Chapter Text
I’M FRISKING OUT OVER HERE
Falling was familiar, feet of air, and then a thud on a flowery surface. The beginning of every reset, it was always the same
This fall was different though. The cool air of the cavern was quickly replaced with an oppressive feeling from all sides, green surrounding and seemingly enclosing in. when they hit the ground it wasn't onto the familiar cushion of the flowers they knew, Instead their shoulder flared with pain as they hit the unrelenting surface of dirt and stone.
The impact pushed the air from frisks lungs, making them choke as they tried to breath. They pushed themselves up, their side stinging, and looked around.
There were no yellow flowers, no chill of the underground, and Frisk's mind felt clear.
But… where were they? Frisk pushed themself up.
They were on a small island.. an island floating in a great expanse of green. Frisk didn’t recognize it. The grass was purple, and there were doors floating all around.
Frisk couldn’t help but sit in shock. When was the last time they’d been anywhere other than the underground, or watching that sunset. What did they even do before it all? What do they do now?
Well, when they landed in the underground, they took to the path and walked right? They could do that now…
Frisk stood up and started walking on the path they had half landed on, it was a rock path set to guide the way.
Maybe there would be someone who would tell them what they were supposed to be doing.
Was there a mission to accomplish here?
Would there be monsters to fight here too? Did they have to fight?
Would there be people they had to save? Where were the sav- … WERE THERE SAVES HERE??
Frisk looked around frantically, there was no glowing light, nothing and no one telling them to stay determined. What if they died? Would they reset? Would they land back in the underground? Would they come back here, maybe they could try… but what if they didn’t come back here, what if this was the only opportunity to look at this new place and maybe meet different people. It’d been so long since they’d talked to someone new. How long had they been in the underground… How long had they been down there?
Frisk quickened their pace, running through the purple foliage and grass. They ran as fast as they could, ignoring the branches that would’ve scratched their cheeks, not noticing when no scratches came. A yell came from up ahead and Frisk zeroed in on it. Slowing just behind the break of the trees and bushes.
There were two monst- people? Yelling at each other.
The man sat on a motorcycle, when was the last time they’d seen one of those, as a green haired girl yelled at him. Frisk couldn’t quite catch everything she said but she seemed to be upset that the guy wasn’t paying enough attention to her? Their argument went back and forth before the man huffed and rode off INTO THE SKY!!! Leaving the woman fuming.
Should Frisk talk to her? But Frisk had no idea what she’d say. Not a clue, there would be no familiarity in this woman’s words.
Do they want to know what she would say? Frisk wrestled with themselves for a moment longer, taking a step back, and promptly having their foot fall through the ground and landing on their back.
They tripped. Huh…
Frisk let themself stare at the foliage above, what were they doing. They needed to know something about this place before they came here. What if these people were even more of a kill on sight. Worse, what if they were normal.
They dug their palms into their eyes, trying against all odds to just stop thinking, suck it up and go. Stay determined and all that. But…
They let their hands fall. What’s the point, there’s no objective, what do they even stay determined for. There was once a light at the end of the tunnel but its long since faded. They never make it past that sunrise. A voice in their head always saying go back try again. But didn’t they accomplish it! Didn’t they free everyone.
But… They didn’t want to go home. They just wanted it all to stop. But they couldn’t, can’t?
Were the monsters going to be able to get out? Without frisk? They’d finally get what they wanted, what Frisk had both been giving and taking away. But why? Why did the resets even start? They should’ve just gone back to the surface and sucked it up, why hadn’t they?
Green covered their vision, pulling frisk from their thoughts. The woman from earlier was leaning over their head.
“Whatcha doing kid?”
Frisk did not scream, nor did they try to sit up and go THROUGH the person. No no, not at all.
Frisk turned back to the lady, what had she even said? Couldn’t they just not have a conversation right now. But it's not like they could run away. “sorry what?”
She sighed, nearly rolling her eyes as she leaned back against a tree. “What’re you doing in the ghost zone, really there have been too many humans here lately and it’s getting on my nerves.”
What?
“Ghost Zone? Am I dead?” What had frisk even been doing before they reset.. had they died? They had gone through, they had been… killing… and then, there was a door with someone inside, and then they went to go fight as-
A hand poked at Frisk's head, the lady was kneeling in front of them.
“Kid! Are you even listening to me? Ugh come on. You’re not dead, you probably just fell through a natural portal.”
Frisk took a second to breath, “but what do I do now?”
The woman scoffed, “I don’t know, go through the next portal and see where that lands you for all i care” the woman started walking away before stopping. “Well y’know, i could help you, but I'd need you to do something for me in exchange.”
“What would you need?” This felt like a bad idea, but what else was frisk supposed to do.. true they could reset… maybe they should.
“Oh it's nothing difficult to get, this old guy has a shield that I can’t get through, but there’s something I need on the other side of it.”
“And I'd be able to get through it?” Maybe just after this conversation, then they’d return to the monsters, and -and they’d suck it up this time, they’d go through, they’d save everyone and.. they’ll go back to the surface.
“Sure, it only keeps us ghosties out, so you should be able to get through fine.”
“Yeah ok” sorry lady
Frisk pulled at the feeling that always lingered in their gut. Trying to reset. But nothing happened.
The green haired lady ignored the shocked look on Frisk's face, grabbing them by the scruff and FLYING AWAY!
They can’t reset, they’re stuck, will they reset if they die. Is that something they want to test? What was going on, and what had Frisk AGREED TO!!
Did Frisk agree to go steal something for this lady?!
Before too long the lady stopped, lifting Frisk up to her face, “Ok so this will be simple, just go in and try to find anything that would keep people together… ugh that’s probably not specific enough… just go grab as many things in there as you can and bring them back to me”
With that the lady threw frisk into the glowing green expanse in front of them.
— — — — — — — — — —
Frisk landed with a thud. This time on a concrete floor. Frisk pulled at their gut again, silently begging ‘please, please please’
But nothing happened.
Frisk sighed, and pushed themself up, looking around. It looked like they were in a cluttered lab, the atmosphere was similar to the true lab, but- the true lab was much cleaner. Maybe it reminded Frisk of the true lab because the lights were off?
They pushed themself up on their feet, looking into the many crates filled with weird looking tools. Maybe they should just throw the crates into the portal. Frisk turned back to look at it. There was some sort of metal contraption around it. Almost as if it were keeping the portal contained.
Frisk picked up the first crate, it was much heavier than it looked. They struggled under the weight inching their way toward the portal.
A door somewhere above swung open, releasing a cacophony of voices to echo down into the lab. Frisk dropped the crate in fear, making a clatter, they quickly hid between the counter and the crates, out of sight of the door.
What were they doing?! They were going to steal these from random people for another random person. On the promise that she might help. But Frisk didn’t want to do this, and what if they get caught, what’ll these people do? Will frisk get thrown in jail.
The door to the lab opened and Frisk could hear more than just vague voices.
“We need to go look for him.” One said, a lady probably
“Danny has been hit with way worse and been fine” another lady
“But usually he doesn’t have to run into the ghost zone because of it!”
“Well where else was he supposed to go, your parents caught him in the lab”
Should Frisk announce themself, just get it over with. This was like the lamp all over again.
“Which is why i say we go look”
“Just give him time he’ll be back”
“Actually-“ a third voice tried to cut in. A boy probably.
The group was slowly moving across the lab toward the portal
“But what if he’s not”
“Guys”
“Then we'll go looking, but time works differently in the zone, he’s probably waiting on an island for your parents to le-“
“GUYS” the third voice yelled again, moving between the group and the portal, and into Frisk's line of sight. It was a dark haired boy with a red hat. Very much a human. “His tracker isn’t in the ghost zone anymore”
“What?” “Did he come back?” the two girls asked at the same time.
“His tracker isn’t in this realm or the ghost zone” the boy was staring at a weird looking phone.
Were one of their friends missing. Why did everything get so complicated so fast?
“Well where is he tucker” a girl in all black moved toward him snatching his weird phone out of his hands, she squinted at it, before giving it back to him. “How do you even know, I have no idea what any of that means.”
“It’s a program me and Danny worked on to track through both dimensions,” the boy, Tucker, said as if that explained anything, the girl in black seemed to agree, as she wore an unimpressed look.
“Then can you track him to whatever dimension he is in?” The other voice said, moving closer to them, this one was a girl with long red hair.
“Well yes and no, i can get his signal, kind of like i have his dimensional gps address, but that doesn’t mean i know how to get there or how to get him back.” Tucker said
“How do we know he hasn’t just been sent on another mission for clockwork” the girl in black said.
“Usually Clockwork gets Danny back within a minute of him leaving our time. It’s been a lot longer than a minute, Sam.”
“So we need to go look for him, I’ll get the speeder” the red haired lady ran toward the crates. She leaned over the crates pushing a button on the wall. As she leaned away, they made eye contact.
The wall on the other side of the crates opened revealing either spaceship, or a submarine.
“Umm, who’re you?” The red haired lady asked.
Frisk tried to shrink further in the shadows, pulling at their gut again.
“Well that’s rude, I’m Chara!” Another voice said, but Frisk recognized this one. It was the voice in her head. Frisk stood up looking around.
Standing between her and the red haired lady stood a girl frisks age and height, but Chara was semi see through.
“What a ghost? Right now, Seriously?” Sam said looking up from Tucker's weird phone. “Who has the extra thermos?”
“I do” The red haired girl said moving back toward the others, she picked a bat out of the crate as she moved, never turning her back to Chara. She threw a thermos to Tucker, who caught and uncapped it.
And now there was going to be a fight.. but what side was frisk on. Who is Chara where’d they come from
“Who are you?”
Chara looked over her shoulder back at frisk. “Wow, after all the time we’ve spent together and you still don’t know me? After all the fights we’ve won together? All the monsters we’ve killed? That’s just plain rude. We’ll at least I don’t have to share your body for this fight, god was that annoying.” She turned back to the group. “Now how abouts we have a little fun?” A knife appeared in her hand, one that Frisk themself had become more and more accustomed to using.
Chara flew toward the group, so quickly Frisk barely saw her at all. But suddenly she stopped as she hit… something? Some sort of invisible barrier.
Chara screamed, “UGH!! I finally am free of sharing that stupid body but i Still can't move around freely.” She turned back to Frisk, “WHere did you even bring us anyways, you pesky brat. I don’t remember any lab like this in the underground, and I sure as hell don’t remember seeing these bozos in the last resets.”
“I don’t know,” Frisk answered truthfully,