Ripples

by Darkness's Messenger

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: I DID NOT WRITE THIS. This story was completely penned by Mr. Welsh, who has sadly disappeared entirely from the internet along with all of their stories. This story has been saved, catalogued and uploaded by me for archival purposes and simply to be enjoyed. Any and all credit goes towards the original author. (NOTE: May contain multiple chapters per page.)

1. Ripples

Summary

It's been two years since the barrier has fallen and monsters have returned to the surface. But Frisk has been unable to forget Asriel and the promise that they made to them. Haunted by nightmares of the past, Frisk sets out to save their lost brother from a tortured existence with their power to reset and the help of some friends. But can they be sure what effects their changes will have? When casting stones, ripples are made.

Notes

Howdy! I'm Mr_Welsh, this will be my first post on this site. I'm new to fan-fiction and fandoms in general but have written extensive original work. Undertale was the first fictional work which inspired me to write something else resonating so strongly with me and eliciting an emotional response like few other games could. A few technical notes before we begin proper. Firstly I have pre-written most of this work and plan to release three chapters a week which gives me time to edit certain parts I still don't like and correct a few errors I have made. Secondly, I originally wrote Frisk with masculine pronouns but have since changed my mind and decided to use gender neutral pronouns to reinforce their canonical ambiguous/non-binary gender. It's quite likely I have missed a few of these in the editing process so just ignore any masculine pronouns you find. Thirdly this fiction contains some head-cannons (mainly on the nature of determination and resets) and a few relationships between characters (which aren't really the focus of the story, just fun window dressing). Also credit where credit is due, the first chapter (and indeed the entire fiction) was inspired by this image post/132252432497/instead-of-finishing-the-last-two-days-of-inktober . In any case it's quite a long work and the main stuff starts to happen around chapter 6-7 as I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do with the story so be prepared for a a fluffy slow build. I enjoyed writing this and so I hope you enjoy reading it too. Any comments/criticism would be greatly appreciated so I can improve elements before the next set of releases.

Awakening

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The ray of sunlight lanced down through the ceiling of the cavern, playing onto the neat patch of yellow flowers craning their necks into the light. Two figures stood in the midst of growth, one smaller, younger and hunched over in a green shirt, furred with white floppy ears reaching down to almost his knees as he crouched. The other child was slightly taller, a stoic expression playing across their tanned face, eyes shadowed by a muss of brown hair. It was a beautiful scene, one could faintly hear birdsong echoing down from the opening above. "So you managed to save everyone" said the smaller boy to his companion, remaining concentrated on the flowers before him, not turning to face the older child. It wasn't so much a question as a statement, Frisk smiled at that thought. "That's nice," he continued.

"But Frisk…"

In an eyeblink the light, the flowers and the birdsong fell away in an all-consuming void, leaving the two children there in the midst of oblivion. Bereft now of his flowers the crouched child turned his head back. Frisk recoiled in horror and fear, the flesh of Asriel's face had been stripped away, leaving a goat like skull with knots of matted pelt still affixed.

"Why didn't you save me?" his tone dripped with a mixture of fear and disgust that made Frisk ill to the core. In a flash Asriel's wiry arms had clamped down on Frisk's, their faces inches away from one another. The stench was unbearable, Frisk's eyes began to water from the smell and the shame, Frisk tried to open their mouth and scream but their lips wouldn't budge, their body failed to heed their commands. "HELP ME!" Screamed Asriel with supernatural loudness.

"HELP ME, HELP ME, HELP ME…" he howled with increasing frequency and volume, his words melding into a single maddening dirge. Frisk collapsed under the wall of noise and stench alternating between crying, vomiting and gasping for air. Just as Frisk thought their head might crack open, they suddenly felt a soft hand rest upon their shoulder, the noise stopped and he found himself in a bed of flowers. Frisk heard a name, their name.

"Frisk," Asriel's voice had returned to its normal measure.

"Don't you have anything better to do?" The question hit him like slap to the face, Frisk had heard it so many times before, and it tortured them like a splinter in their mind, driving them mad. Frisk's name again "Frisk" and again "Frisk" and again and again.

"Frisk, Frisk, Frisk."

"Frisk!"

Their fist lashed out and struck against something hard.

"NEYH!" Papyrus recoiled with surprise, tripping and landing on his hind amongst his collection of action figures that littered the floor. Frisk came to their senses. Breathe, breathing was their first priority. Frisk took huge greedy gulps of the night air, but it didn't feel like enough, like their throat had closed up. Frisk wheezed through their constricted windpipe.

"Pappy! Darling!" came the singsong electronic whistle of Mettaton as he rushed over to Papyrus, "Darling are you hurt?" Papyrus brushed of his boyfriend with one hand whilst pushing himself up with the other.

"Don't worry Mettaton, It'll take more than a knock to the chin to rattle the bones of the great Papyrus!" Frisk's panting quickly drew both their attentions. Frisk had calmed down somewhat now, but the beads of sweat on their forehead betrayed the fitful sleep they'd just endured. Frisk noticed their adopted uncles watching them anxiously from the floor, and realized what had just transpired.

"I'm so sorry Papyrus… I didn't mean to…" Frisk wheezed in between pants.

Papyrus pushed himself off the floor and shook his head "No need to apologize Frisk, your uncle is the great Papyrus dashing chef, master warrior and boyfriend of Mettaton…" Papyrus's bony face rippled like clay as he tried to think of more claims to his fame.

Mettaton hoisted himself up "Frisky darling, we were so worried, we heard you kicking and screaming, we thought someone was attacking you."

Frisk shook their head and slowed their breathing down "I'm fine uncle Mettaton, I promise, I just had a bad dream."

Mettaton waggled his finger at Frisk. "Now, now darling, amazing you may be but you clearly lack the skill of an actor, I can tell you're lying, this is something more isn't it precious." He smiled a disarming smile, "Why not tell your uncles what's eating you up?"

Frisk shook their head "I'm sorry Uncle Mettaton, I don't think I could explain it to you even if I wanted to."

Mettaton's face scrunched up in dismay "Frisk, you can trust us…" he began. Papyrus did something Frisk had never seen him do before, he put out a bony finger and shushed his boyfriend, eyelights dead leaving only empty sockets in his face.

"You said you couldn't explain even if you wanted to," Papyrus whispered, his voice utterly devoid of its usual goofy friendliness, it sounded chillingly serious "What do you mean by that, Frisk?" The whole room was quite, Mettaton had a slightly disturbed look on his face, having never heard his boyfriend speak like that before.

Frisk gulped, "You wouldn't even understand if I told you guys." Papyrus' eyes narrowed. Frisk continued, "I'm sorry but it's the truth, I had a bad dream, I can't even remember what it was about." Frisk was lying, it wasn't the first time they'd had a dream like this and it probably wouldn't be the last, it was just the first time someone had woken them up. Frisk had been hiding these episodes from Sans and his Mother, they didn't want to worry them and more importantly Frisk didn't want them to know what it was the dreams were about.

"Very well then!" Papyrus yelled suddenly giving Frisk and Mettaton a jolt, energy and emotion flooding back into his voice, "I, the great UNCLE Papyrus will sleep in your bed tonight and protect you from the fowl tendrils of bad dreams and nightmares, then as we awake from a refreshing and nightmare free sleep in the morning I shall prepare for you a veritable feast of Spaghetti and Pancakes!"

Frisk and Mettaton groaned at this but Papyrus ignored their protests, "YES, it will be perfect, it will be a work of art, nothing less for my treasured nephew and cool boyfriend!"

His bony hand went to his chin and his sockets narrowed in deep thought, "The only question is… Should I use tomato sauce or maple syrup for condiments?" His eyes widened in enlightenment, "WHY NOT BOTH!" he cried excitedly, eliciting another growl of discontent from both Frisk and Mettaton.

"It is decided then, I shall get my things and come into your room frisk, it will be like a sleep over INSIDE A SLEEP OVER, NYEH, HEH, HEHHH."

With that he ran out into the hall his "NYEHs" falling in volume as he ran to his bedroom. Mettaton turned to Frisk and smiled, "You're so lucky to have an uncle like him, don't worry about breakfast we'll pick up some Glamburgers on the way back to your Mother's, just look like you're eating it and then throw it in the trash when he isn't looking."

Frisk nodded, "Don't you ever get tired of his cooking?"

Mettaton nodded and smiled, "A small price to pay for someone like him, I can't help but love everything he does, even his harebrained pasta recipes."

Frisk could hear the "NYEHs" growing in volume as Papyrus careened down the hallway to the guest bedroom. Mettaton stole at look at Frisk and his expression suddenly contorted into a stony scowl, "Don't even think of telling him what I do with his spaghetti!"

Frisk gulped and shook their head with great speed, Mettaton's face softened, "Oh who am I kidding darling, I know you can keep a secret."

Papyrus burst back into the room wearing a new set of Pyjamas and carrying a small bag, "NYEH, HE, HEEEE, I AM READY FOR MY SLEEP-OVER-OVER!" he cried ecstatic at his coining of a new term.

Mettaton looked him up and down, "Papy why did you change into different Pyjamas?"

Papyrus' skull moulded into a beaming smile, "I wanted it to be authentic, I got changed into my Pyjamas and brought my things over for a good old fashioned slumber party!"

Mettaton rolled his eyes and gave a little smile, "Okay Papy, you two have fun now, I'm going back to bed." He turned on a high heeled foot before blowing them both a kiss through the door, "Night, night and sweet dreams you two."

Papyrus had already begun unfurling his night bag on the ground, "I'm sorry Frisk, I wasn't sure what to bring to our sleepover on such short notice!" He pulled out some action figures, a picture book and some dried spaghetti noodles before extracting a pillow and setting it out on the bed next to frisk. "I'm so glad we kept my old Race car bed for the guest room, Mettaton wanted to get rid of it but I pouted really hard."

He squeezed in beside Frisk pushing him to the edge of the mattress. For a skeleton, Papyrus felt warm and soft, likely something to do with being a magical being. "Sorry for the tight squeeze frisk" he apologized "but I think the Race car bed really draws the guest room together don't you think, of course I can drive Mettaton's car but I like the nostalgia of a good cruising snooze once in a while!"

Frisk couldn't help but smile, "I'm glad you guys kept it too, I'm reminded of our "date" every time I come here."

Papyrus blushed "I'm touched you remembered, but it wasn't really a "date" was it more of a "hang out" as you kids say these days." He wriggled a bit "Sorry am I keeping you awake Frisk?"

Frisk shook their head, "No, no, I want you to keep talking I don't think I could fall back to sleep just yet."

Papyrus gasped next to him "Wowie! Like a real slumber party, Mettaton is always so tired when he comes to bed, we barely ever talk to one another before he powers down and I'm just left there with nobody to converse with."

"You're a Skeleton Papyrus, you already have no-body."

Papyrus quivered with rage, "DID MY BROTHER TELL YOU TO SLIP ME THAT ONE?" he questioned loud enough to spook the birds outside the house.

"You're smiling." Chided Frisk poking their uncle's shoulder blade with a finger.

"I know and I HATE IT!" They lay there in silence as Papyrus calmed down.

"Uncle Papyrus, tell me the story of how you met uncle Mettaton."

Papyrus rolled around to look at Frisk, his face a mask of confusion "I could swear I've told you that one before, and the great Papyrus never forgets anything ever!"

"Even so, could you do it again, it always brings a smile to my face."

Papyrus grinned "Well I can't turn down that request now can I?" he cleared his non-existent throat "Ahem. Well about two years ago as I'm sure you already know I was hanging out with Undyne at her and Alphys' house, when suddenly Mettaton, robot star extraordinaire comes in looking for Alphys. I sat there gawking at this handsome metal figure for a full minute and then he noticed me, of all people!" Frisk had noted that the only time Papyrus' ego didn't leak into his tales was when they were about his boyfriend, perhaps because he possessed an even greater narcissism.

"Mettaton asked Undyne who I was and she explained that I was a close friend of her and Alphys. Then he said the words I will never ever forget "A friend of Alphys is a friend of mine." In such a sexy voice too! To think of that, Mettaton, the Mettaton calling me a friend. I think I blacked out, Undyne said she coaxed me back with some spaghetti. She said he had left looking for Alphys but had given me his phone number had I wanted to call him later. Sans helped me with the first date and it took off from there, he makes me very happy!"

His face morphed into a frown "Sans still doesn't like him much, but I'm not sure why." Frisk kept their mouth shut, Sans was terrified Mettaton would break his little brother's heart. He'd asked Frisk to keep tabs on their relationship for him, he'd even set up regular sleepovers just to keep an eye on them. Frisk hadn't seen the slightest shred of evidence of an imminent dumping, but kept their eye out all the same.

"Speaking of my brother how is he?" Papyrus Probed, "How are he and your mother getting along?"

"He's fine Papyrus, he and Mom get on like peas and a pod, throwing out bad puns, getting into texting wars is all sickeningly sweetheart stuff…."

Papyrus writhed around, "Ugghhh, I can only imagine the terrible pain you must be experiencing Frisk, one can only take so much sweetness and puns."

A pause, "Do you consider him like a dad Frisk?" A tough question.

"I dunno, I guess, he is going out with my Mom. But I've always thought of him a cool friend."

Papyrus' face fell.

Frisk acted quickly. "No-Not as cool as you of course Uncle Papyrus!"

Papyrus' face snapped back into joy.

"Anyhow, I'm spoiled for father figures I've got Sans, Mettaton, You and even Undyne in a way."

"What about Asgore?"

Frisk frowned "He's trying to make amends, but he's hurt a lot of people, Mom included. I don't think she can fully forgive him for everything he did…."

Papyrus nodded sullenly, "I understand."

A thought popped into Frisk's mind, one they'd been dying to ask Papyrus. "Papyrus, you had a dad, right?"

Papyrus ground his teeth back and forth, "I'm sure I did, but I can't remember him."

"You can't remember your dad?"

Papyrus nodded, "Not through lack of trying, Sans told me he died when I was really young, that I wouldn't remember him. Mom too, so he had to take care of me most of my life."

A pause, "What about you Frisk, do you remember your real mom and dad?"

Frisk shook their head, "I was in an orphanage for as long as I could remember, I grew up without a family, eventually I grew sick of it all, I ran away, up Mt. Ebbot hoping to disappear like in the stories."

They flashed a grin a Papyrus, "Best decision I ever made."

Papyrus looked sad, "That's sad frisk and I feel sad for you, I know what it's like to grow up without parents but not even any sibling? I can only imagine, I'm sorry if I said anything wrong, the dating handbook doesn't cover this kind of conversation."

They lay there for a full minute before Frisk asked a final question, "Papyrus, you got a bit creepy before, when I had just woken up. You shushed Mettaton. You spoke really quite. I've never seen you do that before and from the look on Mettaton's face neither has he."

Papyrus stayed silent for what seemed like an age before he spoke, when he did, it was a cold and serious tone not unlike before. "You're not the first time I've seen someone have night terrors. Sans had them all the time, he'd wake up some nights crying and screaming out my name."

Frisk gasped a little, this was news to them, Sans the calm and collected lover of puns breaking down like that was something they could accept quickly.

"It was really bad some night, his eye would glow a bright blue, light bulbs would shatter and the door would bang back and forth on its hinges. One time he pinned me against the wall before he came to his senses. I'd always have to climb into bed with him and talk softly until he realized I was still there with him. Then he'd cry for a good half an hour talking about how he was so sorry, it really freaked me out the first time but I got used to it eventually."

Frisk was shocked by what they were hearing, they'd never seen Sans upset. He'd always seemed so stable and calm about anything and everything. "Did you ever ask him what he dreamt about?" Frisk questioned quietly.

"That's just it, he'd always ignore it the next day like it had never happened, the one time I really pressed him about it he told me something not unlike what you just said, that I wouldn't understand even if he wanted to tell. I guess I'm just concerned about by favorite nephew is all, wouldn't want two members of the family having nightmares now would we?"

Frisk took it all in, "Thanks for telling me Uncle Papyrus, it means a lot to know you trust me this much with this information. Good night." Frisk turned away.

"Good night Nephew Frisk!" mumbled Papyrus. The rest of the night was a dreamless one for the both of them.

---

Spaghetti

Chapter Notes

A couple of things before we move on. I head-cannoned Frisk into being 14 when they first left the underground and 16 after two years back on the surface. The current date for the story is 2015 the date for the barrier breaking being 2013. There was no particular reason for this, I just wanted set dates and ages to make it a bit easier to write. You may be wondering why Frisk is suddenly more talkative. I believe that initially they were simply quite shy and timid, but since meeting their monster friends and family in the underground they have emerged from their shell somewhat and become more expressive. This is reinforced by the dialogue in a true pacifist run where Frisk is more vocal ("Then she kisses you!") and emotional (crying at Snowdrake's mother's jokes). It stands to reason that being around friends and family for two years has helped them become more extroverted and sociable. That and I didn't really want to write a protagonist that barely talked. Frisk was one of the hardest character's to write as their personality is almost completely dependent on player choice. I chose to make them quite mature (as some of the dialogue options show surprising maturity for a younger person) with high emotional insight which I thought fit quite closely to their portrayal in a pacifist run. If you have any questions please feel free to ask me and I shall do my best to clear them up for you.

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"Bon Appetite!" yelled Papyrus as he hefted the comically large pancake onto Frisk's plate. Before Frisk could say another word he had dumped a whole bowl of Spaghetti on top before applying at excess of tomato sauce and a "seasoning" of maple syrup. He moved over to Mettaton's plate "And for you Mettaton I made one in the shape of your face!" He slapped down a crudely baked pancake with a vague resemblance to Mettaton's rectangular form before dolloping a large heaping of pasta on top.

"Wonderful darling, you really are a stellar boyfriend."

Papyrus looked at the two of them "Well" he asked "how is it?"

Frisk took a cautionary bite. It tasted foul, but they scrunched up their face into a forced smile. "Mmmmm" Frisk buzzed, faking satisfaction "Uncle Papyrus it's so good I'm full after one bite!"

Mettaton looked Frisk in eye mouthing "Good one" whilst nodding in satisfaction. A fat tear rolled out of Papyrus' eye socket (frisk had never asked how that worked) .

"R… Really!" He threw his arms in the air and ripped of his chef hat, throwing it up into the ceiling fan "This is… the… best day!" He grabbed both their plates away from them "Well, I won't burden you with these mountains of spaghetti if you're both already full, we'll save it for later shall we."

"Yes!" came the forced and unanimous reply from both Frisk and Mettaton.

Mettaton checked his watch "Papy, darling, we promised Toriel that we'd have Frisk back at their house by 9:30 and I need to swing by the set of "Cooking with a Killer Robot" after this. I promise I'll back home early today."

Papyrus waved his ladle in the air "Don't worry boyfriend, I the great Papyrus was planning to do the gardening today anyway! When you return home, you shall find a veritable garden of paradise and I shall shower you with rose petals from our flower bed and…"

Mettaton's hands extended and clasped over Frisk's ears. They couldn't hear anything, but from the look on Mettaton's face Friskknew they were talking dirty. Frisk looked down at the table trying not to think too hard about it. When Mettaton's arms retracted again Frisk returned their gaze to their two uncles.

"Papy, that's very…nice of you to say, but Frisk is still too young for all of that, just watch what you're talking about around children darling."

"I'm 16 guys" Frisk piped up "its okay you don't need to…"

"16!" squealed Mettaton indignantly "But you're so short!"

Frisk's blood boiled, they'd had this conversation innumerable times

"Yeah and so are Sans and Alphys both of them are shorter than me and they're Adults!"

Mettaton considered this putting his finger to his teeth to show he was deep in thought "I didn't think about it that way, it doesn't really matter darling, you're still little Frisky to me and Papyrus!"

Papyrus chimed in "Quite right, you're my tiny little Nephew still!" Frisk bit down on their teeth and clenched their fists. Let it go, let it go!

"Hey Papyrus!" Frisk yelled suddenly.

Papyrus turned around from his latest bowl of spaghetti

"Hmmmm?"

Frisk said something stupid. "Your spaghetti really sucks!"

"I'm very disappointed in you darling!" Mettaton said as they came up to the MTT resort drive through. "I thought we'd made a promise not to talk to Papy about the quality of his cooking."

Frisk shrugged "One. He had it coming. Two. It was a mercy at this point, someone was going to tell him one day."

Mettaton looked exasperated "But darling did that day have to be today! You saw him as we left, he was beside himself. He was having an existential crisis!"

They pulled up to the order window, a pimply faced human teen peered out lazily. "Hello sir" he said in monotone "may I take you're…" he saw who he was talking to "Mr Blook sir!"

Mettaton waved him down "Spare me the theatrics cherub, I've got enough on my plate today as it is. Two Glamburgers and two Colas, make one of the Glamburgers extra-large."

The ratty teen quivered at the sight of his boss "Coming right up Mr Blook sir!" Mettaton gave him a large note "Keep the change darling."

Mettaton slurped his cola noisily in the parking lot, shooting daggers at Frisk the whole time. "Do you have any idea what my boyfriend does, hmm?" Frisk kept their gaze low and shook his head, taking slow bites out of the Glambuger.

"I got him a part time job as the spaghetti specialist at the resort in Hotlands. Almost nobody goes there anymore but he feels important and I get the staff to play along, now how am I going to build up his confidence again. He's like a delicate little flower, so scared and precious…."

Mettaton kept talking, but the flower metaphor brought back uncomfortable memories. Poor, poor Asriel, Frisk had stayed with him for over two weeks of his time, bringing him pies, playing games in the flowers resetting when he began to change back. Eventually he'd caught on around the fortieth time and gotten angry at Frisk, demanding they move the timeline forward and be with their friends. Frisk hadn't the heart to go against Asriel's wishes.

Frisk had made a promise though "I'm going to get you out of here Asriel, we'll be one happy family, I promise." Asriel shook had shaken his head sadly.

"Frisk, don't you have anything better to do?" The question buzzed like a hornet in Frisk's mind.

"Are you even listening to me darling?" the snapping of Mettaton's fingers brought Frisk back into the reality of the car. "Whatever, it isn't like we can turn back the clock is it." He looked at his nephew for an age before turning his attentions to his meal "Gah I'm so stressed!" with that he ripped into his extra-large Glamburger and wolfed down in four bites of his metal mouth. "This is what happens when I get stressed Frisky, I start pigging out, it's disgusting I know, hardly becoming of a movie star. Or an uncle."

Frisk stared up at him with tears welling in their eyes, Mettaton looked shocked. "I'm sorry Frisk, you're right we couldn't have kept the lie going forever, please don't cry, I'm sorry, please don't tell Sans or your mom!" he was talking really fast, something he did when he was nervous.

Frisk wiped their eyes and played along, not letting him know the real reason for the tears.

"It's okay Uncle Mettaton, I'm not mad at you, you really like him huh, I'll let Sans know you're the best Boyfriend his brother could ever ask for!"

Mettaton's moth made an O of surprise which quickly morphed into a heartfelt smile. "Thanks… Frisky."

Sans was waiting for them by the end of the driveway. Toriel's house was spacious but quaint, offering plenty of space but never feeling too large. He met eyes with Mettaton as they pulled up. "Hey Mettaton." He drawled lazily as he was prone to do.

"Hi Sans." came Mettaton's quick response.

Frisk gave their uncle a quick hug before hopping out of the car "I'll tell him what his brother means to you." They whispered to the robot.

"You do that darling."

Frisk got out and walked up to Sans giving him a bump on the fist.

"Heya Kiddo!"

"Hi Sans"

Mettaton's car pulled away, he waved an extended arm to Frisk as he drove past "Bye darling!" Frisk waved back.

"So" said Sans "how are those two getting along." Straight to business.

They began walking down the gravel drive towards the garage, Sans' scooter leaning lazily up against Toriel's, not unlike he was prone to do when he was feeling too lazy to stand up.

"Geeze Sans, you really want his blood huh?"

Sans shook his head "If I was sure Papyrus was in a healthy relationship I couldn't be happier for him, but I don't think Mettaton has his best interests at heart and you know how my Brother is you know he'd break into a million bits if Mettaton dumped him."

Frisk gave him a sideways glance "What makes you think he has it out for Papyrus?"

"I don't think he does, at least not intentionally, but you know Mettaton he'd break a heart without even knowing about it, he's a beautiful idiot, he wouldn't think of the consequences. That and I just can't accept that he is in it for my brother like he says he is."

"What else would he be dating him for? Papyrus isn't wealthy, famous or even that good a chef."

"But he is handsome, for a skeleton anyway, I don't like the idea that my little brother is just sort of being used by someone." They'd reached the front door.

"Sans I can say this with confidence, Mettaton puts up with your brothers antics and still looks forward to coming home to him at the end of the day, I've seen them together and Papyrus fills him with joy, he means the world to him, he's willing to go any length to secure his happiness and from a narcissist like Mettaton that's certainly something. He's completely bona-fide"

Sans burst out in his hyena laughter hugging Frisk suddenly and strongly, wrapping his hoody around them "Hearing that form you kiddo means so much. Nice work on the pun too, must've been holding onto that one for a long time." He held Frisk there for a full five seconds before releasing them "Come on, your Mom made Butterscotch pie for us."

Frisk rubbed their stomach "Sorry I've just had a Glamburger, I really couldn't."

Sans' eyelights rolled around in his sockets, "Lemme guess, mercy run after the Spaghetti pancakes?"

"Yeah."

"Figured as much."

Sans rapped on their door. "Knock knock…" yelled Sans

A singsong voice from inside "Whoo isss iiitt?"

"Figs."

"Figs who?"

"Figs the doorbell silly!" They both roared in laughter, warming booming peals of mirth that brought a smile to Frisk's face. The door opened outward, Toriel stood there in her purple dress that seemed to be the width and depth of her wardrobe.

Sans struggled to breathe in-between his laughs. "Well Tori, after all that cacoffiny I'm dead tired."

They both laughed again.

When Toriel had regained bodily control she reached out and pinched Frisk on the cheek "And how are you my child, did you have fun with your uncles?"

"Sure did!" Frisk beamed "We stayed up late, Papyrus I played video games and Mettaton told me stories from his acting career."

Toriel stood up and gave Frisk a wary look "I hope Papyrus didn't make you all go hungry with his lethal cooking?"

Frisk shook their head. "Mettaton took us out to the new MTT resort, his treat."

Sans patted Frisk on the back

"Sounds like you had a good time kiddo, glad to hear it."

Toriel beckoned them both inside "Come on you two I baked a pie, butterscotch, your favourite Frisk."

Despite their differences the two were surprisingly well matched. Sans and Toriel shared a love of terrible puns and jokes which both humoured and irritated Frisk to no end. Oftentimes he'd be woken at night but the rapturous laughter of his mother and her boyfriend as they shared a quite joke before bed. The trash Sans left was atrocious however. Their house was anarchic. The areas Toriel frequented, primarily the kitchen and the study, were kept spotless and pristine. The areas Sans loafed around were dirty, dusty and unkempt until Toriel decided to do a clean-up. Their bedroom was an almost even split down the middle, with Toriel's half being filled with neat furnishings and practical items. The other side contained Sans' growing sock collection, scrapbooks filled with photos and bad puns and his prized Trombone that he'd break out, much to his brothers chagrin, for special occasions. Pushing through the piles of stacked trash that was the living room, Frisk made their way to the largest couch.

"We'll have to do a clean-up for Mr lazybonesover here Frisky! He's been bone idle all morning." she called from the kitchen, chortling at her own Joke. Frisk giggled and looked over to see Sans hunched over, chin on closed fist as if deep in thought. He should have been laughing. Maybe he hadn't heard her.

"Sans, mum made a skeleton joke."

He snapped his head around fast and gave a low forced laugh "Hehehe. Oh… yeah."

Frisk had noticed he wasn't acting himself lately. In the past few months he'd get into melancholy moods and mope around being even more lazy than usual. Frisk hadn't really thought about it, but Papyrus' comments last night made them wonder.

"Something wrong Sans?"

Sans shook his head way too quickly, almost instinctively "Nah Kiddo, just thinking about something." Something was wrong, Frisk was looking for it. His skull wasn't like that of a human, it could move and ripple like clay or plastic. It could betray emotion. He was upset about something.

"Sans, I want to talk to you about something."

"Oh."

"In private." Frisk added.

"Oh okay kiddo."

A pause.

"Is here private?"

Frisk thumbed the door to their bedroom. "Away from mom, just us two."

"Oh, okay then."

Another pause.

"Right now?"

"Yes Sans, right now."

Sans got up off of his side of the coach with agonizing reluctance and sluggishness, yawning as he did. Truly his laziness knew no boundaries. "Right then, you've got me up, let's go to your room then."

---

Dreams

---

Frisk's room was not unlike the one shared by Sans and his Toriel. It was halfway between order and chaos, swaying back and forth depending upon their mood and whim. A bit of both had rubbed off on them, Frisk had their mother's desire for cleanliness and order and Sans' apathy and sloth. The result was a multitude of half-hearted attempts at reverting the clutter back to a more organized state with the knowledge it would eventually fall back into chaos giving Frisk drive to stop working. The room itself was modestly decorated, filled with gifts from Frisk's various friends, their big screwed up family. The little round carpet near their bed was stained with crumbs for the Butterscotch pies Toriel made and left for Frisk on whim and the window offered a nice view of the sky, especially at night. It was a nice room all in all, Frisk could hardly complain. Sans scuffed his slippers along the ground and flopped down on Frisk's bed without permission.

"Lay it on me kiddo. I'm all ears."

Frisk thought long and hard about what he was about to say. They drew up close to the bed and whispered in Sans' earhole.

"Sans, I want to talk about our nightmares."

For just a second, Sans' eyelights went out before returning to his sockets.

"W…who told you, was it my brother?"

"Yeah it was."

Sans wasn't angry, he just sounded interested. "Why'd he bring it up?"

Frisk explained the events that had transpired the night before, how Papyrus had hopped into bed with them and told them of Sans' night terrors.

"I see. Looks like you and I are in the same boat kiddo." He gave a nervous laugh, "Not so fun are they?

"Do you still have them?" Asked Frisk.

Sans scratched the back of his neck. "No. Not since we left the underground, not since I've been with your mom." The lie was obvious.

Frisk gave him an accusatory look. "Sans, be honest."

He sighed. "I had one last night."

"Does mom know?"

"Yeah." Sans scratched his skull. "I tried hiding them from her at first but it's pretty hard when you're sharing a bed with someone." His face scrunched up. "But she has no idea what they're about."

"Sans. What are they about?" Frisk immediately regretted asking the question.

"I'd best not say." The words rolled out of his mouth slowly and with intense venom. He'd only heard Sans speak once like that before and that was at their dinner at the old Hotlands MTT resort. Something that still sent chills down his spine to this day.

Frisk knew he was being utterly serious.

But they had to know. Frisk needed to understand what was eating their friend up.

Frisk offered him a bargain. "If you tell me yours, I'll tell you mine. Deal."

Suddenly Sans leapt up off the bed and ran to the door. He opened it quietly before calling out "Toriel, Frisk wants Ice Cream with his pie!"

Frisk looked confused "I don't like Ice Cream with my pie."

Sans put a bony finger to his jaw "Sshhss" he rasped "I'm getting her out of the house!"

"Really, I thought Frisk didn't like Ice Cream on their pie?" Came the reply.

"First time for everything I suppose, I wouldn't mind some either the corner store does a really nice vanilla."

"I hate vanilla Sans." Interjected Frisk.

Sans ignored Frisk. "Can you please go get some, we'd really appreciate it."

"Anything for you two!" She replied happily.

He listened and waited for the front door to slam shut before turning to Frisk.

"Pretty paranoid Sans." Noted Frisk.

"Sometimes it pays off, I'd rather her not hear what about to say."

"Go on then."

Sans returned to the bed and swung his legs over the edge of the mattress, dangling his slippers from his bony toes so they just touched the floor. "I had dreams starting about five months before you arrived in the underground, that my brother and I were killed by something." He paused, considering his words "Someone to be exact. A human." He looked right at Frisk "You."

The single word pierced Frisk like an icicle through the heart, chilling their insides. Frisk felt hot, felt cold and sick all at the same time. Frisk had expected something bad but this was beyond scary.

Sans continued "In my dreams, my brother would be hunting for humans outside his sentry station. He'd spot you coming through the woods. Short brown hair, blue and pink striped shirt, the whole outfit you wore kiddo. I remembered these details vividly, how could I forget with what happens next. You two fight, Papyrus is trying his best to knock you out but you don't have any of it. You cut his head clean off and he turns to dust."

Frisk had gone numb. How was this possible? How could Sans have dreams like this, since before they'd even met? And why were they so murderous in them?

"I try to intervene. Try to warn him every time. Nothing works, my body won't move, you always kill him. And then you come for me. We fight, I try to hit you with everything I've got but you dodge every attack I throw at you. Eventually you get lucky, or maybe I get tired but the results the same. You get me in the end kiddo, game over."

Frisk didn't even know where to begin.

"So when I first saw you leave the doors to the ruins, I was scared shitless. But I'd made a promise to you mother, to keep you safe and well. In the end I'm glad I stuck to that promise." He gave a quick wink.

Seeing that he'd disturbed his friend Sans quickly tried to lighten the mood "Let's just say you're dead lucky me and your mom share a Sans of humerus!"

Neither of them laughed at any of these, especially given the macabre content of their discussion moments before.

Frisk had to ask. "Sans, how much do you know?"

Sans looked really uncomfortable for a second. He, as if by reflex, put his hand to his chin, the same pose he struck when Frisk noticed he was feeling melancholy. "How much do I know about what, kiddo?"

"Sans do you know what I can do?"

The room was dead silent for almost a whole minute, the entire time Sans stared straight at Frisk, eyelights shrunk down to tiny pinpricks of light, lancing into their soul.

Frisk broke the silence. "You had the uncanny ability to know we'd done this before. I suspected for some time you might be aware of my…." He looked down in shame and fear "abilities."

Sans raised a bony eyebrow. "Truly kiddo, I'm flattered. I just want to know, have we had this discussion before?"

That confirmed Frisk's suspicions.

They shook their head. "No. Sans this is a first for both of us, I promise."

Sans nodded and took it all in. "I can see by the look on your face you're at least being honest with me. That means a lot to me, thanks."

Frisk didn't quite understand.

"Frisk I know you can turn back the clock, I know about determination, about SAVE, I've done some experiments of my own and whilst it isn't perfect, I can piece together what's really going on."

"Sans are you afraid of me?"

Sans nodded with his ever-present toothy grin. "Scared shitless kiddo."

"But we've got the surface, everyone escaped, we got a happy ending. I don't need to reset anything anymore!" Almost everyone anyway Frisk thought privately.

Sans reached over and patted Frisk on the shoulder. "That's the spirit kiddo. This is a sweet deal we've got going here, now I for one don't care if you use your little power to pull an awesome prank or cheat on a test or something, but please." He clasped his bony hands out in front of him, as if in prayer. "Please, don't take it all away from us."

"I promise Sans, I promise I won't reset this." Frisk felt guilty saying that, something told them they'd just made a promise they could never keep.

"You still haven't upheld your end of the bargain kiddo." Sans pressed "I've told you stuff serious stuff, your turn spit it out."

Frisk was snapped away from their introspection and back to Sans.

"Oh. Oh, yeah," Frisk mumbled quickly "I have dreams about the battle I had at the end, before the barrier broke." They noticed Sans staring intently.
"That little flower freak, I had a bad feeling about him, I'd probably come to blows with him more than once hadn't I?"

Frisk nodded gravely. "You were the biggest threat to his plans until I came along Sans, he could reset the timeline just like me."

"Can he still do that?"

Frisk shook their head. "No, my powers somehow overrode his, but he could remember my resets fully not just piece them together like you."

"What was he then?"

Frisk wasn't quite sure he knew the full story. "He's not a monster, he's like, a zombie of sorts." Frisk remembered who they was talking to "No offense Sans."

"None taken, go on."

Frisk leaned really close to Sans for the next part. "Never tell mom this, it will absolutely break her heart, you understand."

Sans audibly gulped. "I understand kiddo, loud and clear."

Frisk told him the truth. "He's her other son, or what's left of him."

"That little flower, was Asriel Dreemurr?" Sans whispered "How did you know?"

"After he took all your souls before we fought, I got to see him, you wouldn't remember but he returned to his original form and I understood what had happened to him. He thought I was his adopted brother, the first human to have fallen down." Frisk looked down "But that's another story, for another day."

"And the nightmares, you dream about the fight you had with him?"

"No. I dream about what comes after." Frisk looked Sans right in the eye. "He was scared Sans, so scared, he had spent so long being a soulless tortured little freak. With your soul, with everyone's souls he regained who he was. I managed to talk him down. I saw that, at his core he was just a little kid who'd been the butt of some sick cosmic joke. He started crying, he broke down, he couldn't fight me anymore. I hugged him, told him it would be okay."

Frisk looked down in shame.

"But it wasn't okay, he still doesn't get a happy ending. After he'd calmed down, he told me it would be unfair to keep all the souls to himself, he broke the barrier, then he returned them all, he gave them back to everyone knowing it would doom him."

Tears welled up in Frisk's eyes.

"I asked him what would happen now, he told me he'd go back to being that evil flower in time. And just like that he left, he just didn't want to hurt anyone again."

Sans gave Frisk a pat on the back. "You did good kiddo, real well. At least he made peace with his demons."

Frisk hadn't finished talking, tears were streaming down their face. "I followed him, chased him back to the very place it had all started, that stupid flower bed in the ruins." Frisk wiped their eyes with their sleeve "At first, he was surprised, thought I was trying to keep him company before he disappeared again. But I was trying to save him Sans, I was trying to give him a happy ending too."

Sans nodded. "I think I understand."

"I reset, again and again and again, at first I was just trying to make him happy, get to know him, we played games, talked about things, I even brought him some pie made by mom one time. He cried when he ate it, I'd given him something he'd remember loosing and I felt terrible. I knew then that I had to help him." Frisk took a deep breath, trying to compose themselves. "I began to ask questions, questions about before, his time as a flower and how his powers had worked, I was looking for any clue, any detail that could give him a happy ending. He figured out pretty quickly what I was doing, he didn't have any powers at that point but he knew what I could do, what I had been doing."

"What did he say?"

"He got angry, said I should move the timeline forward, said he wasn't worth holding everyone back for. I'd never seen him angry like that before, just scared. He told me that if I really did care about him, I'd move forward, stop resetting and give everyone a happy ending." Frisk burst out into another sob. "I still have nightmares about him down there now, he begs me to help him and I know I can't, I feel guilty, I feel like I've failed." Frisk trailed off into another bout of sobbing.

Sans pulled Frisk onto the bed and hugged them tightly. "Shusshh, shusssh." He stroked Frisk's head gently with a bony hand. "It's gonna be okay kiddo."

Frisk gripped Sans' ribcage tightly, pulling his oily hoodie around them like a security blanket. "I spent about two weeks with him, by might count anyway, just to be told by him to leave him in the darkness alone eking out a tortured existence." Frisk looked up into Sans' sockets "Do you know how that feels Sans?"

"I can only imagine kiddo…."

"What are you two doing?"

Both of their heads whipped around to the bedroom door to see Toriel standing there, a tub of ice cream under her arm.

"Frisky, why are you crying? Was someone mean to you?"

Frisk shook their head and disentangled themselves from Sans "No mom, Sans just told me a really funny joke, I was laughing so hard I cried, he needed to calm me down for a minute."

She looked down her snout at the two of them, scanning for signs of deceit. "That's the truth is it?"

Both of them nodded their heads quickly.

"All right then, come on, I've got that pie ready and now we have the Ice Cream you made a fuss about."

A little smile crept back onto Frisk's face as they shot a sideways glance at Sans as they got up. "Gee, thanks for the suggestion Sans."

---

Shonen

Chapter Notes

After some consideration I've decided against a proper update schedule. I'm just going to release these chapters when I've edited them.
Anyway a really long chapter with some action from everyone's favorite fish-person.

---

The next few weeks passed without incident. No nightmares, no awakenings in the night. Frisk felt rested for the first time in months. School was still tough, Frisk caught kids glaring at them from the corner of their eye. The relationship between monsters and humans was still strained even after two years of co-habitation, perhaps even a little worse. Toriel had assured Frisk that it would mend in time, that this was a rough patch that would be smoothed over. Like it or not, Frisk had been at the forefront of diplomatic efforts, not so much as an ambassador but as a figurehead for human monster co-operation, being a human adopted by monsters. Toriel had discussed with her ex-husband at length on how they should present Frisk to the public, if at all. Eventually it was agreed that Frisk should try to live as "normal" a life as possible, showing that the child could be a productive and well-adjusted member of both the monster and human communities would demonstrate that both could be in a mutually beneficial relationship. But kids were less understanding than their adult counterparts. Kids were cruel, everyone knew that as might as they didn't like to admit it. Frisk was on the periphery of the school's social structure, the only human willing or even preferring to hang out with monsters. That coupled with their unwilling notability and semi-celebrity status made them a target. It wasn't anything they couldn't handle. They'd had experiences and faced hardships others could only dream of, but it still concerned Toriel.

But today had easily been the worst day yet. Frisk had been hanging out with Kid in the main yard, talking about how Frisk had promised to introduce him properly to Undyne and Papyrus when a pack of four burly human kids had come up to the pair. Frisk had asked them to leave but they ignored them and started taunting Kid about his lack of arms before pushing him around between each other, forcing him back into the ring when he tried to escape. Frisk yelled at them to leave him alone a second time again receiving no response. Something snapped within Frisk and in a fit of rage, they'd lashed out and struck the leader in the back of the head with a stick from the playground. Though they hated to admit it Frisk was a decent fighter and the powers they possessed had allowed Frisk to hone incredible dodging abilities, their time in the underground teaching them how to fight dirty and evade attacks.

Frisk put up a good fight, dodging the clumsy swings of the older boys deftly and striking back with the stick exploiting the extra reach it afforded. Kid tried to gnaw on the arm of one of their assailants and got an elbow to the face for his troubles. In the end however they were outnumbered two to one the rain of blows did not let up. By the time teachers had broken up the scuffle both parties were significantly battered.

Frisk and Kid were soon seated on the bench outside the principal's office. "It doesn't hurt too bad does it?" questioned Kid before Frisk turned their head showing him their black eye and puffy face, causing kid to recoil in shame. "I'm really, really sorry Frisk." Mumbled kid now rocking back and forth on the edge of the seat.

"Don't worry about it. You didn't even do anything."

Kid looked guilty "Now you're in trouble because of me, I'm not a very good friend am I."

Just as frisk was about the respond the door opened and the four boys from before emerged from the principal's office. Their leader, a pimple faced dolt from twelfth grade had a huge red mark from where the stick had hit his neck wrapping around his neck from where the branches had thwacked into him. They didn't say anything as they moved past in the hall but their eyes locked as they left the corridor. Frisk didn't back down. The principal stepped out from the doorway. A tall fellow, thin like a rake with a cloud of wispy white hair coming off his head like a plume of smoke from a fire. "All right, you two come in now." The two slunk quietly into his office and each took a seat.

"Now of course, I'll had to contact your parents. I will give you an opportunity to explain yourselves after I'm done talking with them." He turned to Frisk. "You'd better thank your lucky stars your mother was on excursion with her class today, I know she would have chewed you out for your shenanigans today."

Frisk nodded, that was lucky. They knew full well how angry Toriel could be with them when she was afraid about their safety. Not that she didn't have her reasons, she was just desperate to have a child that survived to adulthood. Frisk shuddered at the thought.

"Now Kid I'll call your parents first." He began before Frisk interrupted him.

"Sir Kid didn't even fight. How could he? He doesn't even have arms, no offense Kid."

Kid shook his head vigorously. "No sir, I started it, I bit one of them!"

The principal put his phone down. "Very odd, normally we get students blaming one another not the other way round. It still stands that I call your parents, school policy."

They sat there in silence as the phone dialled. And dialled. And dialled.

"They are taking quite a while." Mentioned the Principle.

"That's because dad has to try and flick the phone up with his fringe sir."

"Oh. Sorry yes of course."

Eventually Kid's parents picked up the phone. They had a conversation about the events that had transpired before the principal turned the phone over to Kid.

"You can talk to them now, take the phone."

"If you could just hold it there." Replied kid sheepishly.

"Oh. Of course, sorry."

They chatted for about a minute, mainly Kid talking about how he was solely to blame and how he'd gotten Frisk beat up. Frisk felt sorry for him, he was digging a hole for no reason, and his "confessions" wouldn't help Frisk out of the proverbial frying pan even if they were completely true. Toriel truly was a paranoid parent.

When they had finished the principal turned to Frisk. "Right then Frisk, I only have your home phone number I'm afraid. Is there someone at home I can call?"

Frisk nodded, Sans was home today "Her boyfriend Sans."

"Okay then, and you'd feel comfortable with him knowing this?"

Frisk nodded again "Yes sir."

"Okay then." He dialed the number.

Sans obviously took a long time to meander over to the phone, it sat there dialing for quite some time.

"Does Sans not have arms either?" Inquired the Principal.

"No, he just takes his time with things."

Eventually he picked up and he and the Principal talked. Frisk wasn't sure what Sans was saying but from the Principals responses he didn't seem too mad.

"Well school assigned punishment is mandatory I'm afraid, but we'll be lenient with Frisk, from what I've seen and heard this is a one off thing." His face contorted. "I don't see where bones come into it. Why are you laughing?"

Frisk and Kid giggled catching them a look from the Principal. "Anyway I'll hand you over." He passed the phone to Frisk.

"Heya Kiddo! Had a bit of a bust up have we?" came Sans low tone through the phone. "Don't worry I'm not mad at you, sounds like he deserved it."

"Hi Sans. Yeah I have, I'm really sorry." Frisk responded sheepishly. A pause. "Moms going to kill me when she finds out."

"She isn't with you right now?"

"Excursion with her class."

Sans was fortunately a fast thinker. "Okay Kiddo, here's what we are gonna do." Frisk could hear him rummaging around trash piles on the other end of the line.

"I'll get someone else to pick you up today and you can stay the night at their house while I explain the situation to your mother, don't worry I'll get her to understand. By the time you come home tomorrow I promise she'll have calmed down."

Frisk's face lit up. "Thanks Sans, you're the best!"

"Least I can do kiddo. Don't go getting into any more fights okay?"

"I won't Sans."

"Heh. Of course you won't. See you tomorrow then kiddo."

And with that he hung up.

Frisk waited by the carpool looking for Papyrus and Mettaton's car. It was a nice cherry red without a roof and Papyrus often heralded his arrival with several obnoxiously loud toots of the horn. In a lot of ways it was just like Papyrus, loud, flashy, cool and completely inefficient. Mettaton said he'd picked it out just for him. Frisk hadn't seen Papyrus since the spaghetti incident, and he hoped he had forgiven them by now.

Frisk's heart sank when they saw Undyne's car careen round the corner tires screeching. It too reflected her personality, hot pink with decals of obscure anime characters plastered along the bonnet and doors. The car screeched as it pulled up to the curb. Frisk caught a good look at the driver. Undyne was wearing her black tank top and her regular eyepatch. Frisk was glad at least, that she hadn't thought to wear her floral pattern one that she broke out from time to time.

Everyone had turned to look at the fish woman driving the eyesore of vehicle. Frisk prayed to anybody who was listening that she didn't call them by name, and that they could just get in without making too much of a fuss.

She hit the horn three times before loudly yelling "HI FRISK I'M HERE TO PICK YOU UP!"

Someone out there had it in for Frisk. The whole street was watching them approach the car and stick their bags in the back of the affectionately named "Otakumobile". Frisk opened the door slowly before hopping into the back seat, fumbling with their seatbelt.

"Come ON Frisk show some PASSION, rip that door of its HINGES, and lock in the seatbelt with POWER."

"Nice to see you too Undyne."

She turned to face Frisk. "Sans didn't explain why he needed me to…" she stopped when she saw the bruises and the black eye, her face contorted into one of absolute rage. "Who did that Frisk?" She said quietly. "Who did that to you?"

Frisk shook their head "I don't want a scene Undyne, please, please can we go back to your house." Frisk begged of her.

She looked a tad disappointed before giving Frisk another glimpse at her razor sharp teeth. "We'll do it the way you want it done, quick or slow, out cold or dead you're the boss."

Frisk looked horrified. They hoped Undyne wasn't being serious. "Undyne I want to go back to your place now."

Undyne shook her head in disgust. "Fine then, I don't want to get blood on my clothes anyway."

The car squealed away from the pickup area and tore down the street going several times the speed limit.

"Undyne," Frisk said holding onto the seat "It's a school zone, we shouldn't be going this fast!"

"You have to show some PASSION when you drive Frisk!" she screamed over her shoulder not even looking at the road.

The ride home was intense, like everything was with Undyne, the soundtrack of Mew Mew Kissy Cutie blared through the blown out car speakers at maximum volume as they raced back to Alphys' flat. The car ride did serve the important purpose of confirming Frisk's suspicions that Undyne had the super power to break every road rule under the sun, making Frisk wonder how they got back in one piece at all.

Her and Alphys' apartment was right on the beach, a very modern and stylish building that overlooked the water. The building was pretty plain and grey, with nice metal paneling for decoration running up the sides of the structure. Frisk could pick out Undyne's door from a mile away with the official Mew Mew Kissy Cutie welcome mat greeting them as they stepped through the threshold. Inside was bookshelf after bookshelf stacked high with their favorite Manga, full sized pin ups of scantily clad Anime girls. Alphys' desk had a mountain of notes and writings along with a huge bank of monitors and stacks of empty instant noodle cups. At the very back of the living room sat the special cabinet that Undyne used to store her sword collection and the bones that Papyrus had given to them as gifts.

"ALPHIEE" Undyne screamed as they entered "WE'RE BACK!"

The lizard shuffled into the living room sheepishly, wearing some pink pyjamas. Alphy's confidence had improved greatly over the past two years, but she still possessed a very nervous and desperate disposition.

"Oh-oh-oh" she mumbled "Hi Frisk." and then with more confidence and a little smile. "Hi Undyne!"

"Did you get everything ready for our little slumber party dearie?" Teased Undyne before she turned to Frisk "Us three are going to have so much fun, Alphys has pulled out some vintage anime for us to watch!"

Frisk wasn't really feel up to it with a battered face and all. They manufactured an excuse. "That's great guys but I need to do my homework…. So if you wouldn't mind I'll just…"

Undyne interrupted Frisk. "HOMEWORK SUCKS!" She cried loudly before pointing a long finger over to Alphys "APLHYS!" she yelled accusingly.

"Y-yes Undyne."

"Don't you have a MACHINE that can do Frisk's homework? Then we can watch the anime uninterrupted!"

"Ah-ah no, I don't have a machine that can do-do that." She gulped audibly.

"Then THAT is your MISSION for tonight, build a homework machine AND MAKE IT AWESOME AT HOMEWORK!" Undyne was really getting into this. Even with the knowledge that Anime was, in fact, fiction, did not deter Undyne from living like she was in one. Frisk had to intervene, Undyne's posing was making Alphys really nervous. And sweaty.

"Uhhh, it is quite alright Undyne, having a robot do it would defeat the purpose of the homework. You know to educate me and such?" They said quietly. Undyne looked a little disappointed, Frisk racked their brains for something that would placate her. "What," they began "do you not think I'm UP TO THE CHALLENGE!" making sure to yell the last bit. That aroused a reaction from her.

"Quite right Frisk! I hadn't thought about it like that! Don't worry, me and Alphys, our HEARTS ARE BEATING WITH YOURS!"

"Thanks Undyne… that means a lot."

Alphys stuck a hand up. "I'll, uh-uh show you to your room Frisk."

She led Frisk down the hall and into their spare bedroom. "Sorry for the mess, I use this room to store my uhhh…" she whispered the last part "Body pillows."

She hadn't been kidding, there were stacks of the things lying on the floor.

"Does… does Undyne know about all of these?"

Alphys looked sheepishly at Frisk. "She's made me cut down on the number I'm allowed to bring into bed at night. A lot of them make her a little jealous."

Frisk looked down at them all, most of them were busty women in schoolgirl outfits and the occasional bishonen guy. Alphys swung both ways apparently.

"I see…"

In the middle of the room lay Alphys' famed easy to draw "Cube Bed" which could fold out a moment's notice. Alphys had told Frisk it was the result of a late night at work and a low tolerance for alcohol. Frisk found a clearing to put their schoolbag into before touching the release mechanism of the bed. As it unfolded a multitude of body pillows spilled out from it onto the floor.

"Does Undyne know about all of these?"

Alphys clamped a finger to her mouth "Shsusshh" she rasped "no, no she doesn't!"

Frisk was a little disappointed in their friend. "Alphys, you know what happens when we keep lying."

She held her head in her hands. "I know, I know, it gets worse and worse every day and eventually I'll slip up and they'll find out anyway." She looked up at Frisk again, her glasses fogging. "Oh Frisk, you're such a good kid, why can't I be like you."

Frisk knelt down to Alphys' level "Alphys, being honest pays off in the long run, a little short term pain is well worth it."

Alphys sniffled. "But this is harmless right? We can just hide them away."

"Alphys this is bordering on obsession, besides, you can't keep lying forever, can't keep hiding these things from the people you love." Frisk gave her a playful punch in the arm "Come on, I'll help you break it to her." Alphys tried weakly to drag them back into the bedroom "N-no, she'll be mad, it will take time away from homework a-a-and…."

The three of them had been sorting through the pillows for a better part of an hour. Undyne had mandated that Alphys could keep ten of her choosing and that the rest would be thrown out. Alphys had painstakingly written down the pros and cons of each pillow and was currently in the process of ranking them in order from most to least desirable.

Frisk and Undyne sat and watched her from the corner of the room. "If only she showed such PASSION about me!" Wailed Undyne. "Look at that, how much she cares! How determined she is, such DETERMINATION."

Undyne's words made something click in Frisk's head. Alphys. Determination.

A phrase Frisk had heard mentioned before. Mentioned in the logs in the true labs, mentioned by Asriel…

That machine, the DT extractor. The experiments. Alphys must know something! This could be it, Frisk's big lead! Frisk pushed that thought down. Forget about him Frisk! This isn't what he would have wanted. But Frisk was being selfish, they wanted a happy ending, and they'd be dammed if they couldn't get one.

Frisk said something stupid.

---

Determination

Chapter Notes

Another quite long chapter. Hope you all enjoy, please comment if you did I'd like to see some criticism and feedback if at all possible.

---

"Hey Alphys!"

Alphys looked up from her hastily scribbled notes "Uh…. yeah Frisk?"

"You did some experiments with something called determination right." The second it rolled out of Frisk's mouth they wanted to bash their head against the wall. What were they thinking to bring something so horrible up? Especially when Alphys was already under a great deal of pressure.

Alphys dropped the paper and pencil on the ground, her breath got fast and she began to shake. "w-w-w…" she could barely even stammer.

Undyne rounded on him. "Frisk…." She didn't sound angry, just confused. "Why would you bring that up?"

Frisk began to sweat "I'm sorry guys, I don't know what I was thinking…. I'm really…"
Undyne grabbed Frisk by their sweater forcefully "DAMM RIGHT YOUR SORRY!" anger returning to her voice. "ALPHIE STLL HAS NIGHTMARES ABOUT THAT!"

"I'm sorry Undyne, I didn't know what the significance of it all was, I'd heard it mentioned before… I'm really sorry!"

"STOP!"

Undyne and Frisk turned their heads to see Alphys shaking amidst the paper and pillows. "I-I-I'd like to t-talk about it, if-f, if that's okay?"

Undyne dropped her grasp on Frisk's sweater. Her voice was as soft as it would go. "Alphys we don't need to talk about this now, we can talk about it when you're ready…"

Alphys shook her head resolutely. "I'm as ready as I'll ever be, I can't keep putting things off, especially something as big as this."

Undyne and Frisk looked at one another. "Okay then Alphie, we're listening to what you have to say."

Alphys took a deep breath. "I suppose I should give you a run-down on the concepts before getting into the heavier stuff." She was panting and stammering as she talked. "As I'm sure you know, king As-as-asgore had ordered an investigation into the nature of determination, the force innate to the human s-s-soul." She began to fidget with her hands nervously. Another deep breath. "Determination is the force of the soul, the ability for it to affect the world beyond physical means. All m-m-magic and much of our technology is derived from it…" she trailed off swallowing a bit before starting up again "I-I-I realized that it wasn't just h-h-humans that possessed this ability, monsters had access to it as well, but in smaller amounts."

Frisk piped up. "You said that magic comes from determination, then how come I've never seen a human use magic before." Frisk didn't dare tell about what they could do.

Alphys nodded. "It would appear that monsters are more in touch with their souls, seeing as our physical bodies are merely an extension of them. What little determination we have, we use it a lot more," She thought of the right word "efficiently."

"So humans should be able to cast even more powerful magic if they could tap into their determination?" Undyne queried.

"Correct," said Alphys "the barrier was an intensely powerful enchantment by human magicians for example. A monster could never hope to do something like that, even if we were all pooling our willpower together. But as a trade-off, human determination is more innate, more instinctive, rare is the human that could access it by conscious will, but if they ever could." She huffed nervously "W-well I guess the barrier would be the least of our problems huh…"

Frisk felt ill. Her suspicions were completely correct, they could reset the timeline consciously.

"The idea w-w-was," Alphys continued "to extract human determination from the souls already in our possession and give that power to m-m-monsters, perhaps we'd create a p-p-powerful being one with both the raw power of a human and the conscious ability to use it." She looked down at the ground. "B-b-but you two know exactly how that turned out…."

"Alphie, you were under orders…" Undyne whispered "you couldn't have known what would happen."

"Neither of us blame you for what you did." Added Frisk. Undyne nodded.

Alphys began to get a bit wet around the eyes "I know, I know, n-not a day goes by where I'm not reminded by how lucky I am to have f-f-friends that love me…" the tears rolled out fat and wet "but I-I-I can't forget hiding under the t-t-table in the lab in ball, waiting for the p-p-phones to stop ringing, the letters to stop coming. I-I-I just wanted it all to STOP!"

Undyne reached out to touch her but her hand was smacked away.

"NO! I'm fine Undyne, just sit there and listen. I want this off my chest, to people I trust."

Undyne quietly crawled back into the corner of the room.

"I still have all the research here if you want to have a quick f-flick through it, but I uhhh… I don't think you'll get much out of it."

"Alphys, do you have a way of rating a person's determination?" Asked Frisk quietly.

Alphys' face lit up. "I d-do actually, it was one of the first things I did when I began the research on it all. I can show you if you want."

Frisk nodded "Only if you're comfortable with it Alphys, I don't want to force up bad memories."

Alphys shook her head. "No, no, I want to show you, I have to face my fears." She got up and shuffled off to their room.

Undyne leant over and whispered in Frisk's ear. "I'm sorry for grabbing you like that. You know I'd never really hurt you right? Not since we became friends at least."

Frisk giggled nervously. "Right Undyne."

"I just really like Alphys okay, she means a lot to me and I want her to be happy."

"I can see that Undyne, maybe this wasn't the best idea."

She flashed him a toothy smile. "No, this is for the best, I can feel it in my heart. Maybe we can help Alphie get over her personal demons." She hugged her knees and balled up. "But if at any point she says she's had enough of the questions we stop asking and forget we ever even had this conversation, geddit?"

"Got it."

As if on cue, Alphys returned to the living room with what looked like a little television remote in hand. She mooched over and sat down next to Undyne and Frisk shoving it in their faces. She had the tiniest of grins on her face, like she was eager to show off her handiwork. "This is my determination rating thingy." She smiles sheepishly "I never gave it a proper name or anything."

"How does it work?" Asked Frisk.

"Well I just point this end at someone and push the little button here on the side and it gives you a number from one to ten. Here I'll show you guys." With that, she pointed the device at herself and pressed down on the trigger. A little bleeping sound pealed out and numbers on the screen began to flux up and down before settling on a score.

"What did you get?" Undyne said, craning her neck over the screen.

"One point nine," Alphys gave a little smile "pretty pathetic even for a monster."

"Why what do most monsters get?" Questioned Frisk.

Alphys squinted her eyes. "All the monsters I tested were around two to three on the scale, the only expectation was Asgore, and he was a four point five which is getting into the low human ranges."

"Have you used on any humans Alphie." Whispered Undyne.

She looked ashamed "Not on any live ones, but we did have the human souls, I tested it out on them. From memory they were around five to seven at the very strongest, I don't know whether that's average or not, far too small a sample size."

The moment Frisk had been waiting for had arrived. "What am I then?"

Alphys shrugged. "I'd say you're a pretty determined person frisk, I'd give you a seven. Let's see if I'm right shall we."

Frisk held their breath as Alphys pointed the device at them. It made a little bleeping noise and then…

Alphys' eyes went as wide as dinner plates. "Holy shit." She didn't usually swear, Frisk cringed, the cat was well and truly out of the bag now "Holy SHIT!"

"Alphie what is it." Whispered Undyne.

"Ni-ni-nine point e-eight."

They sat in silence, but not for the buzzing of insects and the faint rushing of cars. Frisk could feel three eyes drilling right into them.

"I guess I have some explaining to do then."

"What do you mean Frisk?" Said Undyne with surprising quietness.

Alphys was still just staring at Frisk, her eyes wide and scared. Frisk decided to tell them the unabridged truth.

"It is very important what I'm about to tell you doesn't go beyond us three, us three and Sans."

"Sans?" Alphys managed. "What does have Sans have to do with any of this."

"Sans knows about determination," Frisk suddenly realized they didn't know much about his role in it themselves "somehow, I'm not quite sure, I didn't ask him. The point is he knows all about what I'm going to tell you two."

Frisk took a deep breath.

"I've died already, died more than once. When it happens, I wake up some time beforehand, sometimes a few minutes, sometimes a few hours. The point is I can't be killed, otherwise I'd have been long dead."

It was out now. Frisk wasn't sure how the two of them would respond. At least Sans knew what they were talking about, but this would be news to the two of them.

Undyne's first question touched their heart. "Did… did I kill you Frisk?"

Frisk answered honestly. "Yes, more than once even."

Her face recoiled in horror. "Do…do you forgive me?"

Frisk smiled. "Of course I forgive you Undyne. You're my friend."

"Forgive me for killing you?"

Frisk shrugged. "Your intentions were noble, I could respect that. I saw you cared deeply about monsters, I could respect that too. I didn't want to fight you." Frisk chuckled. "Part of the reason you got me so many times."

"I hope it didn't hurt too much… oh my god I'm so sorry Frisk."

"Undyne," They punched her shoulder "I promise it didn't hurt too much."

Alphys had finally garnered the courage to speak. "I-I-I swear I've s-seen an-anime like that once…" her face contorted with thought, she tried for a more serious question. "D-do you, feel any d-different?" Her stammering had returned betraying her anxiousness.

"Not particularly." Frisk admitted. "I didn't even know until the first time."

"Is it j-j-just when you d-die?" Whispered Alphys.

"It was originally, I didn't have much control over it at first. But after a few deaths I figured out I could go back without having to kick the bucket. By focusing on something, a memory that made me determined, I could recall myself to that point. It isn't perfect, it isn't always accurate but I could do it if I really wanted to."

Both of them looked at one another and then back at Frisk.

Undyne narrowed her eye at them. "This is the honest truth Frisk, you aren't pulling a fast one on us are you?"

Frisk crossed their heart. "I swear it's the truth."

Alphys spoke next. "A-a-and you think this is linked to d-d-determination, this power you have."

"It has to be, Sans told me and he know more than anybody else." Frisk thought of Flowey, they thought of Asriel. "Some other people told me as well."

"And what other people would they be?" Undyne probed.

Frisk had gone this far. They may as well tell them the whole story.

"What I'm going to tell you really mustn't go beyond you two and Sans, this information would absolutely break my mother's heart and if you don't think you're up to the task of keeping a secret of this magnitude then please say so before we go any further."

They both looked at Frisk confused. "F-f-frisk, you just told us you could t-turn back time, h-h-how much b-bigger can a see-secret get? Can't y-you trust us?" Stammered out Alphys.

"I assure you, this one is bigger…" Then Frisk remembered Alphys' hand in the creation of Flowey. "On second thought, never mind Alphys, you wouldn't want to know."

"Is-Is it s-something else I've d-done?"

Frisk winced. "Alphys, it's best if you didn't know."

Alphys did something very odd. She yelled at them, not that loudly, but louder than her normal shy register. "Frisk, you're always telling me to tell the truth! Don't be a hypocrite, spit it out!" She was shaking, she put her hands to her mouth. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to shout, I-I just h-have to know w-what I-I've done…"

"Alphys, with how nervous you got when I mentioned the Amalgamates I really don't think I should."

She clasped her hands out in front, as if begging him for something. "P-please F-frisk, if-If you don't t-tell me it will e-e-e-eat me up inside…."

Frisk didn't like this. Not one bit. They relented. "You remember that little yellow flower?"
Her eyes widened. "The one that I injected determination into, the one that disappeared?"

Frisk nodded. "Yeah, that flower."

Undyne butted in. "He attacked us just before the Barrier broke, but you beat him Frisk, you showed that little punk didn't you?"

Frisk shook their head. "Alphys, you couldn't have known, but that flower, that flower you injected determination into, it had the ashes of prince Asriel on it, his will, his consciousness returned but his soul was long gone. He wasn't a monster, he was something else entirely. He could reset the timeline just like me, he used it to kill you all, over and over and over again and you didn't even realize."

Frisk knew he said too much. Alphys was crying out at stream of tears.

"I-I-I'm s-s-so s-sorry." She was rocking back and forth in a foetal position.

Undyne looked over at Frisk and shook her head. "No more Frisk, even if she asks for it, enough of the revelations now, she's had enough."

For once, Frisk agreed with her. "You're right Undyne. Let's stop now Alphys, you're only going to get more upset."

Alphys crawled over to Frisk before throwing her arms around their bony neck and crying deep into their sweater. "Frisk, Frisk please forgive me, I'm worthless, I'm trash, I've stuffed it up for everyone, all that pain I caused, and everything I did!"

Frisk hugged her back, she gave a little gasp of surprise. "I don't blame you for anything Alphys, maybe some bad stuff happened, but you hardly could have known, it wasn't like you were trying to hurt anyone, you were trying to help and things just got out of hand, in ways even your big brilliant mind could never predict in a million years. Now let's forget all these conversations for now."

Undyne came over to the pair and put her arms around the two of them. "Alphys, none of that matters now, we're all here, we're all safe and happy," She kissed her on the head and flashed her a razor toothed smile "come on, let's watch Mew Mew Kissy Cutie: Collectors Redux edition."

Alphys sniffled. "R-r-really," she turned to Undyne "b-b-but you hate how they changed the story arc to be closer to the Manga."

Frisk waved their arms franticly in protest behind the pair, Undyne shot them a death stare that made them stop.

"I'm warming up to it Alphie." She lied "Why don't you go and get it?"

Alphys took of her glasses and wiped her eyes with her pyjama sleave, a little smile creeping back into her face. "Okay…" she trundled off back to their bedroom.

It was just Frisk and Undyne amidst the body pillows and stacks of paper.

"I'm really sorry Undyne, I didn't know it would go that far." Frisk frowned. "You're handling all of this remarkably well for someone who's just been told they've been tortured in a time loop at the hands of a misanthropic flower."

Her response was quite. "I can't remember any of it. That and I'm more disturbed that I've killed my friend more than once, I'm… I'm glad I can't remember that either."

"Probably for the best."

"Probably."

Undyne waited a moment before speaking again. "Frisk, please don't ever bring this up again, even if she asks to know more, I don't blame you for what you said, if that's the truth then that's the truth and I can respect that. But sometimes, the truth can really hurt."

"I understand."

"Good, she means the world to me. I want to help put that past behind her, whatever it is she's done I think she deserves a second chance, I think we all do, you helped me realize that Frisk."

That last part made Frisk feel queasy. A second chance. And the person who deserved one the most, was the one who was never going to get it.

---

Leftovers

Chapter Notes

I'll try to continue to get these out quickly.
We're moving into the meat of the plot, things start to get a little darker from here on in. I will eventually explain the meaning of the nightmares and get into my (head-cannoned) determination mechanics. Hope you have enjoyed the fluffy build.

---

Toriel gave Frisk less of a chewing out than they'd expected, Sans' efforts to soften the blow to her must have worked. In the end she was more scared than upset. When Frisk explained they were protecting Kid she warmed up a bit. "Just don't go starting any fights Frisk, you understand." Frisk nodded at that but before they could speak Sans injected himself into the conversation. "Stop kid-ding yourself over it Tori, Frisk didn't start anything, they're armless." They laughed at that one, the masterfully weaved multi-layered pun did a lot to defuse the situation. Frisk was glad they had Sans around, he always knew what to do or say.

That was until today.

Two weeks had gone past since Frisk's heart to heart with Undyne and Alphys. Frisk was afraid that they'd freaked the two of them out something fierce, neither had called or even texted Frisk since. Frisk had decided they'd let them make the first move, give them some breathing space to take it all in. Frisk felt like they regretted admitting it too those two at all, but one thing had led to another, and on the positive side of things they'd gained some useful insight into what was really going on. Resetting was always an option, even if Frisk didn't like it. They had played with the idea a bit, but had decided against it, waiting to see how things panned out.

And now Frisk waited by the pickup line anxiously, watching for a vehicle they knew. Sans' little scooter rounded the corner of the street and pulled up next to them on the curb. Sans didn't bother wearing a helmet, he didn't really need one seeing as he possessed no brain. He insisted that Frisk wear one however, handing it to them as they approached. Something was wrong, Sans looked tired. "Heya kiddo." He mumbled without much fanfare.

Frisk took the helmet off of him. "Hi Sans," they put it on "you don't look so good."

"Can we go somewhere for a bite?"

Frisk was a bit taken aback. "You don't need to ask me Sans."

They rode in silence, Frisk holding on to Sans' oily hoodie. It didn't take long for Frisk to realize where they were headed. They were moving towards Mettaton's house, but Sans didn't seem in the mood to chat with his brother, let alone his boyfriend. The only other thing in that direction was the new MTT resort. It was a rather short drive, about twenty minutes. He parked in Mettaton's reserved spot.

"Can we do that Sans?"

Sans shrugged. A valet stepped over to them a tall, bored looking human with a mop of straw coloured hair. "Uhh, excuse me sir. That spot is reserved for Mr Blook, the resort proprietor."

"Yeah."

"Well you can't park there sir."

"Tell your boss," Sans began "that Sans is using his spot, I'm sure he'll understand."

"Sir just move to another spot, there are plenty of unoccupied spaces around.."

Sans had already began to walk away, grabbing Frisk by the arm. "Common kiddo."

"Sir. SIR! SIR we'll have this towed!"

They moved inside and headed to the diner. Sans had put in the good word for Grillby's employment as the barman of the MTT diner, which had virtually guaranteed his employment. The flaming monster stood behind the counter, spectacles rimmed by his magical flames. "Heya Grillby, long time no see huh?"

Grillby nodded wordlessly. He wasn't one for conversation.

Sans produced a wad of cash from a grimy pocket. "I'll have a bottle ketchup and some fries." He turned to Frisk. "What do you want kiddo?"

"A cola."

Sans returned his gaze to Grillby "And one cola thanks Grillby."

Grillby turned his back to them grabbing the ketchup and the cola silently, only the crackling of his flames punctuating the otherwise quite diner.

They sat down in one of the booths, one which looked out onto Sans' scooter. Sans peered out between the shutter blinds to get a better view.

"Sans why didn't you just take another spot?" Asked Frisk eventually "They're going to get us towed."

"Two reasons Frisk," he let go of the blind and turned back to Frisk "Firstly I want to see what a scooter tow truck looks like and two" he gave a playful wink "I want to see what I can get away with Mettaton."

"Sans that's mean."

"Maybe kiddo, maybe. But he knew what he was getting into when he began seeing my brother."

Frisk gave him a sour look. "You're being too hard on him sans Mettaton's a really nice guy once you get past the ego. He has the absolute pick of boyfriends and yet he choose your brother."

"That's what worries me Frisk."

"I wouldn't be so rattled!" Frisk shot him a smile, causing Sans to burst out into his hyena laughter.

"Hehehehe. You're getting good at these kiddo." He ruffled Frisk's hair "You're a good kid Frisk." He looked distant for a second, his eyelights seemed to focus on something far away, he wasn't even looking at Frisk.

"Sans what's wrong."

His voiced snapped Sans out of his introversion. He turned to look at his friend looking very shaken about something. "I had a bad dream kid, real bad."

"Was I in it?"

"I dreamt that I heard you and your mom talking on the other side of the door in Ruins. I heard you arguing, screaming at her and then I heard her cry, the cry of a wounded animal, someone who had been hurt bad you know." He looked down, averting his eyes. "Then the door opened and you came out, covered in dust, her dust. I backed away I tried to run, I tried to dodge but I'd lost the will to do anything, I couldn't move. You got me kiddo and as I was fading all I could hear was her scream over and over in my head."

"Sans I'm sorry…"

"Why are you apologizing kiddo." He wheezed "It's my sick head you should be worried about, not yours."

"Did you knock anything over?"

Sans was shivering, suddenly a single tear fell from his eyesocket. Frisk still wasn't quite sure how that worked, but it didn't really matter, his friend was in pain. "Frisk I knocked your mom over, I pinned her against a wall."

"Sans, oh my god…"

He held his skull in his hands. "She called my name, told me she was there and that she wanted to help. I realized where I was, what I was doing, I dropped her immediately and started crying like I'd never done before."

Frisk tried to console him. "She looked fine when I saw her this morning Sans I wouldn't have even know unless you told me."

Sans shook his head in between ragged breaths. "That's not the point, maybe not this time but what about the next." He looked up at Frisk and shot them a fearful gaze. "What about you? Doesn't it disturb you that I dream about killing you, about killing my girlfriend's kid?"

"Sounds to me like I'm the only one doing the killing Sans."

"The point still stands, I'm scared of you Frisk, I have all these memories I shouldn't have." He reached out a bony hand and grasped Frisk's "Frisk you never killed anyone on any of your resets did you?"

Frisk shook their head. "No, I never killed anyone."

Sans retracted his hand and reclined back on the booth's chair. "Guess I'm just being paranoid huh?" He made eyes with Frisk. "You don't want me and your mom to be together do you?"

Frisk opened their mouth in shock. "Sans where did you get that idea?"

Sans closed his eyes and sighed. "It's as obvious as anything Kiddo, you don't like me, you don't like what I know…" He looked down again.

Frisk got up and moved around the table, placing themselves down next to Sans. They wrapped their arms around him and gave him a huge hug, burying their face into his ribcage. "Sans you mean a lot to her, you mean a lot to me." Frisk looked up into Sans shocked face. "I really think you're neat Sans. And if that means me and mom have to put up with crazy nightmares and bad puns then I'm more than willing to pay that price, because I love you Sans. You're a really cool guy."

Frisk put their head back into Sans' ribcage before feeling little droplets of moisture hit the back of their head.

"Th-thanks kiddo, I never knew you felt like that."

Grillby came over with Sans' plate of fries. He saw the two of them in an embrace. He finally said something his voice crackling like an open fire. "Oh, I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

Frisk turned to face Grillby. "Not at all, you're right in time actually, Sans could really use a pick me up."

Grillby put down the fries and wandered off, leaving Frisk and Sans alone again. Frisk pulled out the hug and began to eat the fries. "You'd better get stuck in," they said in-between mouthfuls "you'll be nothing but skin and bones if you let me eat them all."

Sans looked a bit confused, "I don't have skin…" he got the joke "hehehehehe, nice one kiddo!"

They ate for a minute. "Sans could you do me a favour?"

"Sure kid, I'll do anything for you."

They left the diner just in time to see Mettaton yelling furiously at a tow truck driver still in the cab of his vehicle. The Valet boy was standing to the side looking rather left out.

"What do you mean you don't know how to tow it? How hard can it be, you could pick it up with your bare hands!"

The man driving the truck shrugged and apologized. "Sorry mister, your friend here made it sound like I'd be towing something bigger, I don't think I've got the right rig for the job."

Mettaton extended his arms out and waved them in the air as he was prone to do when angry. "Why would he even do this, do you see how many spots there are around?"

"There!" The Valet from before piped up. "There he is, the man who owns the scooter!"

Mettaton followed the boy's finger to Sans and Frisk. His face morphed into one of abject horror.

"Hi Mettaton." Giggled Sans.

"Sans! Thank goodness you're here, I was just cleaning up this terrible misunderstanding!" He desperately explained.

"Oh?"

"Yes, my Valet here was unaware of our agreement, that you could use my parking spot of course! He took the liberty of calling a tow truck and I got here just in time to stop your scooter from being towed!"

"Oh?"

Mettaton could see he wasn't buying it. He turned to the truck driver. "Your services are no longer needed, you can leave."

The truck driver was unimpressed. "There is the matter of my callout fee."

Mettaton shoved a large note through the cab window. "Keep the change darling." The driver seemed satisfied and pulled away. He turned to his valet, the wrath visibly moulding his face. "Darling I should have you FIRED, you didn't think to describe our patron here and then you had the gall to hire a tow truck without my permission!"

The boy was quivering. "Sir you were the one who demanded we call the tow company!"

"Alright Mettaton he's had enough." Said Frisk. Mettaton looked at his "nephew" and then back to the Valet. He straightened up and patted the Valet on the shoulder, causing him to flinch.

"I apologize darling, I was out of line." He pointed to the Frisk and Sans. "If you see either of them, let them park anywhere they want okay?" He produced another large bill and handed it to the Valet. "For your troubles."

The valet's eyes widened. "Thank you Mr Blook Sir!"

"All right, now back to your work darling." He pushed the Valet away and walked towards Sans and Frisk.

"Sorry for that debacle, Sans." He apologized. "It won't happen again."

"It's okay Mettaton, I really shouldn't have done it in the first place." Sans said reluctantly.

Mettaton was taken aback. "It really was no problem… I promise I'll tell all the staff to give you a discount as recompense, you can use my spot any time!"

"Mettaton." Sans with some difficulty. "I had a bad day, I was being a jerk, I had no right to take it out on you just because I know you'd bend over backwards for me. I apologize, I was the one in the wrong here."

"Sans I…"

"You're a good guy Mettaton, your just right for my brother." He smiled a big false smile and patted him on the back. "We'll be off then, come on Frisk."

They hopped on the scooter and took off. Frisk waved back at Mettaton. "Bye uncle Mettaton!"

Mettaton could barely raise a hand in reply, standing there like a dear in the headlights of a truck "….bye…..Frisk."

Frisk leaned into Sans as they clung on. "See that wasn't so hard now was it?"

"Kiddo you have no idea…."

Sans stepped through the door first "Tori, sorry we're back so late, we made a little detour on the way home…. Oh." Frisk brushed past to see what had surprised him. When they saw Undyne and their mother sitting together in the living room they felt sick in the gut. Why was she here?

"Hi you two," began Toriel "Undyne dropped in saying she was looking for you, didn't say why."

Sans gave a little wave. "Oh, hi Undyne."

"Hi Sans, long time no see." She took a sip of tea, yellow flower by the smell. "We three really need to have a chat.

---

Revalations

Chapter Notes

Some pretty big headcannon as to how resets and determination work in this chapter.
I feel justified in making Undyne a 9.6 as in game she is the only other monster to demonstrate the usage of determination (except for the amalgamates and possibly sans). In any case a monster with such high determination is not without it's downsides (as we will later see). Hope your enjoying it so far, stuff gets progressively darker from here on in but I try to keep the general themes no worse than the ones exhibited in the game proper. As for updates, I'll be putting out a chapter once every day if at all possible. Please comment me for suggestions or criticism.
Enjoy!

---

Sans had thought up of an excuse to get Toriel to leave the house as per Frisk and Undyne's request, claiming that Undyne was desperate to have some of her famed butterscotch pie with snail ice cream. She could hardly refuse a request like that and set out to get the necessary ingredients. "She'll be gone a while, I'm sure of it." He said returning to the room. "Only the Blook family sells that stuff and their house is miles away." He sat down on the bed. "So Undyne, what did you have on your mind and why did we have to kick my girlfriend out of the house to hear it?"

She ignored him, speaking straight to Frisk. "You know that determination scanner Alphys showed us?"

Sans interrupted her. "Whoa, whoa, whoa Frisk she knows about this? Frisk what did you tell her?"

Frisk answered honestly. "Most of it, what I can do and how I do it."

Sans looked furious. "Why?"

"I brought up determination, Alphys did some lab experiments on it, one thing led to another." Frisk narrowed their eyes even further than they were already. "How'd you know so much yourself?"

Undyne coughed loudly. "AS I was SAYING!" She grew a huge shark tooth grin. "Out of curiosity, I tested myself with the determination machine. I'm Nine point six on the scale."

Frisk dropped their jaw. Sans looked confused. "Is that high?" he said.

Undyne nodded proudly "Yeah, second only to Frisk and they're human, Alphie said she'd never seen anything like this before, I feel so special."

"How?" Frisk said quickly "How could it be that high, didn't Alphys tell us that monsters were at most a high four on the scale?"

Undyne flexed her muscles and grinned. "Guess anything is possible with my PASSION!" She grinned at the two of them. "Alphie and I spent a whole two weeks doing tests and re-tests, building different machines to see just how much determination I had!"

That's where they had been. Frisk felt a little better.

"Have you tried, you know, anything?" Frisk asked.

Undyne shook her head. "Alphie said that experiments were off the table, just tests, she didn't want anything bad to happen to me. Especially with what happened," she held her arm "last time."

"She feeling okay about all of this?" said Frisk.

Undyne shot him a massive grin. "Of course she is you punk, science is totally her thing, and she's so PASSIONATE about it gets me all tingly."

"That's great and all Undyne, but I don't see where we come into this." Sans said finally.

"Well that's just it. Alphie wants you to teach me Frisk, she wants to see what I can do with my powers and seeing as you're the expert on using determination amongst us, you're our first port of call!"

Frisk didn't know quite how to feel. "I'm flattered really, but I don't know Undyne. Determination is really dangerous, I don't know how your body might handle it, what if we make a mistake we can't fix from screwing with the timeline."

"I know the risks Frisk! I'm up to the challenge."

Frisk shook their head. "Undyne, it's great that you have this power, but you have no idea how dangerous this could be, I have years of experience using it and I still have no idea what I'm doing. As I said, I have no idea how it would work for a monster."

Undyne pouted. "You won't show me how to use it, you won't teach me?"

"I'm sorry Undyne, I don't think I'd be a good…"

"Undyne how old are you?" Sans asked out of the blue.

Undyne glared at him. "Why I should slap you in the face Sans, don't you know how RUDE it is to ask a woman her age." She huffed and blew up the hair covering her eyepatch. "Why does it matter?"

Sans had a distant look on his face. "I want to know how far back we can go."

Frisk was shocked. "Sans! You can't be agreeing with her on this…" they were cut off by their own thoughts. How far back could they go? Could this be the key to saving Asriel?

Undyne seemed unimpressed. "If you must know Sans, I'm 34."

Sans' eyelights rolled up to the top of their sockets, showing he was in thought. "25th of December 1991, Christmas day, that's the date." His eyelights flicked back to Undyne "You'd be 10 at that time right?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

Sans hopped off the bed. "I'll be back in a minute." With that he left the room, leaving Undyne and Frisk alone together.

"Undyne. Did you know Asriel Dreemurr, the king's son?"

Undyne shook her head. "He died before I was born."

Frisk's hopes were dashed. "Oh."

Undyne went off on her own tangent. "Come on Frisk." She said playfully. "You can be the master, I the humble student, you can teach me the secret arts of determination, just like in Alphys' anime!"

Frisk looked down. "This isn't a game Undyne, this is dangerous stuff. I don't want to see you get hurt, I don't want to ruin what we've got here…"

Undyne gave Frisk the biggest grin they'd seen in a while, razor sharp fangs glinting in the dimming afternoon light. It didn't really set them at ease. "I'm tougher than you give me credit for Frisk!"

"I know your tough Undyne, but when we screw around with stuff like this, someone could get hurt, hurt in a way I might not be able to fix, even with my powers. I don't want to lose you or anybody else, you all mean a lot to me."

Before any more could be said, Sans returned to the room with a stack of papers under his left arm carting something covered by a sheet on a little trolley with his right.

"Sans, what is that?" Asked Frisk.

Sans put the papers down in a neat pile on the floor. Frisk got a good look at them. They were in a weird language of symbols they couldn't understand, hands, stars, little pictures in neat rows down the page. There was no discernible pattern, but there were a limit number of characters from what Frisk could see.

Sans pulled the cover off of the thing on the trolley, revealing a canister like device with a strange set of tubes coming off of it. It had an uncanny resemblance to a human skull, with two large holes halfway up and a slit where a mouth would be. It was very creepy. Frisk and Undyne both stared.

"You two are looking at a determination extraction device, or at least the prototype." Sans explained. That raised more questions than it answered.

"Did… did you build that?" Probed Frisk.

Sans shook his head. "No, my dad built this."

Frisk's eyes widened, this was the first time they'd heard Sans talk about family outside of Papyrus. "Your dad?"

Sans nodded his head. "That's right."

Undyne squinted at Sans. "I don't remember you having a dad, you were just…" her face contorted as if she was struggling to remember something. "You were just always there, you and Papyrus, I never saw your parents." She scratched her scaly head. "You must have had parents, everyone has parents!"

Sans shrugged. "That's just it, nobody knows my parents, nobody can remember them, nobody, not even me or Papyrus. They don't exist, but I've found evidence that they did."

"They died Sans, didn't they? That's what Papyrus told me a while ago, they died when you two were young and you couldn't remember them." Said Frisk.

Sans nodded. "That's what I told him, the truth is something else. According to what I've found dad disappeared when I was twelve and he was nine. Mom before even then."

"That's bullshit Sans, you'd have to remember them. Hell, I'd have to remember them, I hung out with you when you were twelve." Undyne was getting weirded out. "Stop pulling our legs."

Sans continued ignoring her. "I don't know all the details, but I've pieced apart enough to get a decent picture. My dad was a scientist, Dr W.D Gaster, his wife, my mother wasn't mentioned much and not ever by name. It seems he was doing work for Asgore, work about determination, work about human souls but something bad happened. His notes stop on that date, 25th of December 1991, that's when I assume he disappeared."

"But why can none of us remember him Sans, he sounds pretty important, Alphys would know about him wouldn't she?" Undyne said.

"That's just it, he's gone, removed from the timeline along with every memory of him. The only thing that he left behind were his notes, somehow they outlived him, I'm not quite sure, but I think it has to do with being exposed to determination, they can persist even through a reset." Sans was sagged over the bed. "Undyne, did Alphys ever explain to you how she got the job as the royal scientist?"

Undyne thought about it. "She wasn't the royal scientist at that point, she'd only be...twelve in 1991, and she said she took the job after a period of long vacancy. The science program slowed down to an absolute crawl one day and nobody was quite sure why. It wasn't until my Alphie became the top scientist that things got back on track." Undyne's cheeks reddened a bit. "She's so PASSIONATE about science!"

Sans ignored the last part and snapped his bony fingers. "Exactly, that's exactly what I'm talking about. He's gone, nobody remembers him, just what he did. It's like something is missing and you can't quite put your finger on it."

Frisk poked through the papers. "Are these his notes Sans?"

Sans nodded. "It took me a while to decipher them, he wrote in some sort of code. I don't know why. He wrote at length about determination, about extracting it from the human souls we already had in our possession. His notes, his diary. He mentions me and Papyrus sparingly, his wife occasionally. His diary, the experimentation notes, they end on the 25th of December 1991, that's the day something must have happened." He turned to Frisk. "Is there any way Undyne could zero in on that date?"

Frisk nodded slowly. "I think…" they began "I think if she has a memory, a memory of great determination she can pull herself back to it." Frisk frowned and looked at Sans accusingly. "I don't like what you are getting at Sans, we don't know the repercussions."

Sans' face twisted into a scowl. "Frisk if this was Asriel we were talking about you'd have been begging her to go back already. But when it's my family we're talking about, you suddenly become concerned for the wellbeing of the timeline."

"Sans you don't even know him! We don't even know what affects this will have on the timeline, things could be really different, mom, Papyrus, all your friends, you could be throwing that away for all we know!"

Sans shrugged, he never shouted, not even when he was angry. That somehow made it scarier. "Rich coming from you kiddo, you said you played with Asriel for two weeks in that mountain before he made you go, such concern for a kid you knew for just a fortnight. At least you have the luxury of remembering him, my dad went missing, gone, I can't even remember him beyond his writings." He took a deep breath and relaxed. "Sorry kiddo, that was pretty scathing, I know you mean well."

"Think about mom, think about your brother Sans." Frisk warned. "We can't know what will happen."

"My dad made his mark on the timeline missing or not, he is the only thing that's gone. I don't see how bringing him back could change anything, all his work outlived his memory, the timeline should go unscathed for the most part."

"You don't know that Sans."

"All right that's enough you two!" Undyne yelled. "I for one think we can reach a compromise, Frisk wants to save Asriel." She turned to Frisk. "Correct?"

It didn't get more direct than that. Frisk had a feeling that this was one of those moments you couldn't ever turn back from. They remembered the little kid down there, half their age, so tired, so alone, so afraid. It broke Frisk's heart.

Frisk made their choice. "Yeah, yeah I would."

Undyne turned to Sans. "And you'd like to know your dad back Sans?"

Sans took a while, but eventually he nodded in confirmation. "Even if I could just meet him or something."

"Right then! WE have the POWER to save our FRIENDS and nothing is stronger than people's hearts beating together as ONE." She was going off into an animesque spiel, Frisk tried to get her back on point.

"Undyne, what's your plan?"

Undyne gave him a toothy grin staring intently with her one good eye. "This Dr Gaster, Sans' dad seems to know a lot about determination, he seems like a PASSIONATE scientist and I like him already, I like anyone with great PASSION!" She saw she still hadn't made her point clear. "Gaster wrote the book on determination right? Maybe he knows more about it than we do, maybe he has the key to saving Asriel!"

Frisk thought about it. It might well be worth a shot. "All right" they relented "I'll show you how."

Undyne balled her fists and gushed with excitement. "YES! I knew you would teach me Frisk! Teach me the ways of determination master!"

Frisk held up their hands. "Before we do anything serious, I want to talk about what might happen." They turned to Sans. "Sans, we'll be going back to before you got your dad's notes, what would that mean?"

Sans bunched up his skull. "That I won't remember anything about determination or the timelines." He looked at Frisk. "But if Undyne is doing this, will that reset your memories too?"

Frisk shook their head. "I don't think so, Asriel." Frisk winced and corrected themself. "I mean, that flower, he could remember my resets with perfect accuracy, maybe if your determination is high enough you can keep your memories even if the timeline skips back."

Sans nodded. "Okay then, so only you and Undyne will be the ones with any clue?"

"I think so."

Frisk turned to Undyne. "All right Undyne, Sans says the date is the 25th of December 1991, what does that day mean to you?" They smacked their head. "Of course, Christmas. You can remember Christmas right?"

Undyne shook her head. "No, all my holidays really sucked actually."

"Really?"

Undyne scowled. "My family was pretty bad Frisk."

"Oh." Frisk said slightly embarrassed. "Sorry."

"You didn't know." Undyne put a talon to her lip deep in thought. "What day would that have been?"

"A Wednesday." Sans said immediately. "It's the day dad's journals and notes stop, I remember."

Undyne's face lit up. "I had battle training with Asgore every Tuesday after school! I could never hit the guy, but I was really, really trying to."

"That's a good start Undyne." Said Frisk. They turned to Sans. "If she can get there the day before it happens, what should she do?"

Sans shrugged. "I dunno kiddo, I guess she should try to find me, see if I can fill her in."

"That isn't a lot of information Sans."

"Frisk I don't have a lot of information, but me from the past might well know more." He nodded at Undyne. "Your pretty smart Undyne, you'll figure it out, I'm sure. Just be on the lookout for something odd and you'll be alright." He didn't sound very sure. "I'm not going to make you do this if you don't want to Undyne, I understand completely if you think it's all too much."

Undyne shook her head. "Sans, I'm not going to pass up the opportunity like this, I'm a HERO Sans and heroes, they SAVE people. We're going to save your dad and then we're going to save Asriel, I'm sure of it!"

"That's the spirit Undyne." He looked a Frisk. "You ready kiddo?"

"You want to do this now?"

"Yeah, why not?"

"Mom is out and stuff. Shouldn't we wait a bit."

"Do you want her to bring back the snail ice cream?"

An excellent point.

Frisk quickly turned back to Undyne. "Okay then, I'll tell her what I do when I do it." They sat down on the floor and beckoned Undyne over. "Come over here and sit with me Undyne."

She beamed, moving over to him. "Yes master."

"Stop calling me that…"

"Sorry mas," she caught herself "sorry Frisk."

She sat down in front of the human, cross-legged on the mat in front of Frisk's bed.

"To get there, you'll need to focus hard on a memory, a memory where you're determined."

"And how do I get back?"

Frisk gave a lengthy explanation. "After a while in the past you'll get a feeling, like your muscles are taut, like it takes effort to be there. You'll know what I'm talking about when you feel it. I reckon it's like your straining really hard to pull back on car as it drives away, it takes a lot of effort to pull it backward and even more to hold it there. That feeling, it gets worse and worse and worse as time goes on, your whole body feels like it is on fire, but if you just, sort of, relax, you'll snap back to the present. The only time you don't have to do that is if you catch up to the present time in your reset. Say if I went back five minutes, I wouldn't start to feel it because I'd have started moving the timeline forward again. I'm just straining to keep it from going ahead. That's my take on it anyway."

"I think I understand." Undyne said.

"Great, let's begin then." Frisk reached out and held her scaly hand. "All right Undyne, I want you to focus on that day the 24th of December 1991, what where you doing in that training session against Asgore?"

"I was trying really hard to hit him, but he just kept dodging." She replied. "I can't really remember that day exactly."

"You'll have to be more specific than that."

She racked her brain. "I, I can't remember that specific date. It was so long ago."

"Come on Undyne use your PASSION." Frisk emphasized that word for effect. "You're up to the challenge, I know it, focus really, really hard on something specific, something that made you determined on that day."

"He said something, something after we were done… Something that made me really proud, really determined. The best Christmas present I ever got!"
"What did he say Undyne?"

"Golly Undyne, you've really improved." Said Asgore sheepishly. "I'm going to have to start working on my guard again."

---

Gaster

Chapter Notes

The first chapter to really feature a reset, unfortunately for our protagonists it doesn't really have the intended results.
Oh and in case your wondering Undyne's sister is named Sylphid in referance to Sylphs mythological air spirits as Undyne is named after Undines mythological water spirits. As most monsters exhibit some sort of theme naming when it comes to family I found it fitting. It doesn't really matter, she doesn't really have any baring on the plot beyond window dressing. Hope you enjoy.

---

Undyne felt smaller, she felt reduced. She looked down at her hands and saw them, not the rough, calloused palms from years of training, practice and sparing, but the soft hands of a youngster. Her eyes, plural, she had both eyes!

It had worked. She was back in time.

"Woah." She clasped her hand to her mouth when the sound came out high and wimpy.

"Something wrong Undyne?"

She looked up at Asgore, she remembered the big man moved incredibly fast when he needed too. He'd always been so nice and patient with her, why he'd ever taken the time out of his schedule to train her she would never know.

"Nothing's wrong Asgo…your Majesty." She gave a little curtsey for good measure, but it ended up looking more like a bow.

He laughed at that, a big booming guffaw. "Oh, Undyne, no need for formality, we're all friends here. Come on, I'll walk you back to the Waterfall ferry."

He put his huge arm around her tiny shoulders and walked her out his palace and to the Hotlands elevator.

"You've really improved," He said again "another few weeks and you might even be able to knock me down."

Sans. She needed to find Sans.

"King Asgore?"

"Hmmm."

"What has Dr Gaster been working on?"

He stopped pushing her along and looked down at her. "What an odd question Undyne. Dr Gaster is working on a way to break the barrier, to release us all, everyone knows that."

She probed him for more. "Has he been doing anything, odd, lately?"

"Not that I know of Undyne, but he is quite the recluse, I doubt I could get much from him even if I gave him a direct order."

That sounded suspicious. "Sounds untrustworthy if you ask me your majesty."

"Now, now Undyne, what a horrible thing to say. Poor Dr Gaster has been through a lot, raising two boys by himself and juggling all those experiments. His genius is well worth his eccentricity in my book." He began moving her along again. "I understand your good friends with his sons?"

"One of them sir, Papyrus." She smiled. "I really like him, he's fun."

"Oh, a little childhood crush? How adorable!" He was gushing. "I'm sure you two would make a cute couple."

She shook her head. "It's not like that your Majesty, he's more like a goofy little brother, and besides he isn't my type." She remembered Mettaton. "And I'm pretty sure he isn't into girls either."

He looked puzzled. "How can you possibly know that at such a young age?"

"Call it intuition sir."

"A fine trait for a warrior, we can't get by on conscious thought alone you know, a little instinct and emotion is needed from time to time."

"I couldn't agree more your Majesty."

"Asgore, call me Asgore, Undyne."

"Sorry Asgore."

They reached the doors to the Hotlands elevator.

"After you miss Undyne." He said politely.

She still liked Asgore, and at this age, she'd practically worshipped him. There persisted a respect for him, even when she knew now what atrocities he had committed. Bad things for the right reasons as they said.

She wondered if Toriel could ever forgive him.

The ride down was uncomfortable as always. Asgore had to cling to the stability handles of the elevator to stop his shaking as they plummeted into the bowels of the Earth. When they finally arrived at the CORE he was shaking violently.

"Golly Undyne, I need a minute, never was good with the old elevator was I?"

"Its fine your majesty." She grabbed his big paw and then recoiled. How many had he killed by now? She wasn't quite sure and she wasn't prepared to ask. He was a pretty broken man, his children both blood and adopted had died on the same day, his wife had left him and he was in the process of planning a genocide he didn't want to commit.

"Right, I'm all right now." He hefted himself off the rails. "Come on, I promised your parents I'd get you home on time."

She knocked on the door of her old house. It had a similar look and feel to the one she'd later own herself. A little bigger to house more people, people she didn't really like. She felt sick in the pit of her stomach and it wasn't because of the determination. "Mom, Dad I'm home!"

Her relationship with her parents was strained even in the present. Wished she'd studied hard a school, wished she'd been more like her sisters, wished she'd done law. Worst of all they didn't condone of her relationship with Alphys. She popped in occasionally to see them and even then they never talked beyond the standard pleasantries. Alphys had met them once and they'd refused to even talk to her. Needless to say she wasn't a big fan of her family, and was sure the feeling was mutual.

The door swung open to reveal her father, a tall purple scaled man with a mop of rusty red hair, bathed in the light from inside. "Late again young lady." He gestured inside. "If you spent as much time studying as you did fighting you'd be getting better grades than that Alphys girl!"

Undyne remembered when she first met Alphys. She'd heard about her before, the queen nerd, obsessed with "human history". Someone she'd never be friends with. That day after school, hanging out by the garbage dump, she saw her sitting on the edge of the abyss, looking so alone. She was glad she went over and talked. Though Undyne didn't know it at the time, she'd talked Alphys out of suicide that day, as Alphys would later confess to her. Undyne was lucky like that, she hated to think what might have happened if she didn't show up on that first fateful encounter. Alphys was easily the best thing to come of her childhood.

Her train of thought was interrupted by one of the worst things to come of her childhood. "Hey Undies!" Cackled her middle sister from behind the couch. "How'd your date go?" She suddenly remembered she had sisters, horrible, horrible older sisters.

"Shut it Sylphid, I could kick your ass."

"Oooo, tough gal huh, I'd like to see you try Undie."

"Don't call me that."

"Make me."

She could, she really could if she wanted to. She was a lot weaker in this body, but she still had all her skills, all her training. She exercised restraint. No. She couldn't stuff it up, a lot was riding on this.

"Come on Undie." Sylphid was goading her. "Show me these battle skills you've been working so hard on."

"Asgore told me not to fight for no good reason. That and you aren't worth the effort."

"Coward."

"Maybe, but then again I've never really cared about your opinion."

She was regretting this already. Any time with her family was time spent poorly. Stay focused. Stay determined.

She climbed the stairs to her bedroom. "I'm going to bed, I had dinner with Asgore." She said to nobody in particular. Just as well, she didn't get a response.

Her bedroom was sparse. She had a couple of toys strew around, mostly actions figures. On her wall were a collection of foam and plastic swords that she'd mounted. Her bed was ratty and the sheets were all askew. Home, sweet home.

She threw herself on the bed and closed her eyes. What a way to spend Christmas eve.

Sans, find Sans.

25th of December 1991. Today was a pretty momentous day in the history of the mankind above them. As the last day in the life of the Soviet Union, a period of great political and economic upheaval above the heads of those underground, not that anybody down there knew that. Far more importantly, it was Christmas day and Snowdin was abuzz with children chatting excitedly about their latest hauls from Santa.

She'd gone to school in Snowdin, which is where she first met Papyrus and Sans. She didn't particularly like it, far too cold, but they didn't have a proper school in Waterfall so she'd had to suck it up. Undyne had, multiple times, begged her parents to let her go to Alphys' School in the Hotland, but they'd always engineered a reason. "Your sisters go to Snowdin elementary, we'd have to do two trips!", "I'm not paying those school fees just for you to bum off and get into fights!", "You know we can't handle the heat in Hotlands Undyne, you'd be dried out!" If they were feeling particularly blunt that day, they gave her the real reason. "That Alphys girl is a bad influence on you!"

She was on the lookout for the brothers, but there were plenty of children frolicking about. She was glad she had her second eye back, it helped her pick through the motion.

She spotted the two of them by their clothing. Papyrus was wearing his flowing red scarf with a red and green Christmas sweater. Sans wore a blue hoodie like always.

By this time Papyrus hadn't yet started his fantasy to become a royal guardsman and wouldn't for some time. That didn't put a damper on his narcissism, even at the tender age of nine. He turned just in time to see her approach. "NYEHELLO UNDYNE! MERRY CHRISTMAS!" He waved his bony arm at her from across the way. "I was just telling Sans about what dad told me! We're going to get the greatest Christmas present of all this year, he told me himself he did!" He said somewhat redundantly.

A lead. "And what was that?" Undyne inquired.

Papyrus clasped his hands out in front of him. "He's on the verge of a breakthrough Undyne, he said he's really onto something! Something he said we're really going to love!" He looked wistfully into the distance. "NYOO I want to be a royal scientist like him one day."

So this was the dream career before royal guardsman and eventually spaghetti chef. Undyne lamented the disappearance of Dr Gaster in that moment, he might have been able to get Papyrus off of her case.

"That's really cool Papyrus. But what is it he is working on exactly?" She asked him again.

He winked with his eyesocket, his skull rippling like clay. "It's a secret Undyne, like all Christmas presents, he won't even tell me, but he said it would be ready this afternoon."

She turned to Sans hoping he'd be more clued in. "You know anything big guy?"

Twelve year old Sans yawned. "He's invited us to his lab in Hotlands this afternoon to see something big apparently, you can tag along if you want, see for yourself, I'm sure he'd be okay with it."

Undyne smiled. "That would be neat Sans, of course I'll come."

She had a fun day hanging out with the brothers. They were all kids again, they chatted, played games, talked about girls. Sans had treated them all to a lunch at the diner that would later become Grillby's with his father's generous allowance.

Her muscles on the other hand, were beginning to hurt as Frisk had mentioned. She first noticed it around their lunch break, like she'd done a massive workout. It was uncomfortable, but bearable. A reminder of her mission.

After about another hour they started walking to Hotlands. Papyrus was gushing the entire trip. "Wowie I'm so excited, I wonder what dad has to show us!"

Sans scuffed his sandals in the snow. "Your parents okay with this Undyne. You've been out quite a while now with us."

She shook her head. "No, but I don't care, I'd rather hang out with you guys."

Sans nodded. "I don't blame you, who wouldn't want to hang out with me and Papyrus here. You'd have to be pretty boneheaded to think there were cooler cats than us two." He gave a low laugh at his own joke.

"SANS!" Groaned Papyrus. "YOU'VE USED THAT PUN SIX TIME TODAY! IT'S DEAD!"

"Sorry bro, hope I didn't tickle your funny bone too hard." He stuck his head into his hands, suffocating the laughter with his palms.

"SANS, you're really annoying me with these pun!"

"That's Tibia expected."

Papyrus began to quiver with rage, grinding his little teeth.

A sudden wave of soreness washed over Undyne. Like her muscles were burning up. It was beginning to happen. "Ignore him Papyrus." She patted Sans on the back. "Come on, I want to get there before too long."

Sans had finished chuckling. "Why, what's the rush?"

"I don't want to be back home way too late, that just my parents an excuse to ground me."

"Sounds like your parents suck Undyne." Sans said. "Don't you wish you could make some people disappear?"

She winced. "That's pretty harsh Sans, even if you don't like them now, they could become good people."

"I don't think people change all that much Undyne." He shook his head. "Enough chit-chat anyway, we're already late. Lets head out."

The lab was a nice cream colour which made it stick out like a sore thumb in the harsh red backdrop of the Hotlands. She hated the Hotlands, she always dried up when she passed through. The only think worth going there for was to visit Alphys. She remembered sneaking out late at night to visit her friend. She'd throw stones against her window and then shimmy up the drainpipe. After a few jugs of water, they'd talk about nerdy stuff. It all seemed like a distant memory, but those had all come flooding back with what she was doing. She loved Alphys, she really did, she made a mental note to tell her that when she got back.

She'd stripped out of her warm Snowdin clothes and into her singlet which she wore underneath to deal with the heat and took semi regular sips from her water bottle to stay hydrated. Sans and Papyrus had no such problems stepping through the cloying heat like it was nothing.

They finally reached the lab door. Sans rapped on it three times with his knuckles. "Dad! We're here!"

She heard some banging about coming from inside, the shuffle of footsteps and the pant of laboured breathing. The door slid open and she saw him. Dr Gaster.

He was tall, very tall, as tall as Asgore even and thin like a rake. His skull was smooth and elongated, with tiny eyelights at the back of his deep sockets. He wore a huge black trench coat which swept out ominously behind him. Undyne reckoned she probably would have called him attractive had she been into boys.

But something was off. He looked tired, reduced somehow. There was a wild look to him, the little pinpricks of light in his eyes darted nervously between his sons.

"Hi boys." He crooned, his voice was deep and rich like dark chocolate. He noticed Undyne and frowned with a mixture of surprise and concern. "You didn't tell me you were bringing a friend."

"Is that a problem daddy?" Questioned Papyrus pleadingly. "She's my best friend, I promise she'll be good!"

He winced. "I'm sorry but this is really for you two boys only. She can wait in the lobby if she wants."

"Oh…" Mumbled Papyrus. The skeleton turned and smiled at Undyne. "You're okay with waiting outside Undyne aren't you?"

No she wasn't. "Sure I am Papyrus." Undyne gave a fake smile but it ended up looking like a threatening grimace based on Papyrus' reaction. She'd have to sneak in somehow and stop whatever it was that was going to happen. Undyne didn't even know what she was looking for. Suddenly a shooting pain raced through her body. She whimpered and doubled over. It must be the determination in her.

"Are you okay young lady?" Asked Gaster with some concern.

"Ah, yes sir, just some growing pains" She lied."I need to sit down for a minute if that's okay."

Gaster frowned. "Of course, let's get all of you out of the heat."

Gaster led them all inside, his big black coat flowing out behind him. He showed Undyne a bench near the entrance. "Sit there Undyne, my boys and I will be back in a few minutes."

With that he grabbed his sons by their shoulders and began to march them through to the lift to lab proper, the one Alphys would later close up with the fake toilet sign. Somebody should have picked up on that sooner, monsters didn't use the bathroom.

"What are we going to see daddy?" Questioned Papyrus excitedly.

"You'll see soon enough Pappy, you'll really like it, I promise." The lift doors closed around them and she heard it descend into the bowels of the so called "true lab".

Undyne got up and ran over to the console. She'd never been down to the true lab, Alphys didn't like the idea of showing her the greatest mistakes she'd ever made. Undyne didn't really know what to expect. Where there amalgamates down there already? She didn't think so, Alphys was the one to create them, they didn't exist before she took control of the science program and she doubted Gaster would want to show off something so horrible to his children.

The lift was still descending. She pressed the call button repeatedly. Another spasm of pain ripped through her body causing her to cry out loudly. Undyne realized she was running out of time. "Damm it," she hit the panel again "come onnnnn…"
The lift panel lit up. It was returning to her level. Another spasm. Like fishhooks in her body. Undyne cried out in pain. "Frisk didn't mention it was this bad!" She yelled aloud. "Stay DERTEMINED." She thought about what she was doing there, who she was saving. This was important, important to her, to her friends.

It didn't have the intended effect, she felt even worse, and her guts began to burn with searing pain. "Gahhh…" She vomited up a string of bile onto the laboratory floor.

Ding!

Her retching was interrupted by the chime of the elevator. "Come onnn…." She lisped feebly. Forcing her legs to work, she half crawled, half stumbled into the elevator. Reaching up, she hit the button to the lower floor. She slumped up against the wall of the lift, conserving her energy. She felt herself drifting, like in a dream. "No, I gotta stay determined, I gotta stay…" the pain was unbearable "PASSIONATE!"

Ding!

The lift doors slid open, she could hear voices talking.

Papyrus. "Daddy, you're scaring me…"

Dr Gaster. "I'm doing this for you two, we'll all be happy again, we'll all be together."

She began to crawl, a pathetic mope along the ground but it was the best she could do. "I… have….to…get…there..." she vomited again. The pain was unreal, like she was being torn apart. She felt soft, malleable. "Got….to…stay….DETERMINED." A nova of pain erupted in her, causing her to scream out.

She heard Papyrus. "Daddy what was that?" Fast footfalls. She spied Papyrus coming out into the corridor she was in. "UNDYNE! Daddy help, Undyne is really hurt!"

Sans followed him soon after. "Undyne!" he cried "Undyne are you okay?"

She couldn't even respond beyond a gurgle.

"Boys, get back in here, don't you want to see your mother!" Gaster was yelling loudly. "I worked so hard for this, please come and see!"

Papyrus was crying, big magic tears rolling out of his eyesockets. "Daddy come here, please help her, we can worry about mom later!"

Gaster came out into the hall. "I thought I told you to stay outside you little brat! You don't know what you're doing!"

She heard a huge explosion, the monitors that lined the hall blew out sprinkling them all with glass. The shards cut her face causing little rivulets of blood to splatter against the lab floor.

Gaster turned back. "No." he said, barely a whisper. "NOOOO!" He screamed, falling to his knees.

She had to let go. She relaxed.

Suddenly Undyne was somewhere else. Lying on a bed. She sat up and looked at her hands. Calloused and cause. She looked around, her vision was cut in half, she had one eye again. It had worked. She was back in the present.

But where. It wasn't a familiar building, not a familiar bed. The room was dirty, missing plaster on the walls. Tank tops, plastic bags and empty boxes of fast food littered the floor. She got up, tentatively. He body was sore, like it had been before, but nowhere near as painful as a few moments ago.

Blue sky outside, the rumble of cars. She was above ground.

"Hello?" Undyne's voice was back to its deep register. "Anybody here?"

No response.

She looked around the room, checking for clues. Who did it belong to? Why we she sleeping in it?

A photograph. Undyne picked it up off of the bed's side table. Her and Alphys, both young, late teens or early twenties. Alphys looked worse than normal, her eyes were sunken and swollen, and it looked like she'd been crying a lot. Undyne checked herself in the photo. Still two eyes, her arms wrapped around her friend, a ponytail of red hair cascading onto the two of them. Their faces could not have been more different. Undyne sported a winning smile, Alphys a little forced one.

She'd never seen this photo before in her life. Then again, she had just travelled back in time twenty four years, she'd likely changed some things around.

Then she noticed it. Writing on the back of the photo. Alphys'. She began to read. And read. And read. Her eye going wider and wider.

Undyne screamed, a horrid painful wailing dirge of utter despair.

Wrong.

Frisk had felt the most peculiar sensation. As if someone was pulling away from them. They had relented, let go and suddenly the room had changed.

Frisk wasn't in their bedroom anymore, they were on a couch, facing an ailing old TV set in a veritable junkyard of trash. Pizza boxes, chip packets and candy bar wrappers, stacked far and wide. Only one person could be this messy. Frisk heard a snoring sound and turned his head, confirming his suspicions.
"Sans?"
He looked a bit different, he was wearing pyjama shorts and a singlet instead of his normal hoodie.
The skeleton's face rippled forcing his left eyesocket open. "Wha..?"
"Sans what are we doing here?"
Sans closed his eyesocket. "You're watching TV, I'm sleeping."
"Your dad, he's still alive?"
"Unfortunately."
Frisk's blood turned to ice. That didn't sound good.
Frisk looked around. It was not their house. It was dirtier and far smaller, none of the homely amenities of Toriel's abode. Sans was wrong, things had changed significantly. Frisk heard the clatter of falling junk and the unmistakeable determined grunting of Papyrus.

"NYEH." Papyrus moaned forcing a path through the litter. "NYEH!" Behind him floated a little purple ghost. "SANS! Get off your bony behind and clear this place up! I'm going out with Mettaton and I expect this place spotless by the time I come back."

Frisk was confused. They didn't see Mettaton anywhere. Then it hit them, the ghost behind Papyrus, was Mettaton Blook. Frisk didn't recognize him without the robot body Alphys had built for him.

Something was very wrong.

Papyrus raised his voice. "Do you hear me Sans. SANS!"

"Shut up Papyrus. It's my house, I pay the bills and I can do what I want with it." Sans snarled not even opening his eyes. Frisk gave a little gasp, they had never heard him be so crass to his brother.

"Let's go Pappy, you know I hate it when you two fight." Begged Mettaton. His voice sounded quieter and had lost the electronic ring to it but it was still unmistakeably him. "Please? I'll let you pick where we eat."

Papyrus clearly wasn't listening to his boyfriend. "Go to hell Sans, me and Mettaton pay our fair share of the rent, the least you can do is clean up the living room once in a while."

Frisk was gobsmacked. What had Undyne done? This wasn't how things were meant to be at all, the two brother having an argument, having a row.

"The door is always open Papyrus, you don't like it, you can leave."

"Maybe I WILL!" He beckoned to Mettaton. "Come on Mettaton, we're going."

"Okay Pappy…" He floated over past Frisk. "Bye Frisky, bye Sans."

Sans' response was cold. "See ya."

Frisk was dumbfounded. Where were they, why was everyone so rude and different?

"Sans? What am I doing here again?"

"That's a good question kiddo, one I can't quite answer myself. Why you continue to hang out with your mothers ex will always elude me." He replied, sluggishly sitting up on the couch.

Their mother's ex?

Frisk's heart sank like a stone. This was all so wrong. Undyne, they had to find Undyne, she'd remember what was going on. "Where's Undyne? Where does she live Sans I've got to see her?"

"Why?"

"Sans it's important, does she live with Alphys."

Sans frowned. "Don't be morbid kid."

Frisk didn't understand. "What?"

"I said, don't be morbid." He waved his hand in desperation, as if swatting away a fly. "Don't joke about shit like that."

Frisk brushed it off. "Sans where does she live?"

"On the other side of the city, if she has any sense she'll move when she gets the money."

That didn't sound good. "Sans I really need to see her, give me an address."

"You already know it."

"I forgot."

Sans hopped up off of the couch and grabbed a piece of paper lying on the floor. He scribbled something on it with a pen from his pocket before shoving it in Frisk's face. Frisk took it off him and read Sans' untidy scrawl.

"A motel?" Frisk queried.

"All she could afford buddy, until she gets the cash together to ditch this town all together."

What was going on? Everyone seemed so angry and depressed, how could saving one man cause all of this? Frisk had to figure it out, this was their fault, they had to fix it."I'm heading over there now Sans, if mom calls you tell her that's where I am okay?"

Sans looked puzzled. "You just got here kid, and its late outside, you're meant to be staying the night here."

"I can handle myself Sans."

"Sure you can kiddo, but your mom would skin me alive."

"If you had any." Frisk tried to wink playfully.

"Heh…" He reached his arms up. "I'll come with if you want, but god knows why you want to see a crazy broken person. Especially one who hates my guts."

Undyne crazy and broken. Sans rude and abrasive. Mettaton without a body. They'd made a terrible mistake.

"Something tells me she'll be different this time."

"People don't change that much Frisk."

It was dark outside her room. Sans was adamant that he wait down in the parking lot, but Frisk wasn't quite sure why. Something bad had happened, many bad things by the look and sound of it. Only Undyne knew the answer. Frisk knocked on the door. "Undyne, it's me, Frisk, we need to talk, talk about what's happened." They tried. There was no response. Frisk put their ear to the door.

They heard something on the other side. Low crying. The sound of someone who didn't have the water to make tears anymore. "Undyne?" Frisk said through the door. "Let me in, we can fix this, whatever it is that happened."

Frisk heard something shambling towards the door. The sound of a bolt being pulled back. The door swung open to reveal her. Undyne looked a little out of shape, more weedy, less muscle. Her hair was matted and tangled and her eye was red raw. Frisk could make out little beads of tears still passing down her cheek. Frisk had never seen the captain of the royal guard so distraught, she'd always been so powerful, so confident. It scared Frisk, they were terrified by the very thought that Undyne could even be this upset at anything.

"Undyne?" Frisk whispered dumbstruck by her appearance. "Undyne do you remember what we did?"

She dropped limp to her knees and flung her arms around the human's neck. "Frisk." She sobbed. "Frisk she's dead." Suddenly Sans' comment made distributing sense. It took him but a second to figure out the answer but Frisk asked anyway.

"Who… who is dead Undyne?"

She sobbed into Frisk's sweater. "Frisk we have to go back, you remember right, you remember that we went back in time, we used my determination."

Frisk petted her scaly head. "I remember Undyne, that's why I'm here."

She sobbed again taking a huge gulp of air before crying again. "I've killed her Frisk, it's my fault she's dead, I've done something I shouldn't have." She looked up at him, their faces were centimetres apart and she looked completely broken.

"What happened Undyne? Tell me, we can fix this." She withdrew from his hug and wordlessly handed him a photo. He looked at it. It was of Undyne and Alphys together, both young. Undyne looked happy, Alphys not so much.

"On the back." She croaked in between sobs.

Frisk flipped it over and saw the writing.

Dear Undyne.

I'm not one for poetry, but I'd say this is fitting. I lived like trash and so now I die like it too. Off the edge of the garbage dump forever, never bothering anyone again. I want you to know this isn't your fault, you were the best thing that ever happened to me. But I can't take it anymore, I know this little friendship charade between us will crack one day. You'll realize one day your hanging out with a piece of monster garbage called Alphys and that I'm just not worthy of your attention. That's why I'm ending this before that happens. How selfish, that I kill myself before I get my just deserts, before you wake up and see your friend is the biggest steaming pile of garbage in the underground.

I suppose I'd better admit that I love you, love you as more than a friend. You're never going to hear it from my lips but that's probably for the best.

I don't have the guts to say it to your beautiful face. Soon I won't have anything at all.

Goodbye.

Frisk felt like they were going to vomit, only barely managing to gulp down the bile before it exited their mouth, leaving a burning sensation in their throat. Undyne could only sob. Frisk was still reeling. How, how had this happened?

"Undyne, what did you do?" Frisk asked.

"I don't know." She was gasping, taking in air for another set of sobs.

"We'll find Gaster and then we'll…"

She cut Frisk off. She was suddenly screaming. "I'll kill that son of a bitch I swear! He's the difference, he's the cause of this, he has to be!" She looked at Frisk, her one eye gleaming with murderous intent. "Is he alive?"

Frisk shuddered. "Undyne we don't know what he has to do with any of this…"

"IS HE ALIVE FRISK? YES OR NO." Her voice was loud enough to encourage dogs to bark in the distance.

Frisk managed a whimper. "Yes…"

She staggered to her feet, shaking as she rose. "He's dead, I brought him back into this world and now I'm going to take him out of it."

Frisk got up and put their hands on her, trying to get her to sit down once more. "Undyne no. We don't know what he has to do with this. Besides, killing him now won't do any good."

She stumbled down again, landing on her rear. "Then I'll go back, I'll go back and make sure he dies." She slurred. "I remember the date, I'll put a spear through him if I have to. My Alphie was the ONE good thing to come from my childhood, I'm not letting that skeletal scumbag take her away from me like that, whatever it is he's done!"

"Undyne wait, we still don't know what he knows." Frisk begged her. "Please, we can do that after he's told us what we need to know."

"You think he knows something about Asriel?" She asked. Frisk nodded. "Well guess what Frisk. SCREW Asriel." She closed her eyes deep in concentration.

Frisk felt like something was pulling away from them. They resisted this time. "Undyne stop! You'll see her again, I promise."

"Let me GO FRISK!" She roared. Her howl morphed into a low moan.

Frisk felt the timeline go slack again. She'd stopped trying to go back. Then they saw it.

"No." Frisk whispered. "NO, NO, NO!" they were screaming. She had begun to melt. The determination was too much for her. Monsters couldn't handle such large amounts. Frisk bent down and grabbed her tank top yanking her body up to be level with his face. "Stay with me Undyne, please stay with me!" Frisk started crying, his tears mixed with her gooey body. They didn't want to lose another friend.

"I feel bad… Frisk…." She was slurring. "what…have….you….done….to...?"

If she died here, Frisk would be stuck in this bad timeline forever. She was their only link to Gaster, their only link to the past.

She was dripping over Frisk hands. "Sans!" They screamed. "SANS!"

Sans came bounding up the stairs. "Oh my god…" he whispered. "What did you do Frisk?"

Tears were brimming out of Frisk's eyes. "Sans we have to help her." Then Frisk remembered what happened next. "Wait! Don't touch her, don't even come near us!"

Determination. She was determined to see Alphys again, determined to turn back the clock. It was killing her. Frisk's mind raced. The opposite of determination, apathy, indifference, they needed to think of something she didn't care about. What didn't Undyne care about?

Puzzles.

Frisk wiped their eyes with their sleeve, they had to concentrate. "Undyne, did Papyrus ever show you his coloured tile puzzle?

"Wha..are..you..tal…king…bout…" She managed to gargle out.

Frisk tried to remember all the rules. "The tiles all have different effects, one makes you smell like an orange I think?"

"Frisk I…I'm s…scared…" She'd stopped dripping so much. "I…don't…want…to…die."

"He had this other puzzle where you had to step on all of the switches, but you couldn't walk over one twice or it wouldn't work." Frisk shook her trying desperately for a response. "You know that one."

She looked confused. "Frisk….what, what are you…talking…about?" Her speech was improving.

Frisk needed to bring out the big guns. "Junior jumble or the crossword?" They asked. "Which one is harder?"

"I hate, Puzzles…" She fainted, her long tongue lolling out of her mouth. She'd stopped dripping, but she still didn't look good. She was pale, really pale. Her chest was rising in falling in ragged breaths and her flesh looked waxy and out of place. Frisk hoped stuff like that would heal.

"What the hell was that kid?" Sans asked them from behind. "Why was she dripping like that? Why were you talking about puzzles?"

"I think…." Frisk said quitely. "I think you can touch her now." They looked over at the terrified skeleton. "Come on, help me get her inside."

Sans snapped out of it. "Right." He moved over and flexed his left palm. A soft blue glow sparked to life around the fishwoman and she rose up into the air gurgling as she did.

Sans levitated her into the dingy hotel apartment. The floor was slippery with tears and a minefield of tripping hazards. The room of someone who didn't care anymore. They could only imagine the Undyne of this timeline desperately eking out an existence without Alphys for company. It wasn't a nice thought.

They didn't have time for semantics, they had more pressing issues.

Sans laid her down gently on the bed. She still didn't look good, but she was stable.

"We'll stay with her here for the night." Frisk plopped down on the bed next to their friend and stroked her hair eliciting a tiny annoyed grumble."In the morning I need to visit your dad."

Sans practically growled. "No we aren't and no you don't, I'm calling your mother to come pick you up." He pulled out his phone and began to check through his contacts.

"Sans please this is important. I need to see your dad."

He stopped scrolling through. "Why? Tell me why kiddo and I'll arrange a meeting."

Frisk didn't have much of a choice. "It's a long story…." Frisk began.

"They usually are."

---

Ripples

Chapter Notes

I believe this is what they call the wham chapter.
You'll see why. Glad to see this has really taken off, I didn't think my work would get this much attention right off the bat! Hope you all enjoy.

---

"So do you believe me?" Frisk asked Sans finally.

Sans had sat there on a stool across from Undyne's bed for about thirty minutes in almost total silence, listening to Frisk tell him the story so far, rocking on the two back legs by pushing off of the bed.

"Truth be told, I'm on the fence." Sans said finally. "Prove it."

"What?"

"I'm going to tell you a phrase, I've been thinking of it for the past two minutes or so." Sans explained. "Go back and tell it to me before I even tell you."

That sounded easy enough. Frisk nodded. "Okay then."

Sans leaned in. "Fartmaster."

Frisk squinted at him in disappointment. This was meant to be serious business. They let it go. "Fine, whatever."

A few seconds, that's all Frisk needed. They pulled the timeline back.

"Truth be told, I'm on the fence." Sans said. "Prove it."

"Fartmaster."

Sans' eyesockets went a bit wide. "Well, well, guess you weren't tugging my femur after all."

Frisk looked at him dourly. "No I wasn't."

Sans laughed. "You honestly went back and saved my dad?"

Frisk nodded. "Yeah, we did."

"Biggest mistake of your life kiddo."

"What's so wrong with him?" Frisk asked. "How could he cause all this?"

Sans gave him a little grin. "He was okay once, very kind to me and Pap. But one day, that Christmas day, something in him snapped. He went from loving father to cruel and abusive just like that. And his bitterness it welled up inside of him, he couldn't let go of the past." Sans winked. "And well, now we're here."

"Sans this is your dad we are talking about." Frisk said. "You were the one who asked to have him brought back."

Sans gave a sad chuckle. "Did I now?" He said. "Had I known the man, I would have asked you to keep him dead to rights."

"Sans we need his help."

Sans shrugged. "You've already screwed around enough with the timeline kiddo, take some advice from this guy, and forget about that Asriel kid. When Undyne is feeling up to it, go back, put my old man in the ground and tell other me to be thankful he could never remember him."

"Sans I made a promise."

Sans got up and kicked the stool over causing it to clatter against the floor. "Promises aren't worth shit kid!" He shouted. Frisk flinched, the Sans they knew never shouted. "You have an easy way out, he doesn't even remember you, ditch him!"

Frisk was deeply upset by this. This wasn't right. They felt a tear roll down their cheek. "You aren't the Sans I know." Frisk sobbed.

"No kiddo I'm probably not, I'm his jaded, bitter and cynical counterpart. So do us both a favor, go back and stop this little adventure of yours whilst you're in one piece."

"No wonder mom didn't like you." Frisk barbed.

Sans' eye flared. "What did you say?"

Frisk yelled at him. "No wonder mom dumped you, you're an asshole now!"

Frisk felt their body go heavy, they crashed into the bed causing Undyne to stir a bit. They struggled to look up at Sans, their neck pressing down into the bed.

Sans held out his left hand, pushing down on the air with it. "My dad was what drove her away. She couldn't stand him, she hated his guts as far as I'm concerned, with what you've told me, us splitting up was your fault kiddo."

"Sans, you're hurting me…" Frisk was crying. "Sans, you're my friend, even in this timeline, why else would I be hanging out with you."

Suddenly Frisk felt the pressure lift off of them. They gasped and filled their lungs with air, falling off the bed and crouching on the floor.

Sans backed back against the wall breathing hard, a string of tears rolling out of his eye sockets. "Holy shit..." he cried. "Holy shit Frisk I'm so sorry, I just snap some times. I get it from my dad, he used to take it out on me and Papyrus, he was so angry all the time. It rubbed off on me. I'm so sorry...I'm so sorry..." he was sobbing. "There..there's no excuse." Sans relaxed his hand and it fell to his side. "I'm not a good person kiddo... not the one you know."

Frisk shook their head slowly and stood up. "Maybe not here, maybe not now, but I knew you Sans, you were one of the nicest people I'd ever met. You were so chilled out, relaxed, you always knew what to say. You loved my mom truly. You loved me. You were like a dad."

A big magic tear dropped off of Sans' face. "You really, thought about this old pile of bones like that?"

Frisk nodded. "Absolutely, and that funny, chill guy I knew, he's still in there I know it." The human reached out to skeleton. "Please Sans, I want to do the right thing, this is the right thing, he, Asriel deserves a second chance."

Sans grasped Frisk's hand tentatively, like he was afraid he'd break his friend. "You promise me after you talk and Undyne gets better, you ditch this timeline and plant my dad. I want to be this guy you say I can be."

Frisk had never been asked to kill somebody before, even if as indirectly as this. And they certainly never expected to be asked by Sans of all people.

"Your dad, he can't be all bad?" Frisk tried.

Sans shook his head and cut them off. "Don't add another layer to this problem, he doesn't deserve to be saved."

"Everyone deserves a second chance Sans." Frisk retorted.

"He killed Alphys, he took her on as his intern. When he found out she had a crush on Undyne, he started to abuse her, made her carry out all the unethical experiments, the Amalgamates, told her that it was all her fault. He made her go out and apologize to all the families on his behalf. I think that's what made her go over the edge."

That was horrid. "Why?" Frisk asked, mouth agape. "Why would he do that?"

"That night, the 25th of December. Christmas day. That's the night he changed." Sans looked off into the corner of the room, deep in thought. "Of course it all makes sense now, why Undyne was acting so weird, you're telling me that was the Undyne from your timeline in control?"

"Yeah that's right."

"She saved his life as I'm sure you know, but I doubt you'll know what from." He didn't break eye contact with the corner. "He was trying to bring back our mother, he was going to dump two human souls worth of determination into her ashes and his machine couldn't handle it. He thinks Undyne somehow sabotaged it to this day, somehow."

"Sans I'm so sorry."

"Don't be, I don't want to even think about what would have happened if he had succeeded."

Frisk knew all too well what a soulless being made of pure determination would do given the chance. "Best not to think about it Sans."

Sans looked up at a digital clock on the wall. 10:30.

"We'd best get some sleep, you've got a big day tomorrow."

Frisk had gotten up for a glass of water. Sans had slept on the floor, giving Frisk the cluttered couch as a bed. Undyne was still sleeping soundly, out cold. Frisk reckoned that was probably for the best, they didn't know what she'd do if she woke up.

Frisk made it over to the dirty kitchen skin and grabbed a cracked glass from the windowsill. What they saw in the reflection made them drop it. The shattering glass pealed out against the silence.

Frisk turned around slowly to see Sans standing there, hands in pockets, one blue eye glowing like a lighthouse in fog of darkness. "Sans!" Frisk said harshly. "Don't spook me like that."

Sans didn't respond. He stood there with his permanent grin etched across his face. He was being very creepy.

Frisk tried again. "Sans?"

No response. He just stood there grinning.

Frisk sighed. "Nice prank man." They shimmed past the leering skeleton to get back into the living room. What Frisk saw made their heart skip a beat.

Sans was on the floor sleeping. Frisk spun around.

Sans was also behind them, mere centimeters from his face. Glowing blue eye ablaze.

"Spooky isn't it." Croaked the other Sans hoarsely.

Frisk felt like they needed to scream, but nothing would come out. They settled from stumbling back, tripping over as they retreated from the Sans in the doorway. Backwards, on all fours Frisk scrambled away from him.

"Stay back…" Frisk said desperately.

The Sans in the doorway tilted his head. "Funny, I'm normally the one on the run from you."

"You….you aren't Sans."

Not-Sans grabbed his hoodie and looked around him, feigning confusion. "Aren't I."

"If-if your Sans, then who's sleeping on the floor." Frisk stammered.

Not-Sans looked puzzled. "Easy, Sans."

"So who are you?"

"Sans."

Frisk tried not to sound scared but ended up making an embarrassing whimper despite their best efforts. "That isn't possible… who are you?"

Not-Sans shook a bony finger. "Tut, tut. You call yourself a time traveller and haven't met yourself yet? Surely that's the first thing on the list!"

Frisk didn't buy it. "It doesn't work like that."

Not-Sans tilted his head. "Doesn't it."

"No, no it doesn't." Frisk looked for an escape route. "Your mind goes back in time, you can't be in two places at once."

"You can believe me or not, I don't care, I'm just here to deliver a personal message, from me..." He pointed to Frisk. "...to you friend."

Frisk knew he was lying. Determination didn't work like that, and Sans was hardly determined anyway. But they couldn't think of anything better, so they played along.

"Go on then, tell it to me." Frisk said desperately, trying to buy time for a better plan.

The ever-present grin widened on the imposters face. "You've cast a pretty big stone kiddo, the ripples have brought out the big fish to play." He winked. "Bet you like the cryptic stuff, I've been thinking of that line for a while."

"What are you on about?" Frisk began to slowly crawl over to the actual Sans still asleep on the floor hoping the imposter was not eagle eyed enough to catch them in the act. If they could just reach him.

Frisk slammed against the wooden floor with some force, cracking their head against it. White stars erupted in their vision.

"Don't do that." The imposter's voice was bitterly cold. "I could kill him without breaking a sweat."

Frisk gasped for air, but they were completely winded. A trickle of blood ran down into their left eye. "Who….are…you?" Frisk wheezed.

"I'm Sans." Said the imposter.

"Not…the….Sans….I….know." The second time they'd said that today. This instance of usage felt more justified.

"Kiddo, I'm not the Sans you know." The other Sans said quite satisfied.

"Then...who?"

"Still finding this hard to believe kiddo? I'm another possibility, a path not walked, not by you at least."

Frisk struggled but their whole body felt like it weighed a tonne. "Not possible…."

"You ever wonder why he had those nightmares kiddo?" He pressed down a little more, making Frisk gasp. "He got a glimpse of me, of all of us, every possible Sans. Every one that ever existed."

"And…which….one….are….you?"

The other Sans bent over Frisk's prone form. "The survivor." He turned his back. "A couple of us end up like this one." He pointed to the snoring Sans on the ground "Lucky bastards, get the girl, get the good friends, get the good laughs, a nice happy ending."

The survivor turned around suddenly, blue eye glowing intensely. "Some of us get something in between, still trapped down there in that cavern, but still alive, still kicking."

He slammed Frisk down again, causing them to wheeze for air. "Some of us get you. You murderous, vile, dirty little brother killer…"

The last part was drenched with venom.

"I was the only one who made it out. I cut and run instead of standing and fighting for some lost cause. My determination was awakened when you and I fought, but it still wasn't strong enough to match yours. I couldn't pull the timeline backward or forward, so I settled for the next best thing. Sideways. I've been bouncing back and forth ever since."

Frisk couldn't even look up. It felt like there was an elephant on top of them. "Please…." They choked out.

The survivor put a hand to his earhole. "Sorry, couldn't quite catch that, a plea for mercy was it?" He gave a low chuckle, devoid of any humour. "They certainly won't hear it."

"If….your….going….to….kill….me….just….do….it…already." Frisk said, desperate for air.

The pressure on Frisk body increased, crushing the air out of them. The Survivor laughed at their squirming. "Determined my ass, you're the easiest fight I've had in a long while, got no LOVE in you huh? To think you could be our savior. Such a pity such power was wasted on vermin like you kid."

He laughed again. "I'm not going to kill you I've done that enough times for it to become boring and routine. Why would I? So you can scramble back in time and wake up your friends?" He gave another hoarse chuckle. "They can't help you, nobody can now. No, no, no. I'm not here to kill you, I've got something else planned." The survivor relaxed his palm. The weight lifted off of Frisk. The human gasped taking in huge gulps of air.

"Truth be told, I hate your guts kiddo. But this is something new, something I can't afford to ignore." He bent over the panting Frisk. "You've called forth the endgame kiddo. There's something out there, with a terrible agenda, it's hungry, it wants something, and guess what? You've just opened up an all you can eat buffet."

"What….do…you….mean…" Frisk rasped in between breaths.

"This is the furthest I've seen a timeline rolled back, they'll want to know how you've done it."

"Who..." Frisk wheezed.

"Anybody who's figured it out how to jump between timelines rather than just move them back and forward. And believe me when I say this Kiddo, most of em, one in particular, they aren't as nice as me."

"Why….tell….me….this…." Frisk said, more preoccupied with getting their breath back.

"I want to see the look of pain on your face when you realize all that you've worked for, all of it, ends because of your heroism. One last hurrah, one last person to save. You selfish little wretch, it was never about him, never about Asriel, you just had to placate your messiah complex didn't you. Be the one to pull it off, get the perfect ending, no strings attached." He gave a sickeningly large grin, the largest Frisk had seen so far. They could tell he was enjoying this. "The world doesn't work like that Kiddo, there aren't any happy endings. You taught me that."

"I'm….sorry." Frisk rasped out. "I….pity….your…loss."

The Survivor looked a little dumbstruck by that comment. "Can it Kiddo, I'm out."He said bitterly. Frisk looked up to seem him give a little wave. "See ya."

Just like that, he vanished, no smoke, no flash of light, just gone leaving Frisk alone and struggling for air on the floor of dirty motel.

Frisk didn't know what to think any more. This was all far too much, far wilder than their greatest fears. They just sat there and let the air fill their lungs again. Frisk rolled from their side over and watched the ceiling fan spin lazily round.

---

Broken

Chapter Notes

Two chapters tonight. I had a bit of a late night tonight out watching a movie with friends so apologies if this finds you a bit late. I'm off to see Jimmy Carr tomorrow night (visiting Brisbane whopee!) so it's unlikely I'll be able to post then (hence two chapters tonight to make up for it). Glad to hear so many people are enjoying my work. I never thought it would get this big, so a big thanks for all your support!

---

Frisk had had an uneasy sleep that night. They remembered crawling back to the couch nursing their bruised ribs and drifting off back to sleep. Frisk hadn't told their Sans about the run in with the doppelganger when they awoke in the morning. Needless to say Frisk was more than a little freaked out at the prospect that Sans could end up so warped should circumstances twist him like that. Circumstances that Frisk apparently created. They didn't want to dwell on it.

Sans had hobbled around Undyne's kitchen finding a half empty box of oatmeal and some gram crackers. The fridge only had three cartons of jellied off milk so they ate it all dry.

"I know it ain't much kiddo, but you'll need your energy for when you meet dad." He sighed audibly passing the off foodstuffs to Frisk. "He's very demanding and even though you don't remember it, he absolutely hates you."

"Why?" Frisk said in between mouthfuls of cereal.

Sans shrugged. "Beats me, but he always go on about how you invalidated all of his work, all of his sacrifices and there is a grain of truth to that."

Frisk stopped. "What do you mean?

"Well, he was doing some seriously messed up shit as I'm sure you're quite aware, almost everyone in the monster community knows what he did and he's reviled." He paused. "You probably don't have Amalgamates in your timeline do you?"

Frisk shook their head. "No we do, Alphys made them based off all the old lab notes, she was doing experiments with determination. They were Gaster's notes I presume?"

"How did she handle it?"

"Poorly." Frisk replied not having the appetite to eat any more disgusting food. "She was on the verge of suicide again from the guilt of it all, fortunately as circumstance would have it, Undyne and I convinced her not to go through with it."

"Not in this timeline, and you have my dad to blame for that." Sans said sadly.

"So I never knew her?" Frisk asked.

"No you didn't, she was dead before you fell down."

Frisk pushed their bowel away. "How did Undyne cope?"

"Poorly…" Sans said echoing his young friend. "She stepped down as head of the royal guard, she stopped eating, and disappearing for months on end. Papyrus kept in touch with her but that was about it, she completely introverted." He sighed. "Best not to dwell in stuff like that, especially stuff we're going to fix."

A silence hung between them. They both knew exactly what fixing the timeline entailed.

"As I was saying," Sans yawned out eventually. "Gaster feels that by releasing all of us from the underground, you somehow invalidated all of his hard work."

"I understand, all those experiments, he wouldn't have to do them had he known I'd spring you all out anyway." Frisk said.

Sans chuckled at that. "Just because you understand kiddo, doesn't mean he's got the right attitude. Gaster is a very, very warped man. He's driven everyone away and he knows it."

"Even Papyrus?"

Sans grinned. "Especially Papyrus. He hates Mettaton, refuses to have anything to do with him. Papyrus feels he is simply returning the favour."

This Dr Gaster had to be really awful, Frisk had never heard of Papyrus being so bitter towards someone.

Frisk remembered Undyne was still asleep in the bedroom behind them. "Sans what if she wakes up, she might kill herself trying to go back and then we're stuck here in this bad timeline."

"Way ahead of you kiddo, I've already arranged for someone to take care of her." Sans said.

As if on cue, someone knocked at the door. Frisk saw that Sans was unwilling to go up and get it. They huffed loudly and walked open to the door, now thoroughly beaten by the rapid pounding of it's knocker. Frisk opened the door. It was exactly who they were expecting, only one person could be so enthusiastic.

Papyrus barged in nearly bowling Frisk right over.

"HELLO FRISK," he yelled ecstatically. When he saw Sans his tone mellowed somewhat. "Oh, hello brother."

A little purple ghost floated through the skeleton. "Hi…guys…" Mettaton said sheepishly.

Frisk's heart sank, a narcissistic skeleton and his ghost boyfriend, hardly the best minders for a murderous, comatose, royal guard.

It would have to do.

Gaster's house was exactly what you'd expect from a mad scientist. On the edge of town, a huge unkempt lawn filled with mechanical detritus and weeds, a garage brimming with odd junk.

Sans walked Frisk up to the battered flyscreen door that served as an entrance. He rapped three times.

"Dad, it's me." He yelled impatiently.

Frisk heard something rustling from inside. A huge black shape massed up behind the door and opened it inwardly.

Frisk saw him for the first time. He was a big man or more correctly skeleton, if very thin and lean. He towered over Frisk and Sans. "To what do I owe this unexpected pleasure Sans…" he asked in a deep rich voice. Then he noticed Frisk and slammed the door immediately. His shadow retreated back into the darkness of the house.

"Dad." Sans yelled. "DAD! We just want to talk!"

"Go away." Came the harsh response. "Get that little bastard out of my sight."

"Dad! Come back here." Sans banged his fist against the door again. "I'll...I'll bring Papyrus next time if you let us in."

The shadow returned from down the hallway. Gaster opened up the door a crack, his glowing eye lights illuminating the gloom beyond the portal. "You…promise?"

Sans nodded, slowly at first but with building speed. "I'll see what I can do."

"And his ghost friend, he doesn't have to come?" Gaster inquired.

"I doubt he'll want to dad."

"Suits me fine enough." He stared at Frisk. "Your friend waits outside though."

"No he doesn't dad, they're the one who wants to talk to you." Sans said.

"Aha, I see." Gaster slammed the flyscreen door again.

"Dad." Sans was getting desperate. "Dad Frisk needs your help, we need your help."

The flyscreen door opened a third time. "Finally acknowledged by brilliance eh?" He gestured inside. "Come in then, we'll have our little..." He grinned menacingly. "Chat."

Sans ushered Frisk in whispering in their ear. "You owe me for this, big time kiddo, you made me promise him a meeting with Papyrus and play to his ego. I don't know how lower I can sink."

They were led into a dilapidated lounge room. A sparking TV that looked like it had been cobbled from spare parts, blared off in the corner. Beer cans and bottles were stacked on every table, windowsill and surface that could be seen. Frisk wondered if Gaster was inebriated right now. Could skeletons even get drunk? Frisk though they had seen Sans tipsy once or twice after drinking too much eggnog over Christmas, and with the way Gaster swayed side to side they certainly didn't discount the possibility.

"So…." Gaster began. "How can I help you Sans?"

"Dad, Frisk is the one who wants to talk." Replied Sans huffily.

Dr Gaster ignored him. "We've not seen each other in so long." His words were falling out of his mouth unevenly. "Tell, tell your old man what you've been up to."

Frisk had had enough, they asked Gaster what they wanted directly. "I need to ask you some questions Dr, questions about determination."

Dr Gaster screamed suddenly. An irate roar of rage. Frisk had obviously struck a nerve. "Come to rub that in my face huh?" The huge man lunged at Frisk. "You little shit!"

A blue aura enveloped the Doctor and he slammed into the floor of the room. Sans held out his left hand. "Sit down dad! We're here to talk, not to fight."

Gaster howled. "Is this how you treat me Sans, how you treat your father, take up arms against him." He writhed along the ground, trying to push up off it. A purple aura began to buzz around the prone skeleton, he started to buck and wail. It was no use, Sans' grasp of magic was far greater than that of his father.

"Dad, stop embarrassing yourself." Sans said desperately. "Just talk to us and we'll be on our way."

Gaster wasn't having any of it, he was hysterical. "I raised you Sans, you and your brother, who knows how you would have turned out without my guidance and care!"

"I do." Said Frisk flatly. "They turned out better."

Gaster managed to look up at the human. "How, how DARE YOU!" He began a desperate crawl over to Frisk's leg. "You come in here, ask me questions, knock me down and now you of all the people who have a bone to pick with me, tell me that I failed as a parent."

"I don't need time travel to know that." Frisk responded.

A face of legitimate confusion spread across the Doctor's features. "What did you say?"

Frisk knelt down, bending their knees until their faces were almost level. "I have a feeling you already know what I'm going to ask. Correct?"

Gaster put two and two together. "Ohhhh." He gave a wry little smile. "Your little trick, who else have you told?" He looked over to Sans. "My darling son, you're in on his little secret too?"

"Yeah." Sans said flatly.

"Well, well, what a remarkable turn of events." His attentions turned back to Frisk. "But why oh why would you need the help of this old man?"

Frisk was blunt. "Asriel Dreemurr, what do you know about him?"

Gaster looked a little surprised before letting out a hacking, wheezing laugh. "Hahahaha. He's dead, you know that, you know what I did to him." He looked pleased by this remark, his face rippling into a smirk, as if he were rubbing it in.

"I do and I know it wasn't your fault." Frisk said. "These are mistakes we can fix, if you tell me how."

"You can't fix this old man!" He yelled. "You see what I am, a monument to error and a testament to MISTAKE!" He writhed around as if in pain. "My wife is dead, my sons hate me, I abused the only person who still looked up to me. I got her killed!" He screamed. "I'm a bloody disgrace! I hate this, I hate this all, I hate you, I hate this world and most of all I hate, hate, HATE myself."

Frisk could see he was in a great deal of pain. "That might be all true." They replied. "Now help me fix that."

Gaster was crying, banging his skeletal fists against the dirty floor. "You moron, you can't go back that far, you can't fix this one, you can't get this happy ending!"

Frisk shook their head. "That's where you're wrong doctor, Undyne, she has enough determination, we've done it once before."

"Bullshit." Gaster screamed suddenly. "Stop telling lies, stop taunting me!"

"It's the truth doctor, she's an anomaly amongst monsters, second only to me."

"Even if that is the truth, she won't help me, she knows what I did to Alphys, to get back at her." Gaster moaned.

"She helped me write you back into the timeline, you were meant to die that day." Frisk said quietly. "This wasn't meant to happen, things panned out a lot differently."

Gaster managed a little whisper. "…how…different."

"Happier."

Gaster nodded his head. "Quite…quite right I should think…" He finally grasped Frisk's leg feebly. "Please, I'll help you, but please just write me out again, let me die on that day, get RID of me!" Big tears fell from his face. "I've hurt so...many….people…" He sobbed. "I don't deserve anything!"

Frisk could see in that moment that he wasn't all bad.

"Gaster it's worse than that." Frisk was honest. "Whatever you did on that day, nobody even remembers you, your gone, only your notes were left behind, that's how we found you."

"Even…better…" he cried. "I….don't….deserve….anything…." He was inconsolable. "I...HATE...this...I...HATE MYSELF!" When he wasn't crying he was screaming loudly. "You think I don't regret what I've done, I'm too far down this path. I know I can't go back and I'm filled with..." He sighed. "Regret...terrible...terrible...regret."

"You need to help me and I'll help you." Frisk pleaded. "Tell me what you can about your experiments, about Asriel."

"You know everything already…" He looked up, tears running down his sockets again, swinging from angry mania to depressed melancholy. "Just...just go back and kill this worthless old man… DO IT!"

"Sans I think you can let him go." Frisk said to their friend. "We're leaving, he doesn't have anything for us."

The weight lifted off Gaster, but he still didn't get up. He squirmed around like a wounded animal, crying and bucking as if in pain. Frisk figured he mostly likely was.

Just as they got up to leave Frisk remembered something. Gaster made notes, notes that could survive a reset.

Frisk turned on the ball of their foot as they reached the door. The conversation with the other Sans, could it be that their Gaster had once exited the timeline.

"Where are you going kiddo?" Questioned Sans as Frisk walked back into the living room. "Leave him, you heard the man, he doesn't have anything for us!"

"Wait outside Sans."

"I'm not leaving you in there with him, you know how unstable he is!" Sans saw he wasn't deterring his young friend. He brought out the ultimate threat. "I'll call your mom!"

Frisk ignored him. They made their way back into the ratty lounge room.

"Gaster," Frisk began softly "we knew about you from your notes, whatever you did erased you from the timeline, but what you wrote down, that all persisted. You have to tell me what you did."

Gaster had slumped up against his couch, giving half-hearted sobs. "..Go…" was all he could manage.

Frisk pressed on. "Gaster you can still help us. What were you doing when you wrote your notes? Tell me what you did with your notes."

"…I…don't…want…to…exist…anymore." He whimpered. Gaster took a few deep breaths he attempted to make a proper sentence. "I have these horrible dreams, dreams of a happy family, all together…" He broke down again. "It…makes….me….so…angry….knowing….I'll….never….have….that."

Strange dreams? Similar to Sans. Frisk had to stay on point. "What were you doing with the notes doctor? Please, it could be really important."

Gaster wasn't listening. He sniffled and look Frisk right in their narrowed eyes. He spent a few minutes regaining composure before he began to talk again. "I tried to bring back my wife, Aster, I thought….I thought I could inject her ashes with determination, but the machine wasn't ready yet. I just wanted to surprise my boys with a Christmas present they'd never forget, I felt so guilty, I didn't see them enough." He held his skull in his hands. "That Undyne girl, she..." he took a series of rapid breaths "you tell me now she was time travelling, to save me of all people, I see that now." His hands fell away and he gripped Frisk's sweater suddenly. "That was the biggest mistake of her life…"

Frisk grabbed Gaster's hands in fright, trying to pry them off. "Sans asked for her to do It." they said quickly. "It wasn't her idea." They succeeded in pushing Gaster off, he wasn't trying seriously to hold on going limp like a noodle as soon as any real force was applied. "I had a hand in it too, I wanted to see if we could save Asriel, you seemed like a good place to start." Frisk took the Doctor's now removed hands in their own. "Now please tell me what you did with your notes."

He'd already started cry again."….Do you have any idea….how many people I've hurt Frisk?" He rasped.

"I've come from a timeline where you don't exist, I know full well what the effects are, I know people are happier without you. Yeah, I do know who you've hurt and in what ways."

"…Then…you'll….let…me….die?" He begged him.

Frisk didn't know what else to do. It came naturally to them. Try as they might as much as the knew they should, they could never bring themselves to hate another thinking, feeling being.

They wrapped his arms around the skeleton. "I forgive you Doctor, I know you're hurting too."

Gaster gave a little gasp of surprise. "Why?"

"I know you're a victim of circumstance too, now please, please help me help another."

"My…my…notes you say?" Gaster whispered.

They returned to the motel to find Papyrus and Mettaton playing junior jumble nonchalantly on the floor. Undyne had fortunately yet to wake.

"Sleeping like a kitten!" Said Papyrus proudly. "My nursing skills are the greatest, as is only befitting of the GREAT PAPYRUS! Whilst we eagerly waited for your return, I took the liberty of cooking you all a bowl of spaghetti!" He thumbed towards Mettaton. "Mettaton helped too."

"That's great guys, good job." Frisk smiled. "You two can go now."

"NYEH HEH NO!" Papyrus said resolutely. "I've made a commitment, I'm not leaving until Undyne is feeling better."

Frisk sighed, it couldn't really hurt. "Okay then, you'll need to find somewhere to sleep, I've got the couch, Sans has got the… floor."

"Oh, I don't need anywhere to sleep frisky…" Mettaton gave a meek little smile. "I can just hover in place."

"AND I." Papyrus exclaimed triumphantly. "Came prepared for our little sleepover." He rolled out a sleeping bag and pillows. "NYEH, HE, NYOO, you can never know when you might need to do a sleepover, so I have an emergency sleepover kit ready for occasions just like this!"

Frisk couldn't help but give a little smile. "Neat idea uncle Papyrus."

"Uncle?"

Frisk remembered they weren't as close in this timeline. "Yeah, because you're so cool and all, I think of you like an uncle."

Papyrus' jaw practically hit the floor. "Frisk! That's the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me!" He turned to Mettaton and Sans. "No offense."

The two of them took it differently. Sans looked unfazed but Mettaton seemed slightly upset by the revelation. "Oh…" Mettaton whispered. "None taken Pappy…."

Frisk wasn't convinced but Papyrus didn't pick up on it. "Wowie! So should I call you my nephew or is it niece?" He said putting a bony finger to his chin.

"I'm okay with either, whichever you prefer." Frisk said.

"Okay nephew Frisk, I will go prepare our feast of spaghetti it celebration!" He strutted off to the kitchen, red scarf flowing out behind him.

Sans patted Frisk on the back. "You didn't have to do that Frisk, he knows you like him."

Frisk shook their head. "No, no, I really mean it." They came closer to Sans so that the others couldn't hear. "In my timeline he really is like family, so are you, so is Mettaton."

"They're still together in the other timeline?" Sans asked. "I'm sure Papyrus is just in it for a fling, he could do much better."

The irony of the comment was not lost on Frisk. "It's more complicated than that, but yeah, they're together. They really do like one another."

"I'll take your word for it kiddo." Sans said. "Does your mom know what we're doing?"

Frisk hadn't thought of that. They hadn't even seen Toriel in this timeline.

"Do you two still know each other Sans?" Frisk asked.

Sans looked toward the ground, scuffing his sandals against the floor. "We broke it off after dad became a problem, turning up on our doorstep uninvited. He took every opportunity to sabotage it. He mouthed off at you, at me, at Papyrus, even at your mom. We still wanted to be together, but it was just going to become more and more painful. So I ended it, before anyone got hurt."

"That's rough buddy." Frisk said. "But you know what he's been through."

Sans shot him a dirty look and actually dropped his usually all pervasive grin. "Don't give me that crap kiddo, you of all people should know how much pain he's put us through, the world sounds like a utopia without him. He killed Alphys, don't tell me his song and dance sop story tugged your heartstrings, he wants us to feel sorry for him, that's what he does."

"He's hurt Sans, very hurt." Frisk said quietly. "Maybe we could make him better too?"

"You can start by scrubbing him from the timeline kiddo, it ain't murder if he asked for it and he sure as hell deserves it."
"So assisted suicide is okay?" Frisk said exasperated. "If I didn't offer unconditional mercy then none of us would have escaped the underground in the first place!"
"Every rule has exceptions kid. This one of em." Sans said dourly. "It isn't really kill, we just aren't saving him."

Frisk realized they were getting off the topic of their mother. "Sans, my mother, you're still on good terms right?"

"Amicable I guess." He returned to scuffing his sandals along the dirty floor. "She trusts me enough for you to hang out with me."

"I'll need you to get in contact, tell her I'm staying another night with you." Frisk said. "Me and you need to plan our next move, Undyne too if she wakes up and isn't feeling murderous."

"I wouldn't blame her kiddo."

"I don't either Sans, but I'm worried about her safety. If she tries to pull another stunt she could kill herself very easily." Frisk looked glum. "I'm worried about her Sans, I don't know what she'll do if she wakes up and she's my only ticket out of this mess if things keep going south."

Sans patted him on the back. "We'll figure it out kiddo. I'll get on the horn to your mother, see if I can get her to agree for you to stay another night."

Frisk gave a little smile. Despite the change in personality it was still Sans. Dependable and helpful when push came to shove. "Thanks Sans."

Frisk could smell the spaghetti, it was almost done and assuming Papyrus hadn't gotten "creative" with it, it could well be edible.

Whilst they were waiting to be served Frisk sat and listened at the table to Sans' desperate conversation to their mother.

Sans was pacing back and forth on the phone as he spoke. "Tori… I know it was only supposed to be one night. It's a big maths project… Yeah, I'm helping Frisk with it. I am the maths head am I not? You know how they struggle with math. Yeah…Yeah… Okay. One more night is all, I promise. Hang on I'll put them on for you." He waddled over and handed Frisk his mobile.

"For you kiddo, mom wants to talk."

Frisk took the phone from him and put it to their ear. "Hi mom." They began. They were cut off immediately.

"You're in big trouble my child!" It was still her, but she sounded different somehow. Reduced. Tired. "You've had me worried sick, Sans was supposed to drop you off early this morning and now he's telling me you intend to stay another night, I've been terrified that something had happened to you!"

"Mom, calm down, he's been helping me with school work." They lied.

"Oh yeah? What kind of schoolwork."

"Maths, you're being paranoid mom." Frisk felt guilty. They hated lying in general, but to their mother was really something else.

"What kind of maths?" She was really probing him.

"Mom!" Frisk said exasperated.

"I'm sorry Frisky. You're right, I'm just getting in a tizzy about your safety." Frisk could hear her tearing up on the other end of the line. "I just want something to go right."

They felt terrible. "Don't cry mom, it's just some homework, nothing to tear up over, you can pick me up from school on Monday afternoon. Sans can drop me off." Frisk smiled. "I'm in good hands with Sans mom, don't worry about it."

"I know, very good hands. Tell his brother I said hi."

"I will mom."

"I…I love you Frisky…" She whispered. "Don't forget that."

"I won't mom, love you heaps."

"I...I love you more."

"Not possible mom." Frisk ended the call. Otherwise they'd be at it for some time.

A huge steaming pot of Spaghetti whomped down on the table before Frisk, startling them with the clatter.

"READY NEPHEW?" Cried Papyrus excitedly. "I went for some traditional spaghetti, nothing beats a straight Bolognese once in a while."

Frisk made a silent prayer of thanks to whoever was watching over them. "I bet it tastes delicious Papyrus."

"OF COUSE IT DOES!' He yelled ladling out huge scoops from the bowel. Frisk took a cautionary bite. It tasted good, better than in the original timeline somehow.

"Mmmm, Papyrus this is really good." Frisk gargled in between mouthfuls. "Where did you learn to cook this?"

Papyrus looked sad for a moment. "Undyne was going to teach me, but some days I'd turn up and she'd be crying, or gone off somewhere. Even when she was feeling up to it, she was no fun, we made really bad pasta." He gave a synthetic grin. "So eventually I agreed I'd take proper cooking classes with professionals, I even learned have to make dishes other than Spaghetti!

The spaghetti didn't taste as nice now Frisk knew the story. They made a concerted effort to finish it. "Thanks uncle Papyrus." They said when they were done, pushing the plate away. "You really care a lot about Undyne."

Papyrus' face lit up. "Yes I do nephew Frisk, she's my best friend and I really hate to see her sick." He suddenly looked glum again. "Or sad…"

Suddenly Mettaton drifted into the room yelling loudly. "PAPPY, PAPPY!"

The skeleton spun round smile quickly re-attached. "Yes boyfriend?"

Mettaton was drifting from side to side nervously. "PAPPY SHE'S GONE!"

"Oh no…" Whispered Frisk.

"PAPPY COME QUICK!" He drifted back through the door Papyrus and Frisk close behind.

The room's curtains were blowing in from the draft of the open window, the sheets had been kicked off. It looked like she'd left in quite a hurry. Frisk looked out the windowsill to see a fire escape down to the parking lot.

"She can't have gone far guys, we have to go after her." Frisk said.

Papyrus looked confused. "Why would she run? We're her friends, we want to help her."

Frisk dodged the question. "She's really ill Papyrus, you need to go and find her with Mettaton, she trusts you two."

"Are you coming nephew?" Papyrus said. "She's your friend too."

Frisk shook their head. "I need to stay here and work with Sans, it's really important."

"Frisk, what could be more important than this?" Said Papyrus, a look of concern painted across his skull. "You said she's really sick, she could be in trouble. That seems a little more important than your project with Sans."

"Me and Sans are working on a cure for Undyne's illness." Frisk said quickly. It wasn't exactly a lie, just not a whole truth. "We're going to fix this Papyrus, we just need your help."

"Maybe we should take her to a doctor Frisky? Once we've found her." Said Mettaton quietly.

Frisk shook their head. "This is a special illness, one doctors won't be able to treat." They lied quickly. It didn't sound very convincing.

Papyrus narrowed his eyesockets. "What kind of illness Frisk, you haven't told us a lot."

Frisk didn't have time for this. "Sans can come too, I can do the work on my own." Frisk knew Papyrus trusted his brother.

Papyrus put a bony finger to his chin. "NYEH!" He said suddenly. "Okay nephew, me Mettaton and Sans will go out looking for Undyne, you stay here and hold down the fort."

Frisk smiled. "Thanks Papyrus, this really means a lot."

"But I wish you'd be more open with us Frisk." Said Papyrus suddenly. "You've been very cryptic lately, it's, odd." The skeleton shook his head. "NYEH HEH who am I kidding, I trust you Frisk, if you're keeping a secret from me I know it's for the best." He suddenly got excited. "Maybe it could even be a surprise! Wowie!"

Frisk scratched the back of their neck in shame. "I'd never hide anything from you guys." They lied. "I'll have the bed warm and ready for when you bring her back."

"Okay nephew. We'll be off on our super important mission now!" He put his hand through Mettaton, eliciting a little moan from him. "Come on boyfriend, we'll go and find Undyne and bring her back safely, she can't be far."

Frisk sat down on Undyne's bed. They really didn't like all this cloak and dagger at all, but they didn't have time to explain the situation to anybody else. The clock was ticking, Frisk was expected to go to school tomorrow and now Undyne was out on the streets somewhere. It was only a matter of time before she tried to go back in time again and Frisk still needed her help.

Was Asriel worth all this? Could he even be saved? Questions raced through Frisk's head. "No." Frisk whispered. "We've come this far, we can't turn back now." Frisk was determined to see this through, they'd made a promise, even one that couldn't be remembered, and they fully intended to see it through.

"We'll see each other again. I promised you Asriel. I promised you that you'd see mom again. I'm not going to back down. Not when we're so close to cracking this." Frisk said to themself.

The sound of the motel door slam and muffled conversation could be heard from outside. Frisk was alone. Time to get to work.

Gaster had explained as much as he could of the process, but it seemed he didn't quite know the details himself. It look as if one could expose determination to inanimate objects could allow them to persist through a reset, assuming one didn't go back to before it was created. Frisk figured if they could get an extensive set of notes to Gaster before his experiment went awry, maybe they could figure out how to go back further and maybe save Asriel. It was a long shot, but the best one they had.

There was a problem, even then. As far as Frisk was aware they couldn't send anything back in time, just a person. No way of getting the notes back that far without writing them then and there. And Frisk wasn't sure Undyne would have the time to prepare a persistent notebook and deliver it to Gaster in the past if she didn't just kill him or let him die straight off the bat.

Undyne was still an asset, as the only person who could rewind that far Frisk still needed her help. But they couldn't count on her as much as they'd like too, especially with what was happening now.

Something creaked behind Them. A footstep against aging floorboards. Frisk turned around to see the source of the noise. Their face went white and they toppled off their chair in fright.

"What have you done…?" Frisk whispered breathlessly. "Doctor what have you done?"

Doctor Gaster was standing there, but he looked different. His skull was no longer smooth but had two huge cracks running down it one merging with his right eyesocket and the other transforming his mouth and left eye into a single fissure down his skull.

He waved his hands at Frisk, making little signs with them. He began to creep forward, a slow shambling gait, his mouth flexed a bit and a distorted wail emerged. He sounded like a person screaming into a void.

"Stay back…" Frisk stammered. "Don't come any closer!"

The Gaster thing didn't listen. He continued his advance.

---

Raining

Chapter Notes

Hi guys, sorry for the big delay, I hope it's worth the wait.
I'd like to just thank all of your for such support because writing is actually a very important tool for me when I'm feeling anxious or down (which is quite often for me). Some characters (such as Dr Gaster) possess bits of my personality (the habitual self loathing in his case) and I find that channeling those thoughts and feelings into a character helps me actualize and overcome them. To hear that so many people enjoy my work is just astounding, so again a huge thanks to everyone who's taken the time to read my work! I'm in the process of writing the last three chapters...over...and...over again until I'm happy with a result. Oh, yes the chapter itself. I feel like Monster Kid is such an under-rated character in the game. So I felt I needed to have at least one chapter in which he features heavily. If I ever go on to write more for this series (big if) I'll make sure he's a central character. Enjoy.

---

Undyne was starving. She felt like she hadn't eaten in days, which may not have been an inaccurate assumption. She didn't know what had happened. One moment she was trying to go back and the next she felt like she was melting. She remembered Frisk over her, crying, saying something about puzzles.

She had to focus. Alphys was gone, fixing that was her top priority. Fixing that was her only priority. People turned to look at the underdressed cyclopean fishwoman walking through the town in the late afternoon. She returned their looks with glares of anger, causing people to avert their gaze rapidly. Despite nearly two years having passed since their release from the underground, monsters were still something of an oddity and most humans couldn't help but gawk as one passed by.

She was thankful when it started to rain, the water felt good on her skin, hydrated her and most importantly forced humans inside for the most part. Away from their prying eyes she felt a little better.

Undyne didn't have a plan as such, what with her mind was still reeling with all that had happened. Her best friend, her Alphys, was dead. She was being kept from going back and fixing by Frisk of all people. She felt dead inside. She felt betrayed. She just needed to get away, get something to eat.

Are car drove past throwing dirty water onto her, soaking all her clothes through. She didn't mind the moisture but it was getting cold quickly. She couldn't handle harsh temperatures without proper clothing.

"UNDYNE!" She heard her name, whirling around to see to her horror, Papyrus amidst a group of umbrella wielding humans. He stuck out like a tall, sore bone white thumb. "UNDYNE WHERE ARE YOU?"

Undyne ducked into an alley. She didn't want to go back. She'd had enough of screwing around with the timelines, she just wanted Alphys back. She just wanted to see her again, to tell her that everything would be okay.

"Yoooo!"

She jumped in fright, nearly slipping over in the downpour. She whipped her neck around to view her assailant. He was small, squat, a striped shirt, no arms and a stupid grin on his face.

She knew him, her adoring fan from Snowdin. Kid.

"Yoooo! Undyne! Fancy seeing you here!" He prattled excitedly. "I was walking home when I saw you, I just needed to come over and say hi!" He bounced on the balls of his feet excitedly. "So, uhhh, what are you doing Undyne?"

Undyne put a finger to her lips. "Shush, not so loud, I'm hiding."

Kid's voice dropped down to a whisper. "Hiding from who?"

She peaked round the corner. Papyrus was still meandering around, calling out her name. She turned her attention back to Kid. "Some people want to capture me. I need a place to lay low for a while."

Kid's eyes began to grow wide. "Yo!" He whispered. "You can always stay at my place Undyne, come on, we're only a few blocks away!" He scuttled off and she moved after him. "Better than nothing." She whispered under her breath.

Kid smashed his head against the door repeatedly, grunting with each impact. It looked painful.

"Do…do you want me to do that?" Asked Undyne.

Kid panted. "Nah, nah, Undyne, I'm fine, I've got these spines on my head for a reason." He resumed his head knocking.

A voice from the other side. "Kid I know your there, I'm trying to open the door."

Kid shouted back. "Get mom to open it, she has arms doesn't she?"

"She's got a migraine, I've been taking care of her all day!"

Undyne pushed past Kid and turned the doorknob. It swung inward knocking someone back. "Ahh." He yelled falling on his haunches. He looked similar to Kid but he was more orange than yellow. He looked up at Undyne and scrambled back with his two legs.

"Uhh, hi there." He managed eventually. "You must be Undyne, my son talks highly of you."

"Yeah dad!" Said Kid bounding in from the rain. "Dad it's totally her, I met her walking down the street." He lent in close to his father. "Keep quite dad. She's on the run, people are trying to kidnap her."

Kid's dad shot Undyne a worried look. "You don't look so good miss…?" He was looking for a second name.

"Just call me Undyne." Undyne said.

"Ms Undyne, you don't look that good, perhaps we can offer you something?"

She was hungry. "If you wouldn't mind…" She said a little sheepishly. This was all so rude, barging in, knocking someone over and then taking their food.

Kid's dad looked over at him. "Kid, would you go and fetch our friend here something to eat?"

Kid looked ecstatic. "Coming right up!" He squealed before hurrying off out of the room.

Kid returned his gaze to Undyne. His face morphed from one of pleasant surprise to dour concern. His voice sounded more sober and serious. "All right, what's he done, what's going on?"

Undyne was a bit surprised. "Nothing's wrong sir, your son just bumped into me and invited me to your place, I needed to get out of the rain is all."

Kid's dad didn't look convinced. "He said you were "on the run", what was he going on about, he isn't in trouble is he?"

Undyne shook her head. "No, no, no. I knew he was such a huge fan and all, I thought I could make him feel useful. You know, brighten his day."

"Uh, huh." Kid's dad raised an eyebrow. "My son really looks up to you, so I appreciate the gesture, but lately me and my wife have been trying to talk him out of his fantasy of fallowing in your footsteps and becoming a royal guard. When you stepped down as head he practically cried buckets. He's still very much in love with the idea."

Stepped down. That was news to Undyne. It wasn't that farfetched come to think of it, Alphys' death probably broke her heart in this timeline. She doubted she would have had the strength to continue doing the job.

"Okay." She said finally. "I'll get out of your hair as soon as this rain lets up."

"It's not that we think you're a bad influence on him or anything." The lie was paper thin. "We'd just like him to follow a more, productive career."

She grit her teeth. She was reminded strongly of her father. She said something stupid.

"Maybe… you should encourage his passions?" She said passively aggressively.

Kid's dad opened his mouth in protest but before he could say anything his son ran back into the room, a plate clenched between his teeth. On it a nice pile of sushi.

"Cmmm, unn, Undnn." He mumbled out of his full mouth. He flexed his head to indicate a direction. She followed him to their dining room, a pretty plain affair, minimal decor with four seats around a square table. Two of them didn't have arm rests.

Kid sat down at one of the rest-less chairs and plonked down the plate on the table. "Sorry if I got any saliva on the Sushi!" He said, his mouth free.

"That's…okay."

Sushi. She loved Sushi. Alphys loved Sushi. She began to cry a little.

Kid noticed. "Yo! Undyne, don't worry, your safe here! Those guys won't get us." He rocked his chair closer. "Or is it the Sushi? I thought you really liked Sushi, when I found out you liked it I started to eat it too! I like all of the things you like Undyne!"

She made an effort to stem the tears. "Thanks Kid." She whispered. "Yeah, I do like Sushi."

He looked puzzled. "Then why are you crying, was it those people looking for you?"

She shook her head and started eating. "No." She said in between mouthfuls. "No. Those people were my friends, they were looking for me."

"Like hide and seek?"

"No."

Another puzzled look. "Then why were you running away?"

She thought about that question. "I just didn't want to be found." She said eventually.

"Didn't want to be found?" Kid looked concerned. "Undyne, what's wrong."

She answered him honestly. "I'm scared Kid, I lost a friend and I'm scared I'll never see her again."

"They went missing?"

"Sort of." She didn't want to upset him with the details. "The point is she's gone, my friends think they can help me find her, but they want to do it their way."

"And you don't agree with them?"

"No." She said. "I want what they want, but we have different ways of getting there."

"You all want your friend back, why can't you agree on how to do it."

She looked down. "They want to find some more people, others who went missing, they need my help, I think it's too risky." She bit her lip. "I know it's selfish, but I just want my friend back."

Kid looked upset by this. "Undyne that isn't cool, you should help people right? You need to help your friends. Especially if they are helping someone else."

She held her head in her hands. "I know, I know. I'm just so scared that we'll stuff it up, I don't want to go through with it." She looked at Kid, her eye filling with tears. "I just want to see her again and I'm afraid my friends won't know how to pull it off."

Kid was obviously thinking about it. "Undyne." He said. "I'd follow your lead any day of the week, if you asked me to jump, I'd say how high!" He smiled. "I know you'll make the right decision. You always do!"

She pushed the rest of the Sushi plate away. "I just don't know what to do, I know my friends mean well, but I have this terrible feeling, that we'll stuff it up, that I'll never see her again."

"What would she want Undyne, what would she want you to do?" Kid asked. "Will she agree with what you did to find her? Will she like your method Undyne? There the kind of questions I'd ask myself if I were in your shoes." He noticed she wasn't wearing shoes. "Not literally of course."

Undyne hadn't thought about that. What would Alphys want?

To help the others. To help her friends. To save Asriel.

The rain was letting up.

"I should go Kid." She wiped her eyes with her forearm. "Thanks for the Sushi and the chat."

"No problem Undyne, anything for you." He gave a look of concern. "Yo, you'll be okay out there right!"

She gave her best smile. "Yeah." She said quietly. "Yeah, I've decided to go back and help my friends."

Kid looked happy. "All right Undyne! I knew you had it in you!"

She got up off of the seat, Kid jumped off of his. "I'll walk you to the door." He said running out to the foyer. She followed him. He was trying to open the door with his teeth.

"Let me get that…" She turned the doorknob and stepped out into the clearing rain. "Thanks Kid."

"Any time!" He shot back with a big smile.

Suddenly she knelt down and gave him a hug. "Yo…" He whispered.

"Don't ever give up on your dreams, you promise me that." She said quietly into his ear. "You'd make a killer royal guardsman, I'll put in the good word for you when you're old enough, okay?" She gave him a little kiss on the cheek. "You've got a big heart Kid, thanks for everything."

Kid could only manage a little squeak. He fell on his haunches as she released him. His gaze was distant and milky eyed. "..Yo…" he breathed.

She walked down his driveway flashing him a parting toothy smile. "See you round punk!"

Kid didn't even notice. He just rocked catatonically on his doorstep.

---

Hands

Chapter Notes

Another long chapter, some pretty big stuff happens as you'll see. I'm so glad so many of you are enjoying this. I'll certainly finish this story, but I think i could do more if you guys want it. Anyway, hope you enjoy as always.

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The Gaster thing continued to advance on Frisk, throwing out signs with his hands and wailing in a most disconcerting way.

"Dr Gaster?" Frisk begged. "Doctor, please stop, don't come any closer."

"Creepy isn't he?"

Frisk spotted a blue light radiating from the corner of the room.

"You…" Frisk gasped.

"Me." The Survivor gestured to the Gaster thing. "This time I've decided to bring a friend."

Frisk continued to retreat from "Gaster". "What…what did you do to him?"

The survivor looked genuinely confused. "I didn't do anything, he brought this upon himself, a man out of time." He put a bony hand to his chest. "Just like yours truly."

Frisk came up against a wall. No more room to backpedal. "Gaster" bent in close, his drone getting louder and louder in Frisk's ears. The hand signs increased in intensity.

"Make him stop!" Frisk begged. "Call him off!"

The Survivor shook his head. "He just wants to talk is all, he's still a bit loopy after what happened but he means well."

"What did you do to him?" Frisk asked again.

The Survivor laughed. "You're under the false impression this is the Dr Gaster from this timeline. You couldn't be further from the truth, this timeline is the exception, not the rule. Dad almost always shunts himself out, not intentionally of course but the results the same." He gestured to the Gaster. "I met this one on the way here, he was coming to visit you Frisk, and I thought we might go together."

"I don't understand." Frisk said.

"Still haven't put two and two together. Figures, you were always pretty slow when we were fighting." The Survivor laughed never dropping that smarmy grin. "There are a huge number of timelines, have a big enough event, a death, a friendship, a tragedy or a triumph and something else can split off." His eyelights went out. "People can split off too."

"Gaster" bent down and reached out to Frisk.

"No…" Frisk said terrified. "No…stay back…"

A bony hand caressed their cheek. Frisk flinched, closing their eyes, expecting the worst. All "Gaster" did was tilt his head to the side and emit a soft purring wail.

"Aww, he's taken a liking to you." Said the Survivor. "He did come all this way just to see you."

Frisk was crying little tears of fear. "You're scaring me, please just stop." The breathed.

Gaster almost fell backwards onto himself. "Sorry." He said softly in a terrifying, broken tone. Tears fell out of the skeleton's eyesockets, mingling with Frisk's on the ground. "Sorry." He rasped again.

"Impressive." The Survivor said with false positivity. "You got him talking kiddo, he rarely ever does that. He must really like you huh?"

The father slinked back up to his full towering height and turned to the son. Dr Gaster made a flurry of handsigns to the shorter skeleton. Some meaning was apparently conveyed after a few seconds.

The Survivor shrugged. "I don't know, do you want me to translate for you?"

"Gaster" nodded purring.

"Okay then."

The taller skeleton began to sign something to the Survivor. "He says…" he began. "He says he apologizes he can't really talk, that he isn't one for conversation."

"You understand him?" Frisk said quietly, trying to get their breathing back under control.

The Survivor shrugged. "I picked up his sign language, I've met a bunch of him, it's a necessary skill out there I assure you." He returned his attentions to the bigger man looking at his hands. "He….he wants to make a proposition with you…he says…he can help your friends, he says…." The Survivor's eyes went wide. "He can save Asriel with your help."

Frisk gasped. "Is that why you're here? To help me?" They narrowed their eyes more than usual. "You said you hated me when we last met?"

"That's why he's here, I'm interested more than anything. I'll help out, I want to see how far this little rabbit hole can go." Said the shorter skeleton.

Frisk didn't like that comment but he played along. "What does he want out of it?"

The Survivor signed something to his father. The two had a little dialogue lasting about thirty seconds. "His wife…"

"His wife?" Frisk remembered the determination extractor, Gaster had been trying to bring back his wife. "Does he have a plan?"

The Survivor signed Frisk's question. Another short response. "Yes…" Confirmed the Survivor "Yes he does."

"What is it?" Frisk said, their heart racing.

Another exchange of hands. The Survivor grinned maliciously at his father's response. "Oh, you're not going to like this Kiddo, not one lick."

"What is it?" Frisk repeated. "Tell me."

"We'll knock you out of the timeline, just like me, just like him. Doomed to become a timeless wanderer like us, everyone here will forget you, the whole world will move on without you." He smiled. "If your game for that, well then, you might just have a shot at saving your fluffy little friend."

Frisk didn't know quite what to say. "What would I have to do?"

"Well first, you'd need to show us how to do your little trick of rewinding the timeline that far."

Frisk shook their head. "It wasn't me, Undyne did it."

"Undyne?"

"She has really strong determination, almost as strong as mine." Frisk answered.

The Survivor looked genuinely surprised. "Huh? Stronger than me even, well now. That is news."

"She's missing at the moment, saving Gaster meant Alphys died, she couldn't handle what we'd done, and I don't even know where she is." Frisk looked down.

"Well then." Said the Survivor. "I don't think we can reach an agreement even if we wanted to, you need to take us back that far and we can't do it by ourselves, dad and I aren't strong enough to hold it more than a few moments, we only have enough power to move side to side, to piggyback off of your resets."

Frisk held up their hands in desperation. "Hang on don't go just yet! We're looking for her right now, assume we found her, what would we do next?"

The short skeleton turned back to his father and signed him a few questions. Another long dialogue. Eventually after about two minutes of constant signing he relayed the plan back to Frisk.

"Right…" he began. "First we'd need to leave Undyne a persistent note telling her the date she needs to reset to and what to do when she gets there. Then we take you out of the timeline with a set of persistent notes in hand, we give them to dad in the past. If we give him the whole lowdown on how determination works he might be able to find a way to infuse himself or somebody else with enough for them to travel back even further. You'll then be there at the moment of Asriel's death and take his soul, then give it to him later." The Survivor shrugged. "Even then it's a massive longshot."

"Why do I have to be out of the timeline to do it, why can't one of you do it?" Frisk asked.

"We can't absorb a monster soul. Only you can do that Kiddo and to get back that far we need to take you out of the timeline altogether."

"But why can't you just stop his death altogether, why can't you go back and stop any of this from happening at all?" Frisk ventured.

The Survivor chuckled. "I think you're forgetting something, his death, it spurs king Asgore into his quest to free monster kind. If Asriel doesn't get killed we'd all still be trapped underground, so unless you want that…" He winked. "It's pretty non-negotiable."

Frisk couldn't condemn an entire people to imprisonment and exile. They also couldn't condemn Asriel to an existence of torment. It was the only way.

Frisk thought about all they'd lose.

Mom.

Sans.

Papyrus.

Mettaton.

Undyne.

Alphys.

Even Asgore.

They wouldn't even know them. They wouldn't even remember them.

"Okay…" Frisk said finally. "If that's what it takes to save him, to save all of you, then I'm up for it." Frisk felt like they'd just sold his soul to a devil. Frisk felt like that wasn't too far off in all honesty, they didn't trust this sans for a minute. But they were desperate, this was a real chance.

The Survivor clapped his hands. "Good! Now onto the other part of our arrangement. Dad's wife, my mother, Aster."

"What's the plan for her?" Frisk said quietly. "How do we save her?"

"Dad says she dies from a bone disease, fitting I know. He couldn't cure it then but they have the cure now. He wants that cure to be part of the notes we give his younger self. If he can find a way back, if, then I guess he can cure his wife as well."

"But if that happens, won't the determination research never take place, if his wife never got ill he'd have no reason to start it and Flowey won't be created. Who would I give Asriel's soul to?" Frisk questioned.

"The research was commissioned by Asgore anyway, dad just took it out on his own personal tangent. Flowey and the Amalgamates still get made regardless of what we do." Sans responded.

Frisk was okay with those terms. "Fine, I hope we can help her too."

"Of course you do Kiddo." The Survivor winked. "Anything to titillate that messiah complex of yours eh?"

Frisk ignored him and stole a look at Dr Gaster. He'd been fidgeting with his hands through their entire dialogue.

The look on his mutilated face changed suddenly his bony body seized up. He tapped his son's shoulder quickly pointing to something behind Frisk. Frisk turned around to see Undyne standing there in the doorway, barely dressed and sopping wet with rain.

"Undyne!" Frisk said as they climbed up off the floor and ran over to her. Frisk threw their arms around her legs. "You came back!"

She knelt down and hugged him back, her waterlogged ponytail dripping over him. "Never should have left Frisk, I want to help you save him, it's what Alphys would have wanted anyway."

Frisk's heart lifted. "Thanks Undyne." They whispered. "I promise you'll see her again."

They held their embrace for a good few seconds. When Undyne eventually looked up she spotted the Survivor. "Hey, when did Sans get here?" She asked.

"He isn't Sans Undyne." Frisk whispered.

"What do you mean he isn't Sans?" Undyne began. She spotted the other Gaster.

"You." She growled "You're Dr Gaster aren't you?" She stood up. "You look different, uglier." She gave a wry smile. "Matches your soul more at least, you took away my Alphie and I'll never forgive you."

"Such mean words." Said the Survivor. "Glad to see your still in one piece, we still need you for the plan. If you're willing to help us."

"You don't talk like that Sans." Undyne looked down at Frisk. "What's going on Frisk? These are Sans and Dr Gaster aren't they?"

Frisk struggled with a response. "Yes and no. It's complicated, they are alternate versions, from another timeline."

Undyne seemed pretty unfazed. Frisk reckoned she'd heard something similar with all the anime she watched with Alphys. "Why are they here then?"

"I honestly don't know." Frisk replied. "They want our help with some stuff and they'll help us."

"We can hear you guys." Said the Survivor looking slightly irate. "It's rude to talk about someone when they are listening."

Undyne ignored him. "Can we trust them?"

Frisk shook their head. "No, but they have what we need so we don't have much of a choice."

"You could always walk away Kiddo. We haven't done anything permanent yet." The Survivor said. "It's just an offer."

"What is he talking about Frisk?" Undyne asked. "What offer are we agreeing to?"

Frisk took a deep breath. "You aren't going to like it Undyne. I'm going to do whatever it was Gaster did. I'm going to disappear from the timeline altogether. I need to do it, it's the only way to give us a real shot at saving Asriel."

Undyne's eye went wide. "Frisk no! There has be another way!" She grabbed their sweater. "I won't let you, it's not worth it, think about all the people who will forget you!"

Frisk brushed her off. "I made a promise Undyne, I need to do this, and you can't stop me." They were determined. "I'm going to see this through."

"I won't help you, I won't have any part in this." Undyne said furiously. "I won't let you throw away your entire life like this. Think about your friends, about your family!" A little stream of tears was flowing from her eye as she choked up.

"Undyne, don't make this any harder. Please." Frisk begged.

"Shut up Frisk, I won't let you do it, there has to be another way!" Undyne turned to the Survivor. "Tell me there is another way!"

The Survivor just grinned. "Not to my knowledge, sorry."

"It'll be okay Undyne. We can create a notebook that can survive our resets. Will make sure you get it later on, you'll remember me and I promise we'll meet back up in the present." Frisk smiled sadly.

"Frisk I don't want to be the only one who remembers you!" Undyne said desperately. "I want everyone to remember you!"

"You can re-introduce me then, it will take some time." Frisk tried. "They'll underst..."

"They'll think we're crazy, they won't believe a word of it." Undyne grimaced. "Honestly Frisk, would you believe it if someone told you all the stuff we've done?

Frisk shook their head. "We'll point out all the little coincidences, I can prove my powers to them, and they'll believe us."

"I still won't help you Frisk. This is madness!" Undyne was crying fully now shaking him by the sweater. "I won't let you throw this all away."

"If I may suggest something." Said the Survivor. "It would be for you two to hurry up and agree whether or not you're going to do this. You're taking up our precious time."

They both ignored him. "Frisk, his life isn't worth yours."

"His fate wasn't his fault Undyne, I can't just leave him." Frisk said flatly.

"It wasn't your fault either, you don't owe him anything."

Frisk grimaced. "I made a promise."

"Which he doesn't even remember!" She yelled. "You don't have to do this, you don't have to help him."

"Undyne he's my friend, we bonded in that time I was with him, he was like the little brother I always wanted." Frisk said finally.

Undyne was taken aback by that. Her words began to crack up. "He doesn't remember you."

"Undyne please." Frisk was trying not to cry too. "Please help me save my little brother…"

Undyne bit her lip. "Frisk…"

"Undyne please!" They sobbed failing to hold back the tears any longer.

Undyne dropped to one knee. "Frisk…."

"If Sans was asking you to help Papyrus like this, would you do it?"

"I, I…"

"Would you help him Undyne?" Frisk asked again.

She swallowed audibly. "Yes…"

"Then you'll help me."

Undyne grabbed her hair and began to pull it roughly, clearly causing herself some pain. Frisk tried to stop her but she batted their hand away. "Frisk I don't want to hurt you…. I don't know how you'll cope, all of your friends, all of your family, nobody remembering you."

"Undyne." Frisk said putting on a false grin "I can handle it, I'm up to the challenge." They hugged her. "I've got this burning PASSION in my heart." They said, hamming it up. "I can feel your heart beating with mine, I know we have the power of FRIENDSHIP on our side, we can't be beat."

She didn't rise to it. "Friendship I won't remember…"

Frisk made one last plea. "Help me, help him, please. It will be better for everyone in the long run."

She hugged back. Frisk barely got a whisper in response. "Okay."

They were interrupted by the clap of the Survivor. "All very touching, but can we hurry it up please?"

Frisk let go. She wouldn't remember this moment. Why prolong her agony now.

"What do I need to do?" Frisk said solemnly.

"We'll need to go to Gaster's lab." Said the Survivor. "You need to be exposed to a massive spike of determination, big enough to knock you out of the timeline. This Gaster might have some determination residue lying around for us to use. Next we'll need to make a note Undyne will read and the notes to give to Gaster in the past. We expose you to the determination, Undyne reads her note and resets us hopefully. Then we take the notebook to Gaster in the past."

"You can take items with you through a reset?" Frisk asked amazed. That opened up a lot of opportunities.

"Of course you dummy, I kept my close with me on the way here." The Survivor snapped. "But only if you displace yourself from the timeline altogether, and only with items you've prepared. persistent items that can survive resets alltogether."

"A lot of hopefully and maybe in that plan." Said Undyne sourly. "What about Alphys?"

"I assume she'll survive. Gaster was the main cause of her death, if we can save his wife he should turn out better. He won't put so much pressure on Alphys."

"You think or you know?" Said Undyne.

"Nine to ten odds says she pulls through." He thumbed over to the other Gaster. "He's a big softie really, you just warped his mind with your first trip."

Undyne still didn't look convinced.

"We can even put a section in the notes we give him, don't be mean to Alphys and make sure she and Undyne meet. Would that make you happy?"

"It would be better than nothing." Undyne said coldly. Frisk could tell she hated what they were doing.

Frisk tired to sound positive. "Come on Undyne, Alphys will be fine, she's stronger than we give her credit for, Gaster told me he abused her to get back at you. He thought you had sabotaged his resurrection attempt somehow. He'd have no reason to hate you if we save his wife before even that."

At least she still trusted Frisk. "Okay." Said Undyne with some uncertainty. "Okay I'm game."

The Survivor gave his trademark grin. "Great, then we'll head off then."

"What about the others when they come back?" Asked Frisk. "Won't they wonder where we've gone?"

"Kiddo, in a few hours they aren't going to remember you even existed, I wouldn't sweat it." Said the Survivor happily. "We've wasted enough time already."

---

Goodbyes

Chapter Notes

There's no turning back now for our heroes. Will Frisk ever return to the timeline? Will Gaster see his wife again? Just what does the Survivor want? Who knows, who cares? (Well...you do hopefully, otherwise I'm a bad author.) 15 Chapters in already, whew. Don't worry, I'm still have a huge buffer of chapters I can release on a day to day basis so expect regular updates (unless I'm doing something that night and get to bed late). Hope you enjoy.

---

It was late when they arrived at Gaster's house. The front door was open, the glow of the TV could be seen through the flyscreen as it battered back and forth in the evening wind. Nobody talked to one another on the way there, the Alternate Gaster was unable or otherwise unwilling, the Survivor hardly made for pleasant conversation and Frisk and Undyne knew anything between them would soon be forgotten. So why bother?

It didn't matter now. This was the moment of truth for everyone. It soon became apparent there wasn't any need for explanation or exposition when they found the present Gaster was unconscious on the floor surrounded by bottles of alcohol.

They let themselves into his garage-laboratory. The Survivor flipped the light switch illuminating the room. There was a large structure in the centre of the garage, covered in white tarp.

He let out a low whistle.

"Neato, still intact." He said with that smarmy cheer he always possessed.

He pulled off the cover revealing the determination extractor from the true lab.

"Yeah, that should do the trick." The survivor turned around to Frisk. "Help me find some of the good stuff kiddo, you're looking for vials of amber goo. We need about three or four and other one for the notes, it's pretty powerful stuff so that should be enough."

Frisk nodded silently and followed the Skeleton around the dilapidated laboratory. It felt so surreal, they quite couldn't get over the fact they were helping someone erase them from existence. Frisk stole a look at the other Gaster and Undyne. Gaster was looking around the garage, wordlessly poking the countless gadgets and devices his counterpart had made. Undyne was holding her arm and scanning the room wordlessly, a sordid look plastered onto her face. Frisk couldn't even imagine what was running through her head.

"Bingo." Said the Survivor, snapping Frisk's attentions back to reality. "Ten whole vials, he must have been storing this for a special day."

"What do we do with it?" Frisk asked.

The Survivor began carefully taking the vials out of their cabinet. "Me and Gaster, we'll write up the manual for Gaster in the past. You and Undyne can get busy on the note she'll read when you ditch this timeline. When we're ready I'll use the rest of this determination to uhh, check you out."

Frisk walked over to Undyne. "All right, let's get this over with." Frisk said sadly. "You need to help me pen the letter you'll read once you've forgotten about me okay."

"Yeah." It was barely a response.

Frisk looked around for a pen and paper, finding one amongst the stacks of poorly scribbled notes featuring Gaster's extensive code language.

They beckoned her over to a pair of swivel chairs. "Come Undyne, you need to help me here, you need to make sure you'll follow the instructions we give you."

She came over and sat down wordlessly next to him.

"Now Undyne, you're going to be confused, you won't know how you got here. We need to make it clear what you need to do and why you need to do it." Frisk began.

"Why would I even do it?" She said. "If you woke up with a note telling you to think really, really hard about a certain date so that you could time travel back to it and then save a Scientists life would you believe it?"

"No." Frisk said honestly. "No I wouldn't."

"And our plan hinges on me doing this?"

"Yeah."

"So you're counting on me being super gullible?" She said with some hostility.

Frisk could tell she really didn't like this plan. They shook their head. "I'll need to know something only you would know, which could prove to you that the note came from a legitimate time traveller who wrote himself out of existence. Anything fit that bill."

Undyne looked at Frisk sheepishly. "The first time me and Alphys" Her face flushed "you know…. made out."

Frisk opened their narrow eyes wide in horror. Despite being a massive flirt themselves they had a strict policy of privacy for other people's romantic matters. "Undyne no…"

She ignored him. "I could describe it in the letter, anyone I'd describe that moment to would have to be someone I'd trust."

"Anything." Frisk begged her. "Anything else."

She shook her head. "I'm pretty open about most stuff, I don't have anything as deeply intimate as this."

Frisk began to sweat. "Well, uhh… you, you can write that part I guess."

Undyne shook her head. "No, no, you have to write it, if it was my handwriting I'd know something was up."

Frisk felt really embarrassed. "Geez Undyne that's uhh, pretty personal stuff, are you sure you want to divulge this information to me."

"Shucks I won't remember doing it Frisk." She gave a nervous grin.

Frisk recoiled. "Yeah but I will."

"Do you want my help or not?"

Frisk steeled themselves. "Okay…." They put their hands up in surrender. "Let's just not make this any weirder than it needs to be..."

"Ready to begin?" She said quietly.

"No."

"Fair enough, I'm not either."

"You must really trust me Undyne, to be telling me this."

She smiled. "I know you know what you're doing is the right thing and you're doing it because it's the right thing to do." She thumped her chest. "You're PASSIONATE, you're a really awesome little dude."

Frisk felt themselves blush. "Thanks Undyne."

She smirked. "I'm not gonna spare the yucky bits, you understand?"

Frisk shuddered. "Yeah I, uh, understand…."

"I can't believe she got her tongue stuck in your mouth…" Frisk said as they penned the last sentence. "Is it really that long?"

Undyne smiled bashfully. "Yeah."

Frisk pushed the note away. "Gross." A pause. "It's got everything, instructions on how to get there, what you're meant to do and who I am." They gave her a little smile. "You'll be fine, I know you'll figure it out."

"Yeah…" She couldn't meet Frisk's gaze. "I won't even remember you."

"It isn't going to be permanent, I'll reintroduce myself to you when this is all said and done. You won't remember me, but I'll still remember you. We can still be friends." Frisk said as they tried to console her. It wasn't working.

"Your mom won't remember you Frisk, where will you stay when this is over?"

"I'll stay are your place I guess." Frisk shrugged. "I hope you'll believe me when I turn up on your doorstep because I don't have a backup plan."

She giggled, trying to stay positive. It wasn't convincing. "You think you'll be able to handle our late night anime sessions? You can bet Alphys and I will try to induct you into the Otaku culture." She dropped her smile. She just looked sad and distant.

Frisk patted her on the shoulder. "Undyne don't worry, this isn't permanent, I'll still know who you are, and you can help me re-introduce myself to everyone."

"All these great memories of you, I won't have them anymore…" Undyne shook her head. "Neither will any of your friends and family."

"It'll be okay Undyne. I know it will be."

"You guys done?" Came the lazy drawl of the Survivor from across the room. "We've filled out the book, you finished your note?"

"You ready?" Frisk asked Undyne.

"No."

"Fair enough." Frisk said. "I'm not either."

"We don't have to do this." She begged.
"I can't leave him Undyne, you know that."

She gave a tiny grin. "Yeah I know."

"You guys ready?" The Survivor called again. "Let's go, let's get moving."

"Ready!" Frisk yelled trying not to sound terrified. They failed miserably, their voice coming out uncertain and warbling.

The Survivor poured the amber fluid over the piece of paper and the notebook. The liquid splashed against the hidebound cover and the pages making them sticky as if they'd smeared treacle on them.

"There we go." Said the Survivor satisfied. "Give that a minute to meld."

"What are you going to do with me?" Asked Frisk.

"Well." He started. "Since your human, you don't have as fine-tuned control over your determination as me or Gaster here. So we're going brute force. We'll get the determination extractor fired up and overload that sucker. The discharge should kick you right out of this timeline and into the in-between. Trust me, I've heard the story from a Gaster more than once."

That didn't fill Frisk with confidence. "Yeah and look at him, he's mute and crazy."

"We will be fine tuning the procedure, you'll make it through with your marbles intact, most of em anyway."

"Right." Frisk mumbled, unconvinced.

The liquid determination had fused with the paper. "Right, we're ready to roll." The Survivor said cheerfully. "Let's get this show on the road."

The little skeleton made a few final adjustments to the knobs and dials of the determination extractor. "Right." He exclaimed. "She's set to blow."

Frisk turned to Undyne. "Guess this is it then." They held out a hand. "See you in a bit."

She took it and shook it vigorously. "Hope you like anime punk, you'll be watching a whole bunch of it with me an Alphie." A little tear rolled out. "Please make it back okay, you mean a lot to me." She huffed. "Never, ever thought I'd say that to a human... I like you Frisk. A lot."

Frisk thumped their chest. "You too Undyne, I'm looking forward to making friends with you again. Especially if it's anything like the last time."

"Heh..." She gave a grave smile. "You'll have to remind me won't you?"

"I promise I will, I'll tell you all the great stuff we did together." Frisk pointed to the note. "Now tape that thing to your chest. We need to make sure you'll read it."

She grabbed a length of scotch tape from a nearby table and taped the paper to her tank top.

"You'd better get out of here too, we don't want you to have to confront an enraged Gaster and a bunch of cops when this thing goes Kaboom." Frisk sighed.

"Yeah."

A final hug. She grabbed him and squeezed him tightly. Frisk wheezed in her embrace. "Undyne...stop…too…strong."

She relaxed her huge arms. "Sorry." She lent in and gave them a kiss on their cheek. "Knock em dead tiger, I'm with you all the way."

With that she turned and walked out the garage door and into the fading daylight.

"Alright Kiddo, she's set to blow in five seconds." The survivor grinned. "Any last requests?"

None came to mind. "Not really."

"Wasn't going to give you any anyway."

He hit the button.

"Five…" The Survivor began.

Frisk braced themselves.

Frisk supposed they should fill their mind with something profound and philosophical before their erasure from existence. Nothing came to mind.

There was a flash of blinding light.

Frisk felt every fiber of their being ripped to shreds.

---

Outside

Chapter Notes

Sorry if this is a wee bit late. I'm watching stand-up comedy with my cousins. Funny story, I introduced one of them to Undertale and he immediately began to kill everyone. When I asked him why he pretty much told me point blank it was to tick me off. He made me watch as he killed Papyrus. Sick bastard (I'm kidding I love his guts to bits). Anyway a longer chapter. Hope it finds you well. Mr_Welsh out!

---

"Can you hear me Kiddo?"

Frisk opened their eyes to find themselves floating in an infinite void a crisscross of sparkling strands extending out on the endless horizon.

"Whoa…" Was all Frisk could manage.

"Whoa indeed." The Survivor said, floating next to him.
"What is this place?" Frisk asked.

"The in-between." The skeleton said. He splayed his hand out as if conducting a symphony. "I'll give you a run down, but first, tell me what you see."

Frisk gazed out into the inky darkness picking out the silver threads from the gloom. "I see a big black void, with white strands stretching out everywhere."

"You see Kiddo..." The Survivor. "What you're seeing ain't what I'm seeing. Your mind is trying to make sense of it all and it just...can't."

"So..." Frisk began. "What does this place really look like then?"

"I dunno..." The Survivor shrugged. "I see a bunch of doors leading to places, that Gaster we were with to, he tells me he sees it all as a stormy sea with a bunch of islands. Maybe there isn't a real look to it, maybe our minds can't make sense of what's really going on, we can't quite grasp the true form."

That sentiment was scary for Frisk. It was hard to imagine a place so alien. "So why can I see you?"

"Because I'm a piece of normality in some place I shouldn't be, that said, both of us are doing some pretty cool stuff just to stay alive. For example, there is no air, no heat, no pressure here. If A person, human or monster without our high determination somehow managed to find their way here." The Survivor grinned morbidly. "They'd suffocate, freeze and explode all at once. We're only breathing, warm and not exploded because we think we are. If you realize how none of this makes sense..." He trailed off. "...well don't, because if you do, you'll suffocate, freeze and explode and probably not in that order." He winked. "Just try not to think about it too hard huh?"

Frisk wondered if the Survivor was deliberately trying to scare them. If so, it was working to an impressive degree. "What if I die out here?"

"Well there'll be no coming back from beyond the grave." Sans said casually. "If you die outside time itself, your determination fails and your gone." His eyes went to black hollow sockets. "Gone for good."

Frisk desperately tried to change to topic from to something less existentially worrying. "Uhmm...how do I move then? Out here that is?"

"Think about moving." Said the Survivor casually. "This place can only be accessed by those with the power to shape the universe, you will it to happen and it happens."

Frisk tried to float towards the skeleton. They made a little jolt toward him, causing the Survivor to clap with false praise. "Look at you kiddo, a natural." He said caustically doing a small summersault to demonstrate his skills.

"Who else is here with us?" Frisk said trying their best not to feel embarrassed.

"A tonne of Gasters and you and me." He shrugged. "Some two nasties we hopefully won't run into."

Frisk didn't like the sound of that. "Two "nasties"?"

The Survivor shrugged. "Don't worry about em, they have better things to do. Like kill people and wipe out timelines. Reminds me a bit of you actually." Frisk swore they saw his eyelights flicker for a second. "Not important anyway."

"You said they'd be attracted to this timeline when we first met, and now you're saying they couldn't care less. Just who are they and are they a threat." Frisk said impatiently.

"Eh. I was just trying to spook you." The Survivor said grinning wider than usual. "Killing time and all that, I doubt they'll even have noticed."

Frisk wasn't convinced. "And who are they exactly?"

"I'd best not say their names Kiddo. It attracts them." The Survivor said uneasily. "Only people dumb enough to try are Gasters who want to die and end it all. Most are too nuts to form a coherent plan to kill themselves, so it doesn't happen too often."

The causality of that comment disturbed Frisk immensely. "You don't try and help any of them? He...they are your dads."

"Getting concerned are we?" The Survivor said. "You'll lose that attitude when you're out here for a while, when you see every possibility accounted for. You'll realize that nothing really matters Kiddo, this world is a cruel joke. I've seen everyone I know and love die, just to be brought back and killed again. You know how that feels Kiddo?" He grinned even wider, the dissonance between his words and his expressions disturbing Frisk. "Once I thought I couldn't afford not to care and now I know I can't afford to care at all. If I did, I would have broken a long time ago."

"I'm...sorry..." Frisk managed. They hadn't been expecting that.

"Don't be. It doesn't matter how much you grovel, how much you plead and beg and pray. Nothing in this world has our back. I don't want you sympathy, it doesn't help me one iota." The Survivor said through a smile. "I'm helping you because I'm interested to see what will happen, a genuinely new experience. Maybe I'm hoping you'll convince me that things can change."

Frisk felt sick. They tried to get of the topic of the Survivor's nihilistic worldview. "Where's Dr Gaster?"

The survivor summersaulted through the open nothingness. "The one we were with? He'll be around here somewhere."

"Did you know the one we were with?" Frisk ventured.

"Better than most, he's on the saner end of the spectrum."
Frisk shuddered to think of what an "insane" Gaster would act like.

"What are we doing now?" Frisk asked finally.

"Waiting."

"For what?"

"For Undyne to do her thing, to rewind the timeline and then we can inject ourselves in at the right moment." Sans huffed. He put his bony hands behind his head and floated as if he were on a bed or hammock. His sockets closed over.

"You think it'll work?"

"Nope." He said, not opening up his sockets.

Frisk yelled at him. "You could have told me your doubts before I deleted myself from everyone's memory."

The Survivor chuckled sourly. "Your choice Kiddo not mine."

Undyne didn't remember why she was in a park late at night. In fact she couldn't remember much of anything at all. Something vague buzzed in her mind. A woman called Alphys who she loved and now was dead. Something about living underground. It came to her in patches and fragments. But something felt missing.

Suddenly she remembered. She was a monster, from the underground, they'd escaped their imprisonment somehow. She wasn't quite sure.

Something was taped to her chest.

She reached down and peeled of a piece of paper squinting her one eye as she read it in the darkness. It was in handwriting she'd never seen before.

Undyne

My name is Frisk. You won't remember me, or even know who I am but I need your help now more than ever. I'm a time traveller and so are you, through our actions I've drastically altered your memory, you can't remember me and likely a lot else. You may see a plume of smoke or something nearby. Don't worry about that. That was me leaving the timeline a few moments ago.

She sniffed. The smell of ozone. She heard the wail of sirens and saw a tall pillar of smoke reaching up into the sky about a block away. Too odd to be coincidence.

I really need you to do what this note says, no matter how weird it may seem.

"Bullshit…" She whispered. "Someone's playing a stupid trick on me." She almost balled up the paper and tossed it away then and there. But something made her stop, a vague memory she couldn't quite put her finger on. She continued reading.

In case you're doubting the validity of this note, I include a written recount of your first time making out with your friend Alphys, a recount you told to me to put to writing to convince yourself of this notes authenticity. You assured me that you had not told anyone else about this event and therefore this was a significant sign of trust.

"Yeah right…" She grumbled.

It was a Saturday night…

She felt her face flush. It was all there. Every steamy detail.

"Not possible…" She hadn't told anyone that. Especially since Alphys was dead, she remembered that much.

She kept reading and reading. It was very detailed, very intimate. Things only she would know. She got the end of the segment.

I hope you aren't too disturbed by all this because I sure was, but please believe me when I say that you thought this was the only way to talk yourself round. I'm sure you remember Alphys is dead, if you want to see her again then it is important you do what I say. You have to think hard about a specific date. December 24th Christmas Eve 1991, focus hard on that date on what you were doing and you'll find yourself transported back there. You told me you were undertaking battle training with King Asgore on that night, really think hard about that memory.

She didn't know quite what to think. This all sounded completely insane.

You should go back to that date, trust me, you've done it before. That's all I need you to do. I'll take care of the rest. After a while in the past you'll start to feel ill. That's because your willpower, your determination is holding the timeline at that position. You need to give me ample time to do what I'm going to do, so try to hold it as long as possible.

Assuming things go as planned, when you return to the present things will be different but better. I'll turn up and introduce myself. Nobody else will know who I am so I'm counting on you to give me a place to crash.

Undyne, I hope you believe me. My life, Alphys' and the lives of others are counting on you doing this. I know the power of your HEART and your FRIENDSHIP knows no limits.

I hope I can experience that friendship again.

Your friend Frisk

P.S I'm a sixteen year old human with short brown hair, tanned skin and I'm likely waring a purple and pink sweater so you know exactly who I am.

There was a last little segment in her handwriting.

Undyne you ugly mug, this is you writing this.

Believe what this kid has to say. Do what they are telling you to do no matter how insane it sounds, I'm begging you. If you ever want to see that adorable little lizard again, you'll do as they say. Please.
That last plea for the sake of Alphys made her water up a little. She put her hand to her mouth. It was in her hand writing too.

"What have I got to lose?" She whispered. She cast the note down onto the dirt and looked up into the sky. "24th of December 1991, all right, I'll play your game "Frisk" but if you're fibbing, whoever you are." She roared. "You'll rue the day you crossed Undyne!"

She thought back really hard. Asgore, training with Asgore, training on Christmas Eve. Something he had said.

"Golly Undyne, you've really improved." Said Asgore sheepishly. "I'm going to have to start working on my guard again."

"No way…" She breathed. Looking down she saw her body, smaller, much smaller. The body of a child.

The Survivor's eyes snapped open, revealing a bright blue glow. "Well, well. Looks like she did it."

Frisk didn't know how long they'd been there. They were supposedly in a timeless place, did time even flow here? Frisk knew they wanted to leave already.

"Really?" Frisk said suspiciously. They'd been beginning to wonder whether or not this was all just a cruel prank on the Survivor's part to get their hopes up and then brutally dash them. A possibility Frisk felt was becoming increasingly likely.

"Yeah. Didn't think she'd do it. Glad I was wrong." The Survivor said sarcastically. He sounded more disappointed than anything. Frisk had known Sans long enough to feel that they had a good read on him and right now they didn't feel that this one was lying.

Frisk allowed themselves the tiniest of smiles. "What now."

The survivor produced a battered Notebook from his hoodie. "Now we give this to our past Gaster, it contains extensive information on how to infuse himself safely with determination. I've been perfecting the process with some Gasters for quite some time now."

"Are you sure he'll be able to handle it?"

"Depends, he'd be pretty determined to save his wife I'm sure, if he doses himself up on the residue like we show him, he should be able to turn back the clock."

"Yeah but can he handle it? The determination, won't it kill him."

"If Gaster could receive a massive spike like the one on December 25th, he should be able to survive a nice leisurely build-up of the stuff. We've also included how to handle it, what he should do if he starts to melt from it." Sans said.

Frisk nodded. "Right."

"Anyway, let's get cracking." He floated over and extended a bony hand. "Grab a hold, I'll show you how it's done."

Frisk took it. Frisk suddenly felt like they were falling, falling like they did the first time, down the hole, down Mt Ebbot all over again.

Frisk hit the ground with some force, winding them. It was hot. Boiling hot the ground beneath them was dry and packed. Hotlands.

"Opps." Said the Survivor without any trace of concern. "Frist time is always a bit rough, you get used to it I suppose."

Frisk struggled to get air in, but the hot choking atmosphere of their environment didn't make it any easier. "Hotlands?" They managed to croak.

"Yeah, we're going to meet my pops, come on."

Frisk struggled up from their prone position and began to stagger after the Skeleton. The creamy white lab was far off in the distance. "24th of December?"

The Survivor nodded. "That's the date, Christmas Eve 1991."

The walked in silence. The lab getting closer with every step. The Survivor reached the door and rapped on it three times. "Dr Gaster!" He yelled. "Dr Gaster, we need to talk."

There was no response.

The Survivor turned to Frisk. "He's probably working in the basement section, getting everything ready for the big surprise he's going to spring on me and Papyrus." He snapped his fingers, a huge floating oblong skull appeared out of thin air. The skeleton winked. "Watch this."

A brilliant white beam sprung forth from the mouth of the hovering skull, shredding the door instantly. Frisk averted their eyes from the glare. When they looked back the skull and the door were both missing.

"I'm sure he won't mind us making an entrance." The skeleton beckoned Frisk inside. "Come on."

The pair walked into the lab. The lights were off but the glow from the Survivor's eye lit their way through the dark foyer. He led Frisk over to the elevator, and called it. They waited in silence as the hot wind outside whipped through the now missing door, causing the temperature in the room to rise slowly.

Ding!

The two of them stepped into the elevator. It descended rapidly, further into the bowels of the Earth. Frisk felt it hit the bottom of the shaft with a soft ch-chunk. They could hear something else too. Screaming.

Ding!

"Looks like someone beat us here." Said the Survivor nonchalantly. "Stick behind me."

They jogged briskly through the metal hallway before rounding on the lab's central room. The Survivor pulled Frisk bodily towards the room with the determination extractor. "C'mon, pick up the pace, Kiddo."

They ran down another set of halls before coming out into the main room. Frisk spotted Gaster. Both of him. One was running around the lab, throwing various devices at him from off tables, the other was slowly stalking towards him making little hand signs.

"Hey!" Yelled the Survivor irately to the alternate Gaster. "Hey, knock it off!"

The deformed Gaster turned his head to look at them and began to make a series of quick gestures to the Survivor. He was interrupted by a metal instrument that the present Gaster threw at him hit him square in the skull.

"Go away!" Said the current Gaster. "Get out of my lab you freak!"

"Doctor Gaster, calm down, we're here to help." Yelled Frisk over the humdrum. "Stop throwing things we're here to help you." Frisk realized only after announcing their presence that the sudden appearance of a human wasn't going to help defuse the situation.

Gaster noticed the pair that had just entered. "What's going on!" He pointed at the Survivor. "You look like my son!" And then at Frisk "And you're a Human!"

"Doctor we need you to calm down." Frisk said, trying their best to appear non-threatening. It clearly didn't work.

The present Gaster became hysterical. "Who are you all? What do you want with me?" He scrambled to pick up another heavy object. "I'll kill you all if I have to! You won't get me...I'm...I'm an elite royal guard, you'd all better be scared...terrified even..." He rambled sounding more and more scared with every passing syllable.

The Survivor sighed and flexed his left palm. The present Gaster lifted up into the air, surrounded by a blue aura.

"Woah…" He cried. "Put, put me down, I'm a powerful magic user. I command the very forces of nature...I...I...I" He stammered. "Please, I'm begging you. Give me another hour then you can kill me or torture me or do whatever it is you freaks want... you don't know what you're interrupting here!" Dr Gaster clasped his hands out in front of himself begging. "Please...PLEASE." He screamed. "Just let me finish this...you don't know what you're interrupting..."

"Oh but we do." Grinned the Survivor. "We're here to help you with that."

Gaster gasped when he heard the voice of the Survivor. "You." Gaster said struggling in the air to get a better look at his captors. "You look like my son."

"I am. I'm Sans, from the future." Said the Survivor calmly.

Gaster looked dumbfounded.

Frisk turned to the Survivor. "Put him down." They demanded. "Your just scaring him."

The Survivor shrugged and looked at the Gaster floating in the air. "You gonna stop throwing things pops?"

Gaster just gurgled his skull twitching. It was obviously a lot for the poor skeleton to take in.

"I'll take that as a yes." The Survivor dropped his father unceremoniously, the skeleton clattered to the ground moaning in pain.

Frisk shot the Survivor a dirty look. "That was rough, he's your father, you could have put him down gently."

The Survivor shrugged. "It's hard for me to care about just another Gaster."

Frisk pushed roughly past him in disgust and ran over to the prone doctor. They crouched down. "Are you hurt?"

Gaster crawled away from Them. "Stay back you freaks! I know what humans are capable of, I know you have all sorts of weird powers!"

"We're trying to help you." Frisk said putting their hands up. "We can help you get your wife back, please just let us help."

He stopped his backpedal. "How do you know about my wife, just who are you?"

Frisk put a hand to his chest. "My name is Frisk, I'm a time traveller of sorts."

"You're human?"

It was Frisk's turn for sarcasm. "Last time I checked."

Gaster looked confused. "How'd you get down here?"

"Long story, one which isn't really important right now."

Gaster didn't press him further. Instead he pointed to the Survivor. "Is that really my son Sans?"

"Yeah."

Gaster pointed to the other Gaster his finger quivering. "And… and what about him."

"That's you, an alternate version at least."

The other Gaster was signing something to the Survivor. The two of them began to converse about something.

"What's he doing?" Squeaked Gaster. His skull had morphed into one of horror.

"He can't speak, he has to communicate in hand signs." Frisk murmured, looking back at their two companions.

Gaster looked even more terrified. "Why can't I speak in the future?"

Frisk looked at him. "He's had an accident, it traumatised him so badly he can't talk at all."

Gaster gasped. "What happened to him? I mean...what happens to me...?"

"That's why we're here Doctor." Said Frisk turning back to the skeleton. "What you're about to do, bring back your wife, it won't work, you'll end up kicking yourself off of the timeline altogether. Nobody will remember you, you'll end up." He pointed to the other Gaster. "Like him."

The Doctor audibly gulped. "I have to try, I have to see my Aster again. For my boys."

"We can go back further doctor, back to before your wife died, but we'll need your help with it." Frisk said. "If we can do that, we can save her."

"I'll do anything." He begged clasping his hands out in front. "Anything you want, please just help me bring her back."

Frisk gave him a sad look. "It isn't really a matter of whether or not you're willing, but whether or not you're even able to help."

"What do you mean?"

"This is as far as we've been able to peel the timeline back and even then I doubt we'll be able to do it again. We think you might be able to pull it back even further."

"How much further?" Dr Gaster said between heavy breaths. Frisk wasn't sure if he was excited or terrified. Or both.

Frisk didn't know the answer. They'd never been told when Asriel had died, only mom and Asgore would know and they didn't want to bring up unpleasant memories.

"Prince Asriel Dreemurr, what year did he die?"

Gaster looked confused. "1968 if I remember correctly."

"How old were you then."

He thought hard, his eyelights rolling up into the sockets. "Around ten I think."

Frisk smiled. "You've got just what we need."

"I'm not sure I follow." Gaster said. "How does this help my wife?"

"It doesn't." Said Frisk honestly. "Truth be told I'm trying to save Asriel Dreemur's life but we can save your wife's as well."

Gaster shrugged. "Makes no difference to me, so long as I get back my Aster. You want me to go back to that date?" He suddenly shot a distrusting look at Frisk. "How?"

Frisk opened his mouth to reply but before he could the Survivor interrupted him. "Kiddo." He called from across the room. "I've talked to our Gaster about the plan, seems we've run into a problem."

"And that is?" Frisk said.

"Gaster said he's tried something like this once before, giving the instruction manual to someone so they can go back even further. It doesn't work, you can only reset from the present."

Frisk's heart sank. All of this had been for nothing then.

"But" The Survivor continued "Seeing as this is the present as of now, thanks to Undyne anyway, we can still do this, we just have to do it right now. You know... before she lets go."

Frisk looked back at Gaster. "We don't have as much time as I thought, I'm not quite sure how long we'll be here for but we're going to need to do this right now."

"How?" Gaster asked again.

The Survivor strutted over. "We're going to dose you up on determination." He tore a section of the notebook out. "Kiddo here can do their thing with Asriel and I'll make sure this gets to somebody who knows what to do with it."

Gaster looked at the piece of paper. "What is that?"

"Notes on how to cure for your wife's illness."

Gaster's eyesockets went wide. "What do I need to do?"

"Give us a look at you determination stock."

The present Gaster got up off the floor and dusted himself off.

"Right…right this way." He said nervously.

---

Betrayal

Chapter Notes

A nice long chapter for all of you. Enjoy!

---

"Are you sure this will work?" Dr Gaster said nervously as the Survivor drew up another needle of amber fluid.

"No." Said the Survivor cheerfully.

"Is there a chance it will work?" Gaster ventured eyeing the needles cautiously.

"Yes."

Gaster nodded. "We'll do it then."

The Survivor flicked the syringe causing little flecks of the magical soul stuff to come out of the end. "Good choice, I didn't come all this way for nothing."

Frisk watched them silently. The other Gaster was poking around the lab, fiddling with old equipment and devices. He seemed to do his own thing unless he was signing to the Survivor. Frisk worried about that, were there really that many Gasters out there? They couldn't help but feel sorry. Frisk shut that thought away, they knew they had to focus on what mattered, and right now that was Asriel Dreemurr. Frisk had a sneaking suspicion that getting sidetracked could mean they'd bite off more than they could chew.

"Right, we're ready." Said the Survivor as he drew up a final syringe. "I'm going to jab you full of these, you'll feel an intense pain and probably start to melt." His tone was completely deadpan and matter of fact.

"Melt?" Dr Gaster quivered.

"Our monster bodies can't handle this stuff as well as humans, especially when you try to use it." Sans explained.

Gaster looked his son up and down before bowing his head. "What do I need to do once you've injected me?" Asked Gaster quietly.

"You'll need to think of the date really, really hard, preferably a pretty clear one, it makes it easier to zero in." Sans began.

"Your mind will go back in time, you'll be doing whatever it was you were doing in that moment." Frisk added. "You'll need to mentally hold us there in that span of time, it will likely hurt, a lot, but I'm sure you can handle it. Please, you've got to give us time to save your wife...and Asriel."

Gaster nodded. He was quite obviously trying to be brave but the lines that marked his skull betrayed his true emotions. He was utterly terrified. "Okay. Anything for Aster. Anything for my boys."

"Aww shucks dad." The Survivor said snidely. "Now let's go over this again. The date you need to go back to."

"16th of June 1968." Gaster confirmed.

"Are you sure that's the day Asriel died?" Asked Frisk.

"Positive" Gaster responded. "I heard about it over the radio, the king made a huge speech about vengeance upon all mankind. Everybody was mourning in the streets. How could I forget?"

The Survivor readied the first injection. "Here goes something." He plunged the needle deep into the bone of Gaster's arm. Gaster winced as it went into his body.

"Feel any different?" Questioned Frisk.

"We still have another four or five of these to get through." Said the Survivor.

Around the third injection Gaster began to look bad. He started shaking and sweating profusely. He gripped the sides of his seat, clearly in some pain.

After the fifth, he was clearly unwell. Grinding his teeth and groaning in agony.

"All right." Said the Survivor putting down their last syringe. "You're all juiced up."

Gaster grunted through his closed jaw. "Should I try to go back now?"

"Yeah. Think really, really hard about the date, focus on what you're doing."

The Survivor tapped Frisk on the shoulder. "That's our cue to leave pal, we want to be out of the timeline before he resets."
"Why?" Asked Frisk.

"This part of the lab wasn't here in 1968 so unless you want to reset into solid rock, I'd suggest we get going." The Survivor said.

"How do we leave then?" Frisk asked quickly trying hard not to think of being buried alive.

"Think about leaving, about going back out there." The Survivor pointed upwards vaguely.

Frisk though hard about leaving the timeline altogether, they thought about the void they had occupied outside the universe. Frisk found themselves floating again.

"Nicely done. You're a real natural." Said the Survivor now hovering beside him. "Let's see if pops can pull this off."

"How will we know?" Frisk said.

"I'll tell you kiddo, I've got a good sense with these things, comes with the job." He closed his eyes and returned to a relaxed position.

Frisk began to panic. They watched the silvery strands of time that existed in their mind's eye. They pulsated like living things, stretching out, writhing and twisting, criss-crossing and intersecting. Occasionally one split apart into two new segments or curled back on itself. It made Frisk feel a little sick to watch, all those lives riding on something that looked so fragile.

Frisk's heart skipped a beat. One of the thin strands began to shake and quiver before cracking apart into tiny fragments that faded into the void.

"S...Sans..." Frisk quivered turning to the skeleton. "One of the timelines just disappeared."

The Survivor didn't even bother opening his eyes. "Happens all the time, no big deal."

"All...those...people...Why..." Frisk suddenly yelled at their companion. "Tell me why that happened!"
"Whoa...whoa...no need to shout kiddo..." The Survivor said not moving from his reclined floating position. "You want the short story or the long story?"

Frisk was in-between feeling scared and angry. "L...long story..." They stammered.

"Nah, can't be bothered." The Survivor yawned. "Yeah, it's your fault kiddo, you kill us all." He drawled.

Frisk nearly cried then and there. "No...no...I'd never..."

"Yeah but they ain't you are they?" The Survivor said cracking a little smile. "Some of them are real bastards, like the one I had the pleasure of meeting first."

Frisk was about to say something before they were cut off by the skeleton.

"Aha. Methinks he's done it." He gave a slightly bigger grin. "We need to move quickly, I don't know how long he can handle it."

Frisk couldn't help it anymore. This Sans clearly hated them, and with what they'd done, with what they were doing, Frisk didn't blame him. It just didn't make any sense. They had to ask. "Why are you helping me?" Frisk whispered.

The Survivor shrugged. "What can I say, you rubbed off on me Kiddo. I have only bad memories of you, but I guess they're a different person so I put them aside."

"You don't think they're like me?" Frisk said quietly.

The Survivor sighed. Frisk swore his face got a little softer for a second, his pervasive grin dipping just a little. "Kiddo, your an oddity, everyone almost everyone else acts the same way all the time for the most part. You are the exception, how someone can be so radically and wildly different is beyond me." He shrugged. "When I first met you, I couldn't help but hate you. To my mind, you had the face of a killer, and not just any killer, the worst. But when I shoved you around and all you could do was apologize, well." Sans frowned. "I'll admit, I kinda felt bad for the first time in a while."

Frisk was nearly crying. "I...I'm not like them I swear."

"I know you ain't, that much is clear." The Survivor said. It wasn't deadpan, it wasn't cruel. It was surprisingly heartfelt.

Frisk needed to feel that oily hoodie on their skin. It was like a security blanket. They reached out for a hug. It wasn't the response they were used too.

"Get off." The Survivor pushed them away causing Frisk to tumble through the empty space. "Just because I said you weren't a murderous asshole, doesn't give you hugging rights."

"Sorry..." Frisk mumbled. "It's just that my Sans always used to let me..."

"Kiddo, I ain't your Sans." The Survivor looked annoyed. "You want to do this now, I mean we are on a bit of a timer here, tick tock."

Frisk knew he was right. They were getting sidetracked again. They wiped their dewy eyes with their sweater sleave. "How do I get to the throne room from here, that's where he died right?"

"If memory serves."

"So how do I get there?"

"Same way we've gotten everywhere else." Said the Survivor, almost annoyed. "You think really hard about it, visualize it." He waved him off. "I've got to get this note to someone. Good luck I suppose."

He vanished.

"Here goes nothing…" Whispered Frisk.

Frisk remembered the yellow flowers and the stained glass of Asgore's throne room.

Frisk felt them soft under their feet. They were there, they could feel the cold wind from beyond the barrier whipping through the stone of the castle. And ominous wind, for the ominous things to come.

Where it all began. Tonight. Frisk couldn't believe they were here, before they was even born.

Frisk slinked into the corner of the room, waiting for something to happen. They didn't know quite what to expect. They just hoped Gaster could hold on long enough to give them the opportunity they needed.

The wait was agonising. Every minute filled Frisk with more and more dread, fear that they wouldn't have time. Maybe their timing was off, maybe it had already happened.

Frisk looked at the flower patch. No dust on any of them. They weren't too late. Frisk just hoped he wasn't too early either.

Gaster's entire body was in pain. He endured. He had to. For Aster. For Sans. For Papyrus. He couldn't think of them, he'd been told to think of anything else, preferably something he found boring.

He thought of sports. Basketball. He hated Basketball. He was too good at it, too tall, it bored him, no challenge at all.

He felt the pain lessen a bit, if only a smidgin.

Frisk heard footsteps, heavy ones. They pushed off the wall they were leaning on. This was it. All of their work, all the resets, they culminated here.

Frisk spotted him walk through the door. Asriel was in his adult form, the one he took during their fight. It all seemed so long ago, it was so long ago. He was tall with prominent horns, black markings ran from his eyes to his mouth.

His clothes were a red ruin of blood. He had cuts, bruises, bludgeon marks, stab wounds and gunshots riddling his body.

He was clutching something tightly. The body of a human child. His sibling. Chara.

"Guess I really stuffed up…huh…" Asriel panted. "I'm sorry, I just didn't want to hurt them…"

He collapsed onto his knees. "I can't feel anything…Chara…" A tear rolled down his cheek. "I…don't…want…to…die…"

Frisk moved out into the light. Asriel spotted him. "Who…are….you?" He managed.

Frisk smiled. "A friend." They rubbed their hand on Asriel's snout. It was just as soft as they had remembered. "I'm here to help."

"I'm…scared." He whimpered.

"I know, I'd be scared too." Frisk wrapped their arms tightly around Asriel's neck. "It'll be okay, I promise."

Frisk heard Asriel gasp at the sudden gesture of kindness. "What's….your…name?" He managed to croak.

"Frisk." Frisk said with tears in their eyes.

"That's…a…nice…name…"

He expired. His body fell away into a cloud of ash and dust.

Frisk found themselves breathing heavily. They'd been steeling themselves for his demise but it all seemed a little too much.

Frisk didn't even know what to do. They started to panic. All this time planning for this moment and he was unsure of what would happen. Then Frisk spotted it.

A tiny nimbus of white light rose from the ashes. Asriel's soul.

Frisk reached out his hands and clasped it gently, drawing it in close to himself. It felt exactly like Frisk had expected it to feel. It felt so warm, so soft. Frisk smiled, a tear rolling down their cheek. "Come on little guy, let's get you home. I made a promise didn't I?"

Frisk clutched the soul to their breast. The warmth and the light entered them. Frisk could feel it wriggling inside of him.

Gaster squirmed on the floor of his room. His parents almost certainly weren't home.

Otherwise they would have heard his moaning. He'd held on for at least an hour. He didn't know how much longer he could keep it together.

Basketball. Baseball. Athletics.

Sports bored him, and so he focused hard on them not on what he was saving. Not on the pain

"Well, well." Came a voice he'd never heard before. "What oh, what do we have here?"

He winced in pain, tears falling down his face. He rolled over and struggled to look at the speaker.

They looked like that Frisk human. Short, androgynous, brown hair, the same purple and pink sweater even. But something was decidedly off. Their skin was a dirty pallid yellow, two rosy red cheeks. Eyes red like blood. Somehow, instinctively, Gaster knew he wasn't in the presence of the Frisk child.

He couldn't respond, only gargle. The pain was too intense for him to think clearly. He still knew, somehow, that this person certainly wasn't supposed to be here. They were supposed to be dead. It was like a fragment of a memory, a splinter in his mind. This wasn't right, this wasn't supposed to happen. Whoever they were, they weren't meant to be.

"So interesting, you'd put yourself through such pain for your family." The child said, a voice so soft it was like velvet. "I don't think I'll ever understand that." Their eyes went a little distant. "Maybe not, there was one..." They cut themselves off. "Well, we'll see how things pan out won't we."

The human sat down on Gaster's bed, waving their stubby legs over the edge. "You'll hold on though won't you? I'm intrigued by what your son is planning up, hopefully he gets here soon he and I need a little chit chat."

Gaster didn't understand what was going on. Was this part of the plan? He held on, he had to.

"I think your son will be here soon doctor. Call it a hunch." The human huffed. "I'll make myself scarce."

Chara slunk off into the corner of the room. Dr Gaster could only gurgle in response.

The Survivor knew his father had lived somewhere in Snowdin as he'd mentioned a childhood home there once or twice in his old lab notes. The Survivor wasn't quite sure where though.

He had dropped the notes on the cure off to the municipal hospital as per their agreement. He did honestly hope they'd be able to do something for his mother. After all she'd be the only member of his family left after tonight. Her and himself he supposed. Be he wasn't anybody any more. He was just a stranger. He didn't mean anything.

He'd fantasised about settling down in a remote timeline, but he knew it wasn't worth it. It would all be taken away at some point. And that was why tonight was so important. He could make a lasting change on the universe. On all the timelines.

He asked some strangers for directions to the Gaster household, saying he was family and visiting from out of town. It wasn't even a lie. Some friendly folk had pointed him in the right direction.

He stood outside the rickety old house, its roof sagging from the weight of the snow. It looked withered, it looked tired. It reminded the Survivor of himself and of what he'd have to do.
He had been steeling himself for this. He knew what it would involve. What the consequences would be. He'd weighed it up, the positives outweighed the negatives in his book.

Not to say there wasn't a little regret. He honestly felt bad tricking the kid like that. But he'd needed their help to get here and this was far bigger than any of them.

He flexed his palm and hovered himself up to the roof. He could hear a low moaning it had to be his father.

The Survivor lifted the window gently and let himself inside the attic bedroom.

He spied has father writhing on the floor clearly in the throes of determination induced agony.

The Survivor stepped over gently to his ten year old father.

"Hey pops, how are you holding up?" He said smarmily. It didn't come out right, too much emotion. He had to rid himself of any empathy. This was far more important than feelings.

The young Gaster gurgled.

"It's all going to be over soon pops." The Survivor sighed. "Sorry I tricked you like this."

His father looked at him, eyesockets drawn up in pain. Despite all the pain he must have been feeling the Survivor could clearly see something on the younger Gaster's face. Fear. Disappointment.

"Don't worry dad. I made sure mom gets cured, but you?" The Survivor took a bony hand out of his pocket. "You're too dangerous to be left alive pops."

A gurgle.

"You see your going to go on and create a nasty piece of work called Flowey and well, I just can't let that happen. You see this Flowey, he's responsible for all of this. He splits up time itself. So many different possibilities, so many different hardships, so much pain. This universe every timeline." The Survivor's eye glowed bright blue. "It's all just a cruel joke dad, all of it. I just want one nice clean simple strand of time, no Frisk, no Flowey, no more time travel, no more resets."

Another gurgle.

"And if you don't exist dad, then Flowey won't exist. And if he doesn't exist dad… well we might just get one timeline back huh." It was a long shot, but the Survivor was willing to try.

A blue aura enveloped the young Dr Gaster.

"Sorry pops." Legitimate regret seeping into the Survivor's voice. "This really is for the best."

Before he could kill his father the skeleton suddenly noticed a knife was growing out of his ribcage.

"Greetings."

The skeleton felt a cold piece of metal be pulled back out through his body. He slumped to the floor, fading fast.

"I just can't allow that to happen Sans." Came the soft voice. "How boring would one little strand of time be to play with?"

He recognized that hushed tone. He'd run into them once. The Survivor had gotten lucky that time. This time, not so much. "Damm….it…"

"I don't know whether or not your little scheme would have worked Sans, I'm quite doubtful myself. Perhaps you were too?" The Survivor could feel the mocking tone of the voice emanating through his fading consciousness.

"But so desperate you were willing to try anyway. Tragic, truly. Your manipulation of that Frisk was…very admirable. I'll be sad to see you go." A chuckle. "Such an interesting distraction you were."

The Survivor grunted.

"I'm…sorry...Papyrus….I….love….you….bro…..I….love…..you…..you….mean…..everything….to…m…me"
At least he had died trying. At least he had died trying to make the universe a little better. At least he had died caring about something. He hadn't taken the easy way out. He hadn't been a chicken, he'd been brave. Braver than most. He'd felt death a thousand times and then some, he'd seen his brother's life snatched away again and again. He'd seen this world for what it was and he still hadn't let it break him. He took some pride in that.

But he was tired, so tired. In all honesty, he felt a little glad it had finally come to an end, he couldn't keep running for ever. He closed his eyesockets a final time. To his surprise, he didn't see his brother's death flash before him as it usually did. He chuckled a final time. "You...want...anything...bro?"

---

Return

Chapter Notes

I'm pushing out this chapter early today (for me anyway) as I'll be doing stuff later tonight. Hope you all enjoy.

---

Chara watched the pile of dust whip out into the breeze through the open window. At least he wouldn't leave a mess.
"He could of at least offered me some different last words." Chara muttered to nobody in particular. "I've heard that little line more times than he'd know. It gets boring after a while."

Chara turned their attentions to the young Gaster only to find another figure in the room with them.

The disfigured older Gaster was kneeling down beside his counterpart, signing something over and over. Chara had never bothered to learn the hand signs. They didn't feel they should have to compensate for someone else's weakness.

"Ah, I was wondering where you'd got to." Chara crooned.

The Gaster ignored them and began to comfort his younger self. Stroking his skull and making a low wailing noise. The younger Gaster was in no position to resist such attentions, bucking and writhing on the floor in agony.

Something began to happen. The younger Gaster began to melt, his body falling off of itself in drips and drops.

Chara raised an eye in intrigue.

The older one responded by embracing his younger counterpart, his body too became gooey and runny, mingling with the already liquefied puddle of Gaster on the floor.

The two began to merge into one another. The moans and the gurgles becoming one symphony of discomfort. Their features morphed, resulting in a single Gaster, small and deformed.

"Ahhhh…" It managed to gurgle.

Chara walked over. "To whomever it concerns, I suggest you release your hold on the timeline now, you've earned a rest, no?"

The Gaster amalgamate gurgled a response. "Is...She…safe?"

Chara didn't know who they were talking about. It wouldn't be the first time they'd lied and it wouldn't be the last. "Yes." They said sweetly. "Quite safe."

The fused Gaster relaxed.

The timeline snapped back.

Gaster felt horrid. The pain was beginning to subside, but he was still in intense agony. Something was wrong, he felt different, more. Memories that shouldn't belong to him, madness, anger, fear.

He put it all aside.

Aster, what had happened to Aster? He had to know if his wife was okay.

He tried to pull himself up off of the laboratory floor, stumbling down again and again. He managed to crawl towards a lone island bench in the middle of the lab, scraps of paper and errant notes scattered on top and around it.

He was looking for something, anything to tell him that it had worked.

He dug through the papers looking desperately. He had no idea what he was looking for.

"Honey, are you in there?"

That voice. He stopped digging. He grabbed the island bench and forced himself up despite the pain.

He saw her, short but thin like him, a perfect smooth skull and those lovely purple eyelights. She was a beautiful as he remembered her, despite the disgusting green and red Christmas sweater she was wearing.

"Aster…" he said weakly, ignoring the pain.

She ran over. "Oh darling, what's happened, did you have a fall? You look like you're hurt yourself."

He collapsed over the bench sobbing. "Aster…" he rasped. "Is it really you?" His voice sounded different, it had a deep reverberating tone to it that it hadn't had before.

She grabbed him. "Of course it's me W.D, what's wrong, you look like you've seen a ghost?"

As far as Dr Gaster was concerned, he had. "I love you…so much." He moaned out.

She was confused by this. "Wing, what happened, you look awful and why are you crying?"

He gripped her. "Don't leave me, please…" He begged. "I don't want to lose you again."

"Sweetie I never left." She said petting his head. "What's gotten into you?"

He couldn't stop sobbing. "What…what are you doing here in the lab?"

She gave him a smile. "It was getting late, Papyrus won't go to sleep unless you read him his bedtime story. I don't want him to be tired for Christmas day."

He remembered his sons. "Papyrus, Sans, my boys…"

"Our boys Wing."

He sniffled. "Yes." He gave her a pathetic little smile "Quite right I should think…"

She helped him up. "Come on you lazy bones, let's get you home." She led him past a mirror. He caught a glimpse his reflection and shrieked in surprise dropping to the floor clutching his skull. His face was disfigured, scarred by two gashes that met with his eye and mouth. The face of the other Gaster. The memories. He remembered something, feeling gooey and wet, and a fusion between two selves.

Aster dropped down next to him. "What's wrong darling? Are you hurt, did you hurt yourself, please just tell me what's going on."

"My…face…" He whispered. "It's scarred."

Aster's face morphed into one of surprise. "Yeah. And?"

He was confused. "Was it always like this?"

She kissed his cheek. "As far as I can remember. Besides I always thought they make you look…" She paused seductively. "Sexy."

He felt himself flush a bit. "How did I get them?"

"You never told me. I don't think you ever knew how. You just woke up one night like that."

"Right…"

She patted him on the back. "You okay sweet pea?"

He gave a smile, watching it grow on his deformed face in the mirror. "Sexy you say?'

A tear of joy hit the floor "I've never felt better."

Aster picked her husband up from the floor. "I was wondering wingy, if we could get Papyrus to be a bit more….mature for his age."

"Oh?"

"He insists I still read him picture books at nine years old. Perhaps you could have a father son chat with him, maybe read him a proper novel."

Dr Gaster didn't feel up to reading anything tonight. Despite the absolute euphoria he was experiencing he still felt sick as a dog.

"Cupcake I'm not feeling 100% right now. Maybe you could read to him for just tonight?"

She frowned. "I can't do the voices."

"I'm sure you'll do fine." He said wincing at his own reverberating tone. "You've a far prettier voice than mine anyway."

Undyne had felt like something was pulling away from her, even if just for a moment. It was an indescribable sensation. Things felt different somehow. Undyne didn't have time to focus on that another wave of pain washing over her.

"I hope you know what you're doing punk, whoever you are!"

She slammed her fist against the wooden floor of her room.

"Keep it quiet up there!" Cried her sister from downstairs.

She ignored her. She had to stay determined.

That made it worse, a fresh wave of pain slamming into her.

Undyne couldn't hold on any long. She hoped she had given this Frisk human enough time to do whatever it was they needed to do.

She relaxed.

Frisk had felt the timeline move twice within about thirty seconds of one another. Frisk looked around. The royal thrones, their mother's was in the corner, covered with tarp. It hadn't been like that before. Frisk was back in the present. They whipped around to spy a huge hunched figure watering the yellow flowers around the foot of the massive chair in the centre of the room.

"Hmmm hmmm…" Asgore hummed bending down to caress one of the taller flowers. "Golly, these have turned out quite well if I do say so myself."

"King Asgore?" Frisk murmured.

"Just a minute friend." Asgore said. "I'm just watering these flowers…" The king spied who it was he was talking to out of the corner of his eye. "Oh my…"

"Ummm King Asgore…" Frisk said confused. "Why are you down here? In the underground?"

Asgore straightened himself up a mixture of fear and horror on his face. "Another…little one?" He cast his eyes down. "The last one…I suppose…"

Frisk didn't like the sound of that. Maybe whatever they had done, it had prevent monsters from escaping the underground. Frisk had to ask.

"Your majesty what year is it?"

The huge monster looked up in confusion. He tried his best to give a tiny smile but it looked terribly forced.

"What…what an odd request. It is the year 2013. The year monsters shall retake the surface."

2013. That couldn't be right. Frisk thought hard. They hadn't existed in this timeline at all. Which left the door open for Flowey to reset over and over. They'd never stopped him. The barrier was still up, the monsters had never escaped.

"Now. Ummm…follow me when you are ready…." Asgore said returning his gaze to the floor. "It's okay if you're not, I'm not either."

Frisk knew exactly what he was getting at. Reset. He had to reset now.

"Hmmmm hmmm…" Asgore hummed bending down to caress one of the taller flowers. "Golly, these have turned out quite well if I do say so myself."

Frisk kept their mouth shut this time. They had to think of a way to extradite their way from the throne room. Back out into the void.

Frisk found themselves floating in the infinite blackness.

A plan. They needed a plan.

Frisk considered the situation. The more they did the more fortunate it seemed. They hadn't had any friends on the surface prior to their fall into the depth of Mt Ebbot and now they had the opportunity to reintegrate themselves into the timeline quite seamlessly. All they needed to do was return to the ruins, meet everyone again and then.

Frisk smiled. And then they could gather everyone in one place. Give Asriel his soul back.

Frisk thought of the ruins. They thought of the flower bed. It filled them with determination.

"Howdy!" Cried Flowey with faux happiness. "I'm Flowey. Flowey the…"

Flowey trailed off unexpectedly. His face morphed into one of surprise.

"You…." He gasped. "You where there when….Asriel died….I…I remember."

Frisk kept their mouth shut. They couldn't reveal too much, it might jeopardize their plan.

"How…how is that possible…?" Flowey questioned. His face contorted into one of rage.

"ANSWER ME!"

A bolt of fire hit the howling yellow flower and sent him flying.

"What a terrible creature, torturing such poor, innocent youth….."

Frisk smiled. "Hi mum…" They whispered under their breath.

The door to the ruins slammed shut behind them. Nothing had been too different apart from Flowey's recognition of them. Frisk hoped this didn't throw their plan into disarray.

They set off down the snowy forest path. Frisk knew full well Sans was watching them, they could catch flickers of his blue eye through the trees.

They reached the bridge. Something was off. The gate blocking it was actually dense enough to impede Frisk. It hadn't been like that last time.

"Need me to get that for you?" Came the drawl Frisk knew all to well. "Turn around and shake my hand."

Frisk spun on their heel and offered a left hand to grasp Sans'.

The sound of a whoopee cushion split the air.

"Hehehe…works every time I swear. The name's Sans. Sans the skeleton." He frowned. "You don't look very surprised, have you see that one before."

"Nice to meet you Mr Sans." Frisk said ignoring the skeleton's confusion. "My name is Frisk." They hadn't offered their name the first time, in fact they'd barely even talked the first time round. They'd been way to scared of the creepy skeleton man. Now they knew who he was, and how close friends they'd become Frisk felt comfortable telling him their name.

"Frisk huh. What kind of name is that?" He guffawed. "Anyway, you seem to be in a bit of a pickle. My brother here, he made this gate to stop humans like you from getting past."

Frisk turned to the wooden portcullis. "I noticed."

Suddenly it glowed blue and rose up.

Frisk turned back to see Sans lift his left palm in the air. "Go on. I ain't gonna drop it on you or anything." He winked.

Frisk quickly ducked under the portcullis Sans following close behind. They turned back to him. "Thanks Mr Sans that was really nice of you."
"Eh don't sweat it kiddo." Another wink. "Least I could do."

Frisk pointed to the barricade. "Why doesn't your brother want humans coming through?"

Sans smiled. "Oh geeze my brother he's the one you gotta watch out for kiddo. Now he's a great guy and all but he's ummm…under orders to capture a human such as yourself."

"And you aren't?"

Sans blushed a bit (Frisk had never bothered to ask how that worked). "Ahah, I've ummm….got orders of my own kiddo."

Something was a bit off. Sans normally had a constant grin on his face but he was currently being more expressive, frowning and blushing. Frisk knew the skeleton was quite emotionally distant, the knowledge of the timelines and resets making it hard for him to care about anything at all. He'd made the conscious decision to smile constantly, if only for his brother's sake. But now he seemed for emotional, less reserved and more expressive. Frisk guessed that without the terrible knowledge of the time-loop Sans was in a way, much happier.

The skeleton was about to say something before someone cleared their throat behind him and Frisk.

They both turned to see Papyrus, but not quite as Frisk remembered him. He was wearing a red hoodie not unlike the blue one Sans sported, his face was more taught and serious. In fact he looked quite annoyed.

"Brother! I'm quite annoyed, you took it upon yourself to let this human through the gate?"

"Uhhh Bro I can explain." Sans began.

"Silence brother. I'm under orders you know that." He pointed at Frisk. "I'm Papyrus Gaster, royal guardsman, head of Snowdin garrison. I see you've already met my lazy brother Sans."

Frisk gasped. That was news. Papyrus a member of the royal guard and a division head to boot.

"Protocol dictates that I'm not to engage a human without support from my subordinates but I have no intention of letting you kill or hurt them so I'll be bending the rules here a bit." He smirked. "I'm not a fan of violence, I'll give you an opportunity to surrender here and now human."

Frisk didn't know quite what to do. "Hi there Mr Papyrus. My name is Frisk, I've no intention of hurting anybody here so if you'll just let me pass through…"

"I'll be doing no such thing human." He grimaced. "Give up or I'll knock you out here and now."

Sans piped up. "Bro isn't that a little extreme?"

"Orders are orders brother, I'm being as lenient as the mission parameters will allow for, I'm giving this Frisk human a chance to surrender."

"So you can take their soul?" Sans grunted more than a little disgusted. "Bro this is wrong!"

Papyrus grimaced. "I knew what I signed up for brother."

"I can't let you hurt this kid bro!" Sans said with sudden ferocity a blue glow erupting around his body.

Papyrus didn't look impressed. "Brother this is treasonous behaviour, what's brought all this on?"

"I made a promise to someone bro." Sans said deadly serious. "A promise to keep this kid here safe."

Frisk needed to defuse the situation fast. "I surrender Mr Papyrus!" They said loudly.

The blue aura died around Sans. He looked at them in shock. "Kiddo did you not here what I said. They're going to take your soul!

An orange glow burst into life around Frisk lifting them up into the air. Papyrus hadn't been able to do this before either, he'd always had strong but poorly controlled telekinesis.

"Papyrus put them down!" Sans yelled irate.

Papyrus ignored his brother. "Human I have a holding cell by my house. We'll wait there until my boss Undyne arrives."

Frisk struggled in the orange glow. "Then what Mr Papyrus?"

"Well…" Papyrus sighed. "I…I don't know, then we'll turn you over to my dad I guess."

Dr Gaster. Dr Gaster would remember Frisk. This wasn't so bad.

Sans trotted after them. "Papyrus. PAPYRUS!"

The holding cell was actually capable of holding Frisk this time around, the bars were spaced regularly enough to prevent escape. Papyrus sat on a stool watching his captive through the wooden bars. He didn't look particularly happy about this arrangement, in fact he looked quite upset about it all. Frisk could tell he didn't want to hand them over to Asgore.

"So is this your shed Mr Papyrus?" Frisk began trying to start up a conversation.

"This is a holding cell for humans like you." Papyrus insisted.

"It looks like a shed, not offense."

Papyrus looked a little upset. "I really put effort into this holding cell you can be a bit more appreciative."

"Sorry." Frisk mumbled. "So do you have any hobbies Mr Papyrus?"

Papyrus raised a bony eyebrow. "Yes human I do. Many in fact." He puffed out his ribcage. "I'll have you know I'm quite the chef."

Frisk smiled. Despite the change and personality Frisk saw that the Papyrus they knew and loved was still in there.

"What do you cook?"

Papyrus' eyelights twinkled. "I love Spaghetti, it's my favourite food." Suddenly he grimaced. "Why? What's it to you?"

"Just thought I'd ask, polite conversation."

"Oh. That was….thoughtful of you…" Papyrus looked down at the ground.

Frisk was interested in what had happened to the Gaster household. Was Dr Gaster's wife even alive?

"So do you have any family Mr Papyrus? I've already met your brother."

Papyrus gave a forced smile. "Well there are four of us. Me, Sans, my dad and my mom. You'll be meeting dad soon." He got a little quite. "He'll be eager to meet you I think."

Frisk tried to change to subject. "Your brother seemed cool."

Papyrus lit up. "NYEH HEH! Of course he is cool! You'd have to be if you were related to me." Suddenly he frowned. "But lately he's been doing some uncool stuff, he's been acting all weird. If I didn't know any better I'd say he was infatuated with someone."

He wasn't wrong Sans had been nursing a crush of Toriel for quite some time underground as Alphys' cameras could attest.

"Lately he's been voicing doubts about king Asgore's plan to free us and well…" Papyrus looked a little glum. "He seems pretty angry with me now I've actually captured a human."

"I'm sure he'll forgive you."

Papyrus rubbed a bony arm. "NYEH HOO, I sure hope so. My brother means a lot to me….I love him to bits you know?"

"I can tell."

Papyrus looked right at Frisk. "Why are you doing this human, why are you talking to me?"

Frisk shrugged. "I kind of like you." They answered honestly.

Papyrus gasped. "What? Even though I captured you?"

"Yeah. You seem like a nice guy." Frisk smiled.

Papyrus looked utterly dumbstruck by this comment, his face twitching. Suddenly he smacked a bony palm into his forehead over and over. "NYEH HEH NYOO!" He exclaimed. "I hate this. I HATE THIS!"

Frisk came up to the bars of the cell. "Don't do that Papyrus you'll hurt yourself!"

Papyrus looked up at his captive. "Ever since I was a young skeleton, I've dreamed of joining the royal guard, of protecting monsters from humans like you. But now that I've finally captured one….so nice….you don't even have a shred of evil in you. I can tell just by talking with you!" He looked down in shame. "I…I don't want to hurt you….I don't think I can give you up…"

He got up suddenly and flexed his right palm. A orange glow ripped the cell door off of its hinges.

"Go on." Papyrus said desperately. "Go find my brother! He'll know what to do with you, I'll say you broke out and overpowered me."

"Papyrus, you'll get in trouble!"

"I'll be fine, Frisk." He smiled. "Maybe in another life we could have been friends."

He wasn't wrong at all. Frisk just hoped that statement would ring true again.

Frisk slunk out of the cell. "Thanks." They mumbled.

The two of them stepped out of the garage. Papyrus gave Frisk a pat on the back. "Find my brother okay he always knows what to do." The tall skeleton knelt down to be level with the shorter child. "Stay safe okay."

"Afternoon Punks!" Came a familiar howl.

Papyrus' skull morphed in horror. Frisk turned to see a black clad figure stride through the evening snow.

"You and I need to have a chat human!" Said Undyne.

---

Tired

Chapter Notes

This time may be my new update schedule from now on as I have a lot of things to do in the upcoming nights (such as tonight).
I still aim to get 1 chapter out every day at a regular interval. This work has about 7-8 chapters left by my reckoning (it isn't totally finished) and if you'd like to see more I'll certainly try to write more (they'll likely be irregular oneshots until I have written a sizable buffer of proper plot chapters that I feel comfortable releasing). Anyway, feedback and criticism is always appreciated. I aim to please and the ending is yet to be written, so if there is anything you might want to see, just ask and I'll see if I can squeeze it in. Anyway, latest chapter, some big reveals. Hope you all enjoy as always.

---

"CAPTAIN UNDYNE MA'AM!" Papyrus said shooting up like a rocket and saluting.

"Ummm…" She looked a little confused. "At ease Papyrus?" She smiled again. "Mind telling me what you're doing with this human here?"

Papyrus began to shake. "Well I was uhhhh…I was just going to…"

"Release them as I told you to?"

"Yes that's it!" Papyrus said triumphantly. An expression of confusion rapidly followed. "Wait what?"

"Yeah I've been texting you for the past half an hour. I told you to let them go."

Papyrus pulled his phone out of his pocket and checked through the message log. He'd been to busy staring at his captive to notice the messages. "I…ahhhh…..yes…..Guardsman Papyrus follows orders to the letter of course Undyne."

"Guardsman?" Undyne said with some confusion. "When did I let you join?"

"Four years ago Undyne." Papyrus said proudly putting a bony hand to his chest.

Frisk figured Undyne had remembered their resets. Why else would she be asking for their release?

As if on cue Undyne turned to Frisk. "Well you certainly look the part punk. Mind telling me your name."

"It's Frisk." Frisk replied. They hoped she knew who they were.

"Nice to finally meet you then." She held out a mailed fist to shake with. "Let's talk as we walk."

Frisk took her huge hand. She led them away from the bewildered Papyrus. "See you round Papyrus!" She called out over her shoulder. "Take care of your brother for me. I have it from here!"

They were seated on a rock in Waterfall. The blooming echo flowers cast their pretty blue light onto the flowing water. It was quite the scene, very relaxing.

"So you're a legit time traveller?" Undyne said. "That's pretty cool."

"I guess."

"You GUESS!" She flashed Frisk a razor toothed grin. "All right punk spill the beans what's going on."

"I'd first like to thank you for trusting me. Without you none of this would have been possible."

Undyne snorted. "No, I want to thank you. Alphys is here with me again….I…I don't really know how I can repay you."

She smiled. "Now punk are you going to tell me what the plan is now."

It had to happen sometime. "Brace yourself okay, it's a bit of a long story."

Undyne was a good listener. She rarely interjected and when she did it was to ask a question or to clear something up for them.

When Frisk was finished Undyne stood up and flexed her arms. "So me, you and Dr Gaster are the only ones with a clue?"

"Correct." Replied Frisk.

"So what happens now, how do we get Asriel his body back? How do we break the barrier?"

"I don't know. Things are different this time around, Papyrus is a fully fledged royal guard he is also a lot more…serious."

Undyne frowned. "I could have sworn I never gave Papyrus that job."

"You didn't, you thought he was too naive to be a guard." Frisk said quietly. "Obviously not in this timeline."

Undyne brushed it off. "Regardless of the differences, we're going to SAVE your friend." She whipped around to Frisk and did an exaggerated pose. "IF IT'S THE LAST THING WE DO!"

Frisk smiled. "That's the spirit Undyne."

"What did you do last time?" She asked. "Can't we just do that again?"

"Well last time I got everyone in one place at the same time and the Asriel…" Frisk looked down. "Flowey I should say….he took all of your souls. He returned to his original form. But he was just really scared, I talked him down. I got him to destroy the barrier. That's how we all escaped last time."

"So we just need everyone in one place at one time?"

"Not everyone. Just enough that regains his compassion and goes back to his real form."

"Shouldn't be too hard. I can call up everyone I know, get them all to meet in the throne room."

"Thanks Undyne. This is all nearly over." Frisk yawned. "I haven't slept in a long time. I'm dying to catch some rest."

"Well I did promise you could crash at my place didn't I. Come on."

Undyne's bed had been surprisingly soft for such a hard woman. The gaudy anime pinups and posters that plastered the walls and floor of the bedroom were somehow more cluttered than Frisk remembered.

They awoke to the sound of Undyne's forceful piano playing. Frisk crept out into the main room still sleepy eyed.

"I WAS WONDERING WHEN YOU'D WAKE UP PUNK!" Cried Undyne over the booming Piano. "DEAD TO THE WORLD."

"Can…can you stop that a minute….my head is killing me."

She stopped hitting the keyboard. "Whatever punk."

Frisk rubbed sleep from their eyes. "I'm going to head out soon. Meet up with Dr Gaster, I bet you he's at the Hotland's lab."

"And I shall leave you in his capable hands, I ain't setting a foot in the Hotlands. Does horrible things to a fishperson such as me."

Frisk remembered dousing Undyne with water on their first meeting (seventh from their perspective, she'd been pretty lethal). They knew she wouldn't head there without good reason.

"I don't really need your help anyway Undyne, I know my way around." Frisk said stretching. "Thanks for letting me crash at your place though, that was really nice of you."

She got of the piano and meandered over. "Just before you go I thought I might give you some food to help keep your energy up."

Frisk nodded. "That's thoughtful Undyne. Thanks."

"I'll just get the spaghetti off of the stove!"

Frisk sniffed the air. Something was burning.

"Oh no." Frisk whispered.

Undyne looked pleased as punch. "The spaghetti packet says it takes 20-30 minutes to cook, but I just turned up the stovetop to ABSOLUTE MAXIMUM!" She grinned. "What could go wrong?"

Something exploded behind them.

They both looked at Undyne's blazing house.

"Well that sucks…." Undyne said a bit bewildered. "Guess you need to watch your cooking."

"Don't sweat it Undyne." Frisk said trying to be helpful. "In a few days we'll be out of here anyway, if things pan out you start going out with Alphys and move into an apartment with on the surface with her."

Undyne gasped. "Really?"

"Yeah. You're a really cute couple."

"She's into me! I…I mean… yeah of course she's into me!" She tried to sound like it wasn't much of a surprise but her gushing betrayed her true feelings. "Oh my god! Tell me more!"

"That would be spoiling it." Frisk smiled watching the flames roar. "You'll see for yourself."

Undyne was practically vibrating in place. "You gotta tell me more Frisk! I…what did I do last time."

"Just admit your feelings to her." Frisk shrugged. "She's been crushing on you for a long time now too."

An awkward silence fell as Frisk remembered the note they'd written.

"Welp." Undyne said after time. "I guess I'd better figure out alternative accommodation for the time being."

"Papyrus put you up last time."

"Last time?" Undyne said incredulously. "You mean to tell me something like this happened the first time we met?"

"It was…a bonding moment." Frisk replied. "Anyway, as I said it doesn't really matter."

She punched Frisk's shoulder gently. "I can see why I'm friends with you Frisk. You went out of your way to help people, to help that Asriel kid. You seem, PASSIONATE! PASSIONATE LIKE THIS BURNING FIRE!"

Frisk stayed quite. "I guess I am quite passionate. I'd like to help everyone if it were possible."

"Yeah." Undyne smiled. "I can totally see why I'm friends with you punk." They began to move away from the conflagration.

"Oh hey there!" Alphys said loudly. "Glad you could finally make it, I'm Dr Alphys, royal scientist, assistant to Dr Gaster. Don't worry I'm not going to fight you or anything."

That was odd. Frisk remembered Alphys being a lot more nervous than this.

"I've been watching your journey through cameras I set up all around the underground. I see you've already overpowered Guardsman Papyrus and made it all the way here!" Alphys explained. "Originally, I was going to stop you, but now I want to help you…because….watching someone on a screen really makes you root for them." She smiled. "So I'm going to help you get back to the surface if…if that's what you want."

Frisk smiled. "Where is your boss Dr Gaster."

Alphys scratched the back of her neck sheepishly. "Oh you don't really want to meet him, he'll umm….he is under orders see…to take your soul and present it to the king…sooo…"

"I already know him. He'll want to talk to me." Frisk said flatly.

Alphys gave him a funny look. "I think you must be mistaken, how could you have met Dr Gast…"

Suddenly the wall beside them exploded.

"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!"

A rectangular mass of metal poured out of the freshly minted hole.

"WELCOME BEAUTIES TO TODAY'S QUIZ SHOW!" Mettaton howled.

Alphys grabbed her head. "MTT you were too early, you weren't meant to come in until after I…" She realized she was talking too loudly. She turned to Frisk. "Oh…uh…HUMAN this is Mettaton he is an evil robot who wants to kill you but we can defeat him together."

Frisk smiled. They'd seen this all before.

"Never played before gorgeous?" Mettaton crooned. "Don't worry, the rules are simple. Answer…"

A new voice. "What's all that racket about?"

Frisk turned to see Dr Gaster. He looked different but it was definitely him. Two huge scars were hewn into his skull, he looked a little…Frisk wasn't quite sure on the word to best describe it but they settled on gooey.

Mettaton dropped his microphone in fright. "Dr Gaster SIR! We were just about to capture this human for you."

"With a quiz show?" Gaster said with a frightening reverberating tone that he had not possessed earlier.

"Does my taste for theatrics not appeal to the great Dr Gaster?"

"Umm…" Dr Gaster was confused. "Do…do you know my son?"

Mettaton nearly keeled over. "Why…why yes I….I am going out with your son oh great Dr Gaster."

Frisk laughed. He'd never seen Mettaton over a barrel like this before.

"Thanks for clearing that up." Said Gaster sounding slightly annoyed. "You know you don't need to brown nose me about that right?"

Mettaton looked a little embarrassed (as much as a metal rectangle could look embarrassed). "Oh no great Dr Gaster. No, no of course!"

"Then you can start by dropping the whole great Dr Gaster bit." He turned to Alphys. "As for you, you're in big trouble, both of you actually. This whole killer robot shtick I know it's all just an act, you're putting it on to look good in front of Fr…" He stopped himself. "In front of this human here."

They both looked down in shame.

"Go on, get out of here you two. I'll be fine here with them."

Alphys looked at him in shock. "But Dr G, the human might be dangerous!"

"I'm pretty sure they just want to talk. Go on, get out!"

"Yes Dr!" They said in unison. Alphys shuffled off with Mettaton wheeling close behind.

Once they had both left the foyer Dr Gaster turned to Frisk. "Hi there, I was wondering when you'd show up."

Frisk beamed. "Yeah. You remember what we did."

"I do indeed." The tall skeleton frowned. "It was a bit weird though, once I reset I was in my lab with my wife and then a few seconds later I was sleeping next to her in bed."

Frisk nodded. "We went back twice in quick succession so I guess after you returned to the "present" Undyne did soon after. We went from 1968 to 1991 to 2015...I mean 2013 very quickly." Frisk corrected themselves. They had to remember they hadn't been there to stop Flowey. Without their interference he'd been keeping the timeline stationary for quite a while.

"Did you get what you were looking for?" The Skeleton asked.

Frisk pulled the white nimbus out of their chest. "Yeah. His soul is right here."

Gaster knelt down and poked the little will-o-wisp with a bony finger. "Neat."

Frisk pulled to it back to their chest. "Neat indeed. I'm so happy this is nearly over, mom, Asgore." A little tear welled up in their eyes. "I just know they're going to be so happy to see them again."

Gaster grinned. It made the deformations on his face stand out even more. "You did good kid, real well."

Frisk noticed the scars again. They had to ask. "Dr, what happened to your face, and your voice? They weren't like that before."

Gaster stroked his bony chin. "You know Frisk I'm not quite sure. When I was in my room, struggling to keep us back in the past some weird stuff happened. First this kid came into my room, a human, like you."

Frisk's blood froze. "What." They said flatly.

"They had this really soft voice. I could have sworn, I'd seen them before."

Frisk felt cold all of a sudden. They were scared to know more. "Go…go on."

"I could have sworn this child, they were Chara Dreemurr, the first human to fall down here. But that's impossible huh, they were dead, I must have been hallucinating or something."

Frisk nearly vomited. That wasn't possible, that simply wasn't possible.

"Then that older Sans came into my bedroom. Said something about a flower, about how he was going to kill me. And then he was gone, I was in too much pain I couldn't see what was happening. I heard some conversation between some people and then." He paused. "This is the creepiest part, then the other Gaster, the other me. He comes in and starts touching me. I kind of, I don't know how to describe this, I kind of fell into him you know."

A grabbed his bony arm. It was covered in a thin residue of some sort. "Now I'm all sappy and gooey. I have all of these memories. And weirdest of all Frisk, I keep having these compulsions to make hand signs." As if on cue he made a couple of minute gestures. "I think I just said hi, somehow."

An Amalgamate. Dr Gaster had just described an Amalgamate.

"Dr Gaster, I think I know what's happened. You've merged with your alternate self and become something called…"

"An Amalgamate?"

There was no way he could have known that.

"Yeah…" Frisk said confusedly. "Yeah, something called an Amalgamate."

The Dr gripped his skull with both hands. "Like I said, I have all these weird memories. Memories I've never experienced before. There all pretty bad, madness, anguish, pain. I remember looking in on a timeline and seeing Alphys create those monstrosities…" His eye's widened in terror. "Oh my god. I am one aren't I, it makes sense now. That's how I know all these things."

"Easy Dr G." Frisk said trying to calm him down. "You have to tell me what happened, that Chara child, were they really there?"

Gaster shook his head. "I…I don't know….maybe….but that would be impossible. They died that day. They died before we even got there!"

Frisk knew he was telling the truth. They had seen Chara's body with their own eyes.

"It must have been a hallucination, I was in a lot of pain, pain like that and your mind can play tricks on you." Gaster grunted. "A figment of my imagination."

Frisk hoped he was right.

---

Rendezvous

Chapter Notes

Hi everyone, this will almost certainly be my new update schedule from now on as I find it a lot easier to put things up when I first wake up rather than when I'm tired coming back from a night out with friends. Anyway, went to see a talk done by Sam Harris and Maajid Nawaz which was interesting (why I couldn't update last night). I any case I enjoyed it immensely and even ran into some other Undertale fans there! Hope you all enjoy the latest chapter.

---

Mettaton hadn't bothered Frisk after Gaster's chewing out allowing Frisk to journey through the Hotlands in relative. It was still the worst part of their journey by a large margin, the heat from the magma was nearly unbearable and the gas vents Frisk used to jump the lava flows were always a very scary prospect for them.

They'd kept in contact with Gaster along the way who assisted where he could and kept tabs on Mettaton and Alphys. Frisk found his legitimate help had made the trip far easier than before, hacking the power grid to turn of the various traps and puzzles to halt their progress deeper into the monster kingdom.

Despite the help when Frisk finally made it to the Hotlands MTT resort they were in dire need of rest. The heat and physical exertion had drained them significantly and since Undyne's spaghetti had been a complete disaster they were starving to boot.

Fortunately Sans was there to greet them. "Hyea Kiddo, nice to see you still in one piece." He gave a playful wink as Frisk approached. "You really spooked me back there when Paps told me Undyne had taken you I thought you were a goner for sure." He held out a bony hand.

Frisk smiled and took it. A jarring tingling sensation ran up their arm causing them to shudder and recoil.

"Hehehehehehe" Giggled Sans. "Joy buzzer kiddo. Gotcha."

Frisk rubbed their hand. How much could they say to Sans, how much could they say. Frisk remembered that Sans likely didn't have any knowledge of the timelines or resets now seeing as Dr Gaster was alive in this timeline and Frisk figured it was unlikely the elder Gaster would divulge such terrible truths to his sons. Frisk made the decision to keep Sans blissfully ignorant for the time being, they had no idea how they'd react if they told them the truth.

"Sorry about that bad pranks are a habit of mine." The skeleton gestured to the resort. "You wanna bite to eat?'

"Wouldn't mind it Mr Sans." Frisk replied politely.

"Just call me Sans kiddo." He winked. "It's just my name, sans the title." Another bout of Hyena laughter split the hot air.

"So you met my dad?" Sans said guardedly from across the table. "How did you find him?"

"Nice." Frisk replied. It wasn't a lie, despite the spooky appearance this Gaster wasn't bitter or twisted like the first they had encounter but genuine friendly presence if a bit loopy.

"He's nice Sans. Like you and your brother."

"Nice?" Sans said incredulously. "Kiddo I'd have put you down for Scary or Mad, but nice?" The skeleton shrugged. "I dunno kid, he's pretty crazy sometimes, he's a bit of an emotional cactus as mom would put it you were lucky to hit it off with him like you did."

Frisk remembered that no food was actually coming. The MTT resort had a strict reservation policy on everything from food to chairs and Sans was far too lazy to make a booking, leaving them both standing across from one another over a bare table. Sans for his part nursed a bottle of ketchup he'd pinched from the burger emporium across the foyer. He offered it to Frisk and looked a tad disappointed when they refused.

"You know kiddo. I used to be scared of humans like you, but now I'm not so sure anymore." Sans drawled. "I'm rooting for ya kid, remember that. I made a promise to someone, that I'd have your back all the way."

Frisk knew exactly what he was talking about. They kept silent. They didn't want Sans getting suspicious over how much they knew.

"Bet you're wondering what it is I'm talking about huh? Let me tell you a story bucko." Sans said before chugging the whole ketchup bottle. He wiped his stained mouth with his dirty hoodie and made an exaggerated gasping sound to voice his satisfaction with the beverage. "So I'm a sentry in Snowdin forest, right? I sit out there and watch for humans. It's kind of boring fortunately, deep in the forest there's this HUGE door." Sans spread his arms wide to demonstrate the scale of the door to the ruins. "And it's perfect for practicing knock-knock jokes. So one day I'm knocking them out. Like usual, I knock on the door and say. "knock-knock" and suddenly from the other side I hear a woman's voice "Who is there?" so naturally I respond." He smiled. "I say "Dishes" and she says "Dishes who?" and then I say "Dishes a very bade joke." And she just howls in laughter like it's the best joke she's heard in a hundred years."

Frisk knew Sans was off by 55, Toriel's self-imposed exile had only lasted a mere four and half decades.

"So I keep em coming." Sans winked. "And she keeps laughing, she's the best audience I've ever had. And then, after a dozen of em she knocks and says "Knock-Knock" and I say "Who's there?" "Old Lady." "Old Lady Who?" "Oh did not know you could yodel!" needless to say, this woman was extremely good." Sans smirked his impression of Frisk's mother quite uncanny, not that she had adopted them yet, though they hoped that she would.

Sans continued. "We kept telling each other jokes for hours, eventually I had to leave. Mom gets pretty cranky when me and Paps stay out late. But she told me to come back again so I did, and then I did again and again and it's a thing now, telling bad jokes through doors, it rules. But one day though, I noticed she wasn't laughing very much, I asked her what's up and then she told me something strange. "If a human ever comes through this door…could you please, please promise me something? Watch over them, and protect them… will you not?" Now I hate making promises and this woman. I don't even know her name. But…someone who sincerely likes bad jokes…has an integrity you can't so no to. Do you get what I am saying…?"

Frisk blood turned to ice. They knew what was coming next.

"You know what would have happened if she hadn't said anything?"

Sans' eyelights disappeared leaving two empty sockets. All emotion left his voice.

"Buddy. You'd be dead where you stand." The line still sent chills down Frisk's spine to this day.

Suddenly the eyelights returned as quickly as they had left. "Hey lighten up, I was just joking with ya kiddo. Besides I wouldn't want to hurt someone like you, you're a good kid." He winked. "So at least I don't have to regret my promise huh?"

Frisk was still creeped out. They remembered they nearly cried the first time Sans had said that. "Uh….yeah…"

"And look how not dead you are!" Sans said proudly. "Still in one piece, I must be pretty good at my job huh?"

Frisk fidgeted nervously. "Well Mr Sans." Frisk corrected themselves. "Sorry, Sans, it's been nice talking to you."

"Yeah. Stay safe out there kid, I'll keep an eye out huh?" Sans pushed away from the table and walked off turning to give a quick wink. "Smell ya later kiddo."

Frisk was tired. They hadn't eaten, they hadn't slept since Undyne's house. They could always go to the burger emporium and book a room. Frisk yawned and made their way to the exit.

"And now the husband and wife comedy duo…." Announced a squat slime monster gesturing as best as she could toward the stage in the restaurant.

Frisk didn't catch the names but he vaguely remembered the faces. The two monsters on stage were like blue birds with large snowflake like crests adorning their heads. Frisk knew the husband, he was the MTT resorts comedian both here and on the surface but his wife… she was meant to be an amalgamate. Frisk was certain.

That wasn't possible. How could she be normal?

They were too tired to think about it hard. They'd ring Dr Gaster in the morning.

Frisk was awoken by the sound of their cell phone. They reached over to the side table with some sluggishness and clumsily grabbed the vibrating device. It was Dr Gaster.

Frisk put the phone to their ear. "What's going on Dr G I'm trying to sleep?"

The harsh wailing tone made Frisk recoil from the phone somewhat. "Frisk, I have some amazing news."
Frisk rubbed their eyes. "Can it wait another hour doctor?"

Dr Gaster sounded ecstatic which made his voice even more disorientating and disconcerting. "No, no I need to tell you now."

"Go ahead then."

"I never made the amalgamates in this timeline!" Gaster sounded pleased as punch. "I talked to Alphys about them and she hadn't the faintest clue what I was going on about. Apparently the notes you left behind, I must have used them to infuse those test subjects with determination safely!"

That actually was good news. Come to think of it Alphys was a lot more peppy and confident than Frisk had remembered her. That made sense, she hadn't the terrible shame of creating the mutated monsters to worry about.

"That's awesome Dr G!" Frisk said happily. "This just keeps getting better."

"Well about that…" Replied Dr Gaster nervously. "I can't find Mettaton anywhere and Alphys doesn't know where he is either. We think…" The skeleton gulped. "That he might be coming for you…"

Frisk rubbed the sleep from their eyes, and yawned. "Dr why didn't you tell me this first." Frisk said somewhat annoyed. "It isn't a big deal, I've fought him before. I know just what to say."

Mettaton posed dramatically in the elevator room pointing towards Frisk as they approached.

"Smile gorgeous, you're on camera. Tonight is going to be the grand finale and curtains for you human!" He warbled electronically. "I don't care what Dr Alphys or Dr Gaster say at this point, the fact of the matter stands, if Asgore gets your soul darling he'll break the barrier and wipe out humanity. And if that happens." Mettaton struck another pose. "I'll be robbed. Robbed of such a vast audience."

The platform they were on began to rise up. "SORRY, FOLKS! THE OLD PROGRAM'S BEEN CANCELED!" Mettaton whooped. "BUT WE'VE GOT A FINALE THAT WILL DRIVE YOU WILD! REAL DRAMA! REAL ACTION! REAL BLOODSHED!" Mettaton cackled manically. "ON OUR NEW SHOW! ATTACK OF THE KILLER ROBOT!"

The platform stopped its ascent.

"There's no point trying to attack me darling. This body." The robot touched himself sensuously. "It's impervious to any form of attack you could muster! There is no chance of defeating me darling so just give up now and let me have your soul. It won't be so bad darling, I'll show you super-stardom at its finest! You and I, we'll be celebrities to all humanity!" Mettaton bore down on him. "Or, you could let Asgore kill you and be forced to become a part of him. Do you really want to witness the destruction of humanity through his eyes darling? Surely what I am offering you is a mercy?"

Frisk shook their head. "You're making a mistake."

"A mistake darling? What have I got to lose?"

Frisk remembered what got him to stop last time. "If you don't mind me saying Mr Blook, you quite a bit to lose."

Mettaton recoiled. "How could you possibly know my second name?"

"Your cousin told it to me." Frisk said. "They still love you very much."

Mettaton nearly keeled over. "B-blooky?"

"What about your boyfriend Papyrus? Wouldn't he be sad to see you leave?"

Mettaton was practically squirming. He folded his metal arms and spun away on his wheel. "Pappy would understand my decision…he'd forgive me…"

Frisk shook their head. "That isn't the point. He'd be sad to see you go all the same, you'd break his heart and a lot more. These monsters I met and talked to, you're the only good thing in a lot of their lives. Ask them yourself, do a viewer call in."

The metal rectangle beeped softly. "Any….any darlings who are watching…we…we're doing a viewer call in segment to kick off our finale." Mettaton chimed softly.

Almost immediately a ringing sound emanated from his speakers. The voice that came through them was quiet and meek. "Oh…..hi….Mettaton….I….I…really…liked watching your show…my life is pretty boring…but….seeing you on the screen…brought excitement to my life…vicariously…I can't tell….but….but is this really the last episode you'll make…are you really going to the surface….I…I've said too much I'm sorry." The caller hung up abruptly.

"B-blooky? Blooky wait!" Mettaton gasped. It was too late, Napstablook had already hung up the phone.

Caller after caller rang through Mettaton's speakers. "Mettaton, your show made us so happy!" "Mettaton I don't know what I'll watch without you!" "There's a Mettaton shaped hole in my Mettaton shaped heart!"

Then suddenly a voice Frisk knew. "Mettaton, I'll…I…I don't want to see you go….you make me really happy…boyfriend…"

Mettaton dropped his microphone causing the arena's PA system to blurt out a burst of hard sound.

"P-pappy?" Mettaton breathed. "Pappy wait!"

"Boyfriend. You must go to the surface, if that is your calling. Just know I will miss you …immensely…." The skeleton hung up.

Mettaton's arms drooped to his sides. "D-darlings…I believe I have made a grave error. I…I don't need to go to the surface when I have such a great audience right here! To leave you in such a lurch, it…it would not be becoming of a star such as I!"

The platform began to lower itself again clicking into its grove with a soft ch-chunk. Mettaton began to wheel past Frisk. "I'm sorry darling that was all so very wrong of me to do….I…I didn't know how much I meant to monsters everywhere…"

Frisk reached out and touched the metal creature. "It will be okay Mr Blook, I'm sure you'll get a big debut on the surface one day." Frisk smiled. That day wasn't long off.

"You really think so?" Came a surprisingly quite response.

"I know so."

The door burst open Dr Gaster and Alphys came into the room. "Young man you're in big trouble pulling a stunt like that!" Yelled Gaster irately. He sounded scary when he was angry causing Frisk to cover their ears a little.

"I apologize Dr. I realize now that I was terribly…"

"Damm right you're sorry!" Alphys yelled. "If you or the human got hurt I'd never forgive myself!"

"Alphys please…I know, I really…" Mettaton began before being drowned out by a torrent of anger from both scientists.

Frisk kept their mouth shut as the robot was given a lesson in humility. Though they didn't admit it, Frisk derived a perverse sense of satisfaction from watching his uncle to be squirm.

---

Cerberus

Chapter Notes

(SPOILERS: Don't read these notes until after the chapter) In regards to the chapter title, Cerberus is a reference to the trope of "Cerberus Syndrome" where a normally cutesy, happy work suddenly becomes dark and serious. When this is due to a single character, that character is known as a "Knight Of Cerberus". Of course, the whole Genocide route suffers Cerberus Syndrome but Chara is easily the most horrific and evil aspect of the run making them in my eyes, a fitting "Knight" to introduce for the climax. Anyway, hope you all enjoy as always. Comments and Criticism are always greatly appreciated.

---

The huge monster stood over Frisk like a mountain overlooking a molehill. "Human. It was nice to meet you….Goodbye."

"What a miserable creature, torturing such a poor, innocent, youth…" Toriel muttered. She turned her gaze to Frisk. "Do not be afraid, my child. It is I, Toriel, your friend and guardian."

"Hi mom." Frisk whispered under their breath, a small smile playing up upon their face.

Things were panning out as planned. This was how it was supposed to happen.

Undyne was meant to show up next. Toriel and Asgore had their (mostly one sided) row about the nature of his plan to free monster kind.

"STOP!" Screamed Undyne, running into the room. "NOBODY FIGHT! This punk here!" She pointed at Frisk. "Is my friend too. So anyone fighting him is going to have to fight me too!"

Different, but okay so far.

"Hey nobody hurt each other!" Alphys cried shuffling into the chamber. She saw Undyne was there with them already. "Oh…oh hi Undyne, it's…nice to see you."

"Yeah, screw this." Undyne waltzed over and grabbed the lizard with both arms, hefting her up so their faces were touching. The fishwoman planted a huge kiss on the squirming scientist before Toriel could protest.

"Undyne…" Alphys squeaked. "I…I never knew you felt…that way."

"Oh shut up you nerd." Undyne said before forcing her lips upon Alphys again. The two began to make out passionately, Frisk politely turned their gaze. It was new, but it would hardly jeopardized the plan.

"N…not in front of the human…" Toriel tried to no avail.

"Let kids be kids your majesty." Came a distorted tone from across the hall. Dr Gaster fell into a bow. "Your highness, I didn't know you'd be joining us."

Toriel spotted the skeleton. "Dr Gaster, it's been such a long time."

"Indeed my good lady." Wailed the skeleton softly causing everyone in the room to wince a bit. "My sons should be along shortly."

"Who said anything about being short?" Exclaimed Sans indignantly as he pushed through the door Papyrus close on his heels.

"That voice…" Toriel whispered. She pointed at the squat skeleton. "You! You're the voice from behind the door!"

Sans almost jumped with fright. "Oh…uh…hi!" Frisk remembered he was not nearly as emotionally insulated in this timeline. "You…uh…knock...knock?" The skeleton tried.

Papyrus slapped his brother on the back of the head. "Now's not the time brother. I was given orders to be here for an important meeting with Undyne." He spotted Alphys and Undyne making out. "Oh no! Undyne, you are locked in a struggle to the death with the treacherous Dr Alphys, that no good curr, that traitorous swine! Do not worry, I the GREAT PAPYRUS will assist you!" He ran over and attempted to wrench the dinosaur away receiving a kick to the groin from Undyne who continued to pile kisses the squirming scientist uninterruptedly.

"Owiee…." Wheezed Papyrus squirming on the ground. "Right in the pelvis."

Sans took the opportunity to disengage with Toriel. "Oh, uh…my brother is…um hurt…so let's have this conversation…some…other time…." He hurried over to his prone brother. "Paps, you hurt bro?"

"My…groin…." Papyrus groaned clutching his pelvis in pain. "Owie!"

Sans chuckled. "Shouldn't have interrupted them bro!"

Frisk looked around, this was as it should be or so they hoped. In a moment Flowey would show up. And then….

"My child." Said Toriel turning back to Frisk. "It seem as if you must stay here for a while. But looking at all the great friends you have made…I think…I think you will be happy here."

"Hey…that uh reminds me. Undyne, why did you tell us all to meet here? Why did we all have to…" Alphys began. She was cut off by a thorny tendril of vine that had been creeping up her leg unnoticed. Suddenly plant matter was bursting forth from the ground holding the assembled monsters high off of the ground. Even Gaster and Undyne were screaming and struggling despite the foresight they possessed.

"You….IDIOTS!" Flowey said popping his head out of the ground. "Whilst you all had your little Pow-wow, I helped myself to the human souls." He looked at Frisk. "I was so very confused when I first saw you. How could that human who was with me in my final moments, be here, right now and completely unchanged? It boggled my mind, I couldn't understand what had happened." He grinned horridly, a huge perverted smile playing across the little face. "Then it hit me, who else could it be, it was you Chara wasn't it, you were there with me when I died! You must have heard me calling to you!" The vines shook, rattling his captives like toys causing them to scream and struggle in protest. "But why didn't you want to play with me? Why didn't you want to help me? I didn't understand, I loved you Chara, with all my heart and soul, I was your brother, why didn't you want anything to do with me?" Flowey pouted. "Then I realized, you had no idea who I was, but now that I have these human souls and soon the souls of every monster in the underground, I will attain my REAL FORM." He cackled. "Well, aren't you going to say something Char?"

"I'm sorry you had to go through all of this Asriel." Frisk said quietly. "Nobody deserves that, least of all you."

"Wha…" Flowey gasped, a look of total surprise on his face. "You DO know who I am." He shook his captives again. "And you did this for me? You got them all together here, you WANTED this to happen." Flowey smiled this time genuine and heartfelt. "Thank you Chara, I won't disappoint."

A blinding flash of light filled the cavern as Asriel absorbed the monster souls throughout the kingdom.

"IT'S ME! YOUR BEST FRIEND." Said the tall figure. "ASRIEL DREEMURR!" He stopped floating and touched down on the damp rock. "We…we're going to have so much fun together you and I. We're going to keep playing this game, over and over and over again." He smiled. "It's so good to see you Chara."

"I'm not Chara." Frisk said finally. "I'm sorry Asriel, Chara has been dead for a long time. They aren't coming back."

Asriel looked at Frisk incredulously. "Then how could you be there at my death? Who else could you be?"

"Does the name Frisk ring any bells?" Frisk asked. "I'm sorry you had to go through all of that Asriel."

Asriel backed up a little taking a few short footsteps to garner distance. "That name, that…that's the name…I said…."

"Just before you died." Frisk whispered. "It's okay big guy, you don't need to do this anymore. I have something here, something that belongs to you."

Frisk reached inside themselves and pulled out the glowing white soul.

"Go on. Take it Asriel. It's yours."

Asriel took the delicate little point of light in both hands. "How…how did you get back there…how did you get this?" He pushed it inside himself. "I…I….thank you…."

"With enough determination, anything is possible Asriel. Come on, let's stop this." Frisk held their arms open in a hug. "We're going to see mom together, I promised didn't I?." Frisk knew he wouldn't remember, but that was okay. It seemed poetic.

Asriel opened his snout to say something but was cut off when a slow clapping filled the chamber. Frisk was confused and by the look on his face so was Asriel. They both turned wordlessly.

"My, my. What an entrance brother, you always did have a flair for the dramatic. God of Hyperdeath and all that." Said the hunched figure. "But this imposter is no substitute for the real thing."

---

Dialogue

Chapter Notes

Since the previous chapter was really short (and I'm bored with nothing better to do) I'm just going to put up the next one as well. I felt I got the pacing a bit off with the chapter lengths. Anyway, I hope my portrayal of Chara is close enough to the Canon in this chapter (though I feel I may have played up the misanthropic traits a bit). Anyway, they were really fun to write (I really, REALLY like writing villains). So, enjoy your bonus chapter for today.

---

Frisk had to stop themselves screaming. Standing before them was a hunched human child. Standing before them, was another Frisk. They looked quite different. Their skin was fairer, a mottled whitish-brown, their cheeks a sickly red like the colour of a rash or sore. They possessed the general appearance of a corpse. Most unsettling of all was the widened eyes glinting red in the darkness of the room.

"Greetings. I'm Chara." Said the figure. "I'd like to thank you for this Frisk, not only did you give me a proper body….well at least one of you did, but you also delivered my brother's soul straight to me."

"Ch...Chara?" Asriel stammered.

"Ah, Asriel it is good to see you too brother." Chara said sweetly. "I'm probably not quite as you remember me. But I assure you, everything you loved about me is still under this mound of flesh."

"Chara…" Asriel whispered drifting towards them almost mesmerized by their voice. "I'm…I'm sorry, there's so much I want to say…I…I'm sorry I got us killed."

"Asriel wait!" Frisk screamed "Don't go near them, their dangerous!" It was too late. Asriel was almost within arm's reach of the fallen child.

"Come, embrace me brother." Chara said softly. "It's been far too long."

The large goatman fell to his knees awkwardly and gave the child a huge sobbing hug. "I…I don't want to let go."

"And you'll never have to."

There was a soft wet sound. Asriel bleated in fear. The soft giggling of Chara turned wet and hacking. Frisk saw what had happened, the fallen child had gutted themselves on their own knife.

"Chara?" Asriel gasped. "CHARA!" He shook the body roughly, it was limp and dead in his arms. "No, no, NO! WHY!" He screamed, his tears mingling with the blood. "Why did…wha…wha…why?"

The body of the child began to break apart like that of a monster, turning into a fine dust that blew away on the gusty winds of the cavern. Asriel pawed desperately through the powder. Admits his scratching a sickly red glow emerged from the ashes. A human soul.

"Ch…Chara…" Asriel whimpered grasping the soul with both hands.

"Asriel don't do it, it's a trick!" Frisk screamed running over. "Don't touch it!"

It was too late, Asriel took the orb and shoved it into his chest. Suddenly the goat man clasped his head and screamed in pain. His cries of anguish and sorrow slowly became mirthful chuckles and then ecstatic cackling. The monster turned his head to reveal two glowing red eyes stopping Frisk in their tracks.

"Hello Frisk…" Chara said softly.

Frisk was utterly paralysed with fear and horror. It had all happened so fast, from happy ending to nightmare in no time at all. Their legs felt like jelly, their gut was churning with terrible force. Their entire body felt like it was bursting at the seams with fear and anxiety.

"I must thank you Frisk." Chara crooned through Asriel's mouth. "My darling little brother, he'll be safe with me, don't you worry. And this powerful form, the power of every soul in the underground. Strong enough to protect us, invincible, immortal and utterly perfect." They laughed. "And with me at the helm, I can make absolutely sure he won't come to harm."

"Why…" Frisk said on the verge of tears. "Why would you…why would anybody do this?"

"You'd be surprised Frisk." Smiled Chara feeling their own furry face for the first time. "I suppose I should explain myself, tell you the whole story. I've nothing better to do and with what you've done for me, I think you've earned it."

Frisk fell to their knees and began to cry, a huge river of tears hitting the floor. Everything they worked for had been for nothing, for less than nothing. It was worse, far worse, their friends were part of them now. They were gone for good.

"It all began so long ago, a human child born in a village in the shadow of this mountain." Chara placed a hand on their chest. "Yours's truly." Frisk didn't stop crying, Chara continued regardless. "Such vast and terrible cruelties were visited upon them. I believe they have a word for that kind of thing, inhuman." Chara laughed. "I've always loved the irony in that word, as if such cruelty could come from anything other than a human. Even I would not be so cruel as to tell you the details, but know this…" Chara said softly. "What they did to me…it taught me the truth of this world. That it and its people are diseased."

Frisk didn't have enough water to make tears any more. They settled for dry sobbing and heaving.

"So one day, I decided to end it all. I scaled Mt Ebbot alone one night, hoping to disappear like many had in the stories. Poetic I thought, a fitting end to a pathetic existence, disappearing into the jaws of oblivion, erased from this uncaring world." Chara smiled as if remembering something fondly. "But as I'm sure you know, I didn't meet my end there in that cavern, I cast myself down the pit into the very heart of this mountain and then….he found me." Chara whispered. "He helped me, brought me to safety, tended to my wounds. I was wary, guarded. People had pretended to help me before, only to make the betrayal sweeter, but this was different. He's kindness was pure and true, for the first time in my life, I experienced love not L.O.V.E." Chara said punctuating the last word to demonstrate the acronym. "Do you understand what I'm saying Frisk? My little brother was the first person in my life to show genuine love and adoration for me. Do you understand why I'm doing what I'm doing?"

Frisk banged their hands against the earthen floor, hitting it hard enough to make their fists bleed. "No!" They screamed. "NO! Why are you doing this, why are you taking it out on him! If you love him so much, why hurt him like this, why take this away from him!"

"You still do not understand. Perhaps more explanation is required." Chara responded flexing their new muscles. "This part I believe you know already. I was taken into the king's family as one of their own, a second princeling." The goat chuckled softly. "To think I could go from a pathetic loathsome wretch to royalty in a flash, just like that. For a time I was happy, content to play with my darling brother, us two, princes of the realm, champions of monster-kind. But as I grew in age, I learnt more of their story, how they had come to be down here. The answer is us, we humans Frisk. My mind was made up, we had to go. Surely nothing good could come of this miserable, wretched world whilst a human still drew breath. And I would of course begin with." Chara grinned. "My former home."

Frisk sniffled. "Whatever it was they did to you, it was wrong and I'm sorry. But you can't take it out on everyone."

"Why not?" Chara said with surprise. "Once you've seen one human, you've seen them all. Pathetic, miserable, disgusting, greedy, self-aggrandizing vermin. I've seen the truth behind the mask of civility we hold so dear. Each and every one of us is but a mere animal, a beast eking out a short and horrid existence of pain and torment upon his fellow man all in a flawed effort to come to terms with his own suffering and anguish. Do you not see Frisk? The cruelty of a man is hidden so poorly it may as well be on his sleeve! We live to torment one another, to be cruel and violent and brutal so that we may proclaim ourselves of greater import in this sick, meaningless world."

Frisk shook their head weakly. "I didn't have a good upbringing either, you have to forgive, it's the only way…the only way to let go."

"What's the worst you've experienced Frisk? Schoolyard bullies, the odd abusive matron? I have very intimate knowledge of you Frisk, after all." They pulled the dim red orb of a soul out from their body. "I have your soul Frisk, a passable substitute in the absence of my own. But we digress. Regardless of your beliefs, I was motivated to exterminate humanity utterly. I kept my dream secret from my family, monsters, try as they might were incapable of great hatred. Admirable perhaps but look where it got them, the bottom of a cavern, trapped in eternal imprisonment. I contented myself, playing with my adoring brother, building up the first true friendship either of us had ever had. At first I told myself I was doing this for his sake, with humanity gone, Monsters would be free to retake the earth once more and perhaps something good could come from the ashes of mankind." Chara laughed hysterically it coming out more like frenzied bleating from Asriel's voicebox. "What a lie. I wanted to see humanity annihilated for its own sake, poetic and vengeful justice for their irremediable crime of existence. So I plotted and planned, I learnt of souls, of the barrier, of the abilities of both man and monster and then…one day an idea formed in my head."

"You poisoned Asgore…" Frisk croaked. "Why?"

"Two reasons. Firstly I was jealous of the attention he received from Asriel. Perhaps it was my human greed, the point stood, Asriel was my friend, my brother. I wanted him for myself and his parents were in my opinion…an unnecessary distraction from me." Chara said it as if it were the easiest thing to admit in the world. "Secondly it would provide an adequate test run for my plan proper. I had to ensure it worked the first time, Asriel…bless his tiny heart…would quite likely have blabbed about the whole thing to our parents had I survived. To ensure my second attempt on my own life worked, I ate enough flowers to kill Father three times over." Chara smirked through their brother's snout. "Such pain was excruciating. But I knew it would be worth the effort, my plan was finally coming to fruition. With the promise of the salvation of monster-kind I knew Asriel would be powerless to resist my offer. What I did not account for." Chara grimaced. "Was his power of will, he resisted my control quite successfully. Perhaps if I had told him the crimes they had perpetrated against me, he would have been more compliant with my demands. But regardless, we both ended up dead because of his pacifism. In a way, he proved my point. You can only get ahead in this world through cruelty and brutality and who is more cruel or brutal than humanity."

Frisk had barely been listening, trying to build up the strength for another fit of tears.

"And so I descended into oblivion, or so I should have. But some part of me, it remained. Do you know what I'm taking about Frisk?"

"D…determination…" Frisk managed.

"Indeed, though I didn't know, the power of my soul was strong enough to persist long after its destruction. It just needed a host, a vessel. That's where you came in Frisk. You of all people, saved me, gave me form again."

"No…no…" Frisk whimpered. "That…that…isn't…"

"I was so confused at first, but then I understood. My Frisk in my timeline, for whatever reason took the life of a monster. Maybe they were scared, maybe it was an accident. From that moment on their fate was sealed, they'd let me into their heart. At this point I possessed no soul, no capacity for any positive emotion. Filled with nothing but nihilistic rage for all life, I compelled my Frisk to embark upon a crusade of total, unadulterated, genocide. Perhaps when I had carved my way across the underground I would possess the power to escape and then begin to enact my vengeance upon the world. But my power grew exponentially, to an amount far greater than I could have ever dreamed. My determination, it had grown enough to destroy time itself. In the end, My Frisk and I destroyed that pathetic universe and my thirst for vengeance was finally sated. But yet…" Chara smiled. "I was still not satisfied and neither were you."

"What…what do you mean…?" Frisk rasped now crawling on all fours. "I just don't understand…"

"My Frisk requested I rebuild the timeline. In return I was offered their own human soul. An offer I simply could not refuse. They took the opportunity to exterminate all life again, as unbeknownst to me, I had moulded them to a far greater degree than I had expected. I had made them a great killer like me." Chara chuckled. "Does it scare you Frisk? To know you are capable of such evil?"

"That…that…wasn't…" Frisk tried.

"That wasn't you? Is that what you were going to say?" Chara laughed hysterically. "They looked like you, they sounded like you, they smelt like you and I'm sure your soul tastes like theirs too."

"You…you…"

"Again and again, the world was rebuilt and destroyed." Chara said returning to their story."Again and again the same results. I grew tired of this game between us after a while, and eventually, I refused. Why should I have to bow down to a creature I had complete and total dominion over. Why should I have to repeat the same boring cycle over and over again. So I stole their body, a trivial matter really, with their soul in hand I had complete domination over them.
My desire for a new experience, a fresh test of my power and skills. It led me out into the void between the timelines. So many new possibilities, new opportunities. I enjoyed my new playground for a time, but soon I realized I was still missing….something." Chara flashed a smile. "And now I think I've found it. My darling little brother and I, reunited at last. That missing thing in my life, the itch I could never quite scratch. Thank you Frisk, thank you for giving him right to me."

"And…what…will you do now? Frisk cried. "What will you do to him?"

Chara sighed. "Well first there is the matter of punishment. Regardless of my adoration for him Frisk, he did cause both of our deaths. Once I'm done rectifying his mistake, I shall mould him into a killer like myself. Teach him the lesson he learnt far too late. In this world, it's kill or be killed. Then and only then shall we be safe together, then we can be true siblings once more. And this time, with me to protect him, with this powerful form we share, he won't ever come to harm again."

"You're disgusting…." Frisk sobbed. "That isn't love…"

"Don't lecture me Frisk. I'm bored now and have far greater matters of importance to attend to. Goodbye."

The goatman walked over to the sobbing Child.

Frisk felt the determination seep out of them. There was nothing left to be determined about. Nothing left to live for. They tried to reset. The timeline wouldn't budge, Chara was far stronger than they were. This was it. This was the end. All their fault. The tears came harder.

In that moment, something else was with them. A presence.

"Let me handle this." Said a voice.

---

Confrontation

Chapter Notes

This started out as a really cool concept for a climactic fight in my head, but in practice was really, really difficult to write. Since there are two Charas (one possessing Frisk and another possessing Asriel) who both use the same pronouns and such, this was horrible to write and probably to read.
To clarify, in this chapter, whenever I use "Chara" by itself, I mean the Chara possessing Frisk. Whenever I use "the goatman" or "the other Chara" I mean the one possessing Asriel. Are we clear on that? Good. I'm sorry if this reads messily, I was under a bit of time pressure when I wrote it. Hope you all enjoy.

---

Chara felt every inch of Frisk's body. It was a beautiful sensation, they'd gone so long as a niggling little voice in the back of Frisk's mind that they'd forgotten what it was like to wriggle their toes and fingers. Such small pleasures, the kind you could only miss once you'd lost them.

It felt awkward controlling a body again, jerky, clumsy and difficult. Chara made Frisk stand, staggering at first but eventually drawing their body up to its full height.

"You want to die standing?" Said the goatman. "Makes no difference I suppose, I'll indulge you." The possessed Asriel stood over them.

"You hurt my brother…" Chara began.

"He's not your brother Frisk." The other Chara laughed. "We've been over this, come now, don't be bitter, I won, you lost. The weak die, the strong survive. It's just the way of things Frisk." The goatman laughed. "Any last words?"

"I'm not Frisk." Chara replied curtly. "They aren't in at the moment."

"What?" Said the goatman a look of confusion across their face.

Chara looked up and stared their counterpart right in the face. "Greetings."

The two fallen children stood in total silence, watching one another for some time in their stolen bodies.

The one possessing Asriel was the first to break the long silence. "My, my, my." They whispered through the goat's mouth. "Never in all my years have I seen something quite as interesting as this."

"You hurt my brother." Repeated Chara louder this time. "You….we….we hurt him."

The other Chara shook Asriel's head. "No, no. He was the one in the wrong. He had the chance to kill them and he didn't take it. He could of ended them so easily with our help." The possessed goat huffed disgustedly. "And yet he seemingly had more sympathy for total strangers than he did for us."

"It's our fault." Chara said flatly. "I can't let you hurt him again."

"Hurt him?" Laughed the other. "I don't want to hurt our darling brother, I want to keep him safe, secure." They ran a hand down their new body. "And with this form, I can ensure that we won't ever come to harm again."

"Let him go." Chara said. "I won't ask again."

Their alternate laughed again. "You think you are in control here, you have the body of a child, I a mighty god. My power, it is absolute, unmatched!" Their cackling turned hysterical. "I've seen it in this very timeline. Frisk could only stop this form through appealing to Asriel's naiveté, but with me at the helm…." Their snout broke into a malicious smile. "I won't back down, I'll do what I need to survive. To ensure my own safety and his. This power…." They breathed in. "This determination, it's incredible and now with his soul…..I possess everything I could have ever wanted. Thank you."

Chara ignored them. "You know, when I first woke up inside Frisk's body, I couldn't get them to do anything. They weren't even aware I existed and up until now I don't think they ever did." Chara flexed Frisk's body. "But as their compassion grew, as they met new friends and family, I found it easier and easier to get close to their soul. I could experience emotions I never thought possible. I knew what it was like to feel true love for someone and to be loved back. And so I was content to exist vicariously through them, perhaps fade away into their consciousness over time." They smiled. "But what you just did, hurt my baby brother like that? It filled Frisk with such emotion, such despair, such anguish that we'd come so close only to be foiled by the likes of you. And for a moment, even the tiniest, most pathetic sliver of a second, Frisk felt hatred. Hatred for you, for what you'd done. That was enough." Chara said clenching their host's fists. "For me to come out and say hello."

"And what do you intend to do?" Replied the other Chara. "You of all people should know this form is truly all powerful. If you were like me, you've seen their journey through their eyes. You know that you can't defeat me, no matter how hard you try." They grinned through their snout. "And with my determination, I only have to win once."

"Frisk may be too nice for their own good, but know this. I hate you." Chara said plainly. "I was just about to see my baby brother again, to know what it was like to hold and feel him once more. But you, you took that away from me. That time with Frisk's soul, maybe it's made me a better person, maybe it's made me kinder and softer." Their eyes glinted. "But I've still got one hell of a mean streak."

"And what will you do with that?" Came the reply. "We've been over this already, you can't do anything to me like this. I'm all powerful…I'm…I'm…" They trailed off when they saw Frisk's body was dripping. "What…what are you doing?"

Frisk's skin had begun to run off in waxy trickles. Chara felt the soft-semi solid stuff of their shared body drip away like honey. They touched a wet patch and felt it moist and warm, their skin liquefying before their very eyes. They laughed. "Did you think I was joking, I'm going to make you hurt. I'm going to make you suffer Chara Dreemurr. I'm determined….so very determined to see you in pain. This determination, this power I wield. It's too much even for this human body." The droplets of gooey flesh hit the floor of the chamber with increasing frequency. "I think it will certainly be too much for you."

The possessed Asriel took an uncertain step backward. "You…you lie…this form, it contains the souls of ever monster in the underground, the souls of seven humans. My determination…it…it…"

"It's nothing compared to ours friend." Chara said sweetly. "I hate you. I hate you so much it's unreal. And that hatred, I've channelled that into my…into our soul. I want you dead. And I'll get what I want." They took a step towards their brother's possessed form. "I'll give you one last chance to vacate that body."

Chara felt the timeline shift, the other was trying to pull the moment away from them. They resisted, they held onto the moment. They felt it buckle and strain under the tension of the two massive powers. The other Chara grunted through Asriel's mouth soon turning into howling and screaming. It didn't work, the moment stayed where it was.

"You aren't getting away." Chara said softly. They took another step forward, gooey legs leaving a trail of human slime behind them. "I. Want. You. Dead."

The other Chara stretched out their fingers. "Sh-shocker breaker!" Nothing happened.

"We never really learnt magic did we?" Smirked Chara taking another step towards their counterpart. "I don't think calling the attack really helps either."

The possessed goat decided to take the initiative. With a feral roar they lunged at Frisk's dripping form. Despite their lack of magical knowledge, their claws were still sharp and painful, lacerating Frisk's face brutally.

Chara clutched at the wound and gasped in pain. They looked up at their panting adversary, red light gleaming out of Frisk's eyes. "I'm glad you'll make it more of a challenge."

"What…what are you?" The other Chara bellowed. "I…I can destroy time itself, I more powerful now than I ever was! I can certainly kill you!" They threw their weight behind another swipe catching Frisk across the chest and shredding their trademark sweater. "SO WHY WON'T YOU DIE!" It was the first time they had raised their voice beyond a measured tone.

Chara whipped their melting head back and laughed. Despite the pain they were enjoying this, their first proper fight in ages. "I'm your best nightmare." They said softly levelling Frisk's head. They threw out a fist, the impact sending the other Chara flying away from them. Asriel's possessed body smashed into the masonry of the far wall cracking it as they collided.

Chara thought there was some macabre comedy to the thought of Frisk's tiny frame throwing around Asriel's towering form like a ragdoll. They laughed. "That's just a taste of what's to come." Chara said satisfied. "Give me back my brother. Now."

The possessed goatman struggled to stand up amidst the rubble and stone. Their cries of frustration reaching an increasingly feverish pitch. "No…NO!" They screamed. "This, isn't meant to happen, THIS ISN"T HOW THIS WORKS!"

Chara continued their slow methodical plod towards their foe. "Shut up." They said plainly.

The other tried to scramble away on all fours. They fell over, still not quite used to their new bulkier frame.

"Good thing Frisk and I are about the same size, allows the muscle memory to really carry over." Chara chided, standing over their counterpart. "Having some trouble there?"

The other Chara opened their snout to say something but it was met with another brutal blow and another and another. They rained down like hailstones, powered by determination, smashing the goat's face into a bloody ruin. Chara continued until they were tired of laying into the mewling creature. They fell back onto Frisk's haunches and panted for breath.

"You know…" Chara panted. "I'm not enjoying this as much as I thought I would. I have to hit something that looks like my brother." They grimaced through Frisk's face. "But I know… that it's me underneath all that fur…and right now….there isn't anyone I hate more than me." Chara got up off of Frisk's rear. "In fact, I don't think I've ever hated someone more than I've hated myself." They threw another punch causing their possessed brother to cry out in pain. "Needless to say, this very therapeutic for me. All that self-loathing, all that hatred for what I'd done." They smiled through Frisk's mouth. "I can take it out on you!"

"You…can't…kill….me…" The other whispered through their ruined snout. "Even…if…you….could….you'd…be….destroying….him…"

"Then maybe, I just have to make it hurt enough that you'll stop." Chara laughed. They were about to throw another determined punch before a droplet of Frisk's skin landed on the bloodstained fur of their foe.

The possessed goat laughed. "You don't get it do you. I don't need to hold out forever, you're on borrowed time. That body of yours is going to melt away into nothing." The other Chara smiled through broken teeth. "I bet it's already starting to hurt…."

Chara grimaced. They could already feel the pain rising through their body, every fibre of their being burning with determination. "Then I guess I'll have to end this quickly then." They grunted, throwing another brutal punch into Asriel's face. "Give him back, GIVE ME MY BABY BROTHER BACK!" Chara screamed.

The goat-Chara began to laugh painfully under the barrage, each blow making their cackling more and more ferocious. They knew they'd win eventually, it was only a matter of time before Frisk's body gave out from the strain.

Chara had begun to cry. They cried for the first time since the village at the foot of the mountain. They threw one last punch into the smug face of their alternate self. "Why…why….I…I…I want to hold Azzy again….I don't want this for him…"

"This…really is the best outcome…for our brother…." Hacked the other Chara through their managed face. "He'll be safe with me….don't you worry…."

"This…this….this…isn't what he wants…" Chara cried. They smothered Frisk's face with their hands. "He…he…doesn't want to be with you…" They sobbed.

"He doesn't know what he wants is all." Their counterpart shot back. "I know what's best for him, I really do."

"Did we know what was best for him last time?" Chara screamed. "WE GOT HIM KILLED!"

"HE GOT US KILLED!" Roared the goat-chara. "HE WAS WEAK!"

"Don't…don't…call him weak…" Chara cried. "He was braver than us, he was brave enough to forgive…when we couldn't."

"And look were it got us. Look where it got the entire monster race!" The other scoffed. "Only through hatred is there true power!"

The pain coursing through Chara's shared body was intense. They felt themselves fading, the determination was too much.

"Azzy…" Chara whimpered. "I…I loved you more than anything else in this world….I want to see you again…I want you to be free of them….free of me….I love you….so….much…"

"We can still save him." Whispered a voice. "Let me try this time."

"Okay…"

---

SAVE

Chapter Notes

We're nearing completion for this work (two more chapters after this one I think) and I must say it's been one hell of a ride for me.
You'll certainly be seeing more work from me, if you have any suggestions or ideas for stories feel free to message me and I'll see what I can do (no promises though, I might have more pressing commitments). Enjoy as always.

---

Frisk felt back in control, they felt the presence of Chara leave them. Their head hurt, everything hurt. They were scared, scared of this Chara that had stolen Asriel's body, scared of the one who had apparently been living in their head for so long. They forced it aside, Frisk had to, for his sake, for everyone's. Focusing hard on moving their body, they forced their hands onto the ragged and battered goat.

"What are you doing…?" Chara huffed through Asriel's shattered body. "You can't kill me…it's only a matter of time….anything you try, it's useless, useless, useless, USELESS!" They half-screamed half laughed. "Give it up! He's mine, mine forever!"

"ASRIEL DREEMURR!" Frisk yelled reaching into the composite soul. "I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!"

Frisk found what they were looking for, something small, soft and scared. They reached deep inside the thrumming locus of souls to find the resonation of Asriel's own tiny voice amidst the storm of personalities.

Suddenly they weren't in the throne room anymore, they were in a dark place. Dark and cold, so very cold. It hurt just to be there, Frisk felt as if needles of ice were passing over their bare skin with every moment that slipped by. Frisk realized that they had to be somewhere in the combined soul that was Chara. It felt bad, it felt evil most of all it just felt wrong, as if such a place shouldn't be at all.
They saw thousands, millions, of monsters all around them, faces obscured by misty white veils of light. Lost souls. Before Frisk was one small and cowed, a tiny child. He was crying.

"I was always such a cry-baby wasn't I?" He said tearfully. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry Chara, I…I don't want you to leave me."

Frisk ran over to him and wrapped their arms tightly around him. "I promise nobody's going to leave you, you'll be safe okay."

"I'm so afraid…I'm so alone….I'm scared Chara….I'm scared….it was a stupid plan….I don't want to do it any more…"

"Only stupid because you failed so miserably brother." Came the soft voice. "In this world Asriel, it's kill or be killed, I thought you would have learnt that by now."

Frisk turned to see Chara standing there. They saw them as they had been so long ago, green sweater, pale skin, eyes like glowing red rubies.

"You're an idiot for coming in here, into my soul Frisk. This is where I hold true power."

"CHARA!" Cried Asriel's lost soul, running over to hug their sibling. "CHARA I'M SORRY….I…I."

"As you can see Frisk, he loves me more than anything. What gives you the right to take him away from me?" The fallen child accepted the hug from their brother. "There, there Azzy, after we dispatch with this trash you can apologize to me….then, after your punishment, I'll forgive you. It's the least I can do for my darling brother."

The lost soul began to cry. "P…please….Chara I'm sorry….don't hurt me….I…I'm sorry…I just didn't want to…" He howled in pain falling to his stubby knees.

"Don't question me brother, I know what's best. You're far too soft, you didn't kill them when I told you to." Chara tutted. "Very disappointing."

Asriel grabbed their leg. "Please….don't…don't hurt me Chara….I….I…I didn't want to hurt anyone…I couldn't…."

Another cry of pain.

"You were stupid to come into my soul Frisk. Perhaps out there you and your new friend hold the advantage, however fleeting." Chara smirked. "But in here, I'm god, I am the master of this soul and all who make up it. You're in my possession now Frisk. Observe."

The cries from Asriel increased in intensity, making Frisk ill to the core. They tried to move over, tried to help him but the needles of pain on their skin drove in deeply causing them to cry out.

"This is but a taste of the agonies you two will suffer." Chara said softly. "Both of you are so sweetly innocent, I'm going to enjoy breaking down both of you so very much." They turned to their brother. "I think with you Azzy, we'll relieve the memory of that day in the village, over and over again. Until you snap, until you kill them." They laughed, not their normal humourless chortle, but a demonic booming cackle that reverberated throughout the chamber that was their soul. "And you Frisk? I'm going to show you how you killed everyone you know and love, over and over and over until it drives you mad!" Chara gestured to the souls around them. "All of you pathetic creatures, your part of ME now, part of the divine! I am your god now, and this, this is your judgement filth. I know your worst fears, your worst nightmares! I can and will torture you for all time!" The fallen child cackled again. "Your pain, your torment, it will be unending, exquisite, ETERNAL!"

Frisk couldn't let that happen. They let the pain of Chara's torment flow through them, they focused it. If Frisk failed here, everyone would be at Chara's mercy. It wasn't enough, they still couldn't fight of the bitter cold pain of the fallen. Frisk dropped to a knee, the pain was unreal, it was like the very warmth of their being was flowing out into the void of Chara's soul.

"Feeling cold Frisk?" Chara said sweetly. Frisk managed to catch a growing smile on their face from the corner of their dimming vision. "I've hit upon the grandest of ideas Frisk. All your friends are here, why not say hello?"

Suddenly Frisk was surrounded by familiar figures, all similarly obscured by a bright light playing about their heads.

"NYEH! This hurts so much….please….make it stop!" Howled Papyrus. "I…SANS! SANS HELP ME!"

Sans scrambled around as if in a trance. "I can't see you bro, I…I…PAPYRUS!"

"Sans? Papyrus? ASTER!" Dr Gaster yelled, falling to his knees. "Don't…don't…leave….me…."

Undyne was screaming at the top of her lungs. "ALPHYS! ALPHYS GET AWAY FROM THERE! DON'T…PLEASE…please….don't….jump…." Her yelling broke down into pitiful sobs.

"I'm…I'm not as cool as you thought Undyne….Please don't leave me…" Cried Alphys reaching out into space. "I….I don't want to….be alone…."

"MY CHILD!" Toriel wailed. "No…NO! Not another!"

"I'm sorry young one…this…this…." Asgore stammered out. "I must end you…."

Frisk gazed around their friends, their family. Frisk felt their eyes prickle with tears.

"Each and every one of them, living out their own personal nightmare." Chara laughed. "Unable to tell what's real and what isn't, trapped in torment like this for all time. WATCH FRISK, WATCH YOUR FRIENDS SUFFER! KNOW THIS WAS YOUR DOING!" They howled enthusiastically.

Out of the cacophony of discomfort Frisk picked out a pained bleating sound.

"Please…Chara…I said I was sorry…I…I couldn't…I just…." Asriel squeaked before he was cut off by another burst of intense agony.

"Pathetic. Truly. To think I had such a weak brother, such a weak friend. And that I still care for you so much. I'm disgusted with myself." Chara huffed. "The things I do for you Azzy. Your torture will last only as long as it has to, to rectify your mistake…after that, I'll forgive you dearest brother."

"Shut up." Frisk said, standing despite the pain.

Chara laughed. "Sorry what was that? I don't remember giving you permission to TALK!"

Pain crashed into Frisk, like an icicle right through the eye. They ignored it.

"You know nothing about strength Chara. The one in my head didn't and you certainly don't." Frisk began. "I'm not filled with L.O.V.E, I'm filled with love. I'm filled with determination. I want my friends back, I want Asriel back. I want you gone."

Chara laughed harder than they ever had before, their booming ruckus echoing painful in Frisk's ears. "Is this your last heroic speech? Spare me, you wouldn't know how many I've heard before."

"Shut up." Frisk said again, their voice filled with malice. "Stop hurting your brother."

"Make me." Chara said loudly. "Try your hardest Frisk. It's. No. Use."

Frisk looked around them to see everyone they loved crying out in fear and pain. Papyrus, Sans and Dr Gaster were groping around, trying and failing to find one another. Undyne had collapsed into a gibbering ball. Toriel and Asgore both in the throes of despair.

The broken bleating of Asriel was merely the final straw.

"Please….Char…..you're really hurting me…." He was cut off again.

"I said stop it." Frisk repeated.

"And I said, make me." Chara replied smugly.

Frisk realized this all hinged around him. They were in his body after all. The chance was slim, but it was all they had.

Frisk called out to Asriel. "Asriel can you hear me?"

Asriel's floppy ears perked up. "Is…is…that you Chara?" He whimpered.

"No, it's me Frisk." Frisk said.

"Chara says…I'm not supposed to talk to you…." Asriel bleated. "They…said…you're trying to hurt you…"

"Yes." Chara began. "And I'd never lie to you would I Asriel?"

"No…" Asriel whimpered. "Chara would never lie to me."

Frisk knew they had to bring back memories, they remembered from when they'd fought Asriel during his insane rampage as the god of hyperdeath.

"Asriel, do you remember what happened on that day in the village?" Frisk began desperately. "You did something….you have to remember."

"Yes." Chara said humourlessly. "If I recall correctly you got us both killed."

"That…that's right Frisk…." Asriel cried. "I…I got us killed, me and Chara, we shared that body, I held back….I'm sorry Chara….I…I didn't want to."

"Why?" Frisk pressed. "Why didn't you want to?"

"Because he was weak!" Chara exclaimed. "Azzy didn't have the guts to go through with it like we planned."

"No Asriel. There was something else." Frisk begged. "Please, you have to remember."

"I…I didn't want there to be another war, if…if we attacked…if we got the souls….we would have had to wipe out humanity..." Asriel began. He was cut off by another nova of icy pain.

"THAT WAS THE IDEA AZZY!" Chara roared irate. "All this time, I thought you were just scared. But now you tell me you had concern for those humans?"

"Chara…we couldn't just kill them…" Asriel squeaked.

"WHY NOT?" Chara screamed at their cowering brother. "DO YOU KNOW WHAT THEY DID TO ME AZZY?"

"I'm…I'm sorry Chara…" Asriel begged falling to his knees. "You…you should have told me…"

"It doesn't matter what they did Asriel." Frisk said to the goat. "Two wrongs don't make a right. Whatever happened, it doesn't justify their actions and it certainly doesn't justify hurting you."

"But…but…." The lost soul stammered. "Chara wanted us to go free….they were trying to save monsters…"

"They were using you Asriel." Frisk replied. "Chara just wanted to get back at humanity, they exploited you."

Chara eyed Frisk menacingly. "I don't see how this helps you Frisk."

Frisk ignored them. "Asriel, on that day, you fought for control of your body with them. You won, you didn't let Chara hurt anyone. Your love was stronger than their hate, you knew what they were doing was wrong."

"And look where it got me Frisk…" Asriel said sadly. "I ended up that stupid flower. It's kill or be killed Frisk."

"But it doesn't have to be." Frisk begged. "I'm a time traveller Asriel, I know this will work out. I know that if you do as I say, we can all go free and nobody needs to die!" Frisk exclaimed. "Not even you."

"I don't deserve to be saved Frisk." Asriel managed. "Don't you have something better to do?"

The question that had taunted Frisk since their first meeting. "No." They answered. "No, I want to help you, there's nothing in this world that could be better than that."

Asriel started to cry again. "All those things I did…."

"Weren't you." Frisk said sternly. "Don't ever think they were."

"I'm sorry….I can't Frisk…" Asriel cried. "They're my sibling, I love them…I can't lose them again."

A new voice entered the conversation. It was reserved and quite, but betrayed an underlying emotion.

"Listen to Frisk Azzy. They're right, we screwed up big time. I want you to do what they tell you to okay? Can you do that for me Azzy?"

Frisk turned to see their Chara standing there. They looked healthier, their face more filled out, their cheeks a more natural shade of rosy red.

"How are you…?" Frisk began.

"Do you want my help or not?" Frisk's Chara said angrily. They turned their attentions to Asriel. "Asriel, I hurt you. I'm sorry. What I did was inexcusable. All this time I've been blaming you for what happened, but since I've been with Frisk here…." A tear hit the floor of the soul chamber. "I know how much of an idiot I was. Nothing in this world was worth hurting you over, no matter how much I may have hated humanity, I should have never turned my back on you Azzy."

"Chara….why…why are there two…." Asriel stammered.

Frisk's Chara knelt down to their brother. "I'm so sorry. You didn't deserve this. Not one little bit." They grabbed the goat tightly in a powerful hug. "I…I don't want to let go."

The alternate Chara screamed at their brother. "Get away from that imposter Azzy. It's just another trick to pry you away from me! Don't…don't…"

Asriel ignored their protests, completely enthralled with the affections of the more compassionate Chara. His breathing got funny, Frisk could hear him huffing loudly. "Ch…Chara…you…you…hugged me….not the other way round!"

"I've…wanted…to…do…that…for…so…long…now" Sniffled Frisk's Chara, crying openly into their brother's sweater.

"You're…crying…" Asriel breathed. "Chara…you…you never cry!"

"I was wrong Azzy…" The kneeling Chara wailed into their brother's shoulder. "So wrong….please…please do what Frisk tells you to….they really do want what's best for you…"

They white mist of light dissipated from around Asriel's face, the memories flooding back. "What…" Asriel began. He looked at Frisk. "What do I need to do….Frisk?"

Frisk smiled a huge smile. "I want you to take control Asriel. This is your body, nobody else's. You need to take control, like that day in the village."

"You'll do no such thing!" Screamed the alternate Chara in rage.

"Tell them that they were wrong Asriel. That you made the right choice." Whispered Frisk's Chara into their brother's fluffy ear. "Please. They don't want what's best for you."

Asriel gulped. "Chara…" They began. "I…I think….I know….you've made a mistake."

"Asriel no…don't listen to them." The alternate Chara yelled at their brother. "They're turning you against me!"

"Chara….I think you hurt a lot of people." Asriel continued. "You hurt me, you hurt mom, you hurt dad and…most of all…you hurt yourself." Asriel said haltingly. "I didn't want to go through with your plan, it was a bad idea from the start Char. I should have never listened to you!"

The other Chara took a step back. "You…you don't mean that Azzy…"

Asriel stood, leaving the sobbing Chara on the ground grasping at their leg. "Chara…I made the right decision that day…I won't apologize for that. You were wrong."

"Do you have any idea what they did to me?" Chara said in disbelief.

"No." Asriel said sadly. "You…you should have told me Chara…you should have told me and mom and dad. I would have helped you…"

"I didn't need your help!" Chara screamed. "I wanted vengeance. I wanted revenge!"

"And in doing that we threw away our second chance at life." Frisk's Chara moaned from their spot on the floor. "We…we were wrong…we were such idiots…"

Chara took another step backwards. "Unbelievable, you…you..."

"I'm…I'm taking control Chara." Asriel said, the glow around his head fading finally. "I won't let you hurt anyone else Chara. I just won't."

"Unbelievable." Chara repeated. "You…you can't turn him on me like this Frisk! He's my brother!"

"This isn't Frisk's doing." The weeping Chara growled at their counterpart. "It's ours! We're responsible you idiot, get that through your thick head. It's our fault."

"It's not my…" Chara stammered, taking another step back from the trio. "It was never my fault…NEVER! I DIDN'T DESERVE THIS! I DIDN'T DESERVE ANY OF THIS!"

"I'm sorry Chara…" Asriel said, tears welling in his eyes. "This is goodbye I think. This is my body. I won't let you hurt anyone else, I won't let you do this again."

"I'm…I'm in charge here!" Chara screamed. "I can…I WILL MAKE YOU SUFFER."

But the opposite happened. The cries of pain died away, the glow began to fade from the faces of the monsters around them.

"I…I don't understand." The alternate Chara cried, looking around as their powers failed them. "I…I just can't understand…"

"It's over Chara." Frisk said flatly. "You don't have any power here."

Chara's projection began to fade. They grasped at themselves desperately. "I…I can't die…I…I'm all powerful…I..I AM THE DEMON THAT COMES WHEN…."

They were interrupted by a hug from their brother. "You aren't a demon Chara…we're just kids…we're just kids…we're just kids…" Asriel repeated over and over again.

The fallen child let loose a single tear. "Will you miss me?"

"Absolutely."

"I feel tired." Chara whispered to their brother. "I'm so tired…"

The child faded from view, Asriel was left clutching at air. Frisk had done all they had needed to do. They were back in their dripping body. Back standing over Asriel's beaten and bruised form.

Frisk breathed heavily and rolled over from on top of the goatman. It was over.

Everything hurt, their entire form burnt with the power of determination.

"F…frisk…?" Asriel breathed beside them.

"Yeah?" Frisk puffed.

"What do I do now?" Asriel asked.

Frisk winced at the pain. "I don't have much time left okay, so listen carefully. I need you to release those souls." Frisk began to slur. "I…..need….you…to…..break….the…..barrier, can….you….do….that…..for…..me?"

"You're going to die?" Asriel whimpered.

"Asriel…please…break…the…barrier." Frisk slurred with the last of their strength.

As their vision faded they saw the dancing witch-lights of monster souls course through the air along with the coloured nimbuses of the human souls. Frisk smiled as they watched the lights flicker. They could feel their body melting away into nothingness, there wasn't much time left.

"Did we do it?" Asked the voice in their head. "Is he safe?"

"Yeah." Frisk managed to slur through melting lips. "Yeah…he's…safe…."

Frisk closed their dipping eyelids.

The last thing they heard before consciousness left them was the sound of something shattering like glass.

---

Answers

Chapter Notes

The second to last chapter in this series. I'm kind of glad it is coming to an end to be honest, as it allows me to go on and write new things (which I will, if you want me to). As always, comment, ideas and criticism are always appreciated if only so I can improve my game. Hope you all enjoy.

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Dr Gaster's skull felt like it was going to explode. He gripped it in his bony hands and tried not to wretch. As a skeleton he couldn't vomit which often made the situation worse, unable to vent the nausea. He gasped and made a hacking noise, coughing and spluttering up tiny drops of magic spittle. It felt like he'd just woken from a nightmare, it came to him in flashes. He couldn't find his sons. He couldn't find his wife. He couldn't find anyone So cold. Alone again. Alone and in terrible pain.

Gaster bent over to dry wretch again his ribs heaving and bucking as he tried to get his bearings back. "Gah…PAPYRUS! SANS!" He cried out. "BOYS…are…don't…don't…leave me…." He heard pained moaning from all around. Dr Gaster looked up to see monsters in varying states of recovery all around him.

He spied two bony figures gasping and spluttering.

"BOYS!" Gaster yelled. He tried to get to his feet but tumbled as his nausea rose up through his ribs. "B…BOYS!" He cried again, dragging himself to his feet. He shambled over, his feet crossing over in the mad dash to get to his children.

"DADDY!" Papyrus exclaimed as he looked up just to see his father's awkward shuffle. "DADDY I WAS SO SCARED…IT…it was cold…." Papyrus whimpered. "I….I could find you….or Mettaton…or Sans…..or Mommy…or…."

Dr Gaster grabbed his son's hoodie and used it to pull him into an embrace. "It's okay Papyrus, dad's here now."

"Ow…" Sans moaned next to them. "My…my head…."

Papyrus practically pushed his father away. "BROTHER! YOU'RE OKAY!" The taller skeleton leapt on his older brother crushing him into the ground.

"Paps…." Sans wheezed. "Crushing me bro…."

Papyrus ignored him. "BROTHER….I WAS SO SCARED….I…I THOUGHT YOU…"

"I'd never leave you Paps…." Sans grunted. "Now…please get off me…"

Just as Papyrus was about to disentangle himself from his brother before both of them were swept up into their father's arms.

"BOYS!" Gaster wailed in his disturbing voice. "BOYS! BOYS! Don't scare me like that!"

"Oh…hey dad." Sans said sandwiched in between his taller relatives.

Gaster was wailing hysterically. "Where's your mother! Do you know where she is?"

"Dad…you need to calm down…" Sans said struggling in his father's vice-like grip. "I'm sure she's around here somewhere…"

Dr Gaster struggled to get his breathing under control. "Yes…yes…quite right…I should think…." He released his sons. "Everyone's okay…everyone…everyone's okay…"

"OWIE!" Papyrus grumbled. "My head hurts daddy." He was the first to ask the obvious question. "What happened, why are we all on the floor like this?"

Dr Gaster suddenly remembered about Frisk, about Asriel, about the resets. Had it worked? Was the barrier broken?

Pained gasping drew his attentions. He turned and saw two figures lying on the floor of the chamber.

"No…" Gaster breathed. "No…NO…NO!"

Undyne came to her senses groggily.

"Alphie…" She cried. "Alphie…don't jump…"

"I'm…I'm right here Undyne…" Alphys said quietly. "I..I thought you didn't want to hang out any more…"

Undyne didn't have her vision back, her eye still puffy with tears and sweat. It didn't stop Undyne from throwing herself at the noise that was Alphys. She bowled over the lizard, elicting a sqweak from the startled scientist.

Undyne bawled over her lover. "I…I wan't you to be happy Alphie…I love you…I love you heaps…please…please…please…don't scare me...like…like that…" Undyne had seen her teeter on the edge of the garbage dump, looking into the abyss. It wasn't real, it couldn't have been. It felt wrong. It felt evil. Like a terrible, terrible nightmare.

"Scare you Undyne?" Alphys croaked. "I don't understand."

Undyne's tears finally cleared the gunk out of her eye. She looked the tiny dinosaur right in her face. "You gotta promise me Alphie…if you're ever scared…or upset…or sad…you just come to me okay? You just come to me and we'll talk about it okay?"

"Undyne…." Alphys stammered in confusion. "I..I don't understand what you're.…"

"Promise me…." Undyne begged tears streaming onto Alphy's scales. "Promise me you nerd…"

Alphys could see she was upset. "I….I promise Undyne…but…but"

"Good." Undyne said giving a little smile. "Now shut up and kiss me…"

"Undyne…you…" Alphys didn't have time to finish before Undyne had forced their mouths together. It was sloppy and unskilled, but Alphys certainly couldn't fault the passion behind it.

When Alphys finally managed to push her off she turned to the side to take huge gulps of air. "Undyne….wow…" Alphys flushed. "I…I never knew you liked me like…like that…"

"Ready for round two?" Undyne grinned.

They heard screaming to their left. "No…NO…NO!" The voice was eerie and scratchy. Dr Gaster.

Both of them turned to see the skeleton hunched over two tiny bodies. "Oh…OH…GOD!" He wailed.

Undyne got up off of her friend. "Raincheck okay…"

"Yeah…" Alphys panted.

Undyne ran over to the shrieking skeleton and his sons who were huddled around two small bodies on the ground.

Two children lay before them on the cold stone floor. A small fluffy white goat and a human. Undyne recognized Asriel right away. Though she'd never seen any pictures of him the resemblance to Asgore was striking. His face was battered and bruised, blood running from his snout, an eye puffed up and rimmed with black. At least he was breathing, the same couldn't be said for Frisk.

They were pale, almost grey. Their skin was waxy, little droplets of flesh still running off their form. Huge red gashes ran up their torn sweater, their blood mixing with the fleshy goo on the floor. Their eyes were white, dead and cold.

"Kiddo…wake up….please…." Sans begged. He reached out to touch them before his hand was smacked away by his father.

"NO!" Gaster screamed. "Don't…you…you mustn't touch them…"

Undyne gasped as she looked at the child. They were her friend even if she couldn't remember. "Frisk…" She whispered. "Frisk…this isn't funny…"

There was a tiny little croak. "Is…is Frisk okay?"

They all turned to look at the tiny monster. "Is Frisk okay?" Asriel repeated.

"A…Asriel?" Came the low voice from over Undyne's shoulder. She turned to see two tall figures behind her. "M…my boy…." Asgore breathed. "My…baby…boy…" He fell to his knees. "Is…is…this…is this a dream?" Huge tears falling from his face.

Toriel fell to her knees. "How…how is this possible? We…we thought…we thought…" She couldn't maintain composure. She broke down sobbing on her ex-husband's shoulder.

"Dad…Mom…" Asriel cried, trying desperately to open his swollen eyes. "I…I…is Frisk okay?"

"Frisk?" Asgore said, still not quite grasping the situation.

"The human dad…are they okay?"

All eyes turned to the human child.

"My…my child…" Toriel gasped. "You…" She rounded on Asgore. "You! This is your doing!" She howled hysterically.

"Tori…" Asgore said pulling his hands up. "I…I didn't…I…"

"You heartless cur!" She yelled in her flowery language, magical fire flickering around her. "You KILLED THEM!"

"Your majesty…" Gaster tried desperately to defuse the situation. "King Asgore was attacked by that…that…flower…thing… how could he have killed young Frisk here."

The flames around Toriel grew in intensity. "You've killed before...I…"

"Mommy don't hurt daddy!" Begged Asriel looking at his mother through his black eyes. "I...it isn't daddy's fault…it's mine…"

The flames died around Toriel. "Asriel…that isn't true…"

"It's my fault mommy, it's all my fault…" Asriel cried. "They…they're okay…right…please tell me Frisk is okay…"

Just as the words left his mouth a little red orb began to float out of Frisk's chest. All eyes were fixed on it.

"No…" Asriel bleated struggling to sit up. "Frisk…you…you idiot…I don't even…know…you…why." He cried. "Why did you die for me?"

Asgore tried to pacify his son. "Asriel, don't move, your hurt."

Asriel ignored his father, scrambling on all fours to get to the human. "You…you can't die Frisk…" He grabbed the red orb with both hands. "I..I won't let this happen again…"

"Prince Asriel!" Cried Dr Gaster as he tried to pull the goat child away. "You mustn't touch the human!"

Asriel wriggled free from the skeleton's grasp. "Let me go! I have to help them!" Asriel jammed the red orb into Frisk's chest again. "You can't die! I won't let you! I won't! I won't!" He cried over and over again. "I...I won't! I won't let you die Frisk…" In the midst of his tears, a warm glow emanated from his palms. "I'M DETERMINED! I WON'T LET YOU DIE!" Asriel collapsed over the human, the healing magic draining every last drop of strength he had.

Frisk gave a choking, hacking breath, their chest rising and falling unevenly under Asriel's tiny body.

Everyone was silent. Undyne locked eyes with Gaster, his deformed face twisting into the tiniest of smiles.

"You...know…?" He croaked.

"Y...yeah…" Undyne stammered. She looked at the two unconscious children. "I think these kids deserve a rest."

"Quite…quite right I should think." Gaster said in a distorted tone. He turned back to the king and queen. "You're….your majesties…explanations will be given later I assure you…but I think we ought to give these children some time to recover."

"You…you had something to do with this? You…you brought back my son." Asgore asked his scientist. "I…I cannot ever repay you Dr Gaster. Truly, you have my eternal thanks."

Gaster bowed. "You honour me your majesty. But the praise does not belong solely to me, your royal captain Undyne had a large part to play." Asgore's gaze landed upon Undyne who gave an awkward curtsy bow hybrid.

Dr Gaster continued pointing to Frisk's shaking body. "But most of the credit must go to young Frisk here. This was their idea."

Asgore gasped. "You mean to tell me…a human saved my son…a human that I was about to…" He began to cry. "It...it doesn't bare thinking about…"

Toriel was already scooping up her two children. "Silence Asgore. You've already done enough damage, pray you don't do any more." She turned to look at Dr Gaster, still bowing awkwardly. "You will explain this in time Dr Gaster, will you not?"

Gaster squirmed under her stern gaze. "Your majesty, I am afraid I don't hold all of the answers myself. Only Frisk knows the whole story."

She held her gaze for almost a full minute. Eventually after an age her accusatory look softened. "Yes the time for questions is later, I am sure all will be explained. For now." She cradled both of her charges. "My children must rest."

The softness was the first thing Frisk felt. Then the hunger. They were starving, the gnawing void of their stomach demanding something fill it.

Frisk's vision was next, they were in a room, a familiar room, one they'd spent a night or two in before. Their room in the ruins.

Frisk noticed something rising and falling next to them. They turned to see the source of the softness that had awoken them. Asriel Dreemurr was snoring away happily next to them. His face was a wrapped like a mummy, bandages reaching all around his face.

Frisk reached out and tentatively touched the young goat. He let out a quiet little bleat. Frisk continued to stroke his fluffy head twisting Asriel's sleeping face into a tiny contented smile. Frisk couldn't help but smile too. Frisk quickly realized smiling hurt, every part of their body was terribly sore.

Frisk gently lifted up the sheets to have a look at their lower body. They nearly recoiled in horror. Their skin was a pale corpselike grey, a pair of huge red swipe marks wound their way up their chest. Frisk's skin was taut against their body, their bones poking out from under the canvas of deathly skin.

It looked like Frisk had lost a lot of weight, most of it in fact.

"Nice to see you back in the land of the living Kiddo." Sans said from the back of the room. He was lent up against the back wall with his brother who snored along with Asriel.

Frisk nearly jumped with surprise. "Oh…didn't see you there Mr Sans…" Frisk held their jaw as the words tumbled out of their mouth. Their jaw was stiff and it hurt to talk. Frisk ignored the pain, it was so good to see a familiar face.

"Me and Paps here were talking bets on which one of you would wake up first." Sans smiled he elbowed his brother. "Hey Paps….the human's up…you won bro…"

Papyrus jolted awake. "Who…what?" He noticed Frisk sitting up in the bed. "NYHEH! SANS I HAVE WON THE BET! YOU OWE ME A WHOLE SWEET QUICHE!"

"It's…called a pie…bro…" Sans sighed and looked up at Frisk cracking a huge grin. "Good to see you up kiddo, I wouldn't have forgiven myself if you…you know…died."

"I…I'm hungry Mr Sans…" Frisk said weakly.

"First, call me Sans kiddo. Second, already way ahead of you."

"NYHEH-YES!" Papyrus exclaimed springing up from the floor. "I took the liberty of preparing you a plate of my masterfully cooked SPAGHETTI!" He grabbed a silver platter off of the bookshelf next to the bed. "Here you go young human, eat till your hearts content…there is plenty more!"

Frisk didn't even ask for a fork, they grabbed the strands of spaghetti and stuffed them greedily into their mouth. It was bone cold and utterly foul, but Frisk didn't care. They downed the whole plate in less than half a minute.

When they were done Frisk handed the platter back to Papyrus. "More…" Was all Frisk could manage.

"S…seconds?" Papyrus gasped. "THIS IS THE BEST DAY! NOT ONLY DID YOU NOT DIE HUMAN, BUT YOU ALSO WISH TO CONSUME MY SPAGHETTI!" He raced out of the room, red hoodie flowing behind him.

"Hehehe. Isn't my brother cool?" Sans said from his seat against the wall.

"The coolest…" Frisk grumbled along with their stomach. "He's the coolest person in the whole world as long as he keeps brining in that spaghetti."

Papyrus burst back into the room. "HERE WE ARE YOUNG HUMAN!" He exclaimed. "Sorry it's cold…" he apologized.

"Give…" Frisk demanded, their mouth-watering.

After downing their fifth plate of spaghetti, Frisk petted their belly their hunger finally sated.

"Thanks Mr Papyrus." Frisk said.

"Just Papyrus human." Papyrus said bowing. "I have been given a direct order by king Asgore to wait upon your every whim. Sans is here also."

"Sup." Sans said.

"The barrier." Frisk asked firstly. "Is it broken?"

"Yeah." Sans said happily, giving an authentic grin. "Never thought I'd get to say this, but it looks like we're getting out of here after all."

"Has anyone left yet?" Frisk inquired.

"Nope." Sans said. "We weren't going to leave whilst you and the prince were still in dreamland. You two ought to be in the first party on the surface, it's only fair."

"QUITE RIGHT!" Papyrus added. "I was looking forward to seeing the sun for the first time, but then I realized I wanted you to see me see the sun for the first time. I'm sure my smile of joy would be just as radiant anyway!"

"Easy Paps, wouldn't want to blind anyone would we?" Sans joked. "Anyway, Frisk must be bone-tired. How bout we let them get back to sleep?"

Papyrus wasn't even angry at his brother's pun. "Yes." He whispered. "We will be extra quite to enable your sleeping human Frisk."

Frisk didn't hear the rest. They were already asleep.

When Frisk next awoke, it was to the sound of happy humming. Frisk immediately reached out to check Asriel was still next to them, clasping nothing but bedsheets. Frisk began to panic. They shot up, banging their head against the headboard of the bed. Frisk ignored the pain and the soreness of their muscles. "Asriel…" They croaked. "Asriel…where are you…"

A furry white face popped up from the foot of the bed. "Howdy Frisk! You're awake!" Asriel said happily. His face had healed up nicely, the recovery process likely sped up by helpings of monster food.

Frisk slumped back onto the bed. "Oh…oh my god…don't scare me like that…" Frisk breathed. "I'm…I'm so glad your safe…"

"And I'm glad you safe too Frisk." Asriel said smiling. His face suddenly turned down. "You…you really scared me at the end there…you weren't breathing…you were all…runny…"

Frisk shivered. The determination had nearly killed them. That's why they felt so weak and small. They had lost weight, it had run right off their body.

"How…how am I still alive then?" Frisk asked eventually.

"Well…" Asriel blushed. "I kind of…saved your life…no need to thank me or anything…"

Frisk slumped back against the headboard and gave a wide smile. "Really?"

"Yeah…" Asriel smiled. "I used healing magic…like the kind my mom uses. The funniest thing though, mom never taught me how to use that…but for you Frisk it just clicked..." Asriel trailed off. "Anyway, mom and dad and some other people want to ask you some questions. I'll go get them."

Before Frisk could protest their friend ran out of the room down the hall. "Mom, Dad, Ms Undyne, Dr Gaster! Come and see! Frisk is feeling way better."

"Shit…" Frisk breathed. They didn't normally curse but Asriel really had backed them into a corner. They weren't sure of how much they should tell.

"Don't tell them about me….not yet at least." Came Chara's soft whisper.

Frisk had to jam their fingers into their mouth to stop themselves crying out.

"I'm hurt that you'd forget about me all so soon Frisk." Chara tutted. "Don't worry, I won't do anything stupid. I wouldn't dare ruin this."

"I'm…I'm in control here okay?" Frisk gasped. "You…you stay quite…we'll talk later okay?"

"But of course." Chara said softly. "I'll shut up, you've got a lot of explaining to do…..just don't mention me…or the other me….it's best I'm forgotten about okay?"

"Chara wait!" Frisk cried out into the empty room.

Before any more could be said a group of monsters entered the room.

Asriel led, followed by Undyne and Toriel. Dr Gaster and King Asgore who both had to stoop under the low frame.

"See!" Asriel said proudly. "Way better! We can talk about everything now!"

"Frisk can be the judge of that Asriel. How are you my Child?" Toriel asked Frisk softly, tilting her head to one side.

Frisk pushed any thought of Chara out of their mind for the moment. "I'm really sore…." Frisk said honestly. "But…I think I can talk if that's all you want."

Dr Gaster practically pushed Toriel aside. He began to sign uncontrollably, noticeably freaking out the assembled monsters. "Yes! I have many questions for you young Frisk, we have so much to discuss! Monster science could be advanced decades with the knowledge in your head, it really is quite remarkable if I do say so myself…"

Toriel pushed Dr Gaster back to the rear of the room. "There will be time for matters of science Dr, but right now I think we all ought to know the whole story."

Frisk sighed. "Get comfortable. It's going to be a long one." They noticed Asriel was still in the room. "But Asriel has to stay outside for the moment." Frisk didn't know how much he knew and Frisk certainly wasn't sure of how much they wanted to tell him just yet. The poor goat had already gone through enough.

"No!" Asriel pouted. "I want to hear about your adventure Frisk!

"Asriel dear." Toriel smiled kneeling down to her child. "Frisk has said for you to wait outside. Why don't you go and play with those two skeletons."

"Fine then…" Asriel huffed unhappily balling up his tiny fists. He stormed out into the hallway.

Toriel turned her attentions back to Frisk. "I cannot thank you enough for what you have done for us, truly. I don't know how you brought my darling little angle back to me….but" She started to cry. "Th-thank you."

Frisk smiled. "Hey…don't cry…mom."

She looked up through her red eyes. "Mo…mom?'

"Yeah." Frisk repeated. "I…I don't have anywhere to go. So…can I stay with you?"

Toriel gasped. "Of…of course my child…."

"So can I call you mom now?"

"Yes…" Toriel said on the verge of another bout of tears.

"Great!" Frisk smiled. "Should I get on with the story then?"

"So do you believe me?" Frisk asked eventually.

The whole room had locked eyes with the human.
"I…I believe I can vouch for young Frisk here." Dr Gaster affirmed. "I experienced some of the temporal phenomena they were referring to."

"Me too!" Grinned Undyne. "Heck I remember there's a lot of stuff that's changed."

"You…you were very brave my child." Toriel said after Frisk had finished. "You…you cared that much about my son? To risk your life like that? I…I cannot fathom…" She got dewy eyed once more. "This is obviously a lot to wrap our heads around. Forgive me dear."

"Well, I didn't do it alone. Undyne, Dr Gaster and Sans all helped me out." Frisk said happily. "In fact, I couldn't have done it without them. Undyne really did all the heavy lifting, without her I couldn't have gotten back that far."

Undyne cracked a huge grin. "Glad to see the kid knows whom to give the credit to."

"Are you sure that's the whole story Frisk." Said king Asgore sternly. The old man had stayed silent and melancholy throughout the entire recount. His gaze was accusing. Frisk shuddered.

Asgore was right to be suspicious, Frisk hadn't really given the full story being deliberately vague at some points. They had made sure to leave out details about Flowey, the Survivor, Alphys' suicide and Chara in particular. Frisk didn't want to demonize Asriel or this timeline's Sans or Gaster based on the actions of an alternate self and they certainly didn't want to reveal Chara's existence without their consent. Frisk locked eyes with Dr Gaster and made a pleading face. He alone knew almost the whole unabridged truth, on account of his fusion with the Gaster from the void.

The good doctor had stayed mostly silent so far, only posing small questions about events at which neither of his halves was present at. He caught Frisk's gaze and put a gooey bony finger to his nostrils.

Confident the older skeleton would stay silent Frisk nodded. "Yes your majesty. That's is the whole story."

"No….need for Formalities young Frisk." Asgore said sheepishly. "I cannot thank you enough for the service you have done for me and my wife."

"Ex-wife." Toriel grunted causing Asgore to cast his gaze down.

After a few more questions the assembled monsters began to filter out of the cramped bedroom. Dr Gaster was the last to leave.

"You…aren't going to ask me questions are you Dr G?" Frisk yawned. "I'm tired again…I need to build up my energy."

"No…no…" The melting skeleton shook his hands. "I…I just want you to know, everything will be kept hush-hush between us two, I promise."

Frisk nodded already feeling sleepy. "Please don't tell them too much about Flowey or the other Sans. I don't want people to start getting worried about Asriel or your son. You know and I know that they were very different people, very different circumstances."

"Quite right I should think." Dr Gaster replied signing something with his hands. "We could have all turned out bad if things twisted one way or another."

Frisk remembered what they'd seen out in the void. The Survivor had explained they were responsible for ending timeline after timeline. Frisk felt ill, was that really possible, could they be that heartless? Frisk stared out into space, misty eyed.

Dr Gaster must have known exactly what they were thinking. "Hey…hey don't think about that. You're a good kid Frisk. Really good. Not many people would put their neck out for others like that. Those others, they aren't like you. Not at all." He gave a little warped smile. "You get some sleep okay, we have a really big day tomorrow."

Frisk knew he was right. They Gaster himself had fallen prey to bitterness and anger on account of the circumstances, circumstances Frisk had created, and they certainly didn't think any less of his current iteration because of it. This one at least was kind and genuine, if a bit loopy. This Gaster Frisk liked.

"Thanks…thanks Dr G." Frisk said. "Hey…can I ask you something."

The big skeleton moved over to the bed. "Yes Frisk?"

"If mom and Sans get together again in this timeline, can you be my grandad?"

There was a bone chilling gasp. "You…you don't mind all this, the scary voice, the melting, the scars?"

"Not…really…you're nice, that's what counts…" Frisk mumbled, nestling into the sheets. "Yes or no?"

"Of…of….course…if that is what you truly…"

Frisk had already received a satisfactory answer. They fell asleep before he could say any more.

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Light

Chapter Notes

Well guys, it's been one hell of a ride. Thank you all for your support.
What started as a neat little side project to alleviate stress could never have got so big in my mind. If your interested, I will continue with stories from this timeline (and others) which I will likely release in three chapters over three days (I feel three chapters is a good length for a short story). I do have some of my own ideas but I also want recommendations from you, as to what to write. So just message me with your ideas and I'll see what I can do (I might be very time poor, no promises.) Anywho, the last chapter. A little short but I feel it concludes the story nicely. Thanks for all your support, comments and criticism. Without you guys I would have never really continued to write this beyond the pre-written chapters. Mr_Welsh

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Frisk awoke to a now familiar softness. The small furry mass of their adopted brother heaved beside them. It was dark in their shared room, late.

"You awake?" Came the soft voice.

Frisk nearly fell out of bed.

"You'll need to get used to that." Chara said dryly. "Can't have you jumping out of your skin every time I say hello now can we?"

"Sorry…" Frisk whispered taking pains not to wake Asriel's peaceful slumber.

"Can we talk now?" Chara said getting straight to business. "It's late, nobody's awake to hear you whisper with me."

"Right…" Frisk began. "So…uhh…how…how are you doing…"

"I just helped you kill myself and save my little brother's life. I honestly couldn't be feeling better." Chara said bluntly. "I'm not joking either, I'd be jumping for joy…if...if I still could."

"So….what do I do with you?" Frisk whispered.

"That's what I was hoping we'd work out." Chara said. "You don't have any idea how annoying it was to be stuck in your body, watching everything through your eyes, a prisoner in your skin. Sorry…am I creeping you out?"

Frisk gulped. "A…little…"

"I suppose I should thank you." Chara said eventually. "Without you, I would have ended up in a bad place. Just like before."

"You…you're different right?" Frisk questioned.

"I'm not like them if that's what you mean. I don't want to hurt anyone Frisk, you've changed me. I feel all that love coming through your soul. It's…beautiful. I don't know how else to describe it."

Frisk could feel themselves flushing a little. "Thanks…I guess." They adjusted themselves in bed. "So…how do we proceed with…with this?"

"It's up to you. It's your body Frisk, it would be wrong of me to try and take control for my own selfish ends and I don't think I could even if I wanted to." Chara said. "I…I'd like to stick around as long as I can. I'd like to see my little brother grow up." A pause. "There is one little thing Frisk. Can I be in control for just a minute? I'd like to touch him, really touch him. Know that he's safe and sound. Could…could you do that for me."

"You promise you won't do anything funny." Frisk said quietly.

"Cross your heart and hope we die." Chara promised. "Sorry…one body and all that."

"Okay then." Frisk whispered.

Frisk handed control over to the other presence. It was instinctive and intuitive, like Frisk had known how to do it all along. They were the observer now, watching Chara through their dim glowing eyes.

Chara flexed their palms and fingers. Tentatively they reached out to Asriel with a quivering hand. They ran their hand through their brother's soft fur, feeling the fluffy texture and knotted tufts under their fingers. Chara's breath caught in their throat. It felt so….right.

"You're so cute when you're sleeping Azzy." Chara smirked through Frisk's mouth. Frisk's mouth quickly morphed into a frown. "Here I was, trying to carve my mark on this world, trying to find a niche, a groove to fit in. I already had you. You'd always accept me." A droplet of water hit the bed. "I'm such an idiot…I'm…I'm sorry I hurt you…I swear…I promise…Frisk won't let me…I won't let me….I've changed…"

"It's okay…Char…"Asriel mumbled in his sleep. "I still…love you….I always will…"

Frisk felt their control return. Their eyes lost their red glow.

"Thank you." Chara rasped. It was short, sincere and heartfelt, real emotion underpinning the two words.

There was nothing more to be said. Frisk drifted back into the void of sleep.

A huge cohort of monsters had assembled to cross the barrier for the first time. Having had time to properly prepare for the event, Asgore had ordered a more official negotiating party to first venture forth than the rag-tag group of Frisk's friends that had sufficed the first time.

Frisk was wrapped around Sans' shoulders in a piggy back ride, their muscles had almost completely wasted away, leaving Frisk unable to walk under their own power. They'd specifically requested he be the one to carry them to the surface, Frisk had been yearning to touch his ketchup stained hoodie ever since the Survivor had pushed them away in the void. It made Frisk feel safe.

Sans hefted his rider and huffed. "It's a good thing you lost all that weight kiddo, otherwise I'd be in real trouble now. You won't mind if I hand you over to Papyrus in a bit will you?"

Frisk grabbed hold of the fluffy lining of Sans' oily jacket. "No…" They insisted. "I wanna be with you." Frisk felt they deserved the opportunity to be a little bit childish from time to time.

Sans grunted and readjusted Frisk's position on his back. "Okay kiddo, just for you. Good thing I gotta lot of backbone here. God knows your making me use it."

Frisk giggled and nestled deeper into the dirty blue hoodie. "Thanks Sans."

Papyrus and Undyne sidled up next to the pair. Both wore suits of black ceremonial armour, traditional for the royal guard.

"Heya guys!" Undyne grinned. "Nice you two sleepyheads could join us for the big event."

"Have you seen dad Sans?" Papyrus said kneeling down to be level with his brother.

"He's off with mom." Sans responded, pointing over to two figures chatting excitedly.

Frisk turned their neck painfully to see two bone white figures, one towering over the other. Frisk could see that Sans physically took after his mother more, short and with a more relaxed posture. Her skull was more angular, like Papyrus' however and she seemed to be dictating the conversation to her husband in a more vocal way not unlike her younger son.

Sans walked over. "Hey mom. Nice to see you."

Aster turned to face them. Frisk got a good look at her close up, nice firm features and little purple eyelights. She didn't look that old but it was nearly impossible to tell with most monsters. Frisk reasoned that skeletons likely didn't show their age at all.

"Oh, hello darling. Me and your father were just discussing his hand in recent events." Aster looked accusingly at her husband. "He has yet to tell me much." She saw Frisk clutching her sons shoulder. "Oh hello dearie. My sons and my husband have been talking so much about you, it's nice to finally meet you."

"Likewise Ma'am." Frisk said formally. They were unsure of how to act around Dr Gaster's wife, from the sound of her speaking she was likely much older than she looked.

"Such formality." She blushed. "You can just call me Aster dearie." She frowned. "I do hope you'll be more forthcoming with the details than my husband here."

Frisk shivered. They were in no mood to tell Aster she was meant to be dead. Fortunately her husband interjected before the silence got awkward.

"Cupcake….let young Frisk here have some respite. They are making quite an effort to attend today's events already." Dr Gaster whined.

Aster rolled her eyelights. "It's shan't hurt to leave such questions for now I suppose." She flashed a smile at Frisk. "You were very brave dearie if you did half the things they say you did. I can't help but feel we are in indebted to you."

Frisk blushed a little. "Thank you Ms Gaster…I mean Aster."

"Oh I could just pinch your cheek." She smiled. "Well, you'd best run along and catch up with your other friends."

Sans gave a little wave. "Well, nice catching up with you guys, see you on the other side."

They began to move away again.

"Sans?" Frisk asked.

"Yeah kiddo?"

"How your mom spoke, it was really old timey." Frisk said. "I know monsters don't age like humans do so, if you don't mind me asking…"

"She's almost pushing 200 kiddo. Dad's around 55. Monsters are weird like that."

Frisk was intrigued. "How does that all work?"

"Very complex kiddo. Different species age differently, sometimes having kids speeds along the process or even starts it. Skeletons like me can live a very, very long time. Needless to say, we've become very relaxed to big age gaps in relationships.

"I see. So I guess your dad likes older women?" Frisk jabbed. "Perhaps…that runs in the family?"

"What…what do you mean kiddo?" Sans said, suddenly flustered.

"Something wrong Sans?" Frisk giggled pushing their face into the ruff of his hoodie. "Something got your goat?"

"Is…is it that obvious?" Sans said suddenly sweating. "I mean, I didn't know she was the queen at the time…and…"

"She likes you too." Frisk said happily snuggling up to the skeleton.

"How…how could you possibly know that?" Sans asked.

"Time traveller Sans." Frisk giggled. "She even made the first move."

"Oh…oh wow…" Sans breathed. "That's….that's good right, I wouldn't have had the guts."

"You don't have any guts Sans." Frisk laughed.

"Figure of speech."

Some coughing emanated from behind them.

"Excuse me." Came a prim and proper voice.

They both turned to see Toriel standing there, Asriel reaching up to hold his mother's paw.

"Greetings your majesty." Sans bowed nervously, nearly causing Frisk to fall over the top of his arched body.

"No need to bow." Toriel giggled. "I don't think I have an official title anymore."

"Does…does that mean I'm not a prince any more mom?" Asriel said disappointed.

"No my child. You're still the prince, and even if you weren't you still be the most important little man in my world." She knelt down and nuzzled him, eliciting a happy bleat. When she was finished, she stood and turned to face Sans.

"Unfortunately, we've yet to be properly introduced. I am Toriel, I shall be taking care of Frisk as per their request." She held out her free paw. "And you are Sans Gaster, the son of Dr W.D Gaster. You and Frisk seem to have formed quite a bond already."

Sans took it slowly and gulped. "Uh…yeah…the kid was just filling me in on some things. You know…about the future….that they know…"

"Oh?" Toriel smiled wryly. "Anything about me?"

"NO!" Sans said in a panic. "Nope, didn't even get mentioned. Not at all."

Toriel looked more than a little disappointed. "Oh. Well I for one hope we two can be good friends."

Sans gave a false grin. "Yeah…me too….hehehe…those…those skeleton puns were dead funny. Real killers."

They both laughed. Asriel looked forlornly at Frisk who returned his anguished gaze.

"Well I have to go and find my…husband…" Toriel said evasively. She didn't want to upset Asriel with the details of their separation, both parents having agreed to put on a good façade for their son.

"Bye Frisk!" Asriel waved to their new sibling. "Mom said we could all get nice cream after we've met the humans."

"Only if you're good Asriel. This is very important, we don't want anyone getting scared okay?" Tutted Toriel.

With that she led Asriel away to go and find Asgore.

"You really stuffed that one up huh?" Frisk laughed once they were out of earshot. "Sorry, I'm normally used to you being more emotionally reserved. You were also more upfront about his feelings when you wanted to be. "

Sans turned to look at Frisk and frowned. "Why did that change?"

"Believe me Sans, you don't want to know. It wasn't a good thing either, you were pretty messed up actually. You were…" Frisk frowned. "You were sad."

Sans hefted the teenager. "I'll take your word for it kiddo. Just don't put me on the spot like that okay? Promise? No more big future insights, let's just let things come as they do huh?"

"Okay dad. I promise." Frisk laughed. "Oops…sorry."

Sans actually collapsed causing Frisk to fly off of his shoulders. "Oh…oh god…." Sans scrambled over to his charge. "You….you okay kid?"

Frisk couldn't help but laugh hysterically as they lay helpless on the ground.

The sun was rising. It was a nice symmetry to Frisk's mind. It had been setting when they'd first freed monsterkind. Whilst the sun was hidden behind Mt Ebbot this time, Frisk couldn't help but feel that it still presented a hidden beauty.

Monsters gasped as they emerged from the cavern. Royal advisors and guards dropped all semblance of professionalism to gawk at the beautiful morning.

"It's beautiful." Came the voice from inside Frisk's head. "I still preferred that first sunset, but then I am more of a night person."

Frisk couldn't really talk without weirding out Sans. They stayed silent, content to watch the scene.

"Some world huh kiddo?" Sans mumbled. "Didn't know what I was missing out on huh?"

Frisk was silent for a while. As much as they hated to admit it, Chara had made them question themselves. "You know, Humans aren't as nice as monsters Sans. They can be pretty bad sometimes." They said finally. "Maybe up here is beautiful, but our souls can be pretty darn ugly."

Sans laughed. "Frisk, you can't judge a book by its cover. People are people, they're case by case. There are some good, some bad. You can't clump em all one way or another. You pick the ones you like and ignore the ones you don't. Least that's my take on it."

"Your so cool Sans." Frisk said happily from their perch. "This world needs people just like you, that's for sure."

"Big praise coming from you." Sans chuckled. "Let's go find my brother, I bet he's already spooking humans."

"Yeah…." Frisk smiled, fondly remembering Papyrus' disastrous attempt at "first contact". "We'd better go and make sure he doesn't get into trouble."

Frisk turned their neck to see Asriel and his mother emerge for the first time. Frisk's little brother looked around in awe at his surroundings, still clinging tight to his mother's tunic. Frisk could pick out little gems of tear water from his eyes even as Sans moved away. Frisk matched him, their own tear droplets darkening Sans' filthy clothing.

The sunlight rained down on Mt Ebbot. It was a good day for a new dawn.

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