It was your turn, Frisk.
It was getting later in the day when I saw a car drive up the mountainside roads, I heard a door slam and then the skid as they sped off.
I don't want to imagine what they put you through, but at least now you have Toriel, and all the rest of your friends.
I went to go try to scare you off, you may have been abandoned but better you run terrified through the woods than stumble into the underground, where you'd be sure to die, I thought. You walked with purpose though, by the time I got down there I couldn't find you, I only just barely caught a glimpse as you walked into a cave, and when I ran inside to check, you had already fallen down.
I put my plans on hold and ran back to the barrier, through the throne room and not saying a word to Asgore.
By the time I had intercepted your path, you were playing games with Sans and Papyrus. I sat aside and started to watch what you did, I would step in only if you were in serious danger, or if you started gathering up too much EXP.
And you didn't.
You refused to lift a finger of directed malice towards anyone, regardless of how hard they tried to kill you. You befriended the brothers, and Undyne, and Alphys. You befriended everyone and in the process killed monster-kind's motivation to wage war against humans if we got out.
I was really surprised you befriended Undyne.
You were in Hotland being yanked around by Alphys and Mettaton when I went to talk to Asgore about you, "Asgore, the seventh child is on their way here."
My words made him stop moving entirely, "How are they faring?"
"Undyne and Papyrus both failed." I said. His shoulders raised at that.
"They..." He stated sadly, causing me to grimace, he was assuming the worst.
"They befriended the kid." His shoulders dropped in relief, "He hasn't even taken a wayward swat at a fly."
"Asgore... they won't fight back and they don't deserve it, everyone's fine with not breaking the barrier if it means this kid survives." I may have been embellishing a bit, you'd made a lot of friends but you still hadn't met the majority of monster-kind who lived in the city, "You can still stop this!" I was pleading to him.
"Ral... can you run to Snowdin and get me some ice cream?" The question came out of the blue, it was so innocuous, but it caused me to freeze because I realized instantly why he was asking it.
"You... you don't want me to be here, do you? You want to fight them alone." I thought on my words for a second, and my face contorted in horror "You don't intend to go at them with killing force, do you? You want to give them a chance to actually beat you even though they don't have any LOVE."
"I'm sorry." He responded quietly. I couldn't think of what to say, or what to do. I left.
As I walked down the judge's hallway hugging myself and thinking about what to do, I saw a short, stubby figure standing before me, "Sans."
"hey there, ral." He said, he never dropped that smile, so I wasn't expecting what came next.
His eyes went dark and his accent dropped, "I SEE YOUVE BEEN BUSY"
I stopped dead, my eyes widened and my arm dropped to my side
"Sans... what did I do in the last loop?" I asked, half-terrified. I could only assume that an action I had taken had been different from one I did in another timeline and it messed something up.
I mentioned earlier that I know about the power to SAVE and LOAD, I wasn't being entirely honest with you there when I said I just knew.
I had that power once myself, hence, I know about the messed up nature of time.
It saved me from being outed when I was still human, when something went wrong and my cover was blown, and a few times times I died during my initial journey to Home, I would wake up where the previous day ended thinking it was a nightmare, the times through my journey where I was filled with determination.
It's a power governed by determination beyond anything, I lost it when I transformed into a monster.
"right, i forgot, you're in the same boat as me, you can't remember it, just piece together context and reactions." He said, his face going back to normal.
"Sans, you know I hate it when you do that, not the face, that just scares me. I hate it when you know something I don't and stay cryptic about it, give me some answers." He walked past me, sending a chill like I've never felt running down my spine.
"you should go ahead and go to snowdin, wait until the clock strikes on the hour and start heading back, then they'll be here." For someone who insists he can't look ahead and has to piece things together, he was very punctual with that prediction.
"and hey." He added, "take a good look at the kid's SOUL when you see him fight, if you see him fight, it's not supposed to be like that." I hadn't caught any of your fights, now THAT worried me.
He continued walking until he disappeared into one of his shortcuts, leaving me standing there alone, still frozen as thoughts raced through my head.
I had made something go wrong with the timeline and I wasn't sure what, all I could do was take Sans' advice and head off.
I went to Snowdin and sat there in Grillby's in silence until the clock struck the hour, then immediately stood and ran back to the capital.
The time came, you had made it to New Home. What should I have done? Should I have helped you fight Asgore, or helped fight you with Asgore? Regardless of what happened I was either going to be complicit in the death of a child who most decidedly didn't deserve it, or I was going to lose my brother.
There were strange vines clogging the elevator from the Core to New Home, I burned them and they screamed and retreated, I paused at the oddity for a second before I got in the elevator, then made a beeline to the throne room.
I walked into the throne room and didn't see you, figuring you went up to the barrier I looked in there and saw Asgore getting torn into by Toriel, and all the rest of your friends jumping in to prevent the fight. I chose to stand against the outside wall and let it play out.
...You look remorseful... I can probably guess, it took you a few tries to get those results, didn't it? Don't worry, I don't hold it against you, after all, this is the timeline that continued to exist, one where everyone is happy.
All I remember is a harsh pull on Gorel's SOUL that knocked me out, then when I woke up, the barrier was gone, and you and your friends were all standing on the path outside the mountain. I snuck around a quicker path I knew about to meet Asgore as he walked down the trail, you and Toriel a little bit behind us.
"So, a third path was shown to us, huh?" I said to him.
"It was... thankfully." He responded, the relief in his voice was noticeable.
"What about the other six?" I said, glancing back towards the mountain.
"Gone, I think they've probably moved on." He said, looking up.
"Probably for the better, I honestly didn't want to see what you would have become if you had actually achieved that SOUL-powered godhood." I looked at him and gave a small smile, thankful it was over.
"So what happens now?" I took a look back towards you and Toriel, I gave you two a smile but you were trailing behind her and you probably didn't see me, and she responded with a glare that made both of us pick up the pace.
I couldn't blame her, still can't, really, the two of us did some pretty awful stuff.
"I'm not sure, we re-establish contact with humans as friends instead of enemies, hopefully they'll listen." Asgore said, looking over towards the sun as it set into night.
"Humans... they've become more understanding since my age, I think we'll be fine. And besides, what we can't win in hearts, I think we can win in greed, do you have any idea how valuable gold is to humans these days?" I said, laughing.
That's pretty much the end of the story, two weeks have passed since then, humans seem penitent for what happened and want to make amends, and construction on this little hamlet is proceeding smoothly.
It's funny, isn't it? What started as a young idiot's moment of ignorance ended up with immortality, a family I wouldn't give up for the world, and a happy ending all around. Though I guess the third one's all on you.
So... from the bottom of my heart, thank you, Frisk.
Hm, I can't really think of anything else to say. Maybe next time you can be the one to tell me a story, I'd love to hear your take on your adventure, it'd look better on the shelf as an autobiography anyway.
Well, thanks for listening to this old fool rattle on, Frisk. It's about time I go on, I'm going to try to beg for Toriel's forgiveness for my part in Asgore's plan, then maybe I can play matchmaker and get the two of them back together, they certainly have the incentive to work past their issues now.
That's not weird, is it?
What did I cause to happen to the timeline? I don't know, I can't look back to see what's different, take a look around and then tell me, Frisk, you'd probably have a better idea, right? Heh.
And hey, Frisk?
Tell your brother I said "Welcome back." Okay?
…
Well, there they go.
(I can't help but notice you forgot something.)
Oh?
(Even when it was prudent, you didn't mention the part where I'm still a consciousness inside you, or the part where I decided some of your actions.)
Eh, made me look better, old man.
Besides, how would I have explained it? Especially mentioning that it was technically you that took control to stop the third child and told me to get rid of my arm.
(…)
Right, sorry.
(Well, either way, something about the way they looked at us, the glance in their eyes when you said that you took my SOUL, I think they knew.)
Really? I wonder how. Oh well, some questions you probably don't want answers to.
…
(You're not going to tell them about that timeline either, are you?)
… No, if they don't remember then they don't need to.
(You should be honest with them, and with me, you never told me what happened, you just woke up screaming the day before Frisk fell and I knew you'd come from a reset.)
This isn't the first time we had this happy ending, though it's the first time I've made myself known and told my story. But that last time, there was something hanging over them, another presence that I'd never felt, it's what was driving them to violence, it wasn't Frisk. They nearly wiped us out.
(They barely came back from the brink then, The Judge succeeded in deterring them?)
Sans failed.
(It takes determination to remember a bygone timeline, you don't have to continue.)
I'm fine.
I've always lied to Sans about my awareness of time travel, I can still remember those deleted timelines with some pain and effort. I just can't SAVE or LOAD without killing myself.
The second Sans became serious I immediately had to look back at what happened, despite the pain.
Asgore was cut down, we were the last ones standing in their way.
(And what did you do?)
I started trying to reset time even though it would destroy me for good, all the while focusing so hard that the determination I had to call on caused me to melt. I screamed Frisk's name, yelling at them to not let it win, to not forget that Toriel was their new mother, Asgore treated them like his child, I screamed at them about their friends and the perfect life they'd made on the surface, about their entire journey.
(Ral...)
And they heard me, that rosy smile turned back into a neutral expression as they beat it back and joined me in resetting everything before I was too far gone.
And I pray to God that when Frisk's SOUL won out and reset from the beginning that they forgot that timeline happened. Though, I don't think they did.
(...)
Still, they're not going to reset again.
(You sound confident saying that.)
That struggle I caused them to undergo when I pleaded for them to remember this timeline where everyone is happy, I think they definitively expelled that foreign influence that caused them to be so violent, and that same influence was probably what caused them to reset the best outcome the first time.
They had to go through their journey without killing anyone a second time, with all the hardships that entailed, but they got us here.
And without that influence controlling them, they even found a way to do the impossible.
(Anything is possible in this life.)
Did you just steal my quote?
When they won us this ending the first time, I thought the timeline was set in stone, it would happen this way and only ever this way, but something about rejecting that presence and their determination, it created a ripple in continuity. When Frisk took their body back and reset from that attempt at wiping us all out, they went far back, much farther than they should have been able to, and then... then...
...They found a way to return our prince to us alive.
(You're crying again.)
Shut up, you are too.
(I don't have eyes.)
Your tears are my tears, you're making me cry harder, stop usurping control over me, old man.
(Besides, I think you might have helped with that.)
What do you mean?
(I think your resets combined and sent Frisk much farther back than the start of his journey in at least some capacity, physical or spiritual, and he was there to save Asriel's SOUL from disappearing.
That's why the first time, when you never made yourself known, they weren't able to bring him back. It wasn't intentional, but your presence alone helped.)
Is that so?
That's... a pretty good theory, and it would explain why Sans was so pissed at me when we met up this time around, my actions must have created a timeline he hadn't seen occur before. Still, I think this one was for the better.
…
Ah, I get it.
(Hm?)
Sans told me to look at Frisk's SOUL, but I never got the chance before Asriel returned to us.
I bet it looked like ours and that's what tripped him up.
He saw a monster SOUL nested in a human's.
...
(So, begging Toriel for forgiveness and trying to get them back together, really?)
Hey, you know you want them back together as much as I do. Disagreement aside, they're perfect for one another.
(Fair enough.)
Well, onwards we go, to a future nobody knows, but damn if it doesn't look bright. And here I am, happy to be an onlooker as eternity passes around me, ever ready to write about it.
"Dear Diary: The world is full of hope, everyone has a happy ending, Toriel will be opening a school in the city within the next few months, if I can get her to forgive me and Asgore, I'll see about becoming a librarian there.
Frisk has truly won us a miracle, not just freedom, peace and acceptance, but somehow, they returned Asriel to us alive and whole.
Things couldn't be any better.
-Ralochs."
Hey Grillby! How about a burger and a last will and testament, because I'm fairly sure Toriel's going to murder me.
...
Oh yeah, dad, that reminds me.
(Hm?)
You're conscious even when I'm not, right? Who did save me when I lost my arm?
(You wouldn't believe me if I told you, son.)
"hOI!"
You've gotta be kidding!
You smiled as you headed home, looking forward to dinner, Toriel had finally picked up that you aren't quite used to snails yet so you were actually going to have some real(?) food.
Ralochs' story was still burning in your mind, especially the part where he mentioned the timeline shifting. You remembered what he was talking about, and were thankful that he seemed to not.
You still remember the sad smile on that half-melted creature's face as everything faded back to the start, it looked so unlike him you didn't piece two and two together until near the end of his story.
As you walked up to the house, the door opened wide, "Frisk!" Asriel called out as he ran out and hugged you. He was a hugger, that's just who he was, you'd grown used to it by this point, and you didn't mind, he was warm, though he had a tendency to scratch you.
"There you are, my child." Toriel said as she stepped out too, "I suppose you were listening to Asgore's little yes-man rambling again?" You scratched the back of your neck and cracked a bit of a smile, he didn't exactly seem like a yes-man to you after hearing what he went through, but it was still nicer than what she referred to him as last night.
You'd didn't even know that was a word that could be used to describe a living creature.
"I want to go see Uncle Ral too, I didn't even know he was around!" Asriel added.
Toriel just sighed, "Well, if you want to, I'll let you go see him tomorrow, but for now, dinner."
Asriel nodded at that, "Okay, mom." He looked at you and smiled as the three of you walked back into your house.
Toriel glanced at the phone which was glowing from a missed call, "Your father called again." She didn't want to dismiss him in front of you two, but the sigh was still in her tone, "I suppose it's not right of me to not at least humor him."
You couldn't help but reflect as you ate dinner, it was such a hard-won fight to be able to live in this world where everyone, even Asriel, lived. But it was worth every hardship.
You came back from the edge of oblivion
By a last minute plea to your senses
And in doing such
It gave you what you always wanted
A happy ending.
Looking at the life ahead of you, it filled you determination.