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undertale-rho · 3 years

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Post-Underearth - Androphobia

Jack, a middle-aged man with a mop of black hair and a long, black coat, stood up from his hiding place within the bushes. He was the most wanted man in Athens, yet despite that, he'd just finished breaking into jail, talking with someone, and breaking back out without anybody but the inmate, William, being the wiser.

Crawling out from the bushes just outside the police station, Jack started to make his way back to his home, which was located in the western-half of the north-east quadrant of Athens. Along the way, his thoughts were flooded with a young boy he'd seen earlier that day, near the Underground Hole's wreckage. It looked as though he'd been looking for someone, and had been quite visibly upset about whatever news he'd learned.

Poor lad. Jack thought as he walked, his stride rhythmic and measured. At least your friends support you.

His walk back home was short, at least when compared to other trips. The police station William was being held was only in the north-western quadrant, so he lucked out on being within a couple miles. Climbing the stairs of the apartment complex, Jack pulled out a key and unlocked door #4. Stepping inside, he closed the door and hung his coat on the nearby rack. Walking down the hallway, he reached the main room, then went down another hallway off to the side, opening a door when he reached it.

On the other side, in the column of light that entered the room from the door's opening, was a small child, who was sitting with her back in a corner and her arms wrapped tightly around her knees. Jack entered the room and approached the girl.

"Hey," he said, offering a hand upon reaching her. "are you okay? Come on, it's time for dinner."

The girl looked as though she hadn't heard him. Jack simply remained there, his hand still outstretched and his friendly demeanor unwavering. After a minute, the girl slowly unfurled and took his hand. Slowly and carefully, Jack led her out to the main room, where the girl then let go and sat at the table, while Jack made his way to the fridge.

The girl was young, probably no older than eight. She was almost entirely skin and bones, had long brown hair, and hadn't spoken a word in the three weeks since Jack had found her. At almost all times, she stared down at the ground, her mouth agape, and her eyes empty. Her skin was pale, though Jack suspected that that was an unnatural side-effect of being chained in the Underground Hole for what was probably years. She was broken. Physically. Mentally. Spiritually. Jack wasn't in the least bit surprised. He was simply thankful that, in the few weeks since he'd rescued her, she had been slowly healing.

Jack pulled a small bowl of rice from the fridge and tossed it into the microwave for a minute. When the timer beeped, he pulled the bowl back out and gave it to the girl along with a spoon.

"Here you go." he said, sitting on the other side of the table afterwards.

The girl slowly looked over at the rice, then began eating it. Jack simply watched from the other side. As she ate, Jack caught sight of the dark-red scabs that still covered her outer left forearm. A pang of guilt rushed him upon seeing them again.

A few days after he'd rescued her and had begun taking care of her, the girl became responsive to him. It was first out of fear, terror, yet she didn't scream. A few more days, and she became used to him. It was around that time that he'd made the mistake of asking her for her name. As usual, she didn't answer. Later that night, however, Jack had walked in on the girl with a knife, carving into her own arm. After he'd taken the knife away and cleaned the wound, he could read that she'd carved letters there.

"A-L-I-Z-A"

Jack had no idea why she did it. He still had no idea why, but he felt it was in-part his fault. What terrified him the most out of the entire ordeal, however, was that the girl didn't flinch or wince whatsoever, as if the pain didn't bother her.

A few minutes after she began, Aliza finished the rice, placing the bowl carefully back on the table. Seeing this, Jack stood up and offered his hand to her.

"Let's get you cleaned up."

Aliza stared at Jack's hand for a few seconds before taking it, after which he guided her to the bathroom. Once inside, Aliza stripped off the one-piece dress she wore—her only article of clothing, despite Jack's attempts at getting her more clothed—and climbed into the shower stall. Jack hated to be here, to see her like this, but the last time he left her to bathe herself, Aliza curled up in one of the corners and sat there until he came to check on her hours later. The long dress Aliza wore hid much of her body beneath its pale-yellow cloth, but the evidence of her past was written on her very skin where the dress covered it. Evidence of claw marks and tears covered much of her back, chest, neck, and inner thighs, with bruises still covering parts of her pelvic region. Tattooed onto her labia majora was a heavily ornate butterfly, whose thorax was the vaginal opening.

Ignoring her scars and his seething hatred rising again, Jack turned the water on and pulled the showerhead from its mount. Opting to let Aliza bathe herself as much as possible, Jack mostly sat back, making sure that Aliza actually cleaned herself rather than curling back up into a ball.

After about fifteen minutes and a few direct interventions and assists from Jack, Aliza had finished bathing, drying, and dressing herself. Once done, Jack guided her back to her room and tucked her into a bed in one of the corners, leaving her to sleep. He then went back to the kitchen, where he grabbed a roll of crackers and sat back down at the table, crunching on one. As he sat there, his mind drifted back to the scene of the Underground Hole when he first found Aliza.

Jack walked along, covered in blood, dragging the maimed, struggling body of a sub-Human bastard by his hair, his blood-choked screams echoing through the posh halls of the high-rising brothel as his lungs slowly filled with his own blood. As he walked, his eye caught sight of an elegant wooden door that had a butterfly carved into its upper-center.

Kicking the door open, there he saw her—Aliza—strapped to a metal ring by her arms and legs, her body making the shape of an "X". Next to the door was a guard, who quickly had Jack's knife embedded within his throat. Looking further in, he saw a "customer" standing near the girl, still fully erect, looking to the door to see who had been so rude to interrupt him, yet still hadn't processed the blood-soaked psycho dragging a body behind.

Seeing the "customer", Jack immediately reacted by letting go of both his knife and the body he dragged and lunged himself at the new bastard. Sitting at the kitchen table, Jack gave a wide, tooth-filled smile alongside a chuckle of pleasure as he remembered the thrill of tearing that thing's balls off with his hand and squeezing the life out of him with the other. His memory then jumped to him untying the girl, throwing a cloth over her, and carrying her out in his arms as the building's lowest key supports vaporized and the structure collapsed in on itself. As the emergency responders took care of the smoldering remains, Jack carried the girl home.

He ended his trip down memory lane by reviewing the last few weeks of him taking care of Aliza and helping her recover from the actual hell she'd lived through while she was trapped within. Closing his eyes, Jack then drifted off to sleep.

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undertale-rho · 3 years

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Post-Underearth - To Protect and Serve

William sat squarely on his knees, his hands bound behind his back with chains. Looking up and around, William thought about how some Asshole had erupted into his warehouse and beat him and his friends down to the ground, only to come back later with Frisk and some fat skeleton in tow. He turned his attention to them.

Frisk and the Asshole whispered something between each-other as the fat skeleton watched William and his two friends with sentry-esk interest. After a minute of their jabbering, Frisk looked back at William, whispered something again to the Asshole, then stood up. The skeleton then pulled out their phone and stuck it to the side of their skull. After a few minutes, he approached the two Humans again.

"The police are on their way." he said. "Let's get you two out of here."

In the next moment, all three of them vanished, leaving William and his friends alone in the warehouse.

"'ey, William," one of his friends called. "wasn't that Frisk?"

"Yeah. It was."

"Who were those with him?"

"I dunno." William shook his head, chuckling a bit. "Some new friends he made in that hole, I guess."

As soon as William finished speaking, the skeleton reappeared, carrying a hotdog.

"Hey, boneboy. Bring me anything?"

"Nah. Just got myself a weiner. I do hear that's your favorite food, though. Wanna taste?" The skeleton pulled the sausage from the bun and held it out to William suggestively, winking his right eye.

William didn't answer. Apparently taking his silence for a "no", the skeleton slotted the sausage back in the bun and continued eating. After a few minutes, the sounds of police sirens told everyone in the warehouse that the police had arrived. Once voices could be heard coming from out front, the skeleton disappeared once again.

After another minute, the large sliding door of the warehouse cracked open, and a few officers came pouring into the room.

"William?" One of the officers called.

"Down here, Phil."

Phil walked to the back of the warehouse, where William and his friends were chained up.

"Now look at wha'chu got 'urself into."

"Not my fault. Some self-righteous jackass with some strange power just barged in here and chained me down. Any tighter and it might have been nice." William chuckled.

Phil turned back to the other officers. "Unchain these three men and take 'em to the station." He turned back to William. "I'll take William with me. Danny, Andrew, you two take his friends."

Doing as directed, the officers unchained William and his friends and escorted them outside to their cruisers. Once stowed away, the officers began making their way back to the station.

"So Phil," William said after a minute. "what's going on? September has been... terrible."

"You too, huh." Phil said, lighting a cigarette as he drove. William held out his cuffed hands, and the officer gave it to him, lit another, and took a puff. "Yeah, ever since the Underground Hole went down in a massive heap of brick and metal, shit's been crazy." Phil then chuckled a bit. "But even so, it's not all been bad. Moon killed Rosa last week, so nobody will care much if you just... left your cell tomorrow."

"Rosa's dead? Heh, serves her right. That's what you get for trying to be a clean cop in this city." William said, sucking on his cigarette.

"Yeah, but there's more bad news. Seems that the Monster ambassador, or whatever the hell he is, isn't too happy with Athens's situation, and wants the city cleaned."

"You're kidding. He can't do that, can he?"

Phil took another puff. "Apparently he can. The Arista has agreed to increase clean law enforcement starting next month."

"I don't believe this. Why the hell would the ambassador give a damn what happens here? Who is this jackass anyway?"

"Some snot-nosed kid named Frisk, I think."

William jerked up upon hearing that.

"What's up. You know 'im or somethin'?"

"No." William said after a few seconds.

Phil eyed William for a second more before turning back to the road. After another minute, William spoke up again.

"So where's Steven?"

"Back at the station."

"Testing the alcohol content of various liquors, no doubt."

Phil chuckled a bit. "Nah, he's actually doing police work. Filing reports to Sparta and all that."

"Tsk. Paperwork. He drew the short-straw today, huh."

"Heheh, yeah. Wouldn't wanna be in his place today."

As the two finished talking, the police car turned into the station's parking lot. Upon parking, Phil and William stepped out of the car. William took one last suck from his cigarette before tossing it to the ground and crushing it under his boot. Phil then escorted him inside, storing him in a cell.

"I'll leave you 'ere tonight, and in the morning, I'll 'accidentally' leave the key here. Be sure you high-tail it outta here before ten."

William sat back on the hard metal slab that made up his bed, shifting the ragged beige blanket down to one side and fluffing up the mostly deflated pillow on the other.

So Frisk is the ambassador to the Monsters, huh... he thought as he took the blanket and beefed up the pillow with it. I wonder... if Frisk found them in Mount Ebott. And if so, I wonder if the Arista knew. Is that why the mountain was always off limits?

William huffed after a minute and got comfortable—at least as comfortable as he could on the hard, cold metal—and went to sleep.

William's eyes slowly slid open. It was bright out, as if it was already mid-day. Blinking a bit, William soon found that he was looking up at a monotonous pink surface. He blinked a few more times and lifted his arm to his head. Lifting his arm, he felt a strange, wet sensation leave it as it left the ground. This time lifting his head, William turned it to look down at what he was laying in, spotting the expressionless face of a woman staring up at him. Caught by surprise, William shot up and jumped away, looking back once he'd landed back in the liquid.

The woman, who was completely nude, was beneath the liquid, floating in it, though seemingly unaware of where she was. Seemingly unaware of anything, in fact, as though she were dead. Looking through the liquid, which looked to be water, William saw more women floating in it, just like the first. Some of the women had gashes carved into them, some had obvious bruising in some places, like around their neck. All of them, however, had heavy bruising covering their entire crotch. Among the women, deep in the water, were two children, standing out among the other bodies in that the children were wearing clothes. Catching sight of the children, William broke his gaze away from the water below.

"Hey Will!" a high-pitched voice said from behind him.

William immediately shot around, his eyes wide with terror. Behind him was a small boy with olive skin facing... him. Another him, that is. Another, younger William.

"Oh, hey kid. What's up?" Young-William said, smiling down at the boy.

"Look what me and Aliza made!" the boy said.

"'Aliza and I.'" Young-William corrected.

"Right. Look what Aliza and I made!"

The boy was holding a small, cardboard structure that was vaguely shaped like an animal.

"Wow," Young-William said, taking the structure. "this looks great. Is it a giraffe?"

The boy nodded. "Yup. We read about them in one of those books. Did you know that they're the tallest animal?"

"No, I had no idea."

"What? Whatever, I'll bet you did know."

Young-William chuckled. "You got me."

William stared at his younger self and the boy with wide, fearful eyes. A crash of glass pulled his attention from the pair to another vision—this one of his younger self alone in front of a sink and mirror, now cracked.

"How is this possible?" the new William said to himself. "Three years? It must have just been a dream, right? Yeah, it never happened. I'm just confusing reality. But then how does Frisk and Aliza remember too? Shared dreams?" Young-William grabbed the back of his head and propped his arms on the sides of the sink. "Arg. This is giving me a headache."

The scraping of a chair against the floor pulled William's attention to another vision. Young-William was sitting on a chair, staring down at the floor.

"Fifteen years. I think, at least." Young-William said, his tone low and his face effortlessly expressionless. "I wake up again, and it's 2010. Again. For the sixth time." Young-William let out a deep sigh. "I haven't told Frisk or Aliza that I remember too. They probably think they're crazy. Maybe I'm the crazy one. Dreams, I tell them it is. Just dreams. Why, for my own sanity?" Young-William dropped his face in his hands. "For what? Does it even matter. Does anything even matter? Why should I work to build something up if I know, someday, without any warning, it'll all just... reset?

"I'm so tired of this. I'm tired of working every day like nothing is wrong. I'm tired of pretending nothing is wrong. I'm just... tired. I'm tired of taking care of others. I'm tired of being selfless, having nothing for myself. Why don't I just indulge for once? It's not like anything would change when it all reset, right? I could probably kill myself and it wouldn't make a difference; just wake up when it all reset again." Young-William began to chuckle. "Yeah, why not. Frisk and Aliza would come back just fine when it all resets again, I could just dump them like garbage on the street. Then I'd be free to get myself killed with all the selfish indulgences I want!" His low chuckling began to rise in tone and ferocity. "It's perfect. And when it all resets again, I just tell them it was all a bad dream and that none of it actually happened, just like I've been doing anyway. It's perfect. It's perfect! It's perfect!!!"

William was drawn from the vision by the rumbling of a door behind him. Tearing his eyes from his demented self, he saw the silhouette of a child standing in the light of a tall, metal door.

"WHO THE HELL ARE YOU, WISEASS!?" The new William shouted from between his two friends.

What the... when... was this? William thought, for once watching the vision with interest rather than terror.

The silhouetted figure stumbled forward into the room William and his friends were in.

"W-wait... Frisk!?" Vision-William said, surprised.

"What? Frisk lived through that!?" William's friend said.

"Yes, William, I did." Frisk responded coldly.

Vision-William just stared for a second, trying to compose a response. "How the hell did you survi—" He then spotted the dagger that Frisk was holding. "What's that for? You angry or something!?"

"You could say something like that." Frisk said, pulling the dagger up to his face.

"Look, bro, if this is about kicking you down that hole, I'm sorry about that. I wasn't myself."

"Just like you weren't yourself when you abandoned me and Aliza on the street like some bag of trash!? You were supposed to look after us after mom and dad died."

"I LOOKED AFTER BOTH OF YOU FOR FIFTEEN YEARS!!!" Vision-William shouted before covering his mouth.

Frisk stopped moving. "Y-you do remember!"

"What are you two idiots doing, get him!!!" Vision-William commanded his friends.

His friends dashed forward to restrain Frisk, but both were swiftly cut down by Frisk and his murderous rage. As one of his friends slowly choked on his own blood, Frisk approached Vision-William.

"W-what kind of monster are you?" He asked.

Frisk stepped closer, though as he approached, his eyes turned black and pus-like black fluid poured out of them, along with his mouth. Vision-William faded, along with the room, but Frisk remained.

William, who had so far been watching the vision with confusion, saw the disgusting deformed face of his brother and stepped back. Frisk didn't hesitate, shooting forward with great momentum and planting the knife straight into William's face.

William shot up from the metal slab, his skin cold and moist, and his breath out of control. William grabbed his chest with his hand, feeling the rapid beats of his heart as it pounded away like a war-drum.

As he slowly steadied his breathing, his heart rate slowly fell too, until it was finally running at a steady beat. Despite the pounding in his chest running slow again, his head pounded all the same, as though the heavy beats from his heart simply relocated to his brain.

Ignoring the pain, William looked around. He was still in his cell, at least he was pretty sure he was. The surrounding area was dark, though the city lights shone some light from his barred window.

As he sat in the dark, rubbing at his temples to try and alleviate the pain, his mind reviewed the day's events. How Frisk, along with some asshole and a skeleton, had delivered him and his friends to this cell. He reviewed the memory a few more times in his head before the pain finally began to lift.

"You're angry, aren't you."

A hissing whisper said.

William looked around his cell again.

"Who's there?" He asked the darkness.

"Someone who wants to help you, though if you must call me something, call me Beauty Queen."

"Beauty Queen?" William gritted his teeth. "That's a stupid name. What do you want?"

"As I said, I wish to help."

the answer came, its speaker choosing to be ignorant of the insult.

"Though as I have answered two of your questions, answer one of mine. You're angry. Angry at Frisk. Angry at yourself. Angry at the world. Your hedonistic way of life, though stemming from your nihilism, is threatened to end without your desired reset. You can't just lie your way back, and you are powerless against the whimsical nature of the universe."

"What is your question?"

"What if I could help you gain the power to perpetuate your current state of existence for as long as you want. Would you accept my help?"

"What? Power? What power?"

"The power to bend this world to your will. Even take control of when it resets, and to when it will reset to. Imagine it, you would be unstoppable. You could do anything you like."

"Anything... I like..." he said, the possibilities already sprouting in his mind.

"Don't listen to it, Will." A new voice said from the darkness.

William looked back around his cell. Even through the darkness, he could make out something that wasn't there before. Somethingâ€”no, someoneâ€”new.

"And who are you?"

"My name is Jack. Pleasure to meet you."

William eyed Jack closely. He was a tall, white man with a mop of black hair clad in a long black coat.

"And what do you want, Jack?"

"What do I want? Hmm, a question that has changed as many times as I've asked it myself. Right now, I guess the answer would be to settle my debt."

"Your debt? And what would that have to do with this place? Is that why you're here?"

"In a fashion, yes. Though if you're asking if I was jailed for this debt, the answer's no. I'm still wanted."

"Then what are you doing in my cell?"

"I'm here because of you."

"Me?"

"You're at a crossroads, William. I promised someone who helped me a great deal that I would do whatever they needed, and they told me to be here at this moment, to make sure you made the right choice."

"You've gotta be kidding me."

"No, I'm not. When I spoke, you were talking to Beauty Queen, yes?"

William looked around the room, trying to find where this "Beauty Queen" had disappeared to.

"You won't find it here."

"It?"

"Beauty Queen. It's not here. It spoke directly into your mind."

William scoffed at Jack's statement.

"You don't believe me?"

"No. Why should I? Spoke directly into my mind? Are you crazy?"

Jack didn't answer. Instead, he simply brought up his hand and summoned a flame just above his palm.

"Whoa!" William yelled. "How did you do that?"

"Magic. The very same magic, in fact, that Beauty Queen was no doubt just promising you."

"If you have it, does that mean you accepted the power it gave?"

"What makes you think that? Besides, the power it gives isn't yours. It belongs to a parasite that it puts on your SOUL to feed on it."

"A parasite... on your SOUL."

"Yes. You don't believe me on the existence of a SOUL, do you?"

"No. Can't say that I do."

Jack sighed. "Unfortunately, I can't show you that. You can only see a SOUL if you've trained in magic, even slightly.

"I can tell you want this power that Beauty Queen offers, but the price for that power is far greater than you think. In order to gain it, you need to murder. This growth comes best from those close to you. The parasite will twist your reason and your purpose, until you're nothing more than a murderous machine."

"Like I care. Besides, it's not like it matters anyway. Tomorrow could never come. For all I know, I could be waking up back in 2010."

"Is that what all this is about?" Jack asked, his brow cocked. "You became what you are now because you think it'll all just erase?"

"Well why not? Everything else I did in those lost years was reverted. All those people I raped and murdered; it'll be like it never happened when it all becomes 2010 again."

"It won't become 2010 again."

William's cocky smile fell. "How do you know?"

"Because I finished what I kept resetting for."

William's eyes widened. What is he talking about!?

"I believe I owe you an apology, Will. You see, I was the one who kept making it 'become 2010 again'. And I see now why he wanted me to come here..." Jack said that last sentence more to himself than William. He then looked straight at him. "I can't reset anymore. That power has moved on. It moved on just before September started, at the end of the day the Begierde buildingâ€”the Underground Holeâ€”exploded."

"Was that you, too?"

"Yes. It was."

"But... that means you're..."

"The Mad Man. Correct."

Jack stood up. William just stared at him, slack-jawed.

"I'm not here to kill you, Will. At least not yet. I'm here to tell you to reform yourself. When the morning comes, and you 'escape', do not go back to your criminal ways. If you do, I'll know, and I'll kill you." Jack then reached into his pocket and pulled out a golden ring. "If you really do want the power Beauty Queen offers, take this. It will unlock your magical potential." He then handed the ring to William, then stepped over to the window. "I've been blocking Beauty Queen from talking while we talked. When I leave, I have no doubt that it will attempt to convince you otherwise of the things we spoke on. Do not listen to it."

As soon as Jack finished speaking, he disappeared in a flare of red energy.

William sat alone in the cell, staring down at the ring he'd been given. As soon as Jack vanished, Beauty Queen hissed in William's ear again, but he wasn't listening. Eventually, he fell back asleep, to dream on these revelations.

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undertale-rho · 3 years

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Post-Underearth - Moonlit Sonata

Artemis ran desperately down the dimly lit sidewalk of southern Athens, Amelia clutched tightly in one hand as she ran along behind, with Artemis clutching her sword tightly with the other. It had been a few days since Frisk was dragged off by that older man. Artemis tightened her jaw. She hated that she'd just watched from the shadows instead of running in to help him. But she couldn't focus on that now. For now, she had to get out of Athens.

"Where are we going?" Amelia asked, her emerald-green eyes practically glistening in the tiny sliver of moonlight.

"Away from here, from the city, where it's safe." Artemis replied without looking back.

Athens was a cold, hostile place. She thought back to a time when a man had been beaten to death out in the middle of the day on a sidewalk, and those walking by just averted their eyes and walked faster, hoping to not get involved. A pang of fear ran through Artemis as she imagined Amelia in the beaten-man's place.

No. That can't... won't happen.

She looked back over her shoulder to see if anybody was following. Looking back ahead, she could see the edge of the city and the start of the southern tree line of the South Hellenes Forest.

She was almost out. The pack on her back rattled as she hastened her speed. Finally, Artemis ran past the last building and onto the road, where a light she hadn't seen before reaching the road blinded her. The light was swiftly followed by a horn and the skidding of tires on asphalt. In the few second that followed, the bumper of a car knocked lightly against Artemis's legs, and she stumbled backwards, falling to the ground and pulling Amelia with.

"Hey!" the driver yelled. "Pay attention, you bloody idiot!"

Artemis paid the driver no mind, quickly standing back up, pulling Amelia up to her feet, and running across the street into the forest beyond as the driver slung curses at them.

Within the forest, the sisters continued to run, crossing another road as they ran. After some time, Amelia collapsed to the ground, and Artemis stopped running.

"Are you okay, Amy?" Artemis asked, gasping for air.

"Y... yeah." Amelia said, gasping as well. "It's so dark out here, where are you?"

Artemis didn't understand what her sister meant, at least until she'd actually looked around and found herself blinded by the darkness of the forest.

Was it this dark while we ran? she thought.

Artemis shook her head, focusing back on more pressing matters. "I'm here, follow my voice."

Amelia stumbled through the darkness until she fell into her sister's arms. Once the two collided, they both sat down at the base of a tree, Artemis shifting the scabbard of her sword up so it wouldn't be in the way. The chilly near-autumn air bit at their skin as they sat, mildly shivering.

Resting her eyes for a few minutes, Artemis re-opened them to seeing what was around her, as though the darkness itself had vanished. A feeling of restlessness surfaced in her mind.

"Come on," Artemis said. "let's get going."

The sisters stood back up, and they both continued on their journey. After a few more minutes, they both stumbled out into a clearing by a lake, its bank looking to be entirely desolate. Looking back at her sister, Artemis could see that Amelia was caked in street-filth.

"Come here a second." Artemis said. "We're gonna take a quick bath."

Amelia groaned but let Artemis strip off her green dress and grey undershirt, though she herself removed her grey shoes. Approaching the water, Amelia suddenly leapt back.

"What is it?" Artemis asked, worried that something nasty might be lurking inside.

"It's really cold." Amelia said.

Artemis sighed. "Alright, give me a second to strip."

Immediately, Artemis placed her katana and pack on the ground and pulled off her own black shoes. With those out of the way, she then slipped off her tattered blue jeans and grey hoodie. Naked herself, she took ahold of her sister and they both entered the bone-chilling water. Scrubbing as much dirt and grime off as possible, the sisters exited the water, now a bit cleaner.

Artemis's jaw clattered like shattering china, and Amelia wasn't doing much better. Slipping their clothes back on, Artemis felt a wave of heat envelop her as she grabbed her katana.

"Here, grab this." Artemis said, handing an end of the sword to Amelia. Grabbing hold, Amelia quickly stopped shivering. "Come on, let's take a moment to warm up under that tree." She then said, guiding her sister to the base of a tree.

Reaching the trunk, they both sat down, holding the sword firmly in their hands.

What am I doing out here? Artemis soon found herself thinking. Damn it, Frisk. What were you gonna do out here?

Sitting still beneath the tree, her thoughts dwelling on her lost friend, Artemis felt here eyelids grow heavy. Before long, they closed completely, and she drifted off to sleep.

"Artemis." a silent voice called out.

Artemis groaned, cracking her eyes a bit.

"Artemis." the voice said again.

Artemis drew up her hands and rubbed her eyes. "Who is it?" she mumbled.

"Open. Your eyes."

Artemis brought her hands back down to her sides and finally opened her eyes to a bright, emerald-green sky.

Now, Artemis had seen the sky be many colors. Blue, most of the time. Red. Orange. Pink on a few occasions. Black at night. But never green. Immediately, she shot up. All around her was a near-perfectly reflected landscape of what looked like water, which reflected the green sky. Looking down at the water below her, however, she saw no reflection of herself. Only a great sea of sand, with a chain of massive islands of green stretching across its surface, breaking up the monotonous yellow sand.

Surrounding Artemis was a great many massive, curved swords, each much like her own. Each sword had its point driven into the water, making them all look like great towers jutting up from a green ocean.

Looking around further, she soon caught sight of another person, who kneeled on the water, with their hands placed on their knees. Not knowing where else to go, Artemis approached the figure.

"H... hello?" she said as she approached.

The figure didn't respond, nor did it make any sign that it had heard her.

"Are you the one who was calling me?"

Still no response.

Soon, the distance between them had fallen to six feet, and Artemis stopped approaching. From where she now stood, the fine details of the figure could be discerned. It was heavily armored, with blue plates decorating the figure's chest, shoulders, and legs in the form of a plate-skirt. Its forearms and hands were wrapped in cloth and leather, with plates covering the outer-part of its forearms. Around its neck was another plate, with its neck covered in cloth as well. The helmet the figure wore was like that of a man, though blue, with a green emerald emblazoned on its forehead. The eye-holes were cold and empty, with a golden metallic mustache between its blue nose and lips. At the top of its head was a golden crescent, with blue cloth that draped down behind the helmet. On the armored figure's lower back was a sword, sheathed within a dark wooden scabbard.

Artemis opened her mouth to speak again, but was cut off, startled by one of the giant swords in the distance erupting from the ocean and flying her way, shrinking as it approached. Quickly, the sword had shrunk to the size of Artemis's, and had plunged itself into the water between the figure and Artemis. After a few seconds, the figure stood up, and drew its sword, bringing it down in front of it, with its handle held fast in both hands.

In response, Artemis reached for where her sword would normally be, but found nothing. Without missing a beat, she drew the sword in front of her and held it out the same. Immediately, the figure shot forward, knocked Artemis's sword out of the way, and stopped just an inch from Artemis's throat, all within a single, swift motion.

"You want to protect your sister," the figure said, with the same voice that spoke before. "but you are now dead. Beheaded by one with greater experience." The figure drew away from Artemis and sheathed its sword.

Artemis, who was breathing heavily, dropped to her knees, grabbing at her chest. She could feel her pounding heart beat against her ribcage as she shook violently in fear.

"What do you mean I'm dead?" she asked through gasps.

"Figuratively. Had it been a real fight, you would be dead. This is all just a dream. To you, anyway. In reality, you are still cuddled up next to your sister below a tree near Lake Sullivan, sleeping the night away."

Artemis sighed in relief, and her speeding heart slowed a bit. Looking back at the figure, she spotted a familiar green emerald embedded in the sword it carried.

"Wait, that's my sword." she said, reaching over to grab it.

The figure stepped back. "Your sword? But you have your sword, there in your hands."

Artemis looked down at the sword she drew. It looked just the same. Looking around at the giant swords around them, all of them looked exactly the same. She looked back at the figure.

"Who are you?"

"Hah. A truly intriguing question. One that is written in my reflection." the figure gestured down to the water at its feet.

Artemis looked, seeing a heavily disformed figure. The hands and feet of the reflection—despite being where they should be—weren't connected to the torso, and the head was barely recognizable, but Artemis guessed it could possibly be a skull.

"Of course, that likely isn't the answer you're looking for." The figure then said. "Perhaps the question you meant to ask was what my name is. There, your answer lies in the hilt of that sword."

Artemis looked down at her sword again. The leather around the hilt was twisting slightly. Opening her hand, the leather straps pulled themselves away to reveal a silver hilt beneath. In the metal was written a word, though the language was written with sharp lines, dots, and circles that she couldn't read.

"What does it say?"

"Huzntadmir."

"And this is your name?"

"In a fashion. It is the name I have gone by for centuries, serving your ancestors."

"Then you're... then you must be the Guardian Spirit my mother told me about."

"Yes. The Spirit of the Sword that safeguards your family. The Hemlocks, as you're called now. I will admit, Atara's decision to come to this land was a surprise to be sure, but once she was here, it was only inevitable that she would go to Mount Ebott. But listen to me ramble. We need to safeguard you, now don't we.

"Listen carefully, Artemis." Huzntadmir brought up his hands, and the surrounding ocean began to shift. "I will teach you all you still need to learn. That boy, Frisk, taught you quite well, but the survival skills you have now are still quite novel. And at this time, you still lack some necessary items."

When Huzntadmir finished speaking, the surrounding ocean had shifted into a dark building filled with survival equipment.

"Where are we now?" Artemis asked.

"Technically still in the same place. You are only seeing an illusion I'm putting into your mind. The place you're now seeing, however, is a survival shop in Athens. Closed right now, with it being night and all, but I'm sure they won't mind us browsing. Now, what you're looking for is a waterskin, a proper backpack, a compass, and a knife."

Artemis stepped through the store, looking for the items Huzntadmir had instructed her to find. After a few minutes, all four items had been selected.

"Excellent." he said. "Now, Artemis. Within the next few minutes, I'm going to wake you up. The items you selected will be organized, and the waterskin will be filled with fresh water. Wake up your sister after you have awoken. Everything that is yours will be organized in the pack you have selected. Pull out the compass and put on the pack. Once this is done, head east."

"What's east?"

"Something. I'm not too sure myself, but it calls to us now. On this journey, no matter what happens, do not stop. Do not speak with anyone. Just go."

And with that, Huzntadmir disappeared, along with the store and everything else, leaving Artemis alone in a dark, empty void. A few minutes later, a tapping on her chest caused her to wake up. Her sword was tapping on her chest. Reaching up to grab it, the sword dropped into her hand, and she brought it down to her side. The backpack she had selected back at the store now sat at her feet. Artemis looked down at Amelia, who was holding tightly to her.

"Hey, Little Rose." Artemis whispered. "Time to wake up."

Amelia's eyes slowly slid open. "What time is it?" she asked, stretching a bit.

"Still night. Come on, it's time to go."

Standing up, Artemis approached the backpack. Everything that was in her old pack had been placed in the new, though the old was nowhere to be found. Already knowing where the compass was, she reached into the pocket and pulled it out, pulling the backpack on right after. As soon as she'd found east, Artemis began walking, closely followed by Amelia.

"Where are we going?" Amelia asked as they started walking.

Artemis sighed. "I'm not sure, but something calls us this way."

And so the pair walked, all through the night.

It had been about week since the sisters had fled Athens. The late September air was cool as the pair trudged through a mountainous forest. Shade enveloped every inch around them through the leaves of the surrounding trees, to the great continents of clouds soaring above. Though they'd managed to eat a few critters within their travels, neither sister had had much to eat whatsoever in the last couple days. It was becoming more evident that they'd have to stop soon each passing second as Amelia, who hadn't been feeling her best when they'd left in the first place, was beginning to feel worse than ever.

"We're almost there, Amy." Artemis reassured as Amelia stumbled along close behind. "At least I hope so..." she then mumbled.

Artemis was sure of where they were going and where they were. She wasn't exactly sure how, but she had a feeling Huzntadmir had something to do with it. She was close, she could feel it. Yet the sickness overtaking Amelia, greater now than before, was making her doubt whether making this journey before her sister was back up to full strength was the right decision. She thought back to the time a few days ago when Amelia had coughed up a few droplets of blood. Her mind then wandered to the what-if she feared, and she quickly ran the thought from her mind.

It won't happen. She reassured herself.

Continuing on their path for a few hours more, the sound of rushing water rang clearly through the forest. A moment more of walking saw the pair come to a small meadow with a river junction near its center, where a singular green island at the converging of two rivers into one stood proud, seemingly ignorant of the eroding effects of the rapids between it. Approaching the island, Artemis spotted small points of land, footsteps apart, leading straight to the island.

This is it. Artemis thought, which she then spoke aloud. She turned to Amelia, who was shuffling close behind, suffering another coughing fit, with the back of her hand she used to contain the cough getting flecked with blood.

Artemis quickly crossed over the small steppingstones and placed her backpack on the island. She then recrossed and picked up Amelia, crossing back to the island.

Placing Amelia down on the other side, she then looked around herself, then felt a bit silly. There she was, surrounded on all sides by water, on a small piece of land just barely able to fit the pair of them.

What am I doing here? Artemis asked herself, sitting down on a rock. Or, at least, it looked like a rock, but it was too bumpy. Looking down at its mossy face, Artemis felt around on its surface, finding many intricate grooves that covered its face. And not just grooves, but a small recess that went under the face of the rock, as if it were meant to have a hand there, or to be lifted from there. Artemis stood up and grasped the recess, lifting as hard as she could. In the following moments, the rock-face lifted, revealing a manhole beneath.

This is it! Artemis looked up at Amelia. "Come on down!" she said excitedly, grabbing a ladder just inside and climbing down into the manhole.

The stone room below—lit by a beam of light from the manhole—was rectangular, the far wall looking to be at least ten feet away from the ladder, with only four feet between the side walls and the ladder. Stepping down the rungs, Artemis suddenly found it a bit harder to breath due to the musty scent of mold that permeated every part of the air. Reaching the floor of the bunker, Artemis turned around and caught sight of something that made her jump. A skeleton, sitting in a chair as if nothing were wrong, with its head tilted one way. Little flesh remained on the mold-blackened bones, and tattered rags of cloth were strewn across its ribcage and legs. Wrapped in the arms of the skeleton was a large pot or urn. Curiosity getting the better of her, she approached the skeleton, seemingly fascinated by the bones exposed to the air.

When she'd brought her head down near the skeleton's skull, the skull moved up, facing itself straight at Artemis, which caused her to let out a scream and jump backwards.

"Do not be afraid." the skeleton said, its accent so distorted, it barely sounded like English. "As you see me now, I am dead and cannot hurt you."

Artemis calmed down a bit, but still grasped Huzntadmir.

"Through the gift given to me by the Piece of Aiōn, the one we call "Madās", I have seen your arrival, and have left you a message. Though Madās restricts what I am allowed to say, know that I am one that seeks to help you. The sword you grasp now in fear is no normal tool of Man. It was created by those sealed within, newly freed in your time. Within that blade lies the secrets of magic. Trust in the mind of the blade, and you will unlock a great power, one you can use to survive."

"Who are you?" Artemis asked.

"Now is no time for questions, young Human named after the Goddess of the Hunt—Artemis. Your sister, Amelia, is gravely ill. If nothing is done, she will soon meet with Charon, and be forever lost to you."

Artemis turned back to the manhole above. She didn't follow me down!?

"Do not go yet, or your sister will surely die." The skeleton warned. "In my state of foresight, I prepared medicine for your sister. Take it and give it to her. It will be bitter, but if she does not take it, she will die."

"Where is this medicine?"

"Here, in this vase. I have sealed it against the ravages of time, but if it is not taken immediately after the seal is destroyed, time will take it back, and it will be lost forever, as will your sister. You will have but a minute. Bring your sister down here and destroy the vase with your sword. Sword made by the hand of Aster in his hour of grief, break this seal, that those you protect may survive."

Artemis grabbed hold of the ladder and began climbing.

"One last thing, Artemis. At your time, I am dead and, as such, can no longer make use of this buried home. Make use of it as you wish. And please, if you would, bury me beneath the sun."

Artemis finished climbing the ladder back out onto the island. Amelia was lying face-down on the ground. When Artemis reached her and lifted her head, blood caked the moss where her head was, and droplets leaked from her mouth.

"Amelia!" Artemis said. "Come on, I've got medicine for you."

Amelia tried to lift an arm but failed after it was barely an inch off the ground. Artemis immediately lifted Amelia from the ground and pulled her to the manhole, carefully bringing her down into the dank room beneath.

The skeleton at the side was inactive again, the skull hanging back down to the side. Artemis placed Amelia down and drew her sword. The blade, even in the darkness, flashed orange for a fraction of a second, and Artemis swung at the vase, shattering it to pieces.

Inside the vase, a small wooden bowl lay. Pulling it from the remnants, Artemis opened the bowl. Inside was a fine powder, with a piece of cloth folded neatly on top. Opening the cloth up, inside was a simple message.

"For your sister. Feed her all of it, lest she perish."

Artemis placed the cloth to the side and ran to her sister, who was lying sprawled on the ground again.

"Amy, I need you to open your mouth. I got some medicine for you. It'll help you feel better."

Amelia didn't respond. Instantly, Artemis lifted Amelia's head and forced her mouth open. She then poured the powder in just as the wooden bowl began to rot. Within moments of it entering her mouth, Amelia started coughing. Artemis didn't stop, continuing to pour the powder in until all of it was inside Amelia.

"Come on, swallow." Artemis urged, grabbing her waterskin and giving Amelia a bit of water. After a few seconds, Artemis pulled it away and waited. Amelia coughed a few more times before going limp.

"Amy?" Artemis said. "Little Rose? Come on, don't do this. It isn't funny."

Amelia didn't move.

"Amelia, come on..." Artemis said, shaking the limp body in her arms as tears began pooling in her eyes. "Talk to me. Please."

Still no response. After a minute, Artemis placed her head against Amelia's chest and cried into it, her tears staining the front of her sister's dress. A sudden coughing drew her attention away from crying as Amelia's belly shot forwards, facilitating her coughing.

"That was awful. Never give it to me again." Amelia said, wiping a couple drops of blood from her chin.

Artemis laughed a bit before embracing her sister, tears streaming down her face. "I hope I never have to."

Artemis looked out over the pile of rocks where the burial happened. The strange skeleton who'd looked into the future had gotten his wish. Yet all Artemis could think about was magic. Magic. It was magic that allowed that skeleton to speak to her and save Amelia from however many centuries in the past, and she never even learned his name. It was magic that allowed Huzntadmir to exist, to help her learn magic of her own, and wilderness survival. Of course, there was also Frisk's book, which Artemis had found buried deep in the backpack. She wondered if Huzntadmir had taken it as well when he'd taken all the other stuff.

Artemis looked back away from the grave to where Amelia was playing nearby. It had been a few weeks since she'd nearly died, and yet Amelia now had more life in her than ever before. She had always been sickly, Artemis remembered, from the time Amelia had been born, she'd always been strangely vulnerable to illness. But out here, wherever "here" was, she seemed free of those chains. Whether it was being outside Athens, or perhaps even that powder-medicine, Artemis didn't care. She loved to watch Amelia dance around and help in ways she couldn't before.

"You're distracted again." Huzntadmir brought Artemis's focus back down to her magic training.

"Yeah, sorry." Artemis said, gripping the sword tightly once again. "Let's go again."

"Excellent. Now remember, I'm only bringing out the magical energy that dwells within you already, and helping you learn to use it on your own. The work is on you. Focus."

Artemis breathed in slowly, then exhaled slowly. Then inhaled, then exhaled. On her next inhale, Artemis swung her sword at the river with all her might, sending out a thin blade of fire that barely made it to the water's edge.

"Good, good." Huzntadmir congratulated. "You're definitely getting better."

"Doesn't help that I'm slow." Artemis said, who'd been hoping to make a column of steam with that strike.

"Everyone develops at their own pace. The fault is not yours. Relax, and keep practicing. You will make that water boil sooner than you think."

Artemis sighed, and made another attempt, this time getting a little bit of steam to rise.

"You see?"

Artemis fell forward onto her knee, sinking the sword a bit into the dirt.

"Hey, careful now. Why don't you take a break, let your AURA regenerate."

Artemis nodded and leaned back against a nearby tree, opting to watch Amelia play in the meadow.

"Hey Huzntadmir." Artemis said after a minute. "I've been wondering. If you're a sword, how do you see and hear?"

"Interesting questions. The answer to which is quite simple. Magic."

Artemis rolled her eyes.

"I'm serious. What I'm teaching you has more versatility than simply lighting things on fire. For instance, I'm speaking to you with magic right now. Telepathy, where I transfer meaning directly into your SOUL."

"Can you read minds too?"

"No. That's impossible. The mind is a prison from which only you have the key. Nobody else can see what lies inside. Magicians of mind magic can, however, see patterns and guess at what you're thinking."

"So how do you see?"

As Artemis asked the question again, a fuzzy-looking black ball floated out in front of her.

"With this. It's called an 'auten', and it collects light like your eyes do.Â I hear through a similar spell called an 'auden'. These, however, are invisible to light, since they only collect vibrations in the air, which is what sound is."

"Alright."

"'Alright' indeed. Interesting tidbit about the auten is it technically isn't supposed to be black like this. Normally it's white, but when it's white, it doesn't differentiate between colors, and only shows a black-and-white image. I like my colors, so I put in the extra energy to see them."

Artemis looked up at the orange sky above. The sun was beginning to set.

"New moon tonight." Huzntadmir said.

Artemis sighed. "I know." She didn't like it when the moon was dark. The environment around her dark, and the unknown constantly just beyond her reach.

"Hey sis!" Amelia said, suddenly next to Artemis. Artemis inhaled sharply, then breathed easy.

"Hey Little Rose." she said, ruffling her sister's hair. "It's almost dark. You ready to head on inside?"

Amelia shook her head violently. "Nope. I wanna stay out here some more."

Artemis chuckled a bit. "Alright. But not too long, you hear?" She herself then stood back up and crossed to the island. It was much easier now, as both she and Amelia had—after a few failed attempts—built a sturdy wooden bridge over where the steppingstones had been. She then opened the hatch and climbed down inside.

Weeks before, Artemis would never have even thought of letting Amelia out of her sight in such an open place. But out here, it was different. Nobody around to snatch her up or take her away. Nobody around to harm her. Plus, it helped that Huzntadmir said he'd keep an eye on her. So Artemis just stepped into the bunker without hesitation or worry. Inside, she made for a freezing barrel, where a fish the two had caught earlier that day was being stored. As she pulled the lid free, a pillar of mist appeared as the magically cooled air inside the barrel met the warmer air outside it. Artemis reached in and pulled out the fish, which fortunately wasn't too frozen. Closing the barrel and placing the fish on a nearby table, she began cutting into it, getting ready to make a pair of fillets for her and her sister.

Midway cutting through the second half of the fish, she stopped for a moment, then chuckled to herself.

"Oh, if you could just see me now, Frisk." She mumbled, a couple tears forming in her eyes as she thought about her friend. "Barely able to accept a dead rabbit on that last day. Now look at me. Gutting a fish like it were second nature."

"So what's for dinner?" Amelia asked, climbing down the ladder.

"Fish. That one we caught earlier."

"Yummy!" Amelia looked over at the empty fireplace. "Can I start the fire?"

Artemis looked over at the fireplace, then to Amelia, in consideration. After a moment, she smiled. "Sure. Do you remember how?"

"Mhm!" Amelia nodded, running off through a doorway to grab some tinder. When she returned, she immediately got underway trying to start the fire, fiddling with the flint and steel Artemis made a few days earlier to try and make a spark. After a few minutes, a fire finally started, and she placed the burning tinder into the fireplace. "All done!"

"Thanks a lot, Amy." Artemis said, stroking her sister's head before placing the fillets on a stone and putting it over the fire. The sisters then sat at the makeshift table they'd made the previous week, waiting for the fish to cook.

"Did you have fun playing today?" Artemis asked after a minute.

"Mhm." Amelia nodded. "Yeah, I pretended I was a strong warrior, fighting off a bunch of monsters." As she spoke, she waved her arms around, showing off her faux swordsmanship.

"Monsters, huh. I hope you beat them all."

Amelia nodded again. "Uh huh." She then looked up at her sister. "I also watched you for a bit. It's so cool you can make fire with your sword like that. Do you think I could try sometime?"

"Wha!? I mean... uh..."

"I wouldn't mind." Huzntadmir said. "Under correct control, magic is perfectly safe. You would have nothing to fear."

Artemis contemplated it for a minute. "Yeah, alright. Tomorrow, yeah?"

"Yeah!"

"Now, let's eat." Artemis pulled the cooked fish from the fire and gave Amelia hers before turning to her own.

I really wish you could see us, Frisk. Artemis thought, staring down at the fish. We did it. We're doing it. We are survivors. Artemis then dug into her own fish. It was more juicy and delicious than anything she'd ever tasted in Athens.

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undertale-rho · 3 years

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Post-Underearth - Realpolitik

"In other news," A firm feminine voice flowed out of the radio, which sat on a nearby nightstand. "the council of Akeraiotas—locally called the 'Arista'—will be meeting with the Monster delegates within the hour. Unfortunately, our reporters on-site have not been allowed entry into the Akerai where it will all happen, so all we can do is watch and wait."

Frisk laid comfortably on a bed, listening to the radio while wrapped in a blanket. Toriel sat nearby, her large furry hands hard at work sewing a seam in a long purple robe. Beyond Toriel, though only visible to Frisk's eyes, Chara floated in a corner, listening to the broadcast as well. Frisk was the ambassador for the Monsters to the Humans, though you would never has easily guessed it, seeing as he was just barely twelve years old.

"Why do you think they're not letting the reporters in?" Frisk asked Toriel.

Toriel, a massive goat-Monster that towered over most others, briefly looked up from her work.

"I know not." She said, looking back down as she pulled a stitch through the cloth. "It worries me, though. But from what I hear, it is not unusual for the Arista to restrict reporters from entry."

"I see." Frisk went back to listening to the radio.

"For those that have missed our earlier broadcasts on this issue," the radio continued, this time with an energetic male voice. "yesterday morning, two skeletons were discovered in the area of the South Hellenes Forest just barely south of Mount Ebott up in Akeraiotas, the tiny nation tucked in the north-east corner of Washington state. Not skeletons as in corpses, but skeletons that walked and talked. Within minutes, Akeraiotan authorities arrived and closed out public access. We were informed by the authorities that Monsters were spotted around Mount Ebott, and to not panic. Later, we were informed that the King of these Monsters had contacted the authorities and had requested an audience with the Arista, which was accepted and is slated for later today."

"Now, when we say 'Monsters'," The female voice picked up again. "we don't mean the evil, child-eating monsters of folk-legends in various parts of the world. No, these Monsters are apparently quite friendly, and willing to strike up conversation—or so we've been told. As we have yet to interview any Monster, we can't actually confirm this."

"I believe our best option would be to wait for the results of the coming audience." the male voice finished. "In the meantime, we urge everybody in the area to listen to the local authorities, and to not violate the restrictions placed."

As the news reporters finished up their report, there was a knock at the door, followed by it opening.

"Sup kid." A new Monster—a skeleton named Sans—said while stepping into the room. "You ready for our meeting with the Arista?"

"Almost. What do you think, mom?"

Toriel stood up and walked over to Frisk, placing the robe on his covers. "Try this on, and we will see."

Toriel and Sans turned around as Frisk pulled the robe up to him and slid out from under the covers, revealing that he was almost naked. Quickly pulling the robe over himself, Frisk alerted the others that it was fine for them to turn back.

"How do I look?" Frisk asked.

"Hmm. It will have to do for now." Toriel said, nodding approvingly.

"You look tacky." Chara said, smirking.

Frisk let out a cool sigh, smiling slightly as he did so.

Toriel walked back over to where she'd been working and pulled up a bright-gold breastplate and two simple golden bracers. Sighing, Frisk stepped out into the middle of the room and brought his arms up, outstretching them to his sides. Coming back over to him, Toriel fitted the breastplate to Frisk, strapping it tightly to him.

"Why do I have to wear this again?" Frisk asked, grunting slightly as Toriel pulled a belt tight.

"You're the face of the Kingdom." Sans said. "That means you gotta wear the same stuff we do."

"Really? So where's your armor?"

Sans shrugged. "Around. I'll put it on when I have to."

Frisk eyed him as Toriel pulled the last strap tight.

"Okay. That is that. Now for the bracers." Toriel said, pulling the bracers over Frisk's arms.

Frisk pulled his arms back in, shifting his right bracer a bit so it sat more comfortably.

"C'mon. Let's hurry. Asgore and Undyne are waiting for us over in Sparta." Sans said, offering his hand to Frisk.

"Just Asgore and Undyne?" Frisk asked. "What about Alphys?"

"Alphys won't be making it. She's still hung up about the Amalgamates."

The Amalgamates. Horrific monstrosities that are the combined bodies and SOULs of multiple Monsters, twisted by DETERMINATION. Frisk shuddered thinking about them.

"Alright." Frisk said, taking Sans's still outstretched hand with a bit of reluctance. Instantly, a nauseating feeling came over the young Human as he and Sans both teleported to Sparta.

Once the nausea passed, Frisk looked around. Sparta, the seat of government of the tiny nation. Where Sans had teleported them to was right outside the Akerai, the capital building of Akeraiotas.

"Here we are." Sans said. "Let's head on in. Don't mind the crowd."

Frisk, confused a bit, looked around. Surrounding the entrance was a number of police officers all standing in a half-circle, keeping a crowd of people back from the entrance. Looking back at them, flashes of cameras burned their way into Frisk's eyes. Quickly turning back, Frisk followed Sans up the many, many stairs up to the front doors.

The front doors of the Akerai seemed to be of pure gold, standing at least four times Frisk's height inside the protective shelter of a roof supported by several columns. Pushing on the doors, Frisk found it surprising how easily they moved inward. With a gap made, Frisk went inside.

Just beyond the doors was a small space that separated the inside area from the outdoors. In this space, Asgore and Undyne stood waiting for them.

"There you are. What took you so long?" Undyne asked as Frisk and Sans came into view.

"Mom held me up while she finished up my robe. Seriously, do I really need to be wearing this stuff?"

"I think it best for us to make a good first impression." Asgore said, shifting his own golden ceremonial armor.

Both Asgore and Undyne were dressed in golden ceremonial armor like Frisk, though theirs was complete, featuring full-body plate for each, along with a long flowing cape—purple for Asgore, and black for Undyne, each color indicating exactly which field of government they were in.

"Alright, but then what about Sans? Isn't he joining us?" Frisk asked.

Asgore's gaze turned to Sans. "He should be. Where is your armor, Sans?"

Sans shrugged, much like before. "I like to put it on at the last second."

"The last second is fast approaching—" Asgore was interrupted by the opening of one of the inner doors.

The man opening the door bowed to the four gathered. "The Arista will see you now." He said, ushering them inside.

As the four stepped inside, a golden suit of armor with a long, flowing golden cape flashed on around Sans in a dark green burst of energy. By the time they reached the center of the grand chamber within, it looked as though he'd been wearing it the entire time.

Above much else, other than perhaps some of what he'd seen in the Underground, this room was by far the grandest thing Frisk had ever laid eyes on. Marble staircases rose up on either side of the wide room, and far above the center stood a dome with beautiful murals painted on them.

"Wow." Chara breathed, her incorporeal form floating just behind Frisk.

"Welcome, Monsters." A man on the second floor called down. Looking down from above, Frisk spotted the man clearly, standing in the center between four other Humans on each of his sides. "Please, come on up. Choose either staircase." The man, along with the eight other Humans, turned around and retreated beyond view.

Asgore, followed closely by Undyne, Frisk, and Sans, climbed up to the second level and went to where the man called down, finding a door nearby. Stepping over the threshold, all nine Humans were standing behind a long table in the center of a lightly decorated room with red carpet and white walls.

"Welcome again." The central man said. "I am Gregory, though you can call me Greg. It's a great pleasure to finally meet you."

"Howdy, er, Greg." Asgore said, bowing his head to the man. "It is a great pleasure to finally meet you as well. I am Asgore Dreemurr. King of the Monsters. This here is the Captain of the Royal Guard, Undyne Alcaeus. This is Sans Gaster, the chief judge of our judiciary. And this here is our ambassador to Humanity, young Frisk."

Gregory offered his hand to each of the Monsters as they were introduced by Asgore. When he shook Sans's hand, a farting sound emerged from the exchange, giving many of the other Humans a confused expression, and a look of annoyance from Undyne. Asgore elected to ignore it and continue on to Frisk.

"It's a pleasure to meet all of you." Gregory said, deciding to ignore the fart as well. "So, shall we get to business?"

All thirteen people in the room sat down at the long table. As they sat, Chara spoke.

"Interesting. This table is bigger than usual."

"What do you mean?" Frisk whispered.

"Usually, it only fits a maximum of nine people. This one is designed for more. I guess the isolationist attitudes of old aren't held as closely anymore, if at all."

"Usually?"

"Yeah. At least, back when I was alive..." Chara trailed off. Frisk refocused on the people around him, the Arista.

Gregory pulled a bronze orb out of a small, ornate bag and placed it in the center of the table. Frisk looked closer at it. A circuit board-like pattern decorated its surface, where at the top, around the 70-degrees mark, was a circle containing a symbol of a hammer inside a fan-shape.

Wait... that symbol...

"Asgore," Gregory began, snapping Frisk out of his thoughts. "according to our oldest records, your kind was sealed within Mount Ebott by the Arista of the day, specifically Alexis, Korinna, Rhodōpis, Tephra, Nikolaos, Prokopios, and Xanthos. Is this correct."

"It is."

"Can you enlighten us as to how this was done?"

Asgore wasn't sure what to say. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"We have been watching Mount Ebott for many, many years now. We found that, beginning at a certain point, darkness engulfed everything, even if we shined light directly into the darkness. It was eventually taken to being called 'the threshold'. The Oracle commanded us to never enter in through it, or we would surely die. We recently took another look, and the threshold is gone. I assume it had something to do with the seal, but we're not even sure what that is."

"The seal? The magical barrier."

"Magical? You mean magic actually existed?"

The three Monsters looked shocked. Did they not know about magic?

"Please understand," Gregory continued, "the last recorded documentation of this... magic was over 400 years ago. We all just assumed that it wasn't... actually magic. Can you... show us this magic?"

The four people of the Monster's council looked at one-another. After a second, Undyne summoned one of her spears and placed it on the table, Asgore and Frisk summoned fire in their hands, and Sans dropped a bone on the table.

"Incredible..." Gregory whispered. "And this, 'barrier', you called it, was another thing of magic?"

"Yes." Asgore said as the four magicians dispelled their conjurations. "It was a specific branch known as shield magic. A very powerful spell, at that. It trapped everything on one side of it, being the Underground."

"Fascinating. How did you break it, and what took you so long?"

The Monster's council looked uncomfortable.

"Is... something wrong?" Gregory asked.

"No," Asgore said quickly. "nothing is wrong. It's just that..." he breathed in deeply, then heaved a great sigh. "the only way to break a shield magic spell is to overpower it. Fire off an energy output that equals the amount of energy the shield holds. In the case of Cerberus—the Barrier—that energy was the total energy found in seven SOULs. The seven Arista that conjured the Barrier gave their all when they created it, and were no doubt exhausted for the following days. To destroy it, we would need to equal that energy level."

"Well, with so many Monsters down there, it should have been easy, right?"

Asgore shook his head. "It wasn't. Something about Monsters is that one Human SOUL is equal to a thousand Monster SOULs; and unlike a Human, when a Monster uses up all its energy, it dies. We would have needed to sacrifice about 7,000 of our own people just to kill Cerberus, and that wasn't something I was willing to do, especially because I knew that Humanity would simply destroy us if they learned they couldn't contain us. I needed another option, one that would ensure our freedom and survival."

"Asgore..." Undyne interrupted.

"No. I'm sorry, but I must get this off my chest." Asgore looked back to Gregory. "The way to do this was to absorb the SOULs of at least seven Humans and become an entity with unfathomable power. And to do that, I needed to first collect the Humans' SOULs... by killing them."

The nine Arista sat up in their seats.

"You killed seven Humans?" another member of the Arista asked.

Slowly, Asgore nodded.

Wait, he did? Frisk thought. But I only counted six SOULs. What happened to the seventh?

The nine Arista looked at one another, then all one-by-one suddenly shot their gaze to the bronze ball sitting on the table. After a few seconds, Gregory spoke again.

"When did the last one enter the Underground?"

"I... I am uncertain. More than 50,000 days, at least."

"That's more than a century."

Asgore nodded solemnly. Undyne, Frisk, and Sans all sat quietly, each unsure of what would happen next.

"In light of this..." Gregory began again. "I suggest we all keep this between us. Even though it's been more than a century since the last murder, it probably wouldn't do your kind much good to let this come out." The other members of the Arista nodded. "If I might ask now, though, what exactly do you plan to do with your 'unfathomable power'?"

"I didn't absorb the SOULs. We never even claimed the seventh, which was to be young Frisk's here."

"You never absorbed them? Then, where are they?"

"I do not know. To tell you the truth, I, Undyne, Sans, Frisk, and a few other Monsters were gathered in the palace one moment, and the next, the SOULs were gone, and the Barrier was destroyed. I remember waking up, but not going to sleep. It is... I do not know how best to explain it, please forgive me."

"I see... then let's not dwell on it further. Instead, let's move on. No point continuing here when there's nothing to continue with."

Move on? Seriously? Frisk thought, stunned by Gregory's words.

"Thank you." Asgore said, bowing his head slightly.

"So," Gregory began again. "you've worked hard to reach the surface. Now that you're here, what do you want?"

"Peace, and a home on the surface for my people." Asgore responded.

"That's good to hear. I'm sure everyone will be thrilled to hear you want to live in peace. As for a home, is the Underground not to your liking?"

"The Underground has been our home for a very long time, and I'm sure my people would enjoy the blue sky far more than the dark rocky ceiling that currently rests above their heads."

"I see..." Gregory said, scratching his chin. "Well then, I'm sure we could see about helping you out with that."

"I... wait, what?" Asgore said, stunned by the ease.

"Well sure. It's something that can easily be done. We just so happen to have a vast bit of space in the middle of our nation that hasn't been worked in any way whatsoever." Gregory smiled. "Mount Ebott might have been your prison, but now it should serve as a solid foundation for your new home."

Asgore looked at his fellow Monsters and Frisk, then back over at Gregory. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me just yet." Gregory said, raising his right hand a bit. "I haven't told you the price for this."

"Price?" Asgore asked.

Chara grunted. "I knew he was going to pull something like this." She said, gritting her teeth.

Frisk glanced over at her. Her eyes seemed to be on fire as she stared daggers at Gregory.

"Yes, price. We're not just going to give away all that land. You will be allowed to come up and live on the land around Mount Ebott, but all foreign affairs, as well as all legislative, executive, judicial, and martial activities will be dealt with by us."

Chara's face paled. "He's demanding everybody's jobs..." she mumbled.

Asgore, too, was stunned. After about a minute of silence, he opened his mouth.

"You're asking us to surrender our sovereignty to you..." he said.

"Is that a problem?" Gregory asked.

Asgore closed his eyes, breathing in deeply. Slowly exhaling, he opened his eyes back up.

"No." He said definitively.

Gregory smiled warmly, extending his hand as he rose from his seat. Asgore rose as well, shaking the politician's hand.

"Then it is agreed." Gregory said. "Welcome to the surface."

The three Monsters, along with Frisk, exited the room. Sans and Undyne first, followed by Asgore and Frisk. Silently, they all walked back down the steps of the massive, ornate room, and out the front doors. Immediately, reporters, blocked off by the police, began shouting questions. Nobody answered, however.

Stepping down the front steps together, Sans and Undyne vanished, with Sans reappearing moments later.

"You two ready to go?" Sans mumbled. Asgore and Frisk both nodded, prompting Sans to grab them. The nauseating feeling briefly returned as they were all teleported back up to the summit of Mount Ebott. Turning around, Sans walked into the gaping maw of the mountain.

"Frisk." Asgore said as Frisk turned to follow Sans.

Frisk looked back, staring up into Asgore's sullen green eyes.

"Thank you."

Frisk cocked his eyebrow. "What for?"

"For coming here and befriending my people. And above all, for freeing them as well."

"But I didn't destroy the Barrier."

Asgore shook his head. "Perhaps not, but I know that its destruction is tied to you somehow. I know not how that may be, but I thank you regardless." Asgore walked passed Frisk, also proceeding back into the mountain.

Frisk looked up at the cloudless, nearly-noon blue sky. "I wish I could tell him about Asriel..." Frisk mumbled to himself.

"You know that wouldn't help anybody." Chara said, her phantom form floating near the mouth of the cave.

Frisk sighed, then looked out at the towering cityscape of Sparta in the distance.

"Yeah, I know." Frisk then walked into the cave as well.

Walking through the short tunnel, Frisk soon arrived in the throne room up at the top of the Elysian Palace. Stepping over the threshold, a sudden burst of noisy celebration shocked Frisk into focus.

"Thank you, Frisk!" the small crowd within shouted.

"Wha— Whoa!" Frisk looked up at a large banner that was strewn over the opposing doorway, with massive red letters plastered across its surface, reading what the Monsters below had yelled. Between Frisk and the Monsters stood a large table, with a number of pies, along with other articles of food, lining its surface.

"Are you surprised?" Asgore asked, approaching Frisk. "I hope you were."

"Did you plan this?"

"Yes, though it was not just me. Everyone wanted to do something to show their gratitude to you."

Frisk looked back out at the Monsters that had gathered. Toriel, Papyrus, and Alphys, among others, had all gathered in the throne room, more recently joined by Undyne, Sans, and Asgore. The flowers that normally laced the floor had been replanted into planters that now hung from the walls and ceiling, or simply in midair for a few, leaving the floor's tile bare.

Try as he might, Frisk couldn't grasp words to express the happiness welling up inside of him. He figured that his face displayed his feelings for him, since Asgore walked up beside him, pat him gently on the back, then addressed the crowd in his stead.

"Monsters of the Underground." Asgore began. "Thanks to the brave actions of this young Human, Frisk, we no longer have to refer to ourselves as Monsters of the Underground. Now, if we so choose, we can refer to ourselves as Monsters of the Surface."

The Monsters broke into applause. After a few seconds, Asgore raised his hand to quell the noise.

"Although our freedom from this prison may have been a few days ago, I pronounce this day of celebration to begin!"

The Monsters roared back into cheering as they separated off to talk with one another or collect a bit of something from the central table that some called "Human food".

With the burden of focus lifted from Frisk, he thanked Asgore and made his way over to Alphys, who was talking with Undyne.

"Alphys." Frisk said when he arrived, his golden armor not making it especially easy to maneuver in the crowd.

"O-oh, Frisk." Alphys said. "You won't believe what I found on the surface. W-well, you might, but still!"

"What was it, a new anime?"

"W-w-what? No. I-I mean, th-that would have been great to find, b-but no. I c-couldn't go to any of the other cities."

"Well then what was it?"

"Mount Ebott is at the center of a massive basin. The fact that the Underground hasn't flooded in all this time is unbelievable. I-I mean, doesn't all that water go somewhere?"

Frisk shrugged. "I dunno. When'd you learn that?"

"O-oh, while you all were in that meeting. Sorry I w-wasn't able to go, w-w-with all th-that's been going on..."

"It's fine, Alphys."

Alphys suddenly perked up. "B-but you all look so cool in your armor!" she blurted out. "I w-wish you could have seen mine. I-I mean, i-it's pretty much the s-same, but with a white cape. It's so cool."

"I'll bet." Frisk said. "Maybe it's a good thing you didn't come. The Arista effectively demanded that we give up our sovereignty to them."

"Wh-wh-what!? S-s-s-seriously?"

"Yeah. My job is gone since foreign affairs is taken. Asgore's is gone since legislation and execution are taken. Sans's is gone since judication is taken. Undyne's is gone since we can't have a military anymore. All that's really left is..." Frisk trailed off at that last bit. "Wait, they didn't take our ability for scientific development."

"S-so?" Alphys asked, a bit confused by Frisk's sudden trailing.

"Alphys," Frisk suddenly said, "how are you feeling?"

"Uh, er, f-fine, I guess. Wh-why?"

"How would you feel about continuing your duties as the Royal Scientist?"

"Wh-wh-what!? M-m-m-me? N-no, no, that wouldn't be a good idea." Alphys backed away a bit.

"Why not? You're perfect for the job."

"Because I screwed up, remember? The Amalgamates?"

"Alphys." Frisk said, grabbing Alphys's shoulders firmly so she couldn't look away. "Trust me. The Arista has stripped the Kingdom of all its powers. We don't have anybody or anything except you now. You can do this."

"I can do this..." Alphys mumbled. After a second, she stared Frisk back in the eyes. "Right. I can do this!"

"That's right. Now go tell Asgore."

"I can do this!" Alphys said again, going off to see Asgore.

"That was a nice thing you did." Somebody said from nearby.

Frisk looked over, seeing Undyne leaning against the wall.

"Oh, hey Undyne." Frisk said. "Yeah, I don't really know what came over me, honestly."

"Well whatever it was, it was the right thing. She's been pretty bummed out after the whole Amalgamate thing became known. Maybe you just felt that she needed to hear it."

"Maybe." Frisk said. He then looked back over at Undyne, seeing that she was chewing on something. "What've you got?"

Undyne looked down at what was in her hand. "Don't really know. Human food for sure. The tray said 'salmon'."

Frisk coughed. "What?"

"Salmon."

"Really..." Frisk nodded slightly. "Well, I hope you enjoy it."

"Oh I am. It's really good!" Undyne, to give more emphasis to her statement, shoved the rest of what was in her hand into her mouth.

Frisk moved on, heading off to mingle with other guests as the celebrations continued.

As the hours wore on, Frisk eventually grew tired of the rambunctious celebrations and stepped outside to have a moment to himself. The sun was setting at this point, making it so Mount Ebott cast a great shadow on the Aiōn Woods to its east. Sparta and Mount Keep were already beginning to merge into the darkness of the sky, and a few stars were coming out as well.

"How are you feeling?" Chara asked. She had been quietly observing the celebrations all day, and Frisk figured that she, too, was quite tired of them.

"Good enough." Frisk said, sitting down near the precipice. "Just... disappointed is all."

"Disappointed?"

"The Monsters spent all that time trying to escape the Underground, and when they finally do, they're pretty much gutted by backroom politics. That thing with Alphys... that was the best I could think of; some degree of defiance against the Arista's stupid demand."

"I feel you there..." Chara sighed. "Even after all this time, after a complete change in nation, the leaders are as corrupt as ever."

Frisk perked up. "How were they before?"

"Not as they should have been. The members of the Arista of my day were almost entirely corrupt, though-and-through. All of them, except Agathé, were self-serving hypocrites, throwing away the precious principals of the Thiakāreexé too Politismoo. I wanted to hold to it, but... um..." Chara's face shifted a few shades redder, as if it were mimicking the sunset behind the mountain.

"But what?" Frisk asked.

Chara shook her head. "Nevermind. Just know that Humans have always been this way. Selfish, self-serving, hypocritical..." She looked down as she started listing off the traits again.

Frisk didn't have to guess why she trailed off; he could feel the reason why.

"Just like you saw Asgore be in those recordings..." he said. "and just like how Fl... Asriel had become those things, too."

Chara looked away.

Frisk sighed, looking back out east.

"Maybe..." he began, "maybe that's just how we all are. Or how we all can be. You've talked about that Thiakāreexé too Politismoo before, maybe its purpose is just to show a guideline on how people should behave, just like other books from other cultures."

Chara looked back over at Frisk, though he didn't notice.

"Everybody has the potential for evil, but the existence of these books shows that everyone also has the potential for good."

"You're just saying these to try and cheer me up, aren't you." Chara said.

Frisk shrugged. "Maybe. Is it working?"

"Not really. Though you have given me much to think about.

"So long as it distracts you from being depressed like that."

Chara, smiling lightly at Frisk's attempts to cheer her up, floated down beside him.

"The way you spoke of your Arista before," Frisk started again after a few minutes, "it sounded like you knew them."

Chara chuckled lightly. "Yeah, I was actually training to be one."

"Really? You, a politician?"

"Yeah." Chara said. "That all ended the day..." Chara went silent again for a few seconds, her humored smile dropping slightly. "the day I fell into the Underground."

"What happened?" Frisk asked.

Chara shrugged. "I tripped on a root and fell in."

"No, I mean what happened before that?"

Chara remained silent.

"It's okay." Frisk said after a minute. "If you don't wanna say, that's fine. But if you're ever wanting to talk about it, I'll be willing to listen."

Chara smiled warmly at him. "Thanks, Frisk."

Frisk, who had been warmly smiling back, dropped his smile a bit.

"Wait..." Frisk said suddenly, "you were wanting to be a politician."

"Yeah, and?" Chara said, confused by Frisk's sudden change.

Frisk's eyes brightened. "I have an idea." He said, standing quickly.

"What!? What is it?"

"There has always been that one thing that's haunted me all my recent life." Frisk turned southward to another towering city in the distance, backlit by the reddened sky.

"You want to fill me in?" Chara asked, staring out in the same direction.

"You're gonna help me force the Arista to clean up the crime in Athens!"

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undertale-rho · 3 years

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If you managed to read through the entirety of Underearth: A Whole New World, I give you my deepest apologies. That prose is awful.

I’m only a chapter into the re-read of my old stuff, and I already wanna die. Really though, the prose is terrible, words that kill the pacing pop up every few paragraphs, or even multiple times in the same paragraph, and punctuation is non-existent in many dialogue tags.

I guess that means I really am an artist.

#meme

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undertale-rho · 3 years

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Multiverse Saga: Taken!Altertale - Chapter 8

"Is that it?" Chara asked. "Did we beat him?"

"Looks like it." Ink answered.

Rhosaith stepped towards where Infected's body disappeared. Nothing remained.

Despite the seemingly easy victory, 404 didn't look pleased. As the other Mercenaries gathered to pat one-another on the back, he stepped away, up towards the nearby river.

"Where are you going?" Rhosaith asked him.

"To continue my hunt." 404 answered.

"Your hunt?"

"Yes. Stay out of my way. All of you were more of a hindrance than an actual help."

As 404 finished speaking, a white slit cut through the air, opening up and bending light around it. Upon reaching its greatest width, 404 stepped through, and the rift closed.

"He's real quick to leave upon victory, isn't he." Sans said, looking contemptibly in the direction where 404 had left.

"He does seem to have a stick firmly wedge up there, if you get my meaning." Papyrus added.

With everyone's attention either on Toriel or on 404's leaving, nobody took notice of S.T and Swap heading back to the Citadel.

After a few moments, Rhosaith walked back over to where Toriel lay.

"So what do we do about her?" she asked.

"We take her back to the Nexus, where she starts a new life." Dream answered.

"You don't have to answer so fast, you know."

Dream shook his head. "It's basic Alliance policy. Anybody who survives having their universe irreparably damaged by a Destroyer is to be relocated to the Nexus, and the universe is to be relocated for Alliance purposes."

"Basic policy? How... how often does this happen?"

Dream shook his head again. "Too often."

"What happens to universes that have been relocated?"

Dream shrugged. "They're with the Alliance, and that's all that matters to me."

Rhosaith stepped away from the group as they talked among themselves.

"Hamlet," Rhosaith said, "same question."

"One moment, my lady.

"It seems that the Alliance has made a deal with the local 'Keeper' League to harvest such pre-rift universes for raw material. Once the universe has been emptied, the local 'Keepers' siphon the Void for new material, and everything begins anew as the universe is given a new designation and continues as a 'newly formed' universe."

"That's awful."

"That's politics. The Multiverse Alliance is a K4 civilization that's well on its way to becoming a K5 within the next few billion years. At that point, it's impossible to progress further without working with the local 'Keeper' forces."

"What would happen if I... disrupt this agreement?" Rhosaith asked.

"Well, you'd likely upset the Alliance, but I doubt the local League would care much."

"Then that is what I'll do."

Rhosaith stepped back towards the group.

"I'm not letting the Alliance get their hands on this universe." she declared.

Everyone looked at her, dumb-struck.

"What?" Dream asked. "Why?"

"Do I need to state my reasons to those who don't trust me anyway?" Rho asked.

"As if you could stop the Alliance from bringing this universe under its full protection." Ink said.

"She could." Blue said.

Everyone looked over at Blue.

"What do you mean 'she could'?" Ink asked.

"She works with the Keepers." Dream answered.

Everyone else stepped back, stunned by this revelation.

After a few seconds, Chara finally spoke up.

"What do you plan to do to the survivors of this universe?" he asked.

Rhosaith looked thoughtfully at Chara.

"Hamlet," Rhosaith spoke into her helmet, "how many survivors are there in this universe?"

"Just one, Madam. Toriel here is the only survivor."

"What happened to her?"

"She was brutally tortured by Infected for nearly every waking moment for the past six months. If she's still sane, it would be miraculous."

"Well?" Chara said. "What are you going to do to the survivors?"

"Survivor. Singular." Rhosaith said. "And to answer your question, with what Toriel has been through, it is best that we kill her here and now, and end her misery."

Chara's eyes widened.

"What!? No!" he said. "I can't let you do that!"

Rhosaith ignored Chara's objections and approached Toriel, drawing another blade from her skirt. As she approached, golden vines erupted from the ground, covering Toriel up in a protective cocoon.

Rhosaith stopped approaching and, after a moment, turned to face Chara.

"Do you have any idea what she's been through?" Rhosaith asked him.

"Judging by the horrible wounds covering most of her body, I think I got a pretty good idea."

"Then why? Even if her body isn't broken, her mind most certainly is."

"We don't know that for certain."

Rhosaith and Chara just stood there, each standing defiantly against the other.

"Listen," Chara said after a minute, "l... let us take her. See if we can help her. If you do, we'll go quietly, no further objections to... anything you've said."

Rhosaith's eyes narrowed.

"And what if you can't help her recover? What if she continues to suffer from her torture? What will you do then?"

"Then..." Chara's voice quieted. "Then I'll do what must be done..."

"Say the words. What must be done?"

Chara's jaw tightened.

"I'll... end her suffering."

Rhosaith stepped away, replacing the blade.

"Then it is enough. If you think you can help her, then do what you can. If not, then do what you must."

Chara turned towards Toriel, dispelling the vines. Once the cocoon was gone, Sans, Papyrus, and Chara picked her up, opened a rift like the one 404 had left through, and stepped through.

Rhosaith then turned to the Star Sanses.

"And what of you three?" she asked.

"What about us?" Ink asked.

"You're still here. That means there isn't something more important for you to do elsewhere."

"I want to make sure this universe is protected from any further harm."

"Well in that case, you have nothing to worry about. I don't plan on seeing this universe destroyed."

"And how can I be sure of that?"

Rhosaith looked right at Ink.

"You can't. You'll simply have to trust me."

"How can I trust you? I barely even know you."

"Ink." Dream chimed in. "Come on, there's other places we should be. We can check up on this place later."

"And what if it doesn't exist later?" Ink asked.

"Then we'll know for certain that Rhosaith can't be trusted."

Ink looked back at Rho. After a minute, he turned around and opened a rift.

"Fine." he said. "Let's go."

Dream and Blue stepped towards the rift and hopped through.

"And Rho!" Ink said, turning back from the rift. "I'll be back."

"I'll be waiting."

Ink!Sans then walked through the rift, and it closing behind him.

Rhosaith turned around to face the rest of the universe.

"Now," she said, "what to do with all this stuff..."

Taken!Altertale : Broken Mind

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undertale-rho · 3 years

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Multiverse Saga: Taken!Altertale - Chapter 7

Rhosaith materialized within AlT-113 next to a bed of golden flowers; a pillar of light extended from a hole above down to the bed.

"You came." a voice sounded from nearby.

Turning to face the source, Rho saw 4 standing nearby, next to an alcove.

"Of course I did. I came to help with the reclamation of AlT-113." she said.

"And what about the others?"

Rhosaith shrugged.

4 looked to the alcove. "Works for me. Just be sure to stay out of my way."

4 moved to enter the alcove when a tear of light appeared near the bed of golden flowers; out from which emerged the Star Sanses and the Bad Time Trio. They were chatting among themselves but quieted down when they saw Rhosaith and 4 standing within the space already.

"Mweh heh heh!!!" Blueberry exclaimed. "We meet again, Rhosaith!" he then turned to 4. "And you, brooding Sans. Nice to meet you!!"

4 turned back around and entered through the alcove.

"Well that was rude." Blueberry pouted. "Didn't even say hi back."

"Don't let it get you down, Blue." the yellow-cloaked Sans said.

Blueberry looked back at the yellow-cloaked Sans.

"Yeah, I know, Dream." he said. "Not everybody is positive. Some people are negative. We should do our best not to be negative."

Dream!Sans smiled. "Anyway, we shouldn't leave him alone out here, with that Destroyer loose."

The Star Sanses, followed by the Bad Time Trio, walked through the alcove and down the tunnel beyond.

"You coming?" Chara called back to Rhosaith.

Rho looked up at him, nodded, and ran his way.

"So what's your story?" Chara asked Rhosaith when she caught up.

"My story?" Rhosaith asked.

"Yeah. I don't think I have ever seen you around before. What universe are you from?"

"My... universe?" Rhosaith thought about that for a second. She didn't know their designation system, and she didn't know what designation her universe held.

"According to Alliance archives," Hamlet spoke into Rhosaith's ear, "your universal designation is UnTR-13PO."

"I think it's... UnTR-13PO. Yeah."

Everybody stopped moving and turned to face Rhosaith, their faces dark with apprehension.

"What did you just say?" Sans asked, the white lights inside his eye sockets now point-like.

"What?" Rhosaith asked, unsure what to make of the situation.

"Did you just say you're from a restricted universe?" he asked, this time a bit more specific.

Rhosaith remained silent, unsure how to answer.

"Yeah, she did." Ink!Sans said. "Universe 13, no less."

"Whoa, you're from universe 13?" Blueberry then asked. "That's so cool! What's it like there? How'd you escape without alerting the Alliance?"

"Not the time for questions, Blue." Dream!Sans said, stepping out in front of him defensively.

"What's wrong with universe 13?" Rhosaith asked.

"It's a restricted universe." Ink answered. "Meaning that something, or somethings, within hold a realistic threat to the Alliance."

Rhosaith was struck dumb for a few seconds. A realistic threat?

"What the hell is in universe 13 that could possibly hold a 'realistic threat' to a K4 civilization?" Rhosaith demanded.

"Nobody knows." Papyrus said, pulling a box of cigarettes out of his hoodie pocket. "Mind if I smoke?" he then asked.

Rhosaith waved her hand. In response, Papyrus opened the box and pulled one out with his teeth, replacing the box to his pocket as he used fire magic to light the end. After a second, he pulled the cigarette out and held the end of it next to his neck.

"Universe 13 was among the first universes discovered by the Alliance." Papyrus continued. "The only thing that's known about it is that the eggheads back on the Nexus believe it to be the oldest universe in the multiverse. Other than that, only the King knows what lurks within. Well, the King, and you."

Rhosaith shook her head.

"I have no idea what the Alliance could possibly be afraid of." Rhosaith went silent for a few seconds. "Well, except maybe LOV."

"What's LOV?" Papyrus asked.

"It's a parasite that feeds off the SOUL of living creatures. Lives to murder."

"Oh, that." Papyrus said, unconcerned. "No, SOUL-crustâ€”as the Alliance calls itâ€”is prevalent throughout the multiverse."

"Then I don't know why the Alliance restricted my universe; what could possibly have spooked them that badly.

"Anyway," Rhosaith concluded, "we should keep moving. 4 is probably already far ahead."

Slowly, they all agreed and pressed forward, but all of them keeping a hidden eye on Rhosaith.

"Thanks a lot, Hamlet." Rhosaith said.

"It is of no fault of mine, Madam Rho." Hamlet replied.

"You knew they'd react that way. Why didn't you warn me?"

"There's nothing to worry about, Madam. Everything will work out fine."

Sighing, Rho continued along with the rest.

Entering the greater part of the Royal Watchtower, the mercenaries quickly ran across streaks of blood traced along in some areas. Upon entering a long hallway, a sudden shiver of the ground caused them all to stop progress.

"Whoa, did you feel that?" Chara asked the others.

"I felt something just now." Sans responded, turning a covert eye to Rhosaith.

An earthquake, just as sudden as the rumble the mercenaries felt, then appeared; seeming to shake the very foundations of the world itself. After a few seconds, everything stopped just as suddenly as it began.

"Did we get it?" a brooklyn-accented voice called out from nearby.

"I think so." a more feminine brooklyn-accented voice replied. "Lemme check."

"What's going on?" Blueberry asked. "Where are those voices?"

Rhosaith pointed to a massive fissure in one of the purple brick walls. "I think it's coming from there." she said.

"What theâ€” was that always there?" Papyrus asked.

A red hook appeared from the fissure, grasping the outer rim of it. A few seconds later, one of the skeletons who was at the briefing appeared from the hole. Catching sight of the mercenaries standing nearby, she turned back towards the darkness of the fissure.

"Yeah, we got it." she called in, unhooking the red hook from the rim and dangling it down for her partner.

A few seconds later, S.Tâ€”the naked skeleton who attended the briefingâ€”climbed from the fissure as well.

"Ay, well ain't this a surprise." S.T said upon climbing free of the hole.

The other skeleton then hopped down as well, the red item she held vanishing completely as she did so.

"Did you cause that quake?" Rhosaith asked.

S.T looked back at the fissure. "Eh, probably. There wasn't a Tunnel entrance to this universe."

"Tunnel entrance?"

S.T pointed back at the fissure. "Yeah, way to get to other universes."

"Why not just use an Anti-Void?" Ink!Sans asked.

S.T gave Ink an annoyed look.

"Does it look like I can access the Expanse?" he asked.

"I mean, you can't really tell just by looking."

"The answer's no, I can't. Nobody in my Crew can. So lay off."

Ink put his hands up defensively. "Relax, I was just asking."

"So who's this with you?" Rhosaith asked, trying to distract the two from conflicting further.

S.T looked bemused at Rhosaith, then answered, "Oh, this is Swap."

"Hello." Swap said, waving to the rest.

The mercenaries greeted Swap.

"We should hurry forward." Rhosaith said. "4 is up ahead, and he didn't seem too interested in wanting help."

"What!?" Dream exclaimed. "4 is planning to fight that Destroyer alone?"

"That's what it looked like to me."

Immediately, all the mercenaries in the hall began running through the rest of the tower. In what seemed like no time at all, they finally found 4 heading down the hall below the home at the end of the tower.

"4!" Dream called out when they saw him.

4 turned to face who had said his name, finding everyone else who had been at the briefing.

"So you finally arrive. Took you long enough." 4 said, continuing on his path unconcerned.

"4, wait!" Dream called again. "We need to think out our plan of attack. We don't even know who we're dealing with, so we need to be extra careful."

"You be careful." 4 said. "'the Destroyer' is in Snowdin Town, and he probably already knows we're here."

"What!?!" Ink said. "How do you know this, do you... have you encountered this Destroyer before?"

4 stopped walking.

"Yes." he said after a minute. "And I'm here to kill him, once and for all." he began walking again.

Unsure what else to do, the rest followed after.

"So, 4," Rhosaith said a few minutes after they'd walked through the Citadel door to the Snowdin Province, "seeing as you've encountered this... Destroyer, before, what can you tell us?"

4 looked over at Rho.

"You're a new rifter, aren't you." he said.

"I, uh, don't really understand what 'rifter' means."

"A rifter is somebody who travels between universes using the Anti-Void Expanse as a go-between. It is by far the most common means of travel in the multiverse. You saying you don't know the term confirms it."

"So basically, I'm new."

4 nodded.

"So, are you gonna—"

"Mercenaries don't commonly share information about Destroyers." 4 said bluntly. "Clears competition in that way. If others don't know what they're up against, they could get themselves killed, or they could run. Either way, you get a bigger cut."

"That's insane!" Rhosaith protested.

"Information is power. If you think it's so insane, the Star Sanses is the group best suited for you. They share information like it's nobody's business. For example, everything they've ever discovered about another Destroyer—Error!Sans—has been shared in every detail with the Alliance." 4 spat dismissively at that last statement.

"So information about the enemy should never be shared, simply to sabotage the abilities of the others with you?"

"Sounds like you got it, rook."

As they finished their conversation, the mercenaries were approaching the outer-most sections of the town.

Reaching the inn not too far in, a raspy voice echoed across the empty buildings.

"THAT'S CLOSE ENOUGH!" it shouted.

Everybody stopped where they stood.

"I see you brought friends along this time, Error!404." the voice then said.

"And I can see you're still hiding like a coward, Infected." 4 responded.

A hysterical laughter then echoed across the village as a single Sans dragging a somewhat smaller goat-Monster appeared out from behind the furthest house in the village.

"Here I am!" Infected declared.

A blue aura appeared around 404, a great feeling of power seeming to build around him.

"Ah ah ah," Infected warned, "look what I got!"

Infected dragged the goat-Monster—which Rhosaith confirmed to be a naked Toriel—up in front of him and presented her like a meat shield.

"You wouldn't want to hurt sweet little miss Toriel here, now would you?" Infected asked, drawing his axe and pressing it against Toriel's throat.

Toriel didn't seem responsive.

"You know I only care about tearing you to pieces!" 404 said.

"Yes, but what about your new friends?" Infected asked.

404's eyes widened, and he glanced behind him at the other mercenaries. S.T's Crew was an unknown variable, but 404 knew that the Star Sanses and the Bad Time Trio wouldn't stand for innocents being hurt.

"You wouldn't want them to tear you apart before you can do it to me, now would you."

404's aura dimmed.

"That's it. Now back away slowly."

404 backed up a few paces.

Suddenly, Rhosaith drew both a blade from the skirt on her long-coat along with the handle, clicking the blade into place at the end, then pointed it at Infected and fired, launching the blade at high speeds, straight into Infected's right eye.

"Sans!" Rhosaith then shouted. "Use gravity magic and pull Toriel to us."

Immediately, Sans raised his arm and pulled the Toriel from Infected's distracted grasps, pulling her to them in no time.

"Is she alright?" Rhosaith asked as soon as Toriel slid to the ground in front of Sans.

Sans held a hand over her chest, a faint green glow emanating from his palm.

"She's alive." he said after a few seconds.

A hysterical laughter once again broke through the air. Looking back at Infected, he had grasped the blade that was sticking from his socket and was slowly pulling it free, laughing as he did so.

"That was a nice shot!" he said, pulling the blade free. "Weren't you worried you might hit dear sweet Toriel?"

"Not at all." Rhosaith said bluntly.

Infected's smile wavered slightly.

"Not at all?" he parroted. "What are you, some kind of psychopath?"

"Maybe. Or maybe I was so certain in my aim that I wasn't concerned for Toriel."

Infected's smile grew again. "Oh I can't wait to tear into you." he said, licking his teeth.

"Blue, Dream, Rhosaith," Ink said, stepping forward with his massive paintbrush. "you three protect Toriel and see if you can revive her. The rest of you, with me. We're gonna take this... thing down!"

Rhosaith glanced over at Ink, annoyed that she'd been told to stay back, but when she saw that the other mercenaries were doing as they'd been told by him, she relented and fell back to where Toriel lay.

"How is she?" Rhosaith asked again when she reached her body, which was already being tended to by Blue and Dream.

"She'll be fine... I hope..." Dream said, carefully administering life magic to her SOUL as Blue tended to her physical injuries.

"What can I do to help?"

"Honestly? Just... stay back."

"What?"

Dream looked up from Toriel and looked Rhosaith directly in the visor.

"Stay here and out of the way." he said.

"Why!?" Rhosaith demanded to know as Dream went back to healing.

"Because... the others, they don't... trust you. Please understand, you're new, so you already have that working against you. Now normally, that wouldn't be so bad, but you're also from a restricted universe. Seeing as the King isn't hunting you down, that must mean you bypassed the Alliance's sensors."

"So you all see me as a threat."

Dream slowed a bit. "Yes... nobody knows how to bypass the sensors—not even the King—so you being able to do it... well, it's frightening. What if something else from your universe finds a way to leave without alerting the sensors? It could mean the end of the Alliance and multiverse peace as we know it."

Rhosaith looked over at the mercenaries, who were fighting tooth-and-nail against Infected.

They call this peace?

"There's that," Dream continued, "and the fact that you just... fired at Infected without a moment's hesitation. What if you hit Toriel?"

"I wasn't going to." Rhosaith said.

"How do you know that?"

"Because I peered through time and saw that, if I did things correctly, there would be no possible way I would hit her."

"You... peered through time?" Dream asked, freezing up. "Are you trying to get a Keeper to delete you?"

Rhosaith looked back at the battle. "I... don't think I'll have to worry about that..."

"Everybody who screws with time thinks that! The Keepers don't like it when people screw with time, no matter who it is!"

Rhosaith looked back at Dream to respond but was interrupted by Hamlet.

"Rhosaith is a Time Specter of a 'Keeper' League. She is permitted—within reason—to 'screw with time', as you say."

Dream and Blue both looked dumb-struck.

"You... work with the Keepers?" Blue asked.

Rhosaith silently looked away, back towards the battle. Blue and Dream didn't press.

The battle, all things considered, was going relatively well. Ink had cut off any avenues of escape, while S.T and Swap herded Infected around Snowdin. The Bad Time Trio, along with Error!404, were the major hard-hitters, with Sans and Papyrus keeping Infected from doing anything that would put him at an advantage, and Chara and Error!404 making sure to keep him immobile and pound him with horrid attacks; Chara with his vines, and 404 with his cables.

About five minutes after the battle began, S.T, who had been holding a supporting role for the majority of the battle, finally managed to sever the skull from the rest of Infected's body as he had been immobilized by an endless growth of vines. The last sound heard from the beast was laughter as his body disintegrated into pale blue specks that flew up into the sky.

Taken!Altertale : Hysteria

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Multiverse Saga: Taken!Altertale - Chapter 6

Rhosaith stared up at the bright blue sky above her, a cool breeze passing over her pressurized EVA suit and into the street beyond. Looking back down at the cup of tea in her hand, she raised the cup to a straw that connected to her rebreather, allowing the liquid from the outside world to pass through to her beckoning mouth. Finishing the mug, she placed it on the table beside her, placed a few golden coins beside it, and stood up, placing her wide-brimmed hat back onto her head. She then looked back up at the sky.

She knew, of course, that the sky wasn't real. It was just the projection of a screen to give everybody a warmer comfort of home. If one looked carefully, they could even see the upward curve of the land further ahead on the tube.

The Nexus is what they called it. A giant space station roaming the great void of the inter-universal expanse, serving as the capital to the multi-universe initiative known as the Multiverse Alliance.

Rhosaith sighed. No matter what wilderness existed, whether it be the forests of Earth, the vacuum of space, the void between stars, galaxies, or even universes, or even across dimensional boundaries, there was always going to be somebody who got the bright idea to bring civilization along with.

"Rhosaith." a digital voice sounded in her ear.

"What is it, Hamlet?" she asked.

"There's a reclamation party being formed near the Spires to retake a pre-rift universe."

"So?" she said lethargically.

"It may be a good source of information regarding this multiverse at large."

"That's nice."

As Rhosaith walked along, her long coat billowing in the sudden gust, she completely disappeared, re-appearing just outside a door.

Realizing what just happened, Rhosaith, let out an exhausted sigh.

"You should at least try and do what you have been tasked. If nothing else, then to simply make it look like you're doing something." Hamlet said.

Rhosaith looked contemplatively at the door.

"Fine." she said after a minute, taking a firm hold of the door and sliding it to the side.

The room within was made of a dark metal. Within, sitting in a few chairs that were scattered throughout the room, were a number of people. Five Rho recognized to be Sanses. One was a Papyrus, and another was a Chara. The last two in the room were skeletons, though of no base Rho recognized right off.

Closing the door behind her, she walked further into the room, towards the nearest chair.

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE, HUMAN!!!" one of the Sanses shouted.

Rhosaith stopped moving and looked over at one of the groups of Sanses, where three of them were gathered together. One of them, the shortest of the three, was pointing right at Rhosaith. Everyone in the room, in fact, looked at the Sans.

"Er... yes?" Rhosaith asked. "Was there something you needed?"

"I have no idea who you are!" the Sans declared. "This is an awful thing that I simply cannot stand have continue!" the Sans walked over to Rhosaith and outstretched his hand. "I'm Sans. Obviously. Most people call me Blueberry to avoid confusion, though. What's your name?"

"I'm, er, Rhosaith." Rhosaith said, taking Blueberry's hand. "Nice to meet you, uh, Blueberry."

"The pleasure is all mine! Mweh heh heh!!!"

Rhosaith looked over the Sans. He reminded her of Papyrus in a way. A confident step permeated each of his strides as he returned to the other two Sanses that he was with.

Reaching the other two, he immediately started chatting heartily with them, stars practically forming in his eyes from the excitement.

The other two Sanses Blueberry was with looked just about as excitable as he was. One of them wore a turquoise tunic with a great big yellow cloak resting on his shoulders; the pin holding the cloak on being a large red orb with a big white star on it. The other Sans featured a mostly brown outfit, the most dominant features being the large brown scarf around his neck, the light blue jacket tied around his waist, and the giant paintbrush strapped to his back. A dark blue sash filled with vials of paint, like an ammo sash, decorated his chest. Blueberry himself featured a mostly blue outfit, a shorter cobalt scarf around his neck, with a more grey-blue shirt and pants, returning to cobalt for his gloves and boots; the rims of which were lined with yellow.

Looking to the other three-member team situated nearby, Rhosaith spotted a Sans, who looked pretty basic—wearing a blue jacket over a white shirt, and black shorts, with blue sneakers finishing off his outfit. Beside the Sans sat a Papyrus, who wore much the same, but orange rather than blue; with the jacket being a hoodie instead. Next to them also sat a Chara, whose outfit was in the same vein as Sans's and Papyrus's—a green jacket rather than a blue or orange, dark brown pants, and red boots and gloves.

The next group, a pair of skeletons, stood against the door-side wall. One of the skeletons wore nothing other than a blue backpack and a dark-grey cloak so tattered, it was practically a few ribbons. Looking carefully, Rhosaith thought she spotted something that resembled a finger-bone hanging off the front of the pelvis. The other skeleton wore a striped, white button-up shirt, black slacks, and brown shoes. Holding up the pants were black suspenders that looped over the skeleton's shoulders. They seemed deep in conversation and didn't seem to pay any mind to Rho.

On the other side of the room, standing with his back in the corner, was another Sans. This one featured a white sweatshirt and sweatpants, ending in black socks and white slippers. Over it all was a great blue long-coat with a hood over the Sans's head. The ends of the sleeves and the hood were covered in white fluff. Though she couldn't get a clear look from where she was, Rhosaith thought she also saw black lines streaking from the bottom of the Sans's eyes down to the base of his mandible.

Finally resting down into the seat she'd chosen when Blueberry approached her, the door at the front of the room opened, and another skeleton-Monster walked in. Bundled in her arms was a bunch of papers and binders and the like.

"If I could have your attention." the skeleton said, placing the papers on a desk at the front of the room. She looked over the ten people situated around, all of which were now staring at her.

"Is this everyone?" she asked.

"I haven't seen anyone else come in." the classic-Sans said. "So I guess so."

"Don't worry about the numbers!" Chara chimed in. "You've got the Bad Time Trio and the Star Sanses on the case."

The skeleton looked thoughtfully at the two groups.

"Hmm. Yes, I suppose you're right." she said, readjusting her glasses. "In that case, let us begin."

The light in the room dimmed to nothing as a large hologram appeared in the room.

"Six months ago, a pre-rift universe, universe AlT-113CO was attacked by a Destroyer—the identity of which remains unknown. Since the attack, Alliance scouts have surveyed the universe without drawing attention from the Destroyer. Their findings have shown that the universe, which was coded before the attack, is now physical."

"Whoa, whoa, hold it. Time out for a second here." the naked skeleton said, his accent sounding Brooklyn in origin. "Universes don't just turn from coded to physical. You sure your scouts got the right place?"

"While you are right in one regard," the brown Sans with Blueberry interrupted, "there have been reports of universes changing behavior before this, like UnT-214, which also turned from coded to physical. Before being coded, though, it was a game. This is one of the reasons why the standardized universal classification system doesn't commonly include the suffix in archive."

"Er, thank you, Ink." the presenter skeleton said. "If I may return to the briefing."

Ink!Sans waved his hand for her to continue.

"The objections, uh..." she looked down at a paper in her hand. "S.T brought up are valid, however. Despite this phenomenon being well-known, it is still unclear what, or who, causes a universe to switch behavior. As of right now, the scouts believe the Destroyer to be responsible for this."

Almost immediately, murmuring erupted within the groups, all of which quelled when the white Sans in the back boomed his voice.

"What information do the scouts have on the Destroyer?" he asked.

"Not much at all, I'm afraid." she answered, looking down at her paper. "I'm afraid I'm also at something of a disadvantage. I don't have your name documented."

"Just call me 4."

"Alright, 4." she wrote a 4 in the margins of the paper she was holding. "Er, like I said, not much is known of this Destroyer. What information the scouts managed to get on him just shows him to be a Sans; one from a UnF universe, by the looks of things."

A picture of the Destroyer flashed into the hologram. It was a Sans, though with a large hole in the upper part of his skull. Other than that, the only other notable difference was the bright white right eye he possessed.

4 huffed upon seeing the picture, his eyes sharpening into a deadly focus. 4 turned to leave.

"Wh-where are you going, 4?" the skeleton asked.

"I have what I need. I'm gonna go 'liberate' that universe. I'll meet you all there."

With 4 leaving, the others got up and moved to leave as well.

"W-w-wait!" the skeleton pleaded. "I haven't finished yet."

"It's fine, lady." Chara said. "Like 4 said, we got what we need. We'll be fine."

One by one, against the frantic requests of the presenter, everyone in the room left. Everyone, that is, other than Rhosaith, who was still sitting in her chair.

"Excuse me, miss?" Rhosaith said as the last of the other mercenaries left.

The presenter looked over at Rhosaith.

"Do you have a digital copy of your presentation? I'd like to have one."

The presenterâ€™s face brightened up at Rhosaith's request, quickly pulling a data chit from her pocket.

"Thank you." Rho said, taking the chit and stuffing it in her own pocket. She then stood up. "Thank you for compiling all this data for us, I'm sure it may come in handy." She, too, then left the room.

"You see?" Hamlet chided. "I told you going to that meeting would be useful."

"Yeah, yeah. Shut up. Just take me to my ship, already."

"As you wish, Madam."

Rhosaith then vanished completely from the Nexus.

The doors to the elevator door finally slid open, and Rhosaith stepped out into her personal cabin. Despite having unbelievable technology, more advanced than anything she'd ever seen elsewhere, Rhosaith preferred to hold to what she called "simpler tech". Not wanting to force her own decisions on those that served her, teleportation pads and personal teleporters were strewn all across the grand space leviathan that was her flagship. Despite this, she still rode the elevator to her cabin.

Upon arriving, she took off her black wide-brimmed hat and long black coat, hanging them on a nearby coatrack. Stepping towards her bed, the black EVA suit she wore dematerialized from her form, so that all she wore when she hit the mattress was a plain white shirt and white pants. The very clothes she wore when she was taken.

Her own personal cabin was devoid of color. The walls, door, floor, ceiling, and even all the furniture within—with minor exceptions—were white; making the coat and hat hanging on the coatrack stand out far more than they should have.

Turning her head to the nightstand beside her bed, she looked at a picture that stood on its surface. This picture served as one of the only sources of color within the room. Picking it up, she brought it over and hugged it tightly to her chest.

"Oh Frisk..." she muttered quietly. "Were it that these cursed machines had not taken me from thee, I would be there by thine side even now. Alas, for it be not so. Here am I, far from thine side. Far from thy warm embrace. Thy bronze skin. Thy pleasant bodily aroma that never ceased to calm me."

Rhosaith pulled the picture from her chest and stared at its contents. It was a picture of two Humans. Herself, and a man beside her.

"If fickle fate had it be that we meet again, oh the speed to which I'd press my lips to thine." Rho leaned forward and kissed the part of the picture where the man was. "But alas, it cannot be. I am here, and thou art there. Far away, out of reach."

Tears slowly leaked from Rhosaith's eyes. Try as she might to stop their flow, she soon gave in and held the picture firmly to her chest once again.

"I miss you so much, Frisk..." she wept upon the bed sheets until her eyes ran red, and she finally fell asleep.

"Rhosaith." a digital voice echoed in the room. "Rhosaith."

"Mmm..." Rhosaith mumbled.

"We're nearing the universe known as 'AlT-113'. It's time for you to wake up."

Rhosaith sat up, the picture frame still in hand.

"How far out are we?" she asked through a yawn.

"Only a few minutes. You may teleport in at any time."

"Great." Rhosaith stepped over the side of the bed, replacing the picture back onto the stand.

"I heard you weeping again." the digital voice said after a minute.

"I thought I told you to not spy on me when I'm in here." Rhosaith scolded.

"Apologies, Madam."

"Geez, Hamlet. It's the one place I've closed off to everyone but me. At the very least, I should feel like I'm not being watched or listened to in this one single room."

"Again, apologies. It won't happen again."

"Yeah, until it does."

Rhosaith stood up from the bed. Stepping away, a cleansing wave flew over Rho's body in an instant, cleaning it of excess debris. A second later, Rho's EVA suit rematerialized around her, and she stepped towards her coat and hat, putting them on as well. When she finished doing up the coat, blades materialized around the leg-half, enclosing the half somewhat like a skirt. Beneath the covers of her coat, a holster also materialized, attached to her leg—within, a handle was held firm.

"Alright." Rhosaith said. "Let's go."

In an instant, Rhosaith was teleported from the ship down to the universe, AlT-113.

Taken!Altertale : Tactical Briefing

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Multiverse Saga: Taken!Altertale - Chapter 5

Location: AlT-113 Time: 62 hours after emergence

Sans and Papyrus stood silently in the courtyard, six rectangular holes surrounding them. At the bottom of each hole lay a grey coffin.

"Say, Papyrus..." Sans said after a few minutes. "did you... ever learn the names of these kids?"

Papyrus shook his head. "Did you?"

Sans remained silent.

The two skeletons returned to giving a reverent silence for the bodies they now buried.

"Hey bro, go ahead and head back to Elysium. I'd... like a moment alone." Sans said.

"But what about replacing the dirt?" Papyrus asked.

"I'll take care of it, don't worry."

Papyrus considered his brother carefully. After a minute, he sighed.

"Alright. See you soon." Papyrus walked back along the street, back to the Mount Hot tramway.

Sans continued to stand in the middle of the courtyard for a few minutes more. Eventually, he brought up his hands and, using magic, moved the six great piles of dirt back into their holes, entombing the coffins. Once done, he stepped over to a nearby bench and took a seat.

"May you all find rest, wherever you may be now..." Sans mumbled. After a few minutes, he himself found rest.

Sans shot to attention as a great, thunderous noise engulfed him; a noise quickly followed by a color-inverting wave that shot through him as well. After a few seconds, color returned to what it was. Sans stood up from the bench only to be brought down to his knees by a sudden and great pain within his head.

Clutching his head tightly for what seemed like forever, his pain was cut through by the sounds of bells ringing from above. Craning his head, Sans caught sight of the great floating rock hovering near the crest of the mountain.

"The bells!" he said. "But why... why are they ringing? What's going on?"

Carefully, Sans got to his feet, the pain in his head still gnawing at him.

"I gotta... get to Elysium." he said, stumbling forward.

It wasn't any good. It felt like, with every step, a great pressure was somehow squeezing the air from his body. A few more steps and he collapsed back to the ground.

Laying there, a thought occurred to him. Propping himself up a bit, Sans focused his magic into the air around him. In the next moment, he grabbed the air with his magic and thrust it towards him, which had a similar effect to taking a fresh breath of air after lying at the bottom of a pool for a few minutes.

"What?" Sans said, staring at his hand. "I haven't had to do this in... centuries..." his thoughts then drifted to the pain in his head. "No way... has the Curse been... reversed? That must mean this is..." he placed his hand against his head. "this is hunger."

The sound of bells re-entered his mind. Refocusing, Sans took another breath and stood back up.

"A mystery for later. Now, I need to reach Elysium. I need to know why those bells are ringing."

Sans stood back up and began running through the city. Along the way, he passed many people who were clutching their gut in pain, wandering the streets trying to figure out what happened, or both. After nearly an hour of navigating the streets and getting lost more than a few times, he finally managed to get to the street that would lead him to the Mount Hot tramway; a lifting station that would take him up the face of the mountain.

Looking up towards the summit when he reached the station, a tiny speck seemed to be drifting from the summit, past the brick of Helios Station, and up towards Elysium.

What was that? Sans thought as he stepped into the car.

Speeding up towards the MTT Resort, the car quickly managed to lift Sans from the base to the top in no time, safely latching to the bay within. When the door opened, Sans simply froze with horror of the sight of the lobby. Blood caked the floor, walls, and ceiling as though some deranged painter wanted to redecorate.

Stepping into the lobby, his eyes quickly caught sight of a familiar form.

Undyne, or at least her headless corpse. Her head lay nearby, its singular eye contracted tightly. The smell that permeated the room was nauseating.

Approaching Undyne's limp form, Sans saw a black smudge nearby, along with smeared blood. Following the trail of smeared blood, he quickly found bloody footprints leading all the way from the back entrance from the MTT Resort to Helios Station. Taking a closer look at the footprints, he saw that they were made by a creature with paws of sorts. Definitely plantigrade, though with pads and fur.

"Toriel?" Sans muttered. "No... please tell me these aren't Toriel's."

Sans followed the footprints into Helios Station, through the teleporter, across the control room, and into the Elysium elevator. Sans's mind raced horribly, torturing him with what might have happened. When the elevator arrived in Elysium, he exited the car and followed the footprints again, all the way to the Judgement Hall, where there was a smear and more blood. Next to the puddle decorating the center of the Hall, Sans spotted a small, white, bony something. Seeing it, his heart sank, and he ran past the puddle, following the rest of the footprints, completely unaware that there was another set following the first.

Reaching the throne room, Sans first spotted his brother, Papyrus, sitting on his throne with his skull sitting in his lap. Down at his feet was what he sought.

Toriel; lying in a puddle of blood at the foot of the throne.

"TORIEL!!!" he shouted, sprinting to her, and picking her up, shaking her in a feeble attempt to awaken her in the process.

"Tori, come on, wake up." Sans continued to say, carefully shaking her body.

Just as despair took hold and started to burrow within Sans, Toriel's pink eyes cracked open.

"Toriel!" Sans said, instantly filled with relief, hugging the smaller goat-Monster.

"S... Sans...?" Toriel worked out.

"I'm here, it's okay." Sans consoled.

"N... no... no it's not okay." Toriel broke from Sans's embrace. "Sans, you need to run."

"Wh... what? No!"

"Sans, please. Get out of—" Toriel spotted a sickly figure standing just behind Sans, then screamed in terror.

Sans turned to look at what had frightened Toriel so greatly when a sudden pain shot through his skull, and everything went dark.

Sans's body collapsed to the ground, the upper half of his skull flying through the air, throwing viscera and blood all across the throne room.

The bloody Sans laughed maniacally at the fountain of scarlet liquid that spewed from the lower portion of Sans's skull.

"BEAUTIFUL!" Sans shouted, still laughing.

Toriel crawled back towards her Sans's corpse, dumb-struck at his new appearance and the blood that soaked the tile floor of the throne room.

"No..." she mouthed, unable to find her voice. "No, this can't..." tears crawled out of her eyes. After a few more seconds, the laughter of the bloody Sans once again reached her ears. She glared up at him.

"WHO ARE YOU!?" she demanded to know. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT!?!"

Sans's maniacal laughter ceased, and he looked, menacingly, back at Toriel. A grin stretched even more across his skeletal face.

"I am Infected." he declared. "Lord of Madness!"

Toriel's defiant will broke as she glared at him, and she began to crawl away. Infected caught up with her in just a few strides and stabbed Toriel in the leg with the corner of his axe.

Toriel screamed as a wave of pain engulfed her leg, the cold metal of Infected's axe burning the greatest of all.

Infected, with his free hand, grabbed Toriel by the throat and pinned her to the ground.

"They were friends of yours, weren't they, Toriel." Infected said. "Undyne. Papyrus. Sans." he laughed again. "All your friends. All now dead."

Toriel struggled against Infected's grasp, but Infected quelled that with a twist of his axe. Infected laughed again as Toriel screamed in agony.

"You." he said. "You're perfect." Infected licked his teeth upon saying that.

Toriel, seeing this, was completely and utterly filled with fear. Fight kicking in instead of flight, she moved to summon another skull to blast the skeleton with, but before it could fully manifest, Infected hit Toriel over the head with the butt of his axe, knocking her out cold.

Continuing his laughter, Infected picked the goat-Monster up by her throat and dragged her back across the throne room and, eventually, out of Elysium itself.

Hours later, Toriel awoke, finding herself strapped horizontally to a cold metal table, completely naked. Looking down at herself, she saw that even her fur had been shaved off, leaving her white skin completely exposed. Rattling against the leather that bound her, she eventually moved to use magic as a means of escape. Almost as soon as she tried, a great burning pain erupted within her.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." the familiar raspy voice said from the surrounding darkness.

Toriel looked around the room. It looked like an operating room, one below Alphys's laboratory, in fact. The rest of the room was dark, but Toriel could tell that her table was directly in the center. While searching, she found her captor—Infected—watching her from nearby, walking around the table. Remembering her nakedness, she looked away.

"If you're going to defile me, why don't you just get it over with." she said.

Infected stopped moving and looked down at her. Toriel expected him to say that he already had.

"I may be a murderer, a torturer, a villain, but I have standards, thank you very much." Infected spat at Toriel's face.

"Besides," Infected then said, "raping you wouldn't be as fun as what's truly in store for you. But before we get to that, I brought somebody who wanted desperately to see you."

Toriel's eyes widened a bit.

"Who?" she asked.

"Your brother."

"Gory is here!? Where? Let me see him!"

Infected raised his arm and dropped Asgore's head onto her chest. The point at which the neck should be attached to the rest of the body was sealed off, so it didn't ooze blood onto her chest.

Toriel stared down at it. Asgore's eyes were still tight with shock. Suddenly, Infected's bony hands grabbed the sides of Toriel's face and slammed her head back down, his face directly over her's.

"YES!!!" Infected shouted. "THAT'S PERFECT! THAT'S THE FACE I WANTED TO SEE!!!!!" Infected laughed maniacally again. When he calmed back down, he looked her right in the eyes again.

"What say we find out what other facial contortions we can work out of you, yes?" Infected said, pulling a scalpel from a nearby tray. "Does right now work for you, because right now is perfect for me." he brought the scalpel right over Toriel's right eye. "Now, don't move, or this will hurt a lot more."

Seeing the scalpel, Toriel began breathing heavier and heavier. Doing her best to keep her eye as still as possible, screams overtook all sounds in the world when the tip of the blade pierced her lens.

Taken!Altertale : Dark Dawn

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#undertale #undertale au #undertale rho #UTRStory #multiverse saga #taken!altertale

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