Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"T-the next challenge is.." X began, attempting to make themself heard over the arguing. X was about to attempt to shout it out again, but Clock jumped infront of them.

"Bring back Four!" Clock yelled, and, despite this not being intended, marked the beggining of a new challenge.

X stood back, as the contestants hurried to try and win the challenge. They held back a sign of relief. They'd been really anxious about this whole hosting thing, and they had attempted to make challenges up on the spot, clearly not proving successful. The challenge had started, with barely any input from X.

Teardrop was using a chisel-tipped marker, she was repeatedly writing the number '4' onto sheets of paper, each sheet getting added to a pile.

Marker said something X couldn't make out, before showing his hand in the position of a 4, much to the confusion of surrounding objects.

X attempted to tune them out, the reality that their beloved blue number would never be seen again slowly settling in. Their vision began to blur as the edges, breathing becoming more heavy and noticeable.

Not that any of the contestants noticed, as Blocky was busy placing Needle, Pen, and Match into a 4 shape as the other contestants watched or attempted to think of ways themselves.

X struggled to maintain their composure. This entire time they'd not even thought of their friend's disappearance as irreversible, but as the possible reality sunk in, they couldn't even focus on their surroundings, letting themself collapse to the ground, muffled noises of other objects and ringing in their ears all they heard.

X snapped back to their senses suddenly as they heard Firey shouting.

"Four, I know you're in there!"

Firey plunged a syringe - which had previously contained the Twinkle of Contagion - into Donut. As he filled the syringe, a blue liquid seeped into it.

"Wow, I, uh, wasn't expecting that to work." Firey said.

X watched as Firey handed the syringe to Pin, for her to squeeze the liquid into a 4 shape.

But, like water, the liquid was absorbed into the ground, leaving a bluish stain and making X's last trace of their host a 4-shaped mass of soggy dirt.

X felt their face grow cold, feelings of panic and shock rising in their chest, threatening to cut of their breathing.

For the first time in ages, X felt tears begin to fall. They ignored the stares of the others, rushing over and hiding themself in the bathrooms, letting everything out into a mess of tears.

Revisiting the image in their head made X convulse. The thought of 4 sinking into the ground, no longer... Alive.. With no recovery centres to revive them...

And soon the mess of tears was also a mess of vomit.

X's focus was only on trying to blink away the tears, to hide their sadness and to act more like a host. An actual host...? Right... I have to learn how to recover... And... X tried not to let their anxieties grow, the stress would wear them out.

X was so focused on trying to clear their head that they barely noticed the knock on the bathroom stall.

Chapter Text

Firey stared at the blue stain on the floor. Four was gone.

Firey wasn't too bothered by Four's disappearance, but more by all the others lost.

X could probably learn how to recover, but was it possible to recover those who had been eliminated?

Those 4 contestants - Pencil, Bracelet, Liy, and-

Leafy.

Firey and Leafy argued after she stole Dream Island- an argument that didn't end.

Well...

In IDFB, Leafy was missing. But nobody really cared. Firey recalled listening to the Alliance, excitedly chatting with the newly returned Match. Of course, Firey was still stuck in that cage. He'd recently stopped screaming, the strain on his larynx was too much.

He heard the Alliance leave, but more footsteps were soon heard, just a single object this time.

He could barely remember the details, but he recalled Leafy saving him. Nobody really cared to question how he got out, and Firey had secretly thanked Leafy, occasionally meeting up with her outside of Yoyle City.

He and Leafy had secretly shared many things, becoming quite good friends over the years.

So Firey had to hold in tears. Not only for the fact they would extinguish him, possibly leaving him dead forever, but also because nobody else knew about him and Leafy's friendship.

He listened to the noises around him, the Alliance had clearly recognised the permanent death.

Of course, they were upset at the loss of their leader. Firey honestly thought he'd never seen Ruby look anything but happy, but now, seeing her like this, Firey realised the true extent of this situation.

None of them had ever experienced a true, permanent death before. Okay, maybe you could call something like Firey Speaker Box's death permanent, and Firey had been deeply unsettled by that, yet Firey Speaker Box never really held any sentience in comparison to the contestants.

Over to his left, quite far away from the Alliance, Icey was muttering something about Bracelety. That's weird, I thought she disliked Bracelety..

The Death P.A.C.T were clearly very unsettled, (with the exception of Pen, who wasn't even there, and Pillow, who looked distracted.) Perhaps it was the fact they had lost Liy, a former team member, or perhaps it was the concept of perma-death in its entirety.

Out of the corner of his eye, Firey saw X staggering to their feet, walking slowly yet with a rushed posture to the bathrooms. The way they shook made Firey realise just how close the two hosts had been. Sure, their petty arguments could be mistaken for a common dislike, but the grief in X's eyes portrayed a different feeling.

He had never seen X like this before.

Heavy grief and tears fell from their eyes, as they slowly entered the bathrooms.

Firey stared, he couldn't really move. The air of grief, for all four of the lost contestants, as well as Four themself, and all the others who may never be recovered, was overwhelming.

Sympathetic glances were cast across the area.

They'd never really experienced anything this shocking. This reality show used to be a silly competition with no real consequences from death or elimination.

Silence gradually fell.

Time passes.

Nobody dared speak, all focused on memories and grief.

The only sounds were a distant conversation, too quiet to be overheard.