'Hyaaa! How's THAT, nerd?'

Susie thrust her palms outward, releasing the magical energy gathered there into a luminant green sphere. Then, with a soul-curdling roar, she launched the ball outwards, directly towards Ralsei. It struck him full-force in the chest, exploding into a shower of green fireworks that lit up the room with an eerie glow.

'Yeah! Direct hit!' she called out, pumping her fist.

The prince sniffed, taking stock of the aftermath. Three hitpoints this time. She was definitely improving.

'I... can't help but feel like we need to work on your, um... temperament, Susie,' he said with a weary smile. 'For a healer, it's a little... well... adverserial.'

'You mean AWESOME!' she shot back. ''Sides, I gotta put everything I have into it, else what's the point?'

Ralsei considered this. 'Erm, yes... that... makes sense! I-in any case, you're really making progress with your healing - I'm very proud of you, Susie!'

This unfettered praise threw the dragoness, and she turned her back to him, running a claw through her tangled mane. 'Y-yeah, whatever dude... Heh... y'know, I'll be a better healer than you one day!'

To her irritation, he only seemed happier to hear that, clapping his hands together excitedly. 'I'm certain you will! I can't wait to see you reach your potential!'

Her smug grin fell slightly. 'Y'know, dude, when someone makes fun of you, you're not supposed to- ahh, forget it.'

She threw herself on the floor with a harrumph, nodding to the side to indicate Ralsei should join her. He set himself gently down opposite her, propped on his knees in a very prim manner befitting a prince.

'I'd kill for some more of that cotton candy they had back in Cyber City,' said Susie after a short while. 'That was the good stuff, all neon pink and fluffy like a cloud... remember that, Ralsei?'

He nodded enthusiastically. 'Of course! It sure was yummy, wasn't it? I can see if-'

'Yeah, and that time I saved you from gettin' pancaked by all them cars?'

'Haha, yes... I do recall that,' he said, turning his head away slightly. 'Although... well, as I remember it, it was you that tripped me in the first place...'

'It was a JOKE, man!' she grunted. 'I wouldn't have actually let you... y'know.'

'Haha, it's okay.'

Yes, he did know she'd never let anything bad happen to him. That's... just the sort of person Susie was. And it wasn't like he was ever in any real danger, anyway.

Even if it actually had happened like she remembered it.

'You ok, dude?' said Susie, tapping Ralsei's head with a hooked claw. 'You seem a little bit... lost?'

The prince turned to her with a reassuring smile. 'Oh, no, I'm alright! I was just, um. Thinking about how funny memories can be, sometimes.'

'...what, like funny ha-ha, or...?'

''No, more like... how two people can remember the same thing differently. Almost like there's two versions of it that happened. Does... that make any sense?'

Susie contemplated this for a moment. 'That's deep stuff, man. Like, can we ever know if we ever see the same thing the same way?'

The prince's eyes widended. 'Susie, you...'

'Like the cotton candy,' she went on. 'When I look at it, it's pink, right? But what if you saw it as, like... green, or somethin'?'

Ralsei raised a finger in weak protest. 'Well, it'd be green then... w-wouldn't it...?'

'No, see! You'd SEE green, but you'd still CALL it pink!' The dragoness gestured excitedly towards him, waving her arms erratically to underscore her assertion. 'So your ACTUAL green might look like blue to me, an' all the other colours would be swapped around and stuff! Ain't that crazy, Ralsei?'

'B-but how would either of us, um...' he started, but then gave up attempting to argue. Susie's enthusiasm was starting to rub off on him, and he smiled warmly at how much she was enjoying the discussion. '...yeah, that would be something to see, alright.'

'Hell yeah it would!' she said. 'Like, I think I just make a new scientific discovery or something, you know? Hey, maybe Kris and I could make it the topic of our group project? That'd be SICK!'

'Haha, it certainly would be!' said Ralsei warmly. 'But... all this talk of cotton candy has made me awfully hungry. Shall I get us some more to eat before we resume training?'

'Whuh...?' Susie grumbled, forehead furrowed with thought.

'You, um... didn't forget we were training... did you?'

'I, uh, NO,' she lied.

'...okay,' said Ralsei. 'I'll be right back then! Did you want pink or green flavour?'

The dragoness looked up at him to see he was sticking out his tongue and winking. She snorted and turned away, but couldn't completely hide her goofy grin from him.

'Smartass,' she said. '...but, uh, thanks man. It's... been a blast hangin' out with you.'

Ralsei's smile went all wobbly. 'Aww, Susie! That's so sweet!'

Her head snapped towards him, teeth bared. 'YEAH YEAH DON'T MILK IT OKAY?'

'Y-yes, sorry!' he laughed, skipping away with a spring.

Once he was certain she couldn't see or hear him anymore, Ralsei clutched at his chest with both hands, his breathing laboured, and slumped against the nearby wall, its uneven brickwork harsh and grating against his back.

She... she really believed that, didn't she? That all they'd done was hang out, eat cotton candy, and practiced healing magic. And he was happy that she thought that, happy that she looked back on that time so fondly. It cracked his heart in two to think that.

He could imagine it like that, if he tried. Walking through the bustling streets, enduring her practical jokes, the sumptuously sweet taste and fibery, cloudlike texture of cotton candy. In fact, he wasn't entirely sure it didn't actually happen like that.

...but he knew that it didn't. He knew.

White space stretched out in his memory, so absolute and infinite that it was almost impossible to tell down from up. There he stood, frozen in this timeless limbo, gazing outward into oblivion with hands clasped firmly behind his back and a puppetlike rictus grin upon his face.

He could feel other presences in that void. Other Ralseis. One for each action he could take, frozen mid-pose like a morbid rogue's gallery. Each experiencing the exact same hell he was, each asking themselves the same question, and receiving exactly the same dead silence in response.

They were him, and he was them. He found that he could flick through their heads like pages of a flipbook, his body contorting to match their posture. Too slowly to simulate actual movement. Each Ralsei also had a name, though to call it a name was... strings of letters, numbers and dashes, incomprehensable to his feeble mind, like the language of calculating, unsentimental gods. Each called upon when needed, and returned like index cards when they'd served their purpose.

And somewhere else, he knew, was Susie. That lively, boisterous presence, larger-than-life, fragmented and scattered across this digital easel. Yet she did not know. He'd been aware of that, even before she'd confirmed it earlier. Her mind, unattuned as it was to the secrets of their world, had painted itself a sanctuary, a version of what could likely have happened in Kris's absence. A veneer of sanity stretched out across the blank canvas of cold, maddening reality.

All Ralsei knew for certain was that everything depended on the sight of their gods. To be regarded by them was to be permitted to exist, to move and act in accordance with the script you were given. But their viewpoint was tied to Kris... or more accurately, the shining red SOUL piloting Kris. Should anyone stray from their side, they and the world around them would vanish, banished to some primordial memory-scape until such a time as they were required for the continued functioning of the world.

But the gods were capricious beings, and did not always follow the rules they were supposed to. This moment was one of those times. Someone or something had called both he and Susie from that sea of tranquility, to serve some as-yet-unknown purpose. Was this in service of the prophecy? Or merely to sate their unknowable curiosity? The latter thought made the prince shudder. What hope had any of them, when subject to the whims of such unaccountable powers?

...yet such burdens were his to carry. He had known this from the moment of his inception. When viewed within the greater scope of his mission, when seen as trials to overcome, obstacles to test his conviction, such terrors loosened their grip upon his heart. He had conquered them before, and he could do so again. As many times as needed.

And in the meantime, there were friends to spend time with, and cotton candy to retrieve. And nothing, not even these nameless, unknowable entities, would stop Ralsei from being the best friend he could be to them.

...besides, Susie would probably yank his scarf if he took too long.

Author's Note:

Sometimes, having knowledge of game mechanics can work against you.

I remember a long time ago thinking that I'd like to write a fic about what Susie and Ralsei got up to during their time away from Kris in Cyber City. It'd be a cute, lighthearted exploration of their friendship, that perhaps would delve into Susie's motivations for wanting to learn healing magic, and show us Ralsei's character development in real time. And then I got bored and forgot about it.

Then, a bit later, I remembered about it and started drafting something up, except with a horrifying twist. I decided to riff off of the idea of memories (which has two meanings in this particular case), and this twisted little story was the result. I'm quite pleased with it, although it is a bit of a shame that anytime I try writing something even remotely wholesome, it gets twisted out of all recognition into something like... well, something like this.

One time, I really should try and write some actual straight fluff, huh?

...anyway, thanks for reading! I'll be back with more soon, so keep your eyes peeled :)