Chapter Text
“There’s no doubting what you have achieved on a technical level. These are clearly state-of-the-art. There are just certain…’design choices’ that were made for these robots that we don’t fully understand. We were hoping that you could shed some light on those.”
“She can dance. She can sing. She’s equipped with a built-in helium tank, inflating balloons right at her fingertips. She can take song requests. She can even dispense ice cream.”
“With all due respect, those weren’t the design choices we were curious about, Mr. Afton.”
“Daddy, why won’t you let me play with them?”
“How…intriguing.” The king of negativity murmured as he watched over this Underfell variant. It had quite a bit of negativity. So much more than a Fell variant normally had.
Originally, he had assumed it was simply a Flowerfell universe. But those are always drenched in the sickening taste of grief turned acceptance. It made his tentacles curl in displeasure. How could you take a perfectly good meal and ruin it?
He was glad those ‘verses found peace, but why must it always be so soon after the grief begins? He needs a way to feed after all.
Of course, being so attuned to emotions as he was, he was easily able to determine that it wasn’t just grief that filled this universe. It oozed deception and murder. He could taste the bitterness of pain, betrayal, and madness.
It was delicious .
It made him want to look deeper into it. What on earth was causing all this negativity?
Looking deeper, he learned that it wasn’t even a Flowerfell ‘verse. It wasn’t a Dustfell, either. It was a Fell ‘verse they had visited dozens of times over. The Sans that lived there was always willing to help them…after some coercing.
The source of all those negative emotions he was feeling wasn’t from anything to do with monsters at all in fact. They lived peacefully in ebbot, only a few miles from the true source. A little family called the Aftons. Though… most of the Aftons weren’t doing very much living anymore.
That didn’t mean that they didn’t still exist. Apparently the father, William, had discovered something he called ‘Remnant’.
It was like the human SOULs’ lingering DETERMINATION, allowing the SOULs to persist after death without shattering or cracking. Not only that, but, it wasn’t purely based on SOUL type. It was based off of magic output.
Now, human SOULs, while they contain much magic, don’t put out magic at all, other than the little bits needed to live. The Mages had done better when they still existed, but still, not nearly as much output as Monsters.
Monsters’ very beings were made of magic. They used magic constantly to live, to greet people, to interact. Humans may have the stronger SOULs, but Monsters have the greatest outputs.
Nightmare had gone to Sci, to investigate this “Hypothetical situation” as he told him. He didn’t want anyone to learn of his discovery.
Sci had told him that in a hypothetical such as that, theoretically, the Remnant would be powerful enough to act as a replacement for DETERMINATION, only without all the risks.
It would allow the Monster to revive when close to death. Like the undying phenomenon that happens with Undyne types in a genocide run. The only difference would be that the Monster could be fully dead, and still come back. And it wouldn’t run out.
The Remnant “theoretically” attaches to the SOUL and “hypothetically” would replenish itself using the magic of the Monster. It would only be best for those with high LV of course. Leeching off a Monster without it would kill that Monster faster than they could revive. Of course, this worked perfectly for Nightmare in many ways, because his dear brother didn’t have LV…and his subordinate did.
He lashed his tentacles through the castle, searching for everyone. Dust was in his room, Horror was in the kitchen, and Killer was training with his favorite set of knives.
How wonderful.
He wrapped a tentacle are each of them and dragged them to his office. Killer was the closest and was brought in upside-down.
“heya, boss!” He went to gnaw on Nightmare’s tentacle. Again.
“Killer, no biting!”
“but you taste like applesauce!”
“He…does?” came the deep growl of Horror’s voice. Nightmare set him down while trying to get Killer to unclamp his teeth from the tentacle that has long since let him go.
“No, Horror, I do not. Killer simply enjoys trying to poison himself.”
“yes, you do! c’mon rory, give ‘im a little taste!”
“Horror, absolutely not, don’t-!”
And now Horror was chomping down in one of his other tentacles.
He yanked Dust straight into himself from surprise and nearly knocked himself off balance, his tentacles thrashing around to try and get the two morons off of him.
“boss, what th’ ‘ell is goin’ on?” He heard Dust speak, his voice slurred with sleepiness.
He slammed Horror into Killer and finally got the two of them off. He dusted himself off and used his tentacles to force their mouths open.
“Spit it out. Both of you. Apologies, Dust, it seems your teammates do not know how to behave themselves.” He heard a muffled sorry from Horror as he spit out the chunk of negativity magic he had bitten off and a muffled cry of protest as Killer attempted to swallow what he had.
Nightmare turned to him and shoved his hand into Killer’s mouth to yank it out, hearing Killer whine.
“but it’s the only way i’ll ever get to taste you!”
This triggered the others to start making lewd comments about what Killer had said. Nightmare barely let it go for a moment before he shouted.
“ENOUGH!” That sobered them up quickly. “Has it not crossed any of your minds that I may have brought you all to my office for a better reason than just goofing around?! Sit down…now!”
They didn’t need to be told twice. Horror sat where he was, Dust leaned against the wall, and Killer perched himself on the chair in front of Nightmare's desk, laying down in what was surely an uncomfortable position for the type of chair he was in.
Nightmare settled down into his own chair behind the desk, pulling up a small tear through the multiverse to show them an image of ‘Circus Baby’s Pizza World’.
‘a pizza place? a little outta the regular food joints we nab from, doncha think, boss?” Killer drawled, fiddling with his knife while brandishing a bored grin.
“pizza?...i like…pizza!” Horror’s one good eyelight wobbled while it dilated in excitement.
“No, no one is getting pizza. Do any of you know what lies under this establishment?”
“a basement? some extra parts for that robot on the sign? a storage room? more pizza? the list is endless, bos- ack!” Killer was knocked out of his chair as Nightmare struck his knife out of his hand.
“Enough interruptions!” He took a deep breath to calm himself and allowed Killer to sit back in the chair. He watched him cowered back a bit, successfully subdued for now.
“Now, under this establishment is a sort of bunker. In this bunker is something called Remnant,” He showed them a liquid that looked whiter than a Monster’s SOUL. “I need it. And I need you three to retrieve it for me.”
“heh, simple,” And Killer was no longer subdued. It was to be expected, of course. “get in, kill some fucks, and get back out! send us out, boss!”
“No.”
“wha’? why not, boss?” Dust finally spoke up.
“I’m afraid killing them in your way is not possible.”
“why not?! i’d just need to stab ‘em and they'd be dust!” Killer seemed to be offended by this seeming jab at his abilities.
“Because the ones who hold the Remnant will be able to come back. I need you to get in, find the one in charge, extract the Remnant however you can, and get out.”
“well then, just tell us who’s in charge!”
Nightmare ignored him and continued. “I expect this to be completed within a week. I have managed to obtain you and the Sans of this universe, you know him as Red, jobs there as nighttime security guards. It would make it easy to collect the Remnant.”
“ok, but tell us who’s in charge.”
“That is not for me to say.”
“do you…not…know?”
“I may, or I may not.”
“Well that’s not at all ominous.” Dust muttered sarcastically. “Totally helps a bunch.”
“You should receive your uniforms tomorrow, Underfell time. You will also have to collect Red and convince him to help you out by any means necessary. Farewell.”
He opened up a tear and shoved the three Sanses through it. They appeared in front of a version of the Skelebro house on the surface. It was time to get to work then.