(A/N: I've done minor edits to Prologue through Chapter 5. Nothing major, but if you want, you can go back and read them.)
CHAPTER 11: As-Riel As It Gets
"Nafriskenta!"
"Yes Mommy?"
"What is this I hear about you destroying your bed?"
"It has my name wrong."
"It doesn't matter if it has your name wrong, that's no reason to take the footboard off your bed. And if I see you doing anything like that to anything else, you won't like it."
"Why do they have the wrong name then?"
"Because your name was written wrong. Now go practice your sword, there's a surprise for you and… Mr. Pigums… that me and Steve have set up for you."
"Yay!"
Nafi sharply inhaled, coughing when the expected pain never appeared. She rolled from her back to her side, fighting through the memories of the family who abandoned her. Why did they ever let her name the pig if they were just going to make her kill it? No, no, don't think about that, what was the last thing you remember?
Shakily, she pushed herself up off the… floor? The flat black expanse was solid enough to stand on, but…
She was dead.
She remembered dying.
She remembered the pain.
She opened her eyes, looking down at her chest. There was no hole, so that was good probably. She still had a Soul floating in front, but now it was almost entirely green with a small shard of red. Her strength was slowly returning, so she pushed herself up onto her knees. HUD still worked, and she…
Had 20/20 health?
"Finally, you're awake! I was so tired of waiting."
Nafi looked over and saw a dead match for Asriel in the picture.
"Asriel," she asked in surprise.
Asriel smiled wide, "So you do remember me Frisk!"
She frowned. "But I'm-"
"When you didn't show up I worried, as much as a soulless flower could anyway."
Flower? Did he mean Flowey? "Wha-"
"You naughty soul, you never even left me enough Determination to load when you decided to leave for twenty years."
"Load? You-"
"Doesn't matter," Asriel interrupted, shaking his head and holding out his arms, "I'm your best friend…"
Light flashed through the black, blinding Nafi. When she could see, the little goat boy was tall and demonic looking. He smiled as the black turned into a hall of colors and said in a booming voice, "ASRIEL DREEMURR."
She jumped to the side as fireballs rained down from above, the pattern almost fooling her into thinking Toriel was somewhere.
Of course the son would copy his mother.
Health: 9999, Defense: 9999, Attack: 9999, this is the power of an entire civilization.
The fireballs were soon replaced by stars. Nafi dodged as one hit the ground and exploded into more stars. Each star had an obvious trajectory, making them easy to anticipate and allowing her to dodge every one perfectly. The big one that followed the little ones was just as easy to avoid, although when it exploded it was slightly harder.
Asriel held up his arms as static charged around them, saying, "You know, I don't care about destroying this world anymore."
Nafi's hair stood up on end as she barely managed to avoid the bolts of lightning that rained from the sky. At least magic lightning made the area it was going to hit glow before it did which made it slightly easier to escape unscathed.
Pulling out a pair of swords, Asriel continued, "After I defeat you and gain total control of the timeline, I just want to reset everything."
She ducked under a swing.
"All your progress."
She rolled out of the way of a cleave.
"Everyone's memories."
She tossed her legs in the air to jump over two more swings, leaving her standing as Asriel chopped both swords down, just barely missing her arms as she twisted.
"I'll bring them all back to zero! And we can do everything all over again!"
Asriel floated back, leaving the swords to crumble. He smiled at Nafi's painting form, saying, "And you know what the best part of all this is?"
He pulled out a giant gun.
"You'll do it."
He shot a series of blasts, Nafi barely being clipped by one of them.
15/20
"And then you'll lose to me again."
More shots fired, going wide of the girl in pain.
"And again."
Another volley, Nafi sprinting to get away.
"And again!"
Another volley went wide.
"Because you want a happy ending."
The gun started to charge.
"Because you love your friends."
Nafi dropped to the ground to dodge the giant laser blast.
"Because you never give up."
The gun fell apart.
"Isn't that delicious? Your Determination, the power that let you get this far. It's going to be your downfall!"
Nafi was done with this and screamed her anger out into the world beyond, "And My Spite Will Be Yours!"
Asriel laughed at her and said, "Enough messing around. It's time to purge this timeline once and for all!"
The colors disappeared and a force started pulling from behind her.
She fought against it for as long as she could, hoping there was something she could do to escape this.
In a twisted mirror of her exit from the Ruins, out of the black came a flying something that hit her, sending her into the ball of light sucking everything in.
1/20
Pain was her being, but she was still alive.
"Even after that attack, you're still alive," Asriel mused from somewhere above her, "Wow, you really are something special."
Nafi slowly rose to a standing position, as Asriel scoffed. "Don't get cocky. Up until now, I've only been using a fraction of my real power."
The dark became blindingly bright for the third time as Asriel shouts, "Let's see what good your Determination is against this!"
When the light died, Nafi looked upon a new being, larger than anything with wings that encompassed everything she could see.
Her HUD gave her one thing: Infinity.
She pulled back, but she didn't move.
"BEHOLD MY TRUE POWER! YOU SHALL DIE AND NO ONE WILL REMEMBER YOU," Asriel raised a massive hand, multicolored fireballs forming around it. "SHOW ME WHAT GOOD YOU DETERMINATION IS NOW!"
They hit and once again Nafi saw her soul crack.
0/20
"Leave and never come back! You are no longer our daughter! Starve as a nameless wretch!"
And once again she refused.
20/20
"No. I still have people to prove wrong."
Her console, always text in the back of her mind, suddenly floated in front of her. Displayed prominently were five characters.
/save
She knew what to do now.
/save Toriel
Well dodging fireballs is familiar.
"Toriel!"
"This is for your own good," murmured the faceless Toriel as Nafi tackled her in a hug.
"You know it's not. You know just how strong I am."
"No one will leave again," was Toriel's only response.
Hugging tighter, Nafi buried her face in Toriel's fur. "But you did. You followed me out and you helped me and everyone else with your level head and your warm hands and your cinnamon butterscotch pie even though I don't know what either of those are. You helped me learn that not everyone is out to get me."
Toriel returned the hug. "Do you really not know what cinnamon or butterscotch are?"
Nafi pulled back to see Toriel's amused face and laughed, "Pie fixings."
Toriel joined in the laughter.
"Did you want to hear about the book I am reading? It is called, "72 Uses for Snails." How about it?"
"Thank you but… How do I exit the Ruins?"
"Um. . . How about an exciting snail fact? Did you know that snails. . . Some flip their digestive systems as they mature? Interesting."
"Please, How do I exit the Ruins?"
"I have to do something. Stay here."
"Toriel!"
Nafi blinked away the… memory? She never asked Toriel how to leave the Ruins, she did it herself.
She was back looking at Asriel's large form, with something in her hand. A glance showed a red glow coming from whatever it was.
No time to dwell on questions.
/save
/save Sans
/save Sans and Papyrus
What just messed with her console, why was it in code for the briefest of moments, and why did it give her both of them!?
Gravity felt so much heavier as she jumped over a bone and faced towards the faceless skeletons.
"Sans! Papyrus!"
"just give up. i did"
"I MUST CAPTURE A HUMAN!"
"You didn't give up Sans," Nafi yelled at the shorter brother, "You heard me and Toriel fighting and you blasted down the door for her! That doesn't seem like someone who gave up."
She ducked under a few more bones as Papyrus continued, "THEN EVERYONE WILL…"
"You don't need to capture a human Pap," she yelled at the other brother, "You have Undyne, Sans, Alphys, Toriel, me! You don't need to prove yourself!"
Nafi dashed forward under a laser - which one of them could do that? - grabbing at both the brothers. "You both helped Toriel, you both helped me. You helped me learn to trust those around me, that I'm not alone."
She was caught in a two sided hug as the brothers gave her the hug she was trying to give them.
"didn't know you thought so highly of me."
"YOUR RIGHT! I HAVE ALL THE FRIENDS I NEED!"
Nafi chuckled and, speaking to both, said simply, "Of course."
"HUMAN! I HOPE YOU'RE READY FOR... SANS! WHERE'S THE PUZZLE!"
"it's right there. on the ground. trust me. there's no way they can get past this one."
"SANS! THAT DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!"
"whoops. i knew i should have used today's crossword instead."
"WHAT!? CROSSWORD? I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU SAID THAT! IN MY OPINION... JUNIOR JUMBLE IS EASILY THE HARDEST."
"what? really, dude? that easy-peasy word scramble? that's for baby bones."
"UN. BELIEVABLE. HUMAN, SOLVE THIS DISPUTE."
"Uh… I'm bad at both but I guess Jumble?"
"HA! HA! YES! HUMANS MUST BE VERY INTELLIGENT IF THEY ALSO FIND JUNIOR JUMBLE SO DIFFICULT!
Nafi blinked away another memory that wasn't hers, she never did any puzzles in Snowdin, and dimly noted the red glow in her hand was brighter.
No time to waste.
/save
/save Undyne
"All humans will die!"
Nafi had less than a second to jump out of the way of Undyne's downward attack. She immediately rebutted, "Undyne! Even those who saved your life?"
Even though she didn't have a face, Nafi could tell Undyne was making a pissed off expression from just the tone of, "You're our real enemy."
"I am not! I saved you in Hotland even though I could have left you. I saved you when your house burned down and you were too hyped up on yourself to realize you were in danger. You taught me not everyone who attacks does so for themselves and I know I taught you something about foolish pride."
Undyne grabbed Nafi's hand in an impromptu arm wrestle and, with a blinding smile, said, "I never did thank you for saving me."
Nafi smiled back, "I would have said it was unnecessary. Your welcome though."
Nafi won.
"She was kidding right? Those cartoons… Those comics… Those are still real right!? Anime is real! Right!?"
"Uh… Technically? Anime is real."
"HA HA HA! I knew it! Gigantic swords! Magical princesses! Here I come!"
"...You done?"
"Uh… Thanks for taking care of Alphys I didn't get to say what I wanted to, but… Things seem like they're going to get better. Well, I gotta go catch up with them. Later!"
Another saved, another memory that's not Nafi's, and more red glow in her hand. What is anime anyway?
Doesn't matter, next one.
/save
/save Alphys
These almost look like Mettaton's attacks.
"Alphys!"
He was curled in on himself, his blank face almost hidden. "You hate me, don't you."
"No I don't. No one does and even if they do you have many more on your side," Nafi said.
He curled more, "I've got to keep lying."
She disagreed, "No you don't. We went over this. You did your best and that's okay. You helped me through Hotland and the Core and up to Mettaton and you helped me with that too. You tried to help everyone and you taught me that everyone deserves to have a second chance available. Including yourself."
Alphys took off his glasses and gave Nafi a big hug, crying into her shirt.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome."
"W-well I guess it's obvious huh. I… Uh… really like her. I mean, more than I like other people! I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"I j-just figured, y-you know… It'd be f-fun to go on like, a cute, kind of… pretend date with you? T-to make you f-feel better?"
"...Really?"
"Well, it sounds even worse when I put it like that. I'm sorry. I messed up again. Undyne's the person I, um… really want to go on a date with. But, I mean… She's way out of my league. N-not that you aren't, um, cool! But… Undyne… She's so confident… And strong… And funny… And I'm just a nobody. A fraud. I'm the royal scientist, but… All I've ever done is hurt people. I've told her so many lies, she thinks I'm… She thinks I'm a lot cooler than I actually am. If she gets close to me… She'll find out the truth about me. What should I do?"
"Tell her the truth of course."
Rinse, repeat. Who's next?
Oh… This is going to be tough.
/save
/save Asgore
More fireballs. At least they were easy to dodge.
"Asgore!"
"Please, forgive me," he rumbled, his blank face trying to cry.
Nafi was face to face with this man for all of three minutes, that didn't mean she wasn't going to try and comfort this broken shell in the only way she knew how.
Tough love.
"Then earn it. Stop making the same mistake over and over again because you're afraid of the alternative. Stop pushing everyone away because you can't bear to let them see you as the flawed man you are."
"This is my duty…" he said as the large trident he was welding swung at her.
She caught it.
"A duty you gave yourself when you were grieving, a duty made in a moment of weakness that has compounded into mistake after mistake. It is not your duty anymore, your duty is to fix it and make a future free of the past."
Asgore fell onto his knees, dropping the trident, and looked at her with tear-filled eyes. "How can I do it alone?"
Nafi smiled, "Don't. You got into this mess by not asking for help, so get out by doing the opposite."
She stood in the barrier, looking upon the face of the king. He looked up, meeting her eyes for the barest of seconds.
"You don't have to do this…"
He smiled sadly, "Human, Frisk, it was nice meeting you. Goodbye."
Nafi looked into the face of the being before her.
Asriel.
Chara.
Frisk.
Nafriskenta.
Nafienta.
"It has my name wrong."
Or maybe it was right all along.
She swung her hand forward, pressing the shards of a red soul against the console.
/save Frisk
"You didn't need to do that you know."
Nafi smiled down and the smaller, and younger, version of herself sitting on her left. "It's done now anyway."
She looked at her own Soul, now with nothing else to hide it. It was a beautiful emerald green with a perfect spider web of cracks running across it. Underneath the green was a deep reddish-purple, Kindness and Spite, her own personality. Out of the corner of her eye, on the opposite side of Frisk, she spotted movement.
She looked over and saw Chara. She blinked in surprise, asking, "Why are you here? Wait…" she realized something, "Your voice is my HUD?"
He shrugged, "That's part of the explanation of why Frisk is here."
Nafi settled down, saying, "An explanation I'd really like to know."
Frisk smiled, " There's a small bit of background to give first."
Chara started, "You've probably figured out Flowey is Alphys' vessel with Asriel's dust injected with Determination. Manipulation of Surroundings is the best descriptor of it's magic, but that includes time travel."
Frisk tagged in, "Asriel, Flowey, woke up in the throne room garden. He was soulless, couldn't feel anything. He tried to kill himself, decided against it halfway through, and woke up back in the garden. He turned the Underground into his playground, unable to feel empathy for the lives he was ruining. Every time he would reach a moment where there was nothing left to do, he would go back to the moment he woke up."
Chara continued, showing his red Soul, "I discovered the magic of Determination second, it was too late anyway as I was dead at the time, but I used it to know everything about everyone in the underground. I didn't really have anything else to do."
Frisk's Soul was also red, but a closer inspection showed it was green underneath. "When I fell, Chara latched on to me and together accidentally ripped control of the timeline from Flowey. Chara helped me get to the end with his information. We had to try again and again as we died over and over, but we did it. The barrier broke and the monsters went free."
"And then we were all back in the Underground with no Frisk in sight. Like a piece of metal that had been bent too much, the timeline had been looped on itself so much if it went straight it would break. So we did it again, and again, and again. And we had enough."
"Sans realized I was a time traveler on the fortieth run, and he had secrets of his own. One of which was a machine that was meant to jump timelines. The previous royal scientist had tried to use it to find a timeline where the barrier was broken, and erased himself from this one. Except he didn't, because everything he affected was still here."
"So an idea was created to use the machine to erase damages from the timeline, and it worked. Except, like the previous royal scientist, only technically because everything it caused was still there. The universe itself tried to run damage control, like a broken computer. Everything affected was basically put on standby."
"Not only did that include me, Chara, and the Underground, but also magic itself. The Undead, Endermen especially, was what happened when the universe realized it needed magic to run and tried to make another. It failed."
Nafi, tired of these exposition dumps, asked her main question, "What does your time traveling have to do with my HUD and console?"
Chara leaned against her, "Well, even if all this hadn't happened, you still would have existed. We just ended up taking up the same spot as you when everything started up again, which gave us cheats. I gave you my knowledge as the HUD."
"And I was refined into the console," Frisk finished.
Nafi gave a slightly hysterical laugh and slung her arms over the two kids, "My life is such a mess."
The three of them sat there in silence for a few more moments, before Nafi asked, "So does this mean you're separate people again?"
The two looked up at her and Frisk said, "It depends on you."
Nafienta smiled down at them.
/save Asriel
"Huh? What are you doing!?"
/save Asriel
"Wh… What did you do? What's this feeling? What's happening to me? No, no, no! I don't need anyone!"
/save Asriel
"Stop it! Get away from me! Do you hear me! I'll tear you apart!"
/save Asriel
"Chara… Frisk… Do you know why I'm doing this? Why I keep fighting to keep you around?"
/save Asriel
"I'm doing this, because you're special, both of you. You understand me. You're the only ones that's fun to play with anymore."
/save Asriel
"No… that's not just it. I'm doing this because I care about you. I care about you more than anyone else!"
/save Asriel
"I'm not ready for this to end. I'm not ready for you to leave. I'm not ready to say goodbye again."
/save Asriel
"So… Please… Stop doing this! AND JUST LET ME WIN!"
1/20
"STOP IT."
.01/20
"STOP IT NOW."
.001/20
.00001/20
.000001/20
.0000001/20
/save Asriel
"...Frisk."
/save Asriel
"I'm so alone Frisk."
/save Asriel
"I'm so afraid Chara."
/save Asriel
"I… I…"
The hulking monstrosity that Asriel had become shrunk down to the kid he was at the beginning, sobbing his heart out. "I'm so sorry!"
Asriel was startled as he felt arms wrap around him and heard Chara say, "You always were a crybaby."
Frisk hugged him opposite Chara, adding, "There's nothing to cry about, we forgive you."
Nafienta, the tallest of the bunch, wrapped all three in her arms and lifted them off the ground, exclaiming, "People do stupid stuff when they aren't thinking straight and soulless flower counts, don't worry about it!"
Asriel, filled with love from both inside and out, laughed joyfully as the memories of trying to break the loop filled his head.
When Nafienta finally put them all down, Asriel turned to Frisk and asked, "Does this mean Sans' machine worked?"
A different voice spoke from behind them, "In a way that it wasn't meant to, but, yes, it completed your objective. The time loop is no more."
Asriel turned around and, recognizing the man that stood before them, shouted, "Dr. Gaster!"
Chara whispered to the other two humans, "Previous royal scientist," receiving understanding nods back.
Dr. Gaster smiled and stated, "With the timeline back to normal, I'm no longer erased. But so are all of the different loops. You all already have memories off the loops, but I do believe everyone else is going to wake up with headaches."
Just to make sure, Frisk asked, "The time loop is gone, but everyone has their memories of the loops?"
Gaster nodded and Asriel excitedly exclaimed, "Well what are we waiting for? Let's break the barrier!"
Butting into the excitement, Nafienta said, "One issue with that, unless this whole timeline fix did anything to the outside it's still a 'kill the useless' dystopia out there."
Chara crossed his arms and asked, "Do you have a plan then?"
"I said I did earlier didn't I? Don't destroy the barrier, make it bigger."