Chapter 23: Reset.
"Get ready, here it comes." Chara ordered.
With a nod, Ruby readied her scythe.
The speedster bursted forward with her Semblance, passing the incoming blades while Chara jumped back. The red reaper swung her scythe left and spun it before bringing it down upon Desperation, only for the hits to phase right through the creature.
It gave her an ear to ear grin before launching knives at her, to which Ruby summoned her rose blaster to block the knives. The little Rose fired her blaster, cutting the ground in half, only for the beast to dodge to it's right and run towards her.
It raised it's knives, ready to stab the little reaper, but her rifle shot it in the face, knocking it to the floor. Chara's knives came out from the ground and impaled the creature as Ruby's blaster dealt the finishing blow.
And just like that, Ruby woke up from the throne room. She got up from the flowerbed and saw Chara just as confused as herself.
"W-Why are we back here?" The red eyed girl asked in shock.
"Did the world just,... Reset?" Ruby mused.
"That wasn't here before, was it?" The princess of monsters pointed at the spider-web crack on the floor as it spread it's tendrils.
The dark substance continued to spread further and black a gas flew out from the cracks. Knowing that Desperation was the source of all this, Chara and Ruby nodded to one another and quickly made their way to the Judgment hall to confront the creature again. And once again, they killed it, only to wake up from the throne room once more.
"How did it keep doing this!?" The red Rose stammered.
"I don't know, but the cracks seem to be bigger than the last time we woke up." The brunette pointed out.
"You're right! We need to put an end to the crack thing." Ruby stated.
"But how,...?" The red eyed girl pondered.
"We see that the creature reacted negatively to 'Determination'. Why not try that?" The red Rose suggested.
"Yeahhhhh,... Good idea pardner!" Chara exclaimed.
"Ah,... I'm afraid it's a bit late for that." A calm, soothing voice.
The two of them immediately jolted to a defensive position. Pointing their weapons at the one they are facing off with, they finally saw the face of their opposition.
"Who the heck are you!? Why are you covered in black goo?" The brunette questioned.
"Are you an octopus?" Ruby asked innocently.
"I am your Nightm - Wait, what did you just call me?" The octopus looking monster asked.
"PFFFT!" Chara snorted.
"I am your-"
"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The brunette couldn't hold her laughter at Ruby's question and bawled to the floor.
"I am your Nightmare! - Screw it. There goes my dramatic entrance." Nightmare growled.
"Sorry, with your appearance, octopus was the first thing that came to my mind." The little reaper explained.
"I am the culmination of darkness itself! I DEMAND TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY!" The creature shouted.
"No." Chara responded nonchalantly.
"..." The octopus looking creature's eye twitched.
"Ya know what? Screw the intro. Spikes!" The creature said.
Ruby immediately pulled Chara onto her blaster so that the red eyed girl did not get impaled by the spikes. The blaster shot a 'Determination' beam at the goop looking octopus' face, cutting his torso off before jumping onto another blaster and flew out of the room.
"Call me octopus again and I swear,...!" The octopus muttered as he regenera- "DAMNIT!"
Ruby flew down the hallway as her mind kept repeating the word 'nope' while Nightmare crawled down the hallway by stabbing it's tendrils into the floor, wall and ceiling.
"He's getting closer!" Chara warned.
"I KNOW!" The little Rose snapped at her.
Chara created dozens of flying knives and launched them at the goop thing. The blades littered his body, stopping him in his tracks so that they could escape. The entity screeched painfully before continuing his pursuit.
"I think we lost him." The red reaper told the brunette after a while of flying.
"Just keep going, we never know-" Chara was cut off by a tendril shooting out of the wall and knocked them off the blaster like a rope strung across a highway.
The red eyed girl held her stomach painfully while Ruby gagged on her breath. Getting stopped abruptly while going fast was incredibly painful, especially for Ruby, who hit her neck on the tendril.
"R-Ruby,..." Chara's voice called out, but Ruby doesn't seem to be listening.
"There you are, little pest." Nightmare growled as he approached the two girls.
Somewhere, Ink felt time shifted.
'Someone with DT just died a couple of times. It could be anyone of the three.' Ink thought as they strode down the hallway.
Somewhere Dream noticed that his new friends were gone.
'Someone just killed Desperation a couple of times. No wonder time reseted. I didn't get affected and I'm pretty sure neither did Ink. If I don't save them now then,... They'll die.' Dream contemplated his options before choosing.
"No. I need to save this AU. They can wait, hopefully till I come back."
Nightmare's POV
"You think you're so clever. Well, in a way, you were. But the fact that you thought that you could outrun me, made you the biggest fools ever." The goopy skeleton gloated as he used his tentacles to pick Chara and Ruby up by the neck.
The red eyed girl took out a 'Determination' knife and chopped off their enemy's tendril. The tendril fell off, but Nightmare did not even flinch and summoned more tendrils to slash at Chara from different angles.
Ruby took this chance to pull out Crescent Rose to shoot a 'Determination' bullet the monster in the face, staggering him, before switching her weapon into scythe mode to chop off the tentacle that was holding her in the air.
The red reaper fell down and landed onto Rose Blaster before blasting the goopy monster in the face. The octopus-
"STOP CALLING ME AN OCTOPUS!" Nightmare screamed and spikes from the ground destroyed the blaster.
Ruby jumped off the blaster before shooting her weapon behind her to launch herself towards Chara. The little Rose grabbed the brunette with her left arm as she shot again to propel them both onto another Rose Blaster.
"HAVE SOME SOUVENIR!" The red eyed girl taunted as she launched dozens of flying 'Determination' knives towards Nightmare.
To add salt into the wound, Ruby used her blaster as a rocket and blasted the monster with a huge 'Determination' beam. The brunette grinned like an idiot and turned to her pardner.
"I think we lost him for good, now!" Chara cheered.
"NO! Don't jinx-"
Before the red Rose could finish her sentence, her blaster crashed into something and launched the two of them forward. Both Ruby and Chara got impaled to the ceiling. The former through the left shoulder and the latter through the stomach.
"I admire your effort. I almost felt the hit." The dark monster taunted them.
"What the hell do you even want from us!" Chara spat angrily.
She didn't even bother to check her wound. But the fact that she was an android might be the reason she does not feel pain. Ruby, on the other hand, shrieked painfully after the initial shock had passed.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHH-!"
"Don't worry! I-" Nightmare was about to continue but the red reaper's scream was too loud.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHH-!"
"I AM NOT-!" The goopy monster spoke louder, but Ruby beat him to it.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHH-"
"I AM NOT GOING TO KILL YOU! I AM JUST - Hold that thought!" Nightmare yelled as he made Ruby bite onto one of his tendrils to shut her up. Though she still let out some muffled cries, she was more quiet than before.
"As I was saying! I have no intentions to kill you. No, that would be too simple, and wasteful. You are unlike the rest of them. Your souls are activated by monster magic. One with human souls too. Do you know what that means?" The negative monster asked.
"..." Chara and Ruby remained silent but still glared hatefully at the monster.
"It means, Frisk is getting a new friend." The dark monster smirked dangerously as he spoke.
'Frisk?' The name went into Ruby's ears.
"Oh, where are your manners, Frisk? Why don't you come out and say hi?" Nightmare spoke in a sickly sweet tone.
From the black goo in the ground, emerged the monster they had just fought before. The very same cropped off hair and that emotionless eyes.
That is - No, was Frisk. Whatever stood in front of them was a twisted version of their determined friend. Considering the fact that Multiverse exist, Chara doubted that it was their Frisk.
As far as she knew, Frisk was dead, killed and absorbed by Sans. Ruby seemed to have noticed this too, for she did not sense the reaper's grief, only hatred and disgust remained in her soul. Nor did she sense anything 'human' about that thing, only the need for violence.
"You don't seem surprised." Nightmare spoke with disappointment in his tone.
"Mmmmh-mmh-mmmh" Ruby tried to muffle.
"Wha - Oh, right." The dark monster removed the tendril from her mouth "What?"
"I said, we knew for a fact that,... Whatever that thing is is definitely not our Frisk." The reaper spoke with confidence.
"Huh,... Interesting. I'd like to know more as to how you figure that out." The goo looking monster snarked.
"Well, what can I say. I'm smart." Ruby snarked.
"Let's not ignore the huge gash on your shoulder please?" Chara chimed in.
"T-Tis but a scratch~" Ruby slurred.
"Oh god, she's hallucinating." Chara facepalmed.
"A SCRATCH!? YOUR ARM IS ABOUT TO FALL OFF!" Nightmare growled as he dropped his hold on the girl and she flopped to the ground.
"I~ have felt worse during Frisk's cheems no side memories~" The slurring of the red Rose continued despite the fact that her face was still on the ground.
And the blood was still spraying out from her wounds.
"I would say that you are the weirdest bunch I've ever met, but that would be a lie." The dark monster deadpanned.
"Hey! Help her! She's bleeding heavily!" Chara yelled.
"How about no,... It seems to distress you. You care for her, huh?" Nightmare mocked.
"I wonder what you would feel if I do,... This?"
The monster said as he pointed his sharpened tendril to the face of a downed Ruby.
"Hey, HEY! Don't you dare!" The brunette warned.
"Oh, what are you gonna do? Stab me in the face?" Nightmare smirked mockingly.
*SHINK*
A 'Determination' knife embedded in his face.
"Seriously? Seriously, if the knives didn't work the first fifty or so times, why would it work now?" The monster of darkness taunted.
"Grrrr!" Chara growled as she struggled despite the giant spike in her mechanical torso. The princess of monsters threw another knife but it was swatted away immediately.
"Good Nightmares." The dark monster stabbed his sharp tendril through Ruby's neck, severing her spinal cord.
The red Rose could only let out a scream before darkness took over her. The last thing she remembered was the voice of Chara screaming something to her as her head rolled on the ground.
As darkness came over her, she heard a feminine familiar voice.
Oh, such a familiar voice. Where had she heard this voice?
So sweet, so warm.
It made her feel protected, yet gave her motivation.
You can't give up just yet,…
Ruby, stay Determined,...
'I don't want to die,... I have so much to live for. I have people waiting for me, counting on me.
Yang, Weiss, Blake, Jaune, Pyrrha, Nora, Ren, Qrow, dad,... Sans.
I must get up, I must fight for you.
This is no place to die. I must stand up! Wake up! No time to die!
I must stay Determined!'
"That's the Ruby I know." The voice of Chara rang in her head.
"CHARA!?" Ruby shot up from her bed - And fell straight to the ground.
"AAH!" The sudden sound startled Weiss and woke everyone up.
"Owwwwowoww..." Ruby groaned.
"What is wrong with you!?" Weiss snapped.
"Fell off the bed again, sis?" Yang asked groggily.
Ruby held her head in pain as she looked around the room. It was her room. Everything was in its place.
"Something wrong?" Blake looked at her with concern filled in her eyes.
Ruby did not answer and went straight to the window. She looked out and saw people walking on the streets early in the morning. Everything was fine. No apocalyptic threats outside. No giant demons or anything.
'That wasn't a dream.' Chara spoke up.
"Huh?" Ruby asked out loud.
"Ruby, did you hit your head or something? Are you OK?" Now, it was Yang's turn to look concerned.
'Tell them it's just a bad dream.' Chara advised.
"Oh, it's just a Nightmare. It's nothing. You don't have to worry about it. I just forgot what the Nightmare was all about." Ruby rubbed the back of her head, hoping that they would not notice her nervousness.
'You need to get some fresh air.' The girl in her head advised again.
"I just need some fresh air, okay?" Ruby put on the best fake smile she could muster as she walked to the door.
"Ruby, are you sure you're okay?" Yang asked again.
"Yeah, it's nothing. Don't worry about it." The red reaper smiled as she left the room.
Outside of her room, the little Rose let out a sigh before walking down the hallway. She took deep breaths as she slowly tred the walls of the school. Though she tried to deny it, Ruby knew for a fact that whatever she had just gone through was not a dream.
It was a RESET.
Time was set back to the morning she last Saved. Which was two days ago. She did not know if this affected the other Outerversal beings too. Come to think of it, the god of negativity is like one of the two brothers in fairy tales.
Then again, Ink and Error could also be considered to be Multiversal entities too. She shouldn't be surprised to know that gods exist and they are here. Heck, there might be dozens of different hers in many other timelines and AUs.
'I wonder if there's a Ruby that prefers blue over red.' Ruby pondered.
'Someone's having an existential crisis.' Chara jested.
Someone needs to shut up.
Back in the Underground
"Grrrr! I didn't calculate how far they're going to RESET. *Inhales* Whatever, I can get to them later. Along with a few of my recruits that got lost in the time RESET." Nightmare growled.
"I am afraid not. You are not going anywhere!" Dream declared.
"I am not staying to deal with you. I have bigger plans in mind and I don't want you in my way either. So, how 'bout you deal with a few of my new,... Friends? Colleagues?... Slaves. I-I brought slaves." Nightmare claimed.
He then lifted his right hands and thousands upon thousands of Grimm bursted out from the ground, cracking the mountain open as they poured out like maggots in an open wound. Their numbers were so high that the creatures of darkness trampled, crawled onto one another and died continuously. Yet the numbers were still increasing rapidly and were quickly swarming Dream.
The god of Negativity floated to the sky to look at his brother fighting hordes upon hordes of Grimm. With each swing of his brother's sword, a wave of energy came out and cut the Grimm by the dozens.
"You never liked my gifts for this world, our world. Yet, the base of evolution lies in battles. The nature of humans is war. They are only willing to shake hands when there's an enemy larger than both!" Nightmare pointed at his brother accusingly before continuing his rant.
"You were the one who gave them reasons to turn on one another while I was the one who gave them purpose while there is none! I gave them a reason to fight, to continue, to struggle so they can feel satisfied once they find comfort! And what did they do!? They SHUNNED ME! You always give them a surplus, always more than what they need, always stocked full without lifting a finger! YOU birthed greed, yet they praise you!"
A column of light bursted from the ground and covered Dream in light. He turned back to his original humanoid energy form and he launched himself up to his brother. The god of Positivity raised his bow up as he shot an arrow filled with his own energy at his brother. The arrow got larger and larger as it came closer to it's mark.
Yet, Nightmare smacked it away with his tendril as if the truck sized arrow was a fly. The Positive arrow hit the nearby mountain, but instead of destroying it, the mountain grew beautiful trees and flowers. The snowy mountain was immediately turned into a colorful landscape.
"I refuse to believe what you said about humans! They are NOT what you described them to be!" Dream declared as he got into melee range.
"The faunus and monsterkind would beg to differ." Nightmare taunted.
Ozpin's office
From his desk, Ozpin could see the battle of the twins all the way from Patch. He only smirked and looked at the man who spoke in hands.
"It looks like you won the bet. The boy did hold the world together. Though, the twins were an unexpected thing for me, though. Did you plan all this?" Ozpin asked.
"No, their appearance was completely unexpected to me. All I expected was that Sans will close the void rift in this realm." The void monster answered.
"Let's just hope they are nothing like their counterparts in this universe." The headmaster stated.
"Fingers crossed." The skeleton smirked.
"Wait, I was just reminded of something." Ozpin stated "Did you not tell me that they have the Core's blueprints, along with the Alternate Universe device? They may or may not cause trouble for other universes with it."
"Worry not, old friend. I believe it is being dealt with." Gaster once again let out the ear to ear smile.
The scene changes to Merlot and Watts looking at Salem in the Evernight Castle. The Merlot cranked the portal to the max. The energy arcs from the portal as the rift between realms is opened.
"Are you sure you do not wish to come along for this journey, mistress?" Watt asked.
"Nonsense." Salem immediately answered with a soft smile "This is your reward for your services. Now that your services are over, you may enjoy it. Your fate is yours, mine resides in this realm."
"I am forever thankful for this, your grace." Watts bowed respectfully to his queen "So will I. If this trip is successful, I will provide the fruits of our labor."
"The portal is ready." Merlot announced.
Watts took off his lab coat and took his suitcase to walk into the portal. Once on the other side, Watts bowed to his queen before the portal closed. The scientist had a button in the suitcase along with his equipment.
Once he presses the button, it would open a portal to send him back to the Evernight Castle. Always so generous, his grace. She admired his work, provided him with enough equipment and always spoke with him with an open mind.
Salem was many times better than James when it came to open-mindedness. His grace never shot down his ideas or invention, but rather tried to explain to him why it would be faulty. Like a mother talking to their naughty children.
Her actions made him wonder if she had ever been a mother since she always acted that way towards her followers. It was a strange thing indeed.
The queen of Grimm being a mother.
If anyone ever heard of this, they would scoff at the idea. He himself found it to be ludicrous also, why would other people not.
But, that is none of his concern at this very moment. He has one goal in mind, and that is to explore the other worlds. Watts found himself standing on an island in the middle of empty space with hanging papers around him.
Each sheet of paper was a universe of it's own, since they all acted as a small screen, playing the events of other universes. Each one is unique in a different way, some are very dark and filled to the brim with despair while others are filled with hopes and dreams.
It was truly a magnificent sight of seemingly endless possibilities. He walked on the nothingness and found himself standing on it quite comfortably. He walked towards one of them with the Pages with the intention of touching it.
Before he could touch the page, however, a couple of thread sized strings grabbed Arthur by his right hand, pulling him back. Watts then came face to face with a,... Strange skeleton monster.
"Hmm,... I always thought all the skeletons were white." Watts stated.
"Wow, rude, and racist. All the more reasons." Error remarked.
"Reasons for what, may I ask?" Arthur questioned as he reached for his revolver.
"Death."
Core
Sans woke up on the floor. The skeleton looked around and saw that the Core was almost untouched. Everything seemed fine, the machines, the power generator and the Core of this planet as well.
The same could not be said for him, however. His clothes are completely white, white his undershirt was black. The scarf he wore on his neck, Papyrus' bright red scarf had turned into a baleful shade of blue.
Sans could not help but feel proud of the fact that he helped hold Remnant from being erased from existence. That was quite an achievement. The blue hooded man's pride came just as fast as it vanished.
He felt empty, hollow. Mostly due to the fact that he put the damage of the rift onto himself. And, BOY, does it hurt like stubbing your toe to the wall a little too hard.
The white haired man touched the left eye and the void filled his mind. The knowledge of the entire universe ran through his mind only for a second. But, in that short second, he felt,... In control.
As if the whole world was in the palm of his hand, as if it was there as someone's creation. Sans saw codes, binary codes, ever changing as the world progresses, as the entire story was shaped.
How it would end.
For a single second, Sans was an ant that understood the functionality of a supercomputer. Once that second that felt like an eternity had passed, he once again became an ant. And before he could understand it, all became uncertain and lost to him.
The white haired man held his head as he screamed in pain as all knowledge was forcefully taken from him. Yet, one and only one thing was certain to him. He knew that the world had just Resetted. That means someone had just hurt Ruby.
His Ruby.
That someone will now pay for that.
What affects the seven souls had on Sans was uncertain, but one thing is, however. After the monster consumed seven souls from the beginning of this story, he was no longer the lazy, carefree Sans anymore.
He could not afford not to care anymore.