Skye turned and fired. Instincts honed by training directed her aim without conscious thought. A bullet shattered through the bone-like material on the monster's face, and a moment later its body had dissolved to ashes as its life ended.

She didn't like using guns, especially when she wasn't using her team's non-lethal "icers," but she was getting used to them. For monsters like these, it wasn't necessary to try and take them alive... plus, it helped her take out some of her frustration. Ever since HYDRA had turned SHIELD inside out, they'd been dealing with one wildfire after another while Coulson tried to pick up the pieces.

"I'm not liking these numbers. Even if these monsters go down easy, I've only got so many bullets!"

"SHIELD's job here is to keep the perimeter secure, so that's what we're going to do! We're keeping these 'Grimm' from turning the main fight with Salem into a numbers game!"

Both of them had their attention drawn to the sound of cracking wood and rustling leaves. Both of them raised their weapons as a massive, white-armored scorpion tore its way through the trees, coming to a stop just in front of them. It hissed and snapped its pincers in a threatening display.

"I know!" Coulson shouted, raising his gun in spite of the fact they were woefully underarmed. "Aim for the weak points! Eyes, stinger-"

Before Coulson could finish stating the obvious, another voice cut him off. "Like, TEAM ATTACK!"

A hailstorm of glowing white projectiles rained down, pummeling the scorpion hard enough to force its body to the ground. Before it had time to recover, two hulking figures leaped in, swords flashing in the moonlight. The first one sliced clean through the base of the stinger, and the second buried his cleaver-like sword in the center of its head. The monster let out a shriek before dissolving away. The two figures both looked like burly brutes in plate armor, one with a pair of long rabbit ears coming from the top of his helmet and the other with a pair of wide fin-like protrusions. Both of them were extremely muscular, and nearly as broad-chested as they were tall.

"Like, you two okay?" The bunny-eared one asked, leaning his sword on his shoulder.

"Like, no problem! All in a day's work for the Royal Guard!" He declared cheerfully. The second one nodded in affirmation, seeming to prefer to keep silent. "The Captain's doing her part, so, like, we'll make sure to do ours!"

The two creatures rushed off back into the trees, already seeming to know where their next target was.

"Monsters, magic, other worlds..." Coulson muttered quietly, "If I hadn't been reading Sunset and Penn's reports every week, I wouldn't believe it all."

"You're telling me... Those things read like some kind of self-insert fanfiction." Skye chuckled to herself. "The fact that we live in a world where they have to be taken as fact blows my mind."

"Still, that's part of what makes them so great, right?" Coulson smiled. "Reaching out into the multiverse with an open hand and a SHIELD badge? Boldly going where no one has gone before?"

Skye blinked, turning to look at him with confusion. "I thought Star Wars was your thing?"

"I can have multiple interests!" Coulson declared indignantly. "Besides, I've been learning from Penn's example, learning more about other worlds through popular media. Figure maybe it'll help to expand my repertoire."

Skye spotted more motion in the trees, Grimm waiting anxiously for the moment they let their guard down. She tightened her grip on her weapon, taking only a second to double-check her clip. "Well, Director, be careful how much time you spend binge watching. We've got enough problems in our own universe."

"A universe which, to be frank, I cannot WAIT to get back to..." Coulson muttered, locking a new magazine into place. "Once this is all over, I no longer feel bad about what I'm gonna be putting on their shoulders."

Skye looked at the numerous red eyes glowing in the dark. She knew she needed to conserve ammo, which meant waiting for these monsters to make the first move. She tightened her grip on her gun, keeping Agent May's training in mind to keep herself calm.

They needed to stick to the plan. From the moment Penn had shouted the code word for Undyne to move in, they'd closed the trap on Salem. SHIELD and the monsters' Royal Guard were responsible for making sure that trap STAYED closed. They had to keep the perimeter ironclad, nothing in and nothing out. That was the plan they'd all made together.

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"I'm trying, but everything I throw at it gets redirected, somehow!" Undyne huffed. "Must be another one of those special abilities it has, we can't attack it directly!"

Both of their attention was drawn by the sounds of explosions and a flash of orange light.

Toriel and Asgore were both focusing their fire on Salem, literally. They had each taken up a position on opposite sides of the camp and were using fire magic to assault the witch together. Golden flames coalesced and merged into a towering inferno, a vortex hot enough to set the nearby trees smoldering without even touching them. Undyne hissed and flinched backwards at the heat, and even Sunset had to take a step back to shield her eyes.

"Release your hold on the angel AT ONCE, witch!" Asgore roared, his booming voice somehow managing to carry over the sound of the fire.

Toriel seemed to be enraged beyond words, tears flowing freely as she focused all of her energy on reducing Salem to ashes.

The vortex shuddered, then began to slow in its rotation. All of the motion of the fire, every burning wisp, ground to a halt. For a moment, the glowing embers and glowing gases all hung in the air like a great, ethereal statue of light. Moments later, however, it began to collapse. The structure warped and folded in on itself, pulling itself to the center of a dark mass at its heart until it was nothing more than a single spark glowing in Salem's hand, one that snuffed itself out a moment later. When it had been extinguished, a chill rippled through the air, extinguishing the trees and grass that had been set alight and completely wiping out all signs of warmth.

Asgore took only a moment to recognized what had happened before changing tactics. He grabbed his trident from his back, eyes flashing rapidly with a mix of blue and orange flashes. He closed the distance to Salem faster than the eye could see, his weapon glowing with matching magical power. He executed a series of slashing attacks, each one glowing with alternating types of magic. Each one seemed to tear through Salem's body with ease, leaving behind a colored trail of magic, but the black ichor would burn straight through it to reconnect the pieces.

Asgore's final attack brought his trident down with both hands hard enough to lift him into the air, sending him flying up and back away from Salem.

As he came to a landing, the two halves of Salem's body hung and sagged, split perfectly down the center vertically. Sunset wasn't surprised to see a lack of any internal organs or structures, there was only more ichor inside, proving that she was truly rotten to the core. For a second, the two halves twitched and pulled towards one another, only to collapse to the ground in a splatter. They both melted down into a puddle of the sludge, seeming to have become inert.

"No." One of Undyne's eyes glowed violet as she reached out her left hand. "She just wants us to THINK we did." Purple shields materialized around the puddle, looking ready to fit into a sphere. The sludge, however, seemed to realize what was happening and moved of its own accord, slipping through and beginning to dart through the grass as a shadow.

"She can DO that?" Sunset's eyes darted from side to side, trying to pick out the movement against the dark of the night.

Sunset felt a pair of arms wrap around her as she was tackled from the side. A second later, another blast of energy from Salem's "Earthbound Immortal" tore apart the earth where she had been standing, carving a channel deep into the ground. Sunset's eyes widened as she felt herself being placed feet-first on the ground again, looking up to see Undyne wiping a bead of sweat from her forehead.

Sunset didn't even need a second to recognize the feeling of one of her negative premonitions before her blade was out and at the ready. The red glow was just enough to illuminate the shadow at their feet before it sprung up into the dark figure of Salem, her body re-forming inches from her face.

In that moment between Salem's reconstitution and her attack, Sunset saw something that sent a tremor through her entire body.

It wasn't the visage of twisted rage across the witch's face, the trails of black tears or the bloodlust in her eyes that put a layer of frost over Sunset's soul. It was the change. That feeling that a mask had slipped, momentarily exposing an overwhelming anger, that promise that Salem would do everything in her power to bring them to utter damnation...

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"You know what made me the most angry? What was the most infuriating thing about the whole situation?"

It was getting harder and harder to think reasonably with every second that passed. He could barely keep a grip on consciousness. Penn tried to open his mouth to make a remark, only for the handle of Torchwick's cane to collide with the side of his head. If Neo's impalement hadn't been keeping him pinned to the tree behind him, he would have definitely been knocked to the ground.

"It was when Neo and I actually looked into who you REALLY are! The pizza guy? We were fooled by THE PIZZA GUY from the middle of nowhere?" Torchwick grabbed at the bridge of his nose. "Imagine if that got out! My reputation as a criminal mastermind would be ruined!"

What do I do? What's the play? What's the card? Penn's mind was racing, but there weren't any ideas coming. It was like spinning tires in a mud puddle. Isis is busy, Missy's been taken, Sunset and the others are already occupied... Where's Plan D?

"Not to mention the pony girl. You think I can live with myself knowing I was foiled by the magic of friendship?" Torchwick brought his cane down on the crown of Penn's head.

His thoughts were getting fuzzy. The plan had been to keep everyone together, keep Salem's target as focused as possible in a narrow perimeter. But he'd had a backup in case they got separated... what was it?

"Honestly, getting to rough you up a little before we hand you over to Salem is more than I could have asked for." Roman leaned down to Penn's level. "Don't worry, you're not going to bleed out before we give you to her. But you know what IS going to happen? You see, Neo is a professional. She knows exactly-" it was here that Neo gave the blade in his gut a slow twist.

"-what she's doing. She nailed you right near the bottom of your stomach, clean through." Torchwick took a moment to pat her on the head. "You're not going to bleed to death. Your stomach acid is just going to slowly leak out until you melt from the inside. That way, you can get a taste of what it's like to have something constantly eating you up inside like we have for the last few months."

There was a code word, like with Undyne. He'd told everyone a million times over not to move unless they heard the code word. His head was just too blurry to think of it.

"Salem will be able to make sure you don't die, I'm sure." Torchwick waved off the unspoken concern, practically having a conversation with himself at this point, given how little of Penn's mind was still living in the moment. "And then comes the most satisfying tradeoff I've ever made. The witch gets you, and we get Sunset Shimmer and her little angel."

Penn blinked, the statement managing to cut through the haze of shock and pain enough to pull him back out of his own thoughts.

Roman grabbed his cane and leveled the gun end at Penn's forehead, making it clear he was ready to completely blow it off with the pull of a trigger, despite any orders he had otherwise.

"Don't get any bright ideas or heroic notions, buddy! As much as I like being on the winning side, that's a deal I'm eager to complete and get on my merry way. Working with Salem isn't exactly what I'd call a highlight of my career. Once we extract every ounce of value they've cost us by botching up our plans with the White Fang, we're going to take off and go pull off a few cross-universal heists!" He turned to Neo, a smile playing at his lips. "The little girl could definitely pass as a faunus to our friends at the SDC mines, right? I wonder how much we could get for-"

Penn growled and spat every ounce of venom he could muster into his next word, cutting Roman off. His rage was boiling over as he reached down and wrapped his hand around the end of Neo's umbrella, readying himself to pull it out.

All of them seemed equally surprised by the word that had left his mouth. It wasn't the word he'd intended to say, certainly.

"What?" Penn blinked, confusion settling in as his thoughts began to slow to a halt. In spite of all the panic and terror of his position, a sleepy calm was beginning to settle over his mind.

"What?" Roman raised an eyebrow, his finger beginning to tighten around the trigger.

Penn hand and mouth began to move on their own, tugging the blade out of his stomach with what now felt like a minimal effort.

"Error. Onboard Sympathetic Synthesis Module has failed. Shutting down simulated consciousness."

Oh. Right. THAT was the plan... No backup was coming because "Penn" wasn't here.

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"Nrrrrgh..." Penn growled to himself as he watched the chaos unfolding from his hiding place. He hadn't wanted to run and hide, not with so many other people out there fighting and putting their lives on the line for him. It didn't feel right not to be IN the fight, himself, but Missy AND his partner had both been quick to point out that, in a duel, giving your opponent a direct line to their goal was a recipe for disaster.

The royal monsters both jumped back just as Salem's spell sent a blast of dark energy ripping through the air around her. Penn could see that Asgore's armor had taken a beating, and Toriel was clearly panting for breath out of exhaustion.

Penn gritted his teeth. "I'll give it a little longer, but you don't have to fight this whole battle by yourself, that's what the B-Team is for. When I say you need to switch out, you NEED to switch out..."

He sighed and reclined back in his seat. So far, the perimeter was holding without any casualties, but that was going to be limited by ammunition stores. We have to wear her down quickly...

"What?" Penn's eyes widened. "Critical damage" meant a blow that would have been lethal if it had happened to his real body. He'd known it was a possibility, but he'd never expected it to happen so quickly. "Did that monster really hit it THAT hard?"

Penn leaned over to peer at the battlefield as best he could. "I was wondering where they had gotten to... good thing Undyne told us they'd joined up with Salem. Can the LMD handle them with the damage it's taken?"

"Hmm..." Penn hummed to himself as he rubbed at his chin in thought. "If we can't wear her down physically, we might need to distract her mind long enough for the opening we need..."

"No, I'll do that. You focus on taking care of Roman and Neo. How's the field trap coming?"

BOOOOONG! BOOOOOOONG! BOOOOOONG! The air was pierced by the sound of a clock tower's bell ringing, and Penn carefully counted the bongs.

"You're right on schedule. Keep it up." He couldn't stop his foot from anxiously bouncing up and down on the brake pedal, even with the engine off in the car. "I want to get in there..."

"I know, I know..." he grumbled, leaning back further into his seat. "I hate that you're right. I hate this plan."

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That was the only thought coherent enough to stand out from the maelstrom of horror and panic in Missy's mind. Uru's webs burned against her skin as her limbs hung limp and unresponsive, completely at the command of another. Every card in her deck had already run through her mind, and none of them could get her out of this situation.

Her hands moved on their own, reaching into her pocket and drawing another card. She didn't even take the time to look at it as it dissolved into a glowing orb of white light and joined the rest floating around her head. Salem's plan was obvious: she was going to force her to destroy her own friends with her instant win condition, and Missy couldn't stop her.

There was supposed to be a limit to Uru's ability, fading at the end of Salem's "turn" so that control of the taken card would go back to its owner, but with everyone moving so quickly back and forth with their attacks, she never had more than a moment of freedom to gasp for air before Uru reasserted its control. Combined with Salem's army of grimm to keep sacrificing to it, there was no way for her to call out for the others to slow down.

How was it even possible for Salem to bring such a powerful duel spirit across the dimensional barriers? She could feel that Uru was wrapped up in the trappings of dark magic, with some kind of spell anchoring it in the present, but she couldn't get close enough to sort out exactly WHAT Salem had done to it.

Tears brimmed in her eyes as she watched everyone else fighting. They were only barely able to keep up with Salem, and she was SUPPOSED to be helping them!

I HAVE to help them... please... Just let me help them... she could only plead out her wish to whatever gods were listening.

"Wait, you haven't beaten this guy yet?" a voice replied. Instantly, Missy's attention snapped back to the present, and for the first time she noticed a feeling of something standing just behind her, hovering just past her shoulder. Anyone else would likely have panicked at such a feeling, but the force behind her was an aura she knew well, and she felt a wave of relief wash over her.

"Yeah... about that. I'm still stuck. You're just gonna have to deal with this joker yourself."

Like a candy bowl turned upside down, Missy felt all of her hope drop out of the bottom of her stomach. WHAT?

"Come on, don't tell me you're actually STRUGGLING with this overgrown house pest!"

Missy wished that she could turn around and look her sister right in the eyes, if only to give her incredulous look face to face. It's an EARTHBOUND IMMORTAL! With three THOUSAND attack points AND an effect that lets it take control of me!

"I'm sorry, I didn't know I was talking to the Calculator! I must be visiting the wrong deck."

"Ah, there's my mistake, I was looking for a duel SPIRIT called the Ghostrick Angel of Mischief, not a duel COMPUTER called the Ghostrick Angel of Serious Business!"

"Let me ask you something. I think Sunset's an idiot, and I want to preface all of this with that, but... haven't you two been through worse than this? Hell and high water, at the times when everything seemed hopeless, you two stuck together as partners and supported each other. Somehow, you two managed to overcome every obstacle that the multiverse could throw at you so far!"

For a moment, Missy's vision blurred and swam. A firm hand reached around and took hold of her chin, pointing it upwards to stare at Uru. Somehow, she could see something now that she couldn't before: black chains mixed in among the spiderwebs, keeping it locked and anchored to the world around it. The largest of the chains wrapped around the place where its head met the rest of its body and was firmly tied around Salem's waist.

"Why would you ever doubt that your bond was ten times stronger than theirs? This isn't an ordinary duel, Missy. There aren't turns and draw phases and all of those trappings of the modern era of 'Yu-Gi-Oh.' This is a type of battle much, MUCH older than that."

Missy's eyes widened as the meaning of her words struck something deep and instinctive in her core.

"You're so much stronger than you think you are. Sunset might call it 'the magic of friendship,' but do you know what WE call the sacred bond that empowers duel spirits?"

Missy took a deep breath and slowly closed her eyes. She focused all of her thoughts on Sunset. This time, rather than fear for her safety, Missy thought about their time together. She remembered the first time she'd drawn on Sunset's faith to cross the dimensions. It had lasted only a second, long enough to give her a hard shove forward, but it had felt so... right. From their first duel, the moment they had met, they had trusted each other with their very souls. She remembered the safe feeling of being wrapped up in Sunset's arms when she had been on the brink between life and death, and the feeling of Sunset's determination flowing through her and healing her wounds in Alphys's lab.

Her once-numb hands began to twitch and tingle. Her fingers spread out and reached to the webbing tied around her, taking a firm hold of it. What had once felt like a red-hot searing was now nothing but a slight warmth in the thread. With her grip tight, she began to pull, bringing her arms in from their spread-eagle pose and causing all of the webbing to creak and strain as it was stretched to its limit. It felt effortless, and she couldn't help but wonder how she had ever been held by those strands.

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Toriel had been knocked out cold, Asgore was on his knees and struggling to stand, and Undyne was gasping for breath and soaked in sweat as she stood steadfastly between Sunset and Salem. Even her spears and shields had lost most of their polish. Now they were just simple colored shapes, blocks and lines instead of her usual harpoons and shields.

Sunset felt bad to see them all in such sorry shape. They had each been taking turns distracting Salem, drawing her attention and trying to wear her down in the hopes that Sunset could deal the finishing blow by saving her strength.

Salem, meanwhile, was brushing a small amount of ash from her shoulder. She looked up to Uru and wordlessly pointed at them. The massive spider turned its gaze on Sunset and Undyne, its mandibles parting to collect more of its violet energy into a ball of power.

"Hey, not to say that Penn's plan was bad..." Undyne muttered, gritting her teeth as she summoned more shields to try and protect them from the oncoming attack, "but is there a point here where we start WINNING?"

Sunset wished she had a good answer as the violet orb of flames appeared to reach critical mass. Uru reared back before spitting the fireball in their direction. It was too massive to dodge, and Sunset had a sinking feeling that Undyne's shields wouldn't be enough to protect them, this time.

In that moment, however, a dark shape slipped past her, dodging around Undyne and under their wall of violet shields. A spindly frame with a large, round head interposed itself between them and the attack, raising up an object to the sky.

The fireball slowed in its path, then came to a complete stop. The wisps of flames were all drawn into the object, causing Uru's attack to shrink until there was nothing left of it. As the lamp in its hand drank up the last of the unholy fire, Sunset was finally able to recognize the figure who had come to their rescue.

"It CAN stop one attack by special summoning itself..." Sunset watched as Lantern floated back down to eye-level, smugly adjusting its cape and the pumpkin it wore on its head. "But, if Lantern is here..."

Sunset could barely make out the shape of Missy as she weaved her way in and out between Uru's legs, trailing the webs that had been previously keeping her prisoner behind her. Sunset's eyes widened as the webbing was all pulled taut, pulling all of the spider's legs into a tight column underneath it. Even with a face that seemed incapable of expressing any emotions, Sunset could sense that Uru was as confused as any of them as Missy came to a stop just over its head. Sunset couldn't help but smile, knowing even at a distance that Missy was grinning from ear to ear as she gently tapped the tip of her foot against its head.

With an unholy screech, Uru toppled like a falling tree. As it fell, its body began to glow with violet light that grew brighter until its shape became completely indistinct, then faded away entirely, leaving nothing but a bad memory where it had once been standing.

"Well, pretty cool, huh?" Missy's voice asked as Sunset felt a light weight press down on her shoulder. Turning to look, Sunset found that Missy had somehow reappeared right beside her, leaning on her shoulder with a smug grin. "So, what did I miss?"

"MISSY!" Sunset grabbed her friend and held her tight against her chest, hugging her with every ounce of strength she had. "How did you-"

"Heart of the cards!" She winked. "Big Sis needed to give me a bit of a pep talk, but I figured it out eventually!"

"Chalk up another one we owe your mysterious sister..." Sunset muttered it as though she resented owing the favor, but her tears of relief gave away her true feelings.

Missy squirmed her way out of Sunset's grip, floating away just far enough to look at Salem and place her hands on her hips.

"I don't know what kind of black magic you were using to keep Uru around, but it's not gonna work twice! Duel spirits don't like it when people play around with us!" After a second, she seemed to reconsider her statement. "Okay, we DO like when people play games with us, but not like that- you know what I mean!"

Salem didn't seem perturbed by Missy's outrage, and whatever shock she'd had at losing her monster had worn off in seconds. Out of the corner of her eye, Sunset saw Salem's finger twitch, and a crimson glyph appear underneath Missy. Black tendrils erupted out, reaching to grab at her.

Missy didn't even flinch as she responded, a trap card materializing seemingly out of nowhere between her fingers. A section of the ground underneath her separated into a spinning doorway, winding up the Grimm tentacles like thread on a spindle and completely shredding them.

"Like I said the first time we met... You're just a sorry excuse for a spellcaster. I've seen better dark magicians that exist purely to be fanservice." Missy narrowed her eyes in a show of anger, but it wasn't enough to hide the smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "Your magic might be hot stuff back in Remnant, but casters are a dime a dozen in the multiverse. So, I'm going to give you..." she held up a single finger, and Sunset could hear the sound of a clock tower beginning to ring behind them.

"...to walk away..." Missy raised a third finger, and another bell rang out to match it.

Four rings. That was the sign. She and Undyne each glanced at each other, and with a quick nod, Undyne dove down into the ground, disappearing from sight as she set off swimming through the earth. Sunset followed her lead, beginning to step back and away from the battlefield. She kept her eyes on Missy, trying to make it look as though she was giving her space for whatever spell she was going to cast next, but in her mind she was counting how many more steps she needed to get out of Isis's range.

"Taking out Uru was her way of firing off a warning shot. If I were you, I'd take it, Sally."

Sunset didn't consider herself a phenomenal actress, but her cry of fear had enough real emotion in it to sound genuine to her own ears. This was the part of the plan with the second highest chance to backfire. If Salem realized that there was something suspicious about her quarry suddenly stepping into reach, all of this work could be for naught. In spite of his smug grin and jab at her name, Sunset could see Penn's hands shaking as he clenched them tight at his sides: he was terrified.

Salem spun around, snatching Penn by his throat and lifting him up into the air. Even at a distance, Sunset could see the burning hatred in her eyes as her grip tightened.

Penn was gripping at her hand to try and pry it off of his neck, but three words managed to push their way through his pinched-off windpipe.

Sunset jumped back the last few steps into safety, ducking behind a particularly thick tree trunk for safety. "CLEAR!"

Missy darted straight up into the air, flying up past the treeline and into the sky. "CLEAR!"

"CLEAR!" Undyne declared, carrying Toriel on her back as Asgore leaned on her shoulder to limp out of the clearing.

The truth of the situation seemed to dawn on Salem as metal rods began to spring up around the edge of the clearing, each topped with a crackling metal coil. She tried to run, only to find both of Penn's hands wrapped tight around her wrist to hold her inside the circle. She snarled and pulled harder, but Penn held fast, keeping her locked inside with him. He chuckled weakly as the whining from the electrical coils grew to a fever pitch.

"You know what your big mistake was, chasing us all this way? You gave us something we've never had in all of our travels..." His smile widened as arcs of crackling white energy leaped between the posts, then up into the air to form a cage around them.

"You..." Salem's hand crackled with dark energy as she reached around his grip to try and counterattack.

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Roman gritted his teeth as "Penn" calmly blocked a series of attacks from Neo with one hand. There was no waver in "his" posture from the force of the blows, even with Neo putting her full weight behind them.

"A ROBOT? We got tricked by a ROBOT?" he muttered to himself as he leveled his cane and fired. The android simply swayed its head to the side, letting the bullet pass by harmlessly.

"So, what? The real one was too much of a coward to come out here and fight us, himself? Still hiding behind shields?" Roman was, of course, simply trying to get a rise out of the AI piloting it. If he had the option to have his own robotic body double, he'd take it in a heartbeat, it was the smart thing to do. But right now, they were losing... and if little miss "superior intelligence" here doesn't start making mistakes, I don't know how we're gonna get out of this!

Judging by the complete lack of a change in Isis's level-headed blocks and dodges, it didn't seem like trying to rile her up was going to work.

He glanced back towards the main battlefield. I would have thought Salem would be here to grab him by now, even if it WAS a fake! How long could it take HER to take out a couple of kids?

When his answer came, it came in the form of a massive flash of light and an earth-shattering thunderclap. Moments later, a gust of wind carried a heatwave over them and lifted Roman completely off of his feet, only to collide with the earth again a second later.

For a second everything was dull and blurry, just shapes in semi-darkness. A long time ago, when Roman had been younger and more stupid, he'd gotten busted by some dumb cops, and they'd used something similar as their opening move. He couldn't say that "flashbangs" had gotten any more pleasant as he'd gotten older and wiser.

Before the ringing in his ears had stopped, a pale hand was being offered to him. He turned it down and staggered back to his feet, refusing the embarrassment of needing to be helped up by Neo.

Isis's Penn-lookalike robot had frozen. It was standing in place, slumped forward with its arms dangling freely as if it had fallen asleep standing up. Roman glanced at Neo, who simply grimaced and shrugged to absolve herself of any responsibility.

"Guess whatever THAT was, it knocked it out..." he muttered. He didn't hold himself back from smiling as he placed the barrel of his cane gun against the robot's temple. With a squeeze of the trigger, a blast of fiery force sent it flying up against the tree, where it settled to smolder with half of its head missing. "Still, best not to take any chances!"

Neo nodded and stepped up to give the scrapped robot a kick in the stomach, only to wind up silently cursing and clutching her foot in her hands seconds later. With another glare, she stabbed the blade of her umbrella into the opening in its skull, resulting in a shower of sparks.

Neo leaped back as the body began to twitch and convulse, eyes wide with fear, and Roman tightened his grip on his cane. There was no way this thing could be functional at this point, right? We've practically destroyed its entire head!

The body began to shudder and twitch for several more seconds before seeming to settle with a long, deep breath. It sat up, hands traveling over its body before settling delicately on feeling at the jagged edges of its torn-open head.

"Oh. Well, THAT'S not pleasant..." it muttered in Penn's voice. "Guess I really AM the copy this time, huh?"

Torchwick took careful aim, looking to finish what he had started: removing its head.

In the same moment "Penn" turned to look in their direction, Torchwick fired again. In another explosion, the rest of the android's head shattered and countless pieces were thrown further into the forest as shrapnel. There was a beat as the bot stopped moving again. He and Neo both glanced at each other, each one questioning whether or not they were finished.

"OH COME ON!" Torchwick cried, marching up to the robot and moving to jam the end of his cane down its neck and blast it from the inside.

Instead, its hand grabbed the end, stopping him short. The torso turned up towards him as if its head were looking straight at him.

"Now then, if I have this right, I only have until this electrical interference wears off before Isis takes control again and shuts me down for good..." It reached up to knock at the place where its head used to be with its free hand. "But I guess being a digital simulation of somebody has its perks!"

Roman yanked hard on his weapon three times before the robot let go, sending him stumbling backwards. His eyes widened as he realized that the entire barrel had been crushed shut. The robot rose to its feet and bushed itself off as if it were trying to preserve some semblance of its former presentability. A second later, its hand shot into a nearby tree with shocking force, splintering the wood and ripping out a long, sharp shard.

"Now... why don't you remind me what you were planning to do with Sunset and Missy, and I'll take a little time to get creative. I plan to make the most out of our time together..."

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Sunset slowly lowered her hands from her ears and carefully opened her eyes after screwing them shut to protect her eyes from the flash. The tree had protected her from most of the blast, but her ears were still ringing. Everything inside of the perimeter of Isis's attack had been reduced to ashes, aside from two silhouettes in the smoke... neither of which were moving.

One of the figures shivered and shuddered before stepping away from the other. Everyone stayed quiet, waiting for the sign of who had survived the blast. As they walked closer, Sunset reached for her saber. If it was Salem, then they needed to be ready.

There was a long wheeze and, with a puff of smoke from his mouth, the layer of ashes across Penn's body all shrugged off at once. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Sunset was reminded of a cartoon character shrugging off a poorly-timed stick of dynamite.

"PENN!" Sunset rushed forward and wrapped her arms around him, hugging him as tightly as she could. She felt her worry fade as his arms wrapped around her in return, giving her that same feeling of warmth and safety they had from the first time they'd met.

"Wow... THAT was a bigger explosion than I was expecting..." Missy murmured as she floated back down to eye level. "What happened? Alphys said they'd absorb the spent magic from the fight and throw it back at her, not blow us all to kingdom come!"

Penn hummed thoughtfully as he glanced over the smoking crater. "I think that you might have overcharged them when you dispelled Uru... We'll have to ask Isis once we have signal again."

All of them looked at the glorified human-shaped stick of carbon that was left where Salem had been standing.

"So... is it over? Was that the plan?" Undyne's voice asked. The three of them glanced over in her direction, spotting the top of her head poking out of a hole in the ground. "We really shoulda opened with that."

"Wouldn't have worked without time and ambient magic being cast to charge it..." Penn rubbed at the back of his neck as he and Sunset looked at each other. She felt her stomach begin to twist itself into knots as she recognized the unspoken apology behind his eyes. "And no, this isn't over. It's going to take her a little longer to regenerate, maybe a few hours, but she'll be back... which is why we need to do one last thing. Sunset?"

Sunset took a deep, shuddering breath as the dread of what she was about to attempt settled in. She gave him one last hug, relishing in the feeling of safety before finally letting him go and beginning to march towards the center of the clearing. She took a moment to glare at what was left of Salem's contorted snarl as one of her hands wrapped around her geode. She mustered up all of the distaste and loathing she could before placing her other hand on Salem's shoulder.

They had been right: she could still feel the same sea of rage and pain that she had encountered before, but now it was calmer, more distant... manageable. They'd worn her down enough for Sunset to take an honest shot at their goal without being overwhelmed.

Of course, THIS was the part of the plan that was the MOST likely to backfire.

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She was back in Canterlot High... or so it would have seemed, if Sunset hadn't known better.

She'd never tried turning her magic on herself, mostly out of fear of setting off another feedback loop, but desperate times called for desperate measures, and everything SEEMED stable, for now.

"Well, could have been worse..." she muttered, scuffing the bottom of her sneaker against the floor. "At least it's more organized than Penn's!"

She took a moment to reminisce as she walked down the hallways. Each door was labeled, some larger than others to indicate a larger amount of memories stored behind it.

For a moment, she paused and brushed her fingers against a pair of massive double doors: Rainbooms. She could hear laughter and see figures running around behind the frosted glass, and part of her desperately wanted to step inside, just for a moment... but she forced herself to move on. The memories of her friends from the past might have been able to help her, but a memory of the Elements of Harmony wasn't likely to have the raw power to overcome Salem. She had a plan, and they needed to keep moving.

She passed a janitor's closet with a padlock on it labeled Celestia Revenge Plans. She couldn't help but be happy about the amount of dust that had collected on THAT particular doorknob. Her days of plotting against Equestria were long behind her.

Finally, she felt a twisting in her gut that told her she was getting close to where she wanted to be, and she came to a stop outside the door she had come here to see.

"The fact you think you're capable of doing so is amusing..." Salem's voice replied as she emerged from Sunset's shadow, digging long, sharp nails into her shoulders. "Your friend attempted a similar gambit, but YOU have no inner demons to rescue you when you realize you cannot destroy me here."

"I'm not looking to destroy you with my mind... I just want to show you something." Sunset reached for the doorknob and swung the door open with a loud creak. "If you're so invincible, there's not going to be much in MY memories that can hurt you, right?"

She didn't wait for a response as she stepped through the door, letting it slowly swing shut behind her.

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The tension in the air felt like the entire world was holding its breath together. Compared to the chaos and cacophony of battle a few short minutes ago, this kind of quiet seemed impossible for the world to return to after so long. In the pit of her chest, Missy could feel a deep pang of melancholic dread from Sunset. If they wanted a chance to use Salem's curse to their advantage, Sunset was going to need to relive some painful memories.

"You really think that this will work?" She glanced up at Penn, trying to get a clear read of his expression. Most of his face was relaxed, but his lips were pulled into a tight line in an effort to hold back a cringe, and his eyes were locked on Sunset and Salem, taking in every detail possible. She'd seen that face before in his duels, back when she'd been little more than a scrap of paper sitting on a lunchroom table: it was his attempt at a poker face. It wasn't the resignation of a losing hand, but it wasn't the smug comfort of a winning combo. It was the face of a man for whom everything was riding on a single card, and was silently praying his opponent wasn't expecting it.

Penn didn't seem to have a response to that, returning to tight-lipped silence. The meaning, of course, was obvious: I have my doubts. Missy decided to move on.

"It was stupid of you to come out like that. What's the point of all this if Salem had just jumped straight to killing you?"

"Did you have a better idea to lure her into the trap?" Penn replied curtly. "You saw that she had time to realize what was happening. If I hadn't been here to anchor her down, it wouldn't have worked. It was the best way."

"No, I mean if it hadn't worked." Missy put her hands on her hips. "The rules for using card magic outside of a duel are hazy at best, you're lucky it counted you as the duelist and not one of the monsters in play once you stepped onto the field!"

Penn's mouth sealed shut again for a few seconds as he seemed to mull over her words. "Trusting the heart of the cards got me out of Evernight Castle alive. I chose to trust that it would see me through again." His expression softened somewhat as his focus settled purely on Sunset for a moment. "Besides, I would have survived. I have to. I made Sunset a promise that I'd get her and her friends home, remember?"

Missy wanted to get angry at him for having such a cavalier attitude, but she just dreaded what kind of recklessness that kind of mindset could inspire.

"You already proved you can die on this trip, remember? You don't have magical plot armor, or something. Sunset might come from a world where happy endings are guaranteed, but you don't."

Penn grimaced, but nodded. "Isis and I have been putting together a project for containing... powerful paracausal creatures." He glanced down at his palm, flexing his fingers in and out thoughtfully. "The prototype is on its way, it should be enough to keep Salem under wraps if we can get her inside."

Missy sighed and looked back at Sunset, her hand still firmly grasping the charcoal-like texture of Salem's shoulder.

There was a crunch of footsteps approaching behind them, and both of them turned to see Asgore and Undyne walking up to the group, having clearly overheard the tail end of their conversation. The king was still leaning on her shoulder for support, but he seemed to have been spared any grievous injury in the fight.

"At first, I thought your numerous contingency plans to be absurd overpreparation, Penn..." Asgore sighed and straightened his posture. "I see now that I was incorrect. This 'Salem' was a foe unlike any I have seen. Even the human who entered the Underground did not possess such powerful magic on top of the ability to heal all wounds."

"She could have done much worse." Penn made the statement quietly, as if trying not to let Fate hear him. "We don't know what the upper limit of magic is in Remnant, but immortality has made her inefficient in a one-on-one fight, even sluggish at times. She'd rather make someone terrified with her invulnerability than finish them quickly, she enjoys playing the long game. She lives to see the moment you realize what you're doing is futile, watch the hope die in your eyes." He let out a long sigh, and some of the tension seemed to release as he rubbed the back of his neck. "Honestly, I think that if she'd been more focused on killing us than scaring us in our final moments, she would have won pretty quickly."

"One of the first lessons a duelist learns is to never underestimate your opponents." Missy smirked. "If you let your opponent set up properly, there's no telling who will win no matter WHAT deck they're playing!"

"Then we are lucky that, despite her many years, she is not as skilled in short-game tactics as you." Asgore gave Penn's shoulder a pat. Something about the statement seemed to make Penn uneasy, though, and he reached for his phone.

Estimated time to interference dissipation:
2:37

"More than two minutes?" Missy's eyes widened. "I thought she only estimated forty-five seconds of downtime!"

"Well, that was before you dissipated an Earthbound Immortal and overcharged all the capacitors picking up the spent magical energy..." Penn sighed and shoved his phone back into his pocket.

"You're welcome!" Missy muttered as she turned back to look at Sunset and Salem. Sunset could almost have been mistaken for a statue, if not for the slight motion of her breathing and the soft glow of magical light beneath her eyelids. Opposite her, however, splotches of Salem's skin were beginning to chip and flake off, exposing pale, healed skin beneath as black sludge flowed into the cracks and crevices in her deeply burned surface.

Everything, including their survival was riding on Sunset Shimmer for the next two and a half minutes. She mouthed a silent prayer to the god cards that their plan would succeed.

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The child. The child was here, standing at the end of the hallway. The only signs of their previous battle was a few scratches and small tears in their sweater. Other than that, they looked just as nonplussed as they had the last time Sunset had seen them.

Penn had been determined not to let the kid past him. Undyne equally, if not more so. There was no way that they would have let this happen, unless... Sunset shook her head, forcing the thought from her mind. Just because the kid made it past them doesn't mean the worst has happened. I've gotta trust Penn.

Sunset felt Papyrus's hands grip around her waist, lifting her up and over his head before setting her gently on her feet. She felt her knees wobble for a second, and Papyrus's hand caught her by the arm, slowly lowering her to the ground. For just a second, she noticed a change in the skeleton's face, a change in the shape of his eye sockets and a fade of his ear-to-ear grin that seemed to communicate a different, more pained emotion.

"Stay here..." he whispered. In that instant, Sunset felt that she was seeing past a facade, that some portion of hidden feelings had slipped through.

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The memory ground to a halt. Sunset knew that they hadn't even gotten to the most painful part, yet.

"I already know about all of this. I have been watching you for some time." Salem declared, and Sunset could feel her rolling her eyes just from the tone of her voice.

"Maybe you have, but you haven't seen it through my eyes, have you?" Sunset forced herself to ignore the pounding of her heart against her ribcage. "I think there's more to this that you couldn't have seen from the outside, and I want to show it to you."

"Very well, then I'll entertain you a bit longer. I believe I'll enjoy seeing this regardless."

Salem's voice was as calm and measured as it had ever been, casting doubt on their plan. Sunset hesitated for a moment to continue, but she needed to believe that Penn was right, and this was the key to everything. She forced herself to take a deep breath, then surrendered to the flow of memory.

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After another few moments of silence, Frisk tightened their grip on their knife, making it clear that they were declining Papyrus's offer of mercy. Their eyes seemed to catch the red light of the "Welcome to Hotland" sign, gleaming with murderous intent. Sunset watched Papyrus sigh in resignation before gritting his teeth more tightly. Beside her, Mettaton began stretching his arms, finishing the action by mimicking cracking his knuckles.

"Very well! Then let the battle commence!" Papyrus declared. His hand twisted, turning to face its palm upwards before he swung it up towards the ceiling. Sunset's eyes widened as more glowing bones forced their way up and out of the ground, their pale white color tinged only by the red light of the sign. In the pit of their chest, Sunset watched their soul appear, flickering from red to blue. As it changed, an extra weight seemed to come over the human, dragging them down. With another wave of his hand, the field of bones began to move forward, advancing quickly on their target. With Papyrus's blue magic weighing them down, Sunset could tell that there was no way the human could dodge the attack.

Everything seemed to stop with the flash of red light. The magical bones were split across the center, only to dissolve to dust a few seconds later. Sunset's eyes widened as she recognized the weapon the human was now holding, glowing a fiery red in the dim light. For a second, Sunset's eyes met Frisk's.

They knew the question she was asking, even if it had gone unspoken... and they answered her with a smile.

Finally, her emotions seemed to overwhelm her physical limits, finally eliciting a response. Sunset felt the bottom drop out of her stomach as her fears were all but confirmed. It felt like she was falling, awash and drowning in a sea of fear and grief as her emotions threatened to overwhelm her completely.

Somewhere in her reeling mind, Doctor Alphys's words from the lab came back to her: "Every soul has an array of traits, but one attribute that dominates all others, resonating with a particular frequency of magic! W-what concept fuels them most strongly determines their magical abilities!"

Sunset felt the rest of her mind begin to shut down, and she gripped that memory with all of her mental fortitude: the blazing red flames of her soul. As she did, Sunset felt one emotion rising up out of the storm to drown out all of the rest, and it rose and bubbled and boiled until it had filled her completely.

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"From the way he always spoke of you, I almost believed that you were incapable of this kind of rage, of pure, murderous intent." Salem didn't show any of the same fear of the depth of her rage that Frisk had, almost sounding more bemused than anything.

"I... was more angry than I could even comprehend." Sunset admitted. She felt a pang of shame as she watched herself take back her weapon and begin her march for revenge in her mind's eye. "Sometimes I do wonder, since my world is supposedly a show made for children in other dimensions, if there might be some kind of... upper limit to what I can experience. A maximum content rating, if you will. Villains don't kill, they just try to conquer. Most 'bad guys' are just frustrated or misunderstood... but that day, any kind of limit I had was broken when my best friend died and I could do nothing to stop it."

Sunset sighed as tears began to well up in her eyes. "We were the good guys. We were just trying to help! I just... didn't understand how this could have happened. This wasn't how things are supposed to work when you try to do the right thing."

For only the briefest of seconds, the reality around them flickered. The image changed like a TV signal receiving interference, and she was able to make out another scene:

A woman with golden hair in an ornate dress knelt by an empty bedside, gently cradling an emerald-topped staff in her hands as she wept.

As quickly and as unbidden as it had appeared, the image was gone again, and Sunset was returned to watching herself. She could feel a glimmer of uncertainty in Salem's mind, clearly as surprised at the unbidden image as she had been.

Sunset pressed further onward, refusing to give her time to finish her question.

As she relived the memories of her crusade to avenge Penn's death, Sunset let the rage wash over and through her. Now, in retrospect, she could also feel the undercurrent of crippling pain that had been buried beneath it the entire time, grief that she was refusing to process.

Again, she felt a ping of recognition from Salem, if only a faint one. It was the same breed, the same color of rage that Sunset had felt in Salem when they'd touched at the start of the battle, even if it was only a fraction of the intensity.

Eventually, the Sunset in her memory stood face-to-face with Undyne, not knowing that she was also staring down what was left of Penn.

Sunset wanted to turn away as her remembered self rushed forward to forcibly take what she thought would ease her pain, trying to sate her rage rather than dissipate it.

The golden-haired woman was knelt at the edge of a pool of the purest water, on her knees supplicating a shimmering golden figure for relief from her pain.

The cry of rage echoed through their shared mindscape, blending into and merging with Sunset's own remembered cries of rage as she tried to force her way through Papyrus's blue attack.

"I see." Salem's voice dripped with malice. "You think you can make an APPEAL to me? Simply by sharing your heartache and foolishly comparing it to my own past? As if the two are somehow equivalent?"

"No." Sunset was almost overwhelmed by Salem's hatred, but she could feel... something else. This was outrage, yes, but there was another note to it, a pain harmonizing with the hatred. She could spot it, now, even if Salem wasn't aware of it, herself. This, going through these memories again through the filter of Sunset's pain, was hurting her. "But I do think I came very close to being like you, Salem. At least, I started down the same path..." She glanced back at her former self, seeing her fall to her knees as she recognized the softness in "Undyne's" tone of voice as the presence of Penn's soul. "But I got lucky. My friend... didn't leave me when he died, not completely."

As the group in her memory walked away with Frisk in tow, Sunset sighed with the knowledge that the pain wasn't over.

"But that meant I couldn't let completely go, either... and someone took advantage of that."

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Flowey "shrugged" again. "Maybe, but it's too late now! Or, at least... It's too late for ME to do anything about it..."

"Ooooh, if only, if only!" He moaned in faux anguish. She watched as his face seemed to melt, reforming into Alphys's nervous expression. "If only you'd gotten here a day earlier!" It shifted again, now to Undyne. "If only we could have stopped this from happening!" It changed once more, now into a mockery of Asgore. "If only we could just RESET it all, RELOAD it from the beginning and try again!"

"Ugh, do I have to spell it out for you?" Flowey growled, the friendly pretense falling away completely. "The most determined person in this world can possess the power to SAVE and RESET! And that's you, sweetheart! You can turn back the clock to before any of this ever happened and start it over again the RIGHT way! Whatever way you choose!" One of the roots pointed up at the mountain. "All you have to do is go back in there and take it!"

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"Rise, child, and let your faith in me be rewarded..." a dark, horned figure gestured for the kneeling woman to stand. She smiled as relief and joy nearly overwhelmed her, even here in the realm held firmly in the grip of the God of Darkness.

Dark power swirled and coalesced in front of her eyes, and moments later her beloved was dropped to the ground in front of her, alive and healthy once more.

In a flash of light and a crack of thunder, the God of Light appeared at the stairway leading to the heart of his brother's domain. Though his face was devoid of features, his disapproval was like a tangible force in the air, having caught them in the act of breaking the law he had been set on enforcing.

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FILE 3 LOADED

"How do you like being on the OTHER side of the resets?" Flowey whispered in her ear.

This began a cavalcade of resets as Sunset was forced to watch the battle play out over and over again. Sometimes it ended in seconds, with Flowey easily swatting Undyne out of the air like a fly. Other times, Undyne would almost begin to get the upper hand, only for another reset to crush any hopes Sunset had begun to have.

Undyne was thrown into a massive flytrap, unable to escape as the acid inside reduced her to a vaguely blue-tinged pile of goo.

Undyne was thrown into a giant green-tinged frying pan, Flowey's magic frying her alive.

Undyne was blown to smithereens by a hail of bombs with Flowey's face printed on the casing.

Undyne was completely disintegrated in some kind of gigantic laser that fired from just below the extractor.

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The woman could only scream and beg as the two brothers argued back and forth, constantly resurrecting and eradicating her loved one over and over, every time reducing him to ashes in her hands.

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Sunset's tears were flowing freely, now, and she could feel herself gasping for air as the raw emotions of both sets of memories threatened to drown her.

Salem had grown quiet, though Sunset could tell that there was more at play than her simply biding her time. She was feeling SOMETHING from all of this. Something was changing, she could feel it.

So, for the sake of that progress, to try and break through the many millennia of hatred and pain Salem had built around her soul, Sunset forced herself to press deeper.

Reliving her "battle" with Asriel created a powerful sense of cognitive dissonance, and Sunset knew why: this was the place that everything had changed.

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The God of Light exploded with power, banishing all of his brother's creations and forcing the other god to back down momentarily.

"I know that we have our differences, but I did NOT come here with the aim to control you... the same, however, cannot be said for HER."

Salem could only watch helplessly as her lie was dispelled before her eyes and the God of Darkness discovered that she had come to him only after being denied by his brother, that he had been a secondary choice made out of desperation, rather than a first choice made out of faith.

The God of Darkness pondered his brother's words for a moment. "Then it seems I owe you an apology... allow me to correct my mistake."

In a flash of violet flames, Ozma was reduced to dust in Salem's hands, blown away by the wind in a matter of seconds until there was nothing left to prove he had ever existed.

Once again, she had been robbed of everything that mattered to her, this time directly by the hands of the gods.

She rose to her feet, her entire body brimming with unrestrained magic as she tried to strike back at the creators of her world. She didn't have time to cast a single spell, however, before the power of the God of Light overwhelmed her, whisking her away to another place and time.

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"It doesn't like what we're doing!" Missy cried, shouting to make herself heard over the growing storm. "It's fighting back!"

Missy was right, the Monster Reborn spell was fighting them, refusing their request to bring back the dead. Sunset grunted as the pressure mounted higher, and her entire body began to burn. She could see trails of the rainbow magic traveling along her body, burning into her skin like ley lines. "Keep... GOING!" She took a deep breath, pushing back as best she could.

Her whole body felt like it was alternating between electric shocks and being immersed in ice water, and the entire structure of the cave was rattling and threatening to collapse. She watched as Asriel's small form was picked up by the wind, only to be snagged out of the air by Penn's strong hand.

With that emergency handled, Sunset turned her attention back to the card. "I'm not... going to be dictated to..." her chest began to glow with red light as her determination grew stronger, "about what's possible or impossible... BY A PIECE OF PAPER!"

She felt a spike of heat rush through her body, starting in her chest and flowing up into her arm, pushing back the sensation of the overwhelming pressure. She could see a red glow traveling up and into the card, and the souls in the picture began to dance in a furious ballet. The arcs of rainbow electricity began to widen into what looked like gaps in reality, pitch-black tears that smelled vaguely of chamomile.

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Missy pointed at the heartwarming scene, equally dumbfounded. "It was supposed to be a celebratory hyperbole..."

"Hey! Great use of the term 'hyperbole!'" Penn cheered, reaching up to give Missy a pat on the head.

"Heh, learned it from listening to yooooooooooooo...." Missy froze mid-word, eyes wide. She and Sunset both looked at each other, each one coming to the same realization.

They looked back at Undyne, who most certainly had Penn's soul still beating away in her chest.

They looked back at "Penn," who definitely was no longer possessed by the vengeful spirit of "Big Sis."

Penn blinked and scratched at his head, as if he were confused. "So... can somebody fill me in on what happened, here? Last I remember, I was in Waterfall with Undyne and things weren't looking so good."

Sunset and Missy both looked at each other one more time, both confirming that the other had reached the same conclusion.

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"So, you think this is some kind of petty victory? That you defeated life and death where I did not?" Salem was trying her best to sound aloof and disinterested, but Sunset could feel that she was more invested in their parallel stories than she was letting on, even if she WAS something of a captive audience.

"No... I want you to see what happened when I got my wish." Sunset sighed. "Because I really wished I hadn't, in time..."

Sunset wanted to curl into a ball of pure embarrassment as she watched herself yelling at Penn and threatening him to try and ascertain his "true identity." She watched herself keeping him at arm's length and trying to force the idea that he wasn't who he said he was down his throat.

"I got what I had wished for, but I refused to believe it. Deep down, I still struggle a little bit to understand what exactly happened and whether or not Penn is the same person I started this trip with... He wanted so badly to start writing again, just to prove who he was, that he did something monumentally stupid."

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Sunset and Missy glanced at each other, not even needing to speak to communicate their intentions. They both rose to their feet, dressed and ready to go in less than a minute. Isis hopped up onto Sunset's shoulder, swiftly guiding them down the same path "Penn" had taken to sneak out while they were sleeping. Soon, they found themselves standing in front of a foul-looking black portal.

"Why would he go here?" Missy whispered. "This thing gives me the chills, and that's not just the wind!"

"And he went alone." Sunset folded her arms. "So, this guy claiming to be Penn-"

"Well, does this SEEM like 'Penn behavior' to you?" Sunset gestured to the dark pool. "Walking into evil portals alone in the middle of the night? Does that seem like something PENN would do?"

Missy looked as if she was going to argue, but she eventually just settled into stubbornly folding her arms over her chest. "We don't KNOW it's an evil portal."

Sunset reached up and unclasped the necklace that held her geode. She held it by the string, letting it swing freely as she held it towards the portal. The geode reacted, pushing away from the black substance like a pair of repelling magnets. After a few seconds, it was hanging almost parallel to the ground, trying to escape back to the safety of her neck. Missy stared wide-eyed at the potent reaction of the magic.

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"Everything that happened from there... all stemmed from the fact that I made him feel like he had to prove himself." Sunset tried to swallow the guilt and shame. "And there's one other thing that bothers me from time to time..."

Sunset ignored Salem's cooing taunt. "Every now and then I wonder if I'm the one responsible for him, now. I brought him back, for better and for worse. He's terrified of the implications that what he writes could be real somewhere and whether or not that's his responsibility. For me, sometimes, that's how I think about him, now. Every ounce of suffering, whether he feels it or he causes it... I think it might be on MY head, and..."

Her memory tramped through their harrowing encounter with the ink demon, the betrayal she had nearly committed by turning him over to Alice Angel, and then the screaming, writhing pain he had gone through as the Ink Demon had nearly consumed him alive from the inside out.

"If that's the case, I have a LOT to answer for. More than any single person should have on their head." She shook her head. "I'm happy beyond words that he's here, trust me. We made it out the other side of all of that together, but... if I could go back and do it all over again... Sometimes I think I would just let him rest. That I shouldn't have tried to take that power over life and death for myself... Do you understand what I mean?"

For the briefest of seconds, Sunset felt a tremor through her magic, like a door opening into a pressurized room. Salem's mind had been connected this entire time, but for the first time, it was open. Countless eons of passive bitterness and deep grudge-holding fell away behind them, and memories of a time when Salem had been human, when she'd had a functioning heart, were being drawn to the surface like poison from a wound. By the power of Sunset's Element of Harmony, Salem was being forced to FEEL again...

Sunset pulled back, just enough for the entire dreamscape to shimmer and blur out of focus. In that second, she was back in her body, back in the present, with one hand on Salem's shoulder and the other gripping her saber. Salem was almost completely healed, now, looking as terrifying as she had been when she first arrived, aside from the empty look on her face from her magical entrancement.

Sunset didn't hesitate to flick the switch on the handle of her saber, driving the burning blade straight through Salem's chest.

She screamed and gasped as what felt like a red-hot poker smoldering in her chest overwhelmed all of her senses, driving her to her knees. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she observed that Salem was mimicking her movements and actions, even gasping and breathing in time with her as she wrestled with the unexpected pain.

The voices of Penn and Missy felt distant and faded in her half-dreaming state, but Sunset was able to piece together the reason for her agony.

Of course... if I'm using the Element of Empathy, of COURSE I would feel her pain...

"Y-You think... this is anything to me? I am immortal, girl... All you have done is hurt yourself... not that I don't enjoy seeing that."

Sunset gritted her teeth and pulled back on the saber, screaming as the motion burned and tore at the edges of the wound in Salem's chest.

"M-maybe... maybe not..." she gasped before tightening her grip on Salem's shoulder. With a growl and a scream, Sunset plunged the saber into Salem's gut, creating another cauterized hole through her body. Sunset screamed as the pain returned for them both, taking several seconds to fade enough for her to think again. "B-But here's the thing... Penn told us about y-your curse... the exact words the gods used... when they cursed you for trying to trick them..."

Salem's eyes widened and she looked down at the hole in her chest... which was conspicuously NOT instantly healing like the rest of her wounds had.

"So long as this world turns, you shall walk its face..." Sunset recited, breathlessly forcing the words out through the pain. "You must learn the importance... of life and death..." With a flick of her thumb, the blade of the saber retracted. When she released her grip on Salem's shoulder, the pain faded to nothing almost instantly, and relief washed over her like a cool wave. "Only then, may you rest..." Sunset sighed as her body threatened to collapse completely, but she forced herself to stay upright so that she could look Salem in the eye. "I never planned to beat you with my mind... but for the time we were connected by Equestrian magic, we were forced to understand each other. You understood me, and I understood the lesson you could never learn on your own..."

Salem was speechless as one of her hands absently brushed against the two holes in her chest and abdomen.

"That- that's not- I can't..." Her eyes locked on Sunset, and for a brief second, Sunset could see a flicker of their original icy blue color. The slightest hint of a smile pulled at the corner of her mouth as the two remained locked in place, even now that the fight was over. One last hint of emotion spilled over into Sunset's mind from the dying witch:

With a choking gurgle, Salem's body lurched to the side and fell to the ground, and Sunset could tell from experience that the perfect stillness that overtook her was that of death.

"Checkmate..." Sunset declared. With that final word, she fell backwards as the last of her strength was spent. Thankfully, two pairs of hands caught her as she dropped, stopping her from coming to a rough landing in the ashy crater.

"I didn't even think about what would happen if you stabbed her while you were using your geode, I'm so sorry! This plan was stupid!"

The hands on her back lifted her back up, allowing her to see Salem's lifeless form laying on the ground.

"We... did it?" Sunset wasn't certain she wanted to celebrate, even if they WERE successful. Internally, she felt a massive urge to recoil from the sight, and the fact that she had robbed another person of their life felt... wrong on the most basic level.

"Looks like it..." Penn whispered. "Isis will get her remains safely contained, just in case."

Sunset wanted to object when Penn's arms curled around her back and behind her knees, lifting her completely into the air. She wanted to say there was no need for it, or at least cover her face to shield herself from the embarrassment as he carried her to the place they had hidden the car just outside of the camp, but her grip on consciousness was fading fast. The moment that Missy opened up the door and Penn laid her in the back seat, Sunset closed her eyes and was struck by the fact that the seat felt comfier than the softest cloud, and an instant later she was completely unconscious.

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Penn shook his head, burying the voice of his brain's newest inky resident. "Sunset Shimmer is full of surprises... I'm more surprised that Salem's curse was so literal... I really wouldn't have put money on being able to use empathy magic to make her vulnerable."

Missy gave Penn an uncertain look when he talked to himself, but quickly recognized who he was addressing. "TeIl Sis I said hi... I'm gonna stay in here and make sure Sunset's safe."

"Just what I was going to suggest." Penn nodded and Missy floated into the car, laying down in mid-air at a level just slightly above Sunset's head.

Penn took a deep breath and braced himself. The hardest part was done, but that didn't mean that this was over.

He turned back to the camp, where one of Isis's drones, nearly the size of his car, had appeared out of the trees. Its stomach was a large glass chamber, which opened up around the center lengthwise. The tail of the dragon-shaped drone was a buzzsaw, which began to whine and spin loudly before lowering and beginning to slice through Salem's body at the joints. He flinched as a spray of black liquid splashed up onto the polished metal surface, but his expectations for Salem to jump up and attack again when they started dismembering her proved to be unfounded.

It took only about a minute for the specially-designed drone to take Salem apart and place the pieces inside the glass chamber, and he was glad that the unflinching AI had taken the grisly task upon herself. When the last of Salem was contained, the glass container shut and a glowing line of fire dust sealed the capsule shut with glass three inches thick. A moment later, more sounds of machines spinning to life and monitors began scanning the interior of the chamber.

Isis listed off all of their containment systems without issue. It wasn't until Penn heard the last system read off as operational that he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Wow... I'd love to know what it was that happened there..." Undyne muttered as she took a seat by the remains of their campfire. "What was going on in their heads?"

"I think it's better to leave it be..." Penn muttered. "Sunset's probably not even aware of how much she's going to need therapy for what just happened."

Penn's heart seized in his chest, ten billion of his worst fears were about to come true-

Penn blinked several times, staring back and forth at Salem's containment, then the car where Sunset was resting as Isis's words sunk in. He grabbed at his chest, trying to calm the racing of his heart.

"Easy, bud..." Undyne rose to her feet and gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "You want me to go take a look at it for you?"

Penn took a deep breath, doing his best to ignore the pounding in his chest. "No, I've sat out of enough of this. I'm not going to hide any more."

"I can respect that... Well, honorary guardsman, come on. Let's go deal with whatever went wrong with the robot!"

Penn nodded, clenching his fist to try and hide the shake in his hands as they walked away into the trees. He didn't want to take his eyes off of Salem for a moment, but... better to leave it in Isis's hands. She was thorough, she was patient, and as long as Salem's remains were in that chamber, Isis was perfectly attentive.

He forced himself to focus on Undyne's back as they followed the trail of gouged earth and broken tree branches to where the drone had been blasted off of the battlefield. He needed to stay in the moment.

"Oh geez..." Undyne suddenly stopped short, and Penn nearly crashed into her. He took a deep breath, bracing himself for anything before he stepped out from behind her.

In all honesty, he was too tired to be shocked or horrified, but as a result, it took several seconds for him to understand that what he was seeing was real. His LMD was standing at attention, its head and several portions of its outer layers blasted clean off to expose the mechanics underneath. As his eyes wandered downwards, two bodies were laying on the ground, and he had to stare for a full three seconds before he wrenched himself away and leaned against a nearby tree to vomit onto the ground.

"Are- are they-" Penn couldn't bring himself to finish. He was too tired to be pragmatic, right now. Emotions were running too high.

Penn shut out the ink demon's smug thoughts. He buried the malice and hatred as deep down in his gut as he could.

Penn pressed his forehead against the tree, avoiding looking at the scene before them. "Hit me."

"So... according to the robot, Penn would do ANYTHING, even kill, to protect Sunset and Missy... so it took that to its final conclusion." Undyne spoke softly.

"-who nearly killed Frisk in a brutal fashion..." Undyne finished the thought again.

Penn clenched his eyes shut. I- I wouldn't do something like THIS- I would never- right?

Penn slammed his fist against the tree. "The whole LMD program. No more AI based on real people, ESPECIALLY me! I want this whole program scrapped this INSTANT so this can never happen again!"

"Was that really necessary? Isis deserves to be able to make her own choices."

"You know how it turned out when LMDs started misbehaving in Agents of SHIELD..." Penn muttered, "It's for her own good." It was a lousy excuse for a decision made in the heat of the moment, but it technically WAS true.

Undyne raised an eyebrow before sighing and shaking her head. "I can't make that call for you, but I don't like it."

Penn forced himself to walk away, back towards the camp. "I don't like ANY of this, but I'd rather force Isis this ONE time than-"

"THAN HAVE SUNSET SEE THIS!" Penn spun on his heel, stomping up to Undyne and grabbing the front collar of her breastplate. "Have her see me covered in BLOOD! Like an animal! A monster! Like some kind of DEMON!" He grabbed at his head with his other hand, hearing his own voice growing lower and move gravelly but begin unable to do anything about it. "I am trying SO HARD to keep my cool, to not pick up Salem by the throat and just let the ink demon OUT to render her down to her individual POLYGONS because I know that if I start, I am NEVER going to STOP! I don't want Sunset to KNOW what I could BE if I just GIVE UP CONTROL!"

The two of them stood that way for a second, each one staring the other down. Slowly, Undyne's hand reached up and brushed her thumb against his cheek, exposing it a moment later to show that it was covered in viscous ink she had wiped from below his eye.

In that second, Penn felt a moment of clarity as he realized exactly what kind of position he had put Undyne in. Instantly, he released his hold and took several steps back.

"I-I'm sorry..." he stammered, his voice now sounding timid and meek in his own throat.

Penn forced himself to obey, taking the time to inhale long and deep. It felt wrong to try and calm himself down in a situation that was so CLEARLY out of control and needed to be fixed in some way, but Undyne's tone left no room for negotiation.

"This wasn't YOU. The thing that did this was a malfunctioning, threadbare simulacrum of you that was only supposed to fool your worst enemy for about thirty seconds." She cast a forlorn glance backwards. "I agree with you that the LMD project probably ought to never see the light of day again after this, but no one with a lick of sense is going to think that you would do THIS, least of all Sunset." Undyne summoned a spear and held it at arm's length, examining the tip. "Roman walked face-first into a weapon we had intended for Salem, as literally as you could walk into this spear. This war she started was always going to have a lot of lethal force flying around... The possibility of dying tonight was a risk EVERYONE involved chose to take."

"I said go." Undyne opened one eye, which flashed her typical red at him. "You're lucky I feel like I owe you, I won't tell Sunset anything about this."

Penn wanted to do something, a need to take responsibility in some way feeling ingrained in his mind, but Undyne's fierce glare caused any argument to die in his throat.

"Maybe she's right, Penn. Let somebody else take care of this, for once..." a more rational voice muttered in his mind. "You don't have to deal with everything that goes wrong on this trip yourself..."

Penn wanted to throw his hands in the air, but he was too exhausted. He simply let his shoulders slump and turned away from the grisly scene.

He tried not to let guilt for what had happened overwhelm him as he trudged his way back to the camp, reaching into his pocket and feeling for his phone.

"I'm sorry for forcing you... that was wrong." He had to mumble the apology, feeling the shame of how he had treated her settle in. "You're not just a machine, and I shouldn't treat you like one... you're our friend."

That was enough to make Penn smile again, even a little, as he stepped back into the campsite. "Thanks, Isis. I'll try not to be so rash from now on..."

He could see that Coulson and the rest of his team were arriving to join them, all looking tired, but intact. Several other members of the royal guard had come with them, as well.

He took a deep breath, trying to slow the last of the shaking from the scene he had just left. He carefully wiped both hands across his face, seeing that they returned absent of any ink.

"Guess it just sunk back into my skin, or something..." he muttered. With a long sigh, he ran both hands through his hair, took a moment to rub at his temples to relieve the mounting pressure, and tried to smile. "Director Coulson! Glad to see you in one piece!" He called as he strolled into the campsite.

All of the attention snapped to him, and Penn could feel every single eye on his face. He quietly made sure he looked alright.

"Agent Bakersfield, good to see you." Coulson held out a hand, which Penn gladly took and gave a firm shake.

"And you, sir." He didn't have to work too hard to force a smile, he WAS genuinely glad to see them all. "Again, thank you for coming, I don't know if we could have managed this on our own."

"Quite the mess you've managed to get yourself into..." Agent May added. It sounded like a critique, but Penn knew she had a bit of a tense demeanor, one that made her always seem angry. "Care to give us a few more details on how this all happened?"

"It's... a long story." Penn rubbed anxiously at the back of his head. "Once everything's calmed down, I'll be happy to tell you as much as I can, given what time we have."

"Well, the important thing is that nobody got hurt-" Coulson started, only to glance at Salem's encased remains, "Well, nobody on our side. Can't ask for better results than that, right?"

Penn nodded. "We almost had to swap to the B-Team when Toriel got K.O.'d, but Missy and Asgore really carried us through the last few- oh!" Penn blinked before turning back towards the campsite, spotting Asgore speaking with the returning members of the royal guard. "Right, you haven't met either of them! We need to make introductions! I think you're gonna like Asgore, Director-"

Skye pushed her way past May, a determined look in her eyes. "Elijah? I need to ask you something."

Penn flinched, his gut twisting as he began to predict what was coming. "Look, Skye, everyone here knows me as 'Penn,' would you mind calling me that?"

Skye ignored his request, staring him straight in the eye. "Did you know? About Ward?"

Silence fell as Penn pulled his lips taut. This seemed to be everything Skye needed to hear, lunging forward at him. There was a jolt as the world shifted, then tilted to the side. The pain didn't even register until he was already on the ground, and he was fairly certain he could see stars in the corners of his vision and hear faint birdsong.

"Sir Penn!" Penn heard the sound of multiple footsteps approaching and clanking armor behind him, and held up a hand to placate the monsters who had rushed up to help him.

"I-It's okay, I had that coming..." he muttered, slowly pushing himself up to his feet. Coulson and May had both moved between him and Skye. She wasn't trying to press the attack for the moment, but she definitely looked angry enough to do so. He took a moment to brush off his shirt, trying to ignore the feeling of every muscle in half of his face being clenched and tense. He'd always known a day would come where he had to defend his decision to keep his mouth shut all of this time, and he'd practiced his response.

"Yeah, you DID..." Skye growled. "And you-" She paused for a moment, her expression changing from angry to confused. "You... your face..."

"Do you know how many times he really saved your lives while he was pretending to be on your side?" He reached up, rubbing at the place Skye had punched him to try and ease the aching. For a moment, he wondered if she had managed to knock a tooth loose. His vision was definitely doubled, like one of his eyes was stuck pointing the wrong way. "Yes, he was awful, a traitor, and HYDRA... but he was also part of your team, and a freaking good specialist." He paused as he felt what seemed like some kind of divot in his jawline. Further inspection revealed that a portion of his face seemed to have pushed inwards with the force of the blow. "He jumped out of a plane to save Jemma! He kept you safe when HYDRA's agents were taking over SHIELD HQ! I'm sorry, but you wouldn't have believed me, and Ward would have done whatever it took to shut me up..." He raised his hand up to his mouth, took a deep breath, and closed his lips around his thumb. Am I seriously about to do this? It's straight out of a cartoon! He took a moment to blow as hard as he could, pushing the collapsed part of his face back out like a balloon. After a second, his vision righted itself, then began to lose focus again, now in the other direction as he felt pressure in his skull.

Overdid it... he thought, opening his mouth to let the excess air rush out. A second later, the world was right again. Coulson and all of the other agents were looking at him with horror now, rather than anger.

"If you'd believed me, you wouldn't be here to yell at me. If you hadn't, I wouldn't be here for you to yell at." There was a pause as his own voice didn't sound quite right, muted in one ear. He reached up and rubbed at it until it audibly popped and his hearing cleared. "I'm sorry, all of you, but keeping quiet was the best way to keep as many people alive as I could. It was the only way I could think of..." He took a moment to run his hand over his face, ensuring that it had returned to normal. "And trust me, despite today's performance, I haven't had a great record for keeping people alive lately... or at least myself, anyway."

"Not everything that happens to us makes it onto the official reports..." he muttered, turning away to indicate that the topic was beyond discussion.

He turned back to the monsters who had gathered behind him. It was Asgore, himself, and at least three members of the royal guard. He smiled and stepped aside to clear a path before motioning to Coulson.

"Your highness, allow me to introduce Director Philip Coulson of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division." He changed to point at the towering goat monster. "Director, this is Asgore Dreemur, King Under the Mountain and ruler of the monsters who lived there."

Asgore glanced warily at Penn, clearly uncertain and suspicious. "These are... associates of yours?"

Penn waved away the concern as the last of the stinging in his jaw faded. "The punching thing was an old grudge, water under the bridge now. Technically, Director Coulson's my boss, since I'm an Agent of SHIELD!"

"Water under the-" Skye was cut off by May's hand over her mouth. Asgore examined the three of them for a moment longer before extending a furry hand to Coulson.

"Then it is my pleasure to meet you. Sir Penn gave his life as a living shield to help my people escape a genocide. He is truly a credit to your organization."

Coulson seemed to take the events in stride in his typical way, only raising his eyebrows somewhat in surprise at the king's words. "The pleasure's all mine, your highness... I'm sorry, did you say he 'gave his life?'"

"Yes, he perished in the battle alongside my captain of the guard." Asgore nodded. "It was only by the angel's miracle that they returned to us after the battle..."

Coulson glanced at Penn with a raised eyebrow of disbelief, but Penn simply nodded to confirm Asgore's story.

"Well... SHIELD tries to recruit the best," Coulson declared, barely missing a beat. "I'm glad our agents are doing us proud out there in the multiverse."

"You know, sir..." Penn took the chance to interject, "I believe King Asgore is looking to find a new home for his people now that they escaped genocide and their dimension was destabilized... Do you think SHIELD might have the ability to help them find someplace? I'm certain that they can more than compensate for the help, monsterkind's magitech could help SHIELD advance by leaps and bounds!"

Coulson raised an eyebrow again. "You know, we DO tend to get blindsided by so-called 'magic' more often than not... if your technology can help us with that, I don't think finding one of the quieter dimensions for your people settle in would be so hard!"

"I cannot say that I fully trust humans..." Asgore muttered, rubbing at his chin. "However, if the guardians of Angel Missy vouch for you and your organization, I am willing to make an accord for the sake of cooperation."

"Of course, we'll be needing a new branch of SHIELD to deal with these interdimensional relations..." Coulson turned his attention back to Penn with a smile that sent a shiver down Penn's spine. "And SOMEONE who can spearhead that new organization."

"I was thinking we could call it... the Broken Universe Coalition of Knowledgeable Entities and Research." Coulson ignored his protests with a smile. "BUCKLER, for short."

"Huh... he clearly put a lot of thought into this before they even got here..." a very not-helpful voice mused in the back of his mind. "You know, I can respect how sneaky it was to put you on the spot with Asgore here. Well played, Coulson."

Asgore grinned, seeming to catch on to what Coulson was hinting at. "If such a coalition were to exist, my kingdom may be willing to collaborate... depending on who would, as you said, 'spearhead' this operation."

"It would have to be someone with whom you have a history, someone we both know we can trust... Someone who can make tough decisions about what should and shouldn't be shared across dimensions..."

Penn felt the bottom dropping out of his stomach as all eyes and several smug grins turned to him.

The Multiverse in a Nutshell

by Pennington Inkwell

Lusus Naturae