Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Pico runs, and keeps running. He doesn’t remember how long it's been since he started doing so, but he just keeps moving. Every step makes him inch closer to the tall building above. He makes it to the entrance and kicks the door open. Inside, nobody seems to be here. Sighing in relief, Pico moves towards the stairs and scales all the way up to the roof. It takes him a while, but he finally makes it up top.

At the top, he looks around at his options, wondering what to do next. “Alright… where to now?” Near the roof, he sees train tracks. He considers jumping toward it if he needs to make another run for it. His thoughts of doing so are interrupted by the sound of the subway train making its way to his destination. It dashes by and leaves as soon as it appears.

Though, the moment the train goes away, the face of someone familiar appears. “Pico…” Boyfriend reveals himself, speaking in a sing-songy voice. Pico widens his eyes as he quietly gasps, backing away instinctively from Boyfriend. “What’s wrong? Aren’t you glad to see me?”

Gritting his teeth, Pico shouts at it. “Shut up! You aren’t Boyfriend, asshole!” He points his gun at BF, denying his claims. “What… what did you do to him!?” Pico stares at all the wounds that Boyfriend has. Countless scratches and scars cover Boyfriend’s body. Most of them are bright crystalized magenta, but not all the wounds are that color and are just normal bloody scars.

Boyfriend only stares back at Pico with an eerie smile. A glowing bright face stared at him, with a smile that never faded. Its entire body was pitch black, and somehow had a glowing aura of sorts around them. “This was all on my own volition, Pico! I chose this… and you can still join me as well!” Boyfriend reaches out, walking closer. He hops down the train tracks and onto the roof to approach Pico. He backs away, gun still pointing at BF.

Pico fires a warning shot at the ground, halting Boyfriend. “Not another step! Don’t you dare get any closer to me!” BF complies, putting his hands up to his head and stopping in place.

“Hmm… I get it. You need a little more convincing, don’t you?” Boyfriend pulls out a microphone. “How about this?” He tosses it in the air, making Pico catch it. Pico looks back at Boyfriend, distrustful. “Come on, you know I love to sing. We even sang together right here, in this very spot. How about we do this for old time's sake?”

Unsure as to what he should do, Pico holds his gun tightly considering his options. “Sing a song? Hell, of all the things to ask…” Despite his reluctance, Pico plays along. He flicks the safety switch on the gun. Boyfriend smiles and brings out his own microphone. Pico briefly reminisces about when they first sang together. “I guess old habits die hard.” He recalls the nostalgic feeling of holding a mic and gun in his hands, remembering how they reunited here by an unfortunate coincidence. Despite being hired to kill Boyfriend, Pico still had a soft spot for him, so instead of immediately assassinating BF, he simply challenged Boyfriend to a rap battle instead of fighting to the death.

But now here they are again, things being much more different. He smirks at Boyfriend, looking him dead in the eyes. “Ah, that’s more like it.” Boyfriend loosens his grip on his mic, grabbing onto a pinkish thread tied to the mic. “I hope you’re ready, Pico.”

Pico holds his microphone tightly. Boyfriend starts singing, the song both new, but somewhat familiar to Pico. There is some uncanny tune that feels like it’s something he’s heard before, but Pico is certain that he’s never heard it before. Pico sighs, “You know what? I ain’t got time for this anymore.” Pico quickly throws the microphone at Boyfriend, causing him to get knocked back. He uses this moment to go past BF and leaps off the roof onto the railway. He decides that running away is a better option than staying here.

“How dare you!” Boyfriend shouts angrily at Pico, starting to run behind him. BF also leaps towards the other side, hanging on the edge.

Once he climbs up, the rails on the track begin shaking, as a train approaches once more. Before the corrupted Boyfriend can make it past the tracks the train blocks his way and Pico takes the chance to move. After a long second, the train leaves, and so does Pico. Boyfriend looks around, trying to find where he went.

From behind, Pico grabs BF in a chokehold, trying to subdue him. Boyfriend tries clawing at Pico, but he manages to avoid his swinging. Realizing that it's ineffective, Boyfriend bites down on Pico’s arm, making him flinch in pain and lose his grip. “Damn!” He backs away from BF, not risking anything else.

Pico looks at the bitten sleeve and rolls it up, seeing no actual wound. He takes a sigh of relief, knowing he didn’t get infected by a bite, of all things. “Why do you still try?” Boyfriend talks to Pico, getting more irritated. “Just give in, you know I’ll win in the end.” Pushing his sleeve back down, Pico smirks.

“You don’t seem to be winning right now.” Pico taunts, but Boyfriend only laughs in response.  

“We’ll see about that.” BF charges at him. Pico moves out of his way and kicks Boyfriend in the head, making him falter. Pico jumps off the tracks and down to another roof. He holsters his gun and starts parkouring from roof to roof. 

An angry scream comes from behind, and Pico sees Boyfriend making his way toward him. His feral scream causes Pico to chuckle. “Looks like someone is salty.” Looking around, he tries to find a way to get out of sight.

Seeing an opening inside a building, Pico leaps towards it and rolls to soften the impact. Inside the building, it's strangely dark and abandoned. All the lights are off, and not a single trace of life is in sight. However, the sound of floorboards creaking causes Pico to ready his weapon. Sure, he could just be paranoid right now, but at this point being cautious is very important. The sound gets closer, and Pico decides to turn off the safety of his gun, just to be sure.

From behind, Boyfriend falls into the building. “I found you!” He gets up and slashes at Pico. He pivots back, avoiding the hits before turning away and running. Moving through the building in the dark. From what he can discern, Pico assumes this is an office complex, as he runs through countless office desks and cubicles. He runs into a few items and furniture but brushes them off. Looking behind him for one second, he sees Boyfriend catching up. 

Needing a way to lose him again, Pico thinks of the dumbest possible plan. Bringing out his gun, he shoots the glass pane in front of him, cracking the glass. With a deep breath, Pico leaps out. Looking down, he sees a large street pole and lands on top of it. Boyfriend stares at him from the building. A cocky grin comes from Pico, and he sticks his middle finger out to BF.

Boyfriend looks at Pico, and then backs up. He prepares himself to leap toward him. With a running start, Boyfriend jumps. He hits his head onto the pole, and falls onto the ground. BF immediately recovers and dusts himself off before staring at Pico who hides his laughter. “You can’t stay up there forever.” The two stare at each other, waiting for the other to make a move.

He scoffs, “Sure I can.” Pico looks around the streets, seeing chaos unfold. People around the place seem to be running away from the ones who are corrupted. “You know, I never expected an apocalypse like this to happen, to be honest.” The sounds of gunshots, sirens, and even screaming seem louder as time goes on. This infection is spreading to the world, slowly, and people are now realizing it. “Fuck… now I kinda appreciate the shitty life I was living a few hours ago. How’d everything go to hell so quickly?” Pico looks down to see Boyfriend still standing there, silent. “And… I miss…” He sighs and shakes his head, looking away from BF.

For a minute, Pico is left to no response, only the sounds of chaos from a distance. People on the streets nearby slowly dwindle into nothing but corruption, as they fail to fight back the sudden takeover. “You can still join us now, Pico,” Boyfriend says to him, but Pico isn’t interested. He looks down at BF and gives him a look of pity, of all things. “What do you say? You’ll feel better with us, I promise you.”

Growling, Pico grips his gun. “Feel better? I doubt it. You really think I’m falling for that? You’re still as dumb as ever, BF.”

He shrugs at his response. “Fine. We’ll do things the other way.” Bringing his microphone close to his face, Boyfriend speaks into the mic, saying some incoherent beeps, which sound different from the ones Pico is used to. From that, a horde of infected people starts approaching his street. From what Pico can discern, he counts at least fifty people.

“Oh, you’ve got to be shitting me.” Pico quickly checks his ammo and comes to the rather obvious conclusion that he very much doesn’t have the proper amount of ammunition for this.

Boyfriend laughs at him, pointing at Pico. “Do I seem to be losing now, Pico?” He goes to the base of the street pole Pico’s on and kicks it. “You’ll die here. All of us can destroy this thing you’re on and tear you to bits.”

Annoyingly enough, he’s right. Pico sees the small horde making its way toward him. With little time to prepare, Pico thinks of a plan, along with his possible choices. He needs to get out of here, lose BF, and maybe find people who aren’t dead. God, he wishes he could just shoot and kill the corrupt figure below him. But he knows the person below. Boyfriend is still there, somewhere, right?

The real issue is the crowd of corrupt people on their way. Sure, he doesn’t know them at all, but is it morally correct to kill innocent people? He’s killed people for money, but there was a justified reason. Those individuals were bad, but these people… most, if not all of them are just civilians trying to get by, now turned and forced into evil. Frustrated, Pico murmurs to himself. “Dammit… It's survival of the fittest now.” Pico decides that he’ll have to take a life if there's no other choice. Readying his weapon, he hops down before the horde can surround him. 

Boyfriend sees this and immediately starts to chase. “Get him!” He then seems to speak in more beeps, likely commanding the horde to follow. The sound of hundreds of footsteps following behind him causes Pico to run even faster. 

“Fucking hell, not again!” Out on the streets, he sees some abandoned vehicles, and dead bodies, both already corrupt and uncorrupted. Taking a momentary glance behind him, he sees the fifty or so people, including Boyfriend running for him. He swears to himself countless times, moving as fast as possible. Pico needs to get off the streets and back on high ground. Looking for a tall enough vehicle to climb on, he runs towards a truck and escalates up it, making his way to the roof of a small building.

Like moths to a flame, the horde of corruption all herd towards the truck to follow, some even trying to climb the building without the truck. Pico shoots at the climbing enemies while trying to aim at non-lethal areas, hoping to incapacitate them enough for them to stop chasing. He manages to stop at least a few of them, before the roof gets more overwhelmingly crowded, forcing him to jump onto another building nearby.

The roof he climbs on is higher than the last, which gives him a better advantage, as there is only one line of sight to watch. Carefully aiming, he fires at more infected, incapacitating them. His gun clicks empty, and he searches himself for any spare mag. He checks everywhere but finds nothing. “Tch, damn.” Pico looks around for somewhere to go that could have a weapon. “Come on, there’s gotta be a convenient gun store around here or something…”

Instead of a gun store, a conveniently loud vehicle passes the streets and attracts the attention of most of the horde. However, some are still adamant about attacking Pico, one of which is obviously Boyfriend. Looking down at an alleyway, Pico sees that it’s empty. Hopping down, he attempts to make a getaway.

The feeling of something metallic whacking him in the back causes him to break his momentum. He feels the spot on which he was hit on, rubbing it. “Not so fast.” Pico turns and sees BF landing in the alleyway, with his mic on the floor. Three more corrupted victims move next to Boyfriend, waiting. “You won’t run this time.” Behind Pico, another person appears, blocking his exit. Pico scoffs.

“Really now? Alright, bring it on.” Pico cracks his knuckles, preparing himself for this confrontation. BF points at him, causing everyone to charge.

Pico throws his empty gun at one of them, knocking them out. The one from behind slashes down at Pico, but he moves out of the way, and counters by throwing them to the floor. Another arm stabs at Pico, but he catches it before it damages him. “Nothin’ personal.” Pico breaks their arm and chops the back of their neck. “Is that all you got?” Frustrated, Boyfriend clenches his fists, and steps closer to Pico.

Pico stares at Boyfriend directly in the eyes, not expecting BF to go down easily. “I’ve had enough of this cat and mouse.” Boyfriend screams into his mic, making Pico cover his ears and eyes. At the very last second, Pico sees Boyfriend lunging at him, and tries to move, but is too late. “Die!” He gets knocked down to the floor and out of the alleyway, but grabs a hold of his hands before they can come into contact with him. 

Somehow, BF's strength seems to be more than Pico’s own, as Boyfriend slowly overpowers Pico in the struggle. “Y-you’re stronger than you look.” Resisting with all his might, Pico stares at the dark claws getting closer and closer to his face. “Shit, come on… Boyfriend, snap out of it! This isn’t you! Dammit, stop!” Pico starts to think of as many solutions to get himself out of this situation, but the seconds dwindle down without any solution in sight. “Fuck, Fuck! BF, for crying out loud! Don’t do this!” Boyfriend doesn’t say anything and only forces his arms closer and closer to Pico.

Out of options, Pico goes for a low blow, using his knee to kick Boyfriend where the sun doesn’t shine. BF yelps in pain and stops pushing against Pico. “Sorry, BF!” Without a moment’s hesitation, Pico pins him to the floor, looking around for something to help. He sees chains and a padlock next to a broken-down bike. He grabs that, and wraps it around Boyfriend, restricting him. Once BF stops moving, Pico finally takes a breather and sits next to him. “Oh fuck… what the hell has happened to this world.” Pico looks down at the floor, thinking back on all the crazy things that he had to do in the past hour. Or, at least he thinks it’s been an hour.

He turns to Boyfriend, who only stares at Pico, restrained. “You shouldn’t rest Pico. I can break free from these bindings.”

Pico only shakes his head in response, too exhausted to bother. “Fuckin’ hell… then why haven’t you done it yet?” Boyfriend looks away sheepishly. That gets a somber chuckle from Pico. The two of them stay there for a while, listening to the sound of death. “Why did this have to happen?” Pico blurts out, not really expecting an answer from Boyfriend.

However, Boyfriend turns back to Pico and gives him an answer of sorts. “He has more plans for the world.”

“Are you talking about that stupid lemon thing?” Pico asks but to no avail. BF grows silent, and looks at the floor, seemingly zoning out. Eventually, Pico realizes he won’t get an answer and stands up. “Well, then I guess this is goodbye, BF.” He walks back into the alleyway to grab his gun, then moves to the streets. “I need to get moving, more than ever.” Pico looks around, the sounds of chaos returning to his focus.

“Take me with you.” Surprised, Pico turns to Boyfriend.

“What?”

“Take me with you, Pico. Don’t you care about me? You still love me, right?”

Staring at Boyfriend, a look of sadness slowly envelops Pico. “I’m not going to do that, and you know it.” Deep down, some part of him wanted to say yes, but the risks were too high to even consider it. “Goodbye, Boyfriend.”

Boyfriend stares at him, before looking down at the floor. “Goodbye… Pico.” Slowly, Pico walks away and leaves BF. As he walks away, Boyfriend tries breaking free but is unable to budge. He remains there, trapped and bound by his chains.

Chapter Text

“Son? Son! Please, wake up!” A panicked mother shakes her son awake from his sleep. Confused, he rubs his head and looks at her.

“Mom? What’s going on?” Without explanation, she grabs a hold of him and starts running out of his room. “Mom? Hey! At least tell me what is happening!”

Out into the living room, Lila puts him back on the floor and explains. “There’s… there’s something crazy going on outside, I don’t know how to explain it but we need to go now!” 

Lila motions to her son to follow her, and they go to a door in the back. “Mom, where are we even going?” Skid whispers out to his mom, wondering a lot of things. Outside, Lila cautiously looks around for anyone else. Once the coast is clear, Lila quietly starts moving with her son. A loud bang is heard from their house, and Lila instead grabs her son and starts running. 

“We have to get out of here!” The two leave the area, going to the unknown. As the two run, Lila senses danger approaching, but can’t seem to find where it’s coming from. Noises come from the forest, getting the attention of Lila and Skid. Not wanting to get surprised, she picks up the pace and starts running with her son.

Eventually, they run out of backyards to run through and arrive at the city area of the place. Lila looks around and sees that the streets are strangely silent. She was certain people were here before, but now it’s like a ghost town.

Her thoughts are interrupted by a strange scream from afar, and then finally noticing a horde of corrupted people chasing a boy. It looks like he’s got some spray can, and is using it as a makeshift flamethrower. It’s allowing him to get some space as he runs.

“Help! Please!” Cries for help from nearby cause her to look around, surprised. “Is anyone there? I need help!” In the alleyway, a distressed voice calls out, desperate for assistance.

“Mom, we should help them!” Skid points into the alleyway, and makes Lila take a peek into the area, she sees a hand covered in trash reaching out for assistance. 

It's a small hand with a red winter glove and a white cuff. “Anyone… please.” A young and feminine voice compels Lila.

Seeing someone in distress, Lila tries to assist them. She first puts her son down on the floor before moving to assist.  “I’m here! I can help you!” Approaching the alleyway and towards the person on the floor, Lila extends her hand to pull her up. In a flash, however, the hand suddenly morphs into a dark claw and slashes her wrist. Lila falls back in shock, yelling in pain. The person reveals herself out of the trash, laughing maniacally. Her hands claw at her own face, twitching vigorously. The center of her upper chest has a large magenta circle, seemingly pulsating. Veins spread around her body, all originating from the wound.

Backing away from the corrupted person in front of her, Lila gets up and turns to her son. Only taking a few steps, she is halted, unable to go further. “Where do you think you’re going?” The once seemingly innocent voice changes into an unnerving one. Looking at the girl, Lila sees that her left hand is glowing pink unnaturally. “Didn’t you want to help me?” As if taunting her, the figure giggles and approaches. 

“Hey! Let my mom go!” Skid runs up to the girl, and distracts her. She looks down to see the kid and tilts her head. “We are only trying to help!” He grabs onto her leg, shaking her. This causes the glowing aura around her hand to disappear, alongside the glow surrounding Lila. 

Lila immediately shoves the girl away and then grabs her son to run out of the alleyway. Before she can make much progress, the corrupted girl appears before her. “Did you really think you were making it out of here? It’s not going to be that easy-” Before she can finish, Lila hits the corrupted girl in the face, dazing her. “Gah! You piece of-” Lila slaps her, and she falls to the ground, face first onto a garbage bag. The sound of footsteps goes further away from her until she lifts herself off the garbage bag. She sighs, and facepalms.

With every step, Lila feels herself getting strangely exhausted. She looks at the slash wound on her hand and notices that the wound seems to be spreading a dark crystalline infection alongside her hand. She tries shaking it off but to no avail. “Mom? Are you alright?” Lila turns to Skid, who has a worried frown. She tries comforting her son with a smile.

“I’m okay, don’t worry about me. We need to get to safety.” Laughter from the alleyway catches the two’s attention, as they turn around. The girl peeks her head and then points towards something. Lila and Skid see a crowd of people changing their priority target to them, instead of the boy fighting back. “Oh no…” Lila turns and begins running faster from the incoming horde. She tries to get as much distance as possible, but the sound of them getting closer makes her turn around.

Distracted, Lila bumps into something. In front of her, is the girl. She laughs. “Going somewhere? Again?” The horde stops and blocks the area behind her, leaving Lila with no options.

Lila holds onto her son tightly and looks around. “Mom..? Why is everyone surrounding us? Did we do something wrong?” Lila looks down at him but stays silent.

“I…” She shakes her head. “Leave us alone!” She snaps at the girl and points a finger at her. “Why are you following us!?” The girl only laughs and moves her hand up to her face.

“Why not? It’s fun to do this!” She then points a finger at Lila’s hand and the infected wound. “Not to mention… you’ve got a little injury there.” She begins giggling for a while until it turns to laughter. “There’s no point in trying! Hahaha… you’re fighting a losing battle.”

Lila furrows her eyebrows and runs at her. She shoves the girl onto the floor and then starts running. Before she can make any progress, Lila feels a claw scratch at her ankle. She shouts in pain, and staggers. Despite feeling the pain sear through her body, Lila tries her hardest to ignore it.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t do much to prevent the crowd of infected behind her to inch closer. A clawed hand grabs a hold of her. Lila tries pushing away, but more arms grab onto her. “Let go of me!” With all her might, Lila yanks herself away, but loses her footing and falls onto the floor, and Skid falls and rolls onto the floor.

“Mom!” Skid gets up, and notices the crowd surrounding her. The girl grabs her and stares at him. “Let her go!” He shouts at the girl, but she only laughs at him.

She yanks Lila up to her knees and with a small flourish of a sharpened claw, puts the claw next to her neck. “Son? Run… run! Find your friend!”

“But mom… w-what about you?”

“Don’t think about me, just go!” Before any more words could come, the sound of a lighter flicking catches everyone’s attention. As they turn to the noise, a can is kicked up toward the crowd of corrupted. Two more cans appear right after, slowly falling towards everyone.

“What the f-” Before the girl can speak of her confusion, the cans explode and knock everyone around on the floor from the blast. From the smoke and fire, a figure slowly approaches the area.

Revealing himself, the boy looks at Skid, and then towards Lila. He helps her up and says, “Are you alright?” His voice is crisp and very concerned.

Lila groans in pain, feeling her ankle wound stabbing at her. “I’m… as fine as I can be.” He notices the wound and sighs.

“I see.” He then softly smiles, “I’m Darnell. Where are you two trying to go?” Lila explains the situation to Darnell, ignoring her pain as best as possible. Once he gets the general idea, he nods. “Alright. I can try to help you two out, but I’ve got my own group to worry about as well.” Darnell then turns to the fallen infected behind them and the girl on the floor. He frowns, lost in thought. “We need to hurry up, I doubt that explosion is enough to stop them all.” Lila nods in agreement and the two move to Skid.

“Come on, we need to hurry.” Lila reaches out to her son, and he quickly runs up to her. The three get moving, hopefully reaching their destination as fast as possible.

As the three move, it’s quiet. Lila takes a quivered breath. “Darnell?” He turns to Lila, waiting for her to continue. “Why did you come and help us?”

Darnell thinks about it for a moment but finally responds. “Why not? I couldn’t just sit and watch you two deal with the danger I was supposed to deal with.” 

Lila smiles, very grateful. “Thank you. You didn’t have to do that, but you did.” She then looks at her son and focuses on him.

“You’re welcome, and don’t worry too much about it.” Darnell then quickly glances back at the crowd behind and sees that they’re still unconscious. “Can you run?” Lila nods, which prompts Darnell to move a little faster. “Alright, then we should start running now.” Lila follows, slightly trailing behind.

Chapter Text

Boyfriend follows Girlfriend through the streets, looking around the place. “Hey, Girlfriend?” She glances behind and looks at Boyfriend. “How far are we from home? We’ve been taking a really long time to get there. Not to mention, the route we’ve taken is kinda weird.”

Girlfriend smiles and stops. “Don’t worry about it! The path we’re taking is completely necessary!” BF raises an eyebrow and nervously smiles.

“GF, we went onto train tracks, and jumped over like… ten rooftops.” BF turns back to the road. “We kinda went through so many places that my legs hurt really badly.” He winces and goes onto one knee. “Can we at least take a quick break?” Girlfriend sighs, and hums.

“Okay, we can stop here.” Boyfriend sighs in relief at her words, flopping down onto the floor and looking next to him and seeing Girlfriend. “How are you feeling, BF?”

Boyfriend smiles, “I’m feeling… a little better. When I woke up out of nowhere in that mall, my body was kinda… eh.” He shrugs and stretches his body a bit. “But now… I somehow feel way better, kinda tired from running though, but still.”

Girlfriend nods, acknowledging his words. “Well, just tell me when you’re feeling less tired. We’ve got a long road ahead of us before we get back home.” There is a long moment of silence between the two, as Boyfriend takes a break. Eventually, GF hums and puts a hand to her chin. “When you're feeling better, if you want… maybe we can head to Pico’s place and ask if he’d like to tag along with us as well!” She then scratches her head and nervously smiles. “I don’t remember where his place is, though. Do you know where he is?”

“Yeah! Of course, I do! We can go there now if you want!” Boyfriend stands up, suddenly invigorated. “I’m ready to go, so we can head there now if you want!” He extends his hand out to Girlfriend. She smirks and takes his hand.

“Gladly.”

…

With a wound-up punch, a corrupted person is knocked onto the floor. They do not get up. “Tch, there’s so many of these things.” Looking around at the area nearby, there are more people, infected and corrupted. “But… we’re here now. Let’s get moving.”

Getting out of the limo, Daddy Dearest nods and stares at the mall. He sighs and frowns. “We were here just a few hours ago…” He extends out his hand, trying to cast a spell, only for nothing to happen. “Still no good. We need to find out what’s going on there ourselves.”

“If you can still use fighting magic, then don’t worry.” Mommy Mearest says as she moves toward the mall. Dearest follows, scanning the area.

A while ago, both Mearest and Dearest sensed their daughter was in immense danger and recalled her still remaining in the mall. Neither of them could teleport inside the mall, or anywhere near it, so they, alongside plenty of henchmen, decided to investigate.

Pulling out his handgun, Dearest looks towards Mearest. “Ready?” She nods. Together, they open the doors to the mall. Inside, it’s pitch black, which is strange, since they can see in the dark perfectly fine. “What the hell happened here?” Cautiously, they walk further into the darkness, each step crunching on something hard.

In an instant, a bright magenta light shines ahead and momentarily blinds the two. The magenta lights slowly spread through the area around them, eventually surrounding the two. They look around and realize something.

The lights are eyes.

“Welcome. We’ve been waiting for you two, for a long… long time.” A cold voice calls out to them, and from the darkness, a lemon-headed monster approaches.

Dearest and Mearest turn to the voice. “You?” Dearest blurts out, with widened eyes.

Monster laughs, and smiles. “Yes, it’s me. You know who I am, don’t you?” He lifts his arm, revealing a sharpened spear-like hand. “And you know fully well… that you have made a big mistake coming here.” The eyes surrounding the two approach, and reveal countless amounts of corrupted people.

“Where is our daughter!? What did you do to her?”

“Oh, you want to know where she is?” Monster looks up in the air, still smiling. “Let’s just say… she’s a little busy wrangling some people for me.” A small laugh escapes him, thinking about it. “But I will say, your daughter didn’t put up much of a fight when she succumbed to us.” Pissed off, Dearest shoots a bullet into Monster’s head. It causes him to flinch for a moment, but then he recovers soon after. “Oh, did you expect that to work?”

Mearest and Dearest glance at each other, then nod. Together, they use magic and grab a hold of Monster, who now glows bright red. The two move their glowing hands in opposite directions, and slowly it begins tearing Monster in half.

A loud scream of agony comes from Monster, as he is split into two halves. His body and legs fall down to the floor, in front of Mearest and Dearest. A strange concoction of orange blood splashes onto the ground alongside him. “Why you!-” Dearest shoots Monster again, just to shut him up.

The infected around them begin rushing at them, preparing to attack. Mearest grabs one of the infected lunging at her, and swings them back at the crowd, toppling the crowd.

Dearest shoots a few of the oncoming horde until his gun clicks empty. He momentarily pockets the gun and starts casting a magic spell. His hands glow, and a blast of wind knocks the crowd back. He then grabs his gun again and reloads it.

On the floor, Monster growls, and looks back at the other half of his torso. He crawls towards it and puts himself back together. The wound begins healing quickly with a crystalline bind and bright magenta glow. After a moment, Monster is able to get up as if nothing happened. Dearest turns to the noise, and sees him suddenly back on his feet. “What the!?” Drawing his gun, Dearest is about to pull the trigger, but Monster lunges at him.

Mearest glances behind her and notices Monster attacking. She extends her hand out, and a glowing aura appears on both Monster and her own hand. Lifting with all her might, Mearest lifts him in the air, and then slams him onto the floor. There is a loud crack that rings out, and the floor breaks. The darkened color comes off, revealing the white tile floors of the mall. Behind her, someone lunges onto Mearest’s back and breaks her concentration. The aura around Monster fades away, freeing him. Mearest grabs ahold of the person on her back and slams them on the floor. She stomps on their head as well, irritated.

More infected continue to charge at Mearest, but she moves out of the way of as many of them. A few still latch onto her, though they are easily dispatched. Others start slashing at Mearest and force her to dodge and counterattack.

Dearest backs up from Monster and fires his entire mag of ammo into him. The gun clicks empty, and he sighs. Monster takes this opportunity to lunge at him once more, but gets kicked back. Spinning the gun to grab the barrel, Dearest then wacks Monster over his head. A satisfying loud crack is heard and the lemon demon is put down on the floor. Not relenting, a foot stomps on his head, and presses hard against it. All Monster does is stare and smile back as the force against his head grows more and more.

The stare takes Dearest aback, but that second is all it takes for the group behind Dearest to return and lunge at him. One of them scratches his cheek, leaving a nasty scar behind. Dearest grabs ahold of them and tears a hole in their chest and tosses them away. The rest are quickly dispatched by another blast of air and crash onto the walls of the mall hard enough to get stuck into it.

Taking a deep breath, he then looks at his bloodied hand and puts a hand toward his scar. In an instant, the wound fades and heals. Dearest then turns to where Monster is but notices that he escaped while he wasn’t looking. “Tch. Coward.” Looking around for said coward, he can’t seem to find him. Dearest takes this opportunity to reload his gun once more.

Suddenly, the mall begins shaking. Mearest and Dearest stop fighting, and surprisingly so does everyone else. “What’s going on?” Mearest says, confused. The two get closer to each other, just in case.

In the center of the mall, the Christmas tree falls apart, breaking into pieces. Once the tree is broken, a large orb slowly morphs and takes its place. Corrupt people run toward the tree and sacrifice their bodies for it. Flesh and crystal crunch the moment it comes into contact and absorbs all of it. The two watch as all of this happens, disgusted, but mainly confused and worried.

The orb begins to pulsate and glow brighter, and brighter. Laughter from within the mall begins to uproar. From the shadows, Monster appears once more, somehow looking a little bigger than he once was. The crystalline form of his body shines brighter, and more cracks seem to form around him. “Like the view? Isn’t this spectacle so amazing?” Monster stares at the glowing ball of energy, and relishes it. He turns his head toward the two parents, “Wouldn’t you like to be a part of it? There’s so much waiting for you, that it’d be a shame for it to go to waste!”

Dearest takes an uneasy step back away from the monster and glances at his wife. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

“Are you suggesting we leave?” Mearest asks, to which Dearest nods. She scoffs but reluctantly agrees. “Fine, but we need to come back.” The two turn back where they came from, but they don’t see the doors at all. They’ve been blocked by the crystalline corruption.

“Going somewhere?” Monster laughs, and approaches them. “You’ve both been doomed from the start the moment you set foot in this place.” The two stare back at Monster, watching his movement with caution.

Taking another step back, Dearest carefully holds onto Mearest’s wrist. “Let’s hope this works.” She turns to him and notices what he’s trying to do. Closing his eyes, Dearest concentrates, and slowly, mist begins enveloping the two.

The two teleport out of the mall, leaving no trace behind.

Chapter Text

With all his might, Soul struggles against the chains. Despite it all, he isn’t able to do anything. With an irritated sigh, he closes his eyes. Was this really all he could do? Just remain as he is, chained and locked up, forced to watch as Boyfriend does things he doesn’t want to? 

No.

This couldn’t happen. He has to find a way to do something, even if it means using all of his strength and will. He won’t give up so easily. Looking back up to see what’s happening to Boyfriend, he notices that he too is somehow chained up, and tied. However, that situation is sorted out when other corrupted people assist him out of those bindings. Soul sighs if only there was an extra hand to help him.

Blinking rapidly, Soul remembers that he still can probably use magic. Conjuring up an attempt to do so, the white glow around Soul becomes brighter, but it slowly fades away. Right now Soul doesn’t have enough energy to break free. As Soul sighs once more, he senses something approaching.

Glancing up at the monitor, it turns to static, but then from the reflection, he sees the shadowy figure return. Turning around, Soul scowls. The figure only laughs, approaching Soul with slow footsteps, taking its sweet time to get close. “I came here to check up on my partner in crime… how are you, boy?”

Soul gives no response, other than clenching his teeth tighter and narrowing his eyes. They don’t mind the lack of an answer and seem to be pleased by it.

“Fine, stay silent. I’ll hear a word from you soon. The moment you give control over to me completely, I’ll ensure that your host will be pleased… and more importantly, safer.” Angered by those words, Soul attempts to lunge toward the figure, but the chains hold him tightly, preventing him from getting too close. “Hm… I see.”

The shadow moves away, turning around. There is a moment where Soul is uncertain as to what will happen next, but a red chain launches at an incredible speed toward Soul and wraps around his neck tightly.

“You know, I could just kill you now, and see what happens. If worst comes to worst… we can replace you and him with someone else.” They laugh, “Maybe his ex-boyfriend will do just fine… perhaps even better. We’re already on the hunt for him.” Soul tries to reach up to grab the chain on his neck, but everything wrapped around him constricts tighter downward into the ground below. With every passing second, his vision gets foggier. “What would you want, boy?” They wait for an answer, which doesn’t come. Even if he wanted to, the chain around his neck prevented him from speaking. The shadow smiles knowingly. Eventually, the chain around Soul's neck releases and retracts back toward the shadow, along with the chains wrapping Soul loosening enough for him to breathe. "No matter. I can wait."

The figure begins to leave, but a noise catches its attention. They turn back to him, waiting to hear if it happens again. A small whisper comes from Soul's direction.

Returning to Soul, they become enticed. “Oh? Did you say something? If you did, you ought to speak up. I couldn't hear you.” A hand appears from a fog, somehow still pure black like a shadow. It lifts Soul's face to it, grasping his chin. “Go on. Speak.” With an open mouth, Soul chomps on the hand that holds him. His fangs dig deep into it, and a strange dark liquid stains his teeth. “Agh! You piece of-” They reel back and glare at Soul. He only chuckles at their misfortune, a smug smile slowly appearing. “You think this will do anything? You think there's ANYTHING you can do to impede me?” The hand fades back into the shadows of the figure. “You are not in control here. I am.” They walk away, disappearing from the mindscape of Boyfriend.

Once the figure vanishes, Soul is left to himself again in silence. But despite the looming danger, a smile remains on Soul's face. Little did his enemy know, that bite allowed Soul to regain some strength, absorbing some energy from it and transferring it to him. With that regained energy, Soul tries again to use some magic. The glowing white aura returns, and glows brightly. It then dissipates, and Soul thinks of a plan. He needs to wait for the right moment. He can break free from the chains right now, but it will take most, if not all of his energy. Even if he breaks free, that would leave him in a horrible situation.

He needs to lie in wait. If someone rescues Boyfriend, then that would make things much easier. But if BF gets hurt, then in turn that would harm him as well. For now, all he can do is slowly regain his stamina, and observe, until he believes it's time to take action.

Chapter Text

Tonight feels like a nightmare, these events that have happened seem too outlandish to feel true. Pico wants to think that it’s just a dream gone wrong or just a psychotic episode of his making him imagine all of this in his mind. Yet, everything shouts at him that it’s just wishful thinking. As he thinks to himself, Pico carefully makes his way to his home undetected.

The very moment Pico steps foot in his home, he locks the door and bolts it. He leans on the door and lets out an exhausted sigh. His head bonks onto it as he stays there for a while. Once he’s done with that, Pico moves to his bedroom to reload his weapon. Opening a secret compartment, Pico brings out his spare gun and pockets it. Pico needs all the ammo possible, so he takes every bullet and magazine from his stash. Pico worries that it's gonna weigh a shit ton, but he knows that he can’t stay here forever. Leaving it here for later isn’t an option. He finds a backpack in his closet and stores all the ammo inside.

Pico whispers to himself, “What else do I need?” He looks around his apartment for a bunch of essentials for him. Throwing everything that he needs in the bag, he then immediately remembers that he needs to call Nene and Darnell to see how they’re doing.

He brings out his phone and calls Darnell. There’s no response. “Damn, maybe he’s still getting chased…” Pico then tries calling Nene. It takes a few rings, but she finally answers.

“Pico! Did you manage to break free of those crazy things?” Nene shouts through the speaker of the phone, somewhat sounding out of breath, and also excited.

“Yeah? I mean, why else would I be calling, Nene.”

Nene laughs. “That’s good! I-” A scream cuts Nene off, and she then also screams back, lunging at something. “Take that!” She then clears her throat and then focuses back on her phone. “Ahem, as I was saying… I’m doing perfectly okay here!”

Immediately after that, sounds of more fighting come from the phone. Pico sighs. “Nene, did you seriously answer my call while you’re still trying to lose them right now?”

“Pft, what!? Haha… No! I would never!”

“Call me back when you actually lose them, Nene.” Pico moves to hang up the phone.

“Wait! I’m almost-”

The call ends before anything else can be said from Nene. The screen goes to the contact list, and for a moment, Pico stares at the list of people he could call, eventually staring at Boyfriend’s number. “BF…” For a good while, he stares at the picture of him, uncorrupted. Alive, and happy. Without realizing it, his grip on his phone gets tighter and almost results in him crushing the phone. Pico quickly snaps himself back to reality, not getting attached to anything he doesn’t need to worry about at the moment. Pico takes a deep breath before doing an extra check through his contact list until he puts his phone in the bag.

Once his bag is sealed, Pico puts it on, feeling how heavy it is. Feeling the bag weigh on his shoulders, he carries it without issue. Checking his weapons, and loading them both, Pico takes a deep breath. He’s now prepared for the worst-case scenario. Flicking the safety on both his guns, Pico puts all his equipment on his bed, leaving it there until things do go awry. He does make sure to keep one of his guns with him still, just to be sure.

Pico looks out the window of his room and looks around. Right now, it’s dark. It’s only two in the morning, after all. Despite the crazy event that happened to him, Pico doesn’t seem to see anything noteworthy outside at the moment. Left with no results, Pico stops peeking out the window and decides to worry about something else.

Sitting on his bed, Pico thinks of regrouping with his friends. He’s hoping that whatever infection is spreading around hasn’t gotten to them yet. Pico also considers securing his apartment with more fortifications, in case some crazy bastard decides to come and attack out of nowhere right now.

Lost in thought, his eyes flicker and grow more tired. He shakes it off, and sighs. His endurance is gonna have to be tested to its limits. It’s not safe to rest, and it likely won’t be the case for a long, long time. Pico looks out the window to scan the area. Out on the streets, he assumes survivors are out there fighting for their lives. Maybe the military could also be out there to help. Pico considers going to them for assistance but remembers the potential risk of being shot on sight. Chances are, they might help, but he can’t be sure. Those cliché movies typically portray the military as some dangerous cleanup force that tries to get rid of the incident by eliminating anything and everything, but Pico then shakes that thought away, this isn’t a movie, or some sort of screwed up piece of written fiction. He grabs his bag and goes out of his bedroom the moment his phone vibrates.

Checking it, Pico sees an emergency notification. “A mass epidemic is currently spreading. For your safety, please stay indoors, cover the windows, and board up your houses. Do not go outside under any circumstances, and await further instructions.” He scoffs at the message.

“Yeah? No shit.” Pico murmurs to himself, already knowing what’s going on here. Pico looks at the time on his phone. Now that there’s an official emergency message, things will either get resolved, or it doesn’t and everything goes to hell. Pico takes a wild guess and assumes the latter. He takes one last check on his equipment, before deciding what to do now.

His first priority is obviously to not die, that’s a given. Another thing Pico considers is the location of Darnell and Nene, those two are the only remaining people left possibly alive that he can trust right now. For a moment, his mind drifts back onto the thought of Boyfriend and Girlfriend. Those two were people he… trusted? Pico shakes his head, it’s a complicated bag of emotions that he doesn't know how to handle, or explain. But right now, Pico knows he can’t worry about them, they’re long gone, and he has to deal with that fact.

As he goes through his mind, the sound of scratching from his front door snaps him out of it. Readying a gun, Pico glances at the door, waiting for something else to happen.

The scratching from the door gets more frequent and turns from scraping to full-on bashing. Pico doesn’t take any chances and moves to his emergency escape. Going to his room, Pico opens a window, looking down below to see a garbage bin with enough stuff to soften most of the landing. Going back to the door, he sees that the door is very much still violently being bashed on. “It’s not gonna hold for much longer…” He whispers to himself and cautiously waits.

For a second or two, whatever was behind the door stopped bashing at the door. But a full hand breaks through the door, revealing its sharp, dark hand. The hand pulls back and stabs at the door once more. Finally giving in, the door weakens enough for it to creak open. “Picoooo? Where are you?” Boyfriend calls out in a sing-songy manner, dragging out his words in a taunting manner. Breathing heavily, Pico readies himself to move.

Running to his room, Pico locks the door, grabs his bag, and double-checks everything he’s grabbed. Pico goes out the window without any moment to second guess himself.

Falling onto the garbage bins, he quickly gets out of there and back looks out onto the streets. A few victims of corruption wander around, aimlessly. Looking at the sky, the sun has yet to rise. He wonders if the day will affect any of the corruption, but it’s only a random offhand thought before going focusing back on the alleyway he’s in.

Up above, Boyfriend jumps out of a window, and lands behind Pico. Glass shards stick on BF, and also fall on the floor. “Found you.” Once more, Boyfriend opposes Pico, stopping him in his tracks.

“Did you really just jump through a different window?” A small smile creeps up Pico’s face, as he draws both of his guns. “Whatever. This time, I’m much more prepared for your ass, so I’d suggest getting out of here while you’re still in one piece.”

Boyfriend laughs. “Oh, but so am I.” With a snap of his fingers, from behind, in front, above, everywhere, corrupted people show up. “I know you, Pico. You didn’t think I’d know where you would run to in this situation? This is your end, and I’ll make sure of it.” Holding a familiar microphone, BF’s smile widens.

Pico looks around, staring at all of the threats looming around him. “Surrounded by a bunch of threats, huh? You should know this ain’t my first rodeo.” Feeling his adrenaline prep himself, Pico readies himself for one hell of a fight. “Bring it on.” Boyfriend points at him, and the whole horde comes charging at him. Switching to automatic fire, Pico fires at the oncoming enemies from behind and ahead, not bothering to aim at a non-lethal area. Bodies drop to the floor, turning lifeless in an instant. Despite the incredibly uneven odds, Pico manages.

Pico shoots countless bullets everywhere, and not a single enemy is capable of touching him before they’re gunned down. In an almost rhythmic fashion, he is able to kill everything in sight. He even gets into it and smiles. Pico starts showing off, and even breakdancing while he takes down each enemy.

The guns click empty, and Pico quickly gets up to eject the magazines from the gun and reload before more get the chance to attack. Corrupt victims leap from the windows and rooftops, but Pico shoots them before they can hit the ground running.

Once the dust settles, bodies of pitch black start covering the floor of the alleyway, and countless rounds have been expended. The crowd dwindles one by one, as Pico remains untouched by the opposing force. Boyfriend stares at Pico, who looks back at him, breathing heavily. Smoke burns from the barrels of both guns. “What, was that all you got?” Pico smirks, looking around at the lack of any more threats approaching.

Boyfriend clenches his fists and sighs. “I shouldn’t be surprised.” BF’s glare darkens, and then he takes a step forward. Pico immediately points his guns forward, aiming at Boyfriend. There is a few seconds of silence, with neither side moving. It isn’t until BF reaches behind himself to grab his mic, that Pico fires a shot, grazing BF’s cheek. He backs up and raises a hand to try and block himself from any more bullets.

“If I were you, I’d stop moving. I ain’t fucking around this time.” Pico glances down at his other hand, seeing the mic in his hand. “Drop it.” Boyfriend only remains in place, glaring at Pico. “Drop the damn mic!” Boyfriend growls and lowers his hand, and lobs the mic toward Pico’s direction. 

Pico glances down at the mic rolling to him. He then kicks the mic out of the alleyway. “Well. I did what you wanted. Now what? Are you gonna shoot me?” BF smiles. “Heh… You wouldn’t shoot someone you still love dearly, would you?” He extends his arms out as if waiting for a hug. “Why not put your guns down, and just… come here.”

A bullet goes into Boyfriend’s shoulder, and it pushes him back and onto the floor. He shouts in pain and puts a hand to the wound. “Shut. Your damn. Mouth.” Pico’s takes a step closer. “If it weren’t for the circumstances, I’d have fucking blammed you into oblivion way before this.” BF’s breath gets strained, staring up at Pico, and the barrel of a gun. Growling, he picks himself up off the ground. He immediately gets shot in the knee and reels back on the floor. “Don’t you dare move. You stay right there on the ground, and quit moving!” Pico’s grip on the trigger trembles for a moment, recovering from pulling the trigger.

BF notices this and takes a deep breath, and lets go of his wounds. He begins laughing, pushing himself back up again. Pico is about to shoot, but Boyfriend only keeps laughing, extending his arms out again. “Then go on. Shoot me!” He takes a step forward, “Keep shooting me, keep hurting him more and more until you kill him.” Pico’s eyes widen as he takes a step back. Maniacal laughter grows from the infected BF, finding a twisted solution to the situation he’s in. “You can’t save him! But you can save yourself… so pull the trigger!”

The weight of his guns suddenly grows heavier, as Pico slowly backs away from the approaching corruption. He pockets one gun and fixes the grip on his other. “Don’t do this.” Pico winces, and forces himself to pull the trigger on his gun again. The bullet hits BF on the hip and makes him falter for a second. He immediately recovers soon after and keeps walking and laughing. “Fucking stop!” Boyfriend still moves, as if not even listening to Pico’s voice. “Stop, damnit!” Slowly, Pico backs out of the alleyway, moving away from Boyfriend. 

“Haha… Why would I stop?” BF winces out through the pain, “Kill me! I’m right here!” He then laughs once more and then starts running towards Pico.

“Fuck!” With no options, Pico pulls the trigger once more, with his eyes closed. There is a few seconds of silence, and Pico realizes that’s a bad thing. Opening his eyes, Pico sees Boyfriend on the floor face down, unmoving. “Boyfriend..?” He waits for what feels like an eternity until he lowers his gun and drops it on the ground. Pico reaches out to hold him, but BF immediately reaches out for him as well and latches onto his arm. Taken off guard, Pico tries pulling away from the grab but fails to do so. “Motherfucker!”

Boyfriend’s grip on Pico tightens and shakes at the same time, but then he reaches out with his other hand and tries stabbing Pico. He notices the attack and prepares a counterattack.

However, the moment Pico winds up his fist, a knife flies by and stabs Boyfriend’s palm, pinning it to the wall nearby. The grip on Pico loosens as well, allowing him to back away. "What the?" Backing away from Boyfriend, he turns around and sees a familiar girl. “Nene?”

“I told you I was almost here. Well… you probably didn’t hear that because you hung up too early.” Nene walks closer to the boys as she spins a knife in her hand. “Glad to know you need my help, Pico.” She smiles, glancing at Boyfriend.

Pico scoffs and dusts himself off, reclaiming his gun off the ground. “I… had the situation in control.”

“Oh, I'm sure you did.” She rolls her eyes at that. As the two talk, Boyfriend tries prying himself free. His other hand reaches out to the knife, desperately trying to pull it. Pico and Nene turn to him, staring at him. “Jeez. He's like a feral dog or something.” Nene walks closer to him, but not too close to where she could get attacked. She stares blankly at the corrupt boy and sighs. “Not sure if I should be surprised by this.” Boyfriend glances at Nene and then slashes at her. It fails, as she isn't close enough. His attempts to reach Nene are halted each time by the knife pinning him to the wall. But each time he does this, the knife tugs at his skin and flesh, slowly tearing him free. Nene notices this and takes a step back. “We should just get going.”

With no objections, Pico nods and turns away. “Wait! Please, Pico!” He halts in place, hearing the desperate voice of Boyfriend. Pico tries not to turn around, knowing his voice is another trick. “Pico… help me. The pain, it hurts. Please, I'm begging you. Don't leave me.” Pico stares at the floor, lost in thought. His mind momentarily flashes back to the mall, where he left Boyfriend to die. Pico tries to erase those thoughts from his brain, forcing himself to continue. “Where are you going, Pico? Don't just walk away without an explanation! Not again!” Pico freezes again.

Nene grabs Pico's hand and yanks him. “Pico. Don't listen to it.” He glances at Nene and grits his teeth. “Let’s go.” She continues prying Pico away from the situation, but he holds his ground. “What are you doing? Why are you just standing there?” Nene tries pulling him harder, but still to no avail.

“Just… give me a moment. Alone. With him. Please.”

Shocked, Nene’s grip on Pico loosens. “Are you sure?” He nods and moves his arm away from her. “Alright… but only a moment. I’ll shout at you to get moving soon because we really do need to get going!” Nene walks out of the alleyway, and before leaving, looks at Pico and Boyfriend one more time. A frown builds up on her face as she continues onward.

Taking slow steps closer to Boyfriend, Pico notices that he isn’t struggling, or speaking. He stares at the boy for a few more seconds, before blinking and shaking his head. Pico takes a few deep breaths, trying to get himself to do something.

Reaching into his bag, Pico pulls out his gun and aims it at BF's forehead. “It’s… it’s the only thing I can think of to help you.” His grip on the gun gets shaky, as he puts a finger on the trigger. “So… please. Just…” Boyfriend stares at Pico, and no words are spoken from him. “Stop looking at me.” Pico feels his vision getting blurry, as he clenches his teeth together. “T-this shit should be easy… so why?” Pico lowers the gun and wipes the tears from his eyes, growling in anger. He quickly turns back to BF and aims the gun at him again, but the same issue arises once more. He can’t bring himself to pull the trigger.

“Do it.”

Pico takes a step back, surprised by the voice. He waits for something else to happen, but no more words come from Boyfriend, as he looks down. Left with no other option, Pico finishes what he started. With a tear running down his eye, Pico aims the gun at BF once more.

“I’m sorry.”

Nene hears the sound of a gunshot. She turns back to the alleyway and considers taking a peek, but Pico walks out of the alley and turns to Nene. She notices that Pico looks awful, but doesn’t say anything. She has an idea of what might’ve happened, so she completely avoids the topic and focuses on a different problem. “Let’s… get going. Maybe we can find Darnell.” The two leave the area and start exploring.