Interlude 1 : Sleep

Back in his and Asriel's room, after the first had gone to bed a long time ago, a ton of thoughts filled Frisk's head. Despite Toriel's request that he rest after all the commotion, the human was unable to do so. Everything happened so quickly, the child felt like he barely had time to blink; he remembered Toriel grabbing him, and Asgore holding Asriel, and then they drove back to Second Home. Then, Frisk had been placed in his bed and had been tossing and turning in vain for a while trying to get to sleep. Nearby, Asriel had his back to him, probably asleep, and not seeming to be disturbed by his commotion.

He was lucky to have been able to fall asleep. Not him.

Frisk took a deep breath, trying to close his eyes, and rolled under the covers; downstairs, the child could hear the faint creaking of the sofa, which Toriel and Asgore had to try to unfold into a makeshift bed for the big king goat.

Earlier, when leaving Alphys, Asgore had asked Toriel for the opportunity to stay with them tonight to make sure everything would be okay. Everyone - including Frisk - was surprised that Toriel accepted without difficulty, even offering to make a place for him in the living room so that he could sleep comfortably. "Only for tonight, though," she had clarified, categorically, and her former husband had immediately approved. Toriel hadn't shown any joy or frustration, but she had seemed a little relieved by his offer, before they greeted their friends and each left in their car towards her house. Maybe she had also felt a need for company after all the mess? Or was she just too tired to argue?

Neither of them seemed to have had much energy anyway, and when they got home, everyone's only thought had been getting ready for bed. The festive meal prepared for this evening, now cancelled, had been put away by Toriel in the refrigerator, while Asgore took the children to their respective beds and put them inside gently.

After we left, Undyne stayed with Alphys to watch over her while she rested, Frisk recalled absently, feeling a pang of shame knowing that she wasn't doing well through her indirect fault. Sans and Papyrus both returned home... We will see them all again tomorrow to better discuss what happened.

His eyebrows furrowed at the moment. What had happened, exactly? Frisk thought about... but he completely ignored it. It escaped him that such a thing could have happened. And no one seemed to know it, or had any semblance of an answer. Even Sans, when Frisk was most expecting an idea knowing him, had remained awfully silent.

The child moans: why did it go like that? After everything that had happened in the Underground, and all their efforts, the child would never have thought that such a catastrophe could have happened again. Not in this timeline, where absolutely everything Frisk had wished for had come true. Everyone had been saved and was happy, right? He succeeded in making things right, no?

So why didn't it look that way?

…Would it all start again?

His chest tightened, victim to the crushing weight of apprehension. Unless it was his Soul which was still reacting to his anguish. Frisk hoped he wouldn't lose control like before; he still felt this injury keenly on that, like a permanent and annoying tingling. Because of what had happened at the embassy, nothing made any sense; this void, this creature that had attacked him and then this... person? thing ? who had spoken to him as he fled.

And then... what Frisk had been forced to do to get out of it.

He tried to forget and sighed, unable to relax enough to sleep – how could he? As Frisk looked for a better position, there was commotion in front. A soft sound, like velvet footsteps, approached the bed; right next to him, the mattress sank. Intrigued, Frisk opened his eyes: under the subdued light of the night light – which Frisk had requested from Toriel, refusing to stay in the dark – the child saw the preoccupied face of the prince of monsters appear who was sitting on the edge.

"Asriel?" whispered Frisk, previously convinced that the young goat had fallen asleep.

"You don't look well, that's why I came," Asriel explained. He looked sadly at the human who propped himself up on one elbow, waiting for him to speak. Frisk had to lean in to hear what he said, huffing: "Frisk, I…I'm really sorry."

That... the little human didn't see it coming. Disillusioned by what he had heard, Frisk could only ask, "Why?"

To which Asriel, with his head bowed, replied: "If I had gone with you to the embassy, perhaps what happened to you could have been avoided."

"...Az, please don't say that. What happened at the embassy is not your fault." Frisk severely contradicted him, not at all appreciating that his friend was taking the blame for something that no one could have predicted.

Stubborn, Asriel shook his head vigorously, waving his long ears wildly, and insisted:

"I should have said yes this morning to accompany you. I could have prevented what happened if we had been together. You wouldn't have ended up this bad, and your Soul wouldn't be..." The young monster didn't dare finish his sentence, while Frisk became horrified by what Asriel said.

On the contrary, he was relieved that this last did not find himself in the same situation. Who knows what could have happened to the kid goat, when Frisk barely escaped to it? Things could have gone really bad. He himself came out with a cracked and dysfunctional Soul from now on, with no way of knowing if it could be reversible until Alphys checked it as soon as possible. And with his Surface lab destroyed as it is, they'd have to head to the Hotlands lab to get results.

The human child didn't know how to make him understand that he was wrong; Asriel, who had been silent for a while, broke the ice that had formed and continued:

"Frisk, you... can you tell me what happened back there?"

"...What happened, huh?" the human repeated heavily, while the little Boss Monster formulated the same question that he himself had been asking since their return.

He began to think: as much as the human preferred to keep the truth from Asriel, he was reluctant to openly lie to him. Could he tell her? However, before Frisk could decide anything, her tongue suddenly stuck in her mouth, preventing her from uttering any further words. A sudden and abnormal cold invaded him, while an icy hand seemed to grip his throat. It stopped him from moving or panicking; suddenly, the menacing and dark face appeared in his mind. It was a little sharper than before; the blurry, yet recognizable face of a young child appeared through his vision and glared at him.

Then came their voice, which only he heard, which cut like a blade:

Don't you DARE say anything, to him or anyone else. Otherwise...

"Frisk?" Asriel called, intrigued by his silence, while Frisk shivered at the warning and the figure which immediately faded at the prince's interruption.

Anxiety gripped him: he hadn't dreamed, had he? This thing... this specter was still there. Frisk hadn't realized their were there until now. Would he have followed him from the Void? He hadn't visualized it well, and even if their presence didn't reassure him at all, he had the vague impression that their face was familiar to him. Where and when had he seen it first? It seemed fine before today. Seem you don't to wanna to make your presence known to the others and you want to prevent me from speaking. It sucks...

However, one thing was now very clear: as long as he didn't know what it wanted, Frisk wasn't going to have fun antagonizing him. The desire to kill that the entity had shown in its threat was not fake and they clearly forbidding him from speaking. Frisk didn't need to see the choices appear in front of him to choose his answer and, seeing that Asriel was still waiting, he preferred caution:

"I...I don't know, Azzy" Frisk blurted out and let his head fall back onto the pillow, feigning fatigue to close the subject.

He was consumed with guilt and secretly apologized to Asriel for this half-truth, but he was unable to shake the feeling of danger that now inhabited him. He didn't want to put anyone in danger, especially the kid, by talking too much. Either way, Frisk himself was lost in the middle of it all. It was mixed up in his head, a real mess. And now that's added... Frisk held back an anguished moan.

Hearing him deny it, Asriel was doubtful of his answer; For a moment, Frisk seemed funny before answering him. If he was lying, the human wasn't very good at hiding. However, the prince had seen Frisk look honestly upset in front of him. The young goat concluded that what he had experienced still bothered him. Just now, while holding his weakened Soul, he had clearly felt the young human's frightened emotions, and this could not lie to him. I shouldn't push it any further, he decided, preferring not to probe now.

Both of them badly needed to rest... He was exhausted, but Asriel didn't have the heart to go back to his bed right away. He looked at Frisk, who didn't seem ready to go to bed despite the appearance he gave himself. From the outside, the child really didn't look good.

" Frisk -"

"Say, Az... would you mind staying with me tonight?" the young human muttered shyly without thinking, not wanting to be alone tonight.

Usually, it was Asriel who complained to him when he felt bad; this time, Frisk was the one who needed a familiar presence for comfort. He would never be able to fall asleep without anyone.

Asriel did not question him and was more than happy to comply with his request; with astonishing speed, the kid slipped under the covers to join him with disconcerting enthusiasm - but coming from him, completely natural. In his haste, his forehead almost inadvertently hit Frisk's chin, who barely lifted it to avoid the painful collision. I'm glad he hasn't got his horns yet, that could have hurt me a lot, he remarked half laughing, as soft white fur tickled his nose, while Asriel settled down comfortable in bed.

"Did you listen to the end of my speech on television?" Frisk asked him, much happier, and he imitated his half-brother to get ready to go to sleep.

"Yes..." Asriel said, in a weak voice that was already falling from fatigue, and yawned before unconsciously approaching the little human who did the same. "Mom and I thought it was great."

"I thought so, you know. What an awesome brother you are. Never doubt about it, Az. You, Toriel, Asgore, Sans, Papyrus, Undyne, Alphys... and all my other friends, you are so dear to me and those I consider like my family. I love you guys so much." And today, I almost believed that I would lose all of you forever. Instead of losing my life, it was this idea that really frightened me.

The young prince did not answer him immediately, but he had a big, very pleased and toothy smile under his muzzle, which exposed his own feelings. "We love you a lot too, brother. Remember that each of us cares for you." Because we owe you so much, and me especially. You are our savior: without you, I don't know what would become of us.

They both hugged each other, wishing together a happy "Good night" at the same time; a few minutes later, their snores filled the room - the loudest coming from Asriel - and the children soon fell into dreamland, smiles on their faces.


"What does it mean ?" Asriel asked, after he had carefully read the entire contents of the book.

He and Frisk, as requested, were sitting among the flowers growing at the entrance to Mount Ebott. It was a very special place; here was the grave of the first human, Chara, hidden in the depths of the floor. There too, Frisk had woken up for the first time in the Underground, miraculously uninjured after the yellow flowers had broken his fall. These ones were gathered all around them; the human child couldn't help but think that they looked just like the old Flowey, although inanimate and devoid of the slightest drop of Determination.

Only a few hours had passed since they had both been here; when they arrived, Frisk had given the book to Asriel and invited him to discover its contents. There were numerous notes and descriptions, diagrams with numerous explanations and complex calculations. Facing him, he had seen him take on multiple expressions; the interest, the surprise, the confusion... It was normal: he himself had had difficulty seeing clearly. On the other hand, Asriel had grasped the gist of it and summarized:

"As I understand it... everything inside explains the principle of RESET, SAVE, and the need for Determination to take possession of it." Asriel searched Frisk's face for any answer or confirmation.

"That's right: it also says that the Loop undergoes a sort of reboot, each time power is transferred from one creature to another. That means you, then me. At least that's what Sans and I understood. But, in our case, this is not the most important..."

Frisk took the precious work back from Asriel, who watched him leaf through to the part that interested him: the SAVE.

"As Flowey explained," Frisk continued – Asriel couldn't help but notice the human's stubbornness not to confuse him with the demonic plant, "the SAVE ability is an almost omnipotent power, which gives me access to only one file since I only have one Soul. It allows me to SAVE my progress and, optionally, resume at my last save point. Before, I had to use one of them to activate this power. But since our fight... it's different. Now I can SAVE anyone and not just myself."

The child's smile deepened, looking at Asriel with eyes sparkling with joy while the latter didn't know where he was going with this - although a vague idea sprouted from the corner of his mind, which he pushed aside. afraid of making a mistake. "You discovered something else, didn't you?"

"We had the solution all along, Asriel, right there, and I didn't realize it!" Frisk exclaimed, jumping up as he no longer held his excitement. "To get everyone back, I had to SAVE their Souls. But also yours, when you got it back after absorbing all the others! And I believe it must still be in my file somewhere."

Then, Asriel began to fully understand what Frisk was implying, and the realization hit him. Unable to believe it, he couldn't help but feel a fleeting spark of hope within himself.

"No, that's not possible. This… This can't be true."

However, Frisk spoke the words he never thought he would hear:

"Asriel, I think... I think that, with the SAVE left in my file, I might be able to restore your Soul to its original state and bring you back. Permanently."