When Ranboo first met Kristin, he didn't really think he'd see her again. Phil had explained to him that Kristin could hardly ever visit, since she was.. Well, it was complicated, but to put it simply, she was really busy. And busy people didn't have time to see people like him. He wasn't particularly important, he knew Phil didn't like it when he said that though. Ranboo didn't really understand his insistence that Ranboo mattered, a lot. He didn't really understand why anyone would think about him, let alone care about his well-being.

But he knew Tubbo… probably cared. Maybe. Tubbo got married to him anyway. To get away from taxes, yes. But they loved each other, at least, platonically. Probably.

Ranboo loved Tubbo. And he hoped Tubbo loved him. Especially if they were going to raise a literal child together. When they found Michael, Ranboo had been sort of unsure. He wasn't the best with children and he didn't really know what they needed. But he felt confident that he could love Michael, especially if Tubbo would be doing it with him. So he took Michael home and he and Tubbo decided that Michael should stay secret, for his own safety.

Kristin acted like she cared, and Ranboo didn't want to feel like it wasn't real, but sometimes he did. He wanted to trust Kristin, since Phil did, and he trusted Phil. Plus she was his actual wife, but still… there was something unknown about her. A mysteriousness connected to her presence. When he was around her, he felt left in the dark. And it was hard to trust anyone that you knew wasn't telling you everything.

Ranboo did his best to hide his unease around her and embrace the love that she emitted constantly to everyone she spoke to. It was surprisingly easy if Phil was there, helping Ranboo fit himself into the interaction. He once expressed to Phil the idiosyncrasy that Kristin exhibited, but Phil waved him off, telling him it was of no importance.

This time though…

She held no love in her expression.

Only a dark, misty, anger.

Ranboo had been speaking with her, out one evening on his way home when she had appeared. And… Ranboo hardly remembered what he had been saying in the wake of her reaction. It was so full of malice and… regret. So sudden and so unexpected. He wanted to run and hide, for what could she be angry at but him? He was the one talking, he was the one taking her time. Whatever he had said about… he didn't know, but it made her upset, and she looked more vengeful than he had seen anyone. And he saw what Technoblade looked like when protecting Phil from a baby zombie.

Somehow this was deeper, but Ranboo hardly wanted to know, every instinct telling him to run, fly away from the danger, the power seeping from her presence telling everything in his being that he needed to disappear. He took a stumbling step back, ready to make a break for it, but then Kristin turned her head, ever so slightly, to look above him. Which, considering how tall he was, she was looking at the sky behind him.

This only stopped his escape for a moment, allowing a sprout of curiosity to begin growing through the crack she barred open in his mind. But ultimately, his body was not his own, controlled by fight or flight, and he turned to run. As he took his first steps, a gasp broke a tentative silence behind him and when he looked to see Kristin, she was not there. Instead, she flew with glossy black wings above him, face neutral and eyes an eerie black.

Frozen in fear and amazement, he gaped at her, a shiver running up and down his spine. Who was this person that took on Kristin's form? Surely this was not truly her, the gentle wife of Philza, but some dark beast who possessed her. Unless… this was who she truly was, scarily powerful and beyond anything he had ever witnessed.

With a flap of her terrifying wings that blocked out the stars like a shadow, she rose high and far above, pulling out a weapon that, if not for its size and decorum, could be mistaken for a farming tool. She sped off on wings of dreadful darkness through the night sky towards where L'manburg used to lie and now lay broken, pulled into a giant crater with smoke and debris.

Ranboo had no idea how to react. He didn't know what she was, why she was angry, or why she went where she went if she was angry at him. The moon shone and reflected its light on the snow. The cold felt colder and the light dimmer in her wake. Left alone to his devices, he stood there in befuddlement and quiet foreboding.

What even… just happened?

He had the thought to find Phil. Ask him. He was her husband, surely he would know what was going on… but why bother him? Obviously this was beyond him and any of his abilities. He should just walk away. Get home. It was already late, he had to feed his pets and get to sleep so that he could wake up early and visit Michael.

He just had to ignore it… avoid any further possible visits from her. Shouldn't be too hard with how infrequent they were. He just hoped that… whatever Kristin had such a negative reaction to… wasn't him. If this had to do with him, he couldn't just run. But he didn't have anything else to do either. She wasn't human, that's for sure, she probably wasn't even of this world. And anything that complicated could stay far, far away from Ranboo.

When he finally arrived home, he fed Enderchest and his various other animals, and settled in for bed. He was emotionally exhausted, tired out from the laps his heart ran in his earlier fear, but it settled down. Relaxed. He pulled his blanket closer over his chest and took his largest pillow to hug against himself and slept.

In the middle of the night.

A whispered apology fell on sleeping ears.

It would be a long time before Death would return for him.