The knife.

It was the extension of your arm, the second half to your soul, the other half of your everything. Without it you were empty, devoid of all life and purpose for what was one without their soul? But yet the memory of the knife stirred something inside you, memories so foul and so rotten that it moved your inner core, disgusted by the very presence of the weapon.

Because you had killed them all, hadn't you? Every creature in the Underfell timeline was now a rotting pile of dust and ash that would never walk again for no human lived to reset the world and start anew. And you had been the cause of that, the very reason that that the universe would never again exist. And hadn't you been the one to insist to Error that it every living thing had a purpose, a right to live no matter how small and insignificant you deemed them as? Everything was important and everything had the need and will to live.

But an entire timeline was gone, faded, destroyed from existence just as your very world had been.So what more was there to do, what more was there to say?

You woke surrounded by Error, Fresh and Geno, Reaper somewhere else. There were the faces you had never wanted to see, never wanted to look in the eyes again. Maybe it had been a demented version of yourself, corrupted through Nightmare's soul weapon that absorbed a partiality of your soul and forced you into the murder spree, but it had still been you. Your hand was the hand to grab the knife, fingers that wrapped around the hilt and slammed the blade into G's chest, stabbing and slashing even when he was nothing more than a pile of ash...

"It's good to see you my ham slice," Fresh nodded as you slowly drifted back into reality. You had flitted in and out of consciousness ever since your brief battle with Error, not knowing exactly what had happened during that time and why you suddenly felt whole again. The way that Error avoided eye contact every time you attempted to talk with him was another indication that he had done something irreversible, somethign that could never be fixed.

"Nice to see you," you replied to Fresh, forcing a smile. It seemed that Fresh was the most ecstatic of the bunch, Geno and Error lost in their own thoughts. You couldn't blame Geno for his behaviour, you would be hesitant to trust anyone if they had gone on a sadistic killing spree and wiped an entire universe from existence. That made it sort of hard to trust someone.

"So is your soul fixed then?" Geno piped in, looking at your curiously. Error seemed to freeze, not prepared for what would come next.

When you brought your soul into display, the sight was horrifying. It was complete in every way imaginable, no longer missing a chunk as it had been hours ago. But in the once empty place was a distinct black half, glitched and ebony as the nighttime sky. Your jaw clenched at the sight, learning immediately what had transpired during your brief coma that freed you froom the temptation of the blade.

"Error," you snarled, standing up and pushing past Fresh and Geno, ignoring the quizzical looks shot your way. You grabbed the sleeve of the comedian and dragged him from the group, anger and gratitude melding all at once. "What the hell?" You gestured to the glitched portion of your soul. "And don't say that you weren't behind it, that you didn't do this."

"I did what had to be done," the comedian shrugged before bringing his own soul into view. It resembled in full a glitched and ebony black soul, showing no indication that the two of you shared half a soul. "Besides, when you die I can just get it back before it expires, it's a temporary win win."

"What happened to the other half of my soul?" It was the only question that left your lips, so many threatening to spill over at once.

"Human souls are a bit more complex than monster souls, so even if your soul has reached a stable state thanks to the contribution of yours truly, they won't meld completely, so the two individual identities stand out. As for monster souls, when I added the bit of yours to my missing half, it blended entirely, mostly because the souls of monsters are more boring and less complex." Error shrugged, not entirely caring of the severity of his actions.

"You should have left me be," you protested, shaking. "You had no right to do that, to put the both of us at risk. What if one of us dies? If our souls are linked, than won't that have consequences?"

"Maybe," Error rolled on his feet.

It became apparent that the anomaly didn't care as half as much as you did over what had transpired. "There are a thousnad different things that could go wrong with this," you snarled, waving your soul away so that it disappeared from view. "If Nightmare finds out, that could put the two of us at risk. One's capture could surely mean the other's demise..."

"Your gratitude is appreciated," Error replied sarcastically. "There's no point in debating and arguing this out, what is done is done. There is no chance of us reversing what has happened so I don't see the point in dragging this out any further. You are no longer a pyschotic murderer and I certainly did not inherit your arrogance when I absorbed your soul, so I would call this a victory."

It took you a moment to process his words. "I am not an idiot!" You finally spat out the retort as Error chuckled and vanished from view, appearing next to Fresh and Geno. This arguement would have to wait for another time, no matter how much you wanted to clobber the comedian. There were more important things at hand and even if you didn't want to admit it, Error's actions had saved time and thus given you an advantage over Nightmare. There was the brief possibility that you and the others could now catch him unawares if you acted quickly.

Reaper still hadn't made an appearance again as the four of you traveled through the Void, guided only by the thin trails of scattered dust that indicated that Nightmare's army had passed through, most likely coming from a slaughtered timeline. You shuddered as the memories of your adventure in Underfell threatened to resurface.

"Our amigo sure is taking his time." Fresh was the first to bring up Reaper's prolonged absence.

The answer came a few hours later, when the four of you had taken camp and drifted off to the beginnings of sleep when a shout emerged from nearby, a peculiar sound after having gotten used to the prolonged silence and emptiness that the Void contained. A golden arrow shot through the camp and landed on the ground, erupting into flame and engulfing the sleeping bag you had been in only moments ago.

"Fresh!"

You shook awake the sleeping skeleton next to you, alerting the others of the approaching battle. A skeleton you had never seen before walked into the field, something profoundly off about him. He was clad in gold armour, the most distinct part of him being the red X that was slashed across his face.

"Dream, my amigo!" Fresh was staring at the golden-armoured skeleton with a look of growing horror, something that you had never before seen come from the PSA comedian. It unnerved you how quickly Fresh was able to change his attitude, growing from light-hearted and funny to something much more demonic.

If Dream even recognised the sound of Fresh's voice he offered no indication, turning the bow in his hands to face you, the arrow drawn back in preparation to fire. When he released the arrow, panic flared through your veins and reached the store of magic tucked away within the depths of your mind, power immediately releasing and flooding through you. [F/C] flame sprouted from the tip of your palm and caught the arrow in mid-flight, the shaft just centimetres away from your heart.

"Dream, you can fight this my broski!" Fresh shouted as the northern part of the camp exploded into flame, more of Nightmare's forces joining in on the attack.

"His code is corrupted you idiot," Error growled, taking his stance next to Fresh. "There's no point in talking to him, he can't and won't hear you. I thought that was apparent from the X that is so plainly visible across his face, but I guess that wasn't enough of a telltale sign for you."

Fresh turned to Error and gave the glitch a middle finger salute before taking off running into the midst of battle, a slaughterhouse when compared to the dozens of skeletons that appeared from various rifts, all eager and ready to kill you. It was hopeless and futile for the four of you to take on Nightmare's army, not when you were outmatched. Even with Reaper, it would still be a massacre.

You caught sight of Reaper, fighting against Geno as he wielded a blue scythe, the blue gleam catching against the blue bone grasped in Geno's fist, the two weapons indistinguishable as they moved in sync with one another. There was a traitor in your midst after all. The thought of it made your blood boil, how could you not have pondered the idea? It would explain why Reaper hadn't been there when Dust and his friends attacked the first time, planted the soul weapon on you in hopes of driving you off the edge. And now he had led the brute of Nightmare's forces, caused a battle that you had no hopes of winning.

You were caught in a power struggle against Horror, the same skeleton that had been there the night Dust and his company had attacked, most likely escaping in the aftermath of things. The red eye that seemed to smile back at you fueled the growing rage that pumped in your blood, wanting to bring a complete and utter end to everyone, everything.

"Even without that knife, you're still a killer," Horror taunted, leaning dangerously close. "Nightmare didn't alter that weapon so you would try to slaughter your friends, he only brought out what was already there. Didn't your friends tell you? Soul weapons can't alter the mind of their wielder, they can magnify emotions sure, but never change."

"Liar!" you screamed and watched in astonishment as a pulse of [F/C] light rocketed from your palms, knocking you and Horror backwards in the power struggle. A translucent spear materialised in your left hand and you managed to parry the attack from his axe, a new one that must have been created since Fresh had destroyed Horror's previous one during the last battle, metal and magic colliding as one.

It was a dance between light and dark, good and evil, or could you even call yourself a hero? You had slaughtered a timeline, and what Horror said, was that true as well? You had never killed before. not until you had brought the knife down on Dust, but oh, how you still relived the moment, the joy and euphoria singing through your mind as if you were there right now, reliving the triumph over and over again...

A blow to the side of your head knocked you to the ground, black dots blinking in the corners of your vision. No, the thought occured to you. They would not win, no matter how hard Nightmare tried. You and the others had worked so hard for this, struggled and fought through battles to get to where you were now, suffered losses and it would not be for nothing! This mere encounter would not bring about your demise, it was only the start, the war just beginning. It was -

The base of the knife smacked into your ribs, Horror drawing out the torture. "I wish I could kill you sweetling," he cooed, tilting your chin upwards so that your eyes met his. "But orders are orders, Nightmare wants you alive this time. And personally, that's a fate worse than death if you ask me."

"You're not going to win," you spat, blood trickling down the corner of your mouth and from your nose.

"We already have," Horror chuckled.

The last things you heard before the walls of reality came crashing in and drifted you away into the land of dreams was Horror's maddening laugh over the caterwaul of your friends.

"Kill the rest."

Gaster was winning, how easy it was! Everything was falling into place, every piece and every player was under his control. Sure, there were the few unforseen details that he had not expected, Error and [Y/N] combining souls in order to undermine his effort in regaining control over his grasp on them was not anticipated, but that would only make them weaker, more exposed now that their souls were split.

Because the wheel was turning as it always did, the cycle never ended no matter how hard those caught in the turmoil fought to end it. Wars and battles were fought in hopes of evading the fate and destiny laid out for mortals but it was all futile, all arrogant in the end. Because no one could ever truly push away their fate or their destiny, not if they were the blind mouse chasing the invisible light in a dark maze with only one way in and one way out.

And it was the same for this multiverse, the same for every living thing.

The multiverse began in darkness and in darkness it would end.