Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Undyne didn’t know what to say.

The tea in her hands had gone cold while she listened to Asgore’s story. With how quiet his house had gotten, she could hear a pin drop. Every second she didn’t answer felt like she was being more and more useless, but she genuinely had nothing. This was basic monster history. This was something she talked with Asgore about over and over again when he couldn’t get out of bed in the morning.

All of it came crashing down with a few tapes.

Undyne stared at them, her claws anxiously tapping against the table. Where did these things even come from? Undyne saw some tapes in the lab when they were all down there, but that didn’t mean that these were from the lab. A piece of the past just cropped up in the same room that Asriel changed in. Again, the past was dredged up wherever the Angel went.

But now, Asgore found the tapes again. No matter how the tapes got into his possession, no matter how hidden they were, he watched them.

Undyne sighed, pushing the tapes even further away from the two of them, “I know you’re thinking it’s your fault, and it’s not.”

Asgore didn’t take that well at all, his teeth baring. She’d seen him like this before, and knew that the anger wasn’t for her. “I filled Chara’s mind with the idea that they needed to be the future of humans and monsters. I did not notice my own children plotting their own demise. How could it not be this pitiful fool’s fault?”

“Hey, any number of things could’ve done that.” Undyne didn’t want him to think it was only his fault! From what he’d told her about Chara, they didn’t exactly have a happy life before coming to the Underground. 

“I do not want my part in this diminished, Undyne,” Asgore muttered, looking down into the tea in his own hands that’d similarly gone cold. “I was their father. No matter what contributed to them making that decision, I should have been able to see it. I should have been able to provide them with a life that made them happy enough to… to…” His hands trembled. Some of the tea spilled over onto his hands, and he flinched. “My apologies, Undyne. I did not mean to be short with you.”

It didn’t even hurt. Undyne got it. How could she not right now? She just… wished she was better at any of this. She didn’t know Chara or Asriel when the two of them were still alive. Yeah, Asgore told her stories, but now it sounded like all of that sounded a lot less good to bring up right now. There was someone else who’d maybe get it, but… “And you haven’t told Toriel yet?”

Asgore sank into himself more. “I do not know how.” A hand covered half of his face while he couldn’t look Undyne in the eye. “How do I tell her that I failed our children even further? How do I tell her that my words inspired everything?” A sad chuckle came out of his mouth. “How curious… the harm that my words bring. First… my children, then… my decree killed six more…”

“Well, one of ‘em’s sitting with Toriel right now. There’s still a chance to fix this, no matter what happened!” Undyne reached across the table, taking his tea out of his hands and setting it down. It wasn’t doing him any good. “You should tell her though. I dunno if just showing her the tapes would be better, but…”

His face soured. Now that Undyne thought of it, neither option really sounded good. Who knew if Toriel would even believe a story like that, and if the tapes were really as bad as he said they were… No one should have to go through that. Who would even be there for Toriel? Would she even let Asgore hang around for that? Would he even be able to listen again?

Asgore stared down at the table. “The Angel knew.”

“What?” Undyne didn’t clock what he said for a few seconds. “What do you mean?”

“In the Underground… after I watched the tapes…” Asgore traced the lines in the wooden table with his eyes, trying to calm himself down long enough to speak. “I saw the Angel. They… knew about these tapes. They… apologized that I had to learn about something they already knew.”

That was the first time anyone had seen the Angel, and that came secondary to what Asgore learned from these tapes. Damn it. Undyne couldn’t blame him. At least, that meant the Angel was still kicking. Undyne was starting to get worried. “They uh… always know a lot of weird stuff.” It didn’t explain why they knew about the tapes though. A lot of the things they knew about the Underground could be explained by them being with Frisk for a while, but this? Undyne could only guess where the tapes came from. “But really? You just… saw ‘em? No fight or anything?”

At least, the temporary change in subject gave Asgore something else to think about. “They were haggard. They spoke softly. Their voice broke me out of…” Asgore sighed, “I lost myself for a moment.”

“That’s the first time anyone’s heard from ‘em since they up and left. That means they’re probably still in the Underground.” It made sense. Even though the Underground was small, it couldn’t be entirely searched at a glance. Besides, Papyrus told everyone not to go after them, and everyone listened. If there was anywhere to check, then the Underground would be it. “...Do you think they might know something else?”

“Perhaps, but…” Asgore still wouldn’t look up. “I do not think it is answers that I seek any longer. I have… all the answers I needed about my children. I have failed them. Now, I can only reap what I have sown. My son is stuck in a nightmare with no end, and the child I failed does not wish to look upon a monster so broken.”

Undyne and Asgore talked a lot the past two weeks. He didn’t always talk about it for long, but Undyne already knew what he meant about the “child he failed”. Another thing that Undyne couldn’t believe was happening right now in the damn storm of information. She wasn’t gonna question why Asgore thought that Chara was still around. He’d have a better idea than she ever would. But, part of her wondered if it was all wishful thinking. “You… really think Chara’s around too?”

Slowly, he nodded, but he didn’t look any better. “I… I saw them with my own two eyes, Undyne. The Angel pointed them out, and they have not… been wrong.” The edge of his palm dug into his forehead. “I only diminished my own hopes… because I believed that they would have reached out. Now, I know that there would be no reason for them to speak to the monster who ruined their life.”

“Hey!” Undyne slammed her fist against the table, a spark of something flashing in her eye. “You didn’t ruin their life! Maybe you don’t remember all the stories you told me about your kids, but I do! You gave it your all, okay?” He didn’t look up at her. She kept her gaze steely and focused on him, hoping that he’d look up to see her resolve. Nothing came. Undyne finally relented only a little bit. “Maybe you messed up. Maybe you weren’t perfect. But damn it, Asgore, you gave it everything you had!”

Gradually, his shoulders straightened up. His face betrayed nothing, but Undyne could still see how tired his eyes were. “My apologies, Undyne. I am… afraid that I did not gather my thoughts before calling you here. I need more time to… properly think through all of this.”

She was being dismissed. It wouldn’t be the first time, and it wasn’t going to be the last. Some days when Undyne first started training with him, he’d send her away. Undyne always got frustrated with it, but as she grew older, she started to see the way he looked at his flowers whenever he had to take a day off. 

“...Fine. Just… I’m gonna be stopping back in later, so maybe we can actually drink the tea you make.” Hopefully, that’d be enough to make sure he didn’t just sit in one spot all day.

Asgore nodded, but didn’t do much else.

As Undyne left his house, she realized one simple thing: this wasn’t working. All of this waiting around after everyone’s lives got shaken up just wasn’t working. Yeah, Papyrus made pretty good points for why they all shouldn’t go hunting the Angel, but the things were just stacking up more and more. They had answers that no one else was willing to give, and nothing had changed! They’d been missing for double the time that Undyne had even known them, and that wasn’t gonna cut it.

Even though she wanted to charge at that stupid mountain right now, Undyne at least wanted to run it by Papyrus. Maybe, he also changed plans by now. Besides, other than scouring the whole damn mountain, she had no ideas. Frisk came over once to ask Alphys if she could still access her cameras in the Underground, but she hadn’t done maintenance on those in a while. Alphys even doubted that they’d have power with the CORE only powering the essentials in the Underground.

It wasn’t long before she found herself in front of Papyrus’ house. Without missing a beat, she knocked twice on the door.

Before she even had a chance of getting to a third, the door swung open with Papyrus standing there like he’d been there the whole time. “Mmmmyes?!” Even though his eye-sockets were just empty holes, they widened and sparkled. “Undyne!!! It has been quite a while since you have come here for a casual visit!” The sparkle disappeared instantaneously. “And it will stay that way!!! Because you do not seem to be here for anything casual!”

Was she that tense? Undyne tried to loosen up a bit, but already knew that she was caught. “Yeah… sorry Papyrus. It’s just been… y’know.” Things weren’t exactly hectic, but no one wanted to sit around and just relax. Even watching anime was a hassle. Both Alphys and Undyne just couldn’t sit still for long enough even though there was nothing they could actually do. Screw it. She needed to get this over with. “The whole waiting thing isn’t working, Papyrus.”

“Hm?!” Papyrus lifted a finger. “While I am incredibly receptive to constructive criticism, I am afraid you will have to be slightly more specific, Undyne!”

Fine. If Papyrus wanted it, then she could make a list. “We know they’re in the Underground by now. We’ve made no progress on waking…” She glanced around to make sure no one was listening in on the sidewalk. “...Asriel up thanks to their weird soul thing. They have answers to nearly every damn question we have, and no matter how long we wait, I don’t think they’re just gonna walk up to us and say ‘hi’ anytime soon. Nothing’s happening.”

Papyrus tapped his boots on the ground, humming while deep in thought. Coming to a decision, his face lit up. “While things have certainly gone slower than I would imagine, just because we have not seen anything happening… does not mean that nothing is happening! Perhaps, they are on a journey of their own! One that does not quite include us right this very moment!”

Yeah, that was an optimistic way of thinking about it, but Undyne couldn’t do “optimistic” for much longer. “I don’t know how much longer we can do this, Papyrus. Someone’s gonna go after them, and it’s about to be me at this point.” Just how much was falling apart right now? “No matter how much you wanna keep us from hunting them down, they are a part of all of this. We can’t just leave them to do their own thing for who knows how long.”

A little bit of thought was given, but Papyrus recovered quickly. “It is merely a balancing act!!! If we move too quickly and corner them before they are ready, then we will only end up with a lack of trust! If we wait too long, then perhaps things… well… might go unsaid! After all, I have seen quite recently that it is… not impossible for someone to avoid their true feelings so utterly and thoroughly! Sometimes an olive branch is required!”

Undyne wanted to go down there and squeeze them for any answers. Yeah, she didn’t think the Angel was as much of a threat as everyone else did. She wasn’t going to lock them up. She wasn’t going to stop them from their goal. But, this waiting stuff had to stop. “I can go to the Underground… try to talk them down… or just try to get any answers. I’m not gonna hurt them or pin them or anything, but it’s just…”

“Where would you go?!” Papyrus blinked his eye-sockets a few times while he genuinely questioned her, “Even though the Underground is quite small, there would be far too much ground to cover! You could miss each other entirely!!! If they saw you first, they could think you’re doing guard duties!”

Grimacing, Undyne looked off to the side. Yeah, she didn’t know if that punk would even stay put when they saw her. No matter how far they’d both come, Undyne… didn’t know if they’d just see her as an enforcer. She hounded them the first time they were on the run. Who knew if they’d think she was doing it again. That punk clearly wasn’t thinking if they hadn’t shown their face in ages. “Someone’s gotta look!” Undyne weakly protested. “Frisk is two seconds away from going into the mountain. Toriel might beat them to the punch. I don’t wanna restrain them either, but if one of us doesn’t get to them first, then…”

“...I believe I have an idea!” Papyrus leaned in, putting a hand in front of his mouth like someone would try to see what he was saying. “I do not have the faintest idea of where they could be, but I believe that someone else does!”

Undyne kept her own voice down in mimicry, just because this could actually be important. “Who?”

Just to be sure, Papyrus glanced behind him before returning to hiding his mouth. “Sans!” The moment even the slightest bit of skepticism flashed across Undyne’s face, Papyrus launched into explanation, “He has been avoiding me, but I asked Grillby if he has been around! Sans stays around at night, but where he goes during the day is a mystery!”

Undyne furrowed her brow. “You mean he’s not with Toriel?”

“Absolutely not! While his room is locked, and an invasion of privacy is never acceptable, I doubt he is in his room either! It has made me wonder what is occupying his time…” Papyrus leaned back, finally done with stage-whispering. “Let me do a bit more investigation! Questioning! And then, when I have a lead, I have a far more productive way of finding our winged friend!” 

Honestly, she didn’t expect him to be so on board. It was him who suggested that everyone lay off a little bit. “Surprised you’re even offering to go out there to question them. Thought you’d be telling me off.”

“Who said anything about questioning?!” Papyrus shook his head. “That is precisely what I warned against! No no, what I intend to do is something far greater! They have had time to go on their own personal journey, and now, it is only time to see if they are ready. Perhaps they won’t be! Perhaps they will have had time to clear their mind! And! Because they have good taste, they appear to trust me! I would not wish to burn the deadly bridge!”

It was just getting harder and harder. This all seemed so slow. Undyne didn’t know how much longer she could watch Asgore wither away. Half of her friends were getting more and more tired as time went on. Alphys stressed herself out to no end thinking about what was going on or trying to make sense of any of it.

“Undyne!” Papyrus put a hand on her shoulder, his grin growing wider. “Trust me!”

The dream wasn’t even anything specific this time.

The bad part about sleeping more was that the Angel had more time to dream. It led to a lot of nightmares, but some of the dreams were kind. This time, they recalled a memory that wasn’t quite correct. It didn’t need to be. It kept them at ease for a little bit longer.

With hands not quite used to finer movements, the Angel tried their best to tie a white ribbon around Ralsei’s ear. Kris did it for them last time, and the Angel never really saw the ribbon actually go on his ear. But, their own ribbon was comfortable in the Light World, so they figured that it would be a nice spot. Ralsei waited patiently for them to figure it out. His fur didn’t feel like anything. The ribbon under their fingers had the same fate. That… made it a little easier. The Angel didn’t think that they’d be able to do this for real.

Hm. Their dreams didn’t lie about their vessel anymore. Their dreams didn’t try to trick them into having their older body. Perhaps, the Angel forgot enough details that their mind couldn’t summon it well enough. Or…

They chose not to think about it.

The memory lurched into motion. With the illusion of his hat still coloring his fur black, Ralsei reached up to the band of white that broke up the shadow. In disbelief that he received the gift, he repeated the words he said a long time ago, “You’re giving it to me…? Well? Does it look pretty…?”

He chose to enjoy something for the first time. It did look pretty. They hoped he would have the chance to wear as many ribbons as he wanted soon.

“I’m gonna take a wild guess…” A grating and annoying voice came from behind the Angel, ruining any peace that they had in their own mind while sleeping. “That’s the little replacement that you talked about… the person who’s so much better than me.” 

“You’re not good enough to be replaced.” They weren’t even going to entertain explaining what was actually going on to him. Besides, they could feel Asriel’s offense through the thread of connection that they shared now. “Seethe.”

Asriel did a few paces around the facsimile of Ralsei. Before he even did have a circle, the Angel dispelled the memory. It wasn’t meant for Asriel, and they didn’t like the way he was inspecting Ralsei in the slightest. “He doesn’t seem like much. But, gotta admit, that’s oddly domestic of you!” 

For once, the Angel scrunched their nose and tilted their head. “What?”

“Most of your dreams are… y’know…” Asriel waved his hand from side to side. “Grand prophecies… thinking about when they’re all gonna throw you aside like the trash you are… that kind of stuff!” He waited for a reaction, and came away unsatisfied when he got none. “But then there’s the piano thing! Now, you’re tying ribbons around someone’s ear. Just not what I’d expect!”

The Angel blinked a few times owlishly. “That’s… oddly inquisitive of you-” Nope. Nevermind. The hopes in their chest were dashed immediately. “You’re just trying to figure out how I tick, aren’t you?”

“Aw, don’t ruin the fun!” Asriel sat down in thin air, managing to get a little bit of a grip in this shared space while the two of them slept. It wasn’t enough to do anything, and would never be enough for him to break free. It wasn’t even a tug against their soul. “Can’t help it! You know how this feeling can be! I’m just a bit curious. It’s not like you’ve left me with anything better to do.”

Yes, he was here for the sole purpose of annoying them while they were sleeping. The Angel didn’t know what they expected, and had half a mind to send him right back to his own little separated area. “If you’re going to try to get me to willingly tell you anything else, then no. I don’t have to do that.”

Asriel rolled his eyes dramatically. “For someone who has had me locked down for over two weeks, you really don’t act like it. What am I gonna do? Stare at the ceiling to communicate that you’re lame?”

The Angel slowly started to frown the more Asriel joked. It was a change of pace, but not a welcome one. “You don’t get to banter with me after everything you did.” He talked casually, like the Angel didn’t just bury countless Darkners slain by his hand. “If I’m just a new source of entertainment, you’re mistaken.”

“Oh my god, why do you even care-”

A hand twitched. Roots spread through Asriel’s body while he seized up. In an instant, he was gone. They didn’t have to take anything from him.

It was a better time than ever to start the day.

When the Angel woke up, their blanket was twisted over their body uncomfortably. Their one good horn got snagged in the pillow again. Everything in the inn was old and weathered at this point, but they weren’t helping things by impaling their horn into some part of the bed every morning. At least, when they saw their ear flopped up next to their face, they felt a little better when seeing the red fur.

Not perfect, but better.

It gave them the little extra boost to untangle themself from the blankets. As soon as they fished their cane from the wall, they slowly rose to their feet. Their legs still weren’t right. They weren’t going to be right. But, the Angel was starting to get used to the cane. They needed to start bopping people more with it. Suzy definitely needed that. While they left the room and walked around the corner, their tail hooked behind them a little bit. They were messing with the feathers a little too much.

Before they even got close to the Dark World, the room shifted. The man decided to appear early today. Thankfully, he wasted no time, “Waiting for you- The phone is resonating-” The armless fragment paused for a second to piece together more intentional words. “Your- friends… Call-”

A chill ran through the Angel’s body. They tried to talk, but had to take a second to clear their throat. “Emergency? Or just a normal talk?”

“Normal.”

A lot of the stress wound up in their chest finally started to unfurl. Their friends were still okay, and making their way to a normal conversation. “Are they ready now, or are they on their way?”

“See you soon.” The grey figure vanished, the message complete.

That meant that the Angel had a little bit of time. Besides, it wasn’t like they needed to be anywhere particular to speak to their friends. As long as they had privacy from the rest of the Dark World, then they would be content. 

That gave them enough time to leap into the darkness, beelining towards a small little room on the edge of the motel. If Suzy was going to stay here for a little bit, it might be… nice if she could meet everyone else. The Angel didn’t know if it was the right decision to make. Hearing her own voice echoed from the other side would probably freak her out. The Angel wondered if she actually processed what the Angel told her. There was a different version of her on the other side.

But, part of them just wanted to introduce friends to each other, and that guided their step.

Knocking on Suzy’s door gave them no response. The Angel called out her name, but didn’t get an answer either. Maybe she was just out? Suzy told them to visit whenever they felt like it, so they twisted the doorknob to see if- ah, there it went. The door opened, unlocked completely. Suzy didn’t strike the Angel as someone to leave her door unlocked, but she did.

A loud snore stopped them from entering.

The Angel kept their mouth shut, and the light behind their head unconsciously dimmed. Across the room, Suzy lay sprawled out across her bed. Her snores shook the room, head leaning far back with her mouth half open. She didn’t react to the Angel entering. She didn’t react to the noise they made at all.

For a moment, the Angel wondered how long it had been since Suzy slept in a real bed.

Smiling under their veil, they shut the door. They didn’t want to interrupt her. There would likely be another time for her to join in on one of these conversations. For now, she could rest. She deserved it.

Quietly, they stalked off to the Dark Fountain. Last time they spoke to their friends, they could barely breathe while waiting for the conversation to start. This time, the Angel walked quickly to where they needed to be. They would just get a chance to talk again. The more days that passed, the more the Angel missed all of them.

As soon as they stopped in front of the Dark Fountain, a grey figure waited for them. The same, armless fragment sat on the ground, waiting for them to do the same. Carefully, the Angel lowered themself down with their hands on the crook, waiting for the first voices to come through.

The fragment opened its mouth, and Ralsei’s voice greeted them, “Hello, Angel! Have you been okay?” 

Of course, he’d be asking that immediately. It had been… varied, but the Angel could more confidently give him an answer this time. “I’m doing fine. It’s… a lot better than before.” But… they weren’t exactly making progress. Still, before they even began mentioning their progress on making it back, they asked something that had been on their mind for a while now. “Are you all still doing okay?”

“Yes!”

“No!”

Two voices came out at the same time. The Angel tried to parse both of them, thankfully catching both of them with their second pair of eyes. Ralsei said yes while Noelle said no. Well, that meant Noelle was still traveling alongside them! They were a tad curious how that one happened, but Noelle’s voice beat them to the punch.

She stumbled over herself a little bit. “I mean- maybe I don’t have a frame of reference yet??? I guess what happened to Susie was… worse than what we’re doing now, but oh my gosh, being close to those Titans all the time and hoping they don’t see us…”

Being clued in on a conversation the Angel didn’t know if they should be privy to, Ralsei politely reminded her, “I… did try to warn you. On the brighter side of things, we haven’t gotten into a fight. Considering how often we were getting spotted at the start of all of this, I think that’s… um… an improvement.”

“Oh! And Ralsei taught me a spell!” Noelle excitedly pointed out. It made the Angel’s wings ruffle. She never really talked to them about this kind of stuff before. “He taught me how to do his floaty thing, and we’ve been using it together for a while! I think… that’s been helping… Mom keeps trying to keep me at the Shelter, but dad keeps finding new ways to distract her, and… oh gosh, I forgot who I was rambling to. I-”

Ah, the realization must’ve hit her as well that neither of them usually talked like this. The Angel relaxed, waving a hand even though nobody could see it. “I’m happy. It sounds like you two are doing fine.” Though, there were two people they hadn’t heard from yet. One of them definitely wasn’t going to come forward unless the Angel dragged them in. “Kris? Susie? Are you two okay?”

It took a few beats before the fragment spoke again. On this side of the conversation, the Angel could barely see whatever side things occurred. The man’s fragment betrayed no expressions, leaving them entirely on their own for guessing what the silence meant.

A raspy, hoarse voice came forward first. “Saw the Knight again.”

All of the easy relaxation that the Angel had vanished in an instant. The man hadn’t… alerted them to anything like that. 

Kris didn’t leave room for the silence to fester for long. “Didn’t get close, but it’s still looking for us. Has trouble finding us when you’re not bright. Just… watches now.”

Part of their success was tied to the Angel taking things a lot slower down here. It brought them no comfort that their deaths really did hinder their friends, but at least the change of pace was doing something worthwhile. “I’ve been… getting hurt a lot less. I’m still there if you need me to give you any extra light.” Still, they hated the idea of the Knight just looming in the distance. Whenever the Angel encountered it, it loved to get cheap shots in.

Every transfer of information left the fragment steady for a while, but from the Angel’s perspective, the words came quite quickly. “Need it soon. Titans getting too concentrated.”

Helpfully, Ralsei added, “We… um… think because it has gotten more dark, the Titans are getting better at… finding you even though we can lose them easily. With how much time we’ve spent in town, it’s nearly impossible to navigate. The center of town had ways to evade, but now they’re guarding the apartments, and…”

They… could help then. Whenever the Angel needed to use a Shadow Crystal, they’d be there. They didn’t know how long they would be able to hold onto it, but there was no way to safely train that ability unless their friends stayed in the Light World for longer… which they also couldn’t afford to do. Worse case scenario, they’d just have to make sure they were in good condition before using one so that they didn’t pass out quickly.

Ralsei wasn’t quite yet done, though he sounded unsure. “We… also finally realized that a Grand Door has been… well… missing.”

The Angel’s vision narrowed. They… had a suspicion, but they needed to be sure. “What do you mean?”

“Well, the Roaring expands space a lot, so it’s sometimes difficult to track which Grand Door belongs to which location in the Light World,” Ralsei explained, though he didn’t sound exactly confident in his explanation. “For a while, we glossed over the fact that… one of them simply isn’t there. Between the apartments and the convenience store, there’s an entire house that just isn’t… there.”

Sans’ house.

It was gone.

Of course. Of course it was. “Don’t worry about him,” the Angel muttered, knowing that the loop had now closed. Guess something really did happen to him after all. “I happen to know where he is, and he’s… just fine. I don’t know how, but he ended up here.”

Ralsei didn’t respond for a bit, no doubt ruminating over the new information. “How is that possible…?”

“I don’t know.” They could try to rattle off any number of explanations that came into their head, but none of them really answered the mystery that was Sans. Only he could tell them what happened that day. “But, he’s fine. You didn’t miss a Grand Door.”

Even though the Angel couldn’t see his face, they could hear the relief in his voice. “That’s… that’s good. I’ll take your word for it, I suppose.”

One person hadn’t said anything yet. When no other voice came through to say how she was doing, the Angel called out on their own, “Susie?”

Susie should’ve expected where the Grand Doors led. She should’ve thought about it at least once before they entered the doors next to the Flower Shop, but she didn’t until it was already too late.

Now, while Kris and Noelle tried to convince the newest Lightner to get on the boat in spite of his new body, Susie stood there like an idiot, wishing that she could go back inside. They had to leave. They had to. No matter how much Susie repeated it in her head, she wanted to throw open the Grand Doors and try to save just one more person.

But Tenna couldn’t follow them into the Roaring. Susie only had two real options: leave him behind, or hope he wouldn’t feel it when he turned to stone.

Susie stayed locked in place. She couldn’t even join the mix of panic and happiness coming from the ghost whose Dark World form turned him into a robot. She couldn’t help Kris and Noelle try to wrangle him into the boat instead of letting him admire the way the Dark World altered him. She could only think about Tenna’s slightly damaged antenna while they all left him behind again. Even though he gained so many new stickers all over him, they had to leave him alone again.

It wasn’t fair.

Someone else shared her frustration. Mettaton… was really upset when they told him that he couldn’t take Tenna into the Roaring. At least, it meant that Tenna was being taken care of. Mettaton even called him by name when he said his goodbyes, but Susie knew how Tenna took goodbyes. She knew.

A soft hand grabbed hers, and Susie didn’t need to turn to know who it already was. Instead, she looked away from him, trying to hide the look on her face. “I’m fine, Ralsei,” she naturally lied, but didn’t pull her hand away from him.

Ralsei squeezed her hand tighter, being too damn persistent for his own good. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to… but…” When she stole a glance at Ralsei out of the corner of her eye, she saw him looking up at her. “I told you I’d be here whenever you can’t smile. Remember?”

Yeah, she remembered. She remembered it all the damn time. Like she’d been punched in the nose, something made her eyes water. No one was even looking at her but him. No one. She didn’t get how he was still holding her hand now, acting like he wasn’t just as tired of all of this. Like she was just lying to herself, Susie finally turned fully to him, and saw his hand trying to hold onto hers as much as it could. He was there, just like he said he’d be.

Susie’s head started to slowly sag while her other hand balled into a fist. The doors behind her taunted her, something sealed away behind them for who knew how long. Her teeth baring, she tried to keep her voice down. The Roaring didn’t even give her the luxury of being allowed to yell. “I’m so tired of having to leave people behind… people I promised I wouldn’t leave behind.”

Her head must’ve gotten low enough, because even though Ralsei was short, he managed to stand up taller and bonk his head lightly against hers. With the Roaring being so stupidly cold, she managed to focus on the frustration that Ralsei somehow still felt warm. He must’ve known that, because he decided to wrap his arms around her right after.

“You’re still trying so hard to make sure it doesn’t stay that way, Susie. You… always have.” Ralsei pulled back, smiling even with the light of countless Titans in the distance behind him. “Even… when I try to convince you not to, you care so much that it makes my heart hurt.”

It was just getting harder and harder. There was an end in sight. When they got the Angel back, they could all go back to the way things were before the Roaring hit. They could go on that stupid trip they all planned. It was just… that Susie started feeling more and more tired. The rescue missions felt like they weren’t ending. They weren’t even getting closer to helping the Angel get back. They were just treading water.

How long did she have to leave Tenna behind? She hated that word. But, no matter how much she wanted to fight what had to be done, it didn’t change the only two options she had. Asking the only person who she could right now, Susie looked down at Ralsei, “Do you… think he’ll be fine in there? Does he even know what’s going on?” She didn’t know if Ralsei could tell in some way.

Ralsei squeezed her hand a little bit tighter. “He… loves Lightners very much, Susie. I can’t say for sure, but… I really do think Tenna found a new home. I don’t… know how he feels, but… ever since I met all of you, I wanted nothing more than for all of you to be safe. Maybe, right now, he feels the same way about Mettaton.”

Susie could only hope that was true, but she knew how much Tenna clung to everyone. She knew how scared he was when they were all trying to leave. Even the thought of being alone for a few days terrified Susie. Walking through Hometown with no one at her side after the church already felt like the weight of the world crashed down onto her, and she wasn’t even alone for long.

The stomp of a Titan grew near. She didn’t even have time to go back in anymore.

Susie reached out to the Grand Doors, placing a hand on their surface. “We’re gonna make all of this fine, okay?” Her claws scraped against it. “I promise, you hear me?”

Nothing but the roaring winds answered.

Through the fragment, Susie’s voice coughed before she finally mumbled, “We saw Tenna today… or yesterday… or how many days ago it was. I don’t really know anymore.”

Oh.

If the Angel remembered correctly, they left him at Mettaton’s place. They checked in a few times, and Mettaton slowly became more and more outgoing from the other side of the door, even eventually choosing to refer to himself with that name. The Angel never learned the name that came before, but they were happy to learn the one that was his all over again.

But, Tenna was still there. He wasn’t lucky enough to be safe in Castle Town with everyone else.

Worse, they didn’t know what to tell her. Did they try to convince her that it’d be all right, knowing damn well that they made no progress? Did they just say sorry like that meant anything right now? “I’m… that…” The Angel fumbled for the words and came up with nothing. “I’m trying to make sure that I don’t mess up the next time I get to the Roaring. I… haven’t figured out a way back, but I’m going to make sure that it ends next time.” The first five days they came here were… to put it lightly… hell. However, they could not imagine what the Roaring was like day in and day out. “I didn’t mean for it to go this long.”

“Not your fault, dumbass.” Even through the fragment’s voice, the Angel could feel the slap on the back of their head. “It’s just… first it was Lancer… then we lost you for a while… and now Tenna’s alone…”

Yes, they didn’t cause the Roaring, but they weren’t going to act like they didn’t take crucial hits that they could’ve avoided. They weren’t going to act like they didn’t make this significantly worse through all of their deaths. Right now, they were resting too much. “I’ll try to figure out a way to replicate a connection. I… I shouldn’t be taking this long.”

“That’s not what I’m trying to say!” While Susie’s voice carried through the fragment, the Angel almost saw a hint of aggression on the fragment’s face that broke through its usual monotony. “We haven’t done a damn thing either on our end, and we’re still not done getting everyone back to the Shelter! We were lucky to even be able to get food to ‘em, but…”  

So then, what was she trying to say? The Angel tilted their head, even though it couldn’t be seen.

Susie took a while to find her voice again. “I’m happy you’re not getting hurt anymore, dumbass. Don’t stop doing that. We just…” Susie trailed off again. The silence lasted for a bit longer. “I miss Lancer. I miss Tenna. I miss you. There. That’s all.”

The Angel wished that they could reach out, but they were still stuck behind an impassable wall, only being able to guess what everyone else was doing on the other side. They bit down the part of them that hoped it would dull for Susie eventually. “I… still miss all of you too.”

With whatever she wanted to say spent, Ralsei’s voice reentered the fragment’s own cadence. “It’s… strange in a way. The Roaring has been going on for much longer than we even knew each other, but…”

A question came to mind that the Angel was almost too afraid to ask, but it slipped from their mouth regardless of their wishes. “How long… has this been going on?”

A pause came. A long pause persisted. Eventually, the Angel looked at the fragment for any guidance, only for the echoes of a debate to slip out of its mouth. There were too many voices overlapping, all saying different things and questioning separate timeframes.

When Ralsei’s voice finally peeked through, he gave an answer that somehow made the Angel only more afraid: “I… don’t think we know.”

Time remained an enemy, no matter how much the Angel had control over it.

The thought chased them as the call ended and the days went on.

Training took a leap far away from what they were previously doing. Their weapons could be summoned correctly, but now, they found themself holding their breath at odd times… expecting it to do something.

However, there was one ability that they wanted to replicate beyond anything else that they did in the Dark World.

For a sliver of time, the Angel managed to make the world hold its breath with them. It gave them the slightest edge over Asriel. However, it was fleeting. It was barely there. Of all of the things the Angel did with their Shadow Crystal, they hardly had a frame of reference. The ability to even control time was something that simply wasn’t in any history books. Only three people still alive knew about the ability extensively. Ralsei could be counted, but the Angel wasn’t exactly sure considering that he wasn’t aware that their soul shattered to trigger the ability.

Freezing time was beyond their repertoire. The Angel could only ever rewind it.

Except, that wasn’t necessarily true. Even the man had seen it. Time stretched in odd ways when they needed it to. They could look away from the world for a while, and when they came back, it would not move. As the man said, it used to hold its breath and wait.

But, no matter how many times the Angel tried to replicate that flash of power against Asriel, they couldn’t. No matter how many times they held their breath, it wasn’t enough. Their heartbeat quickened. Their senses narrowed. But, they couldn’t steal that fine control over time back from the world.

It’d be better if they could. If they found a way to expand upon that ability… how far could they take it? The Roaring was screeching forward, but the Angel wondered if it would be possible to lock it in place.

No matter how much the Angel focused in the snow, they didn’t feel any flash of familiarity. Even in the Dark World, where things were more malleable, the ability slipped from their grasp too easily.

Frustration got the better of them. Time slipped through their fingertips. Gritting their teeth, they flicked their tail through the snow, sending some of it flying while they sat in it. Snow came down gradually, flakes resting on the top of their fur before starting to melt.

At the same time, Suzy started getting bored tagging along.

“So like… what’s the goal with freezing your ass off in the snow?” Suzy questioned, breaking the Angel’s remaining focus instantly. Even though they gave her a hoodie to keep her hands warm, it wasn’t nearly enough to keep her cozy. “You’re just sitting there.”

The Angel’s tail thrashed, kicking up snow when they dropped their focus and opened their eyes. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” they mumbled, trying to settle back in. Weapons were believable. Their control over time was not.

Suzy huffed, crossing her arms even tighter than she already was. “Yeah yeah yeah, we all know that’s an excuse by now. The least you can do is tell me why we’re slowly turning to ice cubes.”

“You don’t have to be out here,” the Angel reminded her. “You can stay in the Dark World and wait if you don’t like the snow.”

One of Suzy’s hands rose out of her jacket, a finger going tense against another like she was going to flick them. When the Angel’s eyes zeroed in on her fingers, she stopped herself before needing another reminder. The hand instantly went back on her head. “I didn’t come down here just to freeload. I’m just wondering.”

Okay. This didn’t work the other times they tried it, but they could do it again for emphasis. With a tone far too casual for someone talking about this subject, the Angel said, “I am trying to figure out how to freeze time.”

Suzy’s mouth clicked shut the moment the words left the Angel’s mouth. Predictably, she didn’t have any frame of reference for this. What the Angel should’ve recognized was that she was getting better at dealing with them. “Yeah. Sure. Why the hell wouldn’t that be what you were up to right now?” She shook her head, a breathy laugh escaping her mouth. “Arright. Hit me. Why the hell are you trying to go and do that?”

The Angel squinted. “You’re not going to ask me… what that means?”

“No?” Suzy buried her hands back in the hoodie they gave her. “At this point, why the hell wouldn’t I believe the weird stuff you’re doing? You haven’t uh… been wrong yet. So… guess I’m just wondering why.”

It… was a very straightforward way of thinking about the situation. The Angel supposed that was a fine enough thing to answer. Shutting their eyes again and settling into the snow, they recalled the reasons, “Time works against me. There’s too many things I have to do… and too many things I have to prevent. When I go back to their world, into that apocalypse I told you about, I need every advantage I could possibly have.”

“Mhm,” Suzy mumbled like she was following, but the Angel could see her beginning to shuffle the snow in her hands. She must’ve thought they were entirely oblivious, eyeing them repeatedly to make sure their vessel’s eyes remained shut. “So like, whaddya mean by preventing stuff?”

Deaths. Further tragedy. Most importantly… “There was a prophecy in the world where I came from.” Blue glass still shimmered in their dreams sometimes, reminding them of a third obstacle. “I have to get back… I have to stop the Roaring… and even worse, I have to make sure that said prophecy doesn’t come to pass.”

Suzy stopped whatever she was going, glancing through her hair. “Not a big fan of weird fate things? Always thought ours was pretty stupid too.” An annoyed huff escaped her mouth while she shoved her wet hands back into the hoodie. “Guess it happened, so the next idiot who makes a prophecy can convince everyone that it’ll happen too.”

The Angel could be pedantic on if there was only one real prophecy or one made of the monster’s own hopes. Suzy probably wasn’t interested. So, they continued, “I am not fond of it, considering it requires all three of my friends to die at the end: a cage, with human soul and parts… the girl with hope crossed on her heart, and the prince alone in deepest dark.” The prophecy had chosen its heroes, and all three of them would be in constant danger during the Roaring. “If the prophecy is still in effect, and I’m certain it is, then it could happen at any time. If there’s even a chance that I can get something that helps me delay it…”

They didn’t want to think about the blue glass in their head that shined brighter than anything else.

The final tragedy could occur at any point. It could occur when the Angel was still stuck here. It could occur when they were actively trying to fight back the Roaring. However, the prophecy insisted that it must happen. 

Get back. Stop the Roaring. Prevent a prophecy. The Angel knew how to vaguely do one of the three.

Focus faltered from above at the worst possible moment. The Angel saw a blur of motion from Suzy before something wet and cold thwacked against their head. Sputtering, they fell backwards into the snow. All of their thoughts scattered to the wind while they had to focus on the offending snow stuck to their face.

As soon as the Angel wiped it off, they heard Suzy laughing. Their glare went murderous when they slowly lifted themself back up. 

Suzy continued chuckling, her breaths solidifying through the air while her eyes sparkled. “You were thinking too hard again, stupid! Come on, don’t tell me throwing snowballs is off-limits with you too-”

The Angel’s tail whipped through the snow, sending a spray careening towards Suzy. With a shriek, she covered her face while icy death rained down. Mimicking her mocking tone, the Angel shot back. “Come on, don’t tell me that’s enough to make you cold!”

Suddenly, Suzy didn’t find the idea of slinging snow around so funny. She bared her teeth, springing to her feet while she gathered up snow. “Oh, so it’s a fight you want? I’ll kick your ass!”

The Angel wasn’t used to getting up quickly in the slightest. When another ball of snow was lobbed at them, they decided to be petty and raise their cane while still stuck on the ground. With a ping, their soul turned green while their cane deflected the blow. It switched again to a deep blue while they pushed themself off the ground, landing in the snow a few feet away. “You sure?” They tilted their head, ears going lopsided in a way that didn’t exactly look threatening at all. “I don’t like wet fur, Suzy. I’m not planning on getting hit.”

“Uh huh. Yeah. Sure. You are good at-” Suzy cut herself off, a white axe flashing into her hands. She dragged it through the snow sideways, kicking up a blast of snow at the Angel without any warning.

They winced while trying to shield themself, only for the snow to cake through their fur. Their tail thrashed while they knelt down, trying to pick up a ball at the same time Suzy did. Both of them got two caught up in hitting the other first, nailing each other in the face with their respective throws.

What once were training grounds turned into a warzone. Tactics became more and more dirty. The Angel’s soul switched between various colors while they tried to outmaneuver Suzy. Every now and then, one of her axes appeared in the snow, kicking up a wall of white before Suzy would nail them through the haze. Shrieks echoed through Snowdin while they chased each other down.

Once, they got close, the two of them stalking around each other in a circle. One of them waited for the other to make the mistake to kneel down. The Angel panted, but still tried to look strong. “Getting tired already? You started this!”

Suzy grinned, clearly not anywhere close to exhaustion at all. She looked like she could do this for hours while her fingers flexed. “When I win, I’m gonna stick your damn nose in the snow. Maybe that’ll get you to realize how damn cold it is out here-”

The stalking stopped abruptly.

Suzy’s eyes locked onto something far behind the Angel, and when they turned to look, they saw her staring at the treeline. Nothing was there, but they felt their fur begin to stand on end when Suzy’s grin vanished from her face instantly.

Playfulness vanished when she muttered, “Someone was watching us.”

Pinning down Sans for an actual conversation was proving incredibly difficult again! If Papyrus didn’t know any better, he might dissuade himself of the worries that Sans was avoiding him. However!!! Sans very much avoided him constantly ever since their last talk!

He started to miss his brother! He hardly even saw the telltale signs of laziness that Sans left around the house. That lazybones insisted on using paper plates instead of actual dining equipment. When Papyrus swept by the trash can, he caught it unusually empty! While Papyrus did not invade Sans’ room, he certainly did not hear another trash tornado brewing inside! Nothing was stuck between the couch cushions. 

The only thing that consistently changed was the telescope on the balcony.

So, Papyrus waited there while the sun went down. He would talk with Sans about anything at this point! It didn’t have to be about the things that he so desperately wished to avoid!

There wasn’t any announcement when light, muffled footsteps appeared behind him. When Papyrus turned, he saw two eye-lights in the dark.

Sometimes over the past few days, Papyrus wondered if he should have been more patient with Sans. After all, he extended such kindnesses to the Angel. Sometimes, all someone needed was a moment to themselves before taking an extended olive branch! That was what Papyrus was trying to impress upon Undyne! However… Sans hadn’t spoken for years. Papyrus did not think that he ever would. Different people required different approaches, and Sans would evade this forever if he could.

And once again, he tried to dodge. “Whoops. Used the wrong door.” He spun on a heel, opening the porch door properly that he just shortcut out of.

Papyrus didn’t let him go just yet. “Sans! You and I both know that you did not come out here unintentionally! I do not want to take your space from you, but you have left me with very little other option!”

When Sans stopped in his tracks, Papyrus got a good look at his brother. He dragged his heels quite a lot while walking. Whenever he turned to actually look at Papyrus, his eye-sockets carried a tiredness that Papyrus hadn’t seen since the Underground. But… more intriguing… Papyrus saw something on the shoulders of Sans’ hoodie.

Little dots of water were sprinkled along the shoulders, as if something melted on it recently.

“Sorry bro, I gotta catch up on sleep. You know me.” He waved a mittened hand, ignoring Papyrus’ attempt to reach out again. 

Papyrus did know his brother, and he knew him well enough to know that he rejected the attempt yet again. Sans walked inside unceremoniously, unlocking the door to his room properly and leaving Papyrus alone.

The rift grew larger, but Papyrus fixated on those little droplets of water in the hoodie.

Perhaps, Papyrus did know where Sans kept running off to.

ONLY THEN, WILL THE WORLDS BE SAVED.

What could possibly require “only then”? The Angel did not know how they were going to stop the Roaring, but if they sealed every Titan and fountain, then logically it should be able to disperse on its own. They would need to stop the Knight before that so that new fountains couldn’t be made, but… it seemed like a straightforward task on its own. The distance complicated things, but what truly made the Angel hesitate was why the Final Prophecy had to exist.

Only then…

Was the sacrifice truly necessary, if the Angel could simply win? Why did three heroes need to perish for that to happen?

“I meant that genuinely by the way!” Asriel’s voice broke through the quiet while the Angel stared at the blue glass. He was getting a lot faster at reaching them through their dreams. They could send him back immediately, and every part of them just wanted one night of peace. “Seriously! I send a light breeze your way, and you decide to make your little chest parasite grow!”

The Angel sighed, continuing to look away from him at the glass, “You would think that after I nearly strangled you to death… that you wouldn’t test the fact that I care for Darkners. Everything you did is still on you.” But Asriel never learned, did he? 

At the very least, he didn’t immediately give the Angel reason to send him home this time. “I’m not testing it. Sue me for being even slightly curious!” 

His knack for even trying to downplay what he did still sent a spike through their own soul. Besides, they knew him too well. “Nothing’s just curiosity with you.” 

“Aw, see this is what happens when you’re not paying any attention!” Asriel walked into the corner of their vision, trying to lean down to get them to react. They did not. “That’s why I’m curious. You did exactly the same thing I did! Eventually, we both got curious enough to figure out the answer to that one, forbidden question: ‘What happens if they die’?”

No matter how many reasons the Angel had for asking the question, they asked it regardless. They went on a warpath that brought them nothing, all because they were too incapable of letting go. They wouldn’t make the same mistake a second time. Gaze hardening, they continued watching the way the prophecy never changed. “Is there a point to what you’re saying, or are you just trying to get under my skin? You’ve tried this one already.”

“The point is…” Asriel spat with a bit more impatience, “I don’t get you. You’ve seen everything this world has to offer. You’ve broken them down to sets of numbers, lines of dialogue, and something that fuels your power. But, for some reason, you decide to finally draw the line at a bunch of objects. You say you cared about the Underground, but you’re just using them as a means to an end now.”

The Angel lifted a hand.

“See! You even stop playing around the moment I say anything!” Asriel waved his hands at them, walking around even further to try to block their view of the prophecy. “What changed?” He stared at their hand, waiting for them to either answer or pull the trigger. “Come on. All I can do is be a little curious.”

Slowly, they rose to their feet, getting onto eye-level with him. If he wanted to be annoying, then they could meet him on his own level. “What changed for you? If you really don’t care about anyone up here, then why aren’t they all dead?”

Asriel crossed his arms with a smug smile. “Are you kidding me? Sure, they settled into their own routines again, but at least it’s slightly more entertaining than an empty world. I can’t even do anything with Frisk around anyway.”

“Even if that was true, you being here proves that there’s a little something more.” The Angel tilted their head. “After all, you wouldn’t be in my dreams if you never asked about Chara.” Finally, his grin faltered again. Finally, he was on the backfoot for a second. The Angel took a step forward while he took a step back towards the glass behind him. “What was it you said about them? That they’re the only one who gets you? That they’re the only one who’s fun to play with anymore?”

Asriel stayed silent for only a few seconds before his grin started to creep up again. “I remember when you said that all of your little escapades through the Underground were for me. And y’know, I’ve been thinking a lot about what that could possibly mean.” Mocking them, he tilted his head in the same way they did to mirror them. “We’re both murderers. We were both once above consequences. But for some reason, you keep trying to remind me of that small part of me that actually cares. Why is that?” He didn’t wait for an answer, leaning back and giggling. “Is trying to find good in me your way of getting your own sins off your back? It’ll never woooork!”

“Stop.” A command issued. Asriel’s body locked up. The veil lowered over the Angel’s face. A cloak covered their body while one arm reared backwards. Unable to move, Asriel could only watch as a hand lashed out from under the cloak, striking him across the face. His body toppled backwards, crashing into the glass of the prophecy and sending a crack straight through it. 

Wild eyes stared up at the Angel, but Asriel couldn’t move to do anything about it. The Angel didn’t know if he found amusement in this or not, because they took his ability to smile.

By the collar of his robes, the Angel lifted him back up. “Do you think that being redeemed actually matters?” They hissed through the veil, “I wanted to be seen as more than you calling me a threat. I wanted to be seen as a friend. But you clearly have no idea where my story ends.”

Banishment was no longer their final fate. They had created a cage of their own design. Even still, the blue glass shined brightly behind Asriel. It wasn’t about them. 

Their claws punctured holes through his robes. Their eyes burned under the veil. “I care about all of those fragile lives, because I love them. I do not need anything else. I do not require redemption. I do not require a life. All I need is for them to see the sun again.”

For a split-second, the Angel thought they saw fear in his eyes. They thought they saw any emotion beyond that plastered grin that he always tried to hide behind. 

Fighting him here was pointless. No matter how the fabric seemed to feel in the palm of their hand… no matter how much they wanted to hurt him… it didn’t matter. He wasn’t ever going to understand them, no matter how hard they tried.

The Angel’s grip on his robes loosened. Their hold over his will receded just a bit, allowing him to catch himself before he hit the ground. The Angel pulled their cloak over their hands, tempted to send him back home now. They didn’t know why they kept him here. They didn’t know why they bothered. No part of his statement was correct. They didn’t need redemption. They’d been given far more forgiveness than they deserved already from the people they cared about most.

That forgiveness didn’t change anything, no matter how much they held it close.

They could call it the same feeling that Asriel had: curiosity. Some part of them wondered why he kept coming back. He could be looking for an escape. He could be trying to find any entertainment while the Angel kept him trapped. But, when they forced him to speak, he had a reason for coming here other than his own amusement.

He didn’t deserve anything from them.

“Go back home, Asriel.” The Angel twisted their hand, sending roots sprawling through his body again.

The Dark Fountain bent to their will once more.

The Angel had one idea that they could test, but they didn’t want any other Darkner finding the results of this little experiment. Besides, they didn’t exactly have a base of operations in the Dark World itself, so this would… probably be useful. It would just take time, which upset Suzy quite a bit. At the very least, she was having fun watching the Scribbls beat each other up. That makeshift arena really had become a little popular.

Oh well. Maybe she’d see this from afar.

The Angel needed to make a larger structure. Every time they tried to think of something unique, they only remembered one place in the Dark World where they really felt at home. They could attempt to recreate the castle if they really wanted to. It probably wouldn’t be as good as Ralsei’s, but they did like to think of it as the second home that he always described.

Except… when the Angel stared back at the small town they made, they stayed their hand. All of these Darkners came from a world where Asriel subjugated and tormented them. Castle Town’s castle was… for lack of a better word… a bit excessive if the Angel made it for themself. It had their iconography. It had outer walls that were usually always open… but enough to make it seem like a siege was something the Angel would worry about. They didn’t want to bring up bad memories to all of the Darkners far away.

The Angel recalled houses that used to be empty in Castle Town before it changed. They were small things, but the Angel could perhaps expand them in concept quite a bit. They were also quite abstract in shape, leaving very little room for the error to worry about missing details.

Besides, the house wasn’t what they were trying to make.

Near the Dark Fountain, a small, but not too small home was created. The Angel tried to think of rooms, but similarly to Suzy’s abode, they didn’t quite have the details right. When the house with a wavy roof took shape, and when the Angel stepped through the door, they saw a large, empty space.

What they did successfully create was a window to the Dark Fountain.

The Angel shut their eyes, calling out to the fountain once more. In as perfect clarity as they could muster, they tried to remember just what kind of game they played with Kris in that backstage room. Perhaps, if they just remembered enough about it, then the technical know-how wouldn’t matter. They could create anything down here, so why couldn’t they just try?

When their eyes snapped open, they began to guide the darkness through the small house they made. A screen materialized within the wall, the wall itself changing color to match the strange patterns that the previous game had. The Angel tried to remember as much of the limited details of the console as they could, placing it in front of the large screen. They didn’t know how to capture the game itself. They didn’t think they were supposed to.

The last of the darkness in the room collected in the Angel’s hands. An old, knock off controller rested in their palms.

…It wouldn’t be this simple, would it?

The Angel marched up to the console, plugging in their controller. However, when they knelt down to turn the thing on… they realized that it had no power button.

In fact, when they lifted up the console themself, they realized that it had very little weight to it at all. The shell was present. The screen was technically present. When they felt its surface with their hands, it felt like a screen.

But they didn’t have nearly enough technical know-how to put any of that to work.

Even if they did, that meant that they couldn’t just summon a connection through hopes and dreams. Whatever they did to transfer between two worlds had to work. It had to be functional. Whatever the mantle game did could not just be cheated.

The Angel had to wait for their friends to figure it out on their end, for the man to have a revelation, or for some new route to present itself.

Time crawled onward.

The Angel dreamed differently this time.

On the top of a large castle, they sat next to one of the many fountains that sprawled over the land. Roaring winds ruffled their fur every which way while the currents changed at a whim. The Angel looked over the horizon to see all of the Dark Worlds that the Roaring brought into existence once more. The ocean separating them destroyed all semblance of silence. No matter how much the Angel tried to turn the sound of water into white noise, the waves persisted.

The Roaring terrified them. It was easy to say that all they had to do was seal every fountain, kill every Titan, and stop the Knight… but when they regarded the true distance of it all…

This was only their memory of how the Roaring was when the Angel left. Did bridges get destroyed? Some had to at this point with how many Titans wandered around. The Angel would have to make sure everyone else in the party stayed alive while controlling their own vessel. Last time they were here, they couldn’t even properly initiate a fight.

The Angel shut their eyes, taking a deep breath when they felt a familiar tug. When they opened them, Asriel sat on the spire atop Castle Town’s castle with them. When their breath completed, they did it with a sigh, “Took you long enough.”

Asriel got one look at the Roaring before he pinned himself further back against the spire. Whatever he was going to say got interrupted by the distant sound of a Titan walking. “What is this? Where did you bring me?”

“The Roaring. The culmination of the prophecy. What comes before the end.” Somehow, the Angel found it shocking that the Roaring wasn’t the scariest tragedy to happen in the prophecy’s text. “It is what you almost caused by creating too many fountains.”

In the distance, a Titan walked across the horizon. Asriel tracked it, and for once, his face never curved into a grin. But, he didn’t exactly get it either. “This just looks like a larger version of the place I made! Those things can’t be that tough.”

“Were you scared when you had your power to save taken away?”

“What?” Asriel snapped back, furrowing his brow. “What does that have to do with any of this?”

Fine. The hard way. “Answer the question.”

Asriel huffed, but the command forced him to properly answer, “Obviously. You seemed pretty panicky yourself when you talked about… these… things…” He smacked his lips, clearly getting it now. “I see.”

Finally, something they could see eye-to-eye on, and it was the consequences of losing unfathomable power. “When I get back to this world, I’m going to lose it again. I’ll likely only have one chance… to save everyone… to end this… to divert the prophecy…” Why were they even telling him this? Did they hope he would learn something? He never did.

Asriel’s claws tapped rhythmically against his arm. His gaze stayed transfixed on the Titan far away. “So, you think you actually can break that thing? Seems like someone’s a bit crazy.” Bitterness flooded his voice in torrents. “Heck, I basically ruined our prophecy, and then it still did its thing! Funny how that worked out! I got my sibling killed for nothing, since the prophecy happened anyway!”

That… made something in the Angel’s soul grow a little bit heavier. They crossed their own arms as they left the cloak. “Even though everything has gone so badly, the prophecy is still happening. Everything that has happened still technically fits, and I hate it.” Ultimately, the Roaring going poorly still was by design. All of the pain and strife brought to both worlds still allowed this stupid thing to continue. “The prophecy was vague enough to give a lot of room to go off the path, but I think that made it harder to break. Everything it says… will happen. When one of those requirements is that your friends have to die for a better outcome, it makes it hard to think anything will go right.”

“Is that why you’re planning on dying?” Asriel shook his head. The bitterness ran deeper. “Gotta try to do something so drastic that it won’t know what to do? Trust me, buddy, it’ll just reanimate you as a flower to try for round two.”

“No, that’s not why I’m giving up my soul, and… I thought you said it was the one thing you did right. Breaking the barrier… that is.” The Angel pointedly left out Chara’s name. He wasn’t riled up. They didn’t want to get him riled up. He was… talking. Of his own volition, Asriel was talking.

Asriel groaned, slapping a hand over his face, “Oh, yeah, sure, I achieved Chara’s dream post-mortem! How swell! Except now, I get to figure out that they’ve been here the whole time. They haven’t talked to me! They didn’t even talk to me before you showed up, so I know it’s not about the fact that I beat you to death a few times! Guess that leaves the part where they’re probably a little sore about me getting them killed! Letting them die for a plan that didn’t even need to happen! Good job, Asriel! Really nailed that one!”

The winds kept howling. It ruffled through the Angel’s cloak, hitting both of their furs as it swept by.

Quietly, the Angel asked, “The… past version of you didn’t regret anything. Do you still believe that?”

Asriel’s claws sank into his crossed arms. He looked away from the Angel, sneering, “That stupid kid couldn’t see past the emotions of every other monster flooding his system. Every other monster was so happy about the barrier breaking, so ready for the future…” A few seconds of silence passed. The waves grew louder. “Answer me first. Do you think you’re gonna be able to break whatever yours is?”

The Angel feared whatever would happen if they failed. They would not know how to exist if they failed to prevent the prophecy from occurring. They had to break it. They had to. Yet, that wasn’t what Asriel was asking. He was asking if they thought they could. They had to believe that it could change, right?

All they had to do… was want it enough to force it to change. “I do.” Susie and Ralsei’s hopes couldn’t be for nothing. Kris’ trust in them couldn’t be for nothing. It was just… “I just don’t know if I’m strong enough.”

Asriel glanced at the Angel out of the corner of his eye, mumbling, “If it didn’t need to happen, then of course I regret it.”

The two stood on top of the Castle, watching the Roaring continue on. Soon, the Angel would need to go again, but they preferred not ending this meeting by having to force him away. 

Still, Asriel couldn’t help himself and broke the quiet moment. “Also, why are you partially red now? Don’t think I didn’t see that.”

“I was tired of the comparisons.” The Angel shrugged, but their tail did thrash under their cloak.

Asriel clicked his tongue before lazing back against the castle spire. His hands went to the back of his head. “Well it sucks. Great job playing dress-up with my corpse and somehow making it worse.”

The Angel rolled their eyes. “That’s rich coming from the God of Hyperdeath.” A hand came out of their cloak to point at the tuft of hair on top of his head. “You didn’t even lose your boyband haircut.”

“Oh, so now you banter.” Asriel rolled his eyes back at them. “Finally think you have the upper hand, and you’re breaking your own rules?”

They supposed that they were. One genuine conversation didn’t change anything. It didn’t stop what he had permanently caused to this world. However, it was a start. “Try having an actual conversation again, and maybe I’ll think about it.”

A jolt burst through the Angel’s soul when they heard something. The dream dissolved, Asriel going with it.

A thunderous knock sounded at the door of the inn while the Angel woke up. Immediately, their fur stood on end, because Suzy never knocked.

Someone was here.

Only one place that Sans may have frequented had falling snow, and Papyrus would not be so foolish as to ignore the obvious clue! Papyrus was thankful that his search led him to Snowdin. After all, he had done countless patrols within the Underground! He knew the fastest routes through the outskirts of Snowdin like the back of his hand! Puzzle calibrations did not allow for slacking! 

Of course, Papyrus would not have to recalibrate his puzzles nearly as often if they weren’t triggered by a monster challenging themself, but Papyrus would never dissuade critical problem solving! 

Snowdin was the obvious first place to start! While Papyrus had his reservations about the idea of the Angel being so close to civilization, he had to do his due diligence and check. After all, civilization wasn’t exactly in the mountain anymore! These were all abandoned buildings, which meant that any of them could be inhabited!

Papyrus checked the eastern side of town. The shed near the empty lot hadn’t so much as been touched, a thick layer of snow covering the door. He did notice a curious amount of markings in the snow where his house used to be, but Papyrus was unsure of what it could be. He didn’t see any immediately visible footprints, but it was snowing!

The house closer to the river remained empty. Papyrus knocked for good measure, and he could enter when he twisted the doorknob, but nothing was inside. Grillby’s was just as abandoned as Papyrus remembered it, a good amount of its furniture (and the dastardly jukebox) being relocated to the surface. Another house came and went with no evidence of anyone inside, and Papyrus was beginning to think that he would have to go into Snowdin’s outskirts after all!

Papyrus quietly entered the inn, not seeing a need to knock since it was a public business! However, as he stepped inside, he immediately stopped in his tracks. The floor here… had something that he immediately noticed as a detail he should pay close attention to!

Someone hadn’t cleaned up their fur on the floor! Even worse: Mud! Dirt! Snow! All tracked into this humble establishment. How impolite!

…Wait a minute…

Papyrus promptly exited the inn, shutting the door behind him. This was it! He had no doubt that he’d found precisely what he was looking for. This was another win for the Ambassador of Human and Monsterkind! However, he needed TACT! He needed to not startle the Angel in their own abode! There was no telling if they would be receptive to his company or not, but he needed to extend an olive branch!

However, an olive branch had to look like an olive branch for it to be taken in the first place!

Papyrus cleared his non-existent throat, spinning back towards the door of the inn. He had to be polite! Considerate! While this used to be a business, it was now someone else’s home! Papyrus lifted a hand to the door, knocking loud enough so that anyone inside would be able to hear him. “Hello?!?! It is I! The Great Papyrus!”

There was a window on the door, so he could see if anyone was coming! Still, he took a step back just to give a little bit of space! Ideally, the Angel would be able to see him to make sure that all was well!

No response came.

Papyrus allowed for a minute to pass before he attempted again. After all, who would want to reveal themself without knowing what was precisely going on??? “I know that you wish to be alone! I did attempt my very hardest to make sure that no one disturbed you down here, and that shall continue today! I do not plan to interrogate you on anything that might have happened! I simply want to check in!”

No movement came from inside. Even as Papyrus craned his head to try to catch sight of the stairs, he couldn’t quite catch anything.

“No one else is with me, and no one knows where you are!” Perhaps… that was incorrect. Sans might. Sans definitely did. “I am just… curious as to how you have been faring! Everyone is!”

The silence continued to answer. How frustrating…

“Can we perhaps talk?!” Perhaps, Papyrus just needed a bit more honesty! His last attempt at making sure that they were fine did not go so swimmingly! They didn’t become friends with Miss Toriel like he hoped! So, perhaps he needed to share a bit more of what was on his mind. “There is… quite a bit I do not understand! I do not wish to talk to you about Asriel, but… if you would not mind, I had questions about where you came from!” Again, no one responded, but he continued to elaborate regardless, “Sans has been quite vague with me, and should you be willing, I would like to talk to you about it!”

Papyrus began to pace through the snow. Perhaps, they were simply out right now? That would be a realistic explanation! It was just… that would be what the Angel would want him to think! He could wait for a while! He did not need to rush this!

Papyrus called out once more, “I will be waiting outside until you are ready! And! Should you wish for me to leave! I will do so if you merely tell me to!” He wouldn’t have another indicator! However, he would make good on his promise! If the Angel did not want him to stay, then he would leave posthaste! It would only indicate that they weren’t yet ready.

Minutes began to go on. Papyrus sat in front of the inn with his hands on his knees. The snow continued to fall while he started tapping a little beat on his knees. It was just like Undyne! Oh, how feelings of nostalgia always hit him at times like this! Papyrus would wait as long as he needed. There was enough time in the world for the pursuit of friendship!

An hour went by when Papyrus began to suspect that the Angel might not be around. However, he couldn’t help but stay in place. If they came back, then they would likely spot him and make a decision then and there! Regardless, Papyrus was needed here, and he did not give up!

The door slowly creaked open.

Papyrus’ head shot up when he glanced at the door to the inn. It stood ajar. When he looked a bit closer, he saw a silhouette moving upstairs through the dark.

Was… that their way of giving an invitation? Papyrus certainly did not feel welcome, but he had to meet the Angel on their own terms! With a pep in his step, he walked inside the inn. “I am very sorry for dropping in so unannounced! I had an idea that you would come to us if you needed anything, but-”

The Angel didn’t answer. Footsteps echoed from upstairs before another door creaked open.

Well, he could join them! Papyrus walked up the stairs quickly, and when he rounded the corner to go down the hallway…

Black smoke sifted through a crack in one of the doors.

Papyrus went motionless. For a few, long seconds, he thought of the darkness outside his window. He thought of the grass disappearing. He… recognized this.

Motivation surged through his metaphorical veins! Papyrus marched towards the door that had been left ajar. This must have been what everyone else described as a Dark World! No wonder the Angel took so long to come out to visit him! Perhaps, they were dealing with whatever this was!

Papyrus summoned his courage, flinging the door open. He couldn’t see anything in the room, but he could only assume that he was meant to enter. Didn’t everyone say that these were… larger on the inside? He certainly couldn’t see the walls.

Slowly, he stepped inside. The floor gave out from under him immediately, and as he fell, his grasp on the doorknob forced it shut.

Papyrus began to fall.

Brilliant sparkles formed around his body while familiarity struck him. He knew this! He knew something similar to this! He didn’t recall the sparkles, but the darkness and falling reminded him of those flickering memories rattling around in his skull.

Papyrus hit the ground, and realized that the sparkles had changed his body entirely!

Hm, the entirely black armor covering his bones didn’t look quite right! Away it goes! Papyrus spun in a circle rapidly, shaking up the darkness a bit and turning it into something far more stylish! He chose to fight with finesse! Style! Flair! His red cape billowed out over his back, growing far longer to encompass his arm so that he could fight with flourish! A rapier made of bones to disarm any foes flashed to life in his hand! A loose hanging white shirt joined red pants and a belt, Papyrus becoming the stunning image of finesse!

Now that was more like it! His boots remained. He could not deny that his red boots simply were too nice to pass up!

Now then… what was he…

When Papyrus took a glance around, he saw a red-cloaked figure watching him! He couldn’t quite see their face, but he could see their wings far more visibly now! They always liked to stay so hidden in the light!

The cloaked figure turned and began to walk to a large geyser over the land. Dutifully, Papyrus followed. “Once again! I am entirely sorry that I had to drop in so unannounced! You see, there was growing concern about your wellbeing, so I decided that the best course of action would be for me to check in!”

The Angel did not respond. They continued walking with their crook in hand all the way to a quaint house in the middle of nowhere. These were definitely a lot of layers to go through just to reach them, but Papyrus was not nervous! They were not planning to hurt him in any conceivable way.

When they finally entered the house, Papyrus did not see much living space. A cloth covered a large object on one side of the room, and other than a table with two chairs in the middle of the house, there wasn’t quite much.

The Angel did not sit down. They did not gesture for him to sit down. Instead, as soon as they got near the table, they placed their hands on its surface and waited… facing away from him. Both of their wings twitched.

Well! It was now or never! “Thank you for letting me in! Er… again, if there are things you are not comfortable talking about, I completely understand! We can start with easy things! You seem to be doing well for yourself down here, but have you been all right?”

The Angel stayed quiet. A light on the back of their head spun.

Hm! Well, they did not have to open up immediately! Still, Papyrus would certainly benefit from a little bit more… communication. “I have come to realize a few things!” Papyrus began, finding a new angle of attack, “There is a lot of confusion, hurt, and most certainly… a lack of being able to listen! I do not intend to simply ramble at you! If you would give me the chance, I would like to listen to what you have to say! I only wish to offer aid in these trying times!”

“You wanted to know where I came from,” the Angel mumbled, their head just slightly turning around to look at him, “Why? Did Sans put you up to this?”

“Sans?! No no no!” Papyrus waved his hands back and forth while shaking his head. “Sans has in fact not told me anything about you! He tries to act like he does not know you, which is most certainly and definitely a lie! The thing is… I am almost certain that I remember… something. It’s… difficult to explain.”

The Angel’s wings started to lower. The light behind their head dimmed just a bit. Finally, they pushed away from the table, walking to one of the chairs properly while gesturing to the other. 

Oh! What an interesting change of heart! Cheerily, Papyrus marched over to the chair offered and sat down on the opposite side of the table from the Angel. 

“Tell me what you do remember,” the Angel asked, some personal investment coming from their own end. “I’ll try to fill in the blanks for you.”

Wowie! Someone providing tangible and actual answers? The Angel typically did not lie, so Papyrus felt quite confident about this conversation! Perhaps, they had a motive of their own to request such a thing, but he could deduce that later! This was progress! “Well! Truthfully, it is quite vague. I tried to explain it to Sans… but I recall green grass from my window! Which, if you have been to my house, and we… er… are aware of your little status with Frisk… you would know that it used to reside entirely in snow!”

The Angel’s head lowered at the mention of Frisk. “What do you know about Frisk and I?”

“Only that you guided them through the Underground! They gave a quite glowing review of your guidance! Not to worry!” Papyrus watched the way they began to relax, and beamed at the fact that they did not go into a spiral over that. Progress!!! “Regardless, I recall the green grass vanishing one day. It… got very dark. I remember falling… and then… I was here! Or… I suppose it felt like the house itself fell???”

It truly wasn’t much. He didn’t quite remember all the little details of the in-between. However, Papyrus didn’t exactly have much!

The Angel paused for a bit, no doubt processing the troubling information that he had just given them. Their hand tapped on the table nervously for a bit before they finally found the words. “Do you know anything about where you were before you came to Snowdin?”

“Only the green grass! Er… and I suppose that I was nervous to meet new people! It was a bit of a slump, I will admit!” Papyrus had grown oh so much since then, but he did not miss the way that the Angel’s wings rose a bit at his statement. “I know little else! My hobbies remain intact! Key memories are still there! It’s just… fuzzy.”

Sighing loudly enough for their veil to move, the Angel gave him an out. “I think Sans is keeping this from you… because he thinks he’s protecting you. It’s your choice, and I can try to fill in the gaps if you want, but this might sound strange.”

Papyrus was used to that! He threw his red cape over his shoulder more firmly, and a conveniently timed wind ruffled through the house to allow it to billow. “I am ready for the raw and earnest story! There need not be any tricks with me! I am able to take whatever you can throw at me!”

Slowly, the Angel nodded. The nodding got a little faster, like they were talking themself into saying what happened. Papyrus began to lean forward, waiting for whatever it was they had to say! “Papyrus, what you saw was the Roaring… the apocalypse that I came from.” They tried to recount what that meant. “It’s when too many Dark Fountains like this one open up. Titans walk the land. The dark grows too thick. There… was an ocean when it truly started.”

Ah! That, Papyrus remembered! “I do recall the sound of water!” It was a piece that never quite fit! How interesting! “Perhaps that is why I have a fuzzy feeling of remembering you! Maybe we did meet in the other world! How exciting!”

The Angel tilted their head. “You… are taking that far better than I expected you to.”

“I told you that I could!” Besides, what truly was the revelation? There was much lost, yes, but so much was gained! “I would obviously love to hear more about where I came from, but I do not find it that troubling that I came here. I have met many friends who I would not have otherwise met if I stayed in the other… er… world! I would not have met Frisk! I would not have seen the barrier shatter!”

Except, the Angel had a question that dampened his spirits. “But… you don’t remember anything that happened before. You lost something.”

Well… yes… he certainly did lose something. “Perhaps I have forgotten about joys I might have experienced in the other world…” He would never know what he truly lost, but on the flipside… “I am quite happy with the life I have chosen to live here though!!! It is quite amazing!”

The Angel did not quite share his enthusiasm. They wracked their brain for something that Papyrus wished he could properly see. However, they eventually settled on establishing what this meant much much more. “The world you came from… that we came from… is also still in the Roaring. That hasn’t stopped. It’s difficult to explain. I guided Frisk through the Underground, then went to the other world, the Roaring started, and now I’m back here…” The Angel pinched the bridge of their snout through their veil. “Regardless, it had to have happened during the Roaring. That’s the only way the timeline adds up. I saw your house while telling everyone to stay inside before the Roaring, and now none of my friends can see it. At some point during the Roaring…” They trailed off. “Your house…”

“My house!” Papyrus was not quite following. “What about it?”

The Angel failed to snap their fingers, but still attempted the action regardless. “You said your house fell. You said you heard water. Did you ever get pulled into a Dark World?”

“I’m… not sure???” Truthfully, he didn’t quite know!

“You have magic.” The Angel stood up from their chair with their hands on the table. “You have magic, and you came from a world without magic by default. How is that?”

“I thought I always had magic???” Papyrus couldn’t quite remember the time before. It seemed so ingrained in him now that he couldn’t quite imagine a world without it. Still, he didn’t have a reason to distrust the Angel on that matter.

The Angel began to pace back and forth in the room, now within a realm of their own while they thought out loud. “You have magic. Your house likely fell into the water. But… it wouldn’t look like your house… it would only be the Grand Doors and the vague location of your house.” They spun and looked at Papyrus. “Do you know how you even appeared in Snowdin?”

Papyrus smiled widely. “Nope! Not in the slightest! We simply just were there one day, and I knew I had to make a good first impression!” It was a new town! A new life! A new chance! Papyrus completely blew the last one, so he had to try harder! He had to try again!

“The Roaring wasn’t happening here when you got here though!” The Angel exclaimed, and they were right! Papyrus certainly didn’t see any fountains in the Underground. “How does that work without a gate open on the other side? The man and I thought…” They shook their head, finally beginning to settle down. Slowly, they lowered themself back into their chair. “Sorry. I got ahead of myself.”

When Papyrus came in here, he expected a very different conversation! This was far better! “Not to worry! I am happy to see you this enthused about something!” See? All that was required was a bit of listening! “Still… I don’t understand why Sans felt the need to lie to me about something so simple! I have technically known you the whole time, and I don’t exactly feel… like I’ve lost all that much???”

The Angel’s wings slowly turned downward. Their hands clasped, being set upon the table. “It’s because we have, and he doesn’t want to admit that.” Something far more angry entered their voice. “He remembers everything, Papyrus. And, do you remember what he has done every single time I’ve reached out to him? He ignores me, shrugs me off, acts like he doesn’t know me… and tries to convince me to leave the world to die.”

…What???

Now, the Angel wasn’t a liar, but… “Sans… would not say such a thing! Yes, he can be a bit avoidant, and he likes dodging his problems, but he has never been one to try to talk someone else down from solving problems! It means that he can continue being lazy!” Surely, the Angel couldn’t be telling the truth, right?

“I guided Frisk. Do you want to know what he kept trying to convince us of when we were on our way to Asgore?” The Angel leaned forward. “To take what we’ve been given. To give up. He said he was rooting for us, but I don’t know how true that was. After all, now that I asked for his help again, he’s telling me the same thing.” Their hand grasped their other one tight enough for Papyrus to be worried about them hurting themself. “Give up. Let them go. Make new friends… and leave the old ones behind.”

Papyrus put a hand over his mouth, trying to ruminate before he said anything brash. Sans had been unnaturally avoidant of this one issue. He’d been dodging everyone… even Papyrus. Sans was lazy, but to tell someone to just leave their friends in the dark… “Why… would he feel so strongly about such a thing?!” There had to be a reason! Something that painted a clearer picture.

The Angel drew back, leaning against the chair again instead of the table. “He left someone too. Her name was Toriel.”

“...But we have Toriel here??? He is very much close with her???” Papyrus did not think that he was following.

“The other world. There were similarities,” the Angel tried to explain, holding up two fingers. “There’s a Toriel in both worlds. There’s an Undyne in both worlds. Alphys. Asgore. Mettaton. For a while, I wondered if there were just two versions of you and two Sanses… but… there wasn’t. It was just you two.” How strange, that there was so much closeness. Perhaps that’s why Papyrus and the Angel integrated so smoothly though! They were just so similar to one another! “Sans met the Toriel of the other world… and he lost her.”

But… but that did not make any sense! “Sans may act like he does not care, but I am certain that if someone were in danger, he would step in to help!!!”

“Even if that were true…” The Angel didn’t believe that. Why didn’t the Angel believe that? “...I think he did try to get back, and he realized that the risk wasn’t worth it to him. He gave up.” 

And Sans… did typically give up. He seemed so… downtrodden all the time in the Underground. Everything became a bit taxing for him. He gave up on the smallest things so soon… and there was that brief period where Sans went to that lab over and over again…

Oh…

“I won’t give up. I won’t ever give up.” Something red blazed under the Angel’s veil while they spoke the words into existence. “No matter how much he tries to convince me, I won’t do it.”

No wonder the Angel had grown so hostile to outside advice. Papyrus’ own brother had been trying to convince them to give up. It… only made sense that Papyrus’ little day out might have contributed to that feeling in some way! It was a break from a task that they cared deeply about, and they didn’t need a break! They needed help!

So, starting now, Papyrus would change that. “What can I do to help?!”

The Angel choked for a second, both of their wings ruffling as if they did not expect the question. “What?”

“What can I do to help?!!” Papyrus emphasized once more. “Clearly, your return matters to you! It matters to those closest to your heart! With all of the obstacles you have faced, I only wish to know now how to help! Of course, you can reject it if you do not want it, but I did not come down here just to get my own personal answers!” The olive branch was not for Papyrus’ benefit! It was for theirs! It was always meant to be for them! “I believe that you are honest, and… while things have certainly gotten rocky… I would be more than happy to provide anything I can!!!”

Taken aback, the Angel remained silent for a moment. No doubt, they were weighing their options. Papyrus couldn’t see their expressions, but if that provided them a little more comfort in this situation, then so be it! He thought that their cloak looked quite nice! 

“No tricks?” The Angel asked quietly.

“No japes!” Another conveniently timed gust of wind ruffled Papyrus’ gape. “I will not alert others to where you are, and we will approach anything at your pace!”

The Angel’s head lowered. All of that built up defensiveness started to break down, and they looked quite a bit smaller when Papyrus got a good look at them. The cloak made them far more menacing when they were properly trying to use its presence. “I… am working on a way home,” the Angel admitted, standing up and walking to the covered object. With a tug, they revealed a large screen and a console on the floor. “It’s complicated, but I need a game console… and a way to transfer my soul through it. It’s… yeah.”

Well, Papyrus certainly did not have the expertise for anything like that! No no! “I might be a teensy bit… unequipped for that one. But! Should you wish, I am sure that Doctor Alphys would be quite happy to help out!”

The Angel bristled, wing feathers going into disarray.

“Undyne and Alphys were quite adamant in defending you after I raised my points! Of course, you do not have to reach out to them if you do not want to, but Alphys could certainly help here!” It could also be a good way to ease the Angel back into dealing with some of the more… uncomfortable subjects of their stay down here. Yes, freeing Asriel was certainly something that needed to be done. Bonds needed to be mended! But… first steps needed to come… well… first!

“Don’t tell them. Not yet. I can’t.” The Angel breathed out sharply.

Well! That was their choice, obviously! “My metaphorical lips are sealed!”

“I do need…” The Angel worked up the courage once more, but Papyrus was certain that they could do it. “When I get back to the Roaring, I need to know how to fight. I… know how to summon weapons. I can do some odd things, but I don’t know how to actually fight.”

They… wanted a tutor???

Papyrus put his hands on his face, eye-sockets beginning to sparkle while he gasped, “You require someone to be your friend, guide, and tutor???” He beamed. He wished to jump for joy! “THAT I can certainly help you with! By the time we are through, the apocalypse will not know what hit it!” 

The Angel did not share his reverie entirely. While their wings were once more relaxing, it was slow. Their head started to lower. Some of their suspicions started to creep up again. “Why… are you so eager to help me?”

What a silly question! However, it was one that they likely needed to hear the answer to! Not everyone could see the reason for kindness so clearly! “Anyone would help a friend in need, and since you befriended us in the Underground, that means that you are very much my friend!”

The Angel’s wings sagged. Their head joined them. Slowly, their hands receded back into their cloak.

Something… wasn’t quite right with that reaction! “You and Frisk did something fantastic within the Underground! Even if we did not notice the two of you together, I am certainly willing to make sure that your efforts do not go unnoticed any longer!”

“Frisk only told you the positives of the Underground, Papyrus.” The Angel forced out, turning away from him to look at the wall.

Of course, there would be ups and downs! However, Papyrus needed to remind them, “You broke the barrier! There is nothing to be ashamed of about that!”

The Angel receded into themself further. Their wings went lower than Papyrus had ever seen them before.

They did not talk about whatever was on their mind. However, no matter how much they masked their face with that veil, and no matter how much Papyrus couldn’t see their face, he knew guilt when he saw it.

Perhaps, there was more that he didn’t know. There was more that he had yet to discover about the Angel. He would not make the mistake of dismissing them again, the good and the bad. So, Papyrus would take it just as seriously as they treated it. “I see that whatever happened weighs you down! If I had to make a guess… the reason for you being Underground after what you did recently makes far more sense to you if it weighs this heavy!”

The Angel nodded. They still did not speak.

“However! Here is my first lesson to you!” He pointed a finger at them, earning their attention. “Being better is not simply an upward climb! There are ups and downs! Peaks and troughs! Winding roads! Sometimes, it’s not easy to stay on the right path, and you will not know if you are even on it when times get rough! The important part… is that you continue to try.”

One of the Angel’s hands left their cloak, and their head turned down to stare at it.

“Some days, you might fall down again. It may feel like you are back precisely where you started! However…” Papyrus beamed, earning the Angel’s attention from under their veil. “Over time, it will be easier to bounce back! When you learn where the proper footholds are, then the climb will become easier again! I hope that… no matter what you may have done in the past, you remember that!”

The Angel’s hand flexed, slowly lowering back into their cloak while their head fully rose to meet Papyrus’ gaze. A quiet voice escaped their veil. “It was you who told me I could do a little better when I didn’t think I could.” Their voice became a little shaky. “I still think about it a lot.”

Papyrus did not recall saying that, but it sounded like something that he would say. There was more to the Angel than what met the eye, but he was content in the fact that he reminded them of something important. “Then I hope you carry my new addendum with you as well! Now…” Papyrus picked himself up, once more letting his cape billow. “I will be back! I need to prepare a training regimen for you!”

The Angel nodded. Their hand slipped under their veil to brush at their face, but before Papyrus could go, they whispered, “Thank you.”

“Of course!” He bowed back. “Thank you for teaching me a little bit more about where I came from! I hope to hear many stories about what you know too!” It would be nice to hear about a few anecdotes that the Angel had! They always talked so fondly about their friends. However, now Papyrus could more freely ask about all of the fun hijinks they got up to! How exciting!

Remembering something, the Angel raised a hand to stop him from leaving so soon. “Do you need me to take you home? I… know a shortcut?”

Ah! What a kind offer! However… “Do not worry! As soon as I leave this place, I happen to know a better shortcut!” Papyrus’ grin grew wider while he dashed off in the direction of the beam of light that he came from. Of course he knew how to perform shortcuts!!! He just wasn’t lazy!

Papyrus leapt into the light, looking forward to a new day on the horizon.

The Angel watched Papyrus rise up out of the Dark World. Suzy would be upset that she didn’t get to meet him. Or… maybe she’d be happy? She didn’t really click with Papyrus like the Angel hoped that she would.

Still, their chest felt lighter. Some of their burden had been lifted away. Soon, they would actually get fundamentals for fighting against the Roaring. With all of the new things they’d learned from Papyrus, maybe the Angel and the man could hypothesize more ways of transferring them to the other world. After all, they still had to figure out how to physically move to the other side. Their soul was needed on the other end permanently, after all.

It was exciting. The Angel turned away from the beam, planning to go back to their house to cover the screen once more.

They took one step forward before they froze in place.

Where one skeleton had gone, another took his place. Two eye-lights watched the Angel with a signature, plastered grin sitting right under them. Sans didn’t even have the courtesy of changing much in the Dark World. All he did was turn his hoodie green. 

He didn’t have the courtesy of staying silent though, because after his eye-sockets judged them for a little too long, he started to talk, “Heya bud. Looks like you’ve been pretty busy.”

The Angel tightened their hand around their crook. It was their walking-implement, yes, but they could swing it if they needed to. The purpose of luring Papyrus into the Dark World was so that the Angel had every advantage if there was a trick of some kind. Sans was in their domain now, and they didn’t need to be scared of him. “I have. Is there a problem?”

Sans glanced off to the Dark Fountain, but kept his hands shoved in his pocket. “I dunno. For someone trying to do better though, you really do seem to be messing with a whole lot.”

Oh.

So that’s how it was.

Once more, they stood in front of a judge. He reminded them of that fact when he started to list every one of their sins. “Our flower pal still isn’t himself. Tori’s exhausted and scared. Frisk has a whole lotta questions that none of us can answer, especially after they took a knife to the chest. Now, when I think ya might’ve cooled down a bit with a friend, you made another one of these places.” His eye-lights swiveled back to them. “Heck, now Papyrus is getting sucked into something he shouldn’t be a part of.”

Any pretense had long gone. It already broke when he tried to talk to them in New Home, but Sans might as well have been bunching up the rest of it into a ball and throwing it away. He didn’t care about secrecy anymore. He knew it was over.

Now, he saw them as enough of a threat to get even slightly serious.

The Angel thought about trying to convince him that they were doing all they could with Asriel. His own situation was the only thing that they could do in that moment unless they killed him. They could talk about how Toriel and Frisk were dealing with the aftermath of Asriel’s consequences. The Angel hurt Frisk, yes. It haunted them. But, any further hesitation could’ve given Asriel an opening to summon a Titan. The Angel thought about trying to tell Sans about their method to get back, but knew that he would sabotage any effort to do so.

All of their reasoning wouldn’t matter in the face of his judgement.

So, the Angel dispelled their crook. They widened their stance, soul floating on their chest in clear view. Both of their hands left their cloak, balling up into fists. Venom dripped from their words while they muttered, “If you believe I’m as much of a threat as you say… then take action.”

He would not listen. He planned to endlessly poke and prod at them until they gave up and settled for something easy like he wanted them to.

“I dunno. Seems kinda extreme.” Sans’ expression didn’t change at all. “Me? The kinda guy to fight? What’d give you that impression?”

The Angel didn’t care anymore. They wouldn’t put anything past him at this point. For the first time in a while, they felt like they made genuine, tangible progress. Papyrus came down here and extended them far more grace than they’d felt from anyone they remembered from this world. Now, Sans was here to try to tear it all down. They wouldn’t let him. 

Taking a deep breath, they held their ground. “You told me I was the kind of person who won’t ever be happy.” Where Papyrus told them that they could be a little better, Sans gave up on them. He was always so good at giving up. “You were wrong. The people I care about make me happy. They make me want to believe in myself more… to be kinder to myself… to be the person that they think I am. If you think… that I’m going to give up on them, you’ve already lost.” They left themself wide open, continuing to leave their soul in clear view of an attack. “If you want to stop that, try me. If you’re lucky, the next time I die, you might actually doom them for good.”

“Heh…” Sans laughed, shutting his eye-sockets for just a second. “Bud, you think I’m happy about this either?”

“Of course you are,” they interrupted, their claws digging into their palms more while they fought the urge to summon their weapon again. “You only flaunt it in my face every single time we talk.”

Sans peeked out from his eye-socket just a bit, but his grin stayed. “I’m not saying it’s easy. Just trying to give you some advice, y’know? Hurting you? That’d just be kicking someone while they’re down.” He shrugged. “Why not take a load off instead? Papyrus took a shine to you. You can make good friends-”

The Dark Fountain pulsed.

The Angel slammed their hand down, the empty black floor of the Dark World beneath them flickering. Gold and orange tiles spread out around the two of them, reflecting both of them within the Dark World. “You’re an idiot if you think I believe that.” Maybe, Sans just needed a more familiar environment to act. They wanted to know how he really felt. “I know why you’re trying to stop me. You think I’m going to destroy the world. It’s not about me… or finding peace… it’s about making sure that everything doesn’t end. That’s all I am to you, isn’t it? An anomaly?”

Sans’ grin, only the tiniest bit, shrank.

“If you truly think that about me… then now’s your chance to try to stop me.” The Angel still did not draw their weapon. If he truly believed everything that he was saying, then he better attack first. The Angel wasn’t going to give him even a sliver of doubt that the decision to fight was his. “Just know that if you fight me, I plan to win.”

He could not beat them here.

Maybe, Sans knew that.

Disappointed, he looked away. Sans shook his head, not raising a finger to try to attack them. Instead, he walked around them, deciding to flee yet again. A coward. He wanted them to do the work in giving up instead of being responsible for his own choices. “There’s no way back that doesn’t hurt anyone, bud. Take it from me, I looked. I just hope ya stop before you hurt someone you really care about.”

The Angel’s wings sharpened while they turned to glare. “I’ll be sure to tell the other Toriel that when I return.”

Sans’ head dipped just a little bit, but he didn’t stay for long. For a second, the world stuttered. Just like it did during some of his worst attacks, the record scratched. For a split second, time paused.

The Angel clung to the feeling as it left a split-second later. When they regained their senses, Sans was gone.

They gained far more than they lost, and that skeleton would not stop them. Reaching out a hand to a silver light, the Angel locked time into place. And yet, as they began to try to recall that one little split-second that Sans left them in…

…they realized that he might’ve unintentionally left them a gift after all.