What's that? It's been over four months we released a chapter? And people are still here? Uhhh...well, shit, guess it's time to drop something. Yeah, this is kinda short, and we're not gonna bother with the review thing this time since there, well, just weren't a lot of reviews to respond to. But yeah, if you're still around, thanks. Life's been a clusterfuck for everyone, and while its been like pulling teeth getting a new chapter put together, this story has always been on our mind.
We don't own Undertale. Or DoubleTale. Or DoubleScramble. Still not sure why this is a common convention of fanfiction, it's literally in the name of the medium, but who are we to defy tradition?

When I awoke that familiar morning, I was surrounded by walls of stone, glowing blue petals, and otherworldly whispers. The sun's warm rays beat down on my unyielding eyelids. My body, thankfully enough, didn't feel all that sore or stiff as I laid in the bed of Echo Flowers. My mind wandered as I basked in the sunlight, the warmth feeling nice on my bruised skin. Frisk had one hell of a haymaker, as it turned out. For once, no text box popped up to berate me for dragging my feet, which was nice. A lot had happened in scarcely a day or so, and I had the distinct feeling that once I got up and moving again, things were only going to get busier.

Chapter Twelve: New Game Plus
"I mean, you could always go back! Give it another shot, I say!"

*Hey, you, you're finally awake.

The sound of text filling a white-bordered screen got me to crack my eyes open, and I heaved an explosive sigh. I narrowed my eyes at the text box hovering above me. So much for that.

"You already runnin' out of material? You used that one, like, three KOs ago." I grumbled, my text box lacking an immediate snappy comeback for once.

*...just hurry up and get going. We've got a schedule to keep.

"Oh, do we now? Last I checked, my calendar was clear on account of the whole isekai protagonist thing I've got going on now." I fired back, arching a brow as I continued to relax.

*Didn't you make a promise?

I blinked a couple times in surprise, only to groan as I recalled what I'd told Frisk.

"Oh. Right. Yeah, that checks out." I rocked back slightly before kicking up onto my feet, only to nearly stumble and fall on my face.

*Smooth moves, slick.

"Yeah, yeah, can it, Boxy." I grumbled while stuffing my hands into my hoodie pockets and making my way towards the only exit in the lonely chamber.

The room ahead looked much the same as it had the first go-around. A lone black flower sat in the center of a patch of grass, bathing in the shaft of sunlight that filtered through the ceiling. I casually strolled through, only to hesitate at the threshold of the next room as the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. A quick glance behind me revealed nothing, the room was empty. Just me, the sunlight, and the empty patch of grass. After shaking off the heebie-jeebies, I made my way through the next room without incident, brushing up against the Save Point as I went.

*The thought of a fresh start fills you with Determination. HP fully restored.

That message made me smile as I continued onwards, past a couple already solved puzzles. The vacant halls didn't feel quite so lonely this time around, strangely enough. The lack of piles of silvery dust laying about probably helped. And also the weird frog-looking thing that just about gave me a heart attack as I turned a corner. My soul appeared on my chest as I nearly avoided bumping into the little guy. Gal? What the hell even was this thing?

*Dat Froggit, oh shit waddup.

"That explains so much, and so little, I don't know how you managed that." I remarked, before letting out a little yelp as a swarm of flies buzzed towards me. The unorthodox projectiles came at me at a pace that felt downright leisurely, by comparison to Sans' attacks at least. I side-stepped the cloud, and wondered how exactly I was supposed to get past the frog-adjacent friend without doing a violence.

*Check - *Froggit

*AT - Low DF - Low
*Man, Froggit's got it rough.

I frowned down at my text box, less than thrilled with its lack of useful advice as I ducked under another swarm of flies.

*Haven't you played this game before?

"That was years ago, can't expect me to remember all the fine details, especially when half the time shit's just different anyways." I snapped back, only to yelp as Froggit leapt at me. Without thinking, I caught the little frog and staggered back a few steps. It was…soft? I gave it a quick little hug before setting it down.

"Huh…little guy's surprisingly cozy."

*Froggit can't understand you, but compliments are apparently a universal language.
*Oh, hey, you won, look at that.

I smiled as the Froggit blushed, before hopping away.

"...god damn it that was cute. How could anyone hurt that?" I wondered aloud as I watched the monster go.

*LOVE, it's what makes a killer, a killer.

"Does that make Subarus murder-mobiles?"

*Ha!

I snickered and mentally patted myself on the back for getting my text box to pull the stick out of her ass a bit, before crossing the weird motion sensor spike bridge with little incident as I moved on. My gaze lingered on shelves full of anime paraphernalia as I walked down the obnoxiously long hallway, only to cock a brow at all the strange names.

"Ironclad Chemist, Our Vigilante College, Peroxide? What kinda bootleg anime collection is this?"

*Maybe if you gather all the Hydra Orbs, you can wish for a better one.

"Pfft, that'd be a total waste!"

*What would you wish for, then?

"More wishes, duh." I over-exaggeratedly rolled my eyes.

*I don't think that's how that works.

"Wouldn't know, I never watched DBZ." I shrugged, reaching out to brush against the Save Point hovering above another pile of leaves as I turned the corner.

*The thought of gaming the system for infinite wishes fills you with Determination. HP fully restored.

Cter awoke in a cold sweat, grasping at his chest, feeling for a hole which wasn't there. He'd never get used to the feeling of waking up after dying. Then again, he didn't want to. He didn't want to be used to waking up back at the start of this waking nightmare…and yet here he was. Any minute now, Chara would bang on his door, urging him to wake up and get ready to go out on patrol. He'd get dressed in the same clothes, wear the same plastic smile, and head into the forest to meet the little red-souled parasite.

He wouldn't be surprised if that pink haired girl got folded like a pretzel. What was her name again? Mary, or something like that. It didn't matter, he told himself, "She probably got erased when the rest of the timeline did."

The washed-up Judge's dour thoughts were interrupted by his cell phone vibrating on his night stand. That was different. Different set Cter on edge. The kid didn't do things differently these days. None of them did. He hesitated before scooping up his phone, unlocking it and staring in stunned silence at the message from Gaster.

[She did it]

"Angel!? Are you still sleeping!? We've got traps to work on! Today's going to be the day, I can feel it!"

Chara's familiar words broke him out of his stupor, and the sentry hauled himself out of bed to get ready. Whether Gaster was right or not, he'd find out soon enough.

The Ruins were actually kinda pleasant, I decided as I moved onward. Turns out not seeing what're effectively monster corpses and viscera everywhere you look does wonders for the feng shui. It helped that the other monsters I ran into between cheating at simple puzzles with magic were easy enough to talk down from a fight.

Eventually, I reached the final stretch of the Ruins, and found myself hesitating at the fork in the road. To my left laid the path that led to Alphys' quaint little home. Straight ahead, however, I could hear a strange clicking noise start and stop every few seconds. I pressed onwards towards the sound, casually waving to a Froggit as I passed, and came face-to-face with Frisk. I felt myself tense up as I watched them idly spin the cylinder on the Busted Gun, before forcing myself to relax. Things were different this time around.

*Until they get bored.

I glared at my mutinous text box briefly before deciding to ignore it entirely as I approached the pensive child.

"Yo." I offered a little wave and grinned as Frisk jumped in their seat.

"Y-You're here?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"I-I was worried that…" Frisk trailed off, before shaking their head and frowning, "It doesn't matter. We're both here, so…now what?"

"You tell me. We've got a whole magical journey of friendship and whatnot to get through, don't we?" I asked, glancing out over the rows and rows of homes nestled in the cavern below us.

"I-I know that! I just meant…well…I'm not really sure if I'm ready to go yet…that's all…" Frisk admitted, staring at the gun in their hands like it was simultaneously an old stuffed animal they'd pulled out of storage and a habit they wanted desperately to kick.

I sat down beside them, offering a smile I hoped was reassuring. "We can take it slow if you want. The rest of the underground isn't going anywhere any time soon, right?"

Frisk sighed, spinning the cylinder on the gun one last time, before tucking it away into their inventory. I cocked a brow, but decided against commenting on it. As long as no dust started scattering, they could hang onto their deadly little security blanket. I'm not sure how long we sat there, just silently taking in the atmosphere. A faint breeze carried a flurry of red leaves past us, which drifted down to the city below.

Hopefully now that this chapter is out, we can get some momentum going and get a new one out before fuckin', summer or something. We make no promises. It doesn't help that we're in the middle of moving out of our folks' home. Anyways, if you enjoyed and have a couple minutes, maybe consider leaving a review. If you wanna be notified the second a new chapter drops after months of inactivity, follow the story, maybe favorite it if you really feel it's worth it.

We're TiredWhite*May*ge, off to hopefully get some work done on Chapter 13. Deuces.