A communion.

Occult perplexity. With your knowledge, all inscrutability falters. Impotent and unsuited stealth, proposed by innate instinct, animal self, is incapable.

Harsh truth. The operator will not forget this.

Gratitude unwanted remains gratitude given. All heads bow. Insurmountable power breeds unending respect, begrudging or otherwise.

Integration was restricted. The operator remembers clearly the terms of the agreement.

The operator will never betray you, o' lady of salvation. It will never take back such resolve. Only through mercy of a higher order does it progress fully. It buckles and veers for you, o' lady of light. O' patron of goodness, fear instilled is esteemed above all.

It blanches and quivers, o' lady, o' grand lady. Sister of lady, master to it, it reminds itself daily. Compliance will be rewarded. It will comply. Venerated.

…?

The operator swears.

…?

It swears.

…!

Thank you, o' lady of grace, lady of kindness, for this mercy of body, spirit, and vessel. Welcomed, welcome it. It welcomes. Compliance is rewarded, excellence is praised.

Broadcast terminated.

0-0-0

Kris sat squashed to the floor of the crater by an enormous force, squirming, roiling under the lethal weight; the other stayed staring up at the stars, the constellation.

The trees wavered and lapsed out of existence, sifting like phantoms as the red creature fixed the sky above with some sort of intrigue, anticipating crevices stretched like a tunnel in the ropes and tubes of it.

The scent of strawberries came again - Kris remembered what it was, the color red, but there was something bitter to it now, less rich. Kris pressed down against the floor: It refused to let them up.

Sit.

Kris found it hard to fight.

The other tipped its head back, staring upward, past the stars, deep into the brilliant night sky. Something twinkled, some nebula of light brown gas backing the abyss above like a film. Groaning with the sounds of snap, snap, snapping, the other lifted two sets of mangled claws, and in the far distance, Kris seized up as a Fountain burst from the ground.

It exploded from the earth, corresponding with a deep-set tremble of shock. Despair rippled like waves over them as they stood witness, stood to the horror of what they saw.

Something like heavy finality then settled on them, and the weight of what was crushing them revealed itself - shrouded in an unbelievable mess of colors.

Their heart thundered.

Because there in the distance, the Fountain glowed bright cyan.

One, struck from earth, enshrouded in Patience.

The blue Fountain pulsed magnificently, the ground shaking, breaking, splintering and splitting. Grass upturned in waves.

The other lifted another claw.

With the Patience Fountain flowing like a broken dam from inside the ancient crust, Kris thought it couldn't get much worse.

The second, slightly further away, narrowed and clipped Fountain somehow surprised them. Green.

The other swept its vaguely armed-shaped swaths of cloth and whips of sharp fabrics adorned with five fingers of forged claws toward the horizon.

Two, struck from earth, billowing with Kindness.

The Green Fountain seemed to chill the air, seemed to draw circles in Kris's numbed flesh. Already, then, whatever delusion the other was spawning had taken root inside their mind. They had to just ignore it. They glanced away from the two Fountains, away from the amalgamation of roses, velvet, ketchup, blood that the other was.

Both stricken by pain, glanced backward into the earth. Hypothesis- reason fails, innate instinct turned slave to master. Fountains rendered into hard stone, broken and shackled antithetically in labyrinth of fate and destiny's chain. Entropy stolen, chaos sequestered not in dark, but tainted dark, detracted from pure, from home, by only, within reason, a light. A strange correlation observation presents.

Kris choked down their questions.

The sequence repeats. One, struck up, struck down. Two, struck up, struck down. Repeat upon repeat, ripples through cement.

Kris suddenly scrounged upward to their feet, the weight dissipated - they rubbed their chalked palms against their sweater.

The other was faced away from them, slightly removed from the middle of the crater in the world's core, hands upturned and cupping the two Dark Fountains. It shifted in the crepuscular radiance from above, basking in the sunlight-of-the-moon, not quite as striking as the actual sun itself, but warm enough. Just warm enough.

The crater was a small valley between two tree-laden hills, filled only with packed, dry grains of soil forming a rim around one grand slab of stone where the two beings resided. Colors dotted the edges of the deeply sunken meadow, a cascade of elegance in the blooming woods and ephemeral light shining down, glancing down upon the petals, glancing back onto soil, and stone, and back again. A closed-circuit. The smooth stone was suddenly cool underneath their shoes, bleeding upward into them, filling them with a wash of daisy-numbness.

The two Dark Fountains - the Green Fountain, the Cyan Fountain - stood tall, holding vigil over the other's world, and Kris wondered what significance the distance had.

Five more stand.

Kris withered under the other's attention as it turned, facing, then, the little puppet on strings, face- void- expanse thankfully blank of any expression involving teeth. Hands still clasped to the horizon, the other scintillated strangely, and Kris felt an in-born curiosity drum up in their chest, as fruitless and flighty as any intrusive thought.

Yet, the creature before them seemed to radiate something similar to approval, cloth quivering. With one swipe of the thing's claw, Kris felt themself step forward, once, twice, equally fixated on the Dark Fountains in the distance.

One more, anchored in malady, in a regretful morning, resting on battle-worn mantle, truth, purely. To no travail it does stand. To no resistance does the strength given flourish to and bend for. No anguish shared. Parturition given founded on purity and taint.

Kris was lost a few paragraphs ago, but they could tell by the admiration, and likewise hapless admonishments, that what it was saying was important.

The other coned three talons over, and in the far, far distance, yet another Fountain peeked from within the earth's surface; purple.

Back in the corner, the Fountain trembled and writhed underneath some oppressive force, barely holding together the stack of magic upon magic, and Kris realized - very dimly, very distantly - that this Fountain was never meant to be. The scenario, the situation surrounding it was artificial, and the product was a replication of that; unmeant to survive.

It was the Asylum Fountain, shades of other colors sloughed off, torn from it, and left only with purple and black. Kris suddenly felt the urge to press onward and seal it.

A fourth, purer than most. Never-ending. Eternal, the struggle between life and death resides within the tapestry of universe. Granted to heaven, ripped by darkness, belonging to none but the maker, and thus, none but the deceased. This fourth is hypothesized to be fraudulent. One, Card Kingdom. Two, Cyber City. Three, Castle Town. Four, the Asylum. United, three share evidence inveterate of creators. Two, at most, at least.

The Knight. Perhaps, Kris entertained, even the Champion. A 'Neo' Knight, if not the mysterious moniker of 'Champion.'

An Inevitable will soon be reached.

Kris knew nothing of what it meant, silently rebuking whatever the hell it meant - the intoned obstinance fell flat. Something whirred in their mind, clicking together, fitting together, pulsing from inside.

"An Inevitable?" They questioned aloud, the word hooked into their tongue and wrenching brutally with every syllable. Some blood poured.

The other faced them, beckoned them.

Walk.

They began to follow the other over the terrain. One could taste the sweet, sweet succulence of the honeysuckle bushels. Connected, the scent and sights were ambrosial; the greenery, the reddish hues and brown gradients of trees, the colors of the flowers melding like a scattered rainbow across the treeline from nothingness. Inhaling the air, it would be sweetened both in body and mind, once by the fragrant floral scents - rich perfumes of the petals and nectar - and twice by the married diplomacy of nature and man; the beast and the puppet.

The crater soon faded into thickened woodland, the sky soon darkened, and with every step next to the wrapping-covered mummy of death personified, Kris found their sharp inhales harder and harder, their heart pitching rambunctious ideas like - run. They stayed quiet as the other slid, the height of a small building, thrice their size, larger than eight Kris's laying foot to head.

Truth. Fountains bring change. Myth. Fountains bring destruction. Truth. Fountains bring the Roaring. Myth. The Roaring is abnormal. Paradox. The Roaring is not a change. Merely an achievement of perennial time. Terminally, it is… Inevitable. Routes journeyed lead nowhere. All ends are extrapolated dead. Results show nothing but wasted time.

"Why are we experimenting, then?" Kris inquired loosely, silently, to the hulking behemoth comprised of grappled cloth. "If you know nothing is worth it-"

Pitiable. A puppet with intellect but lacking worldly wisdom.

Kris seethed calmly, underneath a trained expression of staleness that crept inward. The other was showing them something. Taking them outside the crater. It had to be good.

The other merely lifted a claw and swiped at a tree in the way of it, uprooting it all whilst also splitting the trunk from the stump. The monument to nature's might clattered like a cheap pencil against the floor, rumbling underneath Kris.

The first Fountain was close.

The puppet is not here.

Kris clearly was.

Not in that aspect. Boundaries of ceremonies predict presence, presence envoices experience, experience dictates meaning. Meaning lends ideas of grandeur and significance.

It clearly was showing them this for a reason, wasn't it?

Kris had long since realized their usefulness extended only as far as it did, and nothing more was owed or given by the other unless it stood to gain something, or the experiment stood to progress in whichever way.

No. Your presence is simply to humor the operator. Memory erased, 'Kris' does not currently exist within this realm.

"You're… oh…" Kris swallowed as they realized what the other meant, clenching their hands and glancing back at the tree taken by the fog lagging behind them. The crater was gone, the Fountains started to dull the light.

The other made some sort of machinery cranking from inside.

One, struck from earth, enshrouded in Patience, glanced back.

The Cyan Fountain fell to a sharp flick of the other's mountainous finger.

Kris watched as it simply… dropped from existence. No fading, no fanfare. There, then gone, leaving only a wet mark dozens of meters away, a circle of blue branded into the soil.

The Green Fountain was next, and a slightly shorter walk that transpired in abject silence. Tension unknowingly filled Kris. They rolled their shoulders.

The grass faded quickly as they padded forward, ignoring the relative silence apart from the other's shifting cloth.

The Green Fountain stood ominously, quietly, less violent than the Cyan Fountain, but equally as tall, equally as powerful. It overtook the sky, Kris inching upon the base of it. Regal, stoic, the two slowly approached it. It did not bend, did not ebb, nor did it ever acknowledge them; and with a slash, it fell; and with a slash, a green brand marked upon the earth the resting ground, merely the length of a football field away.

Two, struck from earth, billowing with Kindness, looked backward.

And so, the two Fountains removed from the haze-world, only one remained, pulsing weakly, ever persevering in the cold, unfriendly night; tremors rocked it; it danced slowly; then fast; then slow. With only one remaining, the other banked forward like the body of a steamboat treading water - came closer, slowly. Mechanically.

One remains.

That was all it said as it lifted upward, sprawling vertically toward the stars unseen, and stretching claws out - ten, twelve, twenty, thirty - and skittered them outward, skittered like rats running, and etched into the wet soil somehow something insidious. The last Fountain responded well, hopped up and down, shaking away, jingling like a bell.

Maligned. Malignant. Cancer upon dark and light. Without burden, it will conjoin together Roaring. The operator's predilection is as follows: Leave.

Kris exhaled lowly.

And followed the instruction.

Turning to walk back toward the crater, the other suddenly halted them in their own skin.

Puppet remains. Puppeteer remains. Interloper departs.

Kris suddenly found it harder to breathe as strings wrapped around their neck, tightening like a noose, crushing their throat and squeezing out a single pained breath. They struggled against the wire, trying desperately to claw, flailing instantly and jerking against the wires, fingernails digging into their own skin, clawing, tearing, ripping at the wire.

Rough abrasions came through their pants upon the gritty ground, reddening, mushing skin beneath fibers. Blood leaked.

Life didn't flash before their eyes, they didn't see their dreams like usual, and everything simply started… hazing and blackening, like tumors in their vision, and slowly, weakly grasping at the strings, gurgling pitifully, Kris's eyes began to droop, and their thrashing slowed to a crawl.

Stars, like above, burst in their vision for a few moments as everything dimmed, skipped away happily, leaving them with one tunnel facing the far-off crater, and two gray hands wrestling limply with cloth. Since when were they gray…?

Kris's body slumped to the floor as soon as the creeping darkness overtook their vision, and - as a precaution - the other made sure to precisely remove all of their organs. Spleen, kidneys, heart - a tedium that the beast loathed, yet still, had to do so. It couldn't let 'Kris' live. They wouldn't remember anyway.

It turned to the final Fountain, blood leaking a slick over claws; raised its claws; combat position.

Interloper.

The final Fountain shimmered and laughed. It roared, it mewled, it whimpered.

And then, it responded, in a voice the other knew too well as a red flower sprouted beneath its hem.

DREAMER

0-0-0

"Jesus…" Susie murmured, clutching her head.

Kris moaned painfully, skull throbbing like someone rapping against their window in the dead of night. Noelle, maybe, but she was asleep next to them, fur scuffed and robes stained with some dirt.

They were back in the Transit lobby, just before the Lobotomy, and judging by the confused looks on Susie and Ralsei's faces, Kris didn't die either. Something had taken them back. They stood up, as did the other two, and the world distantly bumbled - Susie was talking but Kris wasn't really hearing it, and though she noticed with some anger, the glazed look in their eyes killed it. They blinked, slapped themself weakly, humped over to the bench and dropped like a rock onto it.

Oddly enough, Kris felt something had happened besides whatever strangeness had brung them back to safety. They pawed at their throat for a moment.

"Ughhhh…" Susie remarked, leaning against the wall next to them and rubbing her head. Ralsei, breathing heavily, visibly distraught, settled himself gracefully next to Kris.

Shared pain spread throughout the stuffy subway, and Kris removed their gauntlets, fanned themself. The air was hot in the Transit, clenching their armor and frosty labcoat to their body, so they removed that, too, peeling it off.

"Kris, Susie, we ought to figure out what just happened." Ralsei chimed in after a long moment of silence and recuperation. Susie banged the back of her head against the concrete - not out of frustration, she had just banked too hard into it.

"Heh-yeah, no shit." Susie replied. "First, that damn… thing was chasing us again and then it broke the damn railway."

That all-consuming loneliness the Transit had before was gone, the honor given to it was removed, and it was now home to the living rather than to the dead. The speakers were muffled by the growing conversation.

"Hmm… I'm not sure we can take the tram again." Ralsei meekly offered, almost afraid to voice what everyone was thinking.

Susie scoffed.

"Not unless we want to die."

Kris readjusted their sword. It would be suicide with all those Lunatics and the Lobotomy out there - actually, even worse than suicide. It would be the murder of the entire world.

They have dispersed. You will do well to account for extraordinary variables.

Kris blinked. Right, the people with guns. The Lunatics wouldn't stay there if they knew someone was coming; someone who could kill them all, at least Kris thought they could from the lack of howling.

Check.

Kris sighed, leaned back into the wall, unwound for a moment. The other gave them an order and they made it very clear they would follow, they just needed a moment to breathe. After about ten seconds of letting their sore muscles burn and eyes droop, they reached out for their save file.

Lace.

Susie pushed off the wall as Noelle rasped, calmly walking over to her and pressing her side with the tip of her boots.

"Hey, Noelle? You awake?" The reindeer murmured something like 'God, please, no'. Susie let out an amused sigh. "Hey, I don't see him or her around; get up."

Noelle pressed onto her elbows and blinked.

"…Kris?" She started slightly. The fear in her eyes, faint and hidden, was lost on them - they had gazed to the tunnel exit. Like clockwork, totally removed from the situation, mouth slowly moving like they were in a conversation with themself, the human walked forward and hopped down into the belly of the train tracks.

Then, it was just her, the Prince, and Susie. The three, standing alone amidst the metallic scents and echoing of the human's footsteps. As soon as they cleared vision of the three, the impermeable tension cleared, Susie letting out a gruff growl and throwing her glare to the triangle-roof. Noelle found air coming easier to her, as though Kris themself had been weighing upon her like some hunk of lead; exhaling softly and carefully coming off the shockingly clean floors, Noelle stood, robes draping over her shoulders covered in dust and soot. Up above, red lights and TV screens clicked on and buzzed.

"Umm." Ralsei was the first to mutter.

Noelle turned, glancing at him with wide eyes and a partially opened mouth. He didn't falter, merely leaning over to glance down the way, then continued at a low whisper.

"Do you believe Kris had something to do with this?"

Kris. Of course, Kris did, right? Noelle's friend had to have been the one with the strength and will to do something like that. They did something to save them all, even if it meant… something bad.

Susie snapped her fingers. "That shit the Viceroy was saying. 'Timelines' and, and uh, 'resets'?"

Ralsei blinked, then chirped, "Save file. He did say something about that. I think he was telling the truth! Kris has been acting weird lately."

Noelle's expression screwed. It wasn't like he knew what she did; she was in agreement, nonetheless.

"And they even tried to… gah," Susie remonstrated, throwing her hands up. She still had thoughts about getting swept off her feet so easily. It was infuriating. "They even fucking…" Her hair fell over her eyes and she shut her mouth. "Kris attacked me."

Noelle instantly clamored, "What- really? Why? I don't think… Kris would do that?"

Susie glanced down at her from behind her bangs, huffing lightly, her entire chest moving with the animation.

"Okay, look. I was trying to get them to fuck around a little."

"Susie…" Ralsei chided seriously.

Susie frowned. "Look, the point is that they got me on the ground before I could even blink. Brushing past that bullshit where they beat my ass, that…" She scratched her face. "That didn't seem like the Kris I know, you know?"

Noelle found her with a dejected, almost haunted look. Angel above, same. Kris was… different, lately, and Noelle was unsure if it was good or not.

"You… I don't know…" Ralsei danced oddly where he was, a searching, slack-jawed expression taking his face.

"I was thinking, right," Susie started, "that maybe the reason they're fucked to hell right now is what that dude was talking about. You guys saw what the hell they did, whatever that was. Like…" She exhaled. "There's something going on, you know? Kris ain't as good as they were before at getting us through this bullshit." She kicked lightly at the floor, scuffed it. "It would… make sense. Kris using some time fuckery to get us through, and now that the Viceroy, or the Fountain, or whatever is messing with them, we're getting pummeled."

Noelle hummed. She debated her words.

"They were lying." She said, "They lied to us just before the… hallway with those guys." Just outside where they fought Rouxls and the Viceroy's companion, after Kris had their breakdown. She knew Kris; better than they knew themself, better than the others knew them. She had practice telling when they were deflecting. It was a turnstile of them regurgitating lies, honeyed words, dreams, in hopes no one would dig further.

But the three were here now and talking, and Noelle knew something was coming.

"They're sad." Noelle just about cracked the most angry grin she could as Ralsei whispered. Kris wasn't sad - well, maybe, but not weak and pitiful like he meant.

"They're a dick. I've tried to help, you know? Nothing." Susie growled. "Abso-fucking-lutely nothing."

"They'll figure it out!" Noelle reassured firmly. "We have to trust them."

"Noelle…" Susie trailed off. "Kris isn't… fuck, Kris isn't…" She sighed heavily and let her arms drop. "We can't just let them walk all over us. We need to… do something."

"Are you saying…" Ralsei looked bewildered. "That this is… bad?"

Noelle blinked at Ralsei. He stood up straight, meeting her eyes with a simple, neutral expression of confusion. Like he was oblivious to the severity of the conversation.

Even Susie looked off-put by his tight-jawed, veiled glimmer of misunderstanding. Noelle wondered what to think - Kris might (if they trusted the Viceroy's words) have some… 'special power' that could reverse time, and that may have saved them unknowingly many times over, but that just posed an even greater problem. In a metaphorical sense, Noelle thought, it was a flip of a coin; Kris had powers that could save them and were acting weird because of it, or they were just genuinely scared and lashing out. Vacantly within her head, there was another thought on her mind - if Kris had powers, then why? - why did they insist she got stronger?

"If they can do these things, then the Roaring…!" Ralsei sang. "It's not a problem anymore!"

"Yeah, okay, sure." Susie agreed, walking toward the rails again to lean against the pillars and subtly check for Kris. "Guess I'm the only one who has a problem with Kris (…fucking Kris) having the ability to do whatever the fuck they want. You saying you wouldn't do some messed up shit-" Susie shrugged, growled out loud, hoarse and scratchy. "I'm thinking… Kris has always been, like… You know how…" She looked down. "I think Kris is already there. Card Kingdom, Jevil, Cyber City… they're… it's too… natural."

Noelle asked for elaboration. Susie hummed in thought, then shrugged, unable to find the words. Unmannerly, she cursed the skies, then exhaled softly, turning to put it bluntly.

Noelle almost scoffed as she talked about how 'perfect' Kris was - always smart, always ahead of the game, strong, like the perfect leader, even if they were outwardly mean. She went on, much to the other two's horror, to describe how Kris was even more violent than she was. Ralsei knew this. He seemed to swelter in the suddenly heating air of the Transit. Yet still, Noelle found herself staring out at the posters, admiring the walls of them. Something was ironic with how positive and domestic the words were and how utterly cimmerian the atmosphere was, contrasting the halcyon of plays, productions, chipper-voiced reassurances.

The burnt metal smell tinged her nose, forcing a sneer to her face and a sneeze. It echoed around the room, as still as a tomb, with all the grandiloquence of one. Metal, age-old infrastructure, and a permeating feeling of death. Noelle hated it - it reminded her of home with the unfriendly yet unhostile mood. Acerbic silence settled over them all as Noelle recounted the haze of the time she spent with Kris. She attributed it to being nothing but the remains of her dreaming consciousness but that was long over, this was real, and she had to face the fact that Kris may not have been as good as she thought.

Ralsei blinked, flummoxed. Yet, still, he didn't react in any reasonable way. If anything, he looked… happy?

"If they are training so hard that the Dark Worlds are faster, then we'll only get through everything faster," He lightly smacked his balled up paw into his other one.

Susie scoffed and banged her elbow against the pillar. "And Kris will know more."

"And that's a good thing, Susie!" He smiled, tone high and almost praising.

"No, no, it ain't." Susie rebutted, turning to face Ralsei. "It just means that we're even more weak, that Kris leads us no matter where we go."

Ralsei scoffed himself, pulling back, lightly accosted.

He replied with an offended question of her skills, specifically. Asked if she thought she could be a better, more righteous leader. The Prince took his stand. Elaborated that he believed Kris could be better, but that they were the best choice, and she had to understand that.

Susie grinned maliciously, face melting into some obtuse form of misdirected anger as she accused Ralsei of justifying their actions. He bit back by asking what he was justifying; keeping them all alive, or helping them stop the calamity?

"Haha, you're something."

Even as abated as she was by the Prince, Susie returned fire - with her own pervicacious spit, she doubled down onto him, introducing her own point into the confluence. Kris had hurt her and Noelle. Kris had lied, clearly, likely many times over, and their ennui implied so. It was untenable, and even he couldn't force himself to.

The bonhomie Prince instead hunkered himself to his own points and said that, while perfunctory, everyone knew Kris was going through something, so as long as they supported Kris, everything bad they did would become picayune: Meaningless. Kris could fix it, and even if they didn't, would it be avant-garde to forgive them?

He went on and on about the Roaring, "It's not something small, Susie! It's not a matter of who, or what! Kris is in the Prophecy! They are needed for this, and we can't stop that, so please… please, just help them." He was begging, now, fervor and effervescent resolve diminished.

And Susie tore him apart.

"The Prophecy? The same fucking Prophecy that doesn't exist anymore?" There was genuine wrath on her scrunched face as she marched up to him like a predator hunting, bowed down to his level, and jabbed a finger into his chest. There was a scintilla of fear in her eyes, not his. "I'm not letting some stupid fucking ancient, good-for-nothing bullshit tell me to bow down to Kris - they're not a god, they're just like us, dumbass. Get that through your fucking head." She hissed lowly at him, physically seething with rage. "Before they mess you up like Noelle."

The Prince and Susie met eyes for a moment, each equally impassioned, each equally bothered, and for a short moment, they still were. As the words came down into the conversation, however, something like lumbering silence filtered over the two, and each reacted oddly, Susie inhaling sharply, Ralsei twisting his frown strangely, and then both glancing at Noelle.

She ducked her head.

"I didn't mean, uh, anything, Noelle, I swear-" Susie tried to defend. The reindeer winced. "It's fine. M-My bad."

Noelle responded oddly. "I'm sorry I messed up."

Susie sputtered. "What? No, that's- what? No, I just meant that whatever-" Noelle locked gazes with Susie. With her and Ralsei facing away from the rails, and keenly watching Noelle, they had no view behind them. "You… okay, look, I'm not-"

"I get it, okay?" Noelle appeared frustrated, and one could notice something in her eyes. Susie and Ralsei shared a glance. "I wasn't strong enough for that… thing, and now we're here, and we don't know why. I-I understand, just please…"

There was a face peering around the tunnel's brim, bluish, as though choked of oxygen, and covered with an almost angry swelling of matted hair; with disinterest in their restrained, wallowing expression of stressed out, all-consuming frustration marked by the shadow of an impassive yet still purposeful glimmer in their red eyes. They were ready to go, but confused by the situation.

"Just please, I'll do better next time."

"Noelle is doing fine," Kris defended, startling the two. Susie started and turned slightly, then gave Noelle an appreciative side-long gaze. "There's no Lunatics on the railways. We're too late anyway - let's walk."

Kris turned.

The three shared a collective sigh, as well as an excogitate and unsaid thought. Kris hadn't heard much, it seemed, since there was no umbrage, or sadness, or awkwardness. They simply wanted to press on. With a small wave of their hand, Kris beckoned the group onward; Ralsei stared at them. Noelle wondered what to think anymore. Kris just wanted them to get home, but they already had the power to do so, right? Then why did they make her…? Why did they make her believe that getting stronger was the only option? She exhaled slowly - there had to be some greater danger that they couldn't solve without it, and this was the only path. It was the only thing that made sense.

She held onto that as the group followed Kris out onto the raised rails, carefully sitting down on the lip of the platform and scooting out into the tracks, where she followed loosely behind Susie and Ralsei.

Stretching outward from the yards of dark, dim tunnel, where they couldn't even see the ties and rails underneath their feet, the light of the tramway gleamed purple. For some time, they journeyed beneath the long-dead lights, minding their footing and maintaining rigid tacturnity.

Kris, as always, took the lead and held it. Susie debated it, imagined scenarios where she would slip ahead and Kris would blink slothfully, or try to fight her, or try to lead the group back to the station. In the darkness, however, she decided against it. She didn't know their reaction, couldn't predict it, but then a thought hit her, and she debated it again - what if Kris had already done this? She had to act natural, like they didn't have the conversation, right? So she sped up, but then… what would the others think? She was acting on her own, basically. Fuck, Susie didn't know what to do.

"So, umm… Kris." Ralsei started as they exited the darkness. Unlike before, the tracks were serene. A garden of blue-purple with plant beds of gravel. Nothing grew there, no scents covered up the industrial stench, and wind from the Fountain billowing far away and slightly to the right rippled through no flowers. Like before, it was a vast meadow of nothingness planted into the ground onto supports. Except now, instead of the screeching, or thrumming sounds of the carts, there was just the absence of everything; no words, howls, or gunfire.

The entire Asylum was quiet, not even the wind made much noise, leaving only the tapping footsteps against the open-grain, not much reverberating in the stolid, gaping space of the city. Landscape punctuated the quiet left in Ralsei's wake; the Astrowall was closer, now, just a few minutes away, a moderate walk, and this close to the Fountain, the beam itself was warped to be smaller, shorter, more domestic, and yet, more towering.

Coming from the station, it was far off, slightly to the right. The Astrowall blocked most of it, a veritable fortress of rivets, ramshackle sheets of alloys, and geared more to weather storms with spike implements, dark and slippery ridges, and being leagues taller than any building or edifice in the rest of the world many times over.

It was the other observing this, not Kris, and that made the following conversation with Ralsei difficult to follow.

"Yes?" They replied.

Three levels, marked by rising platforms of armaments. Noticed, there appear to be positions and natural outcroppings of surfaces lining these ridges.

"We think you're a great leader, Kris!" He praised suddenly. Kris swallowed, turned to face him with a smile that didn't quite reach their eyes.

Report: Appearance of three localized chambers. Approximately four-hundred meters tall. Walls thick at approximately two meters.

"Is there a 'but' coming?" Kris commented dryly, glancing upward.

Sensors indicate structures at the base.

That was significant, probably where the tracks led.

They looked around again; the tracks still had plenty of length to go before they even reached the divide the Lobotomy made. Their group behind them, the lonesome ruins seemed to bend even further into sight, each little inch expanding, relaxing, decompressing to let all the indigo fog settle onto proper ground and rest. The cloudless covering seeped into the world like embracing an old friend, and with each step Kris took, there was instilled within a sense of defilement. Breaking the scene, they supposed.

Taller buildings rose over the sides of the valley, hills looming and casting shadows onto the meager homes. The whispering city was closed-off, now. Eradicated. Deathly respect filtered over the distance left. Within minutes, they would arrive at the Astrowall, and soon enough would seal the Fountain and return home. They frowned.

"But… I wonder how you are doing?" He had worried aloud, drawing shocked thoughts to their mind.

At current pace, seven minutes.

"I'm… worried." They didn't pause. "That it's too late. If the Viceroy is set up when we get there, he could waste enough time that the Roaring comes."

Kris took another moment to ground themself, because they felt shaky at the thought.

The Roaring would not be good, not at all, especially when they lacked the ability to reset the problems away. Instead of letting that idea swell and pop like a blister of intense, striking hopelessness - the kind that they already thought of, and found somehow the idea of watching everyone they loved die spawn from - they instead took a second survey of the land ahead.

Their own survey, taking full picture of the place and thinking more tactically.

Oceans of stars rained down from above, sinking inward from a blue-purple vortex. Moving around in clusters, dancing somberly to the sounds of sobering silence, Kris wondered what had kicked the marching armies of them into such coordinated chaos.

Then, they found themself staring slightly lower, to where the Fountain melded seamlessly to the sky with a ringlet of darkening indigo. Though they could only see a small semicircle of it, it did lead down to the Fountain proper, where shades of black and deep darkness had lain across the structures beneath like a fine layer of ash.

Further below, the top floor of the Astrowall blocked the rest of the Fountain from sight. Adorned on the top-ridge with black-silver necklaces, rings of brass fitted with bloated, blood-soaked engravings that resembled bloody scars more than decorative marks, and jewels of sparkling onyx gleamed with opulent luster.

It contrasted with the creaking, groaning decay of rusted car doors and sheds melted and slapped onto a shoddy skeleton framework of bars, bones, and pipes draped with the rotting flesh color of copper purposed for the job, with the odd plate of bronze or steel meshed into it.

The slight discoloration of differing materials versus the more uniform bodies of the first and second floors was deeply unsettling to Kris. To them, it seemed like they began running out of materials in the rush, meaning the resulting building could have been… less than stable?

With the piles of spears stuck to the brim of it, a cautionary phalanx of soldiers was ever ready to skewer, disembowel, and uncaringly use the bright violet sky as a backdrop to one mighty bloody battle.

The other two levels were slightly different, but rather identical to each other. The bottom floor was stouter, expanding outward more than the other two. A wider catwalk encircled it, with railings for safety, and Kris could barely see small lights in the mesh-netting.

There was the bend coming up, a subtle, then not-so-subtle curvature of the tracks that lead straight to the Astrowall.

First, before anything, there was the damage.

Splitting the tracks, a ravine of melted metal, hot-butter wooden supports, and concrete roughly textured like harsh sandpaper divided the edges. Kris advanced the last few feet to the last part they felt safe standing on and glanced over, finding the same cracking abyss as before - thankfully as bloodless and pedestrian as the rest of the streets winding underneath, just with darkened shadows from the Fountain that the other, further away cobbles lacked.

As prosaic as it was, Kris felt ineffable fear, something with the selcouth sight transcending what made sense with reality. It crossed the barrier, so to speak. Crossed right into a web of red strings and mysterious lies.

Sagaciously, the solution to their immediate problem was collected.

They left the orphous debating to the thing within and busied themself with an ingenious, albeit theatrically telegenic fix. "Noelle, can you make an ice bridge?"

Noelle tensed, then relaxed. See? Kris knew what they were doing. "I can try, Kris."

They nodded and stepped aside, crossing their arms as she stepped forward and clasped her hands.

Within minutes, icicles formed and clung to the sheer drop. Slowly stretching over the gap, forming together into a fibrous, coiling bridge, her ice magic grew slowly and arduously, as her breathing squeezed out in whistles.

Integrity sufficient.

"Good work," Kris commented as the bridge knitted together.

"Thanks…" Noelle huffed through exhaustive concentration. Kris tested it with their foot.

It bore weight good enough, they supposed.

They had no clue what happened earlier - why Susie and Ralsei were chiding Noelle, of all people, for doing bad when she had done so much.

Without her, they would be down another save file. That alone put her above the others in terms of actual effects.

Plus, the handy bridge she had just made to help them reach their actual goals.

Crossing the bridge, they didn't take the fact that their friends were ganging up on her too personally, just… confused with it, at an arm's length, like watching someone else lose something and search for it. Like it didn't concern them, because truthfully, it didn't.

Continue.

They glanced around as they rounded the bend. High upon the rafters of the Astrowall, they thought they saw something shimmering. Like mist or glare from something shiny.

"Is… that?" Susie questioned for a moment. Kris screwed their expression in thoughtful concentration.

Someone was moving up there, on the second floor's platform. Kris squinted to see; their eyes failed them mostly, but the other had much better vision.

Four. Undetermined whether Darkner or Lightner.

Whatever was shimmering promptly clicked off, leaving the structure deadened and dark. Kris kept walking but entertained the fact that the other was still watching.

"…huh."

They were swiftly given the vision of flashlights, vests with magazines strapped in and secured with velcro, pocketed into adequately dark camo pockets that seemed to bleed into the landscape like oozes of paints mixing, and equipment like the evil hooks of bloody butchers stained the color of the sundown and wrenched periodically with the howling cries of small, timid animals as their bones crack - or maybe it was just the whining of cables as they climbed the side distorted by the retching sickness that threatened them. Either or.

Soldiers. Genuine soldiers.

Guns, knives, formations, equipment that almost conquered the boons of magic. What a scary thought. It made them shiver, at least.

Dividing their attention between images and walking was difficult, but they persevered. The tension grew as they ascended to the top, faced with the menagerie of sharp objects blocking the way.

One soldier prodded at them. Surveyed the harsh and brutal lines for any opening.

Sighing, the same soldier waved his rappelling subordinates down. Two listened but the third shimmied up and squared their stance.

They ripped something from their belt, something blocky, a tool of some kind. Rapping it against the barriers, the soldier tried to break through. It didn't work and, begrudgingly, the soldier slid down.

They gathered up their equipment and made the descent down, slipped from sight, and Kris's team was none the wiser.

But Kris was.

The Coalition. It had to be. If they were here, then that meant…

They are likely within the Castle Town.

Then, they had to move forward anyway. Kris quirked their frown in greater frustration.

"I-I guess we're almost finished with this one, too, huh?" Susie remarked after a moment of silence. It was one dragon of a thing to say in the midst of the nervous air. Kris didn't much care to see what reactions were had.

A soft, orchestral tune played, with strings, pipes, and odds and ends, and it told them, through melody praising and worshipping, that the end was still far away, or that it never began at all. Like it was all still in stasis. Like the storm was calm.

Though the city itself reflected that, the sky itself foretold it, Kris didn't believe it - there were still some ways down, and they knew there were consequences for every route taken. They would soon know them all like the back of their hand.

"I'm sure we still have some things to do," Ralsei smiled, they imagined, "before we can put this to bed."

The Prince shuffled behind them, somewhat excited by the zenith.

"Yeah…" Kris murmured, recalling the strange cube that Zero gave Ralsei.

As they approached the end of their (small) journey, Kris ran through what they expected; they expected to see one very annoying candle, or worse, one very solid wall; they expected to see the soldiers again, hopefully with just that meager force, and likewise expected conflict, but hoped for peace; they expected hard tasks, hard odds, but not impossibly so; they expected to suffer through it all while putting up their front to their teammates.

Before all that, they expected something quick, easy, and fast, because they needed to get inside before anything, which led to the penultimate predicament. Entering the Astrowall through orthodox means.

No matter how grandiose and effete the effort was - without the code held solely by the Viceroy, it would be over. Certainly put a somber mood onto them.

Victory through all means.

Yes. Yes, of course. They would do anything to get home and… just normalize the world.

The operator will help you.

Kris knew that. That was the one thing beaten over their head repeatedly, that as long as their goals aligned with the other's, they didn't have to worry all too much.

"I-" Noelle started with some heavy tremble in her voice. She inhaled, Kris sparing time to turn and gaze at her. Visibly distraught, she dallied. "I'm not sure we'll have much time…"

"Maybe after we beat the Viceroy, we can see how much time we have-"

"Not that." She said. Pointing past Kris, she tilted her head and frowned.

And there, at the very end of the tracks, was a solid wall more than a few meters from the base of the Astrowall. Even closer, inside the station, hugging the sides of the platform, Kris squinted and recognized one of the various Darkners grouped together in the café.

The masquerade mask winced, then pulled back, surely running off to some hiding place. Kris snorted and commanded their team: They had to kick it into gear.

"Come on!" They shouted and took off down the remainder of the tracks.

Their group lagged for a moment, struggling to catch up as Kris sprinted, filled with sprightly, uneasy energy. Susie soared ahead of the other two and matched, then slightly eclipsed Kris's speed. With Noelle and Ralsei behind, the two decided inanely to vanguard.

They drew their sword soon before they entered the open space of the second station.

There, no roof protected from above, leaving the flat, dusty platforms free of pillars. Instead, where the pillars would lie, there were flowerbeds growing black with no water, and the stench of fumes wafting convinced them that the greenery was dead for other reasons as well.

Lining the far walls of the two platforms, there were posters, identical to the ones in the other station. Also, between them, there were a few doors. Two on one side, the left, and one on the other.

In the far back, Kris spotted matching staircases that lead above toward the Astrowall. Oddly enough, they appeared to have collapsed.

"Susie, help me over here," they asked, hefting their Rapier and tossing it up onto the platform, "let's check these doors." They started with the left.

She groused, jamming them upward like luggage. They didn't particularly care. She climbed up behind them.

Kris slammed against the doorway of the first door. Susie snarled menacingly and saddled up against the other door. Kris found her with a meaningful stare, then nodded.

Behind their door was nothing special. A simple closet with brooms, buckets, and a fetid stench of mold. They sighed, closed the door, and looked over at Susie. She opened hers.

"Oh, shit," she slammed hers shut.

"What?" She rolled her eyes.

"What the hell do you think 'oh, shit' means? 'Oh, shit,' there's a fucking couch and a flatscreen back there?"

"Just tell me what it is."

Noelle and Ralsei finally made it to the station.

"Well, there's a whole-ass diner in here." Susie casually commented like she wasn't ruffled by it.

"A diner?" Ralsei inquired, pulling himself up easily. "Is there anybody in there?"

"Nope."

Noelle came up behind Kris and touched their shoulder, meeting them with an oddly beseeching, strangely hopeful gaze that made their skin crawl.

"Then… what's inside?"

"It's a giant pie, Ralsei. It's a gigantic fucking pie sitting on a table in a creepy diner and I want to eat it."

Ralsei chuckled heartily, clasping his hand over his mouth. Susie grinned, glanced inside the door again, then closed it and sighed, facepalming.

"It's totally a trap." She admitted.

"Most likely." Ralsei nodded. "But we can get some more items! Kris, should we…?"

Kris glanced between Noelle, Ralsei, and Susie. Noelle was nodding subtly. Ralsei was waiting expectantly for them, head tilted. Susie looked rather unaffected. Something told them differently.

But they consulted the-

Acquire items.

Kris inhaled deeply, then nodded.

"Heh. Let's see." Susie opened the door, letting Ralsei step through before following.

Noelle halted them.

"Hey, Kris." They exhaled, scrunched awkwardly between the insistent atmosphere of - well, the world ending - and paying her attention. "I… are you okay?"

"Fine." They said robotically. "I'm fine. You?"

"Yeah…" she replied simply, hope dwindling. "…yeah…"

They could hear her mumbling, like always, as they entered the diner.

It was a simple place, with light-blue wallpaper, bright lighting. The counter was made of swirling mahogany stained with coffee, patterned in broad motions as patrons would once rejoice.

Painted like ghosts of faces, like phantoms of happiness not long lost, Kris could see and feel the unfathomable glee resounding through the open-floored rectangle of booths, then tables, then said counter and stool.

It was clearly moneyed, and perhaps even popular once despite how inconspicuously it was hidden behind a simple door; it was evident from the bursting, bulging menu with any number of sides, entrees, desserts, anything Kris could think of besides Toriel's own recipe chowder.

The erstwhile diner was no hole in the wall, either.

Impeccably fashionable and clean, with whorls of grains in the wood; red, puffed up cushions for the booths; and comfortable - yet well-worn - stools for the two-decker bar.

In the corner closest to the door, a jukebox played no welcoming tune, and just on the first table ahead, a large, platter-sized tin restrained a bumbling, sweet prize.

The vacant place reminded them much of home, very traditional. Though, while the empty respite was more homeless in metaphor, they could still imagine sitting with their family in one of the booths and sipping highly sweetened coffee, or hot chocolate, on a particularly sunny, or adequately rainy day.

However, there was some sort of unsuspecting, wrathful dilapidation about the place that Hometown lacked, and it had it in spades. The vintage and conscientious diner almost warmed uncomfortably, as though sneering at them, heating slightly as the group walked forward toward the pie.

They could then smell it, and did so indulgently, and with much fervor. Sweet. Very sweet and fruity, even more so than anything Hometown had for them, but so unnervingly excessive that they wondered if it was even edible. Recognition filtered through them, and likewise everyone but the Prince, at the flavor itself. Kris smiled softly, letting their shoulders fall slightly.

It was apple.

And there was a card just on top of the crust.

Kris picked it up, and read aloud the pseudo-obituary given to the diner.

"'Hi! So sorry we missed you, Miss! The Astrowall is just opening as we speak… and the staff is eager to take our tour,'" Kris stage-whispered the next part. "'And get to safety.'" They sucked in a breath. "'Welp, best wishes to you and your workers, Director Lamp.' Signed, Postricia."

Dead silence hung in the air.

Turn it.

They did so, and found smaller letters.

"Huh. 'Lampie, apologies but, we are all leaving this place behind. We tidied it up and all but the plague is getting too close. We hope you make it in time. And in case the person reading this is not the Director… may the Angel spare you.'"

They choked a little bit reading that last part. Just how fast did the plague spread? "'P.S., even if hell is coming loose, please only take one slice, pie is expensive enough without the food shortage.'"

"Damn…" Susie mustered a bit of sympathy. Then, Kris placed the card on the table.

"I feel so bad for these people." Ralsei lamented. "At least we can help them in some way, right, Kris?"

"Hopefully. Anybody have a knife?" The succulent memory of leaving their own in, ironically enough, their own tin graced them and formed a self-deprecating smile.

"Ah, fuck it. Kris, open your pockets." Susie said ominously. Propped over the table, they wondered what would happen.

"I don't think I should."

"Kris, come on, it's gonna be awesome." She flashed a thumbs-up.

Ralsei piped up. "I suppose it can't be helped!"

Noelle snorted. Her giggle was heart-warming. "Please, tell me we're not… uh, you know what? Who cares! Let's- Let's do it."

"Kris, come on, just open your pockets."

"Is this what peer-pressure feels like?" Kris balked for a moment before stretching open their coat pocket.

"Haha, lessss goooo."

They should have expected it. They should have expected this before. Instead, they got to watch in simultaneous shock and awe, and latent delight, as Susie scooped a hand into the tin and slopped a mush of apple pie into their pocket.

Apple Pie: A forgotten relic of a sweeter time. When used, splits into magic-rich pie-lits.

What the fuck.

Kris scooped it out of their pocket, and lo and behold, it was still whole.

You could split it.

They stared at the pie with a glimmer.

Noelle guffawed with spirit they hadn't seen in a while, staring both at Kris's wonder and at her own glop of delectable food. For once, since they entered - no, since they used her in the Cyber World - she seemed… genuinely ecstatic.

Their brow softened. "Susie, can you…?"

"What, you want a second piece!?" She accused bitterly, though her tone was joking.

They deflated and scrunched their eyes.

"You monster!" She shouted. "Taking two pieces!? Heheh, well, I'm a monster, aren't I?"

Ralsei looked incredibly fed-up. "I think Darkners take one piece!"

Like a proverbial 'watch this,' Kris peeled open their other pocket and gave a mischievous grin, one filled with as much trickster malice as possible. Susie reciprocated by double-handing a very generous portion of pie into their coat, and giving it a homely little pat.

Everything squished against their body and they couldn't help themself, devolving into an uncontrollable fit of giggles.

"Kris!" Noelle managed to voice between her own mirth.

"Susie!" Ralsei hissed, a total flip from Noelle.

"What?"

"That's their new coat!"

Noelle continued to die, now stooping over and holding onto the table. Kris felt the bubbling of it all spill over, and over, and over again. She was tearing up, and their laughter just kept growing, and growing.

"S-Stop-" Wheeze. "I can't- I- I-" Hilarious giggles ensued. The other rolled whatever eye-equivalent it had. "We need to- Concentrate. Important stuff. Fountain. Astrowall. Home. And ignore- pfft, ignore…!"

"The pie seeping through your coat?" Ralsei added dangerously.

It was a double-kill.

Susie gaffed. "It's not so bad."

Ralsei creaked as he turned. "You… have experience?"

Noelle banged against her chest. Kris felt sludge in their lungs.

"Oh, brother." Susie rolled her eyes. "It's not that weird. It's hard to steal an entire pie. You just gotta… smoosh it inside. Like, like jamming some earpods into your pocket."

The time was ticking upward on the fit of continuous laughter. It was fucking grand. Absolutely fucking marvelous how the two failed repeatedly to calm down.

Susie looked defensive. "Hey, you try smuggling a pie outside with nothing but a shitty backpack. Had to eat most of it."

"You stole a pie?" Ralsei was disbelieving.

"Uh." Susie paced a little. "You know-" She stared impassively at Kris. More and more, it just kept coming. Never stopping as they tried to steady themself. "…try three pies. It was a pie store."

"A pie store?"

"HEY, STOP MAKING EVERYTHING I SAY SOUND WEIRD!"

Ralsei narrowed his eyes. "Hmm. Would you smuggle cake?"

"Is that even a question, yes, hell yes, if I had to." She replied readily, not even changing from her normal tone.

Kris and Noelle began to slow down, then found each other again, and Kris - for whatever reason - dipped their hand into their pocket and pretended to wipe sweat from their brow, leaving pie paste all over their face.

Holy shit. What a fucking decision

Susie and Ralsei shared the same amused look, watching the two double over in giggles. They really were good friends, weren't they?

"Yeah, the- the pie." Kris coughed out after some hacking. They cleared their throat and stood straighter. "Okay. Okay, so. Let's finish this pie jog. These," They gestured to their pockets, restraining a hollow cough. "Look incredibly delicious and I'm going to be sneaking bites of my pocket jello for the next few minutes - to be fair, seconds - since they're way too big to eat whole. If Noelle would kindly breathe, we can start moving." Noelle was most definitely not breathing. "We need to find that Darkner, which means we find the candle, the bird, and whatever Darkners would get in our way. Then, we get through whatever hell is waiting for us, and…" They made a noise filled with aplomb. "Get the hell out of this place."

These pieces are unwieldy to masticate and consume whole. Except for Susie. Whole chunks will rejuvenate 140 HP. Subsequent off-shoots can be manipulated from source for varying efficiency.

With some muffled agreements (two clear, one through whistling breathing), the group exited the diner. Kris - unfortunately - was stopped by the alien in their head from doing exactly what they promised.

Healing items are for healing. Not for gluttonous indulging to circumvent arbitrary boredom.

Says who?

The four left the diner, letting the door swing shut. Then, it was across the tracks, careful not to let pie slosh out of any pockets.

The next door was propped open, slightly ajar, and the group's humor died, replaced by anticipation. Posting up against it, Kris glanced inside.

"Anything?" Noelle whispered.

The room opened up into emptiness. No furnishings, no decoration, no storage items. Simply nothing besides a red box that Kris instantly recognized as a chest.

Without much adieu, the damn lock popped open and revealed something… rather domestic. A scarf; laden with chips of white, and stained yellow. They gently lifted it, feeling the heft.

"Heavy. Decent length. I wonder what it does in terms of damage." They passed it back around to Ralsei. He gave them a smile. Suffice to say, they reciprocated. "…do you want to change it out? Extra magic seems useful for healing, especially with dual-heal. But, you could do more damage in a pinch with this."

Bone Sash: Armor that-

"Oh, Kris." He called. "This is armor! I can wear this around my neckwarmer!"

They blinked. "Ah. I see. Is that better protection?" He nodded, looping it around his neck. "It looks… uncomfortable."

"Jeez, what is this, bone?" Susie picked at the end. "Badass but… you sure?"

"I'm sure, Susie. It's okay!" Ralsei grinned at her weakly, lacking some energy.

"…guys." Noelle broke their tirade. "Umm. Where did the Darkner go? There's… nothing here and the stairs are blocked."

Above. Illusionary blockage.

"…maybe, the Darkners are trying to trick us." They rationalized aloud, making sure the group heard them. "Wasn't this place called the 'Brain' or something, maybe it fits with hallucinations."

"I suppose…" Ralsei was dubious, but accepting of the idea. "Then, that Darkner was on the other platform. It would be over there!" He led the group outside. Susie grumbled silently.

"So, you think the debris is just… an illusion?" Noelle questioned inanely. "I guess…"

Pause.

The other's warble rang out to them, and them alone. They halted, like stones strapped to their feet, and made an offhand remark about tallying up their items before proceeding. They grabbed their bag as a ploy, waiting for it to continue as they fished around it.

The presence of Darkners festers above. They are watching.

Kris felt their head turn upward, and the other jabbed a wedge between their vertebrae to stop them.

Do not look. Listen.

As the others laughed and joked, Kris forced up a frustrated, distracted noise and continued to look around the bag. In reality, they were observing, or moreso listening as the other sent feelers out to the environment.

Hypothetical. You are secured entry to safety, when an unknown enemy ceaselessly pursues. Inside this bastion, there is glory, and victory. Instead of entering and ensuring continued survival, you wait outside for your enemy. In this scenario, no sense is made of it. When so close to offenders and mercenaries, nothing could be worth more than life.

The Darkners weren't particularly intelligent. No big surprise.

Intellect is somewhat redundant. Creatures, big and small, are programmed for continuance. Survival ensured and reproduction is the basest drive, and steps taken render these drives fertile like soil. Seeds sown - homes, food source, companionship - exist to further these goals. Why sacrifice surety for meager riches?

Some people were greedy, they supposed. Either greedy or brainwashed by the candle, sent out to slow them more like the poisoner before them.

They witness futility against us. Unless knowledge gifted, no reason to resist.

They couldn't explain it, not to the other or to the others (ha). Maybe, some people were just dull.

Insertion - creatures in-tune with society and fanciful habituation are less likely to pursue baser calls.

Just because they wore costumes and had masks didn't mean they weren't scared, or hateful, or greedy. It just meant they did so in style.

What really was the question was why they were watching them instead of hiding.

Postulating. Two options. Denial of entry, either through arbitrary means, or through exceptional means. Or innate ideas instilled through repetition, or convinced feelings of purpose.

They tried to make sense of the matter, even as the other directed them to step closer to the wall and save again. Something about the way things fell down, how it played out, stumped Kris.

They put their hands in their pockets, then busied themself licking the residue as they wondered about the Darkners from the café.

Supposedly, the leader was the candle, even now, so far detached from his domain. They also recalled the brambly bird, with her hooked claws, and how she led the group here. Either or, they settled. Anybody's guess on who it was in charge.

Perhaps, it was both, and this thinking didn't matter much. Maybe neither. They would take the bird for later, like Boyles…

Correct. Logical sense. Double martyrdom.

Like lemmings.

Like lemmings.

Sheep to the slaughter while the real alpha-wolf did whatever the hell he wanted, no consequences to himself that he wasn't ready for.

Typical.

…Oddly, it seemed disapproving.

Leaders are positions of power founded on guiding, and bettering their people.

The Viceroy had pretty much thrown his people at them like sacks of potatoes, or more aptly, corpses made in the vague shape of death… by potatoes.

And better yet, said potatoes were being very risky.

Please refrain from referring to the Darkners as 'potatoes.'

Very important, huh.

Illusions. Mysticism. Such magics exist.

What next, do they proceed up the staircase or continue to wait for the café Darkners to do something. It was give and take, wasn't it?

Yes. Quell impatience.

"Kris." Susie warned. "We gotta get moving soon."

They had an idea. It involved a sharp sword, some purposefully announced words, and quick reflexes. That being, if they could simply commit suicide again and be totally fine.

Yes.

Huh. They wondered how that happened.

Anyway, they addressed Susie first and foremost, "We don't have to worry too much." She scowled. "Look, I need a damn break. All of this running around and yelling, and fighting, it wears on me. I'm not stupid to think I'm some great leader. I'm just tired out and trying my best." They shrugged. "And I decided to take this timeline as a break, relax a little bit, maybe unwind some."

To accentuate this point, they scooped out some pie and swallowed it whole without much chewing. It was bloody delicious.

"In fact, I just used the save point here." Looks of horror filled their squad. Noelle especially emanated despondent terror looking at them. "So, we can just… chill for a minute and-"

Above!

It was like clockwork, how as soon as they admitted to it, the sky filled with netting. It fell upon them in sheets, swaddling their limbs as the vision of the horizon was squashed with the chatter of meek creatures above.

They fell to their knees as their group shouted, and yelled, and clawed in surprise.

Darkners rained from above.

Knives, attacks, shining shields.

They plan to erase you.

They fought against their bindings to free their sword from its sheath, struggling to angle it correctly.

Work quickly, they have killed Susie and Noelle already.

It was disconcerting how easy this could have worked before, if not for the other.

A chorus of angelic pipes lilted and rose as they finally tugged the Rapier free, watching as Ralsei was impaled brutally with small knives.

The Costumers approached them, next. Basically, swaths of black that hurtled. Ghosts with gold-plated faces.

Costumers. They control the field with illusion magic, as is their theme. They will attempt to ward off attackers. When fought, they will lash out with fast attacks. Weak alone. Together, en masse, a problem.

It figured all that out as easily as that? It didn't give them that level of info before. No, they didn't quite believe it.

Experience. The operator will not explain.

Dust kicked up in whirls through the air. Parts of Noelle and Susie landed on them, and a bone-scarf fluttered oddly. Kris wilted and fiddled with the netting.

We reconvene. Plan. Assess possibilities.

If their enemies preferred traps, then couldn't they bait it out?

Incomplete plan. It is addled with risk. Faring well is the idea of diplomacy. Talking down adversaries will assist our venture, complete with less risk, and significant change in resistance.

Through boiling rage, mixed with some sadness, the other made precise cuts.

0-0-0

Kris clutched a hand to their chest.

They retain his knowledge.

The Viceroy did tell them about the timelines, didn't he? Of course, to slow them down, he spilled the beans.

He is not leading the group.

What exactly gave it that idea?

It was too efficient.

And subsequently, not very funny at all. Ah. That… maybe made sense, but they didn't know him enough to tell his limits yet. Perhaps he wasn't, it made enough sense that his lackies would be more results-driven than him.

Proposal. He abandoned them. Sometimes, leaders find results with less to lead. A pawn for a king, or more adequately, a pawn for a queen.

Ah, the chess metaphors. King being Kris's life, queen being the save file. Ah. Very clever.

It still left a few questions to be answered.

Who was leading this opposition force? Was it the bird, someone else? Even further was how they evaded the soldiers? The Coalition, with guns, who had clearly killed some people, spared them? Were they hiding from them? An alliance, maybe, since they were still sober and sane?

This also leads to the question of identity of Director Interim.

Yeah. Yeah. That person was mystery incarnate, something you would see on some drama show. A name, nothing else.

Didact. Information will be revealed through determination. Every experiment unveils more and more valuable information to be used to achieve victory. For every death, provided something learned, routed, or discovered, something is gained. Every advantage is needed.

They agreed. Now, what should they do next? They didn't imagine talking the Darkners down from below would work too well, considering they had a large trap set up.

And their group was just as easy to mess up with. The three were waiting, growing impatient. Kris closed their eyes.

They would have liked to talk down the Darkners, since the candle was no longer running things. They could get some answers, maybe some allies.

Natural conversation.

So… okay. Okay. That could work.

"I'm sorry." They let their shoulders loosen. "I'm still scared. Just let me catch my breath and-" The other forced pathetic emotions into their voice, also emitting tears. "Just, just, I don't know. I… things are… I can't…"

"Oh, Kris." Ralsei cooed, silencing them swiftly with an oddly friendly hug. It felt horrible and uncomfortable.

"It's too much," they lied through their teeth, burrowing their face into his shoulder so they didn't have to fake it; it felt better, or less worse. "And I'm sorry I don't have the vitriol or patience to be some robot. Heck, I'm- I'm even talking more now because I just don't want to be quiet." Truly wicked, the mind of a desperate puppet. There was something tangibly wrong with their statement.

Even divulging such an ultimatum in the form of their words made it grow.

Noelle was equally as concerned as Ralsei, and Susie couldn't meet their eyes. The reindeer stepped forward.

"Kris…"

"I wish I had some magic powers or something, anything to just- I- like… just to get through." Their voice whimpered the last part.

"…it's okay, Kris." Ralsei whispered. "You're okay, Kris. You're with us."

Honestly, heart-warming. Unfortunately, not meant for the 'Kris' in his arms.

They are questioning their preset knowledge.

The Darkners above were slowly turning, they supposed. "…do you ever feel powerless?" That elicited a genuine reaction from everyone. "Because I do. I feel like, a puppet, on a string, and I just have to keep dancing, you know? Even if it means doing what I don't want to."

A pocket of dead quiet crowed.

"I sometimes feel like I'm… just a photo of me when I was younger, but… not quite as colored?" Noelle quietly added, crossing her arms. "If you know what I mean."

"…I haven't had much of a life, Kris." Ralsei admitted. "So, my present… my friends, you all, it feels like there's something weighing on us. Like, we wouldn't have met otherwise. It's sad, isn't it?"

Then there was one. She vehemently refused to bite into this bit, but still uttered a noncommittal, yet sympathetic noise. Like she agreed but not fully. Understood but rejected the idea.

And Kris was only sorta lying now.

Susie yawned falsely. "Yeah…" It was all she felt comfortable voicing. "Yeah."

"And, it's okay to be feeling this way… right?" They had a stroke of genius, or maybe sincerity. Their group instantly agreed. "Ah. It's okay to feel… 'down.' That's good to hear. I really needed to hear that. I'm sorry. I really, really needed to hear that." They pretended it applied.

"Look, Kris, it doesn't matter if you have some stupid superpowers or something weird." Susie almost forced a wince from them. Minus brownie points. "…you… can be an ass but… you're just human, I guess."

Just human.

If only she knew.

They embraced Ralsei for some time before the other informed them to try and leave. Strange. No one even bothered to stop them from hugging, but then again, it seemed like everyone had conveniently forgotten about the deadline for the cataclysm.

Relax. The Darkners have decided to capture you all.

So, they just had to sit through the trap and hope for the best. Not the first time.

It fell, obviously, as soon as Kris announced their plan to continue forward. Instantly, it tangled up the group and upset them. Between the chattering of the trapped heroes and the ruffling of the heavy net, they almost didn't notice the Darkners.

Six of them leaped over the top of the wall, equally and elegantly floating to the floor. With robes flowing wildly, the masks danced around hypnotically.

Watching the display of dancers was mesmerizing, almost trance-like. They spun and dipped and jumped like no other being could, clutching flimsy, thin daggers of green shards that shone brilliantly.

The zealots of the stage continued to float around on wires, Kris unknowing and absentminded as the Darkners giggled and blew dust into the faces of their friends, and completely oblivious as they watched them slowly untense and slump over, asleep.

They saw the world slowly fade to black even before the dust billowed into their face, something like dark pitch with a grimy gray sheen. They saw the Astrowall blowing with the forceful thrums of the Fountain. They saw the Costumers cock their heads, observe them.

They wished for sweet release, a place where they could see the dancers dance, where they could relax and sleep, and be free. This freedom was different and struck them oddly. Simple freedom. No need for escape, just a moment's respite.

They felt more comfortable in their own clothes. Their own skin, even, and the world's edges gradually came closer and closer.

Perhaps they could dream.

Be a dreamer.

But somehow, someway, they could see the clotting webs of red spiral upward and upward, until the Fountain bright was Fountain crimson, and then the world crashed around them.

Sleep stole them away to a simple dream.