You knew?! This whole time?

"YES."

Oh my god, Papyrus. Frisk's pressure on the pencil caused the tip to snap off, and Frisk quickly snatched up a pen of red ink, the dark and messy handwriting splattering across the page. I- I don't know what to write.

"NYEHEHE," Papyrus laughed bitterly, shaking his head. "WELL THAT WORKS, BECAUSE I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO SAY." Papyrus clasped his hands together, staring at his hands for a moment before quietly asking, "CAN'T YOU JUST RESET? YOU'VE DONE IT SO MANY TIMES BY NOW, RESETTING WOULD JUST- JUST BRING SANS BACK, RIGHT?"

It's... complicated.

"WELL THEN, EXPLAIN IT TO ME! YOU CAN FIX THIS, CAN'T YOU?"
I told you I couldn't! Frisk smudged red ink on their hand by accident and swiped their hand against their pants a few times, but the ink blotch wouldn't come off. God, they wanted to be able to speak at this moment. …Look, Papyrus, if all of this is true, then you remember Gaster right?

Papyrus's pupils shrank, and his gaze flicked up to Frisk's face. "YES."

What happened to Sans was similar to that.

"O-OH." The two lapsed back into awkward silence, and then Frisk flipped the paper over to start writing on the back.

Can I ask you something?

Papyrus nodded, hesitant, and Frisk bit their lip, clutching the pen so hard in their grip it made their hand turn pale.

When I first came to stay in this house- right after I killed you, right after I killed Sans- you were so nice to me. You even put me on your shoulders, and trusted me without flinching. …Why, Papyrus? What did I do to deserve that kind of kindness?

"OH. T-THAT? I… I, HONESTLY I WAS A BIT SCARED OF YOU." Papyrus admitted. "BUT SANS TRUSTED YOU AS WELL, EVEN AFTER ALL OF THAT, YOU KNOW? AND I DIDN'T THINK YOU TRULY WANTED TO HURT ME EVER. YOU LOOKED SO SAD AT FIRST, AND I- I JUST KNEW YOU WERE A GOOD PERSON DEEP DOWN, NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENED. I SAW HOW SAD YOU WERE AFTER YOU KILLED YOUR FIRST MONSTER, AFER ALL- I WAS THE ONE TO FIND YOU! MAYBE, I REALIZED, YOU JUST NEEDED TO BE GIVEN A CHANCE? YOU HADN'T EVER HURT ANY OF US THE FIRST DOZENS OF TIMES SO… I…I..."

Frisk stared down at their knees, and tears started to make their vision swim. "A-AND IF- IF SANS REALLY GAVE HIS LIFE TO SAVE YOU LIKE THAT THEN- THEN CLEARLY I MADE THE RIGHT CHOICE IN THAT REGARD, AT LEAST?" Papyrus offered.

The silence grew again, and Frisk sighed. So what now? Should I leave? I've just caused trouble here-

"NO! I WOULDN'T EVER CHASE YOU OUT!" Papyrus refuted. "DON'T- PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE. THIS IS A REALLY BIG HOUSE AND YOU'VE PRACTICALLY LIVED HERE FOR A LONG TIME, SO MAYBE- MAYBE YOU CAN JUST MOVE IN HERE? YOU DON'T HAVE TO RESET ANYMORE, YOU CAN JUST LIVE WITH ME AS MY COUSIN! IN THIS TIMELINE EVERYONE ALREADY LIKES YOU SO- SO-"

I don't know if that's possible. I might just keep RESETTING anyways.

"WHY NOT?" Papyrus whimpered. "I DON'T UNDERSTAND, FRISK. I COULD NEVER ASK THIS BEFORE, BUT WHY WERE YOU…?"

Frisk tilted their head, comprehension flitting through their mind. That was right… Papyrus didn't know the specifics of what was going on. How the skeleton had been okay with not understanding any of this and just going through the motions, Frisk didn't know. I don't have enough paper to explain everything, but… Gaster is still here, Papyrus. And he's the one RESETTING, not me.

"THAT CAN'T BE TRUE. GASTER'S BEEN GONE FOR A LONG TIME!" Papyrus yelped, jumping to his feet. "YOU MUST BE MAKING A MISTAKE-"

A knock on the door caused both to freeze, and Papyrus broke off from his denial as his gaze shot towards the door, hope flitting through his eyes for a half second. Frisk shrank back, wrapping their arms around their knees.

"H-hey! Papyrus? Y-you said you wanted me to come check on y-your cousin!" A nervous voice called from outside. "Y-you said they h-hurt themself?"

Frisk and Papyrus exchanged another glance, and the skeleton reacted first. "ALPHYS?" Papyrus asked, racing over to the door. He yanked it open to reveal a shivering yellow lizard, whom anxiously smiled up at him and stepped inside. "I DIDN'T EXPECT YOU HERE SO SOON," Papyrus said. "WOWEE, YOU MUST BE FREEZING, COME IN!"

"W-well, I was w-worried. If your magic c-can't heal them, it must be serious, right?" Alphys stammered. She spotted Frisk and waved cheerfully, wandering over to them. "So what's w-wrong, Frisk?"

Papyrus followed her, looking lost, and stood behind her left shoulder as he hovered over Frisk. "THEIR THROAT… THEY HURT IT REALLY BADLY AND ERM, IT STILL HURTS AND THEY CAN'T SPEAK YET, RIGHT HU- COUSIN?"

Alphys didn't question Papyrus's stumble, and gently asked if she could look at Frisk's throat. Frisk nodded, not resisting and let her clawed hands gently pull their sweater down and away from their neck. They could feel Alphys hold her breath as she leaned close, gently feeling their throat. She hissed in pain at seeing the mark, and asked Frisk to open their mouth as she peered down their throat for a moment.

"I… oh... I-I'm sorry, but I n-need to know now… Frisk isn't r-really your cousin, are they?" Alphys asked, not meeting anyone's eyes. "T-they're a h-human, right?" Alphys seemed to sense the heavy atmosphere, and her head jerked up as she waved her hands. "I- I won't report them or a-anything! J-Just… this wound…"

Frisk nodded, and Alphys mouth pressed into a tight line. "I-I… oh man, I-I'm bad at t-this," she said distraughtly. "I d-don't think you d-did anything w-wrong, Papyrus, but humans h-have multiple s-systems that all w-work to make their b-bodies function. H-healing without any knowledge of how their body works is always d-dangerous because something might heal w-wrong, and then it c-can't be fixed without breaking it again, like a b-bone," Alphys stammered, trying to explain.

Papyrus stiffened, and his gaze met Frisk's eyes as he went ashy gray for the second time that day. "SO FRISK'S THROAT…? DID I HEAL IT WRONG?" Papyrus asked in horror.

"T-the bones and skin are f-fine!" Alphys reassured. She glanced at Frisk, pity in her gaze. "B-but whatever stabbed them c-cut their v-vocal chords t-too, which skeletons wouldn't k-know about in advance, and those weren't… weren't healed well."

Frisk froze, their breath catching in their throat as their hand went up to feel their throat. "I s-suppose we could try cutting their t-throat again and re-healing it b-but… I don't think it'll work," Alphys stammered. "I don't know enough about h-humans to do something that p-precise, not to mention..."

Silence pressed down, the elephant in the room large and blatant, and finally Frisk got up, stumbling over to root through the cupboards under the television. They finally found a scrap of clean paper, and wrote down the question no one was saying out loud.

Am I going to die?

"N-no! No," Alphys reassured. She sweated, looking at Papyrus, who had both hands pressed over his eyes. "Just… you might not be able to fully regain your v-voice?"

Oh. Frisk stared at the piece of paper, and they suddenly felt tired. Would their RESET fix this injury? Maybe. Maybe not. I'm going to go sleep, they wrote instead, setting the pen down. They hesitated, wondering where to go. Sans's room had been open to them lately, but with him gone and their frequent use of the sofa, it felt wrong to venture in there now.

They didn't want to see the pity in Alphys's eyes, or the bleak horror in Papyrus's.

"I-I'm sorry," Alphys stammered, shifting. She glanced uneasily at Papyrus, hesitating for a moment. "I should go…" She turned and quickly stepped out, glancing over her shoulder at Frisk and Papyrus, worry evident in her eyes.

The door swung shut behind her with a click, and Frisk quietly clambered back up onto the coach and curled up against Papyrus, falling into a deep sleep next to the subdued skeleton.

.

"Well now look what happened. I warned you," Chara scolded Frisk, legs swinging as they sat on the edge of the cliff.

Frisk glanced around their dream, and hesitantly spoke, testing out their voice. At least they could speak in their dreams, at least. "You didn't warn me of anything," they said quietly, sitting down a good three feet away from Chara. "You just threatened me."

"And now you lost our voice. Well, that's just great, isn't it?" Chara sneered. "The only good thing that has come out of this is that skeleton is gone. There's no one watching your movements now except his annoying brother- and we both know how easy it is to get rid of him."

"Why do you hate monsters so much?" Frisk asked quietly, resting their chin on their knee. "I understand humans, but… monsters haven't done anything to us."

Chara snorted. "You say that like your life wasn't thoroughly ruined by one." Chara's eyes softened for a moment, and they sighed. "I just- I don't know, okay?" Chara laughed wryly, shaking their head. "It's not like I suddenly hated monsters one day I just- I was scared, at first. Scared of being loved, of being disappointed. Scared of my own feelings that grew as I met people that actually cared. And well, I learned that for each Love I gained I stopped feeling those troublesome things. I can just go have fun, and not have to be hurt by anyone anymore."

Frisk turned and looked at Chara, surprised at getting such a direct answer. "You don't want to care for people?"

"No. I don't. It's easier if you don't care about anyone- just look at you. Wouldn't it be better if you had never met Sans or cared for him? You wouldn't be hurting right now."

"Maybe I could've once thought that," Frisk replied weakly. "But- but after all of this I am glad that I fell down to the Underground, despite everything."

"That makes no sense. You're miserable."

"It was worse where I came from before all of… this." Frisk closed their eyes. "So. My body right now- what are you doing with it?"

Chara snorted. "Nothing. I... It wouldn't feel right." They laughed again, shaking their head. "Damn it. Here I am, finally with a chance at a body, and yet… I'm going to let this chance go. For now. ...We're just too similar in the end, huh? I can't help but pity you."

Frisk hesitantly scooted closer to Chara, sitting close enough so they could see the child's red eyes. "Yeah. I suppose we are," they quietly agreed. "If I had fallen first, I might've also…"

"Don't look at me like that. Don't you dare," Chara said flatly, eyeing Frisk. "You just had the worst day of your life, and you don't have time to pity me. I don't need it. I'm the cause for a fair share of your grief, anyways."

Frisk's shrugged. At this point, Chara was still the one that had shared this experience with them the longest other than Sans. Even after everything, after all the fear and hate, Frisk would try and forget that. Chara was just- just desperate.

Like Gaster? They wondered, their nails digging into their skin. Could I forgive- or at least forget- what Gaster did as well?

"So? What are you going to do now?" Chara looked down at their feet, eyes narrowing as they stared flatly down at the world imagined below. "I didn't tell you this, but… the virus on your RESETS… I think it's gone. You can leave now, you know? No need to hang around here anymore. Not that you have anywhere else to go, but. Well. "

"W-what?!" Frisk forgot who Chara was, for just a second, grabbing their shoulders and leaning close before they remembered and quickly released Chara like they had been burned. "Is- is that true?"

"Yep. I get to go back to rotting down here alone and you can go forget about this entire mess," Chara sniffed, turning away. "Congrats."

Frisk stared at them with wide eyes, mind flickering through their options. "I- I can't," they whispered. "I can't leave. Not yet."

Chara spun around, eyes narrowing. They glowered at Frisk, their brown hair falling over their eyes. "Don't be an idiot, Frisk. If you can RESET now, that means Gaster is alive. Get the hell out of here while you still can. Don't tempt me, okay? If you're going to throw your chances away like that, then maybe I should just take your body for myself."

Frisk shifted uneasily, and then finally smiled sadly and rubbed at their eyes. "N-no," they whispered. "No. For once I want to decide how things are going to end up myself." They looked up, eyes glinting. "And- and you know what? For the first time in the past two years worth of these RESETS, I finally feel DETERMINED again."

Before they could hear Chara's reply, Frisk woke up, sitting up with a gasp, throat throbbing and feeling dry. They glanced at Papyrus's quite sleeping form, his fingers tightly gripping his scarf even in his sleep.

They raised their hand, and the SAVE screen once again flared to life beneath their fingertips.

Frisk smiled in the darkness. It was about time.

.

.

.

-Your new feelings fill you with DETERMINATION. File SAVED.-

((I brought the tissue box with me this time... some of you seem to need it. I've always liked the idea that Frisk uses sign language... or do they use Wing Dings, the monster version of sign language? Oh, I wonder how that possibly would happen...? Heh. And to answer one of the questions, no. I've never cried over this story myself~ I hope everyone is ready for a shift in the story's mood though! You all seem to be a bit exhausted from the angst. Anyways, thank you for all of the attention and love I've gotten from everyone, it makes me so amazed each time I get all of these comments. Well, until next chapter!))