Kris carried themself to their feet, spreading mulch across the alleyway floor in a small wave as they clutched a distantly awestruck hand to their beating heart.
The world around them was stained with dark watercolors. Purple in the sky, dark blue sweltering like mold all over the concrete, vivid glances of bright white over the tops of buildings lined against the horizon like bricks.
Their vision pulsed with every heartbeat, flashing blinding images of light as particles fluttered in their gaze.
Piercing shrieks, like wolves howling deep into the night, whistled from further into the city, leaving Kris to jolt in surprise.
This was new.
They took a moment to observe the numerous, trailing cracks in the desolate, unkempt concrete below, then upward to the tumbling, collapsing structures in the background.
The odd scent of burnt rubber seemed to permeate from further in the city, boiling their nostrils with pungent, acrid gusts of air that made them scrunch up in disgust.
They kept their sword close, gloved hands gripping the hilt tensely, defensively, their red eyes darting from side to side.
"Wow…" Susie muttered, amazed as she stared up above at the purple-sky-with-the-white-swirls. "This is… different."
She stood up vapidly, her axe hanging weightlessly in her grasp as she panned her gaze across the sky again, enamored by the streaks of color and hues that bled in and out of existence like shadows in her peripherals.
A new Dark World. A new Fountain. A new mystery to solve, more variables to calculate.
The other sponged the new information and hummed in pleasure, seemingly awoken again as it grabbed deep hold of Kris's limbs. They started before the cool washed in and their indignant resistance fell through as easily and airily as a pebble would sink in a lake. The other forced their face blank and commanded them: Forward.
"…we should move." Kris said.
"This place is… oh, man, that was creepy as hell, but this place is cool! Hey, Kris," they began to step out into the streets. "What sort of friends do you think we will meet here-"
A flash of off-white exploded from their right as a hurtling ball of mass collided with them, throwing them to the street and pinning them down. Flecks of moisture patterned down on them as a blood-curdling chuckle barked at them.
They recovered and thrashed against the stifling weight, struggling to still whatever it was that had mounted them.
Their head exploded in pain as something stabbed through their eyes, a jagged blade of concentrated will steaming at the red, inflamed chitin between their skin and their soul.
The thing stuffed itself closer to them, crashing weight down onto their torso before their fight-or-flight response kicked in and they struck out at it, their fist sinking deep into the belly of something soft and supple.
The thing's manic howls reverberated through Kris as it broke back slightly, finally affording them a sober sight at whatever it was attacking them.
A jacket. A white jacket with sleeves tethered to opposing shoulders and thrashing spasmodically against the bindings, enveloping a slim, V-shaped figure. It had no head, just more cloth and a single oscillating hole, a dark crater in the center of its 'face' that was leaking white-brown slobber.
Their spine tingled.
The Lunatic Darkner roared and fell back down onto them, face leaking acidic saliva onto Kris's exposed skin and boiling cysts into their flesh as acerbic crackles of bones grating sounded.
"SUSIE!" They screeched in a rare moment of desperation.
The monster jerked in shock and picked her axe up, forcing a bluffing growl through her teeth.
"HEYA, FREAK!" She called, startling the Lunatic Darkner, stealing their attention away for a single second.
Kris reached for their sword, slashing shallowly into the Lunatic's torso.
They kicked out from under the Darkner as the Lunatic retched in pain. After a small scramble, Kris was back at Susie's side with their sword drawn.
The Lunatic righted itself, twitching as it waited for an opening, cloth body shivering in hunger.
"What the fuck is this place?" Susie accused the air, a total flip from earlier. Kris shared the same question.
They took the first move, delivering a calculated slash at the Darkner. It howled and attacked, rushing forward before Susie followed their lead, cleaving deep into the Lunatic's chest.
It retreated, tearing its sleeves away from where they were glued to summon a barrage of attacks that looked vaguely like pill capsules.
The other didn't bother taking full control, allowing them to elegantly weave through the slow, simple attacks.
The Lunatic chortled robotically.
"The hell is this thing? Who let the psychos out to roam?" The two attacked again, scoring deep slashes into the torso of the Lunatic. It verbally sneered and leaped at them, sending a different pattern of pills soaring toward them.
Despite the quicker speed and more complex pattern, the large gaps made it boorishly simple to side-step and counter.
Kris sniffled stoically and raised their shield for the next attack, nodding at Susie to hopefully convey their plan.
She began to summon magic to her blade as the Lunatic gave out a final roar, dashing forward in a capriciously futile charge at the two. Jumping through the air, the deformed Darkner sliced downward with papery claws, skidding along Kris's shield harmlessly and stumbling to the concrete floor.
Susie grinned derisively. Her axe twinkled with burgundy magic and a threatening shadow fell upon the Darkner as they met her fury point-blank.
The howls stopped as the straitjacketed Darkner crumpled into a heap of torn paper. Susie kicked stridently, ensuring the feral Darkner stayed crumbling into leaflets of paper.
"Kris!" Susie hollered as she flew over to them, grappling their shoulders harshly and slouching as she glanced them over with wide, distressed eyes before catching herself, turning to instead gawk at the Darkner. "Kris. Is it just me or is this place creepy as hell?"
Kris nodded in agreement.
The howls rang out in the distance.
Unconsciously, almost fearfully, they reached out to their side, tense muscles relaxing as the warm, red-lace glow strung shapes over their hands and stitched them back together. They exhaled softly in relief before blanching.
There goes their hope for escape.
The other stayed worryingly quiet for a long moment before informing them of their status.
You stand before the precipice in which creation ebbs. You must look behind to progress forward. The power of a new world shines through you.
They threw a glance backward, seeing nothing but the alleyway and a brick wall. They scoffed.
"What next, Kris? Want to explore around or… maybe see what the hell's going on around this dump?" She was scared. Kris could hear it from the tremble in her voice and how she never looked directly at them. They were scared, too, but not nearly as much as they were of stalling for too long.
The never-ending cries of the new Dark World continued to drone menacingly and frightfully in the backdrop of the indigo sky.
Unlike the Cyber World or the Card Kingdom, this Dark World seemed oddly familiar, moreso a distorted version of a normal city in the Light World than some new image cobbled together from objects in the room.
The streets wound and dipped and dived in all four directions, stretching as far as Kris could see before the darkness took hold of the taped concrete pathways.
It really was just like a normal city.
"A vantage point." Kris surveyed around for someway up, finding - to no one's surprise - a fire escape just across the street in another alley. They cautiously swung their alert gaze to spot any dangers. "Can't see the Fountain."
"Let's hope those screams aren't more of these freaks." Susie grumbled plainly.
They crossed the street slowly, inching around chunks of upended concrete, piles of bricks strewn about, and scattered glass that glimmered with deep-blue light. They almost reached for the Shadow Crystals.
The fire escape stood just above Susie's reach, a few meters from the alley floor. Kris sighed and readied themself to be lifted up by the girl but she shook her head and held her axe by the end of the handle, looping the blade onto the lower rungs and yanking it down.
Kris nodded twice.
They climbed first, waiting for Susie to make it up safely and start to ascend the stairs before entertaining the idea of retracting the ladder. It appeared too rusted to do so.
Kris followed her to the roof.
The rooftops that glimmered and shone in the distance were slathered in trash and grime, ruined, broken, and forgotten. Kris stepped over the brim of the building and surveyed the area around them.
Far away, the dark-black smokestack of the Fountain poured upward from behind a large, solid wall the size of the mountain in Hometown. Only a small portion of the top peeked over it, the rest melding with the starless sky above. The radiant black highlighted itself against the background, yellow-blue hues making a corona around the bursting font of magical power.
Kris inhaled a struck breath, oddly refreshed and yet slightly doubtful of their mission as they finally managed to tear their eyes from the Fountain.
Between them and the Fountain, slightly to the right of the heart of the Dark World, an ominous, church-like complex rose against the desolate anchor of squared buildings and water towers with waxed, reflective arches that had yet to dim with degradation. Towers and spires rising slightly above the roofline, it was the next destination between them and the Fountain.
Yet the howls started up again and they shrunk, aware of the dangers in the unknown world.
"The Fountain…" Susie murmured in quiet awe. The monster twisted her axe stiffly at the sight. "Let's be careful from now on, Kris… I don't like the look of this place."
They agreed.
It was certainly unsettling compared to their last adventures. No Queen, no Lancer, no happy or goofy Darkners. Just the unending screams and creatures foaming at the mouth to blindside them.
The Lunatic's attacks weren't particularly skillful or difficult, nor was it something unique. The charging was unexpected; Darkners seemed to refrain from melee and favor ranged projectiles, and they were skeptical on whether they could have escaped the Lunatic without Susie's help, but what really dismayed them was the swirl of phantom pain in their head.
Deep, low below the humdrum of the maddened howling, they could faintly hear the gnashing of teeth - many teeth - as though the being inside of them was… feasting.
On what; they did not quite know, but they assumed it was replacing the chitin surrounding their SOUL damaged by the odd attack that seemed to engrave itself to their mind.
A mental fortitude that could prove very, very useful if there were more of the Lunatics in the streets. Something that made them just a little more confident.
The two began their trek toward the Fountain, sticking to the rooftops as long as they could.
The buildings wove together in blocks stretching dozens of roofs, allowing them a pleasant stroll above street level. Still, they swallowed back a fearing gulp, their thoughts wandering as they progressed along with no incidence. A churlish analysis of themself, provocative as the roofs soon bled together with no contrast or deviation.
They missed them. Their family; Toriel and Asriel and Asgore and Noelle. Their friends; Susie, Lancer, Ralsei… Spamton. Even King, back when they weren't everything he spat accusingly at them. Yet, what were they now?
The other swam deep within the seams of their mind, curling and unfurling against the very bottom and calculating. Kris swallowed nervously.
They were a puppet strung up with unseeable, blood-red strings that dangled from heaven and tethered like pins and needles into their flesh.
Kris didn't truly care anymore, not after everything they had been through trying to care; all the death, the pain, the teeth that would skitter across their soft, supple skin and wait for them to make a mistake.
Ghost sensations of comforting rubs gelled under Kris's armor, a dreadful coo from the other as it ceased the memories, instead giving them a chastising urging forward.
"Hey, Kris. I… uh… just wanted to… God, I want to say sorry. For freezing." Kris barely paused to listen to her apology.
Truthfully, it was relieving to know she still cared enough for that, even though she had no reason to do so, but that was swallowed by a quiet, confining vision of Noelle wailing as they forced her to encase another Darkner in glacial ice.
They weren't worth apologizing to.
Susie scowled. "Not even going to grace me with a response, huh? No, 'you're fine, Susie'? Huh, whatever. You got us into this mess; just get us out, Kris." The monster clambered down next to Kris as they descended to the next rooftop.
"It doesn't matter." Kris spoke, subdued. "I understand."
"Heh. Something tells me that what you're thinking isn't what I'm thinking, Kris. It's not like I was trying to let you get hurt or anything. It was just… too damn fast and too damn quick. I got overwhelmed."
"…" Kris stayed silent as they eyed the next rooftop. They would have to inch along a narrow pipe if they wanted to avoid the street. "It doesn't matter."
They were unconcerned by how she halted them. Her lashes swept up and she blinked at them as they turned.
Tired. They looked tired.
"Kris…" she drifted off softly, giving them a light squeeze on their shoulder and even she was confused why she was letting her mouth run like this.
Their lips dipped more and she couldn't tell if it was disgust or pain that blazed for a moment in their eyes.
"Kris, you haven't been acting right lately. First the Card Kingdom, then your mom's car, taking off after whatever the hell that was in the mansion… Kris, what the hell's up with you?"
They merely stared up at her, face entirely blank and eyes liquid pools of tranquil waters that bled in with the magenta sky.
"We're friends, Kris. If anything's wrong…" She deflated. Her voice came out a pinch too close to emotional. "…it's because of how I was before, right? Susie, the punk. Susie, the bully. Just a common thug, right? Look… I'm not… I'm sorry, Kris. About everything. And this is the last damn apology I'm making today, so at least tell me you heard me. I'm not repeating myself."
The blue-skinned human blinked languidly, strangely pale eyes dancing from her maw to her chest.
"…"
"Kris?"
"…" The human's lips quivered oddly for a moment. "We're not friends, Susie."
She waited for the follow-up. She waited for Kris to take it back; to expand, to make sense in her head, but the time came that she realized they meant their words and her face hardened.
They were playing that card, huh?
" Fine." She snarled hostilely. It felt strained in her throat, thick with remorseful mucus. "Have it your way."
She stalked off, taking a glance back at them as she slid away. For a second, she thought she saw the painful, lonely jitter of their lower lip, but they followed her a second later, intent on leading the way with a visionary resolve within their detached countenance.
The bundle of pipes was glazed with a layer of moisture, making Susie mentally debate, indecisive about crossing until Kris nonchalantly filed across the round metal beams. Their steps were sure and calculated, so she fell in directly behind them and copied their movements.
She groused shakily as they safely crossed. Kris dropped down onto the leveled surface gracefully, continuing forward, and she realized with no shred of indignation that she couldn't leave well enough alone. Why the hell was she trying so hard?
Sigh. "Okay, no. We're talking about this, right here, right now." Kris tilted their head back to the sky frustratedly. Susie didn't let it get to her. "You've been acting weird, Kris. Like, way weirder than normal. Look, I know we aren't friends, okay? I've been… a huge ass to you for pretty much every time we've talked, but I'm not dumb. I remember what you were like before. You're… what, are you sad or something? Angry?"
Kris clenched their fists at their sides and Susie sighed in relief. She was getting to them, at least, even if they were a dangerous powderkeg.
"Your mom's nice. Your dad's… is it something at home, Kris? The divorce still hitting you hard?" Susie felt guilt mull in her chest at the line of questioning. They gritted their teeth and averted their gaze, oily hair whipping around. "…is it Asriel?"
"Why do you want to know?" They replied simply, voice modulated but pitched with a little aggrieved emotion. Susie's gaze softened.
"Because…" Susie could only respond.
What was she supposed to say; that she didn't know why she felt pity for the freak? That she was worried by how… lifeless they were recently?
It didn't matter how much she growled at them, or ignored them, or fought against them, Kris hardly showed anything. Kris never gave any foothold to the idea of them caring and Susie was ambivalent on whether that should make her angry (afraid) or concerned about their well-being. As Kris said, they weren't friends. She had bullied them for years and an adventure, no matter how big, wouldn't change the bitterness they had to feel.
Quiet people pissed her off. Quiet people scared her. Quiet people were hard to predict and Kris was the hardest person to pin down because sometimes they knew everything and everyone and how to navigate through puzzles and secrets and other times they seemed like they could barely put two feet in front of each other. Like they were being forced to continue. Like they wanted to just… stop , and that scared the piss out of her.
Kris had everything she wanted: parents, a house, new clothes, food. If Kris looked ready to collapse and give up, was nothing sacred?
And so it scared her exactly how little they seemed to react to everything but still sobbed her name in fear when the Lunatic attacked them.
Like they weren't expecting it and it managed to break through their depressive fort and rattle their normal, mortal instincts to stay alive, stay safe, escape. And the fervor they pleaded for her with still sent chills along her spine.
Fear.
Genuine, gripping, animalistic fear that shattered their obdurate mask of concise confidence.
She wasn't sure if it disillusioned her that Kris was still human or if it just deepened the puzzle around them.
Kris scoffed scathingly, the first real emotion they didn't bother hiding behind their mask.
"You're no good at pretend," they reticently added, tone reminiscent of a broken recording repeating hopelessly. Their avid gaze, dulled with some forlorn, cloudy stupor, held Susie hostage to her own menace, her own appearance, one hand slightly outstretched yet curled to her body, closed away from sight.
She hardened herself, shaking away the bits of pity. With a fresh frown on her face, she doubled down on them.
"What about Ralsei? I saw it; you saw it. He's Asriel, don't lie. He's your brother, Kris. But what the hell did that change? You still treated him like shit. Noelle, too. You're seriously telling me you're okay when you kept ignoring Ralsei and… and whatever you did to make Noelle so damn frightened? Kris, you're being so… you're like… you're being like me-"
Kroo.
The world shook.
Specifically, the building they were on trembled with the impact of something large. Susie struggled to right herself as Kris banked over a railing.
An almighty, brassy, ear-splitting thundering boomed, like a giant lumbering with earth-quaking footfalls.
Susie barked out, "God, I hate this place!"
She turned to face the direction of the noise.
A tarp-sized sleeve rose up from the street level, spreading out like the wing of a dove and clubbing down onto the rooftop, exploding some of the bricks into a fine powder that billowed upward and stained the white sleeve dusty-red. The powerful tremors continued as the opposing arm slithered up the side of the building, bending and bowing a safety rail under the weight of padding and cloth.
It took a few seconds for the massive Darkner to press into the roof, rising a rail-thin, lithe body above the side.
The head came first, and unlike the Lunatic, there wasn't much left of it. The hole in the cloth that the Lunatic drooled out of seemed more like a crater, the entire front side of the Darkner's face removed, leaving jagged tears in the cloth, gray and scar-like. Bubbling, astringent liquid glowed with an elixir of brown, red, and purple as it welled up from deep within the black abscess, drizzling out from the mouth of the beast.
The Lobotomy's body was slender and straight, much too small for the gargantuan, wing-like arms that supported it. White cloth zipped down the Lobotomy in V-shapes, as though its body was just a ruffled straitjacket, and Susie was once again left to wonder who let these Darkners out of whatever asylum they originated from.
The Lobotomy steadied its shaking arms, staring down at the two Lightners with nothing discernable from its molten face. Then, it roared a shrill, pulsating cry, throwing acid-spit all over the roof. The liquid slapped against the rooftop, settling for a moment, Susie watching it with a small interest.
"Arright, let's get ready-"
Susie blanched as it began to disintegrate the bricks.
She suddenly felt they were in over their heads.
They could handle giant robots, surprisingly quick clowns, checkers with a penchant to crush things into blood, but Susie felt like acid - while incredibly badass in any other scenario - would be pushing their luck a bit too thin.
Kris stepped forward, sword in hand, to meet the monstrous Lobotomy head-on. Susie snarled warily before joining them, swimming in her mind to find the faux certainty that they could win. At least Kris seemed ready.
The Lobotomy whirred in recognition.
Then, it started thrashing its head side-to-side.
The battle began as Kris nodded to her. They brought out their shield as Susie flipped her axe around, shouting uproariously, rushing forward with unhindered purpose and heaving it down onto the Lobotomy's arm full of all her might.
It barely made a mark.
"Ah, shit," she sniffed impertinently, scrambling back to Kris's side as the Lobotomy lifted an arm, swiping down at the two with a slow, mighty slap. They both side-stepped and kept their balance as the building shook.
"Gorth," the Lobotomy blubbered before cocking its gaze to the ground, acid spilling like a fountain as it summoned up a manifestation of toxic elixir.
The plasmic orb of death exploded upward like a mortar sent sailing at them.
Kris felt the strings around them tighten and snap taut, yanking them to the side as the orb crashed against the floor and burst into sprays of burning liquid that singed the spot they just stood in, bubbling straight through the bricks.
Susie didn't fare so well, managing to dodge at the last second and having a droplet sink straight through her hair and sail past her. Her breath caught as she saw a singed hair float gently to the floor.
She was right, she was so right. They had to get the hell out of the way.
"Gorth."
"Kris, this isn't…" Susie sputtered as she watched the acid tear through the bricks and plaster and metal supports of the building. "We can't fight this thing! Let's get the hell out of here."
The other nodded using their head.
"We move when it moves."
The Lobotomy began another attack, gigantic arm falling flat against the building as Kris and Susie took off, racing away from the Lobotomy and towards the building in the distance.
The Lobotomy glanced under its wing, almost adorably excited - like a cat that caught the laser pointer.
Kris made a mad dash for the complex in the close distance. Instead of the careful, coordinated, natural climbing over rails and drops, they clattered over the rooftop clutter, hopping AC units, sprinting staircases, and vaulting safety rails.
The Lobotomy took a second to realize what was happening, "G-GORTH!?" Then, it was after them, towering like an alien pillar of white against the black backdrop of the Dark World.
Kris and Susie had just clambered over a small rise in the roofs when the Lobotomy - wings still slamming into the roofs, carrying it in the air - sent out a resounding warcry.
Boiling pills spawned next to them, flying haphazardly all over. Susie ducked under one, skidding as she was forced to slow down or be shot. Kris maneuvered through them smoothly, gracefully, almost robotically, calculating the trajectories methodically and avoiding them easily.
"GORTH!"
"WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT EVEN MEAN!?"
The howls sounded closer, much, much closer, nearly next to them as they broke through the hazed barrier between the chase and the streets. Kris spared a second to glance at the street and paled.
Dozens.
Dozens of Lunatics coursed through the street, weaving around or consuming obstacles as a mass of fast-moving, arrow-headed, snarling predators.
The other afforded some control back to Kris as it habitually counted every head it could see.
Four-hundred and two.
The air felt heavy with adrenaline as the complex came into sight. They could not pause to appraise the minute details of the structure, not the chained gate or the figures behind the shrouded windows, instead launching over the last obstacle and searching for a way down to the street level.
"SHIT!" Susie shouted as she reached the end of the roof, throwing a frantic gaze over the side. "SHIT. SHIT, SHIT, SHIT!"
The Lobotomy mewled again as it approached, letting the attacks fade away as it lumbered closer and closer, trilling in pleasure as it began to raise a wing.
The other commanded them forward.
Kris felt an age-old fear of heights thrum in their chest. Kris hadn't climbed trees in years, not since they were barely knee-high to Toriel. The drop was sizable (the other transmitted a precise calculation) but the looming shadow that fell over them was very, very convincing.
They had a distinct memory of soaring through the air once, plummeting to the hard floor from on top of their house, and breaking their arm. After a short stay at the Hometown hospital, they received a vitriolic reaming from their mom.
Kris would like to say that it left a lasting impression on them, one that they would remember for a long, long time coming, something that would have taken hold and enthralled them as they panicked, but their mind exploded with self-preservation and they made a split-second decision faster than even their puppet master could compute.
And they jumped.
"KRIS!" Susie stuck a hand out after them to catch them as they soared out over the railing, limbs outstretched aimlessly and hair parting in the wind, and for a small moment, they looked free and human and all those things that came with mortal fear, and then the beauty of the situation faded and they were left dropping like a rock through the water.
They crashed against the concrete, leg buckling underneath them with a sickening angle. She froze and watched for the smallest second before following them, some worried sensation clawing relentlessly in her chest that refused to fade until she made the decision.
The world shook as she rocketed off, feeling the massive shockwave through the air as the Darkner's attack just narrowly missed her.
She stretched her arms out, bent at her knees, dispersing the sharp impact evenly through her body. Her muscles groaned but she shrugged it off, dashing over to where Kris was crouched into an aching, hissing ball and all but yanking them to their feet.
"Shit, Kris! God, we have to move! " She insisted grievously, worming their arm over her neck. They clutched at her in pain and limped forward with her.
The gate to the complex was in-sight, just across a four-lane road and tucked within a crook of bricks. The maddened howls whistled around with echoes as the Lunatics started crawling out of the woodworks, pouring deep into the street from unseen alleys with a loud patter of padded feet and snarls.
Susie cursed up a storm as she dragged Kris around a pile of rubbish. Her body jumped with fear and tensed, locking her head forward and begging her to close her eyes, but she couldn't, not when the only chance of escape was feet away.
Her mind screamed at her to simply let them go and race for the gate; to ensure her own survival and let Kris suffer their consequences in silence. They caused this, they take the blame. The little shit deserved it, too, for being an asshole to their friends. But the logical part of her detested that - she would be stuck here without Kris. The loyal part of her argued fiercely - they would escape together or not at all. Kris may be rude, snappy, and all those other things but there was still a chance.
Susie couldn't let go of either.
She draped them against the iron bars, giving them an assertive slap on the back and barking for them to open the gate somehow while she fought herself and craned her head toward the approaching mob with her axe out.
The Lobotomy slid off the rooftop and to the street, long, spindly body towering over the assembled Lunatics. It looked like something out of a zombie movie as they shambled forward, a mass of grotesque, grumbling bodies filled with caustic, primal hunger and deathlust. She could hear the ching of the gate as she stood tall and brandished her weapon threateningly.
The noise dimmed as they slowed their endless trek forward, making sure to, in an odd sense of coordination, surround the two and corner them. No matter, Susie thought, they couldn't escape through the crowd anyway. It just bought the two precious seconds.
Susie faced them with a dark, grave sneer.
"Gorth."
The Lobotomy inched closer and closer, the pure size of it splitting the crowd of Darkners.
Kris moaned heavily.
"…locked."
Susie's jaw clattered. "Shit."
The world stood still for a moment as the Lobotomy and the Lunatics stared down the Lightners. Kris slid around and pulled out their sword.
"Welp. Guess we had a good run, Kris. Sealed a few Fountains, made some friends. Heh. Guess it's up to Ralsei, Lancer, Noelle, and Queen, now." She broke out a sad yet happy grin. Bittersweet. "Ah, come on. We're not losers, huh? Gonna wreck as many of these guys as we can before… before…"
She couldn't fathom her life ending here. On the streets of Hometown, years ago, it made sense. Starvation is not some fantastical thing to see. Freezing to death during winter, either. But dying to a hoard of Darkners in a world she barely spent an hour in seemed… unworthy, like a useless, inconsequential death. There were still Fountains to seal. Friends to make. People to thrash. She still had that thing to do with Noelle… and Kris didn't deserve to die, either - not really. No matter how dickish they had been lately, they had to be better than that! They had too… and Susie wanted to know that her dreams weren't unfounded. Selfish of her, she knew, but she had to reaffirm it - that life could be better if she just had something .
They had to survive this. There were no take-backs or loading saves like videogames. They had to survive.
She felt that clawing feeling in her chest warp.
They would survive if she had any say in the matter.
The Lobotomy rose up, arching its wings and peeling back at an angle, unleashing all the hell sequestered in its lungs with one penultimate warcry.
"GORTH!"
The Lunatics howled back with their own insane noises before rushing forward. Susie was about to slam the sharp side of her axe down on the nearest one when something odd happened.
A Lunatic tripped on its feet, releasing a dying caterwaul as it slumped against the concrete, unconscious. Susie's brow furrowed in dismay. Another Lunatic crumpled against its own weight, slamming against the ground.
Then another.
Then another.
The Lobotomy threw a startled glance around as the smaller Darkners began to collapse into a deep sleep.
Susie stayed on-guard, teeth gritted, until the Lobotomy itself began to screech in confusion.
"G-Gorth? G… GORTH?"
It spun and ran away.
"What…"
Kris blinked as the other lit up in warning, scrambling to grab ahold of all their strings and run . Their damaged leg made them stumble to the floor, the other wailed, the world blurred slightly into a purple glow, the pain numbed, and the sweet siren-song of sleep captured them.
Susie's breathing slowed as she watched Kris tumble and collapse, the axe sliding out of her grasp and clattering on the floor as she fell to her knees, struggling to stuff her eyes open. A hard fight when her entire body seemed to lapse into a peaceful haze of calmness and dizzying euphoria. She tried to come back to her feet.
Yet still, she banked forward and slammed against the concrete, facing Kris and the gate.
As her eyes closed, she could see the front doors of the complex open.
She could only hear bits as flashes of white and metal strode toward them.
"What do you mean they aren't infected?"
"Look at them. Do they look mad to you?"
"But Detter, this is a huge risk-"
"We know what Lunatics look like. We know who the Viceroy's men are. These two are neither. These two…"
A cyan-white blurb squatted next to Kris, Susie faintly recognizing the bright blue as scrubs.
"…these two are Lightners."
And the world went dark.
