The air is stagnant all around, it's hard to take even the slightest breath. And yet, you are breathing it in deeply. The evidence of what you have done is all around you. Thickening the air, making your blood boil. As you step down the long hall, you feel the warm light hit your face. It's a familiar warmth, one that excites you with each step you take.

"Heya, you've been busy."

As you stop, you look ahead and see the familiar smile, accompanied by troubled eyes. As he dropped his hood down, you feel your muscles tense. You had been preparing for this moment. You knew he had to snap eventually. And it only took killing everyone else to get him to that point. It was almost disappointing. Everything that had happened down here, all the torment and all the grief, he always stays off to the side, just watching.

Ever the watchful eyes of the underground.

"It's wonderful to see you, Sans," you say to him. You almost can't even recognize your own voice, though you are certain it is you.

Sans seems to ten, narrowing his eyes a bit as you say his name. He shrugs a bit as he speaks, "Y'know, Sora... I kinda know what to expect in this world. Nothing ever changes. But you... I thought I knew why you were here. And I hate to be wrong."

You grin as wide as you can and hold your arms to the side. On your right wrist, you notice your keyblade seems to be missing, and in your hand is just a large kitchen knife. The crown necklace has been replaced by a heart shaped locket. It's not right, but somehow it feels like this is how it is supposed to go. You're heart knew just what it wanted, and as the room began to turn black, the shadows against the wall beginning to take shape, you step forward.

"Shall we get started then?"

The cold shadow swallowing you was a feeling you remembered well. It was dark, too dark to even see the hand in front of your face. And even though you want to scream, want to escape, want to run, you can't. Your limbs feel a mile away. Your voice too silent to be heard. You try to reach for your keyblade out of instinct, but you couldn't find it. Your hand knew it was there, just out of reach, but your couldn't reach it.

Then, the dark was gone. Light splashed against you like a rushing wave, and you were free.

And wet.

When you opened your eyes, you gasped and stood up straight. Looking around, you remembered you had been sitting by the edge of a small pool of water. The light from the few echo flowers on the edge of the pool illuminated the area. As you climbed back out and shook the water from your clothes, you remembered what Undyne had said.

"Frisk is going to see the King." You sigh and nod, straightening yourself up, "If there's anyone who can fix this, it's gotta be him, right?" You smile to yourself and walk around the edge of the water to the path you had come from. As you glance down, you see the echo flower turn towards you. Curious, you kneel down and listen to it.

"Do you think even the worst person can change? That anyone can be a good person if they just try?"

You recognized Sans' voice coming from the flower. You figure he must have come walking by after you had talked to Undyne, and after you must have fallen asleep. Maybe he hadn't seen you lying there in the ground. Or, maybe he just left you, hoping you'd wake up on your own.

Or is he the reason you fell asleep?

You shake your head and stand, smiling "No way, Sans wouldn't do that. I wouldn't do anything to him, so why would he want to hurt me?" You think back to the dream you had and a shiver runs down your spine, "Just a dream... right?"

You looked down at the echo flower and it repeats your words back to you, "Just a dream... right?"

Hearing the uncertainty in your own voice made you more than a little uneasy. You just shake your head and head down the path, back towards Hotland. It was just a dream, you were certain of it.

You immediately began to sweat, even before you saw the light from the lava. Trekking back across Hotland proved to be more of a task the second time, but you kept going, back the way you knew you had to go .

As you reach the area that the River Person had dropped you off in, you take note again of the large building with "Lab" written on the side. Nothing had changed, except now, the door was open. Something in your said you should head up the path away from the lab, but your curiosity got the better of you. Even knowing that something could be around every corner ready to attack you, you walk inside the lab.

Its dark, the only lights coming from the open door, a monitor a few yards away, and another little light on the other side. You step in further, cautious and slow.

"Hello? Is someone here?" You call out. Part of you hopes someone answers, but the other part hopes they don't.

As you walk past the monitor, you see it is stationary, watching some weird looking restaurant or resort. There is nothing moving on the screen and you aren't sure you know how to move it to look around. You fold your arms and tilt you head. It's then that you hear the quiet sobbing. At first. It surprised you, making you look all around to find where it came from.

At first, it was too dark to see anything. As you grew near, you could see the glow of a little light coming from a hole in the wall. The figure inside looked like a shaking shadow the way it sobbed. It was clutching what looked like a cell phone in its hand. The light illuminated a bit of their face.

"Um... are you okay?" You asked. At the first word, the figured jumped, shaking even more.

"Wh-Who a-are you..?" The light began to illuminate her face a little more, showing the tears streaming down under her big round glasses. She wiped them away, with what looked like claws, as she stood slowly, "P-Please... leave me a-alone..."

She was moving out of the hole in the wall now, feeling around the wall with a shaking hand. You frowned and held your hands up to her, "Whoa, easy now. I don't want to hurt you."

She didn't stop reaching until she seemed to find what she was looking for. A blinding light turned on from above, you covering your eyes for a moment until your eyes adjusted. Once you managed to blink the blindness away, you looked up. The monster had already scurried away up the escalator to the upper level. You watched her for a moment, "Wait!" You call after her as you follow her upstairs.

The room above was much different than the lab below. Once you reached the top, you could see bookshelves filled with comics of every kind next to a machine dripping some pink goo. Next to the machine there was a work bench with a bunch of dusty pieces of metal. One piece caught your eye as you walked closer to the bench. Gently picking it up to examine it, you saw it was a pink heart, a large crack going up the middle. It was odd, and out of place, but something about it was almost sad.

"D-Don't you touch that!"

You look to the side to see the monster again. She was a yellow lizard sort of creature. She was holding a plastic knife pointed at you. Her claws were shaking violently. She was hiding behind a small, square bed, trying to give you an intimidating look, but just looked scared.

You set the piece of metal down and held your hands up "I'm sorry! I promise, I mean no harm."

"N-No! Y-You were working w-with... with that human!"

You shake your head, stepping forward a little, "No! I'm not with them! I just want to see the king!"

She cowered down a little, though she kept the knife up, "Th-The king?"

You nod, "Yes. He's gotta be able to stop the kid, right?"

She blinked, raising her head a little. She lowered the knife and stepped out from behind the bed. She was still shaking a little, but sniffled and looked down, "U-Undyne said... th-there was one..."

You smile, relaxing a little, "Yeah! I helped Undyne when she was overheating. Shes the one who told me the kid is going to see the king."

"Sh-She did?"

"I'm Sora, what's your name?"

"A-Alphys... I-I'm the R-Royal scientist."

You step closer to her and smile, nodding, "It's nice to meet you, Alphys. Here, give me the knife."

Alphys hesitates as you move closer to her, holding your hand out. She seems uneasy, but places the plastic knife in your hand, quickly pulling her own back. You give a sigh of relief and set the knife back on the workbench. She watches you as you turn back, "There, see? Everything is alright now."

Alphys shifts her gaze from you back to the work bench. Something flashes across her expression and she just crumples to the ground. She covers her eyes and begins to sob again, "Wh-What do I..."

You glance back at the bench again, "What happened, Alphys?"

Between her sobs you could make out a few words, "Th-The human... Gone... Asgore..."

You sigh, this was going nowhere. As you turn back to her, you kneel in front of her so you could look into her face, "Listen, whatever happened, everything will be fine, okay? Maybe you should talk to Undyne, anything would be better than staying here alone in the dark, right?"

Alphys met your gaze and sniffled, rubbing her eyes, "U-Undyne... sh-she's really okay?"

You smile at her and nod, "Yeah, she's just resting at home," as you stand again, you hold a hand out to help her up, "I think you could use a break. Whatever happened here, it's over, right?"

Alphys took your hand and stood, looking down, "O-Over..." She looks up at the work bench again and slowly walks over. You tense for just a moment until you see her pick up the cracked heart again. Her eyes tear up again as she holds the scrap of metal close, "I-I'm sorry..." she says quietly to it. When she looks up to meet your confused look, she just forces a little smile, "I-I'll be alright."

"What do you have to be sorry for, Alphys?"

Alphys quickly turned away from you, avoiding the question, "I-If you continue up the path, y-you'll find an e-elevator," she explains, "Th-That will take you up to... To the resort. Through there, h-head for the elevator in the core. I-It goes straight to the castle."

As you nod and thank her, she scurries back down the opposite escalator and out the open door. She kept her gaze down on the ground in front of her the whole way out. She seemed a bit better the faster she moved, but something still seemed off. She never did answer your question.

As you started to walk towards the down escalator, you noticed the poster hanging on the wall. It seemed to be some sort of ad for a TV show. There was a robot in a spotlight holding a microphone. The letters "MTT" were in lights above it. At the top the corner of the poster had been folded down and a little message was handwritten. It read: "Thank you for making my dreams come true."

Back outside, you followed the directions that Alphys had told you and made it to the elevator. There was an eerie silence that seemed to hang over Hotland as you walked. It was as if there was a presence that was unwelcomed and yet ever present. Inside the elevator, the feeling of dread grew. It was a clean little box, as if no one had been in it for some time. As you stand in the back, you press the top most button and wait. Once the doors close, you sigh.

"This is the most normal thing I've done in a while," you can't help but smile as you think about it. Even in this crazy world, you can still manage to think of something better.

Something still isn't right, Sora, you hear a voice speak to you.

You sigh, shaking your head, "Don't worry so much, there isn't anything-"

But what about the visions? Do you really believe those are just dreams? You clench your fists. You hated to admit he was right, but he definitely had a point. Sans gave us a bit of his intuition. Could those visions be-?

"-something that has happened already?"

Or something that will.

You shake your head quickly, "Roxas, now you're just thinking too much into it," you wave your hand, "Intuition isn't the same as seeing the future."

Roxas sighs, I just think maybe-

Silence falls when the elevator stops just before the top floor and the door opens. You look ahead to see why and freeze standing against the wall, a familiar face lighting up when they see you.

"Oh... Frisk," you give a nervous smile and wave. Frisk smiles big at you and nods as they step inside and stand beside you. They point upwards and you nod, "Yeah, I'm going up, too."

Frisk seems delighted as they take your hand and squeeze it. They look ahead as the door closes and the elevator begins to rise again. The air that was once clean becomes tainted all of a sudden, dust seeming to come off of Frisk every time they shift. You glance down at them, their excited look almost eerie. The grip they had on your hand seemed much stronger than you would have thought possible for such a small child. After a moment, they look up at you and meet your gaze. Their eyes open a little, but they were dark, almost as if there was nothing to them.

For a moment, they flashed red and made you cringe.