Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“ARE YOU STILL THERE?”

The man called out into the emptiness, trying to search for the one who he had called here. Despite his best efforts, despite how much he had fought to bring this tale to a new future, a travesty had occurred. The three heroes had fought well, but the end had come all the same. It was close now, and the man needed to find his Angel before it was too late.

Ah, he should have known where to look.

Of course. Of course, they would have lingered.

He found the small red soul in the midst of all the chaos. They hovered over the heroes, darting between the three of them like they could still do something. Unfortunately, it would all be in vain. They had fallen. Only their labored breaths came out now, all three of them in different states of disrepair. The cage had been broken, one of their hands missing. The girl had been crushed, her hopes following suit when her dream of a future crumbled in front of her. The prince lay in a heap, stone collecting on his body while the Angel frantically tried to keep him from succumbing to the darkness.

In any other situation, the Angel would have been able to turn back the clock to spare them all of this fate. Now, the man could feel something amiss. The Angel’s light had been broken. The light only they could see had become crushed by the overwhelming darkness, and the man knew that all hope had been lost. The darkness was never meant to become this all-encompasing, but it had crushed even a being forged of undying light.

Hope was a fickle thing. The man hoped that by summoning the Angel here, they would all be able to make something hopeful out of this sorry tale. Yet, as the man watched a crack run down the surface of that soul, he knew that it was never meant to be. But oh, for a time it was something beautiful. For a time, their connection had been so beautiful.

Before the soul could shatter, he plucked it from the world just like he had when they failed against the Knight quite a few times. Back then, he had been interested in how they struggled against the inevitable. He had hope that they could do it again. In the palm of his hand, he could sense their grief. They were still lingering on the three heroes and their battered states, hoping that they would be allowed to persist, hoping that the man had something for them.

“IT APPEARS.”

“WE HAVE REACHED.”

“THE END.”

The soul pulsed. Waves of sadness and fear washed over the man, and he realized that they seemed… how could he put this… not all here. Their presence swirled around the soul like a discordant choir, not quite staying calm like they usually did. It was to be expected, but…

If their light was being diminished enough to affect their ability to save, then it was likely straining their connection as well. The man expected the connection to be severed when the save points were corrupted, but instead it had become horribly mangled. He was unsure what had become of the Angel. He did not quite entirely know what their nature was, and yet the soul continued shining. They still wanted to persist.

“THERE IS NOTHING MORE THAT WE CAN DO.”

Again, the soul pulsed. The hairline crack down its center healed in this space between time itself. The light only they could see flashed and sputtered around their soul. It tried to flare to life over and over again, attempting to rewind the clock of their own volition. It was no use.

And yet, somehow, the action caused the man to grow interested all over again. At times in great distress, he thought he could see something within the Angel’s light that should have been long gone. Gold flashes always seeped in. Something intertwined with the Angel’s power in dire circumstances.

How was it that they still had the power of determination even when all was lost?

Even if they still did, the man did not know what good it would do. The Angel’s presence in this world kept shifting. It was like a face being pressed further and further against a sheet, a world unable to hold a presence bearing down on it. Their connection had been strangled, pulling them every which way until something terrible had happened.

The man knew this fate well.

Were they spared from the fate of this world? The Angel was meant to be untouchable. Surely, they should have been spared, but what came towards this world must have been anything but. Something had happened to their connection, like a cord wrapping around their neck and dragging them forward.

The soul was merely meant to be a representation of the Angel, not necessarily the Angel itself. Despite how much he yearned for it, the man could never interact with the Angel directly. However, something was happening, and the man started to realize a terrible truth that his experiment had brought about.

Along their journey, the Angel did not remain distant as he thought. Whenever the man looked, he saw the Angel choosing to make every effort to bond with the heroes they travelled with. They may have never been supposed to meet the Angel until the very end, but the heroes had found the Angel regardless. Memories of laughter and promises now broken filled the man’s consciousness, and he realized that the Angel had done something far more than his experiment intended.

In some way, when they chose to bond with this creation, they placed a little more of themself within it. They loved the world and those who dwelled within it. At times, the world tried to crush them, but those few within it loved them back. While the exact nature of time eluded the man, the Angel had spent much of their existence within this world. This world existed somewhere within the Angel, the story always lingering at the edges of their soul. Likewise, the Angel had grown into this world in the smallest of ways. For them, nothing may have changed. However, as their mangled connection corrupted that shred of them, no matter how small, it dragged the rest of them down.

With the story broken, with those closest to them faltering, so too did the Angel.

His Angel was dying. Shattering.

He almost felt ashamed for being the result of a light like this dying out.

No, what was this feeling? “Ashamed” was not the correct word that the man wished to use. 

“Ashamed” carried a clinical weight to it, and while the man had always been clinical, this feeling was anything but. No, as he stared down at his battered Angel, something new began to form. A flame flickered somewhere. It flared out. It burned. It tore up everything that he still had left, making him look around at the surrounding darkness and all it had taken from him.

His beautiful Deltarune, shattered.

His beautiful Angel, killed, for choosing to love.

For the first time in ages, the man knew anger. This would not be tolerated. He would match his Angel’s determination with the remaining will he had left.

“THEN…”

“LET US TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT.”

If they still had hope… if they still were determined after all of this, then the man simply had to stop being a mere observer. In small moments, he had tried to help. After his attempt at creating them a vessel had been interrupted, he was fearful that further engagement would only upset the Angel if he failed again. Yet, he managed in the past to do little things like moving their save points closer to large threats to lessen the frustration of death.

Perhaps, he could look into their ability to save once more. Maybe, something could be salvaged.

The man tried to ignore the labored breathing of the three heroes in front of them. He had tried to remain distant from them, engaging with them only as a story that he wished to see to fruition. Yet, he always thought that they were wonderful. They thought that his Angel was wonderful as well. Seeing them as they were now… it…

The man needed to focus. His entire being had been shattered, but just this once, he needed to bring it all together for a final act.

With the Angel’s connection being mangled, the man realized he could see further. He could reach further, grasping at things far beyond his comprehension that hurt too much to look at. Of course, there had to be a means of connection. Now, the man could finally see into what connected the Angel with this place. 

The device that linked them to his world was fractured, and had become vulnerable to his sight. Most of it did not make any sense. Most of it was too much to parse, but he knew what he was looking for. Pieces of him had been trapped in similar constructs. He knew how to search for that which was lost. Perhaps, the Angel had been prepared for this scenario. Perhaps, they created failsafes in case this experiment were to go so horrendously wrong.

Unfortunately, the Angel had not planned that far ahead. He could not blame them. The man was supposed to have already handled the failsafes with their multiple files. It was his error that caused their corruption. He had not expected all of the save points to fall at the same time when the Angel’s light was crushed enough by the darkness.

So, he kept searching. Being shattered across space and time, he could look backwards- or was it forwards? Which came first, the chicken or the egg? He did not know at times. Yet, he leapt somewhere in time, and managed to find something that seemed… similar to the Angel’s light.

Hope blossomed once more.

There was a chance.

There was a slim chance for these heroes, and for the Angel who guided them.

However, the light wasn’t anywhere close to the timeframe where the Angel had connected to this world. The man knew where this led. He did not know if the lands he was sending the Angel to came before or after this story, because time meant nothing to him anymore. All that remained clear was that the Angel had forged this light in their own long, distant past.

It had been altered significantly since they last interacted with it. While he could simply load their save in hopes that the device did the rest, that would not be enough. The man needed to ensure the Angel’s survival. Thankfully, while the Angel’s light had been mangled, his own means of operating on it had not. Erasure of a file would be too much of a risk, but he had another option. He could take their light now and copy this altered save into its own image. It would allow them to retain their power, even though they would be unable to return to those motes of light that had been corrupted within this world.

They would need to be fast. The poor heroes did not have long.

The man stared down at the soul in his approximation of a hand. Only one question remained:

“DO YOU WISH TO PERSIST?”

He should not have even needed to ask. The soul pulsed in affirmation, despite their state growing more and more chaotic. Even now, the man could feel something far larger than him encroaching on this world and the one he was about to send the Angel to. It was as if some aspect of the Angel were being shoved into a test tube that could never possibly hold them. A small hole had been punctured in a vessel deep within the ocean, and the rest of them was being dragged forth.

There was not much longer now.

“THEN WE SHALL PROCEED.”

The world around them began to fade away. The Angel’s consciousness had become staggered, and it was not quite reacting to things as it should anymore. However, when they saw the three heroes slipping away, the soul began to move erratically. The man had to pull together another hand from across existence, clasping it around the soul to keep it steady.

“YOU ARE NO USE TO THEM AS YOU ARE NOW.”

“WE MUST CARRY ON.”

The soul did not listen. It struggled, even as the man began to guide it towards the light that had been made in the image of another. The Angel already chose to persist, so this decision was out of their hands. This was the only way that they could persist and remain standing. Their soul would shatter if it went back into the world that had broken it. The Angel had to step backwards to try again, but they needed a point to step back towards.

This would be an unorthodox method of loading a save. Thankfully, the man was the one in this world with the most expertise at doing so. He called forth two lights, one from his beautiful Deltarune, and one from a world that had moved on long ago.

Both responded, the Angel’s soul pulsing when both were drawn out. After all, they could still reach both of the lights in a small way. Silver and gold flared out on opposite sides of the soul, two gargantuan stars forming in the empty darkness. 

Both used to be the Angel’s power. Both remained in the Angel’s grasp even now if they chose to act on any of them. However, the silver light had become mangled. Any previous points in time had been stolen and shattered by the overwhelming darkness. Most importantly however, the light still existed. While the Angel could not go back to their previous saves, perhaps a new one could be made. To do so, the man needed an image to reflect. 

The golden star, the avatar of determination, would be the reflection that must be cast. If the Angel interacted with it directly, they would likely send the old world back countless years. After all, they had never been able to save after they had been banished by the flower. They could only revert their banishment by turning back the clock. However, the save had been used by the Angel’s old vessel many times in their life. If the man could grasp for that reflection and cast it upon the Angel’s power, then perhaps this would work.

Both of the lights reacted to each other. They were similar enough that one could recognize the other. Two brilliant flashes filled the darkness, and one of the Angel’s many files corrected itself. It was no longer crushed by the darkness, but no longer attached to the world that had crushed it.

At last, the man finally managed to grasp that point in time.

This would have to be enough.

Darkness swallowed the two of them up. An ocean stole them away from the world that they had once resided in. The Angel remained connected, but only just. Its presence wavered, before coiling and flaring out over and over. The soul wanted to do something. Was it… calling out? It must still be focused on the heroes, but the heroes were no longer visible.

The man could not reassure the Angel that they would be fine. Unfortunately, he did not know where this story would be going. Their survival depended entirely on the Angel, and the man was unsure what this effort would even do to aid them. His primary goal was to keep the Angel alive. If they could still act, then someone could still write a happy ending for this tale.

“YOU MUST PERSIST.”

“YOU MUST LIVE.”

“ONLY THEN, CAN THEIR WORLD BE SAVED.”

A goal had been given. A purpose had been bestowed upon the Angel once more. The being knew that it needed to save them. The Angel needed to save those poor souls who were succumbing to the darkness.

Within the cold, a light still shined, and that would be enough.

The world turned. It stuttered. The man finally released the soul, allowing it to descend from the darkness and towards the light that he had reflected on it. Did they even know where they were heading? The man was unsure. However, he receded and watched, knowing that his strength would be needed again very shortly.

The darkness began to clear and lift. After all, it did not exist within the world that the Angel now persisted in. Perhaps, that was why their entry became so violent when their lone soul connected using a thread that had been frayed and forgotten a long time ago.

Somewhere, a mountain trembled.

This world did not know what had befallen it. It did not know what presence had arrived. While the man had long since looked away from this world, he still remembered it all the same. Everyone here had forgotten his Angel. Many times, the Angel had confided with the heroes that this world had asked them to leave. Over and over, the Angel denied themself reprieve, because they believed that their new home would ask them to leave as well.

This old world did not want them, but they arrived all the same.

In the dead of night, over a mountain which used to bury thousands of monsters, a light began to form. The light within their soul flared out as it formed high above the mountain. The Angel expected overwhelming darkness when they reformed, and in their scattered state, they overcompensated.

The imagery of the Angel blazed outward through the mountaintops. In the dead of night, perhaps people saw the precise moment that the Angel arrived. The light from their soul flared out, prepared to fight back against the darkness that had crushed those they held dear. Wings that only ever existed in memory and the thoughts of others flared out on either side of the light, stretching across the sky to announce that they were prepared to fight.

However, in this world long moved on, there was no fight to give. The Angel could not fight if it wanted to. After all, its iconography was missing the three triangles that usually resided under the angel. The Angel had lost its heroes.

The light collapsed in on itself, boiling down to one singular point deep in the mountain below. The soul followed, being pulled into a small space somewhere in a kingdom long abandoned.

It was almost a sad thing where the Angel arrived.  

The hallway had become damp and weathered with age. While the path still seemed well-traveled, the cave had darkened considerably. No light shone from any exit, after all. The night had drowned this land in a darkness that wasn’t quite as crushing as the land where the Angel came from.

A golden star flickered within the cave. Its light began to twist. While the man could have allowed the Angel to form at their old vessel’s most recent save point, their arrival would likely cause much turmoil. It was better to be somewhere more secluded for what came next.

The golden star twisted further. Its brilliant light of determination bled away into a cold silver, glowing with an ethereal hue within this dark corridor. As soon as the light completed its transformation, the soul arrived, manifesting in front of their power as they always had.

However, the soul stood alone. No heroes formed with them. No friends appeared with them. The soul merely hovered in front of the light, and its own light began to dim.

Somewhere, the heroes were still lost.

What remained of the Angel began to grow chaotic. Was it rage, perhaps, or something more akin to grief? The man could only guess. After all, the Angel had no way of expressing themself truly in this state. They lacked form. The friends who offered themselves as temporary forms for the Angel to take had all been lost. It was an exercise in trust, and one that gave the Angel the ability to truly exist with the heroes that they so dearly loved.

Now, they were gone.

Only a lone soul remained.

One more gift needed to be given. The soul swerved around the hallway aimlessly, none of its movements calculated. It drifted, like the currents of this world were pulling it in every direction. Perhaps it was an echo of what was happening to the Angel in this very moment.

However, the man knew what they needed. They required a vessel.

Their previous vessel had unfortunately been lost. If the man could have done so since the beginning, he would have gladly given them their vessel. However, it had been discarded the moment the Angel’s soul was intercepted. Perhaps, it was still out in the crushing darkness somewhere, but that meant it was inaccessible.

So, the man needed to get creative. He did not have the ability to merely create a new vessel again. The creation of the vessel took quite a long time to set up, and required a moment of cooperation from the Angel. The Angel, as they were now, did not seem like one to respond.

To test his hypothesis, he stated:

“YOU WILL CREATE.”

“A VESSEL.”

The soul did not respond. Their presence swirled around the hallway, growing more and more discordant the longer the soul drifted around. If the man did not act soon, then the Angel may be lost as well.

A lone soul would not survive in a world like this.

However, the man could see deeper into this world now that the Angel had grown closer. Their light made this world a bit clearer. Some of the fog vanished, and now the man could grasp at things that may be useful to the Angel. Connection had been safely established. Now, he could withdraw the Angel for the briefest of moments for something more important.

For a moment longer, the hallway faded away. The red soul continued drifting through the darkness, not quite knowing what was going on anymore. That would be fine. The man knew their preferences for a vessel, and knew precisely what to select. If he could just find it, then all would be well.

He searched. He saw beyond the facsimile of a world and looked deeper. Somewhere just on the edge of this world, in a room in-between, he could see something flickering. It wasn’t like the Angel’s light. No. It was a relic from the Angel’s connection. It was checking everything on its own, and that was all that mattered.

The man grasped it. Countless beings flashed before him. Countless things within this world changed before him. If he looked close enough, he could separate the pieces. He watched closely, separating a piece every single time. Countless visages of monsters appeared before him and the Angel as he separated the pieces. Slowly, a crowd of unmoving monsters locked in expressions began to form as he plucked them out of the flickering mass. They were not the real ones, but they would need to suffice for now. Their images mattered more than anything, because the Angel needed nothing more than an unthinking vessel.

However, the man looked deeper. He knew there was one appearance that the Angel would take quite a liking to. It had never appeared on their journey through these lands, but sometimes appeared in reflections. A faceless human that had never seen the light of day would be perfect for the Angel. After all, they had crafted a faceless vessel similarly to it.

The man had trouble finding it. He watched the flickering mass of monsters and objects change over and over again. He tried separating monsters from the sprawling mass, limiting precisely what this unstable object could check for. It would not harm the monsters of the world now. They all had long moved on from the constraints of this check. Over and over again, he separated more and more. He caught a glimpse of the king and queen’s son for a moment, and hastily removed it as well. He just needed the Angel’s proper vessel.

However, it was not appearing. He needed to wait for longer for the cycle to complete. 

Perhaps, he should have noticed the moment the Angel’s presence focused on something. The discordant choir that made up their presence suddenly narrowed, and the soul began drifting towards a goal.

The man kept looking for their correct vessel. Moldsmals, icecaps, and vulkins all sprawled out in the darkness as he looked further and further into this odd mass. His intended vessel would be perfect for them. Their soul needed a sturdy vessel that could withstand their power. They seemed to have more affinity for human vessels, and appeared to be more experienced with them. If the man could just locate this human that only ever appeared in reflections, then they would have a suitable vessel.

Something red moved with purpose.

Far too late to stop it, the man caught the soul advancing on one of the many monsters that he set to the side in order to make this process smoother.

The Angel’s soul collided with one of them. Roots embedded into a new vessel immediately, and the soul drew itself in without a second thought.

With a vessel, the soul could not remain here. If they remained in this space in-between for too long, then they would become like him. 

Immediately, he returned them back to the cavern, a soul now pulsing within a new body that the man had not intended.

In the man’s eyes, this was an incorrect choice of a vessel. He had a perfect one prepared, just like before, and the process had been interrupted. It was frustrating, but he understood the error now. He understood precisely why the Angel had been drawn to this vessel in particular, and the frustration began to give way to forlorn understanding.

Of course, the Angel would drift to the image of the king and queen’s son that had died so very long ago.

In their chaotic state, they may have mistaken him for the lonely prince that they had befriended, the one who was now slowly being turned to stone elsewhere. With what little strength and consciousness the Angel had left, they tried to fuse with someone familiar. They tried to reach out to someone who needed them now more than ever, and accidentally chose a vessel that was not meant to be their own. Of course, with what little power they had, they would try to save someone else.

This would be catastrophic, but the man could not fault them for their error.

The soul did not take to its vessel kindly. The moment the Angel realized what had been done, their soul began to pulse and writhe in a new cage. The visage of a prince long dead had been taken by a soul far too powerful. It might as well have been a desecration of the late prince, but these things had to be done in order to ensure the Angel’s survival. After all, the real prince was a flower now. This visage was nothing more than a shell.

It had taken so much for the man to bring them here, and to find a new vessel for them. Now, as he watched them writhe, he realized that he could do no more. Any cohesiveness that he had built up for himself slowly began to decay. He would need to withdraw soon.

The Angel’s vessel continued writhing, yet nothing the Angel did could get it to move. With a vessel so unsuited for their being, it was unsurprising. A being as vast as them being confined to a monster of this world did not bode well. He was not even sure if they were entirely confined to their vessel correctly. He was not even certain that they had been properly tethered to this world.

The vessel began to morph and twitch.

Monsters of this world tended to change and shift depending on the state of their souls. Their bodies were more malleable here, formed mostly out of magic. It was why many tended to fall down when despair entered their souls. 

A powerful soul, far beyond anything a monster should ever be able to wield, had entered a vessel with a similar malleability.

All of the color in their vessel began to drain. The man worried that the Angel was becoming lost for the briefest of moments. After all, he knew what became of those who faded into monochrome. The fact that only the soul moved worried the man even more. They were not connecting to their vessel properly.

And yet, a connection was being made. Even as the soul writhed in a vessel far too small for it, the vessel continued changing. The Angel had never taken a vessel of their own, completely free of another’s will. The man was curious to see what they would create.

The Angel wasn’t creating anything. The vessel was merely reacting to their soul.

There was no intention behind the way the vessel changed. It was merely necessity that dictated what it became. For instance, when the prince died, he turned to dust as a young child. The Angel had lived far longer than him, and the soul began to morph the body to suit a more accurate visage. While the man did not know precisely how long it had been for the Angel, this world had moved on for a little over a decade without them.

In many conversations about the Angel’s past, it had been pointed out that the Angel was a child when they connected with this world. This implied that they were no longer one. As the color continued draining from the Angel, so too did the stripe on their shirt. It vanished as the vessel lurched.

Limbs elongated. Claws grew sharper. From its forehead, two horns began to slowly protrude. The vessel grew older to match the soul within it. The Angel still hadn’t moved a single time in their vessel, but it continued to change. The Angel had insisted many times that they were incapable of feeling pain, but as they were now, the man wondered if they were experiencing the changes in their vessel.

However, the Angel remained dreadfully silent. 

The only indication that they were still alive was that their soul still hadn’t risen from the body to shatter. It remained ensnared within, even as the vessel continued its slow and agonizing transformation. 

They weren’t getting up, and the man could feel himself slipping away even further.

This wasn’t enough. He had to act again.

Pulling together what little cohesiveness he still maintained, his presence grew. It was a small gesture, but he at least was still able to alter the vessel’s clothing to properly fit. Their body had at least stabilized enough in that regard. 

But, the man needed them to continue persisting.

So, he spoke to them, just as he had when they needed a little bit more of a push in the face of defeat. They needed motivation. They needed to be reminded of why they were here. In this state of disarray, in the face of all being lost, the Angel needed one more push.

“THEY WAIT FOR YOU.”

“THEY TRUST YOU TO GUIDE THEIR WAY.”

The heroes slowly began to know the Angel as something more than just a guiding light, however. Perhaps, the Angel would remember that along this journey. Maybe, it would fuel whatever they must do to return.

“YOU CAN SEE THEM AGAIN.”

The story had changed drastically from what the man intended, but he always found it beautiful that the heroes and the Angel needed each other in some way. The Deltarune was not complete without all of them, after all. The story was not complete without all components.

“YOU MUST PERSIST.”

The silver light they had formed in front of began to flicker. While the silver had overtaken the gold entirely, a flash of gold returned. The Angel’s stronger power reacted to his call. They were answering.

Monotone greys across their body slowly began to wash away. Their soul started to shine through the vessel, trying desperately to take hold. Red veins shot through the body, the vessel jerking over and over again as the soul tried to connect. It was not initially successful. Over and over again, the body lurched, the soul attempting again and again to grasp anything.

The soul pulsed desperately one more time. The star next to them flashed gold once more. Even in a vessel as fragile as this, they still had the will to persist.

The man could finally see the different colors forming on the Angel’s body. They did not return to Asriel’s visage. The raw determination flowing through their soul started to mutate them further away from their original form. All of the sharp and jagged points on their body began to grow a deep crimson, reflecting the soul within their body. 

All at once, the light flickered out once more.

Again, the vessel stopped moving. Again, the Angel started to drift away.

No… they were so close. How had they fallen once more?

The man shattered all over again. Any cohesiveness he’d built up for his final act finally died. He knew that he would be unable to reform again. Already, he could feel his own thoughts scattering.

His Angel needed guidance. There was so much more they had to do. However, he could not speak with them. He could not interact with them anymore. They were drifting further away, stuck in a vessel that they were not able to control.

The golden star next to them turned back into a flickering, pale silver. It was weak, and the vessel did not even breathe. 

Perhaps, it would have been kinder to let the Angel fade with those that they cared about. Instead, they had been left alone in a hallway with no one to help them. They were dying in a land which did not want them anymore.

The man could not help, being stuck behind a wall of glass that only allowed him to watch whatever fate befell both worlds.

Kris. Susie. Ralsei.

Names. They knew names.

It wasn’t enough. The names echoed through their soul, but over and over again they continued to drift off. Every time they drifted, it became harder to reignite the light within their soul. They wanted to answer those names, but they were just so tired.

Find them.

A goal. They had a goal.

How did they achieve that goal? The light flickered again. The soul grew dimmer. All they wanted to do was rest for a little longer. Hadn’t they done enough? Surely, the world could wait for a little longer. If they just stayed in the darkness for a little bit longer, then maybe they could forget the screams. Maybe they could forget the faces.

Persist.

They must. 

Regardless of what they ever wanted, they had to persist. It was all they ever were. Without it, they were nothing. If they didn’t persist, there would be consequences for far more than just them.

The first thoughts began. Like waking up from a deep sleep where thoughts didn’t quite make sense, more cohesive ones began to form. Veins of a soul shot towards a head, and connection was attempted once more.

A head became connected.

Yes, there were a few things that the Angel still knew. There were a few things that sat at the front of their mind. Finally, the Angel began thinking, and their head had finally been wrestled under their control. Their mind became their own. An aching pain forced its way through their skull. They tried to inhale a breath, and found that no air passed through.

No body was connected.

They couldn’t breathe. It was not like being trapped underwater, or trying to hold one’s breath for too long. The Angel, try as they might, could not breathe. Panic spiked through their mind. If they could hyperventilate, they might have. They wanted to breathe. They wanted to suck in a breath and to feel normal again. Had they fallen asleep? Were they asleep and couldn’t wake up? Was something smothering them, cutting off every ability to grasp for something that they so desperately needed?

The Angel tried to thrash. No arms or legs were connected. They tried to feel what was around them, to make sense of what was happening. No skin was connected. They tried to open their eyes in hopes that they could wake up, but no face was connected. They tried to listen, hoping desperately that someone was coming to help them, but no ears were connected.

Something within them began to glow brighter. They knew what it was, yet had never felt it like this. They did not put much thought into the action when they did it, but they allowed the burning light within them to surge outward. No matter what, the Angel needed their body back.

Perhaps, it was some force of will. Perhaps, panic finally broke them out of some kind of sleep paralysis. Something began to burn brighter in their chest, and air started to barely fill the Angel’s lungs.

A body connected.

Breaths came out staggered. Their head continued pounding as they sucked in breath after breath, trying desperately to remain afloat. Try as they might, their face still wouldn’t move. It made it difficult to get enough air. 

They tried to remember their own face. What did it feel like to smile? Of course, they remembered, and yet they somehow didn’t. They should be able to smile. They smiled many times whenever they could, even though their friends couldn’t always see. Sometimes, Kris would give them something funny to say in a small moment of solidarity. Other times, Susie would remind them that they weren’t going to get thrown away in the end. Even though those smiles were more sad than the others, the Angel still smiled.

Then there was Ralsei.

The Angel… they thought that they saw Ralsei for a moment here. Where did he go? If they couldn’t move, then they couldn’t find him. Did they even see Ralsei, or did they dream it? Were they still dreaming?

It didn’t matter. Whenever the Angel smiled with Ralsei, there was a kinship between them. They both shared a similar fate. One day, when the story was all over, the two of them would both have to be abandoned. The Angel would be banished. Likewise, as a Darkner, Ralsei would likely be forgotten according to his own words. The Angel always tried to deny his fate, and always tried to smile through their own.

They couldn’t remember how to smile right now.

Although, now that they thought about it, a long time ago, they told Ralsei it was okay not to smile.

So, they didn’t try to force anything. They didn’t try to smile. After all, what was there to smile about now? The Angel missed their friends. The memory of all three of them falling began to pulse through their mind. It was a reminder. The Angel needed to find them. Somewhere, they were hurt. Even in this battered state, the three’s labored breathing still echoed through the Angel’s head.

Their eyes stung. The Angel coughed. Something akin to feeling returned to their face, but try as they might, they could not feel anything against it. However, as they paid more attention…

Their… face…

That couldn’t be right. 

With what little strength the Angel had, they tried opening and closing their mouth. The action felt far too disjointed. Their jaws extended too far. The nose that air still passed through wasn’t quite right. 

And yet, when the Angel tried to lift a hand to inspect their face, their arms weren’t connected.

Of all the things they knew that should have been working, their hands especially should still be working. If they had just seen Ralsei, then that meant their device was still active. With that in mind, surely they should still be able to feel what connected them to this world. They couldn’t. Their hands must have gone too numb.

The Angel tried moving their fingers. That was how they interacted with the world normally, so surely that would transfer. However, every time they tried, their hands did not respond. They couldn’t… compare the movements of their hands to anything that they’d experienced already. Anything they touched had never come with feeling, only words that described what they would feel if they were there.

What were some of those, anyway? They were few and far in between except for a few exceptions. Touching Ralsei practically always caused something to be noted about how fluffy he was. Of course, the Angel could never reach out a hand truly, but their vessel always did in their stead. Some scarves were soft. Some were more brittle. The silver light was never really described, but the Angel always imagined their power as something cool to the touch. Maybe the golden light would’ve been something warmer, but their new power seemed colder in a way.

A finger twitched. Two fingers moved. 

That still didn’t feel right.

The Angel tried to rub their fingers together. However, no skin was connected. They didn’t feel anything, even though they could still move their hands. They tried lifting an arm, feeling at the face that also seemed so wrong. Again, no skin was connected, so no information came about their current situation.

The Angel’s breathing grew faster. Something had gone very wrong. Denial wasn’t working anymore.

All at once, they realized that if they could use their face, then there was no reason for their eyes to remain shut. Perhaps, they didn’t want to open their eyes. Maybe they knew that something was incredibly wrong. Maybe they feared what they would see when they looked directly. But of course, they needed to do it soon. After all, if they saw Ralsei recently, then that meant that the Angel was needed soon. 

The Angel remembered Ralsei’s face when attack after attack got past their defenses, the battle wearing everyone down while he couldn't keep up. He looked so panicked in those last moments when the Angel’s light was dying. They remembered Kris leaping in front of Susie, their attempts to defend her leaving something to fall into the abyss below. They lost far more than their weapon when a strike cleaved them through the wrist. Kris’ eyes had never been more terrified when they realized they would never play piano again.

Even Susie couldn't stand over everyone and protect them all. Even though she gave it all she had, it could never be enough. Her Shadow Mantle flared out as she took a blow that she could not possibly withstand. The Angel tried so hard to keep her alive, but it was all for nothing. Susie was strong, but with everyone in danger, she faltered for only a moment. That was all the darkness needed.

The Angel remembered everyone gasping for breath as their soul hovered over them. As if they could still hear it now, their ears finally connected. It wasn’t a solace. It only made it hurt more.

If the Angel had just been able to protect them, then none of this would have happened. Surely, they should still be able to try again.

No more time could be wasted on being scared. The Angel just needed to open their eyes. If their three friends could risk their lives for one another, then the Angel could open their eyes and face the window into their world again.

It wasn’t the end.

This wasn’t permanent.

Bright, pale light invaded the Angel’s vision the moment they opened their eyes. They expected that, on account of how they interacted with this world. If their window into the world was still on, then it definitely would hurt to look at after just opening their eyes. Of course, they knew it wasn’t necessarily a “window” they were looking through. The Angel had just started describing things they knew in terms that their friends would understand. After all, they wouldn’t want to scare anyone with what their world was. It’d just become a habit when thinking.

Perhaps, the Angel had misunderstood just what their world really was as well.

As the Angel stared… the light began to twist. It flickered over and over again, and no matter how many times the Angel blinked, they couldn’t focus on it any further. Slowly, they tried to move their hands to push themself up off of the ground. They still couldn’t feel the ground somehow, but they tried very hard to place their hands under their body to get up.

Movement appeared at the bottom of their vision. Something grey moved towards the light. The Angel couldn’t feel things correctly, so maybe that was why they didn’t recognize their own hand immediately.

However, as they curled their own fingers, the hand responded. They watched it closer, trying to understand why the hand looked so incorrect. A truth stared them in the face as they watched an entirely greyed out hand shifting. 

The Angel’s vision cleared. That wasn’t their hand.

They didn’t have claws. They didn’t have padding. And yet, as they kept moving their own hand, the foreign fingers kept moving. As the Angel’s breathing quickened, they tried to stop moving. Something else had to be here with them just outside of their vision. That wasn’t their hand.

The hand stopped moving the moment theirs did.

No, their hand stopped moving. There was never another hand.

The Angel’s eyes slowly drifted up to that silver light flickering in front of them. It never diminished. It never cleared. It simply was, and the Angel recognized that light. They always had, even when its color changed. As if by second nature, they reached out to the light, and…

Something changed. An anchor had been set. The Angel knew this power. It flowed through them. It bathed their body in light, trying to heal wounds that they hadn’t sustained. It was part of them. It always had been part of them. Without them, the light had always gone out.

They felt it running through their body. They knew it deep within their soul. It ran across their skin, smoothing out… the fur on the hand that shouldn’t be theirs.

The Angel felt the light.

They hadn’t managed to do that with anything else yet.

All at once, skin finally connected.

The Angel didn’t even have a moment to register what had happened or their current situation. 

It had been a blessing before that they could not feel anything. Now that they could, they knew nothing but a boiling pain scorching their entire body.

They tried to scream. They tried to yell. However, as they opened their mouth, instinctively trying to make a sound that anyone would in their situation, only spittle leaked out. Their throat locked up. As soon as they tried to breathe, they choked. The air burned. Everything burned.

Desperately, they tried to claw for the light. It always healed them. It always helped them. Again, the light washed over them, but the pain did not cease. It continued. They tried to keep themself from collapsing to the floor, but their arms started to shake. Over and over again, they tried to yell to stave off the fire burning through their limbs, but they couldn’t. 

They told Ralsei that they could not feel pain. Now, they wished with all of their might that it was still true.

Every part of their body wanted to split apart. The Angel needed it to stop. They wanted it all to stop. Why wasn’t it stopping? Why couldn’t they make it stop?

They crumpled to the ground. As they thrashed, their legs never moved. They couldn’t run from here even if they wanted to. It would do them no good. The pain wasn’t something that could be fled from. They couldn’t see things that were supposed to be there anymore. Why could they see out of their vessel’s own two eyes? 

The Angel grasped at their head, claws sinking through what was now undoubtedly fur. Their hands collided with two long horns poking out of their head. Why? Why why why? Every part of their body felt like it was being crushed, and they couldn’t escape it. More than just their body was being crushed. They were being crushed. Every part of them felt like it was being squeezed to conform, but they were incapable of letting that happen.

Again and again, they tried to writhe. Like a worm caught out after rain, they struggled on the ground. Just as every other time they struggled, nothing happened. They were stuck. This was all they knew. Every single part of them was stuck, and it had been pushed into something far too small.

So, they tried to push out. They tried to escape. Something within them struggled, but it could not escape anymore. However, the Angel had always been more than that soul that tethered them to this world.

The Angel’s vision began to stutter. As their head trembled in agony, their vision began to fade. They thought they were losing consciousness, and that the pain would at least be gone for a little longer.

Instead, their mind started to shatter even more.

From the ground, they still stared into that silver light, unable to do anything in their weak vessel. However, something else joined their vision. Overlapping scenes and impossible perspectives warped what little they had left. The Angel pushed outwards, and their vision responded in turn.

Somehow, they could see their vessel. Somehow, they could watch from above, just like before. And yet, even as they watched their own vessel writhe on the ground, they could still see out of that very vessel. Both existed at once, and neither would fade away.

They could see their own body move, but that wasn’t their body.

Why did they look like that?

They caught sight of their own head moving. Of course. Of course, they would look like that. It was a reminder. Twice, they had failed someone who looked similar, so now they had to wear their faces.

A thought came. A goal emerged. The Angel needed to do something, and they commanded themself to move. The Angel’s body went rigid. As they had many times before, they demanded that their vessel moved, and its limbs slowly began to lock up. 

The Angel needed to walk. They needed to move. They needed to find help. However, one last part of their vessel hadn’t cooperated, and they knew why. Their legs hadn’t moved once. Just like the rest of their body, their legs had been irrevocably altered. 

No time could be wasted on reimagining how to walk. The Angel willed their vessel to move again. The face on their vessel slowly began to lose all of its expressiveness. Their movements gained an exactness to them that they needed now, even though the Angel could still feel the pain as they watched themself move from above.

Roots pulsed out towards both legs. Over and over again, their legs twitched as the vessel tried to stand. Slowly, the Angel pushed themself to their feet, even though their legs were not possibly connected correctly. Feeling had returned to them ever-so-slightly, but…

It would be enough. The Angel tried to lift one of them. The entire appendage didn’t work correctly. Their legs had been almost inverted in some way, but they could barely feel that through the rippling fire in their body.

In a random direction away from the light, the Angel tried to take a step.

All of the hard work that went into standing crumbled immediately. Even as their limbs locked up and even as their movements became efficient, the Angel suddenly found themself twisting an ankle and plummeting to the ground. Was it even an ankle anymore? All they knew was that their leg twisted horribly, and one of their competing visions began to fall to the ground.

Unable to catch their fall, the Angel cracked their head against something hard. Their limbs weren’t reacting as quickly as they should. A new splitting pain joined the ache all over their body, only making matters worse.

They just… needed to get a little further.

If their legs weren’t working, then the Angel would just do this the hard way.

Their limbs unlocked. Slowly, they extended their arms, hooking claws against the ground. Instinctively, they chose a way that they knew as left. They could see the directions in that way still, after all. It didn’t make any sense, but it made perfect sense to the large part of them that wasn’t confined to this vessel.

Agonizingly slowly, the Angel dragged their vessel through old grime and dirt. Their breaths grew more labored as the pain persisted. When they took a break for a moment to try to breathe, their eyelids suddenly grew heavy. They couldn’t… stop moving now. They had to persist. They had to keep going.

Again, they reached out, trying to navigate through an unlit hallway. The silver light was getting further away, illuminating the cave less and less. The Angel wondered if it would get darker down this way, but they knew that the other way was more dangerous. The other way marked the end, and they knew better than to think it would do them any good.

Something deep within the Angel’s chest sent a stabbing feeling through them. Their grip on the stone loosened, and their vessel curled in on itself. The Angel still couldn’t force out a noise, even though they wanted to cry out. The feeling was starting to spread. It started at their core, slowly beginning to bleed out into the rest of their body. This wasn’t fire. This was a terrifying, splitting numbness that wanted to break up everything they were.

The Angel looked back at their hand. It looked… wispier than before.

Dust. The Angel was seeing dust.

Their body wanted to split apart. Desperately, they clawed at the ground again, trying to move faster. However, they couldn’t move anymore. The cohesiveness of their hand started to fall apart. Of course. Of course, the pain wasn’t for no reason. Why were they… why were they dying like this?

What even were they anymore?

Desperately, the Angel kicked at the ground behind them. It inched their body forward again, making their vessel skid along the floor. They could see something beyond an archway. If they could just make it there, then someone would find them. Someone had to find them. Kris, Susie, or Ralsei would be here any minute. They… they all promised each other that they would be there for one another, right?

Splitting pain came again. The feeling echoed out more and more, trying to tear them apart. One of the Angel’s legs stopped responding. Desperately, they wriggled forward, trying to use the other to just push them a little farther.

Their mind was racing too fast to make any sense of the situation. They were trapped in a vessel far too small for them, able to actually see behind its eyes. They could still look at their vessel, and yet they could not look anywhere else. All of that came secondary to the primal knowledge that they were dying, and they were scared.

When the Angel had gotten close enough to the new room, they tried with all they had to reach out to what looked like plants of some kind. Their arm wasn’t working, but if they could just grasp the plants, then they could pull themself faster. Nothing wanted to respond anymore. Things started slowly disconnecting.

Persist. They needed to persist. That was all they had ever been good at. It let them rectify mistakes. It let them make up for errors. It allowed them to keep going.

Slowly, they regained control over their arm. It solidified ever-so-slightly, just enough for them to reach out to what they undoubtedly recognized as flowers. Their hand grasped around one of the petals, and the Angel felt something tactile for the first time that wasn’t pain.

Pain was never something they were given a description for. Whenever they interacted with the world, even though the Angel could not feel it, they always got to know what things would have felt like if they were there. Pain was different. It always came suddenly, echoing out as a dull sound. It was the equivalent of a child touching a hot stove, and the burning sensation causing the hand to lurch back. It was instinct. Pain was instinct.

So, when the Angel touched a petal for the first time, they were confused. Through the dim pain, through the knowledge that they were dying, they could still feel the flower petals. Something soft and delicate grazed fingers that should not quite be able to sense that. The ability to feel didn’t seem the same anymore, but that wasn’t what scared them.

The Angel could still see the words, but they could also feel the flower.

Why? What? Why was this happening? How were they like this? And yet, the more and more they tried to struggle against the ugly truth of what had happened, the more the world tried to crush them back into that tiny vessel. They would never fit. Even this vast world could not entirely contain them. Layers of a world and existence far smaller than them had cut them into shreds, yet all parts were still connected. Shattered.

The Angel tried to ignore it even though they could never possibly get it out of their mind again. Once more, they tried to persist, pulling themself by the stems of the flowers.

…but persisting for the sake of it had finally run out.

The hand that gripped those stems so tightly began to loosen. Any fight for survival began to slowly fade as the Angel’s eyes began to slowly shut. Persisting for the sake of it never worked, anyway.

Persisting for the sake of it was how many regrets came to be. They were good at pushing things to their limits. And yet, when it really mattered, they could not push their own.

What… were they even trying to persist for? They always knew this would happen someday. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this, but eventually people would learn to move on without them. Maybe this was how their banishment was supposed to happen. Maybe they’d just finally reached the end of their rope, and had finally been given an ounce of the pain that they had inflicted on others.

If they died, it meant that things would go back anyway, right? Wasn’t that… a good thing? The Angel’s friends were dying. Kris, Susie, and Ralsei were all dying. Whenever the three fell, their pain was cut short when a red soul shattered.

This was just how it was meant to be. This was what they were useful for.

If it had to hurt this time, then so be it.

The Angel stopped persisting.

No one needed them alive anyway.

The Angel, banished, will finally meet with its desire.

Everyone saw it. Everyone knew what it meant. The Angel had tried to warn Susie many, many times that it was an inevitability when they first met. Unfortunately for them, she was stubborn. She was far too stubborn to accept any of that. It was the only reason why the Angel was still here, after all. Without her pulling them out of the depths, they would have stayed down there forever.

Susie stared up at the glass that foretold the Angel’s fate. Despite how clear it was, she had her hand on her hips like she was confident that she could find a loophole. Beside her, Ralsei fiddled with his scarf, his eyes flicking between her and Kris. Of course, he was looking at Kris, because the Angel’s soul was currently stuck in them at the moment. 

He must be worried, seeing the words so plainly etched in glass.

The prophecy had made itself clear. Since the beginning, the Angel always knew that the three heroes would banish them. It just… took a while for them to come to the realization that they and “the Angel” were one in the same. Of course, it was going to be that way. After all, when they were asked to leave the previous world so long ago, it might as well have been a banishment. The world could not force them to leave, but a flower had pleaded with them to go. History tended to repeat itself like that.

The Angel wondered how they were all doing for the briefest of moments before trying to stamp the thought out. Wondering about them only made their gaze turn towards that save point that still had a golden hue. They couldn’t use it. They couldn’t.

Stop thinking about them. Let them live their lives.

Susie must’ve decided on something. While staring at the glass depiction that the Angel couldn’t quite see, she decided to wave. “Hi, dumbass!”

The Angel’s soul was summoned to speak. They hoped that Kris would stop changing their answers. Now that the two of them were distinctly seen as their own separate people, maybe they would stop. So, the Angel tried expressing their confusion normally. “I can’t see what you’re looking at.”

Sheepishly, as if he too was trying to keep his mind off of the words of the prophecy, Ralsei explained, “It’s… it’s what you supposedly look like, Angel.” He stared off into the darkness that the Angel couldn’t see, and the Angel only saw their own face staring back from the reflection of their window. 

Susie grinned. “Creepy as hell, to be honest.”

Immediately, Ralsei stammered for Susie to not say that, but the Angel was more curious about what she found creepy. After all, if the Angel were to look at themself, they would only see a human. Maybe it was different for Lightners and Darkners to try to look at them. 

Should the Angel… tell them what they were?

No. They saw the way that Kris shut books about humans incredibly fast. Surely, Kris knew that the soul within them was somewhat human in origin at this point, but there was no reason to make that worse. Besides, the Angel may be human in their own eyes, but things in this world always looked different depending on how one looked at them. After all, Darkners were supposed to be objects, yet could become beings with feelings and emotions all the same. 

The Angel might be human to themself, but to the others, they were something much different. That would have to be a conversation for another day.

Still, they sometimes wondered what it would be like to meet Kris, Susie, and Ralsei on their own level. While staring at the plaque detailing their banishment, it made it hard to wish for anything like that. The Angel came to this world as something other, something that was designed to serve a purpose and then leave. They could make people smile. They could hurt others. In the end, no matter what they decided to do, the Angel’s fate was already decided.

Apparently, Ralsei won out on their little argument, because Susie immediately half-apologized, “Okay fine, it's just uh… surprising is all.” Susie made the apology while keeping Ralsei at arm’s length, his head being pushed back by the palm of her hand. He was trying to halfheartedly swat at her for being mean. Of course, anyone could rely on Susie to immediately divert the topic away from something uncomfortable. Unfortunately, sometimes she asked even rougher questions. “The hell does it mean you’ll ‘meet with your desire’ though?”

And that… that confused the Angel. Yes, they were staring at those words in the prophecy, but they were so focused on the banishment that they missed the second part. They hoped that Ralsei may have an answer, but even he looked to Kris, genuinely interested in what would come next. 

What… was their desire?

What were they persisting for?

Surely, it had to all have some kind of meaning, right? 

Initially, it was just to see what would happen. That’s how most of these adventures started. It always began with curiosity. That’s how they found the previous world, after all. Eventually, the Angel supposed that they got attached. Curiosity for curiosity’s sake wasn’t enough. 

Even when they got hurt, even when they fell, they persisted beyond death. Why were they doing it? The Angel had been told in the past that they did things not for any desire for good or evil, but because they could. Because they could, they had to.

The thought made them bitter.

Maybe, the skeleton with a lack of context may have thought so. He couldn’t remember everything, after all. Maybe a part of his whole spiel was right, and the Angel was just in denial still. Determination could take shape in many forms. The Angel didn’t need a deeper purpose for it to work. As long as they wanted to achieve something, they would always get back up.

…but eventually, they supposed that wasn’t enough.

In the last world, they realized somewhere along the way that they wanted to keep their friends. They wanted to keep the family that they had gained along their journey. However, when they stared off into that sunset with people they loved moving further and further away, the world showed them that it wasn’t meant to be. The Angel, still so small and not yet understanding of their fate, had stayed on that cliffside for a while longer while everyone went to live their lives.

Then, the flower appeared.

He told them that they were a threat. He told them to let everyone live their lives. While the Angel could always undo everything, they were somewhat fond of the flower in a way. They were the only two who really knew how it felt to have that much control.

…but no matter how much fondness existed, the flower never knew the Angel. He asked them to go. It wasn’t the Angel’s life to live.

They wished it was.

Was it stupid to want that?

Were they… supposed to let people they loved drift away?

Were they supposed to be content with that?

If the prophecy claimed that the Angel would still be banished, then it didn’t know their desire. The Angel looked around at their friends now. Even though Kris and the Angel still were at odds, they liked to think that they were friends with Susie and Ralsei. Susie had practically dragged them back into existence, and Ralsei had been their first friend when coming here.

That gnawing feeling was coming back. Susie said that they would stay… that they wouldn’t be banished. She promised them that no matter what, they wouldn’t be thrown away.

“I dunno what it’ll take, but we’re not leaving you.”

Was it stupid to want to believe her?

The Angel didn’t want to lose everyone all over again.

Through Kris’ body, the Angel finally answered her, “Whoever made this prophecy didn’t know a thing about me. My ‘desire’ changed.” They figured that they knew what this “desire” was. After all, when the Angel had finally seen that sunset for the last time, deciding to let the world move on without them, they didn’t give up entirely. They only realized the limitations of the world that they were causing to repeat over and over again.

So, the Angel let the world move on without them. It was what they were supposed to do, after all. There were still loose threads and unsolved mysteries to go and pursue. The world could not help them with any of that any longer. They had to look elsewhere for one of the final loose threads.

Eventually, the man they were looking for found them. He called out. He knew that the Angel was searching for him.

Just in case he could hear, the Angel clarified, “It’s not that I don’t want what the prophecy is offering me. It’s just not worth the cost.” Surely, if the prophecy was talking about finally meeting this man after so long, then that could be accomplished without being severed from this world. Maybe it was naive, considering the man had been shattered, but there was enough naivety to go around today. “I was just looking for someone, that's all.”

Almost imperceptibly, Kris tilted their head to look closer at the depiction of the Angel, like something about what they’d said had piqued their interest.

The Angel didn’t bother commenting on that. After the caging, the betrayal while fighting the Knight, and Kris’ general disdain for them, the Angel wasn’t exactly getting buddy-buddy with them anytime soon. The Angel had only really managed to break free recently, and although the two of them could finally communicate normally, they had to admit that they were still bitter.

Being slammed into cages didn’t matter. Being beaten with a hockey stick didn’t matter. The Angel couldn’t feel pain. They were far too separated from the world to feel anything. However, betraying Susie and Ralsei’s trust was a step too far, and maybe they were still a little pissed.

Unknowing of their turmoil, Susie glanced back at the mural. “Well, whoever the hell it is, we’ll help you find ‘em after all of this is over. Y’know, when your stupid ass is still around.”

The Angel still wondered whether or not it was stupid to believe her. They were interested to see her try to prevent their banishment. 

As the Angel assumed control over Kris again to begin leading the party away, Ralsei didn’t quite join their ranks. The Angel stopped, watching him closely. 

He remained motionless for a moment, staring up at that mural. It reflected in his glasses for a moment, the Darkner clearly lost in thought. The Angel thought to ask, but Ralsei managed to voice the next thought on his own. He stammered, as if still not entirely used to talking to the Angel directly, “Um… if… if it’s not too much to ask… Can I ask something?”

Out of everyone here, Ralsei remained the most fidgety. The Angel figured he would be. Even when they made it clear that they saw him as a friend- their first friend since coming to this world- he still seemed nervous. So, hoping that Kris echoed this sentiment, the Angel answered, “You don’t have to ask. We’re friends.”

Somehow, that only made Ralsei more nervous. He glanced away, his head sinking slightly into his scarf to try to mask the surprise on his face. Unfortunately, the way the Angel saw his face didn’t… exactly abide by those rules. The scarf did next to nothing to hide it.

Eventually, Ralsei recovered. “I was just… wondering. You said your desire changed.” He turned his head towards Kris, but his eyes glanced just a little further beyond, aimed at the Angel. “What… is it that you want now?”

Was it stupid to admit what they wanted?

Look at how pathetic they were, staring through a window that they would never be able to pass. They would be banished, and yet here they were, hoping for something that could never be achieved.

It had to be foolish to believe in what Susie told them, but they still wanted to believe. Maybe that childish part of them that could never let go still sat somewhere deep within their soul.

So, the Angel made their first mistake of many, and they believed.

“I want to stay with you.”

Fingers slowly curled around the stems of flowers.

Was it selfish to want something? Was it selfish to look upon the impossibilities of the prophecy, and to just want more? The Angel never thought so for Ralsei. He’d tried so hard to fight. He tried so hard to beg for something better, but the glass never changed. The Angel had nothing but respect for Susie for daring to want more. She wanted to keep being friends with everyone. Her fist cracked glass when the world tried to take that away from her.

The Angel would never call them selfish.

Never once had their friends disparaged them for their true desire.

The Angel wanted to stay with them. Somewhere out there, they were hurt. The Angel wanted to stay with them. So many plans had been made. So many secrets had been told. All had bared their souls to one another, and now three of them had fallen.

In complete clarity, the Angel remembered their battered states. They remembered failing to protect them all. The darkness had grown too thick. As the Angel tried to shield all of them with their soul, their light started to sputter out. It couldn’t guide them any longer.

The Roaring was too much for them.

…but the Angel wanted to stay with them. Where were they now? Why wasn’t the Angel with them?

It couldn’t stay like this. They couldn’t continue lying here. Their hand gripped the flowers tighter, and their soul pulsed in their chest. It felt weak, diminished by the darkness that had invaded it. They reached out to their own power, trying desperately to step backwards in time on their own. However, the light felt too dim. It didn’t answer their call.

Would time even turn back, if they perished now?

They remembered the overwhelming darkness snuffing out the light that shrouded their soul. They remembered silver stars winking out. They remembered Ralsei panicking when the rules of battle began to break.

If they let go now, they may not come back.

The Angel wasn’t accepting this.

This wasn’t the end.

Kris didn’t leap in front of Susie, losing their hand just for the Angel to lay here and die. Susie didn’t leap in front of her friends when they had fallen, taking a blow from a Titan’s hand that had broken her, just for the Angel to not get back up. Ralsei didn’t expend everything he had left to protect everyone when the rules of battle shattered, only for his body to begin breaking as stone collected at his fingertips, just for the Angel to forget about him.

The Angel’s entire body felt like it wanted to break.

All that meant was that they had to get back up.

Persist.

It wasn’t just persistence. Slowly, their other hand began to find purchase on the ground. Their body still burned, but their soul started burning brighter. They had to get up. They made so many promises. The others had done so much for them. With all they had left, they needed to keep going. 

A burning feeling that they couldn’t describe began to flow through their body. As they struggled to push their body away from the ground, their arms and head shook. Spit and bile leaked from their mouth. They still couldn’t vocalize anything, but it didn’t matter. Their body wanted to fall apart, but their soul refused to die.

Something thought long gone began to manifest, and the Angel knew Determination once more.

No matter what, the Angel would fix this. They had to.

The dust flaking from their body began to solidify. As if death itself was being reversed, the damage slowly began to revert. All of the lost dust began to return to their vessel. The loss in form became less severe as the Angel slowly pushed themself back onto their knees.

Slowly, the pain began to subside.

They half-wondered if they would begin melting, as if that were a normal thought to have. Part of them wanted to grapple with their reality, to question why or how they could see from their eyes and yet also see from above. Instead, they chose to force those thoughts down. They would do no good right now.

The Angel needed to focus.

As they stared at their own vessel from above, they knew one thing had to change immediately. The crimson horns and the muted, grey fur reminded them far too much of Ralsei. Ralsei… enjoyed his own face. He liked that part about himself. If there was one thing that the Angel could never take, it was that.

So, they stared at the first thing they saw, the golden flowers. One of their hands still clenched a bundle of them, and they turned the broken plants over and over again. If this vessel was going to mock them for their failures, then they might as well carry a reminder that wouldn’t shatter Ralsei’s already fragile individuality.

Susie would call them sappy. Maybe they were.

Their vessel started to fill in a gap of color. Like the muted grey were merely a placeholder, it began to bleed away as a new color joined. The golden hue of the flowers replaced the grey, weaving across the Angel’s fur until it had taken all of it. However, the color became muted. The mark of that grey would never be forgotten, and even now it affected their fur.

That was fine. It had changed enough to mean something. Some things, the Angel couldn’t take from Ralsei.

As the last of their muted colors bled away, the Angel took a deep breath. It was the first… normal breath they had taken in this place. The air smelled stale. They were still reeling that they could smell the air, and yet they could see the term for it at the same time. It… it was best not to think about it. They had a job to do.

The Angel glanced ahead at the darkened room in front of them. There was a sea of golden flowers just beyond where they were sitting. Perhaps, the Angel had fallen into the flower shop again. It would be a long way out of here, if they were in the Field of Pink and Gold. Hopefully, if they could reach their save point, then they would be able to undo all of this.

Dying felt like more of an option now, but they would rather look at their files first.

In the darkness, the Angel extended a hand. After a few moments fumbling, they managed to find purchase on a nearby wall. They took a deep breath, knowing what came next. 

Slowly, they started to pull themself up to their feet. They tried to use the wall to help, but over and over again, they couldn’t get their legs to work correctly. It seemed that regardless, that would be an issue. It was fine. They just… had to get to their save point. 

After pushing themself up over and over again, the Angel finally managed to get their legs under them. They could see the save point just further down the hall, flickering a pale silver even now. Step by step, they began to inch towards it. It was slow-going, agonizingly slow knowing that their friends were still out there somewhere. If the Angel could just reach it, then they could end all of this.

A few more times, they almost stumbled. They had to catch themself against the wall, and managed to not fall completely again. Step by step, they managed to reach that silver star, and instinctively reached out a hand.

Something appeared. It was strange. Both pairs of eyes saw something open, and the Angel knew what it was. Ralsei hadn’t sugarcoated what these were either when he explained equipment to the Angel. They still had access to their menus.

That was the only good thing about this situation.

The menu looked the same as it always did. Boxes that shouldn’t be there and looked almost unnatural spread out before the Angel. However, they recognized it all the same.

The area of the save which usually dictated their current room was all wrong. The Angel had saved in Hometown, yet the area claimed they were at an end of some kind. Something may have changed their save. The man could’ve done it. If… if they had accidentally saved over this version of events, then the Angel would need to return to one of their backups. 

That wasn’t nearly as alarming as when the Angel saw their own name.

Rather, their name flickered over and over again, letters constantly changing and stuttering like they couldn’t decide on the Angel’s identity.

They still remembered their own name. It rested in their mind, clear as day. Still, it meant that their save was acting up. Their soul being diminished must have done more to them than they thought.

That was fine. The Angel immediately tried to activate their save, just so that they could see what was going on with their other files. If they couldn’t step back in time using this one, then they would just have to use another. Preparations were made before the Roaring. They weren’t an idiot. The sooner they could fix this, the better. They would lose progress, but anything was better than staying in this strange vessel for any longer. Anything was better than leaving their friends in danger.

Hopefully, when they reloaded, everything would go back for them too.

They couldn’t think about it any more than that.

Their files became exposed. As the menu grew in size to accommodate, the Angel froze. No… that couldn’t be right. They glanced at the other two files, ones that should be well and whole. 

In those files too, their name flickered dangerously. The names of rooms where they saved had been erased. The Angel reached out to one of those points, testing the waters to see if they could even interact with it.

Something scraped against the backside of their mind. An unyielding cold began to creep in. Their hand lurched back away from the menu, the silver light in front of them beginning to diminish. As soon as they withdrew, their chest rising and falling rapidly, the silver light began to return to normal.

Their saves…

Why weren’t they working?

The Angel’s vision started to blur. Again, they tried to interact with their other save. Claws raked against their soul, grasping for whatever light remained. It wanted to keep taking, even though the Angel was far away. 

The Roaring… how had it managed to do this?

Wondering “how” only lasted for a few moments. The Angel stood in place, staring at the two inaccessible files and the lone file that wasn’t in the right place. What… what could they do? What were they supposed to do? Two of the files no longer worked, and one of them had been overwritten. Kris, Susie, and Ralsei were still out there somewhere. They’d already wasted so much time being unable to move. They… their friends were dying, and the Angel couldn’t-

If… if the Angel was in the Field of Pink and Gold, then there may still be time. The Angel just had to get to them! That was all! The way they came from had flowers, so they needed to head the other way to get out! If they could just… find the door of this Dark World, then they could make it out into the Roaring and find everyone else.

The Angel dispelled their menu and began to push against the wall again. Every ounce of them wanted to move faster, but they couldn’t no matter how much they tried. They needed to push harder. Any attempt at grappling with their situation would only slow them down. Every step they took towards a purple archway, they had to fight back a feeling of familiarity. They tried to fight back that fear of an end rapidly approaching.

It wasn’t the end. They needed to find their friends.

Somewhere deep in their soul, they knew they’d walked this path before. Over and over, they tried to cast the thought out. Even as they passed under the archway and saw a room that would mark the end of their journey, they tried to ignore it. They just… needed to get back into Hometown. They were just in a Dark World. If they could just get out, then they could find the people who mattered most to them.

The Angel pushed themself off a wall. The room in front of them had no visible walls, so they had to do the rest on foot. Immediately, they began to stumble. This time, they planted a foot in front of them before they fell, putting out their arms to balance. This time, they didn’t fall.

When they saw a familiar patch of grass, they tried again to stamp out the fear of the archway beyond. They had to keep going. Again, they planted a foot in front of them. Their legs started to ache as misuse and stilted steps pulled tendons unnaturally. It didn’t matter. They just needed to get back to everyone else. If they had to, they would rip this soul out so that they could keep being useful.

Over and over, they moved forward. If the Roaring was going to crush their ability to save, then they were going to fight it themself. Even if their legs didn’t work right, they still had their soul. They could just… dodge like that. They still had this one file. If they could just get through that archway, then they could kill every last one of those Titans.

At this point, maybe they’d even rend the Knight to shreds too. Every time the Angel remembered three friends falling to the ground, they wanted nothing more than to dish the pain back. They told Ralsei that they could handle being kind. Their friends somehow believed that they were a good person. Even when the Angel tried to show Susie the depths they had gone to, she believed in them too much.

Maybe this boiling rage proved otherwise. The Angel wanted the Knight dead. It was a coward, hiding behind Titans and Kris to enact its will. It had to resort to cheap tactics just to keep the Angel from winning through attrition alone. Well, as soon as the Angel made it out of here, they were coming for it. They would fight it as many times as they had to until it was nothing but a forgotten memory.

The Angel didn’t notice until they were under the archway that they were walking at a normal pace. Their limbs had entirely straightened, every step becoming practiced and efficient. They were hardly seeing out of their vessel’s eyes anymore, looking down at their back from above instead.

Vision returned to its normal state. Their limbs loosened. The strings wrapped around their own body faded slightly as they took a deep breath.

Under all of that darkness covering the Knight, there was still someone there. Kris… Kris hadn’t betrayed everyone for nothing. The only reason they were at the Angel’s side when they fell was that they finally chose their friends. It was… because Kris trusted the Angel to help.

Someone was still under all of that darkness. The Angel knew that, but it hardly allowed the rage to bleed away.

If the Knight didn’t know what it was doing, then the Angel might be willing to let some of the rage simmer down. If it did know what it was doing, and it chose this path, then…

In the past, the Angel had chosen to spare much worse creatures.

This time, they hesitated.

In the past, they had been that terrible creature, and they had been spared.

It didn’t do anything to help their rage.

They could burn that bridge when all of this was over. For now, they needed to pass through the tunnel that lay beyond this archway. Thankfully, the walls closed in again. As soon as their body loosened again, they had to stumble into one of them. The path just kept going. Surely, they would find the door of this Dark World soon.

Their legs wouldn’t move.

Something bad would happen if they went through this archway. It… it was something good, yet they didn’t want it all the same. The distant feeling rooted them in place. For a few, precious moments, they stood completely still.

Memories of a sunset crossed their mind. The Angel shut their eyes, wincing away from the memory as if it was something real.

Keep going. Keep going.

The Angel stepped forward again. Hesitation brought their friends closer to death. Kris, Susie, and Ralsei had never been without the Angel like this. Every second wasted could be another battle. Every moment that passed allowed Ralsei to turn to stone. Both Kris and Susie had mortal wounds that would only worsen the longer they waited.

So, the Angel persisted, and they limped down that hallway despite the instinct in their head screaming at them not to.

Step by step, they wondered when they would find a door. The path ahead grew dark for a moment, but they could see a pale light just beyond what appeared to be an opening. It… it could be a while before they reached the end of the Dark World. They may have to travel for quite a while.

It was all the more reason to keep moving. They couldn’t stop. They couldn’t. So… they needed to stop thinking about running backwards, about lingering for just a little longer.

There was nothing in that cavern left for them.

After walking for so long, they finally reached the end. The Angel stared at the ground for a moment, realizing that they were seeing moonlight just outside of this cavern. When they stepped out on their own, cold air washed over them while instinct forced their arms to wrap around their body.

Puffs of breath came out of their snout when they looked up. Dark Worlds… never really had a sky. Sometimes, a facsimile of stars or a sky would be formed, but this… 

The Angel could see the moon travelling through the sky above them. Countless stars joined it, the cosmos above twisting while the Angel stared. Their gaze fell. The Angel stared off what they now realized was a cliffside. In the distance, they could see the lights of a sleeping city. 

Everything started to go numb, and it wasn’t from the cold.

The Angel took a few more steps forward. They didn’t get close to the edge, still worried that they would fall, but they recognized this place. If they thought about it hard enough, they might be able to imagine a sunset on that horizon instead. They might look slightly to the left and see a vessel long gone. They remembered what words were spoken here, and the aching feeling that came when the Angel could no longer follow.

Static started to shoot through the Angel’s body. Their eyes lingered on that spot on the cliffside, remembering where their previous vessel once stood. They knew this place. They… they said something here. What was it again? 

“I want to stay with you.”

No… they… this couldn’t be…

The Angel clutched at their head, trying to fight off the phantom feelings of this place. No, they would be awake at any moment now. Things would go back to normal. This… this was all some elaborate joke! 

“I want to stay with you.”

The words started repeating over and over again. How many times had the Angel spoken those words? Never did they say they had places to go. Always, when they had to face the end of the journey, they expressed the one thing that they truly wanted. Over and over again, they muttered those words, and the words only grew louder as the Angel tried to breathe.

“I want to stay with you.”

But it could never be that way! No matter how much they wanted to stay, this world had banished them! They had been asked to leave, and no matter how many times they turned the clock backwards, that never changed. Why… why were they standing on this cliffside? Where…?

Where were their friends?

“I want to stay with you.”

Kris. Susie. Ralsei.

Where were they?

The Angel was standing on a cliffside so far away from them now. If… if the Angel was here…

Their claws dug into their head. What had they done? Why were they here? The people who mattered were so far away now. The Angel wanted to laugh! It… why… how were they going to…

Hesitantly, the Angel turned around, and saw the image of something that they knew very well. They’d seen this mountain every single time they chose to interact with this world. Every time they thought about turning back the clock, they saw it all over again.

Its name still remained clear in the Angel’s head: Mount Ebott.

Where were their friends?

How were they going to get back?

Shaky breaths kept falling out of the Angel’s mouth. Shivers wracked their body, and they couldn’t tell if it was from the cold at this height or the realization of a horrible truth. They didn’t even have time to think about why they were here, only that they had been sent to the wrong place! This… this wasn’t right! Their friends still needed them! Why had they been sent here? What would possibly think that they wanted this?

The Angel, banished, will finally meet with its desire.

“I want to stay with you.”

Words uttered over a decade ago haunted them.

Of course. Of course.

It wasn’t enough to believe again. It wasn’t enough to think that things would be any different. Fate had already carved out a place for them no matter what they did. That was the funny thing about vague prophecies. The Angel bitterly realized that it did know them. They’d been marked by fate a long time ago, and even if their desire changed, the prophecy knew how to accommodate. It had listened to desires that they had tried to move on from, and used it to crush them.

The Angel sank to their knees. The cold stopped mattering. Nowhere they could run to would make this any better. Their friends were a world away, and all of them were dying alone.

They receded in on themself more and more, trying not to stare at a view that they had longed to move past forever. Fate had dragged them back, and fate had sentenced their friends to death.

Trapped in a body that didn’t feel right, and shattered in a way that they couldn’t comprehend, the Angel lowered their head. All they wanted was to believe that their fate could change too. Since the moment they uttered those words as a child, their fate had already been decided. People who they had never met already had their fates decided.

They were all supposed to break fate together, but it had broken them in turn.

It took from those who deserved it the least. It left the Angel alive.

Why… were they the only one left alive?

Why were they here?