Given An Unwanted Second Chance

Chapter 53

GUYS IT'S A PURPLE FIRST

I'M GONNA ACTUALLY TIME SKIP MORE THAN A FEW DAYS

NO CAP

Let's be for real, though.  We're over 50 chapters into this story, and Eclipse has existed for 3 1/2 weeks or so.  The end goal of Gradient's training is 8 months.  If I continued at the rate I was writing, we would have like 14 books of GAUSC, not because of sequels, but because of continuations because Wattpad has the 200-part limit lmfao (I did not mean to make this story so long 😂)

I also apologize for missing a week...life has decided to flip me off so much the past couple months.  You'd think I had the AO3 curse 😅

~~~~~

A month had passed since my first outing with the squad, bringing my grand total of time in Dreamswap to a little over a month.  A month and 4 days, just about.

I contacted Cryo and Gradient twice a week to do check-ins and also make sure Gradient was okay.  I missed him terribly, and he wasn't faring much better in the missing-someone department.  He seemed okay mentally, but I still worried.

I went out with the squad on their mischief missions most of the time, although I did occasionally stay back to practice or relax.  Despite the want to constantly be doing, even I could feel the burnout coming, so I took time to rest.

We weren't always lucky to avoid Dream during our missions, though on days where the missions took place in Dreamtale, I was firmly told to stay put.

Dream had only caught a glimpse of Pen, but with the victims' descriptions of Pen and the moment he saw her, he knew she was with the squad.  However, I don't think he knew I was Pen or that Pen was just a mini version of Eclipse.  I'm pretty sure he knew my smaller form's name since that Mobtale Sans did check me...though I was still unsure how I modified the check like that.

I only ever went out as Eclipse when we weren't causing mischief.  I found that Fluffytale, UnderArena, Farmtale (that alliance unbeknownst to Dream, which I found unnaturally funny), Outertale, and some AU called Dancetale were the AUs that the squad could go to safely (Farmtale obviously being in secret).

Error helped me figure out the way to portal to these specific AUs.  It took a few tries, but I could safely portal to them without the aid of the squad.  I tried not to travel out too much without the squad, but sometimes, I just felt the need to explore.

Today was one of those days.  Nightmare was uncharacteristically silent.  He'd been slowly getting more aggressive over time, and I could tell it was freaking him out, though he did an exceedingly good job at hiding it for the most part.  Still, I knew he didn't want to hurt me.

I carefully arranged my backpack to have healing foods on top in case anything happened before putting it on my back.  I made sure to leave a note in case the squad got back from their excursion before I did.

Once I was satisfied that I hadn't missed anything, I took a deep breath and focused, opening a portal to the AU I'd never been to before.

I stepped through, cringing at the increased positivity levels.  I was getting better at recovering faster after entering an area of overwhelming positivity, but I never got better at bearing it.  It was hard to focus when I felt like I was being lightly stabbed all the time. 

I closed the portal behind me, looking up.  The sun wasn't quite at its highest, but I couldn't tell if it was approaching its peak or just leaving it.  Either way, it was some time around noon.

I looked around, taking in my surroundings.  I seemed to be on the edge of a forest by a small neighborhood.  I wondered where the Sans of this universe was...