Twisting his body around right back to where they had come from, Slater is the first to push himself into a run. Is he waiting around for Bones? Absolutely not. It was far easier to just hope the other boy manages to get away fast enough, considering Slater is not a track star. He's not even athletic.

His chest is burning, static rising, feet slapping against the pavement and he wishes he had thought to put on some shoes in his haste to follow after his brother.

Hindsight is 20/20.

Fortunately, he really doesn't have to worry about Bones. He's speeding up almost passing him before deciding to quite literally match his speed. "What kind of luck do we have, huh?" There is a jovial type of grin in his voice, lined with a sort of laughter.

The people on the sidewalk don't move. They never move. They continue on their instructed and organized paths still in sets of two and three. It's as if they don't see the boys running or hear the Keeper's roar as it crashes out of the alleyway. No one moves out of line, only to get thrown into buildings like living bowling pins.

( That aside, no one is actually alive save for Bones and Slater. )

"Horrible luck." Slater knows that they can't run forever, especially with how fatigued he is already becoming. Next time he would make sure to exercise ( or at least raise up his stamina stats... ).

Still, Slater wracks his brain while the Keeper makes headway towards them. There will be no outrunning this thing, actually. They would have to face it. Abruptly, Slater stops in his tracks and then turns around to start running at the Keeper instead of away. "Bones, use your anima and help me!"

He'd just have to have the awkward conversation on how he knew about his anima later.

Bones lags only momentarily, "What do you want me to do?" He shouts.

"Stairs, stairs!" When Slater realizes that Bones may not understand what he means, he elaborates further. "Infront of me, just stairs that go up."

"Alright," The suggestion is followed and all at once from out of the road, stairs begin to ascend. Slater takes them one at a time ( he's not athletic, or he'd take two ) with his eyes watching above the Keeper's head. As he predicts, there's a mouse that digitizes right above it. It's spinning in a circle, mocking him.

The Keeper doesn't make it easy, though. It lashes out at the stairs, destroying the bottom ones. If it weren't for Bones' ability, Slater would have fallen right into it's clutches.

"Just, just make the stairs loop around it." Slater shouts as if his life is on the line. He didn't want to repeat the same loop over and over. He hates them. Considering his entire existence was just one big and stupid loop.

Static keeps piling up in his chest, wheezing as he pushes himself up further on the moving stairs. The Keeper has it's own weapon this time, taking down a street lamp and swinging right at him.

He barely manages to dodge, ducking down onto the stairs. He doesn't remember hanging on for dear life but the Keeper manages to leave him with only three stairs to hug onto. His breath catches in his throat. "Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. This isn't working at all." He heaves back onto the stair only to catch the wind of another swing.

His body is thrown into an adjacent building, the echo of Bones calling his name is lost on him as he loses consciousness.

GAME OVER Forced Reset

This time, he's throwing up. It's nothing but bile, his stomach acid coming up and burning against his tongue. Slater's head is reeling, ears ringing from having his body and head slammed into a wall. He has to prioritize getting that mouse, he has to prioritize it otherwise he was just going to keep dying over and over and over and—

"Slater?"

That voice should be a comfort, it's nothing more than a sick joke.

"Bones, listen to me." This was the second time he's been here and this time he needs a proper plan. "I need you... to make some stairs... up to the rooftop." While he's not completely pulled together, he points upwards towards the roof of the building right beside them.

Quiet finds him, Bones does not answer right away. The only tell that he was still in vicinity was the fact he could still see his shoes. White, neat, boots. A leather so shiny, Slater can almost see himself within them. That's why he's always hated those shoes. Disgusting.

He knows that he's asking for a lot, if not for the buzzing in his ears and the vibration in his throat... he'd have thought he hadn't spoken.

Bravely, Slater peeks up and comes face to face with Bones' curiosity wrapped up in a pearly-white grin. "Stairs?"

There is no questioning that follows. People continue to bend around them.

A glint in Bones' eyes alerts Slater to the fact that he is playing with fire. It's not as if Slater can't just quickly die and reset again. Though, with how sick and twisted his anima is... well, the system he has may turn around and decide that he may as well just reset right after this moment.

How awful that'd be.

Still, Slater is counting down the seconds until the Keeper would seek them out like they existed with a beacon on their backs. He fully stands himself up, wiping the bile from his lips as he readies himself to run again. Up some stupid stairs this time.

"Alright, please. Stairs now and I'll explain and answer whatever questions you have later."

A beat of silence.

Stairs sprout from the ground like sprouting seeds, rising upwards in a diagonal towards the rooftops. He steps onto them effortlessly and begins his ascent just as the Keeper roars back to life. "I'm going to need you to fight, by the way! I can't do it on my own!"

"Aye, aye, Slater!" Bones carries a sing-song tone, though something in it feels grave. Insidious, though there's not enough time to reflect on that before Slater is falling.

Right into the Keeper's mouth.

Fucking goddamn bastard.

GAME OVER Forced Reset

This time blood is what comes out, his body barely able to keep track of the repeated forced resets. This is exactly why he needs to end this damn loop. He is only going to come back weaker and weaker and weaker. This time, he's fully expecting to hear his name.

"Slater?"

Last time he had commanded the loose cannon and he supposed in the process offended him enough that he just decided to kill him instead of get any answers. What a fucking psycho.

He still can't imagine why anyone was friends with him. Though, he guesses that's a bit harsh. Slater's always been someone who agrees with second chances. This is more like a different kind of experience and yet it still counts all the same.

"Are you okay? Woah, that's blood you got there! Need any help?" Bones sounds concerned, Slater would be stupid to believe he's actually concerned.

Slater picks his head up, blood dribbling down his chin. His eyes are hollowed out, bags already accentuating the grey-lilac of his eyes. "Huh?" He feigns confusion, allowing the doctor to get closer to him. He lets him properly adjust his weight so that the majority of it is against Bones. "Bones...? Is that you?"

Playing pretend with ignorance is the second-best option even with the dire situation only Slater realized was going to happen. "You seriously don't look good, hey. How about we go sit down somewhe—" Bones' concern is cut off with quickness. The Keeper's roar is closer, harsher, and rumbles the ground that they stood on with a ferocity resembling an earthquake.

It's simple, there's no time for sitting.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

"Sorry... I- I can help. I have..." Slater coughs for emphasis, for the pity factor to be on full throttle.

Bones' grip tightens, though he is gentle in how he props Slater up against the wall. "You're in no condition to fight, buuuuuut... I have..." He fumbles through his pockets, searching for something. He pulls out a set of pills. Strange, unusual.

What's the harm in taking random pills?

"These!" He expresses with excitement. "You just have to take these and we can figure out how to deal with," he juts a finger over his shoulder, completely nonplussed over the Keeper's looming form. "That."

Slater gives Bones a slow and apprehensive look, only long enough to not seem crazy, yet not long enough to cause offense.

With shaky fingers, he takes the pills from his palms and downs them. The effect is near immediate, a red-hot sensation filling up his lungs and extending down to his legs. His anima whirls to life in his chest, the system crackling to life in a glitched form right before his eyes.

What the fuck?

He eyes Bones with confusion, hand pressing onto his chest as Bones grins. "You can pay me back for that later, I got them from a friend."

Which friend had Xerophine and which friend gave that to Bones?

Slater can't be assed to care. He'd just been given a life-changing drug and he'd be sure to use it well. Though the use of his anima is definitely going to be faulty at best... just being able to see the glitch of a screen is enough for him.

"Th-Thanks..."

Wait.

How did Bones know he had an anima in the first place? Or was he just giving the drug as a little pick me up? Either answer was a harrowing thought.

Slater doesn't have the time to think it over.

The Keeper lunges at them, armed with a streetlamp all over again. It swings and both the boys are running in opposite directions in order to dodge.

Slater cranes his head, catching the glimpse of what he's looking for atop his head.

This time, he's ready.

"You! Hey, do you have something that can be used to fight?" While he knows that he does, he doesn't want a repeat of last time where he lost his life because of his more presumptuous personality.

"Yeah! I like swords! What about you?"

None at all.

Slater really only had weapons when he pre-packed them, when he had use of his siblings anima, too. Inter-connected that they all were. Here in this rift where his twin won't even answer, well, he was pretty useless aside from where his deaths and resets were concerned. He would have to make use of his body, inefficient that it was. Even with his system alive, he would simply have to make due with the few skills that he had access to.

"Not, really! Could you give me something?" He calls out, narrowly dodging the Keeper's claws. His eyes are alight, time slowing to give him the chance to dodge it. Chains squeeze around his heart, reminding him that he was technically exploiting a glitch in the system.

This needed to be ended fast.

There is no guarantee that Bones would have the pills or offer them next run.

He tumbles into the ground, scrapping the palms of his hands against the pavement. People on the sidewalk ignore the chaos, moving around or being jostled like ragdolls.

Bones is having a better time and is laughing. He twists his body, moving as if he's dancing with the Keeper instead of being entangled in combat. "You know, the Keeper's are kind of cute if you really think about it. Have you ever wondered if they have bones?"

Slater strikes gold, spitting out trigger statements he knew that other would react to. "Yeah! So why not cut it open and see!?"

As a delayed reaction, while Bones' brightens up brighter than the three suns in their galaxy — he finally tosses Slater over a light and plain sword. Slater catches it, slowing time to a halt once more just to grab the hilt out of the air.

He doesn't want to accidentally slice his hand off.

That'd be bad.

Horrible, even.

As time returns back to normal, he pushes himself into a run. While Bones distracts the Keeper, Slater begins to use the sword to leverage himself into climbing a top the back of the massive creature.

The mouse above it's head is mocking him, enough that he holds onto the hilt of the sword as the Keeper jostles around. It bucks like a raging bull, leaving Bones an opening to slice at it's arms. The streetlamp crashes into the ground, cracking the roads around them.

This may in fact be the run in which he succeeds in surviving.

Slater struggles to keep pulling himself up, about time that he uses a speed boost. Forwarding time strictly for himself.

His teeth grit, he reaches for the mouse.

Fingers just barely swipe.

The Keeper screeches and Bones swings.

Right across the throat, blood erupts, sprays out. It covers the civilians in a vivid crimson hue. Bones, too, who keeps hacking away. Slater can feel the thrum of static in his fingertips and something almost like relief washes over him.

The system window he manifests with his mind is solidifying further, less glitched.

His mission to escape is still there in the corner, though he sees right past Bones... an indication marker that would lead the two towards a path of escape.

"It's over, fuck." Slater yanks his own sword out of the head of the Keeper, it's body falling to the ground in a heavy heap.

Bones doesn't seem to think it's over. He's cleaving, clawing, digging into the carcass of the fallen Keeper of the City in an effort to see it's internal mechanisms. There are in fact bones to be found there, a dark grey instead of the white that normal humans seem to have. This elates the psychopath, bringing a stronger and wider grin to his features.

"Slater, look! It has Bones, do you think we can take this with us when we leave?"

The answer is on the tip of his tongue. "...Maybe, yeah?"

Which only serves to improve Bones mood. He happens to rip out the bones from the musculature with sharp squelching sounds. There is blood all over him, staining the once white-clad individual to a deep darkening red. From his hair to his beautiful, once pristine, leather boots.

Slater turns away from the scene, unfortunately to the gazes of the people on the sidewalk who regard him with stiff necks. They are unmoving, eyes wide and lips pursed.

His stomach churns and he wants to leave.

"I think... I think I found the way out, by the way... so when you're done..." His voice is but a murmur in the wake of Bones gleeful laughter, though he seems to have heard him nonetheless.

"Sure! One moment!"

It really is a moment, the crowd has no time to speak as Bones gets up with a pile of carefully selected bones.

"So, where's the way out?" Bones calls, head tilting to the side. There is ignorance or rather purposeful ignorance of the way the crowd on the sidewalk simply stares at them. He has always been rather good at being able to see what he wanted to see and hear what he wanted to hear. Slater envies him.

With a stuttered pause, Slater hesitates only for a moment before he's gesturing to where he could see his system marker in the distance.

"That way, huh? Let's go!"

The path forward is relatively uneventful, dipping down into another alleyway for privacy, and heading down another block. Neither of them say anything, only the sound of the Keeper's skeleton rattling is any indication that there is sound. Slater's always been paranoid that one day he would lose all his senses and float in a sea of nothingness.

While he welcomes Death, he'd rather not exist.

If there was a chance for his thoughts to run rampant? He didn't want it.

So, he keeps his mind empty until Bones breaks the silence.

"How do you feel about the pills I gave you?" He questions, it's an innocent question.

Slater doesn't fall for the bait. "They're caffeine pills right? They boosted my energy." The lie is effortless, though Bones scrutinizes him. He accepts it as a truth just moments later. It's not as if he had any proof that Slater had anything abnormal about him other than some auto-immune disease.

"Yeah! They're actually adrenaline! With less side effects and more energy!" Bones proudly states, the unspoken truth that it was a stimulant for anima laid beneath the conversation.

Slater's eyebrows raise, just barely. "Yeah? Does your friend sell any?" It would be useful to have for moments like this. When his heart was-

Failing.

Falling.

Slater stutters to a stop, the chains around his heart squeezing in warning. If the system was sentient, it was clearly demanding he mind his words. Cheating would only barely be tolerated, only in extreme cases going forward. Though, it was always like this and the punishment was often just another reset.

Didn't mean that Slater ever listened.

"Ow. Fuck." He chokes out, squeezing his eyes shut. He stands there, waiting for the pain to subside.

Bones pauses, too. "Are you okay?"

No, the answer was no.

It was just that Slater didn't and doesn't have the heart to say it.

With a weak composition, Slater only nods. "Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry. I... must've gotten a rare or fucked up side effect, huh."

"Must have~!" Bones is in his face, mis-matched eyes observing him with a delightful glee. "You look like you haven't slept in months." Insomnia often plagued him, so that much was pretty true. "And you're so tiny."

There is a perverse, sick and twisted glee as Slater listens to it, just as much as there is revulsion at the idea that he is being perceived this closely.

Something rotten comes to life and latches onto the word tiny, just as soon as it roars to life, Slater forces it back down viciously. "Yeah. I'm sick."

In more ways than just one.

Sick in the head. Sick in healthy. Sick in everything.

"I can see that~!"

The system marker is growing closer and Slater opts to ignore the conversation in order to power forward. The conversation is more than enough to dampen his mood. He can feel the thinning of the rift and he's ready to be back in the real world so to speak. He just wants to sleep, he wants to be home, he wants to see his brother.

Is he alive? Did he really kill him or was that just a fucked up aspect of the rift, too? The only way to be sure would be to get back to reality. Leave the rift. Leave the rift. Leave the rift.

Escape.

As they draw closer to the end of the rift, Slater finally speaks again. "We're practically here."

His arm lifts to gesture broadly at the way the world seems to warp and twist at a strange angle. The feeling of being lost is heavy and Bones nods in response to it. "We're here! So, what are you going to do once we're out?" He asks.

"Sleep." Which was the obvious answer as they finally stop in front of the edge of it all. "You?" It was only polite to ask in turn.

Bones considers the question, then his own smile warps. "Probably the same."

He and Slater both knew it was a lie, but neither knew exactly why he was lying about it.

Without anything else to be said, he and Slater step through the rift and back into the world.