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PROLOGUE

The rain fell as Tessa ran through the streets, trying to get as far away from "home" as possible. Even at her aunt's house, it just wasn't right. It felt like she was living someone else's life, like she didn't belong.

At least Mount Ebott was a quiet place she could collect her thoughts.

After Tessa had made her climb, she waited a few moments before the hole to the Underground. Moments turned into minutes. Minutes turned into hours. She wracked at her brain for answers and had found some- but there was still a storm raging on outside. When she got up to check on the rain, the ground crumbled beneath her feet, sending her Underground before she could even register what happened.

"It's been two weeks. Tessa's gone."

Emily hated to hear those words. She couldn't even believe Ethan had just spoken them. Harmony didn't say anything, looking out the cafe's window instead.

"She's not gone. She's okay. She has to be." Emily insisted, slamming down her smoothie and nearly causing it to spill. Harmony looked startled and even pushed her chair a little away from the table.

"Em, I know you want her to be fine! And I do too! But she's gone. She's just... gone." Ethan sank a little in his seat, deciding to slurp on his hot chocolate in hopes that it would prevent him from being upset to no avail.

"I put a missing person's poster up in the café. I begged anyone with information to call us. But..."

"No one has." Harmony finished, patting her back as she gave her a half hug for comfort.

"So what do we do?" Ethan asked the pair. He probably looked so pathetic with his cup of hot chocolate and having two female friends at his side.

"We wait. Try to be patient like Tessa's always been." Harmony responded, taking a bite of her brownie as the trio tried to think of some alternative to just sitting around.

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PROLOGUE

"Mount Ebott's a scary place to go to," Emily said quietly as the group of three climbed the path up the mountain, "Is it really that safe?"

"Oh, come on, Em. It's not that bad! Besides, we've got me. And I'm awesome." Ethan puffed out his chest proudly.

"I guess we should be worried." Harmony joked with her usual awkward smile of "oh gosh I hope I sound funny". Ethan pouted, but Emily seemed a little more relaxed.

"What's this Mount Ebott project about?" Tessa asked the trio as she sat down at the library's table.

"Legend has it, a kid climbed up the mountain and fell into the Underground years and years ago." Emily put her hands together excitedly. "It sounds so cool!"

"If she went Underground and met the monsters, I hope they're all okay..." Emily frowned, feeling a wave of uncertainty wash over her. "What if she got into a fight with monsters?"

*It could be a myth..." Harmony reminded gently, yet skeptically, not wanting her to get her hopes up.

"Aw, come on, Harm. You're such a downer sometimes." Ethan punched her arm lightly.

"I'm not a downer. I'm just a realist! I don't want us to think this is all true when it could easily be fake..."

"Tessa's smart! She would get out of there safely." Ethan answered with great confidence. Tessa was the smartest out of the four of them, after all.

"So they went up the mountain and never came back down?" Tessa sounded a little interested. "But how do we know they fell underground?"

"I mean, we don't. But the possibilities of an entire world existing that we don't know about... doesn't that sound epic?" Ethan grinned.

"Yeah..." Harmony didn't sound half as sure as the two of them did. She still didn't believe in this Underground stuff.

"Ethan!" Harmony tried to snap him back to reality. "That's not even what the teacher told us to look for. She wanted facts, not theories. The kid went missing near Mount Ebott, but that doesn't mean they went to a different 'world'. The Underground isn't real."

"But..." Ethan suddenly realized he didn't have an argument. "Okay, okay, we'll drop it," he placated with a sigh, kicking back in his seat and preparing himself for the boredom of finding "real facts". "But you can't count on me to do any of this work then."

"You weren't going to anyways." Emily pointed out with a giggle, causing Harmony to chuckle as well. Little did they know, Tessa had slipped a book off of the wall to do more of her own research...

"Harmony," Ethan whined, "You're being a party pooper. You wanna find Tessa, right? Then we have to look on the bright side." He wasn't surprised that she was so doubtful- they'd been friends for a while now. Despite that, he knew she had a rough time trusting people and believing things, even if he never knew why.

"I know, I know," Harmony wished she had more faith in this plan of his and Emily's, but it didn't sit well with her. The Underground was just some fairytale, right? Was she wrong for being doubtful? Should she have stopped Ethan and Emily from being so naive? "It just... it seems a little hard to believe, that's all."

"Look, there's a little cave!" Emily slipped between the narrow walls of it, miraculously not getting hurt. Ethan, however, was not so lucky, and had gotten a cut on his arm. Not that he seemed too bothered by it.

It was darker the farther they'd gotten, but Ethan prepared them with a flashlight and led the way with it. Roots were spread across the floor. Some vine hung from the ceiling, some on the floor- a purple notebook came into view. The trio seemed baffled and looked towards each other, then at the notebook.

Emily picked it up and scanned the current page, reading it out to them. "Tessa's been gone for a few days now, so Aiden decided we would come look for her. We found her ribbon on the path when we were investigating earlier and assumed she had climbed up here. I doubt it was intentional for her to disappear- unless Tessa researched the Underground after I'd mentioned it a while ago and wanted to find out more. But I would've gladly joined her to find out more about it. Aiden and I found a small cave. I hope we can find out more about what happened to her." The entry ended there. The three of them shared the same stupid thinking expression, as if they were solving a mystery. The ribbon was on the page, proof that these two did know Tessa.

"Fairly recent," Harmony tried to think, "It was definitely fairly recent, maybe even just an hour ago... but why would they leave this here?"

"You've seen the vines and how dark it is. It was probably an accident." Ethan wasn't too idiotic when he actually took a moment to think. "I say we give the dumb hole a try." Nevermind, I take it back- he was still acting on the same impulse.

"What? Are you crazy? Ethan, it's a death sentence! Why do we want to corner ourselves at the bottom of a pit?" Harmony was more frustrated than annoyed. It was like they actually believed all this Underground garbage was real. But it'd been debunked over and over again, especially by her parents.

"Harmony, Tessa might be down there! Two people who knew her are down there! What do we have to lose? Besides, I want to meet monsters!" Emily was too sweet for her own good.

"Our lives-" Harmony started, then felt Ethan's hand on her shoulder.

"Look. I believe in a lot of things, Harmony. And I really think this is real. Please, just trust us. Even if you don't think it's real. I don't want to go down there without you." His eyes reflected his confidence- no, his faith in the idea of the Underground.

"Please?" Emily pleaded, "I'll bake you whatever you want when we get back." She promised. Peer pressure was powerful.

Harmony took a second to breathe. She glanced at both of them, the down at the hole. They really thought it was real. Genuinely. She wanted to believe that it was too- and even if she didn't one hundred percent think so, she did trust Ethan and Emily.

"Okay. Let's do it." She reached for Ethan's free hand and for one of Emily's as well. Both seemed really pleased that she'd finally come around.

"Three, two, one-" Harmony felt herself jumping off of the edge of the hole with her two best friends, praying all would go well and that she hadn't been too stupid for putting her faith in two of her peers.

The RESET button was cracked. Nearly shattered.

If I can't save Tess from going Underground, I'll save her from dying Underground! Frisk thought determinedly as he ran off to Mount Ebott.

He stumbled through the darkness, accidentally kicking something down the hole as he did so.

Here we go. The permanent run. I can't fail her now.

With a leap, the group of seven's journey Underground had begun.

Motivation had died for a while, I kind of hated the beginning too- but after months, I finally figured out how to get going on this, and I actually have a plan! Yes, the RESETS have purpose ;). I won't spoil too much for ya, so see you in the real Chapter 1!