:-"The Pawn takes a Knight."-:

The magic and practical classes have just started to rotate out.

Unfortunately, that is the most opportune time to cause chaos.

At first, it is just flashes and loud noises, then minor explosions and noxious gas…

But it changes to spike traps, saw blades, and writhing hands.

People begin to panic, running about here and there trying to find somewhere safe; as predicted.

The sigils that still remain on the people that sinister man tagged explode, causing gore to fill the halls.

The guards try to quell the magic, but they are not adept enough. No one is, because they have had no real practical training.

And that is when he starts to make his demands.

His voice enhanced with magic, he yells, "I demand to face this so called 'Red Child' at once!"

Undyne, who was leaving to the front gate to defend against the horde of creatures headed towards the Sanctum, recognizes who he wants.

She runs as fast as she can, waits impatiently in the elevator, and then runs to knock on the door to the Addams' apartment.

When Conrad opens the door, Undyne asks "where's Frisk!?"

Chara can hear the urgency in Undyne's voice. Something bad has happened.

Undyne asks again, this time adding more detail, "where's Frisk?! Some crazy guy is setting magic off all over the place, saying he wants to face the 'Red Child!'"

Conrad sighs, his hopes of spending time with his wife all but gone, and he replies, "Frisk is safe, with Asriel and the Red Sage."

Hearing that only confuses Undyne more. "Asriel? You don't mean the Asriel, do you?"

Conrad nods, "yes, Asriel Dreemurr."

Undyne isn't sure what to say, so she focuses on the matter at hand, "whatever! We have more important things to deal with! There's a huge horde of those creepy things headed this way, and I have to go before they show up. I HATE to ask this, but can you take care of that punk? He literally couldn't have shown up at a worse time!"

Conrad hesitantly replies, "of course. Let me get my gear…"

Before running off and jumping out of a window dramatically, Undyne says, "thanks so much!"

Marceline walks up behind Conrad and gently grabs his arm, saying, "I'll go with you."

Conrad adjusts the dial on the door, looks to his wife and gives her a peck, then says, "I know. I'll be back." As he opens the door to the Manor.

Chara, not wanting to let anyone or anything mess up everything that they have now, takes advantage of everyone being distracted and gets up onto the counter to get one of the kitchen knives; making sure to make as little noise as possible.

A dark, chilling voice behind them makes them stop, "that knife won't do at all, darling little Chara. Take the cleaver."

Chara slowly looks behind themself to see Marceline at the doorway of the kitchen. How she managed to get there so fast, without making any noise, is unknown to Chara.

In that moment, Marceline's face is mostly obscured by shadow; but her eyes are lightly glowing a deep purple, and are the only things highlighting her cold disappointed face.

Marceline makes her way across the kitchen, quickly, gracefully, and quietly; then grabs the cleaver that was just out of Chara's reach, and holds it out for them.

While staring into her eyes, as she holds out the meat cleaver, Chara is more afraid than they've ever been. Their heart threatens to beat out of their chest.

Chara slowly reaches out, but stops and asks, "why are you giving me this?"

Marceline raises an eyebrow and asks, in that chilling voice, "do you want to fight with a dull kitchen knife?"

Shaking their head, Chara replies, "no, but… I guess I just thought, since you're Frisk's mom, that you'd be against fighting."

Marceline moves the meat cleaver's handle into Chara's hands, saying, "Everyone in the Addams family is a little different. Frisk learned to fight to stop people from fighting, I learned to protect my friends and family, and the same with Conrad; why did you learn?"

Chara thinks for a moment, then grips the handle and replies, "To stop people from hurting me…"

Marceline grins slightly, and pats Chara's head. "Well then, you would consider someone taking someone important to you the same as hurting you, would you not?"

Chara replies, "yes."

Marceline thinks to herself, 'I will have to guide them, or their ideals may get them killed… again.'

Turning and walking away, Marceline gestures for Chara to follow, saying, "then that settles that. It would be foolish to try to stop you from leaving the apartment, when you have already made up your mind. I would rather you stay with us, where it is safer, than have you potentially wander around with a dull knife. But remember, Chara, only fight if you have no other choice."

Thinking back to Frisk's fights with Asgore, Chara thinks they understand what Marceline is saying; Frisk only fought Asgore because he forced them to. 'In other words, only fight when they show no mercy.'

Getting down from the counter, Chara cautiously follows Marceline into the living room.

They aren't sure what to make of all of this. They consider seriously taking up Catarina's offer, since getting another opinion on the matter would be nice.

Marceline takes a moment to look out the window, and sees the horde of aberrant creatures that are headed this way… There are definitely a lot of them…

Some of them don't look right, somehow; there is something about certain ones that makes them seem more wrong than usual; their flowers seem dull and lifeless… Thinking about it more, Marceline was hoping to enjoy the evening with her husband; the cries and shouts of the beasts and men below would have been a good way to muffle her and her husband's own… But some things are more important.

The door opening gets Marceline's attention, and she turns to see her husband in full gear, carrying her armour and a war scythe.

He apologizes, "I am sorry my love, but your rapier is too damaged from Frisk's test. I had to get your war scythe instead."

Marceline takes her armour, and replies, "you know the war scythe was always my favourite anyway."

Conrad looks over to Chara and notices the cleaver, and says, "ah, a cleaver. Good choice… Only fight if you have to, and stay close to us."

Sighing, Chara replies, "yes, I understand. Marceline already told me."

Conrad almost opens the door, but then looks back and squints a little… before saying, "hold on, I forgot something." Then goes back to the manor.

After a few minutes, he returns with a small set of armour and gestures for Chara to come closer, "if you're going to be in the fray, we wouldn't want to have you ill equipped."

Chara equips the armour, and the trio leave the apartment to find the one threatening to take Frisk.

:-:

Frisk and Asriel are practising magic with Papyrus.

At first, as to be expected, Asriel is greatly confused; but, after Frisk explains the time shenanigans, it makes more sense… kinda.

Not long after they start practising magic, however, Papyrus gets a worried look on his face.

Frisk notices, and asks, "what's wrong? Did I draw the rune wrong?"

Shaking his head, Papyrus says, "no Frisk, you drew it fine. It's something else… I, probably shouldn't be telling you this, but events up till this point have been predicted many times over. Your fight with the abomination behind that barrier has been scrutinized too, from every angle."

Confused, Frisk asks, "wait… I thought I was supposed to fight CU-270?"

Nodding, Papyrus replies, "you are. That is who I am talking about. CU-270, previously known as 'Frisk' in his timeline, is the most terrifying thing you will ever face… if you face him. Do you remember his origins?"

Asriel releases his pellet bullets and sits down as Frisk nods.

Pulling up floating images to help Asriel visualise what he is saying, Papyrus continues, "Well, to summarize for Asriel here, CU-270's SOUL was bound to the void and shattered, and then the void took his body and fused to them both; thus he was reborn as a 'Void Born.' Because of this, his SOUL does not dissipate when shattered. Instead his SOUL breaks into smaller and smaller pieces, and the more pieces his SOUL breaks into, the less he remembers, feels, and the harder it is for him to act."

Sadly, Asriel asks, "so… he's eventually going to be like Flowey?"

Sighing, Papyrus nods his head slowly, feeling pity, and replies, "more or less. Unlike Flowey though, his SOUL is technically still alive. We examined the one that was here from another timeline, and found that his SOUL never actually fused back together; instead it is in a perpetual shattered-like state, meaning his HP is derived entirely from his body's integrity. Given that his SOUL is already in a pre-death-like state, the only way he can be stopped… is with so much aggressive magic that his soul is broken down until it can't function… Or, alternatively, Mercy."

Papyrus places his hand on top of Frisk's head.

Curious, Frisk asks, "but the stuff in the book Sans gave me said that he wouldn't be able to remember or have as much emotions when his SOUL is shattered… So, how's it always shattered?"

Papyrus raises his fingers and touches the tips of his fingers together, saying, "Proximity. Because his body and SOUL were bound to the void, the pieces can 'talk' to each other when close together. If they are too far apart it would be like trying to talk to some one in another building, and if they are too small it would be like trying to talk in a crowd. We also mustn't forget the procedure Sans did, which further solidified the bond between his SOUL, his body, and the void. We are not sure what effects that had on him."

Asriel nods while thinking about it, and asks, "so… what does that have to do with why you are worried?"

After hesitating for a moment, Papyrus responds, "The barrier could break… in…"

Papyrus gets a sweaty nervous look on his face… but continues, "… five minutes, or in thirty minutes, or in a day, or a week. The sooner the barrier breaks, the more likely it is everything will End. There is only one good outcome we saw, and that is for him to get out in a week. By then we will have finished making a… rather special device."

Glancing to the side, thinking of something else, Papyrus adds, "we never found Sans' time-copy, and that is bad. The way things are going now, it is likely we will have to try again."

Frisk, upset, remarks, "if the barrier could break in five minutes, shouldn't I be down there helping everyone?"

After summoning up some bone bullets, Papyrus says, "by practising here, you are helping everyone. Speaking of which, let's get back to it! Enough of this humdrum sadness and dismay! We have magic to master! Nyeh!"

Frisk hesitates, but nods and then looks to the rune they made. "Crethspob."

Now they just need to figure out what they want to use it for.

Asriel begins trying to summon fire again, but is still stuck on summoning pellets.

:-:

Impatiently descending with the elevator, Marceline, Conrad, and Chara make their way to where everyone is running from.

Conrad asks someone who is running by where they last saw the crazy person, and the group is directed to the tech side of the Sanctum.

Making their way at a steady pace, so that Chara can keep up, Marceline and Conrad keep an eye out for dangers. It seems that most people have fled the halls now, but there are a lot of dead people laying around.

Just when they thought they were in the clear, however, more screaming erupts.

The rooms people thought they were safe in have started to prove otherwise, and now people are pouring out from them.

Conrad puts his rapier away and grabs Chara and Marceline's hands, to make sure they don't get separated due to the crowd of people rushing past.

They push through, carefully to ensure that they don't hurt anyone, and eventually make it to their destination.

A loud explosion goes off within the Sanctum, but magic prevents the ceiling and walls from taking any substantial damage.

When the trio get to their destination, they see a man with a sickly purple aura floating in the room.

The room is two stories tall, unfortunately, which gives him plenty of space to dodge, and keeps him out of Conrad and Chara's reach.

He is surrounded by recently activated magi-tech weapons…

Conrad regrets not bringing his kite shield, but readies for combat none-the-less.

Marceline stands on his left, covering his more exposed side, and Chara stands behind them.

Laughing, the man asks, "Hahahahaa! Oh, who do we have here? Let's see… Let's see! So, the mother –and I assume you are the father,– have come to protect their child… But now, who is that adorable little thing behind you? Hmm? Are you a sibling, perhaps?"

A purple beam of magic shoots out at Chara, and forces their SOUL out. Marceline rushes forward and swings at the man, but misses.

More laughter, "Hahahahah! I see! I see! Yo uare rather aggressive, no? Well, no bother. No bother at all! Let's all just calm down and… TALK ABOUT IT!"

With those words, the magi-tech weapons zip towards the group.

Conrad manages to disable one, and dodge another, but Marceline is only able to dodge as she hops backwards defensively.

Chara isn't targeted by any of the weapons.

Not wanting to let this guy fight on his own terms, Chara pulls up the Battle Menu.

The assailant responds, "I see! A second Red SOUL. You don't belong here! No, not at all! Let me… FIX THAT!"

He launches the magi-tech weapons, and follows up with a wave of conjured daggers.

Chara dodges them easily, then hovers over FIGHT for a moment, before deciding to go over to ACT.

They choose to help defend.

Conrad chooses to defend as well, but Marceline takes advantage of the opening and uses her extended reach to attack the assailant.

She misses, but got closer this time.

Sounding a little angry, their assailant responds, "Hrrnn… You are getting too close for comfort dear, why don't you just… SIT BACK AND RELAX?!"

Conjured vines sprout out from the floor and attempt to grapple the trio, but Chara and Marceline manage to evade. Conrad, unfortunately, is ensnared.

ACTing again, Chara decides to try to distract the bad guy, asking, "who are you?"

It succeeds, mostly.

Looking to Chara, the assailant replies, "Who am I? Who am I…? Let's see… You already know me! Hahahahaha! Yes! You know me! But not that You, and not this Me!"

Chara is confused… Marceline tries to take advantage of the slight distraction, but he was anticipating it.

Conrad manages to get out of the grasp of the vines, just in time for another wave of conjured daggers to shoot out at them.

Marceline is hit with one, but her armour protects her from most of the damage.

Chara ACTs again, and asks, "what's your name?"

Replying to their question, the assailant says, "my name? My name is not my own, but it belongs to one of Me; this Me goes by Damon. And please, pardon my excitement; my goal is so close I can almost… TASTE IT!"

Lighting strikes down from the ceiling in a chaotic pattern, almost too difficult to dodge.

Conrad is struck, as is Marceline, but Chara manages to not get hit.

Chara is done ACTing… it isn't helping at all. They focus on helping Conrad and Marceline keep from getting hurt.

Marceline gestures at her husband, who nods, and then she crouches down seemingly in preparation to leap up at the mad man.

Conrad steps back and runs forward, then uses Marceline's back as a springboard to jump higher.

He lunges at the man, and manages to hit him solidly in the leg, then Marceline follows up.

She only manages to nick his arm.

Angry, he shouts, "HOW RUDE! HOW RUDE INDEED! YOU DIDN'T EVEN ASK A QUESTION!"

Then stops being angry and continues, "No matter… I will answer the question that you refuse to ask! I am His favourite cultist, and my desire… is to take over the Sanctum! Quite a good goal, it would have stopped a lot of problems for us, but alas He didn't agree. No matter! He is dead now! And now I am He! And He is Me…! For now… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!"

Erratic patterns of knives, lightning bolts, magi-tech weapons, and fireballs erupt from everywhere in the room.

There is no escape. No way to dodge… No Mercy.

Chara grips the cleaver in their hand and prepares to attack, their eyes starting to shimmer red.

But Marceline and Conrad stop Chara, and act as shields to stop the attacks from hitting them.

Some of the very real, and very solid, magi-tech weapons pierce through Conrad's back, left arm, and left thigh, while the others pierce into Marceline's right calf and right arm.

:-:

* Seeing Frisk's parents risk their lives to defend them, despite everything…
* FILLS CHARA WITH DETERMINATION!

:-:

Conrad collapses.

Marceline wraps one of her arms around Conrad's mid section, and grabs for Chara's arm, to begin painfully retreating.

Chara dodges her grab, and sets their focus on the cultist, while telling Marceline, "leave. I do not need your help."

Marceline grabs for Chara again, but Chara dodges. The cultist laughs as he watches Marceline's attempts to grab Chara's arm, and opts not to attack so he can watch them.

Frustrated, Marceline says, "Chara, we have to get out of here! We need to get help!"

Chara begins laughing, but it's insincere… They laugh and they laugh, as if it is all so funny, even though they don't think it's funny at all, thinking to themself, 'here I am, alive and well, while the father of someone I care about is dying, and it is all my fault. Again. I really am a horrible person. '

They continue laughing, unable to stop, as tears start to well up in their eyes because of how sad they are.

Deciding to take advantage of his very open opponents, now that the display has turned boring, the cultist launches another magic attack.

The attacks hit Chara, but Chara isn't worried.

Gripping the cleaver tightly, Chara pours all of their magic and killing intent into the blade and slashes upwards at the cultist; a red slash of magic shoots out at him.

It hits him, much to his surprise.

Marceline refuses to leave without Chara… but she can tell her husband wont make it if he doesn't get help.

Conrad, wheezing due to a pierced lung, says, "leave me here… my love… It is too late…"

Holding back her tears, she is unwilling to leave her husband behind, and knows that she won't be able to stop Chara. Slowly coming back to her senses, she realizes that escape would be impossible, since the cultist can attack from a distance, and their best bet is to stand their ground.

The cultist lets out a barrage of spinning magic daggers, but Chara manages to counter them and keep Marceline safe.

Marceline turns her sadness into rage, and follows Chara's example.

Unfortunately, Marceline is not familiar with how to manipulate magic, so the effect she creates is weak, but she slashes out at the cultist with her weapon anyway; pouring her hate and anger into her weapon, with a sprinkling of accidental magic.

Her efforts are not in vain, because a faint purple line flies out at the cultist.

When the cultist is hit, he is forced to follow the line's direction. Marceline takes note of that, and does her best to recreate it.

The cultist's attacks become more ferocious, but Marceline comes up with a new defence and manages to redirect most of the attacks.

Chara takes full advantage of Marceline's attacks, slicing in the opposite direction of the paths that she creates.

Getting the hang of this method of manipulating magic, Marceline uses it to slam the cultist against the walls, ceiling, and floor; as Chara unleashes merciless attacks.

The cultist fades away with horrid laughter after their last attack.

Marceline drops her weapon and quickly turns to her husband, hoping with all her heart that he is still breathing.

But he is gone. A puddle of blood and his rapier are all that marks that he had been there.

:-:

Frisk feels the access to their SAVE stars slip from their grasp, and they start to panic.

Papyrus comments, "I feel it too… maybe not the same way you do, but still. Chara is Determined, which means the situation has gotten quite dire. It is likely we will need you to RESET as soon as you can… I must also advise that you not leave the tower."

Concerned, Frisk looks to Asriel who is wearing their worry on their face.

Getting the two children's attention with a bony clap, Papyrus says, in a more upbeat tone, "why don't we play a game? Hide and seek in the void is… Ah, wait, no we can't do that one; Asriel would die instantly… Oh, I know! We can help Asriel re-learn fire magic with a game of hot-potato! In this case, the potato will actually be fire!"

Asriel looks at Frisk, even more worried, and asks, "Gosh, that sounds dangerous… Do you think it's really a good idea?"

Frisk waves dismissively and replies, "I think it'll be fine! Magic only hurts when you intend it to hurt, right?"

Papyrus nods, but comments, "that is true for monster magic, but fire generated from human magic is similar to natural fire." He then generates a small flame, and tosses it to Frisk.

Frisk was not prepared to catch the fireball, so it slips past their frantic attempt to catch it and hits them.

It deals no damage.

Asriel chuckles.

Trying again, Papyrus says, "alright Frisk, this time try to catch the fireball with your hands; then you're going to gently toss it to Asriel."

Frisk nods as Papyrus makes another small fire ball, and asks, "ready?"

This time Frisk catches the fireball, though they almost lose hold of it since they are still not familiar with taking control of other's magic.

Gently, Frisk tosses the fireball to Asriel.

He fails to catch it, not only due to his own unfamiliarity, but because the Red Tower suddenly shakes and rocks side-to-side as if it has been hit by something large.

Papyrus grabs on to Frisk and Asriel to steady them, then puts up a green shield.

The shaking and rocking dies down, and Papyrus commands, "stay here. I am going to check to see what it is… Hopefully it isn't who I think it is."

Before Frisk or Asriel can say anything, Papyrus pulls his hood up and vanishes from the room.

:-:

Standing aloft in the air, Papyrus examines the tower. It doesn't take him long to spot the large black mass of writhing tentacles, latched on to the roof like some eldritch parasite.

Papyrus lowers his head, sadly, and holds back tears, as he mutters, "I'm sorry I couldn't save you, brother."

Ph'lloig slowly stands and looks at Papyrus with crazed grins, and says, "well, if it isn't my 'brother.' i don't suppose you'd like to join me?"

Papyrus replies with a complex set of runes, and an overwhelming attack of bones, swords, arrows, and a few small conjured white dogs.

None of it hits Ph'lloig, who didn't need to even dodge, but he looks around as the attack clears and notices…

He is now surrounded by a cyan maze.

Papyrus yells, "GIVE UP, BROTHER! YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME!" Hoping that he will leave… but knowing that the corrupted Sans probably wont leave.

Unsurprising, Ph'lloig replies, "look at you, all grown up. to think you were just some poor, unwanted, unloved, child that he took in due to pity… and now here you are, attacking your 'brother.' well, i've got news for you, bucko; i'm significantly stronger than i used to be."

Immediately after speaking, Ph'lloig raises his non-tentacle arm and waves it to the right.

Papyrus resists as much as he can, but eventually he is flung in the direction Ph'lloig wills him; fortunately, however, he manages to dodge the bones Ph'lloig summoned.

Ph'lloig huffs in annoyance.

Papyrus responds by turning the maze yellow and shuffling it around.

A small white dog yips at Ph'lloig, then jumps at him.

Ph'lloig forces the dog aside and asks, "is that really all you've-"

A strange feeling overcomes him, as if something is missing now… he looks over himself to see what is wrong, then looks over to the dog.

The small white dog, wagging its little tail, is holding Ph'lloig's corrupted SOUL in its mouth.

It starts to gnaw and play with it, as the maze turns purple and whisks the dog away.

Ph'lloig grunts and holds his chest, as pain from his SOUL being damaged courses through his body.

Explaining, Papyrus shouts while stomping his foot, "THAT DAMNED WHITE DOG WAS ALWAYS TAKING MY SPECIAL ATTACKS!"

Taking on a more relaxed and heroic pose, he continues, "SO I MADE A DUPLICATE THAT TAKES THINGS, BUT FROM OTHER PEOPLE INSTEAD! I CALL IT THE 'THIEF IN THE 'BARK''! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH! … I named it in memory of you, brother."

Ph'lloig summons his blasters and directs them at Papyrus.

Unfortunately for him, however, the purple maze takes his blasters' attacks; their beams are now zipping through the maze. He has made it more dangerous for himself.

Frustrated, he attacks again and again to no avail.

Papyrus shakes his head, and says, sadly, "you cannot win, Brother. I do not want to hurt you, but I cannot let you continue."

Ignoring him, Ph'lloig reaches out to Papyrus and pulls his arm towards himself in an attempt to get Papyrus trapped with him; or to, better yet, force Papyrus into the maze so he runs into all of his blaster attacks.

His attempt, however, is thwarted by an annoying white dog.

Papyrus exclaims, "THAT TRICK WILL ONLY WORK ON ME ONCE!"

In the distance, Ph'lloig hears a yip and then feels an intense pain again. He looks around for that damned white dog so he can tear it apart… but he can't find it.

He does notice, however, the barrier shining in the distance. An idea crosses his mind, and he vanishes; his SOUL vanishes with him.

Papyrus sighs, and disperses his magic.

:-:

Hearing the sounds of battle outside makes Frisk anxious. They want out of here. They want to help.

Asriel can see Frisk's desire to leave, but doesn't say anything. Frisk's DT rises, but not enough to over power Chara's.

Not wanting to sit around any more, Frisk moves up to the magic shield and places their hands against it. They sit there, hoping maybe the shield with vanish.

When nothing happens, and the sound of giant lasers go off, Frisk closes their eyes and listens to the magic. They try to take control of it, the same way they take control of fire when it is tossed their way.

Asriel watches curiously, but doesn't speak up.

It takes a few moments, but Frisk begins to feel the magic shift over to their control.

They are only able to take over a small circle around where their hands were though, so they repeat the process until there is a hole large enough for them to get through.

Asriel finally speaks up, "Uhm… Frisk. Are you sure that's a good idea? It's really dangerous out there."

Frisk shakes their head, and replies, "I know it's dangerous… but I can't just sit in here when people need me. I have to go. I have to help!"

Before Asriel can respond, Frisk finishes their task and slips out of the shield.

Not wanting to be left alone in the now defunct shield, Asriel follows them.

Frisk rushes down to the teleporter room, then waits for Asriel to catch up.

Once he is in the room, Frisk places their hand on the pedestal and they teleport back down to the Sanctum.

What they see when they get down there is not good.

People are running all over the place in panic, a guard is fighting a Wälder beast that managed to break through the defences, and there are signs of hostile magic having gone off in various locations.

Frisk runs up to the guard and tries to talk to them, but they are too busy fighting.

When the guard is injured, Frisk releases a spray of green band-aid bullets to heal them.

He dodges the bullets, momentarily confused, and they end up all hitting the Wälder beast instead.

Instead of the beast being healed, however, it wails in pain and falls over dead…

The guard lifts his visor and starts yelling at them about casting magic in the Sanctum, and how they could have severely hurt him, but Frisk ignores them and examines the Wälder beast.

It looks… like it was already dead. It reminds them of those weird creepy zombie things they encountered in the jail; but disguised as a Wälder beast.

Frisk, being occupied in thinking about their findings, continues to ignore the guard.

Asriel, however, gets the guard's attention and talks to him about what Frisk was trying to, so that he can understand the situation better.

Now knowing that the green band-aids were supposed to heal him, the guard also begins examining the Wälder beast closer.

When Frisk is done thinking, they say, "this thing was already dead, but someone brought it back to life with magic. We have to tell the others that they are undead. Healing magic seems like the best way to fight them."

Nodding, the guard remarks, "you're probably right… But I've noticed something. This thing smells really bad, but most of the others smell flowery.

Asriel grimaces at the sound of "flowery," mistaking it for a moment as his flower-name.

The guard continues, "it's likely that some of these are undead, but not all of them… I'm going to go report to Bernard to see what he thinks."

The guard begins to leave for the front gate and Frisk starts to follow, but the guard stops them, saying, "now hold on there kid. I get that you want to help, but you're not going out there."

Turning and leaving, the guard starts to quickly walk to the front gate again.

Frisk calls out to him, "wait! Before you go, can you at least tell me if my parents are out there?"

Looking back, the guard asks, "who are your parents?"

Proudly, Frisk replies, "Conrad and Marceline Addams!"

The guard points over to the Tech side of the sanctum and says, "last I heard, they went that way to deal with some crazy magic user." He then turns back around and continues to the front gate.

Frisk turns and runs to the Tech side of the Sanctum, wanting to see if their parents need help. The guard may be able to stop them from fighting off the Wälder beasts, but he can't stop them from helping people in the Sanctum.

Asriel follows as quickly as he can, but eventually falls behind; he isn't used to running around so much any more.

Frisk turns a corner, and Asriel speeds up to try to catch up to them in case there is an intersection.

It results in him almost running into them, since they stopped almost immediately after the turn.

Asriel spots Marceline kneeling on the floor, injured and gently holding a rapier like it's an injured animal, as Chara stands with their head low and their back facing away from Marceline and the entrance. Then he spots the puddle of blood Marceline is kneeling in.

Asriel puts the pieces together fairly quickly, but Frisk is in denial, "hey mom, I know you love your rapier, but… where's dad?"

Chara tightens their grip on their cleaver when they hear that.

No one responds.

Frisk starts to ask again, "mom… where's-"

Chara interrupts and bluntly says, "don't you get it?! He's dead!"

Everyone goes silent, save for Marceline who has started crying. Asriel reaches out to put a hand on Frisk's shoulder, but they ignore him and go over to their mother to comfort her.

Papyrus enters the room, and remarks, "this truly is the worst possible timeline… Chara, if you could please RESET-"

Interrupting, Chara bluntly says, "no. I'm not going to RESET. You can't just get rid of consequences like that," then angrily storms out of the room.

Sighing, Papyrus goes over to Frisk and taps on their shoulder, then says, "Frisk, I am very sorry for what has happened so far… But soon it won't matter. I need you to follow Chara now. Don't worry about your father, he will be fine. There is a high possibility that everything is about to End. I need you to be there when Chara loses their Determination, so you can RESET, OK?"

Frisk looks up, wipes the tears from their eyes, and nods sadly.

With their Determination slowly rising, Frisk slowly walks out to follow Chara.

Papyrus looks to Asriel and says, "I'm sorry, Asriel, that we couldn't keep you alive for a little longer."

Asriel replies, sadly, "it's fine. I'm gonna go with Frisk and Chara," and walks off to follow them.

:-:

Papyrus looks to Marceline and sighs, then enhances his bones with magic so he can pick her up.

She doesn't resist.

Opting out of walking to their apartment, Papyrus uses magic to teleport.

He lays Marceline down on the couch and starts to heal her wounds.

As he does so, he considers everything that has happened so far, and hopes that everything turns out OK.

He realizes, in that moment, that they had never considered what would happen if Chara never lost Determination.

In fact, they had never really taken Chara into account at all; despite the fact that they are also a Red SOUL… 'could it be that we've been looking at this the wrong way…? Is Frisk not supposed to stop him? …I have to go check.'

Papyrus finishes healing Marceline and teleports away to the hidden section of the Sanctum.

He calls out, "Lucy, I need assistance!"

A feminine skeleton approaches, and answers, "Lucy is busy right now, what do you need Papyrus?"

Sighing, Papyrus responds, "Ah, Talia, I need to check on an alternate future. It is urgent."

She nods and guides him to a large room that with a machine that takes up most of it and has several screens, then says, "Please pardon me while I fetch Lady Lucy."

Papyrus nods, and waits for a few minutes.

Lucy rushes into the room and sits at the machine, then asks, "What is your Query? I need to return to working on that device as soon as possible."

Papyrus asks, "what happens if Chara fights CU-270, instead of Frisk?"

Lucy raises an eyebrow, and asks, "Query: did we not already establish that Chara would not have enough DT to do so?"

Scratching his bony chin, Papyrus replies, "it's just a hunch… I feel like we did not explore every angle of it."

Her question answered, she turns to the machine and quickly types in several complex equations; the large machine starts to hum and come alive, as it begins calculating every possibility.

A headset descends from the ceiling and she looks into it for a few moments, then gets up and gestures for Papyrus to look.

Carefully, and hesitantly, Papyrus walks over to look into the headset…

What he sees leaves him speechless and wide eyed.

Nothing… but then something. Everything came to an End, but then… started again.

Lucy speaks up, "You were correct, we had not taken every possibility into account. I had a hunch as well and decided to extend the search beyond the End, to see what would happen. In 99.9% of all scenarios, nothing else happened, as expected. Do you require further assistance?"

Papyrus shakes his head and departs quickly.