Thanks go to Wingah, TiredWhiteMayge, 10burgers, Doctah Sawbones, Zack Frost, Acoolnamme, Zillowzest, GMLxAwesome, cagrijan1904, VoidGivenForm, adam,mat2007, I move weight, and JasherTheDarkened.
adam,mat2007, when I started original DoubleTale I had no idea it was gonna blow up lol. My very first plan for the story was that it was gonna be like 5 chapters and end with Chara and Cter fighting forever. Then people reviewed a lot so I just kinda dragged it along after that. The Rewrite, though, I did expect a pretty good measure of success with after how highly reviewed the original was. I knew there were a lot of people who wanted more DoubleTale. It's definitely been exceeding my expectations though, and I'm so happy and so grateful for all you wonderful people who are supporting me. I really love this story too, and its a lot of fun to write! We got a lotta story left to go, and its gonna be a wild ride!
To answer one of your questions and leave the rest to be answered by future chapters, VoidGivenForm, yes Monster Kid is in fact a confirmed Boss Monster! I've had that info in my back pocket for awhile now and just been waiting to reveal it lol.
Anyway, onto the chapter! I know it, might not be exactly what you guys are expecting! But I think you'll like it!
Disclaimer: I do not own Undertale.
It wasn't exactly a relief, seeing Character living and breathing. It'd been so long now, Chara hardly thought of the darkness that used to fill the whites of their eyes. The rage and hate that used to eat away at their mind and soul. The loathing, towards themself and the world they were born into. Their future counterpart had died a martyr, an execution on their own terms at the hands of an Angel as repentance for their sins. And Demon, Chara's bad end counterpart, had died at the hands of The Ascended Heir. Destroyed to protect the future that Chara now thought was worth fighting for. That was how the story ended, that was where the page flipped and that was the end of that chapter of Chara's life.
And yet, here they were. Character, a disgusting rat that slinked away and licked its wounds for nearly three years. Or, at least Chara would have liked to have seen them that way. The fact of the matter was that Demon was as much a Chara as they were, had the same potential and the same past. But still, years removed from their last encounter with the twisted fusion, Chara now found it hard to put themself in Demon's shoes. They wondered if they should even try to. All the things that felt confusing back then, the answers were so simple now. In Chara's eyes, it was unfortunately easy. Hacker and Demon had three years to get their shit together, and yet here they were. Challenging them again. Betting their life on a struggle that Chara had out grown and out lived and no longer gave a shit about. They didn't know if they hated Character, but they thought they might pity them. They resisted change with all their might, and yet they did not understand why they had not sprouted wings. Now Chara was going to have to put this poor, dumb animal down. And that was the real tragedy.
And Chara opened their mouth to speak, shoot down that threat of Character's. Maybe give them once chance to step aside - but they weren't as KIND as Angel. If they had to chop Character's head off and split their shared soul into 100ths, that's what they would do. Unfortunately, they didn't get the chance to say a word. Because across the field and back in the broken town that had been shrouded in snow, a blast of power exploded free.
Chara and Character alike turned their heads in shock, staring into the whipping winds and feeling the brutal wave of impossible heat against their faces. With this gust of wind came the total clearing of the blizzard, as though it was nothing more than a few flakes to be brushed aside. And Chara stared with wide eyes and shrunken pupils across the misting snow fields to the burning scarlet shine and the pleasant green glow that now illuminated Snowdin town. At the two figures that loomed in the light, the ones they could just barely make out from their distance. They managed to mutter...
"Angel..?"
Chapter 81: Hail To The King
Or: Something Something, Avenged Sevenfold
It had been instant. A sudden change in the environment, a blast of power that knocked away snow, mist and flames. Xander turned his head away from the king he'd been attempting to murder, looked with wide eyes into the searing red winds that had cleared the blizzard in a split second. Crimson light flashed over Snowdin, and his brows furrowed. His body tensed.
In that instant, seeing the world illuminated in red, Xander was forced to remember the night of Predator's invasion. When that horrible scarlet beam careened into the sky, when green shattered on red's demand and when Cliff was murdered. And Xander's horns crackled as he stared, as his eyes twitched under that crimson shine and a frown cracked deeper into his face. Small flames ignited on his horns, on his skin with his snakes. He didn't notice, but his hands were shaking. Clenched into tight fists, white knuckled.
But, it wasn't the searing scarlet light that truly infuriated The Gatherer. No, within the torrent of heat he spotted a different color. An emerald gleam in a ruby sea, The Angel's KINDNESS... What a joke. Where exactly had that KINDNESS been when Angel slaughtered his champion? Killed Cliff in cold blood, murdered the man that Xander loved. That KINDNESS was a farce, another lie produced by The Killer's favorite son. But Anthony The Anarchist - Xander's new and far more vicious champion - couldn't be deceived. So, The Gatherer smiled into the burning winds of Anarchy's soul. Everything was going according to plan, all he had to do was keep the riffraff in check while The Anarchist exacted his vengeance. Everyone's vengeance.
"Ah shit..." Future muttered under his breath, Anarchy's red light reflecting in his green eyes. He'd never seen it in person, but it felt familiar in a way that was hard to describe. Kinda reminded him of being a kid, for better or worse. He figured that was probably a feeling unique to him, or at least unique to an Angel. To everybody else, Anarchy's soul probably felt like death. To him, it was kinda like the playground mixed with Granny's funeral.
He sighed though when he spotted that green shine in all the red. He thought he'd be more relieved when he realized the munchkins had finally rolled up, but he was hardly giddy to see this fight play out. Didn't look like Chara was there with Angel - that wasn't good, made Future frown a little deeper. But it's not like they hadn't prepared for that. Chara was part of a backup plan, technically. Angel's KINDNESS was the first line of defense, and Future prayed it would be enough to stop Anarchy.
"... That's your guy, isn't it?" Fell!Grillby's voice caught Future's attention, made him glance over to where the fire elemental stood beside him. The fiery bartender pushed up his glasses with one finger, let the light show reflected in them. He didn't seem too spooked by this showcasing of ungodly power though, and that's what Future liked about Grillbys. They were salt'a the earth and they didn't buy into much, didn't matter what timeline they were from. A man who chooses his words carefully was typically a good man to be around, so Future considered it when Grillby asked, "You think he's ready?"
"Mini me's been busting his ass for two and a half years for today." Future turned his head back towards the crackling lights in the distance. He narrowed his crows feet detailed eyes in the green, remembered briefly the sight of his students sweating and struggling to get off the floor of the barrier room. All the early mornings and late nights, all the misery Future inflicted on those kids and the way the fire in the both of them only grew to spite it. Remembering it now brought the king a warm feeling, one he wasn't used to until he knew the two of them. Pride? He must'a been going soft. "If anyone's ready, its him."
Slowly, the bright lights died down. Faded away, and let color return to the world. The thundering show of power was over, at least for the moment. That meant the parley was reaching its end, and the team of Future and Grillby had to look back to the twisted king before them. Xander was already looking at the two of them, smiling while he lit another cigarette with his boiling hot fingernail. He spoke, holding his oral fixation in the corner of his mouth while he did. "Win or lose, your prize fighter is face to face with mine. That's what you wanted, yes?"
"What about it?" Future squinted suspiciously at The Gatherer, tilted his head just a little. He watched The Balor King carefully, waited for a sneak attack or some overcomplicated powerplay. That cigarette didn't bring him any ease - the things always smelled terrible and the last time Xander lit one he used it like an explosive.
"Then you can leave. The Underground is about to become a very bad place to be, for you and I alike." Gatherer punctuated his sentence by blowing a stream of grey smoke out past his lips. He watched it spiral into the chilly Snowdin air with eyes turned scarlet, let it distract him for a second or two. But, then he looked back to Future, and he managed to crack a smile while he held that cigarette in his teeth. "Wouldn't you rather get out of the splash zone?"
"Ha! Yeah, we skedaddle and you n' all your little buddies dog pile on Angel." Future chuckled at Xander's less than friendly suggestion, shaking his head. By his side, Grillby didn't seem as amused. Purple flames burning brighter, it looked to Gatherer like his suggestion had just pissed the fire elemental off. Future spat, "Pass."
"... You know, Future, this reminds me of a book I read once. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka." Gatherer's smile faded away, replaced by an expression that was a little harder to read. Resting one hand on his hip, he used his other hand to remove the cigarette briefly from between his jaws. Letting that grey smoke filter out of his nose, he continued. "More of a novella, really. Centers around a man that provided for his family, traveled and made enough money to keep his beloved mother and sister from having to work."
"One morning this man - Gregor, I think his name was - wakes up to find that he's transformed without explanation into a bug. Some kind of human sized cockroach." Future furrowed his brows, but he let Xander go on with his little story. The Gatherer didn't show it if he did appreciate that, instead absentmindedly examining the smoldering tip of his cigarette. "The story goes on like that, him a freakish bug and his family working to help him and provide for themselves without him. But how do you take care of a big ugly bug? They can't communicate, and they're afraid of him."
"Get to the point." Grillby ordered, frown crackling deeper into his fiery face. He didn't have time for stories, and unlike Future he thought Xander's words unimportant. A cult leader was just the type to ramble and twist words together to try and distract them.
"... After realizing that he is nothing more than a burden to his family, Gregor starves himself and dies." The Gatherer took a moment to pause and shot Grillby a glance, but ultimately he did comply with the bartender's request and speed up his little story. His demonic eyes glossed back over to the crowned king of almost nothing at all, "After he dies, his family steps out into the light. They are relieved and happy - with Gregor gone they are heading into a brighter future. They are, like he thought, better off without him. The end."
"..." Future narrowed his eyes, his jaw tightened. So that was what Gatherer believed, then. That everyone's struggling was for naught and that this multiverse would be a better place once The Angel curled up and died. Unfortunately, the more benevolent of the two kings had a problem with that theory. "Yeah well I read a different book, Xander. A History Of Germany."
"There's this section in there somewhere about this angry little man who was given an inch and took six million miles." Future's words made Gatherer roll his eyes, but he didn't interrupt, instead opting to take another drag from his cigarette. Meanwhile, Future stood tall in front of The Balor King, green glimmering valiantly in his tired eyes. "I'm not an idiot, I know this doesn't end with Angel's life. It starts with his."
"You aren't trying to destroy some great evil, Gatherer." Grillby picked up where Future left off, his fists clenching at his sides. Violet flames crackled bright on his body, reaching up from his arms and around the sleeves he'd rolled up to lick into the air. A meek power, The Balor King was convinced. Flames weaker than his own. "You're trying to kill anyone who might oppose you so you can rule the multiverse without resistance."
"..." Gatherer didn't answer, not for a few moments. Didn't bother refuting, instead taking another long drag from his cigarette and sucking those ashes as far back on the cancer stick as they would go. Once only the butt remained, he pulled it away from his lips. Stared at it between his fingers and shook his head while he let the tobacco fog slither out between his teeth. Then, suddenly, his eyes darted back to the silly revolutionaries before him. And as he smiled, as he flicked that cigarette butt at the two of them and as it began to glow with white hot magic, he gave his official response. "Long live the Führer."
Grillby darted forward the moment that cigarette was thrown, Future busy taking a step back. The bartender threw a hasty hand forward and sent a cone of violet flames crashing out around the cigarette butt just before it exploded, the same way the last had. A massive orb of scorching white fire blasted to life within Grillby's flames from that cigarette explosion, the shockwave powerful enough to blast back his purple shield and send that force crashing back the fire elemental.
Future crossed his arms and his wings in front of himself, the blast of heat enough to make him skid back. Grillby had stopped the fires from engulfing the both of them, but the explosion still sent him sailing back a few dozen yards. Future turned his head and was only able to shout half of Grillby's name before electricity crackled through the air, and he threw his hand up on instinct. Pens crashed up out of the melting snow at his feet, giving Future just enough time to flap his wings and launch himself into the sky. As soon as he was out of the way a bolt of lightning cleaved through his pen wall, slicing to the side and halving the plastic with molten heat.
The moment Future rose over the crack of Gatherer's lightning, those serpents were racing up at him. Hissing fiery doom, two cobra heads snapped their molten fangs up at Future, but he was too quick. Darting down between the snapping snakes on ink wings, the King Over The Mountain raced right down to the Balor King while he yanked back his fist. And Gatherer threw his arms up in an X just in time to catch Future's punch, the force of it sending him skidding back a few steps in the melting snow.
Landing in front of him, Future was quick to pull back the both of his wings. Their inky forms tightened into a pointed shape before jabbing forward at The Gatherer, who hastily jumped over the brutal spikes and left himself suspended in air. Quickly he pulled his hand back to his hip and opened his palm, summoning a crackling flame and tensing his smoking fingers around it. Pressure crackled around the little flame, before Gatherer threw his hand down towards Future and released said pressure. Future barely had time to look up and see that flashing light before it exploded at point blank range.
It was a small blast, far from Gatherer's best explosion. Fire was easy, explosions took him a little more time. But he got what he wanted - that short blast sent Future flinging backwards and Gatherer flipping back through the air. The Balor King landed on his feet while the King Over The Mountain skidded through the muck on his back, red misting from the burns on his face and shoulders.
Future grit his teeth, lifting his head and peering up just in time to see another searing white snake hissing through the air towards him. Grunting, the older of the two kings was quick to plant his hands in the melting snow and dirt beneath him and kick his feet up, bringing with them a wave of ink. The magic ichor of his soul splashed right into the venomous whip Gatherer was lashing at him, sending mist blasting out from the extinguishing of the snake and the vaporizing of the ink.
In the cover of this inky black mist Future flipped back up onto his feet, digging his heels into the earth to stop his sliding and throwing both his hands forward. With this command the ground at his sides blasted open, twin erasers barreling through the smoke and out towards where Future had last seen The Gatherer. And those pencil pillars blasted the smoke apart just in time for Future to spot The Balor King jumping high into the air, letting those erasers fly by beneath him.
Future watched Gatherer launch high, and when he spotted electricity crackling around his blackened finger tips he figured he was in for a lightning shower. But before Future could figure out what plastic utensil he wanted to try to block a lightning bolt with this time, a beam of violet fire exploded up from across the plain that they battled on, and both kings turned their heads to see that Grillby had risen. In a rage the bartender flared, holding both hands up and launching a concentrated wave of purple up at The Gatherer.
Gatherer clenched his hands into fists then, sucked in a chestful of air when he spotted that laser firing up towards him. Through his shirt Future could spot a searing orange light shining. It crept hastily up the throat of The Balor King, until Gatherer's mouth snapped open and he spat up his own laser to contest Grillby's. A beam of orange heat crashed out past his fangs and met Grillby's heat wave half way, the two blasts colliding in a brutal flare of light that forced Future to throw up an arm and shield his eyes.
Snow melting to water and then to mist all around him, Grillby planted his feet and struggled with all his might against the firepower The Balor King rained down upon him. But Gatherer was mighty, more powerful than Grillby or any monster that the bartender knew. Despite all his struggling, Grillby's wave of flames was hastily shoving back down towards him, unable to fight the flaming breath of a king. He was losing this beam struggle, and he hadn't thought far enough ahead to have a plan B.
Luckily, he didn't need one. From the sky above an eraser plummeted, and Gatherer was so preoccupied trying to blast Grillby into oblivion that he didn't notice until it was upon him. The pencil pillar crashed into The Balor King's back and shoved him right out of that beam struggle, his jaws snapping shut and freeing Grillby from the weight of his power. The screaming light of that beam struggle dissipated, and Grillby dropped to one knee at the same instant that Gatherer was planted into the ground.
With a brutal crash the Balor King was Balor Buried beneath the weight of that massive pencil, snow and dirt alike exploding up around the impact. Future didn't derive too much joy from squishing Xander like a bug, instead taking a moment to glance over at the kneeling bartender. Black smoke rose from Grillby's body and his purple flames had dulled, but despite his exhaustion he still managed to flash Future a thumbs up. Future smiled a little at that, and he thought Grillby might have bothered to smile back. But it was a little hard to read expressions on a fire.
CRACK!
Future whipped his head back to the pencil he'd used to plant Gatherer in the Snowdin permafrost, and though he wasn't happy about it he couldn't say he was surprised to see those snakes coiling up from beneath the eraser. The searing white serpents coiled hastily around the wood of that massive pencil, igniting it with their scales and cracking it with an anaconda grip. Flames exploded through the cracks that formed, and within seconds that pencil pillar was crumbling to ash and massive charcoaled chunks, removing the weight from the king that eraser laid upon.
Future threw up one arm to shield his eyes as those massive chunks of burning wood hit the dirt, sending a tidal wave of snow and frosty dust spraying outward with their impact. The wave of stinging ice burned as its thousand grains crashed into the exposed skin of Future's arm, but still he winced and tried to peer through the whipping winds. He was certain a counter attack was coming, so when he saw that crackling purple electricity in the shifting plume he was quick to beat his wings and fire into the air overhead.
And The King Over The Mountain was certain he had made the right move as he watched a bolt of lightning blast through the space where he'd just been standing. He was, until he realized that hadn't been the only electric blast - it was one of five that shot across the ground. One for each of the fingers on one of Xander's hands. And while the gears turned in his head, and he realized he'd jumped right up into a trap, he lifted his head to spot a sixth bolt of lightning barreling up towards him. The bolts that shot across the ground were just to get him to jump out of the dust and into the open air.
With a horrific crash that electricity struck Future. Made his spine jolt, forced an agonized roar out of him. His wings straightened out while all of his muscles tensed and locked, his entire body alight with the crackling purple of Gatherer's lightning. It was only a split second, but it felt like hours to Future. The front of his shirt blasted away and a bubbling black mass of scorched flesh on his chest, the king plummeted back down to earth. He landed flat on his back, wings splattering to a steaming ink mess while he laid in the dirt and twitched. Pain ripped through his body and his senses struggled to report anything back to his brain with that electricity frying his system. So he just laid there in his twitching paralysis, eyes rolled back in his head while the steam of his scorched flesh rose side by side with the scarlet steam of his DETERMINATION.
"A nothing king and a petty fry cook..." The Gatherer's voice reigned powerful over the settling smog, and a still kneeling Grillby looked with wide eyes from the electrocuted Angel to the Balor King sauntering out of dissipating mist. Purple sparks still crackling around them, Gatherer slowly lowered the two fingers that he'd raised to blast Future out of the sky. Scowling as he brushed dirt off his shoulder, he continued. "Your worlds are small. You could never understand what I hope to achieve."
Grillby suddenly blasted forward from his kneeling position, a roaring violet flame to challenge The Gatherer. But the king was unphased, staring down the fire elemental barreling closer on fiery jet streams. Propelled by the flames exploding out of his back, Grillby cocked back one burning fist. Unfazed, The Gatherer tilted his head and let that punch sail over his shoulder, maintaining chilling eye contact with the fry cook while he effortlessly dodged his punch. A last ditch effort, Grillby just didn't know it yet.
Gatherer's hands shot up, one wrapping around the flaming wrist of the fire elemental while the other planted on his chest. Spinning on his heel, he dragged Grillby with him, crashing him into the permafrosted dirt and pinning him there. He grinned down at the flaming fry cook, didn't even flinch as Grillby lifted his free hand right up to his face and blasted him with those weak flames. Gatherer had him now and he knew it - Elementals were slippery, but once one had ahold of their core they became helpless. In any other situation Grillby would have simply made his body intangible flames and wriggled away, but with Gatherer's hand planted on the living flame's chest and right above his core he was certain Grillby wouldn't dare make his body untouchable now, for fear of him grabbing that molten rock with his bare hand.
Sneering into the violet flames blasting across his face, The Balor King was unphased by Grillby's power. It did not burn his skin, did not hurt Gatherer as he released Grillby's wrist. Instead, he pulled his other hand back away from him and opened his palm. Suddenly, the fires Grillby was desperately producing began pulling away from the elemental chef, instead being sucked in multiple streams to Gatherer's open palm, where they were instantly dissipating. And when those fires were no longer covering his face, and Grillby could see the merciless smile and wicked glint in Gatherer's eyes, he snarled down at him. "All fire is mine to command, even yours! And if I want to put you out you can't stop me!"
On the ground a few yards away Future struggled to move. He laid there and watched as Gatherer sucked away the flames of Grillby's body, slowly but surely. He tried to climb, attempted to force his body to stand, but foreign electricity still ran wild in his nervous system. It was all he could do to reach out one arm, fingers twitching and trembling while he watched Grillby writhe and under The Gatherer's subjugation. He managed to choke out, "X-Xander..! Stop..!"
"This is what happens when you oppose me!" The Gatherer shouted, his malevolent red eyes darting over towards where Future lay paralyzed. Grillby's hands grabbed weakly at his face and neck, tried frantically to push him away while he was strangled of his heat. This defiance did nothing but further infuriate Gatherer, who's hand was slowly pushing down through the dying heat of Grillby's body and towards his core. "All of you! You all could have just joined me and evaded this fate but instead you wanted to be difficult!"
"It isn't my fault that you chose punishment!" Gatherer snarled, eyes darting back to Grillby while he felt his fingers hit something solid. A rounded stone, molten and bubbling with heat that he would be sure to snuff out. Snuff out like he was the rest of Grillby's body. Purple flames rose and streamed around The Gatherer, filtering out of Grillby's withering and smoking body and extinguishing in The Balor King's open palm. "It isn't my fault that you chose death!"
Finally, much to Gatherer's pleasure, Grillby's body disappeared. Nothing but his waiter uniform remained. That, and the boiling stone that Gatherer held in his palm. Grinning with wrath he stood, lifting that molten core up over his head as if he wanted to show the world the enemy he had conquered. And Future writhed and struggled, but couldn't so much as get a foot under himself as the steam of Grillby's core was rapidly torn away, the heat that kept the fire elemental alive being drained away by Gatherer's vampiric flame.
"You dare preach your virtue to me, Future?! Do you think I haven't heard what you've done?!" Gatherer snarled as he turned his head towards the king he'd defeated. Grillby's weak violet light reflected on his onyx horns, in his scarlet eyes. Eyes that he narrowed as he reeled in his rage, cooled it to hatred in the same way he was cooling Grillby's core into death. He spoke through a scowl, "Yes, I know all about you. You let your kingdom die, ran away and let your world crumble without you."
Future went silent. He laid there, body still steaming with agony while The Gatherer loomed over him with his dying friend in hand. It was all he could do to clench his jaw, narrow his eyes. He wanted to shout at him to keep his mouth shut, wanted to jump up and cold clock the mad emperor. But his body wouldn't move, and his soul wasn't healing him fast enough. So, through his locking jaw, all he managed was, "H-how... Do you, know... That..?!"
"I know everything." Gatherer claimed so boldly, with absolute certainty. He turned to face Future, one hand holding Grillby's core up in the cool Snowdin air while his other hand continued to draw in the life force of his fiery foe. Gatherer frowned, narrowed his eyes down at the crowned king of nothing. What a pitiful sight, a pathetic excuse for royalty. "I know that you are a coward with no concept of what it means to rule. I know that you're a failure as a Hacker, as an Angel, and as a King. And I know that you have no right to-..."
Gatherer paused there, mid sentence. Narrowed his eyes, and untensed the hand he'd been using to devour Grillby's lifeforce. He reached up with that hand, used it to push a button on some communicator in his ear. He glanced away from the king he was berating while he spoke, "Yes? What is it? This had better be-... WHAT?!"
Furiously Gatherer turned on his heel, thoughtlessly tossing aside the smoking core in his hand and letting it tumble uselessly into the snow. Future watched with brows furrowed and eyes exhausted as The Gatherer began pacing, running his now free hand up between his horns and through his hair. "One job! I gave you the one job you wanted and you fucked it up!"
Suddenly Gatherer winced, yanked his hand away from his communicator. Future could definitely hear someone shouting at him, but he couldn't make out the words. It all sounded muffled and bit crunched from where he laid, but he figured if he could hear it from a few yards away Gatherer had certainly heard it loud and clear. Grumbling, The Balor King pinched the bridge of his nose after that shouting died down. "... To Snowdin Town, now. We're moving into phase four. The Angel will not escape judgement."
"If you want something done right..." Gatherer muttered after removing his finger from the communicator in his ear, lowering and shaking his head. He took a second or two to contain himself, before lifting his head back up and looking to Future with a renewed smile. The fake one he always used to charm people; Future wondered if it always looked that sinister.
"It's a wonder you're still alive after catching a lightning bolt with your chest, Future." Gatherer's smile remained perfect as he looked from Future and to the steaming stone he'd tossed aside. Grillby's core was melting the snow around it, but it did not spark any new fire. Gatherer and Future both looked from the dying core to one another at once, and Gatherer remarked. "Hopefully your friend will share your luck."
With that, Gatherer turned his back. Faced the town in the distance, where that light show had originated from. And Future barely managed to flip his quaking body over, growling with agony as his scorched chest pushed into the dirt. Still, he dug shaky fingers into the snow, and tried his hardest to make his body move. "H-hey, Xander..."
"Hm?" Gatherer looked over his shoulder with a bored arch of his eyebrow. He did sneer a little at the sight of Future struggling to crawl in the frosty mud, but he didn't bother berating him about it. Wasn't worth his time anymore.
"T-take it from a... A failure like me..." Blood trickling down his bottom lip and burn marks on his chin and cheek, Future lifted his head and shot The Gatherer a glare. But, then he smirked, and let out a breathy chuckle that probably hurt to produce. His dim green eyes reflected red, "That reckless, selfish ambition..? It's gonna destroy you..."
"..." Gatherer didn't say anything, but his smirk did sink into a frown as he turned his head forward again. His fists clenched... And then he was off. A burst of fire propelled him into the sky, sent him launching off towards Snowdin Town. Towards the sight of the second Angel Anarchist Event.
And Future would have loved to have chased him. To be able to jump up like one of his younger counterparts. Maybe grow another pair'a wings or... Or fuse with his Chara. But those days were gone now, and it was all he could do to set his eyes on the core laying what felt like a hundred miles ahead of him. Gritting his teeth, he dug shaky fingers into the cold hard dirt. Then, he began the grueling process of dragging himself over to Fell!Grillby's core.
While he struggled to get his next arm up and over, Future started thinking about his own Grillby back home. His Alphys. The last two friends he had left. Sometimes, Future recalled as he dug his nails into the dirt and dragged his body, he would wonder if the two secretly resented him. Blamed him for the loss of everyone they held dear. Blamed him like he blamed himself. A thought for his therapist, he figured.
Then, while he felt his finger nails chip and bleed against the unforgiving ground, he remembered Melanie The KIND. She lost her mom a few days ago, Future recalled while his scorched chest dragged in the dirt. He'd been there, but he couldn't stop it. In fact, it happened while she was defending him, if he remembered right. He wondered if she protected him because of that thing she says - greenies, according to Melanie, were supposed to stick together.
Lost a mom, what a tragedy. Future had abandoned his own mother back when he was a kid, right after losing his Granny. Man, he remembered while his neck gave out and let his face fall into the dirt, losing someone you love hurts more than anything. Grillby was kinda like a father figure to Melanie, if Future was remembering right while he shoved his body forward and dragged his face across the snow. That was a big job, dads are important. The thought'a fatherhood sure had terrified Future once, but now he'd give anything to get back to a world where having a family was possible. But, he understood as a wayward rock cut through his bottom lip, those days were outta reach.
Now the real question, Future thought while he tilted his head and looked at the smoldering core he was crawling towards, was what kinda worthless piece'a shit would let a girl that sweet lose two parents in one week? He pondered, as he forced his aching body to crawl just a little closer, how much of a stupid fucking asshole someone would have to be to let something like that happen. He wondered, while he reached out his hand and begged, prayed, and hoped for the strength to do the right thing, how much of a total fucking waste of air, energy and space a man would be if he couldn't stop that from happening.
And while his bleeding hand wrapped around that molten core, and he felt it burning away his palm, he thought about how fucking pathetic someone would be to quit when they were this close, just because their hand was melting a little. As his free hand shook through the air and forced open a little portal to this timeline's Hotland, he thought someone would have to be a total failure not worthy of living if they couldn't just push a scorching hot stone through a rift in space and into some lava.
And when he heard a weird, thick splash and realized that he had successfully pitched Fell!Grillby's core into the healing lava of Hotland, he stopped thinking anything at all. With whatever strength was left in his body, Future flipped over onto his back. And he laid there, resting his melted left palm down in the snow while he gripped painfully at the red steaming scorch mark on his chest. He stared up at the frosty Snowdin ceiling, and he didn't bother wondering why his eyes were stinging or why his vision was blurry. He just smiled, tired and weak, while tears streamed down his face.
And Future hoped, as he laid there beaten down and broken in more ways than one... Future hoped that even though he wasn't strong enough to stop Xander, or Character, or Anthony, that even though he couldn't save the day and he couldn't ever get back Monster Kid or Frisk or Asriel or Chara... He hoped that he'd saved that one life. And he hoped that was enough.
Red light reflected in Eden's wide amethyst eyes. One moment she's huddled behind a tree and trying not to get her head blown off and the next the entire blizzard is getting blasted away by a PTSD inducing red wind. Now she sat there, staring with shrunken pupils into the crimson light of The Anarchist's soul. The color drew her thoughts back to Cliff's murder, how could it not? But the feeling... It was different. Just a flash of light, not the brutal tornado that The Angel's ascension brought down upon Gatherer's compound. It was a warning, Eden understood. Not the searing winds that melted metal and burned away hairs.
"You gonna start callin' that salvation, too?" Clover's voice called out from across the opening in the trees. Begrudgingly Eden turned her head, carefully peaked out from around the tree trunk she was sat against to see the cowboy standing right out in the open. He didn't look the least bit threatened, didn't even have his gun aimed at her. Instead he just frowned, tilting his head to one side while that red light faded out from the horizon. "The people'a this timeline're dyin' on your watch. Anarchy's been unleashed again cause'a you."
"Do you always ramble while you fight?" Eden asked in her monotone, clenching her right fist and sending a purple glow shining out between the cracks in her fingers. Clover looked down as the ground beneath him rumbled, hastily jumping back. A moment later pointed roots fired up from the snow that Clover had stood upon, jutting a few feet into the air. "I thought you were the one no nonsense member in Predator's club house."
"N' I thought yer little organization was about protectin', not gettin' revenge." Again, Clover didn't attack. Just stood there, revolver lowered while he stared over at the tree that Eden peaked out from behind. Stared with that stupid gold eye, making Eden scowl. Why wasn't he attacking? If he put half the effort into fighting that he did flapping his gums they might have been done here by now. Clover must not have felt as annoyed as she did, because he cracked a smile and scoffed like he thought something was funny. "... Y'know, we also call yer base a clubhouse sometimes."
"Didn't ask!" Eden suddenly leaned around the tree, pointing out her hand towards the cowboy. On this command, those roots that she'd tried to skewer him with curved down and stabbed again at Clover, only for him to jump up and perch himself on a tree branch. He pointed his revolver down at the roots, drew so quick that he was able to blast the three of 'em to smithereens before they could reach up at the branch he was perched in. Stepping out from behind her cover and clutching her notebook in one hand, Eden stung. "If I'd known you'd be so chatty, I would have taken that skeletal mutt and left you with Flowey."
"Ya just strike me as somebody who could use some wisdom." Clover smirked down at Eden, resting one hand against the tree beside him while he used the smoking barrel of his revolver to hold up the corner of his hat, flashing that golden eye beneath. "N' I think if ya didn't believe what I was sayin', you'd'a shut me up by now."
Eden growled under her breath, her jaw tightening while she glared up at Clover. Who was he to lecture her? Just a terrorist - he didn't understand the goals of The Gatherer's cause. He didn't understand the sins of The Angel, he isn't the one who lost a brother to that bastard! Suddenly, Clover felt bark creeping over his hand. He had to turn his head - it was his right hand on the tree and it was his right eye that was missing.
His eye widened when he realized the tree's wood was creeping up around his hand and his arm, and he hastily grabbed his right forearm with his left hand, moving to plant his foot on the tree and yank himself out of its grasp. Unfortunately before he could, the entire tree twisted. To his shock, it spun like a top, yanking him off his feet with its momentum and keeping a tight grip on his right arm all the while. Clover shouted as pain shot through his body from his elbow and shoulder - judging by the cracks and pops he heard through the wind whipping around his head, that was a break and a dislocation somewhere in his arm.
Suddenly, the wood of the tree released his hand and forearm, and Clover was sent sailing through the air over Eden's head. Dizzy and disoriented, he had no way of stopping himself from cracking back first against one of the massive pines that Snowdin was known to home. Body contorting around the tree, Clover heard a few more important sounding things break inside his body before he tumbled down through the branches and hit the ground on what was his good shoulder a few seconds prior. His hat had been pulled off his head by the force with which he was thrown, and it now lay useless in the snow a few feet ahead of him.
Eden didn't derive any pleasure from seeing Clover laying on his side and struggling to move. In fact, she tried not to think about what seeing such a thing made her feel. Instead, she kept a white knuckled grip on her notebook and slowly began to wander over towards the busted up cowboy. Something quick, she thought to herself. Just kill him instantly and get this over with.
His hat laying in the snow a few feet ahead of him, Clover winced up at Eden with his golden eye. His right arm was limp in the snow and bent where it shouldn't be, but his left was folded quietly behind his back. Eden must not have noticed - it appeared to him that she was trying not to look at him. Instead, she just marched forward, her brow twitching. She was trying to find her nerve, but she didn't know why it was so hard. She'd killed before, fed people to Flowey in her earlier years with Gatherer. It was black and white then, so easy to separate heretic from those who deserved salvation.
So what was the problem now? Clover The JUST, one of the founding two members of the Pirates that had consistently terrorized The Gatherer. One of the men associated with the murder of her brother... What did he know about salvation? The decision was easy, she was just overthinking it. Do what's right. Do what Xander would do.
Suddenly, Clover's left arm flung out from where he'd hidden it behind his back, and Eden flinched. She watched a green and black cylinder fly through the air and plant itself right at her feet, and for whatever reason her first instinct was not to kick it away or try to bury it with vines. It was as though she was stunned, perhaps that Clover had a counterattack planned or maybe just because some part of her did not believe he would ever strike out at her again. Whatever the reason, she first looked back to Clover with her shocked expression, only to see him burying his face in the snow and using his good hand to plug his left ear while he tried to bury his right ear in his limp right shoulder.
BANG!
Light exploded up from beneath Eden, burning her eyes and forcing them shut while the bang of the explosion pierced her ears, filling them with an incessant ringing. She cried out, but she didn't hear her own words. Reduced to three out of five senses, she wrapped a hand around her throbbing eyes while she stumbled backwards. Her calf hit something, and before she knew it she was tumbling to the ground and fumbling in the snow.
The next minute was terrifying. Fumbling and moving, trying to find cover in a dark and soundless world. Every hair on Eden's body stood on end - she was waiting the entire time to suddenly feel a bullet rip through her. But, nothing came. There was no death, instant or otherwise. And eventually, she was blinking her eyes open and the ringing was dying out in her ears. When her senses returned, Eden found herself huddled behind a tree stump, presumably the thing that tripped her. And after a quick pat down, she found that she was in fact still free of bullet holes.
After assuring herself she wasn't dead, Eden's mission objective returned to her mind. Hastily she looked left and right, scanned her surroundings only to find that the cowboy was missing. Shoving herself to her feet, Eden marched right over to the tree where he'd been and found nothing but a misshapen snow angel. A misshapen snow angel... Eden lifted her eyes from Clover's imprint in the snow and to the uneven and misshapen bootprints left in the snow, leading off through the trees. She frowned... And a trail.
That was that. Eden followed those steps through the snow, kept an anxious eye on the trees and the shadows. She knew her mission: eliminate pirates. If it wasn't Clover than it would be the skeleton that she heard Flowey battling in the distance, or maybe one of those Deltarune trio. Or, was it a duo now? She winced at the memory of Kris writhing within Xander's snakes, crying out as they burned. She had yet to see them again after that, had Xander murdered them? A slow death on a bed after horrible burns, what an awful way to die...
Eden stared down at the shaky steps she was trailing. It was a wonder Clover had been able to get away so fast, she was certain she'd broken a handful of his bones. He must've been in agony, that much was clear from his uneasy steps. Dragging a leg, struggling to carry his weight... Didn't matter. Just find him and kill him. Do what Xander would do.
She followed those tracks for what felt like forever. Wading through snow, wondering how on earth that cowboy had managed to hobble so far. But finally, after what could have been minutes but certainly felt like hours, she could see the edge of the treeline. Did he hope to find a friend to help him out in the open? It would be trouble if someone like The Predator were to spot Eden - she knew she couldn't handle that kind of firepower.
As Eden walked, she spotted flames flashing through the trees. For a brief moment she forgot those tracks, instead wandering right up to the edge of the treeline and peering out curiously. Fire - could it be Xander? Surely seeing him battle would push away that nasty doubt and reassure her of The Gatherer's cause. Then she would find and dispose of that cowboy in no time.
"X-Xander..! Stop..!"
"This is what happens when you oppose me! All of you! You all could have just joined me and evaded this fate but instead you wanted to be difficult!"
Eden's eyes went wide, her face went pale. She watched through the trees, mortified as Gatherer sucked the very life out of Fell!Grillby in front of a beaten and bloodied Future. She'd never heard his voice so angry, had never seen his smile twist in such a way... Why did he look like that? Had she really never questioned a man that she knew had horns behind his forehead? The fire, the serpents, the red glow of his eyes... The image of The Cherub appeared in Eden's mind, and she felt her heart drop into her stomach.
"It isn't my fault that you chose punishment! It isn't my fault that you chose death!"
There was a violent reaction somewhere in Eden. She wanted to scream, wanted to demand that he stop. And when she realized she couldn't, when it dawned on her that somewhere in her years of conditioning she'd learned to close her throat and turn off her own desires in favor of The Gatherer's will, she thought she was going to vomit. She spun around, shaking her head while she started to march away. She had forgotten the cowboy, forgotten The Angel that had to pay for his crimes. All she thought of was Cliff, and what he might think if he had seen what she had just seen. If he was here, he would have known what to do. But Eden wasn't as good as Cliff, and she wasn't strong enough to face this. So, she tried to run.
"Ya think that's the 'salvation' this here multi-verse needs?" Clover's voice stopped Eden dead. She'd hardly gotten three steps in when she saw him. Leaned against a tree, the one she walked right by when she stopped following those steps and started watching Gatherer. If she hadn't seen those wicked fires, she would have found him. Would she have killed him in The Gatherer's wretched name? Clover must have thought she would, because he was using his one working arm to point a revolver at her. With his hat having been left in the snow back in that clearing, she could see all of his face now. Short and messy brown hair fell around his forehead, drenched in sweat. With the gold JUSTICE of his left eye resting on her purple soul, Eden realized for the first time that Clover's right eye was covered by an eyepatch.
"Go on, try n' defend that." Clover stung bitterly, gesturing with his gun back behind Eden. A frown digging into his face, she could see the disgust in his eye. The direct offence to his soul that a man like Xander was, what he believed was injustice and what her whittled down conscious was agreeing with. "Explain to me how a man that abuses his power, derives joy from cruelty, and is willin' to sacrifice the joy n' the life'a anyone but himself to get what he wants is a good man?"
"Explain it ta me!" Clover snapped, leaning forward some despite the pain that it caused him. Eden didn't know how to answer, she just stared with those mortified eyes as the dying cowboy barked at her. His body was broken, and yet his knuckles were still white around the handle of his gun. His jaw tightened in spite of the blood that stained his teeth, his one eye stayed open. JUSTICE was blind, but he could see. "Why'da men like him get to hurt whoever they want?! Why is his life more valuable than yers er mine?!"
Eden's eyes glossed down to the notebook in her hand - it was shaking in her grasp. Some part of her said to kill him, and she told it to shut the fuck up. For an instant - what felt like the first time in her entire life - she let go of everything Xander had said. Didn't resist the words Clover barked at her, and instead accepted them. Let her own mind consider what Clover was saying, and didn't bother herself wondering what Xander would say. That doesn't matter. What am I going to say?
"I've seen genocide. I know what propaganda looks like n' I know that the people who want power are the people who ya should never give it to." Slowly, Clover lowered his gun. His expression relaxed some, rage fading in the wake of some wistful stare that Eden thought only a one eyed gunslinger could produce. And she watched, taken aback as Clover The JUST tossed his gun aside and left himself unarmed. "I ain't gonna kill if'n I don't believe in it. Whattaboud you?"
"..." Eden's eyes glossed to that gun in the snow, then back to her notebook. And she hesitated... Before the notebook disappeared from her grasp. Banished back into her inventory was her weapon, and she didn't know if that was the right thing to do. But, what she did know was that the pit in her stomach got a little smaller after she decided she wasn't gonna kill the cowboy. She looked back up to Clover, met the stare of his gold eye and pensively opened her mouth to speak.
"Eden. Eden, come in."
Xander's voice in her ear sparked fear in her heart, but she did not flinch. Her first thoughts told her that The Gatherer knew she'd been insubordinate, that he was omnipotent and had seen her lapse in faith. That punishment was on the horizon... Cold sweat breaking out on her forehead, she still slowly reached up with one calmly hand and pushed in the button on the communicator. She swallowed. "... Y-... Yes?"
"Get to Snowdin Town ASAP. We're moving into phase four of The Angel Eradication Plan."
"..." Eden's violet eyes narrowed at Clover's gun in the snow. She remembered the feel of her brother's blood in her hands, remembered how bad it hurt when The Angel punched her. How afraid she was when he strangled her. How weak and helpless she felt then... And as she peered into her distorted reflection in the silver barrel of that gun, she remembered that she promised herself to never be that helpless again. "... On my way."
Eden lowered her hand from her ear, communicator shutting off. Then she looked back to Clover, watched his eye narrow at the sight of her emotionless stare. Things were quiet for a few seconds - Eden didn't know what to say and Clover had said everything he wanted to. She decided to ask him something, had a feeling it was important. "... What happened to your eye?"
"... When I was eleven years old, my Pa gouged 'er out with'a busted beer bottle 'cause I was cryin' too much." Clover spoke up after a pause. Eden didn't react, and that made Clover smirk just a little. A weird, bittersweet sort of expression, and he didn't know why. Didn't bother thinkin' about it neither, instead reaching up and gently pulling up his eyepatch. He went on as he showed off the scarred over eyelid of his right eye, "I didn't wanna learn how'ta shoot - guns were loud n' scary, n' I knew they killt people. He tol' me with just one eye I'd have to live the rest'a my life like I was squintin' down the JUST side of'a barrel."
"... Hm." Eden could have threw out some words to describe a man like that, but didn't bother. Who was she to try and put a label on Clover's father? She wasn't the one who got her eye gouged out. The honor of mother fucking that man was Clover's, not hers. Not that it mattered to her as she summoned a crab apple in her hand, not hesitating to underhand toss it over to the one eyed. "Here."
Clover caught the crustacean shaped apple in his good hand after he finished flipping his eyepatch back down, before bringing it closer to his face to squint at it. And he smirked a little when he recognized the healing item she'd thrown him, looking back up to her. "Enough to make sure I don't go n' bite the dust but not enough to get me back 'n the fight."
"Maybe consider bringing your own rations next time, cowboy. I might not feel as generous then." Eden put a hand on her hip and returned his little smirk, even though she knew she didn't have much to smile about. Her closest friend was a maniac and her next mission was to run head first onto the sight of the second Angel Anarchist Event.
"Inventory's full'a weapons." Clover managed a weak shrug after taking a bite out of his healing item, speaking through a mouth half full. Anything that gave a particular "Take me out to the back of the shed" kind of ache disappeared, so Clover figured the apple wasn't poisoned. That was a plus, he thought as he watched Eden turn around and begin walking towards the treeline.
Curiously Clover watched with his accurate eye as Eden peered out to the scorched plain ahead. He looked past her, frowned at the sight laid out there. Though the distance was long and the angle wasn't great, Clover's eye could see Future, forcing his broken body to crawl through the muck towards Grillby's smoldering core. He winced at the sight, felt anxiety rise in his heart as he watched the broken king struggle in the dirt to try and save Melanie's father. And he prayed to whatever god there might've been that Future reach that boiling rock, that Melanie not have to suffer another loss. C'mon, old man..! You can do it!
Eden stood there and stared. She was perplexed by this king, a man who wore a crown and yet wallowed in the filth to save another. Was that what it might mean to rule, Eden pondered. Was power granted not for the individual it was given to, but instead for the people who gave them that power? Was a king meant to service the kingdom at any cost, and not the other way around? In that moment Eden wanted to help, was certain it was the right thing to do. But, before she could lift an arm, before she could summon a vine and nudge that core quietly into Future's hand, the King Over The Mountain shoved himself forward and grabbed it himself. So bold was he that he did not appear to notice the way that stone melted his skin, he did not smell the stink of his own flesh scorching away. Instead, he focused on creating a portal to what Eden assumed was salvation, and he shoved Grillby's core right through it.
"... We ain't as bad as ya think we are." Clover's voice once again caught Eden's attention, and she turned her head to peer over her shoulder at him. He'd finished that apple; she figured he probably had enough strength to crawl over to his gun when she wasn't looking, but he hadn't. He was still just sitting there against that tree, like she hadn't used a tree to almost kill him earlier. "Me, Predator, the old man, even The Angel. We all got people that we're just tryna protect from men like Gatherer."
"... Yeah, well." Eden looked forward again, let her violet eyes focus on the cataclysm across the cavern. She could just barely hear the noise, could feel the ground rumble under her feet with the force of Anarchy and Angel's wills. The collision of two beings with unfathomable power... Her hand tightened into a fist while a flare of DETERMINED red light shined from Snowdin Town, reflecting in her eyes. "My brother was just trying to protect me, and that bastard Angel murdered him."
"N' if yer plan goes through, the people that love Angel are gonna be sayin' the same thing about you." Clover's words made Eden flinch. Her eyes widened some - she hoped her angry face didn't look anything like Xander's, but it felt just as dirty on her face as his looked in her eyes. So she didn't look back at Clover, struggled instead to push down her indignation. It was the first time her "My brother is dead" card hadn't gotten the response she wanted. Clover went on, "Killers kill killers 'til everybody's dead. Hate's a cycle, and its up'ta you to stop it."
"..." Eden's expression relaxed, and her eyes glossed down to the snow at her feet. She was reminded in that moment of that story Hacker told her, about his grandmother and the man that murdered her. It hadn't dawned on her at the time, but The Hacker and The Angel were in fact the same person. At least, they were until they made it to this world. 'Killers kill killers 'til everybody's dead'... Suddenly, a timeline had effortlessly put itself together in her head. Was she really standing here, sans a brother and ready to murder another human being, because in a different age some dickhead had murdered an old lady? And if she murdered The Angel, would there some day be a poor girl who never knew Cliff or The Angel trying to kill her too? Killers kill killers 'til everybody's dead...
"If my Granny saw the man I am now, she'd be disgusted... But, I think if Cliff saw you, he'd be proud."
"... Well?" Clover spoke, kinda felt like he had to. Eden hadn't said a word, but she was still standing there. Girl kept tryin' to convince him she was a robot with her blank expression and monotone voice, and now she must have been going through some kinda reboot. "What're ya thinkin' about?"
Eden finally lifted her head and once more peered over at the distant, smoldering town. A bolt of red lightning crashed, she heard its thunder boom while its red reflected in her eyes. She didn't react, her expression was molded in stone. But, at her side, her fist tightened. It crackled with purple and, very briefly... Orange. A spark of courage, a BRAVE light in a soul that knew only how to PERSERVER tragedy, not prevent it. With her other hand Eden reached up and touched the bandanna around her neck, and she answered.
"... Prosperity."
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