I wrote this on... Sunday, and stayed up till 6 am to finish. In case you can't tell, I'm an amateur at writing battle scenes, even describing them is awkward. The first draft for this chapter was me just going 'Ink escaped, Cross shot blast' and it sounded ridiculously dumb so I re-edited it another 20 times. Thank god I didn't try to do Glitchtale or I'd be screwed.
So, yeah, I basically said hell no to sleep because I couldn't stop, so I really hope you enjoy this.
(Even if I personally feel like I added too many reactions)
"Your human... Is trying so hard to befriend all of you, right?" Cross turned away from his glitching hand to stare at Fell. "...But they won't be able to fight against someone who doesn't care about any timeline... Coming from elsewhere... ruining everything and causing pain and suffering forever... someone like ME." Fell's eyelights shrunk as he pictured the possibilities. "...Will your human dare to start a new Pacifist Timeline again if I become apart of this universe?"
"You're not helping your case if you want us not to stop you when we leave here." Core pointed out with a helpless sigh.
"That's just Cross being dumb. You try spending your time in a corrupt world, and then enjoy a couple of months with no one but Ink for company, maybe get your soul stolen, and then get back to me."
"Straight."
"Shut up, Fresh."
"I need some resources to rebuild my world. And I've chosen this place." Cross gestured to their surroundings. "So you can see if your stupid human will be able to keep you happy in a shattered world... no matter how many resets they try..."
Chara grimaced, digging his fingers into his arms.
No matter what they did, they never got their own freedom. It'd be hilarious if this world managed it. Hell, maybe every world but theirs could be free. If the creatures of this world could have a Pacifist Timeline, why couldn't their world have that?
why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why... why is it all so unfair...
"You'll accept that your world is mine now." Cross' words reverberated as his eyelights glowed ominously. "And that not one of their useless friends will try to stop me. So, get outta my way."
"...Nah." Fell's frown turned into a twisted grin. "Do it if ya want. This is a Pacifist Timeline, we monsters and the human will still be friends, giving them love... and LOVE heheh... But I'll try to be nice and change your mind, buddy." He raised his arms, twisted grin growing sharper. "There's so much corny happiness and all, so, if you want, I can share it a little with ya. WE CAN HAVE A GREAT TIME"
"Battle!" Fresh smiled like a kid in a candy store, doing a drumroll with his fingers. "Opponent number one, Fluffy guy and my radical broseph, Phantom Chara, facing Opponent number two... eh... that dude!"
"Seriously, what is wrong with you." Error held a pillow in his hands, his only defense against the parasite tried anything.
God, he hated that parasite.
Chara's lips twitched into a smile.
"Hum. It's a shame we can't kill this one," Chara crossed his arms as Cross readied his weapon, exchanging the knife for a bone. "I know."
They both disappeared as Cross ran at their enemy, slamming Fell into a tree, only for him to instantly recover and strike Cross.
Classic, who was nowhere near the battle looked down at his chest, an odd expression growing on his face.
"Sans?"
"You've really screwed up!" Error guffawed, glitches increasing the more he laughed.
"What?" Chara growled, "How'd we screw up?"
"Your soul, being also Classic's soul, has linked you all together." Core's expression was hidden, eyes giving off the impression of bottomless pits as they stared at Chara. "He gets injured, you get injured, it's all the same in the end."
"Look, pal. My Boss is helping the human. When they come back and see all the disaster, I'll be in trouble. So, please... you gotta leave."
Cross tried to respond, trying to catch his breath as he did. "Ha... ha... are you being me for mercy? You're not as rude as you seem-"
Chara wondered briefly if this Sans wasn't even slightly intimidated by them. In fact, they, Fell, seemed to care more about whoever their Boss was than the fight.
He couldn't exactly blame them. Fell looked completely fine while they... they looked pathetic.
It hurt just to look at the screen.
Fell beamed with an overwhelming amount of malice.
"CROSS! WATCH OUT!" XChara screamed as Cross was impaled with a bone.
"Are you okay?" Dream asked Chara, concerned as ever.
Chara didn't respond with words, a sharp nod was all Dream got, but Chara appreciated the... what would the term be? Sentiment... right? Or was it something else...
Something like that hadn't meant anything to them in a long time.
"Ugh..." Classic hunched over as Ink hovered around him, concerned.
Outer leaned against Stretch's side, a sad smile on his face.
He was so used to smiling.
Sad smiles, tired smiles, happy smiles... Who was he without a smile? Haha, Outer wondered if by the end of this all he'd be left with a permanent frown. Optimism is something Outer has always been good at, but watching Classic hunch over in pain, watching this horrible future overall, why was smiling so funking painful?
"Get... dunked on! HAHAHAHAHA" Fell took a step forward, taking pleasure in Cross' dumbfounded expression as he stared at the bone sticking in his side. "You're so stupid... Here, it's still 'Kill or be Killed'"
"Who said we even knew what world we're in," Chara complained, thinking back to the first scene that showed how they arrived in Underfell. "I'm pretty sure the octopus dropped us in the first world he thought of."
"D-Don't call him an octopus." Dream covered his mouth to stop himself from laughing, remorse in his eyes. "I shouldn't laugh..."
"While the human may not realize that... Anyone can kill anytime! You look like me, and I don't wanna know where you come from, but, man, you're so pathetic! You made a mistake coming here and bothering me. Just go dust yourself. Bye."
"This glitch is actually entertaining, but he's more Nightmare's type of monster." Error pulled out his strings and started making a puppet. He could tell a battle was coming, and he couldn't care less.
Cross gripped the bone, not even hesitating as he yanked it out his side.
"Wh-what!?"
"Actually, we're hurting someone else right now... We're doing well." Cross smiled, eyelights dissipating from sight. "That's the rule of this world... ha... HAHAHA," XChara flashed into existence as Cross' eyelights turned red. "... THAT MEANS IT WILL BE FINE IF I KILL YOU!"
"...Where are the knives?" Forming the knife again, they attacked.
"So you're fighting now, eh?"
Stretch wished he didn't have such a soft spot for versions of Chara, it'd erase this instinctual need to save them.
Fell dodged twice, struggling against Cross XChara's speed. "Holy shit!"
Dodging again, he finally managed to form a counterattack, only for the bones to be cut into pieces.
Growling, Fell formed a Blaster, gaping as it was destroyed.
"PEOPLE LIKE YOU WILL NEVER DESERVE A HAPPY ENDING!" The ground flashed red as Cross XChara they turned Fell's soul Blue and raised him high in the air, preparing their final struck, one eyelight red and the other now a deep purple.
"Wh-What the hell are you!?"
"I AM THE X-EVENT"
"Who's saying that?" Dream whimpered as he pressed his hands to the sides of his skull. "I can't... I can't hear-"
"I don't know who's in control." Chara's eyes were wide. None of this was good.
Core's face scrunched up as they tilted their head. Purple... Or is it more lilac? The eyelights expressed control, so... maybe it was purple, but lilac seemed more fitting, softer... Maybe...maybe it wasn't that fitting.
Before the final strike, a third party interrupted, with a blaster, causing them to drop the knife.
The third-party turned out to be Classic and Ink finally arriving at the scene.
"Did you... absorb his soul..." Classic looked exhausted, blood dripping from his mouth as Ink raged. "CROSS! THAT'S ENOUGH!"
"A never-ending parade of interruptions." Chara facepalmed. What were the chances of another twenty versions of Sans showing up? Chara figured that at this rate, there'd be a hundred showing up just to make their life worse.
They Cross crossed his arms, ignoring Fell for the moment. "Hello, my old friend... I knew you would come after me. Do you like what I'm doing?" Cross' eyelights were back to normal, one red and one white. A classic look. "I know you do... you support people who create new AUs... and I'm creating my own. C'MON INK, INK! LET'S CELEBRATE MY WORLD'S REBIRTH!"
Error snorted, finding his own twisted amusement in the situation. "Can't argue against that logic."
"Bruh, that's not how it works." Fresh deadpanned, wishing he had something to do like Error did. The destroyer wasn't the only one who couldn't care less about battles. They were cool, and all that jazz, but for someone like Fresh... Eh, he wondered what would happen if people like Cross and Epic fought. That'd get rid of the boring expressions everyone had. It was less fun to watch fights if everyone around you was acting like someone had just died.
"...You're destroying all that I've been trying to protect..." Ink's red eyelights stared back at Cross.
Classic whipped his mouth, getting rid of the sliver of blood before turning to Ink. "Take it easy, Ink." As soon as his attention was diverted, Ink's eyelights returned to normal. "I'll handle this." He stepped forward, the locket bouncing against his chest.
Cross reached up and gripped his own locket, in a daze. "Oh, I see."
If Dream carried a sentimental object around, what would it be?
He had his cape, sure, but was there anything else?
Taking off his cape, Dream buried his face in it.
Sometimes it smelled like rain, sometimes it smelled like Nightmare, sometimes... sometimes he wanted to tear it apart.
Maybe he'd wait until he found another sentimental object before he ever went through with that urge.
Cross shook himself from his stupor. "You're going to use Sans as your pawn." Cross brandished his knife again. "...Whelp." The knife went through Fell. "I think it will be a fair battle." The world glitched and Fell was now under their control.
d
"Great, a glitch can control people." Too similar to his own ability.
"...By the way, Sans." Cross raised his heart locket, a deadly look in his eyes. "That heart locket doesn't belong to you..."
Chara pondered if Cross said that in defense of himself, or perhaps both of them. Maybe in defense of their fallen... what's the word... could they have been considered a family?
…
…
…That's taking it too far…
"Why did you refuse to help me...?
...Did you... hate my world?"
Outer was curious if he was the only one that could hear how the voice was overlapping itself. Like an echo, two different beings asking the same question to a third party.
"That's like at the start of this episode, right?" Outer asked Stretch, who looked thoughtful.
"Yeah, though tibia honest, I'm pretty sure the monster at the start of this episode and the one now are different monsters talking."
Outer would agree if he wasn't so sure there were two talking now, and one sounded like-
He gave a smile lazy grin and turned back to the screen.
"The core code of this world is mine now..." They were back to reality, nothing other than a few trees remained of Underfell's Snowdin. "I can use it better than these stupid people."
"Cross is way better at destruction than you, Bruh."
Error refused to respond to Fresh of all parasites.
"Sans. I'll help you as long as I can."
"What." Chara could not catch a break.
"Please, don't hurt this version of you." Ink readied Broomy. "He is corrupted, but we can find a way to bring him back to normal."
"The guys more tolerable as he is now..."
Fell The controlled skeleton formed the first attack, bones shooting up from the ground.
Classic relaxed as Ink jumped into the air to avoid the attack before he jerked to the side, avoiding one bone. Grinning, he teleported around to evade the rest, practically striking a pose at the end.
"Rad!"
"He's just showing off," Chara complained.
Cross watched through narrowed sockets as the controlled skeleton formed multiple blasters and tried a direct attack to beat Classic, only for Ink to jump in and create a barrier, blocking the blasts.
The controlled skeleton continued to advance with their blasters as Cross teleported over, slicing through the wall.
Classic and Ink vanished, appearing behind the two now.
With their initial attacks resulting in failure, the controlled skeleton brought out another blaster, with Classic doing the same, the two blasts collided and it became a struggle over who had more power.
"It's effective..." Core wondered if there were conditions that needed to be met to control other monsters. It was an intriguing premise.
They were rather pleased no one was paying attention to them at the moment. Well, Error wasn't actually watching the fight, still making puppets, and Fresh... who knew what they were doing. Core couldn't even describe it.
At least the others were watching the fight.
It wouldn't be too good if they were the ones insistent on others paying attention only to ignore the screen in favor of their own musings.
Ah, the irony. Core rather disliked irony.
Nightmare watched the battle from a distance, carefully avoiding being spotted.
Dream sometimes wondered if he was surrounded by the most oblivious monsters ever to exist. While he's sure everyone in this room now knows Nightmare is his brother, it was amazing how little everyone else in their multiverse knew.
What exactly did people think was happening?
Nightmare and Dream, Negativity and Positivity. They even had the same height and their eyelights... if one focused enough, it wasn't hard to figure out. Maybe that was why Nightmare changed his wardrobe to look more like a typical Sans and Dream's reason he was... hoping to change his own clothing.
Or maybe he was overthinking things.
Nightmare probably knew the people they both surrounded themselves with were idiots
Was he the only one who found it obvious?
It was annoying when people couldn't tell
Then again, It was too awkward to explain either way.
More and more blasters were forming as each second passed, trapped with no end in sight. Ink covered his sockets, blinking them open only when Cross appeared behind him, attempting to get his own hit in.
Classic teleported, blaster battle over, he teleported both himself and Ink out of the way. Using his magic, Classic kept the controlled skeleton in place as Ink trapped it, and then dragged himself and Cross to be standing directly in front of one another.
"You said this heart locket doesn't belong to me... well, that half a soul doesn't belong to you either..."
"You can't hurt me. You want your half a soul back, right?" Cross responded, stone-faced.
"Heh. Why don't you take a break?" Classis shrugged his shoulders, a helpless grin on his face. "Sleeping is more fun than corrupting timelines, buddy."
"I was never trained to be lazy." Cross countered, forming knives as Classic created blasters, the two were left at a standstill.
Chara blinked, their body feeling... heavy.
In a world like theirs, they could never take a break, not truly.
What was it like to fully unwind without a care in the world?
Maybe he could take a break with Cross after all this. That sounded nice.
"Usually I only have enough energy for talking..." Classic joked. "So, I'm just going to ask ya somethin'... who is he?" Ink, distracted, and listening to their interaction, frowned, eyelights changing briefly. "And I'm not asking about the human inside your body." XChara curiously moved closer to listen in. "Well, after we met, I saw... someone interesting. That guy seemed to be a nice person. But... there was someone else..." The image Classic was picturing was shown before it switched to a mangled monster. "And I must say, he didn't look so friendly." Classic shut his sockets. "Does he have anything to do with ya?" His eyelights disappeared, leaving nothing but empty, bottomless sockets. "You can have fun with my soul, but if someone like HIM has the same idea... bud... do you really know what would happen?"
Chara froze, hands shaking as they listened to Classic speak. They'd hoped so hard that they wouldn't have to see him at all during this. How did he even see him? Was it because they absorbed his soul?
why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why-
Dream and Fresh's hands, for skeletons, generated nothing but warmth for Chara.
It had been so long since anyone comforted him. But now both of his shaking hands were held by their own warm hands.
Chara didn't realize Fresh and Dream weren't supposed to be able to touch him
Cross (like XChara) froze, knives fading from existence as he leaped away from Classic in a blind panic. "Wh-... he can't be-"
"Cross! Listen to me!" XChara screeched, his own fear showing. "You idiot! Listen to me, trashbag! He's just screwing with your mind!" Classic got rid of his own blasters. "We have to go now, we have the core code of this place!"
The controlled skeleton broke free at that moment, darting towards Classic.
"Darn!" Ink looked up, waking up from his own distracted thoughts.
"Squid shouldn't have gotten distracted." Error drawled, putting his current puppet in the making to the side as he finally watched the screen again.
Classic turned, swiftly using his magic to slam the other skeleton into the snowy ground. "K, you asked for it, Cross." He grinned sharply. "Time to use my SPECIAL ATTACK."
Core scrunched up their face. Did Classic have a special attack? They couldn't... they couldn't recall.
"CROSS! WE CAN GO HOME NOW!" XChara was desperate, going as far as to pulling at Cross' arm.
"That's embarrassing." Chara moved closer to Dream to use his pillow-cape to hide his face. He probably did a lot of dumb stuff when he thought only Cross could see him.
"YOU GOT IT! SANS!" Ink cheered, as Sans prepared his final attack, aimed at Cross and-
A pink slipper whacked Cross in the face.
"HAHAHAHAHA!" Fresh's laughter was infectious. "BRAH! THIS GUY GETS IT! RADICAL!"
"Shut up, parasite!"
"Your slipper." Ink puffed out his cheeks whilst also maintaining a deadpan expression. Skill. "Your special attack... is your slipper."
"Sorry pal. I'm out of ideas." A mischievous grin grew across Classics face. "With just half a SOLE I can barely do a SOFT KICK."
Ink took a moment to register the pun before he burst out laughing, Classic shooting him finger guns.
Outer and Stretch burst out laughing as many stared at them, stone-faced.
Some people would never understand a good pun.
"Uhh..." The controlled skeleton the free skeleton Fell groaned as he stood, voice glitching as he spoke. "...What happened...?"
"That was... simple," Core murmured, still deep in thought. Was it easy to control others because it was also easy to break?
"IMPOSSIBLE!"
...Maybe not, Core sighed, back to the drawing board.
"YOU!" Fell screamed at the top of his non-existent lungs.
"We did it, Pal!" Ink cheered with a smile, the opposite of Classic's dumbfounded expression. "I dunno how but-"
Fell shoved them both out of the way. "...YOU! HHH YOU'RE GONNA PAY FOR THIS!" A bone attack was formed and lodged itself right into Cross' arm.
Classic, standing behind fell, instantly grabbed his own arm, expression twisted in pain.
"Bad move." Fresh liked how he could find at least some amusement in this whole mess.
"No, wait! Don't hurt him!" Ink waved his arms around in a panic, ignored as Fell formed a blaster and aimed it at Cross.
"Oh shizzle-" Chara's eyes were blown wide. That was not good. How the fuck did this even happen...
Cross grimaced, trapped because of the bone in their arm. Well, the bone that was not his own.
Suddenly, Cross grinned as XChara appeared before him.
D
"Oh, thank funkily." Chara breathed a sigh of relief, ignoring Fresh's weird-ass censoring choices.
Nightmare, never having been noticed, also left.
Dream frowned, grip tightening on his pillow-cape.
Stupid Nightlight
"...Agh..." Fell looked around their surroundings. Nothing. There was nothing but snow. "Just look at this disaster... DAMN!"
Error quietly snickered at Ink's traumatized expression.
"Um... We're really sorry... But hey! At least nobody is dead!" Ink offered with a trembling smile.
"Isn't that a downside over there?" Stretch deadpanned, smirking as Outer laughed.
"You're sorry... YOU'RE SORRY!?" Fell raged at Ink, body shaking. "SNOWDIN HAS BEEN DESTROYED!"
"Technically, it was just moved." Outer pointed out. Though he wasn't sure how to feel about Error laughing at what he'd said. It wasn't that funny. Not nearly as good as puns.
"YOU PROVOKED THIS, DIDN'T YA? FINE! YOU'LL HAVE TO EXPLAIN THIS TO MY BRO-" A slipper hit the side of his head.
"Hey, I'm gonna STOMP YA with my special attack if you don't shut your mouth, dude."
Stretch and Outer loved puns.
"You think this is some kind of joke!?" Fell turned his attention to Classic, poking him in the chest repeatedly. "CUZ YOU LOOK LIKE ME BUT WAY MORE STUPID!
"DO - YOU - WANNA - HEAR - A - BETTER - JOKE?" Classic asked, eyelights vanishing.
"Hey guys, calm down!" Ink pushed himself between the two. "Your timeline will be safe, but you and the others should evacuate to another part of this world for safety. Classic Sans and I will handle th-"
A portal opened up behind Ink, blue strings wrapping around him and pulling him through, the portal closing up behind him.
"Uhhhhhhhhhhh-" Error glitched, somehow managing not to crash despite... Fucking Ink.
"You good?"
Error turned, surprised to see Outer hanging off of his own couch to get a closer look at Error.
Error huffed, turning away from the other. "Fine."
". . ." Outer blinked slowly, his smile twisting into more of a grimace before he stopped himself. "K, if you need anything, I'm here!"
Error wondered how no one noticed their interaction. Well, not no-one, though Stretch seemed to always know the exact moments he needed to glare at Error.
Had Error ever made a puppet of Outer? He liked his world well enough. It was one of two that he practically refused to destroy under any circumstances. To think he'd never met the other skeleton before. At least it was an idea for his next doll.
"Ink!" Classic grew nervous as the moment Ink disappeared the monsters of Underfell started coming out of hiding.
"Cowards." Chara scoffed."
"What the-"
"Nice. I'm stuck here now." Looking at all the monsters surrounding them, Classic grinned. "Whelp, I can take a break for a while." He winked before teleporting away. "See ya, edgy me."
"HEY WAIT!" Fell reached out, hand coming into contact with thin air. Frowning, he was distracted by a phone call. "Sup."
"BROTHER"
"Oh, poor Fell." Core giggled, smile widening as Fresh joined in on their amusement.
"What's funny?" Outer seriously could not understand.
"Just wait." Error responded, glitching as Outer turned to him in surprise. "What?"
"P-Papyrus! I-I MEAN BOSS!" Fell nervously tugged at his necktie, "H-howzitgoing!? Snowdin is fine as always! Nothing strange or something has happened!"
"TURN AROUND"
Fell froze as he noticed the camera pointed directly at himself.
"I SAW EVERYTHING" Fell gripped the phone tighter. "WHAT YOU DID... AND I'M NOT HAPPY"
"Aaah B-Boss I can explain-"
"I WAS HAVING A NICE DAY WITH THE HUMAN, SO I'LL GIVE YOU A CHANCE... I'LL GIVE YOU TEN MINUTES TO HIDE FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE..."
The voice was booming.
"BECAUSE WHEN I FIND YOU... I'LL USE YOUR SKULL TO SERVE MY SPAGHETTI!"
Fell's blank expression lasted a full second as he chucked the phone away. "HEY OTHER ME WAIT!" A bone impaled the camera, destroying it as Fell teleported after Classic.
"Wow, I almost feel bad for the guy." Chara snickered, quietly high-fiving Fresh without Dream noticing, who was valiantly acting like he found no amusement in the situation.
The guy would never relax and have fun, would he?
"Hmm, might understand what you meant now." Outer's smile shined like the stars. "Still not as good as puns though."
"Agreed." Stretch nodded, sending a glare at Error who'd turned to look at them.
"Would be funnier if it happened to the squid."
"Next part." Core wasn't sure if they would fit into any of these conversations or... or...
The disconnected feeling returned.
It didn't matter, they should focus more on their theories and not the others.
That's what they wanted.
IMPORTANT NOTICE - This notice is somewhat rushed, but over the past week this site hasn't been letting me do a lot of things and it's already crashed twice today. I had to spend over an hour trying to find roundabout ways of posting this chapter. If by the time I need to update any of my fics the site is still not working properly for me then I will leave a notice on my profile page detailing so. I upload this on both this site and ao3 and I absolutely refuse to only update one if the other site doesn't work. I never want to have to deal with that so I simply won't update if one site doesn't work. Hope this is understandable.