The dim glow of the circus with glitches flickered across the room, casting jagged shadows that danced along the walls. The remnants of what had been group were scattered around—empty spaces where laughter used to be. The room was quiet for a moment, but Kinger’s voice cut through it, sharp and deliberate.

“…I didn’t mean for any of this,” Kinger said, pacing, the bucket on his head tilting slightly as he moved. “I just… typed in the code. And now Caine’s gone. Deleted. Not broken. Gone. And I—I didn’t even notice until it was too late.”

Jax leaned against the wall, arms crossed, jaw tight, but his eyes never left You. The room’s noise—pure silenc,faded into nothingness. All he could hear were the echoes of the laughter he’d lost. Kaufmo, the clown who had made sarcasm feel like art, abstracted back then. Ribbit, whose laughter had felt like refuge, now gone. And Caine, deleted. The Quadro was fractured, leaving only him and You.

I can’t lose you too.

The thought struck him like a jolt. Jax’s chest tightened as the realization rooted itself. You—silent, steadfast—was all he had left. The anchor in a world that kept swallowing pieces of his life. He let the thought repeat over and over: I won’t let them go. Not now. Not ever.

Jax sharply said to kinger,yet the cocky sarcastic self of himself was gone. “You think you’re clever, surviving all this? Everyone’s falling apart, and you—lucky you—still have a choice. But it’s chaos now. Pure chaos.”

Kinger sighed, he really wanted Jax to stop masking, and he sees him as a son.

The room grew louder, voices now free of censorship, throwing words that would have once been forbidden. Jax’s gaze hardened, unshaken, fixed on You. The chaos around him might swallow everything else, but not them.

He could almost hear the absence of Kaufmo’s sarcastic quips, Ribbit’s carefree chuckles,—and yet, You remained. That alone made all the difference.

Pomni’s voice cut through. “Well… I guess we have to do something now, huh? Sitting around moping won’t fix anything.”

Ragatha’s tone followed, steadier, practical. “We adapt. We figure it out. We move forward. That’s all we can do.”

Jax let their words wash over him, but his eyes never left You. The rest of the world could crumble; the laughter could vanish; friends could be lost. But as long as they remained, he had something to fight for. Something to hold onto.

And he would.