Chapter 24: The True Final Battle

"And that where Tim knocked your head off," Frisk detailed, pointing towards Freddy. "So run away before he gets there."

Suddenly, a piece of paper appeared out of nowhere above the heroes heads, floating slowly downwards.

Bendy snatched it out of the air and read it out loud.

"It's over. We lost." Bendy said aloud. He then flipped it over. "From the next timeline. Stop him now."

Everyone looked at each other solemnly. This was their last chance.

"You never told us, Frisk. Tell me, what timeline is this?" Bendy questioned.

Frisk looked down. "One hundred seventy-five."

"WHAT?!" the rest of the party erupted.

"So what you're saying is that we lost 174 times?!" Cuphead exclaimed.

"And NOW we have to beat him?" Mr. Peterson asked.

Frisk nodded.

The Player still didn't really believe that his world was getting reset along with ones on his computer. He didn't remember one bit of any timelines beforehand. He wanted desperately to believe that it was all some sort of elaborate prank.

But he trusted Frisk, unfortunately, so that was that.

"So what can we do this time that will stop him?" asked Freddy. "Do we even have a chance?"

"We've been doing better during the latest timelines. He's been winding time back more and more often during battle. If we can just break his will to fight…" Frisk mused.

Everyone just looked around at each other uncomfortably.

The Player felt a little compelled to say something. He opened his mouth.

"We'll do it. Yes, I know he has powers, and it's going to seem like we have nothing against him."

"But you know what we have that he doesn't?"

"Friendship. We have each other."

"And for the life of me, I never thought I'd say these words, but… we do it for Monika. You hear me?"

"FOR MONIKA!" came the eight-voices strong reply.

"THEN LET'S DO THIS!" And the Player led his team out of the subtunnel and into the world of Braid for the final battle.


Six popped out of the subtunnel last, and joined her eight teammates out in the clearing.

They stood in a meadow in a field, underneath a beautiful blue sky. A river meandered nearby, coming down from a nearby hill. A series of majestic mountains stood off in the distance. The blades of grass rustled slightly in the gentle breeze.

On top of the nearby hill was a tiny little ramshackle hut. Puffs of smoke could be seen coming out of the ceiling's chimney.

Suddenly, the front door opened.

There stood the man himself, silhouetted against the light. Tim.

He walked around to behind his house, and disappeared from sight as quickly as he had appeared.

"This is where the army of Constructs appears," Frisk whispered.

"We know," Mama whispered back.

Suddenly, at the foot of the hill, an absolute horde of Constructs suddenly appeared, making their way over to the heroes. All of them, every single one they had ever seen.

"Just remember, guys, we've beaten them one hundred and seventy-four times, and we never got a scratch," Frisk said, addressing the group. "Let's do this."

We can do this, guys." the Player said, fighting to keep the quaver out of his voice. "Ready?"

Freddy, Mr. Peterson, Bendy, Mama, Baldi, Cuphead, Six, and Frisk all nodded.

"Then let's go!"

And the nine of them charged against the oncoming horde.


"Now, Six!" the Player shouted at his screen.

Right before the two groups made contact, Six snapped her fingers. Inexplicably, all of the Constructs immediately dissolved into ones and zeroes, broken apart. Six promptly collapsed from the strain.

Nobody stopped for an instant. The group came upon the piles of ones and zeroes and began to mercilessly attack them, smashing large amounts of them before they managed to reform into Constructs, at which point they had to back away slightly.

Mr. Peterson and Baldi, the fighting unit that they always were, swung both of their weapons at the same time with all of their strength. Their combined blows battered the beleaguered rmy of Constructs backwards by several feet.

The Constructs tried to get back on their feet, only to be shoved aside by a wave of pizza, then drowned in Cuphead's wave.

One enterprising Construct - in fact, the only one not in a pile of lines of code - dodged the previous attack and charged headlong at the party.

Suddenly, five Tattletails appeared out of nowhere, latched onto the monster, happily chewing away at it. They ate and ate and ate, lines of code being swallowed, until it was gone in a surprisingly quick time.

Working together, the team battered away at Constructs, who, due to their poor mobility, seemed unable to get a single hit off. Coordinating their attacks, they would each attack the same Construct, as though they could read one another's minds. The unfortunate enemy would quickly die.

Suddenly, a daring Construct - the only one still in solid forms - took a flying leap and landed on Mr. Peterson, clawing with vicious abandon. Rivulets of blood ran down the poor man's face as he screamed in pain.

"No! Not again!" Frisk jumped forward and bashed her stick into the Construct.

17

But nothing changed.

The rest of the team got there, but not quite fast enough. Mr. Peterson collapsed on the ground in a heap. Most definitely dead.

The rest of the Constructs - or rather, the pile of ones and zeroes still left in Six's wake - stood no chance. They got obliterated in a blink.

Bendy knelt over his friend's body and began to heal him.

"This is going to take a while," he said. "It's hard to create life in a void."

Suddenly, slow clapping.

Tim stepped out into view to face the party. "A masterful performance! You just destroyed an invincible army! Absolutely amazing! It's almost like you knew what was going to happen before it did," he said with a knowing look in his eye.

Everyone glared hatefully at the man who had meddled in their lives.

"But where's that darling girl who was with you? What was her name, Monika? What happened to her?"

That was the breaking point for the team. They yelled and attacked Tim as one.

Tim was ready for them. Of course he was ready for them. At the last moment, he perfectly jumped over all the projectiles sent his way, grasping downwards to grab the shovel that he was accustomed to being sent at him.

Instead, he ended up grabbing a microphone and throwing it.

Baldi batted it away with his ruler, and the team spread out, ready to fight.

At a dead sprint, Tim ran right over to Bendy and did things the simple way. He punched the ink demon in the gut.

Bendy ducked out of the way of the first punch, as though he were expecting it, but he certainly wasn't expecting the second one.

POW. Bendy's eyes widened in cartoon fashion at the blow. It must have hurt a lot more than it looked.

Now Tim was grabbing at the ink that made Bendy up, grabbing and twisting and clawing at it, and throwing it at the ground. The demon began to shrink as his life essence was torn out of him.

Bendy yelled and punched the man back, but Tim was already moving out of the way, as if he knew that the attack was coming already. He backflipped and prepared to wreak havoc on Baldi.

But he mistimed it. Baldi wasn't there. He was a few feet behind, already in the process of loping Tim's head off.

But already, Tim was backflipping again, until he was behind the teacher. He grasped his knife and thrust it into his chest promptly.

Baldi's eyes rolled back into his head, and his limp body collapsed to the ground, the red coloring the green of his shirt.

The blade of the knife glowed faintly red before returning to its normal dull grey.

Everybody stared at him though the rules of the game had just been changed.

Tim fingered the golden heart locket underneath his shirt. "A gift from a friend," he said simply, grinning.

Frisk gaped.

Tim dashed at Bendy next, who did his best to run away. The man only managed to stab the demon once. Bendy inexplicably dropped into the ground and disappeared, his remaining ink disappearing.

Without looking, Tim threw the knife behind him.

Nothing special happened. It clattered in the grass several feet away from his target as everyone stared awkwardly.

Tim sighed and went back to rewind, rewind…


Without looking, Tim threw the knife behind him.

There was a thunking sound as it perfectly embedded in Freddy's neck. And by the sound of it, something important just broke. Also based off of the fact that Freddy was now not moving at all.

Chara, out of everyone's sight, extended his hand, and the knife flew back into Tim's.

The villain casually walked over to Mama, whose limited mobility suddenly became painfully evident. With a savage kick, he displaced her position by several meters, causing her to go flying several feet out of sight. The sound of breaking machinery could be heard even from behind the hill.

Cuphead threw several cards into the air, transforming into his golden form. He began to charge towards Tim, firing shots as he went.

Tim deftly dodged all of them, knowing exactly where they were going to be before they got there, and as Cuphead approached him, he swung his knife again.

The gold luster immediately left the dish as he broke apart into pieces, one-shotted.

The Player realized that things had suddenly taken a bad turn. He took control of the knight on his screen and guided him forward towards Tim, unsure of what he could do.

Tim pointed a finger, and inexplicably, the knight stopped. Frozen in time.

The Player watched helplessly as the man strode towards Frisk, the only one left still alive.

"Come on, Frisk," he taunted. The girl shook. He drunk it all in, all the pleasure, all the triumph of his revenge. "Just give me your soul, and all of this will be over," he said laughingly.

He took a step forward.

Quick as lightning, she brought up the menu.

But nothing happened.

She tried again.

But nothing happened.

A second figure suddenly appeared, standing next to Tim. A very familiar figure, clad in a green-and-cream sweater, with brown hair and devil-red eyes.

Chara.

And he was holding the reset button in his hand.

"Howdy, partner," the demon child said with a wink.

Frisk gaped.

"Want to finish the job?" Tim looked lovingly at genocider as though he was his child.

And then it hit Frisk. The only way to win. Mercy.

"Chara. Don't do this. You're not evil." It sounded pathetic, even to her.

Chara looked. "Are you kidding me? I'm a demon from hell! The villain of our game! I have red eyes and murder people and take pleasure from torturing everyone! And you say," he took a step forward, "that I'm not evil?"

"No," said Frisk stoutly. "Just that you're misunderstood."

Chara blinked. Was that a flicker of regret in those soulless red eyes?

Then he blinked again, and it was gone.

"Bye," he said. And Frisk's heart sank.

The knife rose.

And then it fell.

99999999999999

Tim dropped to his knees, clutching the bright red wound that crossed his chest. He felt life escaping him and collapsed to the ground, dead.

Well, no problem, he thought to himself. I can just rewind. And I can't believe that kid betrayed me.

Rewind, rewi-


And then nothing. Try as he might with his force of will, Tim could not rewind back to before Chara had killed him.

He spent hours, then days, then years, fighting and clawing and pleading and struggling to return to life, return to time. Yet nothing happened. Chara's attack seemed to form a wall between him and the living.

Tim realized that he was never going to succeed.

Well, it was a good run, eh? And, secure in the knowledge that he had tried his best, he stopped fighting and let the void consume him.

It was over.