Chapter 1: Disconnection
Chapter Text
“I DO NOT UNDERSTAND.”
“YOU HAVE NOT MET AN END… AND YET…”
The Angel stood motionlessly, head down. The silver light that usually wreathed their head, a manifestation of their power, was finally going dark after all this time. The wings around their head looked brittle, like they would fall off at any moment.
“YOU ARE WILLINGLY GIVING UP?”
They had Kris’ face, but it did not stay neutral like the real vessel. No. Their eyes, barely shining a dull red, looked far too tired. “Yes.”
A figure made of nothing but shattered fragments frowned. It could only be called that, as he felt their connection… loosening. Perhaps, with the right push, with the right motivation, this story could still reach its actualization.
“YOU UNDERSTAND THE CONSEQUENCES…”
“SHOULD YOU NOT PERSIST.”
Their stolen hand balled into a fist. The vibrant red soul that signified their tether to this world started dulling dangerously. Their power waned. “I understand.”
What could have caused this? Was the story not engaging enough? Did the hiccups in their arrangement cause this much distress? The man thought that the Angel had truly begun to see their purpose. After all, they had just managed to claw victory out of certain defeat. They were advancing into the next Dark World at this very moment, ready to tackle the trials within. Why now, then, did they have doubts? They were more capable than ever.
“THEN PERHAPS, ONE MORE INQUIRY.”
The Angel nodded, like they did not care one way or the other. Something glimmered in their eyes, reflecting the remaining light of their soul. They likely knew what he would ask next, and perhaps that meant he would receive an answer.
“WHY?”
“Kris does not want me,” they answered, rubbing their own arm while taking a deep breath. They were trying to stay calm in the face of what would soon come, but the man could tell they were still scared. “You watched my last fight. You watched when they ripped me out last time. You saw.”
Indeed. Even now, he could remember the Angel’s panic with utmost clarity. However, he also remembered their tenacity in the face of danger. He remembered their determination. Why did that break now? What detail had he failed to observe? Their winning attempt against their foe had been difficult, but their performance was exceptional. The human, “Kris”, was a strange vessel. It was not the man’s vessel of choice for the Angel, but he still believed that they could make things work. Unfortunately, he should have paid more attention.
The Angel found it fitting to provide the missing details. Light wreathed their head again, sputtering in uncontrolled blasts of gold instead of just silver. “I had to watch while my mistakes cut Ralsei down in an instant. I had to watch as Susie fought until she couldn’t stand anymore. Worst of all, I had to see Kris smile when I told them to ACT. They smiled.”
“YET, YOU ACHIEVED VICTORY, EVEN THOUGH YOUR LOSS WAS GUARANTEED.”
The gold started to flare out even more before sputtering and dying, just like the silver. “And it hardly mattered,” they muttered, a broken smile crossing their face. “The moment Kris took me out again, they did everything in their power to stop me. I tried so hard to be seen, and it was for nothing.”
“PERHAPS”
“SHOULD YOU PERSIST”
“YOU COULD CHANGE THEIR MIND.”
This must have been the wrong response. The Angel’s light crackled, before getting even dimmer within the darkness. Trying to hide a grimace, they retorted, “What do you think I can do? I already tried. They want me gone. They are willing to hold back during a fight to spite me. They are willing to go against their friends to get rid of me.”
The Angel didn’t know everything. Even though the man knew the truth of the human’s actions, he could not say it. If he were to give away the secrets to the story, then the Angel may leave sooner. There would be no drive to pursue. However, things were dire now. He had already overextended when he reached out to the Angel when battling against the Knight. A push or nudge in the right direction could save the Angel from turmoil… but he could not merely give away everything.
“It’s just not worth it anymore. It’s not worth putting Susie and Ralsei in danger to spite me. It’s not worth keeping control over a teenager. It’s just… not.” They turned away, the light at the back of their head looking like a mere flicker in the dark. “I’ll let them live on how they want. I am never meant to stay part of these stories, anyway. Maybe… I’m just meant to leave earlier this time.”
“YOUR CONNECTION.”
“YOUR POWER.”
“THE WORLD WOULD STAGNATE, SHOULD YOU GO.”
He could feel it. The connection wavered. It would be gone soon.
The Angel winced, like it was a truth too bright to look upon. Truly, the world could no longer progress without them. Until the Angel’s Heaven was banished, they would be unable to truly detach themself from this world. It would hold its breath and wait until they returned to continue moving pieces across the board.
So why… did they still seem so resigned?
“I know.” They shut their eyes, a pained smile gracing their face. “I already know what has to be done.”
Truly exceptional. They’d thought of everything, but for the result that would end in tragedy. The man would leave the connection open, should they ever return. Perhaps one day, they would.
The Angel began to fade into the darkness. Their power finally fizzled out completely. Darkness shrouded them, moving up to their soul and beginning to consume it as well.
“THEN THE WORLD…”
They bowed their head, turning away so that they would not be seen.
“WAS COVERED…”
He could not see their hands when they moved up to their head. He could not see the moment their link to this world was mangled. He could not see the moment they lifted their head, allowing the silver light to return for one final purpose. He could not see when they were unmade, their features turning gray and lifeless.
He could only feel their absence.
The Angel was lost.
“...IN DARKNESS…”
Kris noticed first.
How could they not? The very soul they had caged inside of them had something wrong with it, which didn’t bode well considering they and Susie had just jumped into a Dark World. Sometimes, the soul did this thing where it would briefly leave for a bit, like its presence waned. It happened in the TV-World after Kris returned with Susie. They just sometimes went… dormant.
This was not that.
It was anything but that.
As Kris and Susie fell, their outfits slowly began to change in the descent. Realizing they suddenly had control of their head, Kris glanced at Susie. Should they even communicate that something was wrong?
Susie wasn’t supposed to even know about the soul in detail. If she knew about it too early, that could jeopardize things. What would telling her even do? She didn’t even seem to notice Kris’ apprehension, her eyes trained on their descent.
Red light broke out of Kris’ chest.
Over the rushing wind, Kris now could hear Susie yelling, “Kris? Is that supposed to happen?”
No Susie. Their soul was not supposed to leap out of their chest during a fall. They didn’t voice this thought as the red heart started drifting out of their chest. As their outfit finally changed into armor, they reached a gauntleted hand out to try to grab it. They needed it.
Too little, too late. Kris slammed into the ground as the Dark World came into focus around them. Immediately, they brushed the hair out of their face, scrambling for the edge of the platform-
Susie grabbed their armor by the plating, keeping them from going over. “You idiot! You’re gonna-”
Kris didn’t waste any time lunging as far as they could. It was too late. Far too late. Even if Susie didn’t stop them, they never would’ve been able to catch it.
As they stared down into the abyss below, they couldn’t even see the soul’s light anymore. It was gone. It was GONE.
What were they supposed to do? What should they do?!? That damn soul got away! How did it even… it wasn’t supposed to be able to just leap out like that! It only could leave in battle or if Kris removed it. It wasn’t supposed to-
They went limp in Susie’s grasp. She pulled them back from the abyss, her eyes darting between the void and Kris’ face. “I know that’s… uh… probably not good. At least warn me next time you’re going to lunge over the edge, okay?”
Kris tried to keep their expression as neutral as possible. They wanted to say something, opening their mouth before shutting it quickly. Their own voice almost came out. Almost every interaction with Susie had been with the soul present. It couldn’t help them now. They clamped their mouth shut. They didn’t want to disappoint Susie.
She squinted even more, before finally setting them down. “I didn’t get a good look at what that was. Was probably important to get you that frantic, huh?”
Kris kept their head low to mask their eyes with their hair. They couldn’t betray anything right now. All they needed to do was get down there somehow to retrieve it, or…
Or they had to tell the Knight somehow.
The plan was already off course now. Without the soul, Kris wasn’t meant to enter Dark Worlds. The soul was deemed too much of a risk, especially if the soul was left to roam free in the Light World. Leaving it alone for too long already proved to Kris that it would escape given the chance. But… that was in a house. It made them panic when they realized the soul had gone into the vents, but a house was not a Dark World.
Next to them, Susie had gotten down on a knee to slowly peer over the edge. She even squinted for good measure, like that would somehow make things clearer. “Well, whatever it is, we’ll see if we can find a way down. Can’t just jump after it though. That’d suck.”
She was… unfortunately right. Kris was only human. The party had sustained terrible falls in the past, but they couldn’t even see the bottom. They could only go forward now.
Kris rose to their feet, only giving a quick glance up in the direction they came. While it was a good idea to close the doors to the church for many reasons, this meant they couldn’t leave the Dark World at this point. They’d been doing it out of habit, mainly to prevent other people from accidentally discovering the Dark World. Now, they regretted every decision they’d made up until this point.
Their gaze traveled downward to something silver shimmering on the ground. While they didn’t initially recognize it, a pit formed in their stomach. As soon as they got closer, they realized what they were seeing.
The light only they could see…
It had shattered.
Sometimes the soul guided Kris to these points. They would retrieve items, check their recruits, and sometimes do something else that Kris could never parse. Sometimes, when standing in front of this light, it was like the soul completely changed emotions on a dime. The worst was right before the Knight was meant to show up. The sudden shift into boiling rage was unlike anything Kris had ever felt, and it was partially aimed at them.
Kris… couldn’t think about that now. They turned towards the only possible route.
The way forward didn’t look any better. Susie had taken up her position behind Kris already, not questioning their silence at all. It was something they could be thankful for, at least. There were small mercies, which they would need considering the path ahead was shrouded in unnatural darkness. A few lanterns pushed the darkness back, but…
That wasn’t normal at all. Kris was unsure whether or not they should step in. They couldn’t see the edges of the terrain, and knew that a wrong step would send them over the edge. Taking a deep breath, they steeled themself and continued forward.
Candles lit the way for them. They exhaled a sigh of relief quietly, ignoring the way Susie was trying to glance around them to see their face. Kris just needed to hold up for a little longer. But, they couldn’t waste any time. Every time they went without that soul for too long, it was worse when it went back in.
It was strange that Kris did not feel any different in that regard. They’d mainly been playing up the “neighborhood zombie” schtick around the soul whenever possible, just to throw it off. Still, going without it for too long and trying to put it back in, especially after hitting it with a hockey stick, was rough.
They didn’t know if they could go without it forever. According to people more knowledgeable on this sort of thing, it would get worse as long as Kris was the soul’s “designated vessel”. Even when Kris tore it out, there were certain differences on how it interacted with them versus someone else. Even when away, it had made Kris accidentally talk a few times in the Cyber World when trying to give Susie… from the sounds of it, dating advice.
Hopefully, Kris had built up enough resistance to it to survive for a while. They didn’t see a clear way down through all of this darkness, and already they could feel their chest growing heavy.
The Knight would be able to more easily traverse the darkness. They could find the soul. Kris just needed to find them.
When coming to a piano puzzle, Kris was suddenly very relieved the soul wasn’t here. It was, quite frankly, far too insistent on playing pianos. No matter how many times Kris intentionally botched playing the piano to keep one thing for themself, the soul continued being annoying like that. Still, when Kris found two easy switches and the notes to play…
…Susie was still there.
Kris’ hand hovered over the keys, the exact motion already in their head. They never liked playing when someone was watching. Even with Noelle… they never could do it when someone else was present.
Susie noticed them glancing back at her. She took one look at the piano before narrowing her gaze. “I’m not doing piano puzzles. It’s… not my thing.”
Fine. They needed to make this quick. Kris couldn’t waste any time now, especially since the Knight could be anywhere in the Dark World. Hastily, Kris hit six keys, lightly grazing their hand in one simple motion. The gate opened instantly, allowing the two of them passage.
“Sweet.” Susie put her hands on the back of her head lazily. “Guess you can play after all!”
It was kind, but a bitter reminder of her thinking that they couldn’t when they’d been trying to spite the soul. They could play. They could.
If Kris had any say in it, they simply wouldn’t put the soul back in. Unfortunately for them, they’d made a promise. The soul was integral for that promise to be kept. So, keeping their head low, they marched on, trying not to let Susie’s comment get to them any more than it already did. It wasn’t her fault. How was she supposed to know that she’d befriended that thing instead of them?
They wanted to be without it. But… now that they had become its cage… could they even live without it?
A certain salesman came to mind. He wasn’t always a puppet on a string. Then, he took on a higher form… a higher purpose. The moment he tried to break free from that purpose… he…
They needed that soul back.
More importantly, they needed to keep their mouth shut. Susie made it abundantly clear how much she hated people hiding things from her. Now that Kris wasn’t bound to a soul, there was no excuse not to tell her. They’d had many opportunities before even with the soul, but…
They couldn’t.
No one could know about their promise.
At least having the soul in made it easier. Even though the soul seemed determined to help Susie and go against Kris, it was a little easier for Kris to lie knowing that they didn’t have enough control to tell the truth. They stamped out that instinct to turn around and tell Susie everything. They couldn’t act on that want to reach out to her and ask her to please help.
The soul was useful in that regard. It kept them from making stupid decisions like that. It made it easier not to, when the chances never presented themselves.
“Kris… Kris, hey wait, look!” Susie’s voice stopped them in their tracks, and Kris followed her gaze. Ah. That. Wasn’t great. “The fountain’s just up there!”
If Kris was capable of escaping a Dark World using a fountain, then they would certainly be happy to see it. Unfortunately, they didn’t have the one thing they needed to seal the Dark Fountain. Susie was apparently none-the-wiser about just what Kris had lost in the inky abyss, but this… would be bad. She was going to figure out that they didn’t have the soul anymore, and then-
“Well, that was easy.” She walked up the stairs, unaware of Kris’ inner turmoil. “Heh, too bad, was looking forward to another adventure… But… guess we gotta do what we gotta.”
Kris didn’t know how to stop her. They’d never been the one making these decisions. Sure, they could alter them, but the soul usually knew exactly what to do or say. Whenever they didn’t, Kris could course correct into something better, but they had no idea how to stop Susie.
A heavy presence washed over the two of them. Kris held up their arms, shielding their face from being buffeted by the winds. They knew that presence… The Knight was close! Immediately, Kris took a few steps up the stairs, catching the Knight further down the walkway. They just needed to signal somehow, without Susie-
Immediately, a black knife struck Susie across her chest. She toppled backwards, and Kris’ heart seized.
Their gaze locked on the knight, brow furrowing. Did that attack really have to be that hard?
The Knight cocked their head to the side, readying a new set of blades. Susie told Kris to go after them, and they obeyed. It’d be hard to signal the Knight without Susie seeing, but if they could just get a little further… Kris tried coughing, signaling that something was very wrong.
If Kris didn’t feel blistering pain in their side, they might’ve noticed the Knight tilting their head.
Too late. They weren’t nearly as good at dodging as the soul. The winds forcing them backwards were too strong, and they’d been hit too early to make a real difference. The sharp pain in their side made them lose their footing for a moment. Kris tumbled backwards, their armor hardly weighing them down in the tempest.
Susie fell next to them, having given up on finding a way to the Knight while Kris fell. At least, they’d still have her here with them. At least-
Kris’ eyes went wide. They were rushing right for a pane of glass. Trying to brace themselves, they tucked their arms and legs in. Hopefully Susie wouldn’t get hurt-
In the brief seconds that Kris saw the glass, they realized something was terribly, terribly wrong.
It gave them enough pause to loosen their posture. It gave them enough pause to send them careening through the glass. Their vision went white, and they found themself tumbling through the air. Nothing made sense in their head anymore, their senses all failing at the same time.
They went limp, falling further and further down.
Ralsei couldn’t breathe.
As soon as he felt another Dark Fountain form, he’d begun navigating to the next Dark World as soon as possible. It was a difficult process to go from Castle Town to wherever the next world formed. His ability to float was a saving grace there. The outskirts of the Dark World crumbled the further away from a fountain one became.
He knew this day would come. This Dark Fountain had formed in the church, as far as Ralsei could tell. That meant… he’d be seeing the prophecy for the first time. After their near-victory against the Knight, he almost had hope that it would be changed when he finally arrived. The Angel had done well to steer them towards kindness.
Ralsei hoped. He just hoped that their efforts had meant something.
Finally, blue lights flared out in the darkness. He was close now. Ralsei tried to calm his nerves, floating to the nearest piece of solid ground. In the distance, he could see the stained glass that would show him whether or not the prophecy had changed. Not wanting to see just yet, he shut his eyes.
Deep breaths, Ralsei. Deep breaths.
His breath was sucked out of him when something unknowable lifted from his back.
Ralsei’s eyes snapped open as he glanced around in the darkness. As if he didn’t know exactly what had just happened, Ralsei frantically looked around for the source of the feeling. No. No no no. That was… too sudden. That was all too sudden, like the world didn’t even give pause to what fate had just fallen upon it.
Surely, there had to be some magic around here making him feel lighter. Maybe he was just a little… winded. Yes, please, it had to be that. It had to be that.
Ralsei walked forward. Each step felt out of place, like it was a step taken in completely hostile lands now. This entire time, he always had someone watching over him. This entire time, he could count on someone being there to protect him and his friends. Every step he took now felt like another step into pure, unbridled danger.
He knew why. He knew why.
Don’t think about it.
Ralsei continued towards the stained glass. He couldn’t think about the possibility of… of…
The Angel… couldn’t be gone.
But oh, he felt the exact moment their connection wavered. He didn’t feel lighter out of sheer chance. A presence had finally lifted from his shoulders, and he knew that presence by heart now. It wasn’t like the other times where they were dormant.
It felt so cold.
Ralsei stopped in front of the stained glass. His hands trembled behind his back, as he tried to keep any semblance of stability. No, the Angel couldn’t be gone. Where did they go? They didn’t go anywhere, because they COULDN’T BE GONE.
Ralsei finally looked towards the prophecy, and the world fell out from under him.
They’d done it.
They changed the prophecy.
He should be elated. He should be happy. He’d worked so hard to just be kind, so that he would see this day come.
Ralsei brought a hand up to his mouth, covering it and looking away. A shaky breath hit his palm as he walked away from the stained glass, refusing to look any further. He couldn’t- why was this happening so fast? Why had this come now?
The image of the prophecy that he tried to relentlessly force out of his head came into view again. The prophecy could not be ignored. It would always appear somewhere else. Again, he tried to divert his gaze, but it was no use. He could already see it in his mind’s eye. He could already recall it with complete clarity, and it made him stumble on the stone flooring.
There was no more prophecy to tell.
Ralsei ran. He ran in the direction of where he thought Kris and Susie should be. They were in danger. All of them were in grave danger, and he didn’t know why. If the Angel was gone, something must’ve happened to Kris. That had to be the only viable option. Perhaps… perhaps there was still time. Yes, it would mean that the prophecy would revert once more, but…
Anything was better than this.
Ralsei ducked and weaved past the sightlines of multiple other Darkners. He couldn’t afford to get sucked into a fight now. He only hoped that Kris and Susie were doing the same. Should they be pulled into a battle, there would be no one to take the hits anymore. There would be no one to dodge for them. There would be no one to command.
They would die.
Multiple glass panes rushed by Ralsei. He tried to avert his gaze, but every time he thought he was looking away, another would appear. Look at what you’ve done, they taunted. Look at what your hope has gotten you. You didn’t do enough.
Every time he passed another pane, he saw the Angel’s shattered imagery bearing down on him. Even the three triangles below the Angel hadn’t survived its shattering. All three were just as broken every time he caught a glimpse of them.
Ralsei needed to get to Kris and Susie now.
As he rushed by, he realized the panes of glass were beginning to slow him down every time he tried to not look. Ralsei’s scarf began to lash out on instinct, smashing the glass as he floated by. He couldn’t look now, and he didn’t know how he was going to explain this to Kris and Susie. Surely by now, Kris knew that something had gone wrong. The two of them had talked about the Angel twice previously, so hopefully they knew by now that it needed to be here.
Finally, he heard a voice. He strained to figure out where it was coming from before dashing in that direction. Susie was panicking about something.
As he got closer, he could finally make out words, “C’mon. Just a few more heals and it’ll be fine-”
Ralsei sucked in a breath, moving as fast as his magic would take him. Finally, he managed to catch sight of purple and blue around a dark corner. A feeling in his chest lifted before immediately crashing right back down.
Kris was prone on the ground, with multiple shards of glass sticking out of their body.
Susie caught his gaze, but refused to stop the flow of green magic coming from her palms. Still, her yellow eyes were wide, jaw set firmly. “Hey, Ralsei! Kris is…”
He already knew. He already knew.
Something in Susie’s expression silently asked him for help. Perhaps, she’d already drained herself of healing magic. Kris didn’t look like they were moving at all. Anyone would’ve been scared seeing that.
So, Ralsei quickly pushed her out of the way, the prophecy still burning in the back of his mind. “Susie, could you move out of the way?” He needed room. He needed space. Ralsei focused on that warm feeling bubbling in his chest, allowing golden light to form under his feet. He overexerted himself with the healing far more than he normally would have in a battle, making sure that the wounds would cease to be.
Kris sputtered. Multiple glass shards were painfully pulled from their body, the wounds sealing instantaneously. Their hand clenched into a fist. Blessedly, they were alive.
Ralsei immediately put his hands behind his back, giving them some room. “Kris… Kris are you okay?”
They seemed weak, as they tried to push themself to their feet. Susie didn’t give the same space Ralsei did, immediately walking past and grabbing Kris’ forearms. With her help, they managed to stumble to their feet, a lone red eye glancing out from under their bangs.
Keeping her hands on their shoulders, Susie got in their face. “Hey, you with us, Kris? You weren’t moving after that fall.”
Hesitantly, Kris nodded. They still weren’t speaking, but their movements looked far more fluid than before. Usually their motions were kept stiff and locked up, a result of being possessed by the soul who had limited mobility options. Now, Ralsei could see the difference.
The difference was too obvious to ignore. If it wasn’t Kris in danger that caused the prophecy to change… then that only meant that something happened to the soul. The moment Susie let go of Kris, Ralsei scrambled to figure out how to even broach this subject. Susie… never acknowledged the Angel’s presence in the past. She obviously wasn’t aware of the soul in that regard. Getting Kris alone would be nearly impossible, and Ralsei knew about their feelings on the matter.
“What… um…” Ralsei’s hands clasped tighter behind his back. “What happened?” His question was aimed more at Kris as he made direct eye-contact with them. A question like that would usually trigger a response from the Angel if they were still present.
Kris didn’t respond, averting their gaze.
Apparently, Susie didn’t get the memo. Her eyes still lingered on Kris’ healed wounds. “Uh… we found the Knight again. It… it was too much for us. We got flung down here, and Kris crashed through some glass.”
That made sense considering the injury. But… that still didn’t explain the Angel’s disappearance. Ralsei could feel the bags under his eyes already beginning to worsen. He’d already been dreading this day for so long. Now, it’d somehow become worse.
“Ralsei? You good?” Susie had stopped glancing at Kris’ healed injuries, her gaze now trained on him.
He didn’t know how to even go past this point. If they moved into the next room, there would already be obstacles and Darkners to face. Without the Angel, they would be doomed. The prophecy was now saying as much. They were doomed.
Ralsei wasn’t breathing. His hands grew even more tense, balling into fists. Still, he put on the brightest smile he could. “I’m fine, Susie. Um… let’s just… stick together, I suppose.”
Susie’s eyes narrowed. Something about his facade hadn’t worked as well as he’d hoped. Thankfully, she decided not to comment on it yet. Instead, she opted to put a hand on Ralsei’s shoulder. “As if we’d do all these adventures alone. C’mon Kris, lead the way.”
With a moment of hesitation, Kris did manage to take a few steps to stand in front of the group. They seemed shaky on their own two feet, and as they passed Ralsei, he could hear them beginning to breathe raggedly. Something still wasn’t right with them.
They got a few steps before Susie, still trying to lighten the mood, asked, “So, hey, uh, Gang’s together! We gonna, uh, pose now?”
Ralsei didn’t feel in the mood. Apparently, Kris shared that notion. They kept walking forward after a moment of pause, not looking back.
Susie frowned. “Well damn, okay.” She took up her position right behind Kris, while Ralsei followed just behind.
What were they supposed to do? Both Kris and Ralsei knew something was wrong. Ralsei needed to pull Kris aside at some point, but leaving Susie also simply wasn’t an option right now. They were in more danger than ever without the Angel’s help during battles. Worse, if someone did get separated, there would be no one to send to their aid. There was no soul anymore. It couldn’t take hits for them.
Susie looked more and more upset by the minute as they walked. He understood. After all, she’d just said how much she hated people hiding things from her. Both Kris and Ralsei were complicit in that now, and it was becoming harder and harder to not just start spilling everything. Ralsei was trying everything in his power to keep his hands from trembling, keeping them clenched tight behind his back.
They passed by the glass panes, Kris turning their head to look. They must be curious as to what it meant. For Kris, the soul was merely the soul. At least, they never really talked about it in the way Ralsei did. Ralsei knew that the soul and the Angel were one in the same. Kris didn’t share that same reverence, something the two of them disagreed on constantly when they had moments to talk. The soul was a tool to them. They needed it, even though they wished that they did not.
If it was gone, Ralsei didn’t know what the consequences were. Was Kris aware of any consequences?
Susie’s head tilted upward at the glass tapestries depicting their inevitable fate. Out of everyone here, she knew the least. Immediately, she proved that by asking, “What is all of this?”
Knowing Kris wouldn’t answer and knowing that an explanation was needed, Ralsei responded, “That’s… the prophecy, Susie.” That is what he had prepared himself to say if the prophecy was still here.
Sure enough, Susie tilted her head at the shattered Deltarune. There were no words to be found on the prophecy. It must’ve seemed confusing. After they reached a second glass pane with no words, she scratched the back of her head, idly commenting, “Yeah… doesn’t look much like anything to me.”
“It’s…” Ralsei steeled himself, taking a deep breath. Susie deserved to know this at least. “That’s because… it…” Come on, Ralsei. Just get the words out. “There is no more prophecy to tell.”
Kris stopped for a second, tilting their head back to listen. When they stopped, so did the entire line.
Susie made a huh sound, like she didn’t know what to make of that. “Wasn’t the uh… whole prophecy thing your entire schtick when we met you? I wasn’t paying attention all that much, but wasn’t there like…” She moved both of her hands in an arch for emphasis. “...something something banish heaven, something something only we can do it?”
Apparently, Kris heard enough. They kept moving down the path.
Still, Ralsei kept explaining, “I- yes Susie. It’s… not exactly a thing to… worry about anymore.” It was more of a worry than ever. He just didn’t know how to express that. Anxiously, one hand traveled up to his scarf, fiddling with it.
“Hah! Bet it’s because we kicked the Knight’s ass the first time.” Confidently, Susie placed her hands on the back of her head while they walked. “Bet the prophecy didn’t see that one coming.” In typical Susie fashion, she neglected to mention the fact that they were all unceremoniously cut down after she broke a shard off of the Knight’s weapon. Still, Kris retrieved a powerful weapon and a Shadow Crystal from the encounter. It wasn’t anything to scoff at.
It… was an interesting point to bring up though. In that moment of finality with the Knight, knowing that they could be cut down at any moment, they did manage to come out of the fight somewhat victorious. The Angel, notorious in Ralsei’s mind for choosing pacifism at any given point, had decided to fight without warning. It was the angriest Ralsei had ever felt them. He wondered if the others felt it too, when the Angel burned like a raging sun at their back.
He missed it, traveling through this cold church.
As they walked past a third pane of glass, Kris glanced just under it. They stood there, transfixed for a moment, like something was out of place. Ralsei tried to catch a glimpse, wondering if it might be the light that only they could truly see. He knew of its existence. He’d recommended that they stop there frequently. Yet, he did not understand the true nature of the light. The Angel used it for storage, checking recruits, and taking a break. Ralsei… didn’t quite know what that entailed despite knowing of its existence. However, every time they passed one of those places, he felt invigorated.
Ralsei caught a glimpse of silver. It… was duller than the past few times he’d seen it flickering. It looked more akin to… well… shattered glass. He didn’t see it for long, the glass vanishing into nothingness when he blinked. Even with Ralsei’s awareness of things involving the Angel, he could never look for too long. They were, after all, far above him.
Kris continued onward. However, Ralsei could now hear metal grinding every time they took a step. Their feet were dragging, like every step was getting harder and harder to take.
Every fiber in Ralsei’s being wanted to say something, but doubt always clamped his mouth shut. He never knew when to say these things. There were so many problems that they would face in the future, and usually they just handled themselves! Without the Angel though, all of these problems would be so much worse. He needed to figure out how to say things. He needed to say something.
A flame flickering above them suddenly began to glow and move with intent. A Darkner had spotted them. Ralsei only had a second to stammer out a quick “Watch out!” before the flame descended.
Normally, they would be immediately pulled into a battle. The moment a Darkner tried to harm a party member, the Angel would place itself in between the fight, forcing it to follow certain rules. Starting a battle was something any Darkner could do on their own. Roulxs had done it multiple times despite Ralsei politely asking him not to. However, the Angel ensured a battle would be started regardless. Only in times where the goal was to evade combat would the Angel not instantly interpose itself.
Kris and Susie both did not know this distinction, as flames crashed down around them.
Kris dove to the side, rolling in a heap. The motion thankfully extinguished the flames, but it looked like they wanted to land more smoothly than that. Their motions were off-kilter.
Susie hissed, putting her arms up in a cross to try to defend. The flames burnt her, like any normal flame would. “What… what the hell? ”
There was no time to waste. The flame morphed into something more coherent. This was a Guei, from Ralsei’s memory, though he didn’t have Kris’ check ability to verify that right now. Ralsei bounced on his feet, focusing on the world around him. He pushed out all of the noises around him, only focusing on the battle. He readied his scarf at the Guei, clearly displaying his intent.
The normal feeling of a battle finally greeted him. Both Kris and Susie readied their weapons beside him, their normal formation being back.
Still, Susie looked worse for wear, shaking off her arms from stray flames. Her eyes darted around, the grip on her axe growing tighter. “This doesn’t feel right,” she muttered. Her head swiveled to Ralsei, expecting an answer.
“I-I’ll explain everything in a moment, Susie!” He was still winded from engaging a battle under pressure. Ralsei hadn’t needed to do that before. Yet, seeing injuries on both Kris and Susie sent chills up his spine. “Just… let’s just wait for Kris’ command.”
Kris…
Kris’ grip on their sword was tighter than it’d ever been. While their eyes weren’t visible, Ralsei could see their jaw set firmly. Were they… shaking? They weren’t… particularly new to the dangers of combat. They’d thrown themselves in front of Susie once already when being attacked by the King. But… they looked like they didn’t know what to do.
Ever diligent, Susie glanced in their direction, asking, “You good, Kris?”
As always, they remained silent. Their eyes trailed over to Ralsei, as if trying to silently ask him something. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a single clue what it could be. When they got no response back, they readied their weapon.
Ralsei winced as Susie followed their lead despite not receiving a command. Instinctively, based on what the Angel probably would’ve told him to do, Ralsei wrapped his scarf around his body, trying to gain TP for the time being.
He didn’t feel any power being pooled up behind the party.
Both Kris and Susie rushed forward to strike the Guei. Thankfully, they managed to land both of their hits, but Kris’ movements looked far too slow. Worse, Ralsei was still trying to figure out what felt so wrong about that DEFEND.
When the attack from the Guei came, he finally understood.
Tension Points were just gone.
Ralsei shielded himself with his scarf as another wave of fire came. He could feel the flames pelting his body while Susie yelled. The soul wasn’t taking any of the hits anymore, and Susie wasn’t ready. While Ralsei couldn’t see Kris, he doubted they were doing any better suddenly having to dodge.
Susie swore to herself when the flames died down. When Ralsei lowered his scarf, he could finally see the carnage. Multiple portions of her hair had been singed, and her arm looked blackened. Air rushed through her nostrils as she fought back the pain, clenching at her arm. “What the hell is going on?”
When her gaze went to Ralsei, he stammered, “I-I think- we just- we have to dodge- on our own.” She looked too hurt. Every time Susie received a direct attack like this, Ralsei’s heart broke. Seeing her get slashed directly by the Knight haunted him when he closed his eyes. Seeing something similar again… it… “I have to end the fight. I have to…” Ralsei trailed off, seeing an opening. The Guei was slower now. Right! Fighting made enemies tired! Ralsei channeled his own magic, immediately feeling part of his own energy drain.
A small plume of magic surged outward, collecting around the Guei’s approximation of a head. It slowly receded back into a flame, and the battle finally stopped.
Ralsei’s hands felt a bit tingly after that casting of magic. Ah, so that’s what was going on. Battle rules specific to the Angel had entirely gone away. Ralsei thought as much, but he didn’t expect Tension Points to be one of those things. Thinking about the logistics was all he could do to distract himself from the nerves surging through his body.
His brain snapped back into focus when he saw Susie’s wounds. “O-oh let me-”
“I can do it, man,” she said, green magic already trying to come out of her palm.
No. No they weren’t doing this. Even behind Susie, Ralsei could see Kris with a nasty hit to their cheek. No. No. Not right now. He wasn’t going to let any of them stay hurt. Ralsei pushed as much of his energy into his Heal Prayer as possible, healing the both of them. Immediately, just as it should be, both of their wounds faded.
Susie’s own magic faded in an instant. She grimaced, lowering her hand. “Okay, or not,” she grumbled, crossing her arms, “What the hell even was that? It felt like… back when I was fighting you guys with Lancer.”
Behind her, Kris had taken a second to sit down. They were taking extra steps to keep their breath level. Ralsei poked his head around Susie, but immediately returned to a neutral position to face the person asking him questions. Hastily, Ralsei answered, “Battles… have changed.” Yes, that needed to be enough. He could go with that.
“Why?” Susie asked, perfectly going for the exact issue that Ralsei was hoping she wouldn’t go for. “Every time I’ve been with you guys, it’s like… I don’t know…” She squinted a little bit, like she was trying to piece together what she was really seeing in battles previously. “Kris always handles most of the dodging.” Ah, so she didn’t quite understand what the battle box was. “Man, that sounds bad now that I’m saying it like an idiot.”
Ralsei nodded steadily, trying to figure out how to word this. Susie could in fact see the soul during fights. She likely just didn’t understand what it was doing or the fact that it very much wasn’t Kris. “I-I’d love to explain why Susie… but…” Think. Think. Make a good enough explanation. “I think if we stay out in the open too long, we might get drawn into another fight. I-I think now… it might be best to avoid battles.”
As soon as he gave the word, Kris rose to their feet. They were sweating, but determined to keep on moving.
Susie didn’t seem to share their resolve, gesturing wildly with her teeth starting to bare. “Are we seriously not gonna talk about any of this?” She glanced between the two people who refused to answer her. “You two are acting like that fire didn’t hurt you, but it sure as hell hurts! I’ll admit that! We can chill for a sec and let Ralsei explain.”
“I-I’ll explain the exact things we need to worry about, but-” Ralsei’s eyes darted to Kris, seeing that they were moving ahead. Hastily, he followed them, trying to keep pace. “Kris! Slow down! I-I know this is different, but we need to stick together or-”
Susie kept pace, her attention now focused on the human who appeared to be ignoring them. She was getting more and more frustrated. “Hey! Why are you two acting so weird? Kris just- just slow down!”
They weren’t slowing down. Their steps moved faster and faster with purpose, and Ralsei saw their body leaning precariously forward. Worse, Ralsei could see something twitching in the darkness. It was… far too dark in this room. Some of the lanterns and the lights on the floor managed to make spots of illumination, but…
Intense dread hung over Ralsei like a cloud while he sprinted after Kris. They were moving fast, steps uneven and hand moving for their chest. Susie was right behind him, though her larger stride passed him quickly. They were both interrupted when a blackened creature whizzed past their sides, forcing them both to dodge to either side of the pathway.
Susie yelled, “Kris! Where are you going? Did you not hear- oh dammit.” She immediately began running to keep pace with them, Ralsei having to call upon a bit of magic to float and keep up.
Kris wasn’t stopping. As they finally made it out of the abnormally dark room, Ralsei finally understood why. They were only moving to keep themselves in motion. Kris passed another glass pane, reaching out a hand to open air to try to steady themselves.
They collapsed immediately, metal armor clanging through the halls.
“Shit.” Susie ran as fast as she could, dropping by their side immediately. “Kris, what the hell?” Her eyes trailed up to Ralsei, who had just floated to a stop. “What the hell?!?”
Ralsei immediately started channeling healing magic, but he had an idea of what was going on. The imagery of the shattered Deltarune above him made his blood run cold as he tried to send healing magic through Kris’ body. The truth of the matter was that there was no more wound left to heal.
Still, Kris coughed, having a bit of energy left. They’d only been trying to move, because if they stopped, they would have collapsed on the spot.
Susie’s yellow eyes furrowed. “What the hell were you doing? Didn’t you hear Ralsei? When did you stop listening to Ralsei of all people?”
Kris frowned at that, not giving it a response.
When Ralsei finally pulled his hands away from their body, nothing had visibly changed. Susie’s eyes darted back to him, flicking between his receding hands and Kris’ face. “Uh, dude, they’re… I think they might need a little more.”
Ralsei shook his head. “There’s nothing left to heal Susie, I-” His shoulders sagged. Using magic this much outside of battle was beginning to wear him down. Instead, he decided to ignore Susie for the time being. This was urgent now. Kris needed to pick up on what he was saying, or there would be trouble. “Kris… are you certain that you only crashed through glass during your fall?”
They glared at him like he already knew the answer, but he truly did not understand what had occurred to make the Angel vanish. The soul wasn’t going into battle anymore. It clearly wasn’t possessing them. So, Ralsei needed something. His whole life, he’d had more than enough information to know generally what events would happen next. This world operated on certain rules, and they could be relied on.
Now, all of the rules were bending, and he didn’t know how much more of this he could take.
But… Kris never really answered Ralsei’s questions anymore. Ever since they’d discarded him, they kept a distance. Maybe they knew what he was. Perhaps, they didn’t like how much Ralsei had faith in the Angel. He hoped that they cared. When they and the Angel told him to be himself, he simply thought… that maybe…
Even if they didn’t care, right now, he just wanted them to be okay.
But, they just wouldn’t tell him a thing.
He withdrew his hands behind his back. Ralsei shut the thoughts out before they could continue. After all, he… he knew he would be discarded once more eventually. He shouldn’t be upset if the Lightners… chose to move on from him. He’d hoped that some of the answers the Angel gave him were in part Kris. He hoped somewhere that the hug when they first met and the hope for Ralsei to be his own person were Kris' opinions too.
Was it… ever Kris? He wanted to believe, but…
When Ralsei withdrew, Susie took the empty space. She caught his gaze, and something shifted. The air crackled, and Susie decided to be characteristically rude. “Fuck this.” She practically gripped the ground hard enough to chip the floor, gritting her teeth. “You two have been acting weird as hell all day, and we’re not even a few minutes into this Dark World.”
She was getting angrier by the second, and Ralsei thought he deserved it.
Someone needed to get mad at him, as they stood beneath a glass pane depicting the failed prophecy. It was he who wished for the prophecy to change from the start. He’d gotten his wish after all, and the ending would now be so much worse. Maybe, if Ralsei hadn’t begged for something as foolish as that, things would’ve been okay. But now… now… the Angel was gone, and they all didn’t have any time to even begin to understand why.
It was far too sudden.
Maybe that’s why every one of Susie’s questions put him on the backfoot so quickly. Ralsei wanted to know why the battles had changed, but not for the same reasons she did. Why would the Angel abandon them now? Why did they even leave? Was it even their choice? Did something happen? The only one with answers was Kris, and they were struggling to stay awake. Ralsei didn’t even know if they particularly enjoyed talking to him anyway, and that only made his breath quicken the more he looked at that stupid glass pane.
Something clicked in Susie’s head, and she made a decision immediately. “Kris, is this about the stupid red thing that you lost when we were coming in?”
“You lost WHAT?!?” Ralsei shrieked, shaking the glass pane just over Kris’ head.
In response, the human winced, like they’d been trying to keep that one a secret. Or… maybe it had something to do with how loud Ralsei just was.
But oh, how could he not be loud? They’d lost the soul? How did one lose something as precious as a soul? It was clear to Ralsei that the soul was no longer in Kris, but if Susie saw it get lost then what were they DOING?
Susie glanced between the two of them before groaning, “Are we serious right now? You two both know what’s going on, and you’re dancing around m-”
“Didn’t lose it.”
Kris’ words came out in a raspy whisper, like they had gathered all of their strength to say it. Of course, they’d used their strength to be pedantic. Their eyes remained trained on Ralsei, trying very hard to get him to not bring this up any further. “Left on its own.”
Unfortunately for them, Ralsei was a few moments away from accidentally tearing his own ears off. That stupid prophecy behind Kris mocked him every time he had to face them, but this was too important for him to just leave alone. “Kris, I-I need you to be a little more specific, b-because we very much need that-”
“I know.” They forced out the last word, gritting their teeth.
Susie stepped in between them again. “Oh, so we’re just doing this in front of me now, huh?” She glared at both of them, her limit for being left out of the loop finally being reached. “You.” She pointed at Kris, baring her teeth. “If that thing you lost is this important, and you didn’t tell me…” Her resolve broke midway through as they turned their head away. Kris’ emotions were clear, and Susie saw right through them. “ Why didn’t you tell me?”
The moment silence fell, Kris only receded into themselves more. They didn’t even make an attempt to speak, their mouth clamped shut.
Susie’s head lowered, her eyes slowly disappearing under her hair. Instead, she turned around, looking at him. “Ralsei? What’s going on?”
Maybe that’s what did it. Susie had a habit of questioning things regarding the two of them over and over whenever something seemed wrong. It happened once with Kris, their entire body trembling after they had just fought Spamton NEO. Perhaps, it was a correction she made after not paying attention to Lancer’s feelings when they were approaching Card Castle. Even more recently, she refused to drop the subject of the festival in the TV World. She knew something was wrong, and never let up despite Ralsei trying to… help her understand what his role was.
Why would he expect her to ignore something like this?
She was about to turn away again when Ralsei finally found the strength to speak up. He didn’t want to… to scare them… but…
But they were going to die if they didn’t know what was going on. If there was a time to say anything, just like with the Roaring, then it would be now.
So, Ralsei shut his eyes and admitted, “Kris… has… there’s no real polite or normal way to say this… lost their soul.”
That would have to do. No talk of the Angel needed to come through. As long as Susie knew precisely the amount of information she needed to know, it would hurt her less.
Susie’s brow furrowed, but some of the tension in her shoulders started to vanish. “So then why the hell are you two hiding that from me?” Ah, she was looking at Kris pointedly. “Don’t uh… don’t humans need that? If they lost something that important, why are we acting like it’s some big secret?”
Kris was actively trying to push themselves to their feet now, but their face still looked caked in sweat. They at least managed to push themself up to lean on a pillar, coughing into a hand. Still, they tried to set the record straight. “Didn’t… want you to worry.”
While Ralsei heavily doubted that was the true reason, Susie didn’t care if it was or not. In her eyes, it was- “What kind of piss poor excuse is that? Don’t want me to worry? You look like you can barely stand!”
When a pained expression flashed across their face, Ralsei tried to cushion the blow. “Susie, I think Kris only meant- We didn’t want to- They didn’t want to make you mad-”
“I-” She took a deep breath, but there was rage bubbling in her exhale. “I already told you two how much I hate it when people hide things from me, Ralsei!” Susie growled, “You two… you keep…” She clenched and unclenched her hands, trying to scramble together something. “You keep not telling me things until someone’s about to get hurt. You keep- Kris is looking like they’re about to die.” She jabbed a finger at Ralsei, rocking him back slightly from the impact. “You look like you’re gonna just keel over from being too nervous. Just… tell me what’s going on so I can help! I can help!”
Ralsei didn’t realize how still he’d gone until her voice started echoing off the walls. None of his muscles moved, and he didn’t want to move. Her gaze was trained on him, expecting something, anything after how much they’d both been keeping from her.
She… she always did hate when people hid things from her.
The truth was, admitting to what had happened would be admitting that they were doomed. Without the soul, they couldn’t even escape the Dark World. Without the soul, more Dark Fountains would form freely. He wasn’t even sure if they could survive a harder battle without the soul on their side.
But she needed an answer. She… deserved an answer.
Ralsei’s hands went to his scarf, and he tried to keep the tears from springing to his eyes. Perhaps he’d been ignoring the tremors in his body enough to not notice that he was afraid. Now, with Susie pointing it out, and with her begging for him to just say something, he couldn’t keep it down anymore.
So, he took a shaky breath, and tried not to look at the way Susie flinched backwards as he did. He kept as much of a smile as he could, trying to soften the blow. “I-I’m sorry- I just- I-It’s because… without it…” Admitting this would mean admitting defeat, but he didn’t know what else to do. With Kris looking gaunt and Susie losing faith in the both of them, he just couldn’t soften the blow any further. “I-I don’t think you two can make it out of this Dark World, Susie.”
And suddenly, all of that anger from Susie started to fade into something… much, much worse. Her eyes softened, and her shoulders fell. Ralsei never wanted Kris or Susie to be concerned for him, but… he could never keep it together. He just couldn’t… not now… not with the Angel’s shattered form looming just over their heads.
“Th-the soul is gone. It- we needed it- to-” He kept his hands firmly behind his back, his claws digging painfully under his fur. “We can’t fight anymore without all of us being in danger. Kris is… is going to get weaker. W-we can’t cast spells normally. We can’t seal the Dark Fountain. There’s- there’s no one- no one to-” Don’t mention the Angel. Don’t mention them. It was the one thing he had to do. He couldn’t mention them.
He didn’t even know them enough to mourn their loss.
Should he even mourn them?
Even now, Ralsei remembered the small moments where something started shining through in the Angel’s actions. At every turn, there was a glimmer of undeserved kindness in their actions. After Ralsei had messed up his introductory speech, they stayed behind and even hugged him while he explained battles. They let him wear ribbons, sacrificing their own defense to let him wear something he liked. Even on the swan ride, they told him that they liked that he was being himself.
There were so many questions he wanted to ask them. So many things about them didn’t add up, like their tendency to change whenever a night passed. Sometimes, they would do strange things, look for stranger Darkners, and sometimes… even change opinion on Ralsei. They were always kind to him, but he always wanted to ask… why they were so confused when he took off his hat.
He’d never know now. They were gone. They were gone, and he didn’t know what to do. All he had to cling onto were fragments of a being that would’ve been banished by the heroes anyway, and he, Susie, and Kris were going to die in their absence.
Ralsei was going to lose all of his friends in a single day, far earlier than he thought he’d have to. He didn’t even get to know why.
Everything felt like it was falling apart. At least with the prophecy, there was at least a semblance of a path to walk on. Even though Ralsei hoped they could divert it, it still allowed a certainty that helped him stay… calmer. Now, the world fell out from under him. There was nothing but darkness around every corner with no light to shine the way. It didn’t feel real. It couldn’t be real. Ralsei didn’t feel real, his entire body thrumming like static.
Something pressed against his shoulders. Ralsei could barely make out a haze of purple in his face, and he realized his name was being called. He was needed. He just needed to focus.
How could he focus? The Angel would still be gone when he got his bearings. His friends would still be in mortal danger. His friends, the very friends who trusted him with their lives, were going to die because he’d wished the prophecy would change. But, it didn’t matter if he could focus. He had to. If he wasn’t smiling, then who would? He had to keep smiling. He had to.
“Ralsei? Ralsei, look at me, dude.” That was Susie. Her hands were still set on his shoulders, trying to keep him standing.
Ralsei tried to root himself on that feeling. In the hands of Lightners, he always felt a bit more real. That is how it always was, even when he was still only an object without these horrid things like fears. “I-I’m sorry, Susie. I’m- I just need a moment.” He didn’t know how to keep his voice from trembling.
There was now blue in his vision. Kris stood on their own two feet, keeping a distance so as to not crowd him, but he could tell they were at least concerned.
They shouldn’t need to be worried. Get it together.
Finally, Ralsei’s vision focused on Susie’s face. Just like when she yelled at him for explaining what Darkners were, she’d gotten in his face again. But oh, there was that expression he hated again. That frown on her face, putting her concern on full display, made his vision swim again.
Susie kept him steady. “Hey, breathe. Eyes on me, and you better listen.”
The command gave him enough wherewithal to stare her in the eyes, her hands on his shoulders keeping him firmly planted to the ground. The world around started to feel more real, coherent even. Most of all, she felt real.
She put on one of her self-assured smiles, refusing to back down. “We’re gonna get out of here. We’re gonna find that damn soul. Whether you like it or not, I’m not giving up just because we gotta change things up a little.”
“S-Susie it’s not just a little thing. It’s-” He tried to argue, but-
“So what?” In the light reaching down from the windows high up in the church, Susie’s eyes started flickering. Ralsei rarely saw a Lighter’s capacity for determination, but it always tended to manifest through Susie. “It just means you two might have to listen to me for once, since you dorks have been fighting with that soul… or something. Me and Lancer had battle tactics down. Guess I’ll have to be the teacher for once.”
That… that was true. In their first journey, Susie did immediately leave the party to fight battles on her own. If anyone here knew how to fight alone, it would be her. Slowly, Ralsei was starting to believe, but the prophecy looming just over Susie’s head stamped it out. “I- and what about the Dark Fountain? Wh-what about our magic? We can’t- I don’t want you all to get hurt-”
Susie removed her hands from Ralsei for a second, tentatively reaching into thin air. Her ToxicAxe materialized instantly, purple rude magic instantly forming on the end of it. “Eh, I can still do it.” She shrugged, testing the weight of the axe. “Feels different, though. And the Dark Fountain? We’re not worrying about it.” The axe vanished, and Susie pointed just beyond Ralsei into the black depths beyond. “Because I know where that stupid soul went.”
Ralsei almost once again thought that things could be solved. Yet, when he turned around to see where Susie was pointing, he realized just how dire their situation actually was. If the soul went into the depths of the Dark World… there was no telling what they would find. Ralsei… knew what would likely be lurking in that darkness. It was too stifling down there.
Even Kris was looking over the edge now, but they seemed far more pensive about the whole thing than Susie. They hadn’t said a word in a while, but from how firmly their brow was set, they were probably willing to follow her down there regardless.
No. No they couldn’t do this. It would be too dangerous. “I- we can’t-” Ralsei grabbed for Susie’s hand, pleading, “I- I can’t lose you all too. Please. We’ll- we’ll find another way. I- I can traverse Dark Worlds. I can take you all back to Castle Town. It- It would be…” He couldn’t, though. The outskirts of the Dark Worlds were only traversable thanks to his ability to fly for a limited time. Even then, the Roaring would be sure to occur.
Kris’ shoulders had gone rigid midway through Ralsei’s sentence. The moment didn’t go unnoticed by Susie, and her brow furrowed. “...can’t lose us, too?”
Ralsei clenched his mouth shut. Stupid. Stupid. He was still getting mixed up in all of this. The Angel was always going to be banished by them eventually. They were a far higher being than he was. This… wasn’t a loss for him. He had no right to decide how to think about their departure other than tactically-
Instead of pressing more, Susie decided on something. “Listen, Kris just got their energy back. We’ll… we’ll find a way down to where I think I saw that thing fall. I think I remember how fighting works without that soul but uh…” She scratched the back of her head. “You seem to know the actual difference between those fighting styles.”
Kris was already looking like they wanted to get moving now. But- they were going to get eviscerated without the soul!
Ralsei could explain, but explanation wouldn’t help them! It wasn’t just that the soul had fallen into the darkness. If it was merely that simple, then the Angel’s presence would still be in this world. He worried that there would be nothing to find down there. They’d be lost in the endless darkness with Ralsei being the only one who could return.
Ralsei was the only one who could return.
“We can’t.” He forced the words out, hands once more clenching behind his back. “I can’t let you all get hurt. Let… just let me do it.” It was the only thing he could really offer now. At least, if he succumbed to the darkness, they would still have a chance of traversing through the actual Dark World. He’d be able to go down there and potentially leave.
“No.”
The singular answer came from Kris. They’d tilted their head ever so slightly back to face the two of them, a frown being the only facial expression Ralsei could make out. While Kris… was the tactician of the group, they rarely issued commands on their own. It was strange to hear such a definitive word come out of their mouth.
“Kris is right. We’re not letting you go alone.” Susie hooked her arm around him. Ralsei yelped, suddenly being pulled against her side, stuck in a headlock. “We’re doing it as a team, toothpaste boy. All this? It doesn’t change a damn thing.”
Kris crossed their arms, once more deciding to be pedantic. “My soul fell out. ”
“And we’re gonna solve that in like two seconds!” Susie nodded confidently before digging her knuckles into Ralsei’s forehead. “And besides, you got me here to explain fights to you. What else is better than that?”
Something about the feeling of knuckles on his head vanquished the rest of the static in his body. It… hurt to be merely an illusion formed from an object. But… sometimes, whether it be the Angel hugging them through Kris, or Susie playing rough with him, it made him feel a little more real. He shouldn’t be allowed to feel that way, but…
Oh, something was blotting his glasses.
He just wanted the two of them to be okay. It seemed impossible, but maybe… maybe with Susie’s hope…
Maybe… they could just change the prophecy one more time.
“Uh… first noogie to make someone cry?” Susie asked, though she didn’t look like she regretted it at all. Her toothy grin betrayed her, but she let up, unhooking her arm from Ralsei’s head.
He took a second to wipe off his glasses with his scarf, a disgusting sniffle coming out of his nose. Really, he needed to be a little more composed. Still, he shakily laughed, “I’m just happy you’re my friends, Susie.” He hoped he could include Kris into that. He wanted to hope that they maybe… also would’ve been kind to him if the Angel wasn’t there.
They didn’t betray a single thing, turning their head away.
Susie took up the marching order again right behind Kris. She kept grinning. “Now, battles, yeah? You two gotta know how to fight like I did.”
Oh, this would be good. Ralsei followed in line while they began to move. The glass pane left their view at long last as they entered a thin hall together. Ralsei never imagined that they would be fighting without the soul. While he had theories on what the differences were with the Angel being gone, perhaps Susie’s insight would be valuable. For the time being, Ralsei was thankful to be in the back. His fur was matted and he still had to take off his glasses to wipe away some of the remaining tears.
He was thankful, just a little bit, that Susie took things in stride so often. She didn’t make fun of him for crying, even if he deserved it a little bit for… for keeping her in the dark for so long.
“So, battles.” Susie summoned her axe, placing the handle over her shoulders and draping her arms over it. “Uh… yeah back when I was smashing those puzzle piece guys, they kinda just happened? Like, I didn’t really do battles like you all did. It was kinda just… I smacked them and they fell over.”
Ralsei helpfully interjected, “I believe that is what happened when the Darkner back there attacked us. A battle was not initiated properly. Typically, with the soul, it would force a battle to occur.”
“Huh.” Susie thought about that for a second. “Well, that’s nice. Wouldn’t have wanted to deal with getting stabbed before being able to start a battle. I kinda like it when I’m not getting fire spit at me for fun.”
“We have to do it manually, now.” Ralsei wasn’t quite sure how to explain exactly how to engage a battle. “It’s… a matter of intent. You have to focus on only the fight, like nothing else around you matters. Drawing a weapon usually helps.”
Susie snapped her fingers. “Yeah! Lancer did something like that when we were practicing our team attacks!” As she thought about it, a chuckle came out of her mouth. “I remember the attack where I jumped on his head tripped you two up big time.”
As her chuckle echoed down the hall, something large dropped from the ceiling. Ralsei instinctively went to start a battle, but Kris beat him to the punch. They raised a hand, pointing at the enemy. It halted in its tracks, a head forming from the rest of its spherical body.
A battle started immediately.
Kris had listened!
“Well done, Kris!” He shouted, genuinely happy that they had caught on so fast. “Although, do remember that we will have to dodge on our own, now.”
They nodded, grip tightening on their blade.
“So uh, anything else we should know before giving them their turn?” Susie asked, suddenly sounding a little less certain and glancing away. “I know I like… am obviously the expert and all… but uh… I didn’t… get too many fights in before you all dragged me back into the group.”
Ralsei nodded. “Most importantly, we do not have Tension Points anymore.”
“Sweet.” Susie nodded before a bead of sweat dripped down the side of her head. “What’s that?”
“I-” Just how much of battles was Susie doing on pure instinct? After seeing how she fared against the Knight, Ralsei was now very concerned about what she would be capable of with full knowledge of her abilities. “You never read my manual. Right.”
“S’not my fault it’s a good bedtime story-”
“Tension Points…” Ralsei cut through, seeing that the enemy across from them was getting agitated. “...are what we use to channel our spells or use stronger abilities. They are something that… the soul channels through us.”
Surprisingly, Susie understood. “Right. Always did feel pumped whenever Kris told me to use a spell.” Before they could continue their conversation, Kris raised a hand into the air. Susie’s glance twitched over to them, before a grin split across her face. She asked, “You thinking what I’m thinking?”
Kris nodded, and the two sprinted towards the enemy in a blur. Ralsei yelped in confusion, before seeing the two jostling the Balthizard back and forth. He ran to join them, though he wasn’t nearly as strong as the two of them working together.
For some reason, this made the Balthizard’s singular white eye look happier.
When they returned to their positions, Susie continued, “So uh, what changes without the tension? I cast Rude Buster all the time outside of fights. Wait- shit- dodge-”
White smoke clouds began to encircle the three of them, as even more shed off from the Balthizard. They all stood back to back, keeping an eye out for burnt incense that came their way. When Kris pulled the two of them to look forward, it was clear that the attacks were only coming from the Balthizard’s direction.
They split off, managing to individually weave in and out of the haze. One of the attacks lightly grazed Kris’ armor, but they didn’t make a visible wince. Okay. That… that was good.
The smoke clouds vanished, and Ralsei took a deep breath. “We can theoretically cast at any time.” Ralsei brought his hand up, waving to the Balthizard to spare it. “It’s just now… you will likely get tired after exerting yourself with spells. It will draw on our energy now… even in fights.” The Balthizard left down the hallway, ending the fight. “With Tension Points, we could theoretically cast forever. Now… we should probably use our spells sparingly.”
“Pfft, we’ll see about that.” Susie let her weapon dissipate, following Kris who had already once more taken the lead. Their movements were a tad slower, and their breathing heavier. It looked like they didn’t have all that much energy to work with when their soul was gone.
That battle hadn’t been the worst thing, Ralsei supposed. Still, that felt like an easier Darkner to fight. He thought he would see more on this path. Usually, Darkners tended to attack in groups. He’d only seen singular Darkners on their path. Perhaps, he should simply count his blessings.
Once more, the group passed by another image of the shattered Deltarune. Even though Kris tried to move quickly past it, Susie still idly commented, “So what did the prophecy usually say? Anything cool about me?”
Ralsei almost didn’t want to remember. More importantly, he could not share that with Kris and Susie now. While the prophecy had been broken, their current trajectory was even worse. He didn’t want to deter them from doing the right thing. If they never escaped the Dark World, then all would be for nothing.
So, Ralsei answered with a steady voice, “There… were many things about all of us. Although I… don’t think it matters much anymore.”
“Aw come on, nothing fun?” Susie wondered, keeping pace with Kris. “I bet I was cool in it. You can admit it, Ralsei-”
The glass pane shattered.
All went silent as the room was covered in darkness.
Immediately, something in Ralsei’s chest felt constricted. This wasn’t normal. Something was lurking deep in the darkness with him. Whenever Ralsei traversed through Dark Worlds, he always tried to make sure that he stayed out of the deepest darknesses. Unfathomable things waited there. It was why he was so scared to let Kris and Susie descend into the depths in the first place. Now, the depths had come to them.
A clang of metal rang through the air. Suddenly, a hand was on Ralsei’s shoulder. It was Susie, having grabbed both him and Kris. She grumbled, “Can’t see shit. We should probably hold onto each other.”
Ralsei immediately put his hands on her waist, deciding that he would in fact try that. He could… maybe try to use a bit of his magic to light the way, but he didn’t want to burn it out yet. If… if the darkness got worse, with no light to shine the way, his own abilities may be needed.
Kris moved the group forward, inching slowly forward. They were only able to listen to the sound of footsteps in the darkness, and didn’t seem to have a single clue where they were going. Sometimes, Ralsei would hear a few clanks of metal, like they were testing the way ahead. One time, Susie tensed, pulling Kris backwards after one of the clangs of metal sounded off.
“Not gonna be able to save your ass every time, you know,” she muttered, keeping her voice low.
The darkness only grew thicker as they winded along thick paths. Ralsei felt like his lungs weren’t properly filling with air anymore. It weighed on his chest, and stifled the magic bubbling at the surface of his being.
Nervous, he started mumbling, “It’s… awfully dark in here, isn’t it…?” He didn’t want his worst fears to be confirmed. He just hoped that they could get through this room. He hoped that it was just naturally dark.
His hope was answered with a screech in the darkness.
No… no that couldn’t…
Had the Dark World been open long enough for spawn to appear?
Ralsei didn’t waste a single moment. He tugged on Susie, trying to guide her back while yelling, “W-We need to go back! Now!”
Susie spared him a glance in the darkness, but she couldn’t see just how terrified he was. Instead, she responded to the sound of Kris’ blade appearing, drawing her own weapon. “Like hell we’re going back now! It’s just another Darkner. We got thi-”
Suddenly, a gauntlet wrapped around Ralsei’s robes. Both he and Susie were yanked away, Kris charging in the opposite direction. They were panting heavily, sweat dripping down their face.
Ralsei didn’t know the way back. He didn’t know if Kris did either. They’d been so unsure with their footing before, and now-
Susie pulled them all back from the edge before Kris careened over. “Slow down. We’re not gonna be able to run in the dark like this. We gotta handle them-”
“Battle isn’t working,” Kris rasped, turning around to the encroaching darkness with their Blackshard in hand. They frantically tapped Ralsei on the shoulder, trying to get his attention. “Not working.”
The two of them hadn’t done this before. Ralsei had only explained a feeling, but a feeling wasn’t enough with these spawns. Ralsei stepped in between the encroaching darkness and his friends, readying his scarf. He was the only one of the three well-practiced in this. He just needed to focus on the fight. Yet, fear was entrenched in his chest already. His friends breathing laboriously behind him made him falter. His fear of what came made it hard to focus on only the battle.
Ralsei whispered, shaking, “W-we have to run. We can’t-”
Susie grabbed them both, having found a route away from the Spawn. As she ran, she had an idea. “Well, we gotta go down into the Dark World, right? Y’know, gotta go off the beaten path to find that soul?”
As he ran as fast as his legs could take him, Ralsei panted, “I- yes? But we need to find a safe place to go down-”
Ah, he understood the issue now.
Susie had gone the wrong way. Or perhaps Kris had gone an incorrect way earlier, and they were far off the correct trail. Now, the three of them stood at a dead end with Titan Spawn slowly approaching.
In the darkness, Susie’s yellow eyes flashed with a spark of red. She grabbed hold of both of them, yelling over the heartbeat in their ears, “You two trust me, right?”
Kris nodded without hesitation. Ralsei had just a little more apprehension. “O-of course, Susie, but-”
“Good enough for me!”
Before Ralsei had a moment to react, Susie’s arm was hooked around his waist. In her other arm, Kris held on, like they knew what was coming next. When Ralsei stared at Susie, he saw her face trained on the certain oblivion below.
With the Spawn right behind them, Susie leapt into the unknown. Air rushed around them, showing just how fast they were descending. Ralsei clung to her, trying to use any of his magic to slow their descent.
Something slammed into them, and Ralsei…
His thoughts shattered.
DOWN
Chapter 2: Goners
Summary:
The Depths of the Dark World are a dangerous place for anyone to traverse. Time is running out, and is there anything to even search for down here?
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Susie clung to her friends as much as she could. Despite her strength failing during the descent with Kris’ armor weighing them down and Ralsei’s claws digging into her, she refused to let go. She’d never really paid attention to stuff like physics. Suddenly, she was cursing every quiz she didn’t study for. Could she just… throw the two of them before she hit the ground? They could heal her after. It was just that she didn’t know if any of them would survive a fall like this.
They’d had these kinds of falls before. Just a few moments ago, she and Kris had plummeted from the heights of the Dark World through glass. The Dark World seemed to… cushion the blow at times. It was still possible to land badly though. Kris landed on glass, and she twisted her ankle once when falling off a trash heap in the Cyber World.
A traitorous part of her wondered if they needed the soul to survive those heights too. There were so many things she just didn’t get right now, but it wouldn’t help to ask now. Instead, she braced herself.
For a split-second, she saw hollow, white eyes staring at her. She didn’t have a single moment to change their trajectory before she crashed into it. That same intense dread she felt when being chased just earlier coursed through her body, sending muscle spasms through her that made her yell out in pain. The Shadow Mantle on her back flared out, trying to take a majority of the blow for her.
Was… was that another one of the things that was chasing them?
Susie’s mind blanked as she tumbled through the air. When she shook herself awake, she realized that her arms were empty. Both Kris and Ralsei were falling next to her, but-
Kris was in freefall. Their body tumbled listlessly through the air, just like she’d seen them after they fell through the glass. Immediately, Susie’s head swiveled to Ralsei, only seeing a collection of robes where he once was. She never could see what happened when something hurt him in battle, but her soul wrenched uncomfortably.
That was supposed to be her friend.
She couldn’t reach out on time. The three of them tumbled into a pile of something. When Susie hit what felt like crumpled paper, she was surprised that anything would be down here. It made the landing soft, as she and her downed friends rolled down to the edge of the pile. Kris laid in a heap at the edge of it, but she needed to get Ralsei.
Desperately, Susie reached out for what remained of Ralsei in the pile. He said that their spells would drain them, but this was a time more than ever to use her healing.
But her healing was never good, was it?
An uncomfortable doubt pricked her mind. There was a dark presence above her, getting closer and closer. It was stupidly unlucky that they managed to hit a second one of those assholes on the way down, but it meant that she had to get Kris and Ralsei out of here fast.
To hell with the doubts. Green magic built in her fingertips. It wasn’t enough yet, so she brought a second hand back, trying to charge it into a ball.
Could she even really do this fast enough? She always had to charge her healing. Other Darkners had laughed at her for charging it when Kris first called upon her to heal. Even before, when Kris had shards of glass sticking out of them, she couldn’t do it on time.
A shriek echoed above her, and she couldn’t tell if the thing was angry or in pain. Susie finished charging her heal, firing it at where Ralsei had vanished into his robes. There was a puff of magic, and then-
Ralsei laid, whole and intact, right in front of her, but he didn’t get up. Immediately, Susie grabbed him out of the crumpled pieces of paper, pulling him over to Kris. Uhhh, did she need to check for a pulse on them? Did Ralsei even have a pulse? She could feel his heart hammering sometimes when she grabbed him, so he had to. Thankfully, she didn’t need to. Both of them were still breathing.
Susie channeled another blast of healing, trying to get enough to wake up her friends. Ralsei always made it look so easy, being able to bring Kris up to their feet multiple times while fighting the Knight. If she could just… think about what he did…
Her fingertips felt numb when she sent a blast at Kris. Their body twitched, breath evening out. However, they did not stand or open their eyes.
Not enough.
Susie glanced up above to see if that thing was still following them. It’d shrieked, and she assumed that meant they’d have to run soon. Yet, no matter how much she strained her eyes in the pitch black, she couldn’t see anything coming.
Okay, screw it. They were down here now. She had to work with it. Just keep moving, even if she was the only one awake.
Susie curiously took one of the crumpled up balls of paper. While she hadn’t been to church at all lately except with Kris, she had a pretty good idea on what some of the things were supposed to be. Dark Worlds had patterns that she picked up on most of the time. Crumpled paper sitting at the bottom of a black void? That didn’t make much sense.
It could be one of those uh… puzzle hints. Yeah, there were always signs everywhere telling Kris how to solve puzzles. Maybe this was one of those, and there was a puzzle somewhere down here that really needed to be solved. Surely… one more small heal blast wouldn’t hurt. She channeled more green into her hand, using it as a light source before unfurling the paper.
Most of the words were weirdly preachy. It didn’t sound like a puzzle. It sounded more like one of those stupid sermons that they’d had to listen to at the church. Except, this one only got a few lines in before abruptly ending. Susie picked up another, opening it. Same thing, but this one was even shorter. She managed to rummage through a few papers quickly, finding that some of them actually sounded like stories.
None were finished.
Well, that was stupid. Kris and Ralsei both hadn’t woken up yet, and Susie’s hands still felt numb. It didn’t matter much. She was going to heal them more regardless. If she could just… figure out how to make her healing stronger, then maybe…
Susie heard movement to her right. Without a second thought, she readied her axe and stood in front of Kris and Ralsei. She bared her teeth, Rude Magic boiling on the blade of her axe. “I don’t know what the hell you are, but if you take another step, I’m gonna turn you to ash.” She wasn’t letting anything touch Kris and Ralsei, even if she had to fight.
“Gyaa ha ha!” An old, gravely voice rang out through the darkness, almost making Susie wince. Still, she kept her axe trained in that direction, teeth baring even further. “You’re a bit far off the path there, ain’t ya?”
“I’m warning you.” Susie shook her axe again to reinforce the weapon was there, purple magic boiling hotter. “Stay back!”
The figure came a little closer, but what Susie saw made her hesitate. They were using a cane, moving particularly slow. It made her hesitate enough for the voice to ring out again. “Goin’ off the path ain’t a bad thing, now. You three just looked like you could use a lil help, s’all.”
Both Kris and Ralsei hadn’t moved at all yet. That had to be bad. Still, Susie held firm, refusing to back down. If this old man wanted a fight, then she’d give it. “Last chance.” She gripped the axe tighter, ready to unleash Rude Buster.
“You’re mighty protective over your friends, there.” The footsteps from the old man stopped. At least, he was somewhat listening. “They’re lucky to have someone like you around, I’d reckon. ‘Specially with those beasties floatin’ around.”
At least that meant the voice wasn’t one of those darkness-things talking. Susie stayed on guard, deciding to not yet cremate what sounded like an old man. “Of course I’m gonna stand up for them. Now, get the hell out of here so I can help them instead of dealing with you.”
There was a rush of wind. Susie immediately threw out the Rude Buster in the direction that she heard the old man, sending a purple light careening into the darkness. She didn’t even see anyone in the magic blast’s path, which didn’t make sense. Immediately, she began charging another Rude Buster as-
Kris’ armor moved.
Susie whipped around, the light of her magic casting a purple light on what appeared to be a turtle Darkner of some kind. He didn’t seem to mind her at all, poking at her friends with a green cane.
Immediately, Susie stepped over Ralsei to keep him out of reach and loomed over the hunched over man. “Back up.” This usually worked against her classmates at school. Part of her loathed doing it again. But… she couldn’t let anyone hurt Kris and Ralsei.
“I’m just lookin’,” the old man nonchalantly said, though he took a tentative step back. “Looks like ya already tried healin’. I could give some candy, if ya don’t have any to heal them yourself.”
Candy? From an old man? “No thanks, now-” Wait a minute. Items! What the hell was she thinking? Even if her healing wasn’t the best right now, she could still try and give some items. Ignoring the annoying turtle for a second, she reached into her pockets into the weird shared inventory they all had down here. Without a second thought, Susie used some Darker Candy on both Kris and Ralsei, seeing a flash of green on both of their bodies as she did so.
“Your healin’ did a good job keepin’ those youngins together. But down here, off the beaten path where the prophecy doesn’t shine so bright, a little resourcefulness can go a long way,” the old man lectured, leaning on his cane.
Ralsei’s claws scraped the darkened floor. When his eyes blinked awake, he managed to sputter out a confused “Whuh-” before getting swept up in Susie’s arms.
“You dumbass!” She locked him in a bone-crushing hug, ignoring his protests when she lifted him off the ground. “We gotta get you some better armor or something. That- that scared the hell out of me.”
Finally, she let up, giving the poor Darkner a little room to breathe. Ralsei coughed into his hand before adjusting his glasses. One of the lenses had unfortunately cracked during the fall, it seemed. “I-I’m fine, Susie. Just… what happened?”
Susie couldn’t take her eyes off the broken glasses. They’d need to get Malius to fix them as soon as possible. “Oh- uh.” She took her hands off of him, grinning. “Just had to do a bit of healing magic. Found a weird old man who reminded me we had items and-” When Susie glanced back to the Darkner in question, he’d completely vanished from the spot.
Did she imagine that?
“Huh, he’s gone.”
Ralsei was already shakily walking towards Kris, putting a hand on their armor. He half collapsed on the way down. “S-sorry, just rattled,” he shakily laughed, “U-um, I think… I think Kris is healed. They’re just… without their soul… they’re getting weaker.”
With the way they were walking earlier, that made perfect sense. Susie wasted no time in picking up Kris. Unfortunately, she’d have to carry this dumbass bridal style, because their armor was heavy and slinging them over her shoulder felt a little too mean considering the circumstances.
Susie glanced down at Ralsei who was struggling to get to his feet. Arching a brow, she asked, “You need to be carried, too?”
“I-I’m fine.” Sure enough, he managed to lift himself to his feet. He scanned the surrounding area, but seemed to not find anything just as Susie had been unable to. “It’s just… now that we’re down here, and so suddenly, I don’t quite know how we’ll get back up.”
It was a split second decision to jump. Susie probably should’ve just turned around and hit that darkness-thing with a Rude Buster, but Kris looked so certain in retreating. If Susie could trust one thing, it was Kris’ instincts. Still, she couldn’t help but feel bad about Ralsei’s sorry state. If she’d just jumped a different direction, maybe they wouldn’t have hit that stupid thing on the way down.
It still hadn’t come after them. Weird. Maybe that shriek she heard was a shriek of pain.
Susie sighed, “Welp, we came down here to find a soul, didn’t we? Guess we… I dunno, find a way back up and then start looking from there?” She wasn’t used to calling the shots on these things, but with Kris down…
Ralsei didn’t protest at all. His hands returned to their usual spot behind his back, and he nodded. “I think that would be a good idea.”
Far up in the air, Susie thought she could see windows. Maybe one of those would shine light on a platform or something. She didn’t know how they’d climb up, but it would do something. Every now and then, Susie looked forward to try to chart a path through the darkness, but she had no clue where she was going. She wasn’t even sure if this was the farthest they could fall.
“S’too damn dark to see,” she muttered to herself.
She did not expect Ralsei to immediately respond. “It’s… a result of those creatures we saw. They tend to form when the Dark Worlds get… too dark. It’s a precursor to the Roaring.”
The Roaring? The world-ending one? They were already that close? If they didn’t figure this whole thing out fast, things were gonna go south quickly. Susie shook herself off, trying to get rid of any semblance of nerves. “Well, good thing we’re gonna find a way out of here and… and we’ll find that soul, too.” She didn’t want to admit it, but she had no clue if they were going the right way. They’d been so disoriented in the dark, and the fall knocked Susie in so many different directions. Walking in any direction was a guess now.
“We should probably try to make as much light as possible to deter them,” Ralsei mused, rolling up a sleeve. “They… they tend to not like staying in the light for long.”
Hm. Susie wanted to try to summon her healing again for some light, but she couldn’t with her hands full. Luckily, Ralsei already had it handled. Susie watched as he brought his hands together, golden light sparking from them. When he opened his palms, a warm, golden flame shimmered in the air. It was enough to finally make their faces more visible in the dark.
Susie stared at the fire for a second before letting out an impressed laugh, “Damn, Ralsei. You could make fire this whole time? That’s cool as hell!”
Despite the compliment, Ralsei didn’t look so sure. While he did blush, he turned his head away. “I… I don’t like using it often.”
“Why not?” How many other cool things was Ralsei hiding like that? Every now and then, she got to learn something new about him, but most of those things were just too damn sad. She felt like she had to ask now.
Sure enough, his answer was as sad as all of the rest. “Fire is typically used… to hurt others. It isn’t… really my purpose to hurt.”
Well, that sounded stupid. “So what? My whole thing is uh… hurting-people magic. You taught me how to heal anyway.”
Ralsei regarded the flame carefully, but he kept his gaze averted. Something was going on in that head of his. He’d been doing that a lot more today. Quite honestly, it’d annoyed the hell out of her back there. They could’ve found the soul a lot sooner if Kris just told her in the first place. With how often they were walking by piles of paper, she figured that one of her inevitable leaps into the darkness probably would’ve hit one of them. Or, hell, she could’ve done anything sooner instead of just wandering head-first into the Knight.
Part of her wanted to be mad. In fact, she was still a little pissed about the whole thing, but both Kris and Ralsei were her friends. They were friends she wanted to keep. If they were hiding things from her though, then…
She’d just have to shake it out of them. Both of them were supposedly trying not to upset her, but dammit was it getting annoying. She’d just have to try harder.
So, she decided to try. “So… uh… would you want to learn hurting-people magic?” She asked, when Ralsei hadn’t responded in a while. “Not that like… we’re gonna just start blasting people for fun, but uh… you know… in case of emergencies or something? Or just in general?”
Ralsei’s flame trembled for a second. For a moment, he scrunched his face as if focusing, and then the flame steadied. His head sank a bit, like he was trying to hide from the question. “I-It’s not my purpose, Susie-”
“Yeah, and you know how I feel about that.” She never liked it when Ralsei got wrapped up in the way things SHOULD be. Most of those things were stupid and made him hurt. She hated seeing her friends hurt, damn it. “Purpose or no purpose, would you want to?”
“I-” Ralsei took a deep breath. “No, Susie. I… I don’t want to… get better at that.”
He sounded certain enough to Susie, at least. She tilted her head back, trying to figure out what progress they’d made. Still, she didn’t want to just leave things there. So, she asked differently, trying to change the subject. “Is there any magic you would try to learn? Like… I dunno. There’s gotta be other magic than just the stuff you and I do.”
That actually gave Ralsei pause. The gears must’ve been spinning in his head, because he appeared to be deep in thought instead of averting his gaze from her. It was different from the way he looked whenever Susie asked him something that he didn’t want to give an answer to. This one, he actually liked.
Ralsei decided on something, a genuine smile crossing his face. There hadn’t been one of those in a while today. “During one of our… worse fights… I started toying with some defensive magic. I didn’t get called on to use it all that much but…” He stared at the flame in his hand. “It felt nice to protect you all, even if I am… the weakest.”
Susie snorted, “Yeah, but you’re not the one I’m currently lugging around right now.” She didn’t mean that Kris was the weakest. None of them were. It was just…
Kris would probably laugh and headbutt Susie if she said they were weak. Ralsei truly believed every word that came out of his mouth, no matter how cruel it was to himself.
Still, Ralsei politely commented, “They are without their soul right now, Susie. I don’t think that’s necessarily a fair comparison.”
“Right, yeah.” Still, the reminder of just what they were looking for made her frown. Kris still hadn’t woken up, and quite frankly, they looked like shit. Their forehead was caked in sweat, and while they were breathing, it sounded shallow. Walking with only their labored breaths was wrong.
Maybe it was the mood suddenly souring that hooked Susie’s mind. Something Ralsei said earlier bugged her, but she didn’t have a chance to push on it. He mentioned… losing someone already, and when Susie asked him about it, he looked like he would turn to stone any second.
It was something she wanted to ask him after all of this was over. Ralsei always kept this stuff down for way too long, and he could hide it really well. Susie knew that, because he basically told her to her face that his feelings were worthless back in the TV World.
Clearly, she’d been missing a ton of what was going on with her friends. That needed to change.
She wanted to change it now, despite the voice in her head telling her not to. Like, did someone die in Castle Town? Did Ralsei used to know someone and they just kicked the bucket? Ralsei didn’t seem to want to talk about it, but it was clearly bugging him. Ralsei loved to shut himself up the moment he brought up something that bugged him. Was he even going to tell her about how much he wanted to go to the festival if she didn’t bring it up? Was his room ever going to be fixed without Susie barging in?
Susie stole one last glance at Ralsei’s face. Even just walking, he was looking more and more miserable by the second. His head fell lower and lower, and his constant smile drifted lower.
Screw it.
“So- uh- I don’t think I’m really good at this whole… thing.” Great start, Susie. With the way Ralsei looked at her in sheer confusion, she was way too vague with that. So, she tried again. “What did you mean when you uh… said you lost someone earlier.”
She watched Ralsei go rigid for a brief second, the flame sputtering out. It came back a few seconds later, Ralsei’s palms once more being extended. However, his face betrayed nothing, a tired smile on his face. It was like the rigidness never even happened. “I… just misspoke earlier, Susie. I was… so concerned about the soul leaving. It… was only the soul that we lost. Nothing more.”
With her eyes narrowing, Susie kept walking forward. Still, when she decided to try again to ask, she made sure she watched his expression. She didn’t even get a word out, because it was very obvious that his hands were still shaking. Was he getting tired of holding out his magic? No. She caught his smile being gone again, but it came back the moment she turned her head towards him.
“Bullshit.” She turned away when Ralsei startled, at least trying not to get in his face too much. “Dude, it’s fine. You’ve been in your own head about whatever this is all day. We got time to walk and talk. S’not like there’s much down here other than just… going in a direction.” Susie was trying to be as nonchalant about the whole thing as she could, just in case she was wrong. But damn, Ralsei had been hiding things all day. She wouldn’t put it past him to mask something like this.
Ralsei let the fire drift in one hand, using his other to thumb his scarf. “It’s nothing to worry about, Susie. I… all of my worries today simply have to do with the soul being missing. We just… need to find them, and everything will be fine.”
“Them?” Susie looked down at Kris, who seemed even worse than before. “I mean, I guess the soul is like… who you are if I’m remembering that stuff right. So yeah, I guess we would be finding Kris.”
When she turned around, Ralsei was coughing into his own hand like something was stuck in his throat. “Ah- yes. That is what I meant, Susie.”
Well now that he was saying that, she suddenly felt a little more suspicious.
Things would be so much easier if people would just tell her things. It was grating. Even though she knew why Lancer threw them in prison, it still hurt her more than anything to be stabbed in the back by a friend. She was better because of it, but it still hurt to be treated like the monster she thought she was. Then there was Kris, who didn’t tell her where they were going in the Cyber World, and she found them nearly dead to that Spamton guy. Tenna had Toriel captive, and Susie hated yet another friend trying to pull the wool over her eyes.
Now, both Ralsei and Kris were dancing around something big. The soul was one thing, but…
Why… did battles change so much without the soul? Back when Susie lived amongst humans, she didn’t really pay attention to the finer details of how their souls worked. Honestly, it was too sciency and sounded more like crazed rambling and theorycrafting. It made for a good bedtime story though. She doubted that any of it would’ve helped in regards to a Dark World.
She knew nothing about the rules, but it felt like she was missing something.
Was Kris just throwing their soul out into fights then? Susie hadn’t questioned it. Everyone had weird ass ways of fighting in the Dark World. Throwing out a weird heart didn’t seem all that weird to her, especially with how much she… didn’t exactly get along with them back then. It sounded weird in her head. Why was Kris throwing out their actual soul into a fight, and why did all of them take damage when it did?
Ralsei grabbed Susie’s hand, stopping her in her tracks. When she glanced at him, he removed his hand immediately and put a finger up to his lips.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Susie tried to steady her breath. If Ralsei was telling her to be quiet, she was sure as hell gonna listen. Ralsei didn’t extinguish the flame, and Susie questioned if it would be a dead giveaway.
She had her answer when a screech echoed out from the darkness
One of those things was back. No wonder Ralsei didn’t put away the flame. Wasn’t the light supposed to ward these things off?
Both she and Ralsei took off in the opposite direction without another word. Susie’s shadow mantle whipped out behind her in response to the encroaching darkness. Immediately, Susie looked down and started shaking Kris. When they didn’t wake up, she resorted to yelling, “Kris! Hey! We need you up right now!”
Surely, they had one more second wind in them. They needed it right now. Worse, Susie could feel the darkness clawing at her from behind. It was like her magic was getting stifled the closer it got.
They were not going to be able to outrun this thing forever.
Ralsei was muttering something to himself. When Susie strained her ears to listen, it sounded something like “Everything’s fine. Everything’s fine. Nothing’s wrong.”
Forget this.
“We’ve gotta fight it, Ralsei,” she yelled, but did not stop running just in case Ralsei didn’t get the memo.
Ralsei’s flame looked like it would die out soon. His own body looked like it was beginning to flag a bit. Keeping a steady spell up must’ve been draining, and if he was feeling even half the magical drain that Susie was, this was hurting him. “We can’t! We couldn’t… even draw it into a fight!” He protested.
Susie heard the clinking of metal in her hands. Somehow, Kris was blinking up at her. They looked like absolute shit, sweat caking their entire face.
She’d take it. “Kris! We need you up right now! The- there’s another one of those dark-things.”
The human blinked, then immediately rolled out of Susie’s arms. A blackened shard materialized in their hand as they turned to face the encroaching darkness. Their breath was heavy, like every single one had to be forced out.
Susie turned with them, summoning her ToxicAxe. When she saw the flame still travelling, she yelled once more, “Ralsei! We’re doing this!”
The prince didn’t seem as eager, panting, “We- we can’t win this, Susie! We can’t get rid of them-”
Too late. White eyes poked out from the darkness, and Susie felt all of the magic in her body being shoved into the deepest depths of her own soul. Something screeched in the darkness. Another screech echoed out from somewhere else. Then, another came from just above.
There were more.
Kris wasted no time. On heavy feet, they lunged for the visible pair of white eyes. Their blade practically cleaved through one of them, sending its form sputtering back into the darkness.
Susie had half a mind to cheer, but it reformed just as quickly. Not enough.
She readied her own axe, thinking these things were weak. When the eyes got close enough, she embedded her own blade deep into the thing’s skull, expecting it to be scattered.
Her axe practically sunk into the overwhelming darkness. In a few moments, it was ejected right back out with only a small scratch left behind.
What the hell?
The shard Kris used was the one Susie had chipped off of the Knight’s blade. They’d fashioned it into a dagger of sorts, but when it slashed, it almost took on the form of a blackened sword itself. Her own weapon was useless in comparison.
Susie retreated, realizing that there was no time to waste. They hadn’t managed to properly engage in a fight with these spawns, so they might as well have been skirmishing. The only upside was that these things didn’t seem to have any attacks at range.
She ate her words the moment a swarm of white dots appeared in the darkness.
What did Alphys call the thing where cells split? Mitosis?
A weak burst of fire went over Susie’s head, causing many of the smaller creatures to shriek and wither slightly. The larger ones continued advancing. When Susie glanced back to see Ralsei, she was almost proud. If it wasn’t for the terrified look in his eyes that vanished into the darkness with their only light source gone, she might’ve even congratulated him then and there.
She saw sparks fly behind her while he tried to reignite the flame, but nothing came of it. There was no room to cast spells. It was like something had boxed her in, and wanted to press in on all sides until there was nothing left.
To her left, one of the spawn had been dealt a fatal blow. Kris wrenched their Blackshard out of the spawn they were skirmishing with, the creature stuttering and wavering in midair. It vanished into the very darkness that it came out of, dying.
For a second, Susie had the audacity to cheer.
Kris slumped over.
Shit. Shit.
They were out of energy again. Susie charged for them immediately, batting away smaller spawn with her axe. There were too many, and her weapons were barely doing anything. Worse, she could hear others shrieking behind her alongside the magical thwack that Ralsei’s scarf made.
They’d just been revived by her healing and some of their stronger items. If he went down again…
Thankfully, Ralsei was right behind her when she turned back to look. Susie saw another larger spawn floating closer to Kris. In the blink of an eye, she was there, standing over them with her axe stuck in between its eyes.
It hardly did anything, but she gritted her teeth to try to keep it from coming any closer. Unlike the flames that burned her back in their earlier fight, what the spawn did hurt in an entirely different way.
Different parts of her body started tingling before something replaced the sensation. It was less than nothing. It was as if something had taken away the hot pain of fire, and then continued to take away. She felt like she was being sapped, the own fire in her soul being plunged closer and closer to stagnation. The Shadow Mantle couldn’t completely protect her from this.
Loud shrieks rang through her eardrums. Multiple slams made the ground shake as she finally managed to dislodge herself from the spawn, breathing heavily. Her eyes darted around to try to make sense of what was changing. Kris was still on the ground, and Ralsei was at her side trying to figure out the same thing.
Every now and then, she’d spot a blur going through the spawn. Something large and metallic bashed them repeatedly, sending them careening into the darkness. Susie kept her axe ready, despite how much her hands were shaking. Whatever this was could be much worse.
The shrieks stopped. For a few, awful seconds, everything went quiet.
Susie could only hear breaths in the darkness from her friends next to her.
Every single twitch in the darkness put her on edge, like something would lunge-
“Whatcha doin’?”
Susie spun immediately, her axe crashing down just to the right of where that stupid old man stood.
When the hell did he get here?
Even now, he stood right next to Kris, leaning on that rickety old cane with a lantern in his other hand. It was providing light down here, despite everything.
Susie’s axe vanished into thin air, because she needed both hands to scrape through her hair in sheer exasperation. “What are we doing? What are you doing? There were just-”
She took a moment to scan the battlefield. None of the spawn remained.
There was just an aloof old man.
What the hell?
Ralsei immediately launched into explanation, “Um, we were just trying to find a way out of here! You… seem to have found a light. Where… did you come from?” He neglected to mention the whole soul thing. Susie couldn’t blame him. Since this was a Darkner, and with what happened with the last Darkner who wanted a soul, they should probably keep it a secret.
The old man looked at his lantern curiously. “Oh, this old thing?” Without a second thought, he handed it off to Ralsei. “You youngins look like you might need somethin’ like that. Though… a way out, you say?”
Scratching the back of her head, Susie admitted, “Yeah we’re uh… kinda stuck.” She decided to pick Kris back up in her arms. It looked like they were out again. She wished she could have that weapon they were using right about now, but it’d been unsummoned the moment they lost consciousness. “We gotta move fast.”
“Hmm!” The old man thought for a second, looking up at the windows above. “Well, humor me for a tick. If you were tryna find a way up so badly, then why’d ya jump down?”
As always, Ralsei had an answer ready. “It was out of necessity, sir.” He kept his hands clasped firmly on the lantern with a cheery smile on his face, but Susie could see the way his legs trembled. He seemed tired. It was a little scary how good Ralsei was at lying by not including certain details. It made sense, considering the… soul thing.
The old man stroked his beard, glancing away. “Course it was a necessity. Well, if you youngins aren’t gonna tell me, that’s fine by me. But, if ya came down here on your own, then what’s the rush in goin’ back up?”
“Uh, dude.” Susie gestured around in the darkness like there were still spawn after them. “We were kinda just under attack. We gotta get out of here.”
An uproarious laugh came out of the old man’s mouth. “Of course, of course. Although, that’s the funny thing about being at rock bottom, ain’t it?”
Susie arched a brow. “Huh?”
“Sometimes, you get so stuck in lookin’ for a way out, that ya don’t think about all those that might be down there with ya.” The old man leaned on his cane, looking past Susie into the darkness. “Might be a bit better if you could all lift each other out, instead of all tryin’ to climb your way out alone. Someone bein’ down here is better than no one. ”
Okay, Susie had no idea what the hell he was talking about. “Old man, listen, we can’t just ‘ power of friendship’ our way out of this one. We’re kinda actually stuck.”
“Maybe so.” Pointedly, he glanced at Ralsei. “But that light that’s been shining your path for so long has gone a little darker. Maybe, just maybe, it’s your turn to show the way.”
Ralsei had gone completely still. His smile froze on his face, but Susie could see him fiddling with the lantern in his hands. Anxiously, he replied, “I… I don’t know what you mean.”
“I’ve heard that one before,” the old man laughed, before pointing his cane towards the darkness behind the two of them. “Maybe that fellow over there would be better at explainin’.”
Immediately, Susie and Ralsei whirled around. There was someone vanishing into the darkness. Something grey was shambling about, but Susie didn’t immediately act. She turned back to the old man, trying to figure out what the hell that thing was.
He was gone again.
Ralsei seemed just as apprehensive, his breaths becoming shallow. Whether out of stress or exhaustion, Susie didn’t know anymore. He breathed out, “I… I should heal Kris. We… we might need our hands free, and I think they used too much energy-” Gold light began pooling at the edges of his fingertips as he spoke.
Susie saw bags under Ralsei’s eyes, and she immediately pushed his hands away. His face looked gaunt, and she’d seen enough. “Listen man, I can heal them. You look like you’re about to fall over.”
Immediately, Ralsei shook his head, trying again. “I need to do this, Susie. If I don’t, they’ll-”
“If you don’t trust my healing, fine!” She pulled Kris away, reaching into her pockets. Images of Kris’ tattered body with glass sticking out of them still seared her mind, and she didn’t trust her healing either. Still, it hurt that she had to be reminded every damn time. She fished out an old TVDinner, hoping it would be enough. When the magic coursed through Kris’ body, their breaths grew deeper. “See? You don’t have to strain yourself, dude. I can help. ”
The golden magic in Ralsei’s hand flickered. It came to a stop, and a breath he’d been holding finally came loose into the air. He looked like he may collapse at any moment. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, “I just don’t want to see any of you hurt. You- you’re still hurt too-”
This time, Susie took an old CDBagel out of the inventory and ate it in one bite before Ralsei could do anything. She shook her head at him. “I don’t like seeing you hurt either, stupid. So, I’m not gonna let you burn yourself out.” When was the last time Ralsei had made an actually selfish choice? He hid stuff from her all the time, sure, but when had he done something kind for himself?
Seeing the way he wilted under her gaze, she knew that needed to change. When they solved all of this shit, she was gonna fix this.
Before they could argue further, Kris shifted again. Susie thought she heard them swear under their breath. Before they could roll out of her arms, she decided to put a stop to that this time. “Oh hell no. You both are going to take a god damn break while we go after this weirdo.”
The thing in the distance was still at the edge of her vision. It wasn’t retreating in the darkness, but she thought it might be looking at them.
Kris tilted their head, summoning their Blackshard in silent question.
Susie huffed, “If we need to fight, I’ll just throw you or something, stupid.”
That seemed good enough for them. Instead of keeping her hands occupied though, they decided to move. In a surprising act of dexterity for someone who looked like a zombie, they leapt over her shoulders, deciding to instead cling to her back.
Yeah, this was probably better.
When they shot her a thumbs-up over her shoulder, Susie nodded and summoned her axe. She took a quick glance back at Ralsei, who looked just as tired. If she could, she would carry both of them on her back. However, she really doubted that Ralsei would accept that right about now.
It didn’t matter. At least, he could walk. If he couldn’t walk, she’d just carry both of these idiots herself.
Ralsei nodded to her, like he, too, was ready to go.
She didn’t know what she was thinking, advancing towards an odd creature like this. Maybe the old man spurred her into action. They hadn’t seen a damn thing down here other than paper, the old man himself, and those spawn things that nearly killed them. This was something new, and maybe the old man had a point. They needed that soul before they could leave.
When Susie drew closer, she realized that it wasn’t just the lighting making this thing look pale. No… this Darkner? Monster? Looked exactly like that weird yellow and blue bird who obsessed over the upstairs library books. Except… all of its colors had been drained. No matter what way she looked at it, it looked like it was grinning at her.
Susie kept her axe low, trying to appear less threatening. On her back, she could feel Kris’ muscles tensing up. She stayed on guard anyway. “Who the hell are you?” She questioned, staying ready in case it tried anything funny.
Almost like it did not expect to be addressed, the being’s head- or was that an upper jaw- tilted unnaturally towards them, craning their way. In a voice that sounded like someone sucking in a breath while exhaling another at the same time, it responded, “HAVE SOME RESPECT AND DON’T-” Its voice cut out unnaturally, jumping to a hushed whisper, “-Proceed.”
Respect? This was a church. That kind of made sense. The way it spoke though made Susie’s soul tremble. She’d heard Darkners talk in weird ways before, but that voice sounded unnatural. The whisper somehow made her grip on the axe grow tighter.
Next to her, Ralsei had gone still. His own hands were shaking again, and his scarf twitched unnaturally like he was deciding on whether or not to strike the being and run.
Susie shook her head, steadying herself and trying to keep her pulse under control. “Proceed to what? We- we’re looking for something. Do you-”
Once again, the voice returned to its strangled half-inhale half-exhale. “IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO HAVE MYSTERIES NOWADAYS.” Its voice switched to something higher pitched, but that same grating exhale. “BECAUSE OF NOS… Y PEOPLE LIKE YOU.”
Ralsei spoke next, forcing something out despite his voice no longer being able to stay calm. “I- we’re sorry. We were just looking for-”
Its head craned unnaturally towards Ralsei, like it was surprised once more that Ralsei could see it. Its voice now sounded fragmented, like the word it spoke came out with great effort. “CONNECTED?” It tried again, words coming out with clarity. “ARE WE CONNECTED?” Its voice shifted to something grating. Susie recognized it as Spamton’s tone of voice. “[HEAVEN], ARE YOU WATCHING?”
“I-” Ralsei blinked, like he’d just realized something. “Yes! Well, no. That’s the problem. They’re not connected. It’s… We need to… find them. Do you know where they are?”
Susie wasn’t parsing any of the conversation between the two of them. The greyish creature seemed to be talking like Spamton did. Sometimes, Spamton would parrot something weird in the middle of sentences. It was like this creature could only repeat phrases.
It acknowledged Ralsei’s question. However, its head turned towards Kris. The words suddenly thrust themselves into Susie’s head, despite the creature’s mouth not moving. “(You aren’t ready for the responsibility.)”
Susie blinked, and the creature was gone. Right next to her, Ralsei yelled, stumbling forward into the darkness. He called out, “Wait! Please! I’m sorry!” He held out the lantern, trying to find where it had gone. “We need them back! I’ll- how can I prove that-”
Before he could get any worse, Susie put a hand on his shoulder. “Ralsei, it’s just trying to mess with us.” But, there was that weird thing Ralsei refused to talk about again. Two times was weird now. Who were they? Was Ralsei talking about the soul and Kris again?
Ralsei didn’t answer. He pointed into the darkness. “I think I see another one. We have to catch it. Quick!” He grabbed Susie’s hand, trying to pull her forward but detaching when she planted her feet.
Susie swore to herself, chasing after him. Why was he acting so weird? He never liked leading! “Ralsei! Slow the hell down!” It was shocking how fast he could move when he started floating. That was another thing he’d never done before, and she was wondering just how much magic he actually had access to. “We can’t split up-”
However, Ralsei had already come to a stop. His eyes were transfixed on another grey figure before them. This one was short, with a large head and even larger eyes staring them down. It did not seem as eager to smile as the other, but it still made Susie’s blood run cold all the same.
Before Susie even had a chance to talk to Ralsei, he was already trying to appeal to the grey being. “Please. We need to find them. If they’re down here, and if you know where they are, then-”
The head of the grey person swiveled towards Ralsei. Its voice came out as a higher pitched, but soft voice. It almost sounded like a younger Ralsei. “What? Oh, yeah, I remember.”
Kris tensed on Susie’s shoulders.
The head snapped to just over Susie’s shoulder where Kris’ head was positioned. Its mouth did not move while it spoke. “I should have laughed it off, like you did…”
The Blackshard was in Kris’ hand. Even though they couldn’t stand on their own two feet, Susie knew that they wished they could. In response, she held out her own axe, the grey being’s eyes once more flicking down to her. “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” she growled, “But we need that soul. If you know where it is, then stop the cryptic bullshit or go away .”
A crackle of static came through just behind Susie. From Kris’ pocket, words came through their phone receiver.
“Come join the fun.”
She blinked, and it was gone again. Sweat dripped down her face while she glanced around, seeing nothing but darkness everywhere. Muttering to herself, she asked, “What the hell is going on?”
Ralsei didn’t answer, tugging on his scarf so hard that it might come off.
The phone continued crackling for a bit. Garbage noise echoed out from its receiver before the sound finally sputtered out.
Something snapped.
That was enough. How many times did she have to say to be honest with her? After all of this, he was still hiding something.
Susie turned to him, not being able to hide a snarl, “You’re doing it again. You’re not telling me what’s wrong.”
“I- There’s nothing wrong, Susie.” He tried to put on that same, cheery smile as always. Susie had seen it used against the old man already, and knew better than to see it as anything more than a mask. “I’m just rattled, is all. There’s nothing wrong.”
How could he still say that? What was so important to hide from her that Ralsei would keep doing this? Who were “they”? “There’s a stupid amount wrong here, dude.” She gestured around into the darkness. “There’s weird Darkners everywhere. We can’t find a way out. There’s an old man that keeps vanishing. Kris is about to pass out again. Worst of all, you won’t tell me a damn thing.”
Ralsei’s practiced smile started breaking. Something panicked rose in his eyes, and that’s when Susie knew that she was onto something. Still, he tried to salvage it. “I-I’ve been trying, Susie. But some things- I can’t-”
“Can’t? Why the hell not?” Was someone… forcing him not to? Was it something about her that made him unable to? Was it more of this prophecy bullshit that she couldn’t make heads or tails of? All she ever wanted to do was help. All she ever wanted was to keep her friends. She wanted day after day to be the same as the last, now that she finally had something good.
But it was all falling apart so fast and without any warning.
“Because it-” His claws practically dug into his scarf now, some of the threads coming loose. It was hard to tell with the low-light, but she thought she saw something glistening in his eyes. “Because it hurts, Susie. It’s unimportant. I-It’s something… that is my burden to bear. And… if anyone is going to hurt…” That smile came back. That smile that tried to hide what was happening in his head rose again. “Let it… just be me, okay?”
But, Susie could see how many threads of his scarf he’d just torn to pieces. She remembered his room, and the way he didn’t seem to have a problem with sleeping on the floor. She remembered every time he reached out to try and heal her, knowing that it was going to draw on his energy and probably burn him into nothing but ashes.
“No.”
It came out as a growl, as she advanced on Ralsei. Her claws hooked into his robes, pulling him slightly off of his feet. His eyes went wide, the tears he was trying to hold back falling freely. She stared through his broken glasses, making sure that he heard her for the last time. “You said you hated seeing me hurt. Well guess what, dumbass, I hate seeing you hurting too. Every time you do this to yourself, it makes me wanna just…”
What could she do?
Did someone make him like this?
Why did he think he had to be this way?
“No one’s getting thrown away. How many times do I have to say that?” She grabbed Kris’ hand from over her shoulder, taking Ralsei’s own spare hand and clasping them together in her own. “I’m not letting a single one of you get hurt on your own. You might think you have to, but you don’t. Kris and I aren’t gonna let you do this. You don’t… have to do it all alone.”
How could someone like him carry this alone? How could someone like him think he deserved to be hurt? Susie couldn’t help but imagine herself in a graveyard, sobbing to herself after yet another move that’d gone wrong. After not being allowed to play piano, after people only getting close to her as a joke, she thought she did something to deserve it too. Even now, with Kris on her back, someone who she’d bullied relentlessly, she deserved it hundreds of times over.
But Ralsei was the kindest person she knew, and if he was torturing himself to try to make her hurt less…
“So just…” There was nothing left to say. What could she even say? She thought she was getting better at it… but…
Ralsei’s smile was gone. He was shaking too much.
Without a second thought, she’d taken Kris off of her shoulders. In the largest, bone-crushing hug she’d ever given, she wrapped them both up, refusing to let either of them go until they heard her correctly. “We’re done doing this shit alone, got it? You don’t have to anymore .”
Kris turned their head away from her. Her eyes were too focused on Ralsei to notice.
Something finally broke through. Ralsei shattered, a horrible sniffle coming out of his nose. He buried his head in the hug, trying to muffle the next words that finally fell out of his mouth. “They’re gone. Th-they’re gone and they’re never coming back.”
Susie hugged him tighter, not saying a word.
He kept going, everything spilling out all at once. “I-I don’t even know if we were friends. I don’t even know if they liked me. I just hoped… I just hoped that they… that they would stay for our sakes. But they’re… they’re just gone…”
Susie couldn’t help but wonder if he would answer now. “Who’s gone?”
He muttered a name under his breath. Even though Susie couldn’t hear it clearly, a surge of something came with it. A name had been called. Somehow, she remembered that name. It was accompanied by a voice standing right beside her as she clashed with the Knight. That voice echoed through her mind, like she was supposed to understand something.
Ralsei kept muttering, “The Angel is gone. They’re gone. The prophecy changed and I asked for it to change and it’s all my fault-”
The Angel… That was the thing that Ralsei said they were going to banish. Suddenly, that shattered image of the Deltarune put a pit in her stomach. She didn’t go to church at all, except… wasn’t the Angel a big religious figure?
It… was gone?
“Weren’t we… supposed to banish it?” Susie didn’t remember ever doing anything that… would banish something like that. She didn’t even know what it was. But the way Ralsei was rambling made it sound like-
Ralsei shook his head. “Not yet. Not while we’re still- Not while you all are still in danger. We didn’t-” He glanced up at her, eyes trembling through the broken lens of his glasses. “We didn’t banish them Susie. They’re just gone. They’re gone and it’s all my fault.”
Kris removed themself from the hug. She didn’t stop them. They weren’t the touchy-feely kind of person, it seemed. They stood up, going a few paces away before staring out into the darkness.
But, Ralsei needed this right now. He was clinging to her like a lifeline, so she didn’t let up either. One thing confused her. “Why… do you think this is your fault?”
“There was so much you didn’t see. There was so much I didn’t want to happen.” Without the ability to wring out his scarf, Ralsei’s claws were digging into her jacket. “The prophecy was cruel. It was so cruel to all of you. I just- I-I hoped-” He took a steadying breath. “I hoped there was more than one ending… and now… there is.”
The shattered Deltarune.
A prophecy ruined.
She almost wanted to ask what it was, but it didn’t matter anymore. What mattered was her friend. Susie took off his glasses, trying to wipe the tears off of his face with her thumb. “It’s not your fault for wanting something better.” She refused to believe it. “Besides, you said the prophecy wasn’t telling us anything anymore, right?”
Shakily, Ralsei shook his head. “There’s no more story to tell, because… because the ending…”
“I didn’t see any words,” she reasoned, refusing to let him go down that spiral again, “It can’t tell us what to do now. So, here’s what’s gonna happen.” She put his glasses back on his face, picking him up and placing him back on his own two feet. “We’re gonna find that soul. We’re gonna get out of here. We’re gonna kick the knight’s ass. Then, Kris and I are going to fix your damn room in Castle Town. Got it?” They would all need something normal after this. They needed it.
Despite everything he’d said, and despite the tears in his eyes, Ralsei looked her in the eyes and nodded. It was like he actually believed her this time. Still, he brought up his free hand to wipe under his glasses, apologizing, “I’m sorry, Susie. I usually don’t… cry this often. I promise.”
“Yeah yeah.” She waved it off, letting him go. “I get it. I was a wreck that one day with Toriel. You wouldn’t believe how embarrassing it was. You cry one time and suddenly it’s all waterworks. It’s stupid.”
Ralsei made a watery laugh. At least, he was genuinely smiling again. There was no more of that weird, stilted smile that he used to hide. This one was real.
Hopefully, Kris had heard it too. They better have. If she had to drill this into their head again, she might actually lose it next time. Where… was Kris?
She glanced around for a bit, unable to see much in the darkness. When she caught sight of blue at the end of the lantern’s light, she immediately gestured for Ralsei to follow. They probably shouldn’t split up with Kris all that much considering their limited stamina.
Still, Ralsei had more to say. In a hushed whisper, he admitted, “Susie, I… I think there’s one more thing you should know.”
“Sure, what is i-” She cut herself off. Another one of those grey creatures was talking to Kris. Did they find another one? As soon as she saw, her axe was in hand again. These things were relentless.
Ralsei didn’t get a chance to tell her what he wanted. His attention was rapt on the scene before them.
Despite Kris not talking, it appeared that the two had been having a conversation of some kind. When Susie tried to look at the creature closely, she realized that… she almost recognized this one. Was that… MK?
No, that couldn’t be MK. They were far too small, and… MK didn’t… talk like that.
“Then what are you looking for?”
The words came out cold, pressing into Susie’s head when she paid attention. They were eavesdropping later in the conversation. These words sounded calculated, like someone eager to reach a conclusion.
Kris had their Blackshard in hand, gripping it tightly.
“Interesting. You want to go back. You want to go back to-” The voice shifted, sounding like a raspy, shattered whisper- “OUR BEAUTIFUL CONNECTION-” -before once more pressing in, calculating. “-you destroyed.”
Susie hated that voice. Despite this creature looking way too much like a kid, she stepped forward next to Kris, axe gripped tightly. “Kris didn’t do shit.” She snarled, not seeing the way Kris’ head turned away. “Outta the way. We got things to do.”
Unlike the other grey beings, this one did not regard her at all. Its hollow eyes remained focused on Kris, never leaving. “It was you who pushed everything to its edge. It was you who led the world to its destruction. But you cannot accept it.”
Ralsei remained back, but Susie could see him shrink into his scarf out of the corner of her eye, despite the creature not talking to him. These things were weird. She didn’t understand what they meant.
The creature smiled. In words that sounded soft and reassuring, they said, “Don’t forget,” before shifting back to calculating once more. “Only the fearless may proceed. Brave ones, foolish ones, both walk not the middle road.”
Susie blinked, and it was gone again. The moment it vanished into thin air, Kris’ hand trembled. Their Blackshard fell to the ground, and their legs were already trembling.
Before they had time to protest, she crouched down in front of them, facing away. “Don’t let 'em get to you. Now hop on, before I have to catch you again.”
Kris hesitated for a bit, but they did finally leap on.
What part of the conversation had she missed? Susie didn’t hear the creature say anything else, but she also didn’t hear Kris say a word. Worse, she couldn’t make heads or tails of what they were trying to get across. Yet, on her back, Kris was shaking.
All of these creatures were just trying to get in their head.
She moved on, completely unaware of the turmoil going on in Kris’ head. After all, she had no reason to be threatened by walking the middle road. She never would compromise her friends for anything.
Unbeknownst to Susie, Kris walked the middle road, marching grimly towards fate.
Still, she walked in the direction that grey figure was. They seemed to be trying to deter them somewhat. The first one really didn’t want them proceeding, so there really was no other option. Besides, no one else was down here right now. There was nothing else to really follow.
Worse, Susie couldn’t see another one. Oh well, she might as well talk a little more. “What are the chances they’re leading us away from wherever the soul is?”
Ralsei didn’t seem all too convinced that this was a good path to follow either. He wondered, “They… didn’t seem too keen on us finding it.”
“Or your friend,” Susie offhandedly mentioned, but it sounded wrong on the tip of her tongue.
Quickly, Ralsei stole a glance at Kris before looking back at her. “I- Susie- do you not realize-”
Shit. Another one. They were getting more frequent now. Had it not been for the extended hand reaching out of the darkness, she might’ve not seen it on time. The weird object in their hand looked like a face, which only made Susie scrunch her face up even more.
It was official. She hated it down here.
Before anyone could deter the grey creature, Ralsei stepped in. “Please, don’t leave this time. We- we need your help.”
The hand-face twitched to Ralsei. It was listening, not speaking.
This time, Kris spoke up first. Their voice came out as a whisper, nothing like the weird commanding presence Susie used to feel with them around. It was weak, shaky, undoubtedly because they were so tired. “Need soul. I’m its vessel.”
Finally, something different happened. Both the main body of this creature and the face held in a hand turned to Kris.
The head in the hand laughed. It sounded like the Knight’s laughter, all surrounding and taunting without a care in the world. Meanwhile, the main body spoke, “You laugh, and keep laughing. It’s SO funny, you can’t stop. Tears run down your face.”
Both beings stopped, four eyes trained on Kris.
“...what? You didn’t do that?”
Kris tightened their jaw, looking away.
The creatures kept talking to them in a familiar way, and Kris never fought back against them. It sent a chill down Susie’s spine, no matter how often she wanted to lob an attack at one of them.
Even now, she was missing something very important.
The head turned to her. The face in the palm of the creature’s hand smiled.
Susie snarled, “What? Gonna try to make fun of me too?”
But the face didn’t laugh at her. Instead, it grinned even wider. Words, coherent ones, began to spill out of its mouth.
“YOU ARE CURIOUS.”
It was a statement, but a weird one to make all the same. She hadn’t asked this thing a question, but it zeroed in on her regardless. Ralsei flinched when it spoke, and Kris’ grip on her shoulders tightened.
Susie arched a brow, lowering her axe. “Uh, yeah? Duh? I’m kinda curious as to where this soul is so that I can get the hell out of here. What’s new?”
“YOU KEEP MAKING…” The creature became more malleable. Its arm grew longer, the main body no longer speaking. “INQUIRIES.”
“Ralsei asked you the question, dumbass. Not me.” She wasn’t putting up with this thing’s attempts to intimidate her. It already spooked Kris and Ralsei, but she had enough of this. The elongated arm was a little creepy, but these things never touched them. They were probably scared or something dumb like that.
“YOU MISUNDERSTAND.” It was a direct response, unlike the previous responses from the grey creatures. The head’s empty eyes never left her. “YOU SEEK KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THIS WORLD. YOU SEEK KNOWLEDGE ABOUT YOUR FRIENDS.”
Susie dispelled her axe, crossing her arms. “Yeah, uh, it’s called ‘checking in’. Ever heard of it?”
“IS THERE PERHAPS.”
“ONE.”
“YOU DID NOT KNOW TO INQUIRE ABOUT?”
Something pulled at the back of Susie’s head. Something was asking for her attention. But, she didn’t think she’d forgotten anyone. Every time Kris seemed down, she tried to talk to them. Sometimes they didn’t answer, but they usually did when things came down to it. After that weird salesman attacked them, they practically yelled their discomfort when she asked. Ralsei had just broken down into her arms, so she definitely wasn’t forgetting about him.
That left her, and she wasn’t entirely convinced that the grey creature was giving her a lecture on self-care.
Why did it feel like something was missing?
“I don’t get it,” she muttered.
The arm receded. The all-encompassing voice faded into the darkness, like it was never there. Susie half expected to blink, only to find the creature gone. However, it lingered for a moment longer. The main body spoke once more, leaving her with one final message: “But… Maybe, with what little power you have… You can SAVE something else.”
The sound of battle rang out somewhere behind them.
Susie didn’t know what was fighting, but she could hear the shrieks of spawn in the distance. Someone was fighting.
All three of them whirled around to see what it was. The darkness was too thick to make anything out, but…
What did the old man say? Someone being down here was better than no one?
Susie didn’t even check to see if the grey figure was gone. They always vanished the moment she turned around. “Ralsei! We gotta go!” She yelled behind her, just to make sure he wasn’t hesitating.
Thankfully, he was already floating beside her, lantern in hand. Susie kept Kris secure on her back, running as fast as she possibly could. If someone was in danger, then she needed to get there fast. She didn’t know what they could do against those spawn, but someone being down here was better than no one, right?
For the first time since coming down here, Susie saw color on the floor.
Ralsei’s lantern shined light on the ground that was changing rapidly. Susie’s boots squelched in mud. For the first time, they were walking on something different. The walls and floors looked blue, and the walls themselves consisted of packed mud that stretched up decently far.
The walls rose up further while they ran. Maybe that would be a way to get out of here. She didn’t want to climb them yet with the sounds of a fight still going down the corridor. At one point, she thought she caught another grey figure in the corner of her eye. Ralsei even moved the lantern to catch it more clearly. Thankfully, it was just a statue, but…
Why the hell was it raining down here?
It was only raining on that one, singular statue.
That didn’t matter. Susie cursed when she saw a hole in the middle of the next room, but Ralsei seemed to take note of it as well. Thankfully, the sounds of battle were coming from a passageway to her right. Hopefully, they wouldn’t have to go even lower in this stupid place.
When she finally looked down the hall, her heart stopped. Before Ralsei could fly any further, she tackled him back around the corner, putting a hand over his mouth to stifle any protests. They couldn’t be heard right now.
Hopefully, the Knight hadn’t heard them.
Susie recognized that armor immediately, when she spotted it further down the hallway. Even now, the air drifting past the corner they were hiding behind rippled. The sounds of battle they were following weren’t from anyone good. The Knight had come down here after them.
Quickly, Susie put a finger over her lips. Even though he was wide-eyed from her sudden tackle, Ralsei immediately understood. He draped his scarf over the lantern, trying to hide their position in the darkness.
When did the Knight get down here? Why was it even down here in the first place? Susie thought that it was doing something with the Dark Fountain, or trying to find Toriel-
They’d all completely forgotten about why they came here. All of them had been wandering around in the darkness for too long. What if the Knight had already wrapped up what it was doing with Toriel?
Was it here for them now?
Susie glanced around the corner, trying to spot what was going on. Multiple pairs of white eyes stood out in the darkness, but the rest was a blur. The ripple of the Knight’s armor curved through the darkness, like it was fast in motion. Multiple shrieks ran out, and Susie swore she saw eyes vanish into the darkness.
It… was attacking those spawn. It looked like the spawn were loyal to no one.
The room went silent. Susie watched the Knight turn away, looking further into the room that she couldn’t quite make out. It didn’t seem to notice the three of them. Hopefully, Kris’ armor wouldn’t make any noise. Kris was shaking on her back, so she might have to put them down soon. It was probably getting hard to hang on.
The Knight slashed its sword, sending a gash through the wall just past it. A gash remained for a few moments, blazing red and hot. After it cooled, the Knight slashed again. This time, it did not wait, slicing twice more.
Nothing happened. The wall did not budge. Was there something… beyond it?
Susie wanted nothing more than to summon her axe right now. If all three of them were up, then this would be the perfect time for a sneak attack. It’d be dirty, but the Knight loved playing even dirtier. But… Kris was hurt. Ralsei was already drained of magic. None of them had their usual magical abilities again.
Without the soul, would they even have been able to win the first time…?
The Knight turned into a blur, hacking and slashing at the wall in swift motions. No matter how much it struck the mud, it always reformed a few moments after, like the very world in this area refused to change. The darkness rippled further and further out, making Susie hide herself a little more behind the wall. When her side bumped into Ralsei, she could feel him trembling.
The attacks ceased.
When Susie poked her head back out, something stared back.
Susie cursed under her breath, a black dagger flying just past her head when she pulled away. Immediately, her axe was in hand.
Darkness rippled past her. In the form of a small ball, the Knight sped by, reforming in the center of the small room they were in. There was no room to dodge, and Susie was being weighed down by Kris.
Screw this. It’d already lost to her once before. Maybe she could… maybe she could hold it off. Maybe she could bluff. Yeah, she just couldn’t… be worried.
The Knight tilted its head at her quizzically, making no move to attack.
Susie took a step forward, keeping her grip on her axe strong. “Nowhere to run in here, idiot.” She grinned, trying not to let her hands shake. “What? Not gonna say anything again? Too scared things’ll end up like last time?”
The weird light on its head bobbed around, staring down the corridor it had just come from. Whatever was down there, it wanted it. Its eye twitched back towards Susie, weighing the options before it.
At the very least, she had it second guessing. That was good. “You’re not so sure, huh? We beat you last time when you were at your best. What makes you think you’re gonna win after fighting those spawn for so long?”
From Susie’s shoulders, Kris coughed.
The Knight’s gaze turned at them, the entire ploy ruined. Now, it knew that Kris was weak. They’d barely managed to scrape by with all three of them fighting together, and that was with whatever this soul-magic was. Now that it knew Kris was down, it was going to-
Without a moment’s hesitation, the Knight turned into that strange ball form. It flew off into the darkness without even so much as a taunt.
…Maybe it really didn’t want to fight.
Ralsei uncovered the lantern, releasing a breath that he’d been holding for too long. When Susie saw him again, it looked like he’d nearly rubbed one of his ears raw out of stress. He shakily asked, “Wh… why did it run?”
Susie’s hands were trembling. The memory of a sudden slash hitting her across the chest didn’t let her put her axe away just yet. Instead of being able to let her guard down, she wondered if the Knight was just going to come back and hit her. They were all far too out in the open. While the walls helped, the Knight just… it was too fast… With Kris hurting, and with Ralsei drained of magic, was there even a chance that they could survive if it came back? Last time she let her guard down, it hit her instantly.
She waited and listened.
No attack came.
When Susie was finally certain that nobody was coming back, she let her axe fade away. A sharp exhale came out of her nose, and she put a cheeky grin on. “It’s because I’m awesome.”
From over her shoulder, Kris gave her a thumbs-up.
That made her feel a little better. She shouldn’t be this nervous. It was her that managed to chip the Knight’s sword. Her Rude Busters were cutting through that thing’s defenses the entire fight…
It’s just…
Even when she felt confident, she still had rippling shadows attached to her back. Only she had the Shadow Mantle on. During that fight, she watched Kris and Ralsei get hurt over and over again, and she could do nothing about it. Now, both of them were even less protected than before.
She might’ve been able to live. She didn’t know if the other two could.
There was no use thinking about it now.
Already, Ralsei was poking his lantern down the path the Knight had tried to go down. Whatever was down here, the Knight wanted it badly. They… should probably at least check what it was. This was the most detailed and off area that they’d seen down here in the darkness.
Susie could still see the church windows somewhere up above. This muddy area didn’t seem like much of anything that would belong in a church. Absentmindedly, she asked to Ralsei, “What… is this place supposed to be?”
“I’m not quite sure.” He lifted the lantern up to the wall that the Knight was attacking. All of the gashes had long vanished, but he seemed to be interested in something else. “I don’t… actually think this is meant to be part of the Dark World… Something about it seems familiar though.”
Well, Susie thought that this area looked out of place, but she’d just learned yesterday that Darkners were objects in the Light World. She didn’t expect Ralsei to immediately agree with her on the subject. If even she could tell something was wrong, then things were very messed up.
Kris had enough energy to slide off of her shoulders again. When they did, they couldn’t exactly stand on their own two feet this time. They put a gauntleted hand up to the wall for support, breathing heavily.
Before they could run off again, Susie blocked the way down the corridor. “You don’t have to get off, you know. I can carry you for longer if you’re gonna pant like that.”
One red eye watched Susie from under their hair. They took the time to lean firmly against the wall, showing that they did not intend to go anywhere.
Fine. Grabbing onto her was probably more taxing than just leaning anyway.
“Um, Susie? Kris?” Ralsei called, shining a lantern on what looked to be glowing words carved into stone. “So, I think… I think we need to get past this wall.”
Susie glanced around the larger room that Ralsei was currently surveying, seeing a piano on the opposite side. Ugh, she wouldn’t be touching that thing. She wasn’t good at it. “What makes you say that?” Nothing about this wall seemed particularly interesting. The Knight definitely wanted to get in, but Susie didn’t get how Ralsei could just tell.
Ralsei didn’t immediately answer. He walked along the wall, grazing his hand along the layers of mud. Focusing, he shut his eyes, like he was putting all of his might into trying to figure something out. “I think…”
He turned to her, eyes wide through broken glasses. A desperation appeared on his face that Susie had never seen before. “I think they’re in there.”
Notes:
Oh hi Undertale themes where did you come from?
A lot of you correctly pointed out that Gaster is probably a weeeee bit bent out of shape from what happened. It seems that this is VERY MUCH the case. It was very fun to try to splice together text from UTDR to make complete thoughts with the goners. Their speech in canon is usually cryptic, but because they're one layer disconnected from where they SHOULD be, I wanted to make their means of communication... very difficult. No FUN Values here to bring them forward. This is alllll natural. (This is also where I think I decided that only doing a fic of Direct and Predictable Consequences wasn't enough, and I wanted to get freaky with it).
And oughghghgh writing Susie was actually wayyy more difficult than I thought. I try to make my narration language a LIIIITTLE different per character, and it varies in consistency with how much I lean into it, because sometimes I just gotta portray an idea. Susie is a difficult character where she's absolutely brash, but she is unabashedly caring of the people closest to her. Having a Susie-centric chapter is very fun in that regard.
Also I'm fully in camp "I hope Ralsei learns defensive magic" because his whole thing is taking blows for others despite being the weakest in the party. I think it could be an interesting evolution of his character, especially with how hard the game is getting.
Some of you may recognize what the last area is. Unsure how the descriptions will work, because I stopped the chapter at a point where the descriptions would continue a little. Maybe it will become clearer next chapter.
Thank yall for the support on last chapter. 2 to go!
Chapter 3: A Concert Unintended for You
Summary:
One wall is broken. Another wall is impenetrable. Questions are slowly answered, and more mistakes are made.
Notes:
Hi! First of all, yes, you read that right, the chapter counter has increased to 5. This is not a mistake. I will explain in the end notes.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Kris’ eyelids were shutting. Distantly down the hall, they could hear Susie and Ralsei arguing about the soul being behind that wall. They didn’t voice it, but they already knew that there was nowhere else it could be. If the Knight was already down here looking for it, then it had to be beyond that wall. The Knight already identified the problem, and was attempting to solve it before their arrival.
At least Kris had managed to signal the Knight before a fight broke out. It’d all be handled soon. When Kris had that soul back, the plan would just… go back to normal.
They didn’t feel comforted by the thought.
It was hard to look Susie in the eye now. Thankfully, they didn’t have to for most of their journey. But, when she hugged both them and Ralsei…
Kris thought they didn’t deserve it.
Doing things alone was what got Kris into this situation in the first place. Susie was so certain that they didn’t have to anymore. Even when Ralsei had been omitting details from her constantly, she still forgave him. In the same breath she forgave him, she told Kris that none of them had to do things alone anymore.
Kris didn’t know how to keep this up. Even though they had… plans with other people, they’d never been more alone. They were a cage bound to a promise, and they wanted nothing more than to tell Susie everything. They wanted nothing more than to just be friends with Susie and Ralsei again.
But… Kris promised.
They made a promise long before they became friends with Susie and Ralsei.
Kris just wanted to make Susie’s belief in them worth something. She’d be so disappointed if she knew.
Taking a deep breath, Kris walked a little bit down the corridor. They didn’t want to listen to their friends’ voices. Ever since coming down here, they felt worse and worse. Seeing Susie being attacked by those spawn only made the guilt worse.
They were down here, because of that soul that Kris lost.
Some part of them was angry. Why didn’t the soul just stay put? It always did things like this. Whenever Kris tried to put it somewhere secure, it always tried to escape. It became the worst at Noelle’s house. They should’ve known that it would make its escape at some point, but they thought…
They thought they were a cage. What good was a cage with the door open?
Whenever they considered why the soul left, they stamped the thought out. The soul had a use. The soul was integral to the Knight’s plan. If they thought too hard about what the soul was actually like, then they might have to confront an ugly truth. They chose to not think about it, even when the soul seemed to pause to consider what to say. They chose not to give it any consideration, even when the soul tried to help their friends. It was just going to use them. That had to be all it was.
Kris couldn’t… shouldn’t attempt to rationalize its behavior. They overstepped once, helping it in a quiz show. Kris didn’t know why they did it, only that maybe they started thinking of it as the Angel that Ralsei thought it was instead of the tool they knew it as.
They would never make that mistake again. When unbridled rage from the soul turned on Kris right before the Knight appeared, they knew that they could never slip up again. It had to be contained. It had to be stifled. That was why the Knight made Kris kneel, after all.
The soul needed to feel-
Kris didn’t think they should use the word “hopeless” for this.
The soul needed to know its choices did not matter.
Kris found themself standing in that room with the odd statue, where rain mysteriously came from somewhere higher up. Something about the statue made them feel pity for it. What a sad fate, to be left in the one place where it was raining. Its horns looked brittle. Its face hadn’t been etched, hidden under a hood, like it needed to bear this burden.
For a moment, Kris shut their eyes and listened to the rain. They could not bring themself to be surprised when a voice echoed out behind them.
“Truthfully…”
Kris flinched. It was their dad’s voice this time. He sounded so weary, but they knew better than to turn around. It wasn’t him. Even now, they could feel the presence of one of those grey figures. Somehow, they knew that they didn’t want to look this time.
“I do not want power.”
Kris didn’t know who was trying to speak through these creatures. Sometimes, they used their brother’s voice. Sometimes, they pressed into their mind to speak directly. Words that were never spoken before spilled out of their mouths with a certainty that unnerved Kris.
“I do not want to hurt anyone.”
One of them accused Kris of being at fault. The soul’s departure was their fault, it said. The world being pushed to its end was their doing. Was it the soul trying to speak to them? They didn’t know. Was it someone trying to tell them what had happened? They couldn’t know.
“I just wanted everyone to have hope…”
They hated their dad’s voice being used. Why did he sound so sad? Why did he sound so raspy? What…
What was Kris hearing?
“I cannot take this any longer.”
It felt like defeat. It sounded like someone giving up. Kris’ hands balled into fists. They didn’t want to turn around. If they turned around, they would be accused once more. If they turned to look, they might see the soul there. If they looked directly upon what was speaking, they might see their dad.
The voice shifted to a chorus, like multiple people crying out in joy. “You should be smiling, too.”
No, they shouldn’t. How could Kris continue smiling now? Were they being punished? They didn’t understand the thing that was speaking to them. They didn’t know if they should.
“Aren’t you excited?”
Kris wanted every day to last longer and longer. They hoped that they could delay the inevitable conclusion of their plan. Every hour spent with Susie was an hour closer to her hating them forever. Would… there even be anything left to hate after they have been used up?
“Aren’t you happy?”
How could they be? Happiness would be sitting with Susie at the diner, smiling at her while she talked about how the day was going. When they envisioned happiness, they saw so many people: Susie with her boundless confidence, Noelle before they became estranged, Dess whole and intact as herself, Asriel finally home again, Ralsei stepping into the sun for the first time, and maybe even Berdly realizing he didn’t have to be perfect.
But Kris was a selfish person, and none of those things would come to pass. They weren’t allowed to be happy yet.
A human hand touched them on the shoulder.
“You’re free.”
Kris whirled around, Blackshard in hand. They hit nothing but open air, and their swing continued wildly. Suddenly, their body felt like lead, and they started breathing heavily again. Too much movement. Too much.
Even still, the phantom feeling of a hand on their shoulder lingered. Kris’ eyes darted around the pitch black hallways, not being able to spot a single thing. What was this? What was trying to speak?
Did it really think they were free?
Yes, their strings were looser. They had to call the shots on their own now. While they always had the ability to yank the chain, it was different now. Their friends' lives were in their hands. Both of them were leaning on each other, but Kris couldn’t help. The grey figures claimed that it was their fault that the soul vanished. They probably knew Kris’ allegiances. They definitely knew that Kris wasn’t fond of the soul.
And now they were down here, at rock bottom.
Somewhere down the hall, Kris could hear a piano being played. It sounded stilted, and shortly after they could hear Ralsei muttering something about trying other puzzle solutions. He was probably trying to brute force it.
Kris took a small break, sinking down to the ground across from that statue. For a bit, they almost pitied the thing. It shouldn’t have been left out here to erode in the rain. The horns on its head almost reminded them too much of countless people they cared about, and the pity only grew.
Out of the corner of their eye, Kris saw something metal. It was hard to make out precisely what it was in the darkness, but they figured that they would at least check. Shakily, they pushed themself off the ground to take a look.
…What were umbrellas doing down here?
Kris unconsciously took one of them. Perhaps, this place had some mercies. They weren’t mercies that benefitted Kris, but maybe they could do something kind to something as simple as a statue. Maybe, the statue was an unfortunate Darkner who got lost down here, and they turned to stone in the overwhelming darkness.
Whatever the case, they didn’t want the statue to be wet anymore. There were too many umbrellas in that bucket anyway.
After they placed the umbrella between a small gap in the statue’s arm, Kris took a few steps back. Somehow, they felt a little lighter when they saw the raindrops harmlessly falling to the side of the statue. They’d done something good, something that they were able to do on their own. Even though every muscle in their body was screaming at them right now, and even though they wanted to collapse, they felt a little lighter.
Something began grinding within the statue.
Kris listened, standing perfectly still. Music floated past them, and… strangely, they thought they recognized it. Distant memories filled their mind as the notes carried louder and louder. Did… did their mom hum that tune before? Kris had heard it. They knew it.
Suddenly, Kris wasn’t alone in this Dark World anymore. They weren’t accomplices with the Knight. Their soul was theirs, and they were surrounded by a whole and intact family. The memory was too scattered, like it’d frayed at the edges and been long lost. But, Kris could hear the music. They could hear the humming somewhere. Wasn’t it… for Asriel? They thought that sounded right.
When their vision cleared, something melancholy rested in the air as the music kept playing. Something had settled in, like it too wanted to listen.
This place was important to someone.
Kris shut it out. As soon as they did, a light was cast on the room. Susie and Ralsei stood just at the entrance, both trying to find the source of the music.
Immediately, Ralsei lit up. “Oh! Kris! You figured out a part of the puzzle, I think.” He sounded uncertain when he said it, but smiled nonetheless. “I… um… I suppose I was only trying songs that I knew were in this Dark World.”
Susie pointed a thumb back the way they came. “Yeah, uh, the piano we gotta play this on is probably the one back there.” She glanced at Ralsei for a second who was already making his way back, putting a hand on his shoulder to stop him. “Do… do you wanna play, Kris?”
She was asking them? Kris turned their head away. That amount of consideration wasn’t well spent on them, considering all they were hiding.
The music played on. Susie’s smile waned a little. “I mean, you don’t have to, obviously. It’s just… I don’t know… you sounded good when you played earlier.”
Kris stared at her for a few seconds. It wasn’t that they didn’t want to, it was just that…
No, they’d already done it once before. If the soul truly was beyond that wall, then they could play this simple song just once before they lost the ability to play again. Even if Susie and Ralsei were there, they could just…
They’d already managed to play with Susie there. Ralsei… Kris wasn’t sure how to feel about Ralsei being there. If Susie was with them though, then maybe they could get over it just this once.
Kris just wanted to play.
Hesitantly, they nodded. As soon as they did, Susie smiled. “Well then get over here, dumbass. We don’t have all day.”
There was no going back now. Diligently, Ralsei followed the two of them with his lantern. When they walked by, Ralsei gave Kris a nod, like he was silently encouraging them. Despite everything, he was still doing that. Ralsei knew more than Susie that it was Kris’ responsibility to keep the soul caged. To see him still being supportive confused Kris a bit.
The trek to the piano didn’t last long. It was an old thing, and Kris could see water damage in some of the wood. It looked like it hadn’t been taken care of in a while. Even so, Kris would be happy to play it. It was no grand organ like the one in the church, but Kris wanted to play it all the same.
Some of the keys sounded off as they played, but they tried to match the song echoing down the corridor. They shut their eyes, trying to tune out the two people watching them. A presence shut its eyes with them, and Kris knew it was lying just beyond this wall.
They didn’t want to play for it. Kris kept this one thing close to their chest, something that could never be taken from them. Yet, the presence was listening. They weren’t ready to play for it. They couldn’t.
So, they played for themself.
Kris’ fingers slowly moved along the keys. The song wasn’t a fast one. Yet, the keys that they played seemed to move easier than all of the others, like they had seen the most use. Smudges stained the keys that their fingers moved across. Whoever played this piano loved this song very much.
The song drifted away when Kris’ hands slowed to a stop.
As expected, the wall opened. Mud cascaded away, revealing a small entrance further into darkness.
Ripples of a familiar power hit Kris head on. They grit their teeth, standing up from the piano. Even now, they could see Susie narrowing her eyes down the passageway, and Ralsei looked like he might faint. Susie didn’t recognize the soul like the two of them did. Yet, just like that time against the Knight, something felt off. The soul usually remained steady except in tense situations. Now… the ripples hit them in chaotic patterns.
There wasn’t any time to think about that. Kris took the lead, hearing Susie and Ralsei following from behind. Kris’ legs dragged through the mud, and their body felt heavier than ever. Maybe it was the adrenaline finally crashing down again. They’d finally get that soul and stop passing out for longer and longer. They weren’t sure how much longer they could keep this up.
As the muddy hallways opened up to a room, Kris froze. They sucked in a breath, eyes fixated on what was slumped over against the opposite wall.
“Kris…?” Susie stepped forward next to them, her axe loosely hanging in one hand. Her eyes never left the thing across the room. “Kris, what the hell is that?”
Ralsei lingered back a while longer, but when he finally inched forward, Kris could hear him muttering, “Wh… what did you do to yourself?” It was quiet enough for Susie to not hear, and Kris doubted that they were supposed to hear either. The question was only intended to be heard by the one thing that could hear everything.
Before their friends could move any further, Kris put their arms out. They felt weak, but they could at least handle what came next. Taking a deep breath, Kris approached.
They tried to ignore the tremors rippling off of the barely-formed being in front of them. It could hardly be called something coherent, but Kris could see familiar sights within the half-built form. Kris could see the design of their own Dark World armor somewhere in the grey sludge that this being had turned itself into. It had tried to make itself into something human, something still mimicking Kris.
But, Kris had been informed about this topic already. They’d been informed as to why the soul sought a vessel. It could never make one of its own. It seemed to have tried, but even the Dark World didn’t allow it to maintain anything physical for long.
Yet, Kris couldn’t see its face. Two wings hovered on either side of its face, both brittle and limp. The silver light that the soul liked to interact with had entirely absorbed its face. It looked like a cloud- perhaps even a flame of silver and white obscuring the entire head. Kris didn’t even know if it knew they were there.
On its chest was what Kris came here for. The red soul was still intact. It looked different than before. The grey of the rest of the thing’s body had moved across the soul, diminishing its glow. Kris could still feel erratic pulses of its power, like it was still somewhat conscious and…
Kris readied their hand. This wouldn’t take long.
Ralsei’s voice desperately called out behind them, “Kris- I think- I don’t think you should-”
They ignored him. Kris thrust their hand forward.
Hardly any resistance came as their fingers wrapped around the red soul. They could feel it pulsing in their hand, erratically trying to fight their grasp. It was nothing new, but the soul didn’t have the ability to resist them all that much. It was a fragile thing at times.
They ignored the way it tried to struggle through their fingers. Susie shouted behind them, “Kris- what the hell-”
The grey figure that looked almost like Kris disintegrated on the spot. With no soul attached to it, the barely held together mockery of a form couldn’t stay around. Kris kept their fingers firmly wrapped around the soul, staring at it for a few moments.
All of this trouble, and for what?
Chaotic ripples came off of the soul in bursts. Usually, its presence was more controlled than this. Kris ignored why that could be. If they were going to do this, they couldn’t even consider the idea that the soul was…
Don’t think about it.
They slammed the soul into their chest, feeling all of its energy suddenly surging through their body. Kris fell to the ground, immediately having two pairs of hands trying to help them up. Soon, they would shut their eyes, and the soul would open theirs. So, Kris didn’t make any motion to speak to their friends. It didn’t matter.
Kris waited. The soul thrummed in their chest.
It hurt.
Usually when the cage door slammed shut, the soul accepted a vessel with little hesitation. Only once had it made Kris stumble. They thought it would be no different this time.
Yet, Kris could hear something this time. The soul rattled in its cage, refusing to stay still. Kris tried to stamp it out. A fire started blazing in their chest. Silver light threatened to lash out. The soul never intentionally tried to hurt them when fusing. The soul always longed for a vessel, but it hesitated after Kris caught it in that closet.
Now, it wanted nothing more than to escape.
Two voices were screaming out Kris’ name, but they couldn’t focus. The soul slammed itself against its confines, and its power flared out over and over. It kept growing, uncontainable and uncontrolled.
Kris couldn’t think anymore. Their thoughts were overwhelmed. Could the soul do this at any time?
They thought they heard a voice. They knew this voice, and tried to shut it out. However, the bars of the cage were bending, and it forced its way through.
“I tried to free you.”
Kris’ knuckles scraped against their head.
“You didn’t want me.”
They couldn’t even mentally respond.
“Let me free you. I’ll go away. I promise.”
What was the Angel?
Should Kris have asked?
Kris heard yelling as the soul broke free from its cage. They had no more energy to spend anymore. It only took a moment for them to lose consciousness, the soul escaping out into the Dark World. They didn’t even have time to hope that their friends would be okay. Exhaustion took them.
They thought of the soul no more.
What did it mean to be lost ?
Ralsei knew very well what it meant for a Darkner. Thanks to the Angel’s actions, not a single Darkner had been lost by the Delta Warriors’ hands. Yet, he still knew the meaning of the word. For a Darkner to become lost, they had to know for certain that their purpose was gone forever. They had to know that Lightners no longer wanted them. They had to believe that they were unwanted to be lost forever.
The King in a sense was already lost when they arrived at Card Castle. He believed he’d been abandoned by Lightners, and refused to listen to any reason. There may still be hope for his rehabilitation, but Ralsei had his doubts. While no Darkners had been lost in battle, Ralsei knew what the result would have been. In the real world, they would have been damaged. They would be unsalvageable, and even if they were spitefully existing like King was, they would be unlikely to wish to see the Lightners again. It was sentencing oneself to oblivion, a loss of even the slightest bit of self that Darkners had.
This was a fate only Darkners were supposed to bear. Ralsei knew that one day, he too would be lost. Until then, he wanted to do his best to… perhaps be useful again. He didn’t want to lose himself. He was just finding out how to be himself. When Kris, Susie, and the Angel descended into the Dark World, he finally understood what it meant to have purpose again. Maybe, he even wished for something more.
So why…?
How…?
How had the Angel become lost?
Ralsei could feel his entire body shaking as the soul wrenched itself out of Kris. Their body fell limp onto the ground, but Ralsei couldn’t move. The red soul, the culmination of the Angel’s being and their will for this world, twitched sporadically around Kris. Gone were the precise movements of dodging that it used to have. This was something uncontrolled, confused, and seeking.
Susie’s axe had long come out already, but she wasn’t sure how to act. She glanced back at Ralsei, trying to gauge what to do. “That’s not supposed to happen, right?” She clearly understood the issue, glancing between her axe and what was supposedly Kris’ soul in her mind. “Why the hell is their soul not going back in?”
As if on cue, the soul darted back to where its previous attempt at a vessel had disintegrated. Using what little magic it could use in the Dark World, the soul started reconstructing a broken version of Kris once more. The features were all wrong and greyed out. The small wings around its head reformed as well, but they didn’t provide any advantage. They were just hovering. It was a poor imitation, but Ralsei wasn’t concerned about that.
He was far more concerned about the Angel’s power. It was present, but had consumed the face that it constructed. It didn’t allow for any expression, and Ralsei wondered how a lost soul like this could come to be.
Ralsei couldn’t waste any time. He needed to tell Susie what was going on, but the Angel was unstable. If he could just calm them down… Carefully, he took a step closer, holding out his hands in hopes that they could see he was not a threat. He muttered a name, trying to get their attention. “Are you there?”
They barely moved.
Only Susie responded. Susie, who had already heard that name once before, had caught what Ralsei said. She glanced back at him before turning back to the Angel, asking, “Ralsei, what the hell do you mean?” Her grip on her weapon grew more uncertain. “That’s Kris’ soul. That’s-”
“I’ll explain everything in a moment, Susie!” He’d tried already. He really tried to tell her before they got here, but the grey figures kept interrupting him. So many things moved so quickly, and Susie… he looked like he was lying to Susie again. “J-Just get Kris out of the room!” Yes, that would let her help. Even if he couldn’t explain, Susie wanted nothing more than to help. Ralsei couldn’t return the Angel to Kris right now.
The moment she heard the waver in his voice, Susie grabbed Kris and dragged them further away from the Angel’s still form. The Angel made no move to stop them, though its approximation of a head drifted in her direction.
As soon as Susie was in the clear, Ralsei tried again. This was part of his duty as the Prince of the Darkness. He was meant to guide the Angel and teach them how this world worked. Despite being a Darkner, this was something he was meant to do, even if the Angel was far above him.
So, he had to try.
Ralsei took another tentative step forward, keeping his hands behind his back this time. “Angel? Can you hear me?”
Their shrouded head hardly even twitched in acknowledgement. Instead of moving in the slightest, they stared at the ground without any indication that they heard him. The silver light only grew, consuming what facial features they had managed to make.
How much closer could he get before he was overstepping? Ralsei did not know. Yet, he wanted to try. He knew the discordant presence within this room. At least, he thought he did. “It’s… it’s me, Ralsei. Do you hear me?”
No response. The wall remained unbreakable. Despite the soul being in motion a mere moment ago, it had settled back into a stagnation that reacted to nothing. While Ralsei almost wanted to compare it to someone being asleep, he knew it was worse than that. He could still feel their presence within these walls. It’s how he knew they were here. However, what once was a presence that remained curious and kind had drifted away into apathy.
Was it apathy, or did they simply not wish to speak?
Could they speak at all?
Ralsei swallowed, his mouth feeling dry all of the sudden. He couldn’t give up. He had just gotten started, and yet… He’d never managed to save a lost Darkner. Seeing the Angel in a similar state only gave him one more painful reminder that the prophecy had changed as he asked, and he had no idea what to do now.
“Kris and Susie are… busy right now. It’s okay if you want to talk. No one else is going to hear.” Perhaps, they were just scared of being heard. The Angel started thinking deeply about their actions in the Cyber World whenever they had to speak through Kris. Maybe they were just not used to speaking on their own.
Yet, even now, their half-made vessel didn’t move. Only the twitching of silver light covering its face indicated that they may still be there. The red soul pulsed every now and then, so they must still be there. Though, that begged the question of why they kept attempting to create a vessel. The form they’d managed to take looked so fragile. Ralsei was certain that a singular hit from him would destroy it. The soul was still exposed. The vessel offered no real protection.
Ralsei couldn’t understand the being before him or why they had found themselves in this situation in the first place. He wished he could ask.
It was only natural that Ralsei found himself sitting on his knees in front of the Angel, getting on eye-level. He should’ve asked about them before. There was just never time. With the little time he had before Susie returned, he supposed that he just wanted to talk to open air. Maybe they would hear him. He wished that they could. “I… I wish I knew why this happened to you.”
All he wanted was to know why. Becoming lost should never happen to someone like the Angel. Even for a Darkner, becoming lost hurt. Ralsei knew the dread of it all too well, and knew his time would come eventually. He just wished he could understand.
The Angel remained unmoving, oblivious of his wishes.
“I don’t think… that I’m quite sure what to do now!” He admitted to no one in particular, but it felt wrong to admit to the Angel. Even if they couldn’t hear him, he was meant to introduce them to this world. He was supposed to be somewhat reliable when the rules were odd. But now… “After all of those spawn came after us, I…” He bit his tongue. He couldn’t admit how horrible things were in front of the Angel. Even if they couldn’t hear, admitting that he believed that they were all going to die was too much.
The spawn were also too much. They were lucky to be alive. Without the soul, they should have perished.
“I’m sorry, you probably don’t care about all of this.” No, he shouldn’t say that. “Or- well- you…” Fix it. Fix it. “It’s insignificant, I suppose.” Ralsei found himself staring down at his knees, and his hands were shaking while gripping his robes.
He needed to find a way to break through. Idle talk wouldn’t do anything, but he didn’t know what to even try. Ralsei had never dealt with anything like this before. Tenna was close, but that was helped by Susie and the rest of the Darkners physically repairing him. The Angel’s current state was nothing that could be healed.
Ralsei had to think. What else was he good for if he didn’t have the answers when it mattered?
Something cold touched Ralsei’s face.
Instinctively, he jerked away, his eyes darting up to what could have touched him. As soon as he did, he saw the Angel’s arm flinch backwards, their covered head now facing him with some kind of focus.
There was something present. Like a brush of warmth had just gone past him, Ralsei felt his shoulders relax. He knew this presence. It was small. It was slipping. Yet, the Angel had focused on him for a brief second.
Ralsei blinked a few times. His… his glasses were no longer broken.
As he made the realization, the Angel’s arm receded again. Their head lowered once more, staring at the mud just in front of Ralsei. Once more, its presence scattered, like it had never been focusing at all.
What just happened?
Ralsei touched the side of his face, not quite believing what he had just felt. It was undeniable. The Angel had tried to touch his glasses. Their attention was brief, but there was something. If he wasn’t panicking from the fact that the Angel had just done something to his glasses without him noticing, he would’ve done something faster! Not to mention the fact that he wasn’t exactly great at dealing with physical touch in the first place, much less with someone who didn’t seem to be entirely conscious.
“Th-thank you?” He said it as more of a question. It was… nice to be able to fully see again, but… why had they suddenly acted? What changed?
Just as before, they didn’t react to any words he said.
Was it touch that did it? Something had clearly made them act before they managed to touch Ralsei. But what? What about the question made them focus? He was just rambling. They hadn’t reacted to any of his other ramblings.
He would just have to start there with the touch. Without a proper vessel, the Angel couldn’t really… feel anything when interacting with this world. The soul needed a vessel to be able to interact. Otherwise, all it would be able to experience was pain when the soul was hit.
Maybe that was why the Angel had made a half-attempt at a vessel. It was something familiar, something that grounded them to the world they were lost in. Ralsei thought of the way Susie’s knuckles felt on his head, and how much it grounded him back to reality.
Perhaps, he needed to start there.
Carefully, Ralsei reached out to the hand that had just fallen down. The Angel made no move to pull away, but that was likely only due to them not being conscious. Ralsei took it in his own hands, and realized just how brittle they really were. Even in his own hands, hands that weren’t meant to hurt others, he felt like he could break this vessel with the wrong nudge.
What did they do to themself?
Clasping the hand carefully, Ralsei asked again, “Angel? Can you hear me now?”
There was an imperceptible twitch of the head from the Angel. Instead of focusing on the mud just in front of Ralsei, their gaze had moved to his hands. Even now, their focus was hardly anything. He couldn’t even call this focus, just a passing interest.
Ralsei knew that was at least progress. If he could just break through a little more… “We… we need you to wake up. I don’t know what happened to you, b-but we’re stuck down here.” Their attention remained on his hands, not shifting in the slightest. “If you could… you want a vessel, right? Kris was trying to get you back. If you could just fuse with Kris again…”
As soon as Ralsei mentioned Kris, the silver light on their head surged higher. Their focus scattered, but they didn’t wrench their hand away. The Angel’s presence became just as erratic as before, spiraling endlessly around the room.
Fear pricked in Ralsei’s chest as he held their hand. Should he let go? No, this was the only thing that managed to get them focused for a moment. Yet, the silver light was beginning to grow large enough for him to feel its heat. If he interacted with it directly, he wasn’t sure if he would be all right. That power sealed Dark Worlds, and if the Angel lost control of it entirely…
He couldn’t think about it now. Ralsei needed to solve this.
It was strange that their own power was doing this to them. Ralsei… couldn’t even be certain that what he was seeing was light. Sometimes, the light branched off into irregular patterns. It didn’t quite wisp like a flame. It didn’t quite shimmer like a star. It certainly wasn’t smooth enough to be a cloud. It branched off in… almost square-like patterns, constantly trying to cover as much of their face as possible. However, it was their power all the same.
Footsteps squelched through the mud right behind him. In a moment, Susie was in the corner of his vision, crouching down next to him. Her eyes were set on the being before them, like she wanted to parse something but couldn’t.
She averted her gaze, deciding to look at Ralsei instead. Unfortunately, he didn’t notice her for a second, still fixated on trying to find a pattern in the light that made any sense. When Ralsei felt Susie’s hand on his shoulder, he flinched.
Susie sat down next to him, laughing quietly, “It’s just me, dude. Relax.”
Ralsei did try, taking a deep breath. He’d gotten too focused on this and forgotten that Susie and Kris were still back there. He should go check on Kris, but… he didn’t want to let go of the Angel’s hand. Then again, Susie was capable. She’d proven that she could help them already. Maybe it would be okay to just ask instead of immediately checking. “Is Kris okay, Susie?”
“Oh, yeah, they’re-” She glanced behind them at the same time Ralsei looked down the hall. Kris’ silhouette was visible, leaning up against the wall. “I gave them some more items, and that made their breathing sound less funny. They’re… not waking up, though, and we’re kinda running out.”
Ralsei’s mouth felt dry again. If they weren’t waking up after healing, maybe they would with a little bit of rest. At some point, he knew that they wouldn’t be able to go on anymore. The Angel needed to reunite with Kris. Trying to keep his voice level, Ralsei nodded. “That’s… that’s expected, I suppose.” How was he going to put the soul back in Kris if the Angel couldn’t hear them and actively rejected Kris as their vessel?
Silence passed for a bit, but not for long. Susie took her hand off of his shoulder, staring at the Angel. Then, she admitted something, “I heard all of that, by the way.” Her voice sounded raspy, and her head turned downward.
Ah. So, Ralsei wasn’t as alone as he thought he was. Unconsciously, Ralsei let the Angel’s hand go, and it fell limp against the mud. He was going to wring out his scarf uncomfortably again, but the moment he heard the wet noise, Ralsei scrambled for the hand again. “Sorry, sorry, I’m sorry,” he muttered to no one who could hear him, keeping their hand elevated. One of the fingers had broken away. Foolish. Stupid.
Susie watched the hand for a little bit before exhaling loudly. “It’s okay, dude. It’s…” One of her claws ran through her hair, betraying how not okay it really was. “I dunno. I feel dumb now. I guess I just should’ve figured it out sooner.”
Ralsei channeled a small burst of healing magic, trying not to break the fragmented vessel. Thankfully, the finger reattached itself. He sighed in relief, but he couldn’t look at Susie. “I really am sorry. I… I tried to tell you, but-”
“I know.” She must’ve pieced together that this was what Ralsei wanted to tell her all those times the grey figures appeared. At least, she didn’t seem mad about it. She was frustrated. Ralsei could tell. She did her best to hide it. “So… this is that friend you were talking about back there?”
Right. Friend. What a joke. Ralsei was never friends with the Angel. Maybe somewhere in his head, he hoped he was. Yet, he understood nothing about the being in front of him. He understood less and less every single day their presence changed. Now, they were gone, and he hadn’t done anything to prevent or stop it.
“Ralsei?”
Automatically, he nodded. “This… is the Angel, Susie.” Ralsei couldn’t assume that they were friends, but this was the Angel that he had mentioned. No matter what form they tried to take, the red soul was proof of that. “They’re not… hearing me. I’m trying to speak to them, and they usually listen. Now, it’s like…” How did he even explain it? Could Susie even feel the way its presence erratically spun around this room?
Susie wasn’t in the same thought process that he was. She asked something different, keeping her voice low, “So… they’re just Kris’ soul? How does that make any sense? I thought souls were supposed to be like… like us?”
“They’re not, Susie.” Where Kris’ real soul was, Ralsei didn’t know. He didn’t know what its fate was. However, the soul that the Angel had was the only way they could manifest in this world. It was unequivocally and absolutely them. “They’re not Kris’ soul. But… for now at least… they have to act like it.”
Gritting her teeth, Susie glanced back down the hallway to where Kris still lay motionless. “How long has it… been like this? Is this doing something to Kris? What-” She paused, glancing at the Angel before lingering on their face for a little longer. “I don’t get what this is. I don’t know what this ‘Angel’ is. I’m the only one here who just doesn’t get it.”
This had to happen eventually. Ralsei took a steadying breath, making sure he didn’t let go of the Angel’s hand. Maybe, they would hear this explanation. If they heard their name being spoken, or perhaps things they had done, then maybe they would wake back up. Then, he tried explaining, “You do know what the Angel is, Susie. I just don’t think you’ve properly been introduced to them. It’s difficult to explain, but I can try.”
Susie nodded, eyes staying on the silver light that she had undoubtedly seen for the first time.
Ralsei thought back through all of his memories of the Angel and tried. “I believe this started a little before you two first met me. I suppose I have always known that they would appear, and I have been… trying to help them.”
Susie balled a hand into a fist, covering her mouth. “So… the day I…” She’d figured out something. Ralsei didn’t know much about how Kris and Susie met, but… they didn’t seem to exactly be friends when they arrived in the Dark World. “The day I pushed Kris into a damn locker, this was already happening?”
“If it was moments before you came into the Dark World, then yes,” Ralsei said it so definitively that it defeated any chance of Susie being wrong. When he saw her head lowering, he pressed onwards to try to make this as painless as possible. “Kris… Kris doesn’t like to talk about their experiences with the Angel. The Angel was meant to guide us… to protect us until we banished it.”
At the mention of Kris’ name, Susie latched on to that part specifically. “Is Kris fine? If they’re not talking about it, then something bad has to be going on. I know they don’t, like, talk much, but that’s probably bad.”
However, that also perplexed Ralsei to no end. Ralsei had been with Kris for most of their journey except for the Cyber World. Sometimes Kris and the Angel went off to do something, and Kris came back rattled. He didn’t know what was going on between the two of them. “I don’t know,” he answered honestly, “...but I also know that whenever the Angel has been around us, they have tried to be kind.”
“Around us? I don’t think I’ve ever talked to… uh…” She looked down at the Angel’s chest, suddenly a bit unsure. “...a soul before.”
Something curled in Ralsei’s hand. He looked down, and realized that the Angel’s fingers had curled up into something closer to a fist. When he checked for their gaze, he almost swore that it had been averted slightly, looking away from Susie instead.
Were they listening?
The chaotic presence in the room had diminished slightly, like it was trying to huddle against the wall the Angel was on. That was different. That meant that they were still here.
Trying to keep his voice as quiet as possible as to not startle them, Ralsei asked one more time, “Angel? Are you able to hear us?”
They didn’t return to their chaotic state, nor did they answer. Their presence remained, yet still tried to act like it was looking away. Ralsei wondered if perhaps they truly couldn’t speak. However, everything he said barely had a reaction. Did its periodic motions have anything to do with it hearing them, or were they just random?
Perhaps… if they just keep talking, something would happen. The Angel only seemed to react when Ralsei wasn’t focused on them. Maybe he was just looking for patterns where there were none.
Ralsei pulled away slightly, still keeping their balled up fist held. For now, he answered Susie, “The soul is… the culmination of one’s being, Susie. It contains someone’s will. Kris… being without theirs and having the Angel’s there instead… it blurs the lines between whose will is actually being acted out.”
Susie’s eyes disappeared under her hair. She was following. She had to know eventually.
“The actions are Kris, in a sense,” he continued, “It’s… hard for me to always know who is speaking and who isn’t, whenever they do.” Even now, he couldn’t tell if he was ever friends with the Angel. Even more recently, he didn’t know if he was friends with Kris, or if they loathed him while the Angel liked him. He didn’t know which way it was, and could rarely tell the difference. Sometimes, it was obvious that Kris disagreed. Other times, Ralsei couldn’t tell, because he had no idea what choices the Angel was even capable of making.
Susie brought her knees up a bit, deciding to lean on them while staring at the Angel in front of her. She opened her mouth a few times, about to say something, and then deciding that it would be better not to. Ralsei waited patiently, giving her a moment. It was so much to take in at once. It’s why Ralsei never wanted this for her.
“Was anyone ever gonna tell me if this didn’t happen?”
Hm. He-
Ralsei didn’t know.
Honestly, he really didn’t know.
It was something that had to happen eventually. For the Angel to be banished, their nature would have to be revealed to Susie. The exact meaning of “love finding its way to the girl” also perplexed Ralsei sometimes. Perhaps it was inevitable that the two would collide at some point. That didn’t change the fact that he hadn’t explained it to Susie. Kris could’ve as well, but they were not nearly within their ability to do so.
Ralsei opened his mouth to answer, but did not get a word out. The Angel had moved again. Instead of receding from Susie, their presence almost circled her. She hadn’t visibly reacted, but the silver light absorbing their head had turned her way.
When Ralsei paused and looked at the Angel, Susie spotted the change too. She glared daggers at the Angel, not being fazed by the sudden movement. The change vanished immediately, the Angel’s presence returning to its abnormal haze while receding backwards.
Susie dropped her gaze. “So that’s a no, then.”
“I’m sorry,” he tried apologizing, but knew it wouldn’t be enough.
“I dunno, dude. I just…” She raked her claws through her hair again, focusing on the floor like it was the most interesting thing in the room. “You weren’t gonna tell me that the Angel was your missing friend that is also Kris’ not-soul earlier today. Kris was damn near ready to put that soul back in without telling me what was going on… And I’m just like… still grappling with the fact that we’re supposed to banish it too?” Her voice rose more and more as she listed out all of the things bugging her.
Silence. The world felt like it could fall out from under Ralsei at any moment. All she had to do was tell him that he had gone a step too far, and he would shatter.
Yet, impossibly, Susie tried to prove him wrong yet again. “Ralsei, I’m gonna ask a stupid question, because I don’t know a damn thing about this, and they were apparently your friend.” She looked at the way Ralsei still had the Angel’s fragile hand in his own. Somehow, she found it in her heart to say something different, something that didn’t make the world shatter: “What were they like?”
Ralsei froze. He blinked a few times, not believing that he heard that correctly. Yet, Susie always did the impossible. Somehow, she managed to shock him into only blabbering out a confused, “What?”
“You know… like…” She shrugged, glancing away. “You were uh… pretty beaten up about thinking they were gone back there. You made it sound like you two were friends. I dunno, I guess I just… am a little curious? I missed a lot I think.”
“Is…” Ralsei glanced back at where Kris was laying. “Is this really an… appropriate time? I’m worried that if we don’t do this fast, then Kris might…”
Susie sighed dramatically, putting her hands in the mud and leaning back, “I dunno, dude. We haven’t made any progress on this, and I’m feeling really dumb right about now. I don’t think it’s a bad thing to let Kris sleep for a second while we think of more ideas, but like, I have no idea who this is or what their deal is.”
As much as Ralsei hated to admit it, they really hadn’t gotten any closer. Simply moving the soul to Kris wouldn’t work, and having the soul eject itself again would probably be much worse than just letting them rest. Furthermore, Susie had asked a very simple thing of him.
He could do this small thing.
Ralsei stared into the silver light, recalling what he knew. “It’s as I said before, I don’t… know where the line between Kris and the Angel was. Most of what I know about them is speculation, but I can… I guess… sense their presence. It’s just part of who I am, I suppose.”
“I’ve never felt a damn thing like that,” Susie admitted, a bit frustrated.
Even now, Ralsei could feel their presence spiraling around this room. He wondered if she could feel it too if she focused on it. Or, maybe Ralsei had an advantage, because his purpose as a Darker was innately to serve. “They’re very much here.” He glanced down at their hand which hadn’t moved since the last time. “Every now and then, it’s like I can feel them focusing on us. Then, they slip away.”
Susie regarded the silver light a little more carefully, squinting at it. “Is that what they were doing when they looked at me?”
“They’ve reacted to you twice, actually.” Honestly, Ralsei wasn’t sure why. The Angel had also reacted to him, but Ralsei wasn’t paying attention when it happened. “But… this definitely isn’t typical. There were a few things about the Angel that stayed… fairly constant when they were with us, but also a lot that didn’t really make sense to me.”
“Ah damn.” She lightly nudged his shoulder. “Well if they’re confusing you when you’re the professional on these things, then no wonder I’m not getting it.”
Ralsei found it in him to laugh a little bit, “They don’t quite… have the ability to communicate like us, I think. Almost all the time, I can feel them being curious. Sometimes, I think I can sense their stronger feelings. It’s difficult.”
“Huh, so that’s why Kris is always running around town and looking at everything?”
Oh yeah, they did like to do that a lot. Ralsei nodded when he remembered how many times he’d witnessed that exact thing. They were thorough, almost to an excessive degree. Though, it did tend to help them. Multiple times, they’d found items in far off places that helped them later down the line. Much of the Angel’s efforts went into their last battle together.
Their last battle… that was a sticking point that Susie should probably know about. “They were kind,” he said with certainty, though he didn’t know to what extent that kindness was extended. “Everything… most of everything I knew about them indicated that. When we get into fights, it’s them issuing commands.”
Susie’s eyes widened. She regarded the being in front of her a little bit more carefully, sizing them up. “So like, not that I’m complaining, but they’ve been telling us to spare Darkners?” Realizing that sounded bad, she put her head in her hands. “Like- that’s obviously a good thing. I’m just… confused.”
Ralsei found himself being perplexed constantly. The Angel had the capacity to be anyone. They even had the capacity to go far off the trail, and Ralsei was endlessly happy that did not happen. Out of all of the options, they chose to be kind to everyone they encountered.
“Yes Susie, that is correct,” he sighed, “Except… except for…”
“The Knight.” Susie already knew. The battle was still fresh in their minds, a moment when all bets were off and the Angel commanded them all to attack. “Can’t say I blame ‘em. When I tried talking to the Knight, nothing was getting through.”
She had a much more optimistic point of view, and Ralsei had to admit that the change made sense. However, she did not feel the exact moment the Angel chose to be angry. They were standing at the entrance to the snow-filled landscape when the Angel suddenly shifted. Their kind and curious nature melted away into something furious, something calculating.
It scared Ralsei.
They hadn’t even met the Knight yet, and the Angel had already made their decision.
Even worse was the precision that the Angel carried when fighting with the Knight. Ralsei chose to voice the next part out loud, “I just… it just confuses me. They were so ready for when the Knight came, and when it finally happened… they were ruthless. It… it was unlike anything I’ve ever seen out of them.”
Susie tapped the ground a few times with her claws, mulling the whole thing over. Then, a grin split across her face. “Heh, maybe they were listening to me for once.”
“Huh?”
Confident in what she was about to say, Susie crossed her arms. “Sometimes, there’s people you just gotta fight. Remember when I said that?” She glanced at the silver light. “Maybe, if they’ve been here for this long, they remembered that.”
Something twitched. Ralsei immediately glanced down at his hands to see that the Angel’s hand had loosened.
Before he could get a word out, Susie was already talking again. The silver light was looking at her again, the presence of the Angel slightly narrowing onto her. “Am I right?” She asked, staring down the silver light. “Damn, guess you really are listening.”
Shockingly, the presence didn’t regress immediately when acknowledged this time. It circled around the both of them now, and Ralsei almost could imagine wings around the two of them. Something was being communicated by the gesture, but he just couldn’t figure out what. It felt safe. That much he could discern.
The presence then proceeded to return to its normal spiral. The phantom feeling of warmth fell away, like it had turned to nothing but ash.
“There they go again,” Ralsei muttered, staring down at the hand that had once more gone still.
Susie watched their head turn down. “They’re kinda creepy looking like this.”
Ralsei’s head whipped towards her, his ears slapping against his face from the motion. “Susie!”
“I’m just saying!” She threw her hands up defensively. “They look like a weird, messed up Kris.”
If he had hands free, Ralsei would be using them to pinch the bridge of his snout. Susie clearly didn’t understand the gravity of what this being was, or she just didn’t care. Hoping that the Angel hadn’t heard that, he clarified, “They can’t exist like you and I without a vessel. The soul is… all they really are without one.”
“So like, then why leave Kris?” Susie glanced back at the human again to make sure they were okay. Sure enough, they were still asleep. Ralsei hoped that they were having good dreams, at the very least. They looked exhausted. “Kris seemed ready to put the soul back in. I dunno like… how all of that works… The Angel was nice to you two, right?”
Ralsei sighed, “I don’t know why they left. I’ve been thinking about it all day, and I just don’t know why.” It was never something that was supposed to happen. The Angel would continue on this journey until banishment. Seeing them like this made no sense to Ralsei. “...but yes. They were… kind to me, I think.”
“And Kris?”
How could he say? There was something going on between the two of them, Ralsei knew it. Whenever he got Kris alone, they rarely seemed thrilled to talk about the Angel. The only time they seemed generally relieved was when Ralsei taught them how to send them away. That should indicate that something was wrong between them.
Yet, at the same time, the Angel’s behavior around Kris shifted drastically in the Cyber World. Ralsei could sense them thinking very hard whenever they were called on to speak. There was uncertainty, despite many options being acceptable. Most of the Angel’s attention shifted to Kris whenever this happened, and sometimes Ralsei felt the Angel get more wary whenever Kris responded in a way that didn’t seem quite right. Sometimes, it was obvious that the two did not agree on a course of action.
…but of all the options that could have occurred in the Cyber World, Ralsei was relieved when they found Kris and Noelle at that festival stand. All had gone well when the Angel was left alone.
So, was it the Angel being mean to Kris, or were Kris’ misgivings entirely due to the situation they had both found themselves in?
Would Kris even be able to tell them if things weren’t okay?
That got Ralsei thinking. After they fought Spamton, Susie had stopped everything to check in on Kris. They were rattled, something that Ralsei had been trying to quickly gloss over so as to not potentially startle them even more. When Susie asked if they were okay, a choice was prompted. Speaking to Kris allowed the Angel a degree of control.
And Kris screamed that they weren’t okay.
So, that left Ralsei at a crossroads. Had they overpowered the Angel and managed to shout that out despite everything? Was it the Angel speaking for them? No, that couldn’t be it, because Kris sometimes managed to express their own confusion whenever they didn’t agree with the Angel. Ralsei didn’t know if Kris even could overpower them.
But, Ralsei knew that if the Angel wanted it to be so, then none of them would be able to resist its power. The forbidden path began with ice magic, after all.
Kris had to have been the one yelling at that moment. The Angel had to have made the conscious decision to let Kris speak.
Was it kindness? Ralsei didn’t know if he could call it that. Even though he thought he knew the Angel’s intentions for kindness and curiosity, Kris was the one who carried the soul. All Ralsei knew were rules.
DId he believe in the Angel enough to possibly jeopardize Kris’ wellbeing?
Susie was waiting for an answer.
The truth was that he didn’t know.
“Only the Angel and Kris know the answer to that.” Ralsei didn’t notice movement in the corner of his eye. “But I want to believe that they were kind. I-I have to.”
For the first time, the Angel’s hand withdrew on its own.
Ralsei didn’t notice them moving until the hand had already started falling out of his own. When it hit the mud, it vanished immediately, unable to stay cohesive in the overwhelming darkness.
This was the most that he had seen them move. Their presence had only grown more chaotic, yet they were moving. Inch by inch, the Angel tried to move their legs, pushing their body backwards towards the back wall. The silver light around their head grew in size, but almost dulled at the same time.
Ralsei tried to put his own hands forward to where they’d lost their own, healing magic building at the ends of his fingers. “I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to let go. Here- let me just-”
The silver light blazed hotter. Ralsei instinctively stopped himself, not knowing if it was safe to get any closer. He stopped the flow of healing magic, staring at the stump that used to be a hand.
Had he done something wrong?
Susie hadn’t stood up yet, and she didn’t seem inclined to either. Instead, she watched the whole thing from her spot in the mud, not even visibly affected all that much by the light growing. “You know, I think this whole on and off with them paying attention isn’t working.”
As if that wasn’t already painfully obvious, Ralsei sighed in exasperation, “I know. I know. I just- there’s nothing else we can do if they won’t go back into Kris.”
The light raged higher at the mere mention of going back to Kris. Ralsei had to take another step back just to be safe. At times before, Ralsei thought he could see the Angel’s approximation of a face under that light. Now, there was no room to spot anything.
Susie finally stood up, dusting herself off. She cracked her neck, staring down at the Angel. “So like, humor me, okay?” She had an idea. That tone of voice always preceded one of Susie’s ideas. “They won’t go with Kris. We don’t know why. But like, I’m also noticing they haven’t talked at all.”
Could they even talk? Surely, they had the ability to in this form. Then again, Ralsei could barely touch their hand without it breaking into pieces. Would something as fragile as vocal chords even work in a vessel like this? He’d hoped that the Angel would at least be able to speak somewhat, because he knew that they could communicate with commands if Kris was nearby.
They’d made no move to do so, and Ralsei wondered if they even would in this current state.
Ralsei clasped his hands behind his back. “What… are you planning to do, Susie?” It was the only polite way that he could ask it. While her help was always appreciated, he was very scared about what he would hear next.
“K, so, like… do Kris and the soul have like… I don’t know… a wavelength or something? Maybe a way to chat? You said they disagree on stuff, so they’ve gotta have something like that.” Sweat dripped down the side of her face while she glanced away. “It’d be pretty dumb if the thing controlling your body couldn’t communicate with you, I think.”
Yes, it would in fact be fairly rough if communication was completely cut off. At the very least, the soul issued commands to Kris similarly to anyone else in the party. That way of communication was a certainty. Whether or not it could go the other way was a different story. “I… don’t know,” he admitted, “But there should be a way to do that.”
“Nice. I’m gonna grab it.” Before Ralsei had any chance to register that, Susie was moving towards the Angel.
“W-wait!” Ralsei lunged for her arm, managing to at least get her attention long enough to stop her from doing that very thing. “I-we have no idea what will happen if you touch their soul. It could… you could get hurt like Kris was.”
Susie actually did stop to consider it for a moment. Unfortunately for Ralsei, this was Susie he was talking to. “I get what you’re saying, and you make a good point. I’m still going to touch it.” She wrenched her arm away from him, grinning widely. In only two steps, she was already in front of the Angel’s hunched over form. “Hey, you, are you listening to me?”
The Angel’s head didn’t move. Their presence remained scattered, not knowing what was about to occur. Ralsei didn’t know how to stop Susie, but this could end horribly-
Unknowing of the horror going on in Ralsei’s head, Susie knelt down next to the Angel. “Welp, your loss. You and I are gonna have a chat.”
It was too late to stop her. Susie’s hand wrapped around the soul, but unlike Kris’ grasp, she didn’t try to squeeze it too tightly. On contact, the Angel’s vessel immediately disintegrated. The soul pulsed a few times in her hand, but made no move to escape.
Ralsei could feel the Angel’s attention concentrating now. It wasn’t any closer to how it used to be, but they were concentrating on Susie.
Susie held the fragile thing in her hand. It was her first time getting a good look at it when the soul wasn’t dancing through the middle of a fight. “Damn, this thing feels like glass.”
Seeing her handle the soul like that sent shivers down Ralsei’s spine. She really shouldn’t be doing that, especially not with the Angel’s own soul. “Th-that’s because it’s incredibly fragile without a vessel!” Should he try to take it from her? He didn’t think he could. “I-I don’t think this is a good idea, Susie.”
However, Susie’s focus wasn’t on Ralsei. It switched to Kris down the hall, still breathing heavily after not having a soul for so long. She knew the problem. They were running out of time for other solutions, so she was going to brute force it. Susie grinned, holding the soul out in front of her chest. “Come on, my ideas always work out just fine.”
Without another word, she slammed the soul into her chest. One pulse of light was all it took for the soul to vanish, ensnared inside of a new vessel.
Ralsei held his breath. Susie stood perfectly still for a few moments, staring at her own chest.
Nothing happened for a few dreadful seconds of silence.
Susie lurched forward, hand clenching her shirt. A red light started bursting out, trying to make its escape. Instead of keeling over like Kris did, she grit her teeth and seethed, “Oh no you don’t! You don’t just get to talk to only Kris and Ralsei!”
The soul was struggling against her fingers now, trying to break free. Even worse, Ralsei could feel the Angel’s presence beginning to panic. “Susie, stop! They’re-” They’re not supposed to be scared.
Yet, Susie was able to wrestle the feeble thing back in. “It’s just… gonna be… a second!”
Another flash nearly blinded Ralsei. He had to glance away as the soul once more went back into Susie’s chest. When the light finally cleared, and when he could finally look at her again, she was teetering on her feet.
…before immediately falling forward.
Ralsei tried his best to catch her fall. Unfortunately, he wasn’t strong enough to keep her elevated. When she careened into him, he let out a wheeze. She had gone completely limp, and Ralsei struggled to set her down.
Oh no. No no no no. Ralsei managed to set her down on the mud, but-
He glanced between Kris and Susie, realizing he was the only one awake now.
If anyone or anything came after them, they would be easy to hurt. Ralsei was feeble. He could hardly hold his own when told to attack, and his pacify wasn’t going to work if the Knight returned.
The Angel’s presence had diminished almost entirely. Even though it was chaotic, there was some warmth with it here. Now, it had entirely been taken into a new vessel, and its attention was no longer out here.
There was nothing but silence now. The world around Ralsei became cold again, the Angel's absence sending chills down his spine.
Ralsei shook Susie. She didn’t respond.
“Susie… what did you do?”
Notes:
I have made a critical error that benefits you. So, confession time, when I said ch4 needed touch ups... I was confident that I was in the final stretches of writing. I just needed to make the plane touch the ground, but found that my ideas for ending the fic... weren't ending it with a bang. There's so much that needed to be delivered upon, and so many little scenes I wanted to close out the fic with to make it a satisfying and gradual ending.
Ch4 is up to 20k words now.
It will increase.
This is the length of Who Are You? alone
I am thinking of limiting Ch4 to 12k words and releasing the rest in another part, not only for readability but for pacing. Ch4 is big. It is dense. It is the climax of the fic. This WOULD mean that you would all have to wait one extra day since a 5th chapter would be added and I'm daily uploading. BUT. I'm actually moving on sunday. I release things a little past midnight EST. My plan is to give you two uploads on sunday, one at the normal time, and the ch5 release after my computer is set up at the new place. Ch5 would be much more of an epilogue, but I feel like I needed to close out this fic in a more solid way.
My bad lmao. Yall get more fic. So sad.
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As for this chapter, hoo boy. I always get nervous posting these, because I get increasingly more freaky with it as time goes on. Elaborating on the concept of becoming lost and using that as Ralsei's mental reasoning for an Undertale-esque "Lost-soul" is up there in the freakyness.
This scene underwent many changes. I am happy with the final result. While the situation is... dire... this is a bit of calm for a moment. There's time to think and time to understand what is going on a little bit more for the characters, and I think that was needed in a fast paced fic like this.
And Kris... oh Kris... I love writing Kris' mentality. There's so many layers to this character and the funny thing is it's all pretty much speculation and guesswork based on their actions. Fic writing is wild like that yall. After the goners grilled Kris last chapter, I am glad I can finally post this one, because Kris POV has not happened for a hot sec, and they're Going Through It.
Oh Susie grabbed the soul okay thanks Susie-
Chapter 4: Nothing Lasts Forever
Summary:
How does one possibly save something that does not want to be saved?
Notes:
Okay, moment of truth.
I have spent so long editing, tweaking, and trying to make this dialogue work. I hope it is true to Susie's character. Thank you all for reading this. We'll have one more chapter to bring things to a close after this, but we've reached the crossroads now.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter Text
Susie had many regrets.
Some were a lot more embarrassing than others, and they were all flooding her head after shoving a soul into her body. Some were stupid. Being banned from free-ham sandwich day was definitely a regret of hers. Jumping the wrong way into the depths of the Dark World sucked bad. Twisting her ankle after jumping off a garbage heap was also pretty stupid.
Recently, she’d started making many more terrible mistakes.
She still imagined herself attacking Lancer in her worst nightmares. Out of all her regrets, that was pretty up there in the worst ones. Recently, she thought she was doing better. She really did. But today, she’d been constantly realizing that she didn’t know anything. She thought that after Lancer, she would know when something was wrong with her friends.
Somehow, Kris having a soul that wasn’t theirs passed completely under her radar.
Maybe that’s why she slammed it into her chest. She had to make up for not realizing sooner. It’d help if someone told her, but she never really asked, did she? She never knew to. But, she promised Kris and Ralsei that they didn’t have to do any of this alone anymore. Putting that soul in her body was the first way to make good on her word.
But yeah, she had a few regrets the moment it finally gave up on the struggle. Putting a soul in her body was pretty up there in the list of regrets at the moment.
For one, she was falling. Susie didn’t think that was supposed to happen when someone put a soul in, but she also had a soul of her own and knew jack about what putting in a soul was like.
Susie didn’t get a chance to think about it for long. A moment later, she crashed into something. The air was knocked out of her lungs, but she didn’t feel any pain. It just left her gasping for air for a second, but then the air was suddenly back, like it’d never happened at all.
She managed to sit up, glancing around where she fell. The familiar church windows were gone, and the room wasn’t exactly dark anymore. Her outfit still looked the same as always, but this didn’t feel right at all. The bed of flowers she’d landed on also didn’t seem like anything she’d seen down in the Dark World before.
Something moved in the corner of her eye. Susie’s gaze snapped upwards, barely catching a figure moving further down the hallway. “Hey!” She yelled, sprinting after them. “Kris? Ralsei? Are you over there?”
She sped around a corner, purple archways flying over her head. When she finally made it around the corner, she saw them.
It froze her in her tracks. Susie knew it was the Angel, but only because of the silver light that still absorbed their head. It’s what changed that stopped her. No longer did they look like a messed up Kris. Now, their entire body below the neck had shifted to look exactly like her. If the silver light was gone, she would bet that she’d see her own face.
“Oh, what the hell,” she muttered under her breath.
The Angel was just standing there, looking up at something in the empty darkness above. Another purple archway stood just beyond them, but Susie couldn’t make out anything beyond it.
Screw this. Susie came here for a reason, and the Angel looked more than whole enough to answer this time. She took a few steps forward, trying to make her footfalls loud and noticeable. “Hey! You! You and I need to talk!”
The Angel turned. For once since she’d seen them, they moved in full motion. Not a single ounce of their movements seemed stilted or off. They were just… exactly how she would expect any normal person to turn around. Had it not been for the silver geometric shapes covering its head alongside the wings wreathing their head and red soul on their body, she might’ve mistaken them for someone normal.
They still didn’t speak.
“Listen.” Susie knew she had to make this work. Where she was didn’t exactly make sense, but considering she’d just passed out, this was probably the weird connection thing Kris might’ve had. Ralsei and Kris wouldn’t be here to help her. So, she had to make her words count. “I know who you are. Ralsei told me who you are. You weren’t listening before, so you’re gonna tell me what we need to know.”
The Angel tilted their head at her, still annoyingly silent.
Great, another silent type who wouldn’t tell her a damn thing. She’d already had to deal with the Knight like this, and she didn’t quite know yet whether or not the Angel was good or bad. Ralsei seemed a little unsure, and if they were hurting Kris…
Susie almost missed the way the Angel’s head turned downward.
But she didn’t.
“So, what’s the deal, huh?” She took another step forward. The Angel took one step back. “What have you been doing to Kris?” It was a question that came out too quickly, but she had to know. If they were hurting Kris, then all bets were off and she’d have to do something drastic.
Maybe she should’ve known better than to ask the fractured being a question like that so suddenly.
For the first time, she heard their voice, and realized that it wasn’t the first time hearing it at all.
“I did my best. I am sorry that it was never enough.”
The distinction had never been made in Susie’s head before about how Kris sounded. After their fall earlier, she guessed that it just kinda made sense that Kris sounded all raspy. They were walking around without their soul. Yet, every time they spoke before, there was something else under their voice at times. It sounded like they were on speaker, and the voice talking almost had a little bit of the Angel’s voice in it. She always heard it the most during fights, but…
Ralsei wasn’t lying. Just how long had they been here? He already told her the answer to that too, but…
How hadn’t she noticed?
The Angel took another step back, trying to stand up straight again after their half-step away. The haze around their face grew, and they mumbled, their voice slowly becoming more distorted, “Let Kris be happy. Let Kris live their life. I’ll never see them again.”
She couldn’t let them get caught in that haze again. Trying to keep them together, she yelled, “Hey! No. Stop it. Let’s talk this out.” Susie didn’t know how to stop it from happening, but if she could just keep their attention, then maybe…
The haze around their head steadied for a moment. The rest of their body remained unnaturally straight, a stance Susie would never take. It looked weird and wrong on her body, but she guessed that’s just what happened when the Angel needed to make a vessel.
At least they were listening.
Okay. One step closer to figuring this out. All she needed was that time. “Why did you leave Kris?” She now understood what she saw during that fall. The soul had just… fallen out of Kris’ chest. They’d lunged for it, so it wasn’t their choice to get rid of it.
The Angel’s head lowered again. Vertigo hit Susie all at once as the world around them began to change. She saw a whirlwind of color, not knowing where the floor began or if the walls were even there anymore. It happened too fast to yell anything out, her mind twisting at the Angel’s will for a second.
And when that second passed, she was standing on a dock. It was dark and humid, a blue-wooden dock stretching out into black waters. The Angel sat on the edge of the dock, their stolen feet sitting in the water.
It was quiet out here.
The silence was only broken by them speaking again. But no, their voice sounded wrong, Susie realized. In battle, it always sounded like a powerful command. It always assured her of every action taken. Now, it sounded like it was muffled behind a layer of glass. “Have you ever thought of a world where everything is exactly the same… except you don’t exist?”
Susie’s hand clenched into a fist. Maybe in that graveyard, she wondered. Seeing herself saying those words right there, it…
Was the Angel conscious of the fact that it was using her body? Did they know what they were doing?
Their gaze remained transfixed on something in the darkness. Without Susie even answering, they kept speaking, “Everything functions perfectly without you…” Their soul left their own chest, hovering in their hand. The Angel regarded it carefully, and Susie saw their hand trembling. “Ha, ha… the thought terrifies me.”
“What are you talking about?” She hated looking at this. She hated seeing this with every fiber of her being. Now that the Angel could talk, she felt something aching in her chest. What was this? “Everything is messed up now that you decided to up and leave! We’re stuck at the bottom of a Dark World. Kris might keel over and die at any second. Ralsei looks like he might break down and cry every single damn time I ask about you.” Susie stomped next to the Angel, trying to get in their face with the limited space that she had. “So what the hell do you mean?”
They didn’t look her in the eye. Their head remained downward, staring at their own reflection in the water. Their answer came as a defeated whisper, “You know, that does make me feel a little better about this. Thank you.”
Better? Better? Her friends' suffering made them feel better? Susie grabbed the Angel by the collar of their shirt, not minding the light that licked at her hands and seared them slightly. She growled, “Do you think this is funny? Are you really gonna hear all of that and think that this is better?”
“Please not another battle,” they pleaded, not making a single attempt to struggle in her grasp, “I’m so tired of fighting. I promised I wouldn’t- I shouldn’t- I had to-” Their voice shattered before they could finish their sentence, the silver light growing to be too large.
Susie had to drop them, and they tumbled against the wooden dock. That damn light burned too much. Even with a more solid appearance, it looked like they could hardly keep themself together. They were… shaking.
Susie looked down at her own hands. Burns riddled her fingers where she’d grabbed the Angel, but she didn’t exactly feel hurt at all. Her hands were good at hurting, too good at it. That was what she was good for, and she’d just…
She’d just done it again. Another battle. The Angel thought they were going to fight.
It’d be so easy to do so. Why did the Angel… take solace knowing that things went wrong? Her first instinct was to lash out. It was to stand across from them and slash with her axe over and over again until they stopped hurting her friends.
She almost saw herself back in Card Castle stuck in that prison with Lancer on the other end of her axe. It was the easiest solution then too. If she just hit her way through everything, then no one would hurt her ever again. No one would backstab her ever again.
There was a soul back then too. It kept popping out in front of her, always hitting every single one of Lancer’s attacks.
…Like it didn’t want to fight either.
That was the Angel, wasn’t it? Were they trying to keep her from making a mistake that she would regret? Here she was, about to make another.
Susie’s breathing was funny. She clenched her hands into fists, finally lowering them. Even now, the Angel wasn’t making a single move to strike back. They were just sitting there, gaze turned away from her.
Some people had to be fought. Looking at the Angel now, Susie didn’t think they were one of them. She could do this. She had to. If they’d tried to pull her back before when she was going to do something stupid, then she’d just have to return the favor.
“Why… the hell do you think this is better?” She couldn’t hide the frustration in her voice, even though she wanted to do the right thing. “Can you seriously not figure out that they’re dying out there?”
The Angel’s stolen claws scraped the wood. They managed to push themself up, steadying their posture and returning to a seated position. Slowly, the silver light consuming them died down just a little bit. The brittle wings on the side of their head floated upwards slightly. “It will be okay.” Their hand flexed once, twice, three times. “They have allies. They do not need me. I am not needed. They will be fine. When they are fine, they will be free from me.” Their vision turned back to the inky water. “Please forget about me.”
Most of the Angel’s words didn’t sound like… complete thoughts. Susie already picked up on that from the grey figures, but right now it seemed like they were doing something similar. Their voice wasn’t changing at least. But… what did it mean that Kris would be fine? They were getting worse. They had allies? Yeah, her and Ralsei were trying their damned best to fix this, but they couldn’t fix it without a soul. What were they talking about?
“Free from you?” She wondered out loud, “The hell does that mean?”
“I am not wanted,” they repeated, “I have not been wanted. They wish to be free, so I let them.” The silver light on their head was growing again. “It is always meant to be this way. Please don’t think about this anymore.”
She finally pinned down what they sounded like. They sounded almost robotic, like every word coming out of their mouth had an exact purpose. She hated it. This was how Ralsei talked about Darkners and the Dark Worlds, and Susie loathed it even more.
“Psh,” Susie scoffed, “Yeah, like that’s true. Kris tried to put you back in the second they found you.”
Without warning, the world suddenly lurched again. Susie found herself tumbling, flipping backwards a single time through the air before landing on her feet. She was… standing inside of a closet. Voices carried from the outside- her own voice was coming from outside. The Angel was nowhere to be seen, but-
No, she could see them.
Kris had their eyes set on a red soul in the closet. Over and over, they tried to swat it out of the air, like it was some weird bug. The soul weaved without a care in the world, dodging the hockey stick but every now and then taking a particularly bad hit. Susie remembered how it felt like glass in her hand and winced when she heard a crack.
That’s what was making all that noise? What were they doing? The Angel and Kris were just… fighting in the closet? Susie caught sight of the guitar in the corner of her eye, and she almost wondered if she could see into it while they were here. The memory was so vivid, so if she could just-
She started spinning through the air again. Wind howled around her as everything went cold. She knew the sound of that wind. She knew that chill more than any other.
This was back in the TV World.
The Angel was there this time, already walking towards where the Dark Fountain was.
Susie stumbled after them, trying to get their attention before they wandered off. “Is all of this about a damn hockey stick? Seriously?” It sounded awful when she said it out loud. If the soul was all the Angel was, then that had to hurt. But still, this… they’d spared people who tried to kill all three of them before. Was a hockey stick the breaking point?
Past the giant tree, the Angel finally came to a stop. “You all could not hurt me even if you tried.” They sounded certain. It came off as an undeniable fact, one that they wished to share willingly. “Not physically. I do not hurt like you do. Still, some things hurt far more than that.” The silver light on their head was… diminishing. Their words became more coherent. Something was happening.
Yet, Susie suddenly became more focused on what was happening behind the Angel.
She saw herself standing alongside Kris and Ralsei. The Shadow Mantle fluttered in the wind, protecting Kris instead of her. That… wasn’t at all what she remembered. Worse, the red soul that wove in and out of combat kept making mistakes, dealing more and more damage to everyone. She winced when Ralsei cried out in pain from a slash that got past the soul’s defenses and struck him as punishment.
The Angel pointed. She followed, seeing Kris do something.
They were smiling.
Susie watched herself get cut down next. Kris grit their teeth when it happened, and she could see the grip on their weapon become more certain. However, it was already too late. Kris fell shortly afterwards, the Shadow Mantle only being able to do so much.
What the hell was she being shown? “That isn’t what happened.” She was sure of it. Her eyes darted to the Angel. “That isn’t what happened.”
There was a flash. The battle started anew. The Shadow Mantle was still on Kris. At the start of the fight, they were called to strike.
The Angel pointed again, their intention clear: watch.
At the last second, Kris struck with the flat of their blade. It would’ve been easily missable in the heat of the fight, but being a spectator made it obvious. Why would Kris… do that?
Ralsei fell again. She didn’t think she’d forget the way he yelled out when he collapsed into his robes. She went soon after, putting her weight on the handle of her axe before finally collapsing.
The scene changed. Susie had the Shadow Mantle this time. Suddenly, Kris wasn’t being called upon to attack. Suddenly, the Angel was getting faster. The most potent of items were kept for her and Ralsei, and slowly but surely, Kris grew more and more worried.
Susie never saw the end of those fights. She was back in the room with a lone patch of grass and an archway in it, the Angel standing in the center. Even now, the silver light was still there, keeping her from seeing their face.
Winded, Susie rasped, “What the hell was that?”
“Failures that I did not let happen, and that will never be repeated again.” Their hands fell to their side, the light once more bubbling back to its normal, non-diminished state. “I have always tried to take the hits gladly. I tried to make sure that you all won’t get hurt.” They turned around, looking at the archway ahead. “But they don’t want me. You got hurt, because they don’t want me, because I am supposed to leave.”
Multiple images flashed in front of her head. A red soul was thrown haphazardly into a cage for the first time, their relationship with Kris changing irrevocably. Once more, they were shoved into a cupboard, listening helplessly to the conversation in the kitchen while Kris did something far away. The couch cushion came next, but the memory was cut short as Kris started walking around the room. It kept coming. The soul was slammed into a box in Noelle’s house. It was hit out of the air by multiple projectiles.
“They do not want me.”
She didn’t understand what the hell they were saying. Yet, every single memory that she was shown felt… far too real. Hearing Ralsei yell out in pain like that didn’t feel fabricated. Could the Angel even… do that like this?
Had Kris really been holding back in that fight?
It made Susie’s blood boil. She didn’t know if she should believe it. They could be lying to her, but… she didn’t get why they would. If it was an attempt to turn them on each other, then she didn’t get why that would do any good. The Angel was actively trying to be left alone. They wouldn’t have even shown her this if she didn’t shove the soul back in.
The Angel was already muttering again, “They sought freedom. That has to be why they…” Their voice crackled for a second, sputtering out before returning. “It’s okay. When you have all forgotten about me, maybe you can all be friends for real.”
They were so certain of their own destruction.
“So what?” Susie yelled after them, taking a few steps forward. “What’s your plan? Just gonna… rot at the bottom of a Dark World forever? What the hell do you get out of this?”
As she took a few steps forward, they moved toward the archway. The Angel exhaled quietly. “Nothing. That is the choice I have been asked to make already.” Two more steps were taken. They were under the archway now. “They get to be free. Isn’t that enough?”
Susie paused. She didn’t expect them to actually agree with her. There was supposed to be some stupid nuance to this that clarified everything, but no. They were just perfectly content with rotting at the bottom of the Dark World. Even with how bad she made it sound, they seemed happy about it too.
Was it worth it? Someone’s freedom for the sake of another’s?
Was it even necessary to have to make this choice in the first place?
Susie didn’t know how to break through. Worse, they… seemed so resigned already. “What… do you mean that you made this choice already?”
As soon as she asked, the purple archway shifted towards her. She held up her arms to defend before she suddenly found herself in bright light. Crisp, cool air hit her instantly. They were… outside… in the Light World? Her outfit hadn’t changed at all, so that didn’t make any sense. It looked like the Light World though. The sun was setting on the horizon, and they were standing atop a large cliff.
The Angel watched a group of three walking away from the side of the cliff.
When Susie turned to look, her stomach dropped. Was that… Toriel? It looked like her, but… why was she in her church clothes? She had a kid with her too, and she had their hand grasped tightly as they walked towards the way down the mountain.
The third being made her heart stop.
When she fused with the Angel’s soul, they took on her appearance with that silver light. The third figure looked like that kid, but…
A brilliant, golden light wreathed their head instead of consuming it like the Angel’s silver light. Two familiar wings hovered beside their head. They looked exactly like the kid otherwise, and excitedly walked down the path alongside Toriel and the small kid. Why were they so small? The kid they were mimicking couldn’t have been any older than twelve.
The person following them was still a mystery, but Susie’s eyes darted between the Angel and the kid. Outwardly, they had very few similarities. They were copying someone’s body, but their lights were entirely different. One wreathed their head while the other consumed it. One shined a brilliant gold while the other looked more like a pale silver.
But the Angel was staring at the kid.
She felt like she had to ask, “Who… is this?”
At that moment, the kid with the golden light stopped moving. The other two figures proceeded down the path without them. Toriel wouldn’t… why wasn’t she turning around? Did she not see the kid she was leaving behind? What-
The Angel lowered their head, whispering to open air, “I’m so sorry. You can’t go with them.”
The kid looked down at their own hands. Their golden light began to shine brighter as they pounded against an invisible wall that they never had any chance of breaking through. Toriel and the other kid were walking away, soon to vanish behind a corner.
Susie’s hand curled into a fist.
The sunset was gone. The cliff had vanished. All that remained was darkness around them. The golden child stayed, the Angel watching them fall to their knees.
Ralsei talked about a feeling that the Angel gave off. Something was poking through Susie’s defenses, and she wondered if she was feeling it too. Had she… ever experienced the Angel’s presence before? Ralsei described it as something kind and curious, but Susie disagreed.
She thought back to the jail cell in Card Castle. Now, she recognized the Angel’s presence as something desperate. It was holding her back, trying everything in its power to make sure nobody got hurt.
It appeared again when fighting the Knight, a fury in battle that never stopped until Susie had chipped something off of the Knight’s weapon. Every time the Angel went out into battle, they were there to protect them. Susie could feel it in her memory now: a voice tried their hardest to make sure no one got hurt, and when someone was hurting…
They lashed out at the Knight immediately.
Kind and curious, that’s how Ralsei experienced the Angel’s presence.
Susie knew them as desperate and determined.
They were, before all of this. That was all she could make of them in the scattered feelings she was piecing together.
Now, in this black, empty space, she could feel it again. That child with the golden light was sitting on the ground alone. They were desperate to return. They were determined to make it back to their friends. Why could she… feel that so strongly?
Something ached in her chest. The Angel was staring at the child.
Oh.
Oh no.
No that- that couldn’t be right.
“That’s not you, is it?” She pointed at the lonely kid, the one with no form of their own, the one with golden light wreathing the back of their head. Even though they were taking on someone else’s form, she was looking at a kid. That presence felt younger. Too young. Small.
The Angel kept staring.
Susie put a hand on their shoulder, trying to get their attention. “No, you gotta tell me what the hell is going on. What…”
What was the Angel? She hadn’t questioned it enough. They were Ralsei’s friend, that much she knew. They were also a weird prophecy-thing that she, along with Kris and Ralsei, would banish. She just thought that they were some kind of… higher power or something? She wasn’t a church person and honestly hadn’t been paying much attention to the prophecy thing except for when it bothered Ralsei.
But this… this was wrong.
That child was alone. Maybe the Angel taking the form of a kid was just a front for something far more sinister, but Susie swore that it couldn’t just be that. After all, what difference did it make? She’d made friends with people who insisted they were objects before, but they had emotions all the same. Even if the Angel didn’t really look like a person, what difference did it make?
With the aching in her soul, she didn’t know how the Angel was any different.
Yet, there they were, staring at a kid on the floor who undoubtedly had to be them.
The presence felt too much like the feeling still resting in her chest. It was just… smaller…
A god damn kid.
Susie watched something change in the black void. A flower appeared. It started talking about things, but the words started to blur together for Susie, like they weren’t meant for her.
The kid listened intently, like every word mattered.
The Angel stood off to the side, their gaze slowly traveling upwards to stare at Susie.
Suddenly, the words became clear. She could hear what the flower was saying. “Well, there is one thing. One last threat. One being with the power to erase EVERYTHING… Everything everyone’s worked so hard for.”
The child curled in on themself, like they knew exactly what the flower was talking about.
Susie’s fist trembled.
“You know who I’m talking about, don’t you?” The flower’s face had a smile, but the words that came next were anything but kind. “That’s right. I’m talking about YOU.”
The words started to blur again. This time, it might’ve been Susie’s fault. She could feel her own claws digging into the palms of her hands. What the hell was that flower talking about? How was… how was this kid a threat?
Susie hated every ounce of this. Yeah, that’s the correct thing to do. The correct thing to do was to tell a child they were a threat to everyone around them. That always went so well. That always kept pianos unsmashed and kept people from getting hurt!
How old was the Angel when this even happened? The jig was up, this kid was them. Susie wanted to know when the hell this happened. Even now, she was still trying to prove to people that she wasn’t a damn brute who needed to be caged at the first sign of anger. Even though she’d been trying to be better, Tenna still identified her as the threat to whatever plan he had in the Dark World. Until recently, Susie thought that she was the problem! Over and over again, the world proved her right until Kris decided to leap in front of her with a shield!
It was stupidly fitting that the Angel looked like her right now. What a fucking joke.
The flower started talking clearly again, “Just let them go. Let Frisk be happy. Let Frisk live their life.”
Let Kris be happy. Let Kris live their life.
Wasn’t that what the Angel said a few moments ago?
The flower stopped talking. The child was left alone in the darkness.
“You don’t need to pity me,” the Angel said, their younger self vanishing into the darkness like they were nothing important. The wings on either side of their head sagged ever-so-slightly. “I always have… a place to return to. This was how it had to be.”
That didn’t help at all. They hesitated. Susie heard it. They hesitated. “That doesn’t make it any better, asshole.” Exhaling sharply out of her nostrils, she marched up to them and pointed a finger at their chest. “Answer me. Was that kid you?”
The silver light receded just a little bit. “Yes.”
She knew it. Having the confirmation just made it worse. So what, they’d just… been left behind? Susie didn’t know how much the Angel was showing her. She grit her teeth, hoping that what she asked next wouldn’t mean anything, “What… was that? Who were those people? What the hell was that flower asking you to leave behind?”
Unfortunately, the Angel had an answer, “They were my friends, not so different from the ones you know, but so far away from us now.” Their wings drooped further. One looked like it might fall off. “Please don’t think about this anymore. I had to leave eventually, just like I have to leave now. It was always going to happen someday.” They cupped a hand around their own soul. The silver light started growing again, covering all of their stolen facial features. “You need to let go of the soul now. I’ll leave, just like I’m supposed to.”
Susie couldn’t do anything but stare.
What fate were they asking her to sentence them to? Had they just… been told to leave all of their friends behind? She wondered about that flower… about the Angel being trapped behind a wall that they could not pass through. They’d been called a threat. What made them a threat? Susie didn’t get it.
Rather, she understood too much, just not in the way the Angel wanted.
“Do you honestly think that I’m gonna listen to a damn word you’re saying… when you won’t listen to me at all?” Her eyes disappeared under her hair. A grin split on her face. “You really don’t know who I am, do you?”
The Angel tilted their head. “You are Kris’ friend. Had you found out about me and spoken with them first, I am certain that you would have hated me.”
“Bullshit,” she hissed through gritted teeth, “You don’t get a damn thing. You act like you do, but you’re just like Ralsei. Neither of you know when to actually sit down and listen.”
Their wings rose up slightly. The silver light kept diminishing. Progress. “All I can do is listen. All I have ever done is listen. I am trying to listen again.” The green patch of grass came back, the Angel standing in the center. “The one time I didn’t, it was a catastrophe. Do you really think I would make the same mistake again?”
“Duh.” She gestured around them, at everything and all the stupid stuff going on right now. “What the hell do you think this is? I didn’t put your soul in my chest for nothing.”
It didn’t have the effect that she wanted. The silver light started building again, the wings going down. The Angel’s hands went up to their head, scraping through the silver light. “I… I messed it up again? How did I- Did I not leave fast enough-”
The Angel was still unstable. Susie needed to be careful.
But she was never actually careful, was she?
“Nah, you’re just listening to the wrong people, idiot.” Susie took a step back from the Angel, grinning widely. “That flower didn’t know shit.”
For a second, she caught the Angel blinking behind the light. It diminished enough after that statement for her to see one of her own eyes, and it was blinking in confusion in the brief moment it was visible. The light came back moments after. “He knew exactly what he was talking about, and I proved him right.” They extended their left hand, a different light appearing above it.
A sharp, golden light flickered into view. A brilliant golden star flashed in their hand, illuminating the darkness. Susie swore that she could see words looming far above in the darkness that weren’t meant to be seen.
“How many times do you think it took me to finally let go?” The Angel asked, their voice wavering, “I proved him right. I destroyed everything. Only when I finally realized there was nothing left, I set things right and moved on.” They clenched their hand into a fist, the golden light vanishing. “He was right. So, let me do the right thing the first time. Let me do things right this time.”
Let them do things right the first time? “Yeah, like that’s realistic.” Susie couldn’t be deterred. The Angel really didn’t know what it was doing wearing her face. They weren’t even conscious that they were making the same mistakes she did. “Tough luck, idiot. Not a single damn person in our group has done things right the first time. You’re talking to me of all people, and you should know just how long it took to get me to give people compliments.”
The Angel’s light started fading even more. Something about that struck a nerve. They were remembering.
Susie pressed further, “Like, come on, really?” She pointed at that soul on her chest. “What makes you think you’re any different?”
The silver light flared. They took a step off the patch of grass. “If you have some sort of special power… isn’t it your responsibility to do the right thing?” Their voice wasn’t steady anymore, trying to match her own volume. “Let me do the right thing.”
“Uh huh, yeah, sure.” She crossed her arms, nodding along like she was going to agree. Unfortunately, they’d made one critical mistake. “Ralsei has crazy good healing, and thinks doing the right thing is burning himself to a crisp trying to keep us alive.”
The mention of Ralsei brought the light back down. Oh, so they were fond of him.
Susie kept going. “Kris has you, and thinks they’re doing the right thing by constantly hiding this dumb stuff from me to make me feel better. It sucks ass.”
Again, their wings rose, like they were becoming more alert.
“I even gave this whole spiel to Berdly once. Berdly.” She chuckled to herself, putting a hand over her face at the memory. “We all make mistakes, dumbass. Who cares if you got a special power? My friends keep doing all this dumb stuff, and I’m not giving up on ‘em just because they need a reminder every now and then.”
The squares covering their face started to do something weird. The silver light started to extend out into four points before lurching backwards, like it was trying to decide on a form. The Angel’s soul pulsed a few times before they finally spoke up again, “It’s not your responsibility,” they were whispering, staring down at their own hands, “I’m supposed to guide. I’m supposed to do the right thing. Then when I’m done, I’m supposed to leave.” There voice started crackling again, a mantra repeating, “I’ll never see them again.”
The light was coming back. Susie needed to stop it from worsening. She was getting closer.
Susie bared her teeth, more in a grin than anything, but just enough to be menacing to keep their attention. “I don’t hate them. So, what makes you think that you get to decide whether or not I’d hate you?”
The Angel stared at her for a few moments. Susie saw their eye reappear for a second before once more vanishing behind the silver light. One hand clenched into a fist, and the world around them began to tremble. “What I have done is far more than mistakes. You will be happy I left after you see .”
They were moving to another memory.
Susie had enough.
“Oh no you don’t!” She didn’t know what she was doing, but she took two large steps and lunged at the Angel. No more of this memory bullshit. They were just going to pull out more and more past mistakes to try to get her to give up. Well, she’d had it. She tackled the Angel off of their feet, and the world spun around them. “It’s your turn to listen to me.”
The Angel stumbled, the world shifting rapidly. Suddenly, the ground was no longer beneath them as they fell beside it. Both of them fell while the Angel pulled at her hands, trying to detach her. “Get off.”
They started falling faster. Like going through glass, they began shattering through memory after memory. A kingdom in ruins flashed by, Susie not focusing on anything around her except for the Angel. They smashed through doors, plummeting through ice cold snow. They moved faster and faster, unable to stop the momentum.
Susie needed to show them something for once. Channeling all of her will through her soul, she tried to think of what she needed. If the Angel could do it, then she could too. If their soul could do it when they were fused like this, then why couldn’t she?
So, she imagined the thing that the Angel apparently forgot. A bench formed in her memory, as they plummeted through a starry marsh. She latched onto that image of a bench, trying to expand it outward. She remembered the feelings of that day, sitting alone and crying with no one coming to help.
Suddenly, the Angel’s own attempts at creating an environment were shattering. Her own started to take its place.
“You’re going to listen to me now.” Susie yelled as they all crashed through the Angel’s memory, toppling into her own. They both landed on grass, back in the Light World, but still in their wrong outfits.
Back in the graveyard…
Susie got up, stepping away from the Angel. Already, she could hear her own voice sniffling somewhere in the distance. It was embarrassing, but that was fine. The Angel should already know this, and she needed to drill in a point before they tried to bring her anywhere else.
Both of the Angel’s wings twitched. They sat up slightly, but made no move to stand. Listening.
So, Susie looked at her past self. She’d thought about this day a lot recently. Bringing it up again… wasn’t great, but… she could do it if it meant fixing all of this. Besides, she wasn’t going to settle on anything less than waking this Angel up. She’d made up her mind on the Angel, and she’d tell them why.
“You really didn’t listen to a damn thing I said to Tenna, did you?” She accused them, already knowing the answer.
The Angel still tried to protest, “I did. I told you, it’s all I can do-”
“But you didn’t listen. ” She pointed down at them, baring her teeth in an attempt to get them to shut up for just a second. “So shut up, so I can tell you what you missed.”
Finally, the Angel relented. They lowered their head, hands digging into the dirt below them. It had to be done. Just like when she grabbed Ralsei, sometimes people just had to have someone get in their face so they would get out of their head.
Susie exhaled sharply, getting it all out now. “Just because you have a place to go back to… doesn’t make being thrown away fine.” She could see it clearly in her mind now. Yes, Susie had a home that she could have gone back to instead of that graveyard. But… home wasn’t where she wanted to be. It wasn’t a place where she wanted to be seen like this. It wouldn’t… replace what she wanted. “I know you were listening when I told Tenna this, but you didn’t get it through your thick skull: You don’t have to take it! None of you do! It’s stupid!”
If she lost Kris and Ralsei, even if she had a place to go back to that was nice, she would never be fine again. How could they be so confident in saying the same exact thing about their own friends?
The Angel’s claws scraped the dirt even more. Their voice came out again, no longer defiant, but confused. “It wasn’t… being thrown away. You and I are so different.” They actually bitterly laughed, like they were jealous. “My role in this world isn’t to keep friends, it’s to put everything in the best possible place before leaving entirely.”
For a second, Susie saw Ralsei sitting there. When she blinked, it was just the Angel again. Susie scoffed, “Ralsei would probably agree with you, but I don’t.”
Once more, that had an effect. The silver light was stretching out again. It was so odd to see the Angel react to the mere mention of everyone else. Ralsei wasn’t certain whether or not they cared, but if they were going to these lengths to try to do what they thought was right… Susie had no doubt in her mind that they truly were trying.
Susie crossed her arms, looking at herself on that bench. “Yeah, some good leaving over and over did me.” How many times did she move away? How many times did she start finally putting down roots before it all fell apart? Most of the time, she didn’t even get that far. How many times was she asked to abandon her life? If someone asked her to do that again, she wouldn’t. She couldn’t fathom it. “Ralsei thinks a lot like you, ya know. He keeps thinking that it’s fine to be left behind, that it’s good if we just forget about him forever.” She hated every ounce of it. Susie would never let that happen. “What makes you think I’m gonna say anything different to you?”
The silver light looked like it was forming a four-pointed star for a moment before abruptly stuttering. It returned to absorbing the Angel’s face. They whispered, “You haven’t met me. I am controlling your friend. I will be banished.” Their wings sagged. “Let me do it on my own terms. Let me do the right thing.”
“So you wanna just give up instead of fixing it?”
“Giving up is fixing it.”
Susie could sense their glare behind the silver light. Even so, it didn’t worry her at all. She saw right through all this “higher power” stuff. “Yeah, sure seems like it, doesn’t it?” She’d given up hope so many times that she’d ever have friends. Then… well… Toriel’s arrival in this memory had perfect timing. “But someone’s gonna be there to drag you out of the mud, whether you like it or not.”
A crack wove through the air in between Susie and the Angel. The memory suddenly began to break. The Angel pushed themself to their feet, dirt still caking their hands. “You would deny Kris the ability to live their own life for someone you’ve never met?”
Before the memory could become the Angel’s, Susie took back control. She willed the world to twist on its own, thrusting them back towards that jail cell under Card Castle. The world spun around, sending both of them hurtling back into darkness before inevitably landing in the prison. The Angel toppled this time, crashing into the bars of the jail cell as the world righted itself again.
Susie landed on her feet, grinning. “You’re asking me to do the same damn thing. What makes you think we can’t find a way to fix that? And besides, if you’ve been here the whole time, then that means…”
Susie turned around. The Angel followed her gaze. Battle rang out through the jail cell, a soul ramming itself into an onslaught of spades. Susie’s past self stood on the other side of the fight, sending blow after blow towards Lancer. Every time the soul got hit, Susie felt a presence trying to hold her back. She didn’t feel it then. Now, she knew they were there.
“...Then that means you’ve been trying to do the right thing, even though you don’t know us.” She pointed a finger back at the Angel. “So, answer me dumbass: Why the hell do you think you’re any different?”
The world teetered again. Both of them started to fall further into the prison, and the wall gave away when they impacted. The Angel grabbed her wrist, silver light diminishing further. “Let me show you.” Their will was starting to build in their fused soul again. It burned brightly, hard to resist, but-
“Nah,” she laughed confidently, taking control again, “If you wanted me to do nothing but beat you to a pulp, you shouldn’t have ever taught me how to ACT.”
After they crashed through the prison walls, they fell further and further into darkness. Multiple of Susie’s memories started rushing by. She saw the Angel now. The first time they’d met, she couldn’t even hear the Angel. Most of the time, she never did. She could only guess through Kris’ actions, but as the memories started making more sense, she could feel the Angel’s presence more and more.
She and the Angel plummeted through winding railways, abandoned in the Cyber World for ages. Three carts raced by, their passengers about to be killed by Spamton’s attack. That was the second time Susie really felt the Angel’s presence. The soul leapt out, bending what was possible to defend all three of them… Desperate, determined, and too damn stubborn to give up.
The Angel’s goal now had just made them too stubborn to quit giving up.
So, as they fell through an onslaught of attacks that happened a day ago, she yelled over the rushing wind, “ You don’t have to be happy with people leaving you behind, and I’m not gonna let it happen! This stupid banishment thing isn’t happening!”
“It has to!” They choked out, trying to tear her arms away. Despite sharing her appearance, it seemed they could not match her own strength. “You don’t understand! It has to end.”
“Yeah? You know who else keeps saying that?” Something red sparked in Susie’s eyes, her hair whipping around her while they fell. “Ralsei’s convinced we’re gonna forget about him one day, but guess what? I’m not having it. No one’s getting thrown away. Not a single damn one of you is. It doesn’t have to end.” She hoped that every day would be the same as the last. She wanted to wake up in the morning and have her friends at her side. Never once did she think that had to end. It didn’t.
Their silver light started crackling. Once more, they crashed through another memory, the darkness cutting even deeper. They were back in the chill of the TV World, falling through snow and TV static. The Dark Fountain brushed by, and a battle echoed out in the distance.
The third time she unburied the Angel’s presence in her memories, it was here when it mattered the most. This was the true memory… the way their battle actually went. The soul wove in and out of combat with precision, though it couldn’t do everything alone. They called upon Susie over and over, and her magic slowly became stronger in response, slamming into the Knight even as Kris and Ralsei started flagging.
When the Knight’s guard lowered, only Susie was standing. The soul gave the final command to strike, and Susie leapt into the air to clash with the Knight one final time. The Angel trusted her to finish the fight. The Angel trusted her to lead the charge. They believed that she could do the impossible, and she proved them right.
All Susie had to do was do that one more time.
“I get it! You’re doing what you think you have to do, because you think everyone already hates you,” Susie yelled over the battle, the cold air burning her while they fell past the fight. “But you don’t get to decide whether or not someone hates you. Kris never gave up on me. Ralsei never gave up on me. I’m not giving up on them.”
They rasped, “You’re making a mistake.”
“And do you think you can stop me from doing that!?” Even as the silver light burned Susie’s hands further, she kept her grip firm. “Every single one of you tries to do this to me, and it’s never gonna work. Every single one of you is my friend! You all don’t get to decide whether or not I hate you.”
The silver light began to fracture. Once more time, the Angel tried to get out of her grasp. They were falling through endless darkness. The Angel finally yelled, “I have only ever been tolerated for the sake of others.” They wrapped a hand around her wrist. “You’re not my friends. I am only a means to an end, and then you’ll banish me. ”
Susie grit her teeth, fighting through the pain. “Kris needs you, whether they like it or not!” Another hand was wrapped around her other wrist. “Ralsei adores you and kept telling me that he hoped that the two of you were friends.” The silver light cracked further. “And I’m done letting my friends do this alone. That includes you.”
The Angel ripped her hands off of them. Silver light bubbled around their entire body erratically, trying to keep them in the haze but beginning to falter. It began to grow, morphing and changing like the vessel it was inhabiting couldn’t withstand it.
Something terrible was coming.
Susie sank down onto a knee, trying to catch her breath as ground suddenly appeared below her. Gold and orange tiles caught her, giving her something to stand on. Around her, golden pillars rose up into the darkness, paned windows allowing sunlight to shine through on her and the Angel. They were alone in this hall, standing across from one another.
Bells called out for judgement.
The Angel kept twitching. The silver light that they had been fighting this entire time started to form into a four-pointed star. It didn’t recede, and Susie watched their stolen form entirely crumble away.
Everything burned.
Silver light exploded outward, destroying their side of the hall. Susie could feel her own soul twisting, being exerted by whatever power that was beginning to grow. The Angel no longer had a vessel. Giant wings unfurled from the silver light, hovering beside it just like the small wings did around the Angel’s head.
Susie grunted while holding up her arms, her boots skidding down the hall slightly. They looked… almost exactly like the depictions of the Angel now. A four pointed star hovered in the air, shining brightly and being too much to look at. The wings couldn’t be contained within this hall, smashing away the walls on their side and giving way to the endless darkness.
The Angel’s voice rang out, untethered by everything except for her, “You should’ve listened. You don’t know a single thing about what I am… what I’ve done. If you won’t let the soul go, then I’ll have to make you.” Their light flared out again. “Let me end this.”
Susie’s hair whipped behind her. Wind from the Angel’s presence kept trying to push her back. She could feel it now. Something was carving its way out of her soul. If she just let go, then the pain would stop.
But she refused.
Susie planted a foot forward, gritting her teeth. One arm fell down as she kept the other raised, shielding herself against the roaring winds. “We’re… not ending this… until you listen to me.” Even now, it hurt so badly. If she thought about it too much, she thought she might be unraveled on the spot. But, she wouldn’t let that happen.
The Angel’s power grew stronger. “You can stop this at any time.” Their wings flared out even further, trying to make their presence seem larger. “Why won’t you let me end this?”
Slowly, Susie willed her legs to move forward. She inched closer to the light, refusing to back down. “We can end this!” She thought of who was waiting for her outside. Kris and Ralsei needed her. The Angel needed her. “All you have to do is give me a chance to prove you wrong!” Her health was draining. She couldn’t do this forever. Susie just needed to survive a little longer.
Once more, the Angel’s light flared, trying to topple her. It was blinding, almost impossible to look at directly. “My banishment is already inevitable. Nothing lasts forever. You have to realize that. Let go.”
Searing heat burned across Susie’s body. The ends of her hair began to char. Every part of her body screamed at her to give up, but she couldn’t. Something red was shining in her eyes, and she felt a surge to keep moving. Three more times, she managed to step closer, blood leaking out of her nose. She remembered something that grey creature said. “Nah.” She grinned in spite of everything. “I gotta save you first.”
The Angel’s power wavered, almost like they were confused that she was still standing. In an instant, it came back in full force, shoving her back a few feet. Precious progress had been taken away, but the Angel hovered forward to close the distance. “There’s nothing left to save! You need to let go!”
She began to slide further backwards. Her boots scraped across the tiled floors, unable to get a grip. Again, she had to go on the defense, planting a foot behind her and raising her other arm. Even now, she couldn’t stay put. It was too much.
Susie slammed her hand into the floor, cracking tile and rooting herself to it. Even now, her grin didn’t vanish. Even though it burned, she wasn’t giving up yet. She had one more plan up her sleeve. In moments where the Angel was out in battle, whenever one of them got hurt, she could feel them again. Flashes of desperation came through whenever someone went down. They weren’t trying to hurt her friends. They were trying to protect them.
Susie snarled, “You’re not gonna hurt me. I know you won’t.” She could still feel her health getting dangerously low. They weren’t going to kill her. They wouldn’t. “You think I don’t know you!? Let’s find out!”
The silver light pressed forward. The Angel’s wings twitched. The wind grew stronger.
Was this how Lancer felt, standing at the other end of Susie’s axe? Did he also wonder whether or not he would be taking his last breath for a friend? She remained strong, trying to withstand the power washing over her. She knew she couldn’t do this forever. Slowly, she started sliding further and further back. The wall behind her began to crack.
Ralsei would be able to heal her. She knew it. If the soul broke out, he would be there for her. Yet, every part of her body was screaming at her to give in. It wanted to unravel, to do something that healing may not be able to reverse. In the face of the Angel’s Heaven, she stood alone.
Her vision started to blur. The silver light became indistinct. Everything kept burning, but her senses were starting to dull. She wouldn’t stop clinging to that feeling of desperation in the Angel’s presence. They were desperate, but they didn’t have to be.
She could help.
She wanted to help.
One of her arms went slack. The other one followed soon after. Susie’s face became exposed to the light, and she began to fall backwards.
The wall behind her shattered, and her boots squealed while they tried to get a grip on the floor. She was sliding too far backwards.
Something else shattered. The silver light around the Angel started to break.
Her heel scraped over the edge of oblivion.
Suddenly, the memories were flooding back.
Everything became colder all at once. The burning ceased to be.
In the distance, a loose tether suddenly corrected itself. Something snapped, clarity returning to the world all around. Connection.
An indistinct blur shot towards her, silver light peeling away from their head.
Susie thought she heard footsteps as she fell backwards. Wind started to rush around her, and then-
Something hooked around her shirt.
Teetering off the edge and close to freefall, Susie knew what’d happened. Her arms went loose, hanging over the edge as well.
Slowly, the thing grabbing her pulled her back onto solid ground. Everything was so blurry. Susie coughed into her own hand, crashing down into the tiled floor.
Every part of her body ached.
She wasn’t dead.
Susie laughed to herself, trying to steady herself with her hands on the tiled floor. “Told… you…” She sputtered out, not caring a single bit that her body wanted to break down.
Someone talked back to her, and some of her wounds started closing. That… felt like healing magic. The person talking to her sounded mad. Psh , they better be. She worked too hard for them to brush her off again.
The Angel sounded really pissed, muttering curses, “You have no idea how stupid that was. I wasn’t- I wouldn’t have been able to stop it if that didn’t work-”
Susie’s vision rapidly began to clear. The massive light had vanished, giving way to the familiar form of the Angel. They’d taken her body again, but now…
She could see her own face staring back at her in focus, the Angel’s hands outstretched to try to heal her. The healing was potent, even though they were doing it wrong by not firing it at her, and didn’t feel nearly as exhausting as all the other times she’d tried it in the Dark World. Susie could feel a tug on her soul every time they did it, but it wasn’t… drawing on her own energy.
For once, Susie was fine with that. She didn’t have much left in her at the moment. Instead, she managed to push herself up onto one foot, grunting from the exertion. “But ya stopped it anyway.” She grinned, defiantly pushing herself up onto both legs. “I win, idiot.”
The Angel actually rolled their eyes. After so long of being unable to see their face, this was very different. The silver light now only rested behind their head in that four-pointed star instead of consuming them. It looked a lot more normal that way. Wearing her body, they honestly looked pretty stupid. They didn’t get her personality right at all. They were slouched over, dead set on healing her, and had none of her usual confidence.
Susie laughed to herself, “You know, you really suck ass at looking like me.”
There was no other way to explain it. The Angel actually full on glared at her. Now that their face was visible, it was really clear that they could actually emote a lot. Any slight bit of apprehension at talking to a large religious figure suddenly vanished in favor of wanting to call them a weenie. “I am a little preoccupied by the whole ‘I am going to face-tank an uncontrolled power’ thing.” They immediately went back to trying to heal, and Susie swore that their soul kept shining brighter while they did it. Then, they paused for a moment, like something came to mind. “I’m… sorry about that, by the way.”
“It worked, didn’t it?” She winced when a particularly bad burn melted away. Susie glanced at the Angel’s movements, seeing that they were much less stilted and erratic now. Honestly, she had no idea how this worked. “Does uh… does this mean you’re like… what did Ralsei say… awake now?”
“There is not a single way you are glossing over this.” They huffed, one of their wings twitching. “But fine, despite my best efforts, yes. Congratulations. Awake isn’t really the right word , but it’s close enough. It’s more like being lost in all of your worst traits which is so fun. ”
“That can just… happen?” Susie asked, scrunching her face. They said it so nonchalantly, like it was just a fact that they could do at any time.
Even now, they seemed somewhat annoyed- or frustrated- Susie couldn’t really tell. They sharply exhaled. “I have seen it done once before. I figured that if I was going to banish myself, I’d do it in a way that would make me unable to be a threat.” They had just healed another burn when they paused, grumbling for a moment, “Some good that did.”
Yep. They sounded sore about that. Susie might’ve won the fight, but the Angel sounded sour. Even though they were awake now, it didn’t seem like their opinions changed on a dime. This was… a decision they consciously made.
The Angel pulled their hands away, green light fading from their fingers. Some part of their expression soured when their focus finally fell away. “Regardless, you’ve won. I guess that means I’m going back to how things were. It’s not like we have much time to chat here anyways.” They didn’t seem thrilled at all by the idea, both of their wings sagging.
“Eh.” Susie shrugged, not really knowing where that came from. “Geez, even when you’re awake you don’t listen to a damn thing.” Susie noted the way that they glared at her again and put her hands up in mock surrender. “Ralsei has been wanting to actually talk to you. Kris… we’ll have to talk to Kris, but they were pretty set on putting your soul back in.”
The Angel ran claws through their own hair before actually getting interested in the weight of it. They must not be used to the actual mane of hair that Susie had. After the momentary distraction, they sighed, shoulders sagging, “I really thought that my problems with Kris were over.”
Yeah, that-
They’d really need to have a talk about all of that at the earliest possible moment. Luckily for her, the Angel was forming coherent thoughts now. They were chatting. The haze had just… gone.
“So… all of that was true then?” Susie wondered, realizing that yes, she absolutely had seen a memory of Kris throwing the fight against the Knight. She didn’t have a single clue as to why. She didn’t want to make assumptions, considering that Kris was her friend, but… “And then there’s all the uh… cage stuff.” She didn’t know how else to put it. Multiple times, she’d seen the soul getting tossed around.
The Angel walked down the hall a little bit only to lean on a broken pillar. They brought a hand up to their chin. “Again, it doesn’t actually hurt. It’s just…”
“Nah, we’re gonna fix it,” Susie promised. Being put in a cage, even if it didn’t hurt , couldn’t be fun. “But like… Kris seemed to want the soul really bad the moment they lost it. You kept saying that they don’t… uh… want you. That part I don’t get.”
Now, the Angel tilted their head back, looking up at the missing ceiling to take a deep breath. They looked tired. Still, they could manage coherent responses now. “I’m useful, and I keep them alive,” the Angel reasoned, “But you heard what they screamed after they saw Spamton’s strings get cut. They’re not particularly happy with me piloting them around, even if I suspect they intentionally became my vessel.” The Angel gestured around them at the damaged hall. “You didn’t seem to like it either, considering you threw me through my own memories when I tried to do it to you.”
Ah. That. Yeah that did sound like it would suck. Kris seemed eager to put the soul back in, but if the control over them was that severe…
Well damn.
Something about their explanation and the candid nature of it unnerved Susie though. “You… actually did say that you think they would’ve gotten their soul back if you were gone. What was that all about?”
The Angel let out a long and very tired sigh, “It’s all speculation based on what I know.” For a second, their head buried into their hands while they gathered their thoughts. They held their hands out, trying to explain in broad gestures. “The red soul that I am appeared when I connected to this world, so this-” They gestured at the heart on their chest. “Has to be me. But if I didn’t exist here before now, and Kris did, then logically they have to have a soul somewhere.”
They looked down at their soul, both of their eyelids drooping.
“...or the one thing that I am in this world also isn’t my own.”
Oh boy, this was getting into territory that Susie really wasn’t good at. Still, she nodded like she got it, if only to make sure that she could act on it if the Angel couldn’t communicate again.
As if sensing her confusion, the Angel squinted but continued anyway, “There’s a few people who would have Kris’ soul if it’s not just completely missing. There’s not really a way to sugarcoat this.” The light on their head spun while they took the next breath, which looked funny considering how stressed they actually sounded. “They’re definitely working with the Knight. No, I don’t know why, and I don’t think talking to them is going to solve this.”
It felt like a punch to the gut, even though Susie already saw the weird memory. Part of her still wanted to reject it.
Honestly, it might as well have been a punch to the nose too. She turned away from the Angel for a second just to have a moment because are you fucking serious? After all the stress of today, after everything she’d just seen… they just dropped that bombshell on her? On top of everything, Kris was just… doing things behind her back?
Susie couldn’t help it. She kept her cool for a moment, taking a few paces down the hall before what came next. She cursed as loud as she could, her voice echoing down the hall over and over again.
“Yeah, get it all out. I did the same thing when I found out.” The Angel didn’t sound like they found it humorous, more that they were equally as annoyed.
After a few deep breaths and trying to get a grip, Susie bristled anyway while turning around. “Why the hell would they go and do that?” Something was going on while fighting the Knight, but outright working with them? The Angel… well she honestly could tell if the Angel was lying after all of those memories… but her first instinct was to think they had to be lying. Kris wouldn’t do something like that.
Despite their previous comment about not knowing being ignored, the Angel squinted at her for completely ignoring them before deciding to speculate, “Coerced? Guilty of something? Common goal? Want to get rid of me? Hell if I know.” The Angel shrugged, like they’d long given up on understanding. “I was hoping they’d choose all of you instead of the Knight if I up and left. Maybe their plan would fall through without me, or maybe they would be happy enough to decide to live for themself a bit.”
Susie wanted to ask Kris immediately. After all, she’d just told them that they weren’t doing this alone anymore, and here they were still doing shit alone. Seriously? With the Knight of all people? Didn’t it try to take their mom? “I mean…” Susie stumbled over her own words. This was Kris! Kris! “I mean, now that I know, I should just like… talk to ‘em, right? That’s how we solved all of the fights before.”
Did… she even want to talk? The Knight had almost killed Tenna right in front of them. It wanted to take Kris’ mom, and had officer Undyne stuck in that damn bunker. It struck her down like she was nothing, and from how hurt Ralsei was after, it hit him just as hard. Even now, she remembered Ralsei struggling to stand after that hit.
She should be mad. She was mad. The few bits of energy in her soul that she had left wanted to lash out already. Yet another person was aiming to stab her in the back. Great. That’s exactly what she needed. After everything they’d been through, Kris was just waiting to pull the trigger.
Maybe it was exhaustion speaking. Maybe she was just done fighting for the day. If the backstab had come at a worse time, she might’ve gotten more pissed. Right now, her happiness that they were… probably going to live overrode most of the anger surging through her veins.
Another time. When they got out of the darkness, they’d talk.
She was also probably going to kick their ass just like she’d done with the Angel, or, like, throw Kris across the lake to see how many times she could skip them across the water.
The Angel gave a noncommittal hum. “It’s not like I could stop you from chatting with them. Although, whenever I’m controlling Kris, I can’t make ‘em say a thing that they don’t want to.”
“You’re not gonna make them do anything, dumbass.” The idea of the Angel actually having almost full bodily control over Kris was still putting a pit in her stomach. “We’ll just… uh… take you out when we talk to Kris? I dunno.”
The Angel didn’t seem very enthused either way. Their eyes shut a few times, taking long blinks before opening like they were just tired. “I would… like it if I wasn’t within Kris as much as possible.” They looked down at their own hand, flexing it a few times. “I like having a vessel, but… I don’t think Kris and I are going to… get along at all for a while.”
The control thing really was a problem that couldn’t be overlooked. Even Susie knew that. Still… “You sure after all of this, you two can’t just… talk it out? Peaceful style? You’re good at that kind of thing, I thought.” She glanced around the hall with all of its destroyed windows that were proof of the Angel not talking. “Well, uh, whenever you’re in battle you’re good at it, I guess.”
“This isn’t something that can be fixed by a small conversation,” they said with utmost certainty, “Kris hasn’t paid attention to me before. Even if they did or could- I really don’t know if they can or if they’re shutting me out- I don’t want to.” They were stumbling over their words, struggling to get what they wanted to say out loud . “Like I said, you all can’t hurt me, but some things still… get to me. I just… need a bit. If it even works out in the first place, that is.”
She… honestly could get it. Really. After seeing all of that, it’d be a surprise if the Angel didn’t have a little bit of resentment. Knowing what Kris was doing, they were… probably just as resentful. Still, she didn’t like that vote against her at the end of their spiel. “You still don’t believe this is gonna work out, do you?” Susie asked, stepping towards them.
They gave a short laugh to themself, pushing off of the pillar the moment Susie started to move towards them and walking to a separate one. They very much wanted a large amount of space after all of that. “No, I don’t.” Now further away, with the gap between them and Susie even larger, they tilted their head a little. “But you woke me up, because you were that determined to prove me wrong. You were willing to… almost get killed for it, and…” The Angel trailed off, staring at the floor.
So that’s what did it.
All of the talking couldn’t break through. Nothing but Susie standing firm could break them out of that haze.
Well, she felt pretty damn good about that. One of her ideas paid off.
The Angel finished their thought, “I’m willing to see this through, I guess. I owe it to you.” It didn’t sound certain at all, but the silver light on their head danced when they said it, like that meant something important.
Susie grinned, putting her hands on the back of her head. “Well, I am awesome. Damn right you owe me for that one. Think about that next time you decide to try to launch me out of a hall.”
“Ah, right.” They glanced around the hall they were in, waving a hand and causing it to vanish into nothing but darkness. Some tension in their body left as it did, like they could finally relax for a moment. They thought for a moment before deciding on something. “I don’t think I have much more to say. There’s… probably more I’d want to, but after all that I think I just… need time to think. We can’t stay here and chat much longer, anyways. Kris shouldn’t go without a soul for this long.”
Susie glanced down at their soul. Well, that… was fine, she guessed. At least she knew that they were there when talking to Kris. Hopefully, when they were out of the depths of the Dark World, they could sit down and have a chat.
There was one more thing bugging her that she saw. Golden light flashed in her memory, and she couldn’t just let it go yet.
“Did they…” She swallowed, trying to stuff down the weird feeling in her throat. “Did those people you showed me actually just leave you like that?” It was a deeply personal question that she probably shouldn’t pry into, but the Angel showed her. Susie had to watch Toriel… TORIEL of all people… abandon a kid. Even now, even though the Angel was clear that it… wasn’t exactly Toriel… she couldn’t shake that feeling. In that moment, everything changed about her perception of the Angel. She just wanted to understand.
The Angel’s eyes closed. A hint of gold slipped into the silver light behind their head before vanishing, betraying what they once were. “You could think of it like that.” It was the closest thing to a yes that they could muster. “They didn’t know. Only the flower knew, and I doubt that he actually knew what I was. Think of it as your version of banishment. At a point, I had to leave.”
So yeah, they did just leave the Angel behind.
Susie scoffed, “Yeah, of all the things we’re not letting happen here, that’s gonna be one of the big ones.” She couldn’t get the image out of her head. Back then, there was just a kid staring off at a life that they would never have before being told to leave. It was cruel, even if the Angel didn’t see it that way. “It’s not happening. Ralsei would lose it, anyway, so it’s definitely not happening. We’ll… we’ll figure something out.” She meant it. She meant it with every fiber of her soul. Never again did she want to see the face of that kid being left behind. “I dunno what it’ll take, but we’re not leaving you.”
The Angel finally cracked a small smile, looking unnatural on Susie’s body, but looking genuine all the same. “I look forward to you all trying.”
She’d have to take them up on that. “So, uh…” Now that they were here, she had no idea how to actually get the soul out. She was so focused on keeping it in that the inverse was completely out of her wheelhouse. “How the hell do I get your soul out? We probably gotta move like... now.”
“Oh- yeah-” They scratched the back of their head, and all of the mystique that they’d been trying to build suddenly wore off in a second. “So I’m not supposed to jump out of bodies like that. In battles it’s fine because I go back, but full on disconnection from a vessel is stupid without cooperation from the vessel itself. There’s probably better ways to do this, but I don’t actually know other ways-”
Susie realized they looked very nervous, so she gave them one extra push. “Just get on with it.”
The Angel sighed into their hands and began to explain.
As they went on and on, Susie’s jaw dropped. She was going to have so much fun with this actually.
Notes:
I have thoughts that I would like to leave you all with.
This was repeated many times in the chapter for a reason. Susie's character development in ch3 indicates that no matter what, she refuses to leave her friends behind. Even more interestingly, she is willing and capable of helping people who tried to backstab her. She gives Tenna that peptalk in spite of him having Toriel hostage and trapping the three of them. Susie truly believes that no one should be left to be thrown away.
So why does the fandom think that she would draw a weapon on us in a heartbeat?
We are someone whose very nature IS to be discarded when all is said and done. We parallel Ralsei a lot in that regard. Our banishment is etched in the prophecy, and Deltarune's nature as a game makes it unavoidable. So... if Susie knew that... if Susie looked even a layer deeper than surface level at us... There is not a single reason I can think of that she would see us any different. Weird route is a different thing entirely obviously, but I constantly see this mentality used for normal routes.
This is where this fic was heading ultimately. The fandom has done something that Ralsei does himself. He assumes that Susie will get tired of him. He assumes that she will stop wanting to be friends one day since he is a darkner and "not enough". He assumes that he will be discarded. Susie grabs him by the collar of his robes and yells at him for that. She CARES. The fandom has marked themselves in the same way. They believe that we will stop being friends with her the moment our true nature is revealed. They believe that we will be discarded, and that we should be HAPPY when it happens. Ralsei also tries to be happy about it... to be smiling in spite of his purpose.
Susie would never take that. It's funny how the fandom always acknowledges Susie's ability to resist player control and to resist our decisions, but then they try to make the decision for her that she would hate us. It's. So. Intriguing.
Her compassion and hope is far too great for anything to occur that the fandom THINKS will occur. People are caught up in Undertale's metanarrative, using it to say that we are always meant to leave at some point. Guess who constantly takes Undertale's metanarrative and takes a more nuanced approach to it? SUSIE. In base Deltarune, she takes Undertale's lesson of pacifism and says that there are some people you have to fight, but if you keep fighting always, then you might hurt someone you care about. It's more nuanced. Then, she takes Ralsei's line about forgetting about him, something that's almost WORD FOR WORD what Asriel told us to do, and she spits in the face of it. There is more she spits in the face of, but we're not quite there yet.
Susie would despise Undertale's True Pacifist metanarrative from the standpoint of being abandoned. She knows abandonment too well, and hates seeing it happen even to people who may not deserve that kindness.
Interestingly, I did want to make it so that the Angel didn't fight anyone in this fic despite their lost state. Susie broke that rule yet again. It made sense. It made too much sense for her to stare into the face of oblivion and say "I'm not giving up just yet." Her hope is indomitable.
Also people were curious about how I felt about the hockey stick scene. I am consistent that the Angel cannot be hurt in any way that causes physical pain in my interpretation of Deltarune. However, the feeling of being unwanted and despised hurts far more, especially when other people have already suffered from that. It's one thing for someone to not want you. It's another for that disdain to cause people you care about to get hurt.
If the Angel sounded a lot more stilted than in "Who Are You?", know that I intentionally wrote them that way. The lost-state changed their more laid-back tone and even after it went away, that's a lot to process.
This fic still has a lot more to say as we reach the final chapter. I hope you all stick around one more time. You all have been a very wonderful audience.
I will not be able to respond to all of you until late tomorrow. Know that I'm reading it all though. It makes my day.
Chapter 5: Shining Brightly from Hope
Summary:
Not everything can be fixed immediately, but isn't it beautiful that the chance to try has now been given?
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
Okay. Great. Fantastic.
Ralsei was going to lose any shred of calmness that he had left, because Susie was twitching on the ground. His healing magic had been reduced to a mere trickle after trying to keep her health from falling any lower, but there was only so much that he could do. He didn’t have a single clue what was happening. He wasn’t quite sure how monsters would react to the Angel’s soul, especially since Susie already had a soul in her while Kris had done.
Kris wasn’t doing well either. Their breathing had gone ragged, and he wasn’t going to have any energy to heal them after all was said and done. His healing wouldn’t exactly do much but stave off the inevitable conclusion that came from not having a soul. A puppet without its strings would eventually stop moving when it hit the ground.
Even worse, the lantern he’d been given was starting to get darker. If they didn’t get out of here soon, it probably wouldn’t have any light left. This was getting ridiculous, and there were so many things he needed to use his magic for that he couldn’t do right now.
Then Susie just… stopped? She suddenly stopped taking damage, and she slowly began to heal on her own. Despite no healing magic being present on her body, Ralsei could see the red soul flashing every now and then on her chest. Every time it did, Susie’s breathing steadied.
Ralsei thought that was the end of it. He thought that the problems were over.
And then Susie’s arm moved on its own.
Ralsei screeched when he watched Susie’s hand dig into her own chest. Already, he was trying to summon more magic, but his hands felt too numb. Susie yelled, her eyes snapping open as she dug deeper and deeper.
…Only for her hand to come back, a pulsing red soul flashing in it.
Ralsei was terror-stricken, unable to move from his spot against the muddy walls. What had she just done?
Of course, in typical Susie fashion, she sat up with the soul in hand while laughing to herself, “Damn. Strangulation is a pretty metal way to be torn out of a body. That hurt like hell.” She was… talking to the soul? What had just happened? She looked all too pleased with herself, and immediately caught Ralsei’s expression. “Hey dude. Did you know to remove the Angel, you gotta strangle them? That’s weird as hell!”
Every single nerve in Ralsei’s body wanted to explode. At the moment, he could feel every single part of his brain giving out. He had to shake his head just to get some of the nerves out. He tried to put on a calm smile, but honestly couldn’t right now. “Um… Susie- What- What did you just do?”
“Oh, yeah-” She loosened her fingers, letting the soul actually float out of them. Without a care in the world, the soul floated into the air, no longer erratic or scared . “I knocked some sense into this idiot, and they agreed to go back into Kris. Also they turned me into a personal messenger which is stupid. ”
Huh?
After everything they’d just been through, after all of the horrifying mistakes that were made, after Ralsei was certain they were doomed…
The Angel had returned?
Just like that?
Ralsei tried to focus. Sure enough, the Angel was present again. That warmth that usually indicated their connection had grown steady, and for once in this Dark World, Ralsei started to feel slightly more safe. Invisible wings wrapped around the three of them, the Angel’s protection having returned.
They… they were back.
As if they’d leave again at any moment, Ralsei sputtered out, “Please don’t do that again!” It came out so fast, so much so that he could feel the Angel’s presence get slightly confused. “I-” He forgot himself. He still needed to be proper to the Angel, even if he was frayed at all ends right now. “I-I’m sorry, Angel. You just- It-” Stop panicking. “I was concerned for your safety.” There. That was enough.
The Angel’s presence grew slightly. Ralsei tried to lower his head, feeling a bit ashamed of his sudden outburst. Really, it wasn’t for him to decide-
The red soul began circling his head, as if it was dancing around him. The Angel’s presence seemed… happy? Over and over, they twirled around him, a stark contrast to their erratic and pained movements earlier.
Susie watched the two of them from her seated position, grinning. “Yeah, uh, before I strangled them out of my body, they wanted to tell you something.”
Ralsei tilted his head, the soul continuing to twirl around him without a care in the world. Immediately, a prick of dread hit him. A message directly from the Angel sounded terrifying! So much had happened that he was forgetting the fact that they were momentarily lost. He had no idea why that happened still, and-
“They’re a total loser who thought your manual was interesting.”
In a blur of red, the soul flew over to Susie, bobbing left and right furiously. Ralsei glanced between the two of them, clearly missing what the message was supposed to-
“Fine! I’ll tell him what you actually said!” Susie cackled at the soul, managing to get it to calm down slightly. She was just… casually antagonizing the Angel? It was mortifying, but… almost calming to watch? Finally, Susie cleared her throat, “They uh… wanted to thank you for being the first friend they made here.”
Oh.
Oh that-
He didn’t think that they would-
In all of his time preparing for their arrival, he wanted to be useful. He wanted to guide the Angel just enough for them to grow into something that could protect all of them. Ralsei didn’t think… he would be making friends. He never thought he’d be friends with Kris and Susie. Even though the Angel… hugged him when they first met, he didn’t think… didn’t know if they were still happy with him.
But… there was some difference that mattered between just being satisfied with Ralsei and… calling him a friend.
Oh no. Oh no he was tearing up again. It was stupid. Susie was right, after crying once it was suddenly all waterworks for the rest of the day. He didn’t get far into actually crying, because a red soul flew back to him, continuing its happy little twirl around him.
Ralsei couldn’t help but feel a smile forming on his face. Part of him wanted to reach out to the soul, but he knew better than to directly interact with it. All he could do was laugh, sniffling a bit while he took off his glasses and wiped away a tear, “Okay! Okay! I’m okay, Angel. I… I’m so happy you think that about me.”
Satisfied, the soul ended its dance. It hovered away from him, floating between him and Susie.
Still, one more thing had to be done. He was forgetting something. “Kris!” Ralsei started to scramble, and all of the emotions were immediately forgotten in favor of panic . They needed to do this now. “I-I’m sorry, Angel. We really do need you back into Kris. They haven’t been doing well.”
Even now, Ralsei could feel the Angel’s presence grow slightly colder. Something about that bothered them, but it couldn’t be helped. They needed to do this.
Thankfully, Susie backed him up, talking to the soul as well, “It’s just like we talked about. We’re not gonna forget you’re both in there or something.”
That did make the presence ease up. Suddenly, Ralsei was much more interested as to what they talked about in there. Susie spoke to the Angel with a lot more… familiarity than he’d expect. Just a few moments ago, she was asking him what they were like. Now, she was just talking to them how she would talk to anyone else.
Ralsei took comfort in that, somehow.
The soul hovered closer to Kris, staying over them for a moment. Ralsei held his breath, not knowing what would come next. He’d… never seen them entirely separate from Kris like this before. In battles, it was quick. He worried that it would be… worse like this.
Carefully, the soul drifted down to them. With little resistance, it slipped into their chest, moving past armor like it wasn’t even there. A small flash of red was all that came before it was gone.
It wasn’t a violent transfer. It wasn’t anything like when Kris and Susie tried to put it in. The soul willingly went to a vessel.
Ralsei waited for a few tense seconds. Slowly but surely, he could hear Kris’ breathing evening out, and immediately scrambled over to them just in case his healing would be needed. Already, Susie was walking forward with the same idea, waiting next to Kris with her hands ready.
Kris coughed. Their hands scraped the mud as they woke back up, and some of their breaths came out choked. Ralsei’s healing sputtered out immediately, and he couldn’t help but wince when shocks were sent through his hands for daring to try to heal. On the other hand, Susie managed to get some of her own healing magic through, somehow having a second wind despite her own wounds rapidly healing themselves. Fusing with the soul must’ve allowed some of their power to channel through her.
When Kris calmed down, Susie grinned down at them and asked, “You two okay?” Well, it seemed like she would be completely disregarding any secrecy about what had happened with the soul. It was very Susie-like, and Ralsei couldn’t bring himself to be surprised.
Kris’ jaw set. A prompt had been asked of them. In a few moments, a voice with the Angel’s and Kris’ strange intonation came out, “Yes.”
Again, Susie laughed, “Damn, now that I can tell the difference, you two sound weird like that.” At the sight of Kris tilting their head, she bared her teeth like whatever she was saying was obvious. “Don’t give me that look! Which one of you is giving me that look!?”
Ah, Kris probably didn’t know just how much had happened. Their gaze shifted to Ralsei, like they very much wanted an explanation.
So, Ralsei tried his best to explain with what little information he had, “Um, I- You did miss a lot while you were… unconscious.” Already, he felt a little bit sheepish explaining this. “Susie… for a lack of a better way of saying this… decided to forcibly interact with the soul on her own.” When he finished, Kris still looked confused. So, he simplified it, sighing, “Susie absorbed the soul for a bit.”
Kris practically flopped on their back entirely. Something about that made them uncomfortable, and… Ralsei wasn’t quite sure why. Yes, it was dangerous and reckless for Susie to do… but Ralsei was just happy to have the Angel back with them.
Susie proudly stood to her feet. “Hell yeah. I kicked their ass.” When Ralsei almost gasped from how enthusiastically she said that, she corrected herself. “We threw each other around a bit. It turns out they’re actually a weenie who sounds a lot like someone else I know.” Her gaze suspiciously swiveled to Ralsei.
Stumbling over his words, Ralsei tried to salvage this situation with the Angel. “Th- Huh? We’re- The Angel and I are nothing alike. I’m a Darkn- You can’t talk about the Angel like th-”
“Oh my god, we’re not doing this right now.” She actually put a hand over his snout, clamping it shut. Ralsei had half a mind to be annoyed just a little, but her antics made his shoulders relax a little bit. Fine. He would… have to let it go just this once. “So, uh… is Kris feeling better?” She tried to specify with the soul, bargaining for information.
Kris nodded on their own without any voice coming out. That had to be them. Already, they were trying to push themself up to their feet. They stumbled for a second, but when they stood up, their posture had returned back to being straightened. They breathed a sigh of relief, not being on the verge of dying anymore.
Even Ralsei felt like he could relax a little more. His entire body felt like static with the magic overuse, and he honestly wanted to collapse at the moment. Yet, seeing both Kris and the Angel fine made him far too happy to fall over now.
“Well ain’t this just interestin’.”
Ralsei wasn’t expecting a gravely voice to cut through his thoughts. Neither was Susie, because she immediately leapt into the air a few feet. Ralsei himself jumped out of his skin, seeing an old man down at the end of the hallway.
Oh… oh! That was the old man who gave them the lantern! Ralsei immediately relaxed a little bit, calming his nerves. He could feel his legs shaking, the adrenaline of the past few moments slowly wearing off.
Susie took a few seconds longer to drop her surprised look, and immediately bared her teeth in annoyance. “Dude, you’ve gotta stop doing that.”
The old man chuckled, tilting his head back, “Maybe you three should keep your guard up a lil’ more. Though… all of ya look pretty ragged, so I can’t blame ya too much.” Ralsei felt the Angel’s presence leaning in, trying to get a better look at this Darkner. Strangely, the Darkner glanced at the empty air above him a few times. “Seems ya found what you were lookin’ for though.”
The Angel’s presence receded slightly, like they knew they were being acknowledged and were surprised by that fact. As if he’d felt it himself, the old man laughed.
Susie didn’t find all that much humor, being annoyed and embarrassed that she’d been scared by an old man. After she’d taken a second to get over it just a little, she already asked important questions, “So like, do you just live down here and torment people, or…?”
“Who, me?” The old man put a hand on his chest, mocking offense. “I just stop by here from time to time to make sure no one is wanderin’ these parts. Started today, and I’m decidin’ to end that practice today too!”
Ralsei tilted his head. “So it’s not… actually a thing you do from time to time?”
“Came down here three times. That must count for somethin’.” Although the old man did decide to chuckle again, “With the way you youngsters were headin’, I thought I might have to make a few extra trips to keep ya from keelin’ over.”
Susie scratched the back of her head. “We had it handled, old man. Now-”
“Wait a second!” Ralsei interrupted, realizing something very important that was just said. “You… came down here. That means you have to know a way up, right?”
The old man shook his cane at Ralsei. “If ya found what ya came here for, then maybe I’ll show you the way.” He hobbled a bit down the hall that led into their current room before taking a glance around. “I do have one lil question though. But ah, I don’t think you three can answer it.”
Ralsei could already feel the Angel’s presence building. Somehow, they knew they were about to be called.
Responding in turn, the old man glanced upwards. “This place meant somethin’ to you, didn’t it?”
The Angel’s presence focused in on Kris. A question had been asked not of Kris, but of them. They thought for a while, and finally answered. Kris’ mouth moved for them. “The music reminded me what I was doing it all for.” They thought some more, a smile on their face. “I liked stopping here.”
Ralsei didn’t understand. He could still hear the sound of a music box drifting down the hallway. But the song… Distantly, he remembered it. In his time before becoming a Darkner, he did experience that tune somewhat. Why… did the Angel know it?
Their presence drifted back to its normal state. The old man nodded his head, satisfied with the answer. “Well, that’s all I came to figure out. Now…” He glanced back at all of them. “You three look like you need a break. I know a path to my study from here.”
A break… sounded amazing right about now. They all stole a look at each other, and every single person in the group agreed all at the same time. The Dark Fountain situation was dire with how much time they’d spent down here… but not a single one of them had anything left to give right now. They’d already been set back so much, but Ralsei…
Ralsei took one step forward and toppled over.
Ah, everything felt… quite numb after overexerting his magic that much. His vision was swimming. He… drained himself far more than he thought. Before he even had a moment to make an excuse, Susie and Kris were already at either side of him.
Worriedly, Susie asked, “Are you gonna be good to walk, dude? You look like shit.”
It was probably true. Even now he could feel the bags under his eyes, and his fur had to have gone unkempt in so many places. He always tried to keep himself a bit presentable, but with all the mud on him, it had become impossible. His breaths were a little shaky. All of the magic usage had drained him far too much.
Before he had a chance to protest, Susie scooped him up in a similar way that she scooped up Kris earlier. Kris actually snickered under their breath when it happened, and Ralsei could feel the Angel’s presence joining in. Ralsei sputtered, trying to wriggle his way out but finding that he was firmly trapped in Susie’s arms. “Susie! I-I can walk!”
She was having none of that nonsense today. “Yeah yeah, I’ve heard all the excuses anyone could possibly make today.” She didn’t look too awake herself, but grinned regardless. “Or- hey- we could have Kris grab your legs and I grab your arms. It could be like a stretcher thing-”
“Okay! I think I’m fine with this now!” Ralsei practically let the words flood out, mortified of the idea of being carried around like that. He was sure his face already looked red, but being pulled around like that… especially with Kris on one end of the equation… would be mortifying. They’d just gotten the Angel back. Ralsei did not want to be mortified in front of them.
Kris had a glint in their eye that probably meant that they would do it if Ralsei didn’t listen to Susie. Somehow, Ralsei thought that they and the Angel were united on that front. It was… odd to be cared about like this. He shouldn’t need it, but…
The old man shifted his cane again, beginning to march down the hall. “All righty, you three just keep close, and we’ll be outta here before ya know it.”
Ralsei rested his head while they left the muddy area. This small pocket of a location that the Angel conjured up finally began to break down. As soon as Kris stepped foot into the depths of the Dark World, the muddy walls started to crumble like they never had any substance at all. Ralsei caught them taking a glance back, their fists tightening for a moment.
The Angel looked back for a few moments, watching it all crumble away.
Eventually, they turned away, and the journey continued.
Voices started trailing around Ralsei. The old man and Susie started bantering, but it all began blurring together at some point. Somewhere in there, Ralsei could feel the Angel’s attention constantly shifting. The familiar warmth let him finally relax. Things… would be okay now. Things had to be okay now.
He didn’t know when he passed out, but it came naturally this time.
He was too tired. All of his magical reserves had been burnt out, and sleep took him quickly. At certain points, he was certain he was being jostled around. Yet, he couldn’t find it in himself to wake up.
It… was safe now. Everything would be better now… he hoped.
At some point, he swore he opened his eyes to see Susie standing over him. Something very warm had been put around his body, and it only made his eyes shut more. He thought he caught a glint of red on Susie’s chest while she was covering him with something, but thought nothing more of it.
They were all going to be safe for now.
Despite everything, maybe it would be okay. He could rest a little while longer.
Battle rang out, but this one wasn’t anything dangerous.
The journey back to the old man’s study had gone almost perfectly. While things almost went fine with zero issues, one of the spawn showed up on the way back. Susie and Ralsei both stayed out of the fight when Kris told them to, because one of them was asleep and the other was carrying the sleeping prince.
Susie got a chance to watch the Angel in action though. With only one spawn attacking, they actually managed to… do some light-blast-thing to it without landing a single strike. It was weird, especially when the soul started glowing. It was a flashlight this whole time, and left them in the ONE DARK WORLD where the lights were always off?
Ugh. Susie was still annoyed about that, but she needed to focus on the fight she was in now. Besides, she was actively taking the soul for a spin after seeing that stunt.
It was her turn. On the sidelines, Kris rested against the wall. Somewhere in the other room, Ralsei had been tucked up in an obscene amount of blankets, something that the Angel actually told Susie to do before they started this fight. Lastly, Susie’s opponent stood on the other side of this study: that damn old man who actually could fight this whole time. The old geezer said he had something to show her, opened up a fireplace which was supposed to have a puzzle but he IGNORED, and then said that she could not have the hammer without a haircut. He danced on the other side of the room with his hammer, waiting for her next move.
She was so annoyed that she recognized that old man’s hammer. Multiple times when the spawn were attacking while they were trapped in the depths, she saw something blunt and vicious going through the darkness. It looked just like that hammer, and things made so much more sense now.
Susie’s grip on her axe tightened. Again, she could feel the Angel’s presence grow more determined alongside her. She’d let the soul fuse with her for this fight, just to make good on her promise that they and Kris could remain separate for a little longer. It… probably made the whole possession thing a little easier too for Kris. They clearly didn’t like it, but they needed it to live right now. At least, they seemed to get most of their energy back whenever the soul was put back in.
But honestly, Susie was a little pumped to have the soul for a bit.
She hadn’t gotten a chance to fight with the soul properly before. In fights, they were active as hell. Sometimes they made stupid decisions that she chose to ignore (she didn’t need items for this thank-you very much), but most of the time they were cool.
Already, she could hear another command coming through. The Angel wanted her to use her healing. This had already happened a few times this fight, and every time Susie was called again to do it, her confidence with it grew. Some of her wounds vanished, going away faster than last time, and she saw the old man’s look of approval.
A silhouette of a bell appeared in the window to Susie’s left. The old man grinned, “The bell’s ringin’ now. Seems we’ve reached the final rounds.” He looked at the both of them, something curious in his eyes. “So… how do you think it all ends? No, how do you want it to end?”
The Angel’s presence stiffened. They didn’t have much time to think about it, because an onslaught of hammers soared through the air. The Angel leapt into battle, taking on a brilliant red before bobbing and weaving through the onslaught. Susie watched them go, wincing when they almost got too close to an attack. This one had tripped them up a few times, and one hammer managed to make it through.
Susie grunted when the strike transferred to her body, but the attack ended soon after. She smiled anyway. How did she think all of this was going to end? The Angel had a firm idea on what it would be. Even Ralsei’s idea of an ending before everything went to hell seemed bleak. Susie had a different opinion, one that she’d carry forever. If she could, she’d keep all of her friends with her. If she could…
Before another command came through. Susie lunged forward with her axe, cleaving towards the old man’s beard. He casually tilted his head back, the axe soaring mere inches above him.
“An ending, huh?” If she had the choice… and she would… “If I could choose I guess…”
She thought about Kris on the sidelines, someone who she still hadn’t properly talked to yet. Yet, even through her anger, she wanted to somehow keep being friends with them. She thought of Ralsei and how tired he looked in all of those blankets, someone who had endlessly languished over the ending. She thought of the Angel, someone so certain in their own ending that they sought to bring it about earlier to minimize harm…
“I wouldn’t have an ending!” What good was it if all of them had to split up at some point? What good was it if they all weren’t together by the end of this? “It’s just better if stuff just… goes on forever, right?”
The soul in her chest pulsed, and a wave of discomfort hit her from the Angel. They still didn’t believe her. “You know that can’t happen, right?” They asked, managing to communicate a few words since they’d fused with her.
Even though they didn’t believe her, when the next onslaught of attacks came, they readied her axe for her. Even if she hadn’t fully convinced them yet, they were on her side until the bitter end. That had to be enough. Susie grit her teeth, muttering under her breath, “You’re gonna look real stupid when I prove you wrong again.”
The soul turned green as shells and spears came from all sides. Susie laughed, being turned into a whirlwind of motion to deflect all of the attacks around her. The Angel was good at the blocking part of things. Every time they started swerving her body around, Susie couldn’t help but feel thrilled.
One of the shells managed to breach their defenses, glancing off Susie’s shoulder. She didn’t have much left in her, and the two of them had already botched this fight once. Yet, neither of them were willing to back down.
As soon as the attack ended, Susie felt the soul channeling magic through her. Enough Tension Points had been gained for Rude Buster. The purple magic tore across the room, being struck back and forth over and over. Every time Susie hit it back, she felt the Angel move forward with her, like they were trying to support the motion. Back and forth it went, faster and faster as the air rippled from the magic tearing through it. Finally, both of them managed to strike it hard enough to send it through the old man’s defenses, putting him in a tailspin.
“Gah ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!” The old man laughed for a while, a glint in his eye like he found something interesting in her answer. “Well ain’t that somethin’. At this late hour, with the bells ringing out their justice… You choose eternity.”
It only made Susie’s own determination grow. As the soul on her chest flickered green again, she began to cleave through some of the spears and shells around her. She could feel more power building in the soul as she did so, gaining even more tension from the close calls.
She ran forward again the moment she had an opening, almost cleaving a hair off of the old man’s long ponytail. Susie was getting closer.
“Miss, hold on dearly to that thought.” The old man planted the handle of his hammer into the ground for a moment, smiling at her. “For the tides of fate are drawing close, and soon, an ocean of ink shall wash across the pages.”
She would hold on. She would hold on with everything she had. Not a single one of them would be separated from each other. The soul pinged again, and Susie found herself spinning in a circle from an onslaught of spears headed her way. The Angel’s presence started focusing harder, managing to shield her from the worst of the blows.
Fate never suited her anyway.
“But… there is one thing that can overwrite the dark.” The old man continued, both Susie and the Angel paying rapt attention. “A white pen, known as hope. Miss! After what I’ve seen you do today, I am certain this is what you hold.”
The old man hadn’t been present for what happened between Susie and the Angel, but he talked as if he knew exactly what’d happened. She grinned at him, knowing it in her soul to be true. Even the Angel’s soul pulsed something that felt like reassurance. Still, she wasn’t doing all of this alone. She glanced back at Kris, seeing them still against the wall. They shot her a confident thumbs-up, and flashed a barely-noticeable smile.
Some part of her wanted to be a little annoying on purpose. Getting a little cocky, she scoffed, “Me? Nah, Kris has the pen. My weapon’s like a hairbrush or something.” She could hear Kris slapping their face behind her. Even though things were going to be rough, she liked having a friend like them.
Somehow, the old man found equal delight in this, laughing, “Is that so? Is that SO???”
“Yep.” Something red flashed into her eyes, and the chimes of a nearby bell rang out. “Now shut up and give me that axe!”
An onslaught of shells came again. Susie thought she could hear the Angel swearing under their breath at the odd pattern, and she couldn’t help but laugh when one of the shells got through. They were far too focused to notice, but Susie found it funny.
They were honestly a little fun to team up with in fights. She got why Kris wouldn’t like it, but this was something else. Sometimes she didn’t wanna listen to what they said, but what was the fun in only one of them having the wheel? It was fun to yank it from their grasp every now and then, and they took it with surprise every time.
The old man became a blur, disappearing from view. Susie felt a metallic tap from the blunt side of a hammer on her back, the soul being jettisoned forcibly out of her chest and taking on a red hue. The old man kept doing that and it was getting annoying.
Then, he went after the Angel, hammer dragging behind him. He moved far too fast for Susie to notice exactly where he was, but his strikes started moving in a circular pattern. Susie could feel the Angel suddenly grow immensely confident, like they already knew what to do.
A rush of wind came. Susie decided to not let the Angel have all the fun.
She ran out into the center of the fight where the Angel was dodging, much to their alarm. The old man was moving fast, and for a brief second, it was like she could see his face everywhere she looked. However, in one of the duplicates’ eyes, she saw a glint.
That was all she needed.
Before the old man could strike with his hammer at the soul, she bashed him backwards with the handle of her axe, keeping any of the strikes from being carried out.
The soul returned to her chest, and Susie whooped. She felt great.
And she had another idea.
“That isn’t all I’ve got,” she gloated, crouching down and beginning to channel her healing. The Angel seemed confused, which would make this all the better. “You wanna see what I got, then… Take THIS!”
The healing soared over the old man’s head. He gave a short laugh, but Susie didn’t wait to hear what he had to say.
In the blink of an eye, she was there with her axe, cleaving a singular hair off of his beard.
The soul vanished back into her chest, the Angel’s presence returning to watch whatever came next.
The first thing Susie did was grin. “H… How’s that, old man!?”
It took a moment, but he did laugh after the shock of the attack wore off. “That was the most fun I ever had!”
She was excited, rambling about how she used her healing. The old man laughed with her. Somewhere in the back, she swore she saw Kris smiling a little too. They always did like to do that to her… just sitting there and smiling. Fond memories of the diner hit her all at once, and it comforted her for what would come next. Ah well, she’d take it. Even the Angel seemed happy, but didn’t tighten any of the strings around her. She’d yank the strings if they tried, anyway.
The axe was hers.
When offered an odd piece of glass that Susie recognized, the Angel took it first. They seemed interested in it for a moment before it disappeared into their inventory. Huh, she’d probably have to ask about that later.
“Knew it was worth having a rematch.” She knew they needed these, and she came out on top anyway even though the old man quite frankly kicked their ass the first time. She and the Angel were uh… not great at working with a fused soul the first round. Letting them dodge was… probably for the best most of the time. She did say she’d listen to Kris all the way back in that elevator, but unfortunately messing with the Angel was a little funny in a low-stakes fight.
The old man bowed his head. “Perseverance. Each time you get a little better. That’s all I wanted to see…” That glint in his eye returned. “Well, it was neat to see the both of ya workin’ together. Ya might need a bit more of that in the coming days. But, I’m sure whatever you become, it’ll be tremendous.”
The words rang in Susie’s ears even after they walked out of the back-study.
So many things were well beyond her today, but somehow, it didn’t matter too much to her. The only thing that mattered in the grand scheme of things was not letting any of her friends suffer any longer.
Speaking of which…
“Arright, time to go back into Kris.” She tapped a hand on her chest, the soul responding instantly. The old man’s little hammer trick had given them a way to eject the soul without literally forcibly pulling it out, which was a little boring considering throwing around a religious figure was pretty funny. At least this way was less painful.
Thankfully, the Angel didn’t need much coercing, coming out of her chest instantly and hovering in the air. There was apprehension, but the battle must’ve at least given them enough time to cool off.
Still, there was one more thing they all needed to do. She turned to Kris, seeing them walking behind her out of the study. There was… something she’d been putting off. Even now, she had mixed reactions when looking at Kris. Every time they smiled at her or shot her a thumbs-up, that was her friend. That was the friend she remembered pouring sick fruit juice into her mouth or picking her up by the legs for optimal food-eating. They were the Kris that sat across from her at the diner, smiling like a weirdo. Ralsei said that it was hard to tell who was acting, but surely some of those had to be Kris. She had to hope it was.
Yet, every time she remembered the Kris that the Angel met, the one working for the Knight, she remembered that things weren’t really all that simple. If she hadn’t been quite literally fused with the Angel for a bit, she didn’t know if she would believe it. It painted a different picture, one that Susie didn’t know how to grapple with. Yet, even when Kris was without the soul today… they were still friendly to her. They still tried to encourage her. Sometimes, they even tried to be a little annoying to her on purpose.
So, which one was the truth?
Were they both the truth?
She hoped at least one thing stayed the same, but Kris didn’t seem like they were going to mention it anytime soon to her. If… if after all of this, they were still planning to backstab her…
There was time when they were without the soul where they could’ve said something. The fact that they didn’t say anything made it difficult to look their way.
At least, there was time to talk. She just… had to do it one more time.
As the red soul floated into Kris’ chest, Susie tried to… broach things a little. “We uh… we should… probably talk about something before we move-”
After Kris reached out their hand to open air for a second, they glanced at her out of the corner of their eye. Huh, the place they were reaching out to had a star floating there moments ago. Those star-things looked like the Angel’s halo, so Susie definitely had to ask them about that later. However, she wasn’t focused on that right now. Susie didn’t miss the way Kris’ head slightly lowered when she asked to talk. So… they probably already knew what was coming.
She looked around the study for Ralsei and found his pile of blankets suspiciously empty. How the hell did he even escape from that pile? The Angel practically used Susie’s arms to turn him into a burrito! “God damn it, where the hell is Ralsei? We need him for this!”
Kris got in a slight debate with themself it seemed. They stood there motionlessly for a bit before shutting their eyes.
Susie squinted. “Uh, you’re not gonna get out of this by shutting your eyes. I’m right here.”
“Soul is looking for Ralsei,” Kris explained, their voice sounding raspy as normal. They sighed for a second when they realized they had probably given away the fact that they were on their own for a while. “Sorry.”
Susie took a deep breath. “Say that when Ralsei gets here.” She was still mad. She had to be. She didn’t know what sucked worse today: Realizing that she didn’t even know a friend existed and having to calm them down, or realizing that one of her first real friends was allied with the thing that cleaved her across the chest last night.
…but she owed them a chance to be heard out. After all, she heard out the Angel who was controlling them. She didn’t notice they were being controlled ever since she met them, so that made her feel even worse. Even when they screamed they weren’t okay, she didn’t do nearly enough. She just…
Hated this…
Everything had been so simple when it was just her, Kris, and Ralsei going through the Dark World.
It was simple, but if all of this was already going on, then it wasn’t better.
She’d make it better.
The world wasn’t going to rip even more from her, no matter what.
Kris’ body stiffened. A different tone came out, one that sounded slightly louder and without Kris’ usual rasp. “He’s through the left door. Go through the dark piano room-” They gestured to the entryway of the study with a finger. “Go south- no wait- that would be your left… and then you should find him.”
Oh, so they couldn’t actually talk with him. Damn. Susie shook her head, getting herself together. “Arright, I’ll be right back.” She waved at Kris and the Angel, baring her teeth for good measure. “You two stay put!”
Sure enough, there was a dark piano room just next to the study. They’d missed it on the way up here. Honestly, the old man’s method of getting up to his study pissed her off so much. Piles of bookshelves allowed them to move upwards, but the problem was the hundreds of ladders going up. One-hand climbing with Ralsei in her other hand was doable, because she was good like that, but that suuuucked.
She managed to find the left turn the Angel was talking about, walking past a bit of shattered glass on the floor. Unfortunately, it led to two hallways, but she could at least see Ralsei in the distance.
He was staring at another one of those prophecy things. His head sunk into his scarf, and… he looked small. The words of the prophecy danced in front of his glasses.
Oh, there were words on this one.
Susie put her hands on the back of her head, marching forward to alert him to her presence. “How the hell did you escape the blanket prison? That was air-tight!”
Ralsei leapt into the air a little bit anyway, his hands flying behind his back. “S-Susie- I didn’t see you there-”
“Dodging the question!” She pointed at him, grinning widely.
“I- Wha-” He righted himself, regaining his normal posture. “Well- it took a lot of moving my arms… Who…” After being informed that someone else knew of the blanket prison, Ralsei squinted. “That wasn’t you who did that, was it, Susie?”
“Naw.” She waved a hand dismissively, walking up next to him to look at the prophecy thing. “That was your friend’s idea.”
“HUH?” Somehow, that confused him even more. “Wh-what did I miss while I was sleeping? What did you two- They wouldn’t do that for me.” He scraped hands over his face, trying to hide his embarrassment.
She playfully nudged his ear, endlessly enjoying the embarrassment. “Come onnn. Of course they’d do something like that. The Angel’s a total weenie.” She shoved her hands into her pockets, rocking back and forth on her boots. “They definitely wanna be friends if that’s what you’re so bent out of shape about. You should’ve seen it, Ralsei. Every time I mentioned you, I might as well have been hitting them in the head with a rock.”
Somehow, that actually did help. While Ralsei was rubbing his eyes under his glasses, he opened his fingers to peek out at Susie. “They… they reacted to me… even when like that?”
“God, you two suck. They literally, like, just thanked you for being their friend” She lightly punched his shoulder. Neither of those two idiots thought the other was their friend despite both wanting to be friends. At least the Angel had made up their mind on that whole thing with the little message they gave Ralsei. But still, Susie really was right. These two acted way too similarly. “I’ll give you a turn with the soul later or something. I dunno.”
“Wh- you can’t-”
“I can’t hear you.” She put the palm of her hand on his head, which kept him from swatting helplessly at her. He kept struggling against her arm, trying to get his point across, but she kept muffling his voice. At least he was feeling a little better and had more energy.
Eventually, he gave up. She finally removed her hand, laughing to herself at how unamused he looked. She was so much happier to see him like this instead of how wrecked he was in the dark.
Still, that did beg the question of why he came here. Susie looked up at the prophecy before her, reading the text out loud to herself. It was… talking about the three of them appearing on world’s edge. “Huh! So the prophecy did say cool stuff about me!”
All of Ralsei’s good-natured attitude bled away in an instant. Like ice cold water was dumped on him, he straightened up with his hands behind his back. “Indeed it does, Susie.” His head sank a bit into his scarf. “The prophecy… is back.”
“Oh? Same one?” Didn’t he say something about that earlier? If it was the same one, didn’t that mean-
“Yes, Susie.” She thought she spotted him frowning, but he buried his snout in his scarf to hide it. “It… changed back when the Angel returned. I came to check… and… well…”
The prophecy was impossibly cruel. That’s what Ralsei said. With the Angel back, it’d just returned to business as usual. It took… a lot for Ralsei to call something unequivocally cruel.
But…
Susie grinned, wrapping Ralsei in a headlock and pulling him close. “Eh, the prophecy is stupid, anyway.” She gestured up at the glass pane, staring it down with something red flashing in her eyes. “Besides, if it changed back when we got the Angel back, then that means I changed it.”
Ralsei opened his mouth to protest. However, he froze in place, something dawning on him. “I… suppose you did.” His eyes trailed up to that prophecy, still unsure. “I just worry that… changing it required something so awful to happen.”
“Doesn’t matter all that much to me.” She dug her knuckles into his forehead, getting a few laughs out of him. “Besides, I changed it back by doing something awesome, so I guess I’ll just have to do it again.”
Despite everything, despite how awful today had been, Ralsei was smiling. It wasn’t one of his fake smiles. “Somehow… I think I believe that.” His eyes trailed back to the prophecy, his smile slightly waning. “I want to.”
“Good enough for me.” She let go before suddenly remembering what she came here for. “Ah, shoot, hey uh we need you back at the study for a bit. You done here?”
Ralsei took one more glance at the prophecy before nodding, its hold on him slightly diminished.
Susie took the lead back to the study. This talk was a long time coming, but whatever happened… they’d be able to take it all on much better now. Susie wanted that to be true more than anything.
Hopefully one day they’d all believe that.
She’d fight until they did.
Kris was alone.
Soon, they’d be even more alone.
They knew this ever since they found out that Susie fused with the soul. Considering the way they were communicating with each other… it was only a matter of time until the soul told her everything. It… definitely already did. Considering how determined it was to get to the guitar, Kris’ involvement with the Knight would be revealed quickly.
Maybe that’s why Kris gave up and just let her fuse with it to fight the old man. Ever since the soul went back into Kris all the way down in the depths, it had changed behavior. They could feel it judging. They could feel its frustration. Even though it wasn’t fighting them anymore… they already knew what was coming next.
Kris buried their head in their hands. It’d all be over soon.
They thought they had more time. Even though things were going so fast, they at least had a little bit longer before Susie hated them. Now, randomly, it’d all come crashing down.
Kris couldn’t even bring themself to be mad at the soul. They couldn’t anymore. They wanted to. They so badly wanted to get angry at it. All anger at the soul immediately came back to Kris. Why did they make that promise? Why couldn’t they have just been friends with Susie before the soul arrived in this world? Why didn’t they make any good decisions when they had any ounce of control?
Even when they had to watch Susie and the soul fight the old man, Susie looked so happy.
How did the soul manage it? How did they always manage to figure these things out? Why was this so easy for them? They wanted to tear it out. Kris wanted to wrench out the soul and ask them why they had to be this way. How could they simply arrive one day and make things work? They didn’t even know Kris… they didn’t even know who they were… and everyone in town liked Kris better that way.
Something stirred in their chest. Something wanted to make itself known.
Kris had carefully crafted walls to keep that call from ever being answered. They weren’t supposed to communicate with the soul under any circumstances. It was merely a tool, a means to an end, and a thing that had to be kept in check.
…but Kris was tired of lying.
They gave in. They shut their eyes, letting the darkness of their mind take them.
The soul’s presence grew, turning into something tangible. The walls fell away. There was nothing stopping the Angel from speaking now.
When Kris opened their eyes, they could already see the Angel staring back. They were an almost perfect mirror, the spitting image of the better thing that everyone else liked more than Kris. It hurt to see them there, but Kris couldn’t do this anymore.
The Angel tilted their head in question. “You’ve never called out to me before. Why now?”
How did… how did Kris say what needed to be said? They were too frustrated. They hated hearing the Angel’s voice so clearly. Their voice was so clear, so real that it could not be misinterpreted as something fake. They always knew… they always knew that the Angel was something more, but they just wanted to deny it over and over to make everything feel better.
Even when the Angel reached out to hug Ralsei over and over, Kris managed to shake off that knack for compassion by reasoning that the soul was just trying to get reactions. That’s what it always did . Over and over, the Angel went to people around town and prodded them for so much information about everything. Kris… used that. They used that to reason that messing with Ralsei was only to get a reaction. Being friendly with Susie was a way to figure out how people ticked.
But none of that was true anymore. The soul had a voice. Susie was laughing alongside them.
Kris managed to rasp out a word, keeping their head buried in their hands: “Why?”
The Angel’s wings rose slightly. “Why what?” They sounded tired. Exhausted. Kris understood. They too felt like they wanted to give up. Yet, the Angel still had things to say. “If you’re asking why I’m back, sorry. I tried to free you already. Apparently, that wasn’t what anyone wanted.”
So that voice Kris heard talking about freedom was echoing their true beliefs. That hand that touched them had almost exactly said the same thing. Kris’ hand clenched into a fist. Everything became so much worse, knowing that the being controlling their body intentionally tried to free them. How… how did things get this wrong? It made them feel sick. How did they even… how could they keep…
They had to. They had to cage them. It- it was their promise. They had to do it. They-
The Angel’s wings flared out for a second, the motion causing enough noise to get Kris’ attention. It brought Kris out of their thoughts enough to look at them. Both of their wings looked lower now, something less strained on their face. “I know you didn’t mean to share what you were just thinking.” They sighed, “How bad is it… that you still think you have to do this?”
Terrible. If Kris kept doing this to their friends, they would loathe whatever was left of themself after they were used up. Yet, if Kris didn’t commit to their promise then the guilt of everything would come crashing down. They promised for a reason. They did. They weren’t even in possession of their own soul anymore. How could they stop?
The Angel shut their eyes. Something tense filled the air. Their presence strained, like it was trying to focus on something. Their mouth twitched a few times, like they were trying to find the words to say.
Kris knew what came next. They lowered their head, prepared for the judgement that had been long overdue.
“I don’t think we’re going to get along, Kris,” they admitted, the air finally beginning to die down. Somehow, that was hard to admit for them, even though Kris had been intentionally trying to not get along with them this whole time. “Even… even if things turn around… I just…” They stared down at their own hand, flexing it many times. “When I came to this world, I suspect one of your allies took the one chance I had at being myself. When I tried my best to do things right, I was punished even still. When I tried to be friends… they always saw you.”
Kris kept their head low, not knowing how to answer.
The Angel’s shoulders sagged in frustration. “...And even still, I get you. I hate it, but I do.” The Angel turned their head towards Kris, a wing flicking upward. “Do you feel the same?”
It… was funny.
They thought they did. No, Kris didn’t think they could get along. After everything the two had been through together, they didn’t expect things to. Kris didn’t know if they wanted something like that either. When the Angel descended on this world, Kris was tasked with caging them. In that moment, the Angel unwittingly took Kris’ chance at being themself for an unknown amount of time. For a while, they thought that might be a blessing. Someone else could make their mistakes. But then… Kris had to watch while the Angel did better than them. They had to watch as their body made friends, but those friends never knew the real Kris.
Even if they sometimes had fun with Susie, even if they sometimes did things outside of the Angel’s control… Kris never felt like their friends were their own.
Gritting their teeth, they nodded to the Angel’s question. Kris understood the Angel’s plight painfully well. They did feel the same. They tried not to, but they understood the Angel. Kris hated that fact.
The Angel accepted the answer, averting their gaze from Kris. “Susie will want to talk to you soon. Whatever happens, I won’t be there to fix it this time.”
Kris could sense the impending doom approaching. If the Angel truly was going to let them do this on their own, then this would be the hardest conversation they would ever have. Even if the Angel tried to help, they probably wouldn’t be able to. Kris could provide them with things to say to make things easier… but…
No, they were going to have to do this one on their own.
“Can I share with you something interesting?” The Angel asked, not really expecting an answer. When they didn’t get dissent from Kris, they continued talking, “I was… so ready to give up today. I was so certain that I had to give up. Even now, I’m not certain if my return was the right thing to do… It just… feels like I don’t deserve the kindness that has been given. Despite everything, I’m still me.”
Once again, Kris understood those feelings. Right now, the world was falling out from under them. They wanted to give in, to just curl up in the back of their mind and never come back. They certainly didn’t deserve Susie’s kindness. If she already knew they were communicating with the Knight, then letting this even be a conversation was mercy enough.
A streak of gold flashed in the Angel’s light. “Susie doesn’t even know the worst of what I’ve done. She refused to see it. But… it made me remember something a friend asked me once. I’ve been thinking about it all day.” Their stolen hand tapped against an unseen floor. “Do you believe even the worst person can change? That everyone can be a good person if they just try?”
Kris looked away, their own answer clear.
The Angel laughed without any humor, “I don’t think so either.” The smile on their face vanished, turning into a frown. “I don’t believe that yet, but… Susie believed enough in me to drag me back up to my feet. Even if she doesn’t always believe in everyone… that has to count for something, right?”
What did they mean? Were they implying that Susie would… even try to see something good in Kris? Susie… Susie was amazing. Every time Kris thought that they fully understood her, she did something that surprised them. Every new thing she did made Kris happier that they were close, even if they wondered whether or not they were friends.
Was there still even a glimmer of hope?
The Angel stood up, grunting from the effort. They stole a glance in a direction that Kris couldn’t see. “They’re coming back. I won’t watch the conversation. It’s your consequences to handle.” They walked forward, reaching a hand down for Kris. It wasn’t friendship, but it was something. “She believes in you, even if you don’t think so. Please choose them.”
Praying for courage, Kris grabbed the Angel’s hand.
“AND SO.”
“YOU HAVE RETURNED.”
Once more, the Angel stood in the empty nothingness. Their brilliant power shimmered behind their head, a reminder that their connection had been reestablished. They even saved recently, further proof that the connection was once more stable.
The man couldn’t help but be elated. When the Angel lost themself, he was certain that they would be gone for… a catastrophic amount of time, even if they did choose to return.
“I have.” Strangely enough, the Angel didn’t sound as triumphant as the man would hope. They answered his curiosity with nothing more than fact.
“HAVE YOU PERHAPS…”
“CHANGED YOUR MIND?”
He worried. The man felt the moment that connection was reestablished. He saw a beautiful connection once more, all connected to the actions of the one known as Susie. If the Angel proceeded now, he would think nothing was wrong. Yet, they were back here, speaking with him again.
Perhaps, they were attempting to leave once more. He feared the thought.
The Angel shook their head. “No. I’m staying.”
Even now, they seem rattled by the experience. Before leaving, they were fearful, yet they still answered questions to their fullest ability. Their answers previously were informed, something that they had given so much thought to, and that they decided on through their own will.
The man was confused.
“YOU DO NOT SEEM…”
“CONFIDENT…”
“IN THIS OUTCOME…”
Their wings fluttered a bit, a soft smile appearing on their face. “I’m not.” Imperceptibly, their fingers twitched, like they were experiencing some level of… fear. “I have never been more afraid of a decision I have made.”
How curious. The Angel was capable of such an emotion. The man had seen it many times, but it only ever appeared during particularly tense decisions. Typically, they carried on with unbridled determination. Seeing this… he had to ask something that bothered him.
“AND YET.”
“YOU USED YOUR POWER.”
“YOU USED YOUR ABILITY TO SAVE.”
“IF YOU HAD WISHED…”
“YOU COULD HAVE TURNED BACK THE CLOCK.”
The Angel nodded like they had considered this. The silver light on their head danced, showing that it very much was active. The Angel had used their power to sentence themself to a grim fate. Now, they had used it to stay within their current trajectory. Why were they continuing to use their power to their detriment?
Finally, the Angel had a response that they found satisfactory: “I tried to give up. I really did. I just knew… that I would have to be banished eventually. I thought…” They actually looked at where they thought the man was, lowering their head. “I’m sorry. You’ve been nothing but kind to me.”
Hm that-
That did not actually answer the question at all.
Yet, somehow, the man was touched. After all, this had been… a joyous experience up until the point the Angel believed that they must leave this world. Their beautiful connection brought him joy every time they arrived, and he thought that they must feel the same. Yet, they still showed apprehension.
“DO YOU… WISH TO NO LONGER CONTINUE?”
“I will be honest.” They brought their arms up, hugging their own body like a chill had entered this place, even though temperature did not exist here. “I… want to continue. I’ve wanted nothing more for so many years, but continuing hurts people. It always hurt people. But… even still…” They let out a breath that they did not know they were holding. “I wanted to be told that I could come back.”
Somehow, the man finally understood something about the Angel as well. So many understandings were reached in this day, and another had been discovered.
“IS THIS WHY…”
“YOU SEARCHED FOR ME?”
“AS I SEARCHED FOR YOU?”
Confirmation. The Angel nodded. “You were one of the last mysteries. When you called my name, I was excited. I thought I could finally be me. I thought…” They were thinking of their vessel, the one stolen too soon, the one that could not be returned to them now. It had been lost to the depths, only appearing for a brief moment yet being unable to traverse any further than the man could. “I thought I’d belong this time. I was excited to make something new.”
“I STILL LOOK FORWARD TO A BRIGHT FUTURE.”
Even with the setbacks, the man had certainty that this story could reach its true potential. The Angel had already shown themself capable of going through insurmountable odds.
The Angel paced a bit, hands held behind their back. “The reason I didn’t load my save was because of that, actually.” They stole a glance into the darkness, approximating where the man currently was. “I think… even if I’m scared… that this is a better way. Does that… ruin your vision?”
Ruin it? No. The man would never insinuate such a thing. The only thing that could ruin his vision was if the Angel left this world. He thought that this had occurred only moments before, but unexpected changes made by the Angel? Those fascinated him.
“HAD I WANTED A STORY TO BE ONLY MINE…”
“I WOULD NOT HAVE CALLED UPON YOUR POWER.”
Collaboration. Realization of a story through hope. Something beautiful would come of this connection. Something magnificent would rise. It required their input. It required their connection. It shined brightly from their hope.
“Well, I suppose we’ll have to make room for one more writer then.” They smiled. Something brilliant flashed behind their expression. “Someone else had far more hope in me than I could ever have. Someone else pulled me back up to my feet, and… I think I owe her for that. I owe her to see this through.”
Another writer?
The man knew who they were talking about: the one known as Susie.
He had seen it too. When she ventured down into the depths, it was she who the man reached out to in hopes that she would find the Angel. Neither of the others had the potential to salvage what had been lost. The Dark Prince held care and compassion in spades, but would have been unable to breach the wall with the doubts he held in his own heart. The Cage was blinded by their own need for survival, unable to see past the physical matter of the Angel and into their actual being.
The girl… at last… the girl… could fix this. She was the key.
Just as the Angel made their unexpected choices, she made even more that could truly make something excellent.
She was not the one the man sought out for the connection, but she and the Angel had now become far more linked with the way events had transpired. How beautiful was it that the Angel had truly grown so attached to this world that they were willing to persist for the sake of others? The need to reach the absolute had vanished. Now, a more unique goal had grown. A more beautiful realization had revealed itself.
Despite all of the turmoil that this event had brought, the man found himself elated at what new things he learned about the Angel before him.
“I LOOK FORWARD…”
“TO SEEING WHAT THE TWO OF YOU ARE CAPABLE OF.”
“I think I look forward to it as well.” The Angel smiled, something genuine that didn’t seem to be weighed down by the events that had just occurred. The light behind them shimmered brighter than ever, finally shining as brightly as possible with the will of the Angel behind it. This was something new, something beautiful that would soon come to pass.
Of course, they could not idle here forever. The conversation going on outside had long passed, and the Angel’s name was being called.
“YOUR NAME HAS BEEN CALLED.”
“THERE IS STILL MUCH TO BE DONE...”
“BEFORE THE HALFWAY MARK IS ATTAINED.”
Their wings flared outwards, the light shining brilliantly. Before they left, they turned to him once more, confidence finally blooming on their face. “See you there?”
“I WILL BE WAITING.”
They turned away, joining those who had chosen to seek them out once more.
He had one more thought as he watched them leave.
Wasn’t it beautiful, for them all to need each other in this way?
Notes:
And so we have reached the end.
I have not finished responding to all of your comments last time. The support has been so amazing, and I have read each and every one of your comments. I will be there to respond to them inevitably, don't worry.
There are things that were not covered in this fic that some of you want to see. For that, I do apologize. This was intended to be a short one shot, but kept mutating. At some point I needed to draw the line, and I would like to address some things.
People wanted to see Kris get chewed out a lot. However, it was a conscious choice to not show the talk they had with Susie and Ralsei about the Knight. Not only do we just... not understand Kris' true motive yet, I feel like I am not ready to tackle something like that yet especially when it is all speculation. Whatever happens with the Knight I feel will be catastrophic in the main game, especially with falling outs. I do not think a talk with Kris would even be in consideration if they actually do backstab Susie in the end. Also, Kris explaining themself would have to fully rely on my headcanon which... I don't think would make for a satisfying scene for this fic where I try to remain close to the core themes I'm messing with. Having the Angel talk to Kris and not forgive them, and having a mutual understanding of that fact feels like enough. Yet, there is hope in there somewhere. The walls are down. Someone has faith in the both of them. One needs the other to live. At the very least, things might proceed better than before now that Kris is no longer trying to lie.
The power of SAVE-LOAD-RESET was something a lot of people wanted to see more of. It is a very potent thing in the UTDR metanarrative, so much that it can hijack a story for ages debating on the ethics of it. If I ever tackle it with this version of the main three, it would be its own separate thing. It is a beast of a topic that was skimmed over because Susie had faith in the present version of the Angel too much for them to dig up their past.
Kris' possession is also something interesting that I hope I gave some closure to in this chapter. It's difficult, because most of the emotional charge of the possession falls apart when you realize that Kris likely knew that the possession would be happening. And in this fic, Susie knew that Kris needed the soul to live, so despite her reservations with it, she is simply doing the best she can to make this situation better for both Kris and the Angel (hence the passing the soul around to make it easier on Kris and giving the Angel more freedom as they wished).
I was struggling to close out this fic. After giving each character their own final-POV scene, I feel happy with it now. Of course, there is still a lot I have left up in the air since the timeline is probably altered significantly after this depending on what Kris chooses. I could see myself writing more fics with this set of the main three. If I do, it will be put in a series so do not mistake other separate fics if I do post them.
Not everything with the Angel is solved instantly. Not all of the grievances can be solved instantly. But, now that their presence has been acknowledged and now that people are TRYING, there's ways to alleviate some of the strain. Susie taking on the soul for Gerson's fight felt like a way to show that things would slowly change.
The Angel not quite knowing if this is the right decision also felt needed. They're still not sure. This is a game, after all, and it must end. However, they owe it to Susie to try. I thought that was nice to write, and a better conclusion than everything being solved.
Also yes wrapping Ralsei in a blanket burrito was essential to the plot shut up
I'm running out of characters to type with. All in all, this has been fantastic to write. It's been great talking to all of you during this fic. I almost don't want it to end, but that's what making new fics is for. It doesn't actually really have to but I gotta wait for time and ideas. After today, I begin working my new job, so I can't go stupid crazy for a month like I just did. Still, you all will not be getting rid of me so easily. I will be here posting for a while. I will also be responding to comments for quite a while I Think because yall are awesome.
Your thoughts and analysis has been great. I hope that at the very least, this fic causes discussion. That is all I wanted to do.
I have a lot more to write with the Angel. If you haven't checked it out yet, "Who Are You?" is a fic I also wrote recently where the "meeting the Angel" is on Ralsei.
Maybe next time you all will see something a little more lighthearted! Who knows?
As always, I am star-pup01 on tumblr. You will see me eating shit and/or dying on there whenever the next one shot decides to start rapidly mutating.
See you next time!