Long story short, it's a Silent Hill-style AU.
Long story long, I was going through a list of scariest creatures in video games and two of them were from Silent Hill and I spent the next few days going over the SH wiki. I don't do well with horror to begin with, so yeah, some loss of sleep.
This isn't meant to be 100% horror, but is my first touch of it so please let me know how I did.
Chrome's eyes snapped open as every nerve in her body screamed at her. Shooting up, she twisted her head frantically to see what was going on. Confusion set in. She was in a small room with a window letting in bright light through its frosted and distorted glass with a steel table that she had been lying on. There were no sounds, no people, no hum of machinery, nothing coming from outside the glass. No brush of the wind.
As quietly as possible, Chrome moved off the table and crouched. Every bit of her screamed that death was hunting her like a cat after a mouse. Still hiding, Chrome approached the door, every step she leaned to the sides to see as much of the outside hall as she could without sticking her head out.
The hall was empty and as silent as the room, one side was a dead end which forced her to continue down the other side. Massive amounts of fire damage were easily visible, charred rafters were exposed overhead like the ribs of a skeleton. There were no other doors until she reached the end where a glass door stood but the glass that had surrounded the frame was shattered.
The bright daylight was unmuted by the heavy cloud cover but it seemed that sound was. The scent of rain filled the air while the air felt dry. Everything else that was wrong seemed to evade her except by it feeling wrong.
Slowly sneaking around the door, she was greeted by a well-manicured parking lot with a single vehicle- a blue family car that she rushed to as silently as she could. The door was unlocked but she couldn't find the keys anywhere. For some reason it felt familiar.
Her senses spiked and she flung herself out of the car to crawl underneath. A moment later she heard the footsteps, the sound of something hard scraping against the asphalt. Looking around she found the feet and nearly wished she didn't. They looked human, but the nails were long and beginning to curl into talons and blacken, the feet themselves were scaled like fish skin at the bottom and soaked in blood. The skin across the legs was pale and taunt like someone had taken baby skin and stretched it across their own legs and sewn it up the back, maybe this was what happened, there were stitches across the back of the calf that dripped blood.
Chrome shivered and held her breath as the creature snorted around the car heavily before leaving back the way it came. There was no telling how long she waited under the car, it could have been seconds, could have been hours. It felt far longer.
Creeping her way out from underneath she had a thought. Something told her to check the trunk. Fear filled her at what she might find but she opened it anyways.
To her relief it was empty of any sort of otherworldly thing. The empty trunk still held something though, a small note. Written sloppily were two messages:
They can be killed.
You must find me.
Swallowing thickly, Chrome looked around the parking lot to find it sat on top of a hill on the outskirts of a city covered in a thick fog. Looking around she found the blood trails of the creature as it led down the hill and into the city. Deciding to avoid the town for now, she made her way around the outside of the building until she reached the far side and another parking lot. A giant sign declared this as the "Garden and Fullmen Clinic" the fire damage was also much worse here; the entire front of the building was gutted by the blaze and the waiting room was left roof-less as were most of the side rooms.
The still air was split by a gentle breeze and Chrome's breath caught in her throat at a sudden falling sensation before she wasn't there.
Chrome found herself in front of the clinic, this time people walked in and out of the intact building, children held suckers while the adults reached into their pockets for keys. Instinct told her to walk around the back of the building.
The door she had walked out of was gone but the blue car was there but as a rusted heap, the blue paint was stripped away in many places and the wheels and brakes were gone leaving the axels propped up on cinder blocks with the hood open and most of the parts missing, the trunk was open as well, the carpet covered in dust with leaves and other bits of nature.
Her fingers trembled as she saw a note on pure white, unaged paper:
The roof
She swallowed hard and made her way around the building but found no way up. She walked in and she was briefly acknowledged by a nod or two from people sitting. Walking up to the door she somehow knew the code and the electronic lock churned and opened before her.
Swallowing hard she made her way through the clinic until a man in a white doctor's coat smiled and waved "How can I help you?" he asked cordially.
"Um." her voice died in her throat but something else spoke through her in a voice that was not hers.
"I was looking for the roof access."
Chrome nearly screamed at the alien voice but the doctor rubbed his chin "Roof access…hm, I know we have one…" a moment later he snapped and told her "Yeah, follow me."
The access was a ladder that was tucked against a hatch in one of the storage rooms. She realized that this was the furthest possible place from where she had woken up in that fever dream. Her fingers trembled as she grabbed the metal sides of the ladder. The doctor left and she ascended to the outside.
The breeze felt nice against her hot skin, but there was nothing there besides the HVAC units.
Then the breeze stopped and the sense of dread filled her.
She lifted her foot away from the edge of the hole that the fire had eaten away. The fog covered city still stood down the hill. Now she looked around to find herself on a small island of undamaged roof, the HVAC units had been too heavy for the compromised roof to hold and they had fallen through, but beside her was a small ear cuff-just a small cylinder of silver metal with no ends and a cut down one side. She slid it on her right ear.
The voice that had come out her mouth spoke in her mind "I am so sorry." it, no, he lamented "I never thought you would come here."
She whispered as quietly as she could "Where is here?"
"You are sitting in the world we call 'Revenant' it's the home of all our repressed feelings."
"Who is 'we'?"
The voice was solemn "There were two more like me, but their people failed and they were found by things that you hid from."
"'Their people failed'? You brought me here? Why?" she nearly screamed but fear made it come out as nothing more but a half-choked squeak.
"I didn't bring you here. Something about you calls to this place, something about you makes you come here on your own." There was a small silence as she continued to scan the world around her, the brightness making the horrors even more terrifying, what monsters braved the day? "As for why…we want to escape. We've been trapped here for as long as I can remember. I can feel where you are. I want to leave this place and the only way I can do that is if you find me."
Chrome asked suspiciously "Why should I trust you?"
"You have no reason to trust me, but if you don't listen to me than you will die and I'll be waiting here for the next person to stumble in and probably die before that." There was a change in the air and the voice spoke quickly "You're going back to the normal world, I need you to go to get into the blue car and close the doors, call for your guardian angel-just say 'guardian angel'."
Then, thankfully, she was falling into reality.
She was standing in the exact same place on the roof with the breeze tussling her hair lightly, without thinking her hand reached up and touched the ear clip. Taking several deep breaths, she quickly made her way back out the clinic to the car. Feeling foolish as she closed herself in the vehicle she murmured "Guardian angel?"
The man's voice was quiet, like she was hearing him through a wall "You're there?" the hope in his voice was palpable.
"Yes. I'm back in reality."
He countered "Revenant is just as real as that world, if you die here, you're just as dead as there. We need to find out why you're coming and where I am to you." Chrome realized that he was still in that nightmare world.
She got out of the vehicle before asking "What is Revenant?" a goal was clear in her mind as she let her feet lead her.
"Revenant is a world based on those in it. When no one from your world is in it, Revenant is just a bright fog filled place with an overwhelming sense of dread. When someone enters, the fog gives their untapped emotions form, those emotions change me…changed us. I don't know everything, but I was awakened when you entered."
Chrome was surrounded by people and said aloud "But that doesn't make sense." As people turned towards her, she realized how it seemed-a young lady talking to herself. She stared down at her fingers and seemed to be counting on them, giving the appearance of trying to do math and letting the words slip out of her mouth.
Even knowing nothing but her name in either world, Chrome's feet led her to a small shop with a sign that said "Paula's Fabrics" the back door was unlocked, a small mercy since she didn't have anything in her pockets, before moving to a wall filled with small lockers and drifting unconsciously to one of them and finding it unlocked and empty except a small handsfree phone system. She put it over the ear with the clip and she asked "Can you hear me?"
"Yes."
Leaving the building Chrome continued "So we need to find out what to do next. I wonder if I got a bag or something and filled it…"
"Nothing but you will come, only you and that clip will leave." There was a change in his voice, almost like he was straining "I can't feel where you are as well, but you're…close, I think. But you're also close to the center of the fog, if you end up there you won't have a chance to escape."
Chrome continued to her original goal, the few people who looked at her noticed the handsfree and left her alone. "That place doesn't make any sense."
"No, Revenant has rules, just like anywhere else. For now, we just need to find out all we can about you."
Chrome's throat dried "I don't remember anything, just waking up on that table."
"Then where are your feet leading you?"
"I don't know, it just seems like this place is familiar…" she found herself in front of an apartment complex, older but clean, she knew the twists and turns to get her to another door. This one with another electronic pad that opened underneath her fingers. The first thing she saw was a massive mirror hanging on the wall beside the door.
For the first time she got a look at herself. She was taller but thin with decent muscles in her arms and shoulders, her skin was pale and her purple hair was tied in a ponytail that went to her shoulder blades as equally purple eyes stared back at her. She wore black tennis shoes with jeans and a long-sleeved black tee shirt and nothing else besides the clip and the phone system. There still wasn't anything in her pockets.
The rest of the apartment was normal, boringly so. Until her eyes froze on the wall covered in pictures. Her trembling fingers reached out to trace the glass, she was smiling with a man who must have been related, his smirk contrasted to her beaming grin. The frame had 'FAMILY' printed on it, another frame caught her eye, this one with 'BROTHER' on it. The picture in this one was the man by himself giving the double peace sign as he made a goofy face.
A sharp ringing pierced her skull and she gripped the sides of her head. "GET OUT!" he screamed and Chrome staggered out of the apartment. As the door closed softly behind her, he continued "Get to the ground floor!" Still holding her head, she made it to the floor just in time for the breeze to stop in a way she was beginning to fear.
This time Revenant wasn't so hospitable. She was in the fog covered city and the dread was now worse than before. "Angel?" she thought staring at the apartment complex, now missing everything above the ground floor.
"I can feel the creatures. Stay calm and I'll keep you safe." She didn't have a choice-she could hear footsteps. He started giving her direction and she found herself lost as the fog thickened. His directions had her spun around and even more lost but every time she could hear the footsteps, he led her away from the danger.
There was a moment where Chrome felt a rush of fear. Footsteps came from both in front of and behind her. He stayed calm and directed her to cut through the rubble of the ruined buildings. It must have been hours of this before he had her climb on top of a building that stood above the fog. Though she wasn't hungry or thirsty she was still exhausted.
Chrome finally thought the question that had been bugging her "Who are you?"
The silence that greeted her dragged on and with it her anxiety and horror. The relief when he answered physically hurt "I'm like you. I don't know, but I have the feeling that if we meet, we'll both get a clue to who you are, though I suppose you're already a bit a head of me-no, we're equal now."
"You lost the others like you and my brother died. He got sick and was in that clinic so often they gave me the code…That's all I remember."
There was another silence before he started, this time talking about this new world "I told you Revenant had simple rules. Number one is don't die. Number two is get out as soon as you can."
"Why don't you start with the basics?" she asked silently.
"The fog creates creatures based on your emotions and uses them to kill you. In Revenant, the fog is always hungry and feeds on people. The creatures here can be killed but it's only temporary which only reinforces that you need to get out as soon as possible. I don't know how you keep slipping in and out but you won't be safe until you get out and stay out."
Blinking she only thought "It's so bright here." before replying to him "So I need to get a weapon."
"NO!" he screamed before saying again more calmly "No, any fights you get into will attract other creatures. The best thing to do is not draw attention. If we can somehow get you to me without fighting then we can leave together."
Having nothing else to go on, this was the only thing she could do. Chrome continued through the wrecked echo of her town for hours, the streets filled with creatures and ruins filled with holes and falls that would kill her as easily as any of the creatures that she still hadn't seen clearly. And she never wanted to see them.
The never-ending day was starting to get to her, the loss of time was making her jumpy and that, in a place where being silent was surviving, was dangerous. Every step was growing more and more dangerous and his changes in direction more and more frequent. He was balancing things dangerously-if she died then he would die too, but he also couldn't allow the creatures to stand between them and in order for them to meet she would have to pass them.
But, in the end, she came to the end of the first leg of her journey in the windless world.
Since her break he had said nothing but directions, directions she had followed faithfully. This one made her hesitate. Down the stairs. The narrow door had been torn off its hinges and beyond the first few steps was pitch black. If there was a creature there, she wouldn't have the room to run. As she hesitated, he offered a thin encouragement "The only way you can learn about your past is by coming down. You're so close."
Inching down the steps she came to an open door, at first she thought it was wood but as soon as she touched it she realized it must have been some sort of metal "Close it." he said and the horrible image of him being some monster flashed through her head before he continued "It might get loud down here and I don't want the creatures to hurt you."
'No creatures' was a good enough reason for her.
She closed the door as softly as she could and locked the two massive deadbolts that slid closed with a nearly silent but satisfying chunk!
For the first time in Revenant, artificial lights flickered on. Computers lined the walls of what could only be called a lab, various tubes ran across the white tile floor to run to a pedestal in the center of the room.
All of the repressed fear rushed to the forefront of her mind but her feet took one step in front of another until she peered over the rim and saw two flaming orbs.
She gasped.
She remembered.
Her parents had been careless to the point of negigence, so her older brother took her away when he turned 16 but raising a 3-year old had been hard for him. But they had done it. When their parents had died, they ended up getting a fair bit of money. That money got them the apartment.
He had a job at the bank while she got a job at the fabric company. They both worked hard but they were happy with what they had. Then her brother got sick.
The diagnosis was good, he could get better with medication.
The infection was resistant.
The doctors tried different things for over a year.
But in the end, he died.
It had been a week since then. She had gone to the cemetery and cried and cursed and raged and when she opened her eyes she was in Revenant.
The flaming orbs resolved themselves into amber eyes on a face that Chrome could only describe as balanced-a face that was innocent but handsome and mature. Her eyes traced the face down before she gasped, his body was wrapped in a long black cloth, almost like a robe, but that was not what caused her to recoil.
He had no arms or legs.
Amputated, if the scars meant anything.
His voice entered both her ears and her mind "You made it." there was a simple joy in his voice, the simple joy of living.
She gave a timid smile "Because you led me here." her smile grew "Are you ready to leave?"
A nearly choked sob escaped him "More than you will ever know."
Looking around Chrome asked "Now how do we get you out of here?" realizing the truth of the matter Chrome said "I'm going to have to carry you." for once she was thankful of her larger body.
The cloth around him was large enough that she could pull enough to form a sort of harness without leaving him indecent. She settled him against her back so that he could watch behind her and started towards the door before he stopped her "They're waiting for you."
She froze "S-so what do we do?"
"The gate is far and they might be drawn to us. But you will be fast and I can fight." Had it been the normal world she would have questioned how a limbless man could fight, but in this hell world she took nothing for granted.
She slowly unlocked the door but held it closed until he instructed her "Throw open the door, turn around and leap back. I will make sure no harm will come to you."
She did as he said, she only caught a glimpse of something human-like in the fog before she had turned and threw herself forward. She heard a rush of something, but instead of coming towards her it was away from her. As soon as she hit the ground Chrome turned to see something both horrifying and protective.
Thick black ooze had stretched from Angel's sutured shoulders to cover the creatures, the blobs shifted with the writhing creatures but they were trapped until there was a soft pop and the fighting was over. The bodies were lowered onto the floor and Chrome asked "What did you do?"
The tar like substance slowly returned to Angel as he spoke "No creatures here can smell anything, but they are still attracted to blood. I crushed their tracheas."
Then Chrome got her first look at the creatures. They looked like people-head, torso, arms, legs, but that was where the similarity ended. The torso had the ribs across the bottom section and was so thin you could see the bones, the arms and legs ended in bone points while the heads were almost perfectly round with giant gaping mouths filled with teeth. The skin of both of the creatures was a pasty white with green veins running through them.
"You said everything here is based on my emotions? What are these supposed to be?"
She could feel his hesitation to speak, why he would find pause was beyond her. With defeat he answered "Here, in this world, this is the disease that stole your brother." She froze "These do nothing but eat away at you like his illness."
A shiver of fear made its way across her skin and she nearly whispered "I want to go home now."
It was hard to leave the safety of the room with the massive door but Chrome realized it was the only way for her to leave this place. Angel's voice was a whisper in her ear as he used his abilities to take her closer toward the way out. But this time things were different.
This time the fog could feel two morsels moving together, trying to escape. The ravenous hunger that gnawed at it must be sated.
They had been slowed to a crawl as Angel was forced to navigate the now infested ruins of the city. Every inch was a battle, every block, a war. As Chrome took a break on the remnants of the bank Angel was forced to acknowledge "We may not be able to keep this up."
"What do you mean?" she asked between deep breaths.
"There are too many of them and we're making so little headway I fear that we will be trapped before long. We have two options, but I'm afraid we might die anyways. We can rush through or fight through. If we rush head on we might bring every creature down on us but if we fight we may only be concerned about the strongest ones."
Some old memory resurfaced in Chrome's mind, an old cartoon idea that might save them. "What if we made a distraction?"
"What?" he asked with utter confusion lacing his voice.
"We make a big distraction away from where we need to go, we set it off and all the creatures will go in the opposite direction."
"That's…that's a good idea. How are we going to pull it off?"
Angel was putting himself in the same boat as her and it made her feel a bit better. Realistically she knew that he was in the same boat, if she died, he died too. But there was a balance between them-she could run but couldn't defend herself, he couldn't run but he could defend them.
Chrome knew what she was looking for and where to find them, the only thing she needed Angel's help for was hiding from the creatures. In the silent moments she asked him "How did you know about my brother?"
He replied silently "What you remembered, I saw in your eyes."
She didn't know what to make of that, but in this world, she didn't know what to make of anything. The only thing she could do was just move on. "Tell me about the other two people from my world."
Angel's mental voice kept her anchored to their bond and not the endless panic that threatened to overwhelm her at every turn "The first man was a yakuza assassin, the fog gave him endless traps-pitfalls, tripwires, other stuff I don't even know the name of." Angel paused and she could almost imagine that she could feel him slump "But he got so close to the other, he grew careless. He jumped over a pile of rubble and into a hole. He didn't die instantly. His legs were broken and his organs ruptured. It took him days to die. After that the fog ate his body and the one who called him was swallowed up as well."
Chrome continued to gather the items she needed, now far more cautious of traps "The other?" she asked.
"Some sort of brawler from one of the Caribbean islands. The fog brought him endless monsters and a straight road to his caller. No traps, just a straight road. He fought and killed many of them, but in the end, he found some stronger than himself. They were both eaten."
Chrome scanned the items that she had pulled out of the rubble and grabbed a near by sack before packing them. Her question only sounded in his mind, the first time she had done this, but she didn't notice "So why didn't you call anyone?"
There was a distinct sigh "It would be easy to say that it's because I thought it would be better to suffer alone than to drag someone else here, it would be easy to demonize the others or even praise myself. But that would be a lie. The answer is that I don't know how they did it. I don't know how they dragged someone here."
Chrome suddenly realized that Angel was just as aware of himself as she was. He knew that he couldn't answer because he couldn't comprehend that situation.
In the end, he was forced to sit in Revenant. In the dark. Alone. With the fog searching for him.
At Angel's warning, Chrome skittered behind the ruins of a wall just in time for another creature to stagger by. This one was just far enough away that Chrome could make out its featured, a body almost worm like, but it had a human face on the end with long fangs and it rolled like a log leaving trails of puss and blood as every stone and brick it rolled over tore into its rotting skin. After it had passed, Chrome asked "So what does that one mean?"
Angel's response was both comforting and frightening "I don't know what that one represents, I don't know your mind well enough."
The more time she spent here, the more Chrome could understand about the location of things. Like the one direction that scared her the most was towards the heart of the fog. The direction of the gate out of Revenant was different, it offered no distinct feeling and it was only with Angel's help that she could find a place to set up her trick.
Before she even started, Angel warned her "This will attract attention so we may meet some creatures as we go. But the smart creatures might not fall for it and those are the ones that scare me."
Chrome resolved herself though "I'd rather have to face a few smarter ones than the smarter ones and the others."
Her answer was so matter of fact that Angel couldn't help the bleak chuckle that escaped him "Well, you make a good point."
Chrome never suspected they were being watched, but Angel's eyes narrowed upon a figure that quickly disappeared from sight.
It took a long time for Chrome to set up the distraction, she would have said hours or days but in this place, measuring time wasn't going to happen. In the end it looked like a pile of junk mixed with a cartoon rabbit trap. Cans, buckets, and pots were leaning between the collapsed wall and a board supported by a stick with a string tied around it. When the string was pulled the board would fall allowing all the accumulated junk to pour out and hit the ground, making noise as it did so.
But the string was almost half a mile of fishing line tied together.
In the near silent world, she pulled her trap.
The sounds of the air horns bouncing around created intermittent screams as the buttons were pushed, the buckets dock-ed hollowly and the sound echoed out of their empty interiors, the pots held metal bearings inside so the ruckus of metal on metal rang out.
The loudest by far were the pull string fireworks that blasted across the landscape.
Angel nearly screamed in her head "RUN!" as the masses of monsters rushed them, pulled by the commotion and the promise of fresh meat. It was a terrifying full sprint away from her device, her sides ached, her breath came in heaving gasps and her legs burned.
Chrome staggered to a stop and limped behind a wall as the same worm creatures now blocked their path. Angel ordered her up the wall and to cross above the thing that was disregarding the noises. As they passed overhead the creature didn't move but to shuffle on the ground.
Their passage went unnoticed by the worm.
Once they had passed the thing, Chrome mentally muttered "I wonder what that thing is supposed to be." never meaning for it to be heard.
"In this place, it represents your parents. It's a creature of sloth that ignores everything that would make it move and drains anything it can latch onto…but it's also a reflective monster."
Chrome froze and turned her head towards her passenger who stared at the ground "How do you know that?"
He continued to stare down "The more time I am with you, the more I see of you."
Wrath filled her like fire "Why? Why are you doing this to me?! How can I do anything with you in my head?! Is that how you're ordering me?! Getting in my head and forcing me to do things?" Chrome dropped Angel and as he lay face down on the ground continued to mentally scream at him, her mouth not longer working in this place.
As the rocks and debris gouged at his skin, Angel only waited. He knew that if he spoke then he would only escalate things. As she trembled with the promise of violence he only said "No. I do not wish to be inside of your mind. No. I have no power over you. It is your mind crushing mine and your thoughts invading my head." A tone she couldn't identify echoed through his soundless voice "The truth is the opposite; your wishes are bending me-I might even become your puppet…" the final was a near whisper "The parasite absorbed by the host."
Chrome swallowed thickly, the sudden reversal too much for her to take. She walked over and picked him up in silence, both physical and mental, before adjusting him back against her.
As she continued to move through the wreckage of her town her mind was on this twisted situation. Then she realized that he was truly afraid of not being able to help her. "You're not a parasite." she said after some time had passed.
"I rely on you to survive."
She replied evenly "And I need you to survive. It's mutual benefit."
He was silent except for directions again and Chrome couldn't help but feel like it was her fault "I'm sorry I exploded like that."
"You are highly stressed. It happens." he said emotionlessly.
Chrome felt it in the deepest core of her being. Things had changed between them. And she could only blame herself. As the sounds of the trap dissipated into nothing, they both knew their time was limited. Now their mad sprint was fractured by times when Angel was forced to kill these creatures.
He was not a hunter, but an assassin. From behind, tar limbs would suffocate. From above, black sludge would crush. From the sides, muck fingers would smother. But Chrome could feel his mind recoil from every act.
He was a gentle person at heart, but this damned world forced him to do this. It nearly crushed Chrome. Now she realized what he was having to contend with, her mind upon his, only his highest level of thoughts were beyond her and only because they were guarded. The locations of the creature passed from his mind to hers without communicating.
Whenever they would see a creature Chrome would ask what it meant in her mind. Every time she wished she hadn't. She grew bitter towards him, but it was not his fault. She realized this and it only served to make her more bitter. These fathoms of her mind sickened her but they were made from her.
It was her own internal shame and horror.
She just couldn't accept it like this.
She nearly vomited when she saw the figure her mind had constructed for her envy-that ragged form of his draped in festering wounds. She almost fainted when she saw what her unspoken guilt towards her brother made-that sorrowful form with its broken limbs.
The city seemed infinitely larger from this world, but she could finally see the gate out of this hellscape. It was the gate to the cemetery where her brother was laid to rest.
The gentle slope down allowed her to see further into the maze and with that came the knowledge that they were now entering a place infested with monsters. These were the ones that Angel was most afraid of, those smart enough to realize that the noise was just a distraction.
Moving amongst the rubble were huge shapes, small flickering shapes, human shapes and other shapes. They stood before the slope in a dread silence. "How are we going to get down there?" Chrome asked.
A strange answer came from her companion "Have them do our work for us."
"What do you mean?"
Fear was in his voice. Fear was in hers when she replied. It was foolish and going to get them both killed. But there was no way to make it through that mass of fog monsters without alerting them all.
Chrome's hands shook as she grabbed the rope and gave it a test pull. For once she felt she was safer than Angle. She stood on top of a massive pile of rubble that had been a roof just outside of the fog filled area of the creatures while Angel was below with the rope around him several times. His tar limbs couldn't pull him so it was only her strength that would keep him alive. He looked up at her and nodded.
She nodded back and mouthed a prayer.
From his place below, he let out the loudest scream he could. A human sound.
Just as her ears stopped ringing from the unexpectedly loud scream, she felt a cold shiver run down her spine as the thud of footfalls quickly filled the air. The first to break the fog were vaguely dog-like creatures that she only caught a glimpse of before she pulled Angel up several feet. She was busy pulling him up when the dog things reached him and his black limbs lashed out time and time again.
Then the bigger things came. Monsters that piled onto each other so quickly she couldn't even begin to distinguish one from another. Then came the one thing that they were betting this entire farce on.
One of the biggest creatures stepped on a dog. Beyond the baying, growls and yells there was a snap as the wretched creature's spine was broken. The remaining dogs lashed out at everything, snapping and clawing in retribution. This sparked a massive in-fight that let Chrome pull Angel out of the fray and soon had them running around the brawl.
Even in her one short glimpse through an alley she nearly vomited and felt her stomach churn. Blood and viscera painted the floor while the ripping and tearing continued right in front of her.
They raced closer to the gates until the reached a large clearing. In the other world it was a wide street that allowed longer cars to easily pull into the cemetery. Here there were two decrepit hearses and a nightmare.
Chrome instantly knew it was the creature that had ventured out of the fog and nearly found her. Angel's voice trembled "The Amazon. She is your twisted reflection."
The Amazon was a caricature of a human, her feet and hands were too large for her emaciated body. Her fingers were tipped with the same claws as her feet and her body was clothed in the same baby skin coverings leaving only her mouth, an overly large hole with lines of blades running deeper into her gullet.
Chrome couldn't even begin to reconcile herself with this monstrosity. The Amazon dashed forward and Angel reflexively lashed out with his ooze limbs but the creature dodged one and clawed through the other effortlessly.
The monster was aiming to swipe Chrome's head clean off.
Time moved so slowly that she could see the glimmer of blood on the tip of the monster's talon before she was jerked towards the ground and time resumed its normal speed.
Angel had jerked his head forward just enough to break Chrome's balance and drop her below the fatal blow. Chrome swallowed thickly and turned just in time to see the Amazon crash into the rubble before sprinting towards the gate.
She bounced off an invisible barrier just in front of the gray opening. "What?" she whispered in disbelief. "What are these black webs?"
"Black…webs?" Angel said with confusion.
Chrome didn't answer as she was having to dodge the Amazon. For all of the monster's speed she was only able to muster that insane acceleration moving straight forward, meaning that Chrome could dodge as long as she was paying acute attention to her enemy.
It was like playing chicken with a gun.
Angel's mind was on the portal that wouldn't let them through. She saw black webs, he saw an uncovered opening. He realized one of the possible meanings and felt a shiver rush down his spine. It would either work or they would die.
The Amazon and Chrome both paused as Angel reached deep within himself for the core of his powers. The sticky ball came out of his chest as it oozed more tar than a tanker ship. The bowling ball sized orb easily slid out of him and into Chrome like he was always just holding it for her.
Chrome flung her hand and the muck spewed out far faster than anything Angel could conjure as she strafed to the left.
The creature moved like a mirror to Chrome and dodged the attack before slashing forward with heavy claws. Now truly powerless, Angel did the only thing he could.
Observe.
It was a strange dance. If Chrome took two steps clockwise, the Amazon did as well. Attacks were nearly synchronized and neither one could ever out maneuver the other. Another horrible idea entered his mind and before he could stop it, the idea passed through the link to Chrome.
"You can't fight her like this. She's your reflection."
Instantly Chrome rounded on him "NO! That thing is no reflection of me!" then she pulled him off her back and held him in the air.
The understanding dawned on him. She had been pushed too far. While she may have normally been an upstanding person, Revenant had stretched her to the breaking point and despite her ability to somehow dip in and out she had been in for far longer than ever before as well as running and fighting.
Held over her head, Angel realized what would happen. She would throw him. The Amazon would kill him and she would either kill the Amazon while it was distracted or run. He couldn't blame her. And with that came a certain resignation.
Chrome looked up with rage, after all that she had done for him he dared tell her she was this…this…THING?! But she was suddenly tempered. His eyes were closed lightly. Resigned to death.
Though his mind she could see what he believed what going to happen.
Her arms suddenly found themselves heavier than lead. He was right. She had been about to throw him, but she also realized what he had done for her. In here, he had done everything he could to shield her from everything, even giving up everything, his powers, his mind. The only thing he could still call his were the thoughts he was forced to guard from her.
Poor reward for him.
She also realized that they needed each other to survive, but he had gone beyond that. Her anger still tinted her vision but instead of throwing him to the monster she did something else.
She dropped him. His vulnerable body hit the ground with a meaty smack that probably signaled deep bruising if not broken ribs. His eyes didn't open but he his breath left him in a rush. The Amazon continued to stare at Angel. If Chrome wanted to, she could have kicked him to it and had the same effect as throwing him to the beast.
Chrome did kick him. She could feel the bones shifting under her foot as he rolled through the gateway.
The Amazon stared at her in confusion before leaping forward to strike at Chrome. The next attacks were noticeably slowed by that same confusion. If the Amazon truly was Chrome then it had every right to be.
Chrome's actions made no sense in her own mind. She knew she was beyond angry and that she shouldn't have been. Angel was trying to save both of them, he couldn't make it without her and she would have had to cross by him to get to the gate and it was only his powers that had allowed them to get through as unharmed as they did.
But she was angry at being a puppet for him, she walked where he told her, stopped when he told her and might as well have danced when he told her. He had used her as his legs across this horrible, horrible place.
Cautiously, Chrome started strafing to the side, her plan was simple but dangerous.
She finally spoke to the Amazon "I don't know if you're me…but if you aren't then you're the embodiment of my problems. And the first step isn't fighting your problems. It's knowing they exist." Even with no face to speak of the creature looked confused.
Chrome started with a slow jog towards the creature but every step she sped up until she was sprinting across the gap. With a battle cry that made Chrome bleed from her ears the Amazon followed suit.
The Amazon lifted its claws and saw the black tar swirl around Chrome's body. This would be the final strike. It would cut through her and eat; blood and viscera would paint its skin while it bathed in her shattered remains and slurped her eyes from her skull.
But Chrome never attacked.
Chrome leapt as the claws came down and fell under the strike before the tar formed wings that flapped once before she dove into the gateway herself.
Floating in the nothingness of the portal Chrome could see Revenant collapsing upon itself, the fog pulling inwards until there was nothing left except a barren wasteland. Turning was a slow process but Chrome could see the chain around her ankle, the one binding her to this place splintering like ice. Across the void she could see another chain, this one broken entirely.
Stretching like she was moving through water, Chrome grabbed the end and was given a single name and a realization.
Angel came from her world. And his name was-
Chrome snapped up, this time several people around her jumped in surprise. "Jesus girl! You scared us! Are you okay?" it was an elderly lady dressed in her Sunday best. Chrome looked around frantically to see herself right where she expected to be.
The cemetery. She swallowed thickly and stared at her brother's headstone "Yeah…sorry, I guess I had a nightmare…"
The old woman patted her shoulder as the two others who looked like her stared at her from around the elder "It's hard but you can move on. That's what he would have wanted."
With a deep breath and a nod Chrome stood up and thanked the lady. She wasn't lost in her mourning now. She had a goal and it started with finding him.
She had flashes of what had happened, just like when her mind overlapped his. The sounds alone gave her a place to start her search, but considering what had happened to her when she went to Revenant, she could guess that he wasn't fully awake.
There were only two hospitals in the city and she started at the larger one and found the front room empty. The receptionist waved at her weakly "Can I help you today?"
Chrome blushed a bit, this was more awkward than she expected "Um, I hope so. I was told that someone I once knew, like a long time ago, may be at this hospital. I think he's a coma patient."
The receptionist tapped on her keyboard before asking "What's his name?"
"Tsunayoshi."
Letting out a light hum, the other woman continued to scan the computer "We do have one coma patient with that name, but he's not allowed any non-family visitors." Blinking for a moment, the receptionist said "Well, his mom is probably there and she might let you in so just go on up."
As soon as she saw him through the glass, she was sure it was him. Even in a coma she knew that if he opened his eyes, they would be those orange gems and that he would know her. Then she saw the woman who sat beside him, the family resemblance was uncanny.
What was slightly worrying was that she saw Chrome and only offered a blank look. His mother stood and opened the door before saying with an equally blank face "Can I help you?"
Suddenly Chrome was tongue tied. There was something about this woman that made her as terrifying as the Amazon. "I, um, was told that Tsunayoshi was here…"
"And what business do you have with him?" she replied.
Chrome didn't even think to lie "There was this really weird…dream I had and he was in it. I-I thought…"
The mother sighed and gave a wane smile "Come in. I'm sorry about that but people don't seem to care that he's an actual person."
Chrome's heart ached at that "They're horrible people." A sudden blush came over her as she started getting twitchy "W-would you mind if I…tried something?"
Lifting one brow, the mother asked "It's not something cruel, is it?"
Shaking her head vehemently, Chrome said "I just want to whisper something to him."
The mother nodded and gave a dry laugh "We've tried 'wake up'…I never introduced myself, I'm Nana Sawada."
"Chrome Dokuro." Suddenly the younger realized who she was speaking to "You're the Chief of Police." The other said nothing and that left Chrome to clear her throat before leaning down and whispering "Wake up…Guardian Angel."
It seemed like there was no change and Chrome felt her hopes fall flat. As she lifted her head however, she noticed that Nana's jaw hung open and when she followed Nana's gaze, she understood why. The heart monitor was slowly speeding up, every few beats, the monitor went up by one. Within moments, the nurses and doctors ran in.
Then all hell broke loose.
It was like he was electrocuted as his body arched into the air. The staff immediately forced the two out and almost in response he started thrashing but after being in a coma so long it was so weak that two people could hold him down. The problem was, that if he didn't calm down he could hurt himself. The two that had been forced out couldn't hear what anyone was saying.
That was remedied when a haggled looking nurse stepped out and pointed at both of them and gave her best trench voice "You two. In here. Now."
Both women stepped in, not really understanding what was going on. Over the sound of the machinery, the nurses and doctors, the rattling of the bed, was a voice.
Soft and rough from disuse both of them knew it "Mother!" was the first quiet shout "Angel!" was the next soft cry. The nurse who pulled them in pointed at his hands harshly and both immediately rushed over and grasped a hand.
Instantly he calmed.
His weak hands held tight to theirs as the staff did what they needed to do and left, the few minutes seemed like hours after the adrenaline dump. Nana held onto his right hand and just stared at her baby boy. Chrome gripped his left hand and watched as his orange eyes moved from her to Nana and back in an endless cycle.
Nana didn't understand what sort of connection Chrome had with Tsuna but she didn't question it. When the doctor asked to speak with her Nana only handed the young girl Tsuna's other hand and stepped out. The doctor told her they had no idea what had happened, only to keep an eye on him.
Inside the room Chrome stared with guilt at the words on the clipboard at the bedside table "Broken ribs during coma-unknown cause." Just as she thought the emotion would overwhelm her, he gripped her hand and sobbed quietly "You came back."
The weight of her guilt seemed to multiply "Yes. I had to. I…I have to make it up to you."
"Make what up?" after every word his voice grew scratchier.
"What I did to you at the end. You gave up everything."
"For a chance at everything." he countered before he yawned "I'm tired, let's talk after I wake up." and within a few breaths he was asleep but his gentle snoring assured everyone that it was just sleep.
Chrome stared at his hands with too much going through her mind. She didn't understand it. She almost didn't want to. Her mind seemed to spin in loops and she was afraid she was having a panic attack when a knock on the door jerked her out of her trance.
Nana looked at her son before requesting "Take a walk with me." Chrome folded his hands back across his chest before standing up and waiting to see if he did anything. When he didn't, they stepped out of the room and down the hall. Nana stated quietly "I don't know what your relationship to my son is, and frankly, I don't care. What I do care about is that you seem to care about him. I'm going to offer you a job, you see, I need someone to help me take care of him. His muscles have degraded and he'll need help with almost everything, but I can't not go to work, especially since we've had a rash of arrests lately."
As she stared at Chrome, they asked the unspoken question. Would she take the job. Chrome nodded "I'll do it, but you have to tell me what happened to him."
Nana's jaw clenched and she spoke in short, curt sentences "Tsuna was being bullied at school. The school kept saying there wasn't any proof. I got a video. The school tried to get Tsuna and the two boys to play together. They were bullying my son in the sand box when a car came speeding, jumped the curb and hit all three of them and put them in a coma. The other two died, the doctors said their bodies just stopped."
"How long was he…?" Chrome trailed off, not knowing how to say it in a way that wouldn't force the issue.
"He was 6 when it happened. He's just passed his 18th birthday. To be honest, he's mentally past a 6-year-old which is so strange I don't have words for it."
Chrome knew and could feel the threat of Revenant crawl up her spine. She could only be silent as these facts, these facets of Angel…Tsuna, piled up around her. Part of her felt a sick sort of satisfaction knowing that those who bullied him had died. But then she had to ask what the differences between the two that died and her, the one that lived, were. Her actions could be considered even crueler since he had given everything he had, what little he had, in that forsaken world to her.
Nana was quiet as she let Chrome simmer in her thoughts. Though she didn't know what had happened Nana wasn't stupid and could see that whatever link Chrome had with her son wasn't simple-there was some play here that she didn't know.
In the end they both walked back and went their separate ways, Nana to stay with her son while Chrome went to her job for one last day.
Four days had passed since he had awoken and since there was nothing physically wrong with him Tsuna was discharged. Nana hummed quietly as she drove down the street with her son and his new caretaker in the back seat. The past few days had been an absolute frenzy to have the house ready for him to move back, but it would all be worth it to see her son living again.
Tsuna's body was still very weak and it was plain to see when Chrome reached into the car to pick him up and put him in the wheelchair. It was also easy to see how thin he was, but he wasn't alone in any of this.
They didn't talk about Revenant thought. It was almost a taboo.
Until late that night when Chrome came into Tsuna's room and gently gripped his hand. The silence lasted a few minutes before she asked "Do you know what the Fog was?"
His smile faded to the hardness that the alternate reality required "No, but I think it was part of…that place." He didn't even want to say its name and Chrome couldn't blame him.
"What do you think it was?"
"I have no clue. Maybe it was the hunger of Revenant, maybe it was something to reflect our personal demons. Maybe…it was holding something else back."
The room suddenly felt freezing and Chrome shivered "Whatever it is, I'm glad we can't go back."
"Yes." he said absently "Our chains to that place are broken…we are free."
The ruins of the city that once littered the landscape were gone leaving only a rust brown dust blowing in the wind across the flatness of Revenant. The chains that once held people down to this place lay in broken piles of links.
The constant whistle of the wind was broken by the sickening rip as what was left of the Amazon fell to bloody bits across the ground.