Geno was rapidly bouncing his phalanges against his femur, impatient as the humans around them rode across the plain. The movement was slow, unbearably so in his opinion- even though they'd been riding at high speeds all day.
Horses were much too slow for his taste.

Dance drifted over, their Blasters hovering side by side. "You okay?"
He just shot him a look. "I'm fine."
Dance hesitated.
"You don't really look the part."
"I told you, the cut doesn't bother me."
"S'not about the cut."
Geno fell silent.

Dance leapt the distance between skulls and sat down next to Geno. "What's got you so riled up? You're worrying us."
Geno sighed, glaring off to the side.
"I'm worried." He mumbled irritably.
"Hey, it's fine. Things are hard, but we'll be okay." Dance assured, patting him on the shoulder.
Geno scoffed. "It's not you I'm worried about." Dance drew his hand back.
"Then what? What's wrong?"

"I.." He sighed. "Do you even know anything about my AU?"
"We share a merged copy, I'd say I have a pretty good idea."
"So you know that I'm just a shard of my Sans."
"... You're still a Sans, it's just a condition." Dance argued.

"I never said I wasn't." Geno replied easily, if not still annoyed. "I'm just a part of After, all the ragey bits." He chuckled weakly. "But still, I'm not someone who should exist."
"You have every right to exist, Geno."
"That's not the point."
"Then what is?"
Geno faced him, serious.
"Do you really think that if I'm in Alagaësia, After wouldn't be here, too?"

Dance stared at him, eyelights slowly blurring as he thought about it, before shrinking.
"If.. if he ain't here and he's supposed to be.. then where?"
Geno turned his face to stare out across the grasses ahead of the army, to the south.
"Aroughs, Dance. After's imprisoned in Aroughs."
The lilac eyelights winked out.
"Oh… oh shit."

"Yeah, oh shit. After dies, I die. And if After dies, there's a chance it could fuck Error over, too. And before you get excited, remember that Fresh is just a babybones and needs his mom."

"Why didn't you say something about this sooner?" Dance questioned, glancing back at the bloody glitch. Geno sighed, rubbing his face. "Because I didn't know. I didn't know he was here, we had a damn agreement not to mess with each others' minds, so I didn't know he was here." He groaned into his hands.
"And he'd completely forgotten we could do that at all in the stress."

"...Do what, though?"
He pointed at his skull, waving his phalange at the melted eyesocket as his glitch flickered away. "I'm literally just an extension of After, we can share thoughts sometimes. And I'll be frank with you, I should have figured it out sooner he was here in the first place."
"Because you have an ability of.. telepathy with him?"
"Not just that." He mumbled, burying his face in his scarf. Dance stared at him pointedly. "Then what?"

Geno shot him a look, shifting his clothes around his scar self-consciously.
"Please. We need to know in case you get hurt. Either of you."
"After's already been hurt."
"Wait, he has?"
"Yes. Broke his arm a while ago, something cut his ribs, he's hurt, and it's hurting me. They're fucking with him in there, and he doesn't know anything. I'm fucking terrified. I don't know what's going to happen, and he has no damn clue why it's happening. I can't tell him! Fuck, I can't tell him a damn thing and he's getting abused because he doesn't know a damn thing!" He hissed, lone eyelight flaring blue and red.

Dance hesitantly draped his arm around his shoulders. "We'll get him out of there…. I promise."
Geno snapped and stared at him, his gaze lancing through the violet one.
"You know better than to make promises you can't keep."
Dance gazed back evenly. "That's why I'm making one I can keep."

They stared at each other for a long moment, then Geno shook the arm off of himself, sighing.
"Fine. You already said it. So we're getting him." He turned back to the horizon, glaring at the point where earth met sky as though it were responsible for his woes.

Dance stared at him hesitantly, expecting the other to say something more, but nothing came. He sighed, returning to his own Blaster and drifting away.

He was still watching Geno in concern when a flash of color made him blink, turning to see the lookalike, Color, peer at him with his lone socket wide. The flames that constantly burned slowly shifted through their spectrum as they stared at each other.

Then Dance fell back to his side. "What're you staring for?"
Color blinked at him. "Didja find out what's bothering him?" He nodded in Geno's direction without looking away.
"I did, but.." Dance hesitated. "Why didn't you ask him yourself if you were so worried? Hell, I'm pretty sure you'd help."

He shrugged. "He's.. different. Related to Error. I'm a bit nervous about talking to someone who's technically just Error but in the past?"
"Sure they're related, but why does that scare you?"

Color sighed. "He.." His gaze drifted over to the other skeleton who was so similar. "Doesn't it unsettle you how he wanted to destroy his own universe and how Error is literally the Destroyer of AU's? What kind of power do glitches have?"

"It's not that they're glitches." Sci made himself known as he drifted close, his Blaster notably smaller than both of theirs as well as more rounded and docile.
"It's their ability to carry tremendous levels of human traits." He explained while rubbing his sockets, glasses off for once.

"How?" Dance asked as the group attracted others. Sci coughed awkwardly before continuing.
"Well, it's different between both of them. Geno had injected himself with Determination and it fused into his mana-"
"How is he not melted??" Color demanded more in surprise than disbelief.

Sci glanced at him before moving on. "Because he was originally his AU's Judge beforehand in a Genocide. It ended with a shard of his Soul being torn apart with the Determination element contained within, and this managed to force itself somewhere it wouldn't immediately shatter, and the dumbed down version is basically that this is what led to Geno actually coming into existence. Apparently this wasn't the first time, because this is what formed Error as well. It's just that this is the exact point where their paths diverged.. more or less."

He blinked at his audience, clearing his throat and staring between his feet.
"The reason Geno can handle the Determination his Soul now constantly produces is that he is stuck in a form that is continuously bleeding. He's adapted to the open wound, but his very blood is still saturated with it, and the injury is where his body actually rids itself of the access. It's not blood he's always leaking, but Determination."
Silence fell across their small group.

"... Wouldn't that make him dangerous?" Ganz asked.
"How so?" Alter replied a little worriedly, glancing at Geno.
"He's literally an easily accessed fountain of renewable Determination."
"It's not as potent as a human's, I tested that years ago." Sci defended quickly.
"That doesn't change the fact that it's Determination." Ganz pointed out. "It's dangerous."
"I think he can prevent others from trying to harvest off of him." Dance sighed.

"But what if we tried using it instead?" Kin rose up, blinking as he spoke.
"Are you insane?" Ganz immediately faced him, appalled. Kin shrugged. "Some of us here can use it when it's important. Like him." He inclined his skull to Color, who was staring in bewilderment.
"I have more than enough." He explained flatly.
"It can't hurt to at least ask.. for contingency." He muttered, staring suspiciously towards the bloody glitch.

"You cannot seriously be thinking of this." Dance argued before Kin sat up straight on his devilish Blaster. "His smell makes me hungry." He stated gutturally, the statement completely random. "It makes me curious. I am serious for many reason. Reasons."

"What does that mean?" Sci questioned in confusion as Omega shot a distrustful look at the wild one.
Kin wrung his hands anxiously as he regarded them. "I smell you, and it always makes me hungry, but…" He hesitated, glancing down guiltily.

"Words giving you trouble?" Alter asked carefully.
"Yes." He replied in Wingdings sharply, continuing in his home tongue with fluent speed.
"I have a condition that makes me go feral sometimes, and given its structure I have considered if human traits could help remedy it, but in the Underground and in Alagaësia it's a bit difficult to access those. And now that I'm closer to those with access I feel hungrier, but I.." He paused yet again, sweating nervously.

Beats cautiously drifted over, taking a deep breath before speaking. "He can control it perfectly fine, he just doesn't want to live with it anymore."

Sci gasped softly as he connected the dots, sockets wide.
"Why didn't you mention this sooner?" Color questioned.
"I don't like to advertise the situation." Kin growled back angrily.
"It sounds like something we should be warned about." Ganz scoffed, shifting away. "Do I smell tasty?"
Kin growled at that, fangs flashing in a snarl.
"That was uncalled for." Dance snapped before Alter could say a word.

"Well excuse me, I didn't know he was a threat to us!"
"He isn't!" Beats cried, putting himself in front of the green one, who sighed defeatedly as Ganz's hood flared, hot pink flashing in its depths. "He eats Souls! Of course he's a damn threat!"
"No, he doesn't! You've got it all wrong, he just gets sick sometimes, Kin never ate anyone!"

"He's killed before." Color spoke with an edge in his voice.
Beats deflated, having not thought of this. He glanced back at Kin in desperation, hands still raised at the others defensively. Kin didn't meet his gaze.
"It was a long time ago." Beats explained shakily, facing them again. "He's okay now."

Dance looked away, remembering the incident outside Narda.
"He's perfectly capable of controlling himself." Alter stepped in to calmly defend Kin.
"I have been there in his more difficult moments, and Beats for many, many others before me. At worst, Kin is capable of preventing undue harm to another, so please. Let us not argue."

Dance blinked at Alter, who gave him a very serious look.
Kin had attacked a human, but in terms of actually hurting others, he had yet to do such in the feral state, true, but he had yet to actually hurt someone.
...Alter trusted in that?

"I mentioned this not because I could be a threat but because I don't want to live in fear of myself anymore. I won't be killing anyone here." Kin spoke up suddenly, flipping his hood over his face as he explained. Beats moved to hug him while staring at the rest of them.
"That's all he wants. He didn't say this to make you think he's dangerous."

"Fine, let's say we believe you." Omega started.
"How is Determination supposed to fix his 'sickness', then?"
"It's not a cure." Kin snipped, sitting down and staring at the battalion below them kicking massive amounts of sand into the air.

"It just sounds like he's proposing a possible treatment. I doubt it would cure him." Sci explained, giving Omega a look.
"A treatment.. of Determination."
Ganz deadpanned. His right eyelight was hot pink, regarding Sci in disbelief.
"It's only a theory." Sci defended, unnerved. "And it would definitely have to be in diluted doses if someone were to go through with the idea."

"Even diluted Determination is potent as hell." Ganz scoffed. "There's a reason I have all this going on." He gestured to himself vaguely, lines on his face flashing blue.
"I know." Sci replied in a surprisingly flat tone. Ganz blinked, not having expected that.

"I already know you were experimented on by your father." Sci continued in that same flat voice, anger flashing briefly in his lights. "And trust me, it is fucking despicable that you had to deal with that. If I ever meet your father, I'm going to design something just to atomize him in the most painful way possible."

Ganz blinked a few times.
"Uh.. thank you?"
"You're welcome. Now about what Kin was saying, I know you have a prejudice against the stuff, but that doesn't change the fact that it can work miracles. Stuff brings back the dead. Look at what it's done for Geno already. He should be long dead, but instead he's more than just alive, he's outright unable to die." He waved in the bloody glitch's direction.

Omega nodded slowly, catching on. "It does give a lot of power.."
"I know most of us have seen a lot of bad from the stuff- I mean, I have too- but we can't ignore the good it can do as well. It has the capability of allowing someone to ignore fatal wounds and lend a strength a monster would otherwise be entirely incapable of mustering. Just look at us. Look at you. You may have suffered like hell, but it did make you stronger."

Ganz scowled. "You would put someone else through the same thing?"
Sci blanched. "Absolutely not. I'd rather not try at all if it can't have those negative effects minimalized. It's barbaric to knowingly put anyone through that kind of suffering. I just want to point out that what Kin suggested isn't as bad as you think."

"Whatever Kin suggested would require my permission in the first place." A low voice spoke up from behind them all.
"OH MY GOD-" Sci screeched, almost falling off his Blaster before he regained his balance.

Geno was staring down at them all from behind, hovering higher than the rest. "What exactly were you talking about without me?"

"We were just discussing the pros and cons of using Determination in this war at the moment. I swear, I would never do anything you don't want anyone to do. Don't get the wrong idea." Sci explained in a rush, somewhat panicky.

Geno smirked slightly in amusement before it vanished. "You mean you want to use this." He pulled down his scarf to reveal the liquid weakly dripping from his teeth, having been doing so for long enough that the area was stained a faint greyish red hue.

The others blanched slightly at the sight as Sci stammered. "If-f you allow it. It's still yours."
The bloody glitch glanced back towards the horizon again, sighing.
"I ended up like this because I fucked with Determination…. But hell, I know mine isn't as potent as others." He drifted lower to reach their level.
"What exactly were you planning?"

"We weren't planning anything." Dance explained hesitantly. Ganz was staring at Geno with an odd look as Omega shrugged.
"At the moment, it looks like we're just trying to cure Kin's 'sickness'."
"Prick." Said skeleton hissed, ever-present accent heavy on his tongue.

"How is Determination supposed to help?" Geno asked, glancing over.
"Apparently said disease gives him a hunger for Soul traits."
"Must you be so blunt." Alter scoffed, irritated.
Omega flinched, looking away. "Sorry."

Geno glanced between them, visibly questioning why Omega was so disrespectful to Kin and yet not to Alter. Then he faced Kin.
"Do you believe Determination would curb this urge?"
Kin nodded, eyelights flicking to Geno's shirt briefly.

"Then it can't hurt to let him have some. Nothing serious should come from a bit of this stuff." He picked at his shirt absently, regarding it somewhat distastefully.
"I'd prefer it to actually serve a purpose other than staining everything I wear no matter how many bandages I have."

"Does it eat through them?" Ganz asked, somewhat curious.
"Yeah. It's more acidic up close. If I don't wear bandaging, I have a hole in the shirt instead of a stain."

"Have you ever considered using Error's strings instead?" Sci offered, surprised.
Geno blinked at him.
"I.. we never considered that, actually."
"Why? His strings are basically indestructible."
"I guess I always thought of his phobia first.. I'm a fucking idiot." He sighed into his hand.

"You mean his haphephobia." Sci stated flatly. "That can't extend to his strings."
"Yeah, yeah, rub it in." He growled, waving Sci off dismissively.
"You can just call him here and give you one and be done with it." Omega offered.
"No, I can't. He's busy in the dwarves' mountains, Error doesn't have the time to just pop over here just for a little leaking."

There was a pause before Ganz spoke up.
"If the Determination burns away fabric, then why is that scarf not destroyed yet?"
Geno gave him a long look, one hand frozen over the cloth.

Then he abruptly turned it inside out, revealing a thick patch of soft gauze hidden within, stained almost as red as the scarf itself.
"It's a lot less potent than the stuff on my ribs. Still tastes worse than blood."

"Shit, you can taste that??" Ganz's voice rose up a couple pitches.
"Yeah. It tastes awful. Did you think it just spontaneously appeared? No, this is in my mouth."
"...And Reaper kisses that.." He muttered.

Geno heard regardless, leaping to his feet. "Hey! This shit's only in my mouth when I'm stressed, asshole!"
"You must be stressed all the time, then!" Ganz scoffed in disbelief.

Geno made to argue, but suddenly both of them received an abrupt knock to the skull, Ganz falling forward in surprise as Geno spun.
Red was there, Cross backing away from the face of rage that was the bloody glitch as Ganz rose to his feet with an equally furious expression.

"Look, most of us have an unnaturally elevated level of Determination. It's idiotic to fall to bickering in any warring company, but even worse for us." Cross began seriously.
"So can ya settle the fuck down and save yer energy for actual fightin'?" Red added, eyelights flashing vividly in his namesake.

Geno paused, tension leaving him. "I got carried away. You're right." He let his raised hand fall, sighing. "There are more important things."
"Wouldn't you agree?" Cross turned to Ganz, who looked away.
"...Yeah. I'm not used to this fighting."
"No one is." Geno interjected, only to blink at Red's deadpan.
"You're not used to an outright war, are you?"
Red hesitated as the realization set in.

"The point they are trying to make is that none of us have been in a situation such as this. Many of us may have been in something similar, such as high-tension constant conflict or even a war of their own, but this battle is very different from any of those situations. We must cooperate with one another if we are to succeed." Alter explained, rising to the moment of confusion with the grace of the queen he was.

There was a beat of silence before Beats hopped up. "We'll be okay if everyone trusts each other. And I trust Kin with my life, so you can trust Kin too." He hugged his guardian with an innocent smile, regarding the rest of them. Kin hesitated, then returned the embrace slowly, a fond look gracing his face.

Dance sighed, glancing towards the front of the army on the ground before straightening. "Do we even have a game plan for when we arrive at this place?"
"Aroughs." Geno reminded him.
"Yeah. That."

Red coughed. "Easy. Take the city from Empire control. Those humans down there storm the place while we make it easy for 'em."

"Red, no." Cross sighed as Geno facepalmed. "It isn't that simple by a long shot."
"Really?" Red scoffed, though it was clear he knew.
"Really. We have to minimize collateral damage as much as possible, so we have to avoid using these." Sci explained while rapping the surface of his Blaster.
"No firing these."
"Shit." Red's face fell.

"We also have to encourage soldiers to surrender, not die." Cross added, hopping to Geno's Blaster and letting his own vanish. "We need them to help with the main conflict on the Plains."
"But what if they're sworn in the ancient language?" Sci pointed out.
"Just kill them then." Omega shrugged.

"No, we can't." Geno spoke quickly. "They belong to Surda, we're just taking it back for the country. They'll have to be imprisoned and kindly, too. They're still people, and they don't need to be our enemy."
"Can we logically take an entire city's forces as prisoners of war?" Ganz inquired.

"The soldiers alone? No. That's what we're here for." Cross explained. "We're here partly to test your abilities on the battlefield and to help increase the Varden's chances."
"I again, don't see what I could bring to this." Sci explained in exasperation. "I really should be back with the main army."

"No, they have Gaster. He's been tried and true in the old war. He knows what to do. You however, are a genius just like him and are still just as capable of being a master strategist just like him." Geno explained sternly. Sci blinked. "I don't know enough about armies."
"That's why we know you'll be careful, and part of why I'm here." Cross spoke sincerely.

"I've been trained for conflicts as part of the Royal Guard in my AU. This entire situation is more of a chance to familiarize ourselves with our current roles here. Trust me when I say you have what it takes. Nightmare himself recommended it."
"So did Error." Geno added.

"Both of them?" Sci leaned back, a faint teal blush on his cheekbones.
"Yep. And most of us." Red added, a little disinterested. The only thing keeping his attention was an odd interest in the blush on Sci's face.

"Then why did Beats have to come?" Kin finally asked, hugging said skeleton close.
"Well, you weren't exactly about to leave without him. Everyone could see that." Geno sighed.
"And he's a better healer than he seems to think." Cross explained with a slight smile towards the childlike one.

"What about me? What do you expect me to bring?" Alter queried.
"You're the best healer out of all of us, first off." Red told him. "And perfect for this mission given your aversion to actually harming others. I'm pretty sure we can count on you to not hurt anyone, right?" Geno asked.
"Most certainly." Alter confirmed without hesitation.

"And me?" Dance piped up.
"You're agile." Cross told him. "And you know spells. Why don't you try to incorporate them into your style? Don't attack anyone directly, but definitely include them. They're invaluable."

"Did you figure that out from the elves or something?"
"Pretty much. Elves duel with spells as much as blades." He deftly took ahold of Haina and spun it around. "It'd be a good idea to get you weapons of their kind, actually."
"The firelady would probably show up out of nowhere with 'gifts' at this point." Red snorted.
Geno started to reply, then hesitated.
"She probably would."

"Who are you talking about?" Ganz questioned.
"Oh, you don't know?" Geno shook his skull after saying that. "She likes to show up out of nowhere. She knows about things and no one knows where she gets her information, but for the most part she's given us weapons." He brought out Hivtrfreohr, admiring the blade absently. "Gave me a pirate sword."

"Arrgh, mateys." Dance snickered before yelping as Geno smacked him with the flat of the blade.
"At least you got a fucking weapon, she gave me rocks." Red growled while showing off the gems. "The fuck am I supposed to do with rocks?"
"Well, sticks and stones break bones." Cross shrugged.

"Oh yeah, lemme just throw rocks at someone, yeah, that'll kill 'em." He scoffed, shoving them back in his inventory.
"If you throw hard enough, they will." Omega told him. Red scowled at him.
"Why don't you turn into that massive thing and tell me that again?"

"Red, please." Alter begged softly. Red fell silent, turning to stare out at the horizon. After a long moment, Geno sighed.
"This mission isn't just a test."

"What do you mean?" Beats asked, tilting his skull at him.
Dance winced, knowing what was coming. Geno dragged his hand over his face, glitch shifting around his phalanges as it flickered and briefly revealed his melted face beneath before he continued.
"There's a little something I wanted to make clear before we arrived at Aroughs."
"Tell us." Sci stated simply, leaning forward in earnest.
"That's what I'm doing."

He hesitated again, then growled to himself and spoke up.
"Aroughs has one of our own in prison."