could this be the start of a crossover chapter 96 ?
All the world exploded into darkness and starlight, monochrome nebulas and spirals of glitter. A searing heat consumed the sacrificial finger for a split second, then nothing but a nauseating phantom pain so deep and cold Sans was grateful he didn't faint.
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His awareness was jettisoned out of himself, yet his soul anchored him like a boulder. He was excruciatingly aware of the death grip he had on the seat and the fluffy body of some small dog pressing firmly against his chest, but everything he saw was somewhere else. The flurry of visions shooting into his head shifted so quickly that they were completely incomprehensible.
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He drew in a sharp breath and braced for the fall into memories he couldn't control. He wished he could warn the dog. He stiffly unclenched one of his hands and dragged it up to hold the little beast. His bones seized up. He felt as if he was about to crumble apart into dust.
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Dread seeped through him and his vision blazed over with red as he dropped heavily into an old version of himself. The array of mechanisms and buttons that made up his time machine's console appeared before him for a split second before flame and magic blasted through him with a deafening bellow and he shattered.
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His eyes snapped open and he shot upright, then swooned with a drop of vertigo so intense that he nearly collapsed. He stuck a hand out and caught a wall as he heaved for breath, a hand clasped tight to his shirt as his soul pulsed blue through it. Cold sweat beaded at his temple.
"Shit, did I just…?" He dragged his fingers down the side of his face as his eye flared bright with colour, casting a panicked hue over the walls of his scrappy bedroom. He dropped onto his knees, then flopped fully onto his back, pressing the heels of his hands into his eye sockets. He'd never felt like he needed to breathe so badly in his life. "Shit."
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He'd been obliterated. Felt every inch of him explode. And yet, here he was again.
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Panic crushed him to the ground with the weight of the mountain and he didn't dare move for fear of breaking to pieces until his bedroom door creaked. Sans jolted and sat up a bit to see his little pyjama-clad baby brother wander in, knuckling at his eye sockets.
"H-Hey, bro," Sans croaked, fully aware his soul was a buzzing, off-beat mess. "Couldn't sleep?"
"Not with you banging all around," Papyrus mumbled as he wandered over.
"A-Ah. Sorry, kiddo, I, uh… I fell outta bed."
The little skeleton looked his brother up and down, then glanced over at the mattress that lay flat on the floor, sheets all askew. His face scrunched in confusion. "How?"
"I… Y'know, I'm… drawin' a blank-et," Sans said with a wink. "Can't pull the wool over your eyes, huh?"
Papyrus stifled a groan and sat down in front of his brother. "Bad dreams again?"
"Eh."
"But your eye is doing that thing, big brother." Papyrus squinted at him. "Nightmarathon?"
Sans snickered. He patted the kid on the head, but both of them noticed the tremor in his fingers.
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Papyrus looked up at him and opened his arms. Sans snorted quietly, scooped him up, and held him tight. Their souls lit together and the little boy shivered. Guilt chilled Sans's entire body and he squished Papyrus tight.
"Why do you feel so bad?" Papyrus asked quietly.
"I… Uh." Sans grimaced and he huffed out a mirthless chuckle. "Got no idea how to explain it, bro."
"Try."
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How could he? What we he supposed to say? That he'd been fixated on something deep in the CORE that he couldn't even remember? That he'd spent months building a time machine and it had actually actually worked? That he'd just been vaporized? Or that time had jettisoned him backwards to the night before? What about that he was planning to do exactly the same thing again in a few hours?
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He felt like he was sinking into the black lake with no way to rise again.
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He sighed quietly. "Look." He patted his brother on the head and grinned. "You don't gotta worry about me, okay? I'm alright."
"Nyoo…" Papyrus pouted and folded his arms, staring up at Sans with a stubborn little frown. "You're weird."
Sans snickered. "Fair."
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His eyes began to blur and the panic faded as he settled into himself. It was a little surreal to relive the fear; the uncertainty of that first reset. His shoulders slumped and he rubbed his brow and, as he felt the edges of the vision fray into glimmering red, he took the chance hug Papyrus again. The little sunshiny kid rolled his eyes but gave his brother a squish nonetheless.
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Sans's fingers slipped through the memory of Papyrus and his body sunk away into nothing as red overtook the world.
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Waves of colour smeared across the skeleton's eyes, pulling tendrils of shapes from the mess before they dissolved again as if consumed in quicksand. Thorn-studded vines rippled out like serpents. They plunged down below the colours and all of it all drained away into deep, cold black.
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A current of red rebuilt a different world before him, one that would have been calm and utterly ordinary if the pain hadn't insisted on sticking around. Despite this, Sans's focus stuck where it had been back then— on a large and expansive book of human spirit phenomenon— as he slumped comfortably into a green couch. He slowly tapped his foot in the air, counting down the seconds until—
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A light weight depressed the cushion beside him.
"Hey, um, Sans?"
The voice— a child's, but a little distorted— didn't process properly, but, in the memory, it wasn't even a question that it belonged to the Prince.
"Mhm?" Sans answered as he flipped a page.
"Is it, uh…?" The boy sighed. "Can I…? Ugh. Just… Just, tell me it's okay to lie to my dad, okay?!"
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Sans looked up at the kid with a brow raised. The Prince— Asriel— looked a little unusual this morning according to the memory, but it wasn't as if Sans, peering in, had any frame of reference. The goatish kid was tall, but in an odd, gangly sort of way. His long ears were extra droopy, and the tips of his canines poked out beneath his upper lip. His black eyes shifted sheepishly as he gripped sharp claws lightly into the couch.
"Rough night?" Sans asked.
"Hm? O-Oh. Uh." Asriel flexed his overlong fingers. "It's… not that bad. But, maybe Papyrus'll let me borrow a shirt or something later? I-I mean, if I… keep getting taller."
"Course he will," the skeleton said. "But, uh, what'd ya say 'bout Asgore?"
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The Prince's cheeks flushed a little and he grimaced. "It's… okay to lie to my dad if… if it's like, to not hurt his feelings, right?"
"Judgement call," Sans said.
"I know, I know." The boy shook his head. "So, it's just…" He screwed up his face. "Flowers, right?"
"Sure."
"They still make me want to throw up everywhere."
"Fair. But, uh, might be good to talk about that, right?"
"I'm talking to you about it, aren't I?" The Prince frowned, ears pinning back.
"…Okay." The skeleton closed his book up, put it aside, and stared at the kid patiently.
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Asriel stumbled for words for a moment. "I, uh… He… He asked me, and I told him it was fine."
"Okay," Sans said again.
"But I hate them."
"Okay."
"But he loves flowers!"
"Not more than he loves you, I bet," Sans said.
"But, like, it was him and Chara's thing together," Asriel said. "I… I can't take it away from him in his own house."
"Okay."
"So… Then, it's okay if I keep lying about it, right?" His dark eyes were big and round as he pouted a little.
"Up to you, kiddo," Sans said.
"Can you just tell me I'm not a horrible person or something?!"
The skeleton couldn't help a laugh.
"I-I mean, at least not for this!" Asriel protested.
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Sans only laughed harder. He gave the boy an affectionate thump on the shoulder. "Listen." He had to take a deep breath. "It's alright. You deal how you gotta, right? But, you're, uh… You're still kinda doin' the little-kid-voice-shtick around him, yeah?"
"I-I mean… Sorta…?" Asriel drooped and grimaced, folding his arms tight to his chest. "I just…" He shrugged and looked as if he wanted to disappear into the couch. "I just… I want him to feel like I'm… still that kid, you know?"
"You're comin' from a good place, but you can't keep it up forever," the skeleton said.
"I know! I know," the boy said, squishing himself up even further. "But… maybe a bit longer. After everything I put him through, he deserves… something, I dunno."
"You know you're the only one still holdin' all that shit against you, right?" Sans said as he picked up his book again. "Don't think your dad wants a fake you. Doesn't need it either."
"I…" Asriel's mouth pulled into a thin line. He snorted lightly and looked down, his fingers clenched tight into his arms.
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Before the boy could formulate a real answer, a shriek from a voice that didn't register sounded from upstairs. Sans reacted before he even thought about it, teleporting straight into the room that his siblings shared, looking for his sister. A little kid— that kid, he was sure— was standing at the open closet door with her hands on the top of her head.
"Somethin' explode?" he asked.
"Uhhh, maybe?!" The kid whipped around on him, wide-eyed, and though her face didn't register in his head, Sans was more than happy to see her. "…I think I grew horns?!"
The skeleton blinked. Hadn't expected that. "Huh." He joined her, filled to the brim with curiosity. "Lemme see?"
Crabapple Kid carefully moved her hands from the top of her head and, sure enough, there were the little nubs of white horns sticking out of her scalp.
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Sans snorted loudly and the kid waved her hands at him. As he came in close to inspect them, the Prince called out a name and burst through the door, black eyes bugging out.
"What happened?!" he asked.
"Are you taller again?!" Crabapple Kid asked shrilly.
"Why did you scream?!"
"She's suddenly showin' a real, uh, family resemblance to ya, kid," Sans teased. He gently tapped his thumb against one of his sister's tiny horns— they had an unusual resonance, one that resembled Toriel and Asgore more so than the kid herself. Must've come from those shards of soul they'd given her, somehow, he thought.
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The kid squeaked and put her hands over the little horns, but Asriel rushed over and began to preen her like a curious raccoon.
"What?! Y-You have…?!" The kid couldn't help himself from starting to beam. "—! They're cute!"
"Y-Yeah?" Crabapple Kid looked up at both of them as if for reassurance.
"Course," Sans said.
The kid grinned sheepishly. She reached up to touch the little horns carefully and winced as she did, but she began to snicker. "Then I-I guess it's not so bad. But why're—?"
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A burst of red cleaved the scene in half and Sans's knees gave out from the pain as he was yanked from the memory keeping him upright and into some bleak nothingness. He tried to catch his breath, but it didn't seem to help.
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The skeleton dropped again like the ground was yanked from under him and dizziness struck him inside the skull so hard that he couldn't hang onto a thought. His soul ached with frost, cutting through the scarring on his bones. A panicked pulse and his ribs froze, brittle, and shattered into nothing.
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The red surged through his head again and it was so hot he was sure it was burning him to ash.
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He collapsed into the next vision in such pain that he broke it immediately, collapsing forward and heaving for air. His fingers sunk deep into fresh grass and sunspots dotted his eyes. When he managed to look up, the light was all but blinding and the land before him was a patchwork of scenery in green and autumn hues that he couldn't comprehend.
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Some shadow of a form approached him. He couldn't figure out what it was but it seemed to offer him a hand. Two eyes of beaming crimson burned into him.
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Everything blasted away again and Sans was left spinning. Pain soaked every inch of him and his mind felt as if those barbed vines were crushing into his skull. Even so, he floated and, while he could, he tried his best to focus. He reached out for the magic of the universe but the feeling was weak and he slipped. Darkness swept him away.
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The notion that this all felt wrong managed to drift through his head. It'd never been this painful before. Even dying when he'd been trying to find Gaster in the past hadn't hurt as much as this.
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He couldn't feel any part of himself except for the ache. Did he even still have bones?
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How long had he been drifting here? It was so hard to tell. Could've been three seconds; could've been years.
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A little spark of red fired off in his head and he tried to force a bit of focus as he strained to latch onto it, feeling for the call of the universe. As the colour faded out, so too did any energy he'd mustered. Lethargy consumed him and he faded.
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He was still too weak, wasn't he?
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He blinked, jolting up into his shoulders as if he'd dozed off standing upright for a fraction of a second. A field of white stretched out before him, the pale grey of the sky and the whirling snow almost indistinguishable from the ground. The cold had never bothered Sans very much, but here, it numbed him down to the core of his bones, so much that it was almost painful.
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It wasn't a memory, then. Just something inside his own head.
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He took a short, relieved breath, flipping his hood up and zipping his jacket. He shoved his hands deep in his pockets and wished his mindscape had given him some slacks instead of his usual shorts.
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He closed his eyes and tried to focus on what was real; on what would let him be properly conscious again. Instead, through the muted air and the soft sound of snowflakes hitting the ground, he heard the faint rhythm of a voice.
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He took a peek, half-expecting the environment to have expanded into some kind of proper memory, but everything remained the same. Still, there was a voice, somewhere far off. Sans frowned thoughtfully. The scenarios in the past had had to play out before he could work his way out. He cautiously took a step. Despite the chill, the snow felt like snow and nothing more, so at least that was familiar.
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Sans followed the voice, but the more he could discern, the more dread formed a pit in his soul. Whoever it was sounded young and distraught. The words were out of reach, but they were strained and choked in sobs.
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Every step he took felt slower than the last one, his limbs cold and leaden. Even so, he plodded forwards through the snow despite every inch of him begging not to. These types of dreams or visions didn't usually break until it played out unless there was someone to yank him free and, without Papyrus or the kids, he was on his own.
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The disorienting white was broken by lumps of snow formed into strange pillars. At first marking out a path, as the snow on the ground deepened, the array became more like a ruined forest, chunks toppled over and broken seemingly at random. Sans half-expected the black trees from the cliffs to form out of them, like some unrendered assets, but it all stayed exactly as it was.
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The first break in the blizzard was a small spot of darkness. It was also the source of the voice drifting between snowflakes. Sans felt deeply sick and he couldn't comprehend why until he made out the shape attached to that blackness. A little skeleton in a dark hoodie, buckled forward, grasping fistfuls of snow.
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Sans grimaced and took a step backwards. "Nnnnnope."
He was about to turn right around until the small skeleton straightened up, a hand clamped hard against his head. The kid whipped around sharply and Sans was confronted with exactly what he knew it would be. Himself— a tiny, big-headed mess of a kid, maybe ten years old, face flushed blue; tear streaks burning down his cheeks. If he could have thrown himself directly out of this vision and into the void, Sans would have.
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"It's not working," the kid said pleadingly. "I can't… I can't. I-I'm… I'm crap, I can't—"
"What the hell is this?" Sans muttered, rubbing his brow.
"It's all my fault." The kid's big, dark eyes watered; the left flickering desperately with blue and yellow. "I tried…! I worked so hard and I tried to make something, so they'd see— so they could find us, but they'll never… They won't find it, I can't—"
"Okay, great, got it." Sans turned a little, eyes skimming for the way he'd come.
The tracks were already gone and snow pillars obscured the way, a white-on-white forest with hardly a marker to act as guide.
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"I-I…!" The kid collapsed back onto his tailbone and pressed his hand hard against his eye socket. "I'm garbage. I'm weak. I'm too small." The kid shivered. "I-I miss my sister. I want her back. I-I want her to come home."
Sans turned back sharply, his brows raised. "Oh, come on."
Tears poured down the kid's face and he choked. "I want her to come home. I… I miss her so much. This is all my fault."
Sans cringed and puffed out a resigned sigh. "…Shit." The word pitiful flashed across his mind and that kid lost it, sobbing into his sleeves so hard he began to hiccup.
"I-I just want my sister back. I j-just—! I j-just want…!"
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Sans felt sick. He'd never been a big cryer, not even as a kid. Looking at this— whatever this was— felt deeply, viscerally uncomfortable, like peering into a mirror and seeing the reflection come back wrong.
"This ain't helpin'," he muttered. "Get it together."
"I c-can't help anything, I'm… I…" The kid wheezed miserably. "I want her back. She's just a baby! She's so little and I was supposed to watch out for her. I-I w-was the one who was 'sposed to take care of her and I-I-I lost her and she's gone a-and…! And I want her to come back… I…"
"Ah." Sans snapped his fingers. "I'm dyin'. That's what this is." He sighed and sat down heavily in the snow, propping his back up against one of the broken pillars. "Welp. Shit."
"I-I can't leave her out there," the kid choked out. "I-I can't, but I… What can I do?! I…" His voice warbled and his words came out small and weak as he wrapped his arms around himself. "I l-let mom down, too. I-I lost her kids. I lost… I lost Asriel after… after we…" He wiped his eyes in vain. "I want my sister back. I… I want my brother back. I want Papyrus to be safe. I… I want everything to be like it was before; I w-want to go home."
"Can't."
The kid sniffled and gripped handfuls of snow. "Everything's wrong." He looked at Sans. "I have to—"
"Not how it works," Sans said. His head was splitting and he closed his eyes. He apologized to Papyrus in his mind.
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The kid choked on his breath. "Not Paps, he can't… I don't want him to, it's my fault, I—! H-He's just a kid, he can't—!"
"If it's done, it's done," Sans said.
"I-I don't want it to be like that, I can't let Paps do it, i-it should only be me, this is all my fault!"
"What I want doesn't matter," he said quietly. "C'mon, that ain't new."
"…Why? Why can't it matter?" the kid asked quietly.
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Sans opened one eye to look at the weird, tearful kid. The mirror had broken. The kid looked back at him incredulously. He chuckled and rubbed his skull.
"Get back in my head and you'll get it."
"…It's not fair," the kid said. He wiped his eyes again. He forced himself up onto his feet and looked down at Sans, disappointment all over his face. "S-So… So, what, just give up?"
"I'm probably half-dust already," the skeleton said with a shrug.
"N-No." The kid's tears began to flow again. "My sister's still out there. My brothers are, too. Th-They need help."
Sans sighed. "…Yeah. I know."
"I… I can't just… I can't just let them…" The kid buckled again, choking miserably. He clung tight to Sans, hiding his face against his chest.
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The skeleton turned to ice. This was the last thing he wanted. He tried to edge back but there was nowhere to go. Guilt swirled inside him as he stared at this tiny, weeping creature, sharp little fingers digging deep into his jacket.
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Sans grimaced. He knew it wasn't real; knew it was just his own mind sputtering out in some awkward, horrible way, but the cool tears of the kid were eroding him.
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He huffed. Maybe if he just pretended it was Papyrus, he told himself. He took a deep breath, cautiously put his hand on the kid's shoulder.
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A burst of red and barking erased the world and Sans's eyes snapped open to be greeted by a dog's white face just inches from his. The inside of the time machine's capsule was cast in the hue of the crystal artefact, as was the dog, which was only accentuated as the pup's paws slammed into his chest with bursts of crimson.
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Sans choked on air. The dog barked and shoved more magic into him, his little paws glowing like fire. The heat was a welcome change. As it surged through his bones, Sans's draining soul felt a little more solid; more aligned within itself. The dog woofed, staring at him with intensely serious, shiny black eyes. Sans managed to wheeze out some sound in a rough, exhausted laugh and the dog's ears perked up. His tail wagged and he stood up on the skeleton's knees, putting his paws on his shoulders.
"I-I'm good," Sans croaked. "Thanks."
The dog looked skeptical. Sans patted him on the head and the little beast breathed out a sigh of relief. He pushed his nose against the skeleton's cheek and Sans could feel a lingering, cold wetness besides that. He raised a hand to wipe beneath his eyes and the dog settled back in the seat beside him.
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"Red, huh?" the skeleton mused.
The dog yipped. Sans sighed and sank back in his seat, plopping an aching hand onto the pooch's head and gently ruffling his ears.
"So, was I a sobbin' mess, or…?"
The dog woofed quietly, ears drooping a little. Sans snorted and wiped under his eye sockets again.
"Welp. At least it wasn't as bad as that." The skeleton cracked an exhausted smile. "Bet ya regret jumpin' in here," he teased.
The dog huffed and furrowed his little brow. Sans chuckled. His eyes shifted to the gleaming, red artefact.
"I mean, pretty obvious you ain't an average monster," he said. "Or I, uh, don't think you'dda lasted very long in here."
Puffing up the fur on his neck, the little pup stuck his tongue out and smiled with pride.
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Sans leaned back in his seat and rubbed a hand over his skull. He was so exhausted the padding beneath him felt like the softest of beds. "Sorry if I dust on ya," he said. "Sorry if you had to do that garbage memory thing, too."
With a little harumph, the dog climbed back onto him, reaching up to smoosh a paw against the skeleton's cheek. He twisted around on Sans's legs and looked ahead at the control panel and then back at the skeleton.
"What?" Sans asked.
The pooch let out a curious awoo.
"Hm? Ah... Right, just, uh…"
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Sans shifted, carefully nudging the dog back onto the seat beside him, and he leaned up to the controls. They hummed softly at his touch.
"We're definitely, uh… Somewhere." He grinned sideways. "It, uh, usually doesn't give any kinda rest in-between. It's sorta like, memories, then straight into the destination, unless…" His brow furrowed. "I screwed up. It didn't work."
The dog barked defiantly. Sans massaged his headachey skull, but he nodded. He reached up onto the console and activated the one exterior camera he had.
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The screens before them came up black, but only for a moment before it refocussed and specks of light began to gleam off in the distance. Sans's aching soul did a little leap and his eyes glimmered.
"Yo," he said under his breath.
Had to be the void— that space between worlds that somehow caught the tiny lights from places and moments in time. His sister had gone here a few times, hadn't she? He could hardly imagine the power she must have to be able to travel through this space on her own.
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Sans eased his sore bones against the backrest. Apart from his hand, his whole sternum hurt so badly that he was hesitant to check if there was any real damage. The scar that marked the front of his chest felt like a new wound.
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The dog at his side put a soft paw on his hand. A short, warm burst of red magic flowed through him, dampening some of the pain. The pooch wagged his tail and leaned forwards to put both front feet on the console, looking back at Sans excitedly.
"Yuuuup." Sans took a deep breath to steady himself and reached for the controls again. "Might as well."
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With a few taps on the buttons, he brought up the NOCTURNE's program— an ever-fluctuating panel of pinpoint void analysis and a long list of very specific options. Tracking his siblings' trail was still there, just as it should have been. Selecting it placed an overlay of crimson sparkles into the image of the void on the screen, a path that lead infinitely off into the darkness. Sans was relieved that it was still fully functional, but it wasn't as if he could just follow it: the machine wasn't designed for that. However, projecting something outwards, with the help of the NOCTURNE, was something it was more than capable of.
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Sans's eyes were starting to blur, as if he hadn't slept in a month. He squinted and rubbed at his sockets as he activated the NOCTURNE again, this time directing it to send a signal into the void. It gave him some options: two different magical signatures of an unregistered type and his own.
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He selected his energy in the list and saw that the whole pod was already gently emitting it into the void. It was also siphoning it from him— which was probably part of the reason he felt like complete crap— but, it alerted him, that once it was complete, the NOCTURNE would be able to deploy that exact melody as long as it was running.
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Blowing out a hoarse sigh of relief, Sans checked on the transport mechanism next. It had to take a moment to load.
"Sure hope I don't gotta throw another finger in there," he joked
The dog let out a disapproving woof and Sans chuckled quietly.
"Way too deep in to stop now, pal," he said.
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The skeleton leaned back in his seat and cautiously cradled his left hand. Maybe just the end of his pinkie on the opposite one, if he had to, he thought. He had expected the living bone being consumed to hurt, but he hadn't anticipated how intense the pain actually had been. The pooch pressed his cool nose against the knuckle of the missing digit and looked up at Sans questioningly.
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The machine buzzed quietly, drawing their attention back to its display. On one side, it showed the two input slots— the ones that now housed the strange cube and the red artefact. Both listed codes that indicated energy matches to each other, as well as several other strong signatures. The other side showed a meter of the DT charge in the machine and how prepared it was to set out again. Though it seemed to need a little more time to cycle the power back through all the parts after a little cooldown, the red bar of determination was sitting just a bit below fifty percent. Sans's shoulders sagged with relief. Unless something fired off in error in the next couple minutes, he wouldn't need to drop anything else in to activate the machine.
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Sans flopped back and put an arm over his eyes. "Whew."
The dog yipped and bounced in excitement. He hopped up onto the console and pushed a button to bring the camera back, then sat back on his haunches beside Sans. Fluffing his fur, he gave the skeleton a little nudge and pointed at the screen. Sans ventured a look.
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The void as they could see it was like peering deep into a night sky scattered with stars. Somehow, things had shifted and distant, vast nebulas took up a chunk of the screen. Mostly white, with little smatterings of gold, they looked almost like eyes. A warm swell of awe built in Sans's chest and the dog looked at him with glee all over his little fluffy face. The skeleton chuckled.
"Yeah. It's nice," he said. He stretched his arms and then settled back again. The ache was getting a bit heavier and he could feel the distortion roiling in his soul. "Offkeys gonna get me soon."
The dog shot him a worried look and Sans waved his hand absently.
"Nah, s'okay. Memory thing's gonna hit again in a little while, too." He closed his eyes. "Gonna rest 'til then."
The dog snorted quietly and pushed a bit closer to Sans, a warm red seeping out from his fur.
"Thanks," the skeleton said. "Hey. Y'know. This is kinda a lot to go through with someone outta nowhere. Don't think y'ever introduced yourself."
With a little snicker, the dog leaned over and awooed quietly. Sans opened one eye.
"Oh yeah?" He paused thoughtfully. "You named after the mountain, or is the mountain named after you?"
The dog sneezed. Sans smiled tiredly.
"Gotcha. So you're, what, the great-great-great-great-great-granddog?"
The little pooch scrunched up his snout and waved his front paws all around. Sans laughed.
"Okay, okay, secret's safe with me." He closed his eye again. "See ya on the other side of this crap. And, uh, if I die on the way, make sure my sister knows where to look for us? She's like, a short kid with the song of the universe in her soul, can't miss 'it."
The dog gave a little pout, but he nodded resolutely and asserted a sturdy aroo.
"Thanks, bud, I owe ya."
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Sans could feel a shiver coming on and he slumped, folding his arms tight to his chest. He'd do his best to nap until the timer ran out, when he knew he'd be shoved deep through some bizarre mindscape once again. This time, he hoped it wouldn't throw some sobbing mess from the depths of his soul at him, but one could never really count on these things to be predictable.
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A rest would do him good. He just hoped he'd wake up from it at some point.
xXxXx
Venturing into the bright, warm sun after being holed up in the Soul for a while felt nice on Frisk's skin. Breathing the fresh air was good, too. Normally, she didn't mind being underground so much, but the tension in there, despite the progress, had been wearing on her a little more than she'd realized.
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She lagged a little ways behind Chara as they walked across the grassy plain outside the Soul's mountain to catch up to Asriel. There was something odd in the air, though. A little chill in the aurora of magic emanating up and out of the chamber. Frisk turned and walked backwards, shielding her eyes against the sun as she peered upwards. She wrinkled her nose as she squinted.
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"Chaaaraaaa?" Frisk called. "Is there like, a weird feeling to you?"
"A weird feeling where?" Chara called back.
"I dunno, like, in the air? Somewhere?"
"Uuuhhhmmmm …I don't feel anything! And don't walk backwards like that, you're going to trip!"
"I'm fiiiiine!" Frisk leaned her head back a little farther. She wasn't sure why, but that little chill made her want to hug someone very badly.
.
A little flicker of blue sparked in the back of her head and she turned just before she bumped into Chara, who had stopped to wait with her arms crossed and her head tilted to the side. The smug look on her face fell into mild disappointment, but that was all wiped away when Frisk reached out and gave her an affectionate squish.
"Wh—? What's this for?" Chara asked.
"I dunno, wanted to," Frisk said. She pulled away and looked across the field for Asriel— he was but a dot of white and dark lavender way in the distance. "Sheesh, he really booked it, huh?"
"God of Hyperspeed," Chara said with a sideways smile.
.
When they caught up to Asriel, he was pacing around with the book tucked under his arm, ears perked a little as he tested the air. The grass around his feet was sprouting just a little taller.
"Is this far enough?" he wondered. "Or, hey, wait, does the Soul give a boost? Even if it messes with it a bit?"
"Only to Sans," Chara said. "So. No."
"Right. Okay. Um." He looked at Frisk and raised his brows. "You look weird."
"Gee, thanks," Frisk said.
"No no, I mean…" He wrinkled his snout. "Is something up?"
"I don't think so," she said. "The magic in the air just felt kinda strange to me."
"Hm." Asriel looked up at the shimmer above the mountain peak. "Maybe the Soul is complaining about having to live with such a weird guy for a while."
"Can it do that?" the kid wondered.
"Are you two able to focus at all when you're together?" Chara teased.
"Sometimes," Asriel said, sticking his tongue out. "Seriously, though, is this far enough?"
.
Chara turned back towards the mountain and looked it up and down. She let out a quiet, contemplative hum. "Probably. But, uh… I'm not sure if this is something we want to be working on out in the open, anyway, now that I think about it."
"What? Why not?" Asriel asked. "…Is it illegal?"
"No, it's just, uh. Well. Look." She stomped her heel hard on the ground three times in an uneven spacing.
After a second, a small bump popped up in the ground.
"Oh! Soulbonder, it's just you," said a little chittering voice. "Any trouble?"
"None at all, thank you," Chara said.
"As you were, then!"
The lump smoothed out and the girl gestured to the spot pointedly.
"Soooo you're saying if we start doing something crazy we're gonna bother everyone who works down in that complex we ran through," Asriel said.
"Exactly. They're on extra high alert since, you know, the whole Gaster thing."
.
"Bah…" Asriel folded his arms and frowned. "Okay, where can we go, then?"
"Back to the castle?" Frisk wondered.
"The castle's got like a million people we'll be bothering," he said.
"Aah, true. Umm." The kid frowned thoughtfully. "Aaaaand watch us freak out the, um, Archon or Mistral or some of the other big grownups over there, too."
"Why does that bother you?" Chara asked with an amused smile.
"Well, 'cause they might think it's super dangerous because its really weird," Frisk said. "And sometimes if a grownup thinks that, they wanna stop you from doing it."
"Hm. Then, somewhere quieter."
"Somewhere with some plants or whatever that I can use," Asriel said.
"The forest again, then," Chara said.
"Ah." His cheeks flushed. "I… hope those trees are okay with the way I kinda yanked 'em around…"
"They're resilient," she said. "But we can check if we happen to see them."
.
Chara beckoned to them and they followed her to the nearest portal shelter, off at the edge of the field and just barely into the woods. From there, they emerged into an open, simple room made from an ancient, hollowed-out tree stump that was large enough that it could have fit even a monster as big as Toriel quite comfortably.
.
The forest of gargantuan trees lay just beyond that, alive with birdsong and the croaking of toads. The spaces between trunks were wide enough to fit an entire house, and yet the woods still felt dense, with trees as far as the eye could see and just little sprinkles of warm sunlight peeking in through the dense, leafy canopy far overhead.
.
"This way," Chara said, leading them off to the right of the portal room. "There's only one town in here, but it's back the other way. I'd prefer to not disturb them."
"A town?" Frisk reflexively peeked back over her shoulder. "Can we go see it later?"
"If we have time," Chara said.
"Is it between the trees or up in them?"
"A bit of both."
"Wow." Frisk's eyes seemed to shine with stars. "So cool."
Chara chuckled. "Right, heights don't bother you too much, do they?"
"Not really." She looked at Asriel. "Do you think we could do a forest town back home?"
"Is there anything you don't wanna do back home?" Asriel teased.
"I dunno, I just mean we have all that space around the mountain, I bet there's a lot of cool stuff we could do."
.
"The humans just handed the land over?" Chara asked with her brows raised.
"Oh! Yeah, they just want a bunch of gold for trade," Frisk said. "And I think your dad can just kinda make it? Or, someone can?" She looked to her brother curiously. "Does your dad make the money?"
Asriel shrugged widely. "Maybe some of it."
"Anyway, yeah, also the mountain makes a bunch of their tech stuff not work that good unless some smart science monster like Alphys fixes it up or something, so they didn't really care about that whole area." Frisk smiled with a hint of pride. "I sat in on a bunch of meetings."
"Huh," Chara said. "Interesting." She frowned thoughtfully. "If I gave you some coordinates, could you two do something for me?"
"Uh oh," Asriel said.
"What's the thing?" Frisk asked.
"Spit on the ground and then stab a sword there." Chara said it like it was the most casual thing in the world. "That or put, like, a garbage dump on it."
"I'm not telling dad to put a dump on some random spot, Chara," Asriel teased.
"Oh, it's not random at all," she said.
"Wha…?" His eyes widened. "Oh. Ooh. Yeah. Yeah, okay, I'll see what we can do."
"Thank you, dear brother." She chuckled and gave the still-puzzled Frisk a pat on the back. "I know you won't let me down."
.
They travelled just a little ways farther, following the soft sound of water, until they came to a patch that was dappled with a little more light. The bend of a river cut the terrain, though the flow was slow and shallow enough in spots for even Frisk to wade through safely.
"This should be a good spot," Chara said.
Asriel looked around. "Ooh? Is there something special here? Is the water magic again?"
"…No, it's just relaxing and out of the way," she said.
"Oh." Asriel smiled bashfully and rubbed the back of his head. "Okay. So, uh…" He held out the book. "I think a bunch of it is in that old skeleton language, so…"
"We can take a look together," Chara said. "And, Frisk, if you happened to grab any crystal books in all your hoarding…?"
"I'll check," Frisk said.
.
The kids sat down by the river and Chara was handed the large book of Dirges, which she handled with the utmost care. As she carefully examined its pages for something to help, Frisk grabbed her phone and Asriel's as well. She pulled out the books they'd bought about crystals for Asriel to start on while she checked in her photos from any books from the past as well. Many pictures and some videos she hadn't taken were in amongst them.
"Oh, did you finish sending stuff over?" she asked.
"Huh?" Asriel perked up and he stared at her blankly for a moment. "Oh! Almost. Didn't get the anime you have onto my phone. But, I figure, with the items, I can just carry some of them back in a bag? That'd be fine, right?"
"Close it super super tight," Frisk said. "Oh! Y'know, we can use my dad's phone, too, I think it's basically empty."
"Ah! I completely forgot you had that. Cool, I'll finish that all up tonight or something," he said. "Did he have anything else cool in there?"
"Uhhh…" Frisk took out the device and gave it a check. "Nope, doesn't look like it."
.
The kid settled in again with her back against Asriel and returned to reading from the photos. Most of what they had taken was history books, but there were a few magic books, too. The wordings were a bit archaic and complicated, so she did a lot of skimming for words that stood out to her. The warmth of her brother and the gentle babbling of the river was starting to get to her, though. Her blinks got longer and longer and she bonked herself on the head to try to snap out of it.
.
"I have to admit," Chara said after a little while, "this stuff is complicated."
"Dirges," Asriel said.
"I can see that." She hummed thoughtfully. "So, anything that's a Round, that's probably out of our depth if we're not getting anyone else involved."
"Don't write it out completely but, um… It is kinda a big ask."
"My mother can do a spell with you if it really comes down to it," she said. "…Frisk, your grandmother wrote this?"
"Yeah," Frisk said.
"Huh." Chara chuckled. "To be honest, most of it's so complex I can't even read much except the titles."
"That's okay."
"But imagine hearing some of these." The freckled girl's eyes gleamed. "Did she cast any while you were there?"
"Yeah, the one we used to get Az out of the void," Frisk said.
"What was it like?"
"Kinda overwhelming."
Chara smiled. "I bet."
"It was so much magic, too. It took her and a giant dog using a blessing or something from an even bigger dog."
"How big a dog?"
"I dunno, like…" Frisk had to yawn. "Ah, maybe a house, I guess?"
Chara blinked. "A… house-sized dog?"
"Yeah. Oh!" The kid pointed at the book. "There should be, like, a dog spell in there now. It makes other spells stronger in the daylight, I think. It was actually sorta simple compared to the rest of the stuff."
.
Chara nodded and flipped through the pages just a fraction faster until she saw the page written in a hastier hand. "Ah. This one, I think. Blessing. A… sun…? Damn, what's the word?"
"Avenir called it an, um… solar… a-augment?" Frisk said. "Auuug-ment."
"Aah, okay. I get it," Chara said. "Whatever we do, then, do it during the day and cast this, and we'll probably have a better shot."
"And I think I found out something we can do," Asriel said. The boy put the book he was reading on the grass and tapped the diagrams of crystals on the page. "Here. Inscription."
.
"Oh?" Chara leaned over the book. "As a failsafe mechanism, you may inscribe a crystal with your desired spell to ensure its use is to your specifications — including bars that instruct on what to do if a failure occurs."
"Does it say how to do it?!" Frisk asked.
"On the next page," Asriel said.
Chara plucked the book up to check. "Aah. Okay, so…" She paused to read it. "Alright. It's easy enough." She smiled. "All we really need is a timer, right? To make exactly sure. It's hardly even a spell. I'm sure I can handle it."
"We'll have to ask Gaster how long ago things messed up," Asriel said. "Think one of us can weasel that info from him?"
"I can't see why not. I'm sure if I call him Uncle enough, he'll tell us whatever we want."
.
"You think I'd, uh…" Frisk couldn't help another yawn. "Think I'd notice if he falls again, right?"
"He won't," Chara said.
"Yeesh, you need a nap or somethin'?" Asriel said.
Frisk shook her head. "Not yet. Um." She looked around. "Is there anything else I can do? Or…"
"Well, let's think for a sec," Asriel said. "I gotta make some plant… something. Room? Bomb?"
"Something Gaster can carry," Frisk said. "So I guess it can be kinda heavy but not too big."
"Right, so…" The boy scratched his ear thoughtfully. "I guess I need something as a base? Something stronger than grass, I guess? Maybe part of a tree, or, like… a mushroom, or—"
"Mushroom's not a plant," Chara said.
"…Huh?!" Asriel bleated. "It's not?!"
"No, they're fungi," she said.
"What does being fun have to do with it?"
Chara gave him a dry look over the cover of the book until she saw he was completely earnest in his confusion.
"Fungi. Fungus. It's a category of life from the Natura side of things," she said.
"Yeah, I mean, I've seen mushroom monsters before," he said. "I just thought it was planty."
"Nope."
"Oh…" He looked at Frisk. "Did you know that?"
Frisk shrugged and shook her head.
"W-Well, anyway!" Asriel said swiftly. "A tree, then?"
"Why don't you take a look around for some seed pods?" Chara suggested.
"I can do that," Frisk said, getting to her feet quickly and scampering off.
"Keep track of the river so you don't get lost!" the girl called after her.
"Kaaaay!"
.
Frisk headed back into the forest, towards the closest of the huge trees. She wasn't sure what season it was, or even if it was the right time of year for them to have seeds. As she approached the trunk, she looked upwards. Not a pine, so chances were there wouldn't be cones, at least not like she would recognize. She knew some trees left little, solid nuts, but others had seeds that were carried out on the wind on thin, papery wings.
.
She searched amongst the gigantic roots first, trying her best to suppress the urge to yawn. She could feel lethargy starting to creep in. She wasn't exactly surprised— every time she'd ever turned another person back in time more than a few seconds, she'd usually be down for the count shortly after. This time, she was happy she'd lasted a little longer than usual, but she wasn't sure how much longer she could keep on her feet.
.
She looked around a bit more, delving deeper into the forest at a slower pace than she liked. She had to keep rubbing her eyes whenever her blinks slowed. She couldn't find much besides old sticks, rocks, and a few pleasant-smelling mushrooms.
.
A chill— albeit not an unpleasant one— seeped in through her back and along her neck. She rubbed at the spot, but it only travelled up and into her scalp. Weird, she thought, but maybe it was just because she was wearing out a bit.
.
As she headed to another tree, a faint splash made her perk up, straining her ears through the forest ambience. Nothing else stood out, so she continued onwards.
"Hey, Friiiiiiisk?" Asriel's distant voice echoed through the woods. "Find anyyyythiiiing?"
"Noooope!" Frisk replied. "You?"
"Noooothing!" He had had gotten closer. "Where are you?"
"At a big tree?" the kid said in jest. "I'm kinda heading towards the river, I think?"
.
A breeze brushed by and, after a moment, Frisk heard another splash. She hurried on, past the massive tree trunk to where brighter light peeked through the leaves high above, just in time to see a large, caramel-coloured orb bobbing its way down the slow-flowing river. Frisk jogged ahead of it, pulling her shoes and socks off as she went. She rolled her pant legs up to her knees and hopped into the cool water. It was deep enough that her clothes still got a little wet, but she didn't mind. She quickly adjusted her feet on the smooth rocks beneath them and lined herself up with the orb floating towards her.
.
Just as Asriel caught up, she intercepted her prize, hoisting the thing into the air with a triumphant hah! It was almost as big as her head, but it was light and rattled a little at the sudden movement.
"Yo, you found something?!" Asriel said.
"Yeah!" Frisk waded back to him and handed the thing over. "I'm pretty sure that's a seed pod."
He took it from her carefully and rolled it between his fingers. "Ooh. Yep." He looked up at the nearest tree and, when he squinted, he could see some small, dark baubles dangling far, far up in its branches. "Think we can get some more?"
"We can wait for the wind," she suggested.
"I could punch the tree," Asriel said.
"Don't punch the tree," Frisk said with a snicker. "Maybe you could just use m—"
.
Another gust of wind blew through the canopy and, upriver, another seed, almost black this time, plummeted, thunking loudly into the shallow water. When it bobbed up again, the dark shell fell away, revealing the lighter, brighter orb within.
"Oh, cool," Asriel said. "Can you get it?"
"Yup!" Frisk assured him.
.
It wasn't long before they'd gathered three of the large, light seed pods and started to make their way back to Chara along the river. The water grew deeper and they came across a small group of ducks drifting on the current who were soon ushered away down a fork in the stream that headed much deeper into the forest.
.
Chara was exactly where they'd left her, with the books carefully set aside and a handful of different crystals laid out before her. She greeted them with an approving smile.
"Those look like they'll work," she said. "Good job. Frisk, you're wet."
"Jumped in the river for 'em," she said proudly.
"Did you figure anything out?" Asriel asked.
"I was just kinda trying to pick which crystals to use. I think…" She held up one that was a smooth, pale opaque oval with flecks that shifted with rainbows. "This one to hold the reset energy. It's an opal, they're a little more fragile but have a high charge of energy themselves, so I figure if it's supposed to break anyway, this is a good one."
"Ooh." Frisk sat down on her knees and Chara passed her the gemstone. "Cooool."
"And then, for the trigger," the freckled girl continued, pulling up a longer, clear, hexagonal-cut crystal with a wicked point, "this one." She offered it to Frisk as well. "Keep those on you until it's time. And try not to stab yourself, yeah?"
"Right," Frisk said.
"How's yours doing, Azzy?"
.
Asriel perked up and fished inside his pockets. He pulled out a similar crystal that Chara had given him. It was tinted with iridescent red. The girl held out her hand and he passed it to her. She raised it up and inspected it with a curious squint.
"Is it working?"
"Yeah, but not very fast." Chara handed it back to him. "Yours is meant for anchoring, yeah? It can function without being full, but…"
"Could be better. Right." Asriel folded his arms and puffed out a sigh. "Welp. I guess lemme try to, uh…" He took one of the seeds and placed it on the ground a few feet away. "Okay. I'll see if I can work with this."
.
He took a deep breath in through his mouth and breathed it out slowly as flame. Blades of grass around his feet rippled like water. He closed his eyes to focus, trying to picture a simple, leafy room forming within. The energy tingled from his chest and down every strand of his fur. Carefully, he touched a claw to the seed and it puffed up abruptly like it'd been shot through with hot air. Asriel yelped and plopped backwards onto his rear as the seed shot up to around his height. Frisk whooped for him as he gawked.
.
Asriel leapt to his feet and touched the outside of the massive, golden pod. The shell was warm against the pads of his fingers. He circled it quickly and, as soon as he'd even questioned how he could enter, a hole bored itself into the side of the seed, leading to pitch darkness. He looked back at his siblings and Chara gave him a little wave, while Frisk leaned up on her knees and stared at him excitedly. Asriel gulped, stuck out his hand, and stepped through.
.
Coming out on the other side, his arm was encrusted in ashen, streaked bark and short, hard thorns. He swallowed back his intense discomfort and looked around. A simple, circular chamber of leaves lit by a glitter of gold lay before him, just as he'd pictured. He tilted his head back. He'd probably need to make a hole in the top for the crystal to go through.
.
At the top of the chamber, the leaves slid apart like an aperture, leaving a circle for sunlight to pour through. Asriel gulped.
"Okay," he muttered to himself. "Oookay, cool, okay." He pulled out the crystal from his pocket to check it again, but it seemed the same as before. He supposed, when the time came, he'd simply stick it into the foliage somewhere. Plus, he thought, maybe making the thing a lot smaller on the outside would make it easier to keep alive.
.
The second he stepped back out into the real world, he felt as if he needed a nap. The seed room rustled and he released his hold on it. It withered into a papery husk and crumbled, leaving three chestnut-like fragments behind.
"O-Oops," he said.
"That's what the backups are for, I guess," Chara said. She got up to pluck up the remnants and tossed them out into the forest.
.
"So did it work okay?" Frisk asked.
"I think so. I'm just… still, um, kinda tired out, I guess," he said bashfully.
"Totally get it," she said sympathetically.
"Do you have enough in you to try again?" Chara asked. "This first one is kinda impressive, but what you need is more, like… compact, yeah?"
"I dunno how I'm gonna get into one like that," he said.
"Make it big and then shrink it again?" Frisk wondered.
"Or just have an opening at the top and have Frisk jump in," Chara said.
"What, me?!" the kid squeaked.
"You totally could. I can't see you having a problem."
"Getting out might be an issue," Asriel said.
"Build stairs," Chara said.
"I…!" The boy held his protest. "…Maybe."
Frisk looked between the two and gave a lopsided smile. "Well, if you guys think so."
.
Chara cocked her head to the side. She folded her arms. "…Are you two even up to this?"
Asriel and Frisk looked at each other. She puffed herself up.
"S-Sure! Yeah, I can do it," Frisk said.
"I… can try," Asriel said, rubbing his head. "Good thing there's way more seeds."
"Why don't you two do a soulbond?" Chara asked.
"What, now?!" Asriel yelped.
"Well. Yeah," she said. "It'd give you more than enough energy to do what you want for a while. It might even help top off those crystals."
Frisk perked right up. She looked at Asriel and his ears pinned back a little. He took a deep breath.
"Okay," he said. He smiled a little. "I'll try to keep my memories stashed a bit better."
"We got this," the kid assured him. She offered him her hand, and though she felt a tired tremor through her body, she funnelled her soul's energy to her palm.
Asriel nodded. He grabbed her hand.
.
Together, they exploded into starlight and a flurry of melody. Flashes of danger and worry twisted their insides for only an instant before warmth shot to the end of every inch of their body and they flopped out onto the grass as a massive, iridescent goat beast in a long, purple coat. They breathed in together and the air sang as it passed through them. Their wings, unneeded, dissolved again into a light snowfall of glitter.
.
Chara cooed and reached out, cradling their snout in both hands. "There you go," she said softly,
Their dark eyes widened and turned glossy and they pulled her in closer with one large hand. Asriel fluttered and Frisk agreed— loved her a lot. It was a nice feeling, tumbling around with relief in their warm soul.
"I didn't get to tell you last time," Chara said, "but I'm really proud of you two, y'know?"
"C-Chara," they mumbled. Asriel pushed their snout against her cheek. "Thanks."
She snorted out a quiet laugh. Her fingers brushed through the fur of their cheeks. "Frisk, your scar is glowing."
"Oh?!" Frisk raised their hand to cup around their cheek, just enough to catch a faint, blue glow reflecting off their fur. "Whoa, weird."
Asriel wondered why, and Frisk could only reply with a mental shrug. She pressed her fingers against it. The homesick ache that followed was strong enough that Asriel wrapped her up inside them to give her a reassuring snuggle, whispering that they were nearly there. Everyone was working so hard. He knew they'd get it.
.
They took a deep breath and rose to their feet, the God of Hypertime. "Okay," they said, "we're gonna try."
"Sure," Chara said, taking a step back, "let me know if you need me to do anything."
They nodded and turned their attention on another of the seeds. They carefully plucked it up between their sharp claws and then cradled it in their palm. "Maybe… have the book ready? We'll try this and then… Thennnn… Frisk's gonna try just the bubble inside. I'll cast the spell."
"Sure," Chara said. "I'll be right behind you."
"Thanks, sis."
.
The huge monster's fur glowed gently and tendrils of bright energy snaked through their whole being. It connected deep into the seed, the melody of their magic wrapping around it like a cocoon. Asriel closed their eyes and instructed Frisk to picture what they needed. He showed her the room he'd made with the hole in the top and Frisk held onto that image as much as she could, but she also recalled the shape of the golden berries in their papery casings, wondering if that might be a good shape for the outside. Maybe if it opened from the top, Asriel agreed.
.
The magic in their souls wrapped together and grasped the seed tight. It pulled its casing outwards, infusing energy through every inch of it as it swelled. The golden shell twisted upwards into a point and streaked with swirls of green that left trails of energy in the air around it. The huge monster closed their fingers around it, and a pulse of bright red blazed across the seed. Once it faded, there was a sturdiness to the whole thing that was very reassuring.
.
Carefully, they placed the grown, gleaming seed onto the ground. It gleamed with warmth and the melody of the universe sang softly beneath its surface, and where their thumbs had rested, twin stars blazed in glimmering white. That faded, too, leaving opalescent brands in the surface.
.
With a big grin and a burst of excitement and warmth from within, the God of Hypertime shimmered, too, and then split apart, both kids laid out flat on the ground. Frisk snorted out a laugh and rubbed her head as she propped herself up on her other hand. Asriel staggered to his feet first, lifting Frisk into a hug and giving her a smooch on the top of her head before plopping her back down and running to Chara and the book.
"R-Ready?" he asked.
"I'll trryyyyy," Frisk said.
.
As she walked to the seed— now sitting at about chest-height for her— the top unfurled like the bud of a flower, revealing a black space beyond just big enough for her to squeeze inside. She gulped and looked back at her brother. He gave her a thumbs up and then looked at the book. His soul swiftly began to resonate with the song the dogs had gifted them and his irises gleamed bright. A wave of energy rushed from him like a burst of wind, illuminating Frisk's soul so brightly that she yelped and leapt over a foot into the air backwards. She stumbled onto the ground and looked at them with big eyes. Chara, too, was glowing, but all over her body. Red energy flared from around her shoulders and hair like flame, and her blazing eyes were wide as she smooshed both hands over her chest.
"That's intense!" she blurted.
"I know, right?!" Asriel said. "Go, Frisk, we dunno how long it lasts!"
"Ah! R-Right!" Frisk whipped around and looked down into the large seed's opening. "Okay, here I go!" She grabbed the side of it and vaulted up and over, into the darkness.
.
Before she knew it, the kid splatted harmlessly onto a bed of grass. She hurried to her feet and looked around. She was in a large, circular chamber made of interlocking leaves in wide streaks of green and gold, like autumn peeking through summer trees. Some twisting vines that vaguely resembled a spiral staircase lead back up to sunlight pouring in from above, but there was nothing else with in the room.
.
"Did it work?!" Asriel called from somewhere far above.
"Looks like it!" Frisk answered.
"Can you get out?!" Chara asked.
"Yeah, pretty sure!" Frisk said. "I'm gonna try a time bubble!"
"Kay, let us know!" Asriel said.
.
Frisk quickly fished inside her pockets for something that wasn't touched by time magic and took out the crystals Chara had given her. All of them blazed with red and she couldn't help a grin.
"Az, check your crystal!" she said. "I think mine knows my magic now."
"They attuned?!" Chara asked.
"Think so!"
"…Yeah, looks like me, too!" Asriel said.
"Let me just say, I'm totally jealous and that's extremely not fair," Chara joked. "I guess that's some time god perks?"
"Might be," Frisk said. "Okay, I just need a minute."
.
Pocketing the crystals again, Frisk took out her stash of star boosters and grabbed a small handful. She aligned herself with the spot of sunlight and tried her best to stand in the centre. Taking a deep breath, Frisk put her hand against her chest. Her soul blazed out with such light and heat it took her by surprise again.
"Okay. Time bubble," she muttered.
.
She needed a time trap. Like what Gaster had made, but stronger. She frowned with concentration and her magic tingled all through her body like light embers. Her soul pulsed with its melody and a sheen of red burst from her, encapsulating her entirely in a crimson bubble. She turned in place and looked around. It felt like absolutely nothing. Easy peasy. She guessed that was thanks to that spell.
.
Frisk tossed the handful of boosters. Each little star stopped in place at exactly the moment they ceased contact with her skin. That was a good sign, Frisk thought. She grabbed the opal from her pocket and reached up to place it near the top of the bubble. It, too, hung exactly where she left it. She took it back and rolled it over in her fingers. She hoped it would work.
.
She wasn't sure if she'd be able to hear her siblings from in the bubble, but she figured she probably had a couple more minutes, if that even meant anything in here. She clutched the opal tight in both hands and closed her eyes. She reached deep down within her soul for a little glitter of starlight in her mind's eye. The power of the reset without her death wasn't always something she was eager to pull at but, now, all she could think of was Sans— how that was all that facilitated the last time she'd really seen him.
.
Heartache came swift and hard, and she tried to force it down. Instead, she tried to focus; to think of what Undyne had taught her about being in tune with her own magics. She calmed herself as much as she could and focused on the song in her soul, following the melody in her mind and letting the magic flow— feeling the power to draw backwards welling up.
.
That power crept quietly up her fingers, glittering like starlight. She clenched her fingers tight into the opal and stared at it intently as a little swell of magic made its iridescence shine. She grimaced, then shook her head and pocketed it again. She didn't want to risk making some faulty reset by accident without knowing when to send Gaster back to.
.
Frisk turned to pluck some of the star bits out of the red, but as soon as she stepped back into the plant realm, her head spun as if she'd been struck with a hammer. She clapped her hand to her temple and almost lost her breath as it felt as if her energy fell from her body like water. Her vision blurred and her magic pulsed loudly in a panic.
.
She told herself it was fine. It was just the exhaustion hitting. The spell must've worn off. She rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands stumbling back and step and into the red. Grumbling to herself, she blinked, hard, but her vision scrambled into black and nonsense. She forced herself still and tried to regain her composure.
.
That chill was back again, ebbing out of her shoulder and across her cheek, and up the nape of her neck. She shivered and her head swam.
.
Some shape began to draw itself out before her, a lump near the ground. It took another few seconds for a highlight of blue to show her a hallucination of Sans, buckled over in the grass. Frisk gawked.
"…Bro?" She almost felt stupid for asking, but she couldn't help herself. She bent and stuck her hand out to him. "A-Are you—?"
He was gone again, whisked away like sand in a breeze. Frisk winced. Her head was pounding.
"Dumb-dumb," she scolded herself.
.
She closed her eyes again and walked forward until she could feel the whoosh of air again. She blinked hard and, though her eyes were still blurry, the red orb was steady exactly where it needed to be. She couldn't see a shred of darkness in it.
.
Her limbs were leaden as she approached the vine steps and she awkwardly grabbed one and tried to heave herself up. Her body fought her tremendously, even as she dragged herself forward. Every blink felt like she might just fall asleep.
"Not sure I can… get out yet," she said softly. She didn't hear a reply. She gulped and tried to force her voice louder. "A-Az?"
"You done?" he asked.
"Sooooo done," she muttered.
.
Frisk blinked, and the next thing she knew, she was cradled in Asriel's arms. The breeze of the forest was refreshing and the tweets of the birds were a relaxing melody.
"You alive?" Asriel teased.
"Noooo."
"Pff." He bumped his snout against her forehead. "Tired you right out, huh?"
"Spell hit really hard when it wore off," the kid mumbled.
"Well, resurrection and soulbonding, and then that all within a few hours, I'm not surprised." Chara leaned in close and offered her a flask. "Water. C'mon, we'll go to that town and get you some food."
"Thaaaanks." Frisk barely even got a proper hold on the flask before she'd dozed off again.
.
For a second, she could have sworn she had horns.
.
When Frisk opened her eyes again, the light was warm and the surroundings were wooden, and she was very comfortable. The air smelled of spice and butter, and something deeply savoury. A dark shape across from her caught her eye— a large, black panther, at the edge of a tavern's counter.
"Ixel?" she muttered, squinting.
"Hey, there she is," Asriel said.
.
Frisk turned quickly, blinking up at her brother in bafflement. They were in a booth on their own, and though their crafted seedpod took up a big chunk of their wide table, she could still make out the window behind it. There were elaborate walkways built of wood, branches of trees, and no ground in sight.
.
"Here," Asriel slid a plate of buttery dumplings and some chopsticks towards her. "Mushrooms in 'em. They're great."
"Ah… Th-Thanks," she said. She looked back towards the counter and saw the panther was, in fact, a broad-headed black dog. She blushed sheepishly and plucked up a dumpling. She bit into it and was rewarded with a warm, savoury mix of mushrooms and a little sharpness of cheese.
.
"Who's Ixel?" Asriel asked as he crunched on a big chunk of fresh bread.
"Oh. Um. Just… someone I met with Vera and Zapf," she said. "Never mind, it's fine."
"Jeez, must've been real tired," he said.
"How long'd I sleep for?" she wondered.
"Maybe half-hour, not long," he said.
"Where's Chara?"
"Getting more tea to go," he said. "Seems like a pretty common thing to do, they have a whole set-up for it near the door. Kinda like our vending machines, I guess, but, like… fancy-looking." He shrugged. "I stuck my head in the plant thing. Looks like you did it."
"Phew," she said.
"I'm gonna keep charging my crystal a little more," he said. He gave the seedpod an affectionate pat. "We'll see if this thing lasts. Feels real solid to me, but we can always do the soul thing and make another one if we have to, right?"
"Yeah, think so," she said. "I dunno how that time bubble'll do, but… yeah. We can do it again." She laughed quietly. "Buuuut I'm gonna need to sleep."
"Yeah, figured," Asriel said with a sympathetic smile.
.
A hand was suddenly ruffling Frisk's hair and Chara slipped back around the table to sit opposite them.
"Morning," she teased. "Doing okay?"
"Yeah, thanks," Frisk said.
"Good. Because we have to go soon."
"What? Really?" Asriel said. "I feel like we just got here…"
"Really. Sorry." Chara lifted a small, round crystal that was pulsing softly with orange. "Papy's calling us back to the Soul. So."
"Bahh… Probably kinda important, huh?" Asriel moped.
"Important enough," she said, then gestured to the food. "Finish eating first, then we're out of here."
"Okay, but I'm getting more dumplings to go," Asriel said, crossing his arms.
Chara laughed. "Good!" She shot Frisk an apologetic smile. "Sorry to rush. You sleep okay?"
Frisk nodded. "Yeah, it was fine."
"Good. Some of your scars were still glowing before, so I was worried for a second."
.
Frisk stared back at her blankly. She pointed to her own cheek. "This one?"
"And the other one. And the one on your hand. And the one on your back," Chara said.
A chill ran straight up Frisk's spine. "But… that doesn't usually happen unless dad is…?" She almost jumped upright, whipping around to look at Asriel. "Y-You don't think that means maybe dad got through in the Soul or something?!"
"I… Shit, I dunno," the boy said, his eyes bugging out. "Oh, we gotta go!"
"Going!" Frisk said shrilly.