Chapter Text
The air shimmered and wavered all around the park, making it seem constantly cloaked in a mirage. A small police drone hovered near, and it's tiny wings drifted towards a hazy leaf as the techs all watched with bated breath. The culmination of hours of literally blood, sweat, and tears had all led up to this moment. It hovered closer and closer to the park grounds.
At one inch away from park grounds, the entire thing promptly fried in a burst of flames. It collapsed onto the ground, now nothing but a smoking pile of melted plastic and singed feathers. Inside the police van, the techs groaned and began an overhaul of all the adjustments planned for the next spare drone – again. Some hapless intern was sent to bring back the corpse to the van, and after a thorough examination, the specialists went back to work. A few men and women sighed and began doing calculations for the new ratios of blood and oil that needed to be pumped through the wiring and circuits, while others snapped at each other as they wrote new code and prepped scalpels for more reconstructive surgery on the wings and body. They were so close. This time, the drone had almost gone inside the barrier, only to be repelled at the last second for not being organic enough. The barrier seemed to be literally “on the fence” about whether or not their drone was truly a living being. Before, they had been hoping that the drone could carry a small weapon of some sort, but now that hope was completely gone. Even a plastic eating utensil could make the barrier reject the next drone if it threw off the carbon balance of the drone. To make matters worse, some of the techs were wondering if the camera quality could be lowered. They had already stripped off the aura sensor and even the most basic sonar device. No matter what, a camera was absolutely essential. They needed eyes inside Central Park, and by god they were going to do it.
“Leonardo.” Klaus signaled.
“Y-yes!” a young man stuttered. He looked pathetically small and grubby compared to the massive, well-dressed Klaus, and he forced himself to swallow the lump in his throat. He put on his goggles, making sure the orange-colored lenses were properly centered over his closed eyes. Leo's breathing was shallow and erratic, and for a moment, Klaus genuinely wondered if he would have to prepare to catch the petite man from a sudden loss of consciousness.
However, once Leo opened his eyes, Klaus found himself unable to focus on much else. His eyes were hypnotically focused on the glowing blue orbs that had replaced Leonardo's original eyeballs almost a year ago. They practically screamed for attention, forcibly dragging in the sight of all who saw them. Whether it be in fear or in awe, people would always find themselves staring into the All-Seeing Eyes of God. It was such a shame that the dull, orange lenses clashed so horribly with the electric blue. Rings of runes written in some long dead tongue floated over Leo's eyes as he began prying into the secrets of the barrier like some clumsy seer. Without any warning, a wince cracked his expressions and he slumped down, overwhelmed by all that he could see. Information was suddenly being crammed into his human brain, and he struggled to interpret it all.
“What is this?” he muttered. Pieces shifted to and fro within his omniscience. Telling him nothing yet everything. Mixing the body parts of gods with humans never seemed like a good idea, and he felt all too aware of the insanity of such an act in moments like these. He looked a bit more at the massive park, then sucked in a breath of the cold fall air. Without a moment's hesitation he grabbed at his earpiece and frantically pressed the button on it.
“Guys! Guys, stop the mission! Stop it!”
Klaus watched Leo issue the impromptu order with shock.
“Leonardo, is something wrong-?!”
“No, no!” He exclaimed, inadvertently cutting off his boss. He stared up looking lost, almost ashamed, before his chin dropped down to his chest.
“There's no issue,” he mumbled, looking down.
“It's me.”
Eventually, the rest of the current group were amassed at where Klaus and Leo were. Chain looked more curious, rather than angry, and Steven seemed to feel the same way. Zed was patiently waiting for an explanation. Zapp grumbled and bitched, but at least no one was actively yelling at Leo. Including Klaus, there were five of them total here. He sighed inwardly, glad that no one was too angry.
“Yo, pubehead! Why'd you just fuck everything up like that?”
Zapp's words, while crass, did ask the gist of what everyone was thinking. Leo's shoulders were tense, and he tried to offhandedly scratch his head.
“The park's too big. It's hard sorting through everything. If it was just a simple case of trapping, then I could definitely lead you guys to the exit, or some weak spot to cut through, but parts of it are constantly shifting around and the exit is always somewhere new. It's like constantly trying to draw and solve a maze in my head. Finding the exit for five different people in different areas every single second is just too much for my brain to handle. There were warning bells going off just looking at the thing.”
Leo stood there, awkwardly shuffling his feet. It sounded like a lousy excuse, but even he knew he was worth more alive than dead. Still, it was so frustrating, being such a burden.
“Alright. So, what do we do now?” Steven asked. Leo looked up in surprise.
“It'd suck if we rescued everyone and came outside to see Leo's brains splattered out on the sidewalk,” Chain added, tapping her heels on the asphalt.
“That sounds disgusting,” Zed said.
“Riiight?”
“C'mon, I just wanna get this all over with,” Zapp complained.
Klaus gave an authoritative nod, while Steven waited.
“Leo, tell us anything else you know. We need to know more about the inside.”
The man went pale, and tugged at his turtleneck nervously.
“Su-sure,” he mumbled through the fabric. He pressed his lips together, then hesitantly opened his mouth –
Her stomach ached and rumbled. She tied her scarf around her waist even tighter, trying to smother the hunger and noise. It had been almost two weeks since she had been trapped here, and scavenging the remains of vending machines with shattered glass could only do so much. She'd always hated Hellsalem's tap water, and living off of it every single day without any boiling or flavoring was tortuous. The fact that the bathrooms and water fountains were now popular hunting spots only made the whole thing worse. It seemed that Alterworld or not, they were all bound by a crippling weakness: a need for water. Right now it was individuals that only sparingly needed water to survive were doing the best.
Groaning softly, she sniffed the air again. There was that smell again. The smell of fat and freshly cooked meat. The savory smell constricted all reason in her mind. It was a luxury she had taken for granted, frying up oil and meat and all sorts of seasonings almost everyday in a pan in the comfort of her home. What she wouldn't give for the chance to be safe in her apartment again, dressed in warm clothes eating a home-cooked meal that was hot off the stove! Her unsteady feet brought her closer and closer to a scent that seemed so nostalgic now. The smell was definitely getting stronger, and she searched wildly for any smoke trails wafting above trees. She screamed and stomped her feet when she couldn't find any, but in the end she swore angrily and kept sniffing the air. She pushed on through the woods, and eventually in the distance she could see a squabble of people, all circled around something giving off a delicious smell.
“Please, please, give me some! Do whatever you want; just give me something to eat!” she cried, sprinting towards her saviors. At the last moment, one of the figures turned around and tossed something at her.
A spear stabbed her straight through the neck, and she dropped to her knees, clawing at the shaft of wood. Gurgling noises escaped her mouth as she thrashed about, but in the end she fell, her snout twitching for the last time. One of the individuals from the fire sighed and gave a fist bump to one of his companions.
“Hey! Newbie! Go get her stuff!” he barked. A person with tiny wings on their back jumped, and fearfully nodded, before running into the distance. The man shook his head.
“Damn, for an angel they move so slow, dontcha guys agree?”
His companions nodded and made noises of agreement, biting into their meal for the day.
“Is any of the thigh meat left?”
“Go for it,” his friend said, gesturing to a leg that had been roasting for quite some time now.
“Thanks,” the man said, cutting off a slice of the tender meat. He leaned back against one of the skins that lined their campsite. It was a pain removing all the irregular hair, but everyone eventually agreed that human pelts were far more comfortable than the hard ground and grass.
“Out of all the shit I've ever heard of, that doesn't take the cake, but it's still pretty damn bad,” Zapp said. The boisterous man suddenly seemed so quiet.
“So, we've got cannibals and desperate citizens. Kid, we need more,” Steven pressed. The man looked calm, but he reflexively touched his neck, his thumb brushing against the visible tip of his tattoo. Leo nodded frantically and took a deep breath.
“Leonardo, it's alright. You're not in there,” Klaus told him reassuringly.
“Oh, thanks. Um, A lot of people are already dead, and you guys know about the park constantly shifting about, but luckily Central Park itself is still the same. The only thing changing is where things are within park grounds, not the things themselves. It's constantly dark, and there are no moon and stars. But the biggest thing is the time. Time moves faster inside the barrier. Even if there's no daytime, people just have this feeling that its been fourteen days.
“So, their biological clocks are still functioning,” Chain said, touching her chin.
“It's been seven hours since the barrier went up, so should we assume one hour out here is about two days inside the barrier?” Zed asked.
“Do you know what it is?” Klaus asked.
“I have no idea. It just needs everyone inside to die to that it can eat them all. It wants to get stronger I think.”
“Then at this point, it's too dangerous for everyone to go inside. We know almost nothing about the enemy, and it would be wise to stay within Leonardo's limits,” Klaus mused. “We need to rework our plan.”
“Can't pubehead just tell us where people are so that we can bust in as one group, grab a bunch, then ya know, rinse n' repeat?”
Everyone turned to stare at Zapp.
“That is the most intelligent thing I've ever heard a monkey say,” Chain sneered.
“You bitch! It's a damn good idea and you know it!”
“Aw, dammit,” Steven suddenly groaned after a few minutes of their bickering, “that idea's shit. Piece of trash got our hopes up for a bit.”
“What?! What the hell could possibly go wrong?!”
“It's the time difference, isn't it?” Zed said, looking at the barrier with absolute seriousness. He clenched his fists and turned to Steven.
“It's too dangerous. We aren't bringing Leo inside.”
“Are you insane? Of course we aren't!”
“I understand keeping the monkey out of the loop, but I'm honestly kinda lost,” Chain admitted, dodging a punch from Zapp. “The chief and Leo don't seem to be doing so well either,” she said, gesturing to the two. Leonardo and Klaus were watching the three of them, heads cocked to one side in confusion.
“Do you mind if I explain then, Zed?”
“No, please do.”
“Sure will then. Basically, the time difference is going to make this whole thing crash and burn. Kid said the park's exit is always shifting around, right? When we're inside, we gotta keep track of where the exit is using the kid. But the kid's supposed to be outside, where time's slower. One hour out here is two days inside there. Will we even be able to understand a damn thing he's saying? Whatever would take an hour to say out here, will be stretched over forty-eight hours inside the park. Everything we hear is going to sound almost forty-eight times slower. I would take forever just to hear one thing from him, and by the time he was done, that info would be outdated.”
Everyone listened quietly to Steven. No one had tested if transmissions were going to also be affected by the time difference, but no one also wanted to needlessly risk trapping someone else inside the park.
“I got it. I'll go inside with you guys,” Leo proclaimed, trying to stand as tall as he could.
“Huh? Are you serious?” Zapp asked.
“If I'm with you guys, then the whole time thing won't matter. I'll be running on the same time as everyone else.”
“You do realize this will be the group hike from hell, right?” Chain said, her arms folded.
“Because of Zapp, right?”
The concern in her eyes somewhat softened at the joke, and she laughed.
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“Leonardo, are you sure?”
Leo took a deep breath and looked straight at Klaus.
“I'm sure.”
“You better not make more shit for us to deal with!” Zapp snapped.
“Do you want me to leave you in there?”
“Please do, for all our sakes.”
“Well, fuck you too, Zed.”
“I hate hiking,” Steven groaned. “It sucks though, the park just got cleaned up and this had to happen. The investors are going to be pretty pissed.”
“We can worry about that later. Right now, our greatest priority are the trapped citizens inside,” Klaus said. Steven sighed and nodded in agreement.
“I know.”
“So how are we gonna prep?” Zapp asked, groaning under the weight of Chain stomping on his chest.
Klaus paused.
“I suppose... a lot of flashlights. And food.”
An hour later, all of them were carrying backpacks neatly packed with snacks and survival meals, along with a flashlight, a spare, first aid supplies, and an abundance of batteries.
“This... doesn't feel like enough,” Leo nervously said, adjusting the backpack straps.
“Well, it's not like we're planning on living in there,” Steven countered.
“That's true.” Leo bit his lip, then looked at the park again, eyes wide open. The barrier was fluctuating more and more. His eyes narrowed, as he tried to pinpoint exactly what was going on.
“Something's wrong with the barrier,” he said, his voice wavering.
“What do you mean?” Zed asked.
“It's... I don't know what it's doing. It's becoming more... real?”
“That makes no sense.”
“Shut up, Zapp, I'm serious. There's like layers of the thing, and the outside is becoming more, er, it's existing more or something?”
“Like my ability to dampen my existence, but opposite?” Chain asked.
“That's how you do it? Uh, I guess.”
Steven crossed his arms and looked at the shimmering barrier.
“So, what is this? A paradox? The barrier barely exists, but it's existence is apparent due to how it repels non-organic beings?”
“Ah. I think I got it,” Zed said, slapping a fist onto his palm. “Leo, can you look inside again? Are there even more people dead? Or have more people wandered in?”
“Sure.”
Leo focused his vision inside, and eventually pulled himself back into reality. His skin had gone pale, and he nodded somberly.
“Yeah. There's more dead, since two days have gone by inside. Also, there's more animals getting inside. Rats and racoons going through sewers, birds flying in; that sort of thing.”
“Could it be that the more it eats, the more it's pulled into existence?”
Zed's comments made Steven perk up.
“C'mon, what is this? A messed up, inside out version of Schrodinger’s Cat? Like, the barrier exists because it's done processing the food that is inside it, but according to the way time flows outside here, the food hasn't yet been properly digested and therefore the barrier also doesn't exist?”
“Then at the very least there's a clear solution to this. As long as we can remove all the living things inside it, then the barrier should vanish,” Klaus said.
“Chief, remember what the pubehead said? There still shit getting inside. What do ya want us to do? Shut down HL's sewer system? Put a big-ass net over the whole thing to stop birds? And do fucking plants count? 'Cause if they do we are royally fucked.”
“I wonder if there's a weak spot,” Leo said. He looked all over the thing, but all he saw was a plane of existence slowly beginning to form like a thin film over the barrier.
Wait, that wasn't a thin film. The outside was beginning to come fully into existence. The outside was solidifying.
“Shit!” he shrieked, sprinting for the barrier. He stumbled in, only to scream as Klaus dived through the remaining hole, smacking him into the ground. He unceremoniously shoved Klaus off of his torso and twisted up to see Chain and the others running for them both. Steven almost went in, and Leo gasped, as it looked like Steven was about to be sliced in half by the closing barrier. At the last moment, Chain screeched to a halt and pulled away Steven. Chain must've sensed something and saved Steven's life, or at least some of his limbs. If her abilities were similar to some of the barrier's properties, then now that she was aware of the similarities, she could possibly perceive something.
Leo sighed in relief, and realized that they both were shrouded in darkness. There was no light. He could see just fine, but what about Klaus? He yelped as the man rolled off him, feeling like he was being crushed.
“Leonardo?! I apologize; are you alright?”
“Ye-yea,” he whimpered. Klaus offered him a hand, and he gratefully grasped it, as the man yanked him up in a fell swoop.
“Leonardo, I take it you don't need the flashlight?”
“No, I'm fine.”
“That's good. What happened?”
“More things probably died while we were prepping. The outside layer now fully exists.”
“Everything inside is dead?”
“No, I don't think so,” he said, looking up through the trees at the barrier, “It's becoming real in pieces. Oh wow. It looks different from when I was looking in from outside.”
He looked back at Klaus again, to see the man's eyes widen.
“Then, now that we are technically inside it's body, is there perhaps a brain or heart to destroy? Also, can we still get out?”
“G-gimme a minute.”
He scanned all around the park, and suddenly dropped to his knees, gasping. Again, another extreme influx of information.
“Leonardo?!”
Leo waved away Klaus, and shook his head.
“Nothing's wrong, I'm good! The barrier's got a shell now, so that means the outer part has fixed exits and entrances now. But, the bad part is that the insides are still shifting around. Now the only way to get in or get out is to wait for everything inside to line up, kinda like a puzzle. And because the parts of the park are shifting around randomly, that means that the chances of that happening are... slim. As for a heart... I have no idea what anything is.”
Leo went silent, and when Klaus said nothing, the full horror of the situation seemed to descend over Leo. They were trapped inside a man-eating abomination surrounded by people in full-on survival mode.
And it was all his fault.
What was he thinking, running inside on his own like a dumbass?
He'd just been so worried that they were about to not get in, he stupidly ran for it, and of course Mr. Klaus ended up imprisoned with him.
“Oh, god! I'm so sorry Mr. Klaus! This is such crap! I mean, I got stuck in here, but because of me you're inside too!”
“...I admit this has been one of your less wise decisions, but I chose to follow you on my own.” Klaus said, his voice sounding just a tiny bit tired, to Leo's horror. “Still,” he continued, his voice somewhat sorrowful, “treasure yourself more, Leonardo. I'm sure no one in Libra would rest easy knowing you were inside alone, cut off from us all. We all would have gladly followed you inside if we could.”
Leo frowned.
“You really believe that? That everyone would trap themselves in here, just for me?”
“I do.”
Leo covered his face, uselessly.
“Ahh, I guess if Libra were to lose my eyes, then, humanity would be at a disadvantage, huh?”
“Remember, it wasn't just your eyes that we welcomed into Libra.”
The young man flung aside his hands, which were now clenched into fists.
“Oh just stop it with the bullshit, will you, Mr. Klaus! We both know that's not true! Everything I've ever done here, it was only because of these damn eyes, and you know it! In fact, the only reason we're gonna get out of here is probably because of these eyes! That meat that's attached to them is nothing but a burden, and I wanna see you talk your way out of that! Being thrown out of skyscrapers, tossed around like trash – then I give the names and whoops! Time to toss him out of the fucking way again, am I damn right?!”
Klaus stared at Leo in shock. His mouth opened and closed, but no words were coming out. He'd never seen Leo's mind snapping with such violence. Leo gasped and touched his hoarse throat. What was he saying? He might've felt that way, but he wasn't going to hurl it all out on Mr. Klaus. The man was one of the few people that seemed to genuinely care for his well-being. Waves rattled in his brain, and he groaned and held his head. He curled in on himself, wracked by the sudden feeling that something was very off.
“Leo, is that how you feel-”
“Sorry, Mr. Klaus. I think, I don't think that was me. Th-this barrier, I think it messes with people's minds. It tries to make people turn against each other,” he forced out. He looked around, and found a gold thread glimmering in front of him. Tentatively, he grabbed it, then pulled on it.
A terrible pain ripped through his brain, and he started screaming, but he stubbornly clenched to the thread, and continued to pull.
“Leonardo!”
Leo tried to reassure Klaus, but realized he really felt like he was trying to pull out his brains on fishing line. He tried to say something, and only vocalized more tortured screaming. He grabbed onto the thread with his other hand and tugged even harder, fighting the pain with all his strength. It was sliding out of his skull in excruciating millimeters, and all he wanted was it to get out. It finally slipped out, and he lost consciousness for a few seconds. When he gathered his bearings again, Klaus was firmly gripping his arms, supporting him.
“W-what was that? Leo, are you alright?”
The great sealer of Blood Breeds, stuttering, calling him 'Leo' instead of 'Leonardo'? Now that he thought about it, that brief irritation he heard in Klaus's voice when they first fell in could be explained by a thread as well.
“I'm fine,” he rasped, and tottered away from Klaus's arms. The man stubbornly grabbed Leo's arms again.
“Leo, what was that?”
He looked up at Klaus again, and sure enough, a gold thread extended from the center of Klaus's forehead.
“The barrier messes with people's heads, trying to make them easier to kill I guess. There's a little thread sticking out of your head like there was for me. You should pull it out.”
Klaus swallowed, hard.
“Where?”
Leo gestured to the center of his forehead. Klaus grasped at the thread, and to Leo's shock, his fingers were phasing through the thread.
“What the hell? Your hand's just floating through the thread.”
“Perhaps you should give it a try?”
Leo reached up and easily grasped the floating strand of gold.
“I have it,” he replied in confusion.
“Maybe you can only touch it because you can see it. Only you can see it, so it only exists to you.”
“Ugh, this is all so confusing, but I guess it makes sense from what we've already guessed. This thing really has a flimsy place in reality. I'm gonna pull it out then, okay? It's going to hurt.”
“...I've prepared myself.”
Leo breathed in and exhaled deeply.
“Okay then, here goes nothing.”
He wrapped the gold wire around his palms a few times, then pulled at the thread with all his strength. Klaus's entire body suddenly tensed, and his hands clenched into tight fists. His nails cut into his palms and blood dripped from his fists. Leo strained and threw his weight against the thread, and noticed with joy that it was slowly moving out. The progress spurred him on, and he pulled with all his might, until he flew back from the thread suddenly going lax. He let go and the gold thread vanished.
“Mr. Klaus, I got it out!”
The large man sighed and wiped his forehead, expecting to see blood smudged all over his hand. Instead, all there was was sweat.
“Thank you, Leonardo. I feel much better.”
Leo slowly stood up.
“That's good. It shouldn't be too hard to know where other people are, since now I know the gold threads are people.”
“We should move then. I would be surprised if our screaming hadn't attracted something unsavory.”
“...Yeah.”
“What the fuck?!” Zapp yelled, the cigar dropping from his mouth. “Why did the Chief and the pubehead just run in like that?!”
“Chain, why did you stop me?!” Steven snapped.
“I don't know how I know, but you would've been cut in half! Leo probably saw something closing and ran for it before we were all stuck outside,” she protested.
“Yeah, but now the kid's trapped inside with Klaus! We can't do anything without the kid!”
“W-wait! Miss Chain, how did you know that the barrier just closed off?” Zed asked.
The woman slowly backed off from them all, her heels clacking on the asphalt to an unsteady rhythm.
“I – I don't know?”
Her head felt heavy, and she suddenly felt pierced by accusing glares.
“I didn't do anything!” she screamed, then ran off.
“Chain?!” Steven exclaimed, trying to catch her, but his hand floated through her.
“Wh-what the hell? If she dampens her existence too much –!” He pressed a palm to his forehead, a wave of nausea suddenly hitting him.
“Ch-Chain... Can't forget her,” he muttered, sweating as her appearance in his memories seemed to ever so slightly blur.
Chain rushed back to her apartment, and rushed into the bathroom, easily dodging massive bags of trash before slamming the door shut.
“It'd be better if I just vanished. Then I wouldn't need to worry about Steven finding this disgusting apartment, and I wouldn't have to die of worry over Leo and the Chief,” she said to herself. Her body grew more and more transparent, and on a whim, she looked up into the mirror. To her shock, a gold thread was floating from her forehead. With trembling hands, she reached up to touch it. As she did, she was suddenly very aware of its presence, and what it's purpose was.
It wanted to kill her. She was a threat. The biggest threat, even more than the boy with glowing eyes. It needed her dead, now that the boy was inside it's clutches.
!!!
The boy had pulled out his thread and his companion's thread? And now she was holding the thread –
Chain screamed and yanked the thread out of her head in a single motion. It tried to wriggle away, but she increased her existence and kept her hand firmly clamped around it.
“You damn thing! You were trying to make me kill myself!”
It needed to get away, to warn the others of her new awareness of them, it needed to drive her friends into a fury –
“It's no use thinking! I can hear it all!” she snapped. Suddenly, she looked straight up. Beyond this plane of reality, she could feel someone watching. This person had no bearing on what was happening, had no control, but they were watching. Perhaps they weren't even watching, just reading this all out like a story on a screen.
“God, this is so weird,” she grumbled to herself. She shook the thread a few times, just to antagonize it.
The woman was shaking it now. If it had a digestion system, it would definitely be vomiting by now –
“I said stop it with the thinking!”
Chain never thought her ability to adjust her existence would give her an immunity to reality warping creatures like these. What was worse what that by holding onto this thing it was skewing with her own reality, making her hyper aware of way more than she wanted.
“If this is what it's like for Leo, just in his eyes instead of his head, than I have some new respect for him,” she said, rubbing her head. Suddenly, she was hit with a horrible thought. The thread said that Leo had pulled it out of his head and the Chief's, so was it possible that it had influenced Leo to run inside? Klaus obviously followed out of worry, but the normally cautious Leo would never do such a thing. Steven had also yelled at her in a panic. The man faced everything with a cool demeanor. Could there be a thread inside him as well?
The woman was beginning to realize too much. It had to escape. It had to tell the others that the woman, their greatest threat was coming –
“Goddammit, you think too much. So the others do have threads. Gotta go pull them out.”
She left her apartment just as quickly as she had entered it, and within minutes was back where the others were left scratching their heads.
“Everyone! Look up!” she commanded.
“What the –!”
“Dog-lady, I mean Chain?!”
“Chain, I wanted to apologize for yelling –!”
She grabbed all of their threads in a single moment and roughly yanked them out, leaving her friends on the pavement screaming, rolling about with their hands to their foreheads.