Chapter 63: Room 274
Frisk continued forward into the ruins with Chara at her side. Much like before Napstablook was lying in the path entirely blocking the way.
"Hey!"
The ghost open it's eyes gazing at Frisk with familiarity.
"ah its you two."
"HUH?!" Chara chimed in.
Frisk saw his eyes were wide with surprise.
"What kind of reaction is that?"
"i guess things didn't work out like you hoped, huh."
"You mean you remember?" Frisk asked.
"yeah, stuff like this used to happen all the time. it was a little sad when it stopped. lying around feeling like trash over and over is the greatest feeling."
"I guess you do that a lot huh?"
A slight blue blush appeared on the ghost's cheeks.
"yeah... so what will you do now?"
"I guess try again. I don't really have any other options."
"well good luck then. i'll get out of your way."
Napstablook vanished without a word and the two continued forward.
There were two paths up ahead.
Frisk walked forward.
Glancing around there wasn't much to see besides the two large spider webs on her left side.
'Wait, wasn't there a spider bakesale going on last time?'
"Hey! You! Wanna buy a spider donut?"
"Huh?" Frisk muttered confused. "Who said that?"
"Over here."
Frisk turned towards the voice. It sounded like it was coming from one of the spider webs.
"Where are you?" Frisk asked.
"In the web."
Frisk glanced carefully at the web looking for what she thought might be a spider.
"Oh there you are."
She caught sight of a small purple furry spider.
"So wanna buy a spider donut?"
'It might be useful to get any kind of monster food that I can.'
"How much do they cost?" Frisk asked.
"They cost 7 g."
Frisk frowned.
"Oh, I don't have the money."
"That's alright."
'Pity, but it's hard to get money down here as it is.'
"We should head back, I think the player wants to save."
With that Frisk headed back to where the cheese, the table and the mousehole was located.
Exhausted from her journey, she laid down resting her head on the table.
Frisk opened her eyes before she got up.
"You're up already?"
"No, they're still sleeping," Frisk said. "I need to use the save point."
"Oh so you're possessing his body now?"
Frisk looked at Chara with wide eyes.
"Yes, since they cannot see the save points."
She got up and headed towards a bright yellow diamond near the table.
"Unfortunately I cannot use my own determination to use the save point so it's made things difficult. I can only use the save point if they harbor enough determination to activate them. So whatever happens I need you to promise me even if things look dire to keep them determined at all cost."
"Alright."
Frisk smiled.
"Well I'm done here."
With that she leaned back against the table and closed her eyes.
"Everything I said still stands. Hurt a hair on the human and it won't end well for you."
"Alright already, I get it," Chara huffed.
Some time passed before Frisk woke up.
Groaning she rubbed the sleep from her eyes.
"We should get going," Chara said.
Frisk continued to the next room opting to set off heading to the path on the left this time.
The sign still stood there like last time however unlike last time, two froggits stood in a straight line next to the sign.
"Hey human," a voice came from against the wall. "Come over here."
Frisk walked closer to the wall only to see a small raisin sized frog leaning against the wall.
"You look familiar. Have we met before?"
"Yes, we have. You're Shorty."
"I knew it. They're faint but I remember meeting you before. Something you said gave me hope."
"Last time we spoke, I promised to get us to the surface but it didn't quite work out as planned," Frisk said.
"Hmm," he mumbled, before the corners of his lips frowned. "oh that's a shame."
"I'm not giving up though."
"Really?" Shorty said his eyes lighting up.
"Yeah, really."
"Thanks human."
A thought struck Frisk as she was speaking to Shorty. The letters on Alphys' desk had implied that the froggits were one of the families that had loved ones who had fallen down. Maybe Shorty knew something about it.
"Speaking of not giving up, you shouldn't give up either. You told me what happened to your parents last time we saw each other."
"I did?"
"Yeah, they fell down right?"
Shorty looked pensive.
"We were planning to bury them until the king asked us to bring our fallen ones to the royal scientist. We never found out what she was intending to do with the bodies. Me and my brothers just wanted the dust."
"You're talking as though they were dead."
"That's because those that fall down are dead or I should say they will die."
'Strange. Alphys said that she didn't want to tell anyone that the monsters had turned to dust. If they were suspecting that their loved ones were going to die why would Alphys keep it a secret from them? Unless that isn't it.'
"What if your parents were still alive and that's the reason she hasn't returned them to you?"
"Impossible. There is no way for a fallen monster to come back to life. Even if there was, there would be no reason why the royal scientist wouldn't return them to us."
"Maybe she's afraid," Frisk said.
'Though of what I can't be certain.'
"You're intending on leaving the ruins right?"
"Yeah."
"So you'll eventually meet her in your travels right?"
"Yeah."
"Then maybe you could look into it for me."
"Why me?"
"She doesn't respond to any of our letters. So there's no point in me trying to contact her. If anyone can find the answers you can. Rumor has it that the royal scientist holds a fascination for humans."
"Oh, I'll keep that in mind."
"Oh ho, looks like the human's made a reappearance."
Frisk whirled around and saw the froggit she had run into earlier before she had shrunk.
"I thought you'd run away with your tail between your legs. It certainly didn't stop you last time. Never thought you'd pull a disappearing act like that."
"That wasn't intentional."
"Likely story. You think we're going to let you slide after you killed one of our own."
"I didn't kill anyone," Frisk snapped.
"We'll see about that."
"Leapsy, knock it off. We don't need any pointless bloodshed," Shorty said.
"The h-ll we don't."
Leapsy fired flies out of his mouth, all honing on her like there was a target on her back.
She wasn't fast enough to outspeed them and absorbed some of them causing bloody wounds on her arms and chest.
Frisk retaliated summoning fireballs.
"What the-" Chara sputtered. "How the h-ll?"
She fired them at the froggit.
"Now that's more like it."
Shorty scoffed.
"I can't watch this," he said hopping away. "How long is it gonna take before you realise your stubborness is going to get you into trouble?"
Leapsy ignored him.
"Don't blame me if something bad happens because I won't pick up the pieces."
Frisk fired another fireball.
"Hah, is that the best you can do?"
Leapsy scoffed.
Suddenly Frisk was in his personal space with a fireball held inches away from his body.
"One wrong move and you're gonna be dust. So I'd suggest you give up if you know what's good for you."
Sweat beaded off the side of Leapsy's face.
He yelped.
"I-I surrender, just please don't hurt me."
Frisk smiled and pulled away.
"Good."
With that she continued on her way.
"He's lucky, I was so weak or I would have wiped the walls with him," Leapsy said as he saw her off.
"Wow, I hate to admit it but that was cool," Chara said.
'But you're wondering how I did it, too.'
Chara looked off to the side.
"Not really."
'Oh that's a shame. I would have shown you my fancy moves if you just asked.'
With that she continued on her way.
As she continued further she saw the hall with the six staircases. Having remembered the solution to the puzzle she was about to traverse the middle staircase on the left side when suddenly the floor fell below her.
"ARGGHHH."
"Hey!" Chara cried out.
"Ugh."
Frisk had once again fallen for the oldest trick in the book.
'You'd think I'd actually learn to look before I leap.'
With a sigh she glanced around noticing the switch ahead.
"Not so fast."
Up ahead was a jello looking green monster accompanied by Tom.
"Filthy single minder, obey the overmind."
A bunch of flies came bustling towards her. The green jelly monster fired a single missile out of it's head and it began to split into missiles that homed on her location.
'Sh-t.'
Frisk ran trying to dodge the pellets whe she heard a clatter.
"What's going on?" Chara asked.
She stopped to peer behind her only to find her cellphone had fell out of her pocket and her only access to her healing items.
Frisk was about to grab it off the ground when a pellet blasted it to pieces.
'Ugh. D-mn it.'
Chara phased through the floor to look at the ensuing battle.
Anger fueled her as Frisk turned to glare at the green jelly monster and the migosp that had joined them.
"What the h-ll is wrong with you?" She hissed. "You're utter scum attacking me when I didn't even attack you."
"I DON' T CARE."
"Look out!"
Frisk was about to move but it was too late as a pellet fired straight into her head. There was searing pain growing more intense before her vision began to fade to black.
She woke up leaning against the table outside the mouse hole she had delivered Tiny. Frisk shivered as her hands unconsciously reached up to grab her head where that green jelly creature had fired one of it's pellets to deal a killing blow.
"You look a little shaken. Was it a nightmare?" Chara asked.
'You think that would be enough to scare me? No, the truth is much worse than that.'
"Somehow I highly doubt it."
'Oh I guess you never heard of the idea of waking up with your last memory being that of a highly painful death.'
"Let me guess, this has to do with the time travel shenanigans that you keep going on about?"
'You don't believe me?'
Chara snorted.
"Of course not. That's ridiculous."
The two walked until they got into the room with the froggits.
"Hey human, over here," a curt voice came from the wall.
Frisk walked to closer to the wall to see Shorty standing stiffly, an uneasy frown on his face.
"Human, how many times have you passed by here?" he asked.
She stroked her chin looking off to the left side of him.
"You don't have to think of a lie to appease me. Something about this just feels unsettling. I'm sure we've met before but I don't remember it. It just feels like this isn't the first time we've met and that can't be good no matter how far you stretch it."
"Why is that odd?"
"This is the first time I saw you cross my path yet I still harbor memories about you. You said you were trying to get us to the surface because of a promise you made to me but you never told me how you failed. You could see why I'm a little unsettled."
"It's simple. The reason why I failed was because I didn't have the courage to go through with it. Nothing more."
Shorty snorted.
"Don't lie. A human can't break the barrier by themself."
"How would you know?"
He scoffed.
"Even if monsters are privy to some of royal details it's always been clear that a human alone cannot cross the barrier. You died and then you reappeared here. How? I don't know but no matter how impossible it may seem I don't want to hear any more of your lies."
Frisk sighed.
"It's true. I did die. As for how I came to be here I don't have a clue."
"I don't like this. Not one bit."
"I don't see the issue."
"If you have no idea how you keep reappearing before we even meet then you don't even know who is controlling it. If you don't know who is controlling this then you don't know how many times this is gonna happen or how to even stop it."
Thinking thoroughly on the subject, the implications suddenly dawned on her.
She could go through hundreds of these iterations before the person controlling them could be satisfied. What toll would that take on her sanity?
It was quite lucky that other monsters didn't seem to remember their previous encounters through the previous iterations other than faint snippets. She couldn't even begin to imagine the toll it would have taken on their mind.
"You need to find out why this keeps happening to you before it's too late."
"Oh ho, looks like the human's made a reappearance."
Frisk whirled around and saw the froggit she had run into earlier before she had shrunk.
"I thought you'd run away with your tail between your legs. It certainly didn't stop you last time. Never thought you'd pull a disappearing act like that."
"That wasn't intentional."
"Likely story. You think we're going to let you slide after you killed one of our own."
"I didn't kill anyone," Frisk snapped. "Maybe you should keep a better eye on your brothers."
"I do. A human like you couldn't possibly understand the affection monsters have for one another. Lumpsy was the leader of our group, the famed F4. All of us were a group, we were and we still are family."
"I get that. It's not a hard concept for us to understand," Frisk said.
She lunged towards the froggit getting in it's personal space, glaring straight at it's eyes.
"Just because you bathe in self-righteousness does not give you the right to condescend those who are different from you. It also doesn't give you the right to call me a liar. If I said I didn't kill him, I DID NOT KILL HIM."
The froggit gulped.
"Understand?"
"Yes."
Frisk stepped away from the froggit.
"Good. Glad we got that cleared up. Are you going to cross me again?"
"No."
"Thank you. That's all I ask." Frisk said.
As she continued further she saw the hall with the six staircases. The middle staircase on the left side was where the switch that would allow them to complete the puzzle was.
'Wait, Dorothy's ribbon should be here too shouldn't it?'
Frisk headed to the middle staircase on the right side and braced herself as the floor gave way.
She landed on her feet. This appeared to be the room with her ribbon. Frisk picked up the red ribbon and tied it in her hair.
A girl spectre with short blonde hair and a frilly pink shirt and a blue skirt stood crouched in a corner.
'What the-"
"What is it?" Chara asked materializing through the floor.
His eyes widened at the sight of her.
"Who's that?"
The girl turned to look at them with teary eyes.
Her eyes lit up in familiarity as soon as she caught sight of Frisk.
She got up and ran to her embracing her.
"Frisk," she whispered in her ear.
"Dorothy, it's been a while hasn't it?" she whispered back.
Dorothy pulled away.
"What are you doing back here? Last I seen you we were in the void," she said.
"It's a long story. After you disabled Flowey, I wanted to kill him for everything he did. I thought I did but he just disappeared after that."
'No need to tell them what he said to me before that.'
"What happened after that? Did you try to pass the barrier?"
"Yes. Once I did, I must have died because I woke up back in the ruins."
"So you performed a true reset then?"
"Is that what you call it?" Frisk asked.
Dorothy looked up in concentration as she made motions with her fingers.
"Well there's two kinds of resets. The ones where you can reset back to where you last saved are just known as resets but the ones where you wipe everything clean and start from the beginning that is a true reset."
"How do you perform a true reset?"
"Typically I just have the thought of wanting to do something over again from the beginning to see if I could do something different. Only I'm thinking of all the events I want to redo not just one event."
"So you have complete control over it then?"
"Typically. Only the last time I tried to do so, I woke up like this."
"What if you have no control over it?"
Dorothy looked at Frisk with her right brow raised in confusion.
"No control? I don't know. Maybe the other souls might know more about it."
"I see."
Dorothy glanced at Chara who glared icily at her.
"Say who's the boy stalking you?"
"Him?" Frisk inquired pointing to the ghost over her shoulder.
Dorothy nodded.
"That's Chara."
"Did you also fall down here like the rest of us?" Dorothy asked.
"I'm not at liberty to say."
"It's highly likely that he did probably to escape from the horrible injustice that is humanity," Frisk said.
"You know me so well," Chara chimed sarcastically.
"How he died though? That probably isn't as honorable. It's likely because he was too scared to retaliate."
"Hey!"
Frisk shrugged.
"It's true though maybe you want to add a more sympathetic backstory so people could look back and actually commend you for doing the world a justice. In that case, you killed yourself because all the humans tortured and abused you and the monsters had mercy on you."
"Who would believe such a flimsy backstory. There wasn't even any thought put into it. I hate humans so lo and behold I have to stoop so low as to love monsters? Stupid. I could have wrote a story like that. Why not put some actual effort into meshing it with my personality instead of grasping at straws. Do you really picture someone like me dying because of such a stupid excuse?"
"You got a point there."
"So how did you really die then?"
Chara shrugged.
"That's just it. I don't know."
"Funny, how stupid you're beginning to sound."
"Shut up," Chara replied coolly.
"Let's get going. We can't afford to daddle."
"I'm coming to," Dorothy said.
"Oh great," Chara said.
As Frisk climbed back up the stairs she ran into Loox who was standing in the middle of the narrow hall. Her eyes lit up in familiarity as she looked at the red one eyed monster with violet eyes.
"Loox!"
Suddenly the creature fired red eyebeams.
Frisk dodged to the right.
"Hey stop firing. It's me. Don't you recognize me?"
Sweat beaded down the side of his head.
"Who are you?"
Chara carefully glanced at him.
'That's right. I never told him my name did I?'
"What? You know him?" he asked.
'Yeah.'
"I'm a friend," Frisk supplied.
Loox fired bubbles from their mouth that circled her in a diamond shaped arch.
With no room to dodge in such close quarters, Frisk tried to skirt through them unable to avoid them nicking the backs of her legs and arms.
"Oh yeah, well friends don't pick on their friends," Loox said.
'Ugh, this guy is so unsufferable.'
Circular beams fired from his eyes bouncing around the room.
'Sh-t.'
Frisk tried to dodge but stumbled tripping on a crack on the floor. It sent her phone flying in front of her.
One of the beams hit it shattering her cellphone.
'Idiot.'
"You mor-"
"Look I get that he's broke your phone but trust me. Don't pick on him," Chara said.
'He better reimburse me for the phone when this gets done and over with. Those had all my healing items.'
Frisk put her anger aside and sighed.
"No matter what happens I am your friend. So quit this. You are so much better than that."
Loox closed his eyes.
"Finally someone gets it."
Frisk hugged him as Loox cried in her shoulder.
Dorothy snorted.
"He's lucky. If it were me, I would have slapped him silly," she said.
"Who are you and why do you sound so familiar?" Loox whispered against Frisk's shoulder. She could feel the moisture of his tears seeping into her shirt.
Faint memories of a heated conversation passed by his head. The queen ushered a boy into Home. This boy talking to a small frog and him cutting in. He remembered bullying them.
Even after that, this boy called him up to tell him about his sister. They even rescued his sister. She had told him all about how that brave boy rescued her.
"Isn't it obvious we are friends."
Loox pushed her away and that's when he caught sight of her shattered cellphone on the ground.
"Hey, was that your cellphone?"
"Yeah, it had most of my items."
"Your healing items too?"
"Well yeah."
"Tell you what. Come to my place at Home and I'll repair it for you. Think of it as a favor from a friend."
"Alright."
"Well then, see you later."
With that Loox headed back.
'Say Chara.'
"What is it?" he asked.
'How did you know he would react like he did?'
"I faintly remember meeting him before. If I recall he was often picked on because of his eye."
'I see. Guess it makes sense that you know about some of the monsters after all you did live with them for a while.'
Frisk headed down the cracked floor on the left middle staircase to pull the switch before climbing back up the staircase.
"What are you faffing around about?" Dorothy asked.
Realization passed Chara's eyes.
"Oh you can't read his thoughts can you?" Chara added smugly.
Dorothy snorted.
Chara rubbed above his upper lip with his index finger in a sly way.
"Guess I ought to count myself lucky that I was blessed with such a great gift."
"Well at least I'm still not referring to them as a b-"
Dorothy caught Frisk's eyes. Her expression was stern as her index finger was held to her lips in a motion that can only be interpreted as Frisk telling her to keep quiet on that matter.
"b...blessing," she said.
"I guess I'll grant you mercy for acknowledging what I already know."
Dorothy fumed.
"I was just informing my partner here about that monster they encountered. I happen to have quite a lot of information on that monster, you see."
"Oh."
Frisk saw the spikes that had blocked the way forward has receded.
As they headed further into the ruins, suddenly Frisk heard a crackle and everything faded to black.
When she awoke everything was black however it wasn't completely dark.
'Dorothy?'
No one responded.
'Chara? Are you still here?'
"Yeah, I'm here."
'What are we? Did the player call us again?'
Chara shrugged.
"Who knows."
In the distance Frisk could see what looked like tall blood red lava pillars that slithered along the ground.
"Hello?" she said attempting to talk with the one closest to her however it was silent.
Frisk tried to get the attention of the other one, stepping closer to it.
"Hello!"
"It hurts," the pillar groaned.
It had a sagging face.
"What's the matter?" Frisk asked.
It looked down seeing her for the first time.
"YOU?!-You need to leave this place. It isn't safe."
"Where am I anyway? What is this place?"
"It's the void."
"The void?"
"The space between life and death. An essence that absorbs life. The longer you're here, the more danger you'll be in."
"Impossible. I've been here before, nothing's ever tried to kill me here."
"Just listen to me."
"I tried talking to that other statue but it wouldn't talk to me but it's supposed to be a monster isn't it?"
"That's just it, nothing down here is alive. Stay here long enough and the void will consume your soul."
"If that's the case, how are you alive?"
"I'm not. I am merely a copy."
"A copy of who? I mean you do have a name right?"
"It's Plato. That's the monster who I was copied from. Time moves here differently than the world outside. Those who are already dead can live here infinitely but the void will try to consume anyone with a soul you need to leave here before it's too late."
The worry on Plato's face was impalpable. Still his concern resonated with Frisk.
"How do I leave?"
The faint sound of static reached Frisk's ears and grew louder.
"Too late. It's coming."
Suddenly the pillar began to blink out, glitches appeared on it's face.
A robotic voice said in monotone.
"La, la. Time to wake up and smell the pain."
The ground began to quake.
"Though...it's still a little shaky. Fheh, fueh, fueh, fuheufheu."
Frisk landed on her butt.
"Look out! Behind you!" Chara shouted suddenly.
Frisk turned just as a long bone-like creature was flying towards her.
It resembled a dragon and a serpent only with no visible arms.
She jumped on, holding tight to the large bones on it's back.
"Woo hoo!" Chara cheered.
"Wow, I've never seen anyone do THAT before," said Plato. "Hurry get out while you still have the chance."
The dragon tried to shake Frisk off of him causing her to fall on the ground.
Frisk yelped.
The mouth of the dragon formed a black ball.
"Run. Don't let that hit you or you're gone," Plato said.
"What do you mean gone? Do you mean like dead or literally gone?
The dragon fired the black blast. Frisk jumped aside as the dragon literally busted a crack in the void.
Numbers flashed like barcode.
"I mean gone. Everything that dies in the void doesn't come back. The only thing that remains are the copies left of you that are formed after you die."
Around the hole darkness was slowly closing around it.
"Now's your chance. Get out of here," Plato hissed.
Frisk and Chara jumped into the hole before it completely closed up.
Plato continued to look at the hole, relief slowly creeping on his face.
"You know that's not very nice to let my prisoners escape."
Sweat beads down his face and he frowned, his eyes widened visibly frightened by the person who addressed him.
'Still at least they are safe.'