You let Sans go, sitting back and taking stock, and he does the same.

You hope you haven't been too forward with him, but he had been willing to show some vulnerability to comfort you. You just don't want to push your luck any further.

You check your abilities.

Healing works, but shielding and tunneling do not.

You focus, and try harder, extending a hand to try to create that hole in space like you usually do, but you know that shielding is a prerequisite to tunneling. If you can't even create a basic shield, there's no hope you can tunnel.

That means you're trapped here.

Now that you're feeling better, you notice that the light surrounding you is coming from the blue fire inside the Gaster Blasters. He'd apparently summoned several as guards. They seem semi-sentient as they hover around the two of you, their skeletal canine heads occasionally giving a slight dog-like shake as they gaze out into the darkness, watching for danger.

They're pointed away from you, you're relieved to notice. Fighting Sans just now under the anomaly's control, and back in the hall, had scared you more than you'd admit.

He could be damned scary when he wanted to be.

The Gaster Blasters put new meaning to the phrase "facing the jaws of death", when their beams gathered energy in their toothy mouths, preparing to deliver you a devastating beam of energy that could easily wipe all trace of you from existence if you didn't shield or dodge.

Right now though, their master is looking at you, and he seems more curious than anything. You wonder what he's thinking as he seems to be contemplating something. Did you look odd when you fruitlessly tried to start a tunnel vortex, or did he guess what you were trying to do?

You give him an inquisitive glance.

"sorry," he apologizes in reply to your nonverbal query. "not trying to stare, but it's not often i get to see someone else's method of travel. having any luck?"

"No," you sigh. "I'm really sorry I got you involved with this. I just wanted to get away from the ship before it took me over completely and I started attacking. I guess I was sort of asking for help at the same time, though."

"s'ok", he replies. "least you're all right now."

"Did Aldyr come along?"

"he threw me ahead when the tunnel was closing."

"Threw you?" you ask, startled. It's a unique mental image.

"well, yeah. he got left behind, i think."

That worries you. "He could've ended up anywhere then. When the tunnel disappeared."

"can he do that tunneling trick too?" Sans asks.

"No, unfortunately...he's been working on it but not yet."

"hmm. and you can't either now? under the weather after that cloudy thing grabbed ya?"

You smile slightly at the joke, and nod. "Something's wrong. I can feel it. I can heal, but I can't shield...and shielding is generally a prerequisite to tunneling. I feel better physically, but now it's like when I didn't have the ability to shield at all. Maybe it's something in my soul."

"want me to check?"

You hadn't realized until recently that it was even possible, but you were up for anything that might help. Even though you knew from your studies of his world that souls were supposed to be private to them, this was kind of an emergency.

"Sure," you reply, unconsciously bracing yourself for whatever.

After a moment, he says soberly "there's a crack that wasn't there before."

"What? Really?"

"want to see? i can draw it out for ya."

You pause.

"Yeah."

He extends a hand, and you see the blue glow from his eye brighten like he's using one of his gravity attacks. But you see the careful concentration in his eye lights this time, focusing on this delicate task.

You feel the pull from your chest. It's a very odd feeling, but it doesn't hurt. Slowly it takes a heart shape in front of you.

Like he said, there's a diagonal crack from one side to the other.

"How-" you wonder.

"probably happened when the anomaly was crushing your shield, and something broke."

He lets your soul return to your chest.

"i'm guessing your abilities have something to do with your soul?"

"Yeah..." You're not sure how he realized that, or maybe he inferred it from the way monsters' magic works, but it's true.

"Eldorant abilities are based on imagination and compassion," you recite. "In particular, the shielding ability is based on a desire to protect."

"and tunneling is based on imagination, right?"

That surprises you. "How'd you know that?"

"read it in a book last night."

"Oh. Ok. Well, yeah. Shielding requires imagination to shape it, and tunneling is an extension of shielding in mental terms. So if someone harmed my shield, it would affect both of those abilities."

He considers what you've said. "hmm. sorry to break it to ya, but it's beyond my healing abilities. can you heal it yourself?"

You pause, thinking. "I'm not sure. There's a few things I might try. Healing myself instead of someone else is pretty difficult."

Almost impossible, you think to yourself, but you figure you have to try.

He watches as you focus for several minutes. Finally you open your eyes. "Sorry. I can tell something's broken, but I can't fix it. I can't get us out of here."

"welp. nothing else to do but try this," he says, rising to his feet. He teleports away.

You blink. At least he'd left the Gaster Blasters guarding the area.

You try to tidy up your hair a little while he's gone.

Crap, Chara and the anomaly really took your body for a ride. Although Sans had healed most of the damage, you're sore all over.

A short time later, he reappears.

"thought so," he mutters, collapsing into a crossed legged position near you with a gentle clatter.

He gives the ground beneath you both an experimental punch, and looks at you.

"this stuff. it isn't really ground, is it? cause i can't shortcut past it, and it's the only solid thing here. there's not even any mountains. there's only dust, and this ground." He looks at you keenly and narrows his eye sockets slightly.

Oh yeah... You've never really had the chance to explain since you'd gotten here.

"Uhhhhh..." you say eloquently.

How the fuck to explain?

You're silent for too long, and you see mistrust in his expression. Crap. You messed up again.

He isn't trying to kill you anymore, and your mutual healing clearly counted for a lot, but he obviously still has some doubts about you.

You're starting to shut down again. "Stop it, stop it!" you yell at yourself inside your head.

Fear of other people has a tendency to control you, especially when you happen to be feeling like you're not doing a good job of communicating.

It's no use. You're tired and your brain feels foggy. You've been through too much in the last day to think clearly. You're always bad at dealing with people when you're especially tired.

He seems to think you're afraid of him again, but you know that this time it's completely not about him.

Sure, he's very intimidating right now with his magic activated in his left eye to maintain the Blasters, not to mention he's a powerful monster skeleton who would've killed you if you didn't have a defensive shield that stopped most of the damage.

But as logical as fear might be for those reasons, that's not why you're afraid. It's because he's a person.

That's it. You're afraid of people. Your biggest weakness, at least it is judging by the way other people react to it. The thing you've never been able to fix about yourself.

You see his expression soften as he sees your fear and realizes you've quietly escalated into a small panic attack.

"i'm not gonna hurt you," he says, but more gently this time.

You can't use words at the moment, as if your voice just suddenly doesn't work. That's what usually happens when you're like this.

You search for a way out of this, or a distraction. Something that might calm you down out of this embarrassing state.

The Gaster Blasters are the most interesting things around, their glow lighting up the heavy darkness, and you find their doglike shape oddly comforting. You feel very rude to not be replying to his question, but you get up and walk to one, wondering if you dare to pet it.

Their shape and inner fire is so fascinating, with their curiously rounded canine skulls and sharp pointed teeth. They're far larger than any canine's skull you've ever seen.

Maybe a dire wolf, you think. That would be the closest equivalent from your world, but even they would probably look like puppies in comparison.

You work to slow your breathing, trying to calm yourself by looking into the blue flickering fire inside them and memorizing the intricate curves of their bones.

You decide not to touch them. You've managed to regain the power of speech, so you return to the center of your little camp and sit near Sans again. He patiently waits for your next move.

"Sorry," you apologize. Your face feels a little red from showing so much of your weaknesses.

"ya like them?" he asks genially.

You're relieved at the easy question. "Yeah," you reply, pleased.

"seemed a little homesick when you looked at them."

That had to be a much more subtle expression amidst the others for him to have worked out, or he's really good at guessing.

You sigh, feeling an ache in your heart. "They remind me of somebody. Somebody who was really kind to me."

He considers what you said.

"ya know, they don't mind being scratched under the chin."

He calls one of them to him, and scratches the doglike magic weapon behind where its ears would be if it had any, and under the chin. Its fiery eye lights roll back in pleasure and its mouth is slightly open with that relaxed grin that you love to see on a dog's face.

He puts it through a series of tricks, having it roll over, and bow in mid-air.

You chuckle at its antics, and the way it acts like a dog, especially when Sans throws it a summoned bone and plays fetch with it.

It lets you hug it, and for a moment you're just lost in the familiar comforting feeling of holding a dog, even though it's really just a huge canine skull with a puppy personality.

"You're so cute!" you suddenly exclaim happily, and the Gaster Blaster blinks and grins, spinning in the air in front of you playfully in response.

"now i get it," Sans thinks. "the way to get through to her is with a dog. wonder why though."

You keep stroking your new friend while you try to bring your brain into gear.

"Ok. That actually made me feel better," you say to Sans. "You asked about what this ground really is, right?"

You have his attention, and you pause dramatically.

"It's what we call a world barrier."