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The first explosion echoed with resonance that shook The Dark Lord to their core.
They landed on the ground and put their hands over their ears as they continued for a terrifying few seconds. They’re scared. They’re so scared. They put their arms over their eyes and wished for it to be over so, so much. The world seemed to slow down around them as the only world they knew cracked apart. They’re shaking, and suddenly the other stick figure runs past them, and they glance up and realize they have to follow. It’s a feeling they could never place a finger on, but it was a tugging in their gut as the other hollowhead beckoned to them and they ran over.
“Come on!” The Chosen One called to The Dark Lord. Or rasped, more accurately. Their voice cracked like it had gone unused for a very long time. “Look, here!”
Their eyes dart around anxiously as the other stick figure starts punching cracks into the WiFi.
“Move it!” The Dark Lord screamed at them, without realizing the force in their voice. “Go faster, we’re going to die!”
“No we aren’t!” the other replies fiercely, though their voice is also shaking. And then there’s a blinding white rip glowing with the force of the sun, and The Dark Lord glances into the black stick figure’s eyes as they grab their hand and jump in without a second thought.
A flash of neon blue light behind them as the computer broke down, though it only lasted for moments before fading into their periphery as they were whisked away. After a moment of idleness, they gazed at the The Chosen One with large, curious eyes.
“We did it!” The Dark Lord grinned, lifting their hands into the air. “We took it down! Wha-bam!”
The other didn’t offer a verbal reply — they seemed exhausted for reasons The Dark Lord would not yet know — but they grinned back and held a hand up for a high-five. They didn’t hesitate to return it. They didn’t know why they just did that, nor what a high-five was quite yet, but it felt good. Satisfying. Then they both looked away from each other to bask in their freedom.
It was a comfortable silence. Calm, serene. No noise but the whirring of the air as they got pushed forward in these… tunnel things. What were they? Whatever they were, they felt like sanctuary.
Then, a moment later, the tunnel walls became clearer as their view opened up to the vastness of the internet.
The Dark Lord gasped, and hit the wall as they shifted over to press their face against the new window. Dozens of more tubes snaked out everywhere in a maze, and the void surrounding them was deep, pulsating blue, with hundreds of cyan squares and circles and dots spread closer and farther in every direction.
Those are other websites, they realized, then wondered how they knew that.
After 62 seconds of gawking at the vast world surrounding them, they glanced at their companion that was now behind them. They were more idle, but gazing at their new world with the same wide-eyed expression.
The Chosen One sucked in their breath. “They’re like… stars. They look like stars. It’s… really, really pretty.”
The Dark Lord blinked at them. “What are those?”
They didn’t seem to hear, and The Dark Lord didn’t mind because they were just as awestruck. The world around was so… big. They didn’t know how to fathom it.
Then the black stick figure dragged their attention away as they pointed ahead.
“Hey, what’s that?” they said. “It’s a… really big circle?”
The Dark Lord peeled their eyes away from the vast internet to see what they were talking about. There was, in fact, a really big circle up ahead, though it was so close it felt more like a really big wall. A bajillion other tubes also connected straight into it. But there was another bright light at the end of the tunnel and they didn’t know where it lead to.
Their breath hitched and they reached out their arm. The Chosen One obliged and drifted closer to hold their hand. Were they friends? They must’ve been friends. Strangers certainly didn’t go through all of this together. Their fingers entwined in a death grip as they wondered what laid ahead.
“It has to be better than there, right?”
The Dark Lord nodded vigorously in response, still very scared but anticipating the prospect of an adventure. “Whatever it is, it’ll be new, and that’ll be exciting!” they replied.
Their companion smiled at them, gazing at them with warmness that, again, they could not place yet.
“Into the unknown we’ll go, then!”
And the light engulfed them whole.
. . .
Suddenly, the world was so bright and the world was so loud, with the new sounds of rushing water and the blowing breeze. They were spat out into a new reality and then the skygrid closed back up behind them.
As soon as The Dark Lord was put out into unfamiliar space and sensed a drop, fire shot from their hands so they could survey the land without a fall.
The Chosen One, however, did not think that fast.
Their senses froze as they plummeted down. It didn’t feel like they were falling — they felt like they were hovering in the air as if the world was rather rising around them.
They laughed as they spread their arms and their hair whipped in their face, then stopped as they felt like they slammed into a concrete floor.
They felt both heavy and weightless as they screamed and fell into the water. They tried to inhale sharply, but they started choking instead. They barely processed their suffocating before someone quickly swept down to grab him by the arm and dragged them back into the air. It was such a fast moment they barely remembered being under the surface.
They dropped The Chosen One onto the ground and they yelped again at the impact. They immediately tried to spit the taste of salt out of their mouth. The red stick figure came down to kneel beside them, patting their back awkwardly.
After a few awful moments, The Chosen One groaned, wiping their mouth.
“Are you alright?” their friend said with concern.
“I guess. That was… certainly something new. Eugh.”
The other stick figure snickered. The Chosen One’s head moved over to glare at them, but they found that they couldn’t.
They simply just couldn’t.
They were a miracle to The Chosen One.
“We’re… we’re free,” they finally verbalized. “We’re out. We— we can’t go back there. We’re free. We’re free!”
They untensed their body as they sunk into their friend’s embrace, and suddenly they were both a laughing mess splayed out over the grass.
“Oh my god! This— this isn’t a dream, right? We’re really out? We really broke the computer?”
“We’re out,” the red stick confirmed, grinning with all of their teeth. “Holy shit. That was amazing, what the hell?! We did it! We really did it!”
The Chosen One giggled stupidly, nestling their face in the other’s wet, bright red curls. They closed their eyes, thinking of nothing but the sound of their voices and the tingling sensation of the wind.
Their cackling died down as their breathing regulated, but their hearts never stopped beating until they felt like they’d leap out of their chests. They both felt like the only people in the world, tangled together in a way they’d never forget.
“You’re amazing,” The Chosen One said, sounding surprisingly meek. “You’re absolutely amazing. Who are you?”
“The Dark Lord. You’re The Chosen One, right?”
They looked mystified mystified. “How did you know that?”
“I dunno,” The Dark Lord said with a shrug. “It just… came to me. I don’t know. Honestly, a lot of weird things just happened, I think it might be one of our more minor issues right now.”
“Yeah,” The Chosen One replied. “Yeah, of course.”
They both sat up, and The Chosen one reluctantly pulled away from the embrace to cup The Dark Lord’s face with their hands. They were calloused and rough against their skin.
The Dark Lord’s lips pressed into a fine line. “Y’know, those names — no, titles, I think — are both a bit of a mouthful.”
“Can we shorten them?” The Chosen One suggested. “Like— TDL and TCO, or something?”
“I… like it,” they said slowly, “but I want something that feels like an actual name, not a title.”
The Dark Lord looked bothered for a moment more, then softened as they let themself sink into the touch once more.
“Maybe just… Dark and Chosen? Cho? What works for you?”
“Chosen works for me, yeah.”
Dark looked at them with large, sparkling eyes.
“Hi, Chosen.”
“Hi Dark.”
A moment of silence, and Chosen whispers, “That feels right.”
Dark pulls a hand off of their own face to lace Chosen’s fingers with their own.
“I agree.”
. . .
The trees are spread out but the canopy is still mostly thick above their heads. Everything is colored golden and orange, steps crunching against fallen leaves.
Chosen has not let go of Dark’s hand and neither of them would have it any other way. Dark’s other hand has been occupied with brushing against every surface it could — tree bark, branches, stray plants…
Chosen has mostly been occupied with looking at their companion.
They might have been trying to conceal it, but Dark’s excitement and curiosity was still contagious. Chosen picked up on the way they jumped whenever they heard something fall, the way they stopped in their tracks to watch leaves slowly drift to the ground, the wait their face lit up whenever anything living passed by — birds, bugs… spiders. Chosen had never had another person to just stare at before and they could do it for hours. They walked wherever Dark decided to walk, was silent besides replying to Dark’s occasional comments.
After about an hour of this, Dark finally glanced over at Chosen’s eyes to find Cho staring at Dark’s instead. Chosen’s head immediately snapped away to observe a patch of flowers.
Dark giggled. “Hey, Cho. Look at me?”
“Hm?” They reluctantly looked back.
Dark stopped walking, and as usual, Chosen stopped with them. Their expression tensed, and they studied Chosen’s face with care so intense and prolonged it felt palpable and Chosen held their breath.
“You…”
Dark’s voice cracked. They winced.
“You saved— you decided to save us both. Why did you do that?”
Chosen blinked at Dark. “Did you not want me to?”
“No, it’s just… the moment we met, I tried to kill you. Why did you help me? I don’t get it.”
“Murder wouldn’t get me anywhere, and now we’re both here after teaming up to break the computer and break us free, so why are you complaining?”
“I’m not complaining,” Dark said with exasperation that made Chosen flinch and want to retract their words immediately, “but you had the perfect chance for revenge and just refused to take it.”
“You’re not going to see this from an emotional view, are you?” Chosen said. “I didn’t want to hurt you. That’s it.”
Chosen sensed that they were resisting the urge to go “Why?” — They were confused in a way Chosen couldn’t understand.
“Do you… wish you killed me?” Chosen said slowly.
“No!” Dark said, so loud it sounded like a scream. “No, no, gods no!”
Dark immediately looked at them with abject fear, a great switch from their serenity from just a few moments ago. Chosen regretted asking that faster than they hit the water. Dark looked horrified beyond what Chosen could comprehend and they didn’t know why yet.
“I believe you—” Chosen tried to start, but Dark threw their arms around them before they could finish. Chosen flinched, but returned the hug quickly.
“Fine, okay. You didn’t hurt me, and now I don’t want to hurt you, and I can live with it, okay? There.” Dark tried to sound ticked off, but their face dug into Chosen’s still-damp hair and held on so tightly that Chosen’s ribs hurt.
Chosen sighed. “You can believe that if you want, but I don’t want you to feel confused and scared,” they said softly. “We’ve had enough of that. We can talk later?”
Dark inhaled, then exhaled slowly. “Sure.” But they didn’t let go.
. . .