the word is "anchor" for a reason chapter 30

White mist blocked the path. The air was prickly and harsh with electricity. The scent was oddly sharp. Light footsteps plunked against the metal walkways of the CORE. Just ahead. Gaster could hear the puff of breath.

.

He extended his hand, and bones like spears shot out from the very air around him towards his target. He was confident, annoyed; frustrated. It didn't sound like anything had hit. He raised a sharpened arc of bones around his shoulders and strode forward.

.

The mist parted before him as his shoved his way through and what stood before him was a little human girl whose face refused to hold in his mind. Hate overcame him; made him sick. His fingers quivered.

"So. You c—" He choked on a voice different from his own. His fist clenched. He forced it down, but his body buckled and he coughed black sludge onto the ground.

.

Wasn't him. Wasn't his. Another's arrogance. Another's hate. His mind stumbled and he grasped the side of his head with sharp fingertips. His eyes traced up to the baffled human and his soul stuttered and reached out for her. She hesitated. He clenched his jaw and his eyes flashed with each of his colours, and the world snapped back into focus. He took a deep breath and his body felt like his. He raised his gaze up to meet the kid.

.

He knew it wasn't really her. His eyes welled up and he pulled her into his arms anyway. She squeaked with surprise.

"My girl," he said softly. His soul buzzed its messy sound. "I'm sorry. I don't know if this… can ever reach you, but… But. I'm searching. So is Sans." He tightened his grip. "What a bloody mess. I love you, alright?"

.

The mist swept back in and took her from him just as her hands clenched into his shirt. He was alone in a cold field of white. He sat back on the ground and rubbed his face with both hands. He gnawed his fingertips. His chest ached and he took a long, deep breath.

.

A blink of his eyes and Gaster was cheek-down on a small stack of papers on Alphys's desk, a monitor's black screen running data before him, his voice-recorder and a felt pen to his left, and a frothy mug of coffee mixed with ginger ale on his right. He sat up stiffly, wiping his eye sockets, and he looked around cautiously. Awake. Alone. He sighed and took a sip of his drink. It was cold and unpalatable, but he drank it anyway. The inside of his skull felt like it was frozen.

.

Time read somewhere around four in the morning. He cracked his back and rubbed around his eye sockets with his broken palms, then popped the triangular focus nodes off his temples and put them into a small, repurposed glasses case. They were supposed to help focus his dreams. He supposed they worked, but it still wasn't enough.

.

He grabbed some paper and crossed out whatever inane idea he'd written on it before and marked down the details of the dream. He drew out the kid as much as he could, but had to leave her features blank. He grabbed his voice-recorder and turned it on.

.

"Day three of the search. Day, uh… Day six, overall. I think. I have…" He propped himself up on his elbow and tenderly rubbed his brow. "…started to extract data about the tears from the NOCTURNE. It looks like…" He squinted at the computer monitor. "The fluctuation I expected did happen, presumably when the kids left. Aside from that, still in progress. My memory is worse than I'd like. I hate to say it, but I'm still missing some of the same things that Sans is, except, I… I remember… My daughter telling me she and the other child were going and something… Some number." He sighed heavily. "Reminder to myself to check ambient magic resonance of the planet, distortion from time tears, and… and anything the NOCTURNE can reach. I know that I'll need to boost it. But I need more power."

.

Gaster clicked his thumb on the stop button and dropped the recorder back onto the desk. Soft footsteps drew his attention. Alphys. She'd come down from upstairs, but was still in her pyjamas. She put a hand on his arm.

"Did you get any sleep?" she asked.

"A little. You?"

"S-Same." She sighed and folded her arms. "Did those nodes help?"

"I definitely saw something," he said. "I've never used them to try to look that far before, so I suppose any result is good. I wish I had some way to make them more powerful."

"Any luck with the NOCTURNE?" she asked.

"I'm composing a new tracking spell for it," he said. "That alone is going to take a lot of my magic to complete. But, I should have it done… tomorrow, I'd say. If I can keep the pace up. Then all we really need is something to track."

.

Alphys nodded. "I'm so w-worried about Sans. Is, um…? Is there anything I can d-do to help?"

"Maybe, ah… Oh! Maybe your oven could cook up something to boost his energy a little?" he suggested.

"M-Maybe…" She tilted her head thoughtfully. "But, w-with all this research… You shouldn't have to work all on your own."

"I know, I just… My mind is all over the place. I'm hardly making sense to myself," he said. "…Think I can power up the NOCTURNE without giving it my arm?"

"AAH! D-Don't you d-dare!" she said shrilly. "There h-has to be a way…! There has to b-be…" She let out an exasperated sigh and gently kneaded her brows with her fingertips. "Okay. Okay. What h-have you done so far?"

.

"I have two different but related goals." Gaster flipped over his paper and began to write in columns as he spoke. "Fix Sans's soul, and find and bring the kids home. My daughter will be able to fully fix him when she comes back. However, Sans is convinced they're lost, and I'm inclined to agree. So. What I have to do is track them and… I'm not sure. Guide them back to us, somehow."

"You need a l-lighthouse," Alphys said quietly.

"Dead on," he agreed, nodding. "The issue is, my daughter should be able to sense home from wherever she is if she's in the space that pertains to our universe. So, if she's lost—"

"She's even f-farther than that," Alphys concluded. "Ah. S-Sorry to interrupt, it's just… How?"

"Potentially, it's other, ah… Scientists. Or other things equivalent to our CORE. Rupturing time. Puncturing into our universe; making bridges, if that makes sense. It could be intentional or not. It doesn't matter at this point." He sighed heavily. "I hope it's just time not lining up correctly."

"So, we need…? What d-do we need?" Alphys said, taking his marker from him and adding to his notes. "A way t-to track these kids. So, that's… p-powering up the NOCTURNE, like you said. And a beacon, or s-something."

.

"I'm trying to use the red line to uncover some of my daughter's resonance," he said, gesturing to the computer. "The issue is, her movements out there are almost undetectable because she's attuned to it. However, if I can find the right notes to track, the NOCTURNE should be able to follow. Also, this is all monumentally frustrating because I remember faintly that I had planned on drawing blood from my daughter and I think I remember doing it, but I believe that timeline has been thoroughly reversed."

"D-Did you check all the rooms downstairs? Ooh, and the storage pods, and the fridges?"

"All of them," he said. "I even checked in the bin and down the shower drain. Nothing."

"Hmm…" Alphys nodded. "O-Okay. How about, you focus on the NOCTURNE, and I… I'll try the red line."

"Are you sure? You don't have to—"

"Listen. You and S-Sans… I love you g-guys a lot, you know?" she said sheepishly. "I h-hate seeing him suffering like he is. I want t-to get him back to f-feeling better, and I d-definitely don't want him to fall down, and if this weird time and space stuff is what it takes, then I'll d-do it."

.

Gaster cracked a fond smile. He lifted Alphys up and hugged her close. She squeaked, but she patted his shoulders gently.

"Thank you, Alphys," he said. "You're wonderful."

"N-Nah…" she said.

"You are." He placed her back down and patted her head. "It's still early, though. Get some rest, if you can."

She rolled her eyes playfully. "H-Hypocrite," she teased.

He put up a finger to pause her. "Ah! Actually! I will be trying to nap just a little, this time."

"And you'll probably d-dream about work," she said. She patted his back. "I'll b-be downstairs."

.

As Alphys wandered off, Gaster chuckled at himself. She was fully correct. In fact, the dreaming was the work. He rubbed his temples, reattached the focus nodes, settled back in his chair, and closed his eyes, trying to force himself into another place; another time. Hoping to find the missing children. What he saw, instead, was a shattered window of black on black; a peek into a faded, shadowy laboratory from somewhere else. He woke up half an hour later with nothing of interest gained.

.

"Hey." Sans was still stealthy, even without being able to teleport— Gaster hadn't even noticed him coming in. He shoved a chair in beside him and plunked heavily into it. "You know, mountain's open, huh?"

"Huh?" Gaster replied with a groggy blink.

Sans pointed at his mug. "We can actually get condensed milk and ginger now."

"Can we?! Ah! Didn't occur to me," he said apologetically. He took another sip. "It's not so bad, but…" He shook his head quickly. "How are you feeling? Did you manage to sleep through the night?"

"Look like I did?" Sans asked.

Gaster raised his brows. "Is that a trick question?"

The short skeleton laughed. He rubbed his greyed eye socket and shook his head. "Nah. I'm a wreck."

.

Gaster sighed and patted Sans on the back. He sat up and popped his spine, removed the nodes again, and then readjusted his glasses as he peered at the computer monitor for a few seconds. He added his second dream to his notes. "I just don't understand why this is having such an effect on you."

"You're kiddin', right?" he said.

"Ah! Not that, sorry," Gaster said. "Your determination is too high; too integrated with every part of your soul. Falling should not be possible."

"So, maybe I'm not," he said.

"And yet all the signs are there, except you're still conscious," Gaster said.

Sans winked. "Eh. Mostly."

"So what on earth is wrong with you?" he asked.

"Dunno."

.

Gaster huffed. He chugged down the rest of his hybrid coffee. "I saw our girl in a dream."

"Oh yeah?" Sans perked up. "How was she?"

"I… was fighting her, for some reason," he said, frowning.

The short skeleton frowned. He tapped his teeth. "…You see others of yourself in dreams? You get stuck in their heads?"

"Must've," he said. "Didn't sound like me. Still a skeleton, though. Similar magic."

"So… So, wait, is that happenin' now? Do you think it matches up?" Sans asked, wide-eyed. "She's somewhere. Not here. And she had to fight you?"

"It's hard to tell," he admitted. "But, it could be. She didn't look any older than I remember."

"Could you see her face?" Sans pressed.

"I could, but it's like you said. It doesn't… stick." He frowned heavily to himself, pushed his papers towards his son, and bitterly grumbled, "Bain mo cloigeann."

"That's not gonna help," Sans joked. He sighed and leaned his chin on his hand, eyes skimming the notes. "…I miss 'em, y'know?"

"I know."

"How you been holdin' up?" Sans asked.

"Well… I've been better," he said. "…I miss them, too. Badly." His soul spiked and he sighed heavily. He shook his head. "Don't worry about me."

.

Sans took a moment to read. "There's just somethin' really wrong about this," he muttered. He scoffed at himself. "Statin' the obvious. Obviously. But if they're in another world…? She left before, right? But this crap didn't happen."

"I wish I could understand," Gaster said. "Perhaps it's the distance. Perhaps where she went before was… an alternate past of ours. Or was connected in some way." He folded his arms and paced. "And this did not happen when she entered my timeless realm, either."

"Your what?" Sans beckoned for him to elaborate.

.

"Before I died, I was able to sacrifice a significant chunk of my power to make a pocket realm for an aspect of my mind. Out in a bubble of timelessness, as a backup of sorts. This was before I had any idea that your sister would even exist," he said. "She entered that place twice. She didn't remember going there, unfortunately. And I reabsorbed those aspects once she dragged me out of the void."

"So at least we know she ain't there," Sans said. "But… Yeah, I guess if you saw her fightin' you, that would have to be way off ours."

"Nowhere close," Gaster said steadily. "The emotions I felt through him were… bloody brutal."

"She was okay, though, right?" Sans's soul stuttered. "He didn't kill 'er, did he?"

"I… I don't know," he said. "She's fast, though, isn't she? And she can rewind time at a touch. It would stand to reason she will do whatever she can to not be killed, since I doubt she knows what will happen to her."

"Hope she can help it, 'cause I dunno either," Sans grumbled. "At least the other kid's with her, right? He'll… He'll take care of her."

Gaster raised his brows.

"He's actually willin' to fight," he explained. "She ain't. So."

"What?! Really? I remember him being so sweet. I would have said he wouldn't even hurt a fly."

"Sweet?" The short skeleton snickered. "Welp. Not sure if that's what I would call him, but he's a good kid. A lot of things changed with the poor little nerd since you knew him."

"I guess they must have," Gaster mused. "Maybe if there was a way to… To hyper-focus the dreams you or I have. Maybe…" He sighed and looked in the desk, and then patted his pockets down. "Ah, what have I done?"

.

Sans raised his brows. "Missin' something?"

"My phone," he said. "…I misplaced it. Which is… very not good, actually. I thought it might be at Grillby's, but…" His cheekbones flushed. "I was storing a book of Dirges in there. Maybe with one of those spells as a groundwork, I could… I don't know, do something helpful. Some sort of… extra channelling into the NOCTURNE or… Maybe there's something else. My memory of it is weak, but I could have sworn there was something about… Something about dreams."

"Oh." Sans tapped his teeth. "Welp. Yeah. Bad thing to lose."

"Don't remind me," he grumbled. "Bad thing to lose most memories of, too."

"Did you try callin' it? Not the book, I mean," he asked. He took out his own phone and did exactly that, though neither of them heard any ringing. Sans shrugged. "Ask Alph, she can activate a tracker on any phone as long as you got the number for it."

"Ah! Wish I'd asked you sooner," Gaster said. "She's just downstairs, I think."

.

A clunk at the east door perked him up and he turned just in time for Asgore to come barrelling in, eyes shining; a desperate grimace on his lips. As soon as his deep green eyes locked onto Gaster, he huffed out a huge sigh and raced to wrap him in his arms. Gaster grunted as he was hefted up off his feet.

"Oh thank god it wasn't you," the huge monster said.

"What wasn't?" the skeleton croaked.

"Or you!" Asgore gently dropped Gaster and pulled Sans up to squish him next. "Oh my goodness. Oooh no. Okay. Alright. Have either of you seen Undyne?!"

"What's the emergency?" Sans asked.

"I don't know how to say this but… But." Asgore took a deep breath and sat Sans down on the edge of the desk. "The human souls are gone. And so is the barrier."

.

Gaster and Sans shared a look. Sans shrugged. The older skeleton frowned and cupped his chin thoughtfully for a moment. He put a hand on Asgore's shoulder.

"It happened months ago," he said.

"…What?" Asgore blinked. He tilted his head. "I… I don't—"

"I'm sorry for the shock. Time is a mess at the moment. The barrier is down, no monster or seventh human has died for it, and everything is safe," Gaster said. "Think back. Do you remember the plateau?"

"The…?" Asgore put both hands on his head. "The plateau?! Oh. Oh, my god. I don't understand, why am I having such strong déjà vu? Are you sure everyone is safe?! Honestly, have you seen Undyne?!"

"You call her?" Sans asked.

"Of course I did!" Asgore said. He put his face in his hands, pulling his cheeks downwards. "I need to find her, I—"

.

"Hey, G-Gaster?" Alphys's voice. She came in from the elevator, glaring at her phone incredulously. "I think I f-found some—"

Asgore swept her up into his arms. She squeaked loudly and he clutched her close like a comfort puppy. He was a weepy-eyed mess.

"You're safe," he said quietly.

"O-Of course I'm safe," she said shrilly. "W-What's wrong?!"

"Alphys, do you think you could track down my phone?" Gaster asked.

"Wha…? Um, okay?" she said.

"Gaster! What do I do?" Asgore said miserably. "I have to check everyone, I—"

"What's going on?!" Alphys said.

"The barrier and the souls are gone," the King said, squeezing her worriedly.

Alphys went pale and sweaty. She babbled out nothing and Asgore held her miserably.

"It's going to be okay, old friend," Gaster said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

.

Sans sighed. He heaved himself off his seat. "Welp. I'mma head out." He put a hand up to stall the flurry of questions he knew were about to come from the frantic monsters and started for the door. "Gonna go get Undyne."

"Please find her," Asgore said. "And I'll—"

"You will sit down, take a deep breath, and let me explain what's going on," Gaster said. "Sans, stay, ask your brother to—"

"Nah, I got it," he said. "I could use the air."

xXxXx

Not teleporting fully sucked. Sans had been able to do it since a week or two after he was made. He'd never been as hobbled as this before.

.

He ambled down the dark paths, lit by the bioluminescent Echo Flowers and the crystals glittering in the roof of the cavern like distant, stagnant stars. The kid loved this place. She'd spend her rare times brooding here, rather than almost anywhere else. Same for him, honestly. The quiet darkness of Waterfall sometimes made emptiness elsewhere easier to bear.

.

He knew the path by heart. Had to so as not to shift himself into a pit if he wanted to turn up here on a regular day.

.

As he wandered through grass that glowed at each step on his way past dull blue lanterns and sparkling purple crystals, his phone buzzed in his pocket. He almost didn't bother with it, but reconsidered after a few more steps. Papyrus.

"HELLO BROTHER! Alphys told me you are headed to Waterfall all on your own? Do you want me to come pick you up? If you do not reply I will default to picking you up!"

"nah im good" Sans typed back. A white something sped by in the corner of his eye. Hoped it wasn't some other time distortion.

"OK but I am on standby!" Papyrus replied.

.

Sans pocketed the phone again and continued on his way. Swift little feets in the grass caught his attention again. Black and white forms encroached on three sides. He knew already; took a half-step backwards as several Tems leapt out of the shadows and clonked into each other with an arf and an oof.

"AawwaAAAaaa," yelled one of the floppy monsters, rolling onto her back with wiggling limbs in the air.

"Oops," he said. "How many Temmies we got here?"

"HOI! Temmies?! There are tree of us ," one of them said in a childish voice.

"Tree, huh?" Sans tilted his head. "Huh. Your noggins okay? Hope you ain't barkin' mad."

"NO!" all three of them shouted at once. They sounded oddly similar.

"We want to glomp!" complained one.

"We are hungr," said another.

"You guys from the shop?" Sans asked. "Don't have much to barter with."

"NO!" they said again at the same time.

"The shop are boring!" whined one Tem, holding her own cheeks. "All Temmies, all the tem!"

"The town are full up with a million of Tem and still are boring!" whinged the roly-poly one.

Sans tilted his head. "Thought most of you guys went up top."

"What?! Up top of where?!" asked a Tem.

"The surface," Sans said.

"NO!" all three of them said again.

"Fhsdhjfd, that's crazy talk Mister Skeltal," asserted Temmie.

Sans squinted at them skeptically, but he felt a sinking feeling deep through his bones. He stepped over the one on the ground and headed south to Temmie Village.

.

The cavern that claimed to be Temmie Village was wide and decorated with paintings of Tems with dragons, Tems as knights, Tems fighting through storms and waves, and large sculptures of the little monsters that were simultaneously cat-and-dog-like. They weren't the most reliable or coherent of creatures though, so Sans half-expected the whole place to be empty. It was not. The village was bustling with near-identical Temmies, chattering in their unusual way amongst themselves, rolling around, sneezing; brushing their hair. Nobody in the history of the planet had ever felt as much dread seeing so many Tems as Sans did right at that moment.

.

As the three ambushing Temmies pranced back into their village without a second thought, Sans backtracked out of the cavern to catch his breath. They shouldn't have been there. Couldn't have. He put a hand against the side of his skull. He felt sick.

.

Swiftly, he pulled his phone out and checked his contacts. Several were missing. He was pretty sure he remembered the number as he punched it in and clunked the thing against the side of his head. He couldn't help a tremor through his fingers as he waited through ringing. The gash in his hand hurt.

.

"Hello, ya reached Flint," came a craggy voice on the other end of the line.

"Hey, uh, it's Sans, you remember me?" the skeleton asked.

"What? Sans! Aye, o'course!" Flint said.

Sans sighed with relief. "How's Naiad?"

"Ah. She's, ah… She's not feelin' so good, t'be honest," the rockram said quietly.

"Where you at?" Sans asked.

"Park down near Dandelion Plaza, why?"

"Okay. Listen. This's real important," Sans said. "Go to the King's. Take Naiad; take your kids."

"Sans, what—?"

"Get to the King's; go to where the barrier's supposed to be, then just keep goin'."

"I don't understand," Flint said.

"I know. Sorry. It'll help. Do it as soon as you can," he said. "Now-ish, maybe."

"Are y'sure…? Ah, y'sound pretty sure. Alright. I'll trust ya."

"Thanks," Sans said. "Won't regret it."

.

He hung up and hurried on his way. He rubbed the sore side of his hand and cursed under his breath. This was nuts. Worse than he thought.

.

He didn't see Undyne anywhere in Waterfall, and no lights were on when he came to her house. He knocked on the door and let himself in.

.

He could see the faint glow of her phone on the kitchen counter, and he could hear deep snores from the bedroom in the back. False alarm. He edged up and knocked on that door, too.

"Knock knock," he said.

There was a rough, snarling snort on the other side. "Huwha?! Whodat?"

He couldn't resist. "Boo."

"Boo who?!"

"Hey, don't cry, it's just me," Sans said.

"NnnngaaaAAAH! Sans, I'm gonna kill ya!" She stomped to the door and flung it back, glowering through her mussed up red hair. "What d'you want?!"

"King wanted to find you." He shrugged. "He was freakin' out about the barrier."

.

Undyne tilted her head. "Why, what about it?"

Sans raised his brows. "You, uh, remember you were up there, right? With the Tems?"

"With the…?" She frowned deeply. "…Up there?"

"Wuh-oh," Sans said. He folded his arms. "That ain't good."

Undyne mimicked his posture, leaning against her doorframe. After a moment, her ears perked. "Oh, right! I was! But I… forgot. Feels like I was doin' something else, too?! Like… I've never been that far, but I totally have; there was a stupid egg or whatever."

.

Sans looked her up and down. He tapped his teeth. Wasn't right. It struck him hard. Of course it wasn't. World was off-kilter. They were missing their anchor. "Ah. Shit. I really gotta find my sis."

"Still no luck, huh?" she asked worriedly.

"I still don't super get why your memory isn't as bad as Tori or Asgore's," he admitted.

.

Had to be something to it. He could remember when the world was breaking; when the ghost of Chara had sunken deeply into an anomaly and had begun to kill. He saw Undyne shatter and rebuild herself into the world's protector with determination all her own. Not even a boss monster had ever done that before, and though recorded monster history was scarce, not once was it ever mentioned, not even in whispers. If a story was to be written about those dead timelines, Undyne was the natural protagonist.

.

"Wait, Asgore and Tori, they don't remember this stuff, but I kinda do?" she asked. "That doesn't make sense."

"Tell me about it," Sans said. "You remember Alphys?"

"Duh."

"Uh. Sorry, I mean, like, you datin' her and stuff," he said.

"Yeah, duh, why?" Undyne pressed.

Sans flinched. He rubbed the back of his skull. Undyne's jaw dropped.

"Don't tell me she forgot again?!" she demanded.

Reluctantly, Sans nodded. "Yeah, uh, part of her kinda reverted back like ten years to when she still had a crush on, uh… me. Sorry."

"You?! You let her down easy, at least, right?" she demanded.

"Did my best," he said. "She didn't seem too upset."

"PHEW." Undyne's ears drooped and her posture sagged. "Aw maannn, that really friggin' sucks," she muttered. "I gotta win her back."

"Do what you gotta, dude," Sans said. "But it'll be fixed once the kids get home."

"Then we extra gotta get 'em home!" She stuck a fist into the air. "So, uh. What do I do?"

Sans shrugged.

Undyne scowled. "Seriously?"

His shoulders slumped. "Yeah."

.

Undyne's expression softened. "Man. Everything's crazy, huh? You okay?"

"Eh. Fine. Dyin' though," he said.

"That's a garbage joke," she said sternly.

He smiled sideways and shrugged. Her brow furrowed. She huffed out a sigh and rubbed her fingers through her hair, pulling it back out of her face.

"You tell your bro?"

"Nah," he said.

"You have to," she said.

"Not if I can get those kids back in a week," he said.

"What, they gonna cure you?" Undyne asked skeptically.

"My kid'll turn time back and none of this will have happened," he said, though the thought of that hung heavy in his head. He shot her a sympathetic smile. "I'll fill you in on whatever junk you lose, if you want. Might not be anything."

She looked at him incredulously, then sighed heavily and rolled her eye. She picked him up and slung him over her shoulder. "Let's go, dork, we got work to do."

xXxXx

Asgore was a large dad. So large, in fact, that even Undyne looked child-like in his arms as he hugged her desperately and smooched her forehead within seconds of her entering the lab. Relief was singing out of him, so she didn't put up the least bit of resistance.

.

Sans leaned groggily against a desk, taking a breather. He caught his father's eye— the skeleton was hovering over a coffee maker a few tables away— and he wandered over and tilted his head towards the King. "Convinced 'im?"

"Mostly," he said. "Thank you for finding her."

"We got a problem, though," he said. "Also found a whole pack of Temmies."

"Why, are they coming here?" Gaster asked. "I don't think I made enough coffee."

"Nah. Issue is, they should be up top," he said. "They were yesterday. Now they don't remember."

"Oh." Gaster put a hand to his brow. "That's… not good. It's getting stranger, isn't it?" He sighed. "And I'm somehow compromised as well. If time goes on and I… And I become unreliable, just smack me and tell me what to do. I promise I will believe whatever you say, and if I don't, just smack me again."

"Pfff, can't even reach," the skeleton said with a wink. He rubbed the back of his skull tiredly. "So. What now?"

"Coffee, then we can discuss what on earth to do." He folded his arms. "I think, regardless, I'll need to overcharge the NOCTURNE."

"Which means messin' with the CORE again," Sans said with a sigh. "Great. Got a target?"

"That's… part of the problem. But I've set up a program to try to decode part of the red line, hopefully that'll help. Alphys said she'll give me a hand with that as well. Since parts of mine are missing and all."

Sans scoffed and Gaster cracked a faint smile.

.

"H-Hey, um, guys?" Alphys was upstairs. She poked her head over the banister, a furrow on her brow. "Um. G-Gaster? There's something here you should see."

"Be right there," he said.

.

As Asgore finally released Undyne from his grip and began to relay what he'd been told in hushed tones, the skeletons went up to join Alphys. She had shoved some stuff off her workbench and set up a makeshift computer station there with her laptop hooked up to a magic boosting cable. There was that static sound again, though. Sans caught sight of a radio on its side in a pile of Alphys's junk. He picked it up and peered at it curiously as his father joined the lizard in front of the computer.

.

The screen looked like a little, confused green radar ping on a black background.

"So, um… Problem?" Alphys said nervously. "Your phone is, um… Gone."

"Gone?" Gaster's hum warbled loudly. "How gone?"

"Gone, l-like… Unfathomably far away," the lizard said. "I'm not g-getting anything on, um… On Earth."

Gaster put his hands on his face. "How can that be?!" His eyes flared. "What have I done? Our book, it was—" His voice faltered and cut off. He shivered and grimaced. With the spike of his soul, the radio's volume followed.

"Ah! Right, l-let me make you m-more opera cakes," Alphys said quickly. She swooped her status food oven from her phone quickly. "D-Don't worry. I-It might take a little, b-but I refined the formula a little s-so they're working really well!"

Dismally, the tall skeleton nodded. He coughed silently and rubbed the back of his skull.

.

"Oh! Right. There's s-something else I should mention," Alphys said. She handed her own phone over to Gaster and leaned in to swipe through her texts. "I n-noticed this. There's these, um, numbers? Sent to a strange phone? I c-can't remember sending it but…"

Gaster quickly pointed to his own chest several times.

"Y-You sent it?" she asked. "To…"

"One of the kids," Sans said.

"I guess that could b-be," Alphys said. "I t-tried calling the number and it, um, just sounds like a horror movie, so…" She shook her head. "A-Anyway! It looks like coordinates and some sort of energy reading to me. Wh-What do you think?"

Gaster nodded and stuck up both thumbs on his normal hands, and his phantom magic ones. He redialled the phone and clunked it against his skull. After only a second, though, he jerked the thing away from his head and hung up as fast as possible. He began to rattle. He whirled and was about to head downstairs, but the lizard grabbed his arm.

"Oh no you don't," she insisted. "Stay h-here for a minute. Take a breather! At least until y-you stop shaking so much."

Gaster grimaced, but he nodded. He rolled up his sleeve and pulled out a marker, but his hands were trembling. Sans put the radio down and beckoned to him, and Gaster gladly passed it over so the short skeleton could copy the numbers out for him onto his radius.

.

Beside them, the weird static on the radio fluctuated. The rhythm of it was almost like words. As Sans capped the marker and passed it back to his dad, he peered down at the buzzing thing and leaned his head closer to it.

"Hey, Alph? Got any idea why all the radios are screwy?"

"Wh…? Um. N-No, but I did notice that," she said as she programmed her oven. "It's a-annoying, huh? I can't get them t-to turn off since, um, y-yesterday or the day before, I think. Feel free to break it if it's g-giving you a headache, I'll just, um, fix it later."

Sans hmmed to himself. Instead, he turned the volume up. The sound was awful, but under all that static, he thought he heard a voice. Didn't sound like Mettaton or his music, which is what was usually clogging up the airwaves. Gaster patted him on the shoulder and pointed downstairs. Sans replied with a thumbs up.

.

With a quick rummage through Alphys's pile of junk, he found a signal node and an extendable antennae buried amongst tools and other bits of potentially useful scrap. He took both downstairs and plunked himself into Alphys's chair. Though it hurt, he conjured a bone and sharpened one end to a point. He used it to unfasten the back panel of the radio to expose its magic wiring. Undyne leaned over the back of his chair.

"Whatcha doin' with that annoying thing?" she asked.

"Not sure. Think there's somethin' up," he said.

"Related?" she asked.

"No clue. Maybe." He fastened the small silver disk that was the signal node into a spot snuggly with the wires, then attached the antennae to the top of the device. He grabbed Undyne's hand and put it against the cables. "Shock it."

Undyne's magic bristled vibrant cyan in her fingertips and the magic inside the tubes shifted to match. The signal got a lot clearer. Definitely a voice. It was probably female and kind of familiar, but incoherent. Sans perked up. Maybe, could it be…?

.

Asgore, still a wobbly mess, snuck over to look, too.

"Whoa," Undyne said. "Who the hell is that?"

Sans flipped the radio around. He turned up the volume and adjusted the tuning knobs. It still wasn't clear. "Goin' up top," he said.

"What?! Sans, are you sure?" Asgore asked worriedly.

He nodded and heaved himself to his feet. His head spun. He blinked. Fragments of the wrong colour danced along the walls for just an instant. He ignored it and headed to the elevator, turning the radio down to a low annoyance as he went. Undyne followed quickly and, before they could leave, Asgore squeezed into the elevator, too.

.

Though he put up a facade of being relaxed, it only lasted for about five seconds before the King grabbed onto Undyne's hand and let out a long, heavy sigh. "This is all a bit much," he confessed. "Do… you all have inconsistent memories as well? Did Gaster explain it to you?"

"I do, Sans doesn't," Undyne said. "He remembers what he's supposed to."

"Except the names of two kids," Sans said dryly.

"Oh, Sans, I'm so sorry." Asgore bent and put a gentle hand on his head. "Any way I can help, let me know, alright? That's still my job, even if the world is off-kilter. So, um. What is it we're doing now?"

Sans held up the radio. "Fixin' this."

"Um. Will that… help?" Asgore wondered.

The skeleton shrugged. "A bunch of 'em are all goin' weird in the same way at once."

"And that's important, is it?" he asked.

"Welp. Anything weird at this point, I'm gonna check it out."

"That sounds fair," Asgore said with a solemn nod.

xXxXx

The puffy-clouded, blue morning sky was awash with déjà vu. Asgore was quiet, taking in the sights and smells on the cool wind like it had been forever ago, but the recollection and confusion he felt was as obvious as if he'd shouted it off into the echoing reaches around them. He held tight to Undyne's hand. She didn't mind.

.

Sans plunked himself down on his same old rock and set down the annoying radio. He extended the antennae out as far as it would go and fiddled with the knobs, wondering if they could get some frequency to match with whatever this sound was. Didn't take long. Suddenly, the voice was clear through the static.

.

"…can't believe I'm… Okay. Again." A woman's voice. Familiar. The cadence changed after a mechanical clicking sound. "Hello. This is a recording. Um. I'm hoping this is going somewhere."

"What's that?" Undyne was leaning over Sans's shoulder, pressing close.

He held up a finger to pause her.

"My name is June Yamada. I'm a human, my contact info is—"

"June?! I remember her," Asgore bleated, smooshing in close, though Undyne elbowed him gently and put a finger to her lips. "Oops, sorry."

"…I'm hoping this reaches you. I am… I was the Ambassador from Sollund. Something's wrong, my memories are… I remember meeting King Asgore, and the skeleton family, and the Captain of the Guard, and a few others, but my records are all wrong and nobody else remembers that the mountain is even open. I know this probably sounds crazy, but I remembered this as one of the first frequencies we communicated on, but I can't access the machine that I used to call you because I… um. I guess I haven't actually been hired yet at the facility that has it. I guess this is some sort of magic? I can't understand what's going on. Please, if you get this… If, by some chance, you hear this. Please. Contact me."

.

There was a heavy click, static, and then the same recording started again. Fully masking any disappointment he felt, Sans entered her number into his phone.

"So, it's effecting them, too?" Undyne mused. "Or… is it just her? 'Cause she came here."

"Plus she's human. Her determination is gonna be higher than most of ours," Sans said.

"Is she alright, though?" Asgore asked. "I remember her visit, she was… She had to meet with… Darn, who was it?"

"My sister." Sans tapped his teeth thoughtfully. "Guess I'll try to let her know to just wait it out."

"Yeah, not much else you can do, I guess," Undyne said. "Can you, like, two-way-radio it?"

"Probably. Got any earphones?"

.

Undyne reached into her phone and found a pair with special clasps that clipped onto her type of ear. Sans hooked them up to the radio and opened the back again. As the other monsters watched, he pulled some wires out and reconnected them out of order, and then grabbed Undyne's hand again to shock the signal node.

"What are you doing, exactly?" Asgore asked curiously.

"Ah. Stuff's old tech. Already a receiver. Easy. Basically, node can act as a transmitter. Earphone can be a mouthpiece. Switch one of these buttons to let me push to talk and…" He set the radio down and held down a button that was supposed to be for setting a timer. He put up one finger and held one of the ends of the earphones close to his mouth. "Hey. Uh. Testin'. Can you hear me? This June? We can hear ya, but it's kinda messy."

He let go of the button. The message was still playing, but only for a couple seconds more, before it cut off and replaced itself with loud white noise.

.

Undyne's ears perked. Asgore leaned in and sat on the rock, too. He held tight to Sans's shoulders. After a minute, the tone shifted.

"Hello?!" June's voice. "Your voice is familiar, is that…?! Is that the… King's advisor? The skeleton?! I'm so sorry, but I can't remember your name. But, yes, I can hear you! Um. Over. You say over, when you're done. So that it's easier to… Well, I'm sure you get it. Over."

Sans grinned. Undyne patted him on the shoulder.

"Yeah. Gotcha. That's me. I'm Sans. I'm here with, uh, the King and the Guard Captain. You remember us? Over."

"I do, but it's…" Her words were overcome with distortion for a moment. "Something's really wrong. Can you tell me what happened? Is it a spell? Over."

"It's not a spell. It's complicated. We're tryin' to fix it," Sans said.

"Yes, Howdy, June! I'm King Asgore, if you don't remember, which is just fine!" the King butted in. "We are having a problem with time magic, it seems, that is going awry a bit, but not to worry, once it is fixed, I'm told things will be normal again and it won't be a problem! Over."

.

June replied, but it was distorted again. Sans frowned and flipped the radio around to check the other side.

"Uh, is that on our end, or hers?" Undyne asked.

"Not sure… Uh…" Sans clicked the button. "Hey, sorry, we're havin' trouble with our thing. Kinda rewired a radio, to be honest. Can you hear us okay? Uh, over."

They had to wait a bit. They heard her voice, but it was more faint than before. The reply sounded like, "Not really," but it was hard to be sure.

"Alright, so, we'll try to call your phone, we just gotta do a bit of work to get through on a human line. Might take a few hours. Over."

A long pause again. "…Okay, thank—"

The radio buzzed. The back made a hissing sound. Sans smiled tiredly and Undyne folded her arms and snorted.

"Big over," she said.

"Guess so," Sans said, turning the volume down. He passed Undyne her earphones. "Thanks."

"That was impressive for spare parts, though," Asgore said. He hugged Sans and slumped. "What a day."

"Tell me about it," he said. "Hey, uh, sorry this freaked you out so bad."

.

Asgore shook his head. He sighed and stared out over the horizon. "I guess it's… sort of surreal. I never imagined this without… Without someone having to die at the end for it." He shuddered. "The world can be so cruel. I'm just glad… we didn't lose anyone else. I-In that way, at least."

"Same, I thought this would take a lot more fighting," Undyne said. She looked at Sans sympathetically. "It was those kids, right? They did this?"

"Yeah," he said.

"Why would a human do this for us?" Asgore wondered quietly. "After everything…"

"She, uh…" Sans's voice hitched for a moment. "…She loved us. We were all she had."

"I can't wait to meet them again," Asgore said. "Don't worry, my boy, I'm certain you and Gaster and Alphys will find some way to bring them back."

"Mhm. Gotta," Sans said. He folded his arms tight. The cut in his hand ached. For some reason, the nostalgia up here was making him sick. He hated missing people. Hated missing his kid especially, most recently. It always came with a sense of dread and uncertainty he desperately wished would be over.

.

An unusually rocky sound reached them from the path inside the mountain, clunking up the steps. Undyne's ears perked and she turned to look. Asgore, too, was drawn towards it, just as a little fish kid dragging a tiny rockram broke onto the surface. He screamed. She screamed. They hugged each other tightly.

"Mister King!" The boy waved frantically and dragged his sister towards Asgore.

The massive monster's eyes were wide, but he began to beam. He rushed to meet them and knelt to take the kids into his arms. "Adaro and little Lari! Howdy! Good to see you two!"

"The sun is so bright!" Lari squeaked.

"Yes, little one. It definitely is," Asgore said fondly.

.

Behind them came their father, Flint, and their mother, Naiad. The huge rockram looked stunned, but the fish monster hurried forward and froze in the sunlight. Her scales took on an iridescent sheen.

"I remember this place," she breathed, right before she was crushed into a hug by her husband.

.

Sans let out a small breath of relief. Undyne shot him a knowing look and thumped him on the shoulder. She looked Naiad up and down, recognition flashing in her eyes. "Yo, didn't she live up here?" she asked at a whisper.

"Got reversed as of yesterday," Sans said.

"…You thought fast," she said.

"I'd have her dust on my hands if I didn't," he said.

.

He grabbed the radio and got to his feet, stretching. His spine popped. He needed that.

"Uh, where you going?" Undyne asked.

"Gonna try to reprogram a phone to get human numbers, I guess," he said.

"Nothing else up here for you?" She gestured to the other monsters, who were now being exuberantly embraced by Asgore.

Sans rubbed the back of his skull. "Nah. Shouldn't get in the way. See you at the lab?"

"Hold it." She jumped to her feet. "You crazy or something? You're not going alone! What if you pass out again and fall down an elevator shaft or some crap?!"

"It'd be faster than walkin'," he said with a shrug.

xXxXx

Alphys's cakes wafted a chocolate coffee scent around the lab. Very warm; very welcome.

.

She was still having a bit of trouble wrapping her mind around what was happening, but she was glad to have a job to do. It was oddly nostalgic for her, having the place so bustling again. It felt like it hadn't been like this since before the incident in the CORE, ten years ago. She plugged in her main laptop and synched it up to Gaster's program running the Dark Model data on the red line. It had processed a couple points; converted them into equations. There was an algorithm to process it into the notes of a resonance.

.

Scribbling on a napkin, she calculated the first few and whistled the four-note tune. She drummed her short claws on the desk. She fed her numbers back into the computer and had it play it back on its own. It repeated the same thing. She smiled. A little progress.

.

"H-Hey, Gaster?" she called. "I-I'm not sure if you heard? The Dark Model's working for us, a bit!" She tilted her head but heard no reply, not even in footsteps. "O-Oh, right, his voice…" She muttered to herself. She leaned over to check the machine. Forty seconds. She tapped her pen on the desk as she waited. Felt like it took forever, somehow.

.

Once the machine let out a pleasant chime and ejected its many pre-wrapped cakes, Alphys gathered some of them up. She'd made, maybe, a bit too big a batch. She fumbled with a small armful of the packages and headed down the escalator. She couldn't see the skeleton anywhere.

"Gaster?" she called.

Still no answer. She pouted. He'd gone somewhere. Not with the others, though.

.

She could see he'd entered the numbers from the mysterious text onto the computer he'd been using. They'd hit a match in a long list of points tracked in time and space, though there were some other numbers of distortion associated with it. One was highlighted. She clicked on it and it brought up SOULSCN, and the recorded version of Gaster's own soul. It linked through a spiderweb of other energy points. Alphys's brow furrowed. She clicked through them. Errors, duplicates, corrupting the data of some of the other points. Something was wrong.

"Oh, no…" Alphys breathed. "Gaster?!"

.

She looked around the whole lab again, but only found him when she peeked outside the east door and almost tripped over the old doctor. He was against the wall, partially curled up, a hand on his head, near the crack in his skull. Alphys bit her lip and edged out slowly. The sound of the door closing jerked the skeleton out of his stupor, but when he looked up, it was clear he'd been crying.

.

Alphys froze. Her soul stumbled. She rushed to sit on her knees with him and she offered him the curative cakes. He nodded gratefully, wiped his face, and took them from her. He ate two, and then managed an audible cough.

"Thank you," he said quietly.

"What happened? What's wrong?" She held his hand tightly. "H-How can I help?"

He shook his head. She frowned and reached up to hug him. He faltered, then buckled, pulling her close and wilting around her.

.

"T-Talk to me," she said. "How do I help?"

"…I'm the cause of all this," he said softly. "My… My stupid, bloody soul."

"Don't say that," Alphys said, frowning at him. "What d-does that even mean?"

"My daughter and my… my nephew, they're… They followed my coordinates. And my… cursed soul… It did something. That was what threw them astray, it…" He gritted his teeth and clutched at his skull. "I shouldn't have come back, I should have died. I should have stayed gone, I—"

.

Alphys smacked a hand onto either side of his face. He froze, eyes flaring with colour. She huffed indignantly, her eyes watering, and shook out her hands.

"O-Ow. S-Sorry," she squeaked. "You h-have to snap out of it. Gaster. C-Come on."

"You don't understand. I have killed my son," he said, voice croaking, tears leaking down his face. "I have banished my daughter from her own timeline and lost the child of my best friends to the void. I am an abomination."

"No. No, n-no, no no no." Alphys shook her head quickly. "No. W-We're not doing that. You're not. A-And we'll fix this. We will." She pulled a tissue from her pocket and gently dabbed his cheeks. "Listen, okay? Y-You can't break down, that's m-my job."

"…You are so good," he said quietly. "You don't even remember, and still, you…" He sighed and rubbed his face. "Thank you, Alphys."

.

She shook her head again. "You're n-not an a-abomination," she said.

"I am. Literally. I should not exist. It's only though my selfishness that I'm here and… and now, they're not. I've doomed us all. Again."

It sounded like nonsense to her, but he looked so bereft she knew he believed every word he said. "But how do you know th-that?" she insisted. "H-How do you know it's doom? It could really n-not be doom, you know? It could be… I-It could be just… kind of bad instead of, you know, world ending?"

"The world is already shifting," he said dismally. "Without my daughter here to hold it steady…"

"So, then, we'll find her. L-Like we've been working on," she insisted. "Come on. P-Please don't give up. You can do this. W-We can, as a team, r-right?"

.

He slumped. The ache in his fractured soul became palpable. Alphys grimaced.

"Y-You know, she only… just learned who I was," he said quietly. He clenched his hands together. He took in a rattling breath.

Alphys sighed softly. She hugged him again. "A-And… And she'll have a-all the time in the world to g-get to know you. We'll get her back. W-We'll get both of these time kids back."

He gritted his teeth, but he nodded stiffly. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't… I need to be stronger than this."

"Relax." She grabbed his hands gently. "Hey. Come on," she said. "L-Let's go back inside and c-cool you down a little, okay?" She took a step back and he allowed her to pull him upright. "I'll make you s-something and… And. We'll get through this. I promise."