One Last Reset
by K.M. Redselig
Summary: After freeing the monsters and returning to the surface, Frisk suddenly has an idea how to help Asriel too. He heads back into the Underground to find him and hopefully help him start a new life. Will his idea work? Can Asriel have a future after all?
Note: This story is currently undergoing renovations. Feel free to read it, but I am making revisions. Thanks!
One Way to Find Out
Frisk lay in bed. Tossing about did little to ease his insomnia. He stared at the ceiling blankly.
Humans and monsters were coming together. The process had the potential to be bumpy. Nonetheless, a happy new beginning was still within reach.
The mayor of the human city closest to Mount Ebott took the news well. Perhaps it was that the breaking story helped deflect media attention away from a looming scandal he was involved with. Still, the upper ranks and bureaucrats of the town were scrambling to control the spin, and make this transition as easy as possible. How much information do we give the people at a time? How do we avoid scaring them? Most public officials worked overtime busying themselves with these questions.
But most of the humans were not worried. Some even met the monsters halfway. They were curious about the newcomers.
Alphys and Undyne were together. They were staying with Frisk in a small house on the outskirts of the city. Sans was still busy being not busy. Papyrus was having fun seeing everything the city had to offer. Toriel was enjoying her teaching job. Asgore was getting along well with other humans. They could not have asked for a better transition. And they had Frisk to thank for much of it.
He continued staring at the ceiling.
Something was wrong.
The dialogue played in his head like a broken record.
"I have to go now, Frisk."
"Why?"
"...In a little while, I'll just turn back into a flower. I'll stop being myself. I'll stop being able to feel love again. So Frisk, it's best if you just forget about me, okay?"
"I can't just leave you here."
"Just go be with the people who love you."
"You should come back with us too."
There was the hug too. The attempt to comfort him. The tears in his eyes.
"I don't want to let go."
...
"Frisk... don't you have anything better to do?"
Rewind. Repeat.
As Frisk lay in bed, someone knocked softly on his door. "F-Frisk?"
"Yeah Alphys?"
"I... oh gosh. I didn't know you were in bed."
"It's okay. I wasn't asleep. What's up?"
"Well, I, uh... I hate to admit it, but... gosh, how can I say this? Well... do you remember after we left the Underground? And I said I was going to spend my time here watching anime?"
"Yeah?"
"I, uhh... I can't do it. Because I can't figure out how to use the TV."
Frisk smiled wryly at her. "Come on. You were the royal scientist, and you can't figure out how to work the TV?"
"Well, uhh." She blushed. "Not this one. I think it's the remote. It has way more buttons than I've ever seen. And everything's different than what I'm used to. Umm... maybe you could help me?"
"Alright, why not?" He got out of bed and went down to the basement with Alphys.
Maybe helping her would allow him to take his mind off of the problem.
He showed her all of the remotes. There were three of them. He explained their functions and went into detail about how they worked. Alphys listened intently.
"...and for the DVD player, you need this one." Alphys looked at him quizzically as he was explaining everything. "You tried the buttons on the unit? I figured. You need the remote. I know, it's weird."
"Wow! Well, you're pretty smart! I mean, I always knew you were smart. But you can remember all this." Her smile faded. "Uh, why do you need three remotes? Why not just one big super-remote?"
Frisk sighed. "Well... that's complicated. Don't ask me how I know these things. I never watch TV. I don't even know if this one works." He handed the remote to Alphys. "Anyway though, I think that's it. Why don't you try it and see?"
Alphys pressed the power button. The picture came on, and they were greeted by the image of a man giving a speech to a large audience.
"...if I'm elected mayor, first thing, first thing I'm gonna do. I'm gonna build a wall, a big, giant wall around Mount Ebott. And the monsters are gonna pay for it!" The audience booed.
"Oop. You need a different channel too." Frisk changed it.
"Who's that, Frisk?"
"Don't worry about it."
Alphys popped the DVD in, pressed the appropriate buttons, and got to the start screen. "I think it works! Th-thanks!"
"Any time." Frisk gave a slight smirk. "You know what's really cool Alphys?"
"W-what's that?"
"You seem a lot more confident these days."
"Oh! Well, uh... I think part of it's because of you. I mean, that was a really big thing you did. I mean, nobody thought anybody could do that. I guess, well... if you can do that, I can do great things too! Right?"
Frisk nodded. "You're right. I believe you can do anything you want. You just need to stay determined."
"Yeah! And Undyne, well. She's helped me a lot too. She's really confident. She helps me feel better about being confident."
"It's showing. That's really terrific."
"Yeah, but... I mean, still, you did a lot. A lot of people really were inspired by what you did. You know? None of this would have been possible without you."
Day by day, things went as normal. Everyone was acclimating to their new lives. Frisk was doing a good job being the ambassador to the monsters, as far as anyone could tell.
Yet on a fairly regular basis, usually in the middle of the night, Alphys could swear she heard a noise coming from Frisk's room. It sounded like crying. She never found the gumption to ask about it.
Frisk didn't appear sad during the day. Sometimes, he looked tired. That was all.
Still, it wasn't hard for the others to notice how he would pick at his food, disinterested. He forced himself to eat. Malnourishment was not something he wanted on top of his other problems.
Eventually, one night, a crying spell turned into dry heaves.
How much more of this could he take?
Alphys looked at him, concerned. "Are you okay, Frisk?"
Frisk shook his head, exasperated. "I don't know."
"Maybe... you ate something bad?"
"No, it's not that." He sighed. "Alphys... I'm really bothered by something. I'm sorry I didn't talk about it before."
"Oh. Really? Uhh... was it something I did?"
"No." Then he remembered the lab down in the Underground. Way to go, Frisk. "Ahh... it's okay. Never mind."
"Oh. Well... are you sure you don't want to talk about it?"
Frisk hesitated. Why keep it a secret? No. He had to say something.
"Alphys... I saw Asriel before we left the Underground."
"...Asriel?"
"Yes. I talked to him. And he said..." His voice started to shake. "He said he was going to be a flower again. That he couldn't feel love anymore."
Alphys was speechless.
"I just... I couldn't leave him there like that. But there was nothing I could do. He wouldn't come back."
"Frisk... it's... it's okay. Calm down."
"It's not okay."
"Take a deep breath."
Frisk attempted to. He continued his attempts.
Alphys tried to remain calm, herself. After all, it was this issue again. Rearing its ugly head.
"I wish there was something I could do, Frisk."
Several moments went by. Frisk had wrapped a blanket around himself. He was exhausted.
"Alphys..."
"Yeah?"
Frisk turned to look at her. "I've never felt this way before."
"Are you okay?"
"I don't know. I think so." He then stared ahead. "This is wrong. It shouldn't be this way. I know there's a way to reach him. There has to be. He doesn't have to stay down there. He can come back too."
Alphys looked down. "We tried a lot of things to help him."
"I know you did. But... this isn't over yet."
"Just, uhh... I understand, Frisk. I really do. But try to get some rest, okay?"
Frisk nodded slowly. Alphys was right. He had to do something. But no sense in running on empty.
He lay in bed. He stared at the ceiling.
The dark room was easy on the senses. He was growing tired of it.
How to get to Asriel? There had to be a way.
Just go to sleep already. Worry about it tomorrow.
Maybe he could have given his own soul to Asriel. Turned over his own life. He could even go back and find him, and make the offer.
He seriously considered it. Was that really necessary though? Maybe it would help. But it could bring its own problems too.
No. There had to be another way. Besides, Asriel needed his own soul.
Frisk. Just go to sleep already.
A few nights later. Another particularly sleepless night. No revelations were immediately forthcoming.
Only that hug, playing in his mind. That comfort he tried to offer the little monster. The tears in his eyes. There it was, again and again.
Wait. Could it be...?
Frisk sat up.
Yes. It had to be.
It was so obvious. When Frisk comforted Asriel, whatever responded to him was not nothing. There was something there.
Was Asriel wrong? Was he really incapable of caring? Or love?
Did he really have no soul? Did he really have to resign himself to being a flower?
He had something in him already. It was there. He just had to find it again somehow.
Frisk found himself outside, looking at the stars. It would be dawn soon.
"How do you help someone find their soul?"
To his knowledge, there were no books, no instruction manuals, nothing anywhere, explaining how to do it. Besides, monster souls weren't supposed to persist after death, were they?
He sat down and rested his chin on his fist, staring at the mountain. He thought back on Alphys' experiments in the Underground. Those were a failure. There still had to be a way though. What could he do?
How about... maybe he could find Asriel's soul using some kind of technology. Maybe there was a machine he could use to locate it and help him reconnect to it. Maybe the monsters had one, in the Underground somewhere.
But that was silly. Why would you need to use a machine to do that? You shouldn't need a machine to heal someone's soul.
Frisk knew nothing about souls at all.
He paused for a few moments in thought, his mind going over the possibilities. He paced back and forth on the concrete patio.
Finally, he stopped in his tracks. No. He couldn't fix the problem. He couldn't rescue him. He could do nothing to get the little monster's soul back.
But maybe... maybe Asriel could do it himself. Somehow. Maybe he could reconnect with his own soul. Perhaps if he learned how to love again. Was it out of the question that he could?
Maybe he didn't need to be rescued.
But it probably wouldn't hurt if he were surrounded by friends who cared about him and supported him. If he had a future outside of the Underground. If he had a life worth waking up to. Maybe then...
Nobody ever said it was possible. That didn't mean it wasn't. Either way, there was only one way to find out.
He loaded up on supplies. Enough to last him a few days. Just in case something went wrong. He looked around, settling on a plastic flower pot. Then he picked out some garden implements from the shed.
This wasn't over.
He stared at the mountain. One step, then another, he began the trek back. On his way there, he sent a text message to Alphys letting her know he was running an errand.
