A full week after the AUs went on lock down, a shock wave swept through the Multiverse. It didn't matter what route was going on or who it was. Sanses from every single AU, even the copies, were suddenly pulled right out of their AU.

One such Candytale Sans was in the middle of a nice walk through town when the ground gave way under his feet. Candy yelps as he topples forwards. Instead of landing in snow made from spun sugar, Candy falls face first into shaggy carpeting. He sits up and shakes himself off, confused. More squeaks of surprise sound out around him. Candy looks up to see his copies being teleported into the same room one by one. Each is just as confused as him. Candy is sitting in some sort of glass box. Enough theater seats for him and all the copies are set up in the large area.

Candy then looks beyond the glass box. Hundreds of other such rooms line a circular pit. The different glass rooms are all sorts of sizes with all sorts of different Sanses getting teleported inside. A few from the more violent AUs are sending attack after attack at the glass walls, but they show no sign of cracking. Most of the rooms hold a certain type of AU. Others, smaller ones, hold specific groups. Candy can see Dream in one, sitting up and confused with his son sprawled in his lap. Another small room has Horror and Killer separated on their own. Candy shivers when spotting the bad Sanses.

That's when Candy notices a very strange detail: no matter how far away the people he focuses on are, Candy can see them perfectly as if he was standing right next to them. The same effect is present when he looks down into the central pit. A skeleton is standing down there, too, watching the rest arrive. Candy recognizes them after a moment of staring. Alloy came to his AU just a couple days ago. He claims to be a god of balance, but didn't show much to prove it. Alloy asked him all about Candy's involvement with the rest of the Multiverse, which admittedly isn't much considering Candy is a poor fighter who hates violence.

Alloy is grinning like a mad man. He spins around slowly on one foot to look around at all the other monsters. This world is working perfectly just like he had hoped. It took a lot of planning for Alloy to make it perfect for all types of monsters. This environment reacts perfectly to his magic and no one else's. No can be allowed to fight before hearing each other out. Many monsters are coming out of their shock now and noticing Alloy. The noise of their muted conversations or shouts all meld into one giant mess. Alloy can't hear a thing, and neither can anyone else.

The God of Balance looks around again before holding up a hand for silence. Nobody does shut up, of course, but Alloy's magic burns hotter and reacts to the AU. Everything goes dead quiet. Oh, people are still talking, but sound is no longer escaping out from the glass boxes. Only those together can hear each other. Moat quickly realize it, and attention slowly shifts fully to Alloy.

"Welcome to the amphitheater!" Alloy breaks out into another wide smile. Despite talking in a normal voice, it is heard by everyone even through the glass. "In case you haven't figured it out yet, I can't hear any of you, but you sure can here me!" Alloy cackles at that last part. That earns him another round of mute curses.

"You've all met me, yes? I worked pretty hard to make sure I didn't miss any AUs," Alloy continues, "For those who didn't get the memo, or a proper introduction, I am Alloy, a God of Balance from another world." Nobody needs to know the specifics right this moment. Alloy isn't here to talk about himself. "A great injustice has been done to this Multiverse, and I'm here to fix. I'm going to tell you a story. THE story of this universe. YOUR Lost Stories."

This makes many monsters pause in thought. Most of them are far, far younger than their Multiverse even with the resets. Even Classic does not know it all with frequent true resets. Only Ink might come close, but he doesn't have the full story, either. A few monsters are absent from this meeting, but Alloy made sure he did talk to everyone. The Fresh of this Multiverse is probably somewhere having a midlife crisis after receiving a soul Alloy had crafted for him. Unfortunately, that's something Fresh has to work out by himself.

"Now for the first order of business," Alloy's smile grows, "I made a promise to a young friend of mine, and don't I think I should make him wait much longer."

Alloy uses his paintbrush to rip open a quick portal before he shoulders the tool once again. The god holds out his hand, and after a moment of hesitation, someone reaches through and grabs it. Alloy pulls them into the amphitheater before the portal closes. The new monster stumbles, but gazes around in shock once he regains his footing.

Geno can't believe that he's actually out of the save screen without feeling any pain. Even as his time as Fatal, he could feel himself slowly dying. The ever bleeding wound on Geno's chest is now a rusty brown. The blood is dry. The glitch and damage to his skull is also gone. He hasn't looked so strong since before his determination forced him to the save screen.

This amphitheater is Alloy's domain. He raises up one hand towards a certain glass box in the audience. The side exposed to a set of stairs slides into the ground. Geno's attention shifts to where Alloy is pointing, and tears come to his eyes. Goth nearly busts both his ankles by running down the stairs and skipping them in twos and threes. Geno takes a shaky step forwards before Goth crashes into him. It takes the God of Death a moment to believe what he's seeing before reacting. His feet leave the ground, and Reaper's feathered wingers have carried down into the amphitheater in seconds. He wraps his arms around his son and mate and hauls them both into the air in a fierce hug. Reaper's crying too hard to speak.

"R-Reaper, dear, you're going to reopen my scar," Geno huffs breathlessly, but he's still smiling. Reaper is still unable to answer, but he plops back down into the ground with the other two in his lap. Reaper puts his head on Geno's shoulder and continues to cry and mutter nonsense like the big teddy bear he is. The three are too lost in their own happy little world to pay much attention to anything else now.

"Many of you did not know Geno before he became known as Fatal Error," Alloy looks away from the little family to address the stunned audience. "The Story After Death started a very long time ago. Once Reapertale opened up to the rest of the Multiverse, he was accepted onto the Star Sanses' side, but no one was really actually comfortable with his presence. His very magic screams death. One day, his duty brought him to a save screen of an Undertale copy. A monster was trapped there; one who refused to die. Reaper's touch could not harm him. He kept coming back again and again. Geno didn't know about the other AUs outside his own, and trying leave would kill him. Determination saved his life and imprisoned him. Their son Goth is young god in his own right. His inherited determination is stable, and he can control his death touch."

"Fate was the former lead deity of this Multiverse. She decided that Geno was a rather interesting specimen. She pulled on the strings of fate, and used his own determination to glitch him into madness. Fate did not complete her work. She was forced out for her crimes, and I was sent to this Multiverse to repair it. Geno could no longer remember who he was or who Reaper and Goth were, but he did know that they were missing. He ripped out familiar codes from whatever monster he encounter, often causing them to glitch out of existence. That's when you met him as a villain."

Geno's story was a good place to start. He's only been active as Fatal for a couple months. Alloy needs to get the Multiverse to understand that there are two sides to every coin. It also happens to be the most recent.

"I won't force you, but you three can stay here for the rest if you'd like," Alloy says to them gently after a moment.

"We will," Goth answers almost immediately. He wants to see this through. Once the three are back in the seats Alloy arranged for them, he raises the glass wall back up. He's not very concerned about them causing trouble, but others might.

"Alright, time for the next one. No one is leaving this room until we're done," Alloy nods determinedly. He opens up another room, motioning for the occupants to come to him. Some monsters are scared, and some are disgusted, when Horror and Killer step out of their confinement. They meet the looks with their own smirks or insane grins. It's normal for people to treat them this way. The third Monsters is a little more hesitant, but Classic begins walking after another look from Alloy.

When the three are in the pit, Alloy gets to work. He grabs Classic by the shoulders without saying a word and positions him. The god grabs Killer next and makes him stand only a few feet from Classic. This makes them both uncomfortable, but Killer hides it with a twitchy grin. When Alloy touches Horror, the other snaps and clamps his teeth down on the god's left arm. Alloy doesn't react. He just calmly forces Horror back a few steps to stand in line with the other two. He then yanks his arm out from Horror's teeth. Some of the bones are cracked just from one bite. It was just a reflex, and Alloy understands that. He won't get mad. Horror actually looks a bit regretful. He turns his head and spits out a shard of bone. He doesn't have to eat that anymore.

Classic shivers. These two are bad, no doubt about it. They kill people without thought. Classic stares at them both, but especially watches Horror after what he did to Alloy's arm. The cannibal is actually shaking slightly, single eye light darting around to watch all the spectators. Something shifts in the dirty fluff of his hood. Classic's eyes widen. A very tiny UnderSwap Bitty sits up in the fluff and yawns. When it notices Horror's unease, it climbs up higher onto his shoulder and nuzzles his cheek. Horror's twitching eases. Classic doesn't understand how something so small and fragile could feel safe sleeping on someone like that.

Alloy momentarily turns away from the three to address the audience. "All AUs have their own set of conditions. It can even vary between copies of the same AU. Most of you know these three, but what no one knows is that they ALL come from the same type of AU. There is no Horrortale or Dusttale, only Undertale with slightly different conditions that led to a very different outcome."

It's a difficult thing to grasp. Undertale AUs are held in high regard, especially the original. Killer and Horror have always been labeled as villains. Lined up like they are, it's easy to see their differences, but more importantly, their similarities. Same blue jacket. Same loose basketball shorts. Same lousy slippers. Horror towers over the other two, or course, even hunched over. The cruel conditions of his AU forever altered his body and mind. Killer has a continuous stream of corruption leaking from his eyes, though it doesn't hurt as bad as it used to. His fragile soul is marked with a target, daring anyone to aim for it.

"Now, just stay still. I'm gonna try something," Alloy tells them, leaving no room for complaint. Classic can't help but wonder what Ally said to make Horror and Killer obey him. Classic himself is just afraid of what other powers the god might have.

Alloy takes a deep breath. He just wants to prove to everyone that they're more similar then they realize. He carefully pulls Phinigan off his back and holds it for a moment before sticking the end into the ground. This is smaller, so it should be a lot safer than what he did with Cross. Alloy let's go of the needle, but keeps his brush on. He raises his hands and calls up a bit of the codes that he can feel without the needle's obstruction. Slowly, fuzzy imagines begin to appear above the other three monster's heads. They take shape slowly with Alloy's limited magic, but they suddenly burst into clarity.

For each of the three, Alloy has conjured up each of their strongest depictions of Snowden. Classic's was the version that everyone is familiar with. All the monsters are happy and going about their daily lives. Horror's presents a much more horrible reality. Monsters are starving. They're deformed, and eying each other up as they pass on the street, looking for the next meal. Killer's is just....... empty. No one is left.

The amphitheater is dead silent.