-HorrorTale #15-

Blackberry shivers as he pushes the wheelchair through the portal into the living room of the HorrorTale brothers house noticing the snow blown through the broken windows and cracks in the door.

Fresh 404 steps into the room behind them glancing around with a frown.  Before setting down the IV stand and easing Hatchet onto the ragged couch.  "Bring Papyrus over here, they can share the IV stand and help keep each other warm while we find Chara."

Blackberry moves the wheelchair over to Fresh 404 who moves the IV bag then gently lifts Papyrus onto the couch with Hatchet and tucks the blanket around them both.  "Do you have any idea where Chara would be?"

Fresh 404 pushes the wheelchair through the portal before closing it. "If they are awake, probably with Flowey if not then we need to do the piano puzzle in Waterfall and use the legendary artifact to wake them." With a snap of their fingers tightly woven rainbow webs filled the windows keeping out the snow and other monsters matching webbing covering the door.  "Why don't you look for more blankets while we check the codes for where they are."

Blackberry nodded and started looking for blankets keeping an eyelight on Fresh 404 when ever he could.  Not that the kid did anything other than open a code panel and stare at it.

Fresh 404 closed the code panel just as Blackberry tucked the last of the blankets around Hatchet and Papyrus. "We need to go to Waterfall, to wake Chara.  Do you want to stay here with them or come with us?"

"I will come with you, I am your companion for this run." Blackberry patted the blankets down again before looking around to see if there was anything else they could do for them before going after Chara.  "Seeing this place and them I just want to slap Inky so much.  I know he is a child but even a child should know this is wrong."

Fresh 404 takes a sharp breath.  "We are not sure he has much control over how the Organic Originals formed.  We do not know why he maked the copies but we suspect he spent a long time trying to figure out what went wrong."

"You sound almost like you agree with what he did here?"  Blackberry was rather shocked by the kids' almost forgiving tone in regard to Inky.

"Blackberry,". Fresh 404 opened a portal to Waterfall and walked through, not continuing until FellSwap Sans joined him and the portal was closed.  "No, we do not agree with what he did. It disgusts us, however Inky may be eons old but he is still a child little more than a babybones.  He has a child's judgment and the memory of a goldfish.  We know what he did was wrong.  We have the critical thinking skills to predict likely consequences.  He doesn't and he has never had adult guidance.  Yes he needs some accountability but he needs guidance and care just as badly."

Blackberry frowned but nodded. It was hard to argue the point when he knew the kid was right.  It just felt so wrong for this to go unpunished.  He couldn't shake the image of porous bones that felt spongy while he was tucking Papyrus and Hatchet in.  The image of Hatchet's broken skull thin as egg shells around the break leaving his nonexistent gut churning.  "I know he is a child but that doesn't mean he should get away with this."

"He isn't getting away with it other than repairs he isn't getting to use is magic.  You know, just like a child who has been grounded."  Fresh 404 gets a torn umbrella and walks to the statue in Waterfall.

Blackberry flinched as the music box started to play the notes pure and sweet in stark contrast to everything else in this sick broken AU.  "It still works? I never expected that. I haven't seen a single undamaged thing here."

"We believe a preservative magic was placed in it when the statue was made." Fresh 404 headed back down the path to the piano.  "We wish we could have had music lessons with dad.  It is fortunate that Fresh knows the basics."

Blackberry followed after him glancing back at the statue.  "I don't know what to think anymore, not about you, not about Inky, not about your parents."

"Then at least your mind is not closed anymore."  Fresh 404 carefully plunked out the melody on the terribly out of tune piano and the secret door ground open getting stuck halfway.

Blackberry summoned a bone and started working on prying the door open a little farther.  Smiling slightly when the kid did the same.  "Do you hate Inky?"

"Yes and no.  We feel deep anger about what has been done to our family, but at the same time.  The rage and pain that drove 404 before doesn't control us.  We see Inky as a child left without care and guidance.  Much as Frisk or Swap Chara are, they sometimes make poor choices and are susceptible to outside influences.  Most are not actually evil just in need of love and guidance."  Fresh 404 looks away unable to give a yes or no answer.

The door grinds open just enough for them to slip through.  While doing so Fresh 404 took the rainbow cocoons out of his coat pocket and held it to the side so it wouldn't get squashed.  Blackberry looked at it curiously and noticed the pair of bitties snuggled together in the mass of string.  "Who do you have there, kid?"

Fresh 404 flashed a blue grin pleased with the change of subject.  "Moonlight and Starlight! They are two of the leaders of our radical Bitty clan. We adopted them yesterday.  Apparently we have enough of dad's codes to help Starlight a bit."

"Help him how?" Blackberry looks at the cocooned Bitties confused one was a nightmare Bitty the other looked a bit like Dream but different somehow.

"Oh the Dream bitties fell down when the balance broke.  The really well cared for ones serviced.  Starlight is a subclass of Dream Bitty, called a Paladin that is stronger than standard Dream Bitties so he survived and he has Moonlight to help him.  He has survived against the odds but he is ill so they are sticking close to me."  Fresh 404 smiles at Moonlight and Starlight with affection and pride.

"Can you help Dream then?"  Blackberry watches them tuck the bitties back in their pocket after getting through the doorway.

"Not in any substantial way dad caused chaos when needed to right their balance but he also absorbed negative energy when the balance tipped too far to his side of things.  Then passed the energy through their bond as a neutral.  Things are really negative right now and the energy doesn't stop flowing just because dad isn't here as a filter anymore.  I can absorb small amounts of negative or positive energy but not enough to really help."  Fresh 404 frowns apparently not liking his own answer.

Blackberry frowns, "I never heard about any bond between Dream and Nightmare."

"They are twins and co-guardians of the tree of feedings.  Just because they took its place in the balance when they ate the apples doesn't mean the bonds between them were broken as far as energy flow."  Fresh 404 looked away frowning.

"Every answer seems to boil down to it being complicated." Blackberry looks around the room to see what looks like a round red crystal on a pedestal.

"How can it not be when so much of it has to do with relationships, magical, emotional, and social."  Rainbow threads wrap around the legendary item and start to lightly pulse with magic as Fresh 404 opens up a code panel making adjustments.

Blackberry looked down at his hands contemplating that simple idea relationships are complicated.  He had always known that most knew it instinctively.  "Such a simple but soul cracking answer."

Fresh 404 closes the code panel watching Blackberry as Chara slowly fades into existence with each pulse of magic through the legendary item also known as Chara's soul.  "Edge tells us you are smart, efficient, organized, follow your own morals, and think for yourself.  We also checked the history through the codes and you were not at the ambush."

"I was not aware he thought so highly of me or talked so freely."  Blackberry watched Chara float there limp, eyes closed showing no sign of consciousness.

"He couldn't have kept Fell out of trouble this long if he wasn't smart and observant.  We told him we go through council escorts to fast and need things organized.  We believe he was recommending you for the task."  After a few more pulses of magic, Fresh 404 steps forward and gathers Chara in his arms, humming softly to the ghost child.

"How are they visible, and how can you touch them?"  Blackberry frowns not liking seeing the kid look so... dead.  He actually got along well with his Chara; they were mostly pacifist.

"We changed their codes so anyone who knows about resets can see them and anyone who can touch the codes can touch them.  How else were we to move them out of this cold dark place while they wake up?"  Fresh 404 eyes the stuck door with a frown.

Blackberry summons a gaster blaster.  "I take it we no longer have to worry about breaking things?"

Fresh 404 moved behind him holding Chara protectively. "Just don't bring the place down on our heads."

Blackberry smiles over his shoulder while the blaster charges up.  "Don't you trust me to know how to use my weapons?"

"We would never suggest that about anyone from a fell AU but things are decidedly more worn down around here."  Fresh 404 shrugs watching him.

Blackberry widens his sockets and the blaster stops charging while he looks at the texture of the rocks chamber.  "Very good point, let's just shortcut."

Fresh 404 shortcut to in front of the piano with Chara waiting for Blackberry.  "We wish we could leave you dreaming little cousin."

Blackberry shortcuts beside him. "Cousin as in like Geno is your uncle or cousin as in Inky was being weird when he made you?"

"Both mom was, duncle to any and all Chara and swap Frisk.  Inky used Dream and Core Frisk codes to make my sister."  Rather than say anymore about it, Fresh 404 started walking back to Snowdin.

Blackberry sighed following him not seeing any monsters along the wall just the occasional dust but even that was strangely lacking he had seen how dusty the underground got on a genocide run.  "Where is everyone?"

"Either kissing up to the queen for scraps or dead.  Skeletons can go longer without eating than most other monsters.  Did you really expect to see survivors given the condition they are in?"  Fresh 404 sidesteps a trap keeping an eyelight out for danger.

Blackberry frowns, "then where is the dust surely there should be more like in a genocide run."

Fresh 404 stopped and looked at Blackberry oddly.  "Councilor FellSwap!Sans we are in a HorrorTale surely you know what that means."

"Neutral run, Undyn is queen, some starvation, monsters eating humans without bothering about the souls."  Blackberry frowns up at him clearly realizing he is missing something.

"Starvation Blackberry to the point they will eat anything that has magic they can process, including dust."  Fresh 404 looks away and starts walking again.

Blackberry shuddered and gagged as the situation started to sink in.  In new and terrible ways.  "Why the funk isn't this problem on the council's agenda?"

"Because doing something about it would require outside intervention and Inky is the protector of AUs as they are."  Fresh 404 yanks Blackberry to the right before a trap can snap closed on him.  "HorrorTale, as sad as it is, is an organic original, one that evolved from a copy to become an original.  Just like DustTale, some things are either Fated or just rotten luck.  The original DustTale's stroke of rotten luck or Fate was an insane genocidal brat. That did one neutral run got a taste for killing and it was nothing but genocide after that."

Blackberry just stands there stunned.  "How many organic originals are there?"

"We don't know.  We haven't checked but we do know, DustTale, HorrorTale."  Fresh 404 looks down at Chara as they start to wake. "Killer came from a very DustTale-like UnderTale copy, it was very close to becoming an original."

"Were the others as bad as HorrorTale?"  Blackberry followed as they walked out of Waterfall almost to Snowdin and the brothers house.

"Define bad, do you mean a gut punch of sympathy, horror, and disgust that makes you want to punch Inky in the face?  Then yes and no.  You have lived through the genocide run, right.  Imagine that every day for years until your sanity crumbles."  Fresh 404 sighs and shortcuts inside the house.

Blackberry tries to imagine it and ends up puking in the snow before joining them inside.  "I really need to learn not to ask you questions or to start questioning everything."

Fresh 404 just gives him a look that speaks volumes about when he should have done that.  "At least you think for yourself more than the others. They are just starting to learn."

Hatchet gave a wheezing little laugh, the only real sign he is conscious.  Surprisingly neither he nor Papyrus had dusted while they were getting Chara.

Blackberry looked at Hatchet.  "Maybe we should hurry, they look like they are hanging on by a thread."

Fresh 404 sighs and sits on the floor with Chara in his lap. "Some things can't be rushed; we can only feed Chara magic so fast without hurting them."  Opening a code panel they watched it flicking through the information while waiting.

Blackberry sits down on the floor taking out his phone and starting a list.  "Do you ever know what you are going to be doing day to day?"

"Not really we start with a plan and it all falls apart after we get started.  Today the plan held up right up until we got a look at uncle Geno's condition."  Fresh 404 grins at the code panel.  "Blackberry want to stage a raid on a farm store on the surface?"

"What.. why?" Blackberry gives them a completely confused look.  "The barrier is still intact in this AU and why would we raid such a place?"

"This AU has a unique variety of raspberry known as honey berries.  They are white have a delicate honey flavor, and their leaves have medicinal properties.  We want to get seeds for Lady Vita."  Fresh 404 grins at the codes.  "If we have to wait half an hour we might as well do something useful."

"By stealing seeds from a store on the surface we can't even get to?"  Blackberry frowns when they just nod, reminding himself they are still a kid.

"We can adjust the codes so we can make a portal to the surface.  We would suggest buying them but the barrier is still up and we don't think they take g."  Fresh 404 messes with the codes in the open panel smiling with mischief.

Blackberry looks from Fresh 404's childish mischief to Hatchet and Papyrus.  "I am supposed to be escorting you kid and you are powering up Chara."

"Oh it is not like you are leaving the AU companion does not mean guard or we would not have agreed besides we will just be on the other side of an open portal."  Fresh 404 opened a one way portal so Blackberry could see the garden store closed for the night.  "If the security cameras get a picture they will think you are wearing a costume."

Blackberry sighs, "why do I feel like you are trying to start some chaos for entertainment?"

Fresh 404 hugs Chara, "not so much chaos as planting ideas it is easy to change human crops to have magic.  Why not gather seeds, and supplies before a reset? Why not make things better in places like this?  Dad and his team staged raids in surface AU about to reset regularly and it mostly went unnoticed.  It kept a few AU fed."

"Fine but only if I can share some of the seeds with Asgore."  Blackberry lets a slightly chaotic smile slip out.

Fresh 404 nods laughing.  "Get a shopping cart load of everything if you want just get the honey berry seeds."  Pulling a pouch of g out of his inventory and tosses the pouch to Blackberry.  "Gold is a lot more valuable up there; one should cover everything in the shop."

Blackberry laughs, "so less a raid and more like forceful shopping? Thanks kid."

Fresh 404 adjusted the portal so that Blackberry could step through. "The portal is invisible from the other side so remember where it is."

Blackberry stepped through the portal making a mental note of where it was before throwing the a g on the checkout counter and grabbing a cart.  Rather than try to read the seed packets in the limited time he figured he had before the cops would show up he just dumped every seed packet in the store in the cart before he started adding bulbs and root stock then seedlings.  At the sound of approaching sirens he calmly pushed the cart through the portal before the cops could arrive.  "Hope I got what you were after in this mess."

Fresh 404 grins closing the portal. "So do we. Do you want to do it again just in case?"

"This is fun for you in some way isn't it?" Blackberry watched them even as he rearranged the items to take less room in the cart and be more secure.

"Look around you Blackberry, if we can get anything good out of this AU other than the beings in this room then I am more than happy to do so."  Fresh 404 stands walking over to see what he got.

"I can understand wanting to find something good about this place while it lasts.  I am just not sure this is the way to do it."  Blackberry walks over and tucks in the thin ragged blankets already firmly tucked around Hatchet and Papyrus.

Chara laughs, "I am all for a few pranks but can you take mom with you when you take Sans and Papyrus away."

"We don't know Chara, the omega timeline has never been open to those from the darker AU.  We could check if there is a place for her in our pocket AU, but she would be an outcode.  Most don't want that."  Fresh 404 looks at Chara with sadness in his eyelight.

"Oh," Chara sighed and rested their head on his shoulder.  "Then let's prank the heck out of the humans."

Blackberry looks thoughtful, "anyone in particular you want to prank?"  He really hadn't thought he would end up spending the morning playing pranks with a couple of kids. Being put through the emotional ringer sure but pranks?

Chara thinks about it then shrugs.  "Other than Frisk I don't know anyone up there anymore."

"Maybe we can prank later after you get to know more people."  Fresh 404 hums softly then takes Starlight and Moonlight out of his pocket and holds them up for Chara to see.  "Meet my radical little brosphs Moonlight and Starlight, they are bitties."

As distractions went it was clumsy but effective sending Chara into a fit of squealing about how cute they were. 

Blackberry rolled his eyelights but smiled slightly. The kid might be mildly vengeful but over all he wasn't so bad.  "If you really want to prank the surface with forceful shopping make sure the garden stores are in different cities so the timing is confusing."

Fresh 404 smiles at Blackberry opening a code panel again to find more targets.  "Thank you Blackberry."

Starlight had a small coughing fit.  The first one since being cocooned in Fresh 404's strings, and Moonlight gave him a worried look.  Fresh 404 quickly tucked them back in his warm pocket.

Chara pouted a little but was happy enough when Fresh 404 opened a one way portal in a movie theater for them.

Blackberry watches amused at his babysitter's tactics and surprised that he managed while still going through the code panel and opening other portals for Blackberry.

"Thank you for this Blackberry. We know this seems pointless and silly but it matters."  Fresh 404 started opening portals and adjusting codes at a phenomenal rate.

"Whatever kid just make sure Asgore gets some of the seeds he is nice to Rus."  Blackberry tried to pretend it wasn't a big deal but defying authority was never something you did for fun in his AU.  He felt his soul beat fast dread and excitement flooding his system as the kid nodded with that infectious blue grin.

Once Blackberry is through one of the portals Chara looked up at Fresh 404.  "Is there a reason why we are encouraging him to prank?"

"His AU is oppress or be oppressed.  He has a strong moral code and the ability to think for himself.  He needs to break loose and defy authority in a somewhat safe way that doesn't violate his morals."  Fresh 404 glances at the movie Chara is ignoring.

"So basically you are trying to keep him from going crazy?" Chara watches Blackberry through the portal as he goes for the root stock first.  "He looks like he is having fun."

Hatchet gives a raspy chuckle, "do you ever stop taking care of others and just have fun?"

"We plan to someday.  We are thinking of getting music lessons."  Fresh 404 looked sad for a moment.  "Everyone needs a little music in their life."

"You sound like you are quoting someone."  Chara looks at Fresh 404 as Blackberry runs through one portal with a cart let's it go and runs out through the next grinning.

Fresh 404 moves everything to his inventory and pushes the carts together getting ready to send them through the portal to the movie theater.  "Our partners believed in the healing power of music."

Blackberry emerges from the last portal grinning.  "Okay I admit it, that was fun I am just not sure how it is a prank."

Fresh 404 finishes emptying the carts, "first we annoy and confuse them with forceful shopping then.  We leave all the carts with the store names on the handles in the movie theater, confusing them even more."  He opens a one way portal in a news studio so they can watch the reaction to all this.

As they push the carts through the portal they squeak and rattle rolling down the theater isles clanging as they bounce down steps tip over and come to a stop with their little wheels spinning in the air.

Chara giggles at the harmless chaos. "The news is about to start!" Chara points at the news portal.

Fresh 404 sets back and watches Blackberry and Chara glancing at Hatchet and Papyrus with concern.  After watching for a while they cleared their throat.  "Chara, you should be able to reset now.  The last save point was after Hatchet got his skull injury."

Chara sighs, "I guess I won't be seeing you after?" Standing they glanced from Blackberry to Fresh 404.

"We don't see why you can't go into the Chara support system after the Reset."  Fresh 404 smiles at her.

Blackberry turns from the news portal to watch Fresh 404 and Chara.  Noticing that none of them had gotten around to telling Chara what was going on and they just went with it.  "How come you are so okay with all this with no questions?"

Chara looks at Blackberry and rolls her eyes.  "He is literally pulsing his magic through my soul. I can feel that his intentions are fraternal and protective. So why should I care about the details?  It is not like there is a better option here at least I know he cares."  They shrug at them.

Fresh 404 closes the viewing portals and opens one to Balance Castle. "Chara the reset is just to improve Sans and Papyrus's health after that they have some decisions to make.  We will talk to Toriel as well but as we said her options may be more limited.  We will still try though."

Chara hugs Fresh 404 then pulls up the reset button.  "I guess I will be seeing you on the flip side then."

Fresh 404 nods, releasing Chara's soul and stepping through the portal already planning how to readjust his schedule to make everything fit.

Blackberry grins at Chara and gives them a salute before following Fresh 404 wondering what other surprises this day will bring.