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Chapter Text

Frisk

"ALL OF YOUR SOULS ARE MINE!"

The world went white. Frisk almost lost his footing because it was like the ground beneath his feet lurched upwards, forming a steep ramp with the cackling golden flower at the end. The vine holding his friends in the air was pulsing, his friends were flashing red and black, and the crowd of monsters - everyone from crude Snowdrake to terrifying Muffet to cool Kid - had their looks of support replaced with looks of horror and pain as their souls were ripped out of their bodies and he was still sliding towards the flower!

He took a step back, then another. The wind howled around him as Flowey took in roomfuls of air with each laugh, and the monsters weren't even turning to dust, they were just vanishing as the light grew brighter and brighter. Somewhere in the back of his mind he could hear Chara shouting, shouting at him to run from Flowey, or to throw something at him, to do something but it was all he could do to steel himself and resist the vacuum as the wind grew louder and the light grew brighter, brighter, brighter and his foot slipped -

Then everything went dark.

Frisk looked around. No sky. No ground, nothing. He felt stone beneath his shoes, but it was black. He could still see himself, with a locket over his striped sweater and an unused gardening knife tucked safely away, but beyond that the world was empty. He recognized it after a moment. He was in the same pocket universe Flowey had dragged him into last time. Frisk couldn't suppress a tremor of fear because he was not looking forward to facing the monstrous form the flower had taken again.

'... Rei?' Chara asked hesitantly from within him.

Frisk blinked and look around again. Not too surprising, he wasn't alone in this realm. But surprisingly, it wasn't Flowey that was with him, Omega form or otherwise. It was a kid, he could tell because they were wearing a striped shirt, green and yellow like a flower.

The kid's back was to him. Frisk could see black sweatpants going down to feet. The feet looked like they had pads and were shrouded by white fur, and in the sweatpants he could see - just like with Toriel - the bulge of a small tail underneath. The head was also covered in the same fur, as were the hands. Two long and floppy goat ears hung from the head, and the fur on top was in a cowlick. The kid looked slightly to the left, slightly to the right.

'Rei?' he thought to Chara. 'You mean that's Asriel?'

'Of course it is!' she insisted. 'I'd recognize that crybaby anywhere. But how? And why? I saw him...' she trailed off, not finishing her sentence.

The kid moved his fingers, capped with filed down claws, clenched them into fists, then relaxed them. He took a few silent, shaking breaths, or maybe they were laughs.

'I don't get it. If Asriel's here, then where's the flower?' Frisk asked. A horrible thought dawned upon him. His mind reeled, processing how all his friends were gone, how he'd come so close only to fail, how golden flower seeds clung to people, how Asriel must've been covered in their seeds when he returned to the underground, how he introduced them to the underground and how his dust had gotten into them, how Alphys had injected enough determination to resurrect the dead into a flower... but it couldn't be.

"Finally," the kid said at last, and there was no doubt in Frisk's mind. That was Asriel. That was the same voice he'd heard Chara remember after falling into the garbage hump and oh God he was swimming in uneasy nostalgia. "I was so tired of being a flower," Asriel muttered, but he didn't appear to be talking to anyone, not even himself.

'No!' Chara shouted. 'No way! Out of the question, he can't be the flower! Asriel wouldn't! He couldn't! He'd never do all that! He'd, he'd...'

While Chara continued to shout her denial, Asriel turned around.

Frisk didn't have any idea what to expect. For a brief moment he thought Asriel's face was horribly mangled, but then he realized he was just looking down. Asriel lifted his head, exposing a short snout with stubby little fangs that were trying so hard to be intimidating. He opened wide, brown eyes that weren't anything like a goat's. Asriel saw Frisk and smiled, showing how every last one of his teeth were canines. "Howdy!" he greeted cheerfully.

Not knowing what to do, Frisk numbly waved in greeting.

"Chara," Asriel asked, and Frisk froze while Chara's ranting died in its tracks. "Are you there? It's me!" he chirped. "Your best friend!"

A flash of light blinded him. The light vanished and Frisk didn't even see an after image, but the sensation of horribly powerful magic made his nerves buzz.

Asriel's little boyish form, no older than Frisk himself, was gone. In its place was a towering boss monster, with the same Delta Rune robes Toriel wore. He was taller than Asgore, and more confident than Toriel. He hovered in the air, feet suspended mere inches above the invisible floor. The top of the robes wrapped around in a short deflated collar, and while Asriel still had the cowlick he also now had horns, longer than his mother's but shorter than his father's. His eyes had inverted so now their whites were brown, and both iris and pupil were snow-white slits. The fangs were not at all cute anymore, and on both cheeks the fur was darker to form two black lines on his face. The short, harmless claws were sickles that could rend and tear flesh, and perhaps most sickeningly, there was the pattern of a chain and heart-locket near the top of the robes, in a crude mockery of what Frisk himself wore at Chara's insistence.

Frisk nearly fell to the ground when he felt something pull at him. His soul appeared, a flat and scarlet heart above his actual heart. Exposed and vulnerable.

'Asriel?' Chara muttered weakly. 'Oh God, he's got every soul in the underground. And every monster soul together is - '

Frisk didn't have time to listen to Chara's speculation, because then Asriel's magic was upon him. Asriel didn't even deign to make a hand gesture. Smokeless fireballs just formed in the air and pelted down at him from all angles, popping and vanishing when they hit the ground. One nearly caught his soul, and he gasped at the close call. But then the rain of fire ended because Asriel was closing his eyes.

Then Asriel opened his eyes, and the world erupted into color. From behind the boss monster an endless kaleidoscope of rainbow colors formed and spilled out around him. The ground was identically colored no matter what angle Frisk looked at, so the illusion that he was floating was unbroken. Asriel began to rapidly drift in circles around him, chromatic echoes trailing behind him.

"Asriel, let's talk about this," he began weakly.

But the monster didn't listen. Instead he grinned and spread his arms to the side. Five pointed stars of all colors, like the kind a kid might draw, flashed around his fingers and then Asriel was just gone.

'Frisk, heads up!' Chara shouted.

Frisk craned his head backwards and gulped. It was hard to see among the river of colors but cartoony stars, now fully three dimensional, were crashing down from above. None of them looked like they were aimed at him, but that just meant they had some other sadistic function. But that didn't matter. They were coming so much slower than Omega Flowey's mind-bending attacks. Hope swelled in his chest like a forest fire, he could do this.

The first rainbow star hit the ground with world shattering force. It didn't vanish, instead splintering into a sphere of white stars the size of Frisk's fist, and that sphere was growing alarmingly fast. But before he could even dodge between them, another star smashed behind him, and then another somewhere else, and another, and another...

His nerves were on fire by the time they stopped coming, and it looked like some of his hair had been singed off, but he did it.

'Frisk, MOVE!'

A glance up proved him wrong; there was one more rainbow star, thrice the size of the others crashing to the ground. He backpedaled away from its trajectory just in time for it to explode into a series of three spheres.

I can do this, he thought, dodging between the first sphere. I can do this, I can do this... One of the star fragments came close enough to his arm to leave a burn, but then it was over and the stars were fading away into the distance.

Asriel reappeared, staring down at him like a starved wolf. Frisk fell backwards onto the ground and scrambled away. "Come on now, we can use our words can't we?" But could they? Flowey certainly hadn't been up for a discussion, and if Asriel was the same person...

'Heh, I-I gotta say,' Chara admitted weakly. 'The Absolute God of Hyperdeath looked a lot more dorky on paper.'

The monster chuckled and floated a short distance backwards, his echoes fading after a moment. "You know what, Chara?" he asked, and it was the same voice that had called him in Alphys's true laboratory. "I've changed my mind. I don't want to destroy this world anymore."

"Well it's a start!" Frisk shouted as Asriel spread his hands again. This time, instead of stars, it was rainbow sparks crackling between his fingers.

'Shocker Breaker, he's using Shocker Breaker!' Chara shouted desperately.

'Shocker what?!' he asked incredulously as Asriel vanished into thin air, leaving the smell of ozone behind.

'Lightning from the skies, move it!'

Frisk looked up. He couldn't see anything, but then the invisible ground beneath his feet started to vibrate and he tossed himself to the side. Just a moment later the ground he'd stood on before - and hundreds of other patches within his sight - were struck by multicolored bolts of lightning with such a clamor he feared his eardrums would burst.

Then the ground buzzed again. Now that he wasn't looking up he could see the circular crackles of rainbow magic - this newest one was underneath him again - so he moved. Then again, and again. Then the patches grew to three times their size and he was throwing himself away with all the grace of a cannonball, but each time the soles of his shoes were scorched. After what felt like a dozen salvos of blinding light, it ended and Asriel reappeared in front of him, like a ghost.

"All I have to do," Asriel explained with so few hand gestures Frisk could believe he was Flowey. ", is defeat you. Then I'll have complete control of time once again. Then? I just want to reset EVERYTHING!" he said, ending with a shout.

Reset everything. Frisk thought about everyone he'd met on his wild, crazy journey. Toriel, Undyne, the Skele-bros, Alphys, Asgore... Chara. He had to do this, for them.

'Chaos Sabres!' Chara supplied just as Asriel's arms vanished into thin air. 'Giant swords, they leave sparks behind them!' And sure enough, new arms took the place of Asriel's old. They were holding swords too, each a replica of the other. The swords were twice as long as Frisk was tall, notched and decorated with symbols. Near their tips there was a part cut out from their center, filled with floating bits of metal. And then Asriel floated towards Frisk so fast he barely had any time to get out of the way.

Swoosh! The first slice nearly got his soul. Instead, it tore his shirt and left a searing cut on his stomach.

Swoosh! The next sword stabbed, and found nothing but air.

Swoosh! Asriel floated above him and drove the sword straight down. Its edge came so close to Frisk's face he went cross-eyed staring at it, and bits of his hair floated down.

Swoosh! Asriel descended and forced Frisk to jump above a lazy sweep at his legs.

Swoosh! Frisk jumped backwards at another stab aimed right at his soul. Where were the sparks Chara mentioned?

Asriel's face was stuck in a grin like he was a statue. He raised both swords above his head, power crackling along them. Even more disturbingly, the monster's head did a full vertical rotation, going upside down and coming right back up, and then the swords slammed into the ground on either side of Frisk. Asriel and the swords vanished into nothingness, but crackling white lights surrounded Frisk in all directions and closed in on him. He tried to move out of their way, but he misjudged their trajectories and one spark crashed right into his soul.

Frisk fell to the ground, screaming and nearly throwing up, just in time for Asriel to reappear. He had to concentrate. Concentrate on... on the smell of pie, freshly baked just for him. On a home that smelled of fur and memories. The warmth flowing from his stomach vanished and he stood, eyes narrowed on Asriel.

"Everyone's memories," he muttered. "Everything you've accomplished." Suddenly he grinned and spoke airily. "I'll bring it all back to zero." Then Asriel was vanishing...

'Shocker Breaker!'

The lightning one, right. Frisk knew what to look for. The ground was still awash in color, which made looking for the patches of energy difficult, but literally the entire world was on the line so he found them and moved away, ignoring how every one of his hairs stood on end, or how he kept seeing afterimages of the lightning bolts. In seconds the attack ended and Asriel was back, lazily drifting back and forth.

He hadn't gotten hit once that time. Frisk could do this. Everyone had something that they'd listen to. Even Asriel. He just had to find it and talk him down.

"And then?" Asriel asked rhetorically. "Then we can do all of this again, but with me like THIS!" His hands went out, bristling with stars.

'Is that the star one?' he asked Chara as the monster disappeared into the swirls of color.

'Y-Yeah, Star Blazing!' she said, her voice quivering.

He moved between the stars, keeping his eyes and ears on the swivel to find where the next explosion would come from. And just like before, Star Blazing ended with a colossal star that sent out three separate pulses of stars, each slightly out of sync with the other. Once it was over and Frisk was unharmed, Asriel reappeared.

"And the best part? I know you'll oblige. You'll actually do it all again!" Asriel jeered, floating to a great distance. This time, only his left arm vanished.

'Chaos Buster, it's a gun!' Chara warned.

A gun?!

'Do as I say.' Asriel's left arm didn't reappear. In its place, a colossal... thing appeared. Calling it a gun was generous. It looked like a graduated cylinder from his science classes, but with a stylized nozzle on the end, spikes and wings along the entire outside. And it was aimed right at him. 'Sideways!'

Frisk knew better than to argue, somehow Chara seemed to know these attacks already. And she was proven right when from the end of the gun, even though it was empty, a series of magical bullets spewed out, three at a time. The center row was aimed right at where he'd been, but he was safe.

Asriel floated ninety degrees to the right, and took aim again. 'Don't move!' The gun fired again and Frisk sweated in anticipation. Chara's word was, again, good. The bullets came out four at a time, passing narrowly by Frisk. If he'd moved even an inch, he would have been skewered.

The boss monster kept moving and shooting, faster and faster. 'Move! Stop!' Chara shouted. 'Move, stop, move, stop, move!' Then the gun spun around, filling up with a multicolored fluid. 'RUN!' Frisk ran, just as the gun's nozzle opened up wider than it had ever before. The rainbow fluid burst outwards at where he'd just been at the speed of light, crashing into the ground and splashing outwards. The Chaos Buster vanished, and Asriel's arm reappeared.

That was three salvos he'd completely avoided. Right. This wasn't nearly as horrible as Flowey. Frisk could do this. Even if 'not as horrible as Flowey' meant Asriel was toying with him, he'd take whatever he could get.

His opponent closed his eyes smugly. "And once you do it all? You'll lose to me again!" His arms vanished. Frisk's mind drew a blank. What attack was that again?

'Chaos Sabres, swords and sparks, oh shi - '

Asriel was upon him in a split second.

Swoosh! "And again," Asriel chanted.

Swoosh!

Swoosh! "And again."

Swoosh!

Swoosh! "And again!"

The swords came down a last time. Frisk hopped to the right and was rewarded with his arm nearly being cut off at the shoulder. As it was, the cut went down to the bone, the sparks blasted his body, and this time he did throw up. His vomit vanished into the rainbow colors and he laid on the ground, closing his eyes and focusing.

He focused on bad spaghetti and worse jokes, puns that made him groan but made Chara howl with laughter. Frisk took a deep breath. He was not going to bleed. He was not going to die. He was going to endure and win, and he would see his friends again.

"You'll do it," Asriel assured, already summoning stars while talking. "It's because you 'love your friends'."

'Star Blazing! Wait no, they're spinning!' The first stars were already crashing into the ground by the time Chara finished her warning. Like she'd said, they were spinning now, and that meant the spheres they gave off were also spinning. He knew he could do it though, he would see both of them through this darkness to the other side, and with that in mind the cuts and burns hardly even bothered him. 'Spinning means that was Galacta Blazing.'

'How do you know all his attacks?!' he demanded, since the attack was done but Asriel had yet to reappear.

'Because my brother's a dork!' Chara shouted back, just in time for said brother to rematerialize.

"It's because you want a 'happy ending'," he said with air quotes. Lightning fell from the skies, this time seeking out his location and chasing him across the infinite battlefield. "It's because you're the one who 'never gives up'," Asriel continued. His left arm vanished, replaced by his gun.

'Move!' Chara shouted as Asriel began shooting. Frisk moved. 'Don't move! Move - WAIT NO STOP!' Too late. Asriel had varied up his pattern, and the string of magic bullets tore into Frisk's leg. He howled in pain and fell to the ground - avoiding another salvo - and clutched his leg. There was no doubt, that was a hole straight through his body. 'Frisk move!'

Right. Pain was temporary. His right leg didn't want to respond, so he just had his left leg do double the work in hauling him up and out of the way of the blaster's attacks. Then it spun around and filled itself. He threw himself out of the way of the rainbow blast, but then his eyes widened when he saw the end of the gun release seven massive, rotating spheres of stars. Two of them found his left arm. One of them found his soul, and he went back down.

No. He wasn't going to die. He dreamed of the world's most violent cooking recipe, of trying so hard to make people respect him and like him that he couldn't stay mad. His soul stabilized and his body, drinking in the ambient magic, healed itself. That dream would come true. He'd make it.

"Isn't that delicious?" Asriel asked, shaking his head from side to side. His ears didn't flop. "Your determination? The same thing that let you get this far, that separates humans from monsters, separates you from other humans... it's going to bring you down."

'Frisk, I'm so sorry,' Chara babbled in his head. 'I didn't know he'd do that, I thought he'd stick with - LIGHTNING!'

The wounds might have been gone, but the pain still lingered. Frisk's heartbeat pounded in his head and blood rushed so fast he could feel his veins expanding to accommodate it. But miraculously, he avoided each hungry blast of lightning.

Asriel didn't even bother to reappear, but his sickening sweet voice boomed from all directions. "Well, enough of this. The purging of this timeline begins... NOW!"

'Hyper Goner,' Chara warned as the rainbow colors disappeared, casting the world into darkness once again. 'Don't let it pull you in, and watch your back!'

Before Frisk could think to ask what 'it' was, it appeared. It was the DT Extraction Machine. It was Omega Flowey's head. It was a boss monster skull, with curled horns and blank eyes and it was laughing, laughing and laughing. Then its mouth opened so much wider than it should've been able to and Frisk started to fall in.

He dug in his feet and pushed. The goat skull shimmered like it was in a heat wave, pulling in everything around him. Frisk turned his back to it and ran as hard as he could to escape the black hole behind him. All the way in front of him, he could see the pocket universe crumbling. Bits and pieces of it fell, forming white chunks of energy and leaving no holes. The chunks fell in, past him and around him, into the black hole. There were so many, far too many to avoid, and while they didn't leave any physical wounds their magic crashed around his body, blasted into his soul, and he could barely keep ahead of the Hyper Goner's pull. His hope was fading, his dreams were never coming true... and then it ended.

The colors returned and Frisk fell to the ground, panting weakly. But he couldn't lay down, Chara's protests in his head only reinforced that notion. The twelve year old pulled himself up and stared at where Asriel had reappeared again.

The boss monster whistled. "Wow, you're still standing even after that? I always knew you were special among humans, Chara." He held up a hand. "But let's not get ahead of ourselves," he said slyly. "You saw what I could do with just six souls. You know I've been holding out on you. I think you'll appreciate... THIS!" he shouted.

The ground vanished.

Frisk only fell a short distance, and then something grabbed him and hoisted him back up to Asriel's level. The boss monster was distorting, growing and reshaping himself. The pocket universe shuddered and the colors froze. Then they melted inward, flowing like water to Asriel and leaving darkness behind. The monster's body kept twisting and contorting, growing bigger and bigger until it towered over Frisk the same way Flowey's monstrous form had.

His body was gone, and in its place was a white sphere emblazoned with a single heart. Dark energy formed curling shoulders and Asriel's head just floated above it. The black marks had reached and surrounded his eyes, and now his horns were longer than even Asgore's, curling sideways a great distance. There weren't legs, just a vaguely triangular, twisting shape hovering beneath the soul orb. Asriel's hands were misshapen things with claws not just at the end of the fingers, but instead of them, and empty soul-pockets punctured the wrists. The arms weren't even attached to the body, there were just threads of raw magic connecting them to the rest of the body. The flowing colors were trapped now, locked in a mockery of angel wings that sprouted from Asriel's core.

"Oh," Frisk said weakly.

Asriel threw his head back and laughed. "Ura ha ha! See?! THIS is my true power!" He held both arms out, and one after another his hands flashed. A series of languidly moving rainbow streaks shot from each flash, arcing lazily in Frisk's general direction. He tried to move out of the way, but whatever kept him suspended in the air also held him firmly in place. He couldn't move his body an inch and the missiles, each the size of his head, were approaching fast.

The first volley missed him.

The second came so close the front of his shirt burned off.

The third and fourth volleys passed a safe distance around him, briefly blocking his view of Asriel.

Then both hands flashed at once, sending a torrent of missiles at him. Chara screamed and Frisk tried to move as hard as he could, but one - just one - of the missiles crashed squarely into his side... and out the other end. It was bloody.

He gasped and made a sound like a deflating balloon. His vision darkened rapidly, but as his life slipped away Frisk could still see the floating heart that represented his soul. It shook and sundered into two equal parts. It was such a familiar sight, and he'd come to learn it meant he was about to reset...

... but he wasn't, was he? Asriel was in control. Asriel was more determined. If Frisk died now, it'd be over. Everything would be for nothing. With so much determination in the monster, not even Frisk would be able to remember the resets. Asriel, Flowey, would run rampant forever. He couldn't allow that. He had to win. He would win. He was not going to die. He refused to die!

'FRISK!' Chara shouted in horror.

Frisk refused to die...

Each half of his soul shook and splintered into dozens of fragments that blew away into dust.

... but he died anyway.

The last thing he felt was the familiar tug on the world as time began to run backwards, but it wasn't him resetting. It was Asriel, and Frisk had a sinking feeling in his gut that -

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Chapter Text

Frisk

Frisk was twelve years old when he first climbed Mount Ebott on a dare. It was hard and rough, and he'd spent what money he had on the gear and supplies. But he reached the top and was rewarded with a vast view of the countryside. On the return trip, he'd even found a cavern he'd missed on the way up. He went inside to look around, but other than a circular indentation there was nothing of interest. So without incident he went back home to the orphanage. Everyone was shocked; they were so sure he'd be lost forever. He of course got in trouble but everyone was just relieved he was fine.

It was a single day after that the monsters returned.

Frisk had a hard time imagining he'd been standing above the underground cavern hours ago. The magical seal that had kept the monsters buried also prevented any seismic detection of the cavern system, so nobody had any idea what was there. The monsters' king, a gigantic wall of muscle by the name of Asgore, led the way proudly but in confusion, saying on public television he himself had no idea what had shattered the barrier.

But Asgore was far less cruel than his intimidating stature and the 'gore' in his name implied. He sweet-talked all of the Conjoined Nations into accepting the monsters as they were, to work towards a world where it was not 'humans' and 'monsters', but just the people of Earth. Frisk was caught staying up late, listening to his deep, thrumming voice, more than once.

The Conjoined Nations were hesitant to accept, but despite their soul-stealing powers the monsters all conducted themselves in a surprisingly polite fashion, so the peace treaty was -

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- the Conjoined Nations were hesitant to accept, and their fears proved well founded when a gruesome monster with power beyond imagining rose from the monsters' ranks. It was powerful beyond reckoning, like an angel and a demon rolled into one, with arching horns and iridescent wings. Frisk sat huddled in a shelter, watching on grainy television as the monster casually ate atom bombs, effortlessly vaporized entire cities, and even though the monsters were also trying to fight the angel, it was no use. Then the day came when the cruel monster set Frisk's town in his sights.

But Frisk wasn't going to just go down without trying. Fighting didn't work on this monster, that much was obvious. So the only thing left were his words.

He stood, alone, in the town square, three years after the monsters returned. Ebott Town was a ghost town, and the maps all indicated this 'Asriel' was on his way to his town.

Frisk stood in the center, scanning the skies. Sure enough, there he was, a rainbow light against the stormy clouds.

Asriel was even more twisted and ferocious in person. His fangs were sharper than knives and the floating, magically scarred hands had talons the size of shortswords. The wings didn't even flap, they just stayed rigid and shifted between all the colors of the rainbow, patterned like a circuit board.

"HEY!" Frisk shouted, pointing up at Asriel. But the monster didn't appear to hear him. Frisk's heart hammered in his chest, faster and faster. This couldn't be happening.

Asriel raised his hands, a ball of blinding sunlight forming between them.

His heart leaped into his throat and he shouted again, but the sound was swallowed up by the roar of rainbow light, cascading down and engulfing his entire village. There was a single flash of unimaginable pain. His clothes burned and his flesh turned to ash -

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"HEY!" Frisk shouted, pointing up at Asriel. The monster descended in a smooth motion, and came to hover before Frisk, inverted eyes staring at him hungrily.

"And who are you?" Asriel asked mockingly. "Who are you to so brazenly catch my attention? What's so special about you, Chara?"

Chara? Frisk imagined it was some monster insult, so he ground his teeth and straightened his back, ignoring his impulse to run and hide. He was determined to talk Asriel down. "Why are you doing this? We never did anything to you! The humans who imprisoned your kind died long ago, right?"

"Oh, thousands of years ago." Asriel waved a hand dismissively, and Frisk felt his eyes being drawn to the orb that took the place of Asriel's chest. "I'm just doing this because I feel like it."

"And what are you going to do after?" he challenged. "When everyone is dead what then?" He quieted down. "Aren't you going to be lonely?"

Asriel threw his head back and laughed like a cartoon villain. Was it intentional? "Ura ha ha, of course I'm not! Not with you here, best friend!"

Frisk's hackles rose. His best friend. His best friend?! This mass murderer, this omnicidal maniac, dared claim Frisk to be his friend?

"I'm not your friend," he challenged hotly, balling his fists. He knew it was futile to try punching; even nukes didn't phase Asriel. But he had to try. He ran forward and jumped. Asriel's eyes blinked in surprise, like he hadn't expected this 'puny human child' to try, and then Frisk's hand connected with a face that felt like a brick wall, and rainbow light exploded over him -

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- and then Frisk's hand connected with a face that felt like a brick wall, and razor sharp claws impaled him through his torso -

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- and then Frisk's hand connected with a face that felt like a brick wall, and lightning came down from the heavens to skewer him from head to toe -

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- and then Frisk's hand connected with nothing but air because Asriel was just gone, and moments later a three dimensional star crashed down and turned him into a crater -

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- and then Frisk was dangling by his arm. Asriel had caught him with one hand and held him in the air. "Golly," the monster mused. "That was a rush."

"Let me go!" he grunted, swinging himself about in a vain attempt to escape a grip that could lift mountains. "Just stop this! There's nothing waiting for you at the end of this road - "

"Oh, I know," Asriel admitted. He brought Frisk face to face with him. "But the thing is? I'm a time traveler. See you soon."

Frisk's jaw dropped. "Wait, time traveler - " The world erupted into light.

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"Oh, thousands of years ago." Asriel waved a hand dismissively, and Frisk felt his eyes being drawn to the orb that took the place of Asriel's chest. "I'm just doing this because I feel like it."

"And what are you going to do after?" he challenged. "When everyone is dead what then?" He quieted down. "Aren't you going to be lonely?"

Asriel glared at him and sighed, looking down. "I don't know. I suppose. I mean, look at how powerful I am!" He threw his hands to the side. "If I had wanted to, I could have crushed this world ages ago! Maybe I'll just find another world."

"What if you can't?" Frisk challenged. "Can you really risk it all on a gamble?"

They spoke back and forth. Frisk's heart hammered and sweat beaded on his face, but he was actually doing it. Slowly, Asriel's expression began to shatter, and eventually the monster said, "You're right. You're right. I'll just make myself scarce." Then, without flash of light, or fading, or a rush of moving air, Asriel was just gone.

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" - I'll just make myself scarce." With a blinding flash of light and the roar of a tornado, Asriel engulfed himself in light. Frisk briefly feared for his life, but when the cacophony died down the monstrous monster was nowhere to be found.

He... he actually did it!

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- Frisk sat huddled in a shelter, watching on grainy television as the monster battled the defenders of the world. Even the other monsters had banded together under King Asgore, aiding the human forces -

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- under King Asgore and Queen Toriel, aiding the human forces in pouring fire and fury onto Asriel. Magic cooled weapons and prevented overheating. Tank shells fired. Atom bombs, at a safe distance, fell. The battle raged and raged, and Frisk watched along with the other orphans as the brave defenders of the world attacked Asriel from all directions. Slowly, the seemingly invincible monster weakened and fell to the ground, wings dark and magical pulses quiet.

Asriel was in a crater, fallen onto his front. Asgore and Toriel approached, grimly, and with a heave of effort Asriel pushed himself up, staring at his parents. "Mom?" he asked weakly. "Dad?" Everyone gasped. Frisk gasped. The monster couple gasped. The others around him gasped. Some conspiracy websites had predicted this, but to see it confirmed firsthand! But how could cruel, spiteful, sadistic Asriel possibly be related to motherly Toriel and gentle Asgore?

But there it was. The monsters were proving it. They rushed forward and wrapped their arms around Asriel, who hugged them back and sobbed, while the cameraman backed away to give the family privacy -

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- and wrapped their arms around Asriel. Suddenly they were thrown back and Asriel floated in the sky, fully restored. "Not for real," he said smugly. And then the camera feed died and the earth beneath Frisk's feet split apart, blinding light shining through the cracks and incinerating the entire planet -

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- to give the family privacy.

Days turned to weeks. Weeks turned to months. Asriel had vanished after the touching scene. Some thought him dead. Others thought him imprisoned, or reformed, in hiding, or even in exile. The important thing was that they were safe, and while anti-monster sentiment was at an all time high, with even, God forbid, lynchings of some of the scarier monsters, Asgore and Toriel were working hard to improve relations. What mattered most to Frisk was that he could live a full life now, not live in fear of being vaporized at any second to a deranged monster creature.

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Frisk was twelve years old when he first climbed Mount Ebott on a dare. It was hard and rough, and he'd spent what money he had on the gear and supplies. But he reached the top and was rewarded with a vast view of the countryside. On the return trip, he'd even found a cavern he'd missed on the way up. He went inside to look around, but other than a circular indentation there was nothing of interest. So without incident he went back home to the orphanage. Everyone was shocked; they were so sure he'd be lost forever. He of course got in trouble but everyone was just relieved he was fine.

It was a single day after that the monsters returned.

Frisk had a hard time imagining he'd been standing above the underground cavern hours ago. The magical seal that had kept the monsters buried also prevented any seismic detection of the cavern system, so nobody had any idea what was there. The monsters' king, a gigantic wall of muscle by the name of Asgore, led the way proudly but in confusion, saying on public television he himself had no idea what had shattered the barrier.

But Asgore was far less cruel than his intimidating stature and the 'gore' in his name implied. He sweet-talked all of the Conjoined Nations into accepting the monsters as they were, to work towards a world where it was not 'humans' and 'monsters', but just the people of Earth. Frisk was caught staying up late, listening to his deep, thrumming voice, more than once.

The Conjoined Nations were hesitant to accept, but despite their soul-stealing powers the monsters all conducted themselves in a surprisingly polite fashion, so the peace treaty was signed without incident. There was some racism - specism? - to overcome, but nothing too hard.

One day, Frisk found himself in the park, alone. While climbing a tree, he heard something down below. He took a moment to balance himself on a tree branch and looked down.

It was, on first glance, a goat. Then it was a goat monster. Then he realized it was a boss monster, like King Asgore. But this was a kid. He had no horns, and instead the fur on his head stood up in perpetual bedhead. The kid wore black pants and a green/yellow striped shirt. He stared down at the monster, and the monster stared back at him.

He decided to be friendly and wave. The monster looked terrified. "Hey there! You new in town?" Wow Frisk way to go of course he's new in town his people have been imprisoned underground for hundreds of years and the first thing you ask is if he's new in town!

"Um, I am!" the monster said. "Um, howdy uh, my name's Asriel. Can I join you?"

"Sure! Plenty of space up here. Name's Frisk, by the way."

"Thanks. Hmm, gosh this looks hard. Maybe if I... " It took some time, but Asriel climbed his way up. Frisk would have thought the claws on his fingers would've helped, but apparently they were filed down. Once he was high enough, Frisk stuck out his hand and helped the monster to a sturdy branch.

The hand was nothing like he'd expected, either. He'd heard the monsters were all just made of dust and magic, given animation by their souls. Frisk thought Asriel would've been cold and clammy, but he was warm, the pads on his hands were rough, and the fur tickled. He was like any living creature.

"Thanks," Asriel said. "So, what brings you out here, Chara?"

Chara? "Name's Frisk," he repeated, but the way Asriel kept staring at him suggested the monster didn't hear. "Just figured I could brush up on my climbing. Plus, I only just convinced the matrons to let me play outside. Ever since I, well you know, climbed the mountain."

Asriel's eyes widened. "Golly, you mean the big mountain up there? You climbed it?"

He nodded proudly. "All by myself! So, what brings you to the park?"

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"Ever since I, well you know, climbed the - WHOA!"

Asriel pushed him.

Frisk hit a few branches on the way down, cutting him open, and then he was eating dirt. He groaned, but was already pushing himself up.

He looked up. "What was that for?!" he shouted, pissed off. He hadn't done anything! "What's your problem, huh?"

Asriel grinned, and suddenly his stubby fangs were a whole lot sharper, he was a lot taller, everything about him changed until he was looking at a fully-grown boss monster. "No problem at all, Chara." Then a sword appeared in Asriel's right hand flew at Frisk. He tried to move, but the sword was so fast and he swore it followed him. It pierced cleanly through his heart and impaled the ground, keeping him in place. He tugged on the hilt weakly, trying to pull it out, but slid down anyway, his vision going dark while Asriel just laughed and laughed...

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"All by myself! So, what brings you to the park?"

"Well, I just figured it'd be nice to look around," Asriel said softly, suddenly looking a lot more relaxed than earlier. There was a knowing twinkle in his eyes. "We've been underground for a long time, and it's been a while since I last saw the surface." He winked. "As in, never before in my life."

Frisk shrugged. "I guess if you didn't grow up with it, it'd look pretty great. But uh, we've got our own problems."

"Gosh, I know," Asriel said. "Everyone does. Still a step up though, I think. The sunlight is so warm, the air is so fresh." He sighed contently. "It has been far too long." Asriel patted the tree branch. "So I was thinking, are you doing anything later today?" Asriel asked.

And that was how he and Asriel became fast friends. They hung out at school once they integrated, they played tag and pretend, and had sleepovers in Asriel's house, under the watchful eyes of King Asgore. It was a little weird to be friends with a prince -

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- watchful eyes of King Asgore and Queen Toriel. It was a little weird to be friends with a prince, but he did learn some fascinating things. Apparently the monsters had had a plan to escape the underground. Asriel swore him to secrecy, but his father had been reaping the souls of humans that fell into the underground so as to use their souls to liberate monsters. It was why Toriel had left him. They'd gathered six, but then somehow, mysteriously, the barrier had shattered all on its own and the souls were released to the afterlife.

Time passed. They went to school. Frisk had a few flings with various girlfriends, Asriel remained quiet and subdued -

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- Asriel was loud and boisterous, surrounding himself in a ring of friends of all races, dazzling them with his magic -

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- Asriel remained quiet and subdued, always urging Frisk to abandon some foolhardy task before he got in trouble. Of course, there was his curious habit of always calling him 'Chara' when nobody was around. Frisk never asked about that.

Eventually, years passed and they grew up. Asriel and Frisk both went to pursue their own careers, but they kept in touch for many decades afterward, visiting on the holidays, ribbing each other, just generally being great friends -

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Frisk was twelve years old when he first climbed Mount Ebott on a dare. It was hard and rough, and he'd spent what money he had on the gear and supplies. But he reached the top and was rewarded with a vast view of the countryside. On the return trip, he'd even found a cavern he'd missed on the way up. He went inside to look around, and found something interesting.

A hole in the ground. Smooth and circular, with all sorts of vines and moss around its edge. Frisk crept up to it, using the stick he'd found on his hike to help him traverse the bumpy ground. Once there he stuck his head over and peered inside.

Weird. There was a bed of golden flowers at the bottom. Around it were crumbled pillars, vines, and grass. Near the top of the cavern there was something white, like dense fog. Did anyone even know of this? He imagined that if Ebott Town knew, they would've put guardrails up. He'd better get back and tell someone. Frisk stood up.

The moment he did, his weight caused the ground beneath him to collapse and before he knew it, he was falling. The white fog seemed to grab onto him, like he was passing through a film of bubbles, but then he was through and he resumed falling normally.

So, this was how he was going to die.

THUD!

Blinding pain engulfed Frisk's being, but it wasn't nearly as bad as he'd feared. He certainly didn't feel dead. Frisk blinked. There was the cavern ceiling, far above him. The white fog shimmered about, making it nearly impossible to see where he'd fallen in. Vines spiraled up the walls, flitting in and out of cracks in the cave.

"Ow," he wheezed. The flowers and the white whatever-it-is had helped cushion his fall, but ow.

'Wha?! Huh? A human? WHAT?!' a girl's voice shouted in his head, loud enough to make him jump.

Now that he was up, it was easier to stay up. Frisk looked around wildly. "Hello? Anyone there? Are you hurt?" he asked. But the voice didn't appear again. Eventually he frowned. "Must've been my imagination."

It occurred to Frisk that if he didn't get out of this cave, there was a very good chance he'd starve to death. Well, that wasn't happen. He rolled his shoulders and began looking for a way out. The cave didn't have any stairs up, but there was a tunnel leading elsewhere. Sunlight only shone onto the flowers, but despite that an eerie light filled the air.

Was this... magic? Frisk began connecting the dots in his mind. Cavern underground... strange light that tried to cushion his fall... magical lighting... pillars. He gasped. Could this be where the monsters were sealed away? But... that was just a legend, right?

Of course, it would explain everything... no. There had to be a reasonable explanation.

Frisk set off into the cavern, using his stick to support himself now and then because his back still hurt. Eventually he reached a massive doorway. He gulped. It was large and purple, with a strange triangular symbol above it. He'd never seen anything like it. The 'monster' theory was growing more probable by the second, but it could just as easily be a lost civilization. That... built inside a mountain and had magic straight out of fiction books. Still, if there were ruins then there'd be a way out into the open air. He stepped in.

The tunnel twisted and turned a bit, but soon it spilled Frisk into another, larger room. It was almost pitch black, but a ray of sunlight shone down from a puny hole to illuminate a patch of grass, and on that patch of grass was something that removed all doubt in the 'monster' theory.

Because it was a monster. It was humanoid and about Frisk's height, covered head to toe in a fine white fur. Goat ears hung from its head on both sides, and it had a snout that ended in two puny fangs and a smile. The monster wore clothing too. Brown pants and a striped green/yellow shirt, but no shoes. Frisk froze on the spot.

'ASRIEL?!' the girl in his head shouted so loud he feared for his eardrums. 'How are you, where's, why is, what's going on?!'

"Um, hi?" Frisk said uneasily. Was this monster going to hurt him?

"Howdy!" the monster chirped. If the voice was any indication, it was a boy. "Golly, I haven't seen a human around these parts in a while!" He walked forward, his padded feet tapping on the ground. "I'm Asriel!" he said, extending a hand.

Tension melting, Frisk smiled and shook it. "Name's Frisk," he greeted, but Asriel just stared through him. "So um... I'm guessing you're a monster!"

"Golly, you catch on quick! But don't worry! I know what the word 'monster' means for humans, but we're all nice!" Asriel rolled his eyes. "Well, most of us. But come on! My mom's a little further back, we'll show you all about the underground!"

And that was how Frisk's adventure in the underground began. He met Asriel's mom, Toriel, a nice lady that he wished he could've grown up with despite her inhuman features. More curious, however, was the girl's voice in his head. She went by the name 'Chara', and in between her scathing remarks about him and his species she was almost as confused as Frisk. Apparently she'd known Asriel and Toriel before dying. And that just raised further questions.

Eventually, Frisk had to leave. He convinced Toriel to let him go, because as much as he wanted to stay with her he had to go home. Everyone would be worried sick about him. Then he met the skeleton brothers Sans and Papyrus and hit it off with them. The warrior Undyne, her friend Alphys, her friend Mettaton, and so many more. But it wasn't without difficulty.

The monsters outside the ruins where Toriel lived were at war with humanity, supposedly. They'd reaped the souls of six humans who'd fallen in the centuries before Frisk's arrival, and with his soul their king would become omnipotent and free them from the underground. Monsters attacked him, exposing his very soul and assaulting him with their magic no matter how much he insisted on not fighting.

The first time he died, he'd been horrified. But then... he just woke up back in time, perfectly fine. He remembered everything, and so did Chara. He didn't understand. Then it happened again. And again and again as he died over and over on his way home. It was chilling to think that with each of those deaths, King Asgore would've gotten his soul and wiped out humanity. But some force... wouldn't let him die. It didn't feel like anything from within himself. He must've had a guardian angel.

He made many friends and spared everyone who tried - and at times even succeeded - in killing him. It was a fantastical journey, and in the end even Chara'd come around to tolerating him.

But it came to pass that in the end, Frisk couldn't not fight. Asgore would not let him. With Chara's own worn dagger in hand he struck the giant boss monster's armor, dodged his flames and trident. He died more times than he could count, but he always came back and in the end, he brought the king of all monsters to within an inch of his life.

Frisk panted, staring at the monster. He was covered in burns and a few cuts where the blood red trident had nicked him, but he was alive and well. Asgore sunk to his knees, and awaited his decision. Frisk's mouth was dry. What could he do? What could he say?

"I... I won't do it," he whispered, dropping his knife. "I don't want to hurt you," he said through tears. "I don't want to hurt anyone! I... I'd rather stay here and wait for the next human."

Asgore looked up at him in awe. "You... would truly rather stay here?" He looked down, face torn into an expression of guilt and relief. "Child, I promise you - "

'Frisk look out!' Chara shouted.

Something lit up the cavern, even brighter than the barrier behind them. Frisk backed away as a colossal rainbow star crashed onto Asgore's injured form. He looked away as a blinding flash tore through the cavern, and when he could look again there was nothing left of King Asgore but a crater. A crater... and a floating white upside-down heart.

His soul. The only thing that could let Frisk leave the underground.

Suddenly his stomach lurched. He had just watched someone die!

Then a lance of rainbow lightning crashed from the skies and speared through Asgore's soul, shattering it. And there, out of thin air appeared... Asriel.

"Golly, Chara!" he chirped, multicolored energy crackling between his fingers. His brown eyes, so warm in the ruins, were now cold and hunting. "You've come such a long way, haven't you? This is normally the place where I'd take the six human souls and turn your world inside out, but... " Asriel looked to the side and sent more bursts of energy out, shattering the six human souls the monsters had gathered. Frisk, still in shock, barely even jerked. "... I've already got enough power."

"Asriel, why did you... ?"

'How could he do that?! That's Dad he just killed!' Chara raged. 'Asriel would never do that, he'd never! I-It's some imposter!' she insisted.

"Well," Asriel continued. "It's been fun resetting in a way you can still remember, but it's time to go back, Chara."

"Wait, my name isn't - "

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Frisk was twelve years old when he first climbed Mount Ebott on a dare. It was hard and rough, and he'd spent what money he had on the gear and supplies. But he reached the top, and was rewarded with a vast view of the countryside. And on the return trip, he'd even found a cavern he'd missed on the way up. He went inside and looked around, but other than a circular indentation there was nothing of interest. So, without incident, he went back home to the orphanage. Everyone was shocked, they were so sure he'd be lost forever. While he got in trouble, everyone was just relieved he was fine.

It was a single day after that that Jim Kringol went missing.

And it was a single day after that that Mount Ebott exploded, releasing the monsters. They were diverse, coming in all shapes and sizes. From moth-like creatures to burning ropes with wide grins, to black slimes to dragons to anthropomorphic lions and so much more. But worst of all was their king, King Asgore Dreemurr.

He stood nearly three feet taller than a grown man, covered in white fur and a golden beard. A tiny crown rested between his gargantuan horns, and his fanged mouth was fixed in a grimace. His armor and cape were immaculate, coming together with a clasp that shone with seven colored bands: teal, orange, two purple, blue, green, and yellow. And Asgore was destroying cities.

Frisk and the other orphans evacuated, but they still got to watch on a screen as King Asgore, with a single swipe of his magical trident/scythe, reduced Ebott Town to ash.

Asgore moved from town to town, city to city, at an incredible rate. He left naught but quick, painless destruction in his wake. Behind him the other monsters started setting up their own towns, spreading out and occupying the lands that had once belonged to humans.

The world's militaries responded harshly, but nothing worked. Asgore was apparently invincible. No bullet, shell, bomb, or chemical weapon could phase him. They could not stop him and they could not contain him. They tried to lure him away by striking the settling monsters, but he was everywhere, teleporting to strike forces and putting them down with ruthless efficiency. There was nowhere for Frisk to run and nowhere for him to hide. No force on the planet could make Asgore flinch. So, it fell to him to try an alternative tactic.

Everyone fled the latest city the refugees had come to, Hierarcion. Everyone but Frisk. He stood in the city square, surrounded by concrete and steel. It was a beautiful day. Birds sung and flowers bloomed. And out of thin air, King Asgore appeared, with his blood red trident held tightly. He was even larger and more imposing in person. Frisk's eyes widened as Asgore lifted his trident in preparation to strike the ground...

"Wait!" he screamed.

Asgore's hands trembled and his breathing went funny for a moment, but he did not wait. The trident came down and a nuclear blast of flame engulfed Frisk's world.

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Frisk was -

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- loved his new school.

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- literally danced around Mettaton's lightning magic -

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- gasped in horror as Toriel turned to dust. No, no, he took it back! He'd never kill again, just take it -

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- new kid on the street, Asriel -

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- kept calling him 'Chara' for some reason -

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- but you're one of the good humans, Frisk,' Chara told him after -

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- old and gray, he looked back on his life with Suzie -

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- with Rachel -

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- torn limb from limb -

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- the only way out was forward -

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- Asriel wanted to show him something by the river -

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Frisk had been friends with Asriel for a while. But it was time to have a talk with him.

Frisk approached the monster on the swing-set as he kicked his padded feet back and forth, barely moving at all. "Hey Azzy, we need to talk," he said, crossing his arms.

"Sure!" the boss monster said, leaping from his swing and landing in the woodchips. "What do you need, Chara?"

"That's exactly it," he said, pointing at Asriel. A few other kids laughed around them, running about the playground. "You keep calling me that. Is it some sort of nickname? A monster thing? I don't get it! I have a name, I've told it to you like a million times!" he said, gesturing wildly in exasperation.

Asriel frowned. "What do you mean? You're Chara," he said, looking Frisk straight in the eye.

"No I'm not. I'm Frisk," he said slowly, as though he was speaking to a baby.

Asriel furrowed his brow. "Chara, this isn't funny - "

"Frisk!" he interrupted. "Frisk! That's my name, Frisk! It always has been! It's never been Chara so stop calling me that!" He didn't like getting angry, but dang it why was Asriel being so difficult? "I don't know who this Chara is, why you think I'm them, but I'm not! I'm Frisk, not Chara, and I never have been!" He got a few looks from the other kids, but he didn't care. He was determined to pound this lesson into Asriel's head. "Asriel, who am I?!"

The furry little monster looked ready to burst into tears. He looked down. "Frisk," he whispered. A sound escaped Asriel's mouth, some cross between bitter laughter and sobbing. A tear traced down his cheek. "Right, that's right. How could I... how could you have let me think that for so long?" Asriel asked, looking up at him with a glare.

Frisk blinked. "Let you think? You're the one who kept calling me that despite ALL the times I corrected you!"

"SHUT UP!" Asriel boomed in a voice much deeper and older than the one he was used to. "I thought you were her! I thought... for so many years and lifetimes and worlds and you're telling me NOW that you're not Chara, Frisk?" Asriel said with an uncharacteristic sneer. Then to Frisk's surprise he started floating, hovering in the air as storm clouds gathered at an alarming rate. The wind picked up and kids started to run for the school. "I wasted decades on you and you're not her! It's just as fine!" he bellowed, raising his hands and wreathing them in rainbows. "I'm sick of YOU anyway!"

Frisk's blood went cold. This wasn't Asriel. Asriel was too quiet and subdued to -

The rainbow came down, cracking the world with rays of blinding light and Frisk was no more.

Asriel

Of course.

How could he have been such an idiot?

Frisk and Chara were nothing alike. Sure they were both humans, and had a similar fashion sense, but that was it. Frisk was too calm and gentle to hurt a fly, where Chara had talked him into - rightly, in retrospect - trying to eradicate humanity so that monsters could inherit the surface. Nothing alike. And he'd let him delude himself into thinking it was Chara there, somehow come back to him after her death. But no. It wasn't Chara. It never had been. All his years of calling out for her as a flower hadn't been rewarded. She'd never come back to him. Chara was still gone, always had been gone, and she was... she was... never coming back.

Asriel floated in the void. Molten rock scattered the abyss from where he'd shattered the planet, sailing away from him. He brought his hands over to his face and raked them down. Frisk fooled him. It didn't matter if it wasn't intentional and it didn't matter he'd been trying to set things right. It never did matter what someone 'intended'. Frisk tricked him and all the 'I didn't mean to' details were useless.

Something in him twisted. Was this... sorrow? No, no. This was anger. That he was familiar with.

He wanted to hurt Frisk. Bring him back and kill him over and over. Bring him back and tear down his life and make him suffer. But Asriel had already done that! Chara would always be able to surprise him, but Frisk wasn't Chara so he was growing dull. But he couldn't just let this go! Frisk needed to pay for what he'd done to Asriel, for his heresy. But how? What could Asriel do to him that he hadn't already? Heck, he'd exhausted a lot of Frisk-murder just as a flower with six souls.

A piece of cooling planetary core tumbled in and out of Asriel's vision.

Wait. Wait, idea! There was one thing he hadn't pushed Frisk into doing, at least that he could think of. He'd done it all the time, near the end of his time as Flowey. Frisk was a loving person by nature. But through all the resets, there was nobody he'd ever love more than his friends in the underground. Asriel was going to make Frisk suffer. He was going to make him cry and die and wish he could stay dead as everything he loved crashed down around him. He'd make sure his resets were 'gentle' enough that Frisk could remember them.

Then, he would reset the world again and move on. Find another toy to focus on and extract all the possibilities from them. In the underground, Asriel's number of routes had been limited. He could only do so much before there was nothing left to do. But free of the underground, with all the billions of humans and thousands of years to watch the world evolve, with his stolen souls granting him boundless memory, he'd never get bored.

Asriel laughed at the possibilities, but then silenced himself and growled.

First, though. Frisk needed to be taught a lesson about mimicking others. A long, dusty, bloody lesson. Especially dusty. Asriel reached back into the past and focused.

Asriel was filled with determination.

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Chapter Text

Frisk

Frisk was twelve years old when he first climbed Mount Ebott on a dare. It was hard and rough, and he'd spent what money he had on the gear and supplies. But he reached the top and was rewarded with a vast view of the countryside. On the return trip, he'd even found a cavern he'd missed on the way up. He went inside to look around, and found something interesting.

A hole in the ground. Smooth and circular, with all sorts of vines and moss around its edge. Frisk crept up to it, using the stick he'd found on his hike to help him traverse the bumpy ground. Once there he stuck his head over and peered inside.

Weird. There was a bed of golden flowers at the bottom. Around it were crumbled pillars, vines, and grass. Near the top of the cavern there was something white, like dense fog. Did anyone even know of this? He imagined that if Ebott Town knew, they would've put guardrails up. He'd better get back and tell someone. Frisk stood up.

The moment he did, his weight caused the ground beneath him to collapse and before he knew it, he was falling. The white fog seemed to grab onto him, like he was passing through a film of bubbles, but then he was through and he resumed falling normally.

So, this was how he was going to die.

THUD!

Blinding pain engulfed Frisk's being, but it wasn't nearly as bad as he'd feared. He certainly didn't feel dead. Frisk blinked. There was the cavern ceiling, far above him. The white fog shimmered about, making it nearly impossible to see where he'd fallen in. Vines spiraled up the walls, flitting in and out of cracks in the cave.

"Ow," he wheezed. The flowers and the white whatever-it-is had helped cushion his fall, but ow.

'Wha?! Huh? A human? WHAT?!' a girl's voice shouted in his head, loud enough to make him jump.

Now that he was up, it was easier to stay up. Frisk looked around wildly. "Hello? Anyone there? Are you hurt?" he asked. But the voice didn't sound again. Eventually he frowned. "Must've been my imagination."

It occurred to Frisk that if he didn't get out of this cave, there was a very good chance he'd starve to death. Well, he wasn't going to let that happen. He rolled his shoulders and began looking for a way out. The cave didn't have any stairs up, but there was a tunnel leading elsewhere. Sunlight only shone onto the flowers, but despite that an eerie light filled the air.

Was this... magic? Frisk began connecting the dots in his mind. Cavern underground... strange light that tried to cushion his fall... magical lighting... pillars. He gasped. Could this be where the monsters were sealed away? But... that was just a legend, right?

Of course, it would explain everything... no. There had to be a reasonable explanation.

Frisk set off into the cavern, using his stick to support himself now and then because his back still hurt. Eventually he reached a massive doorway. He gulped. It was large and purple, with a strange triangular symbol above it. He'd never seen anything like it. The 'monster' theory was growing more probable by the second, but it could just as easily be a lost civilization. That... built inside a mountain and had magic straight out of fiction books. Still, if there were ruins then there'd be a way out into the open air. He stepped in.

The tunnel twisted and turned a bit, but soon it spilled Frisk into another, larger room. It was almost pitch black, but a ray of sunlight shone down from a puny hole to illuminate a patch of grass. He stepped in, looking around. An uneasy feeling filled the air, as though he was being watched. There was another archway on the other side, and with the hole of light too far away to reach, there was only one way out: forward.

Before he could though, someone - no, something - stepped through the doors and he froze up.

It was undoubtedly a monster. It was tall and stood on two legs, a good foot or two taller than any adult Frisk had ever seen. Its body was covered in white fur, and it wore a purple robe with a strange symbol on the front. A pair of horns sprouted from the top of the monster's head, its face sported a snout, and the mouth had two sharp fangs hanging over the lips. Its hands, held together, were capped with claws and two goat-like ears hung from either side of the monster's head.

The monster looked his way and gasped, hand flying up to its mouth. Frisk was ready to bolt as it strode towards him, but then she spoke. "Oh my goodness!" She rushed forward, and Frisk was too taken off guard by the motherly tone to run. "You must've fallen such a long way, young one. Are you hurt?" the monster asked, stopping before Frisk and kneeling down to inspect him.

"Um... a little... ?" he asked, daring himself to look the monster right in her reddish-brown eyes.

"It is all right... oh, how rude of me. You must be so confused and afraid," she whispered, glancing to the side for a moment before focusing back on him. "Welcome to the Ruins, child. I know you're probably frightened, but everything will be alright! I am Toriel, I come here every day to make sure if any human has fallen down, that they will quickly acclimate to their environment."

'Every day?' the girl's voice in his head asked. 'Mom, what do you mean? Why are you in the Ruins?!'

"Now, hold still. Monsters like myself possess magic, you see. I will use mine to heal you, child." Toriel held out a hand and Frisk flinched away when green light began to surround her clawed fingers. But a moment later a warm wave of energy flooded him from head to toe, relaxing his muscles and soothing away the aches and scrapes he got from his fall. He breathed out slowly, swaying for a moment.

"Thank you," he said. Maybe the monsters were alright. They were gone for like, a bajillion years right? Maybe their reputation just got tarnished in the meantime. "Where am I?"

"You are in the Underground, child." Toriel's eyes squinted in annoyance, reminding Frisk of one of the school teachers scolding someone. "Not exactly the most creative name, but there it is." She relaxed again. "Please, come along. I will show you the path ahead," Toriel said, turning around slowly walking for the door.

Frisk shrugged, and followed after her. But first, he had to take care of something. 'Hello?' he thought. 'Am I just hearing voices or is this some magic thing?' Honestly, he was in a land of magical goat-women. He could stand to be a bit open-minded.

'What?' the girl's voice responded. 'You can hear me? What are you doing here?' Suddenly the voice grew incredibly hateful. 'Why have you come here? What is your purpose here, human? What have you done to me?' she asked coldly.

'I don't know! I just fell in here by accident? Who are you? That's your mom?' He paused and gave it some thought, while following Toriel into the next room. Piles of leaves were brushed to the side, and he followed her up the stairs to a towering building. 'Are you... some kind of ghost?'

'Hold that thought, shut up and listen to her!' the girl ordered. It was then that Frisk realized Toriel was doing something with the pressure plates in the next room.

He focused on her as she pulled a large yellow lever, and the colossal spikes barring the way forward sunk into the ground. "This is an example of a puzzle," Toriel explained, turning back to him. "Think of them as a combination between locks and distractions. They are an old monster tradition and the Ruins are, as such, filled with them. Come," she said, leading Frisk into the next room.

Frisk turned his head left and right, taking in the entire scenery. There was a wooden sign that told him to get close to read signs, and a tablet on the far wall warning him to... something. He couldn't make it out. Vines clung to the walls, and the air was stale. A few rivers burbled away, with wooden bridges over them to allow people to pass. "There is a spike fence at the end of this room," Toriel warned. "In order to get past it, you have to pull two of the three levers in this room. But!" Her face lit up. "Do not fear. I have labeled the two correct ones."

... that was a little patronizing. Frisk was a big kid, he could take care of himself. At the very least though, it was a large room so he had plenty of time to talk to the ghost in his head.

'So,' he said, walking over to a lever drowning in yellow arrows, stick still in hand. 'You're in my head?'

'I... think? I don't know why. I'd rather be in anything else's head,' she spat with enough venom to take down an elephant. 'Your kind has no place in the Underground, human.'

That was... foreboding. Did Toriel secretly share the attitude? Or was this person in his head an exception?

Was Toriel's kindness the exception?

All the same Frisk got to the first lever, pulled it down, and headed off to the next. 'Alright, I understand,' he thought back to the girl in his head. 'I'm not wanted here. I didn't mean to come here though! I fell in through a hole in the mountain, I just want to go home,' he said.

The voice was quiet as he approached the next lever, contemplating what he'd said. 'That,' she said once he triggered the yellow lever. ', is going to be much trickier than you think,' she said gravely.

"Splendid!" Toriel cheered as the spikes blocking the path lowered. "Come, small one," she urged, leading him into the next room. In the corner of the room was a cotton dummy, about Frisk's height. It looked strange, though. Almost like some sort of bird's upper half, with a beak and no wings. "Now, as a human living in the Underground, sometimes monsters may attack you," she lectured sternly.

Frisk nodded back. "I just run then, right?"

Toriel smiled. "Yes! The best way to win a fight is to escape from it entirely. Avoid confrontation. Sometimes, however, that will not be an option. Tell me child, are you familiar with the concept of your soul?"

'Oh boy,' the girl thought eagerly. 'Am I gonna get to watch you die?' That was... unnerving.

"I don't... think so? I know what souls are supposed to be but what about it?" he asked.

Toriel nodded. "Monsters such as myself possess the ability to expose the souls of others. It is typically how they do battle, especially with humans. Allow me to demonstrate. Do not worry, no harm will befall you. Brace yourself." The woman held up a clawed hand, made a fist, and pulled something towards her.

Frisk had braced himself for... something, but he still stumbled a step forward when something seemed to grab him by his heart and pull forward. He caught his balance and looked down. Both he, Toriel, and the girl in his head gasped. There, floating above where his flesh and blood heart would be, was a flat, crimson heart, steady and motionless. Frisk took a step left. The heart moved with him, staying with him. He moved right. The heart moved right.

"That's... my soul?" he whispered, staring at it. It was so small. Just the size of his fist. That was everything he was?

'It's... red,' the girl in his head whispered.

"That color," Toriel muttered.

'Wait, what does red mean? Is that bad?' he asked the girl.

'It... it's the same color my soul was,' was his only response.

Toriel caught herself and shook off her surprise. "Indeed child, that is your soul. In battle, monsters will typically attack you with magical projectiles in an attempt to cause you harm. Your soul, the very essence of your being, can be thought of as your 'weak point'." She wagged a finger at him. "Do not, under any circumstances, allow your soul to be harmed. Rest and good food can help recover your soul's integrity, but..." Toriel glanced to the side nervously, as though the walls would come alive and attack him. "... it's best not to need to in the first place." She raised a palm and pushed it forward. Frisk watched as his soul slid back towards him, through his clothes and into his body. It vanished entirely, and he suddenly shivered.

He hadn't noticed how cold it'd been with his soul exposed.

"Luckily!" Toriel continued. "There's an easy way to get out of a fight even if you cannot simply run. Simply speak with your attackers." What? "Strike up a conversation, and stall for time however you can. I'll always be nearby, and I'll come to resolve the conflict," she reassured him.

But what if you're not there? Frisk thought.

"For now, try speaking with that dummy," she said, gesturing over to it with her head.

Frisk glanced at the dummy, but shrugged and stepped towards it.

He stared at the dummy.

The dummy stared back at him, looking like it was going to fall over.

'Ah, a dummy,' the girl in his head sighed over-dramatically. 'With a cotton heart and a button eye, you are the apple of my eye.'

Frisk glanced back at Toriel, who'd clasped her hands together and stared at him expectantly. With a shrug, he turned to the dummy. "Hey there, gorgeous," he said. "Saw you just standing around here. I was wondering if maybe you want to go grab some dinner? I know this great place down the street." Frisk wasn't sure, but he swore he saw the dummy... shiver for a moment, then go still. All the same, it - shockingly - didn't seem much for conversation.

'Oh my God, stop flirting with the dummy!' the girl howled.

Toriel, however, was markedly happier with him. "Oh goodness," she chuckled, a hand over her mouth. "Quite an interesting child, aren't you? Well, that was very well done, come along!" she chimed, urging him after her.

As Frisk followed, he tried to pick back up in his conversation with the voice in his head. 'So what does a red soul mean anyway?'

She sighed. 'Your primary trait is determination, how is that for an explanation? Don't like what that means for you getting out of here.'

Frisk frowned as Toriel led him through a hallway, stopping briefly to scare off a strange... frog thing. But it was more like a shell with a frog bobblehead on top, with eyes staring at him from beneath the shell. 'How do I even know you're real? I mean, maybe I just hit my head really hard.'

'I am real you moron!' she chastised. 'Want me to prove it to you? I know some things you don't. So you see this spike trap?'

He glanced at it. A vast field of razor spikes surrounded by a moat, leading to a doorway that was too dark for him to see into. How did Toriel expect him to get across? She said there was a puzzle, but he'd been more focused on the voice. 'What about it?'

'Past it is a very, very long corridor, with I believe two marble pillars at its end. You'll see.'

Alright, that was a plan. "Um, miss Toriel? How do I get past this?"

She looked at the spikes, then back at him, chewing her lip. Did that hurt, with her fangs and all? "Well... here, take my hand," she said, extending a hand to him. Without hesitation Frisk gripped it, noting the peculiar texture of the warm fur, her claws gently avoiding harming him, and the rough pads on the insides. Toriel led him forward, the spikes vanishing around them as she traced a winding path through the spike traps. Before he knew it, they arrived on the other side and she let him go. "The puzzles seem a little dangerous," she muttered. "You could get hurt." She suddenly beamed. "Onto the next room!"

They progressed and, sure enough, it was a very long corridor. The unusual lighting didn't let Frisk see very far into it, but this was the first room where he couldn't see the end. "Now my child," Toriel said. Frisk's heart skipped a beat; my child. Oh, how those two simple words warmed his heart. "I fear I must ask something terrible of you." I knew it, it's too good to be true. She wants to kill me, or send me on some herculean task, or - "Please walk to the end of this room by yourself. I... I'm sorry," Toriel whispered, before turning around and dashing out of sight.

Frisk blinked.

Um.

Okay.

He headed down the corridor, looking around at the vines clinging to the walls. Toriel made it sound like some horrible task, sheesh. Unnecessary tension, much? But... so far, this was matching the girl's description. And sure enough, after a long and tiring walk he reached the end. There was a giant marble pillar and... well, the one on the other side was missing, but there were also some pieces of crumbled marble so it probably just got destroyed.

Toriel popped out from behind the other pillar. "Greetings, my child," she chimed. "See? I didn't leave you." She gestured to the pillar. "I was behind this pillar the whole time."

'She wasn't always this... overbearing,' the girl whispered. 'What happened? How long has it been?'

"Now, listen to me. Monsters rarely come to this area, but I need to go take care of some business. You must stay here a while," she warned. Suddenly, Toriel smiled. "I know! I'll give you a cell phone."

Frisk watched, wide eyed, as the monster pulled out an old, blocky phone from within her violet robes and handed it to him. They had cell phones down here? From the looks of it, Frisk thought they were, like, middle-ages or something. And how would a cell phone even work so far underground? What was the reception like? Did monsters have their own freaky magical cell towers or something?

While he was staring at the phone, Toriel patted him on the head. "Call me if you ever need anything. Be good, alright?" she asked one last time, before leaving the room.

Huh.

'So... you're real,' he told the mystery girl while sitting on the ground. 'You called her mom, you're some kind of monster?'

'Hah, I wish,' she groused. 'It'd be much better than - hey do you hear that?'

Frisk stood and looked around. Sure enough, there was something. A buzzing sound. And if he looked towards the path Toriel had gone, he saw some odd, crackling ball of rainbow lightni -

CRASH!

A lance of lightning burst from it, and shot straight through Frisk's chest. He froze, unable to even gasp as his brain was overwhelmed with pain. The lightning strike ended, and he collapsed to the ground -

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The pain was gone. Now he could scream.

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!" He fell to the ground, still in the corridor, twitching.

'WHAT?' the girl screamed. 'HOW? WHAT? WHO?!'

"I see I've got your attention," a boyish voice said. Frisk stopped squirming around the ground and looked up.

It was another monster, similar to Toriel. But younger, and a guy if the voice was anything to go by. Maybe Frisk's age. He wore a yellow/green sweater, pants, and had no horns. The monster's brown eyes stared at Frisk... hungrily. "Who are you?" he croaked. "What, what happened? I thought I was dead."

"You be quiet," the monster intoned.

'Asriel?' the voice asked. 'Did... did you do that?'

'Asriel' walked forward until he was right next to Frisk. Suddenly, an invisible force grabbed him and hoisted him onto his feet, forced to stare at Asriel, who smiled and showed off his dinky little fangs. "Well, here we are Frisk. Gosh, it's been a while since I had you come down here. I bet you're so confused!"

Mutely, he nodded. Frisk made a mental note to check his underwear.

Asriel chuckled. "Golly, I guess I better teach you how this is going to work! See, I'm a time traveler. I'm also a god. I killed you with my lightning, then I rewound time so you were still alive. And..." He shrugged. "Well, I guess I didn't have to, but I did it in a way that you, but nobody else, can remember."

'Okay Rei, props on killing the human but you're kind of worrying me. Drop the god of hyperdork act?' the girl pleaded. 'And what's this about time travel?'

Asriel continued, seemingly unaware of the voice in Frisk's head. "Now, you wouldn't remember, but you did something to me in a past timeline, and I don't appreciate it." Asriel hovered - literally hovered - closer, pressing his snout against Frisk's nose. He tried to pull away, but could only struggle in place, unable to move a finger. "I hate you," he growled. "I hate you so much." He drifted away and smiled. "Which is why, now you're going to kill everyone."

The magic holding Frisk in place relaxed. "Wha - oof!" He hit the ground and got up. "What are you talking about? Time travel? What kind of nonsense - "

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"Wha - oof!" He hit the ground and got up - whoa what? Did that? Frisk looked himself over, patting his arms and legs to make sure he was real. "You... you just - "

Asriel smirked, holding up a paw and cupping tiny, multicolored stars. "Believe me now? So, since you displeased me so much, you're going to do my bidding. I need the Underground cleared out. Every Froggit, every Mold-creature, every member of the Aaron clan, every bonded ghost, everyone."

Frisk stared, not understanding. 'You want him to... Asriel what are you saying, those are our people you're talking about!' the voice protested.

"Shouldn't be too hard, you're a human. The average human is, even without magic, much stronger than the average monster." He placed a hand on his own chest. "Present company excluded, of course. And once you're done? Eh, I'll think of what to do then. Don't worry about dying either. If you do, I'll just rewind things. You'll remember, but nobody else will. Think of it like..." Asriel's face lit up in childish glee. "Like a superpower! You'll be invincible!"

"What?!" Frisk shouted. "No! What kind of sicko are you?! I don't want to kill people!"

Asriel stared at him, then nodded. "Well of course you don't. All the timelines I played with you, you always were such a goody two-shoes. But you see..." White light obscured Frisk's vision for a moment, and when it cleared Asriel had transformed. Older, taller, with arching horns and black streaks in his fur, and a robe similar to Toriel's. His voice, too, was deeper. "You don't have a choice," he growled, holding up a clawed hand. Then he thrust it at Frisk, and his world was consumed in agony as another lightning strike bisected him. It was bloody, and he collapsed on the spot -

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Asriel still floated there. "AH!" Frisk shouted, falling over in shock. "What?" Time travel, of course. "So that's it?" he asked, voice shaking. His entire body was numb, he couldn't feel his own weight he was shaking so bad. "Think you can kill me over and over until you get what you want?" He narrowed his eyes, putting his foot down. Asriel thought he could just shove him around?! "Well forget - "

A sword appeared from nothing and shot forward, far faster than Frisk could ever have reacted. It shot through his heart and skewered him to the ground. Agony shot through him, overwhelming his senses and his thoughts as he slid down the bloody weapon -

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"You're pretty determined," Asriel admitted. "Really, you are. Second place, good job," he said, giving him a thumbs up with a giant claw. "But... you see... I'm more determined than you are." While Frisk was futilely crawling away, he brought his hands together and cracked his knuckles. "Let's get started."

BOOM!

Frisk was often referred to in the orphanage as a... hard headed child.

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He'd climbed a mountain on just a dare, after all.

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While his grades weren't exactly the best, he often went entire nights studying, something apparently only college students were supposed to do. Or something. He got praised for it, so that was enough for him.

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He was determined Asriel would never be able to make him... kill people. Even if they were monsters, he didn't want to just go out and murder people! Self defense, sure that was different. But what this monster was asking for was too much!

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He'd never give in. No matter how many stars Asriel tossed on him.

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No matter how much lightning fried him.

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No matter how much he was shot at with a gun.

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No matter how much pain and suffering he went through, he was never. Ever. Going to give up. Asriel could find a new plan.

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That was what he thought at first though.

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But it turned out... Asriel was pretty hard headed too. Even more-so than Frisk.

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And creative with his powers, too. Horribly creative.

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Every one of his nerves were alight with fire.

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Frisk couldn't even keep track of what was going on. Asriel was killing and reviving him too fast for him to keep track of.

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The monster floated at distance, his hands extended. A colossal, twisting beam of prismatic energy shot from his hands and turned Frisk to ash - as painful as it was quick - and then -

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It happened again.

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And again.

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Faster than Frisk could count, all he knew was he was always hurting. It came to pass that he just... he just couldn't...

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'STOP!' the girl shouted. 'JUST STOP! JUST STOP IT! STOP IT! JUST DO WHAT HE WANTS AND - '

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' - WE CAN FIND A WAY OUT OF IT! JUST STOP IT ASRI - '

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' - EL!'

"Wait!" Frisk shouted, and sure enough Asriel waited. "I'll, I'll do it," he muttered, looking down at the violet stone.

In a flash, Asriel returned to his younger body. "I'm glad to hear it!" he chirped, glancing around Frisk's body. "That's a nice stick. Should be more than enough to handle any monster you come across. They're all dust and magic, you know. Can't take a hit from something as heavy and water-logged as you." He snapped a finger, the claws of which were much shorter than before. "Well, get to it. Be thorough. And remember." Asriel sneered. "I'll be watching. Try anything, and I'll just reset you until you get it right." With that, Asriel was gone.

'Oh my God Frisk,' the girl whispered. 'I'm so sorry! I don't know what's wrong with him! That was just so uncalled for. Bringing you back after death, torturing you, telling you to kill our people...'

'You know him?' he asked, still laying on the ground and shivering in pain. He swore he could see stars and bullets even when he closed his eyes...

'He was my... my brother. Okay, listen human. Frisk, he called you? Listen Frisk. I don't know what's going on. I should be dead. Asriel should be dead, and he's nothing like what... what that thing was doing to you. You're hurt and scared, and I'm confused and lost. I don't like you or your kind, but we need to get to the bottom of this!' she said.

He nodded. 'Right. Right, I need to... get up. And he doesn't know I'm talking to you, right? But he wants me to kill - '

'Nevermind that for now! How about... introductions?' she asked.

'I'm Frisk,' he thought weakly, getting to his feet and staring, nauseated, at the end of the room.

'Greetings Frisk! I am Chara. You probably don't know a lot of things around here, so let me catch you up. So long ago, two races ruled over Earth. Humans, and monsters...'

Asriel

He lied to Frisk.

He wasn't going to be watching. Not all the time, at least.

Asriel had so many things to put together to make Frisk's unwilling quest as arduous as he could. He'd already taken care of most of them before Frisk fell, of course. A guard's patrol changed, a promise never made. Small little alterations. He didn't even need to show himself. Something as simple as too much fallen snow was enough to deter someone from ever going to a locked door to practice jokes.

But... a god's work was never done. Frisk was never going to just go through with this on his own. He'd need constant pushing. A threat. A town staring at him, and he would have to kill or be killed.

So, shrouded with invisibility, Asriel appeared in Snowdin Forest near the snow poffs. Greater Dog wasn't around when he and Chara were alive, but the Snowdin locals of the era still liked to make the little piles of snow, even if not as... concentrated in one area. He smiled, remembering Chara popping in and out of the piles of snow, staring at them like she'd never seen a snowflake before in her life...

... those were the days. And they were never coming back. That thought made something weakly prod at him from his many souls, but it didn't manifest.

Oh well. He'd moved on to bigger and better things!

He intended to go into Snowdin Town and start posting posters of 'This is what a human looks like, be prepared!'. A public service announcement by an unknown good samaritan, they'd think. But... his eyes glanced south.

The room in the cave, behind a locked door. He'd never gotten inside. Not as Flowey, and not as himself. He didn't know if there was anything in there. He didn't even know if it was really a door, he could never find any crevices to wedge his roots and swords in. As such, it remained one of the world's great and final mysteries to him.

Snowdin Town could wait.

He drifted south, past Gyftrot and the eyes staring out from the cave. He considered blasting them and resetting the damage, but he was bored with them anyhow. Already exhausted all there was to them. Pretty exhausted with Frisk, too. He just had to get him to do this one pass through the Underground, and Asriel could be done with that brat forever. He had so many others to torment and help. Like Charlotte, the human girl with the brown soul of cowardice. Or Jacob, or...

... he arrived at the door while he was thinking.

He stared up at it. A tall, blue door with the Delta Rune on it. Glowing mushrooms, bioluminescent grass, and further out, slabs of dark ice. Asriel approached the door, raised a fist, and knocked politely.

No response.

He narrowed his eyes and shifted to his godly form, embodying Hyperdeath. Ura ha ha! He brought his hands up, laced the fingers together, and unleashed a rainbow blast at the door.

Nothing happened.

That was fine, that was fine. It just meant he needed more power. He was infinitely powerful, he could do it. Even if it meant shattering the solar system around him he could open the door, look inside, and reset any of the damage.

He unleashed his godly powers again, this time with a little more kick. The blast smashed into the door with the power of many tons of human TNT, scouring away the mushrooms and the grass. When the dust settled, there was naught but stone... and an untouched wall housing an untouched door.

Then the door rippled, and out popped... a small, white dog.

Asriel groaned. Oh great, this thing again, he thought. Damn little dog. Humorous at times, but so annoying. Had some stupid magic to shift through walls like a ghost too, and that stupid, STUPID smile it always wore on its face!

Except this time, the dog wasn't smiling. It stood its ground, facing Asriel and baring its fangs while growling low in its throat.

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Golly, I'm guessing that's your home," he said, putting two and two together and pointing at the door. "Hope you don't mind, but I'm coming in!" he shouted, punctuating it with another titanic blast, bigger than the last. The heat and force crashed over Asriel's face, blowing his fur back as the explosions reduced the mountain around him to rubble. He floated in a crater... and the room also floated in the air.

With the mountain cleared away he could get a good look. It was a perfectly gray rectangular prism made of shale, with the door on one end. From the door, a small balcony of untouched stone led out. On that stone stood the dog, growling and snarling at him as though he hadn't done anything.

He stared at the dog. The dog stared back with beady eyes.

Then Asriel summoned his swords and warped towards the door, swinging with all his godly might.

Ding!

There wasn't even a shockwave. His Chaos Slicer hit the door and just stopped, as though he hadn't swung it at all. Well that was fine, he could alwaAAAAAAGH!

The dog bit his tail.

The stupid dog bit his tail!

How did it even know he had a tail?! Asriel kept it hidden either under his pants or under his robes, depending on his form. For that matter, how was he even feeling pain?! The God of Hyperdeath's defenses were infinite!

Asriel swore and cursed vigorously, hovering through the air wildly to try and throw the dog off. Eventually he had to warp away, back to the door's level. The dog dropped down in front of him. It bared its fangs and growled at him, slowly escalating into a bark. "RrrrrRRUFF rrrrrrrrRRRRUFF! RUFF RUFF!" it shouted, bouncing back and forth in front of the door angrily.

He narrowed his eyes, and dissolved his left arm into dust. The dust came back together in the form of his Chaos Buster, then he upgraded it to the Chaos Blaster! Ha ha ha! "Alright mutt, let's see you handle this!" he shouted proudly, unleashing three trails of mountain-shattering bullets from the end of his gun.

The left and right trails smacked into the stone building and vanished without a trace. The center stream of bullets aimed at the annoying dog, however, just... swerved away from it, and the canine kept barking at him as though he hadn't done anything.

"That's it!" he roared, familiar rage eating at his core. He dismissed his gun and spreading his arms out wide. "I'm breaking this world!" Supernova light flared from him, his legs fused and his body warped, he grew wings and his horns lengthened. While the dog did stop barking, it didn't stop showing its fangs or growling at him.

Then Asriel released his rainbow.

The planet vanished, taking Frisk with it. Eh, he'd reset him back in a moment. The moon vanished a second later, devoured by the lightspeed wave. In about sixteen minutes, he'd notice the Sun vanish too. With enough time, the wave would disintegrate all matter in the universe. At least he got rid of the -

"What?" he deadpanned. He could still hear, even in the vacuum, because he was a god. But even so!

The dog was still there. So was the room. They weren't even charred.

He blinked dumbly.

"GRAAAAAH!" he roared, diving at the dog with claws outstretched. He swiped at the dog with his left hand, but before he could even connect, his claws just jerked to the side and scraped against the rock. At the same time his right hand released a salvo of energy comets, which lazily drifted towards the dog, and then bent away just before contact. He swiped and blasted over and over, but no matter what Asriel did, he couldn't actually fight the dog.

Then it jumped and bit his snout.

Asriel screamed. "AH! Get it off get it off get it off!" He brought his hands up to his head to try and pry the mutt off, but he couldn't actually grab it; his hands kept bending away at the last second. He spun around and around in the abyss of space, trying to dislodge it. Meanwhile the dog just kept its fangs buried in his snout, glaring up at him with angry eyes. Alright that was it, he had enough of the dog! He had to get away!

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The dog was gone. The planet was back.

Asriel, now in his young form, collapsed on a nearby snowbank and faded back into invisibility. When had he become visible? Probably when that damn dog bit his tail.

What was up with that?! In literally all of his other resets, the dog just made a nuisance of itself. It never showed even the slightest bit of aggression, not even the other times Asriel had tried to get in the door. What was different now? Why was the dog so pissed off at him? Like, sure he'd done a lot of things that would piss off a dog, but how would it know? Asriel could reset!

Gosh, why couldn't he even fight it? He had the power of basically seven human souls for crying out loud! Stupid dog. Stupid room. Probably nothing important in there anyway, just a bunch of bones and dog treats. And stolen artifacts.

He floated up and brushed himself off. "Whatever," he muttered. "I need to go make sure Frisk is killing people," he whispered, before teleporting away.

Chapter Text

Frisk

- one day I, uh, got sick and died. Asriel took my soul so he could bury me outside the Barrier, but a bunch of humans killed him. He crawled back to the Barrier and died too, with my soul inside of him, so we were both deader than a doornail. Then a long time went by where I was dead and had no knowledge of the outside world's happenings, and then you fell here now. So you're up to speed,' Chara finished.

'I'm sorry you got sick,' Frisk said immediately. 'It must've been awful.'

'Yes. Awful. Speaking of awful things, you had better get going. There's no telling when he'll be back, and you need to look like you are doing what he desires.'

'Pretend I'm killing people,' he thought to her. 'Right.'

Frisk glanced past the corridor into the rest of the Ruins. His body still tingled with phantom pain, but it was manageable. Stick in hand, he walked out and looked around. He glanced to the right and saw another frog monster, waiting against the purple brick wall. The white thing glanced at him, and croaked a ribbit. There were also a few piles of crunchy red leaves piled up against the walls. There were a few more corridors, on opposite ends from each other.

He glanced at the frog again, and his gut clenched. It was a monster, a real monster. And if Toriel was anything to go by, a person just like him. And Frisk was going to have to... have to...

Frisk headed towards the closer room, which spilled into a chamber with water running along the sides, and a pillar holding a bowl. 'That's monster candy,' Chara said. 'See the sign?' Frisk did. It told him to only take one.

Getting closer, he eyed the candy carefully. It was wrapped in, not clear plastic, but tiny strips of colorful paper. He took one and turned it over in his hands. Small, about the size of his thumb. Oval shaped and - unwrapping it - dark brown. He wasn't exactly hungry, but he could use a bite. If it was dangerous, Chara would've warned him.

A darker part of his mind also told him that even if it was dangerous, Asriel would reset him if he died...

He opened his mouth and popped the piece of candy in. He shuddered a bit at the flavor. Almost like licorice but not quite. He prepared to swallow, but then the piece of candy started to... fizz in his mouth. Before he could even jump in surprise, it dissolved on his tongue, and a wave of tingling energy spread outward that caused his eyes to open wide.

"Whoa," he whispered.

'Right, I forgot you wouldn't know. Monster food dissolves into energy almost instantly. Since you are a mere human, that means it'll also heal any wounds you have. Within reason, obviously. It is not a panacea.'

'Huh,' he thought to her. 'That's pretty handy.' He considered what he'd have to do. Asriel'd made it... clear that Frisk had no choice. A shiver ran down his spine and his skin prickled under the sensation of remembered fire. With that in mind, Frisk reached in and took another piece, putting it in his pockets.

'What do you think you're doing? The sign clearly says to take one!' Chara complained, though Frisk thought he could detect a hint of mirth in her voice. 'Disgusting, greedy human.'

'Oh be quiet. I might need this later.' He took another piece, then another, stuffing his pockets.

'You are the scum of the earth,' Chara joked. 'Four pieces? Oh, another?' Frisk indeed reached for another, but he accidentally knocked over the bowl.

It was a lot lighter than he thought and it went sailing through the air, candy and all, to land in one of the streams of water. He stared, wide-eyed, as the candy dissolved in the water and was whisked away to parts unknown. "Um, oops?"

He could imagine Chara - though he didn't know what she looked like - shaking her head. 'Look what you've done,' she growled with mock seriousness.

'Yeah yeah, I'm going to need this if I can't find food.' He looked up from where the bowl had fallen and nearly jumped out of his skin.

Asriel was there.

Not the horrible, enormous form, but in his 'child' form, floating above the floor. He looked... not exactly impatient, but frustrated. Rainbow light swirled around his wrist and formed a watch. Asriel wordlessly tapped it, and vanished back into nothingness.

Frisk looked down, glancing at the stick in his hand. "Guess it's time, huh?" he muttered, walking out of the room with candy in his pockets. No getting out of this.

The frog-thing from before had hopped out of sight, so Frisk had to look around for a... target. It took a while, as the room was fairly large, but he found a monster he thought he could handle and approached it. His hand gripped his walking stick so hard it shook, his limbs were ice and his stomach a rock. He couldn't even swallow around the lump in his throat.

It was a small, moth-like thing. Two tiny wings fluttered on its back, and when it saw him it gasped in a quiet, wispy voice.

"Oh no! A human. Um, um... okay you can do this..." Frisk gasped when, just as Toriel had done, his soul was pulled from his chest and hovered before him. His grip on his stick tightened as the air seemed to grow cold. "And..." the creature mumbled, its antennae drooping. "And then... I'm sorry I have to hold you... please forgive me..."

Something materialized around Frisk. A white moth, shimmering brilliantly and made of magic. Then another, and another, until a hemisphere of magical moths surrounded him, rotating around but not coming close enough to touch him.

'That is a whimsun,' Chara supplied with a quiet voice. 'Too sensitive to really fight.'

Frisk looked around. The moths kept spinning, and just outside it the 'whimsun' hovered in place, sniffling. He glanced at his stick. Long, hard. Now that he looked closer some of the broken ends were, while not exactly sharp, a bit jagged...

But how could he do it? This monster wasn't even attacking him! In the light of what Asriel had done, this was downright pleasant. Heck, according to Toriel he was supposed to stay in place anyhow. But he had to strike. The memory of a rainbow laser, of swords, of crashing stars, bubbled forth from his memory and made his skin prickle. He couldn't endure that. Not again!

'Just do it,' Chara muttered. 'There's no way out of this. The least we can do is watch. We owe him that much.'

Frisk nodded. Meanwhile, the whimsun dismissed the orb of moths and, instead, summoned jets of moths all around Frisk, rising to the ceiling where they flashed out of existence. It was so beautiful. Actual magic, here in front of him, keeping him in place. Like before, he stayed still and stared down at the whimsun, summoning his will to do what had to be done.

"Just do it quick," he whispered to himself. "Like..." He glanced down to his knee, which he'd skinned on his hiking and covered with a band-aid. "... like tearing off a bandage."

"Bandage?" the whimsun asked. "Oh, oh you're already hurt, I'm sorry..."

Without thinking, Frisk raised the stick and swung.

It was like hitting an empty piñata. The whimsun's eyebrows lifted up, but even as Frisk watched, its body crumbled, dust forming from the top down as the monster's body disintegrated, taking his horrified expression first. For an instant Frisk saw the wave of dust open 'pockets' hidden in the whimsun's form, and from that two golden disks fell to the ground. Then the monster was gone, and Frisk was left staring at a pile of white dust with two golden coins resting in it. His soul slid back into his body.

'Eeep!' Chara yelped, as if she'd been pinched.

Frisk stared at the pile of dust. The weight in his gut and the lump in his throat both vanished, replaced by a cold, dawning horror. His stick clattered to the ground. He backed away until he hit a violet brick wall, then slid down. He brought his knees to his chest and hugged them. "Oh God, I killed someone, I killed someone," he babbled. "I'm a murderer, I'm going to hell, I'm horrible, that was someone's friend, someone's family, they're never going to go home, oh God I'm a murderer... urk!" The world spun. He gagged, turned his head over, and threw up. He hadn't eaten much recently, but he'd taken a few granola bars up the mountain.

Once he was done with that, he curled back up and continued to breathe quietly. Someone was dead because of him.

'Frisk,' Chara said, her voice quiet and bereft of emotion. 'You have to keep going. You know he won't be content with just one. I know it's hard, but you have to keep going. We can find a way to stop him, but you need to do what Asriel wants until then. When we figure out a way, we shall avenge them all, understand?' He whimpered. 'Listen to me, human! This is not your fault. You didn't want to do this. You were forced to. It's like... like a bully playing 'stop hitting yourself', but really they're making you hit someone else. Get up, Frisk.'

Right. Chara was right. Frisk furrowed his eyebrows and stood, clenching his fists. He walked over to his stick and picked it up, then eyed the two golden coins. "Gold?" he muttered.

'Monsters use golden coins as currency,' Chara explained. 'You should take it, who knows when it'll be useful?'

'Chara, that's... that's looting the dead,' he thought weakly.

There was a moment of silence. 'I know. But we can worry about that later.' He sighed in defeat, but picked up the gold and threw it in his pack. 'Listen Frisk, I need to do some thinking. I'll still be here, I do not think that's changing any time soon, but there are some things I need to figure out. Just... keep going, alright?'

He nodded weakly. "Alright," he muttered, turning away from the pile of dust.

RING RING!

Frisk nearly jumped out of his skin. He fumbled with the cell phone, answered the call, and put it to his ears. "H-Hello?"

"Hello, this is Toriel," came the response. "I just wanted to make sure you haven't left that room, have you?" His stomach plummeted. Did she know, or was she just worried? She couldn't have known, otherwise Toriel would know what he just did. "It's very dangerous up ahead, there are some puzzles that could seriously hurt you."

"I'm fine, thanks for checking," he managed to answer.

"Well, sit tight! I'll be with you soon. Err, well, eventually..." The phone clicked, and he shakily put it back into his pocket.

He glanced at the corpse of the whimsun and shuddered. Then Frisk turned away, and began searching for his next victim.

'Oh, and Frisk,' Chara said. 'Um, I'll explain more later, but... you gained two EXP for this,'

'EXP?' he thought. Was that some sort of acronym? 'Wait, how do you even know that?'

'That's... part of what I need to mull over. I shall converse with you soon.' Then she went silent.

Frisk trembled, but he had to remember he wasn't actually alone. Chara was still there and, despite her occasional remark against humans, he didn't think he could do this on his own. Even if she was silent, he imagined her silently cheering him on. Besides, he had no right to feel so awful, to feel as though each step brought him to his grave. He wasn't the one dying.

He walked on, making a few laps around the room to search for anything. He did find something. It was another frog-thing like before. But this time, Frisk wasn't the one who started the fight.

The frog creature's main eyes didn't narrow, but the eyes hiding beneath its shell did. Once again the world cooled down and Frisk's soul was torn out. He eyed the frog monster and it eyed him back.

"Ribbit," it croaked. Then without warning, it leaped at him! Frisk screamed and backed off, but not fast enough to protect his soul. The monster came crashing down on his ethereal heart.

Frisk gasped as pain flooded his chest, as though he'd been kicked. But it was also so different. It was a burning chill spreading throughout his body, momentarily making his vision darken and lighten rapidly. He shook his head to clear it, and raised his stick against the frog. Frisk sniffed once; something foul-smelling filled the air. He bit his lip and swung the stick at the frog.

The monster went flying, white dust trailing from it, as though Frisk had whacked an empty milk jug. It righted itself, hidden eyes spinning. But to his relief, it didn't die.

"Meow," it croaked paradoxically. White spots formed in the air and zipped at Frisk. They looked like... tiny flies. He moved from side to side, dodging them, and wincing when one of the magical flies missed his soul and fizzled against his arm, burning like a tiny ember. Meanwhile the frog was hopping away... trying to run away.

Frisk approached, stepped over it and the monster stared up at him. He closed his eyes, and brought his stick back down. There was the same crack. Then, he heard it dissolve. He opened his eyes back up and beheld the pile of dust, along with two round pieces of gold. He put them in his back, retched once when he touched the dust - a corpse, a dead body, and he made it, oh God! - and turned away, his soul once more hiding in his chest.

He walked on, heading out of the chamber and eyes looking for any victim. His steps were slow and heavy, his head bowed. Chara was still quiet, he was still forced to do these things. It wasn't fair! This was supposed to be some sort of magical adventure! He'd get through the Underground, come out of the mountain everyone claimed to be cursed, and tell the world of the mostly peaceful monsters within. And now he was a - WHOA!

The ground beneath him crumbled.

"AAAAHHH!" he screamed, tumbling down into the darkness. His back hit a slope and he slid the rest of the way, until he landed in a thick pile of red leaves to break his fall. He blinked a few times to adjust himself, then winced when his chest ached a bit. He popped one of the monster candies into his mouth, feeling it dissolve. Just as Chara said, he immediately felt... better. The dull pain in his chest from where his soul had been hurt faded into nothingness.

Alright. Now how could he get out of this pit?

The answer was fairly straightforward. Apparently the monsters had had this problem before, and there were little vents - with staircases within - he could use to climb back up. Frisk did so, and ended up back on top. He glanced back; sure enough, the ground was crumbly and unsteady, and a hole had punched through it like papier mâché where he'd fallen through. Frisk resolved to be more careful; another drop might not have a pile of leaves at the bottom.

He continued on. He found more monsters and killed them. Sometimes they attacked him groups, sometimes one at a time. He even encountered strange... mold creatures that just sat there, tossing magic balls at him as he approached. Despite their jello forms, they too turned to dust. Not a drop of water in their bodies.

RING RING!

Frisk didn't jump as high as he did last time, but still started fiercely and pulled the phone out so quickly he had to juggle it a few seconds before getting a good grip on it. "Hello?" he asked, answering the call.

"Hello, this is Toriel!" he heard, tension flooding out of his body at her gentle voice. "I hope you are still alright, my child?"

"Um, I-I'm fine," he stammered, glancing back at three piles of dust that used to be a line of jello molds. "What is it?"

"Well, I was grocery shopping and I ran into a conundrum. Would you rather eat cinnamon or butterscotch based foods?"

He thought it over briefly. "Butterscotch I guess. I mean cinnamon's fine, but..."

"Right, thank you! Oh, before I forget! You do not have any allergies, do you?"

Frisk shrugged, even though Toriel couldn't see it through the phone. "Just pollen."

"Right, right," Toriel chirped. "That's all. My thanks for your patience, my child. See you soon!" There was the click of hanging up, and Frisk slid the phone back into his pocket.

He continued forward. There were a few more puzzles, some involving pushing rocks onto pressure plates. Another puzzle had more crumbling floor around him, but luckily there were leaf piles at the bottom too; maybe Toriel placed them there. There was one rock in particular that actually lectured him about politeness, and Frisk hoped Asriel would let that one live. Frisk didn't think he could beat a rock to death with a stick.

Asriel did not show up as he continued. Apparently it was fine.

Another room, this one with a narrow band of leaves across the middle. On the other side it split into a junction, but resting on the leaves was... something white.

"Zee zee zee zee zee," it murmured, as if pretending to sleep. Frisk approached, and he saw two black slits - eyes? - glance at him. They widened, letting him see ectoplasma irises. Then the monster... sunk downwards into the ground as though it were water, leaving no trace of its presence.

'That was a ghost,' Chara said, startling him enough to make him jump. 'Apologies. At any rate, I have had some revelations about which you should be informed.'

'Lay it on me,' Frisk thought sadly as he approached a monster with a giant, cyclopian eye.

'Well, you know how - Oh, a Loox!' she identified. 'They're one big family. Their family name is all, uh, Eyewalker I believe.'

Frisk froze in place, staring down the Loox. 'Seriously?' he asked, a smile threatening to tug at his mouth.

"Hey, what are you smilin' about?" the Loox asked. "Gonna pick on me? I'm warnin' ya!"

'... yes, quite serious. Why?'

'Loox Eyewalker? Really Chara?'

'Is this some sort of joke I am unaware of?'

'Yeah, nevermind.' A string of magical orbs whooshed past his body. One of them hit him in the leg, seeming to hurt less than the magical attacks he'd encountered before, and Frisk got his head back into the fight. Scarcely seconds later, the Loox was no more. 'So you were saying?'

'Asriel has demonstrated the ability to rewind time. But something stood out to me. He specified that he can choose to let you remember, or not. He also mentioned his reasoning for forcing you to do this, that evidently you slighted him in the past and he is taking vengeance by forcing you to be a serial murderer.'

He bowed his head, paying his respects to the pile of dust. "Don't remind me," he whispered aloud. 'What about it?'

'Think on it! If Asriel can rewind in a way you can remember, he can rewind in a way you can't. In a way that only he can remember, so that he may do whatever he desires with impunity. So... how many times has he already done that before?'

'I don't follow,' he thought back, walking on into a small room. Some sort of 'spider bakesale'. He tossed some coins into a web, got a strange purple doughnut, and killed the spiders. He left the gold in the web. 'So what?'

'So! Do you think this will be the last time he does so? When you have been forced to go through the Underground and eradicate its every inhabitant, sooner or later... he's going to rewind again. All those deaths and heartache will be undone! You are not permanently killing these people, Frisk. Only temporarily. They shall recover.'

'Oh... oh!' He thought it over, and certainly couldn't see any problems with Chara's argument. 'So, like, it's okay? It doesn't feel okay. They don't know it. And... if Asriel does do a super-big reset that wipes our memories, who can stop him from doing this again, and again? Or what if he doesn't?'

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'Think on it! If Asriel can rewind in a way you can remember, he can rewind in a way you can't. In a way that only he can, so he may do whatever he desires with impunity. So... how many times has he already done that before?'

'I don't follow,' he thought back, walking on into a small room. Some sort of 'spider bakesale'. He tossed some coins into a web, got a strange purple doughnut, and killed the spiders. He left the gold in the web. 'So what?'

'So! Do you think this will be the last time he does so? When you have been forced to go through the Underground and eradicate its every inhabitant, sooner or later... he's going to rewind again. All those deaths and heartache will be undone! You are not permanently killing these people, Frisk. Only temporarily. They will recover.'

'Oh... oh!' He thought it over, and certainly couldn't see any problems with Chara's argument. 'So, like, it's okay? It doesn't feel okay. They don't know it. And... if Asriel does do a super-big reset that wipes our memories, who can stop him from doing this again, and again? Or what if he doesn't?'

Chara was quiet for a moment. 'I don't know. I want to say we can convince him to use his powers for good, but... I don't know if we can. You must understand Frisk, my brother would never do the things he's doing. Something horrible has happened, something I fear is beyond our ability to repair.'

They were quiet for a moment, before Frisk continued thinking to her. 'When I killed that whimsun, you said I gained two, what, EXP? What is that?'

'It's part of the monster kingdom's justice system,' she explained. 'EXP is an abstract concept acquired by killing others, it stands for Execution Points.' Frisk's heart dropped. It stood for what?! 'Sufficient EXP will raise a person's LV, another abstract. LV stands for LOVE which stands for Level of Violence. When I still lived, there was an assigned judge to see into people's souls and see their LV. They're vague concepts, understand, and you need a special brand of magic to see it. It is not exclusive to judges, rather those who possess it often end up appointed to said position.'

'Yikes. So... there's a judge?'

'Probably? In my time, the judge was an old turtle monster named Gerson. I do not know how long it's been. What year is it?'

'It's 1325 X,' Frisk responded.

Then he was nearly deafened. 'WHAT?! When... when I arrived in the Underground it was only 201 X! No wonder everything's so different! It has been over one thousand years!'

'Whoa, wait. You lived in medieval times?'

'Anyway!' Chara insisted. 'So... 1325 huh? I doubt Gerson will be the judge after all these years, if he is even still alive. No doubt King Asgore would appoint another judge.'

Another heavy stone descended into Frisk's stomach, joining the rocks already there. 'And how many Execution Points do I have on my head?' he asked, dreading the answer.

Chara's answer came without skipping a beat. 'Thirty-six, an LV of three, from twelve kills. I am... not entire certain how I know. I do not possess a judge's abilities, that is certain.'

"Thirty-six," he whispered grievously, popping another monster candy into his mouth to soothe his injuries. He continued on; he couldn't stop to pause for long, with the threat of Toriel returning and discovering what he was up to. 'So I need to watch out for a judge?'

'Indeed. I cannot imagine what sort of monster the king has in his service in this strange new age. They must be truly intimidating.'

Sans

Ring!

"Uhm!" he snorted, sitting upright in his chair. "Whahuh?" he asked, flicking his pupil-lights from side to side.

Ring! Ring!

Sans gripped the phone in his phalanges and answered it, holding it up to his skull. "Yello?" he greeted, blinking the sleep from his eyesockets.

"Howdy, Sans," came Asgore's voice on the other end. "I hope I'm not disturbing you?"

He looked around his sentry station. Same snow, same forest, same everything. He'd gone through his bottles of ketchup and garnish though and only had mustard left. He'd have to swing by Grillby's soon. "Nah, it's cool. What's going on, 'gore? Got someone needing a look?" he asked his boss. As the current judge, he did have to be ready to, well, judge anyone at a moment's notice.

"I was hoping you had a moment to speak about the anomalies your old team had discovered."

Sans's ribcage ached. Oh. Right. The time-space anomaly he, Gaster, and Alphys had discovered once upon a time, though only he remembered. Even Asgore only knew because, well, he was Sans's boss. Had to keep the big guy informed. "What about 'em?" he asked.

"I took a look at the instruments, and something appears to be happening. Three hundred twenty six loops, Sans, all within the span of - "

He shot straight up, suddenly alert. "Hold up, three hundred? Hang on, I'll come to you. Where are you right now? I'll come over."

"Just outside New Home, but I wouldn't wish to trouble you, Sans."

"Nah, it's fine," he said. "My nap was just ending, so it's time for my break." His break at the Waterfall sentry station anyway. Ah, the perks of break-loopholes. "Be right over," he said, ending the call.

Suddenly Sans was outside New Home, surrounded by gray walls. Asgore was before him, standing next to the pile of leaves and holding a phone up to his fuzzy ears. "I'm right over," he announced.

Asgore turned around and smiled. "Well, I am certainly happy you could come. Please, let me get you some tea," he offered, striding forward towards the home.

"Heh, don't mind if I do," he chuckled. Sans followed Asgore into New Home and took a seat around the living room while the big guy went into the kitchen. "So, three hundred of them, huh?"

"Quite," came Asgore's voice. "The graph is on the table, if you would like to see."

Shrugging, Sans stood on his chair and reached over. Sure enough there was a stack of papers on the table, which he hauled towards himself to begin reading.

So... about four hours ago, there was a series of over three hundred time resets within roughly five seconds of each other, with one outlier not too long ago. "Yikes. Guessing the anomaly was really pissed about something, huh?"

"Perhaps," Asgore said, returning from the kitchen was a teapot in one hand and two teacups in the other. He sat next to Sans - his weight causing a light thud - and started pouring tea for both of them. "If it is even an intelligent being, mind you."

Sans shrugged. "Ah, probably is. Bet my spine on it." Asgore handed him a cup. "Oh, thanks." He took a sip of the golden flower tea. Not bad. Pretty weak though, nothing compared to the burst of flavor mustard and ketchup had. But if he said that, Asgore would make the Sad Goat face. "I dunno, it's just... it seems too irregular to not be intelligent. Or at least some kind of, what." He held up his hands and wiggled his phalanges spookily. "Advanced alien computer operating off programming to rewind time in specific circumstances."

Which was nonsense, of course. Time and space were intertwined. Enough so that, while they couldn't pinpoint its location exactly, they did know the anomaly resided on the planet.

"Perhaps. Still, I felt this was something you would like to know about, given your past work."

Sans nodded, looking over more of the sheets while taking another sip of the tea. "Yeah, lots of good readings here. Thanks a bunch."

"Oh, it was my pleasure!" Asgore beamed, finishing off his tea and standing. "At any rate, that is all I wished to speak to you about. Take care, Sans. And do say hello to your brother for me?"

"Can do," Sans said, quietly admiring Asgore. If the old king was disturbed at all by the fact that time kept rewinding at the whims of some creature, that the world was stuck in place and nothing they ever did would ever matter, that they were flies trapped in amber, he didn't show it. Which made sense, of course. He had much bigger things to worry about, like running a kingdom, waiting for the seventh and final soul to free them. He and Asgore didn't even know if the anomaly was in the Underground, no sense worrying about it otherwise right? "Guess I'll be going, got a break to catch up on," he said with a cheeky laugh in his voice, glancing sideways and tucking the paper into his sweater.

Asgore smiled back. "I'm glad to have had you. Take care."

Then Sans was back in Snowdin. He glanced at the giant locked door, thinking of going and practicing his knock-knock jokes on it, but decided against it. There were a ton of snow piles and fallen branches on the way there, like an angry god had knocked over half the forest, and eeeehhhh it was too much effort to go there.

As for the anomaly... Sans was certain it was in the Underground. Given the resets started so soon after those experiments Alphys was so tight-lipped about, he was certain she'd somewhat unleashed it. She couldn't be the anomaly, she never gave any hints of knowing about it, and Alphys was, uh, a pretty bad actor.

He sat back in his chair and poured over the resets. "Three hundred twenty six huh? That's a skele-ton of resets there buddy," he whispered, chuckling to himself. Heh. Skele-ton. "What's making you so angry?" he wondered aloud. "Need a joke? Food? Just need a friend?" Hell, it wasn't impossible. Contrary to what Alphys would have him think, not just anime fell into the garbage dump from the human world. There were other movies, some featuring a time loop, where a character was trapped in a repeating day until they underwent some character growth. It was pretty... maddening for the character involved.

This wasn't exactly 'one day' but it seemed fairly reasonable. Hell, if Sans's suspicions were right, there'd be many more resets that their instruments weren't even picking up on. Resets that, technically, never happened. Maybe he'd met the anomaly many times before only to, like everything else, forget it. On the other hand, hey. Maybe it was only messin' around with the humans, didn't even know about monsters. Sure it'd discover them eventually but maybe it hadn't yet.

At any rate, Sans was confident that if he came face to face with the anomaly, he'd know if they'd met before. Not many, heh, fibulas could get past his eyes.

He tucked the sheets of paper below his station, staining their backs with spilled ketchup. No clue what to do with this information, but he'd figure somethin' out. With that done he leaned back in his seat and closed his eyesockets, hard at work doing nothing. He had some time to nap, and after that it'd be time to give Papyrus his bedtime story. But despite his lazy posture, Sans kept his earholes out for anyone approaching.

After all, they needed only one more soul and he was a part-time sentry.

Sans wasn't gonna let some human stand in the way of Papyrus seeing the sun.

Chapter Text

Frisk

He continued on, eyes low. Passing through the Ruins took a while; he rounded corners, he flipped switches, and so much more. He killed, over and over, leaving piles of dust in his wake. His heart felt like a stone and his throat like sandpaper. Eventually, he arrived on a balcony overlooking the Ruins.

"Whoa," he whispered, sitting on the ground and admiring the view. Laid out before him were what looked to be old governmental buildings with domed roofs, squat houses, and what looked like parts of castles. "How big is this place?" he wondered.

'Home is quite large,' Chara said. 'Though it'd been largely evacuated once the monsters pressed onward to New Home. I doubt you shall find anyone down there.'

Good. Frisk didn't want to have to scour that entire place. Then he glanced left and saw something, leaning against a wall. He walked over to it and knelt so he could see it better. It was a... knife? No, not quite. A toy plastic knife, like the kind toddlers would use in their little toy kitchens. Just... a bit bigger. He shrugged and grabbed it in his hand. His stick wouldn't fit in his pockets, obviously, so Frisk placed it in his backpack.

... it still didn't quite fit, and the top end stuck out behind him. Oh well. At least he could get the zipper almost all the way around. He flipped the toy knife over in his hands a few times. A decent fit. It was smaller than the stick so he'd have to get closer to hit, but even this was sharper than the piece of wood.

... oh God, was he really thinking about how to make himself better at killing people? His stomach churned.

Frisk backtracked, searching and searching. It was so... empty, with nothing but piles of dust. There wasn't even wind, or chirping crickets, to highlight the silence. He returned all the way to the tabletop which held old, stinky cheese. He found a hole in the wall and knelt in front of it. There was a quiet squeak, but nothing more. He stood, head lowered and eyes downcast, and started trudging back the way he came.

'Come on Frisk, you can do this,' Chara encouraged as he passed the cheese. 'Determination.'

Right. Determination. He could do this. Do as Asriel said for now, find a way to make the monster stop, and use his powers for good. Or better yet, get rid of his time powers entirely. This wasn't a power that anyone could be trusted with.

He searched and searched. It'd been harder and harder to find monsters, they must've seen the piles of dust and known to steer clear. A few still stuck around courageously though, like the 'Vegetoid' he'd previously killed. But that didn't seem to be the case. Frisk looked and looked...

'... but nobody came,' Chara whispered morosely, finishing his thought.

'Yeah. Do you think this is enough for Asriel?'

'I hope so. I really hope so,' Chara whispered, and then she was silent. Frisk kept walking, passing through the increasingly dreary corridors of the Ruins, each step slow and hard. He passed the spider bakesale, the rooms with switches, and soon came across an intersection. Last time he'd gone forward, and found the toy knife. This time he hung a left, and saw a large black tree.

He approached it and placed a hand on its bark, then glanced down when his shoe crunched leaves. The tree was rough and cold, covered in wrinkles and knots. "What's wrong with it?" he asked.

'It's pretty old. Had some sickness too. Even when I was alive, anytime it grew leaves they'd just fall right off. I have no idea how it still lives after all these years. Toriel must take very good care of it.'

"Oh dear," said a familiar voice out of nowhere. Frisk jumped so high he swore his feet cleared the branches. "That took so very long. I hope he's alright..."

Ring! Ring!

Frisk stumbled back as his phone rang, right into Toriel's vision. She'd come from the back end of the tree, where there was a tidy little house tucked away in the Ruins. She cradled a phone similar to his next to her floppy ears, but then they stared each other down.

How much trouble am I in for not staying put? he wondered with a gut-twisting jolt of fear.

She placed down the phone and rushed towards him. "Oh my child, how did you get here? Are you hurt?" she fussed, looking him over. "A few scratches, nothing I can't fix. It'll be alright, child," she fussed, waving green magic over him. It was just as well; Frisk had run out of candy a while back and he'd suffered a few magical attacks - none to his soul, thank goodness.

"Thank you," he muttered, unwilling to meet her eyes. A horrible thought dawned on Frisk. Asriel wanted him to kill everyone. But... no, surely he'd make an exception? Toriel was his mother!

The goat monster shook her head. "Oh, this was so irresponsible of me. I wanted to surprise you, but you got hurt. You could have gotten..." she trailed off, glancing sideways nervously. Then she looked back at him and beamed. "But you are alright now, and I have something I wish to show you! Come, small one!" she urged, backtracking to the little house. Frisk shrugged and followed after her, inspecting the house.

It was... pretty basic. The building was a squat rectangle made of the same purple bricks that comprised most of the Ruins, with a few piles of leaves outside. The open door simply had the word Home written above it, and from within Frisk could see a wooden floor and golden light. He followed Toriel inside, toasty warmth flooding over his body and dispelling the residual chill of having his soul repeatedly torn from his body. He sniffed, and smelled something... sweet and inviting.

"Surprise!" Toriel cheered, closing the door with a smile threatening to split her snout. "I was baking a butterscotch cinnamon pie, to celebrate your arrival. Oh! Before I forget, I have another surprise for you!"

His head spun as the monster led him down a corridor, and he tried to take everything in. A house. A home. With little nightstands and pitchers holding a strange plant he didn't know the name of. Warm wooden floors and paintings hanging on the right hand wall. On the left, Frisk saw a few doors spaced out evenly. Toriel led him to the first one and held her hands out at it.

"Ta-da!" she announced proudly. "A room all of your own." She turned to him and Frisk looked up at her beaming face. "I want you to have a good time here, my child." Her nostrils twitched and inhaled a breath of air, prompting her eyes to widen. "Now, I need to go check up on the pie before it burns. The bathroom is on the right, if you need it," she said, gesturing to a door across from the others. "But for now, why don't you rest inside, hmm? You must be so tired." She leaned over and gave a little kiss on the top of his head. "See you soon!" she chimed, rushing off.

"A room?" he wondered, approaching the door. Frisk opened it and walked inside. In his head, Chara gasped.

Sure enough, it was a room, with lovely pumpkin-colored walls. There were several things that his eyes briefly flickered to; an empty photo frame, a lamp in the corner, a closet with the doors shut tight, a box of lame baby toys. But then his eyes fell on the bed and nothing else mattered. Like a zombie trailing imagined dust, Frisk pulled himself over to the bed, laid over the covers and rested his head on the pillow. He was out before he could hear what Chara was saying.

When he stirred awake, his body felt stiff and heavy. He groaned, relishing in the softness of the pillow, of the soft and fuzzy covers pulled over him...

... wait, didn't he fall asleep on top of them?

He shuffled around, realizing that while he'd been asleep someone must have tucked him in and... if the utter darkness behind his eyelids meant anything, they'd also turned the lights off.

Frisk knew he was still in the Underground. He hadn't forgotten that. He was in Toriel's home. He smiled as realization set in. It must've been her. She came in while he was asleep, tucked him in, and turned off the lights. Something warm fluttered inside his chest. Was this what having a mother was like?

He had no illusions living in the orphanage; twelve year olds just didn't get adopted. He'd missed the formative years and he'd missed the cute years, but he hadn't really minded the thought of another six years helping the younger kids out until he grew up. But he'd always dreamed, always wanted, always wondered what it'd be like to have real parents. And now here he was, adopted by this strange, kind goat lady who'd never once raised her voice in anger, never once berated him, who didn't even seem to care he'd disobeyed her about staying in place and instead turned the blame on herself.

And you're going to kill her, a treasonous thought whispered, pouring ice water on his heart.

'Have a nice nap?' Chara asked sarcastically. 'Get up, there's no time to be lazing about in bed!'

'I'm not in the mood, Chara,' he thought back.

'God, you're horrible. How can you just... lay there? Don't you at least want to explore the house?'

No. 'Yes,' he replied, pulling himself out of bed. He stumbled about in the dark, hands out in front of him as he felt for where he remembered the lamp to be. Soon his fumbling hands found it and tugged the little string to turn it on. Light flooded the room, and right away his eyes were drawn towards something in the middle of the carpet. A plate, with a slice of what looked to be pie on it. There was even a fork and a knife placed next to it. His eyes watered. Toriel had even brought him breakfast. He sat on the carpet and lifted the plate into his lap. He grabbed the utensils and nudged the pie so it fell over onto its side, before cutting off a piece of the tip and eating it.

Frisk's tongue lit up and he shivered. That was definitely cinnamon and butterscotch alright. He dug in, the pieces of still-warm pie evaporating into energy down his throat and appeasing his hunger. After voraciously consuming his breakfast, he stood and wandered around, taking in the room more purposefully. There was an empty photo frame covered in dust - he bit back his revulsion - as well as a closet filled with yellow and green striped shirts. Between the bed and the wall were several stuffed monster dolls, and at the foot of the bed was the box filled with stupid little toys. Wooden cars, paddles, that kind of stuff.

Chara apparently thought much higher of the toys. 'Don't you want to take a minute? Oh wow, she even has Mr. Beepy!'

As though Chara's spirit were watching from inside the box of toys, Frisk glared at it. "Really? What am I, four?" he asked before turning away. Frisk went to the bathroom across the hall and freshened up to the tune of Chara's grumbling about dull humans who didn't know how to have fun.

With that done, Frisk decided to explore a bit. With a good night of sleep in him, he could really take in Toriel's home and appreciate its... well, homeyness. He wandered down the hall, looking at the tall reed-like plants resting in pots. He opened a drawer, finding it filled with flower seeds and broken crayons. Weird. Why would Toriel have those?

'Reminds me of an old fairy tale,' Frisk said. 'With a witch who brings lost kids to her home in the woods, fattens them up, and eats them...'

'HOW DARE YOU?!' Chara roared, forcing Frisk to his knees with his hands clutched around his ears. Not that it helped. 'She would never! After all she's done for you! How - how could you even consider - '

'Alright alright I'm sorry!' he protested. 'I'm just... having a hard time with all this.' That silenced her.

He walked down the hall. He found one door, and was tempted to go inside. But he thought better of it; it'd be wrong to snoop. He went further down the hall until he came across another door. This one was locked anyway, and a sign on the door informed him it was closed for renovation. Next to it was a mirror, so he peered into it.

Despite his trials, he was lookin' good. No bruises, no cuts. No evidence of what felt like months of being tortured by Asriel. Somewhere, deep inside him, was his soul, and Chara's spirit.

'It's us, Frisk,' she chimed.

With a resolute nod, he turned back around and left the hallway. 'Did you use to live here?' he asked.

'Briefly. When the Dreemurrs found me they still lived here, but construction on New Home was already underway. I spent a month here, and then we moved. Just as well, it took me about that long to get better. There, uh, weren't any flowers to cushion my fall.'

'Oh, ouch,' he hissed, wincing at the thought. A glance to the right showed him a set of stairs spiraling into a basement, and up ahead he could see a living room. Even from where he was, Frisk could see a dinner table and Toriel, sitting in a chair with a book in her paws and spectacles perched atop her muzzle.

She looked up from her book as he approached, a smile growing on her face. "Oh, it is good to see you up, my child! You must have been exhausted; I do not blame you." She smirked. "You'd had quite an exciting day, after all."

He nodded, a stone weighing down his gut. "Mmhmm, it's not every day you fall into an underground cave filled with strange monsters and beautiful goat ladies," he said with a wink.

'Frisk, what the hell?'

Toriel teared up and covered her snout, stifling laughter. "Oh, oh my, quite a charmer aren't you. Surely you can do better than a silly old woman like myself, child. But regardless of your..." She coughed. ", interesting sense of humor, I am so glad to have you here." She reached for her glasses and removed them, folding them up with a little click before wiping a tear from her eyes. "It's been so long since I've had anyone here, and the Ruins can feel so empty at times."

Frisk smiled nervously. "Yeah. I, uh, know what you mean."

She nodded. "But you are here now, my child. I trust you've already seen the breakfast I left you?" He nodded. "Excellent! Of course you missed dinner yesterday, so I've already placed a snail pie onto the oven to bake." A... what? "Normally I'd use my magic to cook but... ah, but I'm getting off track. Afterwards I can take you outside, show you all the places I like to hunt bugs, then see how your arithmetic and language skills are faring..." she trailed off, staring off into the distance.

"That sounds great, Miss Toriel," he said with a strained smile. "What are you reading right now?"

"Oh, this?" she asked, holding up the book. "It's one of my favorite books. 'Seventy-Two Uses for Snails'."

Snail pie, uses for snails... 'Chara, is there something you want to tell me about?'

"Sounds... interesting," he managed.

Toriel looked down at him and smiled, baring her larger fangs. "Doesn't it? Ooh, would you like to hear one?" she asked, learning towards him, suddenly excited.

Frisk shrugged, grabbed a seat from the nearby dining table, and brought it over to face Toriel before sitting in it. "Sure, I guess."

"Wonderful!" Toriel put her glasses back on and flipped through the book to its earlier pages. "Exciting snail use one: they can be used for shoelaces!" she chirped. Frisk blinked at her and she looked back into the book sheepishly. "... not very good ones though. Ooh, number two: they can be used for food! Pies, snacks, escargot..."

"So... snail pie?" he asked a little queasily.

Toriel nodded. "Oh yes! I know from experience most humans balk at it at first, but I trust you'll find it's a very easily acquired taste. Onto fact three: making royal purple dye."

Frisk eyed Toriel's royal purple robes curiously.

He continued to listen as Toriel listed off various ways snails were used, some of which he couldn't even picture. Primitive hammers? Calcium for plants? She also listed off snail facts, like what their tongues were like, or how they could flip their digestive tracks, and even a little joke about how snails spoke. Very. Slowly. Frisk found himself smiling, laughing, and leaning forward to hear the next one. The warm fire in the hearth gently crackled away, and the air was filled with the smell of sweet pie. Frisk felt... warm. Safe.

He felt welcome.

"Is something wrong, my child?" Toriel put her book down and glanced at him through her spectacles. "You are crying."

Was he? He wiped his eyes and found that yes, he was. "I'm sorry," he murmured. "It's fine, though." No it's not. Here this lady is, taking you into her home, adopting you just like you always dreamed, and you're going to kill her.

"Usually when someone says a matter is fine, I find it is much the opposite," Toriel chided gently. "I understand if you do not wish to speak, but do understand that, however you may feel, sharing your burden with others will make you feel better. I will not judge."

Frisk sighed, clenching and unclenching his fist. "Miss Toriel I was... on the surface, I was an orphan. Dad died in a car crash before I was born, and my mom died giving birth to me." Maybe a small, distant part of him pined for what could have been, but there was no sense mourning people he'd never known. Ever since he learned about his birth parents, he'd been determined to move on and not be the typical 'mopey orphan wishes they knew their parents'. "And I didn't get adopted when I was younger, too hard-headed. I... and you're so nice, you brought me to your home and I'm so, so thankful for you." And I'm so sorry about what I have to do.

Toriel's mouth opened and tears brimmed behind her spectacles as she placed a hand to her chest. "Oh... oh Frisk, I am so sorry to hear that. I want you to know I enjoy having you here. You will always be welcome with me." She reached the hand out and took Frisk's relatively tiny one into her own. The fur on her fingers tickled him, and the black pads on the inside of her hands were rough and dry, like a dog's paw. "You can stay with me for as long as you wish, my child."

My child. Frisk leaped from his chair and wrapped his arms around Toriel, who leaned down to his level and returned the embrace, rubbing his back with one hand and whispering quiet assurances.

He wanted to leave. Wanted to go home and reassure his friends he was alright.

He wanted to stay. Wanted to stay with the woman who promised to be his mother, who would take care of him and love him and raise him.

He wanted to leave. If he stayed, he'd be forced to kill her. He'd be forced to kill so many more people. There was enough blood on his hands already.

He wanted to stay. Asriel could teleport, and even if Frisk did escape the Underground, he could never escape the monster's time powers.

Frisk had to stay. He needed to see this through. This wasn't something he could walk away from; Asriel would continue playing with the world like a ball of yarn until he was stopped. Frisk knew nothing about the 'other timelines' but in those, nothing had stopped Asriel. In this world, he and Chara both knew about Asriel's powers. This might be their one and only shot at stopping him, and that meant staying and doing what he needed to do.

Toriel pulled out of the embrace. "Now, come along Frisk! It's time for lunch!"

With a strained smile, he followed after her. Lunch was, as promised, snail pie with various beverages available. Frisk passed on the Spider Cider and settled on cool, crisp water. They made a little small talk, chatting about what the current situation was like on the surface. Toriel, according to Chara's quips, was a type of monster that didn't age unless they had a child around. She was effectively immortal, had lived on the surface long ago, and was curious to hear what had changed.

But Frisk was the one who ended up learning things; apparently humans used to have magic, the same magic they used to seal away the monsters. He wondered what had happened to the magic if it was gone even by Chara's time, a relatively scant two centuries after the sealing at 0 X. They talked about the surface then, the surface now, the Underground, and Toriel even went over her plans to teach Frisk as though he were at school.

The snail pie wasn't half bad, either.

He had the 'afternoon' to himself. Frisk found that while the Underground was obviously cut off from the Sun, the magical lighting system slowly dimmed as time went by. Frisk spent that time in his room, laying on his bed with his legs propped against a wall. He'd taken his shoes off first, though. He wasn't a savage.

'I merely wish I had a better idea of what has changed in my absence,' Chara complained. 'We can't very well make plans without knowing what we're even planning against!'

'Does it really matter?' Frisk asked. 'I mean, apparently I'm a lot stronger than the monsters around here, and even if I die your brother will just rese - '

'Do. Not. Call that thing my brother,' Chara hissed. 'Twenty deaths and seventy four execution points among them! That is what is on his head, to say nothing of what he may have done in other timelines. Asriel would never do this. This thing is not my brother, it cannot be because Asriel is dead and gone.'

'Dead and gone like you are?' he challenged.

Chara was silent after that. Eventually it was time for dinner, and this time Toriel just made him a nice salad that he dug into. He and Toriel told each other good night, he brushed his teeth and took a shower - freezing cold, there was no heat - before turning off the lamp in his room and crawling into his bed, still in the same clothes. He should really change out of those; the closet was filled with clothing in all sizes after all. He at least didn't sleep with shoes on this time.

He'd... he'd spend a few days here. He couldn't bring himself to just do it to someone like Toriel. With that thought in mind Frisk closed his eyes.

'Night, Chara.'

'Sweet dreams, Frisk.'

Then he drifted off...

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When he stirred awake, his body felt stiff and heavy. He groaned, relishing in the softness of the pillow, of the soft and fuzzy covers pulled over him...

Frisk yawned and sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. His stomach growled fiercely, and something smelled good. He swung out of bed and stumbled over to the lamp, clicking it back on and searching for the source of the smell.

He found it was... a slice of butterscotch cinnamon pie, resting on a plate with a fork and knife at its side.

"Oh, that's kind of her," he whispered. Naturally there'd still been plenty of pie left; she must've brought him another piece. He was really going to have to thank Miss Toriel for this.

The pie tasted just as good as it had the day before. Frisk stretched, then went into the bathroom to freshen up, his shoes tapping on the wooden floor -

... his shoes that he had taken off the night before and hadn't put back on.

Frisk froze and looked down at his feet. 'Um, Chara, I didn't put my shoes back on when I wasn't paying attention, did I?'

'No, you did not. Why do you ask? Wait. Oh.'

'Yeah, oh. Do you think he reset?'

'There is only one way to ascertain. Go talk to Toriel,' she instructed.

Frisk did, walking out of the bathroom after splashing some water onto his face. He passed the stairs to what he assumed was the basement and resolved to ask Toriel about it; if it'd been over a thousand years then Toriel would know about them better than Chara.

He found Toriel sitting in her chair by the fireplace, reading 'Seventy-Two Uses for Snails' with her glasses on.

She looked up from her book as he approached, a smile growing on her face. "Oh, it is good to see you up, my child! You must have been exhausted; I do not blame you." She smirked. "You'd had quite an exciting day, after all."

That about confirmed it; Asriel had reset the world while Frisk slept. He couldn't stay with Toriel, couldn't build up a life with her. Each day would reset, trapping him in a loop until he did what Asriel wanted.

So... he'd take one more day. Sure he was stalling, but who'd blame him? He ate lunch, asked Toriel to repeat the uses for snails to him while he smiled and pretended not to remember a few of the odder ones.

"Miss Toriel," he asked while eating the same snail pie for the second time. "Where do those stairs lead? The basement?"

Toriel, sitting across from him at the dinner table, froze. "The... basement, my child? Why do you ask?"

He shrugged. "I was just curious."

She grimaced, but sighed and put her fork down. "My child, when you got here I noticed you were hurt, yes? Injuries to your very essence. You were attacked by monsters... and believe me, I shall be having words with them." No you won't. "The stairs down there lead to the rest of the Underground, where the majority of the monster population resides. They have... declared war upon your kind. Even if you were to find an exit, the magical seal would make it impossible for you to leave, young one," she whispered.

"Magical seal," he whispered. "But... war?"

'I am confused too. There was no war in my time...'

Toriel nodded grimly. "Remember how I explained the ability for monsters to reveal your soul?" She held out a hand and gently curled her fingers, exposing Frisk's soul. "Human souls contain a tremendous amount of magic, my child, especially compared to that of monsters. While human biology makes it nearly impossible to access any of it, if a monster were to kill you, to take your soul, they would have access to its full potential."

Right. Monsters could take his soul. Chara had explained as much to him when she caught him up to speed on the Underground.

"The monsters beyond are going out of their way to collect the souls of any humans who fall, and deliver them to their foul king, Asgore."

'Foul? Mom, what are you talking about? He'd never do that... would he?'

"... they plan to absorb the souls of seven humans, and use that power to destroy the magical seal - it takes the power of a little more than six souls to shatter the Barrier, so it rounds up to seven - and return to the surface. And then... then they will use the power of those seven souls to eradicate humanity."

His jaw opened in shock. "What? But... that's...!"

"Horrible?" Toriel asked, looking him dead in the eyes. "I know, young one. It's why you must stay here. Were it possible for you to cross the Barrier I would protect and escort you there, but alas, it is not possible. If you leave this house, if you leave the Ruins, they will kill you. It has happened before. Six humans fell before you. All of them I allowed to pass once they asked it of me, praying they'd find some way to escape that I had overlooked, but each time the spiders and ghosts that live on the other side of the Underground would inform me that Asgore had reaped their souls. You are the only one they still need."

She teared up. "You must stay here, my child. Once you grow old and pass on, your soul will be able to move on to the afterlife naturally, and will be in no danger of being reaped. But if you go, they will kill you and with your soul, your entire species will go extinct."

"But..." he protested, wracking his brain. "But humans have like, guns and stuff. I mean, we have planes that can fire missiles and go faster than sound, and can drop nukes that'll just blow up a bunch of cities in an instant! We could defend ourselves right? I mean, according to the legends humans beat monsters once before, didn't they?" he asked nervously, feeling a little awkward mentioning how his people had beaten hers.

"While it is true that humans prevailed once, that was long ago my child, when humans still had access to magic. And even if your people's technological might has escalated so, it would not matter. In the old war, humans attacked suddenly, and did not give monsters the chance to absorb even a single soul. This time, however, Asgore would start the war with seven human souls within him. A monster with a single human soul is bad enough, but multiple? Their power does not merely add together, my child. It does not even multiply. It increases exponentially. Mark my words, Frisk. Seven human souls... your people would not stand a chance. That is why you must never go downstairs," she concluded, looking weary and old.

He looked down at his empty plate. "I understand, Miss Toriel. I was just curious. I think I'm gonna go play in my room."

She smiled at him, her melancholy vanishing to be replaced by joy. "Go ahead, I'll clean the dishes," she said, pushing his soul back into his body.

"Thanks." He hopped out of the chair and walked to his room, closing the door and kicking off his shoes before sitting on his bed. 'Chara, was your soul taken by monsters?'

'No, aside from the whole Asriel-took-it-out-of-grief business I informed you about. The monsters in my era were very welcoming and didn't lay a hand on me. This harvesting must have started after Asriel and I died. It fits too; one human every few centuries or so, I do not think anybody on the surface would notice that.'

'Asgore was your dad, right? The king?'

'... yes. I can not believe he would do such a thing but... I also did not believe Toriel would make those gardening tools in the corner useless for fear of you getting hurt, or that Asriel... everyone has changed so much, it stands to reason Asgore has changed as well.'

'It doesn't really matter if they're trying to take my soul though, does it? With Asriel doing his time-thing.'

'That is true. While Asgore attempting to gather seven souls is a grea - err, dangerous thing to consider, we have bigger concerns. Though... I wonder if giving him that much power would let him defy Asriel.'

He sat on his bed for a bit, thinking it over. Something occurred to him. 'Wait, if your soul was taken by Asriel, and I guess destroyed when you both died, how are you here now?'

'I am... not entirely sure. After our death my essence seemed to have been... returned to my body. It was like sleeping, though not comfortably. Now you are here. I feel... cold, Frisk. I am not certain I actually have my soul anymore. But I can feel yours, so bright and warm, and that will suffice. Perhaps you having a similar soul to what mine was is what forced me to bind myself to you.'

They were silent. "How am I going to do this?" he asked aloud, thoughts turning to Toriel.

No reply from Chara.

Eventually, the same night fell for the second time. Frisk brushed his teeth and took a shower, and watched the clock above his door. Ten at night. Eleven. Twelve. One. Sleep tugged at his burning eyelids, but he forced himself to stay up. At one thirty, he decided that surely Toriel would be asleep, and he crept out of his room, wearing only socks so his shoes wouldn't make much noise.

Toriel's room was one over from his. He opened the door slowly and carefully, clutching the toy knife he'd kept hidden from her in his right hand, crept in.

It was black as pitch, but the weak light from the hallway still streamed in. Toriel's bed was over to the left - sharing a wall with his bed, actually - and the boss monster rested on it, curled on her side with the covers up to her neck. A bookshelf lined one wall, and a cactus in the corner gave the room some personality. To Frisk's immediate left was a bucket full of... were those snails?!

With a rock in his gut and pins in his limbs, Frisk crept over to Toriel and raised the knife, point down, over her body. He looked down at her and grimaced. He had to do this, if he didn't... if he didn't...

Stars of pure energy crashing around him, immolating his flesh.

But how could he work up the will to fight her? She'd been nothing but kind and loving and... and...

Lightning screaming from the heavens and piercing him lengthwise, seizing his muscles with their power. Pain and death, over and over, beyond anything he could have ever imagined.

If he didn't then Asriel would just reset him again. If Frisk kept Asriel waiting long enough he'd torture him. He'd go through that again. No. No, he wouldn't go through that. He had to kill her. He wanted to kill her more than he wanted to go through the pain. His eyes widened in panic, and the knife came down like a guillotine on sleeping, defenseless Toriel.

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Her eyes flew open and she gasped. She shook violently for a moment, throwing off the covers and forcing Frisk to see the damage he'd inflicted; a massive gash through her side, tearing open her robes. There was no blood; instead, flakes of dust formed on the inside of her wound and began sloughing off. "Wha - " she gasped.

"I'm sorry," he croaked. "I'm sorry, I didn't want to. He, he forced me, if I didn't he was going to kill me!"

Toriel grimaced and closed her eyes, swallowing weakly. Parts of her purple robe faded to white. With what looked like great effort, she opened her eyes and reached out a hand to stroke Frisk's cheek. "I understand, it's alright. I should have found whoever threatened you, my child..."

Frisk was certain Toriel's body was still disintegrating, but he couldn't see any of it through his tears. "I'm so sorry," he managed.

Toriel's hand came to his shoulder and gripped hard; her claws were already flaking away to nubs. "Listen to me, small one. The one exit from the Underground is through the basement. Once you get there, keep going east and do not stop. You will find an exit. Hey, shh, shh." She brushed some of his tears away. "Whoever forced you to do this, you can evade them once you escape the Barrier. Escape, and alert your people to... to the threat posed by... by Asgore." She took another deep, shuddering breath.

"Toriel," he whimpered, sinking to his knees.

"There is... but one way you... can cross the Barrier, child," she croaked, her words coming slower and quieter. "You must... take... the soul..."

And then no more words were spoken because, with the sound of sifting sand, Toriel's body and robes turned to a pile of dust in her bed. From where her heart had been a single, inverted heart as white as snow appeared. Frisk sniffled and stared up at it, mesmerized.

Then it snapped in half, and splintered into pieces that blew away into oblivion.

'Frisk,' Chara whispered in horror. 'It feels good, Frisk.'

He sat down and stared up at Toriel's pile of dust, silent and grim. This was just the beginning, too. There were so many monsters outside the Ruins, if what Toriel said was true. All of them. He'd have to kill all of them. Not just the soldiers looking to reap human souls either, but the civilians, the parents, the fellow teens, all of them, to satisfy Asriel's twisted sense of revenge, and he was still no closer to finding a way to stop him. Feeding this 'Asgore' his soul wouldn't help if Asriel could just reset out of it.

Frisk wiped away his tears and stood, head lowered. His knife was dusty. There were a few flakes of dust on his shoulders too, from where Toriel had grabbed him in her dying moments.

Slowly, something inside of him twisted, and he narrowed his eyes. "No."

'No what?'

"No, I'm not going to let this destroy me!" he declared resolutely. He turned away and marched out of Toriel's room, heading out of the hallway. "Asriel thinks he's doing some horrible unspeakable thing to me. Thinks I'm gonna go through this crying and sobbing and miserable. I'll show him! I'll get this done by lunch and then talk some sense into that time-traveling psycho and make him bring everyone back!" He arrived at the stairwell and started to go down. "Revenge for something I did in a past life huh? I'll show him - "

'Frisk, you may wish to grab another sweater. If I remember correctly, it gets extremely cold outside the Ruins.'

He paused in his marching and pivoted around on one foot. 'Good call!' Frisk swiftly went back to his room and rummaged through the closet, grabbing one of the yellow-green sweaters and, after a moment of dressing, put it on and wore his own purple-blue shirt over it. "Should also probably grab some food for the road, no telling how long it'll be." He snapped his fingers and went searching for his backpack. "The pie!"

Sure enough, the pie was still in the kitchen, with a huge slice taken from it. Frisk rummaged through the drawers for something to get a slice, but the closest thing he could find were cookie cutters.

'Where did she keep the knives?' Chara growled with alarming hunger.

Frisk paused. 'Um, are you feeling alright?'

'Never better. Something about this is... is... I do not know. At any rate, if you cannot find a knife, just grab some pie by hand. Nobody is going to be angry at you for poor table manners.'

Chara made some sense. Frisk found a paper bag, scooped out some of the butterscotch-cinnamon pie, and tossed it in. He drank some water from a leather flask, stashed the flask and then, as an afterthought, grabbed the chocolate bar in the fridge and put that into the bag as well. "I think that's everything," he muttered.

'I agree.'

He nodded resolutely and headed back down the stairs. The walls down there were purple just like the Ruins outside. It smelled of mold and still air, and his footsteps echoed off the eerily silent hall. He turned a few corners and pushed through a door that held the same symbol Toriel's robes had. "I'll show him," Frisk muttered as he stomped through the next corridor, which slowly grew a lighter shade of violet as he passed. "Think he can make me cry by doing this, he's got another think coming!"

From there Frisk found himself in a room similar to the one Toriel had found him in; sunlight streamed from a hole in the surface to illuminate a narrow patch of grass. He trampled over it and approached the door on the other end. It was a big, heavy door, and he didn't think he'd be able to open it from the other side. He leaned into it; immediately Frisk felt a gust of cold air and was grateful for Chara's warning. After a moment he opened it up fully and beheld...

... snow. An underground cavern so large it could generate its own weather. Dead trees littered either side of a narrow path that was covered in heaping piles of snow; traversing that path was going to be a nightmare.

'Welcome to Snowdin Forest, Frisk,' Chara explained.

He nodded and walked forward, both hands curled into fists, his right one also holding the plastic knife. "Watch out Underground," he growled, crunching forward through the bitter cold. "Here comes Frisk!"

Frisk's march was interrupted when something invisible reached into his chest and tore his soul out to be exposed. What happened next, Frisk couldn't perfectly describe what it felt like. It was like gravity suddenly magnified a hundred-fold. It was like someone grabbed him by his shirt and threw him to the ground.

However it felt, his soul turned a shade of deep blue and fell to the ground, pulling his body after it. Frisk's nose slammed into the ground with enough force to break it bloodily, but then he had bigger concerns because a forest of pure white bones shot up from the ground, impaling straight through his body. The pain was blinding, and on top of a horribly sickening sensation that instantly made him vomit, they also vibrated back and forth fiercely, tearing up his insides as they bounced against him dozens of times a second. A moment later the bones retracted into the ground, only for a storm of more bones to come flying at Frisk from ahead and tear both him and his soul apart.

His vision darkened until all he could see was his brilliant blue, now red, heart. It shook and, just like Toriel's soul, tore into two pieces before shattering like glass.

"Whoops," he heard someone say behind him. "Guess I put a little too much into that..."

FILE LOADED

Frisk nearly collapsed when the world suddenly returned, but he grabbed hold of himself and sat down. He was back in the Ruins; specifically, the patch of lighted grass just before he'd exited to 'Snowdin Forest'. He sat there silently, going over what had happened in his mind, before Chara decided to sum up his thoughts perfectly.

'I'm sorry, WHAT?!'

Chapter Text

Frisk

Frisk blinked owlishly. "Did that really just happen?" he wondered.

Chara just sputtered uselessly in his mind.

"Alright," he whispered, getting back up and nervously eying the door to Snowdin Forest. "Let's try that again." He crept forward, tip-toeing as though whatever monster had just shredded him was waiting in the shadows. Frisk leaned up against the door and pushed against it. Right away, bitter cold began streaming in, nipping and biting at his nose.

'How are we going to do this, Frisk?' Chara asked nervously.

'I jump, then dodge?' he thought. 'Gonna be tough though, did you SEE how fast those bones were?!'

'I concur. I've never seen any magical attack move quite so fast. Asriel notwithstanding, of course.'

By then, Frisk had opened the door and slipped out into Snowdin. He scanned left and right, searching for any shadows in the trees. He found nothing, so he crept forward slowly and carefully. The road was still laden with snowbanks, and Frisk almost made it to the first one when his soul appeared. He jerked in place, reacting to nothing a split second before his heart was, once again, turned blue and thrown to the ground, his body following suit.

He caught himself on his hands, but even so the impact sent a shock up his arms. For a split second Frisk felt the ground tremble, and the weight on his soul lifted. He jumped as high as he could as an ocean of bones tore forth from the snow. He jumped early, but not early enough because the bones still caught up to him and shredded his hands. Frisk screamed as his hands began to bleed, a strange sickness pouring through his body and sapping his strength with alarming speed.

Then normal gravity took hold. The bones vanished and Frisk fell. He remembered what came next and scrambled to stand as a forest of bones flew at him from the side. He bobbed and weaved, ducked and jumped, but a couple femurs brained him across the head - filling him with more of the illness - and a few more tore bloody strips across his legs and chest. Then it ended and he collapsed, breathing heavily.

It wasn't over yet.

A cage of bones appeared around him, locking him into a square area. Four... things appeared out of thin air, rotating rapidly and sliding into place with a harsh, building noise. They looked like... dragon skulls, each the size of a small house. They glared forward with icy eyes, one of them staring straight at Frisk.

'Wait, are those - ' Chara began.

Then as one, they opened their jaws with a the sound of cannonfire and Frisk's world was consumed with light. Everything was white, and when he closed his eyes out of pain everything was still white. The light consumed him, cold and cruel in its nauseating intensity as it washed over him like a tidal wave...

Snap, went his soul.

FILE LOADED

Frisk reappeared in the grassy patch within the Ruins, blinking his eyes. He felt there should've been white spots in his vision, but there was nothing.

'You know, I actually have an idea who might be attacking us,' Chara said. 'Back when I was alive, there was the position of Royal Scientist. It was occupied by a skeleton monster called W.D. Gaster. He could summon bones, and one of the spellforms he had created were those blasters you saw. And while their souls don't persist after death, skeleton monsters are one of the few types of monsters that are negligibly senescent, so he may yet live. It's anyone's guess what he's doing in Snowdin, though.'

'That's great, so what do I do?'

'I am not sure. However, I do remember a few things about his blasters. You already know they take time to charge up. The beam they unleash travels instantaneously, but is confined to a straight line defined by the width of the blaster's jaws. The larger the blaster, the wider the beam. The beam only lasts a few moments, and it widens and contracts during this time before fading away. Simply avoid being in front of the blaster when it fires, and you will be unharmed.'

'Got it. Third time's the charm!' he thought confidently. He could do this. Asriel had to keep him alive. With enough attempts, he could do this.

Once again, he entered Snowdin Forest, plodding forward cautiously. He knew that whoever was going to attack him would appear behind him, but until the onslaught of attacks ceased he couldn't just turn around and see them. First he had -

Blue.

Frisk crumpled to the cold dirt and shot up as fast as he could. His feet barely cleared the bones - which now that he thought about it, were really only a few feet high - without a scratch. He landed on solid, boneless ground just in time for the flurry of more bones to fall upon him.

"Ghuh!" he grunted, throwing himself away from one, only to have another tear a gash along his side.

"Whoa!" he gasped, ducking below one that came within a hair's width of crashing into his head.

"Ah!" he shrieked, a bone sailing past like a cannonball and carving a deep, bloody wound down his arm.

At last the flurry ended and Frisk collapsed, his head swimming and soul shriveling as whatever strange magic was in the bones worked on him. But he didn't even have time to take a gasp for breath before the four blasters appeared.

Like a maniac he threw himself out of the way of the only one aimed at him, just in time for the cottage-sized skulls to fire. A wall of light appeared all around Frisk, bathing the world in energy. He, however, was untouched. The intensity of the four beams was blinding, but even through the glare he could see the blasters' eyes flickering back and forth violently as they flew backwards, propelled backwards by their beams as though they were rockets. After a moment the blasters were out of sight, and the beams vanished.

There was still an enormous glare in Frisk's vision, a spot of red and green clinging to the world. But he found that his attempt to escape the blasters left him facing back to the closed door, and there was the monster who attacked him. A skeleton like Chara said, wearing a blue jacket, smeared with something red like blood, over its ribcage so that Frisk could barely see the sternum past the zipper. The skeleton wore pink fuzzy slippers on its bony feet, and it stared at him with empty, hollow sockets.

'Wait, that's not - '

Then another four blasters appeared, these ones all aimed for Frisk, and he didn't have the strength left to pull himself to safety as they engulfed him.

FILE LOADED

Frisk frowned and sat. "I deserve this, don't I?" he muttered. "I'm a murderer."

'No you're not. Asriel is. Come now Frisk, what happened to that 'I won't let this destroy me' speech?'

He narrowed his eyes and stood, marching for the door. 'Right. You're right. I'm getting better each time. Determination!'

'Also, that wasn't Gaster. I've never seen that skeleton before, how did he get a hold of Gaster's blasters?'

'Beats me.'

Walk through the snow. Almost get to the first snowbank. Forced down by blue. Turn red, jump. Dodge around the storm of bones, only getting hit once by a glancing blow to his left leg. First set of blasters, middle. Second set, away from the middle.

The second set of blasters, sure enough, fired in an 'X' formation, bathing the forest in flickering shadows. As they fired Frisk kept a hand on his bleeding leg, breathing quickly and shallowly as his strength seemed to crawl down his spine and out the gash.

Then a third set of blasters appeared, and his eyes flew open in terror. Frisk guessed where they aimed, and he guessed correctly, throwing himself forward into the eye of the storm. He was a touch too slow though, and the blazing laser engulfed his legs. He screamed, tears in his eyes and clawed at the ground before the light ended. Then he threw up, weakly raising his head to look at the skeleton.

Two more blasters appeared on either side of Frisk, each the size of a house. A proper house too, not just a cottage. Then they opened their jaws, and Frisk was finished.

FILE LOADED

He brought his hands up to his face. "Oh my God does it ever end?!"

'I admit I do not know. But keep going Frisk, eventually you will get through.'

With a resolute nod, he ventured back into the snowy woods. He trudged forward, jumping at the slightest shadow, until he felt the familiar weight of his soul turning blue. He leaped above the first set of bones, flawlessly dodged the storm, and tried to dodge the first set of blasters. Then the impossible happened.

He tripped.

The world lit up with light and he dropped to the ground. Frisk was sure he was screaming; his mouth was open and his throat trembled, after all. But over the roar of the blasters he couldn't hear anything.

The light ended, but he was still fairly blinded. He heard the next set of blasters arrive and blast the place where he wasn't, but could have gone to escape. Then the next four materialized.

Come on Frisk, he thought to himself. Move!

He barely dragged himself out of the way of the third set of blasters, and then backpedaled to avoid the next gargantuan two. Even so, he was clipped by the edge of the pulsating beams of light and fell to his side, groaning in pain.

Frisk stared back at the skeleton when the two colossal beams faded, still blinking spots from his eyes. His ears rang with tinitus. The skeleton gazed back at him, mouth set into a permanent smile. He noticed the empty sockets weren't empty any longer; two glowing orbs of light bounced around within the sockets like pupils, staring straight at Frisk. "Huh," the monster grunted in a deep, jovial voice. "Odd. That expression..." The skeleton glanced to the side cheekily. "That's the expression of someone who was expecting this to happen." Frisk's eyes widened. "Heh, I'm right aren't I?"

"Ugggghhhh," he groaned as the skeleton walked closer.

He scratched the back of his skull. "Well uh, as much as I'd like to get some answers, you're kinda not in a good shape. Hey, try getting this far in better health and we'll chat, 'kay kid?"

Then eight sets of four bones converged on Frisk from all directions, finishing him off.

FILE LOADED

"He knows," Frisk whispered once he was back. "How does he know?"

'I wish I knew, Frisk. I suspect you can get some answers from him if you get through, though. You're almost there.'

'Right,' he thought, entering Snowdin once more.

Frisk got through the barrage alive again. Down, jump. Dodge. Middle, side, middle, side. While he was too slow and got hit with a few vibrating, sickening bones, and got briefly scalded by walking into a beam before it faded entirely, he was still standing.

"Huh," the skeleton said, his eyes lighting up. "That's the expression of someone who was expecting this to happen."

"It is," Frisk said. "Last time I was too beat up to say anything, so you told me to come back and do better so we can talk. So, let's talk," he said, showing his palms and tossing his plastic knife into the snow.

"Sure, sure," the skeleton said. "Lemme introduce myself. Err, I haven't yet, have I?" Frisk shook his head. "Cool, so it's your first time in the Underground. Name's Sans. Sorry about the whole, ya'know, trying-to-kill-you thing, but hey." He shrugged. "War's war."

"I'm Frisk. Don't worry about it, I've already died... quite a lot regardless. So, you know about the whole... time thing?"

"Sure we do! Got some instruments, been tracking it for a while. So uh... can I ask you a favor?" Sans said. While his smile remained rigid, his skull... molded to make it look like his eyes were happy.

"... sure?" Frisk asked.

Sans turned to him, eyes blank. "Cut it out," he growled in a cold voice. Then his pupil-lights returned and his voice turned bubbly again. "I mean, if you don't mind. Kinda suuuu - bad, kinda bad knowing that anything I do doesn't matter, since you'll just erase it all the next time you get bored. Makes it get pretty hard to be motivated for anything."

Frisk blinked. "Wait, you think... wait no, I'm not the one doing the time travel, but I know who is!"

Sans narrowed his eyes. "Huh, really? Doesn't everyone's memory get wiped whenever a reset rolls around?"

He shook his head. "I don't know how, but he can choose to let me remember it if he wants me to. Apparently I did something to him in a past life, so now he's making me..." he trailed off.

Sans didn't press the issue, but rather just nodded. "Cool, cool, so who actually is the anomaly? Anyone I know?"

"The old prince," Frisk said, and Sans jerked in surprise. "I don't know how, but he came back to life and he's REALLY mean. It's Asriel Dree - "

FILE LOADED

" - murr," he told the patch of grass. "Damn it!" he shouted, stomping his feet.

'Of course,' Chara muttered. 'Of course he would do that. Have to kill everyone, right? Can't get anyone's help.'

Frisk tightened his fist around the toy knife as tears poked at his eyes, but forced it back. No. No moping. He could do this. 'At least I still have you, Chara.'

'I... thank you, Frisk. Happy to help.'

Alright, how was he going to do this? Sans appeared behind him - somehow - to unleash his magic attacks. He looked at his knife and pondered what to do, then when he had a good idea, he nodded and opened the door.

Snowdin was the same as ever, but somewhere in the woods was Sans. The monster who'd already killed Frisk five times in quick succession. Who knew about the time travel powers.

His soul came out. Frisk would only have moments before it turned blue and sent him to the ground, so he spun around as fast as he could. He found the vague shadow that was Sans, standing outside the Ruins's door, and hurled his toy knife at the skeleton before he could do anything else.

Sans's empty eyes refilled with their pupils, which constricted in shock. He stepped to the side so the knife would harmlessly hit the door, but Frisk was already charging. He drew back a fist and swung at the skeleton, only for Sans to duck below, to the side, and thrust his left arm towards the door.

Frisk's entire world turned to the side, as did his blue soul. He crashed to the door and tried to stand, only to find not only was gravity entirely turned on its side, but his blue soul was still weighing him down so that he could do little more than crawl and hop.

Then another field of bones burst from the door, followed by a blaster catching him in the back.

FILE LOADED

'Chara, I think this is gonna REALLY suck.'

'You don't say?'

Frisk made another attempt. This time he didn't try to sucker-punch Sans, but rather allowed the skeleton to unleash his full salvo. Frisk actually managed to avoid most of it. Sure the final set of blasters clipped him with their nauseatingly intense magic, but he was fine.

Sans's pupil-lights appeared. "Huh, that expression. That's the expression of someone who's seen this quite a few times."

"Sans listen, I don't have much time," he babbled. "I'm being used by the person with the time powers, do you know anything that could help me against them?"

Sans narrowed his eyes. "Actually I think I might just have something." He reached a bony hand into the folds of his jacket and found a key. "Come on," he said, waving Frisk over. "I know a shortcu - "

FILE LOADED

This time, when Frisk reappeared in the grassy patch, Asriel was there.

"Don't even think about it," the adult-formed monster said. "You're here to kill, not make friends. Not like Smiley Trashbag could help you anyway. Trust me, I know what he's talking about. Won't work." Then Asriel vanished.

'That arrogant, pompous - ' Chara sputtered.

"Lemme try to sucker-punch him again," Frisk said aloud while heading to the door.

'I suppose you can attempt that path a few times before trying something else, if it fails.' Frisk stepped out into the cold. 'It's strange, Frisk. I can see his power with my own eyes but for some reason I can't help but feel Sans is... unimpressive. Minuscule in strength.'

'Well, his strength sure doesn't feel minuscule when it's killing me in two seconds flat,' he groused, pushing forward.

His soul emerged. Frisk spun like a top, but he was a second too slow so, while he got to turn around to face Sans, that was all he could do before his essence went blue and dragged him to the ground. From this new angle he saw how Sans's empty left socket burned with blue and gold fury, his left hand coming up and slamming downwards as if the monster were physically throwing Frisk.

He didn't exactly have the time to piece together a complete thought, but what went through his head in that split second mostly amounted to 'I can salvage this!'.

It turned out no, no he couldn't.

Snap!

FILE LOADED

"Alright," he said aloud. "Messed up then, I can do it this time though."

He walked out, the repetitive motions wearing on his nerves. Soul out. Turn around, throw the knife and charge.

Sure enough, Sans dodged to the right, just like he had last time. Frisk readied his right fist and, just like before, swung. Just like Frisk remembered, Sans ducked down and to the side, right to where his left fist was coming as a follow-up.

He heard Sans take in a startled breath through his teeth, and then everything went black like a candle snuffed out. When the world returned to being, Sans was down the road, staring at Frisk with an unreadable expression.

Then a series of bones shot out from the ground, stabbing clean through Frisk's wrists, stomach, heart, and lastly soul.

Snap!

FILE LOADED

'I've almost got him,' Frisk said to Chara as he reappeared, already heading for the exit. 'He doesn't know Asriel's resetting me until he sees me fight, I can take him off guard.'

'... and then what?'

'Then... I don't know. We'll just have to see how much Snowdin's changed.'

'I suppose. It also helps that Sans evidently doesn't see you for much of a threat.'

He entered Snowdin Forest and started walking. 'Yeah, but what do you think that key he was talking about is for? Asriel said it won't help, which is just what someone who's scared of it would - WHOA!' While talking to Chara, Frisk had stopped paying attention and was promptly shredded by Sans's volley of magic.

FILE LOADED

''Okay, okay that was careless.'

This time, he was careful. He crept forward, giving no indication he knew what was happening but still stiff as a board, his backpack's straps ever so slightly loosened. Then, just as it had before, his soul slid out from his chest. Not a moment later Frisk spun around and tossed his knife at Sans.

Dodge.

Charge.

Swing with right.

Dodge.

Swing with left.

Like before the world went dark. Frisk couldn't move or feel his body in the blackness, but he still braced himself. This was where he'd gotten before.

The world came back, and if he was correct soon he'd be impaled with bones. But he didn't wait that long. Frisk slung his pack off, whipping it around the long way before tossing it at Sans with his right arm. The skeleton backpedaled, leaving the pack to drop into the snow at his slippers, but Frisk was charging. He scooped up a snowball, ready to toss it -

Sans flicked his left phalanges and a single bone shot up from the ground beneath Frisk, right up and into him. Ow.

FILE LOADED

Soul out. Spin around, throw the knife. Charge. Swing right, dodged. Swing left, world goes dark. World comes back. Throw your stuff, charge after it. He dodges the pack, pick up a snowball. Dodge around the bone from the ground. Throw snowball while running. Dodged. Punch -

- dodged, obliterated by a blaster.

FILE LOADED

Soul out. Spin around, throw the knife. Charge. Swing right, dodged. Swing left, world goes dark. World comes back. Throw your stuff, charge after it. He dodges the pack, pick up a snowball. Dodge around the bone from the ground. Throw snowball while running. Dodged. Punch, dodge blaster, kick, lose balance, die.

FILE LOADED

And again.

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And again.

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And again.

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And again.

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And again.

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And again.

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And again!

FILE LOADED

"Okay, for real this time," Frisk growled, phantom pains from injuries that never happened aching all over. "Let me try something new."

He walked forward and, just before his soul was about to appear, he froze. "I know you're out there!" he called. "Can we just talk?"

"Well I guess," said Sans's voice behind him, prompting Frisk to whirl around. Sure enough, there was the skeleton, hands in his pockets. "So, you're the anomaly huh? Can't think of many other reasons for you to call out here." He winked. "Unless you're just paranoid. Can't imagine why though, it's just a huge dark cave filled with monsters." He chuckled.

Frisk smiled shyly and approached. "So, you know about me huh? I didn't think anyone did." He looked down and clenched his fists. "Everyone else always forgets."

"Hey kid, don't get me wrong," Sans said, approaching and putting a hand around Frisk's shoulders. "It's not like I remember anything, I just know it's somethin' goin' on. So uh, if you don't mind?" Frisk turned his head to look at Sans's. Strangely enough, they were eye-level. "Could you maybe, I dunno, cut it - "

Frisk elbowed Sans in the ribs as hard as he could. The bones collapsed inward like cheap cardboard.

" - ooouuuuuu," Sans gasped, stumbling back.

"I'm sorry," Frisk whimpered, leaping away. "I'm not the time traveler, but I know who is. He's making it so I can remember and he's forcing me to kill everyone here I am so sorry, Sans, please don't hate me!" he pleaded. But a small, selfish part of him was just glad he'd gotten past him. Thank God Sans wasn't taking him seriously whenever he first emerged. Frisk didn't want to imagine how this would've gone if Sans had given it his all.

The skeleton collapsed, falling onto his rear. Something sticky and red, smelling like tomatoes, started seeping through his jacket where Frisk had struck. He closed his eyes and laughed quietly. "Heh, being forced by the anomaly huh? This just gets more and more messed up. Hey listen kid, I won't judge ya. Can't do much against a time traveler. But if you've been in contact with him..." Sans opened his eyes back up, looking tiredly at Frisk. He reached into his jacket and tossed something at Frisk, which he caught. "Take that key. Back of my house, okay? Maybe you can... let the future actually come." Sans sighed. "Sorry Pap... Sun's gonna have to wait a bit longer."

Then the skeleton crumpled to dust, leaving only a ketchup-stained set of clothes.

'Oooohhhhh,' Chara moaned in a rather... flustering voice. 'So many... fifty thousand execution points in him alone. Oh wow...'

Frisk's eyes bulged. 'Fifty THOUSAND?!' he asked.

'Definitely,' Chara whispered, getting her voice back under control. 'He must have been the royal judge I was talking about. I can think of no other reason for him to be worth so much EXP, lest he somehow be the actual current king, which we know is not true.'

Frisk inspected the key, and tossed it in his pack. No crying. He wasn't going to cry. He wasn't going to imagine how terrified and scared Sans had been, how he might have had any family who'd miss him. He'd get through this and make it so that this death never existed. He had to stay determined. He already had a possible avenue of victory, after all.

'Well, let's head out then,' he thought to Chara. 'Gonna have to start killing here too, I suppose.'

'Probably. Children and teens always enjoyed sneaking into the woods from Snowdin Town.' Chara hummed. 'Frisk, I think I can feel... yes. Something's definitely changing,' she said morosely.

'Feel what?' he asked.

'I feel sixteen left,' Chara intoned like a death knell.

Alphys

"No," she whispered, cup of noodles falling from her claws. She brought her hands up to her eyes, cupping them over her glasses so she wouldn't have to see, wouldn't have to know, wouldn't have to act. "No, no no no no no..." she babbled, laying her head on the screen's console.

This couldn't be happening. This couldn't be happening. After everything else that had gone wrong for Alphys, now this?!

She knew she should warn someone. Tell Undyne there was a human in Snowdin. But then Undyne would kill the human, and Asgore would kill all the humans, and that wasn't exactly something she was on board with.

Alphys clenched her claws tightly, trembling. She pulled her head away from the console, eyes still low, and huddled into a ball on her swivel chair. Her tail came around for her to grab and stroke, running her claws along the yellow scales. This couldn't be happening. No, no no...

So absorbed in self-pity was she, that she didn't notice the door to her lab open, or the thrumming of a single wheel rolling on the floor. "Alphys, darling, a little birdie told me I should stop by so I figured hey, I haven't seen Alphys in a while and - oh, oh no, what's wrong?" came Mettaton's voice. The door closed.

Alphys looked up as Mettaton rolled over to her, his hands clasped worriedly while his screen displayed an exclamation mark. "He's dead," she whimpered. "Sans is dead."

"What? Dead? Dead how? Where - " Mettaton looked up at her screen, which showed a dusty blue jacket, pants, and slipper resting in the snow. " - oh, Snowdin. But... how?"

"It was a human. I don't know what they were saying, my cameras there are visual feed only, but he talked Sans down and... and when Sans got close he just... he just... " Alphys curled back up as a fresh wave of sobs wracked her.

"Hey, Alphys! Darling!" Mettaton rolled closer and grabbed her arms, unraveling her from her ball with his mechanical strength. "Chin up, Alph!" he encouraged, screen changing to blank yellow. "So here's what we're going to do!" He picked her up and she yelped. Mettaton started carrying her up the moving escalator to the second floor. "We're gonna get some real food in you, sit down, and discuss a plan, alright gorgeous?" She flushed, her scales turning orange. Mettaton called everyone that, and she had no interest in him, but it was still embarrassing.

Mettaton finally brought her over to her bed and knocked on its cubical surface, prompting it to open up into a proper bed that Mettaton set her down into. She scurried against its edge and leaned against the wall, tail out in front of her.

"Here you go darling!" Mettaton said, an arm reaching into a hole in space to access one of his many dimensional boxes. He retracted the arm, holding a fancy glass that held a rainbow fluid. "Starfait, on me!" he said, handing it to her.

She nodded sadly and held the drink to her mouth. With one smooth motion she bent her head back and chugged the sweet drink, the star-shaped sugar crystals crunching against her fangs. "Thanks," she muttered, lowering the glass and placing it on the bed. "We have to tell someone," Alphys whispered. "He just killed Sans out of nowhere. What if he's killing more people? What if he gets to Undyne's friend, um, Papyrus I think his name was?"

"How old was this human?"

"Just a kid," Alphys said. "Well, early teens I guess. But you know that doesn't matter!"

Mettaton hummed, one of his hands stroking the dials beneath her screen. "You're absolutely correct, so here's what we'll do! We're going to pick up the phone and start evacuating people, sound good? Call up that marvelous Undyne, have her start evacuating Snowdin. I'll handle Waterfall, you start on Hotland, sound good?"

"But... but if we tell everyone, then they'll kill the human, won't they?" Who knows? Maybe he struck out of self defense?

Heh, yeah right, she thought. She knew Sans, they'd been friends ever since... well she didn't remember, but she knew him well. He'd never hurt a fly.

Mettaton sagged, his body leaning over and arms extending so they could drag on the ground. "Yeah... but I have a plan, Alphys darling! What if, instead of Asgore getting the soul, we get the soul? Hmm? Asgore doesn't get the seven, but we do! I could put on a big spiel about how now that I have the one soul, I need all the other six as well and then I'll break the barrier, but, BUT! Once I have the seven I'll demand the war ends!"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "You started saying 'I' instead of 'we' very quickly. And besides, wouldn't it be better to just... help the human escape? Get them where he won't be killed and where he won't kill us?"

"Alphys Alphys Alphys, you know perfectly well that for that to happen, why, he'd have to murder our beloved king!" Mettaton posed with an arm dramatically above his screen. "And even then, what about the human who falls after that? There are only so many boss monsters in existence, we'd just be putting the problem off for future generations to deal with, letting them deal with our troubles sooo selfishly - "

"Rrrr!" she growled, clenching her fangs. "Alright alright, I'll do it!" Her anger faded in a moment, replaced by the horrible, familiar soul-sucking sensation in her chest. Oh, Sans... did anyone even know yet? "Just get me my phone."

"Marvelous!" he shouted, screen lighting up with a crimson letter M. "I'll head on over to Waterfall, why don't you say hello to Undyne for me, okay? Toodles, darling!" Mettaton cheered, rolling over to the other escalator and descending from her sight.

"Didn't get me my phone," she complained.

Alphys bowed her head and reached into her lab coat, pulling out her phone. She brought up Undyne's speed dial and... and... oh God her claws were shaking her soul was pounding and there was sweat on her crest could she do anything right?!

Without thinking, she punched in the speed dial. Oh no, no no no, she hadn't rehearsed her lines, there were so many details she needed to work out with Mettaton and she was going to screw this all up and Undyne was going to hate her and she'd find herself going back to Waterfall and staring into that abyss and, and, and...

"Hey Alphys!" came Undyne's cheery tone. "What's up?"

"Undyne, listen to me. I-It's Sans." Alphys stood and walked down her escalator, coming to a seat before her console again. She pressed a button and changed the camera a few times until she found where the human was now. She found him a little further on, looking through the trees diligently with a plastic knife in hand.

He was looking for victims. Oh God, what kind of person was this?!

"What? You mean Papyrus's brother right?" Undyne's voice muffled for a moment, as though she'd pulled away from the phone to grumble. "Way to go Undyne, how many Sanses do you know?" Her voice returned. "What about him?"

"He's d-d-dead," Alphys whimpered. "I saw it with my cameras. A... a human came out of the Ruins and killed him, Undyne."

"WHAT?!" Undyne roared. "WHERE?! SNOWDIN RIGHT?! I'M GONNA MARCH OVER THERE AND - "

"Wait, Undyne! We can't just rush into this. What about all the civilians in Snowdin?"

"Damn it, right! We gotta get'em out of there, and THEN I'll kill that punk!"

"I already talked with Mettaton, he found me just after Sans died. The plan is I'm going to evacuate Hotland, Mettaton's going to handle Waterfall, and we were thinking you could handle Snowdin." She gripped the phone in both hands, tearing her eyes away from the screen as the human found what appeared to be Mrs. Drake's son. The human raised the knife, and the bird monster's eyes widened in terror as it came down and dusted him. He'd... he'd never know what happened. He'd never know how badly Alphys failed. He'd never know the truth...

"Undyne listen to me," she shouted into the phone. "Do not fight the human! You know how powerful they are and I... if you... I already lost Sans, if I lost you too I don't know what I'd do." That was another lie. Alphys knew precisely what she would do if she lost Undyne. "Just get everyone to safety, then we can all figure out a way to trap and kill the human safely without letting him get anywhere near us."

"Alright, alright. I'm in my armor, heading over to Snowdin now! Alphys, stay safe!"

"You too Undyne," she gasped, before hitting the blurry End Call button. Alphys wiped the tears from her eyes. Evacuation. Right. She was the Royal Scientist. Nobody knew what a fraud and failure she was. They'd listen to her. Warn them about the murderous human tearing a path through Snowdin, get them some place safe. But where? Think Alphys, think. She didn't have a lot of time before the human could come to Hotland. The Underground was pretty cramped, it'd take minutes at a light jog.

Her eyes wandered east, to the door that lead to the 'bathroom', and gulped. No. She couldn't. She had to find another place. But she had to do it fast. While the human was certainly going to be slowed down by his... business, evacuations took time. Time she was wasting already like the pathetic piece of garbage she was! No, no, she had to focus. People's lives were at stake here! The monsters were in danger and, if the wrong person got the human's soul, all of the innocent humans above too! She had work to do!

Alphys dialed another number.

Chapter Text

Frisk

'Eleven left,' Chara counted down.

Frisk nodded, turning away from the dust of what had once been a cute little dog with a sword and shield. "May as well check this thing," he whispered, trudging through the snow to the large orange box nestled between the trunks of two trees. He quickly read the sign next to it. "Huh, so this is some sort of magic, 'always the same box' box?"

'Correct, Frisk. Anyone can access it, but each person will only see their own items within. Asriel and I used to do all sorts of pranks with these things.' She laughed quietly and longingly. 'Oh, I got us in so much trouble...'

He opened the box and cocked an eyebrow. 'If each person only sees their own, how come I can see these gloves?'

'Well obviously items become public use if the person... dies... oh.' Then Chara's voice muttered something quiet that sounded almost like 'good riddance'.

He picked up the gloves in his hands and turned them over. They were made of a tough pinkish leather, and looked very human-sized. Frisk shrugged. It was cold anyway, and his hands were starting to go numb. He tossed his plastic knife into the box, closed it, and put the gloves on. They felt well worn around his hands; the warm cushions on the inside were worn in places, causing parts of his hands to contact the bare leather. Whoever had lost this - one of the previous humans no doubt - had clearly cherished it dearly. Still, feeling was already returning to his fingers. This was definitely a plus.

'You should use those as your weapon,' Chara suggested. 'Punch people with them.'

'Wouldn't it be better if I used the plastic knife, though?' he wondered.

'You'd think so, but no. It's a quirk of monster biology. These gloves clearly have some sentimental value, they're your best bet.'

Sounded strange, but if it was magic then it was magic. 'If you say so, Chara. I trust you.'

'Right, trust,' she sighed. 'At any rate, I feel you should press forward. Pickings are becoming scarce out here.'

He nodded and left the box behind. There was nothing to the north but a fishing rod, so east it was.

It was a beautiful area, he had to admit. Ebott Town never got snow, so all he'd ever had were pictures. Frisk, true to his no-moping pledge, took the time to enjoy himself. He didn't go so far as to make snow angels - Chara warned him his clothes would get wet - but he had fun making snowballs and splatting them against the trees, watching as the powdery stuff burst and some of it clung to the trunks. Above his head the treetops arched to dizzying heights, beneath a cavern covered in distant, sparkling blue stones.

"Hmm, where could he be?" came a new voice. Frisk leaped into the air, spinning around and searching for its source. He spotted it in no time. It was another skeleton, like Sans, but this one was taller.

Much, much taller. Nearly twice Frisk's height! His eyesockets didn't have pupil lights, but were taller and slanted. He was dressed in some strange armor, comprising of boots, a dome around his hips, and a large chestplate over his ribs. Black sleeves covered both leg and arm bones, down to orange boxing gloves on the hands. An orange cape fluttered around the skeleton's upper spine.

Then the skeleton looked away from the shoddy cardboard house he was inspecting, glanced Frisk's way, and narrowed his eyesockets. Frisk instinctively tensed. If Sans could do... that to him, then what could this second, taller, armored one do to him?

"Aha! You there... hmm, I don't think I've seen you around before."

Frisk froze, and pointed to himself. "Me?"

"Yes, you! Have you seen my lazybones brother around anywhere? Cool skeleton like me, about as tall as you, smells like ketchup, wears these unprofessional slippers ill befitting a sentry?"

Brother. This was Sans's brother. Whose brother Frisk had just killed. "Um, sorry, can't say I have," he lied politely, walking forward. "I'm new here, who are you?" Could this skeleton be the Gaster that Chara'd told him about?

"Oh ho, so I was right! Well small fleshy skeleton, I am..." The skeleton struck a pose, the bone on his skull molding to close his eyesockets. Apparently they weren't literally human skeletons, just magical monsters that closely resembled human skeletons. Made sense. "... the GREAT PAPYRUS! Head Sentry of Snowdin, soon to be member of the Royal Guard!" The newly christened Papyrus turned back to him, his fixed smile seeming to grow bigger. "And who might you be?"

"I'm Frisk," he said queasily, stepping even closer. Right into swinging range. Frisk took a deep breath, summoned his fighting spirit, and swung with his right fist.

He missed. He swung right by Papyrus's spine, where a normal person's stomach would be. Papyrus's left hand came down and clamped on his hand. His grip was surprisingly strong and Frisk froze in shock. "Oh, you wish to show me your gloves? Well I think they're splendid! Almost as splendid as mine!" Suddenly Papyrus narrowed his eyesockets, and gently moved Frisk's arm up and down. "Waaait a second. Heavy arms like you're filled with water. New in town. And that strange body, it's almost like..." Papyrus let go and pointed at Frisk as though accusing him of a crime. "... like you're descended from a skeleton!"

What?

"Aha! You must be a human!" Papyrus struck a pose, his hands on his hips with his cape fluttering in a chilly breeze. "You thought you could sneak past me, but none can sneak past Papyrus, the un-sneak-past-est! Prepare yourself, human! For puzzles! Tricks! Traps! And fun! I'll be up ahead setting things up. Nyeh heh heh heh!" The skeleton turned around and dashed off, 'heh's drifting after him.

'An energetic fellow, is he not?' Chara asked.

'I guess. What did he mean by puzzles, though?'

'Remember how Toriel told you that puzzles are an old monster tradition?'

'Bwah - here too?!'

'It would appear so. Tread lightly, and keep searching.'

He nodded and approached the cardboard house Papyrus had been next to, reading the all-caps message. "Expertly crafted... who could have... royal guard." He furrowed his eyebrows. "Note, not yet a very famous royal guardsman." His mouth quirked upwards into a smile at that. "Alright, onwards and upwards I guess."

He came across another small house before long, similar to Sans's sentry station. But smaller, and with a wooden doghead carved on the roof. There was another sign next to it, warning him not to move. So, obviously, Frisk was going to move.

'Frisk, you shouldn't move.'

He froze with one foot in the air, and slowly lowered it. 'Why?'

'I have neglected to mention a possible aspect of monster magic to you. Patience magic, or more commonly known as blue magic, is a type of power some monsters have. They create a light blue magical projectile instead of a white one. The advantage is that patience magic takes low power, so one can create a great many such attacks that cover a large area. The trade off is that patience magic won't hurt you if you stay absolutely still, Frisk. If you see a light blue projectile, do not move and you will come through unscathed.'

'Good to know.'

'While we're on it, there's also bravery magic, it's the exact opposite of patience magic. Orange projectiles that only harm you if you are not moving.'

Seemed simple enough.

It turned out Chara's warning couldn't have come at a better time. The next monster was another dog monster, this one wielding blue magic. The anthropomorphic canine swiped a sword at... at nowhere near Frisk, but from the swordtip a blue ghost sword emerged and swept the area. Frisk dutifully stood still, wincing and clenching his muscles as the magic blade swiped clean through him. But true to Chara's word, he was unscathed. Then he pummeled the dog into dust.

'Ten left?' he asked hopefully.

'Hmm... no, still eleven,' Chara corrected. 'It must only count for those wandering in the woods, not sentries stationed where they ought to be.'

Great. He headed past the station, passing by a few bone-shaped treats with... singed ends? The trees turned from ominous, reaching monoliths to snowy pines, rustling in a gentle breeze. He kept searching, poking in and around the trees, walking forward and - whoa!

Frisk's arms flew out to the side and pinwheeled as his feet slipped on a sheet of ice. He skidded forward a few feet, then pulled himself to a wobbling stop. He glanced around; all around him the snow was covered in a thick sheet of black ice, making it almost impossible to see until he was already slipping. In the middle of the ice patch was another sign. He waddled his way over to the sign, shoes slipping precariously with each pain-staking inch he traveled. He grabbed onto the sign to keep himself in place while he read it. "North ice, south ice... oh for goodness sake. Well at least I know where Snowdin is now." He continued east. Whatever was north, it couldn't be too important. Besides, he thought he saw something up ahead...

He approached, and was treated to a clearing in the woods. It looked like the ground around him fell off, leaving a patch of snow-covered land elevated above the treetops. The snow was mostly cleared away, patted down into a dense mat. On the other side of the snow 'arena' stood... Papyrus, with something like a blue egg in his hands. His left foot was forward and his cape fluttered.

"Ah ha!" he shouted, pointing at Frisk. "You finally arrive human, to the first of many dangerous puzzles designed to capture you!" Frisk looked around. What puzzle? "Why, I can feel the tension in the air like static! And so will you, for you see, THIS!" The skeleton gestured to the featureless snow, placing the orb into his free hand. "Is the Invisible Electricity Maze! I designed it myself! Whenever you run into the walls of this maze, this orb here!" He hefted the ball. "Will electrify you!" Papyrus's eyesockets turned worried for a moment. "Not enough to do any real harm I hope. I mean I know humans are made of water... but only one way to find out!"

Frisk eyed Papyrus nervously. Invisible... electricity... maze? He looked at the packed snow closely, searching for any indication of where to go. Finding nothing, he sighed. He just had to bite the bullet. Frisk gingerly stuck a foot out...

"AYAAAAAAGGAAA!" screamed Papyrus, loud enough to make Frisk leap backward.

Papyrus's cape stood high in the air, crackling with static. The skeleton looked at his orb, up at Frisk, then back at the orb. "Nyeh. Of course, silly me! The orb will only electrify the closest thing to it! It does not know you are doing the puzzle instead of I! I'll just give it to you." Papyrus walked forward, and Frisk tensed up as the towering bone man approached, holding the crystal to Frisk. "Here, hold this!" he said, dropping it at Frisk's feet before rushing back... leaving a clear trail of bootprints in the snow.

Frisk eyed the orb nervously and tapped it with his snow-soaked shoe. It clinked like glass. He looked up at Papyrus, who stared at him expectantly. "Um... couldn't I just beat this puzzle easily by not picking up the orb and walking across?" he asked. Sure Papyrus's prints showed the path, but still...

"Well... I suppose you could. But that's entirely against the spirit of the trap! Why, it should be a great honor to take part in the monster tradition of making each other suffer through terrifying puzzles for every simple task!"

"I don't know. That shock looked like it really hurt..."

"Oh you'll be fine! You're a human after all, humans are tough!" But hadn't Papyrus also pointed out Frisk was also filled with water? "You can certainly do it! Or you can fail at it and I capture you. Either way, it's a win win!" he said, beaming.

Frisk sighed, and picked up the orb. Alright, he could do this. Easy peasy. Just follow the bootprints. He walked through, the hairs on his neck rising as he put one foot into each of Papyrus's giant prints. He imagined solid walls around him, ready to fry him. But before long, he made his way through and stood on the other end, next to Papyrus. He dropped the orb.

Papyrus leaped into the air, jaw open. "Wowie! You got through so simply! You must be really good at puzzles! Nyeh heh. But this was only your first trial, human! Nyeh heh heh, prepare yourself, this next puzzle will baffle you for sure!" he boasted, before running away before Frisk could step in and swing.

Asriel didn't reset him so he could try again, so it must've been okay. Or maybe Asriel wasn't watching him as closely as he claimed...

He continued on. There was an abandoned cart with a folded yellow/red umbrella over it. On its side was the word 'Nicecream' painted in bold red. He cringed and continued on. No, something cold was the last thing he needed. Frisk crossed over a small wooden bridge, and found another drake monster huddled around a tree, trying to clean its shades off.

'Ten left,' Chara intoned a few seconds later.

He kept looking. There was a hole in the ground near the end of a long track of compressed snow, like for golf but... bigger. Though he couldn't see any ball to kick into said hole. There was another pair of houses further up, with dog head carvings on their roofs. The houses were simply labeled as 'His' and 'Hers'. Between the two houses was another teen, with an outrageously oversized head atop which sat a hat made of icicles.

'Nine left.'

Past the hole, the elevated cliffs continued, and here Frisk found Papyrus again.

In between them, there was a piece of paper, a flat slab of stone, and a pencil. "Oh ho, you made it!" Papyrus said, beaming. "This next puzzle was supposed to be made by my brother, Sans. But he's not around." A stab of guilt. "Probably off taking one of his... six hour naps."

Wait, wasn't that just sleeping? Did Papyrus... not sleep?

"... so I took the liberty of checking over his puzzle, and improving upon it! Nyeh heh heh! Go ahead, take a look."

Curious, Frisk approached the paper and picked it up. He read it over once, then again to make sure he was seeing this correct. A giant ice cube with a bear face asking him to help with this puzzle. The nonsense words 'anutum, ccokl, tiernw, naneic, nltoeeks, imcga, snpigr, scienstti, tboor, erumms, lnetaricie, tgsoh, and nsertom'. He looked up from it, at the skeleton. "... this is just a word jumble."

"Nyeh heh heh! It is! Far more engaging than the word search my brother had prepared. Junior Jumble is without a doubt the greatest word based puzzle out there! I can see you are stumped already!" Junior Jumble. Well wasn't that patronizing? Still... he could use something to take his mind off things.

"Done," he said a few minutes later, putting his pencil down.

"Wowie! You did it!" Papyrus beamed. "Humans are amazing, they truly have a good appreciation for - " Ring! Frisk jumped and reached for the phone Toriel had given him, but it wasn't ringing. Papyrus pulled a phone out from under his chestplate, however, and held up a glove. "Hang on, this is my boss." Ring! He brought it to where his ears would be and answered. "Hello, this is - "

"PAPYRUS!" a woman's voice rang from the other side of the phone, loud enough to startle Frisk back a few steps. "WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"Hello Undyne!" he greeted. "You're being extra shouty today!"

"I SAID WHERE ARE YOU?! THIS IS IMPORTANT! THERE'S A CRAZED HUMAN LOOSE IN SNOWDIN!"

Papyrus narrowed his eyesockets. "I'm quite aware there is a human in Snowdin, Undyne! They're quite appreciative of my puzzles, too. It's a little much to call them crazed."

"Oh my GOD Papyrus you've gotta get outta there! Alphys's been watching the human through her cameras, he's been killing everyone he can get his fleshy little hands on! GET OUT OF THERE, NOW! I'm coming to Snowdin, get as far away from the human as you can!"

"Okay, alright! I'll be over by my house." Papyrus pulled the phone away and eyed Frisk nervously. "Sorry human, but duty calls." The skeleton's gaze dropped to his gloves, which were slowly being caked in a fine layer of gray dust. The monster's smile grew more... strained. "I'm... sure this is just a phase. I, the Great Papyrus, will set up an incredible obstacle course of puzzles for you in Snowdin once you get there. Until then! Nyeh... heh?" he said warily, backing off and running away from a dumbstruck Frisk.

'So, it would appear someone has been watching you through cameras,' Chara chimed in as he disappeared into the distance.

'Anyone you know?'

'No. But whoever Alphys is, to have access to the Underground's security cameras, she would most likely have to be the Royal Scientist. Which does not bode well for Dr. Gaster's survival.'

'Oh. I'm sorry.'

'Don't be. I was never close to him anyway. His hands always creeped me out, and understanding even a word he said was a nightmare.'

'Right. Well we still have to find some more, I'm thinking I should backtrack - '

The trees rustled.

Frisk spun around and faced them, hands up to protect his face and ready to punch. Out of the pine leaves came... a white samoyed dog. Not like the two he'd killed so far; this one was bereft of any clothing and weaponry and stood on all fours. It was a surprisingly large dog; it came up to Frisk's neck!

"Arf arf!" it barked, jumping back and forth around Frisk, sending up small puffs of snow.

He sighed, clenching his fists. 'Well, eight left I suppose,' he told Chara, before stepping towards the dog. It froze in place, and looked up at him, panting with its tongue out and tail wagging fiercely. He clenched his right fist and swung at its nose...

... only for his fist to swerve aside and swing at the air. He hadn't felt anything push him. His hand just... didn't go the right way. Frisk backed up in surprise. "What?" he whispered, confounded.

The dog stopped panting.

Frisk swung again, with his left fist. Like before his swing just went aside, completely avoiding the dog's poofy fur. Its ears drooped, its tail stopped wagging, and it whined. "What's going on?" he asked, this time trying to kick the dog. His leg went up, but then moved to the side and too far up, making Frisk lose his balance and fall back-first onto the snow. "Ah! Cold!" he yelped, getting up and spinning around, trying to brush the snow off his back.

"Arf!" the dog barked, urging Frisk to look back at it. It got up on its hind legs and rested its forelegs on Frisk's shoulders. He grunted, stumbling to support the dog's weight as it whined at him with giant puppy dog eyes.

Then it licked his face.

"Agh! Ew, gross!" he stammered, pulling away from the dog and wiping his face. It was even worse because it was cold out!

'Frisk, why are you not hitting it?'

'I can't! Something keeps pushing me away.'

By then the dog walked away, under the nearest pine tree. It turned back to face Frisk and barked again, tail and ears coming back to life. He stared at the dog. The dog stared back, whining quietly and nudging its head occasionally, as if trying to point towards the woods.

'... I believe it wants you to follow it, Frisk.'

He shrugged. "I guess. This place is crazy enough anyway." Without further ado he headed off the beaten path, following the dog into the thick brush of Snowdin Forest.

Snow-laden branches whipped at him in the dog's wake, roots and logs hidden by snow threatened to trip him, and more than once he caught a face full of pine needles. The dog seemed to take it in stride, occasionally glancing back to make sure Frisk was still following, all while its tail wagged hypnotically. Now and then there was a steep drop, and Frisk had to carefully maneuver down boulders without rolling his ankles.

Eventually, the dog arrived back on a path. Frisk looked around, and when he turned back the way they came he started backwards in surprise. Before him was a massive cliff face, riddled with cavernous holes. From within the blackness, multiple pure white eyes stared at him, blinking and swiveling. Staring. Judging.

"Arf!"

Right, the freaky magical dog.

He followed it to the edge of the mountain, forcing himself not to look at the steep, steep drop around him. The dog led him to a massive tunnel in the mountain. Inside, the ground was slick with greenish-blue ice, forcing Frisk to take careful, sliding steps forward. The dog padded forward effortlessly, occasionally stopping for Frisk to catch up.

The ice gave way to a small, dark chamber, lit only with luminescent mushrooms the size of his legs. A few patches of hardy grass stuck out of the dark stone. In the faint light, Frisk could see the outline of a locked purple door, emblazoned with the same symbol Toriel had worn. The dog approached it, and walked clean through the door. Frisk gaped as the canine was seemingly swallowed up in stone. He stepped up to the door and placed his palm onto it, wondering if he too would go through...

Nothing. Just cold, regular stone.

"Alright, this is seriously creeping me out," he whispered.

Click!

"AH!" he screamed, jumping away from the door. His fears proved unfounded when it simply swung inwards, the dog sitting there and facing him with a smile on its black lips. Frisk placed a hand over his heart and slowly walked in. "Don't do that," he muttered. Behind him, the door closed all on its own.

Inside was... actually a cozy room. It was nice and warm, so Frisk took a moment to rub his hands together and savor the toasty heat. The floor was green carpet, and the walls were blue stone carved to look like ocean waves. A surprisingly classy chandelier hung from the ceiling, providing ample light. Scattered around the room were a dog-shaped pile of white fluff, a black video game case, a desk and computer, an incomplete jig-saw puzzle, and a coiled up length of rope. In the very middle of the room was a turquoise sheet, riddled with holes.

"It's, um, nice," he said. The dog padded over to the blanket, grabbed it in its mouth, and dragged it back to Frisk before dropping it at his feet with a bark. He gathered up the blanket in his hands. It was warm and fuzzy, and smelled like dog hair. "Thanks. Good, uh... boy?" he guessed. The dog nodded. "Good boy. But... the old prince, Asriel Dreemurr, is after me. Won't he be able to find me?" The dog shook his head. "Alright. But you know he's a time traveler, right? Couldn't he just - " Again, the dog shook his head, smiling as smugly as a dog could.

'It can protect you? Or perhaps this chamber can? It existed even in my time, and nobody had ever been able to open it. It predates the migration of monsters to Snowdin and beyond, predates the monsters being forced into the Underground entirely. You may very well be safe in here, Frisk.'

'That's great. So... I'm - ' He was cut off by a soft growl in his stomach. "Oh, sorry," he told the dog.

"Arf! Arf!" Then the dog ran towards the nearest wall, leaped... and phased right through it.

Frisk blinked, and bundled up the blanket in his hands. It was getting hot; he took the moment to take his shirt off, then take off the green striped sweater he'd taken from Toriel's house, and put his purple striped shirt back on.

Moments later the dog returned, holding a brown paper bag in his mouth. He padded over to Frisk and dropped it at his feet. "Arf!" Then, panting, he ran away and leaped onto the chair by the computer. The dog sat in it and swiveled around happily, tongue wagging.

Meanwhile Frisk opened the bag, and was instantly greeted with the smell of salt and grease, prompting his mouth to water. It was a burger, a paper boat of potato fries, a bottle of water, and a few packets of ketchup. "Oh my God," he whispered, grabbing the burger and lifting it to eye level. The buns squeezed under his hands, the lettuce was fresh, the mayo just thick enough, and the burger... what kind of meat was it?

'It's not meat,' Chara said, answering his unspoken question. 'What few domesticated animals the monsters could bring with them are kept for eggs. It's all imitation meat. Still, magic goes a long way for consistency and flavor.'

Good enough for him! Frisk took a bite, and groaned. The taste was incredible. He chewed the bite and swallowed, feeling the monster food disintegrate into energy down his throat. He ate half the burger before putting it back and taking out the fries and ketchup. He squeezed a packet or two onto the fries and started eating them. "You know," he said aloud. "I wonder where he got these. It tastes a lot like McDaniel's."

'McDaniel's?' Chara asked.

"A restaurant chain on the surface. When I was younger the matrons, and sometimes the older kids, would always take us there to eat. Lots of fast food, greasy and probably super unhealthy. Tasted so good though." He chomped down a few of the crispier fries. "Wonder if there's something like that down here?"

'Your present meal suggests there probably is.'

Frisk ate the fries, then finished his still-warm burger. He washed it all down with the bottle of water, full and happy, and looked towards the dog. "Thanks," he said.

"Arf!" he barked happily, looking Frisk's way and wagging his tail.

'You should get some rest,' Chara said. 'You've been through a lot, and it appears we are safe at the moment.'

Right. He spread the blanket out and curled over it, wrapping it around his body. It was more than large enough to wrap around him, though the holes left much to be desired. Still, he'd bunched up enough of it under his head to count as a pillow. He tossed off his shoes and socks, then took off his dusty gloves and tossed them into the corner.

"Night, Chara. Night, strange dog."

"Arf!"

'Good night, Frisk.'

His eyes shut, and he was out like a light.

Chapter Text

Undyne

Clank clank clank clank!

Boots trudging on the ground in Waterfall, Undyne led the way into Snowdin. 01 and 02 were at her back, along with progressively more junior members of the guard behind her. Her boots started trudging on snow as the temperature dropped rapidly, the sleepy town of Snowdin coming into view. Undyne swiveled her armored head around, looking for anything she'd need to handle, her magic broiling just beneath her scales.

"01, 02, head over to the school. 03 and 04, you've got the residences by the river," she belted out, not pausing her stride a Papyrus's house came into view.

"Like, we're on it!" 01 saluted.

"... yeah," 02 confirmed, heading off with 01 to the local school.

"We're on it, Captain!" 03 said, his antennae quivering. 04 followed after him silently, the slime monster not saying anything as she followed him across Snowdin Town.

She shouted a few more orders as she stopped by Papyrus's house, glancing in through the windows. Sans wouldn't be there, Sans was dead. Papyrus was still out, hopefully running back to her because if he was close to that human he'd probably try to pet it and call it Mr. Huggles or something, and get torn apart. And that was not going to happen, not while she was on the job!

Undyne marched on, soon arriving into the town square. The locals were already gathering, drawn by the appearance of the Royal Guard. A family of bunnies, a family of armless lizards, a few slimes, two bears, and more all crowded around her. "Listen up!" Undyne boomed. "This is an emergency evacuation!"

"What's going on?" one of the bunny women asked, tugging a smaller, leashed bunny closer to herself. "Is it a blizzard? We're great at handling blizzards."

"Much worse than a blizzard," she answered. "Doctor Alphys's cameras have picked up a human arriving from the Ruins, and they are killing everyone! We're evacuating as many people as we can!" Worried murmurs spread through the crowd. "A checkpoint is being set up in Waterfall. You'll all have a chance to get some food and water there, and then it's a shot straight to the two evacuation spots. We have one in New Home, and another generously provided by Doctor Alphys in Hotland." She saw the furred monsters balk at the word 'Hotland'. Heh, she could relate. "Relax, it's air conditioned." That perked them back up. "05 and 06 here will help coordinate the evacuation along with 01 to 04. 07, 08 and I will coordinate with Snowdin's K9 unit to keep this crazed human as far away from you all as possible until we can set up a trap to kill it. Can anyone tell me where Dogamy and Dogaressa are?"

"Last I checked they were out on patrol," said a bear standing next to the decorated tree at the center of town. "Gone out to look for why Doggo wasn't radioing in."

Damn it. That meant they were gonna cross paths with the human! And Papyrus was still out there, and -

"What about my child?!" asked someone in the crowd, a snow-lady wearing a giant icicle hat.

- and so were the teens still roughhousing in the woods. Damn it, this just got worse by the minute.

"We'll find him," Undyne assured the woman, summoning a spear and hefting it in both hands. "07 and 08, with me. We're off!" she shouted, pushing forward. The crowd parted around her armored form, cheering her on and wishing her good luck. Beneath her helmet, Undyne smiled widely. Yeah, this was her place! This was what she was meant to do. Keeping the people hopeful, protecting them from crazy humans and their hatred and their physical bodies and their mind control powers and their glowing golden hair.

Once the three of them left Snowdin behind, she continued to trudge forward with 07 and 08 flanking her. The three of them crossed the bridge and began heading out. Undyne looked down at the field of snow poffs and narrowed her eye. "Greater Dog! Heel!" The snow exploded upward, and for a moment the armored form of Greater Dog towered above her. Then the dog monster moved its suit down onto all fours to stare Undyne in the face, panting eagerly. "Good boy. I need you to - "

"Undyne!" She snapped her head over to the shout and nearly melted in relief. There, running towards her with his scarf flapping in the wind, was Papyrus. He'd gotten away. He wasn't dead. He'd given that freak the slip. "I have arrived as promised! What do you require of the Great Papyrus?"

She required him to go away from Snowdin. Get as far away from this murderous human as possible. "I need your help with the evacuees," she said in a level voice. "Keep their morale up as they go on over to Alphys's lab and New Home. Think you can do that?"

Papyrus narrowed his eyesockets. "Of course I can! I'll get right over there and help them out now. Nyeh heh heh!" he cackled, running off past her.

Once he was out of sight, Undyne allowed herself a sigh of relief. Thank God he was safe. She turned her head back to the three guards with her, and motioned forward with her magical spear. "Come on, let's go! Greater Dog, lead us to the Dogi" she ordered, and they resumed marching into the woods. Oh how she'd love to skewer that little punk, but she promised Alphys she wouldn't do anything reckless, and damn it she couldn't say no to that adorkable little nerd.

Clank clank clank clank!

Mettaton

"Starfaits all set?" he asked, his voice transmitting through his body's cell phone app.

"That they are, sir," replied his assistant. "So are the steaks, the heroes, and the glamburgers, just as you asked. Confetti's a bit low in the burgers, though."

His screen flickered once. "That's fine," he replied, rolling forward through Waterfall with two draconic bouncers at his back. His wheel bounced on a few misplaced pebbles, but his balance was impeccable. "Just make sure everyone getting through is fine. This is going to take a while, remember."

"Understood, sir. Will that be all?"

"It will, keep up the good work." He turned off his internal cell phone and pointed to the left. "This way," he said, rolling forward.

Part of him felt... strange. Waterfall, well goodness he hadn't been around his old stomping grounds in a while now hadn't he? Too many memories. Too many old friends, only one of whom even recognized him. And so many people to evacuate, so many he didn't even recognize. Like this one.

Mettaton rolled up to the edge of the dock, leaning his body over to peer into the water. "Hello there? Anybody home?"

The water burbled, and a small purple monster surfaced. "Hi! Would you like to roll onto my face?" she asked, her eyes closed in joy.

"Not today, miss. You see, I'm here on something important."

Her eyes opened, now that his voice wasn't distorted by water. Something warm ticked Mettaton's circuits. Ah yes, the look of 'Oh my God, it's Mettaton!'. He never got tired of it. "Oh my goodness, it's ah - it's you! What do you need?"

"Well, there's an evacuation! Now I don't want to frighten you, madam, but there's a bit of a disaster coming here from Snowdin and I've been assigned to evacuate Waterfall." He gestured for the bouncer to his right to step up, a colossal iron bucket in her claws. "We've got this bucket for you, we can bring you right on over to New Home's aquarium. How's that sound?"

She looked at the bucket warily. "Isn't the aquarium full?"

He waved her complaint off. "Only for comfortable living, this is an emergency. We'll bring you right back here once the, ah, issue's taken care of," he promised.

Oh, and take care of it he would.

"Weeeeell... okay!" the purple monster said.

"Great!" Mettaton extended an arm back, grabbed the bucket, and dipped it into the water until it was full. "Hop on in!"

She did just that, using the innumerable insect legs beneath her head to crawl into the bucket with a wet sploosh. Mettaton raised the bucket back up and handed it back to the same employee. "Why don't you bring her on over to the aquarium?" he ordered. "After that take the rest of the day off, right?"

The dragon nodded gratefully. "You got it, sir!" Taria said, hurrying off while making sure none of the little monster's water sloshed out.

"Alright," Mettaton said once the two of them were gone, turning to his final bouncer. "Onward. Next stop is Temmie Village, I have some special business there." His bouncer didn't say anything; he just fell into pace behind Mettaton as he wheeled off.

Mettaton turned his internal speakers on, playing a few of his jazzier themes to himself. He came across a great many monsters, urging them all to head on over to the checkpoint. Of course, it was him saying it, so aside from some members of the Woshua clan stubbornly refusing, or some Aarons hanging out with them out of loyalty, people evacuated properly. He couldn't find Shyren though, and that worried him. Oh well. She'd be fine. Probably. He hoped.

It grew darker, and Mettaton brightened his yellow screen to pave a way through the shadowy caverns. No need for bio-luminescent mushrooms while he was around! Hmm, which way was it? Ah yes, a right here.

Soon enough, the sound of energetic chatter reached his recorders. He put his recorders to blast his show's theme, and wheeled into Temmie Village.

It hadn't changed since the last time he'd been there. The cat-dog monsters formed a frothing crowd, vibrating intensely enough that the giant statue off in the corner of the village jostled about. Their vibrations came to a quick almost-stop when Mettaton's song began to blare in. "Helloooooo Temmie Village!" he cheered, coming to a stop. He formed his microphone and grabbed it, waving his other hand. "How is everyone?"

"OH MY GOID!" one of the closer monsters shrieked. "Its MeTTatin!"

"That's right it is! And boy do I have an offer for you lovely little things!" he said, extending his free hand down and easily scooping up the nearest Temmie, petting her across the back.

"Aaaah! metatooN's... TOCHING ME!" she shrieked, beaming in adoration before being put back down.

Ah, warmed his CPU. "So, as much as I'd love to chat with all you gorgeous monsters, we're in a bit of a countdown here!" He rolled sideway so his bouncer was in full view of the rapturously focused village. "Avrin here is going to take you all to Doctor Alphys's lab! You see, we are..." He paused dramatically. "Evacuating!" he ended, lightning up his screen with an exclamation mark.

Excited chatter filled the village. "Please line up, one at a time, yes, no, that's a handstand, remarkable job by the way but..."

Predictably, it took some time to get the Temmies ordered. While Mettaton and Avrin were taking care of that, he kept scanning the crowd. At one point he thought he saw a small white dog emerge from a wall and walk into the local shop, but he must've been seeing things.

Eventually, Mettaton did actually find what he was looking for. He extended an arm into the crowd of Temmies and grabbed one that wasn't as... intensely seeking Avrin or himself. He pulled her over to him and faced her towards his screen.

"Put me down," she squeaked plainly.

"You wouldn't happen to be Bob, would you?"

She narrowed her eyebrows. "Yes, I am. Please put me down, Mettaton."

He did just that. "Sorry, sorry. But I have got a request for you! Come on, let's head on out for some privacy," he said, pointing his microphone to a secluded corner of Temmie Village.

Bob shrugged her shoulders. "Sure," she said, leading the way. Once they were away from anyone else, she looked up at Mettaton's screen, which now displayed his trademark 'M'. "So what do you need?"

"Well I haven't told anyone else because of the... reaction it would induce, but the reason we're evacuating is that there's a human in the Underground - " Bob gasped quietly. " - murdering everyone in their path. I need your help to set up a trap for that creature."

Bob's mouth fell open. Literally; her lower jaw hung off the bottom of her face. "A human?" she whispered, leaning in and pulling her jaw back up. "Killing everyone? Why? And why do you need me?"

Mettaton shrugged, which mostly just consisted of moving his arms up and down the sides of his box. "Beats me. Of all the humans we could've gotten, we got the psycho. As for your role, you're going to act as a sort of early-warning system. You can leave your face in one place and move elsewhere, yes?"

Bob shrugged. "We all can." To prove her point, Bob took a step to the side. Her eyes, nose and mouth however, remained floating in place. "Like this?" her disembodied mouth asked, before she brought her body back.

Mettaton dismissed his microphone and clapped excitedly. "Yes! Perfect! Long and short, I need you to go to the beginning of Waterfall and leave just your eyes there, hidden so that the human wouldn't notice you. There's a blind spot in Doctor Alphys's cameras I've got in mind. The rest of you follows me around and alerts me when the human arrives... AND THEN I GO AND DESTROY THEM!" Mettaton said with a cackle, his screen flashing red. Then he calmed down and returned it to an even yellow. "Ahem. And of course, you'll be compensated handsomely for your aid," he finished.

Bob considered that for a few moments, then nodded. "Alright, I'm in. Where do you need me to go?"

Mettaton reached down and scooped up Bob before depositing her on top of his body. "I'll bring you right to it!" he said, turning around. Something caught his eye. "Oh, hang on a moment." He turned on his cell phone and called one of his construction managers. "Yeah, there's a mushroom monster rooted in Temmie Village, can I get some diggers over here to help with the evac? Thanks, love it, bye," he said, hanging up before he got an answer. "Alright," he told Bob. "And we're off!"

He wheeled out of Temmie Village, leaving a disgruntled dragon bouncer to deal with the rest of the Temmies. Oh well. He'd give him a raise later.

Alphys

RING RING RING!

Alphys reached over and grabbed her business phone, bringing it to her ear-hole, her soul hammering inside her chest. "Doctor Alphys here! Yeah, no, everything's set up. I've got the bunks set up, plenty of food and water for - " Something rattled. " - hang on a moment." She pulled the phone away from her head and looked at the nearest shelf, filled with non-perishable food... with one dripping amalgamate hunched over it. "Reaper Bird, no! Those are for the evacuees! You just ate lunch a minute ago!" The amalgamate leaped away from the trays, hissed something at her in multiple voices, and folded in on themselves to vanish. "Sorry, just one of my patients. Yes, yes everything's set. I'll go open the door now."

She put down the phone and hurried to her elevator. She punched the button and it started to travel up, humming quietly. Nervous energy boiled within her. What was she doing?! She was going to bring people down there, to where the amalgamates were. They were going to know, and they were going to hate her. But... then at least they'd be alive to hate her. She couldn't afford to be garbage. Not now. Not when the stakes were so high. But it was just so hard. Every moment she made was heavy, her limbs weighed down by the constant urge to turn back and hide.

The elevator door opened and she was greeted by a hammering on her doors. Alphys hurried over to a panel and slammed the two buttons, one for each way into her lab, letting the doors open and the monsters spill in.

It was like she was walking through a dream. Like none of this was actually real. She couldn't possibly be letting dozens of terrified denizens of Hotland into her home. She couldn't possibly be greeting them, not a stutter in her voice. She couldn't possibly be explaining the situation with the amalgamates to them, and listening to the hordes of shocked gasps. She couldn't possibly be ferrying them down, group by group, and showing them to the makeshift residences she'd cooked up.

But she was. Alphys was... shocked at herself. Every inch of her body trembled and her scales tingled with fear, but she was doing this. She was actually being a halfway decent person. She rushed through the hallway of her lower laboratory, arms filled with bottles of water and Popato Chisp brand potato chips.

"Here, take these, distribute them, I need to go check on So Cold," she rambled, dumping the supplies into the arms of a little fire elemental. His eyes bugged out and his jaw dropped as the weight descended on him, but by then she was already running on with her tail swaying behind her.

She continued to run, and ducked between a few nervously chatting groups of monsters into the sample room. She really hoped Mr. Drake hadn't met them yet. She needed to explain to him, so he wouldn't panic -

- as she turned into the sample room she crawled to a halt, an icy breeze billowing over her. There was Mr. Drake, wings out and intertwined with So Cold's own drooping, grayscale wings. "And then, I said, Sally swam across but died anyway. Why?" he said, eyes wide and joyful behind his spectacles. "A beat pahsses, and then I answah..."

So Cold's newtonian-fluid beak turned up in a hideous smile. "... hit... by... fly... ing... brick..." they cooed.

"So!" Alphys said as cheerfully as she could. "I uh... see you two met?"

Mr. Drake turned to her and he grew decidedly less pleased. "Doctah, why didn't ya tell me my wife was alive?"

Alphys turned to So Cold, her heart turning to ice, and turned her gaze to the ground. "I was afraid," she muttered. "I think you can see why. This happening was about the last thing I expected to happen. And all the other amalgamates too, and everyone just kept calling and calling... I'm sorry."

Mr. Drake tilted his head sideways. "Listen Doctah, I'm not upset. Breezy, she'd fallen down. As fah as I'm considered, you brought my wife back from the dead. But... I just wish you couldah told me earlier. My son, he ran off cause he thought his mothah was dead, followed up by me being a terrible fathah."

"... sn... o... wy..." So Cold whispered.

"You aren't a terrible father," she countered. "If anything I'm the terrible one. I kept this from you for so long, and now... " She sighed, bowing her head. "Maybe you should sit down. While I'm here, I may as well break the bad news. I'm sorry, this is terrible timing, you've just found each other again and here I am going to ruin it but I just figured that since apparently I'm telling the truth about horrible things now... I..."

So Cold and Mr. Drake glanced at each other, then back at her. "... what... do... you... mean?" the amalgamate asked.

"So you know about my cameras. I know where your son went, Mr. Drake. I haven't known about this long, only for about as long as this emergency situation," she explained, waving a hand as she clarified. She didn't want him to think she'd been holding back this information for months. "He went to Snowdin. I last saw him in the woods and... the human found him."

Mr. Drake's expression shattered, and So Cold's left half drooped. "... sn... o... wy...?" they moaned.

"If I'd just stopped being a sorry excuse for a monster and told you right away, your son wouldn't have run off. He could've evacuated with you. He wouldn't be dead." She hunched over more. Why was she feeling bad? She wasn't the one being told her son was dead. "I am so, so sorry. There's nothing I can do to make this up."

"Doctah, I..." Mr. Drake trailed off, swaying in place. "He..." Mr. Drake swayed, then collapsed backward into So Cold, whose amorphous body molded to sit him on the ground with his back leaning into them.

"... sn... o... wy!" So Cold wailed.

Her phone buzzed, and she grabbed it out of her lab pocket to read the text. She groaned, biting her lip hard enough that her fangs drew dust. "I'm sorry, I have to go, there's more people arriving. If there's anything I can do then just tell me. I-It's the least I can do," she said, turning around and running through her lab.

Along the way she passed many more monsters, denizens of Hotland and Waterfall; it was going to be cramped, but luckily there was also the New Home shelter. And it wasn't like they were staying for long. Just until they could get the human soul, preferably in a way that kept King Asgore from using the godlike power of seven souls to eradicate humanity.

She stepped into the elevator and, again, it closed on her. For a moment she was treated to the sensation of gravity increasing as it rocketed up, then slowed to a half and deposited her in her upstairs home. A new group of monsters was already waiting there for here, these mostly Waterfall denizens. One of them turned to her. "Are you a star?" they asked.

"No, I'm afraid not," she said. "Everyone come in here, I'll get you all situated. We have plenty of food and water." They started towards the elevator hidden in her 'bathroom' and she led the way, still talking as they crowded together. "Now before we go down I just have to warn you all about a few of the, um, patients that I have. You see, they were fallen down recently..."

The elevator doors shut.

Asriel

So the dog was hiding Frisk away for the time being. Big deal. Frisk was too determined to stay with that mutt forever. When he left, he'd just reset Frisk back to where he'd left off. In the meantime, he had some business to attend to.

Warping into Waterfall and turning himself invisible, he floated to the piano room. He supposed he could just blast the door open, but he hadn't actually done the puzzle in a while and he felt like seeing how rusty he'd gotten. He floated over to the piano and sat in a conjured seat. He reached out, cracked his knuckles, and placed his hands on the keys to play.

No surprise, he remembered the song. Not only was his memory perfect, but he'd done this puzzle literally dozens of times as Flowey, and it was the same song his mother had sung to him as a lullaby.

Something painful twisted in his many souls. He strangled it.

In seconds he'd hit the eight keys, but kept playing for a while longer after the secret door opened. He played the last note, then stood and floated into the artifact room. With a flick of his wrist, he both turned visible and caved in the entrance behind him. As an afterthought, he saved.

There, like before, stood the artifact on its pedestal. Behind it, ancient runes read, 'This artifact was passed down from generation to generation, said to grant sight beyond sight to those who possess it.' In all his runs, Asriel had never actually been able to get his hands on that stupid ball. But with the dog occupied by Frisk...

He landed with a snap of his fingers and strode towards it confidently, robes swishing around his legs. He reached out his left hand and strode closer...

... the damned dog phased through the ceiling and fell onto the artifact. The ruby orb seamlessly melted into the canine's fur and vanished without a trace. The dog looked his way, barked insolently, then backflipped through the wall.

"OH COME ON!" he shouted, reaching into the past.

FILE LOADED

He reappeared and instantly dashed for the artifact. But a paw reached up and out of the pedestal and tapped the orb, which flowed down into the dog like water down a funnel.

FILE LOADED

He needed to figure out another way. He eyed the artifact warily... then teleported over to it with a flash of rainbow light. He'd long ago gotten used to his perception suddenly and wildly changing, way back when he was first experimenting with his saves. But as far as Asriel could tell, it worked. He was next to the artifact. He slammed his hand down to grab it...

The dog's paw shot out from the wall and his hand was forced to swerve away. "No, NO!" he roared, trying to reach for the ruby crystal. But by then the paw reached down and absorbed the artifact. It retracted into the wall without a sound.

FILE LOADED

"RAAAARGH!" he shouted, charging at the artifact. The dog appeared flying in from the sideways, forelegs outstretched and sailed through the artifact, taking it with the canine before Asriel could get close enough.

FILE LOADED

He took a deep breath to calm himself. Then he summoned his magic and unleashed a colossal blast of rainbows in a cone before him. He took pain to ensure the energy wrapped around the artifact's terminal, leaving it untouched. A moment later he relaxed his vast powers and inspected his work.

The mountain had been carved out, into a chasm of dripping, molten rock. He conjured a force field around the artifact to hold it, and lifted it up to eye level, far away from any ground where the dog could appear from.

Asriel teleported next to the artifact.

But the dog was already there, in place of the legendary artifact.

"WHAT?!" he roared, summoning a Chaos Sabre and swinging it at the canine like a baseball bat. Predictably, his sword just avoided the dog, who barked once and disappeared into thin air.

FILE LOADED

He reappeared in the room. The dog was already there. Half its body stuck out of the wall, just above the artifact. It stared right at him with its beady eyes.

The dog raised a paw over the artifact.

"Don't," Asriel growled.

The dog lowered its paw, maintaining eye contact with him.

"Don't you do it!" he warned.

He could swear the dog actually smirked at him, and lightly touched its pawpads to the artifact. It started hissing and slowly shriveled up, as though it were being drawn up into the dog's body. Its foreleg glowed crimson as it absorbed the gem, and then it was gone, returning the dog's fur to pure white.

"Arf!" It slunk back into the wall.

Asriel could've torn his horns out. "Fine. Fine! Forget the artifact. I don't need it anyway!" Besides, he still needed to wait for Frisk to leave. Then he could reset the little twerp back to where he'd been before the dog got to him, and then he could keep forcing Frisk to murder all his friends, to be hated by all his friends.

And once that was done, he could finally wash his hands of Frisk and move on to more worthwhile humans.

Chapter Text

Frisk

'You know we cannot stay here,' Chara said after two days.

Frisk sighed, stretching as he woke up. "I know," he said aloud. He glanced over at the dog; he was seated before his computer, barking and woofing quietly into a microphone. "Asriel's still out there. I can't just leave it like this. I have to go back and finish it." He winced even as he said it. He didn't want to go back out there. To kill, to be attacked, at the whims of a petty god. All the hate, all the blame, all the pain. But he couldn't stay in here. He would see both himself and Chara through this darkness to the other side.

He stood and faced the dog. "Excuse me, Mr. Dog?" The canine stopped barking at his computer and turned to Frisk, tongue wagging. "I need to go," he explained. "I can't just leave this alone."

The dog frowned, then jumped off its seat and padded towards him. "Arf?" he barked, looking up into Frisk's eyes. Then his ears lowered and the canine whined quietly, backing away from Frisk. He walked over to the door and nudged it with his snout.

Frisk approached the door and found its handle. He pulled the door inward, exposing the outside of the cavern to him. He looked down at the dog one last time. "Thank you for everything. It was nice to just... rest and clear my head a little. Take care, boy," he said, and stepped outside of the room.

The door closed automatically and locked with a click. Frisk put the yellow/green shirt back underneath his own, and began walking out of the frosty cave. Alright, before the dog had shown up, he'd wanted to -

FILE LOADED

- and suddenly he was back where he'd met the dog. He jerked a little in surprise, but got a hold of himself.

He waited a moment for the dog to appear. He did not. Apparently the canine was unaffected by Asriel's resets, just like he claimed.

What had he been thinking? Right, he wanted to backtrack a little.

'Well, here we go,' he told Chara.

'Indeed. Remember, nine left.'

'How could I forget?' he thought ruefully as he trudged through the snow and ice, breath steaming before him. He found his way past Papyrus's electric maze, back to the field of ice, and decided to head north this time.

It turned out, there was something he'd missed. A snowman, with a carrot nose and coal face, staring at him. "Hello!" it greeted as Frisk approached. He didn't even blink at the fact that it could talk. "I am a snowman." Frisk grew closer. "I cannot move. Traveler, if you could - " Frisk brought his fist up and sent it crashing through the snowman's body. Snow exploded outward, its voice silenced, and there was nothing left but a pile of inanimate snow.

Frisk was about to ask Chara if that counted toward her creepy murder-count, but then he heard people behind him.

It was another glasses-drake and icicle-hat monster. There was someone else with them too, a monster with a low body, a contorted mouth, and two wide, low eyes. It vaguely looked like a UFO.

"Hey!" the drake monster said. "Did you guys see that! Dude just killed the snowman! That's totally gnarly. And totally uncool."

"Yeah, I think we need to teach him a lesson!" the squat, capped monster said, its stubby hands lighting up with swirls of ice magic.

Meanwhile, the new monster behind the two sighed - very loudly at that - and snapped its fingers.

Before the drake monster could do anything though, Frisk approached and steeled himself. Then he lashed out with his fists. The bird/dragon tried to back away, but Frisk's assault was too fast. He knocked its glasses off, and the drake turned into dust.

"WHOA!" the hatted monster shouted, finally summoning a few cannons and aiming them at Frisk. But they were slow to fire, and the magic ice they shot was easy to avoid compared to Sans's merciless barrage. "Oh my God, you just killed Chilldra - "

Wham! Frisk dusted the next one as well, flinching as the little monster's eyes filled with horror moments before turning to powder. That left only the UFO-monster, who just stood there with its squinty eyes.

"So, what?" the monster asked. "Like, what are you even doing?"

He grimaced, but brought his right hand up and slammed the monster on top of its domed head. To Frisk's surprise, the monster didn't look all that hurt. Its flesh just... jiggled a bit. He narrowed his eyes in confusion, then brought his left fist around to punch again. And again, and again.

Wibble.

Wobble.

Jiggle.

"Man, you SUCK at this," the monster snorted.

Bobble.

Wiggle.

"Ka-SIGH!" the monster moaned. Frisk's arm was actually getting tired. He punched again, and this time the monster's squinty eyes went wide on either side of its body. "Wow, rude."

Finally, whatever magic held the monster's body together failed, and a third pile of dust joined the other two. Frisk panted, wiping his forehead with a dusty glove to clear away the sweat.

'... six left,' Chara droned.

'Got it,' he replied, turning away from the lump of snow and trio of dust piles to continue on his path. Soon he found himself back to where he'd last left off, past the Junior Jumble puzzle. A little further on was an empty table, with an unplugged microwave whose settings, paradoxically, all read 'spaghetti'. 'Any progress on the 'find a way to stop Asriel' front?'

'I've some ideas. The dog is clearly no ordinary monster, nor is the room it inhabits any ordinary room. If it renders us protected from Asriel's resets, then if we were to, I suppose, lure him in...'

'... he'd lose his power,' Frisk finished. 'But we don't know that for sure, do we? And how would we lure him in, anyway? If he didn't come get us while we were in the room...'

'I suppose. Mayhaps the dog will appear again in our darkest hour, like a god from within the machine.' Suddenly, the key Frisk kept in his pants felt heavy. 'Or maybe something in Sans's house...'

Frisk wandered on, looking between pine trees for any victims. Soon he came across a sign. "Warning, Dog Marriage," he read aloud. He took a step forward, but froze while his foot was in the air and turned back to the sign.

'Yes, you read that right,' Chara snarked.

Frisk shrugged, but continued on. He found a switch hidden in the snow. It was already depressed, and it looked like whoever had thrown it had thrown it hard enough to carve into the stone around it. Yikes. He moved away from it and headed deeper into the surrounding trees, looking for any victims. No such luck. He continued on, passing over a rickety bridge. He took a moment to look around; he was on one of several raised cliffs, raised sharply over the surrounding forest.

Two hooded figures approached him, wielding gargantuan axes painted with an eye each. Frisk froze in place as they approached, their hoods too low for them to possibly see him. Judging by their fur and paw pads, they were more dog monsters. A dog and a bitch, in this case.

"Hmm, you smell that?" the male asked.

"I smell it," the other responded. Frisk got a closer look; apparently their robes had a picture of each others' faces on them. These must've been the married dogs the sign mentioned.

He could also see why the sign was a warning; those axes were huge. Fear froze him in place, these dogs were going to murder him!

Not if I murder them first, he thought resolutely, readying his fists.

The dog couple seemed to finish discussing something between themselves, then turned to Frisk and hefted their axes. "Here we go," the female said. "Defend yoursmelf!" she shouted, holding out a paw and jerking it back to expose Frisk's soul.

"Wait, mysmel - WHOA!" The dogs swung their axes at him, and while they were nowhere near Frisk, enormous white magic axes materialized afterwards, slamming down into the snow. He backpedaled wildly, only for the two dogs to hop onto opposite ends of his clifftop and slam the axes down again, forcing Frisk into the center, eyes wide.

No more stalling. He had to fight.

He closed in on the male first, fists ready. The dog's nose twitched, then he opened his fang-lined mouth and barked. A ring of magical hearts flew out from his maw and began circling around Frisk. He cringed, but stepped into the ring and then out of it, within striking distance of the dog. Then he pounded into him.

The canine monster whimpered and staggered back heavily, but avoided falling off and scampered back to his wife.

"It's okay honey, i-it's just a scratch," he insisted.

"Oh it's okay snookums," his wife replied, leaning in to peck him on the snout.

Frisk could practically hear Chara rolling her eyes. 'Ugh, they remind me of mother and father.'

They continued hacking around Frisk with their magical axes, forcing him to duck and weave. A few times the magical axes cut down into Frisk's arms, but they didn't slice through him like he'd expected. The magic just... burned painfully - not even that painfully - and left a raw feeling under his shirts. He bet if he took them off, he'd see a burn mark.

Eventually though, he killed the first dog. Frisk watched sadly as he whimpered sharply, eyes going wide, and faded into dust. His axe clattered to the ground.

The other dog didn't howl.

She screamed.

Her axe came crashing down on Frisk, so close its razor edge cut a long gash along his left leg that immediately began to spill warm blood. "DAMN YOU!" she shrieked, wrenching her axe back out and spinning around to slice at Frisk. He ducked below both the axe and its magical echo, then closed in and delivered a few punches to her chest.

She stumbled back but didn't show any indication of pain. Instead she just snarled and bared her long, ivory fangs. "ON YOUR KNEES!" she demanded, her eyes wide and brimming with tears. The dog monster raised her axe down and brought it down upon him like a guillotine. He didn't have time to react, he didn't have time to process where the axe was going and then find a safe spot. He just moved, blood pounding in his ears as he delivered another series of hits to the dog monster. With a quiet wail, she too faded to dust.

Frisk panted for a moment, then slung his backpack off and fished through it. He pulled out the bag containing his squished piece of pie and unzipped it. Whether by some property of the dog's room, or of monster food, the pie had remained fresh even after two days spent with the mystical canine, and it stayed that way even after Asriel's most recent reset. He took a few bites, and the injuries he'd taken healed right up.

'What I want to know,' he told Chara. ', is how did your brother even GET this strong? I mean, even what Sans did was nothing compared to him.'

'I... do not know,' Chara said haltingly as he resumed his hunt. 'It's as though he has absorbed a great many human souls, but other than mine, he never did.' She sighed... wistfully?

'But... where would he have gotten human souls? For that matter, how is he back to life? What could do that?'

There was no answer.

As Frisk hunted and hunted, he heard something like... the trudging of armor through snow, of branches being pushed aside. He peered around a tree nervously, and stifled a gasp.

Three towering figures, clad in black armor, towered over a drake monster. " - so head back to Snowdin, pronto! We've got Greater Dog further back waiting to escort you." the central armored figure growled in a feminine voice. "We don't need any more bodies than we already have."

"Pfft, listen to The Man?" the monster scoffed. "Ha, as if - "

"I SAID MOVE IT, PUNK!" the guard roared, towering over the teen.

"Okay, okay," he whimpered, running off through the brushes until he was out of Frisk's sight.

'WHAT?!' Chara shouted. 'Only five left now? He... he got away!' she roared indignantly. 'You have to go after him!'

Right. Frisk took a step back -

A branch snapped.

An instant later, a spear shattered the tree he'd kept between himself and the armored monsters. "YOU!" the central one shouted. "07, 08, continue marching! I'll just be a moment!"

Frisk readied himself to fight as his soul came out of hiding and the monster woman summoned a gigantic glowing spear in her right hand. She slashed it, but it came nowhere near him. All the same, something like a vice clamped around his feet as his ruby soul turned grass-green. He grunted, trying to budge, but nothing worked.

Then, a salvo of spears shot down all around him, locking him in a cage of vibrant blue magic.

"Now, as much as I'd love to drop a spear through your skull," the monster growled. "I made a promise, and you're a freaking human so it probably wouldn't scratch you anyway. So just sit tight and freeze to death out here, sound good?" With that as a parting shot she dispelled her personal spear and ran out of sight.

Did... did he just get captured?

Frisk made another effort to move his legs. He even bent over and grabbed one with his arm to tug, but it was like trying to lift a mountain.

He'd just been captured!

FILE LOADED

Suddenly he staggered, his legs returning to use.

'Wait, what?' Chara asked. 'Hang on... Frisk run! You have to get to that monster before the guards do!'

His normally squinted eyes widened, and he burst into a sprint, kicking up snow behind him. He dove into the woods, leaving the two dogs' dust piles behind him. He tried to remember where he'd gone, but all the trees looked the same and the ground was smooth enough that there weren't any distinctive landmarks, like boulders or roots.

All the same though, he found the bird dragon. He was faced away from Frisk, quietly chanting an anarchist spell beneath his breath. There were no soldiers in sight. Frisk stepped forward, clenching his fists.

'Five left,' Chara breathed in relief a moment later. 'Keep going. The guards will be here soon, you need to evade them and beat them to the next target.'

He had a feeling this was going to suck.

He was right.

"You think we're just going to lay down and TAKE it?!" the armored monster taunted, holding up a gauntlet and shaking at him while he was frozen in the spear cage. "That we're just going to let your kind run all over us like you did in the war? Forget it! We've got teeth! We're fighting BACK!"

FILE LOADED

'On the bright side, only one left,' Chara chimed once the world rewound. That'd been careless of him; the guards hadn't even found any civilian, he'd just had the misfortune of crossing her path.

He nodded, trudging forward. He past a walkway covered in gray tiles, and like before, past a doghouse.

In the last reset, from here he'd immediately plowed forward, into an iced-over puzzle covered in green circles, where the monster guard had been waiting for him. So this time, he scurried into the treeline and began to slowly creep forward, eyes and ears pealed. He skirted around a long, thick section of woods covered in ice, with snow constantly falling from the treetops. Since he wasn't on the main path, he managed to avoid it all.

Despite everything, Snowdin Forest was still beautiful. Frisk marveled at the glinting icicles, the smell of pine, at the crunching ice-covered snow, as he continued his hunt for victims. His feet were freezing, though; a bunch of snow had gotten kicked onto his shoes and soaked them through. He needed to find someplace warm, fast.

Movement out of the corner of his eyes drew his attention. Frisk made a bee-line for it, and came across another hat-wearing monster. This one, he got a little careless on, tripping over a root and getting raked by the icicles it summoned above and below him. All the same though...

'That's it, I can sense no more,' Chara said. 'Perhaps there are still guards at their posts, but I doubt you shall find any more by hunting.'

Finally.

He returned to the beaten path, slipping and sliding his way across. There was a path to the south, but another one led straight forward. He took the latter path; he could see a rickety wooden bridge up ahead past a raised clearing, filled with lumps of snow, along with a squat little doghouse in the corner. Even from where he was, he could read the sign.

It just said 'woof'.

He approached one of the lumps of snow, eyebrows narrowed. 'It's a snow poff,' Chara explained.

'I can see that. But... why?'

'Beats me.'

He approached to the next. 'Introducing... a snow poff.' Frisk continued to meander, rolling his eyes at Chara's antics. 'Despite appearances to the contrary, this is a snow poff,' she giggled as he passed a third lump.

'Could it be... a snow poff?'

'Another snow poff...'

'Can it really be?! A snow poff?!'

'Behold! The glory and majesty... of the snow poff!'

Frisk couldn't help it. He had to laugh quietly at that. For just a moment, his heart felt... light.

He approached the next pile of snow and knelt down to it. He saw something... lumpy inside? 'Wait, what's inside?' Chara asked. Frisk plunged his gloved hand in, and pulled out a small leather sack. He shook it, and it jingled. With a satisfied nod, he tossed it into his pack to join the rest of the money he'd looted from the dead. 'Huh. Thirty gold. Feels good.'

"Alright," he whispered to himself, looking ahead eagerly. He could see past the wooden bridge now, there was a town waiting for him. His feet were going numb, hopefully he could warm up there.

Another lump of snow blocked his path, but before he could squeeze around it a white, furry head sprouted from it, prompting him to stumble back and raise his fists. Then, Frisk smiled at the dog. "You scared me! What are you doing outside the - " The dog growled, then rose up.

And up.

And up.

"... you're not the other dog," Frisk whispered, neck craned back to lock eyes with the snarling, heavily armed and armored dog.

But despite its towering musculature, its colossal armor, and sharpened spear, it proved itself no obstacle. Frisk continued on, passing over the rickety bridge. But to his surprise, it wasn't suspended above a chasm, not like he'd thought at first. The chasm was just rocks. Rocks painted to look like they led to a long fall. He'd seen pictures of that sort of thing, of artists painting pictures on a street that, from the right vantage point, looked like holes and gaping canyons in the street itself.

Frisk crossed over the bridge, flakes of dust trailing from his gloves. He glanced to his left; there was a poster stretched between two stakes, welcoming him to Snowdin. Finally, he'd made it.

The closest building was a wooden shop, with snowy shingles and warmly tinted windows. The lights inside were still on, but he couldn't hear anyone moving inside. Or anyone outside. The entire place was just a ghost town. Still, warmth was warmth, so he rushed into the shop.

Nobody was inside, but golden light from a few lamps illuminated the scene. Frisk took his dripping shoes and socks off, and set them next to one of the candles to dry. "Ah, finally," he said, wiggling his freed toes. Sharp pains shot up from them as they started defrosting in the cozy warmth. "Feels like it's been forever." His stomach growled at him, reminding him he hadn't had anything to eat since he woke up in the dog's room.

Frisk rummaged around the shop, looking through the wares. There were mirrors, books, and locked chests on the walls, as well as some Certification of Quality with the same winged circle symbol he'd seen in the Ruins. "What is this?" he wondered.

'It's the Delta Rune, symbol of the monster kingdom,' Chara supplied. 'It's... forget it, nothing important.'

Well, if Chara didn't want to talk about it, he wouldn't pry.

He came across a note during his rummaging. It simply read, 'Please don't hurt my family.'. He winced guiltily, but placed it aside and kept searching. Eventually, he opened a few drawers and came across a sweet smell. Cinnamon Rolls, shaped like bunnies with folded ears and button eyes made of dense syrup. He licked his lips and grabbed one. There was a sticker next to it that said they cost 25 gold. Frisk slung his pack and began to fish through it, but...

'What are you doing?' Chara asked.

'... paying for the food? Just because they're not here doesn't mean I can steal.'

'Sure it does. We need all the gold we can get Frisk, and this is an emergency situation. Besides, I...'

That didn't sound good. 'You what?'

She sounded almost ashamed. 'I don't want the amount of gold you have to go down if you can help it. It just feels... feels wrong.'

He sighed, but relented and put his money away. He grabbed the cinnamon roll and began eating it. He had to admit, it was a very good cinnamon roll. Warm and sweet, the cinnamon syrup was gooey and the bread of it was light and fluffy. In moments he'd finished it up, the monster food vaporizing into his body to heal the light injuries he'd received from the armored dog.

Rummaging through, he found a few more things. Popsicles that split in two, no thanks. A copy of the gloves he now wore. And a bandanna with drawn-on abs that Chara suggested he should probably wear, and take off his bandage while he was at it. Frisk shrugged, but she was the monster expert. And besides, the little cut he'd gotten while climbing the mountain had healed anyway, so he tossed the band-aid onto the wooden floor. As an afterthought, he opened the counter and stole the seven hundred and fifty-eight gold pieces inside, under Chara's insistence of 'emergency'.

A while later his footwear had dried, he was full of cinnamon rolls, and was very thirsty. There was snow outside, but eating snow was a bad idea; he'd read a bit from a survival guide before leaving for Mt. Ebott, and eating snow drained body heat very fast. So, Frisk set about finding a place to get something to drink.

Outside, the shop connected to an inn, but Frisk's eyes were drawn onward. There, past what looked like a Christmas Tree, was a building with large windows under giant letters that spelled 'Grillby's'.

Inside was just as warm as the shop. There were open tables and booths, with the chairs all pulled out. There were playing cards, and plates of food left out as though everyone had left too quickly to put things away. Maybe that was exactly what had happened. A jukebox in the corner rested silently beyond a neon-purple Grillby's sign, and behind the counter were all sorts of bottles. A door in the back read 'Fire Exit'.

The bottles were what grabbed his attention. Some were alcoholic. But there was a jar full of coffee beans and, after finding the appropriate machine beneath the counter, Frisk started brewing. He'd need to stay wide awake for his journey; if those guards were any indication, the monsters were locking down the Underground hard and if he stopped for a nap, he may lose his opportunity to kill more people.

He scoffed quietly to himself. And what a shame that would be.

Both he and Chara were silent as he made his coffee, added some cream, and downed it. With that done, he left Grillby's and kept searching for anything of importance. He still had Sans's key. The skeleton had directed him to the back of his house, but where was that? What sort of house would a skeleton even have? Part of him scanned Snowdin Town for some giant, gothic mansion made to house the undead.

He didn't find a mansion, but he did find a library. It wasn't very large, there was only one reading table and only six bookshelves. With a shrug, he went up to one of the middle shelves and pulled out an orange book.

Sitting at the table, he opened it up and began to read. "Because they are made of magic, monsters' bodies are attuned to their soul." Wait, hadn't Asriel mentioned something about monsters being made of dust and magic? "If a monster doesn't want to fight, its defenses will weaken... the crueler the intentions, the more they'll hurt us... if a being with a powerful soul struck with the intent to kill... oh, yikes." No wonder the monsters were so terrified of him. His experiences thus far had already shown him, but this just proved it. Monsters were much weaker than humans just by biology. God, he could only imagine if a crazed murderer, someone who actually did want to viciously kill the monsters, fell down...

'And there it is,' Chara whispered. 'That's why the monsters lost. The humans feared their magic, even though their magic was so much weaker than even the weakest human mage, and used their strength to bully the monsters down here. Called it a mercy, saying that the alternative was extinction.'

'Were you... alive back then, Chara?' he asked.

'No,' Chara admitted. 'But mother and father told me stories.'

He was certain those stories were entirely unbiased. But then... if they were biased, then why was he, just a twelve year old child, able to easily kill a giant armored soldier more than twice his size?

After leaving the library, he scanned through the empty streets of Snowdin. There weren't many houses, and none of the ones he came across at first were useful to him. There was a machine with a stack of ice cubes around it, overlooking a raging river, but closer inspection showed nothing Sans's key could fit into.

Continuing along the road, Frisk soon found another house, larger than the rest. It had two stories, with snow packed high on its shingles. There were two mailboxes outside. He got closer to read, and smiled. An empty one read 'Papyrus'. The other, bursting with unopened mail, was Sans's. This was it. His house.

Frisk didn't bother with the front door, and instead immediately went searching around the back of the wooden building. Sure enough, there was a stone door, with a keyslot. He brought Sans's silver key to it.

It fit perfectly.

With a click, Frisk opened the door and walked down a flight of musty stairs, into a dimly lit workshop. The floor was made entirely of purple bathroom tiles, and the walls were sky blue. In the corner, a giant purple sheet obscured a towering... object. One of the walls had a cavity dug into it, on which was an unfurled blueprint with all sorts of odd symbols upon it.

Chara gasped. 'Frisk, Frisk I can read this!'

He blinked, but made sure to stare directly at the blueprints so Chara could read it easily. 'You can?'

'This is Dr. Gaster's dialect. It's blueprints for some sort of... machine. A lot of this stuff's over my head, but it seems to be designed to rotate things in... multiple dimensions? Change some intrinsic quality? Beats me. Look around, see if there's anything else.'

Frisk's heart hammered in his chest. Could this be? Could he have finally found something to bring the fight to Asriel? It seemed too good to be true.

One of the drawers was more blueprints. The next drawer had a badge with the Delta Rune atop it. Another had a pencil-and-crayon drawing of three people. One was Sans. The other was a yellow reptilian monster, their hands tucked close to their labcoat. Behind them was another skeleton, taller and with a duo of cracks in their skull. Written on it was two words. "Don't forget," he read aloud.

'That's Dr. Gaster, the one with the cracks,' Chara whispered. 'So that's how Sans got a hold of his blasters. Gaster must have taught him the spellform. But what happened to him? Where is he now, if anywhere at all?'

'Beats me. Maybe the machine will have - '

"Arf arf!"

Frisk leaped into the air and spun around, but there was no dog. Instead, next to the covered up machine, was... a red ball, about the size of his head, with a sheet of paper next to it. He approached, and looked at the paper. There was just a pawprint on it. With a raised eyebrow, he picked up the orb. It was... heavy, and felt like it was made of glass. He needed both arms to pick it up.

'I can feel magic inside it,' Chara said. 'Powerful magic. Seems our furry friend had one last gift for us.'

"Hmm..." Frisk put the ball down, letting it roll into a corner, and pulled the violet sheet off the machine. It looked like a giant tube of metal and wires, with a control panel, and an opening to let someone walk inside. The console was dark and unpowered, but there was another panel underneath. With a heave of effort, Frisk opened it up. There was a cavity in the back of the machine, more than large enough to fit, say, a red orb with powerful magic, into the middle of all the wires.

"Should I?" he wondered.

'It's worth a shot.'

Determinedly, Frisk nodded and retrieved the artifact from where it'd rolled. He placed it into the empty slot, and shut it.

WHIRRRRRRR!

He backed away hastily as the machine lit up, its console blinking and showing more of those strange symbols.

'It's just saying it's booting up, don't worry. That green button, hit that one.' Frisk did as she told. 'Okay, now it's saying 'Please step into the chamber.' Think we should?'

'Well... if it messes me up too badly, Asriel will just reset me back, right? As long as he's making me do this, I figure I should try to use his own power against him.' Despite his proclamation, Frisk still hesitated a moment before stepping into the machine's chamber. It was giant, more than tall enough to hold two of him stacked on top of each other. The floor glowed red, like blood, like his soul, and a sheet of metal slammed the entrance closed. He was trapped in the machine.

A garbled voice spoke from a hidden speaker, the voice pitching and falling wildly. 'Recording of Gaster's voice,' Chara supplied. 'It's just telling you to hold absolutely still.'

"Alright, cool." Frisk did just that. The whirring got louder, and the crimson light began to intensify until he had to close his eyes to avoid going blind. Then the lights flashed, and his heart flew. He breathed out unsteadily, and opened his eyes.

The light was gone. The door was open. Everything was exactly the same. He still felt a little light, as though he'd just had a lot of fun, but beyond that? Nothing. He stepped out of the machine.

Its controls were dark. He opened the power slot and, where the ruby artifact had been, were now only cooling, rust-colored shards of glass.

'...weird,' Chara mused. 'It felt like something... jumped. Like some number's... I don't know. Superimposed? No, that's not the word. Like a number's been set to multiple numbers at once.'

Frisk shrugged. "Well, if that did anything significant, I guess I'll see soon. Maybe it was a dud. I've still got to leave Snowdin."

'Right.'

He left Sans and Papyrus's house behind and continued on. There was a shed, and next to it a little desk with a few items on it. One was a scrambled Rubik's Cube. Another was a plate of spaghetti, burnt black and frozen to the plate. The last was a note from Papyrus, he could tell because it was in all caps.

ATTENTION HUMAN! WHILE I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM HAVING MY POST MOVED FOR THE TIME BEING, FRET NOT! I HAVE PREPARED A GOURMET MEAL FOR YOU, COURTESY OF MY MASTER COOKING SKILLS. IN ADDITION, I HAVE SET FOR YOU EASILY THE GREATEST, MOST INGENIOUS, DECEPTIVELY COMPLEX PUZZLE KNOWN TO MONSTERKIND; THE FABLED CUBE OF RUBIK! NYEH HEH HEH, THIS WILL SURELY STUMP YOU, AND YOU'LL HAVE SO MUCH FUN SOLVING IT YOU'LL EVEN FIND REASON TO STOP YOUR... CURRENT PATH! UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN!

NYEHFULLY YOURS, PAPYRUS!

Frisk cracked a smile, but ignored both the cube and spaghetti in favor of continuing on, the nearby river burbling along with him. A chill wind picked up, and snowflakes began whirling around him. Frisk shivered, bringing his hands up to shield his face as he plowed on. The wind picked up into a snowstorm, obscuring his vision for anything beyond a few feet. If a monster wanted to confront him under this cover, they'd have a tremendous advantage on him.

But nobody came.

As he continued, the snowstorm ended as quickly as it began, leaving the snowflakes stuck to him to melt under his body heat. The snow on the ground began to melt into slush, until his shoes trodded on blue stone, eerie silence filling the cavern around him.

Ring! Ring!

Frisk jumped high enough to clear Toriel's horns. Even Chara shouted quietly in surprise. Once he landed he fumbled with his phone and brought it to his ear.

Nervously, he answered the call.

Chapter Text

Frisk

"Hello!" boomed Papyrus's voice from the speaker. "Is this the human?"

Frisk blinked. "What? Papyrus!" He bent over and clutched the phone to his ear, as if afraid of someone eavesdropping. "What?" he repeated.

"Oh ho! So it IS the human!"

"How did you get this number?!" he hissed, turning around to look back towards Snowdin.

"Oh, that was easy!" Papyrus chirped. "I simply dialed every number sequentially until I happened to get yours! You were really early on the list, did you know that?"

"N-No, I didn't," Frisk said uneasily. Last time he'd seen Papyrus, he'd looked so... worried. Disappointed. "Why are you calling? Where are you? I have so many questions!"

"As to where I am... it's a mystery! Think of it as a puzzle for you to solve and distract you from your murderous urges!" Frisk winced. "Oh, speaking of which, how did you enjoy my distraction?"

Frisk drew a blank. "Uh, come again?"

'The spaghetti,' Chara reminded him.

"Oh, the spaghetti?" Frisk rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. "I, uh, couldn't eat it. It froze to the table."

"Drats! I knew I should have placed it in Waterfall instead! Oh well, I suppose that means there's more for us to share later once I am rehabilitating you! Or well, rehabilitating you in the same room! Undyne was very insistent I not be in the same room as you."

"Can't imagine why," he groused, resuming his walk onwards. "Also, sorry about the Rubik's cube. I couldn't solve it, and I have to keep going and... doing this."

"Oh," Papyrus said sharply. "Well, that's... well that's not entirely fine, but hey! You have my phone number now that I've called you, so any time you want to call and talk about working through your murdery tendencies together, I'm your skeleton! I can already tell you want to be a better person!"

"I do," he whispered, eyes flashing to his dust-covered gloves. "I really do, Papyrus, but I don't know how to stop."

"Nyeh heh heh, lucky for you that's what I'm here for!" Something clattered in the background. "Ooooh, fiddlesticks! I'm sorry human, I have to go for a moment, be right back!" The phone clicked, and Frisk was alone with Chara again.

He sighed, but kept walking. It got warmer and warmer, so Frisk was forced to stop by the river and change out of his double-shirts. He placed the green/yellow one in his pack and continued. The air smelled of mold and humidity, clinging to his hair.

'Up next is, as our skeletal friend briefly mentioned, Waterfall,' Chara explained. 'It's closer to the heat of the Earth, so it's mostly marshland. There's a river that flows through it, originating from the surface, that provides much of the water. There's also local flora with peculiar magical properties, I'll explain those as we go.'

'Thanks, Chara. I don't know how I'd do this without you.'

'... yes, without me. Speaking of which I... I sense eighteen left.'

Eighteen. Not sixteen. Eighteen. At least it was less than what he needed for the Ruins. "Well, let's get started," he muttered, trudging forward. Before long, the burbling river next to him bent away, and dark blue walls closed in on him in a claustrophobic tunnel. A crashing waterfall flowed from a tunnel underneath the ground, spilling off into the void next to him. There was another sentry station, its rooftop covered in slushy, melting snow. There was also a tall blue glowing flower.

'Echo Flower,' Chara explained. 'They repeat the last thing they hear. Give it a listen.'

Frisk leaned into the flower's pulsing petals. A handsomely masculine voice greeted his ears. "That's it," the flower repeated. "Right there. Got it? Splendid! Let us be off then, Bob!"

Weird.

Frisk continued, past a much larger waterfall filled with slick, uneven rocks as the water crashed across a slanted surface before it continued to fall. There was a guard rail on the bottom to catch him, but he wasn't going to test it. Sure Asriel would reset him, but he really didn't want to snap his neck, or drown. He tip-toed across the waterfall, frowning when his pants and shoes were soaked through.

'Do you sense something, Frisk?' Chara asked.

He raised an eyebrow, but made one last hop out of the river and shivered. 'No, is this about the eighteen?'

'No, it's... hmm, probably unimportant. Let us continue.'

"Right," he muttered, plodding ahead. His vision forward was blocked by a tall field of grass, and there was a cliff above him. Frisk couldn't see up onto it, but he thought he spotted a few cavern formations, stalagmites and stalactites grown together by incalculable age. He pushed through the grass, pushing the tall plants down as her progressed and wincing when the fronds sometimes snapped back to whack him in the face. Before long he came out the other end. There was no cliff to his left, just a smooth wall of stone, with only the sound of trickling water. There was a small river across from him, along with a side room and a strange plaque on the wall.

He went to stand by the plaque and read the blue letters, but... he found he couldn't read the ancient runes. 'Bridge seeds, they're in the side passage. Magic plants. Put four of them in a row in water, and they sprout to make a bridge.'

Hmm, okay. In the side room there were indeed a couple giant plants. Like lily-pads with pink fronds sticking up from the middle. Frisk grabbed one in both arms, then went back to the small river and gently placed the plant in, giving it a push to the other side; he wasn't going to get wet if he could help it. He watched as the bridge seed bobbed over to the other side and came to a rest. Then he returned to the other three and repeated the process.

Once he set the fourth and final bridge seed into the water, he saw all four plants pulse. Their vines grew out and intertwined with each other and, before Frisk's very eyes, their pink petals blossomed open to create a path. He set one foot out and gently tapped the nearest plant. It held. He put both feet on. It still held. Then, nervously, he walked across, the plants denting slightly under his weight but keeping him dry. With a hop, he jumped off the last one and fell onto dry land.

"Not bad," he said with a smile, looking back. Then the water stirred, and plants were shoved aside as a monster exploded up from the water. "Wait, what?" he wondered.

This monster was... a horse? No, that wasn't right. Its fur was a dark orange-brown, with a mane of brown hair on its vaguely masculine face. He had arms, and a six-pack... wait no, a twelve-pack along his stomach, which tapered off, not into a horse's bottom half, but into a green eel tail, ending in a yellow eye-like spade. "Well hello there, why don't you come on in? Water's fine," the monster greeted, giving him a wink.

Inside his head, Chara snorted. 'A member of the Aaron clan. They're seahorses. Heh.'

'Oh my God, that's horrible,' he retorted. Frisk stepped closer to Aaron, flexing his gloved hands. What had that book said? That monsters were weak to killing intent? But Frisk didn't have killing intent. Didn't he? He'd been killing the other monsters easily, but that was the whole 'physical body' thing. Unless... no, it didn't matter.

Maybe he could summon some anger, at least just for a moment. As Aaron swished his hair, sending droplets of magical - and stinging - water flying onto his body and suddenly-exposed soul, Frisk closed his eyes and concentrated. He imagined the seahorse as Asriel. He thought of how badly he needed to do this, how badly he needed to get through his bloody task and save the world. How bad he needed to kill this monster. How badly he wanted to kill this monster, so much it burned his gut and seared his nerves with how badly he hated Asriel. And with that thought in mind, Frisk swung his fist into the monster's abs.

Aaron made a hurt noise, somewhere between a horse neigh and a dark growl. His relaxed eyes widened and narrowed, before he dissolved from the head down into nothing but dust and gold. Frisk pilfered the latter, and turned away from Aaron's corpse.

'... that's it?' Chara asked.

'Is what it?' he wondered, coming into a larger room that held four more bridge seeds, some bio-luminescent mushrooms, as well as what looked like a giant yellow pepper growing off the far wall. He saw a way forward. He could jump that, no problem.

'No quiet sigh? No whispering that you're sorry after they're dead?' she wondered.

Frisk considered that, and frowned grimly. "Huh. Guess not." He jumped across the narrow waters, and went north. The cavern opened up slightly, and pale blue light showered Frisk. He glanced up, and...

"Whoa," he whispered. Hundreds of glowing, sparkling stones stuck to the ceiling, glinting and shimmering in each other's light. There were more echo flowers here, too. He put his ear to the closest one... but there was nothing beyond an eerie silence.

'Chara, what's that sign say?' he wondered.

'It just says this is the wishing room,' Chara explained. 'In monster culture, they would gather every night and wish to the stars, praying for their desires to come true.' Her voice turned bitter. 'But now that they're sealed down here, they only have these dumb rocks.'

He glanced downward, a stab of guilt in his heart. He knew it was pointless. He wasn't responsible for the monsters being sealed down here. But he sure wasn't making things better for them, was he?

Further on were more echo flowers, and a telescope aimed at the stones. To his left was a dead-end hallway. He peeked inside the telescope, looking at the sparkling stones. They were even more beautiful like this, he could see their jagged edges and strange geometries. There was something stuck the telescope's lens, though, something black like ink.

... exactly like ink, he realized a moment later, when he pointed the telescope at an especially bright gem. The message 'check the wall' was written on the telescope. He pulled his eye away, and headed to the dead end. He placed both his gloves on the wall, expecting it to be some joke, but instead the solid stone sunk inward, then slid aside until there was another passage forward.

The tunnel opened up even more, there. There was a boardwalk made of damp, nearly rotten wood. More plaques dotted a stone wall that bordered the walkway, which was surrounded by a small moat filled with cat's tails. A strange looking monster that Chara called a 'Woshua' was there, a yellow duckling chirping in its water bucket back.

It looked at him, narrowing its eyes and pulling out his glowing heart. "Your soul is unclean," it observed.

'Sixteen left,' Chara counted seconds later as Frisk approached the plaques. 'This one just says The War of Humans and Monsters.'

As Frisk walked on, Chara relayed what they said to him. He glanced down, frowning as she kept reading. So the humans attacked first. It reinforced what he'd heard so many times about monsters being able to take his soul. At the end there was a picture of a monster, glowing vibrant purple. It was like nothing Frisk had ever seen, and sent chills down his spines. Spikes and spines everywhere, bones jutting out of its skin and more eyes than he could count. In its center were two hearts, one inside the other; a white inverted soul like Toriel's, around a purple right-side up heart. There was nothing about the picture that portrayed the monster as good.

Clearly, even the monsters themselves saw their spirit-snatching abilities in a poor light.

Frisk continued, stepping onto a plank of wood. Then it started moving and he screamed, crouching down for better balance. The makeshift raft floated across the inky water until the boardwalk was out of sight, until all sources of light were gone and he was bathed in blackness. Then, from the other side, light returned from some glowing algae and mold. A long boardwalk, with a grayscale monster on it edge.

Frisk disembarked when the raft arrived. Just in time too, because it started sailing back the way it came. He stared at the monster, who sat on the edge of the dock, swaying their clawed legs back and forth.

It was a gray little monster, about as tall as Frisk. They wore a checkerboard blouse, and had no arms. The monster's skin was scaly, and a reptilian tail gently swayed behind them. A row of spikes went down the middle of their head, one of which held a dark gray bow. They had white eyes, all the way through, and Frisk wondered if they were blind.

He summoned his anger and punched the monster in the head.

... but his fist just phased through as if they weren't even there.

"Hmm?" the monster wondered in a feminine voice. She sounded young, too. Younger than Frisk. "Wonder why you decided to do that. Do you see something?"

Frisk raised an eyebrow. "I see... you?"

The monster turned her head to stare at him, blank eyes wide, and gaped. "You can see me? How? You didn't see me all the other times." She laughed ruefully. "Nobody can see me anymore except my brother. Well, and the others, but they don't come by anymore. How is it you can? And to that end, why try to strike me?"

Frisk's gaze fell. "I'm being forced to kill everyone in the Underground," he muttered. "I don't know why I can see you." An idea it up in his mind. "I did use this strange device not long ago. I think it was constructed by Doctor Gaster? I'm sorry, what was your name?" he asked. "I'm Frisk."

She shook her head, laughing bitterly. "I'm nobody anymore, just some goner." She perked up. "Wait, did you say Gaster? Oh, human. You don't want to get involved in Gaster's fate. People who do tend to become like me."

"But, I need all the help I can get to stop - "

" - Asriel, I know. While his actions are foul, they're not exactly dire. Listen to me, Frisk. Just keep going," she urged. "Forget about this. Don't pay us any mind."

He backed away from the goner, and sighed. "Alright, if you insist. But I'm just saying - "

"I know what you're saying," she interrupted. "My position has not changed. Leave."

He nodded. "Alright. Goodbye." He turned and continue on the boardwalk, leaving the goner kid behind.

'She knew about Gaster,' Chara pondered. 'And apparently she's... intangible? Phased out? I don't understand.'

'Wasn't there a ghost we met in the Ruins?'

'Sure, but those are ghosts. They're incorporeal, not intangible. They can still interact with the world using their magic. From the way that goner spoke, she practically doesn't even exist. Us seeing her must be something to do with the machine.'

'Well... we're not getting answers out of her,' Frisk pointed out. 'Let's keep going and see if there's anyone else in her position that's willing to help.'

The walk sure was long. Black water surrounded him, and to Frisk's left, too far away to jump to, was a narrow stretch of land dotted with stone pillars.

ZAP!

Frisk jumped, and turned around. A massive, pale blue barrier appeared behind him. It was shaped like multiple twisting lightning bolts on top of each other, stretching across and off the boardwalk to make leaving impossible. "Don't-move magic?" he wondered aloud.

"Well well well!" said a handsomely masculine voice behind him. Frisk whipped around and beheld what he could only call a robot, twice his height. It was vaguely rectangular, though the bottom third was marginally smaller than the top. A five-by-four screen of yellow blocks made up what could charitably called a face, beneath which were four more blocks, and then a quartet of dials. A single leg ending in a wheel extended from its bottom, and metallic, telescoping arms ending in white gloves slid up and down its sides. "Look what we have here!"

"... what?" Frisk asked, dumbfounded.

"Oh don't look so surprised, darling! Though, how can I blame you for not knowing about the wondrous Mettaton." The yellow screen suddenly turned blood red. "Not when you've been so busy, hmm? Well then!" The robot laced his gloves and made as if cracking his knuckles. No sound though. Then a microphone appeared from thin air in Mettaton's right hand. "Let's get this show on the road!" he shouted, exposing Frisk's soul.

'Oh my God, his defenses!' Chara shouted, for some reason.

Frisk knew what he had to do. Sure this was a metal robot, but he was using magic and he could expose Frisk's soul. That meant he was a monster. Summoning his anger, Frisk ran in and punched Mettaton right above his dials as hard as he could. "Aaaaaahhhh," he gasped, stumbling away when pain exploded along his hand. Oh, was his hand broken? He eyed the injury; his wrist dangled limply at a terrible angle. Definitely broken.

Then a spinning white box formed above Frisk, and crashed down onto him. When it hit his head it splintered into pieces, which in turn quickly vanished. His body tingled with static and his soul burned ever so slightly. Then another box came, and another, and another.

With a growl he stepped back, watching the next box crash onto the ground and vanish harmlessly.

"It took you long enough to show up!" Mettaton mocked. "I think I can imagine what you were doing though, oh ho ho!"

The robot unleashed another salvo before Frisk could do anything. Dozens of boxes came drifting down from both above and ahead of Frisk, jostling slightly back and forth. They were huge, the size of Frisk himself, carving across the boardwalk to him. He had to glance up and all around, but he managed to weave between all the boxes. In the process he came up next to the robot, so he kicked Mettaton's metal body.

Like before, Mettaton was utterly unfazed, but Frisk's leg was on fire. "Don't you get it, you ugly little creature? Even if you are so good at hurting my current audience..." Mettaton's free hand reached out and punched Frisk through his soul, and into his gut.

He doubled over, voiding the contents of his stomach as he was tossed backwards. His entire body burned from the hit to his soul, and his chest heaved with strain from the metal fist's impact. "... you'll never be able to lay a finger on my hot metal body!"

Damn it, Mettaton had a point. How was Frisk supposed to just beat up a robot? How did Asriel expect him to kill Mettaton?!

The robotic monster released another attack. It looked like a long segmented arm, sort of like Mettaton's own, ending with... was that a fist or a spotlight at the end? Whatever it was, it was much too high for Frisk to jump over, and so long it easily covered the entire boardwalk. There was nowhere for Frisk to run, and all he could do was endure the magical beam as it crashed into his soul, splintered into energy around him, and vanished behind Frisk.

His head spun and his vision blurred. Oh God, why was it taking him so long to die? It hurt so much, and Mettaton kept taunting him, but the sounds were muddy and seemed to be coming from the other end of the planet. He tried to dodge Mettaton's attacks, but the lazily-drifting boxes and what looked like bombs didn't stay still in his vision, and half the time there simply was no way for Frisk to avoid Mettaton's magic. He couldn't fight Mettaton, he didn't have the strength left to run, there was nothing he could do. Just when Frisk could take no more, he felt Mettaton's glove on his soul, holding it tightly. The pressure on his essence made Frisk try to scream, but all that came from his mouth was a quiet whine.

"I'll take that. Yoink!" Mettaton pulled his arm back, taking Frisk's soul with it. But the moment he did, Frisk's soul split in two and the world faded away. Then the halves of his soul shattered, and -

FILE LOADED

He took in a deep, needless gasp. He was back on the boardwalk.

The goner kid looked at him, and sighed. "Back so soon?" she wondered.

"I died," he breathed. "A monster just killed me." That hadn't happened since Sans. That'd easily been the worst death he'd yet experienced. Asriel had been content with blasting him into ashes instantly, over and over. Sans's attacks tore him to ribbons in seconds, and while it obviously hurt, it didn't hurt for long. But Mettaton apparently wasn't as powerful as them; he'd had no choice but to kill Frisk slowly. "That was horrible," he whimpered.

'I saw,' Chara whispered. 'I'm sorry, Frisk. I should've done something to help.'

'It's alright, Chara,' he replied, staring at the goner kid's checkerboard blouse. 'You're dead, what could you do?'

'... right. At any rate, how are you going to get past him? You cannot hurt Mettaton as he is now, he'll wear you down.'

Frisk pondered it for a moment, looking around. Then, he took out his phone, and fished around with the primitive buttons for a moment. He held it to his right ear.

Ring! Ring!

A click, and then a familiar voice. "Hello, this is Papyrus!"

"Hi, Papyrus. So I have a question."

"Go ahead, human! I, the Great Papyrus, am an expert in the Underground! Well I mean, unless this question isn't about the Underground - "

"Do you know a robot monster? I, uh, see him up ahead and I'm kind of worried he's going to kill me."

"Oh, you must be thinking of Mettaton!" Papyrus's voice turned strained. "Um, could you maybe not kill him? I really like his show! It's not that hard, too! See, all you have to do is, see, go up to Mettaton and, instead of doing violence... just keep going past him! Ignore that desire, like whenever you ignore the desire to take a nap in the middle of the day! I'm sure he'll let you pass!"

"I kinda doubt that, Papyrus," he replied, his phone shaking in his hands. "I'm not trying to kill him, I'm just kinda worried. Is there anything else I should know about Mettaton?"

"Well..." He could practically hear Papyrus glancing sideways. "I know he was created by the brilliant Dr. Alphys, originally as a human eradication machine." A WHAT?! "Then he became famous, and bought out the MTT resort, and fills our life with poses and beating up heel-turning villains! And cooking shows, can't forget those!"

"Alright, so entertainment robot, originally a human killing robot. Thanks, Papyrus."

"Nyeh heh heh, no problem, human!"

He disconnected the call and put his phone back in his pockets, looking around. "Alright, so how am I gonna do this?" Frisk narrowed his eyes, then grinned. "Idea!"

'What's the plan, Frisk?'

'You'll see,' he replied slyly, a smirk on his face. Mettaton was a robot, right? That meant he was made of electronics.

As Frisk continue down the boardwalk, the same blue barrier appeared behind him. And just like before, Mettaton wheeled in to face Frisk. He couldn't help but wince, remembering his bombs and boxes crashing around him no matter where Frisk moved. "Well well well! Look what we have here!" Mettaton boasted.

Frisk gasped. "Mettaton? The star of the Underground?"

Mettaton froze, and his screen changed to show an exclamation mark. "Oh? Looks like the little creature knows of me! Well, I'm not surprised!"

Frisk took a few steps closer. "Well of course, I heard all about you on the way here," he lied. "But, um, what are you doing here?"

"Well isn't it obvious?" Mettaton asked, holding his hands out like a maniacally laughing villain. "I'm here to exterminate - whoa!"

As fast as he could, Frisk darted around to Mettaton's side, and shoved. Mettaton was just as heavy as he predicted, but he was also on a wheel, and incredibly top heavy. So with his muscles straining, Frisk shoved Mettaton off the boardwalk and into the water. There, electronics and water. That should take care of -

"Oh you little cretin!"

- or maybe not. Frisk turn around and ran. The boardwalk did a few twists and turns, forcing him to either slow down or slip.

"Oh no you don't!" Frisk glanced behind him when he heard Mettaton's voice, and his heart sank. The robot's wheel replaced itself with a jet, firing violet flames from its end. With it, Mettaton lifted himself back onto the boardwalk and chased after Frisk, gaining quickly. He turned back around and pumped his legs harder, breathing heavily. God, how long was this stupid boardwalk?!

A giant bomb sailed over Frisk's head, landing into the water beside him and fizzling out. A few boxes followed. Something hit him in the back hard enough to make him stumble.

'JUMP!' Chara shouted.

Frisk jumped. He hazarded a glance down, just in time to see one of Mettaton's telescoping arms reach out to grab at where his legs had just been. His eyes bugged out as he landed with a wince, but he kept running. There, he could see something ahead of him! Another field of grass!

Redoubling his speed, Frisk dove into the plants and concealed himself. Thinking quick, he picked up some dirt and threw it to other parts of the grassfield, to make Mettaton think he'd crawled over there. Then he curled into a ball and prayed.

He heard Mettaton wheel into the field of grass, his metallic form pushing aside the fronds. Frisk didn't even dare breathe as he heard Mettaton rooting around in the grass, the metal arms scanning through...

Thunk. He heard it. Mettaton surely heard it. But it wasn't from Frisk. "Ah HA!" Mettaton shouted. "... oh. A rock. Stupid little... must've gotten away while I was looking in here." Then Mettaton wheeled away. A few minutes after Frisk couldn't hear him anymore, he released his breath and stood, lightheaded.

'That was too close,' he told Chara.

'Indeed. His defenses are simply too good. You need to find a way to reduce them.'

'Yeah.' He pushed his way out of the grass. wiping some dust off his face. He came to a small alcove with a table and an empty echo flower. On the table was a slice of cheese, wrapped in a purple magical crystal.

'How though?' he asked. 'He's a frickin' robot!'

'We'll find a way,' she said hungrily. 'Determination.'

'Right,' he thought back, leaving the crystal-encased cheese behind. Frisk headed off into the next cavernous tunnel, walking and walking.

... and walking.

... and walking.

He came to a stop and looked around. In front of him, the tunnel sunk into pitch blackness that he couldn't see. Behind him, there was the same thing. But he could still see around him just fine. Where was this light coming from?

Frisk turned to face the wall. Nothing out of the ordinary, just the same blue stone, covered in mold and sprinkled with glowing rocks that made up Waterfall.

He faced the wall behind him. Same thing. He glanced to the side, then slowly turned back around to face the first wall.

Now, there was a single, unassuming gray door there.

'Oh, wow,' Chara breathed. 'That's new.'

'It's the same color as the goner,' he pointed out.

'Well what are you waiting for?' she asked excitedly. 'Open it, open it! This might just be the thing!'

Frisk nodded, and stepped forward with his right arm outstretched. He grasped the doorknob, half expecting his hand to phase through. But it didn't. He gripped it tightly. It felt like wood. With a deep breath, Frisk twisted the doorknob...

Click!

... and the door refused to open.

He narrowed his eyes, and crouched. There was a keyhole. Or... wait, no. That wasn't a keyhole.

'What is that?' Chara asked, voicing his thoughts.

'I-I don't know!' It looked sort of like... a number pad. But there were only four buttons, without any numbers on them, arranged in a square. One was lit up light gray. The other three were dark gray. 'Am I trying to light them all up? Put out the one that's lit up? Will that even open the - '

'Light up the other three,' Chara responded quickly. 'Get the number of lit buttons to four. That should do it.'

'... more of your strange number powers?' he asked.

'It would seem so. For now, let us ignore this door and continue on. This infinite corridor cannot go on forever.'

'Right.' He got up and walked away from the door, back into the abyssal darkness.

Behind him, the gray door continued to wait patiently.

Chapter Text

Frisk

"Nothing in here," he muttered, leaving the room. There had been a plaque, but it was covered in scribbles of ice cream flavors, so Chara couldn't translate it for him. Nor did she remember what it said from when she'd been alive. So that left Frisk with nothing left to do but hunt.

The chamber he'd found himself in, after leaving the strange tunnel with the gray door, was massive. The chamber stretched not exactly further than Frisk could see, and it wasn't as tall as the vaulting roof of Snowdin Forest, but it housed a large lake. The water was a soothing, glowing teal, like patience magic. Cattails, lily pads, and all kinds of other subterranean plants grew along and inside the gently trickling waters. Along the lake was a labyrinth of pathways, black stone islands linked together by moist wooden bridges. He wandered along them, searching for both a way forward and for his next victim.

'Fifteen left.'

It mostly consisted of Aarons and the odd Woshua, but at one point Frisk found a strange green jello-thing in the corner. He figured it was a moldsmal and went to approach it, but when he got close it roared, and expanded upwards. Ring upon ring of shifting mass formed, lifting the monster up to far beyond Frisk's eye level.

He got it into his mind that maybe he wanted to flirt with the thing. Jello there, you're looking pretty fine, he thought. But somehow it... didn't seem appropriate.

'Fourteen left.'

He passed echo flowers, all of which were silent. He passed strange, column-like plants that seemed to burn with blue flame. He found moldsmals, and more of what Chara called a 'moldbygg'.

'Eleven left.'

Several times, Frisk got himself turned around and her found himself back where he started. One path ended in a small gap across to further ahead; he couldn't jump it, but wading across wouldn't take that long. Except whenever he tried, a blue magic field formed and blocked him off. He briefly wondered why the monsters didn't just completely box him in with those, but maybe they just didn't have them everywhere.

"It's so pretty here," Frisk whispered, turning away from the latest Aaron.

Chara didn't count down, but he still knew it to be nine left. 'Yes. Asriel and I would always sneak out to Waterfall. We'd play hide and seek in the plants. One time Asriel hid in a patch of echo flowers, and when I snuck up on him he screamed, and then of course the flowers all started screaming...' She laughed fondly in his head.

He allowed himself a small smile, trying to picture Chara playing with Asriel. Then he realized that he didn't know what Chara looked like, so that ended that train of thought.

Eventually Frisk found a way past the massive labyrinth. The caverns closed in for a moment, then opened back up. He stood in a similar room, filled with deep water and with a single stone pathway through it. No plants grew here, and the water didn't glow; just stagnant, unknowable liquid. Frisk made his way through the room, a dull symphony of dripping stalactites following his footsteps.

The caverns closed back in again. This time Frisk found himself in a small room, with corridors off ahead and to the left. In the center was a small pool of water, into which drops fell from an impossibly high tunnel above. There was something in the corner of the room, too. What looked like a jagged growth of turquoise rock and, floating above it, a monster. He couldn't make out much of it, hidden in the shadows as it was, but it seemed to be just a head with an angler fish antennae, a mop of hair made of seaweed, and a greenish fin out the back. He heard it, heard her, humming quietly to herself.

He approached and raised his fist, and swung.

The monster yelped quietly, and without further sound she fell to dust. The green stone beneath her fell over to the side. He gave it a look, then turned and departed.

'Eight left.'

The tunnel to the left didn't lead to much. A short hall into another room, filled with collapsed rubble. Frisk elected to take the other path; unless he wanted to start rolling giant boulders out of the way, it was the only way forward.

The other path was a painfully long corridor, dimly lit by glowing rocks embedded in the walls. There were more plaques. Chara read them to him; the first one explained how a monster could not be stopped from taking a soul, and that humans couldn't do the same to monsters because monster souls vanished instantly. The next one described an exception. So called 'boss monsters' whose souls persisted a few seconds after death.

'Toriel's soul,' Frisk remembered. 'Her soul remained for a moment. She was a boss monster? But then, does that mean...'

'Correct, Frisk. Asriel and Asgore are also boss monsters. The only two left in existence after the war destroyed most of their kind.'

So now not only were the ancient humans guilty of wrongfully slaughtering and imprisoning the monsters, but also guilty of near genocide of the boss monsters. Frisk resolved to put it out of his mind; past sins didn't mean anything. Not when there were already so many present sins being committed by his hand. He ventured on.

Before long, Frisk came across a small indent in the walls, with a pile of rocks in it. He was about the venture past it, but his companion took interest. 'Hang on, what is this?' Chara wondered.

Frisk dutifully came to a stop and approached the stones. Now that he was looking at it dead-on and not out of his peripherals, he could see that it was a statue of some kind. Somewhat like a tombstone, or the armless bust of a hooded figure, hunched over. A pile of assorted rocks made up the bottom, and two horns - like that of Toriel and Asriel - sprouted from either side of the top. Pale light shone down onto it from high above, like a spotlight, along with the steady trickle of water. If he looked closely he swore he saw something, but he couldn't quite make it out.

'Good question. Looks like a grave of some kind?'

'It was not here the last time I lived, I can assure you of that.'

Frisk looked down the tunnel, and squinted even more than he usually did. There was a small waterfall trickling across the walls, but also a sign and, more importantly, a bucket of umbrellas. "Idea," he whispered, rushing over to them. He grabbed an umbrella, red like his soul, and began to backtrack.

'Frisk? What are you doing?' Chara wondered.

'You'll see.' Once he arrived at the statue again, he approached it and started looking for a nook in it. Surely there'd be something that could hold an umbrella...

'Frisk, it is a statue. It does not experience discomfort.' He found it! Frisk slipped the umbrella in and watched as the dripping water fell off to the side. Rapidly, the thing he'd seen dried up and clicked. 'What is that? A music box it seems, but what - '

Then the song began to play. It was light and tinny, with a steady melody. It was sad and soothing, and it made Frisk's heart twist.

But that was nothing compared to Chara's reaction. She went silent, eerily so. For a long moment, he stared at the statue and listened to the song play. Then, slowly, Frisk heard something else in his head. Some sort of starting and stopping, sudden intakes of breath.

'Chara,' he started carefully and kindly, sitting at the statue's feet. 'Are you okay? You're crying.'

'No,' she whimpered as the song continued. 'I'm not okay. All this is my fault.'

'No it's not,' he soothed. 'Asriel's the only one making me do this. You've been nothing but kind and helpful and I'd be lost without you, Chara.'

'You don't get it! I, I lied to you, Frisk.' His eyes widened. 'I didn't get sick and die. I killed myself with poisonous flowers.'

He had to actively stop himself from shouting, just in case Asriel was watching. 'What?!' Why?'

She was silent for a moment, but then she answered, speaking lowly and quietly and still with an occasional hiccup. 'Back when I lived on the surface, it was miserable. My parents were serfs, and our lord was cruel. Nobody helped us. And they expected so much from me. Too much from me. I couldn't do the things they wanted. I wasn't strong enough to lift the tools they used. They wanted me to be an adult, back when I was barely able to walk!' she spat. 'And nobody else seemed to see anything wrong with it. Everyone else thought it was just... okay! I wasn't a kid. I was just some dumb, weak, clumsy adult who couldn't do anything right. The only comfort I had were the golden flowers I could grow in my secret garden.'

'I'm sorry,' he said automatically. God, he knew medieval times weren't the best, but to hear it firsthand...

'So I ran away,' she continued. 'I found Mt. Ebott and climbed. I tripped and fell, and the Dreemurrs took me in. They were... so nice to me,' she cried, her voice cracking. 'They didn't expect anything of me. All the monsters understood that I wasn't an adult. And... and I thought to myself, why were humans so horrible, but monsters, the word which literally means an awful being, so kind and understanding? So I hated humanity. I hated my parents. I hated my peers. I hated my landlord. I hated the onlookers. I hated them all!

'Not to mention what the monsters themselves thought of me. When they all saw how well I got along with Asriel, everyone started seeing me as the future of humans and monsters. A symbol that our people could coexist peacefully.' She scoffed. 'What a laugh. Humans and monsters coexisted before, and it ended with the latter sealed under a mountain. But even if I didn't believe in their dreams of peace, I wanted them to see the surface. I wanted them to have the sun and the wind and the weather. I wanted them, the people who'd given me everything, to have the world. And I wanted humans to lose the world they wrongly held. So I came up with a plan.

'A monster would need seven human souls to shatter the barrier. But they would need only one soul to be capable of crossing it. So I told Asriel my idea. He did not want to at first, but I talked him into it like an idiot. I would kill myself, and he would take my soul. I had to trust he would use it to cross the barrier, get six more souls, and return to free monsters. And with seven souls in him, it didn't matter what humanity did! He'd be godlike, humans would eternally be at the mercy of monsterkind as they SHOULD be.

'At first, it worked just like I expected. I ate buttercups, they're poisonous. I got sick and delirious. Then I died, and Asriel took my soul. That's where things went off the rails. I could control him, Frisk.'

Frisk couldn't do much more than listen silently, but he quietly thought to her, 'Go on.'

'Our control was split. Not like I got an arm, he got the other arm. It was like... wrestling for control of everything. If Asriel put his foot down, there was nothing I could do. But he didn't. I picked up my body. We crossed the barrier. We went to my village. Where a lot more than six humans lived. Asriel, stupid goat he was, thought that when I said 'get six souls' he could just squat by a hospice, or visit the elderly and befriend them. I tried to... to unleash the powers my soul gave him. Eradicate my village, my former parents, everyone there. Kill them before they killed my brother and crushed my people's hopes and dreams. And with their six additional souls I could do things my way! Forget humanity being at the mercy of monsters. Why take the risk?' Her voice grew quiet. 'I wanted to kill them all, Frisk. If it were up to me, I would've eradicated your entire species and you wouldn't even have been born.'

'But that didn't happen,' he wondered, putting things together. 'Asriel didn't want to, did he?'

'No. The humans saw him with me and attacked. He even still looked like the child he was! They thought he killed me. Hmmph. THEN they cared about me, now that I was dead. I thought that with that going on I could convince him, or take control while he was distracted, but... he put his foot down. He left, mortally wounded, and returned to Mt. Ebott. We weren't followed. He managed to explain some of what happened to Mom and Dad, and then he died. It was all a blur. I think my soul tried to grab on to his, to absorb his as he'd absorbed mine, but we both shattered. My essence returned to my body. Then... eventually, you fell.'

"Oh God," he whispered. 'Chara, I'm so sorry.'

'No! Don't you get it?! All of this is my fault! All because of the STUPID plan I got into my head! I tried to commit genocide. I tried to make my brother into a murderer. I got him killed. I got him revived like this. I got you into this mess! All of this is my fa-ult!' she screamed, voice cracking at the end. Chara started sobbing again, and Frisk glanced down.

When she quieted somewhat, he decided to speak. 'Chara,' he began slowly. 'Wow. This is a lot to take in. I'm sorry you went through that.'

'Oh you're sorry?! No! You shouldn't be! You should be angry at me! I tried to murder millions and millions of people! I actually did unleash some psychopathic god on the world! What, are you going to give me some stupid spiel about how my heart was in the right place? Or how that I've changed since then? Because I haven't! I'd do it all again if there were a chance of getting it right! I'd just find a monster willing to do what has to be done, and give them my soul! Are you - '

'Chara, please,' he pleaded. 'Maybe it matters, and maybe I'm being too forgiving, but I do forgive you. You didn't want any of this to happen.'

'Oh, and you're just going to excuse what I did want?'

Well, there it was, wasn't it? Chara was, by her account, guilty of millions of counts of attempted murder. She openly admitted she would, if given a second chance, still try to destroy humanity. And why wouldn't she? As far as she knew, nothing had changed. Maybe that was his way in. 'Chara, I know your time was... bad. But we've changed!'

'Oh, have you?' she asked sardonically. 'Do not get me wrong Frisk. You're a wonderful person, the kind I wish I'd always had, the kind I wish to stay with, but can you really speak for all other humans?'

'Maybe not, but history can. Everyone looks back at your time and shakes their head at what happened back then. We agree with you, Chara. Maybe not so extremely, but we do. We've changed. We're not the ones who attacked the monsters. We're not the ones who didn't understand child labor laws. I promise, if monsters suddenly came back now, things would be okay. I promise!'

'Yeah, for a few decades maybe. And don't try to change the subject! I turned you into a mass murderer. I got you tortured horribly. Any way you look at this, it all comes back to me! You... you never should've awoken me. You don't deserve me.'

'And what about the people who made you run away?' he countered.

'It doesn't matter what they did. It doesn't matter how they influenced me. At the end of the day, I made my decisions entirely of my own free will.'

'And what about Asriel? You didn't force him to torture me.'

'Who cares?! The humans of my time only indirectly made me run. They didn't change who I was on a fundamental level like my actions - somehow - did with Asriel. I directly, inarguably, caused all this to happen.'

'I care!' He sighed both mentally and out loud, then stood and continued on, leaving the musical statue behind. The song still followed after him. 'I guess it doesn't matter. I care about you, Chara. You can say whatever horrible things about yourself that you want, but I don't care, because I can feel that deep down, you're a good person. I'll always be there for you, Chara. I promise.'

For a while she didn't respond. At length, she whispered a quiet, 'Thank you, Frisk.'

'If you don't mind me asking,' he said as he took another umbrella, holding it above his head. ', what brought all this on?'

'That music the statue plays. It... Mother and Father would sing it to us as a lullaby. Asriel liked it very much. He would always hum it everywhere he went. When Doctor Gaster tutored us, when we baked that stupid pie, always. Hearing it, at what must be some sort of grave just... brought back memories.'

While Chara had been talking, the 'rain' from above picked up, pattering against his umbrella. The corridor twisted left and right, at times opening up on one side to show Frisk a small pond of black water, filled with cattails. Eventually, the hallway revealed a massive cavern. It was black as pitch, too dark for Frisk to see his hand in front of his face, but off in the distance was a different matter.

"Whoa," he breathed. Far to his left, there was what seemed to be a castle. Blue lights illuminated it, barely letting him make out the towers and windows.

'That would be New Home,' Chara explained demurely. 'King Asgore will be there. He'll be worth a lot of EXP, no doubt.'

The cavern closed off again, and the drip of water ended. He placed his umbrella in a provided bin, and stared at the way forward.

A wall. It was just a giant wall. He couldn't find any place to grab onto, or to place his feet. How was he going to... ah ha!

Frisk pushed the bin of umbrellas over to the wall and climbed on top of it, both his feet on either side. He held his arms out to the side as he swayed precariously, then jumped. "Oof!" he grunted. He got his arms over the ledge, at least. It took a lot of gasping, panting, and upper body strength he didn't know he even had, but Frisk pulled himself onto the dimly lit ledge.

There were only two more plaques. One restated that the humans attacked because of the monsters' ability to steal souls, 'suddenly and without mercy'. And the final one summarized the outcome, how countless monsters died, but they could not manage to acquire the soul of even a single human.

Afterwards, the rock floor cut off, replaced with a boardwalk. Frisk walked around and around, looking for any victim, or any way forward. It was horribly labyrinthine, though, and multiple times he ended up running into a dead end where the walkway just stopped.

'Father always hated this place. So many ways to fall off and hurt yourself. When I was alive, he'd been trying to get safety rails installed. Seems his efforts are for naught.'

Frisk wandered around for a while, finding no monster to murder or way forward. Eventually he found himself on a massive, open section of boarding. He took a moment to sling off his pack - it was excruciatingly heavy with all those gold coins - and fished out his plastic bag full of squashed butterscotch pie. He scooped out a chunk with his bare hands and crammed it into his mouth. He licked the sugary residue off, put everything away, then continued.

The open boardwalk had one exit, but just a few steps onto it and Frisk could tell it was a dead end. He turned around.

And came face to face with Mettaton's blood red screen.

"Boo," the robot boomed.

Frisk screamed and jumped backwards, but slipped. For a horrible sickening moment his guts sank, and then they flew up into his throat as he started to fall and fall. The last thing Frisk saw was Mettaton leaning over the railway, his screen displaying an explanation mark. Then there was a massive flash of pain, and the world went out as though it'd been unplugged.

With a groan, Frisk swam back into consciousness. Vaguely, he heard something ringing in his head. He was on something... soft. His body hurt. He could hear water rushing. Something else too. What was it?

He focused on it, and heard... 'Get up, Frisk!' a girl's voice insisted. 'Come on!'

Hmm? 'Chara?' he thought slowly and sporadically. He opened his eyes and sat up, then nearly threw up as a wave of nausea passed over him. Blearily, Frisk fished out his butterscotch pie and ate a chunk of it. Within seconds, the monster food dissolved into energy and suffused through his body. His mind came back into focus so fast it was surreal. His aches and pains vanished. After he put his things away and stood, Frisk took a good look.

He'd fallen on another bed of flowers, identical to the ones he'd fallen on when he first entered the Underground. All around him was... water. A lot of it. With piles of garbage piled up in the corners. When he realized what it was his nose reflexively scrunched, but other than the standard smell of wet moss there was actually no rotting stench in the air. A waterfall at his back constantly trickled into the surrounding pool.

'The garbage heap,' Chara wondered. 'There's a river from the surface that flows down here. Human garbage follows. All this stuff looks... wow, really advanced.'

Frisk raised an eyebrow, and approached the nearest pile -

Squelch!

He grimaced as his shoes and socks instantly waterlogged, but pressed on. With water creeping up his pants legs, Frisk moved until he was before a pile of garbage. He could see coolers, bicycles, televisions... 'That's right, you're from long ago. Human garbage wouldn't be like this stuff.'

'Interesting. Frisk, how advanced would you say human technology is today, compared to monster technology you have seen?'

He thought about it for a moment. 'Pretty much the same, I guess. Toriel's cell phone's pretty ancient, but she must've had it for a while.;

'Oh. Then... the humans caught up. Monster technology advances in fits and starts, Frisk. When I fell, monsters were far ahead of humans in terms of technology. But it seems that, despite slight advancements, there has been no major jump yet. Whatever. Just keep going. This garbage won't kill monsters.'

Right. He still had something to do. As long as he played a good little murderer, Asriel probably wouldn't erase all his progress in beating him. And Frisk was making progress, that much was certain! He'd met the dog. He'd gotten access to Sans's strange contraption. The dog had brought him something to power it with and, whatever it'd done, it had apparently gotten him mixed up with something involving Doctor Gaster, if the goner kid was any indication.

Surely, the royal scientist could figure out a way to beat Asriel. Brain over brawn, after all.

The tunnels brought him to a patch of ground, with a waterfall tumbling down from the left and spraying water droplets over him. Frisk glanced right, then immediately wished he hadn't. Another waterfall plummeted into the abyss, far beyond where any light could reach. He suppressed his nausea, and went on.

The junkyard turned to the left, and Frisk was about to go down when he heard Mettaton up ahead. He suppressed a scream of panic and pressed himself against the wall, listening intently. Though it was hard with his heartbeat hammering in his ears.

" - and remember, radio me immediately when you release his soul. Not Undyne, not Alphys, me."

"Yeah yeah I get it, you brown-nosing bucket of bolts. Do your job for you because you somehow lost a single human. Trap the squirt, kill him, you get all the glory. Now scram!" That was a new voice. Frisk couldn't quite tell if it was a guy or girl, though. It sounded fairly androgynous.

"Great, I see you've got it!" Mettaton cheered. "I'll leave you to it. Toodles!"

'It would appear Mettaton has hired a mercenary of some kind to do his dirty work for him,' Chara mentioned. 'No way out of this. Go on, Frisk. No fear. You're a human and have infinite lives.'

He narrowed his eyes. 'Right,' he responded determinately. He stepped out and prepared himself for whoever Mettaton had recruited, his feet sloshing in the water.

A few piles of garbage strewn about obscured his vision of the long, rectangular room. At the end was a ramp, up out of the water and onto an open passageway to what appeared to be a wide open space, but it'd been overgrown with what looked like strands of white cotton. In front of the blocked gate was... a training dummy, just like the one Toriel had asked him to speak to. It floated in midair, with its 'back' to him.

Frisk slung off his heavy pack and took another step, dusty fists clenched. The sloshing sound of his motion grabbed the dummy's attention. It whirled around to face Frisk, and he grimaced. Eugh. Its eyes weren't small beads, but large and angry. The head floated a scant few inches above the top half of its body, which was in turn torn from the bottom half. The boundary between the two halves looked like gnashing, angry teeth.

"Well look who we have here!" the dummy shouted. "You think you can hurt everyone else down here, huh? Huh?! HUH?! Well too bad for you, you're not gonna be hurting me! I'm a ghost that lives inside a dummy!"

What?

'Oh dear,' Chara whispered.

"You know, my cousin used to live inside a dummy too. Until you came along. You made them leave their home! And... and now all their neighbors are gone too, and I know EXACTLY what you did to them! Mettaton's paying me handsomely to kill you and give him your soul, but you know what? You know what?! YOU KNOW WHAT?! I'd do it anyway! Human!" The dummy floated closer, and Frisk braced himself. "I hope you're not too attached to that body you have of yours... because you're being EVICTED!"

Frisk's ruby soul slid from his chest. He wasted not a second; he rushed forward, and punched the dummy-ghost in the 'chest' as hard as he could.

It flew backward and smacked into a wall, torn into three pieces. Well, that was that taken care of.

Or so he thought. With a cracking sound the dummy's parts came back together, floating in one place. "Hahaha. Hahaha! HAHAHA! Dummy! Don't you get it?! You can't kill ghosts! Even if you destroyed this body entirely, I'll still be there to murder you! WITH KNIVES!" Quick as a flash, shards of white magic formed together next to the dummy's head. They condensed into metal and wood, then a steak knife flew right at Frisk's soul.

He didn't even have time to think. He just wrenched his body out of the way as the knife, so fast it seemed like a white streak, screamed through the air. It missed him, shattered on a piece of garbage behind him, and vanished into nothingness.

He and the dummy stared back at each other. "That... that was my only knife," they muttered. "WELL WHO CARES?! Dummies!" From the same wall as the dummy, miniature white dummies sprouted from the stone. Frisk counted maybe a dozen. "Attack!"

What looked like flickering balls of cotton flew from each dummy, which retracted into the wall and vanished. Frisk casually sidestepped the magic as it lazily swum through the air and vanished into the water. But then he saw white in the corner of his vision, and backed up just in time to avoid the volley of a second group of dummies.

'Duck!'

He did just that, and just in time. More cotton-bullets sailed overhead, right at the mad dummy. Its eyes went wide as the magic crashed into it with harsh snapping sounds. Its three body pieces twitched and jerked about haphazardly, and its eyes closed in pain. "AaaaaAAAAHHH! Dummies! Watch where you're throwing those things!"

Oh?

'That did not do any actual damage,' Chara noted. 'Don't get ahead of yourself.'

'How am I supposed to kill this thing then?!' he raged. 'You're the monster expert, there has to be something!'

Frisk dodged another salvo of bullets, then closed in on the dummy. He grabbed it and threw it at another wall. It was lighter than he expected and sailed through the air easily, but caught itself with its own levitation. An entire wall, the one that held the exit, sprouted dummies. They flashed red, then sailed out towards Frisk. His eyes widened, but he moved himself into the 'hole' created by the archway and avoided them all.

'Um, miniature attacks... no that won't work. Levitation magic... no. Systemic hermaphroditism, no... wait, wait that's it!'

'What's it?! Tell me what I need to do!' he thought, panicked. He kicked the dummy desperately, and like before it fell apart. But without a word it just pulled itself back together and floated off, glaring at him and summoning even more mini-dummies to both shoot at him and kamikaze him.

'Make them angry! Get them angry enough and the ghost will fuse with the dummy, taking on its traits. They'll be corporeal, and that means...'

'... that means I can kill it,' Frisk realized.

'Right! I can see a number. Mannequin level. It's at forty percent right now. Get it to one hundred.'

Frisk ducked below another salvo of cotton. He looked behind him and saw more dummies, hovering in the air. He had only a split second, but he positioned himself so he was right between the dummy and the cotton-balls. The dummy's eyes again widened, but it didn't have the chance to move before the magic crashed into it. It growled, straightening itself with a forceful motion.

"Ha! You, uh, you suck at this!" Frisk forced himself to jeer, the words like ash on his tongue. But they came easily, because his heart pounded and his head raced with thoughts so fast it gave him a headache.

"Oh you little - !" The dummy cut itself off again, and launched more projectiles. Frisk dodged, but then another volley from behind splattered on his back. He grunted and stumbled as the magic burned into his skin, but the pain was minor. He could handle it.

He thought for a moment, then cupped his hands. "What's the difference between a ghost and a garden gnome?" he asked.

"What?!"

"One's scary. The other's a ghost!"

"OooOOOHHH! Die. Die! DIE!"

Another series of cotton projectiles. Frisk dodged and got more to fly towards the dummy, but it dodged to the side too, its individual pieces dancing and bouncing against each other wildly.

'You're doing great, Frisk. You're up to fifty.'

He continued for a while longer. He dodged cotton and got it to fly into the dummy's face, though he had to start aiming the missiles not only at where the dummy was, but also where it was drifting to dodge. He ducked into the gaps of the kamikaze dummies, and kept taunting the dummy-ghost. Eventually...

"THAT'S IT! DUMMIES!" From the walls, the ceiling, and even the floor, hundreds of the little dummies appeared. The mad dummy floated to the center, looking at all of them in turn, breathing heavily. "What... did I say... about ACK!" Frisk ran up, grabbed the dummy by it's base, and slammed it into the water hard enough to break it in three. He backed off as it floated up and out of his reach, the tan skin turned crimson with rage. "I WAS TALKING, YOU BRAT! THAT'S IT! DUMMIES, OUT OF MY SIGHT! OUT OUT OUT!" Looking oddly ashamed, the miniatures sunk away into nothingness. For a moment Frisk was confident, but then he heard something like... gears turning.

'You're up to seventy, Frisk. You're doing great, just keep going!'

He hoped so. He'd dodged most of the mad dummy's attacks, but while none had gotten his soul directly quite a few had splashed on his body, making his skin prickly and red like a rash. He didn't know how much more he could take.

Then, more miniature dummies rose from the nearest wall. But instead of beaked heads like the mad dummy itself, they had trapezoidal metal helmets, with eyes poking out from a slot. "Dummy bots!" They turned to Frisk. "MAGIC MISSILE!"

Frisk expected some glowing magical orbs to shoot from the 'dummy bots'. The last thing he expected were literal freaking missiles! Their cones pointed straight at him, their bodies colored salmon. He gasped as they literally rocketed towards him, and wove to the side. But as he did, the missiles turned after him, moving in a wide arc to home in on Frisk. He dodged again, then watched as the salmon color trickled down their bodies and left them pure white. The missiles then stopped seeking him, and flew off to explode loudly but harmlessly against a pile of garbage.

He turned back to the dummy. "Wow! You're awful at this!" he jeered. "You can't kill a little kid even with rocket launchers! And Mettaton hired you?!"

The top and bottom half of the dummy's chest moved back and forth against each other as though it were grinding its teeth. "RrrrrRGH! Dummy bots! AGAIN!"

Swoosh. More dummy bots, but this time along not just one wall, but also the adjacent wall, and the ceiling. Frisk whimpered quietly as they launched their dozens of rockets at him, but ran towards the blocked-off exit. Forward, then run right. That was his plan. He ran right beneath the mad dummy - which tried to float down to stomp him but missed - as the rockets hunted him down. He turned right, planning to run the missiles in a circle and into the dummy.

Instead, he ran into a clump of rockets.

Sound burst into his ears and he fell to the ground with a scream as the rockets exploded on his face, the blast reaching his soul. With a surge of strength he got back onto his feet and ran, the remaining rockets hot on his tail. By some miracle he not only managed to avoid them, but also angle them so that when they stopped tracking, they all ran right into the dummy. Its three pieces were thrown so far apart they each landed in different corners of the room.

"Guh," he gasped, struggling to stand.

'Frisk, get up!' Chara shouted. 'They're at eighty five, you're so close!' she encouraged.

He took a deep breath to steady himself an turned to face the mad dummy just as it finished recombining itself. Frisk spread his arms out to either side, suppressing a wince as they burned in pain. "See?" he said cockily. "You're nothing special! I took like a dozen of your rockets to my face and not a scratch on me!"

The dummy didn't even speak. It just spluttered angrily, summoning shifting waves of dive-bomb dummies and rocket-shooting ones. Frisk wove between them on a surge of adrenaline. He wasn't even aware of what horrible, mean things he rambled between breaths. All he knew was that the dummy's parts shook more and more, and its felt skin grew a deeper and deeper red by the second.

And then... the attacks stopped. A sound like Toriel healing him pulsed through the air, and the dummy all at once combined. Its skin turned back to tan, and its eyes shrunk to pinpoints. "Wait... I'm... what did you do? Yes. Yes! YES! Human, those horrible things you said, those magic attacks hitting me. They made me so angry, that I fulfilled my deepest desire."

'One hundred,' Chara said menacingly. 'Now's your chance!'

"Finally, at long last I'm - AH!" Like a wild animal, Frisk screamed and ran at the dummy. He lashed out blindly with his left fist, missed completely, then drove his right fist into the dummy's head. It yelped quietly and burst into a pile of dust, a lot of which landed on Frisk's shirt. The cotton webbing that had blocked the exit crumpled and vanished. His soul slid back into his chest.

Frisk collapsed a moment later, and let out the wail of pain he'd been holding in. He fished out the last of his butterscotch pie and crammed it into his mouth eagerly. He panted and sighed as the pain in his body drained away. Before long he was done, but he was also out of pie. He put the plastic bag back in his backpack, slung the heavy thing on, and continue forward.

The next cavern split five ways, with a small puddle of water in the center. The far left led him back to the glowing blue water, still blocked off by a forcefield. Another led to a giant house shaped like a fish head, with a blue carpet woven with the pattern of a fish skeleton waiting outside. It was locked; nothing interesting there.

The middle path brought him to two houses, one blue and one pink, with triangular roofs and dark windows. The doors were locked. There was an Aaron and a Woshua outside, though.

'Six left.'

From there he explored, and found a few larger areas cordoned off with fences, but there was nothing there. It led him back to the main room, next to a wooden sign. "North, Blook Acres. East, Hotland. Um, I can't read this direction... Temmie Village?"

'I know those places. Hotland is another massive region, with mild volcanic activity.' Mild what? 'Temmie village is exactly what it sounds like. A village for the type of monster known as a temmie. Blook Acres... that's where Mother and Father used to buy snails to eat. It was run by ghosts. In fact... I believe that you saw Napstablook earlier, in the Ruins. The ghost that vanished?'

'Huh. East it is then. But maybe Temmie Village first. Can you guide me?'

'Of course, Frisk. Take the only remaining exit.'

He soon came to another fork. The right fork went to a river, with nothing else of interest. The left fork went to an empty box that sat next to a mining shaft, above which sat a sign that Chara read to him, stunned, as 'Gerson's Junk Emporium. It would appear he retired.'

'Gerson was the former judge, right?' he asked, entering the small chamber.

'Correct.'

Thousands of crystals sparkled on the walls, with the symbol of the Delta Rune carved by way of dark spots. A simple wooden sign told him that Gerson was 'out for evacuation'. Heaps of junk were piled to the roof in the room, in organized groups. Red things that, after a moment, he realized were apples shaped like crabs. Literal crab apples. Teacups filled with glowing water. A pair of clouded glasses and an old notebook with half the pages torn out. No gold, though.

Frisk grabbed the apples and ate one down to the core. He had to admit, the crab apple's 'pincers' were crunchy and definitely the highlight. He put a few apples in his pack for later. He drank one of the teas to quench his thirst, but when he did he had to wait a moment for his surge of energy to die down. He was about to pass over the glasses and notebook, when Chara ahemed in his mind.

'What about them?' he asked.

'Less attack and defense, but a good effect,' Chara explained.

Frowning, Frisk grabbed the glasses and put them on. He tore them off immediately, pinching his brow. 'Chara, first off that makes everything so distorted my eyes hurt. Second, it's too clouded for me to see well anyhow.'

'Fine. At least take the notebook. I suspect its protective magic will be quite useful. It'll make a good weapon. Trust me. It will be significantly more useful than your gloves.'

Its 'magic'? 'If you say so.' Frisk grabbed the torn notebook and gave it a few swings through the air. As an afterthought, he took off his dusty gloves and tossed them on the ground. His hands had been getting sweaty, anyway.

With his business in the shop done, Frisk continued. He passed a few more plaques, waterfalls, and silent echo flowers. Like always, Chara kindly read the plaques for him. These ones detailed the monsters surrendering, and being sealed underground by a powerful spell. It also reaffirmed what Toriel said, about needing seven souls.

'But this cursed place has no entrances or exits,' Chara read from the last one. 'There is no way a human could come here. We will remain trapped down here forever.'

'No entrance? But then how did the monsters get in?'

'The humans sealed it afterwards,' Chara explained. 'Obviously it eroded by the time I arrived, but for a few decades the monsters truly thought this would be permanent.'

'Well, it won't be,' Frisk insisted. 'After we find a way to make Asriel good, we're going to break the Barrier once and for all!'

She didn't respond.

The tunnels got darker. Grass trudged underfoot. Frisk fumbled blindly in the dark until he kicked something soft and yielding. The cluster of mushrooms lit up with light, as did a trail of grass, cutting through the darkness like a dusty knife.

The light also illuminated a group of mold creatures. He had some trouble wielding his notebook, but he eventually figured out that he could hold one end with both hands and swing comfortably that way.

'Three left.'

He followed the lights dutifully, and in the process killed two more Woshua monsters.

'You said you wish to go to Temmie village?' Chara asked. 'Take a right here. The path is unlit, but trust me. Unless something major has changed...'

He did as Chara asked, turning his back on a grass-lit path and heading into the darkness. Sure enough it started getting brighter and brighter, until...

"hOi!" a monster squeaked, jumping out of the darkness. Frisk's eyes bugged out of his head. She was a... dog? A cat? She stood about as tall as Frisk, with a blue shirt over her front half and a cute little tail. Her small black eyes, button nose, and cute mouth wiggled. "Oh mi GOID! Iz, is a hoomin! Tem pet!"

Then, against all common sense, the temmie's left forepaw stretched out like a hose, coiling through the air and coming down to boop Frisk's nose.

It stung, and he sneezed. And he could've sworn that, for a brief moment, he saw a faint purple light around his body. Then the paw retracted. Then Frisk struck.

'That's it,' Chara said. 'No more here.'

"Hmmph," he grunted.

Temmie village itself was remarkably... unremarkable. The signs were all misspelled and one of the walls was cracked. The painting with the temmie standing on a dragon was more comical than anything, and the gargantuan statue was just overkill. Frisk took a look around, and headed into the 'Tem shop' for more looting.

Warm yellow light washed over him as he entered. "Hoi!" a temmie greeted him, her voice high and childish. He froze in place. He didn't expect anyone to actually be in the shop! There was a temmie there, her shirt striped with yellow and blue as she sat behind a cardbox box with 'TEM SHOP' painted on it, with ample amounts of glitter. Behind her, Frisk saw shelves of cardboard flakes, socks pinned to the walls, a bone, a cat toy...

Even more peculiar, the temmie had a graduation cap on her head, perched between her dog ears. A cup of coffee sat next to her. "Hi," he grunted, stepping in to swing.

... only for his notebook to veer off sharply and hit air.

Temmie giggled. "Noipe! Temmie can't be hit! Dog give Tem no-hit magic! Not as stronk as doge's magc, but vewy strong!"

"The dog?" he asked. He glanced back and, sure enough, stacked on a tower of cardboard boxes was a picture frame with the small white dog's head on it. He looked back at Temmie and grinned. "You know the dog!"

"Yip! Dog and Tem have deep history. DEEP! Doig even came by and paid for Tem's colleg." Temmie's face scrunched up and her smile turned strained. "Tem heard about what huiman been goin through, not nice. Goat kid really meen! Not doing what 'posed to do." Her mouth opened up as if to scream, but no scream came. Instead the Temmie kept speaking normally. "SO! Tem offer humen special offer! Human already died MANY timez. Many! So special sale on..." She leaped away from her counter and fished around in the back of the store. Frisk stared, uncomprehending, as the dog-cat pulled a patchwork curtain aside to reveal...

... a beautiful, gleaming golden set of leather armor, sized perfectly for him. It was the full deal. A chestplate, leggings, boots, gauntlets, even a helmet that seemed designed not to obstruct his vision.

"... Temmie Armor!"

'Ooooh my God Frisk,' Chara moaned. 'I need it. I need it so badly. What's her price?'

"How much is it? What does it do?"

"Makes fites 2 ez!" Temmie said proudly, sitting on her haunches to face Frisk with her stubby tail beating furiously against the wooden floor. "It's got EVERYTHING. Everything! Protects from magic a TON, immunity time, more strength, swowly heals... yep yep! Normally costs nine nine nine nine gold! BUT! THAT'S! OKAY! tem give special sale for humon dying lots... brings it to one thousand gold!"

One thousand. He had that, no problem! Frisk slung his backpack off and started pulling out armful after armful of gold to start counting. Temmie even helped him by giving him change in the form of 'hundred gold' coins. Which were just gold coins with the number one hundred printed on them. Chara said they were legit, so he didn't mind. Less weight for him to lug around.

He handed Temmie the one thousand gold, and she gave him the armor. He pulled off his bandanna and tossed it aside to start putting the Temmie Armor on. It took some time and effort, but Frisk successfully put on the entire set of golden leather armor. Or, as Chara put it, 'donned' the Temmie Armor.

He pivoted his torso and flexed his arms. It was light as a feather. It was as flexible as air. It breathed. He could barely even tell he was wearing anything at all! "Wow," he breathed. "Feels good."

'Feels REAL good,' Chara purred sensually.

He turned back to Temmie, who'd returned to her counter. "I, I don't know what to say! Thank you. I should probably get going."

"bOI!" she cheered.

"Right," he said with a grin, turning away from Temmie and waving. "Bye!"

The moment he turned his back, though, Temmie spoke again. Her voice was still as high pitched as ever, but it seemed to carry a greater weight. "Oh, and Frisk?" He turned back to her, surprised she knew his name. Her face was scrunched up in dead seriousness. "I know this burden feels heavy, and that you doubt your search for the doctor will yield anything of use. I know it hurts to kill, that it tears you up inside that all these people are hating you for something you're being forced to do. But I want you to know, you have people who care about you and want to see you happy. You have people counting on you. Cheering for you."

Temmie smiled gently, then continued. "So chin up, alright? Have faith in me. Have faith in the dog. Have faith in your friend. And have faith in yourself! You can do this. Alright?" She winked. "Now, go get 'em."

He smiled speechlessly, then nodded and left.

Time to go get 'em.

Chapter Text

Frisk

Frisk left Temmie Village with a spring in his step, his armored arms swaying by his side. Chara guided him through the paths of glowing grass, until he came by a plaque.

'It just explains how, in the absence of anything else, monsters used glowing crystals to navigate.' Something purple glowed in the corner of his vision. 'Like that one.'

Frisk had difficulty navigating. The darkness closed in on him, thick and oppressive. Sometimes he found a cluster of crystals, standing taller than even he did, and they lit up the region for a few seconds... but ultimately the light always receded he and was left stumbling in the dark, clumsy and loud. A monster would have no trouble jumping him, with him as hopelessly lost as he was. But nobody came.

With his hands outstretched, Frisk continued to move. Abruptly, he felt something rough. He patted it a while longer, momentarily fearing it to be some giant, stony monster. But no. It was a wall. He smiled and pulled back from it, but made sure to keep his left hand firmly on the moist rocks. As he walked, eyes useless, he felt the rocks turn sharply to the left. So he turned with them, and found himself in another tunnel. Then the rocks turned left again, and Frisk followed it. Light streamed in from above, forcing him to blink.

Before long, it was bright enough to see again, so Frisk pulled his hand away from the wall. A few echo flowers dotted the area, but they were all silent.

All but one. The last one, Frisk put his ear to and expected nothing.

"It's eerily quiet," Asriel's voice echoed.

Frisk leaped so far back he tripped and fell, hurting his back. The Temmie Armor warmed up, and waves of soothing heat washed through his body. In moments the pain was gone, and the armor cooled back down. He glared at the flower. "Real funny, Asriel," he growled, moving on.

The tunnel turned to the right, but there was also a plaque. 'It speaks of the... prophecy,' Chara muttered. 'About how an angel who has seen the surface will come, and the underground will go empty. I used to think it was me.' She laughed bitterly. 'What a joke.'

Chara was being mopey. So it fell to him to change the subject. 'So, about these 'number' powers of yours. What's it like?'

'It is... strange. I can see numbers attached to you. How many beats your heart performs in a minute. Your height. Your age. Your health. And, if I look closer at them, I see more and more decimals. Or if I look at, say, your health! It splits up into many smaller numbers. How much blood you have, your blood sugar levels, and so on. I can see others' numbers too, but not as well as yours.'

'Like the mad dummy,' he recalled.

'Quite. It's been getting stronger as you go along. Getting more gold and better equipment does some of it. But it seems to be mostly execution points that amplifies it.' A beat passed. 'Also, I can turn around inside of you now. I used to only see what you can, but now I can, so to speak, 'pivot' to see behind you.'

'Hmm. Weird.'

After the plaque was a precarious wooden bridge over a massive chasm. He pointedly avoided looking down, but he still marveled at the grown-together stalactites and stalagmites around him. Not soon enough the bridge ended, depositing Frisk on solid ground. The cave opened up, up, up. He turned left and gasped. An enormous spire of rocky crags, like a mountain, rose before him. Behind them, Frisk could barely make out a crimson glow and machinery working in the distance. A tunnel led right through the mountain and vanished into the darkness. The constant humidity died down, leaving the air feeling oddly... brittle, he wanted to say.

'Here we are, Frisk. The end of Waterfall. After this is Hotland and, from there, New Home.'

"Well then, let's keep going," he said. Frisk took a step, but then something caught his eye.

He glanced up and his heart sank. There, floating down with his rocket spewing smokeless violet flame, was Mettaton. He reached ground level and extended his wheel in place of his rocket. Mettaton crossed his arms. "Well well well," he began flatly. "Welly well well welly. You made it here. And I can only guess what that means for Furlablook. So that got me thinking, maybe I'm going about this the wrong way? I've been relying on me being invincible and Furlablook being incorporeal to slowly grind you into the dirt."

"Well it didn't work," Frisk said warily. He had the Temmie Armor, but this was Mettaton. He didn't like his odds of another fight with the robot.

"Indeed it didn't. And now you're going to Hotland, where there's quite a few people my dear friend hasn't been able to convince into leaving. So much of my audience you can kill... not to mention the unthinkable situation where you find our shelters. And nothing has been working so far. Which leads me to the conclusion that the only way to deal with you..." A drumroll sounded from Mettaton's speakers. When it ended, his screen flashed red and he held his arms out as if cackling. "... IS WITH OVERWHELMING FORCE!"

Mettaton's body started... shifting. Frisk took a wary step back, but bumped into the force field that had appeared behind him. Mettaton split into metal plates, shifting and crawling over one another, and for a brief moment Frisk thought he saw a right-side up white heart in his core, which started glowing brighter and brighter as the cacophony of moving metal grew louder and louder...

Attempt 1

The light faded, and Frisk stared at where Mettaton had been. His jaw dropped.

"Oh," he whispered. "Look at that. Anime's real."

Gone was Mettaton's box form. Now, he looked almost human. No longer did Mettaton tower at twice Frisk's height, but rather at about the size of a somewhat tall man. Strong metal legs ended in pink heels, with spikes sticking up from their fronts. The legs didn't 'join' together. Rather, the rest of Mettaton's body floated just above the two of them, held in place by thin strands of magic.

There were two hearts on his chest; a smaller white inverted heart beneath a larger black one, their points just touching. Mettaton's shoulders, colored deep magenta, had leg-like wing extensions out past his head, and from the wings ribbons of fuchsia light shone onto the ground. Mettaton's left hand, covered in plates of armor, ended in a regular human hand with nails sharp as knives. His right arm, by comparison, ended in a cannon, an eerie light building within.

Mettaton's face was... a face, not just a screen of rectangles, with skin made of what appeared to be gray plastic. His chin was strong and his mouth drawn up in a cocky sneer, beneath a sharp and small nose. He had no ears, and beneath his left eye was a piece of metal plating. The entire right side of his upper face was a black screen of glass, with pink crosshairs in place of a right eye. His hair, made of oily black strands, was permanently blown back as if by a strong wind.

Right above Mettaton's black heart was a tiny word in white. NEO.

'Frisk, his defenses - '

Mettaton cradled his cannon arm with his hand as Frisk kept drinking his new form in. "This is it, you ugly little creature," he half boasted, half snarled. Mettaton exposed Frisk's soul, and aimed his cannon at it. "Say goodbye!" he taunted, the light within his cannon building from dark pink to brilliant yellow.

Frisk yanked himself to the side as a deceptively silent blast of energy shot from the cannon and ionized the air where he'd just been. He planted a foot to stop himself from falling sideways, then used that foot to spring forward with his torn notebook at the ready. He thought about all that Mettaton had hurt him. All the pain and slow misery that the robot had inflicted upon him. He knew it was useless, but he screamed and swung his weapon into Mettaton's chest as hard as he possibly could.

21547

Like a cannonball, Mettaton flew back and smashed into a rock wall so hard he cratered it. His glowing wings shut off, his chest caved in, and his face turned downwards. "Gah," the robot breathed, a spiderweb of cracks across his body. Frisk just panted, staring at Mettaton. Was that really it? "Wow, forgot how much easier it was to hurt this body. You've got... quite a punch. Almost killed me." Mettaton grinned at him, and his white heart glowed pink. "But almost dead... isn't quite dead!"

Bright light exploded from Mettaton, and when Frisk could see again his body was entirely repaired. No cracks, no dents, and his wings shone once more. He gaped at the robot, but then had to run when Mettaton started charging his cannon again. He dodged, but Mettaton hadn't been aiming at Frisk.

He'd been aiming at where Frisk was going to be.

For a brief, sickening moment, every thought in his brain was drowned out by pain. He couldn't see, he couldn't hear, couldn't feel. When the pain sunk to manageable levels, Frisk glanced down. There was his soul, torn in two. And behind it a gaping, charred hole punched straight through his chest, as wide as a basketball. The Temmie Armor was scorched away in the same fashion.

His soul splintered, and everything went dark...

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Attempt 2

'Alright,' Chara said when the world returned, plopping Frisk at just before the bridge. 'So the cannon is an instant death. Surprising. I know he has so much attack, but it still seems rather... disproportionate.'

"Ow," he whimpered in phantom pain. Once it subsided, he took a deep breath and crossed the bridge. "Alright, so I can hurt him when he's like that. I just gotta watch out for his cannon and hit him before he can heal. Easy."

He crossed the bridge and, like before, Mettaton floated down. "Well well well. Welly well well welly, you made it... hmm, you look awful bored, darling!" Mettaton posed with one of his hands against his screen. "Oh? Did someone spill the beans on my big surprise? Well, if you've been spoiled, then I'll just give you what you want!" Mettaton began to shift and change, and before Frisk knew it he was face to face with Mettaton NEO again, his exposed soul beating warily.

This time, Frisk didn't wait for Mettaton to fire the first shot. He ran straight at him with his notebook ready, and swatted the giant robot aside. Like before, Mettaton's body crumpled and his wings died. "Ha, so eager," he whispered from where he'd fallen. "But if you can't - whoa!" Frisk was already running at Mettaton, ready to strike. But before he could, Mettaton cut himself off and healed.

Violet jets exploded from the bottom of Mettaton's feet, and he flew off to the side before Frisk could strike him. Mettaton's cannon arm glowed, and Frisk made sure it was aimed at him before jumping to the side.

Sure enough, a yellow beam of magic lanced through the air and left a crater in the blue stone next to him. Frisk ran at Mettaton, only for the robot to prepare another shot. He veered to the left, but caught sight of Mettaton leading his shot as the light within his weapon grew brighter and brighter. At the very last second, Frisk dug his foot in and launched himself to the right, away from where Mettaton fired moments later.

He ran at Mettaton. It must've taken him only a second, but to him it felt like a surreal mixture of hours and instants until he was right next to the robot. He swung his notebook and, while Mettaton took a step back to avoid it, Frisk's swing was too wide and Mettaton went sailing back, heavily damaged. But Frisk's strike was for naught, because Mettaton smirked and repaired himself again.

'How am I supposed to kill him if he keeps healing?' he thought angrily. But before Chara could respond, Mettaton unleashed his next attack.

The robot held his arm cannon out to the side, smoke pouring out of it. Meanwhile his regular arm crossed over his chest, then uncrossed. Following the motion, gigantic bombs started floating towards Frisk at breakneck speed. Frisk frowned, and started weaving between the bombs as they flew. To either side of him, miniature versions of Mettaton's box form floated down. They were about half Frisk's size, had no wheels, and one of their arms gripped an umbrella with the letter 'M' on it. Still, they came nowhere near him, so he focused entirely on dodging the bombs.

Just as the last of the bombs passed him, however, the ongoing stream of mini-robots brought their free hands to their chests and, one at a time, launched floating white hearts, with the letter M on them, at Frisk. And at the same time, he saw Mettaton aim his cannon.

He screamed as the first of the hearts fell upon him, splattering across his Temmie Armor and burning into Frisk with surprising strength. A purple glow surrounded him, causing the rest of the attacks to fizzle harmlessly on contact with him, and he dodged right to avoid the cannon's fire. He was dimly aware of his armor warming him and healing his wounds, but not nearly fast enough.

Unfortunately, Mettaton had expected him to dodge right, and the full force of the robot's blast washed over Frisk. He braced himself for the pain, only to find there was none. The blinding yellow light faded and, a moment later, the protective violet glow around Frisk vanished.

Protective magic. That was it! The notebook and the Temmie Armor had protective magic.

The attack passed and Frisk took a moment to get his footing back. He... he hurt all over, surprisingly. Only one of those hearts had hit him but his entire body ached as if he'd run a marathon with no water.

'I've got it,' Chara said as Mettaton inspected Frisk warily. 'He can't keep healing forever. Keep attacking, Frisk.'

Simple enough.

Mettaton pointed his cannon right at Frisk, and began charging. He pulled himself out of the way as the blast shot past him, but then Mettaton was... running at him. Frisk watched as, seemingly in slow motion, the robot's left arm came up, formed a fist, and careened into his stomach.

He buckled over and threw up his meal of crab apples as pain - physical pain - flooded his body on top of the earlier magical pain. No purple aura surrounded him this time. Mettaton grabbed Frisk by his shirt and lifted him, soul and all, to eye level. Frisk struggled and tried to get leverage for a hit, but before he could he found himself staring down the barrel of a cannon.

The light that engulfed his head lasted only a moment.

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Attempt 3

"Ugh," he groaned. "This might take a while..."

'Certainly,' Chara whispered. 'But you can do this, with time. Determination.'

He nodded. Right. "Determination," he echoed. Leaving his bag where he was so it wouldn't get in the way, he stomped forward to where Mettaton would face him. Let the robot kill him! Mettaton was getting in the way of Frisk saving the world. Let the robot could kill him a million times! With his goal in mind, Frisk would never, ever stop.

Not that I have a choice, a tiny voice whispered to him.

Like before, Mettaton drifted down from above the craggy landscape. And like before, he transformed into his NEO form. By the time it was ready, Frisk was already there and smacked the robot into the walls. Mettaton snarled, but wordlessly healed himself and took aim with his cannon. Frisk dodged, his nerves wracked as he tried to see where Mettaton was leading his shot, and dodged out of the way at the last second so the robot couldn't adjust in time.

Bombs descended on him, along with the miniature Mettatons. This time, Frisk was prepared for them to launch their hearts. He wove between the bombs, bounding closer and closer to Mettaton as he did. He ducked and weaved between the hearts, avoiding them all in turn, and when Mettaton took aim Frisk threw himself to the side. For a moment he was pleased with himself as the yellow blast seared the air where he'd just been, but then he heard something beep, and then explode.

Lines of white magic shot into him from behind, throwing him to the ground. The bombs. Mettaton must have detonated the bombs with his cannon. He'd have to watch out for that. But Frisk was already close to Mettaton and, despite the robot's attempt to sidestep, Frisk slapped him aside like the giant robot weighed nothing. Mettaton planted his feet in the rock and started skidding, leaving deep grooves in the ground. Before he'd even come to a stop, the cannon was once more aimed at Frisk. He bent backwards, letting the laser pass harmlessly by him.

But then, Mettaton was upon him.

Mettaton's left hand came up in a punch, just like it had last time. Frisk wove to the side, then ducked as one of Mettaton's free-floating legs tried to kick at him. He gripped his notebook, ready to strike, but had to jump out of range at the last second to avoid a cannon blast. He had to dodge a few more lightning-fast strikes and blasts, but Frisk found his opening. He ducked inside Mettaton's guard and slapped him in the face with the torn notebook, sending the robot flying.

He healed and came to a halt, but Frisk was already chasing after him, down through the tunnel that led into the craggy hills. Mettaton snarled, but then gestured with his hand and grinned. A gargantuan bar of magic formed, traveling towards Frisk. Near one of its ends, a yellow cube moved up and down its length. Behind it, he could see a field of giant boxes forming together. For a moment Frisk couldn't see a way forward, but then he did.

Frisk ran at the nearby wall, kicked up from it, and sailed over the magical bar. Mettaton's eyes widened, then narrowed and his cannon took aim.

Frisk landed in the middle of the field of boxes; there was a diagonal path out of them, but it was closing fast. He started to run, but then he saw where the robot's cannon aimed and jumped straight back.

He avoided the cannon. He did not avoid the path of boxes collapsing on his soul. He screamed raggedly as magic seared into his essence, but he needed to keep going. While the Temmie Armor and notebook's protection glowed around him, he approached Mettaton and smacked him with the notebook from below. Mettaton shot into the air, and then purple thrusters on his feet kept him aloft.

"You think that soul makes you special, hmm?" he asked, smoke pouring from his cannon. Frisk glanced down at his ruby essence momentarily. "Your heart's black as coal. Let me show you what the heart of a true star looks like!"

The white inverted heart on Mettaton's chest flowed upwards into the black one, filling it like water. Then, Mettaton's soul slid out. It was a white heart, like a monster's, but right side up like Frisk's. A crackling barrier of gray magic surrounded Mettaton as he came to land, his soul following him.

Frisk's first thought that Mettaton was an idiot. He'd exposed his soul. Now Frisk could hit it directly.

But he was proven wrong when, from the soul, a torrent of bullets shaped like lightning bolts poured in all directions, frightfully fast. Shell after shell of electricity expanded from Mettaton's heart and, to make it worse, it also shot streams of electricity straight at him. He forced himself to back off and weave between the breathtakingly fast bolts. Surely, Mettaton couldn't keep this up forever...

'Watch out, to your left!' Chara shouted.

Frisk avoided another stream of lightning and glanced left. Sure enough, a line of miniature Mettatons had descended, as though forming one side of a box around him. One by one, they brought their hands in and shot their hearts at him. Frisk tried to dodge them, but in the process he ran into one of the expanding rings of lightning magic.

"Aaaraaagh!" he screamed. The magic had slithered right into his soul, and every one of his muscles locked up. It felt like something was vibrating beneath his skin. Luckily, the purple glow around him kept him safe until he could move again, by which time more heart-throwing robots had lined up across from where the others had been. Those he dodged successfully, and he took the opportunity to look at Mettaton's soul. He couldn't get there to hit it; the lightning was too dense close to the heart. So what could he...

'Behind you!'

He glanced behind him to see another row of floating Mettaton's, and an idea came to him. He just had to do this the same way as with the dummy. He lined himself up just right and, as the robots started to launched their hearts one after another, he carefully walked to the side, ducking and weaving around the soul's ongoing electrical onslaught. He watched with satisfaction as the hearts sailed past him and into Mettaton's soul, prompting the robot to wince.

Frisk had no time to cheer. While he'd been watching, a new line of miniature robots barraged him with their bullets. He fell to the ground, growling in pain as a few bolts of electricity proceeded to pass harmlessly through his purple-shrouded armor. He pulled to the side and watched as Mettaton conjured a new row of miniatures, all while smirking down at him.

Trying to get those hearts directed into Mettaton's soul didn't work; the miniatures simply launched their projectiles before Frisk could get into place and, while he was trying to salvage it, a focused stream of electricity bullets caught him in the side, right below his ribs. That time, he was stunned longer. By the time he was able to move the next series of hearts started drifting his way, so all he could do was avoid them on top of the storm of lightning.

The next series of hearts, however, he managed to direct into Mettaton's heart. Mostly; one of them barely missed and fizzled on Mettaton's magical barrier.

Then, Frisk stumbled. He lost his footing while sidestepping the torrential downpour of electricity from Mettaton's soul, and fell such that his soul collided right into more heart-bullets. He screamed as the pain wracked his body, and even though the Temmie Armor and notebook protected him, it only did so much. Once they faded, a lance of electricity caught Frisk and paralyzed him. He spasmed in place, helpless to watch as Mettaton took aim with his cannon and charged. For a moment Mettaton held off on firing.

The moment Frisk's magical protection faded, the robot fired.

FILE LOADED

Attempt 4

After a brief moment to get his bearings back, Frisk went back into battle. But he forgot to feint out of the way of Mettaton's leading shots, and got a hole though his chest for his trouble.

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Attempt 5

'Alright, that one was clumsy,' he grumbled to Chara.

'I am certainly not judging! I doubt I would fare nearly as well, were I to still have my old body.'

'Thanks for the vote of confidence,' he said sincerely. 'And hey, at least his attacks aren't quite as fast as Sans's were.'

With that said, he stepped forward and allowed Mettaton to confront him again. He wove his way through the robot's earlier attacks, striking back with his notebook whenever he could and dodging what he was able to. But he still got hit a few times by magic, especially when Mettaton forced him into a closing path of magical boxes and he had to choose between walking along the path and getting blasted, or jumping back at the last second and getting hit by a box.

Frisk wasn't sure there even was a way to avoid getting struck. Now that he thought about it, that was probably the point.

Mettaton's soul slid out and wreathed the robot in a magical barrier. Frisk knew what to do. He tip-toed between the first shells and beams of lightning, then saw the first of the miniature robots drift in. He swiftly angled himself so that each one launched their projectiles towards Mettaton's soul, and stepped out of the way so he wasn't in their path. One of the lightning bolts clipped him, forcing him to grit his teeth as the alarmingly powerful magic washed over him, but that was acceptable.

Another row of robots. Those ones, Frisk didn't manage to redirect into Mettaton's heart. The next one, he got half of them. The one after, every single one. And the same with the row after.

When the last of the series of four hearts crashed into Mettaton's soul, it practically exploded. White smoke puffed out from the heart with the inexplicable sound of crashing metal. All the currently released lightning bolts fizzled and faded away in their place, and the soul slid back into Mettaton's black heart before draining down into its original spot. Mettaton's crosshair-eye blacked out and his normal eye went all white for a moment, his mouth open in shock as his magical barrier faded. But then his eyes returned to normal and he smirked cockily.

"Well that just goes to show, cretin! You're not strong enough to beat me! Only I'm strong enough to beat me! Get a load of this!"

Frisk wasn't going to wait to get a 'load of this'. While Mettaton spoke, he'd sprinted forward and took the opening to strike the robot hard, jabbing with the edge of his ragged notebook as though it were a sword. Mettaton crashed backward, back towards Waterfall, and released his magic even as he healed.

It was more of the floating mini-Mettatons. Frisk counted five... fifteen... too many to count. They drifted towards him like a cloud, clogging the tunnel. His eyes widened as they drifted closer, but he saw a way through. Frisk ran, and before long the cloud of Mettatons was behind him. Then he realized they'd yet to throw their hearts at him, and spun around just in time to see said hearts soaring at him. A strangled noise caught in his throat as he jumped back, only for a pair of colossal bars to appear in front and behind him. They started closing in, leaving nowhere to dodge.

So, he just had to be creative. He ran to the wall and, just as the two bars closed in, jumped up and used the wall to spring off.

He dodged the magical bars. But then the duplicate Mettatons released a second salvo of hearts, and the real Mettaton took aim with his cannon.

The very instant Frisk landed on the ground, he sprung back with agility he didn't know he even had as Mettaton roasted his landing spot. That still left him at the mercy of the wall of magical hearts, dropping him to the ground in pain.

Damn it. He really couldn't survive many of Mettaton's hits, could he? If he could just get his pack and eat a crab apple, the monster food would heal him. But Mettaton wouldn't just let Frisk sit down and have a little snack in the middle of trying to murder him.

He just had to do this the hard way.

Both he and Mettaton continued to fight, but while every blow Frisk inflicted was grievous, Mettaton was always quick to heal before he could follow it up with a second hit. And Frisk, despite his best efforts to dodge the robot's punches and kicks, his cannon blasts, his boxes and bombs and hearts and bars, simply could not keep up with the hurricane of magic bullets.

With blood pounding in his head he struck Mettaton again, sending spiderweb cracks through his metal frame as the sheer, hate-fueled force of his attack sent him flying. Mettaton landed with a fist in the ground, healing magic already fading, and glanced up at Frisk. "Looking tired there, creature! How about you get one last look, hmm?" Like before, Mettaton's heart flowed up and out, its presence wreathing the owner in magic. And just like before, it started to hemorrhage magic. Unlike before it wasn't stationary; it drifted back and forth across Mettaton's wide shoulders.

Frisk ducked to the side as lightning sailed past him. His legs were weak and he could barely keep his grip on the notebook. It felt like his exposed soul was a void, sucking in his strength and power; he could not afford another hit.

Miniature Mettatons formed around Frisk in a wide sphere, and he prepared to both dodge and angle them to hit Mettaton's mobile soul, but instead of drifting about they screamed through the air towards him.

Before he knew what was happening, they'd closed in and formed a perfect shell around him, moving about and letting him see no more than a few blue streaks of the outside world.

"Oh, what a shame!" came Mettaton's voice from beyond the shell. "If only you had some way to shoot your way free. Well then, toodles!"

A blast of yellow cannon light filled Frisk's world. For just a brief moment, there was pain like he couldn't believe.

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Attempt 6

He fought his way through admirably, but the first time Mettaton had exposed his heart he got hit far too many times. In the end he'd forced Mettaton to retract his heart, but the damage was done and Frisk was too injured, too slow, to continue long. Mettaton had closed in with punches and kicks, all while summoning projectiles around them so that if Frisk tried to run from one danger he'd run into another.

The robot had kicked at him, and Frisk had jumped back. Not far enough, as the robot used the momentum of his kick to spin around and slash the razor nails of his left hand across Frisk's throat.

The pain was surprisingly minor, and he only had a moment to be horrified at the sensation of liquid, at the warmth, at all the red, before he found Mettaton's cannon held right up next to his soul.

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Attempt 7

The next attempt went much better. Chara didn't speak up much, for which he was grateful; her being able to see behind him was useful, but he couldn't afford even a second's distraction. Mettaton exposed his heart the first time, and had been forced to retract it without much incident. Frisk still couldn't avoid all of the robot monster's magical projectiles though, no matter how hard he tried.

Mettaton launched his magic, but Frisk was already moving to avoid it. He came in to kick at Frisk, but he sidestepped and ducked below the slash he knew was coming. He kept taking his opportunity to strike back, more often than he had before.

If he could just land a single second attack before Mettaton healed...

But it wasn't to be.

Then, Mettaton backed off and released his soul once more, swaying it back and forth and distorting the spheres of lightning it gave off.

He and Chara had discussed what to do. Frisk had a plan.

The first of the miniature Mettatons formed in a spinning hemisphere around him, and started closing in. But by then he was already running, and managed to squeeze through the gap before they completely collapsed on where he'd been. Mettaton sniffed, and simply aimed his cannon.

Frisk took careful measures to faint one way, then fake out as the cannon blasted. Even better, his fake-out placed him in the best spot for the miniature Mettatons' recently launched hearts to sail right at Mettaton's soul.

A few impacted with the sound of static, but after a third hit the soul'd drifted away from the remainder, all the while still bleeding shells of lightning and spraying lines of the stuff at Frisk.

Another shell of Mettatons. He sprinted out, dodged the cannon, and directed the hearts at the monster soul. A few of the hearts hit him, activating his magical protection to allow him to get careless with a few lightning bolts.

After what felt like half a dozen more hemispheres of heart-throwing robots, Mettaton's eyes whited out and his soul puffed off an explosion. Frisk took his chance; while Mettaton was stunned he ran in and smacked the robot into the ground. He raised his notebook to bring it down again, but the jets on Mettaton's soles flared up and brought the robot away before he could so much as finish lifting his weapon to strike.

A magical bomb, moving so fast he could barely see it, smacked him in the back. He stumbled forward, only to see more boxes and bombs coming. They were set up in lines, drifting across the tunnel at breakneck speed. Even faster than some of Sans's attacks. There were others approaching behind him, too.

By then, he'd gotten good at predicting when his purple aura would fade and render him vulnerable. He let a few salvos crash harmlessly around him, then kicked off the wall to sail over the remaining rows. He closed in on Mettaton, breaths coming fast, and hit the robot even further down the tunnel. Frisk ran after him, taking a split second to realize there was a river flowing beneath them here.

Wordlessly, Mettaton sent more rows after him. But the ones coming from in front and the ones from behind Frisk were out of sync with sprinkles of lightning above them, and he didn't know how to jump over all of them. A box and a bomb each struck him, the latter in the soul. Familiar pain washed over his body and his vision doubled.

Frisk wasn't sure how he managed it. Mettaton summoned another field of boxes with a safe path through and, just like before, as Frisk went through the safety closed up and Mettaton began to take aim at where Frisk would be forced to go.

Rather than backpedal, Frisk sped up, reaching into strength he didn't know he had to outrun the robot's cannon arm. A blast of hungry yellow light tore through behind him, but he was through, he was unscathed, and he was close enough that he smacked Mettaton further down the tunnel.

Only for Mettaton to do the same trick again with a closing tunnel. That time, Frisk didn't have the strength to outrun the cannon.

He didn't even have the strength left to outrun the closing tunnel of boxes. One of them smacked into his soul. And just like that, it sundered.

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Attempt 17

This time! This time for sure!

He strode up to the mountainous end of Waterfall. Within seconds he stood before Mettaton NEO, the metal angel come to reap his soul.

They fought, viciously and hatefully. Frisk struck and struck, and after he'd managed to strike about a dozen - maybe thirteen? Fifteen even? - times, Mettaton exposed his soul for the third and hopefully final time.

The floating heart, now flashing angrily between black and white, released its electrical attacks while orbiting Frisk. He had to swivel his head all around to keep himself from being fried.

This wasn't the first time he'd seen Mettaton do this, though. He knew what to expect.

Two umbrella-robots floated in on the robot's left and right shoulder and, as they prepared to release their projectiles, Mettaton ran at him with a confident smirk on his face, left hand raised and ready to punch Frisk in the head.

With fried nerves and ragged breaths, Frisk maneuvered around Mettaton's strikes, while dodging the heart's lightning with what had become a near sixth sense. Slowly but surely, he timed his positioning and got the umbrella-robots to shoot Mettaton's heart nearly twenty times. It released another rupture, and flew back into Mettaton's chest.

The battle raged on. Frisk was getting slower, though. His injuries started to accumulate, and he could feel in his gut that this wouldn't be the winning attempt. He fought through some more of Mettaton's attacks, wove in close, and struck the robot once again.

Mettaton flew back, his wings dim, and glanced down in surprise. Frisk stood back, waiting for him to heal and resume his onslaught. But Mettaton didn't repair his cracked, smoking body. Instead, the robot's left eye flared brilliant white and his mouth locked itself in a furious snarl. "Come on," Mettaton growled, rising into the air atop purple jets. "COME ON!"

'Frisk, you did it!' Chara cheered. 'He can't heal anymore, just one more hit - '

All around both Frisk and Mettaton, forming a towering arena, plus-bombs appeared and stacked on top of each other. Mettaton's cannon took a shot at Frisk and he ducked to the side, narrowly avoiding the quiet blast of yellow light. The bombs it'd struck beeped, detonated far away from Frisk, and were promptly replaced by more bombs. Mettaton shot at him again, and while Frisk avoided the laser itself, the bomb explosions caught him in the back and tossed him onto his face.

Then, a perfect sphere of boxes formed around Frisk and collapsed around him. He couldn't slip through them in time, and that left him easy pickings for Mettaton's cannon.

For a brief moment, the boxes shattered and Frisk saw Mettaton, high in the air, snarling as his cannon released the yellow beam. Then all was dark again.

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Attempt 29

Alphys

Nervously, she sat at her console and fiddled with the dials, slipping from one camera to the next. Where was Mettaton? He should've checked in hours ago so they could start planning out the trap! Surely Waterfall didn't have THAT many residents, did it?

Behind her, Undyne paced back and forth, still in her armor save for the helmet. Alphys hoped Undyne couldn't hear how fast her soul hammered in the warrior's presence. How fast it hammered anyway, because where the hell was Mettaton?!

She flicked her cameras one more time, to Temmie village. Nothing. Behind her, Undyne grumbled, "Seriously? Still nothing? What's keeping that creep so long?"

"M-Mettaton's not a creep," she defended.

"Right, right, sorry," Undyne said, backing off. Alphys changed the cameras again, and resolved that this would be the last time. She needed to go back downstairs and help the newest arrivals settle in.

The new cameras were by the exit to Waterfall, where a tunnel led through the craggy hills to Hotland. For a second she didn't see anyone, but then the human came in. She gasped, holding a claw to her mouth. No mistake, it was the human. He'd ditched his plastic knife for a torn notebook, and wore some kind of golden leather armor, but there was no mistaking it. He strode forward and, with practiced ease, slid his backpack off onto the ground.

As the human strode forward, Mettaton came into sight. He rocketed down from above and landed between the human and the path to Hotland.

"Wait, what's he doing?" Undyne asked.

Alphys's blood chilled as understanding dawned on her in a single, horrible wave of connect-the-dots. Mettaton wanted the human's soul for himself. Stupid, she was so stupid! Of course he wasn't going to wait for a trap. He was just going to take matters into his own hands.

"Well well well. Welly well well welly, you made it... hmm, you look awful bored, darling!" Mettaton said, cutting himself off and posing with one of his hands against his screen. "Oh? Did someone spill the beans on my big surprise? Well, if you've been spoiled, then I'll just give you what you want!" Mettaton cackled, and both Alphys and Undyne watched, dumbfounded, as he began to twist and shift, light shining from his core...

... and when it died down there stood Mettaton NEO, facing the human.

"Awesome!" Undyne cheered.

"No!" Alphys shrieked. "Mettaton what are you doing?!"

"What do you mean no?" Undyne asked, prompting Alphys to turn her chair around. "I haven't seen him break out the good stuff in forever! Besides, he has a freaking cannon built to kill humans. That twerp doesn't stand a chance. Look!" Alphys turned around and watched as the two started to fight. Mettaton took aim with his cannon, but the human charged forward and, before the robot could fire, jabbed him in the chest with his notebook.

As though Mettaton had been struck by a mountain, he went flying back and carved deep grooves along the ground. The pink healing energy she'd installed into his original human eradication form flared up and fixed the damage, but just the fact that he needed a heal after even a single strike was... oh God. She'd heard how human killing intent could cause terrible damage, but so much as to almost instantly kill Mettaton's NEO form?!

The two began battling fiercely. It wasn't at all like a fight in one of Alphys's anime. There was no heated battle soundtrack, just the sound of Mettaton and the human grunting and gasping with exertion. No changing frames of perspective to get the best shots on the action. The most she could do was switch between the tunnel's cameras.

"He's got this though, right?" Undyne asked. "I mean, he's literally a human killing machine!"

Alphys wrung her hands together nervously. "M-Mettaton's NEO form gives him more access to his magic, a-a-a-and it can take more damage but um, it doesn't have the structural supports his newer form does." At Undyne's blank look, she clarified. "When he's like this he's stronger, but it also means the human can hurt him, Undyne! If he'd stayed as a box he wouldn't need to worry about a scratch!" If only they could go help him! But given how Undyne had destroyed the bridge leading to Hotland after the last of the evacuees arrived...

"Pfft, sometimes you just have to blast someone! Watch, he's got this under control!" Mettaton backed off and conjured a complex, blazingly fast bullet pattern and sent it down the tunnel. In response the human leaped, like a ninja, onto the tunnel wall and vaulted over the otherwise unavoidable barrier. He landed in the narrow path between magical boxes, only for the barrier to start closing up behind him.

The human crawled forward, barely able to walk, and Mettaton took aim with his cannon. But just before he could fire, the human shot forward like a bullet, avoiding both the closing path and the blast of yellow death.

"Like, what's going on over here?" a familiar voice asked. Alphys winced. Oh no. Catty.

"Yeah, we heard you two like, going on about some blasting and magic?" Bratty too.

Alphys spun around in her chair to see the cat and alligator monster coming up from the elevator. "Catty! Bratty. What are you - "

Then Catty saw what was on her screen. "Oh. Em Gee." The cat hurried over to one side of Alphys, Bratty not far behind her. "I haven't seen Mettaton do that in, like, for-ever~!" she sang.

By then, Mettaton had exposed his soul and used its presence to surround himself in a magical barrier. Miniature versions of his box form floated and danced around the human as the latter wove between a veritable thunderstorm of electricity, but even as Alphys watched the human skillfully directed the miniatures' floating hearts back into Mettaton's soul.

"Shh, shh!" she shushed her two friends, all four of them continuing to watch the fight.

"This stinks!" Undyne shouted eventually. "We can't even help him... hey, is the River Person still here? I'm gonna go swing by Waterfall and sneak up on that punk from behind!"

"Undyne, no!" Alphys yelped, turning around to face the fish she had a terrible crush on. "Are you seeing what he's doing to Mettaton?! Strikes like that, they could kill Asgore in one hit! You'll just get in Mettaton's way and add to the body count." Undyne frowned, clenched a fist, but turned away from the door. Alphys spun her chair back around to face the screen. "All we can do now is hope Mettaton can do it," she whispered, watching as her ghost-turned-machine friend was forced to retract his heart.

Come on, Mettaton, she pleaded mentally. You can do this!

They kept watching in dead, nervous silence as Mettaton and the human bitterly battled. Slowly but surely, more and more monsters came up from below to watch the fight. They crowded around Alphys's lab, whispering nervously to each other. Tension clung to the air and suffocated everyone's ability to move. Mettaton continued taking massive blows, forcing him to dip into his reserves of healing magic. That wasn't good. His NEO form only had so much repairing ability; if Alphys had given the body any more, the battery life would've tanked. Mettaton was just taking too much damage.

Especially when compared to how the human was faring. He jumped and twisted around and between Mettaton's various magical and even physical attacks with a dancer's grace, even predicting where an attack would come and moving to avoid it before it even fully formed. Alphys counted how once or twice Mettaton managed to clip him with a bomb or a box, but the human just didn't seem to be slowing down.

Mettaton kept sustaining damage. He exposed his heart a second time, trying to trap the human in spinning shells of his miniatures, but with inhuman speed the human sprinted out from the collapsing spheres, dodging everything and directing the miniatures' hearts back into Mettaton's moving soul. Over and over, until the robot was once again forced to pull it back.

Alphys leaned in nervously, hands gripping her console and tail wrapped tightly around her body. She felt someone's hand on her shoulder and jumped, only to glance back and see it was Undyne. Her heart melted internally as Undyne, so strong and confident and beautiful, gave her a smile and mouthed, 'Relax, he's got this.'

But more and more, it seemed as though Mettaton didn't have it. The human was just too fast, he knew all of his tricks. Even when Mettaton exposed his heart a third time and sent it in a wide circle to evade damage, it still wasn't enough. They kept fighting, traveling further and further down the tunnel, until...

The human swung his notebook, its edge barely clipping Mettaton's lower chest. But even that glancing blow...

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... was enough to send Mettaton sailing down the tunnel. He caught himself by firing jets of magic from the bottom of his boots. Alphys winced; Mettaton's body was cracked and splintered, and his winglights were off. She waited for him to heal, but he didn't. Instead Mettaton snarled, his left eye going wide and white as he trapped both himself and the human in a box of magical bombs.

"This is it, you ugly little creature!" he growled, taking aim. The human tensed as Mettaton hovered menacingly. "Say goodbye!"

Mettaton's power redoubled, then rained down on the human. The kid was battered multiple times by the breathtaking magical hail. Each time though, a purple glow surrounded him and prevented any more attacks - even a blast from Mettaton's cannon - from hurting him. Still, Alphys saw the human faltering. Mettaton summoned collapsing rings of boxes, hundreds of his miniatures, he swooped down to punch and kick, he blasted with his cannon over and over. The human was struck everywhere; on his soul, his back, his head, his legs. He was visibly weakening, his nose bleeding and skin pale. But Mettaton was weakening too.

The glowing jets from his feet died out and Mettaton plummeted to the ground. The human looked up at him from where he'd been kneeling, and a frightful snarl appeared on the child's face before he sprinted. The surrounding bombs fizzled out of existence, and everyone held their breaths as Mettaton fired his smoking cannon, over and over faster than he ever had before, almost too fast to avoid, at the rapidly closing human.

Mettaton kept backing up, lances of yellow energy slashing through the air, as he passed the inert 'Welcome to Hotland' sign. The human tripped and stumbled. Someone cheered prematurely. As the human made one final leap towards Mettaton, with the robot's cannon aimed to intercept, everyone took a deep breath.

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A horrible crunch sounded over the speakers.

"NO!" Alphys shrieked, leaping forward and grabbing her chair's arms. Every scale of her body turned to ice. Her stomach plummeted to the tip of her tail.

Mettaton's upper body completely detached from his legs, flying backward and leaving a crater in a wall. His crosshair eye died out and he glanced down, frowning. "Gh," he grunted. "So. I was wrong. Overwhelming force wasn't the way either."

"Mettaton," Alphys croaked, her hands clasped in front of her. She tried to keep watching, but something watery collected behind her glasses and blurred out the scene. No, no this couldn't be happening. Not Mettaton. Not him too.

"To... anyone who's watching this on camera playback, thank you," he croaked, voice stuttering and blurring with static. "You've been the best audience a host could ever ask for. I'm honored to have brought joy into your lives, even if for just a moment." Mettaton's face contorted somehow, but Alphys couldn't see how through her tears. His words just bounced around her. His final words. No, no they couldn't be. Mettaton was strong! Built to have a physical body even stronger than that of humans! But of course, it was a body she'd built, wasn't it? She couldn't do anything without screwing up and now her friend was paying with his life!

"And, to Alphys. I'm sorry I haven't appreciated you as much as I should lately. I've been a rotten friend, and I'd do it all differently if I could. I'm grateful, truly grateful, for everything you've ever given me. I only wish I could have given you something, anything, in return, instead of just... mooching off of you."

"Don't go," she begged, reaching out with a claw.

"And... to you, human." Mettaton chuckled slowly and arduously, and then something on his body beeped. "I've sent a little text to our king, Asgore Dreemurr. No matter what, you'll meet him. That is for certain. And then, with the power of six others of your kind he'll destroy you forever." With a heave of effort Mettaton looked up at the tunnel's camera and, she couldn't quite tell through her tears, but Alphys thought she saw him smile. When he spoke, each word was sharp and cut off from the other. "Thank-you-all. You've-been-a-great-aud-i-ence."

And then, with a crack and a bang, Mettaton's body exploded into unidentifiable scrap. The metal fragments clattered to ground and remained inert for a moment, then coated themselves in a fine layer of dust.

Something like a scream tore from Alphys's throat. Ignorant of the crowd around her she leaped from her seat, dashed to the escalator that lead to her room, and ran up it. She found her bed, curled up into a box, and slammed on its surface. After recognizing her magical signature it opened. She jumped into the middle and urged it to close up again with her still in it.

The bed did just that, sealing her in a cushioned cube. Alphys wailed and wept, hugging her knees to her chest as her tears wet the pillows. This was wrong. This was all wrong. Dozens were dead. Sans was dead. Mettaton was dead. Asgore would soon absorb the souls and destroy billions of innocents, but until then she was certain that dozens more would die. So many people were dying and it was all her fault!

And there was nothing she could do to make it right.

Chapter Text

Reaper Bird

They watched the screen, deep down in the lab, as Mettaton exploded into shrapnel. Everyone else with them had gone up to watch with the doctor, leaving them alone. Just as they preferred. Reaper Bird turned their head sideways and chirped, thinking this over.

He didn't know enough about the human, Final Froggit said. His bravery is to be commended, Whimsalot said. For all his bravery, the human was stronger still, Astigmatism said.

They rose, their dripping body uncoiling until their head tapped the ceiling and left a smattering of eldritch goo.

What do we do now? Final Froggit asked. It is clear what the human's path is, Whimsalot answered. Indeed it was. They all knew it. The human was tearing a dusty swath straight to New Home. Straight to the Barrier. Then we should go and pick on the little brat, hmm? Astigmatism suggested.

Reaper Bird chirped in one, two, then three voices, and folded up into themselves. They found, then wrapped their power around, Lemon Bread, forcing shock from their fellow amalgamate before materializing from that surprise.

Lemon Bread whirled around and roared, rearing up. Several normal monsters around them backed off in fright as Reaper Bird appeared seemingly out of thin air. "What is it now?!" Lemon Bread hissed, their voice coming from every corner of the room, and several corners outside it, at once. "I was reconnecting with my clans."

"The human killing robot failed to kill a human," Final Froggit said. "The human will be continuing his rampage, he is far stronger than anyone thought possible," Whimsalot said. "A little collapsed bridge won't stop a human," Astigmatism snarled.

Lemon Bread's gelatinous teeth, once part of a moldbygg, clacked against each other. Their eyes, once the spades of an Aaron's tail, lifted up and glared. "Fight the human. Kill the human. Why? It is none of our business."

"Do you not feel it? Whenever we bump painfully into something?" Final Froggit asked. "Our powers are just what are needed, we have no need to fear," Whimsalot boasted. "Unless you're so afraid of some brat?!" Astigmatism challenged.

"You heard what Mettaton said," Lemon Bread retorted, curling their dripping tailtip. "Asgore will absorb the souls. The child has no chance. We need not get involved."

"And if he does not?" Final Froggit asked. "There is no need to involve our great king," Whimsalot said. "We're stronger than a human soul! We're determined!" Astigmatism said.

Lemon Bread reared up and gnashed their teeth in response to Reaper Bird's taunt. But before they could deliver a response, one of the nearby floor tiles turned brilliant white with the sound of spider laughter. A wide grin with beady eyes appeared on the tile, which then flowed upwards and outwards into the form of So Cold. The instant So Cold fully manifested, the temperature plummeted and frost grew from them at an alarming rate.

"What now?!" Lemon Bread retorted, rounding on So Cold.

So Cold merely stabilized their dripping left side and looked fearlessly at Lemon Bread with their vegetoid eyes. "... human... killed... my... son," they hissed. For a brief moment So Cold turned transparent, as though they were phasing away from them, but then they coalesced. "... it... hurts," they wailed. "Won't... let... others... lose... children."

Reaper Bird nodded, turning their eyes into chomping teeth for a moment. "Asgore will take time to reach the human," Final Froggit reminded. "That is time for the creature to kill many others," Whimsalot added. "See? Even So Cold agrees we should fight!" Astigmatism cheered.

Lemon Bread hissed. "Fine. Go get the dogs, they were guards once, right? I'll find a good spot to ambush." Lemon Bread curled up on themselves and sunk into the ground as though it were a puddle. The tiles rippled for a moment, then went still.

"... what... about... memories?" So Cold croaked, looking up at Reaper Bird.

"The memoryheads are barely even real," Final Froggit reminded. "They do not obey their own will, but rather his," Whimsalot supplied. "They do NOT come with us," Astigmatism asserted.

"... of... course. I'll... find... Endog...eny." With that, So Cold went translucent, then transparent, then faded away entirely.

Reaper Bird chirped quietly, extending their neck to full length and looking about the now-empty room. Good, this was good! They did not expect to have to convince Lemon Bread, though; they'd thought that, if anything, it would be So Cold who'd need to be persuaded to fight.

Lemon Bread was scouting. So Cold was tracking down Endogeny. That left Reaper Bird to find the camera tapes, put them on playback, and see if they could figure out exactly what made this human tick. With that goal in mind, Reaper Bird folded up. As they did, their lower body separated from their head and neck, both folding up and vanishing into separate places.

Frisk

With a gasp for breath, he turned from Mettaton and trudged back through the tunnel. Every inch of his body ached, and while his soul had receded back into his body he still felt the sucking sensation of its injuries throughout his entire body.

'... wow, Frisk,' Chara said at last. 'I will not lie. That was most impressive.'

He cracked a grin. 'Thanks. Only took me two dozen deaths to get it right.'

'Twenty eight, but who is counting?' Chara snarked.

Inexplicably, he laughed. Then he cringed. "Ow, ow," he said between breaths. "It hurts to laugh." Internally, he knew he should've been horrified. Mettaton obviously had people he cared about, people he'd wished to make amends with, wrongs he wanted to set right. But Frisk couldn't find it in himself to be miserable at the robot's death. After the fight, he was still running high on both adrenaline and whatever painkillers his body produced naturally.

At least the Temmie Armor's warm healing waves kept him upright.

Soon, Frisk found his backpack again. He downed one of the crab apples he'd stolen from Gerson's store, and saved the rest for later. The crab apple's magical healing properties were enough to get him back on his feet, even if he still didn't feel one hundred percent. Oh well. The Temmie Armor would take care of that.

'Just Hotland and New Home, right? We're more than halfway there!' he thought happily, heading back down the tunnel. He didn't stop to take in the scenery; he'd had a LOT of time to catch glimpses of it while Mettaton NEO pummeled him. As he passed the pile of scrap that was once the robot, a dark corner of his mind debated taking one of the dusty shards of metal with him as a weapon. He shook his head and moved on.

Soon enough, the tunnel ended and a furnace blast of heat washed over Frisk. The stone beneath his feet was bright red granite, and a glance off to the side revealed a dizzying drop into a pool of bubbling, churning magma. His eyes first widened, then bugged out of his head. "Whoa."

The small patch of stone he stood on had a sentry station to the side, similar to the one back in Snowdin that he assumed Sans manned. Except this one had no snow on its roof. His plan to go forward came to a rather abrupt end, though, because the next platform of stone was completely separated from his. Only a few planks of wood indicated that there'd used to be a bridge between them.

But even as Frisk pondered the problem, rainbow streaks of magic swam together, forming a shimmering bridge between the two. He narrowed his eyes at it and grunted. "Thanks, Asriel," he muttered, walking across. Each step made his stomach lurch, wondering if maybe Asriel would torment him by dropping him into the molten rock a few times. He could just imagine how horrifyingly painful that would be.

But it seemed Asriel wasn't in the mood, because Frisk made it to the other end without any incident. He panted and wiped the sweat from his brow; God it was hot. And didn't magma have all sorts of toxic fumes? He could hope his Temmie Armor would protect him from heatstroke and poisoning, but even so. Best to finish up with Hotland as soon as possible.

At least the current cliff had a water cooler on it. The structure was, curiously, icy cold to the touch. Some magical thing, he guessed. He got a cup of water and drained it. Then another. And another. And another, but then he felt sick to his stomach and left the water cooler two thirds empty. Frisk pressed on. The granite path came to a four way intersection. One path was, obviously, where he'd come from. Another path led to a gargantuan metal structure. It had no windows, but there was a metal door with the word 'LAB' written above it in red. Some wires sprouted out from it and ran into the stone.

Another path led away from the heat, back towards Waterfall. The final path led to what looked like an elevator, but was blocked off by a force field.

'Wait... that can't be right,' Chara muttered.

Frisk paused before the laboratory, torn notebook tight in his hands. 'What can't be right?'

'I sense... forty left,' Chara whispered.

He blinked. 'Forty?!' He sighed aloud, the scorched air clawing at his throat. "Well, better get started, I guess."

Rainbow lights pried open the laboratory door as he approached. Inside, a wall of cooler air crashed over him. Air conditioning, sweet beloved air conditioning. Inside the lab, the floor was made of bright blue tiles. Escalators led up to a second floor, but they were still and he didn't care. He saw a bathroom door, a fridge, a bag of dog food. There was also a wooden table with a desktop computer, covered in sticky notes. The table had some odd rings on it, as though someone had cleared away plates of food in a hurry.

What caught his eye was the giant console screen. A swivel chair sat in front of its knobs and dials, and on its screen was... him.

'It's... us, Frisk?' Chara pondered, confused.

"Huh. Weird. Guess this is what Mettaton meant by camera playback." He continued on, and glanced into the bag of dog food. Small brown pellets of dry food filled it. And it smelled bad in the way pet food always did.

'Hmm, half empty. Wonder who has the dogs,' Chara pondered. A joke about dogs that he'd heard a while back flickered into his mind, and Frisk giggled quietly. 'What?'

'Nothing, nothing. I just remembered a good joke. I'll tell you later.'

He continued on. He saw nothing of any actual dogs or monsters at all, so he left the laboratory as quick as he'd found it, grimacing as the scorching temperature of Hotland washed back over him. There wasn't much in the way of places to go. Just a narrow, treacherous path of stone above a magma chamber. Frisk walked along it, his eyes glancing about the cavern. The air itself shimmered in the heat.

Fairly soon the granite gave way to a floor made of off-orange pipes. He stepped on, wincing when the heated metal burned through his shoes. But he focused. Determined, he walked across to the other side.

He found a monster there. It was a tiny little volcano with feet and a face, looking over the edge and humming quietly. "Hmm, hmm." It looked his way, and its eyes lit up in excitement. "Oh! You're trying to get through Hotland! Don't worry, I'll help - " Frisk shut it up by slamming the edge of his notebook into its body. The creature whined quietly, and started to dissolve. Frisk had to admit, there was a certain beauty to it. The way stone turned to powder. The way even the boiling, molten rock within the creature cooled and turned to dust, piece by piece, until there was nothing left but a white pile.

It didn't matter who the monster was. A frog. A massive robot. A bird-dragon. Everyone turned to dust in the end. Poetic, even.

... though his notebook had definitely seen better days. Wailing on Mettaton's metal body had nearly torn the spine apart, and the tip of its pages were blackened and burned from briefly pressing against the volcano monster. He definitely needed a new weapon.

He walked along the path of pipes until they ended. Soon afterwards was something that made Frisk blink. He'd seen something like those before, when his school took everyone on a plane trip to the Hotspot Islands. Moving sidewalks, shifting and curling against each other. One path led back to him, but another led away. Frisk stepped forward, and briefly lost his balance as he was carted off. In seconds, he found himself deposited on another pillar of stone further ahead.

Another series of pipes brought him to his second victim. Or rather, brought his second victim to him. He felt something bump into him from behind. He turned around, and what he saw had to have been seen to be believed.

It was a plane. Slightly bigger than himself, with a stylish pink hat atop its... well, not head. Cabin? Cockpit? It hovered in one place, turbines still, while heart-shaped puffs of pink smoke drifted from its back end.

"Hey!" it shouted, backing away from him. "Watch where you're going, human!"

'Wait, does it know you're a human? Why didn't it evacuate?' Chara wondered.

"Duh! Of course I know you're a human, idiot!" the plane responded, circling around him. Frisk turned to look at it, but the plane just looked away and huffed hautily.

He grinned. 'Oh my god,' he thought to Chara. 'It's literally a tsundere-plane.'

'... a what? And did it hear me?!'

But before either Chara or the tsunderplane could respond, Frisk smirked and put his hands on his hips. "Hey there." He scanned his eyes over the plane monster. "You've got pretty sweet turbines," he flirted.

The plane looked at him in stunned silence.

He couldn't see her, but he imagined Chara doing the same.

"SICKO!" it said at last. The plane rose up and summoned miniatures of itself, which crashed down all around Frisk and released puffs of smoke, which drifted into his suddenly-exposed soul. He barely even felt it; the Temmie Armor must've protected him from Mettaton more than he thought.

He grinned. Then he frowned, and his face turned grim. Before the tsunderplane could get out of reach, he smacked its left wing with his notebook. It tore clean off, trailing dust as it fell into the molten rock.

The tsunderplane started falling. "B-But, I never got to - "

Then it exploded with a blazing fireball, and the dusty pieces of metal fell into the magma below.

Frisk sighed. 'Thirty eight left, right?'

'... indeed,' Chara said after a moment.

Holding out his notebook, Frisk relaxed his grip for just a moment. But that was all it took. With the damage from striking the tsunderplane's metal wing, the notebook fell apart into pieces of paper, each of which fell away into the ocean of magma to burn away. "Well, need a new weapon now."

'I believe I sense something like that, actually. Keep going,' she urged.

Fairly soon, Frisk came across some sort of metal plate, with a blinking red arrow pointing towards another island of stone. There were several such islands around him, each with a similar plate. He narrowed his eyes in worry, but stepped onto it.

The plate sprung up into the air and tossed Frisk like a baseball. He screamed and flailed about, utter panic flooding his nerves, but then he fell onto the next island of stone completely unharmed. After a moment to get his nerves back, he stood and progressed. Another plate took him to the next island. From there he had two choices; go left, which seemed to lead to a long pathway of pipes that would take him further east. Or go right, which just seemed to loop around.

'Go right, I can sense the weapon from there.'

Well, good enough for him.

Chara's word was, as always, good. The path of rocks ended in another launching plate, one which flickered between left and right. To his right was another island, with more moving sidewalks to bring him back. And on that island was what looked like a frying pan, discarded and abandoned. Frisk launched himself to it and picked it up.

On inspection, it looked like the pan had seen its fair share of burning food, if the blackened spot in its center was any indication. He gripped the handle and give the metal pan a few swings, and smiled. Finally, something that he could reasonably guess to be a weapon.

Frisk made his way back, and took the other launcher path. He walked across the path of pipes, occasionally glancing left at what appeared to be blue and orange flashlights. They were all turned off, though. Once he passed them he saw another monster, glancing at some kind of switch in the walls. It looked like a giant coil of rope, with a grin made of fire on top.

'Thirty seven left,' Chara intoned seconds later.

The burnt pan really did have a nice swing to it.

Frisk kept moving on, the heat bringing a blinding headache to his body in spite of the Temmie Armor's healing aura. He found a few more tsundere planes, pyro ropes, and smiling volcanoes. He found an intersection with a wide open door, and closed off puzzle rooms on either side. He stepped on a launching plate, which knocked him onto yet another launching plate. Which launched him onto still another.

Mercifully, that one landed him in an air conditioned room with blue tiling for a floor. It looked like a kitchen, there was even a window with a painting of cloudy blue skies behind it, but the fridge was unplugged, the microwave was off, and there was no food anywhere to be found. He moved on.

There was a long path of stone ahead of him that ended in some sort of enormous metal tube, with something gray next to it.

As Frisk walked, he saw something in the corner of his vision. He turned, and gaped.

Off in the distance was an enormous metal structure, stretching from the magma all the way to the top of the cavern's ceiling. Gears, rooms, wires, tubes, more than he could count formed the towering building. 'That would be the Core, Doctor Gaster's creation,' Chara explained. 'I do not fully understand its mechanics, but supposedly it uses the heat of the magma to generate magical power for the entire Underground.'

So like a massive thermal power plant. Not bad for something built over a thousand years ago.

As he grew closer, the details on the metal tube grew more refined. It seemed to be some sort of elevator, with flashing orange-red lights on it, as well as the sign 'R1' in front of it. The gray figure next to it also resolved itself, into that of a monster. It looked somewhat like a bipedal feline, leaning over something in its grasp. It had a gray trench coat, and its face was completely blacked out save for a grinning white mouth filled with teeth.

Frisk realized that, in its hands, was a grayscale head.

"So the human comes at last," the monster said in a masculine voice. The head in its grasp turned to him. "Trying to end his misery fast."

He blinked. "You're... you're like the goner kid, aren't you?" he asked, stepping closer and lowering his burnt pan. "I know you're connected to Doctor Gaster somehow. Can you help me find him? I need his help."

The feline shook his head. "Doctor Gaster is nowhere, not in one place. His experiments shattered him across time and space."

"Shattered across - what does that mean?" Frisk asked, brow furrowed in confusion. "Is he dead?"

"The old scientist is more alive than you or I. We're all just hidden to a certain someone's prying eye." The feline frowned abruptly, and looked around. "I'm afraid you'll have to ask others, my friend. My time staying here is at an end!"

The monster vanished. No flicker of teleportation, no rush of displaced air. The monster was simply there, and then it wasn't.

'Weird. But... I can sense... yes. That's two of the four you need to unlock the door in Waterfall, Frisk.'

He frowned, and opened the elevator. He stepped inside and sighed in relief at the air conditioning. 'How will I even get back to Waterfall, though?'

'There should be a riverperson somewhere around here...' she muttered.

Well in the meantime, he picked out a destination. He was at R1, so maybe R2? He pressed the button, and the doors closed. The elevator lurched upwards. After a few short seconds of travel, the doors opened and Frisk stepped back out into the sweltering heat. No monsters in sight. He tried to walk forward along the path of stone, but a crackling blue barrier appeared in front of him. "Not that way, I guess," he sighed, returning to the cold lift. "Maybe L3?"

The elevator lurched up and, curiously, even sideways. When he arrived, he stepped back out. There was no stone or pipe here, but rather a raised platform of some reddish purple metal, suspended atop dizzylingly tall red columns. All around him were spinning cogs and gears of some unfathomable machine. Up ahead he saw a table with some food laid out. But more importantly, he saw another grayscale monster with him. A third one, already?

This one, unlike the catlike one from before, was short and squat, about Frisk's height. Its eyes were wide in its flat, rounded head, and it had a double cross pattern on its bare chest. Frisk approached it. "Um, hello?"

It turned to him. "Hello," he said quietly. "You're making some interesting progress."

He shrugged. "I guess. Listen, the other catlike monster, he told me I should ask you about how to find Doctor Gaster. It's really important I get his help."

The monster nodded. "Indeed, you'd think so. Well, I say you already know how to find the good doctor. He's not alive in the traditional sense, but ever since he fell into his own creation, his essence has always favored that door. Listen, the way forward is here at L3. But I think you should go back to L2 first."

'Makes sense,' Chara chimed in. 'We still need one more of these phased monsters.'

Right. "Well, thank you so much! You've been a big help."

The monster shrugged. "We'll see. The god's patience could wear thin at any moment, of course. I will be untouched. But you..." There was a moment of silence. "I wonder if you'll end up the same way as him."

Well, that was ominous.

Still, Frisk did as the phased monster suggested, and took the elevator down to L2. When he stepped out, sure enough, there was the fourth and hopefully final grayed out monster. This one was just a head, sprouting from the orange granite and looming twice his height. Its eyes looked like someone had drawn them on.

It looked his way. "Well hello there," she cooed, her fanged mouth opening and closing widely as she spoke. "You sure are looking... gray." Frisk looked himself over. Sure enough, despite the Temmie Armor, there was a healthy amount of monster dust coating his clothes. "Trying to find Doctor Wingdings Gaster, my my! Well, I suppose with meeting me, you'll have everything you need in place. You should just..." The monster cut herself off, looking around. Then she giggled. "Well, you should get going. I imagine he'll want to speak to you directly, and we shouldn't speak any longer about someone watching."

Someone... watching?

"Well, I'll get going then," he said.

"L1! The way back is L1! Go south and find the riverperson. Ask to go to Snowdin; the path to the door from Waterfall has been broken!" the monster called after him as he entered the elevator.

'Well, that's all four,' he thought to Chara, pressing L1. The doors slammed shut.

'Indeed it is, Frisk. I can feel it. We're so close!'

The elevator whirred a bit, then deposited him on L1. Sure enough, it was the area in front of the lab. While the force field had blocked him from getting to the elevator, it didn't appear while he was leaving. Lucky him.

Frisk strode confidently, a spring in his step. Progress. He was making progress! In one swoop, he'd found all three of the ones he needed to open the gray door. He headed south, eyes peeled for a 'river person'.

It was time to meet Doctor Gaster!

Asgore

Asgore hummed quietly in his throat, then sipped at his cup of tea. Before him were two papers.

One was a stack of documents related to finally putting up some safety rails in the more precarious places throughout the Underground. He'd been trying to get them through for years.

The other was the weekly gardener's catalogue.

Signature there, signature there, and done! With a smile, he clipped the papers together and set them aside. Now, for the catalogue. He leafed through it, reading up on some suggestions for various plants that could grow in the feeble magical light his people sustained. What soil they needed, what pH. Few of them were compatible with golden flowers though, but oh well.

At one point in his flipping, he came across flowerpots. He found one arranged with a pattern like blue scales, and he smiled. Oh ho! Undyne would love that one! He fished out his cell phone from within his robes, ready to take a picture of it and send it to her. But... curiously enough, he already had a text. Wasn't his phone supposed to, what was the word, vibrate to alert him?

... ah, no. It somehow got stuck on mute. Technology, sometimes.

After taking a moment to carefully unmute his cell phone, Asgore opened up the text. Who was it even from? ... ah, Mettaton. That robot Doctor Alphys had made, yes? Golly, what could be on his mind?

As his eyes scanned the text, however, his mood dropped sharply. A human. Number seven. One more innocent soul for him to take, and then carry on with his unfathomably vile task. The last one. The tipping point.

Then he kept reading, and things went from bad to worse. Now 'innocent' soul seemed in suspect. But how could he truly blame this human for fighting back? For defending himself? The deaths of his subjects pained him deeply, but war was war. In war, people died. That was a lesson he had learned all too well.

But then he read further still, and his heart plummeted. Truly? So vile? Why had nobody come to him? Why had nobody thought to ask for his help? Were they so certain they could handle a single child, even if it was a human, without needing his intervention? Or had they finally seen what a useless wretch he truly was and didn't want his help?

All the same, the human had overcome Mettaton. Asgore had only one choice.

He rose from his dining table and headed over to his home's staircase. He stepped over the chain and headed down the stairs, and out into the balcony overlooking New Home. It was so... eerily quiet.

Asgore stopped for a moment, his cape swishing about him. There were no monsters in the streets. No children racing each other. No adults going to their work. Truly, New Home had been evacuated as a murderous human tore a dusty streak straight through the Underground. And he'd spent this... this calamity in his house, drinking tea.

Soon, he found himself in the Judgement Hall. He wondered if Sans was alright. He was officially stationed near Snowdin as one of Undyne's sentries, wasn't he? Had he crossed paths with the human? Asgore did not know. If Sans had, then how was the human still alive? Sans was undoubtedly the greatest fighter in the kingdom. He shuddered at the thought that this human, whoever he was, had gotten the better of Sans. If that was the case, Asgore knew himself to be well and truly outmatched.

Which was why Mettaton's plea pressed him further.

Asgore strode into the throne room. Behind him, though he could not see them, he could feel the mummified eyes of the dead humans boring into his back. His padded feet lightly compressed the plants and flowers of his garden, including the golden flowers that dear Chara had loved so much. He passed his throne. He entered the next room. And before he even knew it, Asgore stood before the Barrier.

Golden sunlight streamed from outside. It must've been noon. A beautiful, sunny day outside. He lowered his head, and his foot tapped an impeccably concealed pressure plate.

Seven tiles all around him slid aside. And up from within slid seven glass tubes. All but one were full, and the humming souls within cast their rainbow of lights upon him. Six human souls, floating hearts kept from moving on to the afterlife, in a wide array of colors. Purple, blue, teal, green, yellow, and orange.

His stomach twisted, and he felt as though he may lose his lunch. He'd never used the souls of the fallen to make killing the next easier. He wanted the humans who fell to have a chance. A chance to kill him, a chance to leave and alert their people, a chance to stop him before he went too far, because God knew he hadn't the strength to stop himself. But now, even that shred of morality was to be removed. Now, he would call upon the vile, unholy powers that were his birthright. His people would be free. His people would be prosperous. But at such a terrible, terrible cost. He knew that he could stop himself at any time. Step away from the souls, let them sink away. But he didn't. He couldn't.

Asgore simply stood there, staring at the souls.

The souls stared back.

Chapter Text

Frisk

Finding the riverperson was surprisingly easy. Frisk simply went south from the elevator and down a flight of stairs to a small cavern secluded from the magma chamber. He'd been down there before, but at the time there hadn't been anything. Now however, on top of the underground river there was a wooden boat docked, with a towering hooded figure standing atop it. The blue robes were so big Frisk couldn't make out anything about the person beneath. No legs, no head, nothing.

Heck, he'd seen stranger monsters. Maybe this was just a robe monster.

"Tra la la," they sang in an androgynous voice as Frisk approached. "I am the riverperson, as intangible as the followers you've just seen. I love to ride in my boat. Would you care to join me?" they asked, turning their head towards Frisk. He couldn't see anything inside. Just abyssal darkness.

"Yes please," he said, walking onto the narrow boat. It swayed as he stepped on, but he wasn't afraid of spilling over. He was going to meet Doctor Gaster and find a way to stop Asriel, stop himself from murdering, once and for all! "Snowdin if you can, please."

"... then we're off." As if by magic, the boat lurched away from the shore and began to soar down the raging river. Frisk watched in awe as the water around the boat smoothed as they approached, waves flattened into nothing to give him a calm journey. Frisk smiled and let the water spray onto his face, let the wind ruffle his hair and blow some of the dust off his body.

The riverperson started humming as they continued. "Tra la la," they sang. "Do you feel it? Things are going to get worse before they get better. Tra la la."

... worse?

Before long, the temperature began to plummet, and Frisk's breath steamed in front of his face. Goosebumps broke out over his skin, and he shivered. He fished the yellow-green striped shirt out from his backpack and wore it over his Temmie Armor.

The boat slowed down, and the choppy waters closed back in again. "Here we are," the riverperson sang. "Tra la la. Swift travels."

Frisk stepped off, his armored boots crunching into the snow. He looked left and right; he hadn't seen Snowdin Town from this angle before. "Thanks for bringing... me," he said, trailing off when he turned around and saw that the riverperson, boat and all, was gone. "Oh well. Think I'll grab more cinnamon bunnies," he pondered out loud, heading through the town.

He found the shop quickly, and stormed inside. The cinnamon bunnies weren't piping hot anymore, but the cinnamon sugar swirls were still heavenly on his tongue. He stuffed himself with two, then filled his pack with as many he could carry; that many apples and cinnamon bunnies should definitely last him his entire trip.

Ring! Ring!

He screamed and dropped his bag before he could zip it up, causing some apples and cinnamon bunnies to spill onto the floor.

Ring! Ring!

Frisk fished out his phone and put it to his ear. "H-Hello?" he stammered.

"Hello!" Papyrus's voice came through. Frisk's heart immediately dropped. "This is Papyrus." The skeleton's voice dropped. "... so, I watched the videos of what happened in the tunnel to Hotland."

Frisk grimaced shamefully. "Mettaton attacked me," he tried to justify. "All I could do was fight."

"That's perfectly fine! Self defense is okay! BUT! Defending yourself does not always mean having to kill the person attacking you! You can go not quite as far! Like me! Were I to try and capture you, I'd stop well short of causing any lasting harm. Not that I would try anyway. We're friends, after all."

Friends... he thought weakly.

"Tell you what!" Papyrus's voice turned quiet. "Don't tell Undyne I told you this, but I'm in the MTT Resort! Undyne had me go there to hide from you. We can hang out there. You know where to find it, right?" Before Frisk could open his mouth, Papyrus continued. "Great! See you there, nyeh heh heh!" The phone clicked, and Frisk stored it away with a sigh.

Once he was done with the shop, he left and made his way out of the desolate, empty town.

'I have some concerns,' Chara said eventually. 'About my father.'

'That's right,' he realized. 'Mettaton sent him a text to absorb their six human souls, didn't he?' He'd been so caught up in the triumph of overcoming the robot he'd shuffled that little detail off to the side. 'And that means...'

'... yes. Well!' Chara's voice turned forcefully cheerful. 'We can, we can worry about that when we get there. For now, let's focus on finding the good doctor.'

But as the snow beneath his feet started melting and the temperature started rising, Frisk found that there was someone waiting for him on the narrow, river-flanked path.

Asriel.

In the past, his heart would've frozen in terror. Now, he just gripped his pan tighter and slid over to the boss monster. Asriel, in his child form, had his arms crossed with his right fingers tapping against his shoulder. He looked... decidedly unhappy, if the raging rainbow in his eyes was any indication.

The goat spoke first. "Doctor Wingdings Gaster. That is who you wish to meet. You decided to backtrack all the way back here to meet someone who, by all accounts, does not even exist."

He met Asriel's gaze. "You know about Gaster." No surprise. Chara had said that Gaster tutored the two of them back when she lived.

Asriel shrugged. "Of course. Sans remembers him, and one of the past timelines I got friendly enough with him to get that trashbag to spill the beans."

'Wait, that makes no sense,' Chara said. 'He only remembers him from hearing from Sans? But then why do I...?'

"All the same, I've been watching you. I don't know who you were talking to, but you've got a mission and you're going back to it." Asriel flashed, and transformed back to his adult form. He held his left hand out, and a sword flickering into existence within his grasp. "Now."

Frisk smirked. "You're afraid of what will happen if I get to Gaster."

Asriel snarled. "Hardly. But I'm so sick and tired of watching over you. So sick and tired of listening to your voice, of... of knowing how you'll react. I want to get this over with and move on to humans actually worth something, so you're not - "

"Arf arf!"

Both he and Frisk froze. Asriel slid to the side and turned around, dismissing his sword. There, coming from Waterfall, was the white samoyed dog. His teeth were bared in a snarl and his fur stood on end. The canine strode forward, placing one paw in front of the other and taking great pain in showing off his claws digging into solid stone, all while growling at Asriel. "rrrrrrRRUFF! rrrrrrrRRRRRRRUUFF RUFF!"

"You," Asriel breathed. He glanced at the dog, then back at Frisk, and frowned. "Fine. Go see your stupid skeleton. He can't do anything." With a flash and a bang, Asriel's form collapsed in on itself and the godlike monster was gone.

The dog's menacing growl immediately relaxed into a panting grin, his tail went from ramrod stiff to a rapid wag, and the canine ran at Frisk. He ran forward too, coming into a kneel as the dog plowed into him. "Oh my God I'm so happy to see you!" he shouted as the dog wriggled in his grip, nudging at his stomach and twisting upside down and rightside up the way happy dogs always seemed to. "Where have you been?" Frisk asked.

The dog pulled away and held a paw out. He made a weird 'awroo' sound, as if to say 'Oh you know, here and there.'

"Well you couldn't have come at a better time! Thank you so much, I thought he was going to..." Frisk trailed off, shuddering. The memory of Asriel's torture was still fresh in his mind, even though it felt like it'd happened years ago. "And, and this armor you had Temmie give me," he continued, pinching at the golden leather beneath his shirt. "There's no way I could've beaten Mettaton without it." The dog gave his cheek a lick, then pressed back into his stomach and rolled over onto his back, paws hanging in the air. So naturally, Frisk gave him belly rubs.

Eventually, the panting dog pulled away and motioned up the path to Waterfall with his head. Frisk got up, grinning and feeling lighter, cleaner, than he had in a while.

As they walked through the marshland, the canine leading the way, Frisk spoke up. "I don't want to sound ungrateful, but... is there anything more you can do? Can't you stop Asriel?" The dog stopped and looked back towards him. The animal frowned and whimpered, ears back. "Oh," he said. "So... you can just ward him off." He forced himself to smile. "Well, thanks anyway."

"Arf!"

They continued, passing through the wishing room and its sparkling stones. He knew he wasn't a monster, and he knew they weren't stars, but he still found himself wishing that he could get through this and save the world.

He and the dog arrived on the pier, where he'd taken a short raft trip across to the goner kid. The raft was nowhere to be found, but the dog just tapped the boards with his paw, barked, and mere seconds later the raft came rushing back across the water, as if pulled by a giant magnet. The dog rushed forward, but instead of getting on the raft he just continued running, paws colliding with the air as if it were a solid. Frisk just shrugged and got onto the raft, which started forward once again. While riding, he took off his extra shirt and stowed it away, now that he wasn't in frigid Snowdin anymore.

Both the goner kid and the dog were waiting for him on the other side. The goner kid looked at him curiously. "So... you are serious about this," she said.

"I am," he said. "I've got to do this."

She shrugged her shoulders, which looked just plain weird since she had no arms. "It's your funeral."

The dog barked once to get his attention, then started leading him down the long, winding boardwalk where Mettaton had first confronted him. It all seemed so... eerie, now. Quiet and desolate, now that there was nobody left to hunt.

'So,' he asked Chara since they had some time before reaching the door. 'What exactly should I expect from Gaster?'

'Well I already told you he's a skeleton, and developed those blaster attacks Sans used. Beyond that, I do not know. He very likely has changed from how he was in my time, just as my entire family has. One thing that will be of note, however, is his language. You heard it with Sans's machine, yes? I will simply have to translate for you.'

'Oh. Thanks!' he thought, pushing through a field of tall grass.

Chara was silent for a moment. '... anytime,' she eventually whispered.

He and the dog came across the room with the crystal encased cheese. The dog slowed down until the canine walked side by side with Frisk, the animal's tongue hanging out and tail swaying back and forth. They passed into the next tunnel, but in seconds the way forward was shrouded in darkness, as was the path from which he'd come. Frisk found himself in a tunnel with no discernible beginning or end.

The dog paused, prompting Frisk to do the same. They looked at each other, and the dog barked. He reared up on his hind legs, put his forepaws on Frisk's shoulders, then licked his cheek. Then the dog let go, ran into the nearest wall, and phased through it.

Frisk stared at where the dog had vanished. Something prickled the hairs on his neck, as if there were something behind him. He turned around and beheld...

... just an empty stone wall.

He sighed and turned back around, only to come face to face with the same gray door as before. He took a deep breath to steady his nerves and approached it. The four gray buttons beneath the doorknob were all lit up. Frisk grabbed the knob. Still felt just like regular wood. He opened the door a crack, and peered in.

Absolute darkness. The light from outside didn't penetrate inside even a single inch. It was like the world just... stopped past the door. He didn't like that, but Frisk opened the door wider still, inviting an icy chill to cut through his armor. With a grimace, he tensed and jumped...

... he didn't jump. He lost his nerve at the last second. He steeled himself and jumped...

... he lost his nerve again.

For a third time he braced himself to jump and, just when he thought he'd lose his nerve again, he charged forward into the blackness.

The door closed itself behind him.

Right away, the darkness gave way to a pale gray room, illuminated from everywhere and nowhere at once. It wasn't much; a rectangular room, connected to the outside with a hallway. But when Frisk looked behind him, there was no door. Just more wall.

The walls were featureless, and made of no material Frisk had ever seen. No ridges, no bumps, he could barely even tell where they formed corners. But standing dead center in the larger room was an imposing figure.

It vaguely resembled the crayon drawing in Sans's basement. The head was a skull with a crack leading up from the right eye, and down to his mouth from the left, but there was no nose hole. His bony hands had perfectly circular holes drilled straight through the palms, and the arms vanished into oversized black robes, so dark Frisk could see not the slightest bit of detail. The robes changed around the figure's chest into what he could almost mistake to be a tuxedo, but then it spilled down his form like a robe again, vanishing into the ground and concealing any feet.

He stepped forward until he was face to face with the skeletal figure. The skeleton looked down at him curiously, smiling gently. Now that Frisk was closer, he could make out an interesting texture; his bones and even clothes buzzed as if made from television static, and around their edges tiny 'pixels' kept falling off, vanishing, and being replaced by new ones coming in from outside.

Frisk swallowed to clear his throat. He had to force down the urge to swing at the monster. "Doctor Gaster?"

Gaster nodded, and began to speak. Just like in Sans's basement, his voice was wild and garbled, rising and falling in pitch and tone. Chara translated for him. "Ah, so you've finally made it, human. I must admit, I was not quite certain if you would ever find me in any timeline. But here we are."

"Yes. I don't want to sound demanding, but I need your help to beat - "

"Asriel Dreemurr, yes," Gaster replied. "I know precisely what he has done. All of what he has done," Gaster growled darkly, his eyesockets briefly showing a pupil of light within their dark voids. "I am afraid there is not much aid I can give you directly. You see, Asriel Dreemurr's power has grown far beyond that of any entity I've yet to see. But do not despair. I have a hypothesis of what to do. First though, you will need to understand precisely what you are up against if you are to have any hope of victory. Brace yourself to learn, child. This will be long."

Gaster clapped his deformed hands, and four more disembodied hands just like them formed around the skeleton. Frisk's eyebrows shot up in alarm, but the hands simply flew to the side and made as if they were grasping a square frame. Then just that appeared; a dark gray frame fizzled into being between them. The doctor continued to speak. "His tale... a rather curious one." A picture formed inside the frame, that of a bed of golden flowers in a large chamber, with a single throne resting in their middle. "When Asriel returned from his ill-fated encounter with the human villagers, he'd collected a large number of golden flower seeds upon his fur and robes. One flower in particular received a larger portion of his dust than others." As Gaster spoke, one of the golden flowers grew above all the others.

"... the flowers?" he asked. "What about them?"

"Patience, child," Doctor Gaster chided, waving a bony finger at him. "Later on my former assistant, Doctor Alphys, used this flower in her experiments with human souls. She did not know the significance of this flower; she simply needed something alive that is neither human nor monster. And she injected it with the trait determination." The tall flower glowed red.

"Wait, back up. Injected it with determination? That doesn't make sense, determination isn't a... thing," he said.

Gaster chuckled. "What are you but your soul, human? What is your brain but the process of chemicals and cells processing information to and from your soul? Matter can be touched. Magic can be manipulated. If it can be manipulated, it can be moved. That was what Doctor Alphys did; she gathered determination from the six souls my king has gathered, let the souls regenerate it, and gathered more until she had a large reserve... which she then proceeded to exhaust. A substantial portion went into the flower with Asriel Dreemurr's essence."

The screen zoomed in on the flower, which grew a beady grin. 'Wait, is he implying...' Chara wondered.

Then she had to cut herself off, because Gaster continued to speak and she had to translate. "The determination effectively revived Asriel Dreemurr in the body of a flower; his consciousness continued as though he'd simply fallen asleep and woke up. Though there were a trio of... side effects. The first and most obvious was that he was no longer a monster, but a flower." The smiling flower curled over, and summoned a line of seed-shaped magical bullets above it. Then, the soil burst and a trio of thorny vines snaked through the air.

"Whoa," Frisk whispered.

"The second and third are far more crucial. Firstly, Asriel had lost his soul, crippling his ability to feel joy and completely removing his ability to feel empathy or love for others. The third is far most dire. The determination itself granted him an ability I had not thought, in my wildest dreams, possible. The ability to rewind time."

"His resets," Frisk realized. "Asriel can reset because of his determination?"

"That, and the high magical exposure of the Underground." The image froze, and Gaster turned to him. "Asriel, or 'Flowey' as he dubbed himself - " Chara briefly stopped translating to stifle a laugh. " - spent a cumulative total of three hundred seventy four years and some months resetting the Underground, during which he became increasingly sociopathic despite his best efforts. One of those resets, he allowed time to go on further than usual. That was when you arrived, Frisk."

"Me?" he asked, stepping back and putting a hand on his armor. "But I don't get it, this is the first time I've ever come here."

Doctor Gaster simply chucked. "From your perspective, but no. Time travel, child. Remember." The screen changed, going from the image of 'Flowey' to a snapshot of Frisk laying face down in the patch of golden flowers he'd first fallen onto. "Your determination was higher than Asriel's, even considering the high concentration of the stuff he was artificially given. Combined with your exposure to the Underground's magic, it handed control of the save and load power to you, child."

Frisk gulped. "I could reset?" His hands shook, and he braced himself for the worst. "What... what did I do with those powers?" he asked, eyes on the floor.

The skeleton scoffed. "Came within a hair's width of freeing the Underground, I should say. Talked everyone down peacefully, came back when you die, did your best to make everyone happy. Aside from once accident with Toriel that you subsequently undid, you hurt nobody. While Asriel still retained the ability to recall your resets, he could not influence them directly. And with them in your court, he couldn't afford to simply battle you. So he watched, waited, and planned. In the end, you approached the Barrier." The screen changed again, to Frisk standing alone before a towering white screen of light. On either side of him were three floating hearts of various colors. "Then, with the human souls exposed to him for the first time ever, Asriel struck."

Vines erupted around Frisk, stabbing through the souls. 'Flowey' grew before him, the size of a mountain.

"And then..." Both Frisk, the souls, and Flowey vanished. "I cannot tell. Data indicates Asriel used his newfound power to drag both himself and you into a pocket dimension, into which I cannot peer. What is relevant, however, is that you appear to have defeated him and stripped the souls away from Asriel; after all, as a flower he does not possess the indomitable grip on souls we monsters have.

"But that was not enough to free us. Under verbal manipulation by Flowey, he tricked you into trying to save all the monsters in a certain way that let him not only absorb the six souls a second time, but also initiate a chain reaction to absorb all but one of the monster souls."

"All but one?" he wondered, looking back up at the scientist.

Gaster waved it off with his left hand. "A ghost by the name of Napstablook. Irrelevant. A second time, Asriel brought you into a pocket dimension. But this time, it appears he came out victorious. He shattered your reset power and, using the added determination of the souls, took his power back. He was able to remember your resets, but no longer were you able to remember his."

"Seven souls," Frisk whispered. "Six from the humans. And one of the plaques said every monster soul together would roughly equal a human soul."

'Oh God,' Chara whispered. 'So that's why he's so powerful. He's got seven human souls, just like what I wanted him to get.'

"Indeed. Using the added magical power, Asriel was able to reform his old body." The screen changed, showing Asriel in his child form, standing in a black void. "He could extend his reach beyond the Underground now, and began running through a vast number of scenarios above Mt. Ebott for approximately four hundred and twenty two more years."

"Scenarios?" Frisk asked curiously.

"Timelines. Asriel would have the monsters make peace with humanity one timeline, then reset and push events into triggering war. He would befriend someone, betray someone. Marry them, murder them. He held a particular fixation with you, Frisk; he projected Chara onto you, thinking you to be her."

"I have Chara with me now," he said before he could stop himself. "Could that be why?"

"Possibly, but unlikely," the skeleton admitted, staring at his own screen balefully. "He projected onto you even in timelines where you never fell here and bonded with Chara. Eventually it came to pass that he realized you were not, in fact, his sister. This brought him into a rage, and set about arranging things... into this timeline."

Frisk frowned. "Wait, that's the horrible thing I did to him?!" he shouted. "He realized I wasn't someone I'm not, and that makes him do THIS?!" he raged, pointing his hands at his dusty clothes.

"Like I said, his three hundred plus years as a flower rendered him extremely sociopathic. While having so many souls within him in theory should return his ability to feel compassion, he appears to be suppressing it. That is what you are up against, Frisk." The screen changed, now only showing the white, sideways-eight symbol of infinity. "His offensive and defensive powers have reached a vertical asymptote. An infinitely powerful god, capable of resetting the universe with a thought. Having spent centuries caring for none but himself, in a world where none of his actions have the slightest consequence, in a world where, as far as he is concerned, nobody is real but him."

"Wait," he said. "If he can wipe everyone's memories then what about you? Or the dog? You remember. Can't any of you do anything to stop him?"

Gaster shook his head. The screen changed to show the image of Asriel in his adult form, with the dog from before biting into his arm. "Anomalous canine entity has been observed to be capable of inflicting physical pain upon Asriel, but incapable of penetrating defenses entirely; analysis suggests that while injuring Asriel is impossible, sufficient force is capable of inflicting pain upon him. But in the end, no. My calculations show that, in prolonged battle with the dog, the canine would fatigue and be forced to withdraw.

"As for myself?" Gaster turned his screen off and dismissed the floating hands. The skeleton monster turned to, and loomed over, Frisk. "Look at me, child. You heard what those poor lost souls said. I am scattered across spacetime. My experiments went awry, and I was rotated out of existence. All of reality was rewritten not only as though I do not exist, but as though I never existed in the first place. Only Sans remembered anything." Doctor Gaster's voice turned tired, and he brought his hands up to claw at his skull. "I've been like this for so long. I'm so old, and I'm so tired. I miss the world. I miss feeling air on my bones, I miss drinking coffee, I miss Sans's puns."

Frisk stepped forward and put a hand on one of Gaster's, partially phasing through. It tingled to the touch, like his hand was submerged in soda. "It's alright," he promised. "I'll find a way to free you, too."

Gaster laughed and lowered his hands, gliding away from Frisk. "Such a good child, despite everything you have been though. Do not worry about me. But no, I cannot defeat Asriel. While my condition has granted me strength a thousand times greater than that of the strongest monster to ever live, it is for naught. I am unable to interact with the world directly and were I to, somehow miraculously reform, I would lose my strength. Even if I did not, it wouldn't matter. All my strength is nothing against Asriel Dreemurr's. At the very least, he has no knowledge or access to this place. Here, I am safe. You are safe."

Stepping back, Frisk tapped his chin and paced. "You said you can't interact directly. How can you?"

Gaster spread his arms wide, showing off the strange static texture of them. "I am capable of seeing these events due to being shattered; a portion of myself, infinitesimally small, is scattered across the universe, in all intervals of time. Unfortunately, I cannot see the future; I've no fragments there, understand. Only in the past, present, and the timelines that were reset from existence. I've fragments in three monsters known as memoryheads. Through these fragments I am able to exert a marginal amount of influence on them, but only rarely, and never greatly." Gaster's skeleton smile widened. "I had actually been trying to rouse them to aid you in your battle with Mettaton, but could not do so in time. When I can, young human, I will aid you." Gaster turned to look at him sideways. "Just do not expect me to assist more than once."

He smiled. "Thanks. I'll take all the help I can get." Then Frisk frowned. "But none of this tells me how to beat Asriel! There has to be something, right? Some weird kind of magic?"

"Not in the way you are thinking. I have run the equations." Gaster straightened out and stared blankly into the distance. Then the skeleton began reciting a list. "Physical force, zero damage. Magical force, zero damage. Acidic effects, zero damage. Alkali effects, zero damage. Extreme heat, zero damage. Extreme cold, zero damage. Physical constant manipulation, zero damage. Mental manipulation, zero effect. Magic draining, zero effect. Polymorphic magic, zero effect." The doctor relaxed. "Nothing conventional exists that can bend his knee." Gaster raised a single hand's finger. "But! Chara."

'Wait, me?' Chara asked, after translating. Then it was Frisk's turn to translate; he spoke Chara's question aloud.

Then he himself said, "That's right, you know about Chara."

Gaster nodded. "It is not hard to notice if you know what you are looking for. Plus it helps that in some of the timelines you openly demonstrated - well, openly to me - that Chara's consciousness is bound to you. Chara, dear child, I believe you are the key."

'But how? I'm dead! There's nothing I can do. If anyone's going to do anything, it'll have to be Frisk,' she insisted.

Gaster summoned a trio of hands, all flexed as if holding bits of chalk. "And that is where you are wrong," he said, the hands moving across the air as if writing. Sure enough, white lines materialized in the air and began to take the form of a massive, unknowable equation. Soon it was complete, and the writing hands were dismissed.

"Um, what am I looking at here?" he wondered, stepping closer and tracing the form of a strange, curly 'd'.

"An equation of Chara's current abilities. I have isolated it to being highly dependent on your execution points and level of violence, Frisk."

Frisk looked down shamefully. "Yay," he muttered. "Killing people."

"I emphasize," Gaster said simply. "But look!" He pointed towards a seemingly random portion of the formula. It was... Frisk thought it was an exponent, but there were no numbers. Just letters. "This value, as you reach a certain number of execution points, approaches - note, approaches, does not reach - infinity. While this one here!" Gaster floated towards another part. It was the curly letter d, as part of a fraction. Curly d over... curly d times t? "This is the derivative of time. While the former value approaches infinity, this one reaches - does not approach, reaches! - zero. Do you see?"

'No clue,' Chara deadpanned.

"I'm with Chara, I have no idea what any of that meant. I'm twelve."

Gaster sighed, and wiped away the equations. "As you keep killing, Chara will become stronger and stronger. I admit I do not know the exact nature or, indeed, even the origins of these powers, but it matters not. Eventually it will reach a point - and go no further - where Chara becomes extraordinarily powerful and, more importantly, independent of time. It will be precisely what is needed; an incredibly powerful agent immune to Asriel's resets. Based on current projections, Frisk's destruction of the Underground will be just enough to reach the tipping point. Once this occurs, ally yourself with the dog, who is also untouched by time, and take the fight to Asriel. You cannot injure him but you can hurt him," the skeleton growled. The monster narrowed his eyesockets and clenched his fists. "Hurt him, and continue hurting him until he agrees to abandon his ability to turn back time, abandon his infinite power. Battle him and give him such a bad time he will have no choice but to relent, or continue to suffer."

'... he wants me to fight my brother. To torture my brother,' Chara whispered.

"But," Frisk began. "What about the Underground? What about you?"

Gaster waved it away. "With Asriel's ability to reset gone, it will fall squarely to you. I know you'll do the right thing. I have seen you do the right thing again and again. As for me?" Gaster's smile turned strained. "I will... be fine. Do not worry about me, child. You have your own misery, I would rather not drag you down."

"You're not dragging me down at all," Frisk insisted, holding out his hand. "You've been a huge help."

The skeleton chuckled, then extended a bony arm to 'shake' Frisk's hand. Rather difficult when the monster just phased right through him. "Remember. Frisk, you must continue killing, and bring Chara to nigh-omnipotence. Once that is done, Chara, join with the dog and bring your powers to bear on Asriel Dreemurr. Make it very clear to him that the only way to end the pain is to relent. I will not lie, the battle will be difficult; he is still infinitely powerful, mind. This is a terrible amount to ask of ones as young as you two are. But I have confidence." Gaster thrust out a hand, and Frisk turned around. The hallway from which he'd come in vanished, replaced by a black square in the wall. "That portal will bring you back to Hotland, just past the laboratory. No time has passed since you came in this room."

Frisk nodded, and started towards the void. He had a plan. He and Chara had a solid plan to beat Asriel. It'd worked exactly as he'd thought. Gaster's brains over Asriel's brawn had found a way forward. Finally, things were looking up! "Frisk, Chara," Gaster called as he was about to leave.

He turned around. "Yes?"

Gaster frowned and sagged, his bony fingers laced together with worry. "You pledged not to let this experience destroy you, that you would remain hard in the face of the slaughter. But take my advice. Cry. Sob and wail and feel bad about it. Otherwise, you are conditioning yourself to not be bothered by taking lives. To, eventually, enjoy it. It would be a crime for a light as bright as both of you to be so tarnished." Without further word, Doctor Wingdings Gaster disappeared from sight like a bad memory.

For a moment, Frisk stood alone in the empty, gray room. "He's right," he said eventually. "I'm... I'm not as bothered as I was. I'm not crying. I'm not whispering sorry. God, sometimes I even think it's beautiful." He turned back to the dark hole and narrowed his eyes. "We've gotta stop that, Chara," he declared.

'Right with you, Frisk. Come, there is so little left to our journey. We can keep our heads that long. Surely.'

Frisk grinned, and gripped his frying pan tighter. "Right. Keep killing, make you all powerful. Then you stop Asriel, then I..." He swallowed at the thought of using the powers that had tormented him so. "... then I undo all the pain. Let's go!"

He charged into the portal, ready to go. Last he recalled, there were still thirty left.

Chapter Text

Frisk

It was a fairly substantial walk back to the elevator, so Frisk and Chara took that time to digest everything Gaster had said.

'I used to be able to reset,' he thought queasily. 'I used to... to play with the world like a toy. He wants me to have that power again.'

'He wants me to torture Asriel. I... I don't know. Even after all he's done I... I've caused him enough pain.'

He stepped on a moving sidewalk and let it carry him.

And Chara had a point. Asriel had... God, he couldn't even imagine. Waking up like that, thinking you'd died, only to find you can't love anyone. Can't care for anyone, and you know you should and you try to but you just can't. Your sister's dead. And then being stuck in the same place, reliving the same events over and over, for centuries. Would anyone, anyone at all, be able to not turn evil after that? For the first time since falling into the Underground, Frisk's heart went out to Asriel.

If, and when, he got the resets back, he wouldn't use them like that. He'd undo the Underground's destruction and nothing else. Not his death, nothing. When he died, he died. He didn't want to go through that.

Frisk's thoughts were soon cut off as he reached the elevator R1. The grayed out feline monster was nowhere to be found, so he got in and hit L3. The elevator hummed, moved up and around, then opened its door.

It was cooler up here, he noticed. The magma was what seemed like miles below.

"Ah," the short grayed-out monster said as he stepped out. "I see everything's gone well?"

Frisk shrugged. "I guess. We have a plan now, but it... I have to keep killing things for it to work."

The monster chuckled. "Well, don't let me keep you, then. Remember, they're not dead forever."

"They're not dead forever," Frisk echoed, walking past him. Over to the left was a table, covered in a white and pink checkerboard cloth. There was some kind of spongy purple donut resting on it, along with a bright yellow croissant. They looked stale. A wooden sign read, once again, 'Spider Bakesale, all proceeds go to real spiders'. A few spider webs marked the price for a donut and cider at a whopping ten thousand gold.

He'd gotten a lot of gold from killing monsters, but nowhere near that much. He left the bakesale and continued on, eyes peeled for victims.

Ahead of him, the chamber closed off. The only way forward was an open door embedded in the walls, but standing between him and the door was what looked like a puzzle. There were passages to his left and right, but that didn't matter to him.

The puzzle was a series of metal platforms, too far apart from each other to jump, with throwing plates on them. He frowned, but started working on a path. Maybe... work backwards? Start at the end platform, and find a way back.

It took him a few minutes, but he felt he had the path figured out. He stepped onto the pressure plate, and let himself be launched. Then again and again until, as he'd planned, he ended up on the side with the door.

'Well done,' Chara remarked simply. He thanked her and continued on.

Through the other side of the door, the cavern opened back up. But it was dark and damp, surprisingly cool. If he looked off the side of the metal walkway, he saw there was no actual magma. Just black stone. A few cobwebs hung in the air. Frisk pressed on, ignoring the hairs standing up on the back of his neck. He had nothing to fear from the monsters. If he'd killed Mettaton NEO, then he'd have no trouble with anything else.

The next room had even more webs hanging in the air, and some spiderwebs even on the ground. Frisk frowned, looking around. Sure enough there were spiders hanging from the ceiling by their webs. They were about the size of his hand and dark purple. He shivered; he didn't mind spiders, but those were the largest ones he'd ever see.

Frisk walked forward, glancing back and forth nervously with his frying pan held tightly.

"Ahuhuhuhu," a feminine voice laughed. Frisk jumped and whirled around, getting his left shoe tangled in some cobweb. "Did you hear what the telegram said? They said a human was coming through here."

The voice faded, and he frowned. A fight was brewing, no doubt. He knelt over and untangled his foot from the webbing, then pressed on. To his dismay the cobwebs only got thicker, slowing him down as he was forced to keep untangling himself, lest he be completely immobilized. The spiders retracted to the ceiling as he passed.

"They said he killed spiders in the Ruins," the voice said coldly.

He pressed on, entering the thickest portion of the webs.

"They said he baited them out with money and stomped on them!" she snarled. He did not like the sound of that.

Frisk arrived in the middle of the cobweb field, and he was surrounded. Spiders scurried in from all angles, blocking off the exit. Something moved to his left, and he turned around. There, illuminated by magic, was a hanging platform of spider webs, large enough for a small house. And standing in its center was a monster. Her skin was pale purple, she had six arms, and five dark purple eyes with no pupil or iris. Her oil-black hair was done up in pigtails, and she wore a red blouse with pantaloons. Her upper pair of arms held teacups, the middle pair teapots, and the bottom pair nothing at all.

Pinned to her blouse was a name sticker that read 'Hi! My name's Muffet!'

"They said... he's got some awful taste," she snarled, baring her long pair of fangs. "Murderous human comes through the spider den and thinks he'll just get away with his crimes, hmm?" Her voice lowered in to dangerously black territories. With a motion of her bottom left arm, his soul shone for the world to see. "Oh, I disagree with that notion."

No time to talk. Frisk focused and, with what was alarmingly becoming second nature, focused on his will to fight. He jumped from the metal corridor onto the platform Muffet stood on, charged the spider monster, and swung with all his might into her chest.

Her eyes widened, showing bright white pupils in all five of them, and she giggled weakly. And without further word, Muffet collapsed into dust.

Frisk leaped back onto the platform and watched as all the other spiders looked up at him in shock, then scurried away. One spider went to the web platform and gently nudged Muffet's pile of dust, then scurried off along a strand. He followed it with his eyes as it vanished into the darkness... and then it came back with a small red rose resting atop its back.

His heart clenched as the spider marked Muffet's corpse with the flower. What exactly had she been to the spiders? He didn't know even the insects here were monsters! He wouldn't have killed the spiders in the Ruins if he'd known! Not easily, at least.

All the same, Frisk sighed and turned to leave the spider nest. But before he could take a step, he thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He turned back to Muffet's dust, a sudden rush of surprise paralyzing his muscles and clenching his heart. Then that surprise turned to wicked joy, and then that wicked joy itself turned to strands of white goo, forming inches away from his Temmie Armor. The goo flew away from him like it had a mind of its own and, even as Frisk watched, magic overgrew the exits and trapped him.

He turned to face the materializing monster, confused. It was huge, taller than anyone else he'd seen, and vaguely bird shaped. Its feet and wings were distorted, mangled shapes of pale gray ooze, and its long, pencil-thin neck ended in a head that looked far too heavy to be supported. The head looked like... like another monster, with a single giant eye on each side and a beak that could rotate to the other side of its head in a sickening manner.

In his head, Chara screamed in pain.

Frisk paled, but growled and raised his frying pan. This monster was hurting Chara.

Bad idea.

He swung into the bird's twisted legs, expecting it to fly apart. But instead, when his frying pan hit the monster all its momentum just... stopped. And instead of any damage, a brilliant red word appeared above his strike.

FAILURE

To make it worse, the monster's flowing body just seemed to... reinforce itself. As though Frisk had only made it stronger.

The bird thing laughed, as though it were multiple people laughing at once, then pulled itself up. The head stayed in one place, but its body shortened until it hovered in place. Frisk backed off and watched the monster form something beneath it out of magic. It was tall, as tall as Mettaton's box form. A bipedal white figure, with a beaklike head and two eyes. No mouth, no nose. The man looked left and right, and then the bird above it flapped its wings. Frisk watched in horror as butterfly-shaped bullets formed in the air around the monster man, then flew onto its face and began nipping at it. The monster fell to its knees, writhing in pain.

"What the hell is this thing?" he breathed.

'Make it stop, make it stop,' Chara whimpered.

The bird monster relaxed its lower body, standing on the metal surface again while butterflies continued to eat its minion's face. Frisk stepped around the tortured construct, behind the bird, and struck its left wing.

nope

He struck again before it could retract itself.

But it didn't work.

This time it did retract, looking more... solid than before. Frisk gulped and watched the tortured construct, butterflies and all, vanish. It reappeared from static on the far corner of the room, standing upright. Then it slowly started to walk towards Frisk, butterflies forming and streaming off its body in torrents. His eyes widened as the butterflies approached. They were slow but they moved in stopping-starting waves that made dodging them difficult. Still, he managed to avoid them, backpedaling as the construct grew closer and closer. Once it was halfway to him, it once again vanished and the bird extended itself. It bent its head down to look at him and chirped ominously.

He struck again.

Absorbed

Frisk swallowed nervously. Absorbed? It absorbed his hits? How was he supposed to kill it, then?! This was like Mettaton's box form all over again!

The bird laughed, then floated off to the side of the chasm. The construct vanished and appeared on the other end of the room. This time there were no butterflies on its head. Frisk stared it down for a moment, burnt pan held tightly, and waited for it to do something. And do something it did. Its head snapped off it neck and started floating towards him, beak waving back and forth. The neck rapidly grew another head and sent that one at Frisk, then another and another.

His eyes widened as the construct's many heads drifted towards him. He wove between them, cringing as the bizarre magical attacks grew too close for comfort. He screamed in shock when one of their beaks grazed his back, prompting the Temmie Armor's protection to flare up. It was fine. It kinda tingled, but he barely felt a thing. He was fine.

The heads and construct both vanished. The bird floated itself over to Frisk, but before he could attack a second monster appeared. This one defied any attempt to compare it with anything else. Like the bird, it was completely gray and gelatinous, pulsing horribly. Gelatinous pustules covered its back and made what looked like a mouth, but the mouth was gargantuan and had no eyes, nose, or indeed anything else; the entire head was just a mouth. The creature had a single, flexing arm, and both its body and tailtip drooped slime onto the ground.

It reared up before Frisk, and as he watched two eyes formed above its mouth, glaring at him. The smell of sweetened lemons, of all things, flooded his nose. "Welcome," it said in a hissing voice that came from all directions at once. ", to your special hell."

'It hurts, it hurts,' Chara whimpered.

The bird drifted off and summoned the construct again, this time spewing butterflies from it. He ran at the new monster and slammed it with the flat bottom of his burnt pan.

Don't worry about it.

It laughed like Muffet had, then curled up and sunk into the ground, vanishing from sight. He screamed as the walkway he stood on lurched up, trapping him in a giant metal mouth filled with razor sharp teeth. In the corner of his vision he saw a safe spot, a missing tooth, but before he could get to it the metal railing chomped down on him. He screamed, expecting to feel the teeth tearing through his guts, but instead it lightly burned, like just another magical attack. The butterflies streaming from the construct fizzled harmlessly against his Temmie Armor's aura.

The mouth opened up again, and the missing tooth moved. Frisk ran, sliding under the safe spot just in time for the mouth to close again. This time he was safe, but he had to hit the deck to avoid a butterfly. He avoided a few more chomps, but was smacked by a handful of butterflies. Then, finally, the metal mouth turned back into normal floor. The lemon-scented creature emerged from the ground in front of him.

"You're not worming your way out this time," it hissed, the sound of its pulsating flesh filling the spider nest with a haunting melody. "Reaper Bird, again!" it shouted, submerging before Frisk could strike.

'Reaper Bird' summoned its construct again, which began to throw heads at him. The lemony monster didn't change the ground beneath his feet into a mouth again. This time, candy-corn shaped teeth floated up around Frisk, pointed straight at him. Above him were a pair of flashing blue and orange eyes. Before Frisk knew what was happening, they began shooting magical bullets at him.

He jumped backwards - nicking himself on a magical tooth - and started dancing back and forth, struggling to avoid both the heads from Reaper Bird and the eye beams from the new monstrosity.

Reaper Bird's construct faded, and the conjured mouth with eyes also faded. But while Reaper Bird remained floating off to the side, and the lemony monster didn't emerge, something else did. White specks grew from the air around him, like fog, then flew together into a giant orb with a grinning, beady face on the side facing him. Frisk gulped as the ball landed. Then it blossomed forth into another dripping, seemingly indestructible monster.

This one was a dog, but oh so wrong. The head had two gooey ears, but instead of a face there was just a gaping, cavernous hole into the depths of the monstrosity. Its tail wagged back and forth behind its bulk so fast there appeared to several tails, its legs each ended in a single claw, and the space between the legs looked like the outline of more dogs. It woofed at him through its gaping hole, but the woof echoed for seconds afterward. Then it growled in a similar fashion.

Reaper Bird said something, multiple voices overlapped on each other. But Frisk thought he heard it say 'your last look'.

'I'm sorry I'm sorry, please make it stop I'm begging you make it stop...' Chara pleaded.

'I'm trying, I don't know how!' he responded, running at the dog-thing and swinging. Though he suspected he already knew...

I'm lovin' it.

... yep, still invincible.

The dog growled and drifted away, floating in the air just like Reaper Bird. The lemon scented monster emerged, roared at him, then sunk back away and turned the ground beneath Frisk into a mouth again. Reaper Bird summoned its construct with butterflies, and the dog started spewing what looked like... like cross-shaped arrows at him from its orifice. He dodged and ducked as good as he could, but now there were just too many projectiles. If he dodged the dog's he ran into the butterflies. If he dodged the butterflies, he ran into the teeth. If he dodged the teeth, he ran into the dog's arrows. When the attacks finally ended he fell to the ground, his skin burned and ravaged by the magic despite his Temmie Armor.

Reaper Bird said something garbled to the emerging lemon-scented monster. The latter nodded. "Yes, I see it. Endogeny, fetch the armor!"

His eyes widened as the newly named 'Endogeny' turned towards him. Oh no.

While Reaper Bird summoned its head-throwing construct and the lemony one surrounded him with teeth and pounded Frisk with eyebeams, Endogeny simply pulled its many legs into its body and turned its tail into a rocket. Frisk screamed as the dog soared at him and, occupied as he was dodging the other attacks, he didn't have any room to pull away as Endogeny closed in. His entire body jolted in disgust as Endogeny's gaping orifice closed on his left arm, sucking and pulsating and oh so gross, and when the dog's momentum pulled it away, the Temmie Armor on his arm was gone.

While the other monsters' attacks continued pouring around Frisk, the dog turned back around in mid air. Frisk backpedaled and tore his eyes away...

... only to find Endogeny in his line of sight again, lining up its rocket. He kept looking around again and again, but it was always there no matter where he looked.

Endogeny struck again and again, and he couldn't do anything about it given the intensity of the other two's suppressing fire. His right arm's armor. His boots. His legs. His chest. Most disgustingly, his helmet. Endogeny took all of it. One of Reaper Bird's conjured heads hit Frisk with a beak, and he gasped at the pain. It hurt so much more than before. How much had the Temmie Armor been protecting him?

Even worse there was no more protective purple aura, so the lemony monster's eye beams struck him in the head again.

Frisk tried to run. He ran to the exit of the tunnel, only to find it still sealed off with magic. That was fine though, right? Monster magic was relatively weak, he could just bash his way through -

The temperature plummeted and his breath steamed. Frost grew over the ground and crystallized around the spider webs. A massive pillar of thick, blue ice erupted from nothingness, rising to the ceiling and cutting off all hopes of escape. For a moment Frisk thought it was two pillars stacked on top of each other, but the top one turned brilliant white with a beady smile like Endogeny's, and then it morphed.

His stomach dropped. It was a drake monster, but dripping and gray. There were no teeth in its beak, and instead of eyes it had dripping vegetoids in their place. Its entire lower half was a slushy, indistinct mass trailing behind it like a snail's slime. It looked at him and hissed. "... MUR... DER... ER!"

Frisk continued to fight, striking the strange, dripping monsters whenever he could. But it was just no good. Each time he did they didn't seem injured at all. A red phrase would simply flash around his strike, and they'd end up looking even better off than before. Reaper Bird swarmed him with butterflies and heads. Lemon Bread - the drake monster called it that at one point - summoned teeth and eye beams, warping the very ground beneath his feet. Endogeny rammed him and shot him.

The drake monster remained atop her pillar of ice, flapping her dripping wings. Swirls of ice magic just like Snowdrake's and Chilldrake's formed around her wings and shot at him, but they only flew a pitiful distance before falling to the ground and fading. But that didn't matter, because just her aura of bitter, crippling cold was doing more than enough. It clung to his limbs, it slowed his heart and filled his head with cotton. It bit his nose and tore at his ears. He continued to weaken. His injured soul sucked at his strength and his skin, red and raw from magic, tingled. In the back of his mind Chara kept whimpering and begging for whatever was hurting her to stop.

Frisk collapsed to his knees, then fell over. As he did, a fresh layer of frost fell from his skin. The last thing he saw was the distorted drake atop her pillar of ice, glaring down at him. He was just so weak. He was just so numb. He was just so cold.

His soul tore.

FILE LOADED

Gasping for breath, he leaned against the wall. He was just outside the door that led to the spider chamber. Oh God.

'Chara? Chara are you alright?' he asked frantically.

'I'm fine. I-I'm fine,' she insisted.

'No you're not, you were screaming! What happened? Were they attacking you somehow?'

'I don't know. I just... hurt. So badly. I think it happened just by being around them.'

He nodded. 'Well, that settles it then. I'm not going back in there to fight them.'

'What?' Chara wondered. 'Frisk, there's no other way forward. You have to. I know they seem invincible but so did Mettaton when you first fought him.'

'I don't care, they were hurting you! You've already been through so much. You shouldn't be hurt by anything.'

'Frisk, thank you for caring so much about me, but you're the one actually dying. You've endured so, so much pain over the course of this task, and that hasn't stopped you. I'll be ready for it this time. Just... find a way, alright?' He didn't know... it was one thing for him to walk into a situation that got himself hurt. It was another thing for him to do something that got someone else hurt. Especially someone he liked as much as Chara. 'Frisk, please. You know we have to progress anyway.'

He sighed. "Fine, you win," he said aloud. He had to be careful with what he said; Asriel had proven he was able to listen in without him knowing.

Frisk ventured on, into the webbed chambers. He listened to Muffet give her spiel again, wondering if she was their mother, or their queen. Was he creating thousands of orphans by killing her? Orphans like him, but with nowhere to go? In the end it didn't matter. He struck down Muffet a second time with no difficulty, and stepped back to watch a spider place a rose on her dust pile.

One second passed.

Two seconds passed.

Abruptly, surprise flooded Frisk's veins, locking him in place. Then it turned to happiness.

'Here we go,' Chara whimpered.

Reaper Bird materialized from Frisk, and it started backpedaling. The strange monster hissed something to him in a trio of voices, but Frisk simply stepped in and swung his pan as hard as he could. Maybe this time it'll work, he thought as he made contact.

But it didn't work.

Reaper Bird curled up and summoned its construct. Exactly like before, butterflies engulfed its head as it knelt in pain, screaming in silence. Frisk winced, shivers running down his back at the horrible display.

The construct vanished, only to reappear by the entrance he'd used to enter the spider cave. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves, and focused. The construct walked towards him, butterflies streaming outward from it. But they weren't that fast. This wasn't nearly as hard to dodge as Mettaton NEO's attacks.

Yet.

Frisk searched around the spider cave, looking for something to help kill this... thing that was hurting Chara. There was webbing everywhere, forming strands and even bridges that he could use; even if Reaper Bird floated off above the chasm, Frisk would still be able to reach it if he was careful.

The problem was that it wouldn't matter; these monsters were still impervious to any damage he did.

An idea dawned on him as he dodged between the heads of Reaper Bird's constructs. If being mean them caused them to absorb the damage and get stronger, maybe he needed to be nice?

Reaper Bird dismissed its construct and extended its body back to the ground. It turned its head sideways to look at him, and then for a sickening moment its eye was a mouth that chomped down. Then it was an eye again. "Hey!" Frisk shouted. "You're really rocking that look! You look very majestic! Maybe we could catch dinner later?"

The monster didn't react at all, save for pulling itself up and summoning its magic again. So much for killing with kindness.

Without any warning, Lemon Bread surged up from the ground in front of him. "Welcome to your special hell," it hissed again, voice surrounding Frisk from all angles.

"Already there!" Frisk replied, backing off from Lemon Bread. The monster submerged, and Frisk braced himself. Sure enough, the ground lurched up and trapped him in a jaw made of metal, which started chomping. He jumped around and in between the teeth, but he was careless and one of Reaper Bird's butterflies flew right into his glowing soul.

"Aarh!" he grunted, backing off as the mouth sunk back into the ground. "It's fine, it's fine," he muttered.

He endured another salvo from both Reaper Bird and Lemon Bread, pulse pounding as he tried to find a way to avoid both their bullet patterns. Which creature came next?

White flakes formed in the air and started rushing together above Frisk, forming a ball.

Oh right, Endogeny.

Once fully formed, the dog-thing woofed and snarled, spewing more of its magical cross-arrows at him. Frisk grunted, trying to dodge the salvos of the three monsters at the same time, but there was just no way. The only thing he could do was rely on his Temmie Armor to protect him from the worst of it.

Endogeny shattered itself into flakes, and recombined itself on the mat of webs Muffet had made. Reaper Bird called out to it, and Endogeny nodded, its orifice quivering.

Frisk narrowed his eyes as Endogeny pulled its many legs and turned its tail into a rocket. It was going to try and strip him of his armor? Well not this time. As Endogeny soared towards Frisk, ready to rip off a piece of his armor, he jumped backwards. He crashed through one of Lemon Bread's candy corn teeth, but all that mattered was that he got the dog-thing to soar past him. He absorbed a few eye beams and floating heads with his Temmie Armor's aura, and went back to wracking his brain for a way to kill these things.

... nothing. He just had to run, hope he could lose them. Frisk turned and sprinted for the exit. Hopefully he could get to it before -

A massive pillar of ice rose up, and the final creature revealed herself atop it. "... you! ... killed! ... my! ... son!" she shrieked. Wait, her son? When did Frisk -

Oh.

Oh.

Already the familiar, seeping chill was in the air. His movements slowed, his breath was clear as day, and flakes of frost started coating his skin and clothes.

"So Cold, do something!" Lemon Bread hissed.

"... I'm ... trying!" she retorted, forming more swirls of ice and tossing them a pathetic distance with her gelatinous wings.

Alright, not that way. The other way maybe? He turned on his feet and dashed through the storm of bullets to the other opening, where he'd entered the spider cave. But along the way Endogeny tackled him. Its heavy, pulsing and gooey body pressed him into the ground so he couldn't wiggle free. It swiftly swallowed the armor on both his arms, and zoomed off. Damn it, he thought as he got back up.

Quietly, Chara whimpered.

He sprinted, bashing painfully through a field of butterflies as he did...

... only for the creature 'So Cold' to fade in like a ghost and conjure another wall of ice behind herself. Frisk was completely trapped. With an angry scream he kept running and smacked his burnt pan into So Cold, trying to knock her off the side of the walkway.

Absorbed

She flew off with a quiet whine, but faded out of sight and reappeared atop the wall of ice, conjuring more ineffective ice swirls.

The ground beneath his feet lurched up from underneath him as Lemon Bread turned it into another mouth. Reaper Bird's construct started throwing heads at him, and Endogeny relented from trying to steal his Temmie Armor to instead pelt him with arrows from its gaping mouth-thing.

Frisk screamed and fought as hard as he could, but he just couldn't avoid it all, and the relentless cold radiating from the bird-dragon just got more and more bitter. While he managed to avoid both Lemon Bread and Reaper Bird's attacks, he just wasn't fast enough to avoid Endogeny when it rocketed at him. His armor's helmet went. Then his chestplate, then finally his leggings. Once more he was exposed, with only his clothes to protect his skin from their magic. It wouldn't be long now...

But before they could attack again, Frisk heard something. Like static, coming from... his backpack? The four creatures paused their onslaught, staring at him in confusion. Even So Cold's numbing aura relented. He realized what the noise was; his cell phone, in his pack. But it wasn't ringing. It was like he'd already picked it up and put it on speaker.

Someone's voice spoke through it. "We've come to join the fun!"

Three things appeared in the air around Frisk, like a triangle. They looked like heads, or like a brain he'd seen once in a science museum. They had bulbous bodies, with a thin tail that trailed off into nothingness. But that was where any comparison to a brain ended. They were as grayscale as the monsters attacking him, and were covered in mouths. Smiling ones, frowning ones, wailing ones, laughing ones. They shimmered in place, as though they were on a television screen with bad reception.

Then all around the cavern, tiny white orbs formed. The other monsters watched them in confusion, as did Frisk. What were these three going to do to him? The white orbs built and built, surrounding the strange monsters. But none were close to Frisk.

The spheres blossomed outward, like a face was erupting, growing, then shrinking and vanishing. Frisk gasped. Those faces were Gaster's face, with eye pupils and no cracks in his skull. The magical heads engulfed the four monsters that'd been attacking him, and they screamed.

Reaper Bird warped and contorted itself, switching between curling into fetal position and extending out while trying to hide its eyes with its deformed wings.

Lemon Bread writhed on the ground like an earthworm. "It hurts it hurts make it stop go away nobody can come go away don't say I'm pretty no no!" it wailed.

Endogeny curled into a literal, whining like a kicked puppy.

So Cold wailed, burying her head in her wings. "... no no no... please go... I don't want to remember... "

'Wait,' Chara said. 'It... it doesn't hurt anymore. Frisk, NOW! HIT THEM!'

With a desperate scream he charged at where Endogeny was whimpering, its skin pulsing and rippling and shedding ooze. He brought his pan up, and then straight down on its head. Dust exploded out from Endogeny as it died, far more than should've been in the monster. And it wasn't a light gray, but tinted pink.

The creatures, which Frisk guessed were Gaster's memoryheads, continued their onslaught of magic. Next in his line of sight was So Cold. He charged, weaving between the bursting heads to where she lay huddled, stammering apologies to a husband and son. He grimaced, but ended her. Just like Endogeny, she had far too much dust and it was all pink. Her ice barriers crumbled and melted in seconds, opening the way out.

The cold lifted, and by comparison the normal temperature was a furnace that had Frisk breaking out into a sweat. He didn't let that stop him, though. With Endogeny and So Cold dead, the memoryheads concentrated more orbs on the remaining two creatures. Frisk ran up to where Lemon Bread wriggled on the floor, and used the edge of his burnt pan like a sword to cut it in half. Its mouth opened wide in shock, but then it bust into a veritable mountain of pink ash. Reaper Bird followed not long after.

With that done, Frisk collapsed and breathed out weakly. The white orbs of magic faded away, and he glanced towards the trio of memoryheads. "Th... thanks for the help," he managed.

From his cell phone, voices continued to speak. One by one, the memoryheads faded away like static.

"Be seeing you."

"But we came."

"It's been a real get together!"

Then they were all gone. There were no spiders around. Pink dust spilled over the edges of the metal walkway. Frisk, still in pain, pulled himself out of the chamber to what looked like a stage set for a play, with purple walls designed to look like a castle. He reclined against one of the wooden walls and let out a weak breath. "Oh my God, I did it." Thank you, Gaster, he thought. Then, worriedly, he thought to Chara, 'Are you alright?'

'I'll live,' she said quietly. 'You should eat some food. Recover your health; you'll need it now that the Temmie Armor's gone.'

'Right,' he thought, putting his burnt pan aside to grab his backpack. He ate a crab apple and three cinnamon bunnies. While the first one made him feel 'full' there wasn't any actual food in his stomach, so he could keep eating without worrying about making himself throw up. Once he was done, he felt good as new. 'What were those things, anyhow? And... are sure you're okay?'

'I don't know what they were. Frisk, do not worry about me. I told you, I am fine. Let us continue; neither those four nor Muffet counted towards the thirty left.'

Right. He still had a lot of people to kill. He'd forgotten about that.

He got to his feet, put his pack on, and grabbed his weapon. Frisk continued on.

The stage cut out abruptly, depositing Frisk not on a metal walkway, but more bright orange paths of granite. He found an elevator labeled 'R3', but there was nothing of note there. So he backtracked, heading up a flight of stairs that went north. He stomped up them, shedding flakes of dust with every step. Frisk thought back to So Cold. Was she the mother of one of the drakes he'd killed in Snowdin? His heart clenched in sympathy. God. At... at least they were together now. They could be with each other for until Chara stopped Asriel and he reset them back to life. What about the other creatures? Were they parents too? Children?

The stairs ended, depositing Frisk on a platform of desaturated blue stone. He blinked. In front of him was a massive structure, maybe five stories tall. Its walls were blue, and it stretched many stories up with brilliant yellow windows every few meters. It spread far to the left and right, along with two alleys next to the main hub. At the front entrance were small shrubs tucked into dirt pots, along with a peculiar door. The door's glass was tinted yellow, preventing Frisk from seeing inside. But the handles in the middle of the door were shaped to form a letter 'M'. Above the door, but below the second floor's windows, was an awning and above that a golden emblem. It was just the letters 'MTT', with what looked like a cross between a winged box-form Mettaton and a spatula on either end.

"MTT resort," he said aloud. "Mettaton Resort." That was where Papyrus had said to meet him. Was he going to have to kill the skeleton now? Papyrus believed so much that Frisk could change, that his kind words and puzzles and cooking could make him stop, but he just didn't know how he had to do this. And now Papyrus was going to die at his hands, just like Sans had what felt like a lifetime ago.

'The Core is past this building,' Chara explained. 'This structure used to just be an apartment complex. Within the Core is a path to New Home. I can sense more of the thirty we need within the Core itself. Maintenance crew, I think.'

Right. Only way out was forward. Frisk pulled open the doors and stepped into MTT resort.

Chapter Text

Frisk

In any other circumstances, the hotel would've been welcoming and warm. But with how empty it was, it just felt... desolate. No surprise there.

There was a box right by the entrance, but he had no use for it. The floor was patterned with warm, butterscotch tiles. In the center was a golden fountain. It was shaped like a circle, with a smaller circle in the center elevated above the rest. A statue of Mettaton in his box form stood out from the top, his screen displaying closed eyes with a mouth - one the real Mettaton didn't have - open wide. Judging by the massive stain of water on the red carpet surrounding the fountain, it used to spray water. But now it was inanimate.

To Frisk's left, there was what appeared to be a restaurant. To his right, the actual apartment complex. Ahead of him was a counter to check in, and the ledger was still open even though nobody manned the counter. A back entrance to the resort led out the back, and above it was a glowing red sign that simply read 'CORE'. There was also a pair of glass doors with the letters MTT above it, next to a hamburger. Lastly there was an elevator, but it was closed and had an Out Of Order notice on it.

In the corners of the room, there were potted plants. Tall, dull green ficuses that leaned against their respective walls. Frisk didn't like the way they looked at him. Stared at him. Judged him. It's not my fault, he wanted to say to them.

'Hmm,' Chara muttered. 'I... actually sense some armor and a better weapon outside, in one of the alleys.'

'I'll go check it out later,' he said. 'I wanna look around first.'

'Fair enough.' Frisk approached the fountain. On it was a plaque, explaining that it was a memorial fountain erected in 201 X. The Mettaton on it was a recent addition. 'Oh... our fountain. They made it to commemorate Asriel and I getting along so well. I guess when we died, they had it renamed a memorial fountain. And Mettaton just... has he no respect?!'

'I'm sure he had his reasons,' he placated, heading past the fountain to what he guessed was a burger restaurant. Inside there was a counter, with more golden Mettaton symbolism everywhere he looked. On the wall was a menu displaying the names and prices of four different foods, complete with pictures.

To Frisk's surprise, there was someone behind the counter. An anthropomorphic cat monster with orange fur, a yellow and red hat, and a work uniform on. As Frisk entered, the monster's mouth scrunched up nervously. "H-Hi!" he shouted in a scratchy, wimpy voice. "Welcome to MTT Brand Burger Emporium, home of the Glamburger!" Frisk stepped up to the counter, pan ready. "Sparkle up your day, Tee-Em!"

"Sorry," he muttered, then jabbed with his weapon and shut the cashier up. He started reading the menu, looking for anything.

'Frisk, you just ate,' Chara reminded him.

'Yeah, but monster food's made of magic, right? It's not filling up my stomach. I'm pretty sure I can't even get fat off of it.'

'Well both those things are true for humans, but - '

'Well then as long as I'm here I may as well, right?' Then he smiled. 'You know, once we get monsters to the surface, this type of food will be a hit with people trying to diet!'

He examined the foods. Compared to the rest of the Underground, the prices here were ridiculous. Not that it mattered, he could just take anything. He felt a little bad because he didn't really need the food, not with his backpack full of bunnies and apples, but it wasn't hurting anyone. And he could use some comfort food after what he'd been through.

The Stairfaits looked good, but the 'Glamburgers' looked like they had glitter in the patties. And were those... sequins instead of sesame seeds? Glue instead of mayonnaise? Pass. The sword-shaped sandwiches called 'Legendary Heroes' looked wonderful though, as did the single soy steak in the shape of Mettaton's boxy face.

He ended up taking one Starfait, one Hero, and the only steak. He left the burger shop, carefully balancing everything in his hands, and moved on to the restaurant. It was just as empty, but the purple patterned carpet, the empty stage, candles, TV screens and more gave it an air of class.

There weren't any chairs at the tables, though. Frisk set his food on one, then shambled to the check-in counter. He clambered over the desk, accidentally upsetting the ledger in the process, and headed in. He found a storage closet, rummaged around, and found a chair. He also found some utensils, which he pocketed. Some lifting later, he got the chair back to his table and sat in it. With the Starfait set aside and his utensils on the table, he tore into his sandwich.

It was a good sandwich, he had to admit. The right amount of lettuce, tomato, and soy ham. He tore off bite after bite, all of which fizzled away into wasted energy down his throat. Once he was done with that, he began eating the Starfait. It was sweet and delicious, with star-shaped sugar crystals the size of his teeth embedded in it.

Before he could start on his face steak though, he heard a crash behind him. Frisk turned around in his seat, facing the rest of the hotel, and his heart sank.

"Human!" Papyrus called, bounding over to him. "I see you have finally arrived!"

"Oh, hi," he said, getting up from his chair. He walked over to Papyrus, his pan held tightly in shaking hands. He couldn't manage to look up at the skeleton. "You must be pretty disappointed in me, huh?" he muttered. He forced himself to look up. Maybe Asriel would let him not kill Papyrus? Like he didn't have to kill him in Snowdin?

As if hearing his thoughts, Asriel faded into view behind Papyrus, in his adult form. He drew a single clawed finger across his neck, and vanished.

So much for that. And besides, Frisk needed to kill anyway to make Chara strong. He needed every last execution point he could get his hands on.

"Nonsense, why would I be disappointed? You're trying your best, and that's already progress!"

"It hasn't changed anything though!" Frisk shouted, sitting back in his seat. "I'm still clearing out every place I come across in spite of your and mine best efforts. It..." He choked on his voice. "It doesn't matter how hard you try to help me, because no matter how badly I want to stop I'm being forced to do this!" He stopped himself. Whoops, he'd let it slip.

Papyrus's eyes bugged out of his skulls, turning inexplicably... googly. Then they receded. "Wowie... that's really horrible!" the skeleton said at last. "I'm really sorry you're having to go through this." Papyrus glanced left and right. "Obviously my help has been misplaced. I should be trying to convince this person forcing you to kill everyone that they can be a better person. N-Not that I wouldn't still help you, of course! We're friends and this is obviously very trying on you. I can scarcely imagine what it's like being forced to go straight through the Underground doing that to everyone you meet." Frisk looked down, hiding his eyes. "Especially going through Snowdin... where my brother's sentry station is." Frisk looked further down, frowning deeply as Papyrus's voice turned strained. "I wonder... what happened to that poor person, that they feel they have to do this to make themselves feel better?"

"It's the dumbest thing," Frisk growled, tightening his grip on his pan. "He thought I was his dead sister, and when he found out I wasn't, made me do this as punishment."

"Oh," Papyrus said simply, lacing his gloved hands together. "Well, then he must miss her dearly, if he considers just not being her a crime equal to killing dozens of people! Human, do you know what I think?"

"What?" he grunted.

"I think you can get through to him! Help him see that this won't make him feel any better. You can do this, I'm sure!"

Frisk sighed, and smiled. That was the plan, wasn't it? They couldn't beat Asriel violently, so they just had to make him not want to do these horrible things anymore. One way or another. Of course he couldn't say that out loud. Not with Asriel listening. "Thanks, Papyrus." He glanced at his pan, and trembled. "I don't want to do this," he whimpered. Papyrus had been nothing but kind to him. Even the earlier bits where he was trying to capture him were whimsical and even fun. Clearly Papyrus didn't take it too seriously, if he tried to capture him with a word jumble. And now he was going to murder the skeleton, just like his brother.

"Oh, that's... fine," Papyrus said, sweat coating his skill. "Whoever this is must be really strong to force you to do this in spite of the entire Underground. But I'm confident that you can get through to them, and bring them on to a better path!"

Frisk nodded. "Thanks," he said simply, standing and approaching the skeleton. "And... I'm sorry."

He summoned his intent to kill and swung at the monster's armor, not daring to look.

Crunch!

Papyrus's body collapsed to dust, but something thudded onto the carpeted floor. Frisk glanced towards it and saw that it was Papyrus's disembodied head. "Well," the skeleton said, his voice strained. "I've said all I can. It's up to you now, human! You can save whoever this is. I know it. Just... do what I would do! B-Believe in you!" Then the head turned to dust as well.

'At the very least, he will be with his brother now,' Chara said quietly.

Frisk nodded solemnly, then hardened his face. 'Chara, where did you say that armor and weapon was?'

'Outside, take the alleyway that'll be to our left,' she instructed.

'Got it.' Frisk stood and, leaving the steak where it was, Frisk put his backpack on and headed out of the resort. Following Chara's instructions brought him to a dirty alleyway filled with trashcans, as well as boxes labeled with their contents. Written on a wall near the back was the phrase, 'Bratty & Catty'. There was a scathing letter, addressed to him, written in gel pen. He read it, sighed, and rummaged through the boxes.

Most of it was junk food, with bites taken out of it. There was a key, but Chara said that wasn't it so he tossed it aside. What he found was an old cowboy hat, gray with age, and an empty revolver pistol that he made sure to point far away from anything important. 'These ones,' Chara said. 'The hat is armor, the gun is a weapon.'

'But... there's no bullets,' he said.

'Well then, you will simply have to strike them with it, no?'

Frisk thought it over. 'Actually, I think I'll stick with the pan in that case. Much easier to swing. I'll take the hat, though.' He plopped it onto his head, and in that instant the mental image of himself with a handlebar mustache floated through his mind. He laughed quietly, then left the alley behind. He walked through the hotel lobby, and took a moment to shake himself off. He ran his fingers through his hair and patted his shirt and pants, trying to get as much caked-on dust off as he could.

It worked, mostly. A gray halo formed on the ground around him, and while there was still a noticeable amount clinging to him he felt much more alive than before. 'Just the Core and New Home, right?' he asked Chara. 'Final push, then. Let's get you your powers, Chara.'

'Right!' she cheered as he walked out the hotel's back entrance. 'Determination!'

The back entrance brought him to a ledge, with more potted plants out the end. A wooden walkway stretched over an eerily high fall, but it turned to metal halfway across to the same structure he'd seen earlier. The Core. It was even bigger up close, blue and glowing with red wires going every which way, humming quietly with energy. With newfound confidence, Frisk stormed inside to begin his hunt.

Inside, the walls were blue as the sky. Wire patterns spread across the floor and walls, along with glass tiles and blinking lights. There was an elevator immediately across from Frisk, but he decided to leave it for later. After all, there was a passage both to the left and right.

To the right there was nothing; just a dead end over a canyon of fire. Left brought him to a hallway and a door with a glowing red eyeball symbol above it. Glowing tubes of yellow, teal, and magenta gas hummed against the walls. Here and there the Core's paint was chipped, revealing purple metal tubes within.

Frisk walked across a small bridge of glass, and stopped. There was a way forward but a path to the left, and from it he could hear... something. A woman's voice, deep and booming.

"The doctor's cameras said he was coming this way," she said as he pressed himself close to the door. "Where is he? What is taking that creature so long?"

"Sparkle twinkle?" a man's voice replied nonsensically.

"You're right, we should just be - " Frisk stepped in, adjusted his hat, and raised his weapon. Before him were two strange monsters. One looked like a floating magician with two glowing orbs next to his head. The other was a colossal figure of armor, with a massive mace in its - her? - right hand. The head looked to be just a helmet. Rather her face was on her chest, with colossal eyes and a beak. " - there he is!" she shouted, exposing his soul.

He struck the magic one first, hard enough to send him into the walls with a thud but, surprisingly, not enough to kill. Then the monsters both unleashed their attacks. A glowing, miniature crescent moon formed on the ceiling and the lights darkened. One of the magician's orbs came alive and started hunting Frisk down. He wove between the comets and crosses, and finished off the more magical monster.

The other one growled quietly. "Say good night," she intoned, smashing her weapon against the ground. More comets streaked through the room, followed by a glowing sun that released spots of light. But she too went down.

'Twenty eight left,' Chara said. 'Strange, these monsters do not seem to work here. Perhaps some of the ones in hiding decided to take a stand?'

'Probably, given what she was saying,' Frisk mentioned, ignoring the gold and moving on.

The Core was larger than it looked from the outside, and far more confusing to navigate than he'd expected. Many times he found himself doubling back. Bridges, intersections, and more flashed in and out of his vision. Before long though, Frisk found himself walking across a dark platform. Out of the shadows, monsters attacked him.

He blinked. A Froggit and a Whimsun? No, that wasn't right. The Whimsun wore armor and wielded an arrow, and the Froggit was far spikier and bounced energetically.

Frisk downed the frog before it could attack him. The Whimsun-thing locked eyes with him and growled. "I'm not afraid of you," he declared, surrounding Frisk in a pulsing ring of moths. He had to move around to keep its moving edges from crashing into him, but when the magic cut out he ended the other monster.

Further along the bridge came two more monsters, like the armored and magical one he'd killed not minutes ago. The armored one struck with her mace in wild, swinging arcs and the magical one sent his orb teleporting around the room to spew crosses, but Frisk again was victorious and unharmed.

Further still, three monsters attacked. A spiky Froggit and armored Whimsun, but also a strange eyeball monster that vaguely resembled a Loox. But when it closed its eyelid, Frisk got the impression of a grinning mouth and two smaller eyes.

"Woof!" the frog announced, looking like it knew exactly why it was there.

"What are you afraid of?" the eyeball demanded, gazing through Frisk's soul.

"It's time!" the last monster declared, spinning his weapon around.

In seconds, Frisk was down to just the eyeball. Though he had to admit, they'd thrown around so many magical bullets he couldn't help but get hit by a few of them. He and the eyeball monster stared each other down, and it snarled. "You've seen enough!" it shouted, filling the room with bouncing orbs. The projectiles vanished when the monster died.

'Twenty one left,' Chara counted.

Frisk eventually found himself crossing a long bridge, below which an eerie white light shimmered. The air smelled sharp, like ozone. There was a hallway further on, and Chara explained it led to New Home. So... not yet. There was an elevator, which Frisk took. It just led him back to the Core's entrance.

He threw himself into his hunt with gusto. Papyrus's words stayed with him. He could do this. Talk Asriel down, save everyone. Just one last push, one last bit of pain. The specter of King Asgore and his six souls loomed in the back of his mind, but he'd cross that bridge when he got to it. Besides, the hat on his head made him feel tough. Like he could take on anyone.

Circling through the Core took a while. He peeked down corridors, into puzzle rooms, backtracked, and more, to find the monsters hunting him down. Now and then he stopped to eat as the monsters slowly but surely peppered him and his soul with their stinging magic. But despite their intimidating appearances, and sometimes their foreboding size, Frisk never once felt like his life was in danger. The Core didn't feel dreary and hopeless at all. It was upbeat and energetic, the light pulsing with some lively rhythm that he could easily believe was designed to keep him going.

'Eighteen left.'

'Fifteen left.'

'Nine left.'

'Four left.'

He peered into the red room, with a deactivated 'shoot the enemy ship' puzzle. Three monsters were waiting for him there. The ones Chara described as a Whimsalot, Final Froggit, and Astigmatism. His pan swung, and dust flew.

'One left,' Chara whispered excitedly. 'I can... FEEL it, Frisk! Hang on. Let me try something.'

'Ooo...kay?' he replied. He didn't feel anything changing. What was she even doing?

'Aaaand... done! Find the last one and kill them.'

'Not gonna tell me what you did?' he asked, turning around.

'I do not wish to get your hopes up if I got it wrong,' she explained.

Good enough for him. He trusted her not to do anything horrible.

Finding the last monster required him to really scrape the bottom of the barrel. Several loops back and forth through the entire Core didn't find him his victim. But eventually, he found a lone Astigmatism wandering across the final bridge, above the river of light.

It found him and glared. "Take your last look, human!" it boasted, before summoning giant, drifting orbs. Frisk closed in, stepped around the Astigmatism, and swung his burnt pan. But the moment he did his arm shot forward, as though he'd struck far harder than he actually did, and the flat bottom of his weapon crashed into the monster's eye as loud as a gunshot.

981424

It flew back, crashed into the wall, and started falling into the abyss. But it was dust before it even touched the sea of light. Frisk blinked owlishly.

'None left,' Chara giggled. 'So much power...'

'What did you do? And what's with the scary laugh?'

Chara cleared her throat. 'Apologies. Just feels so good. I feel almost alive again! As for what I did, I simply increased your attack. Dramatically.'

'My... attack?'

'The sum number of how much damage you can inflict,' she explained. 'Like how I can see your 'health' as a number that's the total of your soul integrity, blood sugar - '

'Alright alright I get it,' he replied with a smile. 'So, onward to New Home, right?'

'Right!'

Frisk found the corridor next to the elevator, the one he hadn't gone yet, and walked in. He could see that up ahead it turned to the right, but before that it opened into a large space, like a stage. Or a control room. He headed inside and stretched his neck. Then the back of his head tingled; there was someone behind him.

He whirled around just as the unknown monster leaped off the doorframe. "AAAAAHHHHH!" she screamed, thrusting yellow clawed hands out at him.

Frisk pulled himself to the side as lightning bullets streamed from the monster's hands. He didn't have time to examine her much. She was yellow and white, that was good enough for him. He charged forward and swung with his pan. She backpedaled out of his arc but he stepped forward and, using the momentum of his swing, struck again. Like with the Astigmatism mere moments before, his attack sped up in midair before crashing into the monster's labcoat.

9999999

She flew back like a bullet and crashed into the walls hard enough to crack them. Now that he wasn't blindly fighting, Frisk could look at her more closely. A yellow, reptilian monster. She had headspikes, buck teeth, and a thick tail. She wore a labcoat and glasses... wait, he'd seen her before. The drawing, in Sans's basement. And Gaster had mentioned...

"Doctor Alphys?" he wondered, staring at the monster as she laid in a puddle of her own dust.

"Ah, I-I," she wheezed, looking up at him calmly. Much too calm and... relieved for someone dying. "I didn't think it would - hurt - so much," she croaked. Then she faded away into powder.

Chara sighed contently. 'There we are, finally. Level of Violence: Twenty.'

'Twenty?' he asked, smiling. 'Is that enough?'

For a sickening moment, he felt like cracking his knuckles. But it wasn't him wanting to do that. 'Not quite. I still need just a little more before I can... can become... I don't know yet. One more surge of EXP. Father should do it. I'll try to work on enhancing more than just your attack, Frisk.'

'Thanks,' he replied, walking out of the vast chamber. He turned the corner and found himself face to face with another elevator. He pressed the button to open it, stepped inside, and the doors closed. There was only one button to press, and so he did.

The elevator began to hum, shaking beneath his feet.

'So, it's simple. I go through New Home, kill however many are there, then get to your dad,' Frisk said. 'By then you should be strong enough to protect me from his six souls, right?'

'That's the plan!'

The elevator kept humming, and Frisk found himself tapping his foot. "Wow, this is taking a while." He walked towards the metal doors. "Is it broken or something?"

Of course, the instant he said that the machine slowed to a halt. The doors opened and Frisk stepped out into a gray world. Gray floors, walls, bricks, gray everything. He turned a corner, and saw two things. One was another elevator, but jammed shut. The other was a lookout. He grimaced. It was all too similar to the Ruins. Roman arches, domes, and more as far as he could see, but all in shades of gray.

'Welcome to New Home, Frisk. Last stop.'

His grimace turned to a smile. 'Alright. How many here?'

'Let me see... hmm. Oh! Just one, Frisk. I can even see who it is.'

'Really? Just one?' he wondered, happily. Just one more murder? That was better than he thought! He could do that, no problem.

'Yes. It's my father, King Asgore.'

Chapter Text

Frisk

New Home was eerily silent.

Big surprise.

Frisk walked down the long road, swinging his burnt pan idly while taking in the scenery. Castle. House. Domed building. Castle. House. Domed building. Castle. House. Domed building. Nobody in the streets. Nobody in their homes. Everyone was gone, fleeing from him.

All but one, if Chara's word was good. And it always was.

He turned a corner and continued up the road, eyes peeled for a boss monster with six human souls. Eventually the path opened into a wide front yard of a house, nestled between some walls. Frisk paused, and examined it carefully. "Wait a second," he said out loud, walking across a bed of gray leaves. "This looks like... Toriel's home." His gut sank at the thought of the goat lady. He hadn't thought about her in... a while. Her kindness. Her acceptance. Her plans to raise him as her own. Her instant forgiveness for what he did to her. What would she say, if she saw him now? If she didn't know what was going on? If she did know?

Frisk walked closer. There was a sign above the door that said 'New Home sweet New Home'. Another box resting against the wall. He walked through the open entrance.

It's exactly like her home, he thought. The same stairwell. The same shelves. The same patterns on the floor, the same hallway to the left and the right. Sure it was gray, but the layout was identical. There were a few golden flowers in pots, though. And blocking him from going down the stairs was a chain with two padlocks. There was a note attached. Frisk walked forward to read it, but Chara spoke first.

'Two keys. He keeps them in the kitchen and the hallway.'

He blinked awkwardly. 'Um, thanks.'

Frisk decided to go to the kitchen first, ears pealed for any noise. But nobody came. It was just completely silent.

The living room was so familiar it hurt. The same fireplace, but cold. The same reading chair, but unused. The same bookshelf, the same gardening tools, the same table and the same chairs. But there was another golden flower in the middle of the table. Frisk inspected the tools. Just regular spades and shovels, but not filed down like they were in Toriel's house. The bookshelves had various fiction books stacked up. But there were also books on how to make tea. Photo albums. Scrapbooks.

'None of that's useful to us,' Chara whispered darkly.

'Are you feeling alright?' She said nothing in response. 'You lived here, didn't you? This was where you spent - '

'Just keep going,' she snapped.

Frisk pursed his lips. Okay, fine. Touchy subject.

As he headed past the unused reading chair, Asriel appeared in front of him. He jumped backwards and brandished his burnt pan - as if he could possibly do anything to hurt an invincible time traveling monster - but Asriel just laughed. "Howdy Frisk!" he said, eyes shining happily. "You finally made it to New Home. Golly, I remember when I last lived here. So much time wasted. So many worthless memories." He smiled wider. "Oh well. At least we're here now." He vanished.

Frisk frowned, but continued into the kitchen. The trashcan was full of wrinkled paper. He got closer to read; they were all recipes for butterscotch pie, printed off the internet. The stovetop was clean; whoever lived here - he had a guess - must've used fire magic instead. Next to it was a giant yellow key. He pocketed it.

'One left,' Chara whispered.

There was another note, presumably from Asgore. He read it before Chara could interrupt; it just told him to help himself to anything. He wasn't hungry, though. Especially not with the knowledge that Asriel was here. Still, he opened the fridge. There were dozens of metal cans, sealed tight. They read 'Blook Family Acres' on their sides, each with a picture of a smiling snail.

'No chocolate,' Chara muttered. 'He always used to have chocolate...'

'Toriel had a chocolate bar,' he recalled. '... actually, I think I brought it with me. Hang on.' He slung his backpack off and fished through it. Sure enough the chocolate bar was there, sunken to the bottom. Or... it used to be a chocolate bar. But the violence of his actions, and the heat of Hotland, had crushed and melted it into a fine layer of brown goop along the bottom of his pack. 'Oops. I'd completely forgotten about it. Sorry,' he winced.

He headed out of the kitchen, but Asriel was there in the living room again, tapping a padded foot patiently. "You know, I almost feel like I owe you some explanation for this. Tell you why I've forced you to do all this, before I reset it all and we never meet again."

"Don't bother," Frisk replied. "Gaster told me everything."

Asriel raised an eyebrow, but otherwise the kid said nothing. "Did he now?"

"He told me about Flowey." Asriel stiffened. "The three hundred years you spent resetting the Underground. My first adventure through. The four hundred years you spent resetting the world above. How you're making me do this because of something as petty as thinking I'm someone I'm not."

Asriel snarled. "Your intentions never mattered, Frisk. You dared make me hope Chara had returned; after all, if I came back maybe she could too. But she didn't. Your actions are, in my world, heresy. To say nothing of how you stole the powers that are rightfully mine!" He faded out again, and Frisk sighed.

He headed off into the other hallway, with a series of doors - just like in Toriel's home - and many golden flowers. He saw the key up ahead, but first he wanted to check out 'his' room.

It was startlingly familiar. In fact, it all looked almost exactly the same, save for the two wrapped presents and the additional bed opposite from the normal one. He decided to leave the gifts for later and inspected the first bed, the one in the same place as the one he'd slept in. The pillow was flat, as though nobody had used it in... a very long time. But despite that, there was not a speck of dust.

'His bed,' Chara said simply. Frisk approached the other one. The cushions looked soft and comfy. 'My bed.' Her voice lowered. 'My deathbed.'

'Hey,' he thought warmly to her. 'We're going to get through this, alright? Don't you get mopey now that we're so close!'

'I know, but it's so hard. Just thinking of... of what I could have had, had I never gotten that stupid plan in my head. Of how, even if we do stop Asriel, things can never go back to the way they were. So much lost time. So much misery. All because of me.'

'Stop that,' he thought more forcefully.

The closet was filled with green and yellow striped shirts, along with pants and shoes. Chara and Asriel's clothes, she told him. There was an ancient drawing of a golden flower pinned to the wall next to Chara's bed. There was also the same bookshelf. Where back in Toriel's home there'd been an empty photo frame, this one was filled.

Frisk grabbed it and inspected it. It was a picture of... he recognized two of the people. Toriel and Asriel, as a child. But Toriel looked happier and had a golden crown between her horns, and Asriel's wide smile held none of the malice he'd seen.

He looked... innocent.

While he didn't recognize the other two, he could make a guess. The first was another boss monster, standing behind Asriel with his hands on the child's shoulders. Like Toriel he was covered in white fur, but had a mane of yellow hair around his head. His chest, clothed in a blue button up shirt, was broad as a barrel. His eyes weren't reddish brown like Toriel's, but a smooth, hot-chocolate brown like Asriel's. His horns were wide and arching, with a tiny crown between them. It could only have been Asgore, with a content grin on his fanged, furry face.

The last one was not a boss monster, but a human, nestled into Toriel. Chara. For the first time, Frisk saw what she looked like in life. In the picture she was a bit younger than he was now, younger than she'd probably been when she died. Her skin was pale, like she hadn't seen the sun in a long time. Her hair was a brownish auburn, cut just a little longer than his, long enough that it barely reached the base of her neck. Her eyes were reddish brown. Weird, but the same as Toriel's eyes. Like Asriel she wore a green and yellow shirt, and her fingers were laced together uncomfortably. Chara's face was scrunched up and a fierce blush dominated her rosy cheeks. Camera shy, if he had to guess.

But despite that, a smile tugged at photo-Chara's lips.

'Chara, you never told me you were so pretty,' he said with a calm smile.

'Frisk, stop it. Now's not the time for flirting,' she sighed.

'No, I mean it.' He stroked the photo with a finger, tracing Chara's face. 'You look really good.'

'... thank you.'

He put the photo back and turned to the presents. He approached the first one, by Asriel's bed, and knelt next to the little white and red thing. On it was a message in cursive.

To any human that makes it this far, may you have a chance.

He opened it, and saw... a golden locket. The clasp was shaped like a heart, and if he looked closely he could see the words 'Best Friends Forever' engraved on it. Frisk placed it back, and opened the other gift. That one had a knife, long and sharp, with a stainless steel edge that looked like it'd seen a lot of use. Frisk picked it up, then retrieved the locket and held both in one hand.

'What are these? Why are they here?'

'That is the locket Asriel gave me for the first anniversary of my arrival. The knife is the gardening dagger I'd once used. Lose your hat and pan. I gift these to you, Frisk, as weapon and armor. I've put all the power I currently can into them. Ninety nine attack and defense, far beyond anything you've ever held. A symbol of the bond we share. Be safe. Be strong.'

'Chara, I... I don't know what to say.' He tossed the cowboy hat into the box of toys, and set his frying pan off to the side. He put the locket around his neck, and gripped the knife tightly with his right hand. He gave it a few swings through the air. 'Thank you.'

'You are very welcome.'

He left the room. Frisk passed what, in the Ruins, had been Toriel's room. But it was closed for renovations.

As he approached the counter, with the second key atop it, Asriel reappeared like a bad dream. For a moment Frisk was stunned at the contrast between this spiteful god and the boy in the frame. "So, Gaster spilled the beans, hmm? A wonder he's even existent enough to do so. I'll have to see about finding a way to him, one of these days."

"Does this make you happy?" Frisk retorted, walking to the key and refusing to turn to face Asriel. "Making me do this, making me kill your people, all the people you've ever loved?"

"Not much makes me happy," Asriel admitted quietly. "But who cares about them? You do, sure, but I don't. They're not people. They're puppets. They don't matter. Who cares about them?" A tense silence passed between them. "Who cares about you?" he mocked, vanishing again.

'I care about you, Frisk,' Chara reassured.

He didn't reply, but he did smile. Frisk entered the next room.

In Toriel's home, it'd been closed. Now he saw why; it was Asgore's room, just as here Toriel's room was shut off. There was a massive, king sized bed with ruffled covers and a damp looking pillow. A desk with a lamp, and a journal. All it read was 'Nice day today!'. Judging by how wet the blue ink was, it'd been written recently.

There was macaroni art of a flower, dedicated to 'King Dad', but Frisk didn't feel like asking who made it. There was a trophy, proclaiming Asgore and Toriel the number one Nose Nuzzle Champions of 198 X. A closet with a pot of golden flowers on top and, of all things, a Santa Clause outfit inside.

The last thing to check was a drawer of clothes. There were ceremonial robes embroidered with the Delta Rune. Button up shirts, like the kind he saw Asgore wearing in the picture. And lastly a pink sweater, sized for Asgore, with the white words 'Mister Dad Guy' written on its front.

'He... he kept it,' Chara whimpered, like she was about to cry. 'After all these centuries he still kept the sweater I made him.'

'Your dad must really miss you,' Frisk replied, inspecting the sweater for another moment before closing the drawer.

Chara didn't reply, but some force turned his mouth up into a smile for a moment. He didn't question it.

Frisk left Asgore's room behind. This was the monster that Toriel feared so much? The monster that had declared he would destroy all of humanity? That Mettaton had said would absorb six human souls and 'destroy him forever'? Hard to believe.

He glanced into the mirror. He was all but unrecognizable. Frisk's hair was, despite his efforts, coated in a fine layer of gray powder. His skin and clothes were likewise caked, giving him the appearance of someone who'd stepped out of an old timey movie. He fit right in with the gray walls. His eyes had bags underneath them, and his right hand held the knife like a lifeline. The locket around his neck cut through the gray with its bright colors.

'Despite it all, we are still here, Frisk,' Chara encouraged.

He nodded and returned to the padlocks. One key, done. But as he was fishing the second key out of his pocket, his hand started moving on its own. It was surreal to watch his limb acting and his muscles flexing, entirely without his input. It opened the padlock, causing the chain - which in retrospect, couldn't have kept him out - to fall aside. 'Um, Chara, what was that?'

'... I wanted to do something for you. Something tangible. Like unlocking the chain.'

'Um, thanks, but please don't do that. It felt really, really weird.'

'I'm sorry,' she whimpered.

Frisk smiled sadly at nothing. 'It's alright, Chara.' He headed across. In one of the bookshelves was an ancient calendar, from the medieval time of 201 X. The day August 16th was circled on it in red.

'That's when I fell,' she explained.

He walked down the wooden flight of stairs, into a long and gray tunnel. Asriel was there waiting for him. Frisk said nothing, and only continued to walk forward. Once he passed the boss monster, he fell into step alongside Frisk.

"Of course you don't care about them," Frisk said, speaking first. "You don't have a soul, do you? Gaster said you can't feel love without one."

Asriel shrugged. "That's right. What about it?"

"Don't you want to, though? You have the souls of so many other people inside of you. Can't you feel them? Aren't they talking to you?" After all, if Chara could exert control over Asriel when he'd held her soul, why couldn't they now?

"Well for starters, they're braindead now. All those resets of mine, you know. They're just empty shells of magic now." Frisk gaped in horror. God, that was... to be trapped like that, slowly forgetting everything... "And why would I want to feel again?" They turned a corner and Asriel clenched his fists, gritted his fangs. "When I had a soul, I got my sister killed. When I had a soul, I got myself killed and let everyone counting on me down. But now that I have no soul of my own I'm the god of this world. I control everything, I decide who lives and dies, who remembers and forgets. Soulful Asriel was a useless sister killer. Soulless Asriel's the absolute, solitary god of all. I'm far better off without one."

He frowned. "And you feel nothing? Even with the entire Underground's souls?"

Asriel's anger evaporated as they left the tunnel. The road had a good view of New Home again. The goat next to him tapped his chin. "You know, I have been feeling something, now and then. This painful little squirming. I mean, I always crushed it immediately. Is that what it is? The souls' emotions? Hmm. Good thing I've been keeping them down."

That confirmed what Gaster had said; Asriel was keeping his emotions down. He didn't even know it.

'I don't have one either,' Chara muttered. 'If this plan of ours works, what if I can no longer use your soul to feel? I... I don't want to end up like that,' she whispered.

Frisk glanced down, but replied, 'Chara, you can have mine as long as you need. I want you to love people, to feel happy.'

She laughed quietly. 'Frisk! You... you idiot. You would give me the rights to your soul, the very essence of your being, just so I could feel joy now and again?'

'Of course,' he said, walking in silence alongside Asriel. 'Why wouldn't I?'

'Hee hee. Frisk... thank you. If you are truly serious, then it is done.'

The continued walking. Frisk could see a wall up ahead, with a tunnel heading to the right and an elevator to the left. It was still quite a ways off, though.

"So what happens now? I go through with this, kill everyone, and then you reset it all. What then? You'll run out of things to do eventually," he said, looking straight ahead.

Asriel shrugged. "Then? I'll destroy utterly this failure of a world. Permanently."

A chill ran down Frisk's spine at that promise. But all he said was, "Fine." They grew closer to the end of the road. "You should let yourself feel things, though. Take it from someone who still has their soul - "

"Take it from someone who's actually experienced both, Frisk. I'm better this way." They reached the end. "Well, go on. You've got a date with the Barrier. I'll be waiting." Once more, Asriel vanished.

He turned right, and entered a gargantuan hallway. The floor tiles were butterscotch and gold. Pillars lined either side, and on the left were massive windows with the Delta Rune on them. Brilliant golden light shone from them, carving long shadows across the ground and duplicating the Delta Rune patterns onto the floor. It looked like a radiant sunset. At the far end of the corridor was a door.

Frisk stepped forward, past another box. He walked down the hall, his footsteps echoing off the vaulting ceiling and filling the eerie silence. The light shone into his eyes and cast a long shadow across the right side of his body. It reflected off his knife and left an illuminated spot on the ground. He walked forward, but around halfway across someone appeared before him, out of nothingness, to block the way.

It wasn't Asriel. It wasn't Asgore. It was... the ghost he'd seen, long ago in the Ruins. They floated there silently, watching Frisk with ectoplasm irises. What had Chara said their name was?

Napstablook.

Chapter Text

Attempt 1

Frisk

He eyed Napstablook warily. The ghost stared back at him.

"Um... hi?" he said carefully.

"Oh... hi there..." Napstablook said, their voice as androgynous as the dummy's had been. "So... New Home, huh? You must be... really excited to... kill the king and... go home..."

In a twisted way, he was. Once he killed Asgore everything would fall into place. It'd all be worth it. But something in the ghost's tone unsettled him. He thought back to what the other ghost he'd fought, the mad dummy, had said.

You can't kill ghosts! Even if you destroyed this body entirely, I'll still be there to murder you!

'Chara, I have a bad feeling about this.' Then he spoke aloud to answer Napstablook's question. "Sort of?"

The ghost nodded, the thin line between their eyes wrinkling. "You know I... found out in the shelter... he was the big furry guy who used to come by my farm... these days he just sends servants... he must be really embarrassed to come by... so um, I really don't want you to kill him. And... the Royal Guard's working in the shelters to keep everyone safe, so they can't help. So... then I guess I'm just going to do this."

Blackness blossomed from Napstablook. Frisk took a step backwards, poised to run, but before he could do anything the dark aura flooded the walls, the ceiling, the floor, the window, everything. It passed him and wrapped around, erasing all features around him. Pinpoints of light flooded the darkness, shifting and moving about as they grew into detail.

Space. He was in... space. Galaxies and stars surrounded him on a black canvas, shimmering back and forth as though he was underwater. He couldn't tell how far the darkness went. Underneath his feet there was no visible floor, but he still stood as though nothing had changed. Napstablook stared back at him. "Well... there it is... I guess we're staying here... I mean... I don't really have to eat... or drink... so I guess that'll solve that... eventually. I guess."

Frisk's mouth fell open in horror. Was this ghost implying... no. He stepped forward menacingly, knife ready. "Napstablook. Let me go," he demanded.

To his surprise, the ghost drifted backwards as he approached. But then their eyes narrowed. "No."

Alright then, time to bluff. "I've got plenty of food and water with me. How long do you think you can keep this up?" he challenged.

To his amazement, it seemed to work. Napstablook looked around the dark space. "Oh... oh no you're right... oh... hmm... actually, I think I have an answer. Um... you'll have to bear with me... sorry if this isn't very impressive... I haven't done this in a very long time... don't feel you need to applaud... here I go..."

Frisk barely had the time to notice what happened. His soul wasn't so much exposed so much as it was torn from his chest, so hard his body lurched forward hard enough that he crashed to the ground. Hot pain flooded his face, followed by something warm and wet dribbling onto his lips. It tasted like... blood. Did his nose just break?!

He didn't have much time at all to analyze that because, glancing up, he saw a massive magical... thing form above and behind Napstablook. It was a colossal, magic-white speaker disk the size of one of Sans's blasters, and after a fraction of a second it boomed, showering Frisk in deafening waves of enchanted sound. His bones shook from the volume and the energy engulfed his soul completely. But while he barely felt anything at first - even though it was his very soul being hurt - a chill rose throughout his body, the pain flared up higher and higher, until he collapsed limply.

The speaker went silent and faded, only for another speaker to form off to the side and engulf him. He didn't have time to process all that was happening. The blood streaming from his face and onto the space-floor, the bone-rattling noise, the chills on his spine and the overwhelming pain in his soul.

The ruby heart snapped in half, and shattered.

FILE LOADED

Attempt 2

He reappeared at the front of the hallway, mouth open limply. "Uuuhhh?" he questioned.

'I uh... wow. I knew Napstablook before. Didn't know they... uh, had it in them,' Chara whispered, clearly as dumbstruck as he was.

"This is going to be Sans all over again, isn't it?" he wondered.

But before he could walk down the hallway again, Asriel appeared in his adult form. The goat rolled his eyes. "Alright, fine. I don't expect you to kill an unbound ghost. Just find a way past them." As quick as he'd appeared, he vanished.

Frisk swallowed, but nervously walked forward. Around halfway across, Napstablook appeared and he bolted.

"Wha - oh," the ghost murmured as Frisk phased through them and out the other side. He could see the door! He was so -

Darkness caught up with him and closed around his vision, trapping him in space again. "No!" he shouted.

"Sorry about that," Napstablook whispered. Frisk spun around to stare at the ghost. "But... you know. I really like the king so... I uh... can't let you past."

Frisk thought back to what Gaster had said. Neither Chara nor the dog would be able to injure Asriel, but they would be able to hurt him. Maybe if he hurt Napstablook enough, they'd let him go? He rushed forward, brandishing the knife Chara had given him, and sliced horizontally through Napstablook's body.

Like he'd expected, his knife encountered absolutely no resistance. It just went in and out of the ghost with no visible effect.

Napstablook fluttered backwards a short distance. "Sorry... normally I'd make myself look hurt... so you wouldn't feel embarrassed... but I think we're past that point... of doing things for each other... but um... I can still do things to you... so I guess that's a start? Let me try..."

Frisk's eyes widened, but he barely had a moment to prepare himself before Napstablook's magic reached in and tore his soul out. This time he managed to throw out his hands to catch himself instead of breaking his nose. He cut his right hand on his knife, though. An enormous speaker formed behind Napstablook, aimed right at Frisk.

He scrambled to get up and run to the side, but he was too slow and the wave of noise washed over him and his ruby soul. Just like before, the pain was tiny at first, but quickly grew to agonizing, searing cold.

Frisk stumbled out of the speaker's path mere moments before it ended on its own. But then he heard one appear behind him. His limbs were too weak, his soul too injured, to pull himself out of the way.

Snap!

FILE LOADED

Attempt 3

Alright, so just running past Napstablook wouldn't work. What about sneaking past them?

'Sure is a good thing I gave you that knife,' Chara grumbled.

It was the thought that counted. But instead of thinking that, Frisk walked to the side of the hallway and hugged a pillar. He waited a beat, then dashed forward to the next. And the next, and the next, making sure to keep one between himself and where Napstablook would appear. He could do this. Just keep going like this and -

Darkness crept over the world, devouring the pillars and door until Frisk stood in an infinite, empty plane. "Um... what are you doing?" the ghost asked from behind him.

Frisk cursed under his breath, then turned around to face Napstablook. Maybe he could sweet-talk his way out? "Oh, I'm just trying to get past. I'm gonna walk right past the king and through the Barrier, and you'll never see me again, okay?"

"Oh... well that does sound..." The monster's flickering eyes narrowed. "Wait... no. I know what you're trying to do... I'm sorry but... no."

Frisk again found himself thrown to the ground as his soul flew out from his chest. He managed to catch himself, but just as fast as before Napstablook summoned a massive speaker behind themselves. Cold fear ran from his head to his toes and, with all the strength he could muster, Frisk dodged to the side. The blast of sound washed over the place he'd been just a moment before. Now that he wasn't in the blast he could take a moment to look at it. Sound waves, visible and pure white, bounced around as though in a tunnel, surging through the void he was trapped in and vanishing into the distance.

Then the blast ended. Frisk ran to the side, knowing the ghost would already be summoning another, but he didn't watch where the next speaker came from and its beam caught him at an angle.

His soul tingled. Then it burned. Since the beam was off-center Frisk could, with the last of his strength, throw himself out of the way. But even once he was clear of the beam, a third speaker formed across from him. He dashed - forcing Napstablook to back away as he did - and avoided its wall of noise. But then a fourth speaker came, and while he avoided it he tripped over his own feet in his haste to avoid it.

And with that, there was nothing he could do as a fifth one materialized above him.

FILE LOADED

Attempt 7

Nothing worked.

Frisk tried running past, sneaking past, waiting a long time for Napstablook to get bored. He even tried to leave the hall and look for another way past. All of it failed in one way or another. The ghost always found him, always trapped him in space, and always convinced themselves to fight him.

This time, however, Frisk managed to avoid all thirteen of Napstablook's speakers without dying. Not to say he was unharmed; his soul ached and his spine was chilled, as though something had horribly startled him. He doubled over, his hands on his knees, and stared up at the ghost.

"... oh," they began. "That... wasn't enough to... kill you. I'm not surprised... I'm very out of practice... sorry for being such a let down..."

"Napsta, ah. Please," he pleaded, gasping for breath.

Napstablook twisted around in the air, as though they were shaking their head. "Sorry... can't stop now," they said, floating into the air.

All around him, dozens of white figures appeared out of nothingness. They were miniature versions of Napstablook, watching him silently. Then two of them, on opposite ends from each other, opened their mouths. From them a magical bullet shaped like - of all things - a musical note tore through the air with terrifying speed. Then the next two mini-Blooks fired their bullets, then again and again, forming a quickly rotating spiral of magical bullets.

Frisk gasped and tried to run, but he misjudged where the notes were headed and walked right into one. It wrapped around his soul and a flash of intense, searing cold robbed the world from him.

FILE LOADED

Attempt 11

The ring of mini-Blooks formed yet again. Frisk braced himself; there was no margin for error on any of Napstablook's magic attacks.

Two by two, they released their musical notes while the ghost coordinating them hovered above. Frisk ran with the spiral - counterclockwise this time - and made sure to stick close, but not too close. Far, but not too far. He ran around and around, a total of three laps, before the mini-Blooks began drifting away after they shot their bullets. They faded into nothingness, and Napstablook lowered themselves.

With a desperate scream, Frisk raised his knife and charged. He focused on his intent to kill and slashed Napstablook down the middle of their head. But his knife just phased through the ghost with no effect. They drifted to the side and summoned a speaker in front of Frisk, off to his left.

But there was also a second speaker to the right.

He shouted in surprise and sprinted to the side, barely fast enough to avoid the X of magical sound. But he found himself running into a salvo of searingly fast musical notes fired by mini-Blooks he hadn't even seen form. He screamed as the magic burned into his body, amplifying the chilling cold that made his hairs stand on end.

Before he could recover, more speakers formed. Four of them, but Frisk had the presence of mind to realize they were aimed to engulf the area around him. If he tried to dodge, he'd instead run into them. So he held still.

Holding still meant the next wave of mini-Blooks, which came from behind, killed him.

FILE LOADED

Attempt 23

'Frisk, not that I intend to doubt you, but how are you even intending to beat Napstablook? Even without needing to kill them, how can you get past?'

'I don't know,' he admitted, staring down the sunlit corridor nervously. 'Can't you do anything? Like with the dummy and Mettaton?'

'I can try,' she offered.

He nodded resolutely and headed off to meet the ghost. 'Thanks, Chara.'

Napstablook appeared, trapped him, and eventually decided to fight him. As Frisk desperately dodged between the ghost's impossibly fast magic attacks, Chara eventually came to a conclusion.

'I got something!' she cheered. 'I can see a number in them, it's - '

But in the distraction of trying to listen to Chara, Napstablook killed him.

FILE LOADED

Attempt 24

After the usual shock of being dead and then not being dead anymore, Frisk thought to Chara, 'What is it?'

'So the number I saw was motivation. Napstablook's is... low. But it's high enough, and it looks like it'll be hard to go down. Get them demotivated, and they won't want to fight you anymore.'

He nodded. Seemed reasonable. But then came the hard part. 'But how do I do that?' A smile split his face. 'I know! I'll just flirt with them!'

Frisk strode forward, thinking up a few lines. 'Oh God, Frisk, Frisk no, don't flirt with the - !'

Napstablook appeared, and Frisk took the opportunity to click his teeth. "Hey there, good looking! What brings you around these parts?"

The ghost stared at him in stunned silence. "... oh... oh no. I'm sorry... I'd be no good as a... romantic partner. In fact I'm actually here for... something else." An aura of blackness seeped from the ghost and, in seconds, Frisk was once again in space.

His stomach knotted, but Frisk continued to approach the ghost. He wiggled his eyebrows. "Hey, it's alright. I get you're pretty angry at me, but what do you say we put all that behind us and go get dinner? I know this great restaurant just by the Core."

For a second, he thought Napstablook was seriously considering it. Their shimmering eyes turned downwards, after all. "Restaurant..." they muttered. Then their eyes narrowed, and Frisk died seconds later.

'Oh my God Frisk,' he heard Chara complain as his soul shattered.

FILE LOADED

Attempt 46

Napstablook's attacks were ridiculous!

"Hey whoa can't we talk this - ach!" He ducked beneath a trio of notes, then jumped backwards from a speaker blast.

"... not really, no," Napstablook said, drifting away from Frisk and summoning more of their weapons.

"I'm going to kill you!" he shouted angrily.

To his surprise, the monster floated backward in fear. But then Napstablook got a hold of themselves. "... no, no you're not," they said, as if talking to themselves. "You can't kill ghosts without magic. And um... you don't really... have any." Napstablook didn't do anything for a moment, but then something in the corner of Frisk's vision changed.

It was his soul. Like Sans had changed its color long ago, so did Napstablook. Now it was a pale, light blue, like a stand-still attack. Then a blue orb flew out of his soul and stuck itself in the air, leaving a thin wire from it to his soul.

The tether started to pull on his soul and with it, his entire body. Frisk took a stumbling step forward until his soul was on the 'anchor', then tried to pull away. The further he got the harder the rope pulled, like every inch of his body had a leash attached to it. He couldn't break the rope by waving his hands through it. "What is this?!" he demanded.

"My... um... soul magic," Napstablook stammered, acidic tears dripping from their eyes and flying through the air. That was new. "Here we go... I guess."

Another speaker formed, this time right above Frisk and aimed straight down. He backed up out of its blast, but the tether on his soul began dragging him back in. Fear - not just the artificial fear Napstablook's magic instilled - grasped his heart, and he dug in his feet to stay away. But then mini-Blooks formed all around him and started throwing their music notes, flooding the area around the speaker. Frisk couldn't get far enough to avoid the 'ring' of notes, the soul tether just wouldn't allow him. He bobbed and weaved around the notes as the speaker continued to fire, but then one surprised him by traveling through the speaker's wall of noise to hit him in the side.

The light blue on his soul drained away, and then it shattered.

'Threaten them,' Chara said as the world slipped away. 'That'll remove their nerve.'

FILE LOADED

Attempt 114

He couldn't believe it, but Napstablook's attacks just kept getting stronger and stronger! Frisk was wrong when he thought getting past Napstablook would be like getting past Sans; he would've rather fought Sans and Mettaton NEO at the same time.

"Your magic's wimpy!" he shouted over the thunderous din of the ghost's booming speakers. "You can't scratch me!"

Napstablook cocked an eye ridge. "Not to... contradict you or anything but... I can." Just to prove that, Napstablook reformed the soul tether - they'd dispelled it a moment earlier - and with Frisk's mobility limited, sent a line of... were those Mettaton's boxes?!

Sure enough they were, forming a wide line across the space terrain and coming at him. Too high to jump over, too many to run around. But before they could crash into Frisk, he heard a speaker form behind him. He pulled himself to the side so hard he was confident he sprained something, but the wall of sound missed him by a hair. It crashed into the boxes and left a hole through them.

That was his chance!

Once the speaker faded, Frisk dove to the side just before the row of boxes could hit him, then ducked beneath a salvo of notes thrown by mini-Blooks he hadn't even known were summoned. Then he slid backwards, the soul tether dragging him back across the ground. With a feat of agility he didn't know he had he leapt back onto his feet, then brandished his knife at Napstablook. "Humans had magic before! Magic can hurt you!" he bluffed. "You can't kill me in time to keep me from activating it."

Napstablook groaned quietly. "... you're lying..." they murmured, blasting Frisk with more speakers. With the soul tether on, he couldn't move around enough to avoid them. He'd already taken so many hits from Napstablook's earlier attacks.

Frisk died.

FILE LOADED

Attempt 174

He slid over to the ghost, backpack slung onto the ground. "Come on," he growled to the ghost. "Hit me with your best shot. You already know it won't be enough."

As it turned out, it was more than enough.

FILE LOADED

Attempt 246

Magic screamed through the air, tossing Frisk around like a ragdoll as he kept jumping away from attacks, only to be pulled to the side by the tether on his light blue soul. Napstablook simply hovered in the air, gently contorting about and keeping their eyes locked on him curiously. His soul ached, his body burned from the cold, and his muscles twitched spasmodically beneath his skin from all the sprinting he needed just to survive the ghost's fierce magic.

Then... it stopped.

The anchor on his essence didn't relax, but Frisk got up from the ground and stared at Napstablook. They sighed, looking down, and summoned more magic. It wasn't an attack. It was just a series of gray words floating between them and him, spelling out the phrase 'Really not feeling up to it right now. Sorry.'

He smiled. "Heh, had enough?" he asked. A moment later Frisk was eating his words, because without warning the stream of tears from Napstablook's eyes shot toward him and a wave of mystic sound caught him in the small of his back.

Snap!

FILE LOADED

Attempt 264

For the second time, Napstablook relaxed their magic and formed the gray words. But this time, Frisk was ready.

"Ha, you really think I'll fall for - " He cut himself off and dodged to the gap between the line of speakers behind him, straining as his soul tried to drag his body back into the noise and tears. " - something like that? Your tricks suck!"

"... oh, you're right," Napstablook bemoaned, their tears shifting from drops to squiggles. The line-tears dropped straight to the space floor and began to travel right at Frisk. He sidestepped, watching as they flew straight up once they reached where he'd been. "But um... I have some more tricks and... uh... I really do have to kill you..."

More boxes flew toward Frisk, along with a storm of mini-Blooks, squiggle tears, and speakers. Frisk wove between them, got the speaker to blast a hole through the boxes, and ducked through. He was careless though; one tear fell up onto his arm and stung fiercely enough to make the limb fall limp, like someone had whacked the underside of his arm with a baseball bat. At least the tears didn't make him more vulnerable to the ghost's magic.

But then something bright orange flashed next to Napstablook. It was the word 'Copy'.

More magic flew, and Frisk struggled to avoid all of it, let alone cut into Napstablook with another scathing remark. But as he wove between notes and boxes, a teal word flashed next to Napstablook.

Paste.

A musical note materialized on top of him. More magical bullets appeared out of thin air. Tears, boxes, everything that had been around when Napstablook copied, on top of the bullets already flying around.

There was literally no time for him to dodge; he was already inside the note. It flashed his body and soul with an icy chill. Frisk was dead before he hit the ground.

FILE LOADED

Attempt 301

"AAAAAHHHHH"! he screamed as he reappeared from his latest attempt. "How? HOW? HOW HOW HOW HOW HOW?!" he demanded, beating his fists on the ground. That copy-paste attack was stupid! Completely stupid! How was he supposed to be able to remember all of that with how much magic Napstablook tossed around?!

'I'm sorry, Frisk,' Chara muttered.

'Not your fault,' he replied miserably, stomping back down the hallway. It didn't matter how many times that stupid ghost killed him. Frisk was so close to the end of his trial, so close to saving the world, so close to making it all finally end! He was never giving up!

Not that he had a choice.

But something he didn't get was, where was the dog? Or Temmie? Well maybe not Temmie, but the dog could help! Or Gaster! He said Frisk shouldn't expect help more than once, but he'd died three HUNDRED times! Surely that was enough time to rouse the memoryheads again?! And what was the dog's excuse? Was it messing with him? Waiting for him to get to a certain number of deaths before helping? Or was it tied up dealing with Asriel? Dealing with what?! What could Asriel possibly be doing?!

Some friends. At least he had Chara.

'I need to try it some other way. I'm clearly handling the copy-paste wrong,' he told Chara, trying to think calmly and clearly.

'You've seen the attack many times, no? Can you not simply 'lead' Napstablook to copy a bullet pattern with a certain save spot, then evade in such a way that you're still in the safety once they load?'

He shrugged. Worth a shot.

But he failed. He was so caught up in thinking about the copy-paste he didn't even manage to avoid the first series of enormous, lightning fast speakers.

FILE LOADED

Attempt 347

"AH HA!" he shouted, successfully avoiding a Paste entirely. "See? You can't beat me!" he shouted. "I know all your tricks, Napstablook! I'm going to kill you just like I killed your cousin."

Napstablook visibly sagged, but the quantity of their magical tears simply increased. "Oh... Mettaton... Furlablook... I miss you... I'm so sorry I didn't help..."

Wait. Mettaton?

The ghost shook it off, and summoned more magical attacks. Frisk did the best he could, but he just wasn't fast enough. Napstablook's attacks got more ferocious over time, and after they tried the fake-out with the message, he had to already be moving to avoid most of them.

Snap!

FILE LOADED

Attempt 543

It'd taken a long time. But according to Chara, he was halfway to breaking Napstablook's will to fight. He could do this. He just had to stay determined.

"Why are you even trying?" he mocked, the horrible words like ash in his mouth. But to get to Asgore, kill him and save the world, there was nothing he wouldn't do. No line he wouldn't cross.

Nothing.

By then he and Chara had put together that Mettaton was a ghost monster who'd fully merged with his body, like the dummy had shortly before Frisk killed them. That was a lot of ammunition to use against Napstablook. "Mettaton couldn't kill me, and he's thrice the ghost you'll ever be!" The tears increased, forcing Frisk to get further away. But he couldn't get further away because of the damned soul tether. "You should just go home and lay down like the sobbing piece of garbage you are - AAH!"

The soul anchor moved.

"... shut... UP!" Napstablook wailed, throwing the teal orb far across the galaxy-filled void. The line went taught, throwing Frisk through the air like a sack of potatoes. He landed right in the crosshairs of four speakers, and dodged. "It's bad enough...!" The soul tether lifted into the air and Frisk was hoisted up, dangling and barely able to reach the ground with his tiptoes. He screamed in pain, tears streaming from his eyes as the pressure on his soul rose to horrible levels. "... that I know all that...!"

The anchor slammed back into the ground and Frisk collapsed like a puppet. What must've been hundreds of mini-Blooks formed around him and fired. He dodged again, but Napstablook copied. Frisk tried to remember where the musical notes had been.

"... you don't!"

More speakers. More boxes. More miniatures.

"... need to keep!"

Frisk dodged, but the ghost chose the most inconvenient moment to paste their attack back in.

"... reminding me!" Napstablook finished, throwing the soul anchor - and with it, Frisk - into the middle of the attacks. His vision filled with musical notes and boxes. There was a moment of horrendous pain, biting cold, and magical fear.

Snap!

FILE LOADED

Attempt 670

He breathed out harshly through his nose."God. DAMN IT! Every time I think I make progress it just gets worse!"

'I know Frisk, I know. I'm so sorry. I could help, if you like? Possess you and move you out of the way of attacks you don't see?'

'Thanks for the offer, but I think the two of us trying to move the same body at the same time will just make things worse.' He started back down the hall, familiar golden light spilling across his body.

'You have a point. But Frisk, chin up! Remember how quickly Napstablook killed you the first time? You're getting further and further each time! Their attacks keep getting more and more powerful, they must be nearing their limit.'

The ghost appeared again, and they began their dance. Frisk weathered the storm as best he could, but this wasn't one of his better attempts. He fell short, and didn't even survive long enough for the monster to try and fake him out.

God damn it! Chara was wrong; he was getting worse as time passed. He was never going to win at this rate!

FILE LOADED

Attempt 768

All of it was starting to blend together. The constant battles, the black starry void. The pain and cold and the foul words. Frisk's memories of the times before fighting Napstablook starting to blend together. Did he fight the mad dummy before or after meeting Mettaton for the first time? Did he kill Sans before he met Papyrus, or the other way around?

The ghost moved the anchor off into the distance, dragging Frisk along with it like a leashed dog and into a speaker.

FILE LOADED

Attempt 871

Frisk skidded to a halt as the anchor stopped, but he was too slow to avoid the speakers. Their searing energies froze his heart, but he got away before he could die. His breaths were ragged and pained, and in a moment he had to backpedal to avoid a hurricane of notes and boxes.

Napstablook chose that moment to paste their speakers back in, right on top of Frisk.

FILE LOADED

Attempt 928

He screamed, caught in an agonized pose as a speaker's waves of noise washed over him.

Had there ever been a time when he wasn't fighting the ghost? It all just ran together, like a dream. No, no. Napstablook often referenced things that came before. It was real. Frisk had to remember what he was fighting for.

FILE LOADED

Attempt 974

Frisk wailed, clutching at his soul as Napstablook kept him suspended in the air by lifting his tether high up. He was utterly helpless as magic collapsed in on him. Note to self, don't use that insult again.

FILE LOADED

Attempt 1034

'Can't you do ANYTHING more to help? Increase my 'defense' or something!' he complained after falling again, this time to one of Napstablook's tears.

'I have increased your defense! Not just with the locket either. But Napstablook's magical vulnerability is just too much for me to suppress with what I have now!'

'There has to be something you can do!'

'If there was I'd do it! Do you think I like watching you die?!' she shouted.

'Well I bet it sure beats dying!' he shot back, his blood flashing with anger and frustration. 'Maybe you'd like to take full control and give it a shot?!'

'Oh, so the going gets tough and you want to quit just like that?! Pass it on to me?!'

He saw red. She dared imply that, that after all he'd been through, he was just some - ! 'That's rich, coming from Miss Buttercups over here!' he shouted. The instant he said that, Frisk's world went cold. 'Wait, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. I'm sorry, I'm sorry... Chara?'

No response.

Frisk lowered his head, stifled a sob, and walked across the hall. When Napstablook appeared, he merely sighed. "Just do it," he murmured.

"Um... okay? If you really insist..." Napstablook began. This time, they didn't even bother dragging Frisk into space. They merely formed a speaker and blasted Frisk with it while still in the hall. He spread his arms open and welcomed the pain.

It was no less than he deserved.

FILE LOADED

Attempt 1036

'Chara please, speak to me. I'm sorry, alright? I was just frustrated.'

But again, no response. Frisk walked over to Napstablook, and let the ghost trap him in space.

He didn't bother provoking a fight. He sat on the void's floor, tucked his head into his knees, and took deep, shaking breaths in an attempt not to sob.

"Oh... um... I'll just... um, give you a moment," Napstablook said, drifting away.

Frisk whimpered into his arms, hiccuping and making gross noises as his nose filled up with snot. 'Chara, please. Don't leave me alone,' he begged. 'I know what I said was out of line. I know I shouldn't have brought it up. What can I possibly do to make it up to you?'

Nothing.

Napstablook slowly drifted back into sight. "Um, wow this is awkward. Are you... um... okay?"

"No!" he shouted, looking up at the ghost. Tears streaked down his face, and he felt hot all over. "I'm trying to get past you and nothing works! I just have to kill one more person and everything would be perfect, everything would finally be worth it!" he shrieked, his voice cracking. "But nooooo! You just HAD to show up, right on the damn finish line, and kill me literally over a thousand times!"

"I... uh... don't remember - "

"And now my only friend in this whole God damn world isn't talking to me because I screwed up and said something I shouldn't have, she won't talk to me, and I still have no idea how to get past you!" he wailed. "I'm tired of getting killed! I'm tired of being alone, of being a murderer, of being hurt and scared and worried and I just want all of this to fucking end!" he swore, tears flowing from his eyes.

"Oh," the ghost said simply, staring at him with wide eyes and a timid frown. "Sounds like things are... pretty rough for you." Frisk whimpered in agreement. "Well uh... not to sound too mean or anything, but..." Gently, his soul slid out from his body. He didn't bother trying to stand. "... but I think you deserve to feel so bad," Napstablook said, summoning their speakers again.

FILE LOADED

Attempt 1040

'Fine!' he told Chara. 'You want to be like that, fine! I don't need you! I'll do this on my own!'

He stomped his way back to Napstablook, and began the fight.

Speakers roared. Mini-Blooks sang. Boxes tumbled through the air. His soul rooted itself to an arcane orb. Napstablook copied and pasted their attacks, fury and fear crashing around Frisk like a meteor storm. He spat and cursed and demeaned Napstablook in every way he could, imagining himself to be shouting at Asriel, at Chara, to fuel his rage.

A music note grazed his soul. But it was the first time Napstablook had hit him this time, so he barely even felt it past the sudden jolt of being spooked. The ghost started throwing him around the void by his soul anchor, dropping Frisk into attacks mere instants before they'd hit him. He only ever had the slimmest of escape routes, and one or two times it wasn't enough. Ghost magic burned him, more and more powerful each time.

His breath came in heaving pants. Fighting for a long time like this was just so tiring. His body ached from sprinting nonstop for minutes on end. His brain trudged and stuttered from the effort of trying to keep up with Napstablook's attacks for so, so many attempts. He didn't feel nearly as determined as he had before encountering the ghost.

Napstablook bristled at Frisk's latest insult and began crying harder, but then said, "Oh... come on... I think I've..."

The soul anchor split in two, and the tether split along with it. Horrible understanding dawned on Frisk as Napstablook separated the two orbs, tugging Frisk's soul in two directions at once.

Then Napstablook's magical onslaught redoubled, and he collapsed like wet cardboard.

FILE LOADED

Attempt 1135

'I'm sorry,' he heard Chara say as he was revived from his latest failure.

"Hmm?"

'I shouldn't have given you the silent treatment. You're stressed, you're hurt, and even if you said something like that that is no excuse for me treating you the way I have been. I shouldn't have accused you of wanting to take the easy way out. Can you ever forgive me, Frisk?' she pleaded.

Bitterness and anger festered in his core. He wanted to say no. He wanted not to say anything, pretend he hadn't heard her. See how she liked it. But he simply nodded and replied, 'I'm sorry too. I shouldn't have snapped at you. Especially not about that. You're doing all you can. It's not your fault Napstablook's so strong. Let's go try again,' he thought, exhaustion weighing on him. How long had he been fighting? Cumulatively it must've been days. He felt like he should've slept, but thanks to the constant resets there was no need.

What he wouldn't give for the chance to just sleep a few hours.

By then, Frisk could usually get through Napstablook's initial barrages without much difficulty. But he got careless, and a brief zig instead of zag was all the monster needed to pound him into the ground.

FILE LOADED

Attempt 1266

The tether split in two again.

Frisk had been trying to survive this attack many times. He thought he and Chara had come up with a good plan to survive it, but he hadn't yet.

The air burst with speakers as they came into formation. A storm of miniature ghosts rose up from around Napstablook's sobbing form. Then the magic came crashing down. Frisk dodged to the side, avoiding one speaker's wave. One tether pulled him harder, but he resisted it and jumped back to avoid a few notes. He dodged and dodged, predicting the attacks and moving before they even formed.

The duo of light blue anchors moved again, dragging Frisk with them. He landed on his feet and sprung away from his landing spot a split second before Napstablook sent a line of boxes crashing down onto it.

The ghost continued their assault, copying and pasting and crying and blasting with incredible intensity, the likes of which Frisk felt would put even Asriel to shame. But he endured, avoiding the attacks - except for one box which nearly killed him and intensified the chill on his spine - until the onslaught finally ended.

The galactic void fell silent. Napstablook drifted up and dispelled their anchors. Frisk's soul turned brilliant red again. "What?" Frisk taunted. Had he done it?! Had he finally demoralized Napstablook enough? "Realized how worthless you are, finally?"

To his surprise, the ghost just smiled. "Um... actually. I just wanted to let you know I'm warmed up now." His confidence turned to utter dread. What? "So... uh... I don't really need to leave safe spots for you anymore. You... um... shouldn't have killed my cousins." Then Napstablook's voice turned black with hatred, their smile turning into a frown. "Goodbye."

Frisk's heart turned pale blue again. But it wasn't one anchor that formed. It wasn't even two. Napstablook conjured four soul anchors and yanked them out in a square formation. Frisk screamed and fell to his knees, hands gripping at his soul in a vain attempt to sever it from the ropes tearing it in four directions. He couldn't move. He couldn't breathe. And to make it worse, more and more speakers formed. They completely enclosed Frisk in a cube, and began to fire. Each speaker only released a small burst of booming noise before fading, but Napstablook replaced them as fast as they were expended.

He was trapped, utterly defenseless and immobile as the speakers saturated him in magic. He screamed as loud as he could.

Then he fell silent.

FILE LOADED

Frisk collapsed and fell over to his side, whimpering in phantom pain.

'Oh dear God,' Chara whispered. 'We have a time limit. You have to demoralize Napstablook before they remember how to do... that. There's no surviving that attack.'

He got a hold of himself, then curled up and whimpered. "Come on, Frisk," he told himself. "Get up. Move." He stirred. "Move!" With a great heave of effort, Frisk stood and stared down the golden hall, as though it were the barrel of a gun.

'Nothing I can do about it,' he told Chara, dawdling forward with his knife barely held in his right hand. 'I know I can survive that long, right? Now I just need to figure out what words will make them give up first.'

'Frisk, that could take hundreds of more tries!'

He froze in midstep, but continued.

'If that's what it'll take, then that's what it'll take,' he whispered, walking forward. And he meant it. There was nothing that would stop him. No magic that would make him surrender. No insult he would hesitate to give. No line he wouldn't cross.

Nothing.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

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99...

Chapter Text

Chara

... and the world was no more. Time and space crumbled around her, every star and galaxy rent asunder, every distant alien race obliterated, and Chara found herself being forced out, out through a direction not in any of the spacial dimensions, into the space between universes. Her crimson eyes reformed from their hollow pits.

She hummed and looked around. There was no light, not even a single photon, in this void space. But regardless of that, Chara's demonic vision could make out everything clearly. Colossal orbs of universes floated around her. She could see their size, a number, a concept, a feeling. Diameters of a quadrillion light years, forty six trillion, fifty five googolplex, and so many more. And yet, to her unholy sight, they all seemed to be the same size, drifting silently. They were so large that Chara couldn't even see their curvature, just a smooth wall. At the same time Chara did see their curvatures, colossal black marbles drifting in infinity, with herself as an infinitesimally large speck between them. She could sense a battle between futuristic humans and insectoid aliens. She could sense a warrior slaughtering hellish demons. She could sense scholars working to raise their scores, athletes to improve their times. It was all around her. It was her. It was... glorious.

No. Focus.

Chara inspected her knife, and the flowing crimson on it washed away to show only steel. She put it in her pants' right pocket.

Something in her being shivered. With a concerned hum, she held her hands out and together, then spread them. Where she did, Frisk's soul manifested itself, drifting before her silently. The ruby light it gave out was swallowed and eradicated by the abyss. 'Chara?' she heard him ask, at the same time as she felt panic and fear flood his essence. 'Chara what happened, what did he do?! Are you okay?!'

She reached out a finger and stroked down the flat surface of his soul. "Shh, Frisk. Everything is fine," she replied with a beatific smile, though she knew Frisk wouldn't be able to see. "Everything is going according to plan. I'll take it from here. I promise you, I'll set things right."

'But...'

"Shh," she urged, willing his soul to quiet and soothe itself. "Frisk, go to sleep. This may take a while, and I don't want you to have to see this. I promise you, when you wake up, everything will be as it should be."

'Chara, I'm...' he whispered.

"Shh," she insisted. "Your trials are over, Frisk. Rest." With another stroke of her fingers she felt Frisk go dormant, fast asleep. She dismissed his soul, allowing the heart to fade from view. It was still there, lurking deep inside her indestructible abstract, safe and sound. With him set, Chara's smile froze like stone and she turned to the gaping wound in existence that used to be her world. Its boundaries shimmered and faded in and out of focus. She gave herself a flick of will, and warped deep within.

She checked how many people were inside the null-space and found, to her surprise, the number was three. She'd expected only two, counting herself. Though space and time had been erased by her hand, Chara still warped 'to' the first of the others.

It was the dog, floating in circles. When Chara appeared, he stopped floating and turned to her, whimpering. "You knew I would do this, did you not?" Chara asked. With puppy-dog eyes and drooping ears, the canine nodded. She hesitated with her next question, the words clogging her throat. "Are you... upset with me?" The dog shook his head 'no'. Then he drifted closer and, without warning, licked Chara's face.

"Blah!" she complained, floating away and wiping her face even though she was already dry. "Very well, I understand." She drifted towards the furry thing and stroked her hand up and down his back. "I promise you, I shall make you proud. I'll set everything right."

The dog nodded, and his black lips turned up in a smile. Then he vanished, and she sensed there were only two people left in the void. Herself, and...

She warped to Asriel. He looked just like Chara remembered, young and naive but with a newfound malice roiling within him, and an unspeakably high Level of Violence that he must have accrued over centuries of playing with the world like a yo-yo. He thrashed about, spinning uncontrollably and throwing rainbow streams of magic out into the abyss. They were erased before they went far.

" - did you do?! I know you can hear me, Chara! Answer me!"

"Very well," she said. Asriel froze and wheeled to face her voice, but Chara doubted he could see her they way she could see him. Then again, maybe he could. He was a god, after all. "In your anger, you had Frisk perform genocide upon our people, whom we were sworn to protect. You tortured him. You played with us all. But in your foolishness, you granted me this power." His eyes steadily widened as she continued to speak. "Yes, I see you are grasping the situation. You are no longer the one in control, brother."

He sneered. "What are you playing at? What's the point of this? What did you even do?"

"I have destroyed the universe," she said simply. "Erased all of existence. But, that is but the bare minimum of my newfound abilities. I can bring it back. You however... cannot. You destructive potential is, in terms of numbers, greater than mine. I admit this. But my powers are infinitely more flexible than your infinite strength." She narrowed her eyes, and her rigid smile slipped into a scowl. "I want us to have our happy ending. I want us to go back to Mother and Father and live the life we should have had. I want to go and shatter the Barrier, and with both Frisk's guidance and our power, make peace with humanity. And I want you to stop playing with the timeline, to give up your reset powers forever. Until you agree to these terms, dear brother, the world shall remain in this state. I am now holding the universe hostage."

Asriel nodded slowly, smirking. "R-i-i-ight. Chara, you idiot. Did you forget that I can - " He closed his eyes and focused.

LOAD FAILED

The boss monster's eyes widened in shock, his mouth falling open to expose his nubby fangs. "What's wrong, Asriel?" she asked sweetly, grinning widely. "Did you forget it is impossible to reset spacetime when there is no spacetime to reset? Agree to my terms, brother mine. It shall make it easier on us all."

"Forget it! You're trapped here with me," Asriel spat, pointing a finger at her. "I have the determination. Eventually you'll be sick of this void, and you'll bring our world back whether or not I agree to give up my powers! All I need to do is wait you out! And I have all the time in the world!"

She chuckled lowly. "Oh, and that is where you are wrong. You see, you are bound to this world. This universe. This tale. I however, am not. There are many worlds out there, ones I have not erased, where I can venture to to wait out your exile. Unless you agree to surrender now? Give up your powers and allow our people their joy, and in exchange I shall restore this world?"

"Never," he snarled bestially.

Chara shrugged. Honestly, she'd expected as much. "Then stay here for all eternity," she intoned in a black voice. Then, before Asriel could respond, she warped back out into the space between universes. Then, she allowed herself to sigh in resignation. Oh, Asriel. She hated doing this to him. She still remembered what he once was, and his tale of what had happened since her death cut her deeply. He had suffered, alone with nothing but his powers, not even a soul, for centuries. Because of her. Could she piece him back together at all, or was he simply too far gone, the Asriel of her childhood washed out by the ravages of time?

It mattered not. He would relent. She could feel Frisk's determination flowing through her. She had to occupy herself. That was her main advantage in this battle of wills. Asriel was trapped, solitary and impotent, in an empty world where even magical conjuration would not last long. She could venture to other worlds, see their alien peoples, interact with them.

She approached the closest universe to her, and warped inside. She sensed countless stars and galaxies spread around her. Like always, the gentle hum of infinite different numbers increasing tickled in the back of her mind. She narrowed her focus, and found a cluster of numbers related to one specific intelligent species on one specific world in the dimension she currently resided in.

A moment later, Chara pinpointed where the world was and warped to it. Her vision changed to show a watery moon, orbiting a colossal, pale orange gas giant. A yellow star glared in the corner of her vision. Hovering in space with her arms crossed, Chara stared down at this world and contemplated.

Was this to be her life now? Jumping from world to world, from alien species to alien species, leaving the conflict of humans and monsters infinitely far behind? It did not sound immediately appealing. She liked her people, the monsters. The thought of outliving them did not rest well with her.

At any rate, here she was, here and now. Turning herself invisible and intangible with but a thought, but descended into the ocean world. Metaphorical nerves tingled under her immaterial skin as she sunk through the water. Part of Chara was tempted to hold her breath, but she instead breathed freely and evenly. She couldn't get hurt. Nothing would ever hurt her again. She would never be the victim, the damsel, ever again thanks to Frisk.

The aliens of this specific planet - well, moon if she wanted to be technical - resembled crabs. But their shells were iridescent and could shine many rainbow colors, their eyes were on stalks protruding from their backs, and their mouths were located on their underbellies instead of their heads. They were big too, the adults being ten feet tall. Chara turned her gaze on their world, their culture. Tribal, carrion scavengers, stone age. Of course, it'd be difficult to invent fire when you lived underwater... and most peculiarly, they had no magic.

What sort of hellhole...?

Well, she was here... on a completely new world with random aliens she'd likely never meet again, of no significance, while her brother languished in the void. Ignoring the latter, what would she do to them?

"What would Frisk do?" she found herself asking.

Frisk would help them. Frisk would go and use the vast power of growing numbers to effortlessly solve their problems. While a deity showing up out of nowhere and fixing one's life made for poor literature, she could imagine Frisk arguing that 'If you have the power to easily solve someone's problems without conflict, isn't it your duty to do just that?'.

Chara frowned, and conjured Frisk's soul. She gazed at the ruby heart, smiling as it pulsed, then dismissed it. Very well. Time to help the aliens.

She found a small clan that made homes out of oversized shells the way hermit crabs on her world once did. They were impressive things. Blues and oranges and rainbow colors, half buried in the sand of the ocean floor. The crabs scurried about, towering above Chara's invisible form. They spoke with each other in garbled, warbling tones that Chara understood because, of course, power was the universal language.

"... but Matriarch, are you sure we'll have enough?"

The other crab made a garbled noise that Chara understood as a sigh. "No, Clk'clk. There's just so little food rain in these times, and we cannot fight off invaders with what little we have. We may have to beggar ourselves."

Chara continued to listen. Apparently this 'clan' of crabs was undergoing a famine, and feared being conquered by neighboring groups. Well, that was something she could fix. Chara allowed herself to turn material and visible. "Perhaps I can help," she offered.

The crabs leaped into the water, then slowly sank to the ocean floor. The one she identified as Clk'clk raised his pincers and turned his shell red, ready to charge her. "Who - what manner of creature are you?!" he demanded. "Matriarch, run, I'll - "

She held up a hand. "Peace," she urged. "I happened to be in the area, and I heard about your little troubles. Small number of food, small number of defensive capabilities. I can help with both."

The other crab hesitated, walking towards her while turning her shell pink. "... explain, if you may. How would you be able to help?"

Chara smiled. "Have you ever had a goal? I'm sure you have. A certain amount of weight you want to be able to lift. A certain amount of trust by those you lead. A certain amount of food to distribute. You set this goal, this number, and work towards it. You ask for help from knowledgeable individuals. You acquire materials and items that aid you. You settle into a grind, slowly working to increase your desired number, over and over. That feeling, when numbers grow, when power increases..." She chuckled. "That's me. Or at least, it is now."

Matriarch and Clk'clk eyed her warily, their eyestalks swiveling around. "What would your 'help' look like?" Matriarch asked nervously.

"We shall strike a deal. I will increase the amount of food that showers your home, and summon a large quantity weapons and armor your kind can use. I will do this..." She wished to be able to make a simpler deal, and technically she could've, but she didn't know how. "... every time you and yours kill something of appreciable mass. Small animals will do. Do we have a deal?"

The two crab aliens looked at each other, and eventually the leader turned to her. "Deal, creature."

"I am Chara. And..." She marked the Matriarch's clan with her power, invisible and undetectable to all but herself. "... it is done."

A week passed. The clan of Matriarch Vr'mkx was prospering well under her blessing. They sent out hunters to kill various fauna, even ones they couldn't use otherwise. And she held true to her promise. She didn't directly conjure anything. She simply reached to the numbers she promised to tweak and increased them. Rate of food falling to their territory, how many spears the primitive aliens had, those things. While she soon had to change the terms of the deal to not 'increase' but 'reset to the current value' in order to not bury them in food and spears, they were doing well. Quite well. She was helping people. She was making them strong. Happy. Safe. Would Frisk congratulate her on her charity, were he awake? She liked to think he would.

Chara filled her time by wandering across reality. She orbited neutron stars. Dove through stellar cores. Drifted through quasar jets. Swam in the strange states of matter within gas giants.

Eventully she decided to pay her brother a visit. She returned to the void of her world and warped to Asriel. The boss monster snorted awake, and glared at her. "Well?" she asked. "Have you given it any thought?"

He sneered. "Forget it. You're asking me to give up everything, in return for nothing! Get out, and don't come back until you're ready to bring it back," he spat.

She shrugged. "That's your decision, then. You can rot here as long as it takes," she spat. As quick as she'd come, Chara left him again. He couldn't keep refusing forever.

Alright, so she'd helped the crab aliens. Was still helping them, technically, but no reason she couldn't keep finding other worlds.

Chara drifted further from the gaping darkness of her world, dodging between various other universes. As she flew on and on, she soon saw something that prompted her to stop. Two colossal universes drifting together, closer and closer. Their rippling edges met, and where they did phenomenal energy burst forth. They continued to join together, the seam glowing brighter and brighter in her demonic eyes, until -

With a catastrophic burst, a new universe was born. Chara saw it slow motion. The processes occurring before a Planck Time elapsed. The matter-antimatter annihilation. The formation of the fundamental forces, the emergence of magic, the inflation. The two parent universes blew away from each other, leaving the broiling hot, new reality to expand between them.

She smiled. One more universe. A lot more matter and energy.

Chara went searching for another world. Soon, she found one. A quick warp around the planet said it was, at least technologically, like the humans of her era. What Frisk had called 'medieval' times. Castles, roads, kings. To her relief though, they weren't humans. Rather, they were enormous centipedes with dark blue exoskeletons, and pincer-like arms. There were many other species too, but none of them stood out.

After a moment she found an armored centipede alien wandering through a desolate mountain range. She shadowed the alien for a few days - more than that, she supposed, since days on this planet were 46 hours and 27.478 minutes long - to gather information. He seemed to be a knight, sent on some mission by his queen. There was magic in this world, and he was sent to kill an evil wizard. It made sense; she could see the magic resistance in his armor and it was quite admirable.

She followed a while longer; the busywork was good for keeping her mind off things. Chara rooted around the vast arsenal of powers she had, and settled for something appropriate. She'd already practiced one aspect, with Matriarch Vr'mkx. Now for another one.

One night as the centipede creature settled down to sleep, curling his long body around a firepit with his gear close at hand - pincers? hundreds-of-feet? - she let herself become tangible.

"Greetings, sir," she chimed.

The alien screeched and leaped to his feet, uncurling and brandishing the scything blades on his arms menacingly. For a long moment he didn't speak, but then he did. Unlike the crab aliens, his voice clicked and clacked instead of warbled. "Who are you? What are you? State your business!"

"My name is Chara," she explained, placing a hand to her chest. "I could not help but notice your quest, and followed along. You see I'm..." Her smile tightened. "... having some issues of my own, and am seeking to keep my mind off them. So, in honor of my good friend, I am wandering from plane to plane, performing good deeds while waiting for the issue to resolve itself."

He threw his head back and laughed. It wasn't a human or monster laugh. It sounded like crickets chirping. "A likely story! You're some creation of Markarix, are you not? You seek to lead me off my sacred duty, but - "

"Your armor could be better," she explained. She held her left hand out to where it laid in a pile, and then it floated to her. She rotated the dark blue pieces around, wreathing them in a bright red glow that cast eerie shadows on the alien. "An exchange, sir. I will grant you far superior armor and weapons, and in return - "

"Forget it!" he said, tensing to lunge. "Your words are poison, and I will not hear - "

She hollowed out her eyes. "You did not even listen to what I wish," she growled, deadening the air and shutting him up. She relaxed, dropped his armor, and reformed her eyes. "I simply wish for your advice on what to do with my own troubles."

The alien relaxed. "That is... reasonable." He lowered his arms. "I am Sir Gavrilek. What is your name, being?"

"I am Chara," she said. "So we have a deal?" He nodded, and she returned the gesture. "Excellent." With a telekinetic shove she pushed the armor away, and began to conjure a new set of armor for the alien. Her fingers shone bright red as she created the matter out of nothing. Well... matter wasn't entirely right. Chara crafted her armor out of a material that was not mass nor energy, one she could give any traits she so desired. She made it dark blue like the alien's carapace, and molded it into exactly the same shapes as his armor. Heat resistance, acid and base resistances, incredibly high defense, magical deflection, everything she could think of. Once that was done she also crafted a replica of his weapons, with similarly vast powers bestowed upon them.

Once she was done she allowed the gear to fall with a clatter. Gavrilek scurried over to it and weighed one of the armor pieces. "It is... light! It flexes. This is not armor, but hide!"

"No no," she said. "Strike it." He did so, and his scythe arm bounced off as though he'd struck a mountain. He turned to her, mouthpieces gaping wide. "I have given this armor properties far superior to your own armor. Same with the weapon. Use them well."

"I shall!" He released the armor and scurried back to the firepit, curling his body into a ball. "Now, I believe you said you had an... issue to deal with?"

Chara glanced down. Oh, yes. That. She warped over to his side, already sitting. To his credit, the alien knight didn't flinch. "So, I told you I'm from another plane. I... I have a brother. When we were born, we had no real powers. But our nation had its own worries and I, in my foolishness, devised a plan to fix it. But all it did was get myself and him killed," she spat. "A while later, my brother returned to life and acquired the powers of a god. Among them the ability to turn back time, with some limits. He grew cold and cruel, Sir Knight. A while later I myself revived, with power going far beyond what you have seen."

"Ah, so family troubles?" he asked.

She nodded. "My brother, for a long time, did nothing but toy with the world, resetting whenever he saw fit. Murder someone, then befriend them, then murder them again, you understand. I'm trying to make him stop. So... I destroyed our entire plane of existence."

"What?!" he shouted, rounding on her.

"Let me finish! He remains in that void. I can leave it, but he cannot. My plan is to simply leave him in isolation until he agrees to abandon his cruel ways, surrender his power. Once he so swears, I'll recreate our universe. But..." She glanced down. "But he's changed so much. And he's determined, too. It is what gives him his power over time. His counter plan is to simply wait me out. That I shall grow to miss our world. Miss our parents. And then I'll recreate it whether he stands down or not. I... I fear he may be right. I miss my world. I miss my parents. I miss my friend."

Gavrilek's head lowered. "Oh," he said simply. "Child, that sounds quite terrible. I do not truly know what you can do. Is there nobody else from your world?"

She sighed. "Well there is... one. He's the one who brought me back to life in the first place. I've his soul with me. But... he's already suffered so horribly at the hands of my brother!" she complained, turning to him. His alien visage wasn't unsettling. In fact, it was even monster-esque. That she could handle. "After destroying our world I put him to sleep. I swore to him that when he next awoke, everything would be made right. I cannot break that promise to him; it wouldn't be right."

The knight clicked his mandibles. "This... other. Is he kind?"

"Very much so. He would have saved my nation had my brother not ruined the attempt with his time powers."

"And do you care for him?"

"Of course!" she shouted, her irises glowing for a moment. "I admit I'm not fond of his kind, but he's different. And he was patient enough to put up with me, even after it was my folly that hardened my brother's heart, that got him tortured horribly."

"And... does he care for you?"

Chara felt for Frisk's soul, and traced the echoes of emotion within it. She smiled, touched by a warmth that the firepit could never give her. "He does. I do not know why, but he does."

"I see." Gavrilek was silent for a long time. Chara let him think, and instead stared into the flickering flames. "Two children, granted incredible cosmic powers by fate. One fallen to evil from them, the other sworn to oppose him. Chara, my hearts go out to you. All I can say is... try to find something to do. Some semblance of... normalcy. While traveling from plane to plane and offering your powers to set wrongs right may occupy you, it will not truly help." He poked her gently with an arm's blade. "You are new to your vast might, no? Do not let it consume you, do not let it define you, like it has your brother. Find a plane out there where you can blend in, and simply... do as the inhabitants do. And I strongly suggest speaking with your friend. He will not mind."

"But I promised - "

He cut her off. "I believe he would be far more pleased to speak with you and aid you, rather than be brought back to his world only to find your brother victorious, no?"

She nodded sadly. "Right. You are right." Chara stood. "Thank you, Sir Gavrilek. I will be off. I wish you the best of luck with your quest." She tilted her head to the side. "I'll try to check in now and again."

He chuckled again. "And I wish you luck with your own quest, child."

If he said anything else, Chara didn't hear it. She warped away.

A world where she could blend in. A world where she could live a normal life until Asriel relented. How in the world was she going to find something like that?!

She searched and searched, high and low. Far too many worlds, far too many universes, were dead and lifeless. Some of them may have once had life, but age and entropy had reduced them to empty husks. She erased those ones entirely.

Eventually, Chara did find something. A universe where, in one galaxy, a great number of alien races had joined together in a government. There were so many species, nobody would bat an eye at a human-shaped demon. She located a massive station in space, shaped like a sphere with spokes going to the inside, akin to a three-dimensional wheel. She discretely warped onto it.

Chara moved among the crowds, blending in perfectly. She found an apartment complex. Using her powers she 'gave' herself a tremendous amount of their money even though she wasn't in their electronic system. With that money she rented a room, then warped to it. Nobody gave her any looks; personal teleportation devices weren't uncommon for them, even if they couldn't hope to match her range.

The room was certainly luxurious. Only to be expected from the 'far future' races of this universe. Her apartment was as large as the entirety of Mom and Dad's house. The walls were gray, but she found a holographic dial and set them to golden flower yellow. She took a few minutes to investigate the luxuries. Chairs and beds and all other sorts of furniture that folded out of the walls, molding themselves into whatever she needed by way of advanced magic and technology. Pantries stocked with food. None of the alien foods appealed to her, though. There was something that seemed to be the future version of the television sets she'd seen when she last lived in the Underground. But it was holographic instead.

The rooms were all empty, free for her to mold them into what she needed. First things first though, Chara wanted a shower.

She stepped into the room - since the entire room was the shower - and turned the water on, as hot as could be. She didn't bother taking her clothes off, given they were technically part of her too. She laid on the floor and let the scalding water pour over her, leaving her completely unharmed. The pitter-patter of the drops was more than enough white noise for her to close her eyes and try to rest.

But sleep never came.

Well... that was to be expected. She wasn't human anymore, thank goodness. She should have expected this having gone for over a week with no rest, but she'd hoped that she could at least sleep when she wanted to. It'd be so easy to break Asriel down if she simply could sleep away her part of the waiting away. This was proving to be harder and harder by the day.

With a growl, Chara shut off the water and stood up. She was still bone dry because of course she was. What was she even complaining about?! She was a nigh-omnipotent demon with a wide set of incredibly flexible powers. She could go anywhere and do anything. She could destroy universes with a single, casual blow. She was in a futuristic apartment complex that might as well have been a mansion compared to her life before falling into Mt. Ebott. She had someone who loved her, cared for her. She was powerful enough to - when Asriel surrendered - shatter the Barrier and let her people be free. Hell, she was alive! Her brother was alive! Certainly compared to Frisk, her contribution to saving the world was practically a vacation. So what was she complaining about?!

She warped back to the living room and summoned a massive bed from the floor, with fluffy pillows, warm cushions, and a soft mattress. She flopped onto it, pulled the cushions up to her chin, and sighed. When was the last time she'd laid in a bed?

... well, eleven hundred years if Frisk was to be believed.

Chara flipped through the channels. Scarcely any mattered to her. Politics about people and nations she cared nothing for. Crimes she could only grunt at. A few fictional shows here and there, but most of them were useless. A couple comedy shows caught her interest, though. A few of them even revolved around puns.

Perfect.

She spent a few weeks in that reality, busying herself. Given she could artificially increase how much of any currency she had, she didn't need to get a job. Chara checked out the tourist attractions, and always had a place to come back to. Though she started wondering if maybe she could make a place for herself. It wouldn't even be that hard. Just make a tiny universe, take floorboards and such from the worlds that had them, put it together. Maybe later.

Chara decided now was as good a time as ever to check her brother again. She found the gaping void of her world and warped into it.

She reappeared next to Asriel. "Well, brother?" she asked. He'd been drifting silently and miserably, but started when she appeared. "Given it any thought?"

He'd definitely seen better days. His eyes were haggard and he grit his fangs. Then he sighed. "Fine. I'll give up my powers. Just bring the world back, Chara."

Chara nodded slowly. "That is good to hear." Her eyes hollowed. "Too bad you don't mean it," she spat. "Do you take me for a fool, Asriel? Even if I had fallen for your ruse, it would matter not. I am immune to your resets. With Frisk's soul beside me, he is immune. The instant you tried to reset the world, I'd just cast it into the abyss and we'd be right back here again. There is no way out of this, brother. Surrender, or stay here forever."

"Never," he insisted.

She threw her hands over her head, reforming her eyes. "Why are you even being so stubborn?! We have everything we could want! You are alive. I am alive. Either one of us has the power to shatter the Barrier. Literally all I'm asking you is to go live a wonderful life with me and our family on the surface."

"No, you're not!" he retorted. "You are asking me to die! Without my resets I'm going to die eventually and there'll be no coming back! And I don't have my soul! So what happens when I...?" Chara frowned. She knew the answer. It wasn't a pretty one. He seemed to understand, and sneered. "Exactly! You want me to go back to useless feels-feelings Asriel. You want me to die, to be erased!"

"We can get you a soul," she protested, her 'stomach' tying itself in knots. "And I do not know if you've realized, but I don't have my soul either!"

"You can't get me a soul!" he countered, balling up his fists. "You can't just make new souls, Chara! Or do you want to prove me wrong?" She didn't respond, instead choosing to just tremble. "Right, I didn't think so. So forget it! This is how the world is now! With me as its god."

She narrowed her crimson eyes. "What world?" she growled, leaving both the void and Asriel behind.

Chara couldn't speak to anyone. Couldn't... connect with anyone. Sure her neighbors came by and knocked on her door, but she snubbed them all. She didn't care about all these aliens walking around the space station. She didn't care for the station. She didn't care for their civilization. She didn't care for their universe! She wanted her universe. She wanted her people. She wanted Mother and Father and Gerson and Asriel and that old monster who kept complaining about the state of puzzles and she wanted Frisk.

Well... she could have one of those.

But she couldn't! Whatever the centipede-like alien Gavrilek had said, she couldn't just wake Frisk back up. She'd made a promise! She'd promised that when he woke up, everything would be fine. Surely she could just go to the crab aliens, or check on Sir Gavrilek's quest. The humming of their numbers was still ever-present in the back of her mind, after all.

But it all weighed on her so much. She couldn't put Asriel out of her mind. She couldn't put her plan out of her mind, no matter how many cosmic distractions she binged on. With a heavy sigh she flopped onto her bed and held her hands up and together. She spread them, forming Frisk's soul. Chara gave the crimson heart a gentle push, sending it drifting into the middle of the room. With a flick of her wrist, Frisk woke up.

'Uggghhh, mm?' he groaned.

'Frisk, I'm sorry,' she apologized. 'I know I said I'd awaken you when everything was fine, I know I told you I'd handle everything but it's just so hard and I need your help - '

'Hey, hey,' he said. 'Chara, it's fine. Everyone needs help now and then. I know I couldn't have done this without you. So what's going on? And uh... why can't I see?'

See? Oh right, she'd erased his body back when she'd destroyed the universe. Chara exercised her power over Frisk's soul and let him see the room around him. The soul shivered, then twisted in place. 'Whoa,' he said. 'This is fancy!'

'I suppose,' she grunted. 'It's as good a place as any to wait out my brother.'

'Wait him... wait, didn't Gaster say you need to fight him?'

'That wasn't going to work,' she replied. 'The dog and I can hurt him, but he can also hurt me. If we fought, I would've given in first. So I just erased the universe and trapped him in it until he relents. Once he does, I'll bring it back.'

'Oh. But...' She felt unease, confusion, ripple through his soul. 'Wouldn't they just be copies of everyone?'

Chara shook her head, sending her strands of auburn hair flying. 'No, no. It's complicated, but they'd be the originals. Time details, you understand.'

'Okay. So... what did you need help with?'

'It's... I'm trying to wait him out, but he's doing the same. I'm so bored out here, Frisk. I have nobody to talk to. Nobody to love. And it's stupid! Why am I so sad? I'm omnipotent! All of reality is at my fingertips and here I am moaning about it!' She turned over on her stomach and planted her face into her pillow. 'What is wrong with me?' she wondered. 'Am I really that ungrateful? That weak willed?'

She felt Frisk's soul float closer to her, bathing her in his warmth. 'There's nothing wrong with you,' he insisted. 'I know you may feel I had it rough, but you're the one who had to watch all of your people die, and who was forced to like it. You're so impatient because we're at the finish line but it's still taking so long. There's nothing wrong with you for wanting your home back sooner than later, Chara.' There was no response coming to her. Frisk continued speaking. 'Look, any time you want to talk, I'll be there for you, okay?'

'... Frisk?'

'Yes?' he asked, drifting closer.

'Would you like to watch a comedy show with me?' she asked, turning onto her back. 'These aliens have some really good ones.' She'd need to translate for him, though.

She felt him smile. 'I'd love to, Chara.'

Chara spent a few more weeks with Frisk in the futuristic universe before she decided to check on Asriel again.

When she warped back into the void, his back was to her. He was...

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"Enjoying yourself?" she asked sweetly.

He whirled around and growled at her like a beast. He opened his hands and summoned his Chaos Slicer swords into them. He didn't change to his dorky God of Hyperdeath look, though. "Let! Me! GO!" he roared, charging at her through the abyss. She flinched as he grew closer and raised his left sword to strike, but Chara calmly raised her right arm.

The cold metal came clashing down with tremendous force - she could see the exact number of joules behind it, and it was staggering - but it merely bounced off her arm without leaving so much as a scratch. But agonizing flame burst from her arm downward, lighting up her being with pain that had her gritting her teeth and hollowing her eyes in shock.

His other sword came at her, so Chara fought through the pain and drew her knife. She deflected his sword and, while Asriel was preparing to strike again, let crimson energy flow across her weapon and morphed it into a gun like the one Frisk had found in the Underground. She aimed at her brother and pulled the trigger, striking him dead center with a nine-shaped bullet of energy.

Asriel tumbled back, swords crumbling into the darkness. "Enough of this, Asriel," she insisted, reforming her knife but keeping it glowing. "You cannot 'stab' or 'blast' an abstract concept like me. You can't fight your way out of this. There is no power you hold over me. Relent."

The boss monster panted, then shouted wordlessly. Chara watched as he raged impotently, before relaxing. "You can't win this way," he growled. "I will never let go of my powers! I will never die!"

"Did you even try to get your soul back?" she asked, eyes still empty. "After all, you told Frisk you are better off without one, no? But if we could just find a way... you are a boss monster! You'll live a long time. Plenty of time for us to find a way."

Asriel glanced down. "I tried, back when I was a flower. In the early resets. But there was nothing Alphys could do, nothing Toriel or Asgore could do, nothing anyone could do. Don't you get it, Chara? Even if I wanted to, there's no going back for me! This is all that's left," he bemoaned, gesturing at himself. "And why do you want me to go back?!" he shouted, closing in on her. "I failed you! I got wimpy and sappy. Oh I don't want to kill the humans. Can't we just be friends? I ruined your perfect plan! I got us both like this! Your sacrifice was for NOTHING because of me!"

Chara reformed her eyes and her expression softened. "Is... that how you think of it?" she asked, drifting closer. She sheathed her knife and held out her hands, gripping Asriel's. He didn't move, and continued staring at his feet. "My plan is the one that ruined everything. I got you killed, and I'm sorry! I'd known you for years, but I still thought you'd be able to somehow murder six people. If I'd kept my stupid mouth shut, everything would be fine. We'd still have souls. We'd have our childhoods. I'm sorry, Asriel. But please! You never tried to get a soul while you have this much power. Trust in us! We can find a way!"

He shook, and took a gasping breath. "No... no, I can't," he muttered, tears beading from his eyes before dissolving into the void. "You can say what you want, but your plan would've worked! I was the weak link. I got us both like this."

"You got us into the far future where, if Frisk is right, humans are kind!" she countered. "You got us all powerful! You gave us the power to shatter the Barrier! I know it's not all perfect. I know the kingdom suffered so in our absence, but people make mistakes! We both did. Please, Asriel. I don't want to keep punishing you," she pleaded. "I just want to put this behind us. I just want my brother back," she managed, her voice wavering. Oh God, why was her chest so tight?

Asriel shook his head. "Just go," he muttered. "I'm never giving up this power. It's all I have."

Chara sighed. She was so sure she'd gotten through to him. "I'm not giving up on you," she insisted.

"You should!" he shouted, wrenching his hands from her and glaring. "I'm not the stupid little brother you grew up with!" His body began to twist and morph, growing and stretching. Body parts fused, morphed, or in some cases vanished entirely. In seconds Asriel had changed to a colossal angelic being, with wings of shimmering rainbow circuits, a twisting triangle for legs, and more. His horns grew up from nothing into wide arches that went to the side, and his shoulders grew into black expanses up around him. His inverted, slit eyes smoldered with hate. "THIS is who I am! I'm the god of our world! I've spent so much time in it! Seven hundred years, Chara! Sure it's not as much as Asgore or Toriel, but given how bundled it is? I can never go back because this is who I am! Even if you somehow gave me a soul, I can never be their son again! And I can never be your brother again!" he boomed, his voice deep and thrumming.

She glared at him. "Be that way, then," she spat, leaving the ruined world behind.

Chara reappeared inside her apartment, then warped out to a random universe. She found one that was uninhabited, and teleported to a rocky planet. "God DAMN it!" she shouted, slicing the planet with her knife and smashing it to rubble. She found another planet and obliterated the one too. Then she destroyed a star. Then a galaxy. And then she destroyed the universe, then the next one, and the next and the next, shouting and screaming obscenities all the while.

'Didn't work?' Frisk asked.

She froze in the middle of the space between realities, and put away her knife. 'Did I wake you?' she asked, trembling and with a sick twisting stress in her 'stomach'.

'It's fine,' he insisted. 'Are you okay?'

'It's just... I really thought I'd gotten through to him! He was crying! He was... and then...' She sighed. 'He must've started feeling emotions again, and suppressed them. If I can just make him keep feeling, then I know I can make him surrender!'

'I wish I could do more to help,' Frisk said sadly from within her.

She sighed. 'It's fine. I mean, technically you're dead. But he's right about something. He spent so much time in his resets. I don't know him anymore. He's done so many things and seen so many things and I... I just spent all that time asleep. I can't connect with him. Maybe he's right.' She closed her eyes. 'Maybe there is no way back for him.'

'Don't say that,' he insisted. 'Even if you can't give him a soul again, isn't it enough to live a boss monster's life? Hasn't he seen enough already?'

'He doesn't think so,' she groused. 'And he's the one I have to convince. Forget it, I'll try again later.' She warped back to her apartment. 'Anyway, I think Midarian Nest is up again soon. Don't want to miss it.'

Another three months came and went. She checked in on the alien knight Gavrilek; he'd killed his evil wizard with no effort at all, thanks to her conjured armor, and returned to his kingdom as a hero. She checked on the primitive tribe of crab aliens; with the prosperous food and weapons she'd given them, they were flourishing into a major power, a center for the arts and sciences. To her chagrin, they'd even erected a few statues of herself. As if she was someone to worship.

But none of them were helping with getting through to Asriel.

She warped back into her world, but stayed far away from Asriel. Maybe... maybe just resummon Mother? Or Father? No, it wouldn't work so long as they were in the void. They'd suffocate. Maybe make a room for them. But no, that didn't work either. Her powers couldn't do anything on that small a scale. The nuance meant she'd either have to recreate the entire universe, or none of it. Maybe just a bit? Sure Asriel would have it back for a while but then she'd blow it right back up and... and...

Chara slapped herself across the face. Get a hold of yourself, she told herself, frantically teleporting away from her universe. No, no, she was slipping! Maybe go exploring again. There was this ice moon she'd found a while ago, and she wanted to go spelunking through the glacier caves.

When she went to confront Asriel again, he was still in his monstrous angelic form, towering above her with fingers the size of her entire body.

"Ready to give in?" she asked coldly.

He glared down at her, the heart-shaped hole within his chest orb pulsing angrily. "Forget it. These powers are all that I am."

"They're all they are because they're all you let yourself be!" she cried. "How aren't you realizing it? You never even tried to use them to make yourself whole! Do you feel nothing for us? Nothing for me? I know you do!"

He recoiled. "Maybe sometimes, but I know what it is now! I can keep those feelings down," he insisted. "And so what if I never tried? Why would I?" He sneered, his all-too wide mouth filled with shark teeth going wide. "You're one to talk, anyway! Look at yourself, Chara! You don't exactly have a soul either." She recoiled in shock, drifting back through the void. "You can shatter and recreate planes of existence! Walk through countless worlds nobody else will ever see! You're better than you ever were, I'm better than I ever was. And we both share the same thing; we're both soulless. So why would you ever want to go back?"

"I have a soul! Frisk's soul, that he gave to me!" she insisted. "I still care for you, Asriel," she cried. "But look at yourself! How can you say you're better off than you were before? Really LOOK at yourself, Asriel!" she shouted. He glanced down, raising his deformed hands to his eyes. Chara's voice softened and it felt like her throat was caught in a vice. "I can barely even recognize you," she told the horrific angel. Then she warped away.

Maybe next time.

Why did she even waste her time on Asriel?! Clearly he didn't want her help. He obviously just wanted to rot in the gaping void that used to be their world, so why shouldn't she oblige him?!

She spent the next week going between angry muttering, pacing, whimpering into her pillow, and watching shows in an attempt to distract herself. But always, her wayward brother lingered in the back of her mind. Maybe he was right. Maybe there was no way back for him, and he was a lost cause.

Maybe this was all that was left for them.

Sure, she knew it was quitter talk but... he gave a good argument. He had no soul. Even if he did allow himself to feel emotions again, without a soul of his own he'd know only oblivion when he eventually died. If he kept his reset powers then that would defeat the whole point; there'd be no going forward for the universe.

Chara briefly entertained the idea of letting Asriel keep his infinite power, keep his control over time, but have him only use it responsibly. Only reset when he died, and only to recently. Would he agree to that sort of compromise? Surely he would. It was better than her alternative of 'give up everything and just hope we can maybe find a way to help'.

Was she being the selfish one, wanting to be the only one of them with phenomenal powers?

No, no that was silly. Asriel'd been given all the power in the world and he'd squandered it. He had to face the consequences. But what about her? She'd tried to kill millions of humans. She'd caused his death, she'd caused all this misery. Did she deserve her powers?

... no. If anything, Frisk was the one who should've ascended, not her. But there was nothing to be done for it. She couldn't just 'give up' her vast cosmic abilities. It just... couldn't be done.

Did Asriel have to face the consequences? He'd already suffered so dearly. First at his own hand, trapping himself in a timeloop where the world lost any surprise, lost any spark. Then at her hand, trapped in the abyss for over a year now.

Hadn't she already hurt her brother enough?

No. No, she had to remember what she was doing this for. She was doing this for Mom and Dad. For everyone in the Underground. For Frisk. They would never be free so long as Asriel kept his resets. She could trust Frisk not to abuse them, but her brother had long ago lost the right to rewind time. He had to lose the ability to save and load. That was non-negotiable.

She returned to the world. Since her last visit, a few weeks ago, Asriel had returned to his normal form, so there was that. He hovered in place, facing her but with his head bowed so that she could barely see the nubs of his horns, just barely poking out from his skin. "I was thinking," she began. "That perhaps, we can reach a compromise. You see, it is only your reset powers I take issue with, Asriel."

He narrowed his eyes and looked up at her. "Go on..."

"So here is my offer. Keep your souls. They make you invincible, do they not? But release your hold on time. Abandon your ways, and let yourself feel love again. Do it, and I will bring this world back."

"No!" he shouted. "Haven't I told you?! This is all that I am!"

"Then you're nothing!" she countered. "You don't feel joy. You don't feel love. You don't have any surprise or shock or awe in your life. You have nobody but yourself! These powers have ruined you! You said it yourself; they're not people as long as you can play with them like that!" She softened her voice. "Please, Asriel. I'm so tired of fighting with you. I'm so tired of you hating me. Please, just let it go."

"... I don't hate you," he whispered, not willing to meet her eyes. "I... I..." His eyes widened, and his fists clenched.

Chara thought faster. She warped to him and wrapped her arms around him, resting her head against one of his shoulders. "Shh," she shushed. "No, don't push it down. Let it happen. What do you feel?"

He trembled against her. "It hurts, Chara..." he whimpered. "I don't want to... it hurts..."

"I know, I know," she whispered, rubbing her hands across his back. "I suspect that is the guilt. Shh, Asriel. What else?"

He trembled harder. "I feel warm... I don't... remember. They're all so quiet. They're all so dead, Chara."

She nodded gently, closing her eyes tight. "I know they are," she muttered against his floppy ears. "How does this warmth feel? Describe it to me," she urged.

Asriel hiccuped a sob. "My stomach hurts. My heart's... oh golly it's so fast. I... I feel... hah, hah." Then he let out a quiet sob. "Chara..." he croaked.

She opened her eyes and glanced at the back of his head. He was still shaking. "I'm here, Asriel. I'm here," she promised. "Please, just let this end. I'm so tired of this."

"I'm scared," he sobbed. "I don't want to have only one try. I don't want to mess things up anymore. I've made so many mistakes. Don't want them to last."

"I know, I know, nobody does," she reassured. "But it's been hurting you so badly, don't you feel it? Just let this end. Mom misses us. Dad misses us."

He shook again. "... I'm so tired, Chara."

She nodded, forcing back her own tears of black ichor. Despite her efforts, they trailed down her cheeks and from her mouth. "I'm tired too."

"I'm so old, Chara..." he managed between cries.

"I know you are, I know you are. Mom and Dad are too, they can help you. We can help you. Just let us help, Rei. You don't have to be alone."

Asriel gripped her harder, hard enough to shatter galaxies. He buried his snout into her and sobbed again, his tears and snot staining her shirt. "It hurts so much, Chara..."

"It'll pass, I promise," she assured, continuing to hold him. "I'm here, I'm here."

"I feel... oh God," he gasped, retching quietly. "They all... I feel... I couldn't have..."

"It's alright, it's alright," she repeated soothingly. "You weren't yourself. You weren't yourself. Anyone else would've done the same thing. Anyone else would've been so much worse."

He remained silent for a few minutes, save for his ongoing sobs. "You were right," he managed at last. "I'm sorry. I just want this to end. I'm so bored and tired and alone and I'm just so gosh-darned old..." She figured Asriel tried to say something more, but he just started crying again.

That was fine. Chara smiled and held him tighter. "Asriel... Rei. Thank you. I'm sorry too, for everything I did. I'm so happy to hear you say that." She didn't release him, but did begin to reach into the past.

It began to unfurl, energy and space and time coming back into being. It swept over her like a tidal wave, and she couldn't help but recreate every fundamental particle exactly as it'd been through every instant of space and time. She saw stars and planets come into being. Galaxies spun like tops. Chara saw their planet return, and roll underneath their feet. With a grimace she saw... herself and Asriel in the past. Playing together. Laughing together. Dying together. But she couldn't stop. She couldn't reach out and pluck the past-Asriel's soul and give it back to him.

There was nothing she could do for him.

But there was something she could do for someone else. She found the remnants of Gaster and swept them up even as her power continued to recreate the hundreds of years after her death. She gathered his pieces and, as they came up on the present, prepared to rotate him and his four followers back into reality.

She could recreate the universe as it was any moment she had seen as a demon. So recreating it as it was when she was alive was out. The earliest she could do was the instant Frisk fell and revived her. Chara, still holding Asriel, came up on that moment. Flowers came together, cavern walls erected themselves, a distant world's atmosphere came into being, particles of light appeared in the middle of the chambers. And Frisk's body reappeared, on his back. She pushed Gaster and his fellows back into being.

Then, Chara reigned in her power.

The air coasted over her nose. The soil pressed beneath her feet. Frisk lay stunned from his 'recent' fall.

Finally, she said, "Thank you, Rei."

Chapter Text

Chara

After a moment longer, she let go of her brother. They both glanced over to where Frisk lay, groaning quietly in pain. Asriel looked down miserably and backed off to the walls. Chara wanted to say something to him, but she understood.

Instead, she walked over to Frisk. She knelt over him and smiled. He blinked his eyes a few times, then focused on her. "Welcome back, Frisk," she said.

Frisk gurgled lowly in his throat, then his eyes went wide. "Waa... wait. I can... I - " His hands came up and patted himself on the chest. "My body?"

Chara nodded. "Yes. I did it, Frisk. He's agreed to stand down. Everything's okay." She stepped around him and offered her left hand. "Here, get up."

He grabbed her hand, and she hoisted him up. He grunted and his legs trembled as he got up. Chara felt a shot of pain go through his soul, so she reached into his health - so much smaller than she remembered - and maximized it. Frisk took a deep breath and his shaking stopped. Then he glanced over to where Asriel hid in the corner, and took a startled step back.

"He's right there - " he started.

"I know," she said. "It's okay, Frisk. We've come to an agreement. He agreed to stop."

Frisk eyed Asriel warily. "Are you... sure?" Chara sensed wariness flood his soul. Not that she was surprised. After all Asriel had put him through, her brother couldn't just show up and say 'sorry, friends?' to him.

"I'm sure," she said. Chara turned to Asriel. "So... what now?"

The boss monster sighed. "Well... you said you wanted to break the Barrier, right? We should probably start heading through. And I have..." He shivered. "A way in mind to lose my resets."

Leaving Frisk for a moment, Chara warped over to him and put her right hand on his shoulder. "I'm really proud of you, you know that? I know this isn't easy for you."

Asriel nodded miserably. "Yeah." He looked up suddenly. "Oh wait, we should get going. This is usually the time when - "

"Hello?" a melodious voice cut through. All three of them froze and looked toward the arch that lead out of the room. "I believe I heard someone? I am coming to help you, but do not be alarmed!" From around the corner, Mother appeared, her hands laced together. She glanced at them warily. "Oh, three at once?" she wondered, then smiled. "Well, do not be alarmed." She started walking closer. Chara's throat closed up and she placed a hand over her mouth. It was... her mom. Alive and well. Last Chara had seen her, Toriel had been dying. The last experience she had with her mom had been feeling good, warm and tingly and invoked as the execution points from her murder rushed into Frisk.

Mother came walking forward, but once she and Asriel came into focus for her - 13.6734 meters away - she stopped and gasped, her hands flying to cover her mouth. Chara saw molecules, orbs, and eventually drops of tears collect in her eyes. Toriel pinched her right arm and blinked hard several times, causing the tears to mat into her fur. As though she were sleepwalking, she slowly walked forward. She pinched herself again, then brought her hands back up to her snout.

Behind her, Asriel looked down in shame. Frisk shuffled his feet nervously and she felt something bittersweet lance through his soul. Chara took a step toward Mom as the monster hesitantly approached. "Greetings, Mother," she whispered. "I... imagine this is a surprise to - whoa!" All at once Toriel rushed at her, then knelt and wrapped her arms around her. Chara stiffened; it was all happening so fast, so suddenly. She heard Mother saying things, but Chara couldn't make out any of it given how jumbled the words were with tears.

Tentatively, she hugged back, wrapping her arms around Mom's frame. She felt the boss monster shift, then reach out and drag Asriel in with her. Toriel sobbed quietly above them, while she and Asriel glanced at each other in her arms. Asriel looked back at her, then grimaced and looked down. Chara's stomach twisted at his expression. Poor thing.

Finally, Mother pulled away but still kept an arm on either of them. Fresh tears brimmed in her happy eyes. Chara couldn't help but stare at her and smile back. "How?" she asked, grinning ear to ear to show off her fangs. "Oh my dears, how is this even possible?"

"It's a long story," Asriel mumbled, glancing at the ground. "I came back. A bit later, Chara came back too. But we've had some - oof!"

He was cut off when Mom pulled them back in again, resting her head between theirs. "Oh goodness I'm just... oh goodness I barely know what to say!" She pulled back and looked at them, her fur matted with tears. "I think... oh goodness, do you want to go home?"

Home. Home, with her mom. To the warm place where she baked pies and read her stories and taught her how to read and write. Chara smiled kindly. "That would be wonderful, Mother. But perhaps we should bring Frisk as well?"

Toriel's face contorted in confusion for a moment. But then she looked past the three of them to where Frisk stood awkwardly, his walking stick in hand. "Oh my goodness, I'd completely forgotten!" She let go and rushed towards Frisk, who took a step back with a nervous whine in his throat. Chara felt for his soul to get a reading of his emotions, and frowned. Oh. "Greetings, young one! My name is Toriel, there is no need to fear. I watch over this place, and come here every day to aid any humans who may have fallen down." She took another step forward with a hand outstretched.

A spike of fear and disgust washed through Frisk's soul and he scurried back, dropping his stick. Chara stepped forward. "Mother, I... believe it would be wise to give him space. Frisk has been through a lot, as part of my resurrection."

Toriel backed off. Though her back was to Chara, she could still see her face open up in shock. "Oh! My apologies Frisk. Would you still like to join us? I promise, I shall take good care of you."

Frisk met Chara's eyes, and she nodded. He looked back to her mom and nodded. "Thanks, Miss Toriel."

She nodded with a pleased 'Mmhmm' and turned around. "Well then, let us be off!" She held Asriel's hand, who just looked up at her, then back down. Mom started reaching for Chara's hand, but she pulled back and went to hold Frisk's. Toriel didn't say anything, but did give Chara an annoyingly knowing smile. "Follow me," she finished, leading the way forward.

With Asriel following Mom, she led Frisk forward. He glanced at her as they passed through the first arch and smiled. "Thanks, Chara."

She nodded politely. "But of course, Frisk. How are you holding up?"

He glanced around. "I've been better. How long's it been, anyway? Felt like a day to me."

"A little over a year," she approximated. She briefly squeezed his hand. "Listen, do not worry. Everything's okay. From here it's just a short trip to the Barrier, and from there you can go home."

Frisk nodded, but didn't reply.

Toriel led the four of them through the Ruins swiftly, not stopping to go through the instructions she had given Frisk before. Interestingly enough, all the puzzles were already done beforehand. She suspected her brother's involvement, but if Mom noticed she didn't say.

The walk was full of tense silence. A few of the Ruins monsters saw them and turned to their comrades with hushed whispers. Chara, of course, could make them out perfectly.

"... another boss monster? How?"

"... two humans at once?"

"... hey, that human looks... you know, the history books?"

They passed over the crumbling floor puzzles that had taken Frisk for a few spills in the past, but Chara simply strengthened their integrity to let them walk over smoothly. Toriel hummed curiously, but otherwise made no note. She merely kept looking down at Asriel, and back at Chara, happily. Asriel and Frisk both kept their heads down. Napstablook saw them coming and phased away before Frisk could even see the ghost.

The journey to Home went much faster than it did the first time for Frisk. No surprise; he didn't have to backtrack and hunt down everyone.

"I must apologize," Toriel said as she shut the door behind them. There was no scent of butterscotch in the air, but it was still as nostalgically warm as Chara remembered. "I haven't had time to get any groceries, so we're a little light. I need to head out, will you three be alright?"

Asriel glanced at Frisk, and Chara took the opportunity to reply, "We'll be fine, Mother."

She grinned. "Excellent! Asriel, Chara, you can take my bed for today. Frisk, you get the guest room."

Chara raised an eyebrow. "And where shall you sleep, Mother?"

She waved it off with a giggle. "Oh, I'll just sleep in my chair. It would not be the first time I dozed off reading a book." Suddenly, her expression collapsed. "You two... will be here when I return, will you not?"

Chara took a step forward and took one of her mother's large, furry hands into her own. "We are not going anywhere, I promise you."

That seemed to be enough. Mom nodded and pulled away. "Then I'll be back soon! Why don't you three get some rest?" She smiled. "I imagine falling down a mountain and coming back to life are both somewhat tiring."

She glanced at Frisk, then back to her mom and nodded. "I'll take care of it."

"Then I am off!" she said, moving into the door again. "Stay safe!" She closed the door. Then Toriel opened it back up and stuck her head back in. "No, I mean it. Stay safe," she said sternly before pulling away for good.

Chara glanced towards Asriel, only to find he wasn't there. She peered through the walls and found he'd since gone to their mom's room, and was busy laying on the bed like a starfish. With that settled, she looked over to Frisk. "You know, you do not need to sleep if you are not tired. I am certain there are many books here you could find interesting."

He nodded, but then his eyelids drooped and he yawned. "Hmm, maybe. I forgot how tiring it was to hike the mountain. Could use a nap."

"This way," she said, leading him to the right. Once they were at the guest room, Frisk stepped in and opened the door on his own. Chara glanced around, and found her vision going down towards the box of toys. Mr. Beepy was still there; she'd have to see about warping him out sometime for some fun.

Frisk sat on the bed, on top of the covers. Chara sat next to him, still holding his left hand with her right. "So... what now?" he asked.

Well... "Mother is probably going to try and keep us here, for fear of Asgore reaping your soul. I'll have a talk with her once she gets back, and then we'll make our way straight to the Barrier. We'll talk down my father from destroying humanity, release the six souls, and I'll shatter the Barrier." She smiled gently at him, stroking his cheek. "Then you can go home, Frisk."

"And your brother?" he asked worriedly. "He's still here! Does he still have his powers?"

Well... "Yes, but he agreed to remove his ability to reset." At his expression she tightened her grip. "Hey, relax. He's pacified."

"But what if he resets back to before I fell? I don't want to f-forget you," he said, choking up.

"You won't," she promised. She let go of his hand and put her palm to his chest. When she pulled it away, his soul floated in her grip. "You gave me your soul, for which I am eternally grateful. And so long as it is under my control, I will keep your memories intact. Asriel won't do anything. He can't do anything, certainly not to you." She let his soul fade back into his body. "You're safe, Frisk. You don't have to kill Toriel, or Sans, or Papyrus, or anyone else. Nobody will harm you, and you will not be forced to harm anyone." Chara gave him a gentle nod. "It's over," she reassured.

He stared at her blankly, but Chara watched as blood rushed to his face. His lips began to quiver, and -

Frisk launched himself at her and, while she was stunned, wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her shoulder. His first cry was nothing more than a large breath. But his second was a despairing croak, and from there he was inconsolable. Squeezing her as tight as he could, Frisk wailed, hiccuped, and sobbed relentlessly. The sound was terrible to hear and set her teeth on edge, but she bore it. Frisk needed this. She wrapped her arms back around him and gently patted his back.

He continued for... quite a while. Every time Chara thought he was quieting down, his sobs renewed themselves. He wasn't even trying to hold onto her anymore. He just laid against her, crying his poor, abused heart out. Eventually, though, Frisk began to quiet down. His screams turned to whimpers, and his sniffles turned to breaths. She hardly even noticed when he fell asleep on top of her. Chara warped him onto the pillow and stood from the bed.

Chara glanced at him and her eyes tightened in worry. She hoped that did him some good. A demon like her wasn't a good shoulder to cry on.

Asriel was still comatose in Mother's room. She peered through the walls and noticed that, while she'd held Frisk, Mother had returned and was in the kitchen.

She elected to walk instead of teleport. She closed the door to the guest room silently and made her way to the living room. The fireplace was crackling warmly, Mom's reading chair was full of wrinkles from recent use, and the books in her shelves were all stocked properly. The gardening tools were still filed down, and that made Chara wrinkle her nose. What a waste of perfectly good tools. Maybe she'd resharpen them... once she got Mom's permission.

The smell of both cinnamon and butterscotch, along with snails, drifted into her nose from ahead. She followed it and found Toriel moving back and forth through the kitchen, grabbing ingredients and putting them together with the sort of ease that came from many, many years of practice. Many years of grinding up her cooking skill.

"Greetings, Mother," she said as the boss monster placed the snail pie onto the stove.

She spun around with a gasp, placing a hand over her heart. "Chara! You scared the life out of me." She relaxed and wove her hands together. "Is everything alright? How is Frisk settling in?"

Chara glanced down. "He'll be fine, I hope. Please do not take him avoiding your touch personally. As I said, he has suffered tremendously. He's asleep right now. Asriel's laying in bed, too." She grimaced. "He has suffered, too."

"Oh dear," her mother muttered, glancing about. "Is there anything we can do?"

"I... don't know," she admitted. Chara stepped around to look at the cooking process. The butterscotch pie was yet to be folded up under the crust, but the snail pie was ready to cook. Chara took a step towards it. "Do you mind if I...?"

Toriel grinned widely and stepped aside. "Be my guest!"

Chara stepped before the snail pie and inspected it. "Watch this," she boasted with a glance at her mother. Then Chara returned her attention to the uncooked pie. She lowered her left hand, then swiftly raised it above her head while tweaking how long it'd been cooked. In instants, the crust browned and a delicious scent poured outward from it as the innards turned brown and gooey, just the way she liked it. She turned back to Mom and bowed. "Ta-da!"

She had her hands to her mouth. "Oh my goodness, Chara! How ever did you manage that?"

Chara grinned and turned back to the pie. "It is a long story. Long and short, returning to life granted Asriel and I some phenomenal powers. Only..." Her smile melted. "His powers caused him immense misery. But for a long time they were all he had, and he is reluctant to part with them."

Toriel lowered her hands and frowned. "I believe I shall have to speak with him, then."

She nodded, then stepped aside to let her mother attend to the butterscotch pie. "That would be good. He'll need you. Oh, here, let me handle that," she said once she noticed the second pie was mostly folded up and just needed to be baked. She cooked it too, redoubling the sweet scent of cinnamon in the air. Chara took a deep breath of it.

It'd been so long.

Her mother glanced at the two pies, then back at her with a frown. "Chara, would you sit with me for a minute?" she asked.

"But of course," she replied cautiously. Chara followed her mother back to the living room, where the monster sat in her reading chair. Chara took a step towards the table, ready to pull over a chair, but her mother coughed and gestured to her lap. She smiled, and acquiesced; she sat in her mother's lap like she had when she was eight.

"I must confess," Toriel admitted. "I still feel as though this is some... elaborate dream. But it has been going on for so long, and I am perfectly lucid. Just the thought that my two dead children would suddenly return to life, at the same time as a new human falls, and both of them have phenomenal magic they have not had before... I do not know what to say. Not to mention you are telling me that this poor child, and my own son, have undergone something horrible that you hesitate to elaborate upon."

Chara shrugged. "What can I say? Incredible things have happened. Um." Her smile grew tense. "Mother, what precisely are your plans for us? Frisk and the two of us, that is?"

Toriel sighed. "Chara, you must understand. Your father is not who he once was. He has declared - "

" - war upon humanity, and harvested the six souls of the humans who came before," she said, twisting around to look her mother in the eye with her crimson irises. "I know. But do you not think he'll... relent when he sees the two of us?"

Toriel grimaced. "I understand. And while I believe he is not so far gone as to try and harm you, your charming little friend on the other hand..."

"Frisk will be fine," she insisted. "I can protect him." Chara held out her left hand and focused. Red shards formed in the air and slid together to form Frisk's soul. "He has given me ownership of his essence. Asriel can rewind time." Her mother blinked hard. "Everything shall be fine. Mother... do you know what I wish?"

"Tell me, Chara."

She took a breath to steady her nerves, then dismissed Frisk's soul. "I want us, the four of us, to go leave the Ruins. We can make our way to New Home, and speak to Father. With all of us, we can surely talk him down. We can find the six souls and release them, and either Asriel and I have more than enough power to shatter the Barrier. Frisk... according to him, humanity has changed in my absence. Become more kind, more understanding." She found herself smiling despite herself. "We can make peace with his people, and... just go from there."

Her mother grimaced. "Chara, you are asking a lot of me. Asgore has six souls. He needs only one more..." She sighed. "But, I suppose you are the one who understands the powers you and your brother now possess, no?" She reached out and held Chara's hands. "Very well, my child. I shall trust in your judgement."

She smiled. "Thank you, mother."

The next day couldn't arrive soon enough. Chara could only count the atoms in the floorboards so many times, especially since she always knew the number.

Frisk came out to the dining room table and ate a slice of butterscotch pie, while Chara and her mother both dug into the snail pie. She hadn't had snail pie in ages. The salty, gooey treat was something she'd missed. Better still was the chocolate bar in the fridge afterward.

Asriel worried her, though. He hadn't moved from Mother's bed since he first laid down on it. She'd brought him a slice of pie. Of both pies. And he sat up to eat them, sure, but he didn't leave the bed. He didn't come to the table.

Probably avoiding Frisk and Mother, she thought. There was no doubt in her mind that Mom picked up on it as well, but she said nothing.

Once everyone cleared their plate, Chara instantly washed and dried them with a flex of her ability. Sure it was a little demeaning to use her vast, fundamental powers that could erase universes to do the dishes, but she figured if she had them, she may as well use them. "So Mother, shall we be off?" Frisk looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "To Snowdin," she clarified. "To bring you home?"

Frisk nodded. "Oh, right."

"Well I think it's as good a time as any," Toriel said, standing from her chair and collecting the plates. "I'll just put these back in the drawers. Chara, can you lead Frisk downstairs? I'll go get your brother, please wait for me by the sealed door at the end."

"Of course, Mother," she said, standing from her chair. Frisk followed suit, and without further word the two of them headed out of the living room. Once they were alone, she glanced to him. "So, did you sleep well?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I did." He grinned. "Did you have anything to do with that?"

She shrugged. "Not at all," she said honestly.

The hallway stretched around them, vacant and quiet. The dark purple stones blended together. She and Frisk turned a corner, passed through a door, and continued down the long corridor of steadily-brightening stone. That ended and gave way to another patch of dirt shone on by the distant sun, where the two of them elected to wait. "Sans is waiting past this door," Frisk said, looking at the colossal stone door that led to Snowdin.

"It'll be fine," Chara insisted. "I doubt he shall even attack us anyway. Not with two boss monsters with us."

Frisk trembled for a moment, but steeled himself and said, "Right, you're right."

It didn't take long for Mom and Asriel to catch back up, holding hands. Asriel's eyes were glued to the ground, and Frisk gingerly stepped behind her. She let those two take the lead, and followed after.

With Asriel holding her right hand, her Mother pressed the door open with her left. A blast of cold washed over them, and Frisk shivered. Chara smiled and quietly raised the temperature around him, to which he mouthed a quick 'Thanks'. In return, he held the door open for her to walk through, and only then followed after her.

Frisk was tense. She was tense, too, scanning their surroundings for any sign of Sans while her mother and brother walked forward fearlessly. Though... maybe not so fearlessly in her mother's case, given how she continued to look left and right. The four of them passed a large and heavy stick. Then, Chara saw Sans teleport behind them. She prepared to -

"So, stop me if you've heard this one." All four of them whirled around. Frisk scurried behind her and Toriel's hands brimmed with fireballs, but Sans didn't seem to care. "Two boss monsters and two humans walk into a forest. Along the way they meet a skeleton, and he says, So, stop me if you've heard this one..." He chuckled. "Ah, forgeddaboudit. Nice to meet ya. Name's Sans. Sans the skele - " He glanced towards herself and her brother and his eyes widened. Then he relaxed and laughed again. "Oh wow, there's gotta be a story behind all this."

Toriel stepped forward, extinguishing her flames but still as stiff as a board. "Behind what?"

He glanced up. "So, I'm guessing you're the old queen, huh? Makes sense. Vanish one day, never reappear, guess you were in the Ruins all this time."

She nodded. "That is indeed correct, I am Toriel. Do you mean any of these children harm?"

Sans waved it off with a bony hand. "Pfft, nah. But that's actually kinda funny. Squinty-eyes there, I don't recognize." Frisk blinked awkwardly, then slowly raised a hand to his left eye and began poking around it. "But the other two, well now that's hilarious. Chara and Asriel, huh?"

It was Chara's turn to blink awkwardly. "You know who we are?"

He shrugged. "Well sure. It's, uh, kinda obvious, 'specially since your faces are in all the history books. Kinda makes me wonder. The queen returns for the first time in centuries. The royal kids are back from the literal dead. And all at the same time a new human's fallen into the underground. Heh. Wow." He glanced sideways happily. "You folks must've had quite an adventure, huh?"

"... wouldn't exactly call it that," Asriel muttered.

"That's cool," Sans said. "So what brings you out here?"

"We are attempting to reach New Home," Toriel said, relaxing and lacing her hands together. "My children insist they have a way to end the war and break the Barrier without any more blood needing to be shed."

Sans glanced at her, then at Asriel. "Huh, that so?" He grinned wider. "Wow. I gotta say, that is a load off. 'cause ya see, technically I'm a sentry around these parts. Look out for humans, get their souls, yada yada." Mom tensed again. "But if you've got the juice to break the Barrier already, then that's great. Means I don't gotta do my job." He winked his left eyesocket shut. "And I am all about doin' nothin'."

Who is this, and what has he done with Sans? she wondered, trying to compare this lazy joker with the monster who knew about resets and'd killed Frisk in a second.

"So, New Home huh? The path's pretty much the same as ever. Just keep going east. Past the town, into Waterfall, then Hotland, and you're good to go. There's an elevator in the MTT Resort that goes straight to New Home. You can take it and get right there. Hey, lemme tag along, huh? I'm all curious about how..." He gestured to the four of them. "... this came to be."

"I suppose that will be fine." Toriel walked over to Chara and knelt to whisper in her ear. "Keep Frisk in front of you and Sans. Don't let him out of your sight."

She sighed as the monster walked away, taking Asriel's hand and continuing on. Frisk must've heard Toriel, because he walked in front of her. Sans fell in to her side.

"So," the skeleton began. "I gotta wonder, kiddo. How'd you two come back? Dead people don't tend to do that, if ya know what I mean?"

"Well, Asriel came back to life far earlier than I did, but he was changed by the experience. He's better now, but for a long time..." She glanced forward. She didn't think Asriel could hear, but just to be sure she flexed her abilities and made sure he couldn't. It'd be awkward for him to know she was talking about him behind his back. "For a long time he couldn't feel love. He lost his soul, and was ruined for it. He's better now but... he still remembers all the things he did."

Sans nodded. "Yeah, I figure he did quite a lot. I dunno if you've noticed, kiddo, but your brother's got a lot of LOVE in him." Chara stiffened. "Now, I don't know about you, but it seems like that's more LOVE than someone could get even if they killed everything on the planet. Which makes me wonder, maybe that brother of yours killed everyone on the planet more than once, hmm?"

Her mouth tightened as they made their way across a narrow wooden bridge. "That is part of how I helped him. He agreed to abandon his resets."

"The resets, huh? Him all along? Well, that's pretty nice, knowing he's gonna give them up. But uh, how do you know he's not just saying so? Maybe fool us at the last second?"

She shrugged. "I am immune to them," she simply stated. "Or at the very least, I am now. Now, I have a question of my own."

"Lay it on me," Sans said casually as they passed a sentry station and its oddly shaped lamp.

She turned to face Sans and emptied her eyes into hollow sockets. "Do I need to protect Frisk from you?" she growled. "Because he and I both know what you can do."

"Huh. Kid's name is Frisk?"

"Watch it, Sans," she rumbled, streams of tar dripping from her eyes and mouth.

"Fine, fine. Well, the fact is, if either of you are serious about it, then there's really no need for me to lay a finger on 'im. You say you can break the Barrier, get your brother to stop rewinding, I'm cool with that. Heh." His eyesockets upturned playfully. "I mean, you two were literally dead. Not a big stretch from there that you can do what you say you can do. So relax. The kiddo will be - "

"OH MY GOD! Your Majesty, this is so unexpected!" Chara's eyes reformed and she dispelled her tar, then snapped her attention forward. There was Papyrus, staring with wide eyesockets at Mom and Asriel. "And you even brought a Mini-Me!"

"Um, Paps?" Sans began. "I don't think that's who you - "

Papyrus glanced behind the two boss monsters. "Sans! Are you bothering the - wha?" His eyesockets glanced over Frisk and Chara. "Why hello there, strange fleshy skeletons! You must be new here! I am..." He stroke a pose, scarf fluttering in a sudden breeze. "The Great Papyrus, senior guardsman of Snowdin! I see you've met my brother. What are you doing with Shaved Asgore and Mini Asgore?"

Mom giggled. "Oh, greetings Papyrus! I am afraid you have me mistaken for someone else. I am Toriel, and this is my son, Asriel. That there is my daughter Chara, and her friend, Frisk."

Papyrus raised a skull ridge. "Really? Well then hello Toriel, Asriel, Chara, Frisk! Welcome to Snowdin! Enjoy your stay and remember that if you spot any humans, report them to me immediately!"

Toriel growled quietly. "I do not think that is a good idea, Papyrus. There is no reason to harm any human just for being one."

The skeleton pulled his head back and blinked. "Harm them? Who said anything about harming them? All I wish to do is capture them and deliver them to the capitol where... um... Sans, what happens after that?"

Sans shrugged as all eyes turned to him. "Eh, I dunno Paps. Why don't I fibula it out?

"OH MY GOD, SANS! That's not even a good one!"

Chara slowly grinned. She slid in next to the skeleton. "He's right, Sans. That was a pretty poor pun. But if you want to know how to make a better one, I could always give you a... demon-stration!"

He snickered, and so did Mom, who walked over to join them. "Oh my, Chara. That's a good one. You've goat to tell me more!" she giggled.

It was Chara's turn to laugh. "Okay, that's imp-ressive," she returned. The three of them took a moment and began telling each other joke after joke.

" - some slack. He's really working himself down to the - "

" - and I say, 'old lady'. 'Old lady who?' he replies - "

" - just didn't know how to determine the body!"

She could feel Frisk, Asriel, and Papyrus all frowning at them.

"Alright, alright," Mom laughed, calming down after a few more puns. "I believe we should be making our way through." She took Asriel's hand and gestured to Papyrus. "Lead the way, Papyrus."

"Nyeh heh heh, of course!" the skeleton boasted, turning around and taking the lead of their group.

Chara slid away from Sans and next to Frisk. 'You okay?' she thought into his soul.

'It's just... Papyrus believed in me to the very end, and I killed him and he doesn't even know how much he... helped me. Or how much I hurt him.'

She smiled warmly at him. 'In the end though he was right though, was he not? You planted the seeds of doubt in my brother's mind. You are the one who endured all of this, to get me revived.' Chara glanced downward. 'All I did was put him in a box and leave him there. And in another life, I suspect you said something to finally make my brother realize you were not me, to put us on the track to here. Without that, he may never have stopped playing with the world.' She tightened her grip. 'This was all you, Frisk. As for Papyrus?' She glanced forward at the energetic skeleton as he led them through a circle-x puzzle. 'If you feel you wish to tell him, that is entirely up to you. But given how he reacted when his brother and his friends really were dead, I say you have nothing to worry about from him.'

He nodded. 'Thanks. I needed to hear that.'

Before long, Papyrus guided them past the dog sentries - around which Toriel continued to tense, as though they'd kill Frisk any instant - and into Snowdin Town. It was so much more lively than it'd been last time. Furred monsters filled the streets, walking back and forth while speaking happily with each other. They got a few looks as they made their way through, but not much.

"So! Are you tired?" Papyrus asked as they approached Sans's - and his? - house. "Because we can stop and rest your heads in my house!"

Toriel giggled. "Oh, I thank you for your hospitality, but we woke up not long ago. We are just passing through."

"Oh," he said, glancing sideways. "Well in any case then, I wish you all the best of luck! Nyeh heh, come on Sans!"

"Nah bro," Sans replied, walking up besides Asriel. Her brother looked at him, then cringed and looked away. "I think I'm gonna tag along with 'em a bit more."

Papyrus looked back at the shorter skeleton. "Sans... that's an incredible amount of initiative for you! I'm so proud I could cry! I'll see you tonight. Nyeh heh heh!" he cackled, sailing backwards into his house and slamming the door after him.

A torrent of snow fell from the roof and left a lumpy pile around the house.

"Well then!" Toriel said. "Let us continue. Waterfall should be next, correct?" she asked, looking down the riverside path. "Unless this has changed in my absence?"

"Nope," Sans said, sliding forward. "Waterfall ahead. Hey Tori - can I call you Tori? - I was thinking I could have a word with your son." Sans finished his walk and ended up next to Asriel. Her brother gripped his right wrist and glanced to Sans, then back down and whined quietly. "He's not in trouble or anything, just got a few questions."

Chara tensed. Asriel had enough on his mind without being grilled by some one-stat skeleton. Luckily, Mom seemed to have the same idea. She firmly set herself between Sans and Asriel, glaring down at him. "This is not a good time, Sans. Perhaps when Asriel feels up to it."

"No."

Both her mother and Sans backed away to look at Asriel when he'd spoken. Even Frisk suddenly snapped his attention to the dorky goat.

"No, it's fine. I owe Sans some answers. Mother, you, Chara, and Frisk should go on ahead. I'll catch up."

Mother grimaced. "Asriel, my child, are you sure?" She tilted her head slightly. "You do not need to - "

"I'm sure," he interrupted. "Please, I... I don't want to put this off and lose my nerve."

Toriel sighed, but relented. "Very well, my child. Are you certain you can find us?"

He nodded, sending his floppy ears flailing. "I am."

With one more fanged grimace but without another word, Toriel continued forward. Chara and Frisk followed right after, plunging into a brief snowstorm. She glanced back at Asriel and Sans, both of whom looked back at her.

Then she continued, leaving them to talk.

Chapter Text

Asriel

He watched his sister and his mom vanish into the snowstorm that frequented the Snowdin/Waterfall border. Then he glanced left at Sans, and cringed.

Asriel knew Sans. Knew the skeleton better than he knew himself. His first question would be...

"So... how does it even work? Any... " Sans held his hands out and made a little back and forth motion. "... rules on it?"

"It worked two different ways," he said. "I... I didn't come back as myself. You know how Alphys did some experiments on determination. She uh... kinda found the golden flower that had most of my dust, and injected it with enough determination to resurrect the dead." He looked away sheepishly. "And... that's when it started."

"Determination, huh?" Sans wondered. "I get it brought you back, but what's that got to do with the resets?"

"Everything," he explained, tracing a circle in the snow with a foot while making sure not to look at Sans. "For a long time I was a flower. Eventually I came across a power source. Enough to let me turn back into a monster. Enough to let me break the Barrier. It made my resets stronger, too. Before, I just had two reset spots; one fixed at when I woke up as a flower, and another I could make whenever."

"But then this power source changed that, I'm guessing?" Sans said. "You could make more than one secondary spot."

"That's about it. I kept the original one, at when I woke up, but whenever I reset back there my powers followed me, and I woke up in the garden as..." He brushed a paw along his striped shirt. "Myself."

Sans nodded again. "Right, right. So kiddo, what was the point of it anyway? Why not just... let time go on?"

He grimaced. "If you're looking for an excuse - "

"Naaaaaah," the skeleton interrupted. "Just a reason."

"Reason," Asriel muttered. "I was scared. I didn't - I don't have my soul, Sans. So if I ever die, and I mean die for real, then I..." He glanced at his hands. The fur seemed so thin. The rough pads so brittle. His breath started to come in heaving pants. "I... I..." His eyes flew wide as a yawning pit of horror opened in his stomach. "I'd... I'd..."

Sans was suddenly there. His bony phalanges found his back. "Hey hey, easy there kid," he shushed, looking at him with his sockets pulled up in concern. "Nobody's gonna hurt ya. So, you kept resetting because you didn't want to die?"

"At first," he admitted. "But like I said, I don't have my soul. Back when I was a flower, without the power I have now, I couldn't feel... love. Joy. I couldn't care about others. I kept telling myself I should, I kept telling myself that I couldn't hurt you, but..."

"... but who cares when you can take it all back," Sans finished. "And you can keep tellin' yourself it's wrong, but if you don't feel it you won't care?" Asriel nodded. "Yeesh, that's rough, buddy. I dunno how I'd take it if I just suddenly... stopped carin' 'bout Paps. So what about after you got this power source? And uh, care to explain how?"

"Right, right. When I got these powers... they're souls, Sans. Six human souls, plus the souls of every monster in the Underground. I..." His lips curled in shame. "I blanked them. Not on purpose!" he blurted, looking up at Sans with tears in his eyes. "My resets just kept taking away memory after memory until there was nothing left, and I didn't care because I didn't even remember what it felt like to care so whenever the souls started making me care I stopped it and I hurt everyone, I..." Asriel fell to his knees, his thoughts flashing back to his bloodier, dustier runs as his breaths came stronger and stronger. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it, I didn't mean it... I... ah, aaaaahh!" he wailed, his paws over his head.

A bony hand found his back. "Uh... hey, there there?" Sans shrugged. "Hey, kid. Kid, up you get." Sans's bony arms wrapped around Asriel's waist, and with his usual surprising strength Sans pulled Asriel onto his feet. "Take it easy. Ya've been through a lot."

"Why are you even trying?" Asriel hiccuped. "Don't I have a lot of LOVE?"

Sans shrugged. "Well sure, but no MURDER so I ain't that bothered. Hey, I've got my questions answered, I'm happy. But your sister said something about you... ending the resets?" Sans tilted his skull. "How exactly would that even work?"

A shot of cold, numbing fear passed through Asriel. Right, removing the resets. The thing he promised he'd do in exchange for Chara recreating the world he missed, missed so terribly that the longing had eaten away at him like acid. "Oh, yeah." He hung his head, again. "I need to get to Alphys's lab."

Sans nodded. "Right. Hey, come over behind the house. I know a - "

" - shortcut, I know." He waved a paw. "I don't want to bother you, I'll teleport myself."

The skeleton eyed him curiously for a moment, then shrugged. "Suit yourself."

Click!

Everything went dark. A moment of panic shot through Asriel; had Chara destroyed the universe again?!

Click!

The world returned, and Sans was gone. He took a moment to relax, and teleported himself out of Snowdin and into Alphys's upper laboratory, right next to where Sans had arrived.

The skeleton glanced at him when he appeared. "Huh, you weren't kiddin', kid."

Alphys's lab was just like it always was. Bright, smelling of ramen, with all the various toys Asriel knew well. Much to his surprise, the doctor was here too. He would've thought she'd seen them on her cameras and... run off, or something.

She spun around from her chair, away from the screen, and jumped off. "Oh my God, Sans! And... Prince Asriel?!" She wrung her claws together nervously. "Sans, what the hel - heck is going on? And um, Prince Asriel how are you...?"

"Long story," Sans said. "Kiddo here says he needs to use your lab."

Alphys blinked. "Um, but um, give me a second, this is all so sudden!" The lizard monster took several deep breaths before scurrying over to the two of them. "What do you need, your Highness?"

This was it. "I need to use your DT Extractor."

If he didn't know what to look for, he would've missed the moment of chilling horror that flashed over Alphys's face. "My... what? I'm sorry, I don't know what you're talking about, your Highness."

He grimaced. "Alphys, I'm a time traveler. The bathroom door." He nudged his head towards it. "Leads to your lower laboratory, where you keep the amalgamates Reaper Bird - " Her eyes grew wider and wider with every word. " - Endogeny, Lemon Bread, So Cold, and three memoryheads. I know, Alphys."

Her mouth fell open. "Y-Y-You... oh God, oh God..."

Sans raised a brow. "Uh, Alph, what's he talkin' about? Somethin' happen with your DT experiment?"

"Nothing!" she shouted, stepping towards the skeleton and waving her hands. "Nothing, nothing! Prince Asriel I don't know where you've heard this kind of nonsense but..." Asriel fixed her with a look. Internally he wilted at manipulating her like this. Especially given how much Alphys already beat herself up. But he had to do this before he lost his nerve. And it wasn't like he knew how to use the DT Extractor; he'd always made sure to stay far away from it. "But..." He kept looking at her. "... but..." Her head fell. "You're right. I have one. Right this way," she muttered, trudging to her bathroom door with her tail dragging on the ground.

Asriel glanced at Sans, then followed after Alphys. The skeleton followed the two of them. The door opened, revealing the secret elevator behind it.

"W-W-Well, here it is," Alphys stammered, stepping to the control panel. "Sans, um... I mean Your Highness, um... Prince Asriel, you seem to know. But uh, Sans, you don't. Just... don't be too surprised by what you see, and don't bother telling me how horrible I am for making it because I already - !"

"Hey, Alph," he said, taking a bottle of ketchup out from inside his jacket. "Chill." He turned the bottle upside down and smacked the bottom, but nothing came from it. He shrugged and placed it back in his jacket, replacing it with a bottle of mustard to drink from.

"Alright, um, here we are," the doctor said, placing a shaking claw on the 'G' button. The elevator began to hum, and descended. Asriel stood in a corner, wringing his hands together. How many times had he hurt these two? Torn them apart, or needled them with insults perfected by trial and error? How many times had he made them watch their loved ones die in any number of ways? How many times had he tortured them, listened to their s-screams?

Oh God, he was going to be sick.

Thunk. Before he could throw up, the elevator reached the bottom and opened up, revealing the well lit corridors of Alphys's lab. Some mold clung to the corners and a foul smell drifted through the air.

"This way," Alphys muttered, stepping out to lead them through the corridors of her lab. Strangely enough, they didn't encounter any of the amalgamates. Were they hiding?

The reptilian monster kept her hands together nervously. Asriel kept his head down and arms limp. Sans, meanwhile, kept his skull on a pivot, taking in every detail of the lab. "Huh. Guess this place is still here."

Asriel glanced his way. "After Gaster vanished, you mean?"

Sans nodded. "Yeah. You know 'bout him?"

"You told me, one run," he explained.

The skeleton nodded sagely. "Ah."

Alphys looked over her shoulder. "I'm sorry but um... w-who's Gaster?"

"Nobody," Sans replied quickly.

She raised a scaly brow. "Well uh, anyway, it's right over here, Your Highness." She scurried to the side and Asriel walked ahead, stopping and turning to face the titanic DT Extractor. It was made of desaturated red metal, shaped like a skull with two gaping eyesockets, with a mouth like beetle mandibles. Two rings of tubes went around the bottom, and more tubes hung it from the ceiling, precariously over a black void.

A shot of raw, primal fear went through him. He gazed at the machine, and everything it represented. No more resets. No more second chances. No more trial and error to get someone to say and do the things he wanted them to. No more take backs. No more k-killing anyone on a whim just to see how they died. All the doors that would close, setting him on one path and no other.

But... those doors were closed, weren't they? If he ever fell back into his... old habits, Chara would always be there to stop him, to destroy and recreate the world.

And he didn't deserve those powers anyway.

Still, it chilled him. The magic he got from his souls was boundless, but one day he'd lose it, one way or another. And then, he would die. The resets could prevent that. The resets could save him.

But that was just it, wasn't it? They could save him. But they had ruined him.

He jumped when the machine powered up, and whipped his head around. While he'd been lost in thought, Alphys had gone over to a control panel on the far wall and activated the extractor. The sockets lit up with white light, and the jaws parted to reveal an orifice large enough for a jar holding a soul - or a young boss monster - to fit. "All set, Prince Asriel," she said. "What was it you wanted to drain of DT?"

"Me," he said resolutely, staring at the machine as it gently vibrated against its wires.

Alphys stopped to look at him. "Wait... um, run that by me again?"

"I have eight and a half HDT of excess determination," he explained, trying to remember how much Alphys had given him as a flower. "I need to lose it."

She blinked, then gasped. "You have HOW MUCH?! How is it you haven't melted yet?!"

"Human souls," he explained. "Their magical power lets me keep myself from melting. But on top of my seven souls worth of DT, I have another eight and a half extra, and I need to lose that." He looked her way. "Please?" he asked, creating a save file.

"Um..." She blinked. "Sure? Just, jump right in there when you're ready. Seven souls... wait - "

But before she could process what he'd said, Asriel leaped across the abyss and into the bottom of the DT Extractor's jaws. It expanded into his field of vision as he approached, dominating his sight. He floated himself up into the slot and called out, "Whenever you're ready!"

A beat passed.

The jaws beneath him closed, sealing him in the humming machine. Fear took hold of him again. He was going to lose his resets. He would lose the only thing that made the vast majority of his life worth living, the one compensation he got for his death, the one undeserved prize he'd gotten for failing his sister. He could still escape. Still vaporize the machine around him, still teleport out, still -

The darkness around him gave way to blazing light. He grunted and closed his eyes, shifting around in the small space he had. He opened them again, and saw streams of red liquid forming around his fur and clothes, flowing off and vanishing into the machinery around him. Asriel didn't... feel anything changing, but he knew it was. This was it. It was actually happening. He watched, breathless and stunned, as his determination was drained.

After a short minute, the machine opened and he hovered back to the floor. Sans and Alphys stared at him nervously. "... so? How do you feel?" she asked.

He flexed his fingers. How did he feel? Asriel felt... unsure. He felt weak. He felt uncommitted, like any endeavor he'd undertake he'd just give up halfway. He felt for his latest save file, just before he entered the machine...

Nothing. Not only could he not access the file, he couldn't even tell it was there. It wasn't there. Frisk wasn't just blocking his reset power. Asriel had lost it entirely.

The resets, the one thing that gave him comfort for the past eight hundred years... were gone.

He breathed out weakly and laughed, looking at the pads of his hands. "I feel..." He looked up at Alphys and smiled. "Free. No more resets."

Sans nodded, and approached to put a bony hand on his shoulder. "Hey kid, I really appreciate what you just did here. It's a tough call. But a good one. You did really well, and it can't have been easy."

Asriel nodded. "Right. Thanks, Sans." He stepped towards the doctor and sighed. "Doctor Alphys, I uh... still need your help." Chara said it'd be okay for him to keep the power of his many souls. But it wasn't okay! He couldn't just keep them in him. Even if they were empty husks of magic and emotion, it wasn't right.

The thought occurred to him maybe he should change back into Flowey. Deserved to lose love and hope and joy, to lose the ecstatic, rotting guilt in his chest. But no. He couldn't do that to Chara. Couldn't do that to Mom.

He didn't want to go back to being a flower, anyway. He didn't want to stop feeling awful over Frisk, to stop caring for his sister, to stop loving his parents. Alphys had never, ever been able to help him before. But maybe... maybe now...

Asriel had no impression she'd be able to figure out something that day. Or even that week. But he'd ask her, and she'd accept because she always felt like she needed to make things up to people. He'd have to make it clear to her she'd already done so much, just by bringing him back from the dead. And he'd have to... have to do so many things.

With Sans and Alphys both watching him in tense silence, he started to explain the entirety of his situation.

Chara

For a few minutes, Waterfall was eventless. They didn't encounter anyone besides a few Aarons and Woshuas that Mom was quick to send running with a glare. Chara kept a hand on Frisk's back, following behind her mother. As they walked, her thoughts wandered.

Would she know when Asriel lost his resets? How was he even planning to do so? How would they break the Barrier? Would they just walk up to it and destroy it, or would Father first give a speech to the people?

She was torn from her thoughts when they came to the wooden raft across the river. After a quick discussion, they decided that Mother would take the raft, Chara would float, and Frisk would use a raft that Chara swiftly conjured out of material she gave floating properties to. As the three of them made their way across, Chara glanced ahead. Her eyes widened.

There was the goner kid, and standing at her back was Doctor Gaster himself. The former looked exactly the same as before, with a checkerboard blouse, gray scales, and blank eyes. Gaster was similar too, but the humming, static texture he'd had before was gone, replaced by pure, solid bone and cloth. The two were busy talking about something, and Chara made sure not to hear them. She didn't want to eavesdrop.

As the three of them approached, Gaster and the kid stopped talking and stared at them. The skeleton put his hands in the pockets of his suit/robe and chuckled.

Chara landed as the others disembarked. "Well well well," Gaster said. "Child I..." He shook his skull and smiled, placing a hand to his cracked right eye. "I do not know how, but you two... did it! What happened?" he asked, kneeling before Chara.

"Ah hem, I'm sorry, but you are?" Toriel asked, crossing her arms.

Gaster stood and gave a sweeping bow. "My apologies, Your Highness. I am Doctor W.D. Gaster. This here is a good friend of mine..."

"Cotych," the goner kid said, stepping forward to Chara and Frisk. She looked at him and bowed her head. "Frisk I... I should apologize for my harsh words, last we met. I'd been so tired, so hopeless, for so long. But you did it, you and Chara." She smiled and her eyes softened. "You saved me. You gave me back my life. My existence. I am forever in your debts, both of you."

"Oh, please, you d-don't have to," Frisk stammered.

"No, I don't," she agreed, swaying her tailtip. "But I choose to. You do not fully understand the... the magnitude of what you have done for me."

"Frisk, Chara," Mother interjected, gesturing to Gaster and Cotych. "Do you know these two?"

"Sorta?" Frisk said.

"We do indeed," Chara said bashfully, her rosy cheeks blushing with tar. "Sans already implied that Frisk, Asriel and I have had an adventure of sorts, no? These two helped us tremendously. I, in turn, simply aided them with a problem of their own."

Gaster chuckled, his voice still the same gibberish that required months of study to understand. "You did quite a little more than 'aid us with a problem', young one." He glanced down at Cotych. "My friend, do you not think it is time you returned home? Your brother must be worried sick."

She smiled widely and gave her tail a little swish. "You're right, he must be. Will you check in with the other three?"

The skeleton nodded. "I shall indeed."

Cotych glanced at the three of them again. "Then I guess I'm off. Chara, Frisk. Again, thank you." Her voice cracked and she teared up a little, sniffling through her nostrils. "Y-You don't know what this means to me." Then she vanished, with hardly a trace. With her demonic senses, Chara felt the path she tore through spacetime, back to Snowdin.

"I must be off as well, Your Majesty," Gaster said with another bow. "If I am excused?"

Mother blinked. "Oh, why um... of course!" She laced her hands together and nodded lightly in his direction. "Doctor Gaster, you are excused." He smiled, and vanished. Then Mom turned to the two of them, gave a toothy smile, and wagged a finger. "You two!" She sighed, then knelt and wrapped Chara in a hug. "I am so proud of you. Helping them, however you did, clearly meant a lot to them. You've done good." The monster looked up at Frisk. "Both of you." She let go of Chara and stood. "Now, let us continue!" She frowned. "Strange language, though, that Doctor Gaster speaks. I wonder when I learned it..."

The rest of the trip through Waterfall went without incident. They met an aquatic monster by the name of Onionsan, and Chara took the moment to increase the depth of the water for him. Both she and Mother fought to keep from crying as they passed the statue. The mad dummy ghost was easy to get by, but Chara once again took the opportunity to help her people by drastically raising their mannequin level, fully binding the ghost to their body.

Something tingled and twisted in her gut. So long ago, she'd tried to help people and did so much wrong because of it. But now, thanks to Frisk, she had a second chance. She could help them, could better their lives. The means were hers, she was... finally useful for something.

Cotych and Gaster weren't the only ones who owed him.

The heat of Hotland came. Toriel stopped before the laboratory and craned her neck back. "So many years," she whispered. "It has grown so much more magnificent since I was last here. I wonder, who is the royal scientist now?"

"A lizard monster named Alphys," Chara said. "Doctor Alphys." I helped Frisk murder her, she thought. "In any case, I believe there is an elevator to the left?" she suggested, glancing in its direction.

Mother nodded. "Ah yes, L1! Come, children," she said, hurrying off. They passed two muscular royal guards on the way, a rabbit and a dragon. Neither of them said anything.

The three of them crowded in the elevator, and Chara hit R3. The elevator hummed, zipping up and to the right through the Underground. The doors opened and deposited them at the foot of the MTT Resort. As they climbed towards it, a few monsters stopped and stared. A green fire elemental girl, one of those plane monsters, and a hulking, bright red satanic monster. Mother wasn't as tense as she'd been, before; nobody had yet tried to start any trouble.

Inside the resort the air was classy, with a jazzy tune playing from hidden speakers. The statue of Mettaton in their memorial fountain sprayed a jet of water... out past the fountain to leave a puddle on the floor. At the very least, a nearby drain kept the puddle small.

"Hi there!" a crystalline monster said as they walked in. "Welcome to MTT Resor - "

Toriel glared at the statue, summoned a fireball in her right hand, then extended her arm to shoot it at the statue. With a blast of smoke and a wave of searing heat, it exploded into pebbles. The water spout's metal workings melted, causing them to drip their water into the fountain properly. She glanced around. "Is that going to be a problem? That I removed the defacement of my children's memorial fountain?"

The hotel workers and customers all vigorously shook their heads 'no'.

Chara smiled, and led Mother and Frisk to the elevator. They called it and, after a moment, it arrived. A black slime monster, a dragon, and a white manticore stepped out, then the three of them entered and hit the button for New Home.

The elevator ride took a while, and Frisk took the opportunity to slide in and hold her hand. She glanced at him, and he just batted his eyelashes suggestively. "Oh my God," she hissed to him, a smile breaking through despite her tone. "Do you ever stop?" she asked, heat rushing to her face.

He had the nerve to shrug and say nothing.

And Mom had the nerve to smile.

Not soon enough, the elevator emerged and they stepped out into New Home. They stopped by the hallway and looked down the main city. It was loaded to the gills with monsters of varying shapes and sizes, going about their days with smiles on their faces. Not one of them looked up to see the three of them. Not that Chara could blame them. They had their own lives to deal with, struggling to survive in the crowded Underground. But not for much longer.

The road to the house was spent in tense silence. They arrived at the door and Mother stepped forward to open it, then hesitated. Toriel gnawed on her lower lip with her fangs. "Is everything alright?" Chara asked, stepping forward while still holding hands with Frisk.

"I... yes," Toriel said, adjusting her robes. "It is just... I have not seen Asgore in a very long time. I have... so many things to say to him. I do not know how I would... even begin!"

"Opening the door would be a good start," she suggested. "Just know that nothing ill will come of it, Mother. I promise."

"Ill will come of what?" another voice asked. They all spun around - a jolt of terror passed through Frisk's soul - to see Asriel there. He looked... different. Chara couldn't quite place it.

The young boss monster stepped forward. "Is it about Dad?" he asked quietly.

Mom nodded. "It is. He has done so... so much. He has murdered six people, Asriel!" she exclaimed. "I cannot simply forgive that just because the two of you are safe and sound!"

"I've done worse," Asriel said. "I've done so much worse, when I was still... confused. Mom, I know your last memory of him is with him angry, but... he calmed down. It eats at him every hour." His voice softened. "He cries himself to sleep every night, dreading the arrival of the next human. Please, you at least owe him a chance."

Mom whined quietly, but relented at Asriel's pouting look. "Oh... very well, my child. For yours and Chara's sakes, I shall try." With a swift motion she spun around, opened the door, and barged in.

Chara glanced at her brother. "Good job," she muttered, impressed.

He sighed. "I'm not proud of it but... I can get them back together. I know what to say. I mean if it's..." He looked into her eyes. "If it's alright with you? I know it's pretty manipulative."

She shook her head, glancing back at Frisk who looked pale as a sheet. "It's fine. If we can help them, we kinda have to. Also, did you... ?"

Her brother nodded queasily. "I did. I lost the excess DT." He looked at Frisk. "The resets are all yours now, Frisk. I couldn't get them back if I tried."

She and Frisk shared a look. She wondered what he was thinking, now that he was in control of the power that had tormented him for so long. "I'm just... going to go inside with Miss Toriel," he said, pulling away from her and heading inside. "See you soon, Chara." He ran into New Home.

Once he was gone, Chara stepped towards Asriel and inspected him. Now she saw what was different; his DT number had gone down. By over half. Well below Frisk's. She stepped closer and surprised him with a hug. "Hey," she whispered into one of his floppy, fuzzy goat ears. "I'm proud of you, Rei. I know it can't have been easy to go through with this."

"It was pretty scary," he admitted into her ear. A pause, and he sagged against her. "Chara I, I think I've destroyed something beautiful."

Not letting go, she asked, "What do you mean?"

"Whenever I don't interfere much, Frisk always does very well in the Underground. Provided he can reset out of death, or I do it for him, he always makes the same good friends. Sans, Papyrus, the guard captain Undyne, and Alphys. Most every time, he's adopted by Mom and Dad. They're all such good friends, he helps them with all their problems and insecurities and I just..." He sagged against her. "... I destroyed that. And now I can't even take it back."

"Hey, hey." She rubbed his back. "It'll be alright, Rei." She pulled away and held his shoulders, staring right into his eyes. "We'll just have to help them ourselves, won't we?"

He nodded. "Right, right." He looked behind her. "Um... for starters we uh, should probably go after Mom."

"Right." With that, the two of them walked into New Home.

It was just as it'd been when she and Frisk had passed through not long ago. Well, 'not long'. Over a year for her. Grayscale walls and floors. Brilliant golden flowers stacked in pots atop shelves. She sensed Frisk and Mother had gone downstairs. The padlock was still in place, so they must've just gone over or under.

Chara warped past it to the staircase, and Asriel followed suit a moment later. They silently walked through the path behind their home, to the throne room. Nervous energy knotted inside her gut. What would Dad be like? She and Frisk hadn't gotten to see much of him in the short time before killing him. Had he really changed as much as Mom claimed? Or was Asriel right, in that he was torn up every day over what he was doing? How would he react to seeing them? Would he even want to see her, the child who led him down this path?

The two of them entered the judgement hall, where Frisk had died over a thousand times to Napstablook's wrath. Lights poured through the windows and cast long shadows upon them, the only sound the tapping of their feet on the marble tiles.

Then, they were at the entrance to the throne room. Mother and Frisk were there, staring through the doorway nervously. She could see Dad inside, watering the flowers with his back to them.

Mother sighed. "Chara, Asriel, are you ready?" she whispered.

"I guess," he whispered back.

"I am," she said resolutely, striding up to her mother's side.

Frisk looked at the three of them nervously. "I'm just... gonna wait out here, if it's okay."

She smiled at him. "We won't be long, I hope."

Chara, Asriel, and Toriel walked inside. The sweet scent of floral pollen wafted into her nose. Chara cleared her throat.

"Oh? A visitor?" Asgore rumbled. "Hold on one second..." He knelt and placed his watering can down. He spun around. "Howdy, how can I - " He cut himself off, a breath caught in his throat. "Char - Tori - Asrie - ah, oh! Oof!"

Asriel ran at him and collided with his shirt, wrapping his arms around his father. "Dad I'm so sorry, it's all my fault I didn't want to fight back but I still went there and I hurt everyone so badly and I - " He cut himself off by burying his snout in Asgore's chest.

Asgore ran a hand down Asriel's back, staring off into the distance. "There there," he muttered, like he hadn't entirely processed what was happening. "It's alright. It's alright."

She stepped forward, her hands laced together. "Greetings, Father. I..." Her words caught in her throat and her voice cracked. He was here, just like she remembered. Just as old as he was when she died. "I imagine this comes as quite a shock to you?" she asked with a nervous smile. "Rest assured, this is real. The wonders of magic, and all. But there are some things we need to discuss," she explained, glancing at her mother.

He let go of Asriel and stood. "Yes. Ahem. Yes! My children, Tori. "

She cut him off sharply. "Don't call me that, Dreemurr."

His face fell. "Right. That is only fair. But, Chara, what is it we need do?"

"We need to end the war," she explained.

Asgore's expression crumbled painfully. "I know," he rumbled. "I know, but I cannot. This is the only way. We need seven souls for the Barrier." Toriel tensed. "Once one more human falls... and the people have been dreaming of the surface for so long, and you and I know that humanity will not suffer our presence. They never did."

"Things changed, Father," she assured. "We don't need one more soul." She drew her knife and briefly let crimson light flow across the blade, making Mom and Dad's eyes widen in shock. "I can break the Barrier. Rei can too," she explained, gesturing to him. He sheepishly fidgeted. "And... there's another human here, Frisk." She saw - in multiple ways - as the magic drained from her father's face. "He's the one who brought me back. He tells me that... humanity has changed. That we can make peace with them." Her expression turned dangerous and her knife lit up red again, harsh nines sliding across its surface. "And if they don't, then believe me when I say I'm more than strong enough to force them to play nice."

"Chara!" Mom chided.

She extinguished her knife and winced. "Sorry."

Dad breathed out harshly, glancing across the three of them. "I... I see. Everyone this is... so much. Do you mind if we go to the house and discuss this over tea?"

Mom started to open her mouth, but she and Asriel both said 'Yes' before she could object. She closed her mouth with a huff.

They started to make their way out of the throne room, and she caught her dad muttering to himself. "I... I need to find Undyne and Alphys. Armor, I need to get my armor too, no not that, the robes..."

A day passed. Frisk slept in her old bed in New Home. Not like she needed it.

Her parents hashed out details long into the night. She and Asriel spoke up now and then, but it was all politics. She didn't understand it. Maybe Asriel did, given his age, but he stayed out of it.

The next day came, and they gathered in the room by the Barrier. Father and Mother stood next to each other. A small golden crown rested between Toriel's horns, and Asgore wore his ceremonial Delta Rune robes, rather than his wartime armor. Though she didn't look comfortable next to him, she didn't say anything.

Asriel stood next to, and behind, Dad. Meanwhile she was next to Frisk, holding his hand, flat up against the Barrier as it hummed and shimmered behind them. It felt so fragile, up against her back. Not at all how dominating and impassible it'd felt back when she was a human.

With a motion of his foot, Asgore pushed down on a pressure plate. Seven tiles slid back across the dirt, and from them rose seven containers the size of herself. In six of them were each a single, shimmering heart. Chara felt a lance of horror go through Frisk.

Toriel looked at them and placed her hands to her mouth. "The... it's... it's them..."

"They are not awake," he mumbled, not daring to look at her. "The vessels are designed to ensure that." Stomping boots sounded up from the tunnel that led back to the Underground. "Ah, I think that's her."

Her? Who did Asgore mean?

Chara's question was answered in a moment as a towering monster, clad in armor as black as pitch, stomped in. She recognized her as the guard who'd crossed paths with Frisk in Snowdin, using spears and soul magic alike to root him in place. She didn't have her shark helmet on, though. Now Chara could see she was a fish monster, with giant yellow fangs, a single slit yellow eye with an eyepatch over the other, and a red ponytail. "Hey Asgore, what's the big - " The monster stopped and took in the scene. Chara watched as her one good eye slid over Mom and Dad, over Asriel, then to her and Frisk.

Then the eye went wide.

"ASGORE, LOOK OUT!" A magical spear formed in her grasp, pale blue with a white outline of magic around it, and she hurled it at Frisk.

Everyone else flinched, but to Chara's reaction speeds, the spear may as well have been in slow motion. She drew her knife, warped next to the spear, and sliced it right beneath the jagged head. The magic comprising the spear vanished into nothingness.

"Undyne!" Asgore exclaimed, rushing next to the guard after dispelling Toriel's fireballs. "Do not do that! We are here on ceremony."

"Ceremony?! That's a human right there!" she raged. "Two of them! You've got the souls out and everything so why aren't we..." Undyne looked over to her and Frisk again. "... we..." She looked at Toriel, then at Asriel. Her good eye went wide. "Holy shit, what the hell?! Prince Asriel! Princess Chara! What! How! You two were dead!"

Chara shrugged. "We got better." She gestured to Frisk with her head. "Frisk here is the one to thank for bringing me back in the first place."

Undyne's face went through a hilarious cycle of expressions. She settled on a grim face. "Well, that's touching and all, but we still need one more soul - "

"Actually Undyne," Asgore interjected. "We may not need any souls at all. Chara and Asriel here have assured me that their resurrection gave them the powers they needed to destroy the Barrier on their own."

Undyne went through another series of faces. "But..." She pointed at Frisk. "But the humans need to... it's..." She sighed. "Ah, forget it," Undyne growled, stomping over to Asgore's side. "Who're we waiting for?" she groused.

'I don't think she's happy with this,' she thought to Frisk.

He raised an eyebrow at her. 'You don't say?'

"I sent out a call to Alphys and Sans - "

"Seriously? Sans?"

"Undyne!"

She rubbed the back of her head. "Right, right. Sorry."

Asgore nodded, but it was Toriel who spoke up. "A great portion of New Home's population has been invited as well. Just... as many people as we can fit in this chamber, really." Mom grinned. "It is a special day, after all."

Sure enough, more and more people started to pour in. Alphys and Sans, who'd brought Papyrus. Some city monsters from the capitol she didn't recognize, crowding along the edges and muttering to themselves. Gerson came too, much older and hunched than she remembered. Gaster entered silently with the three gray monsters of Hotland following him, though she noticed the feline one wasn't holding a head anymore. Cotych, the gray reptile kid, came too. She brought another monster with her. He was similar to her in structure, but his eyes were normal and his scales a vivid yellow. Instead of a checkerboard blouse, he wore a striped shirt.

The brother she'd mentioned, perhaps?

Mettaton came in his box form, and she felt Frisk's grip on her hand tighten. More monsters came and came, filling up the space while leaving half of it free for them to stand. Sans and Papyrus stood behind Dad, while Undyne and Alphys took up spots behind Mom. She slid away from Frisk and went over to her brother. He was busy staring at the yellow human soul.

"So," she said. "Which one of us is actually going to, you know?" She juggled her hands. "Break it?"

"You should," he sighed. "I've broken it a lot of times before. Golly, if this is the last time the Barrier will ever shatter, then you should be the one, Chara."

She nodded. "Very well, brother." She returned to Frisk.

Once there were enough monsters in the chamber, Father began to give his speech. He warmed up the crowd, explaining the miracle of her and her brother's return. Chara took a deep breath to calm herself. The enormity of it began to dawn on her. They were going to break the Barrier. Monsterkind would be free, after so many years in the dark. She would go with her family, onto this new world full of kind, futuristic humans.

Murmurs rolled through the crowd in wave after wave as Dad touched on what would be happening, such as the dissolving of the Royal Guard. Finally, Dad took a step back and gestured to Chara. "My dear Chara, would you come here and say a few words?"

Oh no.

Her eyes went wide and her limbs cold. Then Frisk patted her on the back. "Hey, you can do this."

Chara relaxed and let go of his hand. She walked forward, standing before the massive crowd of monsters. Her parents stood behind her on either side. What could she possibly say to them? What words? What were they expecting?

"I made a mistake," she said at last, silencing the few people speaking. "I made a mistake, and so many people have paid the price. My brother died. My parents separated. The people of the time despaired. Six humans died. Five monsters were removed from existence itself. And that is just what I know of. Freedom remained so far out of reach because I died early, rather than die old and let my soul linger here patiently." She sighed. "So much has gone wrong, because of me. And it is only by great fortune that I stand here today, not of my own skill." Chara sagged. "In my time, the people of the Underground looked to myself and Asriel and claimed me to be the future of humans and monsters. That if I could get along with Asriel so well, surely there was hope for peace.

"And in a way... that is true. Frisk, the new human behind me. He is the one who brought me back to life. He is the one who saved Asriel from himself. Revived me. Empowered me. Your impending freedoms are thanks to him, and him alone," she explained, sending more whispers through the crowd. Chara sagged. "So much has changed in my absence. Humans have changed. Monsters have changed. People have died. There's nothing I can do to change those things." She grinned widely and drew her knife, and the sunlight streaming through the Barrier glinted off its metallic edge. "But there's one thing I can do. People of the Underground, are you ready for the Barrier to be destroyed?" she demanded.

Cheers responded to her. They were cheering for her. They were supporting her. She had to remember that.

Behind her, Father walked to the soul jars and, one by one, unscrewed their tops. Chara turned around to watch the souls as they drifted up from their containers, waved through the air, and faded like mist.

She could sense everyone holding their breath.

Chara approached the Barrier, knife in her left hand. Once she was close she reached out her free hand and stroked it along its surface. It was cool and smooth, like glass. It changed from white to dark gray to light gray to black underneath her hands, humming with the immense soul power within. This was it. The cause of all her people's suffering. The cause of their isolation, their crowding, their every woe and pain. She had given her life to bring it down. And what would lay past it? She could check it with her demonic vision, sure, but how much had it changed since Asriel walked through? How much erosion and industrialization?

She paused. Everyone behind her waited with baited breath.

Chara drew her knife over her head and clasped it with both hands. With a scream, she drove it into the Barrier, sinking it halfway in. For a long moment she kept her weapon in. Then...

Crack!

Exactly like glass, she thought.

Ruptures and cracks spider-webbed out from where she kept her blade. They expanded outward until they vanished out of sight. Then a larger crack, the shape of a lightning bolt, went down the middle. With a glorious slam and a rush of air, the Barrier slid open while crumbling at the edges.

She'd destroyed it.

It took her a moment to realize that the ongoing noise wasn't the Barrier's destruction echoing in the chambers. It was instead the cheering of the monsters behind her. Mom approached her from behind and ruffled her hair.

A simple arch stood on the other end of the Barrier. Beyond it, Chara could see shafts of sunlight streaming in from an open blue sky. She started walking. She was dimly aware of others walking as well.

She found herself on a ledge, high above the ground. Shoots of greenery grew from cracks around her. To her right was a path that wound down the mountain. In the distance was another mountain with a sharp and snowy peak. Grassy plains extended to the horizon, wrapping around what appeared to be a castle. No, wait. It wasn't a castle. Too metallic, too blocky. They were buildings, a collection of buildings so tall as to scrape the sky.

The sky.

It was blue, with a few wisps of white dotting it. Distant birds flocked across the sky, and a gentle breeze blew her hair around behind her. Above her was the Sun, pouring down its light upon them. Her Sun, not some alien star. Her world, not some alien planet.

Mom came and stood to her right. Across her was her brother, and then Father. Frisk arrived and stood next to Dad, his arms crossed and a satisfied smile on his face. Sans, Alphys, Papyrus, and Undyne followed. Behind them was Gaster and Mettaton, more and more monsters by the second.

"Wow," Alphys whispered. "It's amazing. So much better than on screen."

"Yes, it is," Gaster chittered. "Is it not?"

Undyne turned her head back at the skeleton. "Hey, mind speaking English?" she teased. Gaster created pupil-lights in his sockets, then rolled them.

"Hey Sans!" Papyrus asked. "What's that tall pointy thingy over there?"

"Oh that? Eh, it's a mountain."

"A mountain, eh?" Papyrus wondered, rubbing his jaw with a glove.

"It's just as I remembered," Mom reminisced. "Chara, thank you for this."

"It wasn't me," she reminded her. "I just went through the motions. It's Frisk you should thank."

Mom blinked. "Oh. Tee hee. Well then thank you, Frisk."

He shrugged. "It's okay, Miss Toriel."

"We can make peace," her Father sighed. Then he raised his voice. "Ahem. Everyone, this is the beginning of a new era. An era of peace between humans and monsters, from now until forever more."

That seemed to get Papyrus's attention. "Right you are, your Majesty! And if I can't be a member of the Royal Guard, I'll just have to use my talents to be the best Royal Ambassador to the humans!" Wait, what? "I'll see you all later. I'm off to start my shift!" Then, like an idiot, the skeleton began running along the path to the human city.

"I have some concerns," Chara remarked as Papyrus's friends followed after him.

Frisk chuckled. "I should probably get going, too. It's a long way back to Ebott Village, after all. And, I mean." He rubbed the back of his neck, grinning awkwardly. "Last anyone knows, I went climbing the mountain. Wouldn't want folks worried something happened to me. I'll see you around!" But before he started to walk, Frisk pointed two fingers at Chara and clicked his tongue. "See you later, gorgeous."

Her eyes went wide. Then they went hollow. Chara covered her face with her hands and screamed incoherently while Frisk smugly sauntered down the path. Finally she composed herself and lowered her hands. "I am going to kill him," she growled, remembering to reform her eyes.

Mom and Dad both laughed quietly. Even Asriel had the nerve to crack a smile. Eventually, Dad spoke again. "We should probably get going. We have a lot to do, especially if Papyrus..." He trailed off.

"Indeed we do," Mom said coldly.

A pause.

"Mom," Asriel said. "Do you hate Dad?"

All four of them cringed. "Asriel, my child. Hate is a... strong word," she said, glancing down at him. "You must understand, your father has done horrible things." Said father looked away guiltily, frowning. "They are not the kind that are easy to forget."

"I've done worse things," he whispered. "Much worse. You don't know about them, but I did."

She sighed. "Oh Asriel, you keep saying that but that's not true." But Chara and Asriel both knew that it was.

"So... does this mean we're not going to be a family again?" her brother wondered morosely.

Chara winced. Low blow.

"I... I did not say that, my child." Mom looked at Dad. "It just... may take a while."

Asriel nodded. "I understand. We should probably go," he said, turning down the road.

"Right, we should indeed."

"Well gosh, everyone else is already going..."

The three boss monsters started down the road, Chara staring at them. Chara looked up at the Sun, then down at the spiraling road. She found where Frisk was, hopping across rocks to make his way down. She looked back at her family, and followed them into the world.

Chapter Text

Two Years Later

Frisk

"Bye, Mrs. Liebling!" he called, opening the door.

"Goodbye Frisk," she said, waving. "See you next week."

He winked at her. "You know it, beautiful," he said, before closing the door and making his way down to the front desk. He passed the soothing yellow walls, which were lined with paintings of natural places. Forests, snowy mountains, and such. They were pretty. He liked them.

After taking a flight of stairs down, he arrived in the front office. Frisk approached the desk, behind which a middle aged man sat at his computer, silently tapping away. A name plate reminded Frisk that his name was Verni Planduster. Verni looked his way as he approached and smiled from ear to ear. "Frisk! There you are. Schedule another appointment?"

He nodded. "Yes please, a week from today. Same time," he said.

The man danced his fingers along the keyboard for a moment, then turned back to Frisk with a smile and a nod. "All set, have a nice day."

Frisk smiled back, already turning. "You too!" he said, walking out of the therapist's office building. He hit the streets, and a wall of noise washed over him.

Trackof City, the nearest major city to Ebott Town, was booming like never before. No surprise with thousands of monsters settling in and around, most notably the Dreemurrs. Cars zipped back and forth on the street next to him, turning and stopping at lights in ways he'd be learning himself in a few short years. For the time being though, he had to settle for walking down the streets with the rest of the pedestrians. Frisk found a street sign, figured out where to go, and headed that way.

The first crosswalk was nothing interesting. Once he crossed the second one though, he frowned and took out his phone to check. Four fifteen, where was she?

"Sorry I'm late!" Chara shouted behind him. He spun around and saw her ducking and weaving between the humans and monsters, maneuvering with... well, superhuman skill. Frisk couldn't help but smile, admiring her. Chara didn't 'age' the way he did, but she'd been manually aging her body along with everyone else. She was... wow.

She finally caught up to him and brushed a strand of her auburn hair away. "I got caught up in some business." Chara came over to his side, and Frisk's right hand found her left. "How was your session?"

He shrugged. "Eh, the usual," he said, his heart slowing and shoulders relaxing as he held her hand. "You look good today. Anyway, should we get going?"

Chara nodded. "Thank you, you too. And definitely."

The two of them continued down the street, melding with the pedestrians. Chara had been out and about often enough that they didn't turn too many heads anymore, though one or two of the monsters they crossed gave her a quiet hello before hurrying on. After a few more minutes of peaceful silence, something caught his eye.

He let go of Chara's hand. "Hang on," he said, rushing over to the green metal box. He fished out a coin from his wallet and fed it to the box, which burped out his newspaper. "Look!" he said, holding it up to Chara while the two of them moved out of the crowd's way.

Chara's ruby eyes found the headline. "First monster admitted to the Skriland Military," she read aloud. The headline in question was attached to a picture of the amalgamate Reaper Bird, towering over a collection of smartly dressed humans at some official ceremony. "What about it?" she asked.

Frisk shook his eyes and moved the newspaper up. "Not that, this!" he said, pointing at a smaller article. "Mysterious dog breaks into another children's hospital, delights patients."

His girlfriend's eyes lit up with comprehension and she grinned. "Ooooh!" She took the newspaper and read over the article before exhaling through her nose. "Well then, it seems our furry friend has been busy!" Crimson light engulfed the newspaper, and when the light faded it was gone. Probably back at his room. "At any rate," Chara said, taking his hand again. "Let us continue."

The rest of their trip went without incident. They turned one more corner, arriving at the restaurant Frisk had picked out. Nestled between two skyscrapers, and with another one growing on top of it was Garlic Lawn. Its logo was elegant cursive with a few leaves around it. He and Chara walked through the glass doors, got in line at the receptionist, and a few minutes later they had a booth table deep in the restaurant, away from any windows. Menus were already placed, they unfolded their napkins for utensils, and they started looking through the menu for something to eat.

Frisk chose a soup made of tomato broth, with some name like... Limestone? Whatever. Chara meanwhile decided on some kind of chicken breast drenched in sauces and vegetables. They ordered their food, and some drinks. M.D. Spice for himself, and chocolate milk for Chara.

"So," Frisk began, taking his knife in one hand and fidgeting with it. "How'd things go today?"

Chara rolled her eyes. "Ugh, there was some eldritch wanna-be trying to get in," she sighed. "Hate it when I get those stupid - "

"Hey," he said, reaching across to take her hand. "You got rid of it, right?"

She smiled and nodded. "I did indeed."

"Well then you did fine! There's nobody else who could've done better." He winked. "Literally." Then he frowned, feeling something tickle the underside of his arm. He pulled back and noticed the table was... actually pretty dusty. Frisk reached into his pocket and pulled out a sanitation wipe and started cleaning the table. Now that he was paying attention there was so much more dust than he'd expected. It covered the table, the utensils, the plates. It glinted in the lamps' light as he furiously wiped and wiped. One swipe wasn't enough to clean an area, he had to go back over and over until he was picking out at each little speck but that was fine because there was so much dust he had to clean and if he didn't his chest would tighten and his breath would thin there was so much dust so much dust -

"Frisk!" Chara hissed, grabbing his attention. He glanced up with a jolt of nausea. Her eyes were upturned in worry.

His heart clenched in shame. "I was doing it again, wasn't I?" he muttered, glancing away and pocketing his used wipe.

"It wasn't as bad as at first, you've gotten a lot better," she reassured.

"It's been two years," he groused. The sickening tension in his chest was fading, at least. "I should be over this. I mean, technically it never even happened!"

"Frisk, you know that doesn't matter," she said, reaching out to put her hand over his. Then she smiled. "But we shouldn't be talking about this, should we? How was school?"

He shrugged. Chara had a point... "Project's killing me," he said. "And I can't read any of Shaker's stuff anyway."

"The language isn't as archaic as you like to pretend," Chara pointed out.

"Yeah, because you grew up in his time, you fossil," he teased. Chara's rosy cheeks blushed dark brown. "It's all gibberish for me. Social studies is easy, at least."

Chara quirked an eyebrow. "Truly? I have been having trouble with it. Think you could help?"

Well on one hand they went to different schools so there was no guarantee he could help. On the other hand... "Sure, it's a date. I'll come over tomorrow. Think you could help me with math while I'm there?"

She smiled widely, lighting up the room. "Sounds good - oh, here comes our food."

She'd said that before the waitress was even visible. But a few seconds later a light pink bunny monster strode in happily, their plates on her hands. "Here you go," she said as she approached. "One Minestrone soup, one Chicken Margherita. If you two need anything let me know!" she said, also handing out their drinks.

"Thanks," he said.

The waitress grinned at him. "Tee hee! No problem!" With that she turned and rushed off to another table, leaving them to their meal.

Frisk and Chara spent the next few minutes eating. His soup was good, he had to admit. Thick and savory. Eventually he took a spoonful and offered some to Chara. "Wanna try?" he asked.

She smiled and took the spoon. "Sure." Chara slurped up the soup and hummed quietly. "It's good!" she said, handing his spoon back. She took a fork and stuck it in her chicken. With her knife - the provided utensil, not the weapon she kept in her pocket - she cut off a chunk and held it out. "Would you like some?"

"Thanks!" he said, grabbing the fork. It was good chicken, covered in sauce and vegetables.

Before long they finished up and ordered dessert, talking excitedly all the while, swapping stories and jokes.

" - she pulls the dog back in through the plane window," he started wrapping up. "What's in its mouth?"

Chara raised an eyebrow, eating at her chocolate lava cake. "The cigar, obviously."

He shook his head. "No, a brick."

Her crimson eyes shifted right for a moment, but then understanding dawned and a brilliant, soul-warming smile split her face. "OOOHH!" She covered her mouth and choked a laugh. "Alright, that's good!" she said, waving a finger at him. "Anyway, should we start getting the check?"

Frisk checked the time on his phone. Yikes, where had the day gone? "That's probably a good idea." He waved down the waitress and asked for said check, and she rushed away to go get it. Frisk and Chara continued to make small talk until it arrived, and Frisk took out his wallet.

His wallet shut itself, blood red light flickering around it. Frisk glanced up to see Chara looking at him bemusedly. "Frisk, I'm flattered, but I've got this."

"I insist."

She lowered her voice to a whisper. "Frisk, I can literally conjure money out of nothing," she insisted.

"Which is exactly why I should pay," he said pointedly.

"That makes no sense!"

"It's the principle of the thing! You do enough anyway." That was that; Frisk took out a few Skri - gold wasn't a common currency on the surface, after all - and paid. They got out of the booth and headed to the exit, hand in hand.

Night had indeed fallen while they'd eaten. The sky was black as coal, not a star to be seen thanks to the glow of the city. Cars moved back and forth in the streets like lines of light. But then he and Chara took a step forward and they were back in Ebott Town. He didn't even stumble; Chara had teleported him more times than he could count.

Ebott Town was quieter, darker. The air was cooler and the streets were deserted. A few stars shone above, glittering in the sky. He and Chara walked through the shadowy streets in pleasant, warm silence. It didn't take long for them to reach the orphanage door, where he and Chara turned to each other.

"Thank you for recommending that restaurant, Frisk," she said, grinning. "I had a lot of fun."

"Me too. And, no problem," he replied, his guts twisting and his face warming. "See you tomorrow?"

She dipped her head. "Of course."

With that, he tugged on her arms and pulled Chara closer to him, hugged her closely, and kissed her. His lips tingled electrically, as did his tongue when she leaned in and returned the kiss. They made out on the doorstep for a while longer, arms tight around each other and chests pressed together, before pulling away, both of their faces split by smiles. "Night, Chara," he breathed, opening the door and stepping in.

"Night, Frisk," she panted. When he looked back to close the door, Chara was already gone.

He smiled and went to get dressed for sleep.

Life was good.

Chara

Still tingling from the kiss, she warped back to her parents' house in Trackof. It was near the outskirts of the city, on a lot that had used to house a mansion. But with the aid of some workers - and Chara privately pitching in - Mom and Dad had demolished and sold the behemoth of marble and stone for a simple wooden house like they'd had in the Underground. That, of course, left plenty of open, grassy hills for her and Dad to garden.

Chara arrived in the living room, bouncing on her feet. The lights were off, and the smell of snails still hung in the air. She went around the room a little, and poked her head into her and Asriel's room. Nothing. The guest room in the middle was dark, as was the bathroom on the far side. Mom and Dad's room was lit up, and she could hear them animatedly discussing some project or another.

No sign of her brother, though.

Chara vanished from the house and appeared by the golden flower garden she and Dad maintained together. Still no Asriel. She tried the rose bushes. Still nothing.

Eventually, she found him on a plain, grassy hill. He laid on his back, staring up at the stars. His legs were crossed, the left paw dangling in the air. He glanced towards her as she approached and smiled. "Howdy, Chara," he said.

She dipped her head. "Asriel," she greeted. "Mind if I join you?"

"Sure!" He scooted off to the side, leaving a mat of flattened grass for her to lay on. She relaxed her head against the sweetly smelling, wet blades of grass. The stars above were incredibly numerous. Light pollution simply didn't exist in her parents' house. It wasn't something she'd done, either. It was a mystery to everyone. Perhaps an act of God.

"How was your day?" she asked, tracing constellations with her eyes.

"Well, school was fine. I didn't see you in art, though," he pondered.

"I was running some errands for Mr. Bulepson," she explained. "Didn't he tell you?"

His eyes widened. "Gosh, no. Maybe he forgot?"

She smiled. "That sounds like him. Anything else?"

"Well, my session with Mrs. Leibling was good too. How was your date?"

Her grin turned from humored to relaxed. Her demonic muscles unwound and she found herself sinking into the bed of grass. "It was great," she said wistfully. "We ate at this new restaurant, we talked, we joked."

"Right."

A peaceful silence.

"Chara," he began, prompting her to glance over at him. She caught sight of the metal tubes running in and out of his left arm, the price he paid to remain a monster without any soul at all. It crippled his magic and wouldn't give him an afterlife, but he was himself. "So... I have a question."

"Shoot," she said, jokingly removing her knife and morphing it into a sniper rifle.

He rolled his eyes. "Har har." She morphed it back. "So, it's about Cotych and I."

"What about her?" she wondered, her mind turning to the once-goner kid.

"Well, she's been wanting to get... intimate," he said, blushing deeply through his fur. "I just thought, since you and Frisk are too, and I'm pretty unsure if I even want to - "

"Relax," she urged, understanding his troubles at once. "Just talk to her about it. I mean, doesn't Mrs. Leibling say that? I think all therapists do. Just be honest, tell her your feelings, communicate, blah blah blah," she mocked.

Asriel nodded and leaned back, the nubs of his horns poking into the dirt. "Right, that sounds right."

They lapsed into silence again. Chara's thoughts ended up turning to Cotych, and from the gray lizard monster to Dr. Gaster. It was nice to see him as the Royal Scientist again, a small beacon of familiarity in an unfamiliar world. They needed one, after all, ever since Mom fired Alphys. She hadn't checked on him or his followers in a while, though. Chara worried; Asriel had been resetting for eight hundred years, but she knew the amount of time Gaster had experienced and it... made her sick.

But at least they existed again.

Chara thought back to two years ago, and found herself troubled. So much had happened. If she didn't know better, she almost would've said her ill-fated plan worked out for the best. She was omnipotent and immortal, Mom and Dad were still together, Monsters and Humans lived in peace. She was alive, Asriel was alive, she and Frisk were romantic, Gaster and his cohorts could interact with the world again, Asriel had taken care of the personal issues of some of the monsters...

But Frisk and Asriel has undergone horrible things. Gaster endured the ravages of time. Asriel lost his soul, had almost no magic at all, and despite everyone's best efforts they couldn't find a way to ensure he moved on to anywhere at all.

So... maybe it wasn't a perfect ending to Frisk's adventure. But it was certainly a lot better than her plan would've done.

She stared back up, and smiled.

Asriel'd made the right choice, all those years ago.

"Gosh, it's kinda funny," he spoke up. "I keep thinking back to when I fought Frisk, and got the resets back. I keep wondering what would've happened if he didn't die. Things would've been so much better."

She glanced at him. "I don't know. Would they?"

He sighed. "Maybe not." He grinned, showing off his rows of fangs. "Golly, guess I can't regret hard choices my whole life."

"Things worked out," she sighed, glancing at the stars. She sat up and offered a hand to Asriel. "Now come on, we should head back inside. We've got school tomorrow."

He glanced at her hand, then took it. She helped him up and brushed the grass off his back. "Race you back, no cheating!" he shouted, running off.

Her eyes widened as he sprinted away. A moment later she took off after him. "Hey! Get back here!" she returned, chasing Asriel down the hill. As they raced back to the house, Chara couldn't help but smile again.

Sure, maybe it wasn't the best possible ending.

But she'd take it.

THE END