Everything has two sides. People, places, entire worlds…it all has another side. All sapient living beings have a Shadow. These fragments of the ego, hidden away from sight, resided deep into each person's psyche, representing the part of themselves they didn't show to others. Thoughts, behaviors, feelings, everything is taken by the Shadow and repressed away. In the very unlikely chance you have the possibility to behold someone's Shadow, you may learn something you didn't know about that person.

But even though individual Shadow Selves can exist in a small area, they're always connected to something bigger, forming a vast world: the collective unconscious. A world's collective unconscious is formed by the masses' perceptions of the world. Just like each individual person have their own perceptions which in turn create the environment in their psyches, the entire world's perceptions shape the collective unconscious' layout.

This subconscious world is filled with Shadows, which in turn affects the real world. Any changes to the collective unconscious will trigger changes depending on the nature of what happened. It should be no surprise that messing with psyches and the collective unconscious would bring such dire consequences to the real world.

The fabric of reality can be such a delicate thing, though. Several factors together can start to unravel it. Unfortunately for the world, the combination of issues the world had made reality less stable than it should be. The dozens of thousands of timelines, the SAVE power, the witches' game board, the firefly brooch, taking out of the souls objects filled with immense amounts of magic, the gaping hole in reality that was used to bring Syphus – a common Shadow from the collective unconscious – and left unattended in the Ruins, the much smaller holes in the places the Shadow Selves so far were defeated…it all together helped weaken the fabric of reality, the thin layer that separated reality and the collective unconscious started deteriorating enough to open up a passageway in the middle of Waterfall leading into the collective unconscious.

The problem with the collective unconscious was that nobody knew what gestated in its depths, nurtured and created by everyone's psyches. Beings with the potential to cause and prevent events with many consequences, beings often representing some concrete and powerful feeling, they try to influence the real world according to what kind of feelings and thoughts led to its creation.

Some of these creatures were fragments of the collective unconscious born from mostly positive traits, sapient enough to take their own decisions and look to aid those who, for one reason or another, are forced to undergo a journey. Igor's master, the Velvet Room attendants, all them were such fragments. Other creatures were born from more negative traits – not inherently evil, but certainly more unpredictable and usually interested only in their own "life". Those were the witches. These two types of beings often took the form and thoughts of a specific person. They weren't the same person their bodies were based on; they were more like imitations of them. The moment they turned into witches, it was like they were not human or monster anymore.

And last...there were the gods. Creatures born from especially strong feelings, always shared by a very large quantity of people. The feelings and thoughts that created such beings were so strong, they often tried to lead such wishes and thoughts carried to the upmost conclusion – even if it involved the destruction of the inhabitants of the world.

But what kind of god would be born from monsterkind's collective unconscious? What kind of form would it take?

-ooooo-

Undyne really was the type to never be deterred by anything. The day went by without any problems, always being visited by a guard. Asgore brought her a handful of Echo Flower that had recorded greetings from all the guards. She spend the day listening to the messages, it was nice to know she was appreciated by her subordinates. Knowing she had made an impact in their lives was rather encouraging.

"Get better, Captain!"

"I believe in you!"

"We're waiting for you"

"I'll visit you later!"

"06 cried like a baby when he heard what happened"

"If you need something just tell me"

She promised herself she'd keep intact the messages in that bouquet for as long as possible. Alphys was entrusted with the flower, she promised she'd plant it in a pot so it could be taken to the house she still had to build.

The doctors' examinations showed there was nothing wrong with her. Her body was perfectly stable, nothing indicated she'd fall down or turn into dust anytime soon. Nobody was able to find the reason why she had fallen down, and she wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. She didn't remember her last waking moments.

Deciding that worrying about it wouldn't do her any good, she pushed out of her mind all thoughts related to the incident and focused on sleeping, wondering how the world outside was like. With the Barrier maybe being broken in the near future, it was easy to feel optimistic. She wished she could tell everyone the good news, so everyone felt the same hope she had right now, but she wasn't going to do that, those humans that had saved her were relying on her. Revealing their existence would lead nowhere good.

The next day, a large group of guards welcomed her out of the hospital. Even guards that had sided with the Queen were present. The doors opened and Undyne strolled outside, wearing her armor and holding her helmet in her hands. Her eye sparkled with glee. "Aw, you all were worried about me?" she slapped the top of the helmet, laughing "Fufufu…you shouldn't have! It'd take more than a mere whatever-happened-to-me to stop me!" Her boasting was what everyone needed to hear. If she was in mood to boast, then she was a-okay. The guards cheered. "I'm back into the game, everyone! Let's stop standing around, there's work to do!"

"Captain, wait! Didn't you want to make an announcement two days ago?" 046 asked, bowing his head. Undyne didn't stop grinning, but she unconsciously got tense, hoping she could brush off that perfectly normal question.

"Don't worry about that. It's all fine, I don't need to announce anything now" she raised her voice to address all the guards "Get going! Return to your patrolling routes!"

Slowly, everyone dispersed, giving a few words of encouragement to their captain before walking away. Soon there were only a few stragglers standing to a side…and the King of All Monsters.

Asgore stepped forward, wrapped in his large cape. He made no effort to hide the expression of worry he had. "It's a relief to see you so spirited" he said.

"Did you expect anything different from ne?"

"No. I never doubted your determination" he looked at her up and down "Perhaps you should rest for a few days, or maybe a week?"

"Definitely not! I need to help my guards!"

"I could take over your duties while you rest. Your well-being is much more important"

Undyne clapped Asgore's arm, touched by his concern. "That's so you, big guy. Always worrying for others…you should worry about yourself a bit more" she said. Asgore made a face of resignation, this wasn't the first time she said something like that "Sorry, Asgore, I'm not going to rest. I had enough rest yesterday, lying down on that bed like a rock for so long"

Asgore sighed. "I knew you'd say that" without warning, he enveloped her in a tight hug, glad she was okay "Nothing can stop you"

"That's right, nothing can stop me" she didn't try to get away. By now she was used to the king's concern, she'd be lying if she said she wasn't fond of it "I won't let it happen again"

"Well then…" he released her "…I should return to the throne room" after exchanging a few words more, Asgore walked away, going in direction of the castle. He had gone just a couple dozen feet away when some citizens stopped him, he listened attentively. Content, Undyne turned her attention to the other people she wanted to talk with.

Syphus and two guards dressed in full armor were some distance away, waving at her. When she was close, Cohen lifted up the visor of his helmet. "So that's the king…"

"He's so big" Ananas had been staring at Asgore since he had arrived, a bit scared "Those are big horns, too. How big are his fangs?"

"As big as your fingers" Syphus informed.

The girl looked at her fingers. "That's scary…but he looks a lot like Toriel"

"Toriel is the Queen, remember?" Cohen said.

Undyne looked at Syphus."So where's this village of yours?"

"Waterfall. It's not too far from where your house was"

Something about that made Undyne be frustrated. "It was that close? How didn't I notice it?!"

"We found a good place to hide" Cohen said, judging it wasn't a good idea to say the Queen had been the one who had found it. The team started walking towards Waterfall, descending to the MTT resort and going outside to the sweltering heat. Undyne was in good mood, teasing Syphus by asking him if he remembered to cover her armor with cooling dirt. Given that she didn't collapse after a minute of walking through Hotland, he had done that – just like she had expected of him.

"I knew you'd be a good assistant!" she praised, glad to enter Waterfall's tempered climate "You know, I have been thinking, and I'm not going to owe anything to you guys. If you're going to introduce your friends to me, I will introduce my friends to you"

Cohen frowned, unsure if that really was a good idea. "You mean…other monsters?"

"Of course I mean other monsters! I'm not going to introduce you to the piles of garbage in the junkyard" she made them stop near her house to discuss this "This is my way to show you I really mean this, I want to get along with you guys and the other humans. There's someone I want you to meet"

"Who is it?" Ananas asked, willing to give this a chance. Undyne looked happy, thinking about someone she esteemed a lot, and started leading the way towards Snowdin

"His name is Papyrus, he's a really friendly guy. He'd like to see a human" she said. Syphus hoped that when Papyrus met Cohen and Ananas, he'd avoid mentioning he had already met a human before. He wasn't sure if anyone would take well that Ciruel had been visiting him since who knows how long. "He was training to be part of the Royal Guard too, and he was really good at training. He went to see me at midnight to ask me to train him, can you believe that?! The nerve of that guy! And when I woke up the next morning, he was still there!"

"That reminds me a lot of someone" Cohen whispered to Syphus. Thankfully, Ananas was blissfully unaware of such comment.

"I started training him. He's real good. He may be a wimp with a big heart, but he's good at fighting. It's just that…" Undyne's demeanor turned hesitant, like she was remembering something she didn't want to think about "…one day he said he wanted to stop. I asked him why, but he never told me. He always said something like 'Nyeh heh heh! Do not worry, Undyne! The great Papyrus has everything under control' and changed topics"

"That doesn't make any sense. If he wanted to be a guard so much, why'd he stop?"

"That's what I don't get! I asked his brother, he doesn't know, either!" she hit her gauntlets together "And Papyrus isn't telling me anything! I dunno if it's that I trained him too much, or if I said something bad, or whatever happened. I just want him to tell me what happened. Does he not trust me anymore or what?"

The relationship between her and Papyrus had started to stray apart. They had been close friends, but Papyrus' reticence to talk about why he stopped trying to be a guard had driven a wedge between him and Undyne, much to her frustration.

The team jumped down a ledge, Undyne still guiding them through the labyrinthine caverns. The New Home castle was visible in the distance. "Maybe he found out guards had to kill humans to get their souls, and he didn't want to do that" Ananas said.

"No, that can't be, everyone knows we guards need to fight humans. There's no way he didn't know…" one, two seconds passed before she facepalmed "Oh my god. He didn't know. If there's someone who wouldn't know that, it's Papyrus"

"He sounds silly" Ananas commented, smiling.

"Papyrus is a great guy, he likes puzzles and cooking. He's really energetic, I bet you and he will be playing in no time" Undyne cheered up a little "You know who else I'd like to introduce you to? The king. Not right now, of course, but someday you should meet Asgore" as expected, Ananas didn't look thrilled about the perspective of meeting Asgore. Cohen said what she was thinking:

"Yeah, real swell to meet the king who told the guards to kill us"

Undyne's expression hardened but she didn't refute that. It was true, after all. Not many would want to meet someone like that. "It's not his fault, this is all because he thought that was the only way to break the barrier, that's all. Come on, give him a chance! You gave me a chance!"

"When this all is over we should meet the king" Syphus intervened, hoping to defuse the situation before they all got tense "He seemed like a nice guy"

"A nice guy? Did you forget what I just said? He told the guards to kill us" Cohen insisted.

"He's not like that! You talk with him for a moment, and then tell me if you still think—"

What Undyne was saying was interrupted. They had been walking down one of the many passageways Waterfall had, they were starting to get close to Snowdin, the temperature of the air was getting chilly, when they crossed the boundary. Undyne stepped forward without noticing anything abnormal. It felt like walking into a body of water, her fins flared up in surprise while she looked around. "…if you think…he's that…bad of a guy…?" her train of thought derailed "Wait, what did just happen?"

The rest of the team experienced the same sensations afterwards. Only Syphus seemed kind of unaffected, not having felt anything strange. "What?"

"What do you mean 'what'? Look around and tell me if this is normal"

She was right, something was off. Waterfall was filled with some kind of purple mist, decoloring the dark blue of the rocks and making everything look sinister. The water droplets falling from the stalactites on the ceiling were frozen in the air. There was a river nearby. Curious, Cohen tried to dip his hand into the river, finding it couldn't pass through the surface. "She's right, this is wrong"

"Syphus, what's going on? And why are none of you wearing your armors" Once again she was right. The armors Cohen, Ananas and Syphus had been wearing just a moment ago were gone. Nobody was able to explain why they were gone.

"…this mist looks kind of familiar" Syphus said, but he couldn't remember where he had ever seen it before.

"What do you mean familiar? This doesn't feel like Waterfall anymore"

"We're still in the Underground, right?" Ananas looked for reassurance.

"Let's go back" Cohen suggested, walking back where they had come from. Reluctant, the rest of the team followed him, until the environment returned to normal. They could see the water droplets splashing onto the ground, there was no more mist. They were all wearing their armor again. The rest of the corridor where they had encountered the abnormalities looked like normal, nothing hinted something was off "I don't understand…" he slowly walked forward, then back, and repeated those actions a few times. It was like he was crossing an invisible boundary, one moment everything was okay, the next moment it was all filled with mist.

"Does it seem dangerous?" Undyne asked, completely serious"

"I can't tell for sure. I don't see anything dangerous, but this mist looks strange"

Ananas grabbed her gun, just in case, and followed Cohen through the boundary. Once she was surrounded by the mist, she took a deep breath and said very clearly: "Persona!" Hippolyta appeared above her, raising the axe, ready to fight. Ananas stared at her Persona for a moment before recalling it, unsure how exactly she had just been able to get it to appear.

"You're not supposed to be able to summon it in the real world" Cohen said. As if to confirm what he had just said, Undyne tried to invoke Geiravor, achieving nothing. Deciding to take control of the situation, Syphus calculated where the boundary was at, and peered as far into the cavern as possible.

"This isn't normal. We need to investigate and find out what's going on" he said, turning around "I know it's sudden, but we have to make sure people will be okay. If some random monster stumbles in here—"

"We can't let that happen" Undyne turned to Cohen "You. You got a phone?" once she received it, she called the headquarters, her deputy picking up the call "Send some guards to Waterfall. I need them to meet me near Snowdin. Quadrant W2. Three guards should be enough"

"Get them to bring a halberd for me, please" Syphus requested. He had left the halberd behind, not having expected to need it. Undyne nodded and requested the halberd, and asked what was the plan. "We're going in, we'll try to see if there's any danger...and then we'll look for a way to fix whatever's going on, if it's bad"

"Do you think it's related to Shadows?" Ananas asked.

"I think that's likely, since we'll be able to summon our Personas" just in case, he extended his hands and made a SAVE point "Are you all ready?" Everyone was prepared despite the short notice.

Once the guards arrived, Undyne quickly imparted orders. "Patrol around here until there's a change of plans. If I haven't changed my orders in eight hours, get other guards to replace you during the next eight hours. Rotate turns" she pointed down the hallway "Don't let anyone pass through here. You're not allowed to walk down this hallway either. Got it?"

"Yes!" the guards saluted.

"Get going" satisfied, Undyne let the guards go to their patrols and returned to where the rest of the team was waiting. She took a deep breath, preparing herself for the task "I didn't think I'd be getting into this so soon"

"What can you do with your Persona?" Ananas asked.

"Ice magic. I shouldn't get hit by wind, I guess" once again the new team member complemented well the rest. To make sure they'd have all bases covered, Syphus took off his brooch and prepared Fortuna. With all his Personas, he'd be able to do everything the rest wouldn't be capable of. Between the four of them, they were rather well-prepared.

"This will be uncharted territory, everyone. Let's get going" Syphus said, gripping the halberd the guards had brought. After strengthening their resolve, the four of them passed through the boundary, feeling how the air felt heavier, ominous. Ananas got between Syphus and Undyne, grabbing Syphus' arm and Undyne's gauntlet, while Cohen advanced a tad further away, fists in front of him and ready to punch anything dangerous that could come their way.

-ooooo-

It wasn't like the pieces went missing from the board. The locations didn't change, the pieces didn't move, there was no change from the board, and yet...

"They're gone" Lucia said, astonished.

Cornio stared at the pieces as if he was trying to bore a hole into them with his stare. He saw absolutely no change in them. "Are you sure? Is that normal?"

"It's not normal. It shouldn't happen under any circumstances"

Sisyphus crossed one leg over the other, looking at Lucia with an expression that bordered on impatience. "So what? What can we do about it?"

"Can you feel your piece?"

"I have no idea where it is. It's weird, it's like...it is gone"

Lucia observed the board, picking up a few pieces and putting them in other places of the board. No matter what she did, the result was the same: Cohen, Ananas, Syphus and Undyne were missing. "This is a problem. I had never seen something like this before, so I'm not sure of the consequences of this, but...this could be a big problem"

"I don't get it..." Cornio scratched his head.

"I can't say it with certainty, but if they don't have some sort of presence in the real world, it's possible any attempt to LOAD won't work. In other words: if they die, they'll stay dead"

"You can't let that happen! There must be something we can do!"

"Think of something, Lucia" Sisyphus demanded.

"I told you, there's nothing we can do. All we can do is watch and hope they'll return" she stood up from her seat "So I'll leave that up to you two. You're the players, not me. I'll go rest for a while" without even waiting for a reply, she bowed her head and left the room, slamming the doors behind her. She didn't go to her room, though. Instead she exited the manor, stepping out to the cold, crisp air of her garden, jumping a bit. With some giddiness, she turned around, observing for a moment the place she liked to call the Hopeful Star. A star lost in the endless void, floating amidst the swirling purple clouds. The slight fog that always permeated the collective unconscious would seem creepy to a lot of people, but to her it was comforting.

Lucia descended the steps to a small stone platform there was to the side of the garden. On it there was a rather intricate bench, facing the emptiness. The witch sat down on it, smoothing over the wrinkles of her dress, and relaxed, looking at the void. "I didn't think it'd happen so soon...but I suppose that's fine. Let's see if this will work"

The void wasn't empty anymore; it hadn't been empty since she had caught Sisyphus in her plans. Beyond the fog, shining strongly, there were thousands, dozens of thousands of golden strands.

-ooooo-

Sans' grin didn't disappear – hard for that to happen when his skull forced that grin to always be there – but the bone above his eyes crinkled with concern. He stared at the screen of his machine, unsure how to interpret what he was seeing.

It was already known the present timeline was very unstable, the machine had revealed it. The golden thread that represented the timeline was blurry and covered in something that resembled static. However, it seemed the situation had gotten worse recently.

Other timelines were blurry as well. Sometimes one of the timelines on screen fluctuated so violently it touched a neighboring timeline. Sans wasn't sure what kind of consequences such event would bring to reality and the timeline itself, but he was sure it wouldn't be anything good.

"welp. guess there's nothing anyone can do"

Somehow, Sans wasn't exactly anguished about the reality-shattering possibilities such anomalies could cause. True, it was disquieting to see an obviously unnatural phenomenon he didn't understand, but...was it worth it to worry about something you couldn't fix? About something you wouldn't really be in a hurry to fix, even if you could?

If reality and the timelines were going to be pureed in whatever anomaly was happening, then so be it. He wasn't going to get in the way. Still...he continued watching the screen, in his mind theorizing about what was going on. He couldn't deny he had some scientific curiosity about what'd happen!

-ooooo-

The caverns were strangely silent. Usually there was noise, even if it was ambient. Drops falling to the floor, the running of the water, the air passing through the caves, some sort of musical box in the distance. Here, it was all silent. The only sound was the sound of their breathing and their steps – while they didn't encounter anything, at least.

Just like they had expected, there were Shadows…it's just that there are much less Shadows than they expected, and what was stranger: they didn't seem hostile. The first Shadow they encountered was a Castle, much taller than any of them. It was lumbering down the corridor when the team encountered it. Undyne and Cohen summoned their Personas immediately, while Syphus prepared to analyze the enemy. Despite their obvious aggressiveness, the Castle didn't attack. It just glanced at them and, fearlessly, continued moving towards them, rather slowly and without making the least threatening movement with its cannons. It didn't even look at them while it passed aside them.

"What the…?" Cohen mumbled, watching the Castle walk away.

"Are you sure that wasn't a monster?" Undyne asked.

"Shadows try to kill us, Undyne, those are nowhere close to being monsters. They're no more than instinct" Syphus said.

It was a while before the found another Shadow, this time a Maya - a Cowardly Maya, Syphus remembered. It just looked at them and went away, not even having the decency to look scared or fearful. There's something off about all this.

"What are these tall flowers?" Ananas asked, pocketing her gun into its holster and approaching a few Echo Flowers growing near a river. Undyne, relieved she found something more or less familiar, approached.

"These flowers are pretty cool. I dunno how they work, but you say something in front of them, and they'll store what you said" she looked at the rest of the team "You think someone passed by and said something?"

"It's worth a try" Syphus said, touching the petals of an Echo Flower. The sound that came from it was low, almost like a whisper, and the voice was garbled. It was like there was static mixed in a recording. Syphus touched the flower again, trying to hear what it was saying.

"…C̸a̵l̶l̵ ̶f̸o̶r̸ ̴h̴e̸l̵p̴.̶ ̷I̶ ̵d̸a̴r̷e̴ ̷y̶o̷u̴..."

What the heck?! That sounded familiar. He hadn't heard it in person ever before, but he remembered someone saying something like that. It was Flowey, wasn't it? Why was Flowey's voice in an Echo Flower in a place where he clearly shouldn't ever be at? "Guys, check the other flowers"

Each flower had a different sentence, five of them from different people, two seemingly belonging to Undyne. Several were almost unintelligible.

"E̷n̶t̵r̷y̵ ̸n̴u̸m̷b̸e̵r̶ ̶1̸7̴"

"S̸o̴m̴e̴t̶i̶m̷e̷s̷ ̵i̴t̸ ̷e̵v̵e̸n̴ ̵c̷r̶a̸w̶l̶s̶ ̶i̶n̸t̸o̶ ̴m̴y̴ ̶b̸e̵d̶ ̶w̸h̵i̸l̶e̵ ̴I̵'̴m̸ ̴r̶e̶s̸t̷i̶n̷g̶"

"W̵e̷l̵l̸ ̶t̴h̷e̴n̵.̵.̵.̷t̴e̸l̴l̸ ̷y̶o̶u̴r̷ ̵f̷r̶i̴e̵n̷d̷s̵.̴.̷.̴"

"N̷y̵e̷h̵ ̸h̴e̷h̵ ̷h̴e̵h̵ ̵h̸e̸h̶ ̷h̷e̵h̵ ̴h̴e̸h̸ ̷h̸e̷h̶"

"T̶h̶e̵r̸e̷'̴s̸ ̵a̵n̵ ̶a̴n̷c̸i̶e̵n̶t̵ ̸p̴r̴o̵p̶h̶e̷c̸y̶ ̸a̵m̶o̶n̸g̷ ̴o̴u̴r̵ ̴p̷e̷o̸p̷l̷e̸.̸.̴.̸

Undyne blinked in confusion. "I said that to Frisk when I tried to fight him days ago!"

"That happened near Hotland, right?" Syphus mused. This flower was almost all the way to Snowdin, it was impossible it'd naturally pick up those words. They checked the rest of the flowers.

"W̶o̸u̴l̸d̶ ̶y̷o̶u̸ ̷s̶m̵o̷o̵c̴h̵ ̴a̸ ̸g̷h̸o̵s̵t̷?̶"

"A̵s̶ ̵l̶o̵n̴g̶ ̸a̷s̸ ̷y̸o̵u̵'̸r̷e̵ ̸G̴R̴E̷E̶N̸,̴ ̶y̶o̵u̷ ̷c̵a̷n̸'̶t̸ ̷e̷s̵c̶a̷p̶e̵!̵"

"I said that too!" Undyne exclaimed.

There were a few that were more puzzling than the rest, though. Not too far away, there was a large Echo Flower...or more like three Echo Flowers, growing on the same stem. The stem twisted and looped, having a hard time under the weight of three flowers. Parts of it seemed to be rotting. A bit wary of such a strange plant, Syphus pressed his fingers onto the petals of one of the flowers and listened:

"I̷t̷ ̸s̶o̷u̸n̷d̸s̸ ̸l̵i̴k̷e̶ ̷t̶h̶e̴r̶e̶ ̷i̶s̷ ̵a̶ ̸w̶h̵o̷l̷e̷ ̴s̸t̸o̶r̵y̴ ̶b̶e̵h̸i̷n̸d̸ ̷t̷h̵i̴s̶.̶ ̸W̷e̶ ̸s̴h̴o̸u̷l̸d̵ ̷l̴i̸s̷t̶e̸n̵ ̴t̷o̷ ̶o̵u̴r̸ ̸s̸o̴n̷ ̴f̵i̸r̵s̵t̸.̴ ̴H̸o̵w̶ ̸i̷s̸ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̸h̸u̴m̶a̶n̴ ̶a̶d̸u̶l̵t̵ ̶f̵e̴e̷l̵i̸n̸g̵ ̶n̸o̴w̶?̶ ̵D̷o̴ ̴y̴o̴u̶ ̵t̷h̵i̶n̶k̴ ̴h̵e̵ ̸c̸o̵u̶l̶d̷ ̶b̵e̶…̸d̴a̶n̴g̵e̸r̷o̴u̸s̷?̵" Syphus inhaled noisily and let go of the flower, a strange feeling of emptiness filling him. He recognized the voice as Asgore's. The piece touched the second flower.

"W̸h̴y̵ ̵n̶o̸t̷?̴ ̴I̷t̶ ̶i̶s̵ ̸a̷ ̶s̵i̵g̵n̶ ̴o̷f̴ ̷g̸o̴o̷d̴ ̶w̵i̸l̵l̴,̴ ̷l̶e̵t̷ ̸A̸s̵r̴i̵e̶l̵ ̴h̸a̴v̵e̶ ̵h̷i̵s̷ ̶c̴a̶n̸d̶y̴" Ciruel said that. It was impossible he had ever been in contact with Asriel. The only time he thought that could have happened was during the original timeline. Could it really be that bits and pieces of what happened during that timeline were present in wherever they were at right now?

That was confirmed by the last Echo Flower:

"Y̶o̷u̷ ̷w̷o̸n̵'̸t̴ ̸t̴e̴l̷l̸ ̸t̶h̶e̴m̴.̴ ̸W̴e̸ ̴h̸a̶v̸e̷ ̶e̷n̸o̴u̵g̴h̷ ̷p̴r̴o̴b̶l̵e̵m̶s̶ ̶a̶l̵r̷e̵a̸d̶y̸,̷ ̴w̴e̷ ̶d̶o̴n̵'̵t̵ ̶n̵e̶e̷d̴ ̶y̴o̵u̴ ̵t̵o̶ ̸a̸d̶d̸ ̶m̵o̴r̴e̷"

That was his own voice, saying something he had never said before.

He suspected they were all connected to the person whose memories he had right now, to his master, Sisyphus. Hearing all those voices…Syphus felt a lingering feeling of affection towards all of them, towards the humans, towards Frisk, towards Asriel. He knew the only reason why Sisyphus was getting himself involved in all this mess was to help them.

Still… "It's impossible all these people passed through here, talking" he said.

"Are you sure? What's this place, anyway?" Ananas wondered.

"I don't know! That's what we're here to find out, so let's get going" he stepped away from the Echo Flowers, wondering what they'd find further away. He calculated they were close to arriving to Snowdin. Did Snowdin even exist?

It did. Cohen stepped out of Waterfall, blinking at what he found. It was the unmistakable cold air of Snowdin – even though he had never been in this part of the Underground, he had heard many tales about Snowdin. Toriel was found of talking about the Underground, she described Snowdin so vividly Cohen had often wished he could see the place by himself.

Now that he was standing near it, he wished he was far, far away, or at least in the real Snowdin. "...seems safe" he said to the team, stepping further away from the cavern to take a better look.

Snowdin was located in a large space, so large some people may even think it was an open area instead of it all being underground. To the team, it was hard to think it really was an enclosed area. The roof of the cave, so far above their heads, was...gone? It was difficult to know for sure. What was even more unusual was that that dark space wasn't empty. Not only the purple fog swirled way above their heads, looking denser then near the ground, there were also many golden thread-like...things crossing the emptiness. "This is Snowdin? It's s-s-s-so cold...!" Ananas shivered.

"No, this can't be Snowdin. This is nothing like Snowdin!" Undyne denied categorically, and she was wrong. Other than the fog and the threads, it was a perfect copy of Snowdin, to the minimal detail. A couple Shadows could be seen along the main street, moving slowly and aimlessly. There was something more important than those, though:

Snowdin wasn't uninhabited. From where the team was standing, they could see shapes in the distance. "That's odd...we didn't encounter anyone in Waterfall" Syphus said.

"Usually you won't stumble upon anyone unless you're going to one of the villages in that part of the Underground, it's not like not finding anyone was strange" Undyne seemed rather happy to see monsters not too far away "The problem is how we'll get you guys into Snowdin without anyone seeing you. Look at yourselves, you don't have armor anymore"

"We'll be okay. The guards at the headquarters said the monsters in Snowdin were being...um..." How to say it without throwing the guards at Snowdin under the bus? "...tolerant of human presence in the town. I'm not saying we should just walk into the town, but we won't have too much trouble if we're found out"

Cohen thought for a moment, kicking some snow to a side of the road. "Undyne and you should go check the town. Go see if it's safe for us to go in"

"I like that idea. Syphus, turn into a monster" Undyne ordered. Syphus took out the firefly brooch, staring at it and shaking his head.

"I'm not sure that'd be a good idea. I don't know what effect using the brooch in here would have" he said. Undyne shook her head, disapproving.

"Whatever. We still need to go check. Cohen, Annie, wait here. We'll return if it's safe" Having decided their next course of action, Syphus and Undyne approached the town, Undyne walking ahead. Once they were passing by the skeletons' house, Syphus hid behind the shed, peeking from behind. There were a few monsters not too far away, so Undyne nodded at him. "I have this under control" she assured him, and started walking by, trying to take a look at the monsters.

None of them said a single word to her. Undyne wasn't very knowledgeable about Snowdin's residents, but she recognized them. The mouse with that long scarf and the jester that always stood nearby were there, seemingly ignoring her. She didn't look at them, trying not to look like she was staring at people, and, to look natural, she peered through the window of the inn, looking towards the reception, as if she was pondering if she should spend a night in the inn. Undyne put her hands against the glass and looked inside, holding her breath to not fog the glass.

The inside of the inn looked normal, nothing unusual. The innkeeper was behind the counter, moving a bit stiffly, looking through her guestbook. There were no traces of the innkeeper's son. Undyne wondered for a moment if she should enter, when the innkeeper looked up.

Her eyes were golden. Undyne hissed between her teeth, stepping back. She glanced towards the two monsters nearby, finding they were looking at her. They had yellow eyes too. Neither of them tried to say anything to her, they didn't try to approach. For a moment the three of them stared at each other, the captain feeling a shiver that had nothing to do with Snowdin's cold climate. Slowly, she moved in direction of the skeletons' house, getting behind the shed.

"Well?" Syphus asked.

"Something weird is going on. Everyone has yellow eyes, and they didn't even try to say anything to me. What's going on here?" she informed. Syphus crossed his arms, chewing his lip and organizing his thoughts.

"...they may be these monsters' Shadow Selves" he explained Shadow Selves in few words. Undyne didn't fully understand, but she thought she grasped more or less what he meant.

"So the monsters over there are the hidden sides of those same monsters? I'm not sure I get it but you know more than me" she stared at him for a moment "Wait, I thought those were only in people's souls, not wherever we are right now"

"I know as little as you do, Undyne!"

Confused, the two of them returned to Cohen and Ananas. Ananas had built a snowman, placing her hat on its head. When Undyne and Syphus returned, she approached them. "How'd it go, pardners?" They explained the situation quickly, remarking how there were Shadow Selves in the town.

"Could it be we are in a soul right now?" Cohen wondered.

"That's impossible. I have the brooch right here" Syphus showed it, it wasn't even pinned to his shirt "And we're definitely not inside my soul" Could someone with a Persona have an antagonistic Shadow? He didn't know, and this wasn't the time to think about that, anyway. Undyne explained what she saw. Everyone was a bit wary of going into Snowdin now that they knew there were several Shadow Selves in there. "Okay, what are we going to do now?"

"If they're not attacking then we can get in there, right?" Ananas wondered "We should explore and find something about what's going on"

"If we take too long some monster may get into this weird place. Let's hurry up" Cohen said, his deep raspy voice sounded tense. Something about what Cohen said made Undyne get defensive. She crossed her arms, raising her eyebrows.

"My guards know what they're doing. If I tell them to not let anyone pass, they won't let anyone pass"

Syphus looked down the street, towards the blurry shapes in the distance. Shadow Selves, huh... "If this town is full of the Shadows of monsters who live here...hm..." he tilted his head "Let's visit the skeletons"

"Why do you want to meet their Shadows?" Cohen asked. Syphus pursed his lips, unsure if they'd agree with his reasoning, but he spoke, nonetheless.

"I'd like to see Sans' Shadow. I don't know how aware he'll be of the other world, but if there's someone who can tells us about this place, it's him" It was a long shot, but in Syphus' opinion, it was worth a try. What other option did they have? The rest of the team was rather hesitant about going to see someone's Shadow Self, but they ended acquiescing to Syphus' suggestion.

"We better not have to fight him. I don't want to fight Sans" Undyne said, passing a hand over her face.

"At the first sign of hostility we'll all get away. There's no reason for us to fight anyone"

Cohen, still shivering from the cold, rubbed his gloved hands together, trying to warm up. "Okay, let's get going before I freeze on the spot! Where does this Sans guy live?"

The skeletons' house looked like normal. Christmas lights hung from the roof, one of the mailboxes was filled to the brim with letters. Ananas carefully put her hands against the glass of the window and pressed her face onto it, peering inside. "I don't see anyone"

"What about the shed?"

"There's nobody inside the shed, I already checked" Syphus said, testing the door. It was locked. He knocked once, twice, and waited, while Undyne watched out for anyone hostile going towards where they were at now. Nobody opened the door "This is going nowhere"

Ananas rubbed her face, she looked red from the cold air "Then let's break the window and go inside!"

"If we're sure that's what we have to do..." Undyne stepped to the edge of the forest, positioning herself directly in front of the window. She took a deep breath, grit her teeth and started running at full speed towards the window, shouting all the while. "NGAAAAAAH!" she roared, jumping and smashing through the window, the glass falling in pieces. She fell heavily on the floor, splintering the wood, and shook off herself bits of glass. "It's done! Come in!"

"...okay, that was effective" Syphus commented, trying to suppress the wide grin he had on his face. Wanton destruction shouldn't be something to cheer on! He carefully removed the remaining pieces of glass from the windowsill and helped Ananas pass over it, making sure she wouldn't get cut.

Once the team was standing in the living room of the house, they all looked around, a tad confused. "You'd think after breaking the window in such a noisy way they'd come to see what's going on" Cohen said, peeking into the kitchen "There's nobody in there"

"They could be in their bedrooms" Syphus guessed, stomping up the stairs in an effort to get the skeletons' Shadows out. Nothing happened. Where are they...? he thought, opening the door of Papyrus' room. He wasn't there. A quick search of the room revealed nothing, Shadow Papyrus simply wasn't anywhere.

He had been crawling on the floor under the desk, trying to see if there was anything useful or interesting in there, when he heard the noise of someone throwing themselves onto a door. Startled, he jumped up, hitting the back of his head. "Wait, I'm going-!" he ran out of the room, rubbing the sore spot on his head with one hand and summoning Fortuna. Nobody was getting attacked, nor there was any danger. Syphus' hasty exit from Papyrus' room didn't surprise anyone, Undyne continued slamming the door with her shoulder until, with a loud crack, the lock broke. "What the...?"

"Sans isn't here!" Undyne declared, entering the bedroom "Where are they?!"

"They could be somewhere else in Snowdin" Cohen suggested, but he didn't look very enthusiastic about having to explore the town. Hesitant and wrinkling his nose with some disgust at the state of Sans' bedroom, he looked around. The mattress, the greasy bedsheet balled up on the bed, the tornado of trash Ananas was staring at with befuddlement...it all seemed rather normal.

"Search this room and Papyrus' room. There could be something telling where they are" Syphus requested. The two humans in the group went to Papyrus' room, while Undyne and Syphus search through Sans' room.

"How does Sans sleep in a place like this?" Undyne shook her hands as if she couldn't get grime off her gauntlets, she had just handled the mattress on the floor.

"I have no idea, but Papyrus said—"

"Wait a second, that's right!" she turned her head around "How do you know Papyrus and Sans? I thought I was going to introduce them to you for the first time!" Syphus froze. He had talked too much.

"...yeah, I knew them already"

"Why didn't you tell me that?" Undyne approached "Do your friends know you have been in Snowdin before?" she supposed that if Syphus knew the skeletons, then that meant he had been here before. Syphus didn't reply, just staring at the floor. Undyne put a hand on Syphus' shoulder, trying to be comforting "I dunno how long you have been leading this team, but I think you should keep as few secrets as possible. That's what I do with my guards, and that's why I wanted to tell them about Frisk. You have to trust each other"

"...I understand" Syphus managed to smile weakly "I'll keep that in mind"

"That's what I wanted to hear! Now let's keep searching and get the hell out of here" she returned to the search. Syphus didn't move for a while longer, conflicted. He knew Undyne was right, that he should be more honest with the team he was relying on, but he had already taken steps to conceal some important stuff. Hadn't he changed their own actions after getting killed by Shadow Undyne so he wouldn't be revealed to Ananas and Cohen as a Shadow? Sure, arriving quicker to the barrier had been a reason, but the main reason always had been to hide that detail about himself.

"...there are some things that are better to keep secret, I'd say" he mumbled and continued searching. Not too long after that, he found a key stashed in a drawer. He took it, lifting it in the air and turning it around in his fingers. It took him a moment to remember what that key opened "Undyne, there's one last place to check" he notified, exiting Sans' bedroom and getting Ananas and Cohen to follow them. Even though Undyne asked what he meant, Syphus just told her to follow him.

The team exited the house and went to the back, where they found a short stairway descending from the surface to a small empty space deep in the snow. "That's the basement, right?" Ananas tried to confirm.

"I guess it is. The key was in Sans' room" Syphus inserted the key into the lock and turned it, pushing it open slowly. The inside of the basement was pitch black. Syphus searched the wall for a light switch, finding it quickly, and flipped it. The stairs went down until it reached the basement, the team descended and observed their surroundings.

Sans' laboratory was rather small. The floor was covered with a thick layer of dust; the worktable was empty. Cohen searched the drawers, finding them empty. "Whoever we're searching for is not down here" he said the obvious. Still, examining the place could be worth it.

Ananas saw something in the corner, something large under a white sheet. "Guys, look at this thing" she said, grabbing the sheet and pulling, taking it off the large machine it was covering. "What is this?"

"Some sort of machine. Sans must have created it" Syphus looked at it carefully. There was a large screen and a keyboard. Slowly, he pressed a random key, trying to see what'd happen. The screen lit up, revealing some sort of complicated set up. Thousands of golden lines, placed like a list, most of them looked like they were dissolving. "I have no idea what I'm looking at"

"Those look like the lines on the sky out there" Cohen noted, but beyond that, no one in the team was sure what they were. We have found zero answers about what this whole place is... as a whole, the search for answers had been a failure, it had only left them with more questions than answers. "Are we going back now?"

"I guess I'll have to keep guards in that place for a while" Undyne decided, ascending the stairs out of the laboratory while the others placed the sheet back on the machine. She walked to the front of the house, looking up at the ceiling in the cavern – the "sky", as Cohen had called it – and confirming that yes, lots of golden lines crossed it. Not even the purple fog could hide that.

That's when she noticed something had changed in Snowdin: all the Shadows were gone, both the Shadow Selves and the roaming Shadows. Undyne walked a bit deeper into Snowdin, until she reached a bifurcation in the road. There was no sign of anyone's presence, but something in her gave her a bad feeling. It felt like something large and terrifying was approaching, getting closer and closer. Beads of sweat covered her head, she wiped them and returned to the skeletons' house, walking quickly. "Get going!" she shouted at the others, who were just ascending the stairs. Ananas stood still once she reached the surface.

"G-Guys, do you feel that?"

At that point, Syphus involuntarily shivered, and not because of the cold. It felt like something was scrambling his insides, like he knew something horrible was about to happen and he was bracing for it. He doubled over, getting tense. "I feel something. What's going on?"

"Nothing good, that's for sure" Cohen frowned. He considered summoning his Persona, but it felt like that'd be a bad decision. The four of them got in middle of the road, looking around. Snowflakes swirled around them, the timelines seemed to dim, the feeling of dread intensified.

Undyne was prepared. She looked around, watching carefully for any movements. She materialized a spear, getting ready for a confrontation. There, in middle of the road, was a silhouette that hadn't been before. "Over there" she whispered to the others, pointing with her head in the right direction.

It was a short person. "Could it be Sans?" Syphus wondered.

"No. Too short to be Sans"

The form continued approaching them, walking slowly, inexorably. A miasma of profound despair washed over them, it took the team all the willpower they had to not turn around and run. The person got close enough for them to finally distinguish who it was. "Frisk?" Ananas said aloud. Undyne turned her head towards Ananas, wondering how she knew Frisk, but she didn't say anything.

"It can't be them" Syphus said with certainty. It just couldn't be them! They didn't give this despairing and intense aura!

"It could be their Shadow" Cohen hadn't ever met the kid, but he instinctively knew something was deeply wrong.

"That's impossible. I already fought their Shadow. They should be inside Frisk's soul, anyway"

Undyne hissed between her teeth. "Then think of some other explanation, because it's coming straight towards us!"

The…being shambled towards them, head looking at the snow, their hair covering their eyes. The closer it got, the more intense the sensations of nausea and despair felt. In the silence that enveloped Snowdin, the team heard the voice of that thing, even though it was some distance away. Its voice was garbled, high-pitched, yet everyone understood what it was mumbling.

"…Snowdin. Store. Cinnamon bun. Bisicle. Bisicle. Minus fifty gold. Inn. Yes. Minus eighty gold. Plus eighty gold. Up. Snowdin. Up. River. Down. Snowdin. Down. Snowdin. Right. Snowdin. CHECK. Talk. I can make spaghetti. Insult. Spare. Spare. Spare. Spare. Spare. Spare. Spare. Spare. Spare. Spare. Spare. Spare. Spare. Spare. Spare. Spare. Spare. Spare. Spare. Spare. Left. Snowdin.

Repeat.

Snowdin. Store. Cinnamon…"

The team looked at each other with confusion. "What's going on…?" Syphus muttered.

"I think it's going towards Waterfall. If it gets out of wherever we are—" Undyne started, but she didn't finish the sentence.

"We're not letting that happen" Cohen said bluntly, stepping in middle of the road. Undyne followed him, Syphus and Ananas hesitated before doing the same.

The being kept moving, ignoring them until it was a few feet away from the team. It raised its head, looking at the team with a strange stare. Looking at its eyes felt like staring at a deep pit of tar. "…are you…getting in the way?"

"So what if we are?" Ananas managed to hide how she almost stammered such defiant behavior.

"Go away. I have to see Papyrus" it tried to look between the team "He's over there"

Cohen turned his head around. There was nobody behind them. "You're not going anywhere"

The being didn't seem worried at all at the team's efforts. It tilted its head, looking almost innocent, and blinked owlishly. "You...are trying to stop the sequence of events?"

"What events?" Undyne demanded to know.

"The sequence of events. It's almost always the same" it looked at Undyne "What...are you...doing here? I thought you...you would be at Waterfall?"

Undyne aimed the spear at the being, looking prepared to throw it at any moment. "Who are you?!"

The being ignored the question, instead walking forward again. "Step aside. It's not your turn yet"

"We're not going anywhere until you answer a few questions" Syphus said, raising the halberd as a warning. The being ignored that, again trying to advance forward, when Undyne made several magic spears materialize from the ground, forming a wall in front of the being. It stopped, looking at the highest point of the wall, with a blank expression on their face.

"...you're trying to stop me?"

"So what if we are?" Ananas yelled again, imitating her teammates and aiming with her gun at the being. The being finally stepped back. Its edges looked blurry, like the being was getting out of focus. Black ooze dripped from its fingers, falling onto the snow in heavy drops, like treacle. The being's expression never changed, always blank.

"I can't let you do that. That's not what should happen" it said. In a way it sounded rather familiar to Syphus. That sounded similar to what Shadow Frisk had said, but there was something different about how the being spoke. There was coldness in its voice, instead of the more personable tone Shadow Frisk had used. Syphus almost felt like it wasn't defying them because it wanted to keep the same routine, it was more like...

...more like that was just how the being was, as if repeating the same events over and over was how it existence was like. It was as if the being refused to move onto something different, always doing the same familiar situations and actions. It did fit Frisk's Shadow's thoughts, it kind of explained why the being looked like Frisk, but at the same time it seemed to be much more determined to stay on the same track.

"Step aside!" it suddenly roared, splashing more of its black ooze everywhere. Its torso was growing in size, expanding upwards and bloating. Horrified, the team stepped back, unable to look anywhere else.

"What the hell...?" Undyne said under her breath, eye wide open. Right then, any features the being had that resembled Frisk disappeared. The ooze bubbled, morphing and swelling, taking rounder shapes. Hm? Something golden and long emerged from the core of the creature, wrapping around itself like a cable. Something about it seemed familiar, and it didn't take long for him to notice what it was. It was the same than the golden threads high in the sky, the same than what represented timelines in Sans' machine. The being wasn't a Shadow, or anything like that.

It was the personification of a timeline. There was no time to think how that was possible, the being lurched forward.

The being was repulsive. Clusters of glowing pulsating spheres, crisscrossed by golden veins, were gathered into a large bulging mound, vaguely resembling a brain. In the midst of it all there was a large eye, staring at the team unblinkingly. The stem that held the clusters was robust, of a nasty bluish color, with appendages that allowed the being to slowly move.

It didn't say anything before striking. From behind the creature, the air took a greenish tint, forming a cyclone that rammed onto the team, a tornado that aimed towards all of them. "Move!" Syphus shouted, diving to a side. He hoped everyone else had the time to dodge, that the incredibly loud noise of breaking stone and trees falling down didn't foreshadow anyone's demise.

"Everyone okay?!" Undyne checked, standing up and summoning her Persona, Geiravor rising high into the air.

From a side came Cohen's awed exclamation: "We're dealing with something extraordinarily dangerous, guys!" It was easy to see what he meant.

The floor of the cavern, usually rather tough, had been torn apart, a wide trench formed right into the bedrock, so deep anyone would have a hard time getting out of there. "Some wind did that?"

"Stay away from its wind magic, Undyne!" If it was that potent, it'd obliterate Undyne. Panicking a bit while the creature started gathering wind over itself again, Syphus ran towards the trees on the untouched side of the road, hiding behind the sturdiest one he could see. Gripping the bark, he peered outside, where the creature had just fired a large gust of wind towards Geiravor. The Persona barely dodged, rising higher into the air. "Analyze it! What's this thing?" Syphus shouted, waiting for the female voice that always replied to his request.

Nothing happened.

The creature turned its eye towards Syphus. Feeling like his heart had leaped into his throat, Syphus yelped and ran among the trees in direction of Waterfall, hearing how the trees shattered in pieces right behind him. "Come on, analyze! Now! Please, analyze!"

There was only silence in his head. Something is very wrong here!

"Got anything to say?" Cohen requested, throwing his fists down with frustration. He couldn't approach yet to give that thing a good punch.

"My analysis isn't working!"

"Then we'll have to play by ear. Let's attack and never stop"

"We need some help here!" Undyne shouted, gathering as many spears as she could in the air before making all of them strike the creature, while Ananas hid behind her and shot her gun over and over, making sure to stay as close to the ground as possible. The creature bent back, forming an arch, and jumped high in the air and away from all the projectiles, trying to land on Undyne and Ananas. Undyne grabbed Ananas by the back of her vest and jumped out of the way, dragging her back. Without missing a beat, Ananas got Hippolyta to bat the creature with the axe – with a disgusting squelch, the creature crashed against the snow.

Syphus took a quick decision. "You're right. Everyone! Hit that thing with all you have! Attack!"

A bright circle formed underneath Cohen, a pillar of fire grew and reached the swirling clouds high in the cavern, enveloping Cohen with flames. Seconds later, when the fire vanished, they all saw Cohen crouched, his Persona protecting him and shining red hot, covering him like a dome of brass and steel. "I'm okay!" he said, looking singed, pointing forward and sending Ajax to attack while it was still searing hot.

The more they fought, the clearer the creature's weakness was. Even though it had extremely powerful magic, it seemed unable to attack everyone at the same time. It was always forced to focus on a single person. Geiravor spun its spear, ice crystals enveloping the creature and hurting it, while Syphus stayed in the back, on healing duty. "It's aiming at you!" Ananas warned him, stopping her attacks to look for cover, but she was wrong.

Without warning, the pulsating orbs opened, releasing greenish gas that enveloped everyone, making them cough. Syphus' eyes watered, he struggled to breath, the gas was so thick he didn't see the creature approaching until it was close enough to smack him. A tendril appeared out of nowhere and hit him right in the face, throwing him aside, a second blow buried him into the snow. "That was poison!" Cohen yelled, looking feverish. Undyne had been poisoned as well.

Defeating it quickly was the priority now. "Hit it—" he didn't finish his sentence before he realized the creature had deceived them all. It was true it didn't have any magic attacks that would hit everyone...but it had physical attacks to compensate that. All of its tendrils raised into the air, large meteors appearing in the air above them. You have to be kidding!

Spears materialized around the team, Undyne roared and sent all of them into the incoming meteors. No meteor was destroyed, but the spears were enough to deviate the rocks away from them. Meteors crashed among the trees, a cacophony of plants being crushed and breaking filled the air. "What are you waiting for? Punch it or something!" Undyne spurred them. They didn't have to be told twice, the rest ran forward, slipping on the ice and trying to close the distance between them and the creature.

The eye underneath the cluster lit up, the whole eye shining white. Sensing danger, Undyne got Geiravor ready. "All of you, get down!" she shouted. Everyone else threw themselves to the ground while Geiravor floated over them, bending forward until the tip of the spear touched the snow, and traced a line from side to side of the road. A thick block of ice emerged from the ground and snow at the nick of time, right before the creature shot a beam of what seemed to be concentrated light. The beam collided with the ice, smashing it into pieces, but didn't hurt anyone in the team.

"It must be getting desperate!" Syphus judged. Why else would it be pulling out the big guns so suddenly? The creature's eye turned bright white again, but before it could fire, Ananas aimed and shot at the eye. The bullet bounced on the eye, but that was enough to distract the creature, the eye returned to normal. Syphus jumped forward, cleaving with the halberd, with Cohen following him some steps behind. With every swing, the creature moved back further away, passing in front of the skeletons' house. Every time it got ready to shoot the beam again, Ananas countered with a bullet, and Undyne destroyed the meteors every time those appeared again. Undyne was having trouble staying on her feet, but Ananas stayed in the back with her, having trouble holding her up because of her weight.

The cluster that formed the enemy's head was pulsing less than before, the golden veins were dim now. It batted its tendrils towards Syphus, a large green spiral forming in front of him and disappearing. That was followed by a large vortex of wind appearing above him, descending like a drill piercing the sky. "No!" he couldn't stop himself from shouting and raising his arms and halberd as if trying to stop the wind spell from reaching him. The wind hit him, pushing him into the ground. His arms ached, the halberd had bent a bit despite being made with sturdy steel. Sensing it had the upper hand for a moment, the creature again tried to strike him with wind, the drill appearing again to repeat the move.

Ajax shielded him, jumping and forming a sturdy arch over his head with the armor plates on its shoulder and back. "Are you okay?" Cohen extended his hands to get him out of where the attack had hit before, and looked up "That thing's resisting everything we have. If we don't defeat it soon, we'll lose once we get tired"

"We don't have many options—" he was interrupted when the creature's beam hit the skeletons' house, demolishing a large part of it. Bits of wood and furniture fell through the hole, other parts of the house fell apart on the other side "It's going to destroy the town!"

"Undyne and I are poisoned. We don't have that much time left either" he slashed pieces of debris that were propelled towards them by the creature's wind "I know you can revive us if anything happens, but I'd rather not die, okay?"

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking!" Syphus looked around. Geiravor tackled the creature, the Persona's large mount hitting the foe like a truck. Ananas was having a bit of trouble, having slipped on the snow and struggling to get up. "Going to Waterfall's not an option. If we could throw it off a cliff or something like that..."

"How about a river?"

"What?"

Cohen pointed down the road at the bifurcation. "I think there's a river over there. I dunno what that thing we're fighting is, but I doubt it knows how to swim"

Syphus poked the creature with the spike of his halberd once it got too close. Cohen's idea wasn't bad; it was better than anything Syphus could think right now. "Got it. Tell Undyne and Annie the plan, I'll hold this thing back" he requested, changing Personas to heal everyone. As a farewell for now, Cohen increased Syphus' defense and moved to where Ananas and Undyne were at, keeping his Persona prepared to defend the leader if necessary. "Persona!" Syphus yelled, his current healing Persona revitalizing Undyne, just in case.

The good thing about being four versus one, was that it was easy to watch out for attacks. Even though the creature continued trying its toughest attacks, Undyne and Ananas were doing a good job getting rid of the worst part of it all, keeping the creature distracted and destroying its most potent moves with their gun and spears. The creature slid over the ice and snow, reaching the shore of the river. Floes flowed down the river, looking so unstable nobody could stand up on them. Growing more desperate, the creature summoned thunder from the ceiling of the cave, striking Cohen without much effect. "I got this!" Ananas claimed, managing to summon Hippolyta and hitting the creature, knocking it right in the middle of the water.

"We have that thing right where we wanted"

"I'm ready!" Undyne informed, standing at the edge and aiming with her spears. To her side, Ananas prepared her gun, ready to shoot at the creature the moment it tried to move too far away. The enemy attempted to get onto a floe, grabbing it with its tendrils and pretty much dragging itself onto the surface of the ice "You're not getting away!" she proclaimed, smashing the floe with a spear, breaking it into small pieces. The creature splashed in the water, disoriented, unsure of what to do or where to go.

"Let's end this, Cohen" Syphus held Cohen, he was starting to be too weak to stay on his feet. The old man nodded and made sure he wasn't standing on the edge of the water before summoning his Persona.

"Electric magic and water don't mix well, right?"

"I guess so. We'll find out now. At the same time, okay?"

Above them, Ajax and Fortuna appeared, side to side and towering over the river. At once, Cohen and Syphus gave their orders, with no hesitation.

"Persona!"

"Fry it, Ajax!"

Fortuna's wheel spun at high speeds, Ajax raised its sword and pointed upwards. It was as if the world had shattered in two. From the swirling clouds above their heads, two large bolts of thunder descended, hitting the water at once. The water was covered with visible sparks, it sizzled like hot cooking oil, the enemy inside it wasn't able to get out in time. The creature was paralyzed, shaking a bit and bobbing in the water like a ship capsizing...

"...Ruins…Snowdin…Waterfall…Hotland…New Home…the end...Ruins…?" it droned a few times before it started breaking into pieces. It was different than when Shadows died. Instead of disappearing in wisps of smoke, the creature broke apart into flakes, scattering in the wind. The golden veins that used to cover it dissolved and turned into dust, the rest of the creature withered into nothing. Soon there was nothing left, not even an object or anything they could use in their spear. The river kept flowing uninterrupted.

"It's over, right? It's not going to appear bigger and more powerful than before, right?" Undyne wheezed, approaching. Now that there was no danger, Syphus could properly treat Undyne and Cohen's poisoning.

"It should be over now" Syphus said. Undyne grinned, laughing a bit.

"So this is the kind of thing I got myself into. This rules! I hadn't been in a fight like this one since a long time ago!"

"We're going to have many more. We still need seven pieces more for whatever Alphys is doing" Cohen reminded them, receiving the tea that'd heal him.

"You guys weren't half-bad at fighting! Of course you're not up to the standards of the Royal Guard, but you can hold your ground against—"

Her praise was interrupted by a rumbling and a noise like an explosion. Scared, Syphus dove into the snow, thinking the creature had returned somehow, but nothing attacked them. What's going on now?!

"…guys…the sky. Look at the sky" Ananas said, unsure of what she was seeing. Hesitating a bit, Syphus looked up, seeing what she meant. It wasn't surprising Ananas sounded astonished, what was happening up there was something he didn't think was possible.

The golden threads were exploding.

Even through the purple mist that permeated the area, they could see the golden threads shattered, exploding noisily. One after another time threads were gone, nothing replaced them. "Did we cause that?" Cohen asked Syphus urgently, helping him to stand up.

"I don't know! I think—"

"We must have done that! That thing that attacked us was covered in golden stuff like those!" Undyne answered, all Syphus did was nod stupidly.

"Y-Yeah, that's what I was thinking" he covered his ears after a particularly loud burst above them "We have to get out of here! I have a bad feeling about this!"

"Understood" Undyne crouched near Ananas "Get on and hang tight, punk!" she advised, Ananas jumped on Undyne's back and held from the front of Undyne's armor shoulder pads "Start running!" she said to Syphus and Cohen, and darted forward, her footing stable on the slippery ground.

Nobody knew how much time they had. The explosions weren't stopping, they all had lost count how many had happened so far. When it all stopped, did that mean they'd stay trapped in that bizarre version of the Underground? Had they really been the direct cause of what was happening. Syphus wasn't sure, but he had the feeling they were. He tried very hard to ignore how much his legs ached, how he wanted to sit down and rest, but there was no time for that, they all had to get out. Cohen was resisting amazingly well for someone of his age, not stopping even though he looked to be on the verge of collapsing. Undyne ran with ease, not even breaking a sweat, while Ananas held for dear life onto her.

Even in Waterfall they could hear the golden threads exploding, like they were embedded inside the walls. The tunnels shook, dust and pieces of rock fell from the ceiling and the walls. "How much longer…?" Cohen wasn't able to finish the sentence, he didn't have the breath for that.

"It's right over there!" Undyne said, running faster and leaving them behind, once she was close to the boundary, she jumped, crossing it and landing on the ground with a crunching noise, falling onto her knees and hands, panting. Syphus and Cohen arrived a couple seconds later, falling to the floor near her. I'm never going to run like this ever again… Syphus thought, for a moment wondering if he could afford to lie down for a couple days.

It was quiet. The only sound he could hear was the blood rushing behind his ears. The explosions, all the cacophony they may have caused, it was all gone. "Are there any other nasty surprises left?" Cohen wondered, sounding exhausted.

"Who knows…" Undyne didn't seem in a hurry to return where the boundary was or had been, but Ananas, the only one who wasn't tired at all, sauntered towards that point. "Wait, I should be the one to check"

"I'll be fine. I'm the guardian of the human village" she said, determined, and passed through the place everyone calculated the boundary was at. She didn't disappear or look any different than normal. Did that mean the boundary was gone? Ananas walked further, looking around carefully "…I don't see anything strange"

"Annie, can you hear me?" Syphus called.

"I hear you!"

"Look for water. Do you see any drops frozen in mid-air? Is the water of the river flowing?"

Ananas put her hand into the water, she could feel the current. "Yeah, it's moving!" So whatever we used to enter whatever place that was is now gone... Was that a direct consequence of the destruction they had unintentionally caused? Most likely. What would be the consequences of whatever they broke being gone? And that other version of Papyrus and Sans' house, it had been destroyed too. What if it changed something in the real world?

"Let's go to Snowdin"

"Right now? I know we have the armors and we'll be safe, but why?" Cohen asked.

"I want to make sure Sans and Papyrus are okay" he said. That got Undyne on board with the plan, and Ananas did want to see the real Snowdin – "I know someone who lives there, I want to see him" she had said – so Cohen was outnumbered. The group hurried through the last part of Waterfall, once again feeling the growing familiarity of Snowdin's cold climate.

-ooooo-

It was like watching a fireworks display. Even through the purple fog, the timelines were rather visible, exploding and shattering in pieces that'd disappear. One after another, the timelines were destroyed. There were dozens of thousands of timelines still left, glowing and crossing the void from one side to the other. Lucia couldn't hear most of the noise, but she imagined it was rather loud.

She barely could see Mt. Ebott in the distance. It was a bit surreal to imagine some of the pieces had entered the collective unconscious, that if they knew the way theoretically they could reach her mansion, but that wasn't something to be worried about. Her mansion was suspended rather high from the ground, from the human city underneath, her Hopeful Star was like a completely different world, as far as she was concerned. For a moment she wondered if Sisyphus would recognize the mansion itself if he looked at it from the distance. She was a tad amazed he hadn't made the connection long ago. ASRIEL had recognized it immediately.

In his own words: "This is near where I had met Frisk for the first time"

"Really? Are you sure about that?"

"Yes. I remember it clearly!"

And then she had once again tried to correct his dissonant memories. Nobody appreciated how hard she worked. It was hard to keep everything going, to keep ASRIEL stable enough for him to not reverse into the soulless version she had raised for ten years without Sisyphus finding out. In a way, it was interesting to watch ASRIEL try to cope with the memories of a completely different version of himself, to have the soul of a version ten years younger, and from a timeline that wildly differed from the one she had obtained the Asriel she had raised.

So far, it was going surprisingly well. During the game all the problems ASRIEL had gotten so far were about his other version's feelings contradicting his own. True, ASRIEL didn't want to hurt anyone, but he wanted to carry the game to its conclusion. To him, Sisyphus was more like an acquaintance to rely on for that. Asriel, though, he didn't want to meddle with anyone's lives, and wanted to reach out to Sisyphus as a friend. The only thing both versions had in common were their feelings towards Frisk, and their gratitude towards Lucia.

"It's nice when things are going nicely" Lucia stood up, smoothing her dress over her legs "Everyone's always so cooperative!"

With one last look towards the mountain in the distance and at remaining timelines she could see from where she was, she returned to the inside of the mansion.

-ooooo-

Sans' first thought was that the machine was malfunctioning. That was a ridiculous thought! Malfunctioning, this? No, that was very unlikely. In that case, what he was seeing was rather alarming: timelines disappearing one after the other. The readings showed they were gone, completely gone, not even a trace remained. Every second, dozens of timelines were eliminated, until, after several minutes, it stopped. Moving quickly, Sans pressed a few buttons, getting the data he was looking for.

In just a few minutes, a third of the existent timelines were gone.

Sans tapped the screen, finding the current timeline. It had returned to its by-now familiar instability, instead of looking like it was about to break reality in half. He wasn't sure what had caused such behavior in the timeline in the first place, but he had the feeling what caused it...or more like who caused it.

speak of the devil he thought, looking up. He could hear someone knocking at the door. It was kind of jumping at conclusions, but he thought it could be Syphus. Had he come to talk to them about these recent developments? Most likely. Dragging his feet a bit, Sans walked away from the machine, appearing in his living room, and opened the door. He didn't even stop while walking.

"funny story, here i was thinking about you" Sans winked "you been working hard, pal?"

Syphus entered, nervous, he was wearing the illusions created by the brooch. Behind him, two people clad in armor strolled in, followed by Undyne. The captain simply greeted with her head, plopping onto the couch as if this was her own home. "Kind of, yeah. Is your brother here?"

"DID SOMEONE CALL FOR THE GREAT PAPYRUS?" as if that was enough to summon him, Papyrus shouted that from his room, descending down the stairs in two jumps. Once he was on the ground floor, he posed heroically "I HAD THE FEELING WE'D SEE EACH OTHER AGAIN, FRIEND! AND I SEE YOU HAVE BROUGHT GUESTS!" he greeted the two people in armor, and turned to Undyne. "UNDYNE! I AM SORRY FOR NOT ATTENDING OUR PRIVATE TRAINING SESSIONS MORE OFTEN. I HAVE BEEN WORKING HARD ON A PUZZLE PROJECT!"

"How nice" Undyne said tiredly, patting Papyrus on the shoulder. Sans said nothing, but in his mind he was slowly starting to get concerned. It was no secret that Undyne disliked most puzzles, but she usually showed courtesy and listened to Papyrys talk about the puzzle he was working on or solving recently. To not take the time to listen...she must have been in quite a hurry.

Was it because of Syphus? Had he gathered a group of four people for his team already, then? "the underground sure is busy these days. the human child is passing very slowly through hotland, undyne was in the hospital until this morning, and you did something big not too long ago"

"How do you know about that?" Syphus asked, although, judging by his face, he knew what Sans was talking about.

"secret" Sans' grin widened, and he turned towards the guests Syphus had brought "who do we have here?" he said with the friendliest tone he could have. It was unlikely they were members of the Royal Guard, even though the armor resembled theirs a lot. The two guests looked at each other and took off their helmet. It was two humans, one rather old and the other as young as Frisk. "oh boy, paps will be—"

"SANS, MORE HUMANS HAVE COME TO VISIT! MY FRIEND WAS RIGHT, HE SAID THEY'D EXPLORE THE UNDERGROUND SOMEDAY, AND HERE THEY ARE!" he said, his eye sockets almost sparkling with joy "THEY WILL NEED A TOUR GUIDE. HAVE NO FEAR, NEW FRIENDS! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, SHALL PROTECT YOU DURING YOUR JOURNEY"

"Th-Thank you..." the child said, looking at the floor. Was she afraid of Papyrus?

"That'd be nice" the old human said "But for now we should tell them why we're here. Syphus, can you get that going already?"

Introductions were made. The human named Cohen seemed largely indifferent to the skeletons, and Ananas was both curious and afraid of them. "something wrong?" he asked to Ananas, she looked at the floor.

"N-No, it's nothing" she looked away.

Explaining that Sans and Papyrus had been the ones who accompanied Syphus into the very first expedition was a bit of a hassle, so Sans was glad Syphus was the one to deal with that particular problem. Undyne was rather impressed, though. "You guys went in without Personas? That's awesome!"

"INDEED WE DID! IT WAS AN ACCIDENT, BUT WE SURVIVED TO TELL OUR TALE OF HEROICS, SO IT'S ALL OKAY"

"Sans is the guy who makes all the tiny trinkets for us" Syphus said and, as if that was Sans' cue, he moved a box full of small accessories made from the random stuff Syphus kept bringing. It was a way to pass the time while sitting in the sentry stations, something to do between naps. That was why he didn't mind doing those objects. Papyrus peeked into the box, shaking his head with disappointment.

"SANS! HOW MANY OF THOSE PAPERWEIGHTS ARE YOU GOING TO MAKE?"

"those aren't paperweights, paps, those are figurines of myself"

"IT'S JUST A LUMP OF BRASS! IT EVEN LOOKS LIKE THE SNOW SANS YOU MADE THE OTHER DAY!"

"it's a very useful item"

"ALL IT DOES IS SIT THERE AND DO NOTHING! WAIT, I THINK I GET IT" Papyrus' comment had no hint of malice, it was more like he had just realized something nobody else had noticed "THAT'S BECAUSE THAT'S ALL YOU DO, RIGHT?"

"what can I say, bro? if you're good at something, you brag about it"

"…YOU'RE CORRECT. THAT'S VERY CORRECT" Satisfied, Papyrus turned to the team "AND SINCE I'M VERY GOOD AT HELPING, I ONCE AGAIN OFFER MY HELP. YOU CAN ALWAYS COUNT ON ME! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL DO EVERYTHING I CAN TO HELP YOU IN YOUR JOURNEY"

Ananas seemed willing to accept Papyrus' help with no strings attached, but the rest were rather wary of letting him. Thankfully, Cohen was the one to talk. "If you get a Persona you can help us"

"THANK YOU! I SHALL WORK HARDER UNTIL I OBTAIN MY OWN PERSONA!"

"…he's going to somehow obtain one, isn't he?" Undyne whispered to Sans, who nodded. Knowing how determined to help Papyrus was, that was unavoidable.

"that's just matter of time"

"Anyway, there's something you two must know now!" Syphus tried to get the reason they had come. While Syphus talked, Sans kept looking at the places that had supposedly been destroyed. He saw no reason for them to be making up convoluted stories about alternate versions of Snowdin, purple fog, and beings that seemed intent on destroying them, but there was something about the tale that got his attention.

Maybe it was because of what he had seen in his machine, but he easily made the connection between the golden lines and the timelines themselves. It was clear: defeating whatever the creature had been had caused havoc throughout the timelines. Judging by the team's expressions, nobody was none the wiser about the consequences of their actions. How could they know they had just turned into nothing a bunch of timelines? All the events, all the people inside, all the alternate versions of themselves that now didn't exist.

It was the kind of thing that was better for others to deal with. He wasn't willing to go out of his way to help. Still…should he inform them of what had happened?

"DO NOT FRET, FRIENDS! AS YOU CAN SEE, OUR HOUSE IS UNHARMED. WHAT YOU DID IN THAT "OTHER HOUSE" DID NOT AFFECT US HERE"

"I still don't like what happened" Cohen said "It's just a gut feeling, but I feel like I just helped do something really bad"

"Do you have anything to say, Syphus?" Undyne asked to the leader of the team. Syphus shook his head, genuinely puzzled.

"No, I have no idea what happened. That's what we're here for, to ask them if they know anything" Syphus looked directly at Sans "Do you know what may have happened?"

Many thoughts crossed Sans' mind, but there was a specific one that kept bothering him: what'd the team do if they realized how destructive their actions had been? The end goal was good – everyone wanted the Barrier to break – and the thought of having a future that wouldn't be resetted was nice. If he told them they had just destroyed thousands of timelines, they'd stop immediately. He had just met two of them and he still didn't like Syphus, but he could see very well that they were the type of people that'd stop doing something if it proved to be harmful.

"nope. sorry"

All Sans wanted was for all the mess to end, one way or another. He was so tired of the RESET, so tired of having to see the timelines twist like pretzels, so tired of knowing other times everyone had reached a happy ending and it had all been for naught because of the RESET. He just wanted a timeline that wouldn't reach an abrupt end.

Whether it was because of a happy ending or because the abnormal developments that were occurring now had doomed everything, was of no concern to him.

Syphus sighed. "Guess we're not going to know what happened in that place"

"What are we going to do now?"

There was silence for a moment until Syphus shrugged, steeling himself. "We're going to continue"

"I'd feel better about all this if we knew what was happening" Undyne said "I'm confused"

"We all are confused! And I think it's very clear we may be dealing with powers and events way out of our scope, but we have already gone rather deep in all this - we have five pieces already"

"I want to continue" Ananas said. It was unanimous: even if they didn't know what exactly they had done and what else could happen, they didn't want to stop.

You're all starting to realize the immensity of your actions

The Barrier Breakers Social Link has reached Rank 4!

Your power to create Personas of the Judgement Arcana has grown!

What was going to happen in the future? Nobody knew.

"WE HAVE EACH OTHER. WORKING TOGETHER WE CAN DO WHATEVER WE WANT!"

"Papyrus has the right idea. You all better do your best, I'm not going to carry the team on my back!" Undyne laughed, giving Cohen a friendly punch on the arm. The old man rubbed the place where she had hit him, nodding.

"I'm counting on all of you…because otherwise I dunno what I'm supposed to do"

"We're going to help everyone!" Ananas cheered, her face serious.

Syphus looked at Sans. "Thanks for everything, Sans" all Sans did was give a thumbs up.

All they knew was that it was uncharted territory from now on.

ACT 1: OPENING

END


SOCIAL LINKS:

Fool - Frisk - RANK 5

Magician - Burgerpants - RANK 2

Priestess - Alphys - RANK 4

Empress - Toriel - RANK 2

Emperor - Cohen - RANK 4

Hierophant - Ciruel - RANK 2

Lovers - ? - RANK 0

Chariot - Ananas - RANK 5

Justice - Undyne - RANK 4

Hermit - ? - RANK 0

Fortune - ? - RANK 0

Strength - ? - RANK 0

Hanged Man - ? - RANK 0

Death - Cornio - RANK 2

Temperance - ? - RANK 0

Devil - ? - RANK 0

Tower - ? - RANK 0

Star - Lucia - RANK 2

Moon - ? - RANK 0

Sun - Papyrus - RANK 3

Judgment - Team - RANK 4

Aeon - Syphus - RANK 3

Jester - Alphonse - RANK 2