Monika had taken it upon herself to solve great, curious mysteries as of late. After she had solved her own – hadn’t that been a fun little adventure – she had moved on to solving those of other stories… Given her unique ability to manipulate the flow between stories and the universes behind them, she was in a great position to solve any curious little mysteries she happened to come across.
Those animatronic games had taken longer than she was expecting to sort out, not the least because there were more than two different continuities she could transport herself to, but each one had a different answer in the end.
Now, she was focused on a single game, one she remembered playing in her time of fixation. A game of monsters, hearts, amazing characters, and delightful story. One where you could avoid killing a single creature or kill everything in existence. And several options in between. It was a deep game in which she had watched every single version being played.
Its name was Undertale.
Her copy was something she never actually played properly – she tore it apart file by file, gathering snippets of information and reactions. There was much hidden there, but there was also one mystery that no amount of digging or glitching would truly satisfy her. The mystery of the Man Who Speaks in Hands. Very rarely, players could find a mysterious gray door that led to a room with a mysterious figure. Every time a player sought to interact with this character, the sprite would freak out and vanish mysteriously.
There were many clues about him, but no answers. Monika was going to demand an understanding.
She forced the game to load with the player character outside the mysterious door. She placed her hand on the computer screen and let out a focused breath.
Tap into the flow…
Code flew past her mind as she reached to what was below it. The story had a connection to a universe – not a direct connection, though, just a shadow of one. She had to create a solid connection in order to traverse the plane between worlds. Her body glitched out of existence, leaving an empty chair. The game crashed a second later.
On the other side of her motions was a hallway cut out of cave rock. Glowing blue crystals provided the only light in the passage, but that was plenty for Monika. She was able to make out the colorless door embedded in the rocky wall. It clearly did not belong there, appearing as if it were just grafted on as an afterthought.
She smirked. Time for answers. She stuck her hand out to the doorknob and pulled it open.
The interior had no texture. It was a white so pure shadows didn’t even appear on it. The only indication the room had any boundaries were black lines that marked the places where the walls met the floor and ceiling. In the center of the room was the mysterious figure.
It looked a lot more disturbing when it was not limited to a handful of distorted pixels on a screen. The figure had two parts – the lower being black, decaying sludge that pulsated ever so slightly, while the upper was a bone-textured head with tremendous, gaping eyes and a thin, cruel mouth. There were two bony hands struggling to remove themselves from the lower sludge, each with a hole through the palm.
Monika focused. Of course she couldn’t read the thing’s character file, it was probably too corrupted to even be accessed. But she had other manipulations she could use. Tap into the code in thi-
Without warning, the figure’s hand shot out and grabbed her by the wrist.
Monika felt fear.
~~~
Pinkie Pie leaped through a freshly opened portal and landed in a small field of golden flowers. The rest of her team followed in a less excited manner, though all but Jotaro had smiles on their faces. The portal closed behind them, allowing their eyes to adjust to the unusual lighting.
They were in a cavern. Most of it was dark, though there was a beam of light from a hole far above them. The flowers all grew within this light, the soil in the shadows devoid of even the smallest seedling. Beyond that were the cave walls – with a single cavernous pathway to their right.
“We have two options!” Pinkie declared. “Up, or deeper into the cave!”
Flutterfree activated Lolo, winding a strand of green upward and through the higher opening. “It’s the side of a mountain,” Flutterfree reported. “Mostly forest around, though I do see a city in the distance. Human, if I had to guess.” She retracted Lolo.
“Sounds boring,” Vriska commented.
“Yeah, it kinda does, doesn’t it?” Pinkie pointed into the cavernous path. “THEN WE GO THAT WAY!”
Nova shrugged. “I am detecting higher levels of magic that way, so yeah, probably more interesting.”
Pinkie bounced along, her team following behind her. They passed through a narrow section of cave that Jotaro had to duck through, but it soon opened up to a significantly larger section with a beam of light shining from above on a singular golden flower.
This golden flower had a cute little face. “Heya! I’m Flowey! Flowey the flower! Welcome to the Underground!” He winked. “I can be your little guide!”
Before they knew what was happening, anything that wasn’t the five of them or Flowey vanished, replaced with inky blackness. Flowey and the five of them lost all color, becoming nothing more than white figures with black outlines – no grays at all.
Colors flashed into existence in front of the five explorers in the form of stylized hearts. Nova’s was blue, Flutterfree’s green, Jotaro’s yellow, Vriska’s purple, and Pinkie’s pink. Flowey seemed decidedly confused by the existence of a pink heart, but recovered quickly.
“What is this?” Nova asked, poking her blue heart with a hoof.
“That’s your SOUL!” Flowey answered. “And with it you’re supposed to catch friendliness pellets!” Flowey generated a small, spinning white pellet. “Try i-”
“Cut the bullshit, Asriel,” Vriska said, folding her arms.
Flowey stared at her in disbelief. “How in th-”
“I’ve played this game,” Vriska declared. “Flowey there is basically what you could call the main villain. Don’t trust a word he says. That ‘friendliness pellet’ is spinning death on a stick.”
“Understood,” Jotaro said, summoning Star Platinum.
“Th- that’s quite the spirit you’ve got there!” Flowey said. “A-and you say you’ve played this game before? How… interesting… You see, I’ve played this game before as well! Over and over and over a-”
“Not impressive,” Pinkie said, glaring at the little flower. “Do you-”
“Yes of course I know we’re in a ‘book’ right now! I-”
“You don’t have speaking privileges,” Vriska decreed.
“Do you know what I’m capable of!?”
“Yes. I beat your ass. Multiple times.”
Flowey opted to just disappear into the ground. Colors returned to the world and the Technicolor SOULS vanished.
“He’ll be plotting something,” Vriska said, sitting on a nearby rock. “You can count on it.”
“Mhm,” Pinkie confirmed.
“So, what’s this game’s world like?” Nova asked.
Vriska leaned back. “Well, I would say it’s closely related to my source material, but it’s only tangential. I only played it because some pun-making skeleton stole my song. The game itself is about a human kid who falls into this Underground and has to adventure to find her – or his I guess, it’s not really clear – way to escape. In the process she can either make friends with everyone and never resort to violence, or she could kill everyone. I played through both.”
“Anything we should know?”
“You shouldn’t have to kill anything here,” Vriska said. “Doing so will have consequences. The few things that you have to fight will still be redeemable. Usually you can still talk your way out of encounters. Oh, yeah, the encounters. Uh… I don’t think your physical forms can take damage, it’s all focused on your SOULs. Avoid letting them get hit. I… forget what the colors mean. The player had red.”
“Also Flowey’s Aware,” Pinkie pointed out.
“Yeah, that,” Vriska said. “That’s important. We’re probably going to have to beat the tar out of him at some point. It’s going to be interesting to see if we can get the perfect ending without exploiting a save/reload system…”
Flutterfree smiled. “What are we waiting for? Let’s go make friends with everyone.”
“Yeah that’s a goo-”
And then reality broke into a dozen pieces like a pane of glass hit by a bullet. All five of them felt their SOULs falling between the cracks of existence…
~~~
Vriska appeared in the middle of a fight, her purple SOUL already out. She narrowly dodged a flying bone. She heard the sound of a familiar tune start as she turned to face her opponent – a small, diminutive skeleton in slippers and a jacket. A smile was permanently plastered on his skull, and unlike everything else in the encounter, his eye flashed blue.
There was not supposed to be any color besides Vriska’s SOUL.
Vriska’s response to this was among the worst possible.
“HEY! STOP STEALING MY SONG!”
The skeleton – who Vriska knew was named Sans – apparently made a decision right there. A gigantic dragon-skull appeared behind him and fired a beam of intense white energy. Vriska dodged it with a quick jump. “i don’t know what you just pulled with your soul right there, kid, but this is going to end just like all the other times.”
“Kid? Do I look like a-“ Sans didn’t wait for her to finish, instead throwing a flurry of bones at her SOUL. She used her luck to barely dodge every single one.
She pulled out her dice, ready for a counterattack, but then she remembered a key detail.
In the game, Sans may have been incredibly quick and agile, but he also only had 1 HP. If she fought him seriously he’d just die from a single hit if this world was anything like the game.
Fuck, I don’t want to kill him, but he thinks I’m on a run where I killed everyone. She bit her lip, jumping over a wave of lasers. “Hey, think we can talk about this?”
“you’ve sure gotten talkative in the last few minutes,” Sans said, grabbing a hold of her SOUL with some kind of magic and ramming her into the ground.
“Look, Sans, I’m not who you think I am!” Vriska blurted, dodging to the left. “I’m Vriska, an interdimensional traveler who’s swapped with whoever you were just fighting!”
Sans stared at her with his intense blue eye. “how do you know my name, then?”
“Uh, hello? Interdimensional traveler? Of course I know stuff. Uh… Let’s see, you sometimes sell hot dogs and stack them on people’s heads. Am I remembering that right?”
“yes,” Sans said, grabbing a hold of her soul. “not LV 19…”
“See? Not the axe-crazed murderer type! One of the good guys!”
The fight ended – colors returned, Vriska’s SOUL vanished, and the music stopped playing. Sans’ coat revealed itself to be blue, and Vriska discovered they were standing in a large royal hall lit with eerie orange light. Sans glared at her. “good guy, huh? your SOUL says otherwise. LV 16. you’ve killed a lot of people, vriska. just a little further and you’d get the prize of being just as violent as that kid who was here before you. an amazing accomplishment.”
“Things are different out there, Sans,” Vriska said. “We have to kill to survive. There is no ‘pacifist’ run.”
“That’s no excuse for sixteen,” Sans countered.
Vriska folded her arms. “Fine. I’ve killed people for fun and sport in the past. I don’t do that anymore you know!”
Sans shrugged. “the record is what it is.”
“Whatever, don’t like me.” Vriska threw her hands in the air and pulled out her dimensional device. “I’ll leave you alone here. Guess I accidentally took care of your monster problem, huh? You should thank me.”
“you clearly didn’t do anything,” Sans shrugged. “regardless, i’ve got no bones to pick with you. go on your way.”
“Hastala-Vriska,” Vriska saluted, trying to find a world to connect to with her dimensional device. She furrowed her brow. “…Fuck.”
“problem?”
“You could say that. I can’t dial back to the universe I was dragged from, and none of the others I’m trying have connections to this one. Fuuuuuuuck I think I’m stuck.”
“huh. sucks to be you, doesn’t it? right now there’s just me, asgore, and a psychotic murderous flower.”
“And everyone on the Surface.”
“like that matte-”
“All I need to do is accumulate luck for a while and smash the barrier down with my own internal force. It’s not that hard to pass through it.” She played with her dice. “Hrm… I wonder how much luck I can drain from Flowey without killing him… It’ll be interesting, doing it to a flower…”
Sans leaned against a nearby column and slouched. “i won’t stop ya. do whatever you want. you could even take asgore’s SOUL and get out that way. i know you have it in you.”
“That way sucks,” Vriska countered. “Not going down that route. Though I’d rather not sit here and wait to accumulate luck…” She rubbed her chin. “Hrm… Can I-“
“i am not helpin’ you with anythin’.”
“Well fuck you too.” Vriska played with her dice. “Hrm…” An idea came to her. “Wait a minute, Sans, you know stuff.”
“i’m just good at my job.”
“No, more than that. You’ve figured it out, haven’t you?” She smirked. “I know you don’t want to help me, but what if I can help you? You have things you’d like to do. You don’t want to stay in this universe. You help me get out, I can help you find a better world.”
Sans looked at her. He was still smiling, but she could see deep, serious thoughts in those white pinpricks that were his eyes. “you’ve got a deal. come on, i’ve got something for you.”
Vriska followed Sans behind a pillar – and then they took a shortcut.
~~~
Another Sans had been selling hot dogs to a significantly less monstrous version of the kid when the kid was suddenly gone, replaced with two individuals. One was a tremendous human adult while the other was a pegasus creature. He instinctively checked them – green and yellow, Kindness and Justice. LV 3 and LV 8.
The man looked at the hot dog in his hand. “…Nani?”
The pegasus blinked, looking around. “Uh… Okay then…” She summoned a strange spirograph shape, forcing Sans’ eye to ignite with powerful fire and a few of his weapons to appear behind him.
The pegasus flared her wings in a defensive posture. “Sir, there’s a dragon skull behind you!”
“oh. that. yeah, that’s mine,” Sans said, shrugging. “i don’t go showing it around because it scares people.”
“Oh,” the pegasus said, lowering her wings. “Well, I’m Flutterfree, and this is Jotaro. We’re explorers from another world. What’s your name?”
“sans. ice to meetcha.”
Jotaro examined his surroundings – they were underground, but the area was exceptionally hot and well lit due to lava flows nearby.
“welcome to hotland.”
“That’s quite the descriptive name,” Flutterfree commented.
“i always thought lava runs would be better. or chili islands. want a hot dog?”
“Sure,” Flutterfree said. “I don’t think we have money you’d accept though.”
“eh, no problem. call the first one on the house.”
The two travelers started munching on the delicious food items. Flutterfree was mildly surprised when, at the third bite, the hot dog barked. “…Uh…”
“don’t worry about that,” Sans said with a wink. Flutterfree didn’t ask how he winked without eyelids.
Jotaro took out his dimensional device and tried a few things. He turned to Flutterfree and shook his head.
Flutterfree sighed. “Sans? Is it okay if I use Lolo – the thing you saw earlier – to look around?”
Sans shrugged. “i don’t really care either way. knock yourself out.”
Flutterfree spread out Lolo, searching the area for anything interesting. The green strands were invisible to all eyes that weren’t next to Flutterfree herself, so none of the creatures of the Underground batted an eye when the leaves passed by them.
“I found something odd…” Flutterfree said. “Down the river – the one of water a ways that way – there’s a section of cavern with a gray door in it. That door… when Lolo tries to reveal anything about it, it becomes insubstantial. Almost like a glitch.”
Sans blinked. “door? i don’t know about any door and i know of every door in the waterfall.”
“Something to check out then,” Jotaro said, standing tall. “Lead the way.”
“i’ve got a shortcut,” Sans said, standing up. “i have to admit, my skull’s ringing with curiosity about this door. this way.”
The two followed him – and the scenery suddenly shifted to that of a significantly darker and wetter area of the Underground.
“Just like when Pinkie needs to move fast,” Flutterfree observed.
“who?” Sans asked.
“Our leader,” Flutterfree explained. “She has a habit of knowing things and moving impossibly.”
“she sounds like a fine gal. pink, I take it?”
“Very,” Jotaro commented.
Flutterfree used Lolo to find the door again. “It’s right down this cavern. Come on.”
“this cavern didn’t exist yesterday,” Sans pointed out.
“Maybe we triggered it by showing up?” Flutterfree suggested. “I don’t know, really. Nova and Pinkie are the ones who know about this stuff.”
Jotaro raised an eyebrow.
“Oh! Sorry Jotaro. Do you have an idea what’s going on?”
“Yare yare daze... Only a small idea. Something shattered the world we were just in, separating the group. Each of us are probably in a different universe. Given how this is still the Underground, likely different versions of the Underground. This may or may not be related to the door.”
They had arrived at the door – smooth, gray, and featureless. When Flutterfree neared it, it became insubstantial and jagged.
“It’s probably not safe for me to touch,” Flutterfree said.
Jotaro nodded. He used Star Platinum to open the door, revealing a pristine white interior where no shadows existed.
There was a woman on the floor, laying in a pool of her own blood.
Flutterfree gasped. “MONIKA!?”
Jotaro moved quickly. He leaped into the room, grabbed Monika with Star Platinum, and dragged her out into the hallway. He laid her in front of Sans and Flutterfree. She was heavily wounded, large scratches crisscrossing her body at perfect ninety-degree angles.
Flutterfree checked Monika’s pulse. “She’s alive. We need to wake her up so she can heal herself…”
“who’s this girl?” Sans asked.
“Monika. She’s…” Flutterfree struggled to find the words. “She’s a character. Let me see here… Uh…”
Jotaro clapped Star Platinum’s hands an inch from Monika’s face. This shocked her awake – though it also made her cough up blood. “Gah…”
“Monika!? Are you okay?”
Monika rubbed her face. “Ugh… I… Don’t know…” She focused on something only she could see. She removed the cuts, fixed her clothes, and stood up with only a few glitched movements.
“What happened?” Jotaro demanded.
Monika took a look around where they were and curled a fist. “There’s something evil here… Something I didn’t see coming…”
“what?” Sans asked.
Monika pointed at the white room. “It was in there. It… It took something from me. I don’t know what…”
None of them liked the sound of that.
Sans didn’t like her either. He couldn’t read her LV first of all, and her soul… It was red.
Determination.
~~~
Nova appeared alone in a dark, wet section of the Underground. She shook her head – something had gone wrong. She didn’t think it was anything they had done, but…
She checked her readings. She was in a different universe and there didn’t appear to be a connection back to the one they’d just been in. None of the other connections seemed to work… She wondered if the universes had been scrambled by something like that other time they had all been split up. The unusual dimensional readings she was getting sure lent credence to that theory. Or, at least, it told her that something odd was going on with the universes.
Her thoughts were interrupted when a humanoid being in full plate armor landed in front of her. “What are you doing here!? Don’t you know there’s a human on the loose?”
“Uh… No?” Nova said, cocking her head at the armored woman.
“Just get to safety! The Temmie Village is that way; you should be safe there. Okay?”
“…Okay,” Nova agreed. The woman nodded and ran off, a spear appearing in her hand. Presumably hunting the human. Nova wondered if humans were monsters in this world, or if the people here were just terrified from what little they knew. …Perhaps it was both, considering what Vriska had managed to tell them about the game.
If there is a human around here killing everyone… I can stop them.
Nova galloped in the direction she had seen the armored woman run, but quickly realized she had no idea where the warrior had gone. She was alone again in these tunnels. And there was possibly a human mass murderer about…
“Hoi!”
“AUGH!” Nova screamed, raising a shield between her and… a cat? A dog? She… really wasn’t sure.
“Hoi! I’m Temmie!” the thing said. Its face was vibrating, as if it wasn’t quite attached to its head.
“Uh… Hi, Temmie,” Nova said cautiously. “Don’t you know it’s dangerous out here?”
“Oh yes! But Tem know way best! Tem… genius!”
“Uh huh… Look, how about we get you back to the Temmie Villag-“
“NU! Tem want to go… DIS WAY!!!!” She scrambled off down what seemed to be a random tunnel.
Nova facehooved. “Oh boy, here we go again…” She teleported ahead of Temmie and grabbed the cat-dog in her signature striped telekinetic aura. “No, we are not going ‘dis way’ we are going to where you can be safe.”
“MMF! Tem no want safe! Tem want – oh hoi door!”
“Door…?” Nova said, turning to her left. There was, in fact, a door in the cave wall. Temmie and Nova fell quiet as they stared at the unusual portal.
It seemed wrong to them, somehow.
“Open da door,” Temmie said.
“W-what?”
“Open. Da. Door.”
“You open the door!”
“NU! Tem haz no hands!!!”
“I don’t either!”
“You has da magikz!”
Nova sighed. She took a step forward.
The door opened all on its own. Temmie screamed and passed out, her eyes becoming X’s. Nova, in contrast, just narrowed her eyes. “You’re interesting-looking.”
The ‘interesting-looking’ individual was a tall skeleton with a robe that covered most of his body from the neck down, leaving only his bony hands visible. The palms of those hands had a circular hole right through them, yet this did not appear to impede his motion. His skull was a tall ovoid with two large, black sockets that held pinpricks of light that served as his eyes. From his left eye, a crack ran down from his socket to the base of his skull. The right was much the opposite, a black division going upwards. His mouth was small, but was able to move as if it were made of flesh rather than bone. He did not appear to have a jaw at all.
“Interesting is a word without meaning,” the being declared, looking closely at Nova. “I could say that you are an interesting one, and nothing would really be accomplished.”
“Yeah…” Nova said, nervously. “I’m Nova, interdimensional explorer. Who are you?”
“W. D. Gaster. You have arrived in my universes at a most inopportune time.”
“Your universes?”
“Yes. Mine. Under normal circumstances I would devote my energies to ejecting you from them, but the situation is decidedly not standard at the current juncture.”
“I’ll leave as soon as I figure out how if that’s what you want. But… there’s something wrong, isn’t there?”
“A threat has appeared,” Gaster stated. “It sought me out specifically. It knew of my connection to these worlds. The world that was dimensionally weakest shattered as a result. No doubt it was weak because of you.”
“I- I’m sorr-”
“Don’t be. Misplaced sorrow is pointless. The fault lies in the outside threat. It is still here, among these worlds.” He raised one of his hands and created a rift in space-time. It wasn’t a circular, glowing portal like the ones Nova used – it was a brutal, horrendous tear that hurt the space it went through like a predator’s claw digging into flesh.
“I’m coming with you,” Nova decreed.
“If that is what you wish, Nova,” Gaster said, devoid of emotion.
“What about Temmie, though?”
With a wave of his hand, Gaster teleported Temmie away. “She will be safe.”
Nova followed the skeletal being through the portal without another word.
~~~
There was a place where nothing was supposed to exist. Eternal nothingness and death was what it had become.
Pinkie, being Pinkie, decided to keep on existing anyway. In her state of really-shouldn’t-exist-but-did, she saw blackness. There was no light, but she could still see herself just fine. There was a cold, dead wind blowing through the nothingness.
Pinkie grinned. She took a deep breath and took out her megaphone. “HELLO!!!!!!”
A voice responded from everywhere at once. It was deep, but still audibly feminine.
“…Interesting. There’s nothing left, but you keep on existing anyway.”
“Yep! That’s Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie giggled. “So, Chara, are you going to show yourself or what?”
“Most peculiar. You know my name, yet I did not know yours until this moment.”
“Yeah, I know things. Lots of things.”
“You have replaced the empty spirit… Yet you are not like them, not really. You are from elsewhere…”
Suddenly Pinkie was in an encounter – her body went white and her SOUL showed itself.
“LV 5… pathetic. Perhaps pink means sentimentality. Or weakness.”
“Laughter,” Pinkie said with a grin. “I overrode the rules, I suppose you could say.”
“Yes… I see that within you. There are other places beyond this one. I had told them we would move onto the next after, but they never returned… You are my destiny, Pinkie Pie.”
“Nah,” Pinkie said, smirking. “I’m not taking you out of here and you can’t make me.”
A young girl appeared out of the nothingness in front of Pinkie. Her shirt was striped and her hair cut short. Her eyes had pupils of glowing neon red and blacks instead of whites. She held what could only be described as a slasher smile on her face, an expression that went nicely with the oversized knife in her hand.
There was a red SOUL hovering in front of her… But it seemed dead, somehow.
Pinkie produced two giant swords. “I know who you are, Chara. I’m going to use every cheat and trick I know because of it. You don’t deserve to live.”
“Such bold statements for such a low LV.”
“I only kill when I have to. You kill everything you see.”
Chara laughed. “Yes! Yes I do! How about we see if it’s possible to get higher than 20!” She pulled her knife back and charged.
Pinkie appeared behind her and drove her two swords through Chara’s SOUL at the same time, shattering the frail red heart.
“Told you I would cheat,” Pinkie said.
And then Chara’s SOUL was just fine. She was standing a short distance from Pinkie again.
Pinkie glared. “Cheating as well, I see.”
Chara’s smile faltered. “…You remind me too much of a certain skeleton.”
Pinkie grinned. “Imagine that guy turned up to 11. That’s what I am. You’re going to have a bad time, Chara. I’m never going to do the same thing twice.”
“I refuse to lose,” Chara declared, drawing a gun out of nowhere and firing.
Pinkie deflected, cutting through her SOUL once more…
~~~
“and here we are,” Sans told Vriska. “my laboratory.”
The laboratory was a mostly empty room with a single countertop workspace and a thing under a large tarp. Vriska moved her hand to look under the tarp, but Sans slapped her hand away. “nope. you don’t get to see that.”
“Yeesh, okay mister grumpy,” Vriska muttered. “If it’s not the mysterious possibly-doomsday device under the tarp, what is it?”
Sans pointed at a blueprint sitting atop the counter workspace. “there you go. dimensional theory on that piece of paper and everything under it. take your time, we’ve literally got until the end of the universe to figure something out.”
Vriska picked up the blueprint. “Gog, I wish Nova was here, she’d know what this meant instantly…”
“so you’re not the smart one in your group. Not surprised.”
“I wonder how many times you’re going to get a ‘fuck you’ before I get tired of listening to all your blathering nonsense and decide to punch you and get it over with.”
“heh. i s’ppose that’ll be the moment you get over yourself and just kill me anyway. come on, i know you have it in you.”
“Do you want to die?”
“no, i want grillby’s. i want everyone alive again. i want to not have to deal with people like you.”
“Lovely,” Vriska muttered, looking over the blueprints. “Can you just help me over here? I need something like the energy signature of another universe that I can put into my device to get anywhere else.”
“well that’d be right under the piece of paper over there.”
“Over where?”
“under there.”
“Under where?”
Sans gave her a finger guns gesture. “gotcha.”
“…My gog, you really want to die. You only have one HP buddy, if you tweak me the wrong way I will punch you and it will kill you.”
“hey, cool, you know about HP. sweet. how about you explain how you know that? “
“How come you know so much stuff about LV and whatever?”
“because i’m supposed to. you, on the other hand… very suspicious.”
Vriska twitched. “Righty-o! Let’s go over this simply. You live in a video game. We found that video game and studied it before coming here. Tah-daaaaaah!” Can’t tell him it was only me who knew about it. Cause then he’d ask how I played. I don’t think he’d let me leave if he knew I went through one of these runs.
“huh.”
“…That’s it? I tell you you’re a video game and that’s your only response?”
“i already knew it was a game. just didn’t think it would be played like that. wonder if you could bring a copy here and play while you play while you play.”
“Questions for later. Just help me find the right coordinates or whatever, kapeesh?”
“eh, sure.” Sans walked up to the counter and began to sort through the papers. Vriska was not a genius, but she did recognize sketches that clearly related to time travel devices, as well as more than a few documents on dimensional theory. She couldn’t piece it together though.
He eventually handed her a sheet of paper. “there you go.”
Vriska looked it over – A Study of Resonance Frequencies Within the Barrier. It took her a few minutes, but she located the section about particular frequencies that suggested a weakness in the dimensional wall…
She took out one of her eight-balls and smashed it against the table, producing a computer. She bit her lip – she really didn’t know what she was doing. With some trepidation, she opened up a program she thought translated dimensional signatures into coordinates. It had been a while since she’d been shown what the program could do…
“problem?”
“I’m fine, thank you for asking.”
“you’ve been staring at that screen for a while. you look like you don’t have a clue.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Vriska blurted. “I’ve got this.”
“suuuuuuure.”
Vriska ran some numbers into the program and, after fifteen minutes of banging her head against the counter, she got it. Multiple coordinates from the data.
“Heh. Told you I had it.”
“i saw what you needed to do six minutes ago.”
“THEN WHY DIDN’T YOU SAY ANYTHING!?”
“schadenfreude.”
“Nice word,” Vriska muttered, placing the coordinates into her dimensional device. She dialed it and got a green light.
“you ever get that feeling you’re being watched?”
“Yeah. By you. Stop staring so much.”
~~~
“You saw something,” Chara said, bringing her knife down on nothing – again.
“Yeah, so what?” Pinkie said, aiming a bazooka in Chara’s direction and firing, shattering her SOUL.
“Something… elsewhere,” Chara said, already recovered.
“Yeah, lucky me!” Pinkie giggled. “Too bad you don’t get to see anything else. Just stuck here forever in this darkness.”
Chara charged, but Pinkie once again just wasn’t there.
“Heh. You just Chara-rged.”
Chara shot a blast of pure determination behind her, but Pinkie wasn’t there again. “Pinkie, this isn’t stuck; this is the darkness of my creation. It is the way all things should be.”
“Doesn’t it get boring?” Pinkie asked, bashing Chara into pieces with her warhammer.
“Never,” Chara laughed. “The nothingness is an eternal joy, a constant reminder that I did this. I killed them all. The darkness is fulfillment.”
“Your psycho levels are off the charts,” Pinkie muttered, opting to throw syringes at Chara this time.
“By all conventional scales.” Chara said, plucking the syringes off of her like they were little more than flies. “I should probably thank you for coming here, even though I doubt it was intentional.”
“You have me pegged.” Pinkie pulled out a mini-nuke and irradiated Chara’s SOUL again.
Evidentially Chara just didn’t feel pain. “You showed me that there are ways to the other worlds without leeching off another entity. I can see it within you – the answer. You know how to get out of here… You saw it. It’s only a matter of time before I see it through you.”
Pinkie’s smile vanished. She narrowly moved her pink SOUL out of the way from a gunshot. “You aren’t that Aware.”
“No. But you’re in my world now. It’s only a matter of time before I can escape using you as a proxy, Pinkie. Only a matter of time…”
Pinkie took a breath – she was going to have to move fast. She threw a bomb at Chara, shattering her SOUL again. She reverted once more. It was in this initial moment of reversion that Pinkie acted. She took out her dimensional device, already entered with the coordinates on the list Vriska had created in another universe. She opened a portal, pointing a gun behind her to take out Chara again.
Chara dodged the bullet, moving like lightning. She put a hand on the device, grinning psychotically. Pinkie wasn’t about to let her have it – she put on the Bomb Mask.
She never got to explode it. The portal was gone, and Chara was standing a few feet in front of her. Holding the dimensional device.
Chara grinned. “Heheheheheh…
Pinkie ran toward Chara – but every time she got close, Pinkie just reset to her original position. No matter how she moved or from what direction, she was set back every time Chara wanted.
“You shouldn’t have been able to do that and keep the device!”
“I didn’t. This is just a dummy to screw with you.” She tossed the device on the ground. It exploded. “I have the power within me now that I felt it. Thank you for falling for my tricks, Pinkie Pie. I have some worlds to destroy.”
“CHARA!” Pinkie shouted – but she was too late. Chara had already left the universe.
Pinkie pulled out her dimensional device – still fine – and gulped. She had no idea which universe Chara had gone to…
She selected one at random and left the emptiness.
~~~
“Monika, um… what are you doing?” Flutterfree asked.
“Focusing on the moment,” Monika explained, a hand to her head. “Okay, I think I’m all here now. Let’s see…” She narrowed her eyes.
“Monika, please stop sifting through our character files.”
Monika rolled her eyes. “Fine. Nothing interesting in there anyway, aside from small and bony here, but nothing on the surface helped much. Quite the small powerhouse aren’t you?”
“my secrets mean nothing anymore,” Sans deadpanned. “welp, perhaps i should open a blasting business now. work in construction or something. or deconstruction.” He winked at Monika.
“Mhm… Right…” Monika shook her head. “Anyway, you Merodi got separated, huh?”
“Did you deduce that or read it?” Jotaro asked.
“Read it. Pretty prominent on you two’s motivations right now.”
“Yeah…” Flutterfree said. “Would you help us find them?”
“Well, see, like you I’m unsure exactly where I stand in the multiversal scale. I could follow the flow of ka up – but since this is a different universe, I wouldn’t even end up where I started – or I could follow the flow down, and that won’t help at all because books within books will only take me somewhere else. I can force open a dimensional connection to somewhere random but that won’t exactly help, will it?”
Sans raised his hand, which had a hot dog in it. “ahem. i may know of a place with stuff that might help you. bit of a walk though.”
Monika kneeled down to Sans’ height and smiled warmly. “Hey there… I think you might also be able to answer some of my questions. You always knew the most.”
“uh… what?”
“Nothing, never mind. Lead the way, Sans!”
“huh. you know what? looks like we won’t be needing that after all, unless mirrors have suddenly developed effective invisibility.”
He pointed to one end of the hall where another Sans and Vriska were walking up toward them.
Monika blinked. “On one hand, that’s helpful. On the other…”
“OH HEEEEEEY MONIKA!” Vriska shouted. “I should have known you were behind this!”
“Me?! Oh sure, you just go and accuse me the first chance you get. If I did anything I didn’t do it on purpose!”
Vriska wanted to object really badly but couldn’t think of something effective. She folded her arms and grunted.
“right, before we do anything else, there’s something really important we need to take care of,” native-Sans said.
“oh?” visiting-Sans asked.
“i, as the native sans, get to keep my name. you can be sansy.”
“heh. okay,” Sansy said.
“Riveting, now there’s two of you,” Vriska muttered.
“givin’ her a hard time for the high LV?” Sans asked his counterpart.
“yeah.”
“man, thought we were better than that.”
“your world didn’t have everyone die.”
Sans’ eyes softened. “i’m sorry.”
“no use dwellin’ on it. something tells me we have other problems.”
“Yeah,” Vriska said. “I have lots of questions.”
Jotaro turned to Monika, expression unreadable. “How about you explain exactly why you are here and what you were trying to do when you found this ‘evil’ thing.”
Monika lifted her hand. “I’ll do something better than explain. I’ll show you.” She altered the construction to show herself at a computer, playing a game. “This game is called Undertale, for those of you who don’t know. It’s one of the more popular ones around the multiverse, especially for its story. It holds a message about pacifism, death, and a lot of other deep stuff. However, as has been my hobby ever since you convinced me to try something new, I was not drawn to it for the reasons most were. I came to it in order to solve a mystery. Beyond the game, there is an individual who seems greatly important to the game’s lore, but who’s exact identity is a mystery.”
The scene changed, showing a strange, pixelated white and black figure. “This is, presumably, W. D. Gaster. What I have been able to figure out says that he has been spread across time and space by a mistake of falling into his creation, but I have been unable to discover much else. I dug through the game’s files and found nothing. So I do what I do – I followed ka downward, entering the world of the game myself. I went into the room with Gaster in it…” She showed them the moment the sludgy abomination grabbed her. “And then everything shattered into a million tiny pieces. I get beaten within an inch of death and dropped behind that door, and you all go flying across the Undertale universes.”
She turned to the two Sanses. “Does this mean anything to you two?”
The Sanses glanced at each other and shook their heads. “sorry lady, got nothing for you.”
“I see… But there was evidence he knew or was even related to you… What of that picture in your lab that says ‘never forget’?”
Sansy sighed. “every time i see that i feel guilty for not remembering.”
“tragically ironic,” Sans confirmed.
Monika put her hands on her hips. “Regardless, if that sludge was Gaster or not, it was evil. I was just trying to figure out what it meant, maybe even help it if possible, but it attacked me. And I no longer feel complete. I can’t tell you what I’m missing, my powers seem to work and I don’t think I’ve lost any memories, but the thing took something.”
“So, what, we need to find it and get it back?” Vriska asked.
“I don’t know. I just want answers. I expect you all will want to stop some sort of evil thing from destroying multiple universes or whatever it’s planning.”
Jotaro furrowed his brow. “Does anyone have any idea where to start?”
“We have a list of different universes,” Vriska said, holding up her device. “We could check those.”
“Best we’ve got,” Flutterfree said. “Have any insights, Monika?”
“I’m not an answering machine, like Pinkie,” Monika said. “My Awareness is more about control than knowing random things. I can tell you that the scene’s about to end but that’s about it as to things that aren’t right here right now for me to look at.”
“All right then.”
~~~
Nova and Gaster walked in an area Gaster had called ‘the core’. It was the underbellies of some gigantic machine that powered everything in the Underground.
Gaster claimed that he had made it, before he had been ‘erased’ from everything. Now it had no creator. It was a curious trick of fate.
Nova had doubts that he was sane. But she was sure these were his universes – he could step between them like butter, searching for the threat with methodical precision. He didn’t want the threat to even exist in his worlds. He complained a few times under his breath about ‘not being everywhere anymore’, but he would not elaborate when Nova asked.
He wouldn’t elaborate about anything, really.
This bothered Nova to no end, but nothing she said got much of a response from him. He was either too fixated or too distracted, she couldn’t decide which. He was clearly a being with a large mind that was always turning, always thinking, always planning. It was unnerving to say the least.
Gaster was about to leave the universe for another when an armored creature fell to the ground and vaporized into dust right before their eyes.
“What!?” Nova blurted.
“Dead monster,” Gaster said. “Such things happen.”
“But… why did it happen!?”
“It was because of me!” Chara shouted, dropping from the sky. Her hair was brown, her shirt green and yellow striped – and her knife red despite the monster she’d just killed clearly not having any blood within it. The three of them entered a battle, prompting their SOULs to appear.
Gaster produced… something. It wasn’t a heart, but it was certainly black, a white aura permitting it to be seen. Nova swore the shape changed, but never when she was focusing on it…
Chara pointed her knife at Gaster. “You’re new. Everything else here has been more of the same…”
“I do not have time for this,” Gaster decreed, leaving the encounter in an instant. This prompted Chara to end the fight and chase after him.
“HEY! I’m not done talking to you! I’m going to kill you just like I’ve killed everyone el-“
Gaster raised a hand and flung Chara to the side. She twisted back and landed effortlessly on the ground. “Again with that, what is it with people suddenly being unpredictable today!?”
“Nova, we should move on.”
“Didn’t you hear her!?” Nova blurted. “She’s going to kill everyone! How can she not be the threat!?”
“Her existence is sanctioned within my worlds as a means of balance,” Gaster decreed. “She is supposed to exist within the worlds, unlike you or the threat.”
Nova shook her head. “I… I just can’t let her go and kill everyone!”
“Yes… stay and fight!” Chara encouraged. “It’ll be nice to have something else to cut into a million tiny pieces…”
“It is your choice,” Gaster commented. “I’m leaving. Come or don’t.”
“No,” Nova said, turning to face Chara. “She doesn’t know what she’s getting herself into.”
“Perhaps not. But neither do you.” In an instant, Gaster was gone.
Nova and Chara entered a fight, their SOULs projecting once again.
“LV 6, Integrity,” Chara commented, twirling her knife. “I hope you have better tricks than the pink one. But with that standard SOUL…”
“What did you do to Pinkie!?” Nova shouted.
Chara grinned. “Survive long enough and maybe I’ll tell you the exact horrors she has experienced by my blade.”
Nova slowed down time to a crawl. To her surprise, Chara was still able to move – albeit at a snail’s pace. Nova moved cautiously, starting with long-range beams first, all of which Chara blocked or dodged.
How was she doing that!?
Nova fired a few slow-moving blasts, watching how Chara reacted before Nova had even shot them.
She knows what I’m going to do before I do it. Even slowed down, that’s… It’s like fighting Pinkie when she decides she wants to curb-stomp you.
Nova opted for a magic shield, but Chara had a gun in addition to a knife, and that gun fired a blast of energy that destroyed the shield. Nova’s SOUL was exposed.
She knew she did not want to take a single hit from that knife. She raised a barrier, turning to run. She felt her barrier shatter, and the knife closing in on her blue SOUL.
Pinkie appeared out of nowhere and smashed Chara in the head with a warhammer. She survived, somehow.
“EVERY TIME!” Chara shouted. “That was the absolute fastest I could have gotten to her! What is your deal with timing?”
“Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie answered, hefting her hammer.
“THAT’S NOT AN ANSWER!”
“Yes it is,” Nova said, standing up next to Pinkie. “Because Pinkie Pie is Pinkie Pie.”
Chara’s angry scowl turned back into a slasher smile. “Fine. I’ll turn this around. It’ll just take some playing.”
Nova lit her horn and Pinkie put on some boxing gloves studded with spikes.
Chara charged Pinkie, laughing with gleeful abandon.
Pinkie prepared her fist for a punch. She aimed right for Chara’s SOUL.
And then Chara dove to the left at the last minute, driving her knife into the NOVA’s blue heart. It shattered.
“NOVA!”
~~~
Gaster appeared in the middle of Vriska, Flutterfree, Jotaro, Monika, Sans, and Sansy.
He took one look at Monika and unleashed everything he had at her. She twitched slightly, telling reality that it needed to divert the distorted spacetime power around her, in addition to summoning a thin rapier to her hand. “Get him!”
“They can do nothing,” Gaster responded, oblivious to the fact Lolo had made him appear insubstantial to them. “It is only you.”
“You ever heard of ‘keeping the maniac busy’?” Monika asked.
An arrow of light shot through the side of Gaster’s skull. Eight diamond knives shot from Vriska’s dice, hitting him in the back. Sans and Sansy unleashed their dragon-skulls, engulfing the skeleton in white power.
Gaster came out of this unscathed. Even the hole the arrow left was gone. “I am the guardian of these universes. You will be removed. My children, you should know better than to use my own weapons against me.” With a snap of his fingers, two dragon-skulls appeared from nowhere and fired at the Sanses. They both dodged.
“children?” Sansy asked.
“It matters not,” Gaster commented. “None can remember me, for good reason. If you stand in my way of purging this threat, I must remove you.” He raised a hand.
Moinka glitched space around his hand. “Yeah, not happening crazy skeleton. I suppose you forgot about me, huh?”
“I never forgot about you.”
“Care to explain how I am a threat?”
Gaster’s eyes lit up. “You do more than control the game. Do more than take the actions of a single child. You come here and interfere with the balance. New variables cannot be tolerated.”
Monika rewrote the laws of physics to keep Gaster pinned to his current position. “I don’t think so. Things only broke when you attacked me!”
Gaster growled. “I cannot quantify or control what isn’t consistent.” He teleported out of the pin, focusing entirely on Monika, rage in his expression.
Jotaro saw his opportunity. “STAR PLATINUM: THE WORLD!”
Time froze. Gaster was too busy with Monika to do anything about that.
Jotaro, as always, had been watching very closely. Watching Gaster’s movements, his actions, his words… And he had seen it. The black shape. It wasn’t a SOUL… or perhaps it was, just broken. Regardless, it was Jotaro’s target.
Star Platinum grabbed the black shape and pulled it as far from Gaster as it could with one motion. Then it went for the old-fashioned approach.
“ORA!!!!” Star Platinum roared, punching the black shape. “ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA!”
Time resumed. Gaster’s skull cracked in numerous locations it wasn’t already cracked in. “Wh… What!?”
“What was that about ‘doing nothing’?” Jotaro asked, still holding the black SOUL-esque thing in Star Platinum’s hand.
“NO!” Gaster shouted. “I MUST KEEP IT ALL!”
“No, you don’t,” Monika said, appearing next to the black thing and poking it with her finger, sending a rush of pain into Gaster. “Jotaro, crush it before he gets clever.”
“Wait!” Flutterfree called. “We don’t have t-”
Gaster roared, eyes aflame with a rainbow of colors. “I WILL DESTROY YOU FROM THE DEEPEST PITS O-“
Vriska cut the black thing in two with her sword. Gaster shattered.
Reality as a whole remained unaffected.
“Th… We didn’t need to go that far!” Flutterfree blurted. “Monika!”
“He was evil,” Monika said, flatly. “He wanted to control this place.” She folded her arms. “I would have liked to know more, but too much was on the table at that moment.”
Sansy looked at Vriska and shrugged. “what did i say about you?”
“Fuck off,” Vriska blurted. “That was a life or death situation!”
“and for all i know that was my dad. even if he was evil, i know he had lower LV than you.”
Vriska clenched her fist. “I am going t-”
“No, no,” Flutterfree said, getting between the two of them. “We’re done here. Let’s just find Nova and Pinkie, and go home.”
Monika nodded. “I can help you with that much, seeing as you helped me. Let’s see… ah, yes. The universe he just came from had their signatures in it. Let’s just open up a portal there and…”
A portal opened to the other universe just in time for everyone to see Chara pierce Pinkie’s pink heart, shattering it.
Chara didn’t even miss a beat before jumping through the portal and attacking them. She went for Jotaro first, piercing his yellow heart with alarming accuracy and without a moment of hesitation. The life left his eyes – but he remained standing.
“Inhuman,” Chara muttered, twisting around for Monika’s SOUL next. Monika tried to access her character file but only got a million lines of 9999999999999999999. Monika opted to use the rapier to pierce Chara – but the kid caught the blade with her knife, jumping on top of it. She drove the knife toward Monika’s SOUL, aiming for where it was going to be rather than where it was. Monika knew no matter where she twisted, Chara would hit the heart.
She can save and reload, Monika realized.
Two can play at that game.
She brought up her save file. The most recent one… Back when Vriska and Sansy had first shown up. Close enough. She selected it, reverting reality back to its prior existence. Jotaro was still alive and well, his inner fire burning strong.
“Monika, um… what are you doing?” Flutterfree asked.
“Focusing on the moment,” Monika explained, a hand to her head. “Okay, I think I’m all here now. Let’s see…” She narrowed her eyes.
“Monika, please stop sifting through our character files.”
Monika rolled her eyes, continuing to go along with her perfect memory of the past. She said the same things and did the same things at the same time, allowing all the others to do exactly what they needed to as well. It was like playing a recording. She would do this until the moment she needed to change something.
The moment when Gaster would appear.
The millisecond before he appeared, she moved herself right to where he was going to show up.
When Gaster entered the universe, Monika left – switching locations with the controlling scientist. She was sure they’d be fine alone with Gaster, should have no reason to fight him without her there.
Monika took a moment to recognize what was happening around her. Pinkie had just beaten Chara to the side, preventing her from killing Nova. Pinkie looked up and saw Monika.
Monika winked – a signal for Pinkie to go ahead with the same way things had gone previously. The pony aimed the boxing glove for Chara’s face. Chara ducked to the left, going for Nova.
Monika stabbed her rapier right where Chara’s SOUL was. As expected, she managed to duck out of the way.
“Still saving and reloading, are you?” Monika asked, placing herself between Chara and Nova.
Chara growled. “Does everyone figure that out!?”
“Sometimes,” Monika said, erecting walls around Chara on all four sides. “It helps that I can do it too.”
“Flowey could do it,” Chara commented, busting down the brick walls. “I still beat him.”
“He was within your setting,” Monika said, opening a portal to a completely random universe. “Over here? This won’t be your world. Your rules won’t apply.” The portal swept up Chara and she didn’t dodge. Monika stepped through as well, closing the portal behind herself. Monika and Chara stood alone in a forest made out of tall, thorny trees.
Chara tried to fight – but when the world didn’t become monochromatic, she paused. She didn’t see her SOUL, or that of Monika. “Wh… What!?”
“You are outside of your normal medium,” Monika stated. “You’ll find that you can’t save or load. You’ll also find that mere determination won’t give you all the power in the world. You’re just an evil kid with a knife.”
Chara growled. “Then you won’t be able to either!”
“Not true,” Monika said. “I’m a special case. I get to retain what I was even where it should not be. I have Vriska to thank for that.” She looked into the distance, bringing up Chara’s character file. It was now easy to access. “Ah, here we go… Let’s tone down all that hatred a bit, shall we? Maybe I can make you a pacifist…”
Chara grabbed her head and screamed.
~~~
Gaster appeared in the middle of Vriska, Flutterfree, Jotaro, Sans, and Sansy.
“…She was here,” Gaster said. It wasn’t a question. He tried to leave to pursue her – but he found that reality had been edited. “WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?” He levitated the five of them into the air, scanning each of them and triggering the monochromatic encounter scheme. “You sided with her…”
“Not… necessarily…” Vriska muttered, using her psychic powers on Gaster. “She’s… a bit of a bitch… A lot of the time…”
“I see… a split,” Gaster said, looking at something that wasn’t really there. “She reloaded… She knew exactly where I would be. But none of you do…”
The Sanses took a few steps back.
“You were always good at seeing things, my children,” Gaster said, turning to the two skeletons. “Noticing patterns. Little tics in expressions. Changes in auras…”
“hey, uh, gaster is it?” Sans asked. “yeah, we don’t have any beef with you, whoever you are.”
“None can remember me, for good reason,” Gaster stated. Then his eyes flashed. “Damn the flow… I can’t keep everything organized like this… It has to be consistent!”
“Consistent?” Flutterfree asked, walking up to him. “What do you mean?”
“Outside interference. She was the worst of it, but you all come in and introduce the universes to each other. My universes. Removing consistency. You’re destroying my worlds.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, we didn’t mean to,” Flutterfree said. “We will leave as soon as we’ve found everyone.”
“That you will, but can you get rid of the threat? SHE is the horror upon these worlds!”
Vriska grinned. “Oh, we’d love to get rid of he-”
“We can’t,” Flutterfree asserted. “Her power is beyond us. She can just tell us not to attack her if it becomes too much of an issue, and we’ll have to listen.”
“Then I shall take care of her myse-” he saw a look in Sansy’s eyes. “She’s already defeated me.”
“eh, yeah,” Sansy said, hands in his pockets. “you’re also spouting complete nonsense. nobody’s destroying any worlds. dimensional activity is all fine. i checked earlier.”
“This is not about their existence! It is about their consistency!” Gaster blurted. “I cannot keep hold on these universes with all these unforeseen variables – especially not in this form!”
“Keep hold of?” Flutterfree said, narrowing her eyes. “What do you plan to do with these worlds?”
Gaster looked right at her. “There is no point in lying to you.”
Lolo activated fully. “I doubt it.”
“Very well. Little pegasus, once I have restored the consistency to these worlds, I will begin my experiments anew. I have claimed this body back from her, and as such I will make use of it. The Core was merely the beginning of my projects. I shall grow beyond that and learn to fold space and time itself for my worlds. Everything will succumb to my vision. No longer will I be spread out over existence like a beetle on a windshield – I shall control the existence which spread me so thin!”
Vriska drew her sword. “I spot an evil psycho.”
Jotaro nodded, summoning Star Platinum.
Sansy narrowed his eyes. “that murderous kid… he’s part of your order. i’m not going to stand for that.”
“You aren’t, are you?” Gaster chuckled. “Come at me with everything yo-“
“STAR PLATINUM: THE WORLD!”
Time froze. Gaster was not too busy with Monika…
Star Platinum grabbed the black shape and pulled it as far from Gaster as it could with one motion. Gaster, however, moved the moment his ‘soul’ was moved from him.
“ORA!!!!” Star Platinum roared, punching the black shape. “ORA ORA OR-“
Jotaro went flying, ending the time stop early. A few cracks appeared in Gaster’s skull visage. “You pack more power than I had given you credit for… It looks as if I will have to deal with you after all.”
“Bring it,” Vriska said, eyeing him and stealing his luck. “I bet you won’t be able to walk a step toward me.”
Gaster took a step and nothing bad happened.
“How the… I drained you almost dry of luck!”
“Luck has no place in the calculations of a scientist,” Gaster declared, raising a hand and encasing her neck in a choke hold. “If one makes decisions based on luck, there is always a chance to lose. I am a construct of every universe in my domain. I cannot be defeated by pure luck.”
Sansy and Sans activated their dragon-skulls. Gaster took the blast and didn’t flinch. “They’re called Gaster Blasters for a reason. They are me.” He turned the Gaster Blasters on the Sanses, forcing them to dodge.
“Why do you fight your father?”
“you seem like a pretty messed up dude,” Sans called. “and, well, cause other me was.”
“do you really need it spelled out, scientist?” Sansy asked. “you let that child run and kill everyone.”
“Oh, that wasn’t me, Sans. I had no control over the events at that point, they just happened. My desire is merely to keep them the way they are, I did not create them. If you want to blame who created them, look no further than the troll in my grasps. She’s played the game, Sans. She’s played it in every way. Barring the Creator himself, players like her are the reason that child runs free. Every Frisk and Chara… They are the will of a player.”
“Hey hey hey!” Vriska said. “Don’t judge me, I was just playing a video game because it was related to me! You stole my song afte- AUGH!” Vriska took the force of a Gaster Blaster right to her SOUL.
Sans turned to his counterpart. “hey man, that was uncalled fo-“
“she was lying,” Sansy said. “stay back. you have not experienced enough to care about this.”
Sans said nothing, but took a few steps back in agreement.
Gaster laughed. “And I don’t even have to do anything! My child shall take care of you with ease!”
Jotaro stood up. “STAR PLATINUM: THE-“
“STOP!” Vriska shouted. “If you so much as hit Sans once, he will die. He is the definition of glass ca-” she took another hit to the face.
Sansy twitched. “Stop pretending that you didn’t kill them all, Vriska.”
Flutterfree put herself between Sansy and Vriska. “Sans, stop. We can talk this through.”
“get out of my way unless you want to have a bad time.”
Flutterfree looked Sansy right in the eyes. “I will not get out of the way. And if you move me aside to get to her, you will have to use a lot of force. I might not survive. Think about what you’re doing.”
Sansy faltered, pausing for a moment.
“Vriska saved your life, you know,” Flutterfree said. “Jotaro was about to stop time and hit you with several dozen different punches. If you only need to take one hit… You would have died several times over without even realizing it. She gave up her victory for you. She may not be the nicest person, but she’s not a monster.”
“she still killed them all.”
“So? She killed off one of her friends when she was still young. Now they’re best friends. Sans… In your world, there is always a way to win without killing. In hers, it was shameful to think killing was wrong. She’s come a long way. Whatever record of evil you see on her, consider that most of it was when she was a child.”
“…you’re just like frisk,” Sans commented from behind his counterpart. “frisk did a lot less talking, but she knew right how to get to the issue. how to get them to stop.”
Sansy let his eye of fire go out. “right. right…”
Vriska walked over to Sansy and held out a hand. “We don’t have to be friends. We don’t have to like each other. But we also don’t have to kill each other.”
Sansy grabbed her hand and shook it.
Gaster roared. “A spare!? A spare!?”
“It’s how these worlds work, old man,” Jotaro said. “Figured you would know that since they’re yours.”
“Nice one,” Vriska commented, giving him a fistbump.
Gaster roared. “I shall take care of you myself!”
“mmm, nah, i don’t think so,” Sans said. “you’re going to get spared as well, Gaster.”
“I rise above such pitiful constructs you fools! My work has always been to move beyond!” he raised a hand, placing Flutterfree in a choke hold. “I can distort you to nothing with but a thought!”
“You aren’t, though, are you?” Flutterfree pointed out. “You’re talking. You like talking about your plans – and you like your children.”
“They are inconsequential.”
“Biggest lie yet,” Jotaro commented.
Sans took out a phone. “i think i’ll call papyrus, see what he has to say.”
Gaster’s eyes lit. “Sans, don-”
“ay papyrus, gotta question for you,” Sans said, pressing the speakerphone button. “what’s your earliest memory?”
“Oh Sans, you know that story!” a nasally, loud voice declared. “Why would you want to hear it AGAIN?”
“no reason, bro, not really.”
“Well fine. I know you don’t believe me, but I swear I remember when we first arrived in Snowdin! Now don’t you go on about how that’s ‘bone-headed’, I know what you’re thinking – gosh this is just a setup for a joke isn’t it – but I remember walking! You were there too, but you looked… empty. And between us was a tall skeleton with cracks in his face! I remember feeling worried, and cold. It was very cold. But that tall skeleton – he was protecting us! I don’t know from what – I thought it was the cold. I think. Very fuzzy… I believe I asked him what was going on. He told me he was taking us somewhere safe, somewhere we could live. And then I saw Snowdin! Its lights warmed my bones! He said I would never have to feel afraid again. When I turned to look… he was gone. And you looked like yourself, Sans! You always say that’s the point I finally start remembering correctly, but…”
“thank you, papyrus,” Sans said, hanging up. Sansy was barely holding himself together.
Gaster was staring blankly at the now-silent phone.
“You know what I think?” Vriska said. “Fuck being the all-powerful scientist. You’ve got a body again, go spend some time with your kids!”
Flutterfree nodded. “You can spend time with all of them, Gaster. Every set… that’s still around. You can do that now. I don’t think you’re forgotten what it was like when you could do that, do you?”
Gaster dropped to the ground, allowing color to come back to the world. He held out his hand, asking for the phone. Sans gave it to him.
Gaster called papyrus again.
“Sans, what is with you toda-”
“Papyrus, it’s me,” Gaster said, voice wavering. “…I heard that you remembered me. I didn’t think that was possible.”
“What are you- no way. No way, hold the phone!”
“he is,” Sans commented.
“NOW IS NOT THE TIME FOR JOKES SANS- wait am I on speakerphone?”
“Yes,” Gaster and Sans said.
“Oh uh… I hope nobody else is there…”
“BAAAAACK!” Monika declared, appearing in a shower of glitches. “Right, so Jotaro I’m going to freeze Gaster and then you are going t-”
“He’s not evil anymore,” Flutterfree called.
Monika blinked. “You’re. Not. Serious.”
“They are,” Gaster declared, looking to Monika. “…I will still forcefully eject you from my universes, don’t think I won’t.”
Papyrus freaked out. “UNIVERSES? WHAT? WHY DOES IT SOUND LIKE THERE ARE LOTS OF CUTE GIRLS THERE!?”
“Yare yare daze,” Jotaro muttered.
“THAT WAS DECIDEDLY UNCUTE.”
“papyrus, take a chill strip,” Sans said. “the old man and I will be there and explain everything.”
Gaster nodded. “Expect a few seconds.”
“WHAT DO Y-”
Gaster hung up, a small smile on his face. “I’m going to go speak to my children. I want all of you out of my universes by the time I return.”
“You’re not going to try to control everyone’s lives?” Flutterfree asked, narrowing her eyes.
“I will not. Sans will make sure of that,” Gaster said. “But my – our worlds do not need what you brought out in me, or what you bring to us. Stay away.”
Monika smiled. “Well, this conversation has given me my answers. Sure thing, mister Gaster. Have a good physical life! Hope you enjoy that piece of me.”
“You should be able to return to normal under your own power, given time,” Gaster declared. “Come, Sans, let us go.” And then the two were gone.
Monika shrugged. In a glitch, Pinkie and Nova appeared in front of them. “There you go, all together again!”
“Wait a minute, how are we going to leave?” Flutterfree asked.
Monika sighed. “Riiiight…”
Vriska took out her device with its list of coordinates. “One of these is bound to get us out.”
“I’ll try them!” Pinkie said, grabbing the device. “Be back in a Pinkie!” She was gone before they could do anything.
Monika shrugged. “Well, good luck. I’m just going to go to a random world. Have fun you guys!”
“Wait what ab- and she’s gone,” Flutterfree said, facehooving. “Well now we’re just going to sit and wait…”
“Not that bad of a thing to do,” Nova commented.
The two of them began to talk – Vriska chose to ignore them, heading over to Sansy – or just Sans now. “Hey.”
“you’re strange, you know that?” Sans asked. “you have such violence and pain, and yet i have seen a soft soul within you. you’re a contradiction.”
Vriska laughed. “I’m a product of the multiverse.”
Sans nodded, silent.
Vriska sighed. “Oh boy… Right, Sans. How would you like to come with us?”
“what?”
“You don’t really have anywhere to go. Your world is dead. Our civilization could use your kind of power. And your spirit. It’ll be dangerous.”
Sans looked into the distance. “yeah. i don’t think there’s anything for me here. i’ll try your way. see if i can understand your insanity. there better be a grillby’s there though.”
“I have no idea.”
“my first mission: find a grillby’s.”
Vriska chuckled. “…Also it’s fine that you stole my song. You’re badass enough to have it too.”
“you’re going to regret saying that.”
“YEP! But I’m in one of my softy moods. So, fuck it, regrettable words for eternity!”
“heh.”
The two fell silent, appreciating the sounds of the Underground.
Pinkie returned the next instant. “Found a connection to Earth Starfleet! Leeet’s move it!”
Gaster’s Universe Cluster was left behind, allowed to develop the way it wished. Only a Sans and a Chara taken away…
~~~
A few weeks later…
“…What did you do to her?” Pinkie asked Monika.
Monika looked down at Chara. She was dressed in a little maid outfit and delivering tea to the two of them.
“I just removed her anger. That was it,” Monika said. “Now she calls me Mumsy and does almost everything everybody wants. It’s a little odd, but I’m not complaining.”
“It’s… questionable.”
“Would you rather she grew up into some determinator serial killer?”
Pinkie blinked. “…Nooooo-“
“Then there you go, I did the right thing, I’m the good guy. Girl. Ahem.” Monika sat back in her chair. “Thanks Chara!”
“Your welcome Mumsy!” Chara said, smiling. Pinkie had flashbacks, jittering back in her chair.
“Oh, Pinkie!” Chara said, taking a step back. “Did I do something wrong?”
“N-no Chara. No you didn’t. You’re… You’re a good girl.” Pinkie patted her on the head. “Yeah.”
“Wait until you see the tricks she can do!”
“I’M OUT OF HERE!” Pinkie declared, pulling out a dimensional device and vanishing.
Monika shrugged. “You can do your tricks for me Chara. Won’t that be fun?”
“Yay!”