Laura yawned and sat up in the unfamiliar bed, stretching before her eyes shot open. This wasn't her bed at home with mama goat.

She blinked, before giggling to herself and brushing her black bangs from her face. Looks like Pap let her have his room while he was out training with Undyne.

Her eyes were odd, she thought, for what had to be the hundredth time in her life as she looked at them in the blank screen of Pap's computer. Her eyes were brown, but with a fair bit of pink mixed in.

That little girl's voice in the back of her mind had been oddly silent, and she left Laura's dream part way through instead of staying the whole way. Something was wrong, but she couldn't put her finger on what.

Oh well, she had to head home anyways, she didn't get the chance to call Mama Toriel last night. And she still didn't know why she called the old goat mama so readily. Question for another day, it seemed. She pulled on her black and pink, MTT-brand, striped jacket and gave her hair a few quick brushes so it curled on her shoulder before leaving Pap's room. She then proceeded to nearly bump into Sans.

She let out a rather undignified squeak and fell back on her rear. "I thought I told you to stop doing that!" She shouted, a blush creeping along her face. His only response was a chuckle and a shrug, his eyelights gleaming pink for a moment. "when you stop bein' cute, i'll quit it." He said with little skeletal finger guns. Laura just huffed, crossing her arms. Girl was very much a child at heart.

"Well if you're done, I gotta get back home now!" She said standing, only for him to put a hand on her shoulder. "oh, there was one more thing. an, uh, old friend of mine came by earlier, said he wanted to meet up with you in the last hallway before the throne room. said it was important." Sans said with a nod, voice uncharacteristically serious.. "you should probably go. if he thought it was important, it's probably, well, pretty darn important, if you get me."

"Oh, well, uh… I guess? Let me just call Mama first…" She looked down at her phone to dial the number, but when she looked back up, Sans was gone. How does he do that? She wondered as the phone rang. On the third ring, Toriel picked up. "Oh, I was getting worried, my child! Thank you for calling." The old woman's voice was very relieved, from what Laura could pick up.

"Hi mama. Sorry I couldn't call earlier, I was a little… preoccupied. But Sans and Papyrus took good care of me!"

"That is good to hear my child, I will go open the doors for you."

"Actually, um, Sans wants me to meet an old friend of his? He says it's important, so…"

"Oh…" Toriel sounded rather distraught, but nodded. "If you insist, my child."

"Don't worry, mama, it shouldn't take too long, so I'll be back home soon!" She said trying to cheer Toriel up. People really have been getting pretty attached to her, but at least after that visit with Gaster in Waterfall, she knew why.

According to the melty scientist, her soul had been altered in some way when she fell into the Underground, causing her to force people to like her without even meaning to. Laura sighed. I just want to be normal…

The boat ride was quick, if unnerving. Beware the man who speaks in hands… Were they talking about Gaster? He certainly seemed nice enough when she met him, if a little hard to understand.

Laura shook her head. She had a meeting to get to! She quickly thanked the riverperson before heading off. It was a few quick elevator rides and a rather long walk, but after a while she was there, in that golden hall.

There was someone else there.

A small child, probably a little girl, stood on the opposite end of the hall from Laura, her eyes glowing a dull red that allowed Laura to see both even though her left side was coated in shadows due to the light from the large windows. She was holding something in her left hand.

"Greetings."

Laura flinched at that voice. It was so similar to the one in her head, but so much… colder. Even less caring. The voice in her mind had wit, a bit of dry humor. This girl had neither, and Laura couldn't shake the feeling of dread she got from looking at the child.

"Um… Heya! I'm L-Laura. Sorry, I'm a little more composed than this usually." She laughed nervously. "What's your name?"

The child took a step closer, dead silent.

This was getting to be extremely unsettling.

"Are you Sans' friend?" She tentatively asked.

The child stopped, and let out a long, cruel laugh. Then she took another step. Now she was close enough that Laura could see she wasn't really a little girl, more like a robot. Like Mettaton.

"Y-you're really freaking me out, here, girl…" Laura said, trembling. She took a step backwards and looked over her shoulder. The entryway was blocked by a wall of bones.

The girl raised her left hand, and the object in it caught the light. A kitchen knife.

Laura's breath caught in her throat.

"COME." Chara intoned, before rushing the human, knife raised.

Within the Void, within the gray room connected to this infected timeline, a partially melted man watched the events unfold in the golden hallway with interest. This supposedly impossible duel raged with slashes and dodges. The human was still alive.

That was good.

The man was deliberately ignoring the way the pink branched off to other timelines. Ignoring the way the newly infected timelines ended abruptly and were then totally annihilated, only to have the burnt-out husks start spreading new pink tendrils out.

That didn't matter.

What mattered was that Sans and Papyrus were alive and safe. After all, his timeline was fine, and they were fine. This was clearly much better than gambling with a child, right?

Right.

The other timelines didn't matter. The pink in their souls didn't matter.

The heavily glitching pink in his soul didn't matter.

Sans and Papyrus were safe.

The rest was…

[Unimportant.]