- The Determination Route: Chapter Nine -

They floated through darkness for a while, their eyes closed, face expressionless… peaceful.

"Chara, Stay Determined!"

The sound resounded through the darkness, and the human opened their eyes, looking up. The world filled with color, water all around them. Waterfall. Yellow flowers. Time again and again. They sighed, sitting up and rubbing their head, looking around the abandoned place... garbage everywhere… they sighed.

"...what's the point of being determined… I could just… end it."

Staring up at the grey ceiling of Chara's old room, they just sighed, a headache forming as sounds from outside the door started playing out, small crashes and a banging next door. After a few minutes of that, there was a low growl, and a yelp, before a weight settled next to Frisk, who jumped back at the sudden appearance of a certain short skeleton.

"Er, Heya Kiddo, sorry for droppin' in like this." He gave his usual laid back grin, laying back on the bed, half over Frisk, who startled back even more, staring at Sans with wide eyes.

"Sans…! D-don't… don't scare me like that." They looked down a little nervously, glancing at the skeleton a few times, a light blush crossing their cheeks. He just regarding them a with a slightly tense expression. The coldness in Frisk's hands when they wrapped them around Sans' bony hands was overly apparent as the Human closed their eyes and snuggled down into the couch at Sans' silent prompting. For whatever reason, it was comfortable for the human to lay down on the hardest and lumpiest couch in the entire house, snuggled up to a skeleton. Shaking his head, Sans just wrapped his arms around the other. "Is it because of the resets? Does exposure cross over timelines…?"

"Try to calm your magic… the breath is one thing, but your body temp is way too low…." He spoke up gently, and as he did so, they heated up a bit, a pleasant warmth emanating from the child. He could get used to this. With a softer smile than he normally managed, he gave the other a gentle squeeze, and nuzzled the crown of the other's head. Not all humans were bad… and this one tried so hard for him…The forest was peaceful at night, or, what they assumed was night. Frisk glanced around the scenery of Snowdin forest, their hands tucked away in the pockets of the blue hoodie wrapped around them. The cold didn't bother them so much that the jacket just comforted them to wear, the underground as a whole was cold. And so was the Human's magic.

Putting on their best grin, the human stepped past the empty sentry post, glancing at the camera's in the trees. The whole scene seemed rather familiar, the emptiness almost comforting… Frisk stumbled through the luminescent waters of Waterfall's caves, breathing hard. "Why…" They grit their teeth, looking ahead at the rocks sliding down from above. "Why does everything have to be a puzzle?" They slumped down on the bank of yet another stream, looking ahead at the ghastly amount of puzzles and riddles to be solved. "Can't we just have... a single passage… where you don't fall into twenty traps?" They sighed, just looking down at their sore and cut up hands. "How far is the core anyway-"

"-Found you!" A familiar monster cried out from behind them.

"Can't we just… Talk?" Frisk blinked and looked behind themselves, giving a sigh at the sight of Undyne behind them, hefting a teal spear in one hand.

Undyne blinked a few times, her eyes hardening again. "I don't have time for talking with traitors!" The world seemed to fall away into the harsh monochrome of battle. They just regarded the scene around them coolly, and sighed again.

"I don't want to fight you, Undyn-" A loud whoosh went through the air. A teal glow flashed and Frisk collapsed forward into the water.

"...kiddo... I only have so many tries… we trained you for a reason..." Sans' hands clenched around the rail, and he stared out over the edge of a balcony overlooking Home. The grey expanse dull, the only sounds the draft that blew threw the Ruins and the various Monsters that remained in the Ruins. Two buttons hovered in front of the skeleton… with a shaking hand, he reached out, and another crack ran through his skull.

"...some rain would be nice every once and awhile... " He looked up, as the world was stripped of it's color first, before fading to black… the strings of code wrapping around him, preserving him… and then he was back in Snowdin, the world forming around him again as a spark of yellow caught his attention. "Though… I suppose ...it's raining somewhere else…" He sighed, looking up at his house, the roof looking like it's about to cave in.

He sighed again, the air rushing from his jawline, like a vacuum. He reached his hand behind his skull, and felt along each crack, each ravine that slip his head even further. Some bigger, some smaller… He couldn't count them anymore… this was the first to actually split bone though. He looked over his house again, and just gave a shrug, stuffing his hands in his jacket pockets, and flopping onto the couch… he couldn't count how many times he just.. Let time slip away. No plan. Just.. forgetting. Letting the human pass through normally… but every time they died… he knew. A tug would pull on his soul, and he could almost see them, pouting at him… begging for another chance.

"...anyone can be a good person… if they just try"

He closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath, before his lazy grin slipped back onto his face, the lumpy couch underneath him digging into his pelvis… but he didn't mind. As long as he didn't have to think. "...heh… maybe tomorrow, bro"

"...I could just end all of this… the resets… the monsters… the war… make it like none of this ever happened in the first place." They smiled, giggling a little. It was unnerving… just how much power they realized they had. A monster jumped out at them… what was it? A dummy? That's a stupid monster… and in the way… they just needed. They just needed to end it… Glad Dummy, it was called? Well… at least it's happy in it's last moments.

A/N - What's happening, I wonder...