Holy shit we're back. We're actually back. Not gonna make promises on if we'll be able to get another chapter up any time soon, those never seem to pan out well, but we're glad to have another chapter for y'all. Now, review time.

Fixer140.85: Thanks friendo, we're just as excited to write what happens next as you are to see it, lol. Hopefully you enjoy how the conversation plays out.
Zillowzest: Yeah, it's not a great day to be a human trapped under a mountain with a race that knows your souls are the key to their freedom.
XWolf26: It means a lot to see ya reading DTi, friend. We definitely feel like Chara's a lot better suited to picking up the pieces than Cter is. Also, we're always down to see what insight you've got as far as writing stuff's concerned, regardless of how many chapters have passed since the one you're pointing them out for.
lmao-imdeadaf: You are absolutely correct about the reference to Hammerlock. Funnily enough we never actually read any of the Scott Pilgrim novels, we just saw that film adaptation and played the beat'em-up they released back on the PS3/XBox360. Good times.

As much as we'd like to stop putting disclaimers for shit you already know, it'd feel weird to just, like, stop 16 chapters in. So, yeah, this entire gig is built on the foundation of other folks' works, maybe go check those out if you somehow haven't, Toby Fox's Undertale, XWolf26's DoubleTale:Rewritten, and Wingah's DoubleScramble sprite comic are all amazing.

The tension in the room was oppressive, and made the massive cavern feel like I'd been stuffed inside a phone booth with Chara and Frisk. The latter was breathing heavily, trying to force their face back into the impassive mask they usually wore, while the former was shifting their narrow-eyed gaze between myself and Frisk. I tried to think of where or how to start, but the words died in my throat whenever Chara looked at me.

"Well?" Chara's question echoed off the slick, icy walls, the only sound to break the silence as Frisk and I both struggled to find our voices. This prompted a sigh from the sentry. "Fine, how about I start? You…" They pointed at me, piercing red eyes scanning me up and down. "Where did you get those hair clips? They're perfect replicas of the set Cter gave me for my birthday, down to the scratches from the first time I wore them."

I blinked in surprise, having forgotten about the hair clips entirely. When had I even gotten them? Had Chara given me them before I fought Sans and Frisk?

* Nah, I ordered them for ya off Amazon.

"There's also that tacky sweater. I've only ever seen them stuffed away in a corner of Doctor Mettaton's lab with the rest of his old merch, never to see the light of day." Chara continued, tearing my attention away from my textbox. I glanced down at my open hoodie and stifled a groan. Thankfully enough, they turned towards Frisk. "And then there's you. I almost wouldn't have noticed if you'd been alone, or written it off, but something's been off this whole time."

Chara crossed their arms and counted off the points they were making on their fingers. "You haven't reacted to or been surprised by a single thing this entire time. Not the cage, not the malfunctioning net trap, not even any of the Inklings down here. Not only that, but I've had the strangest, most severe case of deja vu every time I look at you…" Chara looked back over at me, "...but not with her. Nothing's adding up. Why?"

Chapter Sixteen: Experience
"I didn't mean to freak you out. I've just... Been a little stressed out."

I let out an explosive sigh, and gathered my nerve before answering. "...that's probably because this isn't the first time any of this has happened before."

Chara's eyes narrowed further. "Explain."

"So, uhhh, would you believe me if I told you that Frisk had been looping time for god knows how long, repeating their journey from the moment they fell to the very end, over and over?" I vomited out all in one take. I figured it'd be best to rip it off fast, like a bandaid.

"..." I took Chara's silence for a definite maybe and kept the ball rolling.

"W-Well, anyways, that's a thing. Any time they died or just felt like it, they could rewind to a recent point in time throughout the journey, or right back to the start. That kinda power, as power does, got to them, and they-"

"And I began to obsess over the details." Frisk interrupted, their voice as hollow as their expression. "I went back. Over and over. Making large changes at first, which grew increasingly small and petty as I scoured the underground for things I hadn't seen, dialogue I hadn't heard, emotions I hadn't felt. Then I took it a step further." They swallowed hard, taking a moment to find the words they needed.

Chara and I both stared in stunned silence. I didn't think Frisk was going to speak up so soon, if at all, without some nudging.

"That first kill felt…disgusting, in a way that's hard to properly convey. I knew I was crossing a line that I shouldn't. I knew that the shame and guilt should've told me all I needed to hear. Fix it. Move on. But I didn't. As terrible as I felt doing it, it was still…new. I'd never felt that way before, I'd never watched a monster crumble to dust. I'd never felt the sensation of my LOVE increasing." It seemed like now Frisk had started, they couldn't stop, their impassive facade quickly yielding to that same broken expression I remembered from when I'd found them in that illusory desert.

"So I…I-I kept going. Someone would die, I'd see if and how things would change. Then I'd do it again, with different people. With more. With less. The same way I'd slowly exhausted all the fresh experiences before I'd crossed that line, I began to reach another wall. Not enough changed. I'd grown numb to it all, with or without LOVE. Or maybe bored is a better word, terrible as it sounds." Frisk couldn't look either of us in the eye.

"That's when I decided. I'd do one last run. I'd sink as low as I could go…and then I'd set it all right by RESETing, breaking the Barrier again, and move on from this messed up chapter of my life. If someone got in my way, I put them down. The feeling of stomping all over memories I cherished, and the power it gave me…" they trailed off, before shaking their head and continuing, "No one was safe. I needed to see what would happen, what would change…and I got everything I bargained for and then some. At the end, Cter was there, waiting for me. At one point, I used to look at him like a brother, and in that cursed run he broke me to pieces and ripped the rug out from beneath me by explaining how much I'd hurt him and returned the favor tenfold."

Frisk took a shaky breath, gritting their teeth. "...even then it wasn't enough. I pushed for more. Seeing Cter like that and getting my ass kicked wasn't enough for me, I had to win. I had to see what came next. So I crossed another line." I nearly stepped forward to hug them, put a hand on their shoulder, offer any kind of support…but then I remembered why this conversation was happening.

"I wasn't alone. I hadn't been ever since I fell into the mountain. I was haunted by a punny ghost. One who told me again and again that I was barking up the wrong tree. That I should listen to those god awful feelings in my soul and move on. I stopped hearing from him as much as I brushed him off and kept going…only for something strange to happen. The fight with Cter was a meat grinder, and when I started getting desperate…Sans made me a deal. With his help I'd finally beat Cter, and move on…" Frisk let out a hollow chuckle, "...like it'd be that simple. I'd been suckered into selling my soul to the one person who'd seen every shitty thing I'd done, every timeline I'd ruined out of curiosity, and he was done sitting back and watching. I thought I could just go ahead with the plan, Reset, break the barrier, and put Mt. Ebott far, far behind me. Then I woke up in a bed of flowers. Again. And again. And again."

Frisk grit their teeth. "No matter what I did…no matter how I treated everyone, no matter how I pleaded with him…I kept waking up on that fucking flower bed. It was his game, his Save file, I was just a broken piece in it. At some point I gave up, started carving through the underground, time after time, hoping eventually some part of it would break for good. That everything would end and that some way, somehow, I could escape the hell I'd earned…" Frisk looked to be on the verge of tears, and I took that moment to interject.

"...that's where I come in." Chara's expression was unreadable as they turned their attention away from the broken child in front of us. "Last Reset, I woke up in the underground a bit after they did, with my own Save file. After realizing what was going on, I figured I was the only one who could really get them to stop. I kinda, well, sucked at first, but it turns out if you're crazy and smart enough, you too can scoop up a bunch of dead bodies and shove their magic into the first schmuck with a Save file you can get your hands on!" I forced a laugh which quickly melted into a sigh, "In the end, Frisk and I…we…we spent an excruciating amount of time in the throne room, locked in fights to the death. Making small talk while we killed each other over and over, like that'd somehow fix things. Eventually the dude who dragged me into this mess came back to finish the job, giving me the opportunity to give Sans the boot and get Frisk their soul back." I took a deep breath, shaking my head. "They Reset...and, well…here we are."

The silence that followed was deafening. Chara's intense, skeptical expression kept flitting between me, Frisk, the impaled ink thing, and somewhere off in the middle distance. I just kept my hands stuffed into my pockets and shivered as the bitter cold seeped into my bones. Frisk didn't look like they were faring much better as they shivered. A sweater and hoodie weren't exactly the greatest winter gear, as it turned out.

Eventually Chara turned and began to march towards what I could only assume was the exit, given the way the ground subtly sloped upwards. Frisk and I wordlessly followed, no one daring to break the tense silence as we walked. Eventually we came out of the other end of the cave, Snowdin Town's warm lights glowing invitingly in the distance.

"Oh, hey, there you are. I was wonderin' what ha-" Cter's jovial greeting cut itself short as we all turned to face him, and his grin looked a lot more forced as Chara approached.

"We need to talk. Alone." They stated, and for once their partner didn't seem to have a funny quip, or some prepared gag. He merely nodded, and both the sentries disappeared in an instant, leaving Frisk and I alone.

"...n-no sense freezing out here, I guess…" I mumbled, beginning to trudge towards Snowdin, the crunching of a second pair of boots the only assurance I had that Frisk was still following behind. I could feel the eyes on Frisk and I as we walked through Snowdin, and prayed that my shitty disguise would be enough to keep them from looking too closely at me. We made our way into the amusingly named "Snowed-Inn", and got ourselves a room. They took the bed while I hopped up onto the desk, and we sat in silence for a bit.

"...you…uh…wanna tal-"

"No. I don't." Frisk cut me off before rolling over to look at the wall.

"...g-gotcha…" I mumbled, suppressing a sigh and closing my eyes as I leaned back against the wall.

Eventually, the sound of Frisk's steady breathing broke the tense silence in the little room, and I took that as my cue to leave. I needed some fresh air, and something to eat. I shivered a bit as I stepped out into the cold, throwing up my hood and glancing down the road. People were still milling about, fiddling with gifts beneath some kinda Christmas tree, walking pets, and loitering around. Before I realized it, my feet were taking me back down the way we'd come. Towards the cave.

I stopped short of the entrance, its yawning maw ready to swallow me whole as I hesitated. A look at my stats made it clear that whatever that ink thing was, it wasn't dead, or maybe hadn't been truly alive to begin with. And yet…I still felt the need to see it for myself. Chara's harsh words echoed through my mind as it conjured horrible what-ifs. What if it had been a monster? What if I'd gotten into a fight on my own and gotten backed into a corner again and lashed out? I grit my teeth and shook my head, trying to banish those intrusive thoughts. Just move forward. One step in front of another. It's not. That. Hard.

"Greetings and salutations!" A boisterous, cheerful voice startled me from my thoughts, and a quick glance around me, and then up to the ceiling didn't yield any immediate source.

"...God?" I asked the voice.

"Someone even greater! You stand before the great Flowery!" I blinked and looked down at the ground, and the weird, inky black flower grinning up at me.

* His smug aura mocks you.

I snickered a bit at that, and the flower's cheerful grin quickly soured into a dirty look.

"Hey! Quit laughing!" Flowery demanded, pointing a sludge-like vine at me.

"S-Sorry about that, just, remembered something funny is all." I replied, crouching down a little to be closer to my new conversational partner.

"I suppose I can allow it this once! You looked like you needed a good laugh anyways. I cannot help but wonder if all humans are such drama queens." The flower's grin felt a touch less friendly as he made his snide little comment.

"...and what is that supposed to mean?" I asked, my brow furrowing in confusion and annoyance.

"I saw what you did in the cave! Truly impressive work! It might even come close to rivaling my own! Yet here you are, looking like you kicked a puppy, or stole forty cakes!"

* That's as many as four tens, and that's terrible.

I stood up and stepped over the little shit, deciding that I wasn't exactly in the mood for whatever bullshit this weed wanted today. He popped back up in front of me a few feet into the cave.

"Hey! Don't you know how rude it is to walk away in the middle of a conversation!?" Flowery snapped, glaring up at me.

"Don't you know how rude it is to spy on people?" I snapped back, returning his glare.

"Spying is such a nasty word, I was merely concerned for the safety of one of Snowdin's most upstanding citizens, and their two new compatriots! Someone as great as myself couldn't simply walk away, now could I?" Flowery's weird expression and exaggerated tone spoke volumes.

* Hard to walk without legs.

"Right…look, you gonna get to the point, or am I gonna have to teach you how to play whack-a-mole?" I grumbled, my fingers itching to summon Tournesol before I clenched my fist and fought the urge.

"Fine, fine, I suppose I can, in my infinite benevolence, enlighten you. You see, even someone as confident, handsome, and skilled as myself suffers from moments of doubt!" Flowery began, and I groaned.

"Yeah, okay, no. I'm not doing this. You have no fuckin' idea what I'm dealing with right now, eavesdropping or no." I snapped, turning to leave.

"Then why did you look so shaken by what you did to that inky beast, hmm?" I stiffened, remaining silent as the flower continued, "It felt natural, didn't it? After all that time fighting and killing, you don't know how to handle a real fight without the option to tear your foe to bloody pieces!"

Flowery's words stung, and I found myself leveling Tournesol at him before I even realized what I was doing. "Sh-Shut up!"

"It's nothing to be ashamed of, Marian! It's perfectly natural! You humans have quite a gift for violence!" Flowery's smile became warped and creepy, the piercing red of his stare melting into a white goop that threatened to spill from his sockets.

"Nothing to be ashamed of!? My first instinct in a real fight is to look for weak points! I nearly ran Frisk through on fucking muscle memory!" I grit my teeth, my eyes stinging as I fought back tears. "I don't wanna be some violent psycho who's one kneejerk away from killing someone at any given moment!"

"Then don't!" Flowery replied, his expression returning to normal.

I stared at him like he'd grown a third head, trying to figure out if he was mocking me or not. He seemed to sense my confusion and kept going.

"Humans are especially capable warriors, but that doesn't mean you have to live up to that legacy! If you wish to lay down your sword and let that talent go to waste, then by all means! A new Reset is a new chance to decide who you wish to be!" Flowery cheerfully explained, bobbing side to side as he did so.

"...It's harder than it looks." I sighed, my fingernails digging into my skin as I clenched Tournesol tighter.

"Then try harder! It's not as if you were much of a match for Frisk at first either, and yet, here we are! A whole new opportunity born of your capacity to learn through brutal trial and error! We could even make it a competition of sorts, if that would help!"

I cocked a brow, not trusting this for a second. "...a contest?"

"It's rather simple! You make it to the barrier without a single point of EXP, and I'll have a special surprise for you!" Flowery's expression melted again as his tone grew manic, "Fail, and I take Frisk's soul and we have a wonderful time exploring your true potential together!" He cackled and plunged back into the frosted dirt, and I was left by myself to seethe.

* For as unhinged as he seems, he has a point.

"Oh really now?" I sighed, glancing at my text box.

* You don't have to be perfect the first time. Just look at Chara. They've got a body count, and yet they still manage to do the right thing.

"..." I took a deep breath, feeling my tense muscles relax a bit as Tournesol dissolved into pixels and embers.

"...yeah, I guess you're right…"

* Of course I am.

I rolled my eyes, sparing a glance down the tunnel…before turning and leaving the cave. I'd gotten lucky with the Inkling, but I couldn't count on that to happen again. I had to do better…somehow. I groaned as I pondered that delightful little sticking point, as well as the fucked up game the flower had forced me into.

"...what a mess…"

And that's that. Originally wanted to make this chapter longer, but that would delay this shit a lot more, and we'd have to struggle to find another natural feeling stopping point. Two heavy conversations back to back feels like a good place to stop. Please remember to drop a review if you've got the time and something to say, it means a lot to get to chat with folks about the story.

We're a TiredWhiteMayge, and we hope y'all have a wonderful day.