"....... Are you taking notes?" Red asks in confusion, a grimace of disgust on his face.

"Well, I've been trying to write down something for everyone, but most don't give me a chance to sit down for a real interview," Alloy hums, scribbling hurriedly in a notebook. His hand writing is horrendous.

"That's........ actually a little creepy," Lust squirms a little on the couch in his spot next to Red.

Alloy glances up at them both briefly before looking back down. The 'ultra powerful' god is sitting on the floor of Red's living room, legs crossed with a notebook balanced on one knee. All this AU hopping is getting very repetitive. Alloy thought he saw Red and Lust fighting together at that big battle, so he decided to multitask. Red looks largely the same as Alloy's used to. Lust, on the other hand, looks very different. He wears a purple baggy hoodie and sagging sweat pants that don't give his body any shape. His hands are hidden by a pair of gray gloves, and his hood is pulled up. Lust covers up every bare part of his body that he can short of wearing a mask. Alloy refuses to comment on it.

"So what's your deal?" Red asks when the silence become uncomfortable.

"What do you mean?" Alloy chirps.

"Don't play dumb," Red rolls his eyes, "You dragged this idiot over here and started bombarding the both of us with all these questions about the frick'en Multiverse and who's with who and all that junk. Were ya born yesterday?"

Alloy actually snorts at that, and fights not to laugh. His real age is hard to figure due to more than a few complications. "I just want to understand. It seems to me that a little understanding might go a long ways to stop you all from wanting to murder each other."

"You're trying to stop the battles between the AUs?" Lusts asks in disbelief.

"Yep. That's the reason I'm here," Alloy nods nonchalantly.

"B-But you can't just make them stop! Ink and Error have been fighting since..... since forever! And then there's Nightmare and Dream, and all the neutrals. On any given day, so many AUs are getting destroyed, terrorized, or are just suffering from their fates. Ink keeps creating darker and darker worlds all the while." Lust looks away and hugs his arms tightly to his chest. His support on the bad guy's side has cost him greatly.

"Everyone has their reasons and stories," Alloy says confidently, "Everyone has something that's driving their actions, good or bad. Understanding can only come with revealing those drives to others. Understanding is the gateway to acceptance, and eventually, forgiveness." Alloy's childish facade abruptly pulls back to reveal a glimpse of something........ older. Something ancient with more compassion than anyone could possibly comprehend. Even Red is suddenly overwhelmed with the sudden understanding of how far Alloy will go to help anyone but himself. He and Lust are speechless. " I don't expect it to happen overnight, but I can certainly plan to push everyone in the right direction."

Alloy then stands up. He closes the notebook and flicks it up into the air with a strange motion of his wrist, making the notebook and pencil both disappear. "Anyways, I've got another dozen AUs to hit today, so......."

"You're leaving?" Red asks.

"Dusty calls!" Alloy chirps, "Hey Lust, do you want me to send you back to your AU, or do you want to stay here? Underfell is safe enough if you don't go outside."

"O-Oh, um, could I stay here, please?" List squeaks out, surprised that he gets a choice.

The god nods. He's noticed that Lust and Red prefer to keep a healthy distance between themselves on the couch. Even so, Alloy can sense a mutual understanding between the two. Most days, they hate their AUs, and on some days, their brothers. They might even become friends it left alone with each other.

Consulting his mental list, Alloy opens up a portal with Broomie and hops in. The utter emptiness of the world immediately sets him on edge. Alloy's fear of the color white is actually quite recent. He's been avoiding this AU after realizing he couldn't just drag the inhabitant to a different location.

"Stay away from me!" Cross snarls. He scrambles to his feet when he sees Alloy, summoning a giant knife to hold between them.

Alloy sighs. He sits down right on the spot before crossing his arms and staring calmly at Cross. "Look, I'm sorry about trying to drag you to Nightmare's mansion. I assumed too quickly that I knew your story."

Cross says nothing. He remains standing, stiff as a board. He can't figure out what Alloy wants from him. When Cross realized he had been transported back to his AU, he couldn't think straight. How long would he be here alone this time? His portals aren't working. Alloy then poped up out of nowhere and tired to take him to Nightmare's. Cross didn't realize how terrified he was of facing his old friends until then.

"......... I do know that you're on Ink's side now," Alloy says after an uncomfortable silence, "I'm guessing that he promised your AU back, right? You don't seem happy even with faith in that. I just want to help you, Cross."

"You can't help me." Cross's entire body seems to sag. The tip of his knife hits the ground.

"Can't I?"

With that, Alloy abruptly shoots up to his feet and turns his back to Cross, fully trusting that the other won't attack him. Alloy pulls his brush off his back and holds it in his hands for a moment. Broomie is special. Not only is it a fierce close combat weapon, but it does something special for Alloy's magic. The brush's core focuses the magic into a precise point, limiting the output into something that can be controlled long-term. Even in a mortal form, Alloy could seriously hurt someone if he looses focus or gets the slightest bit annoyed. That is the price of a Deity's divinity. That is why a Deity is not allowed to enter an AU. Alloy could complete destroy a Multiverse with a single thought in his divine form. And he hates it.

Alloy drops the brush, leaving it to roll several feet away. He takes off his giant needle as well and buries the point into the ground. Broomie limits his magic while Phinigan separates his mind from the codes. Alloy doesn't give Cross another thought. He needs to focus on what he's doing. He takes a deep breath.

Cross backs up in nervousness. He can sense the thickening magic pressure gathering around Alloy. The god slowly raises his hands up. It's been a long time since he's done this. The area around Alloy begins to glimmer, and with a jolt, Cross realizes that codes are flickering in and out of view as they swirl around Alloy. When he lashes his hands up, black paint follows his yellow tipped fingers and joins the codes in a disorderly dance. Alloy shifts one foot back and pulls his arms in. The codes and paint follow until it's pulled into a condensed ball. Alloy lets it loose, and the world explodes.

Knocked off his feet from the blast, Cross lands painfully on his side as his knife disintegrated back into magic. He groans in disorientation. The first thing he sees is Alloy standing stock still with his hands played out, holding the magic he had just put into effect. Cross then looks past him. His soul lurches.

X-tale is back. The quite little town is in the middle of summer, and Cross can actually feel the sun's sweet warmth. He sits in the middle of the square where most of the shops are facing a beautiful fountain. After a few minutes of staring in shock and awe, Cross realizes that something is wrong. Monsters are coming into and out of the shops, but they're all frozen in place. Cross eventually notices the small group sitting on a bench. He recognizes this scene now. It's from a run before Cross became aware of how Gaster kept resetting them all. Gaster changed the way all of them looked, acted, and felt. Three teens sit on the bench, happily munching on ice cream. Cross's much younger self is only a couple years older than X and Frisk. Cross hears something like a whimper echo in his head from the ghost child who shares part of his soul.

"What is this?" Cross breaths put slowly.

"A memory of what was," Alloy answers in an even tone, his voice seeming to have a slight echo.

"Y-You can bring it back? Like Ink?"

"No. I can't bring it back. All either Ink or I could do is make a copy. This is a memory of what was," Alloy is acting awfully detached, but he struggles to focus more on what he's saying next, "Think, Cross. This isn't really want you want, is it? You're stuck chasing the nostalgia from a time when you were blinded. Even if I really restored your world, you would know it wasn't real."

Cross shudders. For the longest time, all he's thought about is his lost AU. He originally joined Nightmare's group because he was angry that so many others got to keep their homes and live peacefully. It's not fair! Ink promised he would bring it all back if Cross helped him instead. Cross's heart was ripped in two. He thought, perhaps, that he could have his AU and make new friends, better friends with those on the 'good' side. It didn't work out like that. All anyone sees in him now is a villain. Ink refuses to rebuild X-tale until the Dark Sanses are defeated. Cross has nothing anymore. Alloy's breath hitches, and he wavers for a moment before standing still again. This snaps Cross out of it.

"Alloy? What happened?" he mumbles.

"I think...... I think I almost just blew myself up. I lost focus for a moment, and almost brought a couple dozen AUs with me on accident," Alloy says, his voice returning to that dead tone.

"W-What!? You can do that?" Cross gasps. He looks around himself widely at X-tale before turning back. "Okay okay! Stop whatever you're doing to keep this up. Don't hurt anyone!"

Alloy nods his head. He slowly inches his hand towards his needle, trying not to think about what he's doing. He grabs the end in a death grip as soon as he feels the cool metal. The world around them shudders. It crumbles and falls. The last to go are the three teenagers frozen on the bench; frozen in a time that they were happy. It all disintegrates and fades away. Alloy pulls his needle over his shoulder before doing the same with his brush and securing them both.

"Wow! I really need to warn the others not to take my weapons as some sort of prank. That was really hard to control with only a third of my magic," Alloy huffs. He rotates one of his shoulders that he's accidentally put a hairline fracture in.

"Third?" Cross mumbles. The voice brings Alloy back to the situation at hand. He turns towards Cross and starts to walk towards him. Cross steps back a step, uncertain. He ends up looking away before Alloy stops only a step away.

"Cross.......... X-tale is gone. No matter how much either of us want it, the dead can not be brought back. You have to look forwards now. You have a family, even if you didn't want to acknowledge it then."

"I screwed it up. That's not a choice anymore." Cross still won't look at Alloy, but he scrunches his eyes closed. A shiver runs through his body.

"Have you even tried?" Alloy asks back.

The two stand there in that empty AU for a long time. Cross can't stop himself from continuing to shake. When Alloy opens up his arms, Cross completely looses it. He wraps his arms around the god and buries his face into Alloy's chest, hiding his tears. Cross doesn't even know why he's crying anymore. Alloy just hugs him back.

"I-I miss them," Cross chokes out, "Why does it hurt so much? I'm not suppose to care......"

"Who told you that?"

Cross cries harder. Alloy doesn't let go. Cross really is just a scared and confused child. He never got to live his life with Gaster's manipulation. Alloy then makes a point to look up at the one way portal that he can't actually see. Once Cross is calmed down enough, Alloy steps back and holds him at arm length by the shoulders.

"I'm almost done visiting all the AUs now. Once I'm done, I'll put everything out in the open. Things will get better."

"You promise?"

"I promise." Alloy hates leaving Cross alone again, but there really is no place for him to go at the moment. It won't be for long. The god quickly portals off to the next AU.

This one is a bit...... complicated. Alloy has to try and be careful with this one. He doesn't know how the rest of the Multiverse will react to this decision. Unfortunately, the right decisions are always the hardest. With a sigh, Alloy sets off to where he knows the Sans of this AU will be. They hear his footsteps in the snow, and they whip around with a bright smile. An unfinished puzzle lay at their feet.

"Oh! Hello, stranger! I am the Magnificent Sans!" He laughs and poses, one hand on his hip, "Are you needing some assistance?"

"Actually, I was wondering if we could have a talk." A small smile creeps into Alloy's face.