When the two approached the piano puzzle concealing the Legendary Artefact, Frisk let go of Sans' hand and moved forward to the piano. Mumbling the notes, she gently pressed the correct keys and the archway leading in appeared out of nowhere.

Taking a breath in anticipation, Frisk grabbed Sans' hand again and the entered the room. As usual the glistening red orb that was the Legendary Artefact was sitting on its pedestal, and Frisk automatically checked her pockets for a certain annoying dog, but for once, it wasn't there.

Still, Frisk was scared to touch it, feeling paranoid, she glanced at Sans, and begged him with her eyes to pick it up. Sans gave her a mildly confused glance, before shrugging and picking it up.

Frisk felt like the seconds he reached to the Artefact were in slow motion, her soul was pulsing in her chest, and in disbelief, she watched as Sans simply picked it up.

Sans gave her a weird look, "what were you expecting to happen babybones?" he asked, faint amusement in his voice. Frisk felt herself shrugging. Sans chuckled, "alright, let's check the room to see if there is anything that tells us what this thing does."

It didn't take much searching to find that the room wouldn't give them any answers. It was completely bare, with exception of the pedestal and a sign. The sign itself wasn't helpful either, it only said "Here lies the Legendary Artefact.", and both Sans and Frisk agreed that the person who made the sign needed to get better at writing signs.

"welp, that was a waste of time and effort, we may as well take a shortcut home, but just in case we should leave the room before we try anything," Sans explained.

Frisk nodded, understanding why Sans would want to get out of here before taking a shortcut. If there were wards preventing Falmercia from coming in, then she didn't want to know if there were wards keeping them from shortcutting out.

As soon as they stepped out Sans took the shortcut home. Luckily, Papyrus wasn't home and must have gone out somewhere, so they could put the Legendary Artefact on the table and take a look at it.

"So… how do we find out what it does?" Asked Frisk, and Sans brought his hand to his chin in thought.

"we could have a go at examining its magic, that might give us a clue," Sans suggested, before putting his hand on the orb and closing his eyes in focus. Frisk watched him curiously as he instantly frowned, he kept his hand on the orb for another minute before taking in off and shrugging. "i can sense someone's magic in this thing, it's familiar too... i can't figure out who's magic it is though, but it made me feel irritated. not that it matters much because i still don't know what the thing does, nor why it would be useful."

Frisk frowned, staring at the orb. She could hear Sans tapping on the table. Tap-tap, tap-tap. She ground her teeth, frustrated that they were still clueless about what this orb does. Tap-tap, tap-tap. Sans had said that the orb contained someone's magic, but what did that mean? Was it like a pre-made spell, she pondered, ready to use by someone less experienced? Tap-tap, tap-tap. Sans had said that the magic felt familiar, that means that they must have met the person who made the Artefact. Maybe if they figured out who's magic it was, they'd be able to ask them what the Artefact does?

Tap-tap, tap-tap.

She looked up at Sans.

"Sans? Could you teach me how to look at the magic?" Frisk asked him gently. If anyone knew what an individual monster's magic felt like, it was her after all. How many times had she had to face each monster in an encounter? It had to be enough for her to be able to differentiate them all, right?

Sans looked down, looking a bit unsure, "alright, i'll teach ya, but be careful, alright, we still don't know what this does, an i can't have you getting hurt trying to help me fix my mistake."

"I don't mind Sans, I want to help," Frisk replied firmly.

Sans smiled, and pat her on the shoulder, "heh. okay, the first thing you need to do is put your hand on the artefact," Frisk obediently put her hand on it, and was surprised by how warm it felt. "now, close your eyes to focus, you should be able to sense it then."

Frisk nodded and closed her eyes and oh goodness she could feel it and it terrified her. No-nononon-no. She knew it but she didn't want to, she could not allow herself to think of it. Let go. Let go! LET GO!

"kiddo!" Sans had grabbed her hand and forced it off the orb. Frisk was shaking. She had recognised that magic, but she could not bring herself to focus enough on it to figure out who's it was. She just knew that whoever's it was, they terrified her.

"are you alright?" Sans asked her gently, grabbing both of her shoulders, and she leant into his touch as it grounded her. She was safe. Sans wouldn't let anyone hurt her.

Taking a breath, she nodded, "I'm okay. I'm sorry Sans, I couldn't focus enough to figure out who's magic it was."

Sans looked relieved, "don't worry babybones, i'm just glad you're okay." He said pulling her into a tight hug, making Frisk smile.

When he pulled away they both looked back at the orb. They still had no clue what it did.

"Let's just give it to her." Frisk suggested, after that, she just wanted this over with. "If we don't she'll probably find somebody else to do it."

Sans nodded, "well, you're right there." He stared at the orb for a bit more, before sighing. "alright. we'll do it."

He picked up the orb and offered it to Frisk to carry, which she hesitantly accepted, refusing to look at it.

"i'm gonna need to be prepared for something to happen. to open the door for falmercia, i'm gonna have to give it a lot of attention and magic, which means i'm going to have to rely on you to warn me if the demon tries something. you see something, tell me and i'll close the door immediately." Sans asked and Frisk nodded seriously.

Sans grabbed Frisk's arm and Frisk saw as reality was ripped away from her, but it felt different. Frisk felt a breeze on at her back and she looked behind her to see that the living room was still visible, and it was as if she and Sans were standing at a doorway between two rooms. She was at a doorway, she realised, reality's door.

Frisk heard a loud, thunderous noise, so familiar, but it didn't make sense. It was the same sound from whenever the barrier was broken, but that was impossible, the barrier was all the way in Hotland, and they were in the gap between reality and the void.

The noise stopped, and Falmercia appeared alone. "I really must thank you for coming, you have no idea how long I have been waiting for this."

Sans had gritted teeth, he was obviously still working hard on keeping the door open, but his eyes were wide open and searching behind Falmercia, "yeah-yeah, we've got you the artefact, now where's gaster?"

Falmercia smiled, "Still in the void, I never intended on bringing him here."

Sans frowned, "what? you told me demons didn't lie? you said if we got you the artefact, you'd give us gaster!"

Falmercia chuckled, "I said that if you gave me the Artefact, I'd give you Gaster, but I never intended on accepting it."

Frisk scrunched her eyebrows, and Sans' eye-lights when dark, "what?"

"I'm surprised you haven't figured it out yet." Falmercia grinned smugly.

Suddenly, a dark shape began to creep into existence behind Falmercia, and her grin dropped and she sighed, "I suppose I really should have foreseen this." She turned her head slightly to speak to the now fully formed skeleton behind her. "Gaster, you - metaphorically - break my stone-cold heart."

Sans' eye-lights lit up again with hope, "dad!" he shouted to get Gaster's attention. Gaster looked briefly at Sans, a sad smile ghosting his face before he turned his attention back to Falmercia, face serious as he summoned two skeletal hands behind him.

Falmercia seemed to sense this, and turned to face Gaster, too slow however, and Gaster's hands took hold of her shoulders, and began to drag her back towards to void.

Falmercia snarled, "I can't let you take me back there, Gaster! I've put too much effort into this to let you stop me!" Falmercia summoned a quarterstaff and struck Gaster's left side, halting the hand's movements.

"Sans," Frisk tugged at Sans' arm, "maybe we should close the door."

Sans shook his head, "no, i can't leave dad behind." Frisk frowned and began to shift her weight from foot to foot anxiously as she watched the battle unfold in front of her.

Falmercia raised her staff to strike Gaster again and Frisk felt heaviness in the atmosphere increase, and Gaster's movement slowed as he moved to dodge Falmercia's attack, staff striking his leg and causing Gaster to collapse on the ground.

Gaster was not defeated yet, as he summoned a large Gaster blaster to blast Falmercia, which she dodged effortlessly. Falmercia's face was losing all emotion, her face now completely serious and her eyes dead.

Falmercia delivered two more harsh blows to Gaster, one on his left shoulder and one to his right forearm, and Frisk flinched when she heard a loud crack with each blow and before anyone could do anything, she took her staff and shoved it into his chest, and Gaster fell to the ground.

Falmercia took advantage of Frisk's and Sans' shock and escaped through the door that Sans had opened.