[FRAG] Keep A Secret



Explicit Violence

...and you'll keep the peace.


Sequel to Grieve in Blood. Spoilers for said story abound, of course.

Followed by House of Liars.

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The Boy Who Relies on his Anger


"That doesn't..." Morning Star's voice trailed off, blankly. "I'm sorry. I don't understand."


"DIJAMANT STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP," Jubilee was screaming, at the top of his lungs, his entire face covered in red blush. "STOP YOU NEED TO STOP THAT'S ENOUGH!" 


Huh? Dijamant quickly glanced between Morning Star and Jubilee. 


"STOP TALKING!"


"What's the Omicron T-Timeline?" Morning Star pressed, voice surprisingly calm. The fact that he was holding himself together at all was amazing. Maybe it was because Magnotris was holding him, and he could feel the other's heartbeat against his body, the warmth of his arms wrapped around. They were united in love, and that gave him strength.


He wanted to reach out and take hold of Sundae. The other was just an arm's length away, stirring slightly. Morning Star watched with rapt attention, but Sundae slumped against the air after a second. He hoped that Sundae was okay. The amount of fear and panic that had flooded the other was probably extreme.


You really DON'T know? Omicron, I thought you told people! I'm sorry! I didn't know that-


Morning Star looked to Jubilee. The other wasn't meeting his gaze, still staring at Dijamant, squirming against whatever pressure that was keeping both him and Sterling pinned. After a second or so of avoiding him, Jubilee slowly tilted his head, his eyes meeting Morning Star's.


He wasn't sure how to wordlessly communicate his demand for answers, but the message seemed to get across anyways. Jubilee shrunk back, ears flattening against his head. It was an anxious, tiny expression that Morning Star had never seen on the other before. It reminded him of... himself. Of himself whenever he was too scared and wrapped up in nervousness to properly function. It wasn't an expression he ever expected to see on Jubilee.


They stared at each other for a few minutes before Jubilee lowered his head. "Thanks, Dij. Now I'm fucked."


I'm REALLY sorry! I had no idea! I can wipe their memories if you want-


"-No, there's no point now. The meutin's already out of the bag, so to speak." Jubilee scrubbed at his eyes, "Maybe this isn't the best place but I guess it's not the worst."


"The fuck is this cryptic bullshit you're spewing?" Magnotris hissed. He'd lowered himself slightly to press against Morning Star, in a protective sort of huddle. It was really comforting, even though Morning Star knew that Magnotris couldn't actually defend him. It was giving him the safety to talk, to communicate, to call a timeout on all of this mess. "What's Omicron?"


Jubilee stared at the floor. Morning Star wondered, briefly, how many times the other must've run this kind of conversation through his mind before. Omicron sounded familiar, but he couldn't place it.


"I'll tell you everything, okay?" Jubilee's voice was cracking. "But - but you have to keep a secret, okay?"


Morning Star and Magnotris' eyes briefly flicked to each other. 


"You have to. P-please don't go telling the COR everything I'm going to tell you."


"And why not?" Magnotris indignantly snapped.


Jubilee hid his face, "You just - please, please! I don't want this information getting out!"


JUBILEE, IT'S ALRIGHT, Kolo spoke up, still holding his injured arms, WE'LL JUST MINDWIPE THEM AND GO. THAT'S THE EASIEST SOLUTION HERE.


"No, I don't want to," he whispered. Morning Star watched with wide eyes as the Magnitude Fragment gently rested a comforting hand on Jubilee's back. "I want to tell someone. But I'm not ready for everyone to know yet."


"THIS IS CHANGING NOTHING," Sterling shouted.


IF you don't calm down I'll make it so you don't have a voice!


"You can't use magic on me!!"


Dijamant snapped his fingers. Sterling's mouth still worked, but no noise came out of it. Yeah, maybe I can't, but I can change reality so that you don't!


"Dij please don't," Jubilee mumbled.


He's really annoying though!


"You can't just... nevermind."


"Jubilee, you better explain, now," Magnotris hissed.


"I'm getting there! I'm not sure where to start," he admitted. "Um... how much do you know?"


"About what?!"


Morning Star tugged on Magnotris' coat. The other looked down at him, fury gone in an instant and replaced with worry. He opened his mouth to speak, but Morning Star placed both hands on Magnotris' shoulders and pulled himself up, into a sitting position. They shared another look, quiet and truthful.


Morning Star knew he couldn't explain the motions running through his mind at the moment. Every word felt like a mountain, every feeling felt like an odyssey. But he knew, somewhere deep inside of him, that he had to say those feelings anyways. He had to verbalize them, had to express them. It was who he was. Maybe he wasn't as strong as Magnotris, or Sundae, or Jubilee, but he could talk. He could connect with people.


'Let me handle this,' he said, firmly in telepathy to Magnotris.


His partner stared at the set determination on his face in a mixture of pride, fear, and awe. Magnotris gave the smallest nod, never taking his eyes off Morning Star's face. He still didn't speak as Morning Star turned, adjusting himself in the other's lap so he could face the arranged parties and scrutinize them to the best of his ability. 


Dijamant and Kolo were kneeling beside Jubilee, who was avoiding everyone else's glance. Rendgen was lying on the ground-air-invisible platform (it was still unclear what Dij had done to the room) in front of them, back turned to Morning Star, but he could still see ragged breathing. He hadn't known Mag Frags breathed. Maybe it was a calming exercise? 


Sterling was clutched in Dij's magic near them, but far enough away that he couldn't even spit in their faces. His arms were pinned to his sides, although he'd stopped kicking and was reduced to glowering at the others. When he met Morning Star's eyes, he let a weak smile spread over his face. Morning Star gave a nod back.


He turned to Sundae, to his right. Sundae was still lying on his stomach, head tilted to only face Morning Star. And his eyes were wide open.


"Sundae?" he finally asked. Jubilee looked up, surprise blossoming on his face. "Sundae, are you okay?"


That's one of Pya's, right? Dij loudly whispered to Kolo, who scoffed, rolled his eyes, and nodded.


"Just fine," Sundae said, robotically. He pushed himself up from the ground with his arms, climbing into a nervous kneeling position. His hands were balled into fists, shaking, and he kept his gaze steadily trained away from where Rendgen and the other Mags were. 


Morning Star tilted his head, biting his lip-


"Sundae, I'm sorry," Jubilee squeaked out. "I'm so sorry. Like, for everything-"


"-What does he mean, Omicron Timeline?" Sundae hissed. 


Jubilee winced, then covered his face, "The Omicron Timeline was one of the original twenty-four Timelines, made by Genesis before constructing the Main Timeline and all of its-"


"-No I KNOW that! I know the original twenty four!" Sundae finally looked up, although still avoiding Rendgen. His steeled glare dug into Jubilee as he bared his teeth, "What does he mean you're involved with it, though? It's been dead since Bereave got his hands on it!"


"Well, at least someone knows," Jubilee muttered.


"Back up, explain again," Morning Star said, gently. "I don't... I know what those words mean but not arranged like that."


Sundae's glare softened when he turned to Morning Star, and then he sighed. "This is the quickest history lesson ever. You know about Singularity de-fusing into Genesis and Bereave, right?"


"Yes, of course."


"Alright. After that, Genesis started making the Timelines. Each one was really awful-" Jubilee winced at that, but Sundae paid him no mind. "-and they made twenty-four before finally making a stable, good timeline - the Main Timeline. The twenty-four prior to the Main were named for ease of use, and because they're fairly unique in how they worked. Alpha is the most well-known of those Timelines; Omicron is another."


Morning Star slowly nodded.


"Bereave took over a lot of those original Timelines after he got frustrated, and started taking them apart or torturing them to try to get at Genesis. He destroyed a few of them. Zeta... Alpha's in shards because of him... and I know he destroyed Omicron." Sundae levelled an intense glare at Jubilee.


The latter had taken to placing worried hands on Rendgen's shoulder, staring down at him. He let out a tiny, miniscule whimper, leaning down to rest his forehead against the Mag Frag. "I know. I know it doesn't make any sense. I'm sorry."


I'm sorry, Om-Jubilee, I really didn't know-


"You're fine, Dij."


Dijamant fell silent, but looked equally as upset. 


"So. What's this about you and the Omicron Timeline? Are you its Frag?"


"No, it's... a little more complicated than that," Jubilee said. 


Morning Star reached to take Sundae's wrist gently. He didn't know how to ask the other to ease up without it getting in the way of the conversation... but Sundae took a deep breath at the touch and seemed to calm anyways. Thank the stars. 


He kept a small smile on his face as he gingerly took over, "In what way is it complicated? Could you explain? Is the story Sundae knows wrong?"


"No, he's completely right," Jubilee said, voice cracking, "Omicron, as a Timeline, does not exist. It was destroyed by Bereave."


YOU DON'T HAVE TO TELL THEM IF YOU DON'T-


"I do want to." Jubilee took a shuddering breath, "Omicron was destroyed. When a Timeline is ripped apart, it's... it's more literal than you think. Its pieces are scattered into space, in a metaphysical sense. Not, like, corpses, but hopes, dreams, ideals, concepts. The concept of the Timeline is torn asunder and left to rot. Omicron was the first to die."


Morning Star watched both of the other Mag Frags awkwardly look at Rendgen.


"When that happened, nobody knew what to do. It was..."


WE PANICKED, Kolo clarified. 


"Panicked?" Morning Star pressed. 


WE DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO. IT WAS THE FIRST TIME WE'D EVER LOST A TIMELINE. Kolo glanced at Dij, who nodded. WE HAD A MEETING TO TRY TO FIGURE OUT WHAT TO DO - IF WE SHOULD LEAVE THE TIMELINE, IF WE SHOULD TRY TO PUT IT BACK TOGETHER. BEREAVE'S MAGIC HAD WARPED IT TO AN EXTENT; OUR OWN POWERS COULDN'T STITCH IT BACK TOGETHER PERFECTLY. THINK OF IT LIKE A PUZZLE MISSING SEVERAL PIECES. YOU CAN GET A GOOD IDEA OF WHAT THE IMAGE WILL BE, BUT IT WILL ALWAYS BE INCOMPLETE.


Basically, we couldn't just stick it back together and call it a day. We kind of considered that a bastardization of what it was. Like, you can set up all the pieces again but it's wrong and the Timeline's inhabitants would be able to tell. We didn't want to inflict that on all those people, inflict knowing you're living a lie all the time, without a way to fix it.


RENDGEN CAME UP WITH THE IDEA. 


Pya thought it was kinda weird, but as we really thought on it, it made sense. It was the best we could do to preserve the Timeline in the best form it - er, he could exist it.


"Are you saying-" Sundae started, then stopped himself, mouth slightly open as he stared at Jubilee.


Jubilee finally lifted his head, his cheeks stained with tears. He still couldn't meet anyone's eyes. "I'm the Omicron Timeline. Literally. The remains of it. The Magnitude Fragments took all the pieces they could find, and they stitched it together into me and Rendgen gave me life."


"Holy shit," Magnotris whispered. Sterling was dead quiet.


"I am everything that was that Timeline," Jubilee continued, voice cracking, "I am their hopes, I am what they believed in. They might no longer exist as individuals, but I remember every single person, I remember their lives. And I remember their fear, their fury, their desperate burning desire for vengeance."


"I-" Morning Star started.


"I don't expect any of you to really understand," Jubilee rushed out, "What it's like, to walk around knowing you're basically a zombie of sorts. And knowing that your murderer is out there, murdering again, taking more Timelines apart and just shredding them like they did you. To feel so utterly helpless to stop your fate, to know you have to hide every time Bereave so much as glances at what part of the reality you're hiding in, because if he knows what you are, who you are, you won't get a third chance. To live in constant fear, and to live in constant remembrance of every horrifying detail of what it feels like to die a million, trillion, times.


"Because I know. Because I remember how every single person in that Timeline died. The Gladar, the Harmonics, Chaotics, lesser gods, Immortals, mortals. They all died and I know exactly how every single one of them died, and I have to go around listening to Frags talking about how silly mortals are and how weird it must be to know what it's like to have your life end and I have to keep my trap shut, because if anyone knows then it'll leak, and Bereave will realize who I am, and then I'll let down everyone in Omicron."


Morning Star swallowed. "Jubilee, I don't know what to say-"


"-I had to make the hard decisions," he cut in, voice wavering, fists shaking as the sobs bubbled up. "Had to decide what I could spend time doing, where I could dedicate resources to, to make sure no other TImeline had to go through what I did. Had to decide what wasn't important. Which Gladar disappearing I could ignore. Which mortals getting assassinated was okay, because it was worth it to preserve the entire Timeline. Had to look at lists of names and viscerally remember the literal molecular tearing asunder of each and every last one of them and just pretend I was looking at a list of nobodies. My entire life I had to run on that anger, that fear. Everything I did was out of fear. And... and I... I...."


"I'm... sorry about what I said earlier," Magnotris muttered.


"It's... it's ok, you didn't know, that was the idea," Jubilee sniffled loudly.


Morning Star watched him, gentle worry covering his face. The tense fear had subsided, and true sorrow had taken its place. Jubilee's shoulders were trembling as he broke into awkward, half-stifled sobs, trying to hold back an eon of pain. It was getting to Morning Star, it really was. He felt so bad for ever doubting Jubilee. Maybe he didn't agree with all of Jubilee's policies, but... he could understand where he was coming from.


Jubilee, oh no, don't cry! It's okay!


IT'S NOT TOO LATE, WE COULD STILL MINDWIPE THEM, AND YOU COULD GO BACK TO LIVING LIKE A NORMAL FRAGMENT-


"It's fine, you two," Jubilee choked out.


Morning Star watched Jubilee shove his face into his hands as he broke into real, actual, genuine crying, the sobs shaking him so hard he couldn't concentrate. To think he'd ever thought of Jubilee as a horrible dictator, lazing about while the world fell apart. How much guilt had he carried, how much pain and anguish?


He rose, slowly, out of Magnotris' lap. There wasn't any ground, but he could walk on the air just fine, feel the sparkles of Pya magic protecting him from whatever Dijamant had done to the reality. Magnotris said something panicked, but Morning Star couldn't hear him - the only noise in his head was the quiet sobbing of the man in front of him.


Hey, now! Don't come any closer! Dij leaned forwards, wrapping an arm over Jubilee's head defensively.


"I know what I'm doing," Morning Star spoke, voice echoing.


Dijamant froze, eyes wide as saucers before slowly letting his hand drop in abject fear. Morning Star took a deep breath, stepping closer. He hadn't meant to startle the other so fiercely, but he knew what he needed to do. He wasn't going to let anyone get in his way.


"What are you doing?" Sterling called.


Morning Star shook his head.


"Morning Star!" Magnotris called, panic and worry rising in the crescendo.


He stepped forwards, over Rendgen's body.


Jubilee hadn't looked up, still, crying into his hands. Morning Star reached forwards slowly, his hands shaking, just barely ghosting over Jubilee's shoulders. He could taste the pain, the tears, the years of reliving everything he'd been through.


His arms wrapped around Jubilee's back, and he pulled the Overseer into a hug. 


Jubilee hiccuped into his shoulder, still trembling as he tensed. It took him a precious few seconds before he seemed to realize that he wasn't being attacked. Realization dawned on his features, and then his own hands snaked around to hug Morning Star.


"I'm really s-sorry that happened," Morning Star said, "that sounds really awful. I c-can't imagine what you have to go th-through every day. But y-you don't have to be alone in that anymore. I want to help you p-protect all the other TImelines."


"Thank y-y-you," Jubilee stumbled out, fingers digging in as he clung to Morning Star.


This is good, right, Kolo?


Kolo glanced from Dij to Jubilee. DO YOU WANT IT TO BE GOOD?


"This is g-good," he whispered.


Dij coughed. Morning Star didn't look at him, but appropriately swivelled his ears to signal he was listening. Hey, just a thought. There was a lot of Magnitude Fragment magic going on here. I mean, like, we had that fight, and there was gold, and Rendgen and mine magic and... uh, just saying.


WHAT? WHY ARE YOU BRINGING THIS UP


Don't you think it might... attract attention?


I TOLD PYA TO KEEP THE OTHERS IN LINE-


Dij shook his head, gesturing a little frantically, No! Not Magnitude Fragment attention!


Kolo narrowed his eyes, THEN WHAT- he opened them wide, OH.


"What?" Sundae hissed. "What are you two worried about?"


Kolo quickly stood, although he winced at the injury. It was healing faster than Rendgen seemed to be, though. I'LL EXPLAIN WHEN WE'RE OUT OF THIS PLACE. IT WON'T BE SAFE FOR MUCH LONGER. RENDGEN'S MAGIC CAN'T HOLD IT SHUT.


"Hold it shut?" Magnotris piped up.


Morning Star looked up. Jubilee was still hugging him tightly, desperately, and he didn't want to pull away, but he could feel anxiety spiking in him. What was wrong, that was so terrifying that two Magnitude Fragments - the primordial deities themselves - were intimidated by it? What new foe were they going to go up against?


WE CAN TAKE YOU BACK TO OUR REALITY, Kolo explained, waving a hand. Dij's magic around Sterling dissipated and he was dropped to the invisible floor. THIS ISN'T UP FOR DEBATE, SO DON'T BOTHER.


Prav isn't going to be happy if we bring in that many lesser Frags.... Dij tapped his fingers together awkwardly.


Magnotris crawled over to Sterling, putting a hand on the other's back. Sterling blearily lifted his head and nodded, then gave a thumbs up to the other. 


SO? YOU HEARD YOURSELF! WE DON'T HAVE ANY TIME TO LOSE! 


Dij winced, then paused, then nodded a little more firmly. Yeahhhh, let's go. I'll take the heat, say it was my idea. And maybe Rend can get some healing?


Kolo's hand lit with magic as he scoffed, PLEASE, I CAN TAKE A MINOR SCOLDING FROM THAT BRAT. 


He snapped his fingers.


Nothing happened.


Kolo blinked, then snapped his fingers again. Morning Star watched in terrified silence as the Mag's expression changed from pensive worry to outright fear.


DIJ, TELEPORT US, came the hurried demand.


Oh, uh- Dijamant snapped his own fingers.


Nothing.


HE CAN'T ALREADY BE HERE, Kolo hissed, whipping around to stare into the stars behind him. IS REND HOLDING US BACK? HE CAN'T BE, HE'S TOO INJURED!


It's definitely not Rendgen-


"Can you two explain what's going on?" Sundae barked, having climbed to his feet. 


Kolo glanced to Sundae, eyes wide, before snapping to Dij, GET THE FRAGS TO A SAFE LOCATION, SET UP A SHIELD - ANYTHING!


R-right, yeah, just gimme a second to-


"Why!?" 


THERE'S NO TIME-


-oh?

did you really think i didn't hear the whole thing?