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“When the seven fountains are sealed, the Dragon is freed.”
“Freed” isn’t how Susie would describe it, but she’s had qualms with the prophecy ever since it had claimed first blood, staining her hands and her hopes (though she’d never admit the latter). A little stain isn’t enough to stop her. And neither is the shape she’s taken; a towering beast of legend, neither monster nor human, two-legged nor four-legged, Susie nor Kris.
Kris… can you hear me?
She knew there was no reason to hope. She’d watched Kris bleed out in front of her, felt as they used the last of their force to give her their soul, the very core of their being. …And she knew well, now, that the soul that beat in their chest wasn't just theirs. It was something else entirely, watching over her and Kris and Ralsei and Noelle, over everybody, and just from its mere presence she can tell it's seen more than the timeline she exists in, more than the world she has experienced. She sees her friends knelt, one by one, by the first Titan they'd encountered, the one in the church. She sees Kris dipping their feet into the hot springs, by her side, staring into her eyes with unrecognized desire. She sees Noelle dragging Kris down, down, deeper down into the lake, until everything goes white.
There's so much she hasn't seen. So much left unsaid. So much she didn't know, until now. Unlike last time, she can't bring herself to be mad.
Kris, is this… what you've been dealing with…? I… this whole time, I… had no idea…
Maybe Kris isn't in there, anymore. Maybe they died with their body, maybe this soul was something wholly different than them. But she can feel it. Kris's want. Kris's pain. Kris's dreams. Kris's love. And so she reaches out again.
Kris, I need you.
And again.
Kris, I can't do this without you.
And again, again, again.
Kris, it can't end like this.
Kris, I'm sorry.
Kris, I should have known better. I should have done better. I… I was a shitty friend, wasn't I, Kris?
But there's no response. Not from the limp body she can cradle with only her clawed hand, now. Not from Kris, even as their soul acts in their absence, tries to command her. Well, the joke's on it. She's stronger now than Kris was, alone. Because she's not alone. She has Kris with her. She has hope.
Close eyes and think about Kris, it commands.
"I already tried that," Susie snaps, her voice a deep, draconic growl. She doesn't dislike it, even if it isn't quite her.
Close eyes and think about Kris, it repeats.
"What, you think just because you were in Kris's body, you know better than me?" …Maybe it does. It's a bitter pill to swallow, though.
Close eyes and think about Kris, it insists.
"…You're gonna need to give me more direction than that," Susie relents.
Close eyes and think about when you met Kris.
…She hated them, when she met them. It was her first impression, slinking into school late, when she saw Toriel holding her child's hand, hugging them tight as she left to teach her own students. Why did they deserve that? The freak? The odd one out? And how come they got to be accepted, when she didn't…? …She knows now. They would have accepted her. No, they did accept her. They… they loved…
Close eyes and think about journey with Kris.
If it weren't for Kris going with her, that day… she'd never had met Ralsei. Or Lancer. Hell, she wouldn't have even… gotten close, with Noelle. Everything was… thanks to Kris, wasn't it? Even if they'd created Dark Worlds without telling her. Even if they'd gone behind her back. She could tell they were always looking at her. Looking out for her. Even on that first day, when she'd done nothing to earn their kindness, they'd jumped in front of her, shielded her. But she was always enough for Kris. And, at first… weren't they enough for her…?
Close eyes and think about your fight with Kris.
It was never going to end well, that fight. After all, Kris's words weren't their own. Couldn't be their own if they wanted. Not in the Dark World. Of course, Susie was upset. She had known that Ralsei wasn't 'real'. But to hear that her best friend, the first real friend she'd ever made, wasn't real… she was scared, then. Scared to lose Kris. Scared the real Kris wouldn't like her. Scared that after it was all over, none of this would have been real. But it was real, wasn't it? The real Kris, they…
They loved you, the words spewed from her throat. But they weren't her own.
"No, they… they still do. I can feel it."
Say it, commands their soul, with the same ease as commanding her to flirt with the enemy.
"I… I can't just…"
Say it.
"Look, maybe it's easy for you to say, but I'm not… good with words, you know."
Say it bad.
"What do I even…"
Say how you feel.
"…Fine. If you wanna hear so bad, then…" Susie inhales. "Kris, I… I kinda thought, that you just understood. That you're important to me. That you'll always mean everything to me, even if I love Noelle, too. But… I get it now. That you felt like… you meant less to me. That you thought I wasn't going to forgive you. That you thought you weren't good enough, or something. So… I'll say it. Kris, I… I forgave you a long time ago. I… I was hoping you'd forgive me, actually. And… I love you too, okay? In whatever way you love me, I love you. So please. I don't want this to end. I'm not ready for this to end. I still… want a world, where every day can be happy. Where you and me and Noelle can spend every day together. So… let's make that world, together. You and me."
…you and me, comes a thought, shaky and mumbly, in the Dragon's mind.
Kris! Kris, is that…
I love you, is all that they think. I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you.
"Love finds its way to the girl."
It always had, hadn't it? And here she was, realizing as much at the end of everything. Or… no, that was the end of the story. What if she rewrote it? What if they rewrote it, together, with the darkness pulsing through their veins? All they had to do was concentrate on their will…
I want a world… where every day can be the same as the last.
I want a world… where everyone can be happy.
I want a world… where Noelle can live happily.
I want a world… where Susie can live happily.
I want a world… where we meet sooner. Where we can grow up together.
I want a world… where I can be myself, one day.
And stab into the earth, dig deep, deeper, deeper, until they can reach the other side. Until they can feel the world reshaping itself, until they can't cling to each other any longer. Until they meet each other again.
In another world, a world where nobody needs to die even if some of them have, Suzy watches the very first sunrise of her life. A sunrise that feels all too familiar, like she'd seen it day after day, like she'd once taken it for granted. Then again, a lot of things feel all too familiar to Suzy. Most of all…
"Susie!!!"
The human child—Frisk, she recalls—running at her with open arms, with red eyes wide open and tearing up.
"KRIS!!!"
Suzy lifts them in her arms, spins them around as if she's done so a thousand times.
"I love you!!!"
"I love you too!!!"
Even if they've never met before, even if they'd never even seen each other's faces or heard those names, they knew that much was true.