Chapter Text
He’s running now.
A strange creature with bat-like wings swoops down from the night sky, but Kit ducks away from its outstretched maw and hanging tongue without much thought.
He has to run.
He has to hurry.
Kit doesn’t know where Jentry and her friends are now, but he knows they’re after Mr. Cheng’s daughter.
Cheng is also after his daughter.
The two could clash at any moment, and Kit—being intimately familiar with Cheng’s abilities and physical prowess—cannot convince himself that it won’t end in disaster.
He has to do something about it.
He has to run.
Jentry’s words are still burned into his mind, echoing back louder than any other thought he tries to overwrite them with.
I’ll treat you like every other demon that gets in my way.
Kit doesn’t even have time to really think about the statement. How badly it stings. How suddenly it came. How, in all fairness, reasonable it is.
Kit is a demon after all. And apparently, not even causing the end of the world could take that away from him.
But he’s going to do something about it.
He’s going to help. He’s going to make this right. Somehow. Somehow.
He has to run.
In this moment, Kit finds himself feeling glad to be free of his skin. Which is something he almost never feels. His long legs, unrestrained by human proportions, make lengthy strides across the sidewalk as he sprints. His unsightly appearance, long an instant source of public disarray and hostility, seems to now fit nicely among the otherworldly invasion happening across Riverfork.
Rounding the corner of a block, Kit’s eyes lock onto his home a few houses down the street. During his time living in it, it felt both like a suffocating cage and a comforting refuge. A place Cheng had provided that allowed Kit to hide himself from the outside world, to carefully construct masks and personas undisturbed.
Undisturbed, that is, until he made one with her.
It’s still in there.
Gasping for air, Kit throws open the unlocked front door of his house. The generic, somewhat disheveled interior looks as gloomy as ever, shielded from what little outside light there is by the perpetually-closed blinds. Hearing a roar from somewhere outside, he closes the door silently and makes his way over to his bedroom.
Kit’s “plan” had only just started forming in his mind when he started running. Even now, it’s more of a disjointed set of ideas and goals, slowly assembling into an attempt at doing something. Anything.
Anything to fix his catastrophic mistake.
He throws open a drawer, relieved to find his Jentry skin suit neatly folded inside. It’s still equipped with her jacket and shorts, and Kit quickly squeezes himself into it. Then he dashes over to his wardrobe, frantically sifting through the hanging outfits inside. She was wearing the cheerleader uniform last, right?
Thankfully, Kit had stolen one a few days ago. It’s a regrettable habit, taking sets of clothes he happens to find lying around and adding them to his vast collection. But nobody was using it then. And now, he needs it more than anyone else. Once more, he must become Jentry to help her.
As he swiftly changes clothes, Kit runs over what semblance of a plan he’s managed to construct so far. If he can pass as Jentry, he may be able to confuse Cheng. Distract him, at least. Jentry clearly has a plan; she always does. If Kit can, at the very least, do something to buy her time, maybe he can help fix all of this. Maybe she can forgive him.
Maybe he can forgive him.
Fastening his boots, Kit runs back to the front door, but freezes before he can turn the knob. Just outside, the low growl of some monster can be heard.
His breath held, he tiptoes over to the front window and peers through an opening in the blinds. There, skulking not far from the door, is a massive lion-like creature with the head of a crocodile. Kit backs away from the blinds and clutches his chest. He can feel his plan faltering, his resolve cracking.
No.
Kit immediately recollects himself and goes back to the window to watch the beast as it curiously pokes around the front yard. He can’t wait for it to decide to leave, Cheng could be at Jentry’s throat right now.
Musing over his options, Kit reasons he has two main routes of action: Bursting out the front door in a full sprint, hoping the monster can’t match his speed, or sneaking out of a window on the side of the house.
He doesn’t give himself much time to think it over. Reasoning that the creature outside could easily do something unexpected to disrupt his plans and slow him down further, he makes a split-second decision to sneak away from the house.
Acting quickly, Kit yanks at the blinds on the kitchen window and unlatches its lock. He hoists himself up to the windowsill and ducks through the open frame, briefly appreciating the fact that Jentry’s body is small and lithe enough for this kind of maneuver. It’s still hard to get used to though, and Kit only barely lands on his feet as he tumbles out of the window.
Crouching through the grass, he makes his way over to the fence at the side of the house and leaps up onto it. It’s not incredibly high, but it vastly outperforms the view from the ground. He surveys the horizon, trying to remember the direction he last saw Xiao Lan flying in. Then he notices a small yellow glow coming from the water tower in the distance.
The robes. They’re being held by a girl with light hair.
Jentry.
Suddenly, A large cloaked figure leaps up onto the water tower behind her. With a powerful swipe, Mr. Cheng knocks Jentry off the tower completely, sending her plummeting into the forest below.
“Jentry!” Kit gasps involuntarily.
He lowers himself onto the other side of the fence, carefully sliding along it to make his way back out onto the road. Peeking out back toward his house, he spots the furry crocodile monster occupying itself with one of his neighbors; they're whacking it with a garden rake. Seeing his opportunity, Kit leaps onto the sidewalk and begins running again. Only now, he's paying more attention to his surroundings, while also trying to minimize the loud clacking sound of Jentry’s boots hitting the cement.
Turning back up to face the water tower, Kit notices that Cheng is now nowhere to be seen. The only thing left up there is a small girl, most likely his daughter, clinging to the railing on the side of the tower.
He has to run.
The woods are still quite a distance away, and Kit suddenly becomes wary of how much of a disadvantage Jentry’s shorter legs are. But he continues, taking strides as wide as he can possibly manage.
He wishes he had a weapon now. Kit knows he’s capable, but he’s not particularly great at fighting. He tends to bring more of a get the hell out of here and hide sort of attitude to negative encounters. Of which he’s had very many over the years. Now that he has to do something though, now that he has to fix things, he can’t run away any longer. He’s going to face Cheng head-on.
This will probably kill him.
The thought comes almost out of nowhere, striking Kit’s brain like a lightning bolt. Cheng won’t hesitate to murder anyone that gets in his way now, and without her powers, Jentry—or anyone appearing to be her—is a prime target.
Kit scrambles over a gate and lands firmly on the soft forest floor. He can no longer see the water tower through the trees, but a commotion from deeper in the woods tells him where he needs to go. He hears Cheng roar in anger, and a series of thuds follow.
He has to run.
As he approaches, a white and yellow cloak flowing from behind the trees steals his gaze; the Yellow Emperor’s robes, hanging from the arms of Jentry Chau. She’s standing at the edge of a large clearing next to a tall, partially armored figure that could only be Michael.
Panting as he exits the treeline, Kit notices that Jentry is frantically trying to put the robe on, and Michael is beginning to assume a defensive stance. Spotting movement in his peripheral vision, Kit turns to see the reason the two are so tense.
Across the clearing, but rapidly closing the distance through it, is the massive form of Mr. Cheng. His tattered robes drag behind as he charges with inhuman speed, his bladed arm outstretched toward Jentry. Before he can even realize it, Kit is running toward her as well. The yellow robes begin to glow once again, but-
No.
He can’t.
It all happens in slow motion. Which is still way too fast.
Jentry’s scream echoes across the clearing as a large black blade pierces straight through her chest. The robes, which she had only been able to perch on one shoulder, are thrown to the ground. Her body too, lifted up by the force of Cheng’s attack, falls to the ground with a painful thud.
No.
This isn’t real.
“No,” escapes from Kit’s mouth, but it’s in Jentry’s voice.
Michael—after falling to his knees beside Jentry—looks up at Kit with shocked, teary eyes. Cheng also turns to him in silent stupor. The glowing purple iris behind his mask shifts from one eye-hole to another. The realization hits him quickly.
“Oh, Kit,” Cheng chuckles viciously. “You’re too late.”
Too late.
The end of Cheng’s blade morphs back into a clawed hand, which he uses to pry away the robes from Jentry’s limp arms. Kit hears the ghost of Gugu scream something at Cheng, but the sound is distant and faded, indecipherable to him as he stumbles down onto the grass next to Jentry’s body.
Michael is still looking at him with a hung jaw and damp eyes. “K-Kit?”
Kit ignores him and grips Jentry’s arm, which is wrapped in a makeshift cast. There’s still qi in her body, but it’s-
It’s so weak.
And fading.
“Jentry!” Kit cries out in a failing Jentry voice. “Please- get up.”
Her eyes dart over to Kit. “What the-?” she mumbles in a labored voice. “A-am I... projecting?”
Kit drops the voice entirely now. “Jentry, it’s me. Kit. Get up, we- we can fix this.”
“Oh,” Jentry attempts a laugh, but a bloody cough comes up instead. “I dunno, I-I think I... Kit, Michael, I... Sorry.”
“Jentry,” Michael shakes his head. “Don’t do this, please. J-just hold on, we will...”
Fading.
Michael stands up, whipping his head around as if hoping to find some sort of cure or solution for Jentry’s intense bleeding. Maybe a coincidental first-aid kit lying around on the ground. An incredibly convenient paramedic nearby?
Fading.
But they’re in the middle of a forest. There’s nothing. Nothing but the three of them. A football player, a demon, and a body with several punctured vital organs.
Gone.
Michael begins frantically taking off his armor, and then tugs at his white tank top.
“Michael. She’s dead,” Kit’s hollow voice states flatly.
Jentry is dead.
Michael takes off the tank anyway. “You don’t know that! We need a- a thing to wrap around her! To stop the bleeding!”
“Don’t waste your clothes. A tourniquet can’t help her now.”
It never could.
Nothing can.
Dead.
“N-no, you’re-” Michael firmly grasps the hem of his tank top, but seems to lose the strength to rip it apart. “You’re...” He collapses once again, bursting into tears over Jentry’s corpse.
Your fault.
She’s-
Kit looks over at Michael, quietly shoving down a million terrible thoughts that are desperately trying to burst into his conscious mind. Kit considers saying something to him. Something soothing. No, something dismissive. No, something reassuring. Something angry. Something that will convince the dumbass to get his stupid shirt back on, he-
His thoughts are interrupted by a shout from Mr. Cheng on the other side of the clearing.
“Return them, Flora!” The mogui is grasping at the floating Emperor’s robes. “How many more will you kill just to get your hands on these powers?”
“This is your doing, Cheng!” the ghostly woman bites back. “All of this is your attempt to have your daughter back! A daughter who clearly hates being ripped out of her afterlife by her selfish father!”
Cheng lunges once again, only barely missing the robes as they zigzag around the trees. “I will not be scolded by a hypocrite! The only daughter you’ve ever raised is now dead on the ground!”
The mogui stops to stare at Gugu, gleeful malice dripping from his voice.
“And she died hating you.”
Gugu screams, focusing her palms on Cheng. A light blue glow envelopes his entire form and begins pushing him back. He claws at the ground in resistance, but the old woman’s fury continues to slide him away from the Yellow Emperor’s robes, which now lay on the ground.
One of the other ghosts around Gugu telekinetically picks them back up, quickly carrying them across the clearing to where Kit, Michael and Jentry are. The ghosts too appear to be shocked by Cheng’s revelation, crowding themselves around her body with hushed voices and horrified expressions.
“Jentry, no!” Her small jiangshi sidekick runs over as well, tears streaming down his face. He lifts up her uninjured arm. “Get up! Don’t die on me, Jentry! We’re besties! W-we were... supposed to win this together...”
A booming cackle from behind Ed causes everyone’s head to turn. Cheng is now crawling his way toward the crowd. Gugu is far behind him, hovering just above the ground and seemingly too tired to move.
“Win this? Foolish jiangshi, the only way you could’ve won anything is if you remained loyal-”
Ed screeches before Cheng can finish, rapidly shape-shifting into his taller, more menacing form. He throws himself at Cheng, furiously clawing at his mask and hair. Ed slithers around the mogui’s frame, darting between his repeated swipes.
“Get the robes away from him!” Gugu wails, slowly floating over to the crowd of ghosts around Jentry’s body. Her cries are heavy with exhaustion. “He can’t be allowed to put them on!”
He can never touch them again.
He will never touch them again.
Maybe Kit can fix this.
Fix what’s left, anyway.
Kit yanks the floating robes away and begins sprinting toward another end of the clearing. “Come on!” he calls back to Michael and the ghosts with a hand gesture. “While he’s distracted!”
The ghosts promptly follow him, and Michael—after looking down at Jentry once more and reluctantly putting his tank top back on—takes after them as well.
It’s at this moment that Stella conveniently decides to catch up to them. “Michael! Jentry! You’re okay!”
“Stella?” Michael gasps through tears.
Kit switches to Jentry’s voice instinctively.
“No. We’re not done with this yet,” he says, gesturing over to Mr. Cheng, who is getting closer and closer to restraining a scampering Ed.
“Oh, right. Okay. So what do we do?” Stella asks. Then squints her eyes, “Hey, who’s that lying down over there?”
Nobody answers her. Instead, the ghost carrying his severed head speaks up. “What’s the plan, Gugu?”
“I don’t know,” Gugu clutches her chest. Her face is strained and her eyes are watery. “Without Jentry, I-I... We- we...”
She takes a deep breath. “We need to use the robes. Cheng won’t leave until he has them, he can’t be reasoned with. Someone has to... put them on.”
Fix this.
“I’ll do it,” Kit instantly submits.
“Uh, what?” Stella asks, clearly still expecting an answer to her earlier question.
“What? No, I’m not stupid. They’re not going to a demon. No,” Gugu repeats dismissively.
Kit begins to protest. “But I-I-”
“Oh wow,” a deep voice from behind interrupts. “It’s not going well, huh?”
Behind them, emerging from a white, watery portal is a tall, bearded man wearing a fiery cloak. He’s holding the hand of a frightened Xiao Lan, Cheng’s daughter.
“Zhongkui! Oh, it’s not going well at all. Without the powers, we-” Gugu stops herself.
She eyes Xiao Lan carefully. “She can wear the robes.”
Zhongkui squints. “The Yellow Emperor’s robes? Her? Is that not what got us into this situation?”
Gugu turns around, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. “She’s a child, she can only do so much damage. Lethal damage, I mean. And now she’s had experience with the powers, even if it’s not much.”
“You’re insane if you think this is a good idea,” says Zhongkui.
“Gah! Eck!” Ed’s choked cries echo from across the trees.
Kit turns to see the jiangshi now firmly wrapped in Cheng’s hands, being squeezed tighter and tighter around his neck.
“Gugu! Someone! Puh,” Ed sputters as the sharp black fingers enclose further around him. “Agh!”
The ghosts hovering around Gugu all glance at each other with silent determination. After a shared nod between them, they all immediately fly over to Cheng and begin trying to telekinetically force his arms apart.
Gugu takes the robes from Kit and lifts them over to the scared girl, still holding Zhongkui’s hand. “You’re Xiao Lan, right? Listen, I need you to put these on.”
“Huh?” the girl gazes up at Gugu with a fearful expression. “No! I don’t wanna! Who are you?”
“I know. I’m sorry, but... you’re the only one who can help us.”
Xiao Lan shakes her head and looks around, soon resting her eyes on Kit. “Jentry! Tell her I don’t wanna!”
Kit is taken aback at the sudden acknowledgement. His eyes dart around and his brain desperately searches for something to say. He still has to fix this, somehow.
“Xiao Lan, I know you don’t want to, but your father, your bàba... He’s not the person you knew before. He doesn’t want what’s best for you, and he wants to hurt a lot of people. If you put those robes on, we can send him away. Put you back where you came from.”
Kit closes his eyes and exhales. “We can fix all of this.”
Gugu scoffs, but Xiao Lan sniffles and begins slowly nodding. She lifts her arms up and the robes are lowered onto her. Their fabric begins to ripple and glow as they rest on her body, and Xiao Lan swallows nervously.
“Stop!” Cheng growls, now suddenly right behind all of them. Everyone but Cheng's daughter takes a few cautious steps back. “I’ve had enough of this! Xiao Lan, give them to me.”
The girl balls her fists. “No! Never!”
“Xiao Lan, I am your father! I am the only one who knows what’s good for you! You will give those robes back to me right now!”
A burst of energy launches out of her arms, making Kit flinch. “Nuh uh, you don’t! You can’t decide for me!” Xiao Lan shoots a glance at Kit. “And you’re just choosing what’s best for you! Not me!”
Cheng raises an arm to deflect Xiao Lan’s fiery burst. “What are you talking about? You’re a child! A little girl! How could you possibly know better than I what you need? Do you have any idea how long I’ve strived to bring you back? I did all of this for you!”
Tears are now pouring down Xiao Lan’s face, and her palms, emanating fiery green energy, are aimed directly at Cheng. “You did it for you! And you hurt people!”
“I will not tolerate this from my own daughter. Give the robes to me. Now,” Cheng snarls.
Powerful energy continues to spark and flicker around Xiao Lan’s hands.
“Open a portal!” Gugu calls from behind. “Send him away!”
Without warning, Cheng suddenly lunges at his daughter. She reacts quickly though, pushing him back with a massive stream of green and yellow flame that partially singes his robes.
A portal begins forming behind him.
“Xiao Lan, stop! Don’t you dare!” Cheng’s shout is laced with fear and worry.
“I didn’t want this,” Xiao Lan cries. Then she screams, “No more!”
A blinding burst of fire erupts from Xiao Lan’s arms, emitting a shockwave powerful enough to knock Kit, Michael and Stella over where they stand. Cheng screams something as the flaming beam’s force drags him closer and closer to the portal. He desperately reaches out, flailing around and screeching out multiple attempts at speech. His claws drag along the grass, but he fails to pull himself out of the ray of fire.
With one final scream, Xiao Lan forces Cheng completely into the portal and promptly closes it. Then her eyes shut and she falls limply onto the ground.
The silence that follows feels like it stretches on for hours. Kit cannot take his eyes off the blackened grass and foliage where the portal was, where Cheng was pushed to who-knows-where mere seconds ago.
“What was all that?” Ed breaks the silence, waddling over to Kit and the crowd as he adjusts the position of his neck. “Did we kill him?”
“Not kill him, but...” Gugu trails off.
“Well, I suppose that’s all settled then,” Zhongkui dusts off his clothes. “If the portals are closed now, I should get back to my duties in the Bixi. But I’m keeping an eye on you, Flora. Those powers are unspeakably dangerous.”
“Yes, I know,” Gugu sighs. “I can manage them.”
Zhongkui raises an eyebrow. “Uh huh. Okay, well, don’t get into any more trouble. And no more rule breaking. I’m serious.”
“So he’s talking to a ghost, right?” Stella whispers to Kit. “Is it Gugu?”
Kit nods absentmindedly, still trying to place himself in the current moment. His head is still spinning violently.
It’s over. Cheng is gone.
His daughter sealed him away.
With Jentry’s powers.
Jentry is dead.
His fault.
Died hating him.
Disgusting.
Like every other demon.
Jentry is dead.
Jentry-
“Jentry?” Stella asks, waving a hand in front of Kit. “You alright?”
Kit only blinks in response and stares at her.
Michael places a nervous hand on his neck and takes a deep, exasperated breath. “Stella, I-I don’t think that’s... Jentry.”
Stella’s smile falls. “Huh? What do you mean?”
Michael sighs and hangs his head. He begins walking, gesturing for Stella to follow. She does, and after a moment, Kit does too. They leave Ed and the ghosts behind, who are huddled around Xiao Lan’s body.
“Oh... Oh my god,” Stella gasps once she gets close enough to the corpse of Jentry Chau to recognize it. “What?”
Nobody responds, and the three keep walking until they get closer. Stella’s footsteps become incredibly cautious and slow as they approach.
“That’s- that’s not Jentry. Right?” Stella says after they all stop to look down at the body.
Tears are falling from Michael’s eyes again. “Stella. I-it. It’s her.”
Stella’s head snaps to face Kit. “Wha- what is he talking about, Jentry? Y-you are Jentry, right? Please tell me this- this body is something else. This isn’t funny guys. This is... gross.”
Kit is gross.
“Stella, that’s her,” Kit says, now falling back to his voice.
Not even his voice, is it?
One he made for her.
“I’m- not Jentry.”
Stella’s eyes are now wide in horror and she stares at Kit for a moment. “Y-you’re-” she then angrily shuts her eyelids and places her hand to the sides of her head. “No, no. This isn’t real. This is...”
Michael falls into her, wrapping his arms around her as he cries. Tears are leaking down Stella’s face as well, and Michael clings onto her tightly despite her vigorously shaking head and hands.
After staring at them for a moment, Kit sighs and digs into some of the skin on his cheek. It takes effort to rip it off, much more than it took when he had some of it partially melted. But he tears it successfully, once again leaving half of his true face exposed for the world to see.
“Sorry,” Kit mumbles, unable to manage anything else.
Stella wipes her eyes, but it doesn’t dry them much. “So you’re... Kit. The demon. An actual skin-wearing, soul-stealing demon.” She takes a deep breath and yanks a talisman out of her pocket.
“No, please, I-”
He what?
He made an attempt at- at what exactly?
Distracting Cheng? Saving Jentry? Fixing his mistake?
All of those failed.
All Kit did was spend hours running around blindly, foolishly hoping for a world in which he could’ve done something for somebody else one time. He had wasted his time and breath, all in a vain endeavor to correct maybe the most devastating and permanent mistakes he’s ever made. It was a stupid idea, looking back now.
Kit is a demon. He never even had a plan.
“I can’t believe this,” Stella cries, advancing toward Kit with her raised talisman. “I knew we should’ve done something about you earlier. And you’re the one who caused all of this, aren’t you? You stole the robes from Jentry’s house!”
“And I’m sorry! I thought that-”
He deluded himself into thinking that-
“I-I tried to-”
He failed to-
“I was going to help you guys. To- to fix my mistake.”
And he didn’t. He never could. There is no universe where Kit fixes his mistake. It was always going to be this way.
Because Kit is the mistake.
Through tears, Stella immediately charges at Kit, talisman raised toward him. “Fēng!”
Kit dives out of the way, catching himself on his knees. He tries to pant out another apology, but Stella is determined. She reorients herself and runs at him again. Kit dodges once more, and turns to Michael with a pleading glance. Michael looks away.
Unsure of what else to do, and right before Stella reaches for his forehead, Kit launches himself off of the ground. He sprints around the trees so quickly he briefly worries he’ll tear himself out of the Jentry skin’s legs. In only a few seconds, it becomes clear Stella is unable to catch up, but Kit’s not even thinking about that now.
Kit did this.
All of it was him.
He killed Jentry.
One more to the list.
He didn’t even get any qi out of it.
Kit runs straight to his house. It’s much darker than he remembers. And much smaller. Dustier, too? He can hardly breathe. He slams the door to his bedroom, not noticing himself peeling at his skin. Stumbling around, he catches sight of the mirror.
Jentry stares back at him.
Demon.
Suddenly his entire face has been torn off. Kit’s vision blurs, and he can only barely recognize the scraps that have magically appeared all over his floor as patches of skin. Turning to look at his vast wall of skin and fabric rolls, Kit backs away in terror. He doesn’t notice the bed behind him, and once his legs collide with it, he falls back.
Kit falls and falls, and then the darkness consumes him entirely. Suddenly, there is nothing.