Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

P.O.V.- Ink from the Doodle sphere

Within a meeting room, hidden in the doodle sphere, loud shouts could be heard echoing through the halls. The room was filled with the council of the multiverse, for a meeting and update on current events.

“Order! Everyone, order!” The protector shouted to the top of his non-existing lungs, trying to gain their attention. To no avail of course, after all, judges hardly ever listen to anyone. How they all started fighting after JUST getting here was beyond Ink. Maybe he should just go back to working solo.

“QUIET, YOU NUMBSKULLS!”

“...............” That shut them up.

“Thank you for your attention. If you all would like, the meeting can commence.”

All the judges, from Sans’, Papyrus’ to even Charas, sat at their chosen seats not saying another word.

“First, I’d like to start with an update on the multiverse’s current condition. Dream, if you would.”

“Thank you, Ink. As most of you know, the majority of AUs are in pacifist or neutral timelines, more in the former than the latter. Nightmare has corrupted ten more AUs since the last meeting and three more have fallen due to over negativity. Our last plan to capture Nightmare failed, leaving Underkeep 12 to become corrupted and all residence inside it.”

The original Underkeep Sans, Jester, had his head down looking grim. He held his cane with a vice grip.

“Their loss and sacrifice will be remembered, as we continue to stop Nightmare from further reaching his goals. At our current rate, Nightmare could corrupt a dozen more AUs within the next two months. Positivity and morale are waning, thousands are dying, and there is little time between missions to make more AUs. Nightmare has to either be captured or slowed down enough to regain our footing in this war. We need plans, suggestions, and possibly more people. Many of your brothers have offered to help and some could be great assets in this battle. I ask that you think of this before making an immediate choice.”

Many had their heads down with dark expressions, some had sweat going down their heads in worry, and the rest looked in thought of the idea.

“Other than that, the multiverse is in stable enough condition for our work. Back to you Ink.”

“Thank you for that, Dream. Now then, we do have some ideas left over from the last planning session, but if anyone has more, please inform the rest of the council. Before that, I’d like to go through the top three plans from last time. First, we have Sci and G’s plan to make a multiversal barrier or wall to keep Nightmare from entering original AUs. Anything either of you wants to add to it?”

The original Science Sans raised his hand. “Take it away Sci.”

“i’ve done more research on the required magic needed to make it running, my calculations have decreased the amount by 21%. though, if any others would like to help, we could bring the amount even lower. as far as the plan itself, we could add a magical magnetic connection between separate AU barriers and link them together, making a wall-like structure cutting off portions of the multiverse. there have been smaller tests made in my world that have been functioning well, i believe it can be possible on a larger scale with few problems.”

Ink nodded to Sci once he finished then turned to G, who was smoking a cigarette, and gave a questioning look. G simply shook his head, indicating he had nothing to say. Ink then went on.

“The second plan belonged to Outer, a plan to catch Nightmare and his gang in a location with no gravity. Any chance you’ve solved the problem with us not being affected?”

The original Outertale Sans, Outer, shook his head.

“i’ve even talked to alph’ about it. we just can’t seem to find any other solution other than all of us wearing jet packs, which frankly requires training and time that we don’t have.”

“Ok, we’ll leave it to the side then. The last plan was made up from Red, Death, Mutt, and Geno. Cornering Nightmare and the dark sans’ in the save screen area, wear them down, WITHOUT killing them, and then capturing them. Anything you guys want to add? Besides killing?”

Red, from the original Underfell, shrugged his shoulders. Mutt, the original Swapfell Papyrus, copied Red. Geno, from the original Aftertale, shook his head no. Death, from the original Reapertale, was floating in a far corner of the room. He never talked much and stayed away from the others because of his ability to kill people with a touch. He too said nothing.

“Alright then. Are there any ideas that anyone has come up with?”

No one responded to Ink, which he personally preferred. The last thing they needed in this meeting was another argument.

“Well, that just leaves the last thing to deal with. More help. Does anyone have preferences on who we ask for?”

“not our bros, that’s for sure.” Of course, leave it to the original Undertale Sans, Comic, to say that now.

“I second that.” And Chara, from the original Storyshift, just had to agree with him!

“I understand your hesitance to ask them for assistance, but, if you were in their positions you know you would do what you could to help. We may not even need them for battle, we just need ideas and hard workers. Because right now, a snail has more energy to get from one place to another than this whole room has to capture a group of murderous skeletons.”

They all remained silent at that. What could they say? That he was wrong?

“if we’re talking about recruitin’ brahs than why not ask all the au copy’s brahs for help, brah?”

Brah, from the original Epictale, which he insisted everyone call him, had a point but there was a problem.

“If we asked every Sans from every AU to help us, we would only get more confused with names and there is the matter of getting everyone back to the right AU. Unless you have already forgotten what happened the last time we brought more than one AU’s copy of Sans in this room alone.”

How could anyone forget the confusion of having four of the same skeletons, who looked exactly alike, having to jump through portals and back again just to find their AU’s?

“we don’t need every au, just someone with more energy than us. we’ve all been through hell and back with the resets from our worlds. maybe instead we should ask for an au that still has HoPe. one that has yet to deal with demons.”

Many of the others nodded or hummed in agreement with Stretch from the original Underswap.

“Huh, I never thought of that. But, if we ask a newer AU they’re likely to ask us questions about what will happen in their ‘future’.”

All newer AUs were in the early stages. They still had to go through neutral and genocide after their pacifist is reset. Judges from those early stages would ask what would happen with the human. That would crush their souls far too early, possibly making them give up before even trying to stop the human.

“then we tell them.”

Everyone froze and turned to Save, the original Flowerfell Sans. It surprised everyone that he even spoke. He spoke more than Death but that was like how three is more than two.

“we’ll tell them what happens. we’ll tell them of the genocide, but also what comes after. we’ll tell them that if they can survive that hell, they will find a life better than anything they could imagine.”

Save held his necklace tightly, knowing what he said was true. Out of every fell version of Sans, Save knew what it was like to walk through hell to reach heaven. He had lost the one person that loved him to find a better life, to get out of the Underground. Save may not be the strongest Sans in the room, but he sure was one of the wisest.

“He’s right.”

Everyone turned to the tallest Sans, Soul. Soul was from the original ‘The Thought’ AU. It was an interesting turn of events that lead a timeline, from the original Undertale AU, to make itself an AU. Like how Geno got stuck in the save screen by getting more determination, Soul got stuck in a void closest to the code of his AU by absorbing the seven souls.

“If we were in their place we’d want to know too. Not just learn about the bad times but also the good that came from it. And since they have more HoPe than we do, they will probably last longer in their timelines after they know that genocide eventually ends.”

The room went into a mumbling moment, talking in small voices to those close to them, before turning silent. They were smart enough to know he was right.

Ink took a deep breath to break the silence.

“Okay, Dream and I will look into newer AUs for help.”

“OH-OH, CAN I HELP TOO? IF YOU NEED HELP MAKING ALLIES IN BATTLE, I’M YOUR SKELETON!!”

Ink couldn’t help laughing, Blueberry, from the original Underswap, was always ready to help in even the smallest ways.

“Alright Blueberry, you can come. We might need you if they can’t trust us.”

“MWEH HEH HEH!”

Stretch smiled from where he was sitting, that was a clear signal to Ink that it was OK. Now they just needed to find the right AUs.

In an unknown space though, someone’s silver silk gloves gently brushed magical paper books. Someone knew what Ink was planning, and they could not be more excited.