Don't mind De, just slipping in Seven's Theme Song real quick-

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Before Seven could even ask who was there, he bit his tongue as his eyes widen. He silently cursed himself for not looking if he was being followed, now seeing one of the few people he didn't want to talk to right now.

"Mono, go away. I'm handle with official lead pyro tech-"

"I know what you're doing, Seven. Which is why I'm stopping you before you get yourself in a mess bigger than you already are," Mono stated, cutting the other off.

Seven narrowed his eyes under his bangs. "Bigger mess? What the hell did I do?" He asked with a growl. The bag blocked most, if not all, of his view of the other, but the loose tension in his shoulders told him something was wrong.

What it was, he wasn't sure.

Mono tilted his head, reminding Seven of a confused puppy, seemingly not understanding the other's words.

"What did you do? What did you not do is a better question, Seven," he seemed to chime, a tone in his voice that made Seven's blood chill.

Seven took a step closer to the creek, still holding the bottle and notes tightly in his hands. The boy in blue watched him as he began to pace around him, raising a hand up in a small shrug to his shoulders.

"Let's start a list, shall we? Firstly, your mental health is absolutely atrocious, you're a danger to all with your unstable mind and your flammables. You shouldn't be allowed to even touch anything like an explosive." Mono rose one finger as he spoke.

Two fingers were then held up. "You've hidden stuff from me and are now trying to get rid of all of the evidence by throwing it into the water right now. Kids of the rebellion are to never hide things from their Commander."

Three fingers. "You are taking a stand for your sister, who, let's face it, could care less about you. You protected her despite knowing the rules that divide us from them. There are reasons for the wall between us, no matter what blood or feelings you share," Mono said, the other watching with a hostile growl as he neared him.

"But, of course, let's not forget the biggest offense. You willingly confessed to me, another boy, knowing full and well what the rules say about those types of feelings. It's forbidden and gross, and should never be thought of. That's four things, four rules you've broken with knowing consent."

Seven felt his blood freeze as his heart seemed to hammer in his chest. W-wait, he didn't-

"Mono, we threw that behind us. And of course I try to stand up for Rain, we're siblings for star's sake!"

"Oh! That's another thing we can check off! The love for an Oracle. Not looking so hot, Seven," Mono said with a sly tone.

Seven shook his head. "What are you saying? Yeah, I love Rain, she's my own flesh and blood, I'm supposed to love her. What is wrong with you all of a sudden?" He took another step back, finding himself getting the bottom of his pants dirty from mud.

"The rules never say there was an excuse for siblings, so, you are just as guilty as someone who does. Of course, if people want to argue about it with me, I can just bend the story a little bit, making Rain look like a helpless victim to her sick twisted brother. Plus, they'll all believe me, I'm the Commander, not only that, I don't have a few screws lose like you. They'll listen to me, tie you and Rain up, and throw you out for the adults come sunrise."

Mono turned back to him, the other peering into dark holes where his eyes would be in the bag.

"But, I'm not. I care for Rain too much to get rid of her. You on the other hand, I once thought of you as brother to me, but after what happened at the hospital, well..."

Seven knew the other was probably wearing some sadistic smile.

"Sometimes sacrifices must be made to broaden the horizon of our future. I was actually hoping to forgive you for your little stunt. When we all go Home, I was hoping you would still be by my side. Doesn't seem that way though."

Seven was stunned at the other's words. His mind buzzed with confusion, what was Mono going on about? He wanted to lash out, before he felt himself being bashed to the ground, knocking his papers loose from his grasp, sheets of old notes flying up, some falling into the small river next to them.

Mono sat squarely on him, snatching the Molotov from his hands, before grasping his other hand around Seven's smaller wrists, holding him in place.

The pyro tech wiggled and thrashed under him, trying to free his arms, but flinched and silently cursed under his breath as Mono's grip strengthened.

"You've started becoming a thorn in my side in the past few days. I've been patient with you and getting your Molotovs done, and now you have the audacity to throw them away like my plans were all for nothing," Mono hissed, a hand reached down, Seven hearing a soft faint humming noise as the other's fingertips got closer.

Mono grabbed his jaw, and all at once, Seven let out a scream. His fingers felt like sharp burning needles digging into his skin, and as Seven tried to get him to let go, it only seemed to get worse, to the point it felt like his head was being split in half.

Seven forced one of his hands from the other's, blindly reaching up, grabbing and ripping part of the paper bag that hid the other's face. Three gouge marks were slashed across the bag, almost like claw marks.

Startled by the quick assault, Mono let go, allowing Seven time to sit up, he pushed up, slamming their skulls together as Seven headbutted him.

Mono let out a cry of pain, falling off of the other, the two boys putting hands over their heads as their brains seemed to pulse with a sudden ache. Seven recovered first, and wasting no time, took the bottle by its neck, and threw it at the other.

The boy in the trenchcoat quickly ducked before it could break against his still aching head, the sound of the bottle breaking on a rock behind him telling him it wouldn't be a weapon anymore against him.

He jumped, pushing Seven onto his side, half of his face submerged into the creek water, which he tried desperately to get out of before he could possibly drown. A hand pushed him back down, a hostile growling right above him.

"I should kill you, right here, right now, for that fucking stunt you just pulled," Mono hissed above him. Seven tried to hold his breath for as long as he could, wiggling as he tried to escape from the other.

Mono's knee pinned down his arms, sitting on his hip as he slumped over, on the verge of drowning the other, who was beginning to see dark spots in the corner of his vision. Air bubbles that floated to the top became fewer the more his lungs burned for air. His arms felt weak, his mind foggy, legs feeling like jelly.

The faint tale tell noise of a TV turning on nearby barely caught his attention.

"But, your body will bruise and tell everyone what happened. I have a better plan," Seven could barely see the other pick up a smooth river stone, holding it up out of his line of vision.

"Night, night, Seven. I'll take care of Rain for you."

After that, all Seven remember was it all going black.

~~~

Seven woke up possibly hours later. His body ached with ever twitch his slowly waking muscles made as he carefully pushed himself to his hands and knees.

His mind reeled and spun as the world around him, wherever he was, slowly came to a stand still. The wooden boards underneath him were old and splintering, an overhead light lighting the dimly lit area around him.

A TV was not that far from him, watching as it flickered off. He looked behind it to see a tall wooden cabinet and what looked like a dresser drawer to the side. A suitcase laid behind him, walls of books right outside of a door that was slightly ajar.

Where was he?

Before he could call out, his head pounded with pain, making him whince, a hand going to see what what wrong with his head. His fingers retracted, the boy in blue's eyes widen as he saw crimson blood dripping from his fingertips.

'Mono,'

He looked up, drawing his legs to his chest as he tried to remember what had happened. Mono tried to kill him, he said something about Rain too, or was his mind playing games?

No, no, focus. Just focus on getting out of whatever this place is. Seven struggled to his feet, only to fall back down, a splintering headache piercing his skull. He let out a whimper, tears line his eyes from the pain.

Suddenly, the noise of the door opening made him look up, gasping as he saw long, slithering hands creep in, the head of a monster rounding the door. Despite its obvious blindness, the monster seemed to know right where he was, reaching out and grabbing the boy by his leg, pulling him forward.

The monster felt around him, before letting out a confused and question hum noise, bringing Seven closer to his folded and rough old face.

Seven held himself back from gagging as the monster held him close, smelling like sewer water and rotten meat. The old creature sniffing him. In an old, tired sounding noise, the adult spoke.

"What's your name, boy?" He asked with a small growl underlying his voice. Seven didn't speak, his throat dry after who knew how long from passing out on the floor.

After a moment, the monster asked again. "I asked you a question. What's your name?" He hissed. Seven still didn't speak.

"Hard way, huh? Whatever, you got farther than the other kids here, so, I guess I'll call you Runaway," the monster grumbled, squeezing Seven tighter.

Seven couldn't recall much of what was happening as he was carried somewhere, figuring he kept slipping in and out of consciousness due to a concussion or something. Hopefully it wasn't permanent.

He was tossed into a room with multiple children, who didn't say a word as some of them rested in beds, while others hid underneath blankets from the monster.

He had been dropped rather unceremoniously onto the floor, the monster's voice, who Seven would later learned to ben called the Janitor, raising to address the group of kids.

"Cell Block AB, meet your new roommate, Runaway. Do make him feel at home, will you?" He said in an overly sweet sicking tone, a blunt toothy grin making some of the kids make a noise as they looked away.

Before another word could be said to the Janitor or anyone else, the door closed, plunging the room into darkness. Seven looked over, glaring at the door.

He looked back to the kids, seeing some shy away or go back to whatever they were doing, while some watched him with wary eyes. Slowly, a young girl approached him, blond hair braided with baby blue eyes dimmly sparkling, a white dress going down to her knees.

"Hello there," she whispered softly. Seven, throat still too dry to speak, rose a hand, barely waving to her.

"You can call me Girly, or whatever you want. Not like me and you are gonna be living long enough to really remember it anyways. I would say welcome, but that would be too cheerful of a greetings for a place like this."

Seven rose a brow. What ever was this?

Girly noticed his questioning look, before nodding her head absent-mindedly. "You might not know where you are, right, understandable. This is The Maw."

Seven's eyes widen, his blood chilling. The Maw? Wasn't that the place where kids...

Girly cut him off, pointing to his wounded head. "You're hurt. C'mon, let's let Penny look at you, she's good with sewing and her knowledge of medicine," she murmured, taking the other's hand. Without a second through, Seven snatched his hand from her, glaring at her as a silent 'I don't need you leading me'.

He followed her to the other side of the room, coming to a girl with dull red frizzy hair, copper colored freckles dressing her arms, shoulders, and cheeks. After a small explanation and some time stitching his once bleeding wound, Seven found himself on a cot, looking over the others, watching with narrowed eyes.

He rubbed his arms in a form of comfort, before his hand brushed against a small lump in his jacket. Confused, he looked, finding small bags of gunpowder he had forgotten to get put up at the hide out.

He didn't say anything, but kept them where they were before anyone could being to talk about it.

He looked at his newly shackled ankle, dark blue eyes glaring at it. He didn't notice it until now.

But, it didn't matter. He had to get out of here. Mono would pay, and while he's at it, might as well make the other kids who would pushed him and disregard him suffer too. No matter what, he would make them suffer, whether this life or the next if he died on this boat.

Seven could feel his body begin to beg for sleep, and after a moment, did he finally give in, falling over and slipping into sleep, thought not as peaceful he had at least hoped for.

***

For a second time, Seven opened his eyes, only this time finding him in a large blacked out void. Nothing looked or seemed like reality, and as he took a few steps, it felt unease to him, like gravity didn't work all that well here.

"Oh, wow, you're a cutie!"

Seven froze as the sudden voice cut through the oddly thick air. He turned, barely seeing a figure in the darkness.

On his face he wore a shiny, Cheshire cat grinning mask, eerie glowing white eyes pinpricks in the eye holes of the mask. Besides that, he wore a fully black attire, jacket, pants, even his skin looked as dark as wet ash.

As the figure came closer, Seven noticed something about him. He looked just like him, like a shadow of himself. Seven could barely utter a word, "W-what?"

The shadow let out a small laugh, "Easy there. Name's Arcane, or at least, that's what you can call me," he shut himself up, before disappearing in a plume of smoke.

"Awww, look at your tiny hands!"

Seven jumped as he felt the shadow grab his right hand, comparing it to his, which were cold and seemed to absorb all the warmth from him.

"Let go of me!" Seven snapped, snatching his hand from the other. The shadow, Arcane or what the hell his name was, let out a whine.

"But, Cutttie! You're so adorable, look at those little freckles," Arcane reached up, flipping the other's bangs from his face, "my, my, your eyes are pretty too."

Seven went to snap at the other, before seeing him put his mask up, long, white, pointy fangs visible at the other smiled.

"I could almost eat you up here and now; but," he fixed his mask, though his teeth could still be seen from the hole for his mouth. "I won't, you are my portal to the mortal world after all."

The two stopped as the world began to quake around them, Seven stumbling to keep his footing. Arcane let out a giggle.

"Looks like you're waking up. Welp, see you later, Cutie!"



Before Seven could even scream as the ground broke out from under him, he sat up in his cot, hair plastered from a thin film of sweat.

What the hell just happened?

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Finished - Mar 3rd, 2021

2,505 words this chapter, not bad, but could be better. Also, yeah, there you guys go, Mono is confirmed bag guy, have at me Mono stans.

-Bad* sorry-

Act 2 is now done, and we're in the home stretch now whoooo.

Oh yeah, this is also where that one line from TRITR came from. Props to everyone who remembered it.

Hope you all enjoyed!

Take care!

* Edited Mar. 23rd, 2021 *

Huh, almost 2,700 words. Not as long I as remember it being, but okay.

Also, because De remembered people getting confused about this, here's what happened: Mono knocked Seven out with a rock and dragged him to the TV that flickered on and threw him in, trying to get rid of the evidence.

Anyways, hope you all enjoyed!

Take care!

* Edited May 27th, 2021 *