Upload Complete: the saga

A Story by J

Warn: bone cracking, vanishing of the “forbidden hotdog”, memory erasing, wing gain, getting changed by fire, cult mentions, height loss, height gain, absue mention. (Also, XFOHV reference.. kinda)

As a child, a profound yearning for creativity was a constant thrum beneath the surface of my existence. It wasn't merely a desire to doodle or hum a tune; it was a visceral ache, the kind that seeps into your very bones, making colors swirl behind your eyes and worlds whisper in your mind's ear. I longed to build towering structures from imagination, to paint vibrant landscapes with strokes of pure emotion, to speak entire realities into being with nothing but words.

But this yearning was a forbidden fruit in the house where I was raised. Imagination was a luxury we couldn't afford, creativity a distraction from the grim necessity of toil. Nobody was allowed to dream, nobody was allowed to create. There was only work. All day. Every day. Hours ground away under the dull yellow lights of relentless routine and a hollow-eyed silence that swallowed every unspoken desire. To create? No, to produce. To obey. To perform. I grew up in that cold reality, my hands, meant for so much more, always holding nothing. My dreams withered like houseplants forgotten behind thick, light-blocking curtains, starved of the very essence that fuels life.

Then, one overcast afternoon, everything changed. A subtle shift in the oppressive weight of the everyday. I wandered off the main road, led by nothing but an insistent impulse and a flicker of something ancient stirring deep within me. And there, tucked away from the world's demands, I found it: an abandoned art place. Half-collapsed, it stood as a forgotten testament to a vibrant past. Brushstrokes of dust adorned shattered windows, and colorless murals peeled from the walls like fading memories, their hues muted by time and neglect.

Inside, time felt frozen. Old canvases leaned like crooked tombstones, silent witnesses to forgotten artistic battles. Tables were littered with dried-up markers, their colors long since bled away, and jars of glitter, like spilled stars, caught the meager light that dared to pierce the gloom. I found many odd things there, remnants of lives once lived creatively. But one thing �" one strange, impossible thing �" stood out: a paper-mâché creeper head. Its eyes were lopsided, giving it a bewildered, endearing quality. The texture was flaking, a testament to its age and the wear of time. Yet, it called to me softly, like static in a dream, a faint whisper from a forgotten world.

I lifted it, feeling its surprisingly light weight, the fragile shell of another's creation. Without thinking, a peculiar compulsion guiding my hands, I slipped it over my head. And everything blurred.

Suddenly, the abandoned building vanished. I wasn't in the dusty silence anymore. I was in another realm. The sky pulsed with an ethereal glow, like a screen on standby, waiting for an input. The ground felt strangely pixelated beneath me, each step landing on a tessellated surface. I sensed that life had once filled this place �" bright, chaotic, and undeniably digital.

Then, a strange sensation: my arms began to ache. They stretched unnaturally, trembling as they thinned, bones vanishing like erased code, dissolving into the ether. They narrowed into black, stick-like shapes, until they looked more like renderings than actual limbs. My fingers, once so capable, dissolved too, merging into flat black ovals, leaving me with no grip, just smooth shapes like drawn silhouettes. My voice caught in my throat, a strange new timbre forming. I felt my accent shifting, as if dragged across the internet, pulled from one reality to another. "What the… hey! My voice!?" I croaked, confused, hearing myself as if through a mic filter, distorted and unfamiliar.

Then it hit my legs. They stiffened, pulsing with an internal pressure, flattening into blocky rectangles of lime green. "W-what is happening...?" I whispered to no one, the words barely audible in this new, alien world. An uncomfortable sensation hit lower down, and I winced. Something changed, subtle at first, then undeniably obvious. My sense of self flickered like a bad connection, my very essence wavering. "H-hiss... not down there..." The words slipped out involuntarily, and I gasped, clutching my mouth. Another hiss. Was I... becoming a creeper? No, this wasn't just Minecraft. Creepers didn't have arms. But I did. Sort of. My torso thickened next, expanding in width, crushing what little was left of my old clothes. It took the shape of another green block, larger than my legs, but the same shade: lime, digital, unmistakably... artificial. "Ssss-stop that..." I muttered, another hiss leaking through my lips, an involuntary sound that was now a part of me.

Then my head. It reshaped itself, offering no resistance, into a block. A square. A perfect pixelated cube. "H-hiss? Is this it?" I breathed, the question laced with a strange blend of fear and resignation. But my thoughts... they began to disintegrate, like corrupted save files, lines of code scrambling into meaninglessness. "H-hiss! My thoughts!" I cried out, panic thick and static-tinged in my voice. I tried desperately to remember who I was. My name... it was gone. My life... scrambled. Fragmented. Was I ever human? No. No, that didn't sound right. I wasn't Josè Lynn. I never was. That name meant nothing here. I was... "Pillagerslay3r 64!" I declared, as if rebooted, a new identity downloaded into my very being. And suddenly, everything felt correct. I blinked �" if I even still could �" and looked around my hangout. Empty. Dead chat. Zero views. A peaceful kind of lonely. "Hm... well. Guess I better get making videos." I shrugged �" if I could shrug anymore. "I am a YouTuber after all."

So I booted up my recording software. My world glitched into existence, one pixel at a time. And just like always, I began to stream. Like I always had. Like I always would. Even if no one remembers the human I once might've been.

I used to be someone normal. I had a name, a place in the world �" I was cdneigel. Just a person drifting through the days like static on a dead channel. Nothing special. Nothing strange. But everything changed the moment I found those seeds. They were just lying there on the floor of an alley, scattered like dropped secrets. Small, dark, oddly warm in my hand. The instant I touched them, I felt it: a weight pulling down on my back. Heavy... but alive. I staggered forward, gasping as something shifted beneath my skin. Feathers. Two dark red feathered wings burst from my shoulder blades like they’d always belonged there, just hidden beneath a thin veil of normalcy. My breath hitched. I reached behind me, trembling, and ran my fingers across them. They were soft. Warm. Real. "What the...?" I muttered, trying to understand, my mind struggling to reconcile this impossible reality. But I didn’t have time to process.

Suddenly, my body started to change. My limbs tightened, growing thinner by the second �" arms and legs turning spindly, smooth, unnatural. Like sticks drawn in sharp ink. My fingers melted into simple black circles. My feet curved into oval shapes, strange and stiff. No toes. Just shapes. "What is going on?!" I shouted, voice cracking, though it sounded just a little higher. A little softer. My hips ached. Something deep inside shifted, like a lever being pulled in a part of me I didn’t know existed. I wasn’t just changing on the outside. I felt... more female. More like her.

Suddenly, "Chirp?" The sound was small but clear. A voice low pitched yet... bright somehow. I spun around, wings instinctively flaring out in fear, the sudden breeze kicking up dust from the alley. My new body twitched with adrenaline. "Who are you?!" I shouted into the dark. From behind a trash bin, a figure stepped into the light. Familiar. Too familiar. She had pixelated green limbs, a square head with eyes that glitched when she blinked. She looked like a mashup of code, cosplay, and childhood memories. She stared at me silently for a moment, like she was studying my new form. Then she spoke. "I’m Pillagerslay3r 64... or just Slay3r," she said with a slight grin. "Remember?"

And just like that, something snapped inside my head. A flood of memories �" ones that weren’t mine, or maybe they were? I couldn’t tell. Worlds filled with blocky grass. Explosions. Streams. Comments. Flying through skyblock servers. Crafting chaos and calling it home. "Wh- huh?" I breathed, stumbling, my wings drooping downward in confusion. My whole body buzzed like a phone stuck in a reboot loop. I looked around. Where was I? Everything had a slight glow, like I was inside a loading screen that never finished rendering. And there she was, Slay3r, looking at me like this was just a Tuesday. I blinked, wings twitching behind me. She didn’t look concerned. Just... patient. "What’s next?" I asked her, almost afraid of the answer. She shrugged, tilting her head with that same sly smile. "Don’t know," she said, almost playfully. "This place is weird. And wonderfully so." And for the first time since this all started... I believed her.

I was EchoWanderer1, just another username in a sea of profiles. Someone who lived a normal life �" well, as normal as things could get in a world where silence echoed louder than sound. I went through the motions. Logged in. Logged out. Watched the world change through a screen I never questioned. But then the fire came. It wasn’t just flames. It was like the world itself ignited pixel by pixel. Buildings turned to sparks. Trees to embers. Even the sky seemed to crack open, burning from the edges inward. I tried to run. I tried to leave, to disconnect. But I was too slow. The fire got me. And it didn’t consume me. It changed me.

I felt my body collapse inward like kindling. No pain, only heat and light. I wasn’t burning. I was the flame. My arms and legs reshaped themselves into thin silhouettes, drawn like quick strokes of charcoal. Stick-thin, but alive. My hands became smooth black circles, no fingers, just loops. My feet followed, shifting into dark, soft ovals like smudges left on the edges of forgotten art. I stood in a world made of cinders and starlight, glowing faintly from within.

That’s when I saw her. A winged figure flying above me, backlit by the ash-streaked sky. Her feathers shimmered red like fire that had cooled just enough to breathe. My mind started to... twist, bend, correct itself. Memories rearranged like code lines recompiled. I felt something click inside me. A name. A connection. A feeling not entirely mine yet familiar. "Where is my orange cousin?" I asked aloud, my voice steadier than expected. The words felt natural, like I’d said them a thousand times before. The winged figure descended slowly, landing beside me with practiced ease. "Don’t know," she replied simply, brushing stray sparks from her feathers. "Who are you?" I asked, still trying to orient myself. She tilted her head, blinking once. "Chirp. She/her." Then she looked closer at me, eyes scanning like she could see more than just my shape. Like she could see the fire behind my eyes. "Who are you?" she asked. I hesitated. But the answer was already there. "Soul Firey. He/him." The moment I said it, I felt real. Not like the version of myself before. But like this was always meant to happen.

Chirp smiled, wings fluttering with excitement. "Nice to meet you!" she said cheerfully, lifting off the ground again in a light bounce. I looked around, taking in the strange, almost ethereal place. Orange and blue embers floated through the air like fireflies. Structures flickered in and out of existence �" some made of blocks, others sketched like unfinished memories. "This place is so odd…" I murmured. "I know," Chirp called from above, looping once in the air. "But that’s what makes it special!" She spiraled upward and then paused, laughing softly as she drifted back down. I stood still, letting the warmth of this place settle into me. It was strange, yes. But it had rhythm. Texture. Possibility. My thoughts felt like sparks now �" scattered but glowing. "Yeah… special," I echoed to myself, my voice barely above a whisper. I turned my head and noticed Chirp had flown a bit ahead. She was chatting animatedly with someone else �" a figure tinted in lime green with blocky limbs and a square head. They stood together like echoes from the same strange dream. And I just watched them, quietly. Somewhere deep in the flickering warmth, I felt something settle inside me. I was Soul Firey. And maybe, just maybe, this was where I belonged.

I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but I’m in a cult. Not just any cult. A strange, secretive one with rituals older than the sky, hidden beneath cracked stone temples and pixelated skies. I used to be Cristian. But not anymore. Now, I’m cristianuy �" a name that echoes like static between worlds. A name I didn’t choose, but somehow fits like a broken mask.

I was surrounded. Figures in tattered cloaks stood in a perfect circle around me. Their faces were obscured, their heads bowed, each one humming in tones that felt more ancient than time. Chains bound my wrists and ankles. Cold metal. Heavy. Too real. I was ready for a lot of things. But not this. Not them. They began to chant. That dead language �" Latin. Dry and sharp, like bones rattling in an empty hallway. As their voices rose, I felt something crawl beneath my skin. My body began to fade in color, graying like ash left after a fire. Right in the center of my chest, a single green dot pulsed like a heartbeat. My hands trembled as I felt my face change. My eyes, once brown, melted into two flat, lime green lines. No more pupils. No more warmth. Just cold expression. My mouth distorted itself, twisting into a sideways “W” or “M” when I grew sad or angry. Sometimes it became an “O” if I was shocked, like my whole identity could be expressed through a single symbol. "What the?! I wasn’t-" I tried to shout, but something silenced me. A sharp wave of static tore through my thoughts. And then it all went black.

When I opened my eyes again, I was somewhere else entirely. Not the temple. Not Earth. Not anywhere I recognized. I stood in a glowing forest of digital trees, their leaves like flickering green code, their trunks tall and blocky. A soft melody echoed from nowhere, like a background track looping over forgotten memories. I was in the Pillagerslay3r Canonical Universe. The PSCU. I didn’t know how I knew that, but the moment I arrived, it was clear in my mind. Like it had always been there, buried beneath the human noise. I stumbled forward, staring at my own hands now �" smooth, gray, with no fingers. I looked down. My legs were still there, long and softly glowing gray, with oval feet that hovered slightly above the ground. They felt different though, like they were made of polished stone or something sculpted from memory. Not clunky or robotic �" just simplified, smooth, purposeful. "I’m Cat..." I muttered to no one. And yet it felt true. So final.

A sudden gasp cut through the digital wind. "Another music disk?! Oh my seeds!!" a high voice called out. I looked up and saw her �" a winged figure soaring above, red feathers shining like sunset-glow. She spiraled downward with practiced ease, landing beside me with a gleam in her eye. "I’m Chirp!" she said brightly, like we were long-lost friends. "Cat..." I replied, voice still catching on the new syllables. Chirp's eyes widened. She looked at me like I was something rare, something important. Without warning, she lifted me gently into the air. She wasn’t strong, exactly, but in this world, gravity worked differently. We flew upward, the glowing trees stretching below like data lines branching across a map. "Look, I’ll show you everyone!" Chirp said, excited. As we rose into the open sky, I saw them: A flickering figure surrounded by blue flames �" tall, composed, and radiating calm. "That’s Soul Firey," she said, pointing. "He’s been here a while." Then, a lime green shape bouncing slightly with energy, its head a perfect square, limbs angular and bold. "And that’s Pillagerslay3r 64! The one who started all of this!" she said with a proud smile. I stared, awe-struck. None of it made sense. And yet, it did. "Woah..." I said quietly, words escaping without thought. We hovered for a moment in silence. The world below shimmered like an unfinished game map �" part dream, part glitch. "This place is amazing, huh?" Chirp said gently, eyes still locked on the horizon. I didn’t answer at first. I just nodded. Slowly. Carefully. Because deep down, I knew, I was never going back. And maybe... I didn’t want to.

My name is Xena. I was just a normal human student. Just a quiet, average teen in a noisy, forgettable high school. It was an average Monday. Gray skies, lukewarm coffee, dull chatter. Nothing unusual. Nothing magical. Nothing threatening. That is, until I felt something drop onto my head. It wasn’t heavy, but it was there. A strange sensation. Woven. Rough. Like something hand-made. It was… a basket? "What the..?" I said aloud, reaching up to touch it. My fingers tugged gently. Then harder. It wouldn’t budge. "Ow…" I muttered, wincing. It was fused to my head. Somehow.

And then things got worse. My arms began to tingle. Then twist. Then shift. Their tone dulled and brightened all at once, becoming a soft, distinct canary yellow. The color was oddly vibrant, almost glowing under the school’s harsh fluorescent lights. "S-Stop that…!" I stammered, glancing wildly around. But no one was nearby. The hallway was empty. Then my legs followed suit. Shortening. Rounding. The bones inside no longer felt human. They became pudgy, adorable, even. Cartoonish. Wrong. "W-What is happening to me?!" I screamed, panic now fully in control. My hands began to contort. I watched, horrified, as my ring and middle fingers melted together, forming one singular digit. My toes weren’t spared either. They merged into soft, rounded shapes, like I had worn the same sneakers too long and become them. "S-Stop that…" I whispered again, weaker this time. Almost pleading. My neck began to sink into my torso. My shoulders smoothed out. My posture collapsed into something that barely felt upright anymore. My voice cracked then shifted, becoming higher in pitch… but oddly more masculine at the same time. "Stop! My voice! It’s so… different!" I managed to squeak out. Or speak. Or something in between. I stumbled forward, except now I was lower to the ground. My height had dropped to 4’7”, and my proportions no longer matched what I knew to be human. My body twisted once more �" less a body now, more of a geometric idea. A living shape. "Ow…" I muttered again, this time more out of sadness than pain.

And then… everything stopped. No more morphing. No more tingling. No more sensation at all. Just me, standing shaped like a giant X in a place I had never seen before. "Wh-Where am I…?" I asked softly, spinning in slow confusion. Everything around me looked surreal �" flat and colorful like a TV show, yet vast and real like a world I’d never imagined. I tried to think. Tried to remember. But all I could recall… was a number. Four. Just that. No face. No family. No life. Nothing. "Why do I remember- Ack! My thoughts, no!" I cried out as the memories began to collapse inward. Thoughts of school, of my favorite jacket, of my friends Florencia and Tessa �" they were fading. Melting. Florencia became a he, someone warm and strong. Four. My best friend. My protector. Tessa became a they, distant and cold. Two. The one who hurt me. My whole identity rewrote itself like code on a broken screen. I wasn’t Xena anymore. I was something else. I was X. An Algebraic Variable. A cohost. A cartoon. Something fictional and somehow… real.

And just like that, I awoke. Now standing in the PSCU. The Pillagerslay3r Canonical Universe. Everything buzzed gently. The air shimmered in a way Earth never did. "W-Where’s Foury?" I muttered, my voice hollow. The silence answered first. Then, a voice broke through. "Oh? X? You’re here?" asked someone nearby. I turned my head slowly to see a lime green figure bounding toward me. Blocky. Enthusiastic. Familiar. Pillagerslay3r 64. "Uhm… yeah?" I replied cautiously, my limbs still feeling new. She squinted at me, tilting her head. "Wait… you look depressed. What’s wrong?" I hesitated. Then looked away. "A certain someone is missing…" I whispered. She tilted her head again. "Four, right?" I just nodded. That’s when I heard it. That voice. His voice. Coming from her mouth. "Don’t worry! He’ll be back soon!" she said, perfectly imitating Four’s nasally, comforting tone. My eyes widened. I blinked back something like tears. "T-Thank you…" I said quietly. She didn’t say anything more. Just smiled, gently reaching out to give me seven soft head pats. And somehow, in that surreal world made of variables, blocks, and broken memories, that made everything feel okay. Even if only for a moment.

My name is BarrEmmy. I used to be... normal. Just a regular being, living life. No real worries. No real dangers. But then... the flames took over. At first, it was subtle. A flicker here and there, a glow that barely touched the edges of my being. But then, it grew. Slowly at first, creeping up from the tips of my fingers, spreading through my arms, up to my chest. My skin began to shimmer, then burn with an unnatural orange hue. It was as if the fire had started to consume me from the inside out, and soon, there was no trace left of the me I used to be. I was nothing more than flames and heat. I couldn’t recognize myself anymore. The change was overwhelming, like a wildfire sweeping through my existence. I tried to hold onto something, anything, but everything familiar was fading away.

Then, I heard it. A soft voice. A fragile cry. "Hello?" it asked, trembling. I blinked, trying to focus on something that wasn’t just a blur of fiery chaos around me. "Hello?" I replied, my voice strange, distorted, like it didn’t belong to me. The creature before me looked disappointed, its eyes searching mine as if it expected something more familiar. "Oh... you’re not Foury..." it murmured weakly, its voice laced with sadness. With that, it turned and faded into the distance. I stood still, unsure of what had just happened. I couldn’t remember anything. But then, another voice �" one that seemed strangely comforting �" called out from the shadows. "Cousin?" I froze. "Cousin?! What?" I asked, my confusion growing with each passing moment. The creature stepped closer, and I saw a flicker of recognition in its fiery eyes. "It’s me, Soul Firey... remember?" he said, his voice now filled with a warmth that seemed to wrap around me, even in my disoriented state. I tried to focus, tried to recall this Soul Firey. But no matter how hard I tried, my mind only felt... foggy. "N-no…" I whispered, shaking my head as the disjointed memories swirled in a dizzying spiral. My past felt distant. Unreachable. "You’ll remember soon, cousin..." Soul Firey reassured me, though there was a hint of worry in his tone. I didn’t know what to believe. Who was I? Who was he?

But before I could speak again, the confusion became too much. "What do you... ACK!" I gasped, as a rush of memories began to flood my mind. Everything came rushing back. I remembered that yellow figure, the one who seemed to float in my mind like a distant star. X. Yes, that was their name. X had been a former cohost on a show called Battle for BFDI. Wait... I... I had been a contestant on that show, hadn't I? The flames that engulfed me were no accident. They were part of the transformation. Part of who I was now. But there was something else, something even more significant. Soul Firey �" my cousin. I saw the truth. He hadn’t been as lucky as I had. I had grown in popularity, in recognition, while he... he remained in the shadows. And then, it all became clear. My name wasn’t BarrEmmy anymore. It was Firey.

I snapped back into the present, my mind trying to catch up with all the fragments of myself that had returned. "What the spark happened?" I muttered aloud, struggling to keep myself grounded. Soul Firey grinned at me. "Glad you’re okay, cuz. Unlike that guy." He pointed toward a distant figure. I followed his gaze, and my stomach sank. There, in the distance, was X. But something about the way Soul Firey had spoken made my heart twist. There was an edge to his words �" something that felt unresolved. I frowned. "That he is genderless, actually." I corrected, my voice clear now that I was starting to feel more like myself. Soul Firey blinked, surprised. "Oh. My bad." I sighed softly. "It’s fine, cuz. You weren’t in BFB anyway." I shrugged, the memories of the show almost feeling like a dream. That was who I was. Who I had been. But now... now I was something else.

My name is Florencia. I used to be friends with Xena, but now... she’s missing. The feeling of her absence gnawed at me every day. I kept searching, hoping for a sign, a clue, something. But nothing. Then, one day, as I was lost in thought, everything changed. I suddenly found myself teleported to an unfamiliar place. The world around me was strange �" hazy, shifting in and out of focus. As I looked around, I saw something small and yellow. It was hunched over, shaking, and I could hear soft sobs emanating from it. "You okay?" I asked cautiously, unsure if I should even approach. The creature sniffled, raising its head slightly. "N-no..." it whispered, its voice cracking with sorrow. "Why?" I asked, my concern growing. I didn’t know what this little creature was, but it was clearly hurting. The yellow thing’s tiny voice trembled. "My friend is missing…" he mumbled, sounding utterly defeated. "Oh, I’m sorry to hear that..." I said softly, not knowing what else to say. The loneliness in his voice was overwhelming. The creature stared at me for a long moment, its eyes searching mine, as if trying to make sense of me. "Who even are you?" he asked, confusion in his voice. "I’m Florencia…" I stated simply, unsure of how much to explain. "I- I’m X…" the creature replied hesitantly. He seemed almost embarrassed by the simple name. "Are you a she?" I asked, noticing the high-pitched quality of his voice. Something about the way it sounded felt soft and delicate. X looked at me, almost puzzled. "I’m genderless and go by he/they actually…" he responded, his voice a little more assured this time. "Oh, okay." I nodded, trying to absorb everything. This was all so strange.

I turned to leave, my mind racing with thoughts of Xena and where she could have gone. "Wait! D- don’t leave…" X whimpered, his voice filled with desperation. "I don’t have anyone… I need someone to talk to…" His words struck a chord deep within me. I could see the pain in his eyes, the longing for someone to help him, to be there for him. I couldn’t just leave him alone. But I also had to find Xena. I couldn’t give up on her, no matter what. "I have to find my friend," I said firmly, even though part of me wanted to stay with X. X let out another soft, pained cry. "M- my friend is missing too…" he whimpered, looking lost in his sorrow. Despite his plea, I left him behind and walked towards another room, though I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had left him in a way that would haunt me. The pure sadness on his little face stayed with me. "That poor letter…" I muttered to myself, a wave of sympathy washing over me.

But as I walked, something began to happen. Something... strange. My hands started to turn Picton Blue, a deep, vibrant shade I had never seen before. My fingers felt stiff, clumsy. What the? I screamed internally. The blue spread up my arms, creeping further along my skin. "No, no, no!" I tried to fight it, but it was too late. My ring and middle fingers fused together, leaving me with just four fingers, much like X, but mine were sharper, more claw-like. They looked as though they were made for protection. "S- stop that…" I muttered in disbelief, trying to regain control, but my body didn’t listen. Then, my legs began to change as well. They turned the same Picton Blue, my feet shrinking and forming into a more oval shape, just like X’s. "I don’t want this…" I whispered desperately, but the transformation wouldn’t stop. Suddenly, my body seemed to stretch and contort. My skin took on a new shade �" Curious Blue, a color that felt cold and strange. I could feel myself changing into something else, something I couldn’t quite comprehend. "Stop this! I didn’t want this! What the hell is happening to me EEE! EEE! EEEEEEYYYAAAAHHH!" I screamed as the change took hold completely. My body finally finished its transformation, my height reaching about 5'7. I now had a new shape, one I couldn’t deny.

Then, I screeched. "D- did I actually do that? Someone like me? EYAH?" I asked in disbelief. My voice, now unrecognizable, echoed through the air. My mind was suddenly a whirlwind. The thoughts that flooded my head were overwhelming. A human? I wasn’t that. I was something else entirely. An Algebralien, an integer to be exact. My true identity began to settle into place. Four, that was who I was now. The memories of my previous life faded, my relationship with Xena started to dissolve. Xena was replaced with X, my best friend. The memories of the ones who had wronged me, like Two, became clear. My mind gained memories of BFB with my role as a host. With a sudden realization, I understood: I wasn’t just Florencia anymore. I was Four, always had been.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" I screeched once more, feeling the weight of my new form settle in. I couldn’t help but let out a laugh. "Heh, needed that." A small, satisfied snicker escaped my lips. I walked out of the room, the unfamiliar surroundings of the PSCU stretching out before me. The echoes of my own transformation still rang in my ears. Then, I heard it. The familiar sound of sobbing. I knew exactly who it was. I didn’t hesitate. I hummed that exact melody I had created all those years ago, on December 31, 2008. "X! What’s wrong, bud? Ya look depressed as hell!" I asked, my voice filled with concern. X looked up, his eyes red from crying. "Oh, idk… I don’t know what I am or where two plus two is…" he mumbled, his voice small and defeated. I paused for a moment, trying to collect myself. Then, I pointed to myself. "You mean, me, right?" I asked, my tone soft but knowing. "W- what?" he asked, confused. "Don’t you know? Two plus two is four, and well… I’m a four." I said with a reassuring smile. X’s eyes widened, the tears not yet shed finally falling. "F- Foury... you’re back..." He stumbled forward and hugged me tightly, his sobs echoing in my chest. "Hey… shh… buddy… you’re gonna be okay. I’m here…" I whispered, holding him carefully, making sure not to hurt him. From a distance, I heard a familiar voice �" Slay3r. "This is like BFB 10 all over again…" she muttered. I looked up at her, a knowing smile playing across my face as I continued to comfort X. "Yeah, it kinda is…"