A/N: Okay, so here's chapter two. I have to say, its great to see people from all over the world finding their way here. Unfortunately I lost the file when I was halfway through the chapter, but I managed to reconstruct it pretty closely. Maybe it even turned out better. Fun fact: After the first one, I discovered the 'Half hearted dreamers' blog, and saw that their ideas were similar to what I had in mind. No worries though, Im gonna do my best to Keep it original, and it helped me flesh out my own concepts. Check it out if you like.

Disclaimer: Undertale and all it's characters still belong to Toby Fox.

Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 2: Of troubles and dreams

The air was so thick, Asriel could barely get it down his throat. His dearest friend was possibly about to die, and in front of him stood an ominous figure that could spell doom for himself. He was caught between despair, guilt, fear for himself, fear for Frisk, and all the other emotions that bombarded him now that he could feel again. This was an impossible situation.

"S- Sans, let-"

Asriel yelped and rolled away from a magic bone that had almost impaled him. Wide eyes stared at the shadow with the glowing eye, which seemed strangely impassive of current events. It spoke.

"slow down buddo... y'know, for someone who's supposed to be dead right now, youre pretty attatched to your life, prince dreemurr."

Asriels heart sunk. There was a faint hope that his identity would make the skeleton more lenient towards him, but right now it was only making him feel more vulnerable. There was also a good chance that he knew of his past sins. If that was the case... he would not be spared.

"So... you know who I am..."

The eerie blue glow came closer, illuminating a familliar grin. Asriel desperately wanted to rush to Frisks side to help her, to do something, anything! But right now he felt he wouldn't survive the attempt.

"if you are the real thing, that is. dead kids don't just come back to life, last i checked. And that expression... is the expression of someone who knows what they've done, and whats coming for them. there are many things in there, maybe even a scared child... but i've been fooled far too often."

Asriel struggled with how to explain the situation to his former nemesis.

"Please Sans... l- let me..." It felt like a rotten snail was stuck in his throat. He wanted to cry.

The skeleton continued his casual approach, the light gradually revealling his form. Something about him looked so tired of all of this.

"now don't get me wrong, Id love for the old lady to have her son back, but seeing you hunched over the lifeless body of my friend back there? paints a pretty bad picture. not to mention..."

Sans froze in his tracks, his casual exterior dropping completely. He stared at Frisks form, then back at Asriel. His pupils were nowhere to be seen.

"What did you do to her soul?"

Asriel finally managed to swallow the foul lump and stood up, raising his voice.

"SANS, please just let me explain! Frisk brought me back to life by giving me half of her soul, but now shes... n- not getting up and I'm scared for her... so...so please let me go help her!"

All was silent for a moment. Then there was a low rumble, almost like choking. It was hollow and bitter, carrying an undertone of apathy. It was Sans chuckling.

"...sorry kid... i've been fooled too often."

Something snapped in Asriel, he couldn't take this any longer. He took off towards his friend.

"oh no you don't!"

Suddenly he felt himself slam into the ground with staggering force. His heart literally felt heavy. Sans however noticed Frisks body was affected too. That seemed to surprise and calm him a little. Not that Asriel could tell, he was preoccupied with seperating his face from the ground.

"so, you were telling the truth about something it seems. still, I can't risk to let you through to her."

With a raise of his bony hand, a protective cage of blue bones was created around Frisk. It seemed there was no way to get through without being magically shredded.

"now, howsabout we take that soul piece from you, so the hero of the underground can live again?"

That was not a question. Asriels fighting instincts and centuries of expierience kicked in, overriding some of his inner turmoil. He would have to create an opening.

Sans took the shift in the kid's demeanor as his cue to attack. Huge white bones rose from the ground, encircling Asriel, swinging and stabbing at him from all sides. He weaved in between them, eventually getting out of the deadly formation, with a fair ammount of difficulty and sores. He was not used to dodging like this, being rootet to the ground for so long. Asriel made a stand, and let out a strained yell, as a dozen of Stars, glowing in all the colours of the rainbow, appeared around him.

The skeletons eyes flashed in mild surprise as the volley of shooting stars was let loose on him. He dodged every one of them with practiced ease, while Asriel made another go towards Frisk. But instead of the blue cage, he saw the huge face of death staring at him with a fully charged grin. The boy twisted to the side, just before the Gaster blaster fired, but his arm was still caught in the beam, flooding the entire limb with red hot pain. Asriel fell on his side, whimpering, clutching his arm, barely seeing the cage through blurred eyes. He scrambled forwards, thinking of nothing else than reaching his friend.

Sans had to admit, the kid was persistent, determined even, and resillient. But why did he aim his attack in the skeletons general direction, instead of directly at him? And why was he so willing to put himself in harms way to get to Frisk? The tears weren't helping ether. Sans was beginning to feel bad about fighting this one.

Asriel got up, seeing the cage right in front of him, and Sans hesitating for a moment. Now or never.

"Hang on Frisk!

He charged at the wall of bones, preparing his magic once more.

whats the kid doing now? theres no way he is getting through that!

That thought however did not stop Sans from charging another blaster above his head, just in case. Asriel thrust his palm forward launching a blazing Star at the cage. But before it could reach the bony blue bars, it was blasted out of the air, and dissipated.

But the boy did not stop. He ducked, rolling under the still active beam of the Gaster blaster, and ran right into the bone wall. He barely had time to summon another burst of magic, the last of his power, and crashed through the bones palm first. The blast did little to disperse the magic cage, but what little it did, it may have saved Asriels life. Still, the pain was horrible as the bones snagged him, protesting his movement all the way through.

Exhausted, battered and beaten, he collapsed next to Frisk. The golden flowers all around him, his body feeling like it coud burst into dust at any bump, this whole scenario was so familliar. But he turned his head, and saw what was different this time. This time he was not alone, and he still had something to do.

Sans was terribly conflicted. It had been hard watching the kid go throug all that. His cold, calculating side was telling him to end it now, but... he couldn't. He chalked it up to being lazy. So Sans just watched, like he always did.

don't make me regret this, kiddo.

Frisk couldn't tell what was going on, she was barely conscious, it felt like she was dreaming. there was inky black darkness all around her, save for a strange landscape that she floated high above. She remembered succeeding in pulling her soul apart, and managing to direct one half into the monster she was trying to save. Then everything went blank. Was this what death felt like without reloads? A force was pulling her into the void, but something was tethering her to the landscape below. Was it... determination? This was all so weird. Frisk called out, but nobody came. Then she heard a strange sound. It was like a very distorted voice, talking to her. Symbols appeared in her mind, she was sure she had seen them before, but she couldn't make sense of them. The voice tried again a few more times to make itsself understood, but to no avail. Frisk wanted to ask something, when she suddenly felt herself being pushed downwards, falling to the ground below, then she impacted, and spread out, until she had become one with the ground.

Asriel propped himself up, and looked upon his dear friend. The one who had done so much for him. The glow was still there, over her chest, but it was weak. Instinctively, Asriel knew what to do. He placed his hands over the soul. He ignored the bones of the cage that were now pointing at him from all sides, and pushed the glow all the way into her chest. There was a jolt, one that Asriel could feel in his own chest as well.

Slowly, colour returned to her face, while Asriel felt his body stabilizing as well, some of the sores even dissapearing. Frisk opened her eyes. Not many would notice, but Asriel could tell. She reached up, placing a hand on the side of his snootle, feeling the soft fur. He took hold of the smooth hand, tears running over it.

"Azzy... don't be such a crybaby..."

"Fisk.. you idiot... don't do that ever again..."

"...I promise nothing..."

"Haha... dammit Frisk..."

They were both so relieved and exhausted, they fell asleep right then and there. They barely saw the bones dissipate as consciousness faded, and a familliar figure coming towards them.

For the first time in an eternity, Asriel dreamed. Being soulless meant no dreams, so it was a fantastic expierience, even though it was a confused mess. He dreamed of memories, but not all of them were his. He dreamed of falling down a cave, of making spaghetti for his brother, then seeing his brother's head fall off. He dreamed of glorious fights with giant swords, big sparkly eyes, his favourite tea, and butterscotch... or cinamon? He dreamed of many other images, but he also dreamed of his old life with mom and dad, and Frisk...no wait that was Chara. She was crying because she didn't have any eyes. She wanted to have Asriel's eyes instead. She reached out, her face melting until it was dripping to the floor.

Asriel awoke with a start, gasping for air and sweating. He took a few seconds to realize he was in a bed, and he had been dreaming.

"Hah... that wasn't... very nice afterall..." he hushed.

But then he looked around, and saw he was still dreaming, he had to be. There he was, tucked in bed in his old room, like no time had passed since then. He looked around, and saw in the other bed...

"Ch-... Chara...?"

His fur stood on end as he slipped out of bed, the cool of the room washing over him as he left the blankets. This all felt too real. He crept over to the other bed, the floorboards creaking faintly. With uncertain paws he pulled back the covers of the bed ever so slightly. No.. that was Frisk. This was no dream. He felt relief... but also a shadow of dissapointment. Despite everything, he still missed his lost sibling.

But he returned to the present, when he saw that Frisk had troubled sleep too. Hesitating for a moment, he then crawled under the covers, in an attempt to comfort Frisk with his presence. Frisk soon latched onto him, which quickly turned into a cuddle. "Azzy..." She murmured. He couldnt tell if she was awake. Asriel felt a pang of embaressment, but returned the huddle. After everything they went through, the warmth of this moment was such a blessing. Soon he drifted off to sleep again, this time, sure to have a peaceful rest.

A/N: Im beginning to get a feeling for how this will continue, and im pleased with how this turned out, but I'll still need your feedback to turn this into the best it can be, so your thoughts are greatly appreciated! Man that sentence was long. Speaking of length, chapters will probably be around 2000 words, and maybe a few extra long ones. But when determining length, what is more important to me than word count is the content of the chapter. I hope you find that agreeable.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

~Lonesome Sage