Chapter 14

*ring ring*

"Hello? Is anyone there?" Sans spoke through a phone. "well, I'll just leave a message; for some reason, the prince, and king ASGORE himself were found in the RUINS by the former queen. with the return of the son of the king and queen, needless to say, they were beside themselves with joy. Their son was once again alive and just as he was before he… you know… the family once more re-entered the world of the underground and enstated a new policy. Any humans that fall down here will be treated not as enemies, but as friends. Anyway, the six human souls the king gathered before, turns out the prince found them in his pockets when he woke up. So there's still six human souls. Alphys did a check up on the little guy, and apparently he has a monster human hybrid soul. Probably from the kid when they sacrificed themself to save everyone. Naturally, any semblances of an idea to take the human soul out of the prince were thrown out into the lava the moment they started to get born. So~ that escape plan ain't happening any time soon. So even though everyone's kinda down about the whole non freedom thing, the top brass is trying their best to find a new way out. They're tripling Alphys' research resources and Undyne's helping them out with the heavy lifting. I am too actually, I even got a raise. Amazing how much you can get paid for sitting on a couch waving your finger around y'know? So anyway, since we're not giving up yet, try to not give up also. Don't worry, we'll find a way to get you all out of here."

"Sans!" Papyrus joined in. "Who are you talking to?"

"Oh, nobody"

"Nobody? Can I talk to them to?"

"Here, knock yourself out"

"Wait a second… I recognize this number! Attention, humans! I, the Great Papyrus, am now the captain of the royal guard! It's… slightly less than I thought it'd be, we kinda just water flowers instead of fight. I'm also assisting Dr. Alphys with her research. In her own words 'only you are crazy enough to keep Undyne from destroying the machinery'. So that means I am her equal!"

"Hey who's equal to who!?" Undyne shouted.

"Me."

"Anyway, I quit my job as leader of the royal guard. Now I'm working with Alphys as a lab assistant. We'll find a way outta this dump once and for all! Oh yeah, and I'm the gym teacher at the queen's new school."

"Oh, woops" Sans said taking the phone back. "This thing's almost out of juice. See ya'll later okay?"

"Bye bye now!"

"See ya punk!"

*click*

Finally, they woke up. Ib, Mary, and Frisk, in front of the door leading to Asgore's throne room.

They three trekked back to the MTT resort only to be stopped by Undyne calling them.

"Humans! You have to deliver something for me! please? I'm at snowdin in front of Papyrus' house. See ya punk!"

The three left with no other objectives at the moment, unanimously decided to help a friend out. After a boat ride the three arrived in snowdin. However, there was something wrong. On the boat ride, there was something none of the three ever heard before. The boat person said something different after "tra la la " Frisk had no idea what it meant, nor did the girls. The boat person said:

"Beware of the man who speaks with hands"

Mary thought it meant sign language, but in the underground, things meant different things than what made sense.

Aside from that, the three made it to Undyne and Papyrus. Undyne handed them a letter which was given to Ib. Ib decided to be the one to deliver it. Meanwhile, it became just Mary and Frisk. An excitable person who loves to interact and a person who is almost a mute. What would they do while Ib did her thing? Well, they could go to the castle and check on the Dreemurrs. That's exactly what they did in fact, not before leaving a note on Papyrus' door that is.

-another boat ride, again with the hands thing-

The castle, home of the leaders of the monsters. Now back together despite still working through some "problems", they seem to be getting along better than before. The door was also open as Asgore came out to water a flower he put right outside the door.

"Ah, humans, howdy. How may I be of assistance?" Asgore said with a smile on his goat face.

"Hey Asgore!" Mary replied running up to greet him. "It's good to see you on 'better' terms. Sorry about before"

"Likewise child, it is quite alright. I would have done the same in that position. I am just glad that things have turned out better than before."

The next to leave the front door was Queen Toriel Dreemurr, caretaker of the ruins. She was very happy to see the two once more.

"My children!" she said hugging the two after a long time of not seeing them. Last time was when she saw them was in the ruins when they started their journey. Chara, for some reason, didn't give their name. Humans are weird.

"It is so good to see you all again and well. She said tightening her hug.

"It's good to see you too Mama" Mary said. She never actually had a mother, so when she asked Ib at the start, that was what she said she addressed her own mom as.

"hi … again" Frisk whispered.

Toriel released her grip allowing breath to re-enter the two.

"Tell me, where are Ib and Cter?" Cter was what Chara said their name was. Again, Humans are really weird. What kind of name is Cter?

"Um, Ib's helping out Undyne and Cha- I mean Cter, they're… gone for a while. They're busy at the moment." Mary tried to explain things without letting Chara's identity to be revealed. If they wanted to not be known, then it would be disrespectful to not honor their wishes.

"Oh, very well then. I do hope they come back soon. I'm glad they are okay at least. For now, come in, come in."

The two went into the castle for the second time. Things seemed much more colorful. The completely grey landscape now had color. At the house within the castle, on the front porch, was Asriel talking to a moldsmal. It… was a one sided conservation.

"It's weird to be alive again, with a SOUL and all" Asriel said to the slime before noticing the two. "Oh hey! Mary, Frisk! How's it goin'" Asriel got off the porch and ran to be next to his friends.

"H-hi Asriel" Frisk greeted.

"It seems like quite a few people are getting new bodies, huh," Mary commented.

"Oh yeah, about that" Asriel walked to the left of the house to the throne room, both Mary and Frisk following.

-with Ib-

"OH MY GOD! She was kidding right!? Those cartoons… those comics… those are still REAL. Right? Anime's real right!?" Undyne screamed in fear. If she knew the truth, she'd probably lose her grasps of her own reality. She'd probably lose all hope and determination instantly. Ib had to be VERY careful with this.

"W-well, um, kinda and kinda not I guess." Ib stuttered.

"What? What the heck does that mean?"

"Well~ nowadays, people see anime and the comics, manga, as something in the shadows. Most shy away from it."

"...but, but it's still real right?"

"Yeah I guess, there are concerts featuring real anime characters. I went to one before I fell down."

"Did they look like the ones in the comics and shows?! I need to know!"

"Yeah, exactly like that. In fact, a few times a year there are huge gatherings to celebrate the existence of anime. People even dress up as their favorite heroes and villains to honor them. My brother has this one huge metal sword to remember his hero as well."

"Yes! HA HA HA! I knew it! Gigantic swords! Magical princesses! Here I come! Oh yeah, thanks for helping with Alphys. I didn't get to say what I wanted, but now I gotta catch up with them. Later!" and with that, Undyne ran off in their direction. Then Ib was left with one question.

"How did we get out of this garbage area again?.. Oh hey! Napstablook!"

-back with the goat boy and friends-

A large black wall stretching from one side of the wall to the other. There was a single part of the wall that was deeper than the others, like something was meant to fit there. Unfortunately, it was too dark to see.

"When I got back here, this thing was here. Father tried to break it with his trident, but it didn't even leave a scratch" Asriel exposited. "The combined power of me, and my parents together couldn't do anything either. I was hoping you, frisk, could do something"

Frisk tried something. They stood half a meter from the wall and stretched out their hand. From that outstretched hand, Frisk's SOUL manifested, like they could control it outside of battle. Frisk tried inserting their SOUL into the small hole, but the moment the SOUL touched it, Frisk and their SOUL were blasted back by a powerful mysterious force.

"What?" they all said at once.

"Hm, odd eh?" Sans said appearing right next to Frisk, with Ib, how nice of him.

"s-Sans? How'd you get here?" Asriel asked.

"Don't worry prince, right now, this is the most important thing."

Behind Sans, Alphys walked out and pressed her own hand against the wall.

"This is the thing right?"

"Yeah"

"It… it feels like… like what a SOUL feels like, a human SOUL that is. However, this is completely different compared to what I've studied before. I've seen all seven color saturations of the SOULs. This thing feels like a black SOUL. I've never experienced this thing before. It feels cold, not warm at all, almost like sub-zero temperatures. I feel nothing but RAGE FEAR and HATE from this thing."

"Oh yeah!" Frisk remembered "Sans, On the boat, the boat lady said something weird"

"Hit me"

"She said, 'beware the man who speaks with hands' why does that feel familiar? Do you feel it?"

"...yeah, it does." Sans said shaking. "You don't remember much because you never encountered it. The past you's, the ones forgotten, the 'cheaters' have gotten close, but not close enough. Maybe this time, with these glitches going on…"

"Sans!" Alphys shouted. "What're you planning!? You know it's impossible! We together haven't even gotten close to figuring out those blueprints"

"Well then," Sans said snapping his fingers. To the side, against the wall, some large machine appeared. Something Frisk had seen, but only under covers. A weird mechanical object, a machine of unknown origin.

"What's going on?" Mary asked confused as to what was happening.

"If neither I nor Alphys have ever seen this type of SOUL before, there is one last possibility. One monster who knows more about SOULs than any other in the history of the underground. Let's get to work so we can find him, shall we Alphys?"

"Yes!"

END

One day he fell into his creation and…

They say he was scattered across time and space...

It's rude to talk about someone who's listening…

Dark. Darker. Yet Darker.