Vindication - An Undertale Fanfiction

by PsychoticSyrian

Chara's plans for the destruction of the universe in past timelines have gotten too predictable and boring. Changing the course of the events that happened following their fall into the Underground, things take a quite unexpected turn.

It was Winter of 1314 in the Underground. Chara's 14th birthday was today, and Asriel had gotten them a special present straight from his heart. It was a rather fluffy coat. Chara tilted their head, imagining how much torture it would be in Hotland whilst wearing this fur monstrosity with a hood. Regardless, they tried it on, and immediately regretted the decision.

"Asriel, this outfit is needlessly fluffy," complained Chara. "I look ridiculous."

"No you don't," Asriel assured. "You look adorable! I could just use you as a pillow."

"Don't."

"Heh, you're no fun. I'm kidding, you're always fun."

Chara looked down at their sweater. Comfortable. And they hated it, but they had to seem like they liked it in order to not hurt his feelings. "Well… I suppose I like it. It'll keep me warm in the cold as well. I dread to think of the hot weather with this."

"I'm glad you like it!" Asriel followed with immediately hugging Chara. "Heh, I wouldn't want to give you something you don't like."

"I know. Thanks, best friend."

Chara had to force the best smile they could conjure up to seem like they were genuinely happy for the gift given to them by Asriel. Judging from the results, it worked. The short break was short lived however. Finally, Chara could drop the fake happiness. It was Asgore, seeming cheery as always.

"Howdy!" he greeted. "Sorry I'm late for your birthday, Chara."

"I'm used to it," said Chara.

Asgore chuckled. "Then here's something you're not used to." After he spoke, he took something from behind his back. It was… Chocolate bars. A lot of chocolate bars. "We knew you liked chocolate, so Toriel and I bought you a few bars of chocolate. Happy birthday!"

"I…" Chara was honestly expecting something else, like a petty toy or something of the likes. Chara had to show some appreciation, it was their favourite food, afterall. "Thank you, Dad."

Before Asgore could say "You're welcome!", the doors opened. In walked two of the most trusted royal guards, only known as 01 and 02.

"Dude," began 01. "Like, there are totally some human dudes."

"They're like," continued 02. "Totally trying to kill us and stuff."

"It is like, so not cool."

"Oh my…" Asgore said, shocked. "H-how close are they to our palace?"

"They're like, nowhere near," reponded 01. "Just like, way out, dude."

"Like," 02 continued. "Outside Snowdin far out."

"Hm," Asgore looked towards Chara and Asriel. "Would you like another birthday present, Chara? It comes in the form of a task."

"Speak," Chara said, interested. Asgore, much to their surprise, handed them a dagger.

"I'm asking you of one thing. Keep the humans away from all innocents. If you can do that, there's more chocolate to come. Asriel, you're going with them."

"Of course, dad!" Asriel said. "Do… I get a dagger?"

"How rude of me to forget you, one moment." Asgore took another dagger from his pocket, handing it to Asriel. "Please do use more than just a dagger. Try to find a sword or something, there's only so much you can do with a dagger… Or, you can try just politely asking them to leave? Settle it over a cup of tea? That's your choice. Best of luck, you two!"

"We will return when it's done," said Chara, hurrying out the door, Asriel following close behind.

"Please stay safe…" Asgore said.

Meanwhile, In their house in Snowdin, Sans started to stir.

Papyrus had been awake for hours and had given up trying to wake his brother from his slumber to try and tell him about the strange noises he heard coming from outside of town.

Sans rolled out of bed and hit the floor with a thump, finally waking him up properly. He groaned and complained as he got himself up from the floor. He put on his slippers and grabbed a strange device and a key from his desk. Walking past the small tornado of trash in the corner of the room, he walked out and locked the door behind him.

Sans was surprised to see Papyrus sitting on the couch as he was normally outside at his sentry post on watch for humans.

"what's up, bro?"

"SANS! YOU LAZY BONES! HOW DID YOU SLEEP THROUGH ALL THAT RACKET OUTSIDE?"

"what racket?"

"THERE WAS A HORRIBLE, INDESCRIBABLE NOISE COMING FROM JUST OUTSIDE OF TOWN. I THINK IT'S HUMANS SANS! LOTS OF THEM! AS GREAT AS I AM, I'M NOT SURE I COULD HANDLE THEM!"

"it's probably nothing. no humans have been down here in years. quit worrying. i'll go check it out."

"THANK YOU SANS! I, MEANWHILE, SHALL DEFEND OUR HOUSE FROM ANY POSSIBLE INTRUDERS! NO ONE WILL GET PAST THE GREAT PAPYRUS!"

"yeah, you do that."

Sans shuffled to the door, still drowsy from his sudden awakening and went outside.

Elsewhere, two humans were trudging through the outer limits of Snowdin off towards Hotlands.

"I can't believe we have to walk through this shit. How can it snow in an underground cave?" whined a Knight.

"Shut it, ya' Southern bastard," barked Abel, his Northeastern British accent dominating any understandable speech that his posh friend could make out. "We've got to meet with the others o'er in that watery place and that really bleedin' hot place."

That was Abel. Expressing his built up frustration for his team of idiots, proclaiming himself as the best of his team. He wasn't wrong either, most of his team were numbnutted boneheads that were just following orders. He had a purpose. That purpose was to kill the monsters and put an end to the threat to humanity. It was an act of honour for the Kingdom.

Sans didn't really believe Papyrus' claims that there were humans in the underground.

No human had entered the underground for a very long time and he didn't see a reason they would start coming again now.

That being said, he did recall Gaster saying something pretty cryptic yesterday and decided it couldn't hurt to call him up.

Sans reached into his pocket and pulled out the small device. It was a grey metal box held together with tape. It had 3 knobs on it that seemingly did nothing, and 2 buttons which would start and end communications. A dirty and cracked screen took up about half of the device and sat just above the dials. Through this screen showed Sans a video feed from Gaster's lab when the device was turned on.

Sans pressed the green button and the device started to emit a whirring noise. The screen came on and showed a view from the corner of Gaster's room. The floor was littered with human technology that had been torn apart and re-assembled in strange ways and the walls were lined with computers, all of which were showing different readings and statistics. Hunched over a computer in the corner was a large black mass with a white, roundish shape on top.

"hey, g." said Sans upon seeing Gaster hadn't noticed the monitor coming on. The black mass emitted a grunt of surprise and turned. Gaster's face was cracked and deformed from his accident and Sans couldn't really tell if it was healing slowly or if Gaster's face just shifted about over time.

"OH, HELLO SANS. WHAT IS IT?"

"papyrus told me he thinks there are humans in the underground because he heard something outside of town. is that plausible or is he just being paranoid?"

"SANS, YOU KNOW THAT I CANNOT DIRECTLY EXCHANGE INFORMATION LIKE THAT. IT WOULD RISK DISRUPTION OF THE TIMELINE WHICH COULD RESULT IN–"

"yeah, utter chaos. you've told me before. guess i'll just have to find out myself then."

"OH, SANS. WHEN YOU GET TIME, COME VISIT ME. I HAVE SOMETHING TO SHOW YOU. IT'S NOT THAT IMPORTANT BUT I THINK YOU'LL LIKE IT."

"sure, g. see ya."

"GOODBYE FOR NOW, SANS."

Sans pressed the red button on the device and the monitor turned off. He was pretty far from town and had only just noticed that he could indeed hear the sound of chatter and movement. He had a suspicion that it was kids from snowdin harassing Giftrot again but thought he best check it out anyway to calm Papyrus.

"Excuse me," beckoned a teenaged voice, behind Sans.

Who would be there? There's no way he could know anyone that sounds like that, despite all this, the voice reeked of familiarity. The source of the voice moved in front of Sans.

"Excuse me?" It was Asriel Dreemurr, son of King Asgore and Queen Toriel. Beside him was none other than Chara, his adoptive sibling. "Have you seen any humans nearby? Human knights? We're patrolling for them."

Sans stepped back slightly.

"woah, you startled me there."

Sans relaxed again.

"well, i'm looking at a human right now."

His grin seemed to widen and as he glanced at Chara and chuckled before returning his attention to Asriel.

"nah, i ain't seen any humans about. i'm actually checking out some weird noises i heard coming from over here. probably just kids messing about but i guess you can't be too safe. why d'ya ask? something up?"

"Those two fools of guards said that humans have breached the barrier through the fall I took to come through, and now they're in," said Chara.

"Now we've gotta kick their butts!" Asriel announced in a joking heroic manner. "Heh, I dunno about killing them. Maybe just tell them to leave?"

Sans shrugged.

"that last idea sounds pretty good. i'm sure if there are humans down here they won't want much."

Sans looked over in the direction he was previously heading and then looked back to Asriel and Chara.

"as much as i enjoy standing around doing nothing, we should probably get moving."

Sans gestured to a sidepath.

"follow me, i know a shortcut to the ruins."

"Lead us," Chara said, as monotone as ever.

Asriel gently elbowed Chara's ribs. "C'mon, put some emotion into it."

Chara sighed in an annoyed manner. "Fine…" They made their voice to sound excited. "Lead on, skeleton person!"

Sans led the couple down the sidepath and rounded a corner.

Asriel and Chara blinked and were suddenly right outside the ruins. It wasn't clear how they got there.

"here we are."

Sans looked at the massive, closed door into the ruins. They hadn't been occupied for years except by monsters that don't like the harsh conditions of other areas of the underground or ones that felt too attached to their old home to leave.

With great effort, Sans forced open the door and looked inside. It was pitch black with the exception of a circle of light shining through a hole in the roof in the distance.

The group continued on through the door at the other end of the huge corridor which led to the basement of the previous home of Queen Toriel and King Asgore. They proceeded up the stairs into the main part of the house.

"I remember this place," said Chara, seeming to be remembering something. "It has a serious lack of chocolate."

"pretty cozy place. bit dusty though."

The welcoming atmosphere and warm colours of the interior of the small house made Sans feel sleepy and he realised they should probably keep moving before he actually did fall asleep.

They walked outside the front door and continued progressing through the Ruins. It was a very interesting walk and they conversed with a couple of monsters along the way who all reported hearing talking and very worrying noises coming from the general direction of the hole which Chara had once fallen through. Sans began to suspect that there may actually be new humans in the underground and thinking about why they might be here worried him. Sans continued with much more urgency as several monsters reported hearing fighting.

As they neared room where the hole was the party could hear the sounds of grunts and whooshing noises getting louder. They were almost sprinting by the time they got to the source of the sound.

Of course, none other than a human Knight. Just as expected, their weapon drawn, they seemed to have been fighting something. Whatever it was, it had escaped.

"Smells like free blood…" thought Chara. Regaining their conscious thought, they looked side to side, speaking. "Fear not, I'll handle them." Chara drew their dagger.

"Whoa, whoa, hey," Asriel advised. "We can solve this peacefully, can't we? I mean, look, they're probably confused, and maybe a human speaking to them could calm them–?"

"We'll attempt your excuse for an option," Chara huffed. "If it fails, they're going to die."

Sans glared at Chara.

"no-one's gonna die unless it's necessary. got it?"

Without waiting for a reply, he turned his attention back to the human.

"hey there. name's sans. sans the skeleton."

He gestured to Asriel.

"this is asriel. he's the king's son."

He swapped sides, gesturing to Chara.

"this is chara, as you can see, they're a human who fell down here a while ago. asriel, the king and the queen have kinda adopted them into their family, seeing as they don't really have a way back up to the surface."

Sans made a subtle gesture for Chara to put away the dagger and then returned his hands to his pockets.

"well, you know who we are, question is, who are you?"

The human stood still for a few seconds, watching Chara sheathe their dagger. Could another person really wish death upon a man so righteous as himself? He only wished to serve his King, to serve humanity. But what's to trust when, seconds into the Underground, a human with evil intents stood before him? Nonsense, they were surely mistakened.

"David," said the human. "I serve the King of England as a Knight."

"nice to meet you, david. what brings you to the underground?"

Sans relaxed his stance slightly upon seeing that the human was not reacting violently.

"On order of the King, we were told to eliminate all monsters," said David. "Clearly I'm not near to where the real monsters are, there's nothing scary here."

"eliminate all monsters? let's slow down here buddy. do we look like a threat to you?"

Sans gestured to himself and Asriel, rubbing Asriel's head so his hair stuck up and made him look fuzzier.

"you're probably not gonna find any major scares down here. pretty sure the only thing you'll find even remotely scary is how much aaron flexes."

Sans once again returned his hands to his pockets, relaxing his stance even more.

"so, is it just you? killing the whole underground is quite the task for one person."

"It's not just me," David continued shakily. "There's more coming, some have already found er, shortcuts, to areas in order to meet us later. And… Well, you two don't look scary in the slightest. I thought that–"

"So there will be more," Chara interrupted.

"Chara, let him talk!" Asriel demanded.

"A-as I was saying," David stuttered. "The King is sending an Army soon… Thousands of men, maybe more, I'm not certain. I will have to join or else I'll be executed… I promise to use non-lethal means."

"well, as long as you don't hurt anyone. i could understand if you hurt a couple of us by accident. it's not your fault."

Sans turned to the party of two behind him.

"right, how about we go get something to eat at grillby's? all this conversing tired me out."

Sans turned back to David.

"you coming?"

"M-me?" David was rather shocked. Never in his life was he actually offered to go eat out with someone. This was very new for him. "Uh, sure. Where is this, Grillby's, and what is it exactly?"

"i think you'll like it. real nice place. lotsa friendly people. just follow me."

Rather than taking one of his usual shortcuts, Sans toured David through the Ruins, giving him small minor details of history and pointing out monsters and their names when possible.

Most monsters in the ruins were hiding from David, but some of them came out upon seeing that Sans, Asriel and Chara were travelling with him. David met a Froggit and a Whimsun on the way out of the Ruins. They stepped back out of the giant door to the Ruins and travelled through the cold, snowy forests leading to Snowdin.

"so uh, when we get there don't be worried if the food sorta… disintegrates in your mouth. our food just turns directly into energy once you eat it. it'll instantly fix up your wounds and wake you up a bit."

"That's… interesting, how does it work?"

"well, i don't mean to brag, but monsters are just a bit more advanced than you guys. it's no surprise you guys are still just attacking all your problems and hoping it fixes them. down here we have some pretty sweet science going on. all of our energy is provided by the core, a giant generator that produces energy by–"

Sans glanced at David's face, looking at his expression.

"you know what? never mind that. the point is it most of the stuff down here works through science stuff that's probably a bit advanced for you guys. you'll probably figure it out eventually."

They entered Snowdin and drew the looks of several monsters who were interested in the new human who had arrived.

The party when into Grillby's and took some seats.

"heya grillby. the usual for me, asriel and chara and get us a a burger for our friend here."

"you want ketchup?"

"S-sure," said David.

"I still have chocolate," said Chara. "It will be dessert, I suppose…"

"That reminds me," Asriel began. "Aren't you glad I got you that coat today for your birthday, Chara? It's cold, isn't it?"

"Yes, you know I like the coat."

Sans looked at Chara's coat and then at his own, widening his grin ever so slightly.

As Grillby entered with food, Sans very slightly unscrewed the cap on the ketchup bottle and handed it to David.

Sans leaned over the table so he could see Chara.

"yeah, it's a pretty good coat from a pretty good goat."

Sans winked at Chara before returning to his normal sitting position, bringing out a comb and dragging it across his skull a couple of times as he waited to watch David pour the ketchup.

David poured some ketchup onto the meat of the burger. This was a bit of an unusual food item, as he's never seen such a thing, being used to the grub in the kingdom.

"I only noticed now, Sans, that our coats match," remarked Chara. "Is that what made you wink?"

"it might've been. maybe it wasn't. who cares."

Sans thought for a second.

"you guys talk for a while, i'm gonna go socialize with the regulars."

He hopped off his still and walked away from the group. After checking back to make sure they weren't watching, he pulled out his communicator and called Gaster.

"hey, g."

Gaster was once again working on a computer but this time he noticed Sans and went over to the camera.

"HELLO AGAIN, SANS. HOW ARE YOU?"

"i'm pretty good. as it turns out, the king on the surface is planning to send an army down here."

"AH."

"there are already a bunch of humans down here, apparently. i found one of them in the ruins and he seems like an alright guy."

"WELL, BE CAREFUL."

"will do. see you in a bit."

Sans shut off the communicator and stuffed it into his pocket. He walked back over to the group who were engaged in conversation about the food.

"hey guys, i gotta go do something real quick. you two can show david around snowdin, stay outta trouble, alright?"

The group was too invested in their conversation to properly acknowledge him so he slipped out the door.

Rather than ending up outside, Sans ended up in a dark, dusty old corridor with cracks and webs on the walls. He navigated a massive maze of corridors and rooms until he ended up in Gaster's room.

"hello again, g."

"AH, SANS, YOU CAME."

"what did you wanna show me?"

"OBSERVE."

Gaster tapped some buttons on the various consoles around the room, teleporting from console to console until eventually the giant main monitor in the centre of the room lit up and displayed tons of information. On it was a graph showing a massive mess of yellow lines and numbers.

"HERE, THIS IS A TIMELINE MONITOR."

"a timeline monitor?"

"YES! IT ALLOWS ME TO OBSERVE AND DISPLAY ALL POSSIBLE TIMELINES IN AN EASILY READABLE MANNER."

"cool. uh, why's it all cut off there?"

Sans pointed at a spot near the end of the massive graph.

"HMM. VERY STRANGE. IT MUST BE A SOFTWARE ISSUE. I WILL INVESTIGATE IT. STILL, VERY INTERESTING, ISN'T IT?"

"yeah, i guess. i best get back to the group. hopefully they haven't caused any problems."

"I SEE. WELL, GOOD LUCK!"

A grey door appeared in the wall. Sans opened it and stepped through, taking him directly outside of Grillby's.

"now, where did they go?"

Sans stretched and began to search for Asriel, Chara and David in Snowdin. He hoped that they hadn't gotten into trouble, especially after seeing some of Chara's behaviour he had seen today.

He asked a nearby bunny monster if they had seen the group.

"Oh! Yes! I saw them! I heard the prince saying that they were going to Waterfall to show the human around!"

Sans sighed. This was exactly what he had hoped they WOULDN'T do. He thought about the absolute chaos that would probably ensue if the monsters in the other areas of the Underground saw a human fully clad in battle equipment.

Then he remembered Undyne.

Almost cursing, Sans rushed around a corner and disappeared, reappearing in Waterfall, right near his sentry post.

"alright, they couldn't have gotten far."

He speedwalked further through Waterfall, getting more and more distressed at the thought of what would happen if Undyne didn't notice Asriel and Chara travelling with David.

"Over here is the secret door," Asriel pointed out. "The only way through is hitting the wall here, then it should break open."

"That's uh, not much of a door then, is it? Just an opening?" David asked.

"Before I forget, the only way across is this piece of driftwood. But don't worry, it's pretty stable. It's almost like uh, a sideways elevator."

"What's an elevator…?"

"Oh, right."

Meanwhile, Sans was taking shortcuts left and right. He suspected that instead of trying to find the posse in Waterfall, it would be wiser to find Undyne instead and explain the situation to her. That way, he could introduce her and David. Maybe if David made friends with some of the more… unique monsters in the Underground it could convince him and the other humans to go back to the surface and talk to their king. Maybe they'd even be able to convince the humans to get rid of the barrier.

Sans arrived at Undyne's house and gave the door a firm knock, knowing that she wouldn't be on guard duty for at least ten minutes which should be enough time to explain the situation.

It took a few seconds, but the door to Undyne's house opened. Standing in the doorway was, of course, Undyne herself in her casual attire.

"Hey Sans," greeted Undyne. "What's up?"

"heya, undyne. can i come in?"

After briefly discussing what they were doing, Sans began to explain the situation.

"alright, so i want you to hear me out on this. let me finish the whole thing. today, a small group of humans entered the underground through the hole in the barrier. apparently they've spread out through the underground using shortcuts in the ruins. me, asriel and chara learned this from a human that we found in the ruins named david. we've convinced him to travel with us and to not hurt anybody but there are still the other humans. i came here just to make sure you wouldn't do anything… irrational when you saw them."

Before Undyne could reply, there was a knock at the door followed by a voice proclaiming "This is Undyne's house!"

"Who was Undyne again?" asked David.

"She's the head of the royal guard!" Asriel announced. "I'm not sure how well she is around humans, but–"

Undyne's door opened again, standing in the doorway was she. She eyed the three for about half a second before greeting them.

"Hey, Asriel, Chara, uh, other human?" said Undyne.

"David," said he, introducing himself. "It's David."

"Yeah, Sans told me your name. Can't believe I forgot it so quickly." Undyne glanced back into her house. "So uh, wanna come in?"

"Of course!" Asriel said enthusiastically. "We all do."

"Well, come in before I close the door."

The three ventured into the house, Undyne having the door close after them. Chara kept an odd silence throughout the whole thing, seeming uncomfortable somehow.

"This is a, uh," David stuttered. "It's cozy, though I have not ever seen such surroundings…"

"Yeah well, see, you're human," said Undyne. "We're much more advanced than you, we even have fridges! I think making food cold is dumb, so I had Alphys make this fridge make food HOT instead!"

"W-what's a fridge?"

"It makes food cold… Or hot, for mine."

"You'll get accustomed to this all soon, David," Asriel assured. "Hey Chara, why haven't you said a single word?"

"I needn't add my thoughts if unnecessary," said Chara unenthusiastically. "With that in mind, I don't need to speak. That is all."

"Well aren't you negative," joked Asriel, playfully shoving Chara's shoulder.

Sans watched Chara interact with for a while, evaluating them, judging them. Something wasn't right. Soon however, it all became muffled and his eyes drifted shut.

"couldn't hurt to take a nap, i guess…"

Meanwhile in Snowdin, Papyrus was still sitting waiting for Sans to come back and report on what he had found but he hadn't come back.

He was beginning to get extremely worried and had started talking to thin air in order to re-assure himself that everything was fine.

"SANS WILL BE FINE. HE'S ALWAYS FINE. HE PROBABLY JUST FELL ASLEEP. YEAH! HE FELL ASLEEP! THAT LAZYBONES…"

Papyrus stood up from his chair and announced to nobody in particular:

"I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, SHALL INVESTIGATE MYSELF!"

He thrust open the door and stepped out into the snow. Immediately, Papyrus turned his attention to some footprints in the snow.

"HMMM…THESE FOOTPRINTS. SANS' SLIPPERS, GOAT FEET AND… TWO HUMANS?!"

Papyrus immediately started speedwalking in the direction of the footsteps, only to find out that they led to a wall.

"NYEH! I'VE BEEN OUTSMARTED! I CAN ONLY ASSUME THAT THIS IS SOME KIND OF FIENDISH PUZZLE! LAYED HERE BY THE HUMANS WHO CAPTURED THE PRINCE AND MY BROTHER! DO NOT WORRY! I, PAPYRUS, PUZZLE EXTROADINAIRE, SHALL SOLVE THIS PUZZLE."

Papyrus brushed away some snow and uncovered an old, metallic switch.

"A-HA! OUTSMARTED BY THE GREAT PAPYRUS!"

He pressed the button and heard strange noise unlike anything he had ever heard before. He turned to the wall, expecting to see something like Sans and Prince Asriel tied up to chairs.

Instead he saw a long corridor, the walls coated in peeling green paint and dust with mysterious sounds coming from inside.

Papyrus immediately regretted his decision, but his inflated sense of pride kept him moving on, confident he'd find his brother at the end of this hall. As he walked, he noticed the corridor was lined with doors, all with strange text that made no sense to him, things like "room_tundra_1" and "room_water21".

It then came to his attention that they were all written in strange, foreign symbols, yet he somehow understand them perfectly. The thought of humans being able to get into his head made Papyrus start to shake in fear as he approached the final door which had nothing to indicate what was behind it.

He stopped for a second. Looked back. Then clenched his fists and stepped towards it.

The door slid open revealing a large area filled with equipment and electronics that he didn't recognise. In the center was a black mass with a white, broken skull on top which occasionally flickered in a strange way. He didn't know why, but when he looked at it, he felt like the entity wasn't dangerous. Like he could trust it. The entity rose it's head and made a sound which might be interpreted as a sigh.

It spoke in a strange, broken language but at this point Papyrus just accepted the fact that he somehow understood every work.

"I WAS HOPING THIS WOULDN'T HAPPEN. THAT SOMEHOW TIME WOULD SUDDENLY REDIRECT ITSELF, BUT IT WAS INEVITABLE. HELLO PAPYRUS.

The mass turned and Papyrus passed out.

The short moments that David spent, cooking with Undyne for once properly, had luckily achieved them friendship.

"It's about time…" thought Chara. To them, the few minutes felt like eternities.

"Huh," Undyne remarked. "That's the first time we actually successfully cooked something! But I'll be damned if it's the last!"

"Yeah!" David cheered on with her.

"We're gonna need to do this every day! Come back a lot, David, you're fun to cook with!"

Undyne fistbumped David a tad harshly, making him stumble a bit.

"Heh," Asriel chuckled. "Ready to see the rest of the Underground, David?"

"Sure, heh," he agreed. "Nice meeting you, Undyne."

"Yeah, see ya, punk," Undyne bid farewell.

After the short farewell, the three started towards the door. Asriel stopped however.

"Sans, you wanna come?"

Sans stirred and yawned. He got up from his chair scratched his rear.

"yeah, i guess."

The party left and waved goodbye to Undyne.

"well, that sure was fun. i should ask undyne where she got that couch. anyway, what say we find that nice cream guy and get something to keep us good until we get to hotland and i can whip up some hot dogs for us?"

The rest of the group looked at each other and then nodded in approval.

They came up to a small stand attended by a rather depressed looking, furry, blue monster.

"hey man. can i get a round of nice creams?"

The blue monster's ears perked up and a great big grin spread across his face.

"OH! Hello! Four customers? That'll be– Wait, is that…Oh! Prince Asriel and Chara! Well, seeing as you're here, take them on the house!"

The vendor reached into his cart and brought out four nice creams. Everyone's mouths watered in anticipation.

"Here you go!"

He handed them out and waved to the part as they went.

"Tell your friends that I'm here!"

"What exactly is Nice Cream?" asked David as he removed his helmet. "I apologise, I don't know anything about monsters."

"Nice Cream is like Ice Cream, but it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside!" Asriel proudly announced. "…Er, metaphorically that is. If it made you actually feel fuzzy, that would be a tumour."

"Tumour…?"

"Forget about it, heh."

Sans chuckled slightly and shoved the nice cream into his portable dimensional box. He didn't ever really like the things, but he liked to get them for Papyrus.

At that moment, a slight buzzing in his pocket indicating Gaster was calling him.

Sans was suddenly filled with dread. Gaster never called him unless it was important, so it must have been serious.

He pulled out the device and pressed the answer button.

"SANS, WE HAVE A PROBLEM."

"what's wrong?"

"IT'S PAPYRUS. HE HAS FOUND HIS WAY INTO MY LAB. I DON'T KNOW HOW, BUT I KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN."

Sans groaned and put his head in his hand.

"did he see you?"

"YES, BUT HE'S PASSED OUT COLD. HIS MIND LIKELY ENTERED A REST PERIOD SO IT COULD COPE WITH RECOVERING HIS MEMORIES."

"damn, i'll be over right away."

Sans turned to the party.

"hey guys, i gotta go do something. keep going. i'll catch up."

Sans waved and rounded a corner.

Meanwhile in Gaster's lab, Papyrus began to wake up.

Images flashed through his mind as it began to recover all of his deleted memories.

Everything about Gaster, what he used to be, what happened to him… It all flooded back and Papyrus started getting a severe migraine.

He heard a voice behind him.

"PAPYRUS, DO NOT WORRY. YOU'LL RECOVER IN A FEW MINUTES. YOUR MIND IS SIMPLY STRUGGLING TO DIG UP THE MEMORIES THAT WERE BURIED."

Papyrus turned and looked his lost brother in the eyes. He observed how Gaster's face had become broken and cracked, he noted how Gaster would occasionally flicker and distort, as if he was struggling to maintain his form.

"W-WINGDINGS…? BUT YOU…"

"YES, PAPYRUS, I KNOW. DON'T WORRY ABOUT THAT. WHAT MATTERS IS THAT I AM FINE AND YOU NEED REST. COME, I'VE MADE A BED FOR YOU."

Papyrus got up and stumbled, grabbing his head.

As they walked, Papyrus couldn't stop staring at Gaster and watching as he buzzed and flickered.

"WINGDINGS, IF YOU DON'T MIND ME ASKING, WHY DO YOU KEEP…DOING THAT?"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, PAPYRUS?"

"I MEAN, YOU KEEP…FLICKERING AND IT IS RATHER DISTRACTING. "

"AH, WELL, WHEN I HAD MY… ACCIDENT I WAS SCATTERED ACROSS REALITY. I AM ONLY HERE THANKS TO SANS. HE WAS THE CLOSEST TO THE BLAST AND A LARGE AMOUNT OF ENERGY ENTERED HIM. THIS MEANS THAT HE RETAINED MEMORY OF ME AND I WAS ABLE TO GUIDE HIM TO BUILD A MACHINE THAT RE-ASSEMBLED ALL OF MY CODE. THE PROCESS WAS IMPERFECT, HOWEVER, AND I AM QUITE UNSTABLE."

"YOUR CODE? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?! YOU KNOW YOUR CRAZY SCIENCE SPEAK IS MEANINGLESS TO SOMEONE LIKE ME!"

"IT'S HARD TO EXPLAIN. MAYBE I'LL TELL YOU LATER."

They approached a door and Gaster gestured towards it.

"HERE'S YOUR ROOM. GET A GOOD REST."

Papyrus entered the door and Gaster started walking back to his lab.

Sans came speedwalking down the corridor.

"g, where's papyrus?"

"CALM DOWN SANS, HE WOKE UP AND I EXPLAINED THE BASICS. HE'S CURRENTLY SLEEPING. IT'LL TAKE ABOUT HALF AN HOUR FOR HIS MIND TO RECOVER."

Sans exerted a sigh of release and slouched slightly.

"i can't believe this happened. it was my fault."

"SANS, THIS WAS ONE OF FEW EVENTS THAT WERE PRE-DETERMINED TO HAPPEN. IT COULD NOT BE STOPPED."

"i hope he can deal with it."

"HE WILL. NOW, SANS, I HAVE BEEN MONITORING YOUR JOURNEY AND SOMETHING IS WRONG."

"what?"

Gaster gestured to a ceiling tile, which became a mess of colour before turning into a monitor which came down to face the two.

A display came up.

"THESE REPORTS SHOW THAT THERE ARE OTHER HUMANS DOWN HERE. THEY HAVE BEEN VERY ANNOYING. THEY ARE VERY GOOD AT FINDING OUR SHORTCUTS AND THEY'VE NOW DROPPED OFF MY RADAR."

"so, we've got humans that are probably going to try and kill everyone and we don't know where they are."

"YES."

Sans leaned against a wall and let out a frustrated sigh.

"great. just what we needed."

The monitor suddenly emitted a burst of static and switched to show Asriel, Chara and David.

"I think we should stop soon," commented David. "I'm sensing something."

"Sensing what?" asked Asriel.

"There is a presence," Chara added. "It is not that of a monster's, and too do I sense it. It is nowhere near close. We must proceed."

"Hey, if it's not a monster, then shouldn't we stop?" asked David.

"When we reach it, we stop. I would hate to take charge, but stopping will do nothing. Not yet."

"Maybe Chara's right here, David," said Asriel. "Maybe we'll have time to stop when we get there. Hey, maybe even that presence will just be some other lost human that we can befriend!"

"An accomplice is a doubt."

Sans and Gaster continued observing on the monitor.

"HMMM, THEY ARE EITHER SENSING THAT THEY ARE BEING MONITORED OR THERE IS ANOTHER HUMAN NEAR THEM. I FIND THAT THE LATTER IS MOST LIKELY. MAYBE YOU SHOULD GO AND MAKE SURE THEY DO NOT GET HURT, SANS."

"maybe, i'm kinda curious what they'll do next though…"

"IT WOULD CERTAINLY MAKE FOR SOME INTERESTING RESEARCH. TWO HUMANS VERSUS ONE."

Sans and Gaster continued looking at the monitor, observing as the events unfolded before them. As they watched, a clipboard and a pen floated over and Gaster took them, priming the pen so hecould begin writing his notes.

As the group of three entered the entrance of Hotlands, they were stopped abruptly by a man clad in black armour. The armour had the coat of arms of the English Kingdom, and the man was holding a black sword. Overall, an intimidating fellow. David immediately recognised him as Abel.

"H-hey, Abel," David called out. "Don't attack, these guys are friends!"

"Ya' want me to not kill a monsta' then?" asked Abel. "Well, it won't be ME who's killin' anyone. See, I brought a small platoon. The King assigned me to find a path to the Palace for an assassination. The problem is that all entrances are closed, and there're no more shortcuts. Oh, and ye' can consider yerself a traita' for teamin' up with monsters, we saw the whole thing with the Captain of the Royal Guard. Enjoy yerself."

"I'm not a traitor!" but it was too late, Abel had ran off and dropped a smoke bomb. From the smoke came a few knights clad in iron armour. They carried with them swords and spears.

"Okay Chara," Asriel said. "Just this once I'm saying that it's okay to fight to kill here."

A wicked smile grew across Chara's face as they drew their dagger and dashed at the Knights who readied their weapons defensively. With their dash, Chara used an offensive charge leading with their knife to break through the block of the Knights to advance.

"fight to kill? that's not gonna happen."

Gaster remained speechless as Sans opened one of the doors that lead to a passage near the Hotlands.

"hey g, you don't seem awfully phased by this. something you know that i don't?"

Sans turned back but Gaster had already disappeared, presumably he had receded back into the darkness of his lab.

Sans shrugged and walked through the door, arriving just in time to see the 2 parties sparring. Chara was fast and agile but the Knights were doing a good job of blocking the onslaught.

Sans crouched into the shadows and started formulating a plan.

Meanwhile, Gaster stormed into his lab and pushed a massive machine out of the way, revealing a hidden, unmarked door.

He walked through it and started talking to thin air to re-assure himself.

"OKAY, I'M JUST GOING TO DOUBLE CHECK. I'M NOT GOING TO ALTER THE FILE. I CAN'T DO THAT."

He walked up to a table with a dusty old desktop PC, a monitor, keyboard and mouse on it. All of the components were battered and barely working but it was enough.

The PC was always kept on so Gaster simply operated the mouse and double clicked on a file.

" "

An interface opened on the screen and Gaster continued to talk to himself.

"JUST LOOK, DON'T TOUCH. THE UNIVERSE IS ALREADY SCREWED UP ENOUGH."

He began opening various files, examining their code carefully and desperately checking his notes.

"THIS ISN'T GOOD."

Back in Hotlands, Sans watched as an actual fight began.

The Knights swung at Chara, and they ducked underneath, landing on their knee and heel from the movement plus the slide. To finish off their spectacular slide, they swung at the achilles tendon of one of the Knights, cutting deep and rendering him immobile. They finished the Knight off with a swift stab to the head. A Knight carrying a spear attempted to stab Chara as they rolled to the side, grabbed their spear and cut the tip off with their dagger. Chara threw the tip at the Knight's eye, hitting it and causing them to cover the affected area. Chara then used their knife to jab the tip of the spear into the Knight's brain, killing them. The last Knight, realizing how hopeless the situation is, cowered in fear and dropped their sword.

"O-oi…" the Knight pleaded. "I-I don't wanna die, j-just leave me be and I-I'll leave this place, I swear!"

Asriel put a hand on Chara's shoulder.

"C'mon, they're surrendering," Asriel assured. "Let them go, anyone would keep a promise to someone as charming as you."

"Fine," Chara grunted. "Leave. I would not mind putting an end to you if we cross paths again."

"U-uh, th-thank you, s-sir or madam, thank you!" the Knight said in fear, running away.

Sans looked at the dead Knights on the ground and felt disgusted. He'd always felt that Chara was a bit off, but what he had just seen disgusted him. When the party had moved on he rushed over to the corpse of the Knight. He checked for any signs of life and found none. Chara had killed them without remorse. Immediately Sans went to Gaster's lab and rushed to the main area.

"w.d!"

He ran to the centre of the room and looked around. Gaster was nowhere to be seen.

A couple of seconds later, Sans heard a distorted scream and felt reality tearing around him before Gaster assembled infront of him, screaming in rage.

"tTTTtttTTTHAT L✋TTle SH✋iIt! I SHOUlD have FUckING reM0ved THEM WHEN I COULD!"

Gaster was dissassembling and reassembling so fast Sans was knocked back and several parts of the lab were struggling to stay together.

"christ! wingdings, calm down!"

"c✌LM doWN?! tHI1S WORLD IS F-F-F-FUC-FUCKED. Y U Se ThIS?!"

Gaster quickly pointed to the screen displaying timelines. The screen cracked.

"ThAT ISn""''t A FUckING ERRO0OR! ThAT IS THE pO1nt ALL TIMELINeeS END!"

"wait, what?!"

"aND IT's aLL THAnKS To THaAt liT le b sTARD hhHuMan!"

"you mean chara?"

"YESsS"

"okay, calm down, we can fix this."

"We'VE ALreaddY FAILED."

"look, you take a break and calm down and i'll go keep an eye on the group from a safe distance. at the first sign of conflict i'll intervene. okay?"

Gaster crossed his arms and fizzled.

Sans, taking the gesture as a yes, proceeded to go back and observe the monitor showing the group travelling.

Elsewhere in the lab, Papyrus began to stir having been waken as a result of all the commotion being caused by Gaster unknowingly throwing several things around. Papyrus had been smacked in the face by the lamp on his desk.

"NYEH! WHO DARES WAKE THE GREAT PAPYRUS?!"

Headed towards the CORE, the group seemed a tad disheartened after the fight. Most of them at any rate. Chara seemed ecstatic.

"Uh, Chara?" asked Asriel.

"Speak," Chara replied.

"I'm regretting letting you kill people… They had families, you know."

"Their families may suffer, not us."

"Chara, I'm serious, there won't be anymore killing. Do you understand?"

"You're pushing your luck, Asriel."

"I don't care what I'm pushing, you're getting out of hand! Who in their right mind ENJOYS killing people!?"

"Consider that maybe sometimes," Chara began, placing a hand on Asriel's chest. "Not everyone can contain so much built up HATRED for what they see right in front of them and just have to lash out at!"

Asriel paused a moment. Did Chara just shout? At them? And what did they just say?

"S-say that again…" Asriel demanded.

"Not ever–" Chara stopped themself. They realised that they just told Asriel something so crucial to keep a secret. This wasn't good. And to make matters worse, David was standing there, and losing his alliance would mean… "I didn't say anything."

"Yes you did."

"I didn't. Can we just keep walking?" Chara took their hand off of Asriel's chest.

"We'll walk, but you have to repeat what you said while we walk."

"If you know what I said, then why do you need my input?" the group set off again after Chara's statement.

"I might just be hearing things," Asriel proposed. "You'd never say something so horrible."

Papyrus peeked out of his room and looked up and down the long corridor. By this point he had remembered everything and had come to terms with the situation quite well. What he didn't understand was why moments earlier his lamp had launched itself into his face. He walked down the corridor and saw Sans looking at the monitor. Papyrus very quietly walked up behind him and watched.

The monitor displayed a human, Asriel and Chara.

"Not everyone can contain so much built up HATRED for what they see right in front of them and just have to lash out at!"

Papyrus watched as a small argument occured between Asriel and Chara before they then entered the core.

"WOW, WHAT WAS ALL THAT ABOUT?"

Sans, startled, jumped and threw the monitor back up into the ceiling so fast that it almost broke.

"hey! you, uh, scared me there pap."

"THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS A MASTER OF STEALTH!"

"you sure are, hey, whatever you saw there, forget it. it's nothing."

"SANS. SEEING GASTER OPENED MY MIND TO A LOT OF THINGS I HAD FORGOTTEN. THINGS THAT WERE TUCKED WAY. SANS, I WANT YOU TO BE HONEST WITH ME."

Sans looked at the ground, searching for something to say. He figured that since the universe was probably going to end anyway, it was about time he didn't sugarcoat things for his brother.

"me and wingdings have figured out that chara is evil, and likely planning on ending the universe. we don't know how exactly they're going to do it so i'm watching them. the plan is that i step in at the first sign that chara might kill someone. "

Papyrus was left speechless. He stared at his brother in bewilderment.

"I… I THINK I'M GOING TO GO AND LIE BACK DOWN."

"it's probably best you do."

Papyrus slunk back to his room and sat on the bed. His mind ran through everything Sans had just said. Normally Sans tried to put things in a nice light, no matter what the situation was. The fact that he hadn't suggested that it was serious.

Papyrus got lost deep in though while Sans went back to the monitor.

Gaster, meanwhile, was formulating all kinds of blueprints and devices in the hopes he could come up with something that would help them fight Chara should it come to battle. He had devised software that showed on the timeline monitor the approximate time until the end of the universe. He glanced at it every couple of seconds and shuddered.

Near the Hotlands, the escaped Knight had been trying to explain what happened to his superior, Abel.

"Ya'… RAN AWAY!?" Abel shouted at the Knight. "Ya' ran away from a couple'a teenagers and a traita', who by the way can't even button up 'is own TUNIC, and ye're livin' with that choice!?"

"Abel, understand…" the Knight began. "The other human, the one in the striped shirt, they're too fast. They decimated two of the three, including me, of the group in not even five minutes!"

"So you're telling me you can't even handle a few teenagers?"

"Not just any teenagers…"

"Go home. Use the SOUL of that monsta' ya' killed earlier to go to the barrier, and leave. Ye're obviously not ready to serve under the King's majesty, not even the Sand King's inferiority!"

"Y-yes, sir…" the Knight reluctantly set off towards the nearest exit to the Underground. Abel meanwhile put a hand to his head.

"I'm workin' alongside a group of idiots…"

Meanwhile, the group of three continued through the Hotlands. Up ahead was a Final Froggit making his way to the CORE. Though judging from where it was now, it had a long way to go.

"Howdy!" greeted Asriel. "Where are you headed, little guy?"

"Ribbit," Final Froggit commented. "The CORE, to stop humans from finding the secret path to the Capital. Luckily we've disabled the elevator already."

"We?"

"Ribbit, we're mercenaries. The rest said they'd wait for me up ahead. Let's hope they keep their promise. I want my pay, and I want those humans out of our glorious Capital. Ribbit, is that a human with you?"

"M-me?" asked David.

"Ribbit, you."

"I-I swear I'm with them…"

"I know, news spreads like wildfire." Final Froggit cracked its neck. "Welcome to the Underground, you might wanna enjoy your stay while it's peaceful. Ribbit, I see that time is already up. Regardless, ribbit, I think we could use the assistance of you three. If, ribbit, that's alright with you, Prince Asriel, and Chara."

"Of course," replied Asriel. "We're always open to help."

"Fair enough," Chara added.

"My thanks, ribbit," replied Final Froggit. "Come, Madjick and Knight Knight should be waiting up ahead."

Sans continued watching the party as they were led by the Final Froggit.

Papyrus, having finally got over the news he had recieved, approached.

"SANS, I HAVE DECIDED THAT IT IS MY DUTY TO HELP YOU AND WINGDINGS FIGHT. AFTER ALL, SAVING THE UNIVERSE HAS TO GET ME INTO THE ROYAL GUARD!"

"heh, thanks for the offer pap, but uhh, it's fine. really. just go back home and do whatever it is you normally do."

"I MUST HELP YOU, BROTHER!"

"no, really, it's fine."

"NOTHING YOU SAY WILL STOP ME SANS, NOW LET ME OUT OF THIS LAB AND ALLOW ME TO FIGHT THE HUMAN!"

"nah."

"SANS! I WILL FIND A WAY OUT IF YOU WILL NOT LET ME OUT!"

"i'm sure you won't be able to find which of these 100 doors leads outside."

"JUST WATCH ME!"

Papyrus stormed off down the corridor, opening every single door. Sans figured that it should keep him occupied for a while at least and turned back to the monitor.

Back in the Hotlands, the group was led by Final Froggit and his group of mercenaries to a jump pad puzzle area. Recognizing the area, Final Froggit remembered going through the puzzle once.

"Ribbit, I remember this place," said Final Froggit. "I also remember that none of us could solve it and ended up just jumping to the ledges instead."

"Climbing?" asked Asriel. "Well we definitely don't need to use those jump pads if we can climb!"

"I'm in a full suit of armour…" David remarked.

"I haven't much upper body strength," Chara reminded Asriel. "You're the only one who's strong enough to pull yourself up with one hand."

"Then…" Asriel paused for a second. "Just use the jump pads then! Chara, you lead."

"Right, don't expect me to be there in an instant."

Chara stepped onto the first jump pad, being propelled forward. They were followed by the group one by one as they headed towards their first exit, which had already been unlocked beforehand. But by whom?

"Do you sense it too?" asked Chara.

"Oh," said David. "There's more up ahead for us, aren't there…"

"It seems like a lot. They aren't a problem, I can just–"

"Chara, you're not killing anyone!" Asriel commanded. "Maybe this time we can just reason with them, even offer them some tea! Who has tea?"

The monsters shook their heads, David shrugged, and Chara gave Asriel a dismissive glance.

"No one? We're just fighting to intimidate, no one is dying, got it?"

The monsters and David nodded their heads, and Chara grunted in acceptance. Without further delays, Asriel took the lead and drew a sword that may have been to accomodate a lazy writer who forgot to state where he got it. Though he had no ill intentions, it was best to be safe in case he has to block or prove a point.

Sure enough, when the door was opened, Abel was seen leaving the area, and behind him stood a sizable number of English and French Knights, and Mamluks. Noticing a door opening, all of them looked towards the group, and the Mamluks turned their horses to see them. One of the Mamluks pointed towards the group.

"Monsters!" shouted the bloodthirsty soldier. "Attack them!"

The Mamluks and the Knights shouted their battle cries and charged them. Knight Knight stood with posture, Madjick summoned their magic, and Final Froggit prepared his own attacks. Chara drew their dagger, and Asriel and David readied their swords. It was time again to fight.

Seeing that a fight was coming, Sans took the door that lead to that area and approached at a safe distance behind the two humans. He didn't take any action yet, but stared at Asriel, David and Chara hoping they'd get the message.

As one of the Mamluks charged for the group, Asriel charged straight back at it, and once close enough, body slammed the horse, sending it flying about 10 meters back, making it land on its side and throwing the horseman off. Despite this, the Mamluk got back up and drew his bow, firing an arrow at Asriel. Madjick used a cross to deflect the arrow as David used his sword to trip the horses charging at them, causing them to fall forward and toss the Mamluks atop them off. The horses ran off realizing how many of them were falling over near the group. With only foot soldiers left, Chara decided to play along with Asriel's little game. They sheathed their dagger and ran at a Mamluk.

The soldier in question swung at Chara with his sword, so they ducked, punched the Mamluk in the stomach and took his sword. Asgore taught them a technique that wouldn't kill the attacker, but stun and possibly temporarily incapacitate them. They grabbed the sword by its blade with both hands, swinging at the Mamluk's ribs and kicking him to the ground, effectively stunning him.

David noticed Chara's technique; Half-swording. The amount of soldiers in full plate called for such measures. David too held his sword by its blade, starting to swing left and right at the Knights coming at him. He smashed his way through each of them until he could get some free space.

Final Froggit hopped into the air and unleashed a large amount of flies at his attackers, blinding them all temporarily and allowing Knight Knight to use her attacks to send them all back into a more open area. Madjick themself engaged a few Knights at once, using crosses to deflect their attacks, and more to stun and do some damage to them, with no intention to kill them.

One of the Knights attempted to catch Asriel off-guard as he was tossing Knights and Mamluks to the ground. Asriel drew his sword, blocking the Knight's attack, before dropping it, picking the Knight up and suplexing him to the ground. He then picked his sword back up and continued to fight on.

From all of Asriel's non-lethal disposure of the human enemies, plus the work of Chara, David, Madjick, Final Froggit, and Knight Knight, soon only a few soldiers remained. Though determined to fight, they refused to back down and continued fighting. Chara took on one of them, using their half-swording technique to give him a non-lethal head injury whenever they could.

Asriel took on the next, using a series of punches to stun and incapacitate them temporarily. Madjick simply used their magic abilities to take on a few at once, deflecting blows, dodging them, and dealing out damage to stun his foes. Knight Knight used their sceptre to summon moon and sun attacks to make quick work of her foes, rendering them unconscious within seconds. Final Froggit continued to provide assistance by blinding his fellows' foes for them. David however, contrary to his usual personality, was doing rather well against two foes at once. Half-swording served him well to stun and attack his foes, as well as combining his sheer strength to knock them over.

It didn't take long, but soon the area was littered with stunned and unconscious Knights and Mamluks.

"S-see…?" Asriel huffed. "We can deal with these things… Without killing anyone!… Was that so hard, Chara?"

"You're acting like I enjoy killing people," said Chara. "I don't. I just enjoy fighting, that's all."

"Oh, heh… Guess I-I'm the dumb one this time… Overreacting to everything…" Asriel took a deep breath, regaining his composure. "C'mon, let's keep going."

Along with Asriel, everyone started to head out.

Seeing that the fight ended favourably, Sans decided it was about time to rejoin the party. His prescence could probably make sure Chara kept behaving

"heya guys, some fight, huh?"

"Heh, yeah," remarked Asriel. "I admit though, it was fun. No one had to die, and I felt awesome doing all that cool stuff."

"The odds were in our favour certainly," Chara added. "And yes, I agree it was fun."

"I saw you for a second, Sans. How come you were there?"

Sans shrugged.

"don't worry about it, i was, uh, waiting up ahead and came to see what was taking so long. let's just keep moving."

Asriel smiled in agreement, continuing onwards with the group following behind him.

"Ribbit," Final Froggit began. "I suppose we have another tagalong to the CORE. Sans, is it? I feel like I've heard about you before… Where do you reside?"

"i live in snowdin with my bro, papyrus. it's pretty chill there. you've probably heard of my world class hot dog stands."

Sans widened his eyes slightly.

"that reminds me."

He pulled several fully made hot dogs out of his pocket.

"who's hungry?"

"I already have chocolate," Chara commented. "Well, I should. I fear it may not last in this heat."

Chara reached into their pocket, pulling out their bag of chocolate bars. They were still cold and unmelted. Expressing visible surprise, they opened the bag and took out a piece to eat it.

"Boy, I could go for a hot dog!" Asriel said.

"What's a hot dog?" asked David. "Can I try one?"

"Please and thank you!" Madjick said excitedly.

"…Of course," Knight Knight said, keeping her voice that normally would be booming to a low volume.

Sans dished out hot dogs to those who had said they wanted them, and got one for himself.

As each person bit into their hot dogs, they heard the distant sound of a dog barking. Except for David, as it turned out he had been mistakenly given a Hot Cat instead.

"Are you sure this is a hot DOG?" asked David. "I assumed the dog was just slang…"

"There are a lot of different hot animals," said Asriel. "Hot dogs, hot cats, hot flies, hot worms, hot asses, hot horses, all that."

"Uh…"

"They're all pretty much the same thing. Same taste, different name, different sound."

"don't worry, they're not real animals. they're made from 100% real water sausage."

Sans pulled out a hot dog(?) and ripped it in half to demonstrate the lack of meat inside.

"see?"

"Oh," David let out a sigh of relief. "I thought I was actually eating an animal… That clears things up."

"If we were eating animals, we may as well be cannibals!" Asriel chuckled.

"I guess that's true… But don't goats usually eat pretty much anything?"

"I'm a goat, but I have standards."

"well, while we do look an awful lot like things from the surface, i can assure you that it doesn't much reflect what we are like." Sans explained. "i mean, i look and say i'm a skeleton but am i anything like an actual skeleton?"

"Truthfully, you aren't really," replied David. "You're more like a very calm person. You're very composed and not exactly just the hard part inside of us."

It was clear that David didn't really know what he was talking about. Though rightfully so, science hasn't advanced past "kill everything that confuses you" and Aristotle's writings on the surface. Unlike the Underground which already had its Scientific Revolution as soon as its societies were formed. At least David knew that the skeleton was inside the body…

The party continued through Hotland until their legs were tired and they took a moment to sit down and rest.

Soon after though, everything went black and everyone made sounds of confusion.

The lights came back on and they realised they were sitting in a large area with rows and rows of seats, all facing towards what appeared to be the set of a cooking show. A rectangular robot on a single wheel rolled out to the front of the set.

"oh, great." Sans sighed.

"WELCOME, DEARIES TO MTT'S BRAND NEW GAME SHOW!"

A title card dropped down. "COOKING WITH A KILLER ROBOT."

"TONIGHT, WE HAVE A SPECIAL GUEST. GIVE IT UP FOR MIKE THE HUMAN!"

A fake, synthesized clapping noise played over the studio's speakers as a very confused human knight without his helmet wandered onto the set, seemingly amazed by Mettaton. David took off his helmet, his jaw dropped at the sight of Mettaton, and he was in too much shock to move his long hair out of his face.

"W-what…" David began. He couldn't even finish his statement.

"That's a robot," Asriel whispered. "This one is Mettaton, he lets us watch cool things like this on TV. Don't talk too loud, don't wanna interrupt him."

"O-okay…" David whispered back, still without a clue what anything Asriel said meant.

Sans leaned over and whispered to David.

"don't worry about it. we might wanna worry about that human over there though."

Mettaton laid out ingredients on the table.

"TODAY, WE SHALL BE BAKING A CAKE. LOVELY ASSISTANT, WOULD YOU MIND PUTTING THE INGREDINTS INTO THE BOWL?"

"M-me?" The bewildered knight responded, pointing to himself.

"WHO ELSE WOULD I BE TALKING TO? OUR LIVE STUDIO AUDIENCE? OF COURSE I'M TALKING TO YOU!"

"A-Alright…"

The human proceeded to put each ingredient into a bowl that had peen placed infront of them.

"WELL DONE, DEAR! NOW FOR THE FINAL INGREDIENT: A HUMAN SOUL!"

Mettaton prepared to pull out a chainsaw before looking at Prince Asriel in the audience.

"UHH, BUT TODAY WE'LL HAVE A BIT OF A TWIST ON THE RECIPE! WE'LL BE USING A VEGAN SUBSTITUTE."

Mettaton gestured to a can on a nearby bench.

"ASSISTANT, PLEASE FETCH THE SUBSTITUTE."

The human walked over to the can and placed their hands around it. Suddenly, the bench shot off into the air and the human was taken with it.

They looked down at their feet dangling in the air and screamed for help.

Asriel immediately stood up and vaulted over a chair to rush towards the bench, Chara looking at them with a tilted head as they instinctively took out more chocolate for themself.

Sans too launched up from his chair and ran towards the set, several columns of bones appeared between Mettaton and the dangling human to prevent interference.

"WELL, DARLINGS, I GUESS NOW WE HAVE 2 MORE VERY SPECIAL GUESTS! GIVE IT UP FOR SANS THE SKELETON AND PRINCE ASRIEL DREEMURR!"

Once again, a synthesised clap came over the speakers. Mettaton proceeded to start throwing various objects at Sans, who dodged all of them.

"hey kid, hurry up!"

Jumping to a ledge, Asriel immediately started to climb up the extremely oversized bench. With his strength and speed, he practically was scurrying up at the speed he could run, which was impressive for Chara to see. As soon as Asriel reached the human, he grabbed the human by his arm and started to climb down with him nearly as quickly as he climbed up.

"Hey, don't worry," reassured Asriel. "I mean, what's a good show without a plot twist?"

As soon as the human was safe, Sans hurled Mettaton out the side door. Not enough force to damage him, but enough to ensure he'd get the message and stay out.

Even as he was hurled out of the studio Mettaton continued speaking unphased as the sound of his speech faded into the distance.

"THAT'S ALL DEARIES, TUNE IN NEXT TIME FOR AN EXciting neʷ ˢʰᵒʷ ᶠʳᵒᵐ ᵐᵗᵗ""

Asriel placed the human down on his feet gently. "Howdy, you doing alright after that? I'm Asriel by the way. Prince Asriel Dreemurr. The skeleton who just helped me save you is Sans. Sans the Skeleton of course! I didn't quite catch your name?"

"I-I'm Mike. T-Thanks for saving me, I guess? This is kind of awkard because… uh… I have orders to kill monsters but…"

The human stuttered and stumbled over his own words, nervously rubbing the back of his neck.

"Man, Abel sure is gonna be pissed."

"Why don't you tag along with us?" offered Asriel. "Everyone who's tried to fight us got their butt beat, by us of course! But uh, we don't actually kill anyone."

"I beg to differ," Chara humourously added.

"Chara!"

Chara nonchalantly chuckled, indicating a joke. "It was a joke, Asriel."

"You know what, that doesn't sound too bad! You guys are a lot friendlier than the other make you out to be."

"then it's settled."

Sans walked over with his hands in his pockets, shooting a quick glance at Chara.

"let's get going."

The group, including the mercenaries, continued on towards the CORE with their new member, Mike. Final Froggit glanced at him a few times, before speaking.

"Ribbit, Mike," Final Froggit began. "What part of the surface are you from?"

"Uhh, I come from Ireland. Where I'm from there's lots of stories about the old days of monsters and humans that circulate. Most of them seem to focus on the negatives."

"Heh, ribbit. The only thing negative is figuring out that you'll never flex as much as Aaron does. On top of that, job as a mercenary here pretty much makes you the bane of everyone's existence. See, being a soldier-for-hire is looked down upon. But it pays extra well. See why, ribbit?"

"I guess that makes sense. I saw some monsters that looked a bit like you back in that purple place near the hole we came in, actually."

"Ah, ribbit… We used to live in the RUINS as well. Then we left for a life of wealth and adventure. I'd say, ribbit, we've gotten far. I mean, I even speak something besides ribbits, ribbit. That is an accomplishment."

"Yeah, those guys back near the hole didn't seem all that smart to be honest."

Mike thought back to seeing the other knights fight the various monsters they encountered. The monsters back there seemed pretty helpless and some even tried to run as the knights struck them down and they turned to dust.

Mike shuddered.

"They're not exactly that bright, ribbit. Though, however, we'll soon meet them again once all the humans we find dangerous to be gone. Ant Froggit will love to hear the tales I have to ribbit about, ribbit."

"…I haven't a place to go," Knight Knight added, whispering. Her whisper was about the volume of a regular person talking. "I will go to the Capital… after this…"

"Regardless, ribbit, of where we go," Final Froggit added. "We'll be remembered as heroes, even if three of us are the scum of the Underground."

"Heh, When I first became a knight that was just what I wanted. To be a hero. But with the other knights who are better than me around there's no chance of that happening."

"Hey, you can still be a hero," Asriel reassured. "You're helping us, aren't you? That makes you a hero in our eyes. Right, Chara?"

"I suppose," Chara agreed in a monotone voice.

"See? Even Chara agrees."

"I can second their statements," David added. "Now you have the reassurance of a fellow Knight. Plus the once-enemy, now-friend race of monsters."

"W-wow… I never thought about it like that. Thank you."

Mike smiled at everyone and his walk changed, imbued with a new confidence that was he was doing was right.

"But," Asriel interjected. "There's one question I have. Do you know where Abel is headed?"

"Not even I do," answered David. "That's why we're asking you, brother."

Mike thought for a moment.

"I do recall saying that he was going to the king. A monster that he interrogated before slaying gave him the directions to get there. Apparently, the only way through is something called "the CORE"."

"Bah, ribbit," Final Froggit laughed. "He couldn't get through the CORE if he tried. There's more than one of us each, I could count at least five more Final Froggits, ribbit."

"…Less Knight Knights," Knight Knight whispered.

"Dozens, dozens!" Madjick declared. "So much Madjick!"

Mike's face went pale.

"Oh god, they don't stand a chance. Abel is our best fighter. Your friends will be slaughtered in seconds if they haven't already."

Mike held his head in his hands.

"We need to hurry up."

"Don't worry," said Chara. "If any of their friends are hurt, Abel is dying a horrible death. You have my word, just say he was mauled by a panther."

"Woah, calm down." Mike looked at Chara. "I mean, Abel may be pretty violent towards monsters but he isn't a bad person. He just doesn't understand what really going on here."

Mike thought. "At least, I don't think he does…"

"People like that aren't redeemable, ignorance is the death of them in a metaphorical and literal sense," Chara continued. "Which means, of course, Abel has to die. If he becomes too powerful, he will die."

"Chara!" Asriel stopped the group and grabbed Chara arm. "We're NOT killing anyone, okay!? Those two Knights were enough, you don't have to kill another! Chara, I love you as a sibling, but this is getting out of hand!"

"Let go of my arm," Chara growled.

"Only if you swear you won't kill another person!"

"Accidents happen."

Sans resisted attacking Chara right there and then and tried to clear his head, focusing on the goal at hand.

His communicator started buzzing and he pulled it out.

The screen came on.

"SANS, I HAVE A NEW WEAPON FOR YOU TO HELP YOU FIGHT THE THREAT SHOULD YOU REQUIRE IT."

"alright, on my way g. nice to see you've calmed down, bro."

"YES…"

The communicator flicked off and Sans turned to the party.

"uh, i just remembered that i need to go and do something. i'll be back in a couple of minutes."

Sans took off before anyone could say anything and rounded a corner. In Gaster's lab, Gaster was working on the finishing touches on the new weapon. As soon as Sans entered the room, Gaster spoke.

"AH, SANS. THERE YOU ARE. UP UNTIL NOW YOU HAVE BEEN USING A PROTOTYPE OF MY GASTER BLASTER WEAPON. WHILE IT IS VERY POWERFUL, IT IS VERY LIMITED. SO, I PRESENT THE NEW AND IMPROVED VERSION."

From the shadows behind Gaster approached a giant skull that pulsated with energy.

"THEY ARE MORE POWERFUL, THEY CAN SHOOT DUAL BEAMS AND THEY CAN EVEN MOVE WHILE FIRING. PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THAT THEY USE AN EXPERIMENTAL SOURCE OF ENERGY THAT IS VERY UNSTABLE. BE CAREFUL NOT TO FIRE THEM FOR TOO LONG OR THEY MAY OVERLOAD."

"woah, that's cool. can i test it out?"

"OF COURSE YOU CAN."

A crudely made, life-size stuffed ragdoll of Chara dropped from the ceiling. Sans gestured with his hand and the skull's mouth opened up, firing a massive beam of energy.

Sans made another gesture and the skull closed it's mouth again.

In the place that Chara doll was originally, there was now nothing.

"christ, that's good."

"OF COURSE, THAT WAS JUST A DUMMY AND IT WOULD NOT HAVE SUCH DEVASTATING EFFECTS ON AN ACTUAL SOUL. AN ACTUAL HUMAN WOULD ALSO BE ABLE TO DODGE IT."

"of course. thanks g."

"YOU'RE WELCOME. PLEASE MAKE SURE NOT TO PUT THESE TO WASTE."

Sans turned and exited. The skull receded into the shadows and disappeared.

Back in Hotlands, Sans connected up with the party. "alright, i'm back. how's it hanging?"

"We were waiting for you," David said in a rushed voice. "Asriel ran, Chara was chasing them, we didn't want to leave you behind, so we waited…"

"Ribbit," Final Froggit said, seeming just as frantic. "I would have given chase, but David insisted we wait for you."

"We don't have any time to waste, we have to go!"

Sans' eyes widened. If Chara caught up with Asriel everything would go wrong very fast.

"uh, well, uh, you guys go on ahead."

"B-but…" Mike stammered but it was too late. Sans had jumped off a ledge.

Mike's jaw dropped and he leaned over. Did Sans just…?

It dropped even further and he stumbled back, shuffling backwards on the floor with his hands and feet as a massive skull rose up from the edge.

On top, Sans sat seemingly controlling it.

"WHAT THE FU–"

Mike's voice was drowned out by the sound of the skull flying off into the distance in the direction Chara and Asriel had ran, destroying a wall in the process.

Mike and David looked at each other in awe and confusion.

Up ahead, Asriel was sprinting for his life away from Chara, who was carrying their dagger and running full speed at him. Up ahead were jump pads. They always operated on a delay, perfect for him to jump to each ledge to get across quicker. As soon as he got to the edge, he jumped, grabbed the ledge of one of the pieces of land that the first jump pad leads to and continued to repeat this process.

Seeing how hectic and all over the place the jump pads were, Chara decided to follow Asriel's example to catch up quicker. Though without the upper body strength, Chara climbed up much slower. Asriel, after completing his first climb, found he could just jump to the next piece of land all the way to the end. Chara sped up and found that their speed could lead them to jump that same distance. Pretty soon, they came across two conveyor belts, each going a different direction.

When about halfway through, Asriel vaulted over the railing separating the two conveyor belts, and Chara followed him over the railing. However before Chara could pounce, Asriel vaulted again back to the other side and used his speed plus the conveyor belt's propulsion to continue running ahead. Chara jumped back over the railing and followed Asriel, who kicked a switch on his way out that reversed each conveyor belt and forced Chara to board the other conveyor belt, buying Asriel some time.

Not far behind, Sans was catching up. He had accidentally smashed through several walls not realising just how powerful the new blaster was but he had no time to worry about it. He could deal with it after he had stopped Chara.

He smashed through another wall just in time to see Chara fumbling about on the conveyor belts.

As soon as Chara got past the conveyor belt, they advanced to the next room. They looked around, Asriel wasn't there, but there was a puzzle room. Asriel must have ran himself into a trap. An easy time to catch him. Chara started to advance, but before they could, a powerful force bodyslammed them nearly off the ledge. They slid a few extra centimeters off the ledge and had to grab it, as they couldn't climb back up.

"Chara!" Asriel shouted, running to the edge and reaching his hand out for Chara, who refused to grab it. "Grab my hand, you're gonna be okay!"

"Why?" asked Chara. "Would it not be easier to not have to worry about me killing anyone?"

"Chara, you don't have to die. So what if you messed up a little and may mess up a little more? Just… please take my hand!"

"No thank you, Asriel." Chara let go of the ledge. But before they could fall to the magma, Asriel grabbed both of their hands and yanked them back onto solid ground, holding them tightly in his arms.

"I'm not giving you a choice, Chara, you're staying with us."

Chara tried to think up something to say in response, but couldn't. Besides, the embrace of Asriel surprised them too greatly for them to say anything.

At that moment Sans burst into the room and in one smooth motion leaped off the Gaster Blaster.

"what's going on in here?"

"What the hell is that?" Chara said upon seeing the Gaster Blaster. "Where did you came from?"

"Shh," Asriel hushed Chara before turning his attention to Sans. "Nothing's happening anymore. Just… sibling debates."

"a sibling debate?! buddy, i've seen sibling debates and they typically don't involve a chase in which one party is carrying a lethal weapon."

Sans was on edge. Should the Prince have died, there would have been absolute chaos. The group ran into the room all at once, noticing Chara being held tight in Asriel's embrace.

"We came as soon as we can, we," David began, taking notice of the display. "What's… happening?"

"Ribbit," Final Froggit stated. "Seems the little rumble is over."

"i'm not sure. apparently it was just a "sibling debate" but i'm not sure i believe it."

"A-a sibling debate?" Mike stammered, confused by the amount of information he had to absorb in such a small time span, Chara chasing Asriel, Sans riding a giant skull beast and now whatever was going on here.

"It's over now," said Asriel. "We can start heading back to the CORE now, okay?"

Asriel stood up, not letting go of Chara in fear that they'd leap off the edge. Though they seemed too focused on the Gaster Blaster to care enough about the ledge.

"What happened, I'm still wondering," continued David. "But sure, let's go."

The group started to head out again, back on their way to the CORE.

Sans dismissed the blaster and grabbed his head. He had just shown the weapon to his enemy. If only Asriel hadn't grabbed Chara, he'd have a clear shot but then it would destroy Asriel emotionally. Sans needed a way to show Asriel Chara's true nature but how?

He decided that it'd be best to continue travelling with the party from now on to keep an eye on things. At least seeing the blaster would hopefully intimidate Chara so they wouldn't dare act out around him. Hands in his pockets, he set out with the rest of the group.

After a long walk, the group encountered an unlit room. Not even the magma lit up the area, it was pitch black and no one could see a thing. This meant one of two things, either something bad was waiting up ahead or whoever lives there forgot to pay the power bill or something.

"Why is it so dark?" asked David.

"Something tells me we're gonna be on TV pretty soon again," Asriel complained.

Suddenly, A spotlight came on. Mettaton was standing in a booth high up.

"WELCOME, DEARIES, TO THE SERIES PREMIERE OF "THE GAUNTLET WHICH WILL MOST CERTAINLY KILL YOU IN A HORRIFIC, BRUTAL WAY!""

More spotlights lit up the path infront, revealing flamethrowers, spikes, maces and various other deadly devices.

"ALL OUR CONTESTANTS HAVE TO DO IS NAVIGATE THIS DEADLY PATH AND THEY'LL WIN THE GRAND PRIZE OF GETTING TO MEET ME IN PERSON!"

"PLEASE NOTE THAT STUDIO RULES DISALLOW THOSE WHO ARE RELATED TO THE KING AND QUEEN FROM PARTICIPATING!"

Suddenly, large clamps came from the walls and trapped Chara and Asriel in place.

"GOOD LUCK, SWEETHEARTS! PLEASE NOTE THAT IF YOU DO NOT COMPLETE THE COURSE WITHIN A TIME LIMIT THE FLOOR BELOW YOU WILL FALL AND SEND YOU PLUMMETING TO YOUR DEATH! GOOD LUCK! TIME STARTS…"

There was a pause.

"NOW! GO! GO! GO!"

Suddenly, from out of nowhere, seemingly the ceiling, an armour-clad Undyne dropped down, landing with a loud "THUD!"

"Plot twist!" she shouted. "I appear and do something unexpected!"

Having landed close enough to Mettaton, she kicked him out of the room with enough force that should allow him to roll right out but do no major damage.

"OH MY! ANOTHER TWIST! I WASN'T AWARE THIS WAS A DRAMA SHOW!"

Despite Undyne's appearance, the large timer that had appeared continued counting down. Undoubtably, upon reaching zero, everyone except Chara and Asriel would plummet into the lava below.

"LOOKS LIKE YOUR FRIENDS ARE STILL DOOMED, DEAR! I SHALL HAVE TO MAKE MY EXIT. HAVE FUN!"

Mettaton retracted his arms and wheel and flew away using his rocket booster. The timer continued counting.

"Dammit," Undyne cursed. "Alright guys!… I have no idea what to do so good luck! I'm kidding, I'll go ahead before you guys."

With the utmost confidence, Undyne started boldly to go through the gauntlet, the rest of the group excluding Chara and Asriel following. By the first obstacle, Undyne had already narrowly dodged being burned to death.

"Jeez, it's already really freakin' hot, is that really necessary!?" she complained.

"I'm not really sure this is safe…" David shakily added.

"WHO CARES!" Undyne shouted with a huge smile on her face as she jumped through the obstacle as soon as the flames let up.

Right after it, a mace came flying towards her from the side, causing her to do a forwards roll to avoid it. The others quickly followed her. Coming up was two twin axes that nearly cut Undyne into fishsticks, though she stumbled forward to avoid it, and the others used the time the axes spent swinging to run forward. David accidentally bumped into Undyne, having forgotten to stop running in time, knocking her forward.

"NGAH!" Undyne shouted as she stumbled forward, just as a dog on a rope just barely missed her as she passed it. "Hey, try not to bump into me next time!? Thanks!"

"Sorry," said David pitifully.

Only a few more obstacles remained, plus another dog, or was it the same dog? The group managed to get past all of them, just barely. The second they all got to safety, the timer ran out. The floor they were on before dropped, but they already were to safety. Asriel and Chara however stayed trapped, and Asriel refused to let go of Chara.

"Ribbit," Final Froggit said, in deep thought. "How then, will we get them from there to here?"

"Welp, Sans?" Undyne looked to Sans for a solution.

Sans looked around the area. He spotted the booth Mettaton had been standing in before.

"maybe the controls to the gauntlet is in there?"

"I hope you know," said Undyne. "'Cause I have no frickin' clue!"

"Does that mean we're electing Sans to…?" began David.

"Yep! It's your time, Sans, make us proud! Or something like that."

Sans looked around once more to find the path leading to the booth and walked up to the control panel.

It ocurred to him that he recognised the panel, it had been used as the old control panel for one of Gaster's various experiments. There were about 20 different buttons, all labeled with wingdings. Each button, however, had a note next to it. Seemingly someone had been trying to figure out the purpose of this panel but it seemed they weren't a very good translator as several buttons had been mislabelled. For example, the button that would in normal circumstances turn on one of Gaster's parallel universe experiments had been labelled with "Dog Food Dispenser?" in very scribble handwriting.

Sans took a moment to try and figure out who was responsible, and found where the machine had been originally engraved with "Property of WingDings Gaster". A ruined, peeling note had been poorly stuck over the top of "WingDings Gaster" saying "ALPHYS" in the same handwriting as the labels for the buttons.

Sans' grin widened slightly. "oh, alphys. i wonder how much she knows?"

The thought passed quick though as Sans attempted to figure out which buttons had been re-wired to control the gauntlet.

He pressed the button marked as "Temporal Displacement 2" and the gauntlet turned off.

He then pressed "SUPER EXPERIMENTAL ALTERNATE REALITY TEST" and was surpised as a disco ball came from the ceiling and rave music began playing.

"uhh…."

"Sans, really?" Undyne laughed. "Quit trying to make us dance to music that's made by ghosts!"

"This is music…?" asked David. "Isn't music only with cellos, violins, lutes, and whatnot…?"

"Oh my GOD, you're such a nerd!"

"sorry, guys."

Sans pressed the button again and the music shut off. He couldn't help but wonder if that feature was Gaster's or Alphys'. After inspecting the wiring to prevent a horrible accident, he figured out the button to shut off the clamps. Asriel and Chara were released safely.

"We're safe, Asriel," reminded Chara. "You can let me go now?"

"I'm taking precautions," Asriel replied. "Besides, your jacket is still too soft to not be hugging you for!"

Chara sighed, though at the same time they felt the need to laugh. Regardless, they stayed quiet after the sigh. Though why did they feel that way? They never feel genuine emotions unless it's anger. No, it has to be a mistake, they're just intimidated by Sans, surely, no matter how genuine emotion feels, it has to be a mistake.

Sans walked down the path back to the rest of the party.

"you gotta admit, that disco thing was kinda funny."

"Pff, yeah," said Undyne, putting a fist to her chin. "But you're a total NERD for thinking it's a good idea!"

"I've been with you people long enough, yet I don't know what that word means," said David.

"It's what you are, obviously."

"I'm a nerd?"

"Yeah, punk!"

"that whole thing was kinda confusing. why would mettaton try to kill us?"

Sans pondered everything about the situation and realised that it didn't really add up.

"he wouldn't actively try to harm us just because it makes for good tv. i mean, when he first tried to kill mike i understand but… why would he then continue trying to kill us?"

"I could call Alphys," Undyne suggested. "I mean she did make the dude. Think she knows what's his deal?"

Sans thought for a second.

Mettaton WAS using something from Alphys' lab to control the gauntlet though he may well have just stole it. He didn't think of Alphys as the kind of person to do this but it couldn't hurt to ask her about it incase she had an emergency shutdown or something.

"sure, sounds good."

Undyne took out her cell phone, which David stared at for a few seconds. After dialing Alphys' number, Undyne put the phone to what looks like her ear, but is actually a fin. The other line picked up immediately.

"O-oh!" said Alphys over the phone. "H-hey Undyne! Um… What's up?"

"Sup Alphys," Undyne replied. "We got a question for you."

"S-sure! Wait… w-we?"

"Why is Mettaton trying to kill us?"

"W-what!?" Alphys seemed shocked, she paused for a good few seconds. "I don't understand, he shouldn't be doing that! He isn't evil, he shouldn't be trying to kill you or anyone, this isn't supposed to happen, he's an entertainer! He's… He's…"

"Hey, hey, calm down, just explain slowly."

"W-well… Y-you see, he's um… H-he's um, obsessed with the surface, and humans. H-he uh, he really likes humans, a-and he thinks that he has to d-defend humans at all costs… I-I guess he thinks… He th-thinks that y-you guys are hindering him… I-I'm sorry, this is my fault…"

"No way, it ain't your fault. Hey, tell you what; We'll all come over there and you can explain it more in-depth to them, what do you say?"

"R-really? S-sure, sure. Um… See you?"

"See you, Alphys." Undyne hung up. "I'd explain, but I have no frickin' clue how to put this in not-nerd terms. Sans, you know a shortcut to Alphys' lab?"

"of course, i do. just follow me."

Sans led the party to what looked like a dead end but then before they knew it they had arrived at Alphys' lab.

No-one quite remembered how they got there but they didn't really question it.

"Huh…?" David looked confused, and his expression got even more confused when he saw Alphys' lab. "H-huh…? What is… How… What is that?"

"That's called a lab, nerd," replied Undyne. "Haven't you ever– Oh yeah, surface."

The group started to head to the lab, the door having been unlocked by Alphys and allowing them to walk in without delay.

"yo, alphys, you in here?"

Sans was the first to walk into the lab, having been leading the party to the shortcut.

The lab was in a much cleaner condition than normal, but it looked like it had been cleaned up in a hurry. A sliding bathroom door opened as Alphys rushed out, still pulling up her pants. She noticed that the group was already here and blushed knowing they saw her without her pants.

"U-uh…" Alphys paused, looking side to side. "H-hey… How'd y–" She then took notice of the two humans she didn't recognise. "I-is that…? Oh. My. God. Oh my God, oh my God, how come they're here? Why are they here? Are they nice? I hope so, I have literally nothing to defend myself with, I am so conflicted right now."

"Hey, calm down, Alphys," said Undyne. "They're cool, even if they're total nerds!"

"yeah, chill out. you got a total of 4 special guests in here."

Sans was barely holding back laughing after seeing Alphys scuttle out of the bathroom with her pants down, but he managed it.

"Okay," Alphys sighed in relief. "Okay, I'm fine, okay… S-so… About Mettaton… Undyne, what did you tell them…?"

"Absolutely frickin' nothing!" Undyne said with a huge smile on her face. "'Cause I can't translate it from nerd to not-nerd, so that's why you're here!"

"Oh… Oh, o-okay, s-so, you see… I-in a nutshell, M-Mettaton wants to protect humanity… H-he thinks that we want to destroy all humans, b-but, he's not really open, you know, t-to reason… And your best bet is um, to just avoid him…"

"Still detecting a lot of nerdiness, but I can understand it at least! So just stay away from Mettaton and we're fine, got it. What else?"

"T-that's it, but… I-I don't think you can um, avoid him… that well…"

"Yeah, he keeps getting us when we least expect it. One moment we're fine and the next everything's dark and we're participating in some…"game show" I think it was called?" Mike stated, barely comprehending everything around him.

"S-see, no one w-who watches his show thinks it's r-real… So for him, i-it's just good TV material… H-he kills some people, n-no one bats an eye… T-that's show business for him."

"That punk'll get it if I see him again," said Undyne.

"N-no! Don't d-do anything…" Alphys began. "A-anything y-you'll regret…"

"Ugh, fine. I'll just kick him outta the room again!"

"yeah, mettaton may be a bit mental but people still love him, especially my bro…" Sans remembered something. "…hey alphys, can i speak to you in private for a sec?"

"S-sure…" Alphys said. She looked towards an escalator. "T-this way, Sans."

Alphys started to walk towards the elevator with only Sans to follow her. The escalator led to another room of equal size to downstairs.

"W-what do you want to talk about, exactly?" asked Alphys.

"when mettaton confronted us before, he was controlling this gauntlet using a machine."

Sans thought about how to describe the machine to someone who wouldn't have understood the writing on it.

"uhh, it had various switches and buttons with a couple of weird symbols on it. there was also a label that indicated it came from your lab. you know anything about it or where he would have got it?"

Sans recalled that Gaster had been unable to find a bunch of his old equipment that could help stabilize him in reality, he hoped that, with luck, Alphys knew where some of it was.

"I-if you could show me it, I could more easily tell you?" asked Alphys. "Sorry, I-I'm bad at just going off descriptions…"

"well, it was a big control panel. i couldn't really put it in my pockets and bring it over. it's still about midway into hotlands."

Sans decided it was probably best not to probe too much but before he gave up he had an idea. Gaster had only been able to find a couple of his communicator devices. He reached into his pockets and pulled out his communicator. "uhh, there is this. maybe you've seen something like this? don't worry if you haven't. it's not a big deal. i can figure it out later."

"Oh… I haven't seen anything like that before," Alphys stated. "Where did you get it?"

"oh, uh, it was just…lyin around. it isn't important. thanks anyway."

"Sorry I couldn't help," Alphys apologised. "M-maybe we should go back to the others?" Alphys started to head to the downward-bound escalator back to the group. "Was there anything else I needed to explain or say?"

"nah, it's good. if i need anything else just ask. uh…oh yeah. i think these things are communicators or something."

Sans reached into his pockets and pulled out another communicator. A spare that had been modified to only be able to call Sans' device. It couldn't call anyone else. He had intended to give it to Papyrus but never got around to it. "if you press the button, it should call me. just ring if you find anything interesting. look out for weird symbols, alright?"

Sans handed the device to Alphys, who took it when offered.

"O-okay," she said. "I'll let you know, I promise."

"thanks." Sans continued with Alphys onto the escalator.

As soon as they were in view, the group turned to see them.

"About time you nerds got back here," said Undyne.

"They weren't gone that long, silly," chuckled Asriel.

"W-well, that's really all I had to say," said Alphys. "Y-you know, about Mettaton… B-but you can go now, i-if you guys want…"

"What do you say?" asked Asriel. "Are we ready?"

"Don't we have something important to be doing?" Mike stated, a slight sense of urgency in his voice.

"Oh right." Asriel paused a moment. "Sans, can you get us near the CORE quickly? If we delay anymore, Abel'll probably beat us there, and… Yeah."

"of course i can. come on, let's go. alphys, remember what i said." Sans let the party out of the lab and before they knew it they were at the CORE. They could swear that they heard distant techno music.

"Ribbit," Final Froggit began. "This is where we get off, we have to post ourselves nearby. It's been an honour to be by your sides. Ribbit, take care."

"…And do be careful," Knight Knight whispered.

"Ah, even if you aren't fellow wizards, you have my blessing!" Madjick reassured.

Before responses could be formed, the mercenaries hurried out to random parts of the CORE. The party walked up to the elevator and Sans pressed the button. They heard the sound of the elevator descending.

"let's hope we aren't too late."

"Ngahh, the anticipation is killing me!" said Undyne. "I haven't met this Abel dude, but he better be ready to get PUMMELED!"

"As long as he isn't killed," said Chara. As soon as they said that, they put their hands to their mouth as their eyes went wide. Did they really just say that consciously?

"Yeah, I agree with Chara here," Asriel continued. "Just give him a good beating and we'll be fine."

Sans' eyes widened and he grinned wider. While everyone was distracted he pulled out his communicator and called Gaster.

"gaster, you see that?"

"YES! THIS IS GREAT. BUT… THE TIMELINES… THEY ARE STILL SHOWN AS ENDING. YOU MUST CONTINUE TO ENSURE THAT CHARA'S LEVEL OF VIOLENCE IS LOWERED."

"sure thing, g."

Sans turned back just as the elevator dinged.

The doors of the elevator opened, and the group walked in. Asriel pressed one of the buttons that read "SE", standing for "Stage Entrance" as far as he knew. The doors closed and they began to ascend.

"Wonder how long this'll take," Undyne pondered.

"Hopefully as quick as it can possibly go," said Asriel. "Sans, you seem a bit more enthusiastic, what's up?"

"oh, nothing kiddo. i just got a really good feeling."

As soon as the elevator arrived, they were right next to the entrance of the stage area, supposedly where Mettaton could be, and possibly Abel. Asriel attempted to open the door, it was locked. However there was a keypad next to it, and a screen attached to the keypad and the wall. There was a question on the screen that read "WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE THING ABOUT METTATON?"

"Uh, I think I need help with this one," said Asriel, pondering what Mettaton could have as the correct answer.

"that's not really a question you could have a correct answer for." Sans stated, he too wondered why the screen was there and what answers it would accept.

"The way he always surprises us is pretty impressive." Mike commented.

"I'll just try anything. Chara, what do you propose?"

"Games?"

Asriel typed in "GAMES", but it was not accepted. "David?"

"Uh, puzzles?" David said with uncertainty.

Asriel typed in "PUZZLES", but it was not accepted. "Undyne?"

"Death traps!" Undyne said, with the utmost confidence.

Asriel typed in "DEATH TRAPS", but it was not accepted. "Sans? Mike? I'll take anything."

"people with a massive ego tend to like their voice." Sans thought, thinking about Papyrus. "try that."

Asriel typed in "VOICE", and got back a response, despite the door not opening.

"TRY LOWER, DARLING! HERE'S A HINT: WALK!"

Asriel pondered for a moment, then suddenly got it. "Legs! Wait, he doesn't have legs… Oh well, I'll do it anyways."

Asriel typed in "LEGS", and the door opened.

"But that makes no sense! He doesn't have legs!" Mike almost screamed, upset at the seemingly nonsensical answer.

"OH, BUT THAT'S WHERE YOU'RE WRONG DEAR." came a smooth, sensual voice from the room ahead.

Asriel and the group entered into the dimly lit room, though they were soon greeted to stage lights, each coloured in different ways. On the stage stood Abel, his sword drawn and his stance aggressive. He seemed rather intent on killing Mettaton– Or, who was it standing near him?

"WELCOME, DARLINGS. YOU HAVE THE SPECIAL HONOUR OF BEING LIVE GUESTS IN OUR SERIES FINALE." Said the figure, flicking their hair out of the way. "DON'T RECOGNISE ME?" They asked. "HOW ABOUT NOW?" they stated, putting on a monotone, robotic voice that was unmistakable.

"mettaton?" Sans enquired.

"THAT'S RIGHT, AND I'M GOING TO MAKE YOUR LAST LIVING MOMENTS ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS!"

Mettaton struck a pose and loud music began to play as bombs descended from the ceiling.

David drew from a secret pocket some throwing knives, and threw them at the bombs, which caused those they hit to detonate. The group moved out of the way of the explosion, and so too did David. After the end of the bomb barrage, David picked up the leftover knives that landed after the explosions.

"WELL THAT'S NOT FAIR, YOU'RE CHEATING. DO YOU KNOW WHAT CHEATERS GET? THAT'S RIGHT! MORE BOMBS!"

Yet another barrage of bombs came from the ceiling, faster and with a much larger amount of bombs. Meanwhile, the stage lights and the rate of Mettaton's posing continued to get faster and faster.

David continued to throw his throwing knives at the bombs, which detonated them. He ensured everyone was moving out of the way before they exploded as he moved himself as well. For the last bomb, he accidentally missed by throwing the knife too short, causing it to head, handle-first back to the ground. Chara escaped Asriel's grip, jumped up and kicked the knife into the bomb, which detonated it. Before it could explode, they pushed David out of the way of it and dove out of its detonation range as well.

"Whoa," Asriel looked at Chara. "Nice job there, really."

"Thank you," Chara said, growing a slight smile.

"OH, YOU'RE ALL DOING SO WELL. I THINK YOU DESERVE A REWARD."

Mettaton kicked upwards and rubbed his legs, before swiping the party with them and trying to stab them with his heels.

Sans quite easily dodged out of the way and Mike was able to block the legs with his sword, but a swipe from Mettaton tripped everyone and knocked them down, leaving them vulnerable to Mettaton's heels and bombs which were falling once again.

Chara decided to quickly stand back up and grab Undyne's spear. They threw the spear at Mettaton's heel, causing it to retract for just long enough to not hit them. Undyne stood up and started to chuck spears at the bombs and heels after everyone got up and was able to get out of the way. Chara assisted by pushing those less agile out of the way if they couldn't move, such as David and Mike.

At the last bomb, Chara took one of David's throwing knives and threw it at the bomb. Misjudging how long it would take for the bomb to detonate, they were thrown back by the blast and damaged.

"Chara!" Asriel picked Chara up back to their feet. "You alright?"

"Fine, I'm fine," Chara reassured. "Besides, I have chocolate, don't I?"

Asriel chuckled, and Chara took a bar of chocolate from their pocket and ate it. As soon as it was swallowed, Chara's injuries were healed. "You're right, Chara, chocolate really DOES solve everything. For you anyways, heh."

"Of course it does."

"YOU ARE SO SKILLED, I SAY IT'S TIME TO GIVE YOU THE HIGHEST CALIBRE OF REWARD THERE IS. A HEART TO HEART WITH YOUR FABULOUS HOST: ME!"

The heart on Mettaton's groin suddenly broke free and started shooting lightning, meanwhile bombs and very small Mettatons came down from the darkness above.

Undyne started to throw spears at the heart, while David threw knives at the small Mettatons. Chara however looked towards Abel. Abel seemed to be patiently waiting. Was he about to…?

Chara made a dash towards Abel.

"Chara, where are you–?" Asriel looked at Chara and started to give chase.

Abel seemed too focused on watching Mettaton to notice the two. As soon as Chara got close, they tried to ram Abel off his feet, but Abel didn't budge. In fact, he picked Chara up by their throat nearly a second afterwards, starting to blood-choke them. Asriel rammed into Abel as soon as he caught up, causing him to let go of Chara and get thrown about 10 meters away. Abel then used this opportunity he found being thrown away so far to escape behind Mettaton.

"hey, look mettaton. one of your guests just ran away." Sans said, in an attempt to stop Mettaton's attacks.

"OH MY, THAT JUST WILL NOT DO. STILL, THE SHOW MUST GO ON."

Suddenly, Mettaton's arms blew off, leaving him a torso on legs.

"OH. WELL, W-WHO NEEDS ARMS WITH LEGS LIKE THIS?"

Mettaton began sweeping his legs back and forth once again, trying carefully not to lose his balance.

The group began to dodge each of the leg sweeps. Chara noticed Mettaton's poor condition and called out.

"You don't want to do this, Mettaton," they called to Mettaton. "We aren't enemies of humanity, we only want these Knights and Horsemen to leave. Surely you can understand?"

"BUT DARLING, DON'T YOU SEE? THESE HUMANS…THEY ARE POTENTIAL VIEWERS! FOR TOO LONG MY SHOW HAS HAD THE SAME VIEWERS EVERY DAY!

I SAY IT'S TIME FOR SOME NEW ONES!"

Mettaton grinned and posed again.

"SPEAKING OF WHICH, LOOKING AT THOSE RATINGS! TO CELEBRATE, WE'LL BE ACCEPTING CALL INS. ONE LUCKY CALLER WILL HAVE THE CHANCE TO TALK TO ME AND HAVE THEIR VOICE ON MY SHOW!"

A ringing sound played over the studio's speakers.

"HELLO, YOU'RE LIVE ON MTT!"

There was a suspense in the air as everyone waited to see who the caller was.

Suddenly, A shrill voice shrieked out from the speakers.

"SANS! WHY ARE YOU ON TV AND NOT TRYING TO FIX THAT PROBLEM YOU HAD. YOU KNOW. THE ONE I PROBABLY SHOULDN'T TALK ABOUT?!"

Sans could do nothing but place his hand against his face and shake his head. "oh god."

"OH! HELLO METTATON! I'M YOUR BIGGEST FAN! I EVEN HAVE ALL YOUR MERCHANDISE! YOUR VARIOUS CREAMS AND POWDERS ARE REALLY USEFUL FOR A COOL DUDE LIKE ME!"

"OH! GOOD TO HEAR IT DARLING!" Mettaton responded gleefully.

"ANYWAY, SANS, HAVE YOU SEEN WINGDINGS' ROOM? I WENT IN THERE AND I THINK HE HAS A STAMP COLLECTION. ISN'T THAT EMBARASSING? TRULY, HE'LL NEVER BE AS COOL AS THE GREAT PAPYRUS."

"DEAR, YOU'RE RUNNING THIS A BIT LONG. IT'S ABOUT TIME WE END THE SHOW." Mettaton said, trying not to be impolite.

"OH! I'M SORRY! I JUST HAVE ONE MORE QUESTION! DID YOU GET MY LETTERS?"

"UHH, OF COURSE. THEY WERE ALL VERY GOOD!" Mettaton lied through his teeth.

"WOW! COOL! I THOUGHT NO-ONE READ THOSE! I GUESS I WAS WRONG! I'LL SEE YOU GUYS LATER!"

There was a sound of a phone being hung up followed by complete silence.

"…Sans?" Asriel said. "Did that skeleton-sounding person just say… "Wingdings"…!?"

Sans' pupils shrunk and he went stiff. The game was up. Everything that he had worked hard to try and hide had just been ruined because his brother talked about a damn stamp collection.

Sans looked at Asriel but couldn't think what to say. He wasn't even sure how Asriel remembered. Maybe there were special rules for boss monsters? He had never thought about it. Did Asgore remember? Did Toriel? Sans' head just raced with questions about how he could explain anything.

"I'm not even focused on whatever was said," David said. "That robot was a girl, right? I hope so…"

"No no," Asriel said, cutting David off. "I remember that name. I remember it well, Mom and Dad told me once. I know that he–"

Chara cut Asriel off. "You're making Sans uncomfortable. Just let off."

"no, chara. it's alright."

Sans' pupils returned to their normal size and he went back into his usual slumped stance.

"a very long time ago, i had two brothers. papyrus and wingdings. we all lived in the same house in hotland and we all spent each day in the same place. you see, before alphys came around my brother was the royal scientist. he unofficially appointed me and papyrus as assistants. he was the oldest of us, papyrus being the youngest. he was a genius and was even around back when monsters lived on the surface. he helped both humans and monsters develop technology that was previously thought beyond their reach. he is the reason the underground is so much more advanced than the surface. for the past few years the surface hasn't had him to design and build for it. before the tragedy, gaster was working on something new. he had a theory about how our universe worked and how everything fit together. he believed that somewhere, there was a device that could alter the fabric of reality itself. he also believed that with enough power, someone could theoretically manipulate time to their advantage. one day, he had just made a major breakthrough and me and papyrus were travelling through the core with him. we knew that he had something to show us hidden in his pockets but he wanted to wait for us to get to his lab before showing us. before this, a school trip had recently shown toured various children around the core. they were a messy group and that was what ultimately led to his demise. a monster child had brought a nice cream, then sold by a great ancestor of the current salesman, into the core. naturally, the core being very hot, it had melted all over the floor."

Sans sighed.

"gaster slipped and fell into the abyss below. but something happened. whatever he had in his pocket reacted with the system the core uses to generate energy. there was a huge blast of energy and i jumped to try and keep papyrus safe."

"the last thing we heard before we passed out was… everything gaster had ever said. all at once. when we woke up, i was the only one who seemed to remember wingdings. everyone else insisted that alphys had been the scientist the whole time. even papyrus. i decided i needed to investigate further and i looked around alphys' lab. all of gaster's things were gone but there was a peculiar addition. a strange, grey door at the end of a corridor that wasn't there before. i asked alphys about it and she insisted that corridor wasn't even there. naturally, i went through and found a room with everything. all of gaster's belongings, experiments, notes, blueprints. even his furniture. it was all there. over the span of several weeks i managed to transport it out into a room underneath a house in snowdin which me and papyrus then moved into."

Sans paused once more to give the party time to process what he had said.

"one day, something happened that i'll never forget. i looked into a mirror and everything in it looked… strange. disjointed. like it had been split apart and then put back together again. then, i saw his face. peering at me from the blackness was gaster's face. but broken and misaligned like everything else. i looked back and nothing was there but a note, on it were instructions but nothing to say what they would do. they were written in gaster's handwriting, which was readable only to me, papyrus and him. without question i followed them, gathering components needed to fix machines and turning them on. eventually, i followed the final instruction and there was a burst of energy much like the one when gaster had fallen. the room around me wobbled and distorted, fading into an empty black void. and in the middle, was gaster."

Sans took a deep breath and sat down, exhausted from the long story.

"i've been helping him ever since. he isn't complete and there are still pieces of him scattered around space and time. several of his machines seem to have gone missing and we can't locate them."

"that's why i occasionally leave for a couple of minutes. i'm talking with him about plans for what to do next. he can see into every timeline but can't tell me everything without risking ruining everything. i'm sorry i kept this a secret. telling you could really screw up time but it's too late for that."

Sans sat and hung his head in his hands.

Mike prepared to say something but was left speechless by Sans' tale.

And then, from the entrance to the room came a voice that seemed to sound familiar but no one could remember who it belonged to.

"THAT IS ALL SANS. I THINK IT'S TIME THEY SAW FOR THEMSELVES."

Sans looked up, his pupils shrunken again. Gaster was standing in the doorway.

The room was deathly silent.

"OOOH, WHAT A BIG TWIST! I WONDER WHERE THIS WILL GO," said Mettaton, his voice just louder than a whisper.

Chara stood by Sans' side. They put a hand on his back, patting twice and resting their hand on his shoulder. "This is my fault, isn't it? I can't help but feel bad about it."

Luckily for Chara, everyone was too busy focusing on Gaster for them to be noticed apologising to Sans.

"Can you accept an apology?" Chara asked. "I can't outright say that I'm sorry, but… You know."

"y-yeah kid…" Sans responded, grabbing Chara's arm. "thanks. you're a good kid."

Gaster watched the soon out of the corner of his eye, as to not draw attention to it and put his main focus on the rest of the room, analysing what everyone's reaction to him was.

Undyne's mouth was open so slightly upon seeing Gaster, her expression dull. David seemed to be the most surprised, his jaw dropped all the way and his eyes wide. Asriel retreated to be next to Chara and just kept his expression neutral.

Gaster put his hands behind his back and began to speak.

"IT'S A PLEASURE TO MEET YOU ALL IN PERSON AGAIN AFTER SO LONG. PLEASE TAKE YOUR TIME, I, FOR ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES, SHOULD NOT EXIST. YOUR MINDS WILL STRUGGLE TO COMPREHEND ME FOR A FEW MOMENTS BUT EVENTUALLY WILL BE ABLE TO COMPENSATE. EVEN THOSE WHO HAVE NEVER SEEN ME BEFORE WILL HAVE SOME TROUBLE SUCH AS MIKE AND DAVID HERE. TAKE AS LONG AS YOU NEED."

"So this is him?" asked Asriel. "The so-called Doctor Wingdings Gaster? I didn't know he was a skeleton…"

"I personally think it's nice to meet him," Chara said. "It's better than seeing someone like Abel." Chara didn't bother resisting Sans' grip on their hand. "I would rather a nice skeleton than a human that wants us all dead."

"THAT'S VERY KIND OF YOU CHARA. YOU'LL BE PLEASED TO KNOW THAT YOUR INFINITE CHOCOLATE WAS ONE OF MY INVENTIONS THAT SURVIVED THE ACCIDENT."

Gaster looked at Asriel.

"ASRIEL, HOW YOU'VE GROWN. IT REALLY DOESN'T HIT YOU UNTIL YOU SEE IT FOR YOURSELF."

Gaster then turned to Sans.

"DON'T WORRY SANS, I'M STABLE ENOUGH TO HOLD MY FORM OUTSIDE OF THE LAB FOR UP TO 12 DAYS. YOU CAN STOP WORRYING."

Sans slowly released his his grip on Chara's arm.

"yeah, but why'd you come out?"

"WELL, YOU ALREADY REVEALED THE STORY, WHAT'S THE POINT IN HIDING ANYMORE?"

"I do have a question," Chara paused. "What exactly did I do that caused this chain of events? I sense this is my fault, and I want to know what I'm at fault for."

Gaster briefly considered the consequences of what he was about to say before deciding that it was best to tell the truth.

"YOU SEE, CHARA, UP UNTIL THIS POINT, YOU HAVE BEEN THE ONE WHO WOULD END ALL TIMELINES. YOU WOULD DESTROY THE UNIVERSE." Gaster took a moment. "YOUR LOVE WAS EXTREMELY HIGH, LOVE MEANING LEVEL OF VIOLENCE. THIS MEANS YOU HAD NO PROBLEM KILLING OTHERS AND HAD YOU KILLED ONE MORE PERSON AFTER LAST TIME… YOUR LOVE WOULD HAVE INCREASED TO THE POINT WHERE YOU WOULD BE ABLE TO END THE UNIVERSE." Gaster smiled. "BUT AGAINST ALL ODDS, YOUR LOVE HAS DECREASED. THIS IS SOMETHING I PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT IMPOSSIBLE. MEANWHILE, YOUR ACTUAL "LOVE" HAS INCREASED. YOU'RE A GOOD PERSON NOW CHARA. BUT THERE IS STILL ONE WHO IS CAPABLE OF ENDING THIS UNIVERSE."

Chara tried to speak. They had no idea why Gaster was speaking so positive of them, were they really a good person? Or was it some poor disguise that they feigned? No, they actually felt something for the people around them. "Who, though? Who has the power to end it?"

"ABEL. ABEL IS THE ONE WHO WILL ATTEMPT TO END THIS UNIVERSE. MY EQUIPMENT SAYS THAT THERE IS NO WAY TO PREVENT IT, THAT THE DEATH OF EVERYTHING IS INEVITABLE, BUT I BELIEVE THAT IF WE ALL WORK TOGETHER, WE CAN STOP HIM."

"I'll…" Chara wanted so badly to say that they'd kill Abel, that they'd end him. But they couldn't, they know they couldn't. They couldn't say it consciously and mean it. "I'll help, in any way that I can."

"THAT'S THE SPIRIT." Gaster turned to everyone else. "ARE YOU ALL OKAY? YOU'VE BEEN AWFULLY QUIET. MAYBE I'VE HAD MORE OF AN EFFECT THAN I ANTICIPATED."

"We're fine," Asriel said, putting an arm around Chara.

"I'm fine," said Undyne. "Not sure about these two nerds."

"W-well," David stuttered. "I'm just… not sure what to think."

"I-I think I'm fine?" Mike stuttered, unsure.

"I'M BETTER THAN EVER, IF THAT HUMAN IS GOING TO CAUSE A PROBLEM, I GUESS I'LL JUST HAVE TO LET YOU ALL PASS." Mettaton said cheerily.

"yeah, i guess we better hurry, huh?" Sans said, stretching.

"No time to waste," said Asriel, started to head towards the door exit of the stage area. The group followed suit.

Chara however followed only when Sans did, feeling the need to stay near him to make their apology be seen as even more genuine, and to hear whatever Sans may have to say.

The door lead to a corridor which ended at an elevator.

The group approached the doors.

"well, this is it." Sans said.

"you guys ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be." Mike responded.

"I AM READY." Gaster said, flickering slightly.

"Ready," said Chara.

"I, for one, am more than ready!" Asriel said in anticipation.

"Let's do it," said Undyne.

"I guess so," David replied.

Sans took a deep breath and pressed the elevator button.

It seemed to take forever to come.

The party entered the elevator.

It seemed to take forever to go back up.

When the doors finally re-opened the party stepped out into the grey corridor.

The corridor was long and winding. Soon, in the distance the party could see a structure. It was large and grey like the rest of the landscape. Everyone except Mike and David recognised it.

"New Home."

"We're home again, Chara," said Asriel.

"I really hope this isn't the last time we see it," Chara said somewhat under their voice.

"It won't be, promise."

"Asriel, I'm worried. Abel has the power to destroy everything, and we're walking right into where he is. If we can't stop him–"

Asriel put a finger on Chara's lips. "Shh, it's fine. We'll say hi and bye to Mom and Dad if you want?"

Chara paused for a few seconds, half-smiling. "I'd like that…"

Asriel smiled at Chara. "I hope you don't mind us stopping at our house, do you, guys?"

"of course not, i'm sure the person intent on destroying all of us will wait." Sans said, chuckling.

"It'd be nice to have a look around. It seems like a pleasant place." Mike replied, taking in the exterior of the building.

"Hey Chara," Asriel teased. "Race you there?"

"You're going to lose," Chara said in response, holding back a chuckle.

"Over my dead body!" Asriel started to make a dash for the house, and Chara followed at about the same speed.

"You get back here!" Chara giggled after having said this.

Gaster smiled, possibly the widest he had smiled since he fell into the core.

"I DIDN'T THINK IT WAS POSSIBLE FOR LOVE TO GO DOWN. BUT CHARA IS LIVING PROOF. SANS. THIS IS A MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH. DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS?"

"what does it mean?"

"IT MEANS THAT MOST OF MY RESEARCH NOW MUST GO INTO THE TRASH CAN IMMEDIATELY."

"oh."

Mike just blinked at Gaster, having no idea what he was talking about, and then proceeded to follow Chara and Asriel into their house.

In reaching the door first, Asriel managed to beat Chara in a race to their house. Chara stopped next to Asriel, still smiling.

"C'mon, no fair," Chara huffed. "You're like, ten times stronger than I am."

"N'aw," Asriel roughed up Chara's hair a bit. "You're just slow, Chara."

"I am not, I mean do you know how quickly I can dodge things?"

"That's agility, Chara."

"Shh, shh."

Asriel chuckled, hugging Chara for a moment. After their brief hug, they headed into the house. The sounds of something being cooked, and the smell of pie, meant surely both Toriel and Asgore were home.

"Mom, Dad! We're home!" Asriel called out.

"Oh, there you two are!" Toriel called back. "Do you two want pie? It just needs to cool down."

"Not if I get that pie first," said a mysterious voice.

"Shoo, dog! You'll just eat the whole thing!"

Asriel and Chara headed into the kitchen, where they found Toriel placing the pie on the dinner table for them. Asgore just entered the room.

"Howdy!" Asgore greeted. "You two are back so soon? How'd it go, was it fun?"

"Heh, it was a bit terrifying at times," Asriel replied.

"On the bright side," Chara continued. "We got to spend a lot of time together, and I enjoyed every minute of it."

"Golly, that's a pleasant change of heart for you, Chara," said Asgore. "Heh, usually you're quiet and monotone. Now look at you, all over your brother like he's the last monster in the Underground."

Mike and the rest of the party all attempted to squeeze through the kitchen door at once before deciding that it'd be best to go in one by one.

"heya." Said Sans, nonchalantly as if walking into people's houses unannounced was a normal thing.

"Oh, howdy!" Asgore greeted. "Oh my… Are those… humans, with you? Sorry, I'm just surprised, hoping I'm not imagining things."

"These are our friends, Dad," said Asriel.

"Golly, you've certainly made quite a few in just one day! And Undyne too?"

"Sup, Asgore!" Undyne said.

"Well, it's certainly nice to meet all of you!" Asgore said with enthusiasm. "Son, would you mind introducing me to everyone else?"

"Sure!" Asriel started to introduce everyone by name, pointing to each person respectedly. "This is Sans, Sans the Skeleton. There's Mike, the human. And also David the human. And finally, Gaster. Wingdings Gaster."

"Wingdin–" Asgore stopped, his eyes went wide. "That Wingdings… How are… Wingdings, you're alive?"

"HELLO ASGORE. LONG TIME NO SEE. IT'S A VERY LONG STORY, YES, I AM ALIVE. NO, I STILL HAVEN'T MADE THAT INFINITE WATERING CAN YET. I'VE BEEN VERY BUSY. I PROMISE I SHALL MAKE IT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE."

Mike stared at Asgore. "You look…" Mike thought for a moment. "Really damn soft."

"that's asgore for ya." Sans remarked.

"You want to pet me is what you're saying?" asked Asgore. "Gee, we can do that later, can't we? I mean, we haven't even had tea or pie yet!"

"Asgore's right," said Toriel. "You haven't even touched the pie yet!"

"Say no more," Asriel said, starting to cut a piece of the pie out for himself, and one for Chara. "You can be assured, there will be none left by the time we leave here."

"You're leaving again?" asked Asgore. "How come? You seem to be done with your journey already, I mean everyone is at peace again, and in such short notice!"

Chara froze up for a good while.

"Is something wrong, Chara?" Toriel asked. "Are you feeling well?"

"…Mom, Dad…" Chara said shakily. "T-there's still something… we haven't dealt with…"

"What's that?" Asgore tilted his head at Chara.

"There's one human… His name is Abel, and… H-he has the power to destroy the universe, and… He's still alive."

"I'm sure there's a way to have him dealt with peacefully," said Toriel.

"Yeah!" Asgore agreed. "Why not offer him some tea? Maybe–"

"That won't work," Chara interrupted. "He wants all of us dead… I don't think he cares who he kills and… We're going to stop him soon… I– We… just came to say goodbye."

Chara's eyes started slowly to fill with tears, thus making Asriel instinctively hug them. "Shh, Chara, it's okay, we're all gonna make it through this."

"I-I don't want to l-leave this all behind…" Chara said, holding back more tears. "I-I can't…"

"Listen to me," Asriel put his hands on Chara's shoulders. "We're all going to be fine, you understand?"

"We'll stand by your side, Chara," Asgore said in agreement with Asriel. "Even if we're not there physically, we promise that we'll always be there in spirit."

"This is all going to end pleasantly," said Toriel. "You just watch."

"Yeah!" Undyne said in support. "You got this, no one's dyin' on my watch!"

"We're here for you, Chara," David said. "Even if you do scare me, I can consider you a friend, can I not?"

"We'll all be fine, Chara," said Asriel. "Trust me, even you will."

"hey kiddo." Sans said re-assuringly, walking over to Chara. "you'll be alright. you've survived worse."

"YES, SANS IS RIGHT." Gaster chimed in, flickering over to Chara. "YOU HAVE AN INCREDIBLY HIGH SURVIVAL RATE. REST ASSURED, IT IS SCIENTIFICALLY UNLIKELY THAT ANY HARM WILL BEFALL YOU."

Despite pretty much just meeting them, Mike found it hard to resist the urge to hug Chara. "When I first met you, you honestly kinda scared me but… you seem like a good kid. Don't be so pessimistic, alright?"

"No matter what, Chara, stay determined!" Asgore said.

Chara wiped the tears from their eyes, their bottom lip quivering slightly. "Thank you… I won't let any of you down, I swear."

"We know you won't, silly," Asriel rubbed Chara's hair. "We're all here for you. Now c'mon, eat your pie and enjoy the time we have until we leave and come back."

Chara looked to their plate as Asriel let go of them. They smiled, looking at their piece of pie and grabbing a fork. They started to eat the pie. To them, it tasted like the best meal they ever had. They savoured every last bite they had.

Sans grabbed a slice of pie and looked at it for a second. "anyone got ketchup?"

Gaster also grabbed a slice and consumed it in one bite. "IT'S BEEN A VERY LONG TIME SINCE I'VE EATEN ANYTHING. SANS WHY DON'T YOU BRING ME MORE FOOD?"

"why don't you get it yourself?"

"…GOOD QUESTION."

Mike wearily grabbed a slice and took very small bites, unsure if he was being a good house guest or not.

"Golly, the mood sure has changed a lot of times in just a few minutes, hasn't it?" Asgore remarked. "Sans, you wanted ketchup? There should be some in the fridge."

"Honey, that's tomato sauce," Toriel chuckled.

"Oh… I didn't think there was a difference."

"And that's why I'm the one making the food, dear."

Sans decided not to inform Toriel that they were the same thing and instead went to the fridge and grabbed the bottle of sauce. He started pouring it onto his food before just unscrewing the top and emptying the whole bottle. Whenever no one was looking he took a bit of the pie.

Only a few minutes later and the pie was gone, as the result of the group all eating it at once. As soon as Toriel took up everyone's plates and the tin the pie was kept in, Asgore came out with cups of tea for everyone.

"Don't think I forgot about the tea," said Asgore. "Here's one for everyone!"

Asgore set the cups of tea on the table for everyone to take. Chara and Asriel took theirs, sipping to make sure they don't burn their mouths. David took one cup as well, sipping out of it. Undyne looked around, pausing for a moment before quickly picking up the cup of tea and throwing the liquid into her mouth, swallowing immediately. She set the cup of tea gently down right afterwards.

Sans poured the tea through his teeth very quickly and placed the cup down. "that was pretty good."

Gaster, meanwhile, put the tea away into his dimensional box for later. He didn't feel particularly thirsty and felt the taste of the tea may clash with the taste of the pie which still hung in his mouth.

Mike thorougly enjoyed the tea, sipping it carefully at first but gradually building up to taking larger drinks as he almost finished it.

"I suppose," Asgore began, taking a breath. "You'll all be out on the finale to your adventure then? Do take care, we're counting on all of you."

"We know you'll all do amazing," Toriel added. "Just, please, don't kill the human. Try to be peaceful."

"We promise, Mom and Dad," said Asriel.

"No one's going to die," Chara added.

"And stay safe yourself," said Asgore. "Farewell, for now."

The group stood up and started to leave towards the basement area. Chara delayed by about a second, taking into account what they had to lose. They sighed shakily and started to leave. The corridor was cold and everyone in the party was tense. They felt the end was drawing closer and closer with every step.

"…g?" Sans said.

"WHAT IS IT SANS?"

"are you sure we can stop this?"

"NO."

"oh."

"BUT I AM SURE WE CAN DAMN WELL TRY."

On their whole way there, Chara couldn't stop thinking of what would happen if they couldn't beat Abel. The whole universe would collapse, and it would be all their fault. The foreboding approach to the Judgement Hall didn't help their guilt either, as they felt they were about to walk into certain death.

They were at the end of the path, Judgement Hall. The group entered, and of course standing at the currently closed exit as Abel.

The party stood for a moment, not sure what to do next. Wondering who should go first. Eventually, Sans walked forward slightly.

"heya."

Abel turned around and looked at Sans. "Oi… Guessin' the locked door is your doin'. But don't worry, we won't be fightin' here. Someone on the way 'ere got in the way. Someone, a monster, had their life taken. With their SOUL, plus all the others I absorbed, I can do anything I want to. In fact, I'll reset you all back to the beginnin' right now. I need more time to think."

Abel tried to summon something with his newfound power, but nothing came.

"I don't understand," Abel said, pausing. "How am I not resettin' anything? Who of you here can reset!?"

"you don't understand, do you? the power to reset isn't controlled by the souls. it's controlled by something else entirely. determination. and one of us has a lot more than you right now."

"And who's the twat who does?"

"I am," said Chara. "I'm the one with the power to reset it all. But I won't, I can't make myself. What's important is dealing with you. Getting rid of you."

"Oh good, you'll save me the trouble, I'll just kill you first," Abel paused again. "Shall we?"

"the thing is, we don't really wanna fight you. we aren't like you. i'm sure we could come to a peaceful solution."

"Peace? Hm, that sounds like a great idea," said Abel. "Maybe I was mistaken."

"Are you being serious?" asked Chara. "I'm glad you see it our–"

"'Course I'm not, twats." Abel drew his sword as a red glow formed around him. With the glow, the room grew darker. "I'm not waitin' for yer first move."

Abel's sword grew red, and he made a throwing motion without actually throwing the sword. A red physical copy of the sword came flying at Chara, who dove out of the way. Holding his sword in the air, Abel also summoned a barrage of red projectile attacks, which flew at the group. Each of them dodged, except for those with armour, who deflected it with their weapons. As a final followup, Abel swung horizontally at Chara with a streak of red energy, which they narrowly dodged.

"'ere we go," Abel said, admiring his work.

"well, if it's gonna be like that.." Sans said as he shrugged as two GasterBlasters pulsating with energy came from the darkness of the hall.

The rest of the party also prepared to fight. David and Mike unsheathing their swords and Gaster raising his own, unique blaster, while Undyne prepared some spears, Asriel cracked his knuckles and unsheathed the sword he kept, and Chara drew their dagger.

Abel looked at Chara, summoning a projectile attack to send at them. Chara jumped and dove out of the way of the projectiles as they came while running at Abel. As soon as they got close enough, they swung at him, but he seemingly teleported aside and levitated above the ground.

"Ya' think I'm just gonna stand 'ere while you try to attack?" Abel taunted.

Abel moved so quickly to flying kick Chara that it looked as if he teleported. Chara flew across the room, but Asriel caught them before they could get seriously hurt.

"Ye're all more hopeless than I thought."

Abel summoned a long-range slash attack at the group, who all were forced to either jump or duck down really low to avoid it. After the slash, Abel threw a few energy swords at the group, who dodged or deflected them. Before Abel could summon another attack, Undyne threw a series of spears at him, of which he deflected and blocked. Undyne refused to let up her attack, and continued chucking spears. Due to a lack of opportunities to attack, Abel decided it was best instead to bring the fight to her.

Abel disappeared for a moment, before appearing behind Undyne and flying kicking her to his original side of the room and appearing back there. Without hesitation, he used a full power long-range swipe, but only on Undyne who lay helpless attempting to stand back up, only to be struck by the attack and rendered immobile by the damage.

Sans made a gesture, resulting in Abel being thrown across the room and into a wall. At the same time, Gaster and Mike took advantage of Abel being stunned. Gaster firing his blaster and Mike throwing one of his two throwing daggers.

Abel couldn't avoid being hit, yet somehow, he showed no visible signs of damage. Upon recovering from his toss, Abel stood right back up and shook his head.

"Y'know," Abel began. "I don't care who I kill anymore. I don't care if I can reset everything anymore. I just want you all dead, and when I'm finished, the Underground is goin' too. I will return to the surface as a hero, and a God!"

Abel focused his attacks on Chara again, this time using what looked like a giant crossbow to fire multiple layers of energy projectiles that Chara could barely avoid due to how quickly they flew at them. Pretty soon, the projectiles were coming at nearly undodgable speeds, before then having the crossbow weapon charge up and fire a large amount of concentrated energy at Chara, which they couldn't completely dodge in time, thus being slightly damaged by what they didn't dodge.

"And after that, I'm absorbin' your soul too, pale guy, or girl, or whate'er you are," Abel taunted again. "That way, I have control over resets and time! Man, this'll be fun…"

"YOU REALLY DON'T GET IT, DO YOU?" chuckled Gaster, flickering over to Abel and then throwing him into a wall of bones. "THE S UL IS NOtT❄ WHAT YOU NEED!"

"Obviously then…" Abel began in a low tone of voice. "Maybe ya' haven't seen me full powa'? I've only been usin' a TENTH of me powa'! And soon, you'll be lucky enough to see it!"

As soon as Abel was free from the bones, he summoned a red energy wall, boxing only him and Chara in. In the short span of time the wall could last, Abel managed to throw nearly unavoidable swords at Chara, one of which impaled through their chest. The sword however disintegrated right after its damage was done. Chara nearly collapsed from the pain, but pushed on.

"Oh, soo determined," said Abel in an annoyed tone of voice. "It's not gonna do anythin' for ya', demon child. I'll show ya' why."

The giant crossbow-like weapon appeared again, charging up the beam. However, before it could fire, the wall disappeared and Chara dove out of the blast zone.

"Goddammit," Abel said in anger. "This is why I prefer full powa' o'er fractions…"

Sans threw Chara across the room in order to get them out of the way of Abel, making sure to do it just hard enough that they'd slide next to him. Mike ran to Chara to see if they were okay and gestured Asriel to come too.

Abel hurting Chara to such an extent had seriously angered Gaster.

He stepped onto his blaster and raised above Abel.

"YOU FOOlL. THAT chICHILD IS POTEntiaNTIALLY THE MMmMOST IMPORTANT BEING IN THIS UNIVERSE?. LlLIVING ?￢ﾘﾼ PRO0F THAT SOMeONE'S LEEVELL OF VVIOLENCE CAN DdECREASE!"

The blaster fired and Abel dodged. It fired again and Abel dodged. Finally, the blaster fired a wide beam at the floor, blowing it into several pieces and sending Abel flying into the air. Abel gasped as he flew into the air, but regained his balance in levitation. He put his hands slightly up in a shrug, smiling.

"Alright," he chuckled. "Maybe now it's time ya' saw what I've been hidin'. Get ready!"

Suddenly, the room went black, and a large transparent 'shadow' of Abel's head filled the room as he laughed. The former surroundings of the room were twisted and distorted until finally, there was a long flash of white. As soon as everything went black again, Abel was visible in a horrifying form. He was clad in a cloak, a crown of horns, and having two large spikes coming from his back which had wings coming from them. His skin was pale white, and his eyes black. He was at least 30 meters in height at this point.

"I'd like ya' to meet…" his booming voice called.

Letters started to appear below him. They formed a title.

"GODLY EMPEROR ABEL".

Everyone looked at Abel, intimidated by him.

"oh…" was all Sans could come out with, he was left speechless.

Gaster meanwhile was conflicted about the situation, seeing Abel using already existing pieces of the universe and trying to pass it off as his idea was quite funny, yet at the same time he was horrified however, as he knew Abel was now nigh unstoppable.

Mike dropped his weapon in awe, completely freezing up at the sight of Abel's new form.

"Wow!" Abel exclaimed, admiring his new form. "I can see so much, so much that I've not seen befo'e! Heh, I can do anythin' now! Hey Chara, forget 'bout healing!"

Chara made a confused "Uh…?" noise, before suddenly everything in their pockets disappeared except for their dagger. "What…" Chara said in surprise. "How…?"

"Ye're all below me now! Yet still, I can't reset…? No matt'r, I can still take yer SOUL, Chara. Then I can actually do anythin'!"

Gaster knew that the power of SOULs allowed Abel to edit the world to a certain extent. Abel could destroy matter and create it, but he could only create things that already existed. To make something new he would need to combine pieces of already existing items. Gaster hoped that it would take him a while to figure out how to do that.

Gaster realised that Abel would soon figure out that he could simply delete everyone here and easily win. His mind raced to think of a solution and he managed to remember something. The computer that was in his lab. In the file that held the code of the universe, he could not find himself. His accident had left him as an anomaly, something that should not be. He could not be edited or deleted. Could he somehow give this property to everyone else here? He had to try.

"EVERYONE, QUICKLY, COME CLOSE TO ME."

The party scurried to huddle around him, he had to be quick before Abel could react.

"EVERYONE MAKE SURE YOU ARE TOUCHING ONE ANOTHER."

Gaster thought hard. He focused on times he felt strong emotions, knowing that they caused him to become unstable. He thought of every time in his life when he felt sorrow, fury, fear, happiness… He felt himself split apart faster and faster.

Suddenly, everyone felt their being break and split, they all flickered and started to break apart.

Gaster finally recalled the moment he fell into the CORE. He remembered how it felt.

A massive wave of energy exploded from the huddle, throwing everyone outwards.

Sans got up and looked at the closest person, Mike.

Mike looked broken and was flickering, much like Gaster did. Sans looked down at his own body and realised that he too was flickering. He felt his face. It was cracked and distorted much like Gaster's had been. What the hell had Gaster done?

He looked around and saw that everyone in the party had undergone the same process.

But where was Gaster?

Gaster was nowhere to be seen, until the void started to distort and a voice came from seemingly nowhere. "EVERYBODY, PLEASE DO NOT BE ALARMED. WHAT I HAVE JUST DONE IS SAVED YOU ALL FROM DELETION. YOU ARE ALL NOW ANOMALIES, AS FAR AS THE UNIVERSE IS CONCERNED YOU SHOULD NOT EXIST. I'LL FIX THIS LATER, BUT FOR NOW YOU SHOULD FOCUS ON THE MATTER AT HAND. I CANNOT HELP MUCH BUT I WILL DO WHAT I CAN FROM HERE."

Everyone looked at Abel.

"What the 'ell did…" Abel began. "Hm, well, back to the original plan."

Abel spread his arms, pointing them slightly at the group. In a brilliant few flashes of light, projectiles shaped like swords flew at them, each projectile changing colour every second. They came from both directions rather quickly, though still being dodgable. While everyone was busy dodging, he looked down at the still fallen Undyne.

"That's weird," he commented. "Monster corpses disappear usually, so how is it that this thing's body 'asn't turned to dust?"

Abel awaited a response. Surely Undyne wasn't dead, so she'd have to say something, right? He paused his attacks. Still nothing.

"Ye're laughin' at me internally, aren't you? You're laughin' 'cause I can't see all of you in the light I just did."

Abel was distracted, leaving him open to any attacks. The party took advantage of the fact that Abel was distracted and all launched their attacks at full force.

Sans threw a flurry of bones, mixing in blues to try and make it confusing while Mike did all he could and charged with his sword. David started to chuck his throwing knives at Abel while he was distracted as well. Each of the attacks, however, did minimal damage.

Seeing how the situation was turning out, Chara stood back up from their usual lying down position. Asriel tried to reach their hand out to get Chara to sit or lie back down, due to their poor condition, but they refused. Chara turned around to look at Asriel, who seemed terrified as soon as Chara's face was visible to them.

"I'll be fine… Promise," said Chara to reassure Asriel. "Are you okay, Asriel…? You seem scared."

"Chara…" Asriel stammered. "Y-your face…"

"It's not that bad, is it?"

"It's…" Asriel stopped talking.

"Just let me deal with this guy… I'll come right back…" Chara drew their dagger again and charged straight at Abel, who was busy focusing on Mike's charge to notice. As soon as Chara was close enough, they stabbed Abel. The attack did nothing, and Abel looked down at Chara.

"I thought I somehow spared a mosquito," Abel taunted. "Kindly bugger off, I'll kill ya' later."

Abel used what looked like gravity manipulation to throw Chara across the room, back at Asriel in hopes to harm them and Asriel. However, Asriel caught Chara as they were thrown towards him. Using this opportunity, Abel lifted Chara up again while Asriel's embrace kept the two together, and threw them across the room at a red energy wall. Asriel positioned himself to act as a cushion for Chara, but the impact ended up harming both of them anyways. Abel then just threw them back at their group once more.

Sans took a moment and looked back at the commotion behind him. He saw Asriel tumbling about with Chara before coming to a stop. He looked at Chara's face. Looking at it felt wrong, it sent waves of fear through his body. "holy f–"

Suddenly Sans was blasted away by a bolt energy, sending him hurling backwards and into Chara and Asriel, he ended up positioned right on top of Chara. Right in their face. For possibly the first time in years, Sans screamed. Their face… From their eyes leaked a black liquid, and red glows of pupils were visible in their center. The cracks only added onto what was already horrifying.

"See now, Chara?" Abel taunted. "Ye're only hurtin' everyone; Ye're distractin' 'em, hurtin' 'em, makin' everythin' hard for 'em. If ye' don't give up now, I don't see when ya' will."

Chara just stayed lying down, refusing to move as their bottom lip quivered.

"S-Sans…" Chara stuttered. "H-he's right, I-I'm… I'm just hurting you more… You're better off without me here…"

Sans realised what Abel was trying to do. He brought himself to look Chara in the eyes, fighting the disgusting feeling he got from them.

"kid, don't let him get to you. you're the most important person in this void right now. if you give up, you are handing him the keys to this universe. don't do that. don't let him win."

"What if I fail, Sans?" Chara's expression seemed sad, despite their inability to cry due to the black liquid coming from their eyes. "I'd have let you all down… There's n-no way I can beat him either… J-just look at him, how can I…?"

"if you give up now, we lose straight away. if you keep trying we can at least put up a good fight. come on, we can't do this without you."

Chara closed their eyes for a moment, considering everything that was at stake. The entire universe was to be lost if they so much as messed up, so they had to do something, anything. They moved from Asriel's embrace, rubbing his head as they stood up.

"This is for you, Asriel," said Chara, looking at Asriel as he looked up at them. "I can't let you, or anyone down, not anymore."

Chara started to approach Abel again slowly, due to their injuries hindering their speed. But deep inside them, they felt a burst of energy. Something inside of them was telling them to keep pushing on. They were filled with determination. They rushed at Abel, their dagger ready to slash. Abel tossed a few sword projectiles their way, which they deflected and dodged.

"Shouldn't ya' be cryin' on the floor, demon child?" Abel said, his grin widening.

Abel summoned a beam of energy that struck Chara, which should have killed them instantly… But their SOUL refused to break. In desparation, he summoned more sword projectiles at Chara that they wouldn't have time to deflect or dodge, so they simply tanked them. Each of them impaled through their chest, which should have killed them, but their SOUL still refused to break.

"Why won'tch ya' just DIE!" Abel screamed in anger, attempting to use gravity manipulation on Chara but failing, as he was interrupted by a stray spear that caught his hand. He looked at the source; It was Undyne, who had grown into her Undying form.

"You're not killin' ANYBODY!" Undyne shouted with confidence.

Abel then focused his attacks on Undyne, who had the strength and speed to deflect and dodge all of them.

Sans stared in awe at Undyne for a moment and then when he snapped out of it he realised that he could use the distraction to his advantage. He rose a cage of bones around Chara, making sure not to touch them. It wouldn't protect them for long but it'd buy some time for him and the others to figure out how to beat Abel. They couldn't do anything without his SOULs exposed and even then they'd be too powerful to damage. First they needed him to expose them, then they needed to somehow pull them out.

While Sans was thinking, Mike too was using Undyne's distraction to his advantage. Slashing and hacking at Abel despite dealing no damage. Mike hoped that he'd somehow miraculously hit somewhere where he could hurt is foe.

Abel looked down to Mike, before raising his hands ready to release a devastating energy blast. Chara suddenly jumped at Abel, ramming their dagger into his chest which nullified his attack, only allowing him to throw out a very weak energy blast that did no damage to Mike. Abel gritted his teeth, growling and summoning swords to be thrown at Chara at undodgable speeds again. The bone cage deflected the swords as they came, and Abel's anger only got more powerful.

"I've just 'bout HAD IT WITH YA'!" Abel roared. The SOULs he absorbed started to reveal themselves in order for him to use their full might. He summoned multiple energy projectiles at Chara, which managed to break through the bone cage and hit them. Despite all the damage, their SOUL still refused to break. Abel continued to toss these projectiles indefinitely. "Just DIE ALREADY!"

Sans saw the souls and immediately took the opportunity. He did all he could to try and pull them out of Abel. He felt pure energy coursing through his body but it wasn't enough. At the least he could probably throw Abel around if he moved all the souls at once but the damage would be insignificant. He needed more power, he needed Gaster but Gaster was merged with the void, he couldn't help. Sans gave up expending energy to try and move the souls and once again went back to thinking of a plan. He needed to somehow reform Gaster but he no longer had the machine he had originally built he couldn't do it. While he thought Sans figured that he could at least throw some attacks to get some damage in on Abel.

Sans shot the souls with blasters, threw bones at them but despite his ability to deal damage extremely quickly he had only done a measly 200 damage, an insignificant amount compared to the thousands of health points Abel still had left. Sans finally threw all of the souls at the ceiling, hoping to stun Abel for a few seconds so that everyone else could attack him.

Much to Abel's surprise, he was stunned by the sudden attack. Undyne relentlessly threw spears at him while David threw throwing knives as well. Being as it may, Chara nor Asriel had no ranged weapons, and as such could not harm Abel for the time being. Surprisingly, each of the attacks did damage to Abel, for a little while. As soon as the SOULs were close enough to him again, all the damage started to deminish into nothing.

"Heh," Abel realised that his immortality was unstable. If he was so much as too far away from the SOULs, he could be suseptable to damage, and his powers could become nothing. "I don't think it's that easy, twats."

Using gravity manipulation, Abel lifted Chara into the air and threw them back onto the ground full force in hopes to finally kill them. Though as long as Chara was determined, there was no killing them.

"This is gettin' redundant, don'tch ya' think?" Abel started to get confident again, and the absorbed SOULs revealed themselves. "So how 'bout instead, I just kill ye' here? Seriously, with all these SOULs, I outnumber ya' and yer friends greatly."

Chara coughed up some blood. They were in an awful condition and probably shouldn't be fighting. Despite this, they stood back up shakily and drew their dagger once more.

"If ya' wish, then." Abel started to charge up an impressive magic attack as Chara stood still, shaking and unable to move.

Sans realised that he needed to act fast. If Chara was hit by a full blast attack they would be left helpless and unconscious. He started pulling them to no avail but he just kept trying. He felt his body strain and suffer from using so much energy. He was going to fail. It was all over.

Suddenly he felt a brand new surge of energy. Something was happening. His mind filled with millions of thoughts, science, technology, everything. He knew everything. He could see through timelines, he could see the code that made up the universe. He heard his own voice speaking to him in his head.

"sans, don't worry. it's me, gaster. you may feel disoriented but please focus on abel. i have essentially merged myself into you, it's more complicated than that but you can probably figure out how that works with all the new knowledge in your head."

Sans felt new power and tried to throw the soul out of Abel as hard as he could. He felt the soul come loose and fly across the void. He did it again. A second soul was launched across the room. Again. A third soul. Again. A fourth. Sans couldn't believe the ease with which he was now able to pull out the souls.

Abel felt his power start to deminish, and deminish quickly it did. The charging up wasn't able to be stopped either, thus the SOULs were still stuck in plain view. He had to release his energy immediately. But by the time it was ready, the beam that was shot out was so insignificant that it didn't even do a fraction of damage to Chara, or anyone else. Abel looked to his hand. It was flickering. Almost the entirety of the SOULs were gone. One last SOUL. It was gone. The surroundings started to flicker back and forth between Judgement Hall and the black void that was, and Abel's red glow immediately went out like a light.

"NO!" Abel screamed in frustration and pain as he felt his very form being torn apart, but was being restored to its original human form.

There was a flash of white light. They were back in Judgement Hall, and Abel lie helpless on the floor. He looked up at the group, gritting his teeth.

"W-well… F-finish it!…"

Asriel approached him, sheathing his sword. "We're not killing you. No matter what you do, have done, or will do. We're sparing you."

Abel looked at Asriel in surprise. A monster was sparing him. "Ye're makin' a huge mistake…"

"That may be so, but I'm not going to kill anyone."

Abel stood up, dropping his sword. "Ye'd spare the one man responsible for the almost entire downfall of yer homeland? Heh… Ye're such an idiot… But… It would be against me honour code if I were to betray ye', or any of ya', as ya've beaten me fairly in a fight 'nd spared me. I promise, this won't go to waste… We'll withdraw and leave the Underground."

Abel picked his sword up, sheathing it and giving a quick salute to the group before heading on his way towards the barrier room. Asriel looked behind himself, at Chara. Chara was still shaking. They dropped their dagger suddenly and collapsed. Asriel's eyes went wide as he ran over to Chara.

"Chara!" he yelled, trying to shake them to make sure they're awake.

Sans and Mike both ran over to Chara. Sans blinked and realised he could still see the world's code. He could see Chara's health. They weren't dead but their HP was dropping by more and more every second. They needed medical attention, but they'd die before they could get it without a food item quick.

Sans pulled a hot dog out of his pocket.

"kid, quick, eat this."

Chara weakly reached out, grabbing the hot dog and eating it. Some of their injuries were healed, but despite this, they still seemed too weak to even stand or sit.

"Oh my god, Chara…" Asriel hugged Chara tightly in his embrace.

Chara looked towards Sans, they even had trouble turning their head or keeping their eyes open.

"G-guess… I just… got dunked on… r-right, Sans…?" Chara said, their voice quivering.

"b-buddy, now's not the time to be making jokes."

Sans looked at the party.

"food can help temporarily but their health is still decreasing really quickly. we need to get them to a doctor. an actual doctor."

"A doctor…" Asriel thought for a moment. "Alphys! We need to get them to Alphys!"

Asriel picked Chara up, holding them so they'd be comfortable in a lying down position.

"I don't think Chara's gonna last too long, we need to get there now!"

"follow me." Sans rushed towards the wall and it suddenly slid open to reveal the corridor with doors, he rushed along to a door and opened it.

"come on, hurry!"

The party ran through the door that Sans had opened, Asriel making sure he's not making the ride too bumpy for Chara. Chara seemed to be getting a bit drowsy, closing their eyes more each second.

"Stay awake, Chara, please…" Asriel shook Chara slightly, which had them open their eyes somewhat moreso.

Once through the door, they were in the lab. Alphys was seen sitting at the television monitor still, recovering from what happened on Mettaton's TV show. She looked towards the group as soon as she heard them enter.

"H-how…" Alphys began. "Y-you were just… S-seconds ago… Wh–…"

Alphys had no words to describe her shock and surprise. Especially at the appearance of everyone before her.

"i'll explain everything later. first priority is can you heal a human and stop them from losing their health?"

Sans gestured for Asriel to come out with Chara. Upon seeing what was Chara's face, Alphys' eyes widened even more than they already were, and her eye twitched.

"I–…" she tried to form a response. Nothing. She instead focused on what Sans said. She hurried to the upstairs part of her lab to go get medical equipment.

"It's okay, Chara," Asriel reassured. "Everything will be fine. I swear."

Despite their reassurance, Asriel wasn't certain that Chara would be able to survive. Chara smiled at Asriel. They recalled a past timeline.

"I don't like this plan anymore…" a voice echoed in Chara's head. It was Asriel's.

Chara reached an arm around Asriel's back as a weak hug.

"I-I know…" Chara said in response to Asriel's reassurance. "I won't… l-leave you…"

Mike looked at the scene and began to cry. He barely knew the two but he could not hold back his tears.

Gaster started speaking to Sans inside his head again.

"i am aware it is a very crucial and emotional moment but if we sustain this form for more than a few more minutes both of our minds will burn up and die. could you please build the device before we both run out of energy?"

Sans realised he knew how to build the seperation device and acquired the necessary components from various things lying around Alphys' lab. Before activating it he quickly gave Chara another hot dog to try and keep them alive just slightly longer.

Before anyone even had the chance to ask what he was doing Sans pressed the small pink button on the jury-rigged mess of wires and felt his being splitting into two. The experience was unpleasant but finally he and Gaster were both thrown to opposite ends of the room. Sans quickly got up and ran back over to Chara as Gaster rubbed his head and recovered.

"you'll be okay kid. you're not gonna die. not after everything that's happened."

"I-I know… I…" Chara began, taking a breath. "I can't leave Asriel… I m-messed up too many t-times in the past… t-to die n-now…"

"that's the spirit. hold onto that feeling. we can't lose you now."

Alphys soon was seen stumbling down the escalator with medical supplies. She expanded a stretcher bed and set it on the floor when she reached it.

"S-set them on the s-stret–" Alphys stopped talking when she saw Gaster. At this point, it was just par for the course. So many things were happening at once, and she couldn't process them all at once.

Asriel set Chara gently on the stretcher bed and rubbed their hair.

"I-I'll be fine…" Chara reassured Asriel. "J-just you watch…"

"U-uh, I'd uh, hate to interrupt… B-but," Alphys began, looking around. "I-I kinda n-need to bring them u-upstairs… It's uh… a bit easier w-when I have everything n-nearby."

"It's okay," said Asriel. "Anything to get them back to health."

Alphys nodded and hurried with her medical supplies and Chara up the escalator.

The party followed Alphys, Sans waited behind and looked at Gaster still rubbing his head. Sans rolled his eyes and grabbed Gaster, dragging him up the escalator.

As soon as Alphys began working on healing Chara, she examined what types of injuries they had. Countless stabs, energy burns, and bone fractures and breaks.

"Oh my God," she said in surprise. "W-what even… h-happened to them?"

"well," Sans started, releasing Gaster. "it's a long story. a human absorbed the souls and was planning to destroy us all. we managed to stop them but chara took most of their attacks."

"Oh…" Alphys paused for half a second to process what was just said. "O-okay…"

Alphys took out a syringe. It read "SEDATIVES" on it. She injected Chara with the syringe, which made them fall asleep instantly. This allowed her to begin operating on them without them feeling any pain or struggling.

"T-this'll be a while…" said Alphys as she operated. "Y-you can wait d-downstairs, if you want."

"that sounds like a good idea. come on guys." Sans got onto the down escalator as Mike followed.

"I THINK I WILL STAY AND ASSIST ALPHYS WITH THE OPERATION." said Gaster as his body reformed into a solid mass and he stood up. He walked next to Alphys.

The group followed along with Sans and Mike down the escalator. Asriel had a look of uncertainty on his face as he followed along. Even Undyne seemed a bit uneasy.

"Man, that kid better be alright," said Undyne. "Or I am gonna freak out."

"You're not the only one," Asriel added on.

"don't worry. gaster and alphys are both very good doctors. they'll be able to save chara. trust me."

Upstairs, Gaster turned to Alphys. "HELLO, ALPHYS."

"U-uh, h-hey, um… Gaster?" said Alphys.

"LONG TIME NO SEE. WE SHOULD CATCH UP AT SOME POINT. BUT RIGHT NOW, DO YOU EVEN KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT HUMAN MEDICAL PROCEDURES?"

"N-no… O-only on monsters, d-do I know about medical procedures…"

"WELL, THAT IS WHY I AM HERE TO HELP. PLEASE FOLLOW MY LEAD AND DO AS I SAY. THIS WILL BE A LEARNING EXPERIENCE FOR YOU."

"G-got it…" Alphys looked at Gaster shortly, then back at Chara. "W-when you're r-ready…?"

"WELL THEN ALPHYS, I AM READY. LET'S OPERATE. THIS WILL HAVE TO BE DONE WITH THE UTMOST PRECISION."

"I-I'm listening, promise."

A long while later, Gaster and Alphys were coming down the escalator, joining up with the rest of the party. Asriel ran up to the two, seeming restless. He put a hand on Alphys' shoulder.

"Please tell me they're alright!" Asriel said in a semi-yelling tone.

"Chara…? T-they're alright," Alphys said to Asriel.

"Can I see them, please?"

Alphys looked to Gaster, wanting him to speak instead.

"CHARA WILL BE FINE. THEY ARE STILL SEDATED AND ARE RESTING. IT IS BEST THEY ARE NOT DISTURBED RIGHT NOW. YOU CAN SEE THEM WHEN THEY WAKE UP." Gaster stated, putting his hand re-assuringly on Asriel's shoulder.

Asriel sighed in relief. He took his hand off of Alphys' shoulder and walked back to the group. "Could they at least be brought home? I mean, so they can wake up on their bed comfortably?"

"I'M SORRY, ASRIEL. AS MUCH AS I'D LIKE TO, WE NEED TO BE ABLE TO MONITOR THEIR CONDITION AT ALL TIMES. THEY SUFFERED SOME SEVERE INJURIES AND WE'RE NOT SURE IF THEY'LL NEED MORE SURGERY OR NOT."

"That's okay… As long as they're fine. I don't want them to be disturbed if they're in a poor condition. I guess it's safe to leave soon'ish? We can come pick them up when you call us. I could if no one else can."

"THAT WOULD BE FINE. IT MAY TAKE THEM A COUPLE OF DAYS TO RECOVER FULLY BUT YOU CAN COME AND VISIT THEM WHEN YOU WANT. JUST BE SURE TO CALL US BEFORE YOU DO SO WE CAN PREPARE EVERYTHING FOR YOUR VISIT."

"Just promise me, you'll take good care of them. I couldn't bare life without them… Thanks in advance."

Asriel looked towards the group. He looked at Sans in particular.

"Sans, could you find me a shortcut back home? I wanna tell Mom and Dad what's happening."

"sure, kid." Sans suddenly had a thought and looked at Mike and David. "wait, what are we gonna do with you guys?"

"Uhh, well… I dunno." Mike stated.

"Hey, I got an idea," Undyne stated. "Why don't I take you guys in and train you as members of the Royal Guard? You guys are total NERDS but you'll fit in!"

"R-really…?" David said in surprise.

"THAT WOULD BE AWESOME!" Mike shouted happily before going a shade of red and frowning. "Uhh, I mean, if you wouldn't mind. I've always wanted to be a better fighter." Mike said sheepisly.

"that idea isn't half bad. you guys can go with undyne while i get asriel home. have fun." Sans chuckled and opened a door in the wall of the lab. "let's go kid."

Asriel took one last look back at the upstairs entrance. He hoped that Chara would be home soon, and began to reach his hand out, but stopped. He turned towards Sans and started to walk towards the door.

Sans opened a door which led directly to the basement of Home. The pair walked through, up the stairs and into the kitchen.

In the kitchen, Toriel was sitting at the table, sharing a cup of tea with Asgore. Asgore was finishing the tea he poured for himself, and a few cups remained. Those cups were empty. Asgore and Toriel failed to notice the pair walking into the kitchen.

"Do you think they'll all be okay, honey?" Asgore asked Toriel.

"I have faith that they'll be fine," replied Toriel. "As long as they don't kill anyone. And as long as no one kills them."

"Of course."

"We should prepare a welcoming party for them when they all come ba–" Toriel noticed Sans and Asriel walking into the kitchen at that moment. "Why hello!– Asriel, honey… W-what's with your face? A-and Sans' too…"

"It's a long story, Mom," Asriel explained. "I'll explain it later…"

"And where is Chara?"

"They're hurt, they're in Alphys' lab right now, recovering."

"O-oh…" Toriel paused. "Will they be alright?"

"They'll be fine, Gaster and Alphys said so."

"It would be terrible if we lost a child," Asgore remarked. "It's good to know that they're at least recovering. We'll have to surprise them with something when they come back. It IS still their birthday, afterall."

"I-it'll take a while, Dad." Asriel scratched his head.

"What's the shame in having a surprise anyways? Oh, before I forget. Sans, would you like some tea, or perhaps ketchup?"

"sure, i could go for some ketchup right now. maybe we can sit and tell you about what happened."

Sans pulled up a chair and sat down.

Meanwhile in the lab Gaster had dragged up an old couch from the lab below and jumped onto it, lying across the whole thing and leaving no room for anyone else to lie on it.

"I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY YOU PUT THIS COUCH DOWN THERE. IT'S VERY COMFORTABLE. REALLY DOESN'T DESERVE TO BE LEFT IN SUCH A DUSTY, UNCLEAN ENVIRONMENT."

"W-well," Alphys said. "That's m-mostly just for when I watch anime on the monitor… Y-y'know, when I'm not making sure that M-Mettaton at least has o-one viewer for his TV show."

Gaster's face went completely straight. "YOU USE THE MONITOR… TO WATCH… ANIME."

"Y-yeah… H-hey! You should watch Mew Mew Kissy Cutie with me one of these days! I-it's a really really good anime! But stay away from its sequel, oh my GOD!"

He covered his face with his hands. "MY GOD, I DON'T THINK I'VE EVER BEEN SO DISAPPOINTED IN ANYONE EVER."

"O-oh…" Alphys blushed out of embarrassment. "I-it's just that, y'know… I-I get bored, and… y-yeah, it's n-nice to watch."

Gaster sighed.

"ALPHYS, YOU ARE A SCIENTIST. WHEN YOU GET BORED, YOU DO SCIENCE. THEN AGAIN, LOOK WHAT HAPPENED TO ME…" Gaster relaxed into the couch again. "OH WELL, MAYBE NOW THAT I'M HERE I CAN HELP YOU."

"H-help me? B-but… O-okay, I'll listen to you, you've done this longer than I have."

"YES. INDEED. COME, THERE IS MUCH I CAN SHOW YOU. PLEASE BE AWARE THAT YOUR ENTIRE PERCEPTION OF REALITY IS AT RISK HERE."

Gaster opened a Grey Door which appeared out of nowhere and gestured inside.

Back at Home, Sans and Asriel were just finished explaining what had happened in the past hour or so.

"so, that's what happened. pretty interesting story, huh?"

"My…" Toriel said, processing the entire story. "And you all did it so quickly too. I mean, a fight like that would have usually lasted at the least a day or so."

"Yeah, how did it go over so quickly?" Asgore asked. "You did say you were at Alphys' lab for a few hours or so."

"uh, it's hard to explain. during the fight the world was changed into a void where time didn't pass for a short while. to someone who wasn't there the whole thing would have happened instantly."

"Yeah," Asriel added. "Though even despite that, the whole thing did seem like it went a little quickly."

"Well, golly," Asgore remarked. "It sounds like it must have been tiring though."

"It was pretty physically and emotionally draining… But we're done with it."

"Well, if you want, we have a bedroom for you, Asriel, and a guest room for you, Sans?" Toriel offered. "You can rest the day away."

"nah, it's fine. i got my own bed. though i don't really use it much since i sleep pretty much anywhere." Sans chuckled a bit.

"Okay, but you're welcome to stay at any time."

"I could really go for a nap," said Asriel.

"i think i'm gonna go and nap too. it's been a long day." Sans said. "it was nice to meet you guys."

Sans walked out of the room and down the stairs of the basement, going back through the shortcut and instead of going to a particular door he continued onwards to Gaster's lab. He turned into the main room and was surprised to see Gaster seemingly demonstrating a Gaster Blaster to Alphys.

"AND SO, WHEN THE SIGNAL IS GIVEN, THE SKULL FIRES A BLAST OF ENERGY DEALING MASSIVE DAMAGE TO THE TARGET!"

Alphys seemed completely dumbfounded by this technology. She nodded in acknowledgement, taking mental notes.

"so, what are you two doing?"

"AH, SANS, I WAS JUST DEMONSTRATING TO ALPHYS HERE HOW THE BLASTERS WORK."

"I'm s-so confused right now," said Alphys. "B-but intruiged at the same time."

"that's gaster's science for ya. try not to overload her mind, will ya g?"

"OF COURSE."

"anyway, i'm gonna go see how papyrus is doing."

"S-send him my regards?" Alphys requested. "If you want, I mean…"

"sure."

Sans walked out of the room and down the hall to the room Papyrus had been in before, only to find that Papyrus was asleep. Sans shrugged and got into the other bed in the room, he yawned, stretched and shut his eyes. It had been a long day and he felt like he deserved a nap.

The next day, Sans yawned, opened his eyes and sat up. His mind scrambled to recollect all his thoughts and remember what had happened the previous day. He got out of bed, stretched and walked out the door. He walked down the corridor and into the main lab. Gaster was asleep as a large pile of goo on the floor. Scattered around were various devices, parts and wires, presumably from him showing things to Alphys.

Sans caught the hint of a strange smell, which he then identified as some vaguely off-smelling spaghetti. Papyrus. Sans tried to follow the smell and soon stumbled into a kitchen, which he wasn't even aware Gaster had. In the centre he saw Papyrus cooking some spaghetti.

"FINALLY, YOU ARE AWAKE LAZY BONES! I AM COOKING SOME SPAGHETTI FOR YOU AND ALPHYS!"

Alphys? Sans looked over at the table and saw Alphys asleep face down on it. Clearly Gaster had been demonstrating his various creations to her all night and she had fallen asleep. He chuckled and pulled up a seat at the table.

Back at the house of the Dreemurrs, Asriel was just waking up. He looked to the other side of the bed, and didn't see Chara there. He let out a quiet sigh and got up, putting on proper dress attire for the day and headed to the kitchen. In the kitchen, Toriel was making breakfast for Asriel, herself, and Asgore.

"Howdy," Asriel greeted.

"Oh hello, Asriel," Toriel said back. "How are you this morning?"

"Tired, heh. Otherwise just fine."

"I'm just finishing up breakfast for your father, myself, and you. It should be ready soon."

"Thanks. What are we having?"

"Snail cereal. I thought you'd both like it."

"Of course, Mom. Thanks a bunch." Asriel sat down at the dining table. "Something feels off without Chara around."

"We're certainly not empty, though." Toriel placed a bowl of snail cereal in front of Asriel at the table. "They'll be back soon. Like you said."

"Yeah, you're right." Asriel started to eat his cereal. "I just hope it's sooner than a week."

"We'll see, my child."

At that moment, Asgore entered the room. He had already gotten properly dressed and looked around.

"Howdy, Tori," he greeted.

"Good morning, Asgore," Toriel replied. "Would you like your cereal? Maybe a cup of tea?"

"Of course." Asgore sat down at the table across from Asriel. "Thanks a lot, honey."

"You're welcome." Toriel set a bowl of cereal and a cup of tea on the table in front of Asgore.

Asgore started to eat his cereal, taking occasional sips of tea. Toriel also sat down to eat her own cereal. Asgore took a look at the empty fourth seat. Before he could make a remark, a small white dog jumped onto the empty seat and panted happily. Toriel looked at it dismissively, but it refused to leave. Asgore chuckled in response to this quiet but humourous exchange.

"Looks like we have a visitor," Asgore said, chuckling.

"Normally he'd be on Chara's lap," said Asriel. "Guess he's lonely or something."

"Or he really doesn't care how much of his fur gets on that chair before I have to clean it again," Toriel groaned.

Meanwhile back at the lab, Sans was pretending to enjoy Papyrus' spaghetti.

"it's good bro." he choked through a mouthful of the stuff.

"WHY THANK YOU, SANS!" shouted Papyrus, grinning widly. "ALPHYS MUST BE TIRED. THE SMELL HASN'T EVEN WOKEN HER UP YET! MAYBE I NEED TO WORK ON ENHANCING THE TANTALIZING SMELL OF MY SPAGHETTI…"

Alphys groaned at the sound of Papyrus' voice. She tried to get up, but ended up just falling off her chair, seeing as she wasn't even half awake. She rolled onto her back and opened her eyes. She smelled spaghetti.

"S-spaghetti…?" she said, still barely conscious. "C-can I have some…?"

"OF COURSE YOU CAN ALPHYS! WHAT BETTER WAY TO START YOUR DAY THAN WITH SOME SPAGHETTI COOKED BY THE MASTER SPAGHETTEUR PAPYRUS!"

Sans looked at Alphys and tried hard not to laugh, knowing what her reaction to the spaghetti would be. Alphys rubbed her eyes and put her glasses on, shaking herself awake and heading to the table Sans sat at.

"S-so," Alphys began. "J-just plain spaghetti…? Or does it have meatballs…?"

"THE INGREDIENTS ARE A FINELY KEPT SECRET! NOT EVEN I KNOW WHAT'S IN IT!" Papyrus' grin widened as if it was a good thing.

"Heh… H-heh…" Alphys rubbed her head. "I'm ready for it… I-if you have some for me?"

"OF COURSE I DO! I HAVE PLENTY!" Papyrus took a ladle and dumped a heap of spaghetti onto a plate. It had some meatball looking spheres and a few other strange looking chunks of meat hiding in it. He placed the plate infront of Alphys.

Without thinking twice, Alphys started to eat the spaghetti. On her first bite, her eyes went wide. Very wide. Her cheeks turned red. What was even IN that spaghetti? She looked at Papyrus. Not wanting to offend him, she continued to eat as her stomach was obviously trying to reject whatever she was shoving into it. At this point, she wasn't certain if it was spaghetti or not.

"I-it's great…!" Alphys said, holding back any nauseated sounds or actions. "L-love it!…"

"REALLY? WOWIE! IF THE GREAT DR. ALPHYS LOVES MY SPAGHETTI SURELY IT MUST BE GREAT!" Papyrus began to furiously cook more spaghetti and Sans almost fell to the floor laughing.

Alphys looked at Sans and whispered to where Papyrus wouldn't hear. "S-sans, why didn't you warn me…?"

When Sans recollected himself he whispered back. "i woulda, but i was too busy not laughing."

Alphys shivered and made a barely audible whimper sound. She continued to eat the spaghetti as quickly as she could without tasting it. Regardless, she felt her stomach getting more and more upset with each bite she took. The second she finished, she swallowed some liquid that was rushing to her mouth.

"I-I need to go to the bathroom!" she declared, running to the bathroom.

Gaster walked in, being pushed past by Alphys before staring in confusion at everyone else. He was about to ask what her problem is before he caught a whiff of Papyrus' spaghetti. Gaster simply sighed and sat down after making a cup of tea and sitting at the table.

"WELL THAT WAS CERTAINLY. THE MOST VIOLENT REACTION I HAVE EVER SEEN TO PAPYRUS' SPAGHETTI."

Papyrus looked over and smiled. "SOME PEOPLE SIMPLY CANNOT HANDLE HOW GREAT IT IS!"

In the distance, the toilet in the bathroom was heard being struck by a thick liquid, it was vomit. Though the contents of it were uncertain. For all they knew, there could have been some glitter mixed in there, a dog barking, and what sounded like something heavy. What did Papyrus even put in the spaghetti?

Gaster sighed again. "I REALLY HOPE YOU TWO DO NOT EXPECT ME TO CLEAN THAT UP." Gaster finished his tea and stood back up. "RIGHT, TIME TO CHECK ON THE HUMAN." As Gaster passed the bathroom he gave it a light knock. "ALPHYS, WHEN YOU ARE DONE IN THERE, I AM UP IN YOUR LAB CHECKING ON CHARA."

Gaster continued walking and went up the elevator. He made a mental note to install some elevator music.

When the elevator reached Alphys' lab, Gaster stepped onto the escalator and went up. As his head peeked over the ground he said "ARE YOU AWAKE CHARA?"

Chara was heard groaning. "I am now…"

"AH, GOOD. HOW DO YOU FEEL?"

"Better…" Chara yawned. "That was quite a birthday yesterday for me, heh… I really hope that everyone else is okay, no matter myself…"

Gaster walked over to Chara's bed and examined some medical equipment before turning back to Chara. "EVERYONE ELSE IS JUST FINE, IN FACT, WE WERE THE ONES WORRYING ABOUT YOU."

"Y-you're worrying about me…?" Chara put a hand on their stomach. "Heh… Maybe I just lowered my own standards too much. I just didn't know so many people at once could love me and care about me at once…" Chara paused for a few seconds. "I'm regretting all of my past choices that weren't my good ones yesterday, Gaster… I regret having no spot in my heart to love anyone, I regret hurting anyone, I regret leaving Asriel in a past timeline…"

Gaster placed his hand on Chara's shoulder. "WHILE IT MAY BE TRUE THAT SOME OF THE THINGS YOU HAVE DONE IN THE PAST, THE MERE FACT THAT YOU WERE ABLE TO DEVELOP COMPASSION AND FEELINGS FOR OTHERS MAKES YOU A VERY SPECIAL PERSON. CHARA, LET'S FORGET YOUR PAST AND LOOK TOWARDS YOUR FUTURE."

Chara looked up at Gaster. Their eyes tried to form tears of disbelief at such a positive comment, but couldn't.

"Heh…" they started. "And it was Asriel who was the big crybaby…"

Gaster couldn't think of an appropriate response so he simply smiled and ruffled Chara's hair slightly and then examined the medical equipment again.

Chara looked over at Gaster while he examined medical equipment. Out of boredom, they put a hand on their cheek. A bit of the black substance got on the tip of their finger, which burned it somewhat.

"Ow!" Chara expressed discomfort. "I keep forgetting every time about the… whatever it is."

Gaster looked back, wondering what happened. He saw the black substance on Chara's finger. "HMMM, INTERESTING. HOLD ON." Gaster opened a drawer and rustled around for a second, muttering under his breath about how Alphys had barely any scientific equipment before procuring a spoon. "THIS WILL HAVE TO DO." He reached into his pocket and grabbed a medium sized test tube. "HOLD STILL FOR A MOMENT PLEASE, CHARA." He held the test tube under Chara's cheek and scraped some of the substance into it. He looked at it for a moment before realising it had corroded the bottom of the tube but not quite enough to fall to the floor.

"THIS STUFF IS DANGEROUS. I WILL HAVE TO ANALYZE IT FURTHER." He placed the test tube in an empty rack and pulled out his notebook and pen. He wrote something in it and then sat on a stool, looking at the test tube.

"I don't understand," Chara put their hands on their stomach. "For one thing, why the acid isn't burning my face off as we speak. Second off, what are you going to do with it?"

"WELL, FOR YOUR FIRST QUESTION, THAT'S ONE OF THE THINGS I AM GOING TO TRY AND FIGURE OUT. AND FOR THE SECOND, I AM GOING TO RUN A SERIES OF SCIENTIFIC TESTS TO TRY AND FIGURE OUT THE NATURE OF THE SUBSTANCE." Gaster paused for a moment and looked at the spoon. He blinked, shrugged and placed it in his mouth, sucking the substance from it. He smacked his lips a couple of times and made some more notes.

Chara stared in surprise for a few seconds. They blinked a few times. "You just… ate… the acid…" They closed their eyes for a good few seconds, before remembering something. "C-can I see Sans?"

"SANS? I GUESS SO." Gaster pulled out his communicator and called Sans.

"what's up?"

"CHARA WISHES TO SEE YOU."

"huh? alright i guess."

The call ended and a minute later Sans came up the escalator, his grin widened when he saw Chara was looking better.

"heya kid."

"Hi, Sans," Chara said, smiling at Sans. "Sans, do you mind if I talk to you about something?"

"sure, go ahead."

Chara looked up at the ceiling. "You remember them too, right, Sans? The other timelines, when I couldn't feel anything but hatred and sadistic pleasure. What was wrong with me, Sans?"

"you've heard my spiel about LOVE and EXP before. quite simply something had given you a very high level of violence. fact of the matter is there's still a lot me and g don't know about level of violence, maybe it was something in your past, maybe you were born with it. whatever it was it's no longer affecting you."

"I feel really, really bad about this, Sans. I've said this God knows how many times, but I'm sorry. I feel like I need to make it up to you somehow. What do you say?" They smiled at Sans again, eagerly awaiting his response.

"aw, kid, you don't need to make up anything to me. but if it'll make you feel better, sure." Sans was about to hug Chara but then remembered what happened the last time he hugged them and decided not to.

"Heh…" Chara set their hands on their chest. "We could hug if there wasn't burning stuff coming out of my eyes right now."

"huh, yeah, g what's up with that?" Sans asked, turning to Gaster who was still doing various things to the black substance.

"I'M NOT SURE, SANS. I'M TRYING TO FIGURE IT OUT. IT IS VERY ACIDIC AND I'D RECOMMEND NOT TOUCHING IT. THOUGH IF YOU WANT TO EAT IT GO AHEAD IT'S ACTUALLY QUITE NICE."

"i think i'll pass. hey, that reminds me, you still need to fix everyone's face."

"AH, YES, I FORGOT. I'LL DO IT WHEN I'M DONE EXPERIMENTING WITH THE ACID."

At about that moment, Alphys' phone rang. However, the phone was still in the room with Chara, Sans, and Gaster. Alphys yelled up to the room.

"C-could you get that for me!" she was heard yelling from the bathroom. Which was followed by yet even more vomiting into the toilet. And more dog barking.

Sans fell down laughing at the sounds of vomiting so Gaster proceeded to locate and answer the phone.

"HELLO?"

In the background noise of the other end, Toriel and Asgore were heard.

"Tell them that they may have a surprise waiting!" said Asgore.

"And there may or may not be chocolate…" said Toriel in excitement. "And pies!"

"Heh, they didn't answer the phone, Mom and Dad," said Asriel. "This is Gaster on the other end. Hey Gaster, it's Asriel."

"OH, HELLO ASRIEL. HOW ARE YOU TODAY?"

"I'm fine, I was wondering if I could talk to, or better yet, come see Chara?"

"AH YES, CHARA IS AWAKE. OF COURSE YOU CAN COME AND VISIT. WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO SEND SANS TO COME AND GET YOU?"

"That would be great!" Asriel was heard putting his hand to the phone microphone. "Mom, Dad, you wanna come?"

"Of course," Asgore said excitedly.

"I would love to," Toriel agreed.

"My parents would also like to come," Asriel added. "If that's okay?"

"IT'S ONLY FAIR THAT YOUR PARENTS ARE ALLOWED TO VISIT TOO. I WILL SEND SANS RIGHT AWAY."

"Thank you, Gaster! We'll be there soon." Asriel hung up.

Gaster walked over to Sans, still in a heap on the floor.

"ONCE YOU ARE DONE LAUGHING AT THE MISFORTUNE OF OTHERS, PLEASE GO AND PICK UP THE ROYALS."

Sans finished giggling and stood up.

"heh, alright g i'm goin."

Sans opened a shortcut and travelled to Home. Inside the house, Asriel was just putting his phone away, and Toriel and Asgore were waiting in anticipation for Sans to pick them up.

"I hope Chara won't mind a little more chocolate," said Asgore as he packed some more unmeltable chocolate into his pockets.

"Asgore, you've packed at least a dozen bags," Toriel said dismissively.

"What's a dozen more?"

"They'll get sick, honey. More sick than they already are."

"Heh, let's just bring them ONE bag of chocolate," Asriel suggested.

Sans walked into the room.

"you guys just give the word when you're ready to go."

"Oh hello, Sans," Toriel greeted. "We're all ready, Asgore just thinks two dozen bags of chocolate is a good idea."

"But it could be," said Asgore jokingly.

"Let's get going, guys," Asriel said in hopes to dismiss the humourous argument.

"two dozen bags? wow, even i couldnt handle that." Sans chuckled as he opened the shortcut. "just follow me when you're ready."

The three Royals followed Sans to the shortcut door.

"How does this little door work?" asked Toriel.

"science. mainly." Sans shrugged and opened the door leading back to the lab.

"Science is certainly something!"

Upon entering the lab, Asriel looked at his surroundings.

"Is Chara upstairs?" asked Asriel.

"yeah, they're still sitting in bed."

"Hope we're not bothering them any… How are they doing?"

"really well, all things considered." Sans started as he stood onto the escalator. "they've been pretty chatty."

Asriel, Toriel, and Asgore joined Sans on the escalator.

"What have they been talking about?" Toriel asked.

"oh, just… miscellaneous things. nothing important." Sans thought for a moment. "uhh, i will warn you, they have some stuff on their face. don't worry, we can get rid of it but i think gaster wants to do some tests on it first to see what it is. i wouldn't recommend you touch it. as i said, don't worry about it. it's nothing serious."

"Stuff?" asked Asgore. "Well, surely just a little 'stuff' isn't too bad."

"It's a bit scary at first," said Asriel. "But it's kinda neat at the same time."

"Neat?" asked Toriel. "My, I'd like to see whatever has you interested in that case."

Upon reaching Chara's room, Toriel took one look at their face and fainted. Asgore caught her before she could fall. He took a look over at Chara's face, went wide-eyed for a moment, but regained his composure. It WAS still Chara afterall, and he had every right to be happy to see them, regardless of their appearance.

"Howdy!" Asgore greeted Chara. "Your mother seems a bit tired at the moment… But we're both still awake."

"Dad, Mom, Asriel!" Chara said happily. "I'm so glad you're all here, I knew I'd be seeing you again…"

"That's not all," said Asriel. "Dad, which one of the bags did you bring?"

"Which did I NOT bring!" Asgore took out a bag of chocolate. "It's okay to give them food that isn't from the lab, right?"

Gaster spun around on his stool. "IF CHARA FEELS LIKE THEY CAN EAT SOMETHING I DON'T SEE AN ISSUE WITH IT."

Gaster looked at Toriel, stood up and carried over a bed that folds up into an easy to draw box when not in use. He placed it on the floor and it unfolded into a bed.

"I CAN COMPLETELY UNDERSTAND THE REACTION OF THE QUEEN. IT MUST BE SHOCKING TO SEE CHARA IN SUCH A STATE BUT I HOPE YOU RESPECT MY DECISION TO KEEP THEM LIKE THIS WHILE I RUN TESTS ON THE SUBSTANCE, YOUR HIGHNESS."

"Oh no, it's quite alright," Asgore assured, as he handed the bag of chocolate to Chara. "Here you go, Chara."

"heh, you kno–" Sans' sentence was cut short by the sound of laughing come from the escalator.

"NYEH HEH HEH! I HAVE BEEN LISTENING FOR QUITE SOME TIME AND TO ME IT SOUNDS LIKE WHAT THE YOUNG PRINCE NEEDS IS SOME OF THE GREAT PAPYRUS' PATENTED CHOCOLATE SPAGHETTI!"

Papyrus rose up on the escalator carrying a brown pile on a plate. Just looking at it was enough to make someone throw up.

He dashed over to Chara and handed over the plate.

"ENJOY!"

Sans' pupils went small and he looked at Chara, silently gesturing not to eat the "spaghetti". Chara looked over at Sans, giving an uncertain expression. They didn't want to offend Papyrus, so they had to come up with an excuse. Any excuse at all.

"I really appreciate your gift to me," Chara said encouragingly to Papyrus. "But I'm quite full-feeling, and I don't know why. I'll let you know if I have a strong enough hunger for your food."

"AH, I SEE. OH WELL, YOU CAN STORE IT FOR LATER! PLEASE, TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK OF IT WHEN YOU ARE DONE! I THINK I REALLY GOT IT PERFECT WITH THIS ONE!"

"C-could you be a good friend and store it somewhere for me? I'll know where it is, don't worry."

"OF COURSE, ANYTHING YOU WISH!" Papyrus spun downstairs and there were some very loud crashing sounds, followed by a dog barking.

"WELL THAT WAS BIZARRE." said Gaster, who had been entranced by the whole spectacle. "IS HE COMING BACK?"

"uhh, i'm not sure. i think he might have fallen down the escalator."

"Is he alright at least?" Chara asked. "I mean, he fell down the stairs…"

"he'll be fine. papyrus does stuff like that all the time. normally he lands on his feet though."

In the distance, the sounds of various things falling over could be heard followed by Papyrus screaming "NYEH!" as he fell over and made even more noise.

"yeah, he's fine."

"You certainly have an interesting family, Sans," Asgore chuckled. At about that moment, Toriel started to wake up. "And now my entire family is awake!"

"Asgore…" Toriel said groggily. "What happened…?"

"You just had a bit of an episode and passed out, but don't worry, we're all still here."

"Why did I pass out…?"

"You saw my face, Mom," Chara chuckled.

"YES, YOUR MAJESTY, YOU MAY WISH TO TAKE A DEEP BREATH AS YOU LOOK UP. I PROMISE I WILL CORRECT IT AS SOON AS I CAN." Gaster said. "I APOLOGIZE GREATLY FOR THE ISSUE BUT IT IS VITAL THAT I FIGURE OUT WHAT IT IS."

"Gaster?" said Chara. "I don't need to be an anomaly to look like this, I've done it before."

"Heh, I remember that," said Asriel. "You did it once when we were kids, it gave me a jump."

Gaster turned to Chara. "REALLY? CAN YOU DO IT AT WILL?"

"Under certain circumstances, yeah… Only if I'm angry enough, or pleased enough."

Gaster thought for a second and then grabbed a large beaker, scraping as much of the substance as possible into it. "OKAY, THAT IS VERY INTERESTING. I MAY NEED YOU TO DO IT AGAIN SHOULD I REQUIRE MORE. DO YOU THINK YOU COULD DO THAT?"

"If you bring me a few bags of chocolate or remind me of my past self, yes."

"I SEE." Gaster looked at everyone. "IN THAT CASE, I WILL GO AND RECTIFY EVERYONE'S ANOMALY STATUS AT ONCE. SANS, PLEASE STAY WITH EVERYONE ELSE AND ANSWER QUESTIONS THEY MAY HAVE."

Gaster hurried down the escalator and the sound of the elevator downstairs could be heard.

"A few bags of chocolate?" asked Asgore, pointing to one of the bags of chocolate he left for Chara.

"Heh," Chara smiled at the bags. "I won't have any trouble being pleased in that case. I just have trouble being angry at anything besides myself."

"hey, that's really good." Sans said, his grin widening.

Suddenly, there was a huge commotion downstairs everyone heard the sound of Alphys' front door being forced open followed by a barrage of footsteps.

"HELLO DEARIES, I'M HERE LIVE FROM THE LAB OF DR. ALPHYS, WHERE I HAVE BEEN INFORMED THAT PRINCE CHARA IS MAKING A RECOVERY FROM THEIR INJURIES IN A DEVASTATING BATTLE. THIS IS AN MTT EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW!"

Suddenly, Mettaton came running up the escalator, being followed by several monsters with cameras and boom microphones.

"hey, nobody said you cou—" Sans started before being shoved out of the way by Mettaton who ran near Chara's bed, sticking a microphone into their face.

"PRINCE CHARA, LET'S US ASK THE QUESTION WHICH EVERYONE WILL BE ASKING FIRST: WHAT IS THIS STUFF ON YOUR FACE? IS IT THE RESULT OF SOME KIND OF CHOCOLATE OVERDOSE?"

"That's not chocolate," said Chara. "That's acid."

"ACID? OH MY. WHY IS IT THERE?"

"We're still figuring that out… Could you move the microphone just a tad back? I'm uncomfortable with it right in my face."

"DARLING, HAVEN'T YOU EVER SEEN AN INTERVIEW ON TV? THIS IS THE REGULATION STANDARD MICROPHONE DISTANCE." Mettaton spotted Toriel and Asgore and realised the potential for ratings. "WE NOW GO TO QUEEN TORIEL AND KING ASGORE, FOR THEIR VIEWS ON THE SITUATION."

Mettaton almost leapt over to them and shoved the microphone directly between them. Asgore and Toriel looked at each other.

"I just woke up," said Toriel. "I'm not sure what's going on, I promise."

"If you want my thoughts," Asgore said, looking at the cameras. "I don't know about the acid, but I'm glad Chara's recovering! I could care less about a little acid as long as it's hurting no one."

Mettaton could almost feel the ratings skyrocketing and thought of more questions to prolong the king and queen's screentime.

"THAT'S GOOD! NOW, HOW D–"

Sans quickly interrupted Mettaton.

"hey, uh, mettaton. chara needs to recover and we weren't really planning to allow visitors other than their family…"

Mettaton looked at Sans and grinned at him, but in a way that showed he was annoyed.

"OH DON'T WORRY DARLING, I'M JUST HERE TO LET THE PEOPLE KNOW THAT CHARA IS FINE!"

"It's okay, Sans," reassured Chara. "He's not bothering me."

"gaster's gonna be really annoyed."

"I'M SURE THE DOCTOR WILL UNDERSTAND. WHERE WAS I? OH YES. THAT'S ALL WE HAVE TIME FOR RIGHT NOW. TUNE IN LATER OF PART 2 OF THE INTERVIEW!"

The monsters with the camera and microphone lowered the equipment and went back downstairs.

"THAT WAS A GOOD INTERVIEW, I'LL GO AND RE-CHECK MY MAKEUP FOR PART 2!"

Mettaton walked off to the other side of the room and started fiddling with his face.

"Are you sure you're not annoyed?" Asriel asked.

"We can ask him to leave any time you want," Toriel added.

"He doesn't HAVE to stay," said Asgore. "You can kick him out."

"It's okay, really," said Chara reassuringly. "If I get annoyed, I'll let you know. Promise."

"yeah, you probably wouldn't be able to kick him out anyway without a lynch mob coming after you. people really like him." Sans chuckled and then sat down on a seat, relaxing and almost falling asleep.

"You'll know if I get annoyed." Chara put their hands behind their head. "That acid won't be black, it'll be red. That's when you should probably leave the room before something happens."

Suddenly the room was filled with a strange aura, it couldn't be seen but it could be felt very prominently. The feeling of being watched. Sans felt a strange sensation and touched his face, feeling the cracks begin to close and repair.

"hey, looks like g finally got to work fixing us."

"Heh, I was getting tired of this look," said Chara. "Guess now I just wait until I'm fixed."

"I sorta like this look," said Asriel. "I mean, minus the cracks… The markings are pretty cool."

Sans chuckled.

"THERE, EVERYTHING IS DEALT WI—" Gaster stopped as he saw Mettaton in the corner, still fiddling with his face. "WHAT'S HE DOING HERE?"

"He invited himself in, Gaster," said Chara. "It's okay, though. He's not bothering me."

Gaster grunted and decided to ignore Mettaton, walking over to the group. "SO, HOW ARE YOU FEELING, CHARA?"

"I'm fine, if a bit drowsy, thank you."

"THAT IS GOOD TO HEAR." Gaster smiled and turned to Asgore, Toriel and Asgore. "I CAN'T GIVE AN EXACT APPROXIMATION ON WHEN WE WILL BE ABLE TO RELEASE CHARA FROM CARE, BUT HOPEFULLY IT WILL BE SOON."

"That's quite alright," said Toriel. "As long as they return okay and alive, we have no complaints."

"And as long as I can come visit them every day," Asriel added.

"BUT, THE GOOD NEWS IS I HAVE CORRECTED EVERYONE AND CHARA'S FACE SHOULD SOON RETURN TO NORMAL."

As if on cue, Chara's face morphed back into their normal face, Gaster smiled as he watched on, glad to be rid of the horror. Chara too smiled, feeling their face to notice that there is no acid. They were almost overjoyed that they weren't in a horrifying state anymore, and Asriel swiftly hugged them.

"It feels so good to be able to be hugged again!" said Chara enthusiastically.

Gaster grinned almost impossibly wide at the scene, it was essentially a miracle. Despite going against all rules of the universe Chara's LOVE had dropped and that single line was full proof. Now it was just necessary to make sure it stayed that way.

Asriel tightened his grip on Chara and pushed his cheek against Chara's own. Chara smiled open-mouthed and closed their eyes. A more genuine look of happiness couldn't be achieved by them.

Mettaton glanced over and saw the scene. It was perfect. He quickly gestured to his film crew and they started rolling, they rushed over to the bed.

"WELCOME BACK TO MTT LIVE! NOW WE WILL CONCLUDE THE INTERVIEW WE STARTED WITH THE LAST BROADCAST. WE SEE BEFORE US A TOUCHING DISPLAY OF SIBLING LOVE." The cameras focused on Chara and Asriel before switching back to Mettaton. "WE SHALL NOW INTERVIEW THE GENIUS DR. WINGDINGS GASTER, THE EX-ROYAL GUARD WHO HAS MADE HIS RETURN!" Mettaton stuck the microphone into Gaster's face, Gaster immediately took on a look of annoyance. "DOCTOR, WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON THE SITUATION?"

Gaster simply looked at Mettaton and said "GET OUT OF MY LAB."

Mettaton was taken aback slightly but quickly recovered the situation.

"AS YOU CAN SEE, THE DOCTOR IS SAYING THAT HE WISHES THAT WE LEAVE, PRESUMABLY SO HE CAN CONTINUE DOING IMPORTANT DOCTOR THINGS TO ENSURE CHARA STAYS SAFE. THANK YOU FOR JOINING US ON MTT LIVE, I AM YOUR FABULOUS HOST, METTATON, SIGNING OFF!"

Once again the cameras stopped rolling and the crew began to file out, Mettaton giving Gaster a rather dramatic look of annoyance as he left.

Gaster sighed. "THANK GOD THAT SILLINESS IS OVER."

"Truth be told, I was a tad bothered by him," Chara admitted. "I just didn't want to hurt his feelings. I mean, he HAS feelings, right?"

"YES, HE DOES, BELIEVE IT OR NOT. IT JUST SO HAPPENS THAT HIS STUPID EGO OVERRIDES MOST OF THEM."

"I remember when I had a massive ego, it actually was as recent as yesterday and every time before…" Chara sighed. "I'm gonna try not to think about it, it's starting to make me angry."

"THINKING ABOUT THE PAST AND REFLECTING ON THE MISTAKES YOU MADE IS A GOOD WAY TO STOP YOURSELF FROM MAKING THEM AGAIN. DO NOT WORRY ABOUT GETTING ANGRY, IT'S A GOOD IDEA TO RELEASE TENSION THROUGH YOUR EMOTIONS AS LONG AS YOU DON'T HURT ANYONE WHILE DOING SO."

Asriel let go of Chara and rubbed their hair. Chara seemed to be in deep thought.

"It's fine, I don't think I can possibly get any angrier at myself than I already was before right now. So I don't really think it's a good idea to be thinking about that."

"THAT'S PERFECTLY FINE. BUT PLEASE KEEP WHAT I SAID IN MIND." Gaster turned to Asgore. "NOW THAT I AM BACK, I AM AT YOUR SERVICE ONCE AGAIN." he said, slightly bowing. "PLEASE DO NOT BE HESISTANT TO PUT ME TO WORK AGAIN. I AM RUNNING LOW ON ACTIVITIES TO OCCUPY MY FREE TIME, AFTER ALL."

"Golly," Asgore put a hand on his head. "Well, we already have a royal scientist… Speaking of which, where is Alphys?"

"The bathroom is my guess," Chara remarked.

"Regardless, I think you and Alphys could work side-by-side, as co-scientists, Gaster. What do you say?"

"THAT COULD WORK, I HAVE BEEN TEACHING ALPHYS A LOT ABOUT THE SCIENCES RECENTLY TO HELP HER FURTHER HER CAREER."

"Oh? How's she going along?"

"QUITE WELL, THOUGH I'M CERTAIN THAT SHE'S FAKING HER UNDERSTANDING OF SOME OF IT… I SHALL HAVE TO TRY HARDER TO SIMPLIFY."

"In all honesty, I didn't understand most of what you explained to us." Asgore scratched his head. "As long as she actually can understand it, it's quite fine."

"THAT'S OKAY, ASGORE, IT'S NOT IMPORTANT THAT YOU UNDERSTAND IT."

Gaster pulled Sans off the chair and sat in it, going back to examining the acid. Sans remained asleep on the floor.

Toriel looked over at Gaster. "I hope you don't mind me asking," she said. "But do you have an explanation to why Chara seems so… different? I mean, they're so kindhearted now."

"WELL, IT'S VERY COMPLICATED. YOU SEE, THERE IS A WAY OF MEASURING SOMEONE'S CAPACITY TO HURT, WE CALL THE VALUES USED FOR THIS EXECUTION POINTS AND LEVEL OF VIOLENCE. EXECUTION POINTS COME FROM THE INFLICTION OF PAIN ON OTHER LIVING THINGS AND LEVEL OF VIOLENCE INCREASES WITH EXP. LEVEL OF VIOLENCE IS WHAT MATTERS HERE, AS IT MEASURES ONE'S CAPACITY TO DISTANCE THEMSELF FROM OTHERS, MAKING IT EASIER FOR THEM TO… KILL AND BE MEAN. I DON'T KNOW WHAT, BUT SOMETHING IN CHARA'S PAST RESULTED IN THEIR LEVEL OF VIOLENCE BEING 19, ALMOST AT THE MAXIMUM OF 20. WHEN LEVEL OF VIOLENCE REACHES 20 THEY HAVE THE CAPACITY TO DESTROY THE UNIVERSE. IT WAS PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT IMPOSSIBLE TO DECREASE SOMEONE'S LEVEL OF VIOLENCE BUT CHARA HAS PROVEN THAT WRONG. THROUGHOUT THEIR JOURNEY THEIR LEVEL OF VIOLENCE HAS DECREASED ALL THE WAY BACK DOWN TO ONE. THEY ARE A GOOD PERSON NOW, THEY CAN FEEL LOVE AND COMPASSION. AND HOPEFULLY THEY WILL STAY THAT WAY."

"From their past?" Toriel put a hand on her chin. "Why, I don't think they've ever done something to be mean and able to kill. I mean, I've seen them able to hurt, but not kill."

"Gaster," Chara began. They looked down at their chest. "You… remember those other timelines, right? You two are reminding me of them…"

"PLEASE, CHARA, TRY NOT TO LET IT GET TO YOU. SOMETIMES IT IS NECESSARY TO LOOK BACK ON THESE THINGS."

"I'm really sorry, it's just… All these thoughts…"

Chara stopped talking. They suddenly fell into unconsciousless.

"do you remember me?" Sans said, offering Chara mercy. It was this again. "look, let's just drop the weapons and… well, my job will be a lot easier."

Chara suddenly felt something, this was the most recent timeline. This is how they died. Chara broke down, they fell to their knees and dropped their knife, sobbing with their eyes closed. Sans kept his same expression, realizing Chara had lost. They ran up to Sans and hugged him tightly.

"I-I'm so sorry…" they apologized. "J-just kill me, get it over with…"

Without a second between words and action, bones came through the ground and impaled Chara. They hadn't a second to react, they were suddenly back again.

"Chara… I don't like this plan," said Asriel.

Chara's eyes on their deathbed opened. Asriel, Asgore, Toriel… they all were around the bed. This was a long time ago, in another timeline. They realized that they were about to die. They realized that their sorry excuse for a goodbye was nothing, they were about to leave without caring about a thing. They began to cry. Asriel jumped up onto Chara's bed and hugged them. It felt refreshing to see Asriel as a child, and feel like a child again. At the same time, it made them angry to feel so selfish again.

Chara woke up. The amount of mixed emotions they felt led them straight to anger. A lot of anger. In fact, they were so angry that a red acid came from their eyes, and their pupils glowed red. They couldn't express their anger in actions or words, so they simply just lied in bed, shaking.

Toriel, Asriel, and Asgore looked at them in shock.

Gaster's eyes widened and he stared, quickly giving Sans a hard kick to the ribcage to wake him up.

"huh? what's wro-" Sans' sentence cut short as he noticed Chara. "holy crap."

"FOR ONCE IN MY LIFE, I'M NOT SURE WHAT TO DO." Gaster quietly said, almost speechless. It was as if he could feel the sheer amount of anger emanating from Chara.

All Sans and Gaster could do was stare as a drop of acid dripped onto the bed and burned straight through it, straight through the floor and continued.

"I'D RECOMMEND KEEPING YOUR DISTANCE."

"Gaster, what's wrong with them…?" Asriel asked, shakily.

Chara looked at Asriel. They felt that feeling of selfishness again, they were drawing attention to themself. They could have been awake, hugging Asriel, Asgore, and Toriel… but they had to recollect memories that caused such a powerful anger feeling inside of them that they caused all of this confusion. Their anger grew, but at the same time, so too did their need to cry. To cry more tears of regret. But they couldn't, any tear that came out was trapped under the acid and evaporated instantly.

"SOMETHING VERY BAD IS HAPPENING TO THEM AND TIME. THAT'S THE SIMPLEST WAY I CAN PUT IT." Gaster inched closely to the hole the acid had burned in the floor and crouched down to examine it. "COMPLETELY ERASED…"

He pulled a few rags from out of his pocket and placed them in strategic positions where the acid would most likely drip.

Gaster very quickly backed away, around Chara was a very strong feeling of distortion where the universe was struggling to deal with Chara being in this state. A few more drips of acid fell and landed on some of the rags, which remained perfectly fine.

"CHARA, FOR THE SAKE OF THE UNIVERSE YOU NEED TO TRY AND CALM DOWN, PLEASE."

Chara looked at their hands. Everything about them made themself angry. They closed their eyes, they had to think about something that made them happy. That calmed them down. That made them sad even, anything but angry. But there was nothing. Nothing. The thought of them being unable to stop themselves from destroying everything made them extremely sad. They started to cry. All the anger faded, it was replaced with sadness. The acid faded.

"Chara!" Asriel hugged Chara tightly. "You did it!"

Chara tried to say something, but they were crying too much. Asriel rubbed their hair gently, reassuringly. Gaster sighed heavily and went back into a relaxed stance. He collected all the rags with acid and then grabbed a beaker, put it in his pocket, brought it back out and transferred the liquid into it. He swirled it around a bit before checking if anyone was watching as he dipped his finger into the acid and then proceeded to put his finger into his mouth.

He emitted a grunt of approval and put the beaker next to the test tube with the black acid. "HM, TANGY."

Sans walked up to Gaster and quietly whispered to him.

"what the hell was that?"

"THAT WAS SOMETHING THAT SHOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED. THE UNIVERSE IS STRUCTURED IN SUCH A WAY THAT SOME THINGS SHOULD ONLY EXIST IN SOME AREAS OF SOME TIMELINES. IT IS VERY SPECIFIC AND HAVING SOMETHING IN THE WRONG PLACE AT THE WRONG TIME COULD PROVE FATAL. WE GOT LUCKY."

"I-I'm sorry, A-Asriel…" Chara apologized, burying their face in Asriel's shoulder. "I-I… I just… T-this w-would have been my fault… again…"

"Shh," Asriel tried to comfort Chara. "Did you do anything wrong? No, you didn't. It's all fine. You can cry all you want, I'll be your crying shoulder…"

Gaster watched the scene and sighed again. Relieved nothing worse happened.

He turned to the table with the two acids and began testing on them. "SANS, GO AND MAKE SURE THE SITUATION STAYS DEFUSED, PLEASE."

Sans said nothing and simply walked over to Chara and Asriel. "you two okay? that was scary for a second."

"Yeah, we're fine," said Asriel. "I dunno what happened, but it's over now."

"don't worry about it, hopefully it won't happen again. let's all relax and have a hot dog or two." Sans pulled out 2 hot dogs from his pockets and gave them to Asriel and Chara. "anyone else want one?" he said, turning around to face the rest of the room.

"Oh, no thank you," said Toriel. "But thank you graciously for the offer, Sans."

"I couldn't possibly eat anything else," Asgore added. "Well, not yet…"

Meanwhile Gaster stood up holding the two containers of acid.

"I MUST GO DOWN TO MY OWN LAB TO COMPLETE MY TESTS ON THESE."

Gaster continued towards the the down escalator, quickly bowing to the King and Queen before leaving.

As Gaster descended, Sans yelled "please, don't take too long." Masked behind his chuckle was the fear that something very bad may happen again.

"Heh," Chara stopped crying. "Asriel, wasn't it you who was the crybaby?"

"Oh shush, Chara," Asriel chuckled, taking a bite out of his hot dog. Chara did the same with their own hot dog. "The last time I cried even once was the whole buttercups accident… Oh man."

"Good times…" Chara took another bite out of their hot dog. "Though I'm kinda glad they're over. Mainly because now, I get to live knowing I'm not a selfish brat."

Sans looked and decided that it probably wouldn't happen again.

"heh, i'm just glad everything's fine now. i don't think things have ever been better down here."

Down in the lab, Gaster had already reached his lab and began testing the acid. He carefully put it a drop of the black acid into a device to analyze it. He looked at the readout and grunted before testing the red acid. He began talking to himself under his breath.

"THE BLACK ACID IS FAIRLY NORMAL BUT THE RED ACID…" He took the remaining red acid and continued to test it further. "WHAT WAS THE PURPOSE?"

Gaster thought for a while before going to his secret back room and began checking things on the computer.

Back at the room, Chara had just finished their hot dog and Asriel was working on his. Chara looked to Sans.

"Sans," Chara began. They leaned in so only Sans could hear. It was about time they discussed this matter with him. "Do you remember the other timelines?"

Sans was slightly startled by how sudden the question came but quickly regained his composure.

"well… kinda. i can definitely remember the different possible ways that they can go but i've been through so many that i tend to not remember small details. normally they'll stick out if something major happens though."

"Then you remember… the last one?" The way Chara said those last three words made it seem as if everything around Sans and Chara just disappeared and was irrelevant. All there was now, was just them and their discussion, and the rather vivid memory of the last timeline…

Sans' eyed widened slightly and his pupils shrank. There was a long pause as Sans thought until he responded as simply as he could.

"yes."

"I had no right to take control over them, Sans. I had no right to mess with what could have been your perfect ending… I'm sorry." Though as genuine as Chara's apology was, the memory that they had triggered made it difficult to forgive them.

Sans tried hard to shake off the feeling. Tried to crack a pun, Tried to chuckle. He couldn't. He tried to count the number of times he had seen everyone in the underground get slaughtered, but the number was far too high to count.

Sure, there was a fair share of good endings but eventually it would always end up the same. The world would be reset and he'd end up back in Snowdin, Not knowing whether or not he'd have to watch everyone die again this time. Gaster was the only one who could have known but Gaster refused to reveal information to him. Sans thought about the times where had hadn't waited, he just killed the human as soon as they stepped out of the ruins. Those times he hadn't even bothered to check what their course of action was going to be.

He hadn't cared, simply, something about it gave him a sick sense of satisfaction. To see the the person that had been responsible for the repeated destruction of the universe fail before their plan was even set in motion was relieving. After thinking through all this, he figured that no matter what he said now it wouldn't be good. At least he could hold himself back from attacking.

"i had a timer," he began. "it was specifically designed to ignore the resets. no matter what, it always kept counting up. it never went down. it let me keep track of just how much actual time i've spent doing this. last i checked it was almost at a year, but that was a long time ago. i got rid of it after i gave up." Sans paused. "despite your recent change in heart you can't change the past and i know that no matter how much praise people give you for being such a good person all of a sudden, no matter how many good deeds you commit from now on, your sins will always outweigh everything else. i also know that no matter how many times i had to watch everyone die, you were the one killing them. and you know what? the more good things you do, the more hatred you will feel for yourself whenever you look back on the past. i don't know what will happen when that hatred peaks. maybe something unexpected, maybe everything will go back to the way it was." Sans let out a slightly forced laugh. "my point is, kid… even if i forgive you, you're not ever gonna forgive yourself."

Chara looked at the ground, their expression full of grief. They hugged Sans suddenly.

"I understand," said Chara. "Everything that happened was my fault, and I don't expect forgiveness… If anything, I expect you to hate me for the rest of my existence, and the rest of yours." They let go, looking into Sans' eyes. "Sans, I want you to listen to me. For the first time in my life, I can finally feel like a normal person. I can finally feel like people care about me, and not everyone has to die… Scratch that, I feel like no one ever has to die. Ever since I just… stopped, it seems like everything that once wanted me dead just ceased to bother me and drive me to revenge. This time, Sans. This time, I promise… there won't be anymore resets. We'll all live a normal life, and I'll die a normal death."

"heh. you say that but i've heard it before. the universe has a way of always working things out back to the way they were. we'll just have to see what happens i guess. even gaster's equipment doesn't know what's going on with this timeline anymore so who knows?" Sans made a vague shrugging motion through the hug, thought for a second and then returned the hug. "i guess whatever happens, might as well enjoy the ride."

Chara held back tears, feeling more guilt. They instead masked their guilt with a smile and a chuckle. "Heh… Yeah…"

The surroundings went black. Chara was sitting on a bed of sunflowers, facing Asriel whom had a camera with the lens cap still on.

"Okay, Chara," said Asriel. His childish voice felt refreshing. "Do your scary face!"

Chara realized that this was actually a positive memory, one they enjoyed remembering. "Heh," they began. "Take off the lens cap."

"I-it's on!?" Asriel looked at the camera's lens. "O-oh, it is… Sorry, one second!" Asriel removed the lens cap and pointed the camera at Chara. "Okay, go!"

"Asriel, I don't wanna do a scary face."

"What…? How come?"

"Come here instead, I have a better idea." Chara beckoned Asriel over. He came immediately with the camera. Chara put an arm around him and held him close. "Turn the camera around, let's get a better memory."

Chara looked at the lens, smiling in an innocent way, by Asriel who too smiled. If only the memory went like this. Chara in the past had loved to scare Asriel, and anyone else they could. Though the fear only gave a prelude to their murderous thoughts.

Next thing Chara knew, their surroundings returned and they fell off the bed. "Nuh–!" they grunted as they fell off the bed. Asriel rushed over to them. They chuckled at the situation they were in as Asriel laughed with them and picked them back up onto the bed. Sans still stood where he was before. The dream must have lasted only a few seconds, of what felt like forever.

"Hey," Asriel said, rubbing Chara's hair. "Don't go falling off beds now, Chara."

Chara chuckled. "Sorry, I just lost focus on where I was for a second there." They looked at Sans.

After hearing what he said before, they wished they'd have stayed dead at the first timeline. Yet at the same time, they were so happy that they're living to make friends. People that actually cared about them. The feeling was indescribable to their past self, but they could certainly describe what love felt like now. Even so, Sans' words haunted them, and they had never felt so terrible in their life when being told the truth, as it hurt so much.

Sans chuckled and looked at Chara, wondering if he had been too hard. He didn't care too much but he felt kind of bad. He figured that if Chara could handle the truth being layed down on them and still stay the way they were it'd prove that it's going to last a while…

Meanwhile back down in the lab, Gaster had slammed his head against the keyboard of the computer. He couldn't figure out why the acid was made in such a strange way and it upset him, while at the same time making him giddy as for once there was something he didn't know. Gaster decided to simply store the acid away safely and worry about it later. Savour the feeling of not knowing something for a while.

He walked back out the lab and listened carefully, seeing if he could still hear the sound of Alphys vomiting up Papyrus' spaghetti. She had ceased her vomitting. It seems that all the contents of the spaghetti had finally been removed from her system, which allowed her to flush the toilet a final time which somehow managed to be rid of all of the crap that was inside of it.

Minutes afterwards, Alphys arrived at the room at which the Dreemurrs and Sans resided.

"H-hello!" she greeted. "How are, uh, we all holding up?"

"everything's alright i suppose." Sans said, shrugging. "we should be the ones asking how you're holding up though. i think that's the 'best' reaction i've ever seen to my brother's spaghetti."

Alphys pointed at Sans. "I-I still don't forgive you for not telling me not to eat whatever was in there."

"i'm sorry, honestly i didn't expect it to be that bad." Sans chuckled.

Gaster meanwhile had came up from the lab and was ascending the escalator. "AH, ALPHYS, THERE YOU ARE."

"H-hello, Gaster," Alphys greeted, looking to him and putting her hands in front of herself.

Gaster looked at everybody else. "DID ANYTHING INTERESTING HAPPEN WHILE I WAS GONE?"

"uh, nope. nothing." Sans said quickly.

"Just Chara falling off the bed," Asriel chuckled, patting Chara's shoulder.

"I did not," Chara lied in a joking manner.

Gaster laughed slightly. "AH, I SEE." He pulled up a seat and sat down. "THERE IS NOT MUCH TO DO TODAY."

"Well, how about we get some more hot dogs?" Asgore proposed.

"Did you not say you weren't hungry?" asked Toriel.

"I said I wasn't in the mood yet. Now I'm in the mood for hot dogs to rain from the sky and into my mouth."

Toriel giggled a bit. "And if you catch all of them, I guess you'd be the WeINNER"

Sans let out a very loud chuckle. "i sure am glad the underground is led by such a funny quwiener."

Gaster simply sighed.

Toriel laughed in response to Sans' pun. "Oh, all of this laughter sure is making me hot, dog."

Sans let out a full on laugh. "good one."

In the distance Papyrus could be hear shouting "NYEEEEHG!" from downstairs.

Sans finished laughing and pulled some hot dogs from out of his pocket, handing them out. "that reminds me, it's about time i went and set up my hot dog stand. but first, i got a new knock knock joke for ya, tori."

"Oh?" Toriel looked excited. Meanwhile Asriel and Chara were looking down trying to conceal laughter at the awful puns. "Hopefully I am not taking up too much time… You need to ketchup on that business of yours!"

"in a second." Sans laughed. "alright, i'll tell you the joke, but you gotta start it."

"Heh, okay. Knock knock!"

"who's there?" Sans' grin widened and he barely held back laughter as he looked at Toriel.

"Er…" Toriel had no idea what to say, so looked at Sans in anticipation of what he might be thinking of.

In response to Toriel's confused noise sans could no longer hold his laughter and fell to the floor. "oh man, i love it when that works."

Sans looked at Toriel in hopes she'd catch onto the joke. Toriel's eyes went wide and she blinked a few times. She started to laugh.

"Oh my, Sans, that was…" she began. She paused to laugh some more. "You left me so confused!"

Sans let out the rest of his laugher and stood back up. "alright, i best get to my stand."

Sans went downstairs, taking a shortcut to one of his stalls in hotland when he got to the bottom. He set up shop and looked around. Upon seeing no-one was nearby right now, he decided to take a quick nap.

Meanwhile, much farther away at Undyne's house, Undyne was training Mike and David for their role in the Royal Guard. They were being forced to hold one giant, 3 meter long sword each. Both swords felt like they weighed a ton.

"Quit shaking!" Undyne shouted. "You're both so WEAK!"

"Undyne, t-this–" David tried to speak, but was cut off.

"–Is AWESOME!? YES IT IS! FEEL THE BURN!"

Mike was speechless and conflicted. On one hand Undyne was pushing both him and David far too hard but on the other hand he was finally becoming the true knight he wanted to be. Mike figured there wasn't much to do but do his best to try and follow Undyne's orders.

Seeing how David and Mike couldn't hold the swords up without shaking, Undyne made a growling sound and took the swords from their hands. She somehow managed to lift them both over her head with one hand each, without even shaking.

"See this?" She nodded up to the swords. "THIS is how you punks should be doing it!"

Undyne dropped the swords on the ground by David and Mike again, pointing at them to try and signal them to pick them back up. Mike groaned and leaned down to pick up his sword, he strained and struggled as he lifted it and then when he finally managed to hold it he fell backwards and dropped it. David fared no better. As soon as he picked the sword up, the sword weighed down on him, falling onto his shoulders and pushing him straight to the ground. Undyne put a hand to her face and groaned.

"Ugh, fine," Undyne said, huffing. "Least you lasted a few minutes. Guess that's enough for today… for now!"

Mike sighed in relief. He pushed the sword off of him, stood up and brushed down his clothes. Despite the harshness of the training, he was still very grateful for it. "Thank you for training us."

Undyne giggled, looking at Mike.

"Heh," she paused. "You lasted a few seconds longer than that dragon and his bunny friend. You don't know 'em."

Mike looked at Undyne in disbelief. "I lasted longer than a DRAGON? Wow! That's amazing!"

"Yeah you did! Don't get too excited, we still got combat training, posture, marching, patrolling, shift changing, cooking…"

"C-cooking?" Mike's face immediately scrunched up in confusion.

"Obviously. EVERY good Guard knows how to cook! Isn't that something you guys learn on the surface too?"

"Oh, Mike," David began. "You're gonna love the cooking lessons, trust me."

"Well, I guess it can't be too bad. I mean, compared to the other stuff it's gonna be really easy, right?"

Undyne just laughed.

"Fuhuhuhu!" Undyne cackled. "EASY!? You wish!"

Mike frowned. He should have known that as long as Undyne was teaching it, it wasn't going to be easy.

"Well, what's next for today then?"

"As your 'merciful' trainer, I say we take a break," Undyne declared boldly. "Surprises await for you two nerds whenever I feel like figuring out what those surprises are…"

"Surprises?" Mike groaned, he didn't much care for surprises and one from Undyne would probably much worse than any other surprise.

"Uhuh! And you best believe these surprises will be…" Undyne jumped up on her kitchen counter and put her hands into fists. "The most surprising surprises that have EVER SURPRISED!… In the history of surprises."

After the brief, over-dramatic speech, Undyne descended back to the floor.

Mike tittered a little bit at how over-dramatic Undyne's small speech was and then regained his composure. "Well, if we're done training, what do you guys do for fun down here?"

"Well, what do you guys do? Guaranteed we can do all that and more! Actually, do you guys wanna go to like, the MTT Resort? We can get some burgers, even though they're served by a total nerd? After that, let's get some doughnuts!"

"Food sounds good." Mike said, subtly gesturing towards his stomach which had been rumbling non-stop all day.

"Yeah, I'm starved," David agreed.

"Awesome, let's go!" said Undyne, starting off to the door.

As soon as the walk began, Undyne initiated a conversation that there was no way out of.

"So who here's had burgers before, huh?"

"I did," said David. "Over at Grillby's."

"Grillby's? Man, that place is great. The MTT Resort has pretty good stuff too, the guy who serves it is a total wreck though."

"I haven't had a burger before… but what's that about the guy who serves it?" Mike enquired.

"Oh he's just…" Undyne paused, shrugging only one arm. "You'll see what I mean."

Mike shrugged in dismissal, figuring it was probably some minor quirk. On the way to the MTT Resort, the group encountered a hot dog stand with a rather lazy salesman, Sans, of whom was sleeping. Undyne quietly giggled and approached the stand. Smashing a fist on the stand, she screamed.

"HEY!" she bellowed at the top of her lungs. "We've been standin' here for six hours wantin' a hot dog, and you've just been sleepin', you lazy bones!"

Despite the force of the slam almost destroying the whole stand, Sans very calmly sat up and stretched. He looked up at Undyne, then leaned to see the humans standing behind her.

"if you've been waiting for so long, why didn'tcha wake me up earlier?" Sans said, lightly chuckling. Sans pulled out 3 hot dogs and placed them on the cracked stand. "for you, that'll be on the house. anything else i can get ya?"

Undyne burst out laughing. "Sans, you know that was just a joke, right? But yeah we'll take those hot dogs now."

"Undyne, isn't that kinda stealing…?" asked David.

"He's GIVING us free hot dogs, David! What's so bad about that?"

"yeah, relax. it's a gift. i always give out a couple of freebies every once in a while. it makes people come here more often." There was a beat. "that, and i can't really be bothered to negotiate a price."

Undyne took all three hot dogs and gave one to David, and one to Mike. She kept the third for herself and immediately ate it.

"Boy, I sure needed a hot dog after a long day of yelling at these nerds for being such little wimps!" Undyne giggled. "Say, how's Chara doin'? They alive and well?"

Sans thought for a moment. "yeah, they're recovering pretty well. some weird stuff happened but it'll be fine. asriel's pretty happy."

"Weird stuff?" Undyne slammed her hands down on the hot dog stand's counter and leaned forward. "Tell me 'bout all this weird stuff! Is it cool?"

Sans shrugged. "it's not that important, some acid stuff came out their eyes but it's all good now. g's tryin to figure out what was with that."

"ACID!?" Undyne's eyes went wide with excitement. "I wanna hear ALL about it! Tell me every single tiny and huge detail! Tell me all about it!"

Sans considered his options and decided he might as well tell Undyne what had happened. She probably wouldn't leave him alone about it if he didn't.

"well, back when gaster messed us all up they ended up having some weird black acid leaking out their face. stuff was really good at burning through things. apparently it's something they can do at will if they're upset. g was naturally interested in it so he took a sample. later on, they got really upset and there was a new type of acid, some red stuff. it was much stronger than the black acid so once again gaster took samples. he's still trying to figure out what it was but everything else is pretty much normal now. everyone's happy regardless of weird acid."

"Oh my god." Undyne put her hands on her cheeks. "That sounds… frickin' AWESOME! Man, I wish I was there to see it! Heh, well we gotta go, Sans. Nice talk. Oh and uh, tell the guys and girls at the lab that I said hey."

"sure, i will." Sans said. "where ya headed, anyway?"

"Oh we're goin' to the MTT Resort. Wanna come? Bet you'll REALLY get the guy who serves burgers there mad, heh. Just set up your hot dog stand, bet he'll go ballistic."

Sans chuckled, Burgerpants always had the best reactions to stuff. Setting up near him would be pretty funny.

"sure, guess i'll tag along. sounds like it could be pretty funny."

Undyne turned around at the group. "We've got ourselves a tagalong, let's go!"

Without waiting for a response from the group, Undyne started to head off towards the MTT Resort, with the rest following. She looked to Sans a few times to make sure he was still following on the way.

"Sans, you know a shortcut? The anticipation is killin' me! More specifically, it's beatin' me up, THEN killing me! That's much more exciting than just plain killing."

Sans shrugged. "of course i have a shortcut. just follow me."

Sans opened up a door leading to the Shortcut Hallway and went through the door leading directly outside MTT Resort, making sure Undyne and co. followed. As soon as they were through, Undyne immediately started approaching the front doors of the resort. David and Mike followed behind.

"Oh I can't wait to see his reaction…" Undyne cackled under her breath.

Sans chuckled to himself, knowing the hilarity that was about to ensue. He followed Undyne into the resort and found a nice spot right outside the burger store within. He very quickly set up a makeshift hot dog stand using the materials he had at hand, making sure to paint "HOT DOGS" in giant red letters above it. Then he simply stood behind it and waited for the magic to happen.

Emerging from making burgers, none other than Burgerpants looked towards Sans' hot dog stand. His fists started shaking and he broke out in a sweat. His eye twitched and he leaned his head out of the serving window.

"Buddy…" said Burgerpants angrily. "You wanna maybe take that OUTSIDE!?"

Sans gathered himself and prepared to act completely oblivious. "pretty cold outside for hotland today. i think my customers would much prefer the stand to be inside."

"COLD!?" Burgerpants slammed a fist down on the counter, but hurt his hand and grasped it. "You're just… You're just trying to mess with me, huh? Well, guess what? I won't be so easily–"

Undyne approached Sans' hot dog stand. Smiling as if oblivious to Burgerpants, she placed a few gold coins on the counter.

"One hot dog, please," she said in a happy tone.

"of course i'm not trying to mess with you." Sans said as he collected the gold and handed a hot dog to Undyne. "i'm just trying to make a living. i just feel customers would prefer to be inside where it's a nice medium temperature and there are some comfy chairs to sit and eat. what do you say, undyne?"

"Sans gets it! Thanks, Sans." Undyne walked over to a chair and started to eat her hot dog.

Burgerpants was furious. "I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT YOU'RE DOING THIS! WHY!? I'M JUST TRYING TO MAKE A LIVING TOO! I'M JUST TRYING TO SURVIVE!"

"well, so am i." Sans said. Internally he was laughing up a storm but on the outside he maintained perfect composure.

At that moment, a leg came around the corner. Then another. Then Mettaton, who immediately looked at Burgerpants talking to Sans and adopted an angry expression.

"BURGERPANTS! WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUTSIDE OF THE STORE? YOU KNOW THE RULES. ONE GOLD LESS IN YOUR PAYCHECK FOR EACH MINUTE NOT SPENT INSIDE THE RESTERAUNT!"

"I–…" Burgerpants shook out of fear. His expression just turned to one of pure fear. He slowly re-entered the burger stand he should have been in. "Y-you gotta listen to me, boss… This skeleton, he… He is selling hot dogs. Right outside. MY BURGER PLACE."

Mettaton looked at Sans, and then back at Burgerpants, quickly picking up on what was going on, "SO?"

"SO!?" Burgerpants felt all the frustration of working for Mettaton built up. "He's stealing my– OUR business! You're just gonna stand for that!?"

"DARLING, YOUR JOB IS TO SELL BURGERS. MAYBE IF YOU WERE GOOD AT YOUR JOB CUSTOMERS WOULD BE GOING TO YOU INSTEAD OF HIM." Mettaton said, taking on a very sassy tone as he did so.

"You…" Burgerpants wanted to say something to Mettaton. But he at the same time didn't want to be fired for saying it. "Are you implying… that I'm a bad employee?"

"WELL, AS FAR AS EMPLOYEES GO YOU'RE CERTAINLY NOT THE BEST. THIS STORE IS THE LOWEST SOURCE OF MTT'S PROFIT." Mettaton smiled. "THOUGH THEN AGAIN…" he said, sticking a leg up 90 degress in the air. "YOU DO HAVE TO COMPETE WITH THIS."

"I have an idea," said Undyne, just finishing her hot dog. "Sell hot dogs too. Hot dogs are so in, I hear. Have some variety, y'know?"

"THAT'S A GREAT IDEA! WE'LL BEGIN SALES RIGHT AWAY. JUST AS SOON AS I THINK OF A WAY TO INCLUDE MY NAME IN THEM!" Mettaton said, grinning and putting his leg back down. Mettaton turned to Sans and winked, then turned back to Burgerpants. "IF I CATCH YOU OUTSIDE THE RESTERAUNT AGAIN, THERE'LL BE VERY BIG CONSEQUENCES."

Burgerpants swallowed some saliva and nodded. He looked towards Sans and glared. Undyne was holding back some laughter.

Sans began to chuckle. "hey burgerpants, you look pretty down. want a hot dog?"

Undyne started to cackle. Burgerpants on the other hand was much less than amused. In fact, he was furious.

"You are some worthless little weirdo, skeleton," Burgerpants said, trying to restrain further anger. "And YOU TOO, fish!"

"Oh ho ho," Undyne smiled, standing up. "That's bold, kitty cat. Wanna back up your words with some cat-fishing?"

"I–!" Burgerpants realized that leaving again would get him into serious trouble. He sunk behind the counter.

"Aw, that's right. Kitty can't leave his cage. Oh well."

Sans' chuckle intensified as he placed a hot dog on Burgerpants' counter. "enjoy."

Mettaton watched with glee, and whispered for a camera crew to come and film the events unfolding, seeing the potential for a comedy show. Burgerpants stood up and refused to take the hot dog.

"I'm not eating that," Burgerpants declared.

"But every little kitty cat's gotta eat his protein to grow big and strong!" Undyne said, doing a cartwheel over to in front of Burgerpants' stand, smashing her hands down on the counter which made Burgerpants recoil a bit. "It's a little sad when a fish is stronger than a cat!"

"Not every fish is a towering monster like you are."

Undyne jokingly grabbed Burgerpants' hands and lifted them in such a way to make it seem like he's flexing. "Your arms are so tiny! You should work out more." She let go of Burgerpants' arms.

Mettaton stepped in, making sure the camera which was now pointed in the direction of Burgerpants and Undyne could see him.

"UNDYNE HAS A POINT, DARLING. MAYBE IF YOU LOOKED MORE APPEALING YOU'D ATTRACT MORE CUSTOMERS. YOU SHOULD GET ON THAT.I'LL HAVE A GYM INSTALLED IN THE SHOP'S BACK ROOM RIGHT AWAY."

"What…?" Before Burgerpants could further express confusion, Undyne interrupted him.

"That's an AWESOME idea!" Undyne jumped up onto the counter. "You guys have my… invisible seal of approval! Don't ask why I have an invisible seal, because it doesn't exist, but it DOES approve!"

"EXCELLENT, UNDYNE, DEAR, WOULD YOU BE WILLING TO GIVE A STATEMENT TO ENDORSE THE NEW FACILITY?" Mettaton almost overloaded with the potential for publicity and an endorsement from the head of the royal guard would boost the public's interest by a ridiculous amount.

By this point Sans was on the floor with laughter. The events that had unfolded simply from him setting up his hot dog stand were amazing. Undyne jumped down from the counter and pointed to the crack in it from her hands alone.

"Y'see this?" She pointed both hands at the crack to further emphasise it. "THIS is what you can do if you work out as much as I did! No doubt the MTT Gym'll let you get to my amount of strength!"

"WONDERFUL! THANK YOU SO MUCH!" Mettaton rushed to the cameraman and whispered into his ear. "MAKE SURE YOU GET A CLOSE UP OF THAT CRACK OF APPROVAL!"

Mettaton went back over to Burgerpants. "AS FOR YOU, AS PART OF THE MTT GYM PROGRAM, THE STORE WILL BE INTEGRATED INTO THE GYM. YOU WILL BE TASKED WITH THE RESPONSIBILTY OF SERVICING CUSTOMERS OF BOTH. YOU GET TO DO TWO JOBS AT ONCE, AREN'T YOU LUCKY?"

"W-will I at least be payed a little extra?" Burgerpants asked, seeming just the slightest bit eager.

"PROBABLY NOT, BUT WE'LL SEE!" Mettaton said, pulling over the monster responsible for handling the paychecks of employees and whispering to them. "GIVE HIM A SMALL PAY RISE, NOTHING TOO BIG. ADD IT GRADUALLY TO HIS PAYCHECK SO HE DOESN'T NOTICE."

Sans was surprised to overhear the excahnge but thought nothing of it. Undyne walked over to Sans and put an arm on the counter of his hot dog stand. She seemed to be proud.

"Man," she said triumphantly. "All that JUST from a little bit of messing with kitty-cat. That was fun."

"yeah." Sans chuckled. "i should annoy him more often."

"Just don't put him out of a job, capiche?" Undyne giggled a bit. "We still need someone to go cat-fishing with, y'know?"

"i'd never hurt him like that. don't tell anyone, but i'm pretty sure ol' mettaton has a bit of a soft spot for burgerpants, based on how he just gave him a bit extra pay," Sans kept his voice low as to make sure Burgerpants didn't hear.

"Aw, that's pretty nice. I won't tell anyone, promise."

"yeah, you'd be surprised how nice of a guy mettaton is beneath his ego." Sans explained.

"Reminds ya' of some other people too, doesn't it? Think about it."

Those words alone were enough to be a reminder of Chara. Their former ego would have been large enough to fill the entire Earth if it were some sort of substance, but now they prove to be a very kind person with all of their sins reminding them of what would be if they hadn't changed. Though, are they really that good a person truly? Can everything they've done be ignored? Obviously not.

Sans thought for a bit but simply answered with "yeah, i guess so."

The very next day, back in Alphys' lab, lay an awakening Chara from their peaceful slumber. They looked at their hands as they woke up. For some reason, they felt different. They felt much better. Better than they were feeling the past days, like they could get up and walk. But they knew better than to just leave, they didn't even have the consent of Gaster.

"G-Gaster," Chara said groggily. Shaking their head to wake themselves up, they raised their voice. "Gaster!"

Gaster formed from a black mass on the floor.

"OH, I MUST HAVE FALLEN ASLEEP. WHAT IS IT?"

"Gaster, I'm feeling much better. I feel as if I could get up and walk normally. Do you mind if I try to?"

"IF YOU FEEL THAT YOU ARE READY TO TRY AND GET UP, GO AHEAD. I WILL MAKE SURE YOU DON'T GET HURT."

"Okay. Promise me you won't laugh if I fall on my face, please."

Chara sat up in the bed and turned to where their feet would touch the ground. Slowly standing up to make sure they won't fall, they started to take a few steps with ease. With this, they continued to walk normally until they stopped so they could turn around to look at and smile at Gaster innocently and triumphantly.

"VERY GOOD. IT LOOKS LIKE YOU ARE ALMOST FULLY RECOVERED. FOR NOW, PLEASE DO NOT MOVE TOO FAR FROM THE LAB WITHOUT BEING SUPERVISED THOUGH, INCASE SOMETHING UNEXPECTED HAPPENS."

Gaster's warm smile broadened slightly.

"Heh, I don't plan on leaving unless with someone. Preferably Asriel. I won't complain if someone else walks me home."

"THAT SOUNDS FINE TO ME. PLEASE BE SURE TO TELL ME IF ANYTHING ABNORMAL HAPPENS." Gaster sat on his stool and started setting up his equipment again.

Chara stretched their arms. It felt so great to move again, after lying down nonstop for a few days, save for being wheeled over to the bathroom every now and then.

"Can I ask you something, Gaster?" asked Chara.

Gaster turned back to Chara. "YES, WHAT IS IT?"

"I asked Sans this question, but I know that you might have something different to say." Chara inhaled slowly. They were nervous to ask Gaster what they asked Sans, but they were curious enough to ask it. "Do you forgive me for… everything before I stopped being what I was? I understand if you don't, Sans doesn't."

Gaster's face turned slightly more serious, yet it still had a friendly look to it.

"CHARA, THE THINGS YOU HAVE DONE IN OTHER TIMELINES AND THE PAST ARE JUST THAT. AS FAR AS I AM CONCERNED RIGHT NOW, YOU ARE A MIRACLE. YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO TURN BACK INTO A GOOD PERSON BUT YOU DID. AND FOR THAT REASON I HOLD A LOT OF RESPECT FOR YOU."

Chara blinked a few times as their eyes went wide in surprise. They weren't expecting such praise and forgiveness from the likes of Gaster.

"H-heh, I wasn't expecting you to forgive me with open arms, I just… Thanks. I really do appreciate you holding me in such high regard."

Gaster did indeed feel respect for Chara, while he did not agree with Chara's actions in the past he could not feel angry at them because of the fact their LOVE had increased. "IT'S NO PROBLEM. I'M SURE SANS HAS HIS REASONS IF HE DOESN'T AGREE. YOU PUT HIM THROUGH A LOT OF DISTRESS. PLEASE REALISE THAT."

"I know…" Chara sat down on the bed. "I regret every single thing I did when I was… that thing I was in the past."

"IT'S ONLY NATURAL. YOUR EMOTIONS ARE LIKELY GOING TO BE VERY… CONFLICTING. IT'S NOT NORMAL FOR ONE'S LOVE TO DECREASE AND THE UNIVERSE WILL LIKELY HAVE SOME ISSUES DEALING WITH IT… MOST LIKELY. THE UNIVERSE IS CEMENTED TO ASSUME YOU HAVE A HIGH LOVE LEVEL. OCCASIONALLY IT WILL TRY AND FAIL TO REINSTATE THAT PERSONALITY. IT SHOULDN'T BE ANYTHING TO WORRY TOO MUCH ABOUT BUT TRY TO KEEP IT UNDER CONTROL."

"I promise to keep it under control. I don't want to scare or hurt anyone that I love. I've done that enough times already as you can tell, heh."

"INDEED."

Gaster turned back to the table and continued setting up various pieces of scientific equipment. Thinking for a moment, Chara thought up a pun. They knew it would be enough to make someone like Sans laugh at least.

"You know how I would give my life just for you guys to be safe?" they paused. "I would because you guys are to die for!"

Gaster's face went completely straight. Sans was clearly a bad influence on Chara's puns. Chara on the other hand giggled a bit at their own pun.

"SO, HOW ABOUT YOU CALL ASRIEL OR SOMEONE AND GO AND WANDER AROUND FOR A BIT?"

"Oh, can I call Sans? I'd like to be with him for a while."

"OF COURSE." Gaster rummaged in his pocket and pulled out the communicator he used to contact Sans. He turned to Chara and passed it to them. "USE THIS."

Carefully taking the communitor, Chara examined it. Without seeing many options for buttons, they pushed the green button, leaving the red one alone. They soon saw Sans on the other end.

"Hey, Sans," said Chara, smiling and standing up.

"heya g,– oh. heya chara. what's up?"

"I have some good news; I can walk normally, and I don't feel like death anymore. Say, do you want to hang out? Oh, before I forget, I told a pun I think you'd be proud of…"

"OH NO." Gaster looked and anticipated the pun.

"sure kid, let's hear it."

"So here's what I said, 'You know how I would give my life for you guys to be safe? I would because you guys are to die for!'" Chara followed up with giggling.

"wow, good one." Sans chuckled.

Gaster sighed and put his head in his hands and suddenly a familiar skeletal face ascended the escalator.

"NYEH! WHO TOLD THAT PUN? IT WAS TERRIBLE! DID SANS SOMEHOW SNEAK PAST ME?"

Chara contained their laughter as best they could. "Heh, so do you want to hang out?"

"sure kiddo. i'll be by in a little bit." Sans winked as his video shut off.

"OH, YOU WERE TALKING TO SANS?!" Papyrus asked as he finally reached the top.

"Yes, Papyrus," said Chara. "We were exchanging jokes. Well, it wasn't much of an exchange. I was the only one telling them."

"MAYBE YOU CAN TEACH HIM SOME GOOD JOKES! NYEHEHEHEH!" Papyrus let out a hearty laugh.

Gaster looked at Papyrus. "WHERE DID YOU COME FROM?"

"AH HAH! I HAVE BEEN GUARDING THE LAB AND MAKING SURE NO ONE GETS IN! I FEEL IT IS MY DUTY TO PROTECT THE YOUNG PRINCE!" Papyrus posed like a great hero as he said this.

"AH… I SEE."

"Don't worry, him and I have the same sense of humour, I think… There's no reason for either of us to get better at our jokes." Chara giggled.

Papyrus' eyes narrowed.

"OH. IN THAT CASE… DO NOT TELL ANY MORE JOKES!" There was a beat and Papyrus' face took on a worried expression. "THAT IS, IF YOU DON'T WANT TO, DON'T LET ME TELL YOU WHAT TO DO! YOU ARE THE PRINCE AFTER ALL! OR, ONE OF THE PRINCES."

There was another beat before Papyrus backflipped back down the escalator to escape the awkward situation. Chara looked at Papyrus backflipping down the escalator, then back at Gaster. They had something to say, but immediately forgot it in anticipation of Sans' arrival.

"…SOMETIMES I WONDER ABOUT HIM." Gaster said, his face still with the puzzled look it typically adopted when Papyrus was around. "WELL, I GUESS WE BEST GO DOWNSTAIRS AND AWAIT SANS. HE'LL PROBABLY BE HERE SOON."

Smiling, Chara hurriedly walked to the downwards escalator and slowly descended downwards.

"I have no idea what we're going to do together," Chara said to themself. "But I really hope that it helps improve my standing with Sans."

As soon as Chara reached the downstairs area, they looked around quickly hoping to catch a glimpse of Sans. By the time Chara got downstairs, Sans had already reached the lab and had taken up a comfortable position on the couch. He snored rather loudly. Chara snickered, seeing how Sans had fallen asleep so quickly. They quietly approached him, and as soon as they were close enough, they shook him.

"Hey lazybones!" they said, giggling. "It's time to wake up!"

Sans lazily opened his eyes an looked at Chara. "oh, heya kid. i got bored of waiting for ya so i lay down for a bit."

Chara laughed a bit. "How long were you waiting?"

Sans' grin widened. "'bout 2 minutes." He chuckled.

"Aw, so sorry to keep you waiting." Chara offered their hand to help Sans get up off the couch.

Sans reached out, paused, and then grabbed Chara's hand to support himself as he stood up.

"thanks. whaddya wanna do today?"

"I don't have any plans. Do you have any?"

"i never have any plans. why do you think i spent most of the day sleeping?" Sans took a moment. "actually, now that i think about it, i sometimes like to mess with people. play tricks on em, y'know?"

"I know what you mean." Chara listened to what Sans may have to say.

Sans let out a chuckle. "thing is, i've already pranked ol' burgerpants today and honestly once you've messed with him nothing can compare to it."

"Burgerpants? I never heard of him, who is he?"

"he runs the store in the mtt resort. he's always super on edge and really sensitive about his job. he's weird but he seems like an alright guy."

"Heh. What did you do to prank him exactly?"

Sans recalled the memory and laughed. "i set up my hot dog stall right outside his store. guy almost flipped out and mettaton gave him a pretty stern talking to. he ended up with some extra pay and two jobs though so i guess i helped him."

"At least it worked out in the end, right? Oh, do you think we should maybe take a walk while we talk? You know, so we're not just standing around? Besides, I'd like to walk a bit."

"sure, couldn't hurt to stretch my legs a bit i guess. let's go."

Chara started to walk out of the lab towards where the entrance to Hotland is. The hint could be taken that they weren't in the mood to be burning hot at all times.

"Hey Sans, do you have a hot dog I could have? I'm feeling a tad hungry."

"sure kid, i always have a dog or two on hand."

Sans reached into his pocket which emitted a low bark and pulled out a hot dog. Before handing it to Chara, he looked at it for a second.

"hey, how would you like to help me sell hot dogs at one of my stands?"

"Really?" Chara thought for a second. They soon caught onto what they thought Sans was thinking. "You want me to pretend like the hot dogs are fit for royalty? Heh, sure."

"bingo." Sans handed the hot dog to Chara. "with you around, my sales will be better than ever."

Chara started to eat the hot dog as they walked. "How do you plan on making them seem… royal? It would take a lot to make them distinct from a regular hot dog."

Sans thought about the word "royal" and the connotations.

"hmm, put a little bit extra sauce on it and mustard in the shape of a crown at one end. the different name will make people feel like it tastes better, too."

Chara giggled. "It's not like anyone really notices the lack of difference. Where do you want to set up shop?"

"i usually set up in the middle of hotland. that way people come to me because they're worn out from the journey. usually i sell cold dogs to cool them down but the normal residents of the place just get the normal stuff."

"In that case, lead the way to wherever you want to set up."

Sans led Chara to a place in the middle of Hotland. When they got there there was already a stand set up.

"this is my usual spot. i get pretty good business here."

Chara decided to stand right next to the hot dog stand, crossing their arms, leaning on the side of it, and facing their head towards Sans' spot. All that they had to do was wait for their customers who may or may not start coming in like moths to a light. Sans quickly reached below the front of the stand with a paintbrush, adding on the new "Royal Hot Dog" to the list of items and their prices.

"there. that should do it."

"And now all we do is wait," said Chara. "Hopefully me being here helps sell the deal… which is a double meaning if you think about it."

"kinda, yeah." Sans said, receding back behind the stand. "now it's just the waiting game."

After a couple of minutes, a Vulkin walked up to the stand and examined the menu.

"Royal Bun is toastier?"

"sure is."

"Yes please!"

Sans took the Vulkin's gold and prepared a hot dog, putting a small bit of mustard at the top to make it seem "royal". He then handed it to Chara and waited for them to do something with it. Chara looked from side to side, taking half a second to think about what they'll do. They took the hotdog and raised their free hand in their air, moving their fingers to make it seem like they cast a spell or gave a blessing, then they made a humming sound, which they held back laughter after doing so. After the ridiculous process, they handed the hot dog back to Sans.

"Poof," Chara declared. "I gave it my blessing."

Sans held back his laughter as he placed the Hot Dog in the top of Vulkin's head. "Toasty Royal Bun!"

After the Vulkin walked away Sans let out the chuckle he was restraining as he halfed the money with Chara.

"nice one, kid."

"Heh, thanks." Chara took the money they were given, but they immediately offered it back. "Don't worry, the amount of money we get from royal taxation is immense."

Sans laughed again and took the money Chara offered back.

"i figured as much. money's no object for you."

"Besides, I think you need it more than I ever would. Money is nothing in comparison to all the friends I have. Like you, you're a great friend."

"i don't really buy stuff all that often. just the essentials, but thanks." Sans winked at Chara as he stuffed the gold into his pockets.

"You know why I came out here to see you, right?" Chara stopped leaning on the stand and faced Sans. "I had plenty of different friends I could have called, but I called you. I wanted to make better the friendship we have, and maybe make this timeline worth living through? The other reason was to think about puns with you, and how could I say no to that?"

Sans looked at Chara. "honestly kid? i'm not sure i can ever forgive you. but the least i can do is try to be friendly to you."

"You don't ever have to forgive me." Chara proceeded to lean on the stand like they were before. "I'm just trying to be your friend, even if you hate me until the end of my days. I'll still be your friend, even if you don't consider yourself to be mine. And I'll still try to make every last day I'm alive to be the best they could ever possibly be. Even if that means that I have to help everyone with all of their problems."

"i guess that's alright. just know that if you expect me to hang out with you often you'll be mistaken. i have much more important things to do." There was a pause before Sans' grin widened. "like sleeping for example."

"Sleeping's always more important, heh. Especially when the second most important thing happens to be interacting with people."

Sans couldn't help but chuckle slightly. "i guess we can agree on that."

Chara outstretched their arms and faced Sans. "Come here, lazy bones. I've been long awaiting a hug ever since I was offered one. Except I couldn't then, having acid dripping from my eyes which would be a problem…"

Sans took a moment and then accepted the hug wearily, remembering the last time they had a close encounter. Chara tightly embraced Sans and patted his back once gently. The warm embrace of Chara, which mostly was their coat over their sweater, felt great, even if it was just temporary. Chara soon let go however, placing their arms on Sans' shoulders and smiling innocently. Sans felt slightly awkward but figured it wasn't too bad. He wondered if he should say something.

"So how about we sell some more 'Royal' hot dogs," Chara said as they leaned against the stand again. "You could use some more money from this kind of thing, I say."

"sure, though there's not much i spend it on." Sans got back into position at the stand.

Minutes of extra money gain and scamming later, Chara stretched their arms up as they stopped their leaning against the hot dog stand. They didn't seem bored or tired despite this.

"Hey Sans," they said, looking towards Sans. "Do you want to stay a bit at your house? I… forget what it's like there. Besides, I could use a proper bed to sit or lie in."

Sans finished checking how much money the last customer had given him and looked up. "uh, sure. i think we've gotten all the sales we can today. couldn't hurt to go home for a while."

"Lead the way." Chara stood up properly and watched as Sans led, as they went following behind.

Sans took a shortcut and arrived directly at his and Papyrus' house in Snowdin. From inside the sounds of pans being smashed and various meaty squelching noises.

"sounds like papyrus is cooking again."

"Something edible this time?" Chara giggled after saying this. Something about this specific giggle seemed oddly familiar, but it was impossible to understand what about it was familiar.

"probably not, he's getting better though." Sans opened the door. "hey bro, i'm home."

Sure enough, Papyrus was standing in the kitchen, throwing around pans and food in a very Undyne manner.

"busy, i see?"

"AH, SANS, THERE YOU ARE." Papyrus turned around. "I WAS WONDER–" Papyrus stopped when he saw Chara. "OH, I SEE YOU'VE BROUGHT THE PRINCE. ARE THEY HERE TO TEST MY SPAGHETTI?"

Chara laughed a bit. Not wanting to hurt Papyrus' feelings, they decided to humour him. "I'll try a bite, certainly."

Sans got slightly worried.

"EXCELLENT, I SHALL FINISH PREPARING IT IMMEDIATELY!"

Papyrus went to grab the pan on the cooker but instead bashed his hand against the handle and sent the pan flying into the ceiling, causing spaghetti to splash everywhere. Papyrus remained completely still for a couple of seconds.

"YOUR SPAGHETTI MAY BE DELAYED," he calmly stated, a meatball flopping onto his head, causing Sans to laugh.

Chara joined in the laughing. In fact, they laughed so much that they nearly collapsed, but balanced themself on a wall. Their eyes were shut, but that was hard to see as one hand was over their eyes in an attempt to take their vision away from what was making them laugh so much.

"WHAT ARE YOU TWO LAUGHING ABOUT?" Papyrus inquired, not understanding the joke. He scratched his head and then the rest of the ceiling spaghetti fell onto him.

"NYEH! I HAVE BEEN CAUGHT OFF GUARD BY AN ATTACKER! DO NOT WORRY PRINCE, I WILL DEFEND YOU!"

Papyrus went into an overdramatic battle stance which had clearly been shown to him by Undyne and began flailing at the mass of noodles, sauce and meatballs on his head. He then slipped on a meatball, sending him flying backwards into the rest of the spaghetti ingredients on the bench.

Without being able to contain themself, Chara collapsed onto the floor and buried their face into it, laughing so much that they started to hyperventilate. They turned over on their back with their eyes closed and tried to regain their composure, but ended up letting out some tired laughs while they opened their eyes slowly to look at Papyrus again. This led to yet more laughter.

Papyrus continued to scratch his head. "I STILL DON'T GET IT! THIS JOKE IS TERRIBLE!"

Sans tried to recover from laughing. "heh, i-it's fine. don't worry about it."

Finally regaining their composure, albeit a bit forced, Chara slowly stood up. They kept the smile on their face however. "Heh… Sans, do you want to head to your room in the meantime, while we wait for Papyrus to finish his gourmet meal for us?"

"yeah, that sounds like a good idea." Sans half-chuckled, still recovering.

They made their way up the stairs, hearing some additional yells and clashes from Papyrus downstairs as they entered Sans' room. Chara's first action when they arrived inside was going straight for the bed and lying down on it. They seemed so relieved when they felt its mattresses and sheets, they even let out a groan of approval.

"It was only a day and a half," they said. "But I'm so happy to feel an actual bed again. Not a bed that's in a laboratory."

Sans found it odd that his bed sheets had somehow unballed themselves once again. He wondered if the dog that occasionally came into his trash tornado had anything to do with it.

"i know that feeling." Sans said, lying lengthways at the end of the bed so he could fit onto it, resisting the urge to fall asleep.

Chara stared up into the ceiling. They experienced a familiar spinning feeling when they looked into the ceiling. They saw around them had gathered Asgore, Toriel, and a child Asriel. Before the memory could continue, they shook themselves and shot up, gasping and realizing they somehow instantly fell asleep. Checking the clock, it had been nearly half an hour since they lied down on the bed.

"Sans!" they yelled, hoping that Sans hadn't left them when they accidentally fell asleep. Realizing that sitting up so quickly and opening their eyes like that was probably not the best idea, their head started to sway and their vision went blurry.

There was a loud sound of impact followed by Sans saying "ow." He peeked up from the side of the bed rubbing his head.

"woah, what's up?"

"Oh my God, Sans…" Chara lied back down on the bed. "Thanks for not leaving me, I just… had a nightmare. Sorry for waking you up."

"you sure you're okay? that was a pretty loud shout."

"I'm sure…" They turned over on their side. "It was just another memory. I feel like my past is just trying to torture me now, to be honest with you. But otherwise I'm fine."

Sans yawned. "if you say so. maybe you should talk to g about it in the morning though."

Sans didn't bother getting back onto the bed and simply lay back down on the floor.

"I hope you don't mind, but I think I want to take a peaceful nap on this bed. Not what I was doing before, I had no idea I even fell asleep." Chara yawned. "That sudden wake up made me even more tired."

"sure kid, go ahead." Sans mumbled, yawning again. "i can sleep anywhere."

Chara started to get situated further in the bed. "Thank you, Sans. You're really a great friend…" Before they knew it, Chara was already asleep peacefully.

Sans lay with his eyes open for a while before yawning and rolling himself under the bed to sleep.

It wasn't even the next morning when Chara woke up. When they woke up, it was back in the laboratory. Their face turned red slightly. Did they just imagine what happened? They started to look around frantically to a clock. Or to Gaster.

"Gaster…" they said, hoping Gaster would hear them. "How long was I asleep?"

A familiar distorted force replied. "OH, YOU'RE FINALLY AWAKE. YOU HAVE BEEN ASLEEP FOR APPROXIMATELY 25 HOURS. AS A RESULT OF HOW ABSURDLY LONG THAT WAS WE TRANSPORTED YOU BACK HERE TO SEE WHAT WAS WRONG. IT WAS VERY WORRYING FOR ALL INVOLVED."

"25 HOURS!?" they exclaimed. "How did I… Where… Who… Why was I asleep that long?"

"I'M NOT ENTIRELY SURE. I'VE BEEN LOOKING OVER THESE SCANS OF YOUR BRAIN DURING YOUR 25 HOUR COMA. IT'S VERY STRANGE."

"Oh my God." Chara put their hands on their head. "I cannot believe that I let this happen. I had no right making you all worry like that… Can I at least go to my house, to see Asriel, Mom, and Dad?"

"I'M AFRAID NOT. I'M GOING TO KEEP YOU HERE UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. I DON'T KNOW WHAT THIS IS BUT I'M NOT TAKING ANY RISKS. I NEED TO BE ABLE TO MONITOR YOU AT ALL TIMES."

"Oh… Okay, I understand." Chara exhaled slowly. "Can Asriel at least come here? We could call him?"

"I SUPPOSE… PLEASE TAKE IT EASY THOUGH." Gaster tossed a phone to Chara.

Chara just barely caught the phone, bringing it closer to them. They dialed in the house phone number for their house, and waited for it to be answered. Soon enough, Asriel answered the phone.

"Hello?" said Asriel in a hasty manner. "Chara, are you there? Tell me you're awake."

"Asriel!" Chara exclaimed gleefully. "I'm awake, and I really want to see you. Can you come over…?"

"Yes! I can, I'll be there as soon as I can!"

"I'll see you here, Asriel. Love you."

"Love you too, Chara." Asriel hung up the phone.

Chara handed the phone back to Gaster. "He'll be here soon."

Gaster took the phone and stored it away again. "ALRIGHT THEN."

He continued examining the various pieces of paper he had, both showing different images of what seemed to be a brain with various colours over them.

"I can't believe I was asleep for 25 hours… How is that even possible? I mean, I did have a nightmare in my first half-hour nap, but that probably had nothing to do with it." Chara looked up at the ceiling in thought. "I have so many questions, I'm sorry."

Gaster immediately looked at Chara. "A NIGHTMARE? TELL ME ALL ABOUT IT."

Chara looked towards Gaster and turned on their side to better face him. "Well, it started when I was looking at the ceiling. I got a familiar spinning feiling, then suddenly I saw Asriel, Mom, and Dad around me. Asriel was still a kid. I knew this, it was from a previous timeline. One of the many in which I had myself killed with poison. I refused to let the memory go on, so I forced myself awake. That's about a minute before I fell back asleep because of how tired I was."

"IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE AT ALL YOU REMEMBER? IF MY THEORY IS CORRECT THIS COULD BE VERY BAD."

"I did feel really tired when I forced myself awake. My head, and my entire body, was swaying back and forth, and I couldn't see right."

"IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE YOU HAVE FELT? EMOTIONS? ANYTHING?" Gaster was getting extremely frantic, seemingly fearing something.

"Anger, guilt, and sadness. That's all I felt there, why?"

"I DON'T KNOW HOW CORRECT IT IS, BUT MY THEORY IS THAT THE UNIVERSE IS TRYING ALL IT CAN TO RE-ASSERT ITSELF. THE WAY THINGS "SHOULD" BE."

"W-what do you mean…?" Chara seemed concerned, their voice quivered.

"YOUR LOVE SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO GO DOWN. THE FACT THAT IT DID HAS MADE THE UNIVERSE UNSTABLE, DESPERATELY TRYING TO FIX ITSELF, BUT YOU ARE RESISTING IT. WHEN YOU ARE SLEEPING IS WHEN YOU ARE THE MOST SUSCEPTIBLE."

"Is there any way to not suddenly go into a coma like this one?" Their voice still quivered as they spoke.

"I'M NOT SURE. NOT UNTIL I FIND WHAT ACTUAL CAUSES IT."

Chara continued to lie on their side. They were worried about what could happen if the universe could possibly revert things back. They promised Sans that there would be no more resets. Speaking of Sans.

"Was Sans still asleep when you got to me?" Chara asked.

"HE HAD WOKEN UP BEFORE YOU AND WENT OUT. HE THEN CONTACTED ME WHEN HE CAME BACK AND FOUND YOU STILL ASLEEP. HE'S ACTUALLY VERY CONCERNED TOO."

"H-he was concerned?" Chara's eyes widened slightly in surprise.

"OF COURSE HE WAS CONCERNED. WHO WOULDN'T BE?" Gaster once again continued to look at the scans, writing some notes on them in wingdings.

Chara smiled slightly. Though they weren't selfish, it was nice to know that people actually cared about them.

Minutes later, someone was heard entering the laboratory. Judging by their hurried footsteps, it was more than likely Asriel. Sure enough, after the sound of them ascending the escalator, they revealed to be just him. He soon entered the room, and when he saw Chara awake, he ran over to them and hugged them tightly, tears in his eyes and a huge smile stretched across his face.

"Chara!" Asriel said, his voice full of glee. "You're awake, you're alive! I'm so happy to see you awake!"

Chara tried to think of something to say, but they instead just laughed in happiness. They hugged Asriel back, albeit not as tightly. Which reminded them of something.

"Asriel, you're crushing me," they giggled as a joke.

Asriel loosened their grip slightly. "Better?"

"I was joking, you dork," they laughed.

Gaster was pleased by the scene but it turned back to seriousness as he remember the situation.

A few seconds later Sans arrived, walked over to Gaster and quietly spoke. "how are they?"

"WELL, THEY'RE AWAKE NOW, AS YOU CAN SEE."

"Chara, you have no idea how worried we were," said Asriel. "We thought you'd never wake up, and… I'm just so happy you're okay."

"Hey, you don't need to worry about me " they reassured Asriel. "We've been through some crazy times together, a lot even worse than just sleeping for a while. But I really appreciate all of you caring about me so much."

"Heh, we all love you, so obviously we're gonna worry about you 'till the day you die."

Gaster was about to mention that the long sleeping could indeed be very dangerous, to everybody, but decided not to ruin the moment. Instead, he simply went back to doing various strange things with his equipment.

Sans decided that he should probably say something. "yeah, kid, we'd hate for something to happen to you. who knows what could happen if you died?"

Gaster, overhearing Sans, thought about the events that had occured in the timelines where Chara had died. He wasn't sure how to feel about them.

"If Chara would have died," Asriel paused. "I would have cried until the end of my existence and in the afterlife too."

"I'd like to think that I won't die anytime soon," said Chara. "Besides, I hate to imagine you or any of my friends sad."

"Aw." Asriel brought Chara closer to himself. "I wouldn't like seeing you sad either, Chara. I don't think anyone here does."

Thinking about the other universes gave Gaster an idea, something he had wanted to do for a while but never got around to it. He could multitask and research Chara's problem while he built the device.

"I AM GOING TO MY LAB. I WILL MONITOR CHARA FROM THERE." Gaster announced as he stood up and quickly hurried down the escalator.

Sans didn't get a chance to ask where Gaster was going but he recognised the look on his face. It was the look he got when he thought of an idea for an invention. Sans was filled with curiosity but decided he'd wait and see what Gaster had in mind.

"well, guess it's just us, huh?" he said to Chara and Asriel.

"And someone isn't in this hug," Asriel noted. "I think that someone should join."

"I agree," Chara said, smiling. "Why doesn't that one person come join?"

"that sounds like an idea." Sans was getting tired of hugs but didn't want to be rude, so he shrugged and shuffled over to join in.

Meanwhile, Gaster had already reached his lab and started constructing his device, butchering a few parts from the timeline monitor. He could put them back when he needed the monitor again, which would hopefully be never again. He spent about five minutes hastily rigging together a bunch of odd looking gizmos and devices. Eventually, the final product was a metal sphere, half of it made out of glass and half of it made out of metal. On the metal part there was a switch and a couple of dials. Nothing could be seen through the glass on the top. Pleased with his work, he carried the sphere back upstairs. He was amazed at his own speed at inventing such a complicated device, hopefully testing would go without a hitch. It should be interesting.

When he got back, he was surprised at the sight of Asriel, Chara and Sans all hugging, but he was too focused on his own matters to care much. He held the device in the air. "BEHOLD, ONE OF MY GREATEST INVENTIONS!"

The group ceased their hug for the moment and turned to look at Gaster's invention. They were unsure of what it was, but Chara decided to ask to break the confusion.

"What might that be?" asked Chara.

Gaster was clearly in a state of excitement, eager to show off the new invention. He set it on the floor. "IT IS AN INTER-DIMENSIONAL VISUALISER! IT PROJECTS A FULLY 3D IMAGE OF OTHER DIMENSIONS. WE CAN OBSERVE AND SEE AN INFINITE NUMBER OF ALTERNATE REALITIES AND SEE HOW THEY WOULD HAVE WENT. THINK OF ANY SCENARIO AT ALL, GO ON."

Asriel started to think of what he wanted to see. There were so many things to be seen. Before he had a chance, Chara spoke.

"What if I were, say, unable to die of age?" they said, eagerly. "So I would never be able to leave my friends?"

Gaster shook his head slightly. "I'M SORRY, BUT I'M CERTAIN NOTHING WOULD BE DIFFERENT. THE DEVICE ONLY SHOWS THE CURRENT TIMELINE IN THE OTHER DIMENSION PARALLEL TO OUR OWN. IN OTHER WORDS, IT'LL SHOW THE CURRENT MOMENT IN OUR UNIVERSE BUT IN THE OTHER UNIVERSE. IT'S VERY HARD TO EXPLAIN. I'LL IMPLEMENT TIME CONTROLS WHEN I FINISH IT."

"Oh, oh," Asriel suddenly got an idea. "What if the humans never invaded the Underground?"

"THAT'D BE INTERESTING. LET'S FIND OUT, SHALL WE?" Gaster adjusted the dials on the device and looked up. "READY?"

Sans looked concerned. "g, are you sure this thing is safe?"

"OF COURSE IT IS! PROBABLY."

"probably?"

Sans' concerns went unacknowledged however as Gaster pressed the button and everything around them waved and shifted, changing ever so slightly. The bed Chara was sitting on had now disappeared and they fell to the floor. Additionally, all of Gaster's equipment had disappeared from the table.

Gaster realised what had happened. "AH. WITHOUT THE HUMANS INVADING I NEVER REVEALED MYSELF. IN THIS UNIVERSE I AM STILL IN THE VOID." Gaster then realised something he hadn't taken into account. "I JUST NOTICED I HAVE NO IDEA IF THE ALTERNATE UNIVERSE CAN SEE US OR NOT. THE DEVICE SHOULD JUST VISUALISE THINGS BUT IT'S A PROTOTYPE. THIS COULD GET INTERESTING. BEST NOT TO LET ANYBODY SEE US, JUST IN CASE."

Sans was still looking very concerned. "what happens if we meet our alternate selves?"

"WELL, IT WON'T BE AS CATASTROPHIC AS TIME TRAVEL BUT WE MAY BREAK THIS UNIVERSE FOR IT'S INHABITANTS."

"is that bad?"

"IT PROBABLY WON'T AFFECT US, BUT I'D RATHER NOT RUIN THIS UNIVERSE FOR OTHERS IF POSSIBLE."

"It would be really cool to see what Chara and I are doing right now," said Asriel. "Probably hugging and all that fun stuff, heh "

"I'm not sure it's a good idea to check on this version of ourselves," Chara suggested.

"Why's that?"

"Just uh, trust me on this. I'd explain but I'd do an awful job. Gaster?"

"WELL, IN THIS VERSION OF EVENTS CHARA NEVER WENT THROUGH THE JOURNEY THAT DECREASED THEIR LOVE LEVEL. THIS UNIVERSE'S CHARA STILL HAS 19 LOVE AND COULD REACT UNPREDICTABLY."

"Wait," Asriel looked at Chara. "Love?"

"LOVE stands for Level Of Violence," Chara explained. "Because I didn't go through the process of decreasing it all the way, that version of me could just kill anyone and feel nothing."

Asriel blinked a few times. "Oh…"

Gaster scooped up the device from the ground and placed it in his pocket. "WELL, IF WE GET IN A STICKY SITUATION BY ACCIDENT WE CAN ALWAYS SWITCH IT OFF. SINCE WE'RE HERE WE SHOULD AT LEAST TRY TO EXPLORE I SUPPOSE."

Sans shrugged. "where to?"

"Why don't we visit Burgerpants?" Chara suggested. "I want to see something funny happen like with him and Sans that once."

"hey, that sounds like a good plan. pulling the same stunt twice on two versions of the same person."

"INDEED, IT MAY BE AMUSING. I REMEMBER TEASING THE LAD WHEN HE WAS STILL A YOUNG BOY. HE IS QUITE AN ODD FELLOW. WE SHOULD WALK THERE TO SEE IF WE CAN SPOT ANYTHING ELSE THAT IS DIFFERENT."

"That sounds like fun, heh," Asriel chuckled. "Let's not waste any time then, right?"

"WELL, LET'S NOT DELAY THEN!" Gaster started leading the way down the escalator to the downstairs lab, listening carefully to make sure no one was downstairs.

Asriel carefully followed Gaster, remaining with Chara in their arms so they wouldn't have to walk. It seemed that Alphys was spending her usual long time in the bathroom, thus wouldn't hear anything outside of that hidey hole of hers.

Gaster looked around and signalled for everyone to continue following.

"THE COAST IS CLEAR. IF SOMEONE SEES US FOR THE FIRST TIME WE'LL PROBABLY BE ABLE TO GET AWAY ONCE BECAUSE THEY'LL LIKELY PASS OUT FROM SEEING ME." Gaster progressed to the lab's exit. "LET'S GO."

On their way towards the MTT Resort, Chara decided to start a conversation to keep the journey from being silent.

"What did you do last time exactly?" Chara asked Sans. "I want to hear every detail."

"well, it's simple really." Sans said, almost chuckling already. "i just set up a stall right outside his shop in the resort. he got really mad and then got chewed out by mettaton. it all ended pretty well for him, even though he's gotta work 2 jobs now."

"I guess we're gonna make his life a little better a second time, huh?" Asriel said, chuckling.

"yeah, i guess, given that things go the same way."

"Considering two royalties will be with you, things seem in your favour," Chara pointed out. "We could help advertise briefly."

"i don't need to actually sell anything." Sans explained. "just having the shop set up gets the guy agitated."

"He sounds like a fun person." Chara stretched a bit while still in Asriel's arms. Asriel shook them a bit to keep them from falling asleep.

"You were looking like you were tired there," Asriel said, rubbing Chara's hair. "Don't fall asleep just yet."

"Heh, sorry, I was just a little stiff and tired."

Gaster's wonder turned to concern, hopefully if Chara fell asleep again they wouldn't experience another incident.

Sans realised this too, so he raised his voice to try and keep Chara awake. "hey, there's the resort."

"We're here already?" asked Chara. "Heh, time flies."

"Yep, and we're ready to have a good laugh pretty soon," Asriel remarked. "We'll get to see that Burgerpants fellow and his hilarious reaction to whatever Sans is ready to unleash."

"you'd be surprised how much chaos just putting up a stand can cause." Sans said, chuckling slightly.

"Does it cause as much chaos as saying you'll use Chara as a pillow?"

"Asriel, no," Chara said, trying to scowl but smiling and chuckling under their breath.

"Aw, but you look so soft in that coat. Then again, now that I think about it, so does Sans but he's a skeleton." Asriel looked to Sans and half-smiled in a joking manner.

Sans chuckled playfully. "don't get any ideas."

They finally arrived at the resort and went in. There was a fair amount of people inside, plenty of people to watch the scene that was about to unfold. "you guys ready?"

"Absolutely," said Chara.

"Can't wait any longer," Asriel added on to Chara's statement.

Sans cracked his knuckles and set to work building the makeshift stand, just as he had last time. He then stood behind it and waited for the fireworks. Burgerpants, seeming tired from the day so far, took notice of the hot dog stand and Sans. His eye twitched and he leaned slightly over the desk, holding his cigarette.

"Buddy," Burgerpants said with a shaking voice. "Y'know, Snowdin's not too far away. Why don't you walk OVER THERE instead…"

"well…" Sans begun, leaning on his desk. "i can't really be bothered to walk there, plus this place has a lot better business at this time of day."

"As much as I'd love to go on with this, there are a lot of people around right now. Be a good buddy and leave before they have to see me at my worst, okay?"

"well, you could just let me go about my business. we don't need to have an argument."

"That's EXACTLY the problem!" Burgerpants smashed his fists down onto the counter. "You're holding your 'business' right outside the Glamburger, and that means you have the potential to ruin business HERE too! Now take your hot dogs and shove them into some bunny's face in Snowdin!"

"hey, if people want to buy burgers they'll go to your place and if they feel like hot dogs they'll come to my join, what's the issue?" Gaster chuckled at the skill with which Sans dodged Burgerpants' complaints.

Some of the people in the resort started to look towards the verbal fight between Burgerpants and Sans. Asriel took a seat on a nearby couch and set Chara in a sitting position next to him to watch the scene go down.

"Now look at what you've done…" Burgerpants' eye twitched again. "NOW WE'RE MAKING A SCENE! I hope you realize this is YOUR FAULT! BECAUSE OF YOU, these people have to watch this go down! Everything would have been fine if you just… LEFT! WHEN I SUGGESTED IT!"

Sans shrugged, "hey, you're the one who won't back down."

At that moment a familiar leg rounded the corner. "DID SOMEONE SAY SCENE? IT'S NOT A SCENE WITHOUT ME, DARLINGS!" Mettaton finished turning the corner and immediately spotted Burgerpants. "BURGERPANTS, WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUTSIDE THE STORE?"

"Sorry, boss," Burgerpants said apologetically, retreating into the store. "Boss, can you believe this guy? He's going to ruin business if he sits out here without being an official restaurant of the MTT Resort, y'know? I mean… He just needs to go out the door."

"I may have a solution to this," said Chara, standing up as Asriel watched to ensure they wouldn't fall. "Why not have the Glamburger sell both hot dogs and Glamburgers? This could boost sales if you think about it. Only make the hot dogs of some unique fashion to make sure Sans here doesn't go out of business with his own."

Mettaton thought for a moment and then grinned. "THAT'S A GREAT IDEA! ALL WE NEED TO DO IS FIND A WAY TO PUT MY FACE ON IT!"

Mettaton thought Chara sounded unusually upbeat but didn't question it.

"Now you're thinking!" Chara giggled a bit. Asriel stood up with them.

"Here's another idea," Asriel began. "Use us to advertise your version of the hot dog. I guarantee you, sales will go through the roof if the Princes agree with your opinion."

"OOOH!" Mettaton exclaimed. "I LOVE IT! WE SHOULD RECORD A PROMOTIONAL VIDEO!"

"The two of us are ready," Chara declared. "I think we are, anyways. Asriel may be too busy thinking about the potential of embracing something as fluffy as this coat."

"Pff, I am not," said Asriel. "Obviously I'm thinking about using you as a pillow."

"Asriel, if you do that I'm disowning you."

"That's no fun, Chara." Asriel rubbed Chara's hair and they both chuckled.

Mettaton was as loyal to the royals as anyone else, but he knew Chara was not the nicest of people and this behaviour was strange. He would ask them later, after the shoot. He pressed a button located somewhere on the wall and a film team immediately filed into the room. He looked to Chara and Asriel.

"OKAY, GET INTO POSITION! JUST DO WHATEVER COMES NATURAL, DARLINGS!" Mettaton stood infront of the camera and began his introduction. "HELLO, DEARIES! HERE AT MTT RESORT WE'VE BEEN WORKING HARD TO COME UP WITH FABULOUS NEW WAYS TO PLEASE OUR ADORING CUSTOMERS! INTRODUCING OUR LATEST ITEM ON THE MENU: ROYAL HOT DOGS!"

Mettaton made a very subtle gesture that caused the crew to pan the camera over to Chara and Asriel.

"Each of these hot dogs are fit for a Prince," said Chara, smiling in an unironic way. "They may even be fit for two."

"Heh, you bet," Asriel continued. "So what are you waiting for? Those Royal Hot Dogs won't eat themselves!"

Mettaton signalled for the film crew to cut and clapped his hands together. "ALRIGHT, GET THAT DOWN TO POST AND START SELLING HOT DOGS ON THE DOUBLE!" When the film crew had filed out again Mettaton approached Chara and Asriel. "CHARA, YOU'RE AWFULLY HAPPY TODAY. IS IT THE NEW CLOTHES?"

"I'm just…" Chara paused to try and think up an excuse. "Happy to be alive, really. It's a great day, you know?"

Mettaton squinted at Chara and raised a mechanical eyebrow.

Sans and Gaster were busy teasing burgerpants and did not see the interaction between Mettaton and Chara, not realising that their cover was getting blown.

"DARLING, THAT'S VERY ODD FOR YOU. DON'T TAKE OFFENSE TO THIS BUT NORMALLY YOU'RE A LOT MORE… BROODING."

"Y-yeah, but," Chara tried to speak, but was cut off by Asriel.

"See, Chara's been really sick lately," Asriel explained. "They passed out a few times and were kind of hurt before. It might be the medicine, you know?"

Mettaton's expression immediately softened and looked surprised. "SICK, OH DEAR. ARE YOU OKAY? DO YOU NEED ANYTHING?"

"I can't remember when they ate last, you should get them something."

"I am feeling a little hungry, I could eat," Chara added on.

Mettaton grinned and turned to Burgerpants' shop, the doors of which were still open.

"OH, BURGERPANTS, HONEY! WHIP UP A COUPLE OF FACE STEAKS! PUT IT ON YOUR OWN TAB!" Mettaton yelled.

Without hesitation, Burgerpants started on the face steaks. He didn't bother listening to the conversation beforehand, so he was confused as to why Mettaton wanted those face steaks.

Mettaton turned back to Chara and smirked, crouching down to their level.

"NOW, WHY DON'T YOU TELL ME ALL ABOUT YOUR DAY? IT MUST HAVE BEEN TERRIBLE, SEEING AS YOU WERE SO SICK."

"Truth be told, the only thing I did today was wake up, fall off a bed, and get carried like a baby here," said Chara. "It's been uneventful is all I can say."

"UH HUH." Mettaton said, still not finished. "HOW ABOUT YESTERDAY? YOU KNOW, I'M SURPRISED I HAVEN'T HEARD OF ONE OF THE ROYAL CHILDREN GETTING SICK. NORMALLY OUR TOP REPORTERS ARE ON TOP OF EVERYTHING." Mettaton paused for a second. "AND DIDN'T I SEE YOU EARLIER, WALKING AROUND HOTLAND? YOU LOOKED LIKE YOUR NORMAL SELF THEN…"

"I was just trying to…" Chara suddenly got an idea. As their face got red and sweated, they pretended to faint. Asriel caught them before they could hit the ground and picked them up.

"Oh my God," Asriel said, looking concerned. "This usually doesn't happen, it must have been them passing out from stress or… something." Asriel paused. "We'll take those steaks to go."

Mettaton acted shocked and panicked, realising Chara was clearly not going to open up. "OH MY GOODNESS! ARE THEY ALRIGHT? DO I NEED TO CALL SOMEONE?! OH GOD, WE CAN'T LET ANYBODY SEE! THINK OF THE BAD PUBLICITY!"

"I think they'll be alright." Asriel held Chara close to himself. "They just need a nap, and some ice. Can we get some ice?"

"BURGERPANTS!" Mettaton screeched at full volume, rotating quickly on one foot and posing very subtly, "ICE, NOW!"

Burgerpants stopped what he was doing, stumbled to the freezer and grabbed a bag of ice. He scurried over to the counter and offered it for Mettaton to take.

"Here ya go, boss," said Burgerpants.

Mettaton dramatically leaped over and grabbed the ice pack then rushed back over to Chara, grabbed them and held it to their head.

"OH, WHY OH WHY MUST YOU FAINT IN MY RESTAURAUNT OF ALL PLACES? WHYYY?!" Mettaton dramatically screamed into the sky, causing everyone to look over to his location.

This included Gaster and Sans, who had been completely oblivious to what was going on around them as they teased Burgerpants. They saw Chara lying in the arms of Mettaton and Asriel, exchanged glances, and quickly rushed over.

"what happened?" Sans said, speaking quickly and in a panicked manner.

"Chara fainted," said Asriel, rubbing Chara's head. "But I think they'll be fine."

"oh man, that's probably not good, right g?"

"IT COULD INDEED BE HARMFUL."

Mettaton's mind suddenly kicked into overdrive. Something had been nagging at it, just out of his perception but now that thing had come directly into his view. He wasn't sure how he hadn't noticed him before, or how he had even forgot about him.

Mettaton immediately dropped his act of being worried about Chara and stared directly at Gaster.

"G-GASTER. DR. W.D GASTER? BUT I THOUGHT…" Mettaton was still staring at Gaster, his expression almost unchanging.

Gaster slapped his hand to his face. "CRAP."

"Now would be a good time to go?" Asriel suggested.

Chara's eyes opened, noticing how badly the situation was going. They decided to quit the act and nod at Gaster.

Gaster hastily pulled out the device and looked at Mettaton "UH, NICE SEEING YOU AGAIN, BUT WE GOTTA SPLIT." Gaster quickly pressed the button on the device and the world distorted and faded.

Mettaton quickly ran at them. "NO, WAIT, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" he shouted, panicking. It was too late however as the party re-appeared in their version of the MTT resort.

Various monsters gave them odd looks, wondering where they had come from but continued to go about their busy business soon after.

"THAT WENT TERRIBLY." Gaster said, a slightly disappointed tone in his voice.

"Sorry I ruined, well, everything," Chara said pitifully. "It could have gone quite a lot better."

"Hey hey," Asriel playfully shook Chara gently. "You didn't ruin everything. Besides, we're all pretty happy that you didn't actually faint back there. Right, guys?"

"INDEED, IT WASN'T YOUR FAULT. I HAD NO IDEA METTATON COULD BE SO… INQUISITIVE," Gaster said, trying to re-assure Chara.

"Heh, at least this isn't one of my many screw-ups, intentionally anyways," Chara said, putting a hand on the back of their head.

Gaster let out a slight chuckle.

Sans stretched and yawned. "y'know, teasing 2 burgerpantses in one day sure is tiring."

"You know what would be pretty nice?" Asriel proposed, looking at the ceiling.

"Not being used as a pillow in the foreseeable future?" Chara giggled.

"You know it's going to happen." Asriel playfully roughed up Chara's hair. "But uh, anyways. I think it would be nice to see how Burgerpants is doing. Like, what he's doing right now. Let's go ahead and do so."

Sans stretched out on a couch. "i'll catch you guys up. i'm just gonna have a little nap."

"See you then, Sans." Asriel smiled at Sans and looked ahead again. He, still carrying Chara, looked towards the Glamburger.

Burgerpants wasn't there, and there was a sign hanging from the ceiling of the counter.

"CLOSED DURING THE AFTERNOON - HEAD TO THE GYM FOR THE AFTERNOON GLAMBURGER," the sign read.

"The gym…" Asriel pondered for a moment. "We're gonna look for that. If you guys wanna follow us, you can."

Asriel started to walk off to where he thought the gym would be installed.

Sans half-rolled off the couch and took a quick shortcut to the new door that had opened up, the gym. Corny workout music blared from the speakers, with the occasional pre-recorded "motivational" quote from Mettaton mixed in it.

Burgerpants' shop in the gym was next to the entrance, there he stood, bored, looking at the dirt in his claws.

Sans turned his attention away from Burgerpants and looked towards Asriel, who was making his way towards the gym.

"heya."

"Whoa," Asriel recoiled a bit, surprised at Sans' sudden appearance. "How'd you get here so quick?"

Sans chuckled. "didja already forget about my shortcuts?"

"Oh, guess I did, heh." Asriel smiled to imply laughter. "That was a really short nap you took. How was it?"

"coulda been better." Sans replied. "how's chara?"

Before Asriel could speak, Chara spoke for themself.

"Couldn't be better," they said, smiling. "I'm really appreciating being lazy, by the way. Being carried around is great."

Asriel laughed a bit, rubbing Chara's head. "If you were a skeleton, I'd call you a lazy bones."

From out of the view of the group, someone walking in steel boots was heard approaching. As soon as they were close enough, the group turned to see who it was. It was a human.

"Good afternoon," the human greeted. He spoke with a light Welsh accent. "If one of you are close to the king and queen of the Underground, may you deliver me their way? I'm Edward, and I have quite the exciting news for all of you."

Sans let out a small laugh. "well… you're kinda talkin' to the princes right here." He said, gesturing towards Asriel and Chara.

"Oh?" Edward bowed his head to Chara and Asriel. "Apologies, your majesties. I didn't recognise you, nor did I think one of you was a… human? You're human, right?"

"Do I look like I'm fluffy, buff, or have horns?" Chara teased.

"Well, no. But your goat friend isn't exactly buff from what I can see, just fluffy and fit… Anyways, could you three please lead me to the king and queen?"

"want me to open up a shortcut, or you wanna go the scenic route?"

"Er, I suppose the scenic route?" Edward tilted his head slightly. "Unless the shortcut is closeby, that is."

"well, the shortcut is pretty close but it's a pretty interesting trip there. honestly if you're new down here you might wanna take the scenic route. you in?"

"I suppose so, lead the way, sir." Edward started to set off with Sans. Asriel followed behind them, still holding Chara, who was happy with the lazy lifestyle by the looks of it.

Sans decided to take a path through the CORE to blow Edward's mind a bit. Probably couldn't hurt.

On the way through the resort they past a Vulkin who was excited to see another human, referring to Edward as "spicy man".

When they walked out the door and saw the massive, looming structure of the CORE Sans stopped for a moment to allow the human to take it in.

Edward's eyes widened as he stopped and looked at the CORE. He had no words to express what he was seeing. All he could do was look. Asriel giggled a bit at Edward's reaction, and so too did Chara. Asriel set Chara on the ground to let them stand up, despite them groaning in disapproval.

"C'mon, lazy," Asriel teased. "You have to walk once in a while. Mom and Dad's isn't even that far away."

"Can't you carry me?" Chara complained in a joking manner, smiling at Asriel.

"Nope, you're on your own, Pillow Prince."

Chara held back some laughter. "You'd better start wishing that what you said isn't foreshadowing…"

"No promises, Pillow."

Sans laughed at the new nickname. "if you get in a fight, is it automatically a pillow fight?"

Chara decided not to hold back any laughter this time, and ended up bursting out laughing at the pun. Edward had just finished processing what as in front of him when he noticed Chara, kneeling on the ground with their face in their arms, laughing.

"Um, are they okay?" Edward asked.

Sans snorted a bit. "they're fine. come on, let's go. maybe if we get lucky we'll meet mettaton."

Sans proceeded into the CORE, which had once-again had its modular rooms re-arranged, as they were every week. Sans could always tell which path was correct however as the monster responsible for re-arranging them was very predictable. Eventually they stopped outside a door with a large red sign displaying "ON AIR".

"What does that mean, 'ON AIR'?" Edward inquired. "I'm not accustomed to your culture, I apologise."

Sans thought for a second about how exactly he'd explain the concept of TV to the human. "uhh, well… it doesn't matter."

Sans knew Mettaton wouldn't mind their intrusion, people passed by all the time on their way to visit the king or queen and he'd always just drag them into the show for a second as a "special guest".

Sans continued on into the room, where Mettaton was standing in the centre of a massive, yellowish spotlight, seemingly giving some kind of new report on the new MTT gym. Mettaton was standing behind a large desk, with a stack of blank papers which he would occasionally sort through while he posed. There didn't seem to be a way through to the exit without ending up on the show.

Asriel figured that he may as well just go ahead through, seeing as there was no way to get past without being one of the four special guests to be. The group started to walk through, soon enough being in view of the camera, and of Mettaton.

It was evident that Mettaton had already noticed them as soon as they had entered the room, as he quickly and smoothly transitioned into the special guest segment from whatever it was he was currently reporting.

"AND NOW, TO TALK ABOUT THE NEW MTT FITNESS PROGRAM, WE HAVE FOUR SPECIAL GUESTS! PLEASE GIVE A BIG HAND TO…" Some monsters came over to the group and gently gestured them onto the set as their names were called out. "PRINCE ASRIEL; PRINCE CHARA; SANS, THE SNOWDIN SENTRY AND FINALLY…" Mettaton gazed at Edward and looked him up and down. "A HUMAN. WHO'S NAME IS UNIMPORTANT AT THIS TIME!"

Without giving time for them to prepare Mettaton produced a small microphone and held it to Chara's face, seeing as they were sitting closest.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE NEW FITNESS PROGRAM AND GYM? DO YOU THINK IT WILL HELP MONSTERS OF THE UNDERGROUND GET IN BETTER SHAPE?"

Chara looked around, thinking up a quick response as to not delay too long.

"I think it's a great addition," they said. "It'll certainly help any monster out of shape at the resort."

Mettaton gave no time for Chara to say anything else and quickly moved on to Sans, skipping Edward.

"uh, i guess it'll be cool to see more monsters getting buffed up, y'know?"

Mettaton nodded and finally moved on to Asriel.

"I'll go with what Sans said here," said Asriel, crossing his arms.

Mettaton shrugged and retracted the microphone.

"THERE YOU HAVE IT FOLKS! PLEASE THANK OUR SPECIAL GUESTS, CHARA, ASRIEL, SANS AND SOME HUMAN!"

Clapping came from somewhere.

"AFTER THE BREAK: TOP 10 TRICKS TO HELP YOU GET MORE OUT OF YOUR MTT BRAND ANIME POWDER! SEE YOU SOON!"

The lights dimmed and the cameras stopped rolling.

Edward blinked a few times. "What just happened?"

"You were just on TV," Asriel explained. "I'm not sure how to explain it to a human that isn't accustomed to here… Uh, Sans?"

"kinda hard concept, basically we send moving pictures and sounds little boxes in people's homes."

"How does that work?" Edward inquired. "What manner of sorcery is involved?"

"NOT SORCERY DARLING, JUST TECHNOLOGY!" Mettaton merrily chimed in. "SAY, WHY ARE YOU PASSING THROUGH ANYWAY?"

"I'm here to deliver some exciting news to the king and queen of the Underground. If you wish to come to hear it, there's not a complaint I have."

"OOH, NEWS? I'LL HAVE TO REPORT ON IT!" Mettaton stood at full height, towering over everyone. "LET'S GET GOING!"

Sans began making his way through the exit and got to the elevator, which was already here. They all stepped inside and Sans pressed the button.

"I don't understand why we just stepped into a box?" Edward said, confused.

"It's called an elevator," Chara pointed out. "This will take us nearer to our destination. In this case, our house."

"I hope you're able to stay this time, Chara," said Asriel, smiling widely. "It'll be great, you can finally be used as a pillow!"

"Asriel, I disown you."

Asriel laughed and hugged Chara tightly. "But I refused."

Chara giggled and hugged Asriel back for their brief moment. The elevator doors soon opened, which cued them to let go and walk out along with the rest of the group.

Sans continued to lead the way until they finally reached the small house. Sans turned to Edward to give him a word of advice. "the king may look at little intimidating, but he's really nice."

"I think after seeing er, whomever this is?" Edward motioned his head towards Mettaton. "I won't be intimidated."

"Mettaton isn't that intimidating," said Asriel. "Now, my dad looks pretty big and scary at first. But like Sans said, he's a nice guy with a sense of humour. I think you'll like him, Edward."

"yeah, you'll love him and the queen both, i'm sure." Sans entered the door and led the way into the kitchen. "heya," he casually said to the royals.

Toriel was in the kitchen, just preparing a pie. Asgore was also in the kitchen, sipping on tea from a cup. They both looked in Sans' direction, and Asgore won the race to greeting their guests.

"Howdy, Sans, Asriel," he said with a smile. "Is that you, Chara? Welcome home! Oh and, who might this be?"

"This is Edward, Dad," said Asriel. "He's a messenger."

"What message do you have for us then?" Asgore leaned forward a bit in his chair.

"Yes, tell us everything you came to say," said Toriel, pausing her pie-making process.

Edward inhaled a bit. He looked at the royals, then the others.

"In agreement with the Emperor of the Byzantine Empire, peace be upon him," Edward began. "We've all agreed to lift the barrier from the Underground. However, it will not be lifted until one fortnight following today. I apologise if anyone was hoping to leave immediately."

"you're lifting the barrier? woah." Even Sans looked in awe and then turned to talk to himself. "wow. g's gonna explode with happiness."

Mettaton grinned wider than ever before. "WHAT A SCOOP!" He quickly pressed a button on his wrist marked "EMERGENCY FILM CREW" and a small horde of monsters could suddenly be heard approaching in the distance.

Meanwhile, Sans had pulled out his communicator and pressed the button. Gaster's face materialised onscreen. "WHAT IS IT SANS? I'M IN THE MIDDLE OF A CRITICAL TEST."

"i don't think your test matters right now."

"WHAT? NOW LISTEN HE–"

"shut up and listen. one fortnight from today the humans are gonna lift the barrier."

Gaster immediately went silent and his face changed to an indescribable expression. "L-LIFT THE BARRIER…?" Gaster clearly started fantasising about all the things he could bring to the surface, all the research he could conduct. "I GUESS I BETTER START PACKING."

"woah, it's a fortnight from today!"

"I HAVE A LOT OF STUFF, SEE YOU LATER SANS!" Gaster's face disappeared as a film crew piled into the kitchen.

"This is…" Asgore paused, standing up. "This is the best news we've ever had! Thank you, Edward, for delivering this message to us. You may leave if you want."

Edward bowed his head to Asgore and exited the kitchen, and soon afterwards, the house. Toriel smiled widely.

"Do you know what this means?" she said. "You can start planting flowers on the surface, Asgore. And I can use human-made ingredients in my pies!"

"Are you sure it's a great idea to live on the surface?" Chara interjected, their tone of voice changing completely from what was heard last. It went back to the monotone style that would normally be heard before any of this happened. "With all that's happening on the surface, the Underground is much safer. I vote we wait until the entirety of Europe and Asia aren't trying to kill each other."

"Wait, what do you mean?" Asriel asked. "Is that why you came here before? To escape whatever's happening up there?"

"Yes, and I would hate to have to return to it so soon. Could we not go instead to an island where nothing lives? We would have a much better chance."

Mettaton shushed everyone. "PLEASE, BE QUIET. WE ARE LIVE IN 3, 2, 1…" Mettaton turned directly to the camera. "HELLO DEARIES FOR A SPECIAL EMERGENCY BROADCAST! BUT THIS ISN'T A BAD EMERGENCY, OH NO, THE HUMANS ARE PLANNING TO OPEN UP THE BARRIER IN ONE FORTNIGHT FROM TODAY!" He paused for a second as the camera panned around the room of mostly smiling people and then back to him. "I'M SURE THAT MONSTERS EVERYWHERE WILL REJOICE. METTATON SIGNING OFF!" The camera was put down and Mettaton's film crew filed out. Mettaton turned to Chara. "NOW HONEY, WHAT WERE YOU SAYING ABOUT THE SURFACE?"

"Mettaton, I was saying that the surface isn't safe for anyone," Chara said, maintaining their monotone voice. "Everyone is against each other. Every city wants to take each other over, every continent wants to annihilate the other. Every religion hates each other. What's so good about the surface right now?"

Mettaton frowned slightly. "DARLING, DON'T BE SO GRIM. IT CAN'T BE THAT BAD. IT WAS A LONG TIME AGO WHEN YOU FIRST ARRIVED. I REMEMBER THOSE DAYS, WHEN I WAS STILL…" Mettaton trailed off. "ANYWAY, MY POINT IS THAT WHATEVER WAS GOING ON UP THERE IS PROBABLY OVER BY NOW!"

Sans walked back into the group. "yeah, kid. mettaton's got a point. it's probably safe again by this point."

"Safe?" Chara grew a smile that reeked of disbelief. "You're kidding, right? Six years doesn't cause peace. Especially not with what's happening. We aren't even near the turn of the century yet. I doubt just a few years will resolve everything. None of you are safe up there – I'm not safe up there. No one. Is safe. Up there."

Mettaton gave a forced chuckle, his robotic voice taking on a slight tone of irritation. "NOW YOU'RE TALKING NONSENSE, THAT MESSENGER WAS PERFECTLY FINE. PLUS, IF THERE WAS SOME KIND OF BIG WAR, THEY WOULDN'T HAVE TIME OR RESOURCES TO REMOVE THE BARRIER NOW WOULD THEY?" Mettaton's smile twisted into a smirk as he looked down on Chara.

Sans chimed in again, shrugging. "yup, yet another good point. the messenger didn't seem all that troubled and i doubt they'd choose such an awkward time to take away the barrier. call us dumb but nothing we've seen has suggested that whatever was going on is still going on."

"Hm, I guess there's no way to convince you then," Chara's smile faded quickly. "Just… don't blame me if you see something you don't like. What, with the Black Death and all."

"What Black Death?" Asriel inquired, tilting his head.

"Oh, you don't know about the Plague? The one that mangles and deforms humans and turns them into walking harbours of self-agony and death? Did I mention it spreads quicker than wildfire?"

"We're not human, though. We're monsters, we don't get sick from human diseases."

"I'm more worried about you guys seeing what it does to someone else than I am anything else…"

Sans' grin widened, despite Chara's serious tone, he simply couldn't resist. "uh, have you seen the aftermath of my bro's spaghetti?" After holding for a moment as everyone but Chara chuckled Sans turned semi-serious again, his smile slightly lower than normal. "besides, i'm sure we've all seen worse. i hate to bring it up but a lot of us were alive during the war. so many lives lost on both sides that day…"

"Why are all of you so lighthearted about the Surface in the first place?" Chara crossed their arms. "It's not like it's more advanced, more civilised, or even more interesting than anything down here. In fact, I think it's a downgrade. Besides, I care about all of you. Why would I tell you something that I think you shouldn't worry about, and stress it as if you should?"

"it's been so long since any of us have even seen the surface. even ol' asgore's windows were designed to always show the same beautiful view of a garden but after the barrier was put up they stopped working."

Mettaton nodded. "PLUS, EVEN IF THEY AREN'T VERY ADVANCED YET, WE CAN HELP THEM! JUST LOOK AT OUR TECHNOLOGY!"

"yeah, every human so far seems to have been absolutely mindblown by our stuff. just think of the things we could bring to them."

Chara paused for a good five seconds. They looked at Mettaton, then at Sans. "If you really want to go to the surface, I won't stop you. But don't ignore my warning either, okay?"

Even Sans was beginning to get irritated by Chara's sudden negativity. He didn't let it get to him and stopped the conversation there.

Mettaton looked at the clock and suddenly looked very shocked. "OH MY! MY REGULAR PROGRAMMING IS LATE! THINK OF THE MISSED RATINGS! I NEED TO LEAVE. SEE YOU LATER DEARIES!"

Mettaton quickly exited the house, ducking under the doorframe. The room was silent in an awkward way, there was an air of tension in the room. After a good few seconds, Toriel decided to break the silence and the tension.

"Does anyone want pie?" she suggested in a kind tone.

"I'd love some," said Asriel. "Chara?"

"Sure," Chara said enthusiastically.

Still feeling some tension, Sans pulled up a stool to the table and sat down. "sure, i guess i could go for some pie."

"Okay!" Toriel said with glee. She took the already finished pie and set it on the table. Asriel and Chara joined the table. "Take as many slices as you can possibly eat. It's for all of you."

"Thanks, Mom," Chara said with a smile.

"Yeah, thanks," Asriel said as he reached his hand for the first slice. Chara reached their hand for the first slice as well. They both ceased their arm movement and locked eyes. "Oh, you know what's gonna happen."

"You're on." Chara used the distraction to quickly take the first slice and giggled at Asriel.

"Aw, c'mon," Asriel chuckled as he grabbed a second slice.

Sans reached out and grabbed a piece, placed it on a plate, letting it sit there before climbing back off the stool and retrieving ketchup from the fridge and emptying the whole container onto his pie.

"that's better."

Toriel chuckled. "You're putting ketchup on a pie, Sans? That's unusual, but whatever you want to do."

"i've been told it's weird before but it's what i like." When no-one was watching Sans ate whole slice in one go and then put his plate into the sink. "you sure know how to make a pie, tori."

"Thank you kindly, Sans. How are the rest of you enjoying it?"

"I love it, Mom," said Chara between chewing. "Though I shouldn't speak with my mouth full."

"It's great as always," Asriel said, before chuckling at Chara.

"What?"

"Your cheeks are like a chipmunk's, Chara."

"Quiet, you."

Sans grabbed a white napkin and dabbed the outside of his mouth, clearing the remaining pie debris. "thanks for the pie. i guess i better get back to g and make sure he isn't tearing the place up."

Sans hopped off the stool and walked out of the door, taking a shortcut right to Alphys' lab and going down the lift…

After Chara finished their slice of pie, they stood up from their chair.

"Thanks for the pie, Mom," they said gratefully. "I'm gonna go to my room for a while."

"Okay, have fun with your room-related endeavours," said Toriel.

Chara giggled, starting off to their room. Asriel stayed behind to finish eating his slice and more. Their room was just as they left it; Rather well-kept, but with a few things lying here and there.

"I wonder…" Chara pondered, going through their things. "I wonder if there's anything new that wasn't here before?"

After some rummaging through their things, Chara uncovered an untouched glass hidden behind some things. It was full of what looked to be grape juice. Though they weren't much of a fan of the taste of dark grape juice, it was a nice gesture by whoever left them a drink. They hoped that the drink was from recently, lest they drink grape juice from four days ago.

"Cheers to not being a jerk," Chara said to themself, picking up the glass and drinking what little grape juice was actually in it.

They immediately realized what was in that glass. It wasn't grape juice. They quickly shoved the glass back where it was and started choking. Their coughs became violent as they seemingly lost the ability to breathe. Falling to the ground, Chara's eyes became soaked with tears; It was both of pain and anger with themself. They came this far, and this is how they were about to go out. Before they could cry for help, they blacked out. They fell to the floor, their body hitting the table where they set the glass, knocking it to the ground. If not for that glass, it would have been a much longer time before they were found.

Meanwhile, the lift finished descending and Sans stepped into the lab, he had only made his way halfway down the first corridor when suddenly the lights turned red and alarms started blaring, followed by the distant sound of Gaster cursing vigorously.

Sans broke into a speedwalk and reached Gaster's main lab where W.D was frantically scurrying about checking things on monitors before quickly turning to Sans and rushing him back out the door.

"SANS, WE NEED TO GET TO CHARA QUICK. SOMETHING HAS HAPPENED."

Sans resisted against the force of Gaster pushing him and made dismissive hand gestures. "woah, g, slow down, i just came back from chara's place. they're fine. what's up?"

"THEY ARE NOT FINE. THESE ALARMS MEAN THERE IS A PROBLEM."

"you set up alarms to monitor chara?"

"OF COURSE I DID. IT'S VITAL THEY STAY ALIVE."

"that's kinda creepy."

"WE CAN DISCUSS THE ETHICS OF WHAT I DO LATER, RIGHT NOW WE MUST HELP CHARA. I HAVE NO DOUBT THE ROYALS HAVE ALREADY FOUND THEM AND ARE LIKELY GOING MAD WITH FEAR. I HAVE SEEN REALITIES WHERE CHARA DIED. IT ALL GOES DOWNHILL FROM THERE, FOR A VERY LONG TIME."

Sans was taken aback by the urgency Gaster was speaking. He really cared for Chara's safety. "i guess we should get going then."

Sans opened a shortcut and they both rushed through, ending up right outside Chara and Asriel's home.

Inside the house, the entire Dreemurr family was in Chara's room. Asriel was listening to Chara's pulse to make sure they aren't dead, Toriel was quickly getting their bed ready to let them rest on, and Asgore was preparing ice bags to be placed on Chara's head when they're on the bed.

"They're alive, I can hear their beating in their chest," Asriel said in relief.

"Put them on the bed!" Toriel said, her voice full of haste and her forehead full of sweat.

Asriel set Chara on their bed as they still lie unconscious. Asgore took the bags of ice, wrapped them in a towel, and carefully placed them on Chara's forehead.

"A-are they gonna live?" Asriel asked, the concern in his voice already returning.

"I hope so," said Toriel. "I can't lose a child, I really can't."

Gaster and Sans both ran to Chara's room, knocking over a table and smashing a vase in the rush. They skidded to a halt outside the door and hurried inside.

"what happened?"

"Chara was just like this," Asriel said, putting a hand on Chara's chest to make sure their pulse was still there. "There was a glass on the floor, it was broken, it looked like it had some purple stuff in it before or something. I don't know how they passed out, but I'm really scared about what's gonna happen…"

While Sans ran over to Chara and checked their condition, Gaster grabbed a piece of glass from the ground and threw it into his mouth. "POISON."

"this isn't good, g, their pulse is all over the place."

"WE HAVE TO GET THEM TO THE LAB AND STABILIZE THEM. I'LL CARRY THEM THERE, YOU CALL ALPHYS AND ANYONE ELSE WITH EVEN A HINT OF MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE. I NEED ALL THE HELP I CAN GET."

"got it. tori, asgore, don't worry. chara'll be fine." Sans rushed the words out of his mouth, unsure of them himself, and then started dialling Alphys.

Gaster looked at Asriel. "ASRIEL, PLEASE, GET CHARA AND FOLLOW ME. WE'LL FIX THIS."

"Okay!" Asriel lifted Chara up carefully, some water forming in his eye. He looked into their closed eyes, holding them close to himself and looking up at Gaster. "I'm coming."

Asriel started to follow Gaster as his legs shook in anticipation of future events.

There was a delay, but soon enough Alphys answered.

"O-oh, uh, hey Sans," she said. "Uh, what's up?"

"alphys, get to your lab, set up all your medical equipment. we have an emergency and we need everything you have that can deal with poison. i'll meet you there."

Without giving Alphys a chance to reply, Sans ran after Gaster and arrived back outside the lab.

As the group hurried with Chara being carried to the lab, Chara was having their own internal affairs in their dreams. They felt Asriel carrying them, and that familar feeling brought them back to another timeline. Asriel, having absorbed their soul, was carrying them back to their home village. But something was different. Chara was alive. They looked from side to side, they tugged on Asriel's robe to try and get his attention.

"Don't!" Chara yelled. "You'll die, I can't let you die!"

It wasn't enough. Asriel seemed completely oblivious. As soon as he set Chara on a bed of flowers, Chara tried to say something, but nothing happened. They woke up and tried to tell themself that what happened was just a dream. Suddenly, everything felt painful. Their eyes could barely even open. They couldn't even lift their head or move their arms, there was too much pain. Even their breathing was contracted, and speaking was out of the question. They were back in the lab. Gaster was there along with Sans, Asriel, and Alphys. Asriel was close by Chara, it looked as if he was crying the whole time, since he still had water in his eyes, which were bloodshot. Chara made a pained groaning sound, and Asriel hugged them tightly.

"Chara," Asriel said, his voice seeming shaky. "Don't you ever leave us again… I… I can't let you die…"

Chara tried to say something in response, or even hug Asriel. But they couldn't. Water formed in their eyes, and their breathing got even more strained and contracted. Asriel looked to Gaster.

"Do we even k-know what's wrong with them…?" Asriel refused to let Chara go.

Gaster was serious and hard.

"POISON. PARTICULARLY NASTY STUFF." Gaster was wheeling medical equipment over to the bed and hooking a lot of wires and tubes up to Chara. "I AM SORRY TO BE SO BRUTALLY HONEST, BUT IF WE DO NOT GET IT OUT OF THEIR SYSTEM QUICK THEY WILL SOON DIE." Gaster injected something into Chara. "THIS WILL KEEP THEIR HEART AND BRAIN FUNCTIONING NORMALLY FOR A WHILE BUT IT WON'T LAST LONG. IT SHOULD AT LEAST HELP THE PAIN."

Gaster leaned close to Chara. "CHARA, IF YOU CAN HEAR ME, I NEED YOU TO HOLD ON. TRY TO STAY AWAKE. KEEP YOUR BRAIN ACTIVE."

"Oh god, oh god," Asriel held his head. "Are they going to die? Please don't say they're going to die. I'm not going to let them die. They can't die."

Chara mustered up some strength to lift their arms and hug Asriel, to hopefully comfort him. They succeeded in their efforts to calm Asriel down. Asriel sunk his head into Chara's shoulder and started to sob again. Chara tried to open their eyes more to look directly at Gaster, but even that was too much for them to do. They instead blinked once to let Gaster know that they'll try their best to heed his directions. Even so, they felt as if all the thoughts they had at once wasn't enough to keep them going, and their uncertain expression reflected just that.

Gaster stood upright. "CHARA WILL NOT DIE. I REFUSE TO ALLOW IT. EVERYTHING I HAVE WORKED FOR…"

"g, please, calm down. you need to concentrate" Sans said, slightly scared of Gaster's anger.

Gaster adjusted the nearest machine to his left. Before smacking it in frustration and then opening the panel on the side. "ALPHYS, WHY DOESN'T YOUR EQUIPMENT WORK?"

"T-that o-one's um…" Alphys looked around frantically. "I-it's not r-really u-uh ready for anything…"

Gaster peered into the panel in confusion. "IT'S EMPTY. OF COURSE IT IS." Gaster shook his fists infront of him and then threw a punch at the side of the empty machine, putting a massive dent in it and sending it flying into the wall with a tremendous crash. Gaster's form began to destabilize and distort.

"wingdings, stop!" Sans began to grow concerned.

"SA✌ANs, YOU 0F ALLl PEOPLEpeopLE SHOULD UNDERSTAND HOW HhARD I HAVE WORKED TO REACH THIS OUTCOME. iII caNNot LOSE THIS!"

"i get it, just calm down so you can do something about it!"

Gaster slumped onto his stool and covered his face.

"gaster, you can't fix this if you give up."

"I KNOW." Gaster scribbled something down and gave it to Sans. "GO GET THIS STUFF FROM MY LAB."

"got it." Sans followed the order without hesitation and hurried down the escalator.

Alphys was busy trying to get some machine working, while at the same time looking at Chara between every action she took. Asriel was still crying into Chara's shoulder while Chara hugged him and slowly patted his back. Besides that, nothing interesting was to be seen.

Sans hurried into Gaster's lab and searched around for the items on Gaster's list. Luckily Gaster had organised all of his stuff ready to move to the surface even though it was a fortnight away.

He grabbed all the components then hurried back to the lift.

Meanwhile upstairs Gaster was still on the verge of completely breaking down. The poison had advanced quickly in Chara but their body was doing its best to fight. Unfortunately, its best wasn't quite enough and their body was losing the battle quickly.

As Chara was held in Asriel's embrace, they took a few seconds to realize how hopeless their situation really is. Knowing what happened before, their odds of survival were slim to nothing. But knowing what came next, they couldn't afford to give up fighting.

They forced some words out. "A-Asriel…"

"I h-hear you," Asriel reassured them.

"I-if I… d-die–" They were abruptly cut off.

"You AREN'T going to d-die!" Asriel's eyes continued to fill with tears. "Y-you can't…"

"I-if… I do… D-don't take my body t-to… the surface… D-don't do a-anything… stupid… G-got it…?"

Asriel nodded slowly.

"H-eh… T-thank you…" Chara seemed to be losing consciousness, so Asriel shook them gently. That was enough to keep them awake.

Sans finally got back, out of breath because of how fast he ran. Without saying anything Gaster grabbed all the parts Sans had bundled in his arm and started putting them together.

He grabbed some tape from his pocket and began taping them up so they wouldn't fall apart. The final result was a crude and janky circular object with a sharp looking spike on the bottom.

"THIS DEVICE SHOULD HELP CLEAR THE POISON FROM THEIR BLOODSTREAM, BUT I FEAR IT IS TOO LATE." Gaster carefully lifted Chara's arm and pressed a button on the device, retracting the spike. "CHARA, THIS WILL HURT A LOT, BUT IF WE'RE NOT TOO LATE, IT WILL HELP."

He slid the ring over Chara's wrist and pressed the button again, resulting in a horrible fleshy sound as the spike stuck into Chara's wrist.

There was an air of tension as everyone waited but nothing happened.

Gaster simply stared in disbelief as the device flashed a red light. He dropped to his knees. "IT'S TOO LATE. THE POISON IS DESTROYING CELLS FASTER THAN THE DEVICE CAN DESTROY THE POISON." Gaster went completely silent and looked at the floor, eyes closed. "I WAS SO CLOSE…"

At that moment, Asriel's expression lost any hope that it portrayed before, and Chara tried to comfort him by patting his back slowly to no avail. Asriel's lip started to quiver.

"D-don't cry…" Chara said in hopes to keep Asriel from crying. They failed.

Asriel started to sob uncontrollably. He held Chara tightly in his embrace.

"No, no, no, no," Asriel continued on as he sobbed. "This can't happen, it won't! I can't let you die! There has to be something, anything at all, that we can do!"

"I-it's okay… Asriel…" Chara closed their eyes, hoping that Asriel wouldn't notice their own silent sobs. "Y-you'll live on… Won't y-you?"

"Not without you I'm not!" Asriel gritted his teeth. After everything that happened in the past, this was how it had to end. He couldn't accept that; He wouldn't.

Alphys looked at Gaster, sweat covered her forehead. "T-there is s-something we can do, r-right?" she inquired.

Gaster looked up and opened his eyes. "I'M NOT SURE. THE POISON HAS ALREADY CIRCULATED THROUGHOUT THEIR ENTIRE BODY. UNLESS YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO CAN WORK MIRACLES…"

Asriel's eyes met Chara's just as theirs opened to look at him. Chara's eyes were so squinted that they could easily be mistakened as a certain someone Sans knew once before.

Chara put a hand on Asriel's chest. "W-when I die…" They pointed to themself. "T-take my S-SOUL… Y-you'll k-keep them safe… w-won't you?"

Asriel nodded slowly. He wasn't sure that he'd have the heart to take Chara's SOUL. Chara looked to Sans, smiling.

"S-Sans…" they said, seeming too woozy to speak with passion. "T-there won't… b-be… any…more… any…"

Chara couldn't muster up any strength left to finish their speech or even speak further. Their arms started to go limp from weakness, and soon so did the rest of their body, but they refused to let go of life just yet.

"k-kid…" Sans shuffled over to Chara's bed. He was surprised that Chara's situation was upsetting him to such an extent given his previous attitiude. "don't give up."

Meanwhile Gaster had broken down sitting on the floor. He was distorting and flickering, muttering to himself. "I WAS SO CLOSE. SO CLOSE TO A PERFECT TIMELINE. STUPID!"

It was hard to determine the exact emotion Gaster was feeling, but at a glance one might assume a mix of anger and depression.

Asriel slowly set Chara's nearly unconscious body down all the way again so that they wouldn't always be slightly elevated by his embrace. Out of nowhere, Asriel rested his head on Chara's chest. He smiled slightly, despite his tears.

"H-heh," he chuckled with a hint of sadness. "Y-you're still the Pillow Prince, Chara…"

Chara smiled at Asriel. If they were going to die, at least they finally got used as a pillow, much to their humourous dismay. They closed their eyes, drifting off into unconsciousness. Asriel still felt their pulse from where he lay his head, reassuring him that this was only one of their naps.

Sans looked to Gaster, observing him crumbled on the floor. He realised something. This wasn't like Gaster. Gaster was always looking for a way to solve the situation. Gaster was smart. He didn't let his negative emotions stop him from achieving his goal.

He walked over and put his hand on Gaster's shoulder. "g."

"WHAT DO YOU WANT, SANS?"

"look at yourself. you're a mess. clearly the time you've spend out of the void made you forget yourself."

"WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? WHAT IS THIS DRIVEL?"

"this isn't drivel. this is me telling you that you're giving up way too soon."

"NOTHING CAN BE DONE. CHARA WILL DIE."

"of course they'll die if you don't get off your ass and do something. use your head. be the royal scientist."

Gaster took a moment. Sans was right. He wasn't using his head. Gaster cleared his thoughts and took a breath. Recalling as many details as he could about the poison. It was a very potent poison but wasn't made to kill more than a small human child. While Chara wasn't quite a child anymore the poison was still very effective. If the poison had been used on Asriel, on the other hand, it wouldn't have affected them as badly because monster bodies and souls work differently to humans, particularly boss monster souls. The body is controlled by the soul, it can last indefinitely as long as the soul survives.

Gaster processed this information and thought hard. The poison was rapidly damaging Chara's human soul but it would have a non-lethal effect on a boss monster soul… Of course. Gaster stood up confidently, proudly. "SANS. KEEP AN EYE ON CHARA. KEEP THEM AWAKE. I JUST NEED A FEW MOMENTS."

Sans simply nodded and rushed over to the bed while Gaster wasted no time and tore open a shortcut directly to his lab. He heaved the secret door open and ran to the computer, not bothering to sit down. He checked Alphys' lab, and sure enough, there everyone was. He checked Chara and then found it. Chara's soul. He opened it up and saw the millions of lines of text that controlled it. It was complex, filled with experiences. He still had trouble coming to grips with the true nature of the universe.

He opened the base object for a boss monster's soul and collected all the information he needed from it. He went back to Chara's soul and changed it, molding it into a hybrid of human and monster soul. He was unsure of what would happen but it couldn't have been worse than the current sequence of events. He had one last moment of hesitation and then hit the button that would apply the changes to the universe.

In the distance, a dog barks.

Chara's eyes opened. Sans' attempts to keep them awake had worked, but previously they had refused to open their eyes. Their eyes now were wide open and their expression seemed uneasy. They looked around the room. Everything they saw seemed to be moving, including the room itself. Everything was shaking, and a migrane overtook their head. Colours flashed before their eyes as they struggled to make sense of the situation. They looked towards Asriel, who seemed surprised that Chara was acting like they were. They seemed to be looking around frantically around the room to him, and his head was tilted in confusion, with his eyes still bloodshot and filled with tears that didn't come out. He was too surprised to resume his sobs yet.

"Chara, are you okay?" Asriel said. He looked up at Sans. "What's happening, Sans? This isn't normal."

Chara soon calmed down however. They felt strong enough to finally move their body, but they felt too weak still to get up or act at ease. Deciding it wasn't the best course of action to abuse this newfound strength yet, they remained in their current state and sighed slowly in relief, hoping this was something positive.

Sans too was confused about whatever had just happened. "woah, you okay kid?"

"THEY SHOULD BE." Gaster came back out of the shortcut and closed it, brimming with some kind of semi-confidence in whatever he just did. "CHARA MAY JUST BE ONE OF THE MOST UNIQUE BEINGS IN THE UNIVERSE NOW. THEIR SOULS IS NOW A HYBRID OF HUMAN AND MONSTER."

"woah."

"Wait, what?" Asriel said, monotonely in plain confusion in surprise. "Do you mean they're… Does that mean they… They'll live? Th-they'll live?"

Chara suddenly hugged Asriel tightly from where they lie. Asriel smiled widely at Chara and their ability to reach over to him, as this meant something great. He laughed in joy and hugged them tightly.

"You're gonna live! You're gonna live!" Asriel's eyes filled with tears of joy. "Oh my god, you're gonna live!"

"YEP. THE POISON IS STILL THERE BUT YOU'LL START RECOVERING SOON." Gaster said, grinning widly.

"is it safe?"

"IT SHOULD BE. I TOOK EXTRA PRECATIONS TO MAKE SURE THERE WERE NO CONFLICTS OR ANYTHING OF THE LIKE." Gaster turned to Chara. "HOWEVER, IF YOU SHOULD FEEL SOMETHING ODD, PLEASE TELL ME AND I'LL LOOK INTO IT."

Gaster sat down in his stool and relaxed. The grin on Asriel's face making him feel happy for the deed he did and re-assuring him he made the right choice.

"so… it's pretty much over then."

The amount of excitement and joy that Asriel and Chara were feeling was immense. Asriel was even jumping up and down, though careful not to carry Chara into the air as he hopped.

"I can't believe it," Asriel said, ceasing his excited jumps. "I'm just so happy, so happy that you'll live to see the light of day tomorrow! This is one of the best days of my life, heh…"

Chara smiled even more widely and rested their head on Asriel's shoulder. "I couldn't be happier to make you happy," they said full of glee. "I just wonder what's gonna happen in the future."

"WELL, IF WHAT WE HAVE HEARD IS TRUE, IN ABOUT A FORTNIGHT THE BARRIER WILL BE GONE AND WE WILL ALL BE ABLE TO RETURN TO THE SURFACE. IT'S SO EXCITING!" Gaster said, smiling with glee.

There was a noise from downstairs.

"uh, what was that?" Up the escalator came a familiar pair of legs. "oh great, what does he want?"

The film crew was set up in the blink of an eye and Mettaton began his report immediately.

"HERE IN THE LAB OF THE ROYAL SCIENTISTS, DR. ALPHYS AND DR. W.D GASTER A MIRACLE HAS OCCURRED. PRINCE CHARA HAD DRANK SOME POISON AND WAS ON THE BRINK OF DEATH WHEN USING THEIR SCIENTIFIC NOWLEDGE, THEY SAVED THE YOUNG HUMAN, TURNING THEIR SOUL INTO A MIX OF HUMAN AND MONSTER."

Gaster snuck next to Mettaton and tapped him on the shoulder. "ER, HOW EXACTLY DID YOU GET THIS INFORMATION?"

Mettaton whispered back, quiet enough so the cameras didn't hear. "OH, DARLING. I HAVE TO KEEP UP TO DATE WITH ALL POSSIBLE NEWS. I HAVE SPIES AND BUGS EVERWHERE!"

Gaster's face turned completely straight, an expression of annoyance. "OH. NOW I REMEMBER."

"NOW IF YOU'LL EXCUSE ME DARLING I HAVE A NEWS REPORT TO MAKE." Mettaton changed back to his booming newscaster voice and held the microphone to Asriel. "PRINCE ASRIEL, IT WAS CERTAINLY A STRANGE WAY IN WHICH YOUR NON-BIOLOGICAL SIBLING WAS SAVED. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?"

"I'm just so happy that they'll be able to come with us to the surface!" Asriel said, full of glee. "I couldn't imagine not having them around for this huge moment and beyond."

Mettaton gave no response and simply grinned, moving over to Chara, who was sitting in bed, in one smooth motion. "AND OF COURSE, IT WOULDN'T BE AN INTERVIEW IF I DIDN'T INTERVIEW THE PERSON OF THE MOMENT! CHARA, YOUR LIFE WAS JUST SAVED IN A VERY UNUSUAL WAY, HOW ARE YOU DOING? ANY PROBLEMS?"

Gaster tried to intervene, not wanting Chara to get stressed out. "I REALLY DON'T THINK THIS IS NE–"

Mettaton whipped his neck around quickly to turn to Gaster and very subtly shushed him.

"I can't say there are any problems with this," they said, smiling. "The only one I can think of is being used as a pillow by this fluffy dork."

"Hey," Asriel laughed. "We're both dorks equally, you dork."

Chara simply giggled at Asriel's response.

Even Mettaton could not hide his very slight chuckle so he quickly withdrew from questioning Chara and finally moved on to Alphys, stylishly flipping the microphone about in his hands and then plummeting into Alphys' face.

"HOW ABOUT YOU, DOCTOR? WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON THIS EVENT WHICH IS ALREADY BEING CALLED A MIRACLE?"

"W-well, I think it's just that, a m-miracle," Alphys said, glancing at Gaster. "K-knowing that this is possible o-opens up m-many windows of opportunity in the future of science! F-for instance; We could–"

"THAT'S LOVELY! INSPIRING THOUGHTS, DOCTOR!" Mettaton grinned and withdrawed the microphone, taking a moment of pleasure in Alphys' stunned expression.

Mettaton did a fantastic spin and stopped facing Gaster, made like he was going to hand over the microphone but then withdrew, turning back to the camera.

"THAT'S ALL FOR NOW, BEAUTIES. TUNE IN NEXT TIME FOR MORE NEWS, ONLY ON MTT!" The cameras stopped rolling and Mettaton turned to Gaster with a self-loving grin. "THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR BEING SO RUDE, OLD MAN!"

Gaster immedately turned defensive. "AT LEAST I'M NOT AN EGOTISTICAL BAG OF BOLTS."

"OOH, NICE ATTEMPT AT A BURN DARLING BUT YOU KNOW THAT YOU YOURSELF ARE AN EGOTISTICAL BAG OF BONES!"

Sans quickly stepped in between the argument, which was half-pretend, got too hot. "ladies, stop fighting, you're both equally full of yourselves." Sans said playfully, chuckling afterwards.

"Yeah, let's not grind each other's gears, guys," said Chara, holding back a chuckle.

Alphys slowly put her hands to her face as if utterly disappointed. Asriel silently laughed and put a hand to his face. He put another hand on Chara's shoulder.

"I think too much of Sans is rubbing off on you, Chara," Asriel chuckled.

Sans shrugged. "they can't help it, i'm just so sansational!" Sans said, almost exploding with laughter as Gaster smacked him on the head and Mettaton looked on in amusement.

"I am s-sincerely disappointed in both of y-you right now," said Alphys, her voice slightly muffled by her hands.

Mettaton smiled and put his hand on Alphys' shoulder. "OH WE'RE JUST HAVING FUN, DARLING. NO NEED TO GET SO WORKED UP ABOUT IT." Mettaton patted Alphys on the head and turned to his crew. "WELL, IT'S ABOUT TIME WE GOT GOING, DEARS, THERE ARE THINGS TO DO!"

Mettaton and his insanely large filming crew all got single file onto the escalator, Mettaton himself of course going first, doing a very flamboyant wave as he disappeared.

"THANK THE LORD HE'S FINALLY GONE." Gaster sighed, half-joking, half-seriously.

"Do you hate him, Gaster?" asked Chara. "He's probably only one of many robots, some could be really pleasant. You don't know, you've never Mett-a-ton."

Gaster did a half-laugh at the pun, but he was mostly annoyed. "WELL, ME AND HIM GO A LONG WAY BACK. WAY BACK WHEN HE WAS HAPPSTABLOOK. I CERTAINLY DON'T HATE HIM. IT'S JUST FRIENDLY RIVALRY BETWEEN FRIENDS." Gaster smiled re-assuringly.

"I figured, it was just for a joke."

"An awful joke," Asriel pointed out.

"More like an awe-ful joke." Chara giggled after the awful pun, and Asriel rubbed their hair.

"Shush, you need a new sense of humour."

Sans laughed and then looked down at his wrist, somehow while no-one was looking he had put on a watch.

"SANS, WHAT ARE YO–" Gaster asked but was cut off by Sans holding up his hand, he slowly put each finger down with each second.

As soon as the last finger was down Papyrus came crashing up the escalator and Sans took the watch back off. Papyrus gave nobody a chance to comment on his entrance and immediately began talking, even as he was getting up from the ground.

"NYEH! PRINCE CHARA! ARE YOU SURE YOU'RE OKAY?" Without giving time for an answer Papyrus got very close to Chara and help up a plate of spaghetti in their face. "HERE! HAVE SOME FOOD TO HELP YOU RECOVER!"

"I appreciate the offer, but I think I'll pass for now," said Chara. "But hey, put it on the counter and I'll have some later?"

"OF COURSE!" Papyrus practically slammed the plate onto the table. "YOU CAN EAT IT AT ANY TIME! A MASTER CHEF'S SPAGHETTI IS GOOD COLD OR WARM!"

Chara giggled. "Your kindness is legendary, Papyrus."

"Nearly as legendary as the ability you hold as a pillow," teased Asriel.

Both Asriel and Chara giggled after that. Nearly right afterwards, one of the doors of the lab was heard opening. Who it was wasn't clear, but their footsteps said they were wearing some sort of metal or armour. With them another set of footsteps, this one of soft boots that struck the ground so gently that barely made them audible. They stopped at the escalator for their ascent. As soon as they arrived, their identities were revealed. It was Abel, and who looked to be his wife.

"Oi," Abel greeted. "Hope 'm not too much 'f a bother 'ere? Came to see if me favourite group was doin' swell."

Everyone looked at Abel. Sans and Gaster, who had been present at the fight, both looked and felt awkward.

"uhh, hiya."

Meanwhile, Papyrus waved and greeted the visitor with glee.

"I know, I know," Abel looked down at his feet, then back at the group. "Let's skip the 'pologies, 'cause we know I'm sorry, right? Movin' on, it's gonna be a whole fortnight 'fore my departure… Thought I'd see how ya' buggers're doin'."

"We're fine enough," said Chara.

"Just enjoying the Pillow Prince's company," Asriel said, rubbing Chara's hair.

"Heh, right." Abel crossed his arms. "Listen, don't be so damn awkward 'round me, though 'm armed don't mean I've evil intentions. For those've ye' who've not a clue who I am, I'm Abel Birnamham. This's me wife, Annie. Honestly, I've not a clue of any've yer names either. Let's start there."

"Chara," said Chara.

"Prince Asriel Dreemurr, at your service," Asriel said politely.

"D-Doctor Alphys," Alphys stuttered.

Gaster shrugged and thought he might as well give Abel another chance, getting off on the right foot this time.

"DOCTOR WINGDINGS GASTER." Gaster said confidently, taking on his "Royal scientist" personality again.

Sans looked at Gaster and decided to follow his lead.

"i'm sans. sans the skeleton. how are ya?"

Papyrus gave Sans barely any time at the end of his sentence.

"AND I AM PAPYRUS, ALSO A SKELETON AND A MASTER CHEF!" Papyrus leaped over to Abel and the lady next to him and shook both of their hands profusely.

"I 'ppreciate the introductions," said Abel. "Ya' say ye're a master chef, aye? What dishes ya' specialise in?"

Papyrus' grin seemed to stretch out wider as he produced a second plate of spaghetti from inside his armour. "THE MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS SPECIALISED IN SPAGHETTI OF ALL KINDS, PLEASE DO TRY SOME!"

"'ve never 'eard of this uh, 'spaghetti'. Don't mind if I try some, right?" Abel reached out and took the plate of spaghetti. He took a bite, and his face instinctively scrunched up. "Er… This some kind'a Eastern dish? The taste is… indescribable. Suppose it's an acquired taste?"

Papyrus' face turned to a look of confusion. "INDESCRIBABLE? ACQUIRED TASTE? EASTERN DISH?" His face turned back the same impossibly wide grin as before. "I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THOSE WORDS ARE BUT THEY SOUND GOOD! I'M GLAD YOU LIKE IT!"

Sans stifled a laugh.

"I'll get used'ta it in time, I guess," Abel set the dish gently on a nearby table. "I should be goin' soon. Anythin' ye' need me for?"

Chara suddenly got an idea. The thought never occurred to them before that they could provide evidence to a former claim about the surface; And evidence was standing right there.

"Can you tell us how things on the surface are fairing?" Chara asked.

"Awful," Abel chuckled. "Since the war 'ere's o'er, the Moozlames quit likin' us again, now we're back to the 'good' ol' days, right? Spain ain't budgin' from the Moors neither, and the Mongol fellas in East Europe're bein' a pain in the arse still. Pretty standard."

Sans grew slightly concerned, he didn't quite understand Abel's dialect but what he could understand didn't sound good.

"uh, but it's livable right? people can live there and there's no problems?"

Gaster meanwhile was less concerned with living conditions and more confused about Abel's speech, which he realised was stranger than his own. "MOOZ-LAMES?"

"Aye, the Arab fellas, the Mamluks," Abel put a hand on his head. "Whate'er ya' call 'em. And sure, it's livable. Just don't live in the mainland'a Europe, Asia by any means, and mark Africa off yer list. Safest place ye' can go is Scotland, but we ain't too keen 'n keepin' 'r kingdoms in check at all times."

"Is there a safe country to live in?" Chara inquired.

"Sure, the East Asian isles." Abel looked up slightly. "If ya' can find what the boys call 'Japan', ye're in luck 'nd pretty safe."

"JA-PAN?" asked Papyrus. "WHAT'S A JAPAN? IT SOUNDS FUN!"

"It'sa li'l place barely anyone even knows exists," Abel explained. "If ye're any educated in swords, the great Katana came from o'er 'ere. I'll say though, as a sword, that bugger ain't by any means impressive."

"T-that's where katanas come from?" Alphys said excitedly. "I see those a-all the time in anime! Like this one time in Mew Mew, I saw the main girl with one during a–"

"Define anna-may." Abel seemed clueless.

"O-oh… I can't r-really explain it w-without…"

"They're cartoons," said Chara. "A lot of them have characters primarily speaking Japanese."

"T-that's the language?" Alphys put a hand on her head. "There is so much to learn…"

Gaster sighed, he had almost forgot about Alphys' anime obsession.

At that moment, the sound of the door opening came from downstairs followed by a familiar voice, Mike's.

"Hey uh, I was wondering where we're supposed to–" His sentence cut short when he got to the top of the escalator and saw Abel. "Uhhh…"

"Oi, Mike," Abel chuckled. "That's no way to greet yer General."

Mike completely shut his mouth and started sweating slightly. "I uhh… I…"

He worriedly looked to everybody else.

Abel laughed briefly. "I'm joking wif' ya', kid. Don't be so skittish. Oh, ye' remember me wife, right? The li'l rascal couldn't wait for me at 'ome, look who's 'ere next to me. Now I've got a question, where's yer lady, Mike?"

Mike continued to sweat and shake. "I uh, she uh… I don't know. You know what I'm like with women." Mike inched his way over to the other side of the room, just behind Sans, still slightly wary of Abel.

"Mike, can you do me a favour?" said Chara. "Seeing as Abel will leave soon, could you tell us a bit about your experiences as a soldier prior to recently?"

Mike turned to Chara but continued keeping an eye on Abel.

"Well, they weren't pleasant, that's for sure. I can't count the number of times I just narrowly avoided being killed when trying to defend some place or another…" Mike looked hard at Abel. "And when we weren't being attacked we were being pushed around by our superiors."

"Don't tell me ya' didn't laugh wif' us when ya' woke up in the 'bird' house," Abel chuckled. "And there weren't any ladies when ya' even came to. Just disappointment."

Mike turned red and clenched his fists, right on the verge of assaulting Abel. "Shut your mouth, you ass."

Papyrus continued to grin absentmindedly. "BIRDHOUSE? WOW! I BET THAT'S A NICE PLACE! I LOVE BIRDS!"

"uh, yeah, sure, a nice place." Sans awkwardly replied.

"Not any kind'a birdhouse like that, lad," Abel laughed. "The lady and I have to go now, I'll see ye' all if ya' wanna find me."

Abel and Annie left the scene, taking the downwards escalator to exit the laboratory. Abel was heard saying "birdhouse" and chuckling afterwards before he was out of earshot.

"WOWIE! WHAT A STRANGE AND ODD PERSON!" Papyrus said, turning to everyone else.

"yeah. i guess."

Mike suddenly looked distressed. "Oh yeah, uh, as I was saying, where do I go to… relieve myself?"

"If you're talking about the loo, it's downstairs," said Chara. "It's the first door, and the only door, that doesn't lead outside."

"Thanks." Mike said quickly and then rushed down the escalator. A bit later a flush was heard and Mike came back up, throwing himself onto a chair that had conveniently appeared as if to accomodate a lazy writer forgetting that there was no chair previously. "There was something I came here for but I don't remember now."

"Even if you don't remember why you came here, we'd love to have you around just to talk," said Asriel. "It'll be at least a day before Chara gets better, and I'm sure they'd love a friend to talk to."

"I suppose, when you're not around, Asriel," said Chara.

"I'm afraid I can't hang around very long. Undyne is putting me and David through these really tough training sessions. Later today we're going to be trying out some armour."

Sans chuckled. "try not to be crushed under it's weight."

"O-oh, and, um," Alphys paused. "T-tell Undyne I said hi?"

Mike smiled softly. "Sure thing. Anything else?"

"N-no, nothing else…"

"Oh, tell Undyne to come visit when she can," said Asriel. "Just not to be TOO enthusiastic, we don't want Chara crushed by her embrace, heh."

"Alright, I'll pass on the word," Mike went down the escalator and disappeared from view.

Sans stretched and sighed slightly. "well, now what?"

Asriel rubbed Chara's head. "I'm gonna go tell Mom and Dad the news! I mean, if that's okay."

"sure kid, no-one's gonna stop ya if you wanna go to your own house, heh. think you could bring back some of that pie if there's any?"

Papyrus squinted his eyes at Sans. "SANS! IT'S RUDE TO ASK SUCH THINGS OF ROYALTY!"

"Sure!" said Asriel. "Mom's always got pie, I'll ask her. I'll be back soon!"

Asriel left the room with a spring in his step, and Chara smiled while watching him leave. It gave them a tingling feeling in their heart to see him so happy. It felt great. They looked back to Sans and Papyrus.

"It feels so great to know that I won't be leaving that dork anytime soon," Chara said, smiling.

Asriel somehow caught ear of what Chara said, so he yelled back before he was completely out of earshot. "No, YOU'RE the dork!"

Chara giggled. "Or any of you, for that matter."

Sans chuckled. "please, you're both dorks."

Papyrus grinned. "AM I A DORK?"

"sure, why not?"

"WOWIE!"

Sans chuckled some more, this time even Gaster was slightly amused by the exchange.

"Heh, we're all dorks." Chara went silent for a few seconds, relaxing a bit. They turned their gaze to Gaster. "When do you think I can go back home? I'd love more than anything to sleep in my own bed when I can."

Gaster thought. "WELL… I SUPPOSE YOU COULD GO NOW, AS LONG AS SOMEONE KEEPS THEIR EYE ON YOU." He smiled widely at Chara.

Chara's face lit up. "Y-you're serious?" They sat up, smiling widely. "I'd love that! Thank you!"

They stood up off of the bed, using their hand to balance just in case. Their journey back was a short one, thanks to Sans. Despite that, they had time to think while on the way back. It hadn't even been a full week, and so much had changed for them already. Their LOVE, it was gone. But their love was stronger than ever, and there was nothing that could change that. They would have hated more than anything if none of this still existed.

They soon arrived at the house, and gave Sans a quick farewell before they were on their way. They were finally home, and they beat Asriel by a few seconds.

"Hey, how'd you get here?" Asriel said, confused but pleasantly surprised.

Before Chara could get a response out, Asriel hugged them with all his might. The force of the hug felt like it was crushing them. "Asriel, I think you're crushing me."

Asriel loosened up. "I'm sorry, I just… I'm surprised you're here so soon! What's the occasion?"

"Gaster said I could go home now. As you can imagine, I took the opportunity."

"That's awesome!" Asriel let go of Chara. "You uh, wanna go inside?"

"Sure." Chara and Asriel started to head into the house. "You're still the dork."

"We already know you're the biggest dork!" Asriel giggled.

Sans had decided to follow Chara to see the Dreemurr family again, Gaster and Paprus also came, since they had nothing better to be doing.

While walking, Sans made some casual conversation. "sure feels like we're near the end, huh?"

Papyrus was confused. "THE END OF WHAT, SANS?"

"this big adventure we've had. it's been pretty fun."

Papyrus' grin faded slightly. "I DIDN'T DO MUCH…"

"don't worry, you did enough."

The grin came back. "YEAH! YOU'RE RIGHT! THE GREAT PAPYRUS ALWAYS DOES JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF WORK! NYEHEHEH!"

Sans chuckled at his brother's display, and it was Gaster's turn to chime in. "INDEED, EVEN FOR ME IT HAS BEEN AN INTERESTING TURN OF EVENTS. HOPEFULLY THIS TIMELINE WILL REMAIN."

"i have a feeling it will, g." Sans' grin widened as they walked through the door and into the living room.

The group arrived in the house shortly after Chara and Asriel's own arrival to see that Chara's reunion wasn't slacked on at all. Asgore, Toriel, and even Asriel who had already seen them, were all tightly hugging them. Chara tried their best to hug them all back at once.

"We were so worried!" said Toriel. "I know that Gaster said you would be okay, but we couldn't help but worry!"

"What's important is that we're all together again," Asgore interjected. "And that, I'm certain, none of the chocolate in the freezer will go to waste."

Chara grinned, some tears of joy filled their eyes. "I couldn't be happier to be reunited with all of you…"

"Aw, c'mon," said Asriel as he roughed up Chara's hair a bit. "Don't cry yet. Save that for when you go to bed."

Gaster was the first to speak. "PLEASE, DO TRY TO KEEP THEM UNDER SUPERVISION. WARN ME, SANS OR ALPHYS IF ANYTHING STRANGE HAPPENS AT ALL. NOTHING SHOULD HAPPEN, BUT JUST INCASE."

"yeah, everything should be a-okay from now on. for all of us." Sans chuckled very quietly and his grin widened just a little bit.

The group disbanded their hug, and Toriel turned to Gaster and Sans. "I don't suppose any of you would like some pie? I fresh baked one earlier."

"You guys can have at it," said Chara. "I'm gonna lie down in my room."

"I'll come join you!" said Asriel. "Well, I'll join you, but I'd like some pie first, heh…"

"Eat away all you want. I don't mind." Chara smiled at Asriel before starting off to their room. As soon as they were at the door, they entered, but kept the door open.

"pie sure sounds good" said Sans, sitting down. He had remembered to bring his own ketchup this time and pulled some out of his pocket.

"PIE?!" Papyrus almost shouted, grinning. He grabbed a slice with a massive extravagant gesture and inspected the filling. "HMMM… I HAVE AN IDEA!" Papyrus spun out of the room and there was a short silence before he came spinning back in. "OBSERVE A MASTER CHEF AT WORK AS HE INVENTS A NEW TYPE OF FOOD!"

Papyrus somehow pulled all of the filling out of the pie, ate it, and then presented a plate of spaghetti. He grabbed a handful and stuffed it into the pie. "TA-DA! SPAGHETTI PIE!" He presented it as if were some kind of miracle.

Toriel giggled a little. "I'm sorry, what is that?"

"Well it's spaghetti pie," Asriel chuckled. He took a slice of pie and started eating it as soon as he sat at the table.

Papyrus sat with everyone else as Sans poured the entire bottle of ketchup onto his slice of pie. He examined the inside of the pie carefully and then took a small bite. His face showed a look of pure, unadulterated concentration as he thought about every aspect of the flavour. Sans and Gaster looked on in curiosity, waiting to see if he would give some kind of verdict on his own creation.

Papyrus' grin stretched impossibly wide and he made an "OK" sign with his hand. "ONE OF MY BEST SPAGHETTI BASED FOODSTUFFS YET!"

Sans couldn't help but laugh at the extremely dramatic way the whole ordeal was handled.

Meanwhile, Chara was in their room, lying soundly on their bed. They stared at the ceiling, thinking about everything they've went through. It wasn't even too long ago that they wanted to kill anyone and everyone they met just for their own benefit, and now they wouldn't hurt a fly, let alone a goat or a human. To think now, so soon, the barrier was to be removed and everyone was going to leave the Underground, it filled them with both hope and worry. In the longrun, the surface may open up many opportunities for the monsters to expand what they already have. But the amount of things going on around them could potentially lead to a lot of lives being ruined.

Their thoughts were interrupted at that moment by the sound of Asriel walking in and closing the door behind him.

"Thought I'd come join you," he said with a smile. "The pie's running short, and one piece did it for me."

"Come right in," Chara said.

Asriel got in the bed with Chara, quickly snuggling up close to them under the covers. Chara smiled. Asriel's embrace drained all their worries away, and assured them everything was going to be alright. Abel even said before that Japan is a good place to live, and it's very safe. They hoped that he was right. No, they were sure he was right. They relaxed significantly, closing their eyes and hugging Asriel. It wasn't long before they both drifted off into their dreams.

Knowing what the future could hold, it filled Chara with Determination.