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Run.
That was the first and frankly only thought in Shedletsky’s brain.
He was used to the regular killer lineup. He was even used to those killers who would pop up at least twice a month with little to no explanation. He was used to those who only popped up once every few months, who the other killers didn’t know at all.
What he wasn’t used to, however, was this killer.
No one had known how to deal with him. It was practically a massacre.
For a split moment, everyone thought it was 1x1x1x1. That made sense, with the bright green and the black, but then there was a striking realization as soon as he spread his wings, wings that Shed did not want to think about.
It was not 1x.
He was cold. He was calculating. He was violent.
Shed ran through the unfamiliar map, passing by the sickening sight of Dusekkar on the ground, helm cleaved perfectly and body ravaged by a sword, so violently it was like the killer had a personal vendetta against him. Guest was laid out nearby him, a protector who fought to the end, killed much more cleanly than Dusekk.
Illumina hummed uncomfortably in Shed’s grasp as he white-knuckled it, muttering a quiet apology. He knew he was…
He was the last man standing. He tried to not think of how Builderman was killed so violently in front of him as the penultimate survivor in the round. He tried not to think about the look or the face of the killer. He tried to not think about how the minions summoned using the spots where his fellow survivors had fallen looked like him.
He sprinted up a staircase to an upper platform, looking over at the two bodies he’d just found.
Chance was slumped against one wall, like he was when Shed first saw him appear in the cabin. His gun had exploded, clearly, considering the blast wound across his arm and parts of his face, and then he had been taken out by a simple sword stab. On the ground next to him was Two Time, their body dragged over from a different spot in the room. It looked like they’d both gotten cornered, both of their weapons failing them. He wasn’t sure if the dragging was a sort of mocking manner, or if it was some attempt at a ‘reward’ for trying to fight back.
There was the sound of heavy footsteps. The killer was approaching again.
Shed quickly began his move again, sprinting now for the back of the raised platform and hopping off it, trying to keep forever ahead of the one hunting him down like prey.
The map was horrifically unfamiliar, but smaller than the unfamiliar map he dealt with back during Halloween. There was a choking fog over it, thick and murky, obscuring everything. It was like some horrible mix of The Tempest and Yorick’s Resting Place, and no matter what he did he felt like he couldn’t memorize the layout. A storm raged in the air, though lightning never struck ground, just crackled through the sky.
Another corner turn revealed Elliot splayed on the ground, 007n7 somewhat close by, like he’d gone down body blocking for Elliot while Elliot tried to heal him. Shed was stuck between being thankful the two were getting along as well as they could and horrified at how they had gone down.
…That marked the only bodies he hadn’t found yet to be the ones he didn’t want to find, because he knew they’d be together. He knew who he’d find in that trio of bodies. He knew it was a corpse he did not want to see.
Instead, he found himself circled back to where he had first become the last man standing. To where Builder lay, surrounded by the remains of his sentry that he thought for sure he could run the timer with. The timer that was at a standstill, that Shed could no longer feel ticking down. It was just a cold silence in the air and in his brain as he stared, knowing this would be yet another visual of Builder dead on the floor that would haunt him during those sleepless, silent nights.
“SWING!”
Shed flipped around as he heard Illumina shout in his head, and its shining blade clashed against the blade of a blackened greatsword.
His eyes met the eyes of the killer.
Eyes that were once his own. Eyes with a divine light Shed had not ever had as Shed. Telamon’s eyes. Telamon’s eyes, on Telamon’s face, that was lined with Telamon’s head-wings, on a body that held Telamon’s grand wings that were used to perch on top of The Heights where It could throw Itself at whatever poor sap thought they had a chance.
“IS THIS WHAT ALL OF YOU ARE LIKE?!” the horrifying reflection hissed through gritted teeth, venom in his speech, “RUNNING LIKE COWARDS.”
Shed did not know how to respond as he shoved the blade back, regaining his footing.
He didn’t want to think about what he was seeing. What he knew he was seeing. But yet, something in him dared to ask:
“Why do you…look like her..?” he whispered out.
Distinctly, this version of Telamon was not how It originally appeared. No, no, he much more resembled someone else. A certain being of pure hatred.
“You speak like you harbor fondness for our greatest mistake,” ‘Telamon’ threateningly stepped forwards, “Like you see horror in killing it.”
…
Shed’s mouth went dry, his eyes widening.
“You…killed her?”
It made sense. For this Telamon to exist, this alternate him, either The Shattering never happened, or it was exactly like that plan that Shed and Dusekk had made before hunting down 1x for that ill-fated duel. The plan Shed had backed out of at the last second, leading to the death that sent him to this hell. That indirectly led to Dusekk and Taph’s deaths from the ripple effect afterwards.
The plan to kill 1x and reabsorb that hatred, turning back into Telamon.
Shed jumped out of the way of the next swing, nearly tripping over Builder’s corpse.
“THE ROOT OF OUR MISERY WAS THE SHATTERING. YOUR DUEL AGAINST JUSTICE MERELY ENDED IN YOUR FAVOR THROUGH LUCK AND LUCK ALONE.”
He was starting to put the pieces together.
Years ago, before any of them were here, Builder had made a mistake [...one they were all suffering for now, as Shed remembered the giant beast that greeted them on Halloween] and frantically traveled to The Banlands to rectify it.
Where Doombringer, enraged with how the world had been run, trapped him.
Where Shed had traveled to, and been proposed a duel. If Shed won, Doom would let Builder go. If he lost, Builder would die.
A duel this Shed won just barely, and then chose to spare Doom and leave with Builder.
A duel that Shed, now Telamon again, had lost.
“You lost a duel, so you killed her?!” Shed shouted, voice backed by a primal hiss.
“Telamon would not have lost that duel! Telamon would have torn Justice asunder and scattered him across the land he so dares to claim rule to!”
“YOU LOST A DUEL, SO YOU KILLED YOUR DAUGHTER?!” Shed’s hiss was suddenly much more violent, and he swung with Illumina, catching ‘Telamon’ in the face before he was kicked back and he tumbled, taking merely a moment to get back on his feet.
“IT WAS NOT MY DAUGHTER, NOR WAS IT EVER YOURS!” ‘Telamon’ roared, swinging his greatsword again and catching Shed, carving through his front, “MERELY A SHARD THAT SHOULD HAVE NEVER EXISTED! YOU SHOULD NOT EXIST! SHEDLETSKY SHOULD NOT EXIST!”
It was no longer fear powering Shed fighting to the end of this round. It was rage.
Wounds be damned, Shed flung forwards again, stabbing Illumina in deep.
“I DESERVE TO EXIST MORE THAN YOU DO, YOU SORRY EXCUSE FOR A TELAMON!”
Sword clashed against sword, and talons tore against talons, screams and hisses and snarls filling the thick, foggy air.
“WHEN I’M DONE HERE, I’LL ERASE YOU AND MOVE ON TO THE NEXT. ONE LESS MISTAKE ACROSS THE TIMELINES!”
Shed found himself thrown to the ground, hitting it hard and taking a moment to catch his breath, rolling out of the way of a dark shape rising into the sky.
He realized as it slammed where he once lay, with a bitter pit in his stomach, that it was a coffin. An empty one, meant for a body that lay elsewhere. A cenotaph.
…Taph.
He had tried to keep his mind off of Taph the whole time, knowing she was dead in the round somewhere. How could a version of himself go so far as to kill Taph with no remorse? To kill Builder and Dusekk with no remorse, and in fact horrifying violence for Dusekk?
But no matter how far, he knew there was one single thing that a Telamon, no matter what, would accept.
“IF I LIVE UNTIL THE TIMER RUNS,” he yelled, feeling the ticking of the clock starting again, “THEN YOU LEAVE ME ALONE. A DUEL.”
‘Telamon’ paused.
And then he laughed.
“A DUEL?! LOOK AT YOURSELF!”
“If you really are Telamon,” Shed pulled himself up, gritting his teeth at the pain, “then you’d accept the conditions. A duel.”
A duel. ‘Telamon’s eyes widened a moment before he readied his stance.
“Then so be it. Survive if you can, Shard.”
Shed knew he couldn’t stun something like this. This was a version of Telamon he was facing. But he had an idea. An idea to point something out. Something he had heard mumbled from a certain someone when his flame flickered in a nightmare during the few times he’d sleep. Something he never thought to ask about, already assuming what it meant and who originally said it, now slightly edited for the situation at hand as it crawled out of his mouth like some horrible creature, praying that if this was a round the others could watch, Dusekk would forgive him for weaponizing:
“What would Epitaph think?”
At that cheap shot, ‘Telamon’ froze, look unreadable and sword held mid-swing.
And with that, Shed immediately took off running. It was just the timer. He’d run the timer a dozen times before. He’d seen others run the timer down before, not daring to turn back and fight a losing fight. He ran the timer back during Halloween.
So into the fog he went, hearing shouts and screams and laughs behind him as a wild hunt began, Shed once again prey for a killer much more vicious than he ever thought he could be. He vaulted over whatever was directly in his way, trying to ignore the horrible pain from the slash he’d taken to his front.
He thought he’d gotten far, feeling the timer tick down.
And then suddenly a slash carved through him. Something akin to a Mass Infection, but rather than just the pain of poison, there was something…emotionally crushing about this. Something in him that stuck like sap in his feathers. It was a sinking pit that had him trapped.
Something in him whispered, writhed around him in a wrapping self-hatred. This wasn’t a wild random occurrence. This was something he could’ve become. The same thing that carved into Dusekkar like it wanted to make a pie. The same thing that killed Builder without remorse or hesitation. The same thing that left Taph dead somewhere in the round. The same thing that killed its version of 1x.
Something he could become. What separated Shed from that beyond a few bad days? A few split-second choices?
Maybe Shed…did deserve this. Maybe he–
Those couldn’t be his thoughts. Those couldn’t be, or at least not fully. The urge to tear at himself and sit there and let himself be killed. That wasn’t right.
Shed snapped out of it just in time to get kicked again, sending him tumbling and sliding up against something.
His eyes adjusted to the scene, and he took it in with a cold sinking feeling.
Noob was splayed out on one side of the scene, a broken slateskin potion bottle in front of their face-down head. Veeronica was on the other side of the scene, screen shattered and casing cleaved through, cracks on her hands like she had tried to punch her way out of the situation after her skateboard had been snapped in half.
And with those two of the trio, Shed knew exactly whose corpse he had slid up against. A peer over committed another horrible sight to his memory.
Poor Taph, who always seemed to get the short end of the stick in these ‘special’ rounds. He at least seemed to just go down as viciously as everyone else rather than with an extra layer of cruelty, though it seemed like every member of the trio had gone down in the middle of a fight, one of Taph’s hands still clutched around a tripwire that it looked like he was using as an attempt at a garrote.
Nearby were the two unarmed pieces of a Subspace Tripmine, like it’d gotten knocked out of Taph’s hands before she could arm it.
Shed remembered, so vividly, the first time he confiscated a Tripmine from Taph. 1x had given it to them as a gift, and then blatantly told Shed that she got it from Doombringer. A statement that nowadays Shed was pretty sure was blatantly false.
But yet, a thought was so vivid in his brain. A thought of exactly what to do next.
The timer ticked, and Shed grabbed the two pieces.
‘Telamon’ approached.
Shed pressed the pieces together, and held them for a long moment. Illumina lay nearby, knocked out of his hands and frantically yelling at him to win the fight. The timer ticked by ever so slowly as ‘Telamon’, always one for theatrics, slowly got closer.
And then–
He threw the Tripmine directly at the one approaching.
The entire world exploded into vibrant magenta, and a screeching noise violently rang in his ears. ‘Telamon’ shrieked like a dying bird, fumbling backwards. Shed grabbed at his own head, trying to figure out exactly how Taph had stayed so calm any time she was accidentally caught in the blast of a mine she had thrown.
And at once he was suddenly tumbling out of a chair, hitting the ground and shutting head-wings over his face as the mere light stung. He pushed himself up, resting on his hands and knees as he tried to breathe. Everyone was talking around him at once, voices overlapping trying to ask if he was okay, what had happened when everyone else went down and it was just him, what–
“CAN Y’ALL READ TH’ ROOM FER ONCE!?”
Shed clutched onto that voice that pierced through the chaos. A voice he heard not just with his ears, but in his head.
The entire cabin went silent. It was clear he wasn’t the only person who heard it in his head. Something that Shed had thought the one who shouted had lost the ability to do.
A gentle hand was placed on his back, and he slowly peered up, folding his head-wings back to the sides of his head. Builder stood above him. His Finch.
“Breathe, Falcon,” he hummed, “Round’s over.”
Shed slowly stood, leaning on the table to support himself as Dusekkar shooed everyone else back to the main area of the cabin.
“That…that was a Telamon,” Shed slowly breathed out, “A post-Shattering Telamon. You know what that means he did, right?”
“...Yeah,” Builder sighed, nodding, “Figured as much.”
“I…” Shed tried to speak, only to trail off.
He was almost that. He was almost a Telamon that lost Builder and killed 1x over it. 1x had disowned herself years and years ago, but it never changed where she started. That was once a bundle he held in his arms and cooed over. That was his baby.
That could’ve been him. He was just a single sword plunge away from it. He could’ve been that. He could’ve been a monster. What separated him from that?
…Were these just the thoughts left over from that slice?
Shed couldn’t put a finger on that twisting hatred that crawled inside him, hatred he thought ‘lived’ on the other side of the lake.
“...I think I need to be alone right now,” he finally managed to force out, then quietly adding, “Sorry.”
He tried to ignore how confused and concerned Builder looked as he stumbled off, thinking for a moment before he opened the back door to the cabin and slipped out, down the porch and into the woods.
He…just needed some time to think.