Chapter Text
Abaddon walked down the unfamiliar streets like he had for days, months, years. Despite visiting many different places they all looked the same to him.
Carriages out of steel lined the concrete roads, surrounded by similair concrete buildings that looked like a greyish cube where someone has poked rectangular holes in that worked as windows.
Maybe a tree or two or a little patch of grass broke through the monotony of the landscape, but they were nothing like the woods at the Undervale.
Unfortunatly his predicament required him to stay close to human settlements, because at some point he realised that the only way he could ever go back was to use the mortal's ressources.
Therefore he was bound to wander their concrete roads, no longer hoping to return by pure coincidence, every day reminding him of his failure.
But it was really unfair! How was he supposed to know that that was going to happen!
Not wanting to cause some sort of paradox he always stayed true to what happened in his first time around. The memory of his third reset was still haunting him, where his excessive hunting caused lizards to evolve into being bipedal.
For some reason however, it didn't work out this time around. Maybe he kicked a stone wrong or ate the wrong chicken, something caused the world to be not quite right.
When he let them ship him to the boarding school, he complained as much as usual and when the day of his escape came he chose the same boat as always.
Following that logic, it wasn't wrong to assume that he would also end up at the same place as usual.
It took him way too long to realise that something went wrong. For someone who has lived for millenia a difference in mere days wasn't something they would notice.
Only after a while he noticed that the journey took longer than expected and by then he hasn't seen any water in days.
When he finally arrived on a land whose language he didn't know, he knew that there was no going back. Which didn't mean that he didn't try.
It must have been decades because he gave up on counting how often the seasons changed and didn't even try to follow the movement of the sun anymore. He was sure that the humans in the place he was now spoke a different language than at the place where he first arrived, but he spoke neither.
Which was outrageous, considering Abaddon spoke hundreds of languages, but he supposed that was to be expected considering the languages he spoke were extinct for centuries.
Until one day, he overheard someone speaking English.
"We should be able to see it once we turn right," a woman said to a man, while pointing at a piece of paper filled with rectangles and lines, a map.
"You are capable of speaking this tongue?" Abaddon interrupted and startled the two.
"Yes, we speak English. Do you need anything?" the woman asked while looking him up and down.
"Do you know where the Undervale is?" Abaddon asked, before he noticed that Nathan likely wasn't born yet and therefore hadn't gotten the hotel.
"Uhmm, I am sorry, I don't know what that is."
He crossed his arms. Maybe the humans could be of use in another way?
"Do you at least know where the place is, where people speak this tongue?"
"Do you mean England? We are in Italy right now, we are thousands of kilometers south. Are you lost? Do you need help? Do you have enough food?" the woman bombarded him with questions.
"The poor boy probably can't follow your questions! One at a time," the man stopped her, "Where are your parents?"
Abaddon knew that that was his signal to go. Nothing good ever happened from telling humans that he had none, that he was born with the suffering and anguish of mortals and that the closest thing this vessel had to a parent was killed by him over 200 or millions of years ago (depending on how one counts time resets)
England... it made sense to call this place that, after all they spoke English. So he just had to walk north for some unknown distance, because he never cared much about human meassurements and also had never heard the Freelings use 'kilometers' before.
It took a few decades for him to land there, after he took an accidental small detour to a country called 'North-way' or something like that.
That was were he spend the last few years searching for the Undervale. He knew that he had to be there before Nathan moved in and he knew that he had less and less time to do that.
Every day he wandered the country in search for the Undervale or a familiar building that told him that he was in the right direction.
Soon, soon his chance at a life with the Freelings was gone and he would have to continue searching for the Undervale so he would be able to reset time once again. He did not want to be the billions of years of waiting be for nothing.
Soon he would be late.
And as time slowly passed his fear intensified. He did not know when Nathan would arrive at the hotel, he just knew that he would.
If he missed Nathan, if he took too long, he would have to go through all of these years over again.
So no, he wouldn't be late.
No, no he wouldn't be. Even though he told himself that for decades already and that resolve was reduced to a sliver of hope, he would not be late.
He would find them.
And so he walked.
He walked and supressed the feeling that maybe he was already too late, that when he returned Nathan would already be dead and the Freelings not accepting of him.
Until he saw a face. Nathan's face. Nathan was here? He couldn't be. The Undervale wasn't nearby, Aabddon had already checked the surrounding woods of this town.
The rational part of Abaddon's brain told him that it wasn't Nathan. In fact, it was not the first time Abaddon thought that he saw Nathan, but in the end it was just someone who only slightly looked like him. It has just been so long since he last saw Nathan.
But he followed him regardless.
He saw him go into a building and waited for him to come out. Abaddon could sometimes glimpse him through the window and studied his face, his wrinkles, his eyes, hoping to find something that would prove to him that it was or wasn't Nathan, that would pull him out of this limbo of not knowing.
After the person looking like Nathan came back, Abaddon followed him again. This time he went to a café where he waited and looked on his rectangular calling device until a woman came and sat down next to him.
Abaddon observed through his window and ignored the pang of his insides twisting when he saw them laughing together.
She left soon and he spoke to someone on that device.
All the while Abaddon kept observing.
What would happen if it was indeed Nathan? Would he take him in again? Where was the Undervale?
He thought about what they could do again. Nathan could make him froot loops again- oh how he misses froot loops, Nathan could go with him to the lake-
"Hey, bud, are you alright?" Abaddon startled. He must have zoned out.
These familiar words from a familiar voice... when he looked up he saw his face and his doubt disappeared. This was Nathan. But what was he doing here?
"I saw you sitting here for a while. Is everything alright?"
Yes, now it would be. But how was he supposed to explain that to a man who had no memories of him, despite having so many of Nathan?
How could he convince him to take him in?
"Let's talk over a hot cocoa. Chocolate makes everything better." Nathan proposed and led Abaddon to the table he had been sitting at.
"So, what are you doing here?" asked Nathan.
Abaddon slurped his hot chocolate.
"I am waiting for someone."
"Is it your parents? When are they going to come?"
In that regard Nathan was painfully similair to the other humans, always wanting to know who takes care of him.
"Soon," Abaddon's answer was no less cryptic than the previous one, but Nathan didn't seem to mind.
"Okayyyy..." Nathan's mind was desperately searching for something to ask a child. "What are your hobbies?"
"Torture, drawing and blending."
"Alright, sure," Nathan wasn't really believing the torture part, but children had very vivid imaginations.
"I actually have a niece and nephew, they are around your age. Actually, how old are you?"
Was Nathan talking about Esther and Ben?
"I am thousands of years old."
Nathans silence told Abaddon that maybe that was not the answer he expected.
"But if you meant to inquire about the Vessel's age, I never asked and now it is too late."
Nathan blinked confused. "That is interesting! Maybe you would get along with my cousins?" he continued, "One of them likes to bake and the other is really interested in chemistry and learning how to make things explode."
Abaddon wasn't so sure it was them anymore. He hasn't heard Esther ever mention chemistry, but she always had a special interest in arson.
"Well then," Nathan moved his chair back after a quick glance at his watch, "I would love to wait for your parents to pick you up, but unfortunately I have a meeting with my sister and nephews!"
Abaddon was caught off guard by the sudden developement and failed to react in time. In the blink of an eye Nathan was already through the door, leaving him alone again.
What did he do wrong this time? Usually, Nathan had taken him in by now.
He followed him with a bit of distance. He was curious about Katherine's living quarters.
Nathan walked 10 minutes to a beige 4-story building. It wasn't as big as the Undervale, Abaddon thought, but it would make a suitable residence.
When Nathan was about to go to the door, it already opened and an old woman emerged from the entrance. They had guests? That was new.
As soon as Nathan was through the door, Abaddon tried to follow him. However the door slammed shut before he could get his foot in and didn't open again.
Disappointed, he leaned against the building wall. Why did it have to go so wrong this time?