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Swap Across the CrystalVerse Chapter 18: The Bad End

Read Swapboys | Crystal’s AUs| You've reached a Bad End (Also on AO3!)

Read SITCV | SATCV Masterpost | AO3 Link

The sun has truly set by this point, and the street lamps are the only source of light. This is a street of shops, some of which are opened but many of which are closed. Chase had explained to the visitors that the city issued a curfew a while ago and that was why people were rarely out.

Bro lingers outside a technology shop, its display window filled with monitors. The others huddle in an alleyway across the street, with Raven using their invisibility spell to hide them.

Bro anxiously watches the streets, eyes flickering back and forth as he tries to look for any sign of... well anything. All while trying to look casual while scrolling on his phone. But, he's not taking anything in. His stomach is churning uneasily. His instincts are going crazy- constantly shouting at him that something is wrong. He has to try to make this convincing though... just enough to throw this awful Anti off guard.

"Chase! Other Chase!" Jack's voice comes from right next to him.

Bro startles and nearly drops his phone, but just manages to catch it. "J-Jack?!" he whispers in confusion. "I... I thought you were gonna stay with Alt-"

"I'm sorry," Jack gasps out. "I-I'm sorry, I-I tried to help, I tried to--but they--they got to him, Chase, th-they got to him, h-he's under their control now, he's coming here, he's going to--"

"What?!" Bro gasps, his blood going cold and dread gripping his heart. "No no- no...!" He looks around in panic, "H-How soon?!"

"I-I don't know. Pretty soon?" Jack guesses. "Time is weird in the Place. Your villain is coming too, M-Magnificent? Other than that i-it's Voice and Error. I could--I could try to uncorrupt them, but it usually takes a while, you'd still have three others to deal with, a-and obviously I-I can't deal with Magnificent."

"I wouldn't want you to deal with him..." Bro mutters. "We can handle him... it's the others I'm worried about. And now... A...Alt-" He swallows thickly, his body feeling heavy. "... r-remind me what I need to know about the corrupted. They... they don't feel pain, right?"

"They don't," Jack confirms. "They're stronger and faster, but you're some sort of superhero so they may not be stronger or faster than you. They all have a handful of special abilities. Voice can conjure knives from nothing and stop time on anything he touches, and Error has these sharp glitches all around him that can cut you. I-I don't know what Alt can do. I saw him also conjure a knife but that might just be something he can do normally? I-in Marvin's case he kept his magic after being corrupted, it just changed slightly, I-I bet that's what's happened with Alt."

"Y-Yeah he could do that before... Okay... I... I can deal with his magic." Bro pushes his hair back and breathes out a shaky sigh. Then he angrily smacks the back of a fist against the glass behind him. "Fucking bastards-! Our plan basically does nothing now... we just are here like sitting fucking ducks-!"

"What? Oh. Because I was supposed to get him out during the distraction," Jack whispers, sounding guilty. "I'm sorry. But, uh, at least you'll be able to take them off guard? I don't think they're expecting a superhero."

"Pfft... yeah... maybe." Bro sighs, massaging out his wrists. "The second I see that motherfucking Anti, I'm punching him into oblivion. I want him to fucking feel it for hurting my brother...."

"Well, technically you'd be punching Voice, he is like me and can't be touched," Jack says. "But I'm sure JJ wouldn't mind. He hates him."

“‘Course he is- fucking cheater.” Bro mutters, “JJ didn’t do this so it’s not satisfying to punch him….”

"Well, if it comes down to punching Voice or getting stabbed, I'm sure he'd understand," Jack comments. "H-hang on, I'm gonna tell Chase and the others about all this."

“Okay…” Bro sighs, clenching and unclenching his fists- looking out for trouble.

He doesn’t have to wait long. Only a few minutes later— WHOOSH! Something comes streaming through the air towards him.

Bro is caught so off guard- he’s almost able to dodge but the knife sinks into his lower calf and he cries out and falls to a knee.

Someone laughs. Down the street, he sees a man standing there, all colorless except for the red strings around his wrists. He gives Bro a little wave. "Hello, Chase. It's been a while. Did you think I wouldn't notice? Or did you think your friends there would protect you?

Bro staggers to his feet and glares at the monochrome man. But then he grins, his eyes glowing blue. “Oh no- we were hoping you’d notice. I have something for you, bitch!” He kicks off the ground with a burst of speed and goes to try to punch him in the face.

However, Off to the side, Magnificent appears and blasts Bro off course with a burst of magic.

Bro shouts and goes skipping across the road for a second before he pushes himself back up. “M-Mag?!”

“Hello Fantastic! Almost didn’t recognize you~” Mag giggles, “did you forget about me?”

“Honestly I’d hope you’d give us less trouble considering we saved your sorry ass!” Bro shouts at Mag.

Magnificent just giggles with a shrug. “And miss all this chaos? You don’t even know me~”

Voice's eyes widen and he steps to the side--but his dodge proves unnecessary as Magnificent appears. Anti laughs. "Oh! Clever, but you're rushing a bit, aren't you? Hello, CHASE. Nice to meet you." He pulls a knife out of nowhere and lunges for Bro.

Across the street, Error is leading Byte to the alleyway where the group is hiding.

Byte excitedly clings to Error- ironic considering how they were not too long ago. “Do you see them??” He whispers.

"I don't see them," Error whispers, taking a blade out of his pocket. "But I can hear them." In the alleyway are faint footsteps and rustling of clothes."There!" Error shouts, jumping forward knife-first.

Raven yelps and drops the invisibility spell. They shout something--or sing? It sounds musical--and sends out a bolt of blue magic.

Byte glitches out of the way and laughs wildly. “Magician! Hehehe I’m one too! you’ll be fun to fight!”

Jackie gasps as the fight starts and sees Byte talk. “N-No…! Alt?!”

Byte turns towards Jackie and grins, wide and manic. “That’s not my name anymore! Now it’s Byte!” He giggles and glitches back and forth before stopping, appearing right in front of Jackie.

Jackie shivers as he sees his unnatural glitching eyes.

“Hold on J̵a̴a̷a̶a̴c̴k̶i̷e̴e̷e̴ ~ I’ll come fight you in a second!” Byte whispers then just as fast as he came he skids in front of Raven and laughs. He tries to wave out magic at them- but finds that he can’t. He blinks and looks at his hand in confusion. But then he shrugs, finding he can still make his knives as he goes to lunge at Raven.

Raven yelps, starts to say something that causes a flickering blue shield to form--but Byte is too fast, and his knife slashes through the shield and across Raven's chest. They gasp and stagger back, and someone else lunges forward, waving a knife.

Meanwhile, a gunshot rings out.

The bullet whizzes right past Error, whose eyes lock onto where it came. He grins. "Hey, Eyes! So you're here anyway!"

Chase aims his gun at Error, hands shaking slightly. "I-I-I know this won't hurt you," he says, "but I'm still sorry." He shoots again.

Bro focuses back on Anti and yells in surprise, trying to block the knife by making an x over his chest- but his knife easily slices across them. Bro bites back a pained noise then grits his teeth. He hops into the air then uses the momentum of coming from above to try to punch Anti even harder.

Anti dodges out of the way, leaping to the side. "Impressive--but too slow!" he laughs, and tries to grab Bro from behind.

Bro ducks and then tries to sweep out his leg to knock Anti over.

Another dodge, as Anti just barely steps over Bro's sweeping leg. He growls, a raspy, angry sound, and tries to grab him again.

Bro leaps into the air and hovers out of Anti’s reach. He growls, a dangerous light in his eyes. He builds up power again and tries to kick him from high up.

Anti sidesteps easily, laughing. "All that power and yet--!" He conjures another blade and throws it towards Bro.

The blade slices across Bro's side and he cries out and then growls at Anti. "Y-You won't win this. Fucker- I'm not gonna let you get away with hurting my brother!" He yells, building up power in both of his fists as he launches himself at Anti and tries to tackle him to the ground.

If Mag still needed to eat, he'd be eating popcorn on the sidelines right now- delighted by all of this.

Back in the alley, Byte’s eyes light up, both figuratively and actually as he sees Raven get cut. He laughs wildly and lunges to try to grab them again but gets stabbed by someone else. He looks down at the knife in his shoulder then giggles, “That doesn’t hurt! That’s fun! My t̵u̸r̷n̶!” He flips his knife and aims to slash at their neck.

Error stumbles back as the bullet hits him, but quickly recovers and lunges forward, grabbing Chase. "Come on, Eyes! Think about what you're doing! You wanted this!"

"N-no!" Chase gasps. "You don't--don't understand! I didn't--I just--"

"Come back," Error whispers, almost sounding like he's pleading with him. Chase hesitates--and then Byte attacks one of the team.

The man jerks backwards, letting out a strangled scream as a bleeding line appears across his throat.

Byte laughs wildly as the blood appears.

"No!" Raven gasps, grabbing him before he falls backwards. They close their eyes and start singing something under their breath, blue light wrapping around the wound.

As Raven grabs the man Byte yells in anger, “Hey! I wasn’t d̵o̷n̵e̶ ̵y̶e̸t̷!̷”

Chase gasps and rushes over, yanking his arm free of Error's grip, and attacks Byte from behind, trying to hit his head with the butt of the gun.

Byte tries to lunge after them- but senses Chase behind him. He glitches back around and catches his elbow and throws him back into the wall, grinning ear to ear. “Oh!! You’re Chase! Other Chase- not mine! Ohhh… I wanna kill you but Anti said not to.” He pouts slightly then flips his knife around. “I’ll try to keep you in o̷n̵e̸ ̵p̸i̷e̴c̷e̵ ̸ then~!” He tries to stab Chase in the stomach.

Being up this close- Chase can see… something that’s crawling along Byte’s skin. It’s black and glowing- a mass of what looks like purple and green veins but- it almost looks like… it’s shifting. Sometimes looking like ones and zeros- sometimes ending in a circuit pattern. It doesn’t seem like Byte is aware of it- it’s mostly on his neck- but it’s starting to peek out from beneath his sleeve. It feels… dangerous.

Chase's eyes widen, momentarily distracted by the strange pattern thing, but comes back to his senses in time to lunge to the side, barely avoiding the knife as it scrapes across the wall where he'd been standing.

"Be careful, Byte!" Error shouts, punching back one of the others as they try to attack him. Another one lunges for him and he spins around, slashing their stomach.

"Aw! But you got to slice that guy!" Byte whines. He flashes his eyes towards Chase and giggles as he tries to grab him again.

But, suddenly Jackie come out of nowhere and tackles Byte to the side. He holds him down by his shoulders, breathing heavily. "A-Alt! C'mon dude- snap it of this! This isn't you!"

Byte squirms but just laughs in Jackie's face. "Yes it is! It's me! This is how I wanna be i̴n̷n̴n̷s̴i̵d̴e̷e̵e̷~!" He giggles darkly. He tilts his head at Jackie as if studying him before he grabs him and pulls him close, grinning wide and manic. "Anti said I could kill you- so maybe I will!" He glitches out of Jackie's grip and then appears behind him, stabbing him in the back and driving him into the ground by his foot.

Jackie screams while Byte laughs loudly, stepping on the fresh wound. "Hehehe! You're not very strong are you~? That was too easy!"

Chase's head snaps to the side. His eyes widen and he tries rushing for Alt again--but Error tackles him from behind, knocking him away.

On the street, Anti tries to dodge but Bro's flying is faster than he can run. He gets knocked to the ground, Bro pinning him to the sidewalk.

"How devoted," he spits. "I'm so GLAD he has someone like you, REALLY." He wraps a hand around Bro's wrist.

Bro grits his teeth, raising his wrist to start punching the snot out of Anti. Even though Bro's wrist feels stiff where Anti grabbed onto it. His skin and the cuff of his jacket sleeve are turning shades of gray, slowly spreading.

Then, his head snaps to the sound of Jackie screaming. He pales and completely abandons Anti- going to tackle Byte to the ground. "H-Hey! What the fuck are you-?!" He cuts himself as his breath is knocked away- seeing first hand what being corrupted has done to Alt. "No... no A-Alt...!"

Byte squirms and glares at Bro with hatred. "That's not my N̸A̴M̷E̶!" He kicks Bro off of him- and the hero is too stunned to see it coming.

He flies off and Byte glitches to his feet, studying Bro with a tilt of his head. He grins again, laughing. "Oh! You're the spare!! You're the Chase Anti said I can kill!" His grin turns deadly as his eyes glow brighter. "G̸o̸o̴d̴.̴ I wanna see how a hero bleeds~!" He glitches back and forth across the alley and then appears on top of Bro, ready to stab the knife into his chest.

But, then- he suddenly cries out in pain and clutches at his neck- his knife cracking into glitches as he crashes to the ground. His body glitches wildly- now tainted with purple and green light.

Bro blinks in confusion and then hurries to kneel down by him. "A-Alt?"

"W-W-Why did that h-h-hurt?!" Byte pants out, his voice jittering and breaking like a broken computer. He's holding a hand over the corruption. Bro can see the black mass now solidly on Alt's hand and growing- glowing brightly. "I-I'm not sss-s-supposed to f̸-̵f̷e̶e̷l̸ ̷that...!"

Error is trying to drag Chase down the street, but he stops when he hears Byte cry out. He immediately looks over. "Byte... it... hurt?" he whispers, confused.

While Error is distracted Chase easily slips out of his grip, getting farther away but looking back at Byte and Bro in concern.

Jackie has been trying to push himself up and then crashing back down as moving makes his back flare up in agony.

While everyone else is distracted, Raven rushes for Jackie and starts singing that same soft song. Blue light covers the stab wound, slowly healing it.

Jackie sighs in relief as Raven heals him and can finally push himself up. He feels his back and then smiles at them. "T-Thank you..." He turns back to the chaos with wide eyes.

Anti also gets to his feet, rushing across the street after Bro, but stops once he sees the coloring on Byte's skin glow. "What is that?" he gasps, and looks back at Mag. "Magnificent? Do you know?"

Byte is glitching like crazy, gripping at his neck as that weird corruption spreads even more. He glances up at Error and Anti and tries to reach out to them. "A-A-Anti! Err-rror-! H̴-̸H̶e̷l̸p̸!̶"

Magnificent teleports over and kneels down by Alt.

"G-Get away from him!" Bro tries to shout.

Mag pushes him back and looks at Byte's neck. He's eyes widen and he looks at Anti- "I... I'm not sure. It looks sorta like the corruption I do... but it definitely isn't."

Byte reaches out and grabs onto Mag- "M-Magnificent...!"

Mag cries out as he's grabbed- the corrupted virus quickly spreading onto his wrist now too. He pries himself away from Byte and clutches at his wrist. It burns-! Magnificent himself seems to glitch like Alt- but not in any way he can control. He shouts out in pain, his voice sounding corrupted and digital now too. "W-What the fuck is this?!"

Bro backs away from Alt and Mag with wide eyes. He hardly notices his stiff and graying wrist.

Error and Anti are staring in horror. "It... it's going to be okay, Byte," Error says. He hesitantly walks forward. "We just need to--"

Suddenly, Anti grabs Error, pulling him back with wide eyes.

"Wh--Anti, we need to--"

"Don't get close," Anti hisses, backing up and pulling Error with him.

"But he needs--"

"Don't get close!" Anti snaps. "We're not getting infected with that!" He drags Error down the street, well out of range.

Jack, previously lingering to the side, steps forward, going past Chase and towards Alt. 'I... maybe I can...' But he hesitates.

Byte looks at Anti with betrayal in his eyes. Then he growls, unsteadily glitching to his feet and trying to go after him. "Y-Y-You did this to m̵e̶-̶!̶ You can't l-l-leave me like this!" His voice is caught between desperation and anger. "Anti- p̶l̵e̴a̷s̸e̶!̵"

Anti flinches a little at Byte's words.

Bro tries to grab Alt by the hoodie to hold him, "A-Alt! You can't go back to him- please just...! We can find a way to fix this!"

Byte whips on Bro and growls, grabbing his wrist and throwing him back. "STOP CALLING ME T̸H̸A̴T̴!̶"

Bro cries out and grips at his wrist, the same thing that happened to Magnificent, happening with him- except so much faster and more severe. It eats up at his face, turning his sclera green as he gasps and cries out- his body glitching and corrupting. He staggers back then falls into a glitching heap, jerking like he's being shocked.

"Chase!" Jackie cries and pushes past anyone in his way as he crashes down next to Bro.

Byte's eyes widen as he glitches back. The spirals in his eyes flicker slightly. "C-Chase...?" Alt whispers.

Error reaches out--but then the infection spreads to Bro, and Anti grabs him, pulling him back. He turns and runs, dragging Error with him, who just can't bring himself to fight him.

Magnificent is curled up on the ground and just barely sees Anti and Error running. "C-Cowards-!" He yells after them before crying out as more glitches take over and force him to curl up more.

"Chase!" Chase gasps, rushing forward. "I--other me, a-are you okay?!"

Bro doesn't seem like he can hear anyone, screaming as the corruption tears into his body- static tears race down his cheeks. His cries crack and fizzle like a broken machine as his body glitches painfully and he presses his face into the ground, trying to find some kind of relief.

Raven also rushes over. They reach out for Bro, but Chase grabs their wrist, stopping them. "N-no wait, we have to be careful," he says. "We d-don't know how it spreads!"

Jackie wants to help but he's also scared of catching this. He looks up to Alt and pleads. "A-Alt please! You need to wake up! You have to f-fix this!"

Byte is breathing heavy, static and white noise roaring in his ears. He cries out as another wave hits him too, making him curl up and grab his stomach. He can feel it- it's spreading fast across his body. He's scared- he's been abandoned and he's alone and he hurt-!

Jack gasps and rushes forward. 'Alt? Alt, can you hear me?!' he asks.

...no- no he's not alone. Byte sees the white glow from Jack and his eyes widen. "J...Jack...?"

'Alt, w-we need to fix this! I think--I think maybe I could help.'

Chase glances at Jack. "Are you sure, Jack? You're talking about--what you did with me, right?"

'M-maybe, uh, maybe if we get rid of that, then this will go, too,' Jack says. 'At the very least, we'll have one less thing to worry about.'

Byte breathes, like he can't believe he's there. He looks down at his corrupted hands and watches as they glitch- some pixels bright and colorful- some dark and corroded. "...you can.. g-gl-glitch too... right?" He breathes.

'Yes--yes, a-and that can help you, I think,' Jack says. 'If you'll let me.'

Byte breathes shakily and slowly nods, "... -g-glitch at the same time as me...! I think.,.. I think we c-c-can fix this... t-together...!" He looks back towards Jack, the effect of the corruption in his eyes seeming to flicker out completely- showing Alt's glowing scared eyes underneath.

Jack nods. Something in his heart twists. 'Okay. On three.' He reaches out to Alt. 'One... two... three!'

Alt reaches back out and glitches at the same time as Jack.

The two masses of glitches collide- and unlike Anode- they don't try to pull apart. They swirl together as if in a unified dance. They combine completely and glow bright like a star.

From the light- a body reforms, floating slightly off the ground. The light floats in the silhouette of a man and two green and blue impressions of wings unfurl from their back. The wings glitch with the body and then the light fades and shows the body in complete color. They look more like a solid Jack- his green black scar stark on his neck. White static overtakes part of his body- but most notably the right side of his now freckled face. They slowly open their eyes- the right one a green scleraed eye, the left one bursting with green white light and sparking like a storm.

They blink slowly and then bring up their hands to look at them, eyes widening. "Woah..." they breathe, their voice ghost-like and echoing.

Chase and the rest of the group stare, in awe, at the transformation. "...Jack?" Chase whispers.

They shake their head. "No," they say. "Not Alt, either. Someone... else. A... Cathode." Cathode--the opposite to an Anode. This feels so different than that did. More solid, despite their more ethereal state.

Jackie’s jaw drops. “What the fuckkkk?” He squeaks. “I… I didn’t know Alt could do that!”

Cathode gasps and looks around. "Chase?! Bro?!" they rush to his side.

As Cathode rushes to Bro’s side, Jackie backs up, making sure they have enough room.

Bro whimpers and looks up at Cathlode with tearful eyes. They widen slightly as he takes in the blurry image. “…a..alt…?” He breathes.

Cathode looks pained and remorseful as they gently take Bro’s cheeks-

“Wait! C-Careful!” Jackie cries.

Cathode laughs and shakes their head. “It’s okay Jackie…” They gently tilt Bro’s feverish face towards them and then touches their forehead to his. Tears bubble from their eyes and fall onto his skin. The flashing veins of binary and circuitry flare to white and blue- then fade away as if they were never there at all. The skin looks a bit purple gray where the corruption was for a second- like a nasty bruise. But soon enough that fades too.

Bro stops glitching and becomes solid again as he slowly relaxes, breathing easy again. His eyelids flutter and then he blinks up at Cathode- back to full awareness. Though- he looks very confused about what he’s seeing. “…did I die?” He asks dazedly.

Cathode laughs. "No, Chase, you're okay. I-I'm so glad you're okay. I'm... do you remember Amp? From that world with the good Anti with the scarf? The same thing just happened." They lean forward and hug Bro. It feels less solid, more soft than a regular person, as they're not quite there.

Bro blinks even more and then stiffens slightly as he's hugged. Then, he soon melts, hugging them back as best he can. "...I..I'm so glad you're okay....!" He warbles out, relief so strong it brings tears to his eyes.

Cathode chuckles, "That's supposed to be my line, dummy."

Then Cathode leans back, and their eyes fall on Magnificent. "I guess we have to help him, too," they grumble.

Magnificent wasn't nearly as bad as Bro- but he is quietly glitching in the corner, corruption slowly spreading on his skin.

"...he helped do this to Alt..." Jackie mutters darkly. "I say let him suffer."

"... We can't do that Jackie..." Cathode sighs, "As tempting as it is. He still needs to go home- to your dimension." Cathode glitches over and floats down next to Mag.

Magnificent looks up and... almost looks pathetic. He weakly tries to bare his teeth but Cathode just rolls their eyes. They lash out and grab his wrist and then bring his face close to their as they whisper darkly, "...I hope this will be a lesson for you Magnificent. Don't come back here." They wipe a glowing white tear off their cheek and then spread it across a patch of Mag's corruption. It fades away like Bro's did and the ghostly fusion drops Mag to the ground. Magnificent takes deep, feverish breaths as the pain starts to leave him.

Now that Bro seems better- Jackie is next to hug him. He nearly tackles him to the ground, clinging to his shoulders. "Chase you scared me so fucking bad...! I'm so happy you're okay..."

Bro blinks then hugs Jackie back, "I'm okay dude... I'm okay..."

Chase shakes his head. "This is so fucking weird."

Cathode laughs. "I can imagine." They look down at their hands, briefly closing their eyes. Memories and emotions swim together. Part of them feels this is familiar. Part of them remembers something like this happening before.

Inside, there are the faint remnants of green strings clinging to their consciousness. Before they can separate, they have to get rid of them.

"You didn't deserve any of that," they whisper. "Tell me you know you didn't deserve any of that. Are we... evil? No. It is your choices that make the difference, the ones you meet in the future. Not where you came from. Tell me you know this."

Cathode hesitates, regular tears slipping out from under their closed eyes. "I... I..." They swallow shakily. "...I know..." Their voice gets choked up. "it hurts- it hurts knowing p-part of me did... want what he gave me... but I... I didn't deserve that... I didn't..." They hang their head and hiccup a bit, pressing a hand over their left eye. "I'm not evil..."

Their see-through wings curl up around them- like they're protecting them... or attempting to give them a hug.

A few tears fall from their eyes. First the left, then the right. "I'm not evil," they say again. "I know. I know." A deep breath. And then they laugh. "I don't want to let go..." They wipe their eyes. "But I can't stay forever. We need to take care of ourselves, okay? ...Okay." And they close their eyes. White static fizzles as the two halves fall apart from each other.

Jack lies on the ground, staring up at the sky. He blinks his eyes, trying not to cry too much.

Alt is curled up, hugging his arms- his shoulders shaking. His hand and his neck have that dark purple bruising on it- the last sign of his corruption. But the virus is gone.

As soon as Bro and Jackie see the static separate- they don't give Alt much time to himself. They immediately throw themselves at him and hug him. Bro is crying- squeezing his little brother tightly. Jackie is trying his best to hug them both.

Bro eventually lets go long enough to look at Alt's face, searching it with worry. "...y-you're you again, right?"

Alt smiles weakly at him through teary eyes. His eyes are normal, even if there's dark bags under them. "...i...I'm me."

Bro laughs and squeezes Alt again and for once Alt doesn't try to glitch away. He clings to Jackie and Bro's arms and lets himself cry.

"I wanna be sooo mad at you, lil bro-" Bro mumbles, "But I'm just so happy you're okay..."

"Scare us like that again though and I-!" Jackie tries to scold but it falls short and he laughs, "... I'll think of a threatening punishment for that later so... don't scare us again!"

Alt laughs wetly, nodding against them.

Jack sits up. He lets Alt have this moment with his friends for a while before he clears his throat. "I-I'm glad you're okay," he whispers. "I'm sorry I couldn't stop it from happening."

"Jack says he's glad you're okay and he's sorry," Chase repeats--a translation that turns out to be unnecessary, as Alt could hear Jack's words just fine. Something about fusion must have allowed Alt to hear him.

Alt blinks up and looks at Jack as he speaks, much to his friends' confusion. He then chuckles lightly and looks to Chase. "i-it's okay I can still hear him..."

"...Alt can see Jack??" Bro gasps.

"Well.. guess that makes sense-" Jackie comments quietly, "How else could they... steven universe like that?"

Alt weakly glitches over to kneel next to Jack and smiles sadly, "Hey... If I can't blame myself for getting caught... you can't blame yourself for not stopping it. We both did all we could."

Jack blinks, surprised. He smiles a little. 'W-well, I guess that makes this easier. Alright. We'll promise each other that we won't blame ourselves.'

Alt smiles back and nods, "Okay... good." He shrugs with a laugh, "We shouldn't give Anti that satisfaction anyways. Fuck him."

Jack glances at Bro and Jackie. 'Oh... yeah, didn't you realize? I was the one guiding you guys to the underground entrance when you first arrived and that whole thing with Error happened. Alt could see me then, too. I wonder why. Maybe because we're... similar.'

Alt smiles at Jack. "Yeah... guess we are. Or maybe its cuz you can glitch too."

Bro blinks towards Jack, "oooh- that... really makes that make a bunch more sense. I wondered how Alt just suddenly seemed to know things-"

Alt laughs, "I'm not that good-"

"Steven Universe, huh?" Chase mutters. "My kids loved that show. Haven't had much time to catch up on it, being... underground and all. But yeah. That was a, uh, fusion thing, wasn't it?"

Bro blinks more at Chase, "ohhh yeah! It is just like fusion!" Bro laughs. "Man- we should marathon that sometime."

"Oh- Kelsie would adore that." Jackie replies with a smile.

Alt chuckles, "heh... that might be nice... someday."

He then frowns and sighs. "...I'm sorry he still has... everyone though. Part of me hoped... maybe we could have at least gotten Error back... I... I dunno."

"Heh... uncorruption isn't something that happens right away," Chase says, smiling sadly. "There's a whole process that Jack has to do. And, uh, I-I didn't want to go through with it at first, until he and some of the voices helped me out. So... even with your guys' help, it wouldn't be that easy. But I'm happy that you guys wanted to help."

Alt looks sad but he nods, "Yeah... I.. If I could I would free all of them... I... I can't stand to see what Anti did to them." The sight of Cat in particular lingers in his head as he unconsciously touches his neck.He looks towards Mag who is resting up against the wall now- deliberately not looking at anyone. "...we need to get home..."

'Yeah, I guess you do have to go home,' Jack sighs. 'It'd be nice to talk with you about other-universe stuff, but I don't think this universe is safe right now. Maybe... maybe you can come here some other time, and things will be better. They're definitely better than they were before.'

Alt sadly smiles Jack, "...I wanna talk too I... It's not every universe I meet someone else who... gets it. You know?" He looks dejected at his lap. "...But I don't wanna risk Jackie or Chase getting caught..."

A green glow appears down the street. It gets closer, and closer--until it's revealed to be Sam, shrunk down to the size of a golf ball.

'Huh? Sam?' Jack blinks. 'What're you doing here?'

Alt's so caught up in his thoughts he glitches in surprise as Sam suddenly appears. He looks bewildered- but then a hazy memory comes back up... Memories from Amp and- a bright green glow inside Anti's hideout. He slowly smiles. "H-Hi Sam...! I... I never got to see one of you up close before..." He whispers.

"Omg- tiny Sam..!" Bro gasps with a smile.

Sam flies over to Alt, bopping against his pocket.

'Oh. They want to see the thing you're using to travel through universes.'

Alt jolts and glitches a bit when he boops his pocket. But, then he blinks and pulls out the TRVLR for him to see. "Oh! Well uh... here, little dude." He gets more comfortable and powers it on with a quick zap of electricity.

Sam flies closer. There's a red bubble in the center of the TRVLR's menu, indicating the time-space warning Alt say when arriving in this world. Sam touches the tip of Their nerve-tail to the screen, pressing the Settings bubble. They scroll through all the tiny, complicated text in here, seeming to read it. Then They exit out and look up at Alt.

'Uh... Sam says that... some parts of the device--the... TRVLR? Some parts are broken,' Jack explains. 'Namely, the, uh, firewall? Defender? Antivirus? The software that protects the device. They say that needs to be fixed. And after that, you need to fix the... what the fuck does that mean, Sam? Huh. Okay. The 'ripple minimizer,' They say. Apparently it's something that keeps you from causing big ripples when you jump between universes. Which is important, because some creatures and technical devices can pick up on ripples and know you're coming. That's how They knew you'd be here.'

"That's great to know, but can these guys fix that?" Chase asks.

Jack shrugs. 'Maybe not. But it's what Sam said.'

Alt's eyes widen as Jack explains and he looks down at the device. He frowns and then glares at Magnificent before addressing the others. "Yeah we...knew it was broken. Just not how cuz... we can jump fine. Or... we could until..." He makes a face as he counts, "5 worlds ago, I think. Mag most likely broke it. ...its a long story." He frowns and flips the TRVLR in his hands as he thinks. "... I dunno how to fix it though. I didn't make it... some company called IRIS did- it didn't even work until I put my magic into it. I didn't even know we... we had a ripple minimizer!"

"All these big fancy tech words hurt my head..." Jackie mutters.

Jack laughs at Jackie's comment. 'I know, right? Sometimes Sam starts talking about stuff I really don't understand, and it really hurts my head to think about.'

"Well... I don't think there's anyone here who's capable of fixing it," Chase says slowly. "I've never heard of an IRIS. What, like the part of the eye, or like the flower?"

"Iris is a name," Raven comments, speaking up for the first time since the fight. "In fact, one of the Council members is named Iris."

"...I don't know what that has to do with this science device being made by a big company, though," Chase says. "Because we don't have any big science companies here. Or at least, not big companies that can make things to travel through worlds."

"I mean... is that really a big deal? The ripples?" Bro asks, "it's not like we go into these worlds secretly now. It was actually kinda nice to have Sam do all the prep work for us this time." He laughs.

Alt sighs, "... I dunno... it could be bad. If the ripples cause detection... what if alerts something bad like... another Anti? There might be some that do even worse things..."

"It's possible," Chase says slowly. "But... like I said, there's no one here who can fix it. So... all I really think you guys can do is keep going until you either get home or find somewhere with people who could fix this stuff."

"Yeah sounds like you guys don't have a company like that here. Thank god- those things already suck in our universe. And you guys deal with enough crap..." Bro sighs.

Alt nods, gripping the TRVLR, "...I think we're almost there... at least- according to something a friend said." He replies to Chase.

"Well that's great, then." Chase gave Alt a thumbs-up. "Almost there is great."

Sam bobs, agreeing with Chase. They fly a bit closer to Alt, briefly bumping against his forehead. And in that moment, Alt--even though he doesn't know how to detect power like Magnificent does--gets a flash of a very strong magical signature. Something sour, almost to the point of acidity, and sharp.

{YOU CANNOT WORRY ABOUT EVERYTHING, ALT BRODY,} a voice says in his head. {YOU CAN ONLY TRUST YOU ARE CAPABLE OF HANDLING IT. AND YOU ARE CAPABLE, EVEN IF YOU DO NOT THINK SO.}

Alt blinks up as Sam flies over to him. He tries not to jolt or glitch away especially as Sam's magic signature washes over him. But, he relaxes at hearing their voice and he slowly nods, smiling. "...okay... I... I'll try to remember that. Thank you, Sam."

"...bro did you just have a telepathic convo with a floating eyeball-?" Jackie comments. "... that sure was... a sentence. This has been such a crazy adventure." He laughs lightly, shaking his head.

Jack blinks. 'Sam talked to you...? You must be pretty special, it took me forever to learn how to listen to Them. I mean, I've known Them for years and only recently started hearing Their voice.'

Alt smiles, flushing slightly. "... maybe. It might just be cuz they let me."

"God, fucking tell me about it," Chase mutters, responding to Jackie. "Don't get me started on us finding Sam for the first time. Then Marvin and his magic, then JJ and his weird time powers. You get used to the fucking bizarre stuff after a while, though." He gives a little laugh.

Jackie chuckles, "Yeah... Meeting these two and then finding out Henny can do that... time shit- feels real weird being that normal guy, huh?" He lightly hits Chase on the shoulder in a friendly gesture.

Chase looks the guys over. "So... are you gonna leave now? Like, right now?"

Bro looks around and then sighs, "yeahhh... probably. Alt is right- we probably scared Anti off for a bit but... it's not...safe here. Even if we wanna help."

"And we can't really- cuz this fucker would probably just make it worse," Jackie grunts, pointing a thumb behind him at Mag. Magnificent weakly hisses at him.

"Yeah... we should... go." Alt sighs, glitching to his feet.

"I'll tell Stacy you guys all left," Chase says. "She'll probably be a bit upset that she missed it, but she's a pretty practical person, so I think she'll get it." He smiles a bit, expression soft. Then he shakes his head again. "The rest of us will head back to base once you guys are gone. Just in case he comes back to check if I'm still here."

Jack stands up as well. 'It was nice meeting you guys,' he says. 'Always good to talk with more people. Especially you, Alt. I didn't realize I could do that fusion thing. It was interesting.' He gives him a small smile. 'Take care of yourself, okay? All of you.'

Alt nods and smiles back. "Yeah...Take care of yourself, too. I... I hope you all figure this out soon... and free the others. They.. they don't deserve this... No one does."

Bro smiles and gets to his feet, looking towards everyone who came. "Thanks for all your help guys... you all helped us get Alt back and... I can't thank you enough for that."

"When you finally beat Anti- give him a good punch in the face from each of us, okay?" Jackie grins. "Or... whatever will actually hurt him."

Chase laughs. "God, if we can, we'll definitely punch him."

Jackie grabs Magnificent by the arm and tosses him towards where Bro and Alt are. Magnificent makes a face but stays quiet. Bro and Alt exchange glances and then link up hands with Jackie.

Alt gives one last look at everyone and smiles gratefully. "...maybe we'll see you again... when it's better. Keep strong until then, okay?"

'Good luck,' Jack says. 'And... thanks. I think we'll be able to make things right.'

And then, Alt hits the jump button, preparing for whatever comes next.

The group falls, and by now they are used to the way it is interrupted. Their course shifts, adjusting, like a comet being caught in the gravity of a nearby star. Pulled towards it. Pulled towards their destination.

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