Thanks go to 10burgers, Guest, ZeraoraTheKnight, Zack Frost, EpicSlayerGuy99, sauceman95, GMLxAwesome, Doctah Sawbones, 2Strong2SignIn, Wingah, and Rin!
Hey guys, I have big news! DoubleScramble (The old spin off of original DoubleTale) is being rewritten in sprite comic form on Tumblr! The work is done pretty entirely by ConnorWing/Wingah because I have no concept of how to do sprite work and no free time on my hands! Him and I have been talking about and planning how the Rewrite of DoubleScramble will go for awhile, and I promise ya it's gonna be a real fun ride! (Also who knows DoubleScramble may some day make some kind of appearance in DT:R and you might just want to read it and learn more about it to keep yourself as in the loop as possible cough cough wink wink nudge nudge)
So you can find this sprite comic on Tumblr posted on the account DoubleTaleAU. Go read it, reblog it, leave nice comments and asks and such, and spread it all around because DoubleTale content makes the world go 'round! The first 4 parts are already posted s oyou've got a little bit'a binging to do! And who doesn't love binging? All my chapters are ungodly long, every one of them is kinda like a binge read!
*Ahem*
Anyway sorry about the wait, life has been absolutely bonkers lately. But hopefully this wonderfully pleasant chapter where certainly nothing bad happens will make up for it. :)
(Also 2Strong2SignIn I am definitely gonna use that name for the four DoubleKids. "Fortune City Four." Too perfect. You are a genius.)
[Also also sauceman95 I'm so glad you caught the Bojack Horseman line and am even more glad that you're excited for Xander's backstory too. It should be here pretty soon. ;)]
The next chapter will be up either two weeks from today (October 5th) or three weeks from today (October 12th). I'm shooting for the 5th but it could be a very long chapter and I've been very busy, so I want you guys to be prepared just in case. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter!
Disclaimer: I do not own Undertale.
"What the fuck is all this?"
"..." Jade was quiet. She couldn't talk, she couldn't move, she couldn't even look Lexi in the eye. She stared at her feet, at where the decorative rugs that covered her home's floor met the cruel concrete of her moral prison.
Her lack of response did nothing to calm Lexi, however. In fact, it seemed to shove her rapidly towards an explosion. Turning fully to face Jade, she crumpled her parents' files in her hands while she seethed with rage. Furiously she repeated, "Jade! What IS this?!"
"It's how I keep us safe from him, okay?!" Jade snapped back in a panic, throwing her hands up like Lexi was pointing a gun at her. But, then she appeared to get ahold of herself, lowering her hands and strengthening her stance. She rose her eyes to her daughter, got ahold of her conviction. She had believed for her entire life that this was the right thing, she would not feel ashamed of it now. "It's how I've made sure that neither of us have to see that monster again!"
"While everyone else dies!" Tears building in her eyes, Lexi pulled the files of her parents up towards her head. She half gripped at her hair and half pressed the photos to the sides of her face. It was the closest thing to a hug that she would ever get from those two now. And that thought made the tears overflow while Lexi threw her hands down, releasing those files and letting the papers detailing her tragedy fling and fly through the air around her. "How long?! How long have you sat here and watched him hurt everyone?! How many people have you refused to save?!"
"There's no stopping him and there's no saving anyone!" Jade's voice trembled in her throat, pupils shrunken in her eyes. Her hands clenched into shaking fists, Jade dared stomp forward into her personal prison. The pictures pinned on the walls could have been whispering, the one word uniting them all in the same gruesome fate. At her feet, the images of Lexi's parents drifted to the ground. DECEASED.
"I've had to live my whole life alone and in hiding! Anyone I've ever cared about, he killed!" Jade pointed with one finger to the portrait pulling the room together, the one face that wasn't labeled dead. The Killer himself, smiling away and mocking Jade and Lexi. "You don't mess with this, Lexi! Whatever that man is, he ain't human! And I'm not gonna let him take you from me!"
"He's just an asshole with a chunk of metal!" Lexi snarled, pointing her own finger at the picture pulling the gruesome room together. Jade almost recoiled, like she was afraid The Killer would somehow hear her daughter's words. Like he would manifest out of one of the dark corners or pull himself out of his picture and make her pay for making such a claim. Lexi wasn't afraid though, she wasn't going to wait for her revenge. "And now he's eating people! Somebody has to take a stand!"
Jade didn't respond for a few moments. She stared with intensity, at Lexi and at The Killer on the wall and at the data thrown across the single table at the room's center. Then, gradually, her expression relaxed some. She narrowed her eyes thoughtfully, and she stepped past Lexi to get to the table. "... No. That's not right."
"None of this is right!" Lexi snapped hysterically, tears still trickling down her face. Her brows twitched with confliction and confusion when Jade stepped right past her though, her hands clenching into fists at the idea that the one person she trusted might have been ignoring her right after the reveal of such a brutal betrayal. "Are you even listening to me?!"
"Lexi of course I'm listening to you." Jade shut her eyes painfully while she leaned over the table of ruthless facts that she had laid out over the span of years. She could hear the pain and the distrust in Lexi's voice, and it made guilt sting her. But, she had to focus on her work. On the puzzle pieces she had gathered, on what it all might mean. "What I mean is that this new set of murders, they don't match the Ghoul. Possible motives, locations of the bodies, and of course the cannibalism... It's not like him. It isn't what he would do."
Lexi just grit her teeth at these words. What Jade was saying, the way she spoke like she'd known The Killer her entire life. Like he was her best friend, like they had brunch on Sundays. How much was she hiding? How much had she kept from her? And now, this ridiculous blame shifting! Lexi was seething, boiling tears still trickling down her face. "The eye witnesses! The blunt force trauma on the victims! All seems a lot like his trademark!"
"There's always a motive! There's always a pattern!" Jade corrected, pointing with one finger back towards Lexi. She did not turn to face her however, instead just continuing to let her eyes scan across the pushpins and the yarn and the circled words on the stolen files tossed over the table. "In his first rampage, it was leaders. Politicians, drug lords, gang kingpins, police chiefs..."
"... Next, seven years later... It was families." Jade's eyes narrowed painfully, once more thinking back to the orphaned child she'd ran away with all those years ago. A frown sunk deeper into her face, and she was aware of how these words might hurt her daughter. But she had to speak. Had to say her thoughts aloud in order to think harder, and she had to give Lexi the only knowledge she had withheld while she grew up. Now had to be the time. "Parents, primarily. Leaving kids orphaned, teenagers and kids in their most important stages without positive guidance. An attempt at poisoning the minds of the next generation..."
... I should have listened to her, even if she was rambling. Jade had spent years watching and studying the Ivory Ghoul. If I had just waited, taken the time to listen and study under her here like I had everywhere else... Well. It's too late now.
"But, this... There's no rhyme and there's no reason. There's no pattern, there's no motive. There's no goal. So this can't be him." Jade reached up with one hand, pulling gently at her bottom lip with her thumb nail. Lexi barely heard her, however. Her expression had hardened, and her flow of tears had stopped. Now, she just stood beside Jade, carefully scanning the map on the table. Making sense of those pushpins and the locations they marked, tuning out Jade's words... "But, he has to be connected somehow... Think, Jade! How does this spree fit in with the others?"
"She was running from someone who looks like me."
"Give it another decade or so, you'll get what I mean."
"... I'm past my prime, Jade. I can feel it. I need a successor."
"... Oh my god." Jade's eyes snapped open wide, and beads of cold sweat broke out on her brow. The first spree killed leaders to assure Killer was the only real ruler of Fortune City, and the second had killed scores of parents and broken dozens of homes to assure he was the main teacher of the next generation. "He killed leaders because they were like him..! He killed parents because they were like him! He's not the cannibal, and he isn't the one driving this spree!"
"Lexi! The Ghoul has a so-!" Jade spun on her heel, wide eyes darting back behind her. But... The room was empty. Lexi was nowhere to be seen. Jade's wide eyes scanned the room, her pupils rapidly shrinking with growing panic. Suddenly, her head snapped around to look down at the map she had carelessly shown her daughter. The red pushpins, Killer's most frequent locations. The words scribbled by the pins, the days he was there. Fear gripped Jade's withered heart, and she felt vomit creeping up her throat as dots connected in her head. She knew exactly where Lexi had went.
"No..!"
... It's too late now.
Chapter 72: Neutrality's Duality
Or: The Sin of PATIENCE Part 2
June. Tuesday. Second Tuesday of the month. 11:37 PM. He would be at the abandoned mall at the corner of 5th and West Eli Street.
Lexi sprinted hastily down the side walk. She ran past trash can fires, and the homeless people who gathered around them all flinched and watched her pass by. They watched the shadows carefully, they recoiled at every move, and Lexi figured even they knew that the Ivory Ghoul at large. But that didn't matter, they wouldn't have to be afraid for long. No one would have to be afraid for long.
I wouldn't have to be afraid for long.
As she ran, Lexi had thrown on the black cloak that Jade had given her, hiding her body in the mass of dark cloth and hiding her face behind that skull mask. Now the people she sprinted by flinched at the sight of her, and that was good. She hoped he would do the same when she found him. She wanted him to be afraid, she wanted him to feel the terror that he had made her and everyone else in this wretched city feel. And then, she wanted him to die.
Her footsteps lead her down the many cracks on the sidewalk, past overgrown lawns and withered buildings, until finally she was standing in the mall's parking lot. And she stood there, scythe clenched tight in white knuckled fingers, heavy breathing echoing in the plastic of her mask. Her cyan eyes were wide, darting to and fro. Across the empty parking lot, to every piece of litter that skittered across the concrete in the wind. To every one of the dark windows that lined that eyesore of a building. And she felt a chill looking at the dark glass of the front doors, because she knew evil lurked past those doors. And she knew that evil might have already been watching her.
There she stood. Tall, before the looming building in the moonlight. The overcast sky had one opening; the clouds had parted around the full moon and left a spotlight on the dilapidated mall before her. And Lexi loomed before destiny in the same way that it loomed before her. Breathing heavy into the mask that protected her, trembling with rage beneath the cloak that hid her. But she didn't wanna hide, and she didn't need to be protected. So, she reached up, and she pulled the mask off of her face. Then, scythe clenched tight in her hand, she screamed.
"GHOOOUUUUL!"
The crows that gathered on dead trees fluttered away, leaving black feathers in their wake. The sound of a young woman screaming such a forbidden name made all who heard it shutter. Windows and door slammed shut, locks clicked into place, blinds were pulled closed, cars rolled up their windows and drove faster. Hairs rose on every neck, fear burned in every heart... Well, except for one.
Lexi watched the doors. She watched the windows. She felt like the entire building would lurch forward and swallow her whole. But she didn't care, because she forced herself to believe she would be able to rip her way out of its stomach. But there was no jump scare, no grand reveal. Instead, motion came casually to one of the windows on the second floor.
First, a crimson stare from the dark. It commanded Lexi's attention immediately, made her breath catch in her throat. Then, pale white arms. Stained with scars and detailed with new scabs. Dots, like some poor victim had dug their finger nails into his forearms while he choked the life out of them. Those arms draped over the glassless window, crossing over one another on the concrete ledge. Then, finally the hauntingly familiar face of The Killer leaned forward and out of the darkness.
He arched one white eyebrow down at the girl staring up at him. His lips were parted, a cigarette clenched between his sharp teeth. Seeing his shoulders and collar now, it became apparent that he was shirtless. One of his shoulders was detailed with a deep scar, something indicative of a stab wound. His shoulder length white hair was slicked back, while a loose strand drooped in front of his face. Almost a decade, and he hadn't shaved that stupid goatee.
'... You're a brave one, aren't you?" Killer commented, the corner of his mouth lifting with some amusement. Grey smoke rose from between his fangs while he exhaled, before his chest lifted some with a chuckle. "Usually I'm the one creeping up on people in the night. You want an autograph or something?"
"I wanna kill you." Lexi's voice trembled in her throat. One foot in front of the other, she marched forward under the power of his stare. Even though her whole body screamed to run away, she wouldn't. She had already ran from him once, and she would never let herself do so again. So, she marched until she stood just before the entrance to the building, glaring up at him with ice cold eyes.
"Why, you're the second person in decades to say you wanna kill me to my face." The Killer uncrossed his arms, reaching up with one hand and taking his cigarette between two fingers. He pulled it from his maw, and he pushed the light of its lit end into the concrete windowsill to kill its fire. Madness ignited in his scarlet eyes while he smiled giddily at Lexi, looking down at her from his wretched castle. "But wanting something and doing something are very different things."
"... Look at my face, you pasty piece'a shit." Lexi hissed, her bloodshot eyes twitching with unspeakable emotions that The Killer loved to see. Her knuckles went white around her scythe, her free hand held her mask by her hip. Murder flashed in her eyes, so raw and vicious that it made The Killer feel like a god. "Do you remember me? You better remember me like your life depends it!"
"Lexi, darling... How could I ever forget you?" Killer smiled lovingly, propping his chin up in his hands while he stared down at her with his haunting eyes. And hearing her name out of his mouth, seeing familiarity in his eyes... It made her skin crawl. It made her flinch. She'd wanted him to remember her as some kid who's life he ruined, she didn't want him to remember her by name. How did he know her name? How much did he know?! "You were the little girl in the alleyway. Your parents told you to hide and wait for them to come save you~!"
"... Shut up." Lexi commanded. Her blood was going cold in spite of her racing heart. Her wide eyes never blinked, and all the light seemed to go out around them. Suddenly, it was just her and The Killer. Alone in The Dark.
"I watched you sit there. You waited and waited like a good kid should..." The Killer frowned like he was heartbroken, sinking his shoulders like he cared. Like she was some charity case, like she was a tragedy. "But mommy and daddy never came to save you like they promised. They lied to you, Lexi."
"Shut up!" Lexi snapped, her heart pounding in her ears. Her mind flashed with memories. Sitting in that alley, cold, alone... Feeling her hope fade away, feeling her PATIENCE give way to DETERMINATION. Denying and denying until she had to accept it... No one was coming to save her. She was alone. She is alone.
"Do you know why they never came, Lexi?" Killer tilted his head curiously, narrowing his venomous eyes and wearing his wicked smile.
"Shut the fuck up!" Lexi stamped her foot, feeling tears building in her eyes. She felt like a child again under that stare, she felt just as helpless as she had felt in that alleyway... But she wasn't. Not this time. She came here to kill him, she came here to save this city from his blight! She came here because she wasn't gonna hide and wait any more!
"It's because I beat them both to death with a lead pipe." The Killer's eyes went wide, and his grin shredded from one of his ears to the other. He leaned over the window, towering over Lexi. His shadow fell over her, and she trembled with indignation under it.
Lexi didn't have any words for that. There was no way to express her rage and her grief and her hatred other than the primal scream she let loose. Then, she swiftly shielded her face with her mask so that he wouldn't see the tears overflowing down her cheeks. The blur in her vision didn't stop her from jumping though, planting her foot on the metal railing that lined the steps in front of her.
Effortlessly, Lexi sprinted up the railing before jumping, swinging her scythe up and hooking its blade around the windowsill that Killer was leaning on, making him recoil back into the darkness behind him. Lexi held herself up with the one hand wrapped around her scythe's handle, kicking both of her feet into the wall in front of her and swinging herself upwards, flipping around the wall and landing on both feet in the window.
Her cyan eyes darted about the darkness before her, and she immediately spotted the lethal gleam of The Killer's eyes. She'd already drawn the pistol from her hip at some point in her ascension, and she aimed with deathly precision for the space between his wretched eyes. A bang, and a flash illuminated The Dark and made Lexi's adjusting eyes wince.
"So ruthless!" The Killer's voice was unwelcome in her ears. She snarled beneath her expressionless mask, furious cyan eyes watching the outline of that murderer's imposing form stumble and skitter in the dark. A dripping sound, blood hitting the floor. She had hit him, and he was bleeding. But she'd aimed for his head, so that begged the question...
Did I graze him? Or did he really just catch a bullet with his forehead and live?
Lexi jumped forward and out of the window, holstering her still smoking gun barrel and wrapping both hands around her scythe. She sprinted low to the ground, rapidly approaching the shape of The Killer in the inky darkness. It was slowly becoming more clear. The angrier she got, the more she wished for his death, the more welcoming The Dark became.
"You get it, don't you Lexi?!" The Killer's giddy voice didn't show an ounce of fear as he stepped backwards, letting her blade cleave through the air in front of him. His beady red eyes vibrated with amusement as they stared wide down at her, and he thoughtlessly reached backwards as the two passed some square, vague furniture shape. Had he built some kind of temporary home in this strange place? It was too Dark to be sure, and Lexi didn't have time to think about it. She was too busy ducking backwards and away from the sudden swing of whatever blunt object he'd just snagged from its hiding place. "The rush of hunting another! Forgetting everything else and committing to kill just because you want to!"
"I'm killing you because it's the only way to save this city!" Jumping up after ducking Killer's heavy handed swing, Lexi pulled both knees to her chest and shotgunned a kick right into the bare chest of The Killer. The force of this strike sent Killer tumbling back onto his ass, but while Lexi landed on her side and swung her feet back under herself, Killer rolled with the momentum of her kick and swiftly got to one knee.
"Oh I know you aren't stupid, Lexi! This city can't be saved and these people will never escape until I tire of playing with them!" Killer lunged forward, yanking back the long shape in his hand. It was rounded, Lexi guessed some kind of baseball bat. Only way she would find out is if it hit her, which she wasn't keen on letting happen. So, she jumped to her full height, holding up the long handle of her scythe and letting his bat knock against it. The noise created made Lexi think the bat was made out of wood. "You didn't come here to be a hero! Not because you thought it might bring back mommy and daddy! Definitely not to make Jade happy!"
"Fuck! You!" Lexi snarled, sliding her scythe in her hands and swinging its curved blade out towards The Killer's head. He didn't bother jumping away, instead just tilting his head and letting the metal slice across his cheek. The blood that spilled from this wound only reflected the little moonlight for a moment, before Killer's tongue slipped past his lips and wiped it away.
"You're here to kill me because you want to kill! You're here because your evil little soul demands blood!" Fearlessly Killer stomped forward, and with one powerful arm he shoved Lexi's scythe to the side. In the same motion, he swung his free fist in a brutal jab at her face. "Just like mine!"
"Agh-!" Lexi cried out, her face scrunching reflexively to the pain that exploded out across the front of her skull. With the vicious strike of his knuckles, The Killer sent cracks exploding through the plastic masking her face. Her head was thrown backwards and her body followed, his punch sending her flinging back through the air. She sailed for a few feet, before her back struck the filthy tile floor and she slid for a few more.
"Teenagers... So rebellious." Killer rolled his glowing red eyes while he sauntered through the shadows towards Lexi, who propped herself up on her elbows, resting one hand over her crumbling mask. And he smiled at the sight of her there, scooting back towards the moonlight that shun through the dusty windows behind her. Patting the wood of his baseball bat against his hand, he continued to release his wretched voice. "Then again... I guess you didn't have any parents to teach you better, did you?"
"W-... What the fuck is wrong with you..?" Lexi stared up at him with some mix of fear and confusion, one hand pulling her body back away from the murderer wandering closer and one hand wrapped around her scythe, which now dragged and scrapped across the floor. "Why are you doing this..?!"
"Because. I. Can." The Killer leaned forward as he spoke, and in the darkness his body almost looked like it stretched. Loomed, grew and overtook the air above Lexi's head. He was a mortal man, she had made him bleed, but in The Dark... Lexi's pupils shrunk with horror in her eyes, and new streams of tears streaked down her cheeks beneath her mask. The Killer's voice was a monstrous rumble, a freakish low. "The rules of this world weren't made for people like you and I, Lexi. We are capable of so much more!"
"I'm nothing like you..!" Lexi snarled in her cracking voice, slashing haphazardly up at the shadow looming over her. But it shifted and misted in the dark, and her blade went through nothing but air. Those scarlet eyes just bulged wider, and in the dim moonlight the pearly whites of his teeth reflected. A brutal grin shredded up his lips, revealing his many fangs and how happy he was to bare them.
"Oh don't say things like that! You're so close to the right answer!" Lexi's eyes darted up to the baseball bat that The Killer yanked up over his head, and further panic rose in her heart. She should have known how to get back to her feet, how to disarm him, how to win. She trained for this, she should have known everything she needed to know... So where did that information go? Why couldn't she move? It was those eyes and their freakish stare, they paralyzed her in The Dark. "Do I have to spell it out for you?!"
In a jolting motion, Lexi suddenly yanked the gun from her hip. She pointed it up towards him with a shaky hand, but he swung his bat before she could force her stiff finger to pull the trigger. With a crack, pain shot up Lexi's arm and sent her gun flinging out into the darkness, The Killer's bat swatting her hand aside.
Lexi only wasted a moment watching her gun fling into the shadows, before thoughtlessly scrambling to escape. She first flipped over onto her hands and knees, shamelessly crawling a few steps away before shoving her body up onto her feet. She was only able to take a few more steps however before Killer effortlessly reached out, grabbing a handful of the cloak that trailed behind her in his iron grip. This forced her to a whiplash stop, making her choke out. "Agh-!"
"Jade did a good job giving you a skillset, but she poisoned you with her cowardice." The smile faded from Killer's lips while he pulled Lexi back. He shifted his footing, pivoting and spinning while he ripped her off her feet with one arm. He pulled her up into the air over his head with monstrous strength, pivoting his entire body 360 degrees before releasing his grip and throwing Lexi in the direction she'd been trying to escape to.
She screamed as she flung through the air, before the wind was knocked from her lungs as she collided spine first with the concrete pillar separating two sets of windows. Lexi dropped right to the floor after that impact, her scythe dropped in her flight and laying useless out of her reach. With The Killer's footsteps getting closer, she laid there on her side, gasping to get air back in her lungs and blinking teary eyes. Her cracked mask had slid partially off of her face, revealing one of her distant cyan eyes. Her cloak was a bundled up mess beneath her, and a black strand of hair drooped around her face.
"I was hoping I'd only ever have to beat one of you kids within an inch of your life..." Killer muttered while he wandered closer, shaking his head like he was disappointed. He patted the wood of his stolen baseball bat against his hand, stepping into the light that shined through the windows behind Lexi. The shadows hissed and slithered off of his body, but that was fine. He could do the next part on his own. "But, this rebellious phase has to end one way or another."
With one lightless eye Lexi watched him reach her. His shadow fell over her, his red eyes gleamed with manic delight. But, she just laid there, hopeless. If she couldn't kill him then her life had been worthless. Years of work, skills mastered just to be forgotten. Jade was right, there was no killing him. No stopping him. No saving anyone.
"Don't worry, brat. I'm not gonna kill all of you." The Killer lifted that bat over his head, and his iron grip tightened around its handle. His frown dug deeper into his face while those soulless eyes went wide in his skull. "Just the parts I think are fuckin' annoying."
Lexi shut her eyes tight. She laid there, tensed her body, and prepared for the first strike. No strength to run, no hope to escape, weak and paralyzed and afraid. Just waiting for this pain to end.
CRASH!
Lexi's eyes snapped open wide, darting up to the sound of glass shattering. The window behind her had exploded apart, and through it, Jade launched foot fist. She smashed her heel into Killer's pointed nose, his wide eyes clenching shut just before the force of her kick sent him sailing head first into the shadows. A spurt of blood from his nostrils followed close behind, splattering on the filthy tiles and glimmering in the moonlight. Jade landed crouched, sliding a few inches before standing to her full height and proclaiming loudly. "Keep your dirty hands off'a my daughter!"
"H-... Huh..?" Lexi gradually lifted her head, reaching up with one hand and slowly pulling the mask from her face. Suddenly that hopeless feeling had faded away. That paralysis, that fear had been washed away. Her senses returned, and she winced some as she began pushing herself up off the floor. "M-... Mom..?"
"Aww, aren't you two cute?" The Killer's voice echoed from the shadows, and Jade's violet eyes narrowed furiously into The Dark. The glowing red of his brutal stare appeared in the shadows, and he sauntered to the edge of the moonlight. The pitter patter of his blood hitting the floor was a new sound, and even though he was grinning, when his face next appeared there was blood streaming from his awkwardly bent nose. "Jade, I'm so proud of you. You found the strength to care about someone other than yourself!"
"... You're slow, Ghoul." Jade pulled her 9mm pistol from her waist with one hand, opening the other at her side. From her sleeve a small handle dropped, and she skillfully caught it in her grasp. With one thumb she pushed in the button near the end of the handle, and a long and pointed blade darted from the switchblade. "You were right; you have gotten old."
"And yet there you are. Pointing your gun at a beat up old man." The Killer smiled through the blood soaked white of his goatee, tilting his head and standing fearlessly on the hurty end of Jade's barrel. "You gonna try and kill me this time, cowgirl? Or are you gonna scrape your brat off the ground and run away again?"
"M-mom, I... I'm sorry..." Lexi forced herself up onto one knee, wiping blood from the corner of her mouth and tear stains from her cheeks. Jade didn't turn around to look at her however, keeping her trained eyes on the looming monstrosity before her. "I, I didn't mean... I didn't want this..."
"It's okay, baby. Everything is gonna be alright." Jade spoke with care, despite the stern look she was giving The Killer. He didn't move, so she didn't either. She knew how he functioned, after all. He would let her talk, listen until he got bored. As much as he loved killing, he loved playing with those he deemed his victims a little more. Jade figured that was where he and this son of his differed. "Don't worry. I won't let anything happen to you."
... My last mom said that, too.
Lexi's eyes went wide, pupils shrinking within them. Just like that, she was the girl in the alley again. Scared and confused, staring up at her parent for guidance. For protection. She trembled, her face went pale. It was sickening, the idea that she was just as weak now as she had been then. That after years of work, blood sweat and tears... All for nothing. All to be here, once again. Lexi choked, "... Don't."
"Lexi." Hearing the desperation in her voice, Jade glanced over her shoulder to send a caring look her daughter's way. It wasn't enough to quell her fears though, the heartbreaking sight of Lexi's mortified expression was proof enough of that.
"Don't, p-please..." Lexi whispered through the lump in her throat, shaking her head as tears built in the corners of her eyes. Not again, please god not again. Not her, anyone but her! "Please, d-don't tell me to run..! Don't tell me to hide!"
Jade recoiled visibly at those words, her eyebrows furrowing painfully and her eyes glimmering with care. She frowned gently at the sight of her daughter and the sound of her pleas. It was obvious now that she should have made more of an effort, addressed the trauma and the isolation and the pain of abandonment. But instead, she had focused on making Lexi physically strong. Preparing her to run like she had been running her entire life. And there was no time now, no way to go back and add therapy to her curriculum. Now, all she could do was offer what words she had, and pray that someday, they would be enough.
"Please!" Lexi screamed, clenching her eyes shut tight and lowering her head. Tears ran in cold streams down her cheeks, dripped down the bridge of her nose and to the unforgiving floor. Her hands clenched into fists, and she slammed them pathetically against the tiles in a display of her indignation. "Don't make me wait for you! Not if you aren't coming back! Don't make me wait!"
"LEXI!" Jade suddenly shouted out into the night. She lowered her head, clenched her jaw. The shadows slipped over her eyes, hid whatever guilt might have lurked within them. And her hands gripped her gun and her knife as tight as they could, knuckles going white. "DON'T WAIT!"
Lexi lifted her head at the sound of Jade's voice, shaken suddenly from the screaming agony in her head. Tears flecked from her face with the speed that she lifted her head, and she stared in awe up at Jade's back. She stood so tall there, between her and certain death. Fearless, unshakeable. Could Lexi ever be like that? Had Jade ever been like that before that very moment..?
"Don't run, don't hide, and never wait for anyone!" Jade lifted her head, glaring directly into the curious eyes of The Killer. She shouted words that she wished someone would have said to her decades ago, right into the face of her tormentor for the ears of a young mind that he had tried to poison. But she wouldn't let that happen. Even if it killed her, she would keep Lexi safe from his venom. "You don't need to be afraid of people like him and you don't need to wait for someone like me to come save you!"
"B-but... But I..." Lexi didn't understand, not then. She just stared, bewildered and trying to process Jade's words. Suddenly, she found herself wondering about those days waiting in the rain. She pondered, had she ever been waiting for her parents to save her?
Or was I just waiting for the strength to save myself?
"Oh you two are just so cruel. Flaunting your beautiful parental relationship in front of my sad orphan eyes." Despite his words, Killer was smiling ear to ear. Of course he was giddy, Jade had done her job. Set his daughter in a unique role and on a level playing field with her three brothers. Sure, her supportive and positive words were in direct conflict with the deranged woman he was trying to build, but that didn't matter. Surely, Lexi would forget everything Jade had ever told her in the grief of losing her.
I didn't.
"Remember what I said, Lexi." Jade smiled lovingly right in the face of The Killer, like he wasn't even there. And that wiped the smile off his face, replaced it with an irritable frown. He'd never seen that in his adult life, after all. He wasn't sure he'd seen it in his childhood. Someone looking at him without seeing him... Did she not know how dangerous he was? How important he was? Who he was?! She must not have, because even as he snarled and yanked back his bat, Jade continued to speak. "You're gonna do great."
Just like that, Jade was in motion. She leaned back and ducked away from The Killer's brutal swing, before darting forward and swiping at stunning speed with her switchblade. A tear ripped across Killer's abdomen, from one side of his waist to the opposite side of his chest. Then, Jade jammed the barrel of her gun against his chin, but he managed to jump back just as her finger pulled the trigger, the bullet blasting up through nothing but air.
Fearlessly, Jade lunged into the inky darkness after The Killer, and Lexi's eyes went wide as she watched the two of them disappear. Jaw clenching, she pushed her aching body to move. Stumbling to her feet, she shambled forward, arm swiping down to grab her scythe from the floor while she went. "W-wait, mom..!"
Crashes and clangs, dings and bangs. The occasional flare of light along with the bang of Jade's gun. But it was so dark, and they were moving so fast.
Lexi stumbled over random items and garbage strewn about. She tripped once or twice, scraped her body against broken tiles and rough surfaces that she couldn't see. All while she ran after sounds that she wasn't really listening to. Conversation, harsh words that were muffled in her ears.
"... People I've killed..."
"... Never kept..."
"... I Did..."
"... Love you for..."
Every few moments, punctuated by the loud pop of Jade's gun. Up stairs, across walkways, through doors. The occasional window would caste light onto the droplets of blood that The Killer had been dripping, and that would always guide Lexi onto the right path. She thought, anyway. But who knew how many times she got turned around in The Dark, how many circles she ran in before finally reaching one last staircase.
Light shined from the open doorway at the stairway's peak. The moon loomed in the sky, and she could see it through the rectangular opening that she was racing towards. Blood was dripped over the steps, but that was okay. It was his, not hers. The gunshot she'd heard when she reached the stairs and the deafening silence that had followed, her mother had won. The Killer was defeated, he had to be. Everything was going to be okay.
I remember it feeling like those steps went on forever.
Lexi panted with exhaustion, and cold sweat poured down her brow. But, despite anxiety's grip on her, hope still glimmered in her eyes. All the way up the steps, until the rooftop came into view. But, as it did, that hope faded out. In its place was dismay. Because as her head rose out from the stairway, the first thing she could see was a body laid out across the rooftop. And it wasn't the one she'd been hoping for.
There, across the rooftop, Jade laid against the side of a metal vent. She was slouched, head hanging forward. Completely motionless. Her legs sprawled out in front of her, her arms limp at her sides. On the ground a few feet in front of her laid her gun, dirtied with a bloody hand print that couldn't have been Jade's. And from her lowered head, red streams trickled down onto her chest.
"... No. No no no..." Lexi whispered, half to refute this reality and half to hear something, anything in the night's soundless void. The city was silent after all, no one wanted to make a peep knowing that The Killer was lurking in the shadows. No one but Lexi, who had sought out Fortune City's devil and challenged him to a duel. But she had lost, and because of that she had to pay with something much worse than her own life. Lexi heard her voice, but she didn't remember trying to speak. "What did he do to you..?"
"This... This is my fault. Please, it... It was supposed to be me..!" Lexi rushed forward, past the gun on the ground and to the side of her lifeless mother. She didn't remember giving out the order for her limbs to move, didn't remember feeling the ground under her feet. Everything was in a fog, nothing made sense. Her heart pounded in agony after dropping into her stomach, making her nauseous. But there was no way any vomit would get past the lump in her throat, her own voice was having trouble as she reached with shaky hands out towards Jade's rapidly chilling body. But she was afraid to touch it, afraid to feel what warmth she had fade away. Afraid to feel her body go stiff, afraid to feel anything that was left of her slip away through her fingers. "Please, mom..! Wake up!"
There was a red splat on the vent behind her. She wasn't gonna wake up.
"Not again! This can't be happening again!" Tears overflowed down Lexi's cheeks, and her desire to cling on to whatever remained of her mother overpowered the fear of feeling her fade away. So, she reached out, wrapping her arms around Jade's shoulders and yanking her limp body into her arms. Jade's head rested against Lexi's shoulder, and she clenched her eyes shut so she wouldn't have to see the blood that leaked over her. Stained her hands and her shoulder while she clung to this corpse. Her cracking and broken voice screamed out through her sobbing. "This isn't fair... This isn't fair..!"
...
Don't wait. That was what Jade had told her. That she could survive on her own, that her life was her own. But if that were true, why did this hurt so bad? She was clutching that corpse wishing that it would hug her back, sobbing and wailing with no one to hear her. Didn't Jade get it? Did Lexi have to spell it out for her? "You were everything to me..! Everything..!"
... When I started telling this story, I said I wished my mom had left me a note. And, if you hadn't guessed it by now, the one who died in that alley wasn't the mom I was talking about.
Across the rooftop, behind the concrete shack that held up the door to the stairwell, The Killer leaned his back against the wall. He tried his best to gasp for air quietly, because if that wailing brat heard him now there would be no escape. Blood soaking his pantleg just above his knee, he gripped the bullet wound Jade had left him as tightly as his powerful hands would allow to slow the bleeding. His free hand wrapped its fingers around the opposite arm's bicep, wherein Jade's switchblade was still lodged.
In the moonlight, it was obvious how beat up his pale body really was. Old wounds were scarred over, slashes and bullet holes that hadn't healed right. They were contrasted by new wounds, slashes across his chest from Jade's switchblade and bullet holes in his leg and arm from her gun. There were stripes carved into his arms by her blade, and blood still dripped from the nose that she'd shattered. But, what stung the worst was the cut Lexi had left in his cheek and the gash along the side of his head where her bullet had grazed. Because, unlike Jade, he wouldn't be able to kill her if she found him now. So, he had to sit there and hide from the teenage girl wailing and sobbing on the other side of the roof.
I didn't really know what to do after that. I mean, where do you go after your world ends? I knelt there and cried until my head hurt and my throat ached from screaming. Then, begrudgingly, I left. Wandered back down the steps, didn't look for the Ghoul. Just went right down the steps, grabbed my gun and went out the front door of the mall. Jade's body was too heavy and awkward to carry with me, and where would I have taken her? Not like I had the money or the knowledge to get her buried somewhere. I guess the police found her body the next morning after investigating all the gun shots. Sometime later that month I went in and identified her body, and as the closest thing to a next of kin, I got her ashes. But, that's not really important.
Hidden beneath her cloak, Lexi wandered aimlessly down the street. She probably should have went home, tried to get some sleep. She had been out all night after all, the sky was lightening up and the sun was starting to appear over the horizon. For once, it wasn't an overcast morning. Just a few clouds floated in the sky overhead, Lexi could actually see some of the blue. That didn't matter though, because Jade would never see it.
I didn't wanna go home. I didn't wanna go anywhere. So I just wandered, hidden in my blood stained cloak and behind my cracked skull mask.
Eventually, when her aching feet demanded it, Lexi let herself rest. She took a seat at a bench beside the sidewalk, one that faced out towards the river running through Fortune City. The water was a murky green, and the guard rails were rusty and missing in some places. Past those broken rails was jagged stones and some sand before the shore.
Lexi didn't notice until a few minutes after she sat down, but when she looked out past the railing, she could see someone kneeling by the water. Bowing their head into the dusty green, sinking their hands into the filth to presumably wash something dirtier away. And she squinted her red and irritated eyes with exhaustion and confusion, until she was able to identify this stranger.
... This was the second time I ever met him. He was different from before, but I didn't run this time.
A head of white hair lifted from the river, and The Anarchist exhaled through his red tinted teeth while blood stained water dripped down his chin. With crimson chunks still under his finger nails, he reached up, pushing the now soggy strands of white hair out of his face. Then, he grabbed the filth caked crowbar from the shore beside him and climbed to his feet.
And Lexi watched him with exasperated eyes, not flinching when she registered his white hair, pale flesh, or even those glowing red eyes. She just sat there, unmoving on the bench, staring at this familiar albino. He looked a lot like The Killer, of course, but she had just seen him a few hours ago. Whoever this other pasty murderer was, he was a few inches shorter and missing facial hair. Not to mention his nose was a little different, and of course there was no gash in his cheek from Predator's scythe.
Lexi didn't bother thinking about what this meant. Another albino, whatever. Another killer, whatever. Jade was dead. What did it matter? Jade was dead. So, she didn't run and she didn't hide and she didn't yank the scythe off her back when Anarchy stumbled back up those rocks and onto the safe side of the railing. She didn't flinch when his strange scarlet eyes noticed her there, and she didn't react when he tilted his head curiously and furrowed his white brows. Then... He smiled. "... Well, hi there Miss Murder."
Lexi didn't respond. She just sat there, motionless. Staring at him with unfeeling eyes. She didn't care if he attacked her, she didn't care if she died. Her world had ended, Jade was dead. She didn't want to go home and she didn't want to keep wandering. This was as fitting an end as any. But, Anarchy didn't attack her. Didn't even prowl like he was hunting her. Instead, he just took casual steps forward. Walked right up to the bench, and plopped down in the seat beside her. "You're not about to say that I actually just drowned and died in the river, right? This ain't some Twilight Zone bullshit is it?"
I, think he thought I was Death. With the cloak and the mask and the scythe, I guess it kinda made sense. I also learned later that for the weeks where he was eating people on the streets he was hallucinating all the time. Of course seeing me there like that threw him off, he was completely insane back then.
"... No." Fuck it, just go with it. That's what Lexi was thinking. She didn't have anything better to do. Cosplaying Death and talking to a serial killer was more fun than going back to an empty home. She would have thought the confirmation that he was still alive would have cheered Anarchy up, but it didn't. He just scoffed, leaning one arm over the back of the bench and slouching back into it.
"... Yeah. I figured." He muttered, lifting up and looking at his crusty crowbar in the morning light. His uneven madman eyes squinted at it like they were perceiving something beyond or beneath Lexi's comprehension. "Y'know, I hit people with this and they go to you. I kill people and they die. But when people hit me I get back up. You never take me. Why is that?"
"No idea." Another flat answer. Lexi didn't look at him, just stared straight ahead at the river. What it must have been like to float away, leave this place and disappear down the stream. But it might not be any better over there. Anarchy huffed at her answer, but didn't press for details.
"That's alright. Nobody around here wants me either." He let his crowbar drop back to his side, leaning his head back on the bench. His dirty, scraggly hair overflowed onto the wood. Lexi didn't feel any pity for the lonely cannibal. Lexi didn't feel anything. He turned his head towards her, "It gets lonely bein' the one that doesn't die, don't it Miss Murder?"
"..." Lexi's eyes narrowed painfully beneath her mask. Her hands clenched onto the knees of her jeans, her jaw tightened... But then she let it go. She didn't want to cry again, she didn't bother poking at the bleeding wound in her heart. "... Yeah."
Things were quiet for a minute or two. They just sat there, watching the river run from separate pairs of eyes. The sun rise, the clouds shift. It was odd, but it wasn't uncomfortable. Nothing really felt like anything, but on some level Lexi enjoyed being around someone else, even someone as vile as The Anarchist. He didn't know her, didn't have any concept of the life she'd lived the sin she'd committed or the tragedy she'd suffered. Just a stranger on a bench. After another minute, Anarchy spoke up again. "Y'know, it's funny. I actually did always kinda imagine you'd be a lady."
"... Yeah?" Lexi glanced over to him from her eye's corner, but he couldn't see it. He had a bit more of her attention, she let him draw some of her focus away from the weight of her brutal reality. "And why's that?"
"Because I think you're pretty, but I don't understand you." Anarchy answered simply, not taking his eyes off the river before them or the light it reflected and twisted in its murk. He just shamelessly let words overflow, said what he wanted and existed as he pleased.
"... Heh." Lexi let her lips curl up just a little, in a bittersweet kind of smile. What a weird thing to say. What a screwball individual. She figured whoever he was, he must've lived a pretty miserable life too if it lead him here, onto the same bench as her. "That's quite a pickup line."
"Well, they always say I'm a lady killer." Anarchy smirked lightly, letting out his own amused scoff while he tilted his head back. Watched a cloud pass over, noticed what few stars were left blink out into the growing blue of the sky.
"Yeah?" Lexi looked over to him, almost forgetting that she was wearing the mask and flashing him an intrigued smile. Didn't matter that he was wet with river water and stank like sweat and blood, he was the first pleasant stranger she had met in a long time. "And who's 'they', exactly?"
"Bah." Anarchy waved a dismissive hand, faking a disapproving frown. But then, unable to help himself, he glanced over to her. Turned his head just enough for her to see that frown creep up into a little smile. "Police officers and news reporters, mostly."
...
Things were quiet for about three seconds. And then... Lexi snerked. Anarchy smiled just a little wider. She snerked again, and he returned it. Then, suddenly, the two burst into laughter. What an awful, off color joke. It was so stupid and far from being funny, it must've brought itself full circle in Lexi's head. Because there she sat, giggling and cackling with a mad cannibal. She'd been hysterical, feeling everything and nothing. Anything could have set her off to feel any particular emotion, and yet it was Anarchy's tone deaf joke about homicide that sent her into a laughing fit.
For minutes they sat there, wheezing and howling with laughter until their stomachs hurt. Slapping knees, stomping feet. Sometimes their laughing would die down to a light giggle, and then one of them would start laughing harder and pull the other in again. If Lexi hadn't known any better she might've thought it had went on for hours. Happy tears streaked down her cheeks, tracing the same lines that the miserable ones had left earlier.
Anarchy doesn't really remember that morning, I don't think. I'm sure all those weird experiences and hallucinations just kinda blend together for him. And, that's probably a good thing. But I remember that morning. And, for some reason... It means a lot to me.
Eventually though, the laughing did stop. And Lexi and Anarchy sat there, quietly sighing and sucking air to sooth their aching abdomens. They didn't really speak again after that, just sat there at ease with one another's presence. And, as the sun fully lifted from the horizon and the clouds began to roll in again, Lexi thought it might be time for her to go. People would be out again soon, and she didn't need strangers seeing her dressed like a reaper and covered in blood.
And when Lexi looked over to say her goodbyes to the wretched young man beside her, her eyebrows lifted beneath her mask. Anarchy's head laid back, his eyes shut tight and his mouth hanging open. His chest lifted slowly with his sleeping breaths, and it was only then that Lexi noticed the bags under his eyes. Maybe she could feel pity for such a miserable creature, if only for a moment.
Standing up, she glanced around to make sure no one had already seen the two. Luckily, most of Fortune City's populace was likely to hide inside until it was its absolute brightest out so long as the Ivory Ghoul was going bump in the night. Not seeing anyone, she slowly reached up and lowered her hood, letting her long black hair spill down over her shoulders. Then, she reached back, fumbling for and finding the string that wrapped around the back of her head, keeping her mask on her face.
She hesitantly pulled the mask off her face, narrowing her cyan eyes down at the exhausted face of The Anarchist. He really didn't look like The Killer when he slept. The way he breathed, the emaciation he was struck with and the way his eyebrows twitched painfully every time he took a deep breath. And she couldn't get him a doctor, couldn't heal whatever was hurting him, nor did she want to. He was a murderer, and in his veins pumped the same blood as the man who murdered her mother. But, she felt he had done her a kindness. One that she ought to return.
Carefully, Lexi leaned forward. Reaching out with that mask in hand, she gently settled it over his face. The one way black cloth that lined the inside of the mask and covered the eye holes would hide away the glowing red of his, and the mask itself covered the pasty white of his face. She pulled the string around the back of his head, securing the mask in place before taking hold of Anarchy's hood. His filthy hoodie had stains and tears, but the hood would be enough to hide the ivory of his long hair. She pulled the hood up, carefully tucking every wayward strand of hair into it.
If anyone found Anarchy out cold on the bench, they'd no doubt mistake him for the Ghoul and have him arrested or worse. And even though he was a Killer and a menace to society, I wouldn't let that happen. At least, not that day. I owed him that.
Lexi stepped away from Anarchy's sleeping form, watching him carefully to make sure he didn't awake. Who knew what he would do now, seeing her as another person and not as the grim reaper. But he didn't stir, must have been exhausted. So, she took one last look to make sure the mask was on right the hood was up correctly and that crowbar wasn't visible from where Anarchy had hidden it up his sleeve. And once she was certain he didn't look like a Killer at first glance, she left him on that bench to rest.
Well, that's the end of the part of the story almost nobody but me knows. But, as the lovely audience should know by now, there's still about two and a half years between losing Jade and ending up in Undertale. Two and a half years where me and three other screwed up kids get into some real funny business.
The cellar steps creaked, and Lexi groaned. She was exhausted, her blood soaked cloak balled up under her arm and her scythe leaning awkwardly where it was strapped on her back. She was glad to just be somewhere she could sleep, even if Jade's basement would no doubt be painfully lonely without her. It was okay, she could pick up the pieces. Make this home her own, use the skills Jade had taught her to get by. There was life beyond last night, that is what the morning had shown her.
Click!
Suddenly, light flared in the basement, and Lexi about jumped out of her skin. Her wide cyan eyes darted in a panic to the lamp that had turned on without warning, before running up the arm that still reached out for its switch. A stupid hopeful part of her brain hoped it would be Jade, and a stupid pessimistic part of her brain thought it would be The Killer. But it wasn't either of them.
Sitting in one of the chairs in her living room - the same room that just twelve hours ago Jade and Lexi had giddily been discussing their future in - with his hand on the lamp was Xander The Gatherer. Perfectly comfortable, arms resting on the chair and body just slightly sunken into the cushion, like he was comfortable in a stranger's home.
And he opened his mouth to speak, but before he could get a word out, Lexi's gun was drawn from her hip and pointed at him. Her eyes narrowed with murderous fury; now was not the time and she was not in the mood. Hadn't sleep all night, had went through the worst tragedy of her life, and hadn't even gotten to kill the fucking Ghoul. Now she was gonna have to put a bullet hole in her favorite chair and clean blood out of her rug.
"Now now!" Xander spoke hastily, holding his hands up over his head to indicate that he was not a threat. Outside of that, he did not move. Perfectly still and perfectly calm, his perfect smile slowly crept up his face. And Lexi furrowed her brows, ignoring the tired pleas from her exhausted mind body and soul for just a moment. Xander's smile widened, and he shifted his head some, turning the other cheek to further prove his innocence and raising his eyebrows like he was getting ready to pitch some idea.
"... Hear me out."
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