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Noelle thought about times when it rained pretty often.
Once, when Noelle and Kris were younger and about to start walking home from grade school, it started pouring.
It wasn’t raining when the day started, so neither of them had umbrellas. And apparently, the school didn’t have any either. So, their options were to wait it out, run through town in the rain, or get Miss Toriel to call Noelle’s mother to pick them up.
Kris really wanted to run home and it took a frankly absurd amount of convincing for them not to. Noelle really didn’t want to disturb Miss Toriel, since she was still teaching the younger classes (each grade got out at different times), and Noelle couldn’t get Kris to do it, since they were either running home or waiting, so that left them both stuck under the school’s awning.
It was… nice. She didn’t really like being stuck here, but standing next to Kris, and watching the rain pour was almost fun. They watched the streets get coated with water, and got to watch the sidewalk change from gray to grayer.
It would probably be more fun if they were in the safety of either her or Kris’s home, but it was still fine.
Noelle liked the rain. Not as much as she liked snow, but she liked the weather in general. Well, she liked non scary weather. She wasn’t a big fan of storms. That was one of the few fears that Noelle and Kris could agree on. They were almost fearless, and they kinda laughed at most of the things she was afraid of, but they hated how loud thunder could get.
Easily the second worst part of storms was the wind, though. It was either pretty creepy, or downright scary when strong enough. It didn’t help that trees outside made some really awful noises when that happened…
Kris once told her that it sounded like that because it was ghosts screaming, and then that made her cry, so, that was pretty mean of them. But, they let her hug them (since no one else was around at the time) so she didn’t hold it against them. They were very caring when they weren’t making her life more difficult on purpose.
All in all, both of them could do without thunder storms.
Thankfully, the sky wasn’t that dark, and she hadn’t heard thunder once. It was just raining really, really hard.
“I still think we should just run for it.” Kris said after a few more minutes of watching the rain.
“And I think that you should get your mom to call my mom.” Noelle said. “She can drop you off at your house too, y’know. Or you could come over. Or we could do anything other than stand out here.”
“That’s true.” Kris agreed. “Running would be more fun though.”
Noelle groaned. Of course. Out of everyone she knows, the only person that she couldn’t call stubborn was like, Asriel.
The rain continued to fall. With nothing else to do, and not really wanting to go back inside, either, Noelle began to think.
Dess was starting high school soon.
Noelle would start seeing her less. Not by much, she was still gonna be at the same building, since the Hometown school kinda just did every grade, but she was gonna start having less and less free time.
Noelle… didn’t really know what to think about that. She didn’t really like change.
Nothing would ever stop them from being sisters… but… would they stop being friends? Was that a thing? Did people just… stop being friends when they got older? Noelle really didn’t want to find out.
Maybe it was a ridiculous worry, but she’s been thinking about it more and more. It felt like her and Dess haven’t really been hanging out as much anymore. It was probably because she had less time, but… Noelle wasn’t sure.
“Hey… Kris?”
They turned away from the tree they were staring at. “Hm?”
“Do you…” She stopped. “Nevermind, it’s stupid.”
“Probably.” They said.
Her jaw dropped. “Hey, you aren’t supposed to agree!”
They tilted their head. “My mom said you’re supposed to agree with a lady.”
“Well, not like that.” She huffed.
“If you told me I can properly assess whether it’s stupid or not.” They said with a hand on their chin, incredibly seriously.
“It’s, I mean…” Noelle stuttered. “Do… you think we’ll still be friends when we’re older?”
Kris looked at her. Really looked at her. They really hated eye contact, and their hair was kinda long so Noelle never realized, but their eyes were… really piercing. And kinda pretty. It felt like they were looking at her very soul.
They stared at her for a few seconds longer. Then, they smiled a toothy grin, and laughed.
“Huh. You were right, that was stupid.” They said brightly. Before Noelle even had the chance to frown, they said, “we’ll always be friends, duh.”
She let go a breath she didn’t know she was holding. Even if they were a little mean about it, it was really relieving to hear.
It was still raining, but for now, everything was going to be okay.
“Thanks, Kris.”
~ ~ ~
The next time there was a memorable day with rain, it… wasn’t for very good reasons.
It was the beginning of winter, the temperature unable to decide whether it wanted to be cold enough for snow or not.
Noelle hoped it did. She really liked snow.
It didn’t.
Maybe things would have gone differently if it did.
Instead, cold water fell from the sky, flip flopping between rain and furious sleet.
Earlier, Dess and her mother had an argument, and Dess left the house in a rage.
That was in the afternoon. It was after dark, now, and she hadn’t come back. Rain pounded against the window. More time passed, and it was beyond Noelle’s bed time, but Dess still wasn’t back yet, and Noelle couldn’t shake this feeling that something terrible happened.
Then a day passed.
And another.
And another.
And another, and another, and it was far past this just being a ‘teenage rebellion’ or whatever her mother called it, and now people were panicking, and there were search parties, and another day passed…
And Dess was alright.
She was at the hospital, because she was very weak right now, but she was alright.
Noelle was pretty sure Dess was gonna be grounded forever, and frankly after a scare like this, Noelle couldn’t even feel bad about it. She was just so, so relieved.
It didn’t last. Even when there was good news, bad news followed.
Nobody could find Kris.
Like with Dess, it was like they up and disappeared.
At first, Noelle wasn’t worried. Well, that wasn’t true, she was really, really worried. But, Dess came back after a week, so surely Kris would turn up soon? They were probably just pulling off a prank. Considering what’s happened this week, it would be a very, very mean and insensitive prank, but it was probably just a prank.
It wasn’t. A day passed, then days passed, and then a week passed, and then weeks passed…
A month passed, and it was raining, and Kris was lost, and it occurred to her that she may never see them again.
When she thought that, everything went still.
She could feel tears stream down her face, but she couldn’t feel a reaction otherwise. She wasn’t really crying, she wasn’t sobbing, she was just… still. She has never been so still in her life.
For just a moment, it felt like it was only her and the rain.
And it felt like the rain was crying with her.
~ ~ ~
It rained on the first day of high school.
Noelle found that she wasn’t a huge fan of rain anymore. It was a slog, and everything was just so gray and dreary.
Maybe she would have been excited for high school once upon a time. That was a big milestone, wasn’t it? But, it was hard to be excited. She still lived in Hometown, so it isn’t exactly like anything changed. It was the same town, same building, same people outside of one missing human, so it was the same as any other day, just a rainy walk to school.
Well, the same people part wasn’t quite true. There was a new girl. Susie.
The class roster has been the same for who knows how long outside of the one time it went down by one, so when Noelle got to school and saw a new face, she stopped for a moment.
She didn’t stare, she wasn’t rude, but she looked long enough to get what she looked like down. Purple, reptilian, well worn clothes, really bad posture.
(The way her bangs covered her eyes kinda reminded her of Kris…)
Eventually, the first class of the day/semester/schoolyear whatever she wanted to call it started, and Noelle noticed that Susie didn’t bring a pencil. The girl in question was quietly panicking, as she rifled through a backpack that looked like it should have been retired a long time ago.
Seeing that no one that was seated closer to her was doing anything and knowing that she had had plenty to spare, Noelle gave her one. Her pencil stock pile has never been higher, so it was hardly a loss.
She… hasn’t needed to get pencils for a while.
Realizing that, Noelle turned away swiftly, before Susie could even say thanks. It was rude of her, but she really needed to turn away. She bit the inside of her mouth, and tried to focus on class. Crying at school would be really embarrassing. On the first day? That would be even worse. She wasn’t six anymore. So she wasn’t going to.
Even if she missed Kris more than she could really ever put into words.
Outside of that initial meeting, Noelle didn’t really have an opinion on Susie. From what she’s gotten from the rumor mill, most of her classmates trended towards ‘bad’, but she hasn’t actually seen her do anything other than be alone, and it wasn’t really like that was a crime.
Noelle spent most of her time alone, too.
~ ~ ~
It rained the day before she became a hero.
It was a benign, forgettable day, where she didn’t do anything outside of her routine. Wake up. Get ready for the day. Go to School. Go to the library. Study. Visit her dad in the hospital. Go home. Study some more. Have dinner. Spend time with her sister, if she was up for it. If she was home for once, spend time with her mom. Go to bed. Repeat ad nauseum.
Then it was the next day.
Alphys couldn’t find the chalk, sent her and Susie into the supply closet, and instead of a supply closet, there was another world, with castles and princes and living cards.
And there was a prophecy.
A human, a monster (who was a girl with hope crossed on her heart), and a prince from the dark.
Noelle… wasn’t sure if she was really a hero.
It could have been either her or Susie. Neither of them are sure, and neither of them are eager to take the title. In Susie’s eyes, she was not a hero. She was a bad guy. That’s kinda the opposite of a hero. Even if she’s gone back on a lot of her ‘badness’, she still didn’t think she was a hero.
When it came to Noelle herself, she thinks she could be a hero. Maybe. But, when Ralsei mentioned the second part, a more definitive role… Noelle couldn’t really say she fit it all too well. Sure, she was a girl, but, so was Susie, so that wasn’t exactly a helpful indicator. But a girl with hope crossed on her heart?
Noelle thinks she may be the single most hopeless person on the planet. She doesn’t expect good things. She prepares for the worst, and tries to be surprised when the worst does happen.
That doesn’t exactly sound like hope, to her.
All of them were at a crossroads, but, Ralsei said that it didn’t really matter for now.
There were three heroes. One of them had to be a human. Most important, it was the human that had the power to seal the fountains.
That was… an issue.
There weren’t any humans in Hometown. Not anymore.
So, none of them were heroes at the moment. None of them could do anything.
But, in the end, the fountain was sealed. It caught them all off guard, one moment they were fighting King, the next, a brilliant light consumed them.
She opened her eyes, and she was in the abandoned classroom.
It was a little weird, a little jarring, a little awkward.
Eventually, her and Susie went their separate ways. As she walked home, Noelle just… really hoped that no one called her mom. Dess would probably think it was very cool that she technically skipped (even though she didn’t, she was stuck in a closet all day), but her mom… would be less enthused.
~ ~ ~
Noelle was prepared to write that off as an odd dream, but her and Susie agreed to check back tomorrow, to make sure.
It became tomorrow, and after school the two of them opened the door to the school’s supply closet.
There was still a Dark World in the closet.
Yesterday was not a dream.
Maybe not yet, but they were indeed heroes.
~ ~ ~
Berdly had invited her to study at the library that day, so that’s where they went. ‘They’. Not just Noelle.
It occurred to Noelle that this is the first time she’s made a friend in a very long time. She had a plethora of acquaintances, but… nothing more than that.
It was all cordial, superficial. She was on good terms with Berdly, Catti, and Jockington, but she hasn’t spent time with them in a while. She hasn’t had someone she could call a confidant (that wasn’t her sister) in a very long time.
The closest thing she had to a friend at this point was Berdly. Asriel moved away, and Dess… counted? But that was her sister so… yeah. Berdly. They played games, and studied, and… that’s it.
But, now she had Susie. Maybe it was a bit early to call that, but… it was nice.
She opened the door to the computer lab, and saw the same sight as yesterday, and earlier. A darkness so black it didn’t even look real.
Uh oh.
~ ~ ~
When they entered the library’s Dark World, they met a Darkner who introduced herself by a serial number, and then, a name. ‘Queen’.
Okay, Noelle may be insane for this, but she recognized that serial number. It was a random thing she would never be able to consciously recall, but she knew it. That was one of the Librarby’s laptops, the one she used the most.
Realizing that the ruler of this Dark World was the laptop she has used extensively struck her probably the most intense fear she has felt in a while. None of the mortal danger of yesterday came close.
She… cleared out her search history, right?
It was so paralyzing, that she didn’t actually react in time to dodge a cage. Oops.
It enclosed around her, kidnapping her like she was just a damsel in distress…
Susie swore, yelling at Queen to let Noelle go, but she just laughed, and moved her arm up. Following the motion, the cage flew up and away, taking Noelle with it.
Yeah… she probably wasn’t a hero. A hero definitely wouldn’t get kidnapped immediately.
The cage continued on its path. Noelle wasn’t really sure where it was going, but she could be doing better than waiting to find out. Once it got close enough to the ground, Noelle took a deep breath, and blasted an IceShock towards the ceiling, freezing the top of the cage.
That cut the power to the cage! Which was still moving…!
Momentum carried her forward, landing on a green section of the field.
She grunted as it hit the ground, with her still inside it. She tensed, and tried to minimize the damage caused by the cage still rolling.
And then she started screaming, because she was falling.
Thankfully, she didn’t end up as a victim of physics and nothing more than a pile of dust on the floor because her fall was broken by some garbage.
She gave herself a few moments, so that her heart could stop beating so fast.
Since the cage finally stopped moving, she started to attempt to free herself. She applied pressure to the top of the cage… and… it… wouldn’t… budge.
Well.
This stinks. And since she was in some kinda dumpster trash area, quite literally.
She tried thinking about a way out of this. The cage was sturdy, so she isn’t sure if another IceShock could free her. And, if it didn’t, then she would have a bigger issue. The remnants of ice that her IceShocks took up a lot of space.
Noelle was… pretty claustrophobic, all things considered. She really shouldn’t risk crushing herself.
But, she was out of options right now. Waiting for Susie or Ralsei to rescue her didn’t seem very appealing, but she didn’t see a safer way out of this.
But, she heard something. Footsteps, small and light, getting closer. She was really hoping for a savior, and not an enemy.
She heard a glitchy voice.
“H- Hey [[OST 30 Lost Girl]], looks like you’re [[All Alone on a Late Night?]] Stuck in a [[Goddamn Garbage Can?]]”
She looked towards the voice, and saw a small, strange puppet guy. Um. Okay.
“Um. Hi?” She waved. “Could you… help me out? I’m kinda… stuck.”
He just stood there, unmoving. “Stuck on the [[corporate ladder]]? Ran out of [[Hot Deals]]? Friends, abandon you for the [[slime]] you are?” He laughed. “I know your [[Type]] There’s just [[one thing, I don’t know why]] you want.”
“...Freedom?”
He laughed manicly. “[[FREEDOM]] Yes! [[FREEDOM MOTIF]] That’s what every [[Big Shot]] wants!”
This guy was insane!
Noelle just kinda tensed, because what else was she supposed to do here?
“List3n kidd, let’s make a [[DEAL OR NO DEAL!]] These are the [[Terms and conditions]] I free you from that [[birdcage]], you bring me to Queen’s mansion.”
She… could do that? In theory? If it got her out of this… she could try.
“I’m not really sure where Queen’s mansion is, but I’m sure I can get there?” Was she really about to do this? “It’s a deal?”
He laughed. Then, he unhinged his mouth (???) and fired a blue egg thing (???) directly at the cage! Noelle shrieked, covering her face with her arms.
She felt recoil from the impact, but was otherwise uninjured.
She opened her eyes, and saw that she wasn’t stuck anymore.
“[[STAGE 1 COMPLETE]]” The puppet guy said. “Now, meet me at my [[Home-made Storefront Site]] for [[Top 10 Tips and Tricks!]] for [[Dealmaking]]”
He they walked away, further into the trash yard.
Well. He did help her. So, she could help him, and carry out her part of the deal.
~ ~ ~
The deal went poorly.
~ ~ ~
Okay, that was a slight overreaction. Noelle met Spamton at his shop, learned about a ‘workout ready body’ (whatever that meant), purchased a ‘KeyGen’, and got a Loaded Disc.
That was an awful lot of stuff to keep in her pockets, but okay.
Next, she traveled the city to reach Queens mansion.
It was… pretty awesome. A bit lonely, she couldn’t find any of her friends, but she’s always wanted to go to a city. It… was nice.
Eventually, she reached the mansion.
It took a lot of exploring, and getting lost in a really creepy basement, but she found what Spamton was looking for. A weird, decrepit robot body.
She inserted the loaded disk.
Nothing happened.
Well, her deal was to get Spamton to the mansion, so all in all, mission accomplished.
She turned back, and went to go back to the mansion proper, but was stopped by Spamton, with his new mechanical body.
He spoke, and he… almost went on the offensive. Noelle could tell that he was mere moments from attacking, and prepared an ice spell to counter.
But… he didn’t.
He left the basement, and it was now occurring to her that she probably shouldn’t have unleashed that on Queen’s mansion, even if she did kidnap her at first.
Noelle wouldn’t say she was tricked… but she did feel like she may have made some suboptimal choices.
Eventually, she met back up with Susie and Ralsei. And Berdly. Who was also here? Apparently? He was in the library, so she shouldn’t have been surprised, but she definitely was.
She didn’t see the results of her mistake just yet, so maybe it would go fine? But, she did inform her friends that she may have given a deranged salesman a powerful robot body.
Susie reacted accordingly. “How… does that even happen?”
Noelle didn’t have an answer. It’s been a long day.
~ ~ ~
The party of four engaged Queen, learned that she wasn’t trying to end the word, and was just acting based on what she thought the Knight was trying to accomplish, which was… a really absurd conclusion to that.
But, they all learned that covering the world in darkness would be really bad, actually. Which would have been good to know from the start…
All's well that ends well, but, this definitely wasn’t how she was expecting this day to go.
Everything was fine for the moment.
But… when they went to the fountain, Spamton NEO was already there. He was locked in combat with another, shorter figure.
Spamton was losing.
The figure stopped. They turned, and looked straight at Noelle.
Bathed by the Dark Fountain's darkness, she could see them clearly.
Noelle took in all that she could.
Dark armor. It was almost indiscernible where it started and stopped, just a coat of black in the silhouette of a person.
A helmet, with horn, and a star shaped visor.
A hole in their chest, with a red human soul. Spikes stabbed through the heart, keeping it in place.
Noelle could feel it in her soul. That was the Knight. The Silent Knight, as Queen called them.
They turned back, slashing Spamton with their sword.
Blue light shone off of Spamton, he appeared to change modes.
The Knight stopped moving entirely. Every attack that Spamton threw at them bounced off their armor harmlessly, allowing them to focus. Did his attack drop when he went blue, or was he always that weak? Noelle wasn’t sure.
Then, it was as if all the light left the room.
The Knight’s sword glowed red.
And then they rended Spamton in two.
He cried out, his legs falling to the ground, with his upper half still suspended by string. The Knight slashed again, cleaving the strings.
Both halves of Spamton fell to the ground.
The Knight kneeled down, and grabbed something from the now destroyed robot body.
Then, they thrust their hand into their chest, grasping their soul.
Holding onto it, they turned, looking at the party once more.
Ralsei was tense, Susie went for her axe, and Noelle just stared.
They were in a standstill.
Until they weren’t.
They tossed their soul in the air, it going straight for the fountain.
And then, the fountain was sealed.
~ ~ ~
There was a Dark World in the Dreemurr’s house. The house has been empty for some time.
Asriel left for college, Toriel and Asgore separated, and with Toriel moving away, no one lived here. It wasn’t a home anymore. Just a house.
The Dark World inside was in a sorry state of affairs. It was so… empty.
Nothing but barren wastelands.
They walked, and walked, and somehow, some way, the three were split up. One moment it was a full party, the next, Noelle found herself alone.
And then she wasn't alone.
She stopped moving when she saw them.
The Silent Knight.
They kept walking. With no other direction being viable, she followed them from a distance.
The path folded in on itself, and somehow, Susie, Ralsie, and Noelle circled the Knight. Whenever the party noticed, each of them took a step back in shock.
The Knight glanced at each of them.
Then, they moved their hand to their back. When they brought it forward, they held a sword. A very large sword.
Being this close, Noelle looked at them again.
They were tall, and imposing. But, upon closer inspection, they got a lot of height from the horn-like protrusion on their helmet. Actually, they were shorter than Noelle. By a little bit, too, the top of their helmet stopped around her nose.
But they didn’t need height to be imposing. Their ramrod straight posture and sword that was longer than they were tall exuded danger.
Noelle felt the fur on the back of her neck rise, and acting on pure instinct, she brought up an ice wall just in time to shield against the Knight’s attack.
The worst part is that they weren’t even targeting her. They slashed in such a wide arc that it hit all of them.
The three tried talking it out, but the Silent Knight didn’t listen. It just attacked. She wanted to say mindlessly, but they didn’t waste any effort. Every swing, every block, there wasn’t a moment where they acted suboptimally.
It was the most difficult, and strangest battle she ever fought. She was used to keeping her distance and needing to dodge ranged magic attacks, but the Knight just… didn’t have any of those. They exclusively fought with their sword.
Susie was tough enough to match that, for a short while at least, but neither Ralsei nor Noelle had the defense to engage with them for long.
Ralsei was down
It's like… they didn’t have magic at all.
She didn’t want to consider it. There wasn’t a point in dwelling on it. But…
She knew. She knew that the Knight had a human soul, and could seal fountains. There wasn’t a single other human in Hometown. There’s no one else it could be.
Humans were kinda small, especially compared to monsters. If… they didn’t go missing, she couldn’t imagine them being taller than her.
Susie went down, hurt and beaten.
They were focused entirely on her. She prepared an ice spell, but they just stood there. Watching. Waiting.
Why? Why stop? She didn’t want to think about it, but there was no reason to hesitate. They should have gone on the offensive, like they did with Susie, and Ralsei…. unless she was familiar.
She had nothing to gain. She had nothing to lose.
She said a name
“Kris?”
The Knight stopped moving entirely.
No.
No no no no no no no.
It can’t be.
Why? How? Where have they been?
“What… what happened?” She said, voice barely above a whisper.
The Knight took a step back.
Noelle took a step forward.
They looked away. They scratched their helmet with their gauntlet, black shards flaking off. They turned to her and then suddenly, it got darker.
She’s seen this before. She didn’t have time to react.
Instead of their sword, their very soul shone, unleashing light upon her.
She was overwhelmed with light.
She blacked out.
~ ~ ~
She could feel something. The feeling of being dragged across the floor. The feeling of an arm holding her up by the hood.
She glanced over and saw a black silhouette was dragging her. She looked further, and saw that Susie was being dragged in the other Knight's hand.
“Kris…”
They tensed, but did not stop.
“Please. Please don’t go.”
They hesitated.
They didn’t hesitate for enough.
They reached a door, one separating light from dark.
It opened.
And then they threw both of them out of the Dark World.
~ ~ ~
It was raining right now. A gentle drizzle, soaking Noelle drop by drop.
Susie slowly came to next to her, but Noelle was frozen on the ground.
They were alive.
It was raining when Noelle found out the true identity of the Silent Knight.
Kris was alive, and Noelle had no idea what to do.