This is a big story with multiple threads of plot and yes it is multi-verse. (The multiverse doesn't even get a mention until the end of season 2, so the fun level stays the same for some time.)

I love writing Undertale, and I actually use this to unwind. Yes, I use complicated fanfiction to unwind.:) So if you like it, great. If you don't, I'm sorry. I can't please everyone. From experience, pleasing one person just makes another upset. And like I said, I use this for unwinding. It's my reward, my hobby for taking good care of the house, my daughter, fixing supper, etc.

Some people absolutely loved this, and others absolutely couldn't stand it, so I was torn whether I should crosspost it or not. But? If even one person turns out to be someone who absolutely loves it then it's worth the cons too.

I like to think of this particular story being designed like a TV series (Chapters being episodes). Each Season usually is a sign that something big will or has changed. If you need or want to stop, season breaks are a great time to do that.

Season 1: The Reckoning Test

Season 2: Escape

Season 3: Second Chance

Season 4: Blue Stop Signs

Season 5: The New Next Door Neighbor

Season 6: The Snag

RECKONING TALE

SEASON ONE: THE RECKONING TEST

Fun Level 74: Original MC Sans and Frisk

Frisk's Home . . .

"Just be nice."

"She's got a wreath on her door."

"This is Frisk's house, don't act up too soon. Just be nice." Jeanine knocked on their daughter's front door. She could imagine what she would see inside. She could almost guess now. When her daughter had been eight, she had been kidnapped for a whole month until she was returned in a coma. When they asked her about it, she kept claiming she'd been Underground with Monsters, unable to get home until she broke a barrier.

Her daughter was healthy and happy, but mentally and physically? No matter how many years passed by, or how many therapists they had used, no one could convince her otherwise. Especially since the years went by, she never grew. She matured normally, went through puberty like everyone else, but just stayed the same height. She claimed it was probably the magic. But . . . "Hi, Frisk. Lovely house."

"Mom." Frisk ushered them in. "Come on in. Hi, dad. It's been at least a year now, hasn't it?"

"Yeah." Her father cleared her throat. "Quite festive. Like, uh, Christmas."

Jeanine shouldered her husband and looked back at Frisk. "Christmas in July is a thing." Okay, something positive. "I love the white carpet, it's beautiful."

"Thanks." Frisk invited them to sit down on the couch. "So, how are things?"

"Same as always," Jeanine said, looking toward the kitchen. Knowing Frisk's mind, it probably had waterfalls running through it somehow. "It's really good to see you. Don't make it out this far. Live . . . rather close to Mount Ebott. A little isolated."

"I got a job. I got a house. I even have a wonderful boyfriend. I am fine." Frisk crossed her legs. "I think I'm doing great for 26. A lot of people don't get their act together until their 30, so, yeah." She shrugged. "I like it here."

"Yes. But, you're just so . . ."

"Small," her husband interrupted. "You're small. You're the size of an eight-year-old. You shouldn't be managing all this by yourself. Your brother Abe's already agreed he could come live with you. Help you out."

"You know." Frisk sighed. "I am quite capable of living by myself." She got up stiffly. "Can I get you something to drink, mom?"

"Coffee would be great." When she left, Jeanine shoved him harder. "Don't push so hard! How are we going to convince her to change her life if you keep pushing?"

Visit. Parents. It was all just a polite ACT. Frisk pulled out her stool and climbed up on it to climb to her counter to open up the cupboard. Coffee. She looked around the cupboard. If she had any, it would be up high where she never goes. It was just a polite thing to have on hand for the few visitors that visited her. "I don't have any, mom. How about some water?"

"That'll be fine."

Frisk closed the cupboard and stepped back down on her little stool. She moved to the bottom covers, grabbed a glass and got herself some water. She moved back to the room with them.

Her dad. She could tell he wasn't happy about her decorating style, but Frisk wasn't going to do what everyone wanted. She gave up on a few things, but she wouldn't allow herself to be manipulated. Being Underground was just as real as being up there. Anyone trying to convince her it was a dream were missing something really big.

She never grew. The magic of the Underground had stunted her growth. She had been fine for years, growing just fine for a child, then came the Underground. And that was it. But, no one would take it as proof. They chalked it up to some unknown genetic disorder in the family. She moved toward the living room back to her parents. "Here you go, mom. Are you staying for dinner?" Just another polite ACT. They were there for only one purpose and she knew it. To make her leave her new home and job. To make her leave Mount Ebott. But, she couldn't.

Frisk looked for the monsters as deeply as she could, but no one was there. She wanted to believe that they all marched out and found their own place far away from civilization, so deep that no one would ever discover them. But, she dreaded something else. That the monsters . . . were put back in.

How could she live happily out on the surface, forget about everyone she met, and just leave them in there? So, now that she was free, she was near Mount Ebott. If they were gone, she would discover it. And, if they were still there, she'd figure out how to save them again.

Every breath she took on the surface. Every glimpse of the sun. It all felt so guilty. So heavy. No other human would ever help or understand the monsters. Most people besides children didn't even believe in them. Especially her parents.

Frisk just watched and waited for it. They talked about life, their jobs, and her brother being down on his luck. Which, he wasn't. There were plenty of jobs, they just used it as a gateway to try and get him there with her. Then . . . there it was. "There'd be nothing for him here either," she said as they asked it. "I'm fine."

"You're not fine," her father said, changing the act of politeness first. Like always. "Oh, Frisk! It's been how many years? Really?" He gestured around the house. "You're just clawing to believe. There is nothing to substantiate it! Kids get delusions, make things up when they are in danger. That world in your head was all created, and you need to start believing it!"

Frisk just remained in her chair, waiting until he got tired.

"I know that you went from growing regularly to never growing again, and to you, you think that's enough," her dad said. "It's not. It's coincidental. Something was done during the coma state that had terrible consequences. That is all."

Frisk stretched her back out without sitting up. It was getting close to time to eat. "Nothing at all happened. That's why your daughter was found halfway across the world in a coma. Happens every day I hear."

"Don't be smart," Frisk's mother warned her. "He doesn't mean you spent the entire time in a coma. Something happened." She came over sweetly and patted Frisk's hand. "We still believe that you were kidnapped. Maybe they even exacerbated the delusions with drugs, and maybe whatever they used did this to you."

"I need to get dinner on soon," Frisk said. "If you aren't staying, then you should be heading off. My little community of homes, it's harder to see the roads to navigate when it gets dark."

"Okay. Look, just promise us?" Her mom bent down and gave her a hug. "Please, just promise us? Don't go looking for whatever this little hole was that was the entrance to you? Okay? It's our biggest fear, Frisk! Anyone who fell down into a mountain, they'd die! They'd be dead before they even landed, do you understand?"

"I'm not going to do that, I promise," Frisk said. "Go ahead and get going. I will see you later." She wasn't lying either. She wouldn't start with that. She needed to investigate deeper, around the sides. That's where the barrier would have been. If she could find that same place, that's all she needed. If the barrier was down, it meant the Monsters were freed and they were enjoying their lives on the surface.

In which case, she could move on. She'd probably even stop mentioning it altogether. If they were happy, she was happy. But, if the barrier was still up . . . she needed to find a way to bring it down. Permanently.

Not his usual day. Sans tried to open his half sleepy eyes as Tori tried to talk to them. Him and Papyrus. She had gone out of the Ruins and insisted they come see something.

"Well, we are here," Papyrus insisted, "but then we must return to our duty."

"Yeah. Sleeping," Sans said. "What is it?"

Tori gestured to the ruin in front of them. "Look. Look!" She held up a tiny froggit. It was real tiny. They barely saw it. "She found something special."

Sans was yanked away from his sleeping for this? "I don't think the tiny frog will make big trouble."

"What is it about this frog that is special?" Papyrus asked. "We really don't have time for games. Intruders could come any second."

"Oh, you know there is no one coming. Yet." She put the tiny froggit down. "It likes to be in the walls. It's been all over in the ruins, almost every spot. Well, it found this." She moved a stone block out of the way. The strange black and white barrier could be seen in it. Nothing new. She removed another block and another block until . . . "An opening."

"Light!" Papyrus pointed toward it and helped her with another block. "There is light, Sans!"

"Yippee."

"Is this it though?" Papyrus looked at the small hole. It was only the size of two ruin blocks. "Is this really it?" He sighed. "The tiny little monsters can at least escape I suppose."

"No, no. We all can." Toriel reached her hand through it. "I feel the sun on my paws."

"Great. We can reach in a hole and feel the sun. It's almost as good." Sans gestured back to the entrance. "Can we go now? I'm losing sleep just talking here."

"Sans, be positive. Light!" Papyrus said excitedly. He stuck his hand out in it. "Oh, the sun feels so warm. It's all so warm. Come feel, Brother!"

"Nah. I felt it for like five minutes years ago. I'm good for another thousand years." Sans just wanted to go back to sleeping.

Toriel gestured to the hole." If we get a monster that can change their shape, we could get them out there, and retrieve the human!" Neither Sans nor Papyrus looked happy about that. "If we can get the human child in here, then we would have our human ambassador," Toriel said gleefully. "We could get Frisk back, and we could finally leave the barrier."

"Um. Uh." Papyrus looked toward Sans, constantly shaking his head. "You know, maybe we could look around the mountain and find a way back in instead?"

"Now that sounds smart," Sans agreed with him.

Toriel counted on her paws. "I know the child would be helpful again, if we could find it."

"We don't even have a last name for it," Papyrus pointed out. "Just a first name. And the outside world is huge, huge! How would we find someone with a simple first name?"

"Once again, The Great Papyrus is right," Sans pointed out. "Don't go human seeking, Tori. We don't need it."

"It helped so much before. I'm sure it would help again," Toriel insisted.

"Yeah. It wanted out. It got out. Not much more to this." Sans shrugged. "Can we go now?"

"I know," Toriel said looking at them. "I know it was hard to feel the sun, and then get yanked back in. I know, I do. But, we can't just give up." She gestured toward the small hole. "There is hope. If we can find the human, we'll have hope."

"Moldsmal?" Sans said, trying to get her head away from the idea. "It's kind of amorphous. It could get out and check things out. I mean, lots of things around here are small enough. Just reporting back. That's good enough."

"They are small. The mountain is big." Toriel crossed her arms. "Why are neither of you excited about this? If we play this the way the humans want, then we can be freed."

No. If they played it the way the humans wanted, they'd be dead. Sans and his brother both knew that.

"Just leave the human alone," Sans stressed again. "The cute little boy-girl-it thing. We don't need it down here."

"I know!" Papyrus looked toward the hole. "I could probably get over there. I or Sans, as long as we have a view of where we are going, we should be able to."

"Then you could get the human," Toriel said excitedly.

"No, then we can look around the mountain and see if there is anything. We aren't little monsters, we are big and strong monsters!" Papyrus announced bravely. "Then we can find a way in through the outside."

"Yeah, that sounds like a much smarter idea," Sans complimented Papyrus. "We can investigate the mountain ourselves."

"That is not good." Toriel looked away. "Once they know it exists, the humans could plug this hole."

"Then we can do it before they know." Papyrus stared outside. "I'll try to the right."

"I'll take the left," Sans said. "If anything exists, we'll find it."

"If you don't find anything though," Tori warned them, "then we need to start the search for Frisk."

Outside the Ruins, in the Sun . . .

There were trees growing all over, blocking a lot of the easy seeing. They checked the top, and couldn't even find the hole the humans originally stumbled into.

"There's so much vegetation." Papyrus looked toward the sun. "A day on the surface, our only day, and this is what we must do? An impossible task."

"You could run away," Sans told him. "I could tell them you ran away, Pap. You could stay here."

"No, never. I won't leave any fellow monster behind," he insisted. "Anyhow, staying out here without everyone else, it wouldn't feel good. You could though, Sans. This freedom. It would do you a lot of good."

"Nuh uh." Sans looked toward the sun. "Regret would just make the sun hurt." He sighed. "We've got to keep searching daily. All the time though until we figure out something else."

"It's useless. With this time, and our guardly duties?" Papyrus pointed out, "there is no time to just go skulking around here all day. I mean . . ." He gestured out to the huge scopes of trees lining their vision. "We are . . . there is just . . ."

"We are boned," Sans said for him. "It doesn't matter though. We have to keep looking."

"It's pretty useless," Papyrus pointed out. "I mean . . . look."

"Yeah, but as long as we're looking, Tori won't go looking for the human," Sans reminded him. "Papyrus, we were lucky. We were extremely lucky. We couldn't have gotten a better ending in the timeline with it, but we can't chance that again."

"Right. The timelines showed that. That it wasn't nice in every other uh. Possibility." Papyrus sighed. "If it was still good, we could be free."

"If it's not, we're all dead," Sans reminded him. "Or half of us. Or all but one. Or whatever it feels like killing or sparing."

"It was completely good though. If it stayed good all the way through this timeline?" Papyrus said. "Then, wouldn't it stand to reason, it would do the same thing?"

Sans couldn't agree. "Kid was good all the way through. Even got us to the surface, an impossible task. It was . . . " It was good. It was great! That kid was the best kid out there, did something no monster was capable of doing. It stood up to its foes and kept trudging on somehow through all the bitterness and attacks against it. "But."

"The machine showed so many different paths," Papyrus said gloomily. "Most except ours resulting in death. Um." He groaned. "If we had never taken that blasted machine from the lab of Gaster, this whole thing would never have been an issue. It just would have made it through, no questions asked, and we could get it right now!" He stomped his foot. "If we hadn't known."

"It was what it was." Sans shrugged. "Kid was crazy. It's most likely locked up in some asylum by now I bet. Doubt it remained 'good' this long." He started heading back to the hole. "At least you can enjoy some of the fresh air and sunshine, Papyrus. We won't give up. Somewhere around here has to be an opening into it."

"Well, at the very least, maybe we can see the other side of the barrier ourselves. That would be kind of neat."