I turned and shook my head as Kyth snored peacefully where I left him. I went over to where I had left the Acquisition Beacon and carried it out from out bedroom and into the downstairs living room. I turned it on and it whirred to life, releasing my old body from storage. I took it and carried it down into the basement and left it with the rest of the stuff I had been tinkering with. I figured it would be useful to have later either way. After that I went up and grabbed the bag of loot that Kyth had carried with him to see about sorting it out in case there was something dangerous he had gotten from Dox or one of the other Displaced that he had been with. I was a tad shocked to find that there was a massive amount of miscellaneous guns in the bag, possibly stolen (then again Kyth was no criminal and he could generate money with the InsMan tome so I figured bought by some odd means). Next was a whole bunch of miscellaneous bottles of liquor and alcohol. Well that was gonna need to be locked in a safe or something. I did NOT want to see drunk ponies if they accidentally drank any of it. After that I found enough gummi candy to fill an empty shop a tad past capacity. Then I found something that made me completely confused.

A pig.

There was a little, foal sized, pig in the bag that blinked and stared at me when I took him out. And he looked exactly like Waddles from Gravity Falls. I noticed he had a 'Hello My Name Is' tag on him, and written in Kyth's handwriting was 'Trevor Waddlesby'. I blinked back as he snorted at me before squeeing and pulling him in for  a hug against my face.

"Daaaw! You're adorable!"

He snorted happily and I set him down after a moment. I had no idea why Kyth had brought a pig but he was adorable enough that I didn't care. I went back to the bag and found that he had grabbed a whole bunch of extra pairs of pants for himself and then some T-shirts and stuff. I smiled when I found a gray hoodie with an Invader Zim Irken symbol on the front with a note 'For Jen' tacked on. I took a moment to slip that on and then went back to the bag. Next up was a bag of gems most likely form Dox's Earth with a note 'for Sombra', and I extended an arm and placed that on the table to give him later. Then I quickly grabbed a gem from my lab to try and eat for the first time (F.A.U.S.T. had worked dragon genetics into my bio-tech upgrades).

"Good gods... These are delicious!"

Sapphires were definitely delicious I knew that much now. I understood Spike now... These were worth all of his actions in the show. After that I went back to the bag and found the final item of Kyth's loot to be... A set of photos of Dox's worlds equivalent of us... And our families and friends... Shit that hit me with feels.  I smiled at the pictures. My mom and dad with me and my older brothers, Will and Jack. Kyth had grabbed a picture of him and his uncle and cousin Calvin. Then I smiled at the next picture. It was of me and Kyth with out friend Violet, or Vive as we called her. She was like the little sister I never had. I sighed when I realized that I might never see her or my siblings or even Kyth's cousin again.

"Oh I wouldn't say that."

I whirled around after hearing Messenger right behind me. He stood at the edge of the room with a raised eyebrow. I stood and turned to face him.

"Messenger...What are you doing here?"

"Nothing much child but I found something of yours lost in the void..."

He held out a hand and dropped something into my palm. It looked like a pair of dogtags, but with an emblem of cthulhu and XJ9 on it... I shook in place when I saw it. It was a good luck charm given to me by Vive... She had made me promise to keep it with me before I got Displaced... I hadn't realized that I had lost it when I got transformed. I tilted my head back to Messenger.

"Thank you."

"You are welcome child. And don't worry..."

He flashed a sharp grin to me.

"I have a feeling you'll see some of those you've lost again, quite soon..."

I opened my mouth to speak, only to be distracted by hearing a thump upstairs. When I turned back to Messenger he was gone, leaving no trace. I calmly turned back to Kyth's loot and packed it all into the bag other than Trevor, who I hugged again and then sat down on a chair with a blanket. I smiled and walked back upstairs, placing Vive's charm around my neck. That night I ended up accessing some of the dreaming software that F.A.U.S.T. gave me...

I floated limp in a strange, ethereal void...I blinked and looked around suddenly finding myself on the ground in front of... Kyth and I's old school? I walked forward my metal 'hooves' on my legs clanking somewhat with each step. I watched a bus ride up and among all of the children stepping off one caught my attention. Her eyes were hazel, she wore a red zip-up hoodie that was exposed to show a black shirt with an MLaaTR XJ9 icon, grey jeans, and black sneakers. She had somewhat of  a negative expression as she went and I watched a football arch through the air and slam into her as she dashed off the bus. She tripped and her open bags released all of her belongings onto the ground. She looked up as one of the school's jocks walked over and smirked at her.

"Hey look it’s one of my uncle’s pet orphans! Sorry ‘bout that, I was aiming to knock the wind out of you too. My bad.”

I knew what this was... This was when Kyth and I first met Vive back in the sixth grade! I watched Vive seem to sigh and then I grinned as someone else walked up and got into the jock's face. He had a pair of mossy green eyes and almost golden blond hair. He wore a simple dark green jacket with a symbol of what seemed to be Cthulhu’s head on the front in black coloring, and I watched him start getting on the jock's case. I giggled at remembering how silly Kyth had looked back then. Before we got Displaced he still had that hoodie...

“Hey, what’s your problem ya jerk!”

“My problem is that freaking loser so get out of my face!”

“Oh goodness, look everyone LOOK! A guy who picks on new kids just cuz’ they’ve got problems! He’s so cool amiright!?”

“Hey what’s your problem you weirdo!?”

“Well guy I got multiple problems here, Number One: Yo face! Number Two: Your attitude! Number Three: YER A JACKASS!”

While they argued I watched a younger version of myself walk up to Vive and start helping her gather her belongings and stand up. She/I had a pair of poofy pigtails and dark brown hair and pale skin. She/I was wearing a cyan backpack as well and smiled as she went to Vive.

“Hey there, my name’s Jenny! Well I go by Jen but still. What’s your name?”

Violet stuttered slightly as she responded, “I- I’m Violet… I guess y-you can c-call me Vive…” She then proceeded to smile. She rubbed her left arm arm up and down shyly.

“Nice to meet you! Oh hey!”

She/I glanced at the design on Violet’s shirt.

“You’re a fan of MLAATR? I’m one too!”

She/I flipped her backpack around and showed that it had a patch of the show’s emblem stitched on.

Vive smiled brightly (God she was ADORABLE back then!). Past Me and Vive turned back to where Kyth was yelling at the jock.

“Who you callin’ a jackass you fucktard!?”

“Well I don’t see anyone else who probably has shrunken dildo disorder around so it must be you! You know, the jerk who’s inappropriately using ‘retarded’ as an insult!”

“YOU WANT A PIECE OF ME!?”

“NO, I want two but there’s not enough of you there for even ONE!”

“THAT’S IT!”

The jock lunged for Kyth only to be grabbed by an older student, one I recognized. The older student was Kyth's cousin Calvin, a student five years older than us but still a good friend to me and almost a brother to Kyth. He had blond hair similar to Kyth, with a pair of hazel eyes that almost looked golden. Calvin glared at the jock and spoke to both of them.

“Now then I think that we can all agree that this should stop now before the teacher who’s watching across the yard comes over and get everyone in trouble on the FIRST day of school! Capische?”

The jock glared and moved his shoulder out of Calvin's grip and slunk away, muttering. Calvin turned and raised an eyebrow to Kyth.

“Cousin, why did I just find you at odd with someone right before school?”

The kid crossed his arms.

“What? He was being a jackass!”

The older student grinned at him.

“Just as I taught you to handle bullies then?”

“You know it.”

Calvin smirked and he and Kyth looked over at Violet and Past Me. I kept talking to her.

“That’s my friend Joseph, but everyone calls him Kyth since he’s a fan of Cthulhu and stuff! The guy with him is his cousin Calvin.”

The two walked up. Kyth waved.

“Hey there. So, I take it you two’ve met while I was dealing with that jerk?”

Violet nodded, “I’m Violet… But you can, umm... call me Vive if you're into nicknames…”

“Cool, my name’s Josep- Uh. Kyth. According to Jen and our other friends my name is now to be ‘Kyth.”

Violet giggled a bit, “Thanks for that. I don’t know what I would have done.”

Her eyes widened, “We’re gonna be late for class!”

Both of their eyes widened and Kyth flung his hands onto either side of his head.

“SHIT! C’MON VIVE AND JEN LET’S GET GOIN!”

He grabbed both of their hands and started pulling them as they struggled to run beside him. Calvin smirked as they left.

“Good luck you three, see ya later!”

After they left he sighed.

“And thus they began sixth grade. Ah well, time for me to get to the start of junior year myself.”

He put his hands into his pockets as he walked off, in no big rush.

The dream seemed to shimmer and dissolve around me and the world flashed into a grid for a moment before the dream program kept going.  I sighed with a sad smile.

Vive had been one of Kyth and I's best friends. She was always a tad protective of us but I didn't hold it against her. The jock that Kyth had argued with, a jackass by the name of Greg had been a just pain to deal with for years after that day but for the most part we could handle him easily, the only incident where we nearly got into a bad situation being when Greg had a mental break and ended up attacking Kyth with a knife... No one was hurt but it still spooked all of us a bit. I watched the dream keep going, this time to the last time I spoke to Vive before we got Displaced...

I looked around to find myself in my old bedroom back home, and I saw myself sitting on the bed talking on the phone. I could hear the words on the other end clear as day though.

“Hey Vive are you free this saturday? Kyth and I are going to this convention in cosplay, me as XJ9 and him as Cthulhu the knight, it’s gonna be awesome! I actually heard from Kyth that his cousin’s even going out dressed as Golden Freddy and my brother Jack’s going dressed as a necromorph, so we might meet up with them to hang out. You interested?”

She sighed. “Sorry. I’d love to go, but I don’t even have a costume. I have been saving money, but it isn’t enough. I think my friends at the orphanage are going though. Cory’s gonna be The Hero of Kvatch/Sheogorath from Oblivion, and I think Faith is going as… Lumen or something… I’ve got some stuff for a Chaos Jenny costume, though I doubt I could get it ready in time.”

“Aw dang! Oh well, maybe next time?”

“Pinkie promise. And you two be careful. And don’t enjoy being without me too much.” She teased.

“Heheh no problems there. And thanks. Hey, maybe I can grab you a souvenir or something while we’re there.”

“Of course! Gotta love them free stuff!” She laughed. “You know what I like. Robot stuff, of inFAMOUS stuff.”  She sighed. Past and current me looked up when the door to my room opened. Standing there was my older brother (by five years) Jack, pointing downstairs. He whispered to me.

"Hey, mom and dad want both of us downstairs for one of those military drills with the basement safe room."

I nodded and went back to the phone.

“Sure thing! Well Jack says we gotta go, apparently my parents are getting paranoid about all of that war talk. Seriously, have you heard all the crazy rumors about us going to war? Personally I don’t buy it but still my parents are freaked out.”

She coughed, “I think they might be on to something. I mean, look at how countries react to things. I don’t think it’ll be soon though… God… let’s not talk about this, I’m having a bad time here as it is… Take that charm I made you. I know I’m being sappy, but the whole ‘I’ll be with you’ thing. Don’t laugh…”

“Heh sure thing Vive. I’ll talk to you later, kay?”

“Sure thing. Later Jen!”

I hung up and got up from my bed and I talked with Jack as we headed to where our parents were.

"So, anything from Will?"

Will my other brother, a year older than Jack but by his own choice moved out of the house. He never really got along with our parents and it made me sad to think about the fact that he seemed to genuinely think they didn't love him... As such Jack and I did out best to keep in touch and spend time with him. Jack shook his head.

"Nah, he said he had too much homework. How about your little friend?"

"Eh Vive didn't want to go since she didn't have a costume ready."

Jack nodded. "Still, just cause mom and dad want us to be safe and all that junk what's the plan again? Just to make sure you still remember."

I laughed and punched his shoulder. "Okay you and Calvin go out on your own for a bit and try to scare people, him as Golden Freddy and you as a necromorph, and me and Kyth meet up before hand and go in without you. Later when its time to get food then we meet up with the two of you and hang out."

"Right, and remember to grab souvenirs! Cons always have awesome stuff!"

Past me nodded. Then something hit me.

When we got Displaced... Calvin and Jack were in costume there as well... Could they...

Could they have gotten Displaced too?

I woke with a start and looked around. Kyth was still asleep next to me and I brought up my system's internal clock to find that it was morning. I stood up and kissed Kyth's head and pulled all the blinds shut. I figured it'd be best to give him a little while to sleep because with how much I figured he'd drunk. Hoo boy...

He was gonna have one hell of a hangover when he woke up. Next Chapter: Chapter Fifteen: Hangovers Are Terrible/ Magic Duel Interrupted Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 21 Minutes