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Kris keeps climbing.
There's no time to blink, there's no space to spare that momentary loss of focus. If they slip now, what will inevitably embrace them? It can't be seen in the far, dark distance.
Kris shifts across the side of the titan, narrowly dodging the spawn flickering back and forth across their narrow path.
With each movement the titan seems to disintegrate under their grasp, unsteady as it may be. The metal of their gauntlet finds no stability against the Titan's side. For only a few moments can they cling before they start to slip again.
Kris keeps climbing.
They grit their teeth as they push forward. Up, up, craning their neck back as they try and seek the path ahead.
Gaze pulled toward the distant light above, they fail to notice the wave of darkness careening towards their head. Violently crashing into them, the wave of darkness drowning them for an instant; then their grip is lost. Their stomach drops out beneath them as the rest of them plummets towards the abyss.
Yank—!
Kris's breath hitches, the wind snatched away from their lungs as their caplet catches on a rough patch of Titan. Uselessly, they flail both arms up above their head, trying to find purchase in the wall. Their right hand bounces, a harsh impact that sends their gauntlet popping free and tumbling down into the infinite darkness below.
The other wedges itself in the crevasse between one splinter of Titan fragment and the next. Kris yanks themself upwards with a sharp inhale. It comes cleanly. The next few are shaky, but the air reaches their lungs again.
There is no time for this. Deep breath. Keep climbing.
Under their newly exposed hand, Kris can feel the pulsating throb of the Titan as it continues to hatch.
It's surface feels like disintegrating sand, like grit and graphite and silt. The texture seeps under their skin, the particulate wedges itself underneath Kris's fingernails. The buzzy, irritating feeling of dirty hands threatens to break their concentration.
They have to keep climbing.
Kicking off the wall with the toe of their boot, Kris jumps up a few feet, slashing through a spawn as they do. It melts under the impact, another wave of pure darkness running down their face. This time, they hang on.
It's not quite oil, not quite water. Not warm, not cold, not anything at all. Absence in liquid form, staining the creases in their palm.
Keep climbing. Keep climbing. Don't think about the darkness, don't think about the filth, don't think about anything. Every crumbling particle of shell that lands in their eye is another foothold they're losing as they hesitate.
Kris blinks.
The jagged edge they'd been supporting their weight on cracks— frantic not to fall, they leap towards the nearest ledge they can see. Their boot slips into the space between shell, momentarily sucked into the darkness. Centre of gravity shifted, the momentum swings Kris down like a pendulum, then up—! flinging them backwards, careening hopelessly.
Their head whips forward, the loud crackling sound hopefully coming from the Titan's shell and not their neck. Not that it'll matter in a moment. The world blurs; light entirely absent, up and down indistinguishable. There's no way to save themself.
"KRIS—!"
And then there's Susie. Susie's loud, raspy voice, tearing her vocal cords with the pure strain of her scream. It's burning, blazing bright, an encompassing light that blinds Kris. All they can do is reach for it. Reach for her.
The tips of her claws dig into Kris's palm, blood welling up and smearing across both their hands. They grip her hand in turn with all their might, and she yanks them up towards her.
The combined momentum sends both of them smashed against the wall, impact knocking the wind out of Susie's lungs, a loud wet wheeze that reverberates through Kris's rib cage as they wind up pressed flat against her torso.
"Kris— Kris, you good?"
She's braced against the wall, one hand still gripping Kris's, the other looped around a fragment of Titan and winding back around to brace Kris by the arm. Her boots dig into a crack in the wall, though whether she made that or it had already existed, Kris had no idea.
They look up to her face. Uncomfortably close, and difficult to read her expression, though they don't need to. It's already plain as day.
"Kris?"
If any words were theirs to choose, they've all dried up. Nothing escapes from their throat. The slight tremble of their body gives way to only the tin clang of metal on metal; what remains of their armor knocking against itself.
"I got you," Susie ducks her head down, pushes her skull against Kris's, her hair dangling in front of their eyes. When she speaks, it echoes behind Kris's eyes. "I got you, okay?"
There's a beat. Kris drinks in the words, swallows them, then nods. Sharp, mechanical. Bonking Susie on the forehead only lightly, and she reels back. Then again, and again, they shake their head up and down so fast it becomes nothing but a blur.
"Alright, alright got it dumbass! Come on, you're gonna make yourself dizzy."
She grins widely, sharp teeth glinting in the watery prophecy light. As her lips stretch out, Kris can feel her grip just a little tighter. The blood on their hands is warm and sticky, but past that stinging puddle, Susie's palm is dry and cool and scaled.
It's the most comforting thing Kris has ever held. For just that moment, with a heartbeat they can't recognize as their own echoing in their ears, and the ebb and flow of Susie's laboured breath— There's a respite that stretches far beyond the troubles confined to the Dark World.
"Crap, I can't hold on much longer," Susie hisses under her breath. "Ready to go, Kris?"
Kris bites their tongue. No interjection will be tolerated. They pull up the corners of their lips, the smallest quirk that Susie, only Susie, can see.
"Got it. Then off— you— GO!"
Their fingers part, and Kris submits themself to the whirlwind climb once more.