Prompt: "Anon's first time requesting and I'd like something based on this song {you}{tube}.com/watch?v=DI1djoyxmDg [Ark by Sound Horizon]

It doesn't have to follow the song exactly but I'd like Lyra as Soror and Kris as Frater with Lyra being the one with tampered memories."

Pairing: Lyra/Kris

URL: thread=6039052#t6039052

Format for the URL is pokanon[dot]livejournal[dot]com[slash]1548[dot]html[question mark], followed by what I have above.

A/N: I suggest listening to the song, reading the subtitles, and checking out the poster's notes about it to understand what I was basing this on.

This ended a little...differently from how I first intended it, and I don't know if I did a good job or not. It is what it is, so step inside the ark and read...

Warning: Vaguley incestuous, plus what you read in the summary

One, two, three, the tears dripped from her chin and joined the growing pool of blood on the floor.

When she saw Kris for the first time, Lyra was speechless. She had watched the girl in a battle, and everything about her was perfect, from her fiery passion and dominant victory to the her stunning looks. Kris was everything Lyra had ever wanted to be, beautiful, strong, respected, recognized. The Champion of the very region.

She couldn't have been more surprised when Kris came to talk with her after the battle. The Trainer had said she'd seen Lyra in the stands.

What had she said. You look familiar—have we met?

They stayed together for the rest of the day, and as Lyra now proudly remembered, that was their first date. In talking they discovered they had so much in common. Kris laughed at all of Lyra's jokes, and Lyra hung on every word of Kris's stories. At sunset Lyra had parted from her, flushed and excited and confused all the same, and determined to see Kris again. She couldn't quite name what she had stumbled upon, but she would not let go of it.

Over the next few weeks they shared much. Lyra confided in Kris things she had never told anyone, things about her childhood, things about herself, and she was elated at the way Kris understood her like no one else did. The more time they spent together, the more convinced Lyra became she wanted to be with Kris for the rest of her life. And so, swearing to herself she would aid and support Kris as long as she drew breath, she asked if she could accompany the girl on her travels.

She admired Kris more than anything in the world, her crystalline eyes, her lovely features, her quiet laugh. The kind smile that haunted her in her sleep and drove her to do everything possible for the Trainer, as much for her as to see that smile again...

But all she could do was gaze from afar. She didn't dare risk losing their friendship her only tether to sanity don't leave me don't leave me over a silly declaration of love. So, much as Kris looked at her with tenderness or gave her hand an extra long squeeze or kissed her forehead, she remained still.

Months later, after a hundred stolen glances and many forbidden dreams and a whole heartful of foolish longing, Kris told her hesitantly that she liked her as more than a friend and asked if Lyra felt the same. She fell against the older girl then, holding her and crying and saying Yes, yes, yes.

From then on, she rarely let go of Kris. She held her hand wherever they went, and she only slept if her limbs were entwined with Kris's, and she couldn't bear to have the other girl out of her sight. Lyra wasn't blind to the fact that she was possessive, and if Kris told her they were going to be apart for some reason, she did not protest, but she didn't really care. I am possessive. I possess Kris. She is mine. She would not let anyone take Kris away from her.

The two of them grew still more intimate, pouring themselves into one another. Lyra bared her soul those nights when they shared a hotel bed, told Kris her every dark secret. Kris absorbed the bad parts of her, and stitched together a frayed mind into a person called Lyra. In return all she could do was try to please Kris in any way possible, do anything to make her life easier. Anything to make sure she stayed.

They drew so close to their one true happiness. Kris invited Lyra to meet her parents, and Lyra said yes as her spirits soared high to the heavens. She didn't know if they could really get married, or if that was what Kris wanted, but the mere thought of a wedding to Kris made her heart fly out of her ribcage.

She would have offered the same to Kris if her own parents weren't dead and gone like they never existed and they might as well not have for all the love they showed their little girl no no no don't think about that now and her head was filled with fantasies of Kris in a brilliant white dress, standing on some altar amid lilies and marble and a sea of smiling faces.

Even if they would not really be married, 'til death do they part.

Coming back to New Bark Town with Kris was strange for Lyra. Finding out her longtime idol and current love was born in the same place as her was one thing, but something else seemed odd. Everyone gave them strange looks, and when they muttered to each other Lyra had the distinct impression they said things specifically about her and Kris. But she did not let it bother her.

It was the day after their arrival that Kris told Lyra she would go see her parents alone first, and return to bring Lyra to see them. Lyra waited patiently, but Kris did not come back by the time she had promised. By the end of the day worry was gnawing a cavity in Lyra's chest.

She went out just as the sun was beginning to split into a line across the horizon, asking everyone she met if they had seen Kris, or if they knew where Kris's parents lived. One old lady said she remembered the name Kris, but all she could say was that Kris left New Bark after some kind of falling out, or maybe it was an accident, or something. Lyra left the woman only more desperate to find Kris and save her from this ghost of the past that must have swallowed her up.

So late into the morning did she return to their room that a faint glow of coming dawn was washing over the stars. She cried herself to sleep, fitful with nightmares that shattered into reality in a reality shattered by nightmares.

Without Kris, the person called Lyra was unraveling.

Waking the next day, if she had ever slept, she again set out to look for Kris...

"Lyra..."

She heard the girl's voice calling her name, quiet but unmistakable, and whirled to find her standing in the doorway of an abandoned house near the edge of the town. Lyra ran to her as fast as her feet would carry her and hugged her tightly, and they sunk to the ground as her legs gave way.

"Oh, Kris," Lyra half-moaned. "I've been looking for you." The dark circles under her eyes attested to that. "Where did you go? Why didn't you come back?"

"I came here," murmured Kris. "This is my parents' house...was their house."

"Was?" Lyra's gaze searched Kris's face. "Oh, no, you mean they—"

"No," said Kris. "I don't know. But they've left."

"I'm so sorry." Lyra held Kris still more closely. She did not at all like the way Kris wasn't responding to the contact, so she kissed her. Kissed her and kissed her, captured Kris's lips in her own and locked them together, tasted—

A poisoned, barbed chain cinched around her soul as she felt Kris resist her, pull back from the kiss, and finally push her away. All thought became pain and she was by comparison numb to the sharp impact of her back upon the wooden doorframe.

What...just happened?

Why...

Why did...

What?

Lyra stared at Kris in shock, silent for her insides seemed to have been drained from her. Kris would not meet her gaze as she stood and retreated a few steps. She said, her words constricted, "We can't do this anymore."

Silence.

"I'm sorry, Lyra, but we can't be together." Her eyes were wide, too, focused on nothing while Lyra's were fixed on her. "We're...we're sisters."

Silence. Then, she laughed.

It was absurd! What was Kris saying? "What, were we separated at birth? Listen to yourself!" Abruptly she stopped laughing, and suddenly she looked frightened. "You're crazy. You don't know what you're saying." And slowly the fear morphed into anger. "It's a fucking lie! Don't say things like that, Kris." She was on her feet, Kris was backing away.

"Lyra, Lyra," the older girl said, her voice breaking. "Don't you remember? We grew up here. I taught you about being a Trainer. Remember when—"

"No!" screamed Lyra, and Kris flinched. "I don't remember! Because it didn't happen! I grew up in a different house!"

"Where, Lyra?" Kris's pleas were desperate. "How could you have grown up here and never met me? New Bark is so small, Lyra; you couldn't have!"

In an instant Lyra's furious expression was replaced by a smile, and she giggled. "Okay, Kris, whatever you say. So what's the matter? Come on," she said, leaning forward. "Give your sister a kiss."

Kris shook her head, still backing away. "We can't do this. It's wrong."

"What's so wrong about it?" laughed Lyra. "You can believe whatever you want, as long as you stay with me. I accept it."

"I don't," said Kris, sacred. Her hands were on the wall behind her to feel her way along. To move away.

Away from Lyra.

Away from me!

Lyra felt something break, felt a crash inside her, and all her laughter and anger and fear for Kris's sanity vanished leaving only her. Scared, panicking, fraying-at-the-edges Lyra. "No," she said, and then she cried it. "No! Kris, you can't leave me. It doesn't matter if we're sisters. Nothing's different. I still love you."

"I love you, too," said Kris, frightened at her own words. "But not in that way. Not anymore."

"Not...anymore?" repeated Lyra, feeling the chain dig its spikes into her. "Like you can love me one minute and not the next? Like your love is a switch, on or off?" She was reeling and threads of her mind were coming apart more and more and was determined not to let Kris see, so that fucking bitch she can't leave me least of all because we're sisters that won't stop me from taking you one night she fought to keep control.

"I love you!" shouted Kris again. "I said I do!"

"Then marry me!" Lyra shouted back. "Marry me! Say I do!"

"What? Lyra—" Kris's hands found the kitchen counter behind her and she knew was out of room to back away. "Why don't you remember? I remember now..."

"Do you think there's something wrong with me?" There was a hint of a shriek in Lyra's voice, but she kept her demeanor as calm as she could. "Do you think my memories are damaged? Or do you think I'm sick for wanting you even though you're my 'sister?' That's right, I want you." She put a hand to her chest. "Even if you are my sister. I want you now. Why don't we do it right here, sister? That will show you how wrong my love is!"

"Lyra, please calm down," said Kris weakly. "We can't. You have to realize that. Please!"

Lyra breathed hard for a moment, mind racing. Kris truly believed what she was saying, and she really intended to end their relationship. She would not allow that to happen. Why, though, why did Kris insist it was wrong? They loved each other, they were so close to a happy ending. What had changed now that they were supposed to be sisters? Kris couldn't have a problem with it herself, it must be about what others would think the strange looks people gave them and that's what Kris is afraid of well I don't care we will be together and may anyone who objects rot in hell!

She knew the answer then, but she had to keep Kris talking, had to figure out what to do, so she asked, "Why? What's so different?"

Kris had edged around her and now stood on the opposite side of the room. She seemed relieved to have the space. "You don't remember, Lyra, but we've been together since you were born. I fed you, we took baths together, I was there when you took your first steps." She smiled tentatively, sadly. "I remember a whole lifetime with you. It's not just knowing we're sisters. After all we've done, our whole lives long, I...I just can't be with you like that."

As Kris was speaking, Lyra experienced a singular moment of calm. She thought she was about to tip over the edge and unravel completely, but instead she found awareness. She knew what she had to do.

But she resisted herself, resisted that impulse buried at the center of her mind. It was a black hole she found there, able to keep her fraying self together, but maybe she'd rather come apart than fall into it. "Think about how I feel," she said, biting her lip hard enough to draw blood. "Won't you stay with me? You promised..."

"I will" said Kris emphatically. "As a friend. As your sister. I swear it, Lyra, I swear!" She was crying. "I promise."

Lyra regarded her with a hungry look in her eyes. "That's not good enough, sis."

Kris cringed at the irony in her voice. "Then I don't know what to do."

"Don't make me follow you, Kris." Lyra stood where Kris had, against the counter. "Don't leave."

She shrugged helplessly. "I have to."

Lyra felt herself tumble headfirst into that black hole.

"I understand," she said, and she knew which drawer it was in. Of course it was there, even in a kitchen bare of everything else. As Kris turned away for an instant, she slid her hand in and grasped the handle, hiding the blade behind her back.

This was the only way.

They would escape to their own paradise.

A paradise where Kris wouldn't have to worry what anyone thought.

A paradise where they could be sisters or not.

A paradise of lilies and marble and an altar where they could take their vows.

To take them there, an ark hidden behind her back as she approached Kris.

"I understand," she said again. "I love you, Kris." And Lyra stabbed her.

Blood, first a spatter across Lyra's hand and her clothes, then a flood of it cascading down Kris's front.

Kris felt the steel as a block of pressure as it entered her, and a shock like ice in her veins accompanied it. No, no, no! This can't be happening!

She might have done something, taken some action to defend herself, but it slipped into her again and she collapsed into Lyra's arms. She was so, so scared. I don't want to die! Her life was leaking out of her belly, and she could feel it. Nothing could be this horrible.

Lyra brushed the hair from her forehead, her red-soaked hand smearing blood there, and gently stroked her face. "Sssh," she said. "We're going now. Everything's going to be all right."

Tears were cascading down Kris's cheeks, mixing with the rills of blood that spilled from her mouth as she spoke. "Lyra, Lyra," she whimpered. "I don't want to die..."

"Don't think about it like that," said Lyra, a flash of anger upon her features before serenity returned. "You aren't dying. You really aren't."

"I'm cold," she said faintly. The chill was spreading through her and into her bones. The feeling of loss was even worse than the pain. "Help me, Lyra..."

"I am helping." She drew a finger along the older girl's jaw, tears in her own eyes, which were frozen and distant above a twisted smile.

"You're killing me," said Kris, and she sobbed. "You're killi—"

She gasped, her eyes widening in shock even as a light deep within them dimmed. Lyra had sunken the blade into her chest, between her ribs. Kris looked at Lyra, one last time, the younger girl covered in blood and lost completely to reality. One, two, three, the tears dripped from her chin and joined the growing pool of blood on the floor. "Lyra," she whispered, and her breath was spent.

Lyra felt a pang of sorrow that Kris had not been able to finish giving voice to her last words, but she knew that loss was only temporary. She brought the steel tip to her own breast, the point resting on her heart, and pulled inwards with all her strength.

Her last sensation as she lay on her side in their mingling blood was as though she were choking on Kris's tears.

...And if I must follow you, dear sister
I'll follow you with a knife

Come rest with me inside the ark
And I'll take your very life.