Chapter Text
You sit on the ground, breathing heavily.
Something is wrong, each part of your body is in pain. What is happening?! Where are you? You look down and see a familiar female body on the ground. You look closer. She’s not breathing, which isn’t surprising considering the amount of blood covering her and everything around, the pretty grotesque scene. You look around. It looks like some kind of city, and you are in the middle of the road. Everything around you is destroyed. It looks as if a massive blade cut through the roads and buildings during a battle. Why were you fighting?... It was something truly important.
To protect my friend.
To finish Nightmare's order.
What? Your head hurts. It feels like something is absolutely wrong. What kind of disaster happened here? Why did you think two things at the same time? You place your hands on your head to calm down. A skull? Where is your hair?! You look at your hands in horror, and... they are skeletal hands! You were never skeletal. You were always like this.
“Arghhh!” Closing your eyes, you frantically try to cover your 'ears,' a wave of panic washing over you. You try to calm down, taking shaky breaths. Do skeletons even need to breathe?! Well, at least it helps you calm down a bit, even though you are unsure where the air even going.
It takes you a few minutes to get a hold of yourself. You look at the body in front of you. It’s your body. The one you always lived in, it is you, now from third person perspective, lying right in front of you. A quiet, humourless laugh escapes you. It looks like your friend was right, you shouldn't had used the magic, you only mess things up. Not like they said it specifically like that. It more like, you can't use your own. Your magic is unstable, wrong, and chaotic.
You tried to kill this unknown skeleton, and here you are, having become him, what a mess. Or maybe instead of becoming this skeleton, you are inside his mind and controlling his body? Well, that's a question for the future you! Right now, you need to do something with your previous body. Perhaps you can ask your friend to create an artifact with her magic that would heal your dead body and bring you back? You always can try use your own power, but considering that it what brought you in this situation to begin with, the idea doesn't seem too appealing. You need Reishu. Her help.
That way, you won't be messing with your own magic to fix this shit! Yes, right now you're locked inside the enemy's body because of your own stupidity, but it gives you time to do something, and maybe get closer to this skeleton's leader to find out more. What a genius plan! you think to yourself.
Slowly getting up, you feel your entire being protest. Ugh, that hurts! But you need to go. Yes, this street is empty right now, but what about later? When people come out to see what happened, they'll see the remains of the battle, you, the skeleton, and your previous body lying dead on the ground. They will assume you're a killer! This is so wrong! Your mind is still alive! Of course, you are technically dead, but, geez, you can fix this… right? Of course, you can! Positive thoughts! Only positive thoughts!!
You hear the sound of sirens... oh, crap! It seems somebody saw what happened and decided to call the police. Well, of course. The battle was loud and in the middle of the street, of course someone would see and call the police!
You look down at your dead body. Can you lift that much weight as a skeleton? Well, he was a really good fighter, so his strength should be enough to lift the body! You try to lift it. Nothing happens, except your whole skeletal body hurts even more.
“Crap!” Your yell in the frustration, only to right away jump like some kind of spooked cat at the sound of your own voice. It’s deep and masculine. Ugh, you'll probably need some time to get used to it. Or, in the ideal world, you are gonna fix this shit so soon that no getting used to would be needed.
The sound of the sirens gets closer. You need to hurry!
He used some kind of magic to lift things before. You remember this very clearly, considering how this piece of crap used the said magic in the fight with you. You can try it. It should work! Calm down and close your eyes. Focus on your entire being, on your soul, your magic. You slowly open your eyes and lift your right hand. Red magic surrounds the body. You slowly try to lift it up, but something goes wrong. You just throw your body up into the sky with a burst of magic! The splashes of blood and small pieces of destroyed road fled with the corpse.
“AAAAAA!” You scream in horror and try to catch it using the same magic. You stop your corpse from falling just centimeters from the ground. Whoa, that was close! Maybe you can't use magic right now. Back to the previous plan, lift the body with your hands! You step forward, but a second later something grabs you around the middle. What the- a tentacle?! “Wait-”
Yoink!
You get pulled into some kind of black portal. It feels weird, like being weightless for a second, and… here you are in some new place. It looks like a dark castle. What a Goth teenager's wet dream this place is. It's too dramatic, with black and dark red colour themes. Though teen you probably would loved this place.
And now what? What will happen to your body? Maybe you can ask your friend to create a new one. Dammit! What if she’s not able to do that?! Maybe you could try to find your old one, though when you will be able to find it, it would be already buried somewhere. Lets hope you still have time before the corpse starts to rot.
“Cross.” A rough, deep voice pulls you from your thoughts. You look back at the ‘tentacled menace of a skeleton', the only description that feels appropriate to this... Nightmare. He looks a bit angry, probably because, as you now know, this skeleton was supposed to bring your friend to him, not lose a battle against some weak human mage.
“Yes, sir?..” Your unfamiliar voice sounds weird and absolutely unsure, even to your own ears. Nightmare just sighs.
“Report the situation.” Nightmare looks like he’s ready to smack you for taking so long to answer. But what should you say?! ‘Hi, tentacle menace, my name is Y/N. I’ve probably became a ghost haunting the body of your skeletal friend and can't answer anything! And I'm your enemy who ruined your plans!’ That's complete bullshit! Nightmare coughs to get your attention. You jump slightly. His tentacle around your middle tightens, making you wince in pain.
“Urgh, y-yes, sir! I, um.” You think about what to say, and then- wait! You have a brilliant idea! “I'm reporting that the mages in this universe are too strong to deal with. I almost died, even after a strong fight against one of them. I think we need time to create a new plan, its too risky to go against them right now.”
Your voice is harsh and stern, reminding you of the times you studied magic, which was rare for humans. You reported every time you failed at a magic practice, again and again, until you gave up… You feel a burning in your chest, like your very soul aches at the reminder of your failures.
“I see. I expect a proper report from you later.” Nightmare gets closer to your face, his expression unreadable. “With all the details. Understood?”
It looks like he bought it, yay. What a lovely boss you have here, wow, so stupid that he can't even see who is truly in front of him! Looks like the lady luck is on your side today. Well, if we overlook the fact of your death...
“Yes, sir.” Your answer is short and monotone tone. You can't be afraid of this big, powerful, evil, sadistic bastard! Okay, maybe a little. But you wouldn't act like someone spooked.
“Good.” Nightmare drops you on the floor- 'ouch!- and steps back. “Now go and do something about your appearance. You look like a punched puppy.”
Well, it looks like it’s your time to leave! What a shame! You 'really' wanted to just, lie on that cold floor, and do absolutely nothing. You slowly get up, and with a nod, you leave, closing the massive, impressive door behind you.
What now? You don’t know where to go. All of the corridors look the same! What the hell, who builds this goddamned labyrinth!?
You look around, moving through the corridors. This place is so empty and quiet. Uncomfortable and cold. I hope Cross at least has a home, like, some warm, comfy little house far, faaar away from this place. I mean, who would want to be here all the time? And who would want to live in the same place as their boss? Even thinking about it seems silly!
Something inside you hurts. Home. You don’t have one, not anymore.
You shake your head. What was that? You have a home! It's in another universe. It feels like some of these thoughts are not your own, but it makes sense! You are just haunting this body, maybe one day you will wake up and see the body doing things on its own. Like you're not in control anymore. Not like you supposed to be on control of this body to begin with, but still, scary stuff.
Cross is probably somewhere inside your mind right now. Well, he’s already inside your main body, since all humans have skeletons inside them, haha! Okay, that was an awful joke, but hey, maybe Cross's mind, wherever it is, found it funny? Who knows! It's not like you can ask him.
Each door you pass looks the same. Maybe you should just open a random one and find some info? Or maybe you can find somebody who will answer your questions! Like, 'Hello, mister another murderous skeleton, where can I heal? Oh! And also, I just randomly forgot how to use my own magic, please teach me.’ Sounds great.
You start opening random doors. Library, bathroom, empty room, empty room, another empty room!
“Why are there so many empty rooms? Why!?” you raise your voice in frustration, slamming your head against a door. Ouch! That was stupid. Now your head hurts even more. Maybe you should just end it?… Other guardians are more powerful than you, they can help your friend, Raishu, and protect her better than you can. Because others are always better. You were supposed to kill this skeleton with your magic, to protect your friend from him, not become him! Maybe taking him with you would have been the right decision. Just end everything...
“Cross? What are you do-” A new, raspy voice startles you. You jump and spin around with impressive speed.
“Aaa!” You scream from the fright, and your voice is so high-pitched it reminds you of your old feminine one. The skeleton with a hole in his head flinches, his big red pupil shrinking. “Geez, you scared me, dude! What the hell? Why are you moving so quietly!?”
The skeleton is silent for a few moments, as if choosing his words. You also keep quiet as your emotions calm down. This person seems dangerous. His look just screams 'murderer'. After just looking at each other for what feels like an eternity, he finally speaks up.
“You seem… in pain. Lose the battle?” the big guy asks, a hint of worry in his tone. Which is weird. Oh! You work for the same guy, it’s probably normal to worry about your colleagues. It does have sense, yes , this is a normal thing to do, worry about others. Not that you ever had a friendly ones… This spooky guy seems more polite than your previous colleagues. Huh, the world is full of surprises!
“I, y-yeah. Unfortunately, I lost the battle against a very powerful and ...beautiful mage! So I need to find a place to heal. That battle was so impressive I can't even describe it! The boss wants a proper report, but huh, I don’t even know how to put the words together, you know? Not after what happened today. Just so much happened at once. But anyway! That's not the main point right now. Where can I heal? There are so many rooms, and I just got out of a battle and can’t think straight."
You pointed at your injuries. "My head hurts, and I'm slightly confused. Which is absolutely okay because this fight was epic, you know?” you start rambling, saying much more than you planned. Sweat starts dripping from your forehead. You can sweat!? I thought a skeleton's body would have the benefit of being free from such things. Sad.
“Um…” The skeleton, you guess from some scattered pieces of memories that belong to Cross, that this one is Horror. Horror stares at you, his small pupil fixed on you. His expression is one of complete confusion, as if he's the one who just lost a battle and recovering. “What?..”
“Uhhh, heal. I need to heal,” you say slowly, and it looks like the big guy understands you this time. Maybe you were talking too fast and confused him? Or maybe it’s because of that big, spooky hole in his head. Probably the second one. Your great company can't be the problem, for sure, the problem is the hole in his head! There is no way that your actions that maybe the opposite to how Cross acts can cause the confusion, no way.
“Okay… follow me.” Horror says this and starts moving. You quickly close the door to the empty room and follow him. Maybe now you'll finally get some proper rest and be able to think straight. That would be great.