Chapter Text
Crash!
Shards of glass flew around as Kris and Susie fell through a pane of stained glass, sending Kris's body into a tumble.
And everything went black
As Kris slowly reopened their eyes and stood up, they vaguely heard Susie talking about the knight. It was hard to focus on standing up, let alone on what Susie was saying; they had an utterly splitting headache.
With Susie done speaking, Kris turned to face the front. It was a habit done out of a mix of politeness and routine; the direction of the "front" was varied sometimes, but there was always a sense, an internal compass. They knew their neutral position, and it was something to return to.
Perhaps they subconsciously meant it as a signal to someone?
Maybe they just didn't like looking at people after they finished talking; there was less expectation of a reply that way.
Kris took a few steps.
Thud.
Back down on the floor.
"K... Kris!?"
Susie hurried to their side.
"Kris, you... the glass, I didn't notice... it..."
"You're bleeding..."
"Umm, I'll... Here, let me heal it!"
Susie cast heal!
"Th.. that wasn't enough, huh..."
From somewhere just out of sight, a familiar voice came.
"... where... is it..."
"Hey, Ralsei! Ralsei!"
"... S-Susie!?"
Ralsei hurried over.
"Hey, Ralsei, Kris is..."
"Kris...!?"
"Could you tell me how to..."
"Susie, could you move out of the way?"
Ralsei's healing light flooded over Kris's body, and the pain subsided. It would never fully be gone, just back to a state called normal.
"Kris... Kris, are you okay?"
"Umm, I tried to uh, heal, but..."
"Susie, I know you were just trying to help, but..."
"If someone's really hurt, don't... try to fix it alone, okay?"
"... uh, yeah. Okay. Got it."
Right, Kris thought, back to work.
As the gang approached a glowing star set in a small alcove beneath the DELTA RUNE insignia (cast in glass), Ralsei remembered something.
"Kris, remember that Mike fellow and how they wanted to join us?"
"I put something in your STORAGE that might help!"
Beneath the blue panel, Ralsei saw Kris reach into the star and pull from their storage into their inventory (for possibly the first time? They hadn't used that many items throughout their journey so far.)
From the folds of their pockets, Kris "Equipped" the microphone, holding it in front of their chest with both hands, the top at about chin height.
"Dude!" Susie exclaimed, "Is that the microphone Ralsei said he'd whip up?"
"Where, even, is this STORAGE thing anyway?"
A voice crackled through the open mike.
"I think it's more metaphorical than literal."
"Yo, Mike! You made it!" Susie shouted, beaming with joy.
Ralsei also smiled. It had worked! I, I mean, of course it would, if it was the angel's will, there was no way it wouldn't have worked.
Kris's reaction was far more muted, maintaining their thousand-yard stare into the middle distance. Ralsei couldn't help but notice a twinge of worry on their face, barely perceptible, but definitely there.
Kris moves forward into the next room.
As they pass a shining panel, Susie asks.
"Hey, what're these... word things we keep seeing?"
"That's..."
"... the prophecy, Susie"
"Cool, is Mike in there?"
Ralsei had not been expecting that question; technically, he wasn't supposed to "expect" anything, just give willing answers to the Lightners when prompted, but during his time there had definitely been a sense, perhaps a premonition of sorts, about what questions Susie was about to ask. It definitely wasn't anything tangible, but this question bugged him more than he wanted to admit.
"Umm... yes, Susie! Everything that will happen is in the prophecy."
"Cool, where's my panel then?" Mike asked, slightly shocking Ralsei again. He would have to remember that "Mike" could just talk to them now, how had he already forgotten! They had only moved one room!
"I... don't know where your panel is in this dark world."
"The prophecy is quite long, so I doubt we'll see all of it today!"
Suddenly, a wisp of flame flew down from the ceiling and initiated a battle, cutting off Ralsei mid-thought.
Sweet, thought Susie, first battle of the dark world. Time to crush some skulls and/or make some friends!
The enemies were kinda weird: they had light blue bodies, two bendy hands, and an orb of some kind for a face.
Susie glanced upwards (was it up or just to her left?) and saw that instead of their normal sword, Kris was still gripping onto the cool microphone with both hands.
"All right, let's just Xercism and have Susie defend", Mike said as Kris gave those commands.
"Cool, you're helping out in combat too! I always knew Kris could use some help, heh," Susie replied with a smirk. This Mike fella wasn't half bad.
"Oh, uhh, right," Mike sounded a bit self-conscious here, probably not used to being out of his room, Susie mused.
"I'm helping, Kris, out with the tactics, right?"
"I mean, you don't have to," Susie suggested ", You sounded like you knew what you were talking about with those commands. Heck, you even knew the name of that act!"
"I guess?"
The enemy's turn had finished while they were talking, and it was back to the gang's turn (at least Susie thought that's what happened. Dark world combats are weird.)
"Um, Kris exercise on the lower Guei, Susie, s-action on the top one and Ralsei, spare." There was a short pause, then the commands were issued exactly as Mike said.
The one remaining enemy began its attack, so Susie knew she would have a bit of time to ask another question.
"How do you know about all this battle stuff anyway?"
"Oh, uhh... Ralsei told me about some of this stuff?"
Despite Mike sounding surprisingly unsure about this, Ralsie immediately jumped in, "Oh yes, of course I definitely helped YOU."
Back to their turn and back to Susie.
"Cool, any idea how to finish this one off"
"It appears to be tiered so... Defend, defend, pacify?"
And the gang went with exactly that, sweet Mike was really helping out the team here, Susie thought.
Mike was hiding something, but Kris absolutely did not want to be the one to ask about it.
As the gang continued through these corridors, Kris made a list in their head:
- Darkners weren't supposed to travel across worlds. Ralsei had made that quite clear when Lancer turned to stone in Queen's mansion. And yet Mike was operating perfectly well in this dark world that was not their home, having arrived here by unknown means.
- Mike knew things about this dark world; he had been chatting with Susie quite a bit and was always giving advice like "don't go that way, it's a dead end" or "There's a secret chest in this area", despite never having been here before (this world had been opened just minutes prior), he knew about all the secrets.
- The SOUL was listening to him; on its own, this wouldn't be too weird, but every time Mike made a suggestion, they were drawn into immediately performing it. The SOUL never gave that much respect to another's commands, even Ralsei, whose advice was usually followed, was constantly thrown off by the SOUL's actions (like when he kept getting hugs during that dummy fight). Kris knew that the SOUL reported to no one and had to be kept in line, so why was it being so obedient?
As Kris was thinking this, they stopped at a bookcase with a small stool and a suspicious book.
Susie started talking again.
"Say Mike, do you... have any other names we could call you by?"
"It's just that it's kinda confusing with you being Mike and talking out of a mike."
Ralsei jumped in.
"Susie, that's very rude. Mike has already told us what he wants to be called."
The (by-now-familiar) stereo crackle from the colourful mike Kris was holding came through.
"Actually, Mike is more of a stage name; Tenna just used it for, uhh, reasons. You can call me Nic if you want."
What.
"Oh, cool, thanks, Nick!" Susie perked up, not noticing the confused expressions on both her friends' faces.
"Actually, it's Nic, no K."
Nic? Kris thought. That didn't make any sense.
Darkner's names were supposed to have puns or titles or at least relate to the object they came from, "Nic" was just a normal name!
This didn't make sense, unless.
What if Nic wasn't a Darkner?
BUT LO, ON HOPES AND DREAMS THEY SEND. THREE HEROES AT THE WORLD'S END.
From somewhere in the darkness, a hammer flew in, and the panel shattered, plunging the room into darkness.
"H-huh!?"
"Hey, who the hell's messing with us!?"
"..."
"(No answer...)"
"... Let's be careful."
"That means you too, Nic."
The room was very dark.
To some extent, this had always been true; this was a dark world, darker than dark and all. But here was particularly dark, so dark that Ralsei couldn't see his own paws.
Not to worry, he thought, the angel will guide us through this. They always know what to do!
The fun gang had taken to lightly holding on to the person in front of them. Ralsei lightly gripped Susie's mane, Susie had a strong hold on Kris's shoulder, and Kris kept a firm grip on the microphone as they led them through these narrow passages.
The only sounds were the loud bells that rang out when panels on the floor were touched and their footsteps.
At least until Ralsei heard Nic give a small sigh.
"Is anything the matter, Nic?" (It was important for Ralsei to check up on the well-being of all of his friends.)
"Not really, I'm just trying to get over all of this, being real," Nic responded with a melancholy tone.
Susie jumped in (figuratively, of course, it would have been unsafe for her to jump here)
"Yeah, dude, these dark worlds are like... a lot."
"But they are as real as they come, even if someone doesn't seem to think so."
Even through the cover of darkness, Ralsei could feel Susie smirking at him as she said that.
"It's not, it's... being with you guys, talking with you, having you respond to me."
"Uhh, yeah dude, that's what friends do, they talk."
Ralsei wondered if Kris would have any objections to this statement, but no sound (as usual) came from their direction.
Nic continued.
"So, if I just ask you to say something, you can do it?"
"Uhh..." Susie grunted
"Sure, if you want to do that, I sure as hell don't have anything better to do."
"Big shot, penumbra phantasm, proceed, Friend inside me."
"Odd choices but ok."
"Big shot, penumbra phantasm, proceed, Friend inside me."
Ralsei thought he knew what some of those terms meant, but the rest eluded him. Oh, well, it was not his place to question the angel's ways.
A scream sounded in the distance.
Oh no.
This was bad, very bad.
A titan spawn, already?
"Kris, run left now!"
Susie had only just met this old man, but he was already getting on her nerves with his incredibly slow pace.
"Hey, if we're gonna have to watch you..."
"... Can you walk ANY FASTER!?"
"Of course, miss!" he replied, speeding up ever so slightly.
Turning to face Kris, he said
"Say, what's that doohickie you're holding there"
"Oh uhh... that's just a microphone we use for talking to a friend", Susie replied on Kris's behalf
Nic's voice came through.
"Hi, I'm Nic."
"That's awfully peculiar", the old man said, continuing to move at a snail's pace
"In my day, microphones were something to be talked into, not talked out of."
"How're you talking through it anyhoo"
"Well, umm", Nic replied
"Through a microphone on my end, Discord, and this mod, I suppose."
"Discord, eh, sounds chaotic! Ga Ha Ha"
"... know what?" Susie said
"YOU GUYS handle the old man. I'm gone."
And she rushed out of the room
As she left, Susie mulled over her thoughts.
Nic was kinda cool, it was really handy to have someone else on the team watching out for (what'd he call them?)Secrets and shit. Meant Susie could sit back and leave the exploitation and tactics stuff to him and Kris.
Not that she'd been helping out with that stuff before, Susie saw her role on the team as the tough one who handled the talking.
Kris didn't talk much.
They weren't completely silent or anything, often quipping something quite profound when they had the chance.
But they definitely preferred to communicate through other means.
Like their walk, Susie had noticed that, especially while leading the party, Kris would sometimes walk in circles when they were excited by something.
Or at least Susie assumed they were excited; their expression was quite reserved most of the time.
Still, all this proved was that you don't need to talk to become friends with someone! And that meant that you could become friends with someone even if you've never seen them.
Susie was friends with Nic now, right?
Kris entered the study.
"Oh, so you decided to come by? Thanks!"
"(Dammit.)" Susie lightly whispered.
Kris walked up to a glowing star beside the desk.
(The hearth glows brightly, pressing the night's chill away.)
(You are filled with a certain power.)
"Goodbye for now I guess."
What did Nic mean by "goodbye"? Was the connection going to stop?
And then the world ended.