Without blueprints or the correct supplies, progress went incredibly slow on the machines this time around. Devices, like the timeline monitor, were completely impossible to build without the correct equipment. Even though Alphys had been extremely helpful in letting them use some of the old machinery in her lab, (with the exception of the true lab, which the Doctor still had no clue about.) There still wasn't much that could be done. The cracks were growing even faster and news of certain places in the underground completely disappearing were more and more frequent. One day, as the three of them were experimenting with one of the cracks in the Hotland area, something finally happened.
"Oh!" The Doctor shouted, pointing his sonic at a large fracture in the ground. "I think we've got something."
"What is it?" Frisk asked, crouching down to see what he was doing.
"I'm not sure yet," he pressed the button a few more times causing several different frequencies of sound. He then brought it up to eye level and flicked it so it opened. None of the readings on the sonic made any sense to anyone, so his sudden laugh of excitement and immediate dash back towards the lab were met with complete confusion. However, Frisk and Sans still decided to follow him and were completely exhausted by the time they reached their destination. The Doctor, however, was grabbing every bit of metal he could find and piecing it together to form one large... thing. He held his screwdriver in his mouth and didn't even take it out for more than three seconds as he explained what had happened.
"The sonic picked up some new readings!" He exclaimed as he pulled the screwdriver from his teeth to attach a large piece of metal to whatever he was building. "It caught something none of us had even thought of. Time energy! Whatever this void is, it has something to do with time. What do we know about the cracks?" He asked, suddenly spinning around to face them. The two of them just stood with blank expressions on their faces, startled by the sudden burst of energy from the Doctor.
"Come on!" He shouted, "Think! What happens when someone gets sucked into the void?"
"Nobody remembers them," Frisk said.
"Bingo!" The Doctor said, adding more onto the machine. "Whatever happens to them while in the void causes them to be completely forgotten by everyone. They've been erased from existence. Removed from their own timestream. Unless I'm mistaken, there's only been one creature that has that kind of power and do you know what they used? Time energy. Something in that void is taking the energy of the monsters and using it for its own gain."
"so what can we do about it?" Sans asked.
"That's where this comes in," the Doctor said, "I'm creating a device that can allow me to channel a certain amount of time energy into the void. It will open a large crack which we use to feed the energy into. This will cause the ratio of the energy to void to become out of sync and hopefully it will close any remaining cracks permanently."
"So we're making one big crack to stop all the little ones?" Frisk asked. The Doctor nodded. "Then let's get started."
With their sudden understanding of the void and what it was doing, they began to work much faster. Every bit of machinery they could find was pieced together until the finished product stood in front of them; a massive mound of equipment. Finally, it was time to put their plan to action.
Frisk's POV
It had been decided that the Doctor would run the machine, Sans would monitor the stability readings, and I would hit the shutdown switch in case anything bad happened. As we began the preparations, everyone was obviously having second thoughts.
"Ready?" The Doctor asked from across the room where he was supposed to start the machine.
"not really," Sans replied from his station.
"Shut up."
"Just do it already!" I yelled at them.
The Doctor nodded, fumbled a little with his screwdriver, and pointed it at the lever. Sans walked over to me.
"remember the plan. we'll monitor the photon readings, you press the button if things go south. okay?"
"Do I have to be so close to it?" I asked tentatively. It was a fair question. The button was placed no further than 5 feet away from the machine, which made me very uneasy.
"It won't work any further," The Doctor said joining us. "In order to kill the massive amount of power being directed into this rift, the shutdown needs to be close enough for a signal. If we had it back any more, it's likely the entire system would override itself."
"That doesn't sound good," I said, feeling a bit queasy.
"not really, no." Sans said before walking back to his station. "ready, doc?"
The Doctor nodded.
"Three"
"Two"
"One"
"Now!"
He pressed the button on the sonic, causing the lever to activate. Almost at once, the rift began to open, revealing an empty void like the others.
"system readings stable," Sans said. "i think it's working!"
"Don't get your hopes up too soon," The Doctor replied. "How are you doing, Frisk?"
"...Fine..." I said quietly. In reality, I wasn't fine. I was absolutely terrified. I was five feet away from a tear in the very fabric of reality, for goodness' sake! This thing could rip apart my very existence, and I was pretty sure that's something not even a save point could fix. As I stood there watching the portal, I noticed something strange start to happen. Tiny sparks of white light were shooting from the center of the rift out to the edges. They became more and more frequent until suddenly I heard a shout from behind me. Turning around, I saw to my relief that nothing drastic had happened, other than Sans' monitor had shattered. Accompanying the frequent flashes of light now were loud, horrible noises.
"Frisk!" The Doctor yelled over the cacophony. "Shut it down, now!"
I nodded at him and reached over to the button while also trying to block out the horrible sound. Before I could press it, something made me stop.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
they're getting more and more frequent. you got a plan yet, G?
I'm working on it, you should know better than to bother me. Especially when I've got electric equipment to deal with.
are you sure this machine will help? the rifts keep growing and the last three prototypes blew up, remember?
Don't remind me. And yes, I'm sure it will work. Start up the safety lock.
aye-aye, doc.
Now we need to get behind the glass-
i've worked with you for years, i think i know how to prepare for a testing.
I'm just making sure you know what to do. Hold on, one more thing.
...
G? there's something you need to see.
In a moment...
but the safety readings...
Not now! I'm busy.
...
G, you need to go out of there! now! GET OUT THE READINGS ARE WRONG THIS WON'T WORK! G-
(You can only hear static and garbles of a strange language)
👎︎☜︎❄︎☜︎☼︎💣︎✋︎☠︎✌︎❄︎✋︎⚐︎☠︎
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Frisk! What are you doing?!" The Doctor's shout broke me from my trance. I glanced up at him and Sans who were working furiously to get the situation under control.
"There's someone in there," I replied, staring at the rift. "Something happened. They're stuck."
"what are you talking about?" Asked Sans. "nobody's in there!"
"Yes they are. I heard them." I took a step closer.
"frisk! what are you doing?!"
Another step.
"Get away from there! Shut it down!"
Another. I reached my hand towards it.
"I'm sorry," I said quietly. "But I need to help them."
"frisk don't you dare go in that crack. stop it! now! frisk!
frisk!!!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dark
There is nothing but darkness.
Try to scream
Try to run
Useless
An impenetrable blanket of nothing. Space doesn't exist here. Time doesn't exist here.
You are on your own.
Take a moment to reflect. Take a million moments. Think of everything you've done. All that's been good, all that's been bad. It no longer matters, but at least it will keep you busy. You have all the time in the world.
What's this? You want to go back? There is no way back.
Unless you are willing to bear the sacrifice it takes.
...
So you are willing? How curious. It will not be easy. It takes a lot of effort for a nonexistent being to return to their own timeline. It is likely you will fail. Rather than returning, you will destroy your world in the attempt.
Who's to say anyone wants you back, anyway?
You've been shattered. Broken. The very few who remember even the faintest shadow of your existence are afraid of you.
"They say he shattered across time and space. Ha Ha... how can I say so without fear? I'm holding a piece of him right here."
"It's rude to talk about someone who's listening."
"Beware of the man who speaks in hands."
You remember the problem you were trying to fix, don't you? The cracks. Everywhere. In the ground, the trees, the ceiling. Nobody could stop them. Their entire world was breaking apart.
Do you understand the cause of all that?
It was you. It will be you. It is you.
By trying to piece yourself back together, you cause hundreds of timelines to fall apart. Everyone you loved. Everyone you knew. Everyone will die because of you.
Are you prepared to live with that?
...
Then so be it.