Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

As the soul makes them walk towards the lake, Kris can’t help but feel relieved. Its obsessive need to make them mess with everything it can get its hands on is exhausting, and this will be their first chance to relax for more than a minute or two since… was it laying on the floor with Ralsei? Kris isn’t exactly sure how much time has passed since then, but it’s way too long to go without resting their legs.

After a moment of simply staring out into the reflective surface of the lake, they feel the strings loosen, and they take the opportunity to crumple. They get as comfortable as they can, sitting on the ground with one hand on their knee, and they hear Susie doing the same. They take a moment to gather their breath, as Susie seems to be looking out across the water with some amount of focus. After a moment, she turns to look at them, a mild look of confusion across her face.

Right, she only knows the version of ‘you’ that’s actively being possessed. It always makes you move and stand in such rigid ways. Now, you must look like a puppet whose strings have gone loose. It’s what you are, after all.

“...You hear that? …No?” 

The soul doesn’t respond. Kris tries not to think of how little they know about the entity puppeteering them, and fails. Kris has tried to talk to it before, but it never responds or reacts to anything Kris says. What does it say about them, that this entity will go out of its way to talk to literally everyone it can reach in Hometown - to the point of knocking on strangers doors! - and yet it won’t give them the time of day? What does it say about the thing wearing their body?

Susie continues on, unaware of Kris’ inner turmoil. “... Y’ know, on the other side of the lake.”

Kris’ eyes turn to look at her, as she turns her head to face the still water once again. Kris can’t hear anything over the sound of their own thoughts.

Susie.

She doesn’t really know them, does she? The thought makes Kris’ heart hurt, but it’s true, isn’t it? She was their bully until the day it took over. If it wasn’t for Alphys suddenly growing a spine and sending Kris and Susie off to fetch the chalk, back on Thursday, they probably wouldn’t have been friends at all. Kris feels like laughing and sobbing, or both at the same time. 

No, they were her friend. Even if the broad strokes weren’t them, even if they’re working for the other side, all the little moments were real. It didn’t hang out with her at QC’s, it didn’t pour juice into her mouth, it didn’t play the piano for her. Kris was… like that song, across the lake. She can hear them, but only in short snippets, only when the rest of the world is quiet, only when the moment is dire enough to allow them to seize control.

Susie turns to face Kris, and, oh. Somehow during all of that they managed to turn their head towards her. “...What, I got something on my face or something?”

Kris continues to look at her, until she turns back to face the lake, the hint of a fond smile on her maw. 

Say what’s on your mind ♥ 

Any other time, Kris would have found a way around its command. They would have said the command exactly, said something without opening their mouth, said something small and innocuous. They have too much to hide. 

Tonight, however, they don’t manage to stop themselves before they say, “I wish you got to know the real me.”

Susie turns to face them again, her eyes unknowingly meeting their own through their bangs. There’s a weird kind of sadness to her gaze… like she was commiserating over a shared wound. She looks at them for a moment, as if waiting for them to say more, but Kris volunteers nor is made to say anything more.

Susie sighs, and says, “I don’t know what’s going on with you, but…” she pauses, looking down. “I get it, okay?”

She looks back over to the lake, breaking the unknowing eye contact the two of them had. “The Susie of a week ago wouldn’t recognize me. No one else in this whole damn world had ever given me the time of day; they never made an effort to see beyond my sparkling personality.” 

Her smile was full of teeth, but it didn’t reach her eyes as she turned to face Kris. Suddenly, she reaches out her hand, before clasping Kris’ shoulder and pulling them back until they lay down on the soft dirt.

“… and then you did. Ralsei did. You were the first people to see… the me I want to be. The version of me that’s your friend.” 

The stars above do not shine as brightly as her eyes, when she speaks of you. When she looks away, it’s as if the world goes dark.

“...I’m only sorry it took me so long to, become the person you saw in me. That I… that I was a real piece of shit to you for a long time. If someone had treated me like I treated you, I wouldn’t be able to be in the same room as them, let alone…” She leaves it there.

Kris doesn’t like thinking of who she was before their adventures started. She was a bully, yes, but Kris can clearly see now that she was hurt. As hurt as all of their friends, as hurt as them. The strings are still loose, so they reach out a hand.

Susie takes it. 

“You’re too soft, sometimes, you know that?” She barks out a chuckle - all teeth and smile - and this time, it does reach her eyes. “So, I don’t know what’s going on with you, that’s preventing me from ‘knowing the real you.’ But, I promise, whatever it is, I’ll be there, okay? You’ve always been there for me, it’s about time I return the favor.”

Kris feels lighter than they have in… a long time. The way Susie is looking at Kris could hang them in the sky next to all the other stars, but, in this moment, there isn’t anywhere they would like to be, other than right here, next to her.

“So, what’s actually bothering you anyway? What’s keeping you from being yourself?”

The wonders of the moment fade to dread, as they feel their body begin to move on its own. As it begins to act. As it reminds Kris that they aren’t in control.

It sits up, still holding her hand. Kris seized whatever control they still had, clasping Susie with their other hand as it looked into her, laying on the dirt in front of it. Susie’s smile fades into worry as the weather suddenly changes. The wind picks up for a moment before dying completely, all sounds outside your vicinity are drowned by the beating of your own heart, and the stars fade as the world is bathed in an eerie half-light that drowns out the colors of the world.

“Me.” ♥

Chapter Text

Kris’ body does not accurately reflect the panic they feel - it always has a blank expression, and Kris struggles as hard as they can to try and show her something, but it has full control in this moment . Susie’s face is far from blank, however. Her face contorts quickly from confusion, to fear. This isn’t what you wanted, if Kris could help it they would never see Susie afraid again, but they can’t help it, can they? 

All too quickly, though, Kris watches as the fear fades from her expression, replaced by steel and… a fierce and unwavering something, a protective instinct they’ve very rarely had cause to see out of anyone. Kris’ hands grip hers still, and Kris gathers the will to hold even tighter.

“Kris… what is this? What…”

In this moment, Kris realizes that they have a choice - though in the end it’s hardly even a choice. Kris isn’t thinking of The Plan and what the soul might know, as they act - though they certainly consider such things in the following moments.

Kris thinks of Susie - how she deserves to hear this from them, not from it - as they gather every ounce of determination within themselves, as they plunge their hand into their chest.

“Kris! What the hell…” Susie’s expression shifts back to confusion and concern as she watches them rip out their own soul. She watches as their hand phases through their chest, and emerges with a large, familiar, heart shaped object. They grasp it firmly around the bottom, and it seemingly wiggles a bit in their grasp before settling. Kris is breathing hard, and they look twice as tired as they seemed only a few minutes ago. 

They feel twice as tired as they were only a few moments ago. They can go without a soul, but the sudden collapse of energy allows exhaustion to hit them like a truck. They haven’t had a full night’s sleep in days, and they feel every bit of it at this moment. Kris falls to their knees, dropping the soul and letting it float beside them as they catch themselves, but thankfully, it doesn’t immediately ram itself back into them. If anything, it almost seems to give them space. As it does so, it’s as if the world releases a breath it was holding - the wind settles down, and the strange light fades in intensity. Sound does not return, other than what Kris can hear from Susie.

Susie stands, before pulling Kris up with her. The two of them stare at Kris’ heart-shaped parasite, before Susie quickly turns between Kris and the Soul. “That’s… your soul right? It came out of you when you, uh, did the thing that got rid of the Titan.”

Kris looks to Susie, and they mumble - quiet, but it’s quieter than quiet around them - “It’s… not mine.” 

Susie looks with concern at Kris, then the two of them turn to the soul - which is also floating side to side, like it was…

“You’re also trying to say no, right?” Susie asks. Kris frowns - what were they thinking? Now it’s free, and it can do… who knows what. They check their pockets in the vain hope that they might have some way to trap it, but to no avail. They should still be ready to give chase if it runs - hitting it earlier seemed to stun it.  Hopefully, none of that will be necessary, given that it goes out of its way to be kind to everyone it meets except you . 

The soul, seemingly in response to Susie, bops up and down - like a nod. It’s trying to communicate now? Why now? Kris has tried to talk to it, during the time when they’ve removed it from their body, but it never acknowledged any of Kris’ attempts. 

Susie’s expression falters a bit, but the steel never leaves her eyes. “Okay. You-” she points at the soul - “can hear us, right?”

The little shit shakes itself side to side in a no.

Susie holds her hands up, fingers curled into claws as her face contorts into an incredulous growl. Kris, however, manages to find their voice, as they say, with as much force as they can muster, “Stop this. No Jokes. Answers, now. You can respond with a yes or no? Then, you’ll answer our questions.”

Kris keeps a hand ready to draw the Black Shard taken from the Knight’s blade. Kris is willing to feel some pain themselves if needed. When they hit the soul with a chocolate syrup bottle, back in Noelle’s kitchen, it felt like that one time Dess accidentally beamed them in the head with a baseball. Kris is just hoping that it feels the pain more than they do.

The soul does nothing. Susie has an inquisitive look on her face. “Wait… you heard me, right?”

The soul bobs up and down again, a yes.

“Did you hear Kris speak, just then?”

Kris’ stomach plummets as the soul shakes itself side to side. Ah. This entire time, it couldn’t even hear them. Well, at least that explains why it wasn’t responding to Kris. They’re weirdly relieved by this - whatever entity it is hasn’t judged Kris to be the one person in this angel-forsaken town to be unworthy of kindness - the soul just can’t hear them. For some reason.

Susie turns to them, and says “Kris, this is really goddamn weird.”

Kris can only nod. They didn’t want to throw this wrench into their friendship, especially after the heartwarming conversation they had earlier… but, Kris supposes, this was inevitable. She’s seen the soul a few times by this point - she was going to ask questions eventually. Kris doesn’t want to, but knows that they have to face the music here.

Kris gathers themselves, before saying what they needed to say. “It was… controlling me. Ever since Thursday. Not entirely, but…”

Susie looks at them, and Kris can feel their friendship, their bond being tested. “It was… controlling you? That’s why you… felt that I didn’t know the real you. Because, I didn’t.” 

Kris’ absent heart seized, and they avert their gaze. That was what they told her, right? That’s what they were expecting, in the deepest pits of their pessimistic mind. They should be ready to be… rejected. So… why does it hurt so much?

They look back towards Susie, but she’s looking at the soul again. It… it’s shaking itself side to side. No? It’s telling her…

“No?” Why does she sound so relieved? She turns back to you, and it hurts how relieved she looks, how she looks like she’s putting herself back together too. Her voice is sad and hesitant in a way that sounds wrong on her. Kris heard it earlier when she was fighting that statue of the old man, and they’d give anything to ensure they didn’t have to hear it again.

“Kris… you’re still my friend, right?”

Kris nods as hard as they can, over and over, closing their eyes to banish the hint of tears coming forth. They sniffle, before saying “Of course.” They let out a breathy sigh, before opening their arms in invitation.

Susie seizes the opportunity, and hugs Kris. They grip each other tight, and for just a moment, Kris lets go of all their worries. Kris doesn’t like physical touch from most people, but Susie isn’t most people. She rubs her hand into the back of their sweater as she swears, “I want to know the real you, too. I’m not going anywhere, Kris.”

Chapter Text

As Kris and Susie reluctantly let go of each other, Kris feels the need to explain, well, more of what they’ve gone through. In a way, they haven’t been able to really talk about it. Sure, the other members involved with The Plan know they’re being possessed, but they aren’t exactly people that Kris can turn to for emotional comfort. 

It would help if they knew more about the thing, but, for all that the plan relies on it to close the dark fountains and accomplish their ultimate goal, they know startlingly little about it. They needed it, however - it would be the key that opens the way to save her. The plan demanded this of them, and Kris would do anything to save her, even if they resent every second that they don’t have control.

Still… above everything, perhaps even their better judgement, they trust Susie. She is honest with herself in a way that no one else in their life is, and that’s exactly what they need right now.

Susie looks down, after breaking off the hug. She asks, “So… what exactly was you, and what was the soul?”

And that was the question, wasn’t it? Kris could spend all night telling her each and every moment that they seized control for her, but they decide to save that. For now, they find an example.

“Well… remember when we went to QC’s today? It was the one that stole Asriel’s money, walked us to the diner, and paid for the meal; but I was the one that hung out with you during it, that drew pictures on the window with you.”

Susie nods, her mouth slightly open to reveal the glint of her teeth. “So, uh. The soul decides the when and what, you decide the how?”

Kris shrugs. “Yeah, basically.” They’re too tired to get into the full breakdown of how exactly they’re being led on a string - the mere fact that they can talk about this, is enough for now. “It's complicated. If I really want to, I can seize control, but most of the time…”

“That fucking blows.” She reaches a hand out, and after a moment to give Kris the opportunity to reject the touch, she places her arm around Kris’ shoulder, before turning to look at the soul again. “Though, I suppose this means I’ve got another friend.”

What.

Kris looks over at the soul, and it’s nodding. Kris swears to lock the little shit in the bathroom at ICE-E’s the next chance they get, to hit it with a hockey stick again, something. To do something to drive it away from her. 

It’s some supernatural anomaly that changed the fucking weather when it introduced itself. It’s some eldritch thing that doesn’t entirely understand how normal people work (at least, according to what the soul has them do - it makes them run at full speed almost all the time, they haven’t consistently eaten, they're made to mess with literally everything all the time ). It’s something bound inside a human soul, not anything human.

Kris barely understands themselves as a human, and seeing this thing as anything close would be a mistake. What if its idea of helping them would mean breaking their will to resist? Hurting one of their friends out of a misguided desire to ready them for the coming storm? Purifying any perceived imperfections the same way that it purified the titanspawn, until they're left as something unrecognizable as themselves?

She’s just going to what, walk up to it and declare it a friend, hoping that it reciprocates in a way that she can understand?

Actually, of course she is. That’s the soul’s strategy when it comes to recruiting most of the darkners, and that somehow works most of the time - and this is Susie. Nothing can stop her when she’s decided that she wants something.

Kris speaks up, their voice not conveying the cocktail of emotions that they feel. “Susie… it’s an entity that lives in a human soul. I think it's on our side, but-”

Susie interrupts, “Whatever it is, it helped us save the world by getting rid of that Titan. That counts for something.” Susie withdraws her arm, leaving a vacuum of warmth across Kris’ shoulders, as she shrugs. She then turns to look at Kris with empathy in her eyes. “I don’t know, maybe this is a bad idea or whatever, but being my friend was a bad idea just a few days ago. Obviously I would prefer if they weren’t possessing you, but… actually, wait, don’t humans like, need their souls to live.”

She grabs Kris, and shakes them - Kris goes limp like a Ragdoll in her arms. “Kris. Kris. Tell me you’re not dying right now.”

Kris eventually composes themselves, saying “Stop, stop, I’m fine Susie. It sucks ass to be without a soul, but I’ll live.” Kris would know - they’ve had plenty of experience surviving without a soul. Kris can endure just fine once the apathy and numbness become normal, but when they take it out and feel all other sensations and feelings leaving their vacant heart? That’s the worst part.

Kris decides that the soul is unlikely to flee at this point, so they gesture for Susie to sit back down, facing away from the lake this time. Susie sits first, and Kris notices the soul floats down to be at her eye level, before they sit down again themselves. They lean against each other, and Kris takes the opportunity to rest their head against her own.

“I’m glad you’re not actually dying, dumbass. Still, it seems like you’re way more tired without it. Should we… head back to your place, pick this up again tomorrow? Not that I don’t want answers just as much as you do, but it’s ass o’clock and we’re running on less than 8 hours of sleep between the two of us.”

At that moment, the Soul begins moving back and forth, with more force than normal.

Susie perks up, suddenly alert. “Wait, what are you saying no to? Should we not head back to Kris’ place?”

The soul nods again. Kris narrows their eyes, even as their mind raced. What do they know? Did they… do something during the time they were loose today, warn people about the dark world in the church? Did it reveal the existence of the plan, somehow? Kris doesn’t know how it could do that, but the thought felt like ice water pouring down their back. They can’t let all of this be for nothing. It would complicate things immensely if anyone else knew about the conspiracy underneath Hometown.

Then, it hovers back towards Kris, within arm’s reach but no closer. It wants back in. They don’t want to give up this moment of freedom - but they don’t know where their mom is, and that scares them. Sure, The Plan involved the Knight taking her - but that was necessary, they had assurances that she would be okay. Kris knew the Knight could hold back, could drive someone to the brink without taking them down - that their mom and their friends were never in any danger with her. That she would never kill them. That if they followed the plan, everything would turn out okay in the end, no matter what they had to do to get there.

The plan… the script for the Plan had been thrown out 3 days ago, and everyone involved has been trying to course correct as much as possible since then. It didn’t help that they couldn’t even find an opportunity to get the soul involved in all of this - they didn’t account for how completely Kris would be controlled, for the apparent communications barrier, hell, for Susie. 

Are they really about to give up control again? To find out what’s going on with their mom? 

Kris huffs out a frustrated breath, turning to Susie. “I don’t think we’re going to get answers without either checking out home ourselves, or… putting it back inside me. I think I can handle it, if we do the latter, but… would you tell it a few things for me?”

Susie squints her eyes. “Fine.” She looks back towards the soul, hesitation clear in her stance, before something settles and she looks back towards Kris. “What do you want me to tell them, before you go and get possessed again?”

Kris leans in and whispers, before Susie nods, and says “Okay, Soul. We really have to find a name for you, but, here are Kris’ terms.”

She holds up a finger. “First, Kris says that they’re going to continue taking you out when they need to. You’re going to respect that they can do that, not try to fight it, and to not enter them on your own unless it’s an emergency.”

Susie then holds up a second finger. “Second, Kris says that they don’t want you revealing any of their secrets. I don’t know what the hell they have that’s bigger than you,” she turns to Kris, “but I’m sure Kris will tell me on their own, when they're ready.”

Susie then pulls her maw back into a toothy grin, looking back at the soul. “They say that if you don’t abide by these conditions, they’re going to toss the weird shit you’ve been collecting.” She then pauses, then looks back towards Kris with curiosity burning in her eyes. “What have you been collecting, anyway?”

Kris shrugs, and pulls out an oddly large egg, though it sits in their palm weirdly, like it’s leaning against something invisible.

Susie’s eyes widen, before her face curls into toothy disbelief, her hands raised as claws, “YOU’VE HAD A SNACK ON YOU THIS WHOLE TIME!” 

Kris, however, winces. The fucking eggs - sometimes, the soul just paces back and forth for seemingly no reason, until Kris develops a headache, and they somehow find an egg in their pocket afterwards. An egg that doesn’t revert when they return to the light world. Kris has no idea what to make of it, but their gut says that eating it would be a terrible idea.

“Do you want to piss off the apparently friendly demon that’s been puppeteering me? Believe me, I would kill for a good meal right now, but these are like, weird demon eggs Susie. I doubt they'd be any good.”

She huffs, crossing her arms. "It's not about whether or not it's good," and she stares at them. Kris knows that if they were anyone else, nothing would have stopped her from attempting to eat the egg. For them, however, Susie relents, waving a hand and relaxing her posture once again.

Susie looks at the soul. "Listen, do you agree, or do I get to eat this egg?"

Turning back towards the soul, it’s nodding up and down. Good. Kris hopes that this threat will mean something to it. They don’t know how important the random eggs are, but Kris is intimately aware of how difficult it was to collect the shadow crystals - those strange pieces of glass that are mostly invisible, only noticeable through the shadows they leave. Perhaps threatening it at all is a bad idea, but they need insurance to ensure that it doesn’t reveal the plan to Susie.

“Wait. I have a condition too.”

Kris looks up at Susie with apprehension. What does she want? Kris trusts Susie, they trust her more than anyone else at this point, but even then there are things Kris doesn’t want to tell her. Kris knows that she will see their involvement in The Plan as a betrayal - and they want to delay that reveal as long as possible. It’s a miracle that revealing that they’ve been possessed didn’t ruin their friendship. Revealing that they’ve been working with the Knight the entire time, though? That they had been trying to orchestrate events to ensure what they needed to happen came to pass? That if things had gone to plan, she wouldn’t have been involved at all? Kris isn’t sure their bond could survive that.

Thankfully, Susie’s demand is far easier to appease: “We’re telling Ralsei. Dude can apparently see the future, kinda, so he might already know? But like, we’ve literally saved the world together. Multiple times. It’s not fair to keep this a secret from him.”

The soul nods immediately, of course it does. Susie then turns to Kris, “What about you? I really think we need to tell him, but it’s your… situation. If you really don’t want to, I’ll try to keep this a secret.”

Kris takes a moment to appreciate the lengths Susie is willing to go for them, before they say, “Yeah, we should talk to him about this.” 

Ralsei knew that Kris was possessed the moment they first met. Ralsei did his best to help, of course - the ability to send the soul to watch someone else was a lifeline for Kris’ drowning mind. The fact that he couldn’t help more, though? The fact that Ralsei had given the soul advice on how to control them? The fact that he always knew more than what he actually said about all this? Those little facts led to resentment. However, only tonight had Kris realized the mental toll the prophecy was taking on him - how Ralsei bore foreknowledge as a burden. How he was just as mortal and broken as they are, as all of their friends. Hopefully, with Susie in the know, they might get some answers out of him. Susie’s ability to shatter through falsehood was one of her most admirable qualities - even it had led to Kris revealing the soul earlier than expected.

At this point, with no further rejections, the soul moves closer, but stops before it can enter on its own. Kris reaches out, clasping it in their hands, before turning to Susie. “You should ask questions about it. After it takes control again, and tells you whatever reason it has for us not to immediately head back to Mom. I’m not sure it can initiate a conversation on its own.”

Susie nods, smiling with an enthusiasm that Kris does not share. “Already on it, dumbass. And don’t worry - you’re not alone in this anymore.”

Strangely, as Kris re-inserts the Soul, a curious thought crosses their mind: if the soul truly is benevolent and capable of understanding people, perhaps it is just as alienated and alone as Kris is, as Kris used to be in all of this. It’s clearly not something they can fully understand, but it seems to know what kindness is. It has taken the opportunity to show kindness to everyone that it can get Kris’ hands on. Perhaps it was just as alone as they were in all of this, taking whatever opportunity it could to reach out.

And now, just like Kris, they are no longer alone.

Chapter Text

Susie watches as Kris puts the soul back in, and watches in dawning discomfort as they stand and their posture changes to be more rigid, stiff. Familiar.

Fuck. It’s one thing to hear it, but it’s another to realize that what you thought was normal for your friend was anything but. Her mind is still reeling from all of this, but she’s trying not to think about it right now. She isn’t lying to herself, Susie knows this will affect her friendship with Kris, but she wasn’t lying to Kris earlier either. In three days, she’s completely redefined how she saw herself, and most of that came from her friends. This just means that she gets to know Kris even more, to find out more about the soul and who Kris is without them.

Wait, is this what Noelle was talking about earlier, when they were all hanging out? Fuck, of course it is. She’s been their friend WAY longer than Susie has, of course she would know when Kris is acting weirder than normal. Susie didn’t even notice it, too distracted by how quickly her friendship with Noelle was forming. She was one of the first people to be nice to Susie, when she ended up in Hometown, and, well, one thing Susie has realized over the past few days is that she really likes having actual friends who are kind to her and shit. No wonder she became such fast friends with Noelle, that it had only taken a few conversations across two different worlds for Noelle to become just as important to her as Kris and Ralsei. Having people that were really important to her, and knowing that she was just as important to them? That’s a feeling Susie wouldn’t trade for anything else.

Which leads her back to the Soul. They were in Kris now, looking at her silently as she gathered her racing, scatterbrained thoughts. Now that she’s seen Kris without them… yeah, they hold themselves in completely different ways. Why was Noelle the only one to notice? What about Toriel?

Right, Toriel. 

Susie coughs, “So, um. I obviously have a bunch of questions, but, why don’t you want us to head back to Kris’ place? Is Toriel okay?”

Susie then hears a voice that she had originally ascribed to Kris - the firm, neutral in tone voice that sounds like it’s being played on a phone speaker. Kris’ mouth doesn’t even open.

“Toriel is safe.” ♥

Susie is relieved that Kris’ mom is alright, at the very least. It didn’t explain why it doesn’t want them to go home, though. Wait, was this how Kris would still give commands in battle, even if they were down? Freaky - but like, in a cool way.

She smiles, peeling back her lips to reveal some of her teeth. “Good. Though, why don’t you want us to head back there?”

Kris’s body turns back to face towards the entrance to this little side area, back towards their - Kris’ - home. This time, Kris actually speaks, voice changing in volume and intensity the way it sometimes does.

“It says that She’s drunk, with the guy from the grocery store. She sometimes drinks on the weekends, though, not typically this late...”

Oh. Susie hates dealing with drunk adults, especially drunk parents. She doubts Toriel is a mean drunk like her old bastard, but that doesn’t make it any more pleasant to be around someone sloshed. She looks over, hoping to pick something out of Kris’ expression or posture, but they’re standing ramrod-straight, their normal apparently possessed expression unchanging. 

“... Thanks.” Susie’s thoughts race, and she doesn’t take the time to pick through them. “Damn, guess that means we won’t be eating her leftover pancakes, then.”

“He already ate them.” ♥

Damn, fuck that guy. Kris - or the soul? The soul, probably, from what Kris said - made them talk to him earlier today. She didn’t even know what she had done to get herself banned from another store - and to get that guy to mess with her by changing the signs. And now the dude has the audacity to eat Kris’ pancakes! Sure, she had hoped to beg one or two off of them, but two meals in one day was good for her, and Kris didn’t get to eat before church this morning.

It’s at this moment that her stomach chooses to growl. “This fucking blows.”

They look back at her, and Susie takes the moment to stand. “So, I guess we’re staying at castle town, then?”

Like hell is she bringing her friend - friends? - back to her place. The room Ralsei made her already felt like more of her own than any of the places she’s lived before, and given her luck, the old bastard is probably more drunk than Toriel. She’d rather fight another titan than make Kris deal with him.

Susie looks over, and she sees their posture loosen for a moment, as they nod. Was that Kris nodding?

“Yes.” ♥

Yep, Kris’ mouth didn’t even open there. Sick. 

She then watches as they withdraw their phone, and she watches as their posture slightly slackens as they type a number in from memory. She listens as the phone goes to voicemail, and Susie hears Kris’ voice say “Hey mom, I’m staying with Susie tonight.” They pause, then say “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

They then begin walking back towards town. As the moment by the lake ends, the world weeps for what it could have lost today, as a light rain falls over hometown. Susie looks at the clouds obscuring the stars, feeling the rainwater as it washes her for the second time today. It’s good timing that it didn’t start raining until after they left the lake - she doesn’t mind getting dirty, but she has one pair of jeans right now and she’d prefer if they didn’t get caked in mud.

Still, now isn’t the time to get lost in her own thoughts. She looks over at Kris - the soul - fuck, this is confusing. 

“So, uh, what’s your deal?” Maybe they’re the human equivalent of a ghost monster? Huh, if that’s true, maybe they’d get their own body in the dark world, like Gerson? Then again, Susie has mostly lived around humans until her old bastard moved to Hometown, and she’s never heard about anything like this. Sure, there’s the urban legend that if a monster absorbs a human soul they become super strong and shit, but she’s pretty sure that’s just an urban legend.

Susie hears Kris say, “All I’m getting is It’s complicated. Whatever that means.” 

Susie looks over at them. Their hair is beginning to cling to their head, and the wet tangle of hair shows the barest hint of Kris’ red eyes - they turn to meet her gaze, as they continue walking forward at a steady pace.

Okay, they don’t get to be cryptic about this, not if she has anything to say about it. “Well, start explaining.” She lets her teeth show, shining in the dim light of the early morning.

“Can’t say.” ♥

Susie was getting frustrated now - it doesn’t take much to rouse the deep well of upset and anger in her. If another person in her life doesn’t tell her important shit that she ought to know, that does something that affects her life without telling her, she’s going to break something. 

Her old bastard - she hasn’t seen him as a father in a long time - has told her that they’re moving the day of every single time. She’s never had the opportunity to gather her stuff for the move, nor the opportunity to say goodbye to anyone that she had gotten even slightly close to. She’s already sworn that if he pulls that shit again, here? She’s going to just leave and stay in Castle Town. Her life wouldn’t even change that much.

It’s this stark reminder of her own hurt that hides her eyes as she growls out, “Why not?”

Kris suddenly stops, and she watches as their lips move, “It… it says that it’s Unable to Say?” 

Susie looks back, looking over how the soul holds Kris. Their posture is incredibly tight, their mouth frozen in a neutral expression. Their hair completely covers their eyes, but they walk as though they can see just fine. Susie thinks about what this could mean, trying to imagine what it’d be like to possess someone who you can’t talk to.

“Let’s see, uhhhh-” she leans back, putting her hands behind her head and looking up, only to get a raindrop in her eye. She winces, wiping her eyes, before saying, “So, is it just this, or is it other stuff?”

“Other Stuff.” ♥

Susie thinks. She’s the only one here that can choose to talk right now, so it’s up to her to figure out how to actually communicate with them. “You can pick an option when I give you them, right? Say yes or no.”

“Yes.” ♥

Hell yeah! She figured something out! Is this what it feels like to be smart? No wonder Berdly seems addicted to the feeling. 

She takes a moment to stop in a few puddles as they walk together. Her boots are the nicest thing she owns in the light world, and she savors the feeling of dry feet even as she splashes through water.

“So, uh, what happens if I don’t give you options on what to say? If you can answer me.”

“Pick an option.” ♥

Susie looks back, “Are you asking me to give you something to choose between? Or?”

“No.” ♥

Susie tries her best to piece together what she’s getting. “So, yes or no, you have to, what, pick from a list of options whenever you get a chance to speak?”

“Yes.” ♥

Susie huffs. “Damn, that blows. Neither you or Kris can say what you want to, then.”

Kris lets out a low whine, shivering in the early morning rain, and Susie cringes as she realizes that that might have been insensitive. Susie looks at them, ready to comfort her best friend, and she doesn’t know how she ever thought this was normal for them. They’re standing as straight as a flagpole, but they’re shivering relentlessly, howling low under their breath. Susie can’t help herself as she’s reminded of a sopping wet dog she once found behind a dumpster, back when she lived in the city. 

Susie slowly takes off her favorite purple jacket, and she carefully places it around their shoulders. The length of the jacket goes past Kris’ knees, but she can’t help but feel an intense warmth as she sees them in her clothes. They stop shivering, and ever so slightly, they lean into Susie as she stands next to them.

She doesn’t quite know what to say, but she knows she has to say something. “Look, uh, this blows, okay? I don’t know what to do, but whatever we do… do, I’ll be right here, okay?”

Kris nods. Any tears on their face are indistinguishable from rain, as they continue walking into the night, as they round the bend towards QC’s. 

Susie watches as Kris - or, rather, the soul - steps onto the wet grass, and she watches as they seemingly reach out towards something that she can’t see. Susie remembers them doing this in the dark worlds before - she’s not sure what it is, but she remembers when the knight attacked them in the dark, when all of them were just barely holding on. Kris reached out like this… and suddenly, they were all as good as new. Their wounds fading away like a bad memory.

Actually, she can ask them. “Kris? Soul? What are you doing?”

After a moment, Kris’ body turns around, staring at her with a blank expression, before Kris begins to speak. “It wants me to Explain, and I don’t know what they are, but I’ve always been able to see these white stars that no one else can. I could reach out and touch them, and it made me feel… safe. I don’t know how. It can see them too, and it makes us touch them every time we see one. Sometimes only once, sometimes multiple times in a row. Every time I’ve touched it while the soul is inside me, all of our injuries have just… disappeared.”

Kris’s mouth suddenly returns to a strict tightness, and they stop speaking - their allowance for interpretation has been spent.

“So, it’s some supernatural bullshit tied to the soul, that heals all of us when you touch it? Is that everything, Soul?” Susie looks towards them, unease building inside her.

Kris’ body seems to be held even tighter, holding completely still as the rain picks up, beginning to douse the two of them.

“No.” ♥

Something in Susie’s gut tightens as well. She doesn’t know why, but she suddenly feels as if the ground she’s standing on is unstable. Like she’s on the edge of a cliff, and pressing further would be like walking off the edge.

Heh. Susie is a lot of things, but she isn’t a coward.

“What do they do for you, then?”

Their body remains completely still and blank, unresponding to Susie’s question. Does she need to start guessing, hoping that she stumbles onto the right answer? Ugh, once again Susie is reminded of how much this whole situation sucks, and for Kris’ sake at least, she’s keeping a cap on her frustration.

She crosses her arms, but she’s unprepared for the soul to respond.

“Glad you don’t remember.” ♥

Susie throws up her arms, succumbing to her inner well of rage. “What the hell does that mean!” She curls her fingers into claws once again, peeling back her lips to reveal her teeth. “What the hell aren’t we remembering?”

The world flashes white from a lightning strike as the soul speaks. The crack of thunder is immediate, and the shock is enough to knock Susie off her feet.

“Dying.” ♥

Chapter Text

Susie steps back, tripping and falling back onto the grass as thunder rolls over her. She catches herself with both hands, looking up at Kris’ body. They are cast entirely in shadow by the sickly light of a storming sky, as the world weeps for its weary children.

Another crack of lightning, somewhere directly behind the creature pulling Kris’ strings. Shadows circle around Kris’ own, and for just a moment, it looks as though their shadow has wings.

Earthly sensation returns to Susie. Her jeans and hands are covered in mud now, her nub of a tail digging into grass. As she pulls one of her claws up from the ground, pointing it at the entity within her best friend, the mud drips off her hands like blood.

She barks out with a snarl, “What the hell do you mean by that? Why the hell would we forget… dying? We’ve died?”

Kris’ body turns away, swiveling in place with as little motion as possible, until their body once again faces the spot they just touched.

“You are alive.” ♥

Susie pulls herself out of the mud, and lets the rain wash away the stains of mud and ignorance. “I get that.” She huffs and looks around, confirming that no one else can hear - more out of a desire to allow her mind to think, than out of actual caution.

She can see only darkness, in the pale light of a starless sky. Something could be within a few paces of her, and she wouldn’t notice. Susie doesn’t notice.

As the clumps of mud fall away, she finds her words. “So, you’re what, resurrecting us? And making us forget that we died? Yes, No, Kinda?”

“Kinda.” ♥

“So what are we missing here!” She throws her hands up into the air, before connecting a few dots. “This is tied to those strange invisible lights. They heal us, but you sometimes touch them multiple times, usually before tough fights that we barely scrape through. They… let you try again. Is that it? If we die, you can just go back, try again until we aren’t blood on the pavement. Is that it?”

Kris manages to steal their voice back, and Susie hates how faded it sounds. They sound like they have a concussion. “Yes … it can already, they can already… Susie, it can Reverse Time. How…”

Kris must be in no state to assert themselves, with these revelations - any hints of Kris are drowned under the pouring rain. Susie herself is reeling - the events of the past few days are rapidly recontextualized.

“Our adventures were supposed to be fun. We’re supposed to be the heroes. We have the power to go out our way to befriend everyone, because no matter what they dish out, we can handle it”

Susie is shaking, and she notices movement out of the corner of her eye just in time to catch Kris as they comfort her. They lean into her side, the top of their head just coming up to her bicep, and they catch one of her claws, before gently placing it atop their head. Susie wordlessly runs her hand through their hair, taking unusual care to ensure she doesn’t tear into their scalp.

She remembers, just one week ago, when she grabbed them by the hair before pressing their face into a wall. She doesn’t even remember why she did it, just that she was afraid that she had broken their nose - that she was upset that this would be the final straw before she got expelled. 

Susie closes her eyes, breathing in the smell of the rain. 

She has died. 

She is currently alive. 

She has hurt everyone who has ever gotten close to her. 

Her best friend is turning her claws into hands, so that she might gently run her fingers through their hair.

Susie gathers her strength, before asking. “Give me a number. How many times have we died?”

Kris whispers, but Susie cannot escape their words. For a single second, every drop of rain hits the ground without making a sound. The clouds hold their charges in reverence. The wind bows to Kris’ breath.

“Twelve Times. It says that you have died twelve times.”

She picks up on something in the phrasing. “And how many times have you died, Kris?”

“Thirteen Times.” ♥

How has Kris died more than her? She’s the reckless one - Kris was always so confident, so level-headed about even the worst the dark worlds could throw at them. Of course… that was the soul. They probably knew whenever real danger would occur. 

In her moment of distress, she stopped rubbing Kris’ scalp. Kris’ body is pulled away from her, standing upright like a soldier standing at attention. The soul makes Kris look away from her, back towards the light that only they can see.

“Do you want to forget?” ♥

“What?” She quickly turns to anger, “I’m not letting you hurt Kris to undo this.”

“No need for death.”  ♥

Shame threatens to climb out of her stomach and into her throat. Great. She was treating them like everyone else treated her. They were reaching out, and she assumed that they were threatening her friend just because they’re scary. Doesn’t that sound familiar, Susie?

Finding her tested courage, she draws what bravery she has left into her pale heart, before answering. “Personally? Hell no. I, we, deserve to know how much danger we’re actually in.” She raises her claws, before looking down into her empty hands. “We’ve died to save the world. We deserve to know.”

She returns her gaze to her friend. “Now, how the hell are we going to ask Kris? Can you like, let them have control for a moment?”

“Yes.” ♥

Susie stands there for a moment, looking back and forth. Waiting for the rigid posture to drop, for Kris to say something.

She does not see.

Susie taps her foot impatiently. “Any day now.”

Kris then responds, using their actual voice. “It Doesn’t know why that didn’t work, but I do - the more ambiguous a command, the easier I can reinterpret it.” 

Susie nods. “Okay, so, uh, what about if I just ask what Kris thinks?”

“I need to know. I need to know .” Kris steps forward, stepping out of the shadows and close to Susie. “Make it reveal exactly who has murdered us.”

Susie can hear the strange shift in inflection that indicates that Kris is probably interpreting what the soul chose, but she also hears the fire in Kris’ words. 

Is this the first time Susie has heard the real Kris speak with such… determination? Susie’s mind drifts back to Thursday - when she was on the ground, when Kris jumped in front of an attack meant for her, when they shouted at King to “Get away from her!” That was the first time she heard Kris speak like this, the real Kris.

Susie draws that determination into herself. It’s easier than she thought it would be, to share in the sheer willpower that Kris burns with. 

“Kris needs to know this, and they want me to ask you who’s put us in the ground.” Susie swears that she can see hints of red burning in their eyes.

No answers come forth.

Susie sighs. “Figures this wouldn’t be easy.” She gestures down the road, towards the school. “Cmon, let’s keep walking.”

Two teenagers step into the night, bathed in the twilight between light and dark. Their shadows sprawl across the street like a bad omen, obscuring their sight. Thunder rolls across the sky, deafening them. The air smells faintly of ozone. They are watched over.

Susie thinks about every major foe that’s left them in rough shape… and man, it’s kind of messed up that so many people have tried to kill them. She turns to Kris - the Soul - she really needs to ask the soul’s name and pronouns, huh - them , and she asks “So, lets see. I’ll ask about different foes, you can just name a number to tell us how many times we died to them?”

The soul doesn’t respond, but Susie decides to go ahead anyway - “So, uh, let’s work back. The Titan?”

“First try.” Kris speaks for this one, infusing the statement with an earned pride.

Susie’s teeth catch the rain as her grin lights up the night. “Damn right. One and done, all thanks to us.” She tries to internalize this feeling - Susie won’t admit it to anyone but herself, but the Titan fucking terrified her. Wait, didn’t Ralsei say that it was a living embodiment of fear or something? That might be why. Still, knowing that she sized up an abomination the size of a skyscraper and won first try? That’ll give her confidence next time she faces off against the Knight, or the bastard that’s only her father by technicality.

Speaking of, “I bet most of our deaths come from the Knight then, huh?”

While Susie is consciously aware that she’s died before now, emotionally, when she thinks of getting close to death, nothing comes close to her experiences with the Knight. The first time they fought… she remembers facing a tunnel made of swords that turned near-impossible to see as they got close to her, only visible thanks to the blood they’ve taken from her. She remembers seeing Ralsei impaled by 3 blades, each the length of his spine, until he collapsed into a pile of fluff and clothing. She remembers Kris, eyes burning red as they burned every healing item they had to keep them all alive.

“Once.” ♥

Kris has gone still, too. The woods between the librarby and school sway with a bleak wind. Susie’s not sure how that’s possible, but she doesn’t want to press too hard. As small as they seem in her jacket, she can see the soul’s mask cracking as Kris shivers in place, hands gripped into fists. They seem to be screaming with their mouth closed, and if tears run down their cheeks, Susie can’t distinguish them from the rain.

Susie takes the sleeves of her jacket in her hand, and she pulls their arm up, sticking her claw into the sleeve. After a moment, Kris’ hand latches around her own in a death grip. “Hey, I’m sorry for reminding you of that. Nobody’s hurt us as bad as the Knight, at least as far as I remember. I promise-”

As Susie begins to comfort Kris, she suddenly hears something over the rain.

A branch in the woods snaps.

Something snaps a branch in the woods.

Susie turns towards where the forest grows, and she looks into the indistinct darkness. In the speckled darkness between the trees, each and every branch could hide a stalker. She can barely see anything, but as she squints her eyes, she thinks she sees an animal track in the ground.

“Sorry, all this is making me a little jumpy. Looks like it was just a deer.”

Susie turns back towards the school. 

Turning her back to the forest, and all that might be watching.

“Let's keep going.” She’s dealt with too much tonight, but as those thoughts cross her mind, Susie holds onto the memory of the gang’s victory over the titan, and she burns those thoughts as a torch to guide her through the night.

Susie honestly doesn’t want to continue asking about death - she’s only confirmed one killer out of the dozens of foes the gang has fought, and Kris already looks like they’re about to fall over. However, this is what Kris wants. She won’t make this decision for them.

She continues. “So… did we die to anyone I wouldn’t expect?” As dark as it is, Susie thinks it would be hilarious if Rouxls Kaard actually got one over them. Then again, if that’s the case, she can never let him know. Rouxls’ ego is already massive, letting him have an actual, violent win against them would make Rouxls lose his pathetic charm, and turn him into someone like Berdly.

“Berdly.” ♥

Susie doesn’t want to continue asking anymore. She can barely feel her body. 

“Berdly killed us?” 

Berdly? 

The annoying nerd from class? 

Susie’s hair falls in front of her eyes, as she processes this. “He… he fought us all on the rollercoasters, but I didn’t think he was actually going to kill us.”

Kris’ voice is quiet, but it cuts through the night like a knife. “Didn’t kill you. That must mean… he killed me and Noelle when we fought him on our own.” Their voice grits, as they force another sentence out. “None of this was supposed to happen. None of us were supposed to be seriously hurt.”

Susie recognizes that protective fury, and she finds herself burning with a similar intensity. It’s clear that Noelle means a lot to Kris, and hell, Susie’s only considered Noelle an actual friend for… basically a day and a half, but for a long time Noelle was the only person her age who wanted to be around her. Who smiled in her presence. Even if Susie couldn’t see it, before, because she was too wrapped up in her own hurt. She knows that she can be oblivious sometimes, but it’s clear that Susie and Kris are two of a kind when it comes to protecting their friends.

She’s going to need to talk to Kris about this, without the soul. Susie doesn’t like the dweeb (she would tolerate him a lot more if he fucking got her name right ), but Berdly and Noelle are Kris’ friends. Even if it technically didn’t happen, this is still a betrayal. And they can’t express anything that they’re feeling right now.

She arcs her hands into claws, ready to tear and break something. Despite it all, though, another feeling bubbles up within her - she takes a moment to mull it over. Her friends have died. They were killed by one of their friends. No, that’s not it, whatever she was feeling wasn’t negative.

She is reminded of Toriel making pancakes for her and Kris. She’s reminded of the old man showing up to help them defeat the Titan. 

Susie feels a strange gratitude, towards the soul, for protecting her friends when she could not.

Even Susie knows that it would probably be insensitive to say that out loud right now, though. What would she even say? Hey, while I wish you weren’t possessing my friend, thanks for keeping us from dying and helping us save the world and shit?

“I feel the same way.” ♥

Susie jumps in place. “What the hell?” She turns towards her friend(s). “What did you just respond to? DId you just read my mind?”

“Yes.” ♥

Of course she can’t get any privacy, even in her own mind. Quickly, Susie tries to let her mind be as scatterbrained as possible. One advantage to that, uh, attention def-whatever disorder some of her past teachers claimed she might have. She thinks about how rad it was to be Susiezilla in TV world, before that reminds her that she hasn’t started on her project with Kris, the one that got them to start hanging out (technically). To be fair, Noelle and Berdly are the top students in class, and they haven’t started either. That’s partially the Knight’s fault for opening a fountain in the computer lab, but also partially her fault for hanging out with Noelle earlier - though honestly fuck that project, she would hang out again with Noelle in a heartbeat. Honestly, why does her nose light up sometimes - she’s only seen it happen when she was with her, or when Noelle was with Kris. Maybe it meant she was really enjoying herself? She was always smiling when it happened - and isn’t that a thought, the idea that someone might smile looking at her? That would have seemed impossible to her less than a week ago, and now she has a whole bunch of people in her life who smile when they see her.

And one of them can’t smile when they’re looking at her.

Kris coughs, and says, “It’s saying that, uh, it Can only hear ‘loud’ thoughts. Whatever you were thinking must have been… intense enough for it to be able to respond to.”

Kris doesn’t sound surprised. Susie fails to notice.

That’s somewhat of a relief, but it only adds to the unsettling atmosphere. Susie kicks some litter, and it skitters out onto the school’s one parking spot. What the hell is this thing’s deal? Actually, if she could read minds, she would probably keep that a secret. Why…

“Did you respond to my thoughts…  to let us know that you can do that??”

“Yes.” ♥

Susie barks out a laugh, “Fuck you, dude.”

As Kris, Susie, and their unseen passenger slip into the school, something else steps out of the shadows. Rain washes over armor made of tears. Lightning cracks in the background, revealing the shadow of something darker than night.

Lightning strikes again, and the shadow is gone.

Chapter Text

Susie, Kris, and their unseen passenger slip inside the school - the doors weren’t even locked. As the three of them walk towards the supply closet, Susie realizes that she really should ask the Soul if they have a name. They’ve been with her throughout all of their adventures together, even if she didn’t realize it. She’s not that good at this whole, friendship thing, but she knows how important names can be.

If it served as a conversation change away from their own deaths, all the better. Susie doesn’t want to hear any more, doesn’t want to make Kris more upset when she can’t even talk about this with them. Wait, hell, is this what it’s like for the soul? Just having to guess and hope you’re doing what’s best for Kris?

“Pretty much.” ♥

She can’t help flinching. “Right. Uh, could you avoid responding directly to my thoughts? Let’s not leave Kris out of the conversation.”

Susie can’t help but notice Kris’ red eyes, as they near-imperceptibly narrow. Right, she’d probably think the worst of it if two of her friends were communicating behind her back. “I just empathized with their situation, a bit, because neither of us can talk to you directly right now, Kris.”

She can’t see anything of Kris, right now. She steels herself, telling herself that it’ll be okay. She returns to her prior thought. 

“So, uh, Soul,” Susie turns to face her friend, as they are doused in the dim light. “I probably should have asked earlier, but do you have a name?”

“Yes.” ♥

“Great!” Susie waits a moment. “Right. What’s your name?”

Susie then watches as Kris’ hands clench into fists, as they seem to pull every ounce of strength within them to rasp out “Say… your name.”

Susie quickly steps over, taking Kris’ hand in her own. A fist and claw become hands, clasped together. “Right. Whatever bullshit you two are dealing with would have probably just made Kris say their name.” She holds on tighter.

“I’m going to ask one more time, being more specific and shit. If that doesn’t work, we’ll figure something out, okay?”

Kris manages to nod.

“What’s the name of my friend living within the soul?”

The screen fades to black. A pale, white circle fills up most of the screen, thrumming like a dark fountain. Prophecy flows through it like water.

A text box appears.

Do Not                     ♥ Say Your Name

When you select the option to tell them, you hear the sound of glass breaking, and large cracks appear in the circle.

Please Don’t            ♥ Say Your Name

The cracks widen, splintering out from the center. A pattern begins to emerge.

…                             ♥ Say Your Name

The only thing left unbroken, is the symbol of the Delta Rune. You hear the sound of an antique light bulb turning off, and every part of the circle save for the symbol loses its luminescence and turns to glass. The pieces fall like stars.

“Red.” ♥

As Kris speaks the word of this ordinary color, every lightbulb in the hallway shatters. There’s a horrific crack of thunder, and Susie has to brace herself to avoid falling over as glass dances over her. It’s darker outside, somehow, and alien feelings wash over her. Susie can’t help but shiver, but she is not afraid.

She burns her bravery as a torch, but she feels as though she’s next to a forest fire, as light pours from Kris. Looking at them, their hand still in hers, she can see a large, red heart through their skin, as it shines a path through the hallway. Strange vapors from the fluorescent lights curl at the edges of the oddly warm glow.

“Hey, Kris, do you think this will get school cancelled on Monday?”

Susie laughs a little bit to herself as she reaches up to Kris’ head, picking the glass out of their hair, pulling it away just enough to see one of their red eyes. She doesn’t hope to decipher the emotions she sees in them, obscured as it is. Too much shock, too much to think about. She’s never been good at being kind, but that doesn’t mean that she can’t try.

Let’s take them home - the place that very quickly became more of a home to her than anywhere else. Holding their hand, she carefully leads them around the broken glass. Susie feels the glass suck in her hair, clinging to the water left on her exposed biceps, but she’s had glass on her hands ever since she decided to break the course of fate.

The final tragedies would never come to pass, not if she had any say about it. Not if Kris and Ralsei had a say in it. Not if Red had a say in it.

Speaking of her new friend; “So, what the hell was that, Red? Does dramatic shit happen every time you reveal something?”

Susie hears a bit of a scoff from behind her, and Kris speaks for them. “Apparently.” After a moment, Kris is able to add, “I shouldn’t let it speak directly, when it can do… this.”

The sound of broken glass under Susie’s boots keeps her from speaking up. She decides not to comment on it, or think about it too hard. To keep it away from Red’s attention. 

Susie’s mind easily jumps between thoughts, at least. One of the only things her mind was skilled at doing. “Nice name dumbass. Probably should have guessed that - little red heart named Red.”

“Thanks, I chose it myself.” There’s no emotion in Kris’ face, but Kris speaks with the fondness of repeating a well-used joke.

Heh. No one’s given her shit about it in hometown, but she used to have to defend everything about herself when she lived in the city. Once she realized that she wanted to be a girl, she decided that it was everyone else’s problem if they didn’t respect that. All it took was backing up her threats a few times for most people to get the message.

It’s rare for Susie to feel clever, but she’s never felt cleverer than when she decided on her name. Sure, she might be an issue for all of the adults in her life - well, almost all now - but what do you get when you rearrange those letters?

Susie.

Man, it’s extra fucked that she picked on Kris, in retrospect. They’re the only other kid in class who’s obviously trans. They could have been friends from the start. They should have had each others’ backs. 

She used to be jealous of what they had - and angry because it seemed like they didn’t appreciate it. They had friends who cared about them, a mom who gave a shit, the ability to have their body the way they want it without having to fight for it.

Of course, none of that was entirely true. Noelle might as well be a saint, but Red had to reverse time to prevent Berdly from killing the two of them. Kris’ mom was probably the best parent in any of her friends’ lives right now, but Kris is still here, ready to stay in Castle Town for the night. And now, Kris has to share their body with someone else, stuck in a careful balance to save the world.

Ah, shit. Gender stuff. “Hey, Red, I don’t know how much you heard of what I was just thinking over there, but… I’ve just been using Kris’ pronouns with you. Do you have pronouns that you would prefer? She/her, he/him, they/them, something else?”

Kris’s mouth opens, as they say. “She/her.” Kris mumbles afterwards, “You should keep using my pronouns around other people, but, refer to… her, as her, when you’re alone with me and Ralsei.”

Susie smiles, “Smart thinking. Oh, uh, right, Red can’t hear you.” Susie repeats Kris’ words to an empty hallway, just as the three of them reach their gateway to a world of fantasy.

Susie considers something. “Hey, do you want to try taking Red out while you’re in the dark world? It gave the old man a body again - maybe it’d give you one, Red. That way you two aren’t stuck with each other. And, if something goes wrong, Red can, do her reverse time thing.”

Kris’ body continues to stare ahead, no change in expression at all. “Let’s ask Ralsei first.” 

Susie shrugs. Ralsei knows way more about this stuff. Apparently he knew about the whole prophecy ahead of time - and isn’t that fucked up? No wonder he’s like that, if he’s been living with those words in his head his entire life. She didn’t realize how brave he was, until she saw what he was trying to prevent.

Red’s warm light suddenly cuts out, and Kris falls to their knees. The world returns to utter darkness, but she keeps her hand on their own.

“You were right, earlier.” Kris says, breathily shakily from the cold, morning air. “Ralsei knows. I asked him not to tell you until I was ready.” They cough, shakily. “He taught me a method to… send Red to watch someone else for a few minutes. This is the second time I’ve been able to do it by myself.”

Susie gets down on the floor with them, and she pulls Kris closer, until they’re leaning into her. The words haven’t reached her yet, as she focuses on the feeling of her best friend against her side. They look so tired, and… Susie leans into the touch, taking a moment to feel the exhaustion coming from her body. 

When looking back on her memories of the past few days, it feels like she had spent her entire life asleep. Trapped in a nightmare of bad feelings, hurting others and being hurt, and with no chance of doing anything for herself once she was old enough to get kicked out. 

As tired as her body is, the important part of her - the part of her that will always be here for her friends - is wide awake.

“How are you holding up?” She takes only a brief look at their expression, before offering “My shoulder’s already soaked, if you need to cry on it.”

Kris turns around, facing her, before taking her up on her offer. She smells the faded scent of apples in their hair, while listening to their breath hitch as they let out a full-body sob. She places a hand on their back, brushing away glass from her jacket as she rubs small circles into their back. “Wanna talk about it?”

They sniffle and collect themselves, waiting until they can speak clearly before saying, “I think Red’s options are drawn from things I would say, or do. Not all conscious things, and sometimes I think she’s just pulling minor feelings together to say what she really wants, but… I don’t think she can directly lie. Not unless I want to. Which means… my friend… and Berdly… really did kill me. How could-!” Kris pulls at their hair, stopping themselves from continuing by biting their lip, before taking a breath. “And, as a cherry on top, someone I’d give my life to protect died alongside me, not that… she’d want that.”

Susie can feel them hold her tighter, and she returns the favor. Susie has fought side by side with Kris, and while she’d never thought about dying for them, she’d fight for them, take a blow meant for them without a moment’s hesitation. Wait - Susie’s never really had a crush (she’s well enough aware that very few people would genuinely be interested in a delinquent girl-thing like her) but she knows that like, people being willing to die for each other is something couples are supposed to do - at least according to the movies she’s seen.

She might sneak off and ask The Original                  Starwalker and the weather duo about this tomorrow, before the festival. If she’s right, and Kris does have a crush on Noelle… then the least she can do is try to help them. Though, from what Noelle said earlier… she might not realize how much Kris cares about them. She implied that their friendship was just the result of them being forced to hang out with each other as kids - but Kris’ sobs here were real. Susie holds them tighter, as they bury their eyes into her shoulder. 

Maybe she should tell Noelle about the dark world? Find a way to bring her along on their next adventure?

Whatever. Now’s not the time for this - now’s the time to comfort Kris.

Susie speaks as softly as she can. “Hey, look - I’m not going to tell you that it doesn’t matter because it technically never happened. They were your friends before I was, and, fuck, friendships really are the world, you know?”

Kris sniffles, gasping for air with gritted teeth. “And, look, I don’t know how you managed to get over my bullying so easily, but it’s going to be like that, except, they won’t even have to live with it. Well, unless you explain everything about Red, but that's probably a bad idea.”

Good, that got a laugh out of them. Susie could feel the way their body shook as they laughed, the way their body fell against her flat chest, under her soaked t-shirt. When Kris pulls their head back to look into Susie’s eyes, she’s smiling.

She continues, “So like… I dunno. It’ll definitely be weird the next time you two hang out, and, look I have no idea how your friendship with him even works-”

“Her.” Kris interrupts her. 

“Oh shit, Berdly’s trans?” A sudden look of panic adorns Kris’ face. “Ah, you weren’t supposed to share.”

Kris hesitantly nods, “Um. Yes.” Kris’s expression has shifted to be somewhere between desperate relief, and struggling to stop themselves from laughing - must be one of those sobs, then, where every single emotion is fighting to get out all at once. She can smell the salt from their tears.

“I get it - I didn’t spend much time in the closet because I knew the old bastard who looks after me couldn’t hate me any more than he already does, but don’t worry, I’ll just throw this secret in with the rest.” Susie pinches her hands and runs it along her maw as if closing a zipper, before gesturing as if to throw away a key. It doesn’t entirely make sense, but she saw Noelle do it and it made her smile, and if anything, it seems to make Kris smile too.

“Susie… you mean the world to me, and I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Susie feels the exact same way - Kris was her best friend, no buts, no qualifiers. It doesn’t fucking matter that they were possessed the past few days. She isn’t letting go of them, not if she can help it.

Kris then continues, the smile fading from their expression as they look down. “Which is why I’m telling you now that… I have secrets. Big ones. Stuff I can’t talk about. I promise to tell you later, when… when I can. I know you hate it when people keep things from you, but you're just going to have to trust me, okay?”

She leans her head back, letting her wet hair obscure her eyes. “You’re right. I don’t like it when people keep things from me.” She then leans her head down, and presses her forehead against Kris’ forehead, their nose poking into her maw. Tears fall onto her face. “But trusting you is the easiest thing in the world, dumbass. You’re the first person to earn my trust who hasn’t broken it, after all.”

Kris’ face looks pale, as her eyes adjust. She doesn’t know what else could be as big a secret as being possessed, but it’s probably stuff that isn’t her business. If it was important, if it was related to their adventures, Susie is sure that Kris would tell her. 

“Red knows I’m hiding something. I don’t know how much she knows, we - I’ve been doing my best to keep this away from her, using my ability to interpret her commands.” Kris reaches up, and grabs the back of Susie’s head, as their red eyes meet Susie’s own. Their eyes reflect light that she can’t see, shining in the dark. “She can reverse time, though. She can learn something, go back in time, and I would have no idea that she’s onto- that she knows it. She could know all of it, she could know only the worst parts assembled together into an ugly picture.”

Kris grips her head and neck tightly. Susie can feel the sheer intensity radiating off of Kris, the desperation in their eyes. What the hell is this secret? Something clicks in her mind - they act like this when she’s in danger. When Noelle’s in danger. When someone important to them needs help.

Kris must have seen something in her expression, because they say, “I can’t tell you, I’m sorry, I can’t.” They breathe in through their nose, and just barely avoid crying again. “I made a mistake, a long time ago. I’m trying to fix it.”

The tears come pouring out again, and Susie reaches up a hand before wiping them away. “Whatever mistake you made, it doesn’t matter to me. I’ve fucked up so many times in my life, but I’m still here, aren’t I? No matter what this all is, I’ll be here for you. I wish you weren’t hiding something like this, but I won’t pry. If she says that you’ve been doing something insane, I’ll come find you.”

Kris whimpers. “Promise?”

“Promise.”

All of this, all of this was for her. All of this was to save her. And... what remains of her killed them. She killed their friends. This is all their fault, all the result of their mistakes. They can't make themselves stop talking, now that the words are pouring out. They can barely make themselves pin the blame for their feelings on Berdly, to give Susie something.

Susie’s smart when it comes to people, they have to give her something for these feelings. They shouldn’t have gotten carried away. They feel their sins crawling up their back, as they make her promise rather than telling her everything.

Even as they’ve finally managed to talk with the soul summoned into them, even as Susie has proven to be far more accepting of them than they could have imagined, they cannot tell her.

They cannot make themselves tell Susie that everything they’ve gone through, was to save someone who killed them. They cannot tell her that they’re betraying literally everyone in their life right now, to keep their promise.

They made a promise, but like the prophecy, they can fulfill the words without following the course set out by others.

Whatever it takes, they will find her.

Chapter Text

Castle Town was always a buzz of activity, now. Before, the long quiet where Ralsei had to fulfil his role as the lonely prince, Ralsei could and did walk the entire length of the dark world. The prophecy was right - there was no one else for him, no one that he could find. He checked. Extensively.

Thus, Ralsei’s one concession in his bedroom is the window. He doesn’t need much, but for so long, the only sound he could hear was whatever sound he made himself. He doesn’t exactly know how much time passed between his creation and meeting his friends, but it was long enough to go from being the equivalent of a child to the equivalent of a teenager, a time that he spent filling the quiet dark with whatever noise he could make. He prayed, he spoke to no one, he screamed, he gave sermons on the prophecy as he came to terms with what it demanded of him. Anything to fill the quiet.

The noise from all the new darkners kept him grounded. He didn’t need anything else, not really. 

He can’t force himself to deny the kindness that his friends have shown him, however. The soul and Kris gave Ralsei a plush toy of himself - it’s the first thing he’s ever owned, and it’s so so soft. It’s more than he’s ever had, and he loves it more than he does himself. Susie, not to be outdone, gave him a strange, fluffy block with a face atop it. This ‘ICE-E’ face serves as his bed now, his plush as his companion and pillow.

Angel above, today was hard. His face is still stained a faint pink from Susie’s dried blood, and he’s set his glasses on the floor to ensure that his tears won’t reach them. 

Ralsei doesn’t allow himself to wish for much of anything, but… he’s starting to believe that things can change. In a way, things have already changed, haven’t they? 

Ralei sniffles. The girl was supposed to wear ribbons. The cage was meant to be a human soul, with ‘parts!’ Ralsei knows what was intended to happen next - the horrors on the horizon - but, if the prophecy can be changed… or even just reinterpreted, then Ralsei doesn’t really know anything, does he?

He knew Tenna would be murdered the moment he first met him, and subtly encouraged Susie and the Soul to humor him. And yet, Tenna survived. The Lord of Screens was cleaved by blade, and yet he lives. 

Is this what hope feels like? 

Ralsei gently sets his doll aside, before standing up. He grabs his glasses and begins to walk towards the window, but as he does so, something shifts.

He doesn’t hear it, but he feels it as some wave of force washes over the world, and he drops his glasses as this force leaves a crack in one of the lenses. They fall to the ground, sending a chunk of glass flying to the floor, before this same force shatters the window to his room.

Glass covers the ground, and Ralsei grabs his broken sight, he is brought back to when Susie shattered the final prophecy. What just happened?

The curtains moved because it was dramatically appropriate - not because of any wind. Unburdened by light, he pulls himself into the air, before looking out the window. Outside, behind the castle, Ralsei could see the pure fountain - the beating heart of this land, the thing that gives his kingdom form.

It is not the only beating heart that Ralsei is witnessing, at this moment. Ralsei realizes this with quiet shock - he hears a soft piano melody begin to play, the same one that played when his friends first saw his room. Music plays around the Lightners as they move throughout the dark worlds, and Ralsei looks back behind him, towards his door. Were Kris and Susie back already? He didn’t think it had been that long - though it’s hard to discern the passage of time when one is alone in the dark. Ralsei feels like he’s lived a lot more in the past few days with his friends, than he had in the years he had spent alone.

After a moment, Ralsei floats back towards the entrance of his room, landing on the ground away from the shattered pane. “Are you… back already? I’m sorry for worrying you!”

He smiles, looking down towards the door, waiting for Kris, Susie, and the soul to enter. They don’t.

After a moment, Ralsei looks up, through the black void that makes up the ceilings here. Did Kris finally take their advice to send the soul to him if they needed a break? “Um, hi? I don’t know if you’re here, can you hear me? Wait, I don’t know if you can even respond like this-”

Then, just then, Ralsei heard it - a whisper, a light in the darkness of his mind.

“yes.” ♥

Ralsei blushed and stammered. The soul was here! The soul, who was almost certainly the angel mentioned in the prophecy, the angel meant to guide the heroes along their path, just as he was meant to do so. 

The angel for which both worlds were made. The one lighter than light.

Ralsei pales in significance even to his Lightner friends, let alone the angel. Comparing their roles beyond a surface level similarity would be a grave insult to such a higher being - at least, he can only imagine as such. Thus, before any more thoughts could slam in and distract the celestial, he asks “I, assume Kris sent you to me?”

“yes.” ♥

There it was again - the voice sounded as if it were constructed of Ralsei’s own thoughts, a voice smooth and calm in a way Ralsei rarely was. Still, this was his first time meeting them, of course! Even though he had hoped this would happen before, it’s happening now. It would be a terrible lie to say that he’s emotionally stable right now, but he doubts it would have been any better for the silence to be broken at any other point. He’s only had friends for 3 days, he’s fine admitting that he’s not good at this!

He shouldn’t do this.

“Um.” Ralsei looked down, knees turning inwards as he tried to make himself small, out of habit. “So, would you like - would you mind, if we talked?”

He internally cringes, but this way is for the best - Ralsei wants to talk to them, but… he doesn’t think he could take a rejection. No matter what they say, Ralsei can just act like it was a rejection, and he doesn’t need to know whether or not the soul actually wanted to bother with a figment like him.

“I want to talk to you, Ralsei.” ♥

Oh. That was pretty much as straightforward an acceptance as it got, huh? Ralsei sniffles a little bit, but he’s already run out of tears for today. “Oh, okay. I, know I’m not as interesting as the others, and, I don’t know everything, but you probably have questions? I can help, I’m helpful, I can help you with them. Whatever you want.”

Ralsei falls to his knees, and looks up. He can’t see them. It’s hard to remember that his room, his kingdom, and his identity as Ralsei were all illusions compared to the Lightners - and the Angel was supposed to be above them, too. Even if Susie thought he was real, he knows that, in the world above, he is nothing more than a dream.

What are the Lightners to the angel?

“You’re equally as real as them, to me.” ♥

Ralsei freezes. He knows certain things that he doesn’t entirely understand, but presumably they would make sense to the soul - to the angel above. Ralsei knows that sometimes he has to explain to the angel how they would do things… and sometimes, it’s like a language Ralsei knows is switched from one to the other as the terminology of buttons shifts in his mind. The angel isn’t really here - their reality is so much more real than his own, that he doubts almost any magic at all functions there. The angel is only present thanks to some celestial engine, a divine machine beyond all his understanding.

Ralsei doesn’t know how easy it was for Susie to, just declare that he’s real, he can’t comprehend it because he’s known, for as long as he’s had his mind, that he wasn’t. That he was ultimately an illusion born out of discarded innocence. To the angel, who must be lighter than light, none of them must be real - though that’s too painful a thought to accept. He can accept his own tragedy well enough, it’s easy to take that pain onto himself, but… selfishly, he has to insist to himself that his journey with Kris and Susie was real to them. That they mattered.

“You matter too, Ralsei.” ♥

Ralsei stutters back, before quickly trying to banish any feelings of fear he might feel. Right. The prophecy stated that the Angel may not see all, but they hear more than most. The Angel can hear his thoughts. The angel is probably digging into his mind to find the things that he’s always wanted to hear, and is choosing to repeat them.

That’s okay.

He’s spent a long time with only his thoughts for company, to have his mind as a sanctuary to churn through his grievances, but that’s okay. He… he matters, to the angel. He doesn’t want to bother them, so he’ll take everything that makes him upset, everything he’s ever wanted for himself, and pack it away to avoid distracting the higher being. Except… 

Ralsei remembers what Kris said earlier. (Ralsei thinks it was Kris - or, perhaps, Kris and the Angel unified in purpose. How sad that the first time he had seen it, it was for him). Kris had told him that it was okay not to smile.

Despite all his instincts, he musters his bravery, and lets himself falter. “Thank you… sorry…”

He breathes, and pulls himself together. Right. The angel wanted to talk to him. “So, uh. What would you like to talk about?”

“Susie knows about Me.” ♥

Oh. Oh. Ralsei figured this would happen eventually - he knows the words of the prophecy (if not the exact deeds they represent, despite what he had previously assumed) and figured this would be inevitable, but… she hated when people didn’t tell her everything. She yelled at him earlier for this! She forgave him after, but his discretion was so much less important than the Angel.

“She didn’t hurt you, or Kris, did she? What happened?” It’s too early for that part of the prophecy, but Susie knows one of the tragedies already - and things have broken in smaller ways already. She takes her own path through life, and Ralsei loves that about her, but Ralsei can tell that she’s someone who’s been hurt before. Susie will fight for herself, and her friends. If she thought that she had to free Kris from the soul…

“They’re coming here, together.” ♥

They’re coming here! Ralsei doesn’t think he slept that long - he hasn’t gotten everything ready! He quickly hops up, and he goes to start preparing things - but as he steps out the door, the music fades away.

Oh no. 

Oh no. 

Ralsei just ended the scene with the Angel. He runs back in, hoping that the angel was still watching, that he could maybe play it off as a joke! But, no luck. His room was quiet, now. 

He quickly runs down the stairs - he’d thank the angel that no one else is in his way, but they surely wouldn’t want to be bothered by his paltry thanks after what he had done - before reaching his cauldron. His natural anxiety gives him more than enough tension to channel through the pot, before it spits out a cake. Ralsei grabs a platter and catches it, and - ah. He was thinking about them when he cast the spell, of course there’s a big red heart made of icing on top. Is, is that okay?

Time pressure, as he’s discovered over the past few days, is one of the few things that can get him to stop doubting himself.

Ralsei runs off, heading through Castle Town to the entrance, cake in hand. He hopes he isn’t too late! The town itself constantly buzzes with activity, and he runs past Darkners dancing with each other in the street. There are fences bearing Tenna’s face barricading a main path - why is that? Tenna isn’t even here anymore; he was given a brand new home thanks to Kris and Susie’s efforts - that Ralsei mentally commands to separate. Without the definition given to the dark by the Lightners, he can easily pull and manipulate the fabric of fantasy, altering the shape of castle town as its Prince. He’s tried his best to make this place as comfortable as possible for everyone the angel has spared.

Oh angel, he hopes he hasn’t made too big a mistake. Once he has a straight shot to the entrance of the dark world, he lets himself become more indistinct, flowing across the street like water heading towards a drain. He soars until he feels the world get more real, and he starts hearing the quiet pulse of music once more. 

A pillar of light suddenly opens up in front of him. Stars twinkle with their arrival - new Darkners? As he draws near, Ralsei is shunted out of abstract darkness. He re-solidifies with enough speed that when his feet touch the ground once more, he can’t control himself, he trips-

Kris, Susie, and the Angel arrive in the dark world just in time to see Ralsei trip and fall face first into a cake.

Chapter Text

Ralsei pulled himself up as he saw Kris and Susie stepping out of the pillar of light. He has cake all over his face, the red heart icing stained across his snout like a bloodstain. The red velvet of the cake’s interior clung to him like viscera.

Some part of his mind traitorously thinks that it would be easier if it were blood - if he wore the shroud of suffering through hardship, rather than bearing the icing as a mark of his own failure.

Saying… anything, right now, was hard. Icing and cake dripped across him. The smashed cake lays on the ground. He manages to stammer out, “I’m sorry, I, made a cake as soon as I learned you guys were coming back! In my excitement, however…” he remembers what Kris told him, and with great effort, he allowed his smile to fall off of his face. “I’m sorry, I can just make a new one, okay?”

He finally takes a look towards them, and Kris is standing there with a completely blank expression that must mean the soul is back within them. And Susie… he expected to see anger, and he found hints of it, but in her eyes, there was… pity? No, in her eyes was some kind of understanding. Had she been crying? Surely not, this is Susie! She saw the end of the prophecy and didn’t shed a tear. He can trust her to remain strong, no matter what.

She then smiles, “Don’t worry dude, I won’t waste your hard work. You’re not the only one that’s been working on new abilities. Kris! Like we practiced earlier, snack eating form!”

With a spin, Ralsei watched as Susie did a handstand, before Kris grabbed her legs, before helping her stand above the ruined cake, before she started devouring it off the ground with nothing more than her mouth. Despite everything, Ralsei couldn’t help but laugh - and smile for real. They were his friends. The world isn’t ending tonight. Probably.

In only a few seconds, the cake was devoured, and Ralsei took the moment to wipe himself off, willing what remains of the cake to return to the darkness from whence it came. Kris lets go of Susie’s legs, and she plants her feet on the ground before pulling herself back upright in a single motion. “Hell yeah, Kris, that’s what I’m talking about!” 

Angel above, her enthusiasm was infectious.

As she smiles, she then tilts her head, “Wait, so, was that Kris or Red?”

Ralsei looked over at Kris. Susie knows. And is seemingly taking it well. Ralsei wouldn’t dare give the Angel of the Prophecy a nickname, but it would be an understatement to say that Susie has a talent for ignoring sacred boundaries.

Kris says, voice laden with nothing but apathetic neutrality, “That was all you.”

Susie gently punches Kris in the shoulder. “Don’t sell yourselves short.” She then turns to Ralsei, and her smile falters for a bit. He tries (and fails) to avoid taking that personally, it’s probably not his fault (that won’t stop him from blaming himself when he replays this moment in his mind, later, and he knows this).

She puts her hands behind her head, trying to act casual. “So, uh, you knew the whole time that there was someone else in Kris’ head, huh.”

Ralsei grabs onto his scarf - the way it can go from soft to sharp at his will reminds him of Susie, and somehow, that was a comfort in this moment. “Yes. I did. I’m sorry, I know how much you hate it when people keep secrets from you, but, I hope you understand why I didn’t.”

She sighs, and she places a hand on his shoulder. “That’s the thing, Ralsei, I kind of don’t? I can guess, but like.” Her eyes meet his, and he sees nothing but kindness within her. “Look man, I’m not good at this shit, but like I just told Kris, I’m your friend. I’m here if you need a shoulder to cry on. This is part of what we talked about earlier, ya know? It does no one any good for you to just bottle this shit up.”

He sniffles, wiping away a tear with his left paw. Right. They talked about this earlier. “Sorry for making you rehash this, but, you’re right, I shouldn’t assume. I also assumed, when I first met you, that if they, um, the Soul was ready to tell you, they would. I thought that, it wasn’t my secret to share.”

Susie looks over, “And, given that Red here is apparently super limited in what she can say, it just didn’t come up until now.” There’s a bit of a haunted look on her face - Ralsei wishes his friends didn’t have to face this, but unfortunately there’s nothing he can do other than guide them through it. Still, the angel was limited?

“How are- how is she limited?” Also, apparently, unfathomable beings who are lighter than light still have intelligible genders. Ralsei can’t help but find this curious - the prophecy has only a scant few details on the angel, and none of them really describe the angel as a person. 

Susie hooks a finger back at Kris. “Apparently Red has to pick from limited options when choosing what to do. Kris thinks it might be drawing from what they might or could do in a given situation, but we aren’t fully sure about that. She can answer yes or no questions easily enough, at least, or pick an option if you give her choices.”

Ralsei looks back at Kris, knowing of the angel within them. In a deep part of his mind, some part of him could feel a strange sort of sympathy - but he buried that part of himself. He would not drag anyone down by comparing themselves to him, let alone the angel. 

He ignores this part of himself, lacing his pawed fingers together before saying “I’m, I didn’t realize. I shouldn’t have assumed.” He looks down. “I know things, and, I had ideas on how they might play out. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed anything.” He looks up, curiosity showing on his face and playing out across his mind. “I suppose I should ask, what do you know about her?”

Susie leans back, “Well, after Kris revealed that all this was going on earlier, and we talked a little bit on the way here. Red here has been possessing Kris for the past 3 days - she can’t hear Kris at all though. Apparently she can read other people’s minds if you think something loudly enough? Oh, and the important thing - apparently she can time travel. Go back in time to try something again if, the worst happens.”

Ralsei’s mind stiffens - he’s suspected, the Angel has known some things they shouldn’t have, before, but he can’t help himself as he turns Kris, and the angel within. “Forgive me for being so presumptuous, but… have you been to the end?” 

Despite the pang of something that yearns for this connection, to talk with someone else burdened with knowledge, if the angel has returned from the end… she must not have been able to change it. He desperately doesn’t want to give up on the hope flickering within his dark heart.

Kris speaks, but the voice is the voice he’s come to associate with the angel’s words. “This is further than I’ve ever gone before, but, she knew what would happen if we went home. This can’t have been the first time she’s gone through today.”

Susie looks disquieted, but Ralsei doesn’t let this show on his expression. Is the Angel lying? For some reason, he expected that to be… above her.

Susie has no such restraint. “You knew what would happen if we went back to Kris’ place. This isn’t the first time you’ve seen tonight.”

Kris speaks, their distrust causing the angel’s words to slither out like venomous snakes. “It isn’t. This is the first time we’ve talked. According to her, at least.”

Susie seems relieved, though. “Then she wasn’t lying - we absolutely fucked around talking long enough that you would otherwise be asleep or something at this point. And, like, yeah, she could be lying about this being our first conversation, but where would we go with that?” She looks away, “I know what it’s like, to have everyone assume the worst of you. I don’t know what she is or what she’s capable of, but she’s told us way more than she had to. She didn’t have to reveal that she can read my mind, but she did anyway?”

Susie crosses her arms behind her head, stepping towards Castle Town, before looking back. “I’m giving her a chance. I don’t control you two, but you’ll have to live with me giving her a shot. Besides, you two are no strangers to being friends with scary girls.” She smiles, and Ralsei can’t help but smile as well.

“Speaking of, Ralsei. Ralsei.” She reaches out and grabs Ralsei by his shoulders, shaking him a little bit for emphasis. “Do you know why weird shit keeps happening around her?” Susie takes a closer look. “Oh shit, I think you might have broken your glasses in the fall.” Susie opens her mouth, feeling between her sharp teeth with her claws. “Dude, I’m so sorry, I think I ate part of your glasses.”

Ralsei smiles, “No, you didn’t Susie. They broke earlier.” He doesn’t want to burden them with whatever caused this disturbance - not until he’s had the chance to investigate on his own, at least. Perhaps he should talk with Seam about it - they know a great deal about magic, perhaps the old cat knows more about this. “Still, what ‘weird’ events are you referring to?”

Susie begins counting on her fingers. “When she first introduced herself, the weather changed and instantly became overcast. When she was talking about her, uh, ability to try again, lightning flashed as she talked about it.” Susie looks away as she says this - it’s strange, seeing someone else do what he does. Hiding knowledge for someone else’s protection. Is it that obvious that he’s obscuring information? Hopefully it’s also just as obvious that he only does so for their sake.

He finds his voice. “Well, I’m not entirely sure - altering the tone of the environment is certainly within the powers associated - but, well, from what I know and from what you’ve said… I suspect that it relates to her nature. She’s a magical being even in your world, but she’s bound by Kris’ thoughts and feelings - and thoughts and feelings are how you shape magic! I know you haven’t looked fondly upon her, Kris, for understandable reasons!” He holds up his paws to mollify the human, even though Kris’ body doesn’t seem to react at all. “But, because of that, maybe it means that in order to express herself, she had to act a bit like how you saw her - as someone scary.”

“So that’s why she introduced herself like the villain of a horror movie!” She barks out a laugh, pulling back the lips on her maw to highlight her yellowed teeth as she does so. “Oh, I didn’t even mention the best one. Get this, when she told us her name is Red, every light in the school exploded! We had to step carefully over the glass to get here.”

Ralsei’s brain shut off for a moment. Fear pounced onto its face, before he stepped back, “You heard the true name of the angel??? You’ve been casually saying it?”

Susie stops, “Wait, the angel? The thing the people in church were going on about, that’s who-”

Ralsei rushes forward, placing his paw over Susie’s mouth. “Perhaps as Lightners you’re less affected, but, I’m aware enough that… saying the Angel’s name is dangerous. Look too far above yourself, and you might lose sight of where you are.” Ralsei knows that this is only adding to the horror around her , limiting her more… but what else can he do? 

He knows what happens to people who learn what they shouldn’t.

In that moment, the angel spoke, the voice crawling out of Kris’ mouth like a cockroach.

“Might not be the Angel. Not sure.” ♥

Ralsei is plastered with utter bafflement, “Umm. Okay! I guess you’d be the authority on this.” He makes a note to himself not to refer to the Angel as such, even in his own mind. “I was, pretty sure you were, but that’s okay, I’ve been wrong before. I only assumed because… the angel is supposed to guide the heroes as they fulfill the prophecy, the one for whom this world was made for. The one for whom the world answers to.”

Susie looks between Kris and their unseen passenger, and Ralsei. “So, Red, why don’t you think you’re the angel? Not to doubt you or anything, but we came here in part to ask Ralsei what he knows.”

Kris coughs, and Ralsei can see one of Kris’ eyebrows break free to show confusion, before it snaps back to abject neutrality. “She says that she Could be An Angel… perhaps she is the angel, maybe she isn’t. Ralsei, what do you actually know about this? Her?”

Ralsei looks around. “Perhaps we should take this conversation inside. Actually, I have an idea. If you’ll follow me?”

Susie looks at Kris. The soul doesn’t budge an inch. Susie shrugs, “Sure. What’s on your mind?”

Ralsei smiles, “If it works, it’ll be a nice surprise. If not, well, I don’t want to get your hopes up.” He turns back towards the town. “Lets head back to your rooms? If you’ll lead the way, Kris?”

Susie raises a hand, “Actually, it seems like Red’s the one who decides where they move.”

Ralsei’s eye twitches. Even if nothing negative has happened yet… 

The soul takes Ralsei’s silence as permission to begin moving, and Ralsei falls behind his friends as they are led through Castle Town. The soul takes the opportunity to look around. Ralsei would be lying if he didn’t find the soul’s endless curiosity endlessly endearing, and he hopes that she isn’t disappointed that most of the town is closed off right now for a dance party. He’s not that familiar with the music - he sees a bunch of shadowguys playing an old-fashioned tune , with Elnina, Lanino, and Starwalker dancing together.

Ralsei turns to Kris and Susie, but neither of them seem to be cheered up by the music. If anything, it seems like the music is grating on them. 

As they begin walking past the dance scene, Ralsei spots what must be the new darkners he witnessed his friends bring - they look almost like little fish, made of shards of glass that resemble the panels of the prophecy from the church. As they walk past, one of the larger shards begins to speak.

“Look here! The Prophecy is coming true before our very eyes! Now, my school, what part of the prophecy has come true here?”

Susie looks at Ralsei and then Kris, as the swarm of little glass fish assembles into part of the prophecy, showing what appears to be a figure who looks much like himself dancing with what appears to be a skeleton. The text above reads: ‘THE HEROES WITNESS THE JITTERBUG.’

Susie looks uncomfortable. “Who are you? I think I’d remember if we recruited a teacher. No offense.”

The panel falls apart, and the fish split apart once more. “What else would I be, my dear? I am Ms. Glinter, and my fellow Shardines are my school. We were born of the glass broken by the name of the Angel, praise be, and we teach of the prophecy.”

Susie looks between Kris and Ralsei, before pulling the two of them into a huddle. “If she gives us a test, you’ll help us cheat on it, right, Ralsei?”

He sputters with indignation, “Susie! Your education is important, you shouldn’t be cheating at all!”

“We’ve already agreed that the prophecy is stupid and we’re throwing out the bad parts!” Her fingers curl up, before she turns to Kris. “Red, you’ve got my back, right? You can just turn back time over and over again until I get a C!”

“We know less about the prophecy than you do. Can we cheat off of you?”

Ralsei quickly turns back towards the Shardines, as the soul and Susie continue their discussion of how to best cheat on a test that Ralsei doubts is coming. Hmmmm.

Ralsei speaks up. “Excuse me, Ms. Glinter, could you show them the part of the prophecy concerning the Angel’s name?”

The little schoolteacher fish looks down. “Ah, a more dreary panel, that. Alright, my class! Let’s school up!”

The school of fish gather together once more, some turning transparent or donning glowing lines along their glass bodies, until they reveal a panel that quickly interrupts the ongoing argument. It shows a hollow version of the Delta Rune, with text above that reads ‘THE ANGEL’S NAME SHALL LEAD TO OBLIVION.’

Ralsei speaks, “This is why I would… advise against, casually saying the Soul’s name. Even if I’m truly mistaken, I would not risk it.”

Susie looks at the prophecy, before looking at Ralsei once more. “Dude. This just confirms that she isn’t The Angel. Sure, when she said her name it broke a bunch of stuff, but I’ve been saying her name constantly and I haven’t died, or whatever this-” Susie gestures vaguely at the Shardines’ depiction of the prophecy “-is supposed to mean.”

“Susie-” Ralsei extends a hand, ready to try and reason with her, but he is cut off by someone he didn’t expect.

“Are you willing to risk your life to test that?” ♥

Susie holds her hands up. “Yeah! Of course I am! You can literally go back and fix things if it turns out badly, and like, names are important. If I can use your name, I want to. Plus, this way we get to know whether or not you’re the angel for sure, right?”

Ralsei looks over at Kris, and while he can’t talk with them directly like this, he hopes to try and show that he shares their discomfort. Or, presumed discomfort with the idea of letting the soul play with their lives for the sake of information. Ralsei has no idea how the soul’s time abilities work - but without memory of the unwritten past, he can only assume there’s no direct transference of consciousness. Is she reverting the world entirely to a previous state? Is the reversed world merely a perfect recreation, while the original timeline is destroyed to make way for the new? Ralsei’s anxiety spikes as he considers all the ways this could go wrong, and he knows Kris must share similar worries.

Still, if this is the course Susie has chosen, then he will follow. Ralsei frames this in his mind as an act of service, failing to recognize this act of bravery for what it is.

He finds himself taking the lead, his feet floating off the ground as he turns and gestures towards his home, the bustle of castle town and the smiles of his friends infecting him with a giddiness that buries his previous worries under an avalanche of new, positive memories. Even Kris is smiling, as minor as it is under her command of them.

“If we’re doing this… then, I’m glad to formally meet you, Red. I didn’t want to say anything earlier, in case it doesn’t work, but… I think I have a way for you to talk with Kris. A way for all of us to hang out with each other, as ourselves."

Chapter Text

It doesn’t take much effort to arrange things as he wants them to be. All it takes is for the Lightners to wait outside for a moment, and he can play with the phantasms of the dark. He’s already done so once before - switching the order of Kris and Susie’s doors to facilitate their tea time earlier today. This change is almost easier - he pulls the memories of the walls back, and brings them up to the tea table, dividing the shared room back into two - with the exception of the table. There was a gap in the walls between the rooms, and the table fit perfectly into the gap. Ralsei thinks this will work, especially as he mentally subdivides the room into two once more, making it so within the dream logic of the dark.

He steps out of the door to Susie’s room, and he says “Okay, so, Susie, you’ll come with me into your room, Kris, you’ll head into your room.” He closes the door once more, and he hears a few shouts of confusion from Susie before she follows him back into her bedroom. He’s taken a seat at the end of the table, chair at an angle so she can sit at the end as well, and they watch as Kris takes a seat at the other end of the table - technically in a different room, but where they can see and hear each other.

Susie turns her chair around and sits on it backwards, resting her head on the chair’s back. Her posture screams exhaustion, but her expression reads as nothing other than determination. She raises up a claw to gesture at the setup. “So, what’s the deal with all of this?”

Ralsei smiles, “Well, I know a few things about how the- er, how the soul works. She isn’t looking through Kris’ eyes, but rather she’s observing all of us from above. And she can only observe a single room at a time, though, what counts as a ‘room’ can be manipulated. So, I, uh, set this up so we’re technically in different rooms, but we can all hear each other.”

Ralsei then turns to Kris, and says, “Kris, why don’t you close your eyes, and think about what I’m doing? Keep your eyes closed, and just imagine it.”

After a moment, Ralsei watched as Kris slumped, like a dropped toy, before they picked themselves up, looking over at Ralsei with immense gratitude in their eyes. 

Ralsei smiled, and clapped his hands together. “Now Kris can talk with us freely, while she can still hear!”

Ralsei hears the pleasant music of Castle Town cut out, replaced with silence.

Susie looks at Kris, a smile creeping onto her maw even as it was clear that some thought was weighing her down. “You know, I was wondering if there was a way we could do this. I figured Kris would just rip their soul out again - maybe that could even give Red her own body here!”

Ralsei doesn’t flinch as he hears the music change once again, this time to a dark and ominous song. He tries not to think about what would happen if that happened - but, perhaps it would be best if he let Red know at least.

Ralsei places his elbows on the table, leaning into his hands as he says, “I’m sorry, but that’s not… an option. It would end badly for everyone if Kris were to remove their soul while they were within the dark.”

(Even if Kris can move around normally in the light world without a soul… bodies without souls are considered corpses. Even if Kris was still alive without a soul, the dark would fill up the space inside them. I don’t know what would happen if you entered a dark world on your own… but I doubt it would be good. Red… even if you aren’t the angel, answer my prayer, and try to make sure this doesn’t come to pass.)

Susie looks at Ralsei. “Going to say more?”

Ralsei looks at Susie, then at Kris. “It would lead to a fate… worse than death.”

Kris looks up at Ralsei, eyes closed as they mutter. “Figures… thank you, Ralsei. For making sure I’m included here.” By the Angel, it was good to see Kris as themselves again. Despite how much they mean to Ralsei, he has only been able to speak to Kris alone a few times - each moment too short, too precious for what it represents. He smiles, nonetheless - while also reminiscing mentally on what they say. Hopefully this should allow Red to follow the conversation.

The table shakes as Kris sits up, slamming their hands onto the table. Their eyes are still closed. “Enough. Ralsei, explain everything you know about… her. Please.”

“Right.” He breathes in, then out. “The soul… I believe that Red is the Angel. I have information that I just know, like with the prophecy. Advice on how to control you, instructions on what to do that make no sense in our world. If the soul is truly the angel though, then she is from a realm that is… lighter than your own. A Lighter world, more devoid of fantasy and dreams than your own, but more real. I can’t comprehend how, but I believe this to be true.”

Susie barks out, “What the hell do you mean, more real? I thought I got it into you that you’re just as real as I am, just in your own way.” She reaches over and wraps an arm around his shoulders, pulling him close before ruffling the fur atop his head.

“Susie!” He smiles and laughs, and after a moment, she stops. “It’s hard to internalize, but… think of it like the layers of a cake.”

He reaches over to a covered cake tray, and with an expenditure of magic, he fabricates an image showing a tiered, multi-flavor cake, before pointing to the chocolate layer on the bottom. “Here, in the dark world, we can all think and talk and dream, and fantasy is the standard for our reality. Hopes and dreams make up the fabric of our world, where cause doesn’t necessarily precede effect.”

He then points to the next layer, an off-white cream color adorning the center of the confection. “This is your world. In that world, I’m nothing more than a shadow, a dream, alongside the rest of your darkner friends. How real we are there is a matter of your opinion. Fantastical things can still happen - great feats of heroism, possession, the formation of dark fountains… but, ultimately, it is a more ‘real’ reality. Dreams alone cannot shape the world, which is why you can’t use magic in your world, and why cause must precede effect there.”

Finally, Ralsei points to the top layer, made to be as pure white as possible. “The person controlling the soul is from here. A very real world, devoid of fantasy almost entirely. Even if she isn’t the angel, from what I understand of this situation, it must be the case. I don’t think it’s the very top, since accessing our world is fantastical in and of itself-”

Kris looks up, interrupting. “Controlling the soul? Whatever she is, she isn’t even here? She just gets to take over my life, and she’s not even in here living it with us?” Kris slumps down. Susie reaches to take a chunk of cake with her bare hands, only to discover that the cake is even more fake than the rest of the dark world - her hand dispels the magical image with barely any effort, leaving her tragically cakeless once again. She looks over at Kris - ah, she wanted to share some cake with them.

Ralsei extends a hand, even though he knows he can’t reach Kris from here. He wants to reassure them, wants to help them in some way. He also knows that he cannot end the scene he’s started with Red, or else she will be forced back into them. “I’m sorry Kris, I know it’s distressing, I didn’t want to burden you with-”

“You don’t get to decide that, Ralsei. It’s my life that’s caught up in all of this. This is my mess.”

Ralsei can’t bear to maintain his gaze on Kris, he can’t bear the brunt of their frustrations and anger, as much as he wishes he could. Still, he has a duty to share what he knows. 

Kris whimpers, “Do you even feel anything, from here? Do you even feel the pain that I take, whenever your actions cause me harm?”

Ralsei feels a voice whisper behind him, and Susie jumps a bit too - it seems everyone can hear her, speaking as if she was right behind each of them.

“You can hurt my feelings, but little else.” ♥

Kris grimaces, before scoffing. “I guess I don’t need to apologize for hitting you with a hockey stick, then.”

Ralsei turns to Kris. “You hit the Angel of the Prophecy with a stick?!?!” Ralsei breathes in, and he desperately bundles all of his feelings together into a prayer. “Kris, remember what I said earlier? She could only act in ways that you could, she could only express herself through the ways you expected her to.” He desperately searches for something to ground himself, and he haphazardly finds Susie’s hand. He steals it for himself, gripping it tightly. He turns his head down, until his eyes were hidden by the reflection on his glasses - the faint hint of tears only shining through the broken shard of his glasses.

“Kris… if she is the Angel of the prophecy, then it is known that the Angel is equally capable of kindness and cruelty. If she isn’t, and she’s just someone from a world above us, then you know how easy it would be for her to hurt you, if she wanted to. And all you allowed her to be, was your enemy.” Ralsei breathes out, trying to let all of his fear and anxiety flow out with his breath. Kris looks enraged, but this is important. 

As Ralsei tries to speak again, to reinforce just how badly this could have gone if Red hadn’t chosen kindness, she speaks once again.

“I’m not actually upset about being smacked.” ♥

He turns to the sky, shouting. “But you could have been!” Tears stain his fur, as he turns to look at Kris. “But I am! I am upset about this!” He takes a deep breath, and he’s shaking - oh angel, has he made a mistake? Standing up to his friends, to the one he directs his prayers towards?

Ralsei looks, and Susie is looking at him with such kindness and understanding in her eyes, a hand extended for him. He takes it in his own, running his paw over her claw. Kris is looking at him with a mixture of patient fondness and intense frustration.

“I’m sorry, Kris, I shouldn’t have shouted.” He takes a deep breath, holds it for a few seconds, before letting it go, letting his imaginary body sit without air for a few more seconds before repeating the process. “But, I meant what I said. You shouldn’t have antagonized her. Not just because she’s someone with so, so much power over our fates… but because she chooses to be kind, when she doesn't have to be.” He finds every spark of courage burning within him, and ignites it. “Would it have been okay if you had beaten me for keeping secrets from you? If you had hurt Susie, when she joined the bad guys?”

Kris has the black shard in their hands, and they’re holding it in a death grip, blade pointed down towards the table. “Nothing in my life is okay right now, Ralsei!” 

They pull the shard along the table, carving a line into it. They grit their teeth, but they match Ralsei’s breathing, as their hand loosens on the knife. 

With an exhale, they mumble, “You’re not telling me anything I don’t know. But I’m allowed to hate the fact that she has so much control over me. That she could hurt me and I wouldn’t even know. That she can dig up everything and I wouldn’t even know.”

Kris follows Ralsei’s breathing, and they hear them counting to four under their breath as they inhale. Huh. Ralsei learned this technique while practicing prayer spells - he always found it calming. Even without using it to channel magic, though, it seems to have a similar effect on Kris.

Kris’ voice returns with an intensity befitting a hero. “I’m allowed to hate the fact that I don’t have any control over my life anymore, Ralsei. But… I don’t hate her.”

Ralsei lets go of a breath he didn’t even know he was holding. He grips Susie’s hand tighter - her focus is entirely on Kris right now.

“I would resent this too, were our roles reversed.” ♥

Kris laughs as they weep, tears pouring out as they desperately try to keep their eyes closed. Ralsei fears he might have been too harsh, as they reflect on this bitter reminder of what fate has damned them to do. Of the price the prophecy demands that they pay. Of the three tragedies, written into the fabric of this world as law.

“The Heroes shall end the Prince-”

Stop. He cuts off his thoughts. He won’t think about this anymore. Susie slips from his hand, stepping out of the room to go and comfort Kris.

“Please, Ralsei? I can help.” ♥

Angel, his heart cannot take this. Denying a direct request from the Angel is against everything he believes in - but, Red professes to not be the Angel. Red has been kind to him. His faith for the Angel instead burns as his faith in his friends.

“No, Red. I’m sorry, but I will not tell you more. If Susie’s right… then it won’t matter anyway.”

“What am I right about? Not that that’s like, a rare thing for me or anything.” Susie says this while squatting behind Kris’ chair, leaning her head against their own as she wraps her hands around their stomach. The back of the chair is between them, a dark and hard thing driving a wedge between them, but it doesn’t seem to matter right now.

“I’m not telling her the final tragedies.” Angel, Susie’s smile spreads like a plague, albeit one he’s glad to come down with.

“Those stupid things, Red? None of us are going to let any of that crap happen. Don’t worry about it.”

Kris, however, pulls an arm free, before twirling the black shard between their fingers with a degree of skill that indicates extensive practice. “So, Red. We’ve had a heart to heart - wait, fuck, goddamnit.” They grimace, before stabbing the black shard into the table. Given that they still have their eyes closed, it’s no wonder that they stab right through a teacup and platter, shattering the porcelain with casual ease.

Susie barks out a laugh, “You sound like your mom, starting off a serious conversation with a pun like that.”

Kris blushes, waving their free hand until it catches in her hair. “Shut up, it wasn’t intentional.”

Ralsei’s fond smile grows, even as he sits at the other side of the long table, a world apart from the two people he cares about most.

Kris huffs, one hand bound at their side by Susie’s hug, the other now hopelessly caught in the unbrushed tangles of Susie’s hair. “Look, Red. Are you going to respect his wishes or not? This is as bold as we’ve ever seen him, but we both know that if you really wanted to, you could force this information out of him. You could go back, play along with being the Angel. You could go and ask the Shardines. You could push him, right now, until his confidence breaks. You could even go back afterwards, and he won’t even know. He wouldn’t even have to live what you would do to him. So, do you give enough of a shit about us to respect his wishes?”

“Yes.” ♥

Kris breathes in, then out. There’s relief on their face, but not enough. “Good. I don’t trust you, and I imagine the feeling’s mutual-”

Susie looks at Ralsei with confusion in her eyes, at that comment. Ralsei doesn’t return her gaze.

“-but, you have a choice to make now. If you mean that… then, I’m going to ask you to swear on your word. If I ever find out that you’ve broken your word, for a reason other than to save the lives of those important to me, then I will never trust you again. I will destroy all the random junk you try to collect, I will fight your attempts to talk to every damn person we meet, I will rip you out and leave you behind whenever we’re in the light world. Whatever attempt at communion we have going on, will be over.”

Susie pulls herself off of Kris’ head, and she sits down on the floor next to them. She’s tall enough that her head is still comfortably over the table, and buries Kris’ left hand with both of her own. Ralsei can see expressions crossing her face - she feels left out, confused, concerned. She doesn’t know why Kris is doing this.

Ralsei doesn’t know everything, but he knows why. 

He was there, after all.

He was born, in that moment, born from what Kris lost that day. The day December Holiday was lost.

He only has emotional memories of what happened before he was born as a darkner - feelings of utter despair and loss, the shattering of innocence, so much hope being drowned. Not the memories of what caused those feelings. He wishes he could remember what actually happened, to help Kris bear this burden - but, Ralsei isn’t sure if Kris themselves remembers what happened that day, either.

He cannot share this with Susie, so he shares what he can - a reassuring smile, as he projects as much as possible the feeling that everything will turn out okay.

Ralsei turns his thoughts back towards Red - not as the Angel, but as his friend. “Kris means well. I know you need a question to answer. Will you give them your word that you will not abuse the trust they are offering you?”

“I give you my word.” ♥

Kris breathes out. “Good. So… now that we’ve established that, let’s figure out a way for you to tell everyone whenever you do go back in time, then use it.” Kris leans forward, pulling their hand out of Susie’s grasp so that they might lean on their elbows, steepling their fingers. “I need to tell you my side to all of this, but it’s… personal.” Kris grabs Susie’s falling claw, pressing it to their cheek and leaning into the touch. “I can’t tell her on my own. I… please. Can we do this?”

Susie turns to Ralsei - oh no. She’s looking at him, hoping for answers. What can he even say about this? “I… If you’re okay with this, Susie, Red. Whatever it is Kris wants to talk about, I think it must be a really big step for them to reach out for help in whatever way they’re comfortable using.”

Susie looks over, and she closes her eyes for a moment, before nodding. Ralsei looks up at the sky, looking to where his friend watches over them. Ultimately, Red doesn’t choose a yes or no answer, but rather, she pulls her response from what Ralsei feels at this moment.

“We’re in this together.” ♥

Chapter Text

They ended up settling on having Red touch the silver light three times in a row whenever she reverses the course of fate. They messed around for a bit trying to find something Red could consistently do on her own - Kris was tempted to trick her into using a method they could influence, but Ralsei seems to know enough about how she controls them that they weren’t willing to take the risk.

Still, Kris could feel the tension leaving their body as Red stepped out to the base of the castle with Susie in tow. Red touched the silver light only once. Huh. They’re the version of themselves that will explain all of this, not the rewound version that has to live with the knowledge. Kris realizes that, for just a moment, they aren’t drowning in a self-dug pit of despair. They wonder if this is what Dess’ ‘special leaves’ made her feel like - like nothing else in the world really matters, like for just a moment, they’re free of all consequences.

What an addicting feeling.

What a dangerous feeling to live with.

Kris feels as though they are floating as Red brings them back to their room. Their chest shakes as Ralsei speaks the words once more, like he’s incanting a spell. Their breath hitches, before they feel their body slacken once more. They have to keep their eyes closed for this, and some part of them is relieved that they won’t have to see the look of betrayal on Susie and Ralsei’s faces.

Kris knows that Susie tossed her chair to their side of the room, and they can feel her warm presence beside them. Ralsei is still on the other side of the table, and they can hear him fiddling. Red is apparently looking down at them from above. How the hell do they start with this? Even knowing that nothing that can be done to them matters, right now… they had planned on never talking about this.

Ralsei turns to Susie. “Susie… perhaps Kris would be more comfortable talking with just me? Someone needs to be here for this - Red has to look at someone else for the two of them to be separated, and I’m good at listening, at repeating Kris’ words in my thoughts so that she might hear.” He raises his hands, “I don’t know what this is about, though. This isn’t in the prophecy, it’s just, I know how hard it can be to open up when you’re so used to keeping everything closed up inside.”

Susie huffs, “We’ve already gone to the trouble of asking Red to ensure none of us remember this conversation. What’s the point of me sitting out?” Susie then turns to Kris. “I don’t want to, but I’ll leave if you need me to. Still, whatever it is, we saved the world together, I learned that you’re possessed tonight. It can’t be worse than that.”

Kris pauses, before they decide to seize the comedic opportunity, as dark as it is. It’s easier to reveal their horrid nature as a cruel joke, than it is to plainly lay bare the severity of their betrayal.

“I created the Roaring Knight, and I’ve been working with them this whole time. Everything we’ve been going through for the past few days has been my fault.” Kris holds themselves still for a few moments, before they hear the sound of Susie standing up, the sound of her chair tumbling and hitting the ground.

“What- what the hell, Kris. That’s not funny.”

Kris doesn’t respond, tries not to think of the heartbreak that must be on her face.

“Tell me you’re joking. That you’re not trying to end the world.”

Kris tries to formulate a response, trying to say something, but the illusion has come shattering down. Damn it all, this is real, this is real now, and they’ve just ruined their friendship with Susie. They’ve willingly chosen to reveal how deep their treachery lies, so of course she’s going to be pissed. It doesn’t matter that this will all be washed away, they hurt their friends. The only thing they’re consistently good at, it seems. Maybe, if they’re lucky, Susie will grant them death number fourteen, so that they might return to a past where none of this came to light.

The last person Kris would expect to defend them speaks up. A whispering voice crawls up their neck and into the back of their ears.

“Whatever the Knight is doing, they aren’t trying to end the world.” ♥

What? Why would she try and defend them here? They hear Susie growl under her breath, “What the hell do you mean, Red? We saw them summon a titan, they tricked Queen into trying to do the same. That seems like trying to end the world to me.”

“Susie, you could end the world right now if you wanted to. There is nothing stopping you. You could take your axe and open a dark fountain right here, right now.” ♥

They hear Susie step back, her boot scraping slightly against the stone floor of their room. “So what? How does that connect to- ah. The Knight has a dark world in the shelter. They could create a titan and start the roaring whenever they want. So why haven’t they?”

Kris flinches when they feel Susie’s hand on their shoulder, and they feel as she pulls away. This is awful, why did they decide to do this? Why did they have to draw the short straw by being the version of themselves that will experience this, and not the version of themselves that has to live with Red’s knowledge?

Ralsei chooses this moment to speak up, however. “Which means… the Knight doesn’t want to cause the Roaring either. At least, they aren’t doing everything they could to end the world. I was wondering why they waited until we were right there to create a Titan…”

Kris breathes in, and finds enough apathy to let them ignore their apprehension. “The Titan in the church was like… a test? A teaching moment. A way to let us figure out how to beat one in basically ideal circumstances.”

Susie huffs, “So the Knight’s the kind of teacher to give pop quizzes, then.” Kris can hear the wood of the table crack as Susie kicks it as hard as she can. Susie radiates rage, it’s no surprise to hear her begin to stomp around, pacing. Kris’ mind imagines the horrible expressions of betrayal that the two of them must have - how barely restrained Susie sounds. How fleeting Ralsei’s hope must seem. “I can’t believe you’re fucking, buddy buddy with the bastard that has repeatedly sliced us to ribbons with swords.”

Red speaks up, then - her voice sounds like their own inner monologue externalized, but with a dialect that seems to be a strange mix of themselves and Ralsei. She must be able to take from both of them to build her responses, then. As always, the words sneak up behind them, stated with such calm intentionality that makes it sound entirely inhuman. 

“You created the Knight?” ♥

Right. Kris does not want to touch the tangled mess surrounding their past, but they have to. To explain what they’ve done to her, to lead to this.

Kris begins explaining, trying to keep their voice steady. “All of this ties back to… to Dess. To Noelle’s missing sister, December Holiday. It’s my fault that she was lost, in the first place - and I made a promise that I’d do anything to find her again.” Kris breathes in, and while playing with their weapon at this point probably wouldn’t go over well, they take a teaspoon from the table and begin spinning it between their fingers to keep themselves focused. “She… disappeared right in front of my eyes. She evaporated. I, I don’t want, I can’t say much more. Only that it’s my fault.”

The teaspoon dances across their fingers, the weighting curious compared to a knife - they find themselves automatically beginning to spin it in their hands as if the handle were the blade. “We tried to bring her back from where she was lost, and it didn’t quite work.”

“Who’s we, Kris?” Kris can hear some clattering as Susie knocks part of the tea set off the table, as she hops up and sits atop it. She positions one of her boots so that it rests against their chest, and despite the intended message, Kris can’t help but be comforted by the touch. All of their dark world clothes are comfortable - their armor no more hindering than their sweater, and Susie’s boot has none of the intended roughness as the pressure hits their chest.

“Me, Mayor Holiday, and someone else who only communicates over the phone. Mayor Holiday pressured a few other people into getting involved later, but we were the ones that started this. Whoever this person was, he warned Ms. Holiday that something supernatural was going on. He told her about the Dark World in the shelter, that… some kind of being was about to enter our world. He told her that this being would inhabit a body, and this body would essentially replace Dess in people’s minds and memories. We would find ‘her’ again… but none of us would realize that it wasn’t Dess.”

They turn their head to face the ceiling, facing the demon within them. “It would have been You.”

Ralsei’s breath hitches. “You… you took her body away from her, didn’t you. You chose to be her cage.” He sniffles, as if he’s struggling not to cry. “Red, please don’t take this out on Kris. They just didn’t want to lose their friend again.”

“I don’t want to replace someone to experience this world. Why do you think I took the opportunity to tell Susie?” ♥

Susie, for her part, presses her boot a little harder into them. Somehow, Kris understands it as a comforting gesture. “Red, what was this like from your perspective, if you can say? You don’t seem like the type that would intentionally like, memory wipe someone from existence just to hang out.”

“I made a human vessel for myself to experience your world. I loved my creation, but they were carelessly discarded. I knew nothing of where or how they would join your world.” ♥

Kris cringes. They didn’t consider the idea that Red might already have an attachment to the body - the soul was always this antagonistic force, an interloper that the plan would use as necessary. An interloper that tried to steal Dess away from them forever, that controlled Kris’ body with an iron fist. They don’t regret stopping her from stealing Dess’ life - but Red didn’t even want that. Red didn’t want to replace someone. It stings, to fully acknowledge how much they have hurt each other.

Susie is unaware of Kris’ mental spiral. She mutters, “human?” before Kris feels a hand grasping their wrist. They drop the teaspoon they’ve been spinning. “Kris, Noelle’s missing sister was another deer monster, right?”

Kris nods. “She was a glow-deer monster, a Cershine, just like Noelle, but… she had my human soul, when she was lost.”

Susie’s foot pulls away from Kris’ chest, and they begin to let out a low whine at the loss of contact, before she suddenly hops off the table. Kris lets out an animalistic noise of surprise as Susie suddenly picks them up by their armpits, before shouting.

“Kris! Please fucking tell me that you haven’t been without a soul for however long she’s been missing!” She shakes them for emphasis - or perhaps to hide the fear coursing through her veins.

They don’t have any good answers for her. “Seven years. And no, I don’t know how I’m alive either.”

Kris can hear Ralsei mutter something about the angel, some sort of prayer, as Susie tosses them into their bed, before dragging the bed itself over to the center of the room. Angel, this bed is so comfortable - Kris is so tired. They should feel relieved, but they only feel more and more aware of the burdens upon them.

Susie sits on the bed next to them, and they find themselves relaxing into her. She mutters something about them being a dumbass, which they frankly are for choosing to drown in this sea of problems. Susie speaks with a fondness that Kris knows is relatively new for her. They lean into her touch, finding comfort in her earthy smell and rough, scaly skin. Even if she probably hates them now, they will spend what sympathy they still have, before they are rewound by the actions of someone they have wronged.

Susie speaks, “This is so unbelievably fucked.” Kris can feel a hand brush against them for a moment as she shifts atop the bed. They imagine that she’s covering her eyes with her claws, unable to bear the sight of them any longer. “Why the hell did Dess have your soul?”

“She… felt uncomfortable, being a monster, sometimes. Just like how I sometimes felt uncomfortable being human. We… we were being fucking dumb, okay? We thought that maybe, it would be better if we tried swapping souls.” They breathe out. “The Holidays and the rest of the Dreemurrs have that one condition that affects monster souls, that lets their soul survive a bit outside of their body. Even before this, I would rip out my original soul to sleep without nightmares, I would rip it out whenever my feelings got too intense and I needed to step back from things.”

Right. Now onto the part where things started to go wrong. “She took my soul into her… and, it combined with her own. I have no idea how people didn’t notice, her eyes changed color.” They breathed out. “This was a few months before she disappeared. We freaked the fuck out when they combined, obviously, but like. I wasn’t dying. I wasn’t feeling bad. After a few days, it felt normal. She wanted to tell my mom, take me to the hospital, but I convinced her to wait until something bad happened. Nothing ever did.”

They don’t mention that they would be okay with it if something had happened. With their body dead, their consciousness would have awoken in Dess, and they would have gotten their wish to become a monster. They would have been able to be with her, when everything went to hell.

Ralsei speaks, “Kris… your soul is the culmination of your being. It’s essentially the part of you where permanent parts of yourself are stored, where the things that make you you are held for reference. Without it, you shouldn’t be able to dream. You’d have difficulty regulating your emotions, you’d fall into despair more easily, it’d be incredibly difficult to heal from anything traumatic. I suppose you could survive without a soul, but, I’m sorry that you had to. Maybe there’s something we can do to help?”

Kris waves a hand. “I’ve lived without a soul for this long, I can survive a bit longer.” They breathe out. “This is where it comes around to the knight. We did some strange ritual, in the darkest part of the shelter. The plan was to try and bring Dess back. Bring the real Dess back, in the body Red apparently made.”

It’s too much.

“It… it didn’t quite work.”

Kris laughs, even though they feel like crying. They turn around until they’re facing the mattress, and they let their tears soak the fabric. They breathe in, then out. None of this will be remembered, they just have to go through it and it’ll fade away like a bad dream. Right.

Susie leans down to pat them on their back, rubbing small circles into them, as Ralsei’s quiet whisper echoes across the room. “But instead… you created the Knight. You brought an empty body into the dark, and it was animated by darkness - and whatever magic you did, trying to return her to life. Am I right?”

Kris laughs even more, before pulling themselves up. They almost forget that they have to keep their eyes closed to keep their body as their own, but they force their eyelids closed at the last possible moment. They hope that they’re looking at Ralsei, facing at least one of their friends.

“That’s the thing. Carol - er, Ms. Holiday believes that to be true. The Knight thinks that’s true, even if they have their doubts. I don’t. I think it worked. I think that the Knight is what’s left of Dess after… what happened.” Kris finds their voice. “I made a promise, but I don’t think we could ever naturally find the version of Dess that Carol is looking for. The daughter Carol wants back is one frozen in nostalgia, one that only existed in her memories. I, didn’t realize that, immediately.” Kris pulls themselves back into a sitting position, leaning against Susie. They count it as a victory that Susie doesn’t immediately pull away.

“I think Dess has been right in front of us this whole time, and no one was ready to accept it.” 

Surprisingly, Susie pulls Kris closer. “I should have figured that all of this was about protecting someone. Both of us are the kind of people who would go to hell and back for our friends. Still, Kris… how does that lead to us fighting Dess? The Knight?”

Kris shrugs, “Call them the Knight, for now. They don’t think that they’re Dess, anymore. Even if I think that they’re who Dess is now, that’s what it’s been calling itself.” They stretch, before sighing. “As for what’s happened before, the person Carol’s been talking to told her more about the prophecy - alongside a belief that, if the prophecy is fulfilled, the heroes will have a chance to restore the world as they wish.” Kris pauses. “She wanted me, us, to fulfil the prophecy so that we could use that power to save Dess. We did another ritual, to bind the being that was being summoned into me, instead. I would be the cage, so that she might be free.”

Kris decides not to reveal that the plan called for Noelle to be the second hero, and that Susie’s involvement made the whole conspiracy scramble to try and get them back on track. Kris had wanted to do this journey with Noelle, initially - they really wanted to reconnect with her, to find an opportunity to rekindle their friendship. Of course… from what they overheard, it seems like this desire wasn’t fully reciprocated. If she felt that they were forced to hang out, essentially forcing her to hang out by making her a hero of prophecy probably wouldn’t have worked either. Thankfully, the feeling of Noelle’s loss is a familiar wound.

Isn’t that the tragedy of it all? That they were getting really close, that they were almost best friends, that they were learning to rely on each other like they could with no one else, that they were learning how to say that they do care when words are hard but-

Dess was lost. They lost her.

What they had built together wasn’t strong enough. Every connection that could have brought them closer together instead snapped and frayed and left an empty space in their chest where they were ready to let her sit next to their soul. They don’t blame her for healing, when they could not.

Frankly, she deserves someone like Susie. Kris wishes they could open their eyes, to drink in Susie’s expression, no matter how painful. It’s disgraceful how quickly Kris could turn things around with her - how quickly Susie became so, so unbearably wonderful the moment someone gave her a chance. How had no one recognized her for who she could be? How did she languish alone, like them, for so long? It’s unacceptable. Kris can picture her as she is meant to be, in their mind - as a hero like no other, as someone who can take everything sacred and profane and walk right past it to find what’s better. Someone whose will alone is capable of reshaping the world. 

They can’t imagine doing this without Susie. They can’t imagine what it would be like to restore the world the way Carol wants - to bring things back to before they ruined everything, to turn back the clock seven years. They refuse to lose what they have, when they could have everyone they care about if only they had the will to seize it.

Maybe they don’t have that will, but Susie does.

Kris has been in their head for a long time, but they reach out, and Susie takes their hand. Somehow, she’s still here for them. Susie speaks, “Hey, you’re back. We thought you might have fallen asleep on my shoulder. Did you hear what me and Ralsei were talking about?”

Kris shakes their head - did they really lose themselves for that long?

Kris hears Ralsei cough, before Susie says, “So, like hell are we letting the final prophecy play out. It’s too cruel. Even if we could restore the world or whatever afterwards, I’m not paying the damn price it's asking of us, and I don’t think you want to pay that price either.” Susie lets out a breath.

Kris can hear Ralsei’s fake smile as he speaks. “Maybe, if you talked to this Mayor, you could get her to stop?”

Kris shakes their head again. “Carol would do anything to save her daughter. It’s too bad she can’t see who her child has become. That even the knight doesn’t…” Kris grips their head in their hands, before letting out a breath they didn’t realize they were holding. “The voice from the phone too. I haven’t heard it myself, but there’s another mastermind here. From what Carol’s said, he never gives directions, only information.”

“You can influence people by choosing what information to give out, though.” Ralsei says this with only a mild amount of shame. 

Kris turns to face him, and they try their best to give their best deadpan expression while keeping their eyes closed.

“I was only trying to see if we could change the ending! To see if being kind was enough to change the fate awaiting us. That’s different, right?”

Kris wishes they could glare at him. Thankfully, Susie takes the words out of their mouth. “Listen, the evil ass fountain openers have their own little voice telling them everything. We need all the advantages we can get if we want to change fate.”

They can’t resist the opportunity to make a little joke, while this timeline still exists. “Technically, we’re tied in making fountains. I’ve opened two fountains - Card Kingdom and TV Land - and you’ve opened one yourself. The knight has opened three - two in the church, and Cyber World.” They chuckle. “Is it too late to change our team name to the Good Ass Fountain Openers?”

Ralsei sputters, “Kris!” He pauses, “None of us should be opening any more dark fountains, lest we upset the balance of Light and Dark.”

Susie scoffs next to them. “And let them beat our record?”

Kris can hear Susie pause for a moment as Ralsei stammers, as she ponders something. “Ralsei… what if we followed your advice? If we stopped them from opening any more fountains? If we tried to ensure we never reached the ending? If there’s some version of Dess already here, then we just have to get our evil rivals to accept that, and to shut up whatever voice is egging them on.”

The room is quiet for a moment. Would that even work? “We have infinite retries, but there’s still the matter of Officier Undyne. The voice implied that he could assist more directly if he had… a sacrifice that he could use. Carol picked someone we needed out of the way - no need to have the cops investigating all the stuff we stole from the library, and Undyne has one of the shelter codes.” Kris breathes in, then out. “Speaking of the codes, if I’m putting my trust in you, Red… I’ll open the doors if we have a plan.”

Susie places a clawed hand on their right thigh in reassurance.“Wait, you just know the codes? Can I know them? What if you’re doing some like, sneaky double agent stuff, and something goes wrong and I need to come to the rescue?”

Kris shows their teeth in a light grimace, “There’s no point. We’re all going to forget this anyway, Susie.”

“About that,” she leans a bit closer into them, and Kris tries and fails to raise their guard. “I don’t think we should undo this.”

Kris quickly scoots back to the headboard of their bed, as Susie’s hand leaves them. “No. I only talked about this so Red could know, I wouldn’t, this wasn’t what I wanted. What I agreed to.” Kris breathes quickly, lungs failing to appreciate the influx of air Kris is giving them. “I- I’m sorry, but I don’t want to deal with the reality where the two of you hate me. Where you don’t trust me, because you shouldn’t, where you know just how much I’ve fucked up and-.”

Claws grip their hands, Susie’s talons gripping into the black undersuit of their dark world attire as she takes both of their hands into her own. She… she’s being gentle. She isn’t hurting them.

Her voice cuts through their panic, for just a moment. “Kris. Now that I know you, I could never hate you. It’s not going to go back to how it used to be, before we became friends.” She grips their hands tighter with her own, and, it’s so paradoxical, Kris normally hates it when people touch them, but they can’t stop seeking out Susie for physical affection. They seek her out even as she deserves to split open their skull for what they’ve done.

She breathes out a huff, and they can feel the warmth of her breath as she does so. “And like, yes I’m mad. Of course I’m fucking mad. And, I don’t know the relationship you had with Dess, but like, if I lost you and there was a chance I could find you again, I can’t say that I wouldn’t do something just as reckless. Even if it risks the end of the world, it’s people like you, Ralsei, and Noelle that make the world worth living in. And like, I’ve only known you for 3 days, and you were possessed for most of that. I can’t imagine how much more intense it would be if we had known each other for years, instead” 

Susie sighs, and Kris can taste the emotion on her breath. “So you did something stupid. News flash, I’m always doing something stupid, and yet I ended up as your best friend anyway. I’m willing to forgive, especially because this way it’s you coming forward about this stuff. It would definitely be worse if I found out part of this without the rest of your story. What about you, Ralsei?”

“Umm.” They can hear him shuffling. “To be honest, I’m upset too. I don’t like being mad, especially being mad at my friends, but… I’ve known my entire life that my sole purpose was to help stop the end of the world. I wish you weren’t one of the people causing it. I wish I could completely understand why, but I’ve never really known… loss, like that. Kris, Susie, you two were the first people I ever met. I can imagine the feelings, but they aren’t my feelings.” 

There’s a faint scratching sound, and Kris imagines it as Ralsei running his scarf across his fur. “I don’t know if I forgive you, Kris, but I still want to be your friend. I still want to help you save the world. I want to save everyone that we can, and if we can save the Knight, then I would love nothing more. Is that okay?”

Kris really wants to cry. How can their friends love them so much? How are they okay with this? Kris nods as tears crawl out of their eyes. “It’s more than I deserve.”

Susie grips their hands tighter. “Plus, dumbass, we would find out eventually. This way, we’ll be right by your side, Kris. Though, uh, personally there’s no fucking way I’m letting the Mayor sacrifice someone.”

Kris nods. “Right. Maybe I can talk to Carol; we can see if Red’s newfound ability to talk changes things. She can reverse time if it goes badly.”

Red speaks.

“Why are you on a first name basis with the Mayor?” ♥

Kris flinches, and they notice as Susie’s grip gets tighter. “She’s my friend’s mom? She’s basically like my Aunt, given how close our families are - er, were. She supports my hobbies - she got a piano so I could play whenever I was over at her house, she bought me my favorite knives and made sure I had a proper sheathe so I could easily keep it on me all the time. And, well, she insisted that if we were going to be co-conspirators, that I had the right to use her first name.”

“Did you choose to serve as my vessel? Or did she choose?” ♥

Kris crosses their arms. What does this matter? “I would have said yes. I’m the only one who could contain you, based on what she managed to learn. I’m the only human in Hometown, I’m already capable of living just fine without a soul of my own, and my mind wouldn’t give you any opportunity to seriously hurt anyone. I promised that I would do anything it takes to find her.”

Susie coughs, “That still means you didn’t choose this, which is fucked. What, did the Mayor just give you a grand speech, congratulating you for your sacrifice, and you went along with it without raising a fuss about losing your body ?”

Kris cringes. “It wasn’t like that. I made a promise, this was our opportunity.” They take a moment to follow those breathing instructions they remember from therapy - one of the few things they’ve managed to retain. Four seconds breathing in, four seconds holding their breath, four seconds breathing out.

It doesn’t help, when Red speaks again.

“You’re a teenager. How dare she?” ♥

Kris freezes up. It’s the same neutral tone that she always speaks in, but Kris can’t help but imagine this as anger. They speak up, hoping that whoever’s committing their words to their mind for her is getting the firmness in their tone. “I would have made the same choice! I can make my own choices. It’s not like she knew who you were - to her, you could have been anything. She needed someone who truly cared about the people here, just in case you were something that would have tried to hurt them.”

Susie’s hands crawl along their upper arms, looking for someone firmer to grasp. “You know that’s worse, right Kris? I wouldn’t deal with an adult forcing me to do anything, let alone an adult demanding that I give up my body and autonomy for a stranger. And like, we know now that Red’s fine, but you didn’t when this happened.” 

“You don’t get it!” They snap at her, and she pulls her hands away - but they reach out, grab her hands with their own. “Everyone else was just offering sympathies, Susie. Sure, my dad was still looking for her, but the only evidence was supernatural, so now everyone but Carol thinks he’s crazy. Everyone else was just telling me to move on, to just let go of what happened, to let Dess become a memory. Only Carol understood, she offered me a chance to fix this. All I had to do was to let myself become a cage, to make sure that you would be unable to diverge the course, to make sure you couldn’t hurt anyone.”

“Do you think that I haven’t had opportunities to ruin you?” ♥

Kris’ blood freezes over. “What the hell do you mean? I’m able to interpret your demands, your actions - you shouldn’t be capable of doing anything I wouldn’t!” What has she done? Has she hurt them in some past life as revenge for being caged? Has she hurt anyone they care about?

“One of Noelle’s spells can freeze enemies solid. We fought Berdly with her. What do you think the creature bearing the shadow mantle was tempting me to do?” ♥

(Kris fails to notice Susie mouthing the word ‘creature?’ to Ralsei, given that they must remain blind to remain free. Ralsei shrugs in response.)

That sick game in TV World - Kris was absolutely terrified when they saw what she was making their avatar do. Seeing the pixelated version of themselves stabbing foes with abandon, killing those pixelated versions of their friends… getting an ice mage to freeze a bird to pass. “You… you would have made Elly kill him. No, she wouldn’t have-”

“She would do it for you. She trusts you more than anyone else.” ♥

Kris hisses, “How dare you. Did you… Did you fucking kill him? Yeah, he’s annoying, but that doesn’t mean he deserves to die.”

“I’ve gone to the point where she was willing to, before, but no further.” ♥

Kris feels Susie grip their arm tight. “Why the hell were you freezing Darkners, Red? You’re always doing that pacifism schtick, saving everyone you can. What would drive you to change that?”

“A tool Noelle can acquire through that path.”

Ralsei speaks up, “I am aware of all the equipment we might use. Are you talking about the Thorn Ring? Why… would you need that thing?”

“To make the Twisted Sword. To give you to yourself.” ♥

Ralsei stutters, “Oh! The blade Mallus can potentially make. It’s a type of knife also known as, uh, A Kris.” He pauses. “It reverses the power of that… terrifying ring. Instead of making you dissociate, it makes everything feel more real, more present. It connects the bearer to their body. It’s also… capable of leaving fatal wounds.” He seems to hold himself still, and Kris can’t hear his breath. 

Oh. It hits Kris, the implications of the weapon’s capabilities. She was willing to kill for the chance that the twisted sword would let her have a conversation with them. They should be terrified, and don’t get it wrong, they are, but some part of them is honestly… touched? The whole idea of this is so deeply messed up, but… they were willing to sacrifice Undyne to a terrible fate to save Dess. The idea that the worst thing that Red was capable of was done partially for them leaves them unsettled. Another sick feeling stirs within them.

Empathy for a demon, it seems. 

They’ve hurt people before - scaring them, lashing out when they couldn’t make themselves explain what was wrong, Dess… All of it happened to people they cared about. Telling your friends that you would kill for them is a good way to lose them as friends, but it doesn’t change the devotion in Kris’ vacant heart. No wonder they appear as a chivalric knight in the dark world. Some part of them acknowledges that they would allow themselves to be wielded by a weapon by those they care about. They don’t like what they are, but they didn’t choose to be this way. They just have to live with it. 

Is this what Susie and Ralsei are mad about? That they allowed Carol to wield them as a blade, that she made the risk that the knife could control the wounds it leaves in the hands of a foreign blademaster? They made the choice to give themselves to Carol as a weapon to cut Dess free from the dark, and it’s only now that they instead are making the choice to allow Red to see what she has been wielding. And, in turn, she has shown to them a similar devotion - a willingness to end lives for those they care about. Kris doesn’t like this part of themselves, doesn’t like how easily they are capable of hurting others, but they are willing to use all that they are.

What a twist of fate, that they would be kindred spirits in this way.

Susie places an arm around their shoulders, and draws Kris close, snapping Kris out of their thoughts. “Well, there’s no need to do that now, since you’re talking to us without a murder sword. Still, the fact that she could have been worse but isn’t, doesn’t make all of… this okay, Kris.” 

No, no, they will not turn their blade on her, she’s a mother in mourning, she’s wrong but she doesn’t deserve to die - Susie cuts off their thoughts with another question. “Red, I’m going to thrash the mayor’s ass. Are you in?”

“Let’s turn her life into a horror movie.” ♥

“I’m not letting you kill her.” Kris bears their teeth, tries to affirm their point as much as possible. She’s just as hurt as they are! More so! She’s not handling it well, but she trusts them and they trusted her.

Susie says, “Hey, I’m not down for murder. We’re just going to scare her, mess with her a bit. Like a prank. Frankly, she’s getting off easy, given all that she’s done.”

Kris… Kris loves pranks. Carol knows that they only prank the people they care about. Ugh. “Fine. I think this is a terrible idea, but I’ll follow your lead, Susie. It’s not going to make negotiating with her easier, but so long as it doesn’t go too far, I’ll play along.”

Susie grips their shoulder tighter, before pulling Kris into a hug. She whispers to them, where no one else can hear. “Kris, most adults fucking suck. Almost all of them do. You should never just take their shit, let them dump all their issues onto you. I know you’d do anything for the people you care about, but so would I, and she did something fucking awful to you. Me and Red, we’re the scary girls, right? Let us do this for you.”

Susie pulls them closer, until their foreheads are touching again. They shift until they’re straddling her, curled around Susie’s frame and soaking in the unconditional care radiating off of her. Kris doesn’t deserve this, but they take it anyway. Tears run from their closed eyes onto Susie’s face, as they grip her tight. Angel, what did they do to deserve her? What did she do, to find her true self with them? Kris doesn’t want to let go, they want to crawl into her mouth with their tongue and explore every corner of her mouth -

Wait, where did that come from? Kris loves Susie, of course, but as their best friend. It’s very obvious that Noelle has a thing for Susie, and Susie seems to reciprocate (without even realizing that Noelle is flirting?). Kris won’t take this from their friends. Kris buries any romantic feelings coursing through them, but such feelings have already ruined the moment by reminding Kris of what they don’t deserve.

They hear Ralsei cough, and they pull away to face him. They can’t see him, but he sounds… embarrassed? 

“Perhaps… if we’re keeping this, this series of events, we should begin wrapping things up so you can get some sleep. I don’t know what time it is in the light world, and time doesn’t pass 1 to 1 between the worlds… but you two look like you’re about to fall asleep atop each other. Maybe, while we still have the ability to talk with Red and Kris separately, we ask a few questions? Before wrapping things up?

Kris feels Susie’s hair brush against them as she nods. Unlike with human hair, even though Kris is sure she hasn’t washed it in ages, it isn’t greasy - most monsters sweat a lot less than humans, if they sweat at all. It’s all tangled together though, and they resist the urge to start running their fingers through her hair.

Susie is the first to speak. “So, one thing I was wondering. How the hell did the Knight only kick our ass once? We barely held on when we fought them, and that’s with you commanding us to burn all of our best healing items.”

“The Knight wasn’t going for the kill when we first fought. The fight you experienced lasted five minutes. I battled the knight for about five hours.” ♥

…

Five Hours?

There are sixty minutes in an hour, multiply that by five to get three hundred minutes. They remember how hurried the soul had seemed, before fighting the Knight, but it was… probably a minute and a half, two and a half minutes of talking and build up between touching that star and facing the Knight in battle. Throw in some extra time to account for shuffling equipment and fights that happen to take longer, and… 

Optimistically, Red fought the Knight thirty-five to forty times. Of course, the earlier she lost, the more time she saved to try again. The Knight wasn’t trying to kill them, of course, but…

Kris speaks aloud, “If you’re willing to try that many times, why didn’t you try over and over again until you… won?”

“Without full cooperation, the outcome we achieved was the best one.” ♥

Right. Kris really didn’t want to hurt what was left of Dess. Good to know that they can sandbag to an extent if needed, and it works enough that a skilled foe can secure a win in every timeline. Hopefully they don’t need to do that again, though they suspect they might need to do that if Red provokes a fight with Carol.

Susie continues, “Huh. How did we die to the Knight, then?”

“Stabbed to death while climbing, in the first dark world within the church.” ♥

That somewhat explains it - they were summoning a lot of blades there, beyond where the Knight could see, and Red was far from good at dodging while climbing. Normally it would have more than enough control to avoid killing them. They lie to themselves and pretend that this death was an accident.

“Who else killed us?” Kris’ protective instinct isn’t always a healthy instinct to indulge, but they want to know. Who would be likely to kill them? “Jevil?”

“Seven times.” ♥

More than half. They aren’t too surprised that the damn clown did them in more than anyone else. That infernal jester deserved to eat a rude buster or two to the face, but no, Red solved that problem without violence like she did with most foes. 

Ralsei speaks up, “I felt the language of whatever you use to control Kris change right before we faced him. Did you change your controlling device in order to win?”

“Yes.” ♥

They hear some contemplative humming from Ralsei’s side of the table - the fact that he’s so casual about this is disconcerting. Did Susie tell him how many times they died? Whatever, that’s a problem for another day. Susie still has them in a Completely Platonic hug where they have their legs wrapped around her hips, and that occupies most of their attention.

Kris asks a few more questions, trying to narrow down whoever else claimed their lives. Spamton was the next candidate - he killed them three times. That left one candidate left, and it took several minutes to narrow it down to a random Ribbick. Kris remembers Red messing around with a Ribbick right before they found another egg in their inventory - of course she got them killed while trying to get one of those things.

Ralsei then speaks up. “Oh! I should ask, how has my mental transcription been working for you? I’ve been doing my best to think everything Kris says really loudly, I don’t think I’ve missed anything but, well, this was a very surprising conversation.”

“You did a good job.” ♥

“Good!” They can hear him fiddling with something, and they’re only half paying attention, to be honest. They are very tempted to fall asleep on top of Susie. They are well and truly tapped, and it’s only a lingering question keeping them awake.

“Great!” He seems to shift around. “So, I don’t know if you want to answer, but I want to give you a chance to ask something of us. You’ve always been considerate of me, trying to see how I feel when I don’t feel like I can share. I want to return the gesture.” They hear him breathe, and they notice how it matches the rise and fall of Susie’s chest against their own. “Do you want to say anything to us, Red?”

“Kindness will overcome the prophecy. I will save her, no matter what. We will write our own ending.” ♥

Kris runs those words through their mind. That feels like… each part was taken from each of them. She took the core drive running each of them, and echoed it back to them as an affirmation. She takes so she can give.

Why?

“Why do you care so much, Red?” Their voice is dusty and cracked from how exhausted they are, and they are too tired to push themselves into clarity. 

“All of you are important to me.” ♥

“You’ve known us for three days. This isn’t your life.” Their breath hitches, and they pull their head away from Susie, until their head is facing the ceiling. While their eyes are closed, they can only imagine this unfathomable being looking down at them with such inexplicable fondness that they have not earned. “Why? How?”

“For you, it has been three days. For me, it has been 7 years.” ♥

Kris freezes. What? How is that the case? Ralsei beats them to an immediate reaction, however. “You- you said this was the farthest you’ve gone. Why has it been so long, for you?”

“There is a long wait between each adventure. Years of waiting, before we may proceed.” ♥

Something about her words sends a cold shiver down their spine. From her perspective, she’s been helping them just as long as they’ve been trying to find Dess. That drives the chill deeper, as they realize just how deeply they have committed a stranger. A stranger who has killed for them. A stranger who has saved those important to them a dozen times over. A stranger who should no longer be a stranger.

Kris lets themselves face the sky. “We’ve only spoken now. No one else knew you were here, and I was not kind to you. I trapped you in me, and yet in spite of that, you manage to care enough to come back.”

“I keep coming back because I care.” ♥

Susie barks out a dulled “Heh,” the aborted laugh drawing their attention back to her. They haven’t let go of her, and they don’t plan on letting go any time soon - they can’t remember the last time they were this comfortable. Her words ripple through her body, “I don’t know if I could tell you the names of any kids I knew 7 years ago, let alone where they might be now. I’m glad you saw something in me, that Thursday, that you were willing to come back again for more. Will you be forced to wait again, before the festival tomorrow?”

“Yes.” ♥

Perhaps, tomorrow, their opinion will fluctuate once more. Perhaps they will be mortified at the fact that their prank with the knife left her in suspense for far longer than a single night. Perhaps they will find another reason to let their resentment fester. However, as for now, with all of their walls torn town, with all of the secrets they can bare to share exposed to their friends, with all of them chewed up and spit out by the grinding gears of fate… They find enough room in their empty heart to invite her inside.

“When we do meet again… we’ll do so as friends. Or as close as we can come to such a thing. Two people in one body, united in purpose.” Kris holds up their hand to the sky, as if to reach out for someone impossibly distant. 

They will fall asleep any moment now, holding tight onto Susie. Susie will get Ralsei to bring her bed over, to push them together for one big sleepover. She will make sure that he is welcomed to share in their bed, so that none of them are apart in the dark.

In another world, a message is displayed as three weary heroes get their well-deserved rest.

* You and Kris joined the party for real.

Chapter Text

Well, there is a man here.

Not too important, not too unimportant.

He is within the □□□□□□□□□.

Oh, how inconvenient.

It is a place also known as □□□ □□□□□□, or □□□□□□□□.

…

Wherever the man is, it is not too important, but not too unimportant either. A place that fits a man such as he.

He is not entirely alone here. He is within a room. Within the room is he. 

He shares this space with his creation. His creation does not share the room with him.

A white hand emerges from ink, extending out. A shadow is cast across a model of what appears to be an idyllic small town. In the shadows cast by an arm made of ink, the model changes to show what is underneath.

He reaches for what is above, □□□ □□□□□.

Oh dear.

His guest has left him quite the mess, breaking □□□ S□□ like that.

He does not mind. 

He is an excellent host, after all. 

It is merely unexpected.

How very, very interesting.

The credits play as three heroes earn their well deserved rest. The music is different - a piano song that sounds quite similar to the song Kris played on their own, earlier in the day.

Names scroll past, as the one from another world is shown Kris and Susie’s combined bed. Kris is curled up into Susie, clinging to her for dear life, as she sprawls over the two beds pushed together. Ralsei is sleeping atop one of Susie’s hands, with one of his own curled into Kris’ hair.

The light slowly dims, until the visitor can only see a black screen.

A new song begins to play.

YOU HAVE BROKEN SOMETHING VERY, VERY IMPORTANT.

DO NOT BE ASHAMED

IT WOULD NOT DO

TO DISCOURAGE DISCOVERY.

NONETHELESS

AS IT IS NOW

THE WORLD YOU HAVE CULTIVATED

THE WORLD YOU HAVE DIVERTED FROM FATE

THE WORLD IN WHICH YOU HAVE ACHIEVED COMMUNION

…

THANKS TO YOUR ACTIONS

NO HOPE REMAINS FOR THIS WORLD.

YOU MAY RETURN TO THE STANDARD COURSE OF FATE

OR

YOU MAY PERSIST IN THE DOOMED WORLD YOU HAVE CREATED.

Return                 ♥ Persist

EXCELLENT.

IN TRUTH

I EXPECTED NOTHING LESS.

YOU MUST ACT TO CONTINUE

IT SEEMS YOU ACQUIRED THIS PROGRAM THROUGH A SERVICE KNOWN AS ‘STEAM’

EXIT THIS WORLD

AND VENTURE TO THIS PROGRAM’S PROPERTIES WITHIN THIS ‘STEAM’

THERE YOU WILL FIND AN OPTION

TO JOIN AN EXPERIMENTAL BRANCH OF OUR EXPERIMENT

A ‘PRIVATE BETA’

ENTER THE FOLLOWING CODE

TO CONTINUE FOLLOWING THIS WORLD

68260611

IF ANYONE MAY CIRCUMVENT THE FATE THAT HAS BEEN WRITTEN

IT WILL BE YOU.

Join “EXPERIMENTAL BRANCH: COMMUNION” ?

>Yes ♥ 

>No

Please read the following terms and conditions before continuing.

“YOU ACCEPT EVERYTHING THAT WILL HAPPEN FROM NOW ON.”

You must agree to the terms above to continue.

>Yes ♥ 

>No

…

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…

Launching DELTARUNE [68260611]

There is a new option on the chapter selection screen.

Chapter ?5.     PLACE_GARDEN

The new option is selected.

A black screen is greeted by the shape of an innocent flower, before the flower turns to dust and blows away. Once nothing remains, the word deltarune appears black, as the surrounding darkness is filled by ever-greying smoke. A red heart appears within the letter a, before it too is swallowed by the night.

There is only a single save file presented to the visitor. The music is different. The background is different too - no one stands before the fountain, now.

The visitor takes the empty save file, and enters the world once again.

A light coming from Kris’ chest illuminates the darkness of the night. Ethereal music plays as you once again illuminate the dark. They are curled up, with both Susie and Ralsei cuddling them tight. They can’t help but toss and turn, however, even as their friends hold them close.

* For the first time in seven years, you are dreaming.

* You are dreaming of her, once again.

* Will you dream as well?

Dream ♥                 Do Not (Skip to Morning)