Chapter 1: Prologue
Chapter Text
Black eyes opened, staring at the concrete ground with a numb feeling running through her tiny dog body.
“Geode..”
She lifted her head, looking up at the faint silhouette. It was someone she remembered dearly, but also the reason she wasn’t in Garden View anymore.
“Why do you deny what you’ve done?” His voice rang through her ears, Geode watching the silhouette circle around her with slow pawsteps.
She swallowed hard. “Deny what?”
“That my death is all your fault…”
The gemstone dog shivered. She didn’t have the energy to deal with this. It wasn’t her fault. It wasn’t, it wasn’t, it wasn’t. They all lie. Lie and deceive. She turned, preparing to just walk away and ignore the blames… She saw him instead. The floor she left him on that very day. The way the other toons stared at her. Though their eyes were all pure red, Pebble’s included as he laid on the floor. Injured, hurt. She didn’t want to look, not again. It wasn’t her fault. It wasn’t, it wasn’t, it wasn’t. Stop showing her this, it’s not true. They didn’t see what she saw.
“You knew I wasn’t feeling good… Yet you still took the health-kit because you were greedy! It’s your fault I’m dead Geode!”
It wasn’t her fault.
“You killed me Geode!”
Geode barely had time to react, Twisted Pebble’s elongated neck stretched forward from the pitch black darkness; Eyes red and crazed with bloodlust, ichor dripping from his maw like a rabid animal drooling as his jagged teeth snapped her neck with a sickening crunch.
The gemstone dog jolted awake with a startled gasp for air, her front paws racing to feel her neck. No gashes, no punctures, no blood trickling down her fur. She stood up shakily, still trembling with lingering adrenaline before pacing back and forth. “It’s not my fault, it’s not my fault, it’s not my fault…” Geode repeated, pacing with denial looping through her mind. She kept blinking away tears, her eyes faintly turning red the more her mental state went catastrophic with denying thought after denying thought.
“Geode…”
She jumped, hackles raised as looked at whoever called her name. “Silver?”
“Your eyes are turning red…” He murmured, padding towards her with his blanket dragging on the floor. Silver sat down, glancing at her expectantly. Geode blinked a few times, her mouth dry and voided of words to say.
She reluctantly sat next to him, slouched and keeping her gaze away from him to hide the tears that threatened overflowing.
“You had a nightmare…” He said quietly, more of a statement than a question. The tired dog untied his blanket from his collar, throwing it over her body.
“As if you know that,” She scoffed, trying to mask her feelings with her usual leader persona as the blanket draped over her back.
Silver narrowed his eyes a little. “I may have weaker magic compared to Astro but I still can feel the negative energy coming from you… It’s strong, embedded on you as if they were part of your crystals. You’ve been having these since we were all scrapped and banned, what are you not telling me?”
“Nothing!” She snapped.
“Geode please… We want to help. It’s not just me who can feel it, it’s everyone, and they don’t even have my ability!” He lowered his ears, his voice holding a pinch of desperation. “Do you know how worrying it is for me to walk around soothing everyone after their nightmares? If even one emotion overpowers them, they’ll be twisted before I even know it! You are under that list Geode and I don’t want that to happen…”
Silence. Geode didn’t bother to look at him, her tail flicking idly before she shook off the heavy grey blanket as a form of distancing herself from the conversation. She wasn’t going to talk and the tired dog sighed knowing that. He took the fabric back, putting it over his back.
“Fine. I can’t force you, but you know as well as I do that we all have a little too much ichor in our bodies… Don’t keep piling up whatever is hurting you, it’ll kill you.”
The gemstone dog watched him leave, standing up herself and climbing up a metal beam that allows her on top of a crate against a wall. On the wall were a few polaroid photos of the toons in Garden View. She stared blankly at the one of Dandy, her claw swiping at it before watching it fall to the floor. “I’ll go one by one…” She murmured, her gaze shifting on the photo of Sprout, Looey, and Cosmo together. “Healers first… Because what’s a team without one? They’ll all crumble under their wounds like shot pigeons. Then, when Christmas comes around, it’ll be that one cookie’s turn as well… What was her name?”
“Ginger…”
Geode jolted a little, turning around to face whoever spoke. It was Flare, accompanied by Squeaks.
“I still don’t get what your whole monologue is about though…” The dragon snorted, a plume of smoke leaving her nostrils.
“And what’s that about wounds? Is somebody hurt?” Squeaks wondered, tilting her head. “Silver did say you were acting weird again… You’re not hiding self-inflicted marks are you?!”
Geode sighed. If there was ONE toon she didn’t want to know about the stupid plan she had in mind, it was Squeaks. She didn’t have any real reason to hate the mouse toon, but it was the fact that she was too… gentle. The gemstone dog didn’t need any of that sappy nonsense about using words against fists, especially when she was in the plan of declaring a silent war against Dandy for what he’d done.
‘What you’ve done…’ Pebble’s voice rang in her mind, making her wince.
“I didn’t do it…” She growled quietly with denial.
“Didn’t do what?” Flare squinted, confused. Squeaks blinked.
“Nothing!” Geode barked sharply, earning a small flinch from the mouse toon. Flare just glared a little sharper. The gemstone dog shook the hackles from her fur before glancing at Squeaks. “Do you know when Dyle’s next train arrives?”
“Tomorrow…” She answered briefly, a bit uncertain. “Why?”
“I’m boarding the train.”
“WHAT!” They shouted in unison.
“Why?” Flare hissed. “You know we were scrapped in the final decision, we can’t just waltz back in there when Delilah banned us years ago! She made it very clear what she'd do to us!”
“Whether Delilah finds me or not doesn’t matter! I need to set things straight with that damn flower!” Geode barked.
“You’ve been getting more agitated lately! What is your deal?!” The dragon stepped up towards the crate.
The gemstone dog growled, her jagged crystal claws slicing along Flare’s snout in warning. Flare hissed, snorting a plume of smoke in the aggressor’s face and reaching for the small mark as Squeaks pulled her back before she could fight in retaliation.
“It doesn’t matter what my deal is! When I tell you something, you do it!”
“Since when did we appoint you as a leader? We’re all free toons, that was the whole point of this attempted sanctuary that somehow works!” The dragon sneered, pulling against Squeaks’ surprising tail strength.
“Right now,” Geode growled lowly, leaving no room for argument. “You have one very simple job to do Flare: Spy on those damned toons until I can sneak in myself!” She barked.
The two taller toons exchanged glances at each other as the Pebble variant climbed down the metal rod to leave. Flare wanted to argue, her body tensing with anger, her claws flexing with the intention of harm. She hadn’t felt this angered since she heard the words leaving Delilah’s mouth, but nonetheless, Squeaks’ presence was a gentle reminder to just let it be. She sighed and pushed the mouse’s tail off, opening her wings.
“Shouldn’t we do something?” Squeaks murmured.
Flare slowly shook her head. “We’ve all tried reaching out to Geode, you know that. When she’s firm on something, there’s nothing you can do.” She looked back. “Just tell the others… Okay?” Squeaks watched the dragon toon boost herself up into the vents with the help of her wings, the sound of shuffling in the vent eventually fading off in the distance. The mouse looked on wistfully before turning away with a soft murmur.
“I hope you know what you’re doing Geode…”
Chapter 2: 1 - Ribecca
Summary:
Ribecca transforms into a Twisted due to Geode's paws.
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Soft paws padded quietly over to the bunch of somewhat rowdy toons as Squeaks walked over to tell them the news. Silver slowly rouses from his nap, sensing the solemn energy coming from her as she approaches. Raven and Lotus also perk at attention.
“Squeaks? What troubles you?” Lotus spoke up, noticing the mouse’s expression.
The mouse toon hesitated a little, holding her tail. “It’s Geode…”
At an instant, some of the other toons were silent. Silver sat up. Surely not… He just left her area.
“She died, didn’t she?” Wither murmured, lowering her head. Dottie lowered her ears and even some of the energetic toons like Gaggle and Prism were antsy with worry, quietly shifting in their spots.
“No! No… She didn’t die but–” Squeaks paused. “It’s more like she went rogue?”
“Rogue?” Silver stood, confused.
“After we helped you with your blanket, we went to check on her… She was monologuing about the Garden View toons, healers named Sprout and Cosmo then something about Ginger… Flare interrupted her and Geode told us how she was planning to board the train to get into Garden View.” She shifted on her feet. “We tried saying it was a bad idea because of Delilah but she wouldn’t listen and appointed herself as some kind of boss, telling Flare to go spy on them until she got there...”
“I knew I should’ve been worried!” Silver barked, kicking an empty pop can. Sunny brushed against him, her ears lowering. “Where’s Flare? She didn’t-”
“She told me there was nothing we could do… We can’t get through to Geode, we all tried,” Squeaks murmured, lowering her ears. “Flare flew off into the vents after that…”
“So she’s just starting a monarchy… It’s not the biggest thing she’s done! The biggest thing she did was kill Pebble!” Prism stated frankly, earning a jab from Gaggle. “Ow! What?! It’s true! I will not be silenced—” Gaggle pressed her lips against Prism’s briefly, shutting her up with a quick kiss. Prism was left a little dazed, absolutely bewitched.
Claws clicked against the cold vent corridors, the distant breeze of the A.C units making Flare shiver. The dragon toon used her flames to warm herself up and illuminate the way through for something useful.
If Geode had been ranting about Sprout and Cosmo, perhaps she wanted something about them? Maybe even Dandy, considering her strange vendetta against him. Flare couldn’t understand why the stupid dog was forcing her to do this… To be fair, she could’ve punted Geode like a football for all she cared. Unfortunately, the last thing the group needed was for another accidental twisting, especially after Callie’s unfortunate death. Noodle still hasn’t gotten over it.
Flare turns a corner, the sound of voices reaching her ears as she approaches a grate leading into a bedroom of sorts. She shifted a little close, swiveling her ears to listen in on the conversation that was taking place.
“You dare accuse me of ruining this marriage when you are the one sleeping in rose petals with some gay philanderer?!” A woman shrieked, making Flare recoil a little at the intense emotion.
“Philanderer?! Why, Glisten is nothing of the sort!”
The dragon toon squinted a little, barely making out the form of two toons. One being a teacup and the other a magnifying glass. She didn’t know them personally since she wasn’t around long enough, but she was sure Squeaks did. Somehow she knew them all… They looked classy, probably stuck with old times.
“Do not lie to my face!” She hissed. “It’s a known rumor! Even Sprout is smitten with that damned mirror and he already has another! But to do it with our daughter–”
“I have not acted on such shameless things Teagan, is your mind two days behind?!” He raised his voice. “I’m much too busy with studies to worry about some queer blunder!”
Flare let out a quiet huff of awkwardness, her ears pinning against her skull as she eventually decided to just quickly leave the proximity of the private convo. She crawled through the vents, hearing the conversation echo behind her before she reached another grate. Thankfully, this chat was actually what it was and not a failing marriage, her ears twitching to listen in.
“I honestly don’t know what to do… Dyle is trying to get me the stock but every time he does, the fruits are pretty much half eaten already!”
She peered through the grate. That was them! Or at least Sprout and some new balloon toon she’s never known of. The dragon toon couldn’t see if Cosmo was in there or just out of view, her tail flicking quietly.
“Has he tried figuring out the source?” The balloon asked. “I mean… Wouldn’t it make sense to check the train?”
“Nobody else knows about it! I wasn’t even supposed to tell you or Cosmo about it! If no toon knows about it, then he’d think there’d be no reason for inspection!” The berry apprised, his arm wrapped around the balloon’s waist as they laid on the bed together. “Other than that, Cosmo is running low on medkits…”
“So another run?”
Flare perked her ears a little. ‘Runs?’
“Yup… I’d take ya with us but Dandy is probably gonna make it a healer only,” Sprout said with a slight laugh. The balloon toon sighed, his ears lowering with disappointment. The main toon noticed and pulled the balloon on top of him, his partner straddling his hips and growing flustered. “We’ll make it up to you though…”
The balloon swallowed hard and nodded with an obvious amount of arousal.
The dragon in the vents crinkled her snout with disgust, sticking her tongue out with a small gag before deciding to push on forward. At least she had something to go off on and that was enough for her. A failing marriage because of some queer toon, fruit going missing during train transportation, and a run, not that she knew much on what said ‘runs’ are but it was still something regardless.
Now she just needed to find a place to lay low, her talons clicking against the metal and her horns scraping against the roof every now and then when she got stuck. By the time she found a desolate room, her body was aching and overall was just starting to get claustrophobic seeing nothing but grey metal walls for minutes on end. Flare dropped down into the room, using her wings to parachute her fall. Her eyes darted around the pastel yellow-ish room, which was dimmed low on lights.
She turned around and nearly jumped out of her hide, falling to the floor as the skeletal figure of something with huge jagged jaws looked like it was about to chomp on her spine. Flare let out of breath, the adrenaline wearing off when she realized it was just a T-Rex model.
“Great stars, that was terrifying…” She held her chest before standing up. “This is definitely Shelly’s museum then…”
The dragon toon took a gander at the old structure before realizing this was one of many; A dilophosaurus to her right, an allosaurus to her left, a pterodactyl, ankilosaurus, iguanodon, dimetrodon. So many dinosaurs… She couldn’t help but wonder if these were even real found fossils with how big they were compared to her. Her awe was diminished slightly though when her hands ran across them and found it to be plastic, not that it ruined the overall feel of the room.
“This place must have Shelly drowning in popularity… These structures are so well made,” she murmured quietly, taking a look at the small information board of the dilophosaurus. “The fun facts are accurate too… ‘Did you know that the dilophosaurus never actually had venom or cool neck frills? It was all a misinterpretation from the–’”
“–Jurassic Park movie…”
Flare lowered her ears, turning to face whoever had finished the sentence. Her eyes locked with another, surprised to see the ammonite fossil, or more so the toon based on one. She wasn’t sure how to react to their sudden appearance… She was never supposed to be spotted, or was she? Geode never said anything about not reuniting with old friends.
“Shelly?”
The air was knocked out of her lungs as she squeezed into a hug by the main toon, both of their tails swaying excitedly.
“You’re here! You’re actually here! Please tell me I'm not in some kind of dream…” She laughed nervously, holding the dragon toon by the shoulders with tears in her eyes.
“Wouldn’t Astro be watching if that was the case?” Flare snorted, a bit amused.
Shelly shrugged, wiping her eyes. “Fair enough… He would and probably tell me everything is okay like unusual and– oh my stars, you’re here! What are we doing? We have to tell the others!” She said excitedly, pulling her by the arm. “They’ll be ecstatic and then you’ll get to see Vee! She was built to fill in your place and you’re gonna absolutely love her! Not to mention the Halloween toons that are visiting for the month!”
“Wait!” Flare snapped her arm away quickly, watching as Shelly whirled around to face her with confusion. The dragon toon locked eyes with the ammonite before swallowing hard. The others would be ecstatic to see her… This Vee character, her supposed replacement, might actually have something they can connect on… But, she’s here on a mission, not to catch up. She lowered her ears and let out a heavy sigh, straightening her posture. “Shelly, I can’t…”
The main’s confusion turned into a slightly hurt expression. “What do you mean?”
“It’s… a long story…” Flare muttered bitterly. “I left Garden View for a reason Shelly… Delilah wouldn’t be pleased to see me, nor would Dandy.”
Shelly walked up to Flare, grabbing her talons in a reassuring way that made the dragon’s heart flutter. “Delilah isn’t here anymore… The toon handlers left after Garden View shut down.”
“What…?”
“Dandy has been running everything since then… So while I don’t know why he won’t be happy to see you, because you’re fricking awesome!” She grinned, before clearing her throat. “I’m sure he’ll warm up! After all, you accidentally burning his petals was well… exactly that! An accident!”
“It has nothing to do with that Shells!” Flare stopped her. “Just… forget you ever saw me…”
“But…”
“No buts! I have to go…” Flare said coldly, opening her wings. “Please… Don’t tell anyone you saw me, especially Dandy.”
With that, Flare flew up into the vents. She didn’t look back, she couldn’t… Not when she knew Shelly was watching her, praying for her to come back. Especially not when she still had these feelings.
The elevator opened with a loud whoosh, Ribecca stepping inside to take a gander. “This should be the warehouse if I remember correctly…” She muttered, striding with her hand on her hip. “It’s been a long 334 days…”
“I really should’ve brought someone with me… Now, where are those fabrics? Shelly mentioned something about it being down here, did she not?” The skeleton toon looked around a bit more before finally catching sight of something to her use. She hummed, removing the tarp from an old sewing machine. “Not fabric… But definitely something worth checking out! I wonder if it still works.”
Slow agonizing strides filled his bloodlust, his breathing laboured and gurgled with ichor contaminating whatever clean water he had left. Trails of ichor painted behind him, broken glass dragging against concrete. He twitched up with alert, ignoring the dirty water that spilled from his head as he heard the faint sound of clacking against plastic. His grin twisted into a wide unsettling smile of sharp jagged teeth, deformed ichor claws leaving marks on the floor as he hauled himself towards the repetitive tapping.
“Seems intact… but there’s no way I’m carrying this…” She scoffed, rolled her eyes while leaning her weight on one leg.
His pupils narrow into slits, catching sight of the white anomaly in his vision. He drags himself closer, watery ichor sloshing in his head and sounding out the target who seemed to turn and notice him. It took a step back but he pushed himself forward, eye twitching with sickly intentions. Before the blurry figure could run, his jagged claws hooked against bone and tried reeling in his catch.
Ribecca tripped, her body rattling with a thud as she fell to the floor. Its deformed black claws cracked through her bone, making her yell in pain and kick him hard on the teeth. It let go, shaking its head disoriented and ignoring the black water that seeped into the cracks of her wound. Ribecca got up, taking a step on her wounded tibia and wincing slightly before quickly hobbling back to the elevator.
Finn shook his head, momentarily disoriented before looking around to see no more anomaly. His excited grin shifted into a frown, pulling himself elsewhere.
Ribecca watched from the elevator before pressing the button to ascend back up, watching the door slam shut. She caught her breath, hearing Dandy’s shop open and turning to face him.
“Dandy!”
“Wrong.”
The skeleton toon stopped in her tracks. Geode narrowed her eyes. Her jagged claws held a capsule of ichor, tapping it rhythmically.
“Who are you…” Ribecca sneered. “Did you send that… thing on me?!”
“You’re going to wish it killed you…” The gemstone dog muttered.
Geode pried the capsule with new strength before tossing the black liquid on the target. She watched with hidden satisfaction as it splattered through skeleton’s ribs, dripping down her jacket onto the ground. Ribecca grabbed at it, panicked as it stained her hands. She stepped back and fell to the ground in pain due to the crack bone on her leg. The heavy pain seemed to spread from her tibia, the ichor somewhat fusing with her hands as it painfully molded into talons that raked into the elevator walls while trying to stand.
Her scream was– almost thrilling– to the gemstone dog. Geode watched Ribecca’s eyes slowly fade to a bloodthirsty red, leaning her weight on the lever beside her before slowly descending into the depths.
“Dandy… We need to discuss a concern,” Dyle sighed, the hands of his clock-like appearance twitching with annoyance as the breeze of Eclipse whooshing behind him for Pebble’s old toy blew his coat in an unorderly way, making him straighten it out. “Watch where you’re throwing Gourdy!”
Gourdy held the blue ball after Eclipse retrieved it before slowly slinking away, motioning for Toodles and the wolf to follow him as they ran off giggling.
Dandy watches for a little bit before continuing the conversation. “What is it? Is the fruit still being eaten?”
“Yes… If this keeps up, none of us will have enough for Christmas…”
“Which means Bobette and the other Christmas toons won’t get a single meal after all that imprisonment they told us about… And if the other toons are the same way, imprison and all…” The flower toon sighed, running a hand through his petals.
“That’s not the only concern I’m afraid… This thing– it targeted Gourdy…”
“What!?” Dandy gasped, jumping over the counter in an instant.
“The others won’t talk about it for obvious reasons… But along bringing them here for the yearly visit, they reported something that kept scratching on the windows no matter what side Gourdy was on. Hungry, desperate scratching… I hid Gourdy with me, which was absolutely repulsive, but there was no choice,” The clock ticked with annoyance, rolling his eyes.
Dandy looked worried. “Did it follow you?”
Dyle’s eyes widened, looking back at him. “I… don’t know.”
Dread settled through both of them, Dandy’s more expressive than Dyle’s as the flower toon ran to find Gourdy. “Find Sprout just in case!”
Dyle calmed himself down. There was no reason to get all riled over some acquaintances, he was better than that. He walked off to find Sprout, probably down in the kitchen as he ignored the neighboring ghost siblings talking by the elevator and pressed the button. His foot tapped almost impatiently before the heavy metal doors whooshed open, flinching back as the skeletal toon slumped to the floor with a jittery rattle. Her claws raked along the carpeted floor as she crawled towards Dyle, reaching for him while trying to stand back up. Nearby toons shrieked as they saw the twisted, Soulvester hesitating before he quickly stood up from the bench and ran over, unsheathing his sword and driving it through Ribecca’s skull with a bonechilling crack.
Somehow she continued to move, but at least she was pinned as it gave time for everyone nearby to back away where they felt safe.
“What now?!” Scraps cried, her ears lowering as she held Goob close.
“I thought they couldn’t go through the elevator!” Brightney followed.
“Are we still safe?” Boxten asked, the question ringing a bell through everyone as the area went silent.
Shelly stared at the squirming skeleton, her expression full of dread. She had completely forgotten about Finn down in the warehouse! She should’ve gone with her instead of reminiscing in her museum… Instead of accidentally finding Flare. Tears streamed down her face, guilt overflowing her entire body as she watched everyone bombard with questions after questions. Eventually, she turned away and ran off. Vee noticed, her eyes narrowing a little with suspicion but also concern. She slipped away from the crowd, running after Shelly best she could.
Flare watched the tragedy from the nearby vent grate, her ears pinning back before quickly rushing to find the ammonite toon.
Notes:
In my AU, Pebble and Finn are already down due to misfortunes. Pebble accidentally Twisted due to a little too much ichor being in their bodies, which Geode is in denial that it was ever her fault it happened even though she left Pebble through betrayal and rabid anger. Instead she blames Dandy for creating them this way because she didn't know it was actually Delilah who did.
Finn had a misfortune where he wandered too far down and Pebble found him. His legs were shattered through with jagged jaws and he accidentally crawled to what he thought was safety. Pipes above would leak above him with ichor and contaminate his water, making him twisted permanently.