Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Light. Light light light. So. Much. Light.

It flooded all of my senses; I was practically flashbanged with light. It took more than 20 seconds for my eyes to somewhat readjust and for the ringing in my ears to stop. When I could finally use my senses again, what I saw in front of me almost made me tear up.

Allison. Alliston Allister. The love of my life.

She was suspended in a tube-cell-thing, with wires flowing from what seemed like everywhere into nowhere. There was what seemed to be a VR headset above her head, and tubes flowed in and out of her body.

She’s… Did we?

We actually did it, huh.

whuh??

I startled suddenly at the other voice in my head, before remembering that, yeah, there’s other people in there now. Is everyone…?

Storyteller, yup.

I’m here… Tsuki is, I mean.

…

Dawn?

She seems to be inactive as of now. I think the fight took quite a lot out of her.

The… fight?

Suddenly, memories came flooding back to me. Of the battle with Dawn on the stage. Of the things that she said. The things that she put me through.

…

It’s ok, Saturday. You don’t have to think about it right now. Besides, it seems like there are more pressing matters to attend to. We’ll be quiet for now.

I was confused about what she meant at first, but quickly realized that Allison was starting to move around.

Right, I should probably figure out how to actually get out of this cell thing.

I tried feeling around to see if there was anything I could interact with here. Like Allison’s cell, there was a VR headset suspended above my head, and tubes that were… flowing into my arm? Maybe it was an IV? Either way, I pulled them out, which felt really weird, but ultimately wasn’t too painful. I then felt around some more, and found a crevasse in the wall, which then turned into a door handle, which I pulled on. 

It was open. I was out.

I tried using my legs to move, but it seems like they really didn’t want to work right now, as I almost fell over. I held on to the wall as I slowly waddled my way out of the cell.

My eyes were now pretty adjusted to the light, as in, I could open them without being flashbanged. As I was holding onto the wall, I looked around to see where we actually were.

It seemed like we were in a long hallway, filled with terminals and other equipment on one end, and us on the other. Allison seemed to be making her way out of her cell. I looked over to see Chiyo also in a cell, making her way out as well. As Allison opened the door, I tried saying something to her, but my voice was barely functioning, and only one word came out.

“...Allison…?”

She turned over to me in shock. I wanted to cry. We were out. We were actually out. Fuck, I can’t believe we actually did it. I wanted to hug her. I NEEDED to hug her.

In the frenzy of trying to hug her, however, I forgot that my legs were Not Working, and fell flat on my face. Oops.

“...ow”

I used all the strength I could muster to pull myself up enough to make my way to Allison. I pulled her into a tight embrace, as tight as I could for someone who hasn’t used their arms in over 4 years. Tears began to well up in my eyes. I couldn’t believe it. I was here, actually with her, with Allison, the love of my life, of our life. We weren’t in Layer 0 anymore, or 1 or 2. We were here, back home, in Layer 3. I heard Allison sobbing a bit.

“Sat… I… We a-actually?”

“Yeah.”

I was just as amazed as her. We held onto each other for a while. I never wanted to let her go. I wanted to hold her here forever. Eventually, Chiyo opened her cell, limped over to where we were and joined in on the hug. I could’ve stayed like this forever. I really, really, wanted to. 

Unfortunately, that wasn’t in the cards for us.

Out of the other end of the hallway, a voice cut through our moment, catapulting us back to reality. 

“Hey! What are you doing?”

“Shit…”

“D-do we… go along with them?”

Allison’s voice was punctuated with fear, and I couldn’t blame her. Chiyo, despite a bit of a coughing fit, finally spoke up for the first time. 

“I think… we have to. T-there’s not really any other option…”

As much as I hate to admit it, Chiyo’s right. Not really any other way to get around this. I started walking down the hall as the person was calling to us. Finally, we reached the other end.

“Did you just leave?”

“...yeah.”

“Shit, well, ok.”

They pulled out what seemed to be a walkie talkie and muttered something incomprehensible into it. They turned back towards us again.

“Come with me.”

We started walking with them, well, as best as we could for people who haven’t used their legs in 4 years. It was really surreal. The fact that we’re actually out, out of that hellhole of a simulation, wasn’t really kicking in for me yet. The idea that things can finally start to improve, that we can finally start living a normal life, hit me almost like a truck while walking. I turned to Allison, and she turned towards me. We both gave a slight smile to each other. It seemed like she had the same thought as I did.

It was a new day.

Chapter Text

We were sitting on hospital beds somewhere in the military complex. They brought us here pretty quickly and gave us checkups. Apparently, we were in really good condition for people who were sitting in tubes for three years, which is.. good? Yeah, I think that’s good. Our lung capacity was pretty weakened and our legs would take some time to fully work again, but other than that we were pretty much good. It’s not like I was that physically fit before this, so I was ok with it. Our beds were right next to each other, with Chiyo to my left and Allison to my right. I turned to Allison.

“...it’s weird, isn’t it?”

“What is?”

“Being back in our original bodies, I mean. It’s like… we aged while in the duskbreaker, but our bodies didn’t.”

“Yeah… in a lot of ways it still feels like I’m a kid. I think the cycles really messed with our perception of time.”

“Tell me about it.”

I turned away from her, thinking about what was next for us. I should probably see dad, but I don’t know if I even wanted to. Was he in prison now? Probably. I definitely wanted to visit Tsuki again. The real Tsuki, my sister.

And then, after that…?

I honestly didn’t know. I couldn’t really go back to my old house in Tokyo, nor would I want to. That left staying with either Allison or Chiyo, or getting my own place. I’d also need a job too, wouldn’t I, huh?

It’s a lot, isn’t it?

I startled once again, but less this time. I was still getting used to there being, well, multiple voices in my head, but it was happening.

Yeah. I guess I never thought I’d make it this far.

That’s fair. I never thought so either, which is why I previously thought the best course of action was…

She went silent. I knew what she was alluding to.

Hey, that’s in the past now, remember? You’re different. You’ve grown. 

Thanks, but that doesn't really mean anything until I can believe it myself.

I smiled slightly, though with a bit of melancholy. Then I guess I'll just have to continuously beat it into your head, huh?

I heard her snicker. Yeah, I guess. Thanks, Saturday. Best be getting back to the task at hand, though.

She was right. I still needed a plan for after this. Not to mention…

“... sniff …”

Right, yeah. I turned to Chiyo.

“Chiyo… are you ok?”

She looked up at me and gave me a little “yea…”.

“Are you sure?” She sighed and seemed to give up on trying to lie to me.

“I’m just scared, I guess. I’m scared of what’s gonna happen to me once we’re fully healed. Once we get out of here. They might lock me up, and they have a good reason to, but I don’t… I don’t want to be separated from you guys. I just…”

She started sobbing quietly. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for causing this whole mess, well, at least being partly responsible for it…”

If I could’ve gotten up and hugged her right there I would’ve, but the nurse told me earlier not to get up too much, so I leaned over and put my hand on her shoulder.

“Chiyo… you know none of us hold it against you. You made a mistake, yeah, but everyone does! And the most important thing is that you’re actively making it better. As for the legal stuff, though, I can't give you as much assurance, sorry… actually, wait, hold on.”

Storyteller, do you know anything about this?

I might, actually. Let me in front.

“Hi Chiyo, it’s Storyteller. I might have an answer for the legal side of things.”

Chiyo looked up at me, a little surprised, but then softened a bit. 

“Hi, Storyteller. It’s nice to see you again.”

“You too. We haven’t really talked directly, have we?” She shook her head, and I continued. “I don’t know too too much, but from what I can remember, what happened was more of an ethics code violation than anything else. Setsuki should be in jail because he created and led the company, but I think you’ll be ok. Even if you end up having to go to court, though, we’ll be with you every step of the way. We won’t let you go to jail, I promise.”

She looked at me amazed. “How do you know all that? Weren't you stuck in Betweenspace?”

I chuckled a little bit. "Well, when you have to sit through 8266 cycles, you can get bored pretty easily, and layer 1 had an archive with quite a few books, some of them on Japanese law."

“Heh, I guess that makes sense. Well, thank you, Storyteller. Really, it means a lot.”

“Of course, Chiyo. It was nice talking to you.”

“Wait!”

I was a bit startled when she called out like that. “Um… do you mind actually… staying for a bit?”

That was a shock to me. I honestly thought there was no reason for me to stick around, since Chiyo and Allison most likely want to talk to the Protagonist the most, but… 

Are you ok with me staying here for a bit?

Go ahead. You deserve to talk to them too.

Thank you, Saturday.

Chapter Text

“You’re free to go.”

The nurse came up to us pretty abruptly. We had taken a few tests an hour or two earlier, just to make sure we were functioning enough to go. We had only been in the medical center for a couple hours, so I guess our conditions were good enough to leave. That was surprising, but I wasn’t complaining.

“Are we, uh… fully free to leave?”

“Yes. You all might have to take some time to adjust to being in the real world again, and some of you might also have trouble walking for a bit. We’ll escort you out of course, and if there’s any issues that you have you can call the front desk of the complex, but other than that, we have no reason to keep you here.”

“Huh… um, well, thank you.”

I knew what she wanted to ask, if she was included in that as well, but she didn’t. As we got up and started to leave, I walked up to her.

“That was quick, huh?”

“Yeah, surprisingly so. I thought that…”

She didn’t need to say it, I knew what she was thinking. I held her hand.

“Chiyo, you’re ok. You’re not getting arrested.”

“I know… it’s just that I…”

“Yeah?”

“I kinda feel like I… should’ve been?”

I sighed. We’re gonna have to beat it into her head that we forgive her, huh.

Seems like it!

“Look, I know I’m not Saturday, well, your Saturday at least. But trust me when I say that we, all of us, forgive you. You’re a nice person, Chiyo, you just made a mistake, that’s all.”

I looked up at her. She was wearing an unreadable expression. I guess it might take a bit more time, then.

“If you ever wanna talk to us, any of us, please just ask. I promise none of us will mind talking to you. Well, maybe Dawn would, but that’s besides the point.”

She giggled a bit. “Thanks, Storyteller.”

I gave her a smile. “Of course, Chiyo.”

We had been walking in the complex for a while. The hallways were long, longer than anything in Betweenspace for sure, and had doors lined on them with blacked out windows, seemingly one-way.

“You think this is where they torture people?”

“Heh, with the military? I wouldn’t be surprised.”

“True.”

She moved a bit closer to me and put her hand next to mine, seemingly asking for permission to hold it. I… does she know I’m not her? I didn’t grip her hand at first, and she wore a confused look on her face. I guess I didn’t tell her yet. This… might be awkward.

“Hey, um, Allison?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m, um… I’m not, uh, Saturday.” She looked even more confused now. I pressed on.

“It’s, uh, Storyteller, in front right now.” She finally seemed to understand what I was getting at.

“Oh… ohhhhhhhhhhhh”

“Yeah.”

She looked… conflicted. It seemed like she wanted to ask a question but didn’t know if she should. Finally, she opened her mouth.

“Are you… also, like, in love with me?”

I chuckled a bit. “Every part of Saturday, every bone in our body, every neuron in our brain, is in love with you, Allison. It’s one of the only things that unites all of us.” It looked like she didn’t expect that response, as she started blushing and stuttering a bit. I missed this. She’s cute.

“Even… Tsuki and Dawn?”

“In… a way, yes. We all ‘receive’ those feelings towards you, if that makes sense. It’s what we choose to do with those feelings and how we interpret them that sets us apart. The Liberator and Worldkeeper… I assume they will not process those feelings the same way me and Saturday will.” Besides, they’re probably more in love with each other than with you , but I didn’t say that part out loud for obvious reasons.

She sighed. “God, this is all really weird…”

“Yeah, it is, haha.” I contemplated if I should say what I wanted to say next. I don’t… know how the Protagonist would react to this, honestly. I’ve never talked about this to her. It’s too… embarrassing, I suppose. That loneliness while observing the loops… that wasn’t my proudest moment, honestly.

Hey, yknow I can like, hear you, right?

Hah, right, yeah. Still getting used to that.

You and me both. Anyways, I… don’t know exactly how I feel about all of this yet, it’s weird and complicated. Why are so many things in my life weird and complicated?????

Tell me about it.

Yeah. But, the thing you said about “receiving” those same emotions, that’s true. Whenever you feel love for her, I do too, and vice versa. So I guess I don’t mind for now if you want to get to know her more.

Are you sure? You have every right to say no, you know. She’s your girlfriend, not mine.

Yeah, I do, but… I know how you feel about this. I read the logs in Betweenspace, and… no one deserves to go through that kind of loneliness. You deserve to be with her too, and as long as I feel that love, every time she hugs you, holds your hand, kisses you, says she loves you… that’s enough.

That’s, wow. That’s a really beautiful way to put it.

Only for the most beautiful girl in the world. But, uh, it’s still her choice, so if she chooses not to be with you as well, I’d like you to respect that, please.

Of course. Thank you Saturday.

Anytime. Let me know when you get tired of fronting, I can hop back in whenever you need.

I steeled myself for what I was to say next. “I just wanted to let you know that, if you choose to stay with just the protagonist, then that’s ok. I know this is really weird for you, with me being, uh, four people, but if you are open to being with more than just Saturday, I’d like to get to know you better, If you’d be open to it.”

Her expression was… unreadable. I waited for a few seconds but I got no answer. I started getting nervous. We were approaching the end of the hallway, I could see the light streaming out of the glass doors. Why is this almost scarier than anything that happened in the duskbreaker? 

Finally, however, she answered.

“I’d… like that, I think. I know you’re all different people now, with different memories and experiences, but you’re all still Saturday, and… I love Saturday. Maybe not now, though. I still don’t know you well enough for that. And maybe not with Dawn or Tsuki, I don’t really know how I feel about those two.”

“That’s fair. Thanks, Allison, truly. I’m looking forward to getting to know you better.”

“Me too.” She smiled. She has a really nice smile. I wanted to look at it for as long as I could, but... no, I couldn't.

Hey, Saturday, if you wanna come back now, feel free to.

As we approached the end of the hallway, I saw the light from the outside world shine onto the floor through the glass doors. I couldn’t help but… hesitate, for a bit. Why am I hesitating? Isn’t this what I wanted? And then I guess I realized that… this is the turning point. Another one. There’s no going back after this, once again. Once I step out of the door, my life will finally resume, no, my new life will begin. That must be why I’m hesitating, I guess. I’m not afraid anymore, though. I’m not even dreading what’s coming next, I’m looking forward to it. This is finally the chance I have to rewrite my life, once and for all. So no more hesitating.

I walked through the door.

…hello?

Chapter Text

“If you ever wanna talk to us, any of us, please just ask. I promise none of us will mind talking to you. Well, maybe Dawn would, but that’s besides the point.”

“Thanks Storyteller.”

“Of course, Chiyo.”

…Does she know I’m lying?

I mean, of course, I am worried about the legal stuff, no doubt about it. I don’t wanna go to jail or have to defend myself in court, that’s even more hassle on top of what I actually want to do.

What I want to do is get Eri and Kotomi back.

The Duskbreaker is stored in this facility, and yet we’re leaving it. It’s not like I have any other option, though. I can’t just ask Saturday and Allison to sneak back to the place where we were held for three years and re-enter the trauma machine that we JUST ESCAPED and potentially risk our lives just for the chance to get Eri and Kotomi back, now can I?

…can I?

No, but it’s what I want to do, though.

There’s a way to get them back, and it’s through the Duskbreaker, I know it. We sent them to the TVO client, and the only way to access TVO is through the Duskbreaker. If I could just get in there, somehow, and establish a connection, then maybe, just maybe, I could find a way to transfer their bodies down to layer 3…

I sighed. There’s not much I can do about it, now, at least. I have to wait a bit, see when I have the chance to come back here. If I have the chance to come back here, anyways. Also, if what I did with the Duskbreaker wasn’t illegal in the past, it definitely would be this time. 

But…

There’s no other option. I’m coming for you, Kotomi.

I’m coming for you, Eri, I promise.

Oh great, look who’s finally awake.

Where the hell am I??? Where are you???

You’re inside Saturday’s mind. My mind. Our mind, now.

Oh… oh.

Yeah.

So, is she…?

I’m right here.

…

Silence was all that followed while Chiyo, Allison and I continued walking down the street, which was right next to a pier somewhere close to Tokyo, as I could see it in the distance. It was a nice, breezy summer afternoon, the kind that me and Allison hung out together all the time before this whole mess. We didn’t really know where we were going or what we wanted to accomplish, we just kinda walked. It was nice, honestly. There was still so much for us to do to get used to life back in the real world, so many questions that still needed to be answered, but this quiet moment kinda let us just… ignore all that, and appreciate seeing the actual sun in the sky, with real birds chirping and real people walking beside us. It felt surreal, which is ironic considering this is the most real I should’ve been feeling in 3 whole years.

…I’m… sorry, Tsuki, I guess.

You guess???

Look, this is hard for me, ok? I’m not used to feeling this many… emotions. I… before it felt like, even though I knew ultimately what I was doing was harming you, harming us, I had the power to just… push it all away, because I thought I was doing the right thing, but I… I know now that I wasn’t, and I see all of that damage I did, and I just…

I’m sorry, ok? I was stupid. I wasn’t thinking correctly, I was wrong. There, are you happy?

…

…Yeah, I am, actually.

Huh????

I giggled a little bit. It seems like she genuinely wasn’t expecting that answer.

Look, if there was anyone out of us who would get it, it would be me. I spent my whole “life” living simply as a concept, as an emotion. You did too. But because we embodied that emotion, we could only feel that emotion. We couldn’t feel love, or empathy, or anything like that… But now we can.

I would be lying if I said some of the things you did didn’t hurt me. Actually, most things you did hurt me. But I hurt you too, in so many ways, on so many levels. No one deserves to go through that kind of pain, not either of us. So I guess what I’m asking is, let’s just forget everything that happened previously. This is a fresh start for us. We can redefine who we want to be, we can actually be… people. And I think that’s pretty cool.

Wow. That’s actually…

God damn it, did you learn how to become a therapist when you got humanized too???

Well, I, uh…

Yeah, though. I guess you’re right. There’s no point in holding onto old grudges when we both know that it was a different time under different circumstances. So yeah, I guess this is a second chance for both of us.

You could say this is a… new Dawn for us.

I hate you.

I giggled, louder this time. Those two are gonna be hilarious together. Wait, why is Allison looking at me like that???

“Saturday, what are you laughing at?”

Oh, shit. How do I explain to her that I was laughing at myself not being amused by a joke that I made?

“...just remembered something funny, that's all.”

She focused her glare on me, but eventually gave up trying to discern what I was hiding. That’s pretty uncharacteristic for her, honestly. She’s usually knows me pretty well, and if she doesn’t know what I’m hiding then she will find out. She must be pretty tired, which I don’t blame her for. Actually, that reminds me, where the hell are we gonna sleep????

“Uh, guys, where are we gonna stay for the night?”

They both stopped dead in their tracks. Uh oh, I thought at least Chiyo would have thought about that.

“I literally never thought about that.”

“Uhhhh, Allison?”

“Yeah, I got nothing.”

“Well, that’s not good. Can we stay at your apartment, Chiyo?”

“Saturday, I haven’t paid rent in three years. I wouldn’t be surprised if the apartment itself gained sentience and started hunting me down.”

“That’s… oddly specific.”

“What about an AirDND?”

“That could work.” I grabbed my phone, which they thankfully kept for us, and started looking up AirDND’s around us. 

“There’s a pretty cheap one right near us, about a mile walk. It has 2 bedrooms and a bathroom, one story and a kitchen.”

“That’ll work. 

“Ok, Chiyo, can you book it? Me and Allison are gonna see what’s to eat around here.”

“Sure thing.”

I sent her the link to the AirDND on my phone, then pulled up a list of restaurants near us. We found a few good-looking ones, but they were all too expensive, so we settled on a small ramen place only a mile away from here. We didn’t have a car, and it’s not like we were in a big city with a lot of public transport options, so we had to stay pretty local. It was when we started walking towards the AirDND that I started to feel it. I felt… happy again. Like back during the downtime we had in the Duskbreaker. Things weren’t perfect, obviously, but I felt like I could finally start living my life with my friends, the people I hold nearest and dearest to my heart.

It felt comfortable.

…huh?