Chapter 9

After I... unwillingly killed Gaster, I then made my way through the fog with the guilt still in my gut as I then saw Papyrus's shadow in front of me.

"HUMAN... ALLOW ME TO SHARE WITH YOU SOME PERSONAL FEELINGS..." Papyrus said, me sighing at that.

"Only if I can share how I'm feeling after you're finished," I said with a sigh.

"VERY WELL... THE FEELING OF FINDING SOMEONE WHO LOVES PUZZLES... THE FEELING OF FINDING ANOTHER PASTA LOVER... THE FEELING OF FINDING SOMEONE VERY COOL WHO THINKS YOU'RE COOL... THESE FEELINGS... THEY MUST BE SHARED BETWEEN BOTH OF US, RIGHT?" Papyrus asked, me sighing at that and smiling.

"Yes, those are shared between us... but there is one feeling that I have right now... a feeling that's worse than anything you can ever imagine," I sighed, Papyrus being confused at that.

"AND WHAT WOULD THAT BE?" he asked.

"Guilt," I said bluntly, Papyrus looking at me in utter confusion. "Before I came to face you, I was contacted by someone you know very well... the original Royal Scientist, who had been lost to the Void after falling into the CORE..." I said, Papyrus gasping at that.

"Y-YOU MEAN MY... MY PAPA?" Papyrus asked.

"Yes... but he insisted he meet me in a secret area... a Void hotspot, as he called it... and when I went there, he basically forced me to fight him. He told me that I had to kill him... and he gave me no choice but to fight, turning all of my battle options to say FIGHT except for my ITEMS... and the whole fight, he kept begging for death... and I even asked him if there would be another way... but he said that there wasn't... so long as he was alive and not in the afterlife, this world would be stuck in a constant time loop that reset everything after a select amount of time..." I said, Papyrus looking at me in even more confusion.

"TIME LOOPS? AND YOU SAY THAT YOU FEEL GUILTY... YOU DIDN'T KILL HIM, DID YOU?" Papyrus asked, me sighing at that.

"He was already dead before he asked me to fight him... he fell into the CORE and was instantly lost to the Void. He forced me to kill him... and the guilt I feel from it... it's unbearable... knowing that I killed someone when I wanted to stay pacifistic... it's a horrid feeling to have, especially whenever all of you monsters Underground are all so nice," I said, me producing some more tears as Chara then gave me a hug and I sniffed in a bit.

"It's okay, Indie... he did it so that this world could live on with his death... don't beat yourself up over it," Chara said, me forcing a smile on my face as Papyrus then turned off the fog and he looked at me with what I could only assume was pity.

"HUMAN... I PITY YOU... YOU HAVE SO MUCH PASSION AND KINDNESS IN YOUR HEART... EVEN IF YOU DID KILL MY PAPA, IT'S OBVIOUS THAT HE WANTED YOU TO DO IT FOR A GOOD CAUSE... BUT I'M A BIT CONFLICTED... DO I LET YOU GO OR CAPTURE YOU?... I DON'T KNOW HOW TO PROCEED," Papyrus said.

"Well... we could always be friends, right?" I asked, Papyrus's face immediately lighting up when he heard that and me smiling through the tears as they then suddenly stopped the moment Papyrus smiled at me.

"I GUESS I COULD MAKE AN ALLOWANCE FOR YOU, NEW FRIEND! WOWIE! WE HAVEN'T EVEN HAD OUR FIRST SLUMBER PARTY AND I'VE ALREADY MANAGED TO HIT THE FRIEND ZONE!" Papyrus smiled widely as I then felt very tired when he mentioned that, me yawning with my eyes being very heavy now.

"Speaking of which... you mind if I sleep at your place?... It may not be a slumber party, but I need to rest up..." I said with a tired smiled.

"BUT OF COURSE, NEW FRIEND! DO TELL, WHAT'S YOUR NAME?" Papyrus asked.

"Hehe... Indie Gamma..." I said as Papyrus then held onto me and led me back to his place, him not noticing Chara until he looked to his right to open the door. And when he did, Papyrus looked shocked.

"WHAT?! ANOTHER HUMAN?!" he asked in surprise.

"Well... yes and no. I am a human, but I'm just a spirit right now... nobody can see me unless they come into contact with Indie's body... I'm the spirit of the first fallen child... don't tell anyone though, okay?" Chara said, Papyrus smiling at that.

"YOUR SECRET IS SAFE WITH ME, I PROMISE," Papyrus smiled in a hushed manner as I only then had my eyes close up and I then started to finally sleep.

When I entered my dreams, I was expecting to see something relating to this world, like how it worked when Frisk got knocked out when they fell off of the bridge in Waterfall. But I didn't dream about that... I instead dreamed about my old life back home, before all the virus stuff happened. Back when my parents were still alive and when I was in high school. And me and my parents were having a fun time playing Parcheesi on the dining room table.

"Mom... dad," I smiled at the thoughts. They may have been gone because of that stupid virus, but at least I could still remember them, even when we were literally worlds apart.

"Indie..." mom smiled at me in my dream as I saw it change to a more white-looking room. "We will always be with you, my love... never forget that," mom said with a smile as she kissed me on the forehead, me smiling at how it felt so real... and then my dad smiled at me as well.

"Make sure you help those guys out, Indie. Even if they do look very weird," dad said, me immediately being confused.

"Is... Is this real?" I asked them, dad smiling and rubbing his hand over my hair.

"When we died, a piece of us stayed inside of you. Our memories... but this world has given us some kind of strength from this FUN stuff that got inside of you... now we can talk to you whenever you're asleep or whenever you... as your ghost friend put it, 'feel like garbage'," dad said, me smiling at that and hugging both of them, me smirking at that.

"At least I can talk to you again... you have no idea how much I missed you both," I smiled at them.

"We know, hon... we know..." mom smiled at me as I then felt the dream world start to quiver a bit. "Looks like you're getting woken up now... we'll talk to you again at some point, Indianne. Good luck," mom smiled at me as I then felt myself leave my dreams and I woke up with a smile on my face.

I woke up to see that Chara had been shaking me awake, me smiling and holding onto her hands to stop it. "I'm awake, Chara," I said, her smiling at that.

"You were talking a bit in your sleep. Talking about parents and memories and something about some people getting strength from FUN. What were you dreaming about?" Asriel asked me from my inventory... I still had to get used to him being in there.

"It wasn't really a dream, more along the lines of my parents... actually being alive inside of me," I said, Chara raising an eyebrow at that. "See, their memories stayed with me whenever they died of that horrid disease in my world... but when I came to this one, they gained some kind of powers so that they can actually speak with me directly if I'm asleep or if I ever feel like garbage," I said, Chara smirking at that as I then saw Papyrus leave his room with a smile on his face... and then I saw Sans stumble out of his room shortly after in a daze.

"SANS! TIME TO GET TO WORK!" Papyrus yelled loudly, Sans groaning a bit at that and actually sleeping while standing up.

"Well, I think that's good... but of course, I never liked my human parents too much... they were so horrible, they made me basically give up on life... that's why I jumped down here. I wanted to end my life so they couldn't end it for me... and then I got the idea to kill myself to save everyone down here... and ever since I decided to do that, this world has become hell," Chara said, me then seeing that Sans woke up and he then slowly walked down the stairs and looked at me and Chara with a smile.

"welp, so long as you know what went wrong, that's okay in my books... i still hate your guts, though," Sans said to Chara with a smile on his face, me looking at her and seeing that Chara's eyes turned red.

"And I hate you too, comic," Chara said, her using a nickname that the fandom had her use to describe Sans out of disrespect. I then saw Papyrus got a phone call and he looked a bit worried.

"UH... I HAVE TO TAKE THIS... I'LL BE BACK EVENTUALLY," Papyrus said with a smile as I then looked at Sans with a small, sad smile.

"hey, you think you wanna go get some breakfast at grillby's? you look a bit hungry," Sans smiled at me.

"You know what? I think I'd like that a lot, Sans," I smiled at him as I then got off the couch that I'd been sleeping on... but not before I reached under the mattresses and got the 20 gold hidden inside. "I just hope the food isn't as monstrously expensive as you say it is," I said, Sans smirking at that.

"and what did i usually say the food was worth?" Sans asked.

"10 thousand G," I frowned.

"heh, yeah, that's a laugh, ain't it? but no, it's actually 10 gold per meal. that change should cover both of us," Sans said, me smirking at how he wasn't playing any jokes right now. "so you know, if you do happen to get everyone a happy ending down here and the time loops don't reset... i'll honestly be shell-shocked. i've given up a long time ago from all the constant resets and if i can actually live happily on the surface with everyone? that'd be the best gift i could ever ask for... to finally be freed from this unending nightmare," Sans said, me smirking at that.

"And see, this is why you're one of my favorite characters in this world. You put on a smile and act goofy and punny, but you do so just because you're depressed and apathetic. And bud, I can relate to that 100 percent, given the state that my world was in before I came here," I said, Sans smirking at that.

"how 'bout we talk about it at grillby's? i'd like to learn a bit about how crappy your world is as opposed to this one," Sans smirked.

"Buddy, the stuff that happens in my world is WAY worse than anything that happened in this one. I'll convince you about that by the time we leave that bar," I smiled at him.