(Special thanks to Autumnvicky. Thanks for the review. Yeah, this is just getting started. We haven't even gotten to the juicy bits. )

She paused a moment just staring at the torn-up dummy. It was already a bit jarring waking up in the ruins. Just looking at this dummy confirmed a lot of her fear.

Shit, this is genocide. That or I'm in a freaky coma.

The track through the ruins just held nothing. Not even a scared forget in the crack of the walls. Even if she was dreaming it was a little to quiet for her liking. She paused at the knocked over bowl of Monster candy.

"How on earth did my hair get like that." She could see herself in the refection of the bowl. She just preferred not to think about what it meant as she dusted it off.

Hu, not that I don't like it. Just gives more sephiroth feels then I would like.

The picked-up candy quickly vanished as she found out her inventory. It was odd to bring up her stats so to speak.

Hope Lv 1. Starting to think this is not a dream.

"Great advice there. Next thing your gonna tell me is I can't save." As she approached the save point it was odd. She could see it but couldn't touch it. That was when the panic set in.

"Fuck, if I can't save then I'm just as skewed as everyone else here." Hope took a deep breath for a moment to calm down.

I know things though. If I'm stuck here then maybe I can just come up with a good plan. It can work.

Figuring your way past the silence fills you with perseverance.

She sighed, it wasn't that surprising to hear that she was perseverance. It just made things different, it was manageable.

It didn't take long to reach the house, despite not running through the area. Most of the puzzles were solved anyway. It was more out of caution. Even if she was dreaming, no way did she want to run into the one with the knife.

"If I'm gonna die, I'm gonna eat that pie first."

It was a dumb priority but Hope was trying hard for the denial option. The area was amazing if you didn't count the mounds of dust and that hopeless silence.

The house was still quiet but still had that warm feeling to it. Still, no noise so it was safe to say the child had moved on. That was until she moved past the stairs to get to the kitchen.

The sound she never liked. The sound of a monster dusting.

Shit, the kid just took care of Toriel then. That would mean their Lv seven or was it six. No, it should be good I don't know this considering I've never done this route myself.

She tried to be a bit quiet as she backed up but as soon as she turned from the stairway she ended up tripping on her boots. Nothing was hurt but the resulting noise caused some footsteps to start from the corridor.

"Such a genius, tell everyone you're here." She quickly got to her feet and tried to head to the kitchen. Nowhere to run, but there was an idea.

A grin appeared as the chocolate bar was still in the fridge and quickly grabbed that before getting to the pie as the footsteps get closer.

"Alright demon child, I got a pie and I'm not afraid to use it."

Almost laughing was the child she was expecting. The striped shirt and dusty knife was a dead giveaway. Though she still has no idea if this was Frisk or Chara.

"Well, here I thought I missed one. You shouldn't be here."

Hope gulped as they got closer. "Well, tell someone else that because here I am, pie and all."

"Your afraid, almost like you know exactly what I can do." They crooked their head while raising the toy knife.

It doesn't take a genius to know what you can do. Though it true, most humans wouldn't look twice at piles of dust.

She reached around and slowly pulled out the chocolate bar. "I can read a room. Just need to know which one I'm talking to first."

The child's eyes widened as they eyed the chocolate bar with hunger. It at least confirmed that it was Chara that they were speaking to. While they were distracted she quickly got up from behind them and gripped their toy knife.

Hope grinned. "Omae Wa Mo Shindeiru"

"Nani!" Chara's eyes widened as for the first time a battle was no longer in their favor.

(Back in the void.)

"And that's how I gained the upper hand in the fight against the demon child." Connector turned back to the knight as she paused the retelling.

The knight's eyes narrowed as much as they could. "Milady, I have a feeling it didn't quite happen that way."

She shrugged. "Yeah, I figured that's what I get for using an outdated meme. Still, I figured some creative license."

This would be way too depressing without throwing a little bit of fun in.

He sighed. "Very well. Before you continue, I noticed I couldn't quite tell your name being spoken."

"Well, glad you noticed. Yeah, the thing is I can tell people my actual name all day and yet no one seems to remember it now. I have given up trying to tell people." She has theories on that but that was for another day.

The knight paused for a moment before looking back at her. "I see, your refusal for me to hear thy name is more for my benefit. More so I can remember this encounter."

Am I that transparent?

She smiled for a moment before turning back to her screen. "You see a lot more than I figured. Alright, time to see what happened. Though honestly, I like my version better."

Timeline resumed

The child's eyes widened as they eyed the chocolate bar with hunger. It at least confirmed that it was Chara that they were speaking to. Before she had a chance for witty remarks, the toy knife was lunged right into their throat as the chocolate bar was taken.

Chara grinned as they looked down at her choking on her blood. "Then you should have known the results. Nothing comes between me chocolate."

Before things got dark, she mustered up the strength to at least give the child the finger. She could hear the sound of her soul-shattering as the knife was pulled out.

Hope awoke with a gasp back at the start of the ruins. Though unlike the first time, she just felt a bit more tired and sore.

So this is what happens when I die? I just go back to the beginning. That's gonna get old very fast. Though did the timeline reset when I died or is this a new run?

She got up from the flowers with a huff and decided to at least try to see what's up now. At least dying confirmed that this wasn't some messed up coma dream.

Pushing through the shock of death. You are filled with perseverance.

"Yeah, perseverance is getting me so far." Even to the point of sassing herself, she makes her way back to the dummy.

Everything was the same as before. This was still a genocide timeline.

I would have thought they would have changed things up since I arrived. Maybe they thought I wouldn't show up again.

"Oh, hell no. You did show up again."

She quickly turned around to see Flowey glaring at her. At least it was just him this time around.

"Yeah, could have gone without a knife in my throat. You can tell Chara to lay off on that one if there's a next time." She wasn't that worried about facing Flowey. Even if she died again, it wasn't that long of a backtrack.

Look, here I am thinking of the backtracking. I love the logic I put to this all.

The flower's eyes widened for a second before turning back to his angry expressions. "You remember everything too. How is that possible?"

She shrugged. "See you need to be more specific. Do I know what happened last time? Yes, yes I do and it hurt. Do I know a lot more than that? Well, I figured you can answer that one yourself, Asriel Dremuur."

Yup, I just fucked myself again.

He back up a bit before bring out his vines. "What even are you?! You know what, it doesn't matter what you know. If you know all that, then you should know it's pointless." A proper fight seemed to happen this time.

Hope quickly dodged his vines and decided to keep talking. "Yeah, though if I know things, that means your partner has done this before. Many times before and you don't remember anyone it."

"Shut up!" Flowey's attacks sped up this time but there was a reaction. It almost seemed like he was starting to remember something that scared him.

Something that scares even the soulless. Very least I know enough on this run to know how it ends for the flower boy.

One more time she decided to talk. "How would you know? It's kill or be killed right?"

The vines calmed down a bit as Flowey was trying to process all of it. "Chara is my best friend. It's not like that...they wouldn't betray me."

Hope smirked as she found her opening. She ran up and yanked the flower up from his stem when he wasn't looking. "You have determination, you should be able to figure it all out. Though what's next is something I've always wanted to do."

Even though she was getting hit by some bullets, she geared up to throw the flower.

"This bitch empty, Yeet!"

When in doubt go with the memes. Ah, this is gonna get me killed a lot but for now, it's worth it.

Flowey groaned as he slid down the wall. "You think you're really cute doing that."

"Bitch, I'm adorable." She was honestly very pleased with how many one-liners she can pull off right now. Yeah, they weren't hers's but he didn't know that.

He grumbled but did switch to his creepy face. "Fine, though let's see how well you keep this all up before you lose all hope."

She just stared as the flower left. Things still stung but it turned out better than expected.

How pissed would Flowey be if he knew my name was Hope? Well, let's see if the stab child would let me leave the ruins.