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Kate didn’t know why she was going here. She just needed to get away from Mario and Sonic. She couldn’t believe how stupid she was. She did something that she rarely did with her best friends: fight.The trio never really fought over anything. Maybe an argument over something, but never enough to yell at each other. But this time, they did fight. And it was a pretty bad one to.Kate wasn’t angry with Mario or Sonic though. She was angry with herself, and it was why she needed to distance herself for the moment. Alone at the tree house, she took a book off the shelf and opened it up. After the crazy Universe adventure, she kept the books tied to other Universes safe in the tree house, just in case someone would try to get their hands on them.She picked out the book for the Minecraft Universe and opened it up. It glowed a bright light and brought her to the Minecraft world. Her first thought was to go to the temple and see how Jesse and her friends were doing. She hadn’t seen them in a while, and last she heard from them, they found out that Jesse had a twin brother with the same name as her.She started to head for the temple, but that’s when she heard someone sobbing. She could hear it coming from behind a tree. Kate took a peek and saw that it was Aiden.Kate was curious to why Aiden was crying.  She knew that he, Maya, and Gill destroyed Sky City and upset Isa’s people. They were locked up and had to pay for their mess, which they finished up. Kate remembered going to visit them a few times, especially since she heard that Aiden wanted to be a writer.“I wonder what’s up. I should go see…” she whispered.Kate started to walk over to Aiden, but that’s when she saw something strange form next to Aiden. It looked like a human girl wearing a green sweater with a yellow stripe. However, she had the creepiest smile Kate had ever seen.“Hello Aiden…” the spirit whispered to Aiden.Aiden looked up. He started to back away in fear.“S-Stay away from me!” he cried.The spirit let out an evil laugh. She quickly approached Aiden, but Kate ran into to stop her.“Get away from him!” Kate shouted angrily. She punched the spirit aside and knocked her away.“Kate…” said Aiden.Kate grabbed his hand and ran away from their location.  After a while of running, Kate finally stopped to give Aiden a break. She had run so far away, she didn’t have a clue where they were now.“Aiden, are you okay?” she asked him.“Y-yeah… But what are you doing here?” he asked her.Kate wasn’t sure if she could tell Aiden about her problems from earlier.“I… I’ll tell you later. What’s going on? Who was that?” she asked Aiden.“Wait, you… you could see her?”“Yeah. What’s going on?”Aiden started to sob. “Kate… she… she made me do some horrible things. She’s trying to make me do bad things, and no one believes me when I say that it’s not my fault. No one can see her…” he said.Kate gave him a hug to comfort him. “Sh. It’s okay. I’m gonna help you with this problem. I can see her, so I can help you. You’re going to be okay. I promise…” she said in a whisper.Aiden sobbed a bit more, but he hugged her back.But before he could say anything, he saw the spirit girl coming back.“She’s back!” he said.Kate broke apart from their hug and saw that the spirit was coming. She stood in front of Aiden like a shield and said, “Stay away from my friend!”The spirit only laughed.“You can’t run forever…” she said.She pulled out a knife.“Oh shoot…” Kate whispered. She didn’t have her sword on her, so fighting wasn’t an option. She quickly took Aiden’s hand and they started to run again.But they couldn’t run for long, because there was a large pit in front of them. Kate and Aiden were about to turn around and try to go a different way before the spirit could catch up, but it was too late.“You can’t escape…” the spirit said.With that, she shoved Kate and Aiden down the pit. Kate and Aiden cried in panic as they fell down. The last thing they remembered before passing out was landing in something soft.

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“Urgh… that hurt a bit…” Kate groaned.She sat up and rubbed her head. Her vision became clear and she found herself in some dimly lit place. There was an entrance that looked like an entry to some ruins up ahead, and Kate felt something soft on the ground where she was sitting. There were a bunch of golden flowers growing around. Aiden was unconscious on the ground right next to her.“Aiden!” she said. She quickly shook him a bit.Aiden stirred and opened his eyes.“Uh… Kate… What happened?” he said, groaning a bit.“The spirit chased us and knocked us down that hole. But I have no idea where we are,” said Kate.They looked up the pit that they fell down. They could see the hole up ahead.“Do you think you could get us back up there with your powers?” asked Aiden. He stood up and rubbed his arm. He looked like he got hurt, but it couldn’t have been from the fall. Maybe it was from earlier.“I don’t think going up is a good idea. That spirit might still be up there. We can’t go running back into her. There must be another way out,” said Kate.“Oh my, have you two fallen down?” a soft, concerned voice spoke out to them.Aiden and Kate turned around to who spoke. The owner of the voice was an adult, female goat. She was white, wore a lovely purple dress, and gave them a warm smile.She started to approach them, but Kate stood between her and Aiden.“Please don’t be afraid. I won’t hurt you,” the goat lady said, still smiling.“Who are you? And where are we?” Aiden asked her quietly. He stayed behind Kate and was a little scared.“I am Toriel, the caretaker to the ruins. Why don’t you two follow me? It’s dangerous to go through this area on your own,” said the goat lady.She slowly started to walk ahead of Aiden and Kate. Aiden and Kate weren’t sure if they should stay or if they should follow her.“Should we follow her? Can we trust her?” Aiden whispered to Kate.“I don’t know, but maybe we don’t have a choice. Just stay with me and we’ll be okay,” Kate whispered back.Aiden nodded his head before he and Kate followed Toriel. As they started to follow Toriel, Kate grabbed Aiden’s hand. Aiden blushed and pulled away.“Dude, don’t think of it like that. Knuckles is my boyfriend and you like Maya. I just think we should hold hands to stay close,” said Kate.“Oh…” said Aiden. He grabbed her hand again.“Oh pardon, I forgot to ask you. What shall I call you?” Toriel asked them.“I’m Aiden…” Aiden said.“And I’m Katelyn, but I prefer to be called ‘Kate’ instead,” said Kate.“Aiden and Kate. I feel like I’ve heard your names from before. Or maybe those were the names of characters in a story…” said Toriel.Aiden and Kate knew where she was getting the idea. They must’ve ended up in another universe while they were running from that spirit. After the universe adventure, they found out that their worlds were supposedly stories in books, but hidden portals were accessed in the books. It was how they were able to travel between their worlds.Though, Aiden and Kate couldn’t figure out how they ran into another universe by foot rather than a portal in a book. Maybe it was because of Kate’s powers, or some sort of trick the spirit had since she did follow them.But neither of them brought this up to Toriel. It was probably best not to anyway. She was being nice enough to guide them through the ruins right now, and they needed to figure out how to leave and get back home.Toriel suddenly stopped walking. Aiden and Kate saw her turn around and face them.“Aiden, Kate, as humans in the Underground, monsters might attack you,” she told them.“Monsters?” Aiden and Kate asked at the same time.“Do not worry though. The way to face a monster, is to talk to them. Violence is not the key in this. Needless violence, it solves nothing,” said Toriel.“Heh, Ivor said the same thing...” Kate whispered to herself. “Talk to them? I can do that. I tend to be a voice of reason to my friends over disputes. Well... sometimes…” she said to Toriel.Aiden looked at her with a confused look and said, “’Sometimes’?”“Uh… never mind that now,” Kate said with a nervous smile. She wasn’t in the mood to talk to Aiden or Toriel about what happened before she fell in the Underground with Aiden.While Aiden looked a bit suspicious on how Kate just spoke, Toriel didn’t mind. She just continued to guide the two humans through the ruins. At one point, there were a bunch of spikes in an area.“Hold my hand. I’ll guide you through this area,” she said.Aiden tightened his grip on Kate’s hand. He didn’t want to let go.“Don’t worry, man. I won’t let go,” Kate whispered. Using her other hand, she grabbed Toriel’s hand and let her guide them through the area. The spikes went down and didn’t hurt them through the path that Toriel guided them through. It took a little bit of time, but they made it across.“Seems that puzzles are a bit too dangerous right now,” said Toriel.“Is the Underground full of puzzles?” asked Aiden.“Quite a bunch,” said Toriel.“Puzzles huh? I don’t mind a few puzzles to tackle,” Kate said, making a small smile.Toriel smiled back and continued guiding them for a bit. At one point, she stopped and said, “I must ask a favor. Can you two please stay around here in the ruins?”“How come?” asked Aiden.“I must attend to some things very quickly. You two are mature enough to be left alone, so for once, I feel safe leaving a human here. You are also free to roam the ruins, as long as you don't fight a monster,” said Toriel.“Don’t worry. We won’t fight any monsters. You told us that violence won’t work, so we won’t fight any monsters,” said Kate.Toriel smiled and said, “Before I go, take these two cell phones just in case.” She handed each of them a cell phone. Aiden and Kate took them before Toriel bid them farewell and left. The two humans put them in their pockets.After a short moment of silence, Aiden asked, “Do you… want to walk around?”Kate took his hand and said, “Just stay with me though. We shouldn’t get separated in these ruins.”  The duo walked on for a bit. As they made their way around, they encountered some of the puzzles that Toriel told them that they would run into. The duo didn’t let the puzzles stop them. They were determined to tackle and solve the puzzles so that they could continue looking around.At one point, they saw what looked like a ghost lying on the floor. It constantly said “zzzz…”, pretending that it was asleep.“What should we do? We need to keep going,” Kate whispered to Aiden.“Walking around him would be rude. Maybe we should wake him,” said Aiden. He slowly walked up and tapped the ghost on the forehead a few times until it sat up.“Someone’s here…” the ghost said.Aiden backed up and stood next to Kate.“Hi there, mister. We uh… we wanted to pass through. Sorry for waking you,” said Kate.The ghost looked a little gloomy.“He looks a little sad,” said Aiden.“Why don’t we try smiling at him?” said Kate.She made a friendly smile, while Aiden made a small, though slightly sad smile. It took a while, but the ghost seemed to cheer up a little.“I normally come here because I want to be alone, but today, I meet two nice people. Been a while since I have,” said the ghost. “Oh, I’m rambling again. I can move out of your way now,” said the ghost.“Thank you, mister…” said Kate.“Napstablook. My name is Napstablook,” said the ghost.“Thanks Napstablook,” said Aiden.Napstablook moved out of their way and bid them farewell before he left.“Toriel was right. Talking to them seems to work. Maybe it’ll be easy whenever we encounter any monsters,” said Aiden.“Talking to them shouldn’t be an issue for me. Sometimes, when Bowser and Eggman kidnap me, I usually talk to irritate them. I remember this one time, they got so irritated by me, they just let me go,” said Kate.Aiden chuckled a little bit, forming a small smile on his face.Kate smiled at him and said, “I’m glad to see you smiling for a change, Aiden.”The smile faded Aiden’s face.“Aw Aiden, please don’t feel down. I’m going to help you out. I promise. All I ask from you is your smile. Your smile is all I need,” she said.Aiden looked away, but he made another small smile.“It’s going to be okay, Aiden. We’re in this together,” said Kate.The two continued on for a little bit more. They were reaching what may be the end of the ruins. Aiden suddenly stopped walking for a moment.“Aiden, you okay?” Kate asked. She stopped walking and turned around to face him.“I… I think I should tell you about what was going on between me and that spirit…” said Aiden.“Aiden, what happened? What did she do to you?” asked Kate.Aiden started to tear up as he remembered the horrible things that the spirit made him do. But he didn’t back down on talking to Kate.“I…I was in the forest, on my way to town and when I heard this girl call out for help. I went to see what happened and this girl was being chased by a creeper. I defeated the creeper and the girl was grateful, she even gave me this necklace. Once I put it on though, I... I-I...”He couldn’t finish. The memories were already haunting him and he couldn’t even tell Kate what the girl made him do.“She took control of you, didn’t she?” Kate finished for him. She formed a worried look on her face.“She… she did… I thought I was helping someone, I thought I was being someone's hero for a change... And then, I... I just made everything worse for everyone…” Aiden began to cry as he continued on. He was feeling really horrible for what the girl made him do, but he couldn’t muster the courage to tell Kate just what exactly he was forced to do.Kate was about to tell him something, but Aiden managed to tell her what it was the corrupted girl forced him to do. “She… she made me… kill people…” he coughed up, as tears rolled down his cheeks.A look of fear grew on Kate’s face. She was speechless, but she didn’t back away from Aiden.“The death toll was so high in just a few hours... * I really have become a monster.... It's... It's why I was alone Kate. I ran away from the others…” Aiden managed to finish explaining to Kate.As Aiden continued to cry, Kate stood where she was in silence. The look of fear became a look of sadness on her face. Aiden expected her to back away from him, but instead, Kate walked up to him and gave him a hug. Aiden stopped sobbing, but he still had tears in his eyes. He hugged her back.“Aiden, I know how it feels when you think you make things worse…” she whispered to him.“Y-you do?” he asked her.“Let's just say... I feel like… every step I take is another mistake to others...” she said. She almost sang her line because it was similar to a line from a Linkin Park song.“But you're a hero in your world Kate. You can't make mistakes.”“No Aiden. Everyone screws up here and there. And you're not a monster Aiden. That girl who tricked you is. Don't worry. I'll protect you from her. I promise.”Aiden was silent, but he hugged Kate tighter. After a while, he finally let go.He sniffed, wiped the tears off his cheeks, and said, “I’m okay now. Thanks Kate…”Kate gave him a small smile and said, “It’s okay Aiden. I’ll be right here.”She took his hand and they continued on a little bit more. Eventually, the came to what looked like a house up ahead. They could see it past a black tree that had no leaves. Toriel was walking out of the house. She pulled out her cell phone, but before she could start dialing a number, she spotted Aiden and Kate. She put her phone away and walked up to Aiden and Kate.“Oh my. I didn’t expect you two to come all the way over here,” she said.“Well, we uh… explored the ruins. I guess we found the way over to you,” said Kate.Toriel only smiled and said, “Come on in.”Aiden and Kate followed her into the house. When they made it inside, they could smell something cooking. Something with the hint of cinnamon.“Mmm… something smells good…” said Kate.“Surprise! It is a butterscotch cinnamon pie!” said Toriel, smiling. “I thought we should celebrate your arrival, so I will hold off on snail pie for tonight.”‘Celebrate our arrival? Wait, does she really think we’re going to stay here with her forever? We can’t overstay our welcome,’ thought Kate.Aiden didn’t catch on what Kate was thinking. He was just feeling a little bit relaxed after walking. Maybe they were able to lose the spirit for good while walking through the ruins. But he to, didn’t want to stay forever. He just wanted to take some time to rest.“Toriel, is it okay if we rest up a bit?” he asked her.Toriel smiled and said, “Of course. Here, over here is a room that you two can rest up in. Follow me.”She led Aiden and Kate down the hallway and to a room.“Make yourselves at home,” she said.She headed into the kitchen while Kate and Aiden walked into the room. It was similar to a child’s room, and there was only one bed.“You can take the bed. I’m fine with the floor,” said Kate.“Are you sure?” asked Aiden.“Yeah. I’m fine with the floor. When I was a kid, I used to have sleepovers with a couple friends. We’d always sleep on the floor instead of the couch in the living room. It was more comfortable,” said Kate.Aiden climbed into the bed while Kate grabbed a pillow and a sheet and made herself comfortable on the rug on the floor. Kate turned the lights off and lied down on the floor to get some rest. Aiden was lying down in bed, but he couldn’t rest for a bit.“Aiden… you know we can’t stay here forever…” Kate whispered to him.“I know. I just want to rest up a bit and then we’ll ask Toriel how to leave,” he said. “Though… even when we go home… I don’t know if my friends wants me back home…” he said sadly.“Because of what that spirit made you do? Oh Aiden… I hadn’t thought of that… Well, if your friends don’t want you to come home, you can stay at the tree house with me, Mario, and Sonic,” said Kate.“Stay? With you, Mario, and Sonic? Do you really mean it?”“I do. But we’ll worry about it when we get out of the Underground. For now, we should get some rest. I’m a little tired from all that walking.”“Yeah. Me to.”There was a moment of silence as they started to drift off into sleep.‘Man… after that fight with Mario and Sonic… I hope the guys let Aiden stay… I shouldn’t worry about this right now. Right now, I have to keep my promise to Aiden. I promised I’d help him with this spirit and get her off his shoulders,” Kate thought.“Kate?” said Aiden.“Hmm?” she replied.“Thank you…” Aiden whispered.“You’re welcome…” Kate whispered back.With that, they both dozed off into a quick nap.

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Meanwhile, back in the Minecraft Universe, Female Jesse and Lukas were in the treasure room. They were discussing something that had to do with Aiden.After Aiden suddenly went on a genocidal rampage, killing anyone in his sight, Gill managed to stop his friend and get Aiden back to his senses. They found a clue to what may have been the cause to Aiden’s rampage, but the town had moved to hide in Boomtown because of what happened. The New Order of the Stone had been keeping Aiden in a guest room in the temple, keeping a close watch on him all the time. Gill and Maya were there to, helping them keep an eye on Aiden.However, when everyone except Lukas had to leave to go check on the citizens and search for clues to Aiden’s rampage, Aiden slipped out. He snuck out of the temple while Lukas was working on some blue prints. The young architect went to check on Aiden, and found that Aiden was gone. The only clue he found to Aiden’s disappearance was a journal that Aiden had been writing in before he ran off.“What do you mean Aiden’s gone?!” Female Jesse cried when Lukas told her what he found out.“I went to check on him and he was gone! All I found was his journal! He wrote an entry before running off!” said Lukas.“What did you get from it? It might be a clue,” said Female Jesse.“I couldn’t make out what he wrote because he was crying and he must’ve been shaking while writing it, but the only words I could read was ‘she’s coming… I need to leave’,” said Lukas.“’She’? I wonder who…” said Female Jesse.“I don’t know if it’s connected to that necklace Gill found after he snapped Aiden out of that rampage, but we need to find Aiden and quickly!” said Lukas.“We best to call in the others to help us out,” said Female Jesse.Lukas nodded his head and quickly went into another room of the temple to gather Petra, Axel, Olivia, Ivor, Gill, Maya, and Male Jesse. After he left the room, Female Jesse heard a knock on the door. She rushed to the front door and answered it. To her surprise, it was Mario and Sonic from the Dream Universe.“Mario? Sonic? What are you doing here?” Female Jesse asked them.“Hey, we don’t want any trouble. Is it okay if we come in and ask the others a question?” said Mario.“Okay, but make it quick, because we’re already in the middle of something we’re trying to solve,” said Female Jesse.She brought them into the treasure room, where Lukas was with the rest of the group.“Mario, Sonic. What are you two doing here?” asked Gill.“Sorry if we’re bothering you guys, but have any of you seen our sister?” asked Sonic.“You mean Kate? No. None of us have seen her. We haven’t seen her in a while,” said Ivor.Sonic formed a sad look on his face and sighed. He looked down to the floor like he was guilty of something.“Sorry. We were wondering if you’ve seen her. We uh… we had a fight with her and she ran off. We tried calling her phone, but she left it in the tree house, along with her sword. We’re worried about her…” said Mario.“Well, we want to help you with that, but we’ve got a problem of our own,” said Lukas.“What is it? We can help you. Maybe we’ll find our sister along the way. The others are searching around back in our world,” said Sonic.“Yeah. What is it that we needed to be called in for, sis?” Male Jesse asked his twin sister.Female Jesse let out a sigh and said, “Aiden’s missing guys. He ran off.”“He’s gone?!” cried Maya. She formed a worried look on her face.“What do you mean he’s missing?” asked Axel.Lukas sighed and said, “I went to check on him in his room and I found out that he snuck out. He wrote something in his journal about someone coming after him, so he chose to run away.”“Call this a hunch, but do you guys think that Aiden and Kate running off is connected?” said Petra.“Are you suggesting that Kate is with Aiden?” asked Sonic.“Oh man. She’s in danger if she is. Aiden went on a genocidal rampage a few days ago. He snapped out of it and has been staying under watch here, but now that he’s run off, he might be back on his rampage…” said Olivia.“What? Aiden went on a rampage and… killed people?!” said Mario.The group was silent and didn’t respond. The silence was enough for Mario and Sonic to understand that it was true.“Even if Aiden did go on a genocidal rampage, I don’t think he can go back on it, especially if Kate’s with him,” said Sonic.“You don’t think she’s in danger?” Ivor asked them with a confused look.“No. Kate’s a voice of reason. I’m sure she can keep Aiden sane,” said Sonic.“Personally, I think that Aiden was being controlled by something. He wasn’t bad at all when he first came to our world. You remember when we got pulled into Cyberspace that time? Maybe some evil from another Universe got out, and it made Aiden go crazy,” said Mario.“You do have a point there. Last night, when I was talking to him while I had to keep watch on him, Aiden told me about some sort of spirit trying to corrupt him,” said Maya.“And I found something with him when I stopped him on his rampage,” said Gill. He pulled out a heart-shaped locket and said, “After I got this off of him, he calmed down rapidly. His look of anger faded and he started to cry tears of sadness.”“Hmm… It might hold some sort of dark power then. I’ve seen some strange objects in my journeys, so I have a feeling that maybe some spirit or crazy curse is inside that thing. If Aiden calmed down after you got it off him, then that’s proof right there that he was being controlled,” said Mario.“Controlled? Controlled by what?” asked Maya.While the group was discussing this theory, Lukas was a bit silent. He wasn’t sure if he could believe if Aiden was being controlled. After the mess with Sky City, Lukas couldn’t trust Aiden anymore. He was still trying to get along with Maya and Gill again, but Aiden was a different story, especially after the genocidal rampage.“Well, I don’t know. But if Kate’s with Aiden, maybe she can see what it is,” said Mario.“Yeah. Kate’s got some stronger senses because of her powers. She might be able to see something that we can’t see. We gotta find her and Aiden,” said Sonic.“Where can we start looking for them, though?” said Female Jesse.“Hmm… I have an idea. Let’s head to Angel Island and ask Knuckles to use the Master Emerald. Knuckles can control it, and sometimes, it can give him a vision of the future, or answers to a question he has. Maybe it can show us where Kate and Aiden are,” said Sonic.“Can you take us there?” asked Female Jesse.“Of course!” said Mario.Maya formed a sad look on her face. Sonic noticed how she was feeling and said, “Don’t worry Maya. We’re going to help you guys find Aiden. We promise.” He walked up to her as he spoke and gave her a reassuring smile.Maya managed to make a small smile in return.“Thanks Sonic. Thanks Mario…” she said quietly.“Come on guys. If we’re going to find them, then we need to move,” said Gill.The group headed out of the temple, ready to go through the portal to the Dream Universe and start their search for Aiden and Kate.

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Aiden opened his eyes when he started to smell the warm scent of something freshly baked. It had the scent of cinnamon in it. He sat up and spotted two plates on the floor. One was by his bed and the other was placed by Kate. The plates had slices of the butterscotch cinnamon pie Toriel said she was making for them.Aiden picked up the plate and smiled. He couldn’t believe that Toriel made something nice for him and Kate. He got up and shook Kate on her shoulder.“Huh?” Kate said. She let out a yawn and rubbed her eyes.“Sorry to wake you, but Toriel left us some pie,” Aiden said quietly.Kate sat up and put her glasses on. She spotted the plate next to her and picked it up.“That was nice of her. Well… I don’t normally eat pie anymore, but I would love to try a slice of butterscotch cinnamon pie. I do like cinnamon,” she said.She turned on the lights and she and Aiden at their pie slices. When they were finished, they opened the door and left the room.“We better take these plates and forks back to the kitchen for her to wash them. And… we need to ask her how to leave the Underground,” said Kate.“I’m a little nervous to tell her that we have to leave,” said Aiden.“Me to, but we have to try to talk to her. If I’ve learned anything, it’s better to try than not do anything at all,” said Kate.Aiden nodded his head. He followed Kate down the hallway and to the living room. They spotted Toriel sitting in a reading chair reading a book. They walked past her and into the kitchen, where they put the dishes in the sink. After that, they walked back to Toriel.“Um… Toriel?” said Kate.Toriel looked up from her book. She had a pair of reading glasses on.“Oh, did you two have a nice rest?” she asked them.“We did. And… we wanted to thank you for letting us rest up here,” said Aiden.“Aw, it was my pleasure, dears. I’ve been reading this book while waiting for you two to wake up. Romeo and Juliet,” said Toriel.“Oh my god. I love that play. It may be a tragedy, but I love it. I remember reading it to Knuckles, Silver, Luigi, Mario and Sonic...”Kate stopped talking when she mentioned Mario and Sonic’s names. She remembered her fight with her friends, right before she found Aiden.“Kate, what’s wrong?” asked Aiden.Kate shook off the feeling. She had something more important to talk to Toriel about right now. “Listen, Toriel, we appreciate all the help, but we've overstayed our welcome. We need to get going. I'm sorry,” she said.“Leave? But dears, you're safe here...” said Toriel. The smile started to fade from her face.“We really do appreciate what you've done for us, but we need to go. We have people back where we came from who are probably worried about us,” said Aiden. But after he spoke, he formed a sad look on his face. He knew his friends weren’t missing him right now, but he knew Kate did have people who missed her. And she promised to help him out and let him stay with her.Toriel was silent for a moment. Then, she got up from her chair and said, “Please excuse me. I must do something.” She walked out of the room. Kate and Aiden saw her head down the stairs to the basement.“What do you think she’s doing?” Aiden asked Kate.“I don’t know, but whatever it is, it’s gotta be to stop us from leaving. Come on,” said Kate.She followed after Toriel.“Kate, wait for me!” said Aiden. He quickly followed his friend.The duo walked down the stairs and into what they thought was the basement. Instead, it looked like there were some tunnels in the ruins. They saw Toriel walking down the hallway. Quickly and quietly, they followed her until she reached the ending of the hallway. A large set of doors were there.Toriel didn’t turn around, but she knew that Aiden and Kate followed her. She sighed and said, “This is the exit of the ruins, leading to the rest of the Underground.... I am going to destroy it.”“Destroy it? No, you can't!” cried Aiden.“Humans like you have fallen down here before... They come. They go. They die...I am merely protecting you two, now please head upstairs...” said Toriel. There was a hint of sadness in her voice.While Aiden was a bit shocked to hear that other humans have fallen into the Underground before him and Kate, Kate didn’t let what Toriel just said hold her back.She stepped up and said, “Toriel, I don't want to fight or argue over this. We can't stay here. We have friends and family who are most likely worried about us. We don't want any trouble. We just need to go home. And I understand that you're worried, but we know how to take care of ourselves.”Toriel was quiet for a moment. After what felt like forever, she finally turned around to face Aiden and Kate. She was smiling sadly as she said, “I... I understand dear. I am very sorry... It is just that many young, innocent children have fallen down, from one named Frisk, to another named Chara...”‘Chara… why do I feel like I know that name?’ thought Aiden. He felt a chill run down his spine when he thought of the name.Kate didn’t have a clue that Aiden was in his thoughts right now. She only continued to talk to Toriel. “We understand that you're concerned, but we can take care of ourselves. And... I've faced things worse than the monsters in the Underground. I know the monsters in the Underground won't attack me unless I attack them first. I've faced things much worse that have wanted me dead, but I can protect me and Aiden while we venture through the Underground,” she told Toriel.Toriel smiled sadly and said, “If... If you say so dear...” She walked up to Aiden and Kate and gave them a hug.Aiden and Kate hugged her back as she whispered, “Good luck,” to them.Toriel let go and walked past them, allowing them to go out the door and leave the ruins.“Toriel… thank you for everything…” said Kate.“Good bye Toriel,” said Aiden. He took Kate’s hand.Toriel looked back and smiled one last time.“Good bye, Aiden. Good bye Kate,” she said quietly. Then, she left.Aiden and Kate smiled back at her. When Toriel was gone, they headed out the door and into the outside of the ruins.  “Brr! It’s cold!” Aiden said. He shivered a bit.They left the ruins and ended up in a snowy forest of some sort. Kate didn’t feel that cold, but she didn’t want Aiden shivering. Using her powers, she created some sweaters, scarves, and mittens for the both of them. She handed Aiden one of each and they got bundled up.“Better?” she asked him.“Better,” said Aiden.Kate giggled and said, “Heh, we just talking like we were in a Snickers commercial,” as they continued walking a bit.“A what?” Aiden said, making a small smile and a confused look.Before Kate could tell him, they heard a twig snap behind them. They turned around and didn’t see anything.“What was that?” asked Aiden. He was starting to get a little spooked.“I don’t know. Just take my hand and walk with me. We’re okay,” said Kate.They continued down the path, but as they did, both of them felt that someone, or something was following them. As they began to feel that someone was following them, they started to walk a bit faster. The two friends stopped at a strange looking gate, when they heard a voice speak to them from behind them.“Humans, don't you know how to greet a new pal? Turn around and shake my hand,” it said.Aide and Kate froze in place. They couldn’t decide if they should turn around and do what the monster said, or try to run for it. After standing there for a bit, Kate took a deep breath and said, “Okay… I’ll shake his hand…” in a whisper to Aiden.She slowly turned around, and when she came face to face with the monster, she took his hand to shake. However, when she did, she heard a whoopee cushion noise.“Huh?” she and Aiden said at the same time.The monster only chuckled a bit. They got a good look at who he was now. He was a skeleton that was a bit shorter than them. He was wearing a light blue jacket, black pants, and slippers.“heh heh, the old whoopie cushion in the hand trick. it's ALWAYS funny,” he said, grinning.Kate and Aiden only stared at him with confused looks.“huh, tough crowd. anyways, I'm Sans. Sans the skeleton,” said the skeleton.“Uh... hi...” said Aiden.Kate frowned at Sans and said, “You're just lucky you weren't my friend Manic. Every time he pranks me, he gets a punch in the face...”Sans ignored what she said and said, “anyways, you're humans right? that's hilarious. i'm actually supposed to be on watch for humans right now. but I don't really care about capturing anyone. now by brother, Papyrus, he's a human hunting fanatic.”Aiden smiled nervously and said, “Well uh... then I guess we should avoid your brother...”Sans walked Aiden and Kate through the gate, but then, he stopped them and said, “oh, here he comes right now. don't worry, just hide behind that shack over there.” He pointed to the shack he was talking about.Aiden and Kate weren’t sure if they could trust him, but they listened to him and quickly got behind the shack. After they were hidden, they saw another skeleton come out. He was much taller than Sans, and he was a little bit taller than Kate and Aiden. He was wearing a red scarf with red gloves, red boots, a white shirt, and black and light blue pants. He looked a little ticked off.“SANS!” they heard him angrily shout.“hey bro,” Sans casually said.“THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO BE LAZING AROUND. HAVE YOU FOUND ANY HUMANS YET?” said Papryus.“Wow. He talks a little too loud… But I can sense that he’s not yelling,” Kate whispered to Aiden.“me? i'm just chilling by the shack. do you wanna come on over and hang out?” Sans told his brother.Aiden and Kate were scared when they heard him tell Papyrus that. What if Papyrus comes over and see them?!“NO! WHAT IF A HUMAN COMES THROUGH HERE! I NEED TO BE READY!” Papyrus shouted at Sans. “AND ONCE I CAPTURE A HUMAN... I'LL BE POPULAR! NEYHH HEH HEH!”With that, Papyrus turned around and left.“Wow… some show we got…” Kate whispered to Aiden.As soon as Papryus was gone, Sans turned around to Aiden and Kate and told them that it was safe to come out.“Are you sure? He’s gone?” asked Aiden. He and Kate peeked out from behind the shack.“yeah. he's gone. and don't worry if you run into him. he's not dangerous, even if he tries to be,” said Sans.Kate smirked a bit and said,” Heh, opposite of my strategy when I have to deal with baddies…” to herself.Aiden and Kate started to leave, but Sans stopped them by saying, “hey, can you two do me a favor? my brother has been down lately, and it’s been a while since he saw a human. so do you think you could show yourselves to him? it'll really make his day”“Show ourselves to your brother? You… you swear he won’t attack us?” Aiden said nervously.“like I said, he’s not dangerous even if he tries to be,” said San. He winked at them and said, “i’ll keep an eye socket out for you two,” before heading back the way they came from.Aiden and Kate were a bit confused to why Sans went back the way they just came from. The duo looked at each other. Kate only shrugged her shoulders and she and Aiden continued down the path.After a short while of walking through the snowy forest, Aiden said, “By the way Kate, are you okay? You've been quite hesitant to talk about your friends.”Kate became quiet. She had a feeling that Aiden would bring this up pretty soon. She honestly wasn’t in the mood to talk about her friends after the fight she had with Mario and Sonic. It was really stupid, what they fought over, but the things she said about herself might have ruined her friendship with the guys.And now that she was traveling with Aiden to leave the Underground, she can’t hide it from her friend forever.“Please talk to me Kate. You can tell me,” said Aiden.‘He wants to help me in return. I promised him I’d help him with his problem, and he wants to talk to me about my problem…’ Kate thought.But before she could say anything to Aiden, she spotted Sans and Papyrus up ahead. She and Aiden stopped walking.“SO SANS, AS I WAS SAYING ABOUT UNDYNE...” Papyrus told his brother.They turned around and saw Aiden and Kate. Sans already knew they were coming, but Papyrus got excited after seeing Aiden and Kate.“SANS! HUMANS! THEY’RE HERE!” Papyrus shouted excitedly. He turned to face Aiden and Kate and told them, “HUMANS! PREPARE TO BE CAPTURED BY THE GREAT PAPYRUS! CONTINUE IF YOU DARE! NYEH HEH HEH!”With that said, Papyrus turned around and headed down the path that kept going.“Guess Sans was right about Papyrus not being dangerous. I just think he’s a little crazy though,” said Aiden.“Yeah. Papyrus isn’t that dangerous. I guess he just wants to sound tough,” Kate agreed.They walked up to Sans. Sans smiled at them.“thanks for that. my brother hasn’t been this happy in a long time. not since he lost a special friend of ours,” said Sans.“Aw man. Sorry about your friend,” said Kate.“But you promise that he won’t hurt us?” Aiden asked Sans.“don't worry, he won't hurt ya's,” said Sans. He once again walked back the way they came from.“Those two can be pretty strange sometimes,” Aiden said, forming a nervous smile.“Yeah…” Kate said with a chuckle. “Hey, ready to keep going? I bet we’ll find some puzzles here in this place.”“I’m ready,” said Aiden.  The two continued on through the snowy forest. They encountered a few more monsters and puzzles, but remembering Toriel’s advice, they didn’t dare fight with any monsters. They were able to get through the monsters without using violence on any of them. As for the puzzles, they weren’t much of a challenge for Aiden or Kate.They continued on a bit, and that’s when they ran into Papyrus and Sans again. Aiden and Kate were walking up to a bridge that seemed to lead to a town of some sort, and that’s when they ran into the skeleton bros once again.“THOSE HUMANS ARE SMART! I NEED TO GIVE THEM A HARD ONE!” Papyrus told his brother.He turned around and saw Aiden and Kate.“HUMANS! PREPARE TO BE CAPTURED!” he told them.“Captured? Wait what?” said Aiden.Kate stepped up and said, “Whoa Papyrus! We don’t want to fight you honest. We don’t want any trouble. We’re just trying to go home.”Sans watched as Kate tried to talk some sense into Papyrus. Aiden walked up to Kate and said, “Y-yeah. We don’t want to fight,” nervously.‘Familiar. Very familiar. Just like Frisk…’ Sans sadly thought.“I… I MUST CAPTURE YOU BOTH! AND TAKE YOU TO THE CAPITAL!” said Papyrus. He looked a little hesitant to do so though.“Come on, Papyrus,” Kate said. She gave him a friendly smile. “We don’t need to fight. Can’t we just be friends?”“F-FRIENDS!? YOU REALLY WANT TO BE MY FRIENDS?!” Papyrus shouted excitedly.“Seems that what he really wants is friends,” Kate whispered to Aiden. “Sure,” she said out loud to Papyrus.“Yeah. We can be friends,” Aiden told him with a nervous smile.“WOWWIE! I HAVE FRIENDS! WE SHOULD HANG OUT SOMETIME! YOU SHOULD STOP BY MY HOUSE SOON!” Papyrus said happily. He turned around and headed down the bridge.Kate and Aiden couldn’t help but smile nervously with what just happened. It was funny, but they were also relieved that they didn’t have to fight Papyrus. They started to walk over to the bridge, but stopped real quick to talk to Sans.“hey, thanks for befriending my brother. he hasn’t been this happy in a while,” said Sans.“Uh… you’re welcome,” Kate said with a nervous smile.“By the way, what are ya names?” asked Sans“Uh… I’m Aiden…” said Aiden.“And I'm Katelyn, but I prefer to be called Kate,” said Kate.“Aiden and Kate huh? Think I've heard those before…” said Sans.‘Oh man. He must’ve heard our names from a book. A book that has our stories. Guess there’s books that connect to this world, but I don’t know why I don’t have a copy of it…’ thought Kate.“Well, heh, Aiden and Katelyn are actually common names for people. You’d be surprised to know how many people have the name Katelyn, just spelled differently,” said Kate.“oh, guess that’s how I heard those names before,” said Sans. He seemed to buy it.‘Nice save, Kate,’ Aiden thought.“Anyway, we’ll keep going. I guess we’ll see you around, Sans,” said Kate.Sans smiled at them as they told him good bye. Aiden and Kate continued across the bridge until they saw a sign up ahead. “Welcome to Snowdin,” it said.“Snowdin? I guess we’ve arrived to a town,” said Kate.“Guess this is a good point to rest up,” said Aiden.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Aiden and Kate walked through Snowdin for a bit. They could see some houses that were homes for some monsters, an inn, a shop, and what looked like a restaurant up ahead.“Oh man, I would love to have something to eat right now,” said Aiden, as they looked at the outside of the restaurant.“Grillby’s”, Kate said, reading the name of the restaurant. “I guess it’s some sort of bar and grill. “Maybe we can find some money lying around somewhere around here,” she told Aiden.“Maybe,” said Aiden.  He heard his stomach growl a bit.Kate reached into her pockets and pulled out a granola bar. She handed it to Aiden. “I was saving it for just in case. Go ahead and eat it,” she told him.“Uh… are you sure?” he asked her.“Yeah. I’m fine. I don’t eat breakfast at all, and there have been a few days where I went without eating until dinner time. I’m okay,” she said.Aiden wasn’t sure if he should eat it, but he put the granola bar in his pockets to show Kate that he was grateful for her kindness. The two friends walked down the path a little bit more, and that’s when they spotted Papyrus standing outside a house. It must’ve been his and Sans’s house.“Oh, hey Papyrus,” Kate said, smiling at him.Papyrus turned around and smiled at them. “YOU CAME! READY TO HANG OUT?” he asked them.Kate and Aiden looked at each other for a moment. They nodded their heads and turned to face Papyrus. “Sure. We can hang out right now,” said Aiden.“GREAT! I’LL HAVE TO TAKE YOU SOMEPLACE REALLY SPECIAL!” said Papyrus.He started walking down the path they came from. It looked like they were going to the restaurant, but Papyrus turned around and brought them back to his house.“MY HOUSE,” said Papyrus.Aiden and Kate looked at each other again. They were a bit confused to why Papyrus brought them back to his place, but they supposed it was better than the restaurant. At least they wouldn’t have to pay when they don’t have any money with them at the moment. They followed Papyrus into the house. They could see a little living room and a kitchen. Upstairs were two bedroom doors.“WELCOME TO MY HOUSE. FEEL FREE TO MAKE YOURSELVES AT HOME!” Papyrus said, smiling a bit.“Thank you, Papyrus,” said Aiden. He managed to make a small smile. He started to look around the living room while Kate took a poke into the kitchen.“Can I have a cup of water?” she asked Papyrus.“FEEL FREE TO HELP YOURSELF,” said Papyrus.Kate smiled .She got a cup and opened the fridge to grab the pitcher of water. She found it, as well as a bunch of spaghetti and a bag of potato chips inside the fridge.“Wow, guess Papyrus sure loves making spaghetti. At least he can have it. The dining hall at the campus rarely makes it…” she whispered to herself.She poured a cup of water for herself and put the pitcher back in the fridge. After shutting it, she could hear something from inside the cabinet right underneath the sink. She turned around, and was a bit surprised to see a really tall sink.“Geez, I never thought I’d need a step stool to reach a sink again…” she said. It was too high for even her to reach.She heard the noise still coming from under the sink. Kate opened up the cabinet and found a white dog chewing on a bone. Papyrus turned around and saw the dog in the sink.“WHAT?! CATCH THAT MEDDLING CANINE!” he cried.Kate jumped to try to tackle the dog, but it ran away from her. It ran past Aiden and Papyrus and out the door.“CURSES!” said Papyrus.Upstairs, they heard one of the bedroom doors open. Sans came out with a trombone. He played a tune that represented failure real quick and went back in his room.“SANS!” Papyrus complained. He sighed and shook his head.“Heh. Brothers can be like that. I have a little brother and he can be really annoying. But then again, he’s only seven,” Kate said with a nervous smile.“SANS IS THE OLDER ONE. YOU’D EXPECT HIM TO BE THE MATURE ONE,” said Papyrus.“Whoa, he’s older than you? I thought you were the older sibling since you’re taller…” said Aiden.“Height doesn’t mean anything to me. Mario and Luigi are twins, but Luigi’s taller than Mario by almost half a foot,” said Kate.“MARIO AND LUIGI? THOSE FRIENDS OF YOURS,” said Papyrus.“Yeah. And based on how much you love making spaghetti, I bet you’d get along with them,” said Kate. “They love spaghetti.”“REALLY? WOWWIE!” said Papyrus.“Oh, by the way Papyrus, I don’t think you know our names,” said Aiden.“I KNOW. YOU’RE AIDEN AND KATE. SANS TOLD ME,” said Papyrus.“Oh… well okay. Guess we don’t need to introduce ourselves,” said Kate. She took a sip of her water.“Hey Papyrus, what’s a rock doing over here?” asked Aiden. He pointed to a rock that he found on the table. It was covered with sprinkles.“THAT’S MY BROTHER’S PET ROCK. HE’S ALWAYS TOO LAZY TO FEED IT. LUCKY HE’S GOT ME, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, TO LOOK AFTER IT,” said Papyrus.“Pet rock… okay…” said Aiden.‘Seems like the perfect pet for someone who’s so lazy…’ thought Kate.Aiden only sighed and sat down on the couch. He was tired from all that walking and needed to sit down. As he sat down, he heard a jingle noise inside the cushions. He quickly sat up to pull out what it was. He pulled out some money.“Oh, I think this got stuck in your couch,” he said, handing Papyrus the money.Papyrus only smiled and said, “NAH. YOU KEEP IT.”“Really? Wow. Thank you,” said Aiden. He put the money in his pockets.“Guess we can use that to grab a bite to eat later,” Kate whispered to herself.  For the rest of their quick hang out with Papyrus, Aiden and Kate got to look around Papyrus’s house and got to chat with him for a bit. Kate was relieved to have some time to sit down and take a break from all the walking she and Aiden did, but what she was happy to see was Aiden smiling. He even got to laugh a couple times for fun while they were hanging out with Papyrus.‘I’m glad to see Aiden smiling. When we get out of the Underground, I want to see him happy again and with his friends,’ she thought.After wrapping things up with Papyrus, the friendly skeleton gave them his phone number and told them to call them if they ever needed his help. Aiden and Kate thanked him and they started to leave Snowdin.As they started to leave town, they ran into Sans.“I need a break from my work. wanna go to Grillby’s with me?” he asked them.“Oh um…” said Aiden. He pulled out the money he found in the couch and counted it.“Nah, it’s on me,” said Sans.“You sure? Okay. I guess it’ll be okay,” said Kate.She and Aiden followed Sans down the path back to Grillby’s. They walked inside after Sans and went inside. There were a few monsters in the restaurant, but they were all minding their own business and sitting at their own tables. The person behind the counter was a monster made of fire.Sans walked Kate and Aiden up to the bar and they sat down in their own seats. When Aiden sat down, he heard a whoopee cushion noise. Sans giggled and said, “you best to watch where you sit. some people like to put a whoopee cushion on your seat.”Aiden only frowned at him. Sans just smiled and said, “what do you two want? a burger, or fries?”“Um… I guess a burger is okay,” said Aiden.“I’m not much of a burger person, so fries for me,” said Kate.“sounds good,” said Sans. He faced the monster behind the bar and said, “Grillby, we’ll have a double order of burg and one order of fries.”Grillby headed to the back to start cooking.“so what do you think of my brother?” Sans asked them.“Papyrus? He’s a little funny, but he’s cool,” said Kate.“He’s definitely a nice guy,” Aiden agreed.“you gotta agree that he’s cool. he works really hard to be a part of the royal guard,” said Sans.“A royal guard? Heh, I know someone who’s a head of the royal guard back in his home,” said Aiden. He remembered Reginald back from Sky City. After he, Maya, and Gill were released from prison, Reginald had been keeping a closer eye on the Blaze Rods. Eventually, Aiden got along with Reginald, because Reginald would stop by at the end of every day to check on Aiden. Aiden got used to Reginald visiting him, and he even looked forward to it because he was happy to talk to someone.“he a friend of yours?” asked Sans.“You could say he is,” said Aiden. He considered Reginald a friend, but Aiden wasn’t sure if Reginald considered Aiden as a friend in return.Grillby came back out.  He handed a burger to Sans and one to Aiden, and then a plate of fries to Kate.“thanks Grillby,” said Sans. He grabbed a bottle of ketchup and asked Aiden and Kate, “want some ketchup?”“No thank you,” said Kate. She started eating her fries.“I guess I could take a little bit,” said Aiden. He took the bottle and lifted the top bun of his hamburger. He squirted out a little bit of ketchup and put some on his burger. When he was done, he moved the ketchup bottle aside and started to eat.Sans smiled at them as they started to eat. As he sat with Kate and Aiden, it was bringing memories back when he hung out with an old friend. But the smile started to fade from his face.Kate noticed the sad look on his face. “Sans, are you alright?” she asked him.Sans made a sad smile and said, “hanging out with you two brings back memories. I was friends with another human, as so was Papyrus. though… they’re gone now…” said Sans.“I’m sorry about your friend. Who were they?” asked Kate.“she was a little kid. sweetest I’ve ever seen. she never killed any monsters. her name was Frisk,” said Sans.“How come she’s not here anymore?” asked Aiden. He felt a little saddened to hear that a little girl was gone.“she… she tried to help a friend come back, but it cost her life. her friend is still gone, and now she is to. and all monsters are still trapped in the Underground,” said Sans.“I’m sorry about Frisk. I know how it is to lose someone. When I was younger, I lost my cousin Mara. We were close, but she got really sick and didn’t last long,” said Kate.Aiden knew the truth to Mara’s death. Mara got sick because the Dark King cursed her with his powers, making her death look like she got cancer. But because that was all stuff in a story, Aiden didn’t want to bring it up in front of Sans.“I do miss that little kiddo. Papyrus really misses her. and our friends, they miss her a lot to,” said Sans.“At least you have friends who understand. When I lost my cousin, none of my friends didn’t know how it felt. And some of them… they told me I was weak for crying over my loss…” said Kate.Aiden found that horrible to hear. He remembered that he made fun of Reuben when the little pig was still alive. But he didn’t actually hate Reuben. And when Reuben died helping Female Jesse finish off the Witherstorm, he felt sorry. It was very sad for Female Jesse to lose her best friend. He didn’t think she was weak at all for crying for her loss.“We’re sorry about Frisk,” said Aiden.“and I’m sorry about your cousin Mara,” Sans told Kate.Kate managed to make a small smile and said, “You know, I bet Mara and Frisk are hanging out in heaven.”Kate and Aiden finished hanging out with Sans. They finished their food and thanked Sans for taking them to Grillby’s. As they walked out of the place, Aiden let out a yawn.“Want to go to the inn and take a nap?” Kate asked him.“You think they’ll accept a quick rest?” asked Aiden.“I can talk to them,” said Kate.They walked back to where the inn was. Kate talked to the monster behind the counter and they said that as long as they didn’t stay overnight, they were allowed to stay for a quick nap. Kate and Aiden walked upstairs and into a room that the inn keeper said they could stay in.They headed into the room and there were two beds inside the room. They each sat down on one.“Kate… I don’t mean to bother you, but… did something happen to you before you ran into me?” Aiden asked her.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Kate became quiet. She knew Aiden was gonna try to get her to talk again. Maybe this time, she should talk to him.“Please tell me Kate. Come on, I can help you, just tell me what's bothering you,” said Aiden.Kate sighed. “I promised to help you out, so it seems fair that I should talk to you to help me out,” she said.“So what happened?” asked Aiden.“I went to the Mushroom Kingdom, and I saw two rivals of mine threatening Peach and Amy. Their names are Pauline and Sally. They’re Mario and Sonic’s exes. Ever since I joined the group, they’ve been threatening all of us, except Mario and Sonic… I got them to leave my friends alone, but… I got into a fight with Mario and Sonic. I said that the group was better off without me. One thing led to another, and I stormed off…” Kate explained.“Why would you think the group doesn't need you?” asked Aiden. He formed a sad look on his face.“Because if I wasn't in the group, Sally and Pauline wouldn't be threatening them, especially Peach and Amy… I don’t care if they’re threatening me. They’ve told me that I’m better off dead, but the threats they give me aren’t hurtful. I’ve dealt with people who harassed me before,” said Kate.Aiden didn’t know what to say. He had no clue that Kate dealt with this before. He knew that the people of Sky City didn’t like him, but they never told him that they wished he was dead.Kate finished up by saying, “They... they want me dead so badly because they think that I'm just some hero who does everything perfectly and is perfect herself. Well, I'm not perfect. And I hate looking back on the battle with the Dark King. He was once my friend, but he descended into madness and gave up his soul to become a Nightmare. I only killed him to protect the people I love, because he was going to kill them just to keep me to himself. Sally and Pauline want me dead to steal my connection with Mario and Sonic, and keep the guys away from the others. All they care about is getting fame and attention. It's why I can't stand it when people want to hear the story. They only want to know about the battle, and people still shut out who I am as a person. I can't lose my friends, because they’re the reason why I can handle this and keep living my life.”“I… I never knew any of this before Kate. Why would you hide it from me? From the others?” said Aiden.“People look up to me and the others. If fans knew that the Dreamer of Peace is depressed sometimes, then who knows what would happen? But... thanks for letting me talk to you Aiden. Keeping things bottled up really made me feel down.”Aiden smiled sadly. “No problem, but... Please promise me you won't hide everything like this again, OK? Sure, me and the others look up to you, but we're your friends. We understand it if you feel down, we're always there for you,” he said.“Thanks Aiden,” said Kate.It took them a short while after that to drift off into sleep.  A little while later, Aiden was starting to shake in his sleep. At first, he was able to have a peaceful slumber, but it quickly shifted into a nightmare.
In his nightmare, Aiden found himself alone in a dark, empty space, and he heard an eerie, but familiar voice speak to him…

“Aiden...” it said.

“What? No... No, how are you-” Aiden said with fear.

The spirit of the girl that had been chasing him showed up. She gave him an evil grin, and she had a bloody knife in her hands.

“I'm in your head,” she said with her dark smile.

“No. No go away!” Aiden cried. He started to run away, but the spirit grabbed him.

“You’re just a monster… just like me…” she said in a creepy whisper.
“No!” cried Aiden, as he woke up from his nightmare. Even after he realized that he was awake now, he started to shake. He started to cry.“Aiden?” Kate said, waking up when she heard him crying.She got up and walked over to Aiden. She gave him a hug and gently patted him on the back.“It was her! She's not gone! Sh-She's still here!” Aiden said, sobbing.“Shh... It's okay. I'm here. She can't hurt you when I'm here,” Kate said in a quiet, calming tone.Aiden continued to cry. “I'm scared Kate. I-I'm really, really scared. I-I don't want to hurt anyone,” he whispered.“It's okay to be afraid. You know, sometimes our fears can make us brave. But no matter what, I'm right here, Aiden,” Kate whispered to him.Aiden was silent, but he started to calm down. He was still crying, but he hugged Kate for comfort.Kate started to sing to him in a whisper to calm him down.“Do you feel cold, and lost in desperation? You build up hope, but failure’s all you’ve known. Remember all the sadness and frustration, and let it go. Let it go,” she whispered, singing the lyrics to the song Iridescent.Aiden started to calm down and began to drift back into sleep. Kate gently set him back down but she continued the song for him. When she finished up, she could hear Aiden snoring. He was back to sleep.“Rest easy, Aiden,” Kate whispered to him, smiling.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Back with Mario, Sonic, and the rest of their group, they were in Mario and Sonic’s world. They asked Tails to fly them over to Angel Island so that they could talk to Knuckles and ask him to use the Master Emerald in the hopes of figuring out where Aiden and Kate ended up at. The Tornado couldn’t fit everyone, but luckily, Tails had a larger plane for everyone to fit in.As they flew over to Angel Island, the group looked out the windows to see Angel Island up ahead.“Wow! An island in the sky. Reminds of...” said Lukas.“Sky City…” Female Jesse finished for him.“The island floats as long as the Master Emerald is here and in one piece,” Sonic explained.“An island in the sky. It’s still amazing,” said Male Jesse.Tails landed the plan a little close to where the shrine with the Master Emerald was. Everyone quickly got out.“Thanks bud. We’ll let you know when we’re ready to leave,” Sonic told Tails.“No problem. I’ll just stay with the plane to make sure none of the animals here on the island try to sneak inside,” said Tails.Mario and Sonic nodded their heads and led the group down the path to get to the Master Emerald.“Now, if we can just find Knuc-”Mario got off when something pulled up the group from right under their feet. They got caught in a net trap and were now dangling from a tree.“What the heck?!” cried Gill.“What just happened?!” cried Maya.“Ah ha! I caught you! You sneaky little-” they heard a voice call out.That’s when Knuckles came out. He was holding onto a baseball bat with him, and strangely, Magnus, Ellegaard, Gabriel, and Soren were with him.“Guys?! Oh crap! I'm so sorry! I'll get you down!” Knuckles cried when he saw that he trapped his friends.He ran over to where the ropes were tied to the tree. Knuckles pulled out a pocket knife and cut it. The net dropped down and the group landed on a pile of leaves.“Knuckles, what the heck is with the trap?!” Sonic asked him, as he stood up.“Sorry, but I set up traps to kinda protect myself. Sally and Pauline came by earlier, and they were demanding that I hand over Kate. I had to pretend I was going to drop the island to scare them off. I called Magnus and the others to help me set up these traps, but now they're with me because I really don't want to be here alone in case your exes come back...” Knuckles explained.“You mean Mario and Sonic’s exes? Geez. What’s wrong with those two?” Ivor said with an unamused look.“They came by earlier demanding for Kate. Did they cause trouble and drag her into it again?” Knuckles asked Mario and Sonic.“They came by the kingdom earlier to harass and threaten Peach and Amy. Kate sent them off, but after they left, we found her really depressed,” Sonic explained. He looked a little disappointed when he spoke. The group figured that he was disappointed with their rivals bothering their friends earlier.“We tried to talk to Kate, because she said that she felt maybe the group was better off without her, but we only made her worse...” said Mario sadly.“And it sent her running off didn't it?” Ivor asked them.Mario nodded his head sadly.“Kate told us that the group would be better without her, because if she hadn’t shown up, then our exes would be threatening our friends…” said Sonic.“It’s not Kate’s fault though...” said Female Jesse.“It's the same with Aiden. He thinks it's his fault that those people were killed, but he was being used...” said Gill.“You don't have a lot of proof for that!” Lukas snapped at him.“Hold on. Gill, can I see that necklace again?” asked Mario.Gill pulled the necklace back out. Mario took it from him and took a look at it.“Like I said before, this thing might be connected to some dark spirit that controlled him. I’ve seen some crazy stuff in this world, and haunted artifacts is one thing. I remember when King Boo tricked Luigi into come into this haunted mansion. Lots of objects had some strange spells, including the painting I got trapped in,” said Mario.“So... you think something with this necklace took control of Aiden’s mind and made him go on his murderous rampage?” asked Maya“That depends, has been talking to something you guys can't see? Or talking about something no one but him could see? Sometimes, when someone’s been affected by an object with a curse or spell, they see things that other people can’t see,” said Mario.“He said something about being someone's hero once... I couldn't make out what he was saying then as he was crying, but it was right after he had a nightmare,” said Maya.“That might be connected to it... Maybe he tried to help someone, and it was a trick?” suggested Male Jesse.“Someone's hero? Maybe it was the corrupted spirit inside the necklace,” said Sonic.“I think that's it! When I snapped Aiden out of it, the necklace fell off...” said Gill.“So... An evil spirit was within the necklace?” said Lukas.“Yes! And THAT'S our proof Lukas!” Maya snapped at him.“There's still some unanswered questions guys! Like, who is this spirit? Why possess Aiden specifically? Though that's easy to answer...” said Lukas.“Maybe only Aiden could see the spirit. And we gotta find him,” said Male Jesse.“So Aiden’s missing? Is that why you guys came here for Knuckles?” said Ellegaard.“We know you’re not here to see the rest of us, since you didn’t know we were here,” said Magnus.“Knuckles, Aiden’s missing, but so is Kate. We have a feeling that they’ve run off together,” said Mario.“Let me guess, you think the Master Emerald can show us?” said Knuckles.“Yes. Can you see if the Master Emerald can show us where they are?” asked Female Jesse.“I’m sure it can. Only I can control it, and the Master Emerald can heed to my calls,” said Knuckles.He led them up the shrine to the Master Emerald. Everyone from the Minecraft world was amazed to see the giant gem.“Dude, that's one big emerald,” said Axel.Knuckles knew that Axel was a big fan of emeralds back in the Minecraft world. “Don't think about stealing it. Not only is it too heavy for someone without super strength to pick up, but only someone from my clan can use it,” he said.“Clan?” asked Ellegaard.“Yeah. My ancestors have been guarding the Master Emerald, but I'm the last of my clan right now,” said Knuckles.He walked up to the Master Emerald and started to whisper something. No one in the group could hear what Knuckles was saying, but Mario and Sonic knew that Knuckles was speaking to the Master Emerald so that it could answer his calls.Suddenly, the Master Emerald started to glow, and an image formed inside the giant gem. The group walked up to get a closer look at what was inside. They saw Aiden and Kate asleep in what looked like a suite in an inn. Aiden began to toss and turn in is sleep, and he woke up shaking. He must’ve had a nightmare.Kate suddenly woke up and went over to him. She hugged Aiden and sang to him to calm him down. Aiden managed to go back to sleep and Kate gently set him down before getting back in her bed and going back to sleep.“Aiden's safe. Oh thank notch...” Maya said with a sigh of relief.“But still, where exactly are they?” said Gill.“Well, based on the room they’re in, it looks like a suite in a hotel or an inn,” said Mario.Sonic was taking a closer look into the image. He could see something out the window. It was snowing, but he could see something watching Aiden and Kate.“Guys, do you see something watching Aiden and Kate out the window there?” he asked the others. He pointed at the window in the image to direct them.The group took a closer look at the point where Sonic was pointing. Now that the hedgehog mentioned it, there was something out the window watching Aiden and Kate. It looked like the spirit of a human child. A little girl with short brown hair, wearing a green sweater with a single yellow stripe. She was emitting an eerie smile as she watched Aiden and Kate.“Oh crap. Not her!” said Soren.“You know her? Who is she?” asked Sonic.“That's Chara. She's from another universe, from one of the books. The Undertale Universe. She's a genocidal freak, and she's blood thirsty!” Soren explained.“Genocidal? No… you don’t think…” Mario said, as he looked at the necklace that Gill found.“She's the one who possessed Aiden! And now she's after him, and Kate!” said Sonic.“It was her?!” said Lukas.“See Lukas, it WASN'T Aiden!” said Gill.“Oh no... Oh no oh no oh no... We need to find them! If... If Chara gets to Aiden again...” Maya said with a worried look.“Soren, we need to get to this universe! How do we do that?!” said Magnus.“There is this large mountain in the Undertale universe called Mount Ebbot. There is a large pit in there which is the gateway to the Underground, the land of monsters,” Soren explained.“We gotta go! Aiden and Kate are being hunted down by Chara!” cried Maya.“Wait, won't the monsters fight us?” Sonic asked with a concerned look.“Yeah. Whatever you do, don't fight back. If you use mercy, then they'll most likely won't fight back. Fighting them will make us look bad to their kind, and if we kill them, then we'll become genocidal, and Chara could possess us...” Soren warned the group.“Is that why Chara possessed Aiden?” Maya asked.“But he didn't actually KILL anyone when we went to Sky City! When he went on his genocidal rampage, it was because of Chara!” said Gill.“No, but Chara hates humans. She must've detected Aiden's jealously and hatred for Jesse back when he was on Sky City, and mistaken it for a hatred for all humans. Chara is only young, after all...” said Soren.“Chaos… she sounds as scary and bloodthirsty as Dark King…” said Sonic.“Come ON guys, we need to go! I refuse to let Aiden get possessed again, and for him to badly hurt Kate!” cried Maya.“She's right. We need to move, now!” said Gabriel.“There should be a book on the Undertale Universe in the library at Peach’s castle. If we had one at the tree house, we would’ve know. Kate lets us read any of the books there,” said Mario.“Let’s just get going! We can’t let Chara possess Aiden again!” said Maya.The group ran back to where the plane was parked, that way they could hurry to the castle, find the book, and get into the Undertale Universe.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Back at the inn, Aiden and Kate finished up their nap. They told the inn keeper thank you for letting them stay for a quick rest. Kate left a tip to the inn keeper as a token of thanks and they started to finally leave Snowdin.“Feeling better Aiden?” Kate asked her friend.“Yeah... Yeah, much better, thanks,” Aiden told her. He managed to make a small smile.“I'm glad you're better now. And after some rest, I think we best to keep going,” she said, smiling back.They started to walk down the path and were finally leaving Snowdin behind. The temperature was starting to warm up a bit, so they didn’t need their scarves, mittens, or sweaters anymore.“Hey Kate?” said Aiden.“Yeah?” asked Kate.“Thank you…” Aiden managed to say.“Hey, no need to thank me. I'll always be here to help you,” Kate said, winking at him.“Kate, I just thought of something: How are we supposed to get out of this Underground place?”“While we were at Grillby’s I heard about how this guy named Asgore is the leader of the Underground. I’m gonna talk to him about letting us leave. Remember that Papyrus said that the barrier is in Asgore’s castle? We obviously need to go to the castle to get to the barrier, so maybe I can talk some sense to Asgore on letting us go,” said Kate.“If anyone can convince someone to help or do something, it's you. I mean, you did convince Isa to let the Blaze-Rods and I redeem ourselves through the community work,” said Aiden. He was grinning at first, but a sad look suddenly swept on his face.“Hey Aiden, don't focus on the negative. If this spirit is after you, then she'd really want to see you feeling negative right now. Try to focus on something else. Like... take a look at our surroundings, and think about what an adventure this is going to be: exploring the Underground,” said Kate.Aiden took a look around and said, “Yeah…”The two friends continued walking and they finally were out of Snowdin. They began entering another area that looked like it was a cave area. They could hear the sound of rushing water, which meant there was either a river, or a water fall up ahead.Aiden suddenly stopped walking and just stood in place. He began to think about his nightmare. The spirit that had been haunting him, and that possessed him to murder innocent people, was a human girl. She sent chills down his spine, whenever she called him a monster and said she was a part of him now.Kate noticed that her friend stopped walking and was standing in place, shaking.“Aiden?” she asked him. ‘Just after he said he’s doing better…’ she thought. Kate sighed and walked over to him.“Sorry… Just… thinking…” he managed to tell her.“About the spirit and your nightmare?” Kate asked him. She already knew the answer, but she didn’t want to assume things.“Yeah. She keeps telling me that I’m a monster, and that she’s a part of me. I feel like she’s following us, Kate…” said Aiden.“Well, like I said before. I’ll protect you from her. No matter what happens, I’m not going to let her take control of you. You’re my friend, and as long as I’m around, nothing messes with my friends,” said Kate.“Thanks Kate…” Aiden said, smiling sadly.The two friends continued on. As they began to head into the next area, they were unaware that someone had listened to their conversation. Sans was listening to what they were saying, and when he heard them mention the spirit controlling Aiden, he wasn’t feeling as smooth as he normally felt.‘that spirit… could it be… it has to be! a trace of her is inside Aiden’s soul…’ Sans thought.  Kate and Aiden continued on for a bit. They came across a river and a waterfall and had to cross it. Holding hands, they made their way across and over to the other side. When they made it to the other side, there was a huge portion of tall grass. Even taller than Kate. As they started to move through the area, they heard some voices speaking on a ledge by them, out of their reach.“HI UNDYNE. I’M HERE WITH MY DAILY REPORT,” said a familiar voice.It was Papyrus.“I WANTED TO TELL YOU ABOUT THOSE TWO HUMANS I CALLED YOU ABOUT,” they heard Papyrus say.Peering over the top of the tall grass, Aiden and Kate looked up to where Papyrus was standing. They saw him speaking to someone dressed in a set of thick armor. Whoever it was looked like some sort of guard. The figure must’ve spoken to Papyrus, but Aiden and Kate couldn’t hear what they were saying from where they were.“WHAT? DID I CAPTURE THEM? UH… NO… I DIDN’T… I… I TRIED MY BEST…’ said Papyrus.Aiden and Kate couldn’t believe what they were hearing. Papyrus was sent to capture them, but he ended up befriending them instead? That meant that this guard must’ve been his boss.“I… I’M SORRY I LET YOU DOWN. BUT NEITHER OF THEM MIGHT BE THE HUMAN YOU HEARD ABOUT…” said Papyrus.There was a pause as the figure in armor spoke.“WHAT? BUT UNDYNE. YOU DON’T NEED TO CAPTURE THEM. THEY’RE LIKE FRISK-”As soon as Papyrus said that name, the figure in armor turned their back on the skeleton. Papyrus sighed sadly and said, “I’M SORRY… I SHOULDN’T HAVE SAID THEIR NAME…”The figure turned back around to face them.“WELL… I… I’LL JUST KEEP DOING MY BEST LIKE I ALWAYS DO…” said Papyrus sadly.He turned around and left.Aiden and Kate formed sad looks on their faces. They felt bad for putting Papyrus in a rough position. Suddenly, Kate felt her nose twitch, and she let out a sneeze.The figure in armor suddenly turned around, and looked towards their direction. Not wanting to get spotted, Kate and Aiden got down so that they could be out of sight.“Don’t move…” Kate whispered to Aiden as quietly as she could. Aiden slightly nodded his head at her to show her that he heard her.They watched as the figure stared at the tall grass for a bit, before finally leaving. When they were sure she was gone, they left the tall grass and continued walking on.They began to walk in a place where the walls had shining lights, there were light blue flowers glowing around them, and there was water everywhere with docks on top of it.However, as the two friends walked along the docks, a spear came from out of nowhere and almost hit them.“Whoa!” cried Kate.“What was that?!” cried Aiden.Kate turned around and saw who threw the spear nearby them. It was the figure in the armor.“Aw crap! Run Aiden!” she cried. She took his arm and started to run along the docks with him.The figure chased after them, pulling out some spears to throw at them. Kate took a quick peak around and saw her pulling out the spears.“Crap…” she muttered. She picked up Aiden and carried him in her arms to run faster.The figure tried to toss their spears at them, but missed with each toss. They began to chase after the duo on foot.Kate kept on running until they reached another field of tall grass. She ran into it and set Aiden down. They got down as they heard the figure coming.“Shh!” she whispered to him.The figure started to walk in the grass. It looked around for them for a bit. After a while, the figure finally turned around and went back the way they came from. After a few minutes, when they were sure that they were in the clear, Aiden and Kate stood up and got out of the tall grass.“That was way too close…” said Aiden.“I agree.  We gotta keep an eye out for them. I don’t want to fight anyone, and I don’t want any trouble,” said Kate.“Me to. After that spirit made me hurt so many people, I don’t want to get into any fights while we’re trying to leave the Underground,” said Aiden.The two continued on and headed into another new area. The water was glowing a light blue light, there were little docks connected different parts of land together for everyone to walk around, and there were more of the glowing flowers from before.Kate spotted a sign that said “Wishing Area”.“Wishing area?” she said. “Do monsters come up to the flowers and make wishes?” she said.Aiden walked up to one of the flowers. He heard it suddenly speak to him and say something that monster said earlier.“Guess these were the talking flowers Sans told us about back at Grillby’s,” he said. “They’re so… pretty…”Kate smiled and said, “When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are. When you wish, upon a star, your dreams come true,” in a singing voice.Aiden smiled at her.“I guess even monsters make wishes,” he said.“Everyone has a wish. Whether it's a goal, or a strange dream, everyone has one,” said Kate, smiling back.“Maybe... Maybe we should make a wish? Do... Do you want to Kate?” Aiden asked her.Kate was quiet for a moment. She thought over what she wanted to tell the flower.“I don’t have a wish, but I do have something I want the flowers to hear me say,” she said.“I'd like to hear it. Go for it,” said Aiden.Kate took a deep breath as she sang the lyrics to one of her favorite Linkin Park songs: “Somewhere I Belong”
I wanna heal, I wanna feel

What I thought was never real

I wanna let go of the pain I've held so long.

Erase all the pain 'till it's gone.

I wanna heal, I wanna feel,

Like I'm close to something real.

I wanna find something I've wanted all along.

Somewhere I Belong.
When Kate finished singing, Aiden smiled and said, “That sounded great.”“Thank you Aiden,” Kate said, smiling back. “You gonna make a wish to?”“Yeah. It's not as poetic as yours was, but... Here's my wish...” He took a deep breath and said, “I wish... I wish my friends would forgive me for what I've done. From Sky City to the killing spree, I've done many terrible things. I don't deserve forgiveness, I don't deserve friends like them, but...” He started to tear up. “I just wish that everything could be normal, that no one judges me for my past actions, that all my friends; Maya, Gill and Lukas... I just wish... It could all be pushed aside, and we could all be friends again...” he finished up as he began to cry again.Kate formed a sad smile as she walked up to Aiden. She gave him a pat on the back and said, “You know something, Aiden? I wish the same thing for you. When we get home, I'll do what I can to help your wish come true.”Aiden rubbed his eyes and smiled at her. “Thanks Kate…” he whispered to her.“It's going to be okay, Aiden,” she whispered to him. She extended her hand out.Aiden took her hand and said, “I hope so, I really do...”They continued onward.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

While Aiden and Kate were heading into the wishing area with the echo flowers, their friends had made it into the Undertale universe. They had to take caution and not get spotted by any humans in this world. Based on the story that Soren told them, the humans in this universe were a bit hostile and wanted to start a fight with even each other. They knew that it possibly would be a problem if Sonic and Knuckles showed up, since they were Mobians and not humans. But they didn’t want to risk it with the others getting spotted.They made it to the mountain that Soren told them has the entrance to the Underground. After what felt like forever, they finally reached the top. When they made it to the top and saw a huge, gaping hole. They couldn’t see what was below though.“This is it?” asked Ellegaard.“So we just jump down this thing? Sounds simple,” said Magnus.“Simple yes. But is it safe?” Ivor asked.Soren sighed. He was getting so many questions and it wasn’t even one minute after they reached the top of the mountain.Maya was irritated with waiting around. “Aiden's down there! I'm going!” she said.The group figured that she wanted to go, since she was desperate to find Aiden. But would she really be the first to enter the Underground?Knuckles stepped up and said, “Don't go by yourself. Let me jump with you.”Maya nodded her head. She took his hand and they walked up to the edge together. “OK, we’ve got this...” she said.“On three?” asked Knuckles.“One… Two… Three!” said Maya.After she said counted down, she and Knuckles leaped forward and jumped down. Their friends watched they go down and out of sight.Knuckles and Maya cried as they fell down, but to their relief, they landed on something soft. They got up to see that what they landed in was a huge bed of golden flowers.“Ow! That hurt... At least it's safe...” said Maya.“Yeah. As long as they land in the flowers, they’ll survive the fall to,” said Knuckles.“Maya, Knuckles. Is it safe?” they heard Soren call up to them from the top. They could hear him faintly, but at least they could tell what he was saying.Knuckles cupped his hands so that the others could hear him better when he called up, “Yeah! Come on down! But not all at once,” he called up to them.“Wait, what did he say?” they heard Sonic say up above.“I think he said ‘All at once’,” they heard Lukas say.Maya and Knuckles eyed each other with wide eyes and gasped.“Guys! No wait!” they shouted at the same time.But it was too late. Everyone jumped down at once and was already falling down into the Underground. Luckily, everyone landed on the bed of golden flowers. Everyone except Axel, who landed on Knuckles.“Ugh, get OFF of me!” Knuckles groaned. He shoved Axel off of him, who quickly stood up.“Sorry…” Axel said nervously. He helped Knuckles stand up.“We said 'Not all at once'!” Maya snapped at the others.“Sorry. We couldn't hear you completely...” Lukas apologized. “It’s my fault, since I was the one who thought you guys told us to jump down all at once.”Maya calmed down and said, “Apology accepted. I understand if you couldn’t hear us completely.”Everyone stood up and looked around.“So… this is the Underground?” said Gabriel.“Where do we even start looking for Aiden and Kate?” asked Petra.“Wait guys, I see someone over there,” said Axel.He was pointing to Toriel, who was by the entrance to the ruins. She was peering behind a pillar, watching them.“I believe that’s the caretaker of the ruins. I don’t remember her name though…” Soren whispered to the group.“Wait, what if the monsters in the Underground don’t understand us?” asked Gill.“Maybe we’ll have to act out what our situation is,” said Magnus.Before anyone could tell Magnus not to try it out, the rogue already walked over to Toriel and started to act out their situation as best as they could.Ellegaard sighed as muttered to herself, “He's gonna make a fool of himself…” and covered her face.“Um... I can speak English dear,” Toriel told Magnus.Magnus stopped acting out the situation and just stood there with a shocked look on his face. Sonic, Knuckles, Gill, and Axel ended up laughing hard.“Man, I wish I had my cell phone with me. I could’ve recorded you to show you how ridiculous you were acting,” Sonic said, as he calmed down.The rest of their group didn’t say anything.“Umm, never mind dear. My name is Toriel, caretaker of the ruins,” Toriel said, introducing herself to the group.“Hi Toriel. We’ll make our introductions quick because we’re kinda in a hurry,” said Female Jesse.She turned to Mario, Sonic, and Knuckles and said, “This is Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Knuckles the Echidna.”Then she turned to the old Order and said, “This is the Old Order of the Stone. They’re names are Soren, Gabriel, Magnus, Ellegaard, and Ivor.”Next, she turned to Gill and Maya and said, “This is Gill and Maya. They’re in a group called The Blaze Rods.”And lastly, she turned to her group and said, “And this is the New Order of the Stone, the group that I’m in. My friends here are Axel, Petra, Olivia, and Lukas. This is my twin brother, Male Jesse, and I’m Female Jesse.”Toriel smiled at them and said, “It’s a pleasure to meet you all.”“We were wondering, have you seen a girl with black hair, brown eyes, glasses, and wearing a black and grey stripped shirt? Or have you seen a boy with green eyes, brown hair, and a green shirt come down here?” Male Jesse asked her.“You must mean Kate and Aiden,” said Toriel. “But your names… I’m sure that I’ve heard them before… Yes! I remember now! You’re all in stories! The stories with the New Order of the Stone and the Three Heroes and their friends!”“Wow… she knows our stories to…” Ivor whispered.“Our stories must be in books here to,” Soren whispered back.“Wait a second, you saw Kate and Aiden? Where are they?!” Mario asked Toriel.“It's important that we find them, especially Aiden!” said Gill.“Oh, they... They have gone beyond the ruins... Why do you need to find them?” said Toriel. The smile faded from her face and she began to look concerned.“What?! They left?! We need to find them!” Knuckles cried.“Aiden's being hunted by this evil spirit who's made him go genocidal. And now that he and Kate are on their own, we have to find them!” cried Maya.“We have to find them before Chara takes over Aiden!” said Sonic.Toriel was shocked to hear Sonic say the name Chara. She knew that name. She remembered Chara, who was the first human to have fallen into the Underground. She and her husband adopted Chara as their own child, and their son, Asriel, became close to Chara. But what they didn’t know until it was too late, that Char wasn’t a good person at all.Chara committed suicide and died in the Underground. Her last wish was to have Asriel take her back to the surface, and it was a part of a plan to have the humans attack the poor little monster. Her plan was a success, because Asriel was killed by the humans from Chara’s home village.Toriel left her husband when he declared war, and started taking souls from other humans who fell into the Underground. There was a ray of hope when a child named Frisk, who looked a little similar to Chara, fell into the Underground, and was a true Pacifist.Unfortunately, after reaching the end of her journey, Frisk tried to do something, but failed, and it caused her to fade from existence, and monsters were still trapped in the Underground. Toriel was saddened by the loss, along with other friends that Frisk made, including King Asgore himself.Toriel never thought that Chara could come back, but now she was after poor Aiden. She didn’t know what Chara made Aiden do, but she had a feeling it was to make Aiden to something horrible.“Ch-Chara?! Oh... Oh no... I let them go on beyond the ruins, who knows what may happen now…” Toriel whispered.“Will you please take us to them?!” Maya asked her with a sad look.“Y-Yes. Please follow me…” she said.She guided them through the ruins as quickly as she could. A few monsters that lived in the ruins came up, but Toriel told them to leave, since they were in a hurry.“I can’t believe that Chara would go after your friend Aiden,” she told them.“You knew Chara?” asked Ivor.“I actually adopted her as a daughter when she was still alive. I thought she was a sweet, innocent child, but she actually hated humanity. She only came to the Underground with a plan to try to stir trouble. She killed herself as a part of a plan to trick Asriel into going to surface and getting killed by the humans…” Toriel said sadly.The group didn’t know who Asriel was, but they didn’t want to ask Toriel who that was, because they had a feeling it would hurt Toriel’s feelings. What they couldn’t believe was that Toriel actually adopted Chara as her own child before.“Why would you dears think that Chara would want to take control of Aiden?” Toriel asked them.“Well… Aiden did something bad. He… he didn’t kill anyone at that point, but Chara must’ve thought that he was genocidal. She took control of him and made him kill people back in our home…” Maya said sadly.“Aiden ran off because he knew that Chara’s been watching him. We need to find him before she does it again, and now our friend Kate is with him,” said Gill.“But I’m sure that Kate can keep Aiden sane and Chara away from him. I'm sure she can. If Mario, Sonic, or I know anything about Kate, it's that she'll put Aiden's safety before her own,” said Knuckles.May formed a worried look on her face.“Don’t worry, Maya. I’m sure Kate’s protecting him from Chara,” said Female Jesse.“Well find him. We promise,” said Male Jesse.  A short while later, the group reached Toriel’s house. Toriel led them straight inside and towards the basement.“Oh notch a basement? Why is there always a basement?” said Magnus.“Magnus…” Ellegaard said with a sigh.“Sorry, but after that Wendigo situation in the Until Dawn universe, I don’t do basements anymore,” said Magnus.“Me neither…” said Soren.“Will you two man up? Toriel isn’t going to hurt us! She’s leading us to Aiden and Kate!” Ivor snapped at them. He followed Toriel down the basement, along with the others, to prove to Magnus and Soren that it wasn’t as scary as they thought it was.“Guys, come on. It’s not dangerous,” said Ellegaard. She walked down the stairs.Magnus and Soren looked at each other. They sighed and followed the rest of the group downstairs.“The gateway beyond the ruins is down here in the basement. Kate and Aiden have gone through,” said Toriel.“Oh, I hope they're okay...” said Maya sadly.“Me to. I mean, I know Kate can take care of herself, but Mario, Sonic, and I are still worried about her safety,” said Knuckles.“Because of the fact that Chara's after Aiden?” asked Lukas.“Yeah, but for another reason. Kate... she practically doesn't care about her own safety whenever one of her friends are threatened. If Chara ambushes them, Kate might be willing enough to let Chara kill her to give Aiden more time to run...” Sonic sad with a worried look on his face.“It’s why we worry about her in situations like this, especially when she’s not around us…” said Mario.“Honestly, I don't think anything can kill her. Dark King, failed. Sally and Pauline, constantly failing. That strange creature we ran into in Cyberspace, failed. So I know Chara can't kill her either,” said Petra.“I agree with Petra. You friend Kate is quite tough,” said Axel.“Yeah.  Nothing can kill her,” said Gabriel.The group reached a huge doorway that led to the exit of the ruins.“So... we just go through the gateway and we head through the Underground?” Ivor asked Toriel.“Yes. Just through this gate and you'll be in the Underground. I am not sure how far Kate and Aiden are now, but they should not be too far,” said Toriel.“Oh man. I hope they haven't gotten into any trouble...” said Male Jesse.“I trust that they haven't. I told them not to harm any monsters down here, and they haven't once. Please go on ahead, and good luck,” said Toriel.“You won’t come with us?” asked Gill.“As long as you don’t harm any monsters, you’ll be okay, dears,” said Toriel.“Well, thank you for your help, Toriel,” said Female Jesse.“We really appreciate all that you’ve told us. Thank you,” said Lukas.“Good luck, dears,” said Toriel.The group bid farewell to Toriel before running through the doorway. When they were gone, Toriel looked back at the path.She stood there for a while, debating whether or not if she to, should go after Aiden and Kate.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Back at the wishing area, Aiden was quiet after making his wish. He started to tear up again, but luckily, Kate was still there to comfort him.“Kate… Can my wish really come true? Ever since the Sky City incident, everyone has been a little cautious around me especially Lukas, and now... This happened...” he said sadly.“Hey, I'm the Dreamer of Peace. I promise I'll help you make your wish in any way I can,” Kate promised him.“Thanks Kate... As much as I'm sure they hate me now, I miss us being a team, or at least all friends…” Aiden said sadly.“Hey man I hear you. I've lost friends along the way, though... it was the other way around. They started being a jerk to me, or abandoned me to hang out with the wrong group. And even with Mario, Sonic, and the others, I do fight with them sometimes... But... occasionally, people are going to argue about something here and there. It's a part of life, but you can learn from your mistakes.”“I have learned from them. I never want to hurt anyone or anything again, especially after... Well, you know...”“You know, my cousin once told me, long before she passed away, that your mistakes are what make you human. No one's perfect.”Aiden sighed and said, “After all I've done, I'm surprised I'm still considered human...”Kate was starting to get a little frustrated with his negativity, but she wasn’t going to give up on trying to boost Aiden’s confidence.“Aiden, I've messed up a LOT in my life, and it's because I didn't understand my disability until I made what was possibly the worst day in my youth... I'm not gonna go into details on what I've done, but sometimes I question if I'm human as well. But like I said, everyone makes mistakes, and no one's perfect,” she said.Aiden became quiet. He wasn’t sure how to respond to what Kate just told him.“Aiden? You okay?” Kate asked him.He looked down and said, “I-I'm fine...” quietly.Kate patted him on the shoulder and said, “Come on. Let's keep going. And... Smile Aiden. Your smile is all I need from you.”Aiden didn’t smile back, but he looked up and nodded his head for her.The duo continued walking through the area. After a short while, they saw a small, little monster standing by a different echo flower. He was orange, had a striped shirt, and didn’t have arms. But he still looked adorable.“I wish to be hero! I want to save the day, just like Undyne!” he said excitedly.Aiden sighed and said, “I wish the same thing...”Monster Kid looked up and saw Aiden and Kate. He walked up to them and asked Aiden, “Oh, you wish the same thing to?”“Yeah…” Aiden said quietly.Monster smiled and said, “Wow! I thought I was the only one! I knew I wasn't!” happily.“Heh…” Aiden said, forming a small smile.“Wait, you two are humans, aren’t you? That’s awesome! I remember meeting this one human named Frisk! Heh, I didn’t know she was a human until after Undyne, my hero, told me so! Frisk was my friend, though I do miss her,” said Monster Kid.‘Frisk… seems that the Underground monsters loved her… I wonder why she’s gone…’ thought Kate.The duo, now accompanied by Monster Kid, continued to walk onward. They made their way out of the wishing area and into an area where it began to rain. Luckily, there was a basket with some umbrellas. Aiden and Kate each took one, but Kate shared her umbrella with Monster Kid. They walked through the area until they came to a clearing. In the distance, they could see a majestic castle.“Wow… what a view,” said Kate.She stopped to admire the view, and Aiden and Monster Kid stopped to admire it with her.“That’s King Asgore’s castle!” said Monster Kid.“The castle… guess that’s where we need to go to get to the barrier,” Aiden told Kate.“You two are leaving the Underground huh? Frisk had the same mission. But then she spared everyone, and before the barrier could be destroyed, she tried to bring Asriel, the son of King Asgore and Queen Toriel, back,” said Monster Kid. “Sadly, she didn’t succeeded, and she faded away…”Aiden and Kate were a little surprised to hear that Toriel was actually Asgore’s wife. Why was she all the way in the ruins? She tried to stop them from leaving and going to Asgore’s castle, so maybe she didn’t agree with Asgore’s wish to break the barrier.But… based on what Monster Kid said, maybe Asgore called off the war. But maybe… after Frisk was gone, he just wanted one more soul to just destroy the barrier once and for all, so that they can finally leave the Underground and make amends with the humans, to honor Frisk. Toriel must’ve gone back to the ruins because she was heartbroken over losing Frisk.“But you know… I bet you two can help finish Frisk’s wish. Help Asgore destroy the barrier, and bring Asriel back,” said Monster Kid happily.“You know what, little dude, I think we can. I think I’ve got a way to break the barrier down without another soul,” said Kate.“I agree with her. Kate… She always looks for a solution that’s fair for all,” Aiden said, making a small smile.Monster Kid smiled at them.The three continued on for a bit longer. But they reached a ledge. Kate and Aiden were able to climb up, but before Kate could try to help Monster Kid up, he shook his head and said, “You go on ahead. Don’t worry. I always find a way.” With that, he turned around and ran back the way he came.“Heh, he sure has a lot of energy,” Aiden said with a nervous chuckle.“He reminds me of Tails, Charmy, and my little brother. He’s full of energy like my brother and Charmy, but determined like Tails,” said Kate.Aiden smiled at her. The two of them continued on, until they reached an area with some bridges. Suddenly, spears shot up from below the bridge.“AH!” cried Aiden.Kate looked along the side. She could see the figure in armor below them, on a lower set of bridges.“Aiden go! And watch out for the spears!” Kate shouted. She took his arm and started to lead him through.The figure chased after them, trying to get them.“Crap…” Kate muttered. She didn’t want to put Aiden in danger, so she let go of his arm.“Kate, what are you doing?” cried Aiden.“Run! I’ll distract her!” she told him.“No! I’m not going to leave you! Kate watch out!” he shouted.Kate turned around and managed to dodge some spears just in time, thanks to Aiden’s warning.“We have to stay together!” Aiden insisted.Kate didn’t want to admit it, but Aiden was right. She was all about staying together while they were in the Underground, and she knew that splitting up wasn’t a good idea. She grabbed his arm and continued to leave him on.They kept on running until they reached a dead end.“Oh no…” said Kate.They turned around to see that the figure had caught up to them! The figure pulled out a spear and slashed the bridge, sending them down.“WHOOOOAAAA!” they cried.  
Everything blacked out for Kate, and she began to hear voices.

“Frisk? No… no!” she heard Toriel’s voice call out.

“Frisk… she… she’s gone…” Sans voice said sadly.

“SHE TRIED TO BRING ASIREL BACK… BUT…” said Papyrus’s voice.

“Oh Frisk… you never gave up on any of us…” said a female voice.

“F-Frisk… w-we never d-doubted you…” said another female voice.

“Frisk is gone, and we’re all still trapped here…” said an unfamiliar male’s voice.

“WHA-WHAT DO WE DO NOW?” said Papyrus’s voice.

“I… I don’t know…” said Toriel’s voice.
  “Kate!” she heard a voice call out to her.Kate opened her eyes to see Aiden looking at her.“Kate, oh thank god! I didn’t think you’d open your eyes again!” said Aiden. He gave her a tight hug.Kate hugged him back, but she was trying to put together what she saw.‘Those voices… that was when Frisk tried to bring back Asriel, but failed…’ she thought. “It’s okay, Aiden. I’m okay…” she told her friend out loud.Aiden and Kate let go.“Any idea where we are?” asked Kate, as she stood up.“I think we’re in a dump. I see some garbage here…” said Aiden.“Wow… I literally got thrown away. Never thought I’d say that…” said Kate.The duo began to walk through the mucky water. Aiden was a bit grossed out, but Kate didn’t mind at all.“You’re not grossed out by this garbage?” asked Aiden.“Hey, at my house, we have five cats. When I come home from the campus, I take over litter box duty. I clean out two litter boxes at least once a day. You get used to it and you’re not grossed out at all,” said Kate.“Wow…” was all Aiden could say.The two friends continued on until they got out of the garbage dump. After leaving the dump, they spotted a familiar friend: Napstablook.“Oh look, it’s Napstablook,” said Aiden. He walked up and said, “Hi Napstablook.”Napstablook turned to face them. He had a pair of headphones on.“Oh… Hi… my friends from back in the ruins,” he said.“Hey Napstablook. We were just passing through and thought we’d say hi,” said Kate.“Hi to you as well. It’s good to see you two again,” said Napstablook.“Yeah. Hope your day is going good,” said Aiden.“I’m feeling much better, especially after we met. Thank you,” said Napstablook.“Well, I wish we could stay and chat longer, but we’ve got places to go,” said Kate.“I understand. Feel free to stop by again,” said Napstablook.“Thanks Napstablook. Bye,” said Aiden.“Bye,” said Napstablook.Kate and Aiden waved goodbye to him as he headed home.“For a ghost, he’s a nice guy,” said Kate.“Yeah,” said Aiden, forming a small smile.  A little while later, the two friends kept on going. As they continued onward, Monster Kid caught up to them. Aiden and Kate didn’t mind him coming along, so they told him that he could continue to journey with them. Monster Kid said that he could only for a little longer, since his parents could be worried about him.As they started to walk on a bridge, Monster Kid began running ahead of them.“Man, I bet he’d love to go for a race against Sonic,” Kate said with a chuckle.“Yeah. He’s super friendly. I bet he can easily make friends… well…” said Aiden. He began to form a sad look on his face. “At least he can make friends, instead of lose them… like I have…”“Aiden, you need to stop focusing on the negative…” said Kate.Before he could say anything, they suddenly heard Monster Kid let out a panicked shriek. They quickly turned their attention to Monster Kid, who was dangling off the edge!“AH! WAIT! HELP!” he cried.“Oh no!” cried Aiden. He quickly ran over and rushed to him.Monster Kid suddenly lost his grip, but Aiden caught him in time. He started to pull Monster Kid back up, and Kate rushed over and grabbed Aiden’s waste.“Don’t worry! We got you!” Aiden told Monster Kid.He and Kate pulled Monster Kid back on the bridge. When they got him back up, Aiden and Kate turned around and saw the figure in armor back. They pulled out a spear.“U-Undyne?!” cried Monster Kid.Aiden and Kate couldn’t believe what they just heard. This was the hero that Monster Kid admired and wanted to be like?Monster Kid ran in between Aiden and Kate and shouted, “Undyne, if you want to hurt my friends, then you’ll have to go through me!”Undyne backed up a bit. After a while, she turned around and walked away.“Thanks Monster Kid. You saved us,” said Aiden.“And you saved me! We’re both heroes!” said Monster Kid, happily.“I… I’m a hero?” Aiden asked with a confused look.“He’s right Aiden. You saved him before he could fall off,” said Kate.Aiden managed to smile.“You guys better get going. She might come back. Stay safe you two,” said Monster Kid.“Same to you kid,” said Kate.“Yeah. Oh wait! What are your names?” asked Monster Kid.“I’m Kate, and this is my friend Aiden,” said Kate.“Awesome! Anyway, I gotta get home. My parents might be worried. I hope I see you again, Kate and Aiden!” said Kate.“Bye Monster Kid,” said Aiden.“Later little dude,” said Kate.“Bye!” said Monster Kid. He turned around and ran off.“That kid was nice. But a hero? I swear I'm dreaming... In a way, I wish I was...” said Aiden.“You know, as the Dreamer of Peace, I know that dreams can become a reality. You might think it's hard to do that, but... when you set your mind to your goals, then you can turn a dream into a reality.  You don't need powers like mine. All you need is a goal, and the determination to achieve it,” said Kate.She started to continue walking, but Aiden didn’t follow her. He suddenly remembered something that the spirit told him.“Determination...” he said, quietly.
“You determination is strong... Strong enough to KILL!” the spirit’s voice echoed in his head.
Aiden began to shake as he remembered.Kate turned around and saw him shaking. She placed her hand on his forehead and heard what he was hearing in his head.“You heard it, didn't you?” Aiden asked her sadly.“Yeah... But I'm determined to, Aiden. Determined to stop Chara and keep you safe. My determination's stronger than Chara's, and I know it...” said Kate.“How?” asked Aiden. He was now feeling a bit confused.“Because unlike Chara, I've got something worth fighting for. Chara doesn't have anything to fight for. Me, I've got you and our friends to fight for. That's why my determination is stronger than hers.”“But... But what about me? She said my determination was strong enough to kill... and that must be because of Sky City… Because I… I actually tried to kill Female Jesse… Now I know why Chara wants me to kill, because she must've known I wanted to do that...”Kate knew about the Sky City incident. She found out and went to visit the Blaze Rods whenever she could. But she knew how Aiden felt about how he tried to push Jesse off the edge of the city.“Aiden… I’ve… I’ve had that feeling to… I’ve wanted to kill someone before…” she admitted.“What?!” cried Aiden.“I actually wanted to kill Dark King when he was still alive. I convinced myself that the boy I loved as a brother and a friend was gone. Destroyed by the Dark king. I... I actually wanted to kill him, because he was threatening the people I love. But now when I look back at it, I... I wish I could've snapped him out of it, and even erase his memories from his twisted mind. After that, I swore to my cousin that Dark King would be the only death I'd cause,” Kate explained.Aiden was stunned by what he just heard.“And after all this time, I fear that I'll break that oath. I've encountered rivals worse that Bowser and Eggman. Rivals who want me dead just to take me away from my friends. And I fear that I'll break that oath and strike them before they get me...” Kate continued.‘She’s been helping me boost my confidence and try to help me feel better. And she’s been helping. It’s time I do the same for her…’ thought Aiden.“Kate, you would never do that... I know you wouldn't. I know that thought is around, and it haunts you, but you won't. I know you won't,” he said.“Thanks Aiden. And I know you couldn't bring yourself to kill. Sometimes, people can't think straight when things come up from out of nowhere. I know that feeling, because I stress out easily over many things. I know you can't bring yourself to kill. After all that you've been through, you couldn't do it. Chara made you do bad things, but that wasn't your fault. It was her's. I know you can't bring yourself to hurt anyone after what happened in Sky City. I know it,” said Kate.“The damage is done... B-But at least I can't make it any worse.... Thanks Kate,” Aiden said, smiling sadly.Kate only smiled at him and said, “Just smile Aiden. That’s all I need from you.”The two friends continued for a little bit, until they reached a mountain. And they a menacing figure watching them from up top.Undyne.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“O-Oh no...” Aiden whispered, as he and Kate saw Undyne standing up on top of the mountain. She was giving them a menacing glare.Undyne took her helmet off, revealing her face. She had blue skin, an eyepatch over her left eye, red hair, and gills. She must’ve been a fish monster.“Seven... Seven human souls is what we need to break the barrier,” said Undyne. She suddenly pulled out a spear and shouted. “We currently have six… and I'll gladly kill whichever human has been causing the commotion in the underground! Which one of you was it?!”“What? We haven’t hurt any monsters!” cried Aiden.Kate stepped up and called out to Undyne.“Whoa. Please hear us out. We haven’t done anything wrong! I know we’re humans, but neither of us are the one that you’ve heard that’s been causing trouble,” she told Undyne.Undyne only continued to glare at them. She pointed her spear like she was going to aim at them.“But... guessing by how you have a spear out, you're gonna ignore anything I try to tell you...” Kate said out loud. “Why can I never get my point across to people who are older than me?” she muttered to herself.Undyne suddenly jumped up in the air and charged for them. Kate grabbed Aiden’s hand and shouted, “RUN!”The duo started to run, dodging Undyne’s attack.“Stop! Get back here!” Undyne shouted at them. She turned around and chased after them.“Can’t we talk this over!?” Aiden cried. He kept on running as Kate led him by tugging his arm. “Kate, where are we going?!”“Away from here! That’s where!” said Kate.She kept on running, leading Aiden where she was going. Undyne was catching up to them.They suddenly left the area and were heading into somewhere that was much hotter. They spotted Sans at a shack like the one back in Snowdin.“Sans! Sans wake up!” Aiden shouted at him.Sans was snoring and fast asleep.“It’s like talking to my little sister in the morning…” Kate muttered. She grabbed Aiden’s arm and said, “Come on! She’s right behind us!”They ran on a bridge. Aiden looked down and gasped when he saw that there was lava below him and Kate.“Kate, we’re over lava!” he cried.“Just don’t look down!” said Kate, as she continued to lead him.The two made it across the bridge. Aiden glanced over his shoulder and noticed something. Undyne was slowing down. “Kate wait! Look!” he told her.Kate stopped running and turned around to look at Undyne. She was slowing down, and she looked exhausted.“Armor... so... hot...” she said weakly. She started to breathe funny, and passed out on the bridge.“Undyne? Undyne, are you okay?!” cried Aiden. He ran over to her. He saw that she was exhausted, and she looked dry.“Kate, she needs water! She might die in this heat!” he told her.Kate spotted a water cooler. “Over here. We can get her some water,” she said.Aiden ran over to the cooler before Kate could even start going to it. He quickly got a cup of water and, moving quickly but carefully, he brought the water over to Undyne. He poured it on her head.Undyne suddenly got back up. But instead of attacking Aiden, she stared at him. Aiden backed up, but not to prepare to run away, but to give Undyne some space instead. Undyne stared at them, and headed back to the waterfall area.“Aiden…” said Kate, when Undyne was gone.“Yeah?’ asked Aiden, nervously.Kate only smiled at him and said, “You’re a hero Aiden.”“I… I am?” he asked with a confused look.“What you just did, was righteous. A hero does what’s righteous. Instead of running away and leaving Undyne for dead, you helped her, even though she chased us. You did the right thing,” said Kate.Aiden smiled back at her.“Ready to keep going?” asked Kate.“Actually, do you think we should check on Undyne, and make sure she’s okay?” said Aiden.Kate smiled at him and said, “Yes. We can do that.”They turned around and headed back to the waterfall area.  After a while, the duo found what appeared to be Undyne’s house.“I’m a little nervous, to be honest…” said Aiden.“Me to, but it’s the right thing to do. Let’s make sure that she’s okay,” said Kate.She was about to knock on the door, but Aiden walked up and knocked on the door instead. After a minute, Undyne answered the door.“Hello what can I do for y-” Undyne cut herself off when she saw Aiden and Kate. “What do you two want?” she growled.“We just wanted to make sure that you’re okay,” said Aiden. He took one step back, but he didn’t hide behind Kate. It was his idea to come back and check on Undyne, so he had to be brave for this.“Please, don’t be mad at us. We really don’t want any trouble. We’re just trying to get through the Underground and go home, and we don’t want to hurt anyone. Not even you,” said Kate.Undyne became quiet. All this reminded her of another human she knew. One who wanted to be her friend even after she tried to attack them. Frisk…“Undyne?” asked Aiden.Undyne sighed and said, “Thanks for checking up on me…” quietly. She paused for a moment and said, “You remind me of another human I knew. One who was my friend… And… the way you saved me back in Hotlands, she saved me the same way…”‘Frisk…’ thought Kate.“And after seeing you two come back to see if I’m okay… I don’t want to hurt you two either…” she said.Aiden and Kate managed to smile.“There must be some other human that’s been causing trouble. I’ll track them down and kill them instead,” said Undyne.“Uh… Okay…” Aiden said, a little nervously.“It must’ve been a long walk back here. Do you two… want a drink before you head out?” asked Undyne.Aiden and Kate looked at each other. They didn’t exactly want to stay long, but as long as Undyne wasn’t going to hurt them, then maybe it would be okay.“Are you sure? We don’t want to get in the way of anything you have planned today. Or over stay our welcome,” said Kate.“No. It’s cool. Come on in,” said Undyne.Aiden and Kate looked at each other again. They shrugged their shoulders and followed Undyne into her house. They sat down as Undyne pulled out some drinks.“I’d like some tea, please,” said Aiden.“Just water. Thank you,” said Kate.Undyne prepared their drinks and brought them over when they were ready.“Thank you,” said Aiden, as he took his tea.“Thanks,” said Kate.They started to have their drinks and Undyne sat across from them on the other side of the table.She sighed and said, “This honestly brings back memories. I remember when my friend, Frisk, came here…”“You miss her, don’t you?” Kate asked her.“Yeah…”“I’m sorry about your friend,” said Aiden.Undyne sighed again and said, “It’s fine. She wouldn’t want me morning her forever. But it’s hard.”Aiden and Kate were silent. They didn’t know what to tell Undyne, but they did sympathize with her. They stayed at Undyne’s for a little bit longer before they bid her farewell and made their way back to the Hotlands.When they returned to the Hotlands, they spotted a lab up ahead.“Should we go in?” asked Aiden.“Seems like there’s no other way,” said Kate.They held hands as they bravely walked into the lab, together.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

While Aiden and Kate were making amends with Undyne and preparing to continue onward, their friends were continuing their search for them. They left the ruins and began to go through the snowy forest. Trekking on, they made it to Snowdin.“A town out here? Wow, the monsters in the Underground aren’t evil and scary like you’d picture monsters to be…” said Sonic.“Yeah. They live lives like how we do,” said Male Jesse.“It must suck to be stuck in the Underground. Can you imagine growing up without seeing the sky, not even one time?” said Female Jesse.“These guys must’ve never seen the sun, moon, or stars in their lives. Why would the humans in this world keep them contained in the Underground?” asked Mario.“War broke out between them and the monsters. The humans locked the monsters in the Underground after they won the war,” said Soren.“Dude, that’s just mean…” said Axel.They began to walk through Snowdin and looked around for Aiden and Kate. They didn’t see any sign of their friends, but they did spot Sans and Papyrus talking about something.“bro, I’m telling you, she’s bad news. I saw it in the kid. there’s a trace of her inside his soul,” Sans told Papyrus.“WHAT? CHARA’S AFTER HIM? SHE MUST BE THE HUMAN UNDYNE SAID THAT’S BEEN CAUSING TROUBLE!” said Papyrus.The second Papyrus said Chara’s name, the group knew that the skeleton bros had seen Kate and Aiden. But had they really seen Chara as well?“They must’ve seen Aiden and Kate. They had to!” said Maya.“We should ask them if they have,” said Female Jesse.“Wait, they said that there’s been a human causing trouble lately. What if they accuse one of us?” said Olivia.“Let me talk to them first. I’m no monster, but I’m not a human either,” said Sonic.He walked up to Sans and Papyrus casually to say hi. The skeleton bros turned around and saw him.“well lookie here,” said Sans.“SAY, YOU’RE NOT A HUMAN, BUT I DON’T THINK YOU’RE A MONSTER LIKE US. HELLO! I’M PAPYRUS!” said Papyrus.Sonic smiled and said, “Name’s Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog.”“sup? i’m Sans,” said Sans. He noticed Sonic’s group and said, “well, you’ve got quite the group there.”“WAIT, MORE HUMANS!?” said Papyrus.The others walked up to the skeleton bros.“Whoa there, man, we don’t want any trouble. We’re looking for some friends of ours,” said Knuckles. “My name’s Knuckles, and this is Mario, Petra, Axel, Olivia, Lukas, Ellegaard, Magnus, Gabriel, Soren, Ivor, Gill, Maya, and the Jesse twins,” he said, introducing everyone to the skeleton bros.“looking for some friends of yours? you must mean Aiden and Kate,” said Sans.“You’ve seen them!? Do you know where they are now!?” asked Gill.“WE ENCOUNTERED THEM ON THEIR WAY HERE TO SNOWDIN. THEY SOLVED A BUNCH OF MY PUZZLES AND EVEN BECAME MY FRIENDS,” said Papyrus.“last i saw them, they were hanging out with me at Grillby’s and then they headed to the waterfall area. though, i probably should’ve gone after them,” said Sans.“MY BROTHER SAID SOMETHING ABOUT AN OLD ENEMY TO OUR FRIEND FRISK, GOING AFTER YOUR FRIEND AIDEN,” said Papyrus.“Chara…” said Maya sadly.Sans and Papyrus formed concerned looks on their faces.“so you noticed to,” said Sans.“That’s why we’re trying to find them. Chara controlled Aiden back where we came from, and made him do some horrible things. She’s chasing after him and Kate to get Aiden back under her control,” said Female Jesse.“Can you take us to them? We need to find them before Chara does!” said Male Jesse.“FEAR NOT, NEW FRIENDS! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL GUIDE YOU THROUGH THE UNDERGROUND AND ASSIST YOU IN YOUR SEARCH!” said Papyrus.“i’ll help you all out to,” said Sans.“Thank you. Which way did they go?” asked Petra.“come on, i know a short cut,” said Sans.  The group followed the skeleton bros into the waterfall area. They continued onward and made it to the wishing area. They didn’t see Aiden and Kate there, but they did see a bunch of echo flowers. Monster Kid was there, and he was listening to a couple flowers in particular.Monster Kid turned around and saw the skeleton bros leading the group. He smiled and ran over excitedly.“Sans! Papyrus! Good to see you again, and I see you got some new friends! I made some new friends as well, though they had to leave,” said Monster Kid.“Who were they?” asked Magnus.“Two humans like the most of you. Aiden and Kate,” said Monster Kid.“You saw them to?! Where did they go!?” said Maya.“Probably the Hotlands. I was on my way home, especially after Aiden saved me, but I got distracted by the echo flowers they were by earlier,” said Monster Kid.“Aiden saved you?” asked Ellegaard.“Yeah! I almost fell off a cliff, but he ran over and pulled me back up before I could fall. He’s a hero!” said Monster Kid.Lukas was stunned to hear that Aiden did a good deed. He had been feeling unsure if he could forgive Aiden or consider him a friend anymore, but with the mess with Chara, he hadn’t thought about it. And now… while on the run from Chara, Aiden did something good. He saved Monster Kid.“they talked to the echo flowers, did they?” Sans asked Monster Kid, grinning.Monster Kid smiled back and said, “Yeah! I didn’t want anything to speak to the flowers they were by earlier, so I’ve been hanging around here, listening over and over again to their flowers.”“Echo flowers?” asked Sonic.“THEY’RE FLOWERS THAT LISTEN TO WHAT YOU SAY, AND THEY REPEAT THE LAST THING THEY HEARD,” said Papyrus.“Which ones did Kate and Aiden speak to? We’d like to listen to them,” said Soren.“I’ll show you all, but don’t talk near them, or else they won’t repeat what they said anymore,” said Monster Kid.The group nodded at him and followed Monster Kid to the two echo flowers he was by before he spotted them. The first flower began to speak out:
I wanna heal, I wanna feel

What I thought was never real

I wanna let go of the pain I've held so long.

Erase all the pain 'till it's gone.

I wanna heal, I wanna feel,

Like I'm close to something real.

I wanna find something I've wanted all along.

Somewhere I Belong.
The group was stunned, but they remained silent. That was Kate’s voice, singing the lyrics to ‘Somewhere I Belong’, which was one of her favorite Linkin Park songs.The second flower began to speak a conversation between Aiden and Kate:
“I wish... I wish my friends would forgive me for what I've done. From Sky City to the killing spree, I've done many terrible things. I don't deserve forgiveness, I don't deserve friends like them, but... I just wish that everything could be normal, that no one judges me for my past actions, that all my friends; Maya, Gill and Lukas... I just wish... It could all be pushed aside, and we could all be friends again...” they heard Aiden’s voice say.

“You know something, Aiden? I wish the same thing for you. When we get home, I'll do what I can to help your wish come true,” said Kate’s voice.

“Thanks Kate…” Aiden’s voice said in a whisper.

“It's going to be okay, Aiden,” Kate’s voice said in a whisper.

“I hope so, I really do...”
The group took a step back away from the echo flowers so that they could recap what they just heard.“Was Kate singing? That wasn’t the best singing I’ve heard, but those lyrics really get to you,” said Gabriel.“She was singing ‘Somewhere I Belong’, one of her favorite songs by Linkin Park. You guys know they’re her favorite band,” said Sonic.“She’ll listen to their music when she’s down. Guess without her mp3 player, she’d have to sing their songs instead. But I think she was trying to cheer up Aiden instead,” said Mario.“Yeah. And Aiden’s wish… we never understood that that’s how he felt…” said Ivor.“Aiden… all he wants is forgiveness, and for us to be friends again…” said Maya sadly.“He... Of course I forgive him! He didn't-” said Gill.“Oh Aiden…” May said, almost in a whisper.Lukas was silent. He couldn’t believe what he heard to be Aiden’s wish. His former friend, all he wanted was forgiveness and to put Sky City and the killing spree behind. And to have his friends by his side again.“Lukas…” said Female Jesse.“He just want us to be friends again....?” Lukas whispered to himself.Female Jesse took his hand and said, “He really feels horrible after all that happened…”“Oh man… I feel bad for him,” said Petra.“Yeah. That killing spree made him feel worse. Chara really put him down,” said Axel.“Poor guy. He has gone through a lot,” Olivia agreed.“Why didn’t he ever tell us these things? Maybe he thought we wouldn’t care if he told us…” said Male Jesse.“We need to find him. We REALLY need to find him now!” said Maya. She was beginning to tear up.“She’s right! If they were here some time ago, we can’t lose their trail!” said Gill.“they may have gone to the Hotlands. we’ll take you guys there,” said Sans.“Yay! More adventure!” said Monster Kid.“If we weren’t searching for our friends, I probably would’ve gotten excited and call this an adventure as well…” said Ivor.“Come one! We gotta move!” said Mario.The group continued onward, heading to the Hotlands.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Aiden and Kate bravely walked into the laboratory in Hotlands.“A lab in the middle of an area with lots of lava? Strange…” said Aiden.“Strange things are happening...” Kate began to say.“Under the hanging tree,” Aiden said, finish the song lyric for her.They both chuckled as they continued to go inside. The lights were off, but they could still see some things inside. They saw a few tables with a ton of papers and equipment set up. They saw some cups of instant noodles next to a few papers, and there was even a monitor on. But the monitor was what caught their attention, because Aiden and Kate saw themselves on the screen.“Has someone been watching us?!” cried Aiden.“Dude… that’s so creepy…” Kate said with a surprised look on her face.“I don’t like this…” Aiden said nervously.“Guess this is how celebrities feel when the press comes after them...” Kate muttered to herself.Suddenly, they heard a lab door open. Kate and Aiden turned around and saw someone come out, but it was too dark for them to see who exactly. The figure walked across the room from the door they came out and turned on the light switch. The lights turned on in the lab, and Kate and Aiden were able to see who it was.The figure was another monster, a yellow one that looked kinda like a short dinosaur. She was wearing a white lab coat and glasses, so she must’ve been the person who worked in this lab.The monster turned around and started to walk to her desk.“OK, with that do-” she started to say, but she looked up and saw Aiden and Kate, cutting herself off. She formed a surprised look on her face and said, “W-wha? Y-you're here already?! Oh my, m-my labs a mess, I'm not dressed properly, I haven't cleaned up!”Kate leaned over to Aiden and whispered to him, “I guess we know who's been using that monitor...”“At least she doesn’t seem like she wants to kill us…” he whispered back.“O-oh. Sorry about that! I-I’m Dr. Alphys, the r-royal scientist,” the monster said, introducing herself.“Scientist huh?” said Kate.“Y-Yes! I conduct experiments o-on certain things for the king. My most r-recent experiment is on determination, something o-only you humans possess,” said Alphys.“Huh. You remind me of my friend Tails. He does all sorts of cool experiments. I'm Kate,” said Kate.“Uh... hi. I'm Aiden…” said Aiden, a little nervously.“Y-Yes, and I-I can help as well!” said Alphys.“You can help us?” asked Aiden.“Well... I-I have been watching you guys s-since you got here. I-I heard your w-wish, a-and your troubles...I-I can help!” said Alphys.“And it’s back to creepy…” Kate whispered to herself.“W-Well I'm sorry th-that I WAS watching you, b-but it is a part of my job. I monitor h-humans who enter the underground,” Alphys said with a nervous smile.‘Reminds me of when Mario and Sonic like to spy on me and Knuckles when we’re on a date…’ Kate thought.“W-Well... If you want to help, we’d really appreciate it,” Aiden told Alphys.“O-Of course! Wow, helping people f-from another story!” said Alphys, excitedly. She started to jumped up and down in excitement.“I... I think of it as helping people from another world instead,” Kate said, forming a nervous smile.“O-Oh yes, the universes c-collided. Yes, I r-remember now!” said Alphys.Kate turned to Aiden and said, “Yeah. Ellegaard came to my universe, and you and the others came looking for her. You met Aura Queen and the Until Dawn gang to. Heh. Funny for me. It feels like yesterday. All the things I do with you and the others, they're the best moments of my life Aiden. If I didn't have you guys in my life...”She suddenly stopped right there. She wasn’t even going to finish. Personally, she felt that if she never had her friends, she would want to be dead. But she never shared the thought with anyone, and she wasn’t going to tell Aiden as well.“I know... I felt the same thing with the team before, and then...” Aiden said.“U-uh are you two o-okay?” asked Alphys.Aiden shook off the feeling. “We’re okay, Alphys. Sorry about that.”Kate was a bit surprised to see that Aiden was starting to stop focusing on the negative. Maybe this journey in the Underground, and talking to her about his problems and feelings, was helping him.“O-Ok, if you s-say so... N-Now, if you want t-to leave the underground, y-you need to find K-king Asgore,” said Alphys.“Oh yeah, because the barrier is in his castle. I'm gonna talk to him and ask him to let us leave. I have a feeling he really doesn't want to fight us. I will make sure there won't be any fight between us and him,” said Kate.“H-He doesn't like f-fighting. H-He will let you pass, b-but...” Alphys said nervously.“But what?” asked Aiden, forming a confused look on his face.“W-Well, you see... I m-made this robot. I-It was designed f-for entertainment, b-but... With only one more h-human soul to c-collect, I change his task to h-hunt humans. Heh,” Alphys said nervously.While Aiden began to form a nervous look on his face, Kate shook her head and said, “Heh. I'm not afraid of robots. I take care of evil robots from Eggman all the time, and one of my friends is actually a robot. I can handle this bot of yours without fighting him.”“W-Well, if you HAVE to d-destroy him, p-please don't hesitate to. I-I can build him again,” said Alphys. She sounded a little worried when she brought up the idea.Neither Kate nor Aiden wanted to fight Mettaton. They promise Toriel that they wouldn’t fight any monsters, so that would include not fighting a robot as well.“I know he's not evil. I'll only kill things that are evil. After I run into him, I'll decide how to handle him,” said Kate.Alphys let out a sigh of relief, but before anyone could say anything, the three suddenly heard something rumbling from somewhere.“What was that?” asked Aiden.“Oh no…” Alphys said nervously.The rumbling continued, and then a blast occurred on one of the walls. When the smoke cleared, a robot appeared from the hole in the wall. The robot looked like a person wearing a black outfit with magenta boots. It had grey arms and a grey face, and looked like it had black hair.“Uh… are you Mettaton?” Aiden asked the robot.“Hello darlings! Wait, are you two humans?” said Mettaton.“Uh…” said Kate and Aiden nervous.“Well darlings, do you know what happens next?” asked Mettaton.“No…” said Aiden quietly.“IT’S QUIZ TIME!” Mettaton said excitedly. He pulled out a microphone and shouted his line in it.Kate and Aiden only looked at each other with nervous looks. They looked at Alphys, who only sighed and shook her head at Mettaton.“Since you are from different universes, I'll ask questions relating to your stories, OK darlings?” said Mettaton.“Um… okay…” said Aiden.“Let's start with an easy one!” said Mettation excitedly. He walked over to the screen that had Aiden and Kate on it and pushed a button. It shifted and showed a question and four answers that Mettaton read off. “Who is the enemy that the Dreamer of Peace defeated: Bowser, Dr. Eggman, Sally Acorn, or the Dark King?” he said.“Child's play, the Dark King!” said Aiden.“Correct! Here's another one!” said Mettaton. The question and answers changed on the screen. “Who's armor did Female Jesse borrow that led to their death: Magnus, Soren, Ellegaard, or Gabriel?”“Ellegaard's armor,” said Kate.“Correct! Here's the next question, darlings! Who created the Witherstorm: Ivor, Soren, Jesse, or Axel?” said Mettaton.“Uh... I'm pretty sure that was Ivor,” said Aiden.“Correct darling! Now, here is the next one: How many universes did the gang go through altogether: one, three, four, or six?” said Mettaton.“Oh crap... Um... Let's see, there was Until Dawn, Pokémon, Dream Universe...” said Kate, as she started counting with her fingers.“But what about Cyberspace and this universe?” Aiden whispered to her.“Cyberspace isn't a universe, but I don't know if this one counts now...” Kate whispered back.“Tick tock. Tick tock, darlings,” said Mettaton.“I hate pop quizzes!” Kate shouted with a panicked tone.Aiden noticed that Alphys was holding up three fingers. Was she trying to give them the answer?“Wait! Wasn't it three universes?” said Aiden.“Correct!” shouted Mettaton happily.Aiden and Kate let out sighs relief.“Next question! What is the name of the sword that belongs to the Dreamer of Peace: Starlight, Supernova, Caliburn, or Meloetta?” said Mettaton.“Pffft! Like I don’t know the name of my own sword…” Kate muttered sarcastically. She faced Mettaton and said, “Starlight,” out loud, to give him the answer.“Correct!” shouted Mettaton happily. “Alright darlings, one more question: How many people were there in the mansion in chapter 6 after Sparklez was killed?” he asked.“Huh? Wait, you mean that mansion where Jesse and the others were being hunted down? Crap! I wasn't there!” said Aiden.“Hang on. Let's see... Dan, Lizzie, Stacy, Stampy, Jesse, Ivor, Lukas, Petra, and Cassie... That was nine,” said Kate.“You are correct! Congratulations, you two have won!” said Mettaton.Kate and Aiden high fived.“Phew. I was a little nervous. Brought back the memories of taking Algebra 2 tests back in high school…” said Kate.“Math’s really that hard?” asked Aiden.“Oh math can be cakewalk for me. Algebra 2 was hell, because my teacher made it hell. He hated everyone…” said Kate.“Wow… why get a job as a teacher if you hate everyone?” Aiden asked her with a confused look.“I know. It’s like getting a job that involves reading yet you can’t read. Honestly, some people are stupid these days…” said Kate.Aiden faced Mettaton and said, “Uh, thanks for the quiz, uh... Robot. Can you help us get to King Asgore?”“Why, I don't see why not. You DID win the quiz, this may be your prize!” said Mettaton.“Thank you,” said Aiden.“W-wait, you want to l-leave the Underground? Y-you’ll have to take Asgore’s soul…” said Alphys.“I had a feeling that you might say that, but I think I can break the barrier without anyone having to lose their soul,” said Kate.“Y-you can?” asked Alphys with a confused look.“I think I could use my power to dream that the barrier's broken. If I can convince Asgore to not fight and do what I can with the barrier, we can avoid bloodshed, and go home,” Kate explained.“Oh! T-that’s right! In you’re s-story, you’re called the D-dreamer of Peace!” said Alphys. “Well, w-while Mettaton takes you to the C-core, I-I'll monitor you guys, j-just in case something h-happens.”“The Core?” asked Aiden. “Will that lead us to Asgore’s castle?”“And where the core is, the barrier back home is bound to be,” said Kate.“Let's get going darlings, don't want the heat to get to you! Both wearing long sleeved tops, so we better hurry!” said Mettaton.“The heat? Oh… we’re in the Hotlands. That’s right…” said Kate. “But the heat doesn’t bother me anyway. I live near a dessert after all.”“I’ll be okay. I used to wear a dark jacket all the time, even in the heat,” said Aiden.The two of them told Alphys goodbye and began to follow Mettaton out into the rest of the Hotlands.As they started to follow Mettaton, Kate began to have some second thoughts on the situation with the barrier.‘I hope I can use my powers to break it, but… if I can’t break it, then I’ll give up my soul. I can’t let Aiden be the one to give up his soul…’ she thought.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Aiden and Kate followed Mettaton through Hotlands. The robot helped guide them through the puzzles that they had to deal with and how to get through the twists and turns that they encountered. Aiden and Kate encountered some more monsters, but at this point, none of them really wanted to even bother them. The monsters were instead friendly towards them.It relieved Aiden and Kate that they wouldn’t be fighting with any monsters. They didn’t want to fight anyone, and they wanted to avoid bloodshed. Aiden was still a bit shaken by what the malevolent spirit made him do back in the Minecraft world, but he was doing great in the Underground with avoiding any fights with the monsters.Kate began to notice that Aiden was starting to feel better, and she was starting to feel the same way about her problems. She didn’t think that this adventure in the Underground would help her and Aiden open up to each other and talk out their problems, but it did. And on the bright side, both she and Aiden weren’t feeling as depressed as they were when they encountered each other and had to run from the spirit.Mettaton guided them until they reached what appeared to be the end of the Hotlands.“Beyond this area is the end of the Hotlands. Right after that, you’ll find the Core. Going through the Core isn’t difficult, and once you’re through there, you’ll be at Asgore’s castle, darlings,” said Mettaton.“Thank you Mettaton,” said Kate.“Thanks for helping us get through the Hotlands,” said Aiden.“Until next time, darlings!” Mettation said happily. He winked at them and started to fly back to Alphys’s lab.“What a strange robot…” Aiden said with a nervous smile after Mettation was gone.“Yeah, but I’m sure that he’s not crazy. Alphys must’ve tested him and figured he’s fine,” said Kate.Aiden chuckled and followed Kate into the next area.“Whoa… what’s with all these spider webs?” asked Aiden.Kate didn’t say anything. She was shaking a bit as they walked in the area. Aiden didn’t need to ask. He knew why she was a little skittish. It was because Kate had a phobia of spiders.“Don’t worry Kate. I’m right here. The spiders should be nice, like all the other monsters in the Underground,” said Aiden. He took her hand, which helped her stop shaking a bit.“Thanks Aiden. I’m just… really scared right now…” said Kate, a little nervously.“Hello dearies…” said a voice.Kate and Aiden turned around to meet another monster. She was a spider dressed up like she was going to a tea party. Kate started shaking again.“Uh… hi… Can we help you?” Aiden asked the monster. He was a little scared to, but he held Kate’s hand to try to calm her down a bit.“Help me? I think you must’ve heard, dearies, that there were some humans who are awfully stingy with their money…” said the spider. “You think your tastes are too refined for the lovely pastries made by me, Muffet the spider, dearies?” she said.“Pastries? Did we pass by a bake sale or something made by spiders?” Aiden whispered to Kate.“I think there was one in the ruins, but how can it be our fault? We didn’t have any money. She must’ve heard some rumors. Remember when Undyne said that a human was causing trouble? Maybe Muffet heard some rumors to, just like Undyne,” Kate whispered back.“Oh man. I don’t want to fight her or her spiders, but I’m still a bit scared…” said Aiden.“Not as scared as me…” Kate said, shaking again.Suddenly, some spiders began to run towards Aiden and Kate. They didn’t attack them, but the spiders did scare Aiden and Kate.“AHHH! MAKE IT STOP!” Kate cried with a scared look.“Can’t we talk this over, Miss Muffet?!” cried Aiden.Muffet only giggled and said, “Oh, I almost forgot to introduce you to my pet. Have fun you three…”That’s when a monster that looked like a giant muffin came out. It started to approach Kate and Aiden, who cried out in panic and hugged each other.Suddenly, a smaller spider ran over to Muffet and told her something.“Huh? A message from the spiders in the ruins? And they said that even if you never came by our bake sale, you never hurt a single spider. Oh, I’m sorry dearies. This has been a big misunderstanding,” said Muffet.She snapped her fingers, and her pet stop approaching Kate and Aiden. The giant muffin turned around and left.“Sorry about that dearies. Feel free to come back here with no charge,” said Mufft.“Uh… thanks…” said Aiden.“Thank you…” said Kate. She got a tight grip on Aiden’s hand and started to pull him out of the area. Aiden quickly followed her, knowing that she didn’t want to be around here a minute longer.  The duo left Muffet’s home and made it to some sort of resort at the entrance to the Core. They still had some money, so they decided to get some food before continuing onward.“Kate?” said Aiden.“Yeah?” she asked him.“I’m a little nervous to get through the Core and Asgore’s castle. Do you think… we can get home without fighting Asgore?” said Aiden.“I’m sure I can break that barrier. I can sense that Asgore doesn’t want to continue the war. He just wants to break the barrier for Frisk’s sake, and free the monsters,” said Kate.“And you can help him do that by breaking the barrier with your powers,” said Aiden, smiling a bit.Kate smiled at him and said, “Of course.”Though deep down, she wasn’t sure if her powers would be enough. But she had to hide her doubt. Aiden was smiling, and that’s all she needed from her friend.‘I promised Aiden that I’d help him make his wish come true. If I have to give up my soul so that everyone can leave the Underground… I’ll do it. I’ll ask Asgore to let me write a will to my friends. I can sense that he really doesn’t want the war to continue. He just wants the barrier to go. He must be hiding in his castle because he’s been depressed about Frisk, Toriel still not staying with him, and all that… I know he doesn’t want to kill anyone. But… if I have to give up my soul… I’ll do it. I can’t let Aiden be the one to do so. I promised him that I’d help him achieve his wish, and if I sacrifice myself for him, I know our friends will help him, for my sake,’ she thought.They finished their snacks and left the resort, heading into the Core so that they can finally reach Asgore’s castle.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Sans and Papyrus led Aiden and Kate’s friends through the wishing area and over to where Hotlands was. Although they were on Aiden and Kate’s trail, their friends were desperate to catch up and find them. Time was running out, because pretty soon, they’d be at the barrier, and Chara could ambush them at any moment.“we’re entering the Hotlands at any moment. so heads up if you don’t like the heat,” said Sans.“Trust us, we’ve dealt with things MUCH worse than some place that’s really hot…” said Female Jesse.“Yeah. Dark King, the Witherstorm, the White Pumpkin, and a few other things,” said Sonic.“I just hope that Aiden’s alright,” said Maya sadly.“Don’t worry, Maya. We’ll find him, and Kate will keep him sane and safe from Chara,” Knuckles assured her.“I hope you’re right…” said Maya. She was trying her best not to cry. She couldn’t help but worry about Aiden and his safety.As they continued onward to the Hotlands, Lukas was quiet. Ever since he heard Aiden’s wish from the echo flower, he had been trying to put together what he heard and what he thought about it.“Lukas, are you OK? You've been quiet since we heard that echo flower,” said Female Jesse.“I just... I never knew or understood how Aiden felt ever since Sky City. I don't know if I forgive him or if I'm still angry with him now,” said Lukas, shrugging his shoulders.Sonic walked over to him and Female Jesse.“Hey man, you remember the song Kate sang to the echo flower?” he asked Lukas.“Yeah…” said Lukas, not understanding where this was going.“That was a song called "Somewhere I Belong", from her favorite band, Linkin Park. She must've sang it to Aiden to help him feel better. She wanted him to know how he felt, to help him. He must've felt ignored, and Kate knows that feeling,” said Sonic. “Before we met Kate, she... she went through some rough stuff, and even after being one of us, she still goes through rough things. But she knows how to feels to be ignored. She always felt that way with her peers.”“DID SHE STRUGGLE TO MAKE FRIENDS AMONG OTHER HUMANS?” asked Papyrus.“Growing up in her world, yeah. It wasn't easy, especially before she understood that she has Asperger's. And even after she understood her disability, a bunch of jerks still put her down, telling her that she’s pathetic for having a disability and how she wants to be a writer,” said Knuckles.“Lukas, my point is, I know it's hard to forgive Aiden, but sometimes, you need to hear something that's been ignored by others. It can help you decide what your thoughts are,” Sonic told him.Lukas remained silent. He hadn’t thought of it that way before.Female Jesse put her hand on his shoulder and said, “Don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll make the right choice regarding Aiden in the end,” with a smile.Lukas smiled at her and Sonic. “Thanks guys,” he told them.“No problem man. Now you give your girlfriend a kiss,” Sonic told him, winking at him.Lukas and Female Jesse blushed, but they smiled when they looked at each other.The group continued onward, almost to Hotlands.“I’m surprised that we haven’t seen Undyne. I was hoping you guys could see her to,” said Monster Kid.“Wait, who’s Undyne?” asked Soren.“SHE’S THE HEAD OF THE ROYAL GUARD. SHE REPORTED TO ME THAT SHE’S HUNTING FOR ANY HUMANS, SINCE ONE HAS BEEN REPORTED TO BE CAUSING TROUBLE LATELY,” said Papyrus.“But Kate wouldn’t dare do anything to hurt the monsters in the Underground, and as long as Aiden’s with her, he would use mercy like her,” said Mario.“And none of us have caused any trouble. We’re just looking for our friends,” said Gill.“So who could be causing trouble and having us take the blame?” said Axel.“Could it be Chara?” asked Petra.“it might be. that kid was always a genocidal freak. compared to another human we knew, who always looked for a fair, peaceful solution,” said Sans.“Great, she's causing more trouble for Aiden when he's been through enough! Pulling Kate into it is NOT cool either,” Gill said angrily.“Kate's not gonna care that she's in this mess with Aiden. Her only thought will be to keep Aiden safe from Chara...” said Mario.“I'm glad she'll keep Aiden safe. I just hope nothing happens to them,” said Maya. She still sounded worried.“I'm sure Kate can protect them. Based on what we've been through, nothing can kill her,” said Sonic. “heh, wish it was the same with Frisk...” Sans said, with a hint of sadness.“Wait a sec, who’s Frisk?” asked Male Jesse.“SHE WAS THE LAST HUMAN TO FALL INTO THE UNDERGROUND BEFORE YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS. SHE WAS OUR FRIEND, AND A TRUE PACIFIST. SHE BEFRIENDED US, AND MANY MONSTERS IN THE UNDERGROUND,” said Papyrus. He sounded sad as he spoke about Frisk.“What happened to her?” asked Ivor.“when she reached Asgore’s castle, she convinced the king that the war should end. she was willing to stay in the Underground so with all of us, because Asgore didn’t want to hurt her just to take her soul and break the barrier. we were all there, and after we blacked out, she told us that she wanted to bring back Asriel,” said Sans.“Who’s Asriel?” asked Female Jesse.“the son of King Asgore and Queen Toriel. a long time ago, he was friends with Chara, but no one knew that as a part of a plan against humanity, Chara committed suicide and tricked Asriel into going through the barrier with her body. he got attacked and killed by humans, putting all of us, especially his parents, in depression. Toriel left the castle and went to the ruins, while Asgore wanted to break the barrier to avenge his son,” said Sans.“And Frisk wanted to bring Asriel back?” asked Knuckles.“yes. She tried to use her determination to split her soul and share it with Asriel, but… she failed… she faded away, and now she’s gone. and we’re all still trapped in the Underground…” said Sans.“Oh my god… That… that’s so sad… a true pacifist gone…” said Female Jesse gone.“Oh man… risk your life for a friend… and both of you end up disappearing… that’s just horrible…” said Male Jesse.“But maybe they're out there. Remember when Ellie supposedly died, but she ended up in your universe?” said Magnus.“Yeah. But we can worry about it when we find Aiden and Kate. We should find them first,” said Ivor.“Agreed. That's top priority. Once we find them, we'll sort all this out,” said Female Jesse.There was a short moment of silence, until Sonic spoke.“I don’t know why… But… I feel like Asriel can connect to Aiden, and Frisk can relate to Kate…” he said.“Why do you think that?” asked Male Jesse.“Well, both Asriel and Aiden were kinda separated from their friends and family by unfortunate fate. Asriel was tricked by Chara and killed by humans, and Aiden made a mistake with Sky City,” said Sonic.“That does make some sense, but what about Frisk and Kate?” said Female Jesse.“From what I understand, Frisk is a true pacifist, and she was willing to sacrifice herself to save Asriel. Even though Kate’s a fighter, she can be a pacifist to. She doesn’t want to kill anyone, and she puts the safety of others before her own,” said Sonic.“Come to think of it… Sonic’s right,” said Ivor.The group finally reached the Hotlands as they finished up their conversation about Asriel and Frisk. They spotted a lab up ahead.“What would a lab be doing out here?” asked Sonic. “Then again, that crazy scientist I always have to stop is making bases in the strangest places I’ve seen…”“THIS IS THE LAB OF DR. ALPHYS, THE ROYAL SCIENTIST,” said Papyrus.“A scientist? Cool,” said Gabriel.Sans and Papyrus led the group up to the lab. Papyrus knocked hard on the doors. But instead of Alphys answering the doors, it was Undyne.“Undyne!” said Monster Kid excitedly.Undyne smiled at them and said, “Sans. Papyrus, what brings you he-”She cut herself off when she spotted the number of humans in their group. Undyne pulled out a spear.“Oh crap!” said Magnus.He and all the other people who were humans, and Sonic and Knuckles, quickly backed up.“Which one of these humans is the one causing all the trouble?” she growled, eyeing the group.“Wait Undyne! They’re not evil! They’re our friends,” said Monster Kid.“yeah. cool it Undyne. we’re trying to help them find their friends before Chara does,” said Sans.When Sans said Chara’s name, the look of anger quickly whipped off Undyne’s face. She lowered the spear.“Chara… Chara’s the one causing trouble?” she asked, almost in a whisper.“YES! AND SHE’S AFTER POOR AIDEN!” said Papyrus.Maya stepped forward and said, “We’re friends to Aiden and Kate. We’ve been looking for them for quite some time and found out they came here to the Underground. Can you please help us?”Undyne became silent for a moment. She put her spear away and said, “You best to come in. Alphys can tell you some things that she knows about them…”She led the group into the lab. Alphys came out from the kitchen and she was a little shocked to see that there were more guests.“M-more guests? O-oh dear. I thought it would be just m-me and Undyne…” she said.“Are we missing something here?” Sonic whispered to Sans.“oh uh… Undyne and Alphys are in a relationship. if you didn’t know…” Sans whispered back.Sonic was a little surprised to hear about it, but he had total respect for Alphys and Undyne.“Alphys, Sans and Papyrus are helping these guys look for Aiden and Kate. You’ve been watching them on your monitors, so why not show them where they are now?” said Undyne.“Oh! Uh… M-mettaton should be guiding them through H-hotlands,” said Alphys.“Mettaton?” asked Knuckles.“A robot that I built,” said Alphys.“As long as he’s chill like our friend Omega, we’ll be cool with him to,” said Sonic.“So… you’ve been watching Aiden and Kate? Why?” asked Ellegaard.“I-it’s my job to monitor h-humans who come to the Underground. To measure their d-determination,” said Alphys.“And you’ve seen them the whole time they’ve been here?” asked Ivor.“Yes. Especially when Aiden saved Undyne,” said Alphys.Sonic turned to Undyne and said, “Wait, Aiden saved you?”“Yeah. I was chasing him and his friend here in Hotlands, and I almost died from the heat here. I can’t last long in the heat outside, especially if I’m in my armor. Aiden found some water for me and gave it to me. He didn’t want to leave me for dead,” Undyne explained.“First Monster Kid, and then Undyne… Aiden’s been doing things that are righteous now,” said Gill.“He really isn’t as bad as we thought he is. Chara messed him up though, and we gotta stop her from doing any more damage to Aiden…” said Axel.“Anyway, did they pass by here?” Sonic asked Alphys.Before Alphys could explain, they heard a back door open and close. Mettaton returned.“I just dropped Aiden and Kate off outside Muffent’s home. They should reach the Core in no time!” said Mettaton.“Muffet?” asked Knuckles.“Muffet is a spider who bakes some really good pastries,” said Sans.“S-spider? Oh crap! Kate is terrified of spiders! She’s absolutely scared of them!” cried Knuckles. He looked at Alphys and said, “You said you were monitoring her! Can I see her on the monitor right now?!”“And please let me see Aiden!” said Maya.“W-whoa! O-okay! I-I can show you!” Alphys said nervously. She pulled out a tablet and started to turn it on.“What’s wrong with those two?” Undyne asked Sonic and Gill.“Uh... Maya likes Aiden…” Gill said, forming a nervous look.“And Knuckles is Kate's boyfriend,” Sonic said, smiling nervously.“Ah. Now I see it. I’d act the same way if Alphys was in trouble,” said Undyne.“wait, Knuckles is Kate’s boyfriend?” Sans asked Sonic.“In our world, humans and Mobians can be together. It’s not weird at all,” said Sonic.“oh…” said Sans.Alphys showed the footage to Knuckles and Maya. They could see Aiden and Kate leaving the resort and heading to the core.“Oh thank chaos! Kate’s okay and not near any spiders,” Knuckles said, letting out a sigh of relief.“And Aiden’s with her, and he doesn’t look possessed… Wait, are he and Kate holding hands?” asked Maya.Sonic and Mario quickly walked over.“Whoa, Maya. Don’t get any ideas. Kate knows you like Aiden. Besides, she’s with Knuckles. She must be holding his hand to let him know that she’s there with him. Sometimes, when you walk in an unfamiliar land, it’s best to hold hands with someone you know,” said Mario.“Yeah. Mario and I have held Kate’s hand when we had to walk through some places that scared us before,” Sonic said, forming another nervous smile.“Oh… Okay. I guess I just got a little worried there…” Maya said, smiling nervously as well.“They’re almost at the Core,” said Alphys.“THAT MEANS THEY’RE ALMOST AT KING ASGORE’S CASTLE,” said Papyrus.“And that’s where the barrier is! If they haven’t run into Chara yet, we need to get there now!” said Male Jesse.“Ch… ch… Chara?” Alphys asked nervously. “And… and I thought t-that the b-barrier situation was b-bad…”“What about the barrier?” asked Gill.“Kate said she could break it with her powers, but after they left, I… I did some research, and… it’s not enough to break the barrier…” said Alphys.“And they don’t know this?!” cried Knuckles.“H-hold on! If Kate combines her powers with the determination of another person and it’s strong enough, then she can break the barrier,” said Alphys.“But she doesn’t know this… She knows that the known way is for seven human souls to be used. Asgore has six already…” said Undyne.“Oh crap! We HAVE to move now! If Kate doesn’t know about this alternative, she might sacrifice her soul!” said Knuckles.“Are you sure she’ll do that?” asked Gabriel.“Mario, Sonic, and I know Kate more than anyone else among us! If we know one thing about her that she thinks we don’t know, it’s that she’s willing to give up her life for us if there’s no other option. She certainly won’t let Aiden do it, and even if Asgore doesn’t want to take their souls, she’s still going to give up her soul just to break the barrier!” said Knuckles.“there’s a short cut to the castle by the entrance of the Core. if we hurry, we can take that and stop them before they go to the barrier,” said Sans.“What are we doing standing here? We gotta move!” said Maya.With that, everyone rushed out to get through the Hotlands, hoping that they can reach Aiden and Kate before the duo reach the barrier.

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Aiden and Kate made it through the Core with no time to lose. They did meet a couple monsters, but the monsters didn’t want to fight them, which made getting to Asgore’s castle easier. They were almost to the barrier, which meant they were about to finally get out of the Underground.But with every step they were taking to the castle, both of them were deep in thought. Aiden was a bit hesitant on going home, since he figured his friends didn’t want him around anymore. And even after Kate helped him open up and feel better after what the spirit did to him, he still felt that maybe it was best that he stayed away from everyone, especially Maya. The spirit was still after him, which meant that he’d put the others in danger.‘I don’t want to hurt anyone. I don’t…’ he thought.Kate, on the other hand, was a bit worried about how things would go with the barrier. She hoped that her powers would be enough to break it, that way she could take Aiden home and let him stay in the tree house until the spirit was taken care of. And even after the spirit’s dead for good, if Maya, Gill, and the others didn’t want him back with them, then Kate was willing to let Aiden stay with her. She knew that if she could go home with Aiden, she would have to talk to Mario and Sonic about their fight, but she figured that it would be easy to talk over with them. She knew that Mario and Sonic would be more focused on the issue on how Aiden needed help.“We’re almost there…” Aiden said, breaking the silence as they reached the entrance to Asgore’s castle.“Yeah. We’ll finally be able to go home,” said Kate.“Well, you can go home. I don’t know if I should go home…” said Aiden.“Aiden, like I said before, if your friends don’t want you with them anymore, you can stay in the tree house. You’ll be safe from the spirit there, since nothing evil can get in. I put an enchantment around the place.”Aiden managed to smile. “Thanks Kate,” he said.They walked into Asgore’s castle and began to look for the king.“Huh, this place has a layout similar to Toriel’s house…” said Aiden.“Yeah. Only difference is that the whole building’s the color grey,” said Kate. She spotted some flower pots with golden flowers. “At least the flowers bring light, color, and hope in this place,” she said.They searched through the place, but didn’t see any sign of Asgore. They spotted some stairs that led down and would lead to a new area, so they decided to go through there.As they walked down the stairs, Kate decided to tell Aiden something that she figured would help him smile even more.“You know Aiden, after this crazy adventure, I realized… You're... you're like a little brother to me,” she said.“I'm like... A little brother to you?” asked Aiden.“Yeah man,” Kate said, smiling at him.“Heh, funny. You're like an older sister to me,” Aiden said.Kate smiled back at him. She was flattered by his complement.“Thanks for telling me that, Kate. It really lifted my spirits. I’m ready for when we meet Asgore,” said Aiden.“Just smile Aiden. Your smile is all I need,” she said.Aiden smiled back. They made their way through a huge hall and spotted a room up ahead. It must be where Asgore was right now.“I’m filled with determination. I’m ready to see Asgore,” said Aiden.“Me to Aiden,” said Kate.She smiled, but it was only to mask the fact that she was thinking right now.‘This is it. I’m ready to talk to Asgore with Aiden. Well… if all fails, I’ll give up my soul. At least… If I die today, I got to see Aiden smile again…’ she thought.She took a deep breath and said, “Let’s do it to it.”Aiden nodded his head and they walked into the next room.It looked like a throne room, but they could see only one throne. The others one must’ve been covered up. In the middle of the room was a huge garden of golden flowers. A figure was busy watering them.The figure was a male goat in a purple cloak. He wore some royal armor and had yellow hair and a yellow beard. It was Asgore, the king of monsters in the Underground.“Asgore…” said Kate.“Oh, just hold on one second please,” said Asgore. He was busy watering his plants. When he finished watering the flowers, he turned around.“Howdy, how can I-”Asgore cut himself off when he saw Aiden and Kate. The smile faded from his face, and he stood there in silence. He wasn’t angry, but he began to form a sad look on his face. Aiden and Kate didn’t know why, but it was because memories were flooding back in his mind.He remembered when Frisk came to him. She was ready to use mercy and avoid a fight. All her friends came in, and they all called off the fight, telling Frisk that even though she was going to stay in the Underground, she would be happy with everyone. And then, everything blacked out for everyone. When they woke up, Frisk told them that she could bring back Asriel.Asgore had never felt so hopeful when Frisk came. She convinced him to end the war between humans and monsters. She helped him see the error in his ways on trying to get seven human souls. She helped him see Toriel again, and the two were going to start again as friends. And on top of it all, Frisk said she could bring Asriel back.But… it wasn’t meant to be. Frisk faded away, everyone was still trapped in the Underground, and all of Frisk’s friends faced depression over their loss, even Asgore.All he wanted now was to break the barrier, but he couldn’t bring himself to continue the war with humans. He just wanted to free his kind, since it’s what Frisk wanted to do. And now, two humans were here. He could take one of them and use their soul to finish the job.But… he couldn’t do it. Frisk wouldn’t want that, and neither would any of his friends.“I know why you’re here. You want to break the barrier. But… it requires seven human souls. I have six…” he said.Kate and Aiden remained silent. They held hands, ready to talk to Asgore just in case he considered fighting them.“I can’t do it… I can’t kill either one of you. I just can’t…” he whispered. “The war has gone on for too long. And my friend, a human child named Frisk, she wouldn’t want it… None of my friends want it…”“We know, and we don't want to fight you Asgore,” said Aiden. “We think we know a way to break the barrier without one of us sacrificing our soul.”Asgore couldn’t believe what he heard. Were they serious?“If you didn't know sir, I'm called the Dreamer of Peace where I come from. It's because I possess the power to dream almost anything and turn it into a reality. I bet I can break the barrier without taking a soul,” said Kate.“Dreamer of Peace… I’ve read your story, and I know your power… I bet you can break the barrier. But there’s only one way to find out,” said Asgore.“Can you please take us to the barrier?” asked Aiden.“This way,” said Asgore.Kate and Aiden began to follow Asgore, but before they could head into the next room where the barrier was, the three of them heard the sound of footsteps coming. They stopped to listen. There was a lot of people coming…  “Hope your shortcut was a big help!” said Sonic.“Come on! The throne room’s over this way!” said Undyne.“I hope we’re not too late!” said Female Jesse.Their group ran as quickly as they could to the throne room. They had to stop Aiden and Kate from getting to the barrier, or else things weren’t going to go as they expected.And they made it. They made it to the throne room. They spotted Kate and Aiden by Asgore, and it looked like they were going to follow the king into the room where the barrier was.“Guys…” said Mario, letting out a sigh of relief.There was a moment of silence, but it didn’t last long. Maya ran over to Aiden as quickly as she could.“Aiden! You’re okay!” she cried. She hugged him as soon as she made it to him, but to her shock, Aiden pushed her away from him.“Wha? Aiden, why-” Maya asked him. She started to form tears in her eyes.Aiden looked at the group. Rather than being happy, he was horrified to see that everyone followed him and Kate. Gill, Maya, Female Jesse and the rest of the New Order, the Old Order, Mario, Sonic, Knuckles and even the monsters they befriended on the way here.“Why are you guys here?!” he cried in panic. He backed away from Maya and stood next to Kate.“Dude, we've been looking for you guys!” Gill cried. He formed a sad look on his face.“Why? You guys know what happened. I ran away, I didn't want you to follow,” he said sadly.Everyone was shocked to see his reaction, but Maya was the most surprised out of all of them. She began to form tears in her eyes.“Aiden…” she said sadly.“I-I just wanted to run away from everything! E-Everything I've done, everyone I-I've hurt...” Aiden cried.As Aiden began to shout in panic and everyone else was saddened by his reaction, Kate noticed something peeking from the shadows. At first, she didn’t recognize it, but when it formed a sinister smile, she knew what it was. The spirit.The spirit pulled out a knife, and she had her eyes on Aiden.“AIDEN!” Kate cried.She quickly pulled him aside, and shielded him as the spirit charged at them. She let out a cry of pain after the spirit slashed her on the back with her knife.“KATE!” cried Aiden.Kate didn’t say anything. She leaned forward, and Aiden caught her before she hit the floor. He tried to help her stand, but he could hear her breathing. She wasn’t breathing right. He could feel blood on his hands after he touched Kate’s back.“No… please no…” he whispered.The spirit let out an evil laugh. She changed to her human form and gave her serial killer smile to Aiden.“Hey!” Undyne shouted. She tossed a spear at the spirit, knocking it away from Aiden and the unconscious Kate.“You stay away from our friends, Chara!” Sonic shouted at the spirit. He did a homing attack on Chara to try to knock her back, standing in front of Aiden and Kate to protect them.‘Chara… she… she followed us…’ Aiden thought in fear.Chara formed an evil smirk. She pulled out her knife and slashed Sonic on the arm.“Argh!” Sonic cried. He clutched his arm, but Chara knocked him aside. She had her eyes on Aiden.“I’ve got you now, my precious puppet…” she said.She pulled out something familiar. The golden locket.“Wait, what!?” cried Mario. He checked his pockets. Chara somehow took it from him!“Oh crap! Aiden get out of there!” cried Maya.Aiden only backed up. He was still with Kate, who was unconscious. He couldn’t leave her on the floor. What if Chara finishes her off after he drops her? He couldn’t. Kate had been there for him since she first saw Chara. Aiden couldn’t leave her for Chara to kill.“NO!” cried Maya, as Chara charged for Aiden.But before Chara could grab Aiden, a fireball shot from somewhere, knocking her away from Aiden.“I should’ve come sooner…” said a familiar voice.“Toriel…” Aiden whispered.

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It was one thing to find out that everyone had been following him and looking for him. But it was another thing for Aiden to find out that Chara had been following him as well, and she was waiting for the right moment to try to take control of him again. There was no denying that she wanted him to be around all his friends for her to corrupt him again. Chara was going to make him kill everyone who came looking for him.Female Jesse pulled out her enchanted diamond sword.“Just give up while you can, Chara! You’re outnumbered by all of us!” she said.Lukas, Petra, Ivor, Maya, Gill, Male Jesse, Axel, Gabriel, Magnus, Ellegaard, and Soren all pulled out their own swords. Olivia pulled out her bow and arrow. Mario pulled out a fire flower and powered himself up. Sonic and Knuckles pulled out some rings to give themselves a boost in power. Sans, Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys, Mettaton, Toriel, and Asgore all prepared to use their attacks.But even though they had the advantage in numbers, Chara pulled out her knife.“I will kill you all if it means I can take control of Aiden again…” she growled.Suddenly, she charged back for Aiden and grabbed him. Aiden dropped Kate and was pulled away by Chara. The group was about to attack, but Chara had a good grip on him, and she was ready to put the necklace on him again to put him back in his trance.“Drop your weapons, or he’ll kill you for me…” she said, forming her serial killer smile.A few people put their weapons down, but some of them, including Maya, didn’t. Those who did put their weapons down put them down on the floor and backed up slowly.“I said put them down!” Chara hissed. She pulled Aiden closer to her and was ready to put the necklace on him, choking him a bit.Now, everyone except Maya set their weapons down.Kate slowly opened up her eyes a bit. She could see Aiden held in Chara’s grasp. Everyone was too far away to try to stop her, but despite the pain she was in, she couldn’t just lie there on the floor. She had to at least buy the group some time.As Maya was finally starting to put her weapon down, Kate saw Chara loosening her grip on Aiden. She knew Chara was going to charge at the others with that knife. She had one shot at this.Fighting the pain and the fact that she was bleeding, Kate quickly got up and charged at Chara and Aiden.“Go to hell!” she hissed.“Huh?” said Chara.Kate charged at Chara and pulled her away from Aiden. Aiden quickly took this chance to back up, but Maya rushed over and pulled him away from Chara and Kate.Kate tried to tackle Chara, but because of how weak she was, she wasn’t strong enough to stop Chara. Chara pulled out her knife and stabbed Kate on the shoulder.“Kate!” cried Aiden.Chara pushed Kate off of her and kicked her onto the floor. Kate passed out when she hit the floor.“That’s it! You’re going down!” Sonic shouted.He did another homing attack on Chara, knocking her back. Mario and Knuckles rushed in to help him. Mario threw some fireballs at Chara while Knuckles charged at her and punched her a few times.Chara grabbed her knife and tried to slash Knuckles and Sonic, but the duo was able to dodge her attack. Just as she missed, Mario threw another fireball at her, knocking her away from his friends.“Get up you monster!” Knuckles sneered at her, kicking her hard.“Grrr! They’re the monsters!” Chara hissed at them, giving Toriel, Sans, Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys, Mettaton, Monster Kid, and Asgore an angry glare.“They don’t murder, unlike you!” Mario snapped at her.He tried to throw another fireball at Chara, but Char swung her knife, knocking it back at Mario. Mario got hit by his own fireball, and he lost his fire abilities.Sonic quickly tried to do another homing attack on Chara, but Chara slashed at him. Knocked back, Sonic slid on the floor. He struggled to stand up as he covered the wound he got with his left arm, which was on his stomach.“Sonic!” shouted Knuckles.He tried to punch Chara, but Chara dodged his attack and kicked him into a wall.“Dang it, are you kidding me!?” Knuckles shouted. He accidentally punched the wall and got his right fist stuck.“Knuckles, watch out!” shouted Maya.She rushed in and slashed Chara, who was about to stab Knuckles while he was trying to get his hand out of the wall. She managed to knock Chara back, but Chara quickly got back up. She kicked Maya in the stomach, knocking her back and making her drop her sword.Aiden felt anger starting to bubble inside of him. He knew it was bad news that Chara chose to come out now that everyone was here, but seeing Chara attack his friends was starting to really make him furious.And now, Chara was about to attack Maya. He couldn’t stand there anymore. He ran over, grabbing Maya’s sword in the process. He charged in and knocked Chara away from Maya.“Aiden…” said Maya.Their friends all stared in amazement. They couldn’t believe that Aiden decided to take a stand against Chara.“Listen to me you jerk! I get it if you want to bring me into your mess! But when you threaten my friends, you’re asking for it!” he hissed at Chara.Now it was Chara’s turn to feel a bit shocked by Aiden’s sudden change in behavior. But she still formed her creepy smile.Aiden didn’t care. He ran over again, holding Maya’s sword, and swung it again. He hit Chara hard, causing the malevolent girl to drop the cursed heart locket. Aiden didn’t see her drop it, but he continued to fight Chara, who was using her knife to duel him.Lukas spotted the locket on the floor. As soon as Chara was far away enough, he quickly ran to the locket. He picked it up, and just as he did, Chara noticed what he was up to.“No! Give that back!” Chara shouted angrily at him. She kicked Aiden to knock him aside and began to charge at Lukas.“Lukas, quick!” Female Jesse shouted. She waved her hands at him to signal to him to toss it to her.“You want it, then fetch it!” Lukas shouted at Chara. He quickly threw it to Female Jesse, who caught it.Chara let out an angry shout. She dashed past Lukas, but she only punched him. She began to charge at Female Jesse to get the locket back.“Yeah uh… No!” said Female Jesse. She quickly tossed it to Ivor, who was signaling to her to toss it to him.“URGH!” Chara shouted in frustration. She quickly turned around and started to after Ivor.“No thank you!” said Ivor. He tossed it towards Gill.Chara turned around to go after Gill, but before she could get him, Gill tossed the locket over to Magnus. Then Magnus tossed it to Ellegaard when Chara chased after him.“I hate this little game you’re playing!” Chara shouted angrily.Now Undyne had the locket, but this time, instead of going after her, Chara charged at Alphys. She grabbed Alphys and had the knife at Alphys’s throat.“Alphys, no!” Undyne shouted in panic.“Give me the locket, and I won’t kill her…” Chara whispered in frustration.Undyne put her spear away. Everyone else backed away. But as Undyne started to walk over to Chara to get Alphys back and surrender the locket, Aiden started to sneak up behind Chara.“Let her go, Chara…” he growled.Chara turned around, giving him her scary smile.“And who’s gonna make me?” she said with a smirk.Just as she had turned around, Undyne quickly ran in. She grabbed Chara’s hand and made her pull the knife away from Alphys. Chara let go of Alphys, giving the scientist a chance to get away. However, Chara grabbed the locket from Undyne. She kicked Undyne aside and grabbed Aiden again.“Aiden!” cried Maya.Aiden tried to fight, but Chara got the necklace on him. He could feel the corruption taking place again. Chara formed her evil smile.Everyone backed up as they saw Aiden’s eyes start to turn red again. Aiden started to slowly walk towards them, but strangely, he stopped. He groaned a bit.“S-stop!” he cried in frustration.“Aiden, fight it!” Maya pleaded.“Don’t listen to her! She hates you!” said Chara.“That’s BS! Aiden’s our friend! We don’t hate him!” Gill snapped at her.“Shut up!” Chara shouted. She pulled out the knife and pretended she was going to throw it at Gill. Gill backed up.“Aiden, I know you’re in there! Chara can’t control you! You’re your own person!” Maya pleaded to him.Aiden started to walk towards her, pulling out the sword, but like before, he suddenly took a step back. He groaned in more pain.“What are you doing?! Kill them! They hate you! They don’t care about you anymore! They want you dead!” Chara shouted at him.“That’s not true! We came all this way for him!” cried Female Jesse.“SHUT UP!” Chara shouted. She gave Female Jesse her the creepy face, causing Female Jesse to yelp and jump back.“Your determination is strong… strong enough to kill…” Chara hissed at Aiden.“Aiden!” cried Maya.Aiden could feel the locket’s dark powers taking over him, as he started to hear only Chara’s voice. But… Chara’s voice began to fade away, and he could hear his friends pleading for him to fight the dark power of the necklace. He could hear Maya, Gill, and Female Jesse’s voices. Then, he heard another voice. It was Kate’s voice.“Unlike Chara, I've got something worth fighting for. Chara doesn't have anything to fight for. Me, I've got you and our friends to fight for. That's why my determination is stronger than hers,” Kate’s voice said in his head.After hearing what Kate told him earlier in his head, Aiden realized what she meant. Kate was willing to fight to protect her friends, and that included protecting him from Chara. And now, he shared that same determination, with the same reason.He knew he could fight it. He knew that his determination is stronger than Chara’s, but in a good way.The dark power of the locket couldn’t control him anymore. He grabbed it and yanked it off of him. His eyes turned back to normal. His friends looked in amazement as he got it off on his own.“What?!” cried Chara.“My determination is strong, but it’s strong enough to protect my friends!” Aiden shouted at her. He tossed the locket aside. It slid across the floor, away from Chara.Chara was too shocked by what she witnessed to go after the locket. She couldn’t believe that Aiden wasn’t controlled by the locket anymore, and that he broke free from its sinister powers on his own.Aiden charged at Chara, attacking her with Maya’s sword just like before. Chara managed to snap out of her state of shock and tried to fight back. But she didn’t stand a chance this time. Aiden’s determination made him stronger than before, and she couldn’t land a hit on him.Asgore, Gabriel, Male Jesse, Magnus, and Female Jesse were about to try to run in and help Aiden, but Toriel stopped them.“This is Aiden’s battle. Go in and help when the timing’s right,” she whispered to them.“But Toriel, we can’t just leave Aiden on his own,” said Male Jesse.“Now’s not the right time. But you’ll see when the right time is…” she whispered.Aiden and Chara didn’t know what was going on with the others. They were only focused on fighting each other. After what felt like forever, Aiden finally knocked Chara’s knife out of her hands. He slashed at Chara again. And again. He attacked her a few more times until she was beaten so badly, she struggled to stand up.Aiden raised his sword, like he was ready to finish off Chara, but he held back.Even though Chara was that evil, he couldn’t bring himself to kill her. Killing her, would just make him as bad as her.As he stood there, holding back from finishing off Chara, he remembered that Kate told him that she personally wanted to kill the Dark King. But after a while, she came to regret it, and made an oath to never kill anyone ever again.“And after all this time, I fear that I'll break that oath. I've encountered rivals worse that Bowser and Eggman. Rivals who want me dead just to take me away from my friends. And I fear that I'll break that oath and strike them before they get me,” Kate’s voice said in his mind.Aiden couldn’t do it. Kate made an oath to her cousin to never kill, and after the damage he did, he couldn’t bring himself to kill anyone to. Mobs in his world were fine, since they weren’t people. But even though Chara was a monster and a murderer, he couldn’t kill her.Chara sensed it in him. She formed her evil smile again and said, “I knew it... You're too afraid to kill ANYTHING now, including me…”Aiden didn’t say anything.Despite how weak she was, Chara lunged at him.“Aiden!” Maya shouted.“Get off our friend!” Gill shouted.He charged in, while Maya took Lukas’s sword and ran in with him. They charged at Chara, and Gill knocked her off of Aiden. Maya pulled Aiden away from them and she had her sword out ready to fight Chara just in case.“Grrr. You’re all dying!” Chara shouted.She tried to charge in, but suddenly, something was holding her back. Sans stepped forward. His eyes were glowing blue and so was his hands. He must’ve been using his powers to hold back Chara.“You’re gonna have a bad time…” he said.Chara struggled to break free, but it was no use. Papyrus, Undyne, Toriel, and Asgore all started to approach the struggling enemy. Chara tried to get out of Sans’s grasp, but she wasn’t strong enough.Maya and Gill pulled Aiden back, just in case Chara was going to get away and come after them again. Aiden backed up with them, turning his back to Chara. Maya and Gill did the same thing. They heard Chara shouted out some furious last words and screaming in rage. When they turned around after Chara’s rage was silenced, they saw a pile of ash fall onto the floor. Chara was gone, for good.“Normally, I don’t approve of violence, but Chara was too dangerous to keep alive…” Toriel said with a sigh.“After all the trouble she caused, she got what she deserved…” Undyne growled.“SHE WAS NO MATCH FOR ANYONE. NOT EVEN ME, THE GREAT PAPYRUS,” said Papyrus.“She had it coming, since we had a bone to pick with her,” Sans said, grinning.“SANS!” Papyrus snapped at him.“Man that was rough. I can’t believe she slashed me with her knife…” Sonic said, groaning.“You okay?” Male Jesse asked him.“I’ll be okay, but I need a bandage as soon as possible…” said Sonic.“Wait, where’s Asogre?” asked Female Jesse.The group looked around the room. They saw that Asgore was holding Kate’s body.“Oh god! Kate!” said Knuckles. He ran over. “Please tell me she’s alive!” he said to Asgore.“She’s breathing at least,” said Asogre.Knuckles got on his knees to check. Kate was breathing, but she was bleeding badly from her injuries on her shoulder and her back.“She’s bleeding out! We need to help her!” cried Knuckles.“Let’s get her to my lab!” said Alphys.Knuckles quickly picked up Kate and the group started to hurry back to Alphys’s lab to help Kate.

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The group made it back to Alphys’s lab as quickly as they could. Once they made it back, Alphys quickly bandaged up Kate’s injuries and gave her some medicine that would help her feel better. After she was done tending to Kate, she took care of Sonic, who got hurt by Chara as well.“Alphys, is Kate going to be okay?” asked Mario.“She’ll be okay. She might be unconscious for a while, but she’ll be okay,” said Alphys.“Oh thank goodness…” Knuckles said, letting out a sigh of relief.Aiden was relieved to hear that his friend was going to be okay, but he was still feeling a bit sorrowful. As Alphys was helping Kate, Aiden began to feel guilty. He felt that it was his fault that Chara hurt Kate and almost went after the others. He was the first one to run into her, and he felt that because she tried to turn him into her puppet, it was his fault that his friends could’ve been murdered by her.“Aiden,” he heard a voice speak to him.Aiden turned around. To his surprise, it was Lukas who spoke to him.“Hey Lukas...” he said in a whisper.“You doing OK?” Lukas asked him.Aiden sighed and said, “I'm worried about Kate. It's my fault that Chara attacked her...”“Don’t worry. Alphys said she’s gonna be alright,” said Lukas.Aiden let out another sigh and said, “I could’ve gotten everyone killed. It’s my fault…”“Aiden, you weren’t the one who came charging at us with a knife back there. It was Chara,” said Lukas.“I know… but… if I hadn’t run into her back in our world, and if I hadn’t let her put that stupid locket on me, I wouldn’t have gone on that rampage, I wouldn’t have run away, and I wouldn’t have fallen down here and brought you all with me,” said Aiden. He began to tear up a bit.“Aiden, you can’t focus on the negative. None of that was your fault. Chara tricked you, and she caused all the trouble. And… I’m sorry…”Aiden didn’t understand what Lukas just said.“Sorry? Why are you sorry?” he asked with a confused look.“I'm sorry for blaming you for all the trouble when it was Chara. I never listened to the others and let the negative things about you cloud my mind... I forgot the positive: You are a nice person Aiden, and you would never do something that extreme. I should've known that...” Lukas explained.Aiden made a small smile and said, “Thanks Lukas…”Lukas smiled and said, “Also, I heard your wish, so... I forgive you dude.”“R-really?”“It's hard to forget, but you can always forgive. I know you want to be friends again and... After what I witnessed, I think the Aiden I was friends with is back,” Lukas said, forming a small smile of his own.Maya and Gill walked over to see how the two were doing.“Are you OK Aiden? You look like you might cry,” said Maya.“Yeah. I'm okay,” said Aiden. He looked like he was starting to tear up, but he was still smiling at his friends.“Are you sure?” asked Gill.“Yeah... I'm just so glad you guys are my friends,” said Aiden.He hugged Maya, who hugged him back. Lukas and Gill came over and the four friends all shared a group hug.When they broke apart from their group hug, they noticed that everyone else was watching them.“Thank you. Everyone. Whether it was for coming after me and Kate, or helping us through the Underground. Thank you,” said Aiden.“don't sweat it kid. we’ll always keep an eye socket out for ya,” said Sans, winking.“SANS!” said Papyrus. He sounded a little ticked off.“He's right, we're always here for you Aiden,” said Female Jesse, smiling a bit.“I’m glad that we’re all friends,” Aiden said, smiling at everyone.“We’ll always be friends, Aiden,” said Gill.“Friends until the end,” Lukas agreed.  A little while later, everyone was still hanging out at the lab. Lukas and Aiden rekindled their friendship, and after the long journey through the Underground, everyone deserved a break. Chara was officially gone, so they could take the time to rest up while they waited for Kate to wake up.Asgore and Toriel were watching Aiden as he stayed in the room where Kate was resting up. He was sitting with Knuckles and a few of their friends, as they waited for Kate to wake up.“I hope Kate wakes up soon. She did a lot for me while I was traveling with her…” said Aiden.“Me to. Knowing her, I knew she would take those hits for you. But she’ll be okay, Aiden,” said Knuckles.“I’m glad that I ran into her before I ended up here. Not only did she help me on this journey, but she helped me feel better,” said Aiden. “She really knows how to solve things without fighting, even if she is a fighter.”“Kate would only fight if it was the right thing to do, but she wouldn’t kill,” said Knuckles.As they talked, Asgore and Toriel watched and listened.“Their conversation, it… makes me think that Aiden and Kate are similar to Asriel and Frisk,” said Toriel.“I had that same thought as well, Tori,” said Asgore.Toriel was silent when Asgore called her by his nickname, but she didn’t frown or scold him.“I understand if you’re still upset with me. But after Frisk… you know… I wanted to break the barrier, but when Aiden and Kate came to my castle, I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t take one of their souls. Frisk wouldn’t want it. It relieved me when Kate said she could find a way to break the barrier with her powers rather than seven souls,” said Asgore.Toriel was still quiet, but she still didn’t frown at him.“Tori, could we start over? At least be friends? It’s okay if you say no,” said Asgore.Toriel formed a small smile and said, “Well, we can start over as friends. I know Frisk would want that, and after hearing what you said, sparing our friends rather than fighting them, yes. We can start over as friends.”Asgore smiled back.They walked over to see how Kate was doing. After they walked over, the rest of the group came in.“Alphys, she’s been sleeping for ages. When do you think she’ll wake up?” asked Undyne.Alphys sighed and said, “I-I don’t know, Undyne. S-She did lose a l-lot of blood…”“She shouldn’t be out for days. Kate can heal fast sometimes,” said Mario.“Oh yeah. Healing abilities. I remember when she used her powers to heal me before I could die in Cyberspace,” said Magnus.“Guess even with that strange power, it still takes her some time to heal from injuries…” said Ellegaard.As everyone was talking, Kate began to finally wake up. She slowly regained her vision and opened her eyes.“Huh? Alphys?” she said, because Alphys was the first person she saw as she opened her eyes and turned.“Kate, you’re awake!” said Alphys excitedly.“Kate!” said Sonic. He and Mario rushed over and gave Kate a tight hug.“Ow…” Kate groaned.“Heh,,, sorry sis,” said Mario, as he and Sonic let go of her.“Sis? She’s your sister? You don’t look like you’re related to her,” said Undyne.“They aren’t related. Mario, Sonic, and Kate love each other as if they were siblings,” said Soren.“Kate, I’m so glad you’re okay!” said Knuckles.He ran over and gave her a tight hug. Kate groaned, so Knuckles let go of her. But he quickly pulled her up to him and kissed her, causing her to blush.“Uh… do we need to give you two a minute?” Axel said with a nervous smile.Knuckles broke his kiss with Kate.“Sorry… I had to do that…” he said, smiling nervously.Kate only blushed as she smiled. The smile quickly faded and she said, “Is Aiden okay? Last I remember was that Chara ambushed us…”Aiden walked up to her. “Hey Kate…” he said, smiling.Kate only smiled back and said, “Nice smile, Aiden.” She gave him a hug. Aiden returned the hug.Once Kate broke her hug with Aiden, she started to stand up.“Kate, can you walk?” asked Male Jesse.“Yeah. I might need a little help though…” Kate said, groaning a bit.“If you can’t, then you need to rest. You shouldn’t push yourself,” said Toriel.“I need to break the barrier. We’ve all been in the Underground for too long,” said Kate.“Y-yeah… about that… y-your power isn’t enough to b-break the barrier on its own,” said Alphys.The smile on Kate’s face faded. She had a feeling that this was the case. She was willing to sacrifice her soul if she had to.“Kate, we know what you’re thinking. No. You’re not giving up your soul so that we can break the barrier,” said Asgore.“I’m not letting anyone else do it. If one more is what it takes, I’ll give up my soul,” said Kate.“W-wait, there’s an alternative to using s-someone’s soul,” said Alphys.“That’s right. They don’t know about the alternative,” said Soren.“Alternative? Is there still a way to break the barrier without someone giving up their soul?” asked Aiden.“Y-yes! If you combine your p-powers with the strong d-determination of another, then y-you and your friend can break the b-barrier!” said Alphys.“Determination from another… so I can’t use my own determination,” said Kate.“I think… I can help with that,” said Aiden.“Aiden? Do you think your determination is strong enough?” asked Petra.“When Chara tried to take over my mind, I remembered something that Kate told me while I was on our journey. She told me that she was determined to, and she felt that her determination was stronger than Chara’s because she had a reason to fight. That reason was to protect me from Chara. Chara only wanted me to do her evil bidding. Kate had a real reason to fight. When I remembered what Kate told me, I felt myself filled with determination. I was determined to stop Chara and protect you guys, just like Kate had done for me,” said Aiden.“You do have a point there. You certainly stepped out of your shell to fight Chara back there,” said Gabriel.“guess when Chara came after you friends, she pulled the trigger on Aiden,” said Sans.“SANS!” Papyrus snapped at him.Undyne groaned and said, “You don’t make any puns until after Chara’s dealt with…”Sans just smirked at her and Papyrus.“You up for it, Aiden?” Kate asked him.“I know we can do this,” said Aiden.They faced Alphys and said, “We’re ready.“Yeah! Back to the castle!” said Sonic eagerly. He started walking ahead of the others.“Uh Sonic… It’s the other way…” said Undyne.Sonic stopped walked and turned around. He had a nervous smile on his face. “Oops… Uh… please lead the way…” he said.

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The group made their way back to Asgore’s castle. Alphys said that if Aiden combined his determination with Kate’s powers, then they could break the barrier. The group knew that the only way to see if this was possible was to try, so they made it back to the castle with hope.Asgore led them all through the castle and into a strange place in the back. When they made it to the back, they could see the barrier.“This is the barrier. It’s what keeps us all trapped in the Underground…” he said.“Being trapped down here must be unfair…” Magnus whispered.“Shh!” Ellegaard hissed at him.Aiden and Kate approached the barrier.“You ready Aiden?” she asked him.“As ready as I’ll ever be,” he said.They finished walking up to the barrier and placed their hands on it. Kate began to concentrate her power and dream about the barrier being broken and everyone in the Underground finally being free. While she did that, Aiden reminded himself of how his friends were still by his side, even after he ran away from them and journey through the Underground. His thoughts filled him with determination.As the two friends focused their power and determination on breaking the barrier, a brighter light began to shine, and in a matter of seconds, no one could see Aiden and Kate.“It’s really bright!” said Axel, as he covered his eyes.“You can do it Aiden! You to Kate!” Maya called out to them.Aiden and Kate heard what Maya said, and they continued focusing their power and determination on destroying the barrier. They heard a crack in the barrier. It was breaking.But suddenly, Kate and Aiden started to feel weak for some reason.‘This feeling… it’s like whenever I heal someone…’ Kate thought. She started to breathe funny, but she fought the pain to continue breaking the barrier.Aiden was beginning to feel weak as well, but he fought the pain and stayed determined on breaking the barrier.The barrier made another cracking noise.“It’s working!” shouted Petra.Aiden and Kate didn’t hear her. They were starting to lose their strength and focus, but they didn’t give up on breaking the barrier. They could see sunlight peering from the other side, and that’s when they saw two figures start to form from across from them.“Huh? We’re… we’re alive?” said the first figure. It sounded like a little boy’s voice.“Wait, the barrier! Those two, they’re… they’re breaking it!” said the second figure.Kate began to cough hard. She felt her energy draining from her quickly.‘Those two… I… I think we... brought them back with… my healing… powers…’ Kate weakly thought.She felt herself losing consciousness once again. Aiden felt the same way, but neither of them gave up. They continued focusing their power and determination until…CRACK!The barrier was broken. Sunlight peered inside, and Kate and Aiden saw the two figures from the other side starting to approach them.“Huh? W-Who... Who is-” Aiden quietly said.He couldn’t finish his sentence. He collapsed on the ground in exhausting.“A-aiden…” Kate weakly said. She tried to walk over to him to help him up, but she collapsed as well.“Aiden!” cried Maya.“Kate!” cried Knuckles.They saw them fall on the ground and rushed over. Their friends ran over and saw Aiden and Kate unconscious. Toriel gasped when she saw them, because Aiden and Kate were pale and looked like their life just drained away.“Will they be okay?” asked a voice.The group turned around to see the two figures that Aiden and Kate saw from the outside of the barrier. The boy was actually a monster and not a human. He looked like a white goat, and he was wearing blue jeans and a light green sweater with a yellow stripe. The other figure was a human child, and she was wearing blue jeans, brown shoes, and a blue sweater with pink stripes. She had blue eyes and brown hair.While Aiden and Kate’s friends were confused to who the two were, the monsters gasped when they saw the two children.“Asriel… Frisk…” said Toriel.

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“Wait a second, this is Asriel and Frisk?!” cried Sonic. “But Sans, you said that Asriel has been dead for a while and Frisk faded away after trying to bring him back!”“We thought we were dead as well, but we started to come back as your friends were breaking the barrier,” said Asriel.Before anyone could say anything else, Asgore and Toriel ran over and gave Asriel a hug, while Sans and Papyrus gave Frisk a hug.“What matters is that both of you are back…” Toriel whispered. As she spoke, she began to cry tears of joy.Asriel hugged his parents in return, while Frisk returned the hug to Sans and Papyrus.“Still, are they going to be okay?” Frisk asked, looking at the unconscious Aiden and Kate.Maya cradled Aiden in her arms while Knuckles did the same with Kate.“Kate’s pale. It must’ve been her healing powers. She grows weak whenever she tries to heal someone with her powers. She’ll be okay,” said Knuckles.“Oh yeah. I remember. She saved my neck before I could’ve died back in that crazy place when that strange creature tried to kill me,” said Magnus.“What about Aiden? Maya, is he okay?” Lukas asked her.“He’s breathing at least. And he’s pale to. Do you think he’ll wake up soon just like Kate?” said Maya.“He should be okay. Kate will wake up soon, so that means Aiden should wake up soon to,” said Mario.“Still… how did Aiden and Kate bring back Asriel and Frisk? Weren’t they just trying to break the barrier with their power and determination?” said Undyne.“E-even I’m curious. I-I don’t know,” said Alphys.“Wait… Sonic, do you remember what you said when Sans and Papyrus first told us about Asriel and Frisk?” said Lukas.“Yeah. I said that Aiden was like Asriel and Frisk was like Kate. What about it?” said Sonic.“Maybe… because they’re like one another, their souls were connected,” said Lukas.“That must be why they came back when Aiden and Kate destroyed the barrier,” said Ellegaard.“that makes soul much sense,” said Sans.“SANS!” Papyrus snapped at him.Frisk giggled. “I missed your puns, Sans.”Sans hugged Frisk again. “and i missed you, kiddo,” he said.“Are they really going to be okay?” Asriel asked Knuckles, as he looked at Aiden and Kate.“They’ll be okay. They just need to rest. We best to get them back to the tree house,” said Knuckles.‘TREE HOUSE?” asked Papyrus.“Yeah. We have a tree house in our world where we hang out with our friends,” said Mario.“Aiden and Kate will wake up soon, so we should take them there,” said Female Jesse.“I brought the book to your world with us so that we can get back home when we found Aiden and Kate,” Soren said to Mario and Sonic. He pulled out the book.“Wait, before we take them to your home, could we all just walk onto the surface real quick?” asked Toriel.“That’s right. You guys have been trapped in the Underground, so you don’t know what the sky really looks like,” said Male Jesse.“Aiden and Kate just need rest. It wouldn’t hurt to take you guys to the surface real quick and let you see the sunlight,” said Sonic.Knuckles picked up Kate while Sonic helped Maya carry Aiden. The group walked through the tunnel that once had the barrier and onto the surface of the Undertale universe.There was a nice, cool breeze as the group walked on the surface together. The sun was setting behind some mountains, and the area was naturous.“Wow… it’s so beautiful,” said Toriel, as she stared at the sunlight.“Just looking at the sunset is so relaxing,” said Asgore. He took a deep breath in, and let a deep breath out.“I missed the sunlight. I thought I’d never see it again,” said Frisk, smiling.For a while, everyone just stood in place and stared at the sunlight. There was a long moment of silence as they all looked at the sunset.As the group watched the sun set behind the mountains, both Aiden and Kate woke up for a minute. They watched as the sun set and their friends see it go and the moon start to come out.‘We did it… we did it…’ thought Aiden.‘I knew we could do it, Aiden,’ Kate thought.The two looked at each other and smiled before going back to sleep. Their friends didn’t have a clue that they woke up for a moment.  A short while later, the sun finally set and the moon and stars were shining in the sky.“So those are what stars look like. I always wondered what they looked like compared to the things back in the waterfall area…” said Undyne.“The sky is gorgeous. I never thought it would be this way,” said Asriel.“seems the sky sure is… dazzling,” Sans said, winking.“SANS…” Papyrus grumbled.The Jesse twins only grinned when they saw Sans annoying his brother with his puns.“Wow Sans, you’re quite the ‘punny’ guy,” Sonic said. He grinned at the skeleton.“NOT YOU TO…” Papyrus grumbled.“He is the cocky one between me, him, and Kate…” said Mario.“S-still… I’m glad that w-we finally got to see the s-sky,” said Alphys happily.“I agree. No one should be forced to stay in the dark and never see the light even one. Monsters in this world are free now,” said Female Jesse.“seems that in the Underground, it was all about… lights out,” said Sans.“SANS! STOP IT RIGHT NOW!” Papyrus shouted at his brother.While Undyne was the only one who groaned at the skeleton bros, the others seemed to either laugh or giggle.“Now that that’s over, should we head back to the tree house? Aiden and Kate need rest. They’ve been through quite a lot, and had a long journey,” said Ivor.“Yeah. It’s pretty late. We need to get back to our world. The others are bound to be worried about is,” said Mario.“CAN WE COME TO?” Papyrus asked excitedly.“I don’t see why not. You guys helped our friends instead of tried to kill them after all,” said Sonic.“To be honest, I think I technically tried to kill them…” Undyne said with a nervous smile.“It wasn’t your fault. Chara caused some trouble and made them take the blame,” said Lukas.“Besides, Kate’s dealt with things much worse trying to kill her before,” said Sonic. “You weren’t a real threat to her, Undyne. You’re her friend.”“Oh right. I remember reading the story. Dark King tried to kill her,” said Toriel.“Sadder part was that he was once a friend of Kate…” said Knuckles.“W-ait, I read the story. I-I don’t remember the D-dark King being a friend of K-Kate,” said Alphys.“People seem to ignore anything from Kate’s personal perspective of the story…” Sonic muttered. “All fans normally want to hear is the fight against the Dark King.”“WHAT? WHY WOULD HER FRIEND TURN BAD?” asked Papyrus.“Well… he… he lost himself basically. He became power-hungry, and after giving up his humanity and turning into a Nightmare, he developed a thirst for blood,” said Mario.“Seems kinda like Chara. I thought she was my friend, but… I was a fool to give her what she wanted after she killed herself…” said Asriel.“Don’t blame yourself kid. You’re back, Frisk is back, and Chara’s not a threat anymore, said Sonic.“By the way, what did happen to Chara?” asked Frisk.“Uh… we’ll explain when we get back to the tree house. Besides, we should get back to take Aiden and Kate there,” said Knuckles.Soren pulled out the book for the Dream universe. Once everyone was gathered together, he opened it up. The book began to glow, and they were all heading into the Dream Universe.

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The group made it back to the Dream Universe and ended up right outside the tree house. Once they were sure everyone was still together in the group, they all headed inside to rest up. It was already a little late out and it was dark. The sky had tons of stars and a full moon shining brightly.Back home once more, the group decided to take Aiden to a guest room and Kate to her room so that they could rest up and wake up feeling better.“WOWWIE! THIS PLACE IS AWESOME!” Papyrus said excitedly as he looked around the tree house.“Thanks man. You gotta tell Kate the same thing when she wakes up. She used her powers to create this place. She even put an enchantment to keep evil things out of this place,” said Sonic.“guess you want to keep your rivals from… barking up the wrong tree,” said Sans.“SANS!” Papyrus snapped at him.Sonic only smirked at Sans’s pun. He walked down the hallway and saw Maya was standing in the doorway to Aiden’s room.“Hey, he’ll be okay. He just needs some rest and he’ll wake up soon,” he assured her.“I know. But… I was worried that Chara was going to take him away from me…” Maya whispered sadly.“Well, if you want to sit in there and wait for him to wake up, none of us won’t stop you. We understand that you were worried about Aiden,” said Sonic.Maya managed to smile at him. She whispered, “Thank you,” and headed inside Aiden’s room so that she could wait for him to wake up.Sonic smiled and headed into the living room.“WHERE IS THE KITCHEN? I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, SHALL COOK EVERYONE A GREAT MEAL,” said Papyrus.“Oh don’t worry about it, Papyrus. You’re our guest. We’ve got it covered,” said Mario.Knuckles pulled some stuff out of the pantry.“I say we celebrate tonight. We’ve got quite a bit to celebrate for: reuniting with Aiden and Kate, Asriel and Frisk’s return, Chara’s defeat, and of course, new friendships,” he said.He set the stuff down on the table and said. “Which is why we’ve got stuff to make our own pizzas,” with a smile.“P-pizza?” asked Alphys.“Aw, I remember when I first made pizzas with you guys. It was back when I ended up in your world. I didn’t remember anything about myself before I came here, and you guys brought me here to meet the rest of your friends. We made pizzas and had a game night,” said Ellegaard.“I remember you told me about that. You easily beat Sonic in each round,” Magnus said, grinning.Sonic sighed and said, “I suck at card games!”“seems like you don’t know how to… stack the deck,” said Sans.“SANS!” Papryus shouted.“Now that one, I didn’t like…” Sonic muttered.“Pizza!” Gill said excitedly.“A pizza party sounds like a lot of fun,” Toriel said, smiling.“When Kate and Aiden wake up, we can start making our pizzas. And what should we do after that: game night, or movie night?” said Knuckles.“I did a game night with you guys last time, so I’d love a movie night instead,” said Ellegaard.“A movie sounds wonderful, darlings!” Mettaton said enthusiastically.“Cool! What movie will we watch?” Frisk asked excitedly.“We’ll pull out some options and go with the majority vote afterwards. For now, we can prep our pizzas and start. We’ll let Aiden and Kate make theirs when they wake up,” said Sonic.While everyone was starting to make their pizzas, over in the guest room, Maya waited for Aiden to wake up. After what felt like forever to her, Aiden finally woke up.“Huh? Maya…” he said.“Aiden, you’re finally awake!” she cried happily. She quickly ran up to him and gave him hug. Aiden almost immediately returned it.“Maya… I know we broke the barrier, but… what happened? Where are we?” he asked her.“After you broke the barrier… uh… well, two friends to all of our friends from the Underground came back. You and Kate brought them back with your determination and her healing powers when you tried to break the barrier. We brought everyone to the surface to see the sunlight, and now we’re back at the tree house that Kate, Mario, and Sonic own,” said Maya.Aiden smiled at her.“Heh, when I was in the Underground with Kate, she told me that if you guys didn’t want me around anymore, I could stay here with her…” he said, almost quietly.“You really thought we wouldn’t want you around anymore? Aw Aiden, of course we don’t want you to leave. You’re our friend, and we missed you. And now that we found out about Chara and took care of her, you can come home,” Maya said. She gave him another hug, which Aiden returned immediately.When they let go of their embrace, Aiden said, “Where are the others? And if I passed out after breaking the barrier, what happened to Kate? Is she okay to?”“The others are in the kitchen or living room. Kate’s in her room resting right now,” said Maya.“I want to check on her first, before we go out there,” said Aiden.Maya nodded her head and they got up. The two of them walked down the hallway and to Kate’s room. To their surprise, she was already awake. She was lying down on her bed and her radio was on, playing a song by Linkin Park. Aiden recognized the lyrics and realized it was the song that Kate sang back in the Wishing Area.“Kate?” he said.Kate sat up and paused the song on her radio.“Aiden, you feeling okay?” she asked him.“I’m fine. You okay to?” he asked her.“Yeah. I just needed to listen to a Linkin Park song. I uh… I can’t go a day without listening to their music,” she said with a nervous chuckle.Aiden and Maya smiled at her.“What song is it?” asked Maya.“’Somewhere I Belong’,” said Kate.“That was the song you sang to the echo flower back in the Wishing Area,” said Aiden.“Yeah. I figured that you could use a song to motivate you. And hey, I can relate to Linkin Park songs, and I figured with how you were feeling, you could to,” said Kate.“Well, it did help me open up to you on what my wish was,” said Aiden. He turned to May and said, “Can you give us a minute? You can tell the others that we’re awake and we’ll be right out.”“Okay. But you’re gonna have to be quick. Knowing the others, especially Gill, they’ll want you guys out there as soon as possible,” said Maya. She nodded her head as she spoke and headed out of the room.When Maya was gone, Aiden turned to face Kate.“What’s the matter Aiden?” asked Kate.Aiden took a deep breath and said, “When I was fighting Chara, I… I remembered some things you said to me. First, you told me how your determination was stronger than Chara’s because you had a reason to fight. That… that motivated me and made my determination stronger. Strong enough to snap out of Chara’s control and fight to defend my friends. But… I remembered another thing you told me. And… it stopped me from killing her…”Kate was silent for a minute.“I couldn’t kill Chara, and… our friends from the Underground finished her off for us…” said Aiden.“They were probably avenging Asriel and Frisk… Asriel did die because of Chara’s suicide, and she probably wanted to control Frisk but wasn’t pleased by the fact that Frisk was a pacifist… But Aiden, I know I probably couldn’t kill Chara either. It’s not just you,” said Kate.“Really?” asked Aiden.“Yeah. I made an oath to my cousin, and even as dangerous as Chara was, I probably couldn’t bring myself to kill her either. But Aiden, whether it was you our someone else who gave Chara a taste of her own medicine, the important thing is that Chara’s gone, and she can’t hurt you anymore,” said Kate.Aiden managed to smile, but it quickly faded away. “I just realized… the townsfolk don’t know about Chara. They still might think that I’m evil…”“You know what? Screw them! I’ll help you and the others get the point across that it was Chara who killed those people and not you. And if they refuse to believe us, I’ll find a way to make them believe us,” said Kate.Aiden smiled again, smirking a bit at Kate’s line. “Thank you Kate, for all your help,” he said.“Well, thank you as well Aiden.”“For what?”“For opening up to me. I was kinda down after a fight with Mario and Sonic, and I even started to doubt myself. But thanks for letting me talk to you about it. Just talking to a friend I trust helps me whenever I start to doubt myself.”“Well… you’re welcome, Kate.”Kate smiled at him. “Ready to rejoin the others?” she asked him.Aiden nodded his head.The two friends walked out and into the kitchen. They saw their friends making pizzas and even putting a few into the oven.“Hey guys,” said Aiden.Their friends all turned around and were happy to see that they were awake again.“Aiden! Kate!” said Female Jesse, smiling at them.Mario, Sonic, and Knuckles all ran over to Kate and gave her a tight hug.“Can’t… breathe…” said Kate.The guys all said, “Sorry,” at once and let her go, smiling nervously at one another.Aiden and Kate smiled at their friends, but when they saw Asriel and Frisk, they formed confused looks.“Who are you guys? I don’t really remember running into you two while we were in the Underground…” said Kate.“Yeah. Me neither. What are you names?” Aiden asked them.“Howdy! I’m Asriel!” said Asriel, smiling.“And I’m Frisk,” said Frisk.Aiden and Kate were a bit shocked.“Uh… can someone explain things please?” said Aiden.Male Jesse and Knuckles quickly explained to Aiden and Kate how they brought back Asriel and Frisk when they broke the barrier.“Wow… I never thought our souls would be connected…” said Aiden.Kate only smiled and gave Asriel and Frisk a hug. Aiden smiled as well and joined in on the group hug.“That’s adorable,” Knuckles said, smiling.Toriel and Asgore nodded their heads and smiled in agreement.“Thank you Mister Aiden and Miss Kate,” said Asriel.“Hey, no problem,” said Kate.The four of them broke their hug.“You two hungry? We started making pizzas. And we were thinking of a movie night afterwards,” said Toriel.“Are you kidding me? I’m starving,” said Aiden with a chuckle.“I need to eat,” said Kate.“Well, you can start by getting some cheese out of the fridge. We’re almost out over here,” said Gill.Kate walked over to the fridge and opened it up. She picked up the bag of cheese, but after seeing that something else was missing on the shelf, she formed a ticked off look.“Who took my dark chocolate kit kats again?” she growled.“I gotta tell my brother to stop with that…” Sonic said, sighing.“What’s with her and dark chocolate?” Undyne asked Sonic.“Kate just loves it. And she gets ticked off easily when people take food that she paid for herself. She had to deal with that BS back in her dorms when people would steal anything she bought. Well, except for fruit or cheese…” said Sonic.“seems like your sis has a bit of a… sweet tooth,” said Sans.Sonic and Undyne both facepalmed at the same time, while they heard Papyrus shout Sans’s name in a ticked off tone once again.  A little while later, everyone ate their finished pizzas and hung out and chatted at the table. When everyone was done eating, the group walked over to the living room and set up enough seats for everyone to watch a movie. After going through a few options, the group decided to go with what got the majority vote, which was Zootopia.While everyone else was watching the movie, Aiden decided to slip out for a moment. He got up and walked over to a balcony the tree house had.“Aiden,” he heard someone call out to him.Aiden turned around and saw that it was Maya.“You okay?” she asked him.“Yeah. Just wanted to step outside for a moment,” he said. “I’m okay.”Maya smiled at him. She walked over and stood next to him, looking at the night sky with him.“The sky sure is beautiful…” Maya said in a whisper.“Heh… well, I think I know something more beautiful...” Aiden said, blushing a bit.“Really? What is it?”Aiden started to turn red on his cheeks as he managed to say, “You…”Maya smiled again, but she was starting to blush in return.“I’m flatter Aiden,” she said.Aiden wanted to say, “Thank you,” but he couldn’t. Something else was on his mind.‘God dang it, Aiden! You can’t be friend zoned with her, especially since you like her and she likes you!’ he scolded himself. ‘Just kiss her…’Maya was about to say something, but Aiden leaned towards her and kissed her. Maya blushed a bit, but she shut her eyes and returned the kiss. They didn’t want to let go, but after what felt like forever to them, they finally pulled apart. Both of them blushed as they looked at each other.After a long moment of silence, they both smiled at each other again. They shared one last kiss before they decided to head back inside and rejoin their friends, old and new, for the movie. The end