Chapter Text
Darkness was all there was, and all there had ever been. Until there was a pin-prick of light. This spark manifested itself in the form of a skeleton, naked and floating in the dark emptiness. The light had no name, or age, or consciousness. Devoid of life and soul. And so the little skeleton stared at the nothing around it with open eye sockets, uncaring of the inky blankness that was its unformed universe. Time passed. AU's were created and destroyed. The Guardians rose and fought. And the little skeleton stared on at the unchanging void, unaware of the worlds- raging, singing, suffering, existing outside of the darkness.
Fresh was having a good day, hopping from AU to AU, enjoying the different landscapes, hunting for a new host, messing with the Destroyer for a bit. Good stuff. So when it found itself in what resembled the void, it was more than a bit surprised, a feat that didn't happen often. It didn't exactly feel like it was being shattered across multiversal time and space, so that was a plus. Its surprise quickly morphed into curiosity, and it strained his eyelights to see if there was anything besides... black nothing. Same as Error's anti-void, there was no defined line that indicated a floor or ceiling, or walls. Or anything, really.
Well.
This was boring.
Maybe it could use this place as a makeshift base? It didn't exactly have a home, not that it needed one. It looked around the empty AU once more, about to shortcut out when it saw something out of the corner of its vision. A single, tiny speck of white in the inky distance. Now that was more like it. It shortcut closer a few times before it recognized the white blob as a skeleton. They didn't appear to be moving, and it couldn't sense any magical signatures from them... Fresh grinned. Maybe it wouldn't have to look for a new host after all.
It shorcut next to them, head tilted as it studied them. They floated about half a foot off the ground, completely stationary, staring into the nothingness around them with wide eyesockets, no eyelights to be seen. They appeared to be a Sans, at least in physicality, although the perma-grin most Sanses wore was replaced by a neutral line, neither a frown nor a smile. Most noticeably, they were naked.
It reached out with its magic, trying to feel out their soul, only to draw a blank. Huh. That was weird. It decided to change tactics, instead attempting to summon their soul. No response. The eyestraininly-colorful parasite regarded the strange skeleton in confusion, another emotion that didn't come to it often, and took a step back. Had they Fallen? But how could a monster's body persist after the soul had shattered? It peered into their blank eyesockets again and saw nothing but dead indifference. They hadn't changed or responded to its presence at all. Fresh frowned, its brows furrowing. It cocked its head to the side, staring down at them for a few moments before settling on talking to the skeleton, just to see what, if anything, would happen.
“anybody home in there, broski?”
It was—quite expectedly—greeted with silence. They didn't even twitch. It cocked his head in the opposite direction, its glasses changing to read “???-???”. Stars, they really had Fallen. It took a glance at the darkness surrounding him, before trying to CHECK them. Its brows shot up when it didn't work. It knew Coders could tamper with CHECKs, their own or those of others, but it had never heard of someone being able to hide it so completely it was like they didn't even have one. It blinked, once, twice, and then a third time before tentatively poking them on the forehead with its index, half expecting the monster—Creature? Entity seemed more fitting—to simply disappear from in front of it. Thankfully for its peace of mind, they didn't, and felt like it would expect a skeleton monster to feel like. Smooth, but lacking any semblance of warmth. It gave a small push, before retracting its gloved hand, watching in curiosity as their head slowly returned to its original, unshoved position.
“well, tiny dude, you're kinda strange, ya kno dat?”
Fresh grinned, its glasses changing to read “SMOL-BEAN” before it unceremoniously plopped onto what could only be perceived as the floor in front of them. This was quite interesting. It had noticed that its host hadn't seemed to change or deteriorate since coming here, and its true form didn't feel the tell-tale weakness of having used up its host's soul. Maybe this place was in a time pocket. Which in theory meant that it could spend as much time as it wanted in this barely created AU, without it impacting the state of its current host's soul. If it was, that could be very useful to it.
For the next few weeks, Fresh would pop in now and then to either recover after run-ins with some of the more violence-happy alternates, pause the deterioration of its hosts’ souls, or simply talk to the skeleton it had dubbed as “tiny dude”. Of course, they never reacted to its words, but it was fun anyway to ramble about whatever, even if it was the exact equivalent of speaking to an unplugged toaster.
It had been doing just that when it was struck with an idea. It summoned its current body’s soul, and stared at the cracked upside-down heart for a few moments, its true form shifting inside its skull a bit. It looked at Tiny-dude, then back at the soul. If this worked, it might have a friend. Or a possible emergency host in case the near-impossible scenario where it couldn't find one came into play. Either worked fine for Fresh, and who was to say it couldn't have both? If this didn't work, then it would need to change vessels a few days before usual, but sacrifices like that could be made in the name of friendship. Or sustenance.
It focused on one of the cracks spidering across the surface of the soul, before snapping off a piece at the edge, and pumping just enough magic through the fragment to keep it from simply dissolving into nothingness. It took a few steps closer to Tiny-dude, before crouching down to their eye level. The soul fragment hovered over its cupped hand, just above its phalanges, casting a soft iridescent glow into the suffocating darkness around both skeletons. It brought its hand closer to their bare sternum, and paused. It looked into those empty eyesockets, and wondered if their body would reject the fragment. Would they dust? It considered this for a moment, before deciding to simply cross that bridge if and when it got to it. It used its empty hand to attempt to summon where their soul would be, before letting the fragment sink into that empty space. It stepped back, and waited.
And waited.
“dat was anticlimactic.”
It summoned their soul, saw that the fragment was still intact and glowing brightly, and then looked at them again. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. No change in their expression. No magical signatures anywhere besides its own. Wow. That was somewhat disappointing. It let the fragment retreat into the safety of their rib cage, before it heelied a few paces back. So that was boring. Welp. Might as well go scope out a new host since it was gonna need one sooner than later.
“see ya, lil dude. imma be back in a few days.”
And in an obnoxiously colorful poof of smoke, it was gone.
The little skeleton stared at the empty space where the colorful one had stood. It was unbothered by the other's absence, since it had never been aware of his presence. The inky nothing around it was silent as it had always been. It was ignorant of the soul fragment that cried out and begged to be allowed to beat inside of its chest. The darkness around it watched in dispassionate apathy, uncaring towards the soul's struggles. Until the soul finally, frantically, beat.
Just once, but it was enough.
And so from darkness, there came forth light.