C0deta1e an Undertale AU

Stranger Things Have Happened

-In Outertale-

-Third Person PoV-

It was a rather calm evening, the stars overhead shining and twinkling all around the vast sky. Outertale Papyrus, or Star as the other AUs referred to him as was doing his normal rounds. The Human had decided to help the monsters and thus negotiations had begun between humans and monsters to allow their return, so patrolling wasn't really needed. Still he found that he enjoyed the calm and had nothing much else to do at the time.

Suddenly Star heard a strange sound, almost like static and beeping for a moment before it stopped. Then he heard a thud sound off not to far from him.

Meanwhile Outertale Sans or Outer, felt a strange distortion in the air, the feeling made him a little nauseous for a moment before it passed just as quickly as it came.

-Star's PoV-

I hesitated for only a moment before sprinting to where that sound had come from, sure it was probably nothing, but I just felt like I had to go check. I entered the small clearing that the sound came from and noticed something black laying in the snow. Slowly I got closer and noticed that it was a person, so I rushed over to the person. Upon getting closer I noticed there was quite a bit of red staining the ground, which was startling. Gently I turned the figure over to see their face. It was a skeleton like myself and my brother, they even looked quite a bit like Outer, maybe one of those alternate versions he's told me about. But what worried me was the cracks on the skeletons skull and the deep scratches and chips on their face and all the marrow.

"HEY ARE YOU OKAY?" I asked, doing my best not to scream in this persons ear. But the skeleton was unresponsive, seeming to be unconscious. Not knowing what else to do, I carefully picked the skeleton up, rather surprised by how light they were. I ran back towards town and to the house, not knowing what might have happened to this poor monster, only knowing that they needed help.

-Outer's PoV-

I was still wondering about what that feeling could have been when Star kicked the door open making me jump.

"BROTHER I FOUND ANOTHER YOU IN THE WOODS, WE NEED TO HELP THEM THEY'RE HURT!" Star shouted at me, holding in his arms a thin skeleton dressed with a black trench coat and covered in marrow and injuries. My eyes went wide, but one look at this guy told me that just some bandaids wouldn't fix what was wrong, there were massive chips and cracks in his skull that were quite startling.

"We're going to Alphys," I said, placing my hand on my brothers arm to teleport us and this stranger.

In a flash of light the world around us shifted and we were in the lab.

"Alphys we need some help!" I shouted, helping to lay the injured monster on one of the tables.

A few seconds later the short yellow reptile with large glasses rushed in, "Wh-what's g-going on?" she asked, a little out of breath.

"Star found this skeleton in the woods, they have a lot of injuries." I said as quickly as I could.

Alphys gasped when she saw the unconscious skeleton, paling a little. "O-okay t-take off th-the c-coat and sh-shirt so I c-can g-get a b-better l-look." She said, going to get some medical equipment including an iv. and some monitoring equipment.

I nodded, having Star gently support the monster as I carefully removed any clothing that wasn't needed, leaving them in just their boxers. We also used some cloths to gently and carefully clean all the marrow from their bones. But now we could see that their injuries were worse then we initially thought.

The skeleton was a bit taller then me, and yet their bones were startlingly thin and fragile looking. On their left shoulder was a spiderweb like crack that looked deep, and the middle of their left forearm may as well have been crushed into dust, one large crack like it had been broken right in half and many more chips and cracks all the way down their arm. 1s and 0s looked to have been carved into the bone of their legs. Some of their ribs looked like they had been broken and then never fully healed, and there was entire chunks of bone missing from their collarbone and around their eye socket.

Star gasped in fear, shaking and crying a little, whatever had happened to this skeleton must have been horrible, torture even. Alphys came back and was barely able to keep from sobbing at the sight, but kept herself strong as she tended to the mystery patient, hooking up machines to keep them stable. She then drew out their Soul, and it made everyone go quiet in shock for a moment, the soul was very faint and rather weak looking, but the way it looked was the most confusing. Still Alphys hooked up a machine to their Soul to keep them stable, and we found out that this skeleton was named C0de and was male.

"I know we all have a lot of questions, but until C0de wakes up, all we can do is wait." I said, glancing at C0de with a bit of worry.

"WHAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED TO HIM?" Star asked in a hushed voice.

That however was one question none of us could even begin to answer. But, did we even want to know?

-Back in Underfell-
-Ink's PoV-

I just stared at where that portal had been, my mind trying to register what had just happened.

After a moment I stood up and turned to face the other two, frowning slightly and letting out a sigh.

"So.... wHaT nOw?" Error asked, trying not to look as on edge as he probably was.

"How about for starters, you explain what he was talking about, the balance?" I asked.

A while of explaining later.

"So yAh, iF yOu cReAtE tOo mUcH tHeN tHe mUlTiVeRsE wIlL EnD.... wE hAvE tO kEeP tHe bAlAnCe." Error explained.

It was a lot to take in, but I nodded. "I... I'm sorry for what I've done to you just for doing your job" I mumbled.

Error just shrugged, shaking his head in an understanding way.

"Now... about this C0de guy... what do we do about him?" I asked the question we were all thinking.

1096 words!

Hope you all enjoy the chapter, I know things are going a little slow right now, but I'm still figuring out how C0de's story will go.

-Equanox 🐉💙