PLDN Chapter 41

"Chapter 41: The Penultimate Battle Between Seven Unstable AU's. All the Hopes and All the Dreams"

Sub-Entry 401: "Ambush!  Flowey's Betrayal!"
I waited for the moment. But...

Alphys blinked for a moment.

I could see Frisk getting antsy but trying not to let on that she knew what was going to happen next.

"Umm..."

I furrowed my brow.

"What the Hell...?"

Dammit, Flowey. Did you chicken out on me!? I know you are a coward but...this is NOT a good time. Was any point a good time for this? Stick to the plan, you damn weed!

I saw Sans look right at me while the others were still kind of caught in the moment.

Where's the damn weed, Arcade...?

I knew what he was thinking. Down to the letter...down to the punctuation...down to the font. Not sure how that last one worked but...not the time to get meta.

"I don't believe this..." I muttered as I pressed up against the wall next to the door frame.

"You had one job...one...job..."

They were getting restless in there. This was a situation where I couldn’t' take action. I couldn't go in there. Anything I did at this point would screw up the timeline. I'd come too far, sacrificed too much. Asriel had does the same and he was counting on me back home. I owed it to ever monster alive to make good on my own promise to them.

They deserved better than this.

"I swear to Lady Destiny, I'm going to reach down into the dirt and drag that--"

Suddenly I felt it coil around me and tighten.

"!!!!!!!"

First the legs, then the waist, then the arms, then my tail, then my neck...and finally I felt it coil around my head and star to coil around my jaws.

"...Flowey--!" It was all I got out before he bound my jaws together.

"You're going to...what...?" He taunted before cackling.

"Y...Y...!!!"

"You're probably asking yourself...why...why do this now of all times?"

I started to crackle with electricity.

"Ah-ah-ahhhh..." Flowey warned before I felt it in my neck...not a thorn but--!

"Urkk!" My eyes slowly drifted to the...syringe dart buried in my neck...it had actually burned a portion of my fur away to get a direct bullseye into my vein.

I couldn't speak...but my mind was racing. This didn't come from Flowey...!

"You made an offer.  It was a tempting one.  I pondered so long and so hard on it...really I did..." Flowey mused smugly as his toothy grin was suddenly in my peripheral vision. He stretched his way until his was over my shoulder and curved right around to look me in the eyes.

"But in the end...he made a better one."

I felt a large hand-paw grab onto my shoulder and spin me around.

"BOO!!!" Came the jump scare...followed by the laughter.

My eyes widened as I looked at the elated expression of...Allouicious Adonis.

"Surprised to see me?"

Not really. And yet...how? When I last saw him--

"When you last saw me I was...not all there...I was a little...dismantled at the mental level.  But the funny thing is...having contingency plans in place is something Benedict and Leviathan specialized in.  So they of course arranged for me to get the best mental conditioning I could find.

Do you recall a...memo that lovely Violet may have sent you about some data going missing from Mainframe?"

I blinked before my eyes widened a little...and I thought back...

"...what's the matter, Bob?  You seem off on a cloud server."

"Dot.  Enzo.  Have...either of you seen Mike the T.V.?"

"Can't say that I have."

"Maybe he ran off with his remote control." Enzo shrugged.

"Well...if he did......finally...some peace and quiet."

"I don't know, Bob...shouldn't we go look for him?"

"Give him a few...hundred deka-cycles.  I'm sure he'll get bored and be back to pestering us with bad commercials and soap operas again."

But little did any of us know that after law and order was established in the Chaos Realm...

"...proceed." Dr. Phage kept his thumb hovering over the button on his remote unit.

Mike the T.V. took a deep breath and went into a tirade of random television programming, movie star impressions, and memes.

"...and you're tuned to the Commercial Channel!  Twenty-four million milliseconds worth of nothing but straight, uninterrupted commercials TO ROT YOUR STINKIN' LITTLE MIIIIIIND!!!!"

In an electric chair, disconnected from any wiring or others but with its shackles still intact, a catatonic state...still drooling and still eyes glazed yet propped open with clamps.

"Is all this really necessary?" One of the cultists asked.

"Lord Adonis' orders.  Disobey even the slightest detail at your own peril."

"Right..."

Adonis continued to be forced to watch the mindless programming.

"Hey, Moe!  Look!  A leaky faucet!  Nyuk-nyuk-nyuck!"

As the darkness fell over the room, and the sounds of the hurricane-force thunderstorm outside the castle windows.

In those brief flashes of lightning...something far more sinister and inhuman appeared superimposed over Adonis' unresponsive face...an almost subliminal image of what lie beneath the surface of his soul...

What it was...was evil. PURE EVIL.

~

I wish I had known then how critical something...or someone as flamboyant as Mike the T.V. from the ReBoot world we'd been to was. Who would have thought he'd snap Adonis out of it...and so quickly.

I can't believe how much I had underestimated him.

Despite the fact that Daimyou and KOMMAND had arrested the last of his cultists including Dr. Phage...their seed had already been planted and it had already sprouted, bearing its foul fruit.

I can't believe...he had this last card to play and it came at the most critical time. Again.

He somehow...screwed me over once again. I was about to lose another timeline.......wait...was I?

Was that his plan?

No.

It couldn't be as simple as that. It would be too predictable.

No, he's got something worse...he has to have something worse.

"Sorry, Volt.  But the weed just couldn't take a chance on trusting you.  You heard it from him, right?  At least my way is fair.  At least...he knows what he's going to get.  That's the problem you've had...you've always had.  Everything driven by hope and faith...and yet how many of those times can you count where that hope crashed and burned.

How can you be sure that Universal City was the only one. With all the times the Goddesses have reset and relaunched their game under new forms and new rules, and familiar faces...how many times do you think you let them down?"

It had to be a lie. Madam Fate COULDN'T have that many wins under the belt.........r-right?

"The show is about to start, old friend."

"...there you are..." Sans thought as he could hear the rustle.

"Pay close attention...as you once told the goat.......don't....blink."

My eyes widened...and then it happened...! The vine struck!

"MY CHILD!!!" Toriel gasped as I saw the vine pierce Frisk's body from behind.

No no no no nononononononono...!

I was horror-struck as I saw Flowey's tentacle-vine emerge with Frisk's soul it its grasp.

This isn't happening...this isn't happening!

Toriel shrieked in anguish as she attempted to take off at a dead run.

"But that's not all...I'll see you that and raise you this...!" Adonis hissed in my ear as I watched six more vines tear into the ground and tunnel through it before...!

Oh gods...he can't be serious!

I watched the glass jars shatter at the same time and then...each vine grasped one of the other six human souls.

I chomped down hard on Flowey's vine. I'd come to realize Adonis' dart had suppressed my electric and magnetic powers...plus it had noticeably reduced my physical strength.

"You go the seven souls!  Now what!?" I demanded to know.

"Oh...it takes seven to shatter the barrier...but I'm not done yet..." Flowey cackled. "I'm going to leave NOTHING to chance!"

What? No, this isn't--

"All those times I lost to Frisk...it was because I spared their soul.  But if going to uphold my part of the deal to Adonis...then I'm going to have EVERY soul.  Even...!"

At the exact moment that every monster in the kingdom had appeared to support Frisk...!

I gasped when I realized it.

"Napstablook...!"

But that wasn't all. He had nabbed a few others, previously unaccounted for. Including Glyde, So Sorry, Mad Mew Mew, the Mad Dummy...! EVERYONE was here. But this wasn't Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

"My gods...!"

"No gods.  Just one, Volt." Adonis taunted as Flowey took them ALL in and the world turned white.

I felt the vines release me but...the injection made me woozy and unbalanced. I staggered to stay standing while shielding my eyes.

When I looked again...

"It has to be this way." Hyperdeath looked down at me. Was he...always this tall...this...mighty?

Did Frisks' soul and a few unaccounted for souls really make this much of a difference!?

All I could do was stream tears.

"And there it is..." Adonis wiped one of my eye droplets before sticking it in his mouth.

"Mmmmm...that's good despair.  That's the hurt you deserve."

I couldn't find the words to how horrible this was. I couldn't spit it back in his face. I was in too much shock.

"Ohhh...and if you had any ideas about help coming to the rescue..."

Adonis looked to Hyperdeath.

"Do it."

And with that, Hyperdeath unleashed ALL of his true power, ascending to that...goat angel form...that ultimate form that shut down Frisk's ability to even move...all but accessing her save file. But now her save file was with him. The one and only hope this world had...and Adonis had made Hyperdeath steal it from the Underground.

Hyperdeath's dis-embodied flaming clawed hands suddenly tore through the dimensional barriers between worlds.

"What are you doing!?"

"I really must thank you, Volt...for making my job easier."

"What...are you talking about...?"

"The one....actually...seven things you thought had escaped my attention...?"

Oh no.

"It only served Leviathan's master plan all along.  All according to his plan...and my will.  You and Asriel made it far too easy...now behold...!"

Sub-Entry 402: "Adonis' Last Ditch Effort.  What has Hyperdeath Done!?"
Elsewhere, in Nikita's true laboratory...where I had entrusted her to safeguard the seven Heart/Soul Gems. Not for lack of trying we still didn't have a name for them. But that was of little consequence.

"...!"  Nikita whirled as soon as she heard it, even before her instruments detected it.

"What!?" She gasped as the giant goat god hands emerged from the tears in space, time, and dimension and grabbed then giant, ornamental-like drum-like security storage unit with the diamond-glass covering free from the wall.

The seven gems had been arranged in formation with the newly-added red one at the center, and the six surrounding it. If ever a better testament to the Perfect Chaos Emerald collection...and now it was in the hands of...!

Nikita frowned and hurried out of her true lab and the main temple itself, bound for the gateway back to her sub-lab.

Nikita made her way through the maze of our labs to the security room and pounded the big red button for the security alarm...which went out to everyone on the UCIAT network.

Soon my team was all aware of something going wrong.

But in truth...someone else knew before the portals were even opened.

* gasp*

"Asriel-san.  What is the matter?" Master Splinter noticed Asriel's sudden gasp as he suddenly snapped out of his deep meditation session with his sensei and her sensei.

"I...I don't know for sure...but...I think...I sense big trouble."

"Hmm?" Bunnie arched an eyebrow.

"I.....felt something resonate...in my soul.  It felt like..." Asriel looked over at the koi pond, where he could see his reflection.

"......."

"Asriel-kun.  Are you still seeing Hyperdeath's reflection in your mind and soul?"

"No...Hyperdeath within me is.....dormant...he and I are in balance with one another.  I made my peace with him before the Crossover War ended.

What I'm feeling...almost feels like...I'm resonating with a completely different Hyperdeath...like--"

It hit Asriel.

"...the one in another timeline." He looked over at Bunnie. "I have a bad omen, sensei.  I...I think something's gone wrong with Volt's mission.  I think......something bad happened in Undertale that wasn't supposed to happen."

"Young one...you should trust in your instincts."

"I have this really bad feeling...that...a great evil has come back."

Bunnie narrowed her eyes.

"I think we both know who's at the root of it."

"There is little time.  We must act before it becomes a crisis." Bunnie stood up.

Unfortunately, when I said this happened before Hyperdeath tore open space and time between the Barrier chamber and Nikita's lab...

...what I neglected to mention that it was only moments separating the event. Which means the alert came before Asriel and Bunnie could fetch their sandals and Splinter could snag his walking stick.

"We are too late." Bunnie realized.

"Oh no...Volt...!"

Back at the Barrier Chamber...

"All this time, you never suspected, old friend..."

Ultimate Hyperdeath pulled the case in where he started compressing it until the glass cracked and the containment device started buckling...before it broke completely, the seven heart gems falling out only to stop in midair before hitting the floor...circling around Adonis. The wrecked vault crumbled between Goat God's giant hands before dissolving into binary and fading glitches.

I thought that I could bum-rush Adonis but immediately felt the full force of Chaos Buster plaster me into the ground. Wait...he shifted back to regular Hyperdeath in an instant?!

"Do cooperate.  You'll find this verrrrrry interesting..."

I scoffed at him trying to imitate Flowey...or maybe it was Gaster...or maybe both at the same time...? Head was still a little woozy.

"You thought you were collecting these under my nose.  Did you think that I simply did not know about them...or did not care?

Volt, my old mentor...all went according to Fate's design. And while the thought of a plan with ground rules and a goal and this structure nauseated me to no end...the annoyance was well worth the payoff.

You see...you and the goat have been doing my dirty work all along."

And that was a gut punch that sickened ME to no end. I was duped...yet AGAIN by this garbage heap! How...how does he keep playing me like a hawk from Hell...in Oswald "Penguin" Cobblepot's own words? Why do I keep getting used by him as a pawn!?

"And I suppose you're going to tell me what they do--"

"In a rush to see the next act so soon?  We haven't even gotten through the overture, my friend..."

Adonis kicked me through the doorway I had yet to cross. As soon as he did the door sealed up behind.

"Let's whittle some of that hope of yours down a peg.  Tell me...what would be a really strategic move right about now?  Leviathan did make a good point to take this measure."

"...to make this club exclusive..." I narrowed my eyes when I suddenly realized too late that he was already cutting us off from backup.

In fact...

The Heart/Soul Gems started glowing and spinning around him faster as he brandished the Infinity Gauntlet yet again...how he got it from the Marvel Universe, I'll never know. But now I knew where he was getting all his limitless magical, mystical, and pseudo powers to cheat this game so bad from. I wouldn't be surprised if he had the Anti-Life Equation, the Triforce, and half a dozen other all-powerful artifacts under his control.

But...what was he doing with--

I then saw their energies combined into a rainbow sphere...a barrier ball around him...before exploding outward and swallowing everything up; permeating even the Barrier itself and continuing outward...on to what I presumed was infinity itself.

He ended up separating this entire dimension from the Axis of Reality itself. What did that mean? It meant...now there was no way anyone--mortal or god and everything in between could get to us. There was no coming...there was no going. we were completely and utterly isolated from everything that ever was, is, or would be. Not just space but time and dimension. In short...I only WISHED we were in the void of the Core.

And at the same time, Daimyou and KOMMAND became aware of it all.

"Dai-dai, I think something really bad just happened."

"I sense it, too.  Undertale...the timeline the Commander was investigating...actually...its entire AU cube has completely vanished from all time and all space.  It just...dropped out of existence.

"....c'mon...it's Volt...he can't be gone...he can't have just ceased to exist..."

"........."

"Buns...don't look at me like that.  I know you don't have much of a sense of humor but...quit kidding around."

"The prophecy...there is nothing in it about this point in time.  It's...just missing...and the path beyond has...become clouded...hazy...slowly eroding away..."

"Man oh man oh man...!"

"Adonis has done something even we were not prepared for.   I am...at a loss at how this can be...undone."

"The Contracts.  If they were truly gone, then both Destiny's and Fate's contracts would be broken, right?  That has to mean something?"

"...perhaps.  All we have to go on is..."

"Yeah..."

In the present...

"...we have to go after Volt!  He's in serious trouble!  I know it!"

Bunnie paced. "Volt didn't want it to come to this.  None of us did.  To charge right in would be folly, but...I do not know if time is a luxury we can afford.  Without information, we are flying blind."

"We need a plan, old friend." Sally's image came in loud and clear on the T.A.O. link communicator.

"Do we even have time to make a plan before things get out of control--"

That was about the time Callista entered the dojo, leaving her spaghetti-strap, crystal clear icepick sandals at the door.

"I am...afraid we do not.  I was contacted by Daimyou, telepathically.  As it seems that Adonis has sabotaged their communications arrays and several other key systems.  I'm afraid...the situation has gotten...far worse than we thought."

"Mom?"

"Asriel.  I'm afraid Adonis has taken steps to...prevent any of us from helping the Commander.  He's...cut off from us."

"What do you mean, Callista-hakase?" Bunnie asked.

"Somehow...Adonis has...separated Undertale from the Space-Time Continuum itself.  To S.T.C. and the rest of the UltraVerse, it has...ceased to exist.  But...Daimyou and I have an extraordinarily strong, psychic belief that it still exists in its own subspace pocket outside of space and time with an anomaly preventing anything from entering or leaving that world."

"Then...there's...no way to reach the Commander?"

"No...I can't lose my best friend...not now..."

That look in Bunnie's eyes. She could see it again...Adonis was taking Asriel back to that dark place. He'd overcome it so many times...losing his best friend. It kept happening again and again.

And he was torn. He knew the trouble that refusing to let go...to understand that if you truly love and respect someone you have to let them go.

But at the same time...he wasn't the type to give up on family or friend. He had that hope burning bright and dreams the two of us still had yet to fulfill.

He couldn't accept this any more than I could.

But...were we really at such an impasse that there was no way out?

Once again back at the Barrier chamber...

"Do you know what you've done, Asriel?" I challenged Hyperdeath.

Hyperdeath didn't answer. He looked down on me but...otherwise didn't respond.

"So that's what these do?  That's you're big play?  One last unfair confrontation, Adonis?  With me in a weakened state, you and Hyperdeath over there are just going to gang up on me and beat me to an inch of my infinite life until I can't regenerate anymore?

"Volt, Volt, Volt......." Adonis grinned sadistically.

He leaned over to my ear and whispered.

"You're half right..."

And then he grabbed me by the shoulders, reared back and  K.O.'ed me with a monstrous headbutt--

* CRYPTOSMASHER LOGGING ERROR *

* AGENT ARCADE (VAA) UNCONSCIOUS. ENTERING STANDBY MODE... *

Sub-Entry 403: "The Seven Absolute Gods of the Seven Unstable Undertale Realms"
* CRYPTOSMASHER ONLINE. *

* REESTABLISHING CONTACT. LOG RESUMING *

"Unnngh...my skull...."

My eyes started to flutter open to blurry images.

And then I realized...I was a prisoner.

I'd been shackled to the ground, arms and legs spread out in an X-formation.

The shackles themselves were definitely made of non-conductive, non-magnetic metal...and furthermore they were siphoning my electric and magnetic power away...it must've been a magic spell. I knew that Adonis wasn't beneath using the arcane to fuel his schemes.

As I turned my head I noticed that I was shacked to what appeared to be an alchemic transmutation circle on the ground. Was he really planning on using me as raw materials for a sacrifice to open the Gate of Truth? Was I meant to pay the toll in place of a Philosopher's Stone?

Was it really that simple or...?

"Does the job nicely, doesn't it?"

As soon as I heard Adonis speak I tried to overload my restraints. But the moment I did...their vampiric nature increased and their drain on me increased proportionally to my energy expenditure.

Crap. They adapt to my powers.

"Before you jump to conclusions, yes you are an integral part of my plans, but...not in the way you think.  Do you think I'd simply just trade you away like money for something?  That's so played out.  No, no, no.  What I have in mind will make better use of you.  Oh, don't get me wrong...you'll survive...after all, somebody has to see the glorious divine miracle that is about to awaken."

"Enough already with the blah-blah-blah, Adonis and just get to the damn point.  You're boring me to death with all your monologuing!"

"You really know how to take the fun out of this."

"Count on it." I sneered as Adonis was leaning over me, practically touching noses with me.

"If that's how you feel..." Adonis got up as regular Hyperdeath joined him at his side, having again downgraded back from his final form to his second-to-final form.

"You know, the look in your eyes when I used these...I bet you were both relieved and disappointed to find out what they did." Adonis let the seven heart gems hover over his open palm in a ring...or an orbit.

"But once again...you only know half the story..." He looked over his shoulder at me.

"Our friend Asriel, here...he's the epicenter of this whole Undertale story.  And yet...he doesn't even appear until this pivotal moment.   Ironic, isn't it?  How his people all remember him and tell his story...yet, for so many pacifist endings...his only request is that he be forgotten.  Isn't that just deliciously tragic?"

"You're crossing another line with this, Adonis."

"That's how it is in the Prime Universe.  That's how it's been in many other AU's...including this one.  One long endless string of tragedy.  A prince whose only mark on the world is dying and nearly re-igniting a war between humans and monster.   Hell, in some of the timelines...he even succeeds at doing just that, post-mortem.

How many times has Undyne kicked the queen out of the palace and back to the RUINS, determined to break the barrier and exterminate the humans...all because of this little sh--"

"Watch it!" I snapped as Adonis picked up Frisk's body. Their...wound from Flowey had...somehow healed? But...as far as I could tell...they were lifeless.

"S.T.C. assigned you to first familiarize yourself with this world...with Undertale Prime...after so many runs of watching grass grow and endless timelines without variation...they stuck you on the case of the anomaly known as the Unstable Timelines.

Surely you can sympathize with Flowey? Finally...something NEW to the table."

"You know I don't get bored.  I get pensive and worrisome.  But my Goddess' contract saw to that end that I could sit watching that grass from now til the end of time.  Something you can't really claim, can you?"

Adonis ignored me. Hyperdeath didn't take his eyes off me. I could tell he made up his mind. He chose and it looked like he'd decided this was the better path.

And after recording soo many unstable timelines that you were assigned to you found the one viable one that changed everything. A timeline where Asriel Dreemurr had one thing to do...and he couldn't even do that. So pure. So innocent. And so afraid to hurt anyone that he couldn't even bring himself to gather the Buttercups that killed his best friend. Too afraid to do the job himself...but so easily pushed into going along with the plan when she didn’t' give him a choice."

"You think that's some kind of joke, Adonis?" I folded my ears back and showed a lot of fang. My blood was boiling.

"You don't?" Adonis shrugged with a wink. Now that' s just disrespectful.

"And yet, your damn goddess...just had to have her way with him.  A genocide timeline where everyone and everything he ever loved was still taken from him."

"You're dragging this out....and it's getting stale."

That earned me a slug to the face. I touched a nerve, implying Adonis was getting predictable and settling into semblance of structure.

"A timeline which is now gone.  But in its place...behold!  A new pacifist timeline.  Frisky here just couldn't take the guilt of what she did.  Or maybe this one WAS a whole new Frisk and the previous one got what they deserved.  Either way...the Flower Prince again serves the role he was created for.

Yet you took that genocide run orphan off the table and planned to put him in this new timeline. But...where is this timeline now? Oh yes! This same little goody-two-shoes.......so easy...the lies I told her...the times I pretended to be you...the deception I wove to get her to RESET the whole timeline back to zero.

What happened next? Your intervention. Even Destiny and Fate couldn't have seen that one coming. So you try again. And here we are. There just isn't anything you can do that I can't ruin."

"You've gotten off track." I smoldered, channeling my inner annoyed Spike Spiegel.

"All those unstable timelines..." Adonis continued to strut about, smugly, Hyperdeath now watching his benefactor intently, starting to wonder where the payoff would be...and when.

"...you must've found several that were defunct...incomplete...some which were not for the faint of heart to bear witness to.  Some which could hardly be said to host "life"; human or monster."

"So what if I did?"

"What about all the timelines they didn't assign to you.  The ones you theorized."

Uh-oh...I had a sudden worry in my heart pop up out of nowhere.

"Think back to your "Project Lost Dreemurr"...the first run of this...you speculated yourself.  You proposed several...interesting ideas..."

Oh no. He couldn't possibly be going...there...!

One by one the Soul Gem's started to float toward different directions, getting closer to the Barrier walls and toward the door and toward the infinite hallway toward the exit of Ebott, spreading outward.

Rather...six of them did. The seventh--Determination--it came to hover above an alter that wasn't there before...and it fit itself neatly into the socket in the center. I got it…the Determination gem was there as an anchor-point; keeping this timeline tethered to whatever timelines he was opening up.

But the other six would quickly turn my expression to pure horror...and beyond.

Each one hovered before I noticed the pseudo-cyber portal rings manifest...massively giant portal rings; conglomerations of technomancy and hexology...mergers of science and sorcery.

By all accounts of Neo Arcadia...ABOMINATIONS.

We'd put an end to combining magic and science when it nearly blew Ancient Arcadia off the map. And this psycho was going to use it for...!

"Ask yourself...what if Asriel...wasn't the one to absorb the human souls?  All the souls?

Ultimate Hyperdeath's eyes widened as each Heart Gem fit into a socket onto these cyber portals.

The portals came to life...each one EASILY big enough...even bigger than that...for Ultimate Hyperdeath to pass through with no problems. If anything...by comparison, they seemed almost oversized compared to an actual goat god of space, time, and dimension that dwarfed Frisk by an unfathomable size.

But if these portals were big enough to make Ultimate Hyperdeath child-sized by comparison...

My eyes just bugged out when it hit me. It hit me hard.

And then we saw the first silhouette appear in the first portal.

"My child...!"

And Ultimate Hyperdeath recognized the voice immediately.

"M....M.....M...."

"Yes, goat son...?" Adonis grinned ear to ear. "Do you see someone...familiar...?"

"My child...it truly is...a divine miracle......I thought...I had lost you...I do not know how it is possible that you are alive..."

"M....M....Mommy...?" Ultimate Hyperdeath's expression had softened and was now bordering on crying his eyes out.

"Yes, my son...my perfect little angel, Asriel..."

And there she was...and I was immediately heart-crushed by the sight that befell me.

I saw six human souls embeded into her...and her form twisted like flowery goddess. Depsite how white and pure most of her was...there was something sininster about it...like seeing a goddess version of Toriel through a cracked mirror. You wanted SO badly for it to be a good thing...but when it came down to it...the darkness within couldn't be ignored. And then I got it...it was like she was wearing Stanley Ipkiss' mask of Loki. Her same psyche had been twisted the same way Asriel's had.

"Tori...say it ain't so..." I realized that this Toriel...from whichever Timeline that Adonis had opened up...had absorbed Chara's soul instead of Asriel. Which meant SHE crossed the barrier...and found five more human souls...and had absorbed all the souls of the entire kingdom.

I could tell because Adonis had slipped my scanner glass on me...just so I could see the truth for myself and confirm six human souls and every soul in the kingdom...even her own Asriel's...?"

"We can be a family again, my child."

"R...really, Mommy?  Even...Daddy?"

That's when she immediately confirmed a complication I dreaded. No...she had already given up on Asgore...and sacrificed him too. What happened that fractured her mentality like this!?

"I am...sorry...but I fear, my child, that it will just be the two of us.  Your daddy...has gone away..."

Stop it. Stop it, now!

I didn't know who I was mentally saying it to. Ultimate Hyperdeath Toriel...or Adonis.

"Isn't that delicious?  After all her prattle about avoiding fights and talking things out.   And she's still just as much a hypocrite as when she called Asgore out on declaring war on the humans and forcing his people to suffer instead of absorbing one human soul, crossing the barrier and acquiring six more to shatter it.  When I thought about it...how did that make her any better than Asgore killing children one by one to collect them and eventually shatter the barrier?"

"Huh...what are you talking about...?" Hyperdeath Asriel looked at Adonis...before realizing...that if Toriel had become a goat god, too...then she did the same horrible things he did."

"Mommy...?  I don't understand...!"

"It was for their own good.  Now that we are all one, they fighting among ourselves...the suffering...it can finally end.  I'll take good care of us all.  Mommy knows best, right, my child?"

I glared at Adonis. This was low...and about to get lower.

Papyrus emerged forth next...it was like one half "Cool Dude" dating outfit...one half Pafriskus...minus the hair.

"NYEHEHEHEHEHEHHH! MORE FRIENDS TO MAKE AND PARTAKE IN SPAGHETTI--"

Goddammit...

Papyrus' entrance was soon upstaged by...!

"NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!"

Came the war cry as she came charging out.

Oh gods...you too, Undyne!?

"What have you done...!" I gasped at the towering goddess of war.

This was like Undyne the Undying on two other unholy levels. Parts of her even looked like they were made of ocean conforming to the shape of parts of her limbs and torso. The embodiment of Waterfall itself. And yet so much of it almost seemed like it was channeling the Amazons of Themescyra.

"YOU!" Ultimate Toriel's anger flared up as she stared down her opponent. Ultimate Asriel drifted back away from his mother from a different timeline.

"So you finally had the guts to do what needed to be done...youuuur highness." Ultimate Undyne snarled. "A little too little too late."

"And what would you have me do, former Royal Guard."

"Shut up, nerd.  Your way was always too weak and Asgore was always too much of a softy."

"And your way is the way of a massacre.  Of the genocide of a species.  We do not have to live in the humans' world.  We can make our own world, far from this one where we can live in peace.  A world for only monsters.  Where there will be no one to take our hopes and dreams again."

"Until they come for us and start another war!  The only future for us is a future where we strike now and exterminate every last one of them!  They lost the right to this world!  Now it's time for us to kick ass and take this world for our own!  We'll pound them out of existence!  It's survival of the fittest and we've survived under harsher conditions than they ever could!  My way made us strong!  And as my timeline's empress, I'll make us conquerors!"

That's when I heard the dark chuckle.

"And to think...I used to admire your raw energy and spirit...but now...now I understand...I've outgrown you."

"Alphys..." My heart sank into my stomach.

What had she done to herself. Parts of her being made of lightning was one thing...parts of her being made of of wire-frame grid was another......but merging herself with Mettaton NEO!? Even though she towered over us, she was still the smallest deity in the room.

"We can't build the future on coddling our people as a celestial womb.  And you're no better paving the way to a future with the blood and bone dust of our enemies making up the streets!  How draconian and archaic!

What this world needs is what it has always needed. Intelligence. Someone who won't be distracted by emotion. Someone who knows logic is the best tool in the tool kit. Why settle for trying to recapture the days of old and put things back the way they were...when we could go lite years beyond...we could advance ourselves far beyond the CORE. Why do it your ways...when we could rule the universe."

I would have folded my arms if I could. The pattern was already laid out by this point. Who did I THINK was going to show up next...?

"Here I stand...among pretenders seeking to usurp my throne...when the conquest of the universe is mine by divine right."

"You..." Ultimate Toriel's brow furrowed.

"D-D-D..." Hyperdeath blanched. "Daddy...?"

Oh lords...if ever the mightiest of the mighty gods...Asgore was easily standing at Olympus' summit. The gold of his armor had practically overtaken him and the human souls were displayed prominantly...like badges.

"My own ex-wife...after all you've said behind my back...all the speeches of how horrible I was for making my own people suffer...for reaping the lives of children...you committed the very same crimes.  Not because you wanted to free our people, but because you couldn't stand the thought of living another day alone...of another child abandoning you.  That's the price you paid because you couldn't stand the sight of me.  We're not so different in the end, are we?   And yet I dared to do what your timeline's Asgore could not."

He then looked at Undyne.

"My loyal Captain of the Royal Guard...you would betray me as well?  The only father you had ever known.  You wanted to prove yourself so badly to be the next Hammer of Justice like Gerson in days long past that you were determined to best me in battle.  You got your wish and you were promoted to head of the Royal Guard because of it.

And now here you stand as absolute Empress of your own timeline with that look in your eye...so close to your ultimate goal. Which of us would you cut down to gain the last soul needed to break the barrier and exterminate the humans? I know. I know that all of us who stand here today, despite absorbing every soul in the kingdom and the six human souls have tried...and failed to break the barrier. Why don't you explain it...Dr. Alphys?"

Alphys grimaced angrily, realizing what all of their timelines had in common. It didn’t' make sense. Why? Why was the Asriel of this timeline...this Absolute God of Hyperdeath the only one among them to break the barrier with every soul in the kingdom save for the eighth fallen? All the numbers added up. The circumstances were the same. The only thing that differed was who was the one who took all the souls into their own?

"And while we're on the subject...you  stand here with your own ambitions, dear Royal Scientist.  You stand here still hiding the secrets in the True Lab.  Did you think me so ignorant that I wouldn't know what sins you created?  What you've done to our fallen people?  Face your nightmare...that the best of your intentions resulted in failure.  Failure that's now out in the open."

This Asgore was no fool. He was no longer naive. I think in a way...he had always been like Jon; trying to suppress his savagery underneath a big, fluffy marshmallow of a coward...but now he had snapped and it had all boiled to the surface. He was unbound and showing us that he had the potential to become a tyrant. And the pressure...the responsibility...life itself with Fate's cruel hand....had made him this way.

"And you...I have not met you, personally but to what ends would you go to make your hopes and dreams come true?"

"Nyeeeh?" Papyrus looked a little shaken by that. I don' t think he quite knew how to answer.

"Why don't you just get it over with and bring him out, next?" I snapped at Adonis.

That made him grind his teeth. It was the point he knew was coming but the pattern was too predictable and there was only one player not on the field.

"Spoilsport."

And so emerged the last one.

"Sans."

A while back I had accounted for an AU among the endless number of them I had logged in Teletran-1. Given the circumstances, I couldn't quite remember what designation I remembered it in shorthand under the simple pseudonym, "The Thought". In it, Sans had done the unthinkable and become an all-powerful seraph-like god...wearing his metamorphic overcoat like a rainbow cloak...a rainbow cloak that spread into  angel wings...each wing having one of the human souls displayed prominently in their joints.

What hovered before us was frighteningly similar even down to the fang teeth that covered up the sides of his jaws.

Ultimate Absolute Hyperdeath actually backed away, terrified by this newcomer. At least with Papyrus, his ascended version of his "date" body, down to the basketball shoulders had some levity to it. Sans had become outright terrifying as the Absolute God of....uh....let me get back to you on that one.

"And you, Sans...is this the extent of your loyalty?"

"Got nothin' more to say, Kingy."

"Brother...you...?" Ultimate Papyrus was genuinely shocked.

"Sans...!" Ultimate Alphys didn’t' seem to like this situation.

"What the Hell!?" Ultimate Undyne bellowed.

It quickly clicked for Ultimate Toriel.

"Sorry lady.  I already told you I don't like making promise."

"Nor do you like keeping them." She said flatly.

"Just business.  Not personal."

"The two aren't mutually exclusive." Toriel's eyes flared up with literal fire.

Adonis knelt down and lifted my head up by the underside of my jaw, forcing me to look him in the eyes.

"And there you go.  Seven.  Seven Absolute Gods all gathered in one volatile dimensional space."

"You've pretty much stained all my work.  What now?"

"Staining your work was just a perk.  You see what I've really assembled here is a nice detonative charge with you as the catalyst...the accelerent."

"...what do you mean...?"

"Seven Absolute deities, each with INFINITE power.  All seven of whom are in a tense situation.  Think of it as a seven-way Mexican Standoff."

I didn't like where this was going.

"How desperate do you think they are to acquire that last soul to make everything perfect.  Really...only one of them has all seven plus the collective to TRULY become a perfect god that can not only destroy the barrier...but completely control their timeline and everything in it from now to eternity.  Reshape their very reality on a whim...to have everything they ever wanted?  What would they do to each other to acquire that power?  What do you think will happen when this much divine power is unleashed all at the same time?"

Liking this less and less.

"As we are...this space has been torn from the place, the time, and the realm it belongs in.  We're completely isolated from anything and everything.  But I wonder...what would happen....if this enclosed Barrier space...were suddenly dropped in the very epicenter of the Axis of Reality at the moment of its...detonation."

My eyes widened until I felt they'd pop out of their sockets.

This was the ULTIMATE bad.

"That's right...the end of all existence...the universe goes back to what it once was before the dawn of creation.  Back before the beginning of time.  And endless canvas of lawlessness...an existence without rules where the elements are free to randomly act without order or guidance."

"You mega...no GIGALOMANIC!  You'll wipe out everything and everyone that ever is, was, or will be just to completely eradicate law and order?   Don't you know your existence is a product of all that ever was, is, and will be according to the Goddesse's--"

"Plan.  And without the plan there can be no goddess.  Thing is...I'm willing to roll the dice and see if that rule is a fake, too.  Just like I gambled with finding out if the rule about there being one and only one iteration of us once we signed our contracts and became the one and only.  You saw how much baloney that was for yourself."

"This is different.  It's not simply one guy getting reincarnated across several of the Goddess' games.  This is about ending the games forever--"

I stopped when I realized what I just said. Adonis was trying to accomplish the same thing as me.......no. That's not quite right. We each had the same goal. But a different means to an end. My way paved the way for an unknown future, free of Fate's constraint. His way...had no future for anyone....not even himself.

How could something be so black-and-white, yet an infinite number of shades of grey at the same time!? This was a contradiction...and he was willing to brute force forward.

Goddammit, Volt...despite how much of this was the Council's fault? You really did create one nasty...monster. Oh gods...there had to be a better word for it than that.

"And now to prime the detonator..." Adonis lifted off the ground and hovered over to Absolute Goddess Toriel's shoulder.

"So many children come and gone...and all of them meeting their deaths at your former husband's hands and the hands of all who maintained their loyalty to him.  The very stranger that you had make the promise...broke that promise.  That stranger turned out to be Asgore's right-hand man all along.  All the times his brother dreamed of being in the Royal Guard...he was in it from the start...as its most elite and highest ranking...even ranking higher than Undyne!  Even the Royal Scientist has been supporting him; experimenting on your own people...and on the very flowers your dead son's dust had fallen on until she created the weed you so enjoyed torturing.  You...tortured your own SON!  Isn't that delicious?"

"What...?  Brother...is this true...!?"

"Sans, damn you!  You smug *CENSORED*...all this time you outranked me you piece of--!"

Toriel's look of rage combined with a look of utter anguish, her lip starting to quiver and her teeth starting to grind.

"Q-Queen Toriel...I can explain."

"The time for talk is over..." Toriel's fists started burning red hot...then white hot...the blue hot, actually nipping at her cosmic robe sleeves, yet never quite igniting them.

Then he drifted over to Papyrus

"Papyrus...you know that subjecting them all would mean you'd have seven times the number of friends you've already collected.  You'd be the most popular skeleton in SEVEN timelines!  How cool would that make you!?"

"M-m-me?  Cooler than I am now...?"

Stay with us, Papyrus...stay with us. Don't go to the dark side, man!

Then he drifted over to Undyne and spoke into her frilly, webbed ear.

"Undyne...Your king has failed you and the former Queen has been defying him by trying to horde and safeguard the human children all this time...all those souls, kept to herself.  That power...power for the people and she selfishly mothered them while Monsters suffered outside.   And why?  All because the humans took everything from you.  What this world needs is a true hero.  One who's willing to go far enough and then farther to finally settle the score.  This world belongs to the monsters, not the ones who attack innocent an innocent goat prince!"

"NNNNNNNNNNNGYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" Undyne's bellow echoed everywhere.

To Alphys next."

"And Alphys...you've watched this Underground slowly erode.  Not from any misfortune but their own ignorance.  Wasting resources, taxing the Core, and using up magic for the most frivolous of things.   You know this world can't survive on stupidity.  A king who spends day after day watering the garden instead of doing actually monarch work and making the political machine run.  A queen who's halted the progress of breaking the barrier and freeing us.  A skeleton who can't even run your puzzles and traps right.  A brute fish who suplexes her problems like boulders instead of actually using her brain cells to solve them.  And finally...the one person who's actually smart enough to understand you just blows off his responsibilities because it's less stressful."

"Fools...they're all fools...why was I so blinded by fishy love!?"

"Asgore...everyone's against you.  Everyone has lost faith in you.  Even your own son hesitates to relinquish what he's gather to a responsible adult.  He's too young and weak to understand how to really control real power.  He's too soft.  How long have your own people called you a big, fuzzy pushover.  Your own wife even got them calling you "Fluffybuns".   How undignified!  Isn't it high time you remember who calls the shots?  You are king, by divine right.  And acts of treason are punishable by...well...I'm sure you know what's best."

"My authority...IS ABSOLUTE!!!" Asgore thundered.

"And Sans...you're too smart to simply be manipulated.  You see what I'm trying to do so I'd be a fool to try it on you.  I mean...why spare the effort for something so obvious?  It's all going to reset, anyway.  An eternity of re-living the same nightmare of cycling though the timelines where a few die...where everybody dies...or where everybody is saved and makes it to the surface...only for that sweet, sweet salvation to be taken away...all because of little brats like that." Adonis pointed to Frisk's unmoving body. "Even now, you know that brat is controlled by higher powers.  Not just Chara over there...but space-time-continuum agencies...goddesses...maybe an all-powerful unknown creator above them?  When does it ever stop?  And that's the only life you'll ever know.  All you have to do is absolutely nothing.  And this will go on as your Hell now and forever."

"Stop.  You had me at the resets.  I get it...you are the Devil, trying to get me to see things your way.  Buddy, I don't give two *CENSORED* what you want.  But you're right.   I'm so tired of all this...I'm at my last straw and if it means sugaring the Devil to make all this go away, then I've lost my right to be judge and jury of this timeline or any other.  The kid already paid for past mistakes...not to say she deserves it now...but what's done is done.  Alright...I'll play your new game for all the marbles.  No matter how it turns out, the it all finally comes to an end.  Even if that means sacrificing the things you love for the bigger picture."

What the actual HELL, Sans!? That actually made me shudder. That nihilism cut me straight to the core. It's outright evil. And you let Adonis convince you to embrace it.

Adonis landed and walked over to me.

"And now you know what that Rune is for.  Once the cataclysm triggers in this space, that rune turns you in to the largest Power Transistor that ever existed.   The amplifying effect focusing it through your own contract and back through the rune in several back-and-forths, like a laser will build the divine explosion up beyond anything even the Axis of Reality could possibly contain...and it will spread everywhere at the same time, enveloping, and disintegrating all from space, time, and dimension.  It's the ultimate punchline to the ultimate joke."

"I don't have words, Adonis.  There isn't a level low enough to describe the place you've gone to."

"And I want to thaaaaaaaaank you for making it possible. Now you're helpless to stop it.  No one can stop it.  No one can even get to this place.  It's over.  And now bear witness to the divine miracle!"

"Mr. Adonis...this wasn't part of the deal!"

"I have amended the deal.  I don't think I can amend it much more than this...sorry, kid...but you've served your purpose.  But hey...at least Flowey got what he wanted.  This is...something different, is it not?"

"No...no...this is wrong---"

"Try and stop it...and I think they might have other ideas."

Both Asgore and Toriel glared at Hyperdeath. As did the others.

"Clearly you're the weakest link in the room...easy prey for any one of them to take your souls.  The only question is who will be the lucky Boss Monster.  And that imbalance will in turn set off a chain reaction of the other monsters trying to take from them...it'll be a king of the hill scenario.  But I wonder if any of you can survive this outcome once the Axis of Reality bites the dust...?"

"Daddy...Mommy...no...you can't...!"

Growls, snarls, and a lot of burning red eyes as everyone loomed around as black silhouettes as things had somehow gotten darker and the Barrier had turned a nasty blacklight color.

"Doctor Volt...I'm sorry...I--"

At this point I felt defeated, too.

"Too late for apologies now...it's all in the past."

"You tried to warn Flowey...he didn't listen...I didn't listen."

"If only there were some way my friends could help us.  But I'm stumped.  He's figured this out to be cast-iron.  Nothing we could do could ever allow anyone to enter this space.

Maybe it was an unbreakable rule. Maybe this was the final truth.

But darned if there wasn't someone willing to try and undermine it...

Sub-Entry 404: "The Last Hope, the Last Dream of Seven Psychics.  Asriel Enters the Dreamscape":
"...Ray said it before...but I can't believe that things have gotten so bad that there's no way BACK.  I mean sure, Chaopolis have turned things dirty and smelly, and rotten, and convinced people all over to turn into jerks who'd step on your face as soon as look at you."

Splinter could forgive his salty speech and coarseness. Deep down he felt the same.

"But come on...there has to be some kind of answer out there.  Some loophole...some unconventional method of doing things that we haven't thought of that would work?  We just haven't thought of it, yet.

Sensei...Grand Master...there has to be a way to get to Volt and stop whatever Adonis is doing! All universes, all timelines...all EVERYTHING depends on it!"

"You really are determined, my student." Bunnie nodded.

"Then we will not give up until the bitter end." Splinter agreed.

"Yeah...but I just wish we knew what that answer was.  It's not like that answer is going to suddenly walk through the doorway--"

"If I may..." An older male voice...sounding somewhat English, interrupted.

"There may be a way to save all our worlds." The stoic-looking, bald man finished.

"I trust you will forgive me for disregarding the rule about leaving my shoes at the door."

And it became obvious way once everyone laid eyes on the high-tech hover wheelchair.

"Hey...I know you...!  You're Professor Charles Xavier!  Of the Xavier School For Gifted Children." Asriel rose to his feet.

"I believe I can make an exception for you, Xavier-hakase." Bunnie nodded.

"One of the most powerful mutants and psychic minds of our time." Splinter observed.

"I believe time is short but if I may offer an unconventional solution.   There was a time when an all-powerful Mutant-driven completely insane by his own power--a mutant named Apocalypse...gathered all of the psychic minds of the universe in order to transform time itself that he would truly make himself immortal; that all would bow before him in past, present, future and in memory.  His plan nearly succeeded but we were able to rebel against him and cast him out of existence entirely.

If several psychic minds were to chain their powers together it might be enough to astral project a solid being across time and space and let him retain all of his powers, memories, and abilities in a quasi-existence that might defy the laws of space-time itself."

"I remember that episode...err...incident." Asriel was catching on.

"It is theoretically possible." Callista rubbed her chin.

"But how many psychic minds would we need?" Bunnie asked.

"It would require a minimum of seven."

"Well...Mom and Bunnie make two.  You make three."

"But where are we going to find four more psychics powerful enough?"

"Asriel Dreemurr...your call to arms across the InfinityVerse has mobilized many worlds beyond your wildest dreams.  It inspired us to take action.  I have therefore, taken the liberty of requesting help from powerful psionic beings from other worlds."

It was about that time that a murky purple portal appeared in the floor and from it erupted a black birdlike mass of demonic energy...before it all collapsed into...!

"Ah.  I believe Miss Roth has joined the party."

"Oh.  Hey."

Rachel Roth...also known as--

"Raven!" Asriel's eyes lit up.

"Sup', Goat Son?"

Raven slipped off her boots and hovered over to where everyone had gathered.

"I owe you so much for this." Asriel, tried to keep composed.

"Eh.  We make it out of this and you can treat me to a pizza and a My Pretty Pegasus binge.  Don't tell Beast Boy."

She also didn't want to admit to her Teen Titans Go counterpart that it actually wasn't half bad.

"Lips are sealed.  Our little secret." Asriel looked like he had come to enjoy Raven's guilty pleasure just as much as she did.

"That's four." Bunnie noted the count.

"We need three more."

A cyber portal opened and out stepped a long-furred, anthro white cat with green-yellow eyes and very long pink hair. She was wearing a black body suit with silver boots, silver wrist and arm bands, silver waist armor and plate mail and a silver helm with a giant pink oval ruby on the forehead.

"Jenny of Aldebaran, first mate of the Righteous Indignation at your service." She said as she took her boots to the doorway and padded back over to us.

So we reached all the way to Bucky O'Hare and his crew? Nice!

"Ah.  Jenny-chan.  It is good of you to join us." Bunnie bowed. "I admire your courage for circumventing the Prime Directive of Albedbaran by sharing knowledge of your powers with us."

"The fate of every universe is more pressing than the directive of one planet.  Someone very wise once said that there are some things so important, they're worth doing no matter what the cost."

I would have smiled had I been there to hear the advice of one Willie Duwitt.

And directly afterward...

The golden Triforce gate opened up and Princess Zelda stepped through, in her goddess outfit. She left her sandals by the door. Pit flew out behind her.

"I found her, like you asked, Professor."

"Excellent work, Pit." Bunnie nodded.

"I'll be outside the temple if you need me." He drifted out the door.

"Zelda."

"Zelda-hime." Splinter bowed.

"Welcome to the Telepathy Club." Raven deadpanned, referencing Mob Psycho 100.

"And Violet now owes you money." Asriel crossed his arms with a smug look.

"The Triforce of Wisdom has showed me what I must do."

"Good.  You're up to speed." Jenny acknowledged.

"We need one more." Asriel frowned.

"Uh...Major?  Someone very blue just rode up on a...triceratops I think?"

"Hey, who are you calling a Triceratops?" Prince Tricky protested.

"It is okay, my friend.  He meant no offense."

A familiar English accent.

"Krystal.  Welcome." Bunnie greeted the blue vixen. Crystal had come in her Saurian tribal outfit. She left her sandals at the door and joined the others.

"Perfect seven." Asriel smiled.

"Then there is not a moment to lose.  We must act swiftly." Master Splinter urged.

Zelda cast the incantation on the floor after Megami finished the vast array of Transmutation Circles and Mojikara formulae.

The magenta, cyan, yellow, and black candles had been arranged in a circle around everyone.

"I'm a little dubious combining my magic with your Mojikara.  It reminds me too much of Brushogun's spell.  It didn't work out well for him." Raven voiced her concerns.

"It is the only way." Zelda assured.

Raven sighed, took a deep breath, closed her eyes then opened them again, the irises disappearing living the ominous glowing sclera.

"Azarath Metrion ZINTHOS!!!"

The candles lit with flames the respective color of their candles. The melting wax ominously stretched out to the very epicenter of the runes as Jenny enveloped it in a psychic bubble. Charles then pressed his fingers to his temples, closing his eyes...focusing. Rings of psionic energy wrapped around the bubble.

Krystal stabbed her staff into the epicenter as Callista's psionic canvas lifted its mysterious image of the Barrier room and the gateways off the portrait and onto the conglomeration of runes, magic, and mojikara as it all fused into one form. Solid but glowing.

Callista walked over to Asriel and gave him a kiss on the forehead. "Good luck, my humble bundle."

"Thanks, Mom."

"It's ready.  Stand on the epicenter." Bunnie said as she joined hands with the rest of the psychics in the room once Asriel had done so.

Slowly the ringed bubble lowered and encapsulated Asriel, coaxing him into a slumber as he crossed his open-palmed arms over his chest like a pharaoh laid to rest. He closed his eyes and hovered, becoming still...and like that a spirit form of himself pulled free of his physical body and lowered into the image on the floor as it rippled and turned lifelike.

"And now Destiny casts her dice." Splinter observed.

The seven psychics closed their eyes, bowed their heads...and let forth flow a deluge of psychic power, pushing through the portal from ceiling to floor...and maintained it.

The strain was greater than they could have ever imagined.

"By this point I know better than to monologue.  That's usually the point where something shows up to ruin a plan for any supervillain.  That said.  This is the end.  Hope is dead.  Dreams are buried.  There are no more wishes...not anymore--"

Adonis was cut off as the massive explosion of the seven colors of the rainbow poured out of a sudden ball of light.

Adonis groaned.

"Ohhh, you've GOT to be freakin' kidding me!!!  Damn you, DESTINY!!!"

"Heh..." I mused at the sudden turnaround. Normally I was cursing Fate. But this time sister dearest finally had a move up her own sleeve. Sure enough...

Destiny took only a moment to look upon her move on the chessboard. Then looked up at the rapidly fading grin on Fate's face.

A huff and a begrudging...

"Well played, dear sister."

"The game is not over, dear sister.  Watch and learn."

Back at the Barrier Room.

"YOU!!!"

"Hey, Donnie.  Miss me?  I didn't get my invitation to the party."

"What the...!"

"Another tiny Asgore!  The King sure enjoys cloning himself, doesn't he?"

Another Papyrus moment, ladies, and gentlemen.

"How...how is this possible!?" Asgore gaped.

"My...child?  You've...aged...but how can you be here...and there...?  I don't...I don't understand." Toriel was starting to get upset.

"What's going on here!?" Undyne growled.

"Inconceivable...you must be another timeline's Asriel." Dr. Alphys narrowed her eyes.

"Heh...well, you certainly made this interesting, didn't you?"

"I did no such thing!" Adonis snapped at Sans.

"Who...who are you!?" Hyperdeath freaked out.

Asriel was...a bit stunned by the realization that he was...technically home. But it wasn't his timeline.

So many familiar faces...and people he hadn't met...but he instinctively knew because of my memories.

"Mom..." It didn't take him long to figure out what she had done.

"Dad..." Ditto.

All around him...why had they done this. Why had they committed the sin that he had promised to never commit. Why was the Promise haunting him seven times over?

"So...this is what it's come to, Adonis...this is your big....PLAN." Asriel emphasized that last word which REALLY set Adonis off.

He quickly spied Frisk's body.

"No...!"

He had realized he'd come so close to finding his answer. Frisk was right there...but she was gone. Why did she have to...? This was wrong...this was all wrong.

"Chara..." He thought of his sister.

"Why can't I protect one human?" He let a single tear roll down his face. He knew that it was pointless to avenge her. The only thing left was to stop Adonis...but how?

"Well.  I guess if Destiny is going to screw with me, I might as well take her little pawn off the playing field and show this game who's really Game Master!"

Adonis soared straight at Asriel.

"Gngh!" Asriel quickly forged the Kindness Pizza Cutter and blocked. It quickly shattered but it protecting him from Adonis' blow, causing him to skid backwards.

"Asriel!  Think of this as your Big Trouble in Little China moment." Zelda's voice came through into his head

"Right.  See things no one else can see.  Do things no one else can do."

Then he felt the sudden surge of power sent forth from Jenny.

"Thanks, everyone." He started cycling through his Virtue Powers.

"When are you going to learn--"  Adonis grabbed one of the Justice Blades...before jerking his hand back.

"What...?" He noticed the SAVAGE burns that went down to the bone.

"Well...isn't that something?"

All the while Hyperdeath was panicking and crying.

"No...make it stop...I don't want to be this way anymore...I don't want any of this anymore...I don't want to play this game anymore!  Please stop...somebody help me...please help me..."

Asriel was changing forms and strategies at a blinding pace as Zelda had suddenly increased his speed before Xavier gave him an intelligence boost, allowing him to think fourth-dimensionally more effectively.

I was even shocked when Asriel had managed to trace one of Bunnie's mojikara glyphs and perfectly summon both Severing Void and Blue Fireball Crash and Red Flame Cannon...one from each hand's fingertip.

"No way..." I delighted.

"Azarath Metrion ZINTHOS!" I heard Raven's voice super-impose with Asriel's as they cast a portal spell together, sending Adonis' ordinance and magic shots...somewhere else--

* GAAAH!"

...that somewhere else being directly over Adonis' own head. Nice.

A freezing summon from Krystal followed by a take on Psylocke’s own spiral knife attack that left Adonis' brains very temporarily scrambled but recovering.

"You can't possibly have this much power."

"And you DEFINITELY can't have any friends to turn to and rely on because you threw your allies away like pawns."

"Look around you, Asriel.  You can't stop what's coming.  Even if you take me down, you won't last seconds against Seven Absolute Gods from seven different timelines of your own AU."

Asriel knew he was right. Even with seven psychics in his corner enhancing his powers, the likely outcome would be he would be fighting Adonis for eternity. And sooner or later Adonis would get in that lucky kill strike and it would be all over.

Even if he WON against Adonis and managed to knock him and keep him off the playing field, what could he do against his parents, and five other Boss Monsters ascended to gods?

"Maybe I need to have a heart-to-heart with myself." Asriel finally realized it before leaving Adonis momentarily licking his wounds.

He drifted over to Ultimate Hyperdeath.

"Who...who are you?"

"Don't you know?"

Hyperdeath shook his head.

"Look at me, Asriel.  You have to know.  Just remember.  Remember who's in the mirror."

"......you're...?"

"Yeah."

"You can't be...!" I'm me."

"Asriel, don't you get it?  I'm you, but stronger." Asriel channeled his inner Steven Universe. I feel like Violet put him up to using that meme.

"That can't be right!  Look at you!  You're smaller and weaker than me.  I have all these souls!  I can control time and space.  I can reset it all...back to the way it was...I can drop it all down to zero and start over!  I can--"

"Asriel Dreemurr.  You know as much as I know that the Reset...it is the ultimate power but to use it would be evil.  You know you can't just take everyone's life experiences away and make them re-live their lives under your terms.  That's not right.  And we both know it."

"But...Chara is..."

"Yeah.  She's gone.  You know that girl over there is not Chara.  You know it.  I know it.  You've let an innocent life be taken...well...as innocent as she gets after all the resets and such but...She was trying to make things right.  You know we have to make things right."

Hyperdeath started to break down.

"Why are you letting HIM control you?" Asriel glared at Adonis.

"Be...because...?" Hyperdeath looked stumped.

"He doesn't define you.  These cheek scars, blackball eyes, and giant horns don't define you.  You said you were the Prince of this world's future.  Be that prince."

Meanwhile...

"Adonis isn't going to stay down for long..." Raven narrowed her eyes.

"We're already stretching Asriel's powers as far as his astral form can safely handle.  And he hasn't even brought out his most powerful technique, yet."

"Right, Bunnie.  He has yet to bring all the Virtue Powers together.  it was the only thing that stood a chance against Adonis in the Axis of Reality." Callista followed up.

"And maybe it's the key to saving them all." Master Splinter reasoned.

"But he can't access it if he's fending off Adonis at the same time." Krystal pointed out.

"Then we get him help." Bunnie reasoned.

"Rachel-chan, can you assist me with that?"

"Where do you need a portal to...?" Raven slid her glance over to Bunnie.

Back at the Barrier...

"Do the right thing, Asriel."

"I...I don't know what to do anymore...!  I...I don't want this." Ultimate Hyperdeath streamed tears that turned to flames...comets, maybe...as they left his furry face.

Asriel drifted over and placed his hand on Hyperdeath's snoot.

"I know.  I've been there...leave everything to me.  But...to do that, I need to ask a favor from you."

"A...favor?"

Asriel took a deep breath and summoned all of his Virtue Powers...overlapped them...and fused them all into his Ultimate Power, wrapping himself completely in it. The sudden strain on the Seven Psychics was almost too much for them to brace against as the backlash hit their minds in unison.

Asriel hovered down to the giant pulsing soul...holding the countless souls that Ultimate Hyperdeath had taken in.

"I feel them calling out to you...but you cannot hear them.  But I can.  Let me help them."

Asriel focused as his combined Virtue Form brightened in intensity, the focal point gathering at his stretched palm.

"Please." He looked up at Ultimate Hyperdeath, who looked down to him. Hyperdeath closed his eyes and nodded the most timid and defeated of nods.

"I know you are there.  I feel you.  I know why you are here.  You are here to save us.  But...you did not expect to need saving yourself.  Heh...neither of us can do this alone.  Let's save everyone...together."

Asriel bowed his head and closed his eyes, focusing...focusing...focusing with every fiber of his astral-projected being.

"Help me." He whispered, the message carrying back to the seven psychics gathered in Rabbotou Dojo.

"We hear you, Asriel-kun." Bunnie sharpened her focus.

"We will do what we can." Callista followed up.

"Let us give young Asriel a fighting chance to end this madness." Charles Xavier agreed.

"Eh.  I got nothing better to do." Raven played it down.

"We are with you, my fellow mammal.  The Aldebaran Sisterhood be with you as well as the entire Aniverse." Jenny of the Righteous Indignation agreed.

"May the Triforce grant  you favor on your heroic path lead to the true happy ending." Princess Zelda chimed in.

"And with us you will prevail." Krystal put in her two coppers worth.

As the surge of the seven psychics poured into Asriel's unconscious physical body on his end, Asriel's astral projected form was able to reach deep into Ultimate Hyperdeath's soul......and from a populous of hundreds of monsters souls and a mere 7 human souls...he was able to find the lone one belonging to the 8th fallen child.

"You...!" Adonis snarled as he attempted to charge Asriel.

* SHING *

"It's been said before...but do you want to have a bad time?  Touch my brother and I'll make you WISH you could die."

Soul Reaper Chara's Bankai pierced through Adonis' spine, long-ways; making sure she practically divided it in half. It wouldn't paralyze his limbs for long.

At the Dojo...

"She arrived safe and sound, everyone." Raven confirmed.

"Indeed she has." Bunnie smiled.

Back to the battle...

"Stay out of family affairs." She warned.

"How naive that you've forgotten the ways I can deal with Soul Reapers..."

"I know I can't kill you.  I'm just here to disturb and distract you.  By the time you stop trading clash taunts with me, you'll realize you're too late to stop--"

"Damn you--!" Adonis whirled back to Asriel.

Asriel's hand stroked around the soul as if he were stroking the surface of a fortune teller's crystal ball...yet he was careful not to touch it.

He guided it over to Frisk's fallen body and with both palms, lighting up with a...barrier or force field of sorts, he pushed it back into Frisk's chest.

"I don't know if this will work...but I...I feel like I have to try.  I have to redeem myself...no.  I have to redeem all versions of me...who allowed their sibling to die and take their soul.

In this moment...I'm giving a soul back to the one it belongs to. I just...I just don't know if I can give back the spark of life. I'm no god. I'm no miracle worker. I'm just a scared flower prince trying to do the right thing...hoping...dreaming...wishing for a miracle."

Asriel produced his H.U.D.

"Maybe you deserve this more than I do.  Maybe it's a mistake giving this up.  It's a heavy burden on me.  But...it's a responsibility, too."

Asriel looked upon Frisk's dormant form.

"I know there are other versions of you...willing to give up everything...for the sake of a dead monster who you barely even knew for all of a few minutes.  You were willing to let them be...reborn.  Ironic...isn't it?  I'm give that same chance to you, even though it might cost me everything.  But I guess...that's just the kind of people we are.  Right?"

Asriel gently pushed the H.U.D. toward Frisk.

"I've saved so many people in all the battles I've been in.  But maybe with what power is left in me, now...I can save...someone else?"

Asriel superimposed it over Frisk. And it looked like the human would absorb and overtake Asriel's code...but then...!

The H.U.D. whiplashed back into Asriel's grasp after it had seemingly dissolved into the child.

"Wha...what...?  Oh...I see...I understand..." Asriel looked dejected. "I was...prepared for the possibility...that I couldn't...save everyone.  I'm...sorry..."

Asriel wrapped his arms around Frisk's fallen body and pulled him close, embracing the lifeless child.

"You don't deserve this--"  Asriel started before he felt movement...then heard the rasp and gasp for air.

His eyes widened when he realized it. And before he knew it, both he and the teenage Frisk were standing tall, in each other’s arms.

"Hah...hah..." Asriel tried fighting back the tears.

"I guess...you don't want to let go, either...do you?"

Sub-Entry 405: "Asriel and Frisk":
Our Asriel...had done so many impressive things in his 118+ years...even escaped death after getting impaled through the chest by Evil Chara.

He had done so much. He was the co-hero of the Crossover Wars.

He'd done it all.

But now...he was about to perform his greatest miracle. And even as I write this...I'm not even sure how he'd do it. How it was even possible.

But he did the unthinkable...the unbelievable...the impossible.

Like Neo at the end of Matrix Reloaded...he brought Frisk back.

Frisk sniffled.

Finally Asriel let her take her head off his shoulder so that she could look him in the eyes and vice-versa.

"........"

"........"

"...it is you...isn't it?" Asriel was overcome with a feeling...what was this feeling?

"I already know...but...please...I need to hear it from you...what...what is your name?"

"Frisk."

"Frisk..." Asriel hadn't noticed that he was turning pink in the cheeks and his heart was thumping. This feeling...why did it feel right?

"You know something...it really is a nice name.  My name is..." Asriel took a dep breath. "Asriel."

"It's nice to meet you, Asriel."

It was at this moment in time, that it had escaped the two of them that they were holding each other's hands.

"I don't know how...but...somehow...I've waited all my life to meet you."

"I've met you so many times..." Frisk sobbed. "How can you forgive me for making you relieve--"

"Frisk.  That wasn't me.   Those were other Asriel's from other timelines.  I've only lived one...and it ended a long time ago.  Whatever you've done in the past...it's in the past.  You're trying to make it right."

Frisk couldn't think of anything to say to that. Because...it was true.

"Frisk.  For years I've lived in a city of second chances.  At first I didn't think I deserved one.  Just as you must have when you reset the timeline.  I know what Volt knows.  I know everything up to now.  I know what's supposed to happen...and what Adonis is trying to make happen.  I don't want Fate to keep controlling the outcome of our world.

It’s our world and our future to do with as we want. Not some chess game between goddesses.

Let me help you help me put things right around here. And most of all...let us both help him. Them. All off them."

"Oh, Asriel..."

"I understand now.  This is my destiny.  This is your destiny.  This is our destiny."

"That's...that's  nice thought."

A warm smile.

"Asriel...what do we do, now?"

"I--"  Asriel started before Adonis interrupted.

"You...you will not ruin EVERYTHING YOU STUPID FARM ANIMAL!!!"

Adonis pushed past Chara and headed straight for us.

"Make  like a ram...and BUTT OUT!" Asriel suddenly let go of Frisk and let his eyes shine bright yellow as he morphed his chosen weapon into a literal battering "ram" and launched the horned beast head like a cannon ball, knocking Adonis backward. He tumbled end over end before Goat Son's next morph turned them into giant versions of Pin*Bot's hands from the table's backdrop splash image.

Before long Adonis found himself being grasped around the throat and slammed into the invisible ceiling above.

He then realized...

"Volt!" He whirled away from Frisk to where I was shackled to the ground.

"I'll get you out of there--"

"No, Goat Son.  I know that you know this tired old cliché but...forget about me.  You have to diffuse this stand-off.  Adonis is right.  If the Absolute Gods of the Under-Nexus fight it out in here, their cataclysmic Clash will set off a big bang, that this rune with amplify with my powers as the focal point.

And the moment it does, this transmutation circle will stick this dimension in the very epicenter of the Axis of Reality just as it reaches critical mass. It really WILL wipe out all of reality! You can't just pull me out of the center of the reaction. One way or another it will go off and then it's game over. But this time, forever."

"Tch....." Asriel grit his teeth. But a moment's thought convinced him. He knew that I was right. There was only one path ahead.

"Asriel...I've played this game so many times with your lives.  It took everything I had to save them all from him...but I don't know if I can save that many people  with seven times that number.  And even if I can, I don't know if I can hang onto my last decimal place worth of HP if they all hit us with Hyper Goner--"

"Yeah...it is too much for one person.  But...this game hasn't been playing by the rules for a long time.  It's too much for one player...but...what if we had TWO?"

Asriel brought out his H.U.D. And Frisk brought out hers.

"If we can't talk to that many lost souls over and over...then let's talk directly to the ones holding them.  We save THEM.  All of them."

Frisk looked into Asriel's eyes and he looked back.

"Okay.  Let's do this."

And out came both of their H.U.D.'s.

"Let's [SAVE] them all!" Both said in unison.

"This isn't how the timeline is supposed to go!!!" Adonis tried to pull himself out of the giant goat hand constructs' grip.

"Since when do YOU care about structure, Adonis." I couldn't resist a taunt.

"Sh...shut up!" I noticed the crack across his chest.

"It looks like your true self can't take any more." I observed.

"Graaaaaargh!"

"You can't hide what you are underneath forever, Adonis.  Why be ashamed of it?"

"That's not me anymore!  That's the mold the Council pressed me into!"

"You poor soul..." I wanted to shake my head. A little hard to do in my predicament. "Just sit back and watch the show."

With that Asriel and Frisk tag-teamed the Ultimate Boss Monster Gods, starting with Goat Mom.

She looked upon Frisk and Asriel, the same tears of flame sizzling off her cheeks as Ultimate Hyperdeath.

"This is for your own good." She drew her hands back, trails of fireballs the size of blazing meteorites spreading out and leaving comet tails behind them.

The human and the monster prince lifted off the ground; a flight power granted by an unknown force as their souls lit up. And the two began weaving through the shots...at first with difficulty but gradually with ease.

"I had to leave, Mom.  I had to leave if I was going to free everyone."

Something stirred within Toriel.

Adonis snarled. "You fools!  You really think that you stand a chance against seven gods!  They'll overwhelm you and...!  Tch...!"

"You notice it, don't you?" I narrowed my eyes. "Look closely Adonis.  The others are not ganging up on Goat Son and the Eighth Fallen.  Do you understand why?   In fights...in battles...human or monster...they take turns.  That is and always has been the rule.  That's the building block of order."

"NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" Adonis raged.

"Those rules you say don't exist?   Right in front of you.  If they don't exist, why is every opponent on the battlefield obeying them except you?"

"Don't...don't...DOOOOOON'T!!!" Adonis raged more.

"Why so worked up?  IT'S...ALL...JUST...A...GAME."

Shots fired, Volt. Shots fired. And he had nothing to say to that because he was too overcome with fury.

Frisk high-fived Asriel, who took her place while she readied healing items.

"Mommy...do you remember?" Asriel reached into his inventory and pulled out a whole butterscotch-cinnamon pie that he, himself had baked after Mitzi and Nermal helped him perfect the recipe to be completely identical to one of Toriel's own. "How much joy it brought when you let me watch you bake?"

Something was stirring within her.

The Absolute Goddess of Hypercaring sniffled. She was breaking inside.

Another tag-out and Frisk tried again.

"I refuse to fight you.   I will not defend myself.  My goat mom taught me better than that.   For what you have to do...I forgive you."

Ultimate Tori became more distressed.

"Mommy...you made the right choice when you had Di-Di teach me swimming instead of fighting.  So thank you."

Tori choked up a little.

"To tell the truth...I kind of prefer cinnamon over butterscotch." Frisk followed up.

"Mommy...mom...mother......we're still a family.  You, dad, Chara, and me.  It doesn't matter if we're gone or still here." Asriel placed his hand over his heart.

Back and forth until Toriel broke down and lost the will to fight...and with it the will to maintain her ultimate form...slowly shrinking down into her familiar self. On hands and knees just hanging her head and crying.

"It's okay.  The hurting has stopped.  It's time to heal." Frisk assured.

"Someone wise once told me a mother's responsibilities to her children are only temporary; we grow, we learn, we mature...and we go out on our own and start families.   That same person...told us that we can only give our offspring roots...and wings."

Toriel’s' head snapped up...as the Toriel soul in Hyperdeath's soul reached out all the way to her and conveyed a message that I had imparted upon her. And in that moment...it all clicked. The Toriel of the green heart crystal timeline had been saved and spared.

"That's one down." I poked the bear with Adonis a little. He didn't like it one bit.

It was at that moment one of Papyrus' bones flew past Asriel.

"...!"

"Human!  I...I've tried very hard.  I've given everything so that I could finally have fans...so that everyone would be my...friend!  POWERFUL! POPULAR! PRESTIGIOUS!!! THAT'S PAPYRUS!!!  I've gotten all that I wanted...I'm not only in the royal guard, I AM the Royal Guard!  It's everything I've dreamed of...and yet, as hard as it is to believe...this feeling....what is this feeling?  Can it be...the Great Papyrus...?  Why do I feel this...emptiness...this sadness...this loneliness?  By taking all the souls into me...I've befriended everyone...haven't I?"

Oh, Papyrus...how can you not understand that this isn't friendship.

Frisk and Asriel nodded to each other as they again pressed the [SAVE] buttons on their H.U.D.'s.

I haven't fulfilled my duty! I MUST CAPTURE A HUMAN!"  More bones hurtled outward in waves, many of which spelled messages such as "COOL DUDE" and "GREAT PAPYRUS".

"THEN EVERYONE WILL...!"

"Pappy!  I'm having trouble with a puzzle.  Please...will you help me with it!"

Papyrus froze in place for a moment. "P...Puh...Puzzle...?!"

"Great Papyrus!  How do I join your fan club?" Asriel wagged his tail, pressing his knuckles to his chest in a gleeful kiddy way.

"...!"

I couldn't help but grin.

"I hope it's not forward of me to ask...but...would you cook something for me?  As a fellow Spaghettore, I'm leaning toward a nice plate of spaghetti...yes?"

It was at that time I think I saw Papyrus' eyes bug out...and then tear up. So happy. So moved to tears.

"Your action figure collection is legendary!  Would you be willing to let me gaze upon the greatness of Captain Skull Man and his second skeleton in command?"

Azzy still had my memories of that. And now those memories were working to his advantage.

Back and forth with a few skeleton puns and an accidental insult, which he SOMEHOW took as a compliment, anyway...

"I...I don't know what to say..." And with that The Absolute God of Hyperbelief as now just Papyrus.

"Human...Tiny Asgore...I understand now.  I know now that I must go back to my own realm and fix what I have done.  The Great Papyrus must not force friendships...it's...it's unbecoming of a Royal Guard.  If you will forgive me...?"

"We already do."

"!!!  I, PAPYRUS, WELCOME YOU WITH OPEN ARMS!"

The quickest of group hugs between human, goat, and skelebro.

"Nyeheheheh!"

"PAPYRUS!!!!" Ultimate Undyne snapped. "You had one job...ONE JOB...!!!"

"Oh dear...it seems Captain Undyne is in a terrible mood...."

"We can handle her." Asriel assured.

"THAT'S RIGHT, HUMAN! SMALL ASGORE CLONE!  YOU CAN WIN!! JUST DO WHAT I, WOULD DO... BELIEVE IN YOU!!!  NYEHEHEHEHEH!"

I held up the gesture for roman numeral 2 as well as V for victory sign. Jon often told me that was an offensive gesture in his home country so for Adonis...it kind of worked out in triplicate.

"NGGGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!" Undyne was FURIOUS.

"ALL HUMANS WILL DIE!!!" She thundered as a tidal wave rose up behind her and the crest of which shaved into a row of millions of water spears.

"AND YOU...OUR OWN PRINCE...A TRAITOR TO YOUR OWN PEOPLE!  BEFRIENDING A HUMAN!?!  YOU AND PAPYRUS, BOTH!?"

Asriel actually took a step back in the air from that; still floating from gravity abandoning him and Frisk.

But then he advanced forward, remembering who he was up against...and channeling all I had learned about her.

She had always intimidated him...for good reason. But now that he knew what she was like underneath all that war goddess exterior? She wasn't a lost cause......she was just PRACTICE.

Frisk nodded to him, letting him go first.

The spears rained down as Frisk and Asriel blocked with everything they had until there was an opening.

"Di-Di!  Are we going to have a piano lesson first?"

"....!!!"  That made her flinch for a moment.

Without warning Frisk charged forth and tapped with a pulled punch. It was easy for Undyne to see that she was being deliberately wimpy. Was this an insult!?

And yet...it stirred something in her.

"I'm sorry I was always so weak when you trained me, Di-Di...I was just so kind-hearted.   Like someone else you know..."

Asriel looked over his shoulder at Papyrus. "That's...why you wouldn't let him into the Royal Guard...not to hold him back but...to protect him.  You couldn't forgive yourself if anything happened to him...just like you taught me how to swim.  Your mastery over Green Attacks...it proves you really are a kind person."

"Please teach me how to cook!" Frisk followed up.

"Tch...!" Undyne grasped her head for a moment.

"You're our real enemy!" She pointed at Frisk.

"Mercy is for the WEAK!" Undyne showed her toothy scowl...but I could see the corners of her mouth twitching...she was fighting back the urge to smile.

"Undyne...someday I'd like to spar with you.  If that's okay.  And I'll show you how strong I've become.   Just like you wanted to show Dad how strong you were.  So strong you finally managed to beat him.  Well?  Someday I'm going to beat you.  Doesn't that make you excited?"

And Frisk simply replied with the biggest of smiles.

Finally...

"Well...I guess some humans are OK, I guess..."

She looked to Asriel. "You better not be lying to me, squirt..."

And with that she was back to being Undyne, no longer the Absolute Goddess of Hyperjustice.

"You softy, Undyne...always letting your heart cloud your judgement...instead of listening to logic and reason.  It's why you always used a sledgehammer to swat a fly.  Brutish.  Sloppy."

The Ultimate Goddess of Hyperknowledge stood before us in all her cold, robotic judgement.

"You don't know what it's like being a pariah...never understood by anyone...always looked at with judging eyes.  Always hounded with questions that should be so basic and as simple as breathing...but nobody can EVER figure out what's OBVIOUS!  Always watching and waiting for me to make a mistake.  Well...I created abominations!  Was that enough for you all!?  Was that enough to justify your doubts in me!?"

Alphys had it bad. Had her ascent to a deity actually convinced her to become one with her creation, Mettaton? My scanner glass was still on but I couldn't find Hapstablook inhabiting the cybernetic parts.

She looked at Frisk. "You hate me...don't you...?"

Frisk's face only showed compassion.

"Answer me!  I put your life in danger all through my lab...I set up our budding friendship from the start...just a facade, using Mettaton to win you over...but in the end it was just manipulation...I was just creeping on you.  Why won't you admit it?  Why won't you hate me?"

Then she looked at Asriel.

"And you...the source of all my other biggest problems.  When the Amalgamates failed....you were my last hope...and you abandoned me.  Poetic, isn't it?  Abandoned me just like I abandoned Bratty and Catty.   It wasn't enough that Mettaton abandoned me for stardom...but you had to leave me too.  I finally understood what a loser really is.  And I would have done this world a favor if Undyne hadn't stopped me from ending it all."

"W...wait...you were really gonna...!  Al...I had no idea..." Undyne's frills drooped.

"News story of the century..." Alphys held back her emotions.

"And here you are...like nothing ever happened.  Like you never died.  So what did I watch all those videotapes of Asgore's for...why did I put myself through all that guilt-tripping just for you to turn out to be okay in the end.  And really...you're NOT okay, because you're NOT him!

And even THAT'S not our Prince!"  She pointed to Hyperdeath.  "Just another timeline's sum of bad choices and Determination."

"So come now.  Let's rectify all my mistakes...together..."

And so came the barrage of lightning bolts, bombs, lasers and tiny Mettaton drones.

"Doctor...you don't have to face everything alone...I'll still support you.  No matter what you've done wrong." Frisk assured.

Suddenly she remembered...but still...

"All I do is hurt people!"

"Doctor...I know we just met but listen.  I've lived for almost a decade in a city of second chances.  For a hundred years I lived with the guilt that I couldn't save my adopted human sibling...the first fallen.  It haunted me...destroyed me...I thought I deserved to be forgotten and hated.  I had the best intentions...I wanted to help my people.   I wanted to save everyone but...I couldn't save anyone...least of all myself.   I mean...why would I?   Why would I be selfish?  It might be an easy choice for some...but not for me.

In the end I lost everything...my best friend...my family...my timeline...my whole world was taken away from me. So why...why was I spared? I started to believe that suffering alone in silence was my punishment. It was all I deserved. I was too bad for anyone to be left to hate me.

I made mistakes but I let people in who let me fix those mistakes...people who understood what I've been through. People...who lost their worlds...their family...their friends. Just like me. People who made hard choices and mistakes like I have. People who've abandoned and been abandoned....like you have.

Dr. Alphys...please come back to us and face the truth. Someone will listen. At least someone will forgive you. You might be surprised."

It was a pretty lengthy speech but...it was getting through to the most conscious and most aware of the gods before us.

"No...no..........I....I've got to keep lying!" Alphys put her hands on her temples like she had the worst of migraines.

Out came Frisk's phone and she speed-dialed Alphys.

"...!"  Alphys' cybernetics mecha-morphed into a hands-free headset as a holo-window projected from one of the emitters on her vast number of implants and bionics.

Alphys started to sweat as it started coming back to her.

"Doctor...It's all going to work out in the end.  Please don't hate yourself for what Flowey does.  He's lost his way, just as you have.  We've all lost our way at some point.  It's not too late.  I want to meet you...the real you."

Frisk followed up with.

"Doctor, I have this quiz question I'm stumped on.  It's a science question about...uhh...?"

Asriel whispered in her ear.

"Uh...electron orbitals.  I don't know what it's called when you have eight of them--"

"Oh!  Oh!  Noble Gases!  That phenomenon is called being "inert".  Those gases include  Neon, Argon, Krypton, Xenon, and Radon!  Because their outermost electron orbits are completely filled, they're completely unreactive elements and don't form molecular bonds with--"

I could tell Frisk was sorry she asked. Apparently Asriel had aced his chemistry exams.

Alphys caught herself and shook her head rapidly, realizing she had been distracted. Just a little push more should clinch it.

"You know...one of my teachers and guardians got me into...anime--"

Asriel barely got the words out before Alphys' eyes lit up like supernovas.

Frisk hesitated a bit, not as savvy as Asriel so she asked instead...

"What's your favorite cartoon--"

And she barely finished her sentence before Alphys launched into a five-paragraph essay on why Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 1 was superior to Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 2.

Suddenly the repressed memories came flooding back within her.

She just stood there for a bit...and then the pieces of her bionics and Mettaton's shell started dropping off of her after the circuits and lighting went dim...as she started shrinking down. Her soul, like the others, still containing all of her timeline's entire underground collective of souls--human and monster.

I could feel Adonis getting more distressed as they continued to snip the fuses of his giant powder keg.

Suddenly the whole area rumbled as Asgore...the Ultimate and Absolute God of Hypersorrow finally pulled rang.

"All of you...all of you dared...all of you DARED to challenge my authority!?  I am KING!  KING!"

His rage exploded as he gripped an impossibly large, cosmic, color-shifting trident in each hand, effortlessly.

By all means he was the monster equivalent of Zeus at his most tyrannical in mythology. Everyone was against him. All the paranoia he suppressed to be a powerful, forceful ruler...one that could carry everyone's hopes and dreams on his shoulders...exploded full force into rage. The pain of losing Chara. The pain of losing Asriel. The pain of losing Toriel. The pain of crushing all those who disagreed with him when he decided to re-ignite the war between humans and monsters. The pain of denying he was the instrument of his kingdom's fall...it was all out in the open...and being fueled by the other boss monsters that suddenly lost the nerve.

It was all because of the human. And somehow his own son came back and she had corrupted him. They had to pay. They all had to pay. Even if he were his own son...a prince could not go against his king. There would be an example made.

"Forgive me for this, my son..."

"Daddy...dad......" Asriel braced.

"Why do you disappoint me now..."

"You know that I'm not your real son...he is." Asriel tried to keep him grounded in reality.

"And at least...he is willing to do what is necessary for the greater good.  I never wanted that for him but he went ahead with it anyway.  The goodness of his heart...and yet now...he hesitates.  He is having second thoughts just as they did.  This is why...why your mother left me...because I made my people suffer instead of crossing the barrier after I took the first soul...and grabbed six more to shatter it."

"Stay with me, Asgore...you and Toriel don't know what you're thinking--"

"Silence!" Asgore snapped at me.

"This is my duty.  Even if it doesn't make sense.  The killing is necessary...there is no other way to get human souls.  I would have at least spared the children and taken the souls of people who DESERVED to die..."

"I...see it all now...is that...really what I was mad at Asgore about...?" Tori looked at me like a light had gone on upstairs after all this time...like it was something she'd forgotten and buried deep. He was right. It didn't matter if it was children or adults or anything for that matter.

I think even Undyne was starting to get it. She couldn't stand seeing the big guy like this.

Alphys...Alphys cowered behind Undyne. She was a dead lizard if Asgore zeroed in on her...even if it weren’t her timeline's Asgore...what would stop him from realizing she failed him. She failed her people?

Asriel felt Frisk's hand on his shoulder.

"King Asgore of the Underground." Frisk addressed him directly as she stepped forward, showing no field.

"I am the Eighth Fallen Child.   My name...is FRISK...and I...we...together are going to SAVE EVERYONE."

Asgore hesitated only a moment before going on the attack.

"Daddy...after this...you...maybe want to have a game of catch together?" Asriel had remembered the final scene of that movie, Field of Dreams. It seemed like a good start to reconcile with his own father. Why not use the reference?

Asgore's breathing got heavier as his aim with the fireballs got sloppier.

Frisk hovered directly in front of Asgore's face...and stared him deep into the eyes...and that triggered a memory. A memory of  the gaze of humans past...back when the gaze was kind...when the fear that monsters could take human souls was nowhere to be found.

"Dad...father...I apologized to you so much...for Chara's and my mistake with the buttercups...I was so afraid that I hurt you...it still haunts me.  You...you forgave me so quickly for that.  You explained the difference so softly and kindly.  I think...that was the first time I understood that a father had to be firm but with a gentle hand.

I can finally become the man I was meant to be because of you."

Asgore's eyes disappeared under a mysterious shadow.

Frisk hovered closer as did Asriel.

"I won't hurt you.  No matter what." Frisk looked with pleading eyes.

Something stirred in Asgore...he was inclined to believe her. How...how could he be expected to take this child's life...even for the sake of every person in his kingdom. How could he call himself a father...if he were willing to murder someone else's child?

There were hard choices...and even harder ones.

Asriel turned to Frisk who turned to him. Both nodded.

Together...they...at least attempted to wrap their arms around his giant form and hug him.

That, combined with saving Toriel...that did it.

Asgore began to shrink...as he did he dropped to his hands and knees and hung his head...and with that his crown fell to the floor...that had never happened before.

And we all heard him sob.

"Shhhh...it's okay...don't cry."

"All is forgiven, father.  Just please...stop killing children in my name.  This isn't what I want.  This isn't the legacy the Dreemurrs must leave."

And all seemed tame for a a good bit--

"LOOK OUT!" I screamed moments before Asriel and Frisk were thrown in opposite directions from the shockwave that preceded the massive-sized Gaster Blaster laser!

Crap! We forgot about "Seraph Sans".

There he was...too lazy to even give himself a title. I would have figured it was the Absolute God of Hyper...um.......I got nothing.

"Sans, stop!"

"This is what happens, kid.  What happens when I stop caring.  All the resets you and the other brat brought about.  All the times the Weed made chumps of us all.  And it all just keeps going and going in one looping cycle.  It never stops...never, never, never stops..."

"Mr. Sans...you're not making any sense." Asriel looked up at him.

"Nothing makes sense, kid (in both senses of the word)...not anymore."

Gods...Sans' nihilist view.......no...it was more than that...his exact words were the same as my own when Adonis tainted everything after we nearly lost VGM-098. It was what I was feeling when I was at my lowest.

I understood exactly how he felt.

"C'mon...it's me...it's the kid...don't you remember?  Don't you know how to greet a new or an old friend?"

Sans' attacks kept coming. Bones. Tunnels of bones. Blue attacks. Time and space jumping all over the place. It was like his Genocide Routine...with two turbocharges, a supercharger with blowers, and a pair of nitrous oxide tanks with a large amount of nitro-methane into both turbocharge intakes. For the layman? It was the ABSOLUTE GOD version of Megalovania. The kind of nightmare that if this were  a simulation? Then nothing short of a Tool-Assisted Super-play would have ANY chance of winning.

"Heh...heh...a good try...but that's no way to motivate someone who doesn't have any motivation left."

"Dammit!  How do we get through to this guy?!" I snarled.

"As long as even one Absolute God stays standing, Chaopolis' rebirth is guaranteed!  The UltraVerse's days...hours are numbered!"

Asriel looked frustrated at first...then tried something out of left field.

"Well...I guess wasting all this effort would be kind of a bone-headed move.  But I can't just skull-k around and get my bones rattled.  It would be a skele-ton of problems if crossed you wrong, wouldn't it?  But I guess the dangers are there whether I [ACT] or not, even if I can't cal-cium, right."

That many skeleton puns in a row. Wow, Azzy. Wow.

I'm sure Frisk could sense it. Sans was loving it, even though he wasn't showing it. Papyrus, on the other hand.

"OH MY GOD, LITTLE ASGORE CLONE!   THIS IS THE WORST THING EVER!"

Frisk blinked a bit...before muffling her mouth and trying to hold back the giggle.

Azzy had that determined look that said "we can do this".

C'mon...play his weaknesses. You both know what they are as do I.

"Sans...why are you wasting so much energy on us.  You look tired.  Why don't you take a break from fighting and we can pick this up later when you feel better."

I could tell he really wanted to stop. Lazy bones. A nod of the head confirmed it.

"I was serious when I said I wanted to join Papyrus' fan club.  He really is the coolest brother."

I saw Pappy's eyes light up. "I have another fan!  My popularity is skyrocketing!"

Frisk reminded Sans of the Junior Jumble and Crossword Puzzle.

It was wearing him down.

"C'mon...don't be a doo-doo butt about this...Legendary Fartmaster!"

"Okay, goat guy...you know my secret password.  I got to give you credit for that.  And yeah...you're right...Paps is the coolest.  You've been good to him, kiddo."

"Sans...I thought long and hard about what I've done...past and present.  It's not meaningless to apologize.  But...you'd remind me how talk is cheap.  How talking isn't always the solution to a situation.  So...for all I've done to everyone...let me try one last time to make things right...let me show you my regret...my sorrow.  Give me this last chance to prove I deserve a last chance in the first place."

"Sans...I'm not Flowey.  I'm not the weed that used your brother.  But I am the one that set all this in motion...even if I didn't intend to.  Who is to say who deserves what.  Let's just start from a clean slate.  Let's just be friends.  I don't want you as my enemy.  I don't want you to keep hurting yourself like this.  It's okay to let go and see the good that's still in this world.  Believe me.   Don't stand against this endless cycle alone.  No more secrets.  No more lies.  No more hiding things from the people you care.  Alphys knows it.  Volt knows it.  I know it.   And you know it."

"You hate promises.  I get it."

"I, of all people, understand why now.  But promises are worth something if you let them be.  Let us make a promise to you...one we'll work together to keep.  Okay?"

Several moments passed. I honestly don't know if we got through to him. But the moment of truth was here.

"................"

Frisk and Asriel had grabbed hold of each other's hands...in that tense moment, the gentle squeezes became a little stronger. Breaths were held. Faces were scrunched up in anticipation. Both human and hybrid were ready to shield each other from what came next.

Sans sighed.

"Well played, kids.  Well played."

And then the skeleton was back to normal.

"I'd head to Grillby's but...heh...that one's really on me.  Don't know if he'll ever forgive me."

"Before people can forgive you...isn't it about time you forgive yourself, Sans?" Asriel asked.

"Man.  You really have surpassed the old lady and King Fluffybuns."

I looked at Adonis.

"You lose."

"Not yet, I haven't..."

Sub-Entry 406: "Ultimate Hopes and Ultimate Dreams":
"You better check your math, old friend...because they're still one left."

"Alright.  Time to set you free--"  Asriel brought out his H.U.D. and pressed the [SAVE] button...but...!

"E...Error?"

Asriel tried again...and again...and again. In a call back to when he tried sparing Bunnie those years ago during his first martial arts class.

"I...I don't understand..." Asriel looked up at Hyperdeath.

"Why?" Hyperdeath looked distressed.

Azzy looked in panic at the red X over the button before it completely dimmed.

"...........that's it, isn't it...?" Asriel finally hung his head, his eyes hidden beneath his bangs. That's how it is. In the end..."

He looked over at Frisk, eyes swelling with tears.

"...I couldn't save myself."

I knew what he meant but...it was no less devastating to me, as well.

"Oh no..." Toriel held her hands over her cheeks.

"Goddammit!" Undyne cursed.

"You should hurry back to your own timelines.  As long as you got all those souls with you, this place is still a pressure cooker, and Adonis is primed to blow it sky high!" I warned.

"We cannot leave the child and our son in such a predicament!" Alternate Toriel pleaded.

"Brother...the human needs us.  But I don't know how we can help." Alternate Papyrus agreed.

"I got nothin', Paps." Typical.

"Oh dear...oh dear..." Alternate Alphys was back to her nervous self. Or at least suppressing her own inner demons like the others were.

The fact is we still needed those souls still absorbed into Ultimate Absolute God of Hyperdeath. And this one was at wit's end. More so than anyone in the room had ever been. It wouldn't take much to push him over the edge.

"Asriel!" Chara had finally diverted her attention away from Adonis.

"Listen to me, Azzy...you know what that right thing is.  You know how this has to end."

"Chara...I'm going to lose you all over again."

Chara shook her head.

"I wish I could be your sibling and best friend...I should be your sibling and best friend but..."

"I know...I already have........had one.  Heh...I sure got the luck of the draw, didn't I?"

"I'm sorry.  You deserved better."

"No I didn't.  I did all the bad things...that other me over there couldn't bring himself to do.  I don't want to have to do this anymore.  This game is tearing me apart.  It's tearing all of us apart.   There's nothing more we can do with it.  It's not fun for me.  It's just not fun for me.  I don't want to play anymore, Chara.  Help me out of this."

"I want to so bad.  But my fate has already been changed.  I think...I think we all know there's only one person you can help you."

Chara drifted over to where Frisk was.

"Take care of his brother.  For me.  For my Azzy.  For both of us.  For all of us.   Finish this game.  Face this last boss monster."

Frisk closed her eyes and gave a single nod.

"Okay...Absolute God of Hyperdeath.  We're both fully "awake".  We both know each other from past timelines.  This whole situation is carved into the both of us.  Let this be our final battle...and let it be the best game we've ever played.  Okay?"

Hyperdeath sniffled.

"O-okay.  One last time."

"Hey.  Don't worry about hurting me."

"Frisk...?"

"It's like someone wise once said.  It's nothing an apology and a first-aid kit won't fix." Asriel closed his eyes with a happy smile, cocking his head to the side, slightly in kind of an adorable way.

"I can't go easy on you...you know that, right.  I'm going to hit you with everything I have."

"Don't worry.  She can take it." Asriel patted her shoulder.

Frisk blushed. "Thank you for the vote of confidence.  I think...I could really use it right now."

"I know it's already been said but...I'm rootin' for ya."

"Heh...wonder where she heard that from...?" Sans said with a smug shrug.

I'd seen this. Over. And over. And over. So many times it went down...but not like this. Something about this time felt really different even though the setup was the same.

Without Frisk's Soul, he was no longer "Ultimate" but he was still Absolute. Hyperdeath inhaled deeply, drifted up into the air and spread his arms out...and began the fight with Fire Magic.

This time really was different. He wasn't taunting...he wasn't smug...he wasn't excited. It looked like this time around...he dreaded this. Like he knew what was coming. He couldn't even enjoy himself for one last go.

It was like the Flowey inside had completely been broken by this one and only shot...this could be the very last run and he made the wrong choice. Now everything just felt...wrong to him.

"Hey....I know this probably doesn't make sense...but I'm rooting for you, too."

"But...but why?" Hyperdeath's flame tears kept running down his face. They burned to embers once they hit the air.

"You're not a bad person.  You're me.  Even if this can't end well for you...you gotta try your best.  Aren't you excited?  You're doing this for your people.  I know it's tempting to feel so empty inside and wonder what you get out of it.  It is a little selfish but...you deserve at least some kind of comfort.  Some kind of solace."

"I'm scared...I'm so scared and I'm admitting that before I'm even beaten."

"Asriel.  Don't think about being afraid.  Don't think about never being able to win.  Just charge forth.  Frisk is here for you.  Just let her do what she needs to do."

Hyperdeath wiped his eyes on his sleeve, the ethereal cloak somehow not even igniting from it.

He then followed up with Star Blazing. Frisk was dodging then all pretty easily. She had her doubts, too but...I think Asriel had finally gotten through to her where I couldn't.

Heh...he really is amazing.

The Shocker Breaker came down. One bolt narrowly missed me. What a waste. Not like it wouldn't do any good with Adonis' spell still in effect.

"Don't take your eyes off me--!" Adonis hurled himself at Frisk.

"What are you looking at, psycho!?  Eyes right here!" Chara's Bankai hit again, nearly splitting Adonis' skull. But his regeneration just never seemed to slow down.

"So much for going for the head..." He taunted, making that infernal Thanos reference.

"Good point..." Asriel came out of nowhere and his NX Blades went straight through Adonis' chest cavity.

"That's the opposite of where you should have aimed--"  Adonis caught himself too late. The next thing he knew he was gawking at a bloody stump where the Infinity Gauntlet used to be.

It skidded across the ground until it stopped in front of Toriel and Alphys who shrieked at the gory sight and the long trail of blood splatter. Monsters weren't used to seeing blood.

"Sorry, Goat Mom!  If it's any consolation, I'm pretty sure none of us can kill him!"

"Who...!?" Alternate Toriel blinked before recognized something...familiar.

"...Chara...?" The gender was different but...could it be them...?

"This is gonna be an explanation for another time." Asriel assured as he and his sister kept Adonis busy while Frisk continued her fight against Hyperdeath.

Hyperdeath's head spun completely around on his shoulders before the Chaos Sabers slashed and slashed again.

"Eeesh." Asriel shuddered when he had a moment to breathe. "Never gonna get used to that.  Gonna be seeing that in my nightmares..."

"I know the feeling!" I waved a shackled hand at the wrist.

"Everyone...you might want to take cover..." Hyperdeath was kind enough to warn. "Here it comes!"

Crap. Chaos Buster.

The fountain-pen-like device replaced his arm and nine waves of absolute Bullet Hell rained out before he flipped the thing over and its meter filled up before firing the deadly rainbow laser."

"HEY!  WATCH IT!" Soul Reaper Chara growled as it swept between her and Asriel. Fortunately, it managed to splash into Adonis as his hand had already regenerated.

"I did warn you!" Hyperdeath hollered.

"Eyes on me, Goat God!" Frisk reminded.

This endurance round kept going. Frisk eventually had to use one of the Hopes, causing it to fill her inventory with Dreams.

Hyperdeath kept coming. Eventually he switched out Star Blazing with Galactica Blazing. Then Shocker Breaker became Shocker Breaker II. Then Chaos Slicer replaced Chaos Saber.

I could set my watch by it.

He was following the script to a T. And it was breaking him inside. Knowing that his actions weren't really his but the actions as foretold by the Goddesses...dictated by an unknown author/creator who used that Annoying Dog as an avatar...if even that was to be believed.

I felt his pain. Our Asriel felt his pain. At some point of another every one of us in UCIAT had felt this pain...being alone, afraid...losing everything...and just trying to hold onto the one last thing that made life worth anything. All for a game.

"Come on, Frisk." Asriel whispered as the human was really having to work for this victory. It was suddenly like the game remembered it had an incomplete HARD MODE...and this was it fully realized.

When Chaos Blaster came around things really got dicey. It nearly convinced Alphys to retreat back into her gateway before Undyne grabbed her by the lab coat and chastised her for not having more faith in the human. What a one-eighty!

"D...do I really have to use it...?" I thought I heard Hyperdeath murmur.

At that Frisk spread her arms out...to indicate she would not defend herself.

I saw Hyperdeath's face scrunch up...before he squeezed his eyes shut and out it came.

Hyper Goner.

"Everyone!  Grab onto your gateways and don't let go!"

I was nicely bolted to the floor so...

"Oh no..." Asriel's memories he shared me instantly alerted him to what the situations was. He stabbed both NX blades into the ground and hunkered down.

"Hold onto me, Chara!" He begged as she sheathed her blade and obeyed.

"You little turds aren't going to--"  It was all Adonis got out before he realized Asriel left a colorful little Inkling surprise all around him.

"What the--!" He suddenly slipped and wiped out on the squid ink from the NX Hero Blaster Asriel had used before locking down his equipment.

"Oh you are so gonna get it--"  Adonis said before  we all got shades of Andross' Telekinetic Amplifier as the giant goat's skull Gaster Blaster laughed before inhaling EVERYTHING into its gaping maw.

"Hold onnnnnn!"

Frisk resisted the pull of it, trying not to get sucked in.

I heard Allouicious Adonis scream before he was swept up and inhaled.

The next thing I knew Adonis went flying past us into the far wall and into the doorway where he had the nastiest and sloppiest of wipe-out splats before crumpling to the floor.

And then everything went numb for all of us.

"Can't...move...!"

Hyperdeath's ascension into the Angel of Death had managed to override EVERYONE in the room...even with all their souls still within them...somehow Absolute God of Hyperdeath's will overcame every one of them.

Frisk was brought down to the ground...unable to move.

"Forgive me...Frisk..." Hyperdeath's elongated, clawed fingers on each behemoth of a disembodied goat hand glowed as the homing comets were primed to fire.

Frisk couldn't move, couldn't speak...couldn't access her save file. Even our Asriel was helpless against this power.

From far away, Madam Fate's cruel, wicked grin pierced from the blackness of her shadowy silhouette. She wasn't smiling because of this...she knew something and wasn't sharing.

"With what little power I have left..." Frisk thought deep within her paralyzed consciousness.

"...I WILL [SAVE] you..."

And Frisk's soul reached out into Hyperdeath's and Destiny took her course.

Frisk had to talk to the Lost Souls all over again...just as she and Asriel had done with the Absolute Gods of the six other timelines.

First to be freed were Toriel and Asgore.

"Your fate is up to you now!" Tori's spiritual likeness enveloped one Monster Soul out of the whole collective.

"You are our future!" Asgore's soul projected his ghostly image around it as well. And for the first time I could remember...Tori's soul didn't distance itself from Asgore's. Maybe...?

"NO! WAIT!! YOU'RE MY FRIEND! I COULD NEVER CAPTURE YOU!!" Papyrus followed up with a Nyeheheheheheh! As his skeleton image wrapped around his soul in the collective, next. Don't remember him laughing like that after being freed before...odd.

"Well, some humans are OK, I guess!   Damn...I could have sworn I'd already said that.  NGAAHHH!" Only Undyne. Wait, what else did she say?

No, that's not true! I don't just hurt people! They don't hate me! My friends like me! And I like you, too!"

A little different from her previous times...something was off about how this was going down.

"nah, i'm rootin for ya, kid.  you too, princey.  glad i listened to ya, arcade."

Sans? Did he...?! How...!?

Elsewhere at a chess game, Fate scoffed as Destiny let out a little giggle.

"Don't get so cocky, sister dearest..."

Which left one last soul to save...

"This feeling...I know this feeling...!" Hyperdeath felt inclined to resist it. That was the "script" talking.

"Frisk...it hurts too much to keep doing this...I don't know if I can bear this anymore...!"

The waves of comets kept coming and coming.

He ground his sharp teeth as his attacks started becoming predictable and easier for Frisk's soul to avoid.

"Can't...stop it...I have to........!"

And out it came...the Final Attack that tore apart the FIGHT, ITEM, and MERCY options, leaving almost nothing left of Frisk's H.U.D.

A constant river of power flooded through Frisk. Her HP started going down, down, down...

I was starting to have my doubts that even she'd be able to last against this...it felt more powerful than her and she was starting to lose consciousness completely.

"You tried, Frisk...you really did......never have I wanted to lose so badly but...it looks like this is the real end.  It's not fair...we shouldn't have to hurt the ones we...we...care about!"

A tear rolled down Frisk's motionless face...she knew she couldn't last any longer even though she'd never give up. Even though her determination would go on even if she couldn't...it was...just the way Fate had--

"I gotcha."

Frisk wanted to gasp as soon as she felt Asriel Arcade's furry hands gently wrap around her shoulders before hugging her from behind.

"Maybe I can't save myself...but I can still help you.  One person...can make all the difference."

Asriel was risking his life to protect Frisk against Hyperdeath.

He winched hard as the Seven Psychics spasmed from the backlash of feedback hitting them all at once.

Frisk's life had gone down to one milli-HP...then one micro-HP...then one nano-HP.......and it kept dropping beyond that. This was far lower than what it had EVER been in any timeline.

"Gnnnnnngh!  NGGGGHH!!!!"

Asriel and Frisk shouted a single word in unison.

"DETERMINATIOOOOOOOOOOOOOON!!!!"

Finally...the attack stopped and faded while less than a pico-HP...one trillionth of one point. Still enough to count as above zero.

I...I...really lost...again..."  Hyperdeath's dis-embodied arms just...dropped to his sides as all of his body save for his head just kind of...faded and darkened.

And then all was still.

All was silent.

All...but the softest, gentlest cry I'd ever heard in eight years.

Our Asriel let Frisk go as she dropped to a knee...then shakily got up and began to approach the fallen...Asriel. UTPR-3235's Asriel. The one that belonged to this timeline.

"Frisk..." Our Asriel uttered.

"Let me talk to him."

Azzy nodded and hung back. It was as surreal for him as it was for me. Seeing an eight...no ten-year old version of himself. So lost and alone and defeated.

"We...don't have to go through all this formality again."

"I...knew you'd come for me again, Frisk.  This game...I just want to stop playing."

"I know.  I had to play it one more time.  You were just so...miserable."

"Frisk...you know you can't change that.   I'm not one of the special cases...I'm doomed from the start.  My only reason for existing is to die and...end up here.  Where you just keep comforting me...and this game starts over and it happens all over again."

Frisk hugged Asriel close. It wasn't the same as the other times. Frisk was in her teens now. Only a little younger than our Asriel at most. And she was comforting a goat boy no more than 9 or 10.

"We'll find a way somehow to end this cycle."

"You're not the first Frisk to say that." UTPR-3235 Asriel sniffled.

"That won't stop me from trying.  I'm...very determined."

"I...*sniffle*...guess I know that...better than anyone."

A moment of silence.

"I'm...sorry about Chara."

"Not as sorry as I am.  He pushed me away but I still wouldn't give up on him.  But in the end...he gave up on himself...and he abandoned me.  I see that now.  I wasn't...really a traitor...was I?"

"For the sake of your people.  Some things are worth attempting, no matter what the cost."

"I've heard that before....somehow."

"Maybe you're...channeling the other you?"

UTPR-3235 Asriel looked over at our Asriel.

"Yeah...maybe." Another drying of the eyes on his sleeve in that familiar way.

With the situation properly diffused, our Asriel and Chara attempted to find a way to free me from my bonds.

"...nothing's working." Chara had stretched her spiritual pressure as far as it would go. "What the HELL is this thing made of...?"

"One of his cronies really though this through..." I growled, having given up on struggling.

"They going to be okay?" Chara asked.

"Let's not interfere with the timeline any more than we have to.  We still have to find a way to get these coordinates back into Undertale's AU cube within the Axis of Reality.

Somehow we have to undo this rune. It's still a ticking timebomb but now without the divine forces it needed as fuel. As long as this blasting cap is still in it...it can still cause a lot of damage to the Space-Time Continuum from within, even if it's not nearly enough to completely wipe it out--"

"That remains to be seen!!!" Adonis suddenly roared as his fist came down and the resulting shockwave from the impact with the floor created everything around it but the circular section underneath the rune. Now I was on a pillar with a circular trench dug around me. Asriel and Chara went flying off in opposite directions.

Sub-Entry 407: "Adonis Unpunishable!?  How Do We Win?"
"I can still set this off.  I still have alternatives to make this work.  You didn't think Chaopolis has contingencies?"

"How much does it really burn your tail relying on plan after plan that fails?" Asriel picked himself, up rather annoyed by this.

"Kick that sore spot at your own risk, you little--"

"With the number of times you keep calling me that, I'm starting to think you have an obsession with scatology." Asriel wrinkled his snoot. "Let's keep it clean, shall we?" Goat Son growled as his sister also picked herself up.

"You can do this from now to eternity.  All it takes is just one flub and I'll win.  You know it, don't you?  How determined are you to keep this up?"

"Test us and find out." Chara re-summoned her Zanpakutou.

"We've interfered with the timeline so much there's no telling when Frisk will find herself at the end of this journey, waking up from a "bad dream".

I still wasn't sure how that mechanic quite worked...if it WAS just a bad dream how did Asriel appear at the end and ask if Frisk had anything better to do...?

"Then let's delay this until this fades away."

"And while we're at it clip the fuse of his backup bomb." Chara grabbed the sword with both hands like a samurai.

"Think it will be that easy!?

"I've already beaten you.  Pretty sure I can do it again, especially since I have Chara with me."

"Flattering vote of confidence, brother."

"If we wear down his ability to regenerate then he's in the same boat that Volt ended up in.

"Naive little goat and human...do you know who you're up against?"

"Yeah.  Pretty sure I do.  And there are two of us.  And one of you."

"One of me is all that's needed..."

Back in the dojo.

"The strain of maintaining this astral projection...is almost unbearable...!" Charles was visibly sweating as maintained his portion of the psychic link.

"I was used as a portal by my father, Trigon.....and this pretty much feels the same..." Raven complained.

"Come on...it's for Asriel's sake...please...we can't abandon my son, now...."

"Not part of the plan, Doctor.  We'll fight to the very end and never surrender." Krystal assured.

By now Asriel was cycling through all his Virtue Abilities plus the psychic abilities in addition to his NX Weapon configurations. At the same time Chara was digging into every Kidou attack and trick of her sleeve before re-invoking her Bankai.

And it just kept dragging on and on until...

Adonis hoisted Asriel and Chara up by the throats.

"Got...nothing...witting to say before you do your black deed, Adonis?"

"You have pissed me off far too much for that, little farm animal."

"I'll see you rot in the depths of Hell for this..." Chara snarled vindictively.

"Tell em' that "Donnie" sent  ya--"  Was all he got out before his fur ignited from  the impact of a magical fire.

"Do not touch those children." Alternate Toriel's rage exploded. Despite suppressing the power of the six human souls and the countless monster souls; a fraction of that power was still exploding forth...and with devastating impact.

"Well well...you've gone from being no good to me to throwing your life away; so I guess you're not completely useless anymore--"

And then Alternate Asgore's trident found its way into Adonis' lower back.

"I will not let you harm a hair on either of their heads.  It's the least I can do to redeem myself for all the lives I've taken..."

Well, well. Fluffybuns remembers he has a moral compass.

And then Undyne's spear came down from above and pierced Adonis' brain before the fish-lady twisted it violently.

"I don't care if you ARE immortal!  I'll paint the walls with your blood if you even think about hurting those two!"

"NYEHEHEHEH!  Tiny Asgore number 1 and the pink-cheeked human are under the protection of the Great Papyrus!  Those who endanger the Underground must answer to me!"

"This really isn't your day, pal." Sans mused before Adonis found himself lifted up moments before a Gaster Blaster aimed straight up.......ughl. That's nasty. Not going to go into detail.

"Oooooh." Chara cringed. "Yikes." Asriel agreed.

"Enough!  You'll all turn to dust before this is over!" He whirled his gaze from Boss Monster to Boss Monster....until it rested on the easiest target.

"Dr. Alphys!" Asriel cried out.

Alphys stood her ground, shaking violently and obviously scared out of her wits.

"You're first--"

At least that's all he got out before...

"Say hello to Super Mecha Death Mettaton 2000 BC version 4.0 Beta, *CENSORED*!" Alphys suddenly challenged as Adonis found himself grabbed from behind and held up by one of the many pairs of arms by the....HOLY SCHNIKEES WHAT-THE-HECK UPGRADE TO METTATON IS THAT?!

"Oh noooooo, this will not do.  Children, do please cover your ears.  You will not want to hear such language as I get salty."

"Alphys really outdid herself this time...!" I gaped at the monstrosity that mashed up David Bowie with the T-1,000,000 and that hunk of hardware from James Rolfe's review of Super Mario Bros. 3....yeah...that one.

I'll spare you the bad language and say Goat Son's old swear bottles would be quite full after this.

"Holy sh--"

Super Mecha Death Mettaton immediately blasted me with small explosive round that stung a little but didn’t really do that much injury to me.

"HEY!  WATCH YOUR *CENSORED* LANGUAAAAGE!"

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight. This really felt like KOMMAND tampered with Lady Destiny's script behind the scenes. This is exactly something Vi would do.

Chara and Asriel just stood there, uttering a fake cough or two.

By the time the assault finished, Adonis' regeneration was indeed starting to slow.

Until finally.

"Submit." Asriel' lifted Adonis' jaws up by the flat edge of his NX Sabre.

"You know I'll never do that.  You can lock me up and I'll get free again and we can do this dance all over again.  I can never die.  Do you know what that means?  Not quite alive...not quite dead...forever at my side--"

"Oh shut up and stop ripping off Dr. Weil."

That was the nastiest I'd ever heard Goat Son get.

"You know I'm right, Volt.  You know you can never stop me.  You know you can never punish me.  I'm that type.  The type that can't be bought...bullied...bargained with...I can't be reasoned with...I can't be threatened.  I just want to watch the world burn.  Don't you get it...I am the one and only person who is ABOVE THE CONSEQUENCES!"

"I've never heard such a collective wad of waste in my life..." Chara sheathed her blade.

"Seeing is believing and it's time I cut you all down!!!" Adonis bellowed as he summoned an unholy abomination of magic and science combined...I was sure that none of the Boss Monsters nor Asriel could survive it.

"DEATH TO ALL WHO OPPOSE CHAOPOLIS!!!" He screamed before the blacklight ball of evil and whiplashing murder-scythes primed to take everyone out.

* ZAAAAAAAAAAAAARK*

Adonis spasmed as every fiber in his being screamed in pain from the lightening that directly seared into his nervous system through the sudden "spinal tap" that pierced the nape of his neck.

"Gurrk....!"

His regeneration had slowed so much that his fried nervous system was making it hard to move...but he was able to move just enough to see.

"You...how did you get loose!?"

"Bomb's diffused.  KOMMAND just informed the Major and she and the other Psychics relayed it to me through telepathy.  S.T.C. found the Ultimate Annihilator you set to blow violently once you warped this entire space into the center of the Axis of Reality.  It's been confiscated and scheduled with a very strong rush order to have it permanently dismantled and melted down.   The blueprints have been burned, too."

I yanked the railroad spike I had in my lab coat pocket from the last time I had taken the Time Train out to a place that actually HAD old-timey railroad tracks. I didn't even bother shaking Adonis' blood off.

"How...how did you get loose, dammit!"

"Oh that?  That was easy..."

"I undid the rune."

Adonis' eyes widened. That look that silently screamed "Impossible!"

He resisted hard the urge to not turn around...but he gave into the temptation anyway...and that's when he saw it.

"Ch...Chara!" UTPR-3235's Asriel recognized the spirit.

"I crushed your soul!  You're erased!"

"Yeah...funny thing..." Evil Chara looked blank as a refrigerator.

"I guess it was my turn to keep a secret from everyone.  Squad 12 Research Corps spent a good two weeks searching the ocean and the beach for all the fragments of his soul and...spent an inordinate amount of time reassembling it.   Once he...awoke...he became very cooperative." Soul Reaper Chara explained.

"He was very insistent, too.  Getting your head crushed and your soul ground to dust will do that to you...am I right, other me?"

"You have no idea what I still want to do to him...but I can't...because I'm dead.  Because I can't even physically interact with this world.  But I can share a lot of secrets...like the kind of secrets on how to diffuse this craphead's alchemy and undo the restraints on Arcade here."

"And as much as I do want to settle the score, Allouicious...I've decided you're not worth it."

"Then you admit that the only logical thing to do is let me go...whether it's now or let me escape from confinement like you always do."

"Not this time, Adonis.  Not this time."

"Don't you get it?  There's nothing that can hold me!"

"I suppose you're right.  I don't have any way to punish you or incarcerate you........." I trailed off.

"So I called in a favor." I close my eyes before two bony hands with circular sections cut out of the palms wrapped around Adonis from behind in a steely grip.

"WHAT!?  YOU!?"

Alphys' eyes widened...then Asgore's. As if something suddenly came back to them and they remembered.

"I am sorry to make such requests to you...Dr. W.D. Gaster." I looked up at the chalk white form of Gaster...somewhat blended between light and darkness...unstably so.

It seemed his research hit another snag. Or as he surmised...light...and dark. One cannot serve two masters at the same time. There were consequences to forcing the balance just as much as there were for going dark, darker, yet darker....just as much as there were for going light, lighter, yet lighter. If there was a solution, he wouldn't find it in this lifetime or the next.

"I accept my fate.  For too long I've served science without regard to morals.  And too long have I gone overboard in the opposite direction.  But now I'm starting to understand the nature of existence."

"How did you even get here!?" Adonis demanded as he struggled to get free...then he saw it out of the corner of his eye...the crack in this space's reality...a crack which lead to.

"Oh my gods..." Our Asriel gaped in horror as he recognized what lay beyond.

"It's the Void."

"You're planning on dragging me into your Creation?" Adonis roared with laughter.

"Fool...I can escape that too!"

"For your own sake and the sake of salvaging some semblance of dignity...do hold your tongue.  It does you no good to continue to dig your hole deeper and reveal just how ignorant and inept you really are."

Sub-Entry 408: "Dr. W. D. Gaster's Sacrifice.  A Prison For Adonis With No Escape":
"You're bluffing!  The Void is no more a prison than--"

"We are indeed going to the Void...but you misunderstand.  You seem to have forgotten what lies beyond.  What escaped from it in the first place."

Adonis choked on his own words, realizing it.

"Allouicious Adonis...once upon a time you used me as part of your schemes.   Do you not remember?"

"What was it I am to remember?"

"The Goddess you served let a stowaway escape using me as a beacon out of my own creation and into a carrier I had been studying..."

"..."  Chara nearly dropped her Zanpakutou as she lowered it...and turned away in shame.

"Adonis.  That wraith that escaped...despite the fact that it served the same master as you...you used it as a pawn to advance your own agenda.  Madam Fate allowed it because it brought so much chaos and interesting twists to her script.  What was one wraith out of millions, right?"

"You're not going to make me feel an ounce of regret.  I'd do it again and again without hesitation!"

"I know you would, dear doctor."

"So what?"

"You discarded that Wraith so readily.  You let Dr. Arcade and Asriel Dreemurr trap it in a muon field and then imprison it into a high-voltage laser confinement grid.  Now while it is indeed off the playing field and isolated from anyone it could possess or cause trouble to...

...my dear, Doctor...it isn't completely severed from its own kind. It retains a link to its collective. How fitting that Dr. Arcade should call its kind "Legion". A fitting name for an incorporeal demon spirit with a hive-mind collective.

For nearly nine years it has been feeding information to its brethren. Granted, the prince and Volt Arcade have crossed it and in all probability if they encounter more of these wraiths in the future, they will be held accountable and may very well go through Hell and back again to contain these creatures for as long as they can go on....but I would concern myself with how much more of a vendetta they have against you at this very moment."

Adonis was starting to get the picture.

"I think it's time I went back to that place.  After all I have nothing to fear since Monsters are uninhabitable.  Completely unsuitable for them to wear like a suit or a gigai like the Soul Reaper Chara."

"....!!!!!"

"It's starting to click now, is it not?"

"You...you can't do this!"

"I for one have seen their world.  For serving a goddess of chaos, discord, and completely hegemonic rule over all they survey with a propensity for bringing out the worst in weak humans and other creatures they can manipulate and turn into Fate's puppets...

...they sure live in a surprisingly structured, order realm. Desolate as the InfinityVerse you wanted to create on some aspects...while at the same time so structured and organized."

Adonis blanched. No. They can't POSSIBLY live in a society! Not one of...order!

"And I can think of no better way to trap you in than to serve my penance...as the cork in the bottle."

"What!?!"

"It is...the sacrifice that seems so final...but only logical.  May it one day erase all the sins I've amassed."

"I...FORBID THIS!!!" Adonis broke free and tried to swim his way through the vortex of the CORE, up through the dimensional..."sludge" between realms...attempting to climb back out of the tear between worlds.

And then he saw it barreling toward him from the other side of the crack in the dimensions.

"The prince of peace is indeed high, Adonis...now you find out what I'D sacrifice to maintain it!" Evil-Chara cannon-balled straight into Adonis, focusing all of his psychokinetic energy to make himself solid for one brief moment...enough to tackle Adonis back down into Gaster's grasp.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!"

And with that he spiraled down and sunk through the many layers and layers of dimensional fabric. It was reminiscent of Dimension W in every sense. He splashed down through a weird liquid energy before landing in that place...where the hordes and hordes and hordes of Wraiths were waiting.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" He tried jumping back through  before Gaster's body could seal the way in.

As he did the Wraiths all grabbed for him...hundreds clutching him and pulling him back...in mere moments...they overwhelmed him...and completely drowned him in a sea of their Legion.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" His final scream became muffled...then completely overwhelmed by the chaos of an endless sea of Wraiths swarming him.

At the same time...

Destiny wrapped her fingers around the King piece and snatched it up.

"Checkmate."

Fate stood up, turned around and left without a word.

Not a taunt was given. Destiny wasn't one to rub salt in a wound.

This game was over. But who could say if it was just another in a series of "best of X" number of games? A two-player tournament? Time would tell. But for now...

Sub-Entry 409: "He Could Save Everyone But He Couldn't Save...":
"Farewell...my old friend.  And...I'm sorry." I bowed my head as I remained kneeling down, feeling just the briefest moment of feeling defeated. But the moment passed...and I realized...I had kept my word. But...we weren't quite there yet.

"It seems...there is nothing more for us to do." Alternate Toriel and the other had gathered only momentarily.

"This timeline is not any of ours.  We do not belong here." Alternate Asgore agreed.

"We have...made a mess of our own timelines...and...there is nothing more we can do now." He acknowledged.

"To covet each other’s souls...souls which belong to none of us...it would only bring more pain and misery."

"There is no scientific benefit to acting without conscience.  I see now.  Conscience before convenience.    What a fool I've been to embrace all science and no philosophy."

"I...guess I was kind of wrong to.   There wasn't a problem I couldn't fix by shoving a spear through it.....until now.  NGAAAAH!  This really sucks."

"I hate to admit it but...perhaps I've done some things which are...not so great.  I have not been the best Papyrus I could be.  Especially to my own Sans.  I can only hope you find it in your soul to make amends with your own brother."

Alternate Sans looked back through the portal. "Heh.  What I left behind isn't a sight for the faint of heart.  That's what happens when people like me stop caring.  Try to end the RESETS at every cost.  I even stooped so low as to sacrifice the things...and people I loved for the ideal.  I can feel all those souls in me...and this is one punchline to a joke that nobody found funny."

"We have to set things right...even if it means we still lack whatever it is that we need to break our respective Barriers." Toriel closed her eyes.

"At least if any good is to come out of this...I believe our son....no...I believe this timeline's Asriel will be the one to break the barrier." Alternate Asgore comforted.

"And maybe somehow put an end this game that we've been trapped in once and for all." Alternate Sans followed up.

"Well then.  It's been fun, nerds.  But I guess I gotta bug out of this.  Later." Alternate Undyne went back through her portal first.

"...maybe I can finally work up the courage to beg them all to forgive me once I set them free.  I'll...I'll find another way to break the barrier." And then Alternate Alphys was gone.

"Oh my!  I've got to get started on all the spaghetti I need to make for a proper apology!  Nyeheheheh!  The Great Papyrus makes his exit!" And out goes the bonehead.

"Good luck, my children.  Even if you aren't really our children...we are still family on some level." Toriel exited.

"Take hold of your futures.  And do not let go.  Do not make the same mistake I have.  Make a good future and face it with the courage that I could never have."

Asgore was gone.

And that left Sans.

"For what it's worth...I still don't have a lot of hope for a brighter tomorrow.  But...I guess I gotta lift a finger or two to at least try to do something with the timeline I left behind.  Otherwise it's just gonna end up worse than what Adonis had planned for us.  Welllllp...I guess it wouldn't hurt if I use a little bit of this infinite power to at least bring Grillby's back.   Hey...you think Papyrus will want anything...?"

He didn't stick around for any of us to answer.

I had to have faith that their Timelines would work out somehow. Maybe they wouldn't figure it out like Asriel 3235 was about to...but...I don't think they were going to screw things up worse now that they'd founds themselves again.

One by one the gates closed...and the Heart Gems dropped out of their sockets and scattered across the floor...where they suddenly turned colorless. All seven had turned colorless but remained intact.

And with that, our space-time returned to its coordinates in the Axis of Reality. True Pacifist Timeline UTPR-3235 was back where it belonged.

I'd later find out that their energies still keeping us in and everyone else out  would take a little bit to fade away but eventually, S.T.C. would be able to retrieve me. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

It was now down to Frisk, Asriel, Soul Reaper Chara,  me...and Asriel 3235...crying his eyes out.

Frisk looked at our Asriel, inquisitively.

"Go on.  Go to him and give him the comfort he needs...he deserves."

Frisk headed over. At her age she was considerably taller than him so she had to kneel down. Destiny's and Fate's rewrites to this script had made...everything a little different this run.

"You don't have to let go if you don't want to." Frisk whispered in his ear.

"You...forgive me?"

"I'll always forgive you.  I understand.  I've felt your pain.  I know what a burden it is to have this power.  And...I know what it feels like to be so lonely...so afraid and abandoned."

"Frisk...I'm scared...you know what I have to do next......and what it means once I do it."

"We only just met...for the...the......well......who can say how many times it's been now.  How many versions of us it's been.  How many other Frisks must've...given the other copies of your soul the same talk...the same forgiveness and the same hug...and yet.......yet..."

"It's always going to be this one-way trip for me.  I've said that it was okay over and over...but...it's not okay.  I'm not going to be okay.  Once this Final Power is unleashed...that's it.  I...I'm going to become Flowey again.  Probably forever this time.  I know you're going to promise me that there are no resets after this...just like you promised Sans.

...but promises are so hard to keep. And we don't always have control over them. Sometimes...something forces us to break them."

"Yeah...sometimes...." Our Asriel looked off to the side.

He took a deep breath before he worked up the courage. "Chara...wait for me for a second."

"...do what you gotta do, Azzy."

Asriel approached Frisk and his counterpart.

Asriel 3235 looked up at the towering goat teen...young adult before him.

"Yeah.  I know.  You're thinking about how you can be as cool as me, aren't you?"

Azzy wasn't serious about that bluster. I think flexing his ego in that moment was a way to get a laugh out of me. I sure could use it after this ordeal. I knew he was way more humble than that.

Young Asriel moaned.

"Hey, I was just kidding.   But...in all seriousness, you should understand...the grass is always greener."

Young Asriel moaned and cringed.

"Too soon?"

Yeah. The grass comment hit a little too close to the Weed.

"Serious guy talk, Asriel.  You...shouldn't want to be me.  It's...not always a bed of roses......oops.  Did it again."

Young Asriel whined a little. The puns were not doing it for him.

"Okay, okay.  I get it...you didn't inherit mom's sense of humor.   Golly...we really are fundamentally different in ways."

Young Azzy's lip quivered a little.

"Yeah...I know.  Fate isn't kind to us is she?" 118-year-old Asriel reciprocated. "It sucks for you because you'll...never go beyond this...and it really sucks for me because...I can't help you.  I mean...why would I be able to?   Isn't it selfish to help yourself?  I guess...I still think so a little."

Young Asriel moaned again.

"I know...it's easy for me to say what with all I have...all the friends, the family...the life that's...so easy to be jealous of.    It's only natural.  Asking yourself why...why does this older version of me get to have all this...but I don't?  I have to give up every soul I took in me...and then lose everything all over again.  I...I really can't answer that.  I just can't understand either.  So...we're both stumped.  That's the way it is.  There's no sugar-coating it, no kind words to make it all better, nothing to soften the blow.  Life is just cruel that way.  Heh...I guess I'm not giving the best of my pep talks."

Frisk looked at older Asriel then back to the young one.

"Trust in Frisk."

There's that humility, giving credit to the Eighth fallen child.

A bit of time passed before it really sunk in for both Frisk and our Asriel.

"I'm sorry...even though I saved you....I still can't save you." The both of them had somehow said in unison before looking at one another than back to Asriel.

"It's alright." It really wasn't.

"In the end there's nothing I can do but accept it.  And when I become the flower again...I'll be bitter about it....I won't forget...but I will no longer be able to forgive.  Forgive for leaving me down here.....even though it's my choice.  I can't stay.  I can't let them see me like this.  I can't let them know what I've done."

"You really won't budge on that, will you?" Frisk asked.

Young Asriel shook his head.

"The truth will set you free but...I understand your reasons."

Another momentary silence and things felt a bit tense.

"Let us make this promise to you, then."

Young Asriel looked distressed at that.

"I think we both intend to keep this one.  And it's simple.  Frisk...are we in agreement?"

"Uh-huh."

"Then let this be my vow to you...my promise......I will...live for the both of us.   Frisk and I both will live our lives to the fullest...for you.  We'll share in the hopes and dreams for you.  As long as we do that...you'll never be forgotten.  Even though I know...you feel it would be better if we all forgot you and you lived out your existence in exile.  Just know that we never abandoned you and we never will.  You have friends in us.  And knowing that, there's no reason to ever feel sad and lonely again."

Our Asriel mussed his younger counterpart's head fur a bit.

"We're with you always."

Young Asriel dried his tears on his sleeve one last time. "My time is almost up.  I'm...I'm going on ahead.   I'm...pretty sure you both will catch up...someday far into the future.  I'll wait up. I guess I'll be going now...  But first..."

"Yeah.  There is something you have left to do." His older counterpart, my best friend advised.

"You're the Angel this world needs...and deserves, Asriel." Frisk sniffled.

Young Asriel walked away a bit to get some distance.

"Any time you're ready...it's time...for monsters to go free...!"

Sub-Entry 410: "The Barrier Destroyed":
And then...that scene played out once more...that scene that had haunted me for True Pacifist Timeline after True Pacifist Timeline...after True Pacifist TimeLine. That moment, Asriel floated off the ground, spread his arms out...opened up his soul...and let go of every human and monster soul he had taken into him.

It was only by the power of all these souls that he could even be in his true self form...not Hyperdeath...not the Angel of Death...just him. Asriel.

Our Asriel and Frisk pulled each other close as the divine miracle began.

My eyes streamed tears as I watched.

Soul Reaper Chara had been fighting back the urge to weep but now it was becoming impossible.

We were about to lose a friend. A friend we had only met for a short time.

But when you truly love and care about someone...you had to be willing to let them go...

The time together was only temporary but the friendship would last forever.

At first it was the six human souls that spiraled out, clockwise...then a cascade of every monster in the kingdom...even the ones who had been passed over in all the other Pacifist Runs like Napstablook...and even the obscure ones like Glyde, Mad Mew Mew and So Sorry.

Whatever was different for this timeline than the other six we had opened up.

I could feel it...a great vibration that consumed then entire area and grew and grew into a rumbling...I sensed the forces at work. It felt like time and space were going to twist apart.

I knew this experience all too well. It had been burned into my memory several times over. Several timelines over.

And yet this one felt far more intense. Something felt different. Not off...but...more powerful.

Our Azzy looked up as did Frisk...both clutching each other’s hands firmly.

And then just like that...we all heard the monstrous CRACK as the Barrier...was destroyed.

From that moment on...there was a dead silence...and calm.

Young Asriel lowered back down to the ground, his bare feet making contact with the floor and he stood upright...but...looking visibly tired...incredibly tired...it looked like he was fighting to stay conscious.

Our Azzy let go as he indicated it was okay for Frisk to go to him and check on him.

"Frisk...I need to--"

"I know." Frisk placed her hand on his head and gently stroked it, almost petting.

"Without the power of everyone's souls..."

"I understand.  You're...really scared aren't you?"

"Every time..." Asriel looked up into her eyes.

"What hurts the most is losing myself...over and over...every RESET...every timeline...the other Asriel’s that came before me felt this over and over until Destiny and Fate replaced each one with their own rules...their own twists...

Don't feel bad for me...I'm just another bad photocopy--"

"Don't say that.  Whether there's one or a million of you.  You're Asriel Dreemurr.  You're you and no one else.  Don't let this game cheapen who you are and what you feel and believe."

"Who I am and what I believe is going to be taken away from me soon."

"Asriel..."

"In a little while I'll turn back into the flower again.  I'll stop being "myself" again.  I'll stop being able to feel love again.  This form is already breaking down...I feel it inside.  I'm going to be just a memory."

"Oh, Asriel..."

"So...Frisk--"

"No.  Don't ask that of me."

"But...!"

"Who is it best for?  Who is being forgotten best for?  Me?  You?  Your family?  Your people still love and cherish you.  I just met you and you're the most amazing person I've met.  As long as people remember you, then you're never really gone...right."

"Frisk...ha...ha-ha.....you're going to make me cry all over again."

"Well...don't let me stop you.  It's good to get it out."

Young Asriel let the tears come again.

I reflexively stifled a cough.

"Well...don't  the both of you have things you want to say to me, too?"

I approached in the company of Asriel Tobias Dreemurr-Arcade.

"Well.  We did it." Asriel Arcade put a hand on Asriel Dreemurr's shoulder.

"We faced our fates and achieved our destinies.  Together."

Dreemurr sniffled.

"I'm never going to grow up to become like you."

"And you shouldn't want to.  You shouldn't want to grow up to be like me.  You should want to grow up to be like you.   I've been through so much and done so many things but...you did something I'll never be able to.  I'll never be able to save my people and set them free.  My timeline and everyone in it.  They're gone forever and I have to carry the burden of all their hopes and dreams.

Your people will be carrying yours because you gave them a future to have.

Don't aspire to be the one person that everyone sacrificed for. Be the person who sacrificed for everyone's sake."

Young Asriel wiped his eyes on his sleeve again.

Asriel Arcade pointed to his younger self's locket. "This means something.  Even if he wasn't the best person in the world...he redeemed himself and made his own sacrifice to put a stop to Adonis.  I'm...sorry he's trapped in the Void--"

"Somebody needs to watch over Mr. Gaster...make sure the path out of the CORE stays sealed.  He did what he had to do...I did what I had to do, too."

"There you go." Asriel patted his shoulder.

"I mean what I said.  I'll live on for both us.  The things you won't get to see, I'll see them for you.  The things you won't get to do, I'll do them in your steed."

Young Asriel let out a sad moan.

"Asriel.  Do you understand what it means to be the Prince of this World's Future, now?"

He nodded sadly.

"Then your path is already clear.  I have nothing I can teach you."

Asriel Arcade looked at his own hand...feeling how much it was straining the Seven Psychics to keep him in this plane.

"We both don't have much time in this world, do we?"

"Azzy." I started.

"Your turn, best friend.  I've said all I needed to." Asriel Tobias Dreemurr-Arcade turned and walked back toward the spot he came from with a nonchalant wave.

"I guess I wait for my ride.  Don't stay out too long, Volt.  We have a lot of people waiting to bring you home."

I smiled briefly...then turned to young Asriel.

"Mr. Arcade--"

"Volt.  Darn it all, you've earned it."

"I don't feel like I have.  I--"

"Go ahead.  It's never meaningless to apologize.  That is what you were going to do, right?"

"I was wrong...I made the wrong choice...I...I've put you through so much......twice now."

"What kind of person would I be to hold a grudge?" I wrinkled my snoot and turned away, trying to convince myself that there were no sour grapes here.

"You're going to leave us, too.  Aren't you?"

"Don't ask questions you already know the answer to.  You know why I can't stay."

"You are his best friend, after all."

"Azzy...I mean...Asriel..."

"It's okay.  I still have a best friend out there.  And now I have new friends.   For however long it lasts...I won't live out my last moments being lonely."

"That is...the best gift we could have given you, isn't it?"

"At least I got to know you all for a little while."

"Even he and I are leaving...it's...not like it's forever."

"Yeah...you want to give this place to him.  Let him...learn where he came from...decide if this this is the home he wants now that he's all grown up."

"That day could be any day in the near future.  Now that he knows."

"You made a promise to him, too.  Just as I made one to Chara."

"How sad are the two of us...two souls who couldn't keep that promise in the end."

I had knelt down to talk to him face to face. So...I wasn't expecting him to suddenly hug me.

"You...look like you really needed a hug."

"Yeah...yeah I kind of did.  I...really kind of missed this."

A moment passed before we let go of each other and I stood back up.

"You know I....Flowey won't welcome you back.  He'll...he'll resent you.  He'll hate you both.  Even if you offer--"

"He'll turn us down.  Yeah...he'll be like that.  I kind of expect it.  You know I won't take it personally.  It is...what it is.  Fate dealt you the last hand.  With the last card Destiny plays, we'll...make the most of things when we cross that road someday.   Okay?"

"...*sniffle*...*sob*...Okay..."

I stepped back and let Frisk do the rest.

Sub-Entry XXX:  "Good-Bye, Asriel Dreemurr.  Asriel Arcade and Frisk Part Ways":
"Frisk...  You're..."

Asriel Dreemurr hesitated. He knew his lines...this  "script" word for word. He'd said it before again and again. But this was the hardest he ever had to struggle to say them. One last time.

Frisk gave an understanding smile, tears in her eyes as she knelt down.

"...you're going to do  a great job, OK?  No matter what you do.  Everyone will be there for you, okay?"

Frisk nodded sadly.

Young Asriel stepped away...and turned away.

"Well... my time is running out.  Goodbye." He started walking off into the darkness ahead.

"By the way... Frisk...?"

"Take care of Mom and Dad for you...?"

"Hey...I was gonna say that." He said wiping a tear.

"Sorry."

"Don't be."

"Asriel?"

"...Frisk?"

"You too.  Stay Determined."

Asriel Dreemurr smiled ear to ear, closing his eyes in the closet he could get to one of our Goat Son's anime smiling eyes looks.

Then he turned away and gave a lazy wave to all of us...before fading into the darkness.

Everything started getting brighter.

"Frisk..." Asriel Arcade turned back toward her.

"We'll meet again!" Frisk said beaming with pride and happiness.

"It's a promise." Azzy closed his eyes as he started to slip away into the light.

Frisk vanished, swallowed up in the light.

"Azzy...!"

"Go on ahead....I'll be waiting for you back home."

"Wait...!"

"Stay determined, best friend!"

I lost sight of him as the light completely erased him from my sight.

I could barely keep my senses about me. The room and everything in it was dissolving away.

And then everything was swallowed up in the light and I lost consciousness.

* CRYPTOSMASHER LOG INTERRUPT. *

* SUBJECT NOT CONSCIOUS *

* PENDING RECONNECT... *

* STATIC *

"............"

* STATIC *

"...!"

* STATIC *

"...Frisk...!"

* STATIC CLEARING *

"FRISK!"

* CRYPTOSMASHER RECONNECTING... *

"Frisk!   This is all just a bad dream...!  Please wake up...!"

CRYPTOSMASHER LOGOFF

END TRANSMISSION...

Epilogue

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