DoubleTale: Rewritten

by XWolf26

What if two humans were in the Underground at once? What if one human was DETERMINED to stop the other? What if they could both SAVE? What happens when an Unstoppable Force meets an Immovable Object? When a certain scientist pulls enough of himself together, he finally finds a way to stop the destruction of his world. (Undertale AU. Rewrite of DT.)

78. Chapter 78: The Enemy Of My Enemy

Thanks go to Zillowzest, Zack Frost, TiredWhiteMayge, guest, Wingah, Acoolnamme, 10burgers, 2Strong2SignIn, and sauceman95!

Alright, we're back! sorry the update took a month, life's been crazy. Holidays, birthdays, a lack of off days, tentative plans to become a pro wrestler, the new Pokemon game, and probably a few other excuses have all contributed in some way to keeping me away from my keyboard!

But, the good news is you guys are getting an update on a Monday! See, my schedule changed at work recently and now I work earlier in the day. So if I was gonna update tomorrow it would have either been at 9 AM before I went in to work or like 6 PM when I would be getting home from work. That's XWolf time, though. Not sure what timezones you goofy geese are in. I might change my update day in the future, but for now, expect the next update on Tuesday, March 1st!

Hope you guys like the chapter! It's a long one. :)

P.S. Have ya read DoubleScramble yet?

---

"U-uhh..." C'mon funny man, make the words. How does one talk a death god out of destroying their world, again? Cter guessed he'd never been particularly good at that - if he was, the little fucker crumpled and bleeding at his feet would have quit their shit years ago. Or, later today. Same thing. Regardless, Cter The Sentry's grin was shaking on his face, which was tingling like the rest of his body as his pores started releasing cold sweat. Those red eyes were fixated on him now, he had to do... Something! So, with limbs that felt like he was already dead and succumbing to rigor mortis, he lifted one hand and slowly waved at his old pal. "H-heya, Anny! Funny, seeing you here..!"

"Funny, huh? You got a weird sense'a humor, knock off." Anarchy's grin slipped back into that cruel smirk. His worms continued to move slow behind him, wriggling over one another and giggling quietly while their albino master began taking steps forward. Snow crunched under his feet, but it wasn't melting yet. The heat and pressure of his soul hadn't been released, Anarchy hadn't broken a sweat beating Frisk to what Cter was sure they were wishing was death. Frisk, who was and is the most powerful person in the timeline. Think faster, funny pen man. The entire existence you know depends on it. "Guess you n' Frisk weren't close."

"Eh, they're kind of a pain in my ass." Cter shrugged, fought the many primal urges to take a step back every time Anarchy took a step forward. He glanced briefly down at the misguided child at his feet, who managed to peak open one scarlet eye. They were so pathetic, looking up at him with fear and confusion. Did they think him and Anarchy were in kahoots? Cter almost hoped they did. He wished this was some plot, that him and The Anarchist were on the same side and that he'd just called up an old Fortune City Friendo to deal with his time looping brat problem. But that wasn't the case, and he'd burned the Anthony friendship bridge back before his balls dropped. He pretended he didn't know that though, "You actually did me a favor, clobberin' the kid. How about I take you out for lunch to thank ya? There's this great diner in Snowdin, we can catch up-"

"Sorry, but I've already got a date." Anarchy's fangs gleamed in his smile. He tilted his head, the shadows dripped over his face like some vile liquid that only a Killer knew how to breathe. He waved that crowbar with all his movements, reminded Cter of the vile object that he'd spent nine years trying to forget. "Just gotta make enough ruckus to get his attention."

Cter tried to swallow, but his mouth was dry. He had to say, of all the things he saw himself getting involved with, he hadn't imagined the most intense blood feud since The Rock and Stone Cold would be something he'd get dragged into. His brain strangled itself with details - even a bumpkin like DS Cter knew there was only one man Anarchy wanted to see, and that also happened to be the only man with any chance of stopping the destruction of his home. Words creaked up his dry throat like they were lined with sandpaper, "Ruckus, meaning-"

"The death of you and all your pals, yup." Anarchy assured casually. He nodded his head like he was talking about something mundane - made it clear enough that the lives of this timeline were meaningless to him. But Cter understood that already, and when Anarchy suddenly jerked his body and pointed his crowbar forward, he was as ready as he was going to be.

From the Ruins door shadows lurched. Worms exploded over Anarchy's body, raced out around him and bolted out towards their first victim in years. Gnashing their teeth and bellowing with their wicked laughter, the high and low pitches of The Dark's giggling might have been enough to paralyze Cter, was he not the man who shot The Dark's last master in the head. Instead, the Judge's spring loaded body moved. He yanked his arm up in a quick, jerking motion, and on his command the earth split apart between himself and the cackling doom that wished to crunch his bones and drink his blood. Snow exploded into the air, a white mist around the pens that shot a few dozen yards into the sky between The Judge and The Anarchist. The sharpened points of those pens shredded through the bodies of the worms that had been too quick for their own good, before the wall of writing utensils groaned and shifted under the weight of the rest of the hungry horde.

Not wasting a second the Judge dropped to one knee, planting his hand on the beaten and broken Frisk at his feet. With a pop! he had disappeared, reappearing a few hundred feet further down the path in the same position and with the brat he'd saved. Dazed and confused, Frisk's bloodshot red eye stared up at him, swollen and only able to open half way. And Cter's brows furrowed with disdain at the sight of them - what he'd told Anarchy was true, he wanted the kid dead after everything they had done. But the enemy was Anarchy and the enemy of Cter's enemy was Frisk. So, he scooped the kid up in his arms, and he didn't give a shit about the pain his hasty movements caused them. "Point me towards a SAVE point. Now!"

Frisk tried to say something, but that just resulted in them coughing up a mouthful of blood onto Cter's chest. Anarchy had crushed their larynx when they tried to ACT - the real shock to them was that he managed to do it without crushing their windpipe. Frisk thought he might have known a thing or two about murdering. Regardless of their suffering or their complex feelings towards the man now holding their shattered body in his arms, Frisk turned their head towards the box by the path. They lifted the one arm that was responsive to point towards the space directly beside the box, and without another word Cter sprinted right towards it.

He wasn't sure if he was in the right spot, but before he could ask any questions, Frisk gasped and wriggled with life. Wounds instantly healed, bones immediately fixed and body un-shattered, it was the human's first instinct to shove themself out of Cter's arms and hit the snow. The Judge wasn't exactly happy to see them in good health, but he took a step back and kept up his permanent grin regardless as they slapped the air again - presumably saving a second time so a reload wouldn't land them back in his arms. Then, they turned their frantic, wide eyed stare back to him. "Who the fuck was that?!"

"No time to explain. The gist is that he's stronger than everyone in this timeline combined including the both of us and that we're all fucked." Cter gave a pretty soul deadening answer - it only increased Frisk's panic. Cter didn't care about that though; reaching out and grabbing them by the wrist, he had teleported the two of them to the center of the path before Frisk could object. And the moment the both of them were staring back down the one way trail to mutually assured destruction, Frisk snarled and glared up at him, yanking their wrist out of his hand.

"Then why are we standing here?!" Frisk inquired furiously. Cter could see the cold sweat on their forehead, hear the panic in their voice. They were afraid, because they were a chicken shit. But, Cter understood. After all, his legs were shaking too. Or was the ground rumbling? Didn't matter, Cter assured himself. Focus on the plan, you can't fail here. Not again. Frisk was not as supportive, now grabbing Cter's wrist and shaking it as they watched those slithering worms race across the frozen earth, kicking up clouds of snow in their wake. They were fast - they'd be right in their face in seconds! "Get us out of here!"

Snarling, Cter didn't bother appeasing Frisk and meeting their demands. Instead, he widened his stance some, throwing his free hand out to his side. In an instant, the sky behind him ignited with light. Row after row of flaming dragon skulls took shape in the air, and with embers crackling in their eye sockets each of them released an explosive wave of fire. Searing heat blasted down from the molten maws of Cter's Grillby Guns, racing down to meet those cackling worms with a fiery doom and engulfing them in the orange light of The Judge's magic.

"Listen you little shit! I hate you and you hate me but the only way we both get out of this alive is if we buy time!" Cter snapped, turning his head towards Frisk while he yanked his wrist out of their grip. Ink was already dripping down from his sleeves, running over his hands and preparing for any kind of strike. Both of them were switching every few seconds between glaring at one another and watching the smoke and mist ahead for any signs of a worm horde. "I don't know how long it's gonna take, but there's somebody who can fight this guy! And if we waste enough time he's bound to get here!"

"Are you talking about the guy this freak was fighting on that screen all those RESETs back?" Frisk arched an incredulous brow up at Cter, facing forward to make sure they'd see any motion in their peripheral. And even though they questioned his logic, they summoned their Busted Gun in their hand regardless. Running wouldn't get them far enough anyway. "Don't wanna be a dick, but didn't that guy get his ass kicked too?"

"He's got a better shot at this than you n' me!" Cter had to stop himself from punching Frisk in the head at the line - it was a good thing a figure in the fog caught his attention. Both Cter and Frisk looked forward instantly just to see one shadow wander through the scorched and melted earth Cter's Grillby Guns had left. Cter exhaled with exasperation, "Ah shit..."

Anarchy didn't say a word - didn't have to. He just wandered through the shifting smoke, one hand in his pocket and the other hanging limp with a tight grip on his Inheritance. His scarlet eyes glowed with malevolence, and as a cold gust of wind blew some of his long ivory hair out of his face, his lips once more peeled back to reveal his fangs. An all powerful being with motives beyond this simple timeline's understanding. An all powerful being who was cruel.

"... Any chance you can still do that freaky skeleton thing you did last timeline?" Cter asked out of the corner of his mouth. His eyes never left Anarchy's - that red stare was paralyzing, and he was certain Chaos Incarnate was fast. Fact was, he was playing with the both of them for now. He was waiting for The Angel just as much as they were.

"No idea. It's not like I can just flip it on and off like a switch." Frisk lowered their stance, silently wished they had a knife. Then again, they weren't too keen on getting close to this guy. They glanced over to Cter briefly, "What about you?"

"Yeah, I'm in a similar boat." If Cter remembered how to make wings shoot out of his back and give himself a massive stat boost, he would've done it the moment Anarchy stepped out of the Ruins. But, "if"s wouldn't help him now. He wasn't sure there was much that would. Anarchy was taking more steps forward, there was no time left for talk. Cter's plastic grin waned as his exasperated eyes narrowed, "Y'know, I didn't think we'd ever die fighting side by side."

"I didn't think I would ever die." Frisk answered dryly, succeeding in making Cter scoff with amusement. They lowered their stance, planted one hand on the ground and got ready to move while their DETERMINATION glimmered in the barrel of their broken revolver. "So this is a bummer."

Anarchy took one step forward... And launched. With just one step, the earth beneath his foot shattered apart, permafrosted dirt flinging into the air as he exploded across the sands at remarkable speed. His eyes widened with manic glee, and he yanked back his crowbar while his giddy laughter exploded out of his throat. Angel might be watching, he thought. Gotta send a message!

*in his way.

Chapter 78: The Enemy Of My Enemy

Or: Is Just As Fucked As I Am!

---

Cter popped out of existence while Frisk jumped to the side, launching themself a few dozen feet to the right and landing just a few steps ahead of a steep drop off one of Snowdin's cliffs. They landed and skidded back on their heels, turning and watching with shaky resolve as Anarchy collided crowbar first with the ground they and Cter had just been standing, sending it exploding up around himself in a snow white and dirt brown dust cloud.

Not a second later the wicked laughter of a worm screamed from the smoke, and one of those vile invertebrates blasted out of destruction's mist jaws first. Frisk the anomaly raised their gun to blow a hole in the face of that giggling beast, when suddenly Cter appeared directly above it, crashing one heel into the top of its head! Ink fired from the bottom of his shoe, piercing whatever brain the creature had and pinning it to the earth.

Arms raised and sweatshirt lifting around him from the force of his impact, Cter's Judge eyes darted up to the dust before him, left eye alight with scarlet DETERMINATION. On either side of him several of those Grillby Guns rapidly manifested, heat lasers exploding past their jaws and slicing through the smoke. The moment his jacket had settled around him and those guns were firing, he stomped one foot down on the head of the dead creature he stood upon and behind him an eraser launched up at an angle under Frisk's feet, sending them flinging up overhead and above himself and the torching rays of his Grillby Guns.

It was a good thing he had, because he was quickly put on the defensive the moment The Anarchist darted out of the smoldering fog. Unscorched was his skin, a few burn marks now in his hoodie. In the blink of an eye he was swinging his crowbar at Cter's skull, who had to teleport back a step to be out of its range. This did not slow Anarchy, who continued to dart forward and rapidly swing his heavy Inheritance at The Judge, who's body blinked in and out of existence with rapid short range teleportation to keep his bones in tact. Smiling in the disappearing and reappearing face of the judge, Anarchy shouted over the noise of his own violence. "You got tricks knockoff - I'll give ya that!"

As his heels reached the ledge of that cliff, DS Cter disappeared, leaving Anarchy standing at the ledge alone. The Anarchist spun around on his heel just in time to catch one of Frisk's bullets with his skull - his head was thrown back as a hole was punched in his forehead, but his footing did not give and his body did not plummet back and down the hundred foot drop. So Cter, who had appeared standing beside Frisk in the scorched and smoking dirt that was frozen minutes ago, threw his arm forward and sent an eraser blasting out of the earth to shove Anarchy's body over the edge.

Unfortunately, Anarchy whipped his head right back down and flashed the both of them a grin that made them flinch. As the eraser approached him, he threw up one leg and planted a pump kick in the rubber of the pencil. This not only stopped the battering ram but shoved it back into the dirt, its wooden frame cracking in on itself and the frozen earth shattering up around it as it was reburied. Hole in his head already healed with only a few drops of blood trickling down his face, The Anarchist pointed his crowbar at the two of them, and his shadow exploded to life with more wicked worm maws.

"Shadowcery is gettin' old, Anny!" DS Cter shouted out as he threw up one hand, sending pens spiking up from the earth and shredding through the bodies of those worms. One of them was lifted upon the pen points, body impaled and maw hanging open in death over the edge of the spires. There was no pause, no moment where action was not taking place, because as soon as that beast was dead, a familiar albino dropped out of its wide open maw and plummeted down towards a stunned Judge.

"Then lets get back to the BASICS!" Anarchy shouted as he blasted his crowbar down into the skull of that knockoff. He felt Cter's head concave, watched blood and bone chunks explode out around his weapon of choice with his manic grin. Man, how long had it been since he'd killed a human? Red paint spat across his cheek, and Cter's body was flattened to the ground, leaving a scarlet soul floating over his corpse.

Frisk hardly had time to react, barely managing to recoil before Anarchy's ruby orbs darted to them. He spun on his heel, launched out one knee and blasted it into their sternum. This sent the anomaly flying back, but they didn't get far. Anarchy reached out, grabbed them by the ankle and spun. He smashed them right through the wall of pens Cter had erected moments before death, sending them flinging and tumbling through plastic, ink, and worm guts.

Painted red and black was Frisk by the time they'd tumbled to a stop, and they grit their teeth in agony as they tried to move. Got their hands under their body, but couldn't find the strength to push themself to their feet. His LOVE was so high, every time he struck them it felt like their life was draining away. By the time Frisk managed to lift their head, it was just in time to catch a drop of drool from the giddy worm looming over them right on their cheek. They exhaled shakily, glared up at the creature. "Don't even think abo-"

The worm lurched forward, snapped its jaws shut around their shoulders and completely enveloped their head. It threw its head around, shaking Frisk's body and sending blood spattering out across the snow before a final crunch made Frisk go limp. The worm pitched their now headless corpse aside, chomping giddily on the skull it had earned with crunches that sounded symphonic in the ears of its bloodthirsty kind, who were already swarming around the corpse it had tossed aside.

Anarchy furrowed his brows at the distinct sound of a soul shattering, and he watched light instantly overtake the world around him. Intrigued, his scarlet eyes examined the code that flowed through the void of white. It took a few seconds, but rapidly the world had reformed around him. Snow returned beneath his feet, trees at his sides. The damage he'd caused this world in the last minute or two was repaired as Frisk loaded their SAVE, but he was not set back to where he'd been standing when they hit their save. In fact, he still stood right where he'd been when Frisk was killed. This timeline could not send him back, his own blood still stained his forehead even though Cter's had disappeared from his cheek. He was not from here, and the warping of this world's time meant nothing to him.

Cter and Frisk were both standing once more where they had been when Frisk saved, just a few steps from where Anarchy stood now. And while Cter recoiled, no doubt not used to being ripped from and slapped back into this mortal coil, Frisk immediately looked to Anarchy and pointed their revolver at him. As The Anarchist flashed them a smile and lifted his foot to step towards them, Frisk grabbed Cter by the chest of his shirt, firing rapid fire red from the barrel of their Busted Gun while they shouted, "Teleport! Now-!"

Too late, Anarchy was upon them. With just one step he'd launched himself forward at lightning speed, and before Frisk knew it their diaphragm had been pierced by Anarchy's fist. Cter watched with wide eyes as they doubled over, red spewing out of their nostrils and past their lips as a pale fist painted red exploded out of their back. And as Chaos Incarnate whipped his arm out to his side and sent Frisk's dying body flipping and tumbling across the snow, Cter's brain did light speed math.

The RESET didn't move Anarchy - they did not affect him. That meant his stamina would not be restored by Frisk LOADing back, but The Judge wasn't dumb enough to think he, Frisk, or any unlucky soul in this timeline could chip anything off of Anarchy's unyielding power reserve. There was no tiring him out, so Cter didn't bother focusing on that information. Instead, as Anarchy reached out towards his face with the same blood soaked hand he'd just put through a child, Cter surmised that when Frisk LOADED, he would be standing right where he was now, which would be within murder distance of himself and Frisk. He could spawn camp the both of them, and The Judge wasn't keen on letting that happen.

So, everything moving in slow motion, DS Cter leaned his face forward into the hand reaching for him. He had mere seconds, Frisk was dying in the snow just a few yards behind Anarchy. Get Anarchy away from the SAVE Point, his own life was inconsequential. And the moment he felt that organ smeared hand shut its fingers around his face, he did all he could do. With a pop! Anarchy found himself standing back at the Ruins door, furrowing his brows with a little confusion at the instant change in scenery. Then, as dots connected in his head, a smile crossed his lips, and his scarlet eyes darted back to the man he was hoisting into the air by the face. "... You've got brains, knockoff. Too bad I gotta splatter 'em on the pavement."

"You'll have a harder time findin' pavement in Snowdin than ya will killin' me." DS Cter replied with a flash of his perpetual grin, stuffing his hands in his jean pockets like he wasn't dangling in the grip of the most dangerous man alive. Anarchy's hand was planted on the upper half of his face, covering his eyes and smearing a bloody palm into his forehead, red dripped fingers tangled in his hair. The Judge didn't complain though, bending one knee like he was leaning against a wall.

"..." Anarchy's smile cracked deeper into the flesh of his cheeks, before his hand released DS Cter. Anarchy yanked his crowbar back while The Judge dropped down towards the ground, his scarlet eyes widening with bloodthirsty glee when they met the startled stare of a man who had certainly expected him to just crush his head in his hand. But, just as he swung the cruelty of his crowbar at the familiar face this knockoff was wearing, the world was engulfed in light once more. Anarchy's Inheritance sliced through nothingness, code blurring by him as the world RESET itself. Right... He pondered as he straightened his back and let his arms fall limp to his sides. Smiley has to die before the brat.

And the moment the world returned and The Anarchist could see where he was standing again, he was launching forward. Low to the ground, he sprinted across the frozen earth, rapidly closed the distance between the Ruins door and where his victims had respawned. He could feel his heart starting to beat faster, his tongue tingled and begged to taste blood. Alive... This was how it felt to be alive. How long had it been since he'd felt this way? Since he felt his skin crawl and his bones ache to destroy? That crowbar fit perfect in his hand, just like it fit perfect in the skull of whoever he swung it at. And as the sky ignited over head, and beams of light raced down towards him, Anarchy recalled exactly who he was, and precisely why he was on this path in the first place.

He darted to the side, juking out a blast of flames from the maw of a Grillby Gun. The fires exploding behind him sent his long hair blasting forward and illuminated Anarchy briefly from behind, but he paid it no mind, lunging right over the pens that were starting to blast out of the earth in front of him. Beams of heat were raining from above now, The Anarchist darting between the flaming lasers while occasionally bashing through a spike of graphite from a mechanical pencil with his crowbar. Red bullets from Frisk's gun entered the fray, one darted across his shoulder and tore through his skin, which healed right behind it. The wound was closed before a single drop of blood was spilt.

Growling with frustration, DS Cter shoved his hands into the sleeves of their opposite arms. Then, just as Anarchy got himself to a ten yard distance, The Judge threw his arms out towards The Anarchist. Tendrils of ink exploded from his sleeves, razor thin strings attached to his finger tips and slicing across the snowy path. Anarchy jumped to keep the bottom string from detaching his feet, curving his body in air and narrowly passing through the space between two more of those razor wires. He landed on one hand, swinging his body forward and spring up into the air, up between three more strings raining down from above.

Cter threw both of his hands up towards Anarchy and those brutal wires followed suit, racing up around Chaos Incarnate from beneath. Anarchy had a simple solution though; clenching his fists and tensing his muscles, the eternal red of his soul appeared on his chest and released a shockwave of power from its infinite well. A short burst, the tip of the tip of the iceberg's tip, but it was enough. The wave of force shredded through those wires, sending them splattering to the snow that was then sent kicking up from the earth.

"Shit-!" The Judge skidded back on his heels, throwing his arms up to guard his eyes from the whipping winds and splattering ink and snow. With his burning left eye he peered up at the grinning albino plummeting towards him, and a wall of keys quickly began building itself between the two of them. But it was moving too slow, and as Anarchy yanked back that crowbar, Cter was hardly certain it would hold.

It was in that instant that Frisk jumped into frame. Launching up from a key they hijacked and having decided bullets didn't slow this Ghoul down, they upper cut Anarchy with the handle of their pistol as they came up from below him. Anarchy's head was thrown back, his long hair obscuring his powerful eyes and malevolent grin for a moment. Frisk knew it was hard to get this close to The Anarchist without dying - they'd learned the hard way. So, they kept pressing, swinging right back down and bashing that handle into his forehead, sending his body sinking deeper into the air while they ascended over him.

That gun spun in their hand, and Frisk was quick to point the barrel right into Anarchy's face. But, just before they pulled the trigger, one of those vicious red eyes locked on to Frisk from behind The Anarchist's ivory mane. Then, his jaws snapped forward, and Frisk watched appalled as his teeth snapped right through the metal of their gun! Anarchy's maw shredded the Busted Gun like Frisk had been aiming a well done steak at him, and as his hair parted around his face they could see exactly how funny he thought their mortified expression was.

"Oh fuck this!" Frisk stated with absolute certainty, horror in their eyes as they yanked back one fist to beat this rabid albino dog off of their gun. Before they could throw a punch, however, Anarchy yanked his head back and planted one foot in their chest, ripping their gun from their hand and booting them back through the air. Saliva spewed out of Frisk's mouth as Anarchy kicked the wind right out of them, and they launched right back towards the wall of keys Cter was finishing building.

Their body exploding through the key wall like it was a cardboard wall, Cter briefly considered catching Frisk and making an effort to stop their ninety mile per hour descent. But, then he remembered finding Chara's dead body in the snow, and instead just teleported away. Frisk hit the ground so hard they bounced, flipping and skidding through snow and frozen dirt. They tumbled a ways, before miraculously landing on their feet and one hand. They slipped back a few more yards, the icy dirt ripped up the palm of their hand but they didn't feel it.

"Hah... Hah..." Finally, their sliding came to a stop. On shaky feet, Frisk forced their back to straighten and stood from the crouched position they'd been in. They watched Anarchy down the path, wincing to see through vision that was blurred by what a doctor may have diagnosed as a concussion. They spat a mouthful of blood and a shard of one of their teeth onto the snow, and their eyes never left the smiling face of Chaos Incarnate as they spoke. "You're welcome to quit pouting any time now, Sans!"

*didn't think you'd want my help. didn't seem like you wanted to be pals anymore last time we talked.

"Yeah, having your body snatched kinda damages a partnership!" With their gun a chewed up mess of wood and metal that Anarchy spat to the side, Frisk had no choice but to summon their stick in the shredded skin of their dominant hand. Their blood dripped over the wood, but they tried not to think about it. The flimsily branch was the one thing standing between them and annihilation. "Listen, I don't wanna have this argument right now! We have bigger problems!"

*yeah, pasty cakes here really threw a wrench into my plans. the whole letting you use your body thing was kind of a strategic play to torture you more down the line, but then this guy came along and started torturing you in the here n' now.

*and i mean, don't get me wrong, i don't mind that, but-

"For fuck's sake - he's getting closer!" Frisk snapped at their text box, freezing sweat dribbling down their pounding forehead. They lowered their stance, gulped while they prepared to move. They weren't fast enough and they knew it. Weren't strong enough, either. Fact of the matter was, this freak was just playing with them. A tiger batting around a mouse, a Scorpion squeezing a worm in its pincer but not yet chopping it in half. "If we're gonna stand a chance, we have to fight him together!"

*we? together? oh, frisk...

Suddenly, Anarchy exploded forward. He launched towards them, crossed all that distance they thought they had in one massive step. And though Frisk thought he would bash into them, was certain he was going to punch another hole in them or beat their brains out their ear with that crowbar, instead... Anarchy stopped. Mere inches before hitting them, his feet dug into the ground. He came to a sudden stop, his momentum carrying through in a gust of wind that blew Frisk's hair back. They flinched, gasped and stared up at him with fear in their eyes. In that moment they were stricken with paralysis, the shadow of The Anarchist flooding over them.

*there is no 'we'. there is no 'together'.

*it's just me from now on.

*just sans.

Frisk roared, forced themself to move in spite of their fear. Crying out to try and convince themself there was even an ounce of bravery in their cowardly body, Frisk yanked back their stick and swung it right at Anarchy's smiling face. He didn't move, let the wood shatter across his face without so much as a blink. And he watched the light leave Frisk's eyes as their weapon broke against his body, grinned to show them every fang he had as they froze up yet again.

"W-... Wait-!" Frisk's pleading hardly registered to The Anarchist, who grabbed their still raised hand by the wrist. He stepped forward, hooked his leg behind both of theirs and easily swept their feet out from under them. He dropped to the ground right with them, planted his knee in their side and made them cry out painfully as they felt his weight press down on their rib cage. One arm trapped under their body, Anarchy held the other up to his curious eyes. Despite Frisk's desperate struggling, they could not wrench their arm out of his grip. "Lemme go..!"

"I've killed a lot of Frisk's. Did you know that?" Anarchy asked calmly, once more not listening to a word Frisk spoke before hand. He clutched his forearm and bicep around their forearm, keeping their arm trapped straight up while his free hand slowly and meticulously peeled their pinky finger out from their clenched fist. "It's a gruesome process - to kill somebody who can refuse death, you have to create a life that they don't want to live. You have to hurt them."

Frisk stifled a scream as Anarchy effortlessly bent their pinky tip backwards. With his thumb resting against the knuckle, he snapped the tip of their pinky back with his index finger. And Frisk growled and squirmed as his fingers moved just a little lower, thumb placing itself behind the main knuckle of their pinky finger and index finger once again slowly applying pressure. And Anarchy stared, open mouth and raised eyebrows as he curled that poor little finger back a second time, making Frisk beat their head against the snow with frustration. Anarchy paid them no mind, instead shutting his index finger and thumb around the base of their pinky, just beneath the two backwards folded knuckles. He frowned some as he snapped the finger to the side, and Frisk snarled indignantly through gritting teeth.

"You're thinking about how you can't let me grab another finger, right? Clenching your fist tighter, shaking your arm, trying to get away..." Frisk clenched their eyes shut as Anarchy spoke, tugging with all their might on their arm and clenching their fist as tight as possible. But, despite all their struggling, Anarchy still peeled their ring finger out from their trembling fist with deliberate slowness. "But you can't stop me. Not from getting ahold of your next finger, not from breaking it piece by piece. It's a good metaphor for what I'm going to do to you, I think."

"Tag." Anarchy's eyebrows rose some - who had been so bold to slap their hand on his shoulder? He turned his head, arched a brow up at the smiling face of The Judge. DS Cter grinned down at him, his free hand in his pocket. On the ground, Frisk wondered just how much of this that dickhead just watched and let happen. Cter tilted his head and winked an eye shut, "You're it."

Pop!

Anarchy and Cter both disappeared, and Frisk immediately flopped over onto their back. They didn't bother thinking about anything else, instead clutching their hand to their chest and grumbling a slew of curse words. They barely managed to wince their eyes open after a few moments of agonizing over their mutilated hand, looking into their torn palm and over their busted and backwards dangling pinky finger.

And as Frisk laid their, panting and gasping while they stared at their hand, something else came into focus. Slowly, their blurry vision looked past their hand and to the short skeleton standing over them. Sans smiled, his pupiless sockets making him look even more ghostly. Frisk's arms dropped to their sides, their teeth grit and they gulped as the now familiar feeling of not feeling their body washed over them.

*don't say i never did anything for ya. heheh.

---

Anarchy's eyes darted to and fro, examined his new surroundings. He felt a rush in his spine, some strange feeling of vertigo when he looked straight up. Or... Straight down? Above him, the cloudy Snowdin sky had been replaced by Snowdin itself. He could see the forest, watched the smoldering burn marks from Cter's blasters drip smoke down towards him. Up towards him?

"Now Anny I reckon you've fought in some screwy places before, but I'm confident you've never thrown hands on the roof of the Underground." Cter's familiar voice got Anarchy's attention, and he looked across the blackened stone surface he stood upon to see The Judge smiling over at him. DS Cter leaned his back against one of the many stalactites dangling from this massive cave ceiling, pointing one finger gun at The Anarchist. "And ya don't have to. That get lunch offer is still on the table."

"No no, fighting here sounds a lot more interesting than diner food." Anarchy smiled right back at DS Cter, throwing one arm to the side and sending his crowbar slipping out of his sleeve and into his hand. He took a step forward - gravity worked right enough here, he figured. He could still feel some pull from above, but his feet were grounded. He reckoned the Hacker before him could change that whenever he pleased, but that was fine. More fun to be had, a way to keep his impatient mind from thinking about the real Angel Anarchy wanted to see.

"Worth a shot..." DS Cter muttered with exasperation, though his grin did not wither. He stepped away from the stone he leaned against, took a deep breath and swallowed with a dry throat. Fighting Frisk in the Judgement Hall sounded nice right about now. He pondered briefly if they would have been less fucked had Anarchy showed up yesterday, when he was an Archangel and Frisk was an Archdemon. But, when Anarchy launched forward and shut the distance between the two of them in the blink of an eye, The Judge figured it didn't really matter. Pop!

Anarchy's crowbar swung through thin air, Cter having teleported away with the metal mere inches from his skin. Anthony skidded on his heels, spun around to quickly examine his surroundings. He felt the ceiling under his feet rumble then, and hastily backflipped to avoid what he figured would be some deadly writing utensil springing from beneath him. But, to The Anarchist's surprise, a pen exploded out from the earth he was about to land on instead of what had been rumbling. It exploded up towards him point first, but he fearlessly shattered it to shards of plastic with a swing of his Inheritance.

Ink exploded out of the shattered pen, splattered over Anarchy while he was suspended in air. That ink tightened to his skin, pulled his arms to his sides and connected to a whip of ink extending from a newly appeared Cter across the ceiling. The Judge hastily threw his arm to the side, ripping Anarchy through the air and sending him sailing towards one of the stone masses dangling from the Underground's ceiling. Anarchy threw his head back though, spinning himself and landing flat on his feet against the stalactite.

Hastily The Anarchist leaned forward, hooking his head and neck beneath the lasso of solid ink that connected him and his victim. Then, he threw his head back, and Cter's eyes widened as he was sent launching right towards Chaos Incarnate, pulled by the very rope of magic he had been throwing Anarchy with. Hastily he detached the ink from his arm, but he was still sailing towards doom. Anarchy cocked back one leg to blast a pump kick into the top of DS Cter's head and likely push his skull into his sternum with it, and The Judge yanked back one fist to clobber Anarchy with once he got into range.

Anarchy kicked at the wingless Angel that had managed to take flight, but with a quick pop! he was nowhere to be seen. At least, for a split second, before The Anarchist felt the fist Cter had yanked back blast into the back of his head. The Judge had teleported behind him at the last second, him momentum still carrying him through and sending his fist crashing right into Anarchy's brain stem. And though DS Cter felt a momentary spark of hope when he watched Anarchy's head snap forward from his fist, that spark was stomped out with one quick motion from Chaos Incarnate. Anthony spun, unphased by the brain rattling punch that had just blasted him and sinking his teeth right into The Judge's wrist.

Yanking Cter closer with the force of his jaws, Anarchy shredded right through the straight jacket of ink Cter had trapped him in. His right fist blasted outwards, crashing into Cter's ribcage and sending a vibration so intense through his body that it splintered and shattered several of his ribs. His entire body folded around that calloused fist, before momentum carried through, and The Judge was sent racing backwards through the air.

He flung plenty far, before the broad side of a stalactite caught him. He crashed through the rock, sent it exploding apart in pebbles and shards that rained down to the town below while he tumbled and skipped over the rough ceiling of the underground like a rock over water. After another moment or two of rolling, Cter finally managed to catch himself on his hands and knees. He slid across the brutal surface for another two or three feet, cutting open his palms and his knees before finally slowing to a stop. The moment that he did, he trembled, before vomiting a mouthful of crimson onto the floor that he was trying not to faceplant into. If he passed out now, gravity would go back to normal, and he'd drop like a penny off the Empire State Building. His eyes glossed to his left hand - wrist totally shredded and crushed by Anarchy's jaws, he couldn't move any of his fingers and felt blood soaking his sleeve.

"C'mon knockoff, that was a love tap!" Anarchy exclaimed as he walked across the skid mark Cter's body had left across the ceiling, throwing his arms up as he stepped in a small puddle of the blood he'd so easily spilled while he carelessly wandered closer. He could feel himself loosening up - had it really been two and a half years since he broke something? Muscle memory was hastily returning as his tongue ran over the blood on his teeth, and The Anarchist smiled while DS Cter barely managed to lift his head to look at him. "If ya can't handle this, how're ya gonna survive when I actually start to try?"

"Hah... Handle..." DS Cter managed to force his body up to its knees, kneeling there in the face of the storm looming ahead of him. Blood on his teeth and dribbling down his chin, he continued to grin at The Anarchist. He lifted his one working hand and gave Chaos Incarnate the finger, wincing and gasping for air through his smile. "Handle, these nuts in your mouth... Biiiiiitch..."

"..." Anarchy's eyes narrowed, but his smile widened. Really, he couldn't have picked a better punching bag to warm up his knuckles before Angel's reckoning. Being able to kill him over and over was an added bonus. With that in mind, he launched forward once more, yanking that crowbar back in hopes to bat this code warping point Dexter's head all the way to Hotland. But, as he raced across the ceiling, he felt gravity shift. Suddenly, the magic pull that kept him grounded to this upside down surface faded away, and his scarlet eyes widened as he began dropping away from the ceiling. On a downward arc The Anarchist dropped, falling just out of Cter's range. The Judge waved at him as he dropped right by him, having to look straight up to watch Anarchy's plummet. The two locked eyes in that moment, and while Anarchy was momentarily confused and angry... He smiled. Under his breath he muttered, "Clever nerd..."

DS Cter watched Anarchy plummet back to the snowy forest below, before clenching his eyes shut and dropping onto his side. He rolled over onto his back, staring straight down at the underground below. There was no worms racing up to meet him, confirming what Anarchy already said. He was going easy on DoubleScramble, just stretching his murder muscles. Killing time until he got bored. Cter narrowed his eyes bitterly while he lifted a flask in his spare hand, bringing it to his bloodied lips and starting to drink. While he did, he felt the pain in his wrist and his abdomen start to fade. Bones healed, skin regrew... Him n' Frisk were clowns at Anarchy's birthday party, just dancing and keeping him distracted and amused by any and all means while they waited for his big present to arrive.

---

Anarchy's hair was waving and flailing behind his head, air puffing out his cheeks while he grinned down at the rapidly approaching earth. It'd been awhile since he'd free-fell at terminal velocity, this was the life! And while he pondered whether or not he should go back to tormenting Frisk or jump back up to the ceiling and splatter Cter across it, he spotted an ivory spike launching up at him. Bone? Meh, didn't matter. With the quick slash of his crowbar he crushed the spike to shards, sending it flying out around him.

There was a sort of magic ping! that often rang out when projectiles manifested out of thin air, and Anarchy's scarlet eyes darted to and fro to spot the many pointed bones that suddenly appeared around him. He was allowed just a split second of pondering before those spikes darted towards him, and he was bashing them to smithereens. Flipping and flailing through the air to put his crowbar, fist, or foot through every gnarled bone that was heading his way. Soon enough a cloud of bone mist surrounded him, and he dropped out of it towards a patch of pointed ivory waiting for him on the ground below.

Anarchy yanked his crowbar up over his head and swung it straight down, blasting it through the spike right in the middle of this bone patch and sending a shockwave exploding up around himself from the force of the impact. Snow and dirt blasted into the sky, mixing with calcium dust and obscuring all around The Anarchist for a few seconds... Before a burning gust of DETERMINED wind exploded outwards from his soul, blasting away the smoke and revealing to Anarchy the one responsible for this new onslaught of attacks.

Standing across from the crater the Bastard Son stood in was The Archdemon. A child mutated into something inhuman, Frisk's body was lanky now and their skin was pale. Said pale skin seemed much tighter to their bones, matching the skeletal wings that spread from their shoulder blades. Those wings reached a wicked point at each end, bones barely webbed by what certainly looked to Anarchy like human skin. The Archdemon blinked their eyes, which looked more like the familiar darkened eye sockets with glowing pupils of a skeleton. In their left hand they held a wicked blade, curved and long. A Dagger carved of Bone.

"... Huh." Anarchy furrowed his brows, shoved one hand in his pocket while the other dangled with his crowbar tight in its grip. He wandered forward out of the crater he stood in, fearlessly getting a few steps closer to this winged abomination while he pondered its creation. Frowning, he gave The Archdemon some insight into what was on his mind. "Y'know, in the past twenty four hours I've had to deal with horny adult Frisk, petulant child Frisk, and now freaky necro Frisk."

"And I gotta say ugly, after seein' you? I kinda miss when I was just dealing with horny adult Frisk." Anarchy exhaled white mist in the Snowdin chill, his frown only carving deeper into his face. He flicked his crowbar out to his left, tilting his head to the right and letting a few strands of snow white hair dangle in front of his face. "Which is a haunting revelation in its own right."

"Oh, buddy... I got news for ya." The Archdemon winked one of those freaky blacked out eyes shut, holding their gnarled blade out to the side and lowering their stance like they were about to charge. Anarchy hardly seemed phased, reaching up with his spare hand and scratching at his beard with his index finger. That ugly thing before him spoke in its strange and oddly deepened voice, "There's only one of me."

"You're right ugly, there's only one Frisk!" Anarchy's lips curled up and peeled back in his grin. His tongue slipped through the space between his jaws and ran itself over his fangs, and his grip tightened around his Inheritance. He leaned his head forward, and shadows slithered over his cruel expression. "But it ain't you."

The Archdemon snarled at that, launching forward fearlessly - or, perhaps overconfidently - towards The Anarchist. They slashed viciously with their Bone Dagger, and that confidence did not wane as he blocked their blade with his crowbar. They leaned forward past where their weapon struggled against the unyielding wall that was The Anarchist. With their face inches from Anarchy's, they spoke through the gritting teeth of their smile. "I'm not Frisk."

"Nobody," Anarchy suddenly shoved his crowbar forward, throwing The Archdemon back and sending them launching towards the tree line. They kept themself upright however, and their wings beat to launch them overhead. Anarchy jumped right up after them, not hesitating even as they pointed an open palm down towards him and sent more of those bone spikes launching his way. "Asked!"

Anarchy easily bashed through any bones that threatened to pierce him, but before he could reach the possessed child he was racing to strike down, they flapped their wings once more and flew up and out of his reach. Anarchy reached regardless as gravity began to drag him down, pointing his free hand right up at the smug smirked demon child. Some of that smugness faded however when another one of those worms exploded up out of The Anarchist's sleeve, rapidly growing and rapidly ascended to catch The Archdemon in its jaws.

Archdemon slashed clear through the dome of that worm the moment it got close, splitting its ugly face vertically and sending it careening downward and away from them. But, the moment the worm took a nose dive, the slimy flesh on its back exploded open, and out from it jumped The Anarchist. The Archdemon recoiled, eyes going wide as they watched his open palm race towards their face. "How did he-?!"

Anarchy caught that twisted brat by the face, dragging them downward out of the sky with the help of the gravity they had tried to use against him just a moment ago. With a brutal crash he planted The Archdemon in the dirt, head first. Snow kicked up around them, and just as Anarchy was starting to crush their skull between his fingers, more of those bones blasted up in a tent around The Archdemon, and Anarchy quickly jumped back off of them to keep from being skewered. As he landed a few feet back and watched those bones interlock over that brat, he smiled cruelly. He didn't have to dodge that, he could have let those bones rip through his body and crushed that ugly imitation's head in his palm. But that didn't seem like fun - if these knockoffs wanted to get him bleeding, they were gonna have to earn it!

Those bones were sucked back beneath the earth, and The Archdemon flipped backwards and up onto their feet. One hand on the ground and the other holding their knife out to the side, their wings spread wide before beating down and launching them again head first into danger. Anarchy cackled as he deflected their stab with his crowbar, not losing an inch of ground as the possessed Frisk began slashing and stabbing at him. Forehand, backhand, didn't matter. His arm moved faster than theirs and each of his swings packed far more brutal a punch. Whenever their knife darted towards him he batted it right back, and finally when they slashed furiously down at him, he swung his crowbar upwards.

Anarchy blasted his weapon into The Archdemon's, sending the Bone Dagger flinging upwards out of their hand, throwing their arm up and their whole body off balance. He capitalized instantly, reaching forward and snagging them by the collar of their shirt. He yanked them closer and bashed his skull right into theirs, making the lights go out in their blackened eyes while their forehead split open. He let go of them then, cocking back his crowbar and blasting them upside the head with it. The force of this strike sent The Archdemon flinging backwards through the air towards the tree line behind them. They crashed head and shoulders first through one of the pines, snapping it and plenty of their bones in two. Their momentum hadn't been stopped yet though, and they crashed through another few trees before finally coming to a stop in a pile of splintered wood, snow, and pine needles.

Anarchy smiled lovingly at the sight of them laying there, bleeding and steaming red to heal the brutal wounds he had inflicted. They'd die slower now in this form, that was good. Meant he could hit harder. But, while Anarchy was letting his mind wander to what limb he would yank off the Archdemon to beat them with, that Bone Dagger was plummeting down towards him from above. And with a pop! DS Cter appeared, grabbing the knife from the air before teleporting just above Anarchy. He dropped down onto him, stabbing right into the left side of Anarchy's collar bone and driving that blade clear into the heart of Chaos.

Anarchy's eyes went wide, blood spewing up and out from between his teeth and spraying out around the blade plunged into his shoulder and through the top of his heart. He smiled though, scarlet pouring out between his fangs while his red eyes darted back to get a look at the man now jumping back away from him. Without a moment's hesitation he spun on his heel, launching himself back and ramming his elbow right into Cter's chin, sending The Judge flinging further back at a much higher speed.

Cter flipped backwards, managing to land on his hands and the balls of his feet. Blood dripped past his lips and down his chin, likely from a split tooth or bit tongue. That strike to the head had left The Judge's brain fuzzy for a few seconds, blurry vision struggling to focus and shaky body struggling to keep its balance as he slid back to the ledge of the cliff behind him. He had to dig his toes and fingers with extra force into the snow and ice, but he stopped himself from tumbling over the cliff and plummeting downward. With his head so jumbled, he wasn't sure he'd be able to teleport. So, there was an extra layer of danger when Anarchy's shadow exploded out towards him in the snapping maw of one of those worms.

Ah shit..! One bloodied hand on the side of his head, DS Cter winced and tried to focus on the creature racing towards him. He extended one arm and hoped that dumbass thing would run itself into whatever half baked attack he was about to manage to get out of his sleeve. But, before ink or a pen or maybe a mechanical pencil could launch itself into the snapping jaws of that beast, there was a green and red flash. The Judge recoiled as he watched that vile invertebrate split vertically, its twin sides spilling to the left and right and sliding useless over the cliff behind him.

"Angel!" Chara crouched in the snow, knife still extended and dripping with the cold blood of that ugly annelid. They looked hastily over their shoulder at Cter, who seemed to finally be gathering his wits while they stood back to their full height. Keeping their knife pointed out towards The Anarchist, they demanded answers. "What the fuck is going on?!"

"Chara..?!" DS Cter's eyes widened at the sight of them, pupils disappearing into a mortified whiteness for a split second before popping back into existence. Hastily he stomped forward, spitting a mouthful of blood to the side before stepping up and putting an arm out in front of them. "Get out of here, now! It's too-!"

"Oh yeah I'll just leave you to die with these freaks!" Chara cut him off with heavy sarcasm, shoving his arm out of their way. Before he knew it, they were taking a step forward and putting an arm out in front of him instead. Straight ahead of them Anarchy stood disinterested. He reached up and grabbed the handle of the knife jammed in his collar, fearlessly yanking it out of his body without so much as a wince. Chara's eyebrows furrowed at this, pupils shrinking in fear and disbelief while they watched the stream of blood that sprayed out of Anarchy's neck rapidly disappear into a red steam. Just two or three seconds, and he was no longer bleeding. "What... Is he?"

"Essentially a walking apocalypse." DS Cter spoke while his flask appeared in hand. He stood spring loaded, body ready to act. He was so tense, in a way Chara had never seen him before. That goofy persona he'd had for years was gone now, they stood shoulder to shoulder with the real Cter. He sucked down a few gulps from his flask and whatever blood was in his mouth with it, and his chipped tooth and cut tongue healed from the magic within the drink. When he glanced over to them, Chara could see the stakes of this situation reflected in their friend's sunken in green eyes. "There's a lot to explain, but the basic run down is that he's way stronger than any of us and totally unkillable."

"And why is he here?!" Chara asked frantically, lowering their stance some. Their eyes darted between Cter and Anarchy, the latter of whom was tossing that Bone Dagger over his shoulder like a crushed water bottle or crumpled piece of paper. It stuck into the tree right beside The Archdemon, who was finally starting to get to their feet. "How do you know about him?!"

"He's... Sorta an old buddy'a mine. But I don't think he's here for me." Cter exhaled through the clenched teeth of his smile, eyes narrowing at Anarchy. He watched the Bastard Son smile, wondered if it was some kinda hint that he was on the right track. Or, maybe Anarchy thought it was funny how wrong he was. Regardless, The Judge's urgent emerald eyes darted over to his Sunlight, and he gave the most important information he could. "Listen, Chara. Anarchy here, I'm pretty sure he's just playing with us until somebody more important shows up to fight him. Our only shot here is to keep him distracted until that someone gets here."

It was instant. A blink of the eye, and Anarchy had moved. The two Snowdin sentries barely had time to recoil - Anarchy had moved so fast it almost seemed he had teleported to get right in front of them. His powerful hands grabbed each of them by the face before they could have even hoped to react, muffling any yelps or screams before he shoved the both of them down, smashing them back first into the dirt. He continued to sprint forward, dragging them through the permafrost before yanking them upwards and chucking them both underhand like softballs over the cliff ledge. "Good plan!"

"ShiiIIIIT!" Chara exclaimed as their body ragdolled through thin air, limbs flailing to grip anything solid and finding nothing. They glanced hastily over to Cter, who was in much the same position. They might've thought he looked silly flailing and flipping like that if the two of them were not about to plummet a hundred feet and splat on the ground.

But, before gravity could catch the two of them, the side of the cliff ripped open. Ivory fingers preceded ivory hands, and rapidly massive skeletal arms were reaching out from the earth to catch the two of them. The hands snatched the two of them out of the air with minimal whiplash, wrapping fingers around them only until their momentum had stopped before slowly opening up and letting them stand on their skeletal palms.

While Chara attempted to gather their wits and climb to their feet, Cter was already sending a fleet of paper airplanes exploding up from the drop below and down towards The Anarchist that eagerly awaited them. And while he blasted through the paper cannon fodder, both Cter and Chara looked up to see The Archdemon flying over them. Grinning like always, Cter spoke through light panting while he climbed to his feet. "Nice save, Sans."

"You two are not abandoning me with that freak." Sans spoke through the body he'd taken control of, wings beating occasionally to keep them afloat. They were holding their dagger again, and appeared to have healed at least most of the damage from one swing of Anarchy's crowbar. Humbled, they knew they needed assistance in stopping The Anarchist.

"Wait did you just say that thing up there is Sans-?" Before another word could be said and Chara's incredulous question could be answered, what appeared to be a rock shot out from the sea of tearing paper that had consumed The Anarchist. It blasted Sans in the forehead, forcing him to lean Frisk's head back while he winced their eyes shut. Blood spilled down their forehead from the gash that stone had opened, followed quickly by the healing red of their DETERMINATION.

"Those of us in glass houses!" Anarchy shouted up at the freak he'd just chucked a stone at, his words immediately punctuated by the sound of him crushing one of those paper airplanes under his crowbar. The Archdemon just grumbled, rubbing their bleeding forehead while they glared down at Anarchy. Their fingers tightened around that Bone Dagger, and they smiled with cruel thoughts while they reached out with their bloodied hand to hit another SAVE Point.

"Alright dream team!" Cter stood at the edge of the palm he stood on, his left eye igniting with red once more. On the opposite hand Chara stood at the same spot where palm met wrist, holding their knife out to the side while the cold wind blew through their hair. Overhead, The Archdemon summoned four spikes of bone over their shoulders and spun their dagger in their boney fingers. Cter threw his arms out to his sides, sending ink flecking in droplets out from his sleeves. "Throw your corpse!"

Nightmare Revolving by SharaX began playing.

With one final shockwave of DETERMINATION, those papers were shredded and and melted to nothing but ash around The Anarchist, who stood unscathed at the heart of the heat wave. Ice and snow alike melted at his feet, streams of mist rising all around him as the ragtag team of humans before him raced in to fight again.

Cter threw his hands forward, and massive ink hands exploded out of his sleeves. They flung downward, grabbing the dirt and yanking The Judge forward, whipping him towards the waiting Anarchist. He spun in air, before disappearing with a pop! In the very next instant he had appeared in the air behind Anarchy, who was hardly surprised when Cter finished his rotation and smashed his leg down atop his head of ivory hair with an ax kick that didn't even make The Bastard Son flinch. But, Cter wasn't aiming to hurt him. With another pop, Anarchy was suddenly turned 180 degrees around, facing the forest instead of the foes racing towards him, Cter's leg still laying atop his head.

While The Judge back flipped off of Anarchy's head, Chara darted forward underneath him. They yanked back their knife to stab straight through Chaos Incarnate's spine, but Anarchy's shadow exploded to life with another worm. Chara grimaced at the sight of the freakish thing blasting out to bite them, before those four bone spikes crashed into the creature's side, flinging it out of Chara's way and pinning it to the melting snow.

This gave Chara all the opportunity they needed, taking the last few steps forward and jamming the point of their knife right into Anarchy's back. That back straightened around their blade, and while Chara momentarily believed it was Anarchy feeling some kind of pain, that theory was hastily disproven when he spun around and swung his crowbar at them. They barely managed to yank their knife out of his back and get their arms between their skull and that metal before it struck them, sending pain exploding through their forearms and splints through their radius and ulna bones. The force of this strike whipped Chara to the side like a ragdoll, and they landed on their shoulder in the ice, skidding brutally over it and further down the path.

Cter completed his backflip, landing on his feet just a few feet ahead of Anarchy and immediately dropping to one knee to press both his palms to the ground. the snow split on Anarchy's left and right, erasers blasting up to crush him only for him to reach out and effortlessly stop the both of them dead with just one hand each. The ground rumbled from this sudden pause in the erasers, and The Archdemon raced down from above with a high speed stab towards Anarchy's head.

The Anarchist merely tilted his head to the side, to dodge Sans' blade before snapping his jaws shut around the skeleton's possessed wrist. He jumped up from between the two erasers while Sans snarled with pain, spinning in air and yanking The Archdemon by the wrist with his jaws. With just his head, Anarchy threw The Archdemon down on top of the two erasers right after they slammed together, dropping down right after and planting his feet in Sans' stolen chest with a violent stomp. This stomp smashed the ungodly fusion right through the erasers and into the dirt, which exploded up around them while they shouted in agony.

Cter pointed both arms towards The Anarchist, and the mechanical pencils that had formed under his arms began blasting graphite spikes at him. Anarchy was unphased, darting forward and throwing his arm out to the side, his crowbar flinging up his sleeve and into his hand again. Forehand and backhand he swung, crushing what few graphite spikes Cter managed to fire before the distance was closed and Anarchy lunged forward, blasting his knee into Cter's nose and launching him backwards.

While Cter skidded on his back through the snow and ice, Anarchy swung his whole body around just to swipe back at the demon racing out of the dust towards him with that crowbar. Murder in their eyes, Sans ducked beneath this crowbar swing and darted in close while yanking back their Bone Dagger. Before The Archdemon could stab Anarchy's unstoppable heart though, his other fist swung up, clobbering them with a brutal right hook.

Head whipping to the side and blood spewing from their lip, The Archdemon's eyes went black for a split second. But, when their pupils reappeared, they were glaring furiously at The Anarchist from the corner of their eye. Though they were in the middle of stumbling back from that brutal punch, The Archdemon still plunged their knife forward and right into Anarchy's side. And though their wicked grin grew some at the sight of their blade disappearing past Anarchy's flesh, Sans moment of joy was cut short by the brutal crash of a crowbar into the side of their head. Anarchy had swung the arm they'd ducked under earlier right back down at just the right moment, blasting them upside the head and sending them flinging aside in a concussed heap.

Anarchy grabbed the handle of the dagger Sans had so kindly left stuck in his side, ripping it out of his body and swinging upwards with it just in time to deflect Chara's blade. The sentry had sprinted across the tundra as fast as they could, rapidly closed the distance and lunged at him with a stab only for him to carelessly knock their strike upwards. They leaned back with the momentum of his upward strike, rolling back into a crouching position before jumping right back up at him.

Anarchy stabbed down at them with that Bone Dagger though, and they were forced to move. Darting forward and to the side, they reached up to grab onto the arm swinging down towards them. Swinging their legs up too, Chara latched their entire body onto Anarchy's arm, planting the toe of their boot in his cheek in the process. This kick was ultimately useless, but it was enough to distract Anarchy from the knife they used to cleave through his fingers and sever his grip on that dagger. Unwrapping their arms from Anarchy's wrist after catching that knife, Chara pulled themself backwards and and backflipped off his arm and over his shoulder. They stuck the landing behind him, immediately jumping back and out of the range of another brutal crowbar swing.

"You got skill, knockoff. More so than the other two." Anarchy smiled while he turned to face them, the fingers of his right hand already nearly fully reformed. He narrowed his scarlet eyes while he pointed his crowbar at them, freakish tongue slithering out some to run over a few of his fangs while his smile grew into a grin. "Seems like all you sidekicks know how to kill."

"It's in my veins." Chara stated, but they didn't look too happy about it. Crossing their knife and dagger over each other, they lowered their stance and prepared to move. Their ruby orbs scanned Anarchy - he was wide open in a hundred and one different places, but they'd already seen plenty that those openings were all a farce. A trick that lured an attacker in. The fact of the matter was, Anarchy was fast enough to block most strikes and could regenerate anything that did land. Chara had seen it early when he suddenly grabbed them and Cter - he was holding back. If he wanted this timeline dead, it would be dead by now. Chara's jaw tightened, "... Whether I like it or not."

"Then you n' me got somethin' in common." Anarchy's body lurched forward then, and suddenly he was darting forward. Chara's eyes widened, but on instinct they jumped and launched themself right over the lightning quick slash of Anarchy's crowbar. They flipped in air, landing on their feet behind him and immediately spinning around to stab their knife into his back again. Unfortunately Anarchy had already spun himself around in another display of freakish speed, deflecting their stab with a haphazard swing of his crowbar. Though their knife had been deflected and their right arm thrown to the side, Chara still stabbed forward with the dagger in their left, forcing Anarchy to tilt his head to the side. The blade narrowly missed his face, splitting a few of his beard's hairs. He was smiling as he shouted. "We were born to kill, whether we like it or NOT!"

"It doesn't-" Chara ducked under the returning swing of Anarchy's crowbar, pulling both of their arms back in towards themself before slashing up in an X at Anarchy, who leaned back out of the range of the blades. "Have to be this way!"

"Oh don't go borin' me now, sidekick!" Anarchy swung one of his legs up at DS Chara in a swiping kick, but they leaned their shoulder into that direction and put all their weight on one leg before hopping, hastily rolling their body right over top of his leg to dodge the brutal strike. They landed crouched on the other side of his leg, before jumping back as he launched it back towards them in a vicious heel hook. "I was just startin' to enjoy myself!"

"This life isn't about what you were born to do!" Chara took a step to the side after Anarchy planted the leg he'd kicked at them on the ground and launched himself forward, narrowly dodging a downward crowbar swing. And though they tried to jump back and out of his range, Anarchy's free hand darted out to grab them by the front of their coat, trapping them in his grip. "It's about what you choose to do!"

"Don't," Anarchy spun his body, pulling Chara in and blasting his knee right into their abdomen. They folded forward and over his knee, pupils shrinking and spit spewing past their lips while the wind was knocked out of them. They didn't get even a moment to recover though, because Anarchy grabbed them by the hair and yanked their aching body up while he cocked back his crowbar. "Lecture me!"

Swiftly, Chara swung one of their knives up and slashed clean across Anarchy's eyes, making him recoil instinctively as he was suddenly and painfully blinded. His fingers releasing Chara's hair, they managed to stumble back and narrowly dodge the aimless swing of Anarchy's crowbar. One hand resting on their screaming abdomen, Chara wiped the blood dripping down their chin with the back of their fist and tried not to gasp for air too loudly. Not that it mattered - the fingers of the hand that Anarchy had grabbed his face with split, revealing one bloodshot eye already healed and glaring furiously at Chara as they tried to stumble back away. Blood dripping down his face and staining his hand, Anarchy grinned through his snarling. "I've already made the one and only choice I needed to make in this life!"

"It's..!" Chara continued to stumble back, more blood overflowing past their bottom lip while they held their abdomen. That knee definitely broke a few things and popped some others - they were trembling and struggling to stand, cold sweat dripping down their face while they gasped for air. "Not, too late to go back..!"

"That's the thing that nobody but me ever seems to understand, sidekick." Anarchy stomped forward as they struggled to stumble back away. He lowered his hand from his face, wiping away what blood he could and revealing two eyes fully healed. His grin had faded away, the manic joy briefly removed from his expression. In its place was a deep seeded rage, a sadistic hatred far more vile than the giddy psychopath who had been toying with them and their friends. Anarchy cranked back that crowbar, and it sparked with LOVE and DETERMINATION as he prepared to make Chara a red smear in the snow. "When people do bad things? They don't deserve to go back."

Pop!

Just as Anarchy swung his Inheritance, Cter The Judge appeared between him and DS Chara. His arms held out to his sides, Cter's eyes went white as the full force of that crowbar crashed into him, shattering his collar bone and smashing in his sternum. The strike sent him launching back into a dismaying Chara, who barely managed to catch him, being knocked right off their feet and flinging back down the snowy path with him.

"... Two peas in a pod, those ones." Anarchy stood there, blood dripping from his crowbar while he watched the sentries tumble down the way, beaten and bloody. Angels and their sidekicks - He thought briefly if he would like to have someone like that. A ride or die, someone who would take a bullet for him or show up dramatically at the last second to save him. But, then again, that would never matter. He was too strong to ever need to be protected, and he could never die. He clenched his crowbar a little tighter, "Ah well."

Just as Anarchy was about to send a wriggling horde of worms after the clobbered sentries, a wall of bones exploded up between him and the path ahead. He turned his head just in time to see another barrage of those ivory spears raining down from above, and he managed to crack a smile. The music faded out.

---

"Shit shit shit!" Chara exclaimed, kneeling beside Cter in the snow and hastily pulling off their winter jacket. They'd pulled open Cter's sweatshirt and ripped open his now blood soggy T-shirt to reveal the brutal gash carved in his chest by Anarchy's crowbar. They tried to press their coat to the wound to slow the bleeding, but quickly discovered that the water proof fabric lining its outside hardly absorbed any blood, instead just letting it continue to flow by. "Angel, try to stay conscious! Spell your name for me or something!"

"W-which one..? I got like six..." Ever witty was Cter, even with some very important chest arteries ruptured and spewing blood every which way. His tired eyes had to blink a few times before they refocused on Chara, who was busy angrily tossing that useless coat aside. Instead they grabbed the hem of the T-shirt they'd been wearing underneath it, yanking that up over their head and immediately pressing it against Cter's bleeding wound instead. Their upper body only covered by the white binder wrapped around their chest now, Chara was still managing to sweat in the Snowdin chill as they watched their shirt rapidly turn red against Cter's chest. "W-whoa, Chara, c'mon... It ain't that kinda death..."

"You aren't gonna die and that isn't funny!" Chara snapped, taking a moment to glare up at Cter. At least he was still managing to crack jokes that were in bad taste. They were shaking, they didn't know if it was from fear or the cold. But as blood soaked into their fingers through their own shirt, they found themself thinking back to the last person they'd watched die. Tears starting to form in their eyes, Chara's voice cracked some while they spoke their thoughts aloud. "Fuck, I wish Asriel was here..!"

"Oh, yeah... Asriel did always patch us up back in the day, didn't he..?" Cter found a little smile creeping up his blood stained face. Staring straight up, he thought back all those years. Any time him or Chara managed to hurt themselves remodeling that house, or even that one time he started to get frostbite after trying to be tough and saying he didn't need gloves for a snowball fight, Asriel was always the guy who healed them. It was starting to snow now, white flakes were gently drifting down from the sky above. "... Things were... So simple back then, huh Sunlight..?"

Chara couldn't talk. They clenched their eyes shut tight, let the tears start to overflow while their shaky hands pressed that soggy shirt into Cter's bleeding chest. This was so scary, they didn't understand who this man was or what he wanted. They didn't know why he was taking Angel away from them, they didn't know why this was happening. Why them, why now? People who do bad things don't deserve to go back, that's what Anarchy said right? Was this their fault? Were they going to lose Angel as punishment for what they'd done..?

"... I-I'm sorry, Sunlight. I-... I didn't mean for things to end up like this..." Cter's thoughts drifted back to Clover, back to The Killer. To Asgore, to Lexi and Xander and Anthony. To all those little kids he killed in an instant. It was a solemn and strange feeling, realizing on your death bed that you aren't going to Heaven. Not that Cter was a religious man, or even that he thought this death would be the one that stuck. Frisk could load back a few times, but it was setting in that the outcome was always gonna be the same. They couldn't beat Anarchy, and who would ever try to save a man like him? His faded emerald eyes glossed back over to Chara, he couldn't stand to see them cry. They were, after all, the one and only person who had tried to save him. "I-... I'm a bad person... It's, who I am, and I... I can't ever seem to change it... C-can't, go back and fix it..."

"S-stop it, Angel!" Chara managed to speak through their cracking voice, opening their teary eyes and looking back up at him. Sunlight? Why was he calling them that? Was he delusional? Was this the set up to some stupid joke? Nobody could tell a bad joke like Angel could. But he wasn't grinning anymore, it didn't look like he was in a joking mood. He looked sad, lonely... They swallowed and shook their head, "You're not a bad person! A-and we're gonna get out of this together!"

"... Together, huh..? That sounds nice..." For just a second, Cter The Judge was beginning to see some sort of light at the end of a tunnel. It felt like being sleep deprived, sorta. That pressure in the forehead, that feeling of his consciousness slipping into the back of his head every time his eyes started to close. But, just before his eyes shut... A thought. One last hypothesis in his scientific brain, one that managed to pull his eyelids apart again, much to the relief of his less than trained nurse. With the image of The Archdemon under his eyelids and memories of original Undertale's plot in his mind, he managed to speak. "W-wait... Maybe, maybe we can get outta this..."

"Huh..?" Chara had to blink a few tears out of their eyes, which were beginning to reflect a bright red light. Confused and distraught, Chara looked back to Cter. And when they realized he was grinning again, they felt a spark of hope. The Angel explained,

"W-we just... Gotta do it together..!"

---

"C'mon knockoff, is this all ya got?!" Anarchy demanded to know, locked up with The Archdemon. He and Sans stood in front of one another, hands clasped against one another as each of them pushed and tried to over power the other. But of course Anarchy had easily made the unholy ghost kneel before him, his hands pushing theirs back at the wrist so harshly they threatened to break. "I thought you'd have a little more fight in ya than this!"

"Shove it, ya pasty freak..!" Sans snarled, wincing feebly under Anarchy's infinite might. With a thunk! another bone spike shot down from above, stabbing right into Anarchy's back. Anarchy didn't budge however - instead, his smile grew. Another thunk, another, and another. His body jolted here and there as Sans drove more and more bone spears into his back, but his smile just continued to grow and his power never started to wane.

"Haha... Hahahaha... HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Eyes rolling back in his head, Anarchy gladly leaned forward and cackled right in The Archdemon's face, making them grimace at the sight of his sharp and bloodstained teeth so close to their face. And just when they were certain he was going to lurch forward and use those fangs to rip what skin they had on their head off, ink lashed up behind him and wrapped around his throat, yanking his head right back away from them. And when Anarchy leaned back, a wall of keys plummeted from above. Vertical was the wall, and its sharpened edge sliced right through The Anarchist's forearms, severing both his hands and releasing The Archdemon from his grip.

With Anarchy recoiling both from the ink wrapped around his neck and the temporary loss of his forearms, those keys blasting forward and slamming into him was enough to carry him back and away from his foe for the moment. Rubbing their wrists, The Archdemon gradually climbed to their feet after taking a moment to watch Anarchy sail off down the path. Those were certainly Cter's attacks, but last they'd seen he was dead meat. Maybe he'd had a healing item? They glanced over the shoulder towards where they'd seen those two sentries get launched.

Pop!

Sans turned his head then, and Frisk's eyebrows rose at the sight ahead of them. Chara had appeared there, back to the two of them. Or, at least they'd thought it was Chara. What struck them as odd was the glowing Deltarune tattoo that now appeared on the sentry's back and the ink still dripping off their finger tips, curling around the knives they were holding.

"Sans or Frisk or whoever you are." They suddenly spoke, but their voice was strange. An overlay almost, two familiar voices in one. Character looked over their shoulder to flash The Archdemon a smirk, a knowing glint in their green eyes. "We were friends at one point, right? All four of us."

"... Weird time for a callback, but I guess a lotta weird things are goin' on today." Grinning with exasperation was Sans, not even trying to make sense of the fusion before them. After all, they themselves were quite a peculiar thing. But what was Character getting at, anyway? "Yeah, we were. What's gotcha askin'?"

"... I remember it all now. We, remember it all now." Character glanced down to their hands, stained with blood and ink. It had all come back to Chara, all the RESETs they'd forgotten while Angel remembered. A sea of new information, lies they'd believed peeled back and faded away. But they knew the reasons, too. Understood the motives like they were their own, because they were. Yes, they were one in the same now. Cter's actions where Character's actions, Chara's actions were Character's actions. But there were two more sides to this story that they needed to understand. Looking back over their shoulder at the abomination behind them, Character frowned. "We've only got one shot out of this, and we have to take it together."

"..." Silently, The Archdemon watched Character extend one hand back towards them. Eyes drifting up some, they watched a dome of keys falling into place around them. A defense, perhaps? Or maybe a blanket to hide under was more accurate. Those glowing pupils of theirs fell back to Character's open palm, where they watched burning red color manifest. The light of that fusion's soul illuminated the darkness of the dome they were hiding this unholy deal beneath. And that grin faltered some on the face of The Archdemon, a sweat drop rolling down their forehead while they lifted their own boney hand. As the deep and vicious red of Sans stolen soul manifested beside that of the sentry's, they begrudgingly agreed. "... You're lucky I wanna see pasty cakes dead."

---

"The things I do to give a false sense'a hope..." Anarchy muttered as he tossed his beaten and bloody sweatshirt aside with newly reformed arms. He decided to keep on his blood stained white tank top though. Wasn't quite ruined enough yet. Stomping on one of the red dripped spikes he'd yanked out of his back and shattering it, he took a step towards the dome of keys that had built itself while he was regrowing limbs and pulling spikes out of his back.

A peculiar structure it was. Did they think it would save them? Were they thinking up some sort of game plan in there? Didn't matter - they were outclassed. At any instant Anarchy could flip a switch and begin putting effort into this fight, could rip them limb from limb and erase this worthless world. But, he was only really here to destroy one man. And violence was the fastest way to lure Angel out. If he really did think he was a hero, then he would have to come prove it. If you aren't a coward, then come stop me.

A pulse.

A wave of feeling, an invisible force that blasted out across Snowdin. It felt like defiance against Anarchy's infinite soul, a middle finger to an exploding star. A planet that refused to be crushed under the weight and the fire of his super nova. How curious... A smile split The Anarchist's lips as that key wall exploded apart, sending plastic blasting out in all directions. He tilted his head to the side, letting a shift key fling by his head and watching the flash of light before him. A bolt of red lightning crackled down from the cold Snowdin clouds, crashing to the being standing at the epicenter of this new heat wave. The shadow in the shimmering red light did not flinch at this, merely spread its wings wide and held its blades out to its sides when lightning struck it. Red aura exploded up from the knife and the dagger, growing rapidly into swords that Anarchy remembered plenty from the last Chara he'd had to deal with. In fact for a second he thought it was that Chara, his hopes rose for just a moment or two. Was Angel already here? He certainly wouldn't mind punching out his sidekick again.

But, as that scarlet light faded and that shape was revealed, that particular hope was dashed. Anarchy's mood wasn't quite ruined by this though, not as he looked over those wings. They had the same boney structure of The Archdemon's freakish wings, but were not pointed and disturbing in the same way. Instead of a strange human skin webbing the wings, it was the onyx black of an Angel's ink that linked the bones. Red veins crackled with power inside this ink in the same way that red DETERMNATION crackled around the soul burning on this new being's chest.

Green eyes locked on to The Anarchist, the whites of those eyes blackened out. And Anarchy's smile grew while he tilted his head, watched this stranger begin taking bold steps towards him. He'd seen many things, stomped out plenty of last ditch efforts, but none like this. This was new, this was... Interesting. Fingers running giddily over his crowbar's stained metal, The Anarchist called out across the melting ice. "And who're you supposed to be?"

"We are Nephilim." The quadruple fusion spoke up, their voice a strange mix of all four of their components. It worked though, at least Anarchy thought so. Harmonized in a certain way, almost sounded like a voice in its own right. This being took no time considering its own sound, a newborn that didn't need to waste time stumbling and learning to walk. There was a certainty in their step, an unshakeable belief in their shared soul. The four of them in a race to stop the end of the world, failed heroes and villains alike coming together to face an unstoppable adversary. Anarchy grinned - how poetic.

"And you're not getting past us."

---

I stared into the rift in space time that loomed ahead of me. In the backyard of the Dreemurr house we stood, just a few steps from the swing set that I had confessed my sins to Chara on nearly three years ago. In the lamp illuminated kitchen where I had my last supper with the Dreemurr family, the kitchen stove flashed green symbols: 12:03 AM

Now, for just a moment, it felt like time had paused. Familiar backyard grass under my shoes and unfamiliar destiny in my path. My eyes glossed over to CORE!Frisk, a being that should have been the only example I needed to never trust a Frisk. They stood there, expression reflecting the cruel urgency of the situation. Lets get this over with, their eyes told me. It's time to clean up your mess and finally end this partnership.

I glanced one last time over my shoulder. Asgore held Toriel on the porch, they watched me with guilty eyes. They couldn't bare to lose another child, I knew this to be true. Their eyes were dry now, I wasn't sure either of them had the strength to cry anymore. Monster Kid leaned on the guard rail surrounding the slightly elevated porch, he was smiling at me. Though the weight of this moment was hardly lost on him, he had the utmost faith in me. And though others might define that powerful optimism of his as idiocy, I found it reassuring.

My eyes glossed down to the crowned prince. Asriel sat on the porch step, expression tense. When our eyes met, my thoughts were drawn back to the promise I had made him, the promise I had made myself. Anything to protect Chara's life, even my own could and would be sacrificed if it meant they got to come home safe. I nodded at him, and he nodded back to me. We had all already said everything we could these past three days, now there was only one thing left to do.

"Well..." Chara's voice caught my attention, brought my gaze to where they stood beside me. This too was reassuring, even with Fate looming on the other side of that portal. I always felt stronger with them beside me. And though they did not smile, though their expression was tense and uncertain in the same way that mine was, they dared ask me. "You ready?"

I was quiet. I turned my head forward, let my eyes focus on the shifting colors of the torn code before me. My frown dug deep into my face, and I felt the unsoiled hands of the little albino boy I had left behind reach up and take hold of my hand. I shut my fingers around his, wasn't gonna let him go this time. Not while he still needed me. I took my first step, and Chara took theirs right with me. We marched forward into the unknown together, strong enough to brave whatever cruelty awaited us.

"... Yeah, I am."

---

Please Favorite, Follow, and Review. And hey, since this chapter came out on Valentine's Day, why don'tcha guys tell me what your favorite DoubleTale: Rewritten ship is too? It can be canon, noncanon, a total crackship, just go for it!

XWolf26, out