Core Issues: Season Two
by Nicolle
Disclaimer: Undertale belongs to Toby Fox. G!Sans (our lovely narrator) and G!Paps belong to Borurou. Fase is from Technotale. Underfell is a community project. The Shipworks AU belongs to me. This story is copyright to me.
Special Disclaimers: Error!Sans belongs to Lover of Piggies.
Shameless Promotion Time! The author Getful on FFnet has written a short fic based on Core Issues titled 'Core Issues Alt.' Go check it out!
1. Here it is! The End! And I am taking a short break. There will be a third season of unconnected one shots featuring various characters of the series, but Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon has been waiting for me to play it since February!
2. Rated T for language, sexual themes/jokes, and violence.
3. As before, if you liked what you read, let me know! Send me a review! Even a simple, 'OMGosh I liked this!' is enough. Hated it? Say so! What didn't you like?
4. Did you make some fan art? Tell me! I would love to see it! I'm seriously terrible at any kind of drawing so I love seeing everyone else's work.
5. Derivative works notice: So you want to write something using this fic as a back drop or inspiration? Awesome! Here's the disclaimer you should post with your writing: "This story is based on/inspired by the Core Issues Series by Nicolle." Let me know if you wrote something so I can read it!
6. I have been asked multiple times if I have a . I do not. I do have a Ko-Fi button on my tumblr blog, .com if you would like to donate. Look for the green "Support My Chai Habit!" button. :D
7. "Can I talk to you?" Yes. Use the PM function. You aren't bothering me and I do not mind. :)
Ep. 11 - Reset
Steam's Frisk, with his bleached hair and perpetually dirty face, sat next to his twin brother Chara. Chara's brown hair was held back by his goggles, red eyes starring at his shoes. Red and Blue sat on Frisk's desk, watching the twins while we waited for everyone to assemble. Cross came in with cups of golden flower tea, which they both very gratefully took. He tossed a bottle of mustard to Red before leaning against the wall next to D. Red's sister came in with her Chara and sat on the floor in front of the desk, Flowey on her shoulder. White joined me at the little table, Fase's hologram sitting in front of us. The rest of our guests for the day waited outside the door.
My Sunflower came in her office, arm bandaged after a quick stop in the lab. She knelt in front of the twins. "What do you remember?"
Chara's face scrunched up, red eyes angry. "One of those idiot Illuminati vampires came into the Shipworks and attacked Dr. Gaster. When Papyrus grabbed the vampire, it was as if he was eaten away." Chara pulled his knees up to his chest and put his head down.
Frisk put a hand on his brother's shoulder. "Sans grabbed us both and teleported us to the Pearl before he went to help the doctor. He was eaten away too."
"What did the vampire do to Dr. Gaster?"
"It was as if he was trying to possess him. There was a point when the doctor screamed and the vampire hit the ground dead. Whatever was in the vampire got into the doctor but..." Frisk trailed off.
"Whatever the vampire wanted out of Dr. Gaster, it was pretty obvious that it didn't find it once he was in there," Chara finished.
"A Sans as black as the void with red yellow eyes grabbed us after that and dropped us with Techno and Fase," Frisk said.
"How did the C.H.A.R.A. virus get into a vampire from the Shipworks timeline?" G asked.
I flinched. "That's my fault."
Eyes and eye sockets were suddenly on me.
I sighed. "During a fight with vampires on the timeline, I dropped one into the void."
Red and White both snickered.
"*i always wondered where the damn thing came from!"
"*Even so, why use the vampire?" Iris asked from the hall.
"It had nothing else. The only other person in the void was our Exemplar Frisk," I said.
"A Frisk who's a copy!" Fase and Fell Frisk said at the same time. "The virus copied her and left her in the void as a host! And when she was removed, it found the vampire!"
Fell Chara sighed, hand covering his face. "Please stop that. It's really creepy when you and Fase talk at the same time."
"I was made to host a virus?" The teen stood in the doorway, looking lost.
Our colony ship Frisk, eyes purple yellow, put her arms around her. "The circumstances of your conception do not determine your worth, child."
Frisk turned back to the twins. "When was your last save?"
"The two days before the vampire showed up," Frisk answered.
Frisk nodded. "Good. When we're ready, I want you to access your save and we'll come in with it." She put her hands on either of the boys shoulders. "It'll be okay. We'll stop it before it even gets to the Shipworks."
The boys nodded, but Chara looked miserable in a way I'd never seen.
"My brother's workshop is down the hall, if you'd like to visit," I said.
Chara looked at me for a moment before he grabbed his brother's sleeve and they both left the room.
"*who's making up the team, sugar puss?"
Frisk stood and looked over the assembled. "Knowing that the virus can destroy someone on contact, we need a protection against it before we can make a team. Fase?"
"I already have Kevin working on it."
"Kevin?" White smiled. "As in Kevin Mitnick? Sweet zombie Jesus, Fase. You lay some of the dorkiest names on your A.I. children."
The hologram shrugged before disappearing and reappearing in front of Fell Frisk. "Kevin will need your assistance. If adding a magical component helped keep C.H.A.R.A. away from the timelines to start, it is likely that it can help here as well."
"*But what was the little fucker looking for when it took over Gaster?" Iris asked.
"*a way to get onto other timelines," Red answered. "*steam gaster is different from the majority of his counterparts. in his timeline, there wasn't an accident to connect him to the void. he can't travel to other timelines freely. steam uses a midnight collapse badge to travel the void and i'm pretty sure, based on how fast he iced steam, that the virus doesn't know about the badges."
"That puts any Gaster Sans on a team in serious jeopardy." Frisk looked at me when she said it.
"Once we have protections in place, all we need to do is trap the host," Fase said. "C.H.A.R.A. limited itself by entering a physical body. It needs physical contact to enter another one, it takes time. I can map the host's movements on the timeline so we know the original path the host took to Dr. Gaster."
"Does the virus know about save access and reset?" White asked.
"Yes. Which is why the original path is important. It will deviate from that path immediately, but it needs to start in the same place. There are only a very few options it has from that point and I have a new containment unit prepared for it."
"*with that in mind, who is your team?" Blue asked.
She looked around at everyone. "Show of hands, who wants to go?"
Everyone raised their hands.
"Really? Extreme danger, chance of being erased-"
"*Chance to use a cool as fuck ray gun," Iris added.
"Chance for an Indian Jones style chase through a forest or city," White added.
"Chance to fly a steam powered zepplin," our surfer Sans added. His brother pointed at him and nodded.
"Ancient artifacts of astounding power," Fell Chara said. "Guarded by ancient evils in clockwork dungeons. There is nothing about Steam's world that isn't totally worth the danger."
"D? Even you?" Frisk asked. "You hate missions!"
"This is different and I kind of want to see if I turn into a clockwork dragon."
"Dork," Cross snorted. D elbowed him.
Frisk took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Okay then. It's easier to edit at this point." She pointed at G's Frisk and Iris' Frisk. "You two are staying."
"Oh come on!"
"*No arguments," G and Iris said at the same time.
She pointed at Monster Frisk. "You're staying too."
"I figured," she said.
After whispering to his wife for a moment, Vivi and Ravie's father said, "We'll stay here with the kids."
"*all right then! what's the plan, sugar blossom?"
"Wait." The teen stepped away from Colony ship Frisk. "Does this mean you're taking me?"
"*of course we are, sweetheart! you're the perfect bait for a trap."
The teen's mouth dropped open. "What?"
Blue nodded. "*the virus made you to be its host and it was a pretty slick move on its part. there aren't many sans-es who would ice a frisk right away and your make up is unique to the void itself. a perfect vessel for the virus. but error put you on a timeline where you would be cared for, before leading bones and frisk to you. while you still contain a part of the void within you, you are your own person with your own life."
"Does that make her Error's Frisk?" Cross asked.
There was a sudden silence.
Blue shook his skull. "*nope. so what's the plan?"
Frisk smiled. "Once Frisk and Fase have protections for us all worked out, we'll have the twins access their save. Blue will take the twins back to the Shipworks and talk to Steam. Hopefully Steam will remember the save access and it won't take that much to prep him. Blue will stay with the twins. Everyone else we'll be splitting into three groups. Red, Frisk, Chara, Flowey, Iris, and D in group one. Myself, Cross, Frisk, and Papyrus will be in group two. Bones, White, G and Sans will be group three. Frisk will be our bait and remain with team one."
Frisk turned to Fase. "Do you have a lead on the host's original point of landing?"
"Yes. The host landed in the underground lair the vampires use in St. Canard the day after the last save on timeline."
"How soon till we have protection from the virus eating us away?"
Fell Frisk looked up from her phone. "Kevin and I are almost finished."
"*How does she do that over a phone?" G asked.
The rest of us shrugged.
"Done."
"The opposite of a burden," Papyrus said with a smile.
She smiled up at him, eyes shining.
"Team one will go to the Shipworks to prep containment with Fase, they will arrive on timeline at the same time as Blue and the twins. Team two will land in the underground lair thirty minutes before the host lands, and will be the first to attempt capture. If the host eludes us, Team three will have the city at large to chase the host down in. Team three will land at the same time as team two."
"*everyone head on over to the equipment room to get prepped," Blue ordered. "*i'll go get the twins." He disappeared from his seat.
As everyone headed down the hall, Frisk grabbed the arm of her older self and whispered into her ear. She nodded, eyes blue pink, and pulled Frisk close, kissing her forehead.
G elbowed me. "*Frisks." He popped a new lollipop in his mouth. "*Am I right or what?"
"They are something else when they're together. Those two specifically haven't known each other that long, but act like a pair of very close sisters."
"*The kids all love Cross. Every single one. It's like the danger he posed never existed. Can't say I have any complaints though. He's a damn good agent. As good as your wife, though in a different way."
We hit the equipment room and I noticed Frisk looking at her uniform on the shelf, hesitating.
I put an arm around her. "You okay, Babe?"
"Yeah. Just weird how comfortable I feel wearing this uniform." She unbuttoned the viper uniform and slipped into her Seraph Foundation uniform, before arming herself. When we finished, we found Blue in the hall with the twins, both munching on chocolate I recognized as being from my brother's secret stash.
Frisk put her hands on the shoulders of Steam Frisk and Chara. "When you use your save we will follow behind it to our destinations. Blue will get you to the Shipworks and one team will be there to get our containment ready. The rest of us will capture the host vampire and remove them from the timeline. Are you both ready?"
The twins nodded.
"Good." She looked around. "Everyone to your groups. Fase? Give us our equations."
Our phones rang and Fase's voice of creepy doom filled our ears.
Frisk turned to the twins. "Go ahead."
The twins disappeared with Blue. Each team followed, landing in their designated spots at their designated times.
I looked at G. "Have you been to Steam's timeline before?"
"*Once. Brought Frisk and Tori. Steam really knows how to show people a good time."
"How are we setting up?" White asked.
"Two of us on the ground outside the lair entrance, two of us on roof tops for possible chase," I answered.
"I call roof," White said.
"I'll hang with White," Sans said.
"Looks like we get to be in the dirty alley."
G smiled and clacked his lollipop against his teeth. "Works for me."
Sans and White disappeared, leaving G and I right next to the alley entrance. It wasn't long before the team came up with the host bound.
"*And here she had us placed like she couldn't handle it," G mused.
The vampire's eyes slid back and forth, eyeing us up, snarl evident on it's face.
"Let's get to the Shipworks," Frisk said. "Fase says they're ready."
We headed out toward the street and the host screamed. Despite the late evening setting in, the streets were packed from people in the royal gardens. People rushed us in concern and the host broke free of Papyrus' grip, heading into the crowd coming from the gardens.
"Shit!" Papyrus moved to run after him and Cross grabbed his shoulder.
"Wait!" Cross yelled. "Everyone pair off to find him!" He ran off into the crowd with Papyrus on his heels.
Frisk and her older self, eyes yellow orange, took off after them. White and Sans disappeared from the roof top while G and I short cut to the middle of the royal gardens. Heading back slowly toward the garden entrance, we swept the grounds carefully for our mark.
We found the vampire's body collapsed in a heap behind a bush.
"*Fuck. He switched bodies."
I tapped my comm. "C? Babe? The virus has a new host."
C's voice came over the comm. "I was able to get a scan of C.H.A.R.A. when we first caught the host. I'm pretty sure I can track it. Look for someone in the trees."
G immediately opened a rift, pulling through his GBs. "Search the tree tops!" His eye glowed, watching through their eyes. The GBs zeroed in on someone and nabbed them from the tree.
"*Oh no," G groaned.
A GB brought down a young male street urchin, who whimpered at the Gaster Blaster's focused on him. G sighed and waved for them to let the teen go. The teen dropped to his feet and smiled. I summoned a wall of bones to block his escape and he changed direction, dodging my attacks before disappearing in a line of hedges.
"The new host is a teen, male, dressed like he's been living on the streets for a while," I said into the comm.
"Got it!" Frisk answered.
The host came out of the hedge like a bat out of hell, Sans and White right behind him. They started using short cuts to box him in toward us. A crowd was gathering around the commotion and a the host went for them, touching several people. I could feel the shift in the code as those touched became infected. And turned on us.
"Incoming!" White yelled. He grabbed Sans, short cutting away.
G grabbed my arm and short cut us into a near tree as the ground began to glow a distinct aqua blue. Spears shot up and around the crowd, trapping everyone in place. Steam's Undyne dropped in from a small, gilded helicopter.
She looked up at me, in her gold and purple street uniform, with a big smile. "Looks like you could use some crowd control!"
An infected woman reached out and touched Undyne.
"No!"
Undyne looked at the infected and laughed before shaking the woman off. "Sorry! But being merely infected is not enough to infect someone else or even hurt me." Her eyes scanned the crowd. "I see the host and he's collapsed." She turned to me as G and I jumped down. "Did I hear correctly over the comms that C can track it?"
C burst to life on my shoulder. "I'm pretty sure I have a bead on him. He's heading for the royal palace."
Undyne nodded, unconcerned.
"I said it's heading for the royal palace."
"I heard you, punk! Your first team landed here a day ago. We've already moved everyone from the palace to a secure location. The palace is empty at current and my Papyrus already has a trap in place."
I smirked. "That said, we should be on the look out for Princess Asriel?"
Undyne sighed as she rolled her eyes. "Oh yeah. I'm pretty sure she'll be the death of me."
"What do we do with the infected?" Sans asked.
White looked over the woman who'd grabbed Undyne. "I was unaware it could do this. Can we contain them until we can figure out how to fix them?"
Undyne nodded but frowned deeply. "If the virus keeps this up, we won't have enough places in the world to keep everyone."
"To the palace then," White said.
We beat a quick path to the palace and found Red, Iris, and Steam surrounding a containment field. The new host, a tall man in a dapper brown suit, sat inside. And he looked very unconcerned.
"Oh thank goodness," White said, catching his breath.
Fase appeared on my shoulder, using C's memory core on my jacket.
The host smiled. "Hello, Frisk."
Fase stiffened. "Don't call me that."
"Why not? It is your name." The host stood, coming as close to the wall of the containment field it could without touching. "Don't you like your name?"
"Names are for real people, virus."
My hand balled into a fist, but I kept silent.
"Time for you to go home," Fase said.
"To my prison? I don't think so."
A heavy clanking sounded through out the palace gardens. Two massive, clockwork golems stepped through the trees, shaking the ground hard enough that several people hit the dirt. The copper colored one on the left had four arms, each arm ending in a different construction tool: hammer, saw, drill, and rivet gun. The brass colored one on the right stood on three spindly legs, holding up a large white crystal casing topped with a bug head and blue crystal bug eyes. Two clawed arms hung from the head.
A huge clawed hand slammed down on top of the containment field, destroying the mechanism. The host grabbed a hold of the clawed hand and swung up to the wrist. He saluted Fase as the golem placed him on it's head, between the blue crystal eyes.
"*And now the fun starts!" G yelled, jumping to his feet. He popped a new lollipop in his mouth while running straight for the one on the left. "Hey, Sushi Roll! Throw some spears under their feet to trip them up!"
"Hey, Agent Helvetica! Why don't you watch out so I don't 'accidentally' spear you!"
The ground under the golems glowed a bright aqua blue before the spears shot skyward between the golems legs. The construction golem swung it's arms, knocking the spears to pieces before continuing forward. G ducked the saw arm only to face down the rivet gun arm. He short cut to the back of the golem as Iris teleported directly to the golem's head and shoved the broken end of one of her bones into it's neck, looking to pry the head off.
Steam pulled out an ornate phone from no where and dialed. "*bring in the ''Nova Star.'"
Frisk and the rest of team two came in the palace gates as White, Red, Sans, and I went for the golem on the right. Summoning a huge bone volley, we sent it for the crystal casing that made up the body. It staggered, but the crystal didn't even show a scratch.
"Oh come on!" White growled.
Red summoned another volley. "*go for the legs! they aren't as strong as the crystal!"
We combined another volley and threw it at the legs. It crashed against the golem like it was nothing.
"*fuck."
A huge airship that looked like a massive battle ship given flight, broke through the clouds, star in the process of exploding painted on the bottom.
"*everyone back off!" Steam yelled.
We all short cut back toward the gate as the ship pulled up sideways to let loose cannon fire. The repeated blows to the crystal golem caused it to crack and shatter. As the golem fell, the host hit the ground rolling, came to his feet and disappeared into the hedges of the palace garden. Next to me, G disappeared. A large, black clad ninja appeared and punched the second, causing it to explode.
I grabbed Frisk and put her under me, protecting her from shrapnel and debris.
"That *gasp* was *gasp* AWESOME!"
"I told you this place was great!"
I looked over at Cross. He'd pulled our colony ship Frisk underneath him to protect her. They reached out to Frisk and the three fist bumped.
"Can I visit? Seriously, if it's even half as exciting as that every day, I'll be having the time of my life!" Frisk said, eyes a wash of rainbows.
I stood and helped my Sunflower up. "I have yet to have Steam say no."
"*back to the shipworks everyone!" Red called. "*we need to regroup."
"G's not here," Frisk said, looking around.
Cross stood, offering a hand to colony Frisk. "He followed the host."
Iris stood, brushing herself off. "*We can trust him to track it. He's the best of us at it."
We short cut back to the Shipworks just in time to see the 'Nova Star' come back into the bay. Once the ship was anchored, Steam's twins, Red's little sister, Flowey on her shoulder, her Chara, and our exemplar toting teen came out of the ship.
Steam stood in front of them. "*that was far more fire power than i have the ship prepared for." He leaned in toward his twins. "*did you over clock the cannons?"
Frisk smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his bleached out hair.
Chara frowned. "You're welcome, Sans. Next time you need my brother and I to save your boney ass, you can save it yourself."
Fell Frisk forced herself between Steam and the twins. "We didn't over clock the cannons. Asriel combined a Shocker Breaker with the cannon output."
Steam looked at Flowey, who shrugged. "Not the weirdest weapon combo I've ever been asked to do."
"*and the overly large ninja?"
"That's my Exemplar!" Frisk said, hair swinging as she turned up her nose.
Fell Chara rolled his eyes, his expression identical to his Steam self. "You called for air support and you got it. Just be happy that Frisk and I learned how to use the cannons the last time we were here." He grabbed his Frisk's hoodie and pulled her away from the trio. "Come on, Sunshine. You need to eat and we need a new plan."
"Don't pull too hard! Sans crocheted this one for me!" She hurried after him only to have him sit her down while he dug through his backpack.
Steam shook his head and used a bit of blue magic to round up a bunch of chairs for everyone. Chara handed Frisk a small cooler and she popped it open to dig out a cheese sandwich.
"*there enough in there for ya, sweetheart?" Red asked.
"Yes. Thank you." She applied a bit of fire magic to the sandwich, turning it into a grilled cheese. She munched while we all sat, and promptly laid down when she was finished, staring up.
My phone vibrated and I pulled it out to check the text. "G says the host is holed up in the underground vampire lair and there are vampires using it again." My phone buzzed again. "It hasn't infected the vampires. It's convinced them to work with it." My phone buzzed one more time. "G's waiting for our plan."
"This is going to be a continuously futile run around unless we can destroy the C.H.A.R.A virus," Cross said.
Fase appeared on my shoulder. "The virus is persistent. It's changed and grown a significant amount in a very short amount of time. So long as even a piece of it remains somewhere, it will come back."
Fell Frisk lay on her back watching the sky above the open roof of the Shipworks. "To destroy it, we need to put it in a position were it no longer exists."
The white pupils in Blue's eye sockets slid over to look at her, his smile growing. "*how do we do that, buddy?"
Fell Frisk watched the clouds pass, brown eyes reflecting the fluffy white. She sat up. "Cross' reset."
"What about my reset?"
She looked around, eyes wide with revelation. "Your reset! There are some things that are set in stone on the reset, but the rest is complete potential. It's a timeline where anything can happen, a blank slate. A position in which the C.H.A.R.A. virus no longer exists!"
"What do you need me to do?"
She frowned. "I need you to host the virus and use the reset."
Cross nodded. "All right."
"*Woah! Woah! Woah!" D waved his boney hands in front of his chest while shaking his head. "*I have several problems with this."
Cross nodded toward Fell Frisk. "So do I. And I'm sure Frisk has a few ideas on how to handle them." He turned back to her. "First, can my reset actually handle that? How do I maintain control enough to use the reset after the virus takes control of me?"
"*We agreed. No reset," D said. He slumped in his chair, shoulders falling. "I don't want a different you. And I don't know if I could handle that with any part of my memories intact."
Chara started laughing.
D's eye sockets narrowed at him. "*What?"
"Oh come on! Do you really think she hasn't thought that through?" He nudged Frisk with his elbow. "Go on."
"We can use Fase's special save to pull you back."
I looked at Fase's hologram. "Can your save do that?"
"I do not know. I've never tried to do it for someone through a full reset." She looked at Blue.
Blue shrugged. "*don't know. you kids are far from memory territory for me."
"Memory territory? What does that mean?" Colony Frisk asked, eyes green purple.
"It's his memory of his time as each specific Sans. All several thousand of us," I explained. "Every time the Prime Frisk reset, it created a whole new set of circumstances and it didn't just reset the prime world. It spun off an entirely new reality. And each reality spun off ones of their own through resets and save accesses as well."
White picked up where I left off. "Somewhere along the line, Inky came into being, and then we had completely unconnected timelines appearing. But just because Blue lived through most of of our lives with his Frisk doesn't mean that he knows what will happen with all timelines. The decisions he made weren't set in stone for a different timeline. We are free to act outside of them and we have, consistently."
Blue shrugged, smile in place. "*it's been so long since any of you have done anything even remotely recognizable to what i would have done that i gave up trying to make comparisons."
"*about how long?" Red asked.
"*some time about a millennia ago."
Fell Frisk sighed, eyes closed as her shoulders hunched forward. "Since we don't know if it will work at all, the chance is very slim. We might not be able to pull you back at all." She looked at Cross. "Are you still willing to do this?"
"Yes."
D threw up his hands. "*Papyrus is going to kill me!" He looked at Cross. "Just hurry and come up with a plan before I try to stop you."
Cross nodded.
"Why aren't we trying to save C.H.A.R.A.?" our exemplar toting Frisk asked. "I mean, the Prime Frisk fought really hard to save everyone. Why can't we save it?"
Fase looked utterly defeated. "Because, despite its sentience, it is still code. It was created to destroy me and everything I have ever touched. The virus isn't a person. Like me, it is merely lines of code."
"God dammit, Fase! You are not just lines of code!" I yelled.
White sucked in a breath. "Oh, here it comes..."
"You are a Frisk! You have a soul and your own Determination! Your Father may have created you to destroy the barrier, but you, YOU, are the one who made the Seraph Network! You are the one who connected Prime Alphys phones across time and space! You are the one tracks anomalies! You are the one who fixes them, often at great expense to yourself! You do this! You! You were not programmed for any of those things! You did them on your own! Because YOU ARE A REAL PERSON!"
Fase stared at me for a moment before the hologram on my shoulder became solid. She reached out and her hand touched my skull.
I sighed. "Stop saying you aren't real, Frisk."
She smiled then.
"*well, that was way less intense than i thought it would be," Red remarked. "*what's our plan, sugar plum?"
Frisk let out a breath. "Here's the plan: Fase will use her save. We'll send a team in to be captured by the vampires and Cross will use that time to convince the virus to enter him."
Papyrus jerked a thumb at Cross. "You think he can do that?"
Frisk looked at her male double. "Yes. Yes he can."
"How do you know the vampires will capture instead of kill?" White asked.
"The virus will want to gloat a bit before the end," Sans said. "The bad guys always do."
Fase returned to her hologram. "My calculations are complete." She looked at Cross. "Once the C.H.A.R.A. virus takes you, you will have thirty seconds to summon your reset and use it."
Cross nodded.
Fase summoned her save and a glowing green star appeared before her. She touched it and it disappeared in a flash. "Are you ready?"
"Yes. Who's going with me?"
Frisk thought about it. "You pick."
He looked around the group. "Church, Bones." His eyes rested on D. "Sans."
D blinked. "*But I'm terrible at missions."
"You'll be perfect for this one."
D's eye sockets narrowed suspiciously. "Why? What are you going to do?"
"It's better if you don't see it coming."
D sighed.
I pulled out my phone and texted G with the plan. A minute later, my phone vibrated. "G is ready."
Frisk stood. "Let's go."
"Let G know that I will be convincing the virus to take me," Cross said as we headed for the door.
I nodded.
Cross leaned into Frisk, whispering.
She nodded and handed him her gun. "Don't be too rough."
"I won't. Just make it look good." He holstered the gun under his jacket.
"Can do."
I put my hands on their shoulders and short cut to the alley. D appeared with us after a moment.
"Ready?" Frisk asked.
"I hope so," D answered.
I opened the hidden door into the vampire lair. We descended the stairs into a posh room. The damage my GBs had caused had long since been cleaned away and the throne had been removed as well. The room was empty.
G was suddenly standing next to me. 'Six vampires. They're in the next room,' he signed.
I nodded. I tried the door, turning the knob softly so as not to make it click. I counted to three in my head and burst through the door. The vampires were taken by surprise, but the host only looked amused. I grabbed the nearest vampire, throwing him into another.
Cross grabbed Frisk, putting the gun to her head. "Stand down, Bones."
That got the host's attention.
D's face was a mask of betrayal. "Frisk! What are you doing?!" Two vampires grabbed him and pushed him against the wall.
"Finishing my mission. I wanted to destroy Prime and the C.H.A.R.A. virus will let me do that."
G followed my lead and let the vampires push him to the wall.
The host approached Cross, interested but suspicious. "So what makes you think I could help you? I can't exactly travel the void."
That suave smile and darkly intense look he'd used back when he led Midnight Collapse came to his face. "Obviously I can travel the void. I am the leader of Midnight Collapse. They pulled my Chara from me. With you..." He smirked. "I have the only thing I was missing."
"No! No! How could you lie to me?!"
"Coward!" Frisk hissed.
I waited for the flinch and didn't see it. Cross only smiled.
The host stepped forward and touched Cross' face. He grimaced, but didn't cry out as the virus left the host to consume him. When the host hit the ground, Cross pushed Frisk aside. He summoned his red reset and slammed his fist into it.
Cross and D disappeared.
G and I iced the vampires in one volley. I put an arm around Frisk before grabbing G's arm and short cut us back to the Shipworks. Inside, everyone was quiet, waiting. Asriel had transformed out of his flower form and sat on the floor, holding Red's little sister while she napped. Our exemplar toting Frisk sat with Chara, taking turns playing a video game. Iris sat next to Papyrus. He held her hand while she leaned against his shoulder. Sans talked quietly with White while Red and Blue napped.
They all looked up when we came in.
"Now we're just waiting on Fase," I said.
Speaking of the Frisk, she appeared on my shoulder. "I can pull them back. I need to talk to Blue."
Blue's eye sockets opened. "*see ya at your terminal then." He looked at Frisk and I. "*you two should come along."
I put my arm around Frisk and took us to Fase's solar punk timeline. I landed us in front of Fase's extraordinary terminal. "What's the problem?"
"*if she pulls them back, it will destroy Frisk's reset. his timeline will fall apart. he will never have a chance to go home."
Frisk looked at him. "You knew this would happen."
Blue sighed and looked to the right. "*i remember it. sans and papyrus? well, right now, they aren't doing too well. they don't know what to do with their frisk. if you leave them, they'll pull it together and you'll frisk again. it just won't be the one you knew."
Frisk looked from Blue to Fase. "Pull them back."
"Are you sure?" Fase asked.
Frisk nodded. "Yes."
Fase accessed her save. There was a blinding flash. When the light fell away, Cross, D, and Papyrus stood in front of the terminal, looking confused.
Cross looked around. "Where are we?"
"Fase's terminal," Frisk said. She offered him a hand. He took it and she pulled him into a hug. "Well done."
He hugged her tightly. "It worked."
"Not quite," D said. "I remember seeing Frisk as a child."
I nodded. "You did. I'm not sure how much time passed for you, but it's only been ten minutes for us at most."
Cross let go of Frisk. D and Papyrus looked at Blue for an explanation.
"*welp. here's the thing. fase was able to pull you through, but it destroyed your reset. your timeline is gone for good. the only thing you've got is your save. you can go back to your last save and that's it." He nodded toward my girl. "*i know you've been using frisk's save points and from here on out, that's all you'll have."
Cross nodded.
Blue's white pupils slid back to look at us. "*you'll want to head home then. asriel's got food waiting. i'll head back over to the shipworks to let everyone know." He disappeared.
Papyrus punched his brother in the arm. "THAT'S FOR NOT TELLING ME AHEAD OF TIME, YOU JERK!"
Cross pulled them apart. "Okay, you two, calm down! Time to go home." He stopped and turned to Frisk. "Thanks for trusting me."
Frisk smiled and nodded. I put an arm around her and solved to take us home. We found everyone in the cafeteria, partying loudly over the food. Before I could pull Frisk into the room, Asriel took her hand and pulled her away, talking to her excitedly.
She blinked at him, a soft, hopeful expression on her face. The first time I'd seen that expression was in Waterfall so long ago, when her mission mask fell away, and I finally saw the woman in the photograph that had been my only hope for so long.
Wonder filled her eyes. "Really?"
Asriel nodded.
Her breath hitched and she bit her lower lip, torn between laughing and crying.
Asriel pushed her toward me. "Go on."
Frisk walked over to me and took my boney hands in hers. The blush on her face spread and I smiled.
"What it is, Sunflower?"
She put my phalanges on stomach. "You're going to be a dad."
I hugged Frisk close and spun her around. She laughed, holding on to me tightly even after I set her down.
"Az says that it very likely happened when we were on Necromancer Sans timeline."
I took her face in my hands. "When. How. They don't matter right now." I pulled her close and smirked. "I took you to the Bone Zone."
She groaned, forehead landing against my sternum.
Author's Note: Go back and read the last line of Core Issues chapter one. FULL CIRCLE!
