The fall was quick, but terrifying. The wind whipped past your face and reminded you of falling into the Underground. The only thought you had before plunging into the ocean was, Do bones float?!

The answer was a resounding "No."

You gasped as you hit the water, the force of the impact and the abrupt change in temperature sending a shockwave through your bones. You tried to flail your arms, but your head sunk underwater before you could even take a final breath of air. Desperately, you kicked your legs, rotated your arms, and even pumped your wings, but to no avail. The feeling of water filling your pelvis, your chest, and the inside of your skull was unbearable. You would've screamed, if you'd had the air to do so.

Instead, you held your breath, your primal fear giving you strength you didn't know you had. You writhed, but, no matter how much water you treaded, you never broke the surface. You couldn't tell how far you were from breathable air, and you weren't even sure if you were facing the right direction.

In a last-ditch effort, you opened up every shortcut near you in a burst of magical energy. You sunk into one, but you couldn't tell a difference in your surroundings. You were still underwater. Panic filled your bones, but the magic at your fingertips had no outlet. You practically crackled with unused energy. Flashes of blue and yellow from your right eye illuminated the water around you. You felt lightheaded from holding your breath. You were dying, you were really going to die…

Breathe. A small voice in your head ordered you, but you couldn't breathe, that was the whole problem-

You're a skeleton, you don't need air to breathe. We're not going to die. It sure felt like you were, and breathing in water seemed like the worst idea when you were drowning, but…

You trusted the voice. You opened your mouth and took in a breath. The salty water flowed in through your mouth and out through your nose cavity, and relief flooded your system. You stopped struggling and let yourself sink slowly in the water, your muscles occasionally spasming from residual fear. But, despite your instinctive panic, you were, oddly, fine. You could breathe underwater.

Now that the danger was over (or, rather, now that you realized there was never any danger to begin with), you let your magic fizzle out. The shortcuts faded away. Your reaction seemed pretty stupid, now; how far away from shore were you after taking that shortcut? You could be in a completely different body of water, for all you knew. But, there were more pressing things on your mind.

Sans? You asked, hesitantly. Had Undyne's incredibly stupid idea actually worked?

Yeah, congrats. You woke me up by pretending to kill yourself. Clever. You flinched, the action casing your legs to curl up closer to your chest in the fetal position.

It wasn't my idea… You showed him the tail end of your conversation with Undyne, ... but I am glad you're back. I really… I really wish you wouldn't leave again. You chose your words carefully, but your bones shivered with fear and anxiety at the thought. You just felt so… wrong whenever he wasn't there. It had only been a few days and you were already at your wits end.

Well, I really wish you wouldn't keep making decisions without me. His inner voice sounded weak and far away, as if he was losing conviction.

I haven't been! I actually… You cut yourself off and decided to show him instead of explaining. You showed him how you'd postponed splitting your souls so that he could have a say in whether or not it happened. He questioned, quietly and wordlessly, why you were considering remaining as Orion. Cautiously, you showed him what Chara had said to you.

As you sunk slowly deeper, you guided Sans through a scattered, disjointed recollection of what had happened after he left. You expected him to disappear again at any moment, and so you were frantic as you tried to explain everything in as little time as possible. Sans didn't leave, though. Didn't say anything as he watched flashes of your memories pass him by.

You were suddenly interrupted as you felt your pelvis hit something hard. The rest of your body was soon to follow, and, when you twisted around, you realized that you'd hit the ocean floor. It wasn't terribly dark, so you couldn't have been that far underwater. That was a relief, at least.

Can you stand? Sans asked, and you felt a brief flutter of happiness that he was talking to you at all. Awkwardly, you managed to push yourself to your feet, though it felt like you were standing on the moon what with how light you were. There's a big rock over there, Sans pointed out, and you turned to see what he was talking about, If we get up on it, we might be tall enough to look around above water. You silently agreed, took a deep breath of water, and started forward.

Your first step was far too enthusiastic. You pushed forward with as much force as it would've taken to walk on land, but, instead of taking your usual long stride, you shot up and forward with far more speed than you'd anticipated. You flailed helplessly as you went up, plateaued, and then started back down. The currents swept you sideways so, when you finally touched back down, you were far away from where you'd meant to end up. To top it off, once you did hit the ground again, your forward momentum caused you to tumble face-first into the sand. Sans was trying very hard to be stoic and brooding, but you could tell he was having a hard time controlling his laughter.

I swear, I'm gonna kick Undyne's ass when we get back to land. You thought as you stood again, but with far more glee than the words suggested. You were just happy that Sans was here, and that he didn't seem like he was going to leave right away. Honestly, you were more likely to hug Undyne than kick her ass.

You were more careful with your steps next time, so as not to go flying away. Hopping seemed the most efficient means of travel, so that was what you did. Every time your feet hit the ground, you sent up a cloud of sand in your wake. It was quite satisfying, and even a little fun. The scenery was incredibly beautiful, too, when you weren't drowning. The water was pretty clear; algae must've had a hard time growing in such a rough, rocky coastline. Early morning sunlight cast a soft, blue glow over everything, and interesting, underwater rock formations cast long shadows on the ocean floor. Eventually, a few fish even got curious enough to come over and check you out. You didn't know much about fish and had no clue what species they were, but they seemed innocent enough. One of them got under your billowing robe and tried to swim up in your ribcage. You let out a full-body shiver before it thankfully swam out on its own, oblivious to your discomfort.

The big rock that you were trying to get to was pretty far away, especially when unexpected currents kept picking you up and sweeping you away from where you were trying to go. As such, it took longer than it would have to walk the same distance on dry land.

Both you and Sans were silent. You were afraid to break the tentative peace in case you accidentally said something that made him leave again. Eventually, as you approached the base of the rock and contemplated how best to climb it, Sans spoke in your mind.

You were right. You froze, your left hand resting against the jagged rock. I overreacted. I should've waited to hear the whole story. If I'd killed the kid, I… He shuddered, his revulsion with himself practically palpable. ...I would've regretted it.

You let your hand slide off of the rock. A few, stray bubbles escaped from your joints. When you said nothing, Sans continued,

And, uh… I was an ass… for leaving like that. You were just tryin' to protect Frisk, you didn't deserve… I shouldn't've… He trailed off, leaving an awkward silence in his wake.

Suddenly, you snapped back into action. You put both hands on the rock formation, the claws of your right hand digging into a deep groove in its surface. You began to climb, and, actually, it was a lot easier than walking underwater. There were many pocket holes and notches in the rock, which you used to pull yourself up. Besides, you were practically weightless and, even if you did fall, you'd just float gently back down. There was no pressure.

It's okay, don't worry about it. You thought, briskly, as you made steady upward progress.

...What? But-

No, really. It'swaterunder the bridge, heh. You knew something was very wrong when Sans didn't laugh at the bad pun. He seemed troubled and confused.

Y'know, I'm not usually one to want to talk about feelings and stuff either, but this seems like an unhealthy level of avoidance... even to me. A flash of anxiety lit up in your bones. You really didn't want to talk… well, you did, but you were just so afraid of saying something wrong…

Unfortunately, Sans had heard that thought.

Shit, I'm sorry… I'm not going to leave again, I… He hesitated, then sighed. I promise.

You realized, now, why Sans didn't like your promises. They didn't do anything; you were still anxious, still unsettled by how quickly everything could fall apart between the two of you. The vow was only a balm for the person who said it, especially when you knew that Sans could never keep such a promise. He didn't always have control over when he dissociated since, most of the time, it wasn't on purpose. You had to just… be better, so that this wouldn't happen again…

No, damn it! It's not your fault. I'm just…brokenlike that.

You wouldn't be this way if I hadn't played that damn game-

What? What happened in Undertale has nothing to do with-

It has to do witheverything... it's why you dissociate, why you're terrified of Chara, why you feel out of control all the time… You stopped climbing and pressed your forehead against the rock, your teeth bared. I know that, and yet Ikeeptaking control from you, keep hurting you… so ofcourseI forgive you! I deserved it. I deserve more, after what I've done… Your breathing was ragged. Was it possible to cry underwater? You might find out soon. I know I keep fucking up, but I don't know how to stop. Every time something like this happens... I always think I'm doing the right thing, or that what I'm doing doesn't affect anyone. But, really, I'm just making everything worse. Maybe I'm just... a bad person. A second ticked by, and then another. You could barely make out what Sans was saying when he spoke.

You're not a bad person. I would know, right? I mean, we share a soul. You felt a warm glow flare in your chest, trying to sooth away your anxieties and self-doubt. And, hey… at least you try to do the right thing. I hardly ever try to do anything, right or wrong. So you've got me beat, there. You snorted, expelling water out your nose cavity and scaring away a few, small fish.

We both suck, don't we? You began to climb again, but slower, this time. You were nearly at the top.

It'll all be easier once we're in separate bodies. The comment, which was meant to reassure you, made your magic twist nervously instead. You thought back to everything Chara had told you, and felt Sans mulling it over, too. Your main argument for why you should split was that you and Sans didn't get along… but was that even true? On the good days, having him always there in your head was more of a comfort than an inconvenience. He'd become like your security blanket, and you suspected that the feeling was mutual. But then, the bad days…

It keeps getting worse, Sans pointed out, and he wasn't wrong. The arguing. Hurting each other. You were right when you said we were losing ourselves. I think we should end it, before we really go off the deep end.

But, Orion…

They want to do this. At least, they did, last we heard. He was right. Orion had, so far, been coldly logical about the whole situation. They'd weighed the value of Sans' life and yours against their own, and found that your two lives were greater than theirs. But would they feel the same after hearing this new information from Chara? You didn't know, since they hadn't formed since then.

I just think Orion should have more of a say, since it's their life we're ending. You thought, sullenly. Sans had never really thought of Orion as their own person… at least, not to the same extent that you did. His mind buzzed with activity as he considered this. It was a nice change of pace from the dead silence you'd been getting from him recently.

Tell you what… let's give it a week. Just like last time. In your mind's eye, you saw a vision of that last, pseudo-date between you and Sans, but from Sans' perspective. You saw yourself, sitting across a candlelit table, your cane resting between your legs and the spaghetti on your plate left untouched. You looked determined. You heard Sans' voice say, "We're waiting at least a week, and… if you still want to go through with it…"

The flashback was dispelled as soon as it came, Sans having waved it away like a pest. Remembering how you and Sans had interacted in separate bodies was… odd, to say the least. The two of you had known each other in the same body far longer than in separate ones.

That seems fair. You reasoned. After all, if you and Sans had taken a week to think about becoming Orion, it was only fitting that Orion take a week to think about splitting. We can work under the assumption that we're going through with it, and, if Orion changes their mind… You hesitated. How could you have a conversation with someone who literally could not exist at the same time as you? Was it even possible for Orion to disagree with both you and Sans? ...We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, I guess.

Alright, then. Sans said, sounding satisfied. Both of you were relieved that you weren't arguing about this.

As if on cue, you reached the top of the rock right as you and Sans reached an agreement. The rock was almost like a pointed spire, with a wide base but a small tip. You clambered onto the top of it carefully, afraid to stand up to your full height. The current was strong here, and you didn't want to get blown all the way to the bottom again. Even on your hands and knees, you were being pushed around precariously. To test how far from the surface you were, you extended one of your wings up, and were relieved when you felt cold, dry air on your feathers. You waved it around for a bit, before it was submerged again under an incoming wave. If you could just stand up for a moment to see where the shoreline was…

Suddenly, something big barrelled into you out of nowhere. It swept you right off of your rock and carried you away, the water rushing past you at high speeds. A shark?! You thought, wildly, as you began to writhe. Sans was just about to skewer it with a bone when you caught sight of vivid, red hair swirling around you.

Your head broke the surface, and you were suddenly assaulted with the sound of crashing waves and Undyne yelling at you.

"OH MY GOD, STOP SQUIRMING!" You did stop, more out of shock than anything. You hacked and coughed as you transitioned from breathing water to breathing air again. At the same time, you whipped your head back and forth, trying to see what was happening. It took you a moment to realize that Undyne was behind you, with both arms around your spine, her fingers locked onto your last pair of ribs through the fabric of your robe.

"Undyne?!" The captain of the Royal Guard herself was nearly submerged, what with your weight dragging her down. It didn't help that her face was level with your hood, which was currently doing its best to suffocate her. You felt her legs kicking wildly beside yours.

"YES! NOW STAY STILL, DAMMIT!" With that, you were abruptly dunked underwater again. You gasped, your eyes and nose stinging as the air was forced out of them. With difficulty, you made yourself go limp, allowing Undyne to carry you… presumably, to shore. You couldn't really see where you were going in your current position.

Soon, you began to notice the ground raising up beneath you at an alarming rate. You tried to wriggle out of Undyne's grasp, but her hold on you was too strong. Just when you thought you were about to slam into the ground face-first, Undyne flipped you around and dragged you onto dry land. You couldn't stop her from pulling you along while you coughed, heaving up big mouthfuls of water. But, as soon as you were able, you flailed, pulling her hands off of your ribs.

"Get offa me!" You gasped in between coughs. Thankfully, she heard you over the sound of the roaring waves, and dropped you. She stood over you as you rolled onto your side, expelling the last of the water in your skull with a shiver.

"Holy shit, I thought I killed you! I didn't know you'd sink like that… fuck, you're like a dead weight in the water!" You got up on your hands and knees, just before another wave rolled in and washed over your legs.

"You're… damn lucky… I don't need air... to breathe." You said between breaths. You glared up at Undyne, who actually looked a little abashed. You couldn't help but to laugh, but it came out as more of a breathless wheeze. Walking underwater had been kind of cool, but man… the transition back to land really sucked.

As soon as she saw you laughing, Undyne joined in. She gave you a toothy grin before holding out her hand, which you took gratefully.

"I jumped in after you when I saw you go under… but, shit, you sunk so fast! What the hell are you hiding in those bones?!" As soon as she pulled you to your feet, she gave you a friendly push to the shoulder. You stumbled back, barely managing to keep your balance. You were grinning like a fool. Now that you were back on land, the situation seemed a lot funnier.

"Dunno… I panicked and took a shortcut as I was sinking, but I think it just took me further into the ocean…" You looked around for the first time at your surroundings. It seemed like you and Undyne were on the rocky shore right next to the cliff she'd pushed you off of. At least you hadn't ended up somewhere in the Pacific, or something.

"Oh my god! That's why I couldn't find you!" Undyne laughed, flipping her wet hair over her shoulder absentmindedly. "Why didn't you just teleport to shore, then?!" That gave you pause. You hadn't really thought about that.

"I… um… well, most of the shortcuts just led to more water, and the ones that didn't… I just didn't want to accidentally teleport in front of some humans, or something stupid like that." You made something up with a nonchalant shrug, to which Undyne snorted.

"Well, good thinking getting up on that rock. If I hadn't seen your wing waving around, I would've never found you!"

"We could've gotten back to land by ourselves!" You retorted defensively. You actually hadn't even considered that Undyne might've jumped in to save you. It made you feel a little better to know that she wouldn't have just left you there to drown.

"Oh, so it's 'we' again? Did it work?" You were taken aback by the question. You poked Sans, who had been quiet ever since Undyne showed up. He gave you a lazy nudge back. You had a feeling that this exchange would happen a lot in the coming days, as you would need to reassure yourself that he was still here and hadn't left you again.

You felt a flood of guilt from Sans, drowning you far more effectively than the water had.

"Yeah, it worked. You're insane, but it worked." Undyne did a fist pump in the air, then punched you in the shoulder again.

"Nice! So did you and that knucklehead talk or whatever at the bottom of the ocean?" You reached back and wrung out the hood of your robe as you considered how much to tell your new, fishy friend.

"Yeah, we talked… he wants to split our souls, too…" Undyne gave a preemptive "whoop!" of triumph, before you held up a finger and continued, "...but we're gonna wait a week before doing it."

"What?! Why?" She put her hands on her hips and gave you a cross look. She didn't know about Orion, and you didn't want to get into that with her...

"Just wanna make sure we're doing the right thing." It wasn't a lie, just… a simplification of the truth. Undyne seemed to notice, because her eyes narrowed. But, mercifully, she seemed to realize you weren't going to talk, and let it drop.

"Ugh, fine. I did my job… whatever you two punks decide, it's your problem now!" She bared her teeth in a grin before starting off abruptly, beckoning you forward. "Come on! I left my shoes up on that cliff… wait, can you teleport us up there?!" She stopped and looked at you with bright, eager eyes. Sure enough, when you looked down, you saw that Undyne's feet were bare. You shouldn't have been surprised to see that they were webbed. That had to have been how she swam to shore without the use of her arms, and while carrying your "dead weight," to boot.

With a sigh, you called up the shortcuts. Alarmingly, they appeared only for a moment before spluttering and fading away. You felt suddenly heavy and exhausted.

You're too drained… you used up all of your energy freaking out while we were sinking. Sans pointed out as he eased control from you, using his own magic to do what you couldn't. It only took a second for him to find a shortcut which led back up to the top of the cliff.

I didn't know that could happen… It was concerning to you; you thought you'd become a pro at the shortcuts, but now you couldn't even make them visible.

Don't worry, it's temporary. You'll feel better after you eat something. Sans grinned at Undyne and waved her forward before walking into the shortcut. But, once he was through, he suddenly felt drained, himself. He stumbled and grunted, the shortcut wavering. A burst of terror was all that kept him from letting the shortcut crumple on top of Undyne. Even so, it snapped closed almost instantly behind her.

Before he could collapse, he immediately sat down, cradling his head in his hands.

"Woah, you okay? What happened?" Of course, your new friend hadn't sensed that anything was wrong with the portal. She had no idea that she'd almost been lost between the folds of the fabric of space and time…

Sans? What's wrong? You pestered him at the same time as Undyne. It took him a moment to gather himself. To Undyne, he gave a fake, but convincing, smile.

"I'm fine, just a lil' tired." She hesitated, looking like she was about to argue. Before she could, Sans added, "Didn't you wanna grab your shoes?" He jerked his thumb toward the edge of the cliff, where Undyne's brown boots were waiting. She grunted,

"Yeah… just a minute." Sans watched her go, still holding his head with one hand as you buzzed with worry inside.

Guess you must've tapped into my energy, too. He said with a frown. You're getting pretty good at this magic stuff, kid. You felt warm, in spite of how tired the both of you were. He hadn't called you "kid" in a long time, and you were glad that the familiar nickname was back.

I didn't realize the shortcuts were that dangerous. You said, a little nervous. Sans waved you off.

Nah, they're not, really. Doesn't take much magic to open one… I've actually never had one almost close on me like that before. And, even if it had closed, it's more likely that Undyne would've just gotten left behind on the shore. It only gets hairy when someone's only partway through… You watched as Sans recalled a hazy memory; one of him as an adolescent. He was messing around with his shortcuts, throwing a ball at one and trying to close it as it was going through. When he finally succeeded, the ball just… disappeared. Even when Sans reopened the shortcut, it didn't come flying out. It was simply gone, stuck somewhere in limbo.

Okay, noted. You thought, weakly. That would've been nice to know before you started messing around with shortcuts, but you resisted the temptation to give Sans a hard time about it.

By the time you'd finished talking in your collective mind, Undyne was done putting her shoes back on. Sans looked up at her as she walked back over to where you were sitting.

"Hey, you wouldn't happen to have any monster food on you, wouldja?" He asked with a hopeful grin. She furrowed her brows and dug through her pockets. Surprisingly, she did have something, which she pulled out of her pants with a bark of laughter.

"Oh man, you're lucky! I forgot Papyrus gave me this!" It seemed to be a piece of monster candy. It wasn't much, but it would be plenty enough for Sans to open a shortcut back home. "It's probably soggy, but that's what you get for making me dive into the ocean to save your ass!" Sans refrained from pointing out that it was Undyne who pushed you into the ocean to begin with, and just took the candy from her instead. He felt instantly better when he popped it into his mouth, biting down on the hard candy until it shattered.

Ugh, really? You chew your candy? You thought, revolted by the feel of swallowing the chewed up sweet. Sans said nothing, but smiled smugly.

"Alright, think I've had enough of the beach." He stood and stretched, his shoulders popping and wings flaring out before they were tucked neatly behind his back once more. Undyne snorted and rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, you don't say?! I think we've been here for hours!" Even so, Sans caught Undyne glancing back at the water with a longing expression as he opened up the shortcut home. It was mid-morning here, but he could see through the shortcut that it was pitch black in your living room. He held it open for a moment, making sure he was strong enough before motioning Undyne forward.

"You go first this time… just walk forward." Sans didn't usually like sending other people through first, in case they wandered off at an odd angle and missed the shortcut entirely. But he wasn't taking any chances this time. He waited for Undyne to cross the threshold before following her, leaving the rocky shoreline abandoned once more.