We dropped on instinct, hiding behind the bushes. Despite the fact the call came from relatively far away, it was still enough to scare us senseless. Peaking over the ice encrusted leaves, I caught glimpse of Fell Papyrus stomping down the snowy trail. My eyes followed his path and ended on Cherry's sentry station, where he still slept, oblivious to the nearing danger. Ink and Dream saw what I saw and made the same connections.

"For Blue's sake, I hope he doesn't get dusted," Ink whispered. Dream frowned, but didn't say anything in Cherry's defense.

"is blue truly his only friend among you guys?" I asked. "is cherry really all that bad?" Ink frowned too, now, and murmured—

"He punched me in the face once…"

With that lovely explanation out of the way, Papyrus neared. We went silent as we watched him stalk right up to the station, silently fuming at Cherry, who was somehow still sound asleep. heh, I thought to myself, the walk in the snow must have cooled his temper. But the silence only lasted a few seconds as Papyrus clenched his fists tightly at his side, leaned forward, slammed his boot into the ground, and roared—

"SANS!"

Cherry jumped about a foot and let out a startled shriek. He jerked back in surprise, a little too far, and tumbled right out of his seat. The fall was emphasized by a dull thud in the snow. He stumbled to his feet.

Thanks to my vantage point, I could see Cherry relatively well. His eye lights were red, just like his brother's, the left currently glowing extra bright, likely due to the soul-stopping scare a moment ago. His faltering smile was jagged, a single gold tooth standing out from the rest. A scarlet tee-shirt was beneath the black jacket I had observed earlier. The beige fluff on the hood was about as spiked as his nerves.

"heya b-boss… what's up?" Cherry stammered, evidently fearful.

"WHAT IS UP? WHAT IS UP!? I'LL TELL YOU WHAT IS UP, SANS. I JUST GOT WORD FROM UNDYNE THAT YOU HAVEN'T SHOWN UP AT YOUR POST IN HOTLANDS FOR TWO WHOLE DAYS!" Papyrus yelled furiously. If it was possible for a skeleton to pale, I was sure that's what Cherry would be doing. He tried to take a casual step back, but almost stumbled.

"w-what? nah, she's exaggerating. i was there… a few hours ago. she musta missed me," Cherry insisted. Papyrus let out a strangled sound of frustration and stalked around the side of the sentry station. Cherry scrambled the other way, desperate to keep away from his brother.

"DON'T LIE TO ME!" Papyrus growled. Unfortunately for Cherry, he tripped over the laces of his own tennis shoes and fell back into the snow. Papyrus snatched him by the jacket collar and yanked him up to eye level. "TELL ME THE TRUTH!"

"i was there, i was there! i swear it!" Cherry exclaimed.

"AND NOT JUST AT THAT TACKY HOT DOG STAND OF YOURS?" Papyrus challenged.

"n…no! i checked into my station first thing! promise!"

Papyrus glared daggers at Cherry for a few more seconds. After delivering a harsh flick upside the skull, he dropped the stressed Sans back to the ground.

"YOU LAZY TRASH BAG," Papyrus spat, "YOU'RE NOT WORTH THE DIRT YOU WALK ON." I couldn't tell due to the distance, but I sensed Cherry flinched at this.

"… i'm sorry bro, i'll try harder if that's what you really—" Papyrus suddenly whirled on him again.

"I TOLD YOU NOT TO CALL ME THAT!" Cherry definitely flinched.

"i'm sorry! it just slipped out, sorry… boss," he finished.

"BETTER," Papyrus said, then turned back towards the path and started stomping away.

"where you off to?" Cherry asked.

"HOME." At this, something changed in Cherry's demeanor, and he stood.

"in that case, maybe..." Papyrus glanced back; a disapproving frown lingered on his face. "…maybe i'll catch up on lost patrolling time," Cherry finished, stuffing his hands in his jacket pockets.

"DOESN'T MATTER TO ME WHAT YOU DO WITH YOUR FREE TIME," Papyrus snapped, then continued homeward. Once the footfalls faded, all was silent. Then, Cherry muttered—

"huh. didn't kill me. i'm okay." Shrugging slightly, he sighed. "live to dust another day."

It was at this point that Ink nudged me.

"Time to get out of here," he whispered, jerking his thumb over his shoulder at the portal Dream had opened up. I nodded and started after him. But, just as I took a step, inexplicably, I stopped. Glancing back, I saw that Cherry was still gazing down the path. He hadn't moved.

I felt… something. I don't know how to describe it. All I knew was that… I was supposed to do… well, something. Hesitantly, I turned back, no longer crouching. There was a tug at my soul. Slowly, lifting my left hand, I began reaching out. Ink noticed I was no longer following him and turned.

"Serif, no!" he whispered. "What are you doing?" I wanted to explain, but, didn't know myself. A blue glow engulfed my hand. Ink freaked out, hurrying towards me. "Don't ping him! He'll feel it!" I reached out… found his soul… "We can't—" Suddenly, right as I pinged Cherry, two things happened almost simultaneously. There was a flash of gold at the base of my vision, and a loud crackling sound as Ink tripped over a fallen log and face planted headlong into the twiggy bushes.

Cherry snapped to attention and whirled to the treeline. Eye flaming brightly and arm raised, he summoned a Gaster Blaster, which now awaited his command to fire. My soul froze over as our gazes met. For a long moment, we stared at each other. But then Cherry scanned the rest of the shadows, ignoring me entirely. Since Ink was in the bushes and Dream had ducked, I was the only one he could see. Or, should see.

After a minute, Cherry murmured something about dead trees dropping branches and seemed to reluctantly relax again. His left eye light dimmed back to normal, the blaster disappeared, and he returned to staring down the path.

Silence.

A backwards glance at the other skeles told me they could still see me. Ink had righted himself from the plant as carefully as if he was playing Jenga. Dream was once again peaking over the foliage. Both of them looked on in confusion, but as Dream's gaze shifted, his eyes widened in surprise. I followed his line of sight back to Cherry. And I saw it.

His soul was pinged, yes, and he didn't seem to notice, but that wasn't the surprising thing. The shocker was the sight of bruised blotches of shimmering gold hovering over the surface of his soul. Streaks of it glowed beneath his eyes; past tears. A few scattered scars.

This was like what had happened to me… right?

I glanced at my hand. The magic holding Cherry's soul was no longer blue. It was gold. And, further up my arm, the glow continued. I was completely covered in a gold haze. Somehow, I knew this was why he couldn't see me. I hesitated, but a feeling of concern in my soul compelled me a few steps forward, and I asked—

"are… are you okay?" I'm pretty sure Ink was withering inside, convinced I had a soon-to-be-granted death wish. But it seemed Cherry hadn't heard me. Then, right as I was sure he hadn't, he slowly sank to the snowy ground, pulled his knees to his chest and chin to knees, sighed and sadly murmured—

"who am i kidding. i'm not okay." At this, Dream gasped quietly. Hesitating once more, I slowly took a few steps forward; I was but a few inches from the edge of the shadows.

"what's wrong?" I asked, a tad bit louder this time. Cherry seemed to ponder for a moment.

"life's not fair," he announced. Evidently he believed he was just thinking out loud instead of holding a conversation.

"that's true," I agreed, smiling slightly, "but, surely it's a bit more specific than that," I encouraged, cautiously taking quiet steps towards him; my slippers didn't leave footprints behind me, let alone crunch in the snow.

"i wish…" Cherry frowned, as if he was only just now working this out. "i know it's 'kill or be killed' here, but… well, i guess i don't wanna live like…" he paused, thinking. "i wish paps wasn't so harsh on me? he typically forgets i exist until i screw something up… it'd be nice if he cared, at least a little, i think. i wish he was more my bro instead of my boss," he finally concluded.

I was right beside Cherry now. He still didn't sense my presence. Nervously, I waved my hand in front of his face. No reaction. he really can't see me. Upon this realization, after a moment of thought, I sat next to him in the snow, pointlessly watching the same path, staring down at the same snow.

"you care about papyrus?" I asked.

"i care about him," murmuring, Cherry affirmed. "i've cared about him—no, loved him from the day he was born, though, i never showed it very well. yet he hates me. it really sucks."

"well, maybe he doesn't hate you," I pointed out. "you said yourself you're not good at showing you actually care, maybe he's bad at it too."

A different expression grew in Cherry's face. A new realization was dawning on him. He lifted his gaze from the snow to the bridge in the distance.

"i suppose… it's possible he doesn't actually hate me. maybe he's just as bad at being a normal brother as i am." Cherry seemed to latch on to this hope for a moment, but then sagged again. "no, it's just stupid. how could i ever find out? ask him? no, that's so dumb, he'd see me as foolish or just dust me for being weak."

"you could try being kind first," I suggested. "then, you can see if he reciprocates or not. given enough time, he's bound to; after all, you two are family." Cherry blinked in surprise.

"well, i could try—" he went silent for a long time, then stood. Brushing the powdery snow from his clothes, he started down the path, and with a last murmur of "bro…", he jogged homewards. The snow beneath me crunched softly as the gold haze around me shimmered away.

It finally sank in. I got it. The gold energy that had once healed me, inspired me to hold on to hope—I now commanded it. And I could use it to heal others. Based on what I'd learned about the Alternate Universes, I knew that generally, most Sanses had lost all hope. They'd given up, just like I had. But, with what little power I had left, I had a chance to save someone else. This was my purpose. There was still Hope.