Author notes :

Hello there, before we start i have a few things to say about this story :

1) Genders

In this story Frisk does not have a specified gender, they are left up to interpretation of the reader so just imagine them as whatever your headcannon is. Therefore they will be refered to with gender neutral pronouns. On the other hand Chara is female in this story and will be refered to as she/her.

2) Story composition

This story is going to be made of 4 parts, all the chapters of the first part are published together but afterwards the updating will be chapter by chapter. The complete story will be around 20 chapters and 100k words. The complete plot is already done until the end its just a matter of writing it. It might take a while before getting to the interesting part of the story though. Obviously this is a fanfic so it doesn't exactly follow canon.

3) Writing

Italics are used for memories, bold text is used for LOAD/RESET but also for damage or some important quotes, underlining is used to insist on something a character thinks, some characters use capital letters all the time or not at all.

4) Narration

Narration is in third person, the character that it follows changes quite often but the majority of the time it is either Lucius or Frisk.

Enjoy !

EDIT : Going back here now that this fic is reaching the end, i have to say that these first few chapters weren't that good. They get better later on.

Part One : The third awakening

Chapter 1 : Sleepless

Lucius woke up to the annoying sound of his phone's alarm clock, after a small sigh he reached for it and turned it off. He then decided to check the time again, despite knowing exactly when was his alarm supposed to ring. The intense bright blue light directed at his eyes forced him to blink a few times, but after a few seconds his eyes had gotten used to the brightness. He then proceeded to read the text displayed on the device.

It was the 29th of September 2043, 6:30 AM.

He dragged himself out of bed, after going through his usual morning routine, the fifteen year old boy got ready to leave for class. He was wearing a red shirt with a design on it and no sleeves as well as and browns pants. When he took the stairs a small piece of one of the steps broke at the contact of his shoes as his weight sank into it, nearly causing him to fall down and hit the ground, fortunately he was able to balance himself before reaching the point of no return. "This place is still as poorly maintained as ever" Lucius thought to himself. Sometimes he wonders why his parents adopted him and his sister in the first place if they knew they wouldn't be able to afford the basic costs of living and end up in debt...

But that was just how things were, and honestly he couldn't care less as leaving the orphanage to go live with them had been the best thing that had happened in his and Mila's lives. His parents were good and loving people, that was all that really mattered in the end.

It was a nice day outside, you could hear the birds singing and there was just enough wind to feel it flowing in his black hair. However the streets were unusually quiet for a Tuesday morning. There was not a car in sight, eventually after walking down the path as he did everyday he overheard a conversation. It was a man talking to a blue colored monster who apparently had just said something funny since the man started laughing right after Lucius arrived close to them.

Monsters... It was just a bit more than two years ago that they had popped out of nowhere and asserted themselves after apparently having been trapped underground for centuries. Sounds like the kind of story you hear in a fairy tale he had thought back then. He still stood by that statement even though he knew it to be real. Those had been really strange times, it took a bit of time for things to settle down.

Some people thought monsters were a threat, others saw them as being just people that looked different. There were still constant talks about things related to monsters, let it be magic or what they should or shouldn't be allowed to do... Even in places where monsters didn't even live. Lucius had always thought that politics were boring.

Unlike most of his classmates who seemed to really like monsters (mainly because they thought magic was so incredible), Lucius didn't really enjoy their company that much, not that he didn't think magic was cool but simply that monsters made him a bit uncomfortable. He didn't have anything against them or anything like that and talking to one wasn't much of a problem if it came down to it, its just that he enjoyed the company of his own species more. Did that count as racism ? Hopefully not, he didn't want to see himself as that kind of person.

That wasn't much of an issue though since monsters were not exactly common, this was due to how the monster population was simply really low. Most of them had moved to the same city as it was the only somewhat large city that was in relatively close distance from Mt Ebbot, and yet even here they were really just a small minority compared to humans. Guess there was only space for so many people under that mountain of theirs.

Monsters in general were weird, obviously there was the way they were physically : they all looked so different and their anatomy was troubling to say the least... How can being made of magic even work ? But that wasn't all, they were still strange even in how they behaved, their personalities were often very pronounced and they talked without using any social filters. This often leads to people seeing them as rude or impolite.

But the weirdest of all those weirdos was for sure Frisk themselves, somehow they were responsible for the freedom of the monsters. But as if a child freeing an old civilisation wasn't strange enough everything else about them made no sense either : Firstly they have almost no contact with monsters anymore, you would think after what happened they would be with monsters or talking about them all the time or something. But instead they were isolating themselves and only rarely talked to them.

Secondly, Lucius had known Frisk for a bit when they were both at the orphanage several years ago, they didn't know each other well but back then they were a pretty social and friendly person. Nowadays they were a loner and only had one friend. It had been a long time since then so maybe that just happened when they grew older but they are without a doubt a completely different person from who they were at the time.

Maybe they were one of those people who didn't handle fame well since they got quite popular when monsters went free, this didn't last though mostly because they didn't like being talked to by news reporters and that people were fascinated way more by the actual monsters than by them so it just died out after a while. But if that was the case shouldn't they be back to normal by now ?

Whatever, after all this time thinking while walking he had arrived at his destination. The morning was pretty boring overall as the morning of a school day often was, during lunch break he read a small article on his phone about the latest corruption scandal in the city. Ebbot city was where a small criminal organisation had been set up a few decades ago when it was still a small village and even though this organisation was long gone the city has always kept a high crime rate, which isn't very surprising considering it was in the middle of nowhere with a long way to any other major city, is right next to a mountain which is famous for being mostly unexplored and has a few scary legends about it, doesn't have a very large police force and has an active mafia.

Despite this the city had seen a pretty fast growth, in the 2010's it was just a village but after quick expansion in the 2020's and 2030's there were now almost a hundred thousand people living here, and now there were monsters as well. Chances are that their arrival here will only contribute more to bringing new people to live in the city in the following years since its been making it way more popular with the public recently thanks to coverage by the media. And thus despite the fact that Ebbot city was still not really the greatest place to live in.

In the afternoon however something interesting did happen, the school had got a few of those machines that the production of had been started recently. One of the biggest things that the monsters brought to the human world was the concept of souls, well actually brought back would be a better term. Apparently a few villages who lived close to the monsters had learned about souls and magic from them long ago and they were the ones who eventually sealed monsters underground, those groups were eventually wiped out and those who found the records they left behind concerning these things mistook it for some old myths rather than real information and those thing were just lost to time this way.

But now that monsters were back, scientists around the world were all over all these news that the monsters brought with them and were trying to figure out how all of it works, one of the things they did figure out was souls. These machines are for analysing your soul, they are pretty cheap to make and a lot of people are interested in that so they were selling a lot pretty much everywhere, whoever is selling those must be really rich now, even though its been just a few weeks those things have worldwide success already and the production can't keep up.

A bunch of teenagers with a few he recognised were forming circles around the machines waiting for their turn, Lucius didn't. He had already got the chance to use one a few days ago in a store who had one in free use for some reason. He was a determination soul, and a high one on DT even for the standard of a determination soul, this soul type was rarer than the others with only about 2% of the population having it (at least according to the data the machines got so far) whilst the 6 other soul types were all equally as rare. Other than that the rest of the information on his soul was pretty boring, nothing out of the ordinary.

It was really a strange concept that all the things that defined who you were as a person could be quantified and translated into text like this, even if this was still emerging technology and it might not be that accurate, it was still a pretty disturbing idea. It felt wrong. That your body and mind could be explained by some numbers and lines of text ? What did that mean for the nature of the being ? Those were some questions that some philosophers would probably have to answer and not a highschooler he guessed.

It was fun to watch for a bit as other got exited over it but eventually he had to go, the rest of the school day went normally. On his way back home he was unpleasantly surprised to see the subway he usually used to travel between home and school was stopped for technical problems, so he had to take a different path to walk home on foot. It wasn't too far so he didn't waste more time than just a few minutes at least. He distracted himself by taking a look at the buildings around him in the streets he didn't usually take : There was the only police station in the city, and then a few stores, one that sold clothes and that his mother often went to and one that sold bakeries that was held by spiders.

When he arrived at home his sister was talking to his mother about her day, Mila looked really exited about something. Mila was 11, she had long blond hair that reached slightly below her shoulders, blue eyes and a very particular smile that rose further than normal.

"What is happening ?" He asked with a small smile on his face, seeing Mila happy had a similar effect to seeing someone yawning, it spreads and it does so fast.

"Mila's school obtained one of those soul analysers and she was telling me about how it went" His mother answered whilst Mila looked annoyed, he had probably intervened while she was in the middle of explaining something and it frustrated her, whoops.

"Oh, well mine just got a few of those today as well" Lucius mentionned before starting to take off his shoes.

"That makes sense, since these things are being asked for everywhere all of those for Ebbot city were probably sent at the same time. So it would make sense if they were installed pretty much everywhere within a day now that they have all arrived" Lucius thought about responding to this by mentionning the one that the store had a few days ago which meant they wouldn't have been all sent together, but he eventually decided not to since Mila was still salty about it as she hadn't gone with them there that day.

"Anyways, so how did that go ?" He asked with interest, before realising that maybe she didn't get to try it as too many kids might have been there first, if that was the case then he had just added salt into a wound. He really needs to stop being so careless about things. Fortunately he had just been overthinking it this time since the clear smile she wore let no doubt about the fact that she did get to use it and was impatient to tell them about it.

"They installed it this morning, there was only one though so since there was a long waiting line i waited until later when it wouldn't be as crowded anymore. Most of my friends didn't have that patience though !" She grinned and they all shared a short smile. "It feels weird, there is this tingling feeling when you are using it" undeed there was, he had noticed the same thing when he had used one. He had been a bit worried at first but apparently that was not anything rare. If these things were being sold everywhere anyways they must have already been through a lot of testing so there couldn't be any side effects or anything like that.

"I have a patience soul !" She said with contagious enthusiasm. Lucius was actually a bit surprised, he thought that a kindness soul would have been a better fit for Mila, or maybe he was just biased since he was her brother ? Or just that, as he had suspected, these things just weren't that accurate... He wasn't going to say anything about that though as he would look really stupid, obviously why would some kid think he knows better than whoever made those machines ?

Mila continued to talk about the results that her friends got with the machines to their adoptive mother, Lucius did not hold particular interest in hearing about those and headed back to his room. He was happy for her for having many friends but he didn't know most of them in person, not to mention that of those he did meet he thought some of them were pretty mean. So Lucius wasn't especially interested in hearing about them right now.

Anyways, he needed to prepare since he had a big day tomorrow, that was the day he would go on his school trip. He wasn't especially exited for it but when you live right next to the border to another country it was to be expected. his family can rarely afford vacation so the idea of going somewhere didn't seem too bad, even if he was alone there for a week without his parents and his sister...

It was still a school project, so of course that meant going to places and taking notes on them since this trip was about language class, but hopefully it won't be too boring. He was basically already fluent anyways so he wouldn't have to put in much effort in it, chances are he would spend a lot of time daydreaming. At least it would be something different from his normal routine.

The one problem he has with it was that the school thought that mixing classes for this event was such a good idea, which obviously was just a way for them to split students so that they wouldn't be with their friends messing around but rather with people they didn't know much.

Lucius went to his room and looked at his watch, 5:40PM, there was still a lot of time left until the end of the day. A lot of time to mess around still, time was a precious currency. One that should be treated with care... One that couldn't be wasted or be played around with. And yet Lucius grabbed his phone and proceeded to procrastinate for the rest of the day anyways. The sky slowly turned dark as the neverending cycle of the day once more reached its end.

Until eventually, not long before midnight, the silence was disturbed by the sound of an incoming phone call. Lucius did not hear it, he was already asleep. However an hesitant hand trembled over the button hesitating to press it. A few seconds passed, it had to be done, she couldn't run away from this.

"Hello ?" The feminine voice tried its best to not appear nervous.

"Hello, i believe you already know why were are calling you Mrs, we are still waiting and the deadline is already long passed." This was a man's voice, it was somewhat deep but it didn't feel cold or menacing despite the current situation. This voice belonged to someone who was good at their job : convincing people to do something.

"I am sorry, we had an unexpected expense last month so we couldn't pay it back yet but by the next pay day we will be able to repay it." The woman tried to sound as confident as she could.

"You have said the same thing last month, and the one before that, and before that... This excuse will no longer hold Mrs, we are only so patient and you have crossed the limit long ago. We are tired of waiting." The voice reflected no emotion whatsoever.

"It will be dealt with very soon i promise..." She continued to try and keep her calm, but she felt her throat starting to hurt.

"There are no more soon's that hold, we are dealing with this issue right now Mrs. Either you repay your debts immediatly or you take another loan from us to pay back the previous one, with higher interest of course." The voice proposed, by turning this into a 2 answer question, he hoped to force her to take the second option, knowing she couldn't take the first one.

"We cannot afford to take another loan sir, but we can pay this one back we just need more time !" This time it slipped, he had felt the panic in her voice and she knew it.

"There is no more time, if you won't take another loan the current one must be repaid right now." The voice insisted on the last two words, it was no longer just asking. Its options had ran out and it was now giving an order undirectly.

"We can't right now, but if you just wait unti-"

"We will have our money back, we will not wait any longer waiting for your false promises to be proven to be lies again." The voice interrupted her then hung up after finishing.

Her hands trembled as the beeping sound signaled that the call had been ended... This was not good, where could they find the money ? Their income was too low and the costs of living of a family of four was too great to leave enough side money to deal with their debt...

The most concerning part to her was really the way the call was ended abruptly like this. The message was clear : they had decided something and since they didn't care for her response it meant that it wasn't something she had any say in. This couldn't be good news, but at the same if it was something she couldn't do anything about then there was no point in thinking about it was there ? That was not true and she knew it. That was just what she wanted to believe.

After spending some time stressing over it, she calmed herself and went to sleep, things would be fine in the end. She would find a way, things always turned out alright when you put enough effort and energy into fixing them, she just needed to try harder and everything would be okay.

They couldn't sleep...

Frisk couldn't sleep, once again they were kept awake by their thoughts, by their memories.

They tried to change their position even though they knew it wouldn't help, they tried closing their eyes again. A second passed, then two, then three... Their vision was envelopped by a familiar darkness. A darkness that reminded them of... "I'll SAVE over your own death. So you can watch me tear you to bloody pieces over, and over, and OVER" Flowey's words echoed through their mind like they had the first time they had heard them.

They opened their eyes again, staring at the ceiling of their room. They breathed in and out slowly to try and slow the rate of their heart beating in hopes that it would make it easier to fall asleep. The room was dominated by silence, a pure undisturbed silence the kind of which wouldn't be possible if they lived closer to the main parts of the city. Over there there were countless human residences right next to each other as well as constant traffic. Because of this there was always a minor background noise, even late at night.

Most people would enjoy more silence, but Frisk didn't. The silence only left them alone, alone with their own mind. Unfortunately for them they lived in the outskirts, close to where THEY all lived now. They remembered that day perfectly, the barrier had been broken again like it had been a few times before. Although this time had been different in more ways than one... They knew that if they asked Toriel if they could stay with her she would accept without hesitating an instant, but they didn't want to. How could they live with her again ? After what they had done, it just couldn't be the same thing ever again. When they went through the underground they had been struggling to even look at all of them in the eyes knowing what they had done...

Just like the first time the barrier had been broken, the humans eventually agreed to dedicate a small remote part of the city to the monsters. Not out of any sort of kindness of course, humans don't do that kind of stuff without reason, they did so knowing that this would attract visitors to the city and thus money. These houses were all empty in the first place because the prices were so high despite how remote they were. But with the mafia holding a large part of the supposedly "cheap" parts of the city and the high corruption this was not surprising. Most of the monsters did move there, although others chose not to like Mettaton who was constantly on the move for reasons related to his career.

And then there was Frisk, even though they had refused to become the ambassador of monsters this time they were still considered as their hero... Heh... A hero... If they knew... And so of course when to monsters were offered homes Frisk had been as well. It wasn't like they had a home to return to, it was either that, living together with the monsters or returning to the orphanage. Their choice had been quick...

It wasn't normal for a highschooler to live alone in their own house, but after all Frisk was far from being normal in pretty much everything. They had lived through way more than most people do in their lifetimes, and yet they were still physically a teenager. No one knew, no one knew what they really were. What did the monsters think about them now ? About how recluded they became ? Pff.. They were being such an hypocrite, as if they had worried about what the monsters felt when they were... It wasn't fair ! They couldn't know how they felt, they couldn't remember. To the rest of the world they were a kind pacifist child and a bit of a weirdo.

Kind ? Their words might have held real meaning the first time they had said them, but every other time they were just ways of getting what they wanted, eventually having certain conversations became an habit and they did without even thinking anymore. this wasn't kindness, it was manipulation.

Pacifist ? Hah ! What a good joke, they were just about as much of a pacifist as Asgore was good at naming things : not at all.
"You feel your sins crawling on your back"

Child ? Maybe their body didn't look like it, but mentally they had stopped being a child a very long time ago. That innocent look that once filled their eyes had vanished hundreds of timelines ago.

Everything everyone thought they knew about them was wrong, they were living a lie. But none of this was any new, they had always been lying. Lying to get what they wanted, lying to see what would happen if they did.

"Cinnamon" They said to Toriel

"I ate it" They said to Papyrus

"So uncool" They said to Sans

"Anime is real" They said to Undyne

"Then she kisses you" They said to Alphys

"There's a mirror behind you" They said to Mettaton

"I am ready" They said to Asgore

This is what they were, they were a fraud, they were...

Frisk realised what they were doing and forced themselves to stop by abruptly rotating their head in a different direction to distract their train of thought.

They were doing it again weren't they ? They were hating on themselves again. Frisk got back up and grabbed their phone, they knew that its light would only make it even harder to sleep but it didn't matter to them right now. They were going to call Chara, this is what they always did when that happened. Because Chara was the only person that knew, the only person that knew them as who they really were and who wasn't a psychopathic talking flower. And for this reason she was the only person they could talk about these things to. Otherwise they would have probably lost it long ago... Or well lost it more than they already had, at least they were not as bad as Flowey... To be fair that wasn't really impressive of a feat was it ? "In this world, its kill or be killed"

Frisk's finger got stuck over the button for a while, they looked at the time, it was 0:21AM. Chara was probably asleep, they would be waking her up. The both of them already had this discussion a hundred times, it would probably be the same. They would talk about it for half an hour until they felt better again, always saying the same things. It was quite ironic that doing the same thing over and over was what kept them sane now wasn't it ?

They were going to do it on their own this time, they already knew all of it, they just needed to convince themselves. And yet it just wasn't the same if they were the one saying it to themselves. Was it because they didn't trust their own judgement ? It probably was, why would they ?

They had to deal with it alone just this once, just to show themselves that they could.

They just needed to face the consequences of their actions this time. After all this is what this entire timeline was about wasn't it ? Well that and overall just making sure that THAT thing would never happen again.

Frisk laid back down on their bed, closing their eyes again.

It was not like this anymore, things were different.

"Do you think even the worst person can change ? That everybody can be a great person if they just try ?"

They wanted to believe it, they wanted to prove it to be true.