ONWARD, THROUGH THE TEMPORAL CORE!

Back in the anti-void, a large fight was going on. Strings, bones and blasters were being flung everywhere as the two sides faced off against each other. "You're coding is faulty….just another set of glitches to erase…" Error huffed. He was clearly enjoying the violence. Blasters fired again as beams of energy clashed against each other. Every set of strings Error threw were immediately slashed apart by Chara's LV20 Knife. Even if using his strings was near useless in this type of fight, Error was still incredibly tough. The fight echoed in the emptiness for a while before Error started to look tired. "Though I do have to know…how did you even get in here? Filthy glitches like you don't reach this place easily," The dark skeleton questioned in between attacks. Keeper shrugged. "If a place exists, it has Temporal Coordinates. The way to this place just takes a lot of input," the blue skeleton answered. "We didn't even mean to come here," he finished.

Error was starting to look exhausted now. He took another lunge at Keeper, before a separate clock door, that Keeper didn't create, opened. A golden tendril shot out of it and wrapped itself around Error's leg bones. The skeleton's eyes widened with surprize and shock as lines of bright red coding shot up the tendril and into Error's body. Error suddenly stiffened to a point where he couldn't move. The tendril released his leg and procced to scoop the entire dark skeleton up. It was evident that Error was struggling to move and free himself from the intruding object. The gold tendril began to drag Error back through the door it came out of, move red lines of code shooting up it into Error. The tendril pulled through the door portal to another alternate plane, Error Sans in two, as Keeper, Frisk and Chara made chase, entering the door before it slammed shut and vanished.

The other side of the door lead to a move technological place on some sort of cliff side. A reddish metal tower with many blue lines streaking from the top stood in front of the Timeline Travel Trio. Over the sides of the cliffs was some sort of infinite blue energy, and the tower in front seemed to be siphoning it up to the blue lines as some sort of energy source to keep them running. Each blue line seemed to branch of in many different ways and travel infinitely in all directions. The large metal door slammed shut as the tendril pulled Error through it. "Where are we…?" Frisk asked. Keeper gave the tower a good look up and down. "If I were to guess, I'd have to say the Temporal Core," Keeper concluded.

Checking the TCs, Keeper also managed to conclude that this was the place they were intending to go anyways. This is the place where the one who caused all of this dwelled and chasing down Error seemed to be the way to find him. Besides, leaving Error unsupervised in a place where all of the timelines get their energy would be a very bad idea. The long trek into the tower began as the door opened to let the threesome in, only to slam shut once more.

…..

Meanwhile once more, the gold tendril that kidnapped Error finally reached its destination, the top of the Temporal Core, where Timekeep Gaster was waiting. A sick grin was on his face, as the tendril detached from the lower half of his gooey body, and stuck itself in the ground, solidifying as a sort of holding place for its paralyzed captive. The code lines stopped running up the tendril, as Error was already only mobile enough to only more his eyes and speak….just like Timekeep Gaster planned. His grin grew impossibly wider. "Get comfortable, you're going to be here for the rest of your life… which isn't going to be much longer…" he hissed. Error attempted to grimace despite his trapped condition. "You can't kill me…I've still got work to do, erasing all of the glitches in the multiverse, including you when I get out of here…" he growled. Timekeep Gaster's grin faded as he looked down, a dark shadow cast over his eyes. "Erasing the glitches in the multiverse," the red puddle of skeleton echoed. "Heh, you are even more of a naive fool than I thought. Don't you get it…?" Timekeep Gaster growled. "I'm erasing the real dirty glitches in the multiverse". Error shot TKG the most confused look he could muster. "The real glitches…? What's worse than an awful crowded multiverse?" The paralyzed Error questioned. Timekeep Gaster's grin returned. "Why….creatures like you of course. Don't tell me you didn't realise. You don't have a universe of your own. You are the real anomaly, the real glitch, the true error in this multiverse. I'm going to take out the real trash, the time anomalies that have shaken the foundation of the multiverse, causing it to become….imperfect," The gold slime skeleton explained. Error's eyes widened as much as they could. "But…why? Why me specifically?" inquired Error.

TKG's grin faded again. "Why am I doing this…? A silly question, but reasonable for scum like you. After you left me alone, left me to rot, left me to die in the vastness and darkness, in a space that has no time, a new resolution had begun to build inside of me. It was you who tore away everything I loved, casting it into darkness, and you grinned, and you laughed at the pain you caused, thinking you had destroyed me with the rest of my timeline, but I survived. I had awoken here, in the temporal core, the timeless space that governs all of time, and I watched, and waited for your every move.

You see, I know your type, Error. It is creature's like you, creatures with power, who think you can do whatever you want in the multiverse and get away without consequences that disgust me the most. The way you treat the lives of those beneath you like ants in an anthill, destroying their homes and laughing at their pain like it's all one big game….Have you ever once considered what they may be thinking as you tear their world apart. You weren't all that considerate of you one captive, Blueberry, while he was still with you…" TKG elaborates. Error perks up when Blueberry is mentioned. "You…. you know about Blueberry?! Where is he, what happened to him?!" He growled. Timekeep Gaster grins impossibly wide. "Safe….for now. Though, you wouldn't really like the effects of what you did to him, how they've twisted his innocent little mind and created an abomination in his place. You left him to die, after all," hissed the red skeleton. "As if you cared about him in the first place…" TKG huffed sarcastically.

The slimy gold and red skeleton turns to look at the monitor at the other side while Error stares wide-eyed at nothing in particular. Keeper is shown with his friends ascending the floors of the Temporal Core's tall tower. "The fool has taken the bait. When I get the final Timekeep from him, even if I have to tear it off his cold, dusted corpse! ….I will be the one in charge. Not you, or any other filthy anomilies in the time-space continuum….me. I will fix this multiverse and make it perfect, and no one will ever feel this pain again….The time has come," TKG announced. He pressed a button, and Blueberry Error entered once again, looking chipper as possible with his solemn looking eye sockets. Error looked at the second dark skeleton in disbelief. "Blueberry, I have a special job for you…." Timekeep Gaster told his second in command.

….

The Timeline Travel Trio finally reached the top of the tower, which was littered in gold tendrils, similar to the ones that captured Error, yet more solid and permanent. Along the way, many more alternate versions of old friends were found in the tower, living there. All of them had the exact same reason for being there when asked. A dark version of Sans had come to their timelines and erased them, the Temporal Core being the only place to flee to when a tall skeleton with gold cracks in his skull had saved them from certain death. Keeper was certain after hearing the same story from the fiftieth resident, that this was no mere act of good will. Timekeep Gaster was building an army, using the common view of hatred toward creatures like Error as a base for his dark plan. The multiverse was in worse danger than the trio originally thought. It was time to put an end to it.

At the end of the hall, was the same error skeleton that caused the ruckus that threw off the temporal coordinates. He seemed to be guarding the door, and had a confident form about him, but is solemn eye sockets said otherwise. He noticed the trio approaching and blocked their path. "MWEH! You are trespassing, and I cannot allow you to go any further!" huffed the skeletal error proudly. His voice was distorted and cut off at points, due to how screwy his code was. "Look pal, we don't want any trouble, so if you could just move out of the way…" Keeper began, but a blue bone with red lining was thrown in his direction instead. "Mweh…heh….I told you I can't allow you to go any further…." Blueberry chimed, before a battle began.

Blueberry Error summoned two large, red scythes as weapons in the fight, charging in an attempt to hit one of the members of the trio. Keeper successfully dodged, and Chara managed to counterattack the blow, but poor Frisk got caught in the crossfire, leaving three damage. A side effect of the scythe was that it paralyzed any opponent it touched. Frisk was left immobilized for a few turns, but Keeper and Chara did a good job protecting them from more attacks in the meantime. The trio never fought back to hard, small counterattacks here and there, but most of the fight was attempting to negotiate with Blueberry, who was convinced they were helping Error. After enough poking and prodding, Blueberry slowly started to calm down. The attacks slowly came into slower succession as the skeletal error slowly surrendered. The scythes disappeared as Blueberry let out a sigh.

"Is he really actually trying to hurt Error? How did he fool me for so long? Why does he keep me around…?" Blueberry asked, a bit of pep lost in his step. "I dunno, pal. But whatever the case, ya gotta let us pass into the next room, so we can stop his master plan," Keeper explained. Suddenly, Timekeep Gaster's voice came up on the intercom. "I don't think so. You are hereby denied access to the room in front of you, and will be eliminated unless you surrender your Timekeep immediately," The melted skeleton hissed. Keeper only glared in the direction of the intercom. "Suit yourself," Gaster chuckled. One of the suspended tentacles in the room snapped off the roof and leaked its way behind Blueberry, where it proceeded to crawl up and wrap around his spine, sticking its 'head' out behind the error skeleton's shoulders. Black lines of code leaked up the tendril and into Blueberry.

All at once, the skeleton's demeanor changed very drastically. Blueberry hunched over, their solemn sockets changing their default shape into a menacing glare, and Blue's smile faded. He spoke not a word, as he brought out the red scythes again, making them tear through all three member's MERCY option, destroying it. Another fight engaged. The trio didn't know what to do, as Blueberry was more relentless than ever before. Frisk's attention was caught in the tendril leading up Blueberry's back. Maybe, if they could just destroy that…. Frisk's train of thought was interrupted by the blast from a starry-eyed Error Gaster Blaster. Frisk revealed a plan to the other members in between attacks, attack the tendril controlling Blueberry. A solid attack plan was formed then, as all attacks were directed towards the golden tendril. Eventually, after enough hits, the tendril dissolved into a puddle of goo that evaporated. Blueberry Error returned to normal, the angered eye sockets returning to their solemn state. Blueberry thanked the trio for their help, and was ready to cheer them on in the final battle.

The final battle looms….You are filled with Determination.

.

..

…

….

…..

….

…

…..

…

….

The door to the main lab shuts after the trio enters. Timekeep Gaster has his back to them, staring at the monitor. Error is being held closer to the roof by the tendril that kidnapped him, not going anywhere any time soon, due to the paralysis code traveling up the tendril. Timekeep Gaster lets out a small sigh. "I see you've finally made it. You've come a long way since your universe, and have failed to comply by surrendering me your timekeep," hissed the figure. Keeper glared. "Why would I ever let you take my family and friends away so you can use them for your dark schemes," he retorted. "Very well then, you seem dead set on keeping it to yourself. It appears in a situation like this, I'll have to take it by force….Even if it means I have to tear it off your cold, dusted corpse!" exclaimed Timekeep Gaster, who immediately whipped up a storm of gold tendrils, summoning bones and Temporal Blasters to attack with.

Keeper jumped out of the way of an incoming tendril, summoning Undyneblaster to counterattack the oncoming temporal blasts with a spear-shaped blast of her own. "Yeah, eat it punks!" Undyneblaster exclaimed. Chara began deflecting bones with their knife, as Frisk began looking around the room for something to help. TKG summoned another round of blasters to attack, whipping tendrils in Chara's direction. Keeper summoned his own bones to aid the human, while Asgorblaster and Toriblaster used their orange fire blasts to take out the swift moving blasters TKG set up. Chara began to slash their way through tendrils. Surprisingly, no damage was done to TKG. Keeper's attacks definitely came in handy during the fight.

In the meanwhile, Frisk had found something in the office. It was a small picture frame, with a picture of Sans, Papyrus and a third skeleton dressed in red close together. They all seem very happy. The monitor above seemed to still be on, so Frisk began to browse it. The others in the room were all distracted by the big fight currently taking place, so it was the perfect opportunity. There were many records around, destroyed timelines, other statuses, and then something caught Frisk's eye. A file named "Timekeep Journal 2". The fallen human opened the file.

Entry 1:

This is Dr. Gaster. After a series of unfortunate events, my entire timeline has been destroyed. Sans and Papyrus are….gone, and the timeline is basically non-existent. Everything they did, everything they were is gone. I can't….do this anymore….it hurts, the pain in their eyes when Error Sans that thing took everything away from them. And it's not the only timeline he's done this to. I just…there's only one solution to this problem… making timekeeps. If I rule all of time, I could make sure this doesn't happen to anyone again. But, that would still mean I would have to….no, that's not important right now, many thousands of universes are in danger here. It's only twelve in return though…right?

Entry 6:

I've secured three timekeeps up to this point. I left behind some very upset monsters, and that one Papyrus looked heartbroken. Is this really the only way? It must be, there is no other solution. The multiverse is thrown out of whack and it's the only way to put it back into shape. I've also managed to save a few residents of timelines that error was destroying. They seem more than ready to help me after witnessing this.

Entry 10:

There's more than one Error out there. I wasn't too pleased at first, but there was something about this code-scrambled Underswap Sans that was very, very….interesting. I took him under my wing after I found him alone, crying. He was clutching a human soul to his chest, refusing to absorb it. I have the soul hidden in a back room somewhere now. A determined soul, with enough power, can reset a timeline. I may be able to research pure, genuine, human determination with it. I'm already a melted mess, so what is there to lose?

Entry 11:

Must I keep telling those I've rescued to continue lying to Blueberry Error? The little pile of deformed code thinks we're helping Error. Far from it, we're trying to kill him. But we need Blueberry on our side.

Entry 20:

A bit of a complication occurred when I attempted to get the last timekeep today. I've been reluctant to leave a Sans behind in a timeline, but I had no choice in the matter this time. Now the grubby little skeleton has my timekeep and is refusing to let go of it. I'll have to find a way to get it off of him, this plan cannot fail. In other news, the new coding I was beta-testing with Blueberry's scythes finally work. The special red code was inspired by his scythes, and how they paralyzed those it hit temporarily. I've had, a second version of the coding in the works, but it should be a success as well.

Entry 25:

Today is the day. I've already sent Blueberry to do his final task for me. Lead the one holding the last timekeep to Error, so I can drag them both here and take it. Sans, Papyrus…dadster loves you, and he's sorry he was such a coward during the initial destruction of our timeline. I miss you two so much….

Frisk looked back at the fight. There, they could see it. Timekeep Gaster's soul, broken in half, stitched together with the golden tendrils. The look in his eyes, behind the rage, was hurt. He slowly went from looking like a monster, to looking like a poor, hurt, skeleton who was tired, and depressed, and lonely. This chaos had to stop, because as terrible as Timekeep Gaster had been, he deserved mercy, too.

"PLEASE! THIS FIGHTING HAS TO STOP!" Frisk called. Everything lowered at once, all eyes turned to Frisk. "You're interrupting something very important here…" TKG growled. "What you're doing is wrong! There has to be another solution to this!" Frisk cried. "Other solution... I've tried to find another solution and it's basically impossible. Now step down, human," the red skeleton commanded. "You're hurt!" Frisk called. TKG tenses up. "You lost friends and family and everything you loved, you're hurt and you've clouded off everything else because you want to make the pain go away. There's more than one option, there just has to be!"

Timekeep Gaster sees red. "You tell me then, and while you're at it, bring my sons back to life, heck, repair my broken timeline! It's impossible to find another solution!" he growls. Tears begin to fill in his eye sockets. The tendril stiffen and grow limp as the red skeleton commanding them starts to cry. The area goes quiet as TKG sobs, heavy breaths wracking his melted ribs.

Keeper approaches, slowly lowering his own attacks. "Heya pal. It's ok…let it all out," he comforts, getting an idea. "I know it's impossible to bring your sons back, or to repair a broken timeline, but I wanna offer something in return," the blue-coated skeleton offers. "What could you possibly offer me aside from your timekeep…" huffed Timekeep Gaster. Without warning, Keeper teleports beside TKG and wraps his arms around him, giving him a big hug. "A second chance," Keeper answered, looking Gaster in the eyes.

"You don't have to do this dad, please don't jump! Papyrus and I, we need you now. Just please give it a second chance, I don't want to lose you too!" The memory floods the red skeleton's mind as he looks back down at the other embracing him. The tears return, as he hugs back, sniffling into Keeper's coat. "I've been a fool…." Gaster sniffles in between tears.

"Heh, and that's how I got a dad. After that, Error Sans was sent back to the anti-void, where he couldn't reach this place again. It took a bit of negotiating in order to convince my new Dadster not to kill him after all, but hey, revenge is a dish that's really hard to cool down some days.

As for a new solution, well, did I ever tell you how much a genius Frisk is? Heh, the kiddo had this whole new system worked out. Members would form groups and jump over to different timelines, completing tasks for the betterment of the multiverse, a peaceful way of dealing with the risk of destroyed timelines without killing anyone. Chara even had a name for it, and I'm glad they didn't take to Asgore's terrible naming skills.

This new system's name? The Temporal Sentries, Dedicated to Peace and Prosperity in the Multiverse. But, you can just call it the Temporal Sentries. Anyone is allowed to join, but you have to pass a certain test, so we aren't letting any bad eggs in to compromise the system.

Those rescued in the Temporal Core warmed up to the idea pretty quickly. Some were even eager to join! Blueberry Error was definitely exited for it, as it may be a solution to his relationship problems with Error. Here's to hoping they become real friends someday. We get plenty of new members every day, and I've never sold more pancakes in my life, because, sign-ups take place at my pancake stand. All the money is going towards improvements in the Temporal Core, to make those still living there more at home, and increasing the accurateness of its scans.

Timekeep Gaster's job is to notify Temporal Sentry teams about issues that need to be solved and their severity. And, he's seemed so much happier since then. I make sure to visit when I can, and his smile looks more genuine every day. He really is a tired set of bones, but at an age when you were supposedly tuning to dust from natural causes within weeks, before being thrust into eternal life, can you really blame him? He's gotten a lot more rest since then, and he's loosened up since then.

Frisk and Chara? They're doin' great as well. I couldn't ask for better partners. Chara is so confident and ready to stand up for us at any time, and Frisk has to be the best diplomat this side of the Multiverse. I promised to keep 'em safe, and support them through the rest of all of this. They deserve every bit of praise for all of their hard work, and a long vacation.

As for myself? I've grown a lot less lazy with all of this Temporal Sentry business, and the souls in the blasters couldn't be more proud. Things are definitely looking up around here. But, I've rambled long enough, the kiddos are waiting for me. Heh….it's really a beautiful day outside…."

- (Keeper) Sans the Skeleton.