Disclaimer: I do not own Undertale or any characters associated with it.

Chapter 17: Memory

Pain, water, then darkness. That's what I remembered last…and then…something happened…but I couldn't remember. I heard faint footsteps in the distance, but my head was too foggy to figure out who, or what, it was, and it seemed to be getting further away anyways. I focused, instead, on where I was…opening my eyes, I saw high above me, what looked like a cut wooden bridge, and far, far above that, what looked like…stars..? no…they couldn't be stars…I was still underground…

I barely heard the footsteps come back as I slowly sat up, and saw Frisk, carrying what looked like some kind of crab shaped apple in one hand, and tea in the other. I rubbed my eyes, thinking I was hallucinating, but all that changed was she had gotten closer as she smiled.

"good, you're awake! Here, these should help you feel better!" she handed me the tea and apple, and I shook my head, trying to give them back. She took the apple and pocketed it, but held the tea back out, so, I decided to sip it. "…I tried to wake you, but you were out cold…" she sat next to me, and I got a good look around…and saw trash everywhere.

"…Frisk..?" She looked at me curiously as I said her name, "…why are we in a dump?"

"…because that's where we fell when Undyne cut the bridge." She said it as if I should know it. I closed my eyes a moment, trying to remember what happened…and then, Frisk was pulling me to my feet, causing me to stumble a bit, but, thankfully, I caught my balance, and, after a quick pause so she could make sure I was ok, she smiled again. "Come on, we should keep going!" Shaking off the growing uneasy feeling I had, I started to follow her.

"…you should ask her." I paused as I heard Charas voice. I looked over, seeing her floating next to me, staring at me, as if trying to look into my soul...which, might be what she was actually doing. "…you know, about the memories."

I blinked a few times at her, looked over towards Frisk, who was still walking, then turned and started following so she wouldn't question, looking to see if Chara followed me, which, she did. "…how do you know about that?" I asked, keeping my voice just low enough so Frisk couldn't hear.

"I'm not an idiot, you know," she responded, sounding bored, "I've been with you this whole time, I know you should remember how you got here…unless you were talking about something else?" she looked back, her face had mild, bored curiosity, but her eyes betrayed a knowing look…as if she knew, or wanted me to think she did.

"…Alex?" Frisk caught my attention before I could respond. I looked up at her as she looked back with a half curious, half worried expression, "…are you ok?"

I glanced over to where Chara was, only to find she was gone, then back at her, nodding, "yeah, I'm fine…"

"are you sure?" my attempt to reassure her only seemed to make her worry worse, "You're acting…weird. Like, not your normal weird…"

"I'm ok, just…" I hesitated a moment, taking the opportunity to scan my surroundings. We were at an open area, with a lake in the middle, and a few paths leading north. I looked back to Frisk and sighed, deciding to try to confront her now, "Frisk…" and yet, I couldn't figure out what to ask her. Do I ask about the gap in memory? Do I ask about the dream I had? Do I ask about why I feel different now than I did before I fell trying to get away from Undyne?

"…it's ok..." I realized I had looked down, and looked back up at her as she spoke, to see her smiling at me, "we had a long fall, it's ok to have some memory missing…we did fall quite a bit, you know!" I was quiet for a moment, before, suddenly, I felt unusually determined…

"…that's not it…not all of it, at least…" Her smile turned to a look of confusion, then of worry again…but this time, she quickly hid it in another smile…she was nervous about something, I could tell.

"Well…maybe we should wait to talk about…whatever's bothering you," She said, smiling, "I'm sure Sans and Papyrus could help, or we could try to go back to the Ruins and ask Mom! But right now, we need to keep going, before Undyne catches up to us…right?" I stared at her a moment.

"…Frisk…" she glanced to the side, then simply looked back at me…looks like she was letting me talk. I took a second or two to collect my thoughts, remembering my dreams, remembering everything that's happened, remembering…wait…why do I remember getting in a snowball fight twice? I shook my head, deciding to think about that more later. Right now, I wanted to focus on the dreams, "…recently, I've been having strange dreams…dreams that don't quite feel like they're mine...and the last one was of you…" I paused, and was going to say more, before Frisk sighed, then took a deep breath.

"…there's a lot to talk about…" she looked off to the side again, this time not looking back right away "…lots of questions that should have been answered before, even if you didn't know you wanted to ask them…" she stared off to the side for a moment, before looking back at me. Her expression was…hard to make out, to say the least. "…but right now…I'm not ready…so please, can we talk when we're sa-…more comfortable..?"

…that took me by surprise. I thought for a moment, then nodded. If she had something to say, she'd say it when she was ready. "Ok...then after we get out of Waterfall, we need to talk, even if we have to go back to Snowdin to do it, got it?" She hesitated, before nodding, then starting to walk off. I took a deep breath and followed, a strange sense of determination filling me, and then, a single thought…it's time to take all these mysteries head on.

Hello everyone! I'm not dead, woo! I have to admit, this chapter was…weird to write. I had most of it done fairly quickly, but had put off posting it because I thought it felt off, then decided to finish it up and post it anyways. If anything feels wrong, please let me know, hopefully people are still interested!

I know I kind of rushed through Waterfall, but I realized, I didn't remember too much about it, and, when I went to go back and check, I realized not a lot happened in Waterfall, other than Napstablook and Undynes house, which I'll touch on in later chapters.

Also, as a side note, the whole reason I got inspiration back was actually because of Deltarune, so, expect a potential story about that in the maybe near future! Anyways, for those of you still reading, remember: I love criticism, reviews encourage me, and I'm open to input. Bye for now!