Chapter 7

Can Someone Yell Out Plot Twist?

I look at the letter, making sure Toriel didn't get confused but sure enough my name's on the envelope. I open the envelope and read the letter, I mostly skimmed over it. It was to me and it talked about meeting someone at the "The Hanging Man" bar, I think that would be a name of a bar you would find in the medieval ages. I skim through the rest until it gets to the from, this is a surprise. It says Jeffrey which is my Dad's name (I wonder which name is worse, Jeffrey or Ziplet).

I'm taken back by this, I didn't think my Dad would find me. I even forgot about him in this whole adventure.

"What's on the letter?" Norville asks, I think they see the shock on my face.

"My Dad wants to met me at a bar called The Hanging Man." I state, Norville looks sad. Why is he sad?

"My child, why a bar?" Toriel looks uncertain I should go, hopefully I can convince her.

"Yeah, he was kind of a drunk when I jumped down Mt. Ebott." I state, I can't believe I'm actually comfortable saying that.

"Well because this looks like something personal we'll be leaving." Fancy Ziplet says, he motions the other Ziplets to get him out of the room. They make their way out of the room.

"Now why are you sad Norville? You really shouldn't, it's my Dad that you barely know." I state, pointing it out.

"I...I don't wanna talk about it. It's really nothing..." He answers, I probably shouldn't push this anymore.

"So Toriel, let me go to that bar. I can't miss out on this." I state, Toriel sighs.

"Fine my child." Toriel answers, I now for once in this whole adventure actually felt happiness without almost dying before hand.

"C-Can I go with you? Just for help and support is all." Norville asks, Toriel gives a disapproving look.

"No, we can't have two chil…" I interrupt here by holding my index finger in front of her face (it's a stretch but oh well).

"Now, it's fine. He's not going to be here for long anyways." I reply, Norville's SOUL wavelength had changed from a sad one to happiness. Toriel sighs again.

"Ok, you can go. I already have the other children getting some groceries." Toriel states, just then Sans walks into the room with a phone in his hand.

"hey tori, do you mind if i order some pizza? this would be the real kind, not the ones filled with paste." Sans asks, Toriel nods her head and walk out of the room.

"Well, let's go Norville!" I say, we walk out of the house. We sometimes have to cross the street to avoid people giving us dirty looks and have knives in their pockets (they don't hide them well). We are able to reach a bar called "The Hanging Man", we open the doors and walk in. I quickly flip on my head just in case, it could turn into one of those classic bar scenes you see in films.

We look around until we see a man motioning us to come over to him, his shirt is all dirtied. His hair's all messed up with a beer in his hand. We walk over to him.

"Do either of you know a kid named Ziplet?" He asks, I think I should be careful right now.

"Depends on if you're Jeffrey." I state, he suddenly has an excited look on his face.

"Why yes I am." He says excitedly, he gets up and puts his hand out. I take it and shake it.

"This is a pretty formal greeting for your son." I reply, suddenly my Dad wraps his arms around me in a hug. A bunch of people are looking at us weird, probably because of the fact he's 2 times taller than me.

"Um guys, you might want to stop hugging. You're both attracting unwanted attention." Norville states, Dad stops hugging me. There are tears in his eyes he motions me to sit down and looks oddly at Norville.

"Who's this?" He asks, I look around and see everybody's turned their heads.

"He's a dingus that came along for the ride." I answer, Dad chuckles as Norville glares at me.

"My name's Norville for pete's sake. Why did you have to insult me Ziplet?" Norville asks, I chuckle a bit more.

"You deserve it Norville, for all those insults you told me you deserve at least one." I reply, Norville sighs and sits down. "So why have you called for me to meet you here?" I ask, Dad's expression changes.

"Well, I think it's about time I tell you the truth." He answers grimly, well this is a bit cliche. He just so happened to haul me over here to tell me some "trust", he's probably going to surprise me with the classic "you're adopted" cliche. Hopefully not though, but that would answer some questions.

"Is this going to be one of those cliche things?" Norville quips, I'm wondering if he could read minds because I was about to say that. My Dad glares at him, probably not a good time to joke right now.

"I was going to explain some things before I got to the last part but because you asked that I'll get to the cliche," He pauses and turns his head to me. "You're adopted Ziplet." He continues, I'm honestly for some strange reason not surprised. That answers why I have powers and not my parents, that would also explain how i could somehow reincarnate while nobody else in my family (I don't know about Zipler) can.

"Ok, then do you know who my real parents are?" I ask, trying to get to the end of this talk because a bunch of people are still looking at us oddly. In fact Norville's SOUL wavelength is giving off some depressing signals.

"All I know was that your father was a skeleton scientist and your mother was somebody who delivered mail, at least that's all the adoptive agency told me along with giving you a drug that would postpone the manifestation of powers." He answers, wait a minute. He knew about this all along and never bothered to tell us? That must of been some shitty secret to keep.

"Wait, you knew all along that he as a monster? This family gets weirder and more dramatic." Norville states in a surprised tone, I glare at Norville this time. He just needs to shut up.

"Yes, we kept it secret because it might help the powers manifest. It would've also had us executed if you knew and started telling everybody." My dad states calmly, how can he be calm about this? He's telling something he should've told me about a long time ago.

"What the fuck? That's really shitty you kept it a secret all the way even after Zipler died." I state sternly and a bit louder than I hoped. My Dad looks surprised at me.

"Wow you've changed a lot." Dad states in surprise, Norville looks a little surprised too.

"Of course I've changed, I died once and reincarnated! Then I had to go into a space between timelines and almost die! You think I would stay the same?" I ask sternly, I might be just a little pissed off at the fact he didn't tell us this shit for a long while. Dad looks confused.

"Now just calm down Ziplet, I don't care if you have some hidden rage for your Dad because of whatever's happening here but you don't need to snap at him." Norville states calmly, I guess I may be overreacting a bit.

"What are timelines?" Dad asks in utter confusion, I forgot he didn't know about this shit that I've become used to.

"No time to explain" I answer, Dad shakes his head to forget about the whole thing. I think we've spent way too much time in this bar, Toriel's probably worried about us. I get up from the wooden chair.

"I think it's about time we left." I say, motioning Norville to get up.

"But you just got here." My Dad states, I know if I stay longer Toriel will probably hunt us down. Norville's SOUL wavelength seems a bit anxious, like Norville wants to get out of here.

"You've told me all I need to know, and people are probably getting really worried about Norville and I." I respond, Dad looks at me with even more confusion. I quickly run out the door to avoid anymore dialogue. I turn around and see Norville also exiting , so we start the walk home.

"Your family's weird." Norville states. I think it's about time I address that depressing SOUL wavelength he was giving off.

"I know, but why were you feeling so depressed when I was talking with my Dad?" I ask, suddenly his SOUL wavelength starts giving off shocking signals.

"What do you mean? I was completely fine." Norville answers anxiously, why are so many people trying to lie to the guy that can detect SOUL wavelengths? First it's Riku now it's Norville.

"No you aren't, I can detect SOUL wavelengths so I know what's going on." I state, Norville now looks at me in confusion. I roll my eyes, I'm now going to have to explain it all to him. The sad thing is I don't know how to explain it to him. I just went with the power instead of trying to figure out what it does, I guess I need to start figuring out why my powers work soon enough.

"It's really hard to explain because I don't really know myself. But we need to get to the point, I know there's something going on with you, so just cough it up." I plead, Norville sighs in defeat.

"Fine, you win. You shouldn't be snapping at your Dad, he's someone who cares about you. Father's are important, you can't just…...do that, okay?" Norville states depressingly, I guess Norville's got a point on this one.

"Yeah, I guess you've got a point. I may have over reacted a bit, it's just a bit rageful to be told I'm adopted now. He didn't even have the courage to say it when Zipler was alive." I state, Norville looks even more saddened at this statement, I think I also sense a bit of rage.

"At least you have a father." Norville replies, wait what the fuck? What does he mean "At least you have a father"? I guess I should ask.

"What do you mean by that?" I ask, Norville looks reluctant to say it.

"I….used to have a father," Norville pauses, suddenly a glimmer of happiness shows up in his SOUL wavelength, it's the kind of happiness that comes with old, happy memories come back, but then it quickly goes away. It's replaced with even more sadness, cause this kids practically filled with sadness right now. Wait, he said used. I now know why he's so defensive about my father, his father must've died.

"Well, what happened to him?" I ask, I don't think Norville can get any sadder without crying. I see a few tears escape from his eyes.

"My father died of cancer, we were a poor family so we couldn't afford for any treatments." Norville pauses and looks at the sleeve of his denim jacket, I can tell he's on the verge of bursting into tears without checking his SOUL wavelength. "He gave me this jacket before he died, that's the reason I keep it with me." Norville continues, I feel like I should change the subject before he makes a big scene and causes any racists to notice us.

"What did you mean when you said you've dealt with timeline jumpers?" I state, Norville seems glad at this subject change.

"Back in my timeline we had to deal with a timeline jumper called Petele. In my timeline we were fighting for the fate of the timeline against Chara, when suddenly Petele just interrupted and completely destroyed us. I'm still amazed by the fact we survived, eventually we were able to defeat him. Not without some consequences though, I absorbed his SOUL. It wouldn't have been such a big deal if his SOUL had such a…..horrible effect on me." Norville states, suddenly I sense...another SOUL wavelength in his body? This is coming from a different SOUL though, yet it's in his body.

It's active for a moment but then Norville's SOUL wavelength gets directed at it, as if they're conversing. The second SOUL wavelength quiets down, I go to point this out when a white portal appears on the wall beside us. Zipler jumps out, stopping us in our tracks. Suddenly Norville pulls a sword with these weird engravings on it from his pocket.

"What are you doing here Zipler?" I ask, I don't think Zipler has noticed Norville yet. It's that or he doesn't care. Norville notices my friendliness towards Zipler so Norville puts his sword away.

"I need to warn you about a guy named Petele." Zipler responds hurryingly, I think Zipler doesn't know I've already been told.

"I've already told him "Zipler"." Norville states, Zipler looks towards him. Suddenly he sparks up, like he remembered something.

"I remember you! You're the kid that I changed their SOUL wavelength to think he was getting bullied." Zipler states matter-of-factly, wait what? Norville is surprised by this, his SOUL wavelength suddenly turns to anger.

"You're saying all this time, my whole life is a lie? I don't believe you." Norville says, Zipler chuckles.

"It wasn't your WHOLE life, but close." Zipler replies calmly, Norville looks like he's about to blow up.

"That means if you didn't do that then I would've been able to protect all of the people I've lost! You're simply a monster to do that, do you know how it feels to lose people that you love?" Norville yells, suddenly Zipler teleports in front of Norville, grabs the front of his shirt with both hands, and lifts Norville off the ground. Holy fuck.

"Do you think you're the only one that's lost someone you little piece of shit?" Zipler says aggressively, Zipler throws Norville to the ground, I help get Norville up. Zipler walks up to the wall and makes a portal. He looks back at us. "And one more thing," Zipler says, what is it now?

"If it's the Petele I think it is," Bold purple rings appear around Zipler's eyes. "I'll be there." Zipler says, he walks through the portal, the portal closes behind him.