Reak startled awake from a nightmare, faintly remembering how their friends died (—burned—) in front of them and their parents vanished into thin air(—into black and grey and ugly smoke—), leaving them alone for an eternity they wished would never exist. Taking a few deep breaths to calm their racing heart and soul, they looked around what seemed to be a little camp — of sorts.

There was a fireplace and two makeshift tents made of sticks and leaves. They themself were laying on lots and lots of leaves, looking like a bed. The situation confused the teen. They should be laying in their bed at home, waking up and getting ready to eat breakfast and not in some forest on some bed made of leaves and sticks-

The realization hit Reak fast—too fast—, remembering the past events like a horrible nightmare. Quick to move— which failed horribly thanks to the burning pain in their whole body, they rather layed on the bed of leaves. Reak layed down, staring at the blue sky with wide eyes, not wanting reality to be real.

How could it even be real? Them suddenly waking up as some weird otherworldly being on the streets, getting yelled at, driven to flee, escaping to the forest and finally being shot. How could that ever be real? How?

How...?

"I see you're awake.", a female voice as sweet as an angels said behind the fifteen year old. Reak tried to look, quickly deciding against it as their body reminded them just how badly they hurt. Instead they tried answering her, their vocals sounding strained and cracking, making their speech incomprehensible. "Ah-, don't speak. You should rest your voice.", the person warned, sitting down beside them.

Reak looked at the majestic figure in awe, long wavy red hair covered her shoulders with various golden accessories in it. Her face was adorned by various little black swirls and lines at the sides, almost like branches of a tree with little dots here and there. 2 rather big horns curled around two long elven ears, also decorated by fancy engravings and accessories. The figure wore a beautiful orange and white dress with various patterns and golden details.

And those big black eyes that stared at them with a hint of worry and curiosity.

To say that Reak wasn't in awe by the stunning looks of this person would've been a lie. Her looks astonished them more than the many landscapes they loved to take in. Said female started giggling, which made the teen look away in embarrassment- by not moving their head of course. That would've hurt. "Don't worry about it. First of all, I am here to check up on you. I saw you awake.", she reassured them. "Also, my name is Judith.", she said while holding a hand up to her chest, "but you can call me Judy!" Reak smiled at Judy, about to give their own name, though Judy interrupted them, "Don't speak, 'kay?", to which the teen complied.

"Good!", Judy said cheerfully at first, but her eyes avoided Reaks gaze quickly and looked nervously around, "But even though I came here to check up on you, I don't know how to take care of your...", she took a deep breath while Reak tensed up, "injury." Judy had a look of pity on her pretty face. The teen, however, didn't pay it much mind as they were reminded of the horrible- if not traumatizing- events. They stared at the sky in denial, because, after all, it couldn't be true. How could it be? It couldn't be!!

But, deep down, they knew the truth. They feared the truth. And this fear was strong enough to bring them to tear up.

After all, who wanted to lose so much in such little time?
They didn't. That was for sure. And they would never want anyone else to feel what they had gone through. Not even their worst enemy.

They hoped that everything was a dream.

Even though they could clearly feel the pain throughout their body.

"I-... We tried to help you as much as we could.", the female continued, "but we couldn't heal your lost lower arm." Judy looked to the side. "I can tell you everything else we know, though.", she tried to cheer up.

Reak didn't dare to move their right arm. They didn't want to see it. The fact that they couldn't feel their fingers nor their right hand was enough for them to understand the gravity of their situation- even though they couldn't believe it- didn't want to believe it! Reak closed their eyes, trying to escape reality.

Judy stayed silent for a bit, sitting on the leafy ground like a statue, until she deemed it safe to inform Reak of a few things, "We don't know much, but the police are leaving the forest alone for now. Seems like there have been more serious cases of... us.", she started, Reak listening to her sweet and somehow calming voice. "Besides that, we are theorizing about what has happened to us. The most likely theory we have is that we turned into our original characters.", Reak's eyes shot open at that, head lifting slightly to look at Judy better, ignoring the waves of pain rushing through every cell - or magic particle - of their body - though, the wince was more than audible.

Judy gripped Reak to help them steady themselves, "I-It's only a theory!", she reassured, hands holding gently onto their waist. Despite that, Reak looked at themself again, taking in their unfamiliar- but now familiar- outfit. The fact that they were made of ice, wore the shirt and vest with the little left pocket on the chest with a blue flower sewed into it was almost terrifyingly similar to a character they designed with their friend.

They reminded them of Niki, their sweet and simple character, a lot. Which was more trouble than they wanted it to be.

After all, Niki wasn't a character able to survive on their own for long. They had no special abilities and were rather weak. Not only that, but-

"The way you're looking...", Judy mumbled as if she could read Reak's thoughts., which they didn't want to be the case. "Do you also think that this could be the case?", she asked deeper, her sweet voice dropping a few tones.

Reak wanted to confirm that it could be the case, though their voice was obviously damaged and needed to rest.

Instead, they nodded very slowly, trying to minimize the movement and physical stress.

"I see.", Judy replied, looking lost in thought while the wind brushed through her red hair. Reak looked at her, also lost in thought. If what they looked at was an OC, then Judy was either a really good artist, a really good designer or knew someone with those traits.

And if what they had become was Niki, then they had to prepare themselves for the upcoming trouble they would face. Reak didn't know how bad it would be, but they knew for a fact that they would need to go to colder regions as fast as possible.

But, would it even matter?

They would die anyways, wouldn't they?

Because they weren't–

"Anyways!", the female said, snapping Reak out of thought. "We are currently a group of six, including me and you, unless the others were able to rescue someone else."

Reak focused on Judy, blinking slowly to signal for her to continue.

They didn't want to think about what they were. Not what they have become. Not what disadvantage they had.

And they didn't even want to linger on the idea of their life being over.

It was better to avoid it.

Right?

Judy smiled kindly. "One of them is Frederik, my childhood friend. When the incident happened, I was with him hanging out in the forest, though I passed out instantly, as he put it, while he stayed concious.", she told the ice elemental, who was Reak.

"He told me that he had no clue what to do and even considered all of this to be a dream, but being the 'heroic' person he was, he got me out of there with his new strength and carried me deeper into the forest.", she giggled, holding a hand up to her face. Reak smiled softly at the thought, but couldn't help but be envious of their almost peaceful first expirience. Judy didn't notice Reak's envy, too lost in thought, as she smiled wider and brighter than before.

"He has become his Undertale OC, Derek, who is a very strong human-bear monster hybrid, as he put it.", she continued, reddening slightly. Reak caught on and smiled kindly. They didn't have that much luck with their love life. Not that it bothered them that much. Nah, it 100% didn't bother them in any way.

"I don't know the other three though.", Judy snapped the teen out of their train of thought. "One of them is Anna. She said that she is female, though apparently she has the body of a male skeleton and a deeper voice now. She and another named Patricia ran into us yesterday after I woke up and me and Frederik were walking around to see if anyone had seen us.", She continued.

Reak was both surprised and confused. Yesterday? How long have they been knocked out? It couldn't have been a day, right?

Reak tried to communicate with Judy through some minor gestures to not cause anymore physical stress, though she didn't catch it. "Patricia is a black winged angel, as she put it." Reak nodded ever so slightly, frustrated that they couldn't speak yet.

"The last one is sleeping in that makeshif tent over there.", she pointed to a tent made of leaves and sticks. "His name is Mark and he used a magic item from his pocket that makes a certain area invisible, which we are in right now."

If Reak had their voice and the situation was right, they would've asked many questions about how it worked. They loved science and learning new things, so long as they were interested. Sadly, that had to wait.

"His OC is a sience nerd with many gadgets and notebooks, though most of his stuff is in his inventory which he can't access right now.", she finished frowning slightly. Perhaps there were more useful tools in there that he told her about.

Reak decided against thinking about that for the time being and instead nudged their head towards Judy and giving them a quirked eyebrow - or ice-brow?

"Me?", the red haired woman-... or girl- asked the teen, who nodded in response. "Well", she started, holding a hand up to her face in question, "I became my OC called Jaiden who is a famous singer going by 'Scarlet' in an Undertale AU I've been working on for months."

Somehow, Reak wasn't surprised about the singer part. Her voice was very pretty and her attire was beatiful. Of course this OC was some kind of celebrity or VIP.

Judy looked behind Reak and smiled energetically. She waved at a few approaching people, Reak assumed, who were likely the others Judy just mentioned.

And at that very moment when they heard people talking, Reak forgot everything Judy had just told them. How many people were there again? Five? Four? And what were their names again?

Oh stars, they were not ready for this. They were not ready for anything, really.

But what choice did they have?

They hoped that nothing bad would happen... Oh they hoped that they wouldn't mess up.

====

A/N:

:/
I feel like I introduced too many characters at once. Don't worry, Reak has no clue what's happening neither, but still.

Also, this book feels kinda dead lolol- XD

I'll try and update again.

(This chapter was prewritten. Has been in my library for months-)