Prologue
When Chara went back to the elevator after killing Flowey, they found that the stupid weed actually had enough sense to jam the elevator with vines. Real ones. And without the monster's magic aiding them to RESET, they were stuck in New Home. No way out. All alone too, for they found Frisk's presence absent.
In the barrier room, the dust of a grieving king was spread out across the seven SOUL holders, devoid of any colorful hearts. Past that, a pile of dust lay in the sunlight where a skeleton had once fiercely avenged his brother multiple times before succumbing to the swipe of a dagger. On the other end of the vined elevator, a metal husk of a robot lay without arms, without legs, without life, once dearly loved by the population. Down the corridors of the CORE, throughout Hotland, various piles of dust lay scattered, all the way to a big white building, where a yellow dinosaur had crumbled to join them in a secret lab.
A little ways down the road, another collection of dust marked the fall of a great hero, defending a child before dying twice to preserve her people. Beyond the crystalline caverns, the dust there signified the poor skeleton who tried to make the murderer see what he did before a fell swipe knocked off his head. Farther back, behind a pair of wide, purple doors, a former queen had died by the hands of the child she so dearly cherished, dusted without a single thought. And before even that, a lonely patch of flowers waited for a watering that never came. But the strongest live on, and that is still true...
In one house, a pair of twins were born. They had pale blond hair. The girl's eyes glimmered purpleish red. The boy's eyes were sparkling green. Elsewhere, a boy was born. 10 months later, his brother came. Both were pale, with hair that was practically white and black first was short and lazy, and always slept at random intervals. The other was very fond of spaghetti. Next, a girl with flaming red hair and an inability to see out of her left eye was born. After that was a girl with blond hair that tufted into spikes.
Eight years later...
Chapter 1
"WAKE UP, SANS! WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE!"
At eight years old, Papyrus was growing rather tall, while Sans stayed short. They were named Sam and Patrick Marrow, but because they retained their memories they always called each other their real names when nobody was watching. As well as that, they could both do magic like usual.
"okay, pap. be down in a second." Sans was still half asleep when he stumbled down the stairs, dressed in a rumpled shirt, mismatched socks, and a blue hoodie with a single horizontal cyan stripe in the middle. Papyrus was already eating his cereal, sporting an orange blazer with multiple yellow stripes down the middle and khakis.
"where are mom and dad?" asked Sans, noting the parents' absence.
"THEY'RE IN THEIR ROOM, GETTING READY," answered Papyrus, happily spooning his Lucky Charms into his mouth.
"Sam! Patrick! You ready to go?" called a female voice.
"Yeah, Mom," the former skeletons answered in unison. They both filed out to the car, where their mother joined them. She was a teacher at the local high school, while their father was a scientist. She shut the door and started the car. Sans slouched down to take a quick nap, while Papyrus scrambled his Rubix cube and began to solve it. Their first day of kindergarten would be great.
The drive was uneventful. Sans watched the passing civilians, thinking it not unlike Snowdin Town. He thought about his reincarnation. Why were they even here? He wished Alphys were here. No doubt, she would have already come up with some theories with that big brain of hers. He might have done so himself, but… he was too lazy to.
A strand of hair fell Into his hair. He brushed it away absentmindedly. Ah, the perks of being a human. He had hair now, and internal organs, and a heartbeat. Weird. Blood too. Blood… he recalled a small child, their expression innocent and peaceful… if you ignored the dust covering them, the blood framing them in a red halo of death, and the bones impaling them through the stomach. He remembered happier times, when his brother and their friend Undyne wrestled playfully in the sun, where her waifu fretted over them to stop. Times when the former king sat with a cup of tea and read, and the queen tucked her child into bed, leaving behind a slice of pie. Those were good times…
"We're here!" Sans gave a start.
~Seeing such a cute line break fills you with determination... FILE saved~
Alphys hid behind her mom's leg, shyly peeking out to see all the kids. Her mother called her Alma Mewton, more commonly known as Alpha by her parents. Her hair, as yellow her former scales, was permanently tufted into spikes resembling her head spines in her past life. At eight, her parents believed that she had already learned the basics of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, as well as counting to a hundred and fifty before losing her nerve. But she already knew how to solve algebraic equations, build machines capable of extracting DETERMINATION, and more. But her parents didn't know that, of course. She also needed glasses, and she chose ones that looked almost identical to her old ones. She wore a miniature lab coat over her yellow-and-brown striped sweater, a black skirt and trainers hidden under its folds.
As former Royal Scientist, when she was old enough to form a conscious memory, she had immediately started hypothesizing how she had gotten there. Her best conclusion was that apparently her SOUL was strong enough to reincarnate herself, but as a human since the killer had eradicated all of monsterkind. But that led to several more questions, like, If I reincarnated because of how strong my SOUL is, then what about the monsters whose SOULs are stronger? If so where did they wind up? How many traits stayed with us through the reincarnation? And on and on and on.
"Come on, Alpha! There are so many new friends you could make! Why don't you go out there?" Her mother urged. But Alphys stubbornly clung to her leg and shook her head. She stayed long enough so that ten minutes later, when several cars had come and gone, she was still there.
Finally, her mother managed to pry her loose and shooed Alphys toward the other kids, quickly walking off so Alphys couldn't follow her. As she was doing so, a car drove up while Alphys resigned herself to her fate, before electrical sparks started shooting off of her as a result of her magic. As she trudged slowly towards the other kids, the car door opened and a very loud voice spoke up.
"BYE MOM!" There was a pause as the door shut and the car drove away. "I CAN'T WAIT FOR SCHOOL, SAN-UHH, I MEAN, SAM!"
"yeah," a quieter and lazier voice said. Alphys turned to see two boys who bore an uncanny resemblance to her skeleton friends, Sans and Papyrus. Then the Papyrus-like one noticed her and bent toward his brother. "HEY, SANS!" He whisper-shouted. "DOESN'T THAT GIRL LOOK A LOT LIKE OUR DEAR FRIEND, DR. ALPHYS?"
"who, paps?" Alphys's jaw dropped. The taller boy gestured excitedly at Alphys, and the shorter one's face mirrored hers. Alphys was pretty sure if they were skeletons, Sans's jaw would have been on the floor, detached from the rest of his skull. He hurried forward until they were a couple feet apart. "alphys? is that you?"
"Sans?"
"oh my gosh, it's you!" Sans threw his arms around her, squeezing her tight. "you have no idea how glad i am to see you!"
Papyrus, like the naive kid he was, peered at her and said, "Dr. Alphys? You're here too? Wowie!" He started bouncing up and down, swiveling his head left and right. "If you're here, does that mean Captain Undyne is here too? I need to give her my report on what it's like to be a human!"
"Hey, do you have any idea how we got here?" Sans had let go and now they were walking beside Papyrus, whom Sans had shushed just a few moments prior.
"U-umm, well, what are your last m-memories before you u-uh, you know, r-reincarnated?"
"OH, THAT'S SIMPLE! I WAS OFFERING A HUG OF ACCEPTANCE TO THE TINY HUMAN! BUT THEY TOOK A TOY KNIFE AND SLICED MY HEAD OFF. NEXT THING I KNOW, I WAS SITTING IN A BABY CHAIR WITH A PLATE OF GREEN GOOEY STUFF IN FRONT OF ME. BLECH! SPAGHETTI IS MUCH HEALTHIER THAN THAT ICKY GOOP!" Papyrus scoffed.
"i was sleeping. thought the human couldn't move. then they swiped, and i dodged, then the next thing i know, they sliced me again and i dusted. then... same as paps here. you?"
"W-Well," Alphys adjusted her glasses. "I, um, s-suicided…" she said, trailing off for a bit. "T-Then I blacked out for a bit, and then I remember a room filled with a bunch of baby things."
"oh. well, i guess we our SOULs somehow made their way into the human world to be reincarnated." Sans sighed, running a hand through his hair. "hey, can you do magic? me and Paps can do all our regular magic."
"O-Oh! I can, you know, do yellow magic, I could probably h-hack an entire camera system if I had a phone, that kind of thing. But don't tell anyone!"
"agreed. we should keep this to ourselves. let's go over there and play. i'm pretty sure most little kids would have run off to play by now. also, what's your name? i'm supposed to be sam and paps is patrick."
"U-Uh, I'm Alma. But my parents c-call me Alpha, so you can too. Um, n-nice to meet you, uh, Sam."
"nice to meet you too, alpha." With that they all ran to the swings.
~She's Playing Piano~(really well for a 5 year old)
As far as most knew, Unique Ikthys had never been able to see out of her left eye. Although, it didn't really matter. She was a fighter, she was Undyne the Undying for Pete's sake, and was perfectly capable of defending her dignity against anyone who made fun of her eye. Plus, she got to wear an eye patch. How cool was that?
Valiantly, she stood at the gates of her new school. She and her family had just moved from Albuquerque. With her hair in a high ponytail and a red skirt, a green jacket, striped shirt and burgundy shoes, she waved goodbye to her mother. As she turned toward the school, the wind picked up, and, hair waving heroically, she pushed on the gates and ran inside.
She scanned the playground. It was a bit early, so there were a few people arriving. But the quadruple swing set was empty. Sweet! She thought. Undyne raced over and got on one of the seats, starting to push higher and higher. Soon she was soaring up, then plunging down for a brief moment before swooping up the other side. She laughed. The surface was so much fun!The air was so fresh, the sun was so nice, and she couldn't believe that humans lived here 24/7. Speaking of humans, Undyne's expression soured as she remembered them, the human who mercilessly slaughtered everyone. She wondered what had happened to the rest of the monsters, those who lived in Hotland, the CORE, and New Home. Were they killed? Were they spared? Did anyone stop them?
Undyne's pondering was interrupted by the sound of chains rattling. She glanced to the side. The three empty swings were now occupied by kids who looked like Sans, Papyrus and Alphys. Alphys. She had always had a little crush on Alphys. The nerdy, yellow lizard monster was reclusive, kind of a shut-in, but she was quite passionate about the things she cared about. Namely, anime. Oh, yeah, that was one of the reasons the surface was awesome. There were so many types of animes here! Lately, Undyne had been watching Pokemon, but she had recently started Sailor Moon. Oh, and Fairy Tail sounded right up her alley! But nothing topped her all-time favorite, Mew Mew Kissy Cutie.
Anyway, those kids really looked like her friends back in the Underground. So much like them, in fact, that she began staring at them scrutinizingly. Yeah, that short kid with the pale, white hair and black eyes could pass as a humanized Sans, looking font-dly at the taller kid. Heh, Sans was rubbing off on her. That kid with the spiky blond hair and bangs could be Alphys, absorbed in the notebook she had started scribbling on. And that near-identical-to-the-Sans-kid-except-for-height kid could very well be Papyrus, chattering about spaghetti and puzzles and Undyne- wait, Undyne?
She hadn't realized that she had said that last bit out loud until the others choked and the Papyrus-kid perked up and said, "YEAH, UNDYNE! DO YOU KNOW HER? SHE'S THE CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD! AND SHE HAS THIS BIG INTIMIDATING SUIT OF GRAY ARMOR, AND SHE HAS ONE EYE! THE OTHER IS COVERED WITH AN EYE PATCH! SHE HAS RED HAIR IN A PONYTAIL JUST LIKE YOURS, AND SHE CAN SUMMON THESE CYAN ENERGY SPEARS, WHICH ARE REALLY COOL! (BUT NOT AS COOL AS THE GREAT PAPYRUS, NYEH!) AND SHE CAN DO GREEN MAGIC AND-"
"bro, i think she knows." The Sans-kid interjected. He was looking amusedly at their exchange, while the Alphys-kid was blushing furiously.
Papyrus-kid blinked owlishly at Sans-kid. "REALLY? HOW?"
"she is undyne, pap." He loftily informed him. "or at least, i think she is. are you?"
She gave a start. "Uh, yeah, punk! Are you really Sans?" It came out higher pitched than she wanted it to. Probably because she was so excited to be meeting another monster-turned-human.
"yep. how'd you get here, anyway?" Sans was looking pretty chuffed with himself, while Papyrus began rattling off an account of what had happened since... the event.
"Kid threw a notebook at me. I started melting, ya know, and uh, died? Next thing I know, there's a teenager on a phone and I'm in a crib. 'Course, I thought the humans had captured me, so I freaked and totally demolished the crib! But, uh, at the time, I thought it was a cage! So... yeah. I gave the 'sitter a black eye and a few bruises before I calmed down." Undyne thoughtfully stroked her chin. The she remembered. "Oh, by the way, what's your name supposed to be? I'm supposed to be Unique, because that's what my mom calls me."
"I'M PATRICK AND HE'S SANS!"
"I-I-I'm Alma. But m-my parents call me Alpha."
"Guess I can still call you Alph, then." Alphys squeaked, blushing.
"Okay, everyone!" The call came from a teacher standing by the gates of the school. "Class is starting now, so come over when your name is called!"
They began with the A's, and then B's, and so forth. Turns out, they were all placed in the same class, Miss Henry's class.
Undyne grinned at her friends, who grinned back. This was going to be a good year.
~This linebreak is brought to you by the ButtsPie~
Victoria Lammington looked out the window of her family's car. It was very expensive. Her brother, Aspar Lammington, sat quietly next to her. Being siblings was rather awkward after their former lives as ex-husband and wife, but by now Toriel had forgiven him and they started over, as siblings instead of former lovers. They came from a family richer than the average person, and their parents liked flaunting it. They weren't allowed to talk to those considered lesser than them. They had been homeschooled, until one of their parents' colleagues suggested they send the kids to school so as to maintain an image. After several deliberations, their parents decided to enroll them in the local elementary school.
Toriel had once wondered what had happened to the rest of the underground. She couldn't help but worry about the child, even though they had murdered her. But when she found out about Asgore, she knew that what the child had done to the entire population of the Underground. She could only hope that the rest of them had found peace in death. She supposed that she and Asgore had reincarnated due to their status as Boss Monsters, but that was only a theory. She wondered what had become of the monster behind the door. Did the child kill them on sight? Draw out the battle? Did he break his promise? Or did he protect them until he died? All these questions, but no answers. Toriel sighed. Learning to live with Asgore again had taken quite a bit of time, but eventually she learned to love him like a brother.
Their mother, who was driving, was ranting about all the things they were and weren't supposed to do. "… and don't play in the sandbox. Or the swings after it's rained. You'll get your clothes dirty, and they were tailored specifically for you."
"Yes, Mother." the two chorused.
Their mother kept talking. "You should be proud of your status. As a Lammington, you have certain privileges that other children do not get. In return, you must uphold our image, wherever you go. Do you understand?" She narrowed her eyes at them. The Boss Monsters nodded quickly. "Good. Here we are!"
The car pulled up at the school. Their mother got out and opened the door for them. "Don't forget your lunches, I don't want them to rot in the car." She paused. "They're made by a special chef from Paris. Don't get dirty, okay?"
With that she drove off. Toriel frowned. "That was quite rude. A mother should show concern and care to her children, not just brush them off."
Asgore sighed. "I know, Tori, but sometimes people aren't that great. But we have to just go with it."
Toriel sighed. "Alright."
They went inside the gates. There was the sandbox, which they weren't allowed to go in, see-saws, a jungle gym, a mini rock climbing wall, a slide, some swings, and a few plants and trees here and there. Kids were milling around everywhere. Asgore started drifting off in the direction of the flowers but before they could do anything a teacher came over and said, "Okay, everyone! Class is starting now, so come over when your name is called!"
Both Toriel and Asgore were put into Miss Harrison's class. They all filed into a bright and cheery classroom, full of colorful decorations and laminated charts full of tips for several different classes. There were large circle tables with seats and name tags around the sides.
"Okay, everyone!" Miss Harrison cheerfully called. "Go find your name and sit at the seat! I'll give you some time to introduce yourselves, because you'll be sitting together for the rest of the year!" Immediately there was a shuffling as kids raced around to find their names. Toriel went along with the flow.
Soon, she saw a pretty purple name tag with 'Victoria Lammington' was taped in front of a seat with the same color. Purple, the color of perseverance. She sat down. Asgore ended up at the same table, with five other kids. His seat and name tag were orange. Bravery. She looked around the table. There were a total of 6 kids, including her and Asgore. Sitting at the yellow name tag, on the other side of Toriel, was a girl who looked very jittery. Yellow, for justice. She had glasses, spiky blond hair with bangs, and a lab coat over a striped top. The girl next to her had the green seat and name tag. Green was for kindness. She had red hair pulled up into a high ponytail, a green jacket, a striped shirt, and an eyepatch over her left eye. On the other side of Asgore, the dark blue name tag was claimed by a boy who was quite tall. Dark blue, the color of integrity. He had white hair, white skin, a prominent red scarf, and a striped orange-and-yellow blazer. Next to him at the light blue name tag was a boy with white hair, white skin, and black eyes. Cyan, signifying patience. He sported an oversized blue hoodie with a single light blue stripe that streaked across the middle horizontally oven a plain white shirt and a black pair of pants with white stripes on the sides.
They all stared at each other somewhat awkwardly before Patrick said, "WELL, THIS IS COOL! WE'RE ALL WEARING STRIPES!"
Toriel looked down at her outfit. Sure enough, her purple dress had white stripes. "Oh! I never noticed." The boy next to him stiffened and gave a strangled gulp.
"Well, I believe we should introduce ourselves. Howdy! I'm Aspar. Aspar Lammington." Asgore said, smiling. He inclined his head slightly, while the patience boy, the kindness girl, and the justice girl stiffened. "This is my sister, Victoria Lammington."
"Hello, eveyone. It is nice to meet you all." Toriel added. She smiled kindly at the other kids.
"GREETINGS, ASPAR AND VICTORIA! I AM THE GREAT PAP-UHH, I MEAN, PATRICK!" The integrity boy- no, Patrick- said. "AND THIS IS MY LAZY BROTHER, SAM!" He gestured to the boy in the light blue seat. He gave a lazy wave.
"sup." Toriel could feel her eyes widening. That voice… it sounded like the monster on the other side of the door! Only younger… but it probably wasn't. "i hope we'll get along okay."
"Umm…" Toriel coughed. "You wouldn't happen to enjoy telling jokes, would you?"
His grin (actually, now that she thought of it, both the brothers wore perpetual smiles. She hadn't seen them not smiling yet…) widened. "i enjoy telling jokes a ton… a skele-ton." He winked. (Wait, was that a rimshot?!)
The joke had an several effects on her tablemates. The kindness girl snickered. The justice girl groaned quietly under her breath. Asgore chuckled. Patrick groaned loudly and facepalmed. "WHY, BROTHER, MUST YOU TORTURE ME WITH THOSE PUNS EVERYDAY?"
"well, sorry, bro. ulna-ver do it again." He winked again. Another rimshot. More snickers. More groans. Another exasperated look.
"PLEASE EXCUSE MY BROTHER, ASPAR AND VICTORIA. HE IS QUITE FOND OF TELLING THOSE JOKES."
"hey, bro, don't ya mean quite font of telling puns?"
"UGH!"
Toriel laughed weakly. Well, the skeleton puns basically confirmed it. The mystery monster seemed to enjoy skeleton puns. But what was that pun about fonts? Either way, Sam was the monster behind the door. But how was he here?
"Oh, I don't really mind puns." Asgore butted in. "Tori over here loves jokes and puns. I'm used to it."
"OH NO! HAS MY BROTHER CORRUPTED YOU WITH HIS INFLUENCE ALREADY?"
"Oh, no, Patrick. I have loved jokes for a while now." She told him, lighting up as an idea came to her. "I guess you could say… that I think jokes are very punny."
There was a beat of silence at the pun. Then, Papyrus commented, "WOW. THOSE PUNS ARE EVEN LESS FUNNY COMING FROM HER." This triggered snickers from the kindness girl. Patrick shot her a mean look and sighed.
"OKAY! MOVING ON!" Patrick pointed to said girl.
"Heya, punks! I'm Unique, and I hope we'll all be besties!" She smiled a large, toothy grin. Toriel smiled back. This Unique seemed like a very friendly person.
Asgore, however, had a much different reaction. He spluttered, nearly jumping out of his seat in shock. His face drained of color. He shakily pointed at her. "U-Und-dyne?"
When he said that, her face also turned white. She mirrored his pointing. "H-How do y-you know that n-name…?" Then she took a good, hard look at him. "Wait a second. Asgore?"
"W-Wait, Asgore?" The yellow haired girl squealed. She nearly jumped out of her seat in her nervous jittery state.
"Alphys? Oh dear. Undyne, Alphys, what happened? Did the human kill you too?"
"KING ASGORE? YOU'RE HERE TOO? CAN I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, BE A ROYAL GUARD LIKE UNDYNE?"
"Umm, Asgore," Toriel nervously said. "How do you know Alphys and Undyne? Who were they?"
"Oh! Alphys here was the Royal Scientist, and Undyne was the leader of the Royal Guard. But, uh, I don't know who Papyrus is." Asgore said, gesturing to them.
"Oh! Papyrus is one of my former trainees, I was training him to join the Royal Guard!" Undyne boasted. "He's really good!"
"Oh, I see. Well, Undyne, Alphys, Papyrus, this is Toriel, my ex-wife. We, uh, made up." Both girls waved, while Papyrus said something about 'Asgore's clone.'
"Oh. I see, then. Did you manage to delay the human? If only for a little bit?"
"Yeah!" Undyne smiled. "It was super cool! First I stopped the human from hurting a little kid with no arms-"
"Oh no, were they hurt?" asked Toriel, her instinct to protect the children automatically making her worried.
"Dunno what happened to them." Undyne shrugged, melancholy. "I told him that I could handle it, that he should find safety. He left. I hope he's okay, though." She was silent for a moment before grinning and continuing to rattle off. "But then, I almost died! But there was… a burning feeling I can't describe. All I know is that I couldn't give up! And then… BOOM! I totally powered up! I had new armor, all spiky and purple, and my eye had occasionally shot out bright beams of light…" As the three, joined by Papyrus, continued listening to Undyne's tale, Toriel approached Sam.
"Hello… I believe we may… know each other? I recognize your voice…"
"oh. hey. i recognize your voice too."
"Well, greetings! I am Toriel. Although here I am called Victoria. It is very nice to see you face to face."
"i'm sans. the humans call me sam. and, uh same."
-Tibia continued-
A/N: Hoi there! This is my first fanfiction on here, and I have really good feelings about this fic. Bear in mind, I'm a person who spends most of their free time reading, so I will guarantee that there will be the slowest updates known to man.
Some background information:
The reason the timeline wasn't able to continue was because in this story, the only reason Frisk could reset and stuff was because of the monsters' magic. The monsters radiate magic, and so that's the reason they're only able to reset to the point when they fall down. Because their determination is mixing with the magic and giving them the power. That's not how I usually think of things, but for this story I needed a reason to make it work. So there.
Sans and Papyrus' last name comes from "red bone marrow." Alphys' comes from the smart science-y guy Newton, and her love of Mew Mew Kissy Cutie… made it Mewton. Undyne's last name is "fish" in Greek (I think…), so… fish. Toriel and Asgore's last names are from the idea that they're goats, and goats slightly resemble sheep, and lambs… you get the point.
I am going to put Mettaton and Napstablook in here, just… not now. I think it's time I stopped procrastinating and actually posted this online.
If there's anything you think I can improve on, please! Post a review and let me know what you think.
~See ya next time! -Mdmpinkie9088