Fort Undying Virtue. A citadel dedicated to justice and law under an unlit sky.

A sprawl of functional architecture capable of standing up to artillery shells and lawmen, equally tough. A city of soldiers and officers in a war against disorder and indecency.

In his commandeered watchtower, Kris groans and kicks the floor with the toe of his boot. This is getting ridiculous.

For hours he has waited for Veth (or "Vess", as she wishes to be known as now) and her stolen team to do their job and seal the fountain so they could all go home.

He remembers how long it took him and his team to cross this fortress of a World the first time, and why.

The dust-thirsty Stationwagons, the spotlights from the Incident Reporters, the grotesque squeals of the Paypigs.

Sure it was hard, but the new team can't be SO incompetent that they just got stuck or quit.

Besides, if things got rough, Vess's ethereal "partner" has ways of circumventing any obstacles that became too frustrating.

He glances at his stopwatch. It says he has been in this Dark World for 10 hours and 39 minutes, meaning...

Kris does some quick math in his head. Vess and her posse have been in this World for 5 hours and 7 minutes, and they STILL haven't shown up at the Admin Sector. Unbelievable.

A poisonous smirk flickers across the human's face. While he supposes he's glad his team still has the world-record time for beating this place, he is getting very bored right now.

He lazily casts his gaze across Boulderbreaker Yard from his vantage point. If they want to seal the Fountain, this area is the safest route.

The alternatives are through the Impound Compound or through the Firearms Cabaret, and even if Vess and her handler are dumb enough to go there, he'd know.

Surprisingly, his memory of this place had served him TOO well. Within the first hour he had stealthily littered the place with sound alarms and booby traps, in case he was interrupted by Vess's crew.

Then, he had discretely eliminated the local bosses in order to weaken relations between this place's residents and their soon-to-be Lightner masters. The rigid hierarchy of Darkners here would be crippled, and Ralsei would have to work hard to make them useful in Castle Town.

Ruth, his recruitment prospect in this World, had proven unexpectedly pliant during negotiations, and both she and her Shadow Crystal were on his side by hour 3.

Another hour of scouring the place for anything remotely useful for the Delta Warriors later, and he felt confident that this World had been a victory for him.

He ensured that he would gain significantly more than his enemies, and he did it all before they even showed up.

His smug grin fades as he watches Incident Reporters flying through the darkened sky, searchlights frantically sweeping the land for something illicit to snitch about.

His fond preening of his own success was hampered by the fact that his swift victory left him with nothing to do until Vess's team got their act together and ACTUALLY SEALED THE FOUNTAIN. YOU KNOW, THEIR JOB.

Kris had already become antsy by the time the "heroes" had arrived. He had admittedly gotten a kick out of their... spectacular entrance.

His laughter was genuine when their likenesses appeared on every screen and warning system across the Dark World, wincing from the camera flashes and with the text "WARNING: FUGITIVES AT LARGE" covering up most of Berdly's overwhelmed face.

But since then, it had been mostly quiet. Kris had nothing to show them and no reason to ambush them today, so he waited for Vess to get this over with, listening to his noisemakers go off one by one across the stronghold as a reliable indicator of their progress.

But something strange happened at around the 8 hour mark of his operation. The alarms being tripped stopped making sense.

The warrior double-checks his map of the complex. Yes, the trajectory of their movements were erratic, unpredictable. Pointlessly roundabout.

The alarm at Stationary Station was the first oddity. Then the Keyhold. Then the Inkheads' barracks.

And then the one at Deputy's Watch. Hell, that's nowhere near the Fountain. He had put one there just to be thorough, he had never expected it to go off.

Other, equally puzzling signals followed. And now, silence. Retracing their steps, perhaps?

There should be nothing interesting left. Only confused, angry Darkners and worthless trinkets.

What are they doing? Where do they think they're going?

Kris taps the railing of his perch mulling over the possibilities. Had he forgotten to take something useful? Was he careless enough to let an asset slip into his enemies' hands?

He quickly corrects himself. Doubting now will only set him up for a mistake.

Are they being chased that persistently? No, he had already disabled the main dispatch system, and the individual Darkner patrols are not that well coordinated.

Are they stuck on some wild goose chase?... Well, that'd be funny, but not while he's being held here by their stupidity!

Whatever the case may be, this is taking far too much time. At this pace they're going to be doing this until-

The boy freezes and snaps his eyes wide open. Is this their plan? Are they trying to run out the clock?

He glances back at his stopwatch. 10 hours and 39 minutes... that means...

It's 7:27 PM. And he didn't tell his mother how late he could be. He'd even woken up early on a weekend to be here, and had barely seen his mom all day.

It could be worse, but he still has reason to panic. If they're willing to waste hours of their time, they could confine him to a prison he never considered: his own home.

Veth never had a restricted schedule, or a mother who could impose a curfew on her. He does.

Kris paces rapidly. Noelle and Berdly would get in trouble for being out late. But Vess and Ralsei have no authority to answer to, and Catti's and Susie's guardians wouldn't care.

Letting that quartet plot against him while he's stuck under guard is unacceptable. The Fountain needs to get sealed. Now.

Gathering his equipment, he hastens off his tower. Fortuitously, a Reporter starts screeching from the skies; it's found a miscreant. Kris has his target.

Minutes later, he arrives at the scene. Swatnics, Stationwagons, and other support Darkners in militaristic designs and uniforms have already created a perimeter around an entire block of living quarters.

The buildings are as spartan and utilitarian as they come. Four stories of concrete and patterned brickwork, decorated with insignias and flags as an afterthought.

He overhears that the criminals are still boxed in by the blockade, but the police have not formed an action plan yet.

The Darkners are secretly desperate, waiting for orders and permissions from on high that will never come. Suits Kris just fine.

None of the guards are expecting an attack from behind. A few swings of a sword, and Kris is in the same cage as his targets.

The entrance he chooses leads to a canteen. Tables and benches lie in rows with the occasional half-empty tray of what the Darkners called "food". Nothing interesting.

What is interesting is the commotion coming from upstairs. Sounds of struggle and voices, but nothing discernible.

Kris silently creeps over to the stairs. He didn't spend his entire day in this dump just to get ambushed at the last second.

A thunderous thud from above. He uses the noise as cover to bolt up the stairs. From the sound, he guesses that the activity was from the third floor.

"Vess, for Angel's sake, would ya just STAY STILL!?"

Susie's bark sounds frustrated, more out of exhaustion than anger. More running footfalls. Kris can't be sure yet, but there's enough noise that the whole gang could be there.

A calamitous crash echoes from the ceiling. Another dash up the stairs. He peeks above the lip of the last step and sees no one; the floor seems to be a living area. A quick dash puts him behind a locker as cover.

"Gotcha!"

"NO! NO, LET GO OF ME! LET GO!"

Kris mentally does a double take. That was Veth. Or, Vess, whatever. She sounded... desperate. Scared.

"Vess, please! I know how upset you are, but running from us isn't going to help! You have to calm down, we can help! And- Susie, be careful with her!"

"This- ow, isn't as easy as it looks! She's fi- ah! She's putting up a real fight!"

Kris's curiosity wins out. Slowly, he maneuvers himself around bunk beds and partition walls, looking for a clear view.

"V-Vessel, my good lady, I must reiterate that we only want to help!" Berdly's attempt at controlled bravado is likely fooling nobody but himself. "We're your... your friends! You have to tell us what's wrong!"

"No... *sniff* no..."

Before Kris can start seething over the "friends" comment, he notices a strange sound over the scuffle: broken, helpless sobbing. The kind that only seemed new because of how long it had been since he had heard it.

"Vess, look at me." Noelle's calm voice seems to abate the noisy struggle, but only a bit. "We are going to help you, I promise. But we need your help too. Whatever went wrong, whatever you lost, we will be there for you. Do you trust me?"

At last, he slides under a bed with a clear view of his prey. Sure enough, all six are present.

Susie is holding Vess in a full nelson, sitting on a bed and holding back the human's half-hearted attempts at breaking free. Berdly and Ralsei sit next to them, making a token effort to support the dragon's strength.

Noelle is crouching to eye level with Vess, muttering supportive words to the weeping girl, while Catti stands awkwardly to the side, attention locked on the action.

Kris lies in shock. Vess has never looked so... pathetic, not since the reset. Like he once was, she had appeared the spitting image of self-control thanks to her immaterial passenger.

When puzzles impeded her progress, she had solved them with wordless precision. During Kris's most fiery condemnations of her crimes against him and his world, she had responded with apathetic expressions and bland retorts.

In the most furious of battles, she had dodged with the grace of a dancer, fought with the control of a surgeon, and led with the wisdom of a captain.

But here she is, bawling like a lost child. Even as her allies surround her, her attempts at words and explanations dissolve into sobs.

What the hell...?

"Shhhhh..." Noelle motions for Susie and the others to let go, then brings Vess into a hug. The gray human offers no resistance.

Minutes pass. The room remains nerve-wrackingly static. Occasionally the negotiators outside make toothless threats and bargains to convince the "outlaws" to surrender, and Berdly steals glances out the windows to ensure that the blockade has no actual plans to attack.

Kris feels a flurry of emotions. Confusion about what Vess has done now, impatience with the pace of his enemies (his stopwatch now reads more than 11 hours), some sadistic pleasure from the tears of his rival...

Finally, Vess speaks. "Th- *gulp* They're gone... I can't feel them anymore."

Another silence fills the room. Even Noelle can't keep the confusion from her face, but quickly recovers.

"Who's gone, Vess? Who did you lose?"

Berdly cuts in with a relieved exhale. "Oh, Vess, don't tell me you had us chasing you around for hours due to a misunderstanding?

"I assure you, we are all here safe and sound." He scans the room for a quick head count, then he nods confidently. "Yep, all six of us! You didn't forget to count yourself, did you?"

He smirks and looks around expectantly, seemingly looking for someone to praise him for his wit any second now. The other monsters all independently shoot him a glare, then refocus on Vess as she speaks again.

"No, the- the voice, it's... gone, I can't hear them anymore and I, I can't do-"

She breaks down again, weeping in Noelle's shoulder. The other heroes resume their tense waiting. Ralsei is particularly unsettled, bearing the look of someone doing rigorous mental calculus and always ending up back at zero.

Kris, however, is staring intently at Vess. She can't be telling the truth, can she? The voice, gone?

Susie lets out an agitated yell, drawing everyone's attention. "Vess, I swear, if you made us run around a freaking police state just because you hit your head or som-!"

"Susie!" Ralsei and Noelle interrupt her sharply.

Vess pulls away from Noelle and locks eyes with Susie, pleadingly seeking some sympathy. "I'm serious! They just stopped talking and now I don't know-"

"STOP! Get it together and think! TELL. US. WHO. The HELL. Is 'THEY'?"

The whelp's teammates begin berating her attitude, but they all go quiet when Vess takes a deep breath and talks again.

"The voice from my SOUL. The one that has been guiding me all this time. The one who... *sniff* the one I was created to serve."

Baffled stares surround the vessel. No one seems to know what questions to ask. Ralsei tentatively walks towards Vess and takes her hands, plastering a brave front over his silent terror.

"Vess... I know this is hard right now, but... you need to think. Where's a... a safe place that's... important? A place that... lets that voice feel stronger and closer?"

The prince smiles at Vess with passionate hope in his eyes. Kris knows that look. He's trying to get her to understand something without saying it aloud.

"Ralsei, what the hell are you talking about?"

He ignores Susie's exasperated question. "Is there a place that feels... bright and almost touches something inside you? Makes you, um... feel like new, like you could do anything!"

Vess glances at her thoroughly lost teammates, then speaks to Ralsei in a low tone. "What do you think I've been doing? I'm... trying, but I can't find them."

Her eyes begin to water again. "I... don't know what to do or where to go..."

"Because you have no one to guide you by the hand."

The gang whirls around to see the unexpected speaker: Kris, standing about 10 meters away, with sword drawn and a practiced neutral expression.

Susie and Berdly immediately draw their weapons and move between him and the rest of the team. Catti quickly pulls her spell book from her satchel and prepares a ritual.

Noelle moves instinctively in front of Vess, and Ralsei takes position behind the front line, scarf readied like a python.

A brief standstill unfolds. Kris merely watches as his old friends rally around his worst mistake.

Susie breaks the silence first, spitting on the floor in his direction. "What is it this time, freak? Think you got us cornered or something? 'Cause you should know you're stuck in here with us."

Noelle gives the interloper a chilling look, one he's gotten used to by now. "This is a... particularly bad time, Kris. I don't care what you want, but if you don't leave right now, we won't go easy on you."

Kris musters a smile that doesn't reach his eyes. "Well, at least the fight would be worth the wait."

He looks around Noelle to where Vess is still sitting, head down in despair. "You. You REALLY lost it? The thing you've fought so hard to get all this time?"

Vess doesn't respond. Kris takes a step forward, but in response the two bruisers close ranks and look ready to pounce. He indulges his dramatic side and decides to stop in place.

His smile widens. "The crazy omnipresent voice that gives you all the answers? The one you've been trying to get the approval of for basically your entire life? You just... LOST it?"

He lets out a mocking laugh at the total lack of response. "Even I never managed to do that! Oh, this is rich. This is... actually really great, the more I think about it. It solves so many problems!"

Berdly interrupts his revelry with a self-affirming grunt. "Listen here, Kristopher! I'm not going to stand here and let you-"

"Oh, can it, keratin head, I've got something meaningful to say! If you want to try it, practice in your spare time!" The beak clacks closed. Good. Still submits when faced with aggression and having his ego crushed.

Kris refocuses on Vess. "But I guess this calls for a change of plan, yes? Now that you and your team have lost your primary asset, I think it's time we talk terms, isn't that right? I mean, you and I know how much you really relied on them, right?"

Ralsei looks personally insulted. "You think that we're just going to give up out of the blue? Just let you have your way and destroy our world?"

Catti looks up from her book, still sculpting her fourth summon. "...you're delusional."

"What she said, creep. You can't count me out just 'cause one of us is having a bad day. You want me gone, then come at me!"

Kris casts his gaze to Susie and gives a bold smirk. "You don't get it? Vess is officially powerless and rudderless. If I 'wanted you gone', I could let you all bumble yourselves to death."

"You that desperate to taste my axe, freak?"

Kris knows what is coming. He disarmingly turns to the side and places the tip of his sword to the ground. "Not really. I don't see why anyone would care enough to waste effort dealing with a muscle-headed thug like you."

With a barbaric shout, Susie charges at her tormentor, much to Noelle and Berdly's dismay. Just like clockwork.

This Susie never really learned how to fight with others. She makes a massive overhead slice with her axe, only for it to hit air as Kris deftly slides out of the way and hits the unprotected side of her head with the pommel of his sword.

She turns to face him and readies another swing only to receive another blow to her snout, sending her careening into a locker, where she hits her head again and collapses.

One of Catti's minions, a over-sized mosquito, makes an attack run, only to be sliced in half by a well-placed swing.

Berdly is still too focused on the flashiness of his attacks over their function. He's opted to use his sine-wave attack at point-blank range.

He has barely let loose the first volley before Kris sidesteps it, pulls the halberd towards him, and hits the avian square in the throat with a vicious uppercut.

The feline's next minion, a large moth, attempts a spell that would blind its assailant, but Kris has seen this trick before. His shield absorbs the blow, then transforms into a sword and is plunged clean through the creature's abdomen.

Ralsei's weapon of choice is a hindrance as always. As Berdly clutches at his windpipe and gasps for breath, Kris lets the attacking scarf wrap around his arm while his other pulls Devilsknife from his inventory.

The giggling blade effortlessly slices through the enchanted fabric. Ralsei staggers backwards from the loss of tension, only to be charged and rammed back-first into the wall. He falls into a groaning pile of cloth.

A hissing sound behind him is all the human needs to turn with the scythe swinging, slicing the stinger clean off Catti's scorpion. He brings his heel onto the bug's eyes and grinds it until it disappears in a puff of magic.

Kris turns to see Noelle, ice dancing on her fingertips but locked in place by hesitation and fear. Her hands are shaking, and not from the cold.

"You-"

In the blink of an eye, the Puppet Scarf jumps from Kris's arm with a life of its own, coiling around the reindeer like an anaconda.

Her arms are pinned to her chest and her mouth is covered as she falls to the ground with a muffled scream. Then the wires begin shocking their victim, filling the room with suppressed cries of agony.

A glob of corossive Curse energy hits Kris in the breastplate. Catti only uses those when she's desperate.

Before the sorceress can make another attack, he draws the "gift" he received from his newest companion, Ruth: the Hellbat.

With a swing at an unreal speed, he knocks her next ball of energy straight back into her face. He hears the sound of bone and teeth shattering, then that of numerous objects unceremoniously hitting the ground, then of Catti's last summon bemoaning itself as its existence is cut short.

Finally, he brings a sachet of blue powder from his inventory and hurls it to the ground.

It bursts on impact, and the floor is swiftly covered in a layer of thin blue smoke. In less than a minute the moans and curses of the Delta Heroes turn to snores.

Only the two humans remain above the cloud.

Slowly, Kris turns to Vess. She hasn't moved since the battle began, refusing to watch as her team was disassembled one by one.

As the boy retrieves his dropped weapons from the field, Vess finally looks up to stare at him. Her eyes are just a bit more miserable than before.

Kris considers his catch as he tucks the Devilsknife back into his stash. If what she said was true, the SOUL just became a lot safer for the taking.

He can kill everyone here, take the SOUL, retrieve all the Shadow Crystals he needs, and set things right easy peasy.

Maybe the voice will stay gone this time. No orders, no emotional disconnect, no weirdness with Ralsei's fixation on appeasing the voice, nothing.

Just a repeat of his adventure, on his own terms. His rules. Plenty of foreknowledge. And, of course, no Veth to mess it up.

Kris holds his breath as he peels the Puppet Scarf from around Noelle's unconscious body and wraps it around the arm beneath his cape. It sounds too good to be true.

...Damn. He has to be sure.

He approaches Vess with his sword, towering over her seated form. She meets his eyes, but she shows no fear. Only sadness and grief.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you all right now."

She thinks about this for a second, choosing the right words. Then she answers.

"The SOUL is broken. It won't work properly. If you try to take it now, we all lose."

A pause settles. Kris didn't honestly expect a real answer. But... he has to be sure.

"And, that's the story you want to go with?"

"I'm serious, Kris. Take a swing at me, see what happens."

The boy makes a hurt expression. "Veth! You think I'd hit a lady unprovoked? You wound me!"

"Well, if-"

*crack*

Vess falls back onto the bed as a sucker punch lands right between her eyes. Kris takes a moment to admire the stinging on his knuckles, then...

Well, that is admittedly peculiar.

The SOUL hovering over Vess, summoned by the attack, is certainly worse for wear. It is covered in cracks and leaking some kind of translucent liquid that disappears on contact with the ground.

Its red hue seems even more saturated than usual, and it occasionally dips to the side before correcting to its upright position.

"Ugh, shit... well!? You see?" Vess slowly sits up and glares at Kris, who is cautiously observing the fractured object.

Eventually, the boy takes a deep breath, smiles, and shrugs. "Welp. Beggers can't be choosers."

Without warning, he grabs the SOUL and pulls. Vess cries out and weakly tries to pull his fingers off, but she's crippled by the pain.

But something truly isn't right. He feels the SOUL shifting and collapsing under his grip. It should be solid and concrete. The SOUL starts breaking apart, the edges caving to his fingers-

He lets go. Vess falls to the floor ungracefully, gasping for breath and barely keeping herself above the sleepy mist. The SOUL remains in front of Kris, now a noticeably different shape.

"...Well, shit. Guess you weren't full of crap after all." Kris unsympathetically wipes his hand on the bed where Vess was sitting. Some kind of gunk had remained on his gauntlet.

"ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?! You could have gotten me killed, and then you'd be stuck here, and then the Roaring would probably happen!"

"I dunno, that thing worked fine for me before. How'd you even bang it up that badly?"

"How should I know!? It was just some random attack from some random guy, and suddenly the voice is gone and the SOUL looks like that!" She tries to stand, but ends up sitting back on the bed like before.

Kris scoffs. "If you say so. And besides, if I did kill you, I'd get the momentary satisfaction, and you'd go back to a SAVE point. I don't know why you're complaining."

Vess looks taken aback for a second. But soon, she takes a deep sigh and recenters herself.

"Kris, it doesn't work like that. I can't turn back time, only the voice can. If the voice can't tell I'm dead or where I am, how could they load a SAVE?"

The blue human rolls this thought around in his head. Did it work like that? Maybe not, but he can't prove that it didn't.

"... How do you know it's a two-way street? A blocked two-way street, that is. Maybe they can still see you, and you just can't hear them."

"I can't prove that, Kris, but it's the feeling I get. Besides, I can always tell when I'm being controlled and ordered, and I've been doing things myself for a while now. If you've been though this before, you'd know that!"

Hard to argue with that. Vess is making surprisingly understandable assessments for a living muppet. And he's starting to hate it.

"Alright, fine. Sounds like that thing is unusable for the both of us. You think you can fix it? Because if you can't, then-"

"Food doesn't work, I know that. But I've been trying to find a SAVE point. I've never seen an injury it can't fix."

"But there's a reason you haven't done that already, right?"

Vess nodded. "I can't see the points anymore. Or at least, I haven't seen any since the incident. I've been trying to find them anywhere, but... no luck."

"And THAT'S why you've been running around like a headless chicken through a heavily-secured pseudo-military fortress for hours."

The girl gives her opponent a stink-eye, but he offers a smirk in return. "... If you must put it like that, yes. I was the only one who knew what to look for, so none of the others could help, and-d I-I-"

Vess takes a second to collect herself and looks out the window. Red and blue still flash on the panes, and the officers outside give another vague threat about "appropriate force".

"I admit, I panicked. I guess Ralsei knew I should look for them, but I know for a fact he can't see them or use them. So I tried to find them on my own, and I guess my team was following me the whole time."

Kris bristles at the term "my team", but stays quiet. "They cornered me here, and you know the rest."

Vess glares daggers into the boy's back as he begins walking away, processing what he's heard. "Thanks for knocking out all my teammates, by the way. I'm sure you've made things a lot easier for us."

Kris absentmindedly examines the sizzling Curse damage still festering on Catti's face. She'll... probably be fine after a visit to a SAVE point. Assuming that still works. "Lay off the sarcasm, Veth. Your former self was much better at it."

The boy turns around and faces his rival. "Okay, first question. Why didn't you go back and use a point you used before you got your noggin rocked?"

"Do you know how hard it is to backtrack here? Every time I go through a district I've previously visited, the security is on high alert. I would get swarmed if I tried to find one of those points, especially if I really can't see them anymore."

Hmm. Kris didn't do any backtracking during his original attack on this place. He could imagine the security protocols for a breach were tight. Alone, he'd been able to remain undetected, but...

What the rank-and-file Darkners of this place lacked in individual initiative, they made up for in persistence. His decapitation of their command structure may have crippled the compound's total invasion response, but the local residents would still rally and activate countermeasures if they were directly attacked.

He begins pacing. "Alright, second question. Why do you think the points will help?"

"When I touch a SAVE point, I... feel the voice within me. I feel at one with them. It... well, it felt a lot like Ralsei was describing before..." She looks at the wrinkled pile of clothes that once made up the Darkner and frowns remorsefully.

Kris makes an effort to remain unfazed. "Sounds like a religious experience. I don't remember feeling that."

"The voice can see through space and rewind time, Kris. Doesn't that sound like a god to you? And besides, the voice aided my creation. I always feel... close to it whenever I get to witness its power."

He doesn't like where this conversation is going. "Let me rephrase the question. Why do you think you can still use a SAVE point even if you can't see them?"

Vess considers. "Well... I think they're not just places where magic happens. They're places that are especially connected to the voice. The healing and the SAVEs are just the voice influencing the world at a specific place. If the problem is that I can't contact the voice, then going to a place where they're very powerful could help."

"... 'Could'? I don't like that kind of speculation, Veth. Are we gonna just bank on something even you're unsure of?"

"Well, it's the only option I can think of. I guess... we just need to have faith?"

Hoo boy, Kris HATES how that sounded. Thankfully, he resists his urge to call her a nutjob or turn into his mother.

"Okay, so... we gotta have faith. In the voice. To pull our bacon out of the fire. Great."

"It's our best shot, Kris. The voice takes charge, puts the SOUL back together, and... then I guess we go back to trying to kill each other over it."

For some reason, that is the sentence that gets him to piece it together. He stops walking. "Wait. To fix the SOUL. We have to put the voice. Back in the SOUL."

"... Yes? Of course? I assumed you figured that out. That's how it should be."

Kris approaches her a bit too rapidly for comfort. "And I'm supposed to be okay with that!? The fact that thing will be able to control us again?"

Vess backs up so her boots are also resting on the bed. "I- Wait, what do you have against the voice? Is this about all that stuff you said about your... 'past life'?"

Kris throws his hands in the air. "Yes! Obviously! Angel's tears, they're gonna ruin everything!"

Vess blinks, sincerely confused. "What are you talking about? The voice doesn't want to destroy people, they're-"

"Are you kidding!? Are you braindead!? The moment that thing takes charge again and sees that you've been walking around on your own, they're going to load a SAVE! I know it!

"If there's one thing the voice hates, it's missing out. If they come back and notice that they missed out on anything, they'll go back and make sure none of this happened!"

"No, y-"

A realization hits Kris like a glass of water, and he begins talking to himself. "What if this has already happened? What if it keeps happening? What if the voice keeps getting kicked out and looping us back here the second they reconnect?"

"What are-"

"They'll reset. They'll set us all back to day one. Just so they can guarantee they'll stay in control." He says this with the solemness of someone watching the sun explode.

"Kris, you have no idea that will happen!"

"It may already have! I wouldn't remember! You wouldn't remember! If we give that thing a chance to return to our world, we could become their slaves forever. Doomed to repeat this until they get what they want or they quit."

Vess looks to the side. "Well, I mean... how bad would that really be?"

The former hero of light recoils like he's been shot. "WHY are you okay with that idea!? HOW can you possibly be okay with having your entire life be erased and rewritten until someone else decides they're done!?"

The girl steels herself and confronts Kris. "Because the voice looks out for us! You can't tell me they don't! If they wanted us to be miserable they could do it!

"But they don't! They are trying to help us through this! I wouldn't have friends at all if they weren't! And if it takes them more than one try to get the best outcome for me and my friends, then they-"

"FUCK'S SAKE, THEY ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS, THEY'RE MINE!"

Vess is stunned into silence by the raw desperation in his voice. It was a need to be heard. Like someone had just accused him of killing his family.

... This isn't the first time he had said something along those lines. But it had been a while.

Screaming that sentence somehow knocked the wind out of him. He takes some deep breaths, then starts pacing again, not even looking at his target.

"Look, Veth, I know you've already heard some of my gripes about you and them." He waves his hand dismissively. "You stole my friends, they were my friends first, you'll never know them like I do, blah blah blah.

"But here's the new material! If you insist on stealing my friends, why do you then fail them so much, huh?"

He glaces at her and sees only confusion on her face. He begins pointing at the various sleeping forms on the ground for emphasis, still aimlessly marching around the room.

"Susie still acts like every conversation she's in could end in a fistfight! Berdly is still an insufferable know-it-all whose ego fills any room he's in!

"Ralsei is still obsessed with brown-nosing you and the voice before anything else - and OF COURSE you didn't help him with that! And Catti still loathes being anywhere near you people except Noelle! Don't deny it, I've seen it, I've read her like a book!"

Kris lets out a pitiful wheeze vaguely qualifying as a laugh. "Susie doesn't even like Ralsei! At this late in the game! How did you even manage that? They met day one!"

Vess furrows her brow indignantly and shuffles forward on the bed. "Excuse me, how could you possibly know how my frien-"

"Learn to read the room, Veth! You'll see exactly what I see. Your. Teammates. Don't. Like. Each other. And guess who's fault that is!"

"Hey, you can't blame me for how my fri-... my allies feel. If they want to behave like that, what am I supposed to do, force them to kiss or something?"

"BE A LEADER, for Angel's sake! Between the voice's hands-off steering and your bumbling execution, you two have assembled a heroic team of RESENTFUL ASSOCIATES."

Kris's wandering has taken him to standing above Berdly's slumbering corpus. "I know what these people are capable of. I helped them grow to real heroes. And I know that they are WASTED on you."

He gently sets one of his feet on the avian's chest in a conqueror's pose. "So you can see why I have some reservations on just handing the keys of the future back to the nebulous, omnipotent voice that seems to be doing worse than last time."

Vess is silent, but staring defiantly at the boy's theatrical display. That... wasn't really the reaction he wanted. He takes his boot off of Berdly and approaches the walking shell.

"Maybe I should take my chances, huh? Go back to Plan A, take back what's mine right now. If the SOUL breaks, too bad. But at least it'll last. No crappy time loops, no more pasts destroyed. And if it works, I'm home free. I can win, right here and now."

He lifts his arms in a dramatic shrug. "Life's a gamble, right? Is there any point doing things your way if I don't give a damn about the voice?"

Gulping down a bit of saliva, Vess remains stoic as Kris comes face-to-face with her. "It's not just the missing voice that's wrong with me. I'm dying. I feel it. The SOUL will not last."

Kris only narrows his eyes. "And that's an issue for me because...?"

"Because if you replace your SOUL with mine, and mine breaks down, you'll die. And even if you keep using your current one, you still need mine for your... thing. You wouldn't be so obsessed with it otherwise. And it won't last long without a host."

...Uh oh. Vess is using reasoning again. That never leads to anything good.

She continues, "But you also need those... Shadow Gems or whatever. Again, you wouldn't be collecting them if you didn't need them. And... you wouldn't have been so laid-back before if you were only a few more away from the complete set.

"...If you don't repair the SOUL, then you only have until the SOUL breaks to get the rest of the Shadow... things. And if you can't, you lose. No retries."

"Well... how long does it have to live? I'm already taking a risk, right?" He knows what he's up against, what he's looking for, how to avoid confrontation. If he just hurries, then maybe...

"Does it matter? I'd say a day or two, but you wouldn't believe me, would you? And you trying to rip it out of me didn't help! How long do you think you'll have if you mess with it again?"

Kris slowly walks past her, thinking as he talks. "... I can fix it later. I know where plenty of points are. If things get shaky, then I just hop to a point and take the loss with the voice." His tone is anxious.

"... But you can't, actually. You said it yourself, the voice hates missing things. If they got disconnected in me, and they reconnect in you, and it turns out my team suddenly all died in the meantime, then..."

Vess lets her sentence hang, afraid of saying the wrong conclusion. By Kris's increasing aggravation, it looks like he's filling in the blanks himself.

She swallows and presses her advantage. "In fact, if you're so afraid of being controlled by the voice, you have an incentive to let me keep it for as long as possible. I give the SOUL a host, and you don't get controlled while searching for the... Shadow things."

"Okay, you can shut up now!" Kris casts her a fierce glance, and Vess obliges. He resumes pacing, more frantically this time, muttering under his breath.

A few more minutes pass. Backup arrives outside; their new plan is to set up towers so they can look even harder. Kris continues to pace, back and forth, back and forth...

At last, his brain finds its mark. He knows what he needs to do. He scrunches his eyes, he takes a deep breath, and-

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!" He collapses into a kneeling position on the ground.

"FUCK!" He punches the ground full force. The void girl can feel the vibrations through her heavy boots.

"FUCK!" She doesn't approach, she only watches as her most cunning enemy is reduced to a pile of rage. She's won this exchange, but...

"Stupid fucking Veth, stupid shitty SOUL!" The blue human stands, picks up the nearest footlocker, and hurls it across the room and down the stairs. "FUCK!"

He goes still for a moment, taking deep gasps and flexing his fingers. Then he sharply turns to Veth, fire lit behind his eyes.

"Okay, final question! For all the marbles! How the hell can I trust you and the voice? HUH, Veth?! Because if you think you can trick me, if anything you've said here is bullshit, I'll know! And then I'm taking my chances on what you have now!"

Vess just stares at him, pityingly. "... I mean, how can I trust you? Ever?

"I know why you want the SOUL. You're trying to destroy my world. Make it your own. Turn me and my friends into nothingness."

"How FUCKING dare you-"

"You can deny it all you want Kris! You can say you had them first or you're saving them or whatever, but it doesn't change the fact that I care for them! I really do!"

The boy fumes in place, but his damning gaze and bared teeth go unheeded. "They are my friends, Kris! The ones in the room with us right now! Not because I stole them or, or just because I need them!

"I care! Despite everything, they're good people, doing the right thing even if they don't see eye to eye! I know Susie isn't just a bully, and Berdly isn't just a narcissist, and Catti isn't just a misanthrope! I can see that! And I want to protect them!"

Tears well up in the girl's eyes. "So can't you understand how much it breaks my heart that you seem to hate them, even after you say only you get to be their friend? And how much it hurts when you claim it's my fault?

"... The point is, I don't think we can trust each other. Not really. The... the way we see this world is too different. But, just this once, I don't think we have to. We both need to do this or we both lose.

"Can't we... can we just tolerate each other for a little while? To do the right thing? I promise that I will not try to screw you over. That's all I can offer. Can I just get that in return?"

Kris's boiling rage has given way to a smoldering melancholy. He turns around, tilts his head to the sky, closes his eyes, inhales through his teeth, and braces for what he must say.

"... There's a SAVE point right outside of the commissioner's office, past Boulderbreaker Yard. I remember exactly where it is. I... can take you there. I know how we can get there without much confrontation. With you, we probably can't use the same routes I've been using, but another way should be good enough.

"If you're right about this, then you touch the point, voice takes control, SOUL gets fixed, I make tracks. The commissioner himself is... heh, decommissioned, and the office is directly linked to the fountain, so hopefully the voice will just walk up and seal it."

He lowers his head and makes eye contact with Vess. He looks tired, a lazy smile resting on his lips. "Or they rewind time and none of this matters. Sound like a plan?"

Vess blinks, surprised by his change in demeanor. But she's waiting for something else.

"... *sigh* And no backstabs. On my honor or whatever. Good enough?"

She nods.

"Good. Follow me, I'll get us out of here."

The void being hops off the bed and starts to follow, but catches herself. "Wait. We can't just leave my- everyone else here. They can't defend themselves!"

Kris doesn't slow down. "Relax, the Darkners here are cops. If they come across a bunch of unconscious fugitives, worst case scenario is they get put in a cell and roughed up a bit until the fountain closes."

He stops on the final stair and ponders something. "Although if someone here were to wake up... well, I guess we better be quick."

Vess wants to protest, but her concern is superseded when she recognizes that her new partner is walking straight towards the front door. "Um, you remember this place is surrounded, right?"

"Yep." With a dual flourish, he brandishes Devilsknife in his left hand and Hellbat in his right.

"O- Okay, so what's the plan? Should I help?"

Kris tosses the Devilsknife to his side. It stops midair, hovering in place. He turns around with a mischievous grin, leaning against the doors with his back.

"You can watch."

He backs out the door as the floating blade begins rotating like a pinwheel. Shouting can be heard from behind the barricades and floodlights.

"Suspect spotted! Armed!" "Incoming! Get ready!" "Freeze! Drop the weapon!"

Kris defiantly marches towards the blockade, bringing the bat behind his head. The officers open fire with everything they have, magic bullets and canisters filling the air.

Vess looks on as the bat swings faster than the eye can comprehend, a deafening metallic ping filling her ears even though there had been no direct contact.

But no contact was needed. In a split second, the projectiles have all reversed direction and flown back into the police line. Walls of energy slam into barriers, vehicles, and Darkners, sending the front line into disarray.

Her eyes are locked on the battle, but notice that the scythe Kris had left behind was speeding up and letting out a hysterical cackle. She can't look at it without her eyes hurting.

But as the champion swings his bat again to reflect another barrage, it becomes clear that the Devilsknife is not content with revolving alone.

The shouts of alarm and calls for coordination from outside descend into cries of terror and panic as the street, the building, Kris, even the periphery of Vess's vision begin to spin, spin, spin, spin...

A while later, the humans are moving through the alleys of the Administration District. Kris was right; his route through the city has been sparsely guarded, and he easily dealt with anyone they came across without raising alarms.

Vess's chaos-induced nausea is beginning to subside, thank the Angel, but the tension between the pair is oppressive. Not that they have much to talk ab-

"I'm surprised you didn't try to intervene when I was fighting your crew."

She jumps at the sudden noise, but Kris doesn't seem to notice. Collecting herself, she thinks about how to respond.

"I guess... I knew what I was really up against. I know how dangerous you are when you're serious. I know why you haven't beaten us yet. Either you weren't trying yet, or we got lucky, or... well, we had the voice."

She takes the silence as a sign to continue. "You're right about me. About how much I rely on the voice. I... I could never have gotten this far without it. I look back on how I thought about things when I first woke up... my perspective was so narrow.

"I never could have convinced Susie to join me and Ralsei. I never would have sympathized with Noelle or Berdly or Catti. Certainly not all at once. The voice did all that. I was just the mouthpiece.
"And I just learned by observing. The only reason I can have a conversation with you is because of what I learned from them."

The two of them hadn't slowed down through the calm alleyways. The guide seemed so sure of where he was going. He didn't need a guardian angel at all...

"I still can't come close to what the voice is capable of. I couldn't hold the team together without them. I mean, the first thing I did when I lost the voice was run away from the people who could have helped. Haha... how pathetic is that?"

Kris motions for her to stop and hang a right. She follows without missing a beat. After a little while, she feels comfortable speaking again.

"And don't get me started on combat. The voice is the only reason I can even stand a chance. Both individually and as a team. I don't think the others know, but without its guidance... well, you saw how easy it is to rip us apart when they're not giving us orders."

"Hmm. Well, that's all fine, but you didn't really address what I said. Why didn't you help your... "friends" when I was attacking them if you care about them so much?" He looks back at her, trying to catch what she's thinking.

He doesn't expect her to look so depressed. "I can barely fight on my own. It's impossible to learn the nuances of combat just from watching. I recognize that. I also couldn't lead my allies, not really. Not as myself.

"I knew what would happen. I know how powerful you are. I know how useless I am on my own. Could my team have beaten you? First try? Without the voice? Not a chance. And I wouldn't have made a difference."

Silence falls over them, save for their rhythmic footsteps and the occasional clamor from beyond the alley walls.

"In hindsight, that was probably a good thing, right? If I'd fought, you may have... well, mistakes could have been made."

Kris simply hums in acknowledgment. Vess can see that the fountain, flowing endlessly into the lofty abyss, looks noticeably larger from here.

Another lull in conversation takes hold. They come across what appears to be a dead end until Kris points out an entrance to the sewer.

Vess is at first disgruntled by this turn of events, but it turns out the sewers are mostly for show, and the Darkners don't really have the anatomy to make use of them. The place smells like hell, but the duo leave with relatively clean armor and continue forwards.

"You know, I'M surprised you know this place so well. Weren't you only here once?"

"Yeah, well, I had some 'special' help, as you would know..." Kris trails off, then comes to a stop. His follower nearly runs into his back and gives him a curious look.

After a moment, his head turns and his crimson eyes meet hers. "... Tell it to me straight, Veth. Do you... believe me? About what's happened, and who I am? About... who you were?"

Vess feels compelled to look at the ground. She considers giving a nonanswer, but...

"You brought up the SAVE points. You know about the Dark Worlds before you even visit them. It's almost like you can read the future. And you know about my friends inside and out.

"But, mostly, you know about the voice and what it means to me. You knew right out the gate what the voice could do and how it behaved. I didn't say it at the time, but... you were very well informed."

The humans just stand there, staring into the middle ground. For some reason, they can't bear to look at each other. Neither can quite pick out why.

Vess gives a small shrug. "You probably know more about me and the voice than Ralsei. I... can't be sure if everything you've said is true. But you know far too much for me to dismiss you as some... jealous weirdo or a crackpot."

"... Do you believe what I said about the others? How they used to be my friends?"

Both of them feel like the air has gotten ten times thicker. Kris searches Vess's face for any sign of deceit.

He finds none. "... Yes. I believe you. When we met in that first Dark World, and you tried to convince Susie and Ralsei? I didn't know the context back then, so I... uh, I thought you really were kind of crazy.

"But the way you were acting... you were begging and screaming, and all I remember is how authentic it all seemed, even when the words made no sense. You... really care about them, in your own way, don't you?"

The boy's mind is flooded with ways he could react. Elation that his story had finally been accepted. Frustration at the cruel irony of his sole believer. Rage that Vess dared to ask such an obvious question with a straight face. Countless other emotions well up within him.

But only one makes its way into his body language. Pain. From knowing that these confessions and her beliefs will change nothing. What use is a prophet who cannot preach?

He takes a labored breath and quickly wipes his eyes with his cape. "It's getting dark up above. Keep up."

The gray girl wordlessly nods and follows her dour companion. They both put on their most stoic expressions as they near the final leg of their journey.

Through Boulderbreaker Yard, then up the elevator in Central Station, and then to the commissioner's office. Kris makes a deep breath, then looks out over the first of these locations.

The area around Boulderbreaker Yard has its fair share of guards patrolling around, but the yard itself is pretty empty. Very open and impossible to hide in, but if they could distract the people around first...

"We're not planning on fighting all those people, are we?"

Kris ignores his wary companion and unfurls the Puppet Scarf. After whispering into the wires, he lets it go and watches it crawl away.

Unheeded by the Darkners around it, the mess of cords makes its way to a megascreen overlooking the yard. Normally it was used to broadcast alerts and news, but now-

"HEY H EY EVERY ! IT'S ME! SPAMTON G. SPAMTON!"

The speakers across the court blare the salesman's voice at max volume, followed by a high-pitched laugh and an ear-piercing feedback noise.

All the screens around the yard depict a poorly-animated digital rendition of the greasy-haired puppet, set against a vibrant background reminiscent of a preschooler's coloring book after being repeatedly compressed.

Kris drags a flabbergasted Vess by the wrist into the yard. A quick sweep shows that the distraction is working, as well as very disorienting.

"TIRED OF [[Community Service]]? TOO MUCH [[Rules And Restrictions]]? FEELING [[Warranty Does Not Apply]] AFTER TOO MANY [[Caffeine-Free]]? WANNA BE A [[Big Shot!]]?"

Almost halfway across. The Darkners are shouting, but Spamton's voice is too loud to make out what the words are. Kris keeps running. If they've been seen, so be it.

"WELL LISTEN UP, [[*%$# ]]! A NEW [[1997 Cungadero]] IS AT YOUR [[Mercy]]! GET [[/fit/]]! GET [[Fish In The Sea]] !1! GET [[Hyperlink Blocked]]!"

Vess is struggling to keep up with her partner, still pulling her by the hand. She nearly trips, and Kris says something she can't make out. It was probably mean. But it's almost over.

"THAT' 'S RIGHT! I'M NOT [[Burning It It's Burning Help Me Help]]! IF YOU AREN'T [[Breadwinner]] YOU'RE [[Dead]][[Dead]]!"

Kris slides to a stop in front of the station's glass doors and takes a peek inside. No one, just like he left it. Good thing, too, since Vess doesn't stop her momentum in time and bursts through the doors immediately afterwards, spraying glass shards across the floor and brutally rolling to a stop.

"ALL YOU NEED TO [[Go! Go! Go!]] IS A [[Lods Of Emone]], A PROOF OF [[It's you!]], AND AN [[Frontal Lobotomy]]! IT'S THAT EASY!"

He turns around and scans the Darkners around the yard. Most of them are staring at the various maintenance workers trying to fix the screens. A few are still covering their ears.

None seem to be concerned about the rogue Lightners that just barreled into the commissioner's headquarters. Kris is pleasantly surprised. The distraction went better than expected.

"DO'NT WAIT! FOR MORE [[Propaganda]] MAKE SURE TO [[Like and Subscribe]] MY [[Toll-Free Number]] AND GET-"

Whatever he was going to say is cut off by another hair-raising screech, making most of the Darkners grab their ears and double over in pain. Spamton's image is replaced by a set of colored bars.

The swordsman thanks his luck that he was far enough away from any speakers and walks into the station, glass cracking under his footfalls. "Guess the pitch is over."

Vess is shakily holding herself off the ground with her gauntlets and armored boots. The exposed sections of her bodysuit are peppered with small gashes and glass shards.

Kris delicately picks his way towards the poor girl, then offers her a hand. She gives him an annoyed glance at first, then begrudgingly takes the hand and pulls herself up. She hisses as the movement irritates her cuts.

"Ow, shit... well, I guess I should have expected a strategy of yours to get me hurt somehow. Maybe tell me the plan beforehand next time?"

Kris feigns offense. "Wow, Veth. You act like it's my fault you ran into that door. You had plenty of time to stop."

"I was following your lead! You should have- oh, forget it." She crosses her arms and pouts, suppressing a flinch from the painful lacerations.

"Relax, you'll be fit as a fiddle once you touch the SAVE point. And with that in mind, may I draw your attention to the elevator?"

Opposite the doors and across a reception desk, a set of elevators sit dormant. The two made their way over and Vess pushes the call button. Her partner pushes it again immediately afterwards for good measure.

"... Also, did you say 'next time'? You think this is happening again?"

"Huh? I did?"

"I mean, I can keep coming up with stuff to do that will get you hurt, but not for free."

"Oh, up yours, Dreemurr. Go roll around in that glass and see how cocky you feel then."

Kris can't help but chuckle. Despite recent events this feels... familiar. Like back then...

His smile gradually crumbles as the memories start coming back. Exchanges like this with someone he had called a friend. A similar attitude and appearance, now tainted in his mind beyond repair.

Vess turns to see the blue human staring blankly at the elevator doors, lost in thought. Her aggravation naturally subsides as curiosity and worry take hold. Did she say something wrong?

The elevator arrives and Kris silently steps in, punching the button for the top floor. Vess follows, stealing another look at her guide. Whatever he had thought of, it had killed his good mood and thrown it off a high-rise, leaving a grave statue in its place.

The doors close, and the elevator's hum highlights the awkwardness in the enclosure.

Surprisingly, the blue human speaks up. "You know that the secret's out of the bag, right? With the voice, that is."

She turns towards him. He keeps his eyes forward, seemingly glued to some point on the door.

"Your... pals are gonna ask questions about what the voice is. Why you freaked out when you lost it. Why you hid it from them. You ready for that?"

The one from the void stands in contemplation, then reasons, "Well, I don't think I'll be the one answering those questions."

A knowing nod. "Right... you're never truly in control."

Vess looks at her feet. The din of the elevator fills the silence.

"... And you're still okay with that? Not getting to explain your side of the story? What you really know? You wanna live like that forever?"

The vessel again remains quiet. Both occupants busy themselves staring at various surfaces of the elevator: anything that isn't each other.

Kris considers the future. The voice is going to be in the unenviable position of having to explain their own existence. Or trying to cover themselves up somehow.

From his memory, the voice's motives and methods are hard to describe. Some activities were micromanaged to a fault, while others simply involved receiving nondescript orders that he was supposed to interpret.

Sometimes, they had free reign over their actions and seemed unstoppable. Others, they were restricted, helpless, and almost inert, to the point he could pull them out of himself. But the fact remained: they were a terrifyingly powerful force.

Really the question isn't whether the voice can be found out. It's how much they want to be found.

If they don't want to be found at all, then there is no argument about what happens. The timeline will get nuked, and none of this matters. Sad, but easy to conceptualize.

If the voice decides to explain themselves for the sake of transparency, they can do so repeatedly and indefinitely until they reach a state where the gang accepts them. What if they outright pledge their support? The Delta Heroes in active cooperation with a time-traveling, all-seeing entity...

He squints. Yep, that's a guaranteed loss right there. No way he could outmaneuver the voice if it dropped all pretense at hiding, save for knocking them out of the SOUL again.

That last part was an appealing idea, except for the fact he has no idea how that worked and has no leads to find out. Too bad.

If the voice decides to cover themselves up... it seems impossible at this point, but they do get infinite tries. It must be doable somehow. Some deception that he can't think of over the span of an elevator ride.

But if that happens, things go back to status quo. The voice hides their power, Kris can try to take advantage of that, the gang gets no new help, life goes on. So far it's the best option that comes to mind where he can win.

Hell, maybe they will just ignore the issue and pretend nothing happened. The voice keeps pulling their punches, the group loses cohesion, there is an information disconnect... Is self-sabotage too much to hope for? Or maybe-

The tired boy brings his hand up and rubs the bridge of his nose. Was there even a point to this line of thinking? It's not like he can influence what the voice wants.

He can only react to how they choose to shape the world. He's not weighing his options, only trying to guess whether he even gets to play at all. His choices don't matter. Not here.

He glances at his stopwatch. 12 hours and 5 minutes... it's 8:53 PM, and his mother hasn't had any sign of him for virtually the entire day. She's certainly called his cell multiple times. He briefly entertains the thought of killing Vess and hiding in this Dark World forever.

"I'm sorry."

At first, he assumes his mind was playing a trick on him. When the words finally register, his head snaps to the speaker. He looks like the girl had just punched him.

"...You're what?"

Vess's posture has never been worse. She is slouching and hanging her head, her shoulders sagged. "If what you've told us is true... If I... or, she, I guess? Maybe?"

She shifts uncomfortably in place. "If the girl from your past, the one you helped, really did that to you... to everyone... I'm sorry. You don't deserve this. Any of this."

He's too stunned to reply. The elevator finally nears its destination.

"I can try to communicate with the voice. My options are limited, but maybe if they know what-"

"No! Don't do... th-the thing is..." Kris looks around frantically, trying to find the right words. There are so many things that could go wrong with that.

The voice is an unknowable, chaotic agent. Getting talkback from their own vessel could make them go over the edge! The voice would never approve of disobedience and questions, right? They'd just take it out on others or reset... right?

... But doing nothing, failing to garner sympathy, could be just as disasterous. Even after all that time with them, Kris can't predict their movements. If Vess CAN get through to them, if it makes anything just a bit easier or simpler, if she could even get them to help...

Hell, the fact she's willing to try is... very unexpected. She knows what his endgame is. To still attempt an appeal for communication, in spite of all odds...

"... Fine. Just-" He lets out a resigned sigh. "You can try.

"... Thanks for the thought, I guess."

A ding accompanies the halt in the booth's motion, and the gates sweep open. Vess strides out, and Kris takes a moment before following.

This level holds entrances to a series of offices. The most ornate door bears a plate on the front. "Fort Undying Virtue Commissioner" it reads, followed by...

Vess squints. Is that a name? It's nothing like the ones she's seen.

"Hold up." She looks over to see the other human approach a nearby window. As if on cue, a green tangle of wires flops up from below onto the windowsill, then begins tapping on the glass impatiently.

Kris opens the window and lets the mesh climb up his arm and wrap itself snugly around his bicep. He contemplates the metallic "scarf". Spamton has a new master, but it's not like Kris has taken control away from him, right? Spamton is still able to be himself...

The boy lets out a gutteral, bitter growl, grabbing Vess's full attention. He lets out another sigh, then turns to her.

"Whatever. Just sayin' it. Vess, when I first saw you in this world, I thought you were just a mindless puppet. I thought, 'I guess HER real desire was to be a braindead meatsack and get run around by her precious creator, because she worshipped them for whatever reason.'

"And it was insulting. To know that Veth preferred it when I was replaced by some mouth-breathing flesh machine. To know that for Veth, everything my friends and I had worked on could be thrown away if it satisfied some weird... deity-thing, I guess."

He falters, but gets himself back on track by slapping his head back and forth a few times.

"But that isn't true, is it? You're a real person. It's not just the voice. And you know what?"

He spreads his arms in an exaggerated shrug. "I'm impressed! Sure, my expectations were rock bottom, but you've been a perfectly functional human being since I... y'know, found you crying and fought all your friends! Given the circumstances, not bad!"

His arms lower to his sides. "You're not a dumb tool. And Veth had a hand in that. I think... that somehow, somewhere deep inside, Veth wanted to make her new self a thinking, living person. Or even a hero. Apart from the voice, distinct.

"Maybe she didn't really know what she wanted. Maybe she did it on accident. Or maybe she just wanted to stick it to me even more. But... you aren't really satisfied like this, are you? Do you really like what's happening? Having no choices in your own body?"

The girl can only look down. She was built for this, she had to be happy like this. Yet...

Kris lets out a cheap fake laugh. "If there's one thing I think we agree on, it's that this situation sucks ass."

The moment passes, and he has to stop himself from grinding his teeth. "You're better than what I gave you credit for. You... you don't deserve this, either. You don't... deserve to just be a puppet, or a pawn. To the voice, to Veth, to whoever.

"I don't know what you deserve. But it ain't this."

The following silence is suffocating. The pair feel their eyes be magnetically drawn to the floor, but slowly they both raise their heads and face each other.

"... Kris, I don't-"

"No. No, no. Enough. Just... let's get this over with." He walks past her towards the grand doors of the commissioner's office.
He moves about 8 feet to the right of the entryway, eyeballing the distance and making little adjustments. Then he steps about two paces from the wall, and...

"Here. The point is hovering right here. If this doesn't work, we're royally screwed."

Vess walks over near the spot, and Kris moves aside towards the elevator. She makes a sharp inhale, stares at the "empty" spot,... and hesitates.

"Kris?"

No response. She continues looking at the open air.

"When you fought my friends, you could have killed them. You've said before that you would, and just bring them back later. But you didn't. Even went out of your way to fight them non-lethally. Why?"

Another moment of quiet passes.

"... Old habits die hard, I guess. It's... how we did things back then."

Another long pause. At last, a small gray smile appears.

"... Noted. Thank you."

The smile vanishes when she hears an anguished grunt from the boy. She risks losing the spot to take a peek at him, seeing him still standing, but with a tortured expression.

"Angel's tears, Vess... please, I'm begging you, just..."

He meets her eyes and shakes his head. His features are defeated. Pleading.

"... just do it."

She turns forward and extends her arm. For a few seconds, her hand dowses the air before her.

Until at once, her pupils shrink, the cuts on her body turn to smooth flesh, and her bodysuit mends over the holes. Small shards of glass fall harmlessly to the ground.

For a minute, she pauses. The room is still. Kris recognizes this: she's surveying her surroundings without moving her body.

Eventually, he breaks the silence. "What's wrong, Veth? You look lost."

She smoothly pivots to face him. Her mouth is set in a straight line, and her eyes glare at him analytically.

The show is back on. The voice shouldn't know what they've spoken of yet if it can be helped. He puts a smug grin on his face and attempts to strike an aggressive pose. It doesn't come as naturally as before.

"You gone deaf, hair-brain? Did you forget where you are? ...Did you forget WHO you are?"

Her gaze remains emotionless, but her sword remains undrawn. "Where are my friends?" She doesn't sound particularly worried; the speaker is aware of something the questioner is not.

Inwardly, Kris lets out a sigh of relief. Outwardly, he releases a teasing laugh. "Wouldn't you like to know? Maybe you should have tracking bracelets for them. Or hell, maybe they should have one for you."

Another uncomfortable pause. At least the voice hasn't given up on the timeline yet.

Kris decides to make his exit. "Well, good luck with that. By the way, the fountain's through those doors. No big bad guy, too. I'm done here, and I don't feel like fighting you today, so this one's on me."

He boldly turns his back on her and struts to the elevator. He enters and hits the ground floor button.

Looking out the closing doors, he sees that only the girl's stare followed him. Her bearing is stiff and her face is set with determination.

He gives a quick wink and shouts, "Thanks in advance for the jailbreak, pardner!"

His playful attitude withers after the elevator begins its descent. He spends the ride blankly studying the floor counter as it ticks down.

Kris casually strides out the broken front of the station and turns his gaze upwards. Any surrounding citizens are too busy talking about the strange broadcast to notice the solitary Lightner.

The fountain ripples into the sky, until it seemed to freeze and phase into a white pure as snow.

Whatever happens next is between Vess, the voice, and the others. What the voice will say, what they will fight over tomorrow, or whether there will be a tomorrow at all...

It's out of his hands. This isn't his world, after all.

Kris closes his eyes. At times like this...

It hurts to be alone.

Through his eyelids, his vision is consumed by light.

-FIN-