Chapter Text
The world is ending, and it’s all Kris’s fault.
There’s no time to think about that. Susie races forward, axe drawn, and cuts a swath of shadow apart in one wide arc, but more darkness takes its place in the span of a breath. Inky black spreads like an amoeba across the Dark World, tumbling buildings and panicked Darkners into its depths.
“RALSEI,” Susie bellows, spinning on her heel to catch his gaze. “GET BACK TO CASTLE TOWN! NOW!”
A pair of wide pink eyes meet her, and it’s too late. It was too late the moment the fight started, she understands in that moment. He’s not going back anywhere. He’s not, because—
“I’m sorry!” he shouts across the chaos. She wants to shake him by the shoulders and scream. “It’s spreading there, too! I can’t… there’s nowhere for—for me to go!”
“You can go with us!” Susie insists, growling, as she chops through the shadows with renewed fervor to get to his side. Even now, it’s us. Kris and Susie. Susie and Kris.
Can’t think about that now.
“Come with us and we’ll get you somewhere—like, do that pocket thing Lancer does, or just use your weird extra magic you pretend you don’t have—dammit, Ralsei, come on!”
“I’m sorry, Susie, I-I’m sorry!” Tears pour down his face, matting his fur. A gust of fire rips through the shadows in front of him, but it’s ineffective against the onslaught.
“Don’t be goddamn sorry, just come on, get out of here—”
“I can’t, please, you need to leave through the exit now—”
“Not leaving without you!”
“You have to!”
She can see what’s about to happen in his shining eyes before he even raises his paw. She didn’t think he had this specific kind of power, and in a different situation she’d be pissed at him keeping it from her, but right now all she can feel is the rushing pulse in her ears. “Ralsei, don’t even think about—”
The world empties in a burst of light as he kicks her out of the Dark World.
Susie opens her eyes to a forest.
It’s not the forest surrounding Hometown. That’s obvious; the leaves here are a luminous pink, and the ground is solid ebony. But each tree stretches tall above her, just as densely packed as Hometown’s woods, and a strange recognition stirs in her gut as though she instinctively knows this place is meant to mirror it.
Maybe it’s because this is that forest, actually. She’s not supposed to be in a Dark World, but this looks no different from one.
Is that because of the Roaring? Is that what’s happening right now? God, Susie doesn’t know. She doesn’t know anything at all, apparently.
She gets to her feet, and that’s when she realizes she’s not alone.
Kris has also been sent here.
They’re on their knees, head down. Dressed in their Dark World outfit, just like she probably is.
“Hey,” she growls, approaching them. They don’t look up or move to stand, so she tugs their arm roughly until they’re upright. “HEY.”
Kris looks up at her through their bangs.
Their eyes are hollow, resigned, but also glassy with tears just like Ralsei’s were, Ralsei who could be dead for all they know, and that just pisses Susie all the way off even more. She releases their arm before she does something she’ll regret.
“I’m gonna ask this once.” Her throat feels tight. “What. The HELL. Was that.”
Kris doesn’t answer.
“You piece of shit,” she hisses, stepping closer, breath in their face. “Say something, will you? You—the Knight—”
She saw what happened. So did Ralsei. Every second of that interaction, moments before disaster. Where Kris should have swung, should have moved, should have shut down the Fountain in front of them when Ralsei begged for it, like hitting a big shiny button right in front of them, should have done anything before the Knight made the next one. Before the Titan got away. Before another one, and another one, and another one…
Instead, Kris kneeled.
“You didn’t just panic,” Susie accuses. She needs to hear it aloud. “I saw that crap. You and the Knight—goddammit, Kris, what the hell was that? Why’re you—”
She almost can’t say it.
“Why’re you helping them?”
Kris still doesn’t answer. Their mouth opens and closes like a fish, gaping with words that don’t come out.
Susie shakes their shoulders. “Say something, whatever it is—just say it! I thought we were friends, yeah? Talk!”
Tears spill over their cheeks. They don’t move.
“What’s wrong with you?”
When she releases their shoulders, they crumple like a marionette. God. She feels sick. Ralsei could be dead. Goddammit.
Reasonably, there are more important problems than whatever’s going on with Kris. But she just—she remembers things, okay? Looking back, there were all these times Kris would do something—act a certain way, show up in weird places, know things—the paper with the code, holy shit—and Susie never wanted to think it meant anything. It couldn’t have meant anything. But. Shit.
Were we ever friends?
If only they’d speak. Defend themself. She’d so desperately believe any flimsy excuse.
There’s no use living a fantasy anymore, though.
Angry as she is, she can’t leave Kris here. So she paces back and forth, fuming, waiting for some idea to strike her. Nothing. She’s useless, just like always. The fuckup, the only one out of the loop on things, the one who’s bad at puzzles, at music, at memorizing, at writing, at being good, at being smart—
Shit, she repeats mentally with every stomp of her boot. Shit. Shit. Shit.
“C’mon, loser,” she snarls after enough time passes without the world ending. “We gotta find someone.”
Look how that turned out last time.
Shut up. Don’t think about Noelle.
But that’s your fault, too, isn’t it?
“GET UP,” Susie snaps.
That’s enough. Kris drags themself to their feet, head down, and trails after her.
The two of them walk. The forest goes on, paths stretching out and winding in different directions: left, right, left, left again, left again…
No Darkners are in sight. It’s eerie.
Kris mumbles something.
Susie stops. “What?”
Before, she found their mumbling endearing. Now it’s just… they’re finally saying something, and they can’t even bother to say it at a normal volume.
Silence. “Say it, asshole.”
When Kris finally speaks, their voice is crackly and wobbly, a far cry from their usual sardonic charm that’s so often directed at her.
“Going in circles,” they rasp.
Susie doesn’t answer right away. Partly because they’re right, and she hates that. Partly because… “You’re not gonna apologize, are you?”
Kris swallows and says nothing.
“Because you’re not sorry.” Susie means to sound menacing, but she knows she doesn’t. She’s just desperate. Maybe that makes it all worse. I thought we were friends. “You wanted this to happen. Tell me the hell why.”
Kris stops walking. So does she.
“Seriously.” She bares her teeth. “Go ahead and enlighten me, since nobody tells me anything. I’m all ears.”
Kris breathes out. “It’s not…”
“Not what?”
“Not… I was trying to…”
She marches up to them again, chest to chest. Chest to head, kinda, since they’re so small. They look even smaller now. “Just say it, dude. Okay? I’ll listen. I swear. We can get over it, me and Ralsei, you just… just need to explain.” She hates begging, but—“C’mon, please.”
Please say it was all a mistake. Say we’re still friends, that we were always friends. Say you haven’t been lying to me about every single thing, and hurting everyone we care about, and trying to end the world.
“I just…” Kris screws their eyes shut. Their breath hitches, hiccupping. “I wanted to fix… I wanted… a lot.”
And Susie, damn her, has gotten too softhearted. Because of Ralsei. Because of Kris, too.
She brings her hands up to their shoulders again, but this time she’s careful. All the pent-up frustration’s still there, but she holds it back. They can probably feel her holding back, but she dips her head down, pressing her forehead against theirs, to tell them, Look at me. I’m still here.
You’re a shitty friend, fine. Whatever. Dumbass. I’m still here.
We’re going to figure this out.
Okay?
She can’t bring herself to say all that, but she does mutter, “Breathe, idiot,” and the hiccupping subsides. Kris takes a steadier breath. Then another, then another. Matching pace with her.
Part of her doesn’t want to give them that relief. But that’s the frustrated part, the hurt part, and screw that. It belongs to an old version of her. And being petty isn’t what matters right now.
“I wanted to do a lot,” Kris whispers. Their body is shaking. “Wanted to help, wanted to make things better, but I can’t. I can’t do it. Never wanted to make it seem like… just, I had to try. Had to, because. I always make things worse. Back then, and now. I’m the reason she’s gone. But if I did it right, if I let them… If I was part of it…”
Their voice breaks again, and without meaning to, Susie rubs their shoulder, the one hidden under their cape. They probably can’t even feel it. “Yeah?”
“I had to just. Be a part of the plan. To get her back. Noelle’s sister.”
Susie’s eyes go wide.
“And no one was gonna get hurt, and then everyone would…” Kris takes another shuddering breath. Their exhale brushes Susie’s face, cold and damp. “Everyone was gonna be fine. I was gonna make things better, for once. Lot m’sorry for. So… yeah, sorry, Susie. Not sorry for trying, I guess. For the kidnapping stuff and opening Dark Worlds, or for putting people in danger. Sorry for everything else. Sorry for dragging you into it.”
That’s… Susie leans back, looking at Kris. They’re a mess. So is she, probably, but she’s never seen them look anywhere close to this. Their hair is tousled, eyes puffy, face blotchy, chin wobbling, and the last time they were breathing this hard was days ago but feels like years ago. She can’t remember the context anymore. If she even knew in the first place. She probably didn’t.
“What happened to Noelle’s sister,” she starts with. She still can’t think about Noelle, where Noelle is right now, but this is important.
Kris only shakes their head, eyes fluttering shut.
Okay, fine. She’s not happy about that apology, really. Kris isn’t sorry for putting people in danger, which is the most objectively screwed up part of it all. But that’s… they are sorry. And she doesn’t get it, but she gets that they care. They’re an asshole and a liar and a traitor, but.
“You and me,” she says out loud, trying her damnedest to steady her voice. “Were we ever friends?”
Kris’s eyes go wide, panicked and watery, and that tells her all she needs to know.
She spares them that answer. “How about this. Do you give a shit about me? And Ralsei? And everyone else who just got swallowed up by your bullshit?”
Kris nods multiple times, like a bobblehead. So okay, they’re not sorry, because they’re that determined to find December Holiday or whatever, and they’re working with the Knight and probably more people, they’re involved in the kidnappings, they kidnapped their own father—
Susie exhales, stepping away. She lets her hand slide down to Kris’s wrist and tugs them forward just once before releasing them, letting them know to follow her. They get the picture, falling into step behind her.
Actually, that sucks ass. Susie slows her pace; the two of them can walk side by side, whether Kris deserves it or not.
“You’re telling me what happened,” she decides. “From the beginning, the first ever Dark Fountain or whatever, the one Ralsei doesn’t know about. Whatever guilt complex you have about Noelle and her sister. Then we’re breaking out of this goddamn forest. Screw the path.”
Kris looks at her for a long moment, eyes filled with too many things for her to understand, and then they nod. Just once.
“Sorry,” they breathe one last time, and then they tell her everything.