AN: Well, there are 2 people following, which is more than I thought, and this gave me motivation to continue the fic. Sidenote, it's so much easier to write when you don't have to start from scratch.

Chapter 2:

In her happiness, there was only one question inside her head, one which she knew she would soon have to answer. "Should I continue to hold my grudge against the Pale King?" Her past self would have immediately shouted "YES! I won't back down!", but back then she was alone. Now, she had all of the vessels. Maybe she should start calling them her children, she supposed, but back to her previous thoughts. So now she had her children, and she didn't want to risk them against the Pale King. If she was defeated, all of them would surely be destroyed, and she just saved them, she won't risk their lives in her own past's problems. Maybe, she could leave it as well, leave it behind and start something new, just her and her little vessels.

Now that she decided, she had to create a plan of action. First things first, she had to get out of Hallownest, and go away to some far away land for a couple thousand years, at least until things calmed down here. But how could she do that? If she just went and tried to go out the front door, all of Hallownest would be upon them in an instant, and she couldn't win against the Pale King and the White Lady in a straight fight, without adding the Great Knights and everyone else into the mix. So she had to be sneaky. Phase 1 decided then, sneakily get out of the kingdom, specifics can wait for later. But what to do when they get out? Even if they could hide in the caverns that made up the kingdom, up there they would be all out in the open, there was no cover to hide behind, and they would no doubt be spotted by the sentries.

"What to do, what to do?" her mind wondered.

- POV Change -

They were in pain for so long, they forgot what life was like without it. For the outside, it might have only been a couple of weeks, but for the one who housed the Goddess of Dreams, it felt as if years filled with pain have passed. Every minute, they felt like their body was skewered with ethereal swords from the inside, trying to break out. Yet, now that it absent, their mind felt as clean as the Blue Lake was, the one time they visited it.

From this sudden clarity, they felt content. They felt. "Fuck." was their first thought. The Radiance is somehow gone from their head (or at least they feel like it) and the first thing they do? They feel emotions. Bloody brilliant, if they haven't failed already because of the Radiance getting away, they definitely did now.

Still, there was a time for mental breakdowns, and this was not it, so they resolved to get out of the chains, in order to find the Radiance, get it back within themselves, and then act like all of this never happened. That's how they dealt with every instance of their emotions' resurfacing. That's what they did when the White Lady's hugs felt nice, that's what they did when they felt annoyed at the endless training, and that's what they did when the Pale King told them that he was proud of them.

That still begs the question however: How to get out of the chains?! They were made to hold down the power of a God, not just a simple Higher Being, and while they were powerful in their own right, they didn't really have any experience with anything coming from this part of their heritage.

Maybe that was the answer! Use something that no Higher Being would ever use, because the chains surely weren't made to handle something like that.

They had an idea, actually. It was good for an idea, but absolutely humiliating as an action.

Once, they were taken to the Queen's Gardens, in order to hone their skills with different types of enemies. The ones jumping all around were particularly difficult, but in the stomach of one they found a charm. They knew what it was, obviously, but only theoretically. The Pale King believed that Pure Vessel didn't need charms, so they won't get charms. They were so excited at finding this one, they forgot about locking up the emotion in the deepest, darkest corner of their mind. They immediately put it on, and channeled soul into it. They felt their body shifting, and when they looked at themselves, they were horrified! They were in the form of some kind of slug, reminding them of Greenpath's creator, Unn. They instantly switched the charm off, causing the transformation to be reversed. It was the most humiliating experience of their life, and they felt embarrassed. They felt. Had they not returned their grip on their emotions to it's previous strength, they would have felt annoyed. But they didn't because they were the Pure Vessel, and they didn't feel. And they absolutely, did not, turn into a horrible slug monster. Now with that sorted out, they had a charm.

On one hand, it was extremely humiliating. On the other hand, shapeshifting is a useful ability ("and I bet noone else can do it" their traitorous mind whispered). The Pale King always sad that a true knight took every opportunity to advance themselves, and the charm could have it's uses, even if they did not see it now. But they couldn't let anyone know about this. Because if they did, they would be asked about how they found it, the full story, and lying was not something they were capable of. So, in order to not have to lie, they put it into their bodies, into the void that made them up. The charm swallowed, they could still feel it within themselves, ready to be taken out and equipped.

With that flashback replayed, they now had a viable escape. The only thing between them and freedom was the fact that their hands were close to them, and they could not take the charm out of their chest.

While this was no easy task, they already had a plan for it. They could create giant tentacles in the place of their left hand through Void, so if they could replicate them in a smaller fashion in their chest, their problem would be solved.

After a couple of hours, they managed to do it, the evidence being the charm hanging on the inner side of their cloak. It was hard, yes, but they had nothing else to do, and with their determination (if they were already going to ignore everything about this incident, they may as well let their emotions be a little freer, right?), they managed to succeed.

They channeled soul into it, and before they knew, their now smaller body hit the ground. Immediately growing back into their proper form, they stood up. Nothing changed, everything looked like it should have been, so the Radiance probably didn't get away through physical means. Not that she used those much, but a true knight always had to be on the lookout for even the most unlikely possibilities.

They started walking out, through the dark corridor, illuminated only by smaller pieces of the outer binding. They will need to do something about that as well. But they'll cross that bridge when they get to it, which is going to be in probably something close 5 minutes.

As they went towards the entrance, they were thinking as they walked. Even at the start of their existence, they realized they couldn't exist without thoughts, so they resolved to understand the first line of the poem about their creation("No mind to think."), in a way that meant that they did not ('should not' was whispered from a dark part of their mind) have a personality, rather than no mind whatsoever.

They always tried the brute-force approach first, their trusty nail always being a reliable companion, so why not try to destroy a powerful seal of binding. Worst case scenario, nothing happened, and they had to move on to the yet not created plan B.

However, when they neared the entrance, they spotted that something was amiss. The door should have been covered in the Seal of Binding, adored with the dreamers' faces. Yet, there was no white glow surrounding the door, just the dull black of stone. As a sort of test, they poked it with their nail, and yet no seal appeared.

If there was no binding, it was going to be easy to break out. They channeled a large amount of soul, and then released it point-blank. The small explosion propelled them backwards, had they been a lesser bug they would have splattered on the wall, but as the one and only Pure Vessel (and for the first time they allowed themselves to feel pride for the title, no matter how false it was) they landed gracefully on their feet.

When they saw the outside world, it was exactly like how it had been before they entered. Good, nobody figured out that something was wrong. They knew that it was only a matter of time before the Radiance started disturbing the peace again, so they would have to catch her fast. With never before felt determination, the Hollow Knight ventured into the outside world.

- POV change -

Had someone looked into the Abyss, they would not have believed what they saw with their eyes. There in a large pile slept all the vessels, all crowded around a fluffy moth, all of them trying to get as close to it as possible. The poor bug was almost buried under their weight, yet they did not stop them. Who were they to deny these children such simple joy?

Suddenly, the vessels started waking up, and sitting up rather hurriedly. They glanced around, searching for their new light, and upon finding it all of them stood even closer, their little shaking bodies trying to find the warmth once again.

The Radiance found herself even more tightly bound between the little vessels, but she was more surprised by their quickly apparent crying. She once again flared her light, gave them her warm yellow lighting. After a couple minutes, the vessels appeared to calm down a little.

"Little ones, what happened?" she asked worriedly. It seemed like all of them experienced something very similar, which could have only happened if they were deliberately targeted.

"Pale light." voidspeak was a very strange method of communication, even for her. It was like transmitting ideas, while also expressing them through feelings for the recipient to be able to make sense of the raw thoughts.

"Climbing again.""Falling again.""Endlessly falling.""No warm light.""Only darkness.""Only death." she quickly understood. The little ones had a nightmare. But why all of them at the same time?

"Was it the same for you all, little ones?" she asked. She needed an idea why, because if it was Grimm, then she had even worse chances than she previously thought. If even he was against her, then the journey she will go on will be a thousand times harder.

"All of us, through Void, we exist." through the Void? So they were connected. Honestly, she should have expected, after entering the Void withing the Pure Vessel and exiting through the sea of the black substance, it should have been clear that on some level all Void are connected. Maybe because the vessels spent so much time in the Abyss, their connection was stronger? Food for thought later, she need to cheer the little ones up.

"It was just a nightmare, little ones." she started "Just a twisted version of reality, just an illusion. I am here now, and I will always be here for you." she amplified her words with her light, calming the vessels. How could they ever doubt the light? The light was warm, the light was safe, the light was home, the light was absolute.

Slowly the vessels started falling asleep again, and this time she made sure to give them some good dreams. Something simple, just a big fuffy cloud for them to play on. She tried to put them all in the same dream, and it worked much easier than with other bugs, so her theory must have some merit.

But her earlier thought process made her remember something. Or rather, someone. Her brother Grimm, him and his travelling troupe.

.

.

.

That's it! The troupe doesn't travel physically, they use large scale teleportation! If she could summon the troupe here, then she could join with the vessels and teleport with it to some far away kingdom. This was a good plan, she decided. Maybe if she was nice, Grimm would teleport to a safe, relaxing and calm place, so they wouldn't have to search as much.

AN: So is it good, is it bad? Did you enjoy the part with Pure Vessel? I tried to make him calm and logical, while sometimes emotions just burst out of him, because he is constantly repressing them.

When I wrote the first chapter yesterday I thought it would take days for the inspiration to come again, but I got a review for it, and within me it lit a new determination, which in itself gave me enough of a push to write this.

The review also had a couple pretty important questions, so I'm going to copy it here and then answer them, because other people might be interested in the answers as well:

Anon:

"I'm loving it already!" First off, thank you for the kind words.

"We need more Radinace redemption Au. I sometimes imagine that she becomes a giant mama bird who sits on the vessels as her babies :3 'cause her fur is extremely fluffy.
But if she has escaped, what happens to the Hollow Knight. And Dreamers?"

Well, you already saw what happened to the Hollow Knight in this chapter, and the next one will focus on the Dreamers in a similar fashion.
"And will the Pale King be forgiven in this Fic?"

I'm going to be upfront about this, and say no. He won't be forgiven, and he won't be shown in the most positive light. But, I don't want to bash him, I think every word written as bashing is a word wasted.

I hope I could answer your questions, see you next time (if you're still here)!