Multiverse Saga/Taken!Altertale/Chapter 3

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"Toriel!? Frisk?!" Asgore shouted as he ran out the door. "Are you two okay?"

"Yeah, we're fine." Toriel said, still trying to get the box to appear while still clutching at her stomach. "What about you?"

Asgore clutched his own stomach. "Well, to tell you the truth, there's a sudden... *gnawing* here in my gut."

"So do I." Toriel said. "What do you think it means?"

Asgore shook his head. "I have no idea."

Toriel looked back at Frisk, finding that her eyes seemed to be wide with... something.

Frisk shot off, running further into the town.

"Frisk!" Toriel shouted. "Wait up."

Frisk didn't slow down, at least not until she got in front of the Snowed Inn. Once there, she stuck her hand out into the space between the Snowdin Shop and the Snowed Inn.

Nothing happened.

Frisk's eyes widened further as she continued to try and do something.

Toriel finally reached her. Not wanting to lose her again, she grabbed her by the wrists and pulled her in such a way that they were face-to-face.

"What's going on? What did you do?" Toriel demanded.

"I-I-I don't know!" Frisk stammered out. "I... I can't SAVE."

Toriel's grip loosened slightly.

"What...?" she asked.

"I can't SAVE or LOAD." Frisk said again. "I can't even RESET!"

Toriel let go of Frisk's wrist. Her face felt cold; not from the biting air, but from... something else. She looked back at Elysium, the source of the tolling bells.

"Sans." she mumbled.

At that point, Asgore finally caught up with them. Before he could speak, however, Toriel shot him and Frisk an authoritative glare.

"Frisk, go with Asgore back to the house and lock it up. Don't answer it for *anyone* but me, Undyne, or Sans."

"What? Why?" Asgore asked. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to Elysium to find Sans and Papyrus. That... wave, or whatever it was, came from there."

"Well then I'm coming too." Asgore said defiantly.

"No!" Toriel shouted.

Both Frisk and Asgore stepped back.

"Gori, please. I'll be fine. It'll only be a few minutes."

Asgore sighed. "Fine, but I expect you to return in the next hour!"

"Deal."

And with that, Frisk and Asgore retreated to the house they'd emerged from only a few minutes earlier.

Toriel watched them disappear through the front door. When the door closed, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes, focusing on Elysium. But when she opened them again, the sight of her still being in Snowdin Town surprised her.

"Wha... what am I still doing here?" she mumbled to herself.

She closed her eyes again, focusing harder on the palace.

"I... I can't feel the shortcuts anymore."

Toriel opened her eyes and looked back to Elysium. Her jaw tightened.

"Damn it..." she swore as she began running across the town, past her house, and into the mouth of the Waterfall Caves.

The Waterfall Caves were a dark, dank maze of tunnels, bogs, and caverns, and also the only safe way from Snowdin Town to Elysium. Toriel ran as fast as she could, past numerous disgruntled Monsters who'd been questioning why the bells were tolling or who'd been clutching their stomachs in pain.

Upon reaching the Quiet Village—the second largest single settlement within the Caves—Toriel nearly ran right into Undyne, who was in the process of calming the townspeople down.

"Toriel!" Undyne yelled when she saw her running. As she got close, Undyne wrapped her arm over Toriel's shoulder, whispering "What's going on? Are the Humans invading now that we've broken the Barrier?"

"I don't know." Toriel responded. "I was just heading to Elysium to find out why the bells were tolling."

A smile spread across Undyne's face.

"Great!" she said. "I'll come with you."

"No, I need you to head back to Snowdin and make sure Asgore and Frisk are okay."

Undyne looked back over the small crowd.

"Nah," she said, "Asgore's good on his own. He's got this, I know he does.

"Besides," Undyne said before Toriel could raise protest, "I'm... I'm worried about Papyrus."

Toriel looked down at the ground, thinking on this. After a minute, she simply sighed.

"Alright." she said. "But we gotta be quick."

Undyne's smile returned. "Right behind you!"

The remainder of the Waterfall Caves passed quickly, and Toriel and Undyne soon arrived at the base of Mount Hot. Near the place where the Caves transitioned into the Hotlands stood a great metal laboratory. Cutting to the left of the laboratory, into the dark maw of the mountain, Toriel and Undyne found that the L1 elevator—an elevator that could take them straight to the summit—was broken. With nowhere else to turn, they both returned to the laboratory and walked inside.

"Alphys?" they both called upon entering.

"STAY BACK!!!" a desperate voice screamed as soon as the automatic door closed.

Toriel and Undyne looked around the lab. There, in the far corner, sat Alphys. She fidgeted with her hands wildly.

"Alphys, are you okay?" Toriel asked, slowly stepping closer.

Alphys screamed again as she approached, shooting up from her corner and sliding along the wall to the nearby door.

"Alphys, calm down!" Toriel shouted, running and grabbing the Monster. "Undyne, help me."

Undyne sprinted over and grabbed Alphys's arms. Alphys, in turn, began freaking out even more.

"LET ME GO!!!!" she screamed. "HE'LL KILL US ALL. BUTCHER US LIKE ANIMALS. I SAW IT, I SAW IT ALL. ALL OF IT WITH MY EYES."

"Let's get her up to her room." Undyne said.

"Alphys," Toriel said. "you need to calm down. Nothing's gonna hurt you."

"NO, YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!" Alphys continued to scream. "HE'LL HURT ME. HE'LL HURT ALL OF US. I SAW HIM. THEIR MANGLED BODIES ARE BURNED INTO MY EYES, THEIR SCREAMS ECHO IN MY HEAD. LET ME GO!!!"

Alphys sent out a wave of electricity, which shocked Toriel and Undyne, forcing them to let her go. Taking this opportunity, Alphys ran away from them, towards the door.

"Alphys, come back!" Toriel shouted, running after her.

"NO!" Alphys shouted back. "I won't sit here and wait for him to come. I won't wait for him to tear me apart like he did to all of them."

She ran through the door. By this time, Undyne had begun running again. When both Toriel and Undyne had run through the door, Alphys was standing near the cliff to the river of lava below.

Before their very eyes, Alphys leapt from the rocky pathway into the boiling magma, screaming as she fell. Upon entering the river, she burst from the surface, her skin melting off and showing off the bone beneath. After a few seconds, she sank back in, never to return.

"Wh... what the hell...!?" Undyne worked out. "Why?"

Toriel, wordless, stepped back into the lab, towards the screens she passed on the way in. They were all shattered, their electronics ripped from their core and scattered along the ground.

"Why did she do it?" Undyne asked Toriel when she approached.

Toriel simply stared at the broken electronics before her.

"I think... she saw something on these screens. Something that horrified her so much, she..." Toriel tapered off.

Toriel and Undyne stood, silently, in the lab for a few minutes longer. Eventually, Toriel stepped back towards the door Alphys had run through what felt like a lifetime ago.

"Where are you going?" Undyne asked.

"We need to get to Elysium and find Sans and Papyrus." Toriel answered.

Undyne, still in shock from Alphys, slowly nodded and followed Toriel out. Together, they both climbed up the face of the mountain.