Abandon

Thoren stops in his tracks.
There was a reply.
A faint call, but unmistakable in origin.
"...Raine!"
Thoren grows brighter as he begins dashing off in search of his beloved.
"-hey, wait up!" Kusari runs off after Thoren.

And to think, he was starting to doubt if she was even alive...

---

Meanwhile, in the all too familiar dungeon pit, the seths are fighting against their greatest nightmares, though strangely enough, it seems stronger than the version that only five of them had faced before.

Battered and bruised, the nightmare rears its ugly head back at its primary target.
"YOU REALLY THINK YOU CAN GET OUT OF THIS SO EASILY? YOU THINK YOU CAN KEEP YOURSELF SAFE FROM THE GRIPS OF OBLIVION WHILE YOUR BROTHERS FIGHT FOR YOU? THINK AGAIN!"

As the nightmare begins to lurch towards Rid, a particular girl leaps out of a portal!
Rid gasps!
"Medi!"

The nightmare stops for a moment, noticing the new challenger.

"WE SEE YOU HAVE ARRIVED, BREAKER OF THE EGG. WE MUST COMMEND YOU FOR HALTING THE GROWTH OF THE DREAMSLAYER. YOU'RE JUST IN TIME TO WITNESS HIS ULTIMATE UNDOING!"

The other seths continue their somehow laughably weak assault from the back, though it doesn't seem to have as much effect.

Rid, still weakened and with only basic equipment, tries to stand back up.
He shakly pushes himself back up on his feet. Maybe it's the music being played above, maybe it's seeing Medi's face again, but somehow he feels almost... stronger.

"...I'm not going down without a fight!" He brandishes his scythe, and then looks over towards Medi for a moment.
"You're willing to help me here, right?"

---

Alpha Seth, having calmed down enough to think somewhat rationally, takes a moment to look around.
It seems the two of them have yet to wake up or anything. They're still surrounded by the same darkness.

"...Kat, where are we? I was trying to look for you in my dreams, and I wound up here. Do you know where this place is?"

---

Despite his cries for an end to the agony, Chronos continues to be assaulted by the complex potpourri of emotional pain forced upon him by Hypnos.

Will this ever end? Will he ever be released from this prison? Will he ever be returned to the safety of his guarded fortress?

Why did he get himself into this?

For her. right, right.

Is she even worth all this pain?

Something inside begs to tell him yes, but Chronos can't help but feel like... maybe there isn't a light at the end of this tunnel.

Maybe she won't even accept him.

What use is all the power in the world if you are powerless on the inside?

Wait, what is he even thinking? Chronos, powerless? That's practically an oxymoron! He is supposed to be a master of time and space! Reality can bow down to his very will if he tries hard enough!

But... it seems in this dark place, the only reality is the one that Hypnos is force-feeding him, and he can't change what doesn't have a physical presence.

Perhaps... can he break these cuffs?

Chronos attempts to use his space powers to thrust the vines away from him, teleport them away, anything!





But...



They Refuse To Release Him From Their Torturous Grasp.




"NΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘΘ!"

With his powers over time and space rendered useless in this endlessly dark realm, Chronos is trapped.

There is nothing he can do.



Nothing.

Charles turns to face the raven, but finds nothing. The void is empty again.

---

"Did you really think it would be that easy? That you could simply run from your problems? Don't make me laugh. You know what you did. We are the reason all of them are gone. We were the the ones responsible for the rift."

---

Sam shook his head in disbelief, taking a few steps backwards. "No..."

The Other made a grin with far too many teeth. "Yes. After all, we both are the same. Now, allow me to show you the future."

Sam stated transfixed at the images now flashing before him. Entire planets, torn into glitchy scraps? This couldn't be real. "We... we can still change this. Minimize the damage. I can get you out of here."

The Other just laughed. "What will happen is set in stone. There is no way for knowledge of the future to escape this black abyss? And escape? You don't get it, do you. I'm right where I want to be."

---

"And you will rot here for the rest of eternity."

"Oh thank goodness you're here...I thought I lost you..."
Raine can't help but smile now that he's here.

Frost immediately notices the horns on Thoren...
...She doesn't really say anything about them. Raine...probably knows more than she does.
"I'm Frost. I invited her to play the game before...I got blasted to bits before I could reach my quest bed. I'm mostly over it? Still a little bummed though."

She looks to Kusari.
"Aw, dude, don't lose hope quite yet! I'm pretty sure she's in here somewhere! Maybe she noticed that giant beam over there and went to it! You never know!"

Raine also looks to the giant beam of light.
"...Should we go there? I mean it's something in this darkness. Better than fumbling about, lost..."

---

Kat looks to Seth with determined eyes.

"I know how dangerous this place can be...But I can't abandon what I believe are people who may need some more help."
Her grip tightens a little bit.

"I'm not scared of what's out there. Because I'm not alone...I can trust you...Please, trust me on this."

---

Medi revs up the chainsaw once again and makes a mad dash towards the nightmare, swinging it horizontally once she's close enough.
Even if it gives some resistance...She'll power through it....!

"I'm not losing him again...! He...will...stay...! Even if I have to destroy myself doing it...!!!"

---

Lycoris steps forward towards Chronos.

This was quite a mess, isn't it?
Medicine already made her descision...And yet here she is...Trying to find an end to this lingering sentiment.

"Why do you want to know...? Haven't you hurt her enough already...?"
A creeping feeling of regret is present on her expression.

"I...I'll tell you. I'll tell you what you need to know...For a price."

"One, you will relinquish control over the Black Bubble to Medi. This is negotiable. Two, you can't harm Medi or her friends, physical or otherwise. This is non-negotiable."

She smiles.

"Do we have a deal, Father~?"

Despite being an avatar of Medi's inner darkness, she was still brought forth because of him.
He is, in a bizarre sense, her father.

Or maybe she was just pushing his buttons. Who really knows...

---

Frost waves a hand dismissively.
"Naaaah, it's fine! You don't gotta apologize. Unless you did something to kitkat here."

They start walking.

"He's done a lot...But I think he's doing his best to make up for it."

---

"I...I'm not exactly sure, that's the problem...It's just so dark..."

She sees the beacon after a few glances around. Initially dismissing it as a hallucination, she can't help but think it's the only landmark they have in this place.

"That light over there seems like a good place to look...It's the only real different thing I've seen here..."

FL and Sam fail to see the light beam off in the distance, due to the shroud of darkness covering them.

Jack and Jessie both notice the light, but can't reach it, as both of them are trapped.

However, the light seems to be resonating with Jack, as cracks begin to run down the yellow bindings holding him in place as he continues pulling at them.

...perhaps more of an effect would be had if the light was a different color.

Caught. The Time traveling dreamself messed up her Time traveling, like she always did. But this Time, there was something there to grab her. It used her to grab through Time, yanking the SOUL of the real, current Witch of Time into this shadowy hell to be judged.

She fractured. In an instant, the trillions of versions of herself that were bound together by The Red Rift exploded outward. Male, Female, Sprite? It didn't matter, as each Katyleen was surrounded by the SOULs of their friends. The friends whose lives were cut short. Because of them, because of Katyleen. Each group of players rush to tear the cause of their failure apart... and then, with a crack, Time breaks. It resets, and happens again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. It doesn't stop. She did this. It's all her fault. Time is punishing her now, in the worst way. She wants to die, but Time won't let her. She's trapped, left to rot, in a broken Timeloop.

"help...me..."

---

Two Heirs appear. One is wearing a Minecraft shirt and shorts, wielding a metal baseball bat. The other is wearing vibrant Prospitian armor, the White King's Scepter grasped in his hand. But something is missing. Something they desperately need. Their powers used to keep them full of Hope. But now, it's all gone. It was all a façade, they haven't had real Hope for 4 years. Without it, their guilt destroys them. Their weapons fall to the ground, as their legs give out. They curl into a sideways ball, crying. Why didn't he save them... Why did he only make sure Niki was following him. A player appears, a Thief of Life. He was brought back to torture his moiral for letting him be erased... but his job looks to have already been done. Logan kicks the Geek and the Commander mindlessly, to no real effect.

"Why. Why. Why."

---

A hard drive appears, clattering to the ground undamaged. Within it are 4 AI.

They're forced to watch, to relive, the final broken transmissions of their AI friends. ALICE, sogBot, nemianLion, and countless others reaped from the Timeline in an instant, silenced to never speak again.

---

The exact opposite of a geeky boy appears. Her outfit reveals her to be one of the popular girls from whatever school she came from. All she has is a phone, after all, diplomacy is the best weapon... right?

They're on her in an instant, the rest of the Found Queens. Yelling at her for abandoning them. Why should a coward like her be the only survivor. Why didn't she just die like she was supposed to. She has no words. They won't let her speak. How is she supposed to negotiate with them if they won't let her get a word in. They're holding her legs down. She can't run from this.

"...on ...esaelp"

Niki is on the ground. No, not that Niki with the beacon, the other one.

The time player.

The one responsible for this entire mess.

The one, that with tools that no mortal nor simple godtier should ever wield, altered reality, and in turn, led others to do the same.

Now look at what she's done.

Why did she have to make that deal with the horrorterror, to give her friends a chance at an afterlife that could be visited and proven even before death?


Is she really that faithless?



If she would have just accepted the natural order and let things take their proper course, and keep the v2ers from ever gaining dream bubble access... likely none of this would have ever happened.

Not to mention, the other things she has done.

She was the one to tell Mike to throw the null blade at the red rift, which caused it to remix their timeline.

She was the one that neglected to lead the SBRIGHT crew properly, leading a certain someone long thought defeated to complete a timeloop that would forfeit that session's chances of success.

She was the one who decided to store important software on her glasses when she went on a suicide mission, just for the sake of a ~ATH script for a game that she made in rpg maker, which was a dirty piece of friendfiction that she forced into nonfiction.
Why would she go through all the trouble of doing all that?

Just for a little bit of attention?

Absolutely pathetic.

How could somebody that controlled so much let everything fall apart?

And look at this place! Does she realize that this is all there is left of the reality she resides in?

There's literally nothing left.
only void.

...no.

there has to be something more.

there has to be something that can be done...

The very reason she took so much control... was so she could set things right. So she could make happy endings happen.
By writing in an ending where Seth gave his heart container to Thoren, even if it happened in an unchosen timeline, it still happened. The container didn't work, but it inspired him to find one that did.
In fact, the whole reason Thoren is even his own person post-mortem, with regrets and everything, is because Niki wanted to add him into Sethstuck.

And now, he's gone on to greater things. He's used his ambition for good instead of evil.
All because Niki heard about an extremely obscure side-effect of the godtiering (and in this case, doubletiering) process and thought he'd be an interesting lategame boss for Seth to face.

Not only that, but when Chronos stole her glasses and got into world domination as a hobby, the people of that planet, they didn't turn out half bad. Maybe a little misled, but nothing that their own people can't eventually fix for themselves.

And, maybe, just maybe, everything happened how it was supposed to somehow.
And maybe, things will turn out okay this time.

Besides. When you hit rock-bottom, the only way to go is up, right?
Even if everyone ignores you.
Even if your shyness forces you into the background.
Even if your own boyfriend has gone off to places unknown, probably having more fun than you'll ever have, while you adamantly stay close to what you know.
Even if it seems like everything is falling apart and you're helpless to even try to put it together.

It's going to get better eventually.
It always does.

Niki finally gets up off the ground. She's wearing her old pin hat, blue flannel, and blue jeans. She looks around at her surroundings.

It seems there's nothing but darkness all around.
Wait, what's that over there? Is that a crowd?

Niki begins walking towards it.

Something seems...almost wrong about it. Like, in a timey sense.

After some walking, Niki finds a mosh pit of countless copies of Katies, surrounded by everyone they ever knew, stuck in a tape-looped cycle of self destruction.

Niki looks out at them. So many of them from so many timelines gone astray. Likely from Katie's poor treatment of time.

She's gotta break this cycle.

"STOOOOOOOP! ->"
Niki takes off her fake leg, specifically the Esperanza slasher leg (the one alchemized from the Esperanza sord fom Baten Kaitos), and throws it into the crowd, smashing the haphazardly balanced system of synchronized time bubble out of its bizarre equilibrium!

"Guys, cut it out! Beating Katie up isn't gonna fix anything! We gotta do something productive around here! Katie didn't mean any harm with her time travel! She had noble intentions! ->"
Niki adjusts her glasses and looks to see where the Katie of at least one of her timelines might be.

"And, to all the Katies that wound up surviving all this,.. Please, don't let this crud get to you. Sure, maybe you were lucky, maybe you weren't, but the privlage of cosmic relevence needs to be used, not squandered in shame! I'm not sure if you know this or not, but really, a timeline is only as doomed as its inhabitants ability to find a worthwhile way forwards. So get up! We've got some terrible movies to watch together, some amends to make, and we need to get things set right around here! ->"

---

Charlotte finally runs into her best friend, Lambda.
"...You're here! Ticks an' tocks I'm so glad to see you again. What exact'ly happened? one minute we were on the battlefield and the next, we're here. What gives? Did we lose?"

---

Dylan, in his search for Jessica, arrives at the sight of a black mage, facing the other way.

"...Where's Jessica?"

".reh fo desopsid I .dedeennu saw ehs ?reh ,ho"

Dylan balls up his fists in anger. He's been separate from Jessica for far too long for this to happen again.

"YOU TAKE THAT BACK! NOW WHERE IS SHE?!"

There is a curt series of reversed laughs from the black mage.

"...eheheH .rorretrorroh taht htiw pihsnoinummoc ruoy tsol uoy nehw rewop lla tsol uoY ...ereh rewop yna dloh uoy kniht llits uoY"

"I was literally going to die if I stayed with that thing! You know that as well as I do!"

"?yaw taht reisae neeb evah ti t'ndluow tub ...esruoc fO ?esruoc sti ekat yportne tel oT ?flesti soahC htiw eno emoceb oT .flesym os yas I fi laed teews ytterp a ekil sdnuos tI ?nettogrof eb dna yawa etsaw oT "

"I never wanted any of that. I'm not like you! I want to rejoin the light! I want to play baseball again! I want to find a decent boyfriend and make sure Jessica is safe!"

"?yas uoy ,llabesab yalp..." The black mage begins tossing a photonegative baseball in his hand.
".tahw uoy lleT .acisseJ rof ,em tsniaga llabesab fo emag a yalp uoY .uoy ot denruter eb lliw acisseJ ,niw uoy fI ...revewoh niw I fI !ereht gnihton s'ereht dnA !llew sa noivilbo otni tsac eb llahs uoy tub ,reh yortsed I lliw ylno ton !HAHAHAHAAHAH"

And with that, the black mage dramatically turns around, and with a flourish of his robe, they are suddenly in a dark baseball diamond!

It should be obvious who this is.

Shadowy figures fill the spaces on their respective teams, though some of them might not be as dark and shadowy as once thought.

"Bring it! I'll slam you into next tuesday!"
Dylan pulls out a classic louisvile slugger and situates himself at home plate.

The black mage begins to wind up his pitch...

---

Meanwhile, the Niki of the beacon watches as more and more begins to flock to her light. Some living, most dead, but all of them looking for something out here.

What is she even supposed to tell them?

She looks over at Clear nearby, who is most likely still charging from her light. Maybe once she's charged enough, she'll have a way for them to escape from this dark place?