Author's Note: A big thanks again to all who are following, favoriting and reviewing this story. And please. DON'T be afraid to leave a review or a critique or a commentary of any kind. I will never improve on writing if not told when I make mistakes and how to improve. Don't ever forget that.
Christa gulped and took a step back, hands held up as the scaly head of the Royal Guard pointed her magical spear accusingly at her, an eye that seemed to stare right into her soul burrowing out from the helmet she wore. "Um...because you wouldn't hit a girl with glasses?" Christa offered up with a nervous smile.
Undyne blinked a bit, then walked over, took the glasses off of Christa, and whacked her over the head.
"No, I'll hit a girl WITH glasses." Undyne remarked before handing Christa her glasses back, giving her a toothy grin as she took off her helmet. "PSYCHE! I know why you're down here, human. Alphys called me up. Said you're here to help us break free of the barrier." She remarked. "Because of that, I'm more than happy to escort you to the lab. There, we can frolick in the fields of friendship!" She proclaimed, clasping her gauntlets together as the spear faded away and Undyne blinked her one good eye in an effeminate way.
"Oh, really?"
The yell from Undyne almost knocked her right into a nearby wall as Christa flopped onto her butt, the bags hitting the ground on either side as her notebook slid out as well. "NOT!"
"You don't have to yell." Christa murmured, pushing up her classes from the edge of her nose as she started picking her things up, Undyne shaking her head.
"Listen kid. It's nice you wanna actually try to make up for what your species did to us. It is. But I want you to understand something. I've had my share of experiences with humans. And if it wasn't for the fact that my bestest friend Alphys thinks you're helpful to us, I'd put you on a spit and roast you." Undyne remarked darkly, drawing a gauntleted finger across her neck, showing off a grim, toothy grin.
"Experiences? How?" Christa asked before she took notice of Undyne's eye patch, Undyne realizing that the nerdy human was staring right at her. "Oh. OH. Is...was that one of the kids? Maybe the Asian girl?"
Undyne instinctively raised a hand up to try and cover the eye patch before lowering her hand, her voice becoming quiet and low. "It was a long...long...time ago." She mumbled. "When the First Human was still down here." She said, Christa putting the duffel bags around her shoulders as she held up her notebook.
"I'm American. I like a good story." She reasoned. "Besides, talking about what bothers you is the first step to overcoming it."
Undyne looked Christa over, then sighed, ushering for her to follow her down the pathway to the Hotlands, clunking along in her armor as Christa scribbled away in her notepad. "Okay, human. You really wanna know? It all happened back in 2012. The human had been living with the Royal Family for three months, and Asgore felt it was a good idea that Chara learn how to defend herself. After all, if Asriel could be taught basic magic, then Chara deserved some self defense lessons. So he asked me to help train her. Just the basics, he insisted."
Undyne grinned wryly. "Oh, if I'd known then what I knew now about that little brat..."
"I can't stay! Tomorrow I'll be on my waaaay! So don't expect to find me sleepin' in my bed, cuz when you wake up...I won't be theeeeere!" The brown-haired Greek American girl sang out as she sauntered her way out of the house and towards the large tree in the front yard. The sunlight always lovingly filtered in from a very faint opening high above the palace, an opening that Asriel would one day use to return home for the very last time, and it cast soft golden rays all over the yard. It was as if the entire place was gilded, and Chara spun around, dancing slightly in the flowerbeds.
"What's that song?" Undyne asked, resting her head on her palms as she stood upright on her magic spear, one eyebrow raised up as her flowing red hair slid down her back. She tilted her head slightly, Chara kneeling down by one of the flowers and picking it up, doing a "he loves me, he loves me not" kind of deal with it as she plucked its petals one after another.
"Ah, it's my favorite song. I left home singin' it and didn't stop until I'd started falling into Mount Ebott. BOY that hurt." Chara remarked. "Ah, well, good thing I ended up here. I only had online stuff and the golden flowers in my yard to look forward to every day. And even online..." She groaned, rolling her eyes. "Ugh. Why is everyone so stupid and selfish and dumb? Sometimes I wish I'd been born here, as a monster. You guys don't have wars or "race" or any of that stuff. It's all so much purer and better."
"Well good to see you recognize quality when you see it!" Undyne laughed as she spun her spear. "I'm gonna teach you everything Asgore and Gerson taught me about the basics. What weapon are you good with?"
"Knives." Chara answered immediately. "I got this good hunting knife at a flea market and my mom took it away from me. I was so mad. I looked so cool with it! Why can't I just buy and use something because it looks cool?" Chara wanted to know, Undyne tossing her a sheathed knife which Chara easily caught in one hand.
"Ooh. Good!" Undyne complimented, nodding her head as Chara took it out of its sheathe, the 11 year old girl holding it up and getting the feel of it, slicing at the air a bit as she waved it back and forth. "Now then. I'm gonna start off easy. I'll launch slow spears at you, and you deflect them with your weapon." Undyne said. "Remember. You have to face me head on!" She proclaimed, holding out a palm, Chara's burning red SOUL emerging before her chest as she took up a fighting postion to face down the fish. Undyne snapped her gauntleted fingers, shimmering pale blue spears popping out from midair, moving at Chara at a pretty reasonable pace.
Chara ducked and weaved, slicing up and through each spear with expert strokes, nodding her head. "I feel good doing this. Real good." She said. "This is easy!" She laughed. "Dad would make us do Apocalypse Prepping for two years instead of Holidays like Christmas after that guy got elected, I can handle harder!"
"Alright then!" Undyne said, though something about the almost reddish glint in Chara's eye made her uneasy. She held her gauntlets up, focusing more intently as the spears got faster. Chara continued bobbing and weaving, slicing and knocking the spears away, making them dissipate in midair. "Good job! Keep it up, then when you're ready, run up and attack me. Try for a good punch."
Chara was already smoothly moving with the fluidity of a python, and before Undyne knew what to do, Chara had kicked her squarely in the neck and knocked her back. "Ha-HA!" Chara proclaimed dramatically before twirling the knife in one hand, Undyne slightly staggering, almost flopping onto her back. "Prepare to become SUSHI!" She remarked, taking up another fighting position as Undyne grit her teeth.
"She's just a kid, she's just a kid, you can't get mad!" Undyne had thought to herself as she twirled her spear and did a few simple stabs at Chara. "Remember to block and weave!" She informed the girl, who twisted her body about like a snake going up a tree, Undyne nodding. "Yes, like that, don't let yourself get hit, wait for your cha-"
Chara took that chance, and sliced up, leaping through the air...
The knife far, far too close to Undyne's face, catching her off guard. And suddenly she realized that she had been hit far harder than she'd figured.
"GAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Undyne held a hand over the eye patch, her tone quiet and reflective. "I kept it to remind me of what happened the last time I went easy on a human." She informed Christa, who's mouth was a perfect circle as she stared up at Undyne, the two having finally halted in front of an enormous, square-shaped white-painted laboratory surrounded by magma. Cooling vents rose up from the magma some distance away as they stood before the door on reddish/brown ground, Undyne clenching her fists as she held them at her side. "Made me look cooler. But I didn't forgive her for what she did. Not ever."
She turned, glaring down at Christa. "So don't expect to be friends with me. I'll be a cold day in Hotland before I'm friends with a human."
"That's fair." Christa said, closing her notebook as Alphys opened up the door and cheerily led them in, holding up a large plate she'd been carrying.
"Nachos?"
"Oh, yes please!" Undyne insisted, immediately grabbing a large handful and stuffing them in her mouth as Christa happily shook hands with Alphys's other free hand. Meanwhile, Sans and Gaster were in the next room, Sans staring at the covered capsule that held the African American child's soul as Gaster looked down at a snazzy metal clipboard.
"Sounds like the human is here. With a bit of luck, we'll finally fix everything."
"...bro?" Gaster glanced up and turned to look at Sans, his dear short brother staring intently at the capsule as his tone got quiet and contemplative. "have you ever been...well...haunted? By the memory of someone?"
Sans expected Gaster to say something witty or dismissive. Instead, Gaster's tone was subdued and somber.
"Every single day of my life."
Sans turned to look back at Gaster, clear surprise on his face as the scarred skull of his brother's face looked into a mirror across the way, Gaster seemingly staring not at himself but...someone else. Several someones. His eyes trailed slightly to the left, to the right, to some vision behind him that only he could see.
"Ever since that day they're all I've seen. And the day I no longer see them is the day that we make this right. If it means I am no longer remembered as the Royal Scientist, that's not a problem to me. I don't mind if it means I'll be remembered as the one who found the true path to peace."
"Your brother won't find redemption that way."
Sans gasped, turning around. Hope was sitting there in a nearby chair, hands in her lap. "I've waited a long time. And I'll keep waiting if I have to. But when the day comes that he finally understands what he needs...I'll be there to help. He CAN help free all of you from this place. But I don't think it'll be in the way he thought it would."
"what're you talkin' bout?" Sans asked, Gaster looking back at Sans, who appeared to be speaking to a chair. Gaster sighed quietly and stood by Sans, putting a hand on his brother's shoulder.
"Is it her? I can't see her."
"...yeah, it's her. she says you're gonna free us, but not in the way ya think." Sans muttered.
"And you should duck." The girl added, Sans blinking stupidly before a paper airplane whacked him in the face, and he turned, seeing Christa putting down her notebook and smiling as she waved. Sans pulled the notebook paper airplane open, and it read "HELLO SANS" in big letters, Gaster smiling warmly at this as he practically swept over to her and shook her hamd.
"A pleasure to meet you in person, Christa." He said politely, Christa nodding her head as Gaster and Alphys left with her to go to the inner workings of the lab to show off the time/space experiments they'd been doing, and the fascinating capsule device that would allow them to travel back in time, and to fix everything. As they left, Sans stared back at the capsule that held Hope's soul, Undyne staring at the one that held Neil's.
"Can you see them too?" She asked. "I can sort of see him. Not that well, but a little."
Sans saw Qiang now sitting next to Hope, and he looked away. "yeah. I see them too."
"It'll be nice to get out of here." Undyne said with a sigh. "And to finally see daylight."
Meanwhile, Alphys was going over some charts, speaking excitedly about possible timelines that would result from their work as Gaster patted the immense capsule-esque time travel device they had. It reminded Christa very much of the type of time capsules people would bury for future generations to dig up, with gleaming blue and steely machinery, thick glass, tubes connecting the device to the laboratory power lines in the walls and a keyboard placed at the front. "We'll begin installing the parts you've got immediately." Gaster said. "I have to say, it's..." He breathed a sigh of relief. "After so long, to finally have some real hope that we can leave the Underground? It's almost like a dream."
"Yeah, this alternative involves a lot less...stabbing and soul-stealing." Alphys admitted, Christa flinching as Alphys began taking parts out of one of Christa's duffel bags, Christa biting her lip as she stared at Gaster. Sensing she wanted to talk more privately, he led her into his private office nearby, sitting down behind a desk. A painting on the wall of the Royal Family and the Royal Guard with Gaster by King Asgore's side hung to the right of his large mahogany desk, a cute little squeezy globe next to an old-fashioned hourglass lying on the left hand side. He picked the globe up, squeezing it over in his hands before tossing it back and forth, Christa opening up her notebook and letting her hand feel over what she'd written.
She spoke after what seemed to be a long time, her tone quiet and almost accusing. "Souls? You really...you really took souls? Why?"
"In order to break the barrier." Gaster sighed, putting the squeezy ball down and holding his head in one hand. "Understand that to pass THROUGH the barrier, all a monster or a human would need is their own soul, and a soul from another member of the opposite species. To break it though? That would require the might of Seven Human 'd have to combine their desires and will it so. Either that...or a monster would have to have the power of Seven Souls, for if a monster ever gained hold of Seven Human Souls, they would become insanely power. They'd become...well..." He held his hands up. "Godlike! That was the power humans feared. It's why they wanted to wage war against us."
"And how do you know seven souls could do that?"
Gaster quietly looked back at the painting. "Research." He mumbled out. "At any rate, I'm glad you're here now. If all goes well, we'll travel back in time. There's so very I wish I could do again. Sacrifices that I thought I had to make that I only now regret. Ah, but is not hindsight 20/20?" Gaster mused, standing up and exiting the room, Christa watching him leave as she quietly sat there, eyes blinking behind her cloudy glasses. She had asked him a rather straightforward question.
He hadn't really given her an answer. But she had a feeling she knew the answer anyway. And knew exactly why Wing Ding Gaster wanted to go back in time.
"...why am I shaking?" She rhetorically asked aloud, arms wrapped around herself. "C-C'mon, I...I can't have hard feelings for what he did eons ago...r-right? Right?"
Somehow, though...she wasn't sure she believed that. She was a patient girl. She was willing to work day after day to make sure the time machine would work. She could wait until it was ready.
But hearing what Undyne had said, and knowing what Gaster had done...it made her think monsterkind wouldn't wait. And that if push came to shove-
Suddenly Christa didn't feel very smart at all. She felt very stupid for coming down here.
"...please, PLEASE don't let Murphy's Law hit." She quietly prayed aloud.
...
...
...
...Christa knelt down by the bottom of the capsule, tightening the multi-modal reflection sorter as Alphys measured the pulsating white/blue beam that was cascading down from the top to the bottom, furiously writing down notes on her own snazzy metal clipboard. "It's taken months of work and several all nights, but we did it!" She complimented. "It's at 400 megahertz. The electromagnetic field it's building is making is contained quite nicely within the capsule now, and pulsing at a steady rate that is easily managed and won't make the thing explode!"
"yeah, the thing came close a bunch of times." Sans admitted as he passed Christa a lug nut, which she took in her tiny hands whilst he worked on the other side of the bottom end. "for a few moments I got caught in the thing when it was shaking like a leaf. It was like..." Sans paused, trying to find the right words to describe what he'd seen before he held a bony hand up. "it was like looking in a tunnel of a thousand stars that were cascading all around you. it was really, really beautiful." He admitted.
Christa blinked a bit, smiling back at him as she kept working on the capsule, Gaster walking in with a big smile on his face. "King Asgore's overjoyed. When I told him that the device was almost ready, he looked like he was going to cry from joy." Gaster clasped his hands together, beaming broadly. "It's positively wonderful! But let us make sure the device functions properly. I don't want to make any unfortunate mistakes." He said.
"It's operating at optimum capacity. Perhaps we could do a test run?" Alphys asked. "Maybe send something back, oh...ten minutes?"
"Ten minutes." Gaster paced back and forth in his dark coat, brow furrowed. "...are we positively sure it would work? Are the O-Rings in place? Is the electromagnetic field completely contained?"
"you betcha, brother." Sans said with a grin. "no bones about it. this is gonna work." He said, Gaster trying not to laugh as he rubbed his hands together and beamed.
"Well, ten minutes then! I'll send, um...I've got it! Sans! KETCHUP me." He proclaimed, Sans tossing a bottle of ketchup at his brother from out of his lab coat, Gaster catching it in one hand as he quickly typed away at the time machine's control console. His hands flew across the keyboard like white lightning as everyone quickly stepped away from the device, and soon Gaster ripped the top off the bottle and stepped into the beam.
Everyone held their breath as a thwumpa-thwumpa-thwumpa noise filled the air, Sans gripping a nearby chair tightly, Alphys trembling like a leaf as Christa took out the notepad she always carried with her and scribbled down into it. "He's stepped inside. This is it. Our first real test."
For a long time, nothing happened. All was still and you could practically hear a pin drop. But then...
Gaster stepped out, missing the bottle of ketchup as he gave a bow. "I believe it was a rousing success!" He remarked.
"how can ya tell?"
A moment later the answer came as Alphys pulled out her cell phone which was playing the theme song to Mew Mew Kissy Cutie, holding it up to her head. "Hello?"
"Ah, yes, er...WD told me to call you in precisely ten minutes after he spoke to me. I'm also now covered in ketchup." Asgore's voice rang out from the other end of the line. "...I take it the experiment worked?"
"SUCCESS!" Everyone grasped each other tightly and began hopping up and down, giddily grinning in delight from ear to ear. "We did it, we did it, we did it!" Alphys cried out in delight. "Ohmygodohmygodohmygod!" She gasped out, fanning herself. "We're! I mean! We've...just, WOW! I...I gotta go update my status online!" She said, breaking the hug as Sans grinned and nodded, exiting the room.
"i'm gonna go tell Papyrus. he's gonna be psyched to hear this." He said, leaving Gaster and Christa alone with the device as they stared at it, hands in their pockets as they both beamed in delight.
"At long last, I'll finally wipe the slate clean." Gaster said softly. "Finally I can make things right. They'll remember me forever for this."
"...what did it look like?" Christa asked. "Could...could you show me just a quick peek? If not, I'd understand." She offered.
Gaster shook his head back and forth, giving her a calm nod. "Christa, you have been working on this for us for over two months now. This is all thanks to you. I would be happy to let you get a little peek. Want me to show you what I did?" He offered, Christa taking his hand as he led her into the beam, the coordinates still locked on ten minutes ago.
It was like stepping through rain but without getting wet, and then she was surrounded by a thousand iridescent points of light. All of it cascaded around them as Gaster smiled and closed his eyes, deeply breathing in as he held his hands out. "Look at it, Christa. The beauty of the timeline. Every single light is an individual soul along the timeline, and we're seeing everything they represent. The culmination of all life in the Underground is passing around us. For so long, we had no hope."
His tone then changed slightly, becoming softer, and as the lights flickered around them and swirled, she realized he was beginning to sing. "We were waiting for the end to come...wishing we had strength to stand. This is not what I...had planned. It's out of my controool..."
He walked towards the streaming lights, holding a hand out. The lights swerved and danced around his hand, Gaster mesmerized by the flow of beauty around him as Christa walked alongside him, Gaster continuing to sing. "Flying at the speed of liiight! Thoughts were spinning in my head...so many things were left unsaid...it's hard to let it goooooo! I know what it takes to move ooooon! I know how it feels to liiiie! All I wanna do is trade this life for something new, holding on to what I haven't...gooooooooot!"
"Linkin Park?" Christa asked. "You know about them?"
"Alphys collects much human things. I found a CD from above of the band, about...an impending apocalypse. I would play this track over and over..." Gaster whispered, his pupils becoming pinpricks. "The darkness just kept stretching out, darker, yet darker. Our photon readings were negative, we were without a chance. Holding onto what we didn't have. But then..." He closed his eyes, and a small smile danced across his skeletal features. "I tried another song, just out of curiosity. And in my mind, I could see it. An idea forming. The hardest part of ending was starting again. And that was it. I couldn't look at it as an ending, but...a beginning. We could trade this life for something new if we just thought outside the box."
He spun about, head held up, and WD Gaster grinned with delight as he and Christa now stepped out of the lights, finding themselves inside of golden walls, within the palace. Gaster smiled and hid behind a column with Christa as another Gaster said goodbye to a big, fuzzy, goat-like monster with a crown, a beard and a big ol' set of caped armor. He waved goodbye to Gaster...
Just as another one popped up behind him, pouring ketchup over his head, Asgore blinking stupidly as Gaster clasped him on the shoulder. "Call Alphys is exactly ten minutes." The second Gaster said, exiting towards a distant time machine down the hall before it and he vanished, Gaster giggling along with Christa as they headed back to their own machine, the two sitting down. Christa bobbed her feet back and forth as they sat on the circular pad of light they were resting upon, a thousand suns stretching around them as Gaster closed his eyes, breathing in deeply, the ketchup bottle still in his pocket.
"The idea this would work seemed almost insane. But I didn't think it was unobtainable, but invisible. It could be held onto. You just had to get lucky. Get it just right. And now, at long last, we're holding on to what we hadn't got. Hope. Real hope." He whispered. "A normal life out in the surface again. Being able to see the sun, and to feel a soft breeze on my face. To feel real, green grass beneath my feet, and to see the light as its filtered in through those beautiful stained glass windows the humans loved so much when we last lived on the surface with them." Gaster smiled in delight as he turned to Christa. "I can't wait to make new memories."
"If this works, are you worried about a paradox? Like, if we do this, we'll inadvertently erase ourselves because if monsters and humans never went to war, I never came down here to build a time machine?" Christa worried aloud.
"I believe actual time travel sort of makes you immune to such effects." Gaster admitted. "At least, that's what my theory is. I certainly hope we don't erase ourselves. Can you..." He shuddered. "I mean, the prospect of that is horrifying to me. Imagining a world where you don't even exist and nobody realizes you're gone? It..." His tone turned quiet and terrified, pupils tiny pinpricks. "The thought terrifies me." He whispered.
"I'm scared that something might happen too." Christa admitted. "We'll keep running checks and tests to make sure it works." She insisted as they finally reached the present day, stepping out as Sans and Alphys stood in the doorway, waiting for them to exit the capsule. Christa stepped out first, then Gaster, the two heading for the doorway to get some celebration nachos...
And then it happened.
The ketchup bottle that was in Gaster's pocket flopped out, and it shattered on the floor. A glob of ketchup sailed through the air, Gaster groaning as he turned around. "Oh, phew, I didn't get it on my coat-" He began to say...
Just as the ketchup remnants from the bottle flopped onto the keyboard console, soaking it through. A spark. A sizzle.
And then the machine began to howl and spark, and Gaster and Christa began to be pulled towards the machine, Sans gasping as Alphys stared in horror. "get Undyne, we'll need raw muscle!" Sans roared, Alphys quickly racing off to get hold of her as Sans grabbed hold of Christa and Sans with both hands, struggling to pull them away from the sharp pull of the machine. The beam from it was cascading around them, almost digging claws into their forms. They had sampled of the time space continuum, and it now appeared to be trying to claim them for itself. Something had gone horribly, horribly wrong, and Sans struggled as best he could to pull them back.
Sans was very, very strong. Christa knew this. She'd taken extensive notes of monster after monster from both her own experiences, Alphys's records on monsters in the lab, Sans and Gaster's tales...she knew Sans was tough. But as hard as it was to believe...he was failing. He couldn't grip them both very strongly. The pull of the machine was too great, a horrific roar filling their ears as Sans began to slide towards the machine as well, eyes wide with terror.
"DON'T YOU DO THIS TO ME, GOD DAMN IT!" Sans screamed out, Christa trying to hold onto Gaster as much as she could, Gaster gripping her hand with both of his as his eyes went wide with terror, looking back into the burning, harsh light of the capsule. Christa's glasses flopped to the ground, her hair whipping back and forth as she screamed in terror. "DON'T YOU LET GO! NEITHER OF YOU LET GO, YOU HEAR ME!"
"I'M...NOT...NOT GOING TO...GIVE UP!" Gaster screamed back as a faint light began to wrap around Sans as well. He was experiencing contact effects, the timeline was trying to suck him in too. Luckily Undyne came racing into the room with Alphys, grabbing hold of Sans as she began to tug with all of her might, and they began to inch closer and closer to the doorway with Alphys's help. For a few minutes as the roaring got louder and louder, it looked like they were about to get free completely as Gaster cringed, the wind whipping around him...
And then he saw it. Six pairs of eyes staring sadly. Not accusingly, but...sadly. All looking at him with a mournful expression on their faces as they turned, glancing at the capsule...then at Christa.
And in that instant, Gaster understood. He knew what he had to do, as the roar suddenly ended, and all of time seemed to freeze, Sans's eyes going wide as Gaster's whisper filled his ears.
"Please. Don't forget me."
And with that, Gaster was gone, a bright light flashing through the lab, blinding them all, making them reel back. An explosion rocketed forth from the machine, sending them flying, and Sans bumped his head against the wall, slumping down to the floor.
He lay there, in absolute darkness, barely conscious before, at last, his eyes fluttered open, and he saw Undyne was kneeling by Christa...
The computer console for the device having flown off the time machine, shooting into her back. She was stuck to the floor, and quietly crying as she looked up into Alphys and Sans and Undyne's eyes, Undyne looking guiltily down at her as Alphys just wailed, covering her face. Sans slowly rose up, his expression horrified as he knelt down by Christa, holding her cheeks as she looked up at him, the tears steadily flowing.
"...my...my notebook is such a mess." She managed to get out. "...my dad gave that to me for my birthday and it's such a mess." She said, gesturing at the torn notebook that had flopped onto the ground by her glasses as she softly laughed. "Ha ha ha...my...my dad's gonna kill me."
"hey, hey. shhhh. don't speak, kid. you gotta conserve your strength." Sans whispered softly, sadly. "it'll be okay."
"...I can...still feel him." Christa managed to murmur, Undyne blinking a bit.
"Your dad?" She asked, Alphys blinking a bit, as if trying to recall something, an odd expression on her features as Christa slowly shook her head, looking up into Sans's face.
"He's holding on to what he hasn't got. Do the same. Don't...let go." She whispered. "Don't give up. Persevere. Hold...on."
With that, her body became cold, Undyne quietly cupping her hands around the soft soul that rose up from her body as Alphys quietly walked over to a nearby table, getting out the necessary capsule as Sans stared at the device off in the distance. He sat there, Christa's cheek turning cold in his hands as Undyne deposited the soul in the capsule and put it by the others, placing the sheet over it as Alphys stared at the capsule as well, her tone becoming...thoughtul.
"I...wait, was that...why do I feel so sad looking at that?..." She murmured. "...I'm...I feel like I'm missing something." Alphys whispered.
Sans just sat there.
And he cried.
...
...
...
...a pair of hands with giant holes through their palms softly picked up the paper. Smiling slightly, he looked over the collection he now had, humming a quiet tune as he made his way through the purple halls of the Ruins, a brown-haired boy with yellowish skin staring at a dummy. Nearby, the caretaker of the ruins stood, the Ex-Queen blinking a bit, almost shivering as she glanced about. She wasn't sure, but...for a minute, she was certain she'd...felt someone else there.
The child, meanwhile, stared at the dummy, and the figure knelt down by him. He smiled broadly, and the words came naturally to him, echoing in young Frisk's mind, his heart, his soul. The words of someone who had studied the Underground so passionately, who had persevered and written so much because she cared. He spoke Christa's words and Frisk could hear as he did a check...of this little dummy before him.
"A cotton heart and a button eye, you are the apple of my eye."
He couldn't do a lot.
But he could pass on what she'd learned, and help this little angel learn it in turn.