*GREG'S will is changing… HEAL SONG became KIND MELODY!
"Oh, everyone!" said Ralsei, as he reformed. "You're all right!"
"It'll take more than that to take us all down," said Susie.
"Oh, Susie…Everyone…" said Ralsei. "I'm sorry. Because I healed the King…we almost…Susie, you were right. I was foolish to think we could act so soft to everyone. This isn't a world where kindness always wins, is it?"
"…Eh, it's complicated," said Susie.
Now that the battle was over, Greg could turn his attention to Wirt. The light rings in his eyes were gone now, had faded shortly after his attack had finished. But the stumpy horns on his head remained, hardly bigger than Greg's fist and made of a rough bark. His Soul was still glitching out, still filled with holes. Greg wasn't sure if his magic was strong enough to fix that.
WIRT 10/10
"It's alright, guys," said Wirt, forcing a smile. Greg wasn't sure if it was.
"If it was alright, you would have told us before," said Dipper. "This had to do with that pumpkin head guy, right?"
"I…I think so," said Wirt. "But it's not like I regret it or anything. I'm glad I was able to help you then, and I'm glad I'm here now."
There was something unsaid by Wirt, something sad. The others must have known, because they all looked sad, too. Greg didn't know what else his brother wanted to say, but he also knew that he did not deserve to be sad.
"I think it's cool," said Greg. "You're, like, part-Beast now."
"I think you're great just as you are, Wirt," said Ralsei.
"That thing with your eyes was pretty cool," said Susie, brushing the hair out of her eyes. "Think you could teach me?"
"I was doing something with my eyes?" said Wirt.
"We still need to find a way to find Frisk and get home," said Dipper. "But once we do that, I'm going to help you find a way to fix this."
"Maybe Great Uncle Ford would know something!" said Mabel. "It'll be nice to have a conversation with him that isn't about the end of the world!"
"I'll help out, too," said Coraline, and behind her, Norman nodded.
"I'm not sure what else can be done," said Wirt. "But, thanks everyone."
WIRT 11/11
The Fountain loomed before them. Norman had failed to consider just how big it was. The eight of them together did not cover half of its width. It towered above them, piercing the sky endlessly. The closer they got, the more it became clear to him that this was not just water or magic or whatever that poured from the Fountain. It was sheer energy, raw determination.
"It feels like," said Susie. "We've stumbled into something really important, didn't we?"
"Hey," said Ralsei. "Who's that up there?"
A shadow moved along the Fountain. A human shaped shadow, clad in heavy armor. They rose from their knees and turned to face them.
"Frisk?" Norman asked.
It didn't look quite like Frisk. In the shadows of the Dark world, their dark skin looked more like a sickly blue color. They looked older, taller at least, now at least a head above Greg and just rising to Norman's shoulders. They were wearing a full set of armor, but Norman recognized the stripy sweater hanging around their neck like a cape.
Their expression shifted. Was that a smile, or a frown? It was too hard to see their face in the shadows. Wirt raised his lantern to try and help them get a better look, but Dipper shooed it away, no doubt still wary about where that lantern came from.
They gave a small wave, and rested their hand on the Fountain. The ripples shifted, a childish scrawl forming in the waters.
It's good to see you again, Frisk wrote. But where are you going?
Something was wrong. Even Susie and Ralsei seemed to be noticing. There was no way that was Frisk. They exchanged worried glances, not sure what to do. Why did it seem like a Fight was about to start?
"What are you talking about?" Dipper asked, but Wirt shushed him.
"Well," said Norman. "Our plan was to go back to the Surface, and find you, and find a way back home. But I guess we found you now…"
Frisk cocked their head to the side in confusion.
Why would you want to leave?
"What?" Norman asked.
"Frisk," said Coraline. "None of this is real. Why would we want to stay here?"
You'll be safer here, wrote Frisk. There's no delta rune, or mean other mothers, or mean mothers. There's no need to Fight. And you'll all be together! Is leaving…really worth it?
Norman was probably the first person who figured out what Frisk meant.
"Frisk," said Norman, forcing himself to stay calm. "I don't think you understand. Hiding in a fake world isn't any better than facing a real one. I won't lie and say everything's great at home…but if I wasn't there, then I wouldn't have met you!"
You met me because I made a mistake, wrote Frisk.
"Nobody's perfect!" said Mabel.
I put you in danger, wrote Frisk.
"We kind of already were in danger," said Greg.
"But what's important is that we were able to face it together!" said Wirt.
"And we can face it together again," said Norman.
Frisk's gaze wavered between them, looking desperately for any signs that they may be lying. But Norman knew he wasn't, and he was determined to make Frisk see it to.
!—Chara: No no no no no no no -
!—Chara: Fine. I will do this my way-
Frisk made an ugly gasp, like all the air had been knocked out of them. For a moment, they stood deadly still. They held out their arm, flexing their fingers too jerkily to be natural, like a puppet on tugged strings. Before he could blink, Frisk was clawing at their chest. They dragged their Soul from out under their breastplate, and without a moment's hesitation, tossed it behind them into the Fountain.
For a moment, time stopped. Frisk was the first to move. They looked up at Norman, and it was clear that whoever was in that armor was not Frisk anymore. They looked up at Norman, meeting his eyes with two black holes that flickered like candlelight.
"Finally," said the Knight. "I was so tired of pretending to be human."
He was so taken aback he did not realize she had taken her turn. The knife sliced through his Soul, but he did not feel pain. It felt numb, like he had been dunked in ice water.
Coraline moved between them, swinging her sword at the Knight and making her jump out of the way. She did not notice Dipper and Mabel moving beside her until it was too late, until her Soul was caught in the middle of two magical blasts. The Knight stumbled, but did not fall. The pits where her eyes should be seemed to dart back and forth as she looked for who to target next. She did not get the chance. Wirt was already taking his turn, unleashing the light inside his lantern in another bright blast of magic. Greg stood by his side, flinging chocolate bars at her.
"You…you…" said the Knight as she stumbled to her feet. Her voice wavered, hisses of static between ragged breaths.
"Now you might not realize it," said Ralsei, voice shaking as he tried to stay calm. "But this is a world where you don't have to fight!"
"We just want to get home," said Susie. "So if we can just get by without fighting, then…"
"You fools," said the Knight. "In this world, it's kill or be killed. And I will not wait around to get killed."
"Arr right," said Susie. "You wanna see what we can do?"
"Sorry," said Ralsei. "But my friends and I aren't going anywhere!"
*Susie's TALK became RED BUSTER!
*Ralsei's TALK became DUAL HEAL!
The Knight started her next attack, but it was clear that she was running in blind, driven purely on instinct. Even Susie, who was never good at dodging to begin with, barely had to lean out of her attacks. The knife blade clacked uselessly against the ax handle as Susie swung down her weapon. She did not strike the Knight, did not need to. The red magic building up in her ax fired itself as a cannon. The Knight's Soul was blown backwards, the Knight alongside it. Even Ralsei got in on the attack, enchanting the ends of his scarf so they snatched the knife out of the Knight's hands as she fell.
"Fine," said the Knight. "I will do this the hard way."
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Undertale
Delete:
Are you sure? Y
"Do you really think that?" said Norman.
*NORMAN'S WILL is changing…
The Knight did not answer him.
"Sure, sometimes there are just people you have to fight," said Norman. "But if you never let your guard down, then you could end up hurting someone you really care about."
"Shut up," said the Knight. "There's no one left that cares about me. I made sure of that."
"That's not true," said Coraline. "No matter who you are, not matter what you did, there has to be someone who cares about you!"
"YOU'RE LYING!"
The Knight's voice echoed through the Dark World. The floor began to split under Norman, knocking him to his back. As he caught his breath, he could only watch as the Dark World—trees, buildings, everything but the Fountain and them—began to vanish.
A shadow moved in front of him, and it took Norman a minute to realize it was Coraline, ready to Fight. But Fighting was the last thing he wanted to do right now.
"There is nothing in this world for me, and there never will be!" said the Knight. "I will erase this world!"
"Why?" said Greg. "What's so bad about this world that you have to kill us?"
"This world has done nothing but harm," said the Knight. "It does not deserve to exist!"
"Really?" said Dipper. "Cause it seems to me that the only one doing any harming right now is you!"
"That is because—"
"We really don't want to hurt you," said Wirt. "But you're gonna have to meet us halfway on that one!"
"You do not mean that!" said the Knight. "You will hurt me in the end, you all do!"
"Will you give us a chance?" said Mabel.
"I—"
Here the Knight stopped. Her form became just as corrupted as her eyes as she looked at each of them.
"I wasn't lying before," said Norman. "I won't lie and say that it's easy out there. But it's a lot better than being alone. And you shouldn't have to be alone either!"
In the light of the Fountain, Norman could see wet marks streaking down the Knight's face, tears forming in the absence of eyes.
This was it. The final blow of kindness.
Norman stood on shaking legs. The ground fell apart around him as he walked across. The Knight did not respond, did not even seem to notice his presence. She offered no resistance as he pulled her into his arms for a hug.
*NORMAN's PACIFY became SAVE!
And the world turned to darkness.
deleted
…
*But they refused.
It stunned Norman to open his eyes. After so long in the Dark World, and before that the unearthly glow of Weirdmageddon, and even before that the dark ruins of the Underground, the sunlight blinded him. But as his vision swirled and he gathered his bearing, he realized that he wasn't in sunlight. He did not seem to be anywhere, really. The sky was a blinding, blank white, stretching on for miles and miles without anything in its way. The only thing he could make out was the ground beneath him, a field of golden flowers just as endless as the sky.
In the blinding lights, it took Norman a minute to make out the figure in front of him. The Knight looked different. She had shed her armor, now clad in a green and yellow sweater that blended in with the flowers around her. Her pose wasn't the confidence and poised stance she had taken in the thick of battle, but rather closed in on herself, trying to make herself small. She glanced up at Norman, and Norman was taken aback by her eyes, not just the fact that they were there and not black holes of something written out of reality, but how the ochre-red eyes seemed to burn even when they were wet with tears.
"I do not understand," said the Knight. "Why…why are you being…so nice to me?"
"Well," said Norman, not quite sure what else to say, "I don't think what we're doing is anything special."
It sounded just as awkward as he felt. But if the Knight noticed, she did not say anything.
"I just do not understand," said the Knight. "After everything you have been through…after everything we have put you through…"
"But what good would I do if I stayed mad about it?" said Norman. "We would just keep fighting and fighting…and I'm tired of Fighting."
The Knight was silent. She turned her back to him, absently poking at the flowers, saying nothing for what seemed like an eternity. Just as Norman was beginning to think he said something wrong, she spoke again.
"I have been Fighting for a long time," said the Knight. "I fought to live. I fought to die. I fought against the bonds of death. I do not know if there is anything in me but to fight."
"It's never too late to change," said Norman.
"No, for me it is," said the Knight. "You should know that better than anyone."
It was hard to make out in the Dark World, but now it was as clear as day. A sickly green halo hung around the Knight, the mark of a ghost piercing the veil between life and death. This was not just some other form of Frisk he had not seen before. This was a whole other lost soul.
"But you know," said the Knight. "With the last of my strength, maybe I can make a start."
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