I do not own Deltarune. Toby Fox does.

"KRIS!" he shouted, floating around. Spamton moved jerkily, like some giant puppeteer was yanking those strings and tugging him around the railway. "Kris! Take the deal! Take it, take it!"

Jump, came the thought. Kris didn't even think, she just jumped from her rusty roller coaster. Her feet caught on one of the metal ruins whizzing past.

Snap, came the thought again. Spamton drifted closer, and she jumped at him with her sword outstretched. It swung, and a pair of the sickly green wires snapped. Susie swung at another pair, and she felt Ralsei's heavenly magic surround her body, healing her wounds as Kris fell back into her coaster.

The soul, at least, was having a blast. It buzzed in her chest, ecstatic and filled with energy, energy that kept flowing up Kris's arms and out the tip of her sword like bullets. It knew what it was doing, too; it was getting easier and easier to let the soul take the reigns, for Kris to just move and trust in its judgements. Even when it made a mistake, it could always bring everything back. Even death no longer made Kris bat an eye.

Spamton was still talking, shouting over the rattling wheels. "Or do you just wanna be a heart on a chain your whole life?!"

She froze. He knew.

He knew.

He'd been talking about communion and heaven and souls, and he obviously knew more than he had any right to, but he knew what she had, knew the power she had at her beck and call. Knew it and wanted it for himself, not just for the power a human soul was supposed to have. He was going to take it from her, leave her as stupid creepy Kris who clogged the toilet with bath bombs and scared people with cryptid stories, who nobody liked.

Duck. A line of diamond bullets shot through where Kris's head had been a moment before, and her dancing soul fired back at the trio of pumping, mechanical hearts leering at her. Left. She pressed herself against the left side of her coaster as more attacks peppered it, the metal wheels rattling under the power of NEO's attacks.

The fight continued.

And eventually, inevitably, they won.

Susie was asleep. Mom was, too. At some point, she must've turned the TV off.

Kris pressed her hand over her shirt, over her heart, and reached in. Her fingers clawed at her flesh, and then slipped in like she was a ghost. There was no blood or bone or sinew, but there was pain and Kris gnashed her teeth and fought back tears as it felt like she really was clawing her own chest open. She clasped her hand around the little spot of warmth inside, strained, and tugged. It squirmed and struggled in her grip, anxious and worried and filled to the brim with Kris what are you doing Kris cut this out you're scaring me!

YANK!

Kris froze for a moment, the glowing soul in the air. She held her breath, making sure Susie and Mom didn't wake up. She looked at Chairiel; Mom's head was tucked into her shoulder. She looked right; Susie's snot bubble was still inflating and deflating. Perfect.

She stared at the heart, helpless in her grip. It was so... small and simple. Just a flat heart, like a little kid would draw for a Valentine's Day card. But it was strong. So, so unbelievably strong. It could see in every direction at once for bullet attacks, it could make decisions in a split-second as though it had minutes to think even in the heat of battle, and it could turn back time. Every time it had Kris bathe her hands in that light, a new anchor was made, and they could always come back. It was unbelievable. It was godly.

And it was all at her mercy.

Pull it out, whenever she wanted to become herself again, let herself slouch and stop walking around like she had a stick up her ass. Put it back in whenever she wanted, and let it take control and make all the choices for her.

This sort of power... it could do so much. It already had. She was a hero now, a figure of legend along with Susie and Ralsei. She'd saved the world from the apocalypse not once, but twice. She... she had her own room, stacked with trophies. Everyone in the village looked at her and smiled and called her 'boss', and Susie was friends with her, and Ralsei was too, and so was Lancer, and the Bloxors, and the Werewires, and Queen, and Noelle, and even Berdly was less of a pompous prick. Everyone in town was so happily surprised to see her walking around, talking to everyone and taking an interest in their lives.

Kris blinked a tear away. But she wasn't taking an interest in their lives, was she? The foreign soul was. It wanted to know who that reindeer man in the hospital was, wanted to greet the short skeleton man like an old friend, and seemed to immediately know what name the giant ocean monster should have. It listened about Kris's childhood stories in the church, or with her headband, or looked around in the graveyard. It was curious, endlessly curious, and it was that wide-eyed lust for life that everyone loved so much.

Do you just wanna be a heart on a chain your whole life?!

Kris... hadn't done anything. She hadn't worn down the King of Spades until he could barely stand, hadn't bobbed and weaved around Queen's gargantuan robot, hadn't endured the hurricane of Jevil's attacks or fired frantically back at Spamton's NEO form. It had done all of that, and Kris was just soaking up all the credit, like a parasite, a leech. She was so lowly, a maggot, and everyone just loved her so much now and it made her want to scream. But how could she go back? How could she turn away from this path? The praise, the adoration... it all felt so warm and fuzzy, filling the cold emptiness that'd been growing inside of her for years.

She looked at the soul some more. How long could she keep this up? When she went to college, would she have the soul taking notes? Have it get a job in the workplace? Keep traveling to the Dark World when she had kids someday? When she was so old she needed a cane, would she still have it in her chest leading her around the entire town?

But what choice did she have? Just throw it away? This thing... it was dangerous and she was playing with fire keeping it around but far better than letting it find a different host. Kris could deny its requests, Kris could choose to 'join' Berdly incredulously, could rip it out at her leisure, could surge to protect Susie with her shield when the soul was paralyzed with indecision, but could everyone? It was so curious, and while so far it'd led Kris to be a legendary peacemaker, she'd felt how it lingered just a moment too long when it found Noelle's 'Ice Shock' spell.

No, maybe Kris could deny it when it went too far, but would Ralsei have the nerve to stand against it? Would Susie even know the thoughts in her head weren't hers? Would Noelle deny the voice telling her to summon her magics? Kris had to keep it with her, for everyone's sake. Keep this heart on a tight leash, and yank it when it got out of line.

...

... Kris stared at the heart some more.

She... would keep it in line, right? Surely, Kris wouldn't just let its unchecked desires flow over her friends. She'd step in and take back control if it tried to go too far, tried to hurt someone she cared about, tried to exert its influence over those powerless to resist it. She... she would. She would! Kris wasn't so reckless. She wasn't!

Stop judging me, she thought to the heart.

Kris what are you doing? You already did this once today! it thought back.

Angrily, she pushed it into the cushions. Angel, she was such a mess. Why was she getting so torn up? This was... this was exactly what she wanted. To be a hero. To be the smart, cool, brave heroine everyone looked up to. Everything she was today, was because of the foreign soul. She would never let it go, she'd milk it for everything it was worth. It was so curious, it wanted adventure and she'd give it to it. A trade. A deal.

Adventure, for heroism.

Fun, for friends.

Kris stumbled over to the door and opened it just a crack. Maybe the darkness would flow out into the festival. Maybe it wouldn't. She turned the TV on and set it to blind, fuzzing static.

Then she walked over to Susie, still out cold and still snoring. Kris smiled. Susie... she was incredible. Strong and tough and always ready to speak her mind, never afraid of anything. The kind of person Kris would've liked to take to the carnival... even if the soul seemed to be trying to get her and Ralsei together. She liked him, and he gave good hugs, but he looked far too much like Azzy.

Susie... she almost hated to do this to her. But they were the same. Susie craved the adventures of the Dark World. When Kris had been breaking into the library, Susie had been wide-eyed in bed, unable to think of anything else. Susie would love this. She'd love waking up in the Dark World, finding another alien scene, more Darkners to look up to them, a leering TV-faced villain to fight alongside Ralsei, Kris, and her Mom.

Mom... Mom was strong. She'd be fine. Everyone always was. With the power of the foreign soul, everyone always would be. She'd use her powers for good. Make friends with everyone. Solve all their problems flawlessly.

Kris stepped away from Susie, brandished her knife, and summoned her will. She thought of all the things she'd been given, the knife and the soul, all the things those two had brought her. All that they'd continue to bring her. Make a fountain, and then have the soul close it. She'd... she'd be careful. Never make more than one, never bring that armageddon Ralsei was so afraid of. She could do it. Focusing her power, Kris leapt into the air and stabbed her knife straight down.

Like the previous times, the blast of energy nearly blew her off her feet. Kris stayed kneeling, gritting her teeth as the blinding light seared her eyes and blew her hair straight back, clenched the knife until her hands sweated as the light turned to darkness, the high-pitched whine turned to a low hum. Then, just like that, it was over. Blackness poured from the earth.

She stumbled back to the couch, and lifted the soul from where she'd stashed it.

You?! it thought. You've been doing it?! Kris why? Ralsei said, you know it's not safe, it's right in your house - it thought, panicked.

Darkness settled in over the room, like smoke from a raging fire. Kris closed her eyes, tilted her head back, and fused the soul with her body.

Maybe she was nothing on her own. Maybe she was just a heart on a chain. But she was never going to let this heart get away.

It would never be the one in control.

So... yeah, how about that Chapter 2, huh?

Please leave a review, let me know what you think.