Darkness... For as far as I can see, nothing but the empty darkness of this timeless space. As time is but a static image for me, I cannot tell how long I've been here. But still, I've gotten used to this darkness and silence, but not to those visions. Occasionally, my mind shows me pieces of events from history. I see the war against the humans, I see the crowning of King Asgore Dreemur, I even see my own death at the hand of my creation, the CORE. As I've been reportedly shattered across space-time, this should be no surprise that I'm able to witness event all over our universe's timeline.
However, I've quickly come to notice some contradictions in my visions. The same child I've seen die against our queen in battle, also went on to live the rest of their life on the surface with their monsters friends. Seems like my hypothesis was right. Each time a reset is done using DETERMINATION, it creates a new timeline. My body was spread across all those timelines as well.
This has been that way for god knows how much time. By now I had come to term with the idea that I was never going to go back to normal. After all, if anything from these timelines would have saved me, it would have happened already. Although granted, something was bothering me at this moment. The visions had stopped. Not just stopped, but like I was being pulled away from their existence.
It was truly silent and dark for a few moment before a blindingly bright light covered all of my field of vision. When it finally faded away, it left behind a familiar sight. To my surprise, it wasn't limited to only sight, but all my others senses. It was the first time in ages I could use those again. It didn't take me long to realize that I wasn't exactly in the nicest position I could be in. I was in the middle of a laboratory test chamber. It seems like I was on a platform right in the middle of it. Clearly, all of the machinery around me was centered on the platform I was standing on.
Before I could take any step, four magic circles placed around the center focused all of their power on me, restraining my movements.
With this rather unpleasant situation at hand, I had to defend myself. But how? I had spent way too much time without fighting, even before my death. Although, there was still one creation of mine that could help me in this situation. With a small outburst of magic, four floating goat skulls were summoned around me. My good old Gaster Blasters still worked just fine despite being all the way across space-time. My four magic weapons charged up their lasers, and fired against the magic circles, releasing myself from their restraints. My freedom didn't last long, however, as I was captured by vines right before I even touch the ground.
"...Aren't you the violent one, Doctor Wingdings Gaster?", I heard, coming from seemingly everywhere in the room.
A strange creature with red fur on her head walked out of a nearby door, slowly approaching me. No… it wasn't a mere creature. It looked exactly like a human.
" ✌ ✡ ✍". I tried to talk to her, but only gibberish came out...I had forgotten about this. All skeletons of my kind possess a different "font" to speak in. But for myself, I suffer from a speaking disorder of sort. My font is completely unreadable, as such, no one can understand my speech without a translator.
"It seems like your speech is still as "quirky" as it was before. Do not move." I didn't have much of a choice here, considering the strength of the vines around me. The lady before me shoved a strange device into my mouth, strapping it to my spine. I couldn't even bite off what was in me. How strong was that woman?
"Mmh...There we go. It should work now. Speak." Releasing my throat, she stood there, hands in her pocket, visibly waiting for me to obey.
"...Damn you-Wait...What's this?!" My voice wasn't the usual gibberish. It was a clear and understandable sound. Not from an external translator, but directly from my throat.
-A Wingdings to Times New Roman translator. It makes communication easier, don't you think?
-...I guess so. Although I would appreciate knowing what you attempted to do on me earlier, alongside the context of my appearance back into a physical world.
-Now now. You will have all of your answers in time. But I can at least explain those Anti-Chaotization Magical Circles.
She starts walking back to the door while explaining her creations.
"Bringing back a being shattered across space-time back into a physical form isn't exactly a safe process. These Magical Circles were meant to stabilize your own space-time so that it wouldn't affect the universe in any negative way. While it did manage to protect reality, since you destroyed them half-way through the process, I can't guarantee your safety anymore." The thought of me returning to my non-existent state sent a shiver down my spine. After tasting freedom once again, I couldn't even imagine the possibility of going back.
Sheepishly, I followed my savior towards what seemed like an observation room. There, I was greeted by several others human-looking scientists. Although unlike the red-headed lady I first met, I feel far less magical energy coming off from them.
"Gentlemen. Our experiment was, as you can see, a success. Please welcome our new ally, Doctor Wingdings Gaster."
I was welcomed like a living scientific breakthrough into the room. The various scientists seemed to vary greatly in biology. Some were perfectly human-like, yet some had feathery and pure white wings, almost like angels. While others looked distinctively more monster-like, such as snake lower bodies or wings.
"...Although I'll have to dismiss you for the time being. The Man Who Speaks in Hands still needs to get used to this world."
As soon as she spoke, the room empties itself, leaving only the two us.
-Uh, how do you know about that nickname, "The Man Who Speaks in Hands"?
-I didn't decide to just to bring you here without doing proper researches. My team and I spent decades studying your Multiverse, although I doubt we know nearly as much as you.
That last sentence brought much confusion to me, who was forever limited to the idea of a single multiverse existing.
-"Your" multiverse? I'm afraid that's not possible. Through all of my research, I never even saw the smallest glimpse at what could be considered a hint of another reality existing beyond mine.
-The same could be said of any researcher bound to their own timeline, living their whole short life thinking that not even any other worlds beside their own planets exist. A sad reality of the human nature, their mindset is and will always be self-centered, thinking the world spins around their very existence."
-I guess you are a human then.
-I'm probably closer to a human than your kind is, that much is true, but that doesn't mean I'm one.
Her few last words were soon followed by her suddenly generating transparent wings and a halo of the same composition appearing on her head.
-I was originally an angel, the metaphysical antithesis to a monster. Although by now, I'm as much an angel as I am a monster.
-And may I know my purpose here, nameless lady?
She chuckles a disturbing laugh.
"My name is Promestein. I am the one who gave human fire, and the leader of the Seekers of Truth, an organization which the goal is to discover the truth of the universe...and beyond."
Her description of her so called organization sounded way too ambitious to be good. Searching for the truth of all things instead of focusing your research on useful discoveries for your own people. Science should be a mean, not a goal.
"I assume that you are attempting to add me to this organization? If so, you seem to misunderstand my goals. I'm not interested in some philosophical quest for knowledge. If I do what I'm doing, it's because I must, not just because I can. I value the safety of my people over satisfying my personal curiosity."
It was probably my first time since I got here that I managed to speak with certainty and confidence, perhaps I was getting used to all of this already.
Promestein didn't even bat an eye at my speech, keeping her collected and calm, almost cold, attitude.
"Oh, I'm not planning to force you to join. I want you to work for us. An exchange of technology between us, to help with our respective goals."
I raised a metaphorical eyebrow at her statement.
-I'm curious as to what I would be of help to you. From what I could witness for this brief period of time, your knowledge seems to have far surpassed mine. You taught me more in a few minutes than I learned in years through my own research.
-"You see, there is a limit to what I can learn when I'm stuck in this single universe. No one else than the smartest being in a neighboring multiverse could tell me more about its mechanics better.
-In my whole Multiverse, I was the smartest being you could get? None of the others vigintillions wise men in my multiverse who are far more advanced than me could fit the job?
-Knowledge and intelligence are two separate things. One can be fixed, the other can't. I'm certain that you have the potential to surpass any of them.
Being regarded as the smartest being among an almost infinite amount of scientist felt almost surreal to me. Although I wasn't very sure if that was just flattery on her part to try to get me on her side.
But honestly, I felt like I didn't have much choice here. Something about her gave me bad vibes. Beside, it's not like I couldn't have any use for her technology.
-Alright then. What kind of technology of mine would you need? Given good enough equipment, I could recreate some in a few weeks. Although large-scale constructions may take more time.
-I don't think I'd need a gigantic CORE here. I'm mainly interested in this "DT EXTRACTION" machine of yours.
The DT EXTRACTION… Out of all my inventions, it is the one I dread the most. In most, if not all timelines that I saw, it only brought suffering to both monsterkind and humankind. The worse of all being this...abomination. A horrible mixture of my creation, and a sociopathic flower. An eldritch creature that transcended space-time itself. In fact, due to its nature, it was one of the very few beings I could only see linearly, instead of being able to detect it across all of its history. It existed on the same level of time as me.
To give such a powerful weapon to a woman like her would probably be something I'd regret later. But at the moment, simply agreeing seemed like a better short term solution.
-Alright. If you wish, then I will comply.
-Good decision here. Without further waiting, I will lead you to your laboratory. Ah, by the way, you will work alongside one old friend of mine, I hope you don't mind~