Chapter Text
The blinding sunlight grazed against the tall and intimidating trees in the region of Goiky, while the sounds of chatter and laughter echoed against the meadows. Standing next to the towering hotel was Two, the host of TPOT, along with their contestants. Everyone scrambled around looking for their past team members, cheerfully socialising with one another as Two stood satisfied, proud of how far their contestants had come. After the end of TPOT, Four, the host of BFB, and Two had quite the argument before coming to an agreement about combining both of their shows for the next season, while X was merely caught up in their shenanigans. A lot of hesitation sparked up from the contestants at first, until they realised that they had truly missed each other, and seized this opportunity to bond with the people whom they had parted ways with. The TPOT contestants anticipated the return of the BFB contestants, as they gathered along with their friends, allies and old teammates.
“Two, how much longer do we have to wait!” Coiny whined impatiently.
“Yeah Two! I miss my friends from BFB, can’t Four just hurry up already!” Pin exclaimed. She was constantly reminding herself of the troubles she had caused to most of the BFB contestants, especially Leafy. She felt a wave of regret come across her, but before she started spiraling into her thoughts she felt a reassuring hand. Pin smiled at the gesture and turned to the familiar face.
“Guys just wait up! Two must be pressured already, having to manage all those contestants must be tough work!” Gaty reminded everyone, sympathising with Two.
“I’m really alright Gaty, you don’t need to check up on me that often! I’m fine,” Two reassured her, wiping away their sweat. They truly were a bit nervous, it had been so long after all, especially after their several attempts at reconciling with Four.
“I predict that it would take approximately 71.2763 minutes for Four to arrive with their contestants to our residence at the hotel” Golfball calculated as her attention shifted to Donut and Pillow arguing over something. She rolled her eyes and sighed, as she marched towards the increasing noise.
“I hope Four isn’t a menace anymore, I really cannot deal with that this season!” Eraser expressed his annoyance, as he turned to Pen, hoping his best friend would agree with him.
“Well Eraser! He’s different now, we can’t expect him to still remain the same after all that has happened, besides, people do change!” Pen remarked, after glancing at Pencil who sat across the wall next to the hotel. Pen thought for a second, and wondered. He really hoped that what he said was true.
“I can’t W88888 to see Taco again! Maybe even Dora!” Saw shrieked, looking at Gaty who flinched from her scream but still put on a smile. She was just happy she missed out on most of the commotion.
“Donut! Barfbag! Where are you guys, I’m trying to look for the rest of our team!” Needle hustled as she noticed Coiny and Pin all huddled up behind her. Coiny seemed to be comforting Pin, which made Needle roll her eyes at them; playfully of course.
“Pin it’s alright. Listen here, nobody is going to hate you, remember BFB! You are not the same person you were back in BFDIA, nobody even remembers that anymore!” Coiny assured her, and noticing her panicked behavior, he continued, “Well, I still think you were kind of cool back then…” he stammered, “Not that you aren’t right now!”
Pin chuckled lightly, taking note of his agitation and held his hand.
“Coiny, don’t worry. I won’t be afraid anymore I promise! Besides I have you, the best person I could ask for beside me to console me if anything goes wrong!” She genuinely smiled as she confirmed these words. Coiny’s cheeks turned red, as he looked down at her hand that was currently holding his.
He asked her in a worried manner, “Are you sure Pin? No more overthinking?” as he was slightly bothered about the new change himself, wondering about his relationship with Firey and all that.
“No more overthinking,” Pin’s steady voice reassured Coiny as they both smiled at each other, but were soon interrupted by an unpleasant voice.
“I HATE THIS!” Fanny’s voice rebounded as Tree hesitantly shut his ears.
“Fanny what’s got you all mad now?” Black Hole was too used to this to bother, but still put an effort to console her, “Getting to see the BFB contestants after all this while is a good thing, I thought you’d be happy about that!” He reasoned.
“NO. NO. NO. There’s a reason I left Four’s stupid show in the FIRST PLACE! I don’t want to see all those people that stayed behind with him right now! It should’ve been GOOD RIDDANCE!” She screeched, ironically louder than Four himself.
“But Fanny, there’s no reason to even dislike BFB, if it didn’t happen then we would’ve never been a team in the first place!” Marker gasped, “And the contestants weren’t all that bad, Foldy was pretty nice!” He tried looking for other excuses before being exposed to her screaming once again.
“It's just…I HATE ALL OF THEM!” She repeated as she turned away from her team, “We got the island stealer, that ANNOYING flower who literally did NOTHING for IANCE, Blocky who would play his ‘stupid pranks’ AND JUST RESORT TO KILLING EVERYONE, WHICH IS LITERALLY WHAT WE ARE TRYING TO AVOID” She lamented, but kept on going, interrupting Tree’s attempt to speak.
“Then we have Loser who everyone still supports despite having LIED to everyone, AND well…Teardrop’s pretty chill,” Fanny lowered her voice.
“Well Fanny you do have a point, the BFB contestants are pretty bad, and we can all agree that we were the only ones who carried IANCE as a team,” Lightning agreed, feeling proud of himself until he turned to see Tree face palming, while his other teammates were just plain disappointed. He made a sorry attempt at trying to reason with Fanny again, as he tried contradicting himself.
“What I meant to say was-”
“He meant that you are right in one way, but you need to realise that it has been over a year since all those things happened. You still must not resonate with them that way,” Remote rolled her eyes at him as she corrected Lightning, who frowned.
“Yeah Fanny, who knows what they’re like now. People change, look at us, we’ve all been through so much as a team…And as friends! We used to lose at every challenge, and uhm…we still kind of did?” Tree shuffled as he could tell Black Hole was judging him.
“That’s not the point! We did lose many challenges, but what we didn’t lose was our spirit! And our death prevention abilities, and most of all—creating trust,” Black Hole paused, and circled around Fanny.
“Well…you’re right! It does make sense…We have been through a lot worse than the situation right now. As cheesy as that sounded it kind of helped my anger at the moment, thanks guys,” Fanny cracked a tiny smile, knowing that even she herself had changed. She had learned to control her anger now, respect people more, and make more rational decisions. She realised how much more mature she had become, along with the rest of their team. Maybe this new change wouldn’t be so bad after all.
“All I did was sit in some weird inverted room so, sorry I couldn’t relate guys,” Pie mentioned, as she looked at Remote disappointedly. Lightning face palmed at her. Pin noticed the commotion die down and gave in to a pleasant smile, as she ran towards Death PACT.
“Guys! Wait up! I’m coming to join you right now!” She yelled joyfully before waving goodbye towards Coiny, who was grateful for the response. He glanced back a second time before running towards Needle, as her disappointment with her team was more clearly visible now.
“Oh hey Pin! It’s GR8888 to see you!” Saw yelped when she saw her, and was clearly looking for a favour. One could tell by the expression in her eyes.
“Hey Saw, what do you need now,” Pin smirked as she could tell she was in need of a favour. “You don’t need to own up to me like that, I’d be happy to help you!” She said in quite a rush, yet managed to make her words sound sweet and genuine.
“Oh uhm. I know this isn’t really your thing but you know how Gaty and Two are like best friends right?” She mentioned, now in a slightly decreased pitch.
“Uh yeah?” Pin nodded, but wondered what her problem could possibly be.
“Well I know Two might be all stressed out and stuff, but can you just ask Gaty to just look out for me as well?” She expressed, in her regular voice now, “It’s just that I’m kind of nervous to see the BFB contestants…It’s been a long time after all you know,” She pointed out. Pin started feeling compassionate, as she related to her emotions. She was glad to see that she wasn’t the only one, and listened patiently.
“They don’t know all that we’ve been through in TPOT, I’d say they were lucky to have finished their contest that peacefully,” This remark from her made Pin chuckle in agreement.
“Me and Gaty have been through a lot Pin. Especially after the fact that she disappeared after the time travel thing you guys had to take care of, and I didn’t even know…” She sighed but continued, “I know you’ve been through so much as well, but please…Just tell her to look out for me every once in a while okay? Cause I know you guys are close and all that and-” She stuttered her way through the last sentence, and slowed down when Pin put her hand on her shoulder.
“Saw…It’s okay, really! Gosh, Saw you shouldn’t even have to ask!” Pin exclaimed, now just ecstatic that she can finally relate to someone besides Coiny.
“I’ll let her know okay, I know you two are very close!” Saw blushed a light pink as Pin winked at her, taking her hand off of her shoulder.
“I need to go now, but just know that you are heard, and that I’m here for you.”
These words left Saw happy and satisfied, as she now went to look for Gaty. “Man now I can't wait to tell Taco all that happened!” She inhaled, “It’s going to be GR8888!”
A few minutes passed, everyone settled down as the noise of their chatters lowered. Two was beginning to look antsy, they looked around and saw most of their contestants smiling, their hearts content. Two smiled now, reminding themselves that everything was going to be normal, hosting with Four and X would be fun! Double the fun. It would be like the olden days back at the Equation Planet. Two was reminiscing about past events and now started feeling nostalgic.
“I need to like see Pence-Pence!” Match complained, unbeknownst of the fact that her best friend had almost ended the world a few months ago. About that…
“Well Match!” Everyone turned to face Bubble as soon as they heard that accent, I mean, it only belongs to one person in the entire population of Goiky!
“Don’t you know that Pencil-”
“Shush!” Ruby hushed her, “That is a story for her to figure out soon!”
“Oh it’s fine, literally like everyone knows that is such a Pencil thing to do! Besides, she was like in the right somehow. I would’ve believed that ‘One’ creature too,” Match blinked innocently, casually defending her best friend. Could one even call Pencil that anymore?
“Match you talk too much, just ‘like’ shut up” Lollipop held air quotations with her hands, clearly trying to mimic her increased usage of the word like.
“Lollipop, that's a no no word!” Gelatin’s unprofound vocabulary sounded almost insulting to Lollipop as she tried to ignore him, slightly rolling her eyes.
Four walked around the Pillary ruins all tensed up, trying to ignore Woody’s distant screaming in the background. He was most probably imagining that; Woody stopped having that problem months ago! After all he was stressed, thinking of hosting with his former ‘mortal enemy’ just made his bones shiver. After what happened with One, Four has been more cautious than ever. I mean, listening to X did no harm at first; but screeching at Pencil even once, or simply using his unlimited powers against her could’ve stopped the whole scenario. He still had no regrets, but his mind was blank at that thought. Trying to ‘walk off’ his bad thoughts, Four soon approached X, just glad that he was within his sight again, after all that had happened.
Pencil was out of sight, out of mind for most contestants. One of the most praised competitors in BFDIA had turned into the most hated. Healing felt impossible for her being surrounded by what she called haters. How could she feel better now? She literally could’ve erased the whole timeline, all because of her predicament with her alliance, what was she thinking? Negative thoughts echoed in her head, she just felt hopeless. In the past few months most have tried to help her, she had been forgiven by most; but most wasn’t enough. All she desired now was to fix the patch in the relationship with all of her friends. Pencil did try making up to Book a long while ago, she replayed the conversation in her head, which in all possibilities…Didn’t sound that bad. Pencil respected Book for partially forgiving her. Partially forgiving her.
“Hey Tree! Good to see you Remote and Pie!” Pin harmonised with her Staccato like voice, which annoyed Pencil to the bones back in BFDIA. She sunk her head onto the ground, trying to ignore Pin’s voice in the background. Seeing her all radiant and gleeful with her new friends made Pencil jealous, she could admit. Oh, the tables had turned. Back in BFDIA where Pin would get constantly picked on by Pencil and her alliance, who now despise her, the one who was the so-called ‘great leader’ of the group. At least that’s what Pencil thought. Now she’s loved, surrounded by people who care for her, everyone just seemed to forgive her. She had everything now did she?
“Black Hole! Stop! Gosh, your jokes are so unfunny sometimes,” Pin chuckled with her friends, as everyone else ascended into laughter. Pencil wasn’t even mad anymore, just disappointed. How could I have bullied her? What was the point really? Pencil kept thinking until her head spun, memories of her alliance flooded, the difference between her a few years ago versus now. How would Match, Bubble and Ruby even accept her? Did she even have anyone to talk to about her problems? I really am hopeless huh? I thought I could fix the past, Oh my graphite why am I overthinking now? I thought I was through this like a month ago…She sighed.
“Ice Cube, hold on! I’m coming for you!” Book yelled towards Ice Cube, playfully chasing her. Echoes of laughter could be heard from the both of them across the hotel.
“Guys, have you seen Golfball?” Tennis Ball rushed, asking them with a hint of worry, “I can’t find her anywhere! I looked through the entire hotel and-”
“She isn’t here! And don’t ask me where she is!” Ice Cube hissed, as she slowed down. She felt someone behind her, as she heard faint sounds of laughter.
“Haha I caught you now Ice Cube! You better not run awa- ICE CUBE!” They continued to chase each other, leaving Tennis Ball hopeless. He trudged across the entrance of the hotel only to see Golfball standing outside, calculating something.
“Golfie! There you are!” Tennis Ball gleamed, as the two reunited with each other.
Moments passed, the contestants went back to circling around the hotel, some looking as restless as ever. Two didn’t seem to mind anymore, and just left them all alone, while they were minding their own business. They turned around to see Gaty sitting on the couch they both shared, and watched. She seemed to be thinking of something. Two approached her, and took a seat beside her.
“Nice to see you again Gaty,” Two expressed. They were almost tearing up.
“What? Two, we reunited like…I don’t know three months ago!” Gaty was bemused, “You seem as if you’re seeing me for the first time all over again, after…I disappeared,” She traced her legs against the couch and faced away from Two. They wore a hesitant smile, and didn’t reply for a while.
“You know…I think I’m happy that things are finally back to normal. Seeing Four and X again in a casual environment would be a delight, my only concern is…” They were at a loss for words.
“Two,” Gaty spoke loud and clear, “You will never lose me again. You got that?” She sparked up a tiny smile. Two nodded as they shared a similar expression. They broke into sudden laughter.
“Wanna go get some biscuits and tea?” Gaty sizzled up the conversation, with Two being as amused as ever. They continued with sounds of laughter and glee, as they resumed their old conversations.
“PILLOW WE ARE NOT ASKING FOUR TO KILL BARF BAG.” Donut glared into Pillow’s lifeless eyes. Her maniacal smile widened, she had clearly gone insane from the waiting.
“Oh my word guys just calm down!” Book tried her best to reason with them as Ice Cube just looked as annoyed as ever. Truly, everyone was getting impatient.
“Now that I have successfully connected Roboty’s wires onto the circuit, we will certainly have enough power to continue with this experiment. TENNIS BALL! Help me conclude a sensible name for this gadget!” Golfball commanded as Tennis Ball watched in confusion.
“Golfie you are building a device to track Four and X’s location. Right?” Tennis Ball replied.
“Accurate,” Golfball stated with a pause.
“Just name it the Four detector! Or…I don’t know, haven't we made like thousands of these already?”
“Well…That’s a sensible name. And besides the exact number of detectors we have made is-”
Boom! A loud, sharp noise echoed through the room. The shattered parts of the device were located in random parts of the room. Golfball stammered.
“Uhm…The most logical explanation for this result will be-”
“Golfball, we all know this is useless. Four and X are going to come at some point. Shouldn’t we just be patient and wait?” Tennis Ball argued, “Besides…I think we should just spend time together. We’re missing out on even more possible educational aspects of our upcoming journey!” He looked dreamily in Golfball’s direction, causing her to let out a heavy sigh.
“Perhaps you are being rational. Let’s go outside.” Golfball agreed, and smiled.
“Woodster calm down! And hurry up! I wanna see our bros already,” Blocky whined impatiently. Turns out Four wasn’t hearing things at all.
“Oh Woody, stop being such a mess! Two isn’t going to eat us!” Gelatin bickered with him.
“Relax Gelatin, you seem pretty tensed up too. Just calm down a bit, seeing our old besties would be quite wonderful! Especially when they see my gorgeous new outfit!” Flower smiled widely, making eye contact with Lollipop and nudging her.
“You have made it clear to everyone this past hour that you like the sweater I made for you! Perhaps it proves that I am a better designer than you think,” Lollipop expressed with content.
“PROFILEY if you provoke Teardrop again I don’t think you’ll be in full piece to come with us and meet the TPOT contestants” Taco announced, while ironically eating a section of her fish.
“Lollipop I think you were right! My fish DOES taste kind of good!” Taco gleamed as Lollipop made a sarcastic laugh, “The lettuce tastes really bad though,” She coughed and spat it out.
“Uhh Why are we promoting self-cannibalism right now again?” A voice that sounded withered and raspy spoke, gaining everybody’s attention.
“Fries, why are you here right now!” X was clearly puzzled.
“FRIES!? Woah, I think we are really late!” Gelatin was anxious now. He just wanted to meet Firey after so long. Ever since he found out that him and Leafy are returning from Dreamier Island today he couldn’t contain his anticipation. He nudged everyone in hurry as he encouraged them to get ready faster.
“Well yeah. Two sent me here to gather you all up since you all are really late,” Fries rolled his eyes.
“Okay Fries, we get it. Now where’s Puffball huh?” Taco remarked and then smirked.
“I don’t know, whatever,” Fries blushed slightly and tried his best to remain nonchalant.
“Guys he is right we really need to go! X promised Two that we’d be there 40 minutes ago!” Flower started to worry now. She turned to Teardrop and started shaking her violently. Teardrop hissed.
“Well then we should stop waiting for Four and actually tell him,” Loser remained calm. He had already met Winner a few hours before coming back to the Towers, so he didn’t have a reason to hurry. Nothing could break their friendship anymore.
“He has a point! I’ll go call him right now!” X skedaddled and rushed off to call Four.
Four continued pacing up and down the stairs. Weird. He should’ve caused a rift in the stairway from walking up and down on it so much! He made up his mind, and turned back to the Pillary Ruins.
“FOUR! I’m so glad I found you!” X hugged Four, who was beyond surprised. He smiled wide and responded to his cheerful acquaintance. He responded, “Me too X! I thought I would be stuck here forever! Has it been that long?” He managed to confuse X.
“Uhm Four what do you mean? We’re all waiting for you! Let’s go meet the TPOT contestants, it’s been a while since we’ve seen them after On-”
“DON’T MENTION THAT NAME X!” Four pulsed, and then slowly let out a sigh.
“It’s nothing, let’s go,” Four made a stable decision, and walked off to the towers as he held X’s hand. He wished it was more clear to X about how much he truly cares for him. Even if Four and X considered themselves ‘more than just friends’ now, Four always felt that X never knew how much he loved him, and the number of times he wanted to express that feeling to him. Truth is that X knows, and feels the same. Four brushed off his thoughts. Maybe I’m too worried…I just don’t want anything to happen to them again…
“GUYS they arrived! They’re at the entrance of the hotel!” Price Tag announced.
“Come inside everyone, they're here!” Winner supported them and yelled out.
“OH MY GOSH IT’S LOSER!!” Cake exclaimed, and screamed so loud that even Saw winced.
“Coiny. Stop thinking about Pin and come inside with us, they have arrived,” Needle joked.
“Wait what huh-” Coiny stammered as he got caught off guard, “Okay fine I’ll just go get Pin and the remaining Death Pact Again members,” He ran off, covering up his flustered expression. It was blindly obvious to Needle and everyone in TPOT that there was always something more going on between them. The sounds of chatter and Two’s unique laughter attracted everyone inside the Hotel.
“It’s so convenient that you just snapped all the BFB contestants to our current location!” Two seemed impressed, ignoring Four’s solemn expression, “I wish we could all just snap ourselves to-”
“SHUSH! The location is supposed to be a SECRET!” Four yelped, as they covered Two’s mouth.
“Well…GB and TB already figured out where we’re going…” Two continued as they watched Four’s anger increase by the second. Great, now Four had even more trust issues with Two!
“I don’t even know why I let X tell you in the first place! It was our idea!” Four grimaced.
“But Four it’ll be more fun if we all go-” X shared as they were promptly interrupted by Four.
“I wonder what they’re arguing about,” Winner whispered to Cake, who shrugged his shoulders.
“It is so annoying! Why did Two make us stand here for no reason! They are not even letting us meet with most of the BFB contestants!” Pin expressed sharply. It was clear to Coiny that she was getting overwhelmed by all the noise.
“It’s okay Pin we’ll get to talk to them soon,” Black Hole assured her gently.
“I think they’re just dizzy from the chaotic environment of the hotel,” Lightning whined, as he shot a glance at the tired Freesmarters and the annoyed Newbie Alliance members.
“Oh my match factory! Is that like Pence Pence!” Match exclaimed as soon as she saw her best friend, and wanted to run up to her immediately. She held intense eye contact with her Alliance members, who were very confused, almost as she was trying to get them to do something. Ruby, being hyperactive as usual, bumped into Bubble and almost popped her by accident.
“OMG Bubble like try to clear the way for me! I need to see Pencil!” Match expressed her annoyance. Bubble tried her best to clear off the crowd. Gosh, it had been years since the contestants were all grouped together in the same area. Most felt cramped and tried their best to move out of the crowd and meet their friends but to no avail. Somehow, Liy, Stapy and Yellow Face found their way across the Hotel.
Four and Two continued their argument, and X was caught up within their constant blabbering; as usual. Besides the fact that X was also bothered by the crowd and the immense noise, he was afraid to admit that it felt good, everything was back to normal. He was excited for the upcoming journey and was on the verge of telling everyone this instant. Four started losing his cool now.
“Two if you manage to say one more word I will-”
“EVERYONE! We are going to Yoyleland tomorrow for our first contest!” Two yelled out happily as loud as they could. The chattering stopped. The crowd fell silent, and everyone stopped in their places.
“And we are going there as a road trip together! All of us, inside a little van for the next few days!” Two continued. X felt so relieved that he started squealing. Four was so mad he felt like breaking Two into a million pieces right there and then; this was not going well for him. But for most others, the news was exhilarating. Yoyleland was a place of wonder that not many had gotten to experience, and going there as a fun little trip was the dream vacation for most! Especially after everything they had been through. But for some, this was certainly not a good idea.
“Yoyleland? Meh, could’ve been better,” Lightning remarked, and turned to his teammates who were all glaring at him.
“Seriously? Some of us were stuck in a BOX for years while the BFDIA contestants got to see the beauty of Yoyleland! What do you MEAN ‘meh’? Tree shook Lightning with a confused expression.
“OMG YOYLELAND! Me and Pencil haven’t been there together for l- like like like YEARS!” Match squealed so loud that her best friend heard her. Match turned to her alliance members, and when she turned back she was greeted by a familiar face. Book and Ice Cube had also joined in for a group hug.
“Y- Yoyleland?” Pin stuttered softly, as her heart started pounding. Her mind was running a marathon, as her thoughts were racing. She turned to Coiny, who seemed to share her reaction. Most of the BFDIA contestants, including Needle and Book as well, wore a panicked or gloomy expression. Yoyleland was not a place of joy and wonder for all. The Death Pact members noticed the commotion around them and started stepping into their rooms, along with other groups of people. Marker called out for Pin, but then left after he heard no response from neither her nor Coiny. Pen saw Pencil reunite with her friends and possessed a light smile, as his best friend Blocky approached him, and pulled him in with a hug. This decision seemed good for most of the contestants, although some experienced mixed feelings and despair.
The door had opened wide, and the shadows of two figures were cast upon the walls of the Hotel ground floor. Everyone turned to look, and some gasped. Everything was back to normal.