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Skeppy was a soul who was always forced back at the pinnacle of their lives: the “their” in this sense being him and Bad, two souls who had always found each other in each new life. They were not bound by fate, and the universe had never destined them to always be together, but somehow they always were. Always they were the ones who bound their souls together: not the universe. There was a devotion between them that made the other want to risk everything for their beloved, a knowingness that they would live and die together. Bad and Skeppy were not made to be apart, simply by nature.
They were a tragedy, a beautiful and broken song.
Skeppy stood at the edge of the world, crumpled and bleeding roses clenched in his hand. The thorns pierced his palm, and he stood clutching where his heart would be with his other hand, the second pulse of life that was supposed to be there in his chest nearly snuffed out.
“You said you wouldn’t hurt him,” he spat up to the Egg. “You said you would leave him alone! Where is Bad?! What did you do to him?! We had a deal! A fucking deal. I did what you asked, I gave everything up, I laid out the plan perfectly! Give him back to me!” He yelled.
He felt his nails tear into the stem of the roses as the Egg laughed. It wasn’t really the Egg though, not what he had known it as at least. This was something else entirely, an abominable entity made from spores and twisted vines, flowers blooming from unnatural flesh. Its voice dripped with lava in the sauna of its room.
“Your pretty little demon?” it asked. “I did nothing to him. It was all of his own stupidity and free will.”
“You’re insane if you think I’m buying that pathetic excuse,” Skeppy sneered.
“I wouldn’t ever break a proper deal,” the Egg said plainly, shrugging. “Not when you performed so well for me, and certainly not after all the effort you went through for selling all your old friends out.”
“I want to know where Bad is,” Skeppy ground out, ignoring the flat words the Egg gave him.
“You know very well where he is. He’s nowhere. You’re nowhere. You saw it all, didn’t you? None of us are left anymore.”
Skeppy stared at the Egg.
“That’s not true,” he choked out.
The Egg shrugged again, leaning back on the fauna of its cradle.
“You can say that if you’d like. But you won’t last much longer anyway. Go enjoy the beach again. It’ll be your last time to do so.”
And then the Egg was gone and Skeppy was alone. He stared at the waves sloshing onto the shore at his feet. The horizon was blank and empty. He looked back at his and Bad’s vacation home, run down after being abandoned for so long.
The world was quiet. It knew its time was up, but where was Bad? He was supposed to be here by Skeppy’s side at the end of it all. They had bound their souls for a reason, so that they could live and die together.
Skeppy wasn’t meant to be alone.
He screamed into the void that slowly pulsed closer across the listless waves.
“Fuck, Bad, where are you?!” He collapsed into the sand and sobbed. “What did you do? Please.”
He didn’t know what that plea was for. He just knew he was terrified. Maybe it was the unknown that terrified him: the fact that since he wasn’t dead, Bad wasn’t either.
He closed his eyes and prayed, his hands held close to his heart.
***
Bad smiled at him.
It was all wrong. Skeppy sobbed as his knees hit the stone floor. The room was hanging with dead crimson vines, the ground swamped with them too. Vats of lava were empty, and the world was dead: a hollow husk. Bad leaned against the cracked shell of the Egg, wrapped loosely in vines. His breath was stunted, eyes lidded.
“Skeppy. What are you crying for?” he asked softly.
“You’re dead, that’s why,” the crystalian choked out. “You’re dead, aren’t you?”
Bad laughed. It sounded like it hurt, the thorny vines digging into his chest, pierced through thin ribs. His demon had never really done the best job at taking care of himself. Certainly not now as of late.
“I was an angel, Skeppy. I cannot die.”
“But you will. You have. After everything I’ve done, you’ve done! This is where it ends up?!” He shouted, screaming from his knees. He stared at the demon incredulously. “I gave up the world for you Bad. But I can’t even live what I gave it up for now.”
“As did I,” Bad whispered. He sounded resigned.
“I know. I know you did, and I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything.”
Bad only smiled. Skeppy hiccuped.
“Are you real?” he croaked after a moment.
Bad sighed.
“Oh Skeppy,” he said achingly.
It wasn’t really an answer. Skeppy didn’t care. He crawled forward, scooting until he was by Bad’s side.
“I’m so sorry,” he murmured, his voice muffled as he pressed his nose into Bad’s nape. The thorns wrapped around the demon pinched his skin.
Bad hummed in reply. He laid his head on Skeppy’s, warm blood pulsing beneath his fingers.
“You know where we are, don’t you?” the demon whispered softly.
“Together?” Skeppy croaked hopefully.
Bad chuckled warmly.
“We can pretend. We can make that happen.”
“Okay. Because that’s what I want. I know you’d want it to.”
Bad kissed his forehead. It was awkward, as most of his body was restrained.
“Maybe. Maybe. ...Can you lay with me, Skeppy? Can you… Fix us? Our ending?”
Skeppy hiccuped again, hesitating. He wiped his eyes.
“Sure.”
He stumbled up, kicking dead vines away. He took Bad’s shoulders, handling and adjusting the demon gently. He soothed his hand down the back of the Bad’s head. He purred.
“I was terrified,” the entity that wasn’t really Bad whispered.
“I know,” Skeppy whispered shakily, maneuvering the demon’s body to the ground.
“I was so scared, because I knew I wasn’t going to see you again. I messed everything up, didn’t I?”
“No, no you didn’t Bad. I promise. I’m here now. I’m here.”
He laid Bad’s head gently against the stone, cradling it there.
“I was so scared. I couldn’t do anything. It was all for you, Skeppy. Everything I ever did. I was selfish, I know that, but maybe you were too.”
The crystalian let out a stunted and breathless laugh as his eyes watered.
“Yeah! Maybe.”
Bad sighed. Skeppy collapsed to a sitting position next to him.
“After everything… We never got our happy ending, did we?” Bad asked.
Skeppy wordlessly shook his head, finding himself unable to speak. He couldn’t look at the demon next to him. Not even if it would be his last time looking. He just… He couldn’t.
“Come on, Skeppy. It’s time to let go now,” Bad said softly.
“But I was meant to die with you!” He burst out suddenly, shouting. “I was meant to die by your side, that was the point of everything. We can’t be like this, Bad. We can’t. I want to start over, everything, and I’ll be with you the whole time, I promise, I swear, just please don’t leave me. I had tried to make a deal. I failed you.”
“Skeppy,” Bad said, his voice hushed.
It was almost a command, and Skeppy listened to it, forcing his gaze down to the paling demon.
“It’s too late. You have to move on,” the not-Bad coaxed gently.
“You know I can’t do that, Bad. You can’t either.”
“But I’m not him,” the entity whispered. “Bad has died and the Egg has taken him, his body left as a broken toy. There’s no more need for you here. This world’s time is up.”
Skeppy stared at the thing mimicking Bad. It only took a moment before he was collapsing into its arms, holding what was left of his Bad close, not caring about the thorns that dug into his skin. He cradled Bad tightly, his palm against Bad’s head, fingers splayed through the demon’s fur. He was crying, soaking Bad’s neck, and the demon purred. It was warm and reassuring.
I love you, I love you, I love you, Skeppy tried to whisper. I’m sorry.
But no words were able to come out.
***
Skeppy felt hazy. He felt hazy with memories. Everything was hollow and shallow, and he felt suppressed. Muffled.
This was a new life, far away from the one that had left them crumpled and dead over red vines. In this one, Skeppy had met Bad on a foggy day by the ocean cliffs. Bad was eating a deer, blinking at the small diamond golem before him owlishly. Skeppy had decided then that he would have great fun with this strange void-like creature in front of him; he looked funny.
After, Skeppy remembered kisses on his small diamond cheeks and Bad giggling as he cradled the diamond golem in the palm of his hand before leaving to go somewhere random.
Once Bad came back from a war. He did many times, actually.
Once after a war, the two were stuck in an infinite loop of a hundred different lives they had lived, some curse or acknowledgment made by the universe. They were always together in each one, and in each one they were a broken story. Bad sobbed for several nights after they escaped from the loop, plagued by nightmares and haunted red things. Skeppy simply didn’t sleep at all, kissing Bad’s forehead with each nightmare the other scared awake from.
They couldn’t be separated, was the lesson they took from this and the different lives they saw and remembered. They were each other’s souls in every way the word could be used. In the darkness of the night while Bad’s face was still wet with tears, he smiled at Skeppy, who was his one reassurance in this haunted world where they were both despised by humans. Skeppy let Bad mess with the idols of gods, eat whatever animal he took a fancy to that day, and ramble about whatever stupid stuff he wanted to, no matter how often Skeppy would pretend to be annoyed by it.
Skeppy was Bad’s grounding presence, and it went both ways.
So when Bad disappeared… a part of Skeppy did too. He went deep into a cave, curled up within a pocket of diamond, and slept, waiting for his demon’s return.
That’s when he woke up, the world muffled and hazy, his thoughts muddled and not quite clear. He was constrained and couldn’t move. He tried to scream, but nothing came out. He was suffocated. Dying. Breathless.
And then there was Bad.
He wasn’t close to him, but he was crouched, talking to someone, squinting and reading something from a sign. They were outside. Skeppy was outside. Sitting somewhere on grass, suffocated by a diamond interior. He struggled to move but couldn’t. He tried to call out to Bad, to beg the other to look his way.
“I haven’t seen you in months, Bad, please!”
They had never been torn apart before. Not like this. Not stranded from the other. If they were, they saw that in each life they died not long after. That’s what it felt like now, except he wasn’t dying. Why wasn’t he?
This had to be a dream, Skeppy eventually concluded, because it felt a lot like that. He felt the entire world pressing around him, calling him to different places, but he focused solely on Bad and the little egg with a top hat he was talking to. Which was weird, but, whatever. He could get past that.
So Skeppy sat on the grass stuck as a statue, watching. Bad was pretending to be offended by something on one of the grey signs, hand over heart dramatically.
“Wh-- Dapper! Wait, no, you know I can’t read! Whatever, I’m ignoring this. Nope, nope, nope!”
Bad quickly hacked away at the sign, the little egg hopping around him giddily. It almost seemed to be laughing.
“Sush, and say goodbye to your father before we leave. Which we are. Now, actually.”
Father?
Skeppy was entirely confused, not only by the father statement, but that Bad seemed to be perfectly fine. Even worse, he looked happy. He looked healthy. Not that it was a bad thing Bad was doing well of course! It was just that… After a month of radio silence, Skeppy had nearly broken down over Bad’s disappearance. And here Bad was. The demon looked fine with this… Egg... thing by his side.
No, Skeppy reminded himself sharply. This is a dream. Albeit, a strange dream.
He was snapped from that thought as Bad and the little egg- Dapper, Skeppy guessed- walked over to him, Bad patting the frozen golem on his square diamond head.
“Bye Skeppy,” Bad said.
The little egg (Dapper, Skeppy sternly reminded himself of yet again) jumped up and down, waving a sign that said: Bye dad!
And then they were gone. Skeppy tried to turn around, tried to beg a question, say something to Bad and to the little egg with a top hat who called him dad--
Yet his voice was gone. Wherever he was, wherever he was being contained, Skeppy curled up within his mind and began to cry.
***
So Skeppy soon learned that was unfortunately not in a dream. He was just stuck, and it was annoying. Not to mention lame. Skeppy was somewhat able to see and hear, but only at times. Confusingly, there seemed to be many statues of himself around the… island? That’s what Skeppy heard this place referred to as, at least. He woke up either hearing Bad ramble to him or to other people huddled around one of his statues, laughingly saying, “This is Skeppy, and he’s Bad’s imaginary boyfriend.” Well, Skeppy was very real, thank you very much. Still, it was heartwarming (and a little strange) that Bad was keeping his memory alive by making statues of him and telling these strangers about him too.
Maybe it should be concerning instead of heartwarming, actually. Whatever. The point was, Skeppy hadn’t been forgotten. Bad was just trapped, separated as well. Over many days stretching into what was probably weeks or months, Skeppy collected names and locations. The sprawling island they were on was expansive, and Bad placed Skeppy statues in as many locations as he could. While it was probably just as some weird coping mechanism, Skeppy appreciated it because it meant he could get around and see a bit more. Oftentimes when a new statue was discovered, Foolish stuck his tongue out at him and Phil rudely covered him up with obsidian.
“This obsession, it’s ridiculous!” the winged man insisted to his murder of crows.
Oh just wait till Skeppy grew arms, that’d be the day he showed them. Especially Phil (lovingly), because the avian was ruining his sightseeing.
Little eggs that followed Bad around visited him occasionally to, putting up signs that greeted Skeppy hello just to please Bad. Dapper seemed okay enough with the fact that his second dad was a stack of diamonds, indulging in his dad’s delusions. He seemed to trust the some aspect of Skeppy was real enough.
“I’m excited to meet you one day,” one of Dapper’s signs read.
Me too, Skeppy tried to say back in reply.
And Bad always bustled around, doing errands, Skeppy watching him go to and fro. Bad was always moving, always stressing. At night when Dapper was supposed to be asleep, Bad sat in front of one of his diamond statues and went on about new secret bases to help keep him and his son safe from the Federation, asking for Skeppy’s input on the matter. It was rather sad.
Skeppy didn’t know how to say anything back.
***
“Skeppy, look! This is my good friend Baghera!” Bad introduced eagerly, hands clasped in excitement.
The duck hybrid in front of him stared at Skeppy and then back at Bad before saying,
“Bebou, I’m sorry you didn’t get president.”
“--and Foolish is at my house for some reason,” the demon continued to Skeppy, completely ignoring her.
“I was hoping you’d get it,” Baghera continued, also ignoring Bad ignoring her.
Skeppy laughed to himself. He found it funny they the islanders all thought Bad was making him up, and that he was insane. To be fair, Bad was insane. That’s why Skeppy loved him though. Bad was a strange thing that was hard to understand, but those that did had someone special. Those that did saw a schemer, someone broken yet held the kindest heart. In the best moments, that’s exactly what Bad was.
This was not one of those best moments.
Bad was scraping away at his molding skin as he turned blue, laughing hysterically through his tears as he curled up against Skeppy’s side. At dusk his scythe scraped across the ground as he took notes of different islanders, his words scattered over clipboards and journals.
“There’s nothing left, Skeppy. Not without Dapper. Pomme. Richarlyson-- Oh I miss them! Why is no one doing anything?”
Bad paused in despair before grinning. His teeth were stained blue.
“No one’s willing to go the lengths I’ll go to get our children back. Our children. They’re not willing to do anything for them. Isn’t that funny?”
Bad laughed, clapping his hands together eagerly. “There’s nothing left and no acceptance in this grief! That’s what I heard at least. They think they’re clever, the Federation does, but they can’t out smart me!” the demon sing-songed. “I’ll show them. Did you hear that Cucurucho? I’ll show you!”
Other days, Skeppy watched Bad smile at his friends, slow and calculating. Bad was judging them: Skeppy knew Bad ranked his friends. In the best of times, friends to Bad were just what friends should be to someone. In the worst of times, they were either an obstacle, or a pawn.
“What would you be willing to do for our children back?” Bad asked Foolish testily.
The totem god tilted his head, eyes scanning Bad and registering the demon’s haggard disposition. A slow smile grew across Foolish’s face: he was eager to see what sort of menace Bad would become.
Help him, Skeppy tried to plea instead. Help him, he begged to scream as Bad walked into a lab, locking the door behind him.
“It’s only fair,” Bad said to Skeppy nonchalantly one day as his head dripped with glimmering blue blood. The wound was gushing, and Bad wiped it away from his eyes. “I have to do this. I have to hurt them, my friends. It’s part of the plan, I swear it. All of this. For Dapper. All of them.”
But what about yourself, Skeppy asked plainly to nothing. To Bad. What about me? I can help you. I’ll love you when they don’t.
Let me free. Please.
The demon stared at his hands, the palms torn and the muscle of his index finger exposed.
“I think I’m sad,” Bad said suddenly, looking up at Skeppy like a light had dawned on him. “I’m very sad.”
His expression slowly formed into a smile, and he laughed. It was maniacal.
This had happened in a past life before, Skeppy recalled. It had happened in a thousand. Bad was an unstable mind.
At night, the demon cut his scythe through the flesh of a zombie, his grin searing.
“I’ll win it! I’ll win it! Don’t you see?!” he shouted to the sky, to something. “There’s nothing left! There’s nothing! What have you-- oh leave me alone!” he whirled around, shouting at a rustling flower. “Leave me alone, you can’t judge me! I am a grieving father! My son-- Oh shut up. Shut up. Skeppy. Let’s get out of here. They aren’t listening. We don’t need them.”
With that Bad’s scythe dissolved from his hand, and in turn he hoisted the heavy diamond statue up, hurrying away. Skeppy tried to close his eyes, of which he didn’t have any, and pretend that he could feel Bad’s warmth pressed against him.
He felt nearly as insane as Bad was from being trapped in here, but instead he was insane for the desire to feel something. Insane with the desire to be with Bad. Insane to be in love again. To do something to soothe his demon’s pain, to stop Bad from opening the wounds that littered his body.
You can’t leave me Bad. I know you’re going to do something reckless. Something stupid, Skeppy thought as Bad paced his empty home. His fortress. Bad felt eyes following him everywhere, as if the island was about to jump out at him in any moment.
“I knew it was you!” Bad had exclaimed to Skeppy tearfully over their second call together, the second time Bad had connected a satellite, however that worked. “I knew it was you.”
“You have to take me somewhere in order to free me,” Skeppy had told Bad later. “And then we’ll be together.”
“But-- but where Skeppy??”
“I don’t know. Somewhere. Somewhere special.”
Skeppy only hoped Bad remembered those words now: that Skeppy was still here, and that he was listening.
***
In the dark of his home, Bad tore open a bleeding white chest, screaming with insanity, seizing the heart of a dead man. A dead thing, whatever the Federation workers were. The demon ripped it with his teeth, blood bubbling over his lips, dripping on to the ground. He wiped it from his mouth, chest heaving, and laughed, choking from the iron taste on his tongue. Bad took the pale head in his hands and pierced his talons through it, sneering.
“They can’t take anything from me! You’re not giving anything I need to me. I need my son, I need my son, I need him. Cucurucho, where are you!” Bad snarled, a rabid animal. He squeezed the heart in his hands, as if he were about to burst before screaming in a second rage, tearing it apart with his hands, ripping it with his teeth. He swallowed it until he licked the remains and nothing was left.
It was only after that he started dragging the body away that he looked back and blinked.
“Oh. I didn’t mean to do that.”
And Skeppy wanted to sob with laughter.
***
“Skeppy!” Bad screamed. “Get them out, Skeppy, please! The Federation, get them out.”
Bad dripped with glowing blue, his skin molding and peeling. The open wound on his head, so carefully hidden away by his hood, surely made the demon dizzy. His glowing white mouth seethed with a neon blue saliva, the contents dripping and melting from his teeth.
“Skeppy!” Bad screamed again, pleading, now openly sobbing. “Don’t you know I need you?!”
How could Bad say that? Of course he knew.
Skeppy was sitting there. Alone. Trapped.
Bad collapsed, crying.
“It’s our last chance for anything, Skeppy. It’s almost here, and I hope they’ll all be happy after I’m gone.”
Gone?
“It’s for our kids, after all. Right? It’s for them? Can you just tell me that I’m doing this all the right way?” Bad asked, his voice shaking. “I’ve hurt all the ones I love. But I have to. They can’t get in the way of any of this, they’re trying to stop me from saving my kids, Skeppy! That’s-- that’s-- No one will help me. It’s just us. Like before? Just us? Please, say something Skeppy, I know you’re listening! I’m doing everything right! They just don’t see that, they can’t understand!”
Skeppy took in a deep breath.
I know. It’s just us. You’re okay.
***
Bad kissed him on his head.
“I’ll see you later, Skeppy,” he said, his tone perky, his smile genuine.
He wouldn’t. Skeppy knew that.
And Bad walked away.
Skeppy was left alone, anyway.