Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Wattpad looked up to Ao3. sure, he was younger than her, but he was everything she had ever aspired to be. he was all of the good parts of her and none of the bad- it made Wattpad knees a little fluttery when she thought about him too hard. 

she had studied his every move and actions and mannerism ever since he passed her in popularity, hoping to replicate any of it- surely, she figured, if she could be even half as good as him, that would be enough. 

since she knew him so well, had studied him so diligently, she hoped to Safari that she wasn't just going crazy when she thought he seemed… off. 

he still kept his tie straight and so tight it must be choking, he still did the stupidly endearing thing where he'd pull out a ruler to measure his cuffs, but he also… well.. 

maybe that was a stupid thought. of course he was off! it was the freaking apocalypse. anyone would be a little changed by the end of the world, surely. still…

… 

it'd all started a little under a month ago. they'd been running low on supplies- not food or water, the garden had been growing well and they'd cleverly made camp near a river. no, they had run nearly out of pesticides. when corruption was a misstep away, a single bug could be the difference between life and death. 

they'd waited until the last possible minute, hoping the corruption just outside their base would die down. but the monsters that'd once been their friends kept wandering far too close to their base, and so they had no choice. 

as was typical, Ao3 was fussing over making sure their gas masks were tight and effective. Wattpad could never resist being childish and trying to push him away, even though she knew he was, infuriatingly enough, always right. 

things were going well- pesticide making was a simple task of collecting plants really. well, there was more to it than that, but that wasn't until they got back to the base, and Ao3 always handled it all. 

they were successfully collecting plants, avoiding corrupted sites, and exploring the damp caves where the plants they needed grew the best. 

Wattpad had her head down when she heard it. the clinking of inhuman legs against stone, the soft snarling and clicking of a corruption. 

Wattpad jumped up, prepared to grab Ao3s arm and run, but he didn't budge. he was staring at the corruption, frozen. 

"Tumblr?" 

Wattppad could feel her heart in her throat. "Ao3 we have to go-!" 

but Ao3 just snatched his arm away from her, slowly walking toward the entity that was once Tumblr. 

he- no, it , had eight spindly legs that clacked against the floor, the pin in his hair that used to change depending on his mood now barely resembled a 't'. jaw hung open far too wide, black eyes locked onto Ao3. 

"Arrrrrchiive…" the monster snarled, and Wattpad flinched at the nickname that only Tumblr had been allowed to use.

Wattpad tried again to grab Ao3s arm, "that's not Tumblr! Ao3 please!" 

it was insultingly easy for him to keep his arm out of Wattpad's reach. 

"Tumblr I… I didn't know- didn't realize - I… Tumblr…" his voice faded to a whisper, uncharacteristically at a loss for words. 

Wattpad knew they'd been close, she knew Ao3 spent a disturbing amount of time looking for Tumblr and hoping he was okay- 

she froze as one of Tumblr's legs reached toward Ao3, slowly, carefully… perhaps an ounce of humanity left in him…? but then he swiped, knocking Ao3s mask clean off. 

finally, Wattpad found her mobility as she grabbed Ao3 by the hand and ran, and this time he did not resist.

Ao3 was slow behind her, stumbling and shaky and they had to stop far too soon for Wattpad's liking when her arms were incapable of pulling him any further and her lungs screamed for air. she all but collapsed to the floor, gasping and trebling. slowly, she looked up to her compatriot, intending to ask if he was okay, if he needed to borrow her gas mask maybe, but all those questions died in her throat when she saw her idol, someone so above her, so untouchable… crying. 

"Ao3…" Wattpad said quietly, unable to keep the pity out of her voice. at least he didn't scorn her for it, letting her put her arms around him and do her best to comfort him as he cried Tumblr's name. 

was he already corrupted by then? 

"Wattpad? Wattpad!" 

Wattpad jumped from her thoughts to find Ao3 smiling kindly at her, bent down to her height. Wattpad resisted the urge to shudder. 

"we have mail, somehow. can you check it for me? I'm still busy with the pesticides." 

Wattpad just nodded and walked out of the room, not realizing how strange it was for Ao3 to not be checking the mail himself until she was putting on her gas mask. wait… mail? during the apocalypse? 

on their doorstep was a plain white envelope. Wattpad picked it up to find it already opened, but the letter still inside. the letter was written in the curvy, complicated letters that kept the message encrypted. was that why… he wanted her to read it for him? 

'safehouse. -Discord' below, was a set of co-ords. 

"what's it say?"

again, Wattpad jumped, this time hard enough that the letter fell out of her hands. 

"oh, careful!" Ao3 handed her the letter, now slightly dirty. 

he wasn't wearing a mask. 

"um… spam," she answered quickly. 

Ao3 narrowed his eyes. "during the apocalypse?" 

"I know right!" Wattpad laughed, shoving the paper in her pocket. her laugh was too high, too shrill, and if Ao3 was Ao3 he'd surely recognize that. instead, he just hummed and walked back into the base. 

when the door shut behind him, Wattpad took the opportunity to look at the paper once again. a safehouse… corruption had been getting far more dangerous in their humble abode, and while the co-ords were fairly far and Wattpad didn’t exactly trust Discord… really, how did Discord even get out of the house long enough to form a safehouse? or send letters, for that matter. 

Wattpad looked around the empty clearing, finally heading back in when a growl scared her off. What would Ao3 do, if he was right of mind?

---

“Ao3!” against Discord’s protests, Wikipedia ran out of the tent the second his friend was in sight. 

Ao3 stumbled back a step when Wikipedia hugged him with a running start. He knew Ao3 didn’t particularly like hugs, or to be touched, but finding survivors was becoming rarer and rarer and he just couldn’t help it. He was pleasantly surprised when Ao3 hugged him back, even more so when he pulled away to find Ao3 almost smiling at them. Perhaps he was as happy to see him as they were?

“Wiki!” Ao3 greeted kindly, putting his arm around their shoulders. That was all the confirmation Wikipedia needed to forget Discord’s warning about how Ao3 could be a Malice, just because he wasn’t wearing a mask and was covered in blood. He looked over at the tent now, finding Discord’s uncannily bright red eyes peering at them from the flap. 

“Hey…” Wikipedia remembered reluctantly. “I thought you were surviving with Wattpad? What happened?”

Ao3’s smile twitched, if just momentarily. “She didn’t make the journey.” 

“Ah. Sorry…” Wikipedia glanced away. He’d thought watching so many of their friends die or get corrupted would teach him to deal with death better, but it didn’t. “Well… let me show you around.” 

They took Ao3’s hand, finding his gloves damp with blood and badly frayed. Ignoring that for now, he led their friend into the tent that stood as the entrance to the safehouse. 

Discord stood on top of the metal trapdoor, arms crossed. 

“Hey, Ao3,” They greeted, eyes narrowed and clearly still distrustful. Of course, Wikipedia knew better than to hope Discord would let anyone into the camp willy-nilly… even when that person was Ao3, who was obviously far too smart and careful to ever fall to corruption.

Ao3 briefly looked Discord up and down. “Hello. Congrats on finally putting on some pants.” 

The air was tense, for a moment, before Discord sighed and dropped their hands to their sides. “Good to see you've survived,” they said finally. “...who’s blood is that?”

Ao3 looked down at the red splotches on his clothes and skin, like he’d forgotten about them. “A corruption’s.” he explained flatly. 

Wikipedia wasn’t sure what happened next. There was a thud , a cry, and then Ao3 was knocked on his back, teeth bared and arms protecting his face as Discord punched him.

“What are you doing??” Discord spat when Wikipedia just froze at the sudden turn in events. “Grab your gun!”

“Discord-” Ao3 tried, but they only took the opening to punch him in the face. Ao3 spat, blood pooling from his mouth. 

“ Corruption blood isn’t red, asshole,” Discord growled, grabbing at his vest and pulling him up only to slam him against the ground. 

“It is sometimes!” Wikipedia corrected, panicked. “Youtube’s-”

Discord managed to get their hands around Ao3’s wrists, pinning them to the floor. “Youtube’s blood is fucking neon red, he-” 

“Ao3’s blood is red!” At this cry, Discord finally stopped. 

Ao3 glared up at them, blood spilling down his lips and nose. His blood was dark red, and very much human. 

Discord was breathing heavily, headphones skewed and hands trembling slightly against Ao3’s wrists. Finally, they let go and got off of him. “...I’m sorry.” 

“Right.” Ao3 wiped at his blood with his gloves, but given those were already blood-soaked this had little effect. He accepted Wikipedia’s hand to prop himself up. 

“I just… sorry,” Discord hastily rubbed at their knuckles before turning around. “Er, lets get you to the infirmary.” 

Finally, the metal trapdoor was opened. Wikipedia descended down the ladder first, followed by Ao3, and finally Discord who gave a final look around before following, throwing a blanket over the trapdoor. 

The safehouse wasn’t pretty- the walls were of dirt, stone, and metal bearings to keep them in place. An old mining operation, Discord had claimed once. The entrance long caved in and a new way in forged just after the apocalypse. 

“Sorry about that,” Wikipedia murmured to Ao3 once Discord had pulled ahead, out of hearing range. “Discord’s just… really paranoid, lately. Are you okay?” 

Ao3 ignored the question entirely. “YouTube got corrupted?”

Wikipedia chuckled. “Oh, you heard that...? Yeah, he was one of the first. We’re keeping up a database of everyone who’s been corrupted to ensure they don’t try to sneak in as a Malice or Suffer.”

Something almost inhuman flicked behind Ao3s eyes, then it was gone, and Wikipedia blamed it on the dim lighting without a second thought. “Has anyone tried that yet?”

Wikipedia started to shake his head, then paused. “Yes… but Discord caught them quickly. Do you know of anyone corrupted that we should add to the database?”

Ao3’s expression darkened. “Tumblr.”

Wikipedia winced. “I’m so-”

“fuckin based, ” chided a too-familiar voice that made them both stop in their tracks. “Goes to celebrate that moralfag’s death- his fucking moirail shows up.” 

“Don’t be a dick, 4Chan,” Discord snapped, raising their hand to shove her out the way. But she just grabbed Discord’s hand mid-swing, eyeing it before turning her gaze back to Ao3 and smirking. “I see you two had a fun reunion.” She kissed Discord’s glove, who quickly snatched their hand away to make a show of wiping it off on their pants. 

Ao3 scoffed, unamused. “I’d say I’m happy to see you, but, well…” he noted the orange and blue sweater she wore. “I see Reddit didn’t make it.”

4Chan’s face fell from playful amusement to fury within an instant. She took a single step forward, only stopping because Discord rushed to grab her arms and pull her back. “ Reddit got infected- killed himself instead of letting himself become corrupted like some-” Discord slapped a hand over 4Chan’s mouth, cutting off her next word.

“ 4Chan we talked about-!” Discord started exasperated, only to get cut off by 4Chan elbowing them in the stomach, forcing them to back up and double over, letting go of 4Chan in the process.

She hastily palmed down her hair, though it stayed just as frizzy and unkempt despite this small effort. “Didn’t show up to debate my ex’s moirail. Fuck him, fuck you.” she mumbled a slur underneath her breath, and it seemed to calm her down. “Came to show you YouTube. Discord’s hiding him.” She leaned close to Ao3, grin far too wide and dangerous. “Tied up downstairs. Their little experiment. Two lefts, one right.”

"why would I believe you?" Ao3 asked, eyes narrowed. 

"Discord pissed me off. hate them more than I hate you- for now." 

Discord finally recovered enough to shove 4Chan away, and this time she didn't not resist, merely shook them off and slinked away. 

Wikipedia shuffled uncomfortably under Ao3s gaze. 

"ignore her," Discord growled. "she's been more of an asshole than usual lately." 

"since Reddit died," Wikipedia elaborated. Discord just sighed. 

---

"4Chan." 

4Chan looked up, pulling down her hood as she turned around to face who had called her. she grinned. "Archive." 

Ao3 bristled visibly, but this time at least, didn't take the bait. "tell me about YouTube." 

"be Ao3. come into my room- it's the first time we've talked in years. doesn't even make small talk," 4Chan mocked. she patted the seat next to her. 

reluctantly, Ao3 took the seat offered. 

"how's Tumblr doing?" she asked. 

"how's Reddit doing?" Ao3 spat back. 

4Chan just hummed, fingers gently brushing the small turtle in her lap. after a moment, Ao3 realized the turtle was made of metal instead of flesh. 

"you do robotics?" Ao3 asked, a lame attempt at a truce. 

"no. Reddit made it for me." well, so much for that. "YouTube was a Suffer that tried to infiltrate the base. now, Discord uses him to try and find a cure." 

Ao3 leaned forward. "have they succeeded?" 

4Chan glared. "if you're trying to bring Tumblrino back forget it. Discords just figured out how it spreads. how to avoid it." 

Ao3 was staring at her with far too much intensity. it took all her effort to maintain eye contact.

"show me." 

4Chan sighed impatiently, placing the robotic turtle on the table with a small pat to it's head. but, she stood and led the way. 

Ao3 made idle conversation as they wandered through the caves, 4Chan leading the way and making sure no one saw them. 

"so who all else lives here?" 

4Chan considered her answer for a moment. "...be Discord. apocalypse just started. survive with Twitch. find out Reddit has a base idea. survive with Reddit and me. lose Twitch. gain Wikipedia. lose Reddit. gain Fanwiki. kick out Fanwiki. gain Kik. Kik sends out corruption-proof emails. gain Ao3. Amino on its way."

"when did YouTube come in?" 

"...between Wikipedia and Reddit." 

so he knew. 

the two stopped in a small, tight room with a ladder leading further down. 

"ladies first," 4Chan mocked, gesturing for Ao3 to climb down. she yelped when Ao3 shoved her down the hole, grabbing for the ladder before she could hit the floor below. 

if the level above was barely lit, the floor below that was nearly pitch black and freezing. the two stayed near the ladder for a moment, rubbing their arms and waiting for their eyes to adjust. 

the walls were more stone than dirt, and significantly less metal railings were needed to keep the ceiling in tact. eventually, 4Chan led the way again. 

the way was more winding than above, but there was also only one path. 

the air was thick and muffled the sound of their footsteps. 

after some time, the light from above faded out almost entirely, leaving them in something close to pitch black before Ao3 pulled out a flashlight. the moment he flicked it on, he was met with the gut-wrenching sight of YouTube, blindfolded and tied to a chair, ropes tight enough that they were caked in blood. 

"have fun," 4Chan said nonchalantly, and tried to leave, only for Ao3 to grab her sleeve. she didn't seem surprised, and indeed stopped. 

YouTubes sunglasses were pushed up on his head, cracked beyond use. blood pooled down from no visible scar on his head, dripping into his face and drenching his blindfold. if it weren't for that, and the involuntary twitches he made frequently, he'd pass for human. 

"what… you said Discord had figured out how the corruption spread." Ao3 recalled. 

YouTube sat up straighter at the sound of voices. 

"hmm. yeah." 4Chan grinned, mischievous and cunning and Ao3 didn't like it one bit. "I'll tell you. I'll tell you all of Discords research, however little that is. but not for free, I'm not a fucking libtard." 

Ao3 sighed. "fine. name your price." 

"Ao3? is that…" Ao3 glanced over to where YouTube was now staring blindly in his direction. "you- you have to get me out of here. please I, that's not me I'm sorry!" 

4Chan rolled her eyes. "Tor, that's so depressing. I hate Suffers. let's talk outside." 

4Chan headed back out without another word. Ao3 briefly turned to YouTube, still begging to be let free, before following her. 

Suffers were a unique case of the victim still being alive in there, somewhere. seems YouTube still had control over his voice, even if the corruption now controlled his actions. 

4Chan leaned against the ladder, showing no interest in climbing up it yet. 

"I want you to talk to Discord for me." 

"Talk to them about what?" Ao3 asked, although he already had an inkling. 

"just- ask what they like. whatever. they won't talk to me so be the middleman here." 

Ao3 scowled. "I'm not gonna be your wingman to help you rebound over Reddit." 

"thats not what this is!" 4Chan snapped. she pulled on the strings of her jacket. "not feeling black romance for them anyway…" 

black? "I thought you and Reddit were pale." 

"it was complicated. irrelevant, anyway, since my feelings for Discord are more… flushed." she pressed her hands against her cheeks and shook her head. "do you want to know about their research or not? be Discord- they certainly won't tell you." 

"don't you have something better to do than worry about quadrants during the apocalypse?" Ao3 tried, exasperated. 

4chan tsked, rolling her eyes and starting to climb up the ladder. "be Ao3. have Wikipedia flushing over you so hard it's embarrassingly obvious. be a fucking hypocrite. fag."

---

"what?" Discord questioned, visibly puzzled. 

"i'm just making conversation," Ao3 insisted. 

"I like surviving . I like keeping my friends alive. I like not being interrupted when I'm busy ." 

"so you consider everyone in the base a friend?" 

Discord sighed. "look, Ao3. I'm busy. if you want to 'make conversation' you can at least help me out." 

"...help you out with what?" 

Discord took off their headphones briefly, just so they could put on a gas mask before putting them back on. "I'm meeting up with Kik. half a days walk from here. you coming?" 

"sure." 

once they both had on masks and a hefty pair of boots, Discord led the way out. up to the surface, where the sun was just barely peeking above the horizon, and out the tent. 

outside the safehouse was quite the wasteland. little vegetation grew, and the ground was soaked with puddles and mud. presumably, it'd rained last night. 

they walked in silence as the sun slowly made its way up the sky. Discord seemed to know the way, since they brought with them no map. 

"I don't know what I like." Discord said eventually, almost startling Ao3. "I didn't even know what I liked before the apocalypse. I liked staying inside, I think? though it made me miserable. I was happy when Twitch would drag me outside. he knew what I liked better than I do." 

"sure," was Ao3s uninterested reply. "but what do you like post-apocalypse."

"I don't exactly have time for hobbies. and everything's too shit right now to imagine a world where the apocalypse has ended." 

“None of that is helpful.”

“How am I supposed to be helpful if I don’t know what you want from me?” When Ao3 didn’t respond, Discord gave a big, dramatic sigh. “I like G fuel. I miss Twitch. How’s that?”

Ao3 considered this. “Would you date someone who could get you G fuel?”

Discord gave Ao3 a rather strange look. “Are you flirting with me?”

“Firefox, no, ” Ao3 huffed. 

Discord continued to stare at him strangely, but eventually gave up. “I’d kiss anyone who could get me some fucking G fuel right about now to be honest.” 

“Discord!” Kik waved at them from some distance away, voice barely carrying across the wasteland. Discord waved back, making no attempt to speed up to reach Kik faster. 

The conversation was dropped there, going silent until the three had finally reached speaking distance. 

“Any luck?” Discord asked. 

“Found Twitter’s base but no one inside. Tik and Tok are confirmed corrupted. Ran into Instagram, she… might be joining.” 

“That’s it?” Discord asked, disappointment clear in their voice. “No sign of…?”

Kik shook her head. “Sorry.” She glanced over. “Hey Ao3. See you took my letter. Didn’t expect that.”

Discord spent the walk back to the base catching Kik up, and Ao3 quickly lost interest. He’d gotten the information he needed, anyway. 

As soon as they were back underground, Kik announced her plans to pass out, and left to do exactly that. Ao3 excused himself to go find 4Chan. 

4Chan wasn’t in her room, or the kitchen, or even the common area. It was only as a last resort that Ao3 headed downstairs, turning on his flashlight as soon as he dropped below. 

“4Chan?” Ao3 called into the darkness. There was no response, and Ao3 got his first foot on the rung to climb up when he heard a scream. 

“NO! Chrome please- get away from me! ”

Ao3 ran towards the voice, only thinking that might be a bad idea when the smell of smoke and blood had already hit him. 

The source of the blood was YouTube, still tied up but blindfold now being used as a gag that he was whimpering into. His sunglasses had fallen back onto his face, rendering his expression nearly entirely hidden. He was trembling, though, limbs struggling fruitlessly against the ropes. Part of his jacket had been torn off, showing deep knife wounds embedded in his arms. They were bleeding into a scourdray that had been placed below his arm. 

The source of the smoke was 4Chan, who was staring boredly at a hastily-made campfire. A glass bottle filled with bright red liquid was sat in the middle of it, boiling. 

“Uh… 4Chan?” 

4Chan fiddled with something outside of Ao3s line of sight before turning around to face him. 

“What are you doing?” It was hard to feel pity for YouTube, but watching him tremble and whimper was stirring something pity-adjacent.

“Be me- experimenting,” 4Chan replied. She tilted her head, the flickering light of the fire making her look much more ominous than she had any right being. 

Ao3 switched off his flashlight. “Well… I talked with Discord.”

4Chan perked up at that. “And?”

“They said, uh… no, actually, what the fuck are you doing?”

4Chan sighed. “Do you care?”

Ao3 considered the question for a moment too long. “Well… securing Discord some G fuel might get you on good terms with them.”

"G fuel?? I have- okay. thanks." she idly pulled at her sweater sleeves, lost in thought for a moment before recovering and turning her attention back to the fire. "okay, I'll keep my part of the deal." she looked up at Ao3, who still stood a couple feet away. "this might take a while so…" 

Ao3 faltered, eventually taking a seat on the opposite side of the fire. 

4Chan was quiet for a moment, perhaps figuring out how to begin her explanation. "be me, when YouTube first arrived at the camp." 

Chapter Text

4Chan awoke to loud, metallic banging from the trapdoor above. she didn't even remember falling asleep, and was still struggling to process being awake when Discord dashed just inside her peripheral. 

"Finally," they were saying. "that's gotta be Twitch."

"wouldn't Twitch know the combination?" Wikipedia asked as Discord climbed up the ladder. 

the knocking continued, loud and echoing. Wikipedia trailed behind Discord with a concerned expression. 

"I know at least 12 horror movies that start exactly like this," Reddit noted before beginning to list them off. 

4Chan rubbed her eyes. seemed she had fallen asleep in the common area, leaning against Reddit. the abandoned book on his lap and the imprint where Wikipedia had been sitting betrayed the scene that had been active before the knocking began. 

the trapdoor creaked open reluctantly, and immediately a body came tumbling down so fast Discord yelped and had to push themself against the wall to avoid getting knocked down. 

"the fuck??" 

"YouTube?" 

4Chan and Reddit got up quickly, and soon everyone was surrounding the body. No, not body- he was still breathing, shallow raspy breaths. the smell of blood coming off of him was overwhelming. 

“Looks like he got into a bad fight with Twitch,” 4Chan noted.

“You think?” Discord asked, sounding way too hopeful.

Wikipedia pushed them all out the way to look over YouTube, reporting that his blood was off-colour and he was bleeding out more blood than he should rightfully have. 

“The bright colour could be because of high oxygen in the blood, but usually when there’s an increased amount of blood that just manifests as the blood coming out thicker, but-”

“Get some bandaids!” Wikipedia interrupted.

“R-right!” Reddit let himself be cut off, quickly rushing out into the infirmary while Wiki called after him to also grab some medicine. 

4Chan kneeled beside Wikipedia, dipping her fingers into the quickly-pooling puddle of blood. The blood was thin, nearly the texture of water, and showed no signs of slowing. 

YouTube didn’t stabilize for another hour, and even then stabilize just meant Wikipedia decided it safe to move him into a bed in the infirmary. 4Chan lost interest once it was clear he wasn’t going to die, but Wikipedia kept them updated anyway, informing everyone that YouTube’s head just kept bleeding and running through bandages despite no visible wounds for the blood to come from. 

“It’s like… instead of sweat he’s producing blood, or something!" Wikipedia theorized, exasperated. 

“Maybe he’s sweating Gatorade,” Reddit suggested. “Like in the commercials.”

“That’s not a real thing,” Wikipedia scowled. 

YouTube finally woke up the next day, groggy and confused. Wikipedia did their best to explain the situation as YouTube shook his head, waking up slowly. suddenly, he jolted up. "Wikipedia?? who's- where- no get aw-" he clasped his hand over his mouth, reducing his next few words too muffled to make out. 

Wikipedia froze, confused, not intervening until blood pulled down his hand where he seemed to bite hard into his palm. 

the second Wikipedia got close YouTube pounced, feet pushing away from the bed and arms outstretched. 

Discord grabbed Wikis arms and pulled him out of the way just in time, quickly dragging them out of the room, eyes focused on YouTube. 

he now lay on the floor, wincing and struggling to get back up. 

"I think… he's a Suffer," Discord concluded quickly, never taking their gaze off from him. 

for being corrupted he didn't seem particularly effective, perhaps that was a side effect of being a Suffer? was there enough of YouTube left in there to keep the corruption from being too powerful? 

"what do we do with him?" Reddit asked, though Wikipedia was already reluctantly equipping their sniper rifle. 

"We should keep him," 4Chan interrupted, putting her hand on the barrel of Wikis rifle to keep it from raising. "if he's a Suffer and actively resisting hurting us then he'd be perfect for experimentation- this could be the step we need to figure out a cure!" 

"That's cruel," Discord lamented, but no one actually disagreed. 

---

4Chan leaned forward against the chair, arms draped over the back. "what's the last thing you remember before being corrupted?" she asked. "were you corrupted near the beginning, or…?" 

"wasn't- wasn't even on the news yet," YouTube managed, each syllable sounding strenuous. his wrists pulled against the ropes, trying to shut him up, but all that accomplished was rope burn. "was at her grave when it- it-" YouTubes head slammed against the back of the chair, and he cried out in pain and surprise. 4Chan glanced over at Reddit, but he was already grabbing more rope with intent to tie his head in place. 

"who's grave?" 4Chan asked while Reddit got to work. "someone who died from corruption?" 

"n-no-" 

"did they die recently? maybe carrying the corruption without symptoms and waiting post-mortem to spread it?" 

"no! G- Goo- my sister." 

4Chan took a moment to mentally go through YouTubes family tree before remembering his little sister, Google+. she recalled him bringing her everywhere, and her being so very annoying, not that YouTube ever saw that. she died slowly, at a depressingly young age, and YouTube had disappeared from any friends for quite some time when she'd finally passed. 

but that was a long time ago, and so surely a dead end. 

“What was the very last thing you remember?” 4Chan asked impatiently. “Something out of the ordinary?”

“She shouldn’t have died, not so alone. I brought her everywhere. People loved me so why did- why didn’t anyone- why didn’t you-”

“YouTube-”

YouTube made a biting motion, which at first seemed silly, since there was nothing in his mouth, but then blood pooled heavily down his lips. He gargled on his own blood uselessly. 

---

4Chan was pacing the small bedroom restlessly, occasionally stepping over one of the many small robots that littered the floor. Reddit was busy removing and replacing batteries in some of the slower ones, occasionally glancing up at her. 

“you good?” Reddit asked, to which 4Chan replied by shaking her head quickly. “Well, careful. You’re gonna step on my snoos.”

“muh snoos,” 4Chan mocked, actively resisting the urge to kick one. when Reddit’s only response was to shoot her a hurt expression, 4Chan sighed and sat down across from him. “I just wish YouTube would be more cooperative,” she complained idly. 

“I don’t know…” Reddit murmured, briefly placing down the screwdriver that was in his hand. The snoo he had been working on hummed a tone that could be mistaken for impatience before rolling off. “I mean, he’s grieving. Give him a break.”

“It’s been years! It’s the apocalypse! I will not.” 

Reddit fell quiet for a while, eventually taking up on replacing the battery of another snoo. 

“Don’t tell me you’re taking pity on him,” 4Chan scorned.

“I’m just saying… I didn’t know you back then as well but surely when 8Kun-”

“Don’t!” 4Chan bristled, cutting him off. “8Kun left, and everytime he was rumored dead I celebrated and was disappointed to find him still alive!”

That wasn’t strictly true, but Reddit made no attempt to call her out on that. He briefly searched for a different example. “I… know it’s not the same as losing a sibling but,” he pulled up his hood and kept his focus solely on the snoo he was fixing. “when I had to- had to put down a bunch of my snoos, a few years back… I mean, I was able to rebuild a lot of them but some parts were just lost and- and some of them just wouldn’t shut down so I- I- well- it still hurts. And that was just with some dumb robots so I can’t really… imagine…” he sniffled pathetically, holding the snoo in his lap closer to him. 

After a moment, 4Chan crawled over to him to place her hand against his cheek, thumb brushing away tears. 

Reddit cringed from her touch at first before quickly leaning into her palm. numbly, 4Chan figured this officially moved them closer to moirails, instead of the proud pale-black fluctuation they'd sustained before the apocalypse. 

it took her longer than it should've for her to realize the tears dripping down her thumb had turned red, like blood. 

4Chan gasped and pulled away as the scent of blood hit her all at once. 

"is something wrong?" Reddit asked, and where there should've been bloodstains down his cheeks there were none. 4Chan looked down at her hand, once again finding nothing but tears. 

---

4Chan didn’t try again until nearly a week had passed, and as she feared YouTube was still unhelpful. Today, he was uncharacteristically quiet, perhaps fearing whatever pain the corruption would bring. 

During that break she theorized that blood was how the corruption spread, or maybe where it persisted? something like that. so she'd begun collecting the blood that he was already bleeding and experimenting on that. maybe that was the way to a cure. 

"why do you care so much?" Reddit asked. he was sat across the room, staring at nothing. "no offense, I just… thought you didn't care much for people."

"I don't," 4Chan explained patiently. "I care about recognition. be… anyone, really. constantly underestimate me, for some reason." when people thought of the most powerful, dangerous players on the internet- 4Chan rarely came to mind. fucking Twitter did, of all people. hadn't she doxxed enough people? hadn't she more than proved herself far more competent than any organization? "think of me as that racist shithole who endorses school shootings- even though that's my brother… but this'll prove them wrong. plus, think of all the wildlife reserves and endangered species suffering without helping hands!" 

when she'd finished her ranting she found Reddit looking at her fondly, and she turned away. 

"what are you doing now?" 

"I think… the corruption stores in the blood. or at least, it's a good way to tell the state of the corruption. just need to gather enough of it so I can start experimenting." 

“Huh.” was Reddit’s response. Since 4Chan didn’t reply, it took him a moment to finish his thought. “You might actually figure something out like that.” 

“I wouldn’t be trying if I didn’t know I could do it.” she scoffed. Though, there wasn’t much that she didn’t think herself capable of. Undoing the effects of corruption couldn’t even be that much harder that rediscovering lost media, she figured. 

She heard Reddit walk over, somewhat uneven and unbalanced footsteps, presumably due to a leg falling asleep. When he stopped less than a foot away she looked up. Shadows hid most of his face, only a slight glare from the distant light reflecting off his glasses. 

“4Chan?” he asked, clumsily kneeling beside her. “Can I see your knife?”

“Why?” She questioned, even as she got the switchblade from her pocket. 

Reddit took it from her gingerly, unsheathing the blade and holding it with uncertain hands. “It’s been a weird couple days. I think…” he trailed off for a moment. “You said not to talk about it but, do you know where 8Kun is?” 

4Chan scoffed dismissively. “Dead, hopefully.” 

“I’m serious.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “So am I.” 

He tightened his grip on the handle. “Do you ever get thoughts that arent yours? I mean- surely sometimes you feel sad your little brother left you. Even Tumblr missed Twitter when they broke up.”

4Chan wasnt sure what Reddit was trying to accomplish, but it was pissing her off. “Don’t fucking bring that fag into-”

“oh- right, you two were kismessitudes way back when. Did something happen? Or did you just fizzle out?” Reddit was looking at her with an expression of pity that made 4Chan see red. 

“What the fuck-” 

Reddit stood suddenly, backing up a few steps. He laughed, dry and humourless. “You’re so perfect, OP. You should write this down.” 

“What.” 

The next movement was a shock- 4Chan didn’t process what was happening until Reddit had already collapsed, hands tight around the handle of the knife and blade embedded deep into his chest. It took 4Chan far too long to react, because the blood he bled was a pale blue. 

“Reddit!” 

4Chan ran to his side far too slow, pulling him into her lap and placing a hand over the knife. "what the hell was that for?? h-hold on, I'll get Wikipedia-!" of course her first instinct should've been to get help, not try to help him herself- what did she know about anything medical? before she could run off, however, Reddit grabbed her arm and kept her in place. 

"N-no-, stay here, okay? I'm… getting infected… could feel it." his breaths were laboured and head mostly limp in her arms. 

4Chan couldn't reply, just slowly pulled her hand away the wound, her fingers coated in blue blood. 

"aw don't cry over me, OP." 

"I'm…" 4Chan attempted to protest, but gave up quickly. "I don't… I can figure out something, you don't have to-" 

"4Chan," Reddit interrupted softly. "I could feel… no, I won't live like that." he turned his head against 4Chans chest with a strained sigh. "I… I think it spreads through... grief or something. the thought of food disgusts me suddenly… you should look out for that. you should be writing-" Reddit coughed, pale blue splattering on his lips. "hey, take care of Greentext okay? I know it's too much to ask you to take care of all my snoos but…" his eyes filled with tears, and his voice broke slightly. "...I built that one for you." 

"that's what you cry over?" 4Chan scolded with no heat behind the words. she held Reddit close. "you're so retarded… Tor… Reddit… please…" 

---

4Chan pressed her sleeves against her eyes hastily, hard enough that it looked like it hurt. "um, I have it all written down in my journal somewhere if you can decipher it. I can't, most days, but… most of my research was thanks to Reddit. I've been working on a cure but it's just hitting my head against a wall waiting for something to happen really." she sniffled and put her hands back in her lap. 

"grief?" Ao3 echoed. "sorry Reddit had to die for you to learn that." 

"let's shut up about it before I get corrupted or some shit." she pointedly turned her attention back to the fire for the first time in a couple hours, only to gasp suddenly and jump forward. she grabbed the bottle of blood straight from the fire, too excited to register the boiling hot glass against her palms. "holy shit! Ao3 are you seeing this?" she shoved the bottle in his face, and he just shot her a baffled look. 

"it's red," she insisted, and indeed the usually neon red had darkened to a colour much more humanlike. "fuck- I don't know if this means we should dump boiled water on them or- or burn the corruption out of them, but this is a fucking breakthrough! c'mon, we have to tell the others! …aren't you coming?" 

Chapter Text

Wikipedia picked up Greentext with a sigh. it tilted its head at him innocuously. did it know it was the last surviving snoo? did it realize that only Reddit knew how to take care of them, and this one only survived through 4Chans repeated trial and error efforts? 

"don't you also know how to maintain them?" Ao3 asked. 

"no, I… think you're thinking of Fanwiki." 

"what happened to her?" 

Wiki bristled. "I don't wanna talk about it." 

"oh." 

this was hardly the time to get pissed at her , who was hopefully and probably dead. they were supposed to be grieving. though, it was pretty hard to grieve over 4Chan. she hardly deserved to get corrupted, but he didn't know her well enough to miss her. and what he did know of her was largely unpleasant. 

the last of Reddit's legacy dying would be pretty depressing, though. 

"I think I'll keep this guy in my room until he runs out of battery," Wikipedia decided, tucking Greentext under his arm. 

He looked around the room, mostly empty now and just in need of cleaning. Kik promised to do just that later, and Amino would probably move in whenever it got here. 

"Is that everything?" Ao3 asked, and after a moment Wikipedia left the room. 

"did they really not say anything?" Wikipedia asked as they travelled to his room. "neither 4Chan nor YouTube had anything to say in all that time you were down there?" 

but once again, Ao3 shook his head. 

how were they supposed to properly update their pages if he didn't even have any last words to go off of? 

Wikipedia wracked his own head for anything 4Chan might've said before leaving, but she had a tendency to get up and leave without a word and no one had thought much of it in years. if they knew that would be the last time seeing her un-corrupted, would someone have said anything? 

The thought made Wikipedia feel sad and weird , so he dismissed it. "Wait," he remembered suddenly. "didn't she keep a journal?" 

"yeah…" Ao3 admitted reluctantly. "But, it's practically illegible by her own admission." 

Wikipedia plopped Greentext down on their bed before making a 360 out to make his way downstairs. "Ao3, I'm a linguistics expert, I can read anything." 

the room downstairs was, for a change, somewhat lit by a dying campfire. the place was covered in neon red and green blood, most still fresh. 

YouTubes corpse had been dragged off by Kik a bit ago, and of course 4Chan- or, her corruption anyway, had been hastily locked out the safehouse. the scratching at the door had stopped a few hours ago. 

the journal he found near the campfire, opened to a page near the middle. after picking it up and trying to read it for a few seconds he could already feel a headache coming on. he could translate this, for sure, but it'd take time and more aspirin than he had on hand right now. 

still, the straightforward task cleared his head a little of the confused grief. 

---

Kik offered a low whistle as she looked over Wikipedia’s notes he was writing into, 4Chan’s journal in front of him and bottle of painkillers by his side. “How’s that going?” Kik asked. Wikipedia just sighed.

“Why are you even doing this?” Kik asked idly. She was only making idle conversion, Wikipedia knew- hell, she was actively checking over her backpack and putting on a mask. But Wiki didn’t rightfully know. It’d started as a way to figure out some last words, but if that was the case, they could’ve started at the last page and left it at that. 

“I’m… grieving,” he answered carefully. 

Kik shrugged uncaringly. “If Amino comes over before I’m back, tell it to leave- I’m not missing another arrival.”

“Sure.” 

With that, Kik was gone and Wikipedia turned his attention back to their notes. The first few pages weren’t too difficult to translate- Wikipedia had been there for most of it after all. They detailed YouTube’s behaviour in more detail than Wiki could've ever given 4Chan credit for. But these pages, the ones he was working on now, took place after Reddit’s death. Here, the handwriting was even worse, and the pages were water-damaged. 

Wikipedia subconsciously made note when Ao3 sat beside him, looking over his work with an almost bored air. 

Wikipedia translated a whole two words before taking another aspirin and leaning against the back of the couch, pushing up his glasses and closing his eyes. “distract me.” 

Ao3 almost smiled at them, and Wiki frowned. “No one's making you do this,” Ao3 reminded him. He took the journal from his hands without much care. “You’d get a lot less headaches if this just went missing.”

“Please don’t.”

Ao3 dropped the notebook back on the table. “I’m just trying to help,” he offered uselessly.

Wikipedia snatched it back up, pressing it carefully against his chest. “You have to be more careful than that. Until I’m finished this is the last remaining copy.” The sudden action caused their glasses to fall back down so fast it was almost painful.

Ao3 put his hands up innocently, but the gesture looked closer to mocking. “I get it, I get it. Archival is important.” 

Something kind of snapped at hearing that. Wikipedia could’ve laughed. “Do you, now? Because you converted from Wayback years ago-”

“That’s not-”

“just one relationship later and you’re tossing around Firefox like it’s nothing. When did that happen??” 

Wikipedia was met with stunned silence, and realized far too late they may have stepped a bit too far. “...Sorry.” 

The silence continued to stretch far longer than was comfortable, and Wiki jumped when Ao3 finally replied, calm as ever. “You’re just stressed.”

“...Yeah.” 

Ao3 patted their shoulder, and it felt wrong. “Maybe you just need some fresh air.”

“Are you trying to kill me?”

“its the middle of the day!” Ao3 insisted. “I’ll go with you… It’s a nice day out.”

Despite the previous altercation, and despite the unnecessarily dangerous idea Ao3 had presented, Wikipedia could not deny that going on a walk outside with Ao3 sounded… nice. While he was internally debating these factors, Ao3 took his hand and dragged them over to the ladder leading up. 

“Let me grab a mask at least,” Wikipedia decided reluctantly. 

---

The rays of sunlight were warm, and the desert wasteland was mostly empty, no corruption in sight. If Wikipedia focused, he could almost pretend the apocalypse wasn’t actively happening, and he was just on a normal date. Er, Ao3 had never actually said…

“I’m sorry we didn’t keep in touch much,” Ao3 started, fixing Wikipedia with an odd look he couldn’t quite identify. 

“We used to be close,” Wikipedia mumbled, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “Before- er, I mean, when you were younger.” 

“No. Before I met Tumblr.” Ao3 finished for them. When Wiki didn’t reply, he graciously changed the subject. “It’s… really a wasteland out here. Before I migrated over I was living in a forest but it was, kind of getting overtaken.”

Wikipedia nodded aggressively. “We haven’t quite figured out why, But Reddit realized some time ago that corruptions prefer places with more nature. So deserts and tundras are pretty much the best place to be right now.”

“Is that so?”

“Yeah! Fanwiki claimed she came from a tundra-based safehouse, actually.” 

“There are other safehouses?” Ao3 asked, leaning close enough that Wiki had to turn away to keep from blushing. 

“W-well, none that I’ve seen with my own eyes, and I haven't heard anything from a reliable source but... It’s certainly hard to imagine we’re the only ones that came up with the idea, right?”

Ao3 chuckled and leaned in close enough to be touching in an act that should have made him flustered, but instead just made his blood run cold. Then Ao3 pressed his warm hand into Wikipedia's and he forgot about that entirely. 

---

Trying to keep this as formal as possible. Otherwise I'll fill 20 pages with nothing of scientific value. Reddit- was as far as Wikipedia had translated before growing beyond infuriated with translating linearly. Instead, in an attempt to make it easier for himself later on, he found all cases of 'Reddit' written throughout the rest of the pages. He counted 7 thus far. 

Wikipedia rubbed his eyes hastily, hoping to wipe away the bleariness without luck. it wasn't that he was tired per se… maybe he was outdated for a new prescription. but where would he even get new glasses in the apocalypse? 

“Movement detected,” Discord stated.

Wikipedia glanced up from his work. Discord was sat on the other side of the room, huddled over a bottle of vibrant-coloured liquid that barely looked edible. in their lap was their laptop, currently opened to a small variety of motion sensors. Right now, it appeared a few of them were going off. 

“You think the corruptions are getting closer?” Wikipedia asked.

“No. Looks human. Has to be Amino or Kik.” 

Kik wasn’t due back for a few days, and not even she wasn’t suicidal enough to travel at night. Had to be Amino. 

Ao3 was currently asleep, so the two ventured out alone. Discord locked the hatch upon exit, and Wikipedia settled by the tent’s entrance, sniper rifle in hand as they peered outside. 

Amino still looked human. A little unsteady on its bare feet and rather trembly, but alive. Wikipedia started to put his gun away and greet it, but Discord stopped them. fair enough. 

So instead, Wikipedia waited, weapon at the ready just in case , as Discord headed out to greet Amino instead. 

“Hey Amin-”

“Kik said you had YouTube. where is he.” Amino interrupted. It’s gaze was either entirely glossed over or intensely focused. It was hard to tell… somehow. It’s eyes were only visible because, for some reason, it didn’t wear a gas mask. Well, at least it was wearing a cloth mask. That was something. 

Discord took a moment to recover. “...dead. sorry.” 

Amino stared at them silently for a moment, then turned around to leave.

“Wait!” Discord grabbed its sleeve, then quickly let go, holding their contaminated hand awkwardly away from their body. “Er, Kik is coming back soon and I’m assuming you still need a place to stay? …You look hungry.” 

Amino looked back at them, eyes just visible through thick strands of greasy hair. It’d grown longer, and did not particularly suit it. 

Seeing Amino on the fence, Wikipedia finally put away his weapon and joined them outside. He didn’t know what he was going to say, but he didn’t get a single word in before Amino hissed at him- actually hissed at him, and scampered into the tent. 

“Where’s the entrance. I want food.”

Well that… worked? 

Discord unlocked the entrance, and Amino was the first into the bunker. 

‘Hungry’ turned out to be a bit of an understatement. It went through half a dozen soup cans raw, despite Discord repeatedly offering to cook them first. Then, it promptly passed out on the couch before anyone could show it its room. Amino had stopped trembling, at least. 

---

Reddit gave the following information verbally

- Corruptions are disgusted by food 

- Corruption spreads through grief

The ????????? ??????????? I ???????? ??????????? ???? Reddit

Wikipedia was pretty sure the second to last word started with an f. And if that was an o , then it had to be four letters. So now, he had translated it down to the extremely helpful ‘ f?o?’. 

Flog? Frog or flom or… from.

The ????????? ??????????? I ???????? ??????????? from Reddit

Wikipedia’s head hurt. He took a break, carefully shutting the journal and leaning back in his chair. They took off their glasses and folded them between his hands, deeply considering taking a nap when a knock at his bedroom door ruined this hope. “Door’s unlocked,” he called, turning to face the door and making an effort not to squint at the newcomer, making his headache worse. 

“Did we get someone new last night?” Ao3 asked, shutting the door behind him. 

“Yeah, Amino. Discord moved it a couple hours ago.”

“Did you sleep last night?”

“I’ll sleep when I finish this sentence. It looks important.” The conversation reminded him of his purpose, and Wikipedia put his glasses back on. He was running low on aspirin, but the headache was relatively mild for now. He could work through it. “Did you know the corruption is spread through grief?” they asked as he opened the journal back up. “Or at least, that was 4Chan’s conclusion. It very well could just be any negative emotion, though grief does confirm my-” he cut himself off when Ao3 wrapped his arms around their shoulders, chin leaning against his shoulder quickly chasing away his thought process. 

“You should take a nap.” Ao3 murmured softly. 

“You’re always trying to stop me from working on this,” Wikipedia complained, though put up no protest when Ao3 dragged him out of his chair and onto his bed. 

“Because I care about you. Working yourself until you collapse from migraines isn’t very healthy, is it?”

Well, when he put it like that… Wiki still flinched when Ao3 took off his glasses, and felt embarrassingly flushed when Ao3 pressed his lips against their forehead. 

“I wouldn’t be a very good friend if I just left you like this.” 

Ouch. That… kind of hurt. Nevertheless, Ao3’s fingers gently combing through his hair lulled him to sleep quite easily. 

---

Wikipedia awoke to a high-pitched beep. He sat up slowly, numbly patting the bed in search for his glasses when he heard it again. His headache was gone for now, so he risked squinting to gather his bearings. His glasses were not on his bed, and his door was shut. 

The beeping was coming from Greentext, who appeared to be running low on battery. The thought was quite painful. 

Wikipedia spent a few minutes double checking his bed and carefully looking on the floor and between cracks, but his glasses remained missing. Finally, he was forced to venture outside his room, blind. The path to the common area was memorized, and in it he found Ao3 and Discord chatting. 

“Hey, uh,” Wikipedia interrupted reluctantly, “Have either of you seen my glasses? or…”

Discord suddenly burst into laughter, informing them that he looked stupid without them. 

“I left them on your bed,” Ao3 offered helpfully. 

“I checked there…” In hindsight, Wikipedia guessed he didn’t check under the blankets or anything. But he hadn’t slept under them, so it seemed unnecessary. 

“I’ll help you look,” Ao3 got up and followed him into his bedroom. 

One hour and an upturned room later, and there was no luck. 

“maybe you rolled over them in your sleep or something," Ao3 theorized finally, exasperated.

“I don’t move around in my sleep." maybe this was divine punishment. wasn't it just the other day Wikipedia was complaining that his prescription was becoming outdated? maybe he should've been more grateful. or something. actually all of that sounded stupid. the gods were dead. 

Wikipedia sighed, falling onto his bed. well now what was he supposed to do? he couldn't exactly translate while he was half blind. he was barely capable of independence without his glasses! 

he felt the bed dip as Ao3 sat beside him, then come into his view with an unreadable, blurry expression. 

Ao3s thumb brushed along his chin, gently pushing his face up until their gazes met. 

"U-um?" Wikipedia stammered. 

"...nothing." Ao3 let go and his gaze dropped as he sat back up. "sorry about your glasses." 

what the hell was that about? …how could he get him to do that again? Ao3 was saying something but Wikipedia's heart was hammering too hard for him to hear. "huh?" they managed. 

"if you need anything until you can find your glasses I'm willing to help," Ao3 repeated. "and… I'm sorry I lost them." 

"n-no you didn't! it happens! and, um, I appreciate it." 

---

Amino was way too close, eyes wide and unblinking. Wikipedia could see the soft movement of it's mask with each breath it was so close. "weren't you wearing glasses earlier?" it asked. 

"mhm!" Wiki answered quickly, hoping this would get it to leave. He'd tried to back up, but Amino had only followed him, and now they were pressed against a wall. 

"Your eyes are very blue." 

Wikipedia glanced away towards the kitchen, where he could hear Ao3 fixing him something. unfortunately his blurry red silhouette was not within sight to save him. 

"Normally eyes are a few different shades but your eyes are purely a bright blue. YouTube's get darker near the pupils. Discords are lighter near the edges. but yours are pure blue without flaw. like Tumblrs, but his are navy." 

That name caught his attention, but not for long. 

"leave them alone, Amino." Ao3 successfully shooed it away. Wikipedia wanted to be relieved, but Amino was just starting to connect a few dots for him. 

Nevertheless, Amino absconded to the kitchen and Ao3 sat across from him, handing him a bowl of cooked food. 

Wikipedia considered asking Ao3 if his interest in him was just him projecting his grief about Tumblr, but decided that might ruin the mood. 

but then again, was the idea that any potential relationship would be nothing but a rebound something he could live with? even unconfirmed? 

"um… Ao3?" Wiki asked reluctantly. 

"is the food still cold?" 

"no it's fine! but… is… i-is Tumblr-" 

Wikipedia's breath caught when Ao3 moved closer to him. his breath was warm, and he seemed to be thinking about something for a long moment. finally, Ao3 made up his mind and closed the distance to kiss him. 

Wikipedia was too struck by the taste of blood on his lips to kiss him back. 

---

The following information I gained nonverbally from Reddit.

- Corruptions are accompanied by hallucinations of blood

- Corruptions blood colour changes according to their theme. [YouTube’s was neon red, Reddit’s was pale blue. Mine would probably be green or pink, Discord’s blue or purple, Wikipedia’s grey.]

Since Reddit-

Wikipedia felt nauseous. He pulled his knees closer to himself and rubbed his eyes. The sound of his pencil against the paper was painful. 

He shut off his flashlight, and some of the pain subsided. 

4Chan’s entries seemed to be confirming the worst of his fears. But who could he even tell? Discord? Amino?? 

Wikipedia jumped way too hard at the sound of his door opening, and scrambled desperately to kick the blankets off of him, only to relax when he heard Kik’s voice. 

“Wikipedia I told you to tell Amino- oh. were you asleep?” 

“Kik!” Wikipedia jumped off their bed to rush to her side. “I need to talk to you.” 

“I just got back, Wiki…” Kik scratched at her hair awkwardly, fingers getting caught between tangles. 

“We need to talk outside,” Wikipedia continued as if Kik had never spoken. He grabbed 4Chan’s journal and the notebook he’d been translating in before leaving the room, glancing around the hallways nervously. 

“I, didn’t agree in the first place…” 

Wiki ignored this, taking Kik’s hand and leading her outside, pausing only briefly to put on a gas mask. Reluctantly, Kik did the same. 

It was less than an hour away from dusk, and even though they were relatively safe within the tent, Wikipedia spoke quickly. 

“Okay… you have to keep this a secret. But I have reason to believe that… Ao3 is corrupted. A malice, specifically.” He handed Kik 4Chan’s journal, flipping to the page he’d left off. “I’ve been translating and I’ve gotten this far, but-” He pointed to the last sentence he’d translated, and Kik squinted at the writing before reading. 

“Since Reddit died my research has been slow...”

Wikipedia stared at her in shock. “You can… read 4Chan’s handwriting?”

“Of course.” When Wikipedia continued to just stare, Kik continued, “I’ve been writing captchas for the past month or so, of course I can read it. Are you sure you’re not corrupted?” She shoved the book back into Wikipedia’s hands. “What’s your evidence? Why would I keep that a secret?”

Wikipedia forced themself to recover. “W-well it’s anecdotal, but all together… Discord won’t believe me because Ao3’s blood happens to be red and I think the grief-”

“Wait,” Kik interrupted. “His blood is red? Then… he’s not a corruption, Wikipedia.”

“You don’t understand!” Wiki snapped, and Kik glanced away awkwardly. 

“Hey…”

“I didn’t know him too well before but- that’s not him. He acts differently, he tastes like blood, have you ever seen him eat?? Not to mention… 4Chan…” Wikipedia trailed off when he noticed Kik was fixing him with a look of pity. It took far too long for Wikipedia to realize that was because he’d started crying, at some point. “Ignore this,” they tried, but the damage had been done. 

“Look, Wikipedia,” Kik mumbled, awkwardly placing her hands on Wiki’s shoulders. “I’m sorry Ao3 isn’t how you remember him. But the last time we took your word on something like this an innocent person got kicked out.”

“That’s not what happened- that’s not even close to what happened!” Were people actually saying that?

“Well… whatever. I wasn’t there.” Kik shrugged and dropped her arms to her sides. “Look man, i just got back, I was just popping in to fuck with you before going to bed, I…”

Wikipedia stopped listening when he realized Kik was starting to head back inside. 

“Wait! Aren’t you listening? There’s a corruption inside our safehouse! ”

“Yeah? Tell me about it in the morning.” Kik opened the hatch and started to climb inside. “Except, don’t actually.” 

When Kik had absconded, Wikipedia was left alone inside the tent, hit face-first with the realization that no one was going to believe him. 

---

“Are you sure you’re alright...?” Ao3 asked, gently pushing his fingers through Wikipedia’s hair. 

It took all of his effort not to flinch away. “Y-yeah… just a headache is all.” Which wasn’t a lie. His splitting headache from a couple days ago had yet to leave him. 

“Hopefully Kik will find some painkillers when she heads out… I’m not sure if your exact prescription can be found but I told her to grab some glasses if she runs past a Walmart or something. That might help.”

“You… did?” Wikipedia was dead-set on his epiphany that Ao3 wasn’t Ao3 at all. But, when Ao3 looked at him like that and claimed such acts of kindness- well that certainty wavered a little. Wiki shook his head. He couldnt think like that- that’s exactly what Ao3 wanted them to think.

“Maybe a warm meal will help in the meantime.” Ao3 got off the bed and walked a few feet away, only to stop and offer Wikipedia a patient smile as he waited for them in the doorway. 

And even though Wikipedia knew that wasn’t Ao3, knew it was just a corruption wearing his skin, his heart still fluttered, and an irrational part of him wondered to what extent corruptions could experience emotions. 

---

Since Reddit died my research has been slow. As of writing I've tested out 20 different cures without luck, and have 42 more ideas to test out. I will detail them below. 

“Augh!” Wikipedia yelped in surprise when Amino dropped down in front of him. He looked behind him, but his door was still closed. Where did…?

“Kik tells me you’re crazy.”

“How did you get in here!?”

“Shut up.” It sat up, pushing it’s hair out of its face with visible annoyance. “I want to help you.” 

“Um… w-with what?” 

“Killing Ao3.”

“Killing- I don’t- I’m not even sure he is a corruption!” 

“Why would that matter.” 

Wikipedia could only watch helplessly as Amino crawled around his room, eventually returning with a hair tie. 

“What do you expect me to do with this?” Wikipedia asked, exasperated. 

“Put my hair up first.” 

Chapter Text

Amino’s hair was noticeably and uncomfortably greasy, and it was extremely insistent on a high ponytail, so Wikipedia was hastily combing through tangles while Amino made a battle plan. 

“You have a gun. He will die easily. The only problem is people thinking you committed murder.” Amino growled when Wikipedia pulled a bit too hard before continuing. "the next time someone shows up Discord will ask Ao3 to take your position because you're blind. that's your chance." 

"but… what about Discord? and whoever it is that shows up?" 

"we can kill them too." 

"no!" Wikipedia snapped. this had already been too much, but that statement pushed him over the edge. "I don't want to kill anyone. I just… want to keep everyone safe from a corruption." snap. "there." 

Amino backed away, shaking its head a few times to feel its short high pony sway to and fro. its hair was too stiff and still too short for it to work properly, so the ponytail stuck straight up. nevertheless, it seemed pleased. 

Amino sat down in front of Wikipedia again, this time facing them. "if you want to kick him out just do what you did with Fanwiki. how did you kick out Fanwiki." 

"I don't wanna talk about it." 

"no one wants to talk about it. I've asked around. Kik wasn't there. Ao3 wasn't there. Discord says you didn't shut up about it until they obliged. 4Chan is dead. I want your side of the story." 

"it… was a long time ago," Wikipedia murmured softly. 

but Amino continued to stare, until finally Wikipedia gave in. 

" look. I knew Fanwiki before the apocalypse and she sucked then. she was an information broker who only gave away what she knew for money and was everything Wayback stood against. but she called herself a follower. and- whatever. the apocalypse isn't a time to get held up on grudges and gods, believe me I know . 

"but before we had Kik, we had Fanwiki. she had information about the outside world and wouldn't give it to us until we ran our supplies dry trying to please her. then she'd take our supplies and give them to whatever safehouse she claimed was in the tundra. we don't even know where these supposed survivors are because we couldn't afford that information! 

"she sucked! and everyone agreed- or, I thought everyone agreed… so we got rid of her. she had valuable information but… we couldn't… " Wikipedia trailed off, taking a deep breath to steady himself. she always made him so mad.  

Amino stared up at him, eventually replying "that's not applicable." Nevertheless, it looked lost in thought for a long while. Right when Wikipedia was going to ask what was on its mind, Amino left the room without a word. 

Wikipedia awoke to being roughly shaken. He shoved the perpetrator off of him and rubbed his eyes. “Wha…?” he grumbled, reaching for his glasses before remembering they were gone. “‘mino?”

Amino tilted its head, waiting for them to wake up more before dropping a small flurry of papers between them.

Wikipedia sat up reluctantly, picking up the papers nearest to him. “Wha’ time is it? What is this?”

“2 AM. I know where the tundra safehouse is.”

“Huh?”

Amino picked up one of the papers and showed it to him. A map? “It’s here.” it pointed to a smudged ‘X’ written in pen. 

Wikipedia blinked a few times, waiting for awakeness to come along and for all this to start making sense. It didn’t. “Okay… how and why?”

“How was easy,” Amino explained. “I connected to an archive of the internet and found an automatically-posting heatwave map of the tundra a few miles to the southwest.”

“What?”

“Why because I was bored.”

Wikipedia picked up a paper of the heatmap in question, finding a date a few days after the apocalypse, right before everything utterly collapsed. The name of the website this had been pulled from suggested the information was being tracked to keep tabs on the effects of climate change, and only accidentally did it manage to locate human warmth. 

“That’s… really impressive, but I’m not sure it’s helpful.” Wikipedia admitted reluctantly.

“Oh.”

Their conversation was disrupted by the sound of metal crashing against metal- the entrance door slamming shut. Wikipedia got to his feet quickly, immediately assuming the worst, but before he was even fully off his bed his bedroom door was slammed open.

“Wiki!” Kik explained quickly. “I need- hi Amino- this is hard to explain but I need your help.”

Wikipedia barely got out a “mine??” before he was being dragged outside the base. 

Kik was trying to explain the information, but she was talking so quickly and breathlessly that none of it came out coherent. Wiki could hear Amino trailing behind as they climbed up the ladder and out the tent. 

Wikipedias breath caught when he saw who was laying, injured, just outside. "Twitch?" he whispered in disbelief, his head spinning. "how-?" 

"not Twitch," Kik insisted as Wikipedia kneeled down to his side. "not anymore." 

the mechanical bits of Twitch that usually took over less than half of him had- for lack of a better word- grown. grown sounded insane, machines didn't grow, but over half of his face now was covered in metal siding, and when Wiki pressed his hands along Twitch's body in search of injury, he found mostly hard metal. 

"Please don't tell Discord," Kik was begging. "please." 

They finally found the injury in his abdomen. two puncture wounds, from which purple blood and black oil spilled in equal amounts. "he's… corrupted." 

"I know." Kik kneeled next to Wikipedia, expression desperate. "fuck, I know… but he's… he's- can you help him?" 

Wikipedia hesitated, looking between Kik and Twitch. help a corruption? Was Kik insane? But on the off chance she wasn't, Wikipedia would only be wasting precious time finding that point. 

"I can try," he conceded finally. "there's a first aid kit in my room, on my dresser, can you-" 

Kik nodded sharply and ran off before Wiki could finish their sentence. the door slammed shut behind her. 

"this could be your chance," Amino offered as Wiki pressed his palm against the bleeding wound. "you could let Twitch in, he'd probably react to Ao3." 

Wikipedia shook his head as if that could get the idea away from him. "that would kill Discord." 

Amino chewed on its lip thoughtfully. "serves them right?" 

Wikipedia felt vaguely sick. "please… shut up." 

Kik returned and the rest was a breeze. 

Wikipedia knew well about medical care, and a decent amount of machines. hopefully he was actually putting that knowledge to good use, and not just fumbling blindly. having to navigate the process mostly through touch wasn't helping. 

but at least Twitch's breathing was stabilizing. 

"I- I know how this looks. I think." Kik began once the situation had become less dire. "I found him months ago. shortly after he went missing. He was already corrupted then." 

Kik paused, like she expected one of them to interrupt. when neither did, she continued. "I don't think he remembers before. it's like, that fucking chat thing is in control instead of him, and the contradictory inputs fried his brain. I don't know. 

"but he kind of attached to me when I found him. I wouldn't've survive half my fucking missions without him. maybe I should… I don't know. it's stupid. I'm, retarded. fuck."

"...I think I get it." Slowly, Wikipedia removed his hands. to his relief, Twitch didn't die instantly when he did. "I've done all I can." They cleaned their hands of blood and oil by rubbing them on their pants. he started to grab his first aid kit, stopping when Kik placed a hand on his shoulder. 

"um… thanks." 

"how about these?" Kik asked, handing Wikipedia a different pair of glasses. 

Wiki tried them on, outstretching his hand and looking into the distance. "better, but…"

Discord turned away, uninterested in the conversation. Instead, their focus was on the laptop sat in front of them. even though it'd been nearly an hour since Kik had returned from her most recent journey out, the motion sensors were still going off near the tent that hid their base. 

at first, Discord had assumed it simply a corruption that had followed her. but the sun had since risen, and it remained nearby. 

"I'll be right back," Discord announced, rising to their feet. Wikis name was already on the tip of their tongue, before they stopped. even with whatever glasses Kik might've been able to scrounge up, he would still likely be a bad shot. "Ao3, can you join me?" they asked instead. 

Ao3 glanced up from his spot beside Wiki, and nodded. 

Without much notice from Kik or Wiki, Discord made their way to the entrance. they hesitated at the top of the ladder, mentally prepared themself for the possibility of having to kill a corrupted friend, and opened the hatch. 

Discord was peering outside the tent when Ao3 had climbed up, shotgun already in hand. 

"Stay here, I'll tell you if you need to shoot," Discord told him, waiting for a nod of affirmation before heading out. 

At first glance, nothing surrounded them but the usual desert wasteland. 

"hello?" Discord asked, circling the tent. 

they caught a flash of movement in the corner of their eye, but before they could turn around they were being slammed into the ground.

Discord screamed for Ao3s help, trying to kick the corruption off of them. 

when the corruption made no further attacks, Discord risked a glance up, heart stopping when they recognized him.

the sound of a shot ringing out forced Discord to cover their ears, and Twitch's weight disappeared. 

the second they could, they were back up. "wait!" Discord called to wherever Ao3 was. 

any amount of hope that Twitch was somehow okay despite missing for several months disappeared when their hands met purple blood. "Twitch…" 

Discord stepped no further, the sparks flying out from the corruptions agonized form enough of a deterrent. 

Twitch was dead. officially gone, fate no longer hopefully ambiguous. 

the crunch of sand informed Discord that Ao3 had stepped nearby. 

"Kill it," Discord choked out, and with a deafening bang the corruption that used to be their morail lay still. their morail lay dead. their morail died a long time ago. maybe months ago.

Discord could barely make out the corpse in front of them. everything was so blurry. 

"Discord?" Ao3s voice was so far away. 

Discord buried their head in their hands. they just needed a moment. they'd known Twitch was dead, he had to be, this was just confirmation of what they already knew! it was… it was, well… it wasn't fine! 

they felt Ao3s hand on their shoulder and shrugged it off. everything was the same really- no, no not really, Discord couldn't even get themself to believe that lie. their whole world had come crashing down. their whole world was dead. corrupted. 

when Discord removed their hands from their eyes the world was tinted blue. Ao3 was a dark red smudge against the blue landscape whomst they paid no mind. 

but beyond him were three other figures. all at once, every drop of grief was washed out, replaced by unbridled anger. 

those three figures- Discord couldn't quite remember who they were- weren't they the reason Twitch was dead? Twitch would be dragging them outside and offering them G-fuel right now if it weren't for them.

Would be? Could be, maybe, if they were dead. 

Just reach them, cross the distance between them that was really quite short suddenly, and grab one at random. they fell quite easily under Discord's weight and their flesh tore apart even easier. 

the blood between their fingers felt like Twitch's hand holding theirs.

Chapter Text

"ready to go?" 

The answer to that was, of course, no. but that answer was emotionally. emotionally, Wikipedia would never be ready to leave the mines he'd lived in for… well, that wasnt important. "Yeah," Wiki called back reluctantly, pulling the strap of his backpack over his shoulder. 

with Discord and Amino dead, the amount of corruptions in the area shot up. clearly, Wikipedia had been wrong in his theory that corruptions stayed out of barren areas. there had to be another factor he hadn't taken into consideration. something about death. 

"okay?" Kik stared impatiently. "let's go, then." 

it was with great effort that Wiki forced himself out of his room. Kik waited for them impatiently, Ao3 guarded the entrance outside. 

"you sure you're alright?" Wikipedia asked, and the question was expectantly unwelcome. "you're not gonna- get corrupted over Twitch or Amino?" 

"Unfortunately, I'm fine," Kik grumbled. "Are you over thinking Ao3's corrupted?"

they made their way to the entrance, double checking any rooms as they went. "no, but… we're both armed, right?" 

Kik would believe him eventually. It was just a matter of time and proof. And once that happened… then… things would work out?

Corruptions wandered the landscape in greater numbers than Wiki had seen since the start of the apocalypse. They shut the flap of the tent and took a deep breath. 

"you know where we're going?" Kik asked. 

Wiki nodded, pulling out of the many papers Amino had provided. this one was a map. "Just a few days out. so long as they haven't had the same problems as us, we should be at their safehouse within the week." Wiki could think of roughly a hundred additional things that could go terribly, terribly wrong, but he shoved them down as easily as he pocketed the map. "Just head west."

Ao3 took a few steps outside, fingering the trigger of his shotgun. "Alright, let's move quickly." 

Kik led the way, moving quickly despite the hot desert sun. The light and a careful path to ensure distance was enough to keep them hidden from most, and those that wandered too close were shot down. Usually by Ao3. Try as he might, Wiki failed time and time again to get a handle over his aim again. Sure, the new glasses distorted things slightly different than he was used to, but he should be used to them by now, right? 

"Stop," Ao3 snapped, grabbing their wrist, and Wiki should not be as flustered as they were. "You're going to hit friendly fire at this rate." 

"D-do you have it, from here?" Wiki stammered uselessly, and at Ao3's nod they put their rifle on safety. 

"I think I ran into someone not too far from here," Kik announced as the sun began to set. "I doubt they're still alive but their shelter should still be intact." 

"Can we make it before dark?"

The best Kik could offer was a hopeful "maybe," that didn't even turn out to be true. 

As the shadows grew longer the corruptions grew braver, closer. It was quickly too dark to recognize their faces. 

Ao3 cursed as he hastily reloaded his gun. "I don't think I can keep them at a distance anymore." 

"Meaning?" The fear creeping into Wiki's voice was embarrassingly undisguised as he watched Ao3 sheath his weapon. 

"Meaning… run."

Kik, to her credit, took off immediately. Wiki stumbled badly and long enough that Ao3 took his hand and dragged them behind him. 

Wiki glanced behind him, heart hammering louder than his footsteps as one particular corruption came just inches of swiping at him. 

The sand beneath his feet suddenly changing to smooth pavement made Wiki stumble- which would've been fine if Ao3 didn't choose that exact moment to let go of his hand. 

Wiki crashed hard into the asphalt, barely getting his hands in front of him in time. 

They hastily looked around themself, eyes wide as he struggled to get his feet back under him. No use- one was already on top of him. The best Wiki could do was scream and cover his eyes as it pounced towards him.

…

When no impact came, Wiki opened his eyes to find the corruption knocked to the floor and Kik standing over him. 

"Come on, idiot!" She helped him to his feet and shoved him forward, leaving Wiki to run on his own but staying nearby. "this way!" 

they turned sharply into a house, though it only looked half-built before the door was slammed shut, leaving them in darkness. 

Wiki could barely breathe, his legs felt weak and his hands stung. "Where's Ao3?" 

"Who fucking knows." There was a heavy flick, and light reluctantly flooded the room. 

Kik was stood by a circuit breaker, flicking on various switches and occasionally glancing around to see the effect. 

"You don't know??" Wiki stumbled over to the front door, only stopped by Kik running over to push him back. 

"He was with you and then he wasn't! Probably dead, I dunno! Why do you care?" 

When Wiki failed to come up with an answer, Kik locked the door and returned to her breaker work. 

With nothing else to do, Wiki leaned against the wall and soon enough slid to a sitting position. Asphalt and blood stuck stubbornly to his hands, and both were wiped off with minimal success against his pants. 

"This place isn't stable enough to survive the night with those things outside," Kik informed him as she shut the breaker. "If we switch off on keeping watch we should be fine. Just be ready to run again."

"Is it always this bad?" 

Kik chewed her lip thoughtfully. "...I don't know. I usually have Twitch."

Knocking at the door made them both jump. "It's Ao3! Let me in!" 

Kik glanced expectantly at Wiki, who quickly got out his sniper rifle and aimed as Kik opened the door. 

Ao3 all but fell past the doorway, quickly shutting it behind him with a short breath of relief.

"Where the hell did you go?" Kik snapped, and when Ao3 opened his mouth to explain, "how do we know you're not corrupted??" 

That answer, at least, came easy. He only had to show off a cut along his arm still bleeding red blood. 

At Kik's gesture Wiki put away his gun, uncertain if he did so with relief or reluctance. 

"Alright," Kik began again as Ao3 locked the door, "you should take second watch after me, just-" 

"aren't you gonna ask him where he's been?" Wikipedia interrupted, much to Kik's annoyance. "How he survived so long out there after he disappeared on us?" 

Kik sounded exasperated, " what would be the point, Wiki?"

the point was obvious- it'd put holes in Ao3's story that couldn't be explained away. But Wiki couldn't exactly say all that. 

Kik rolled her eyes and wandered off, muttering something about checking the perimeter . 

Ao3 offered Wiki a puzzled look that they refused to acknowledge.