PATCHWORK SOUL - NEW MEDIUM

by TakaiWolf

DIRECT SEQUEL TO "PATCHWORK SOUL" — A few months later. A family of monsters and their little human kid try to start life anew beyond the confines of a giant mountain. Maybe they find something. Maybe they lose something. Time flows ever onwards, but sometimes it goes sideways, and it's heavier than they thought.

93. Imagine being so stubborn

Imagine being so stubborn that Chapter 93 is what it took

---

The soul of a skeleton often sung a little louder than that of other monsters, if one paid enough attention. A soft vibration in the air directly from the light in their ribcage, unfiltered through a body of solidified, humming magic and dust. It was possible to dampen it, slow it; suppress it through force of will. Sans had done that for years, leaving only Papyrus privy to it on occasion. Even now, he still kept it much more guarded than any monster should, a sharp contrast to his brother, who felt bright as sunshine up close.

.

Frisk remembered the first time Sans had broken his grip on himself around her, when he'd found her beyond the Ruins after helping her reset. First time he'd been the one to instigate a hug, too, after his knees had given out in the snow. She'd felt a little spark of heartache and relief flare brightly through the cold air, and it had almost overwhelmed her before he'd stomped it back down to try to regain some composure.

.

Gaster wasn't quite as good at this method as her brother was, Frisk thought. Back inside the cabin, keeping the low tea table between them, his soul charged the air despite his attempts to crush the extra magic back into his chest. The all-but silent, slow, cold hum made the kid's skin run with goosebumps.

.

The old skeleton's eyes were pitch black and, as he stared down at the little human before him, despite what he'd said and despite what he'd done, he froze. There was only one emotion seeping from his soul. Fear.

.

It was almost like being back in the underground for the first time. Seeing the alarm and the fright on the faces of monsters if they'd gathered an inkling of what Frisk was. She hated that look; hated the thump of her heart and the drop in her gut. If an attack managed to cut into her, she could feel the fright laced through the magic, too, once her own had been dampened. The fact that she had the ability to make someone feel like that broke her heart.

.

She clenched her hands, rushing to come up with something that might make her seem less threatening. He didn't trust her words, and feeling her magic again probably wasn't something he'd be willing to put himself through. Maybe if she did something goofy? She could bump into the table? Trip? Get more tea and spill it all over the place?

.

"So," he said.

Frisk jumped, struck from her thoughts, and blinked up at him. Her eyes scanned the room swiftly, trying to pull out any little thing that might make him more comfortable. Make some tea? No, they'd just had some. Offer him something else? She had no idea what would be comforting. Probably nothing, coming from her, she thought. She gulped, but then it occurred to her— she shoved her hands in her pants pockets.

"Do you want my stuff?" she asked.

"…Pardon?" The skeleton simply stared.

"My stuff. I got, uh…" She pulled out the utility knife, a red pen, two phones, some crumpled and folded paper, and a round communication crystal, laying them all out on the table. "Would that, like, make you feel better? If you could hold it for now?"

"…Why on earth would that—?"

"Because then I got no weird tricks, duh," she said. "I was joking about keeping spell crystals in my pockets, though, see?" She pulled them inside out and then put them back as they were. Next, she grabbed the cube from her side and clunked that onto the table, too. "Aaand… Umm… Oh!" She reached into the mysterious pocket the pants from back in time had and pulled out the parasol she'd been using like a shield and held it out, offering it to him. "That's about it, I think?"

"How did you—?"

"There's, um— They called it mallet space, in some of these clothes?" She smiled sheepishly. "I don't super understand how all that works, but it's like the dimension box but with one item slot, does that… uh…" She tilted her head. "D'you have those where you come from?"

"I… We do," he said stiffly. Despite the confusion plain on his face, he took the parasol from her gingerly and, as he eyed it, slowly began to sit down across from her. "Not in… phones, though."

Frisk perked right up. "Wh…? Oh! Right, right, yeah, Alphys did that later, right," Frisk said. "Aah, um, sorry, that might be future stuff?"

.

The kid took a seat and pulled her phone back towards herself. She found the item inside her storage that was the bag of star-piece boosters. She put it on the table and slid it over to the skeleton. He looked at it and raised his brows.

"They're, um, boosters?" she said. "I know you're not supposed to be doing magic stuff, but like, if you want, you could take some of those so if you wanna chuck me against the wall or something one time, you probably could."

"I see." He didn't budge, though, instead keeping his focus on the parasol. He unscrewed the top to find Chara's crystal and pulled it out, carefully running his fingers over it before placing it back in. Then, he inspected the handle— drawing out the end of it into a narrow, sharp blade that had been concealed inside a slot in the wood.

Frisk squeaked with surprise. "Wait, it's a sword?!"

"So it would seem," he said. "I don't recall you using it."

She slumped a little against the table. "Ugh, Chara, what am I gonna do with that?" she muttered before forcing herself to straighten up a little. "U-Um, no, I don't… like fighting that much."

.

Gaster stared at her with an utterly unreadable, flat expression as he turned the blade over in his hand. The back of her neck prickled. After a few seconds, he sheathed the weapon.

"The crystal is Chara's?" he asked.

Frisk nodded. "Y-Yeah, she, um, does ghost magic stuff now, she did it on that sword she has."

"I see…" He clunked the parasol onto the table as well and rested his arm on the surface beside it.

.

He went quiet, his eyes roaming across the objects before finally settling back on Frisk. She had to keep herself from fidgeting. His stern, steady gaze harkened back to the teacher that had sent Frisk home for brawling when she'd accidentally been smacked in the face by a bunny boy during a recess scuffle. She was half-afraid he was about to start to scold her— she scolded herself and forced herself still at the absurdity of her own thoughts. The skeleton had already tried to kill her, after all; worrying about a little yelling was pretty ridiculous.

.

She coughed a little to hide any hint of a smile behind her hand and sniffled despite herself. "Oof, sorry, um—"

Gaster raised his hand briefly to stop her. He let out a short, soft sigh. His fingers drummed on the table as if to count the seconds.

"Do you, um…?" Frisk tilted her head and leaned forward a little. "D'you wanna start? Should I start?"

"I will," he said. "Why capture me? Why not simply kill me? You're able to. Or is it that you never truly considered me a threat?"

"Uhhh." Frisk smiled awkwardly. "I…? Uh. Nnnno, no, I thought you were a pretty big threat. I'm not home, so I dunno what happens when I die out here, and your time laser was really scary at first. But, um, kill you, I don't… I wouldn't… Like, that's crazy. No way. Never."

"…Never?"

Frisk shook her head adamantly. "I'd never ever wanna…" She pouted. "I never wanted to hurt you even a little bit. That's why we got you stuck in the ice dome, we just wanted you to stop. And uh… While you were tryin' to kill me and stuff, it wasn't safe for Sans and Chara to try to find home for us, so—"

"What are you talking about?"

"Um. Well, see, thing is… When you jumped Az and me out in the void? We were just on our way home, so we ended up here instead. Or, I mean, I did, I had to pull him out of there, that was a whole thing."

"So you fled here."

"Aah, no, I fell here, you knocked me out," Frisk said.

.

Gaster's brow furrowed, but when he didn't say anything for a few seconds, Frisk continued.

"A-Anyway, um, the Soul of the World— that big light in the middle of the cave? It's sorta like a… weird energy gate, I guess? We can't just leave. We need Sans to help us get out, but he needs to send us back home, and to do that, he has to find the right place." The kid drooped a little. "But it's super tiring. He's gotta do the work with Chara and that soulbonding thing is kinda a lot."

"Wait. So, to get this clear. You… abandoned your world, but you want to return to it?"

"I didn't abandon it," Frisk said.

A spark of anger flared in the skeleton's eyes. "Then why is it dying? Why is my s—?!" He flinched. "Why is… Sans dying?"

.

"Sans getting sick is why we left to start with," Frisk protested. "There was…" She hesitated as her thoughts shot back to the green-eyed Gaster who had started so much of this trouble. That was probably too much to shove at this skeleton all at once. "Th-There was a guy who… In another world, there was this scientist guy. He blasted through the time void place and into ours. It messed with Sans's head r-really bad— he's super sensitive to that stuff— and it… It put him into, like, a coma or something."

"That makes no sense," Gaster said, frowning deeply. "He was dying when I found him, but he was certainly not in a coma or fallen down. And that was long after you'd abandoned—"

"I didn't abandon anyone, I was trying to save him!" the kid said shrilly. "I—! I-I don't mean to… Look, I-I'm really sorry to say it like this, but if you hadn't hit me, we wouldda been home by now and he'd be safe."

"What on earth are you talking about?" He sounded cold; dubious. "You—?"

"If I was at home, right now, everyone would be safe and everything would be okay over there," Frisk insisted, tapping her index finger on the table for emphasis. "In my universe, I'm called the anchor. Sans said I hold the timeline steady. That's my job."

.

Gaster's brow was still furrowed, but some the of anger in his eyes had seeped away, its space filled by incredulity and confusion. "You abdicated."

"Huh?" The kid blinked

"You know what you—"

"I dunno what that word means."

"You left your duties," he said sharply. "You ruined them and left them to die."

"N-Not on purpose!" Frisk said. "I dunno how many times I can say it! Sans. Was. Sick! He was out, gone, kaboom, coma time! And it was 'cause of the void stuff, not even my time magic could fix him! Weeeee— me and Asriel. We. Left. To. Save. Him. We had to go fix what was wrong in a whole other universe!" She frowned a little and gripped her hands tight into the table. "There's no way my world went so wrong while we were doing that, we weren't even gone for a full day."

.

They stared at each other in confused, bristling silence, the bubbling of the tomato sauce on the stove remaining the main soundtrack for the room. An itch of frustration prickled beneath Frisk's skin. She tried to comprehend what this Gaster had seen. She took a deep breath.

"If that's what you really think, I don't understand why you wouldn't have been trying to convince me to go home."

"The damage you've done already is catastrophic," he said. "My Temporal Blaster was the safest solution."

"…Safest for who?" Frisk asked, her heart sinking into a pit.

"Everyone. It worked in the past. Not perfectly, but after some time, it forced the timelines of… horrors into some sort of normalcy."

"You think I'm a horror?" The kid drooped. "Dude." She shook her head quickly. "If you think my family would've been okay with me being some weird shadow ghost just to do some bootleg anchor job on our world, you'd be super wrong."

"…If you're talking about Asriel, I agree. I believe if I'd have succeeded, he would have killed me."

Frisk grimaced. "Sheesh, I hope not." She winced, resting her head in her hand. "Then why'd you keep going?"

He grimaced, and his voice dipped to barely more than a whisper. "What else do I have?"

"Going home?" Frisk suggested. "Your family?"

The skeleton snorted quietly. "Home is… lost. Like yours. But worse." He gritted his teeth, eyes narrowing. "Yours would have been better off if you'd stayed where I put you."

Frisk's face flushed. She couldn't help an incredulous frown. She had to temper the heat in her soul and she took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Well. I… I did what I could. While I was there. S-So… even though it sucked, I guess I should thank you?"

.

The skeleton froze up. His eyes widened and he stared at her in silence for a few moments. "Excuse me?"

"While part of me was there, when I kinda woke up, turned out the CORE was, like, jumping around so much in time that it was really screwing things up. I stuck it in like, a stable loop, I think. It's…" Frisk huffed and rubbed her head. "It's not anywhere close to fixed, but I'm really hoping it'll at least buy them some time until we can get back." She grimaced and looked up to meet his eyes. "So. You went there, too. You saw Sans."

"I saw…" He rolled his eyes. "This is pointless."

"No it isn't, we're workin' this out," she said. "You went there and you saw him."

"It was my error. I believed it was my own home, at first." Gaster scoffed at himself. "I thought, by some miracle, there had been… Something. Anything, that might have… Bloody idiot." He shook his head. "I realized my mistake after a few seconds, but I could feel the damage. It was as if it'd been degrading for… years. I traced it backwards to you."

"Right. Um. You came out of a save star?" she asked. "I mean, like, these cuts in the world, they're sorta star shaped."

"…I did. I… emerged there, to a grey world. I was going to try to take Sans with me. See if I could help him. But there was… this little purple girl who was very defensive of him. She informed me there was already someone there named Gaster. So, I did the next best thing." He gestured to Frisk.

"Wait, did Suzy…? She was there?" Frisk tilted her head. "Did she yell at you?"

"Bit me, actually." For the first time in her presence, the skeleton cracked a small, almost proud, smile. "Brave little thing."

Frisk snickered, but almost immediately tried to stop herself and put up a hand with an apologetic look on her face. "Um! Sorry, it's…! It's not that you got bit, it's…! Just, Suzy. She's tough, huh?" She scratched her cheek. "Actually, that was probably why she almost fought me, too, now that I think about it."

Gaster let out a soft, amused snort.

.

"But…" Frisk said quietly as she tried to sort her thoughts out. "Why'd you think it was your place? Was it an energy burst, did that do it?"

"It… was," Gaster said, raising a brow skeptically. "How did you know that?"

"Aah. Aaaaah. Okay. Okay, okay." She got up, taking her phone again to pull out her journal. "Okay, where was…?" She looked around for the art supplies Chara had left— they were scattered on a stool and near the bookshelf, so Frisk grabbed some quill pens and inks in different colours. "D'you wanna make a timeline with me?"

"Pardon?" the skeleton said.

"A timeline. Like, uh…" She pointed at the one he had up on the wall. "Kinda like that? I'm trying to figure this out."

"For what purpose?"

"I don't think you're lying, and I'm not lying, so I'm just tryin' to figure out how all this junk even happened." She looked at the ink pots. "Yoooou wanna be black or purple or yellow?"

"What?"

"Let's do purple."

.

After plunking the ink pots down, Frisk tore a page from the back of her journal and laid it out on the side of the table to Gaster's right. She grabbed her pen and began a red line horizontally across the paper. She traced over it a few times, pausing to wonder if the sheet was even big enough. She ripped out another page and continued the line, holding the papers in place with her arm.

"Kay, mine first," she said. "I guess this starts with, uh…" She drew the big spikes of an explosion in red on her line, near the start of it. Scrunching up her face, Frisk racked her mind, trying to make sure she had everything straight. "I'm pretty sure it starts with this thing."

"What are you talking about?" Gaster asked as he leaned a little closer.

"This big energy burst thing. Sorry, I know I'm not super good at drawing." Frisk reached for the green ink pot and a quill. "After that, the first problem happened when a guy from… Um… I'll call it, um, GreenWorld."

"GreenWorld," Gaster repeated dryly.

"Yeah, GreenWorld," she said as she drew a line in emerald ink above the red one. She marked right at the start of it and drew two arrows going back and forth from the explosion. "A guy from there was, like, drawn to it and he did his own big explosion or something." She drew another spike burst in green there, and then drew its arrow back to the red line, switched pens, and sketched a small doodle of Sans's skull. "And it crossed over into my universe and that's what messed up Sans. See?"

.

Gaster stared at the lines and, after a moment, scooted a little closer, leaning over the table. "Why this staggering?" He pointed out the gap she'd placed between the marks on the red and green lines.

"When we got to GreenWorld, they told me that the science explosion stuff happened, um, probably months back? But it took longer to hurt Sans. It started getting him, like, a month before this big thing back home." She tapped the end of her pen on the red explosion. "But we didn't really know how bad it was until he passed out and we couldn't wake him up."

.

Frisk continued for a while, jotting down more events: this Gaster's attack in the void was written in the empty space between both lines, then her jump into the distant past and return with Asriel a bit later back on the red one. She marked her father poking through worlds to message her, and her contact with Sans thanks to Pasithea, along with this Gaster's arrival in between. Next, she got another quill and the deep, purple ink, and drew a line across the bottom of the papers. She looked to the skeleton curiously.

"So, this one's yours," she said, and she pointed out the explosion in red once more. "You felt this, too, right?"

"I… believe so," he said.

"And you thought it was your place. Okay, okay, so… You… went to my house. Sans told me you were there."

"This young man?" He pointed back over his shoulder.

Frisk shook her head. "No, sorry. Heh, too many guys with the same name. Um. Back home. Sans. He warned me about you, but that was around the time you were in the ice dome, I think."

"Warned you how?"

"In a dream," she said. "Time people can kinda talk to each other in dreams. Or… see weird stuff. Like what I did with you. The, um, tracky thing you put in me and Az messed it up a bit, though."

.

Gaster crossed his arms tight against his chest. His face sank a little— Frisk wondered, was it possible that was guilt? Maybe she was just overthinking it.

.

The old skeleton let out a quiet, resigned huff. "Alright. I follow."

"Kay." Frisk marked a new spot on the red line with a little scribble of Suzy's face, placing it before the dream messaging. "I thiiiink this is here."

"That's when I entered?" he asked.

"Think so." She frowned thoughtfully. "Oooooh… I get it. We met out of order."

"I'm not sure what difference that makes," he said.

"I dunno, I think it kinda does," she said as she drew a purple arrow towards the Suzy doodle. "You get drawn in by the energy of the big boom, you head to my place, you get there late somehow, find Sans and he's sick—

"Dying," Gaster corrected cooly.

"Y-Yeah. But it's got my energy all over the place so you think I did it; you catch Asriel and I here." Frisk drew another arrow to the attack in the void. "Which knocks me to this world, then you come in when you did and then all the fighting starts." She looked up at him. "Right?"

"I…" Gaster leaned in overtop of the kid, frowning down at her work. "I suppose that… lines up."

.

Frisk couldn't help a little sigh of relief. She was fine keeping it to herself the true nature of why Gaster would have been drawn to her father's energy— as he'd explained, like attracted like. She also hoped that her father hadn't realized what exactly had happened with this stranger coming into their home. But, he was way smarter than she was. If she'd figured it out, he probably would have, too, and she could bet he'd be a complete mess about it.

.

She watched Gaster for a moment as his eyes flickered. His index finger carefully traced along the lines. She looked down at the sheets and carefully put the purple quill aside.

"Can I ask? What were you doing before you came after me?"

"Trying to gather some information," he said. "It's not your concern."

"Oooookay." She tilted her head. "…About what?"

"I just said—"

"Yeah, I know, but, like, can I help?" she asked.

The old skeleton's eyes went dark. He hurriedly drew away from her as if he'd been shocked by static, and got up to pace the small room. "What you say makes no difference. I'm not about to make a deal for my world with some creature like y—"

"Who said anything about a deal?" Frisk asked as she stared at him in bafflement. "What the heck do you think I want to do?"

"It doesn't matter. It's the nature of what you are. You'll consume timelines. Just like the others did."

"What?!" Frisk would have laughed if she wasn't so deeply confused. "Are you kidding?!"

"Of course not." Gaster's eyes gleamed again. "After what you did to Chara—"

"I didn't do anything to Chara," Frisk said.

"She was twisted into ripping the fabric of the world by a plethora of time entities, surely—"

She scowled. "I'm not all time entities, you know. I'm just me." She drooped, rubbing a hand through her hair. "Besides, I'm probably just as mad at them as you are."

"Unlikely," he said. He came to a halt and cut his eyes at her. "…Why?"

"Because they killed the heck outta everyone who ever meant anything to me, on loop, like, all the time," Frisk said. "They kept tryin' to wipe out my universe, too; it's literally just 'cause of my anchor stuff and that whatever Chara was doing kept triggering resets by accident that we were still around at all." She winced. "I know what Chara did was… I know it hurt the world. A lot. But she wasn't thinking straight because of the angry ghost stuff; it's the other time kids that did, like, the villain feedback loop thing with her. If they hadn't—"

"You aren't really making your case."

"I don't have a case," Frisk retorted. "All I'm saying is, you can think whatever you want about me, but I sure as heck didn't do that bit."

.

Gaster stopped wandering. He propped his back against the wall and stared down at her with eyes like ice. Frisk huffed and gestured to the timelines she'd drawn.

"I never wanted any of this to happen, y'know?"

"It's too late for that," Gaster said.

"I know. I know, I know." She huffed. "I… I had to. I hate it. I didn't know what else to do." She gritted her teeth. "I know it's selfish. I know. But I couldn't lose Sans. I couldn't…" Her voice snagged. "I couldn't let him get st-stuck. Not again. He keeps getting stuck for so long and it's not fair and…" Her fingers locked into her shirt as her soul pulsed red through her skin. "Ugh. S-Sorry. Never mind."

.

Gaster leaned forward a little. The crease in his brow had softened just enough to remove the contempt from his expression. "You keep mentioning him. Why?"

"I t-told you—"

"That he was sick. I know. But why this fixation? What use do you have for him? I don't understand."

Frisk blinked back at him. She felt the wetness in her eyes and quickly knuckled it away. "Because h-he's my brother. I love him. Duh."

.

Gaster's brows raised high. Frisk sighed and shook her head. A cool heaviness settled in her chest and her eyes welled up before she could help herself.

"Never mind," she repeated as she brushed the tears away. "I know you don't believe it. That's fine."

"…He's my son," Gaster said.

Frisk nodded. "I know. So is Papyrus. Sorry, I know it must've been hard to not talk to these guys about it, even if it's kinda different." She preemptively wiped her nose on the back of her hand. "B-But, Papyrus is… He's the best. If you need someone to talk to, he'd be great."

"It would be presumptuous," he said under his breath.

The kid shook her head. "Naw, he'd be happy to. I know it."

.

Gaster's fingertips clenched deep into his arms. He frowned off at nothing for a while as Frisk tried to keep her mind from running away with her. Even so, her chest hurt and her soul was aching. No matter what Asriel said, so much of this still felt like her fault, but she had no idea what else she could have done. Maybe if she were older; smarter, she could have subverted some of what went wrong. Maybe she could have come up with a real, solid plan rather than just hoping to return home quick enough, as if she were trying to sprint across a field to catch a ball she'd thrown before it crashed through a window. Gaster was right to blame her for her timeline degrading, at least a bit, she was sure of that.

.

The people who knew wouldn't be mad, a little voice in the back of her head told her. They all loved Sans, too. They'd understand.

.

Frisk gripped tight to her pen, tapping it heavily against the paper. Maybe that was true, or maybe it was just a lie to make herself feel well enough to function, but, either way, she still felt sick.

.

Gaster's voice called her from her worries and she looked up at him quickly.

"Aah, um, sorry, what?" she said. "I kinda zoned out."

"It's fine," he said quietly. "The… name they've been calling you, is that the correct one?"

Frisk's eyebrows shot up. "Uh. Which one? My name's Frisk. No, um, Dreemurr, though, they've just been callin' me that because of Chara. And the whole Demon of Starhome, that's all some made up title thingy."

"I see." He looked a little uncomfortable.

The kid was pretty sure she knew why he was asking. She tapped herself on the chest. "It's the name on my soul, right? My… My dad gave it to me."

"…Your father?" Gaster's brow furrowed. "How—?"

"Whole family is skeletons," Frisk said. "I'm just, uh… human? 'Cause of the whole… determination-time-kid-anchor thing. I think."

"I… Hm." Gaster leaned forward off the wall and his shoulders seemed to loosen a little. "I… have to confess, I'm a little surprised to hear you have a father."

"Yeeeeah, same." She tried to push down a smile at the absurdity of saying that while looking him in the face, but was only half-successful. "Do… the other ones not have parents?"

"I have no idea. None of them mentioned a soul except for Toriel, every once in a while. That's… not conclusive, obviously." He held out his hands almost as if in apology. "I had assumed a time entity was just that— some entity of time, made of… determination. I see you're familiar with the term."

Frisk nodded. "Yeah. Kinda my thing. I'm definitely that." She cocked her head to the side. "D'you…? Did you wanna feel my soul or anything? Is that helpful? I think sometimes that's helpful. I'm not super good at explaining how this stuff works."

.

Gaster opened his mouth as if to answer, but his voice faltered. His eyes lit and his cheekbones flushed as if he might be sick. Frisk got up worriedly, though before she could ask, a weak flicker of blue magic grasped her soul and hefted her up off her feet. She squeaked as she was lifted up before the skeleton, whose fingers shook as he cautiously held her shoulder with one hand and he drew out the dyed-blue of her soul with the other. Glints of red still sparkled beneath the magic's weakened veneer, and the iridescent star gleamed across its surface.

.

He released the kid abruptly, coughing silently into his fist as she stumbled to the ground.

"Jeez, you couldda just asked," Frisk said.

The skeleton tried to regain himself and stared down at her, brows raised; eyes wide. His hand strayed to his chest and he flinched. Slowly, he straightened up and pointed at the door.

"You want me to leave?" she asked.

He nodded, though he didn't look annoyed or angry at all. He paused a moment and then pointed to himself, and then to the side of his skull.

"Okay, that's cool," she said. "You can come out and talk more whenever, okay?"

He nodded again.

.

Frisk headed for the table to gather up her things. As she reached for the cube, he stalled her with a careful hand on her shoulder and pointed to it. Frisk's eyes widened and she offered it to him.

"You wanna see this?"

The old skeleton carefully accepted the cube in both hands. He turned it over, his fingers tracing the lines of symbols. A little squeeze and the spots beneath his fingertips lit with a subtly-shifting blue and gold.

.

"Where did you get this?" he asked, his voice crackling and low as if he hadn't had a drink in days.

"Oof. That's kinda a long story," she said.

"…It's one of a kind," he said.

Frisk's heart thumped. She smiled sheepishly. "Twoooo of a kind, actually. The, um, monster who made it made a copy for me."

Gaster's head jerked up and his gaze locked with hers. Once more, his irises flickered with colour as his face was painted with bafflement and incredulity. "H… How?"

"She just kinda split it into two somehow."

"How did you meet her?" he insisted.

"Oh! Um. Yeah, that's the long story bit," Frisk said. "Time travel stuff, I guess. D'you… wanna borrow it for a little?"

"I… I do."

"Cool." Frisk said. She pointed her thumb back over her shoulder. "I'll, um, give you some space? But maybe, if you…? If you want? Tell me more about your world? Later, I mean."

"…We'll see," he muttered.

.

The kid nodded. She picked up the pouch of boosters and pulled out one clear, star-shaped crystal. She snuck up to him and held it out. He looked at her skeptically.

"For the offkeys stuff," she said. "I won't tell anyone."

Gaster hesitated, but he carefully plucked it from between her fingers. Frisk smiled.

"Oookay, see you a bit later, then!" She headed for the door, but then turned around quickly. "Oh! Could I ask, like, a teeny favour?"

The skeleton raised a brow at her. She pointed back towards the pot on the stove.

"If it's just you in here, would you mind stirring that every once in a while?"

"Uh." He turned to follow the line of her finger. "Right."

Frisk smiled and flicked a little red star from her finger his way before heading out.

.

The cabin door was framed with black-barked trees that hadn't been there before. The leaves rustled wildly and, with a little yelp, Asriel came tumbling out of the branches and stumbled to the ground, almost tripping over Frisk in the process. She squeaked as they tumbled over, but she couldn't help a laugh, grabbing his arm to pull herself up.

"Aaah, sorry," he said.

"Did you make a tree room?" she asked.

"Nnoooo, just normal trees," he said.

"Friend!" Papyrus carefully climbed down the other tree, Chara sitting on his shoulder. "How'd it go?"

"You guys weren't listening in?" Frisk asked, sliding her hands under Asriel's ears and flopping them up and down.

The boy snickered. "Only a little," he said. "Can't help it. Didn't hear too much, though."

"We were setting up a just-in-case safety precaution ambush!" Papyrus asserted.

"An extremely obvious ambush," Chara said as he placed her on the ground. She headed for Frisk and dipped down, holding her shoulders. "You look alright. How'd it go?"

"Good, I think," Frisk said. "We wrote a timeline and he felt my soul and he didn't try to kill me at all! And, oh!" She pulled out the parasol. "Did you know this is a sword?"

"Hm?" Chara took it from her and turned it over a couple times before her fingers found the hilt hidden in the handle. She drew the blade with a gleam in her eye. "Oh. That's a nice one."

"Pffft! Chara!" Asriel teased.

"It's a bit like if you took a wakizashi and straightened it out. Definitely above marketknight levels, but—"

"What's a marketknight?" Asriel asked.

"You know, someone who buys a lot of over-designed, low-grade weapons just to look cool." She flashed him a grin.

"Th-They weren't low-grade!" he protested.

Chara laughed. "Anyway. It's not bad. It's not quite as nice as mine, but that's to be expected," she said, sheathing the blade again. "A little thin. I'm sure you could use it for something." She shot Frisk an apologetic smile as she returned the parasol "Well. Maybe not you."

.

"Not to interrupt, friends, but…" Papyrus looked back towards the door. "Are we feeling good about this, or…?"

"I'm feeling okay about it," Frisk said.

"Learn anything interesting?" Chara asked.

Frisk gave a little shrug. "We definitely met out of order. And I'm pretty sure he still hates me. But I think he at least hates me a tiny bit less." She grinned. "He sat close to me on his own and he actually felt my soul and stuff."

"Hm. That's something, at least," Chara said with a nod.

"Then he has to for sure know you're not evil, right?" Asriel said.

"I dunno, maybe," Frisk said. "You guys still wanna go outside a bit? I can just, like, explain everything."

"Might as well," Chara said.

.

They found Mistral and Sans chatting near the portal, the former not willing to depart until she'd given Frisk a thorough check for injuries or surreptitious wards. Thankfully, there were none. Though Sans decided to stay back, the others ventured out in the bright, clear daylight and cool breeze that whirled around the base of the mountain. Mistral headed off on her own to report back to the castle, and the kids strolled in the field.

.

Frisk told them what they'd talked about but really, to her, the most important thing was that he'd agreed to talk at all. To her, Gaster still seemed lost, as if he had no idea what steps to take next; what to say or what to hold onto. Revealing Sans— some version of him, somewhere else— was his son seemed to have been close to a slip, but she was glad he'd said it anyway.

.

"Nyeeehh, I guess that makes him another-me's father, too," Papyrus said. "That's an extremely weird feeling."

"Yeah, tell me about it," Frisk said. "But, that means you're kinda lucky. He's just gonna like you."

"Well, I would hope so!" He scratched his chin. "Maybe I can be a bit of the Papyrus after all?"

"Maybe," Chara said with a joking smile.

"Another thing," the skeleton said. "Friend, you didn't bring that box with you this time. Did you leave it with him?"

"Yep," Frisk said. "Maaaybe I shouldn'ta brought it in there? But he, um, recognized it. Since… Y'know."

"Avenir made it," Asriel said. "Heh. Oops. Maybe he knows a secret about it, though."

"I dunno," she said. "But I figured, like… He really wanted to look at it, so it'd be mean to not let him."

"As long as he doesn't do anything screwed up to it," the boy said.

"Like what? Use the little light-up bits to write about how he hates me?" Frisk joked. "I'm not too worried."

"Faaaair."

.

"Hm. What I wanna know is, who was that weird mystery person that stopped him from going into the CORE," Chara said, shooting a sideways look at Frisk. "Did you talk about that?"

"Didn't get to it," Frisk said. "I think he probably said everything he knew about that at breakfast."

"Hm." The girl frowned, scrunching up her nose in displeasure. "Because, it seems to me, whatever the hell this is, it stems from that event. I don't know if that matters anymore, though."

"I still don't think it was you," Asriel said.

"I have no idea. But even a hint of redirection didn't do a thing to him," she said with a shake of her head. "He's still fixated on Frisk."

"Well, I mean, it probably was some time kid," Frisk said. "I dunno why, though. Like, maybe they…? Wanted tooo… solve something?"

"Or they wanted to permanently ruin that whole timeline," Chara said grimly.

"Or maybe they figured out part of the missing Gaster thing but not all of it," Asriel said. "There were lots of little bits. Could be they thought him not going into the void might help something?"

"That sounds… optimistic," she said. "But. I guess there's no way to know, yeah? Not unless he tells us."

.

Papyrus's brow furrowed in an uncharacteristically troubled frown. He reached out for Chara and grabbed her hand, shooting her a pointed look with a glimmer of orange in his eyes. Her shoulders sagged a little and she cracked a small smile.

"I'm fine," she said.

"Nnnnnot quite yet you're not," he said.

"Chara, I don't think you wouldda ever been so mad at everything that you somehow figured out how to time travel back, like, more than ten years just to mess with some guy who fell into the CORE," Frisk said with a sympathetic smile. "If that's anyone, that's gotta be some time kid."

"That… Uh. I… guess that does make a little sense," the freckled girl said quietly.

"Thank you!" Asriel said, throwing his hands up in exasperation.

Frisk smiled sheepishly and Chara let out a little chuckle.

.

"It's all extremely strange," Papyrus said. "I wish he would be a little more candid with what exactly went wrong. Frisk, did you happen to come up with something that could help him?"

"Not yet," she said.

"Maybe he needs to steal Sans's time machine and push himself into the CORE," Asriel said.

"I think that's probably more than a few paradoxes," Chara said.

"I-I was kinda joking," the boy said.

"Still."

"Plus if he never died in the CORE, Sans never made a time machine," Frisk said. "It was to go see what happened when stuff blew up."

"Oh. Uh. Right." Asriel scratched his head. "Yeah, then I got no clue. Could…? Could he borrow our brother's?"

"I'm not sending him to your world," Chara said. "No way. I don't even think we can."

.

Asriel hummed thoughtfully. "What about Sans's memories, then?" he wondered. "Anything there that could help?"

Frisk scrunched up her face. "I… I have a little bit of the building memories but they're really, really old now. I dunno. I could maybe draw the plans of like, one or two pieces still, but I wouldn't wanna get something wrong and have it blow up."

"Yeah, I guess that's not that helpful, then," Asriel said apologetically.

"Pretty impressive that your memory is even close to that precise," Chara said.

Frisk shrugged. "It's, um… kinda weird. Like, it was important so it stuck around, but also it was fooooreeever ago for him and he only built one, so it's not like everything is a hundred percent clear." She smiled bashfully. "If I actually knew anything about it for real, I might be able to make something, but, um… Yeah, no, I don't think so. Plus, that took him months and months and he's actually super science smart and I'm not, soooo…"

"So, wait, if your brother had, say, built this machine a week or so before you soulbonded for that first time, you might be able to recreate it from memory?" Papyrus said, wide-eyed.

"Oh! I dunno about that, but maybe some parts of it. At least some of the plans. I sorta get to cheat and keep some basic machine common sense stuff from him— I remember that pretty well— but a lot of older stuff kinda gets blurry the same way some of my own stuff does, but there's just a tooooon more of it. Stuff that was more recent was a lot sharper. I have a bunch of super clear memories of like, shows I've never watched, and making hot dog sandwiches, and how to sew a bit," Frisk said. "I think I could maybe make, like… a big shirt. Like, Papyrus's battle body. Yeah. Think I could make that."

"Well, at least one of those things is useful," Chara teased.

"I dunno, maybe two of them," Frisk said, sticking her tongue out.

"Good thing you must have a malleable little brain, still," the girl said, gently grabbing Frisk's head in both hands and giving it a squeeze. "I know how weird it is having memories that aren't yours in there."

"I got kinda lucky," the kid said with a sheepish smile. "But, wouldda been cool if all the Creatlach stuff wasn't stuck in the void zone at the time, or else maybe I couldda read the wall notes." She looked to Papyrus. "Did that work for you?"

"Oh! Yes, definitely, a little bit. That was very interesting," he said.

.

"Speaking of," Chara said, "I… guess we should head back."

"Why?" Asriel asked.

"Sans and I should get to work."

"Sister, please," Papyrus said swiftly.

"Isn't that kinda a lot?" Frisk asked.

"It's the only way you two get to go home," Chara said.

The kid pouted. She grabbed Chara's hands. "You're working too hard. I-I don't want you to pass out or something, okay?"

"You know there's no other way."

"There's definitely a way more than you speed-running soulbond junk," Asriel said, plucking Chara off the ground.

"H-Hey!"

"Even just a few hours' gap will help," Papyrus said sympathetically. "Sans won't mind waiting."

.

"Is your head still too busy?" Frisk asked.

"I… Ugh." Chara's gaze dropped to the ground. She grabbed Asriel's hands. "Put me down, you hairball."

"Nope." He pulled her into a hug and, despite her exasperated sigh, she relaxed. "Look, it's actually a really nice day and stuff, isn't there something you'd rather be doing than hanging out in a cave?"

"I…" She grimaced. Her fingers dug into her brother's shoulders. "I'd kill to just sleep in my own bed for a little while."

"Then let's do that," Asriel said. "We can go back to Snowdin for a bit, right?"

"I think we better!" Papyrus said brightly.

"Then put me down, I can walk," Chara said.

Asriel only clutched her tighter, readjusting to support her legs. "Nope."

Frisk held in a snicker as the girl grumbled, but that seemed to be mostly for show.

.

A portal-trip later and the group arrived in the icy fields just at the edge of town. The cold wind of Snowdin was a shock compared to the bright, sunny, mid-spring glow beyond the Soul. The town was bustling with monsters in good spirits and decorated with stars fastened to fences and signposts that hadn't been there before. A few small market stalls were hocking mostly t-shirts and postcards to a handful of tourists, if they were to be judged by their dress.

.

The kids headed straight for home. As Asriel took Chara inside, Frisk waited with Papyrus as an extra set of arms for all the letters and packages he dragged out of the overstuffed mailbox by the side of the house. Inside, Papyrus snapped his fingers to bring warm light to the dim, cool living room, then dumped everything onto the low table near the couch. Frisk did the same.

.

Most of the letters were for Sans, marked with seals from the castle or from Alphys, a few of them marked with stamps of urgency in escalating sizes. A handful were addressed to Toriel, and there was a stack for Chara as well. Only one was addressed to both Chara and Papyrus and, much to Frisk's surprise, there were two for her, as well.

"Gasp!" Papyrus plucked up the envelope with his name on it and grinned. "Ooh! I know this writing!"

"You gonna open it?" Frisk asked.

"I'll wait for Chara," he said. "Ooh, what did you get…?" His face instantly fell. He pointed to one of the envelopes that was speckled with stars and hearts, and had the address written in glittering ink. "Beeeetter wait to show Sans before opening that one."

"Oh yeah?" Frisk lifted it up. "Why?"

"Beeeeecause, wellllll…" He fumbled for words for a few moments. "Sssssometimes, when Mettaton wants something, he sneaks suspicious contracts into unsuspecting envelopes annnnd maybe just to be safe you could just wait a bit so that he doesn't magically get permission to put your face on novelty drink cups or something."

"Sounds like you have experience," the kid said.

"If it were my face, I wouldn't mind!" he said. "But my sister absolutely did mind, soooo…"

Frisk snickered, picturing a bunch of the MTT merch from back home but with Chara's scowling face printed all over it. "Kay. Fair." She picked up the other envelope with her name on it and held it up. "What about this one?"

"That looks normal!" he assured her.

.

As Frisk carefully tore at the edge of the envelope, Asriel came out of the middle room on the second floor and wandered down the stairs, yawning wide enough to show all of his sharp teeth.

"D'you need a nap, too?" Frisk asked.

"Always," the boy joked. He flopped onto the couch behind her and leaned forward, skimming the table. "Ah. He's the same here, huh?"

"Yup," Frisk said as she pulled her letter out of the envelope.

The paper was unusually thick, and when she unfolded it, she was met with a large, golden paw print in a circle of red ink in the centre of the page, and an array of little golden paw prints scattered all along the edges.

"Ooh, I got a dog poster," she said.

"Who from? Grumf?" Asriel asked, taking the envelope and peeking inside. He let out a startled bleat when a bunch of bone-shaped cookies tumbled out onto his lap. "Jeez!"

Frisk burst out laughing and Papyrus stifled a cackle behind his hands.

"Seems like they think you're a very good kid!" he said.

Asriel snorted, gather up the biscuits by the handful and putting them on the table before cautiously peeking inside the unassuming envelope. "Okay, that's it."

.

"I really like all the dog stuff here," Frisk said. "I'm gonna miss them." She hopped up on the couch and gingerly folded the paper back up. Her mouth drooped into a soft pout. "Feels weird, y'know? To feel bad about the going home thing? I miss them so much I wanna puke sometimes, but I already feel so weird about… maybe not seeing some of these guys again. Even the ones we don't know that well."

"I know," Asriel said. "Like, I wanna go back so bad, but I wish we could just…" He huffed and chuckled weakly, cutting his eyes at his sister. "Any way to use that time god power to smoosh two universes together?"

"Oh, man, Gaster'd wanna kill me even more if I could do something like that," Frisk said with a laugh. "Probably like twenty Gasters would come to try to kill me all at the same time." She frowned thoughtfully. "I… Hm. D'you think we can send mail through the void?"

"There's no way," Asriel grumbled.

"Don't worry so much," Papyrus said. "Chara's plan'll work. It… It has to. Absolutely."

"I… I think so, too," Frisk said. "But I'm still kinda scared."

Papyrus cooed and bent down to take her by the hand. "Please don't be scared!"

.

"Think we could phone, somehow?" Asriel wondered. "Should I leave my phone here?"

"If we could do that, I wouldda been calling home like all the time," Frisk said with a laugh, pulling out her phone. "I couldn't even send texts. I've been spamming Paps and nothing." She brought up their messages and scrolled her finger down the screen to show them: each one was marked as undelivered. "See?"

"Dang, how long you been doin' that?" Asriel asked.

"Oh, like, almost this whole time," Frisk said as she put it away again. "That's not even half of them. I was kinda hoping at least one would get through, but he didn't send anything back, and I know for sure if he got something, he wouldda said something."

"Huh." The boy frowned. "But I texted you, right?"

"…Yeah, guess so," she said.

"But it didn't work in that other place."

"Uhh… Yeah. Guess not. That's weird," Frisk said. She took out her phone and dialled Asriel's number, but all that replied to her was strange, quiet static noises. Sticking her tongue out absently, she texted him with a similar emoji.

His phone buzzed in his pocket and he grabbed it, then made the same face. "Why?"

"How am I supposed to know how weird time phones work?" she joked.

.

"It might be that it has a crystal component inside?" Papyrus suggested. "Do you know how they're made?"

"Only that our Alphys did it," Asriel said. He stared at his phone and frowned. "…You sure I shouldn't leave it here?"

"I mean, you can if you want," Frisk said with a shrug. "I just don't really see the point. If my weird one can't call out, I don't think yours is gonna."

"Crap."

"What makes it weird?" Papyrus asked as he carefully took it, spinning it over in his sharp fingers. "It doesn't look too unusual compared to Asriel's."

"Oh! Um. I'm not super sure. It's hard to explain," Frisk said as he held it up to the side of his head and squinted, focusing intently, "but it's been kinda sturdier with time stuff ever since my dad was sending me messages from the void through it. I think maybe stuff that touches the void kinda becomes a bit weird like that? Oh! Actually, Az, maybe that means yours is like that, now, too?"

"I dunno, maybe?"

"Iiiinteresting." Papyrus returned the device. "Nyeh. This all seems very techy and timey and complicated, and not anywhere in my realm of expertise."

"…Ehhh… Lemme just…" Asriel dialled a number and stuck the device under his ear and waited. He pouted, then tried again. After a few seconds, he shook his head and stuffed the thing back in his pocket. "Yeah, never mind, you're right, it's just nothing. Not even the waiting sound." He slumped and stared up at the ceiling "Maaaaan…"

.

"Ugh, imagine if it were that easy after all that crystal stuff?" Frisk said with a sideways smile.

"Chara'd kill us," Asriel said with a laugh. "Sorry, I…" He let out a little, tired huff. "I guess I'm… just kinda desperate."

"Trust her, then," Papyrus said gently. "Our sister is very good, and very smart, and is very thorough in her planning even if she is a bit sneaky about it sometimes."

"I know, I know." He rubbed his forehead. "You're right. Sorry. This was dumb."

"Don't be sorry! You're worried!" the skeleton insisted. He hopped upright and put a hand to his chest. "Alright! Enough stewing and letting the doom-thoughts spiral into all-consuming nonsense! Allow the great Papyrus to direct some distracting activities for a little bit!"

"Like what?" Asriel asked.

"Well, I was planning on popping by the alchemy store," he said, "and maybe trading some of those star boosters for something! And picking up a few things from the market! And doing some laundry!"

"Ah. Chores."

"I could go for some chores," Frisk said quietly. "But, Chara's asleep, is she fine here like that?"

"Hm?!" Papyrus looked perplexed for a moment before his eyes lit right up. "Oh! Nyeh heh heh! Of course, she's fourteen-ish, you don't have to worry about her staying alone," he assured them.

Asriel sighed. He gave Frisk a little thump on the back before heaving himself to his feet. "I guess bit more daylight wouldn't be so bad."

"Excellent!" Papyrus said brightly.

.

The skeleton lead them back out into the cold with a bounce in his step. The apothecary shop was the first stop, and Miss Naja greeted them warmly.

.

Papyrus proudly displayed his new jacket and how it worked, and even showed off the water he'd collected from the falls near Aethra's home. The purple serpent was elated and she made Papyrus promise to tell her about anything he might create with it, which he was more than happy to do. The skeleton also took a moment to explain the simple but refreshing beltaine potion he'd made from what Frisk had been given and, with a little nudge, Asriel told her exactly what the brew made from the hyacinth had done to him. Miss Naja was almost glowing with pride by the end.

.

As a few other customers filtered in, Papyrus hurried to trade in some of the star boosters for a generous amount of coin and some more of the beltaine flowers and dried chamomile. On the way out, when no-one else was looking, Asriel gave the serpent a tight, grateful hug before rushing away after the others.

.

Papyrus whisked them away all over the town— off to get their stuff cleaned up, to pick up some extra chocolate and fruits, and then grab some frozen dumplings from the restaurant. When they got back to the house, Chara was still snoozing away. Somehow, every letter for Sans and the mysterious MTT envelope were gone from the table.

.

Nestled in her striped hoodie that was warm from toasty, drying fire magic, Frisk curled up on the couch beside her brother. He was starting to tire again— too much plant magic, he figured. Frisk didn't really have an excuse, but she decided that she could go for a nap, too. Plus, even if it wasn't exactly restful, she could use it as a chance to try to reach out to her brothers.

.

When Papyrus left to check on Chara, Frisk took a quick look around the bookshelves and found the comic that had given the skeleton nightmares stashed behind the largest one of them. She fished it out and tucked it inside a large joke book before settling back in with Asriel. As the monster snored softly, she skimmed the stark, stylized pages.

.

She couldn't read the words, but she tried to let her imagination run away with her, painting creatures with giant fangs hunting through the dark with beaming red eyes and long-fingered hands grabbing from every shadow. It was pretty spooky, she thought, but she was sure she'd seen worse in real life. She kept going for a few minutes more, but nothing was even making her hair prickle. She gently kicked the comic under the couch and put the joke book aside.

.

Maybe some real memories, then. She leaned back, closed her eyes, and pictured the golden hallway and the horrible, sinking dread that came along with it, but imagining Sans there, even as cold as he'd become standing there at the end of the world, somehow made her nostalgic. She put a hand to her face and snorted out a short, tired laugh. She really was hopeless.

.

Frisk tried to let her mind go blank instead, but little worries kept flitting in. About home; about here. About the past. About what came next. What could she do? She had all that power and she still had no idea what she should even d—

.

Blue.

.

She blinked and her whole vision was washed over an icy, bright blue. She looked around quickly, her heart thudding. She stood in a white, bare plane, and before her was not a sky, but a sphere, larger than she could fathom. She began to beam.

"No way, it actually—?! Ohmigosh. Sans?! Can you hear me?!"

.

Excitement sped her heartbeat and she rushed towards the edge of the colour, peering through desperately for her brother. The colour shifted lightly where she pressed her hands against it.

"Sans?" she asked. She leaned as close as she could to the strange divider in space and looked around.

There was thing far off on her left-hand side. Just a little lump. Frisk's mouth went dry and she raced towards it.

.

As she drew closer, her heart lifted and a relieved laugh bubbled from her throat. The lump was exactly who she was looking for, sitting lazily, shoulders slumped; back to her.

"Sans?" she called. "Ah… Heck, you can't hear me. Um…" She knocked on the sheet of blue and the small flash of her magic shifted it for an instant to a starburst of red.

.

Eyes lighting up, Frisk clunked her fist against the blue. Every hit gleamed a little more brightly.

"Come on, Sans. Coooome on, Sans," she muttered.

.

Nothing.

.

She hit with both fists, red shocks striking across the surface and fading quickly. She grimaced, frowning in thought. When Sans had drawn on the orb from his side the first time she'd been here, she could see just the faintest outline around the magic, but when she'd tried to write to him, it was like he couldn't see hers at all until it changed to purple.

.

She tried to focus into the glow of her soul, bringing it out shining and bright. She let the magic and heat seep red from her palms and smacked them against the blue realm as hard as she could. She was rewarded with a big flash of red, turning violet at just the edges and stinging in her palms. She pulled back to shake them out with a quick little ow ow ow, then rubbed her hands together and did it again. Each time, the pulse was bigger; the purpling edge brighter and wider.

"Come on, come ooonnnn," she muttered. She drew back a few steps, took a deep breath, and then flung herself at the wall.

She toppled over at the impact but the flash was massive and so bright she had to shield her eyes for a second. She blinked, hard, and, to her surprise, she saw the form of her brother shift.

.

She scrambled upright just as he sluggishly turned his head, peering just over his shoulder with bleary eyes. Frisk hopped up and down and waved.

"Sans!"

The skeleton's eyes were suddenly wide, the lights in his eyes shrunk to shocked pinpricks. He stumbled a little getting to his feet and turned to her. She beamed and waved. He looked almost like he couldn't believe it, cracking a warm, relieved smile. As he headed for her, Frisk couldn't help but bounce on her toes, but just as he almost reached, the whole world collapsed into streaks of sand and darkness.

.

Frisk let out a dismayed shriek as her stomach dropped and pitch black engulfed her. Only little glimmers of white and blue drifting like snow remained.

"No no no no no, come on! Th-That's—! That's not fair, come on!" Frisk let her soul burn from her chest, calling out as loud as she could, but she couldn't feel Sans at all. "Dang it! Crap crap crap, that's not fair!" Her eyes welled up and she wiped them quickly. "SANS, IF YOU CAN HEAR ME?! LOVE YOU! WE'RE ALMOST THERE, OKAY?!"

.

Silence.

.

The sparkles faded. Frisk was left just with the sound of her own sniffling in a cool, impenetrable darkness. She took a deep breath. Maybe he woke up really fast, she told herself. It wouldn't be the first time.

"Heck," she muttered. "Ugh. Th-That sucks. That super sucks." She sat down and rubbed her face with her palms. "Crap."

.

As she tried to regain herself, it wasn't long before Frisk noticed that the silence wasn't quite so silent any longer. Some faint melody was seeping through. She got to her feet quickly, wiping her eyes again, and listened. There was something familiar about it, but she couldn't quite place it. Her mind did a strange tumble of déjà vu.

.

The mumble of a voice spun her in place and she caught sight of a grey form, standing out like a beacon in the darkness. Claws of dread clutched at her insides and Frisk hurried towards it. The rhythm of a low, male voice in the backs of her ears urged her to hurry. Soon, the whispers of words formed, almost as much in her head as outside it.

"It was all for nothing. I started this. Of course I did. Nothing I do will change anything. Hopeless. Worthless"

"Gaster?" Frisk asked.

"My fault. What a fool. An idiot. I can't… I… can't… It was all for nothing. I started this. Of course I did…"

Frisk pushed herself to run faster as the words began to loop. "Gaster?!"

.

The form she was sure was him began to take shape before her, a grey skeleton sitting, curled up in the bleak nothingness, hands clasped to his skull with the void seeping like smoke from the crack in his head.

"Gaster, are…? Are you dreaming?" she called. "It's a nightmare, try to wake up!"

He was still mumbling the same things, over and over. As Frisk got closer, she froze with horror for the briefest of seconds as she noticed his legs were starting to sink. He was tilting to the side and the sound his soul was making was starting to slow like a music box running out of energy.

"Wait," she said hoarsely. "Wait wait wait." She started to run again. "Gaster, wait!"

.

Frisk sprinted for him as his whole body began to drop as if into quicksand. "No no no no no, wake up!"

Up to his waist. "…It was all for nothing. I started this…"

"GASTER!"

Up to his shoulders. "Worthless."

"WAKE UP!"

It was over his face now. Frisk's chest burned and she ran as fast as her legs could carry her, flinging herself forward into a dive. She grasped one of his hands tight in both of hers before it vanished completely.

Intense weight dragged downwards but Frisk glowed with iridescent red and held firm as she could. It was a dream, she reminded herself. Real physics didn't have to matter. Suddenly, he felt a little lighter.

.

Cautiously, Frisk looked down and, somehow, though where she lay felt solid, she could see the entirety of the skeleton dangling below her as if suspended over a great, black ocean. She gulped.

"G-Gaster," she squeaked. "Wake up. P-Please. This isn't good."

Slowly, the grey skeleton tilted his head back, but his eyes looked dead as he stared blankly up at her.

"You don't understand," he said softly. "It was me."

"Okay, so?!"

"It was me, the whole time," he said. "Everything. Everything. My failures. Nothing I did—"

"Snap outta it!" she said. "Whatever it is, I know you were just tryin' to protect your family!"

"From me. From what I did. From what I made. I've failed them, completely." His head sunk in exhaustion. "Let me go."

"No way," she grunted. "We can still fix this!"

"We can't." His arm began to go limp. "I can't."

"Stop it! Stop giving up, stop—!" Frisk choked on her words. "Oooh no. No no no no, you can't give up! You can't! We're almost there!"

"…Where?" he whispered. "I see nothing. My sons are the only things of worth left of me. And even they are… doomed."

"Then help me fix it!" Frisk said.

"I can't…"

"Yes you can!" she insisted. "You need to tell me about your world, still! You need to! Without you, I can't do anything to help them!"

"…Then I've failed them, for the final time," he muttered. "…I'm sorry."

.

The skeleton's limp body was suddenly as heavy as a boulder. Frisk grunted, sweating, and grasped to him as tight as she could.

"Y-You're being a real pain right now!" she squeaked.

He grunted. His soul was crackling. Frisk grimaced. She pushed the glow of her soul brighter and tried to reach for his.

"Please stop," she said. "C'mon. Th-This is nuts, you can't just… You're Gaster, you're the smartest guy, you gotta know this is… This isn't right, you can't just give up, you gotta stay determined! I know you got it in you! I KNOW it!"

.

Though Gaster didn't answer, his soul did, sparking with the faintest tint of colour. The weight was suddenly a bit more bearable. Frisk let out a sigh of relief and peered down at him. Her heart thumped but she carefully readjusted her grip, leaning down to to grasp tight to his upper arm.

.

She let herself drift down as if suspended in water and she grabbed his face in both hands, drawing his head in to bonk her forehead against his hard enough for him to jolt, his tired eyes blinking open.

"What—?"

"Your head's a mess, dude, knock it off," she said. "Can you wake up?"

He stared into her bright red eyes for a few long, silent seconds. The smallest glitter of colour flared in his irises for just an instant before they dimmed again. "I… don't see the point."

"Well, try," she ordered. "I'm coming to get you."

"There's no poi—"

"HEY!" she said loudly. "I'm coming to get you! Can you blast me?"

"…What?"

"Ugh, never mind," Frisk said. She let her soul roil and burn in her chest. "Asriel, get me outta here, coomeee ooooonnn—!"

.

Frisk suddenly jolted awake in the light of the Snowdin houses's living room, her head spinning as if she'd just fallen from a skyscraper. Chara was sitting across from her, paintbrush in hand, some thick paper propped up on a small easel against her knee. Asriel, beside her, had her phone and his linked up by a wire and had a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, don't move too much, I was trying to paint you," Chara protested.

"You get stuck?" Asriel asked. "You okay? Also, hope you don't mind, I was gonna just transfer my stuff 'cause I decided to leave my phone anyway for Chara to watch anime and—"

Frisk stumbled to her feet, clutching her head. Her siblings looked at her, wide-eyed.

"Uh, Frisk?" he said.

"I-I gotta get Gaster," she croaked.

"What?" Chara asked.

"I gotta get him, h-he's falling, I gotta get him!" Frisk squeaked, racing for the door.

.

An immediate ruckus ensued and in a whirlwind of coats, fur, and alarmed, squawking skeleton bones, the kids were out the door and sprinting for the nearest portal hub.

.

When they got to the field outside the Soul, Alphys was just arriving, too, but they blazed past her, much to her audible worry and confusion. Inside the cavern, Sans was already sitting with the older skeleton, who was slumped against a black tree near the cabin door. Gaster was deeply grey around his eye sockets and his face was troubled but completely still.

"Sans, what happened?!" Papyrus called.

"We were talkin' and the dude just got tired and, uh, plopped down here," Sans said. "He's, uh… Yeah."

.

"Outta the way, outta the way," Frisk said quickly, rushing forward to grab Gaster by the shoulders. "HEY."

"…Kid, he's, uh… Not doin' good," Sans said gently.

"Yeah, I know, fallen down," she said. "Hang on." She leaned up to Gaster's head. "HEY. Dunno if you can still hear. But I'm turning you backwards. It's gonna feel weird as heck." She gripped tight to him, closed her eyes and focused all her magic through him, filling the hollow echo deep in his soul. "Three. Two. One."

.

The days prior raced through her head— the fear, the hopelessness, the injuries, the battles, until everything was a mess of time and magic. She gritted her teeth and yanked him back as hard as she could, as many days as her magic could handle. It had to be about a week. Maybe a little under. His soul thunked hard in his chest as she tossed it back into place.

.

Gaster let out a loud, hoarse gasp as if he'd just been dragged from a lake and drew back quickly, bonking his head on the tree trunk, eyes wide as the movement knocked Frisk back. The kid breathed a sigh of relief and sunk where she sat. So did everyone else. Asriel flopped and pulled her into his arms.

"Holy shit," Sans breathed.

"What…?" Gaster's eyes locked on Frisk. "…How…?"

"I told you I was coming to get you," she said.

He blinked. His hand went to his skull. "…That was real?"

"Yeah, duh," she said, her voice cracking. "Please don't do that again."

"What the heck happened?" Papyrus asked worriedly. He sat down closer to them and grabbed Gaster's hand, glowing bright with a warming, sunshiny magic. "Are you okay? Why did you—?"

"He gave up hope," Chara said, crossing her arms. "…Uncle, what happened?"

.

Gaster looked around at everyone, brows raised. His eyes met Frisk's and the kid drooped.

"Ugh, sorry, I guess I made everything worse again, huh?" she said.

"Oh, don't you dare blame her," Chara said, quickly affixing a glare onto the skeleton.

"But what else changed, Chara?" Frisk said worriedly.

"It… It was, but it wasn't," Gaster said quietly."It's… been a long time coming." He put up one hand quickly. "It… was… the combination of the knowledge from your letter. And what you told me today. I… I know… what you are." He flinched, his soul roiling audibly. "Which… means I'm the reason my world is how it is. Always was. And there's nothing I can do." He pressed the heel of his hand into his brow.

.

Frisk's heart sank to her stomach. Asriel grabbed her a little more snugly. Chara frowned and cast a look at her brothers. Papyrus shrugged weakly. Sans's gaze was cool, but he kept an easy, tired grin on his face.

"There's somethin' you can do," he said.

"…I'd say I'm all ears, but…" Gaster tapped the hole in the side of his skull and gave a little shrug.

Papyrus held in a scoff and Sans grinned sideways. He pointed at Frisk. The kid perked up a little. Gaster stared at her for a few long, silent seconds. He shook his head.

"I still can't see how any of this will help," he said. "I… don't know why you saved me."

"You're an ass but we don't want you to die," Asriel said with a scowl. "And, sounds to me like if you bite it, so does your whole world. Right? It's got no hope."

"That's the whole issue, son," the skeleton said quietly, mostly to the grass. "It's already too late."

.

"Um." Frisk said, sticking a hand up to wave a little. "Sorry. But, um. You… have a time god on your side, now. Does too late super matter?"

"…What?" Gaster looked at her incredulously. "…What do you mean, on my side?"

"Well, yeah, duh," Frisk said. "You wanna save your world. I wanna save your world. Same side. See?"

"Believe it or not, we're all on the same side, Uncle," Chara said, softening her voice. She smiled sideways. "A little while ago, I wouldn't have believed it, either."

"Oh, same," Asriel said with a grin. "Talk to me four months ago and I wouldda looked just like you do right now. Except, y'know, with a flower face."

Gaster looked around at everyone again as if probing for some hint of a jape or a trap. Sans shrugged.

"Personally don't care one way or the other, but they'd be real upset if you turned into a heap 'o dust," he said. "So, uh, try not to. And just explain what the hell is the issue in your world." He gestured to Frisk. "Let 'er at least roll it around in 'er head. You never know, she ain't too bad at figurin' shit out."

"Thanks!" Frisk said brightly.

.

Gaster's brow furrowed. He took a deep breath.

.

A burst of magic spiralled across the cavern and a loudly-exclaiming Alphys stumbled out, dragging a large bag with her.

"Wh-Wh-What happened, is everything okay?!" she demanded, racing to join them. "G-Gaster, y-your vitals just about hit the floor!"

"Ah. So did I," he said quietly. He shot the lizard a faint, tired smile. "I'm alright, now. Thank you."

"Frisk fixed him up!" Papyrus said, but his brightness faded quickly and he patted the older skeleton on the arm. "He fell."

"I know! I th-thought we'd lost him," Alphys said, shaking her head. "C-Can I give you a quick check up? Whatever h-happened, you're… I-I'd just like to make sure you're okay."

"You'll have to reapply the dampener, as well," Gaster said.

"I…! Huh?"

"But," he said, looking to Frisk, "let me say, first. I told you how my Temporal Blaster is intended to function, hm?"

The kid nodded.

.

Gaster hesitated. His eyes flickered but his shoulders relaxed a little. "My world has been ripped apart by… time gods. Time… anomalies. Running through over and over, burning souls in the void, and resetting everything, more times than I could ever count. Through my research, I learned some magic from the void; made the Blaster in secret, preserving some pieces outside of time or remaking them as I memorized them until it was finished. Once it was, I confronted the entity and took the shot. I succeeded. But, things did not repair. I… thought I'd failed completely. So, I left my world, looking for… solutions. Help. Someone else who might know more than I did." The skeleton's eyes hardened. "All I found were more worlds like mine. Duplicates of my family. Friends. Suffering.

"I tried to make the time gods stop. Rationalize with them. Explain that life is not… We are not toys. Not dolls. But these beings, they'd been doing whatever they wanted for millennia. Treating this like a game. What was one monster going to change? No matter what I tried, I'd become locked in their grips again. Watching the world die, again." He gritted his teeth and clenched his fists tight. "So, I tried my Blaster on them to at least alleviate some of the suffering. Imagine my shock when the worlds did, in fact, return to normal when mine had not."

"…Because it wasn't their timeline," Frisk said quietly, wiping her eyes.

"…Pardon?" Gaster said.

"In your world," the kid said. "The one you hit, it wasn't their timeline. They got sent to wherever they're supposed to be."

"Because of whatever that person lost to outside-of-time told you to do," Chara added, "your anchor was never created. The time god attached to your timeline. You have no anchor. The others that came in…" Her voice cracked for a second and she cleared her throat. "That's what I showed you. That's what happened to me. The others."

.

Gaster gulped. He nodded stiffly. "I… I know. I know now. It's… my fault. My death was supposed to make…" He looked as if he might be sick as his eyes darted to Frisk for just the briefest of seconds. "My selfishness doomed us."

"I-It's not selfish to want to live," Frisk said swiftly. "It really isn't!"

"What's one monster in the face of the everything?" Gaster said quietly. He shook his head.

.

"Here's what I don't get, right?" Asriel said, his ears drooping. "Why'd this person lie to you? What'd they tell you, exactly? We only got a piece."

"To stop the collapse, you must not die," he recited. "It was the opposite."

"Right. So, why the lie? Did they want people to just run through the timeline and wreck it?"

"…Maybe they weren't lying?" Frisk said. "Maybe they were just wrong? Like, maybe they… Maybe the time was all wonky still, and they tried to look back and found it all lead to the CORE, and thought that was the only thing?"

"There's no point in speculating on the motives of some time-lost ghost," the skeleton said. "I was afraid. I obeyed. I destroyed everything."

.

Gaster sighed quietly and stiffly got to his feet. "Alright. I'm… Hah. Exhausted. Alphys, if you'd still want to do a check-up…?"

"Y-Yeah, absolutely," she said. She beckoned him back towards the cabin and looked at Sans and Papyrus. "C-Can, um, you two come in, too, just in case?"

"Ooh! Yes, of course," Papyrus said. "I just got some fresh potion ingredients, I'm sure I can brew up a just-in-case something."

Alphys smiled fondly. Sans gave her the thumbs up and gestured for them to go ahead. The lizard opened the door. Gaster followed, but then turned back to the kids still near the trees. His eyes focused on Frisk.

"…I don't mean to come across as ungrateful for what you just did." He dipped his head. "And I… do appreciate that you aren't a murderer. Despite how absolutely, abysmally low of a bar that is."

Frisk couldn't help a little, amused snort. "I mean, I'll take it."

The old skeleton's mouth twitched into the smallest of smiles. He turned and went inside with Alphys and Papyrus. Sans sighed heavily and forced himself onto his feet but he paused, squatted down, and gave Frisk a tight hug before straightening up again and strolling away, closing the door behind him.

.

"Hear that?" Asriel whispered. "Not a murderer."

"That's pretty good, right?!" Frisk said with a grin.

Chara laughed and rubbed her temples. "Low bar was right." She offered Frisk her hands and pulled the kid to her feet before wrapping her in her arms. "You're crazy, yeah?"

"It's like the DT just turns on, and psshew, there she goes," Asriel joked as he got up. "Like setting a really focused attack-puppy on something."

"Asriel!" Frisk protested.

"It'll probably look a little more serious and less cute when you get a little taller," Chara said, patting the kid on the head.

"Nah, she's staying like three feet tall her whole life, I bet," Asriel said.

"Nooooo…!" Frisk laughed and rubbed her face. "Ohmigod, I'm gonna puke."

"Same," he said. "So, uh. We… got what you wanted, right? Now what?"

"Now we figure out how to help that big nerd," Frisk said.

.

"This sounds like a big ask," Chara said, starting to stroll towards the Soul. She gestured to its bright, starlight glow where it sat beneath the dip in the stone. "And we can only do so much from here. The Soul's powerful, but… It's not there. If his world is like ours, I'm… not sure what else we could do." She took a seat at the top of the hill and let her legs dangle down it.

"Maybe if we give him his time gun back? And he shoots the CORE a bunch or something?" Asriel asked as he and Frisk came to join her.

"What would that do?" she asked with a raised brow.

"I dunno, time stuff shootin' time stuff, maybe it'd do something?"

"Or it'd blow everything up even more, knucklehead."

"Bah, I dunno, I'm not the smart guy!" Asriel protested. He looked at Frisk. "Well, smart guy?"

.

Frisk frowned thoughtfully. "I… I dunno. But, that's just… Like, it's a huge mess, right? It's super super sad, and… There's like a ton of people still just stuck, right? I dunno, I…" Frisk blinked. "Could I reset it?"

"What?" Asriel bleated.

"I mean, I reset the world that was stuck in a loop, right? A couple weeks ago, or whenever that was," Frisk said. "It wasn't my timeline, but I still could."

"If you think I'm going to send the two of you out to his world, you're nuts" Chara said.

"N-No, no! I wouldn't want that, it's just—"

"It's already difficult enough for us to shoot you two out through the Soul back to your own world," the girl continued. "Who knows how long it would take to send you to his?! And even if we could, I wouldn't. We wouldn't be able to help you from here, plus—"

"I know, I know, it's… It's way too much. There's no way to know." Frisk rubbed her head. "But if…? Ugh, I dunno. What if he came back with us?"

"What, bring him home?!" Asriel yelped.

"His place has to be a lot closer to us than it is to here, right?" she said.

"I dunno, I feel like that's gonna cause some paradox junk somehow," he said. "And what if makes more guys like him come after you?"

"Our parents would kick their butts," Frisk said. "Actually…" She grimaced. "They might kick this guy's butt."

"Mom wouldn't leave much more than a pile of ash," Chara said. "Yeah, that's out of the question, I'm not doing that."

.

"Then… Then what do I do?" Frisk said. "Wait for him to go home and have him, like… send a message? And I go out and do the reset thing or—?"

"And let him get you alone, in his world." Chara raised her brows. "Frisk. I know we made some headway, but there's no telling what happens between now and then. He might change his mind and decide he hates you again just on principle. He can't kill you, but there's no telling if he can trap you or not."

"Sis, I know it's hard for you to leave stuff alone." Asriel shot Frisk a sideways smile. "Livin' proof of it, but…" His ears drooped. "What can we really do? I know he's in a huge mess, but we need to go home and I don't even know how we could realistically do anything for him without causing even more problems. You'd have to do… I don't even know if you can, but you'd have to pull that whole world back to before the CORE thing even happened. Way back."

.

Frisk pouted, but she nodded. Something about this still rubbed her the wrong way. She folded her arms and frowned thoughtfully. "What if…? I dunno, what if I could do it without going there?"

"How?" Chara asked. "I mean, there's ways to contain spells, but… I'm not sure, crystals can only hold so much. And—"

Frisk perked. "But they can hold something."

"Uh oh, what're you thinking?" Chara asked.

.

The kid made a small, contemplative sound. "They hold spells, right? That's how they work?"

"It's one of the ways they work," Chara said. "But I don't think they could—"

"But what if we used them as, like… a trigger, kinda?" Frisk's red eyes gleamed and she whirled on Asriel. "A bomb."

"What?!" he barked.

"You made your plants so they could blow up, right?" she insisted. "Potion inside and then kaboom!"

"…Are you saying you wanna make a reset bomb?!" Asriel yelped.

"I mean, maybe?! If we can't go there, maybe there could be a way I could, like… freeze a reset. Maybe inside one of you plant zones, right?!"

"…And then use a crystal charged with determination to break the stasis and set it off," Chara concluded. She frowned thoughtfully. "Do you actually think you could pull that off?"

"Maybe? I mean, I know I can't mess with time too much here," she said. "But maybe one of Az's plant dimensions would gimme a little, um… What's the term? Wiggle room?"

"You think so?!" Asriel asked shrilly.

"It has extra weird rules in there that don't work like the normal world, right?" Frisk said.

"That's true," he said. "And… because of you, I gotta have some weird time… stuff. In my soul, right?" His eyes lit up. "Oh, shit, that might actually work."

.

"So. Stasis time bubble." Chara counted the steps on her fingers. "Inside a plant dimension shell. We need to… make a reset physical, is that what you're telling me?"

"Maybe?" Frisk said. "Could we put that in a crystal?"

"And then have a trigger-crystal that resonates with it." The girl's eyes brightened. "Time bubble, in a plant, trap a… reset energy in a crystal."

"How the heck would you even?!" Asriel asked.

"I don't know. I don't think there's a crystal in the world that could hold that," Chara said, "but, then again, if it's in stasis, it won't matter; it'll be designed to break as soon as it's free anyway. We just have to… give it directions."

"Do you know how to do that?" Frisk asked.

"I can't do anything complicated, but…" She looked at Asriel. "What about you, God of Hyperdeath?"

.

Asriel's face flushed and his brow furrowed thoughtfully. He scratched his chin. "Well…" His ears perked. "Oh! We do have Uncle G's super magic book, right? Maybe that could help. There's something I gotta test with the plant things, though."

"D'you have an idea?" Frisk asked.

"Kinda." He held out his hand and Frisk took out the book and handed it over. Asriel grinned and rushed towards the portal. "Come on, let's go outside!"

"Maybe somewhere where the magic isn't altered by the Soul!" Chara called back.

"Oh! Right! Yeah! Make sure you got some extra crystals, okay?!"

"I always doooo, Azzy." She chuckled, shaking her head and rolling her eyes. She shot Frisk an amused smile. "Right back to work, hm?" She clapped her on the shoulder and leaned in close to her ear. "Good job, by the way."

Frisk grinned, her cheeks flushing. "Thanks." She looked back towards the cabin and nodded to herself. "We got this."