Going Times and Places

After finding a suitable place to keep the journal page, the true struggle to fix this began.

"How do you work this time travel thing?" Chara asked. Sans shrugged. "You don't know? How are we supposed to get anywhere if you don't know how to use it?!" the fallen human asked. "I dunno," Sans answered. "We're doomed. Everyone in the underground is going to be a clock forever, we're doomed," Chara mumbled. "Heya, no need to give up hope yet, kiddo. We haven't tried everything yet," Sans explained. Frisk was over messing around with some things to see if they could get a reaction.

They were currently in the room behind the skelebros' house, and trying to get the timekeep to actually allow them to jump timelines. It wasn't going too well, obviously. Sans looked at the odd clock again, and decided to mess with the hands of it until he could find a working solution. Little did the skeleton know, he was actually twisting a set of coordinates into the clock, Temporal Coordinates. When he was done messing with the clock hands, a large door in a clock like shape appeared on the wall, as the timekeep reverted back to its original time of 12:15. "Hey…I think I'm on to something!" the skeleton called, as Frisk turned around and Chara looked up from her mumblings about how the underground was doomed.

"What…is that?" Chara asked. Frisk wore the same confused expression, showing they meant to ask the same question. Sans looked at it a minute, before grabbing the handle on the rim of the clock door. The skeleton slowly opened it to reveal a dark screen behind the door. That ruled it out as being a door to outside the back room. There was a single green patch on a grey, illuminated floor, and writing on the wall above.

Continue. Reset.

Frisk and Chara instantly recognised it. "The start menu? But we haven't quit the game since this happened," Chara stated. "Maybe it's not our start menu?" Frisk questioned. "Do you think we finally reached an alternate timeline?" Chara asked Sans. "That's a likely possibility…hey, look!" Sans shouted. Right behind the reset button was one flapping piece of paper. It had the same look and dustiness of the first Timekeep Journal page. It was slightly burned, torn around the edges and very old looking with the dust on it. "One thing's for sure, kiddos. We need that piece of paper. Let's go," Sans declared.

The three interlopers walked to the start menu in front of them. "We'd better be careful, wouldn't want to accidentally hit that reset button," Chara commented. Frisk and Sans nodded. "It's pretty high up. How do we reach it?" Frisk asked. "Well, we could try climbing on each other's shoulders in a sort of ladder formation…" Sans suggested. Soon after that, Frisk was on the skeleton's shoulders helping Chara on to theirs. Chara was already reaching for the next journal piece after that. "This is going to be easy," the green sweater wearing human chuckled. That's how it would've gone, if there wasn't the sound of a charging Gaster Blaster right by Chara's ear.

"Get me down from here!" Chara panicked as the tower started to wobble. The three fell over just as the blaster fired right at Chara. "You ok, kid?" Sans asked. Chara nodded. "I didn't get the page, though…" Chara mumbled. The moment of peace didn't last too long, however, as more blasters and bones were being thrown at the threesome's general direction. "Get down!" Sans called. They barely managed to avoid the attacks. "Alright, who's the wise guy?!" Chara called to where the attack was coming from. Across the way was another Sans. They definitely looked angry, and were white as dust in their appearance, beside the red scarf around their neck and the ketchup stained scar across the middle section. There was some sort of glitchy cloud over one of the skeleton's eyes, and the other was glowing.

"The way he has that scarf on is giving me a lot of 'This is a really bad situation' feelings," Sans commented. "So, basically, we're gonna have a bad time?" Chara half-joked. Sans nodded. The other Sans charged another attack. The angry expression he was wearing didn't falter at the half-joke. "Well, at least we know your timeline-jumping clock thing works," Chara mumbled before dodging again. "Dirty brother killer…" The other Sans mumbled.

Frisk to the rescue! The young human jumped behind the white skeleton and gave him a big hug. "Come one, other Sans. Why don't we talk it out!" the blue sweatered human cheered. The other Sans mumbled and pushed Frisk off with his telekinetic powers. "Aw… don't be so 'bad to the bone', Sans!" Frisk joked. Sans turned around. "What, are you seriously making puns in the middle of a fight?" the white Sans asked. "Aw, don't give Frisk the 'Bone Cold' shoulder, would you?" Chara punned back. They then recoiled. "That was so terrible," the human hissed. "Wow, you already learning the fundamentals of being a good kid, kiddo," The Sans from Frisk and Chara's timeline joked. Chara groaned and fell backwards.

"You actually believe that dirty brother killer can be a good person?!" the other Sans barked angrily. "Come one, how can you say know to that expression," The Sans from- "You know what, let's just call him Keeper, alright? This is getting annoying. Our Sans is Keeper, the other is Geno, moving on!" Chara yells at the writer of the story. Rude by the way, Chara. "I don't get it, it's just a stupid murder," Geno growls. "Your judgment must be clouded, buddy," Keeper states. "When I look at Chara's face…I see the face of someone who is honestly trying to be a good person despite their past mistakes," The taller skeleton surmised. Yes, Keeper is like, a foot taller than Geno. The white skeleton gave the other an annoyed and confused look.

"Actually look at Chara, see what they truly want. Please pal, we're not here on any ill intent," Keeper told Geno. Geno stared a minute at Chara. "You know what, you're right. Come here kid, I'm sorry," Geno stated, opening his arms for Chara to hug. Geno is sparing Chara. The fallen human ran forward to accept the hug. "kid, wait!" Keeper called. "That expression…no, he's gonna…I can't lose them! I made a promise!" Keeper thought panicked. There was little room for action, Chara was going to fast to stop in time, Geno's grin grew a little wider as the young human approached. "Get out of there, kid!" Keeper called, his eye began to glow, and he had to get Chara away from Geno. "Come here, pal," The white skeleton said to Chara with venom in his voice. "KID!" Keeper wailed, acting on impulse. A Blaster fired.

.

…

…..

…

Silence.

Sharp bones had sprouted in front of Geno, in an attempt to dunk Chara.

Keeper and Frisk were wide eyed with panic.

The blaster fired look exactly like Papyrus, if he was to look like a blaster.

Blue magic was calming from this supposed "Papyrublaster's" mouth area.

Keeper lowered his hand and the Papyrublaster disappeared.

Both Keeper and Frisk were worried about Chara's fate.

Did Chara get dunked? Did the blaster push the child out of the way in time? Did…Keeper kill Chara in that crazy attempt to save them? The area was quiet. Eerily and uncomfortably quiet. Stumbling. A yellow scarf flashed in the light of the one ray of the Star Menu. Chara walked forward. A bit rouged up, with some blue magic burns, but alive as they could be, and their soul was intact. They gave Keeper a big, honest and grateful smile, before lifting their hand to reveal the page that was caught by the reset button. "Chara!" Frisk called, running to their friend. They embraced each other and stood there hugging for a good while before Keeper walked up. "You had me dead worried there, kid," Keeper huffed with relief. The skeleton joined the hug. "You…saved me. Even after all I did in the previous timeline, and the reason this other Sans is so angry with me…and you still saved me, why?" Chara couldn't help but ask.

Keeper smiled. It was a genuine, happy smile. There was kindness and trust in the skeleton's eye sockets. "Well, there's this door in Snowdin Forest, and there was a certain, polite old lady behind it I made a certain promise to, kid. And, I've decided I can trust you," Keeper explained. Chara looked up with tears in their eyes. "You…trust me?" the human asked. The blue skeleton nodded. "Heya, don't cry, kid. It should be raining somewhere else, not here, you know," Keeper told Chara. The human wiped the tears from their eyes. "Thanks, Sans…" Chara told Keeper. The blue skeleton faced Geno. "Let this be a lesson to you, bud. I know you think you've exhausted all your second chances with humans, but there are some generally good ones out there. Plus, I'd take a second look at your expression reading, because you've been clearly blinded by rage. Revenge isn't something you should follow all too often, k? It only leads to more innocent people hurt," Keeper told the ketchup scarred skeleton, who only stared. The expression was almost unreadable. Confusion, anger….slight curiousity. It was a mix on the skeleton's face, and the static over the one eye didn't help too much either.

"If we ever meet again, pal…let it be on good terms, ok?" Keeper asked. "Now, let's go home and read that journal page…" The blue wearing skeleton sighed, heading back to the open clock door that led them back to their original timeline. "How about I treat you all to some 'cakes as well… you deserve it."

Returning was simple, and after the clock door closed, it vanished. Keeper was preparing pancakes for Frisk and Chara. "So, how did you manage to get that journal piece, kid?" Keeper asked. "When you blasted me out of the way of getting 'Dunked On', I flew by the reset button from the impact. With some quick thinking, I managed to knock the page out from behind it, and pick it up off the ground after it floated down. I owed you that much for saving my soul so soon after I got it back," Chara explained. Keeper walked into the living room holding three stacks of pancakes. Chara's had chocolate chips in them. The young human's face lit up at the sight of them. "Alright, let's see this new entry," Keeper stated, taking the page from Chara and reading aloud:

Entry 53:

The timekeeps have amazing power! Merely having one on a monster's personage increases that monster's capabilities one thousand-fold! But, there are also limitations to this power. There are only twelve timelines in the infinite multiverse that can be used to create timekeeps. I will have to delve further into their temporal coordinates, because the only coordinates I can access as of late are Omega-67 and Theta-45. Funnily enough, the coordinates of my timeline are Beta-32. Interesting.

These coordinates can be entered and take you to another timeline by twisting the hour and minute hands in a certain way. The hour hand is for the numerals, the minute hand is for the regular numbers, and it operates like a combination lock. The timekeep always reverts back to the coordinates of the timeline it came from. This will take more research another time.

Keeper looked at the coordinates of his timekeep. It wasn't stuck at 12:15. It was showing the coordinates of his timeline. Omega-dash-sixty seven. It would be good to keep this in mind for later adventures, and now that Keeper knew how to use the timekeep, things would be a lot easier. But there was one more problem. The multiverse was infinite, so it would take a lot of searching. That would be the case, except…

"Hey, there's some coordinates on the back of the page," Frisk pointed out. Kappa-08. Could it be a clue to the next place to look? But, it was late now, and everyone needed a bit of rest after that endeavour. With the pancakes all eaten, Keeper escorted Frisk and Chara to his room, where he set up two extra beds and actually made his own for once. If he was going to kick the lazy habit, it was a place to start. "We'll head back out again tomorrow, kiddos. It's late and we need some sleep," Keeper sighed. Frisk and Chara agreed with the skeleton and got into their new beds. There was also an arrangement in place regarding that Chara's knife be left on a target board downstairs so no accidents involving rolling over onto it and stabbing one's self with it does not happen.

Keeper turned off the lights in the house. " 'Night, kiddos. We've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow."

And then it was silent for the end of the day.