"We're outside… I can't believe it…" whispered Liro as he fell to his knees. Looking at his hands, he positioned them on top of his face, realizing that he was still alive, just like everyone else.
Deep below, the cries of the Seamstress hadn't ceased yet, and even if they felt distant, the group that was escaping from her a few minutes before felt a cold shiver running down their spines that made them shake in fear.
"We should return. We don't know when someone like Zrelekai or even Ashikunz might arrive…" said Syrmax. Now that he was only being charged by the light of the stars, his body couldn't remain this big anymore, and it was literally deflating each second that passed.
"Yeah, remaining outside might be dangerous," said Darian. As he finished speaking, Snowy went outside of his body. The fox fell to the ground with his eyes closed. Darian kneeled nearby it and grabbed it carefully, holding it tight in his hands.
"Still, what was that thing, Darian? It surprised me that you were able to create so many spikes in a single moment," said Vane the moment the group started to walk and left the screams of the Seamstress behind them, which soon became weaker. The group couldn't tell if they had stopped or if they simply got too far to hear them; just one thing was sure: as they got away, the screams were still there, even if they could barely be heard.
"Yeah, I thought so too. It happened in less than a second; how were you able to do it?" added Liro, as he was confused by what he had seen too.
"Eh? So it wasn't something normal that you, Darian, usually do when the situation is in a bad state?" asked Orechin, surprised to hear Liro and Vane surprised by what Darian had done. Currently, the group was speaking really softly as they were passing through the bushes near Ardoris.
'I don't think I can hide it anymore… they've seen what I'm capable of when I use Snowy's tails… still, I couldn't hide it forever.'
Ever since Darian had started to work as a biologist, he would barely share his research with other biologists, as he always wished to do most of the work alone, and then once it was about to get finished, he would always tell what he had discovered. This habit of his remained before he was sent to XERBAB-7, while he was on XERBAB-7, and now that he had returned to Earth too.
Until he could find a solution to what happened, he would have never shared it, except if the group had seen it. As Darian looked around, he realized that the others were waiting for an answer. 'I can't hide it forever…'
Right before Darian was about to speak, Tyel interrupted him. "We have arrived; you'll tell us later," said Tyel as he first checked that no guards were passing and then waved at Lily to open the passage.
'Please, don't let there be any guards, or if we die, I might have to restart the whole day… starting from that escape…' gulped Tyel, as he realized that today he couldn't make any mistakes, since killing himself would mean finding himself once again in front of the Seamstress.
"So, Tyel? You think you're coming with us, or are you going directly to your home?" asked Syrmax the moment the hole in the wall was closed and the whole group was safe back inside the city.
"Because today I've got work, I prefer to rest at home…" As he finished speaking, he noticed the confused look on everyone's face. "Today? Has midnight already passed?" asked Darian. Tyel coughed and nodded his head.
"Oh, yeah, yeah… I just happened to look into the future, and once I got home, I saw on my clock that midnight had already passed," whispered he with his eyes closed.
"Oh right, tomorrow you have to work. Then don't worry, Tyel, we will talk tomorrow," said Orechin as he started to lead the way. And because to get to Tyel's house the group had to walk down some streets together, they continued speaking.
"So, Darian? You were telling us?" asked Liro as he continued the discussion they were having before.
"Oh yeah… well, it isn't the first time happening, but I don't know how or why, but Snowy can create the illusion of his tails outside the entry point. Each of them gives me power… and in that moment, he had made two tails come out of the entry point," started to explain Darian, his voice barely a whisper so as not to be heard by anyone, even if now the streets were empty and they were avoiding every camera in their way.
"Woah, and it has happened other times, right?" asked Lily, surprised, as, like everyone else, she had never heard anything like this.
"It happened in the fight against Poisudonom, the first time we arrived here and fought against the Seamstress a few minutes before, and… I feel like it has happened another time, but I can't clearly remember well," answered Darian.
"Mhmm, interesting… and is this the reason you've started to train your body?" asked Vane. In fact, since they arrived here and remained in the secret base, Darian would spend most of his day training his body. Darian, before answering, nodded his head.
"Exactly. Remember when I told you that Snowy spoke to me?" asked Darian. The others nodded, except for the rebels, who remained confused. "Snowy can speak?" asked them together, surprised.
"Yeah, it only happens rarely and in my dreams, but let's simply say he told me that he can't grant me the tails always because he says my body isn't strong enough, and if I use even one tail for too much time, I would not be able to remain on my feet for multiple days. And so, rather than making my body use the strength, he uses his body to hold the power, and… he's the only one that always falls unconscious for multiple days," said Darian as he looked at the unconscious Snowy in his hands and let out a weak smile.
"Oh, then that is why while we were going from Yalemba to Therya he remained asleep for so many days," pointed out Lily.
"Woah, I can't believe it… so we can say he saved us today?" asked Liro as he slowly petted Snowy in Darian's hands. "Yeah, it was definitely thanks to him, but we've all done a lot," said Darian to raise the mood of the group. Tyel, from behind, looked with a strange expression at the creature.
"And listen… he has used his tails every time you were in mortal danger, right?" asked Tyel. 'But I don't think he used them when the plushies fell over us… at least that's what I can remember.'
"Yeah, most of the time he has used them whenever we were all in really bad danger; he has never used them whenever everything was alright." With that, the group had to part ways with Tyel, who had to take a different route to arrive at his home.
"Well, Tyel, are you coming to our base after work?" asked Syrmax. Tyel waited a few seconds before speaking. "I don't think I've got much to say… but yeah, if something important happens, I'll definitely come." With that, Tyel, with his head down, started to walk away.
"Hey guys… didn't you find it strange? Tyel was more tired than usual, especially after he used all of his power," said Liro. The others agreed with him.
"Yeah… it was definitely strange. Multiple scratches appeared over his body in less than a second; it was like he had used his power a lot and the cracks started to appear only in that moment," added Darian, as he found that strange too.
"Hey, what happened to Tyel?" asked Syrmax, as neither he nor Lily knew about what had happened. And with that, the group started to walk, talking about when Tyel had used his power and warned everyone that the Seamstress would be there soon.
'He said that it activated its power whenever there was a need… then why all the times I've been fucking killed did it always remain still?' thought Tyel, as he didn't know how to feel. He was walking with his head lowered, not even caring if a camera would spot him.
'Like, if what Darian said was true… and it would actually activate when he had to save everyone, the fact that it didn't activate when I needed it… didn't make any sense. It was like… he knew that this loop was going to be the good one…' Tyel, confused, entered his home and began removing the Timehors costume.
'I mean, and if he knew about this, it would mean that he would have told Darian, as they can speak together… maybe he simply realized that it was too late to save the situation… hey, what's this?' thought Tyel. As he removed the costume, a paper fell to the ground. As he picked it up, he noticed the words: 'PROJECT SEAMSTRESS'.
'Oh right, this paper… I completely forgot to give it to them. I'll give it to them once I get back from work.' With that, Tyel unfolded the paper and left it on his table. The moment he positioned it on the table, the words said by Orechin popped back into his head.
'Your power is amazing, Tyel! It saved us.' Tyel could still remember these words. As he walked with a slight expression on his face, he arrived at his bed and lay down with a sad look.
'It saved you… that is true… but it doesn't save me…' thought Tyel. As he looked at his hands, the scenes of when he died played once again in his mind.
"I have saved everyone, yeah… but I've died countless times… and I can still remember the pain…" Tyel still remembered how it felt to get shot, to get pierced alive, to get eaten alive, to pierce his own eyes with a knife; his body hadn't forgotten the pain that it felt these last days.
'For them it might have never happened… but for me it was real, it felt as if it had happened truly… no, what am I even saying… it was real. Every single time I died was real, I felt the pain… I got killed for real… and I can't forget the pain…' Tyel held his body tight, scared that he might end up dying once again.
"I don't want to die over and over again… it hurts…" As Tyel realized the full pain his body was going through, a small tear fell from his eyes.
"Timehors never felt like this whenever he saved someone… he didn't need someone to save him… then why am I feeling like this?" whispered Tyel. "Timehors would find a way to save himself… then why am I in this state? Able to save everyone else except for me…" With this thought in mind, Tyel slowly closed his eyes and fell asleep.
"Hey, hey, what happened here?" Zrelekai, hearing the screams of the Seamstress, went outside the secret laboratories and entered the sanctuary. As he noticed the corpses of the destroyed plushies, he felt that something weird had happened.
As the cry of the Seamstress could still be heard, Zrelekai rushed and found her nearby the ladder with some roots around her. "Hey, don't joke… don't tell me they really attacked us?" asked Zrelekai, surprised. As the Seamstress moved her head, she nodded.
"Shit… how did they even get outside?" whispered Zrelekai as he walked near Lily's roots. 'I never had the chance to study them… maybe this is the right time?' thought Zrelekai. Suddenly, he heard some footsteps coming from behind. As he turned back, he noticed Ashikunz.
"I heard a lot of mess… what the hell happened here?" asked he, confused. Ashikunz walked near one of the roots and cut it, making the platform on the ladder unstable.
"We got attacked, Ashikunz… I don't know how it was possible. I didn't know they could come out of Ardoris," said Zrelekai as he got near Ashikunz and grabbed one of the roots to study later.
"Mhmm… but I've got multiple questions, Zrelekai… how did they fucking know about this place?" shouted Ashikunz as he was feeling angry. Zrelekai took a step back and started to sweat, as now he was in front of an angry Ashikunz.
"I— I don't know how this is possible. This has never gone outside of the four of us!" said Zrelekai as he tried to defend himself, scared that Ashikunz might go against him for any reason.
But Ashikunz wasn't focusing on Zrelekai or the Seamstress; he was more focused on the roots. "Have they passed through the main door?"
"Th—That's impossible! There are always tons of guards at the entrance, and all of them are always going around the walls, so if they had passed, it means they knew when the guards were about to pass and they knew exactly where to do it so that we wouldn't find it… and that is strange. No robot has told me about a sort of hole in the wall; they might have covered it," answered Zrelekai. As he finished speaking, Ashikunz turned around to face the scientist.
"They have covered it… and these roots… are the perfect cover for all the bushes we have around the wall," said Ashikunz with a serious tone.
"They might have covered the hole with the roots, helped by the multiple bushes… should I make the robots destroy all the bushes so we will find the hole and catch them?" asked Zrelekai, happy that he had found the right solution, but Ashikunz shook his head.
"I don't want to do that… they might never come out. We still have that prisoner, and they don't think we have found this hole… Zrelekai, don't do anything yet… my new plan will not fail this time." With that, Ashikunz started to walk away, leaving Zrelekai and the Seamstress alone with each other.
'And I will not tell anyone about this plan… so that if we actually have a traitor, they will not know about it either.' With that, Ashikunz returned to his throne to think about this perfect plan and how he had to make it work without any problems, and without the help of Zrelekai, Corvinus, and the Seamstress.