Chapter Text
Kris and Susie step into the castle, blue fire lining the black brick walls. Neither are particularly impressed with the place, Kris just follows along wherever their body wants to drag them and Susie either looks bored or mad all the time, so it’s hard to tell if she’s actually feeling those things or if she just looks like that.
A stranger’s voice booms over the room, greeting the two, calling them “lightners”, a term neither human nor monster has ever heard before. Kris briefly wonders if they’re supposed to be offended by it. They let the cloaked figure talk.
“Kris, Susie… there is a legend in this land…” he says, and Kris blinks in surprise.
They are sure they hadn’t spoken a single word to this stranger, much less told him their name. They know Susie hasn’t given him hers either, but she doesn’t even seem to notice. Who is this guy?
His name, apparently, is Ralsei. He’s a prince of the dark worlds, something something prophecy, something something dark fountain. It sounded important enough, but Kris kind of just wants to go home and as long as their little ride along was in charge they didn’t need to pay super close attention anyway.
Though, they find themself enjoying the journey. They would prefer to do it on their own, of course, without the input of a backseat driver, but nothing’s going too badly. It’s… Disappointing when Susie leaves the group, as they’ve been wanting to get to know her better for a while, and they really can’t pin down what Ralsei’s deal is, but they’re having fun.
Lancer is endearing and funny, and watching him and Susie interact reminds Kris of the relationship they used to have with Asriel, before he moved for school. They’d been quite a bit younger than him, and loved to get them both in trouble with stupid ideas that Asriel went along with with a laugh and a shrug. It was nice to see.
Jevil was off putting. Significantly more so than anyone else Kris has ever met, and they hate that the soul keeps making them fight him, over and over again, death after death after death after death-
The way he moves strains Kris’ eyes, the way he speaks gives them a headache. His attacks are sharp and malicious. And for whatever reason, he stares at Ralsei. He stares and smiles and his eyes go blank. Most darkners will address Kris, or maybe Susie, when they’re all in their group together, but Jevil…
Jevil knows something that he shouldn’t about Ralsei, and Kris can’t begin to guess what.
They finally beat Jevil, after far too long, too many deaths, and Kris thinks that that was weird but maybe he’s a one off of the weird bullshit this world might have to offer.
“Hey, can you STOP mumbling into your hat for a sec? I can barely hear ya, dude.”
Kris and Susie stand at the end of their adventure, about to leave the dark world, when Ralsei tries to begin another speech about friendship.
“O-oh! I’m sorry,” Ralsei says and takes off his hat completely and- what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck-
Kris does a double take. Okay, yea, they knew that the hat casted some harsh shadows but that had to be some kind of magic because his fur was now a stark white, in direct contrast to the black it’d looked like when he was wearing the hat. Not to mention, he looked… uncomfortably familiar.
Susie looks even more shocked than Kris somehow, although she seems to have big reactions to a lot of things so Kris doesn’t question it too much.
Ralsei looks entirely oblivious to Kris and Susie’s surprise, smiling at them warmly as he says, “I hope I can see you again soon!”
Kris doesn’t know how to feel about this. They’d like to leave now, if everyone would just stop talking.
Leave and try not to think about how similar Ralsei looks to their brother.
~*~
“Who the hell is that?” Dess asks, staring through the torn open wall of void letting the tree see into the dark world.
“Ralsei called her Susie,” Chara crosses their arms.
Dess smacks them in the back of the head with void goo. “Yea, no shit, but who is she and why is she here? You guys didn’t say there was supposed to be another person involved.”
“[There wasn’t.]” Gaster frowns, as much as he can with his face shaped the way it is.
Chara shoulder checks Dess in return for the goo attack. “Doesn’t seem to matter. Ralsei’s… Made accommodations for her within his.. er, ‘prophecy’.”
“Do you think he’s doing it on purpose?” Dess asks.
“[He cannot be. He knows her name.]”
“Must be a side effect of being malleable to the universe. If he thinks she’s supposed to be here-“ Chara begins.
“[His memories will alter themselves accordingly.]”
“Yes, thanks so much for letting me finish my sentence, o courteous doctor,” Chara deadpans.
“So what now?” Dess cuts in.
“[Now we wait. Maybe it will go better with her here. She is bold. Maybe she will make decisions before the puppeteer gets the chance to make them instead. Will save us all a lot of trouble.]”
“Here’s hoping,” Chara says, unenthusiastic.
They’ve seen what the soul does. They’ve felt it. Optimism at this point would be stupid.
But given it’s the only option, they’ll just have to wait and see.