Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It had been half a year since Dove gained OMT’s powers. Sometimes, she could completely forget about them and live her normal life, and then she would go to her manor in the Other-Realms (as she dubbed it) and remember her control over a lot of things. Yet, as much control as she had, she finally found that there were limits. She figured it was because, unlike most .EXE’s, she sustained herself like a mortal rather than with traumatized souls.

But tonight, under surprisingly starry skies, she was contacted within her mind with the voice of the very demon who granted her this power. “Meet me in Star Light Zone. Quickly.” Dove usually would question him, but something felt different, so she, knowing Restorer had the machinery necessary to get her to OMT’s dimension, or game in this case, she got right on that. “Are you sure you want to go in there?” Restorer asked. “Isn’t this the guy that made you traumatize those three teenagers and nearly kill your girlfriend?”

“He didn’t make me do it, that was the fault of my wandering emotions.” Dove corrected. “And plus, it sounded different. I’m not sure if.” She yipped as the portal came to life. “Whatever you say. Just don’t come crying bloody tears to me if he eats your soul or something.” Restorer snarkily chuckled. “Well, I can sense his intentions from here, he’s…” Dove paused at the energy that she felt upon putting a hand through.

The energy was fleeting at one point, unlike the usually powerful entity she dealt with, but something about it felt… reborn. She poked her head through and saw the world. With the fleeting energy, she expected greener grasses and living, non-eldritch beings, but whatever was causing this was making the whole world flicker between shattered and the world she already knew. In the shattered variant, the sky had cracks in it, the already dying grass was wilting further, and so were the now rotting, oddly human-shaped trees. Dove’s eyes widened as she took it in.

She knew why this was happening.

Dove quickly ran through the portal, shocking Restorer as she did. She quickly went from level to level. Some were unfinished, and yet even they were broken. She jumped from floating platform to normal platform, just barely dodging a leftover Tails carcass’ tendrils, not out of mortal fear for herself, but out of worry for the entity that was supposed to be holding this world together. She wanted to hold out hope that she wouldn’t be too late.

After jumping from platforms in Green Hill Zone, Finding her way through the rendition of Marble Zone meant for Eggman’s demise, finding a creative solution make herself able to climb up slopes in the Spring Yard zone, and traversing through the Abandoned Zone that used to be the Labyrinth Zone, she made it to the Star Light zone. It was normal, surprisingly, but the shattering flickers were still present. She climbed to the end of the level and saw him.

He was disheveled, and not in the usual, eldritch way. He struggled slightly to put himself back together. “Hey, dude.” Dove mumbled and waved as she sat down next to him. “Apprentice.” He acknowledged her, but didn’t turn his head. “Yes, God of this broken realm?” She looked at him with worried eyes. “You’ve used my powers well, even if you haven’t realized it.” He chuckled as he turned towards her. “Sure, not all of the results are exactly to my style, but you’ve affected realms that contained your physical form, even if they didn’t have my power in their multitudes.”

He shrugged with a smug grin on his tired face. “You’ve caused many deaths, if only of one person… mostly. You really hate yourself that much?” The two laughed together before falling silent for a moment. “Do you need any help?” Dove offered. “No. I’ll be fine.” He waved her off. “For a moment, I thought I was unwanted, but I was proven wrong. The one who made my presence known has had a change of heart.”

Dove felt sympathy where she knew he felt none. She understood what he was on about. “And so, I’ve decided that just in case things go awry again...” He reached into his eyeless sockets (Socket? Mobian bodies are confusing.) And pulled out something: A piece of a rusted, red ring. Dove knew what this was. All EXE’s had a power source or some type of containment for their essence, as far as she was aware. This was a part of his. “Take it, apprentice, and think of this as your promotion to being a real god.” Dove knew that in normal circumstances, he would never do this.

Dove nodded and took the piece of the ring and held it tightly in her hands.

“I want you to know that you’re an inspiration to me.” She smiled softly at him. “And I look forward to seeing your crafts.” He pointed towards the beginning, where she came from. “As do I.” He gently placed the piece in her hand. “That is all, Dove.” He pointed for her to leave. “Run, little bird. I will call if I need you again.” Dove stared at the piece of his essence before looking back at him and nodding. Her pieces wondered what brought him to do this.

The Mind understood clearly why it was doing this. It wasn’t out of pity or any type of feeling, it was a desire to live on. Everything had it. It was a natural instinct. Mortals had it, and evidently, so did immortals. This wasn’t about choice, because everyone that nearly drove him out of existence left him none other than to give a piece his power to someone with experience, and that someone was her, Heart and Soul. That was her perspective.

The Soul, however, chuckled at the thought. An all-powerful entity almost losing his world deciding to give his power to just… Some girl? It was completely and utterly ridiculous, if you asked her. Yet, here it was, happening right now. She loved his work, but she couldn’t hope to make anything that could live up to it, so the fact that he was trusting her with it gave her a chuckle… at least until she looked over to see the Heart.

The Heart was worried. She loved his work. She looked at him and thought that his work was what the others should have aspired to be. Even his older versions had her in awe at the sprite-work, the detail, and how far he had come from then to now. His newest iteration was his best work yet, and to not know if it was ever going to go anywhere scared her to death… in the metaphorical sense, of course.

Either way, the master of said power had spoken.

Dove decided to take a couple small pieces of his world as a token, for if it did fall. A crystal here, a plant there… she could definitely use some sprucing up in her room. This thing glows, maybe she could put it on the ceiling. This thing shrieks at certain times, maybe she could use it as an alarm clock. Her creative (and possibly girlish) ingenuity never left her, even after all of these years… maybe she should go back to that world and see what else could stand with her.

She took a detour back to the Abandoned Zone, simply breathing in everything. She remembered being terrified when she felt the god-like being painlessly tearing itself through her and twisting her form into everything it could imagine. The Soul chuckled at the thought of her being scared of her own power… but the Heart felt as though she could never be loved by anything but the worst of the worst.

No matter how many times Mind corrected her, she could never quite get over their fears of talking about their problems, about what happened all those years ago.

Once she was done, she hopped back in through the portal. “Decided to take some souvenirs?” Restorer questioned as she was leaning against a wall near Dove’s entrance to OMT’s realm. “Yeah. He also gave me a piece of somethin’ in case he somehow dies or something.” Dove shrugged. “Honestly, with how things were when I got his power, I’m not surprised he’d make this move.” She looked down at the piece of the essence.

“...I wonder…”

Just then, a red light nearly blinded Restorer, but she could tell from Dove’s shadow it was coming from what she held as she plunged it into a self-inflicted wound. She screamed in agony as the power quickly overwhelmed her…

And she passed out.

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Dove’s body was numb. She could feel something within her mind, but it quickly dissipated with a familiar sound that she couldn’t quite place in her current state. Whatever she had just forced into her body… she couldn’t just feel his energy now, she could feel his whole damn presence. She tried to lift her arm, but there was nothing there. She tried to move, but her body felt like smoke. She heard someone call her name and her body replicated the voice’s owner on instinct.

Dove, whether she meant to or not, had replicated Restorer’s body as her own.

“What happened to you?!” Restorer scowled in confused concern. “Why do you look like me?!” Dove’s new body put a hand against the wall to keep it steady before looking up at Restorer with empty eye sockets and a drunken smile. “Hhh…Hi, Resttyyy.” She waved with the hand that was on the wall, causing her to fall back to the floor. “Oh, dear God!” Restorer yelped as Dove fell to the floor. Her body broke and became nothing but smoke once again.

Restorer put a hand on her chin in thought. “Whatever power you just forced into your body’s so strong that it can’t even keep a proper physical form until you’re able to manage it…”

A pair of red eyes looked up at Restorer from within the smoke. Dove was confused.

“This is bad.”

Chapter Text

Restorer brought Emily in to see her girlfriend in her current state. “What even happened?!” She questioned. “Dove ran into that one chap’s domain, saying he called her in and that it was different.” Restorer explained. “When she came back, she plunged whatever she got from him into her chest, and now she can’t turn back.” Emily raised a brow. “Oh, you mean like... that OMT guy?” Restorer nodded in response to the question.

“If that's the case, I don't exactly think it'll be too big of a deal-” Emily was interrupted by Dove screaming, “THE HELL YOU MEAN NOT A BIG DEAL?!” The stick figure flinched at the sound, but quickly relaxed to further explain. “Well.., y'know... most EXEs form from smoke and stuff?” She shrugged. “She just needs to... put a little eldritch effort into reshaping herself…” There was a pause as a look of realization formed on Emily’s face.

“Unless she has tried that, then I have no clue what to do.” Dove’s eyes glared for a moment before closing. The smoke tried to take her original form and almost made it. “The problem isn't that she can’t, it’s that she doesn’t know how.” Dove slumped into the floor, the mist coming from her rising from the ground slightly before dissipating. Emily hummed in thought before remembering something an expert told her once.

“The problem with EXEs is that they consciously choose to look like Sonic.” Emily started matter-of-factly. “She's very used to having a base form that she can return to, and now she doesn’t.” Emily pointed at Dove… or, what was left of her. “This is her base form, in essence. And that…” Emily blushed in embarrassment. “...is the extent of my knowledge. I feel bad for not having more info, heh..." Dove understood what must be done for her to properly form again.

"Give me... a character." She hesitantly suggested. "I can use that as my new form until I figure out how to get back." Emily snapped her fingers as she quickly grabbed her phone and began to search something up. “Ah, that’d work.” She typed as quickly and efficiently as her fingers would allow before showing the smoke pile an image of Silver the Hedgehog. “You've been compared to him before.” Dove nodded. She was compared to Silver on multiple occasions.

Dove focused her energy on that form. Where she once had trouble with it, she now found it was as effortless and taking a deep breath. She was finally at eye-level with Restorer and Emily once more. “There ya go!” Emily cheered. “How you feeling?” She sheepishly looked down. “I feel I shouldn't ask that but I'm worried I guess, heh…” Dove looked down at her form. It was still smoking a little bit. “I don’t think I’ve completely solidified yet, but other than that, I’m fine.”

She smirked at them before suddenly, she held her head and yowled in pain. Restorer quickly took a few steps back and her expression was one of terror. Emily, on the other hand, hesitantly approached. “Dove, how are you feeling?” Dove only responded with an unnatural roar of agony before falling to the floor. Her form remained, but it was clear that she had passed out. “Ah. Yeah, EXEs experience pain a lot, huh?” Emily mumbled.

“I’m going to get a bed. Something tells me I won’t be able to back her up to her previous iteration…” Restorer stated.

“And I’m going to have to make a new one.”

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The Heart, the Mind and the Soul groaned as they stood up. Their home within Dove’s mind had become an unfamiliar plane. “Mind, where are we?” Heart questioned. “I think… it must be some form of altered headspace specifically meant to house us.” Mind began to write things down on a clipboard. “I mean, that makes sense. There’s a room for me, a room for Heart, a room for Mind, and a room for-” Soul paused. “Wait… aren’t there only three of us?”

Heart looked around, dumbfounded before nodding. “Yeah, there’s only three of us, and there’s only been three of us unless you count the Forgotten.” Mind stated. “Didn’t Emily give her a name?” Soul questioned. “Yeah, she did! It’s Yumiko!” Heart cheered before gasping. “I remembered what it was!” She squealed. “I usually don’t remember things because that’s Mind’s job, but haha! I rememb-!” Thunder suddenly rang out, scaring Heart into screaming at the top of her lungs and clinging to Mind like a puppy.

Mind stared at her disapprovingly, causing her to slowly get off before they turned their attention back to the source of the thunder: It was Silver’s silhouette, but its irises glowed a bright yellow. “So, you’re the ones who I’ve been birthed from.” Mind quickly did a spittake at the presumption. “We didn’t birth shit!” She snarled. “Who do you think you are?!” The silhouette jumped down from the shadowy height it was perched on.

Its shoes were purple, with red soles and cuffs. The accents of the shoes were different, one being blue and the other being cyan. She wore a red, rusted ring on one wrist, the other being absent of any and all clothing. She wore a magenta shirt on her torso, with her two, small, who-like tails peeking out of the bottom, and the fluff that Silver had obscuring the top. Her head and face were identical to Silver’s, the only difference being the empty eye sockets and yellow irises.

“You may refer to me as Power: the mental, emotional, and spiritual manifestation of the power that OMT bestowed upon you.” Power held up the ring on her wrist. “Dove couldn’t properly handle the power.” She explained. “Even if it was distributed amongst the three of you equally, the Soul would dissipate, the Mind would explode and the Heart would beat at such a violent rate that it would stop seconds later.” Heart, for once, was actually scared at the thought.

The three knew this was true. They could sense the sheer power coming off of the new side. They could sense the omnipresence, the omnipotence, the omnipower… The golden glow in her eyes proved everything. The controls were at the front. Power walked up to them.

She woke Dove up before typing an elaborate code into the buttons.

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When Dove woke up, she felt… much different. She felt like she had a much better handle on her powers than she did when they first expanded past their initial boundaries. As she stood, she fixed herself, going back to her original form. She snuck out of bed to go elsewhere. She had a hankering for something that only another universe could satisfy. She typed in a code into the game-traveler (As powerful as she was now, she was still bad with making names) and opened the portal.

The wind began to blow harshly during a different Baldi’s night class.

If it were just that, she wouldn’t bother…

But she had the soul of a teacher to save.

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Restorer hummed a small tune as she slowly meandered over to where Dove was kept. “Alright, Dove, I don’t know what you EXE’s like, but Emily told me to respect your sentience and make you your favorite brand of tomato sou-” Restorer gasped upon seeing the bed empty. She set the tray down on the nightstand and quickly called her. “Emily! Emily! Code red! She left!” She frantically yelped. “Heh?” Emily peeked her head in the room before her eyes widened. “Oh shit.”

She cracked her knuckles. “Well, she’s probably out getting a soul or something.” Emily shrugged. “Happens to the best of us.” Restorer glared down at her. “And we’re just acting like this is normal?!” She growled. “Ah. Right. Not normal. Sorry, forgot you don’t claim souls as a part of your existence, Shore.” Restorer was taken aback, not just by the sass, but also the mention of her name.

“...Well, what should we do?” She began to pace. “I don’t want to call anyone on her, I don’t want her to trash the game, whatever game that is…” She mumbled to herself. Emily scoffed. “It’ll be fine. It’s probably something we don’t even pay attention to.” Restorer paused for a moment before sighing. “You’re probably right…”

“...I suppose we just wait.”

Chapter Text

“Sorry for calling you in during the night time.” Baldi nervously rubbed the back of his neck. “It’s fine.” Dove deadpanned as she walked past him and paused. “You just need to grab your two notebooks and get back home, right?” He questioned. Dove sighed before looking back towards Baldi and glaring at… no. Glaring through him. “Red.” She growled, her eyes becoming naught but empty sockets. “I know you’re in there.”

“I know you plan on ridding yourself of your creator in this realm,” Dove barked as she approached the nervous teacher, who backed away in tandem, “But I need a single soul to live on in my current vessel. Just one.” Her angered expression became a sharp-toothed grin. “So, I have a proposal. You get the body, I get the soul.” Baldi’s eyes were wide with worry and confusion. “Wh-who are you talking to-?!”

Then he began to choke.

His hands covered his mouth as he felt something horrid try to wrench itself out of his body via his throat, holding something that, if he had to guess, was only 21 grams. A string of code, supposed to be an arm, but made of multiple red versions of his head, held something in its grasp, but he could barely see what it was as his vision began to fade. When he woke up again, though, he saw something terrifying.

The world from someone else’s perspective.

Baldi’s ‘student’ was a human turned monstrous being with God-like power, bequeathed to her by a remnant of a creation that was trying to put itself together after nearly being torn apart. The remnant lives on through itself and one of four parts of her. Five, if you include a lost inner child that rests in her dreams. The other four are her emotions: the Heart, her logic: the Mind, and her action and essence: The Soul. The one the remnant lives on through, however, is something entirely new.

It’s an embodiment of the eldritch power she was gifted, and it needed one soul embedded in the ring that made up her own to live on forever. She knew many variants of Baldi, but she chose him specifically. The reason she even existed was because the power, the potential of the creation that gave her such power was… broken, shunned and almost disbanded. Thus, it took Power into his hands, and put them in hers.

In Doves.

But… Baldi’s soul was too much. The power of it overwhelmed Power. It was imbued with what was supposed to have happened. He was supposed to have died, the glitch taking his place. So, she took the glitch, too. And then, she took the glitched cohorts. And then, it moved to other mods and took them, too. They all had a part to play in her stories, and their essence became a part of her. Everything began to fall apart like shattered glass.

And something inside Dove did the same. Terror pulsed through her frame and fire rushed through her veins as her body struggled to keep itself from growing wings and corrupting itself and detaching parts of it from itself and taking assets from the games and attaching itself to her. She let out a terrified, singing shriek as her eyes, her head, her body, her entire being exploded, the resulting light being a blinding red.

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Emily crawled into Restorer’s archive like a feral gremlin. “HEWWO.” She barely held back a laugh before seeing Restorer hyperventilating in the corner of the room. Emily quickly straightened herself out before running up to the troubled digital entity. “Whoops. Bad time? What’s up?” Restorer gasped out in a panic as she held her head and tears fell from her eyes, "It's... it's too much! She's too much!" A small screen nearby was on a table, and it was flashing like mad, red cracks spreading over it like invisible knives slicing through veins.

"Woah, uh... you're gonna have to explain a little better than that.” Emily muttered. “What's going on with Dove? I can at least understand that this involves her." Restorer tried to regain her composure. “Well, I found out where she was and tried to follow what she was doing, but then whatever she was doing spread to other mods and then it just… broke.” Emily looked over and saw what was happening on the screen.

"Oh. Well uh... hmm... did you see what she was doing?” She inquired. “Any magic surges or something similar before your machine went fucky-wucky?" Restorer began to hyperventilate again before… ultimately fainting, her body slumping against the wall as it did. Emily began to panic. She didn’t know what to do. Just then, a familiar voice called out from where she came. “Hey, kiddo!” Samuel called out. “I heard someone yelling in here?”

Emily began to quickly explain the situation. “UHHHHHHHHH YOUR ELDRITCH DAUGHTER INDIRECTLY CAUSED HER CODING PARTNER TO PASS OUT VIA ELDRITCH SHENANIGANS TRAUMA AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT TO DO-" Samuel put a hand to Emily’s lips. “Stop. Take a deep breath.” The stick figure immediately did as she was told, inhaling for four seconds, holding it for three, and exhaling for four again.

“Good. Now, do you need my help with finding her?” Samuel questioned. “Please.” Emily begged. “I could barely get any info from Resty before she passed out and I'm at a loss for where to start. I would... I would really appreciate the help..." Samuel nodded and opened the terminal on the screen, avoiding the cracks and finding all of the errors on the screen connected to one file location… it was in an alternate OMT realm?

"Oh. Definitely her eldritch stuff but…” Emily paused for a moment before pondering, “What was she trying to-” And then the realization came to her like a brick. “Oh. She was..." Dove was trying to make sure the power stayed alive and well. The thought of what could have happened left Emily petrified. “Should I… go in and check on her?” Samuel questioned. “While you make sure Restorer wakes up okay?”

"If you're sure about it, then I trust you.” Emily began before quickly becoming stern. “But you better fucking come back alive. Tell her I said that, if you have to. But I don't want you getting hurt, Sam." Samuel nodded and got everything ready before setting off into a burning forest.

He had to at least try to get his daughter home.

Chapter Text

Samuel hesitantly walked through the flaming forest. He wasn’t exactly sure why Restorer sent him in, other than the fact that his only, adopted kiddo was there. Despite the forest being ablaze, there was only an empty, desolate cold that permeated through him. He shivered before seeing Dove, sitting, yet curled up, sobbing into her knees. He looked around for a moment before hesitantly approaching his daughter. “Kiddo… you okay?” He asked, just above a whisper.

Dove’s eyes met his. Purple, glowing irises hid bloody tears from Samuel’s golden gaze. “Why do you care?” She whimpered before turning away from him. “I’m worthless and the world would be better off without me.” Sam’s eyes widened at that. “What?! That’s not true, who told you that?” He inquired, quickly adjusting himself into a sitting position behind her. “Everyone.” She enunciated. “Everyone with half a brain cell.”

“Well, they only have half.” Samuel chuckled. “If you really think you’re worthless, why don’t you get a real job?” He offered. “Maybe you could be an author or an animator?” Dove glared at him. “They get my E-mail, see the explicit works I wrote. I get shunned because they think that’s all I do. They tell everyone else. Everyone I know and love leaves me. Dead.” She growled. “Well, if you’re… really that insecure about a job, why don’t you become a streamer?”

“Someone who hates me links them to my writings and the people I used to know tell them I’m a terrible person. No second chances for those deemed ‘unforgivable.’” She growled. “They harass me again and try to tell everyone where I live in hopes that some black market hitman takes me out. That’s illegal, so we take them to court and use their texts and DMs as evidence. I lose because they have a bias towards who’s more normal and nobody cares because they think the other guy’s right. Jail. Dead.” Dove snarled.

Sam was shocked at Dove’s erroneous conclusion. “They’re going to take you to jail for writing porn of fictional characters?” He inquired. “Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds?!” He shouted. “The first three parts actually happened before.” Dove deadpanned. “They heard about a couple with a two-year age gap when the truth was I only said we were ‘dating’ because I felt bad because everyone they had IRL were a bunch of jerks. And they…”

“They said me and the one I was really with were the nicest people they ever met.”

“None of the actually sexual stuff was directed at them, and vore shouldn’t count, but it apparently does because the first to invent it used it to make their meat rods explode.” Sam cringed at the description. “You could have said it any other way.” He grumbled. “That’s not the point. You don’t get it. You already know that part.” Dove hid herself in her clothes further than should have been possible.

“I’m not justifying myself. I don’t care about myself anymore.” Tears further stained her clothing a deep, dangerous tint of red. “I never would have humored them if I knew it would lead to this… this agony. This hate, this… HURT.” Dove stood up, suddenly dwarfing her father in size. “Do you realize how much those words hurt, even a year and a half later?!” She yowled. “Do you realize how terrible I feel about myself?!” She walked closer to Sam, who fell back in fear.

“Every waking moment, I regret every decision I ever made, and every decision I ever will!” Dove lamented. “It doesn’t matter if I knew what I was doing was bad, let alone if I was aware of what I was doing in general!” Her form began to crack and tear into something ghastly. “It doesn’t matter if your intentions were pure, or if you were oblivious, or if you regret what you did!” Her voice slowly deepened into a terrifying roar.

“IF YOU DID SOMETHING WRONG LIKE THAT, YOU ARE A MONSTER.” She barked. “UNWORTHY OF LOVE AND HUMAN DECENCY, UNWORTHY OF A PLACE IN HEAVEN, UNWORTHY OF CARE FROM EVEN YOUR OWN FAMILY.” A massive paw just barely missed Samuel by a thread. “I ORDER YOU TO ABANDON ME. LEAVE ME TO DIE LIKE EVERY SINGLE HUMAN SHOULD, FOR IT IS THE ONLY WAY TO PREVENT HISTORY FROM REPEATING ITSELF.”

That’s… definitely Heart. She’s snapped. She always took something that happened way too far. At least she knew what she did was wrong to an extent, but she always believed that it was either she was normal and lived a normal-ish life, or she was a complete weirdo and should be shunned from the world. Sam wished there was an in-between, and from what he heard from normal Dove– Soul, maybe? –the Mind's berating doesn’t help much.

He thought she’d have gotten over it by now, but…

Samuel tried to reassert his composure before replying. “That… that’s no way to talk to your father!” He shouted back. “And plus, you felt like you had no choice but to stay! That puts them in the wrong!” Dove suddenly whined, almost interrupting him. “NO ONE IS IN THE WRONG BUT ME! DON’T YOU DARE BLAME THEM FOR MY SINS!” The paw that nearly nailed Sam down the first time slashed at him with furious claws.

He just barely managed to dodge them. “How were you supposed to know?!” He shouted. “From what I heard, you loved doing those roleplays with other people ever since you were still my kiddo!” Dove’s voice became perilously low as her form grew into one with wings and a tail and a dangerously large thorax. “I NEVER SHOULD HAVE DONE THEM. I NEVER SHOULD HAVE EVEN SEEN THE CONTENT THEY ENTAILED, LEST I FELL INTO THE DESPAIR OF THE VILLAIN.”

“But you’re not the villain-!” A tree was thrown at Sam, finally knocking the wind out of him and pinning him against another tree. “You just had… an odd interest…” He rasped out. “Nobody should… hate you for that…” The monster steadily approached, her voice returning for only a moment. “Hate…? HATE?!” She pounced on the log, crushing Sam slightly in between the two trees’ weight. “HATE DOESN’T EVEN BEGIN TO DESCRIBE WHAT THEY FEEL TOWARDS ME.”

“IF MY FRIENDS HEARD THEIR SIDE OF THE STORY AND YOU DIDN’T TELL ME TO TELL THEM THEIR WORDS WERE A WASTE OF THEIR TIME, I WOULD BE COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY ALONE. IF MY REAL FAMILY WERE TO HEAR ABOUT EVERYTHING, THEY WOULD LEAVE ME TO DIE ON THE STREET IN HOPES I WOULD STARVE, NO MATTER HOW KIND THE MEMBERS ARE.” The monster’s blood-filled eyes continued leaking onto the log as Samuel choked out, “But… What about Emily?”

“She’s seen the worst in you and she’s even told you on many occasions that she’d… she’d never put you through that.” A tinge of regret flashed in the monster’s eyes for a moment before her anger came back tenfold. “LIAR!” She shouted, crushing him further. “THE LAST PERSON TO TELL ME THAT LEFT ME WHEN I NEEDED HER THE MOST, WITH THE ‘VICTIM’ FOLLOWING SOON AFTER, WHO’S TO SAY IT WON’T HAPPEN AGAIN?!” She pushed further on the log, making Samuel cry out in pain.

“AND AGAIN?!”

She pushed even further, not phased by the sounds of splintering bone and crushed organs.

“AND AGAIN?!”

It was long before Samuel’s mangled torso fell from where he had been crushed and onto the ground. He began to go into shock. “K-Kid… she would… never…” Dove’s eyes widened once she realized what she had done, but quickly narrowed back into animalistic slits. “Restorer will bring you back. Don’t ever talk to me again.” She ran off into the flaming woods. Sam’s eyes filled with tears as he watched his daughter gallop into the woods like a feral beast…

…but he didn’t have much time to try to do anything as the world went black, and his life was snuffed out.

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“She won’t listen to me!” Sam shouted. “She even went so far as to crush me in between some logs to get me to shut up!” Restorer sighed. “Well, if she won’t talk to you, then she’ll probably talk to Emily.” She looked over at the stick figure, who nodded and saluted her. “But that’s the thing!” Sam stated. “I told the kid she’d always be there for her, and she didn’t believe me!” Emily chuckled as she stood up from where she was sitting. "Well, I'm like 99-point-9 percent sure that she'll feel differently on that statement if I show up!"

“Right, but, kid?” Sam called out to her, making her look at him. “...Please be careful.” He whimpered. Emily smirked. "Demigoddess.” She reminded him. “She can hurt me, but I can't die very easily. I'll be fine, promise."

“If you… say so.”

Chapter Text

Emily arrived at the forest in the dimension, but all she felt was cold. "I'd say she wouldn't see me if I turned invisible, but she'd sense me.” She mumbled. “Guess we're doing this the old fashioned way!" She continued onward to find her beloved, but her beloved wasn’t what she found… at the very least not exactly. A dangerous predator glared at her from the horizon, its long, snake-like torso outfitted with long legs that ended in paws and claws. Tails thrashed, barely missing an obscenely large thorax, and long mane was barely singed by the surrounding fire.

It approached Emily with the ferocity and curiosity of a ravenous wolf. She barely reacted. “Hey, babe. How’re you holding up?” She questioned. The beast’s expression became a pang of regret as it slowly sat down in front of her. “This place isn’t safe. You need to leave.” Emily looked down in thought. “I should, huh?” She began on her way before shrugging and coming back. “Nah…” The beast’s eyes narrowed in anger. “Could I join you though?” The stick figure asked, confusing the beast. “Being locked up in this stick figure form gets kinda tiring sometimes."

Without waiting for an answer, Emily became a beast of her own, a lanky but massive beast with black smoke billowing from its eyes, mane, and tail tuft. It stretches its strong bat-like wings before reclining somewhat near Dove, who stared at her incredulously for a moment before laying down in the grass. “...Do you remember when we were allowed to love? Just… in general?” Emily bared her teeth. "Are we not allowed to now? What happened?” She inquired.

“Am I not allowed to love you? If it is a rule, I will break it." Dove shook her head. “No, that’s… not what I meant.” She looked into the flames. “I’ve seen so many people go through the same thing I have.” She began to tear up. “People with beautiful creations that get torn down by their mistakes that people outright refuse to see past, let alone check to see if they’re recent, let alone true.”

“Forgery is a common form of exposure. Staging is a common form of hatred, and yet… I feel like I’m the only one who sees that because I endured what nobody should.” Her head hit the ground. “Good isn’t good if it breaks completely different laws to get rid of the bad.” Emily paused for a while, leaving Dove to realize what all she said. “I’m sorry, I’ve said too much-” She was interrupted by her lover.

“You've been through a lot.” Emily began. “You've had it good, bad, in between. And you've had me through all of it... except once, I suppose.” Emily slumped down as well. “I still hate myself for that. I don't even like gingerbread houses.” Her eyes looked up at Dove like a sad puppy glancing at its owner, hinting at affection. “I should've been there. With you. I'm sorry, Dove." The mentioned beast nuzzled Emily. “It’s not your fault.”

"Awful way to spend your birthday, really. ” Emily nuzzled Dove back. “I just wish I could've responded sooner. At least I know I was there when she left..." She went silent, glancing away out of worry. "Can I... confess something awful...?" She inquired. Dove hesitated, but nodded. The other beast closed her eyes, the smoke from them lessening as she did. Dove watched with bated breath, listening keenly to what Emily had to say.

"When you first told me about what happened with her, I primarily wanted to comfort you and give you someone you could rely on to never abandon you,” Emily explained, “Give you something constant in a world of change." She opened her eyes, black tears now dripping down her face. "But a part of me was happy she was gone.” She whimpered. “I always loved talking with you but almost every time I asked you, it was her who got to you first.”

“A part of me felt left out. Alone. Even before we started dating, I loved you. Just, well, platonically. So hearing you tell me she was gone, I felt worried for you..." Her voice began to quiet. "...and happy for me." Dove’s eyes widened in realization. "...You were jealous of her and... me?" The silence cut the room in half for a moment before Em spoke up again "... just with how close you two were.” She stated.

“I hated that you had to lose someone so close to you, don't get me wrong... but if that was how I got to hang out with you, well, I guess I could take it... I always did want to meet her, though. So... yeah..." She finally made eye contact with Dove, a nervous expression across her muzzle that feared for the worst. The other looked down for a moment before quickly wrapping her legs around her lover in a tight embrace. Her body began to shrink down back to its normal size as she buried her head into Emily’s fluffy body and sobbed.

She returned the love, staying in her large form and nuzzling the sobbing human-esque woman. She always hated seeing Dove like this, especially about this topic. She hoped that one day everything would turn out alright.

It had to, right?

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Samuel began to slowly back out of the parking lot and onto the road back home. Dove simply stared down at herself, her human facade. She managed to get everything sorted out, everything– minus the doomed Baldi’s soul –was back in its proper place. She looked up at Samuel. “Dad,” She quietly started, causing him to perk up, “Why did you want to save me, even when I hurt you?” Samuel slowly came to a stop as a red light glowed brightly overhead.

“Well, I… went through something similar at your age.” He explained. “And frankly, I should’ve gotten bashed as badly as you did.” He chuckled, but Dove didn’t join in. “I laugh, but I’m serious. I was just as reckless and oblivious as you were!” Dove looked away from her father, who faltered slightly before quickly beginning a story. “When I was 23, for example, I may have paced myself to hell and back, but I was not ready for a full-blown relationship.”

“If I could go back in time and tell myself one thing, it would be this,” He cleared his throat as the green light came on and he turned onto another street, “Stop. Settle down. You’re not ready for any of this yet.” Samuel stated sternly before letting out another quiet laugh. “But when I was 33? I was so glad I had you. My mistake was getting with someone, not below the age limit, but still waaaay younger than me.”

“She wasn’t prepped for motherhood back then,” He began, “Heck, I don’t even know if she’s prepped now! Has she ever been motherly to you when you go visit her?” Dove looked down and softly nodded. “She helped me when I was being harasssed.” She deadpanned, slumping into herself further. “Well, she got harassed too, you know?” Samuel inquired. His daughter’s eyes widened slightly and she looked at him with confusion in her eyes. “She did?” She queried. “Yeah, she did all sorts of stupid stuff, even before we met.”

“She’s been through it, just like you.” His smile faltered. Dove couldn’t believe it… her mom? Sure, she was much like her, even now, but…

“What’s your point?” Dove growled. “The point is that if I’ve learned anything from my experiences, from me meeting a gorgeous girl in school, to her saving me from my thoughts at the fair on what was supposed to be the last day of my life, to being friends with her for years…” Samuel went on, “Even when she became jaded from her experiences with other people and decided to leave, the one thing I took away from it all is that you never know who someone is.”

“So why are you still mad at them?”

Dove paused for a minute before raising a brow. “Were you listening to me rant in my loft?” She questioned. “I heard you at least once a week pretending to yell at those people, but you haven’t heard from them in years.” Samuel retorted. “And plus, you’ve never had to go face-to-face with these guys, let alone seen their faces.” Dove turned away. “And plus, once you forgive them, and once you finally let go of all of that hate, you’ll never have to deal with it again.”

“Trust me.”

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The next day for Dove was… strange. Usually, she would scroll around online and find something that reminded her of them by accident, or yell at imaginary enemies with soap and bottles as her audience in the shower, but… something about what her father told her had changed her in a way she couldn’t describe. It was like the burning fire of hatred for them and all of the other people that she believed only tore people’s creations down with lies out of jealousy… had been snuffed out.

She couldn’t feel that anger anymore.

…Why?

Chapter Text

Samuel looked at Dove as she sat on the couch, watching a comedy show with him. She seemed more… spacey than normal. He had a question on his mind, and thought that if there was a time to ask it, it was now. “Kid, you know how you're all… split up?” Dove perked up at the question. “Yeah?” Samuel inhaled slowly before clicking his tongue and asking his question. “Do you hate yourself because you absorbed a part of the essence of someone who wants to see everyone suffer?”

Dove took a moment to mull the question over before her eyes turned yellow, signaling her Power was at the helm. “Well, from what little I know about the essence I fused with, it was a calculated move.” She explained. “His creator handed him off to someone who wouldn't use him, and nobody else wanted him, but then the guy was welcomed back… but I dunno how many people are willing to do that, so…” She shrugged before letting out a deep, disappointed sigh.

“People use whatever side they're on and whatever rumors they hear as an excuse to hurt each other,” Power continued, “and as painfully hilarious as it can be, it's also one of the reasons Heart thinks the world is going to end before we can even think about living a normal life.” Power looked down at Dove's arm, watching it slowly, almost naturally contort into a skin-colored tendril. “It’s why she'd rather us be this than anything else, because it may be the only way we can survive when-”

“Hey.”

Dove perked up at her father's voice, her arm going back to normal as Samuel continued. “I get where you're coming from, but you don't have to be what everyone wants you to be.” Her eyes slowly went from yellow to bloodshot and purple. “But they'll think I'm a terrible person and that nobody should love me.” She whimpered. “Well, that's their problem.” Samuel argued. “The only person you need to worry about hating you is yourself, because that's the only person keeping you alive.”

“So, I'll repeat myself. Do you hate yourself?”

Dove looked down for a bit, mulling over the question before her eyes went back to their gray color and chuckled. “That’s a mixed answer, but for the record, Power says no.”

“I'll keep what you said in mind for the future, though.”

There was silence for a moment before Samuel asked another question. “Didn’t the Pixel guy explain what happened and that he was in the wrong?” Dove looked down before Heart inquired about something of her own. “Do you think I give people the benefit of the doubt too much?” Samuel’s brows raised for a moment. “What do you mean?” He asked back. “Well, I don’t want to believe people do bad things just because someone else said they did because… well…”

“People can be a bunch of hypocritical liars!” Heart exclaimed. “Not everyone.” Samuel reminded her while patting her on the back. “I know… it’s just… experience tells me this is a temporary forgiveness.” She mumbled, turning away to not meet his gaze. Silence fell on the two for a moment before Sam cleared his throat. “Tell you what.” Dove looked up to see his soft, caring smile. “The ice cream place we go to is closing this month. You wanna go there and get an apple dumpling?”

Dove simply stared at him before a smile of her own appeared.

“I’d like that.”

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Since everything happened, Dove has been relatively better. Sure, she still wrote whatever random shit came to her mind, but she felt a little bit better about herself. No longer did she see herself as a hopeless wretch. And what was better, she was able to get into a million different types of shenanigans with her family and friends. She brought herself out of the comfort zone and made new friends across the multiverse, and she knew more than ever what she was.

She wasn’t human in this reality, but she didn’t care.

She wasn’t the best, but people are more than their mistakes.

She wasn’t the brightest, but that gave other people a chance to shine.

She wasn’t perfect, but that’s not a real goal.

She wasn’t ready, but maybe one day she would be.

And as she typed out the final sentences of this story, she figured it would be fair to release the story she had written, as scary as it would be, considering the topics it deals with.

She had to tell them…

Just this once.