//------------------------------//
// Song and Dance 
// Story: The Moon in the Dark 
// by Tatsurou 
//------------------------------//

	As Woona got ready to leave Muffet's parlor - once more clad in Cartographer's Cap, Faded Ribbon, and Chilled Apron - Woona paused as Muffet handed her her satchel.  "I'm still terribly sorry, deary," Muffet offered warmly.  "You must have had such a terrible fright when I attacked you, especially when you were trying to do something good for me and my family."  She gently stroked the Star Spiders that came comfortingly to her.

Woona shrugged.  "Not as scary as when I first met Chara," she replied.  "Or as scary as Gaster."  She paused as she thought back.  "Or that not-quite-nightmare with the Tough Gloves...or being hunted by Undyne...or when Sans first walked up behind me acting spooky..."  Her voice trailed off as she realized just how many scary experiences she'd had in the Underground.  "Wow.  This whole time down here's been really traumafying."

And somehow I'm the one changing from the experience, Chara murmured, amusement dripping from his mental voice.

Muffet smiled warmly.  "You're truly generous to be so forgiving, dear Woona," she offered.  "I'm afraid the donuts and cider you brought with you was lost when I kicked your saddlebags...though the snowman's just fine."

"That's a relief," Woona admitted.  "I never thought my inventory could be a dangerous place."

Me neither, Chara agreed.

"So I restocked you," Muffet replied.  "We put a bit of extra magic into the donuts and cider bottles, since you have more HP than the humans who have passed through here.  Any one donut or cider bottle ought to fully restore you."

Smiling, Woona examined the items in the pouches.

Muffet Donuts, Chara described.  Made with real spider cider for an extra boost for a special friend.  Restores 50 HP and halves the damage of the next three hits.  ...Muffet Cider.  A boosted version of Spider Cider that restores 50 HP and increases SPD and INV.  Just like the classic flavor, made by spiders, for spiders, of spiders-

"Of spiders?" Woona gasped out, eyes wide, a whimper in her voice.

Muffet burst into laughter.  "Oh, deary, it's not like that!" she insisted.  "It's just our magic in liquid form, in the same way we use it for construction and combat."  She giggled impishly.  "But, as you can imagine, when we advertised it as such, it didn't sell so well."

Woona blinked at the bottle for a minute.  "...cobweb juice?" she asked incredulously.

"And now you see why it didn't sell well," Muffet confirmed.  "Odd how customers are happy to imagine they're drinking liquefied spiders, but the idea of cobweb juice freaks them out.  Where do they think the cobwebs come from?"

Woona shrugged as she put the bottle away.  "Eh, it's tasty, and Mom fed me snails," she offered, letting that settle the subject.  "But...what about when you poured me a cup of spiders during tea?"

Muffet tittered happily.  "Oh, that's just a prank I play.  The faces of those who actually dine with me when they see that is priceless...especially when they actually try to drink it to be polite and the little ones leap out of the cup to crawl all over them."

Woona giggled wickedly with Muffet.  "Take good care of yourself!" she called as she turned to go.  "I'm gonna go get my family back together, and break the barrier so everyone can be free!"

"You take care of yourself too, Woona," Muffet called back.  "There's so many who would be crushed if anything happened to you."

Woona winced playfully.  "So my bro's been reminding me."

Indeed I have, Chara insisted as they moved on.

In the chamber beyond Muffet's parlor was a poster with Mettaton on it, but Woona didn't really pay attention to it.  Something else had captured her interest.  "Chara?" she asked softly.

Smiling, Chara manifested himself, walking beside Woona, though with no more substance than a Blook.  "Did you need something, Woona?" he asked softly.

Woona blinked, not used to having him walking beside her instead of inside her.  However, it wasn't entirely unpleasant.  "What did you mean when you said you were the one changing?" she asked curiously.

Chara chuckled softly.  "You remember what I was like when you first met me.  Do you even have to ask?"

"But...you were talking as though it was a big surprise," Woona clarified.  "What does that mean?"

Chara opened his spectral mouth to explain normally, but the magic that was changing him pushed out a different urge.  As such, with a lift of his hands, he called forth a tune.  As the music played, he began to sing his message.  "When a child's an empty shell," he sang softly, swaying along like a ghost, before making his 'creepy face', "and he should be a spawn from hell..."  He paused, spreading his arms.  "What's up with my role...?"

Woona couldn't help but sway along with him as he sang and danced.

"While your character should worsen," Chara sang, pointing to her.  He then gestured to himself.  "I'm becoming a better person.  I'm regaining my old soul..."

He slumped to the ground, as though berating himself.  "I've grown soft, aloft, and I've not so much as scoffed, regarding your goal..."  He smiled softly at Woona as he floated back upward.  "I might be friends with skelebros..."

In the distance, two bonily familiar laughs could be heard.

"...the fish that writes out loving prose..."

Elsewhere, Undyne stuffed a piece of paper into her pocket, glancing around suspiciously.

"I'm regaining my old soul..." Chara sang out, his hands on his chest as he stared down in disbelief, where the line of magic that connected him to Woona pulsed the Red of Determination, the color his Soul had once been.  He then raised his face to the sky.  "Picture me...a balcony...a voice like that of tuna..."

On a stone balcony above them, Mettaton - for some obscure reason wearing a blue ball gown - called out, "WHEREFOR ART THOU, WOONA-"

A blue spear of magic emblazoned with the mark of the moon embedded itself in the stone wall just above Mettaton's head, tearing off his bonnet.  "No scene stealing!" Woona snapped out.

"...SORRY..."

Chara blinked as the spear twanged rhythmically.  "...er...I hear a beat!  ...how...neat?"  He cleared his throat - despite the absence of physical throat or blockage - as the flow of the music reclaimed him.  He proceeded to stroll along to in front of the balcony, with Woona right beside him.

"Just to register emotion," they sang out together, "empathy, devotion, without it feeling droll..."

Chara once more sang alone, his voice swelling to a crescendo.  "I can grow old and give a crap, as people loudly clap!  I'm regaining my old soul!"

As the music continued to fill the chamber, Chara and Woona proceeded to tap dance together, Chara's hand gently holding the tip of Woona's outstretched wing as the two siblings expressed their shared joy and DETERMINATION, dancing right off the stage they hadn't even realized they were on.

Up on the balcony, Mettaton looked down at his stolen scene.  "NORMALLY I'D BE MORE UPSET ABOUT BEING UPSTAGED...BUT THAT WAS THE MOST CHARMING LITTLE DANCE IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNDERGROUND..."  He then turned to look up at the spear still embedded in the stone above him.  "...WHEN DID WOONA LEARN UNDYNE'S SPEAR MAGIC?" he mused to no one in particular.