"And though the shadow of a sigh
May tremble through the story,
For 'happy summer days' gone by,
And vanish'd summer glory-
It shall not touch with breath of bale
The pleasance of our fairy-tale."

Cross quietly read to themselves. Boredom had forced them to start reading the pile of books that Alphys had left for them, and to their suprise, they found themselves being drawn into the tales of Alice, and her Wonderland.

The story felt like an old friend, and they didn't know why... But the question didn't bother them, and instead of that, they had the feeling that they already had the answers to that question... They just didn't remember what it was.

And why it was important to them?

But they must have read it before, in a timeline that they couldn't remember, and they must have loved it just as much as they did now.

Reading, especially now that it wasn't just reports, and what they had been forced to read, was amazing.

They understood why Nightmare liked to read so much now, and why he kept the home library to himself, but they were also miffed that he didn't try to encourage all of them to pick up reading.

'We probably would have given him the peace that he wanted so much...' They thought to themselves, as they turned a page in their book. 'Especially if the books caught our attention, and kept us quiet, for a few hours.'

They looked around at the area that they were currently reading in.

The kid section of the library was quiet. Alphys had opened the library to the public, and this area of the library only got busy when the schools were done for the day, there was a community event, or it was the weekend.

It had been a few weeks since they had arrived in this Multiverse, and slowly, their talus bone had healed. The crack in it, was just a thin line now, and they hardly needed to use crutches, to move around now.

And despite how nice this version of Alphys was, this place, didn't feel like it would be their true home.

They did have everything that they would need, here, and this place was easier to adapt too... With how many Monster were brought here, each of them with their unique Magic, and needs, had led to the AU itself, learning how to support many different types of Magic, but outside of it, could be a different story... And Cross didn't want to stay trapped in one AU.

They had been bitten by the travelling bug, and there was so much that they wanted to see, now that they wouldn't be held back by being once of Nightmare's minions.

Or by being hunted down by Ink, and his supporters.

Cross put a bookmark, in their book, and they got up. They needed to stretch their legs, and get something to drink.

They headed towards the front desk, but they stopped, when they heard voices.

"Alphys, Sans is losing it."

They pressed themselves closer to a bookcase, and they carefully poked their head around a corner.

They saw Alphys, at the front desk, and talking to her, was Toriel. The former Queen was nervously messing with her hands, and she was keeping an eye on the front doors of the library.

Alphys didn't look happy.

"I told you that I wanted to be left alone." Alphys frowned. "And that I wasn't going to let Sans's little temper tantrum, dictate my life, especially after what it did to Mettaton."

"I know, and you did the right thing, removing yourself from that situation, but Alphys, things have gone downhill, and Sans is blaming you."

"What did I do now?"

"According to Sans, you doctored camera footage, to make it look like the human was undoing their efforts to fix the machine."

Alphys's jaw dropped, and the book that she had been cataloguing, fell out of her hands. "That's the reason why the machine never seemed to be fixed?!"

"Yes, and the knowledge of that, has shaken most of the ones that are loyal to the human." Toriel frowned. "Questions are starting to be asked... After all, if the human was messing with the machine, to encourage the future appearance of other Skeletons, then what else have they done, to get their way?"

"They might have done more than you think that they did." Alphys frowned. "I asked around, when she tried to recommend someone that could help to fix the machine, only to find out that most of their credentials were fake... Not hiring them was one of the few things that Sans agreed on. He didn't want inexperienced interns, messing with his machine."

"It sounds like it is possible that the human may have been planning to prevent them from fixing the machine, even before they were in a relationship with Sans." Toriel suggested. "And speaking of relationships..."

Alphys had a very good feeling about what the former Queen was about to tell her.

"Your idea for any human and Monster relationships to be given a course about the other's culture has been a success." Toriel smiled. "It has prevented several misunderstandings that would have damaged businesses, and there's even talk about it becoming mandatory training, during the process of hiring new staff."

"Really?" Alphys asked. "That's amazing." She smiled, but internally, she was laughing like a madwoman.

She loved it, when she was right about something being useful.

"Is that everything that you came here to talk about?" She asked, getting a feeling that little piece of news, wasn't the real reason why the former Queen had tracked her down.

"No." Toriel sighed. "You know how Papyrus keeps an eye on his brother's finances, and Asgore has been dealing with policies, and benefits, right?"

"Yes."

"Both of them have reported concerning discrepancies that they have found... Someone is draining Sans's bank accounts, and is attempting to take out life insurance policies on the Skeletons, which don't go through, due to Asgore still working on the Monster version of them, and two of the clauses for them, is that humans cannot take policies it on Monsters, and be a beneficiary."

"You found something." Alphys realized, looking the former Queen in the eyes. "Something that scares you... Something that Sans can't scare away... You think that I wouldn't figure out that he's the Royal Judge, with how you, and Asgore, coddle him?"

"He's not the Royal Judge anymore." Toriel admitted. "His recent actions have made him ineligible for the position... And we didn't find it, the human Police did... They told us to not let the human, Sans, or any of the Skeletons, leave the country, and that anyone who could be attacked by Sans, if he got angry, should hide, and not draw attention to themselves."

"You're lucky that I'm fumigating the library soon." Alphys grumbled. She really didn't want to get involved in this mess again, but if it meant dealing with it, once, and for all, then she would put up with it.

----

Cross knocked on the bookcase, once the former Queen had left, and Alphys looked at them. "I guess that you overheard my talk with the former Queen..."

Cross nodded their head, as they walked over to Alphys, tightly holding the books that they had been reading, close to their chest. "Is Sans really that bad?"

Alphys sighed. "He didn't use to be that bad... Most of the time, back in the Underground, we didn't know about Depression then, mostly... We knew that it existed, but we didn't know the signs." She leaned back, in her chair. "Most of our knowledge of it, came from human entertainment, and literature, and that wasn't a good thing. We hardly ever got any human medical texts, and we only got access to them, after we got out, and by that time, Sans had been locked in a very destructive mental cycle.

I will admit, he was coddled, but then again, that's what happened to any child born while we were trapped underground... And most of us, turned out to be okay..." Alphys chuckled. "Even if some of us developed some toxic traits, behaviours, and coping mechanisms... And how were we supposed to have known that they were wrong?"

"You wouldn't have known..." Cross told her. "And how were you supposed to have known? You were trapped, in an area with a limited amount of space. It makes sense that it had an effect on how you developed, and as you said, some of you turned out to be okay, even if you feel like you developed bad habits, and that's a good thing, because who wants to be perfect? Being perfect just means that you can't accept reality, and the truth that nothing is perfect... And nothing would exist if nothing was perfect, and trying to force others to be perfect, is another way of being a bully, and it sounds like that's what Sans is. He's using his Depression as an excuse to be a bully."

"..." Alphys picked up the book that she had dropped, earlier. "If he's a bully, then it's our fault... We let him get away with it, and we acted as his enablers..."

Cross shook their head. "No. It's not your fault... You can do everything right... Be everything that someone wants you to be... And look the other way, if you do something that someone wants you to do, but you don't want to do it, and despite all of that... If they still do bad things...Then it's their fault, not yours. And if they really cared about you, they wouldn't let you destroy yourself, to keep someone else happy." They hugged Alphys.

"You're a good kid." Alphys smiled, as she returned the hug.

Cross softly smiled, if someone had told them that, in the past, they wouldn't have believed them, but now?

Now... A small seed of hope said that, maybe, Alphys was right.

They were a good kid...

They blinked as Alphys let them go, and she pulled some boxes out of her desk. "When I decided on what would be the library's symbol, I contracted a jeweller to make some necklaces of it. This one is yours, and this one is mine. Mettaton has a patch with the symbol on it, one that will be attached to his body, once it has been rebuilt."

She gave one of the boxes to Cross, and they opened it, to reveal a smaller version of the library's symbol.

The World Tree, also known as Yggdrasil.

In Norse mythology, Yggdrasil was a tree, that was at the centre of the known universe, connecting the Norse realms, and acting as a bridge between them.

It was this aspect, that led to Alphys choosing it as the library's symbol... Each book, to her, was a root that would lead you away from, and back to, the tree.

By following the root, you joined the story, and when it was over, the root would bring you home.

It was a promise, that no matter how far away you were, there would always be a way home, you just had to find it first.

Cross felt the hot tears of Magic, gather up in their eyesockets, as they pulled the necklace out of the box...

"Thank you..." They mumbled, as they put it on, watching as the necklace settled just under where their collarbone was.

"You're welcome, little one." Alphys smiled at them.

-----

Cross quickly yanked the bit of their scarf/hood combo, that was around their neck, up, to cover their mouth.

They... They had just left for a quick snack break, after they had finished helping Mettaton carry the last books to storage. The library was going to be fumigated, so they had to remove the books. This would allow them to be treated separately, and at the same time as the rest of the library...

Now... That wasn't going to be an option...

Cross winced, stepping back from a flurry of embers that drifted their way, after one of the bookcases collapsed.

Flames were still dancing across the other bookcases, slowly climbing up, and across them, even with the sprinklers trying to put them out.

They stared at the flames... Alphys wouldn't dare to harm what had become her safe space, so where had these flames come from?

Wait... Where was Alphys?

"Alphys?" They softly called out, carefully walking deeper into the library, avoiding the collapsing bookcases, and the flurries of flickering embers. "Al?"

They walked around a corner, the corner were they had poked their head around, and had seen the former Queen, talking with Alphys...

But this time... The scene that they saw... Was different...

'And the walls kept tumbling down, in the city that we love...

Grey clouds roll over the hills, bringing darkness from above...'

One of the first things that Mettaton, and Alphys, had introduced to them, was music, once they had opened up to them...

And right now, watching as the area around the front desk became a battlefield, or continued to be one, as bones, and machinery, flew around, Cross watched as the walls of the library tumbled down, and through those gaps, they could see grey clouds...

It was funny, that a song, that they had listened to, for fun, was happening right in front of them... And it was like a nightmare, with smoke smothering the air, as the world burned...Magic was spreading throughout the air, cloying on the tongue, as blue gravity magic speared out bones, from a figure that was twisted in rage...

Alphys was fighting an Adult Skeleton, one that was wearing clothes that were covered in multiple food stains, and were dirty, as if they hadn't washed them, or changed them.

The Skeleton was snarling at Alphys, and his eyelight was flickering, like a warning light... This had to be Sans...

"You ruined everything!" He screamed at her. "If you had just kept your mouth shut, everyone wouldn't be mad at me!"

"I didn't ruin everything, you did." Alphys responded. "You were the one to not listen, when the former Queen told us, to not have any serious relationships, until our legal status was determined, and after the other Skeletons started to appear, you don't even wait for the ink on their paperwork to dry, before you were introducing them to the human!"

"I was doing them a favour!"

"And that included keeping them away from the mandatory civilianship lessons that anyone, that wants to be a civilian of this country, has to legally take, no matter where they come from, if they want to have a home here, if they don't have that status?!"

Sans recoiled from that. "The human said that they didn't need that!"

"You do, if you don't want to be an undocumented resident!" Alphys shot back. "And without it, the country can legally kick them out, or they could arrest us, since it could be argued that we were illegally trafficking monsters, and we would have lost everything!"

Cross recoiled from learning about that... If that had happened, Alphys, and Mettaton, might not have been here, when they arrived, and who knew what could have happened to them...

"That's a lie!"

"I live in a library Sans, a library where humans pass through, every single day, and some of them need human law books... Of course I am going to read them, during the slow moments!"

"Stop talking!" Sans yelled, as he threw a bone at Alphys's throat... The attack didn't do a lot of damage, since Alphys dodged it, but it did leave a large gash in the left side of her throat, and Sans smirked.

"I finally hit you."

"First hit, first blood... But it's the last hit that counts." Alphys said with a savage grin, one that would have make Undyne proud... If she was still her friend... A judge was one that never took a side, until it came to the time for them to act, but they were fire and passion, once it began. Sans had been judgement once, but his own Karma had ripped away his special trait. Now, Alphys would bring the retribution of the Judge, onto the corrupted.

E̶v̶e̶n̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶m̶e̶a̶n̶t̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶d̶e̶a̶t̶h̶.̶

He snarled at her, and his eyelight flickered, as if he was trying to turn something on, but it didn't work...

Alphys had a feeling that she knew what should have happened... And what happened instead...

Sans screamed, as Magic started to pour from the socket with the eyelight in it, the price for trying to use Karma, without the gift for it. "What have you done?!"

"It's not what I have done Sans, but it's what you did." Alphys frowned. "A Judge doesn't choose a side, they don't believe in false claims, and they investigate those claims, especially if they're confronted with evidence that they are false. A Judge doesn't try to force their vision of hope onto others, and complain when they refuse to accept it."

Alphys's stance shifted, and a glint of confidence, appeared in her eyes, and Cross blinked.

The way that Alphys was standing, it reminded them of Red... Grief swelled up, in their Soul, they missed their friends... Would they be okay? Were they looking for them? Did they miss them?

Their attention was drawn back to Alphys, when she spoke.

"Sans the Skeleton, this is your final warning, to turn back, and make things right..."

"I didn't do anything wrong!" Sans snarled. "You're the one that turned your back on Monsterkind, by trying to keep us in the past, by destroying Monster and Human bonds!"

Alphys laughed. "Did I really destroy those bonds, when all I have done is refuse to accept one twisted view of them? Did I destroy them by asking for a larger data sample? By withholding my Judgement, until I had seen enough proof? Did I really destroy them, when I took the lessons that I learned from therapy, and I tried to help others with them?

Or am I the villain for choosing to be a version of myself, that doesn't fit what you think I should be?"

Cross didn't hear Sans's response to those questions, but they watched as Sans attacked Alphys, only to be thrown back by a flash of purple light that they recognised as Karma./

They watched as they continued to fight, the former Judge, and the current Judge... But Cross knew from experience that a Sans was stronger than they looked... Even without the abilities of a Judge, a Sans could, and would, put up a fight...

They closed their eye sockets, covering their head, when something exploded, sending debris, and fire, everywhere...

And when they opened their eyesockets, they saw something that they would never forget...

The charred corpse of Alphys, slowly dusting. The clasp on her necklace had snapped, sending it flying. It had landed, close to some flames, and it slightly glowed, from heat exposure.

"Alphys?"

-----

Sans panted. He had done it. Alphys had finally paid for her crimes... Although, when had she learned Karmic Retribution? He thought that was impossible... He shook his head, and he was about to leave, the place was on fire, when he heard a tiny voice.

"Alphys?"

He turned around, to see a tiny child... A baby Skeleton, nudging Alphys's dusting corpse... The baby chirped, nudging the corpse again...

For a moment, Sans wondered, if his human lover had lied to him... Shouldn't the baby not be a baby? Then, he pushed that thought out of his head... Alphys must have done something, probably as a way of getting revenge for what happened to Mettaton... It should be an easy fix, and if that didn't work out, then it looked like they would have a kid to raise. Everyone would be thrilled. Their first child!

He took a step closer to the child. "Hey Kid, how about I get you out of here, and away from the nasty Monster? She can't hurt you anymore."

The kid turned to look at him, and Sans stared at them. They were tiny, with eyesockets that were too big for their head, with bone blemishes, covering their cheeks, and gathered around their nose, with markings around their eyesockets...

They were adorable!

Sans reached out, ready to take the kid with him, to a new life where they would be loved, when he suddenly froze...

The baby's eyelights were glowing... Bright red, and they were just tiny slits, in a sea of darkness, and they screamed.

"You're the bad Monster, not Alphys, go away!"

A blast of Magic threw Sans back, shattering the stone that his left arm had become, and the kid just ran...

Away from him...

And into the fire!

"Kid!"

----

Cross ran.

They don't want to go with the bad Monster! He had killed Alphys! The first Monster, outside of their friends, and the other Skeletons that they had met, to be kind to them, without wanting anything from them!

She only wanted them to be happy...

Cross picked up Alphys's broken necklace, and they nearly screamed from how painful it was, to hold it... They could smell the scent of bones being burnt... Their left hand felt like it was on fire...

They ignored the shouts of the bad Monster, telling them to come back, as they continued to run... They had to get out of here...

They ran towards a door, and they grabbed it's handle, throwing it open, as a shudder went through their body...

And they jumped.

----

This chapter is done.

Finally... Almost three months, sixteen pages, and 3780 words later, it's finally over, and my Little Runaway is free, from this messed up Multiverse...

But this freedom comes with a cost...

And it's not just in physical wounds, it's mental too...

They lost someone that they could have called 'Friend'.

And while it will take some time, and a few adventures, they might return to this Multiverse, and tie up a few loose ends.

As for me, I might write a oneshot epilogue, for this Multiverse, that will tie up some loose ends, like what happened because of what Sans did to Alphys, and her library, and what it did to the Multiverse, but that's a maybe for me.

What I'm more excited about, is the lore drops that I have planned, for the next chapter...

All that I will say, is that it involves Error, the one from Cross's original Multiverse, and a character that hasn't appeared, yet...