Asriel isn't coming back. My fists slow their pounding against the metallic door. I'm left breathless, alone in the prison cell. He's betraying me, again. Even after all his begging and pleading for me to forgive him, he doesn't really mean it. I knew he was lying before he knew it himself. That's just the kind of person Asriel is. He doesn't really know what he wants. It makes him malleable like clay, to a certain extent. Yet after time the clay hardens, and refuses to bend any further. Instead, it just breaks.

One day he wakes up and says, 'I don't want this.'

That's the day he killed me.

Today's the day he will do it again.

I lean my head against the cool metal and breathe. There's no way I can escape and stop him. You're certainly not even trying to help. If I die, you will, too. A body can't exist without a soul. Shouldn't you try to think of some way out of this?

Footsteps. I can hear the steady rhythm of feet behind the door. I lift my head up and listen. But who? It can't possibly be Asriel the flower, and everyone important to you is gone. The sound stops right in front. The door clicks unlocked.

It's Gaster.

Noir skeleton stands with his arms crossed neatly behind his back, looking down at me without any kind of emotion. "As I thought. One creation is gone, yet the doll remains faithfully behind. Now, come with me."

I don't resist as he reaches for my hand. "Why are you here?"

His brow raises at the sound of my voice. "So, my behavior is new to you. Good. That means I haven't previously failed, and that this is my true chance." He leads me out of the room, and I'm able to keep up with his quick pace easily.

Briefly I consider running to the time machine to stop Asriel, but... too much time has passed. If I'm still here, does that mean something has happened? And... we're walking that direction now anyway.

"My reports show a massive anomaly in the timespace continuum. Simply put... it's not the same kind of power that you and Flowey have. It's the time machine, isn't it?"

I nod, if only because I'm curious to know more.

"But time traveling isn't so simple. That's why I decided to scrap working on that cursed machine. The entire universe's timeline might collapse. I have to stop the culprit. I've put a safeguard on the machine as soon as the readings came back. But it won't last forever."

A slow smile creeps on my face. I can't help it. He thinks Asriel is the one messing up the timeline. More than that, Gaster has unwittingly just foiled Asriel's ill-conceived plan.

"You will help me with this," Gaster insists, like I'm bound by any of his silly demands.

I nod and pretend to be like you.

We reach the room with the timeline-erasing machine. Gaster slams the door open so hard that it nearly breaks. Asriel has a single vine-like coil around the seat, but oddly remains extremely still, despite Gaster's loud entrance. He doesn't even turn his petaled head to greet us, instead staring as if frozen by the screen.

"That's enough. You will not interfere with the world's natural timeline any longer," Gaster walks stiffly towards the weed, clenching his fists.

"Agh... y-you... wh-what... what is this..." Asriel struggles to talk.

"Quite simply, I set a trap for whoever would try to fiddle with the machine. Timespace around you has temporarily paralyzed you. That should give us plenty of time to chat," he glares. "Do you have any idea of what you've done? What repeatedly using this device will do? It's a miracle that the world hasn't unraveled yet, and it hangs by just a single thread. This machine obliterates existing timelines. Every time you use it, you bring the timespace closer to collapsing upon itself."

"It's not my fault," Asriel complains, still locked in place. "I'm not the one who-"

Casually I step into his line of sight. He chokes and sputters on his own words, accusation lost as our eyes meet. You were going to kill me, I want to say. But now you're at my mercy.

Gaster's presence means nothing. He's already filed me off on the harmless list. Right now he's barely even paying attention to me, entering the machine and rapidly tapping on the keyboard.

"Chara," Gaster says.

My attention snaps back to him. Maybe I filed him off too quickly.

"You were trying to erase someone named 'Chara', yet that person no longer exists," he repeats, looking at Asriel. He isn't talking to me; he's talking about me. "Although this doll might have their soul, it lacks any of the memories or defining features of that human child. It is simply an empty vessel. But, I suppose the specifics matter little, when the machine matches the user's intent. I suppose I would have been the next target of your indiscriminate rampage?"

I move closer to the inside of the machine while Gaster entertains Asriel. "It was originally designed as a weapon, you know. What would happen when monsters eventually reached the surface? Even if we realized our dream, history is doomed to repeat itself. The humans would never approve. A single mishap on monsterkind's side would just give them an excuse to shove us back in here. That was this machine's intent. Not just to remove the barrier, but to get rid of any problems that arose as a result. Death only promotes fear, but if any problematic humans were to simply cease to exist from everyone's memories... well, it seemed like an elegant solution at the time. And now it's being used against monsters. I might feel sad about it, but to be honest, it's hard to care about something I don't remember."

"It's not my fault!" Asriel protests. "Mister, we're in danger right now, I'm not the real threat."

I rest my hands on the keyboard. Without your resistance and these fools talking to each other, it's remarkably easy.

"Please don't, Chara," Asriel whimpers.

"You were always the one that held us back." Always. His death would never be satisfying, because he can never atone for wasting our chance. "It would have been better if you never existed."

ASRIEL |

Gaster voice becomes oddly animated. He's talking some nonsense about the world; about how using the machine will certainly destroy everything.

I hit the enter button.

The world silently cries out in a blast of color.

The world is bleeding.

It's just like before. Vaguely I get the sense that I'm still on the bed, but it's not right. The world shimmers as if uncertain of its own existence. Parts are too bright, and others too dull. It's giving me a headache. I clutch my temples and wait for it to subside.

It's not stopping.

I slide off the bed and onto the floor. The ground rolls like waves of the sea, and I struggle to walk even a few steps forward. I don't succeed. I've barely taken five paces before I lose my balance, toppling towards the locked door-

I fall through the door, phasing through it like a ghost. I collapse on the tile in the hallway, my breath catching in my throat.

What's going on?

Is this what Gaster was talking about? Is this the end of the world? I was expecting something like death, not – not some weird hell where reality doesn't make sense. If I can go through a solid door, then what's stopping me from sinking through the ground-

No no no no no it's like a nightmare where just considering it makes it a reality I'm going to drown it's sucking me in like quicksand!

You step inside my mind and there's no point to resist. You want to deal with this? Be my guest. I'll gladly step back and watch how you deal with reality breaking.

Your hand clench and the floor stops trying to eat you. You manage to find your feet, but everything is still so wrong.

It's over. It's the end of the world.