Icebreaker

"Shit, shit, shit!"

Susie was running as fast as she could. She had to be careful to not slip on the ice that now coated random spots of the Cyber World's ground, which was difficult due to the urgency of her current situation. To her chagrin, she had fallen several times already, and gotten several bruises for her troubles.

But every time she fell, she stood right back up.

She had to get up.

Someone had to get to the bottom of what the fuck was going on.

One minute, she was chilling out with Ralsei, and the next, they stumbled onto someone frozen in place. The subsequent discovery of several more frozen citizens and a giant stream of ice and snow suddenly bursting from a distant part of the city led Susie to immediately go in the opposite way and look for Kris, axe in hand..

She had left Ralsei behind for his safety, not that she told him that. This was something they hadn’t faced before, and she couldn’t take any risks. Darkners being frozen was bad enough, but if Kris got frozen, or god forbid…

She didn’t want to think about it.

(A/N: Play But Nobody Came)

"What the fuck...?"

Susie eventually reached a fork in the route, where a befuddling slight presented itself before her;

There was ice and snow everywhere, half haphazardly plastered all over the place, mixed with what appeared to be small drops of blood, some clustered together, but most being littered in a trail. Following that, there was a giant crystal which looked to be made of ice, containing a vague silhouette of something trapped within…

And in front of all of that, was something that made Susie’s blood run cold.

There was someone laying face down on the ground, not moving. The trail of blood led to that figure's left hand, where a small pool of blood had gathered. Their normally golden hair was now a pale yellow, and had a dusted layer of snow on top. And most importantly…

…She wasn't moving.

"NOELLE!"

Susie rushed over to Noelle's body and kneeled down to her.

"Hey! Hey! Noelle! Are you okay?! What happened?! Fuckfuckfuck! Are you okay?! Shit, uh… Oh!"

Susie leaned down to put the side of her head to Noelle's chest.

It was a little faint, but there was a heartbeat. She was unreasonably cold to the touch, and she seemed to wince every now and then, but she was breathing.

Susie sighed in relief.

"Thank fuck she's still breathing! What the hell happened to you, Noelle?"

Susie put her axe down and prepared to lift Noelle up into her arms when she caught a glimpse inside the crystal. Before, the surface was too thick to get a good image from all the way back where she was, but now that the distance between them was closed, that issue resolved itself. And she could now see that it wasn't something, but as she feared, and expected, someone.

Inside was someone wearing futuristic looking armor, with a halberd alongside them, seemingly frozen in mid air. They were covered in blue feathers, their yellow beak open in shock.

Susie reached a hand out and came so close to touching the crystal, but just barely couldn't as she withdrew her hand and gripped it tight.

"Are you fucking me right now?! Birdbrain too?! I mean, he can be a dick, but c'mon! Okay, okay, FUCK! C’mon shit for scales, think, THINK!"

Susie debated on what to do. On the one hand, she wanted to make sure both Noelle and Berdly were okay, Berdly hating her notwithstanding, but on the other hand, Berdly wasn't a Darkner, so his durability wouldn't be that high, and his condition looked to be worse than the other Darkners that had been frozen, so she had no way of knowing if he… if he was… if he would…

Susie grit her teeth.

"He'll be fine. He's… got a big ass head. That'll, that'll keep him…"

Susie couldn't even try to fool herself...

Berdly could very well be dead, and she had no way to tell if he was or not. Noelle, on the other hand, was right in front of her, and in a bad, but still salvageable state. She had to make a decision, and she had to do it now. It seemed obvious one second, the most complex thing she ever encountered in her life the next.

She clenched her fist. And then she swung her axe down.

It broke into the ice, leaving a decent dent. She tried that several more times, and while she was making progress, she was essentially chipping away at it slowly. She stopped swinging and held her axe in front of her.

“It’s not a person, it’s not a person, it’s not a person,” Susie repeated to herself. She had to get Berdly out of the ice, and fast.

She had to calm herself down, focus herself on the ice in front of her-

“AUUUUUGGGGHHHH!” Susie swung her axe down with all the strength she could muster. As her axe grew closer to the ice, it lit up with dark energy. Susie, in comparison to her chipping earlier, completely shattered the ice crystal, Berdly and his halberd falling to the ground. The ice broke into an uncountable amount of pieces, and then, into dust and quickly scattered all over the place.

-And tell herself to stop holding back.

“Choose between one or the other, I’ll fucking take both! Now…”

She turned to carefully pick Noelle up, holding onto her tightly, and began to turn back to pick up Berdly.

Only for a sword to be pointed at her neck.

"What the- KRIS?! I don't have time for shitty jokes right now! Where the hell have you been?!"

Kris, who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere, just stared at her blankly, keeping their sword trained at her.

"Well?! If you're done being a shit for brains, I need to get Noelle to-

"Drop her."

Susie blinked.

"What?"

"Drop. Her."

"The FUCK I will! The hell's wrong with you? Do you not see her condition?!!"

"Insubordinate."

"Insubor- the fuck?! You know what? I'll humor you! Why do you want me to drop her so damn much?!"

Kris looked straight at Susie, their red eyes dead locked on her.

"So I can put her down."

"AUGH! You freaking dumbass! That makes no goddamn sense! Please, explain to me, how the fuck you are going to put her down if you want me to drop her-"

(A/N: Play In My Way)

The realization hit Susie like a sack of bricks.

She looked at Kris, and didn't see her cool weirdo friend with a sword anymore.

Now, they looked like a murderer straight out of hell. The red eyes did not help their case.

"What? No, no, no.. Kris, c'mon! Tell me this is just some fucking joke! This is insane, this is stupid, this is-"

Kris slashed at the leftmost wall, leaving a thin but deep gash in it.

Susie recoiled at the attack, and instinctively held Noelle tighter.

"Drop. Her."

"How, how about I, just take her somewhere else, and you-"

Kris slashed at the air with their sword, Susie recoiling back again. Kris quickly repointed it at her.

"DROP. HER! If you keep this up… I WILL take her life by FORCE!"

Susie started edging away from Kris slowly.

"W-why do you… have to.. p-p-put her down?"

Kris simply shrugged their shoulders.

"Served her use."

That took Susie aback, and replaced her fear with anger. "What?! You make her sound like some tool!"

Kris chuckled a little.

"Well, she was my tool. I used her to do my job. She's served her purpose, and now I don't need her anymore. It's far too risky to leave someone with that kind of power alive."

Their demeanor quickly turned from slightly amused to serious.

"Now. Drop. Her."

Susie didn't budge an inch.

"Move. NOW."

"...Nah."

Kris could only stare as Susie began walking away from them. She gently laid Noelle down, positioning her upright against the wall.

Kris just sighed, and lunged at Susie with their blade outstretched. While they were in mid jump, Susie stood up, quickly summoned her axe to her hand and swung it behind her, colliding with Kris's outstretched sword, knocking Kris away to their previous position. Kris managed to keep themselves standing, their feet scraping against the ground.

Susie scoffed and dismissed her axe. She walked back to Kris casually, while Kris wore a scowl on their face.

"Defiant."

"Yeah, huh? Well guess what?"

Susie walked right up to Kris, and stared them straight in the eyes.

"You're not doing shit."

She then punched Kris in the stomach.

They dropped their sword on the ground and groaned in pain.

"I really don't give a shit about anything you've been spewing so far, but you're crossing a goddamn line here Kris! Now did you do all of this?!"

Kris looked up back at her. "I told you. I used my tool. Served her worth. Useless to me. Must be disposed of."

Susie started to slowly chuckle, and then she began laughing maniacally, revealing her numerous sharp teeth. "So you don't care about using your friend? For all of this stupid shit? Not even a teeny bit?"

Kris scoffed, strangely gripping their hand tight. "Not. Friends."

"Of fucking course not! I expected too much from you Kris!" Susie's laughter grew bigger and louder, and she supported herself on the hall's wall. "Let me guess, you were just fucking using me and Ralsei too, right?! Just stringing us along?!"

Kris briefly cringed at the word 'string', but it was so brief that Susie almost missed seeing it.

"You give yourself too much credit. I didn't have to do anything."

Susie just kept laughing, holding her forehead back. "That's fucking amazing! We trust you, and you just fucking take advantage of us! That begs the question!"

She stopped laughing.

"Were we… ever even fucking friends?"

Strangely, that question was the most difficult for Kris to answer. Everytime they moved to talk, they would strain themselves to not speak a word. That cycle continued for a few minutes. Their hands tightened even more, shaking sporadically.

"What's wrong?! Cat got your tongue? Are you so much of a damn pansy that you can't even admit what we both know? C'mon, say it all damn ready!"

Kris seemed to get a hold of themselves, and with an eye filled with rage directed right at her, finally gave Susie an answer:

"NO. You are a waste of a life. Everybody fears you, and yet they don't see your pathetic excuse of a threat for what it really is. A child who never grew up. A child who will die lonely and miserable realizing just how much of your life was an attempt to overthrow your fate, only to succumb to it as it is eternal. You're not even good as a tool or a servant. All you are is a stupid, ugly, ragged, excuse of a monster. No one will love you, and no one is going to miss you when you're gone."

Kris picked their sword up and stood back up.

"NOT. EVEN. YOU."

Susie just sighed and took her axe out.

"...About time you admitted it."