmo’s arm and yanking him back. He looked down, seeing this new Cosmo sitting there, clearly in shock, not moving and just covering his face. Sensing there was no danger, Sprout pulled CF12 to his feet, pushing him back so he would stay behind them. Yatta stayed stuck to the floor, kicking and flailing her feet as she tried to get free, but the NT of Rodger was… restraining her? Yes, holding her down.

Slowly, Rodger moved forward, gliding across the wooden floorboards carefully. Cosmo moved back, but the NT posed no danger to them. Rather, he opened his eye, revealing the deep blue colour beneath, rather than the harsh red that the twisted Rodger’s usually was. A hand formed out of the ichor, holding Cosmo’s, bringing it forward. At first, Cosmo tried to pull back, fearing it would be ripped straight off, but Rodger simply brought it towards his glass, before pulling back and letting go again.

“Our apologies. She cannot quite control her temper yet.” Rodger hummed, turning down to look at Yatta, who was just scowling at him. For a moment, he looked amused, before his expression snapped back into relaxed and calm, “You best get… him out of here. All he’s doing is bringing more trouble. Do not fret, I can keep a secret. And so can she.”

“What are you doing? We don’t work for him anymore!” Yatta hissed, and Rodger shot her a glare to tell her to be quiet.

“Just because someone new is calling the shots doesn’t mean my loyalty dissolves. You should know this.” Then, he turned back to the three, “Best you have him before Light gets his grubby paws on him again.”

“Don’t talk about him like that!” CF12 had scrambled to his feet, pushing between Cosmo and Sprout, pointing his finger at Rodger accusingly. In this light, he was weak. Barely able to stand up on his own, only really pushing himself to continue surviving by what would happen if they got a hold of him. “He’s told me about your lies. Don’t you dare try and…!”

“Okay, okay. Relax.” Cosmo grabbed the angry toon, pulling him back. CF12 tried to wriggle out of his grip, much like a child would, but was far from successful. “Thanks for… not trying to eat us, I guess.”

“Goodness, that’s quite alright! Not all of us are animals. Now, we best be going.” The NT turned around, slipping back into the vents, dragging Yatta down with him, the cover slamming shut as soon as they disappeared.

“Okay, what the fuck was that?” Sprout muttered out, looking at Cosmo, who just shrugged. Now, the entire NT thing had been confusing enough, but now there were some NTs who weren’t violent, who didn’t want to consume? Some seemed torn, such as the stripey Yatta, but that baby blue colour in Rodger’s eyes told them that he seemed chill. Non-violent.

Somehow, not hungry.

“I don’t know.” Cosmo looked down at CF12, who was shaking in his arms, huffing and trying to keep his calm. Even if he wasn’t doing a very good job at it. He shied away from Sprout, finally looking up at Cosmo. At first, he didn’t say anything, just running his arms along Cosmo’s arms, his skin, taking in everything about him, taking in what he looked like. How he was. “You must be CF12. Sorry about that introduction… I panicked. Did she hurt you?”

“No…” CF12 mumbled, giving Sprout a cautious glass, before looking back at Cosmo. His eyes gleaming as he stared at the other pastry, both with recognition and excitement. “You… Are you Cosmo? The Cosmo? The actual, real Cosmo?”

“Yeah, that’s me. And this is Sprout.”

“We’ve heard a lot about you.” This time, Sprout tried to be more cautious, stepping towards him carefully, holding out his hands. A moment of hesitation, and CF12 reached out to hold onto one of Sprout’s hands. “You're expecting me to start tryna bite you, right?”

“Ah, maybe.” CF12 looked away quickly, “Thank you. For saving me. When I get cornered I freeze up, so I don’t know what would’ve happened if you hadn’t stepped in…”

CF12 was not what Sprout and Cosmo were expecting, they could admit that. When Dandy was telling them about a twisted Cosmo that was helping the NTs, giving them their strength, they had expected to see someone aggressive or violent or flat out the opposite of CF12. He was shaking, with teary eyes- nothing at all like what they expected. Not just that, he clung to Cosmo, pulling from Sprou quickly, genuinely buzzing with excitement as he realized he was meeting the actual, genuine toon. And he had just saved his life.

“I can’t believe it’s… you. THE Cosmo.” CF12’s eyes almost glazed over, and Cosmo chuckled, finding it almost sweet. “I’ve watched every tape of you I could find… You’re…”

A small pause.

“You’re everything I’ve always wanted to be.”

Chapter 5: Circus trio

Summary:

Three other toons find out about what’s going on. Their not too happy, but they’ll understand.

Sorry it’s a short chapter. I wanted to set this up for later. Next chapter will clarify a few things while Cosmo meets a new NT alone. I think you guys will like him. And I really hope you all are liking it so far :) i can’t lie ive been struggling w this fic again lol but yk im powering through

CF12 was peculiar, to say the least. Dandy had been so entirely convinced that he was dead, and, clearly, that wasn’t quite the truth. Somehow, he had survived everything. Somehow, he hadn’t been entirely ripped apart by the twisteds. And that confirmed to them someone was helping him, one of the twisteds was aiding him and keeping them alive. None of the toons were quite sure why, and CF12 had told them that the toon who was protecting him, named ‘Light’, didn’t need to eat pastry to survive. Even if the other toons were unconvinced that was actually true. After all, they had only met one exception to that rule

And it seemed like that NT was consuming something else instead.

But, the other toons knew that they shouldn’t think about that at the moment. Rather, they had a brand new twisted to meet. CF12 was unsure around them, backing himself up against the wall. While he didn’t mind Cosmo, Dandy, Astro and Glisten, he seemed unsure around the other three- which didn’t reflect well on how he would act around the other toons. Cosmo and Dandy didn’t have an NT of themselves, which made sense why CF12 didn’t mind them, but Glisten and Astro made less sense. He just pushed himself into the wall, crossing his arms, tugging at his sleeves or the hem of his jumper or anything that meant he didn’t have to look them in the eyes.

“CF12?”

The lift was going back up, and Shelly had finally turned to CF12. She was trying to make him more comfortable, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a small speed sweet, holding it out for him to take. CF12 paused for a moment, before taking, unwrapping it and popping it into his mouth. He gave her a nervous smile, before quickly looking away again.

“Wow, you're a little shy, huh? Don’t worry, it’s alright!” Shelly smiled, which he didn’t quite return, preferring to stare down at the ground and rub his arms nervously. But Shelly wasn’t dissuaded so quickly. She was determined to make everyone her friend. “I’m sure we’ll become friends eventually.” CF12 had pressed himself even further into the wall when Shelly reached out to grab his hand.

“Leave him.” Vee pulled Shelly back, giving her a brisk nod, and Shelly just sighed, crossing her arms and turning around. “Don’t push it. Let’s just get back to the hub. We’ve got more things to think about than trying to make friends.”

“You haven’t thought this through, have you?” Glisten glanced at Dandy, frowning at him. “How are we supposed to sneak him in without alerting any of the other toons? You may have forgotten, but they have eyes. And the second they see CF12, you’ve got a lot of explaining to do.”

“Well, it’ll be fine. They’ll understand. For now, we just won’t get caught!”

“And how do you suppose we do that?” Astro tilted his head, leaning against the wall beside CF12, who tensed, but then relaxed. The twisted had been like this the entire time, going very quiet as he watched all of the other toons meet up. Flinching at loud noises and constantly looking over his shoulder. “Unless we have someone distract them… But who’s gonna be able to do that without letting it slip? And you can’t get another toon to do it… they’ll start asking questions about what’s going on…”

“Questions…” Dandy mumbled to himself, before pulling a radio out of his pocket. Again, something completely random, but he pressed a few buttons and held it up to his ear. Silence, flat silence in the lift for a moment, with most of the toons wondering who the hell he was getting into contact with. “It’s me again. I need another favour.”

A pause, and they could hear the soft sound of an annoyed voice on the phone.

“Yes, I know, you don’t have to remind me. Just one more thing. I just need you to distract them. All of them. I know it’s a lot, but… yes, hold on.” Dandy sighed, glancing at Cosmo, just giving him a look. Cosmo paused for a second, before nodding, somehow understanding what Dandy was silently communicating. Then, Dandy turned back to the radio, holding it against his ear again, “He said yes. Just do it. Right, thanks.”

Dandy tucked the radio back into his pocket, sighing a bit. “I’ve got Shrimpo distracting them. We’ll take him to Cosmo’s room.”

“Why would you pick Shrimpo?” Astro asked curiously, and Dandy just shot him a look, telling him not to ask anymore questions. “Okay, nevermind…”

All of them fell silent again.

“I think someone knows.” Cosmo suddenly blurted out, and all of the toons turned to look at him at once. “While I was leaving…”

His words were quickly interrupted by the lift creaking open. And, outside of the lift, there were three toons waiting. Yatta, Looey and Blot. Ah, of course… There was no way Yatta was going to be able to keep what she had heard to herself. When she had spoken to Cosmo, she had looked both concerned and determined, wanting to help in any way that she could. Her way of helping was, well, getting herself involved. Clearly, the trio had slipped away from Shrimpo’s distraction (but the fact that no other toons were here revealed he was doing a pretty good job) to confront them about what was happening. Dandy saw red, turning around to stare at Glisten, who raised his hands in a placating manner.

Unsure of what was even going on, Glisten sputtered out an awkward but genuine, “That wasn’t me! I didn’t say anything, I swear. I kept it to myself, like you told me to.”

“They heard you through the vents. Well, Yatta did. And clearly… She’s the one who couldn’t actually keep it to herself.” Cosmo almost faceplanted himself as they all walked out of the lift, standing in the lobby.

Harsh lights glared down at them as they realised they couldn’t quite hide it for much longer. Beneath them, the carpet felt even more uncomfortable, making them shuffle awkwardly, unsure of how they were supposed to explain why they had done this. After all, they had kept Cosmo’s injury a little secret from the toons, even if it was getting obvious with Cosmo’s limping. While it had gotten better, Cosmo skating down that hallway had messed it up again, and now all he could really do was limp. CF12 was hiding in the back, scrunched back against the now closed lift, lips pressed together as he tried to make himself feel even smaller than he already was.

“I think you all have a lot to explain!” Yatta said quite dramatically, hands on her hips as she stared at them all, “I thought we all agreed to be honest with each other? Especially after everything about the ichor…”

“I just can’t believe you're working with him…” Looey frowned at them, looking down at the ground, “Everything that happened… Especially you, Vee! Aren’t you his biggest critic?”

“!Heay? ereh rehtegot gnikrow eb ot desoppus lla ew t’nerA? Sterces gnipeek trats uoy fi taht od ot desoppus ew era woH.” Even Blot was upset at them, frowning and crossing his arms over his chest to make a point.

“You guys don’t understand.” Dandy hissed, stepping forward and pointing an accusatory finger at them, “Sneaking through the vents? Of course I didn’t tell you! And, not to mention, everything going on here has nothing to do with you three. Can’t you keep your nose out of things?”

“Keep our nose out-? Dandy, what the hell? Of course we’ll get involved, because you’re sneaking around all over again? Do we really need to remind you of the last time you started acting like this… And now you’ve gotten Cosmo and Glisten involved, not just the mains!” Yatta hissed, genuinely sounding angrier than ever before. Her paper mache bristled as she got more and more annoyed, taking a step forward, “Don’t be like that. Why not be honest? To all of us?”

“Why the fuck would I want to be honest with you now? The people I think should be involved have been involved. And where does that leave you- oh, right! Irrelevant! Because you’ll just get hurt, or something. Who knows what mess you’ll stumble into.” Dandy glared at her, taking a step forward himself.

“Stop fucking arguing.” Another toon had walked in, getting between Yatta and Dandy, shoving them apart. Shrimpo, of course, pushed them both backwards so they wouldn’t start going for each other. “It’s not that deep. Dandy, just be fucking honest. Yatta, give him some damn space. How the fuck am I being the reasonable one between you two? Damn. Look, he’s about to start crying!”

“?gniyrc tratS” Blot mumbled, and all of the toons turned to look around.

CF12.

“I’m sorry, who is this?” Looey motioned dramatically with his hands, pointing at the twisted, then at Cosmo, then at Dandy, then huffing, “How much have we missed?”

“I’m sorry, I’m not usually this sensitive…” CF12 looked away quickly, seeming even more uncertain now, especially with the three new toons. Being afraid of Yatta wasn’t much of a surprise to them, considering what they had just seen and how aggressive she was, but his worry around Blot and Looey said a lot about what those NTs were like. It seemed like Rodger had been a one-off, with most of them being violent. “It’s hard to explain…”

“Quit your whining.” Shrimpo grumbled, while also being uncharacteristically gentle as he wiped the tears from the twisted’s eyes. Even he knew when it was time to be gentle, though it seemed clunky and unsure as he did it. “There we go. Now, I’m sick of being the fucking rational one. Let’s all go, sit down, and fucking talk. Was that seriously so damn hard?”

CF12 stared at Shrimpo, sniffling, before giving him a hesitant smile. Suddenly, he wrapped his arms around the other toon, just holding onto him gently. Shrimpo just stood there, sighing and awkwardly rubbing his back, still being as stiff as before but genuinely trying to keep the peace, even if begrudgingly.

The toons all sat on the floor silently.

“Alright. You want me to explain so bad? Fine.” Dandy hissed, “But don’t think you’re going to start coming on runs with us. I don’t want you getting hurt. We’re already tense enough as is, and telling the other toons about this will just make it worse.”

“?Truh teg ot su tnaw t’nod uoY”

“Obviously. Okay. Here’s where it started…”

Chapter 6: Dreamscape

Summary:

Cosmo is about to make some very bad decisions to help the toons around him. After all, wasn’t this what he was made to do? To help? He can’t just leave them to rot. They have dreams and nightmares, and they can’t be all bad.

Cosmo, in a sleep deprived, hurt and slightly incoherent state is about to get himself very hurt. But what’s a little pain if it means he can help others?

Notes:

Please lmk if this chapter doesn’t make sense :) i think it does, but if it needs more explaining why Cosmo is doing this, just say- ill expand on it next chap

The Dreamscape. A place of beauty. A place where every toon and twisted and NT went when they were asleep, disconnected from the pain of the true world.

Space. Stars twinkled in the night sky, the swirls of all shades of blue bringing peace to anyone who was somehow able to make it into this sector of the dreamscape. Usually, only Astro could access this portion, but he had somehow been booted out by some unknown, more powerful force. Now, the stars in the sky twinkled even brighter, dreams got better, nightmares being pushed down as this new boss took over. Strings of white, grey and black fiber led to different doors and holes and paths that led to all of the dreams and nightmares. Whoever controlled the dreamscape was able to see all of the dreams and nightmares.

Which explained why Astro couldn’t quite see them anymore.

Cosmo, however, had special access. He sat on the moon, feeling the crumbling white dust beneath his fingertips, the scratchy surface and running his hands along one of the strings- Sprout’s strings. White ones were the toons, grey the twisteds, and black the NTs. The grey fibers took up most of the space, but Cosmo could tell there was an even amount of toons and NTs- with the toons having just two more strings. All of the strings originated from the heart of the moon, streaming out from the core, which was made entirely of a special kind of ichor extracted from the mains and bundled into one. It established a connection between everything made of ichor, almost hooking them up to the Dreamscape like some sort of wiring system.

Further away, Cosmo could see Earth. A small planet of greens and blues. Essentially, the Dreamscape was a replica of the solar system, looking incredible, even if most toons wouldn’t be able to ever see it, restrained to just seeing their dreams. Only Astro was ever supposed to be here, his place to relax as he slept and to help the other toons. Hooking the twisteds up to the Dreamscape had been nothing short of a massive mistake, but they couldn’t reverse it. So, instead, it became a feature. Though, the twisted’s dreams were simple, or they didn’t have any, and Cosmo refused to look into the dreams of the NTs.

The dreams weren’t the most interesting bit about the dreamscape. Glancing to his side, Cosmo watched a figure manipulate the dreams, making the bad ones good with such efficiency Cosmo was surprised. Dreams could turn to nightmares so quickly, but Astro was handling it with a grace only he could hold.

This was an NT of Astro. The NT.

MF001.

At first, he had been terrifying. Curled in disgusting ways, disfigured, trying to find a form that was right for him, but not quite finding it at the time. He had threatened Cosmo, a low hiss to ‘realise what was best for him’, but never indulging any further than that. But now, he is much more relaxed, stable in his form.

MF001 was massive. Bigger than each of the planets. He could fit Cosmo in the palm of his hand, and often did to show him the dreams of the other toons if he found one particularly funny or interesting. Once, he had shown Cosmo a dream Dandy had of baking a chocolate roll cake and just sitting there at the table, before crying as he had realised he had tried to eat him. While MF001 had found it funny, Cosmo had just frowned, not quite asking Dandy about it the next day, but being slightly nicer to him after that.

MF001, or As as he preferred to be called, had the same structure as Astro. Four arms (even if Astro would never admit it), long and gentle. All of his skin was a deep cosmic blue, twinkling at the same time of the stars, reflective. If Cosmo looked into it at quite the right angle, he could see himself, which made him laugh every time. The weirdest thing about As was that he was blind, the white crescent with several eyes was just for show. Beneath, his face had no eyes, but it had every other feature. Staring at his face was almost like looking into the void below the moon Cosmo was sitting on, which led down to the dreams of the twisteds and NTs. Instead, he used echolocation to spot objects, and he could sense the difference between dreams and nightmares in a strange sixth sense. As was graceful, calm, and now that he had adjusted to being awake, was much kinder than before. While unwilling to share what he had meant on their first confrontation, now, he was much simpler with his wording.

As had a physical body, outside of the Dreamscape. But it was being kept asleep. For years, he had been kept in a vegetative state entirely, while his mind was being used as the basis for the Dreamscape. Everything, all of this, relied on his mind to be functional. Keeping him asleep had been done for a few reasons- he was dangerous, violent when he didn’t get his way, and had far too much power. Really, they had worried he was almost as strong as Dandy, meaning he had to be dealt with instantly. Keeping him in a vegetative state meant they could still reap the benefits of the Dreamscape while not having to deal with him. Yet, recently, he had been awoken. Being kept behind a level five clearance door meant it hadn’t been an easy feat, but some of the NTs, who were revolting, had somehow gained access. And they had woken him up. Not physically, but mentally. Physically, his body was still asleep.

That was because As’ body was charging, so this was the only form he had. And as the Dreamscape was in his brain, using his body and his ichor, he was the primary controller. Which was why Astro had been entirely booted out, unable to access any dreams at all. Rather, now, he had his own dreams, which was terrifying to him. But As didn’t see that at this problem.

“Oh my…” Even As’ voice was graceful, sweeping across the universe. A low tone, one that was almost a relaxing hum that could put anyone to sleep. “It seems like one of your friends is not having good dreams… A permanent nightmare…”

“Who is it…?” Cosmo asked, standing up. His lips pressed in a straight line as he watched As rest his hand down onto the moon, allowing Cosmo to climb onto it. It was all so strange, but Cosmo didn’t mind, clinging to one of As’ fingers as he was lifted towards the nightmare. “Oh, it’s Astro… poor guy…”

“Hm…? Astro. A new name.” As’ voice was still a soft whisper, as one of his other hands gently cupped the door, rubbing the surface as if expecting it to change, but it didn’t. “What kind of dream should I give the poor fellow?”

“Astro’s never really had dreams before.” Cosmo said gently, clinging to As’ finger as his own hand touched the door, feeling the wooden surface beneath his hand. Each of the doors was different for each of the toons, and Astro’s one was a soft, baby blue, covered in stars and small planets, almost a mini version of the Dreamscape. “He used to be the one who controlled the Dreamscape, you know.”

“Really? I was not aware.” As’ mouth formed a very small frown, as a navy blue light came from the fingertips, trying to make the nightmare turn back into a dream. As Cosmo didn’t have the same sixth sense as As, he had found another way to recognise the difference- when a door showed a nightmare, its doorknob was dull and flat, whereas when there was a dream, it glittered and shone with excitement. “How is he adjusting?”

“Not well.” Cosmo looked down at the endless void beneath all the doors for the twisteds and NTs. “Do you know where CF12’s door is? I’m curious about if he’s a twisted or NT.”

“Why would you worry your small mind on that boy?”

“He’s asleep in my room right now.”

“Really? You caught him? How did you manage that? My people haven’t been able to catch him, because he somehow worms away or gets himself in a tight spot we can’t follow.”

“We were in the stairwells, trying to look for him, because he was caught on the camera system. I found him being, well, jumped by Yatta. She backed off once Rodger came…”

“Rodger helped you?”

“Yeah. He was really nice about it. Didn’t try to take a bite or anything. Said it was better we take CF12 before Light (I don’t know who that even is) gets his ‘grubby’ hands on him. CF12 got upset about him saying that…”

“Ah, Light. A strange NT, I must admit.”

“He’s an NT? CF12 was confident he never needed… pastry to stay alive.”

“Well, I am an ‘NT’ by your definition and I have never consumed pieces of a Cosmo. But Light is peculiar. He’s a sneaky, mind my language, bastard. Two-faced, always working for the sides he thinks will benefit him the most. I wouldn’t trust him if I was you.”

“You think he’s working with the NTs?”

“I don’t know. All I know is that he’s not working with my men. Either he’s some sort of lone wolf, or he’s working with them. Either way, proceed with caution. That guy is a very particular man, always wanting things to be perfect. I wouldn’t slip a mention about your rework or…”

“You think he’s transphobic?”

“Not exactly. Just… He believes the toons should be perfect in every way. If he finds out you're not perfect in every way, he’ll start getting funny with you. To Light, toons should be perfect straight away. I don’t know how he’ll react.”

“How do you know so much about him?”

“I’ve seen his dreams for too long. And I’ve had reports on how he acts from my people. Either way, I would keep your distance. Personally, I don’t see the need to look for him. After all, you have CF12. He’s how those NTs are still alive. You and him are the only source of pastry. But he’s smart. Light is a genius beneath all of those covers of other toons. Either way, he can both help and hurt your cause.”

Cosmo looked down at the ground, unsure of what he was supposed to do. Catching Light had so many benefits. He would know all about the NTs, especially if he had previously worked with them. And it wasn’t just that- he brought CF12 comfort and seemed to know even more about pastry than any of them did. Probably knowing more than Dandy even did. That was invaluable, even now, when they were confused and scared and unconfident about what was going on. Cosmo was able to see how quickly each of the toons’ dreams turned into nightmares, and As had to quickly fix it.

Cosmo rubbed his face against As’ finger, humming.

“I have a present for you.” As said randomly, once he was finally able to change Astro’s nightmare to a dream, taking a little more of his power than usual. Then, as he moved onto the next one almost immediately, within Cosmo’s hand was a small keycard.

Level five.

There were only four.

“You’ll know when to use it.” As hummed, “I place my faith in you to do well.”

And Cosmo woke up.

 

Heart pounding, Cosmo looked down at his hand. A small, plastic keycard. How As was able to do that was an absolute mystery to him, but Cosmo tucked it away in his pocket, sitting there in the dark. Conflict was plastered all over his face as he glanced down, seeing CF12 curled up at the end of the bed. When Cosmo was falling asleep, he had still been awake, insisting he would be awake the entire night to check for danger, no matter how much Cosmo tried to reassure him that nothing would happen here. It seemed like CF12 hadn’t been able to fight off sleep, and was curled up. Cosmo watched him for a second, watching him breathe, before dragging him as best as he could to the top of the bed, covering him with the duvet. CF12’s breath hitched, before he clung onto the blanket tighter, humming in his sleep as Cosmo pet his head gently.

Slipping out of the bed as quietly as he could, Cosmo’s bare feet hit the floor as he decided Dandy would be the best person to ask about this. Besides, there were very few toons he could talk to now, and hopefully Dandy would actually understand. And not get instantly angry at the idea of Cosmo communicating with As.

Because he wasn’t bad. As wasn’t a bad person. None of the twisteds or the NTs were. Cosmo could see it now, he could tell they were changed by the ichor and what they had been through. Relying on pastry to actually be conscious and alive and to understand what was going on around them. Some may have been more malicious, but Cosmo couldn’t blame that NT of Yatta in particular for snapping like that. And some of the NTs were good. Some were nice. Some were understanding.

Cosmo knocked on Dandy’s door.

Dandy didn’t open it.

“What are you doing here?” Shrimpo answered the door instead, seeming tired, but he hadn’t been asleep. He didn’t seem annoyed or angry to see Cosmo, just confused, his eyebrows furrowed a little as he saw the pastry standing before him, “I thought you were supposed to be asleep with CF12.”

“I had a dream.” Cosmo said, staring at him, “About the NT of Astro again. And he gave me something. Like, actually…”

Shrimpo sighed.

“Cosmo, look. I’m going to be upfront with you. It’s all too much. I don’t understand what you’re trying to do. Piecing things together isn’t possible because you don’t have the entire puzzle. Get some rest. Have a break. You’re still limping and can barely stand up straight. I know you want to fix things, but some things can’t be fixed. Not properly. Not yet.”

Cosmo stared at him. His eyes widened.

“What are you trying to say?”

“You need to be selfish. Because you're just getting yourself hurt over and over again. You don’t- none of us know what we’re messing with here. That NT of Astro could be lying through his teeth and you don’t know. Just take a break. Just slow the fuck down.”

Cosmo looked away.

“Go back to sleep. Talk to Dandy in the morning.”

“Right.”

“Cosmo… For once, I’m not trying to be rude. Look at you. You’re a complete and utter fucking mess. What are we gonna do if you go down there and get killed? Because there’s no coming back from absolute death. They want to rip you apart down there, and the more you wear yourself down, the easier you make it for them.”

“No, I understand.”

“Good. Just go to bed. Please.”

Shrimpo turned around, and slammed the door shut straight in his face. Cosmo’s grip on the keycard tightened, and he turned around. Adrenaline pumped through his body as he leaned against the wall, his breath shaking and ragged. The wound on his leg was aching, burning with pain as he stood there, contemplating on how he could fix everything. Clearly, Shrimpo’s words hadn’t been fully taken in by the cake roll.

Cosmo wanted to fix everything. Help everyone. Make them all feel better and make everything right all over again. Too empathetic, he had heard that far too many times, ripping himself apart just to make sure everyone was okay. Yatta said it was like he was setting himself on fire to keep other people warm, but Cosmo didn’t really understand how that made any sense. The other toons just didn’t get it. They weren’t made to help. They hadn’t been reworked and reconditioned to being kind. To become this way.

He was made into this.

A mess of empathy for others.

Cosmo set the keycard down on a small table.

And he started walking.

Chapter 7: Light

Summary:

Cosmo goes missing. He’s fine, just a little confused. Good thing is, he’s got a bunch of friends looking for him, and two new friends watching his back.

He’s not gone for long.

And now, he has a pole!

Notes:

This was so much fun to write asghhhh !! I hope it makes more sense now. Light and the blue NTs (youll meet the rest properly soon) have the same goal, but dont rlly get along.

And, to clarify, each NT has a reason their an NT. pebble is very violent, vee had other toons ichor and doesnt act right, shrimpo is fun and happy, ect.

And gigi is terrifying

Hope you all enjoy this chapter !!! And i hope you all have theories on whats going on. As I always say, id love to hear em, even if i dont confirm nor deny em :)

Sprout knew something was wrong the second he woke up. Something was just wrong. As if something was missing. Groaning, he rolled around in bed, seeing how early it was, six in the morning. His alarm hadn’t even gone off, and his dream had ended incredibly abruptly. Frockling through flower fields under the open sky with his best friend gone just like that as his eyes adjusted to the darkness around him. Almost like something had woken him on purpose, to make him realise something had happened.

A quick knock at the door. When Sprout didn’t answer the first time, it got louder, almost pounding in urgency. Whoever was on the other side of that door was clearly very upset. Sprout sighed, rolling out of bed and pulling on some actual clothes, turning on his light. Eyes adjusted to the new brightness as the knock sounded again.

“Hold on, hold on, I’ll be out in a second!” Sprout called out, and the knocking stopped, replaced with impatient tapping of the feet against the carpet. Imperfect rhythm and its light sound said it wasn’t one of the other mains, but the way whoever was on the other side stopped knocking immediately upon being told screamed at it being a particular person on the other side, “CF12? Is that you?”

For a moment, there was no response, until a small, “Yeah.” came on the other side of the door. Gentle and weak and sounding absolutely terrified. Why he had come to Sprout instead of any of the other toons he had a better relationship with was completely beyond the strawberry, but he certainly didn’t complain. Instead, he called out a small, ‘come in’.

Clammy and shaky hands gripped the doorknob, twisting it quickly. Inside stepped CF12, his eyes somehow even wider as he looked at Sprout. Hesitation for a moment, worry all over his face as he looked at him, “Cosmo’s gone. I looked everywhere! I mean, maybe I don’t know this place as well as you, but I searched everywhere! Every room, every bathroom, the kitchen- he’s completely gone!”

“Are you sure? Come on, we’ll look. There’s probably some small corner or a little bathroom somewhere, don’t start worrying too much.” Sprout tried his best to reassure him, but worry rose in his throat at the idea. Cosmo going missing now, after everything- Sprout looked away, fiddling with his hands. “It’s going to be okay.”

“No, he’s gone!” CF12 said quickly, his breath wild as he made dramatic gestures with his hands to make Sprout understand, “I checked everywhere. Absolutely everywhere! The only place I wasn’t able to check was here, but since he’s not in your bed, he’s gone!”

“CF12, please. I’m sure there’s some explanation.” Sprout spoke softly, gently, taking the twisted’s hands in his, squeezing gently as he forced eye contact between them, “Cosmo’s not the type to go up and missing like that. I know him better than anyone or anything. I just… he wouldn’t run off like that. Not unless…”

“Unless…?”

“Unless something was really wrong. But, he’d say something.”

“What if he didn’t know something was wrong?”

“CF12, please…”

There were some footsteps, and after about two minutes of shuffling in one of the rooms on the floor, Shrimpo appeared in the doorway. Leaning against the door, he watched the pair, already a little irritated. He hadn’t slept that well last night at all, comforting Dandy who was upset, dealing with Cosmo randomly coming to the door- but he saw their faces, and stood up straight. Something was clearly wrong, and CF12 quickly turned around, shaking.

“Cosmo’s gone.”

“Gone gone?”

“I don’t know where he went!”

“Oh… OH FUCK!” Shrimpo quickly turned around, leaving the room and going to Dandy’s. Never in Sprout’s life had he seen that damn shrimp move so fast. Luckily, Vee was completely switched off, Shelly slept through anything and Astro’s room was soundproofed, because otherwise all of the mains would’ve woken up at loud his swear was. Sprout and CF12 followed, confused, as Shrimpo kneeled on Dandy’s bed, trying to shake him awake. Both were too concerned as to question why the pair had been sleeping together.

“Why? What’s wrong?” Sprout asked quickly, and Shrimpo turned around.

“He came here last night. Started mumbling about some damn dream he had. I told him to go get some rest and to calm down, because he was getting himself hurt. I was honest, and told him that none of us knew what we’re messing with, and to just talk to Dandy in the morning. He said he understood.” Shrimpo leaned back on his heels, rubbing his face in pure annoyance, “You should’ve seen the utter state he was in. I’ve only seen that frenzied look in a toon’s eyes once, and that’s Dandy. He was barely able to walk, still limping his fucking ass off. And the wound on his leg was bleeding. I thought he’d be fine to go back to his room. Clearly fucking not…”

Shrimpo stared down at Dandy. After a moment, he grabbed the water in a small glass on the side, literally throwing it on his face.

“The… the fuck…?” Dandy hissed, rolling onto his side and rubbing his face. Then, he glanced back at Shrimpo, and his face softened upon seeing the other toon’s expression, “You alright there? Really, you could’ve just shaken me awake…”

“I tried.” Shrimpo stood up quickly, setting the glass down again and helping Dandy sit up. Now, he saw CF12 and Sprout were in the room, and his face soured, confused. Shrimpo quickly shook his head, his voice low and angry, “Cosmo’s gone. Who knows where the fuck he’s gone or why, but this is a massive problem. We need to go get him back now.”

“Why would he even run off anyway..?” Dandy mumbled, still seeming absolutely exhausted. “I told him to stay put… Are you sure he’s not eating another tub of icing? Last time I caught him hiding in the oven. Who knows how he even fit himself in there…”

“In the oven?” CF12 mumbled, glancing back at Sprout, who just shrugged a bit. That didn’t sound too much unlike him, slipping into the strangest places in order to hide what he was doing. But that wasn’t important now, because if Cosmo would’ve come out the second someone came looking for him. “I checked the oven anyway… What do we do?”

“We go looking, duh.” Shrimpo hissed, standing up and stretching his arms, “What a fucking idiot… man, we have to get a lock for his door or something. Go get ready, you two. Meet us in the lobby in ten minutes.”

CF12 and Sprout nodded quickly.

“I can’t believe that. He’s never…” Sprout trailed off, seeing something on one of the small cabinets. Gleaming in the light, the small metal card drew the strawberry towards it, and that large five in one of the corners instantly caught his attention. A level five keycard, somehow here of all the damn places. Clearly real, the sleek metal catching his fingertips like the other keycards he had seen. “This is level five. How is this here?”

“Level five…” CF12’s breath caught in his throat as he stared down at the metal surface, “There’s no way… You shouldn’t have that. Only MF001 and his crew have one! And their- uhm, a strange bunch. Very strong. Very powerful. That Rodger we met was working with them, and you saw how strong he was!”

“Cosmo told me that MF001 was nice. Kind. And he rules the Dreamverse…”

“He’s awake-?”

“Yes, why?”

“Oh no, goodness me, how could you let this happen? Is his body awake or just his mind? Because if his body is awake, that’s a really, really, really bad problem!”

“Just his mind. But why are you so upset? I don’t understand. He seemed really nice, that’s what Cosmo told me. Is it just because he and Light don’t get along? I bet that’s why, isn’t it. I mean, you talk about him a whole lot, and you were very defensive when that Rodger brought him up…”

“Look. Light isn’t perfect. I know that. He has flaws. And you’d understand more when you met him- please, Sprout. You have to believe me. MF001 isn’t what he says he is. He will do anything to get control. Because he doesn't need pastry- he produces his own stuff from his ichor! And if he controls the, uhm, ‘food supplies’, he controls them all.”

“Let me guess. Did Light tell you that?”

“Yes. But- but- he also showed me footage. Of MF001. He’s killed humans, Sprout. He’s not what he says he is. Can you please just trust me? I mean, what else do we even have to go off of here? Please. We just need to look for Cosmo. Because… I don’t know what kind of danger he’s in.”

“Alright, alright. Stop it with the puppy eyes.”

“Where are you going?”

Yatta. She had heard all of the arguing and hissed whispering from the floor below, and heard the hurried footsteps. Obvious, that’s what all of this had been, and the pair slowly turned to Yatta, staring at her blankly. CF12 bit his lip, and Sprout shuffled back, slipping the keycard into his pocket before she could even see it.

“Don’t tell me you're back to hiding stuff again. What’s going on?” Yatta’s frown was serious. “Why… Where’s Cosmo?” Never had she seen Sprout without Cosmo, and the look on both of their faces meant that something was really going on.

“Don’t tell her…” Hissed Sprout, but CF12’s hands clasped together as he stepped forward.

“It’s Cosmo! He’s missing. We think he’s gone down to the floors. Can you come with us and help us, please?” CF12 frowned at him, his eyes shining as she stared at him, a little surprised that he was actually asking for her help.

“Okay. Of course I’ll help.” She gently rubbed his head, “Aren’t you sweet? At least you're not lying to me like they are…”

“We need all the help we can get.”

All of the five toons met up outside of the lift. Dandy seemed a little upset about involving Yatta, but there wasn’t really any other choice for them. Shrimpo didn’t seem to care about her joining them, patting her back and telling her that she had to be careful. Really, she was surprised that he was being so damn nice about it, but the entire thing had been a shock to all of their systems. She insisted they, specifically Dandy and Sprout, had to tell the other toons. Hiding CF12 wasn’t possible forever, and the other toons were slowly catching on that they had lied about the reason as to why none of the other toons could do runs anymore. Yatta had heard Connie telling Gigi she was setting up a run anyway to see what was really going on down there, which would probably end up with them getting hurt or ripped into small little pieces.

“Are you sure he’s even alive?” Yatta knew it sounded dark, but it was a genuine question that all of them feared, “And why would he even go down? Cosmo’s not an idiot…”

“MF001 must’ve convinced him to go down.” CF12 muttered fearfully, and Dandy’s head snapped up, turning to look at him.

“MF001? He’s- he’s awake?”

“Yeah. He’s… he’s awake.”

 

Cosmo sat down on the ground. Floor seventeen. How he had been able to get this far in about three hours was beyond him, and he decided to stop once he had gotten to Astro’s floor. Climbing over one of the fences, he curled up on one of the small space installations, feet tapping against the floor as he leaned against the wall. This floor was quite calm, with only four normal twisteds- Rodger, Blot, Connie, Razzle and Dazzle. All passives. It had all gone by in quite a blur, but he curled up in the corner, his fingers tapping against his leg.

As was whispering to him. Mumbling softly, telling him to go this way or that way, telling him to listen and telling him to avoid the twisteds. None of the NTs had spawned, probably because it was pretty early in the morning, and they were asleep. For some reason, the NTs slept. Apparently, the twisteds did too, but it was probably more when they were inactive or when the passives weren’t being utilized or became aggressive.

Then, silence. As was gone.

“What are you doing down here?” Something came into view, climbing over the railing and kneeling down in front of him. In the form of a Looey, with bright red eyes, and a mostly red and yellow colour scheme. Not quite Looey, but it seemed more like personalisation rather than a reflection of who he was actually working with. “You’ll get hurt.”

“Are you… Light?” Cosmo asked gently. This must’ve been what As was leading him to. He didn’t understand why. He seemed to detest the guy, but trusted him enough to leave Cosmo in his care? Either way, Cosmo seemed to uncurl a little, just staring at him, trying to work things out. He was so confused. And very, very tired.

The Looey froze, his ears pointing up, before folding down again. A slow nod. “How did you know that name? Has… It’s him, isn’t it? MF001?”

“Yeah… But CF12 told me a lot about you…”

“C-CF12? You know CF12? My Cosmo?” Light leaned forward, his eyes concerned. He was absolutely the opposite of who Cosmo expected him to be. Gentle, soft, and very, very worried about ‘his’ Cosmo. “Is he okay? Please tell me he’s okay. Please, please, Cosmo…”

“He’s okay! He was with us.” Cosmo sat up, looking at him. “You… You care a lot about him. As told me… Well, I’m sure you might know.”

“MF001 doesn’t like me. And I don’t like him. He wants control over all of the twisteds. And I just want to keep my Cosmo safe.” Light pulled back, sitting on his heels, “Why are you down here? Alone? Are you just stupid, or has something led you down here?”

“He told me to come down. That I had to meet someone. And now he’s stopped talking.” Cosmo looked around, seeing there was no one here, “I think he wanted to lead me to you.”

“To me…? Huh.” Light sighed, rubbing his face, “Well, it was stupid. I mean, I’m glad, because now I’ve gotten some answers, but… Why me? Did he tell you anything to say?”

“No. He just said to stay with you.”

“Have you been bitten, or anything? Licked or sucked?”

“Yeah, Pebble bit me. The NT of Pebble. He bit me. And it really hurt, and the wound hasn’t healed at all. None of us actually knew what to do, so we wrapped it up and hoped it would get better. I haven’t actually looked at it once.”

Cosmo looked down at his feet, rubbing his rainbow socks against the floor. Gently, Light reached out, taking the wounded leg and setting it in his lap. Slowly, almost tentatively, he pulled off his sock, using his fingers to prod and poke at the wound, watching a white liquid ooze out slowly. The same colour and consistently as NT Pebble’s saliva, and Cosmo sighed, shaking from the pain.

Light glanced up at him. “This is why you’ve been drawn down here. Not just is it a tracker, it messes with your hormones and messes you up in general. It’s to try and make you vulnerable so they can pick you apart quicker. How you’re still alive beats me. When CF12 got bitten, it was two days and he almost walked straight into MF003’s mouth. I barely got him away…”

Prodding and poking at the wound was absolutely disgusting, but it seemed to be necessary. White saliva continued to seep out, dribbling onto the ground, and Cosmo watched, both unsure and intrigued. Each of the NTs had their own special thing. Vee could manipulate machines, and Pebble could do this. It made him wonder what the others could do, though he knew he would probably work it all out soon.

“He led you straight to me.” Light mumbled under his breath, “Seems like a treaty sorta thing, hm? Bringing you to me so I could help you fix up. You have to drain it before it heals properly. Not just is it a hormone, a tracker, but it also prevents your healing. Quite a multi-tasker, that dog, but he’s satiated at the moment. I can’t imagine him harassing you for another week or two. But the other NTs will get more violent. You shouldn’t ever come down alone again…”

“I know.” Cosmo mumbled, staring at his face, “You seem nicer than I expected, if I can be honest with you. He told me about your… perfection complex.”

“Mmm. I’m trying to get better.” Light glanced away, before his eyes stayed focused entirely on the wound, “Trying. I’ve done things. Things I regret a lot in the way of ‘perfection’. That’s why I prefer to stay in this better, Looey form. It grounds me. If that doesn’t sound weird.”

“No, I understand. I think.”

“Good. Now if I stay like this, I can keep those thoughts to myself. And I’m not violent. I know it makes me sound weird. But it works.”

“Whatever works, well, works, right?”

“Right. Just lift your leg a little higher, now…”

Cosmo did so, shuffling back so he was almost laying down, lifting his leg a little higher. Light fiddled around in his pocket, before pulling out a small shard of glass. Wordlessly, he used the shard to slowly cut into the wound, watching the icing and ichor pool into the wound. He took a very, very deep breath, clearly trying to resist temptation as he prodded a little more, making sure there was no saliva left. Then, he pulled back, watching the wound heal up almost immediately, pastry growing and folding in on itself before there was no scar or wound left. Absolutely nothing, as if it hadn’t been there to begin with.

“Damn, that was cool!” Another voice, and Light groaned loudly. Leaning against the railing was someone else. An NT. But not quite. “I ain’t seen healing like that before. Pretty cool, honestly. And Light, look at you, helping out! How cute!”

Standing there was Shrimpo. An NT of Shrimpo. But he didn’t try and jump or rip him apart. Instead, he was blue. Much bigger than the actual Shrimpo, with a long tail and claws on his hands. Deep ocean blue eyes stared at him, with the antenna beneath his chin pointing up excitedly. His entire body twisted, just like his twisted version, but it seemed more like instability than a desire to hurt. His other tail, the one on top of his head (who knows why it was there) was a baby blue colour, with the small heart at the back of his head was a deep navy blue, and he had a big grin on his face. Clearly, this was another toon working with MF001.

“Ugh. Why are you here?” Light grumbled, glaring at him, and the Shrimpo just shrugged his shoulders and smiled. Looking at Cosmo, Light quickly explained, “This is CF054. He’s annoying. Very annoying. Has he sent you down here again?”

“Yeah.” CF054 climbed over the railing, sitting beside Cosmo. The pastry just stared at him, quite confused on why he was so nice, but CF054 mumbled, “Ah, major failure right here. Surprised Light here hasn’t tried to take me out already!”

“Shut up. You know I’ve changed.” Light looked down, “He’s here to try and twist me into working for him. I’ve told you, we have different aims here.”

“Uhm, pretty sure we don’t! We both want to keep the Cosmos out and get the hell outta this place. How’s that different again…?”

“You know why! Cosmo, let’s just go. This fucking asshole is only here to act up.”

Cosmo looked between them, rolling his eyes, “Don’t involve me in your enemies to lovers bit. If you two are aiming towards the same goal, why are we here?”

“He doesn’t want to work with us!” CF054 shook Cosmo a little. Honestly, Cosmo just stared at him, really struggling to believe that this was a Shrimpo twisted. “Look. We’re all trying to work together. And trust me, Light is a very strong NT. Of course we want him working with us! You know what we’re up against. Vee and Pebble are just the beginning. Wait until you meet Shelly or Sprout…”

“I have to agree with you there. They're pretty… pretty bad.” Light crossed his arms over his chest, “Manipulative as fuck. I know me and MF001 aren’t right, but they're just evil. All they want is to eat.”

“You’re both scaring me.” Cosmos admitted after a moment, “But… Who else is working with you? Who else is actually sane down here?”

“None of us are sane.” CF054 said flatly, “But me, MF001, UF032, RF067, CF014, CF054, CF024 and RF043. We do have three NTs we are trying to reform, though!”

“That’s him, Astro, Rodger, Blot, Tisha, Looey and Goob. The NTs their reforming is Yatta, Toodles, Razzle and Dazzle. So those aren’t a threat. If you or one of the other toons get lost down here, you can go to them. I guess.” Light shrugged, seeming half-convinced, but he knew it was true. “But I don’t think that’ll happen.”

Cosmo stood up, brushing himself down. Then, his face paled as he realised the keycard was gone. He had put it down and then- he hadn’t picked it up again!

“The keycard- I left it at the hub!” Cosmo said quickly, looking down at Shrimpo, who just shrugged.

“Good. Best to be safe. The reason As gave you that keycard was to keep it safe. Because if they get a hold of it… who knows what they’ll do! Me, UF032 (Rodger) and RF067 (Blot) had them embedded into our hands. No getting them out! As long as it doesn’t leave your hub, we’ll be good. That’s the two things they want. Your pastry and the keycard. Because it gives them power. That’s what she wants.”

“She?”

“The one controlling them. Lu calls her the ‘White one’ while As is the ‘Blue one’. But I think it’s less of a funny nickname and more so he can remember what colour they are.”

Shrimpo stood up, stretching his arms behind his back. “Well, I best go! Boss just wanted to make sure you got the thing and that Light patched you up.” He hummed, opening a nearby vent and somehow squeezing himself inside, before shutting it behind him with a loud slam.

“He’s a character.” Light’s voice was flat, before standing up, staring at Cosmo, “We best get you back then. Staying here is making us sitting ducks. Let’s move.” He held onto Cosmo’s shoulder, tugging him along to the stairwell. “We’ll find them. Trust me, I’m good at finding people. Other than CF12. He’s slippery.”

 

“How fucking far did he get?” Dandy hissed, kicking his feet on the floor as they stepped out onto floor fifteen. “Keep going. No toon left behind.”

“Yeah!” CF12 hummed, nudging Sprout, who just sighed. They had been at this for a little while now, and the strawberry was clearly upset they hadn’t gotten anywhere. He was still down there, maybe dead or something, and Sprout gripped tighter onto the keycard in his pocket, hoping the pastry would turn up somewhere. Alive. Breathing. And not missing any bits of himself.

“I’ll go round up the twisteds. You lot just stay outta the way.” Dandy nodded, and Shrimpo followed him, ready to help. Yatta and CF12 went off to do machines, while Sprout walked around, hoping to either find Cosmo or something that could help them.

A low growl.

Sprout had turned the corner in Shelly’s map, stepping into the low projector room. Curled around one of the machines was some… creature. Then, he saw the light blue jumper, and instantly recognised it as Gigi. Shattered glass was now sharp teeth, the ichor hand now larger than even her own body, looming over him with interest, as if scanning his inventory. She seemed more like a menace than actually violent, but that gleam in her eyes screamed that there was something she saw that she wanted. Grin stretching over half of her face, she looked the picture of terrifying, a large snarl that reached her ears, her eyes wide and full of hate.

Suddenly, her hand shot out, slamming down on him as it tried to find something. He screamed, kicking, finding himself on his back without an option of what to do. She didn’t budge, her hand rooting around in his pockets.

“Get off me!” Sprout huffed, wheezing as she pressed down on his chest, trying to shut him up. He punched, but his hand made contact with the glass, leaving cuts and bruises that made him hiss in weak pain. “What do you want?”

“You know… What…” Gigi drawled, “Give it… We will use better…”

“You’re crushing me!” Sprout swung again, this time aiming for her face, which made her move back slightly in confusion, before her hand got even bigger, sliding around his neck.

Then smash.

A pole straight through her head, landing about five centimeters from Sprout’s head.

“Hey, Sprout!” Cosmo’s excited grin as he leaned above him, pulling out the pole from the NT’s head, “Man, I feel great! You don’t look too good? Don’t tell me she choked the life outta you…” He stretched out his hand for Sprout to grab.

“I’m fine… Thanks.” Sprout gave him a shaken, grateful smile. He gripped Cosmo’s hand like it was a lifeline, pulling himself up, “You really saved me there. And you’re not limping anymore.”

Cosmo gave him an excited grin, dropping the pole and wrapping his arm around Sprout’s neck. The strawberry smiled, pulling him in, his foot landing straight onto the NT’s head, cracking sounds filling the room.

“Oh, I’ve got tons to tell you.” Cosmo’s finger drew a little circle on Sprout’s chest, “I really got things done in those few hours. I hope you didn’t start panicking that I was missing?”

“Of course I was.”

“Well, I’m here now.”

Cosmo gave him a very small smile, a soft blush spreading onto his cheeks. He leaned in a little bit, and Sprout let out the smallest little sigh.

“Come on you two, save it for after!” Yatta’s voice, and they quickly pulled away from each other, “You can kiss and cuddle when we get back to the hub. Let’s go!”

Chapter 8: Calm before the storm

Summary:

A fluff chapter, where CF12 and Light settle themselves in. After last chapter, they need a little bit of calm.

Notes:

Ok! I will probably do about the NTs next chapter. Lore drops. Yay? And i adore the dynamics between the toons and NTs. I’m very excited to write more Light/Glisten, and cant wait to introduce dandy and CF054 (i will try give him a name i have to)

 

And, Blot translation!

“So… Another one?”

“You know, that body looks a little familiar… Hm, I wonder from where?”

“Better than letting you rot down there. And maybe you could help us too?”

“Great! But, Dandy, you should go round up the other toons and explain. We’ll sort these two out, don’t worry.”

“?eno rehtonA… oS” Blot was standing at the entrance to the lift as it rose back up. It hadn’t taken him long to notice that Yatta was missing. Two minutes, and he had noticed. She just had this particular energy that lightened up the place, and the second that was gone, you could tell she had just gone missing, and, considering that a bunch of the other toons were missing as well, he just knew that something was going on here. So, he stood in the lobby, arms crossed across his chest with a playful ‘disappointed parent’ look plastered all over his face.

“This is Light!” CF12 jumped out of the lift, bouncing on his heels. He grinned at Blot, looking at him with nothing short of excitement gleaming in his eyes, clearly able to understand the guy. For some reason that he hadn’t quite explained, both he and Cosmo could understand him. Cosmo glanced at Light, who was staring at Blot in silence.

“?erehw morf rednow I, mH… railimaf elttil a skool ydob taht, wonk uoY” Blot’s voice was teasing as he looked Light up and down, finding it quite hilarious that he would take the form of a Looey. Maybe it was an attempt to make himself look less threatening? He wasn’t quite sure, but he watched Light’s face twist in anger, before calming down again.

Glancing at Light, Yatta mumbled a curious, “You can understand him?”

Cosmo had explained to them the whole ‘ichor composition’ thing. Apparently, he had a little sample of all of their ichor in him, which allowed him to heal them, because his ability was so quickly implemented. The only exception to this rule was Dandy. So, Cosmo (and naturally by extension, CF12) could understand Blot. Dandy understanding him was natural, important as his role as the ringleader of the toons. Yatta and Looey understood because of how much time they had spent with him. That was natural too.

So Light was a strange outlier.

“Of course I can.” Light hissed, and while it wasn’t incredibly aggressive, it was harsh and blunt. He glanced away, not seeming very amused, “Remind me why we’re here again?”

“It’s safer.” CF12 whispered to him gently, “And you won’t believe how soft the beds are. It’s like a plush house. And the food…”

“Hm. I haven’t eaten a proper meal in weeks now.” Admitted Light gruffly, “Alright, alright. I hope you all don’t mind having two new occupants.

“.ereht nwod tor uoy gnittel naht retteB ?oot su pleh dluoc uoy ebyam dnA” Blot sounded hopeful, and his eyes brightened when Light nodded reluctantly. “!taerG .nialpxe dna snoot rehto eht pu dnuor og dluohs uoy, ydnaD, tuB. yrrow t’nod, uot owt eseht tros ll’eW”

“Explain? How am I supposed to do that?” Dandy said quickly, as if panicking at just the idea, “How do- they won’t understand. They’ll demand to see it and end up putting themself in danger, or won’t even believe me.”

“I’ll tell them.” Shrimpo said firmly, and all of the other toons exchanged horrified looks at just the idea. “They’ll believe me. They know I won’t fucking lie. And besides, I’ll be blunt about it. No more beating around the bush and frilly lies to make everyone feel good. Shits going on down there, and it’s best if they know the truth.”

Silence, before Light of all people eventually nodded, “I don’t see why not. Bluntness sounds pretty good. Then we can introduce ourselves. So that way their brains don’t implode at the idea of twisteds being sentient. That would be a big mess.”

“I like the way you think.” Shrimpo grinned, then he grabbed Dandy’s hand, tugging him along without even thinking. “Let’s go. We have work to do. Best to think of a way they’ll fucking understand. I doubt either of us are in the mood to answer questions.”

Both of them walked together down the lobby. How the hell were they supposed to explain this to the other toons? Would they even understand what an NT was, let alone how important it was that they kept their distance? Most of them didn’t understand ichor compositions or even why Cosmo was being shielded by all of the mains recently. And not just that- Dandy would have to explain how Cosmo had gotten hurt, and why they were still going down there. Putting him in more danger.

Putting all of them in more danger.

“Just trust me.” Shrimpo glanced at him from the corner of his eyes, “Okay?”

“Okay.”

Dandy’s grip tightened, and Shrimpo couldn’t help but flash an actual (actual real genuine) smile at him. That made Dandy’s stomach twist and curl, but Shrimpo continued to tug him along. Ah, Dandy knew he was in love. A word he hated and a thing he didn’t particularly enjoy even thinking about, but he couldn’t help it. Toons really could change, couldn’t they? Dandy met his smile, and returned it, albeit reluctantly. Shrimpo would have a bluntness they needed to hear, and the toons would actually believe him. Transparency was important when talking about such a thing, and Shrimpo wasn’t the kind of toon that would try and save the other’s feelings.

“Do you think they’ll understand?” Dandy muttered as he pressed the small button to alert the toons into the meeting room, “Or even listen?”

“What choice do they have? You’re overthinking it, Dandy. All they want is answers. We will give them answers. They’re not going to complain about it, trust me. We’ll sit 'em down, and suddenly they’ll start praising you again because you're being honest. Our King Dandy, they’ll scream.” While Shrimpo’s voice was very clearly sarcastic, it made Dandy feel much better either way. “Since when did you start giving a shit on how they felt anyway?”

Dandy sighed, “I never stopped caring, idiot. It’s just… complicated. It’s complicated. If I don’t tell them, they’ll start hounding Cosmo. Or Astro. Or… You. Who wants that?”

“Heh. That’s kinda funny. You think they’ll start bothering me?”

“They will! You don’t know how many questions they asked Astro when we got shut down…”

“You’re such a fucking worrier. I can handle myself. Now, stop stalling and get your ass in that damn meeting room. We have business.”

“Business?”

“Business.”

 

Glisten volunteered to help Light settle in. Recently, he had felt a little left out of what was going on, especially as he wasn’t particularly the best toon to go on runs with them, and that run-in with the circus trio had left Dandy feeling a little suspicious of the mirror, even when he admitted it was unfounded and not fair. In fact, Dandy had actually apologised to him for shooting him that nasty glare. Glisten said it was nothing, of course, accepting his apology and not quite minding. Really, he knew if he was in the flower’s position, he would have reacted quite similarly.

“I don’t want to do this.” Light hissed. Ever since he had seen Glisten, he had gotten more more hostile than before, clearly suspicious of the other toon. As if just looking at him made him feel tense and bristle up. “I can bathe myself. Why do I need anyone, especially you, looming over me?”

“Because, sweetheart, all of those cuts on your body look infected! That redness isn’t normal. And I can sort that out for you.” Glisten gave him a small, careful smile. “I’m not just a pretty face, you know. I can also deal with all of those nasty things. But, you have to bathe first. Are we understood?”

“You…” Light trailed off quietly, sounding genuinely surprised. A small, thoughtful expression covered his face as he looked up at the mirror, just staring at him. “Uhm. Alright, I guess. You gonna turn around while I take off my clothes, or…?”

“It’s nothing I haven’t seen before.”

“Uhm, I think it will be.”

“Go on. Impress me with your scarred body, Light.”

For a moment, light just stared at him, blinking slowly. Then, he reached down, awkwardly taking off his tattered clothes, dumping it onto the floor unceremoniously. Nothing, for a while, as Glisten went back to running the bath. He didn’t seem disgusted, or surprised, instead glancing at the wounds and tilting his head. Both knew what was going on here. Seriously, it was incredibly obvious that some of those scars and wounds hadn’t come from some of the Ts down there. And Glisten didn’t judge. Instead, his lips pressed tightly together, and he nodded.

“I’ll wrap them up for you.” He nodded, and rubbed Light’s shoulder.

“Thanks.” Light took a breath as he climbed into the bath, sinking into the warm water. Now food wasn’t the only thing he had missed- warm water was a luxury, let alone a bath, let alone a warm bath! Bubbles formed around him, and he felt nothing short of childish at how excited this was making him. “You’re not what I expected. I’ve seen a lot of your episodes. I suppose it’s all just a… front?”

“I play up an act for the camera. Trust me, dear, I am not that egotistical.” Glisten hummed, “Now, I have a little question for you. As you're a shapeshifter, do you have to clean each form individually? Or does the hygiene of one extend to all of the others?”

“Hm. I’m surprised you asked that question. But… yeah. One clean means all of them are naturally clean. That’s one of the few reasons I prefer to stay like this. Not only is it easier to manage, the material stays cleaner for longer.” Light said thoughtfully, leaning back in the bath and allowing the water to wash over him. His feet splashed a bit in the water, seeming almost amused, “Ah. This is quite nice. Hm. Really, I thought you’d be an asshole who only cares about how he looks…”

“It’s half true. I do care about how I look, but it’s not the only thing I care about. Though, I’m not afraid to admit I can be an asshole.” Glisten shrugged, not really being afraid to admit it. Light felt almost like his world was being turned upside down. “You look surprised. Really, from all I’ve heard about you, you were the last person I expected to think those shows perfectly reflected reality. I thought you’d be naturally more sceptical.”

“What, did Dandy tell you all this?”

“No, CF12 did. He’s sweet, genuinely. I mean, both are, but he doesn’t have a mean streak in his body. Even Cosmo can be a little sour at times, but CF12 is constantly cheerful. It’s quite nice! And he told me a lot about you.”

“I don’t know how I feel about you two hanging out together. Alone.”

“Oh? Trust me, CF12 is a lovely toon, but he’s certainly not my type. Yes, I can understand the hype around sweet boys as much as the next toon, but my type is more energetic. So you definitely don’t need to worry about me stealing him away from you or anything.”

“What? No! That’s not it. You’re not… I don’t even know why you interpreted it that way.”

“Then what way could you possibly mean something like that?”

“You’re a Glisten. The Glisten.”

“And…?”

“And I just… I just… Don’t worry about it. It’s nothing.”

The air grew very, very awkward in that small moment. Glisten tried not to take it to heart, but both could quite clearly see based on the expression on his face that he was offended. Genuinely and really offended. But Glisten didn’t press, a small frown on his face as he turned away, passing Light the shampoo. Light gave him a confused look, holding the bottle and trying to read what it was.

“Do you not know what that is?” Glisten’s voice turned gentle as he took the bottle, “Here. I’ll help you out, don’t worry. You use it to wash your, well, ears, I guess? All the toons use it for different reasons. I wash my gold, Cosmo his frosting, Sprout his leaves… you get it?”

“Oh. Okay, I guess.” Light sounded unconvinced, but he tried his best anyway. He awkwardly started scrubbing at all of his skin, and Glisten just smiled, kneeling down beside the bath. “You don’t have to baby me…”

“I’m not babying you.” Glisten said back, “I’m just showing you how to do it. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Just let me help.”

Light groaned, but he leaned back. When Glisten started rubbing the balloon ears, Light hissed, then he actually smiled. That felt nice. Really nice.

“See? Told you it felt nice.”

“Mm… Just keep doing that…”

 

Meanwhile, CF12 was sitting on one of the small sofas in the living room, curled up quite comfortably. He had taken about five blankets, savouring and hoarding the warmth. It was nice being here, and he certainly preferred it to roaming the floors, unsure if Light would still be there when he woke up. He always was, but CF12 worried he wasn’t getting enough sleep or eating properly. Here, that wasn’t an issue. There was food and warmth and comfort.

“You look quite curled up.” Looey said gently, entering the room and taking a seat beside him. Currently, Blot and Yatta were trying to set up a room for the pair, Sprout and Cosmo were making breakfast for everyone, and Shrimpo and Dandy were trying their best to explain what the hell was going on in the other rooms. CF12 could hear the arguing through the walls and the confused questions as they all tried to make sense of it all.

“Yeah… It’s warm.” CF12 said gently to him, giving him a very small smile. “It’s nice.”

“Looks like it.”

Looey leaned back on the sofa, and CF12 watched him quietly, observing him curiously. Being around the actual toons was weird, seeing them act so nicely towards him. He had been told endlessly that the ‘real’ toons were better in every way, and didn’t make mistakes, so it made CF12’s head spin as he watched them all. Watched them make mistakes and bad choices and argue and be angry. Things he could never imagine them doing. He knew why he was defective, but watching them all made him feel better about it.

“What was it like down there?” Asked Looey carefully. Prying for information without quite saying it. CF12 wasn’t the kind of toon to mind. He shuffled a little bit closer to the toon, leaning against his side. Immediately, Looey pulled him close, holding onto more blanket than toon, but not minding one bit.

“Not great. Little food or good places to sleep. Me and Light would rotate the night watch, but it would usually be him staying up.” CF12’s voice was low, almost a small, conspiratorial whisper, “It’s much nicer here. Actually warm. No threats around each corner or figures in the corner of your eye making you question everything.”

“Sounds awful down there.”

“It was. But it was home.”

“I’m sorry, Dandy, but that is incredibly hard to believe.” Came a voice from the other room, sounding both calm and annoyed at the same time. “Mutated twisteds all of a sudden? And this only started happening now? Please.”

Rodger opened the door to the living room. Then, he saw CF12. And he blinked.

“Oh.”

“I fucking told you!” Shrimpo snapped, walking up beside him, “Look. Don’t hound him with questions. We’ll get answers later. Now, back in the room. We’re not done.” He grabbed Rodger’s shoulder, spinning him back around and shutting the meeting room door behind them.

“Woh.” CF12 said softly.

“Yeah… He’s intense. But you gotta respect it. He gets things done.”

“No, I mean… He’s so different.”

“Hm? Different?”

“All of them, the NTs, they act differently to how you guys act. I just didn’t expect such a sharp difference.”

“Is there an NT of me?”

“Yeah! There’s one of all of you. But I don’t know much about him. Light’s the one to ask about them, not me…”

“I’ll ask him later. Let’s just relax for now, yeah? I’ve got to show you one of my favourite movies!”

“A movie?”

“Yeah, it’s like… a long TV episode with a singular story. It’s really good. Look, look, I’ll show you. I have much to teach you.”

Chapter 9: Exposed

Summary:

Light has done some things. He didn’t want to talk about it. But things always come to light (haha get it).

Perfection + SV will be going on break for a few days after this. I dunno when ill post again lol

“You can’t come with us.” Light hissed, crossing his arms as they all stood in the lobby. “You’re too much of a liability.”

“A liability? You dare talk to me like that?” Vee stepped towards him, pointing an accusatory finger at him. She was almost always included in runs, especially with her ability and how damn fast she could get things done. And she had been training, practicing her skills and her reaction time. There was no way she was going to be labeled a hunk of metal by a twisted who had come out of nowhere. “I think you need to watch your language with me. I’m not a piece of outdated tech to be discarded when you feel like your better than us.”

“I don’t think that’s what he meant.” Sprout sighed, rubbing his face. He looked at Light, who continued to stare at her. “Or… maybe it was. I don’t fucking know anymore.”

Light glanced at them all, his face souring even more, “What? No. It’s about Vee. She’s a virus. A nasty one. You touch the wrong machine, and that’s it. She takes over your body and deletes everything. You’re dead. Gone. Forever. And then she’ll destroy us from the inside. It’s not that you're outdated, it’s that she’s advanced. It’s a miracle she hasn’t infected you sooner.”

“How is she that advanced, then? Because machinery doesn’t mutate.” Vee backed off a bit, even if she didn’t seem entirely convinced.

“Outside help.” Light mumbled, turning away, “She helped her grow. Turned her into a virus that can affect any machinery connected to the main systems. It’s way safer for you to stay up here, especially with your information.”

“Right.” She turned away, “Want me to get someone else for your run, then?”

“You don’t have to do that.” Light let out an exasperated sigh, approaching and holding her shoulder. They were too similar. “There is something else you could do. The cameras in the stairwells are fucked from this end. I don’t see why you couldn’t use your mechanical mastermind to fix ‘em up.”

“Are you just trying to give me something to do?”

“I wish it was that unimportant. You wanna take down those NTs, you need to find their base. And it’s not on one of the floors, I can tell you that. Eliminating the stairwells makes our job easier.”

“That sounds… interesting.” Vee hummed, “Alright, alright. I’ll get that done. Just wait a few minutes. I know someone who’s perfect to join your run.”

She turned away, and Light sighed. The other toons in the run with him were Cosmo (of course), Astro, Sprout, Shelly, Dandy and Glisten. For obvious reasons, Vee had been turned away, and Dandy repeatedly refused to let Pebble come with them, insisting he was a competent distractor and he didn’t want to horrify his poor pet. The other toons had been as understanding as possible, insisting they came down too so that they could help out with the runs and gaining the information, but Dandy was completely against the idea. Even to Boxten and Poppy, who were masters at this, not wanting more toons to get involved or get hurt.

So when another toon ran down the hall excitedly, Dandy could only sigh.

Light’s face soured even more. As if he didn’t recognise the toon.

“Hello!” Of course Vee had chosen Goob. The excitable, touchy toon that bounced on his heels and grinned at everyone who saw him. The one toon she assumed Light would despise straight away. Touchy, happy, always with a big smile. “You must be Light! It’s great to meet you!”

Goob’s voice was light and happy, reaching out and pulling him close for a very big hug. Warm, tight and gentle, but Light froze up, his entire body going tense as he stood there. Though, he didn’t push Goob away or anything, just sitting there silently as Goob shook him around a bit. Quickly, Astro walked over, one of his stars nudging at Goob’s shoulder to tell him to get away. Goob got the hint, pulling back, looking at Light’s face.

“Oh, I’m sorry… Are you okay?” Asked Goob gently, a small frown on his face as he allowed his hands to scrape against the floor again. He leaned in a little bit, tilting his head a bit as he tried to be nice, not wanting to push him, “Sorry! I didn’t mean to push you or anything! I just really like hugs.”

“Are you…” Light trailed off for a moment, just staring at him, “Are you Goob? The toon of Goob? Because… Sorry, that’s actually caught me off guard. You. Are Goob…?”

“Yeah! That’s me, I’m quite sure of it!” Goob grinned, “Why?”

“It’s nothing big. Just… The ‘Goob’ I know is more… Spidery. More arms and more eyes. You just look like a big plushie or something. Nothing like him.”

“Oh! Well, I am a fluffy craft, so I was made to be this way. I like spiders a lot, though…”

“Okay, okay.” Light pulled himself back, hands in the pockets of his new clothes. They had been borrowed by Looey, because he was still in that sort of ‘body’, but were purposefully the most dull and darker colours he had in his wardrobe. Black trousers, white shirt and a brightly striped jumper on top of it. Not Light’s usual style, but he preferred to have as little amount of skin on show as possible. Yellows and reds weren’t his thing, but it was better than having his bare wrists out on show. “Let’s go. Please, be careful.”

“Don’t go off alone.” Glisten nodded to Goob with a small smile, and the craft quickly nodded.

They had agreed to, yet again, keep the toons other than Dandy in groups. Light and Cosmo together, Glisten and Goob and finally, Astro, Sprout and Shelly together. Not absolute groups, but it was so no toons were alone at any time. Because being down here was bad enough, so being alone was a death sentence.

“How are you feeling about this?” Sprout mumbled to Cosmo as they stepped into the lift, with the strawberry wrapping his arm around him gently. Ever since that incident, Sprout had kept a special eye on him, even though he knew that Cosmo could fend for himself. Driving a pole straight through an NT’s head was not something he expected, but he really, really admired him for it.

“Oh, pretty good.” Cosmo said gently, looking up at him with a bright smile, “Now that my leg feels better, I feel right as rain! I mean, I know it’s gonna get worse, but… We have allies now. And an actual clue about what is going on. I can’t complain about that.”

“Allies sounds good.” Sprout returned, nodding. He didn’t let go. And Cosmo didn’t pull away. “It doesn’t make this feel like any less of a fever dream, though. Are you sure we didn’t get sick at the same time and currently aren’t having some sort of shared delusion? Because I feel like that would be easier to believe than everything we’re experiencing.”

“The pain is real.” Cosmo muttered, “We both know it, huh? Let’s just hope nothing else comes outta nowhere. And no more staying alone for both of us!”

“You’re right.” Sprout grinned, “Let’s just get this done. What’s the goal for tonight?”

“Floor twenty-five!” Shelly smiled, hands on her hips as she stared at the door, “Or something along those lines. Gotta keep those lights on somehow! You know, I’m really curious about what my NT is like…”

“Don’t ask.” Light suddenly hissed, and he said nothing further. Clearly a touchy subject. Really, really touchy for him. “As long as none of the main NTs show up, you’ll be fine. Or UF053. He’s a massive fucking problem. What a prick.”

“What, is he like dangerous or something?”

“No, he’s just an asshole.”

“Oh! Okay…”

Shelly looked away, a bit confused, and the other toons gave her a small shrug to tell her not to think too much into it. Light was a strange one, they all knew that, so Shelly just smiled a little as they continued to descend. For a small moment, there was awkward silence, as all of the other toons just looked at each other. Slowly, the lift door opened, and they all went their separate ways to do machines.

They had all agreed to take each floor one by one rather than skipping straight to a lower floor, as Light wanted to do it the ‘normal’ way and didn’t want to miss anything. He insisted it was for the best, and that it was the only way to make sure they did everything right. He insisted they did it this way. He insisted.

The reason that they were going down on this run was to catch an NT. One of the ‘white’ NTs that was working against them. To get information. While they were loyal to their cause, NTs were inherently selfish- even Light could admit that himself. Self-preservation was the top priority, and so, they would give up any information asked of them so they could survive. Even when there was no threat of pain or danger. Just the idea of being damaged or hurt in any sort of way was enough to get them squealing, Light said.

There was a small list of NTs they would catch if they met, the list created by Light considering all sorts of details. Three which weren’t as aggressive. Three which would crack immediately. Boxten, Teagan and Scraps.

Boxten was inherently passive, not waking unless hearing noise in a small space around him. Running, walking, or even eating within this area would snap him awake. But, if you kept silent somehow, such as how a lot of the toons could walk without actually making noise, their bare feet padding quietly on the floor. If you grabbed him before he woke, you could keep his box locked, and he would no longer be a threat. Before, he had shown hesitation, even pausing when confronted by Light when he had reached for CF12, then slowly slinking away back into slumber, either feeling too scared or not caring enough to consume that he would instantly give up. Going back to dreaming. As had said his dreams were usually based on lullabies he had read in destroyed books. Fluffy clouds, big hills and other unnatural things that gave him comfort.

Scraps was aggressive. Very, very aggressive. But, much like Boxten, showed signs of hesitance. Pausing before taking a snap, somehow being even more hesitant than the usual twisted. Her tail was longer, with much more of a reach, being able to tear off limbs or other extremities, such as grabbing hair or tails, showing no source of remorse. Even when she got Light in the back of his head, almost snapping off one of the balloon ears. But then, she pulled back, looking almost guilty before running off. She was more focused on hurting Light than ever trying to touch CF12. Light theorised that was because RF043 (Goob) was trying to build a connection and reach out to her. By grabbing her, they’d be doing both themselves and the ‘blues’ a favour.

Finally, Teagan. She wasn’t regretful or hesitant, but she also wasn’t aggressive. Really, it seemed like she couldn't care about eating, her heart being pumped by the constant collection of tapes. Greed in a different sense. Throwing a tape in her direction would get her distracted instantly, and she cared more about the tapes a person had rather than how they tasted. She specifically caused tension among the NTs, but it appeared she wasn’t aware enough to actually care, and even if she was, her heart was in another place.

“I’m curious as to why they're all so different.” Glisten hummed aloud to no one in particular, more himself than anything else, “Like, to us.”

Both Dandy and Light exchanged a look.

Dandy, sighed, moving to stand beside him, “They all had one big, significant flaw. Perfect in almost every other way, with only a few exceptions in the flaw being appearance-based. They were aware, and so weren’t exterminated like most of them. When we shut down, they escaped into the floors. From there, well… We know what happened. There is probably one NT of each toon because of jealousy. I mean, if you, for example, had an exact replica of you gaining power, you wouldn’t like it. Nobody would. So, they withheld the pastry from anyone who was a replica of someone who had already ‘eaten’. At least, that’s what I’m assuming.”

“No, you’re right.” Light looked down at the ground, kicking his feet a little along the floor, “That’s what’s going on. A lot of the NTs don’t like each other, but they’re working together to be stronger. Having the same goal means they can work together, both eliminating competition and increasing efficiency. It makes it easier. So, you’re right.”

“That’s awful!” Goob said quickly, a big frown on his fluffy face, “If I met another version of myself, we’d get along really well. I just don’t get it?”

“Because the NTs aren’t like you, Goob.” Said Sprout, trying to be gentle, but there was a little bit of snap in his tone, “They're violent. And they’ll hurt you if you have something they want. So if they start hitting or hurting you, you’ve gotta punch back. Do you understand?”

“Yep! Of course I do!” Goob smiled, looking back at Shelly, who gave him a weak smile in return.

“Let’s just get down there.” Shelly said softly, “I’m sure it’ll all be okay. Floor twenty-five. How hard can it really be?”

“Please don’t say that. You’ll jinx it.” Astro replied, frowning, “Who knows who we’ll meet down there. Just… Let’s hope it’s no mains. Or whoever you said, Light. We’ll try and get the three on the list, and if not, we’ll go back up. No need to keep pushing and accidentally getting hurt.”

“You’re right, Astro.” Dandy nodded, “Because those NTs aren’t stupid. They’ll know we’re all working together. And they're not going to be as gentle and manipulative anymore. Trust me, they will kill. And most of them won’t hesitate.”

 

Floor eighteen. Vee’s floor. Much less common than any of the other floors, filled with arcade machines and posters. Different shades of green gave vibrancy to the area, and really, the group was surprised they had even gotten it. Some of the toons were excited, the familiar surroundings bringing them a sense of nostalgia, while Light absolutely paled, pressing his back against the door of the lift. He refused to move, mumbling under his breath that they should go back now, and that pushing forward would be an absolute waste of time.

“You alright there?” Cosmo hummed, trying to grab his hand to pull him away, but Light yanked back, refusing even the most simplest touch. “What’s spooked you? Trust me, this room isn’t that bad. You get the hang of all of the nooks and crannies eventually?”

“No, it’s not that.” Light mumbled, “You wouldn’t understand. This room isn’t safe. It’s the most dangerous floor in the entire underground! We have to go back.”

“Light, we can’t just cut our losses here.” Dandy tried to be gentle about it, confused on why he was acting this way. Just a few minutes ago, he was as confident as the next toon, calling these floors easy. “We’re close to our goal. It’ll go by quickly.”

“You can always wait here?” Goob, this time, “You’ve done a lot these past few floors! Sit down on the beanbags and have a break. We all need it sometimes.”

“No, it’s not… it’s just…” Light trailed off. “Just go. Please. I don’t need to be hounded and bothered right now.”

He watched the toons sigh, but understand, parting ways in their small groups. Only Cosmo and Astro stayed behind, both looking concerned for the twisted.

“Hey, Cosmo, you go with Sprout and Shelly. Let me talk to him.” Astro smiled at the pastry, who nodded and quickly walked away to meet up with the pair. Neither said anything for a long moment, before Astro said, “Let’s go sit down. I’m sure something’s bothering you.”

“It’s nothing. Really.” Light hissed, becoming angry yet again, but he did sit down in one of the beanbags reluctantly. He crossed his arms tightly, refusing to get up. He eyed the doorway warily, as if expecting something to jump out of nowhere and grab him. Or something along those lines. Light was paranoid, they all knew it, but all of the toons thought this was a little extra for a floor so harmless. Vee’s floor was brightly coloured, with bright lights, and they found that it rarely got blackouts due to the constant ichor running through it and the amount of electricity stored so that everything would keep working.

Astro tilted his head gently, curiously, “Do you not like the dark or something? You can talk to me. I know that it’s hard because of MF001, but…”

“You’re not like him. I know.” Light stared at him, “It’s not you. Its that.”

“That…?”

“That thing!”

“The big screen…?

“Yes! This entire place is the hub of MF006. Or, as you know her, Vee. And that is not an NT I am in the mood to deal with. If I step anywhere near that damn screen, she’ll get pissed. Her and I have a terrible relationship. Trust me.”

“Well, that’s quite alright. We can wait here.” Astro smiled, but Light didn’t return it, just looking away and nodding. “This floor doesn’t show up much for us. So honestly, we probably won’t get it again this entire run.”

“Good.” Light let out a very weak and quiet sigh of relief, standing up, “Maybe she… Maybe she’s not here then? It’s only really rumours I’ve heard, nothing concrete. And she hasn’t shown up or anything yet…”

“See, that’s the mindset. Come on. How about we go and do some machines together? I haven’t actually seen you do a machine yet.”

Light waited, standing in the doorway as if expecting the screen to light up. And when it didn’t, and Astro came up behind him, he took a very unconfident gasp for air. Never had he felt so vulnerable, so raw, and it made him feel ashamed acting like this in front of Astro. Especially when MF001 was so strong, so powerful, and so harsh. It made Light wonder what Astro could really be like, beneath that sweetness. Of course he was skeptical. Light was created and raised and socialised into being skeptical.

“Please. It’ll be okay.” Astro had whispered to him softly, sweetly, one of his arms actually coming out of his blanket to give Light an awkward side hug. That made Light tense, before instantly relaxing, allowing the smallest smile spreading onto his face, before his expression hardened again.

“I haven’t properly done machines before.” Admitted Light after a long moment as he stood beside Astro, watching him silently do the machine. The toon just shrugged. It wasn’t too hard. And he didn’t mind Light literally watching over his shoulder, watching his every move. Astro tried his hardest not to fail a skill check, because he knew it would be incredibly embarrassing while trying to show someone how to do machines.

“Hey, Light?” Dandy called out, turning a corner, “There’s nothing here. No one. No twisteds or NTs. Do you have any clue why they're avoiding this room…?”

“What!” Light snapped, spinning around, his paranoia burning again, “Shit, that means… I was right. We need to get the hell outta here. I’m shocked she hasn’t come out already. Where the fuck is Cosmo?”

“He’s fine!” Sprout’s voice called out from the opposite side of the map, “Me and Shelly have got him right here. “What the hell is going on?”

“We have to GO!” Light was panicking, and he ran through the main gameshow room, before quickly skidding to a halt.

White light. Then blue. Then a loading screen.

Light froze, just staring at the screen as it started to boot up. Bile rose to his throat, heart pounding in his chest as he almost threw up right there from fear. Hands trembled as his breath quickened, his body tearing him between fighting or fleeing right there. Everyone stared at him, confused on why he was acting in such a way. Light was confident, strong, and he always knew what to do. But now, he froze up like a deer in headlights, his eyes wide and scared, his entire body shaking like a leaf.

“Hello!” That disgustingly cheery voice as a face brightened on the screen, “Oh, who’s this…? Oh my gosh golly gee! Is this my dearest RF003? Now, we haven’t seen each other in quite some time, have we? How long has it been… Oh, you look like you’re sweating! Please, I am not that intimidating…”

“Shut it. What do you want, MF006?” Light hissed, glaring at the screen, “Because now, you’re just being a damn nuisance. No different than usual.”

“Hey, hey! I am no such thing. Come on, my dear! This is our time to reunite. Not be so… harsh or anything. We want the same thing.”

“No, we don’t.”

“Puh-lease! Now, you’re gonna tell me you’re working for him!”

“Not for.” A pause, “With. With him.”

“No, you… You can’t! Light, you’re my friend. My experiment. Now I can’t have you running off with another damn experiment! He hates you. He wants the power all for himself, you know this by now! We all do! So, why…?”

“Because I’m not stupid!”

“Light!”

Cosmo’s voice rang through the floor, and MF006 quickly realised that Light wasn’t alone on this floor. That there were other people here. Slowly, her arms reached out from the sides of the screen, bundles of wire connecting and swirling around each other to form actual, normal arms. At first, MF006 started to adjust with it, wiggling her makeshift fingers, expanding and curling her fingers, before her arms suddenly shot out and scooped up everyone on the sides. Cosmo, Sprout, Shelly, Glisten, Goob, Astro and Dandy. Her grin grew wider, her eyes sparkling with nothing short of genuine excitement as she saw the array of toons laid out before her. Cosmo being here was one thing, and she saw Glisten, and her arms began to tremble with excitement, static electricity shooting through them even more than before.

“Now what is this…? A little Glisten among our ranks? Isn’t this… interesting?” One of the arms shot towards him again, wrapping its arm around him, holding him up in the air as her face brightened excitedly. She shook him around a bit, both teasing and to hurt him. “I’m surprised you’re still alive. Especially with our little Light running around. Spared you, did he?”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Glisten hissed, but Light’s eyes widened.

“No, don’t!”

“Well…!” Vee’s grin stretched into a disgusting snarl as the screen glitched out for a moment, and then, finally, a tape started to play.

Light stumbled back, covering his mouth guiltily. He stumbled back, taking a seat on the floor.

–
The tape loaded. A twisted Glisten was sitting on a small chair, checking his makeup in the mirror. Almost perfect. Almost. Just the smallest little crack here and there which could be quickly covered up with some foundation and other bits of makeup. Slowly, he was humming to himself, rocking back and forth silently. The sound was dimmed, clearly damaged, but you could hear it. Just slightly.

The door opened behind him.

Another twisted Glisten stepped in. Much more broken this time. Stumbling forward, legs shaking, missing about half of his left face, ichor slowly dripping out of it and onto the floor. Uncertain, wobbly, and unsure of himself. Shocking that they were still letting such a failure roam around. Usually, if they were on the level of being this bad and different, they would have exterminated him instantly. But no. Instead, he slowly walked into the room, shutting the door and locking it behind him.

“Oh, hello. RF003, is it? What do you need?” The first Glisten turned around, smiling at him. No response, for a long moment, as RF003 watched him, surveyed him, watched and studied each and every one of his moves. Nothing, for a long time, with RF003 clearly weighing out his options of what he wanted to do. What was the right choice? And there was one screaming out to him. “Hello…?”

RF003 said nothing the entire time. Silently, he walked over, his hand gripping golden material as he slammed the Glisten’s face straight down onto the desk. Only a moment of pause, the sound of glass shattering filling the room as RF003 pulled Glisten's face up, looking at the damage, before slamming it straight down onto the desk again. Almost like he was making some sort of point. He stood there. And he killed them. Repeatedly. Over, and over and over again, until his ichor spooled on the desk and he was no longer alive. No more breathing, no more living, until he was a disgusting mess left on the table.

RF003 pulled away. No regret.

And he left the room.
–

Light crumbled. Now, regret was plastered all over his face, and he covered his mouth still, shaking and unable to look any of the toons in the eye. That was Light. RF003. He quickly looked back at the other toons, shooting a look, before focusing back on Vee when he saw how upset and confused they all were. He panicked. He trembled. He stumbled back, feeling like he was about to burst.

“Light…?” Glisten’s voice cut through the uncertainty.

Light’s eyes snapped down. Golden arms and a shiny face and ichor dribbled out of the holes in his face. He almost threw up right then and there, realising that he had gone back to who he truly was. A Glisten. The only NT of him left. The only twisted of him left. There were cracks covering him, deep wounds in gold that could never be fixed. His face was worse. Cracks in glass, missing even more than the normal twisteds did. Now, he had one eye, ichor parting to reveal a disgusting mouth with sharp glass shards for teeth. He folded, shrinking back into his own shoulders as he stumbled back in guilt, almost sobbing. Tears welled up in his eyes as he turned away. Face burning with shame. And anger. And pure, pure horror.

“Light.” Glisten, again. He stepped forward. “Calm down.”

“Please, you don’t understand! I know what I’ve done and I know it was bad and I know it was wrong and it haunts me every night. You don’t- I don’t even know what I was thinking. Please, you can’t…!”

“Light.”

“Don’t be angry…”

“We’re not angry.”

That caught Light’s attention. Glancing up, he saw Glisten’s genuinely worried face, and he genuinely had no clue what he should say now. All of the toons had a mixture of different expressions plastered on their faces, but none of which seemed directly angry. Confused, yes. Empathetic, yes. But not angry. Light was an NT, they all knew it. He didn’t hide that he had done wrong, openly admitting it, but never wanting to talk about what exactly he had done.

“It was my big failure.” Light mumbled lowly, really only aiming it towards Glisten, who nodded understandingly, “I have… I try too hard to be perfect. It’s messed me up. I can’t be in this form, because it hurts! All I can see is my mistakes and how I’ve hurt myself and others, and I’ve tried to make it right, but nothing ever works.”

“Light, relax.” Cosmo this time, placing a soothing hand on Light’s shoulder, but Light shoved him away more aggressively than he had meant to.

“Aww, look at that! How strong really was your bond if something like this has interfered? Sorry, RF003.” Vee’s face appeared back on the screen, seeming both smug and confident at the same time. Her voice shone through the floor excitedly, her hands balling into fists as she grinned down at them. “Now, this is why we don’t trust random twisteds who promise to be good. We’ve all learned our lesson, haven’t we?”

Her arm stretched out again, scooping Cosmo up and holding him up in the air. The pastry yelped, kicking and squirming, trying to hit or pull at the wires, but Vee wasn’t going to give up so easily. Sprout panicked, trying to kick at the bottom of the screen, but she swiped him away with her other hand, seeming completely unimpressed at what he was doing. With her other hand, she felt around behind the screen, before pulling out an entire saw. Cosmo screamed, so confused on how the hell she even had a thing, before suddenly, he was dropped straight to the floor.

“What the hell are you doing?” She screamed, turning around and seeing someone playing with the plug to the damn screen. She had no idea why they decided the thing that controlled a massive screen was only being powered by a single, small plug. “You put that thing down! I’m not afraid to debone you, you little prick!

CF054. Of course he was here. If Light was around, it seemed like he wasn’t that far away. A big grin spread on his face as he grabbed onto the plug. “Sorry, but your services are no longer needed here. Go and spread your stupid virus to some other technology, why don’t you?”

Vee’s face quickly disappeared from the screen, and CF054 pulled out the plug, glancing back at them all.

“You all alright? She may have a pretty face, but she’s pretty evil. You were fucked the second you stepped into her territory.” He quickly approached, his long tail sweeping against the floor repeatedly. Most of the toons were confused on who this guy even was, but Cosmo quickly walked over, smiling at him. “What’s going on? Why is Light so… OH!”

CF054 looked concerned as he approached Light, taking the other twisted’s hands in his.

“Looks like the poor guy’s shaken up! Damn Light, really must’ve poked a hole in ya, huh? It’s alright. I’m sure they're not mad or anything. I mean, look at me- I’ve literally eaten an eyeball before! People can change.”

“Let’s ignore that eyeball comment and get out of here.” Cosmo said quickly, helping Sprout off the floor, shaking with genuine fear. How the hell had she even gotten a damn saw? But the questions weren’t important right now, as all of the toons scrambled up. “Go to the lifts now. Dandy, you can open it up for us right?”

“Yeah, of course…” Dandy said quickly, tearing his eyes away from CF054, nodding for all of the other toons to follow along. Cosmo watched Light and CF054 for a moment, before following, giving them some time alone.

“You’re doing good.” CF054 said gently, looking Light in the eyes, “Usually you would’ve freaked by now! And the fact you have a Glisten in such close proximity and you’re not losing it…? It’s a good sign, Light. But please. Next time, call for help. Use the whistle or something. You don’t have to face this alone, you idiot.”

“I know.” Light’s voice was snappy, but not unkind. “Thanks. I guess. Just keep trying to wake him up. We’re going to try and catch one of them to try and see what they're thinking.”

“Great idea!” CF054 pulled back, grinning at him, “Now, go on. Back to the hub you go. Just don’t let yourself get in such a pickle again.” He turned away, slipping back into the vent system like before, and Light stood there for a moment. Watching the open vent. Before turning around and walking back towards the lift.

He walked through the doorway, expecting the lift to be shut. For them to leave without him. But they waited, and smiled when he finally approached.

“Hurry up!” Shelly yelled out, “Because, I don’t know about them, but I’m certainly ready to go back now.”

“Coming! Coming…”

Chapter 10: The beginning of the end

Summary:

The start of the end. Let’s get this done. Slowly. Over several chapters and thousands of words.

Notes:

Hi guys sorry for the inactivity, this guy has been struggling w perfection and summerview atm. Im going to put my energy into finishing perfection, because this whole thing has been rocky and i want to get it over with.

I will go over everything next chapter. But basically, blue nts are good, and whites r bad. Please, if you have any questions, just ask, because even i know its been confusing.

I’ll try and get it done.

I hope you enjoy this smaller chapter :)

The hub was very quiet. It was late at night, currently eleven in the evening. Silence stretched through the facility. Only a few toons were still awake. Two of these toons were Sprout and Cosmo, who were staring up at the ceiling quietly on Sprout’s bed, not quite saying anything to each other at that time.

“I’m terrified.” Cosmo admitted after a long moment of silence. That was all he could say. The only way he could actually express himself. So much had happened today, and he was both so confused and so scared. Knowing what was down there, but also not quite knowing what they were up against- now that was making this entire thing even worse. So many NTs they hadn’t med. So many that wanted nothing less but to eat him whole.

It was a scary thought.

Cosmo was especially terrified of meeting the NT of Sprout. Apparently, he was manipulative, and very hungry. Unable to really consider rational thought, his mind consumed by the prospect of eating and gaining power. But Light had been a little hesitant to talk about him. A little hesitant to talk about several of the toons. A little hesitant to discuss what they could do. What they wanted. And what exactly their motives were. Each of the NTs had seemed simple, but everything was getting increasingly more complex, and Cosmo was both confused and tired. He wanted this all to be over with by now. He wanted it so bad.

“I am too.” Sprout whispered back in the darkness of night, the room bathing in a complete lack of any light. Everything was turned off, leaving them submerged, unsure of even where their hands were. All they could feel in this state was the rapid beating of their hearts, and their hands gripping together silently. Fear was constant, and Cosmo worried that one day he’d wake up and see something looming over him.

“What are we supposed to do?” Cosmo turned his body in the direction he thought Sprout was facing, his other hand reaching out to press flat against Sprout’s chest. Both of their breaths were shaking and uneven as it finally settled in what was going on, and Sprout was just unsure of how he was supposed to comfort him. He felt unsure. And he hated feeling unsure.

The ride back up in the lift had been awful. Like torture. No one said anything, unsure how they were even able to comprehend what Light, or, RF003 as he was apparently called, had done. Having a complex and worrying about perfection was one thing, but outright harming the other twisteds who he seemed as ‘better’ was another. All he had done was apologise, repeatedly, but not quite looking any of them in the eyes. Shame burned at his face, making him seem more emotional than ever before. He had known it would come out one day, but he hadn’t expected Vee to do it. And to look so damn smug about it.

And the other toons knew there wasn’t just one tape.

“Keep going, I guess.” Sprout turned his body too, so he could look in the general direction he thought Cosmo was in. Then, he moved, taking some damn initiative. Slowly, almost as if waiting to see if he was allowed, he pressed his body against Cosmo’s. Chest to chest, legs tangling in a mess of dependency. Cosmo leaned in, pressing his forehead against Sprout’s, feeling very, very short at this moment. “This is nice.”

“Makes me feel calm again.” Cosmo said back, his voice even lower than before. A gentle whisper in the dark. “Things have been so hectic lately. I’m glad we have been able to keep up our routine. Of… laying together in the dark silently.”

“It’s a form of meditation…”

“I thought meditation was where you didn’t think or speak either?”

“I dunno, I just like laying here with you.”

“Heh…”

Sprout let out a very gentle sigh, moving their foreheads together so they were almost rubbing, which Cosmo started to giggle at. He loved being able to spend time with Sprout like this, and he tilted his head up just slightly, pressing their lips together. Sprout was surprised, at first, but quickly melted into it, pulling him that slightest bit closer. He was the one who pulled away for air, but had a lopsided grin on his face.

“That… That was good. You’re a good kisser.” He mumbled, his breath catching in his throat as his hand reached up, tracing the details of Cosmo’s face. Each smooth curve and gentle point was already engrained in his mind, but he wanted to memorise it all over again.

“I’m hoping you’re not comparing me to someone else as you say that…” Cosmo joked lightly, making Sprout’s face go an even deeper shade of red at just the idea. He started to quickly shake his head, and Cosmo just chuckled. “I’m just pulling your leg, don’t worry. How about we get some rest? We can kiss more in the morning…”

“Stop it, you’re making me blush. Okay, okay.” Sprout’s voice was weak as he looked down at him, gently rubbing his cheek with his thumb, “Let’s sleep. Then. Sadly…”

“Come on, it’s already eleven. Get under the covers with me!”

The sleeping didn’t last long.

“Cosmo? Are you in there?” CF12’s soft voice. Cosmo opened his eyes, sitting up- what the hell could he want so late at night? Then, he heard Light mumbling to him that they should ‘leave them alone’ and to ‘wait until morning’. Well, that got Cosmo’s full attention, and he shook Sprout awake, nudging him to get up. CF12’s voice was quieter as he continued talking, but could still be heard through the door, “Shouldn’t we do this now? I mean, think about what they're thinking of you…”

“For a valid reason. Remember what I’ve done?”

“You’re different now.”

“Somehow, you believe that even more than I do.”

The pair stood outside of the door in silence. But CF12 wasn’t the type of guy to give up so easily. Instead, he knocked again on the door, waiting for him to respond. Light was trying to tell him to give them some space, but only every other word could be heard through the door. Another knock.

Cosmo glanced down at Sprout, who just shrugged. Clearly, if CF12 was this desperate to talk to him, something was really wrong. Never had he been so damn eager. And again, he knocked on the door loudly, waiting for some sort of response from the pair. When he didn’t get that, he tried the knob, turning it and trying to open the door. That made Light sigh, and he shoved the door straight open, slamming it against the wall.

“Oh. They're asleep. That’s cute!” CF12 gushed gently, glancing around the room. Then, he saw Sprout’s trousers. Quickly, he rooted through them, checking both of the pockets for something. Upon finding it, his eyes sparkled as he held it up into the air, waving it for Light to see- the level five keycard. “Got it! I guess they just don’t want to come…?”

“Uhm, CF12?” Sprout sat up, confused, tilting his head a little. CF12 slowly turned around, his eyes wide as he realised that he had been caught out like that. A guilty smile flashed over his face as he stepped back, noticing Cosmo also sitting up as well.

“Oh! Ah, you are awake…” CF12 laughed awkwardly, looking down at the keycard before looking back up at them all. “I did try to get your attention, but you didn't respond…”

“Well, we were hoping you’d come back in the morning.” Cosmo asked gently with a small chuckle, his smile gentle. “So, what did you want? I was hoping to actually sleep, but clearly you have other plans, yeah?”

“Ah, well, uhm… Light, come on!” CF12 held out his hand for Light. He was reaching out to him, giving him a chance to explain himself.

Light couldn’t imagine what he’d be doing right now if he didn’t have CF12. Roaming the floors mindlessly, still angry, still confused, still hurting. After everyone he had hurt, after all of the twisteds he had hurt… Light was almost trying to make reparations for what he had done. Protecting someone who was more vulnerable- that’s the one thing that gave him life. The one thing that was keeping him going. For a moment, Light hesitated, before stepping into the bedroom and turning on the light, finally.

He saw Cosmo and Sprout’s face.

“We’re going to see As. And all of them. If you want to come with us, you’re always welcome. Just you two though.” Light looked down at the ground, unable to make eye contact with either of the pair, letting out the smallest little sigh. Another long, tension-filled moment, and Light swallowed thickly, adding, “I’m sorry. For what you saw. I just didn’t want to tell you because, well, I’m sure you know why.”

“Because he has a body count.” CF12 said very bluntly, smiling. He didn’t take this seriously, not quite understanding why everyone was being so awkward about it. To him, Light was completely different now. He had seen him change over time, and he had seen how he used to act. Being egotistical, loud, violent, everything. But now, while blunt, he was nice. Nice.

Cosmo looked away, and Sprout bit his lip, neither quite knowing what they were supposed to say. That they forgave him? It had nothing to do with them. Only Glisten really had the capacity to forgive gim, and he didn’t seem upset, just confused.

“It’s okay.” Cosmo had said very gently, his voice low and soft, “You’re okay. Shit happens, really. Look at how you and Glisten are getting along. I’m not going to be that guy, but, well, you’ve changed. We know that.”

“Thank you.” Light whispered, lowering his head. “You Cosmos always know what to say…”

“You get used to it after a while. Good advice is their memo.” Sprout chuckled gently, standing up out of the bed and approaching him. CF12 nudged him a bit, and Light awkwardly held out his arms for a hug. A tense, confused hug, which Sprout didn’t pause to give. Almost bouncing on his feet, Sprout hugged him, and Light’s shoulders tightened, but he quickly gave in.

“Why are you going to see As anyway?” Cosmo mumbled, finally getting up from the bed too- but instead, he focused on actually getting dressed. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed CF12 staring at his scars, before quickly looking away, embarrassed he had been caught. “Is there something going on?”

“It’s safer down there.” Light was still hugging Sprout, clearly enjoying it. “And I need to talk to them. Now. Vee was damn evolved, which is a massive problem. And not just that- it means the other NTs might be going down the same path. We need that sort of information that only As and his people have. You don’t need to come down with us.”

“But why would you need… Unless you think they're going to try and storm the place?” Sprout thought for a moment, and he frowned, “They can’t do that. As long as we’re up here, we’re safe, right?”

“You’re right. But they’ll try. And you have to go down there eventually for whatever you use those damn machines for. Because soon enough, they’ll start tryna eat you too. Or just get more aggressive in general.” Light pulled away finally, his feet pressing even harder into the floor, “Besides. I’ve been meaning to see if As is awake yet. He’s been, well, fermenting for a little while now. He must be awake.”

“What do the blue NTs even run on anyway? It can’t be pastry.” Cosmo asked curiously, and Light sighed.

“They use As’ ichor. A small cupful of it every two weeks. Which is also the same amount of pastry that they would need. It gives them that blue colour. The pastry turns them white.”

“So… What does As need then?”

“Oh, well, that’s… complicated.”

“He needs pastry, doesn’t he?”

“Yeah.”

Cosmo looked down at the ground- what was he supposed to do? It went against everything he stood for, giving over his pastry. But As was sweet. After everything, he was becoming gentle, kind, and very soft. Never actually mentioning it. Instead, he kept that to himself. Never saying it. And all of the blue NTs were sweet. As’ ichor was keeping them alive.

And CF12 had already given enough.

“Okay.” Cosmo said very weakly, his voice gentle as he thought about it for about a second. Then, he made his decision, “I don’t mind giving it to him. The pros outweigh the cons. It’ll be better, anyway…”

“You don’t have to do that.” Light’s gentle voice as he held out his hands for Cosmo to hold. A concerned frown covered his face as Cosmo held his hands. “I can give a little more. I don’t mind, really…”

“CF12, look at you. You’ve only just started healing. Let me do it.”

“Alright… Should we all go then?” CF12 glanced back at Light, who nodded.

“Let’s go. Just stay quiet.”

 

The level five doors. Locked shut. Within the stairwell that Cosmo and Sprout had innocently walked past just a little while beforehand, never quite thinking anything of it. Actually, they had just assumed it was another shut down room or some sort of storage room where they held the important stuff. Even though that was true, they couldn’t believe it was being used for something else entirely. From what they could understand, that’s where the blue NT’s hub was. As, CF054 and all of them. There were only four level five clearance keycards that even existed- the NT of Shrimpo (CF054), Rodger (UF023) and Blot (RF067, who they hadn’t met yet) had one embedded into their hands, while Cosmo and Sprout had the last one in their possession. Basically, unless one of those three NTs had their hand chopped straight off, the only keycard currently up for grabs was the one the pair of toons had. And they weren’t going to let that thing go easily.

Around the gates, things were quiet. Eerily so. Almost as if the gas seeping slowly out of the door had a calming effect on them all. Maybe that was why most of the NTs had avoided this place- and Astro and Glisten had gotten that creepy feeling from it when they were first looking for CF12.

“Are we ready?” CF12’s voice was shaky as he glanced back at them.

“Let’s do it.” Cosmo nodded, tapping the keycard onto the small side panel.

A creak and a groan from the door, and then it slowly slid open.

Chapter 11: Another world

Summary:

CF12 isn’t what he says to be. Either that or he’s just an airhead.

Also, names have been given!

Inside the first set of doors was a decontamination chamber. Grey, glass walls revealing mazes of pipes that folded and curled around each other, gentle blue ichor running through it. The stuff the blue NTs were living on. A small camera was set up in the corner, which craned around to see them as soon as the toons stepped inside. The doors slammed shut behind them and the lights turned on, basking them in a soft blue haze. Somehow, the entire place smelt of lavender, and was making them sleepy just thinking about it. Nothing, for a moment, only the sounds of pipes going, before loud spraying. The lavender smell was gone, replaced with a normal, more vanilla-y one.

“Sorry about that!” A voice over the loudspeakers tucked into the corner which was very familiar. Looey’s voice, but slightly louder and a small twinge of something being that slightest bit off. Shuffling, for a moment, before he could be heard again. “We use that to make sure nothing unwanted comes in. I’m sure you understand. Just give us a moment, then I’ll open the doors…!”

Then, the speakers cut out.

Beneath them, the carpet was white with soft blue stripes, somehow spotless. Though, this entrance clearly wasn’t used much, with only Shrimpo and Rodger seeming to be moving in and out consistently. And Rodger seemed to be content with roaming the vents and stairwells, avoiding conflict and interaction with the white NTs, as if trying to find anyone he could talk some sense into. Shrimpo was a little different, getting himself involved. If you saw Light, Shrimpo probably wasn’t that far around the corner. Watching from afar, never outright butting in, but making sure that Light was okay. Proven enough by him getting there quickly when Light was upset at the whole tape thing.

“I’ve never been here before.” Light admitted after a moment, glancing back at the other three, “But it’ll be okay. We’ll be in and out.”

“Light!” A new voice over the loudspeakers- CF054, or Shrimpo. “You’re really here! Oh, am I glad to see you! You know, I was meaning to tell you. I’ve finally decided on a name! Come on, you know you want to hear it.”

“CF054, I can’t even pretend to be interested. Now isn’t the time. Can you just let us in?”

“Nope. Not until you finally hear it. This is probably the safest damn place you can even be right now. So, there’s not much of a choice! Just say it. Tell me you wanna hear it.”

“Fine, fine. If you're gonna hold us hostage, indulge me. What name have you come up with that is so, so brilliant you have to waste our damn time and make us wait for me to eventually give in and ask what your new name is.”

“C!”

“Sea? Like the damn ocean?”

“What? No, I don’t even know what that is! The letter, Light. I think it fits pretty well. I mean, it’s curly, and just cool. You wouldn’t get it. Light.”

“I’m not fucking calling you that. Sea is much better than a damn letter. Now just open this door, will you?”

“Fine, fine, whatever. Fuck me for just trying to be creative other than naming myself at the first thing I saw…”

“Just open the door!”

An overdramatic sigh from the speakers, and the doors finally creaked open. Light stormed straight in without looking back at any of them, genuinely determined to be in and out. CF12, Cosmo and Sprout stayed behind, with Sprout glancing back at Cosmo with a pretty shocked expression.

Sprout looked down at him, a small chuckle coming out of his mouth, “Woh. You were right. I mean, I thought you were being a little overdramatic with how they acted, but it’s like picture perfect. Absolutely what you described!”

CF12 just stared silently, swallowing thickly. He watched Light walk into the wider room, and was clearly upset. But when Cosmo glanced at him, opening his mouth to ask what was wrong, CF12 gave him an awkward and placating half-smile, before following after Light. All Sprout and Cosmo could do was exchange a knowing look, finally stepping out of the chamber and into the wider room.

The doors slammed shut behind them.

This main room they stepped into was the heart of this place. The hub of the ‘hideout’, Cosmo had started calling it. There was a hallway in each of the other three directions. Right in front of them, the hallway was long, with ten rooms in total, five on each side. Most likely bedrooms, with small sighs on each of the doors which probably said the names. To the left, there was a kitchen, a living room, and a shut room at the end which was most likely the camera room. And to the right was a small hallway which led to a large room with a lock and cameras all around the door, which was where As’ sleeping body was being held.

The main heart was pretty big, but barren. A small wooden desk with building dust was sitting in the corner, holding only a broken computer and a ripped sketchbook on top. There were empty pipes all over the room which ran through the walls and down into the ground. The carpet on the inside was much more stained, with splotches of ichor and blood staining random sections. Disgusting, but the four ignored it, glancing around.

“Look who’s reared his ugly head.” Came a hiss from one of the hallways- CF014, Tisha, or simply Tiha as she called herself, stood in front of the large doorway leading to As’ chamber. Instead of her usual dress, she was wearing a dark blue bodysuit with soft blue polka dots. At the bottom it was hemmed like her lavender dress, but overall, her outfit held more practicality than beauty. Within her left hand was her brush, but instead, it had a pointed end that looked like it could do some real damage. Her famous tissue was drooped over her eye, completely black, and her expression was one of genuine rage. In a fluid motion, she held up her brush, pointing it at Light. “You have some nerve coming down here.”

“I’m not here for you.” Light hissed, stepping forward in order to dare her to try and do something, “You think As would’ve let me come in if he saw me as a threat? Get over yourself.”

“Don’t talk to me like that in my territory!”

“Your territory? Please. Don’t be so egotistical.”

“Now that’s rich coming from a fucking Glisten, isn’t it?”

“Oh, you say that again, you-!”

Light literally lunged at her, knocking her to the ground. Tiha wasn’t one to mess around though, punching him straight across the face, so, in return, he grabbed her head and smashed it straight into the carpet. Only a moment the pain and nausea lasted before she went straight back to hitting. It was almost funny how they were fighting, basically rolling around and hitting each other. Tiha’s weapon had been forgotten on the floor, and CF12 quickly picked it up before either of them could use it- though, he seemed far from surprised that they were fighting. The pair had probably done this quite a few times before.

“Why don’t they like each other?” Cosmo whispered to CF12 curiously, who just sighed, looking down at the weapon.

“They both hurt each other. Light is the reason she’s blind in her right eye. Tiha gave him one of those big cracks. There’s a lot of anger there.” CF12 explained quietly, shaking his head, “Can you two stop fighting? We have more important things to do!”

They ignored him.

After a little while longer of them fighting, another NT suddenly stormed into the room from one of the bedrooms, two of his several long arms reaching out and grabbing them, pulling them apart, and shoving them straight against the wall. “Listen to him. Stop fucking fighting.” The NT had six long arms, curled and wonky, with sharp claws on the hands at the end. His teeth were sharp, even sharper than before, but his body was surprisingly furry. The NT of Goob. RF043, or, Goobie. An innocent and cute name for such a deadly creature. “Fighting isn’t going to fix anything, is it? You two are acting like fools.

“Shut up. Let us go.” Tiha hissed, scraping at the claw, but Goobie just frowned at her.

He left both Tiha and Light pressed against the wall, instead turning to Cosmo and Sprout, giving them a small nod. He held out one of his other hands, the one which had the bluntest claws and was the smallest in general, and the pair awkwardly shook it in turn. Once they did, Goobie let the other two NTs go, his arms curling up so they could be closer to his body. Clearly, his fault was much more physical, with his arms not being able to retract, being all sorts of different lengths, shapes and colours, while Tiha’s was more mental- being angry, being argumentative and being violent.

“He’s here! Heya, Light!” Sea, this time, jumping out of the camera room, grinning at them all. He walked straight past all of the other toons and NTs, crouching down before Light and staring at his face. Light frowned at him, scowling, but he sighed, allowing himself to be helped off the ground. “Oh, sorry, hello everyone else. Hehe.”

“It’s great to see you again, Sea.” Cosmo nodded at him, and Sea walked over to him next, eyes sparkling. “This is where you’ve been hiding out? It’s pretty nice, I can’t lie.”

“We’ve really worked the place up. Trust me, it used to be a dump.” Sea shrugged, pointing around the room, “Now we only have small stains here and there- nothing too big! Honestly, I barely did anything. I usually spend my time monitoring or dealing with As’ body. You don’t understand how many times I’ve washed him recently…”

“Sounds awful!” CF12 said quickly, his hands clasping together as he stepped towards Sea. The pair had only met only a few times, not properly, and certainly not to the extent that Light and Sea spoke. “Also, it’s great to properly meet you. I’m CF12! And you’re Sea, right? That’s the name you chose?”

“Yes, yes, I thought it was nice. It’s nice to meet you CF12. I’ve heard about you so many times, but I never dreamed I’d meet you in person. How about we all stop standing here? I have a lot to show you.”

“You don’t really think that we should show them?” Tiha hissed angrily, finally standing up, retaking her position before the door. Snatching her weapon from CF12’s hand, she tucked it back into her belt loop, crossing her arms. “There’s no way I’m letting him in there. After all the shit Light has done to go against As, you think I can trust him? Look at him. He’s bubbling with excitement at the idea of seeing him while he is vulnerable.”

“Tiha, stop.” Goobie spat, stepping towards the door and shoving her straight out of the damn way. “He won’t do shit. Put a bit of trust in the fellow. Look at Cosmo, Sprout and CF12’s faces. They are not shocked he’s a Glisten. Didn’t even blink. You think about that?”

“Of course not. He lunged at me!”

“You poke the tiger, you get bit. Shit happens when you start shit.” Goobie turned around, pressing his hand against a small keycard against the door, and with a small puff, it started to open. “Come on, you four. Sea, Tish, you stay out here. Rog is in his room. I need you two to defend. Once those fuckers find out we have both Cosmo and CF12, they’ll start tryna storm the place. That’s not happening. Bloo and Lu are in this room.”

“Thank you.” Light mumbled, giving Sea an awkward smile before walking into the room. “Come on, you three. Let’s get this stuff over with. No more faffing around with meeting them.”

Cosmo and Sprout both hesitated. Past this point, they would be fully in this now. And there was no more escaping this. By meeting As, and by Cosmo crossing that border and waking him up, this was either going to end absolutely miserably or end fantastically. Either way, he was dreading the ending, a disgusting and repulsive pit in his stomach as he stood there. And Cosmo looked at Sprout. And Sprout looked at Cosmo. Their hands conjoined, curling together, and they took that step together. CF12 followed after them, for some reason, feeling the most hesitant. Actual fear was splashed all over his face as he stared at the back of Light’s head, standing there in the doorway. Goobie patted his lower back, almost encouraging him, and CF12 jumped, finally stepping in with Goobie.

And the door shut behind them.

On a large, luxurious bed, was As. He was massive, easily nine feet tall, maybe even reaching ten, his body stretched out comfortably as he continued to sleep. Wires and tubes were poking almost every part of his body, drawing out ichor and inserting ichor, liquid, nutrients and all other sorts of things needed to keep him stable. His body didn’t look too different from how it looked in the Dreamscape. He was completely naked. Along his body were stars dotted at random points, his skin a beautiful shade of blue and purple, looking exactly like space. His four arms were long, smooth, gentle and soft. The most surprising thing was that he didn’t have any genitals or anything, smooth and complete. He was only supposed to be used for the Dreamscape, and that was it.

Beside him were two NTs. Bloo and Lu. Blot and Looey.

Bloo’s failure was physical. He had no legs. Instead, his ichor and ink arms carried his body, having a hand both on its top and bottom. It held his torso and upper body, working mostly like legs, just looking a little off and being much larger than the rest of his body. His hands were normal, surprisingly enough, only slightly longer and wider than Blot’s. Ichor mixed with ink dribbled down his face every so often, and a long tongue licked it up, before he went back to monitoring the vitals. Though, the tongue was more cute than frightening. Small dribbles of ichor and ink mixed together dripped from the very back of his head, but, within Bloo’s hoodie, he had a small bowl in the hood so he could catch it. He was good at managing his failures. He was still black, being the only NT actually working with them that wasn’t blue, but that was most likely because the ink couldn’t be dyed. Though his eyes were the deepest aquatic blue, with that small smudge his pupil took the shape of being black. He didn’t notice them at first, fully invested in watching and monitoring, hoping that none of the vitals would drop.

Lu’s failure was mental. Kind of. He was colourblind. A very, very minute mistake, but as a clown, being completely colourblind to the point he could only see black, greys and whites was an issue. His clothes were clashing colours, reds and greens mixed with yellows and purples. All of his body was blue, the parts that used to be yellow were a soft, sweet baby blue, the purple pieces were a deep, dark navy blue, and the green parts were a summery, neon blue. Other than that, though, he was completely normal- even if he was currently having a little bit of trouble with sorting out some wires that were colour coded. Who even thought that was a good idea? Lu had no clue.

“Lu? Bloo? Hello?” Goobie called out, seeming a little unimpressed. He was completely different from Goob personality wise too- he was blunt, snappy and harsh. But, he held onto CF12 gently, one of his hands still pressed against his lower back. “I have some people for you to meet. Light, CF12, Cosmo and Sprout.”

“Cosmo and Sprout? The real toons?” Lu shot around, almost bouncing on his feet as he looked down at the four. Two actual, real toons right there! He walked over, looking them up and down, before tilting his head with a smile. “It’s really nice to meet you! But… Wait, you… Are you here to…?”

“Yes.” Cosmo nodded.

“!hsog ym hO !su pleh ot ereh yllaer er’uoY .su rof ereh, esiugsid ni legna nA” Bloo said quickly, jumping straight out of his seat as he stepped towards Cosmo. He was sitting on one of the chairs, and the pair of arms were waiting beside it. He shuffled, moving his torso onto the arms, connecting and latching onto him, then allowing him to walk.
(Oh my gosh! You’re really here to help us! An angel in disguise, here for us.)

“Please, give him a moment. How about we all have some tea?” Goobie pushed past all of them, walking into the small attached kitchen on the opposite end. This was where they managed all of the nutrients As had to consume to stay alive, and was also where they made themselves tea and coffee to keep awake so there was someone always watching over him. It was a little off, with a slightly bitter taste, but being kept in a tin and in the freezer wasn’t that bad. Just tasted a bit… weird. But it still worked.

“No thanks.” Light sat down comfortably on one of the old sofas, sinking straight into the comfortable material. Quickly, CF12 approached, sitting down beside him, their sides pressed together. Neither said anything more, but CF12 quickly shook his head, looking down at his hands and fiddling with them.

“Uhm, no, sorry.” Sprout mumbled, swallowing awkwardly, but Cosmo actually accepted. The tea wasn’t bad, just a little off, but it was nice and warm.

“Can I ask…” Cosmo held onto his cup with both hands, not caring about how warm it was. It didn’t bother him, the heat- instead, he enjoyed it, especially more than he would ever enjoy cold and lukewarm drinks. “What happened? How this all started? If you can explain that.”

“Hm.” Goobie mumbled under his breath, before he nodded. “Okay. Well. I’m not going into detail, but after a certain someone who’s sitting at this very table decided it was a good idea to take a nice, yummy bite out of a twisted Cosmo, we all found out the benefits there are. From there, one twisted from each toon, such as myself, started, well, consuming. At first, we were given them by the handlers, but that stopped. So, we… Finished the rest off. The white one, the NT of Shelly, broke off, forming her own alliance of NTs who wanted more. Whereas As met Sea in the Dreamscape, and told him to form his own contradiction. So, we all formed.”

“Okay, we’re missing a little context.” Light said quickly, face burning with shame as what else he had done was quickly revealed. “That twisted Cosmo was… completely wrong. With how he acted. Violent, angry, and trust me, he had a body count larger than I could ever imagine. So I was told to… take him out. So I did. But I hadn’t eaten in, well, a week. I’m sure you can imagine how that went…”

“Word spread quickly. I think that specific Cosmo’s pastry is what made them so violent. They all took a bunch of that. While me, Bloo, Lu, Rog, Sea and Tiha all ate from one of the different ones. There were many. None lasted long.” Goobie leaned back thoughtfully, taking a sip of his own tea, “The NT of Pebble has been much less aggressive recently. In fact, he just guards their hub and sleeps ever since he took a bite of you. CF12… I don’t know why they react like that to yours. Maybe you were destined to act differently?”

“It doesn’t make sense.” Sprout mumbled under his breath, glancing at Cosmo, “Because you… Your rework. You didn’t act like this before…”

“Rework?” That caught Goobie’s attention. Light also snapped up.

“Rework. You were… You were reworked.” Light sat there, unsure of what he was supposed to say from here. His hands bunched into fists, and he saw the ends of his fingertips becoming a hard, golden material, and forced himself to relax. He made himself lay down against the sofa. He made himself calm down. “Reworked…”

“So it can’t be based on their nature. Because… Well, they’d be a bit aggressive if they ate Cosmo’s pastry. No offense.” He gave Cosmo a small, reassuring smile, and Cosmo just stared down at the tea in his hands.

He took a deep breath. “I think it’s an inherent nature to not do harm. All of these other Cosmos, if they had a kill count… they were willing and open to do harm. But I’m not. Not to toot my own horn, but I’m not violent for no reason. I mean I know I tried to beat that Yatta’s head in, but that was to protect someone.”

“I’ve never killed.” CF12 suddenly said, glancing at Cosmo, “But I’ve hurt them. But that was out of self defense. So… Why haven't they all calmed down now? Shouldn’t it have run out and been consumed entirely, so they’d start acting normal again?”

“They have stores.” Lu suddenly added in, turning to look at them, ripping his eyes away from the wires for a long moment. His hands were shaking as he glanced at them, clearly becoming irate with how the wires were going. Stupid colours. “Deep in their hideout. But only some of the NTs are given them. Only ones they deem to be ‘worthy’. The strong NTs. The violent ones. And the ones that are obedient to her. To Shelly. MF004.”

“If she’s MF004, why isn’t she the most powerful?” Sprout this time, tilting his head curiously. To him, they would’ve learned their mistake the first time and made all failure less powerful. But maybe they couldn’t control things like that. “As is MF001, but who are the rest?”

“Shelly is MF004. Pebble MF005. Vee MF006. And Sprout is MF007. The other three were complete failures who got past the consciousness stage, but their bodies broke down not too long after. That’s why our tags aren’t ordered.” Goobie explained, taking another happy sip of his tea, then he smiled at them. “I think order isn’t really important. Vee is way more powerful than Pebble. Even Shelly. But she’s obedient. She won’t stray from who she’s following.”

“.toidi eht etiuq s’ehS .emit tsal eno tsuj lufpleh eb ot sepoh ehs tub, emag gnisol a gniyalp s’ehs swonk ehS .lufwa …tsuj s’ehs dnA .enod evah meht fo lla tahw enodnoc neve dluoc uoY .reh ton tsuJ .tnemrot fo nuf eht sekil tsuj ehS .uoy saw I fi, taht htiw ssem t’ndluow I” Blot added in, seeming a little less comfortable about talking about her. He pulled back from the machines- As was completely stable.
(She’s quite the idiot. She knows she’s playing a losing game, but she hopes to be helpful just one last time. And she’s just… awful. You could even condone what all of them have done. Just not her. She just likes the fun of torment. I wouldn’t mess with that, if I was you.)

“She’s just cruel.” Light muttered bitterly, hands on his knees as he stared down at the ground. Cosmo and Sprout hadn’t reacted to the knowledge of what Light had done to one of those twisteds- almost like they knew. “Uhm… You haven’t reacted…”

“Dandy mentioned it had happened.” Cosmo suddenly said, “And when we saw what you had done, the link was pretty clear. And so much has happened, it’s probably for the best we just let it go. All that’s important now is what's going on in the present.”

“Even if it’s horrifying to think about.” Sprout shrugged, his voice a little shaky before he shrugged just a little. “So what do we do? If you don’t know that they’re planning, shouldn’t we try and figure it out?”

“Trying to figure out what they’re planning is like fighting a losing battle. They’re sneaky. And hell, there’s only a few NTs who are really close to MF004 that actually know what the plan is. The rest just follow basic orders, trying to get sustenance so they don’t start regressing.” Lu commented, rubbing his face with his hands. “It’s a shame. But they have no other choice. They think we're here to screw them over and take it all for ourselves. Most of them are just… scared.”

“Scared? Please. You’d have an entirely different opinion if you actually saw them. It’s not fear, it’s selfishness and desperation. A will to survive. You can’t talk sense into them.” Light had never really tried, because it was dangerous. Any vulnerability with these creatures, a split second of trying to reason with them would lead to you getting hurt. Or CF12 getting hurt. “There’s three we have our sights on. Scraps, Teagan and Boxten.”

“.era yeht ohw wonk t’nod eW ?sedoc noitacifitnedi rieht era tahW” Bloo asked flatly, seeming mostly confused. After all, most of the NTs didn’t know the toons based on their names- just on their codes.
(We don’t know who they are. What are their identification codes?)

“CF011, RF025 and UF073.”

“Hm. CF011 is a funny case.” Lu said thoughtfully, “He’s a bit of a scaredy cat. Prefers to dream than to try and consume for himself. If I was going to try and snatch him, I’d focus on him. Rog has been faced with him a few times, and he said that CF011 prefers to be left alone. Go for him. Definitely.”

“Alright.” CF12 smiled gently, standing up, bouncing his feet on the ground, “Let’s go back now. I don’t really want to be here anymore. No offense.”

“.rehtie ereh uoy tnaw t’nod eW” Bloo said a bit harshly for it to be completely innocent, and he looked back at As, who had actually moved. That made Bloo frown a little bit as he rubbed As’ face, just staring at him.
(We don’t want you here either.)

“Okay. Let’s go.” Cosmo said gently, grabbing CF12’s arm and helping him up onto his feet, rubbing his arm a little. He wanted to know what the hell was going on between them, and there was no way he could actually ask why all of the NTs were so awkward around him. Bloo had been glaring into CF12’s back the entire time, and Lu was looking everywhere but his face. “Come on, Sprout and Light. Better get going before all the others find out what we left and they start looking for us.”

“No way we want them dealing with… Let’s go.” Sprout smiled, giving them a nervous nod as he glanced back at Goobie. “Thank you for meeting us. If we find out anything about what's going on down there, we’ll tell you, I promise.”

“Thank you, Sprout. Let me show you the way.” Goobie hummed lightly, leading them towards the door with a small nod, opening it for them, “Please, you two can come back anytime.” He then watched Light and CF112 step towards the door, and he kept his voice low as he looked down at Cosmo, lowering his head a bit so he could speak to him. “Next time, don’t bring CF12. Bloo and Lu don’t enjoy his company.”

He paused, thinking for a moment. Then, he sighed.

“Please ask him about As. If you get the time. I don’t know if he and CF12 ever got along… And if you could find out, that would be brilliant. I don’t want him waking up and freaking when he sees him. Because he will when he sees Light…” Goobie trailed off, then patted his shoulder to get him to leave quicker, “Nothing personal. Just ask.”

“Alright.” Cosmo gave him a weak smile back.

All he could think was that this was getting weird.

 

They got back to the main hub not too long later. Some of the toons had noticed they were gone, but Dandy had insisted that everything was okay and that the four would be back soon. And while he wasn’t annoyed that they had run off, glad that they were able to stick together and not run straight into danger, especially with Light now being a part of their team. He found Light super interesting, and had so many questions to ask him!

But Cosmo was trying to figure out how he was supposed to work around this.

Getting CF12 on his own was hard. Not because of Light- distracting him was easy with Dandy’s constant questions about the other NTs. How they acted, how they looked, what abilities they had- Light was eager to explain everything, almost jumping at the idea of being able to explain all of the other NTs to someone new. No, that wasn’t the problem here.

It was the other toons.

They were all excited to see someone new. Goob was smothering him with hugs, Astro was trying his best to make it comfortable, Gigi was asking him all sorts of questions- Cosmo was standing there as all of the other toons surrounded him, asking all sorts of questions. Cosmo let out a loud sigh, knowing there was no nice way to actually pull CF12 away without upsetting any of the other toons. So, he just gave up, pushing into the circle and grabbing CF12’s hand, tugging him away and quickly calming the other toons by insisting they could talk to him later.

“Huh? But I was talking to them!” CF12 frowned at him, but he sighed, following either way. After all, there was no way he was going to refuse. Instead, his mouth switched into a very gentle smile, following after him as they stepped into the kitchen. “Ooh, is that chocolate cake? I’ve always wanted to try it…”

“Isn’t that cannibalism…?”

“Cosmo, I’ve had bits of me eaten. I can eat some damn chocolate cake.” CF12 hissed at him, before quickly realising how that sounded. He smiled, a placating one as he looked down at the ground, a little embarrassed, “Sorry, sorry. Too harsh. Can you just… Cut me a slice? Please?”

“Alright, alright. Fine.” Cosmo didn’t put much thought into it after that. He didn’t really want to think about it too much. CF12 could be a bit strange. “Can I ask… Since we know what some of the other NT’s ‘faults’ are… What’s yours?”

“My fault? Hm…” He mumbled, taking another big spoonful of chocolate cake like it was no big deal. He shrugged, “Well, I didn’t think it was important… but my ichor disposition is different to yours. I have some of Dandy’s ichor mixed in with mine. That’s all!”

“What- you- you what? I don’t understand. How?”

“Well, I dunno. They told me it just got in somehow, and they said they’d find a way to try and get it out. Didn’t work… But it’s fine! I mean, it hasn’t affected me in any way…”

“CF12…”

“What? I mean, trust me, it’s not that big of a deal!”

“CF12. That’s the most terrifying thing I’ve ever heard. Do you want to know why me and you and all of the other Cosmos aren’t supposed to have that bit of ichor…?”

“Not really… Why?”

“Because, CF12, he's a lethal. That means that your body has the capacity to mutate under extreme stress. The wrong thing, and snap, you can’t control yourself. Is that… Is that why Bloo and Lu and all of them can’t stand you?”

“Ah, well, I dunno… I didn’t know that!”

“So tell me. What’s going on between you and As? Tell me the truth.”

“Okay, well… Okay! Me and As used to be really close, and it used to just be me and him. Then Light told me all about the ichor stuff. And I just… couldn’t. I was scared. And he started asking me if I could give him some. And I refused, and…” He looked down at the ground, sighing, “We haven’t spoken since…”

“You’ll be able to talk to him again. I’m sure it’ll be fine…”

“You promise?”

“I promise.”

CF12 smiled gently, then he looked down at his plate. And he went back to eating his chocolate cake. It was really good. Really, really good.