For the best experience, please listen to Undertale - Waterfall (30 Note Music Box) by Vasodi.

As for me returning...don't get your hopes up.

The light that first greeted him as he awoke was blinding. It was a bright white that flooded the room, concealing all the same, and little Meckenzie found himself rubbing his steel eyes to adjust.

Where was he? The shimmering light died down to reveal empty surroundings- emerald grass, midnight sky. Few stars. There were no walls, stones, or even trees. An absence of precipitation soon became abundantly clear to the child standing out in open sight, and they began to question what realm they had teleported over to this time.

A faint trickling sound reached the child's ears, somewhere far in the background and well out of vision. His eyes grazed over the scene, searching desperately for some landmark to spark a memory.

"Hello?" he called out to the overcast clouds glaring down at him. They didn't dare open their mouths.

Meckenzie frowned, huffed, and crossed his arms. Stupid clouds. Stupid field. Stupid life. Stupid, stupid, stupid…

His shoulders slumped as his eyes fell to the grass beneath him. He quickly lifted one black sneaker off the rotting grass and pressed it onto the greener substance behind him. Decay soon began spreading like fire from the area of origin while the purple-hearted SOUL danced wildly around it. A few more steps backward, two half-shuffles to the side, yet the rot continued to spiral along his trail.

"Alphys?" the SOUL cried out, a faint purple beginning to glow in his chest. He paused for a moment, the colored light now illuminating his upper body.

Before being allowed a chance to speak, the decay had caught up with just that second of hesitation and latched onto his foot. While Meckenzie's eyes shot down to the source of discomfort, only one thought had even bothered to cross his mind:

He was finally going to die.

"Alphys!" he screeched. Both hands clutched the bottoms of his already-decomposing feet as the rest of his body crumbled on top of the decay. The lavender light that emitted from his chest softened, eyes melting in the darkness. Movement was no longer an option. Neither legs nor arms would cooperate at this point, the former consumed by rot as the latter flailed about against his will.

"Alphys, where the hell are you!" It wasn't a question, nor did Meckenzie care to make it one. For the first time in his existence, the stubborn SOUL felt not only vulnerable, but completely useless to help himself. It would be embarrassing to have to rely on help from his companion, but absolutely mortifying when the realization struck that she wasn't coming.

"Alphys," the child whined. "Alphys, please, I'm sorry! I'm sorry for treating you so badly, for everyone, I'm sorry! Oh God, it burns, please, Alphys, help me!"

"Kenzie?"

His entire spirit froze. That wasn't the name or the voice he had expected, but he couldn't afford to care. Death crawled over his skin, barely pushed back by the growing light in his chest. He'd take literally anyone.

"Alphys! For the love of God, help me!"

Out of the corner of his dimming eyes, the child noticed a familiar figure approach; even if it was only the bulky, navy-colored boots that stomped into view, he would never forget the sight of those.

With each step that the cousin took, Meckenzie felt his pulse race.

Pulse.

He had pulse.

The Red Sea of terror parted as his own biblically-named family member halted in front of him, crouching, running a hand along his trembling form as if the rot were nothing but some mere dust.

"kenzie, oh geez...i didn't think it'd do this to you…"

This wasn't Alphys, although the aura they both portrayed could've been mistaken for such. Still, he found himself relieved. This wasn't the person he had expected to answer his calls, but as a wave of calming blue washed over him, he couldn't help but find himself overjoyed in the presence of the one brushing away his dust.

A single word was able to be breathed out of the many swirling about in his mind. One he never thought he'd state again, and one he had even scaled the mountain to avoid being flung about by distant relatives donned in black.

"Nathan."

Disbelief followed. What were you supposed to say to something like this? He had no idea where he was, even less of how he got there, and his presumably dead cousin pops out of absolutely nowhere like it's nothing! Is he expected to buy this as reality!?

He trusted those eyes, though.

Those wide, radiant, royal eyes that graced over his form the moment Nathan had decided to roll him onto his back; the ones that stared down with such worry, such care that they could make the most stone-hearted creature melt with a single glance. Meckenzie caught his breath in his throat and lazily reached an arm up to meet his cousin, brushing the side of the latter's cheek with his thumb.

"Nathan, my God, I thought you were dead. We all thought you were dead. You're…"

The small boy before him let out a light chuckle and glanced to the side. "i-i'm sorry about the gross stuff...that wasn't supposed to happen….."

"Nathan!" Meckenzie cried. Life flooding his body once more, he sat up violently before flinging his arms around his long-lost cousin. It didn't matter that there was water pouring from his eyes anymore; he had found one, and that was all that mattered at this point. Even if the world hated him and his other two cousins would be lost forever, one was better than none.

"kenzie," the cousin repeated with a half-hearted laugh and pressed his hands against his friend's back. "i-i missed you so much...it's so cold down here…."

Leaning forward to plant a small kiss on his cousin's forehead, Meckenzie smiled, tears still running down his stained cheeks. "We'll get out of here, don't you worry. I won't let anything go near-"

Both children froze as a loud yip barreled toward the both of them. There, a complete contrast of sparkling white fur against the dark green grass, came a small mutt pup, its tongue dangling from its mouth and its tail wagging like it was just now seeing the light of day.

"o-oh geez, toby, i told you to wait until i called you…"

It let out another yip and lept onto Nathan's back. Its paws held firmly onto his shoulders, thus letting it dangle from him like its tongue from its mouth.

Meckenzie took one look at it and scowled. "What is that?"

His cousin gulped, unwrapping his arms from Meckenzie's torso in order to shake the dog loose. It landed with its smoll puppy paws on the slightly glistening grass.

"kenzie, this is, um, toby. toby... here's the cousin i was telling you about."

The puppy yipped once more, staring at Nathan with warm, glowing eyes and resting both paws atop his leg.

Nathan shook his head. "no, not that one. the other one."

It barked once more.

"n-no, the...the one that's still alive."

With a small frown, the blue-aura'd child glanced over to his cousin, scanning over the ghost and locking his eyes on the lavender light that protruded from said child's chest. "well, was alive, anyway…"

Meckenzie's attention flickered away from the boy, hovering over to a trickle of water that appeared just behind his friend. Was there always a stream there? No, of course not. A stream that was always there wouldn't just now be parting the grass.

He reached his hand down to the water that rushed past him. It wasn't much, maybe an inch or two wide, at best, and just deep enough to fit his cupped hand in before scraping the bottom. Raising an eyebrow, the child scooped up a small bit of water in his palm before turning to face his friend.

"Nathan?" he questioned, and the boy turned his eyes from his companion to his cousin.

"uh, yeah, kenzie..?"

The water fell from his palm onto the wet grass beneath him, giving a light splash and sitting just above the ground. He frowned at this. The ground was wet already? He poked it. That couldn't be right. The Underground was making less and less sense the more he carried on, though this wasn't the Underground anymore, was it?

"Where are we?"

Placing a hand against the top of his cousin's head, Nathan gently traced a line down the side of the child's skull, finger tips gracing silk strands of hair, weaving around his ear, and finishing with both a smile and a light giggle. "i don't really know."

"You don't know?" replied the child as he stood, taking his friend's hand in his own and guiding the boy up off of the ground. "What do you mean you don't know?"

The blue-eyed boy followed without much resistance. "well, i, uh...i come here a lot, 'cause it's really nice, and i can do different things, like, um…"

Nathan raised a finger from his free hand at the stream that had just formed. To his cousin's surprise, his face showed none of his own, as if he had detected but not bothered to acknowledge the water's presence. With just the snap of his finger, the running liquid froze in place, now a glossy surface to reflect any light that dared to gaze upon it.

The more feminine of the two opened his mouth to speak, but quickly shut it. He trusted his cousin. One arm wrapping around to hug the boy's shoulders, Meckenzie watched in awe as crystallized droplets began to part from the stream, following Nathan's hand. The second Nathan released his grip, they dropped.

"...like that."

"Holy shit, Nathan, do it again!"

The elder of the two chuckled, raising his hand up once more to summon the shards of ice goop breaking away from its mother source. The purple child let out a loud gasp and let his cousin go in favor of kneeling down by the stream. He was seventeen. Or, well, he should be seventeen, although he certainly didn't feel it.

"How?" the boy breathed with his eye fixated on the shards above him.

Nathan waved his hand to the side, the shards disappearing in a small burst of smoke as he trailed after, casually, little Toby yipping by his side as he moved.

"this place," he muttered, both legs bending so that he could find a spot beside his cousin, along the riverbed, "it...i can feel it...breathing."

Meckenzie swung his head around. His eyes narrowed slightly, scanning his family's expression with pursed lips. "Nathan, please don't start going poetic on me. This entire adventure I went on to save you and the other two is abstract enough as it is."

There was a moment of silence between them, the younger watching his older cousin's smile fall. With a light sigh, Meckenzie laid his arm around Nathan's shoulders once more, pulling the latter into him.

"You know I love your poetry, but you can't just throw it at me, darling. Not right now."

"i know, mettaton…"

A shift of weight brought Meckenzie's other arm around his best friend, squishing the poor boy against his chest, and in turn laxing when said child inched up a bit to breath. He couldn't help himself, smiling as he wove his fingers through his cousin's caramel-colored hair. "I've missed you more than you can ever imagine."

Without opening his eyes, the raven-head could hear his friend giggle and feel the weight of his muscles resting against him. There was also the pressure of two little paws patting his side, but he ignored them for the time being. This was their time. He wasn't going to let anything take that from him.

Save for the moment he heard a 'click' in his head.

"...Mettaton?"

Nathan lifted up his head just enough to catch the steel eyes gazing down at him. He blinked and pushed a hand into the soft chest of the eyes' owner. "what…?"

The younger took a moment to clear his throat. "You said Mettaton."

"yeah, i… i did?"

Meckenzie nodded.

In turn, the older squinted his eyes, removing himself from his cousin's grasp and leaning away a slight inch. "i...did…" Was...something wrong with that…?

"I never told you I went by Mettaton."

...oh.

He scrunched his shoulders, eyes moving to the side. Yeah, that was...that was a mistake. That was a really bad mistake. He messed up…

"i-i'm sorry, kenzie, i...i didn't want to tell you yet, i just…"

The silence pressed once more, immediately following a small tremor in the ground.

The younger blinked a few times, his hands gripping the grass to keep himself stable. It wasn't a strong shake by any means, but caught him off guard more than he would've appreciated. He glanced at Nathan, then to the grass his hands had held tight to, then back to Nathan.

"What on Earth was that?"

Nathan squeezed his eyes shut as his arms curled around his knees. "oh jeez, i didn't want it to end like this…"

"End like what?"

"they're…" He rose, slowly, eyes open but now turned to the side to avoid meeting his cousin's gaze. Despite this, he still held a hand out toward the younger of the two. "they're done now, and you're gonna have to go back.

Mettaton took the hand, albeit a bit forcefully, and yanked himself up to his cousin's level. "What are you talking about? Nathan! Answer my questions for once!"

"i…"

The elder opened his mouth to speak but quickly shut it in favor of gripping his cousin's arm as another quake ensued, this one much heavier than the first. This time, instead of stopping after a second, the quake only proved to increase in intensity, causing Mettaton to pull his family member in closer to him. Despite the increase, it still wasn't the strong of a tremble, although judging by its pace, it wasn't going to stay like that for long.

"Do what you did to the stream before and stop this thing!"

With a loud growl from his pupper companion, Nathan bit his lip, still keeping his eyes away from his blood relative's gaze. "i can't...they're pulling you out. you'd... die… if you didn't go…"

"Wait! Pulling us out of where?"

"...i mean, die again…"

"Nathan!"

With a deep breath in, the elder gently held onto the shoulders of the child in front of him. Their eyes met for once in the past several minutes.

"i have a present for you, but you...you can only use it when you have to, please."

"Nathaniel, I swear to God!" he screamed in turn and took hold of the elder's own body, hands clutched firmly just beside the neck. "You've answered barely a single question since I've gotten here! What is this place? I dunno. How do you do things? I dunno. What the hell are you even talking about half the time? We're probably about to die and you are STILL PRETENDING I DON'T EVEN EXIST!"

By this point, the trembling earth had grown too intense for either family member to bare, and they found their legs giving way to the ground beneath them. Toby leapt a half-step out of the way before collapsing on his front two paws. It vented a loud yelp, then whimpered.

"i…" Both shoulders slumped under Meckenzie's arms. The royal blue orbs fell once more. "...i-i'm sorry, kenzie...i...i just…"

"Just what?"

The boy bit his lip for a moment. Meckenzie rarely ever used that tone with him. Sure, to others, the sharp words of his tongue were fairly common- Nathan had certainly witnessed it enough to confirm the claim. Although comfortable as a bystander, rarely had he been on the receiving end of his cousin's way with words. Now he knew why the victims always squirmed.

I'm so sorry to end it so abruptly. I really wanted to finish the chapter but couldn't bring myself to even proofread what I already have. It was supposed to end with Nathaniel giving Meckenzie/MTT instructions on where to find the ballet slippers. Maybe I'll post a little snippet of it if I ever get any kind of creativity for this again. I think it's dead though. I don't know. I won't put it on permanent hiatus, but it's just...I see all these other AUs getting more recognition and I just...I dunno. It feels like a competition now. I hate competition.

Robotic Waffle: You actually did help a lot. I didn't even start on this chapter until you started reviewing. I got a few brief glimpses of inspiration, and then...ick. I dunno. You helped a lot though. I'd love to talk to you if I could.

Whybexwhy gmail. com. Hit me up, if you can. If you can't...oh well I guess. I have a Discord, a fanfiction (obviously), a NationStates, a DeviantArt, YouTube...that's really all I use.

If anyone wants me to put basically the entire plot into a summary chapter, please let me know. I won't do it unless someone speaks up. I have the whole story planned out, it just...I dunno. I just can't push myself through anymore.

So...yeah. See you guys around, I guess. Maybe I'll add some snippets if I ever get to writing any.

Hell, feel free to shoot my some prompts for these guys. I can't guarantee I'll do them, but feel free to give an idea for a little one-shot or something. Because i like writing for you guys. I just don't want to force myself to pop out another shit chapter. It doesn't feel write. Who knows? A bunch of one-shots in the middle might actually help get my mind eager for a chapter. Or not. I don't know my life.

Tldr (too long didn't read);

I'm ending this for now. Not saying that this is permanently dead, just that I don't know what to do with it anymore.

Feel free to send suggestions for one-shots of EquationTale. Y'know, a short story that's one chapter long. But it's with EquationTale.

It might push me to start chapters again. But for now I just can't.