Multiverse Saga/Taken!Altertale/Chapter 6

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Rhosaith stared up at the bright blue sky above her, a cool breeze passing over her pressurized EVA suit and into the street beyond. Looking back down at the cup of tea in her hand, she raised the cup to a straw that connected to her rebreather, allowing the liquid from the outside world to pass through to her beckoning mouth. Finishing the mug, she placed it on the table beside her, placed a few golden coins beside it, and stood up, placing her wide-brimmed hat back onto her head. She then looked back up at the sky.

She knew, of course, that the sky wasn't real. It was just the projection of a screen to give everybody a warmer comfort of home. If one looked carefully, they could even see the upward curve of the land further ahead on the tube.

The Nexus is what they called it. A giant space station roaming the great void of the inter-universal expanse, serving as the capital to the multi-universe initiative known as the Multiverse Alliance.

Rhosaith sighed. No matter what wilderness existed, whether it be the forests of Earth, the vacuum of space, the void between stars, galaxies, or even universes, or even across dimensional boundaries, there was always going to be somebody who got the bright idea to bring civilization along with.

"Rhosaith." a digital voice sounded in her ear.

"What is it, Hamlet?" she asked.

"There's a reclamation party being formed near the Spires to retake a pre-rift universe."

"So?" she said lethargically.

"It may be a good source of information regarding this multiverse at large."

"That's nice."

As Rhosaith walked along, her long coat billowing in the sudden gust, she completely disappeared, re-appearing just outside a door.

Realizing what just happened, Rhosaith, let out an exhausted sigh.

"You should at least try and do what you have been tasked. If nothing else, then to simply make it look like you're doing something." Hamlet said.

Rhosaith looked contemplatively at the door.

"Fine." she said after a minute, taking a firm hold of the door and sliding it to the side.

The room within was made of a dark metal. Within, sitting in a few chairs that were scattered throughout the room, were a number of people. Five Rho recognized to be Sanses. One was a Papyrus, and another was a Chara. The last two in the room were skeletons, though of no base Rho recognized right off.

Closing the door behind her, she walked further into the room, towards the nearest chair.

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE, HUMAN!!!" one of the Sanses shouted.

Rhosaith stopped moving and looked over at one of the groups of Sanses, where three of them were gathered together. One of them, the shortest of the three, was pointing right at Rhosaith. Everyone in the room, in fact, looked at the Sans.

"Er... yes?" Rhosaith asked. "Was there something you needed?"

"I have no idea who you are!" the Sans declared. "This is an awful thing that I simply cannot stand have continue!" the Sans walked over to Rhosaith and outstretched his hand. "I'm Sans. Obviously. Most people call me Blueberry to avoid confusion, though. What's your name?"

"I'm, er, Rhosaith." Rhosaith said, taking Blueberry's hand. "Nice to meet you, uh, Blueberry."

"The pleasure is all mine! Mweh heh heh!!!"

Rhosaith looked over the Sans. He reminded her of Papyrus in a way. A confident step permeated each of his strides as he returned to the other two Sanses that he was with.

Reaching the other two, he immediately started chatting heartily with them, stars practically forming in his eyes from the excitement.

The other two Sanses Blueberry was with looked just about as excitable as he was. One of them wore a turquoise tunic with a great big yellow cloak resting on his shoulders; the pin holding the cloak on being a large red orb with a big white star on it. The other Sans featured a mostly brown outfit, the most dominant features being the large brown scarf around his neck, the light blue jacket tied around his waist, and the giant paintbrush strapped to his back. A dark blue sash filled with vials of paint, like an ammo sash, decorated his chest. Blueberry himself featured a mostly blue outfit, a shorter cobalt scarf around his neck, with a more grey-blue shirt and pants, returning to cobalt for his gloves and boots; the rims of which were lined with yellow.

Looking to the other three-member team situated nearby, Rhosaith spotted a Sans, who looked pretty basic—wearing a blue jacket over a white shirt, and black shorts, with blue sneakers finishing off his outfit. Beside the Sans sat a Papyrus, who wore much the same, but orange rather than blue; with the jacket being a hoodie instead. Next to them also sat a Chara, whose outfit was in the same vein as Sans's and Papyrus's—a green jacket rather than a blue or orange, dark brown pants, and red boots and gloves.

The next group, a pair of skeletons, stood against the door-side wall. One of the skeletons wore nothing other than a blue backpack and a dark-grey cloak so tattered, it was practically a few ribbons. Looking carefully, Rhosaith thought she spotted something that resembled a finger-bone hanging off the front of the pelvis. The other skeleton wore a striped, white button-up shirt, black slacks, and brown shoes. Holding up the pants were black suspenders that looped over the skeleton's shoulders. They seemed deep in conversation and didn't seem to pay any mind to Rho.

On the other side of the room, standing with his back in the corner, was another Sans. This one featured a white sweatshirt and sweatpants, ending in black socks and white slippers. Over it all was a great blue long-coat with a hood over the Sans's head. The ends of the sleeves and the hood were covered in white fluff. Though she couldn't get a clear look from where she was, Rhosaith thought she also saw black lines streaking from the bottom of the Sans's eyes down to the base of his mandible.

Finally resting down into the seat she'd chosen when Blueberry approached her, the door at the front of the room opened, and another skeleton-Monster walked in. Bundled in her arms was a bunch of papers and binders and the like.

"If I could have your attention." the skeleton said, placing the papers on a desk at the front of the room. She looked over the ten people situated around, all of which were now staring at her.

"Is this everyone?" she asked.

"I haven't seen anyone else come in." the classic-Sans said. "So I guess so."

"Don't worry about the numbers!" Chara chimed in. "You've got the Bad Time Trio *and* the Star Sanses on the case."

The skeleton looked thoughtfully at the two groups.

"Hmm. Yes, I suppose you're right." she said, readjusting her glasses. "In that case, let us begin."

The light in the room dimmed to nothing as a large hologram appeared in the room.

"Six months ago, a pre-rift universe, universe AlT-113CO was attacked by a Destroyer—the identity of which remains unknown. Since the attack, Alliance scouts have surveyed the universe without drawing attention from the Destroyer. Their findings have shown that the universe, which was coded before the attack, is now physical."

"Whoa, whoa, hold it. Time out for a second here." the naked skeleton said, his accent sounding Brooklyn in origin. "Universes don't just turn from coded to physical. You sure your scouts got the right place?"

"While you are right in one regard," the brown Sans with Blueberry interrupted, "there have been reports of universes changing behavior before this, like UnT-214, which also turned from coded to physical. Before being coded, though, it was a game. This is one of the reasons why the standardized universal classification system doesn't commonly include the suffix in archive."

"Er, thank you, Ink." the presenter skeleton said. "If I may return to the briefing."

Ink!Sans waved his hand for her to continue.

"The objections, uh..." she looked down at a paper in her hand. "S.T brought up are valid, however. Despite this phenomenon being well-known, it is still unclear what, or who, causes a universe to switch behavior. As of right now, the scouts believe the Destroyer to be responsible for this."

Almost immediately, murmuring erupted within the groups, all of which quelled when the white Sans in the back boomed his voice.

"What information do the scouts have on the Destroyer?" he asked.

"Not much at all, I'm afraid." she answered, looking down at her paper. "I'm afraid I'm also at something of a disadvantage. I don't have your name documented."

"Just call me 4."

"Alright, 4." she wrote a 4 in the margins of the paper she was holding. "Er, like I said, not much is known of this Destroyer. What information the scouts managed to get on him just shows him to be a Sans; one from a UnF universe, by the looks of things."

A picture of the Destroyer flashed into the hologram. It was a Sans, though with a large hole in the upper part of his skull. Other than that, the only other notable difference was the bright white right eye he possessed.

4 huffed upon seeing the picture, his eyes sharpening into a deadly focus. 4 turned to leave.

"Wh-where are you going, 4?" the skeleton asked.

"I have what I need. I'm gonna go 'liberate' that universe. I'll meet you all there."

With 4 leaving, the others got up and moved to leave as well.

"W-w-wait!" the skeleton pleaded. "I haven't finished yet."

"It's fine, lady." Chara said. "Like 4 said, we got what we need. We'll be fine."

One by one, against the frantic requests of the presenter, everyone in the room left. Everyone, that is, other than Rhosaith, who was still sitting in her chair.

"Excuse me, miss?" Rhosaith said as the last of the other mercenaries left.

The presenter looked over at Rhosaith.

"Do you have a digital copy of your presentation? I'd like to have one."

The presenterâ€™s face brightened up at Rhosaith's request, quickly pulling a data chit from her pocket.

"Thank you." Rho said, taking the chit and stuffing it in her own pocket. She then stood up. "Thank you for compiling all this data for us, I'm sure it may come in handy." She, too, then left the room.

"You see?" Hamlet chided. "I told you going to that meeting would be useful."

"Yeah, yeah. Shut up. Just take me to my ship, already."

"As you wish, Madam."

Rhosaith then vanished completely from the Nexus.

The doors to the elevator door finally slid open, and Rhosaith stepped out into her personal cabin. Despite having unbelievable technology, more advanced than anything she'd ever seen elsewhere, Rhosaith preferred to hold to what she called "simpler tech". Not wanting to force her own decisions on those that served her, teleportation pads and personal teleporters were strewn all across the grand space leviathan that was her flagship. Despite this, she still rode the elevator to her cabin.

Upon arriving, she took off her black wide-brimmed hat and long black coat, hanging them on a nearby coatrack. Stepping towards her bed, the black EVA suit she wore dematerialized from her form, so that all she wore when she hit the mattress was a plain white shirt and white pants. The very clothes she wore when she was taken.

Her own personal cabin was devoid of color. The walls, door, floor, ceiling, and even all the furniture within—with minor exceptions—were white; making the coat and hat hanging on the coatrack stand out far more than they should have.

Turning her head to the nightstand beside her bed, she looked at a picture that stood on its surface. This picture served as one of the only sources of color within the room. Picking it up, she brought it over and hugged it tightly to her chest.

"Oh Frisk..." she muttered quietly. "Were it that these cursed machines had not taken me from thee, I would be there by thine side even now. Alas, for it be not so. Here am I, far from thine side. Far from thy warm embrace. Thy bronze skin. Thy pleasant bodily aroma that never ceased to calm me."

Rhosaith pulled the picture from her chest and stared at its contents. It was a picture of two Humans. Herself, and a man beside her.

"If fickle fate had it be that we meet again, oh the speed to which I'd press my lips to thine." Rho leaned forward and kissed the part of the picture where the man was. "But alas, it cannot be. I am here, and thou art there. Far away, out of reach."

Tears slowly leaked from Rhosaith's eyes. Try as she might to stop their flow, she soon gave in and held the picture firmly to her chest once again.

"I miss you so much, Frisk..." she wept upon the bed sheets until her eyes ran red, and she finally fell asleep.

"Rhosaith." a digital voice echoed in the room. "Rhosaith."

"Mmm..." Rhosaith mumbled.

"We're nearing the universe known as 'AlT-113'. It's time for you to wake up."

Rhosaith sat up, the picture frame still in hand.

"How far out are we?" she asked through a yawn.

"Only a few minutes. You may teleport in at any time."

"Great." Rhosaith stepped over the side of the bed, replacing the picture back onto the stand.

"I heard you weeping again." the digital voice said after a minute.

"I thought I told you to not spy on me when I'm in here." Rhosaith scolded.

"Apologies, Madam."

"Geez, Hamlet. It's the one place I've closed off to everyone but me. At the very least, I should feel like I'm not being watched or listened to in this one single room."

"Again, apologies. It won't happen again."

"Yeah, until it does."

Rhosaith stood up from the bed. Stepping away, a cleansing wave flew over Rho's body in an instant, cleaning it of excess debris. A second later, Rho's EVA suit rematerialized around her, and she stepped towards her coat and hat, putting them on as well. When she finished doing up the coat, blades materialized around the leg-half, enclosing the half somewhat like a skirt. Beneath the covers of her coat, a holster also materialized, attached to her leg—within, a handle was held firm.

"Alright." Rhosaith said. "Let's go."

In an instant, Rhosaith was teleported from the ship down to the universe, AlT-113.