Hello! Thanks for reading my story. I recently beat this game, and it killed me how short it was. There were so many details that were barely explained. Seto himself, Ren, Crow, AND Sai's past, the ghosts, the monsters, the people who died and survived...so I, decidedly not a writer, was inspired to write, which was bizarre. This is a sequel of sorts to the game. But not really. Just a 'what if'. There will probably be a TINY bit of both Seto/Ren and Crow/Seto, but I'm not sure to what extent that will feature in. Sometimes I say pairings will be present and I end up totally avoiding the pairing all together. We'll see. But it's best if you're open to it, especially Crow/Seto, as that was super cute. If the game didn't bother you, this fic won't.

So…on with the prologue, and please do bear with me any grammar or spelling mistakes. As I said earlier, I am not really a seasoned fiction writer, or much of a writer at all, outside of 15 page essays at school.

Fragile Dreams belongs to Tri-Crescendo.

a battery

when your flashlight dies, you find a new flashlight, or…

a new battery

battery

"Seto?"

Seto jerked out of the haze of sleep. A pale face, lit with mild concern, loomed over his own.

"Ren…? What's wrong?" he asked, shaking his head to rid it of sleepiness. Something hard was on his teeth. His companion, a thin girl with a flower tucked in her silver hair, leaned back in a crouch.

"I think we should start moving." Seto sat up fully.

"Is something wrong? A monster?" he licked his teeth. The hard substance remained. Ren was staring at him.

"Seto…there's blood all over your mouth again. Your teeth too."

"What!" his hand flew up to cover his mouth as he looked around for a reflective surface. Things around them seemed to have shifted places from the night before. "Was there another earthquake?"

"Yes…that's why we should go. A building nearby fell a little while ago." Ren helpfully held up a small, battered mirror and a water bottle. Accepting it, Seto peered at himself in the mirror. His mouth was a smear of blood, and baring his teeth revealed the hard substance to be a thick coating of congealed blood, resulting in a rather gruesome appearance.

"Ah…ew…" In the past week or two, this seemed to be happening more and more. It was hardly a pleasant way to wake up, and only served as punctuation to the fact that things after stopping the second Glass Cage were far from perfect. After putting Sai and Shin's spirits to rest at the Red Tower, Seto and Ren set out to find the survivors Seto had heard on the two-way radio. However, the mission had been less than fruitful so far. With little idea of where the survivors actually were, the pair had originally wandered in large circles radiating from the tower for about a week in a relaxed manner, getting to know each other. The ruined landscape served as a large playground for the two, though it had dangers in the form of lingering spirits, feral animals, and mutated creatures. After the twelfth meal of old tuna, Seto had suggested circling back around to find the two-way radio again and see if it was still operational. They were now about three-quarters of the way back to the tower, and Seto had almost gotten used to the occurrence of waking up to earthquakes with a mouth full of blood. Ren didn't seem to have the same problem, or at least didn't tell him about it. She fell asleep earlier than him and woke up earlier too, so he really didn't know much about her sleeping habits yet.

After Seto fixed his appearance, the two started getting ready to depart in comfortable silence, filling their water bottle with water from a pipe gushing with clear looking water, and scavenging a few unopened cans of food from a box in a decrepit drug store. The sun started to peek through the thick miasma of colors hanging in the sky, resulting in a prismatic glow that washed over the ruins of the city and overgrowth. Ren left for a short time to gather her cat friends, at which point Seto had no idea what she did with them- maybe discuss important news or something. Ren was always very well informed about the current state of their surroundings...

With some time to himself before setting out, Seto's mind was able to return to his dream- something about a battery?

Ah. Battery. Weighing rather heavily and persistently on Seto's mind, as well as his shoulders, was a box of batteries he had stumbled across during a scout for food. He had lugged it back to the fire and a curious Ren, and proceeded to more closely examine the illustrations on the box that had caught his eye. A banner reading 'Synet Personal Robotic Products' paraded across the side, and underneath, various robotic helpers were illustrated next to cheerful looking housewives or performing some kind of task, each with small captions. What excited Seto is that he could clearly recognize one depicting a Personal Frame, and another was definitely a robotic doll. A smaller caption below the illustrations confirmed this, including Personal Frames and SyDolls model numbers 38-DEF through 41-DEF in its list of compatible models.

I never told anyone your secret

A long summer

I was alone at the end

If there were a chance that these batteries could fit either P.F. or Crow…Seto would fight one thousand giant mutant moles. Seto, crying, had buried a silent P.F. in the underground mall, and left his first best friend slumped over dead in a lonely laboratory surrounded by the corpses of his predecessors. He hadn't been able to bury Crow at the time, and wasn't sure if it was due to the lack of a suitable area at the time, or something else. Seto was no stranger to burying people. But Crow…well, Crow seemed to be waiting for something. Crow died, but he didn't seem dead. If Seto could revive either of them…hear their voices again…well, it might make the lonely world he and Ren were pushing through just that much more perfect. It certainly bolstered the resolve to head back to the two-way radio in the labs, and ultimately, Crow. Then they could find P.F. Seto had let his thoughts flit briefly around the possibility of taking a battery from one of the dolls that attacked him in the labs once before. He quickly decided they were hard to get near without outright destroying them, and it seemed less than right to take a battery from one to give to someone else, no matter how dear the latter was.

"Seto." Ren had suddenly appeared near him, catching him off guard. She had a very silent approach, he had learned in the past few weeks, which made sneaking around monsters much easier. "I…have something to ask you." Seto perked up. "I know we should stick together…and I'm having fun with you. But I don't want to go back to the labs."

"…Oh."

"I'm sorry. I know you want to find your friends. What should we do?"

"I…I'm not sure. Are you scared of them?"

"I'm not scared. I just…I don't like it there. I can't go." Seto looked at the ground. If Ren doesn't want to go… "Maybe…maybe you can go on your own. I will wait for you somewhere. Near the lake of flowers. You don't have to worry about me."

"Really? Are you sure?" Seto felt terribly uneasy about leaving Ren alone, but…the image of P.F. under the dirt and Crow among the piles of dead dolls flitted through his head. Ren knew how to hide and stay safe. She had been wandering around just as long, if not longer than he had, and seemed to be fairly immune to spirit attacks, or at least adept at avoiding them. Ren moved closer, and gave him an unreadable look.

"We'll meet up in three days. Is that long enough?" Seto nodded.

"Yeah…as long as you'll be ok, do you want a weapon?" Ren had never carried a weapon before, so it wasn't surprising when she shook her head. "What about food?"

"I can find more." Seto split his supplies with her anyway, giving her some ration packs in case of emergency and a few cans of tuna. He also gave her his slingshot, 'just in case'. When it came time to part, the two looked at each other for a few moments, memorizing the others' appearance. Ren's face suddenly broke into a soft and charming smile. "I'll see you soon, Seto." And then she was gone. Seto found himself staring at the ground where she was standing. Seto found himself hoping desperately that he would see her again soon. Seto found himself…alone.

How short. Hopefully I'll have the first chapter up soon! Thank you again for reading.