"Never thought that I would see you so emotional brah. What did I miss?" 

No way.

I turned my head slowly feeling unsure if I was just hearing things. What if that fear stuff was still affecting me to think I heard something? I saw bright colors, a beaming grin, and the word 'YOLO' on a pair of shades. I was feeling many emotions at once not sure which was going to be the first to come out. 

I turned around completely to face him and it was definitely him, it was Fresh. He was really here in front of me.

"Broski, it's good to see that you're still kickin' it. I was totally buggin when I heard the little dude say that you were still out there! I mean I knew you had to be but I won't lie, thought you might of kicked the bucket for a second. It was only for a second I swear."

I started stepping towards him as the tension rose up between us. I saw him holding up his hands up in a surrendering motion when he realized I was approaching him. My expression gave away nothing besides blank shock.

"Now before you start attacking me maybe this time you could- oof!" 

It happened so suddenly that I'm pretty sure I made Fresh buffer. Before I even realized it I had my arms around him and my face buried in his shirt. I was shaking and had tears running down my face. I have had my issues with Fresh in the past knowing what he's really like but after everything that happened I was immensely relieved to see him.

Dealing with 404, being stuck in the Void for who knows how long, being stuck in this world that was on the way to deleting itself, dealing with that thing, pushing my abilities to to edge to fix a soul. Safe to say, I was done. 

I felt sobs try to push through and I was struggling to hold them back. I broke immediately when I felt arms around me feeling safe for the first time in a long while. Everything I was holding back came out and I cried. 

"Come on Error, I gotcha." I heard from Fresh and didn't realize that he moved us so we were sitting in the grass instead of standing. He stayed there and didn't move letting me cry on him. Eventually, I fell silent and felt my body was heavy from everything that happened with lack of sleep on top of it. 

"As much as I am thrilled about this, we should probably talk somewhere else," he said breaking the silence.

My grip on Fresh tightened for a moment before I shortcutted us down to the lab. Once we were in the darker area I released Fresh and got up using my sleeve to clean up my face a bit.

"How.... how did you find me? Don't get me wrong I'm grateful but I had trouble being able to even leave so..."

"Well it was actually Gradient. I was popping in to check on Ink when I saw little dude pop out of a portal and start telling him that he felt your magic. Ink discussed with him on how to find you while I snuck off to do my own search. I just started popping into aus hopping to get a clue or something. Then I popped up here and that it was a mess, I have no idea what happened but I noticed a stray string. That was my only clue so I started to search and tada I found you. Well that's the short version but you get the idea." 

Fresh stayed seated on the floor as he explained his story while I sat in a seat.

"Gradient.... is he..." I trailed off worried that I would hear something horrible.

"The kid is fine. He was pretty quiet in the beginning. Nightmare, Sci, Lust, and some others did what they could to cheer him up. Sending searches or just spending time with him."

"...how long have I been gone?" I asked needing to know how long I was possibly in the horrid place of dark nothingness.

"....," Fresh didn't respond and I noticed he was just staring. I didn't like the silence he was giving. 

"Fresh-"

"I'm thinking broski..... Less than a year for sure, many months for us. It was... a long time."

"So... I wasn't forgotten?" Fresh made a so so motion with his hand from my question.

"Hmm at first yes, it's like wherever you went tried to erase you from our minds once we left Classic's au. But, we all remembered pretty fast since you had too many traces. Gradient never forgot and helped others remember. As you can guess I remembered pretty fast, Nightmare and his group did also. The others followed right after."

I released a heavy breath and slumped a bit.

"Don't worry, once you're ready we'll go back and everything will be fine!" He beamed, back to normal.

"Yeah... wait... you can't leave?" I figured it was considerate that he was patient but he could've just poofed us out if he wanted. 

"I mean you were stuck here," he snapped his fingers and nothing happened, "and so am I. Why is that?"

"This au was unstable blocking any means of getting out. But now that the threat is eliminated the au is stabilizing. It's almost done last I checked and I thought it would've been done by now. It is possible that this au plays by different rules so I'll look into that."

"So what's the plan?"

"I want to rest, make sure my magic is good to go, say my goodbyes to one individual, and then we will attempt to leave." 

"Alright, moving on. Are you ok? As much as I will rubbing it in others' faces that you willingly hugged me you don't... do  that. What did I miss?"

I didn't want to but I explained to Fresh what happened starting way back when myself and 404 fell into the Void. There was a lot of explaining. Fresh barely interrupted and just listened. He only spoke to throw in his thoughts about what happened.

When I talked about Papyrus getting arrested he couldn't believe it. When I talked about Betty his shades turned to 'NOT RAD' and he would grumble. When I mentioned other people he seemed intrigued. Overall it was good to go over this stuff one more time reminding me it was over. 

I did end up falling asleep in that lab. It's been a long day. When I was rested up I had Fresh stay behind since I didn't want anyone to freak out and headed for the hospital since I was pretty sure Gaster was still there. I was right.

Papyrus and Sans weren't present but Gaster was awake reading a book probably for entertainment.

"Hello doctor, good to see you better." I greeted gaining his attention.

"Error, you look better as well."

"Yeah, got some rest. I'm going to attempt heading home so decided to pay you a visit."

"That time already, well I can only wish you luck. Also once again, thank you. You saved Sans and managed to bring miss Alphys back to us."

"I did what I could. Tell the others I wished them well. I'll probably visit for Papyrus's sake." 

"I'll let them know." Our interaction made me feel warm inside. It was nice saying bye to Gaster. I guess it depends on which Gaster that's talked about but some are distant, some are strictly seen as a scientist, and some are seen as father figures or even direct. I'm not sure how I see this Gaster but I'll admit he's pretty up there on the list of good people. 

I gave a slight wave before I turned and left. I headed back to the lab where Fresh was waiting and opened up a screen checking the au's condition. It was perfectly stable and I should be able to open a portal. I wanted to leave as fast as possible and it took some effort so when I did open a portal Fresh and myself quickly jumped through.

We were in a familiar white space. 

"Well we did it broski! Now who should we surprise first? Little guy? Sci? Maybe Lust? Oh what about Classic, that'll be a good one too." As Fresh was talking I looked around. Usually when I came into the Anti-Void I could see where my things were. I knew that I didn't take everything with me to Nightmare's realm so there should be something.

"What's up broski?" He asked making me leave my thoughts for a moment.

"Where's my stuff at?"

"Should be chillin around here somewhere. Hmm.... I'm taking a shot this way!" He bounded off and I followed after him at a slower pace. I will admit that I missed this space a little.

As we walked the area felt kinda weird to me. And not weird in a bad way, weird like I've been here before which I'm not surprised by since I wandered the Anti-Void for a bit before picking a spot to stay in when I first showed up. Maybe I was back at an old spot?

"Error! I see something over this way!" I heard Fresh call out and picked up the pace to catch up. I could see a faded speck in the distance. We were going the right way. I can go home soon once I've gathered my baring. Maybe I'll go find Ink since Gradient was with him last according to Fresh.

As we got closer I noticed something odd. I had strings all over my space, but not that much. There was more stuff sitting around too.

"Umm Fresh-"

"Almost there! Race ya!" He ran off before I could say something. I felt a slight throb at my temple but ran after the colorful menace. We both arrived and looked mainly above us. There were so many strings, dull of color. The stuff in the strings looked old also. Cautiously, I reached out to a few and they came down. One had an old puppet that didn't resemble the style I used when I make my own puppets and the other two had old faded souls. 

Where-

I felt a sharp pain fill my head interrupting my thoughts. I groaned and held my head as I started looking at the other stuff around us. It was mine, but not mine at the same time. I felt dread, I felt sorrow, I felt anger, I felt loneliness.

"Brah! You're not looking so hot!"

"Thanks Fresh I didn't notice," I grumbled sarcastically.

My gaze went up to everything above us and I felt my expression go blank. I threw up my own strings wrapping around everything. I knew this place and I hated this place. I never wanted to come back here. With a strong tug several old souls broke apart and puppets ripped into pieces falling to the white floor. It was satisfying to see those broken pieces and hear the souls shatter freeing them from their prison. Well they weren't of use anyways based on their condition. 

The days of the past were coming back to me and honestly I was more than happy to be given the chance to be able to destroy it.