EPILOGUE: Three Years Later

Nafienta carried a pile of logs down the main street, nodding to the monsters she passed. Three years had passed since her world had been flipped, and she wouldn't change anything. Except the splitting headache everyone woke up with when the Barrier was changed.

Her original plan was just to move the Barrier outside the mountain with the power of the Souls. When the power available went up the plan changed to reflect that, why move it when you can just make it bigger? Now the radius of the Barrier is high enough that you could climb to the top of Mt. Ebott and still be well inside it. It was even large enough that her old house was inside, the farms and everything.

Emphasis on 'old'.

She was currently living with Frisk, Chara, and Toriel, who now ran the school. Chara was trying to get Toriel to get back together with Asgore while Frisk was trying to push her to Sans. Nafienta stayed as far away from romance matters and wished them both luck. Although since Asgore still lived in his house in the Underground and Sans was on the surface, she was pretty certain Frisk would win.

She was still not going to touch that, so she found herself doing physical labor around the growing town.

"Hey Undyne, Alphys, I got the wood you needed!"

"Thanks! This watchtower will be awesome once done," Undyne exclaimed from the top of the construction site. Alphys looked up from his blueprints just long enough to point Nafienta to where to place the logs, that being next to Flowey.

Flowey was currently using his vines and some saws to reduce the size of some logs that had been delivered earlier. Although he could never be Asriel again, the human Souls, what was left of them anyway, merged to give him a Soul of his own. Some monsters were a little wary of him at the beginning, but that number swiftly dropped as he helped as much, if not more than, her. Pure strength doesn't really compete with multiple limbs.

Once her load was deposited with Flowey, she took a moment to look over Alphys' shoulder at the blueprints. Sans sure knew how to make something take up the least possible space.

The changed Barrier didn't just keep out the Undead and broken replace-magic, but no humans could enter either without a monster escort. That wouldn't stop a truly angry human from trying a ranged attack though. So Undyne, as the captain of the royal guard, devised a set of watchtowers that could see out of the Barrier into the surrounding woods.

Still the royal scientist because Dr. Gaster wanted to retire, Alphys had helped his girlfriend in building the towers. Sans would also occasionally give advice stemming from his days as an intern with Alphys under Dr. Gaster.

Speaking of Sans, apparently his laziness was from vaguely remembering the time loop and the defeatist attitude that came from it. Remembering had something to do with the fact he was there when Dr. Gaster used his machine, which was also where the 'don't forget' drawing had come from. It had been added to when it was used to erase the time loop and it did weirdness to Frisk and Chara.

Papyrus was so happy to see Sans doing something for once that he threw himself with triple the effort into trying to become a royal guard. He then burnt out almost immediately from the massive amount of work he piled on himself and pulled back to focus on cooking. His spaghetti was now good enough to be up there with the spider lady's pastries. Nafienta found out later her name was Muffet when the spider was apologizing for the argument.

They had really come far in three years, herself included.

She was more relaxed, knowing that she wouldn't be attacked everyday and that she could just take a day off if she needed to.

There was also the surprise that she wasn't the only child to be abandoned.

Now there were a few humans wandering around town. As long as they didn't attack anyone they were free to stay. Nafienta was surprised how many humans didn't actually want to kill, and although that number is low, she expected zero.

Maybe the separation between the humans and monsters wasn't as large as she thought.

She was pulled from her reverie as MK came running up from the direction of one of the other watchtowers.

"Undyne! Miss Nafienta! Come quick! There's two humans chasing a kid right towards the Barrier!"

Undyne jumped from the top of the construction as Nafienta knelt down to his height, asking, "Which tower?"

"3B!"

Undyne and Nafienta ran off at full speed, soon reaching their destination. With a direction from the 3B tower crew they ran off into the forest.

Even sooner the Barrier was in sight.

Gone was the odd, white running-strobe effect, now it was thin and mostly clear, allowing the duo to see the young child pressed up against it as two very familiar humans came through the trees.

Undyne grabbed the child and pulled back, the scared child ending up in her arms. Nafienta motioned for the two of them to go without her and she turned back to Alex and Steve.

"Who are you," Steve asked angrily.

She opened her arms wide, "What? Don't recognize your daughter? Oh right, you kicked me out."

Alex stepped forward and slammed her fist into the Barrier, shouting, "You give Kristopher back this moment Nafriskenta!"

"Nafienta now actually. Did you really try for another kid after you failed with me?"

Steve stepped forward now, saying with as much vitriol as he could muster, "That's no way to speak to your mother. What are you still doing alive?"

"See this," she motioned to the two of them, "is why little brother Kris is better off with me. But you know what, I'll tell you. You sent me out to die, and just to spite you, I lived…"

"And so the Barrier was made bigger. As wide as Mt. Ebbot is tall and wider still. A land of peace, a bastion of hope, and we can see the sun. Thus ends the story of Nafi, the human who, to spite the world, made it better. Thus begins the next chapter of Nafienta's life, one of peace and happiness," Dr. Gaster said as he finished the tale, closing the book in his lap.

The trio of monster kids that had been sitting enraptured by the story cheered, smiles on their faces and happiness in their hearts.

The crocodile monster kid shouted, "My favorite part was the fight!"

"Which fight," asked the reindeer kid.

"All of them! Which was yours?"

"I didn't really like the fights, my favorite part was how she helped Gyftrot and MK."

The final monster kid of the trio, a black goat, looked to Dr. Gaster and pleaded, "Tell the story again mister. Please?"

He blinked in slight surprise, "So soon Ralsei? Do you not want another story?"

Crocodile teeth snapped, the kid they were attached to shouting, "No! I want to hear that one again!"

"Don't snap your teeth like that Suzie, you'll break one of them eventually. What about you Nicolle, do you want to hear it again?"

"Yes, Yes!"

"Well then, who am I to say no," he opened the book to the front and started to read, "Once upon a time, a long time ago, there was a boy named Chara. He lived in an orphanage in a small town at the base of Mt. Ebott. He is not the hero of this story..."

THE END

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