Chapter 1: A New Beginning

"Hey, Wingding. Do you think we'll ever make it to the surface?"
"Where did this thought come from, all of sudden, Chara?"
"Just curious. Everyone wants to escape the Underground, but... do you think we ever will?"
"...You know, to be honest, I don't know. But we have to try. ...You know, you could leave. Unlike the rest of us, you are human. Your soul is stronger."
"...You know what I would have to do to get through the Barrier."
"Yes, that is true... But if you had the chance, would you take it?"

Falling...
I was falling...
What was happening?
Why was I falling?
No... No, no, no, no, no!

Slam!

I hit the ground, and rolled over onto my back. I could see the caverns above me... They looked... familiar.

I was here before. That was the underside of the hole I fell into... such a long time ago. Why? Was this a dream?

It was, wasn't it? Why this one? Why have a dream of this memory? It was such a bad one? This fall was why I became afraid of heights in the first place. Though... I did meet Asriel for the first time here. He found me and brought me to safety. But I was so afraid of him at the time... not to mention he was deceased now, souring the memory even further.

But as I laid there, I realized... I didn't feel the same as back then. When I first fell, I broke several bones. I couldn't walk, I could barely speak above a mumble. But now, I didn't feel any of that. I still hurt from the fall, but it didn't hurt as bad. Also, I didn't feel... let's say, proportionally correct in my body for the time. I felt like the adult I was, not the kid I was back then. And finally, I felt something soft below me.

I got up, and looked around me. There were gold flowers, buttercups, surrounding me. It was a small field, but it was enough to soften my fall, apparently. But... they weren't here before.

I also realized that I felt like I was in my adult body, because, of course, I was in my current body, as an adult, not a kid. I mean, I didn't look like an adult very much. Despite being 20 years old, I was short height, about 4 feet, 11 inches, so I looked like a twelve or thirteen year old. I had light brown hair which I kept short and straight (to try to look more mature), warm brown eyes, and I was wearing a green sweater with a yellow stripe, and brown cargo shorts with black tights under them, and brown boots with a fuzzy white top hem, and white puffs on the shoelace ends.

So... either this was a really weird dream, or... this was real. My memory was a little fuzzy. Was I really here? But, how... the Ruins were locked up. How could I have...

Then I remembered what happened. I was with that kid. Her name was... Frisk, yes. And she could turn time back... supposedly. Her Reset ability, and...

Wait... where was she?

I quickly spun around, trying to find her. It wasn't hard... she was lying a few feet from me. And not moving.

My eyes went wide, and I ran over to her. Luckily, she was still breathing. I started attempting to shake her awake. She must've fallen alongside me, and was knocked unconscious.

After half a minute of shaking, she finally started moving. Her eyes opened, and she looked around, before her sight locked onto me. Then she quickly sat up, staring at me with a happy grin, and raising her hands, signed, mommy! You came with me!

I gave a small, unsure, but relieved smile, finding that she was okay. And of course, she still thought of me as her mother. ...Great. I just gave her a nod in response. Because I apparently looked like Frisk's deceased mother, she considered me her new mother. But I wasn't on board with that idea, though, but I really didn't have a choice but to accept it for now.

Unfortunately for her, Frisk was mute. She had to use sign language to speak. Luckily, I knew how to use sign language myself, so I could communicate with her.

Frisk seemed to be about eight years old, the same age I was when I first fell here. She had short and messy dark brown hair, deep blue eyes, and was wearing a blue and purple-striped sweater and blue short-jeans, and had a purple backpack. Though to my surprise, she wasn't wearing the pink tutu and ballet shoes she had before the Reset. Instead, she had brown sneakers on for footwear, similar to what I wore as a kid. I guess maybe she didn't have those at this point.

Knowing that Frisk was okay, I took a moment to reflect on what happened. Two decades ago, my friend, Wingding Serif (a.k.a. Gaster) made the CORE, a massive generator created to open a rift in time and space in order to make a portal to the surface, and free the monsters. But the project failed, and the CORE was overloaded. And after saving Wingding, I fell into the CORE, and ended up in the Void, where nothing exists. Apparently, I completely ceased to exist, and no one I knew remembered me (except for Wingding).

But recently, Frisk found a way into the Void, and found me. After she left, I was able to escape back into the world. Then after that, I found Frisk, and then Wingding, and found out about Frisk's ability to Reset, and that she had to kill monsters, each and every timeline. And this had left her in a state of regret, but she couldn't find a different solution.

I had offered to come with Frisk in one of her Resets, so I could help her find the different solution, hurt no one, help her get home, and hopefully make this her last Reset.

That was easier said than done, but I was determined to complete this mission. I knew monsters better than anyone else, so I knew I could help her get past them all.

Frisk sat there staring at me, quiet. I almost forgot about her sign language, but was able to notice her signing. Mommy, are you okay?

I shook myself back into reality, and told her, both speaking and signing, "yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking." I got up, and Frisk followed suit. "Let's get going. If we are where I think we are, we've got a long way to go before we get to the closest town. Um, it's Snowdin, I think."

Frisk got a little nervous. But the monsters...

"We'll get past them." I started walking towards the nearby purple-stone gate that marked the proper entrance into what was known as the Ruins, motioning to Frisk to follow me. "I mean, nothing can surprise me. I know the Underground like the back of my hand."

So... I wasn't expecting the yellow flower with a smiling face. The two of us walked through the gate, to find this little buttercup flower waiting for us.

"Howdy! I'm Flowey. Flowey the Flower!" the flower spoke. So, he could talk as well. He was about to say something else, but then he looked straight at me, and his smile faltered a bit. "Uh..." he cleared his throat, "Hmm... you're new to the Underground, aren'tcha? Golly, the two of you must be so confused. Someone ought to teach you how things work around here..."

Okay, this was very suspicious. First of all, of all the monsters I knew about, I knew talking flowers were not among them. And what he was saying, on top, right after faltering upon seeing me...

While he was talking, I turned to Frisk to see her looking scared at the sight of the flower. I knew she was terrified of the monsters, but he looked way too innocent for a kid not to trust. Then I realized that she had been turning time back, and had probably been through this multiple times. She knew what was going to happen.

My attention was pulled back to Flowey when he said, "...I guess little old me while have to do. Ready? Here we go!"

I felt a tug inside me, as my Soul was pulled out of my body. Looking Frisk, I could see that the same had happened to her. I knew what this meant.

Flowey looked surprised when he saw my Soul. For that, I didn't blame him. After escaping the Void, my Soul was left scared. The edges of the crimson red heart that was my Soul had faded into grey, and grey cracks also covered the edges of my Soul. Frisk's Soul, a brighter red heart than mine, also showed signs of fragility if you looked closely. I didn't understand what that meant, but I knew what our shared color of red meant for both of us. We're both had strong determination. It was our Soul trait.

Flowey again recomposed himself, continuing with, "see that heart? That is your Soul, the culmination of your being. Your Soul starts off weak, but can grow strong if you gain a lot of LV. What's 'LV' stand for? Why, LOVE, of course!" He leaned towards us. "You want some LOVE, don't you? Don't worry, I'll share some with you!"

He gave us a wink, and a bunch of... seeds or something, popped out from behind him. "Down here, LOVE is shared through little white 'friendliness pellets'."

Frisk subtly stepped back. That was it. I knew something was wrong. A monster pulling out someone's Soul meant they were starting a fight, as magic harms the Soul more than it can a physical body. And those seeds were magic attacks. Someone as well-practiced in magic as myself could see that much. And top of it all, Frisk obviously knew this too.

He was trying to trick us. Why? I didn't know, but I was ready for it.

"Are you ready?" Flowey asked. "Go on! Try to get many as you can, you two!"

Frisk attempted to step out of the way, and dodge them altogether, but I stood my ground, and waved my hands around, channeling my magic, and creating crimson red flames. I pulled my hands close together, combining my flames into a fireball, then pushed it forward, the fireball splitting into smaller bullets of flame. With good control and accuracy, each flame bullet collided with one of the "friendliness pellets", destroying them in small bursts.

"Woah, wh-what the-" Flowey stuttered in surprise. "H-hey buddy, you, uh, missed them..."

Really, I thought, that's what you're calling this...? I literally just blew them up!

More pellets appeared behind him, as he said, "let's try again... okay?"

He sent the pellets forward, but I simply created another fireball, and did the same maneuver. Frisk, trusting I had this, didn't even try to move out the way again, impressed with my counter-attack method.

Flowey was clearly getting mad, and his façade was breaking. "Is this a joke? Are you braindead? RUN. INTO. THE. BULLETS!" Then he quickly composed himself, and said, "I mean, 'friendliness pellets'."

More pellets came at us, faster this time, but I didn't even attempt to make another fireball. This was too easy. I simply snapped my fingers, and several small explosions of my fire magic instantly destroyed them.

Flowey's face lowered, then came back up, his face changing. The innocent smiley face was replaced with blacked eyes with white pupils, and a crooked mouth with sharp teeth. "...You know what's going on here, don't you?"

"Yeah, you're not fooling us, you little devil," I replied. "Why don't you go away, and leave us to our business."

Flowey chuckled. "You just wanted to see me suffer, didn't you?"

Before I could respond, thorny vines shot out of the ground below me and Frisk, wrapping around the two of us, then pulling us both down into kneeling positions. I tried to summon fire to burn them away, but found that I couldn't tap into my magic power.

"Wh-what!? How!? I can't-" I tried to speak, but the vines started squeezing tighter. Did... did these vines have the ability to block magic?

Suddenly, a bunch of Flowey's "bullets", as he properly called them, appeared around the two of us, surrounding our Souls in two rings.

"DIE!" Flowey yelled, and then he started laughing as the rings of bullets started closing in on our Souls.

I could feel the power of magic around me. The bullets were fairly strong, and together they could do enough damage to severely harm my Soul. Frisk's Soul, on the hand...

I struggled against the vines, trying to break free and access my magic, but they just became tighter in response. I couldn't break free.

But then, a flash of light appeared, as a ring of orange flames spawned, burning away of the bullet seeds. I was confused. It wasn't my flames. Those were red, and these were clearly orange.

Flowey seemed confused too, and didn't notice the orange fireball that suddenly appeared next to him, only for him to look over to late, and it shot towards, and burst at the base of his stem, literally blowing him away, out of the ground, roots and all, and slamming into the nearby wall. I watched as Flowey then quickly dug into the ground, disappearing below.

"What a terrible creature, torturing such a poor, innocent youth..." spoke a new voice, a very feminine and motherly sounding voice.

A large goat monster approached, standing at about six feet tall. She had small horns and dark red eyes. She wore a long purple dress with white sleeves and an insignia on the front, which was a winged circle with three triangles underneath (two on the sides pointing up, one below the middle pointing down).

I recognized this monster immediately.

The vines had loosened, and Frisk and I were able finally to pull them off of us. I didn't even need to use magic, which I didn't, because I was too surprised.

As we did this, she took a good look at us, and smiled. "Ah, do not be afraid, my children. I am Toriel, the caretaker of Ruins. I pass through this place to see if anyone has fallen down here. You two are the first humans to come here in a very long time. Come, I will guide you through the catacombs."

I smiled, and tried to hold back my tears. I even ignored the fact she just called a "child", when I was, in fact, a 20-year-old adult. I thought I'd never see her again after she disappeared.

It was Toriel Dreemurr, my adoptive mother.

Author's Note: So after so long, we have the first chapter of the new book of Fallen Determination. I do my best to re-explain things as they become important. In fact, it's already happened in this chapter, by re-describing the characters and giving a summary of what's happened.

So hopefully it won't be necessary to read the previous book, but I would still recommend reading it anyway. At the very least, please read the first three chapters, and then read Chapter 21 to the end (though I should warn you, if you do read those last chapters without reading the others, you will be confused by the secondary plot points in those chapters).

Now, because I wanted to be accurate, I dusted off my old recording software (well, figuratively), and started a new run of Undertale, recording my playthrough, so I could look through the footage and accurately write in every line said in the game by the characters, word-for-word. Though they will be altered somewhat to fit the fact that there are two humans instead of one, and to help the writing flow better.

I think a good example of this is Flowey's stuttering after his first wave of friendliness pellets, when he surprised by Chara's magic, but is still trying to convince them to run into the friendliness pellets. Speaking of Flowey, I gave his abilities to set a small addition. As you probably know, in a later scene, he grabs everyone in a vine, and none of them try to break free, even those you would think would try. So I considered an explanation to this, came up with this. His vines now block the use of magic. This will be elaborated on further when we get to that scene, much later, but I figured this would be a good place to show it off.

If you want to see Chara, Frisk, and Gaster's OC Profiles, you can find them (and my other OC Profiles) on my DeviantArt, where I am known as "Cobalt-Gemini".