A/N: In case anybody's wondering, there's about nine or ten or so chapters left before the end.
"Hey, Chara? What are you doing?"
"..."
"What's that creepy expression for?"
"...heh..."
"Stop doing that! You're starting to freak me out!"
"You don't really know what's going on here, do you, Asriel? Ha ha ha ha..."
"AAAHH!"
Frisk sat up. The Gaster blaster had vanished, and she was currently on a small bed of golden flowers.
A final golden flower was sitting in front of her.
"Oh, great." Frisk tried to stand, but her head suddenly began pounding, and she fell back down on her rear.
"Look, Frisk." Flowey seemed almost sad. "Just stop it, okay? Stop trying. You couldn't save me before and you can't now. You can't save me, so just stop trying."
Frisk glared at him. "Do you really think I'll give up now?"
Flowey sighed and shook his petals from side to side. "Stop. Please, just leave me alone, Frisk."
"You're the one who popped up in front of me." Frisk pointed out.
The golden flower was silent for once. He looked down into the swirling, dirty waters as if contemplating his own mortality. "Frisk... don't you have anything better to do?"
At this innocent question, asked in almost the same voice as Asriel's, Frisk snapped. "No!" she shouted. "No, I don't! And I'm going to save you even if I kill myself doing it!"
Frisk collapsed onto the ground, folding her arms around her knees, and cried silently.
When she composed herself and looked up, Flowey was gone.
I don't have the time or the patience to travel through the rest of Waterfall. I don't have the energy to try to make friends here. I just want to try to save everyone. I just want to save Asriel. And the less time it takes to set up the circumstances leading to him coming back, the better! Frisk snapped her fingers, and heat burst all around her.
The bridge across the chasm loomed in front of her, filling her with determination. She took a step forwards and then another, making sure her feet echoed loudly against the surface. I want her to be able to hear me.
"Hey! Yo!"
Frisk spun around to see a yellowish speck in the distance, growing gradually. As it approached, she recognized it as a monster. More accurately, the monster kid that, in many previous timelines, had went through most of Waterfall with her and inadvertently helped her not get killed on multiple occasions.
Now, though, I basically skipped through all of that. Frisk thought, and felt a tiny twinge of guilt. They were... I wouldn't say a friend, but they were a nice companion.
"You're a kid too, right?" asked the monster kid eagerly. "I can tell 'cause you're wearing a striped shirt."
"Uh, yeah." Frisk couldn't help but wonder what they were doing here.
"Anyway," continued the kid hesitantly. "Undyne told me that you're, uh, a dangerous human with powers and I should stay away from you. But, uh, I wanted to see them. Can you show me them, please?" They looked up at Frisk with big, adorable eyes.
Frisk sighed. "Okay." She closed her eyes and concentrated.
seriously, kid? you're activating your powers just so some random disobedient kid can see?
Yes. I am.
Sans sighed, and Frisk felt disappointment waft through their connection. well, i can't really stop you, can i?
Frisk's soul vibrated within her, and then she felt her true form claw its way out from her. The Gaster blaster helmet didn't even need to float down around her this time, it just appeared on her head. As her eyes blazed into light the spear of bone appeared in her hands.
"Yo..." The monster kid stared with awe. "That's so cool! How can I do that kind of thing?"
Frisk snapped her fingers, and her godlike form melted away. "You'd have to absorb a human soul or acquire the equivalent amount of determination to one, and I wouldn't recommend either. Neither of them is a pleasant experience, especially the latter one."
"Aw..." The kid looked disappointed for a second before perking up. "But hey! Undyne's got awesome powers like that, too! And she didn't absorb a human soul, so how did she get them?"
Frisk smiled internally, knowing that Undyne's "powers" were nowhere close to hers. "Some monsters just have enough determination in them already to be able to do that. Who knows, maybe you're one of those monsters."
"Okay!" The monster kid was now jumping up and down on their stubby little legs. "Thanks, uh..."
"Frisk." she told them. "My name's Frisk."
"Thanks, Frisk!" The monster kid raced back towards the entrance, but screeched to a halt as a familiar figure approached. "Undyne! What're- Aah!" Teetering sideways, they fell off the bridge. And this time, unlike all the other timelines, they didn't manage to get ahold of the edge.
Frisk glanced at Undyne for a split second, then jumped off the edge.
The wind howled in her ears as she fell. Snapping her fingers, she summoned a Gaster blaster beneath her, then looked deep into the darkness. With her newly-enhanced eyes she had no trouble picking out the monster kid's falling form, and summoned another Gaster blaster beneath them.
huh.
What is it, Sans?
nothing.
The blasters sped back up to the surface as orange smoke leaked from Frisk's eye. Stopping at the bridge, they tilted forward gently and poured Frisk and the monster kid onto the surface of the bridge.
"Yo... You saved me..."
"Of course I did." Frisk smiled wryly. "When you have powers like mine, you have to help everyone."
The kid contemplated that for a moment, then turned to Undyne. "Yo! Undyne!" they said confidently. "You said that this human was dangerous and would kill me... but if that's true she wouldn't have saved me now, would she have? So if you want to hurt her, you're gonna have to get through me, first."
Undyne was silent, then turned and walked away.
"Hey, uh, Frisk?" the monster kid asked, and Frisk turned her full attention to them. "Do you really think I might actually have 'powers?'"
Frisk smiled gently at him. "Anything's possible in this world." she replied. She snapped her fingers, and the Gaster blasters floated to above her palms. One vanished, and the other one shrunk to about a third of its size, then fell into her hand. Casually tossing it up and down in her hand for a few moments, Frisk examined the monster kid, then handed them the blaster. "Here." she said. "It's about the size of your head now, so you can wear it as a helmet. And if you can close these parts here-" she pointed at the mandible-like parts beneath the blaster's upper jaw- "you should be able to hold something in it."
"Yo... This is AWESOME! I can't wait to show my mom!" The monster kid turned to run off, but remembered Frisk was there and turned back right before they hit the entrance. "Thanks, Frisk!"
And then they were gone.
Blue light sparked in Frisk's eye as she snapped her fingers, and with a rush of heat she teleported to beneath the mountain-like pile of rock that Undyne would be standing atop in all the other timelines.
But she wasn't there.
"What?" Frisk started forward, and then heard a loud "NGAAH!" and something flying through the air. She didn't even have time to turn around or pull out her bone spear before Undyne's energy spear impaled her through her midsection. With a gasp for air that was only answered by gurgling blood, Frisk fell to her knees as she felt her soul shiver and break within her.