Chapter 19: A Visit Home

When I opened my eyes, I was standing in my room, facing my door. Tears welled up in my eyes, and I sighed a sigh of relief. "I'm…. home…. I'm home!" I closed my eyes, laughed and spun around while hugging myself. How I got home, I have no idea, but here I was! I opened my eyes, and called out to whoever was home. "Hello? Everyone, I'm back!" I opened my bedroom door and ran upstairs, shouting in joy. "Mom, Dad, Melody, Mettaton, Alphys, Undyne, Papyrus, Sans, I'm home! I'm home and ali-" I stopped in my tracks when I got to the top of the stairs.

In the living room, Chara was laying on her side on the couch, staring blankly at the TV which was powered off. Asriel was sitting on the floor, trying to get her eat some tomato soup. "Chara, please. Just eat some of the soup and some toast, please…." His tone took on a pleading note, "Chara, you need to eat something. You haven't eaten since the incident, you haven't spoken a word, all you do is lay here and blankly stare at nothing. Please, I can't lose you too…." This continued for at least 15 minutes, until he finally gave up for the day. "If you want it, it'll be in the microwave for you to warm it up. I'll be in our room…"

I slowly walked to the couch, and crouched in front of her. Tears were streaming down my face, "Chara…. I'm right here, just look, look at me. You're looking right at me, just open your eyes and see me!" I tried to take her hand that was dangling off the couch, but my own hand went right through it. I yanked my hand back, and stared at it in disbelief. I couldn't do anything…. I could only watch as my family fell apart….

I turned from Chara and looked down the hall. The four doors to each room were shut, and the hall looked unusually gloomy. I walked down to the first room, Melody's room. I opened the door, and I swear, my soul almost broke. Melody was sitting in the corner of her room, curled up in a ball, sitting in Papyrus' lap.

Papyrus' usually loud, cheery voice was a bit hoarse, and quiet. "Melody, it's okay. You can cry, you can let it all out, I'm here for you." Melody was wailing, and shaking so bad… I ran over and collapsed right by the two. "It's okay, there you go…. I miss her too….. we all do….. we all-" Melody wrapped her arms around Papyrus' neck and held on for dear life. Papyrus did the same, and started to let bright orange tears stream down his skull. "I won't leave you alone, I'm right here….."

I felt so small, so insignificant, so…. invisible… I tried to reach out to them and their souls. But they couldn't hear me….. I slowly got up from my knees, and went out. The next room was Papyrus', so I had to go over to the next room, which was Alphys' and Undyne's.

I opened the door, and peeked in. Alphys was sitting on her bed with her back against a corner, while Undyne lay with her head on Alphys' lap.

Undyne sounded exhausted, and it…. it sounded like she'd given up. This was very unlike her. "Alphy, what are we gonna do… Everyone's a mess, and I don't think…. I don't know if this is something we can recover from…." Her voice started to break as she went on. "….I miss her…. and we really need her back…."

Alphys was smoothing Undyne's hair back starting at the forehead, and then continuing onto her hair in a soothing way. "I…..I know, Undyne. B-but, we'll make it through this. It'll take a-a while…. and this type of h-hurt never stops hurting, but it'll get b-better." Tears were streaming down both of their faces, and Alphys comforted Undyne while Undyne remained where she was, holding onto Alphys' hand.

I turned and shut the door, continuing to the last door in this hall. I stopped right in front of the door, and braced myself.

This room was Toriel's and Asgore's…. I opened the door a crack, and pushed it away from me. It swung open to show Toriel and Asgore sitting in the middle of the room. Mom was sitting on Asgore's lap, clinging to him for dear life much like Melody and Papyrus. Dad rocked her back and forth, trying to calm her. She was sobbing harder than I had ever seen, crying out for me. Asgore was holding everything in for her, trying to comfort her as best he could.

"Shhhh…. I know dear, I know." He started to rub big, soothing circles on her back. "I know…. we all miss her…. We all miss her deeply….. But dear, she's… she's…." He started to choke up.

And Toriel quietly finished for him. "She's gone….. Our child, is… gone." It was quiet for a moment, before they both burst into tears and lamented again.

I closed the door and left them alone. And I slid down against the door, sobbing as well.

I was sitting there for at least half an hour, bawling my eyes out. Then I stopped crying, and I stood up. I went past the living room, down the stairs, and straight ahead. There were two doors on each side of the hall. I went to the one that was a bit more decorated then everyone else's doors, and quietly opened it.

I saw Mettaton sitting on his bed. Or, rather, Mettaton's body. Mettaton's body was powered down, and slouching on his bed. I don't know where Mettaton was, hopefully he was with Napstablook and not alone. A tear slipped out as I saw the once amazing star, seem so…. broken, like everyone in the household.

I shut the door and turned around to face the door behind me. Asriel and Chara's room.

I opened the door, and stepped in for a moment. I saw Asriel, sitting at a desk. He had some photos out of everyone together, and in his hand he had…. a…. cigarette…. A lit one, the one he was currently smoking at the moment…. I calmly walked out of the room, and screamed into my sleeve.

When my little moment was over, I went into Sans' room. I found an absolute mess. Sans' bed was flipped over, his desk was on it's side, clothes and material objects were thrown everywhere, glass items were shattered, and there were multiple holes in the wall from where it was either punched or kicked. But Sans, was nowhere to be seen.

I turned around, walked out, and went into my room. My closet door was open a crack, so I went to see if Sans was in there by any chance.

He was.

But oh, how I wish he wasn't...

Sans was laying on the ground with a small smile and empty eye sockets, while staring up at noose.

This was definitely the one. The one thing that completely broke me today. I was doing somewhat okay the whole time here, but now…. Now I'm extremely…. angry, and sad.

I stepped back as I saw Sans get up off the floor. But when he started to drag my desk chair over, I interfered.

I grabbed the back of the chair and yanked it away from him, causing him to fall to the floor. I watched as he scrambled up, and looked at the chair in confusion.

Then his eyes stopped on my hand, and trailed up to my face. And even though it probably shouldn't be possible, he seemed to pale.

I knew I must've looked really out of character. My usually soft and happy gaze, hardened and ice cold with tears threatening to spill. My usual carefree smile, an angry scowl. And I'm pretty sure I was still covered in those damned buttercups and that I had multiple bruises and scratches.

My voice was ice cold, but calm when I spoke. "Well, this must be a pretty strange situation to be in. I can only imagine it: grieving in my best friends's closet, staring up at the noose I had tied who knows when, and I finally start to put my plan in action. When, suddenly, the chair I was going to use was snatched away and I fall to the ground. Then I get up, only to see the freaking ghost of previously mentioned best friend. Now I'm staring at her, not believing my eyes because hey, this girl's supposed to be dead-" I took a deep breath and practically screamed, "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING SANS?! Do you know how much more you would break everyone else? I mean, right now even Papyrus, the most innocent cinnamon roll who makes everything better, is barely able to keep it together, but it seems he's doing a lot better than most of you guys, comforting my sister and all."

Sans reached out to try and touch me, but his hand went right through me. "Yeah, I'm basically a ghost right now." And that's when my vision started to get darker, probably because I was waking up. "Oh, and look at that, I have to get going because I'm waking up in a whole other universe right now." I was quiet for a moment before speaking again. "Sans, don't try and do what you were just about to do….. Everyone needs you right now, including me. Just…. hang in there for me. I'll be back as soon as possible…. okay?"

Sans didn't speak, he just nodded as tears started to stream down his skull. He moved to stand right in front of me, and just looked at me for a moment. His voice cracked at first, but then it was his normal, soothing voice. "you certainly have a lot of explaining to do, you dumb potato."

I teared up a little bit more. "God, I've missed you so much… Everything, everyone, is different over there in the other universe….. And I've just missed you and everyone else so much."

Sans looked like he wanted to pull me into a hug and squeeze the living daylights out of me. "i know, frisk, i know…. but like you said, you just gotta hang in there for me…"

I could tell that I was fading, because my vision was almost completely dark and everything was getting muffled. "I'll be back before you know it, you just gotta stay strong….. I love you guys."

And then, I was gone.

This time when I opened my eyes, I was back at Grillby's in the other universe. Everyone was surrounding me, and everyone looked relieved when I opened my eyes. Though, it was strange that they looked relieved. I didn't think that I had impacted them that much in such a short amount of time.

Sans was looking down at me, and he smiled a genuine smile. "see princess, i told ya we would take care of you."

My heart melted a bit at those words. "Thank you…. How long was I out though?"

Grillby was sitting beside me and Sans on the seat I had been sitting on. "It's only been around half an hour, maybe more, maybe less."

I looked around at everyone, "And, how exactly did you help me? I mean, I'm grateful that you did what you did, but I just don't understand how you could keep my soul from shattering completely."

Everyone else was quiet, while Grillby spoke once again. "Well, we are not sure what exactly we have done, but…. well, your soul is definitely a unique one right now."

I gently tugged my soul out of my chest, being cautious, and gasped. It was a myriad of colors, some that I had never even seen before, and it looked….. healthier, you could say? "…Whoa…."

"yeah, we uh, all chipped in with trying to heal you and uh, well, there are actually a few things different, sweetheart." Sans pulled an empty plate up and held it up for me so I could see my reflection.

My hair was still it's normal amber, but with light blue and dark blue streaks here and there. My eyes were the colors of the rainbow, surrounded by my usual amber glow. My skin was a little bit tanner, and my clothes were still the same. "….Wow…. How did this even happen?"

I looked up at everyone and only got shrugs. Grillby set a hand on my shoulder, "We know you're confused, we are too. But now isn't the best time, we should talk later."

Sans spoke up then, "yeah, we should probably get going, papyrus passed by not too long ago and if we wanna beat him to waterfall, we should leave."

I nodded and grabbed my things, along with Flowey who was sitting on the counter. Just as we were going out the door, I turned and looked back one last time. "Thank you all, I'll find some way to repay you in the future. Until next time." I went out the door and followed Sans to Waterfall.

Chara was currently making the strangest, funniest faces right above Sans, and it was taking all of my might to keep from bursting out laughing.

Sans was currently up ahead, leading the way out of the underground, when he looked back. "what's with the faces doll?"

I looked down at my feet with a stupid grin on my face. "Oh, nothing."

We continued through Waterfall, taking a break at Temmie Village. Luckily, Undyne hasn't run into us yet.

Sans handed me a Crab Apple that I happily munched on. "so, sweetheart, who's your little ghost friend?"

I almost choked on my Crab Apple. "Um, what do you mean?" Confusion has set in, and Chara has panicked and is now hiding behind me.

Sans casually took a bit of a Hot Cat while stealing glances at me and where Chara would be. "ya know, your ghost friend. they were sitting right in front of you, now they should be hiding behind you. they look pretty similar to you, except for a few small differences."

Chara was clutching my shirt like her life depended on it. "Frisk, why does he know that? Can he see me? He shouldn't be able to see me. No one should be able to see me besides you. What's going, why is this happening, this shouldn't be happening. Frisk!"

I turned my head to look at Chara, and gave her a reassuring smile. Then I turned to Sans, who was waiting for an explanation. "Well, that's Chara, my sister. But, you shouldn't be able to see her right now, I'm usually the only who can see her…. Is this another side affect of you guys being able to save me, because I am very confused as to what is happening right now."

We started walking through Waterfall again while Sans explained a little bit. "well, yeah, i'd say that it's another side affect. it happened when we worked together to save you. everyone was soon able to see glimpses into what your world was like, a few of your memories too." …... "we didn't mean to pry though, it just happened. and then when you began to wake up, everyone could sorta….. see from your point of view? it's sorta like watching a movie, i guess." Oh.

"So, that's why you can see Chara?" He nodded. "But you can only see what I see. So if Chara were behind me or above, you wouldn't be able to see her?" He nodded again. "Okay, this is…. interesting. But I wonder….. If I were to go back to my universe, would you still be able to see from my point of view? Would you be able to contact me? Would we even have any connection at all?"

He was silent for a moment, but spoke again. "well… i'm not sure, sweetheart. i sure hope we're still able to communicate though." I nodded in agreement.

Then, we fell into a silence. Not an awkward or uncomfortable silence though. It was more like a content silence.

A comfortable silence.

Bleh. I don't even know right now. I've been debating whether I should change some things in this chapter, whether I should add more, all that nice stuff.

But yeah, new chapter! Yay!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and that you stay tuned for future chapters!

Until next time you bootiful peoples you!