Chapter 1:

The Nightmare

Alright! The long awaited Reboot. To be completely honest, this is just the revised version with grammar checks and easier transition between dialogue. Basically, it's the exact same story, just with a more authentic look to it with a more professional format. I should be able to get these bad boys out daily unless I run into a problem, but Lord knows I have a long history with those. Most author's notes from this point on will be from the past me, but I will make sure to alert you guys when present me is the one talking. Anyways, on with the story.

Alone… The voice pierced through the air. I can't feel. Can't think. You don't know what it's like to be soulless Frisk. Frisk's eyes darted every direction. She spun around, looking for the source of the voice. Pain, hurt, and anger. That's all I can feel. It's all I know now. She tried to console whoever this voice belonged to. But she couldn't talk. Just like when she was first in the Underground. And you want to know something? She felt like she knew this voice. She kept trying to see into the endless darkness she was surrounded by. You're why I'm still like this! She could finally hear where the voice was coming from. She turned to the source.

It was Asriel. Not in his child form, but his evil form. The one with black marks adorning his face, tracing around pitch black and blood red eyes that reflected the suffering and rage he endured. In a plain, but harsh tone, he spoke once more. this time, his voice came out clear. "You left me behind." though the voice was followed by a dreamy echo. Frisk tried once more to speak, but it seemed her words died as they tried to leave her mouth. "You never even tried. You let me suffer the torment that soullessness brought onto me, just as Chara let me become this in the first place."

Frisk realized that he was comparing her to the demon child that betrayed him, and possessed him, as she did to Frisk in the alternate timelines she lived through.

"You never tried…"

She finally found her voice, but as she spoke, she did so in a hoarse whisper. "I… I did-"

She was cut off by Asriel's now harsh and enraged tone. "The hell you did!" He snapped, yelling at her now, taking long strides to back the girl into an invisible corner. "Not a single RESET. You didn't even LOAD your older SAVE!"

Frisk couldn't find the right words to defend herself with, and another realization followed. The realization that she did not in fact put in an attempt to save him, and she was downright ashamed for it. "I-I'm s-so sorry!" Frisk managed to choke out before bursting into tears. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" She repeated again and again. "I'm s-"

"Whoa! chill out kiddo!" Frisk bolted up faster than lightning, panting. Sweat and tears were coating her face, making it shine in the room's dim light. She was back in the mansion that all her surface monster friends resided in. "You okay? Sounded like a pretty intense nightmare!" Sans tried to comfort as best he could when his voice was accompanied by early morning grogginess.

"I… I'm alright Sans, it was just a dream." She managed to get out in between shallow, raspy breaths.

"Didn't sound like it was Just a dream. You were screaming apologies when you weren't crying your eyes out, and I nearly had to push you off the bed to wake you up." Sans continued. "You literally woke up the whole house, even me."

She could tell. Sans' eyes had little purple spots under them, and his "eyelids" were slanted over their pitch black sockets. "Oh geez. Sorry Sans." She repeated once more.

"You've been shoutin' that all night." He responded. "It's okay kid. But when I wake up some more, I wanna know what was so freakin' miserable about that dream."

Normally, Sans was cheerful, even if he didn't catch much sleep, so the fact that he was scowling through every word of their conversation meant that Frisk woke him up really early.

As Sans left the bedroom, Frisk's mind wandered back to her nightmare from earlier. It felt like Asriel was really there. He seemed to know. He seemed sentient about the situation. When he spoke, she heard it as though she was still in reality, or back in the Underground. He seemed genuinely enraged towards the end. This certainly wasn't a normal nightmare, like the ones she had about her fight with Omega Flowey, if it could be called that. It was more like a slaughter, but she still found it within herself to spare Flowey, after all the he had done to her and her friends. She truly was a saint.

But she would continue pondering on this later. For now, she felt like she would need to calm down Papyrus, because knowing him, he would probably be trying to fight past Undyne to check up on her to see what all the screaming was about. He was almost as motherly as Toriel.

Frisk rubbed her eyes in an attempt to get the tears and tiredness out. After pushing over what blankets still covered her, she made her way to the door. She opened the door to reveal quite the scene. Papyrus was struggling to make his way out of Undyne's signature headlock prison of doom.

"Settle down Pap, Sans said the punk's alright!" Undyne tried to calm the squirming skeleton.

"Unhand me! I must make sure for myself!" Papyrus struggled to get out of Undyne's custom prison that anyone has yet to escape: the headlock. Frisk, rather than help the tall bag of bones, walked to a nearby clear spot on the floor, sat down, and waited for them to finish their business.

Papyrus continued to thrash about wildly until finally noticing the girl sitting on the floor across the room from the little rumble between the overprotective skeleton, and the professional kickboxing fish. We all know how this fight was going.

"Human!" The skeleton managed to talk regardless of the strong arm squeezing his neck to tap him out.

Undyne looked to where Papyrus was struggling to get to. "Heya punk!" Undyne let go of the skeleton as she approached the gloomy child. "Hey, you alright? Papyrus here was a walking, talking panic attack when he heard you started crying."

Frisk turned her head to speak. "I'm fine. It was just a nightmare." Papyrus seemed content at that, however, Undyne wasn't buying it. Most nightmares, Frisk would wake up with a loud gasp, or an occasional scream, but never did she wake up crying, let alone be still crying after about five minutes of watching the obnoxious fish warrior, and the hyperactive skeleton duke it out over something. That always cheered her up. Not because of the fighting, but listening to Papyrus claim to be the best while he was having his tailbone handed to him on a silver platter.

"Well kid, count yourself lucky," Sans began as he rounded the corner into the scene. "Cause if Toriel was here, she'd flay you to the bone." He flashed his normal grin while trying to cheer up Frisk before doing the very same thing Toriel would have done.

Frisk wiped away some tears and smiled, then sighed. "I need some air." Frisk stated before embarking to the door.

"Same here." Sans followed suit. Not once did Frisk object.

Once outside, Frisk began to slump down against the cold stone wall, while Sans leaned against the same wall, at the side of Frisk. The silence was heavy, but Sans was the one to break it. "So you wanna tell me what's really bothering ya?" No soft launch. Sans went straight into the conversation that Frisk wanted to avoid, without beating around the bush.

"What are you talking about?" She tried to feign an ignorant face, but Sans could see right through it.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about. I know it's not just that nightmare that's bothering you. There's somethin' else to it." Frisk sighed before giving in. Sans didn't want to beat around the bush so neither did she.

"I couldn't save everyone." She started, looking to Sans, hoping to see the knowing expression that showed he knew something, so she wouldn't have to explain it to him, but there was nothing but confusion.

"Whatcha' mean kid? We all made it out. You, me, Pap, Tori, Alph, everyone made it out."

Frisk shook her head. "Flowey-"

Sans cut her off right there. "You mean the demon flower? Who cares about that lil' weed?"

Frisk shot him a disapproving glare before continuing. "As I was saying, Flowey wasn't always… Well, Flowey." She looked to Sans who seemed even more confused than ever. She would have laughed at the face he was making, but the mood was a bit too serious for laughter. "He was once someone who could empathize, and care for other people. He wasn't always a sociopath."

Sans decided to voice a particular question that arose from what she said about the devil. "What do you mean? He's soulless, he doesn't have the capacity for empathy."

Frisk explained it all, choking back a few sobs every now and again. She told him of Flowey's past. She told him of who Flowey used to be, and who he was for a small amount of time. She told him of Asriel. He was shocked. His jaw almost literally dropped to the floor when he heard that the monster prince was still alive.

"So you're telling me, that the long lost and dead son of Toriel and Asgore is still alive, stuck in the Underground, and tried to kill you for half your trip there?"

Frisk nodded slightly and tried to shy away. "Yeah."

Now aggravated, Sans continued. "And you didn't tell us this sooner why?" He had a slight growl to his voice now.

"W-well, I didn't want to get your hopes up. Toriel and Asgore would do something reckless."

Sans started to see the reason of why Frisk would keep this secret. "Well, why didn't you tell Alphys? She was experimenting on souls and soul power from the get-go."

Now Frisk was shaded crimson. "Oh. Uum… I guess I didn't really think about that."

Sans slapped his forehead so hard, it almost cracked. "Okay, guess we're going to the lab." Both turned to see Undyne and Papyrus standing at the doorway.

PAST: Well, sorry again for the short chapter, but I just had trouble getting my brain to work this week, so this chapter kinda came out slow and I wanted to just get something out there before people get impatient. I would like to acknowledge the email that I got. You don't need to apologize for commenting so soon. I don't find it annoying, but the opposite. When I saw how fast someone commented on my fic, it put a smile on my face that nobody could wipe off, so thank you.