AcidicArtist

Chapter 8: Guardians Have Quit

Back at the castle, the tension in the room was thick enough to cut with a knife. SMG4 stepped closer to SMG1, his face serious as he tried to get some real answers. "One, you need to talk to us," he urged. "What is the 'Deep Web 72'? What did Mr. WPNZ see in you?"

SMG1 shrank back, her hands gripping her scarf as she looked down at the floor, sweating and looking incredibly nervous. She opened her mouth to speak, but the words wouldn't come out.

Seeing her hesitate, SMG3 completely lost his patience. The lingering terror of being choked by her scarf flared into pure, hot anger. With a loud shout, he marched forward and grabbed SMG1 by her shoulder, shaking her. "TELL US THE TRUTH!" SMG3 yelled, his voice echoing off the castle walls. "Why is everyone terrified of you?! What are you hiding from us?!"

Before he could yell any further, SMG2 jumped straight into the fray. With a fierce protective glare, she threw her weight forward and shoved SMG3 backward, forcing him to let go and stumble away.

"Get away from her!" SMG2 yelled, stepping right in front of her partner to defend her. "Can't you see she's hurting?! Stop attacking her!"

SMG3 brushed himself off, his red eyes burning with a mix of fury and deep hurt. He didn't try to push back, but he stared directly at SMG1 over SMG2's shoulder, his voice dripping with bitter resentment. "I'm disappointed in you, One. We're supposed to be a team. But you're just a danger to all of us."

The harsh words cut SMG1 deep. Without saying a single word, tears welling up in her eyes, she turned around and walked away, pushing past the doors to head outside into the cold air.

SMG4 and SMG2 let out a synchronized gasp, watching her leave in absolute shock before turning their eyes back to SMG3, who was still standing there, looking furious and breathing heavily. Deep inside the dark, quiet forest, SMG1 walked completely alone. The cold wind brushed against her face as she tried to wipe away her tears, the painful words of SMG3 still ringing loudly in her ears. She felt completely isolated, unwanted, and terrified of what she was becoming.

Suddenly, a strange fluttering sound broke the silence.

SMG1 gasped in shock as a swarm of creepy, glitching blue eyeball bats descended from the canopy, their mechanical wings clicking in unison. They circled around her, their single giant pupils locked onto her face.

In distorted, overlapping digital voices, the bats began to whisper: "Master of queen... uhh, I mean... king of the host Whisper..."

"Get away from me!" SMG1 shouted, swatting at the digital pests.

But the shadows behind the trees began to warp and stretch. Stepping out from the darkness was No. 15 Rebirth. Her dark tattered cloak drifted in the wind, and her massive blue horns caught the dim light of the forest.

SMG1’s sorrow instantly turned into hot defensive anger. "You!" she yelled, her voice shaking as she glared at the powerful entity. "What do you want from me?! Leave me alone!"

No. 15 Rebirth held up a hand, her glowing blue chest sigil pulsing softly. She spoke with a calm, heavy tone, trying to make SMG1 understand. "We are not here to fight you, Host. You need to understand your true place. The connection between us cannot be broken."

"I don't care!" SMG1 screamed back, refusing to listen to a single word. "I don't care about the Deep Web, and I don't care about any of you!"

But before she could run, the air turned freezing cold. Floating down from the branches above, a impossibly tall, slender figure in a sharp blue suit landed right in front of her. It was No. 72 Balloon.

His creepy, unblinking smile painted on his floating blue balloon head leaned down, coming completely face-to-face with the trembling guardian.

"You can run from your friends, little guardian," No. 72 Balloon whispered, his voice echoing like a hollow breeze. "But you can never run from the 72. You belong to the dark."

"STEP AWAY!" SMG1 shouted, her voice cracking with fear as she tried to push herself back from the towering, slender figure.

But No. 72 Balloon didn't flinch. His string-like neck bent slightly, tilting his floating blue balloon head as that creepy, painted-on smile stared down at her. He didn't step back. Instead, he raised a gloved hand, gesturing to the dark trees around them.

"Oh, why so tense, Whisper?" No. 72 Balloon murmured, his voice sounding like air slowly leaking from a valve. "You shouldn't shout. You'll only exhaust yourself. We aren't here to tear you apart... we are here because we worry about you. Your little colorful friends back at the castle... they don't understand what you are. They fear you. They scream at you. But we... we know your true potential."

SMG1 gripped her head, shaking it violently as she struggled to block out his hollow words. The terrifying realization that the Deep Web entities saw her as one of their own was starting to sink in, and she had never felt more alone.

No. 72 Balloon leaned down closer, a glowing, pure white light suddenly intensifying at the end of his balloon string. He raised his hand,

handing the blinding white light over to SMG1. It was a void gift—a powerful token meant to drag her deep into the digital abyss.

"A gift for you, Whisper," he murmured. "Let us take a trip."

As soon as SMG1's fingers brushed the cold, crackling energy, the forest vanished. The world glitched violently, distorting space and time until SMG1 gasped, suddenly waking up. She looked around in pure confusion, finding herself standing alongside No. 15 Rebirth and No. 72 Balloon in a distorted, haunting travel void.

But they weren't just anywhere. They were peering directly through a temporal rift, watching the tragic events of MAR10 Day unfold right in front of them.

"Something is wrong with this timeline..." No. 15 Rebirth muttered, her voice low as she stared into the rift.

Through the tear in reality, SMG1 saw SMG4. He was completely unkempt, sporting messy black hair, dark stubble, and terrifyingly bloodshot eyes,.

"Shut up! Can't you all shut up?!" SMG4 screamed, his voice tearing at his throat as he gestured wildly at the wreckage of the castle. "Look at what you did!"

SMG1 watched in utter shock, her hand covering her mouth as SMG4 began to laugh—a hollow, terrifying, breathless sound that made the hairs on the back of everyone's necks stand up. He stumbled over his own feet, retreating into the darkness of the ruined castle.

"None of you understand the work I do..." SMG4 snarled, giving them one last dark glare from the shadows before shouting, "Leave me the f**k alone!"

With a deafening CRASH, the massive castle doors slammed shut, the heavy iron locks sliding into place and sealing him inside his self-made tomb of obsession.

Seeing this nightmare play out, SMG1’s knees buckled. She sank to the cold ground of the void, tears streaming down her face. A bittersweet, hysterical laugh bubbled in her throat before dissolving into heavy, sobbing cries.

Beside her, No. 15 Rebirth looked down at the weeping guardian. "Now you see," Rebirth whispered coldly. "This is the destruction your 'friends' create without the 72." Smg1 said "I'm sorry.. im sorry.."

Still trapped within the dark, swirling void of the temporal rift, SMG1 wept on her knees, completely overwhelmed by the vision of SMG4's chaotic breakdown. Seeing her in so much pain, No. 15 Rebirth slowly knelt down beside her. She didn't use force; instead, she gently wrapped her arms around the trembling guardian.

Feeling the warm, stabilizing power of the host, SMG1 slowly hugged No. 15 Rebirth back. As they held each other, the chaotic digital noise in SMG1's head finally went quiet. She opened her eyes, the tears stopping as a strange sense of clarity washed over her. She finally understood. The pain, the glitches, her connection to the 72—it wasn't a curse to be feared. It was a reality she had to accept.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, the sun was beginning to set over the dark canopy of the forest. At exactly 5:23 PM, SMG4 and SMG2 were desperately pushing through the thick bushes, calling out her name.

"One! Where are you?!" SMG2 cried, her voice laced with worry.

Suddenly, SMG4 stopped. "Look! Over there!"

Lying completely still on the damp green grass was SMG1. Her eyes were closed, her body completely limp as if she were in a deep, trance-like sleep. Panicking, SMG4 rushed over and knelt beside her, gently shaking her shoulders. "One! Wake up! Please, wake up!"

With a sharp gasp, SMG1's eyes flew open. But there was no relief in her expression. Instead, she looked incredibly grumpy. Without saying a word, she harshly slapped SMG4's hands away, pushed herself up off the ground, and began to walk away from them.

"Wait, One!" SMG4 called out, running after her. "What's wrong with you?! We've been looking everywhere for you! We were worried sick!"

SMG1 whipped around, her face twisted in a wild, erratic grimace. "Worried?!" she shouted, her voice sounding completely unhinged as she began to pace and gesture wildly like a madwoman. "You don't care about me! None of you do! You just want your perfect little puppet to fix all your digital messes!"

SMG4 and SMG2 stood completely frozen in absolute shock, staring at her sudden, crazy behavior.

"One... please, just listen to us—" SMG4 started, holding his hands up defensively.

"No, YOU listen to me, Mr. Perfect Content Creator!" SMG1 snapped, completely roasting him without hesitation. "You're so obsessed with your own ego and your stupid videos that you didn't even notice when your own friends were rotting from the inside out! You run away from your problems and expect everyone else to clean up after your disasters! You're nothing but a selfish, blind coward!"

SMG4 felt the words hit him like a physical blow, his jaw dropping in stunned silence.

SMG1 stood there, panting heavily from the outburst, her shoulders rising and falling. She let out a long, bitter sigh, turning her back on them once again as the cold forest air settled between them.

SMG1 stood in the middle of the clearing, her chest heaving with deep, ragged breaths as her anger hit its absolute boiling point. With a sudden, furious motion, she grabbed the brim of her hat and pulled it straight off her head, tossing it directly onto the grass.

She let out a harsh, exhausted sigh, but she wasn't done. The sheer stress of the glitching corruption, the horrifying secrets of the "Deep Web 72," and the constant weight on her shoulders made her completely snap. She began to pace wildly, yelling and shouting, letting out a barrage of erratic roasts aimed at SMG4 and the others.

"I am sick and tired of pretending everything is fine! You all treat me like I'm a ticking time bomb, but you're the ones who brought this upon yourselves!" she screamed, her arms waving frantically.

Finally, the adrenaline faded. SMG1 stopped, her shoulders slumping. She let out a long, heavy panting sigh, completely exhausted by her own outburst.

SMG1 looked toward them, her face devoid of her usual warmth, her transformation into the host almost complete.

Without looking back even once, SMG1 walked away, her figure growing smaller and smaller as she disappeared far into the dim, shadowy depths of the forest. With her hat cast aside and her eyes glowing with the cold blue light of Whisper, she had officially quit. She was no longer a guardian.

SMG2 collapsed onto her knees, crying uncontrollably as she watched her closest friend walk straight into the dark. The tears streamed down her yellow cheeks, her shoulders shaking violently.

Beside her, SMG4 stood completely frozen in absolute shock. He couldn't move, his mind racing as he stared at the empty space where SMG1 had just been. It felt like a horrible nightmare.

Trembling, SMG2 reached out onto the grass and grabbed SMG1's abandoned burgundy hat. She pulled it close, hugging the fabric tightly against her chest as if she could still hold onto her partner.

SMG4 looked down at SMG2, a deep, heavy wave of disappointment washing over him. He felt disappointed in SMG3 for pushing her too far, disappointed in himself for not noticing her pain sooner, and completely heartbroken by what they had just witnessed. They had lost her.

Deep in the darkest, most shadow-filled corner of the forest, SMG1 walked with a heavy, angry stride. The warm colors of the sunset were completely gone now, leaving only cold, glitched darkness. Waiting for her in the gloom was the entire collective—No. 15 Rebirth, No. 72 Balloon, and the rest of the sinister entities of the Deep Web 72, all gathered together as a unified group.

No. 15 Rebirth stepped forward, her massive horns silhouetted against the dark blue haze. She held out a hand, her voice echoing with a chilling warmth. "Your old life is gone, Whisper. They don't want you. They don't understand you. Come... join us. Let us make you whole again."

SMG1 stopped. She looked back at the path she had just walked, then turned her eyes to the waiting crowd of entities. A slow, dark smirk spread across her face. The guardian they once knew was gone; she had badly, completely fallen into the corruption.

"They never deserved me anyway," SMG1 muttered, her voice dropping into a distorted, chilling register.

Without a single shred of hesitation, she reached out and firmly shook No. 15 Rebirth's hand. As their fingers locked, a sudden, blinding surge of blue digital code surged up SMG1's arm, cementing her place in the Deep Web 72.

Looking up with a sharp, wicked smirk, SMG1 whispered, "Let's show them what a real nightmare looks like."

Seeing their final host fully corrupted and joined to their ranks, No. 15 Rebirth’s eyes glowed with an intense blue light. A terrifying, victorious smile spread across her face. She finally looked incredibly happy—their missing piece was finally home, and the real chaos was about to begin.