On the surface, it was a warm day for the middle of March. The birds hadn't quite come back to the United Kingdom, and the flowers were probably only thinking of sprouting, but otherwise, it was a beautiful day. Not that one could tell in the underground, Kurt Kairos mused. But that was okay. The experiences with Sans in these 'Possibilities' were more interesting.
Since he'd taken the last trip, he had begun researching the failed attempts of time travel that had gotten the subject banned in the Department of Mysteries. Specifically, he wanted to figure out what could have happened that could have torn Doctor Gaster from the universe, and from the memory of everyone except Sans.
Not surprisingly, he didn't have a lot to go on. If someone recursively conjured themselves out of existence, why would there be any record of it? But if Sans could remember his father, couldn't there be something out there somewhere? He'd taken to researching the long term care area of St. Mungos. It was unusual, but not unheard of, for prophets to be misdiagnosed as insane, so sometimes the more out there of their ramblings were recorded just in case.
It had been challenging to get a hold of them. He had to be careful about saying it was for the department of mysteries, as he really didn't want people looking into why he was asking. It was four o'clock on the Friday before their next trip, and he had nothing else to do but go through some of the reports.
There were a few that caught his eye. One was from a gentleman in the long term ward who claimed to have gone back in time and killed his own grandfather. This wasn't particularly likely, at least not in a way that actually caused a paradox, since time tended towards stabilizing loops. Like the one he'd helped maintain last year with Chara Dreemurr's body. This character was more likely an actual lunatic.
There was another, a young woman who kept insisting that she had to go back in time to tell her house elf to let her, and a friend, out of a car boot they'd gotten themselves trapped in. This, technically speaking, was plausible, as it implied an already stable loop. But she refused to say who the other person was, leading the healers to suspect it was some type of criminal. At some point, the unspeakables would probably have to research the claim. Kurt put it on his to do list, but it wasn't what he was looking for this afternoon.
Kurt shoved the sheaf of papers aside, listening to the clock tick down towards quitting time and sighed. There might be something in here, but if there was, he couldn't find it. He'd just have to see where this particular route was going to take him. Besides, if something really was going to wrong, he'd have left himself a message, right? He'd keep looking, but didn't have too much hope.
It was still warm the next day when Kurt apparated himself onto the snowy plateau in front of Mt. Ebott. Sans, as usual, was already there. He stood, wearing the same blue hoodie and smiling face that he always did. Kurt, on the other hand, was wearing a light jacket and was happy about it. It was the first time that year that Kurt hadn't had to bring his heavy cloak.
"ready?" Sans asked as Kurt looked around, regaining his bearings.
"Yes," Kurt told him, and they made their way past where the barrier used to be. Once past the barrier, Kurt probably could have safely apparated wherever they needed to go, but there wasn't any way a healer could get to them if he went and splinched himself. So it was time to walk again. "Where are we headed to this time?" he asked, as they collected the machine from the king's old throne room.
"not far this time," Sans said. "new home." His eyelights glinted. "which is the other side of the underground from, 'home'. right here, in fact." He caught Kurt's raised eyebrow. "asgore is good at a lot of things, but he hates coming up with names."
Kurt set the machine in motion, and they headed off. Sans led him to a stairwell near the elevator into the M.T.T. resort, and down stairs into New Home proper. New Home was a cathedral short of being a proper city. It was much bigger then Snowden village. Kurt followed the skeleton into an alley between a bakery and a restaurant. "That's probably as much seclusion as we're going to get. Shall we set up?"
Sans nodded to him. Kurt dispelled the locomotion spell, and they went about putting the fragile parts back into the machine. "alright," Sans said, "let's get this machine up to eighty eight miles per hour, and we'll see some serious..."
"What?" Kurt asked, staring at him. "You haven't put a motor in this thing, have you? It doesn't move that way, does it?" From the way Sans eyes just kept glinting at him, Kurt got the distinct impression that Sans was just messing with him now.
"sorry," Sans said. Though he didn't really sound sorry at all. "gonna have to add a movie to your muggle education. you ready to go back to the future?"
Kurt grumbled, but said he was. So they climbed into the machine as Sans consulted his notes. The monster recorded the new home coordinates from the readings, and set the destination. Shortly thereafter, they were off. And then they were there, such was the nature of time travel.
They had arrived in the alternate New Home. It looked a lot different with all of the monsters milling about. Kurt could see some talking eagerly, some going into shops, some heading into what must have been in their homes. "There seems to be a lot of excitement in the air, Sans?" Kurt looked over to the skeleton. Sans already had his phone out. "What are you doing with that, Sans?" he asked.
"checking something," Sans told him.
"How are you doing that?" Kurt asked. "You've checked that phone each time we've gone searching for anomalies. I thought muggles just used those phones for long distance speech communication. What are you looking at?"
"never seen a smartphone before, either?" Sans said, his eyelights glinting. "wizards really ought to keep up with muggle technology. i'm looking on undernet, the social network of the underground. mostly checking to see if anyone's..." and his voice began to slow, "posted about frisk…" He looked up, "they're at the barrier. Alphys just posted. it's down. let's go, i want to see this." Sans rushed back to the stairs, while Kurt got his disillusionment cloak on. At the top, he took one step east, then realized something, and ran to the west toward an elevator, with Kurt hurrying to keep up.
After they emerged on the elevator, Kurt followed the still running Sans through the garden, and into a short hallway. Kurt, panting now, realized he recognized this place. It was the tunnel into the mountain that led onto mountain ledge where he'd met Dumbledore and the students last year. They peeked cautiously around the corner, and could see seven people standing, staring toward the city. Frisk, Toriel, another Sans, Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys, and Asgore.
"i think it was about five minutes before the wizards came," Sans said. "kind of like to see that again,"
So they watched, and eventually they were interrupted by a voice from behind them. "There's more than one of you?" a child's voice asked. "That explains a lot. But where did the human come from?"
Kurt, startled, looked behind him at the golden flower that pierced the ground. He must have been coming to watch Frisk and his family leave the underground. And he'd pierced his disillusionment cloak. "Asriel," he said. The flower stared at him, not expecting to be called by that name. "We're actually not from around here."
"eh, can just tell him, i think," Sans said, turning to look at the flower. "we're from a different timeline."
"What?" The flower asked, surprised. "How did you do that?" Kurt was about to explain the machine, when he was interrupted by Flowey's fearful exclamation. "Wait, what are those?"
Kurt turned, expecting to see a swarm of ministry wizards all coming to see what had caused the barrier to fall. In fact, he could have even seen himself, he had been part of that 'all hands' request. He didn't remember seeing himself, but he had been kind of distracted.
What Kurt was not expecting to see was four humanoids. The most normal one was a human child, not any taller than Frisk, with a red shirt with bright yellow star in the center. But the other three were strange. There was a slightly taller woman with grey hair but bright purple skin. It kind of looked human. The second was a woman with extremely pale skin, and bright blue eyes. The final one was a tall woman, maybe not quite Asgore's height, wearing some kind of purple breastplate, a crystal visor, but Kurt could see behind it, there were three eyes there. "Sans?" Kurt whispered. "What are those?"
"i have absolutely no idea," Sans said. "this didn't happen. this isn't one of our loops. it can't be."
Asgore's voice rumbled through the tunnel, causing Flowey to cry in alarm. "Why are you still here?" he demanded. "It's been thousands of years – this world does not belong to you!"
Frisk peeked out from behind Asgore, much to the delight of the other human. She didn't speak, but signed instead. "what's the matter?" asked the Sans from outside the cave. "thought i taught you how to greet a new pal." There was a pause. "i asked toriel, ya know. you were never this sheepish with her."
The Sans watching from the cave snickered. Kurt rolled his eyes, Toriel was goat like, not sheeplike. There was a brief pause from the outside. "Well, I don't know much about monsters and wars and stuff, but I say, welcome to, uh, up here, I guess!" There was another pause, and Asgore said something that Kurt couldn't hear.
"I think you all look like a ton of fun," the human continued, then pointed to the skeleton that Frisk is still hiding behind. "Except you. 'Cause I think you look like a skele-TON of skele-FUN!"
Sans broke into laughter, but Kurt just sighed. The outdoor Sans held out his hand for the human to shake. Kurt knew what was coming next, and covered his ears. Out of the corner his eye, he saw Flowey close his eyes in frustration. After a few more minutes, the group began to walk down the mountain. Flowey waved a stem as they departed. Kurt didn't know if a flower could cry, but this one was trying.
"Huh," Kurt said. "That wasn't what it was like for us. I'm glad it worked out for them. I don't know what we would have done if it hadn't. I don't feel comfortable interfering in a different timeline like this."
"Sans?" Flowey asked in quiet voice, "In your timeline, does Frisk remember me?"
Sans stared into space for a moment, then knelt down, looking into Flowey's face. "your frisk may not be the frisk i call my friend. but i can tell you this: our frisk never forgot you, and may Papyrus not forgive me if i'm lying, but frisk won't give up until she finds a way to save you. and i mean you, asriel. in my timeline, she found a way to bring you home. does that sound like the frisk you know?"
"Yes," Flowey said, looking out into the sunlit plateau. Kurt looked at the flower. It was looking away from both of them. There was something Flowey wasn't saying, though Sans didn't push it, and Kurt didn't know what it could be. After another few seconds, Flowey looked back to them, "What are you looking for?
"Doctor Gaster," Kurt said. "The Doctor of our timeline did something to scatter himself across these 'Possibilities'. We've found two pieces so far, and we believe the third in this timeline, probably in Newhome somewhere."
"I don't remember a Doctor Gaster," Flowey admitted. "But I can feel the others coming, and it probably wouldn't be good for either of us to be found here. So, goodbye." He smiled at them. "And good luck!" With that, the flower disappeared into the earth. If he was anything like the Flowey from their native timeline, he probably would be heading back to the sunlit room.
Once Flowey was gone, Kurt pulled off the disillusionment cloak, looking it over to make sure the enchantment hadn't faded. It didn't seem to, so maybe there was something about Flowey that made him immune. Or perhaps, being seen with a second Sans made him more open about what he might find, thus less susceptible to the charm. While he was doing that, Sans pulled out his device and began to sweep the area. "i think it's back towards the machine. let's go."
There were monsters beginning to stream toward them. Kurt had to stay close to the skeleton, so that nobody ran into him. But at least he wasn't spotted again. When they got to the elevator, the stream of monsters slowed, but didn't stop. They skipped the elevator, it was in use anyway, and they were pretty sure there would be a mob on the other side.
Instead, they climbed up into Asgore's house. A few monsters were going the other way, walking towards the barrier. Most must have been waiting to take the elevator. It was probably quicker than walking. Instead of heading out the front door though, Sans led Kurt down a hallway to the second door. "from what torii told me, this was the children's room when they lived here," Sans said, pushing the door open.
It did, in fact, look like a children's room. There were two small beds, one on each side of the room. Toys, covered with a light amount of dust sat on one of beds. A drawing of a golden flower was over the other one. A closet, still full of child sized clothing, stood open in in the back of the room. Sans walked into the middle of the room, turning his device all around him in a circle. In the end, he pointed at the closet. "there," he said, opening the drawer at the bottom of the dresser.
"That can't be right, can it?" Kurt asked. "It's another hand, does he really have more than two hands? There's got to be a mistake. This is a piece of some other timeline's Doctor, isn't it?"
Sans's eyelights focused on the device in his hand, then turned to the skeletal hand in front of him, still sitting in the drawer. "actually, it kind of makes sense. we called Doctor Gaster 'the man who speaks in hands.' he had these constructs, these hands, that he controlled mentally, and assisted him with his work. i'm guessing that's what we've found, but i think these constructs absorbed his essence, his soul, when he was blown apart. if we can find the last one, and bring them to him, maybe... just maybe, we can bring him back."
Kurt wasn't sure what to think about that. Sans seemed confident, and he really didn't know anything else about Gaster. There wasn't even a photograph left. So he mentally shrugged. "Is there anything else we need to do in this timeline?" Kurt asked.
"don't think so. let's get back to the machine, carefully, and go home."
"Defense isn't that bad of a class, Chara," Asriel told her as they headed up the stairs to class after lunch. He was right, kind of. It wasn't the material that bothered her. Chara sighed, turned down the hall, and joined their fellow Gryffindors heading into Mad Eye Moody's classroom.
The former auror was already there, counting heads to make sure all students were present and accounted for. Once he was satisfied all the chairs were full, he closed the door and walked among the class, collecting last week's homework, trading it for graded work from two weeks ago.
"Ten out of ten, again?" Asriel asked. He looked impressed. "I can't seem to get more then nine. Not that I'm complaining, I mean," he looked down, embarrassed at sounding envious.
"We did it at the same time," Chara reminded him. "We traded notes, I don't know why I keep..." they quieted down. Moody had finished collecting homework, and was now fixing them with his magical eye.
"We'll be covering your first jinx today," Moody growled, allowing his magical eye to wander the class. "The knock-back jinx. It's also just called 'Flipendo', which is the incantation for casting it. It's a simple enough spell." he continued. "Who's brave enough to be to be my volunteer?"
A few hands went up around the room, including Asriel's. Chara averted her eyes, looking anywhere in the room except at the professor. There was silence for a few seconds, long enough for Chara to note, out of the corner of her vision, Moody was looking directly at her with his normal eye. "Fine, come up here, Mr. Dreemurr."
Chara looked up as Asriel was already standing up. He joined Moody in the area in front of his desk. "Stand just there, Mr. Dreemurr," Moody growled. "You lot, move your desks over, create a space. It's not called the knock-back jinx for nothing."
The others made scraping noises pushing their desks out of range, and Asriel set his feet. Moody turned suddenly, flourishing his wand, "Flippendo!" he called, pointing his wand directly at Asriel's chest with a loud bang!
Asriel reacted if he'd been punched in the gut. Fur flew, and Asriel took two steps wobbly steps backward before setting himself. His breathing was momentarily quick and shallow before recovering.
"Not too harmful on its own. Right, Mr. Dreemurr?" Moody asked. Asriel nodded, still getting his breath back. "But it can be the set up for something much more deadly. And that's why you need Constant Vigilance! Now divide into pairs, and push those desks to the wall. I'll show you the motions, and then we'll practice.
Chara hurried over to Asriel. "Are you hurt?" she asked. She was wondering if a monster's physical weakness would make even this mild jinx dangerous.
"I feel fine," Asriel said. He nodded back at Moody, who was demonstrating the motion. Afterward, they practice on each other. It took Chara a few tries, and Asriel a few more tries, but they eventually got the hang of it.
About fifteen minutes before the bell rang, Moody came over to watch them specifically. "Lighter grip on the wand, Ms. Dreemurr," he advised. "You're not trying to choke it, and the tightest grip in the world won't protect you from an expelliarmus jinx. It'll give you better control when your aiming."
"Alright, professor," Chara said, feeling unnerved.
The professor watched them for another few minutes before moving away again. As the bell was about to ring, he had them move the desks back. He added a few last comments, and dismissed them.
"He never has any advice for you," Chara pointed out to Asriel, "Why? Do you think he knows who I am?"
"No," Asriel scoffed. "Didn't you hear what he did to Draco Malfoy? And you remember what he said at the beginning of last term, right? The one thing he hated more than any other was a Death Eater. You should relax. He's a good teacher."
"I guess," said Chara. "I just wish I knew what... it doesn't matter. Let's get to class."
A/N: If you haven't read it, go to AO3 and look up Universetale for a hilarious crossover in its own right. Maybe more hits will get the author updating again. I can dream.
