Chapter Text
--------- Meet You On The Other Side---------
Christine woke up choking on dust.
She sat up too fast, lungs burning as she coughed, the sound echoing too loudly in the hollow space around her. Her palms scraped against cold concrete, rough and cracked beneath her fingers.
Concrete?
That alone sent panic spiraling through her chest.
Her hands weren't gloved. They weren't cartoonishly smooth or exaggerated. They were hers-small, human and trembling,with fear and a mix of adrenaline.
She pressed them against her thighs willing them to stop and felt fabric bunch beneath her touch.
Leggings. Actual leggings! A burgundy hoodie zipped halfway up. Her favourite black jacket layered over it. The garment was thin but warm. Just her usual casual attire.
Her eyes widened and her hands moved to touch her head. Her usual Jester hat was gone. Instead she could feel her soft dark hair, tied back in a tight ponytail.
Her breathing slowed and she took that moment to finally figure out where she was, because she was certainly no longer in the circus, not by a long shot.
Instead she found herself in an abandoned building. The very one she had wandered into all those years ago. The one where she had found that VR headdset and lost herself to years of torment at the hands of a giant set of dentures with a body.
Caine!
Her heart thuded at mear thought of his name. Every single memory from the last fourty eight hours replaying in her mind.
The Ai had gone completely insane, like a petulant child throwing their toys out the pram.
She was sure she would haave nightmares for weeks on end of the things he had done to her, to them.
The minute Kinger had announced his deletion it was like a wave of relief and shock rolled into one. Then after that they were left with the looming question...what now?
The obvious answer was find a way out but how?
She still wasnt fully sure how they managed it, but they did. Against all odds they done what others had failed to do, drove themselves to abstraction trying to figure out.
Her head tilted upwards drawn from her thoughts to see sunlight. Bright and real as it filtered in through broken windows high above, illuminating peeling paint and rusted beams.
The overwhealming scent of damp stone and old metal filled her nostrils,completely overwhelming.
Somewhere far off, water dripped steadily, filling her ears with a constant rhythm that was almost hypnotic.
Everything was so sureal. She had lived for so long now withevery sence dulled or completely non excisent. She wasnt sure how to handle the new sensations surounding her,
Slowly Christine finally pushed herself to her feet. Her ballance a little off, her head still fuzzy. Her boots crunching softly over debris as she staggered toward a cracked mirror leaning against a wall.
The reflection staring back at her made her freeze.Her breath hitching as her eyes racked over the slightly distorted image staring back at her.
Blue eyes like saphires, tired and dazed blinked back at her. Her hair though still tied back was tangled in places, sticking up this way and that. Bits of dust and bebris speckled through the strands. She tried dusting it off but only made things worse, more strands springing out.
Huffing in defeat she continued to stare at the image of herself.
Her skin was paler than normal, dirtied in places, bags undee her eyes. There wasnodoubting it was her. No paint. No pinwheels or rosy cheeks. No permanent panic carved into her expression. It was just her.
But how could she be so sure?How did she know this wasnt a dream or some crule trick?
Then it clicked, her name! "Christine," she whispered, not sure if she even believed her own words. Hearing it out loud made her knees buckle. Her hand flying to her mouth as she chocked back a sob.
Her other hand pressed to the glass, steadying herself. "I'm... I'm awake," she said, voice shaking. "I'm out."
The relief and dread mingled in her gut. Her mind running a million miles a minute. Because the circus was gone. Years of her life vanished in an instant.
And she had no idea where anyone else was.
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Felix awoke to the sound of rain thudding against a metal sheet or something similar, the sou d raidiating through the fog that filled his brain. His eyes blinking unevenly as he tried to gain his barings.
Cold droplets hit his face, dragging him out of his dazed state. He sucked in a sharp breath at the cold wet sensation as it trickled down his cheek.
That was new. He hadnt felt anything so real in so long. It was both welcoming and uncomfortable in one.
Too focused on not getting dripped on again he didnt even think of the consequences of moving so fast. He just rolled onto his side and regretted it instantly.
His body was stiff and the floor beneath him was littered in rubbel and glass. His rib hit a rather sharp pice of brojen concrete and he let out a shar hiss followed by a long groan.
Everything hurt. His back, his neck, his head. It was like he had been folded in half and half again then stuffed in a box.
"Ugh... you've gotta be kidding me," he muttered voice horse, stretching his limbs before moving into an upright position.
He rubbed the heels of his hands into his eyes trying to gain some sort of composure. Then he stilled and pulled them back. Hands? Not to mention his voice.
He cleared his throat a little, rubbing at his adams apple. "Wait, is this real?", his voice was deeper now, not as playful as his Rabbit form.
It was his real vouce!? His human voice. There was no way this was real.
His head twisted, this way and that taking in his suroundings, trying to determin where he was.
He was deep in the woods-trees towering overhead, thick and endless, the canopy barely letting light through.
An old, half-collapsed structure sat nearby, more ruin than shelter, swallowed by vines and moss.
Everything looked real.His hands digging into the fabric on his chest. He looked down at himself.
Worn-out clothes clung to him, damp and frayed at the edges. A faded played shirt. A jacket that had seen better years. Scuffed boots that were covered in layers of dirt and pine needles from his treck through the woods that faithful night.
He turned his hands over trying to get a good look at them. They were bigger than he remmembered. Tanned and scarred. There was a few tattoos on his fingers, some faded stick and poke crosses and dots.
Reminants of bad desisions made in his early teenage years in his friends shed at the foot of the garden. A needle and ball point pen.
Felix dragged himself to his feet and ducked under a low beam inside the ruined structure, rain pattering softly against the broken roof.
A cracked piece of metal reflected his image back at him.
Dark brown hair fell into his eyes tipped with blonde. It stuck up precariously, pine needles threaded amongst the strands and lumps of dirt and dust fallinng as he ruffled his fingers through it, trying to regain some sort of composure.
Stubble shadowed his jaw, rough and uneven. He was surprised it hadnt brown longer with how long he had been held up here.
His thumb brushed his lower lip, running over the snake bites that gleamed faintly. Without thinking he began to chew on one, a nervous nabit that even years without them in the virtual circus couldnt break him from.
They werent his only piercings though.A brow piercing sat crookedly above one hazel eye and his ears were lined with metal. The silver catching against the light as he moved.
He was tall, like reficulously tall. Probably about six foot and two inches to be exact. He had to hunch just to see himself properly.
Felix snorted softly. "Wow. Guess I still look like Shit."
The though only lasted for amoment before anotner came crashing in, in-bright colors. A blue-and-red jester with eyes too full of fear for someone so posotive and sure.
His chest tightened and the name slipped out on instinct. "...Pomni," his voice filled with relisation and pain, memories flooding in like waves.
Their last moments together, not just her but the others too. Toppoling through a co.idascope of co.ours and static until blacknes filled his vision and something nocked him cold.
The woods around him lay silent still, except for the rain, as the thoughts pulsed through his brain.
Felix took a step back, his head starting to spin and leaned back against the cold stone wall. Rain dripped steadily somewhere behind him. His hazel gaze focusing on the ground beneath his feet.
"Alright," he murmured. "So we're free."
His jaw clenched and he tilted his head upwards, trying to grasp at his new reality.
"Now what?"