"…hey kid." A voice greeted them as Frisk slowly pried open their eyes, sneezing once before sitting up and groaning as their body throbbed all over. Sans was sitting next to them, reading a joke book and uninterestingly flipping the page. "you really scared papyrus, y'know. i didn't expect you to stay out in the cold like that."
"…" Frisk didn't say anything, turning away from Sans and sniffing as they tried to stand before swaying as they struggled to gain their balance. Aware they were about to fall over, Sans's hand darted out and grabbed their arm, yanking them back down onto the sofa.
Sans closed his right eye and examined them for a moment. "…something wrong, kiddo? you look like you've seen a ghost. or maybe you succeeded in catching your death out in the cold?"
Frisk opened their mouth, guilt and a headache making their vision swim. "Sans… I-I…"
"IS THE HUMAN AWAKE?" Papyrus rushed out of the kitchen, a chef hat perched on his head and an apron wrapped over his armor. "HUMAN! I MADE THIS FOR YOU TO EAT AND FEEL BETTER! ALPHYS TOLD ME THAT HUMANS NEEDED TO BE KEPT WARM AND COMFORTABLE WHEN PALE SO I WENT AND GOT SOME OF HER RAMEN. IT'S NOT SPAGHETTI, BUT IT LOOKED SIMILAR ENOUGH THAT I'M SURE IT'S COOKED THE SAME WAY."
"…bro. how long… did you cook that for?" Sans asked warily, finally letting go of Frisk's arm and turning his attention elsewhere, much to Frisk's relief.
Papyrus beamed, proudly sticking his chest out and pointing at himself with his thumb. "APPROXIMATELY THIRTY MINUTES."
"paps, that's is one hundred percent not how long you're supposed to cook ramen for. i thought you took the human here to make them better, not worse." Sans commented dryly, and Papyrus frowned down at his older brother.
"WELL IF YOU KNOW HOW TO COOK SO WELL, WHY DON'T YOU DO IT?"
"…uh… you just look super cool cooking so it's best if you do it anyways?" Sans offered, which Papyrus seemed to accept as a peace offering.
"HMMM. YES, WELL, I GUESS YOU CAN'T HELP THAT PART."
"…C-can I… just have some water?" Frisk asked hoarsely, their head throbbing.
"AH. WHY, YES OF COURSE, ONE SECOND, HUMAN!" Papyrus shouted, racing off towards the kitchen. Frisk groaned, grasping their head with their hands.
"How long was I out of it?" They asked quietly, and Sans turned his gaze back to them.
"about eight hours. you've been sick all night." The two sat in uncomfortable silence, neither saying anything as clattering sounds could be heard from the kitchen. Finally, Frisk shifted, pulling the three blankets Papyrus had dumped on top of them closer to their body.
"Sans… I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry." They whispered, and Sans merely cocked his head at them and smiled.
"i'm not sure of why you're apologizing to me, buddy. shouldn't you apologize to the ice cap? y'know, after you RESET?"
"…I…I…"
"well, i've seen worse before you, so don't sweat it, i guess. maybe i just expected more of you? the other humans never managed to achieve everything you did, after all, even though some of them could RESET as well." Sans said, resting his chin on his hand.
Frisk swallowed, blinking in surprise at Sans. "The other six humans were like me?" They asked quietly, and Sans laughed. It wasn't a happy sound.
"no. not exactly. see, kid, tori never asked me to watch ever anyone before. i didn't know her back then, after all. some of the humans were nice though, y'know? and some… some weren't. i think all of them were just frightened kids at first, confused and alone, and that was fine… until some of them realized what SAVING and RESET was. some kids didn't understand monsters didn't actually want to hurt them, and fought their way through. some were kind and caring… but in the end, they were too weak and their DETERMINATION only lasted so long."
Frisk watched Sans, and understanding flooded through them. "Sans… how long have you been able to remember RESETS?"
Sans merely shrugged, reaching over to the counter to pick up his joke book again. "a long time. too long. so, anyways, before paps comes back with whatever dish he's going to serve you, i'm going to let you get this one thing down straight, buddy: none of the humans that fell down here, not one, have had a happy ending. every single one died down here to have their SOUL taken and given to asgore. and some… some even made it out of the underworld before RESETTING and coming back out of boredom. but once their DETERMINATION failed them… well. you get the idea, right?"
"…yeah." Frisk whispered, hunching over as they coughed miserably, their throat burning. "Listen, Sans… I know you don't believe me when I say that I'm not the one doing this. I… I know how I look to you. But I'm trying my best, Sans. Please believe that, at least…"
Sans studied them for a moment before sighing. "y'know kid… i don't actually remember each RESET as clearly as you do. not anymore." He stood up, tucking the book under one arm and staring down at Frisk. "there are so many things that i do know and so many that i don't. i like to just accept what i know for sure as facts and treat everything else as a variable 'till the end. and you, kid… you're a variable. a really big one. if you wanted, you could destroy the underground. and if that time ever comes, i have to be prepared for it."
Sans grinned at Frisk, before chuckling and starting up the stairs towards his room. "well. enjoy papyrus's dish. call it my revenge… best served hot, in this case."
By what Sans meant by this, Frisk discovered, was on top of the grossly overcooked ramen breaking apart as soon as Frisk's spoon went near them, Sans had told Papyrus that an entire bottle of hot sauce was an essential ingredient to warming a cold human being back up.
.
"ARE YOU SURE YOU CAN GO ON BY YOURSELF FROM HERE?" Papyrus asked nervously, studying Frisk's face. The distant sound of a waterfall echoed throughout the cave, and Frisk nodded, wiping at their nose with their sleeve.
"I'll be fine, Papyrus." They said softly, and Papyrus squinted at them in concern. "WELL, YOU HAVE MY CELLPHONE NUMBER, SO CALL ME THE SECOND YOU FEEL SICK AGAIN, OK? I'LL ASK MY FRIEND UNDYNE TO COME CHECK ON YOU, SHE'S SUPER COOL, EVEN IF SHE'S NOT AS COOL AS ME, AND I THINK SHE'LL GET ALONG WITH YOU GREAT."
Frisk nodded, and then started walking into the darkness of the cave, leaving Papyrus worriedly watching them for a moment before he hesitatingly called out to them again.
"H-HEY, HUMAN? WAIT ONE SECOND, I WANTED TO ASK YOU, UM, AS A FRIEND, WHY YOU WERE OUT IN THE COLD LIKE THAT YESTERDAY? YOU REALLY SCARED ME, AND I… I HEARD THAT THERE WAS A REASON YOU WERE SITTING OUT IN THE COLD."
"…Did Sans tell you…?"
"WHAT? NO, MY BROTHER DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING ABOUT YOU. DID YOU TALK TO HIM BEFORE GOING OUT…?"
Frisk turned, and studied the ground in front of them. "Yeah, I guess so. Sans… he… ermmm." Frisk was at a loss, unsure of what to tell Papyrus. They didn't want Papyrus, the one person who was so unconditionally kind to them, to find out what they had done, nor did they feel like ratting out Sans to his brother. That wouldn't help anything.
"…We just passed by each other when I went out. Nothing more." Frisk finally said, and Papyrus's watchful gaze shifted to confusion, and he scratched his head.
"OH. HUH. I THOUGHT YOU- WELL, NEVERMIND. I'LL SEE YOU AROUND, HUMAN!"
And Frisk darted off into the darkness, leaving Papyrus to his thoughts.
.
Everything was changing. It was like the dust had left a permanent mark on Frisk.
Everyone seemed to know what they did.
No one said anything about it, though, other than Sans. But monsters that were normally friendly cowered at Frisk's touch, and Frisk could feel eyes on them at all times as they wandered around Waterfall Caves. What really hurt, however, was the one person who did mention it. Who picked it up and threw it back into Frisk's face in a way that was the opposite of Sans's cold indifference but still stung just as much.
It was burning rage.
"You think I'd let a murderer pass through here?!" Undyne hisses, eye slitted as she towered over Frisk. "Alphys told me humans were kind, and brave, and noble. But you? You just killed a defenseless monster for no reason! Don't think everyone doesn't know what you did, you disgusting trash. Acting like you're mad of sunlight and hugs and trying to make friends with everyone after that stunt. Well, guess what? That will never work. We'll never trust a human."
Frisk stepped back, hesitating as their doubts came back. They opened their mouth to speak, but Undyne viciously cut them off, eye narrowed in rage.
"I don't want to hear anything you have to say. So, you disgusting coward, let's see how well you are when you can't run away."
She moved with a blur, and Frisk cried out in pain, their SOUL flickering as Undyne viciously laid down the onslaught. It was by a narrow margin that Frisk managed to run again, darting off and grabbing their left arm in pain as they raced towards the Hot Lands. Frisk was scared. Undyne had raced after them swearing profanities, pushing herself further than Frisk had ever had to run from her. When she finally collapsed, Frisk expectantly brought her the cup of water with a small smile of offering, but Undyne viciously knocked it out of their hands.
"I. DON'T. WANT. A. MURDURER'S. PITY." She snapped, panting.
Frisk had backed up, wavering between running away from that accusing gaze again and trying to make amends again. But Undyne was… she was their best friend, wasn't she? Frisk brought her cup after cup of water, until finally she accepted it with a grunt around the fifth cup. Saying nothing else, she stood up, turning away immediately and leaving as Frisk gazed after her for a moment, tired.
Even later, however, Undyne refused to go near them.
.
In the quiet corner of the restaurant, two figures sat across from each other, one a human and the other a skeleton in a blue hoodie.
"…"
"…haha. you've been so keen to talk to me lately, kid… why the long face?"
"…Sans?"
"yes?"
"…I… I'll try and go back. I don't want it to end like this, either."
"i'm glad, kid." Sans said softly, and he stood and walked over to Frisk, leaning over a bit to stare into Frisk's eyes. "but, kid? i'm not really too keen on this cruel game of yours. can't you just tell me why you're making me live through this over and over? if this is a joke, the punch line's not very funny."
"I've tried telling you Sans… but you don't believe me."
"oh? kid, you're kinda obvious about your lies. this timeline is centering around you."
"…yeah. I know how it looks." Frisk coughed, their throat burning, and they took a deep breath, finally remembering something. "… hey, Sans?"
"what is it?"
"…Does Papyrus also… remember?"
"w-what?" Sans asked, stiffening. "no. he shouldn't."
"…?" Frisk frowned, scratched their head then shrugged. "…weird. I could have sworn…"
"…he called me Frisk earlier."
"what?!" Sans asked, alarm flickering through his gaze. His eye glowed blue for a moment, and he drew back from Frisk, covering his mouth with a hand as he thought and muttered to himself. "no… that shouldn't be… maybe he overheard me…? how did he know, no one but me knows your name at this point…" Sans turned back to Frisk, for once no smirk in sight, and then turned and vanished into the shadows without another word.
Frisk was left all alone to continue forwards.
.
Frisk, alone and tired, stepped quietly into the golden hued room. Their head was throbbing again, and they coughed as they cautiously entered the room, gaze sweeping in search of Sans. Since they had last seen him in the restaurant, he hadn't reappeared before them.
Frisk slowed to a halt, as Sans had slipped out from behind a pillar to stand in front of them, hidden in the shadows and hands stuffed into his pockets. The silence pressed around them, and somehow off in the distance, a bell chimed three times ominously as Frisk and Sans stood across from each other. Sans gave them a long, considering stare, then launched into his usual spiel.
"so you finally made it. your journey is about over… i guess. in a few moments, you'll meet the king. together you will determine the future of the world. that's then. now. you will be judged for your every action. you will be judged for every EXP you've earned." Sans kept his gaze locked on Frisk's face as he talked, and then he sighed, shaking his head. "what's EXP? it's an acronym. it stands for "execution points." a way for quantifying the pain you have inflicted on others. when you kill someone, your EXP increases, and when you have enough EXP your LOVE, too, increases. LOVE, too, is an acronym…but you knew that, didn't you, kid? it stands for "level of violence." a way of measuring someone's capacity to hurt. your capacity to hurt. the more you kill, the easier it becomes to distance yourself. the more you distance yourself, the less you will hurt. the more easily you can bring yourself to hurt others. now you understand. it's time for judgment. look inside yourself. have you really done the right thing? and, considering what you've done, what will you do now? take a moment to think about this." Sans watched them for a moment, then smiled at them once more.
"truthfully, it doesn't really matter what you've said. all that matters is that you were honest with yourself. what happens now… we leave up to you. though… kid… you've already experienced all of this before, y'know? while it could have been written off as self-defense…was this really? isn't your responsibility to do the right thing with your special power?"
After a moment longer, Sans sighed and dropped the act. "…i talked to papyrus. he said that he didn't remember where he heard your name… he just knew it." Sans's gaze drilled into Frisk's, and they blinked as they realized the accusation in Sans's gaze.
"What are you getting at, Sans?" They asked quietly.
Sans merely walked up to them, poking their ribs with a bony finger. "i'm saying kid, that if you're messing with the timelines, if you're doing something to papyrus, you're going to have a bad time."
Frisk stepped back, and opened their mouth in protest. "What? Sans, I'm not doing anything! If you'd just listen to me, we could work together and fix this!"
"work with you? sorry, kid. not interested." Sans said, stepping back. He looked around and sighed. "it was here when i first realized you also had powers, y'know. i didn't really need a secret password; that was just me checking how many times you could use your SAVE ability. but you definitely had a strong RESET power, huh? …i miss that time you first came through. it was fun." Sans turned, lifting up one hand to give a lazy wave from behind. "…anyways. see you around, kid."
Frisk sighed, and turned and faced forwards again. They just wanted to get this run over with.
.
"Oh? You're left all alone, huh?" Flowey laughed, the giant monstrosity peering down at Frisk as darkness descended around the two and Flowey gained control of the SAVE files. Though, from who Flowey was taking control from, Frisk had no idea…
"Too baaaad~ no one cares enough for you to have come and convince Asgore not to kill you, huh? I had originally planned to wait for that, but there's no point in waiting to kill the old fool if no one would've come for you anyways."
"T-they care…" Frisk said, struggling not to make it sound as uncertain as Frisk felt at the moment. Don't let him get the best of you, I've heard his lies before, remember that!
"Heeheehee. Well, then, where are they? Oh, I know! Undyne HATES you, Papyrus is suspicious of you, Alphys wouldn't stand next to you, Sans is blaming and ignoring you, and everyone, everyone, EVERYONE knows what. You. Did." Flowey's computer face flickered, and he beamed down at Frisk in sick, twisted joy. "Don't you get it yet? In this world it's kill or be killed. And even when I thought maybe you got the concept, you go right on ahead continuing your pathetic little pacifist act. You really are an idiot."
"…shut up, that's not true." Frisk breathed, backing up. "No… nonono… It's not true, they still care, it's fine, I can go back…"
"Exactly! You can go back. So it doesn't matter anymore! You don't have to keep on pretending this gross charade. And if you really think I'm wrong, then go on. Call for help. Maybe your good friend Sans will come running to help you."
Frisk shuddered, taking another step back, and opened their mouth. But they didn't bother calling for help.
No one would've come, anyways.
.
This RESET was different. Normally, after defeating Flowey, Frisk woke up right before killing Asgore. But this time, Frisk had awoken with Asgore's SOUL gently pulsing around them, the human SOULS already long gone, and they had crossed the barrier alone.
Sitting in silence, Frisk had watched the sun for a moment before curling up on the cold ground and going to sleep.
When they woke up, they sat up in the golden flowers, and stared down at their hands. They wondered wearily if the feeling of dust would ever go away.
"…hey, are you all right?" A voice asked quietly, and Frisk jumped up, eyes darting around as they looked for the anomaly in the cave.
"Who's there?" Frisk demanded, shocked that something was different.
There was a pause, and the person's voice echoed again, sounding like they were standing right next to Frisk. "Just a friend."
"…I've never heard your voice before." Frisk said carefully.
The stranger sighed, sounding tired. "No. But I've been watching you, Frisk. See, I'm another of the ones that can see the RESETS as they happen. And… it's kind of sad that you're all alone to face this by yourself. …I know that you're not the one RESETTING, Frisk. I want to help you."
Frisk froze, and wonderful, wonderful relief washed over their limbs. "I've done this seventy-three times," they whispered. "And I haven't been able to figure out what's going on."
"I know," the voice said sympathetically. "And no one understands that it's not your fault, right? But I'll listen to you, Frisk! I even know how to get you out of this, if you'll listen to me as well."
Frisk's breath caught in their hope, and they quickly rubbed at their eyes so whoever was with them wouldn't see the tears of relief. "If you know how to fix this, I'll do whatever you say," Frisk begged. "Please, help me. I don't want to do this anymore..."
"Of course, Frisk." The voice said, and Frisk could've sworn they saw a faint figure standing across from them, smiling. "…My name is Chara. It's very nice to finally meet you."
.
.
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DETERMINATION allows you to keep moving forwards and leave a review.
((Thanks for all the lovely comments, guys! Exams are currently ongoing, so please be patient with me~))