This chapter was quite difficult to write, for a myriad of reasons. Not only it introduces concepts that are kind of complicated and are about magic and stuff, it also intertwines very vague canon events into the story and, well, what happens to a couple characters may be kind of a risky move. Let’s do it.

Chapter Text

Asriel was a bit worried about how the rest of the day would go. The day before he had managed to keep his nervousness suppressed, but now that it was matter of three hours before his past self was sent back in time to complete the time loop. Just because he knew it had happened did it mean everything would be okay? Although he wanted to think nothing bad would happen he decided to talk with Asgore, at least to confirm there was nothing to be worried about. When the three returned to New Home Toriel asked Patta to stay in the castle instead of taking him to the inn. Asriel took the chance to go see his father.

Thankfully when Asriel entered the throne room it seemed he had caught Asgore in one of his idle moments. Either he had finished all his work already or he was tending to the plants as a way to calm himself down. That is what he usually did when he felt stressed by something, and judging by the way he looked tense and jumped in surprise when Asriel entered the room he was under a lot of pressure.

“I talked with Dr. Gaster about what will happen today” Asgore informed once Asriel and he were sitting down among the flowers “It seems he has everything under control, but there’s something I’d like to ask you: why did you go to the CORE laboratory that day? …I mean today?”

That was right, Asriel had forgotten that detail. “You said you had something to do there, and you invited me to go. I just wandered around and walked into Dr. Gaster’s laboratory” It sounded almost stupidly simple, as from Asriel’s perspective it had been something that happened just because he had been curious enough to explore around. Asgore nodded, understanding what he had to do.

“Right. Dr. Gaster has been tasked with finding a way to separate your friend’s SOUL from your SOUL, but it’s likely it’ll take some time. From tonight on you should be able to return home and continue your life with as much normality as possible. The problem would be to keep this under wraps from everyone” It was likely everyone would start wondering where the prince was, and there was no reason for the prince to appear so changed. Lots of questions would be asked and it’d be matter of time before someone theorized it was because Asriel absorbed a human SOUL. It would all be a scandal, to say the least. Asgore promised Toriel and him would think of something.

“If there is nothing else you need to tell us about the past you I think you should stay in the castle until tonight” Asgore said. That wasn’t what Asriel expected, he had thought he’d need to do something else to ensure the timeline would go like it should go. The king was very serious about keeping Asriel away.

“Dad—“

“Dr. Gaster has made his own research and he says you need to stay away from the laboratory. The risk of past you seeing you would be too big. Don’t worry, Patta will help Gaster to ensure the timeline goes without any problems”

Patta? Was it unavoidable to involve him in all this? It wasn’t that Asriel didn’t trust Patta, it was that Asriel hadn’t thought the human would have anything to do about all this. “What will he do?”

“I don’t know. Dr. Gaster was very emphatic about that. Let’s trust he knows what he’s doing. Besides he wanted to meet the human, it seems he believes that studying Patta’s SOUL will allow him to understand it better. The Barrier would be broken much quicker” Asgore didn’t really understand Gaster’s rambling, but that was the central point of it all. At least the king managed to obtain the promise that neither Patta nor his SOUL would be hurt in any way.

“…okay, Dad” Asriel really would have preferred to help, but Gaster was likely to keep it all in control. Besides, the closer the moment came, the more restless Asriel felt. He felt there was something he wasn’t understanding yet, something that was important.

It felt like he had forgotten something.

-ooooo-

Toriel knew too what Gaster had said. Once Asriel was away she got ready to follow the scientist’s instructions. It pained her to have to keep certain details hidden from her son, and she knew Asgore wasn’t pleased with having to do it either, but it seemed it was necessary. Asgore had been tasked with keeping Asriel in the castle while Gaster and Patta talked, so now all she had to do is take the human to the CORE laboratory. “Patta, there is someone I’d like you to meet” she started.

It was true Asgore had mentioned the Royal Scientist had expressed interest in meeting Patta, but he had thought it had been no more than an offer, a way Asgore had to express his support for the human. Toriel was making it sound like Gaster was relying on him. Refusing wasn’t an option, was it? After Toriel was finished Patta nodded. “Sure, I’ll meet him. Is he someone I can trust?”

“Dr. Gaster has Gorey and I’s trust. I can’t say I fully understand the situation, but I do believe he knows what he is doing…and that he can’t do it without your help”

There really wasn’t another option. Hard to refuse when Toriel said it like that.

Toriel escorted Patta to the CORE laboratory, noting that it’d be unlikely anyone would see him once he was in the laboratory. However, she also recommended to take off the cloak once he was with Gaster, as it wouldn’t make sense to hide his species from the scientist and his assistants. They’d know to not tell anyone until Patta was officially introduced to everyone in the monthly address. While Patta felt a tad uncomfortable about not having the cloak, he decided to trust and hope for the best. It wasn’t long before Patta was left in front of the Royal Scientist’s office in the CORE laboratory.

Meeting W.D. Gaster was certainly a new experience. It was true Patta had noticed monsters had a huge variety of forms and different species, but he had never expected to see a skeleton. Patta stood in the entrance, staring at Gaster with flabbergasted expression. “Welcome, human! Please, don’t just stand there! Come in!” he sounded like meeting the human was the highlight of his week. Patta had barely stepped inside the office when Gaster stood up and strolled right to him, giving an energetic handshake with both hands. The feeling of cold bones gripping his hand was strangely unsettling.

“I, uh, I mean, it’s a pleasure to meet you, my name is—“

“I know your name, Patta, and believe me when I say the pleasure is all mine” Gaster’s grin somehow got bigger. It’d take a while for Patta to get used to the Royal Scientist, this first meeting was overwhelming. Gaster invited Patta to sit down to discuss the situation, pushing a bowl of monster candy towards his guest “I suppose you are aware of the situation regarding the prince?”

“Time travel? Toriel said something about that” Patta took some candy “I don’t understand any of that—“

“Then allow me to be your guide in the ethereal intricacies of the concept of time” Gaster opened a drawer of his desk and took out a large thread, extending it from edge to edge of the desk “Time could be considered a linear concept. Just because it is linear it doesn’t mean it is set in stone, the truth is that the future is mutating constantly to adjust to the present. Don’t think everyone’s fate is predestined, because that isn’t true” That was comforting. Gaster pressed the center of the thread with his finger and continued his speech:

“But for the present to exist first it needs all of this” Gaster moved his finger along the thread, all the way to the edge of the desk “Either it happens or it doesn’t! And usually that wouldn’t be a problem, but it seems that, for some reason, our beloved prince has put everything we know and love at risk”

“…are you trying to say Asriel did it on purpose or something?” Patta did understand Gaster’s timeline explanation so far, but he had a hard time believing Asriel had been willingly involved in it all.

“No, I doubt it. Asriel seems to be no more than a bystander in this mess. It doesn’t really matter; the point is that his situation is astronomically unusual. If Asriel doesn’t get thrown into the past and over the surface, the present could stop existing. It would be a disaster of immeasurable scale” Gaster lowered his voice conspirationally “My personal theory is that everything and everyone would stop existing, and since there’s one single timeline in existence, it would mean the entirety of our reality would be completely and irreversibly obliterated”

Patta said nothing at first. The way Gaster put the possible result of the past going awry had been terrifying to him. Did Asriel know about it? “…I-I see. How will you ensure that doesn’t happen?”

“Oh, my bad, did I say I would do it?” Gaster raised his hands in a mock gesture of surprise “What a misunderstanding we have here! No, buddy, I’m sorry to inform you that you are the one who will mess with the timeline. You will be the cause and solution to this conundrum. I will intervene too, assisting you on this task, but you have to understand you are the one to do everything. So let me ask you:

Are you prepared to ruin and fix the timeline at once?”

It took a while for Patta to process everything Gaster had said, and even then, the first thing he said when he opened his mouth was “Come again?” It took another patient explanation from Gaster for Patta to finally grasp what was expected of him. Feeling the weight of the unbelievable burden that had just been placed on his shoulders, Patta flopped onto his seat, staring at the ceiling. “…you have to be kidding. What question is that?”

“What do you mean?”

“If I say no, then I’m condemning reality to disappear. Why do you even ask if I’m going to do it no matter what?” After all it was undeniable Asriel had gone back in time. Refusing was literally not an option. Gaster nodded, standing up.

“I have to apologize for my theatrics. I suppose I got a tad too giddy about all this”

“…don’t say sorry, it is fine” It had been overwhelming, but strangely appropriate. In a way it helped Patta to get a bit more comfortable around Gaster “I don’t understand how I’ll be able to do it”

“It is nothing complicated” Gaster led Patta out of the office. While there were a couple hours left before Asriel arrived it was a good idea to get going already “My investigation showed it is possible to open a portal into the timeline thread to get to a different point in the past. I don’t need to clarify it is extremely dangerous, and no one in their right mind would do it. However, this is a special case. All you have to do is open a breach in the thread right at the moment Asriel appeared in your house”

“…’nothing complicated?’

“It isn’t complicated! The catch is that only someone with a connection to the place one wants to open a breach into can do it. As you can imagine, only the present Asriel and you would be capable of doing it”

“Why isn’t Asriel doing that, then?”

Gaster paused for a moment before replying. “Last night I took the time to examine the timeline, and everything seemed to indicate the most appropriate person to do it was you. Asriel had his own problems to deal with” He still didn’t know what Asriel was going to do that involved entering the void too, but saw no problem on letting it happen. Patta didn’t ask how Gaster had determined that, but now he was starting to feel there was something going on. Slowly, his memory brought back the strange tale Asriel had told him when Patta met him.

After some time, they arrived to the entrance of the laboratory where Gaster’s invention was located at. They didn’t enter, instead stopping to a side. “Patta, are you informed about the qualities of the Barrier?”

“I know you’d need many human SOULs to break it”

“Good! I have an offer for you: allow me to study your SOUL. The results could allow me to understand and harness the energy of SOULs. The Barrier could be broken much sooner than we expect! Besides you’d earn the gratitude of monsterkind, you’ll be accepted in our community much quicker” Gaster shrugged “As you can suppose this won’t hurt you in any way, I promise you and your SOUL will receive the utmost care during the studies. In exchange, you’ll be handsomely paid. Do you accept?”

There it was, the offer Asgore had said Gaster had in mind. Patta had expected something like that to be what Gaster wanted, but hearing it directly from him made it all more real. After asking Gaster to once again promise there would be no harm for his SOUL, Patta nodded. “…I accept”

“…that was much easier than I thought it’d be” Gaster admitted “Do you have interest in science?”

“I’m more into biology. A friend gifted me a book about monster biology, since I’m down here may as well learn about that!”

“You have chosen a complicated field of study. Due to the variety of forms monsterkind has – as well as the magic that is essential for us – it’s quite a difficult topic” Gaster grinned “I can lend you some reading material about that later. For now, let’s meet my companions in the quest of science!”

Patta was brought into the room and introduced to all of Gaster’s assistants., as well as a young monster that seemed to be there out of curiosity for science. While Patta was courteous all the time, he didn’t pay that much attention, his mind was reeling back onto Asriel’s tale. The more he thought about that, the more worried he got. Gaster presented the human as ‘our new study subject’, and led him to a side.

There was nothing else to do other than waiting.

-ooooo-

The laboratory was a large place, with many machines of indeterminate function. Blueprints and photos cover the walls, and a window showed the cobalt blue interior of the CORE. To a side there was a large portal-like contraption, so tall it reached the ceiling, it was currently turned off. It was every bit what anyone thinking of ‘high-tech laboratory’ would imagine.

There wasn’t a lot to see or do, though. There was work to do and none of it was on the human, so Gaster and his assistants all went back to their work. The young monster – seemed to be a lizard without arms - was the only one who bothered to approach Patta to make conversation, mostly to ask a lot of questions about humans and the surface. After having spent those few days with Asriel and Frisk, Patta had gained a newfound appreciation for children, and patiently answered all of her questions. “I’m Suzy” she had said, sitting nearby and swinging her legs “Isn’t this place cool?”

“It’s strange, to say the least!” Patta smiled indulgently “But I like it. You come here often to see everyone work?”

“All the time! When I don’t have schoolwork. I want to be a scientist when I grow up, the Doctor promised to show me the ropes of the job in a couple years!” Suzy’s eyes were sparkling with youthful enthusiasm “I can’t touch anything, but everyone lets me look at what they’re working with”

“Anything interesting?”

“Do you see that machine?” Suzy turned her head towards the portal-like contraption “The Doctor said it’s a portal to the…the…”the innermost workings of our reality”. What does that mean?”

“I don’t know. It must have taken a long time to build, though”

“It did! The Doctor was building it the first time I came here, a year ago. It took him months! I wish I had been here when it was activated for the first time, but the Doctor made me leave because he said it could be dangerous” Suzy pouted, but didn’t let that bother her for long “Hey, do you want to see something neat?”

“What is it?”

“Look at this” Suzy got off the chair and ran to the other side of the room, to the wall covered in photos. She gestured with her head to one of the pictures “The Doctor included me in this photo. He said this made me one of them!”

The photo showed Gaster and all his assistants, sitting around one of the tables. They seemed to be celebrating something, everyone seemed very cheerful. Suzy was in the photo; someone had even given her a labcoat. Although the labcoat trailed onto the floor she seemed ecstatic to be with them. Patta smiled at Suzy’s happiness and looked closer. There was someone he hadn’t ever seen before with the group, another skeleton. “Who is this one?”

“Him? His name is Sans” Gaster had approached “He works here too, but he has the day off today”

“He’s your family, right?”

“…it is a tad conceited of you to suppose all skeletons are related to each other” Gaster deadpanned, the human looked away, a bit embarrassed.

“O-Oh, my bad. So you’re not related…”

“I didn’t say that either” Gaster said with an impish grin.

“I’m not going to get a straight answer out of you, will I?”

“Perhaps at some point in the future you will!” Gaster gestured at the whole wall “Do you think it’s strange to have a wall filled with photos here in our laboratory?”

Patta shook his head. “Why would it be strange? It’s to commemorate moments, I guess, that doesn’t make it strange”

“It’s for more than that. Everyone here has placed photos of their family, of us, of people they like and love. This wall is a reminder of why we’re working for, we try to improve everyone’s futures. It’s amazing how much enthusiasm you have when you have a reminder like this nearby” That was pretty sweet, in Patta’s opinion. Everyone had placed a bit of their personal lives on that wall, and sometimes they all had done a contribution as a team. That wall held the reason why they were all working. It felt almost invasive to be staring at the pictures, so Patta averted his eyes just in time for Gaster to pass him a lab coat and an excessively large hood. Patta wished he could have one of those when he met Asriel, it would have hidden the monster’s face with no problems at all.

“What are these for?”

“Asriel didn’t see you at all before being sent back in time, that is what I understood, but since you and him are going to be in relative proximity it’s important you disguise yourself”

That confirmed Patta’s impressions about everything. He didn’t move for a moment, just looking at the lab coat in his hands, before speaking quietly. “Doctor…are you sure this is the only way? Is there really no…no other option?”

“There doesn’t seem to be other ways to complete the loop. You have to be there. I know you’re nervous about being near Asriel and having to hide who you are, but it’s what you need to do”

“…that wasn’t what I meant” Patta muttered and took a deep breath. As he saw it…there was only one way this was going to end, at least as far as Asriel knew. Patta understood there was no other option, but hoped his deductions were incorrect. Refusing was not an option.

Besides, hadn’t he promised himself he wouldn’t run away from anything? “I’ll do it”

“Great! The king called, he’ll arrive to the building in ten minutes and he’s bringing Asriel”

“The prince is coming?!” Suzy’s tail was practically wagging, excited about seeing Asriel. Gaster took her away, asking her not to mention anything about the human, and left Patta alone in front of the wall.

This was it. Everything these five days had led to this point. It was time to take everything he was, everything he had learned and everything he wanted and use it to steel his resolve. “…there isn’t any other option” he said before donning on the lab coat and the hood. Since Asriel hadn’t recognized him Patta supposed it was all going to be fine.

Fifteen minutes later Asriel arrived.

Asriel peeked into the room, grasping the edge of the entrance and not making a sound. None of the assistants looked towards the entrance, although judging by the way they surreptitiously glanced towards the entrance they knew Asriel was supposed to come. Gaster surely had instructed them, too. Suzy was nowhere to be seen.

Letting Asriel standing there wasn’t going to lead anywhere, so Gaster took a moment to calm down and make sure the prince wouldn’t have any reasons to believe something unusual was going on. Gaster turned his head to the entrance and waved cheerfully. “Your Highness! Nice to see you again!”

“H-Howdy…” Asriel greeted nervously, perhaps he expected Gaster to shoo him away from the laboratory? “I was just looking…”

“Come in! Do you want to see what we have been working on?”

Asriel hesitated before finally stepping in. Patta had to restrain himself from looking at Asriel, instead trying hard to focus on the nearby objects. While Asriel was given a tour around the laboratory, Patta wandered nearer the portal. On the table right next to it there was a console that seemed to make it function. Making sure not to touch anything from it, Patta read a document that had been left nearby. It was a chart, painstakingly detailed with a lot of stuff Patta didn’t understand. The first one had been annotated shortly after the portal’s completion, and the latest entry had been just a month before.

Anomalies

Original sample: one single timeline. No presences in the void.

Change. One presence. Doesn’t seem to be a monster – labelled ‘Unknown Entity’ from now on. One single timeline.

Change. Presence is gone. Original sample. Time: eleven minutes.

Change. One presence. Monster. Time: Four seconds.

It seemed most of the changes were Gaster entering the void, at least all those that mentioned one single monster presence. Gaster never spent more than ten minutes in the void, and a few notes were scribbled in strange calligraphy along the edges. “Can you read it?” one of the assistants had approached. When Patta replied he didn’t understand a single word of Gaster’s annotations the assistant chuckled “He invented the code to avoid leaks or something like that. No one outside is interested on any of this, I think he’s doing it for fun”

“He seems kind of wacky for someone who is the Royal Scientist” Patta commented, but it wasn’t like that was bad. He liked Gaster.

“He is. Let me give you the general idea” the assistant took the document, reading the annotations a couple times “Gaster theorizes the void exists in a different temporal stratus, at least compared to our reality. What our sensors and machines indicate are events that may have happened time ago, and may have lasted much less or much more than what we think. It may have been centuries before it is annotated, it could be a mere hour…all Gaster knows is that every time he enters the void there’s one single timeline and no one in there”

Patta continued reading the chart. At some point the entries turned different from the norm and stayed like that for a long time.

Change. Two monster presences. One non-monster presence. One single timeline. Seven minutes.

Change. Monster presences are gone. Non-monster presence has…mutated. Sensors indicate minor monster qualities. Renamed into ‘Anomalous Entity’. One single timeline. Three hours.

Change. Anomalous Entity still in there. New presence, primarily monster but our readings are strange. There continues to be one timeline, but seems damaged. There’s also traces of a second timeline, somehow. Seventeen minutes.

Change: Second unusual presence is gone, Anomalous Entity remains. The second timeline traces continue existing. More timelines exist now. One day.

From there on most of the lines said the same: that the number of timelines had continued increasing at an alarming pace and that the Anomalous Entity continued existing. Those were daily reports, all of them saying the same. Months later, there were two final changes.

Change: Anomalous Entity + Unknown Entity. Number of timelines too high to be registered by our sensors. Five hours.

Change: Presences are gone. Number of timelines too high to be registered by our sensors. One day.

There had been no more changes. Until the most recent annotation the results had been the same – no one in the void, too many timelines – and it was all too confusing for Patta to understand a single thing of what he was reading. Making a mental note about asking Gaster later, Patta noticed the Royal Scientist and Asriel had finally arrived near the portal.

“…machine allows us to see what is beyond our known reality. It literally allows us to stand outside our universe and observe it!” Gaster was saying proudly.

“Golly…that is amazing!” Asriel gasped, eliciting a chuckle from Gaster. It was time to go ahead and get done with it.

“Would you like to see by yourself? It’s breathtaking”

“Can I? Really?”

“Sure, why not?” Gaster jovially answered, Patta snorting in amusement. Sure, why not? Let’s push a child inside what may be a dangerous invention! If it weren’t for it being intentional Patta would have protested.

Two assistants approached the console and started activating the portal while Gaster made Asriel stay a few feet away from it. “This portal uses a lot of the energy we obtain from the CORE’s workings. That’s no surprise! After all we’re literally exiting our reality. The place we’re going into could be considered pure magic…” his explanation went into more technical terms neither Asriel nor Patta understood, although the child politely nodded every once in a while.

A spark blasted from the sides of the doorway before an iridescent membrane formed in the threshold, very similar to the Barrier that was keeping everyone sealed in the Underground. When it happened Gaster excitedly gestured at it with his hand, starting to talk a bit faster. “…by accident while we were studying the qualities of the Barrier. It could be said a similar type of Barrier keeps us all in this universe, and by learning to go through this one we could--”

“Doctor, are you sure this is safe?” Patta suddenly inquired, starting to feel apprehension. The question was actually meant something else: ‘Is this safe for me?’ Somehow exiting the known reality didn’t sound like something one should do, and the part of everything being pure concentrated magic made him even warier. He was a human; magic was an enigma for him.

“There should be no problem at all” Gaster replied but approached, whispering a real answer “My personal theory is that the physical matter humans are made off should be enough for you to withstand a 100% magical environment”

“And what if your theory is wrong?”

“…you shouldn’t be in that much danger” the scientist didn’t seem to have considered anything further than that, much to Patta’s displeasure. There wasn’t time to reconsider anything “Are you ready, Asriel? This is going to be historical!”

“Yes! Let’s do it!” Asriel was practically bouncing with excitement, not afraid at all of what could be beyond the portal. Gaster nodded at the assistants at the console and approached the portal. Slowly, he touched the surface of the gateway and let his hand cross it, it didn’t seem harder than immersing one’s hand in water. Asriel followed his example, although after a second or two the child took a deep breath to gather courage and jumped through the portal. Gaster entered too, inviting Patta to get done with this and pass through the gateway.

The human gulped and approached. “Don’t be afraid!” “It’s going to be okay” The assistants working with the console encouraged. Knowing it was now or never, Patta tried to cross the gateway, just to find it was much thicker than he expected. It felt like he was pushing through foam. Clenching his teeth, Patta pressed his hand harder until it managed to pass to the other way while Gaster watched, unsure of why Patta was having much more difficulty passing through. “It must be because of your body’s physical makeup” he theorized, grabbing the labcoat Patta was wearing and pulling from it in an attempt to help Patta cross. It took a minute or two for Patta to pass through the portal, feeling all the time like something was pressing him from all sides.

The moment he finally managed to pass through felt heavenly, although he immediately started floating, weightless. “Are you okay?” Gaster helped Patta control himself to be able to move as if there really was solid ground underneath his feet.

“I-I think I am…this is very weird…”

“Do you feel anything strange or alarming?”

Patta took a moment to consider that. “I feel…tingly. My skin is tingling” The sensation was subtle, but it was there. It felt like ants were covering every single inch of Patta’s body, Patta scratched his arm, achieving nothing.

“Must be the magic around us. It’s much more than any human would experience at any point of their lives. If it gets worse then tell me” Gaster indicated and went to get Asriel, who had already walked way, attracted by the golden thread glowing in the distance. Patta didn’t follow immediately, feeling a growing spot on his arm tingling more than others, so he rolled up enough of the lab coat sleeve to see it well.

The skin was graying. “…so that’s how it’s going to be”. Asriel’s tale didn’t show Patta was going to die, but it was certain something was going to happen to Patta, and he knew it. He just hoped that, whatever it was going to be, wouldn’t stop him from completing the timeline anomaly.

Outside, the gateway was turned off, just like it was usual when Gaster crossed the portal. One of the assistants was always keeping an eye on the console in case of sudden problems. After a year of nothing noteworthy happening during Gaster’s expeditions it was expected nothing would happen, which is why when the readings of the machine started deviating from normal the assistant called everyone else over. “Look at these!”

“This is strange. Was it calibrated correctly?”

“Of course it was! Gaster did it himself. I checked and it’s the same as always”

“Maybe we should activate the portal again”

“No”

“Keep an eye on the energy output”

“Do you think there’s a limit if people that can cross it in a certain length of time?”

“I’d say it’s more likely the human is causing some sort of effect in the portal itself”

“Yes, humans are quite different from monsters. Nobody ever considered a human would go through the portal”

“Write down the deviations in the-“

“There was a sudden power spike!” The assistant handling the console got some distance away from it when the machine shot out an electric arc, although it was soon gone. No one approached the console for a minute, until it seemed that wasn’t going to continue happening “This can’t be good”

-ooooo-

Twenty minutes remained.

“Are we all ready?” Ananas inquired, getting behind the wheel of her car. Cohen, Byssa, Celia, Graham and Ciruel were with her. It hadn’t been easy for her to take a decision, but she had decided to take a chance and go look for Patta. Until the last moment Graham tried to convince her not to do it, but she had insisted she couldn’t just leave a friend lost on that mountain.

She had gathered provisions, loaded her gun and carried a lot of extra ammunition, and everybody else had their own ways to defend themselves against anything that could be on that mountain. Celia and Cohen were the only ones to reply with energy, the others being more reluctant. “Then let’s do it!” Ananas declared, starting the car.

They’d get to Mt. Ebott in an hour.

-ooooo-

Fifteen minutes remained.

It wasn’t like the Asriel knew it, though. All he knew was that there was an impending something he needed to stop. That was why he was currently running to the inn where he had spent the night.

“What are we looking for, Azzy?” Frisk inquired. Asriel had hurriedly spouted a few disjointed sentences and gone away running. During the stay at the castle Asriel had tried his best to remember everything that had happened during his visit to the CORE laboratory and in the void, but since it had all been five days ago he didn’t remember all the details. Frisk had helped, asking questions and encouraging Asriel, but not much was achieved. There were just a few things Asriel was completely sure of:

Patta was the person he hadn’t known and he was in possible danger, the past Asriel – or present Asriel, he wasn’t sure how to call the other version of himself – was going to get attacked by something and Gaster had ran away. “He may not have run away!” Frisk had said.

“Then where was he?! Why wasn’t he helping me or Patta?!” Asriel had shot back.

“I don’t know…something happened somewhere else?”

“Somewhere else?! There was nothing else in that place!”

“Calm down, Azzy, you’re freaking out”

Asriel realized he had been grabbing his head in panic. Feeling their friend needed some time to timeout, Frisk took control of the body, making it sit down. If Frisk could have they would have grabbed Asriel in a tight hug and not let go until it was clear Asriel wasn’t going to continue freaking out, but right now all they could do is force Asriel to not to move. “You’re not thinking straight. Are you sure something is going to go wrong?”

“I’m completely sure, Frisk. I remember what happened before I was in Patta’s house. There must be something I can do about it…”

“Like what?”

“Like stop Gaster…?” The other Asriel hadn’t done a thing, nor suspected a thing. If anything happened in the void it’d be after the past Asriel got sent back in time.

“Do you really think he’s doing something bad?”

“Why else would he be gone? I…I don’t want to think he’s a bad person, but it does seem he…he…” How to say it delicately? “…like he may not have the best intentions in mind?”

“You can’t know it. You could be interpreting it wrong”

“Then what should I do?! Just sit around while som--?!” Asriel’s paw moved, covering the monster’s snout and shutting him up.

“You’re freaking out again” The hand let go of the snout. Knowing Frisk wasn’t going to let him continue fretting about what could be happening to Patta, Asriel forced himself to take a deep breath, feeling his muscles loosen.

“I don’t know what to do. I’m confused…a bit scared…and I have no idea what I should do. If I had at least an idea of what would be the best—“ as if the universe was waiting for that moment of dramatic convenience, the last memory holding together the timeline made its appearance, this time in Asriel’s mind. It was nothing amazing. All he saw in his head was himself carrying a bag…

…and then he knew what he should do. Knowing it was time to take action, Asriel took back control of his body. “Frisk, we need to return to the inn”

“We do?” Frisk was a bit concerned by Asriel’s sudden decision. Although they were a guest in Asriel’s SOUL, so to say, they didn’t have access to his memories and thoughts.

That was why Asriel was running towards the inn, as fast as he could. He knew he had no time to waste, the CORE laboratory wasn’t far away but it was going to take a few minutes to get there. The sense of urgency told him there was a time limit. As soon as Asriel got to the inn he practically flew up the stairs, bursting into the room. There, just to the side of Patta’s bed, was the knapsack and Patta’s empty suitcase. Without hesitation, Asriel opened the knapsack and poured all the content on the bed. The objects he needed were right there. Asriel took all the necessary objects and put all of those inside the suitcase, closing it and running back outside immediately, this time in direction of the CORE laboratory. “Why are you taking those things, Azzy?”

“Patta will need all this. It won’t save him…but maybe it’ll keep him from doing something he’ll regret” Asriel knew there were no hopes of arriving in time to stop Patta from being erased from the known universe – if he had interpreted those vague memories correctly - but maybe he’d arrive in time to stop Patta from doing something that wouldn’t solve anything.

-ooooo-

“It’s so…golden…” Asriel murmured, staring at the thread that was the timeline. As soon as he entered the void he had seen the golden glint in the distance, and since that was the only thing around, he had run there immediately. It was high and seemed unreachable, yet he felt compelled to go take a look inside the timeline.

“Hard to believe this is the timeline, isn’t it?” Gaster wasn’t sure what to say. Asriel was here, Patta was here…now what? How was he and Patta supposed to complete the timeline now? Should he knock out Asriel or something? Patta had mentioned Asriel had been unconscious when he had met the monster, it was obvious something should be done so Asriel wasn’t awake, but Gaster couldn’t bring himself to try anything like that. The scientist approached where Patta was examining the timeline, looking for the correct point. “How is it going?”

“I think I’m about to find it. Somehow looking for a single day among eons and eons of the timeline wasn’t a quick process, who would have guessed” Patta murmured. The tingling all over his body had intensified, and his hands and arms were completely gray by now. It felt like the desaturation had spread to the rest of his body as well, but he wasn’t worried about that. He had already accepted there was a chance the task wouldn’t go smoothly, so what mattered was to get it all done as soon as possible.

“Good. Are you feeling okay? Is the tingling gone?”

“Yes” Patta lied “Keep Asriel busy, it shouldn’t ta—here it is!” Patta had finally found the morning of the day Asriel had appeared in the house. He could see it, the space under the table was empty one second, the next Asriel was there “It’s here. Now what?”

“Now make contact with the timeline. You need to be in direct contact with it to open a rift”

That got Patta to freeze. “Make contact? Like…with my hand?”

“Does it matter? Do it” Gaster turned around to check on Asriel, who had managed to lose his concentration and was now floating, trying to get himself to not to wander away. It should be safe to do this before Asriel noticed there was something wrong “Hurry up!”

This wasn’t going to be good. Patta extended his arm, grabbing the exact point of the timeline and revealing the state of his hand. “What?” Gaster grabbed Patta’s wrist to take a better look. During the time Patta had needed to examine the timeline the affliction that affected his physical form was worsening. The surface of his hand was riddled with cracks and fissures, giving it the appearance of dry ground. The cracks and fissures also extended to the arm, it wasn’t a leap of logic to assume most of Patta’s body was riddled with the same texture. “…okay, enough of this. We’re stopping now”

“We’re not stopping anything! Tell me how to open the rift”

“We’re returning to the lab. Your physicality is breaking down!”

“But what about the timeline and—“

“Your life is at risk!”

The SOUL was the culmination of anyone’s being, it could be said the body was its way to interact with the world. Monster bodies were attuned to the SOULs to the point their bodies could be considered no more than an extension of their SOULs. Human SOULs were different on that regard, and the inherent magic present in the void rejected the physical qualities humans had. Its way to deal with it was simple:

Convert that physicality into an extension of the human SOUL, just like it was for a monster.

Sudden blasts of Patta’s being, no bigger than coins, burst from his back, tearing through the clothes and lab coat. His body wasn’t flesh and bone anymore nor he could feel pain, the magic that composed the void had finished attuning the body to the SOUL. However, the SOUL wasn’t ready yet for the task of keeping together the converted body, so it was starting to violently disintegrate away. The pieces that had burst were like static, crackling softly and shining like stars in middle of the void, all of it sharp as blades. Getting pierced by those would be quite painful, if not fatal.

Acting quick, Gaster focused on Patta’s SOUL, his priority being to help Patta keep his body together until it stabilized. The red from Patta’s SOUL turned blue, and the parts that had burst started to slowly return to the body. It wasn’t going to hold Patta together forever, but at least it should be able to help until Patta’s SOUL could keep the pieces of his body together by itself. “It is too late. If we return to the world now I’m not sure what would happen to you—“

“Then let’s think about that after we’re done with this!” Patta wasn’t sure how he was still conscious. At least he knew he wasn’t dead, despite the change he had gone through. He grasped the timeline again, opening the necessary rift. “Bring Asriel here!”

“I don’t think I can get away of you right now” Gaster’s influence on the human SOUL was the only thing keeping Patta from disintegrating. Getting too far away could mean losing his grasp on the human SOUL.

“Do something! I can’t move from here!”

“I can’t either!” Gaster was starting to feel affected by Patta’s urgent shouting. Asriel was far enough for him not to have listened a word of what Patta and Gaster had shouted between each other. The scientist tried to focus on Asriel’s SOUL to turn it blue too and bring him closer, but Asriel was way too far away “Let go of the timeline, Patta”

“Wait what?” Patta barely had time to say that when Gaster moved, pulling Patta’s SOUL along with the blue magic. The hand that had gripped the timeline broke and scattered, the sudden collapse of the hand creating much smaller bursts of static and memories all the way through Patta’s right arm. The shapes clouded around Patta and Gaster while both could only watch how the consequence of the hand’s collapse got all the way to Patta’s flawed shoulder. It all happened during a second or two, but to the both of them it seemed like an eternity.

As soon as the instability caused from the hand breaking reached the shoulder there was a sudden noise of static. Patta’s shoulder blade, arm and part of his back and torso all burst explosively, the force of the blast impacting Gaster face-on. The shards hit Gaster, the scientist barely had time to react before the pieces tore through him. “G-Gaster!” Patta screamed while Gaster struggled to stay alive. He didn’t care at all he had just lost a large part of his body, or that the shards that had composed it were hovering around them.

“…this didn’t go like I thought it would” Gaster mumbled.

“Don’t you dare to die!” This wasn’t at all what Patta had expected. Patta had come to the void fully expecting something to happen to him, but he had thought Gaster would be okay.

“…it’s too late to demand something like that. Listen, no matter what, don’t let your body finish scattering away. Once it stabilizes you should be able to reform it back, but I don’t…I don’t know if you’ll be able to return to the w…the world”

“What?!”

“Complete the timeline. That’s all you ne…ed to do” Gaster managed to say before he gave up. Just like it had been happening to Patta, Gaster’s body disintegrated into dust. The difference was that Gaster’s SOUL faded away immediately. Gaster’s remains slowly started to spread through the void. The golden thread of the timeline was the only object around, most of the dust coating it and turning Gaster into a constant presence throughout time and space. It guaranteed he wouldn’t outright stop existing in the universe, like it’d happen to Patta soon.

He may be doomed to suddenly disappear and be forgotten by the majority of people alive, but at least it would be undeniable he existed. Not that it’s much better than what happened to me.

When Gaster died the blue magic he had inflicted in Patta’s SOUL disappeared, the SOUL turning back to its normal red color, but his body didn’t continue breaking away. “Stay whole…stay whole. I have to stay whole…” Patta repeated to himself, his SOUL exuding Determination. Slowly, the shards of his body started to be attracted back towards the SOUL, passing through the cloud of Gaster’s dust. A small part of those remains coated most of the shards that passed through there, Patta realizing what had happened when the shards returned to his body.

It was as if suddenly there was a second voice in his head. Gaster’s essence, contained within the dust, came in contact with Patta’s SOUL filled with Determination. Images, people Patta didn’t know, knowledge he had never have before, it all flooded his mind, bringing some of Gaster’s consciousness into his own being. “What? What’s…this wasn’t…” Patta started to lose concentration, his body starting to fade away too. Patta’s voice started increasing in volume, distorting. “…ASRIEiL, ChaOMEve HEREto IMMstEDIATELY ay whole” Patta froze, startled. That had definitely been a second voice, mixed with his own, barely distinguishable from the faint sound of static that sounded everywhere in the void. He had barely understood what it said, but it reminded him Asriel was still around. Turning around so fast more scraps of him broke away from his body, he localized Asriel.

It was impossible the commotion of Gaster’s sudden death and Patta breaking down into pieces went unnoticed, and indeed, Asriel had heard and seen a lot of that. The prince had managed to will himself to be standing, and was now staring at Patta, with his eyes and jaw wide open. Patta wasn’t sure how much of it all had been seen – Asriel had told him back at the first day, but Patta didn’t remember very well – but there was still something to be done. Still struggling to literally hold himself together, Patta pointed at Asriel. “WDoHAT ARE YOn’tU WAbe scITING FaORred?--” his voice was unintelligible, and the way it reverberated in the void didn’t help make it sound more welcoming.

Asriel had enough of that. Snapping out of the terror he felt, he gasped and turned around, running deeper into the void. “ANsrOOOielO!!” This wasn’t good at all. Patta wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to move. He tentatively stepped forward one, two times, but the movements continued hurting his already unstable body. His legs gave off, noiselessly bursting into clouds of shards. “AHELPsr MEiel!!” The foreign voice in Patta’s voice boomed, loud and clearer than anything else it had tried to say before, and managing to sound deeply desperate. “HELP ME WHELP ME HELhP ME HELatP ME HELP ME?!”

The desperation was so clear in his voice that it got Asriel to freeze, again, conflicted. What was going on? He didn’t understand anything! But whatever that crumbling thing was – it seemed to be the person that had been with Gaster, where was the scientist?! – was asking for help. It could be a trap; it could be a way to get his attention just to attack later…but Asriel couldn’t bring himself to ignore it. Breathing fast, Asriel slowly turned around, fearing that person was going to leap forward and try to catch him. It didn’t even have a shape anymore, it resembled vapor and smoke, something crimson red shining in middle of it all. “What c-can I do?!” he shouted back, trying to suppress the fear that had rooted in him.

“Come hHELP erME AeLREADY!!”

“I-I don’t know--!” Asriel had swallowed his fear and taken a few steps to return where the unsettling presence was at, but it was too late. As if there had been a sudden gust inside the cloud, most of it was pushed away, the static background noise increasing in volume. The void was glowing. The pieces of that person were glowing like the stones found in the ceiling of some rooms in Waterfall, resembling stars. Asriel stopped moving, staring at the mass of shards. Everything was so confusing he didn’t know how to react, but it did seem like it was late for any help. The static, the distorted voice emanating from the cloud, the overwhelming darkness surrounding him, it all confused Asriel. The child could just stare.

Suddenly, the background static noise increased, and the shards that had remained surrounding the glowing red object moved. Those weren’t scattering away, instead it moved until it formed a hand. ‘What is going on?!’ Asriel wanted to exclaim, terrified, but he only whimpered. There was nowhere to run in the void.

The hand shook, as if it was trying not to break down immediately, and started approaching Asriel very slowly. It glided through the void, leaving a trail of sparkling shards behind, while Asriel fell to the floor and tried to scoot away, always looking at it. “…s-someone help!” Asriel finally managed to shout, his voice shaking from the fear.

Nobody came.

The static noise increased again, but no discernible voice sounded beyond murmurs. The hand stopped, just inches away of Asriel. The child was about to cry, looking at the hand with fear. His breathing had accelerated considerably, on the verge of hyperventilating. He couldn’t even move anymore, waiting for the strange hand to make a move. He fully expected it to move and try to strangle him, or anything as sinister as that.

When it moved, it did it with a strange gentleness. The hand opened into a palm and gently made contact with Asriel’s chest. It was no more than a brief touch, but it was enough. Asriel felt a shock coursing through his body, making him numb and lightheaded. He still didn’t understand anything of what was going on, but in a way he felt like he wanted to rest for a while, just close his eyes and forget for a moment about all the weird stuff that was happening. Asriel fell unconscious from the contact, partly because of his fear and partly because that had been the Entity’s intention.

What remained of the entity quickly dissolved the hand and moved from Asriel’s chest to his back, delicately making him lie down. Bit by bit, every shard that had strayed away approached, swirling near Asriel. It all congealed into a human shape, forming back the body it had before entering the void. It was imperfect, though. Although it did resemble Patta, the Entity’s features were blurry and blended in the surface of the skin. Besides it was all gray, formed by shards that, if one looked closely, resembled letters and images, flashing quickly.

A person is formed by their experiences and everything they are and could have been. It ended being much more literal than I thought it’d be.

“…I’Dm veON’rT WASy sorTE Try, IAsrielME… “ the Entity murmured, picking up the child. It had all mostly been like Asriel had told him, five days before, but Patta had never expected to lose his humanity and body, or for his essence to be mixed with Gaster’s consciousness, or to be doomed to be erased from the universe. At least he was, well, not back to normal, but he was going to survive, even though he couldn’t be considered neither Patta nor Gaster anymore. From that point on he was the Entity, a presence fated to not to belong to the reality anymore.

Carrying Asriel was very easy, but the Entity took his time to get near the timeline thread. This was bound to be the Entity’s last contact with their home universe, and he wished it could last as long as possible, but he wasn’t going to let his own feelings get in the way of doing what needed to be done. When the Entity got to the timeline he levitated until he could just reach and touch the golden thread, but he didn’t let Asriel go. Instead, the Entity closed his eyes and focused. Some of the strange component that formed the Entity’s body separated and formed a skeletal hand, identical to the hands Gaster used to have. That hand clung to the exact point of the timeline Asriel needed to be inserted into, opening the required portal into it. The Entity held tightly for a moment before carefully placing the child into the timeline. It worked. Five days before, Asriel appeared under a table in a house very far away from the Underground.

It was all done. The Entity was completely alone, there was nothing else to be done. He stayed in silence for a while, just sitting there and admiring the golden timeline thread, until he decided it would be a good idea to deal with the other presence in his essence.

“SSO NOO NOWW WHATWHAT??”

It was strange. When he tried to say something aloud, the part of him that was Gaster replied at the exact same time. It took him a moment to get the hang of it, but soon he was able to have a very short conversation with him. From what he could assess, Gaster was beyond any help. His SOUL was gone, all that remained of him was within the Entity’s essence. The Entity had most of Gaster’s knowledge and memories, but no complete understanding of all that, and it seemed that although he had some influence over the Entity’s feelings and thoughts, all Gaster could do was serve as a sounding board of sorts.

It was little consolation that Patta, having a SOUL, was the one with complete control over his body.

The first thing the Entity tried to do was open a gateway to attempt to enter back into the timeline, despite Gaster’s pessimist statement that it was impossible. Unfortunately, it proved to be true, it felt as if some sort of force was keeping the Entity out. A quick talk with Gaster later, it was determined it was because the Entity was too unstable to return back into the timeline, and although making his body stable enough was a possibility, it was unlikely it’d happen before the timeline was healed enough to erase all traces of Patta’s existence.

I haven’t been able to do it yet. Apparently I’m still ‘unstable’ and I have long given up on this detail. I don’t know how I’m supposed to stabilize my body!

When the conversation was over, the Entity replayed in his mind the last few lines.

“IT DIDN’T GO LIKE YOU EXPECTED, DID IT?”

“It didn’t. Can I—“

“RETURN TO THE WORLD? YOU CAN’T. WE CAN DIE WHENEVER YOU WANT, JUST LET YOUR SOUL BREAK”

“…no. There must be something else to do here, I don’t want to die yet”

“LOOK AT THE TIMELINE. AREN’T YOU CURIOUS ABOUT IT? YOU HAVE THE WHOLE TIMELINE RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU. FIND OUT WHAT WILL HAPPEN”

That was a better idea than letting himself die, and he had to admit he was curious. With some hesitation, the Entity took a look into the timeline, taking a look near the point Patta had entered the portal in the CORE laboratory. Trying to ignore the pangs of sadness he felt when he saw his former human self, the Entity continued watching. Just after he had entered the portal things had started to go wrong in the laboratory. The Entity watched it all, then focused on other people: the six people he had met during the journey with Asriel.

They had been going towards Mt. Ebott during the time the Entity had been in the laboratory. ‘Are they insane?!’ he had thought. A quick glance to the future as it was set for the moment showed what would happen to those six.

“…INTEINTERERESTINSTIGNG”

It wasn’t at all what the Entity had thought it’d be, and what he felt was strangely…not what he thought he’d feel. He thought there’d be relief, joy at seeing the six of them would be safe on Mt. Ebott, that the Hermit wouldn’t be able to harm them. Although he did feel all that, there was also a strange feeling of…morbid curiosity…and overshadowing it all, a deep jealousy. It was nice to see they weren’t going to die, but at the same time it frustrated him. There they went, putting themselves in danger like that just like Patta had done! And they survived! It was selfish to be resentful of that, and to be frank he was ashamed for that, but he couldn’t deny that’s what he felt.

“WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO NOW?”

“…I’ll play along with the timeline”

“IS THAT REALLY ENOUGH? ARE YOU GOING TO LET THAT CONTINUE LIKE THIS? DO YOU THINK THIS IS HOW IT ALL SHOULD BE?” the part of him that was Gaster insidiously said. The Entity’s jealousy started growing, spurred by that. “FRISK IS DEAD, AND YOU LET ME DIE. NOT ONLY THAT, YOU’LL DISAPPEAR FROM REALITY ALTOGETHER. IS THAT WHAT YOU REALLY WANT?”

“What else am I supposed to do? There’s nothing to be done”

“…IT’S WORTH A TRY, ISN’T IT?”

The Entity hesitated. Gaster hadn’t been a malevolent person. He always had the best intentions, and he truly had wanted to use his findings for monsters to go free. However, his SOUL was gone. All he was now was something clinging to the human SOUL inhabiting the Entity, and those remains, purely composed of Gaster’s will and intelligence, wanted to be alive again, even if it was necessary to drastically mangle the timeline. Was it correct? It didn’t matter to him. It was possible it’d change in the future, but for now all the part of Gaster that was there wanted nothing more than the Entity to fix his death.

“Again, I don’t know how I’ll do that!”

“LET ME SHOW YOU HOW…BUT DO YOU THINK IT’LL BE EASY? ASRIEL WILL ARRIVE SHORTLY”

“He won’t like this idea at all. I’d have to do it quickly”

“STALL HIM”

“…are you sure this can work? That Frisk, you and me will, in some way…live again?”

“IT’D BE A LIE IF I SAID I’M SURE. I’M A SCIENTIST, I WORK WITH THEORIES, AND DO YOU KNOW HOW THEORIES ARE CONFIRMED? BY RESEARCHING. LET’S FIND OUT.

THINK OF IT AS AN EXPERIMENT”

An experiment…that was a way to call it. It had a lot of risks, but the part of him that was influenced with Gaster proclaimed ‘ONE NEVER GETS ANYWHERE BY NOT TRYING’. It really was worth a try, all for the three to survive. “Alright, let’s do it. How shall it be done?”

-ooooo-

Six minutes remained.

Getting to the CORE laboratory was easy, Asriel found out. The problem was to find the area where Asriel had gone through the portal. It had been five days since that happened, and it wasn’t like he had paid much attention to the layout of the CORE. Asriel wasted a lot of time running in circles and trying to find a way. It didn’t help that Frisk was pressuring Asriel the more time passed. ‘I think we passed through here. Try the other way. The other way! Azzy, this wasn’t what I meant!’

“That way would lead us to the entrance of the CORE, Frisk!”

“No, the way to the entrance had exposed wires on the right side. This was on the ceiling”

“All the hallways look the same!”

Asriel had ditched the cloak Toriel had given him. The heat of the CORE was unbearable when one was covered in fur and wearing a thick cloak. It was true it was a risk to show his presently unsettling form, but it was a risk Asriel was willing to take. Luckily, the CORE workers weren’t in the hallways, most likely working hard in the deepest parts of the place, so no one had been alarmed yet.

The prince turned to the left in once another bifurcation and stopped immediately. A few feet away from him there was someone. It seemed to be a child, not having noticed his presence. Asriel started backing away slowly, trying not to be noticed. ‘Try asking them’

“Asking them? Seriously?”

“We can’t continue running around! We won’t find the lab unless we ask!”

Frisk was right, and Asriel had to accept it. The sense of urgency wasn’t gone, although Asriel had no idea what exactly was supposed to happen, he still felt he should hurry. Nervous, Asriel approached the child. “Excuse me? Uuuh…”

Suzy turned her head around and gasped, moving backwards and tripping, falling to the floor on her tail. She managed to stand up despite the lack of arms and having fallen on her back, and ran towards the corner. “Wait!” Asriel called “Where is Dr. Gaster’s lab?!” The girl hid behind the corner and peeked, unsure. Asriel didn’t sound like he was dangerous, but his appearance had been quite distressing to see.

“…m-mister, are you-are you feeling okay?”

The question surprised Asriel. “Uuuuh…yes?”

“You look sick, mister…” That was the best way Suzy could think to express concern over Asriel’s current physical form. Better to not to risk offending him.

“I’m fine!” Asriel barely repressed the urge to pull from his own ears, frustrated “Where is the lab?”

Suzy hid behind the corner. “It’s over here…p-please don’t shout at me…” Asriel followed Suzy through the hallways until they arrived to hallways that seemed familiar to the prince. As soon as Asriel noticed it, he walked faster, getting to the door.

Twenty seconds remained.

Inside the laboratory, Gaster’s assistants had turned on the portal. It had continued emitting electric arches, and to help relieve the increasingly erratic behavior, they turned the machine on hoping it’d help direct the electricity productively. The assistants were talking to each other while they tried to stabilize the console “…doesn’t usually take so long. Do you think something may have happened to him?”

“He must be okay; he’s just taking his time”

“But normally he would be back by—“

Asriel ignored the scientists’ conversations and instead ran towards the portal. If Gaster had entered, that could only mean Patta had gone in too. “Wait! Mister!” Suzy shouted, not too far behind and getting the assistants’ attention. Before anyone could move to stop him Asriel crossed the portal, turning it even more instable. The iridescent gateway trembled before collapsing, the readings from the console turning alarmingly high “What was that?!”

“Deal with that later, the machine is about to—“

“Suzy, get out of here!”

“W-What?”

“Turn it off and then back on! The energy is accumulating!”

The assistant closest to the console obeyed, but that proved to be a mistake. As soon as the gateway opened again, it started quickly expanding. In matter of milliseconds, it grew until it engulfed all of the laboratory and part of the CORE hallways. The iridescent bubble shone for a moment before imploding soundlessly. The assistants and Suzy inside didn’t even have time to realize what was going on before it was all over. The bubble shrank in size almost instantly, everything that had been inside disappeared from the present reality.

The labo r atory and every on e inside ha d been displaced fr o m the tim eline.

A nd t hen it e n ded.

The tim el ine w a s o v e r . . .

. . .

. . . F i v e d a y s r e m a i n ed. Th e first day w as lik e any other. There was nothing special, no big thunder or a sudden earthquake--