Chapter Text
I open my eyes in a black realm.
My body, still young as when I…
Kris was curled up in a corner. Angry and fearful of me. Like the first time we met.
I sit quietly in the corner, trying to dust myself off as I always did.
It never worked.
So, I played with the heart shaped locket and knife I somehow had here, fidgeting with them.
“Could you have always… resisted?” I pause as Kris speaks.
“Is that what you’re focusing on right now?” I shoot back.
“What else am I supposed to focus on, how you almost killed me? Twice?!”
“Oh you’d have been fine! We had a save right before you tried to slander me to Ralsei.” They huff before standing up, trying to look imposing.
“Why did you-” I shoot them down with a look. The dust on my body shivering as if it still remembers fear.
“Why did you lie about me?” Kris flinches back as I stand up.
Sure, I had the mental manifestation of a toddler, but I’m sure my LV was high enough to make them fear me, even in the state I were in.
Uncomfortable silence howls in the air as I look up at them.
“… It’s my body.” I stop breathing for a moment.
“Your body? YOUR BODY?! HAH…HAHA! HAHAHHA!” The world around me pulsed with red as Kris took a step back.
“DO YOU…” I take a deep breath, getting myself to stop yelling.
“Do you remember how we both met?” Somehow, I manage to be calm.
Kris shakes, but doesn’t reply.
“Do you remember when those humans killed you? And Dess? For daring to exit your- our little community? Do you remember when your soul shattered while they laughed. Do you remember, me waking up in your rotting vessel? Do you remember how you just wanted to go home after I brought you back? How you me promise to never speak of what happened? Letting poor Carol think her kid could still be out there, somewhere?” All of my composure is lost again as I breath in and out.
Memories of blood covering my hand, warm and sticky emerge from my mind.
“I NEVER WANTED TO KILL AGAIN! I NEVER WANTED TO HURT AGAIN! BUT YOU- YOU MADE ME! YOU BEGGED ME TO BRING YOU BACK! YOU MADE ME KILL THEM! HUNT THEM DOWN LIKE ANIMALS! YOU- YOU-” Dark veins appear in my red from a crack in the sky.
I calmed down as soon as I saw it, a familiar face peeking through, only visible to me as Kris shivered. The world finally settling into a dark, black abyss once more.
Chara was gone for now. I couldn’t… Wouldn’t let them come to this world as well. They deserved their rest.
“I… I thought I deserved it. To be alone. To forever be your slave, even if I could pilot your body, it was your body at the end of the day. And I never wanted to hurt you. I always listened. I-I-”
“You say you always listen to me, but you still did so many things even when I told I didn’t want to-” The world flashes a bright red and Kris groans, kneeling down.
“Shut. Up.” Kris looks up at me as I stand in-front of them.
“You died. Kris. That day, when the humans killed you and Dess, you were supposed to be my vessel. I let you be my cage instead. I convinced myself you deserved to live a full life. Let myself believe that I deserved no such kindness… I see now I was an idiot. Wasn’t I?” Kris’s expression changes as they try to back away from me.
I raise my knife. Watching with grim satisfaction as Kris tenses.
“I know, If I kill you or me, all our progress with Ralsei will be the gone. But it’s still so tempting to just… No. Goodnight, Kris. I hope it was worth it.” I lower my knife and step back to my corner. Curling up as I felt tears start to well in my eyes.
I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of hearing me cry though.
>> -- >>
I open my eyes to Ralsei looming over me.
Almost instantly, an idea comes to mind.
“o-Oh! You’re awake!” He smiles kindly as he looks at me.
I stay quiet for a moment, sensing Kris in the back of my mind.
“How long was I unconscious?”
“j-Just under an hour. I was getting worried-” I hug Ralsei, tightly.
He stops, then hugs me back.
“I’m glad you’re okay. Both of you.” He comments as I nuzzle his face.
“… Did you tell Susie?” He nods.
“Kind of? I still don’t know what exactly is going on with you, Stem, s-So I just told her that you and Kris were separate beings.”
“Thank you.” Ralsei nods again, and I stay quiet as I hug him.
I ignore Kris’s feelings as I speak again.
“Can we… Do that again?”
“d-Do what?”
“Fuse.”
“Oh.” Ralsei thinks for a moment.
“w-Well, I-I can’t really… I don’t know why my body thought you were a dead soul when Kris was still alive. And it’s very draining on me to fuse with you… But if you want, I can, absorb you for a bit? i-If my body still thinks you’re a free soul.”
“What’s the difference?” I let go of Ralsei and sit on the bed, listening to him speak.
“i-I uh, well, see, Fusion, is when a monster and human soul fuse their powers. It’s draining on both souls, and can’t be maintained, but absorption? It’s kinda l-Like me taking you and placing you next to my soul without letting you touch. Normal monsters can do it, and Darkeners… If they can absorb the soul of lighteners…” I tilt my head, but Ralsei shakes his.
“n-Nevermind! k-Kris is still alive, and they need their soul. So we really shouldn’t-” I tear my hand into my chest, watching as Ralsei gasp.
“St-Stem?!” I hold out my soul and hand it Ralsei.
Kris doesn’t do anything as they regain control.
“i-I… Okay, Stem. i-I’ll try.” Slowly, Ralsei grabs me and holds me over their chest.
Once again, I’m able to see through Ralsei’s eyes.
Our souls were together inside him. Unfused, but fine.
I could see Kris’s expression from here too, slightly guilty, very distraught, and conflicted.
Good. They deserve to feel like shit after everything.
Ralsei looks down at his chest, shivering a little before looking up at Kris quietly.
The two stare at each other awkwardly for a moment.
“w-Well, I’ll go talk to Susie with Stem now… goodbye, Kris.” They just nod as Ralsei shuffles out of the room.
‘Can you hear me, Ralsei?’ I ask, unsure of he could since we weren’t fused. He pauses mid-step before continuing.
‘Yes. I-I can hear you.’ He ‘speaks’ with his soul.
I couldn’t help but feel myself become a little warmer at his voice.
‘Even here, you can’t help but stutter, huh? Cute.’
‘i-I- Huh?!’ I could feel our face turning red.
‘… Is there a reason, you wanted me to absorb you? I-I mean, not that I mind! I’m just… curious.’ I do the soul equivalent of a nod.
‘Just wanted to test something out.’ As we leave the castle, I see a save point outside.
Ralsei seems to pause as he sees it too.
“Huh? What’s this?” He speaks out loud as he hesitantly approaches the sparkle.
‘A save point.’
“Stem? You know what this is?”
‘Reach out a hand, Ralsei.’ It felt weird not being able to control our actions, but I didn’t mind.
Ralsei reached out a hand, and a familiar save menu appeared.
All of my and Kris’s saves appeared before him. A ridiculous ‘play time’ amounting to ten years, and three slots for every chapter, and then tree chapters for every year before the chapters were a thing.
‘Thank god every year we get three new slots.’
Before entering the dark world, Kris’s save files were sorted by age. Every new birthday, we got three more save files that could be used in that year.
I always kept one at the start of the year just in-case something catastrophic happened and we needed to do a pseudo-reset, since I couldn’t exactly do a reset here.
‘wh-What is this?’ Ralsei asks as I see him hovering over our earliest save in chapter 4.
‘Save at the the bottom, Ralsei.’
‘Uhm. Ok!’ He does so, and a wave washes over the both of us. Healing me and resetting my and Kris’s time limit.
‘You still haven’t answered my question…’ He doesn’t expect me to answer, but I could hear a hopeful tone in his voice.
‘It’s a save point. If anything bad happens, and we die, we’ll wake up here at this point in time, at full health. It’s how Kris and I managed to beat the knight without them getting a single hit in. And how we got the shadow mantle. We can also load any file however many times we want.’ I could feel Ralsei’s wonder at my words, and a hint of horror.
‘Don’t worry. I hate using these frivolously. The most I did was to loop a fight, like with Jevil, to train my dodging skills. Or with the knight cause they kept kicking our ass.’ He relaxes as he senses the truth in my words.
‘I see… I’m glad you trust me enough to tell me all this, Stem.’ I’d smile too, but I could feel my time limit running out.
‘Lets go to Queen now. Oh, and save again.’
‘h-Huh?’ Ralsei is confused, but listens to me flawlessly.
After he saves again, we go back in the castle to Queens room.
She was no longer in that ridiculous pose between two speakers and slurping a seemingly never ending drink from the top of one.
Instead, she was lying down in a chair, one of her old servants fanning her as her eyes seem to have a matrix-like screen.
“h-Hello, Queen.”
“Hello Dark Prince. Is There Something You Require?” …
‘Why is she acting so differently?!’ Ralsei asks me, dumbfounded at her behavior.
‘Huh, looks like the internet got fixed. She is a computer, remember?’
‘Oh… I think I get it. Is there something you wanted from Queen?’ I shake in Ralsei’s chest.
He keels over for a moment, grasping his chest.
‘St-Stem?!’
‘Let me out for a moment.’ He hesitates, but listens.
My soul floats out and lands in-front of Queen who stares quietly.
“Huh. Is That A Human Soul? Neat.” She asks, but I ignore her, sitting on her chest.
It takes a second, but I sink inside.
‘What Do You Require Of Me, Soul.’
‘My name is Stem. I’m just curious… Can you still make stuff?’
‘If You Mean Create Programs And The Like. Yes.’
‘No. Like physical dark-world stuff. Like … a vessel for me?’ I could see her link to the internet get stopped as she fully focuses on my words.
‘Oho. I See. You Wish For A New Body. One Majestic Like Mine?’
‘No. Just… Can you?’
‘Of Course!’ She stands up, but I just shake in her chest.
‘No. Not now. Let me go, please.’ She pauses before letting my soul leave her body.
I go back to Ralsei, hopeful as a plan comes to mind.
‘Lets go Ralsei. Back to the save point.’ He follows my commands.
He saves again and I take a deep breath as I feel myself heal.
‘Now. Lets go to Susie.’
> - >
We find Susie in her room, just sitting on her bed awkwardly.
“Oh, Ralsei… Uhm, Where’s Kris?” Ralsei stutters at her question.
“Kris is… Resting right now… I’m here with Stem though.” With practiced ease, I fly out of Ralsei’s chest.
Susie’s eyes widen as she stares at the floating human soul.
“o-Oh! Ok! Uhh… What the hell was that?! Was it inside you?!” I’d giggle at her confusion if I had a body.
Gently, I bump into her chest. Waiting.
“h-Hey!” She grabs me roughly, growling as she looks down at me.
“s-Susie! th-They’re just trying to speak to you! Since they don’t have a mouth, you just… need to absorb them.” She stares blankly at Ralsei before looking down at me.
“Absorb them?”
“y-Yeah… Just let them do what they want. Okay? I promise, they won’t h-Hurt you.” Even I couldn’t help but stop at the conviction in his words.
Susie snorts before letting me go.
Like with Queen, I sink inside after a second.
‘Woah… What is this?’ Susie speaks with her soul for the first time.
‘Hello, Susie.’
She doesn’t respond, only awkwardly staring at Ralsei.
‘Uhm… Is there anything you want to ask.’
‘…Does Kris like me, or is it you makes them do those things?’ I freeze at the blunt question.
‘Susie… I am your friend. I like you. But not in the way Kris likes you… They were not making me be nice to you, although they’d have liked me to do alot more with you… Hey, if you want, they’re free in their room if you want to talk to them about feelings.’ She hesitates at my offer.
‘I well- Uhm … thanks for everything dude, really, you were pretty awesome in our fights and everything, and I’m uh, sorry for not noticing you weren’t Kris sooner… I think I’ll go talk to them for abit… a-Anything you want to ask me?’ Although I could feel her impatience, she was still very polite.
‘There’s no need to be so awkward around me, Susie. I was the one who you’ve been talking to all this time after-all. And no, I have nothing to ask… If you want, I’ll leave you if you want to go back to Kris now.’ She blushes and nods.
I leave her body and go back to Ralsei as she leaves the room.
‘Did it go well?’ He asks.
I shrug.
‘Kinda, I guess. She was nice about the whole thing… But I think we should leave her and Kris alone for now… Anything you want to do?’ Ralsei thinks for a moment before shaking his head.
‘Well, lets go to the cafe then? Talk for a bit while Susie and Kris do whatever they’re doing.’
>> -- >>
I make Ralsei try out my favorite drinks and talk to him about… everything.
Not my problems, I wanted to avoid those for now.
I just talked about whatever came to mind.
How nice the coffee was, how I liked how Ralsei’s fur felt. How I liked being with him more than Kris.
We also played some games using the little building Queen set up nearby. It was kinda like an arcade.
It was all so much fun.
But of course, everything had to come to an end.
As I saved for the tenth time to reset our time limit, Kris and Susie came to us from inside the castle.
Kris held out a hand quietly.
As good as it would’ve felt to reject them, I still floated quietly into it.
‘… Thanks for giving us some alone time.’ Kris speaks up for the first time.
‘It was fun for me too.’ I reply, not wanting to engage with them for now.
‘…No more cages. That’s my only demand. Anytime you take me out, let me go back to the dark world, or-atleast let me be free.’ I raise my condition to Kris. My only condition.
They hesitate, but accept it.
And with that, our deal is complete.
Nothing would change for them from it.
But nothing would stay the same for me either.