Chara is looking up at me. I look back at them, confused.

What am I feeling?

What happened to the anger?

I feel calm.

For the first time in as long as I can remember, I actually feel calm.

Something has changed. Something very big.

I feel power at my fingertips. It's nothing like what I felt before the Underground went empty. But it's so much more than what I had.

I try out a new spell. A little flame appears in my hand and flutters away.

It turns into a butterfly. Blue and green.

Shimmering.

"Chara."

"Yes?"

"It's time." I say.

"Time for what?"

"Time to reset." I say. "To go back to the beginning."

"Which beginning?"

"Shh… just watch."

I raise my hands and fill the air with butterflies. Hotland glows with color.

A rainbow floods the entire Underground, and I turn back the clock.

All the way back to the start. Back at the Ruins, where I first wrote to myself.

"I have to keep you away from EVERYONE.

I can't let you get out EVER."

So much suffering has happened. So much has gone wrong.

"Good luck. I'm cheering you on, from the past."

It's the first day of my isolation. But this time is different.

I go out in search of the first Froggit near Mom's house.

It's not there. Just a pile of dust. I was afraid of this.

I hoped they would still be here. But their souls are in my body now, and they can't have their own bodies if their souls are in mine.

It's just like determination. The more I take with me when I reset, the less there is in the DT extractor when I go back. Time travel doesn't let you transfer souls or determination from one timeline to the next.

But that doesn't mean this world must be empty. It doesn't mean that the Underground must be cold and lonely. Not anymore.

I can make a new world here. A better world.

A new day has begun.

I travel to Hotland. It doesn't take long. With those monster souls and the power I've gained, I can fly now. It's effortless.

I extract a small amount of my determination with Alphys' machine and bring over Chara's body. I inject Chara with my determination and wait for them to awaken.

Chara moves.

"Good morning, Chara." I say.

They sit up, eyes still closed.

"Welcome back." I say. "How do you feel?"

They open their eyes. Just a dim red light in their eye sockets, like before.

"Asriel. What happened?"

"A lot happened, Chara." I say. "A lot."

They look at their hands.

"Why… why am I gray?" They ask.

"You were mummified after you died." I say. "I injected you with determination to give your body the will to live… I brought you back. But your soul is gone now."

"My soul?"

"Things aren't going to be the same as they were, Chara." I say. "You tried to escape the Underground and take control of the surface. But you failed."

"You stopped me from fighting the humans." He says. "We could have won."

I sigh.

"Let me be honest with you, Chara." I say. "I should never have trusted you."

They look at me.

"I actually brought you back to life once before." I say. "You don't remember, because I erased your memory. For a while, we were friends. But then you turned against me. You tortured me. The only reason I escaped was because I outsmarted you. Now I have all the determination in the Underground, aside from the tiny little drop I gave to you. I am the king of this world now."

"King? What about Asgore?"

"He's gone." I say. "The Underground is empty now. You and I are the only ones left."

"Everybody's gone?"

"I have a lot to tell you. But let's go upstairs first."

I tell Chara everything that happened. Even the ugliest parts. I want them to know we have already fought, and I won. I want them to know they can't fool me ever again.

They don't seem disturbed when I tell them what they did to me. I'm not surprised. Even when they had a soul, they never seemed to feel much love.

"So what happens now?" They ask.

"I'm going to re-create this world." I say. "I thought you might want to watch, which is why I brought you back… and, also, I hoped we might be able to be friends again later."

"Did I really do all of that stuff?"

"Yes." I say. "I know what you're capable of. And I will never give you any power over me again. I love you, Chara, but there's something wrong with you that I don't know how to fix."

"So… can we really still be friends?"

"Yes."

I get up and stretch.

"But we can't play right now." I say. "I have a lot of work to do. You can watch if you like. It'll probably take a long time. Or you can do something else while you wait… whatever you want. If you're not around when I'm done, I'll come and find you."

I step outside and start trying out my new powers.

I still don't fully understand what souls are or what they can do. I have to experiment to find out what I can do with the new power inside me.

But as time goes on, I learn faster and faster. The magic becomes second nature. I can do almost anything, besides break through the barrier.

I fill Hotland with tropical plants and fountains of cool water. I go inside the Core and cover the ugly machinery with bright white porcelain, and draw elaborate designs on everything. Every room, I turn into a work of art. I add a plaque dedicated to the Core's inventor.

"To the late Royal Scientist, who brought warmth and light to our homes. Without your work, we would be blind and lost in the cold."

I create a theater for Alphys' old tapes, and preserve her comics and her notes. I polish and re-color everything that has gotten worn down and faded. I clean everything that has been neglected. I add a plaque for Alphys, too.

"To Alphys, whose passion for art impressed even the most passionate monster among us."

Finally, Mettaton's resort is as it should be. He had a lot of strange ideas about how to run the place, but out of respect for his work, I keep some important things in place. I replace his statue on the fountain with a new design. Almost as flashy and attention-grabbing as the original. Almost. I put another plaque beneath it.

"To Mettaton, whose artistic vision and infectious mania entertained us day after day."

I go to Asgore's place and restore Mom's throne. I write down the recipe for butterscotch pie and tape it to his fridge. I re-decorate everything a little bit, just to make things a little more colorful.

"To Asgore Dreamer, the warmest fuzzball the Underground has ever seen."

I bring light to Waterfall. But I keep things dimmer than the rest of the Underground, to preserve its old look.

"To the old days, and the first monsters who gave us hope even when things looked their darkest."

I also clean up the garbage. It's still there, but now it's clean and dry.

"To the garbage from the human world, which gave us and taught us things we never knew existed."

I repair Undyne's house, with a magical torch outside, to commemorate its burning down.

"To Undyne, whose fiery passion and commitment to justice set the world aflame."

I tidy up Napstablook's house and add some dramatic artwork to the snail farm.

"To Napstablook, who never seemed to understand that people really liked them."

I expand the Tem Village a little, but mostly I leave it the way it was. It looks right that way.

"temmie"

Snowdin gets a new tree, brighter than before. I warm up the place a little, especially the village, and add some new lights here and there. I even set up Papyrus's old puzzles, with a few changes to make them look a little newer.

"To Papyrus, who taught us that everything was worth getting excited about."

I open up Sans' room and unlock his place in the back. I don't disturb anything; I just put a little sign by his time machine.

"To Sans, who made us laugh even when we didn't want to."

I add so much to the Ruins. The place was so bare before. There was room for a lot of new stuff. I create mosaics telling my story and Frisk's and add a spider pastry shop.

"To the spiders, whose delicious food and cunning business acumen impressed and terrified us all."

At Mom's house, I create portraits of all of the humans that Mom tried to save. I make one of myself, too.

"To Toriel, who worked so hard to keep everyone safe and happy."

I add some tractors and other machines to Farmland. Even if no one is here, I think the place should look modern and efficient. I decorate the homes as well.

"To our producers, who kept us fed and comfortable in a world without a sun."

Chara follows me around most of the time. Sometimes they wander off to do something else, but they always come back to see what I've been up to. They have a lot of suggestions, and most of them are really good.

Eventually, I start to run out of new places. All that's left is Empty Land. I'm not sure what I want to put there.

Everything actually feels a little empty without other monsters in the Underground. It's not enough to fill this place with art and nice things.

I need to fill it with life.