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Chapter Text

Within a realm of darkness, there lived a phoenix god. They spread light across the darkness, bringing warmth and comfort to those once lost in the dark.

They had several avatars, in the form of fire elementals, surging with the power of the phoenix, each embodying a part of their consciousness.

These avatars of fire would lend their power to certain individuals with light in their heart, such as the dreemurr family, gaining the power of fire and healing in the process.

However, there were hushed wispers of a dark dragon opposed to the phoenix god. This dragon would lure beings into the darkness of the void, to be consumed and lost forever. It too was said to have avatars, taking the form of skeleton dragons, who would corrupt those with darkness in their hearts, and consume those who failed to meet it's standards.

Despite this, nobody has ever seen the dragon, only it's presumed influence.

The phoenix god and their avatars and followers were constantly at war with the darkness, which seemingly never ended. It was time for a change, and unknown to everyone, a certain fire elemental would bring about this change.

...

Grillby wasn't very happy being on guard duty. Standing at the edge between the realms of light and darkness...it kinda creeped him out. He'd much rather be at his bar in Snowdin, listening to his customers. Or with fuku, the young green fire elemental who still had much to learn about serving the phoenix.

Honestly, these things were much nicer than just sitting here, waiting until darkness comes and alerting the royal guards to prepare for attack.

And lo and behold, here came the first wave of darkness for today, composed of formless blobs of liquid black goop, yet vaguely taking the shape of something once alive, yet not anymore

Grillby alerted the royal guards, and there they came, led by their current proud leader Undyne, a humanoid fish who had been trained by both Gerson and Asgore themselves. Her bolts of blue lightning, taking the shape of spears, quickly incinerating the incoming dark blobs with blue and green flame.

The K9 unit, consisting entirely of white dogs from Snowdin, were right by her side, summoning white blizzards, filled with white light reflected from the snow crystals, which froze the dark blobs, before shattering them.

Of course, there were many guards, as the realm of light had grown increasingly bigger as more souls were saved and more children were born. But that also meant that the darkness was more determined to take it back than ever.

So as the royal guard harnessed the elements to drive the darkness back, it wasn't long before the skeletal dragon leading the darkness came flying.

The dragon was huge, its bones pure white despite the liquid darkness inbetween its bones and wings, giving the illusion of liquid flesh, with countless tendrils emerging from it... yet what Grillby noticed about this dragon where the black cracks covering its face and body, and the black holes in its paws.

Grillby knew what he had to do. He spread his fiery wings, formed a sword out of fire, and quickly launched at the dragon.

"By the will of the phoenix, I banish you back to the darkness where you belong!"

It was a rough battle between Grillby and the dragon, the dragon seemed to have lost its mind, thrashing mindlesly at Grillby, yet Grillby eventually emerged victorious, splitting the dragons skull open, and with a screech the dragon fell down and started dusting...

"Great job, Grillby!" Undyne shouted, patting Grillby on the shoulder, as medics quickly came and healed Grillby. After a while, they were done healing, and Undyne said: "Come, let's go back, we'll have a nice drink at your bar as celebration, and let some other fire elemental take over."

Yet Grillby felt off about this encounter. Dark Dragons weren't usually this violent, or this broken. "I think i'd rather continue my duties for a little while longer, just to make sure this dragon is really dead, you know?"

"Ah, alright, just know you are a champ, Grillby! Lets get going and celebrate, Guards!"

After a cheer, the guards slowly dissipated and left Grillby alone with the dragon's dusting corpse.

Grillby stayed there for a long while, until the dragon was nothing more than a dark blob, its bones having completely dusted.

And yet, just as Grillby was about to leave, he heard the most bone-chilling distorted voice...

"Help Me"

Grillby quickly turned around, his soul thumping. There in what he thought was a boneless blob, was a face, a white face, oval shaped and mask-like, with two cracks, two eye sockets, and the creepiest yet saddest smile Grillby had ever seen.

"Wha-, you're supposed to be dead!"

"Please, save my children" the entity said.

From the blob, a skeletal hand appeared, with a black hole in the middle, reaching out.

Grillby was sure this was a trap! And yet, against his better judgement, as if compelled by the dark blob, he grabbed the hand anyway.
And as he should have expected, the dark blob lunged at him, and surrounded him.

This was it! Grillby thought. He was going to be extinguished, consumed, end up like his fallen comrades! Food for the darkness. All because he fell for a simple trick!

And yet, his flame didn't falter, in fact, it seemed to increase, like the fire was consuming the darkness instead. And then, he felt in his arms two objects being deposited. And then, right before the darkness completely burned up, he swore he could hear the words "thank you..."

And once the darkness cleared, Grillby could see what where cradled in his arms.

Two black eggs. That was the closest to what Grillby could describe them as. They were about the size of ostritch eggs, yet they were pitch black, like the darkness that had been attacking them. And yet, looking closer at them, there seemed to be a faint glow coming from them, the left one blue, and the right one orange...

Grillby ended up storing the eggs inside his flames. For some reason he felt an instinctive urge to protect these eggs, but he knew he couldn't let anyone know, for these eggs clearly came from the darkness, and could very well be dangerous.

In fact, he probably shouldn't be bringing them in the realm of light to begin with...but no matter how much he tried to let go of these eggs, he just couldn't. Something deep within him really wanted him to take care of the eggs.

So, he spread his wings, and quickly flew to the one place that could perhaps give an answer as to what just happened...the Core.

Chapter Text

The realm of light (also known as the light world) was split up into four sections each representing a season. These areas are:

Scarlet Forest, a forest of autumn trees surrounding a purple city, named Home

Snowdin Forest, a pine forest filled with winter snow surrounding a town simply called Snowdin Town

Waterfall, a watery area where lots of exotic spring plants grow. While there is no city or town, it has several homes scattered across the area.

The Field of Hopes and Dreams, a summer flowery grassland where the lush city "New Home" is located.

To maintain each ecosystem, the phoenix appointed four beings to be the balancers of their seasonal element, essentially making them demigods. These are:

the deer Gyftrot, demigod of Winter,

the turtle Gerson, demigod of Spring,

the white goat Asgore, demigod of Summer,

and the purple spider Muffet, demigod of Autumn.

The phoenix itself however, lived within the volcano in the center of the light world, a volcano named Mount Ebott. Surrounding the top of the volcano, to keep it stable, machinery was built long ago, by a creator long forgotten, machinery now only known as the Core.

This is where the fire elementals and other fire beings generally live, as well as some other Light World beings, also called Lightners, who maintain the Core.

There is no sun in this world, instead, the phoenix is also called the sun, which shines when the phoenix is awake, and extinguishes when the phoenix sleeps, its stray embers being called stars, which keep the darkness from invading. When the phoenix sleeps, it is also called the moon.

...

Grillby arrived at the Core, the other elementals were quickly to greet him.

"You were amazing Grillby, taking on that dark dragon all by yourself!" A fire elemental shouted. "And winning too!" Another one shouted. Everyone came cheering at him, Grillby seemingly embracing it on the outside, but within he could only think of the face in the black goop, and the black eggs it left behind.

As Grillby looked around, he noticed two elementals that didn't seem to be cheering. First one was Fuku, the young green elemental who seemed a bit too shy to join the cheering, yet Grillby was happy to see her anyway, (perhaps the only one he was happy to see).

But the one he was less happy to see was the purple elemental, Violet. He looked at Grillby scornfully, clearly not happy with the praise he was recieving.

"Everyone quiet!"

A large booming voice echoed through, which quieted everyone down, for out came the oldest surviving fire elemental.

"Icefire..." Grillby whispered.

"You have done well" The blue, almost white, elemental said. "Please, come by me at the phoenix's nest, once you have rested and are ready, for I have an important message for you, specifically."

Grillby was stunned.

"I am in your debt"

"Ah, don't be, Grillby, what you did was beyond expectations, so for now, rest, and take a break. I'll call you when you're well rested."

And with that, Icefire spread their blue wings and flew off.

All of the murmuring allowed the overwhelmed Grillby to sneak away largely unnoticed, which was good, 'cause he really did need a break, plus, he needed to keep these eggs safe. And he insinctively knew only one place where no one would discover these eggs. The Royal Laboratory. And that's where he went.

The Royal Laboratory was largely a mystery to the common people, and even the fire elementals, or rather what happened behind the surface of it. There were rumours of secret experiments going on in there, yet Icefire made sure no one unauthorized was allowed in beyond the surface.

The current royal scientist, a yellow scaled and orange feathered light dragon named Alphys, wasn't exactly your typical mad scientist, however. Grillby heard from the ones who visited her that she was a fan of fictional characters, especially this pink cat girl named Mew Mew.

Appearantly, she also created Mettaton, the Light World's biggest (and only) star, who also happened to be a robot (several rumours went around Alphys' creation, such as Mettaton having another form, the robot not being Mettaton's true form, Alphys working on another robot etc.).

It was her lab he needed to visit. Perhaps she could figure out what was wrong with...everything.

Grillby spread open the lab doors, startling a poor Alphys who had just been writing Mew Mew fanfiction while eating instant noodles.

"Wha-Oh! Grillby, what's the hurry? Shouldn't you be resting?"

"I need to speak with you now!" A very panicked Grillby shouted.

"Ok, ok, i'll come!" a worried Alphys scuttled over to Grillby.

"I heard the news from the fire elementals outside... you have to rest, i'm sure it was a very overwhelming experience for you."

"Later", Grillby said. "I have something much more important now. But you have to promise to tell no one, ok? Not Icefire, not Asgore, not Undyne, no one, ok?"

"Wha- I...I'm not sure if I can..."

"You have to, there are rumours of secret experiments going on in the labs, please, if they can be kept secret, then you can keep this a secret too!"

"S-s-secret e-experiments..." At that Alphys got overwhelmed, and Grillby quickly apologized, but still insisted how urgent this situation was.

"A-alright, I can at least examine you. Come, you'll be the first in a very long time to see what goes on down here... and you've got to promise to not tell anyone either..."

Grillby promised.

At that, Alphys lead Grillby to a hidden bathroom door, labeled "staff". Within wasn't a bathroom door at all however, and instead an elevator. Alphys pressed the down button, and the elevator went down.

Eventually it stopped, and the doors opened. "Here we are," Alphys said.

The first thing Grillby noticed were the secret labs walls, draped in a really dark & gloomy green, which kind of creeped Grillby out. As Alphys guided him inside the Lab, he saw golden & coloured flowers, like in those in The Field, he saw empty operating tables with darkness dripping from them, and then...he saw a red machine, resembling a skull of Gyftrot's species, yet a lot spookier. Funnily enough, all of this felt sorta familiar. And finally...

"This is where we store the 'experiments'." Alphys explained. As she opened the final door, and suddenly lots of dark blobs came rushing towards Alphys, and Grillby almost had a panic attack.

"No, no, no, its alright! They won't hurt you, there's no dark dragon to control them here, i promise!" Alphys said as she tried calming Grillby down. "You guys just want some food and company, don't you?" Alphys said as she prepared what seemed to be dog food to the dark blobs, which the dark liquids happily ate!

Grillby didn't notice it in his panic, but he noticed that the dark blobs seemed to have more form than those in the battlefield, in fact, the one Alphys was feeding currently kinda behaved like a dog, and it kinda looked like a mix of dogs and cats (or perhaps dogs resembling cats), even more so as it shapeshifted black paws and started begging, just like the K9 unit that often visited his bar.

"It's name is Endogeny" Said Alphys. "It's made of the lost souls of several dogs. I'm still trying to find a way to stabilize their bodies".

"Wait, you're saying these dark blobs used to be...lightners?" Grillby asked.

"Maybe, or maybe they came from somewhere else, a world outside the light world." Alphys said. "Only few dark blobs are stable enough to be researched, assuming they don't get killed in combat... and as it turns out, once they've regained some of their light back, they're actually pretty sweet" Alphys said.

Grillby understood now why it was kept a secret. The panic of people finding out that darkness was contained within the light world would be astronomical.

"Either way, what's your problem, Grillby?"

It was now or never. "This." Grillby said as he finally revealed the eggs he had kept hidden in his flames.

"Oh-oh my!" Alphys said. "I've never seen anything like these before..."

"I feel strangely protective over these...eggs", Grillby said.

"Then in that case we need a more thorough checkup on you as well, making sure the darkness hasn't started consuming your soul. It's best if the eggs stay here, and you as well." Alphys said.

She beckoned Grillby, into a final room behind the "dark blob living room" which grillby now noticed was filled with black stained toys and video screens with entertainment for toddlers, also with black marks on, and even black-stained cushions! Either way, it was time to go to the final room.

If the previous room was a living room, then this must be the bedroom, for the entire room was filled with test tubes, with dark blobs sleeping inside! Alphys explained the fluid within was made of phoenix light mixed with dark goop, and by slowly increasing the light and decreasing the dark, their souls could eventually be repaired, so they may eventually be reborn as Lightners.

This was noticible to Grillby, as some dark blobs where much smaller than others. And some seemed to just be souls, and others, they seemed to even be growing new Lightner bodies. Alphys explained that with reborn she meant they literally have to go through the child stage of life again, but that the child stage is much shorter than the ones of light born lightners.

She then showed an empty test tube, suspecting its better for the eggs to grow together, she suggested placing them here. Grillby thought so too. So the eggs where place in a mixture of darkness and light, yet Grillby couldn't help but stare at them, for just a little while.

"Come Grillby, you need a checkup as well." Alphys said, as Grillby followed her, but couldn't help but take one last look at the eggs, their blue and orange glows now brighter than ever, and all Grillby thought that it was strange how out of control his thoughts where.

Almost like his thoughts weren't his own...

Chapter Text

As the phoenix embodies Light, it is rumoured to be made of rainbow flame. This is supported by the fire elementals born out of the flames of the phoenix nest, coming in all colours of the rainbow.

Despite this, there seems to be a certain hierarchy in fire elemental society. Orange fire elementals, like Grillby, are the most common. They are still higly valued by the commoners and demigods, but in fire elemental society, they are generally seen as nothing special and average. They are usually put on guard duty and assigned to deal with easier waves of darkness.

As a result, it's almost unheard of of an orange fire elemental taking on a dark dragon all by themselves, let alone slaying it. But Grillby was a veteran, he had fought side by side with Undyne for a long time, so while most people where suprised, Undyne was just waiting for the moment he would slay a dragon, and was very pleased when he did.

Other coloured elementals are generally rarer and stronger, and are thus more valued and are only sent into combat when the dragon comes and the other guards can't handle it. Green and Purple elementals, for example, are rarer, stronger on average, and more valued than orange elementals. However the rarest kind would have to be blue elementals, which are rarely born nowadays, and are seen as having the most potential as they have the hottest flames.

Elementals are naturally amorphous, being made entirely of fire, and thus are capable of limited shapeshifting and even carrying things and beings inside their flames. Almost all fire elementals can shapeshift wings, with the rare elementals who cant being seen as defects, and thus are regarded as not fit to combat the almost always flying dragons.

Clothes are not always worn by fire elementals, they only really wear them because commoners wear them, but when at the Core, they usually discard them to be their free fiery selves. And while the current generation of fire elementals refer to themselves with genders, they are naturally sexless, and don't reproduce. Meanwhile, the old fire elementals (of which Icefire is the only one left) don't use genders at all.

...

Grillby couldn't stop thinking about the eggs, even as he sat in his bar, the K9 unit and the other Snowdin residents happily chatting as if nothing was wrong. Well, there was nothing wrong for them, but Grillby just hadn't been himself since that event.

Fuku was there too, and she noticed something was off with Grillby, but he couldn't tell her anything, for the eggs and the lab had to be kept a secret. He reassured her that he was going to be alright, and that he was just still shaken by taking out a dark dragon by himself.

And so, it was peaceful for a while in the bar. On the surface, Grillby was seen as some sort of hero now by the bar customers, but being an orange elemental, he wasn't as herofied as other fire elementals. Even his name 'Grillby', was given to him because he liked to hang out with commoners through his bar, which was rare, but not exactly praised. Most elementals preferred to hang out at the Core.

This contrasted with Fuku, who was named this way cause she always wore a special kind of school uniform, or fuku as appearantly it was called. Appearantly she saw it in a fictional cartoon (or anime as he heard it called) and liked it a lot, so she wore it daily.

Then, the peace was interrupted, by none other than Grillby's least favorite fire elemental.

"Voilet! What are you-"

"King Asgore needs to see you, immediately!"

"What, why? Did something happen?"

"That's what he claimed, yes, yet he specifically asked for you, for some reason."

"And they send you, of all Lightners, to warn me?"

"Look, I don't like it either, especially since walking in this horrible cold, being unable to fly like you, is a pain, but I happened to be closest to Snowdin at the time."

"And i guess they think your multiple arms brought you an advantage in the snow?" Grillby filled in.

"Right. Anyway, you got the news. I'm going to head off away from this cold commoner place."

And at that, Violet spread his six clawed arms and leapt away from Snowdin.

Grillby wanted to follow suit, but Fuku stopped him. "I want to come with you!" She said. "Ah sorry Fuku, but if something is really wrong, it may be related to darkness, and you're not ready yet to face it yet," Grillby said.

"But you aren't ready to face the dark either, i've seen you! You haven't been yourself ever since that dragon attack! Someone has to support you!"

"That's very sweet of you, Fuku." Grillby answered with a faint smile. "But Asgore specifically asked me to do this task, and i'd rather you not end up like me, or worse. Perhaps when you're more experienced I can take you, but not now, please understand."

At that, a defeated and worried Fuku said she did.

"But, perhaps I can take you to the Core, the outside has a great view of the kingdom, and you'll be safe there in case the kingdom is under attack".

"Ok!" Said fuku, somewhat relieved.

And at that, Grillby engulfed her in his flames and went outside, spreading his wings, and took off.

After dropping Fuku off at the Core, he flew into New Home, where the Dreemurr castle was easy to spot. Grillby was about to enter, when the lion-tailed white goat, King Asgore, his wife, Queen Toriel, also a white goat, and what Grillby recognized as their friend, the red deer Rudolph, came barging out.

"What's the matter?!" Grillby asked.

"Asriel is missing!" The three shouted.

"Oh-oh god" Prince Asriel, the child of Toriel and Asgore, who one day will succeed Asgore as King and demigod, is missing. This is really bad.

"Ok, and you can't sense him in the Field? Then he may have been taken by the darkness! We have to find him!" Grillby shouted.

"It's just that, Asriel's a good kid, he never sneaks out normally, yet when we woke up, we couldn't sense him..." Asgore wimpered.

"We'll find him," said Rudolph. "Yes, we will, and then we'll have a stern talking with him about running away on his own," Toriel said, yet Grillby felt both blame for her husband and also herself when she said that...

"Alright, I assume Undyne has formed a search party, so what you need me specifically for?"

"You've beaten a dark dragon all on you're own, perhaps, you can sense were he is when we cannot."

"...What makes you assume that?" Grillby asked. Yet as Asgore gave him the puppydog eyes, and Toriel glared at him, Grillby knew he somehow had to find a lost kid, when he had no idea where to even begin.

"Alright, I'll help, i'll fly above the realms and see if i sense something."

"Thank you so much!" a teary eyed Asgore said, as Toriel smiled, and Rudolph seemed relieved.

Grillby proceeded to fly high, across the Light World, but no matter where he looked, he couldn't sense anything. Of course, he supposed he would have to fly closer down the ground to spot them, but that would take forever. Grillby felt hopeless.

"Grillby, why do you feel so sad?" Grillby was so startled by the voice he almost lost balance!

"Wha- where?" Grillby frantically looked around, but while he saw the faint glow of other fire elementals searching in the distance, he didn't see anyone even remotely close that could have been the voice.

Unless... it came from his own mind?!

"Ah, doesn't it feel wonderfull to be able to communicate again, after all this time?"

"Who are you?! I don't know you! Get out of my head!!!" Grillby shouted so hard he could swear anyone would have heard him, but it seemed no one did, for the flames in the distance kept circling as if nothing was wrong...

"Hush now Grillby, deep breaths, I'll take care of your problem, and in time, we'll meet face to face, and i'll explain to you our connection."

And at that, Grillby froze in midair, he found his soul and his flames, cloaked entirely in blue! Not as blue-white as Icefire, but a mixture of ice-sky blue and water blue.

"Wha-"

"Hush now, calm down, rest."

And with those three words, Grillby found himself indeed calm down... he still looked around, trying to see if anyone noticed the orange turned blue flame that stood frozen in place, but nobody seemed to...

He felt himself relax however, his flames cool down, almost as if by ice, or water...or darkness.

"Now" the voice said. "Now let us strengthen our connection. Let us find the missing prince"

"You mean you can help me?"

"Of course, it is in my best interest to help you"

"Are you the darkness, speaking to me through my mind?"

"That will be revealed at a more appropriate moment"

Great. Very helpful.

"So how do we find Asriel?"

"Simple, look down"

As Grillby looked down, his sight seem to automatically well...'zoom in', for lack of better term, far more than what should have been possible.

And there, he saw Fuku running into Scarlet Forest!

"Fuku! Voice, what did you do to her?!"

"I didn't do anything, she seems attracted by something, doesn't she?"

At that, Grillby broke free from the calming blue, and got cloaked in an orange-red instead, which Grillby noticed quickly sped up his movements! So much so that he was with the ground in an instant, and promptly crashlanded.

'Ouch..." Grillby said as he stood up, and looked around him, and the still burning crater he had left behind. Right, he must follow Fuku, making sure she doesn't get hurt!

"A wise decision."

Grillby ignored Voice for now.

...

Grillby had never been to Scarlet forest. Appearantly, shady stuff happened in there, so it wasn't exactly a popular place to live. Yet according to history books, it was the original home of the Lightners, yet the city Home was a lot less crowded now, as most Lightners moved away to New Home in the Field of Hopes and Dreams.

So once Grillby entered, he was suprised at the countless autumn trees that surrounded him. The wood was a very dark brown, almost black, and the leaves ranged from red, to orange, to yellow, which filled the ground. Among the trees, Grillby spotted purple spider webs, sometimes with spiders inside. Makes sense, since this was Muffet's domain, that spiders would be everywhere.

Grillby wondered why Muffet wasn't seen helping with the search, or seen at all for that matter. Muffet seemed to be very...secretive.

He searched around the forest, but no matter where he went, he seemed to get lost, with no lightner in sight beyond the spiders. He knew that this place was unpopular, but not this desolate! He thought about just flying above the forest and search like that.

"No need," said Voice. "Just follow the green."

"Follow the green, what is that supposed to mean?" Grillby thought, but then he saw it, a green leaf, in the middle of an autumn forest. "Whats this?" Grillby thought, and this time, the voice answered.

"Its the forest's way of telling you where to go." the voice answered.

"You can understand my thoughts?" Grillby answered through thought.

"Yes, but only what you soul wants me to hear." Grillby wasn't sure wether to be creeped out or relieved.

So he followed the way the leaves showed, as more popped up, and everytime Grillby got lost, another green leaf would lead the way.

And eventually, he found Fuku, just standing there, seemingly staring at something

"Fuku!" Grillby shouted. Fuku quickly turned around. "Grillby!" Fuku shouted back.

"Why did you run off like that, Fuku, into this forest?" Grillby asked.

"I..I wanted to help, but when i came near this forest, i felt called here, in front of this giant tree."

"Giant tree?"

And then Grillby saw it.

A bit of a distance ahead, there was indeed a giant tree. Unlike the other trees, the wood was pitch black, and the leaves were blood red. Grillby felt really unsettled about this tree.

In fact, the blood red leaves were on the ground too, in a place completely surrounded by darkness. Not the dangerous, goopy darkness, but the darkness of thick tree branches covering the sky.

And there as Grillby and Fuku aproached, they saw a young white goat sitting in front of this tree, his white lion tail, inherited from his parents, swishing around. "Asriel!" Grillby shouted as Fuku and Grillby ran towards him.

"Oh, you two have been looking for me?" Asriel said. "Then please help me, this person is wounded!"

Grillby and Fuku came rushing towards to help. Only to discover the 'person' that was wounded was in fact, a skeleton!

"Aaah, get back, prince!" Grillby said as he readied his sword of fire.

"No, please don't!" said Asriel as he stood in front the wounded skeleton. "This skeleton hasn't hurt me! They called me here. Please, don't hurt it!" And in Asriel's eyes, Grillby saw the same protective feeling he felt with the eggs. He lowered his sword.

"Alright, but you do realise the Lightners aren't going to take well to you coming back with a skeleton right? They are worried sick about you!"

"Yes, and i'm sorry for running away, but i needed to help them..."

Grillby looked at the skeleton, they seemed to be passed out. And their size reminded Grillby of a child the age of Asriel."

"...Alright then. Let's get you three out of here" Grillby held out his hands to Fuku and to Asriel, who was carrying the skeleton on his back. As they grabbed each of their hands onto Grillby's hands, he engulfed them in flame, spread his wings, burned a hole into the tree branches above him and flew through.

And beneath him, Grillby barely noticed the hole closing by itself as he flew through the sky, carrying the found Fuku, Asriel, and the mysterious skeleton through the sky.

Chapter Text

There are seven magical forces in the light world, each represented by a colour, not counting white magic, which is raw magical energy and can take on any element, and can be used by any lightner. The seven forces are:

orange heat magic,

light blue cold magic,

green life magic,

yellow electric magic,

purple arcane magic,

dark blue space magic,

and red time magic.

There is also gray magic, which doesn't do anything and could be described as hollow magic, and black darkness, which is essentially anti-magic, being the polar opposite, yet functioning similarly.

The magic doesn't have to line up with the colour, instead the colour indicates the raw form that the magic creates, yet if the lightner's magic takes on a different color, the element may adapt to that colour as well.

Magic is directly linked to the soul. Souls take the shape of upside down hearts, yet can come in many colours, but the most common are the eight magic colours. Colours that deviate from that are usually hybrid souls.

As for what magic and souls are, well, souls seem to be made of light, whereas magic was the expression of the souls light. And yet, magic leaks from lightners as well, filling the environment with magic.

However, the true nature of the soul and magic is unknown.

...

Grillby landed in front of the Dreemurr Castle, releasing Asriel and Fuku from his flames.

"Wow! Asriel said. I've never been carried by a fire elemental before..."

"Awesome isn't it?" Said Fuku. "You could see the entire kingdom through Grillby's flames"

Asriel nodded excitedly.

"Either way, Grillby, you're going to release the skeleton?" Asked Fuku.

"Chara" Grillby and Fuku looked at Asriel. "Chara is their name, they told me before they passed out".

Fuku looked at Asriel funny, and Grillby was stunned.

"Seems like your skeleton friend indeed has a name" Said the Voice.

"No, skeleton dragons don't have names" thought Grillby back.

"But they're not exactly a 'dragon' are they?"

Grillby looked within his flames, and the Voice was right, they looked more like the skeleton of a humanoid than a dragon. And more importantly, while Grillby, Fuku and Asriel had been trying to heal them with green healing magic (which both green elementals and the Dreemurrs had a natural affinity for), they were still unconscious.

But luckily, or perhaps unluckily, came the Dreemurr family, Asgore and Toriel, alongside the Holiday family. Grillby knew the Holiday family, they were a deer species related to Gyftrot, but because Gyftrot was the last of their kind, the Holiday family was chosen to succeed them, but both parents, Rudolph and Carol Holiday, turned down the offer, so it was waiting for their daughters December and Noelle to grow up.

And it seems all four were here alongside the Dreemurrs, which Grillby wasn't sure was a good idea... considering the skeleton that slept in his flames.

"Asriel!" Toriel and Asgore simultanously shouted, as they hugged Asriel.

"We were so worried, my child" said Toriel.

"Please, next time, tell us if something is bothering you. We'll figure it out, I promise..." said Asgore.

"Its not your fault, dad, and not yours either, mom" said Asriel.

"It's just, Asriel wants to talk about something with you two," Said Grillby.

"Oh I see, my child, don't worry, we're your family, you can tell us anything," Said Toriel.

"Then, i'll ask to tell you two inside, alongside Grillby and Fuku, who also know the reason why I ran." Said Asriel.

"However, Rudy, Carol, Dess, and Noelle, I'd rather not tell you four now, but if my parents are understanding, I'd love to tell you four as well, why I ran. Just...not now."

"It's alright", said Carol.

"We're just glad to have you back, Azzy!" said December with a smile.

"Indeed!" cheered the shy yet relieved Noelle.

"C'mere Azzy," said Rudolph, as he promptly noogied the goat.

And with a bro hug with Asgore & Rudolph, and hugs from Noelle and December with Asriel, the Holidays left, and the Dreemurrs and fire elementals went inside.

They went to Asriel's bedroom after saying he needed it. "So" said Asriel as everyone sat on the floor.

"I remember waking up, in the middle of the night," began Asriel. "For in my dreams, I heard a cry for help. And when I woke up, it seemed the dream continued, and led me to Scarlet forest."

Fuku then proceeded to interupt. "That's what I heard too, when i was at the Core, I heard a distant cry for help which was closer when i flew to Scarlet Forest.

"Interesting, isn't it?" said Voice. Grillby internally glared at them.

"Anyway, I found this large tree, with black wood and red leaves, and-"

"Wait!" Said Toriel. "You found what tree?"

"The tree of life..." Said Asgore...

"I thought that tree was a myth?" Said Grillby.

Asriel and Fuku, who had never heard of the myth, sat dumbfounded.

"No it isn't." said Asgore. "It was the first purified lifeform of the Phoenix. And the original balancer of the light world."

"But" said Toriel. "A dark dragon attacked it, and while the then fire elementals managed to fend off the dragon, making it flee, the damage was done, and the tree died."

"Since then" said Asgore. "All the four areas became eternally stuck in four seasons, with the tree being stuck in autumn, in what you now call "Scarlet Forest". And most of the lightners moved to the Field of Hopes and Dreams

"So you're saying that..." "We encountered the tree of life?" Said Asriel and Fuku respectively.

"Hey, this story is cool and all, but we need to hurry, for the story can't wait much longer." Grillby said, and Asriel took the hint.

"Anyway so I, and eventually Fuku and Grillby found the source of the call" said Asriel. "They were wounded, and they cried for help. And before they passed out they told me their name: Chara" And at that, Grillby finally revealed the skeleton Chara.

"A skeleton!" Asgore and Toriel said simultaniously, readying their fire balls!

"Not you two as well!" Said Fuku sarcastically.

"Please, mom, dad, they haven't hurt me, or anyone"

"Plus, they're not a dragon, and their age seems more like a child" filled Grillby in.

That seemed to do the trick, as Toriel looked at the skeleton, and felt her mother instinct kick in.

"Gorey, they're just a child... they may be a skeleton, but also a child."

"You're right Tori, and the skeletons who have attacked us have all been adult dragons..."

At that, they lowered their fireballs. "And they still haven't woken up? Despite you healing them?"

"No..." said Asriel, Fuku, Grillby and even Voice simultaniously (not that anyone besides Grillby could hear Voice).

"Then," Said Toriel "We will try to heal them. Chara, you said their name was?"

"Yes," said Asriel, "and please, let no one else know, for now. It's not safe for Chara to become known yet."

"Its alright, we understand," Said Toriel. "Let's try healing Chara."

The rest of the day, Toriel, Asgore, Asriel, Fuku and Grillby all tried their turns healing Chara, but while they physically seemed fine, they just wouldn't wake up. If only they had someone with soul mode magic. Then Grillby remembered Voice! "Psst hey, could use a little help here," Grillby thought into himself.

"Ah, so you finally require my assistance, worry not, I'll shall turn Chara's soul blue."

Everyone was shocked when Grillby's flames suddenly turned dark blue, and so did the child's soul, which now became visible to them.

"Oh my!"

"Grillby, where did you learn that?!"

"Later everyone, look at Chara's soul!"

The soul, which was now blue, not only looked like a right-side up heart, which shouldn't be possible, but they also had a large crack going through the soul.

"Soo, what do we fix first, Chara's soul being upside down, there being a large crack in it, or that Grillby knows frickin blue magic?!" Said Fuku.

"All three," answered Asgore. "For no amount of healing can fix this. The only thing we can do, is bring them to the Royal Laboratory."

"Absolutely not!" Answered Toriel. "They're a child! We can't bring them to some cold lab to be experimented on!"

"I can assure you Tori, Alphys knows what she's doing, plus, the lab is under the Phoenix's protection, which means Chara is as well." said Asgore.

"I can confirm that Alphys is very careful, and we don't exactly have much choice, 'cause as Asgore said, this soul cannot be healed with healing magic due to to the otherworldly nature of it," Asriel was now cradling Chara.

"But, what if something goes wrong, and Chara will never wake up?"

"Well, Grillby can make sure nothing goes wrong, cause he needs another checkup as well, so he'll come with them. Right Grillby?" Said Fuku.

"Well, yes..." Grillby said, cursing at the Voice for doing something so revealing, yet if the Voice had a mouth, he sweared it just smiled.

Toriel looked at everyone, and, realising she was outnumbered, she gave in, and let Grillby deliver Chara to the lab.

Before Grillby was about to leave however, Fuku came and said she had something to give to Grillby. "Here," said Fuku, as she laid something in his hand.

It was a black and white egg, the size of a chicken egg. And at that Grillby internally panicked. "Where did you get this?"

"At Scarlet Forest, there was a man behind a tree, or at least, thats what he said he was. He gave me this egg from behind the tree, and told me to give it to the person closest to me, and well, I could only think of you when I claimed the egg."

Grillby thought that was very sweet, so he took the egg, despite being increasingly creeped out, fearing that the Voice had something to do with this as well. Afterwards, he bid his farewells to Fuku and flew off

During the trip, he asked the Voice about the egg, about Scarlet Forest, about everything really, but the bastard kept giving cryptic answers that made no sense, until they finally said. "The time that we properly meet is almost at hand. Please, visit Alphys, and the truth will be revealed very soon."

And as if he summoned it, there was Alphys' lab.

...

"Alphys!" Grillby shouted!

"Oh Grillby!" Alphys said, more prepared this time, as she quickly went of her computer chair. "You're worried about the eggs aren't you? Well i'd like to talk to you about that as well."

"Ah, I'd love to hear about that, but first, we have yet another emergency". Grillby said as he revealed the still comatose Chara from his flames.

"Oh, oh no!" Alphys panicked. "Where did you get that!"

"It's a long story, but this skeleton needs soul assistance immidiately, and me and the Dreemurrs thought it was best if you did it, because of you're expertise with darkness"

"Ah, I... I see, well, then I'd better take them to the deeper labs as well, come Grillby, lets go to the test tube room."

And so they went the long journey to the test tube room, Grillby telling Alphys about Chara's soul, and about his own use of blue magic, until they reached it.

"Oh my, so not only is their soul upside down, and that's why the crack wasn't healing, but you used dark blue magic?"

"Yes"

"Then i'm afraid you have to stay here as well, until we figure out just how the darkness affected you, besides, I need to tell you about the eggs."

"Whats the matter with them?" Grillby felt a deep concern and love for those eggs that he was sure of wasn't his own now. So imagine Grillby's shock when Alphys told him that the eggs wouldn't hatch.

Grillby, or rather, the Voice controlling Grillby's feelings, felt fearful of their safety.

"I suspect they need mixture of darkness and raw Phoenix fire to hatch, and i suspect that might heal Chara's condition as well."

"And what are you implying with that?" Grillby asked, not happy with where this was going.

"It means you, Chara and the eggs all need to be in the same test tube. Your fire, plus the liquid phoenix fire and darkness combined, might just be enough to heal all four of you.

Yep. Grillby really was hoping she wouldn't say that. And yet despite this, what he assumed was the Voice controlling him again, he felt relieved, even love at the idea of spending time with these eggs.

His eggs, his...

"Children" Voice and Grillby simultaniously thought.

Grillby really hoped he would be cured of this Voice, but he had his doubts.

And so, Grillby carefully stepped inside the test tube, the walls not made of glass, but of a bubble-like membrane, made of magic water, which is also what contains the phoenix light, Alphys explained.

Inside, it felt like being submerged into water (a feeling Grillby normally hated), but it felt invigorating, yet calming, almost like a watery version of the phoenix nest, from when he was a newborn. And yet, he could also feel the dark, but it blended perfectly with the light, and he suspected that the dark was what calmed him down.

"Now I'm going to freeze the membrane and induce the sleeping spell," Alphys explained. "Make sure to surround the eggs and the skeleton child with your fire, but in such a way so they're still visible to me, ok?" Grillby nodded towards Alphys.

"Alright. Goodnight, Grillby!" Was the last thing Alphys said as he felt the membranes harden, as he surrounded the eggs and child with his fire, keeping the fire transparent, which was suprisingly easy with how relaxed he was, and he swore he could almost hear Voice lull him to sleep...

Chapter Text

"Welcome."

That was the first thing Grillby heard, as all he could see was utter darkness.

"How wonderfull it is to come face to face after so long, to finally form a connection."

"Where are you Voice? I can't see you!" In fact, Grillby couldn't even see himself, the darkness was so dark it seemed as if it extinguished his flame.

"Ah, how rude of me," said Voice. "Let me properly introduce myself."

And at that, as if by a light switch, Grillby's flame ignited, so now he could see in what looked like an empty void.

Yet what was in front of him within that void, was the dark blob from when he slayed the dragon. Yet, the mask-face was now on top, and the smile seemed a lot more genuine now, yet still equally creepy, and in front of him were the white skeletal hands, still with black holes in them.

Now that Grillby thought of it, 'man' seemed like a fitting description for this entity previously known as Voice.

"Now that you have taken in my form, it is time i tell you my name."

Grillby wasn't even suprised the man had a name.

"The name is Wing Dings Gaster, also known as W.D. Gaster, or simply Gaster." The man named Gaster said. "If you have any questions, you may ask them now, and I'll try to answer them as clearly as I can!"

Grillby had so. many. bloody. questions. So much so, he didn't even know where to start. But eventually he asked one of the more currently applicable ones.

"Where are we?"

"You're dreams," Gaster simply answered.

"Then why is it so dark?"

"Its because our consciousness are within the darkness of your soul, where I have attached myself too you."

"Fire elementals have pure hearts, they don't have darkness in their souls."

"Is that what they teach you in this 'realm of light?' All light casts a shadow. Its just a shame the Phoenix casted away their own shadow."

"What do you know about the Phoenix?"

"Ah yes, the light counterpart of the dark dragon. Whereas the phoenix is perfection it can never reach, the dark dragon is imperfection at its most primordial chaos. It's such a shame, together they could have achieved great things, but because the phoenix casted away a fundamental part of themselves, the dark dragon now only seeks to take back what it lost."

"Don't speak ill of the phoenix. I was born from their fire, you know nothing of them."

"But you know nothing yourself, do you remember anything before you were born? Do you even remember what the phoenix looks like? Or its true name?"

"The phoenix doesn't have a name."

"All beings who possess light have a name, its written in their soul. And before you say that the phoenix has no soul, where do you think souls come from?"

Grillby felt increasingly angry at Gaster, as if he hadn't already been feeling angry at him before, it was so obvious he was a hellspawn of the dark dragon! Spreading lies, making him distrust the phoenix.

But instead of lashing out, Grillby simply asked further.

"Why do you lie?"

"I only lie when absolutely neccesary, and there's no need to lie to my host. But it's ok if you don't believe me, you will come to accept me in time, for our connection has been written in space and time."

This was useless, but Grillby asked further.

"What's up with the egg you gave Fuku?"

"What Egg?" answered Gaster cryptically. Grillby couldn't get a better answer out of him.

"The lab then, why do I seem to recognize it?"

"Oh, i'd love to tell you once our connection has deepened."

Again with the helpful answers.

"What are you?"

"What am I? What a question. Now, I'm your shadow, bound to you through the string of fate. Before, a slave of the darkness, and before that... I don't know.

"You don't know everything?"

"Of course not. I'm just a shadow. A rather strong one when i served the dark dragon, but I have since given up half of my strength to my children...yet thanks to your lightbringing powers, both our strengths will have reached heights unprecedented."

Grillby thought for a moment but decided to continue asking.

"Are you a parasite?"

"A parasite?" Gaster sounded almost offended. "No, i'll try not to be. You'll find our soul bond has benefits for us both. I prefer to think of it as 'symbiosis'."

Great. Bonded to a dark parasite who claims to be a symbiont. Totally not creepy at all.

"Why is your name Wing Dings Gaster?"

At that question, his smile seemed to light up "I'm glad you asked". At that, his hands detached themselves from his body, and the black holes within glowed, Gaster's right one red, and his left dark blue. Grillby also for the first time noticed the purple eyelights in his sockets, which quickly gained a red and blue aura surrounding them.

Then, as a purple aura surrounded his hands, a lot more hands appeared, each forming different signs, but other objects appeared as well, from a flag, to an airplane, to a cross, to a snowflake, a raindrop, a sun, a moon & star, a skull and bones, a bomb, a mailbox, etc.

These are Wingdings, the letters of my language, or rather dialect, or font, as it's called in my world.

He then put them in a different order, and interestingly, Grillby could read what the six symbol word said.

"Gaster" Grillby said.

"Exactly" said Gaster, as he seemed to perk up.

Then he formed another word, which Grillby deciphered was his own name in Wingdings. "Great!" said a now very enthusiastic Gaster.

"How come i can understand your language?" Grillby asked.

"Because our connection makes our thoughts transcend language barriers, besides, i have been speaking to you in wingdings all this time, and you don't seem to notice a difference."

Gaster was right, if he really did speak in wingdings, 'cause Grillby indeed noticed no difference in speech from Gaster than from any lightner. His voice sounded deep, almost melodic, yet clearly filled with darkness. Almost like dark chocolate, Grillby thought. Bitter, yet sweet.

"Now I've shown you how my font is written, but I can also speak through my hands."

And at that, Gaster started performing sign language, but not lightner sign language, no, a different kind that seemed to correspond to the wingdings symbols. And Grillby understood every word of it. In fact, he seemed to be signing with him as well.

"I call this WDSL, or, Wing Dings Sign Language." Gaster said.

Grillby had to admit, he was kind of amazed by these Wingdings.

"And Gaster?"

Ah yes, Gaster. Named after Aster, which means star, and the G of gold, but combined in such a way to make my name seem 'ghastly'. Gaster seemed to snicker at himself with the pun. "As for why i was named after a gold star? Who knows, perhaps i'm like a fallen star, or perhaps it was fate, of meeting my star one day". Grillby felt creeped out by the implied compliment.

"What are you're powers?"

"Ah yes, you've already seen my blue magic, but in truth, I have been given power over all seven coloured magic, alongside white, grey and black." Gaster said as he summoned seven hands, their holes each glowing a different colour, one for each magic colour.

"However, as I've given half of my magic to my children, my strongest is by far purple arcane magic," Gaster said as he recalled six of his hands until only the purple one was left, his eyelights and even his body glowing with purple stars, looking like the night sky.

"Yet my second strongest has to be power over time and space," he said as he summoned his red and dark blue hand, representing time and space, as his body gained blue and red shimmers, almost like darkness mixed with water and blood.

"As for the remaing four: heat, cold, electricity, and life, these are what I powered my children the most with, so they're not as strong anymore." Gaster summoned the four remaining hands, and his black body got filled with a mixture of embers, snowflakes, lightning bolts, and leaves.

"And of course, there's white magic, which for me, takes the shape of bones". Gaster proceeded to summon a bunch of white bones out of the ground. "Then there's black darkness which, I'm sure you're more than familiar with." Gaster said, as he summoned tentacles out of his goopy body, before retracting them again. "And then there's gray magic, which I'm sure you know, is non-existant."

Grillby was a bit overwhelmed by all this information. But he quickly took it in. He had one more question left to ask.

"So, you have power over darkness, space, time, arcane and a bunch of others, and since you're inside my soul, that explains why you know so much." Grillby continued. "But your children, the unhatched eggs, what if I don't want to raise them in your stead? What if I don't want to be a vessel of darkness?"

"Oh, I can assure you that you won't regret taking care of our children, for I poured my very soul into them, and you won't regret our symbiosis either, I can promise that." At that Gaster's smile seemed to become creepier again, as his eyelights disappeared. "And don't run from your destiny, don't run from your responsibilities... for fate really wouldn't like that" Gaster said, as a shadow appeared behind the shadow that was Gaster...

The shadow of a bone winged dragon.

...

Alphys was carefully monitoring Grillby, Chara and the eggs. The experiment seemed to be succeeding, as the magic levels of the eggs are finally starting to increase, and Alphys swore she could see movement inside, and Chara's soul had started to heal as well.

As the night progressed, the eggs were moving more and more and the soul of Chara seemed to be healing, yet near the end of the night, Grillby's flames started to darken!

"Oh, no, no, no, thats not good!" Alphys tried to lower the darkness, yet darkness seemed to be leaking out of Grillby, at an uncontrollable rate! Alphys quickly tried to pump out the darkness, but the dark kept multiplying faster than Alphys could control! Until eventually, the test tube burst open!

Alphys was thrown backwards, as the test tube liquid splashed over her. Thankfully, the frozen membrane immediately melted into water, so she wasn't hurt by any potential ice shards. When Alphys stood back up with an 'oomph', she looked and saw black puddles surrounding eggshells. "NO! The eggs are shattered! I have failed, Grillby will never forgive me" Alphys thought to herself.

But as she looked further at Grillby, whose flames were completely black, like smoke, and Alphys saw three skeletal entities emerge from him. Two of them resembling tiny wingless dragons, one with a cold lightning-blue left eye, and another with a hot fiery-orange right eye, and the third one fully humanoid yet equally skeletal, both eyes burning blood red, holding the baby dragons in their arms.

Chapter Text

The Core is located at the upper half of Mt Ebott, and is made of red machinery and gears on the outside, yet on the inside, its coloured a metalic blue, with red computer 'veins'. Liquid phoenix light powers the Core from the inside, converting the sheer heat into electricity, which powers all machinery in the realm of light. Snow from snowdin is often shipped by workers to prevent the machine from overheating.

At the top of the Core, lies the entrance to the phoenix's nest. First however, you must pass through the golden judgement hall. Here, a judge will guard the place, ideally, and judge if you're worthy to see the phoenix's nest.

However, the previous judge, Gerson, the oldest of the demigods, is too old to climb the mountain, even with his power over water and spring. Undyne was sceduled to replace him, but as Gerson puts it: "she has a heart of justice and a spirit of a warrior, she is not fitting for the job as judge sending out judgement instead of justice". As a result, a golden fire elemental, under the title of 'Lady Justice' takes on the role of judge, while they're searching for a someone that can officially replace Gerson, but no one has been proven worthy enough so far...

The phoenix nest itself is the crater at the top of Mt Ebott. Whereas lava can be found everywhere where the Core touches the outside, nowhere is it as concentrated as at the top. Here, magma elementals thrive, formless blobs of magma who are controlled by the phoenix's consciousness, and give birth to fire elementals, which happens at the nest.

...

A haze. That's what Grillby found himself in, a dark haze, as if on the brink of death. He couldn't see, couldn't feel, and it felt like he was half asleep, yet half aware of darkness being slowly extracted from him.

"What...what did you do to me, Gaster?"

"Hush now Grillby" Gaster said in that dark voice. "It seemed your reaction to my warning caused the darkness of our soul to leak out, but that also sped up the hatching and healing process of the skeletons"

"Mhm..." Grillby was only half listening, and he thought he heard Gaster reassure him, that it was just a minor setback with positive consequences, and the darkness in his soul could be replenished, and that he would be alright soon.

"Alphys is busy healing you currently, you will be alright," he thought he heard Gaster say.

And as if with the stroke of his hand he put a sleeping spell on him and Grillby drifted back into unconsciousness.

...

When Grillby at first slowly woke up, he quickly startled awake as he adjusted to his eyes and saw a skeletal dragon, with bright orange eyelights! "Woah!" Grillby shouted, and the tiny wingless dragon happily wagged its tail at Grillby having awoken. Yet at his feet he could see another tiny wingless dragon sleeping on the bed Grillby and the dragons were appearantly in, the second dragon quickly waking up with a yawn as Grillby was moving.

The orange eyed dragon quickly scuttled over to what Grillby presumed was their sibling, as orange-eyes was nuzzling at the other dragon, clearly trying to make them wake up faster. And then, Grillby saw the other dragons eyes, which where light blue. Whereas orange-eyes reminded Grillby of his own magic, blue-eyes here reminded him of icefire, seemingly cold, yet burning hotter than everyone else.

"Their names are Papyrus and Sans." Grillby heard Gaster's voice say, as he got startled again by actually being able to see Gaster right next to him, smiling that dastardly smirk! He didn't seem to be the only one who heard or saw him however, for the two dragons, the presumed Papyrus and Sans, came rushing towards Grillby, and Grillby could hear them speak one word.

"Daddy" in wingdings.

Yet to Alphys, it sounded like incomprehensible screeching, which would have been grating had the dragons not have such soft voices. Grillby cradled them in his arms, they weren't much bigger than the eggs they hatched out off, but Grillby suspected that would quickly change.

"Aww, they seem to like you, Grillby," Alphys said, who thought this was clearly adorable. Yet Grillby wondered if it was him they liked, or Gaster, yet the fact they said it in Wingdings, he suspected they really were talking to Gaster.

"Hey, Gaster?"

"Yes?"

"These dragons, Sans and Papyrus, are they really your kids?"

"Our kids" Gaster corrected, "I may have laid them, but you hatched them"

"You laid them like a chicken?"

"I laid them in your arms silly"

Grillby groaned at the pun.

And yet, Sans and Papyrus were giggling. Appearantly they had heard Gaster, and understood he made a pun! Grillby was scared at how intelligent these kids behaved, yet he also felt pride radiating from him, clearly coming from Gaster.

Yet, in between the eldritch giggling and the squeeing of Alphys, Grillby heard a fourth voice laughing. There stood the humanoid skeleton, and Grillby was unsettled by their blood red eyes, reminding him of the leaves of the dead tree of life, yet was most likely just a result of red magic.

"Greetings," said Chara to Grillby, who was still wondering whether they understood a pun was being spoken or if they were just laughing because the skeletons seemed to eldritch laugh.

"Hello, Chara," Grillby said with a faint smile. "I'm glad you're finally awake, Alphys has treated you well I presume?"

"Well, yeah! She showed me this cool anime about this Mew Mew Kissy Cutie!"

"Oh no", Grillby thought. Another cartoon fan, or anime as it's appearantly called now. Grillby heard Gaster laugh, which made Sans and Papyrus laugh, which made Chara laugh, which made Alphys laugh, and, eventually, made Grillby laugh too.

But just as they stopped laughing, a small orange fire elemental came barging in.

"Heats Flamesman!" shouted Grillby. "Hots Fireguy!" shouted Alphys simultaniously.

"Ugh", said the fire elemental. "Everyone always forgets my name." Grillby sensed that Gaster was observing the fire elemental, particularly the yellow star on his body.

"Anyways...!" That was Heats Flamesman's/Hots Fireguy's (Grillby just prefered to call him Heats) reaction upon realizing there were three skeletons happily chilling with Alphys and Grillby.

"Oh you know what, Alphys, I'm not even going to ask!" Heats said. "Grillby, the boss wants to see you this very minute, I've been looking frantically everywhere for you, and then I find you chilling with Alphys' experiments!"

"There not-" Grillby began. "Not so loud" shushed Alphys. You know what is behind these walls stays here right? Grillby will come with you as soon as possible, just don't alert the entire Core about these "experiments" ok?"

"Alright, just, Grillby, come!" Heats frantically flew around Grillby with tiny wings and pulled at Grillby's head flames. Grillby tried too get up and get moving, but the two dragons were literally clinging to his legs like cats, giving him puppydog eyes and what seemed to be howling of sadness?

"Aagh, the experiments are attacking!" Shouted a panicked Heats

"They're not experiments." Grillby said, properly this time. Alphys tried to get them off but they just wouldn't let go.

"They probably think you're leaving for good Grillby." Said Chara, who had been silent this whole time, causing everyone to look at them.

"Oh god, and now the experiments are speaking!" Said Heats.

"They are not-"

"Ok ok, skeletons, there you happy?!"

"Sans and Papyrus, they're babies right? They need the comfort of their parent, but since you have to go for now, we gotta reasure them you'll come back."

Chara said as they approached Sans and Papyrus...and promptly spoke in Wingdings. Neither Alphys nor Heats understood their eldritch speak, but Grillby, Sans and Papyrus did. "It's ok, daddy will come back, I promise! And in the meantime, me and Alphys will take care of you two, ok?"

At that, perhaps at hearing their fathers tongue, calmed the skeletons down, and Chara picked them up to the best of their ability, as a sad looking Papyrus waved goodbye (Sans had already fallen asleep).

"Alright alright, enough with the sappy stuff, now can we finally go?"

"Right" said Grillby, as he waved goodbye to Alphys, Chara, and Papyrus (and the sleeping Sans). It was time to go to go see Icefire.

Yet as they were quickly on their way, Gaster of course had to pester him.

"Couldn't we have stayed longer with our kids?"

"This is important, Gaster."

"But they looked so sad!"

"Listen, remember Icefire? They may seem forgiving on the outside, but they don't like it when people disobey their orders!"

"Oh, the blue one? Yes, but i still think we could have stayed just a bit longer, or even take them with us."

Grillby wasn't sure wether Gaster was trolling or really was that clueless (but with how much he knew, he suspected the former).

"Just be quiet when we're there, im going to need all my concentration" said Grillby.

And as if to prove his word, Gaster answered back with silence.

As they arrived, Heats quickly scuttered away, saying that he's done for the day and that he needed a lava, or maybe even a water bath.

So there stood Grillby alone, at the top of the Core, with a silent Gaster, yet he could still see him, looking...much more somber than normal. He got to ask Gaster about it later.

So then, he entered, past the judgement hall and the golden fire elemental guarding it in place of a judge.

"Ah, there you are, Grillby," said the judgement guardian. "Icefire has been looking for you."

"Yes, I know, Lady Justice," said Grillby

"Then I won't keep you longer, you may proceed"

And so, after sensing Gaster looking at Lady Justice with curiousity, Grillby arrived at the phoenix's nest.

And there, in front of the pooling magma, stood Icefire.

Grillby kneeled down with one knee, yet Icefire told him to stand up.

"Grillby, you have exceeded mine and everyone's expectations. First, you take on a dragon all by yourself and successfully slayed it. Then, you managed to find Asriel and Fuku, as i was told. I sent Flames Hotsdude to the lab to check up on you, I assumed Alphys has done a good job at purifying you, considering how long it took for everyone to find you."

"Yes...Icefire."

"Then that's great!" Said Icefire. "Now, about why I called you here..."

Grillby anticipated his answer.

"You see, as you know, the darkness attacks have been getting more and more intense over the decades. Originally, there was only an attack once a year, but now, its almost daily, as you know."

Grillby nodded.

"Now, you've heard the rumours, about the 'secret experiments'. The result of people not knowing the truth, and being scared of it."

Grillby didn't like where this was going.

"So, I want to give you a promotion, a promotion you must not tell anyone about. I want you to capture a dark dragon, and bring it too the lab."

"What...!" Grillby could only think. "Why me? Why not someone more high ranking, and how do you expect me to capture something so dangerous, while keeping it a secret nontheless?"

"I should clarify," said Icefire. "You do not need to capture an entire dark dragon. Instead, I suggest focusing on what is inside the dragon. You see, there have been elementals who claim they saw a black egg inside a small percentage of dragons slain. However, the eggs would always be shattered before they could be researched."

"And what are you saying?"

"With all good you have been doing these last few days, I'm promoting you, to bring the eggs back alive to the laboratory, so we can better understand the nature of dark dragons, and one day, defeat them for good."

Grillby didn't like this at all, but despite how polite Icefire was, one just couldn't say no to the oldest and most powerful fire elemental, who has spoken to the Phoenix itself. He had to say yes, regardless of his own feelings about it.

"Alright, I'll see what I can do." Said Grillby.

"I'm very pleased with you're answer," said Icefire with a smile.

Grillby bowed, and left the nest. And for the first time, Grillby really missed Gaster's company.

Chapter Text

Dragons exist within the Light world, but they are known as 'Light Dragons', and are made of light and organic matter rather than darkness and bones, and have power over elemental magic instead of darkness.

Alphys is one such Light Dragon, her kind being capable of using a variety of elemental attacks, and come in many forms. Just like the huge majority of dark dragons, many light dragons possess wings.

In Alphys' case, while her body mostly possesses yellow scales, she also possesses orange flame colored feathers on her body, including on her relatively small leather wings compared to other light dragons.

While she is capable of some heat magic, her specialty is electric magic, and combined with her knowledge in engineering and resistance to heat, she was deemed fitting as royal scientist.

However, there must have been Royal Scientists before her, and yet, nobody seems to remember their identities.

...

Grillby was quickly rushing out, not only to see the kids, but see Gaster as well.

He quickly passed by Lady Justice, yet before he could reach the end of the Judgement Hall, a wall of golden fire appeared and blocked the entrance.

"Lady Justice, what are you doing?"

"You seem to be bothered Grillby, you sure you don't want someone to talk to?"

"...I'm sorry Lady Justice, I appreciate the offer, truly, but I really need to see Alphys, and-"

"That's why I'm worried about you, I think it would be healthy if you had someone to talk to, but I understand if you don't want it to specifically be me."

"...I think I already have someone to talk to, but thank you Lady Justice."

Lady Justice smiled on the outside, but Grillby could tell within that she would have preffered to have his soul judged, not to actually judge him, but to see if his soul really was ok.

But then, she may discover darkness, or even worse, Gaster himself. Gaster seemed to have done a good job at hiding his influence on his soul so far, but if Justice found out, he'd be in big trouble, and so would the kids.

But, Justice had already lowered the wall of fire, and with a quick bow, Grillby hurried out.

He quickly flew back, yet he also wondered why Gaster was so quiet even after he'd left the nest.

He thought about talking to him, but he was too occupied about seeing his children again.

So once he arrived, he barged into the lab, and Fuku and the Dreemurr family were there, with Asriel and Chara happily hugging each other.

"Grillby!" Said Fuku, as the baby dragons in her arms immediately came rushing towards Grillby, who proceeded to pick them up, and watch as Papyrus happily crawled onto him, saying 'daddy' over and over again, whereas Sans just crawled in his arms and proceeded to yawn and fall asleep.

The other lightners were happy to see him too, the Dreemurrs explaining that Asriel was really worried about Chara, so they decided to visit the lab.

"...I'm so happy that Chara is alright!" said Asriel.

"Aww, you were worried about me," replied Chara teasingly.

"Of course we were!" said Toriel. "You mean so much to our son, so you mean a lot to us too, Chara."

At that, Chara seemed to blush in the same red colour as their eyes (Grillby wondered how that was even possible for skeletons).

"Ah, but now that you're here Grillby, there is something we'd like to discuss with you regarding... the fate of these skeletons here," said Asgore.

"Yeah," said Alphys. "Come, let's go in the deeper labs. It's best you guys know what goes down there as well..."

And so, they went down, and Alphys showed them around. Toriel was of course very concerned once she saw the dark blobs, but Asgore was already petting Endogeny, and with Alphys' reassurance that they wouldn't be dangerous, she accepted them as well.

Asriel on the other hand was a bit scared of them, but Chara, Papyrus, and Sans who woke up at the sound of eldritch barks and glorps, were already playing with Endogeny and the other blobs.

Grillby quickly whispered to Alphys if she wasn't afraid the presence of the skeletons would make the dark blobs aggressive again, but Alphys assured him that they had already come in contact with them shortly after they were born, and she also said: "Do the skeletons look dangerous to you?"

Grillby's war veteran experience made him almost say 'yes', but he could already feel Gaster glare at him (Grillby was actually kind of thankful Gaster indicated his presence again) so Grillby answered 'no'.

And so, Grillby and Alphys proceeded to explain: how he defeated a dark dragon, got the eggs from its body, bought them to the lab, how Alphys put them and Chara in a test tube, how darkness began leaking out of Grillby, and how they hatched into baby skeleton dragons at the same time Chara woke up.

Grillby, however, did not reveal anything that could hint towards the existence of Gaster, and he could feel a faint hint of appreciation coming from Gaster.

"..Oh my," said Fuku.

"That is quite a story, Alphys and Grillby," said Toriel.

Asgore was already hugging both Alphys and Grillby.

"Still, we need to think deeply about how we're going to introduce these...skeleton children to the kingdom of light, in a way that doesn't cause panic."

"Indeed" thought Grillby. "So, any suggestions?"

"...Anyone?"

It was silent for a long while, as even the children had stopped playing.

"...If i may suggest something, maybe they can stay here for now, in the deeper labs. It's really only me and the dark blobs who come here," suggested Alphys.

That was true, as not even Icefire liked coming there, as they once claimed they didn't want their phoenix flame to be 'tainted'.

"No way!" Said Toriel abruptly. "Children don't belong in a cold lab filled with darkness! They should be raised in a proper environment, filled with light and friends!"

"And you're absolutely right, Tori," replied Asgore. "But imagine the panic that would ensue if lightners or Icefire found out, they would hunt them down and then...Alphys might just have to do something nobody would like."

"Besides," began Chara, "The darkness of the lab and these dark blobs feels kinda comforting, and Sans and Paps seem to like it too."

"T-Thats probably because you three were born in it. I'm not sure how long it's going to last once you grow older..." replied Alphys.

"But it works now, doesn't it?" replied Chara back.

The conversation was then interupted by a loud *GLORP*

They all looked, and saw a very confused Sans looking at Endogeny... with an orange glow coming from the dog-blob.

"Endogeny!" Shouted Alphys!

"Bad Dog!" Shouted Fuku!

The Dreemurrs were all too shocked to react.

Grillby however, definitely reacted, and said "Spit. Him. Out!"

So, he turned the entire dog blue, and out came Papyrus flying, covered in black goop yet laughing, not in wingdings, but in what Grillby recognized as a different font.

"NYEHEHEH!"

This, everyone understood, for Grillby recognized it as the font that Papyrus was named after.

"Aww, he's laughing!" replied a snickering Chara, who just seemed amused by this entire ordeal, as Toriel came rushing over and grabbed Papyrus and Sans and bought them as far away as possible, telling Chara and Asriel to immediatly leave this place.

Chara, however, protested. "Hey, the dog was probably just hungry, dogs love bones don't they? Besides, I doubt they would actually harm their playmate, especially with how much Papyrus behaves like a dog."

"No! We are leaving this very minute!" But as if they understood (and they probably did), Papyrus and Sans leapt from Toriel and headed back to Endogeny. There Papyrus made a begging motion, which Endogeny returned, before promptly swallowing Papyrus again.

"No!" said a really distressed Toriel, but Papyrus was promptly sticking his head out, seemingly smiling and wagging his tail, despite the tail being in the goop.

"See? This is Papyrus' way of saying it's ok," said Chara, as Sans promptly joined Papyrus in the goop, and fell asleep in there.

Toriel still wasn't convinced however, but Alphys said that she never saw them try and dissolve any lightner ever since they were bought to the lab, only the food she'd been giving them.

"I...I think they just can choose wether to dissolve something or not, like how fire elementals can choose whether to burn someone. I also don't think they even can hurt the skeletons, although that would require more research."

Meanwhile Asgore, who was protectively hugging Asriel and Fuku, suggested that she do more research then, and that "we can't force the children to leave if they like it here."

Toriel once again had to admit her lovely but o' so annoying husband was right.

"So, it's settled then. The kids stay at the deeper labs..." Said Grillby, as he fished out the goopy skele dragonlings, burning up the residue darkness with his flames.

"...While we'll try to find them a better home in the meantime," said Toriel.

"Good idea," replied Asgore.

Asriel then ran over and hugged Chara!

"I'm going to miss you so much, Chara!"

"Hey, you can always visit us, I'm sure Grillby or Fuku can carry you here."

"Yes, we can definitely visit them, right Grillby?" Said Fuku

"Of course we can, so long as we stay discreet," replied Grillby with a faint smile.

So, the Dreemurrs and Fuku eventually left, but as Grillby was about to leave, Alphys suggested that he stay here as well, as the dragons were crying most of the time Grillby was gone, and that they probably needed their parent.

"But i have a bar to run!" said Grillby.

"Well, do you have any vacation days?" replied Alphys.

"I don't take vacations," replied Grillby back.

"Then about time you take one," replied Chara with a sassy smirk.

Great. Two sasslords. Grillby thought.

He swore he could feel Gaster smile at that, a little sign he was still there, despite his recent silence.

Then he saw Papyrus looking at him with puppydog eyes, as Sans was...giving him head rubs, like a cat.

"Ok" sighed Grillby. "I'll stay. For now anyway."

And so, Alphys proceeded to take some anime downstairs, which they had fun watching (Grillby wasn't sure whether he liked it, but seeing his kids having fun made him smile).

And then, it was time to sleep. They had to bring two beds for Grillby and Chara downstairs, as Alphys preffered to sleep upstair so no one would notice a difference.

The skele dragons would sleep within a test tube near Grillby, as their young bodies still needed dark and light sustenance, which the liquid inside the test tube could provide (Grillby was happy he didn't have to sleep in another test tube, yet Gaster seemed disappointed, which resulted in some conflicting feelings for Grillby).

And so, with a last look at his (or Gaster's) children, Grillby went to sleep.

And proceeded to dream...

Chapter Text

Grillby found himself in that dark void again, his flames burning bright like a candle in the nothingness.

"Hello? Gaster, are you there?"

No response.

Grillby tried again and again, but nobody came.

"Look, Gaster...I'm sorry if I made you upset. Just...please come back, ok?"

And that seemed to do the trick, as Gaster reappered right behind him, startling Grillby.

"You miss me?" Gaster said with a smirk.

Now Grillby was offended. "Hey! If you're going to act like that, you can leave, right now, ok?!"

Now Gaster looked sad, despite his smile still being there, yet more forced than usual, and Grillby could feel the pain in his chest.

"Ah, yes, I should apologize,"

"Damn right you should," thought Grillby, yet Gaster didn't seem to hear that, or perhaps ignored it.

And then, Gasters blob body seemed to shrink and flatten, almost as if he was kneeling, supported by him putting his hands on the nonexistent ground, and saying:

"I apologize, Grillby, for being silent all this time, for forcing you in a situation you never asked for, and for leaving you in the dark, and for...everything else."

Grillby...did not expect this. The normally proud sasslord kneeling in front of him and actually apologizing.

Of course, he was still as cryptic about it as ever, but it's a start.

"...Well, apologgy accepted, Gaster." Grillby said with his signature faint smile.

And at that, Gaster's smile seemed to widen, and Grillby felt Gaster's happiness and relief course through his flames. Gaster proceeded to straighten up again, and... hug Grillby.

The feeling was very abstract to say the least, feeling a bit like cold water mixed with tar, yet not neccessarily unpleasant. Grillby was kinda scared that he was getting used to this darkness.

And yet, despite Gaster clearly being an entity of darkness, he didn't seem evil either, just very sassy. Not that body sharing with him was always pleasant, but Grillby remembered how he helped him find Fuku and Asriel, and even indirectly helped Chara.

But then again, there was that threat he made, but Grillby supposed he just apologized for it, so he let it slide.

After a little while, Gaster stopped the hug, and straightened himself again, smiling genuinly.

"Hey, Gaster?" asked Grillby.

"Yes?" replied Gaster with interest.

"Why did you go quiet all of a sudden, back then?"

Gaster was silent for a moment.

"...Ah, I suppose that requires an explanation as well," began Gaster.

"You see...the darkness sometimes makes me sense things, and sometimes, faint memories flood my mind, only for me to forget them again," Gaster continued.

"And well, when we were at the top of the Core, and at the phoenix' nest, as you call it, a memory flashed, but unfortunately, I seem to have forgotten what that memory was."

"You don't remember anything?" asked Grillby.

"I only remember calling for help...I don't remember if that help ever came," answered Gaster.

"Oh..."

It was silent for a little while.

"How does the darkness make you 'sense' things?" asked Grillby eventually.

"Well..." began Gaster

"Light cannot exist without darkness, and darkness cannot exist without light, as I've implied to you before," he continued.

"As a result, even if the light world contains far less darkness than the realm of darkness, and vice versa, it's still enough to make me sense some information from this place."

Grillby continued listening.

"And yet, I find myself strangely recognising certain places around this realm of light. Yet I don't remember ever being here."

"Such as the lab?" asked Grillby.

"Ah yes, the true lab...I recognized it rather strongly, as you may have noticed. But no, I don't actually remember much of anything," answered Gaster.

What little I remember, seems to be feelings...of a red light, that fell into darkness... of experiments, gone wrong...of dreams, filled with hope, shattered," continued Gaster.

"I was hoping that as our connection would deepen, that I'll eventually remember more...but that still hasn't happened."

"Well, It's still rather early, isn't it? Perhaps the memories will come back the longer we're connected," Grillby tried to reassure Gaster.

Gaster seemed thankful for the sentiment.

Then there was silence for another while.

"So, if darkness cannot exist without light, and light cannot exist without darkness... why did you decide to bond with me, instead of a lightner not made of flame? And can you sense my feelings, as well?" asked Grillby.

"Ah...well, for the first question, no, I didn't choose to bond with you, yet it seemed fate decided that we should meet, for the dragon still desires to be whole, and well...you slayed me, and yet saved me, and my children, and I'm eternally grateful for that."

Gaster continued

"As for the second question, i can feel the dark in your soul, but the light, which consists of the most of your body and soul, I cannot feel. Like it just isn't there. In fact, I'm pretty sure that the dark in your soul is the reason I can feel at all, 'cause, well, my soul...doesn't seem to be in my body anymore."

"Your soul is...gone?" Asked a concerned grillby, not even wondering why a dark being would have a soul.

"No...not gone. In pieces. Some of it I can feel in my children, other pieces, claimed by the dark, in places i do not know where."

Grillby could feel sorrow and pain as Gaster said that, and now it was Grillby's turn to spread his arms out, which Gaster promptly accepted, resulting in another fiery-goopy hug.

After the hug was done, and Gaster had calmed down, Grillby proceeded to ask further.

He started by making another attempt at asking about the black and white egg and the man who gave Fuku that egg.

"Oh...that. I'm not sure whether that was me, a piece of me, or that wasn't me." answered Gaster.

Well, that answer just made things more confusing, thought Grillby.

"And your, or rather, our children... they can sense you inside my soul right?"

"Seems like it, doesn't it?" Gaster said cryptically.

"And you sure they can't be harmed by darkness?" asked Grillby.

"What makes you assume I would let them get harmed by darkness?" answered Gaster with a smile.

Grillby interpreted these answers as Gaster's way of saying that the kids can sense Gaster, and that they indeed cannot be harmed by darkness.

"So, the fact that I can see you sometimes outside of my dreams, is that an illusion?"

"Ah...sort of? I believe it is your soul is projecting me like a movie screen, but it also allows for limited interaction on my part, so i guess it is half an illusion," Gaster explained suprisingly clearly.

So after another moment of silence, Grillby thought of another question, that he wasn't sure how Gaster was going to react too.

"Gaster, may I ask another question?" asked Grillby.

"Yes...?" Gaster replied with curiosity.

"...What did it feel like, serving the darkness?"

"..."

At that Gaster suddenly looked much more broken than usual, and showed the creepiest expression Grillby had seen him make yet.

"Oh, Grillby, as a servant of light, you cannot even begin to phatom what it feels like to be a slave of the darkness," began Gaster.

"For serving such a broken force of hate, who's only goal is to reunite with it's flaming counterpart, makes you broken and hateful yourself, and that experience can only be described with one word."

Gaster was now threatiningly close to a shocked Grillby.

"PAIN"

...

"Grillby..."

"Grillby...!"

"Grillby!"

Grillby jolted awake. In front of him was Chara, sitting on him, as well a very worried Papyrus and Sans, all three crying black tears mixed with coloured magic.

"Wha- what happened, why are you three crying darkness?!" asked a panicked Grillby

"You upset our father, Grillby, and we can feel his pain!"

Chara then shakily pointed to Grillby's chest area, which had dark veins spreading where his soul should be.

"Oh, oh no no no..." could Grillby only stammer.

He proceeded to embrace his apparent kids, as Chara appearantly considered themselves Gaster's kid as well, and...was clearly affected just as much affected as Sans and Papyrus.

Meanwhile, Alphys had heard the sound of a faint scream and howling downstairs, and proceeded to rush to the deeper labs, wondering what on earth could be causing this!

And there...she saw Grillby hugging Chara, Sans and Papyrus, while embracing them with his flame...

And yet, she swore for a moment that she saw a dark dragon surrounding them with it's dark wings.