Altered Fate (Inscryption Fanfic)

Chapter 6 ~ Mistakes

The robot suddenly shoots up... He looks at you, confused. "What happened?" You try to answer, but just... burst into sobs, hugging him. He looks worried, a moment, before finally remembering... He backs up and checks on you, somehow more worried about you, than himself. Seeing him this worried is... a little funny. After a long silence, he finally speaks. "Are you alright?" You merely giggle, a little, at the question, only worrying him further.

"I should be asking you," you finally say, wiping your tears away. He thinks, for a moment, processing... "How long," he asks. You freeze up at the question. He asks again, this time a bit more firmly, "How long was I asleep?" "A few days," you finally respond, quietly. He looks somewhat shocked, by this. "A few days? Why didn't you reset?" To this, you simply shrug... You couldn't tell him what possessed you to make you decide against resetting, right away. "Well, you're awake, now, so it's not like it matters. Right?" You try to brush off your insecurities. It doesn't matter. He's awake. Everything's fine. Right...?

Concerned, but too disoriented to question you, any further, P03 floats up and out of the tent. You follow, wanting to make sure he doesn't get hurt any worse. Upon seeing him, Leshy, who'd been casually playing against Magnificus, at the moment, suddenly stood and looked over. "You're alive," he said, his deer tail wagging, slightly... P03 looked extremely confused, tilting his head at Leshy and questioning him. "You were worried I was dead? Thought you would've been happy about that."

After all the previous runs, you were surprised by this, too... Leshy, a little embarrassed, awkwardly went silent, looking to the side, trying to avoid eye contact with P03. "I... mean... how are we... supposed to get back on... decent terms, if you're dead...?" When he said this, you could see little lines on P03's face - blushing. He was blushing. At something Leshy said. You got the goofiest little grin on your face, and so did Magnificus. P03 quickly tried to draw attention away from its blush, by speaking. "Yeah, whatever... You didn't kill me in my sleep, so I guess we're kind of already there." Leshy's tail wagged, more. It was nice to see these two getting along, for the first time... basically ever. It was... also very surreal... of all the times you went through this, you'd never once seen them have a calm chat with each other, that didn't end in blood.

You look around, noticing a scrybe is missing... "Where's Grimora?" Magnificus looks off towards the crypt, a moment. "She said she had to get something. Probably her quill." "What? Why?" P03's attention had snapped right to him when he said that. Magnificus shrugged, "I don't know. She was probably planning on trying to bring you back, if you died." "You guys were all that worried about me?" Magnificus shook his head at P03's question. "At first, I was. I got a premonition, however... I knew you'd be fine." You and Leshy look at him... "What?"

Leshy huffs through his nose, irritably. "And you didn't tell us, why?" "Because, my premonitions haven't always been completely accurate, as of late. I got a premonition of fighting and losing to y/n, and... we never fought." That was a valid point... You two did, in fact, avoid fighting. The fact that you were supposed to had completely faded from your memory, up until just now, now that you'd been reminded. Magnificus merely shrugged. "I'm perfectly fine, knowing that premonition didn't happen, to be completely honest." You nod in agreement. Leshy, still irritated, shakes his head. "Next time, tell us," he sighed, "fluffy bastard." To this, you laugh... It was rare for Leshy to joke around, at all. This... this was all very surreal.

Some time passes... you and the other two had been catching P03 up on what was going on. Not that there was really much he'd missed, but you just didn't want to stop talking to him, yet. Suddenly, you hear Grimora... dropping everything in shock. You look over to see her standing there, spilled ink and papers messily scattered all over the ground... Before any of you could ask if she was alright, she ran over, and hugged P03. "You're alive," she cried out, obviously as overjoyed as you were to see your robo friend alright. "Hey- what is it with you guys?!" P03 barked... He never was comfortable with people even tapping him on the shoulder. Grimora let go. "Apologies," she uttered, "I suppose I walked all that way to get my quill for nothing." P03 shook his head... "You guys shouldn't have been so worried. Instead of moping around, you could've just reset, yaknow."

"We could have," Magnificus butted in, "but would it really have been worth it?" P03 looks at him, confused. "What does that mean?" Magnificus was silent... he either didn't want to talk about it, or just couldn't find a good way to explain what he meant. Judging by the looks on Leshy and Grimora's faces, however, it was likely the first option... You understood, in a way. You couldn't stand the thought of resetting, again... The thought of all of them forgetting this, completely...

You shake your head. That wasn't going to happen. This time... this time was different. Everything was going to work out.

That whole rest of the day, you all talked to each other, sort of just trying to relax after one hell of a week...

. . .

You wake up, the next day, around late noon... You had definitely been tired. You leave your tent, finally, and see Leshy and P03, P03 sitting there with an irritated look on his face and Leshy sitting next to him, sort of leaning against him, sleeping. You can't help but smile, as you go up to them. "Hey," you say, "Morning." P03's face shows a more unamused expression. "Afternoon." You nod. Of course, you woke up late... At least you slept, at all. "Where are the other two?" At your question, P03 points to the monuments in the distance. "They said they needed to check something out," he said, saying something else a bit quietly, after, "something apparently really concerning..."

You look towards the monuments, and decide to make your way over to see what's happening. Grimora and Magnificus are standing in front of Grimora's monument, talking to each other. Magnificus was worried, and Grimora seemed... tired. You noticed something off about the monument... You couldn't quite put your finger on it, but something was definitely off. You go up to the two, worried.

"What's wrong?" You ask this, and Grimora looks at you, sighing. "Nothing, everything's fine," she mutters. Magnificus shakes his head, pointing up at the monument. "Something's wrong. You see it, too, don't you?" You nod... You thought it was just your imagination, but there was definitely something wrong with the monument. Something wrong with Grimora. "What is it?" you ask, an obvious tone of concern in your voice. "We have not a clue," Grimora says, "but I'm sure it's really nothing to worry about. I just feel a bit tired, now. Honestly."

You give her a tired, jaded look. "If only it were ever that simple," you sigh. "Now, please be honest with us... What's actually wrong?" "I'm telling you, I don't know... really, if I did, I would say," she muttered, looking to the side, then up at her statue, again... Before you could say anything to question her further, an odd noise was heard. The sound of... stone cracking...? You look up, and... the monument is breaking. The glow from when you defeated her began to dim and flash red as it cracked and shook... You could've sworn cracks began to form on Leshy's monument, too. Now, Grimora was worried, a look of slight panic on her face. "What just happened," you finally manage to utter, after a long moment of silence of all of you doing your best to process what just happened... The two scrybes look at you, for a moment, and then at each other, completely silent, not really knowing how to answer...

This... This was definitely something you'd need to look into, further...